TERRA AUSTRALIS 
111 
Torres' Strait .] 
are laid along the gunwales ; when set up, they stand abreast of isos, 
each other in the fore part of the canoe, and seemed to be secured Saturday 30. 
by one set of shrouds, with a stay from one mast head to the other. 
The sail is extended between them ; but when going with a side 
wind, the lee mast is brought aft by a back stay, and the sail then 
stands obliquely. In other words, they brace up by setting in the 
head of the lee mast, and perhaps the foot also ; and can then lie 
within seven points of the wind, and possibly nearer. This was 
their mode, so far as a distant view would admit of judging; but 
how these long canoes keep to the wind, and make such way as they 
do, without any after sail, I am at a loss to know. 
Murray’s largest island is nearly two miles long, by something 
more than one in breadth ; it is rather high land, and the hill at its 
western end may be seen from a ship’s deck at the distance of eight 
or nine leagues, in a clear day. The two smaller isles seemed to 
be single hills, rising abruptly from the sea, and to be scarcely 
accessible ; nor did we see upon them any fires, or other marks of 
inhabitants. On the shores of the large island were many huts, 
surrounded by palisades, apparently of bamboo; cocoa-nut trees 
were abundant, both on the low grounds and the sides of the hills, 
and plantains, with some other fruits, had been brought to us. 
There were many Indians sitting in groups upon the shore, and the 
seven canoes which came off' to the ship in the morning, contained 
from ten to twenty men each, or together, about a hundred. If we 
suppose these hundred men to have been one half of what belonged 
to the islands, and to the two hundred men, add as many women 
and three hundred children, the population of Murray’s Isles will 
amount to seven hundred ; of which nearly the whole must belong 
to the larger island. 
The latitude of the highest hill, deduced from that of the ship 
at the following noon, is 9 0 54' south, and longitude by the time 
keeper corrected, 144° 2' east ; being 3' north, and 20' east of its posi- 
tion by captain Edwards. A regular tide of about one knot an hour set 
