I sailed from Port Jackson in company with the Bridgewater, an extra East-Indiaman; and we made Wreck Reef in eight days. From thence the Bridgewater steered round Louisiade, through Bougainville's Strait, Dampier's Strait, Pitt's Passage, and the Strait of Salayer; and arrived at Batavia in _eighty-eight days_. I left Wreck Reef some time afterward, in a small schooner of twenty-nine tons; took ten days to reach Torres' Strait, three to pass through it, seventeen to reach Coepang Bay, and ten more to pass the longitude of Java Head. Adding to these the eight days to Wreck Reef, the passage from Port Jackson to Java Head was _forty-eight days_, including various deviations and stoppages for surveying; and it was principally made in a vessel which sailed no more than four or five knots, when the Bridgewater would have gone six or eight. The difference, nevertheless, in favour of Torres' Strait, was forty days; so that it seems within bounds to say, that in going from Port Jackson to India or the Cape of Good Hope, it offers an advantage over the northern route of six weeks; and of four weeks in going from the more eastern parts of the Great Ocean. In point of safety, I know not whether Torres' Strait have not also the advantage; for although it be certainly more dangerous than any one of the eastern passages, it is doubtful whether it be more so than a four or six weeks extra navigation amongst the straits and islands to the east and north of New Guinea, where some new shoal, bank, or island is discovered by every vessel going that way. For myself, I should not hesitate to prefer Torres' Strait, were it only on this account; considering the long continuance of the danger in one case, as being more than a counterbalance to the superior degree of it in the other. With respect to a passage through Torres' Strait in the opposite direction--from the Indian Sea to the Great Ocean--it has not, to my knowledge, been attempted; and I have some doubt of its practicability. A ship would have an advantage in entering the strait by its least dangerous side; but as the passage could be made only in December, January, or February, the rainy squally weather which probably will then prevail, would augment the danger from the reefs ten fold. The experiment is therefore too hazardous for any except a ship on discovery; whose business it is to encounter, and even to seek danger, when it may produce any important benefit to geography and navigation. BOOK III. OCCURRENCES FROM THE TIME OF QUITTING PORT JACKSON, IN 1803, ARRIVING IN ENGLAND IN 1810. CHAPTER I. Departure from Port Jackson in the Porpoise, accompanied by the Bridgewater and Cato. The Cato's Bank. Shipwreck of the Porpoise and Cato in the night. The crews get on a sand bank; where they are left by the Bridgewater. Provisions saved. Regulations on the bank. Measures adopted for getting back to Port Jackson. Description of Wreck-Reef Bank. Remarks on the loss of M. de La Pérouse.