were Named.
p. 14 · Read in the full issue
How Papua and New Guinea were Named.
We are indebted to Mr. P. R. Firth, of Jervis Island, Torres Strait, for the following interesting information about the naming of Papua and New Guinea :— IN 1526, Jorge de Menezes, a Portu guese navigator, on his way to the Spice (Molucca) Islands from Mal acca, was carried by tides and currents
to the north coast of New Guinea. It was after this that charts bore the name “os Papuas”; and it also appeared in writings showing the discoveries of de Menezes.
In 1529, Alvarode Saovedra, a Span iard, practically ran the whole length of the north coast (according to Antonia Galvano, the founder of historical geo graphy) and, to quote Galvano’s writ ings:—“The coast was clean and of good anchorage, but the people black and of curled hair; from the girdle downward they did wear a skirt of feathers . . . . the people of Maluco call them Papuas, because they be black and frizzled in their hair, so also do the Portugals call them.”
In 1545, Ortiz de Retez (or de Roda) in the ‘San Juan,” left the Moluccas, and made extensive discoveries on the north coast of Papua. Possession was taken of the land in the name of the King of Spain and, because the people there were black and had frizzy hair, they named it “Nueva Guinea”.