pumps-instead of the four which the Endeavour possessed-would not have been sufficient to keep the ship above water. The expedient of the sail, too, had done signal service, for the oakum with which the inner surface of the sail had been strewn had forced its way into the interstices between the fragment of rock and the edges of the hole it had bored.

The natives here were more sociable than those of Botany Bay, and

would probably have been pronounced by Tupia not quite such poor wretches. They were certainly entirely destitute of clothing, but they by no means despised ornaments, rejoicing in bracelets and necklaces of hair and shells. Their chief pride seemed to be in the piece of bone, five or six inches in length, which they thrust through the pierced cartilage of the nose. The sailors of the Endeavour made very merry over these singular ornaments, which they likened to spritsail-yards Nothing would induce these people to part with any of their ornaments, nor had they any idea of traffic or barter. The only thing in the possession of their visitors which excited their cupidity was a turtle,

which they endeavoured to appropriate by force, and things that were given them they left lying about upon the beach, as children would fling away toys when the charm of novelty was gone.

Once more the ship was entangled among the reefs, and in imminent danger of being lost; she was saved by being steered through a small opening, which Cook appropriately named Providential Channel. Before quitting the eastern coast of New Holland, he solemnly took possession of the whole stretch he had explored, from 38° to 10° south lat., in the name of his Majesty King George III., giving it the name of New South Wales, and the island upon which the ceremony took place was called Possession Island.

The length of the voyage and the occasional scarcity of fresh provisions had now begun to tell in a very marked manner upon the health of the ship's company. Poor Tupia, the Otaheitan, had several times been ill with the scurvy, and many of the crew were in a very weak state. Cook therefore resolved to abandon his intention of surveying the coasts of New Guinea, and made the best of his way to the Dutch settlement of Batavia on the island of Java, in the hope that a short residence on shore would recruit the strength of the sick.

III.

Pestilential Climate of Java-Death of Tayeto and Tupia-Mortality among the Crew-Running a Muck-Cape Town and St. Helena-Return to England -Determination to Send a Second Expedition - Cook Undertakes the Command-Question concerning a Southern Continent-Fitting-out of the Ships-Precautions against Scurvy.

BUT the remedy proved worse than the disease. The pestilential

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Among the first

climate of Java told fatally upon the enfeebled voyagers. The low swampy position of Batavia, and the numerous canals by which it is ntersected, produced malaria and intermittent fever, and one after another of the ship's company was attacked by the insidious foe, until there were not ten men left in the ship fit for duty. victims was the surgeon of the ship, Mr. Monkhouse, a sensible, skilful man," says Cook, who, like Nelson, was always anxious to give all possible praise to his officers. Next died Tayeto, Tupia's boy, and then poor Tupia himself, who had been long ailing, and who sank rapidly on hearing of the lad's death. The loss of this simple islander was much regretted by the whole ship's company. He had several times been eminently useful as an interpreter in New Zealand and elsewhere, and had always shown himself as an amiable, worthy man, not without shrewdness and good sense, and perfectly amenable to discipline.

The condition of the ship necessitated a stay of some time in the pestiferous climate of Batavia. When the keel came to be examined a very alarming state of things was discovered. "How much misery did we escape," exclaims the narrator, "by being ignorant that a considerable part of the bottom of the vessel was thinner than the sole of a shoe, and that every life on board depended on so fragile a barrier between us and the roaring ocean!" The ship was accordingly "hove down," and the necessary repairs were pushed forward with all possible despatch. But the progress of the disease among the voyagers was more rapid still. Dr. Solander and Mr. Banks barely escaped with their lives, after being removed to a house in the country. Seven men were buried before the ship finally sailed out of Batavia roads, and when the Endeavour at last left the deadly shore behind her she had forty sick on board, and all the rest were languid and feeble, with one notable exception. The sailmaker. a jovial old salt, more than seventy years of

M

age, had never been unwell since their arrival at Batavia, "and it is very remarkable," says the narrative, "that this old man during our stay at this place was constantly drunk every day." The antitemperance veteran, however, died before the end of the voyage.

The horrible practice of mock, or, as it is generally called, running a muck, is noticed by Cook. The man who designs to run a muck first madly intoxicates himself with opium, and then rushes through the streets with a naked weapon in his hand, cutting down every one whom he meets, until he himself is slain or captured. The motive is always revenge, and thus the man who runs a muck is in most cases a slave who has been rendered frantic by some real or supposed wrong, for which he can obtain no legal redress. Any man who captured an amock, or, as the name was corruptly called, a mohawk, alive, was entitled to a considerable reward. The punishment for running a muck was death by breaking on the wheel. The evil effects of the climate of Batavia continued to show themselves among the crew for a long time after the departure of the Endeavour from that fatal shore. Dysentery and fever raged in the ship, and nearly every evening the body of a sailor was committed to the deep. Mr. Green, the astronomer, Mr. Parkinson, the naturalist, and the boatswain and his mate were among those who perished. The ship was thoroughly washed with vinegar between decks, and the drinking water was purified with lime; but in spite of all curative and preventive measures twenty-three deaths occurred within a few weeks of the Endeavour's departure from Batavia.

A short stay at the Cape restored the survivors to comparative health. Among the animals at the Cape, Cook and his companions especially remaked the koodoo, or, as it is called in the journal of the voyage, the coe doe, a creature of the deer kind, as large as a horse, and with fine spiral horns. The country at the back of the Cape at that time contained very few settlers, and these were thinly scattered over a great extent of territory, living at enormous distances from each other. While the Endeavour was at the Cape, a man came to Cape Town, a fifteen days' journey, bringing his children with him. When our voyagers, surprised that the man should travel with such an incumbrance, suggested that he might have left his children with his next neighbour, he replied that his next neighbour resided at a distance of five days' journey from him. Fortunately the bushmen, or plunderers, who infested these outposts of civilisation, never attacked the

settlers openly, but made stealthy forays to carry off the cattle, generally by night. This had given rise to a strange custom among the other natives of training bulls to attack the thieves, just as watchdogs might be used in this country, and these horned guardians of the settlements wandered about the town at night, just as a mastiff might be let loose to patrol a farmyard.

The volcanic nature of the island of St. Helena, where the ship touched on her way from the Cape, is especially noticed. The account says, "It appeared, as we approached it on the windward side, like a rude heap of rocks, bounded by precipices of amazing height, and consisting of a kind of half-friable stone which shows not the least sign of vegetation, nor is it more promising upon a nearer view. In sailing along the shore, we came so near the huge cliffs, that they seemed to overhang the ship, and the tremendous effect of their giving way made us almost fear the event; at length we opened at a valley, called Chapel Valley, and in this valley we discovered the town. The bottom of it is slightly covered with herbage, but the sides are as naked as the cliffs that are next the sea. Such is the first appearance of the island in its present cultivated state; and the first hills must be passed before the valleys look green, or the country displays any other mark of fertility."

It was at the beginning of May, 1771, that Cook left St. Helena; on the 12th of July he landed at Deal, having completed his first voyage round the world in the space of two years and eleven months. In various ways the voyage had been a brilliant success. The survey of the eastern coast of Australia, which the commander had prosecuted under circumstances of great difficulty and danger, drew attention to the capabilities of New Holland for colonising purposes. The circumnavigation of New Zealand was also important; for until then the two islands of which it is composed had been considered as a part of Tasmania; and the scientific objects of the voyage had been very completely carried out. It was time, however, that the voyage should terminate. In spite of constant patching and splicing, the rigging and sails were so worn that on the passage from St. Helena to England something was giving way every day. By a strange coincidence, the long-wished-for land was discovered by the sharp eyes of the same lad who had been the first to discern New Zealand.

The successful results of Cook's first voyage stimulated the British Government to persevere in the path of discovery; and before the