re 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
no written documents to confirm them; while in the seventeenth century
there is documentary evidence that its coasts were touched upon or
explored by a considerable number of Dutch voyagers, but the documents
immediately describing these voyages have not been found."

The period of known Dutch discovery begins with the establishment of the
Dutch East India Company, and a knowledge of the west coast of Australia
grew with the growth of the Dutch colonies, but grew slowly, for the
Dutchmen were too busy trading to risk ships and spend time and money
u