i68 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



with scissors (the use of which they admired), caused 

 them to be dressed in silk and divers colours, gave them 

 hats with plumes, tinsel and other ornaments, knives 

 and a mirror, into which they looked with caution." Then 

 he sent them ashore to join their friends, and so excellent 

 was the effect produced that, when " one of our men asked 

 a mother for her baby, she gave it ; and, seeing that it 

 was passed from one to another to be seen and kissed, 

 the natives were well pleased." They saw innumerable 

 natives of three different colours, yellow, black and white ; 

 which seemed to prove the extent and length of the island, 

 and that it must be the mainland. 



Twelve leagues to the South-West and South, a man 

 looking out at the mast-head saw " an extensive land, 

 the eye could not turn to a point that was not all land " ; 

 " a great land with high mountains," says another writer, 

 " which promised to be no less than continental." At 

 last, it seemed, the Great Continent had been discovered, 

 and " this day was the most joyful and the most celebrated 

 day of the whole voyage." Far away to the South- 

 East again was seen a massive and very lofty chain of 

 mountains whose tops were covered by thick masses 

 of white cloud. They were in fact in the midst of the 

 group of mountainous islands, which Cook rediscovered 

 in 1774, and called the New Hebrides. But the islands 

 lay so close together that they " appeared to form one 

 land," and to suggest at least the possibility of a continent. 1 

 They determined to sail " in the direction of the first 

 land that bore South," and on the 1st of May they entered 

 " a great Bay," which " received the names of St. Philip 

 The Bay of and St. James, the day of the discovery being the day 

 and St. 1] f those Apostles." "The Bay," says one writer, "is 

 James, ist very large and beautiful, and all the fleets of the world 

 might enter it; and, as our General saw its beauty, he wished 

 that we should enter it and anchor." " All their designs," 

 says another, " had now been accomplished. They held 

 in their hands the most abundant and powerful land ever 

 discovered by Spaniards." 



1 See map, p. 167. 



