there will be
reason to suppose that New Britain and New Guinea were peopled from a
common stock, but that the inhabitants of New Holland had a different
origin, notwithstanding the proximity of the countries.[102]

[Footnote 102: An interesting enough subject for enquiry is here
started. We shall, in another part of our work, have to give it some
attention.--E.]

SECTION XXXV.

_The Passage from New Guinea to the Island of Semau, and the
Transactions there_.[103]

[Footnote 103: It is quite unnecessary, and would answer no good
purpose, to occupy the reader's attention with any geographical notes
respecting the islands mentioned in this section. Subsequent voyages,
and other publications, have greatly enriched our acquaintance with this
subject; but it would make sad patch-work to detail it here. The reader
will do better to amuse himself with the narrative for the present, and
to reserve study for a future occasion.--E.]

We made sail, from noon on Monday the 3d, to noon on Tuesday the 4th,
standing to the westward, and all the time kept in soundings, having
from fourteen to thirty fathom; not regular, but sometimes more,
sometimes less. At noon on the 4th, we were in fourteen fathom, and
latitude 6 deg. 44' S., longitude 223 deg. 51' W.; our course and distance since
the 3d, at noon, were S. 76 W., one hundred and twenty miles to the
westward. At noon on the 5th of September, we were in latitude 7 deg. 25'
S., longitude 225 deg. 41' W., having been in soundings the whole time from
ten to twenty fathom.

At half an hour after one in the morning of the next day, we passed a
small island which bore from us N.N.W., distant between three and four
miles; and at day-light we discovered another low island, extending from
N.N.W. to N.N.E., distant about two or three leagues. Upon this island,
which did not appear to be very small, I believe I should have landed to
examine its produce, if the wind had not blown too fresh to admit of it.
When we passed this island we had only ten fathom water, with a rocky
bottom, and therefore I was afraid of running down to leeward, lest I
should meet with shoal water and foul ground. These islands have no
place in the charts except they are the Arrou islands; and if these,
they are laid down much too far from New Guinea. I found the south part
of them to lie in latitude 7 deg. 6' S., longitude 225 deg. W.

We continued to steer W.S.W., at the rate of four miles and a half an
hou