We tried foundings in 30 fathoms, but found none; however,
at the maft-head they obferved funken rocks clofe to us, on
■ which we immediately tacked, and Rood off fhore, as the
■ weather was growing dark and mifty. The next mornmg
we found this part of New Zeeland lay to the fouthward of
Cape Weft, and had not been explored by captain Cook, m
the Endeavour.
Thus ended our firft cruize in the high fouthern latitudes,
after a fpace of four months and two days, out of fight of
land during which we had experienced no untoward accident
and had been fafely led through numerous dangers
by thé guiding hand of Providence, which preferved our
crew in good health during the whole time, a few indivi-
duals excepted. Our wholeeourfe, from the Cape o f Good
Hope to New Zeeland, was a ferics of hardlhips, which had
never been experienced before: all the difagreeable circum-
ftances of the fails and rigging fliattcred to pieces, the veffei
rolling gunwale to, and her upper works torn by thevio-
lenee öf the (train; the concomitant effects o f fforms., which
have been painted with fuchflrongexpreffion, and blackncft
<ff Cohrit, by the able writer of Anfon’s Voyage, were perhaps
the t a i l diftreffing occurrences of ours. We had the
perpetual ^verities o f a rigorous climate to.cope wuh; our
feame-n and officers were expofed to rain, fleet ai , an
fnow ; our rigging was conftantly encrufled with ice, which
cut the hands of ihofe who were obliged to touch it ; our
provifion
provifion of frefh water was to be colledfed in lumps of
ice floating on the fea, where the cold, and the fliarp fa-
line element-alternately numbed, and fcarified the failors’
limbs ; we were perpetually expofed to the danger of running
againft huge mafles of ice, which filled the immenfe
Southern ocean: the frequent and fudden appearance of
thefe perils, required an almoft continual exertion of the
whole crew, to manage the fhip with the greateft degree of
precifion and difpatch. The length of time which we remained
out of figh t of land, and the long abftinence from any
fort of refrefliment were equally diftrefsful ; for our hooks
and lines diftributed in November (See pag. 90.) had hitherto
been of no fervice, on account of our navigation in
high fouthern latitudes, and acrofs an unfathomable ocean,
where we faw no fifli except whales, and where it is
well known no others can be expected; the torrid zone
being the only one where they may be caught out of
foundings.
-A t rum
Defendens pifces hiemat mare. H o r a t ,
We may add to thefe the difmal gloominefs which
always prevailed in the fouthern latitudes, where we had
impenetrable fogs lading for weeks together, and where
we rarely faw the cheering face of the fun ; a circum-
ftance which alone is fufficient to dejeiff the mod un-
Vol. I. R daunted,