Solomon Islands Discovered by Álvaro de Mendaña (1568)

The Solomon Islands were first sighted by Europeans in 1568 by Spanish explorer Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira. Sailing from Peru, he named them Islas Salomón, believing they contained the biblical King Solomon's gold. Mendaña attempted a failed colonization in 1595; the islands were largely "lost" to Europeans until British explorer Philip Carteret rediscovered them in 1767.