ON THE SOUTH COAST OF NEW GUINEA. 169 



fi"om various sources^ some utterly unworthy of 

 credit; and of the inhabitants and productions of 

 these regions, nothing was known beyond that por- 

 tion at least of them were peopled by a savage and 

 warlike race. 



The first navigator who saw the shores in ques- 

 tion, appears to have been Luiz Vaez de Torres, in 

 the Spanish frigate La Almu'anta, coming from the 

 eastward, in August 1606. In lat. 11|° S., Torres 

 came upon what he calls the beginning of New 

 Guinea, which, however, appears to have been a 

 portion of what is now known as the Louisiade Ar- 

 chipelago. Being unable to weather the eastern- 

 most point of this land (Cape Deliverance), he bore 

 away to the westward along its southern shores, 

 "All tliis land of New Guinea" %&js he, in his 

 long forgotten letter to the king of Spain (a copy of 

 which was found in the Archives at Manila, after the 

 capture of that city by the British, in 1762), "is 

 peopled with Indians, not very white, much painted, 

 and naked, except a cloth made of the bark of trees. 

 They fight with darts, targets, and some stone 

 clubs, which are made fine with plumage. Along^ 

 the coast are many islands and habitations. All 

 the coast has many ports, very large, with very 

 large rivers, and many plains. Without these 

 islands there runs a reef of shoals, and between, 

 them [the shoals] and the mainland are the islands. 

 There is a channel within. In these parts I took- 

 possession for your Majestj'. 



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