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THE POPULAR EDUOATOE. 



' giving way to Bleep, the forerunner of death. Having spent 

 several hours in great distress, and having witnessed two of 

 their servants sink under its power, the imprudent explorers 

 with much difficulty reached the coast. After this delay m the 

 Strait of Magellan, Cook stood out for Tahiti, where the astro- 

 nomical observations entrusted to the care of the expedition 

 were to be made. 



The natives of Tahiti welcomed this expedition in the same 

 way as they had done that under Bougainville, in a hospitable 

 and agreeable manner. During their three months' residence in 

 this island, Cook and his learned companions made an ample 

 collection of specimens of its natural history, and of observations 

 on the manners and customs of its natives. They then visited 

 eeveral other islands of the Tahitian group, and gave to the 

 whole archipelago the name of the Society Islands. They 

 explored New Zealand, and found the natives the very opposite 

 of the Tahitians in their disposition, both hostile and cruel. 

 They discovered that this country, supposed to have been a 

 angle island, consisted of two separate islands divided by a 



expedition proceeded directly southward ; but in latitude 67 

 13' S. it met with rocks which appeared to be impassable. No 

 attempt was made to get beyond this obstacle, and the expedi- 

 tion returned northward to the nearest cape, under the con- 

 viction that if any southern continent existed, it could only be 

 at a very great distance, and quite in the vicinity of the south 

 pole. The two vessels, which were separated from each other 

 among the ice, proceeded to New Zealand, where they again met. 

 After useless explorations to the east of this island, as far as 

 the 46th parallel of latitude, Captain Cook made for the 

 Society Islands, where he remained until the health of the expe- 

 dition was recruited. 



A second attempt to discover the southern continent soon 

 brought the expedition to latitude 71 S., but here again the 

 passage to the south was blocked up by ice, and it was obliged 

 to return northwards. In a new exploration of the seas of 

 Oceania, Captain Cook re-discovered Easter Island, which Com- 

 modore Byron, Carteret, and Bougainville had searched for in 

 vain; he also discovered some new islands belonging to the 



NEW ZEALANDEKS- 



CAPTAIN COOK. 



SIB JOSEPH BANKS. 



strait, which now bears the name of Cook ; but they durst not 

 examine the interior of the country, as it would have been too 

 dangerous to have ventured into the midst of a race of cannibals, 

 whose savage habits were very soon observed by the expedition. 

 Cook left the shores of New Zealand on the 31st of March, 1770, 

 and in twenty days afterwards beheld those of New Holland, or 

 Australia, where he discovered Botany Bay, an inlet on which 

 stands Sydney, the metropolis of our Australian colonies, and 

 one of tho most important of our colonial settlements. Pro- 

 ceeding northward, he was nearly shipwrecked in latitude 16 S. 

 by the vessel striking on a coral rock. The Endeavour was pro- 

 videntially saved, and enabled to reach a small harbour where 

 she was repaired, and put into a condition to resume her home- 

 ward voyage, which she completed without meeting any further 

 disaster. 



The second voyage of Captain Cook, undertaken in July, 1772, 

 tad for its object the discovery of that great southern land 

 which had been for ages supposed by navigators and geographers 

 bo exist in the southern part of the Great Pacific Ocean, and 

 which Abel Tasman fancied he had seen when he landed on 

 New Zealand. Two vessels called the Resolution and the 

 Adventure were put under the command of Captain Cook. The 



Marquesas group, returned to Tahiti, and re-visited Tongataboo 

 and the Friendly Islands, where he discovered Savage Island, 

 and Batoa or Turtle Island, belonging to the group of the 

 Feejee Islands ; he then re-established several points of New 

 Guinea, and discovered Tanna, Erromango, and several other 

 islands of the group called the New Hebrides, as well as New 

 Caledonia and Norfolk Island. The point of departure for a third 

 exploration of the Antarctic or Southern Seas was New Zealand, 

 Captain Cook endeavoured to reach the south pole in a more 

 easterly direction than formerly. Having arrived at latitude 

 55 48' S., he sailed towards Cape Horn, and continued his 

 route towards the east. In this route he discovered the island 

 of South Georgia, to the east of Tierra del Fuego ; and south, 

 east of the former a group of islands which he called Sandwich 

 Land. Here he terminated his voyage toward the southern 

 circumpolar regions. He had circumnavigated the globe in high 

 southern latitudes, and had demonstrated that no southern con- 

 tinent existed in the immenso zone which he had explored. The 

 hypothesis of its existence was thrown many degrees nearer the 

 south pole ; and the illusion of this problematic continent, so 

 richly endowed by nature, was dissipated for ever ! 



In this remarkable expedition Captain Cook was absent from 





