COOK. 1770.
The north coast of Terra Australis does not appear to have been seen by any succeeding navigator, until the year 1770; when our celebrated captain JAMES COOK passed through Endeavour's Strait, between Cape York and the Prince of Wales' Islands; and besides clearing up the doubt which, till then, existed, of the actual separation of Terra Australis from New Guinea, his more accurate observations enabled geographers to assign something like a true place to the former discoveries of the Dutch, in these parts. Captain Cook did not land upon the main; but, at Possession Island, he saw ten natives: "Nine of them were armed with such lances as we had been accustomed to see, and the tenth had a bow, and a bundle of arrows, which we had never seen in the possession of the natives of this country before."*
[* Hawkesworth's Voyages, Vol. III. page 211.]
Mc. CLUER. 1791.
At the end of the year 1791, lieutenant JOHN Mc. CLUER of the Bombay marine, in returning from the examination of the west side of New Guinea, made the Land of Arnhem, in longitude 135¼°, east of Greenwich. He then sailed westward, along the shore, to 129° 55'; when the coast was found to take a southern direction. The point of turning is placed in 11° 15' south latitude; and is, doubtless, the Cape Van Diemen of the old charts, and the west extremity of the north coast of Terra Australis.
It does not appear that any other account has been given of this navigation, than the chart published by Mr. Dalrymple, in 1792. According to it, though lieutenant Mc. Cluer constantly had soundings, in from 7 to 40 fathoms; yet he was generally at such a distance from the land, that it was not often seen; and, consequently, he was unable to identify the particular points. No landing seems to have been effected upon the main; but some service was rendered to navigation, by ascertaining the positions of several small islands, shoals, and projecting parts of the coast; and in conferring a certain degree of authenticity upon the discoveries of the early Dutch navigators.
Lieutenant Mc. Cluer is the last person, who can strictly be said to have added to our knowledge of the north coast of Terra Australis, previously to the time in which the voyage of the Investigator was planned; but several navigators had followed captain Cook through Torres' Strait, and by considerably different routes: these it will be proper to notice; as their discoveries are intimately connected with the present subject.
BLIGH. 1789.
After the mutineers of the Bounty had forced their commander, lieutenant (now rear-admiral) WILLIAM BLIGH, to embark in the launch, near the island Tofoa; he steered for Coepang, a Dutch settlement, at the south-west end of Timor. In the way, he made the east coast of New South Wales, in about 12½° of South latitude; and, sailing northward, passed round Cape York and the Prince of Wales' Islands.
It was not to be supposed, that captain Bligh, under the circumstances of extreme distress, of fatigue, and difficulty of every kind, could do much for navigation and geography; yet, he took views and made such observations and notes, as enabled him to construct a chart of his track, and of the lands and reefs seen from the launch. And as captain Bligh passed to the north of the Prince of Wales' Islands, whereas captain Cook had passed to the south, his interesting narrative, with the accompanying chart, made an useful addition to what little was yet known of Torres'Strait.*