LIX. future?-what hope that with their open boats CHA P. they could ever quit these inhospitable shores or return to their own? In this extremity one of the midshipmen, Monkhouse by name, went up to the Captain and proposed an expedient that he had once seen used on board a merchant-ship bound from Virginia to England. This expedient was called "fothering; it consists in lightly stitching to an open sail a great quantity of oakum and wool, the sail being then hauled beneath the ship by ropes, when the oakum and wool are drawn in by the suction of the leak, and serve in some measure to plug it. Captain Cook lost no time in trying the experiment, and found it succeed so well, that the leak, instead of gaining upon three pumps, was easily kept under with one. In this manner it became possible to navigate the vessel towards a neighbouring harbour which had been discovered by the boats, and which seemed to be convenient for the repairs required. For, as the writer of this voyage observes," In all the joy of our unexpected deli"verance, we had not forgot that at this time. "there was nothing but a lock of wool between "us and destruction."* In that harbour, which he called Endeavour Bay, on the coast of New South Wales, Captain Cook remained above six weeks. There he and Mr. Banks saw for the first time that singular * Hawkesworth's Voyages, vol. iii. p. 555. VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY. OF DISCOVERY. CHAP. animal, till then unknown to Europeans, the kanLIX. garoo. There, also, they fell in with several parVOYAGES ties of the natives, sometimes adorned with bones of birds through their noses, but wholly unclad, and grovelling in, perhaps, the very lowest stage of savage life. The repairs of the ship being now completed, so far as scanty means allowed, Cook attempted to resume his voyage. This proved an arduous task. So thick-set was the coast with shoals and reefs, that they formed a labyrinth far from easy to wind through. It was only after repeated failures, and at imminent risk, that the English captain could work his vessel clear, and emerge into the open sea. From thence he directed his course to the Dutch settlements in Java, where the ship, which had once more become leaky, was put into dock and thoroughly re-fitted. Meanwhile the officers and men residing at Batavia suffered most severely from the marshfever of the place; several died, and only one person among them was altogether free from illness; this was the sail-maker, a man between seventy and eighty years of age, and who, strange though it seems, while on shore was a daily drunkard. The survivors continued their voyage homewards without further mischance or adventure, and in the month of June, 1771, came to anchor in the Downs. The services of Captain Cook were acknowledged in the way that gallant seaman loved best; within a few months he was sent forth on another perilous 1 LIX. VOYAGES COVERY. voyage. This new expedition consisted of two CHAP. ships, the Resolution, under Cook, as the principal commander, and the Adventure, under Captain Furneaux. Its object was to complete the discovery of the Southern hemisphere, and to ascertain, so far as possible, the existence of a Southern Continent. On this service was Cook engaged for three years and three months. So extensive were his explorations, that, touching at the Cape of Good Hope on his homeward voyage, he computed, that since he had left that settlement on his course from England he had sailed above twenty thousand leagues. He had entered the Antarctic circle at several points, attaining a far higher southern latitude than any previous voyager, and not desisting until the ice, packed or floating, barred his way. The result was, that, although he saw strong reasons to suspect the existence of a Continent around the South Pole, he proved that its discovery could answer no useful purpose, since, if existing at all, it must be doomed to utter sterility, and covered with eternal snows. During this voyage Captain Cook made several new discoveries in the Pacific, and revisited both Otaheite and the Society Islands. In these he found the people, as from the first, disposed to friendly intercourse and barter. The ship was often surrounded by canoes full of natives, who called out," TIYO, BOA, ATOI!" "I am your friend, "take my hog,-give me an axe!" So far, indeed, did their confidence extend, that a young OF DIS COVERY. CHAP. man of note among them, named Omai, consented LIX. to embark with the strangers. He was not long VOYAGES in acquiring some knowledge of the English tongue, and, on reaching England, was presented by Lord Sandwich to the King at Kew. In the London circles his well-bred manners excited some surprise. "But you must remember, Sir," said Dr. Johnson, "that Omai has passed his time while in England only in the best company."* 66 ence. In all these island-specks on the vast Pacific Captain Cook had opportunity to observe strange varieties of savage life. In some there was from the first an amicable feeling, in others a succession of hostile attacks. In some the natives displayed an intelligent curiosity, in others a brutish indifferThus, at one of the New Hebrides which Cook discovered, a chief, having come on board, looked on all around him with the utmost unconcern; nor did he take the least notice of any thing except a wooden sand-box, which he seemed to admire, and turned two or three times over in his hand! In nearly all places where intercourse was at all admitted the people were inveterate thieves. "It was hardly possible," writes Cook of Easter Isle, "to keep any thing in our pockets, "not even what themselves had sold us; for 66 'they would watch every opportunity to snatch "it from us, so that we sometimes bought the "same thing two or three times over, and after all CHA P. "did not get it.”* LIX. OF DISCOVERY. After the observations of Cook in his first and VOYAGES second voyage, he might express a well-grounded hope that the Southern hemisphere was sufficiently explored. There still remained the task, however, of tracing through the Northern the coasts of Asia and America, where they approach each other in the direction of Behring's Strait, and, if possible, effecting the converse of the NorthWest passage, from the Pacific, namely, into the Atlantic Ocean. Thus would the circumnavigation of America be completed; thus might a new track be opened to the trade with China and Japan. With these views, and under the King's continued patronage, another and final expedition was planned. All men felt that Cook was by far the fittest person to conduct it, but all men felt likewise, that after his past labours it ought not to be proposed to him. He had been appointed to a lucrative command in Greenwich Hospital, where he might pass the remainder of his days in the enjoyment of well-earned ease and fame. Nevertheless, his advice was anxiously sought on every point, both in the framing of instructions and the choice of a commander. At last, to decide these questions, he was invited to a dinner at the house of Lord Sandwich, the other guests being only Sir Hugh * Second Voyage, vol. i. p. 279. † Ibid. vol. ii. p. 239. |