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_.
From a description on this chart we learn that during five days and nights the Spaniards stood in sight of those tantalizing verdant shores, unable to effect a landing, threading their way through perilous reefs and over dangerous shoals.
Then, at last, they rounded, no doubt, the cape which Torres called _Cabo de tres hermanas_, or Cape of the Three Sisters, passed the next point marked (A) on the map, near the east point of the compass, and came to anchor in a little bay which was called _Puerto de San Francisco_.
It is situated near the south-east entrance to Rocky Pass, between Basilisk and Hayter Islands, and formed, in all probability, during their sojourn in these parts, the centre of their various excursions to the islands and bays around.
Its name, San Francisco, gives us the date of Torres' landing (14th of July, 1606), for it was customary in those days to name discoveries after the saints of the calendar; but the feast of St.Bonaventure occurs also on July the 14th, so that name was likewise made use of, and given to the whole territory discovered.
Contrary to Torres', Moresby's approach, in the year 1873, was from the N.E.where the mainland of New Guinea was supposed to extend beyond Hayter, Basilisk and Moresby's Islands.
The English captain had already cut off Moresby's Island, left his good ship _Basilisk_ at anchor in the strait thus discovered (Fortescue Strait), and--the numerous reefs rendering navigation impossible for his ship--taken to his boats, the galley and cutter.
Moresby and party then rounded the northern shores of what they thought might prove 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).