Luís Vaz de Torres

Captain Luis Váez de Torres was recorded as being called a "Breton" by crewmen in reports of the 1606 –1608 voyage,[1] which points to an origin in the northwest historical territory of Spain, i. e., Galicia.

He first entered the historical record as the nominated commander of the second ship in an expedition to the Pacific proposed by the Portuguese born navigator Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, searching for Terra Australis.

[9] A morphological derivation of Austria, Queirós's neologism Austrialia was a reference to the Austrian origins of the House of Habsburg – to which the Spanish royal family belonged.

[15][16] On 26 June 1606 the San Pedrico and Los Tres Reyes Magos under Torres’ command set sail for Manila.

Prado’s account notes that they sighted land on 14 July 1606, which was probably the island of Tagula in the Louisiade Archipelago, south east of New Guinea.

The voyage continued over the next two months along the southeastern coast, and a number of landfalls were made to replenish the ships’ food and water.

The expedition discovered Milne Bay including Basilaki Island which they named Tierra de San Buenaventura, taking possession of the land for Spain in July 1606.

In 1980 the Queensland master mariner Captain Brett Hilder proposed that it was more likely that Torres took a southerly route through the nearby channel now called Endeavour Strait, on 2–3 October 1606.

[19] However, Willem Janszoon had made several landfalls on the west coast of the Cape York Peninsula 7 to 8 months prior, while Torres never claimed that he had sighted the southern continent.

[12] However, it appears there was no interest in Manila in outfitting his voyage back to Spain, and he was told his ships and men were required locally for the King’s service.

[21] Most documents of Torres's discoveries were not published, but on reaching Spain, filed away in Spanish archives, including Prado’s lengthy account and the accompanying charts.

Dalrymple provided a sketch map which included the Queirós - Torres voyages to Joseph Banks, who undoubtedly passed this information to James Cook.

At the sale of some of Phillipps' manuscripts by Sotheby's, London, on 26 June 1919 it was purchased by booksellers Henry Stevens, Son and Stiles who sold it to English collector Sir Leicester Harmsworth.

[27] A short account of Queirós’ voyage and discoveries was published in English by Samuel Purchas in 1625 in Haklvytvs posthumus, or, Pvrchas his Pilgrimes, vol.