he who could lay hold on them firft. I appointed one of my
feamen to be cook of the Adventure, and wrote to Captain
Furneaux, defiring him to make ufe of every method in his
power to flop the fpreading of the difeafe amongft his people,
and propofing fuch as I thought might tend towards it. But
I afterwards found all this unneceflary, as every method had
been ufed they could think of.
The wind continued in the N. W. quarter, and blew
frefh, at times, attended with rain ; with which we flood to
the N. E. On the ift of Auguft, at noon, we were in the
latitude of 250 1', longitude 1340 6', Weft, and had a great
hollow fwell from N. W. The fituation we were now in, was
nearly the fame that Captain Carteret afligns for Pitcairn’s
Ifland, difcovered by him in 1767. We therefore looked
well out for i t ; but faw nothing. According to the longitude
in which he has placed it, we muft have pafied about
fifteen leagues to the Weft of it. But as this was uncertain,
I did not think it prudent, confidering the fituation of the
Adventure’s people, to lofe any time in looking for it. A
fight of it would, however, have been of ufe in verifying, or
correcting, not only the longitude of this ifle, but of the others
that Captain Carteret difcovered in this neighbourhood ; his
longitude not being confirmed, I think, by aftronomical ob-
fervations, and therefore liable to errors, which he could have
no method to correCt.
As we had now got to the northward of Captain Carteret’s
tracks, all hopes of difcovering a continent va-
nilhed. Iflands were all we were to expeCt to find, until we
returned again to the South. I had now, that is on this
and my former voyage, crofted this ocean in the latitude of
4©a and upwards, without meeting any thing that did, in
2 the
the leaft, induce me to think I fhould find what I was in
fearch after. On the contrary, every thing confpired to
make me believe there is no fouthem continent, between
the meridian of America and New Zealand; at leaft, this
palTage did not produce any indubitable figns of any, as
will appear by the following remarks. After leaving the
coafls of New Zealand, we daily faw, floating in the fea,
rock-weed, for the fpace of x8° of longitude. In my
paftage to New Zealand in 1769, we alfo faw of this weed,
for the fpace of 120 or 140 of longitude before we made
the land. The weed is, undoubtedly, the produce of New
Zealand ; becaufe, the nearer the coaft, the greater quantity
you fee. At the greateft diftance from the coaft, we, faw'it
only in fmall pieces, generally more rotten, and covered
with barnacles: an indubitable fign that it had been long at
fea. Were it not for this, one might be led to conjecture
that fome other large land lay in the neighbourhood; for
it cannot be a fmall extent of coaft to produce fuch a quantity
of weed, as to cover fo large a fpace of fea. It hath
been already mentioned, that we were no fooner clear of
the Straits, than we met with a large hollow fwell from
the S. E., which continued till we arrived in the longitude
of 177° Weft, and latitude 46°. There we had large billows
from the North and N. E. for five days fucceffively, and
until we got 5° of longitude more to the Eaft, although the
wind, great part of the time, blew from different directions.
This was a ftrong indication that there was no land between
us and my track to the Weft in 1769. After this, we
had,' as is ufual in all great oceans, large billows from every
direction in which the wind blew a frefh gale, but more
efpecially from the S. W. Thefe billows never ceafed with,
the caufe that firft put them in motion; a fure indication,
T 2 that