and islands
and reefs, with numerous blanks--a compilation from various sources, some
utterly unworthy of credit; and of the inhabitants and productions of
these regions, nothing was known beyond that portion at least of them
were peopled by a savage and warlike race.

LUIZ VAEZ DE TORRES.

The first navigator who saw the shores in question, appears to have been
Luiz Vaez de Torres, in the Spanish frigate La Almiranta, coming from the
eastward, in August 1606. In latitude 11 1/2 degrees South, Torres came
upon what he calls the beginning of New Guinea, which, however, appears
to have been a portion of what is now known as the Louisiade Archipelago.
Being unable to weather the easternmost point of this land (Cape
Deliverance) he bore away to the westward along its southern shores. "All
this land of New Guinea," says he, in his long-forgotten letter to the
king of Spain (a copy of which was found in the Archives at Manila, after
the capture of that city by the British, in 1762) "is peopled with
Indians, not very white, much painted, and naked, except a cloth made of
the bark of trees. They fight with darts, targets, and some stone clubs,
which are made fine with plumage. Along the coast are many islands and
habitations. All the coast has many ports, very large, with very large
rivers, and many plains. Without these islands there runs a reef of
shoals, and between them (the shoals) and the mainland are the islands.
There is a channel within. In these parts I took possession for your
Majesty.

"We went along 300 leagues of coast, as I have mentioned, and diminished
the latitude 2 1/2 degrees, which brought us into 9 degrees. From hence
we fell in with a bank of from three to nine fathoms, which extends along
the coast above 180 leagues. We went over it along the coast to 7 1/2
South latitude, and the end of it is in 5 degrees. We could not go
further on for the many shoals and great currents, so we were obliged to
sail out South-West in that depth to 11 degrees South latitude."

By this time Torres had reached the Strait which now bears his name, and
which he was the first to pass through. He continues: "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 much notice of
other people, although as yet they do not make themselves well
understood."*

(*Footnote. Burney's Chronological History of Voyages and Discoveries in
the