rom 3 to 7 fathoms. At noon, the
latitude was 9 deg. 27', and no land in sight. The soundings then increased
gradually; and at sunset, no bottom could be found at 40 fathoms. A swell
coming from S. S. W. announced an open sea in that direction; and that
the dangers of Torres' Strait were, at length, surmounted.

[* Mr. Bampton's chart and journal are more at variance here than in the
preceding parts of the Strait, and I have found it very difficult to
adjust them; but have attempted it in Plate XIII.]

This passage of the Hormuzeer and Chesterfield in _seventy-two_ days,
with that made in _nineteen_, by the captains Bligh and Portlock,
displayed the extraordinary dangers of the Strait; and appear to have
deterred all other commanders from following them, up to the time of the
Investigator. Their accounts confirm the truth of Torres having passed
through it, by showing the correctness of the sketch contained in his
letter to the King of Spain.

CONCLUSIVE REMARKS.

The sole remaining information, relative to the North Coast of Terra
Australis, was contained in a note, transcribed by Mr. Dalrymple, from a
work of burgomaster WITSEN upon the _Migration of Mankind_. The place of
which the burgomaster speaks, is evidently on the coast of Carpentaria,
near the head of the Gulph; but it is called _New Guinea; and he wrote in
1705_. The note is as follows; but upon whose authority it was given,
does not appear:

"In 16 deg. 10' south, longitude 159 deg. 17'" (east of Teneriffe, or between
142 deg. and 143 deg. east of Greenwich,) "the people swam on board of a Dutch
ship; and when they received a present of a piece of linen, they laid it
upon their head in token of gratitude: Every where thereabout, all the
people are malicious. They use arrows, and bows of such a length, that
one end rests on the ground when shooting. They have also _hazeygaeys_
and _kalawaeys_, and attacked the Dutch; but did not know the execution
of the guns." On summing up the whole of the knowledge which had been
acquired of the North Coast, it will appear, that natural history,
geography, and navigation had still much to learn of this part of the
world; and more particularly, that they required the accomplishment of
the following objects:

1st. _A general survey of TORRES' STRAIT_. The navigation from the
Pacific, or Great Ocean to all parts of India, and to the Cape of Good
Hope, would be greatly facilitated, if a passage through the Strait,
mode