1773-
December.
^Monday »7.
*774*
January.
Saturday 1.
Tuefday 4.
The whole fcene looked like the wrecks of a fhattered
world, or as the poets defcribe fome regions of hell ; an
idea which ftruck us the more forcibly, as execrations,
oaths, and curfes re-echoed about us on all fides.
A faint breeze fprung up in the afternoon, with which
we made flow advances to the northward, the number of
ice iflands decreafing in proportion as we receded from the
antarctic circle. About four the next morning, we hoifted,
out our boats, and took in a frefli provifion of ice. The
weather changed foon after, the wind coming about to
the north-eaftward, which brought on much fnow and.
fleet. My father, and twelve other perfons were again much
afflicted with rheumatic pains, and confined to their beds.
The fcurvy did not yet appear under any dangerous form-
in the fliip, and all thofe who had any flight fymptoms
of it, amongft whom I was one, drank plentifully of the
frefli wort, quite warm, twice a day, arid abftaiiied as much-
as poflible from falt-diet, A general languor and fickly.
look however, manifefted itfelf in almoft every perfon’s-
face, which threatened us with more dangerous confe-
quences. Captain Cook himfelf was likewife pale ancLlean,
entirely loft his appetite, and laboured under a perpetual,
coftivenefs. 1
We advanced to the northward as much as the winds
would permit us, and loft fight of the ice on the firft of
January 1 7 7 4 . in *9° 7 S. latitude. On the 4 th> the
wind
wind blowing from the weftward was very boifterous, and j41I'd” £V,
obliged us to keep all our fails double-reefed ; the fea ran
high, and the Ihip worked very heavily, rolling violently
from fide to fide. This continued till the 4 th at noon, Thutfday s,
when, having reached 5 1 5 of S. latitude, we bore away
from the wind, to the N. N. E. We were now within a
few degrees of the track which we had made in June and
July laft, in going from New Zeeland to Taheitee, and had
directed our courfe towards it, in order to leave no con-
fiderable part of this great ocean unexplored. As far as
we had hitherto advanced, we had found no land, not even
indications of land j our firft track had crofled the South
Sea in the middle latitudes, or between 40 and 50 degrees.
In our courfe till Chriftmas, we had explored the greateft
part of it between' 66 degrees and the antarctic circle and
the prefent courfe to the northward had crofled the fpace
between the two former rung. If any land has efcaped us,
it muft be an ifland, whole diftance from Europe, and
fituation in an uncouth climate cannot make it valuable
to this country. It is obvious that to fearch a fea of fuch
extent as the South Sea, in order to be certain of the exift-
ence, or non-exiftence of a fmall ifland, would require many
voyages in numberlefs different tracks, and cannot be effected
in a fingle expedition. But it is fufficient for us,
to have proved that no large land or continent exifts in the
• Z z z 2 South
f
I