" L'ASTROLABE " AND " LA ZELEE " 171 



water, the natives had a system of collecting it in large clam-shells 

 placed so as to catch the drip from pandanus trees when showers 

 fell. Their weapons were of Papuan type, bows and arrows, and 

 spears barbed with iron, and they had also iron hatchets. Their 

 vocabulary included a few English words, and the conclusion was 

 inevitable that they must have enjoyed frequent opportunities of 

 intercourse with the English. A heap of bones and skulls of the 

 dugong, observed at the north end of the island, was believed to be 

 a depot to be drawn upon, as required, for the decoration of graves. 



On 8th and qth June, the ships, piloted by the boats which had 

 been engaged in sounding, cleared the CANAL MAUVAIS. In the 

 morning of loth June, GUEBORAR (GABBA, or " THE BROTHERS ") 

 ISLAND was passed on the north, and, says D'Urville, " served as a 

 guide-post towards BLIGH'S EXIT : then we saw the high summits of 

 BANKS, MULGRAVE and JERVIS ISLANDS." In the afternoon, 

 PASSAGE ISLAND (which marks the entrance to Napoleon Passage) 

 was left behind and the anchor was dropped south of the JERVIS 

 REEF, which stretches east and west between Jervis and Mulgrave 

 Islands. The next day was spent in soundings to assure a safe 

 passage through BLIGH CHANNEL. The passage of the channel was 

 made on I2th June, and a week later TIMOR was in sight. BLIGH 

 took the " Providence " and " Assistant " through the channel 

 which bears his name in 1792, and there is every reason to believe 

 that he had been anticipated by TORRES in 1606. 



Jervis Island was named by Bligh in 1792 and surveyed by 

 Moresby in the " Basilisk " in 1873, but I have been unable to 

 ascertain who discovered the channel now charted as " NAPOLEON 

 PASSAGE (1859)," a few miles north of Bligh Passage and between 

 Jervis Island and Jervis Reef. The name suggests a French explorer, 

 while the " HAMELIN BOULDERS " in the middle of the passage are 

 reminiscent of Captain Hamelin, of the " Naturalists" whom 

 Flinders met in Sydney in 1802. Captain James H. Watson 

 informs me that he has seen a reference in the Shipping Gazette to 

 the passage (apparently by the Prince of Wales Channel) through 

 Torres Strait of a British ship called the " Napoleon III " in 

 July, 1856. It is quite possible that the same vessel may have 

 revisited the Strait three years later and discovered a new passage, 

 but I have failed to find any record of the occurrence. 



