Auguft. evening> reported, that there was a bank ftretching north
and fouth, upon which there were but three fathom, and
yzi' that beyond it there were feven. About this time it fell
calm, and continued fo till nine the next morning, when
we weighed, with a light breeze at S.S.E. and fleered N.W.
by W. for the fmall ifland which was juft in fight, having
firfl fent the boats ahead to found: the depth of water was
eight, feven, fix, five, and four fathom, and three fathom
upon the bank, it being now the laft quarter ebb. At this
time, the northermoft ifland in fight bore N. 9 E. Cape Cornwall
E. diftant three leagues, and Wallis’s Ifles Jj 3 E. diftant
three leagues. This bank, at leaft fo much as we have
founded, extends nearly N. and S. but to what diftance I do not
know: its breadth is not more than half a mile at the utmoft.
When we had got over the bank, we deepened our water to
fix fathom three quarters, and had the fame depth all the
way to the fmall ifland ahead, which we reached by noon,
when it bore S. diftant about half a mile. Our depth of
water was now five fathom, and the northermoft land in
fight, which is part of the fame chain of iflands that we had
feen to the northward from the time of our firfl entering the
ftreight, bore N. 71 E. Our latitude, by obfervation, was io°
33 S. and our longitude 219° 22'W.: in this fituation, no part of
the main was in fight. As we were now near the ifland, and
had but little wind, Mr. Banks and I landed upon it, and
- found it, except a few patches of wood, to be a barren rock,
the haunt of birds, which had frequented it in fuch numbers,
as to make the furface almoft uniformly white with
their dung: of thefe birds, the greater part feemed to be
boobies, and I therefore called the place Booby I s l a n d .
After a Ihort flay, we returned to the lhip, and in the mean
time the wind had got to the S.W.; it was but a gentle
breeze, yet it was accompanied by a fwell from the fame
quarter,
quarter, which, with other circumftances, confirmed my '77°.
opinion that we were got to the weftward o f Carpentaria, or j—
the northern extremity of New Holland, and had now an Tlulrriay23'
open fea to the weftward, which gave me great fatisfaction,
not only becaufe the dangers and fatigues of the voyage were
drawing to an end, but becaufe it would no longer be a
doubt whether New Holland and New Guinea were two fe-
parate iflands, or different parts of the fame.
The north eaft entrance of this palfage, or ftreight, lies in
the latitude of to0 39’ S. and in the longitude of 218° 36' W.
It is formed by the main, or the northern extremity of New
Holland, on the S. E. and by a congeries of iflands, which I
called the P r in c e of W a l e s ’s I s l a n d s , to the N.W. and it is
probable that thefe iflands extend quite to New Guinea.
They differ very much both in height and circuit, and many
of them feemed to be well clothed with herbage and wood:
upon moft, if not all of them, we faw fmoke, and therefore
there can be no doubt of their being inhabited: it is alfo
probable, that among them there are at leaft as good paf-
fages as that we came through, perhaps better, though
better would not heed to be defired, if the accefs to it, from
the eaftward, were lefs dangerous: that a lefs dangerous
accefs may be difcovered, I think there is little reafon to
doubt, and to find it little more feems to be neceflary, than
to determine how far the principal, or outer reef, which
bounds the fhoals to the eaftward, extends towards the north,
which I would not have left to future navigators i f I had
been lefs haraffed by danger and fatigue, and had had a fhip
in better condition for the purpefe.
To this channel, or palfage, I have given the name of the
fhip, and called it E n d e a v o u r St r e i g h t s . Its length from
N. E. to S. W. is ten. leagues, and it is about five leagues
broad,