to be the "beginning of New Guinea," when, suddenly, a bay
seemed to open towards the south.

Moresby entered it, and, by the merest chance, hit upon the identical
narrow passage which Torres, 267 years previously, had discovered from
the south side and named _Boca de la Batalla_, Mouth of the Battle;
having, no doubt, had an encounter there with the natives.

Moresby called that mouth Rocky Pass, and grew enthusiastic at the
discovery, and at having "separated another island from New Guinea."

He was anxious to find if Rocky Pass would afford a passage for his ship,
and spent the remainder of the day in examining it; but a rocky ledge,
which ran across, barred it to the ship, and made it dangerous even for
boats at the strength of the tide.

Moresby's experiences help to show the difficulties that the Spaniards
had to deal with, and also that Torres must have been compelled to leave
his two ships at anchor somewhere to the south of the _Baya de San
Milian_; San Francisco Bay, for instance; and use the only rowing boat he
had for his excursions.

In this he explored the bay formed by the horse-shoe-shape of Basilisk
Island, named it the _Baya de San Milian_ (modern Jenkins Bay), and
penetrated to the largest bay to be found among all the islands he had
discovered in this region--that is Milne Bay. He says: "We went a long
way out from _Cabo Fresco_ [modern Challis Head of Moresby's chart],
which is as far as we could go towards the east in a boat."

Other nautical remarks which I translate from the old Spanish text of the
chart are: "Towards the E. [N.E.] we did not see the end of the land, but
we could judge from the various small islands that the channels were
wide; towards the west there are no channels, only land and continuous
lofty ridges, '_Tierra alta y cerrada_' (evidently the Mount Owen Stanly
ranges in the distance). We steered in that direction, but had to give up
further progress after a while owing to the inadequacy of our boat."

These and other notes on the Spanish chart correspond exactly with what
Moresby says of Milne Bay; and the dimensions given to that bay by de
Prado, the cartographer of the expedition (40 leagues in circumference),
may be considered as a fairly correct estimate.

On the 18th of July, Torres and his party having concluded their running
survey of Basilisk Island, landed and took possession in the name of the
king of Spain, naming as I have said, the whole territory the TIER