(Footnote.  Voyage de Bruny D’Entrecasteaux envoye a la recherche de la Perouse.  Redige par M. de Rossel, ancien Capitaine de Vaisseau, tome 1 page 405 et seq.  See also Atlas.)

In June 1793, Messrs. Bampton and Alt, in the English merchantships Hormuzeer and Chesterfield, got embayed on the south-east coast of New Guinea, and after in vain seeking a passage out to the north-east, were forced to abandon the attempt and make their way to the westward, through Torres Strait, which they were no less than seventy-three days in clearing.  Among other hydrographical results, was the discovery of large portions of the land forming the north-west shores of this bay, extending from Bristow Island to the northward and eastward for a distance of 120 miles.

M. RUALT COUTANCE.

In 1804, M. Rualt Coutance, commanding the French privateer L’Adele, made several discoveries on the south-east coast of New Guinea which were recorded by Freycinet, from the manuscript journal of Coutance, in the history of Baudin’s voyage.* A portion of this is unquestionably the land seen by Captain Bligh in 1792—­but in addition detached portions of the shores of the great bight of the south-east coast were seen, as in the neighbourhood of Freshwater Bay and elsewhere.

(Footnote.  Voyage de decouvertes aux Terres Australes, execute sur les corvettes Le Geographe, Le Naturaliste, et la goelette La Casuarina—­pendant les annees 1801 a 1804, sous le commandement du Capitaine de vaisseau N. Baudin.  Redige par M. Louis Freycinet.  Navigation et Geographie page 462 and Atlas plate 1.)

Mr. Bristow, the master of an English merchant vessel, visited the northern part of the Louisiade Archipelago in 1806, but added nothing of consequence to our knowledge of the group, although various islands were named anew, as if discoveries of his own.  His Satisfaction Island is clearly Rossel’s, and Eruption Island is St. Aignan’s of D’Entrecasteaux.*

(Footnote.  See Krusenstern’s Recueil de Memoires Hydrographiques etc. page 154.)

CAPTAIN DUMONT D’URVILLE.

Since Bougainville’s voyage the southern shores of the Louisiade remained unvisited until the year 1840, when Captain Dumont d’Urville, with the French corvettes L’Astrolabe and La Zelee, during his last voyage round the world, determined upon attempting their exploration.  On May 23rd, the expedition (coming from the eastward) rounded Adele Island and Cape Deliverance, at the distance of about twenty miles.  Next morning, the thickness of the weather prevented them from clearly distinguishing the features of the land.  They steered towards South-east Island, but found close approach prevented by an immense continuous reef, supposed to be part of that seen on the previous day to the southward of Rossel Island.  On Conde’s Peninsula, some natives and a small village were observed.  In the evening a long line of islands (the Calvados