Álvaro Mendaña de Neyra

MENDAÑA DE NEYRA, Álvaro (men-dan'-yah-deh-nay'-rah), Spanish navigator, born in Zaragossa in 1541; died in Santa Cruz, Solomon Islands, 18 October, 1596. He emigrated in 1565 to Peru, where his uncle, Lope Garcia de Castro, was governor-general, and held various posts till 1567, when Garcia appointed him to the command of two ships, with which to make discoveries and conquests in the Pacific ocean.

Sailing from Callao on 19 November, 1567, Mendaña after a long voyage discovered a group which he named the Solomon islands, and visited the principal ones. He returned to Callao in 1569, and published a marvelous relation of his discoveries, praising the Solomon group as a very rich country, but, owing to the wars in which Spain was involved, he could not obtain the necessary means for a second expedition. He then married a wealthy Peruvian lady, Isabel Barreto, and in 1594 Philip II commissioned him governor of the island of San Cristobal in the group that he had discovered, and gave orders to found a colony there.

Mendaña left Callao on 11 April, 1595, with four vessels and 280 soldiers, accompanied by his wife and Pedro de Quires as chief pilot. At Payta more colonists joined the expedition, and on 16 June he left Peru for the Solomon Islands. He discovered on 21 July a group, which he named Marquesas de Mendoza, in honor of the viceroy of Peru. Continuing his voyage toward the Solomon group, he discovered on the way a large island which he named Santa Cruz, and resolved to establish his colony there.

He was at first well received by the natives, but some of his crew murdered one of the native chiefs, and a bloody war was begun against the invaders. Afterward there was a mutiny among the troops. These adversities undermined Mendaña's health, and he soon died, leaving the government to his wife, who under the direction of Quiros resolved to abandon the colony, and after the loss of two vessels arrived safely at the Philippine islands. Hernan Gallego, Mendana's pilot in the first voyage, described the discovery, and his manuscript is now in the library of Barcia. Mendaña himself left notes about both voyages and they were collected by the historian Pedro Gudrico de Victoria under the title "Derrotero de Mendaña de Neyra," the manuscript of which is still preserved in the National library of Paris.

Edited Appleton's Encyclopedia, by John Looby Copyright © 2001 StanKlos.com^TM