20 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



Molucas," the time to be accounted for is narrowed to the period 

 between 2%th October and 12th May. 



At the outside, the run from the west end of New Guinea to 

 BATCHIAN (lat. o 37' S., long. 117 36' E.), at the south-east end 

 of the Moluccas, in a sea already well known to the Spanish, could 

 hardly have taken more than a month, so that we may provisionally 

 date Torres' arrival there at 28 / November. 



On his arrival at BATCHIAN, Torres met a priest who had about 

 one hundred Christian followers, within the territory of a friendly 

 Mahomedan king. The priest, says Torres, " begged me to 

 subdue one of the Ternate islands inhabited by revolted Mahome- 

 dans, to whom Don Pedro de Acunha had given pardon in Your 

 Majesty's name, which I had maintained ; and I sent advice to 

 the M. de Campo, Juan de Esquival, who governed the islands 

 of Ternate, of my arrival, and demanded if it was expedient to give 

 this assistance to the King of Batchian ; to which he answered 

 that it would be of great service to Your Majesty, if I brought 

 force for that purpose. On this, with 40 Spaniards and 400 

 Moors of the King of Batchian, I made WAR, and in only four days 

 I defeated them and took the fort and put the King of Batchian in 

 possession of it in Your Majesty's name, to whom we administered 

 the usual oaths, stipulating with him that he should never go to 

 war against Christians and that he should ever be a faithful vassal 

 to Your Majesty." 



Assuming a week to have been occupied by the journey of 

 Torres' messenger, and another week for the four-days' missionary 

 war and preparations for the voyage, it was probably about 

 I2th December when Torres himself sailed for TERNATE 

 (lat. o 48' N., long. 127 18' E.). He probably did not take 

 more than three days to reach the latter port, say i$th December. 



It is likely enough that Torres stayed for some time at Ternate, 

 where he was well received by Esquival, the Governor, for he did 

 not, as we have seen, arrive at MANILA till about 12th May, and the 

 voyage of about 1,200 knots could hardly have taken five months. 



The Moors, or Mahomedans, near the eastern extremity of New 

 Guinea (Triton Bay ?), says Torres, " gave us news of the events 

 of the Molucas and told us of Dutch ships." Collingridge observes l 

 that " the events of the Molucas were of a stirring nature at that 

 time," and raises the question of whether the Dutch expedition of 

 1606 could have been sent out in consequence of the Dutch having 

 heard of Torres' discoveries. 



The " Day/ken's " cruise along the coasts of New Guinea and 

 the Cape York Peninsula took place within the limits set by the 

 yacht's departure from Bantam on i8th November, 1605, and its 

 return in or before June, 1906. It is therefore simply impossible 

 that the Dutch could have heard, prior to the despatch of the 



1 Discovery of Australia, p. 236. 



