256 NEW ZEALAND TO AUSTRALIA CHAP, xi 



and September 1769, we met with signs of land, seaweed 

 and a seal, which, though both of them are often seen at 

 great distances from land, yet are not met with in open 

 oceans, and we were at that time too far from the coast of 

 New Zealand, and much too far from that of South America, 

 to have supposed them to have come from either of these. 

 The body of this land must, however, be situated in very 

 high latitudes ; a part of it may indeed come to the north- 

 ward, within our track ; but as we never saw any signs of 

 land except at the time mentioned above, although I made 

 it my particular business (as well as I believe did most of 

 us) to look out for such, it must be prodigiously smaller in 

 extent than the theoretical continent-makers have supposed 

 it to be. We have by our track proved the absolute falsity 

 of over three-fourths of their positions ; and the remaining 

 part cannot be much relied upon, but above all we have 

 taken from them their finest groundwork, in proving New 

 Zealand to be an island, which I believe was looked upon, 

 even by the most thoughtful people, to be in all probability 

 at least a part of some vast country. All this we have 

 taken from them : the land seen by Juan Fernandez, the 

 land seen by the Dutch squadron under L'Hermite, signs of a 

 continent seen by Quiros, and the same by Eoggeween, etc. 

 etc., have by us been proved not to be at all related to a 

 continent. As for their reasoning about the balancing of 

 the two poles, which always appeared to me to be a most 

 childish argument, we have already shorn off so much of 

 their supposed counterbalancing land, that by their own 

 account the south pole would already be too light, unless 

 what we have left should be made of very ponderous 

 materials. As much fault as I find with these gentlemen 

 will, however, probably recoil on myself, when I, on so light 

 grounds as those I have mentioned, again declare it to be 

 my opinion that a southern continent exists, an opinion in 

 favour of which I am strongly prepossessed. But foolish 

 and weak as all prepossessions must be thought, I would not 

 but declare myself so, lest I might be supposed to have 

 stronger reasons which I concealed. 



