177& ROUND THE WORLD. 25 



habitants, if there were any, and endeavour, by all 

 proper means, to cultivate a friendship and alliance 

 with them ; making them presents of such things 

 as they might value ; inviting them to traffic, and 

 showing them every kind of civility and regard. I 

 was to continue to employ myself on this service, 

 and making discoveries, either to the eastward 

 or westward, as my situation might render most 

 eligible ; keeping in as high a latitude as I could, 

 and prosecuting my discoveries as near to the South 

 Pole as possible, so long as the condition of the 

 ships, the health of their crews, and the state of their 

 provisions, would admit of; taking care to reserve 

 as much of the latter as would enable me to reach 

 some known port, where I was to procure a sufficiency 

 to bring me home to England. But if Cape Circum- 

 cision should prove to be part of an island only, or if 

 I should not be able to find the said Cape, I was, in 

 the first case, to make the necessary survey of the is- 

 land, and then to stand onto the southward, so long 

 as I judged there was a likelihood of falling in with 

 the continent ; which I was also to do in the latter 

 case ; and then to proceed to the eastward, in further 

 search of the said continent, as well as to make dis- 

 coveries of such islands as might be situated in that 

 unexplored part of the southern hemisphere ; keeping 

 in high latitudes, and prosecuting my discoveries as 

 above-mentioned, as near the Pole as possible, until 

 I had circumnavigated the globe ; after which I was 

 to proceed to the Cape of Good Hope, and from 

 thence to Spithead. 



In the prosecution of these discoveries, whenever 

 the season of the year rendered it unsafe for me to 

 continue in high latitudes, I was to retire to some 

 known place to the northward, to refresh my people, 

 and refit the ships ; and to return again to the south- 

 ward, as soon as the season of the year would ad- 

 mit of it. In all unforeseen cases, I was authorised 

 to proceed according to my own discretion ; and in 



