VOYAGE OF THE ENDEAVOUR 401 



visible signs of land," and the most that Banks could see 

 were some seaweed and a seal, which he thought might 

 signify something. Cook had intended to sail even further 

 Southward, but the weather grew so tempestuous that 

 he thought it wise to abandon the plan, and to sail North- 

 ward into better climate. He admits that his search 

 for " the land seen by Quiros " was not exhaustive. It 

 might conceivably exist in the angle to the South-East 

 of Tahiti that was still unexplored. But Cook knew 

 of no better argument for its existence there than the fact 

 that it did not exist elsewhere. He agreed with Bougain- 

 ville's criticism of the historical evidence on which the 

 geographers had built their huge structure. Dalrymple 

 said that Quiros saw to the Southward very large hanging 

 clouds, and a very thick horizon, with other known signs 

 of a continent. " Other accounts of their voyage," writes 

 Cook, "say not a word about this; but, supposing this 

 to be true, hanging clouds and a thick horizon are certainly 

 no sign of a continent. ... I have had many proofs to the 

 contrary in the course of this voyage." 



It remained to explore New Zealand, 1 with a view Were 

 especially to testing the theory that had been suggested by t if r s e mar 

 Tasman, and was believed by Dalrymple and " most guesses 

 thoughtful people " (says Banks), that it was the Western Zealand^ 

 coast of the Unknown Continent. They had in their library correct ? 

 " a short extract of Tasman's Journal," and they heartily 

 wished that they had the whole Journal. They knew that 

 Tasman had raised three questions, w r hich still remained 

 unsolved. Firstly, he had called the land which he had 

 discovered Staten Land, believing that it was continuous 

 with the Staten Land which Le Maire had seen Eastward 

 of Tierra del Fuego. Long ago it had been proved that 

 Le Maire's Staten Land was a small island. But it still 

 remained possible that Tasman's Staten Land was part of 

 a continent. Secondly, cruising in the neighbourhood 

 of " Murderers' Bay," he had noticed currents which had 



1 Cook, p. 214, wrongly says that the name New Zealand was given 

 by Tasman. The name given by Tasman was Staten Land. It was 

 changed to Nova Zeelandia, however, before 1657. See p. 278, note, 

 W.A. 2 C 



