[* Again, Torres states that Espiritu Santo is an Island, see 8 paragraphs previous.]

We had at this time nothing but bread and water.  It was the depth of winter, and I had sea, wind, and ill will of my crew against me.  All this did not prevent me from reaching the latitude mentioned (21 deg.  S.), which I passed by one degree, and would have gone further if the weather had permitted,* for the ship was good.  It was proper to act in this manner, for these are not voyages performed every day, nor could Your Majesty otherwise be properly informed.

[* When Torres says, he “would have gone further,” etc., he evidently thought he was not far from the Australian Continent; a few days’ sail, three at the most, would have brought him to Cape Capricorne, on the coast of Queensland, a little to the south of the “Lost Bay” that was marked on some of the maps of the period.]

Going in the said latitude on a S.W. course, we had no signs of land that way.

From hence I stood back to the N.W. till 11 deg. 30’ S. latitude; there we fell in with the beginning of New Guinea, the coast of which runs W. by N. and E. by S.

I could not weather the E. point, so I coasted along to the westward on the south side.

I may here interrupt Torres’ description in order to point out the various discoveries which he made along the southern shores of New Guinea during the course of his voyage to Manila in which he passed through the straits that bear his name.

The recovery of some ancient manuscript charts and other documents throws considerable light on this perilous and interesting voyage.*

[* The charts in question were pillaged from the Spanish archives during the wars of Napoleon I., and taken to Paris.  There, buried away and uncatalogued, they were found, some years ago, by a friend of mine, who caused them to be returned to their original owners and acquainted me with their existence, thus enabling me to get copies of them which were first published to the English speaking world in my work on “The Discovery of Australia,” in the year 1894.]

There lies at the eastern extremity of New Guinea a group of beautiful islands supposed to have been first sighted in the year 1873 by the leader of an English expedition, bent on discovery.  Captain John Moresby, of H.M.S. Basilisk, the leader in question, in the account of his discoveries in New Guinea, published in 1876, says: 

“I trust that the work done by H.M.S. Basilisk, in waters hitherto untracted, on shores hitherto untrodden, and among races hitherto unknown by Europeans will be held to call for some account.”

Now, by comparing the Spanish map given here, with Moresby’s it will be seen how Moresby’s work, on this point of the coast, had been forestalled by Torres.

The features and place-names in the Spanish chart will reveal some of the most important of Torres’ discoveries at the south-east end of New Guinea, where the Spanish navigator made his first stay in order to refresh the crews of the Almiranta and Brigantine.