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.  In this conclusion Cook has the support of Dalrymple and modern geographers, but Forster, for some reason which is not quite clear, felt compelled to differ.  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.  That in the bay where he anchored there was no sandy barren ground, no mangroves, no ants, no mosquitoes, and that his anchorage lay between two considerable rivers.  How these details fit in with Port Curtis may be evident to his Eminence, but is not apparent to less distinguished mortals.  The district of Port Curtis when discovered was very thinly populated, and shows no signs of ever having been otherwise.  Bows and arrows and earthenware vessels were absolutely unknown throughout Australia; houses did not exist, except in the form of temporary shelters of branches, leaves, and bark; the fruits and animals mentioned were unknown; and sandy barren country with mangroves, ants, and mosquitoes does exist in considerable quantity.  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 Curtis—­some 2 1/2 degrees to the north of its real position.

On the other hand, Cook’s description of the New Hebrides fits in with much greater accuracy.  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.”  The country was described by Cook thus: