Spanish Maritime Exploration in the South-west Pacific: the search for Mendana's lost 'almiranta, Santa Isabel', 1595

In the past decade there has been increasing interest in the archaeology of Spanish maritime exploration, colonization and trade in the western Pacific and Asia (Skowronek, 1998; 2009; Brunal-Perry et al., 2009; McKinnon and Raupp, 2011). Attention has been mostly on the north-west Pacific, associated with the operation of the highly successful Manila Galleon trade to the Philippines, where the treasures of the Americas were traded for the spices and goods of the Orient. In contrast, the several 16th- and early 17th-century Spanish expeditions to the southern Pacific searching for the 'Terra Australis' (Great Southern Land) and the gold-rich Ophir of King Solomon still remain relatively unknown (Spate, 1979; Camino, 2005).