Exploring the Explorers: Spaniards in Oceania 1519-1794 is the first study of cross-cultural engagements between the indigenous peoples of the Pacific and Spanish explorers during the early modern period. Bridging disciplines, this book analyses in detail eight main voyages, their aims and outcomes, looking at the different patterns of contact and the use of gift-giving and bartering as social cement. The idiosyncrasies of Pacific exploration contextualise a survey of early journeys to the area, including Ferdinand Magellan’s circumnavigation and the voyages of Álvaro de Mendaña (1567 and 1595), Pedro Fernández de Quirós (1606), Felipe González de Haedo to Easter Island (1770), Domingo de Boenechea (1772 and 1775) to Tahiti and Mourelle de la Rúa (1770) and Alejandro Malaspina (1793) to the Vava’u archipelago in Tonga. Both the journeys studied, and their representations, relied on a paradigm of reciprocal exchanges, leading to cross-cultural knowledge, the importance of which needs to be recognised. The breadth of cultures on Pacific islands and the fact that most of these voyages departed from South America determine some distinctive features of these encounters. Many of the investigated sources are scarcely known making this a fascinating and original study that will broaden the investigation of world exploration and Pacific ethnography. It will also expand an understanding of Spanish and world exploration, developing the history of the Spanish Pacific beyond the long-standing colony of the Philippines. The study will be of particular interest to scholars and students of Early Modern European history as well as anthropologists and ethnographers.