, 4 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED, 



hills now called Moreton Island, and rounding a low spit, which he named Cape 

 Moreton, he descried a broad and shallow inlet, which was set down on the chart as 

 Moreton Bay. A somewhat similar opening was discovered further north, and called 

 Hervey's Bay, though it was in reality a strait ; and soon after he crossed the tropic 

 of Capricorn, and reached the latitude of the Great Barrier Reef, a natural outwork of 

 coral, which fringes the coast of Queensland for nearly a thousand miles. The shores 

 now seemed low and swampy, and fringed with mangroves, but inland there rose 

 picturesque hills, on which the cabbage-tree palm could frequently be discerned. 



At Keppel Bay, Cook, Banks and Solander again landed, and had a long and 

 fatiguing, but highly interesting excursion inland. Large hills built by white ants, myriad 

 (lights of gay butterflies, singular fish that had the power to leap from stone to stone 

 on the dry land, hitherto unknown plants and some very beautiful birds were observed, 

 but they could see nothing of the natives, nor could they find any fresh water. On 

 setting sail again, and still steering to the northward, the Endeavour skirted a shore 

 consisting of pleasant meadow -like land, backed by timbered hills, while to the seaward 

 could be seen the foam-flecked lines of the Barrier Reef, over which the sea broke and 

 made smooth water between it and the shore ; but dangerous indeed to navigation on 

 account of the constant succession of rocks rising near to the surface, and in some 

 places above it. Cook had so far navigated his vessel in perfect safety along thirteen 

 hundred miles of a totally unknown coast, probably never before sighted by Europeans ; 

 but here, off a rocky point which he called from the circumstance Cape Tribulation, he 

 met with what was fortunately his first, although not his most serious disaster. 



It was ten o'clock on a fine moonlight night, all seemed well, the vessel was in 

 water twenty fathoms deep, and Cook had retired to rest, when, without a moment's 

 warning, a crash resounded throughout the ship, a shudder was felt pulsating through her 

 timbers, she heeled over, quivered like a living thing from stem to stern then log-like 

 she lay, immovable, hard jammed upon a reef. At once all was bustle, all hands were 

 hastily summoned to quarters, sails were shortened, boats launched, kedges dropped, 

 capstans manned, and every effort made to ease the vessel off but in vain. As the 

 wind freshened, the ship began to rise slowly on the crest of the waves, and to bump 

 heavily in the trough the copper-sheathing was stripping, and large pieces of false keel 

 came swirling to the surface. As the tide receded she settled down in a hollow between 

 two jutting points of coral. The only chance of release was by lightening the ship, and 

 preparing her for floating off when the tide should again rise. To this end six guns, 

 a quantity of chain cable, decayed stores, casks, and so forth, were thrown overboard. 

 The pumps were kept at work all night, discipline prevailed, for all were impressed with 

 the imminence of their fate, but day dawned with painful slowness, only to show 

 them the nearest point of land nearly four and twenty miles away. 



At noon the sea fell to almost a perfect calm, but the tide did not rise high 

 enough to float the ship. It was therefore necessary to wait until midnight, keeping the 

 pumps hard at work the whole time. At nine o'clock in the evening the vessel suddenly 

 righted with a lurch that sent everybody staggering; but so great was the body of water 

 which had gained on the pumps that Cook feared she would inevitably founder as soon 



she lifted off the rocks. The critical moment came at twenty minutes past ten, 



