North Coast] INTRODUCTION. 
island ; and then continued his course westward, in prosecution of 
the research. 
About the month of August 1606, and in latitude n|° south, he 
fell in with a coast, which he calls " the beginning of New Guinea;" 
and which appears to have been the south-eastern part of the land, 
afterwards named Louisiade, by Mons. de Bougainville, and now 
known to be a chain of islands. Unable to pass to windward of 
this land, Torres bore away along its south side; and gives, himself, 
the following account of his subsequent proceedings. 
" We went along 300 leagues of coast, as I have mentioned, 
" and diminished the latitude which brought us into g°. From 
" hence we fell in with a bank of from 3 to g fathoms, which 
" extends along the coast above 180 leagues. We went over it 
" along the coast to 7I S. latitude, and the end of it is in 5 0 . We 
" could n ot go further on for the many shoals and great currents, 
" so we were obliged to sail S. W. in that depth to 11°. S. latitude! 
" There is all over it an archipelago of islands without number, by 
" which we passed, and at the end of the 1 ith degree, the bank 
" became shoaler. Here were very large islands, and there appeared 
" more to the southward : they were inhabited by black people, 
" very corpulent, and naked : their arms were lances, arrows, and 
« clubs of stone ill fashioned. We could not get any of their arms. 
" We caught in all this land 20 persons of different nations, that 
" with them we might be able to give a better account to Your 
" Majesty. They give much notice of other people, although as 
" jet they do not make themselves well understood. 
" We were upon this bank two months, at the end of which time 
" we found ourselves in 25 fathoms, and in 5 0 S. latitude, and 10 
" leagues from the coast. And having gone 480 leagues, here the 
" coast goes to the N. E. I did not reach it, for the bank became 
" Vei T shallow. So we stood to the north."* 
* See the letter of Torres, dated Manila, July 1 2, 160J, in Vol. II. Appendix, No I. to 
Burney s « History of Discoveries in the South Sea;" from which interesting work this 
sketch of Torres' voyage is extracted. 
VOL. I. Q 
