1 8 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



the King of Spain, (2) Prado's Charts and Letters and (3) the Arias 

 Memorial. In the order in which these became known to the world 

 they should read (i) Arias, (2) Torres and (3) Prado. 



It may be here observed that Torres apparently wrote without 

 having the charts before him, as he is vague and unreliable as to 

 latitudes ; that Prado's charts contain latitudes which agree with 

 modern official maps ; and that the Priests for whom Arias wrote 

 had to rely, to a great extent, upon hearsay evidence and were not 

 able to quote from either Torres or Prado, although it is possible 

 that they had seen the general map of the work of the ex- 

 pedition referred to by Prado in one of his letters, and which is 

 still missing. 



In spite of short rations, rough winds and the unwillingness of 

 his crew, Torres, after leaving Espiritu Santo, sailed south-west 

 and claimed to have passed, by one degree, the latitude indicated 

 by the sailing orders. In other words, he reached 21 S. He 

 considered that he had thus proved Espiritu Santo to be an island. 

 In reality he demonstrated that if it was a part of the mainland 

 at all it must have been a cape jutting out from it to the north- 

 east. Having now passed the " prescribed latitude " by a degree 

 without seeing land, he altered his course to the north-west, and 

 again (probably about the latitude of Princess Charlotte Bay, 

 Queensland) to the north-east, and " FELL IN WITH THE BEGINNING 

 OF NEW GUINEA," and after coasting to the west for five days, landed 

 on what he named TIERA DE BUENAVENTURA on i%th July, 1606. 

 Collingridge clearly identifies this land as BASILISK ISLAND, so 

 named by Captain John Moresby, R.N., in 1873.' West of Basilisk 

 Island lies Hayter Island, which is separated from New Guinea 

 proper by the narrow China Strait. 



Torres then sailed along the south coast of HAYTER ISLAND 

 (which he failed to distinguish from the mainland of N. Guinea) 

 and westward along the aouth coast of New Guinea, noting 

 " many ports, very large, with large rivers and many plains." 

 " In these parts," he says, " I took possession for Your Majesty," 

 adding : " We caught in all this land twenty persons of different 

 nations, that with them we might be able to give a better account 

 to Your Majesty." Shoals extending to the west were skirted, 

 and eventually cleared, according to Torres, in 11 S. lat. 



Having thus passed through TORRES STRAIT, Torres hugged the 

 coast of what is now DUTCH NEW GUINEA, mainly on a north-west 

 course, landing in many places and " taking possession for Your 

 Majesty," and noted that the natives had " iron, China bells and 

 other things, by which we knew we were near the Molucas." At 

 last the point was reached " where NEW GUINEA COMES TO AN END, 

 fifty leagues before you reach the Molucas." Here the adven- 



1 See Prado's Chart No. 2 and Discoveries and Surveys in New Guinea and the 

 D'Entrecasteaux Islands, London, 1876. 



