TORRES STRAITS
sailed from Honfleur in 1503. A copy of an old map in the British Museum would show that the Portuguese Manoel Godinho Eredia was there in 1601. Torres and Tasman were later than that. Charles II’s Ambassador at the Hague, Sir William Temple, reports that the Dutch East India Company had long known of the continent, though not its extent, but concealed all knowledge, having sufficient trade and not being desirous of other nations going there; and for centuries it would appear that the Malays from Macassar and elsewhere had been in the habit of going there for trepang, pearls, pearl shell, etc. Captain Flinders, on his voyage there in 1803, found many Malay phraus, and was informed there were sometimes sixty of them, armed with brass cannon and muskets. These Malays had not seen a ship therebefore, nor had they heard of Port Jackson (Sydney). Military posts were established in 1824 at Fort Dundas and Raffles Bay in Melville Island, and some time later at Port Essington in Arnheim's Land, the last of them being deserted, I think, about 1849. The cattle and horses left on the islands and mainland bred and multiplied rapidly. The ruins of forts and entrenchments still remain. With the troops, a certain number of convicts were taken to these places, and presumably taken away again when the posts were abandoned. It must have been a curious life at that time. In later times have been strange doings amongst the lawless characters who flocked to this coast. When the Transcontinental Railway is finished to Port Darwin, strong endeavours should be made to develop the Northern Territory, and Port Darwin and the Northern Coast should be fortified and military forces re-established. For the breeding and shipment of horses to India; it is admirably suited.
