FIRST VOYAGE 77 



five or six minutes at a time, and then threw themselves, 

 quite spent, on the deck. The succeeding man being 

 fatigued in his turn, threw himself down in the same manner, 

 while the former jumped up and renewed his labour ; thus 

 mutually struggling for life, till the following accident had 

 like to have given them up a prey to absolute despair. 



Between the inside lining of the ship's bottom, and the 

 outside planking, there is a space of about seventeen or 

 eighteen inches. The man who had hitherto taken the depth 

 of water at the well, had taken it no farther than the ceiling ; 

 but being now relieved by another person, who took the 

 depth to the outside planking, it appeared by this mistake 

 that the leak had suddenly gained upon the pumps, the 

 whole difference between the two plankings. This circum- 

 stance deprived them of all hopes, and scarce any one 

 thought it worth while to labour for the longer preservation 

 of a life which must so soon have a period. But the mis- 

 take was soon discovered ; and the joy arising from such 

 unexpected good news, inspired the men with so much 

 vigour, that before eight o'clock in the morning, they had 

 pumped out considerably more water than they had 

 shipped. They now talked confidently of getting the ship 

 into some harbour, and set heartily to work to get in their 

 anchors ; one of which, and the cable of another, they lost. 

 Having a good breeze from the sea, they got under sail at 

 eleven o'clock, and stood for the land.* 



* " Such are the vicissitudes attending this kind of service, and 

 must always attend an unknown navigation, was it not for the 

 pleasure which naturally results to a man from being the first dis- 

 coverer ; even was it nothing more than sand and shoals, this 

 service would be insupportable, especially in far distant parts like 

 this, short of provisions, and almost every other necessary. The 

 world will hardly admit of an excuse for a man leaving a coast 

 unexplored he has once discovered. If dangers are his excuse, he is 

 then charged with timorousness and want of perseverance, and at 

 once pronounced the unfittest man in the world to be employed as a 

 discoverer. If, on the other hand, he boldly encounters all the 

 dangers and obstacles he meets, and is unfortunate enough not to 

 succeed, he is then charged with timerity and want of conduct. 

 The former of these aspersions cannot with justice be laid to my 

 charge ; and if I am fortunate enough to surmount all the dangers 

 we may meet, the latter will never be brought in question. I must 

 own, I have engaged more among the islands and shoals upon this 

 coast than may be thought with prudence I ought to have done, 

 with a single ship, and everything considered ; but if I had not, we 

 should not have been able to give any better account of the one half 

 of it, than if we had never seen it ; that is, we should not have been 

 able to say whether it consisted of main land or islands ; and as to 

 its produce, we must have been totally ignorant of, as being 

 inseparable with the other." Extract Captain Cook's Journal, 

 Records, Admiralty, Whitehall. P. 291. 



