SIR JOSEPH BANKS. 355 



point of giving it up in despair when one of the midship- 

 men suggested the having recourse to an expedient which 

 he had seen practised on a voyage to America, called 

 fathering. It consists in drawing under the ship's 

 bottom a sail in which there are stitched down oakum, 

 flax, dung, and other thick and light substances. The 

 motion of the leak draws in the sail with its stuff, and 

 thus stops or lessens the leak. He represented this 

 process as having proved so successful when he saw it 

 tried, that the vessel was allowed to make her homeward 

 voyage without further repair. Happily, being now tried, 

 it succeeded to a wish, and enabled a single pump to keep 

 the leak under. 



They proceeded on their voyage till a river was dis- 

 covered in which they could give the ship (whose name 

 it now bears,) the necessary repairs. But upon laying her 

 down and examining her bottom, they found to what a 

 singular circumstance they owed their providential escape. 

 A large fragment of the coral had forced its way through 

 the timber, and was found sticking in the leak so as in a 

 great measure to stop it, otherwise the size of the aper- 

 ture was such that it must have at once sent the vessel 

 to the bottom. The boats being wholly insufficient to 

 save the crew, it may easily be conceived with what feel- 

 ings all regarded this most extraordinary escape. Cap- 

 tain Cook, in his account of the voyage, gives high praise 

 to all, (he mentions Mr. Banks and his party expressly,) 

 for their cool and orderly conduct, and their firm and 

 active exertions during this perilous crisis. 



A new calamity, however, now appeared to sadden 

 them, when the joy had scarcely subsided to which their 

 merciful escape gave rise. The scurvy began to make its 



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