nk of
from three to nine fathoms, which extends along the coast to 7-1/2
south latitude; and the end of it is in 5 degrees. We could go no
further on for the many shoals and great currents, so we were
obliged to sail south-west in that depth to 11 degrees south
latitude. There is all over it an archipelago of islands without
number, by which we passed; and at the end of the eleventh degree
the bank became shoaler. Here were very large islands, and they
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 twenty persons of different
nations, that with them we might be able to give a better account
to your Majesty. They give [us] much notice of other people,
although as yet they do not make themselves well understood. We
were upon this bank two months, at the end of which time we found
ourselves in twenty-five fathoms and 5 degrees south latitude and
ten leagues from the coast; and having gone 480 leagues here, the
coast goes to the north-east. I did not search it, for the bank
became very shallow. So we stood to the north."

The "very large islands" seen by Torres were no doubt the hills of Cape
York, the northernmost point of Australia, and so he, all unconsciously,
had passed within sight of the continent for which he was searching. A
copy of the report by Torres was lodged in the archives of Manila, and
when the English took that city in 1762, Dalrymple, the celebrated
geographer, discovered it, and gave the name of Torres Straits to what
is now well known as the dangerous passage dividing New Guinea from
Australia. De Quiros, in his ship, made no further discovery; he arrived
on the Mexican coast in October, 1606, and did all he could to induce
Philip III. of Spain to sanction further exploration, but without success.

Of the voyages of the Dutch in Australian waters much interesting matter
is available. Major sums up the case in these words:--

"The entire period up to the time of Dampier, ranging over two
centuries, presents these two phases of obscurity: that in the
sixteenth century (the period of the Portuguese and Spanish
discoveries) there are indications on maps of the great
probability of Australia having already been discovered, but with