274 cook's first voyage august. 



BOOK II. 

 CHAP. I. 



THE PASSAGE FROM OTEROAH TO NEW ZEALAND ; INCIDENTS 

 WHICH HAPPENED ON GOING A-SHORE THERE, AND WHILE 

 THE SHIP LAY IN POVERTY BAY. 



We sailed from Oteroah on the 15th of August, 

 and on Friday the 25th we celebrated the anniver- 

 sary of our leaving England, by taking a Cheshire 

 cheese from a locker, where it had been carefully 

 treasured up for this occasion, and tapping a cask of 

 porter, which proved to be very good, and in excel- 

 lent order. On the 29th, one of the sailors got so 

 drunk, that the next morning he died : we thought 

 at first that he could not have come honestly by the 

 liquor, but we afterwards learnt that the boatswain, 

 whose mate he was, had, in mere good-nature, given 

 him part of a bottle of rum. 



On the 30th, we saw the comet ; at one o'clock in 

 the morning, it was a little above the horizon in the 

 eastern part of the heavens ; at about half an hour 

 after four it passed the meridian, and its tail sub- 

 tended an angle of forty-two degrees. Our latitude 

 was 38° 20' S., our longitude, by log, 147° & W., and 

 the variation of the needle, by the azimuth, 7° 9' E. 

 Among others that observed the comet, was Tupia, 

 who instantly cried out, tliat as soon as it should 

 be seen by the people of Bolabola, they would kill 

 the inhabitants of Ulietea, who would, with the ut- 

 most precipitation, fly to the mountains. 



On the 1st of September, being in the latitude of 

 40° 22' S., and longitude 147° 29' W., and there not 

 being any signs of land, with a heavy sea from 



