TORRES 21 



" Duyfken" of the doings of Torres, who only reached Ternate 

 on 1 2th December, 1606. In fact the " Duyjken " had returned 

 to port before Torres had got in touch with civilisation near the 

 western extremity of New Guinea. 



In Torres' narrative, there is not a word implying that he laid 

 any claim to the discovery of a passage between New Guinea and 

 Australia. On the contrary, everything points to his having 

 made for a passage regarding which he was already in possession 

 of some information, and there is a great deal of evidence that 

 the passage had already been used many times by Spanish and 

 Portuguese, although its existence was hidden from the Dutch 

 and English. The fact that Prado carefully labels the charted 

 landing-places on the south coast of New Guinea as having been 

 discovered by Torres in no way supports the claim (which Torres 

 never made) to the discovery of the strait itself. 



The narrow sea (ninety-eight knots across) known as TORRES 

 STRAIT, between New Guinea and Cape York, is crowded with 

 islands and coral reefs, among which a newcomer would be lucky 

 indeed, as well as bold and skilful, if he found an east and west 

 passage. Modern surveys have laid down nine such practicable 

 passages, known, in their order from north to south, as Napoleon, 

 Bligh, Bramble, Yule, Simpson, Dayman, Prince of Wales, Nor- 

 manby and Endeavour. The question is, by which of these did 

 Torres clear the strait ? 



As Torres himself gives an impossible northern latitude for his 

 voyage in the Gulf of Papua, and the southern latitude (11) he 

 assigns to the strait is no less impossible, for the reason that it 

 would have brought him well into Queensland, there can be no 

 doubt that he was speaking from memory, and in round numbers, 

 without, for the time, having access to the documents which 

 would have enabled him to make accurate statements. On the 

 other hand, his description of the point where he was able to turn 

 from a southerly to a north-westerly course is of the highest value. 

 " Here," he says, " J:here were many large islands and there 

 appeared to be more to the southward." Such a description 

 would be ludicrously incorrect if written from any point of view 

 whatever in 11 S. lat., but it fits admirably what would be seen 

 by an observer passing through the BLIGH CHANNEL (10 2C/ S.). 

 This is the second channel which Torres could possibly have found, 

 and I eliminate the first, or Napoleon, channel because it is 

 obviously hard to enter and barely navigable without the aid of 

 steam. Torres was, in fact, sailing west, with Jervis and the Belle 

 Vue Islands on his right and the two large islands, Mulgrave 

 and Banks, on his left, while catching glimpses of Hammond, 

 Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Horn and Prince of Wales Islands 

 still further to the south. I cannot, therefore, agree with 

 Collingridge's suggestion that CAPTAIN COOK in 1770 merely 



