Xorth Coast] INTRODUCTION. xlv 
south-westward, leaving on the starbord hand a very extensive Bampton 
bank, on which the long boat had 2 fathoms water : the soundings ^1793"' 
from the Hormuzeer were from 3 to 7 fathoms. At noon, the lati- 
tude was 9 0 27', and no land in sight. The soundings then increased 
gradually ; and at sunset, no bottom could be found at 40 fathoms. 
A swell coming from S. S. W. announced an open sea in that direc- 
tion ; and that the dangers of Torres' Strait were, at length, 
surmounted. 
This passage of the Hormuzeer and Chesterfield in seventy-two 
days, with that made in nineteen, by the captains Bligh and Port- 
lock, displayed the extraordinary dangers of the Strait ; and appear 
to have deterred all other commanders from following them, up to 
the time of the Investigator. Their accounts confirm the truth of 
Torres having passed through it, by shewing the correctness of the 
sketch contained in his letter to the King of Spain. 
The sole remaining information, relative to the North Coast of Conclusive 
Terra Australis, was contained in a note, transcribed by Mr. Dal- Remarks " 
rymple, from a work of burgomaster Witsen upon the Migration 
of Mankind. The place of which the burgomaster speaks, is evi- 
dently on the coast of Carpentaria, near the head of the Gulph ; 
but it is called New Guinea; and he zvrote in 1705. The note 
is as follows ; but upon whose authority it was given, does not 
appear : 
"In 16 0 io' south, longitude 159 0 17'" (east of Teneriffe, or be- 
tween 142 0 and 143 0 east of Greenwich,) " the people swam on 
" board of a Dutch ship ; and when they received a present of a 
" piece of linen, they laid it upon their head in token of gratitude : 
" Every where thereabout, all the people are malicious. They use 
" arrows, and bows of such a length, that one end rests on the ground 
when shooting. They have also hazeygaeys and kalawaeys, and 
" attacked the Dutch ; but did not know the execution of the guns." 
On summing up the whole of the knowledge which had been 
