13+ COOK’s VOYAGE, 
quarters, and had the fame depth all the way to the fmaU 
ifland ahead, which we reached by noon, when it bore S, 
diftant about half a mile. Our depth of water was now five 
fathom, and the northermoft land in fight, which is part of 
the fame chain of iflands that we had feen to the northward 
from the time of our firft entering the ftreight, bore N. 7 1 E, 
Our latitude by obfervation, was io° 33' S. and our longitude 
2 1 9 0 22' W. : in this fituation, no part of the main was in 
fight. As we were now near the ifland, and had but little 
wind, Mr. Banks and I landed upon it, and found it, except a 
few patches of wood, to be a barren rock, the haunt of birds, 
which had frequented it in fuch numbers, as to make the fur- 
face almoft uniformly white with their dung : of thefe "birds, 
the greater part feemed to be boobies, ana I therefore called 
the place Booby Island. After a fhort flay, we returned 
to the fhip, and in the mean time the wind had got to the S. 
W. ; it was but a gentle breeze, yet it was accompanied by a 
fwell from the fame quarter, which, with other circumftances, 
confirmed my opinion, that we were got to the weftward of 
Carpentaria, or the northern extremity of New-Holland, and 
had now an open fea to the weftward, which gave me great 
fatisfa&ion, not only becaufe the dangers and fatigues of the 
voyage were drawing to an end, but becaufe it would no lon- 
ger be a doubt whether New Holland and New Guinea were 
two feparate iflands, or different parts of the fame. 
The north eaft entrance of this paflage, or ftreight, lies in 
the latitude of io° 39' S. and in the longitude of 218° 36' W. 
It is formed by the main, or the northern extremity of New- 
Holland, on the S. E. and by a congeries of iflands, which I 
called the Prince of Wales’s Islands, to the N. W. and 
it is probable that thefe iflands extend quite to New Guinea. 
They differ very much both in height and circuit, and many 
of them feemed to be well clothed with herbage and wood : 
Upon moll, if not all of them, we faw fmoke, and therefore 
there can be no doubt of their being inhabited : it is alfo 
probable, that among them there are at leaft as good paffages as 
that we came through, perhaps better, though better would not 
need to be defired, if the accefs to it from the eaftward, were 
lefs dangerous : that a lefs dangerous accefs may be difcovered, 
I think there is little reafon to doubt, and to find it little 
more feems to be neceflary, than to determine how far the 
principal, or outer reef, which bounds the flioals to the eaft- 
ward, extends towards the north, which I would not have 
left to future navigators if I had been lefs haraffed by danger 
and fatigue, and had had a fhip in better condition for the 
purpofe. 
To this channel, or paflage, I have given the name of the 
fhip, and called it Endeavour Streichts. Its length 
from 
