Mystery Of Lope

De Vega.

Was He First European In Sydney Harbour?

THE article in the December “P.1.M.” on “Pacific Pathfinders” mentions, in passing, the loss of that part of Mendana’s fleet that was under the charge of Lope de Vega. This has been one of the unsolved mysteries of the South Seas, though an interesting theory was put forward by Lawrence Har graves, the inventor, who laid aside his great work in the aeronautical world at times for a much less acceptable essay into the historical.

In early 1931, I tried to check up the aboriginal carvings—in association with the late W. W. Thorpe, the authority on the ethnography of the Pacific around the foreshores of Sydney Harbour. Incidentally, out of this ac tivity came the fencing off and pro tection of a set of carvings ( some already badly spoiled) at Ben Buckler.

These had been recorded many years ago as a result of a Government Geophysical Survey.

Our search had reached Point Piper, where we found a splendid carving of a large fish crossed by the “footprints of a deity” at a house vacated by Captain Frank Hurley, and then being altered and rebuilt as the residences of the late Mr. Inglis Hudson and Col.

Olding. By some means or other the press, apparently short on news, featured this “rediscovery”, for it awakened an old controversy with regard to some of the carvings there. Lawrence Hargraves had theorised that some of the carvings had been made by some metallic cutting instrument at that spot near Point Piper.

He had, it is stated, found, too, that there were evidences that certain hand wrought bolts had been fastened into the cliff face nearby: while there is still to be seen on Ben Buckler, just over the ledge from the protected aboriginal carvings and slightly north east of them, two sets of carvings done with a metal instrument. They consist, in one place, of the outlines of two high-pooped ships, with the varying number of ports or lanterns fashioned on them corresponding with the details of the “Santa Barbara” and the “Santa Alonzo”, de Vega’s ships. The other set has a large “W” near the symbol of old Spain, a cross within a circle, and two rows of large letters, which could be the initials of Lope de Vega, his lieutenant and of his remaining ship, the “Santa Alonzo”.

What happened to the de Vega section of the Mendana expedition?

Captain Cook reports seeing Hie bleached skeleton of a ship on Facing Island. A later discovery of guns marked with the Spanish arms and “Santa Barbara” suggest that the vessel was the one Cook had seen.

It is probable that the other ship took off the survivors of the wreck. The

Hargraves theory was that they then sailed down the Australian coast, being actually the discoverers of the “great South Land”, and into Sydney Harbour.

He suggests that they careened their ship at Rose Bay, right on the edge of Point Piper, putting hand-wrought bolts into the cliff face for that purpose.

Lope de Vega, it is suggested, took the opportunity offered of taking the newly-discovered land for Spain. As an earnest of this, he had followed the natives’ example by making his sign manual on the Ben Buckler cliff edge, from whence there is a splendid view to the west; “W” representing that he claimed all the land to the west for Spain, indicated by the cross and circle, with witness thereof his initials, those of his lieutenant and of their ship. The outlines of the two ships were to give further evidence of their identity.

Lawrence Hargrave went to a con siderable amount of trouble to get data as far as possible with reference to his theory. But the question still remains, as to who carved the letters and sym bols, and when. One good gentleman, a member of one of the municipal coun cils, had declared, 1 understood, that he had been responsible for some of the carvings at Ben Buckler. The evidence of the antiquity of the native carvings is fairly well guaranteed, but who did the rest?

So the loss of de Vega and his ships is still a mystery, though it seems a great pity that he should be refused the honour, if it is his, of being the real dis coverer of Terra Australia.—C.W.W.A.

Note:—Lope de Vega, the navigator, is not to be confused with the more famous Lope de Vega (Carpis), the dramatist, who was a contemporary.

Mr. Dexter Giblin, eldest son of Dr. and Mrs. W. E. Giblin, of Morobe Dis trict, New Guinea (formerly of Papua), reached Sydney by the “Macdhui” early in March, after a visit to his parents.

He has entered St. John’s College, Sydney University, to study for his medical degree.

Mr. F. L. Webb, who was born in Fiji in 1888, his father being one of the pioneer Methodist missionaries in the Group, died suddenly in Sydney on Feb ruary 25. He was manager of the over seas department of the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited.