It has since been ascertained they were then a little to the north of Pitcairn Island, afterwards the home of the mutineers of the Bounty; but Cook did not feel himself at liberty to make any deviation from his course "to look for what he was not sure to find," although he thought he was "not far from those islands discovered by Quiros in 1606.

Upon leaving this coast to the Westward until we fall in with the East coast of New Holland, and then to follow the direction of that coast to the Northward or what other direction it might take us, until we arrive at its Northern extremity; and if it should be found impracticable then to Endeavour to fall in with the Land or Islands discovered by Quiros.

He therefore planned to find the land discovered by Juan Fernandez in 38 degrees South, and, if unsuccessful, to proceed to Easter Island and fix its position, as it was very uncertain, then to proceed to Otaheite, where he had a faint hope he might hear of the Adventure, and, proceeding further west, settle the position of Tierra Austral del Espiritu Santo of de Quiros.

After leaving, many of those on board were very ill for a week or ten days from having eaten of a fish which Forster calls a red sea bream, and Cook believed to be the same as those which poisoned de Quiros's people, and in his account says that: "The fish had eaten of poisonous plants, all parts of the flesh became empoisoned.

On 25th August they entered the bay which Cook believed to be that discovered by De Quiros, and named by him the Bay of St. Philip and St. Iago in the Tierra Austral del Espiritu Santo, now known as the New Hebrides.

Cardinal Moran, the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, also believes Cook to have been mistaken, for in his History of the Catholic Church in Australia, he places De Quiros's discovery in Port Curtis, Queensland, where he claims that the first Catholic service ever celebrated in Australia was held.

He puts aside the fact that the latitude of Port Curtis, 24 degrees South, does not agree with that given by De Quiros, 15 degrees 20 minutes South, by saying that the positions of newly discovered places were, in those days, "often purposely concealed lest other navigators might appropriate to themselves and their respective countries, the results of the discovery."

He quotes details given in De Quiros's petitions to the King of Spain, and says: "All these details fit in admirably with Port Curtis on the Queensland coast."

Now De Quiros says the country he discovered was thickly inhabited by a people who were armed with bows and arrows, possessed vessels of earthenware, lived in houses of wood, roofed with palm leaves, were amply supplied with oranges, limes, pears, almonds larger than those of Spain, hogs, fowls, goats, capons, etc.

The anchorage, had De Quiros ever been there, might have been between two rivers, the Boyne and Calliope (both of small size), but Cardinal Moran, to make this detail "fit in admirably", has recourse to the bold measure of moving the mouth of the Burnett River from Wide Bay to Port Curtissome 2 1/2 degrees to the north of its real position.

The latitude was found to be 15 degrees 5 minutes South, and Mr. Cooper, who went ashore with the boats, reported that he landed near a fine stream of fresh water, "probably one of those mentioned by De Quiros; and if we were not deceived, we saw the other.

Quiros, De. Raleigh.

Since the land that Quiros discovered and called Terra del Espiritu Santo was, at the time Burton wrote, considered to be the Eastern Coast of New Holland, I am justified in the use I have made of the above curious passage.)

On reaching York Island we considered ourselves within the Strait, which took its name from the Spanish navigator Torres, who sailed in 1605, second in command under Pedro Fernandes de Quiros, from Callao in Peru, with the object of discovering the Tierra Austral, then supposed to be a continent occupying a considerable portion of the southern hemisphere, lying westward of America.