CAPTAINS BLIGH AND POUTLOCK. 170 



New Guinea or not."* The positions assigned to 

 two of these places^ which subsequent experience 

 has shewn it is difficult to identify^ are 



Cape Rodney . Lat. 10° 3' 32" S. . Long. 147o 45' 45''E. 

 Cape Hood . Lat. 9« 58' 6" S. . Long. 147*^ 22' 50"E.t 



In the following- year^ Captains Bligh and Port- 

 lock^ in the Providence and Assistance^ conveying 

 bread-fruit plants from Tahiti to the West Indies^ 

 saw a portion of the south-east coast of New Guinea^ 

 when on their way to pass through Torres Strait. 

 A line of coast extending from Cape Eodney to the 

 westward and northward about eighty miles^ the 

 latter half with a continuous line of reef running 

 parallel with the coast^ is laid down in a chart by 

 Flinders^ j: as having been ^^seen from the Provi- 

 dence's masthead^ Aug. 80th^ 1792." 



The northern portion of the Louisiade Archipelag-o 

 was yet unknown to Europeans^ and for almost all 

 the knowledge which we even now possess regarding 

 it^ we are indebted to the expedition under the com- 

 mand of Rear-Admiral Bruny d'Entrecasteaux^ 

 who; on June llth^ 1793^ with La Recherche and 



* Voyage round the world in His Majesty's frigate Pandora, 

 performed under the direction of Capt. Edwards, in the years 

 1790, 1791, and 1792. By Mr. G. Hamilton, late surgeon of 

 the Pandora, p. 100. 



t Ibid. p. 1G4. Krnsenstern assumes these longitudes to be 

 45' too far to the westward, adopting Flinders' longitude of 

 Murray's Islands, which differs by that amount from Captain 

 Edwards'. 



+ Flinders' Voyage to Terra Austrahs. —Atlas. PI. 13. 



