JO 



A USTRALASIA ILL USTRA TED. 



Strong in the belief that the land they had discovered was that Terra Amtralis 

 of fabled wealth, the voyagers landed and enjoyed the sight of fresh green sward and 

 limpid streams. The taste of the cool rill bubbling down from the mountains must 

 huvr l.ren delicious to lips which for so long had been moistened only with tepid water 

 from putrid barrels, in a time when the scourge of scurvy decimated the crews in a 

 wholesale fashion and antiscorbutic remedies were all unknown. 



Pleasant days were spent in this beautiful island, till Spanish arrogance disturbed the 

 harmony existing between the natives and the crews. The sailors had wandered inland 

 and had not conducted themselves with scrupulous propriety, whereupon an island chief, 

 with perfect justice, drew upon the sand a line, and made signs warning the Spaniards 

 against crossing it. Torres, in haughty defiance, accepted the challenge and stepped 

 forward. At once an arrow rang on the steel corslet that covered his breast ; but the 

 Spaniards had their matches ready and a volley was fired, and the chief and several 

 of the natives fell. That night, either from fear of revenge or from disgust at the 

 hardships of the voyage, the crew of De Ouiros mutinied, silently overpowered their 

 officers, weighed anchor under the cover of darkness, and when Torres looked forth 

 over the faintly-lighted bay at sunrise, where three vessels had been there lay at 

 anchor only two. He cruised for a week along the coast in search of the missing ship, 

 and stood a long way to the south, never suspecting that his chief was being com- 

 pelled by mutineers to navigate the Capitana to Mexico through all the horrors of 

 thirst, famine and dissension. 



When De Quiros reached Spain he reported the discovery of a continent, to which 

 he gave the high-sounding name of " Terra Austrialia del Espiritu Santo'' Torres, 

 however, knew better, for he had sailed round this land and had learnt that it was 

 only an island a large one no doubt, the largest of the group called the New 

 Hebrides, but certainly not a continent. It is still known by a part of the name thus 

 given to it, and in all modern maps and references appears as " Espiritu Santo." 



No longer entertaining any hope of falling in with the Capitana, Torres had to 

 determine what course he should pursue. His choice was to hold to the west, not 

 with the intention of making further discoveries, but in the hope of reaching the 

 Philippine Islands, where, at the Spanish city of Manila, his storm-beaten craft might be 

 repaired and re-victualled for the homeward voyage. 



Right in front of him stretched the long coasts of Australia and New Guinea a 

 line three thousand miles in length with only one break of a hundred miles in it all, 

 yet through the very centre of that passage he steered. Thus by ill-luck, which looked 

 at the moment like good fortune, Torres narrowly missed the honour of discovering the 

 Great South Land. In his report he mentions that he had sailed among numerous 

 islands, and that he had seen many scattered groups to the south ; it is even possible 

 that he sighted the northern point of Australia, the promontory since named Cape 

 York, but it would have loomed before his eyes only as another of those ocean rocks 

 that studded the sea around him. Thus sailing slowly through the straits which bear 

 his name, missing the main object of his voyage, much spent with toil, with ships 

 sadly battered and crews worn out, Torres painfully made his way to Manila, the 

 capital of Luzon, and rested for a while. Here he wrote a report of his voyage, and 



