The Spaniards who sailed to the Moluccas in the two remaining ships of Magellan's squadron had practically got into touch with Papuasia, with the lands of New Guinea and its surrounding islands; and had realized that in this direction there lay a new Negroland, a "New Guinea", in fact. Exactly when the New Guinea coast was reached from the west--whether by ALVARO DE SAAVEDRA the Spaniard in 1528, or in 1511 and 1526 by the Portuguese who had taken possession of the Moluccas--is not known; nor by whom this very appropriate name was first given. Probably it was named "Nueva Guinéa" in 1546 by a Spanish captain--ORTIZ DE RETEZ--who mapped a portion of its northern coast. The impression that this vast island--the biggest in the world--was first called "New Guinea" by Torres when he reached its southern shores in 1607 is incorrect; he, seemingly, was only recognizing a land already named thus for its great superficial resemblance to West Africa. But the Spaniards had heard rumours from the Malay sea captains of a vast land eastward of the Moluccas where there was gold in abundance, besides beautiful birds and curly-haired black people. They jumped to the fantastic conclusion that here lay, not only the Earthly Paradise, but also the Ophir from which Solomon had derived his gold. Mingled with these beliefs was the ever-growing conviction that in this direction must lie a great Southern Continent; and to search for this an expedition was dispatched in 1567 from Callao, the principal port of Peru, under the command of ALVARO DE MENDAÑA DE NEYRA, with the express purpose of discovering the great Antarctic continent and the "Islas de Salomon". Mendaña voyaged for eighty days across the Pacific, more or less through the equatorial belt, and thus discovered and named the Solomon Islands[42] to the east of New Guinea, believing that they might prove to be the Ophir from which Solomon had derived gold. His expedition surveyed the southern portion of the group, giving to three of the large islands the Spanish names, which they still bear, of San Cristoval, Guadalcanal, and Ysabel.