MAR. 1770 SUPPOSED SOUTHERN CONTINENT 255 



sails and rigging, with which, the former especially, we were 

 at first but ill provided, were rendered so bad by the blow- 

 ing weather that we had met with off New Zealand that we 

 were by no means in a condition to weather the hard gales 

 which must be expected in a winter passage through high 

 latitudes. The second was to steer to the southward of Van 

 Diemen's Land and stand away directly for the Cape of Good 

 Hope, but this was likewise immediately rejected. If we 

 were in too bad a condition for the former, we were in too 

 good a one for this ; six months' provision was much more 

 than enough to carry us to any port in the East Indies, and 

 the overplus was not to be thrown away in a sea where so 

 few navigators had been before us. The third, therefore, 

 was unanimously agreed to, which was to stand immediately 

 to the westward, fall in with the coast of New Holland as 

 soon as possible, and after following that to the northward 

 as far as seemed proper, to attempt to fall in with the lands 

 seen by Quiros in 1606. In doing this we hoped to make 

 discoveries more interesting to trade at least than any we 

 had yet made. We were obliged certainly to give up our 

 first grand object, the southern continent ; this for my own 

 part I confess I could not do without much regret. 



That a southern continent really exists I firmly believe ; 

 but if asked why I believe so, I confess my reasons are 

 weak : yet I have a prepossession in favour of the fact which 

 I find it difficult to account for. Ice in large bodies has 

 been seen off Cape Horn now and then. Sharp saw it, as did 

 Frezier on his return from the coast of Chili in the month 

 of March 1714: he also mentions that it has been seen by 

 other French ships in the same place. If this ice (as is 

 generally believed) is formed by fresh water only, there must 

 be land to the southward, for the coast of Terra del Fuego 

 is by no means cold enough to produce such an effect. I 

 should be inclined to think also that it lies away to the 

 westward, as the west and south-west winds so generally 

 prevail, that the ice must be supposed to have followed the 

 direction of these winds, and consequently have come from 

 these points. When we sailed to the southward, in August 



