At Sydney you will find the stores which we have ordered to be deposited there for your use, and having carefully rated your chronometers, and taken a fresh departure from the Observatory near that port, and having re-equipped His Majesty's ship, and fully completed her provisions, you will proceed by the inner route to Torres Strait, where the most arduous of your duties are yet to be performed. The numerous reefs which block up that Strait; the difficulty of entering its intricate channels; the discordant result of the many partial surveys which have from time to time been made there, and the rapidly increasing commerce of which it has become the thoroughfare, call for a full and satisfactory examination of the whole space between Cape York and the southern shore of New Guinea, and to this important service, therefore, you will devote the remaining period for which your supplies will last.
In this latter survey you will cautiously proceed from the known to the unknown; you will verify the safety of Endeavour Strait, and furnish sufficient remarks for avoiding its dangers; you will examine the three groups called York, Prince of Wales, and Banks, Islands; you will establish the facilities or determine the dangers of passing through those groups, and by a well-considered combination of all those results, you will clearly state the comparative advantages of the different channels, and finally determine on the best course for vessels to pursue which shall be going in either direction, or in opposite seasons. Though with this part of your operations Cook's Bank, Aurora Reef, and the other shoals in the vicinity will necessarily be connected, yet you are not to extend them to the 143rd degree of longitude, as the examination of the great field to the eastward of that meridian must be left to some future survey which shall include the barrier reefs and their ramified openings from the Pacific Ocean. You are, on the contrary, to proceed, if practicable, but most cautiously, in examining the complicated archipelago of rocks and islands which line the northern side of Torres Strait, till, at length, reaching New Guinea, you will there ascertain the general character of that part of its shore, whether it be high and continuous, or broken into smaller islands with available channels between them, as has been asserted; or whether, from being guarded by the innumerable reefs and dangers which are marked in the charts, it must remain altogether sealed to the navigator. The nature of the country, as well as of its products, will also be inquiries of considerable interest; and you will, perhaps, be able to learn whether the Dutch have made any progress in forming settlements along its shores; and if so, you will take especial care not to come into collision with any of their authorities.
Throughout the whole of this extensive region, you will bear in mind the mischievous disposition of the natives; and while you strictly practice that dignified forbearance and benevolence which tend to impress far higher respect for our power than the exercise of mere force, you will also be sedulously on your guard against every surprise; and though your boats should always be completely armed, you will carefully avoid any conflict where the ignorant or misguided natives may presume on your pacific appearance, or on the disparity of your numbers.
You will then turn to the westward, and pursue this part of the survey, so as to determine the breadth of the foul ground off the coast of New Guinea, and the continuity or interrupted form of that coast; and you will establish certain positions on the mainland (if the adjacent sea be navigable, and if not on the several advancing islands) which may serve as useful land-falls for vessels coming from the Indian Seas, or for points of departure for those who have passed through any of these straits. You will thus continue a general examination of this hitherto unexplored coast as far as Cape Valsche, which is now said to be only the terminating point of a chain of large islands, and then across to the Arrou Islands, which are supposed to be remarkably fertile, to abound with resources and refreshments, and to be peopled by a harmless and industrious race, but which do not appear to have been visited by any of His Majesty's ships.
The length of time which may be required for the due execution of all the foregoing objects cannot be foreseen. It may exceed that for which your supplies are calculated, or, on the other hand, a less degree of the supposed complexity in the ground you will have traversed, along with the energy and diligence with which we rely on you for conducting these important services, may enable you to complete them within that period. In this latter case you will return to the Northern coast of New Holland, and selecting such parts of it as may afford useful harbours of retreat, or which may appear to comprise the mouths of any streams of magnitude, you will employ your spare time in such discoveries as may more or less tend to the general object of the expedition.
Before your departure from Sydney you will have learnt that His Majesty's Government has established a new settlement at Port Essington, or somewhere on the North coast of New Holland; and before you finally abandon that district you will visit this new colony, and contribute by every means in your power to its resources and its stability.
We have not, in the concluding part of these Orders, pointed out the places or the periods at which you are to replenish your provisions, because the latter must depend on various circumstances which cannot be foreseen, and the former may be safely left to your own decision and prudence; but when you have been three years on your ground, unless some very important result were to promise itself from an extension of that period, you will proceed to the Island of Mauritius, in order to complete your stock of water and provisions, and then, touching at either side of the Cape of Good Hope, according to the season, and afterwards at Ascension, you will make the best of your way to Spithead, and report your arrival to our Secretary.
Directions will be forwarded to the commanders-in-chief at the Cape of Good Hope and in the East Indies, and to the governors or lieutenant-governors of the several settlements at which you have been ordered to call, to assist and further your enterprise as far as their means will admit: and you will lose no opportunity, at those several places, of informing our Secretary of the general outline of your proceedings, and of transmitting traces of the surveys which you may have effected, together with copies of your tide and other observations. You will likewise, by every safe opportunity, communicate to our Hydrographer detailed accounts of all your proceedings which relate to the surveys; and you will strictly comply with the enclosed instructions, which have been drawn up by him under our directions, as well as all those which he may, from time to time, forward by our command.
Given under our hands, the 8th of June, 1837.
Signed,
Charles Adam.
George Elliott.
To J.C. Wickham, Esquire.
Commander of His Majesty's surveying vessel Beagle, at Woolwich.
By command of their Lordships.