At that time our most reverend father-general of all the Order of St. Augustine, the master Fray Pablo Luquino, was at the court of Madrid. He had gone to visit the provinces of España and Portugal. Moved by his great zeal, he aided greatly with his authority in the collection of that mission, which was small because of the scarcity of means for its transportation, but large because of the great lack of religious in this province. As his vicar and prelate of that mission, he appointed father Fray Diego de Jesús, a son of the convent of Salamanca and a native of Béjar, and then master of novices in the convent of San Felipe in Madrid. But the latter having petitioned our most reverend father-general to be excused from it, because of legitimate reasons that he had, father Fray José de Paternina, a native of the town of Álava, and son of the convent of Santa Catalina in Badaya, was assigned for that duty in his place. He conducted eleven religious of the province of Castilla and of this province, as they were given the habit in order to pass thither. [114] They reached Méjico, where they were detained three years because of the lack of the galleons from these islands, as we have related.
At the same time Don Andrés de Medina, with a Peruvian gentleman, a man most skilful in astrology, mathematics, and cosmography, had arrived at Méjico from Madrid. He had offered to his Majesty to discover the islands called Salomón because of their great wealth. [115] These are the islands which Adelantado Alvaro de Mendaña y Neira went to discover in the year 1595, with four vessels which he took from Callao in April of the said year. His chief pilot was Pedro Fernández de Quirós, who is mentioned in the first part, book 3, chapter 16, page 476. [116] After having endured many hardships, and after the adelantado had died, his men reached the port of Cavite under command of the adelantado's wife, Doña Isabel Barreto, in February of 1596, and later returned to Nueva España in the galleon "San Gerónimo." Mention of that discovery will be found in the relations of Doctor Don Antonio de Morga, which I omit here, as it is foreign to our subject. Don Andrés de Medina brought royal decrees ordering the viceroy of Nueva España to give him vessels in the South Sea, and men, for that discovery and conquest; but it was impossible to do so at that time, because of the lack of ships, which is constant on the said sea. However, in order to content him, because of the letters and decrees that he bore, the viceroy, Conde de Baños, appointed him commander of the galleon "San José," after removing its commander, Francisco Garcia del Fresno, who had brought the galleon from Filipinas. That was contrary to the royal ordinance, which prohibits the viceroys to change the commanders (unless the commander has died), and those who have the future succession to the governorship of the Filipinas.