By timely examination and good arrangement, a commodious place of embarkation may be established there, which might, by degrees, become an important town; where horses might be shipped and conveyed by a short passage to India, free from the hazards of Torres Straits.
"Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia In Search of a Route from Sydney to the Gulf of Carpentaria (1848) by Lt. Col. Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell Kt. D.C.L. (1792-1855) Surveyor-General of New South Wales"
Thomas Mitchell
The a priori view of their origin is that they crossed Torres Straits from Australia.
"The Ethnology of the British Colonies and Dependencies"
Robert Gordon Latham
Soon after the ships commanded by De Quiros became separated from the other vessels, and Torres took charge.
"The Naval Pioneers of Australia"
Louis Becke and Walter Jeffery