VOYAGE OF THE ENDEAVOUR 405 



Bay which was called Admiralty Bay. Cook noticed another 

 Bay to his Westward which he did not explore. He called 

 it Blind Bay, and believed that it was Tasman's Murderers' 

 Bay. And he was nearly right. Murderers' Bay is a 

 small Bay in the North-West of Cook's Blind Bay. 



The search for Dalrymple's continent had come to an Cook plans 

 end. Cook had sailed over it East. North, and West. another 



voyage to 



He had met with no land, and " no visible signs of land." complete 



He had seen flocks of birds and plenty of seaweed. But the search - 



the birds were of the sort that fly far. And who knows 



how far seaweed may drive to sea ? Beans, that grow 



nowhere save in the West Indies, are yearly thrown on the 



coasts of Ireland and Scotland, twelve thousand leagues 



away. Had such things been found floating in the South 



Sea, geographers would have concluded that land was 



hardly out of sight, " so apt are we to catch at everything 



that may point out to us the favourite object we are in 



pursuit of." Cook believed he had proved that " there 



is left But a small space to the Northward of 40 wh,ere 



the grand object can lay," i.e. the triangle to the South- 



East of the Society Islands. South of 40, however, there 



remained plenty of space still unexplored, and Cook 



was very eager to explore it. " To return by the way 



of Cape Horn was what I most wished, because by this 



route we should have been able to prove the existence 



or non-existence of a Southern continent, which yet remains 



doubtful ; but, in order to ascertain this, we must have 



kept in a higher Latitude, in the very depth of winter, 



but the condition of the ship was not thought sufficient 



for such an undertaking." He suggests that one more 



voyage might now suffice to clear up " this thing which 



has been the object of many ages and nations." The 



best plan would be that the ship should call at the Cape, 



thence proceed to Queen Charlotte Sound, leave that 



place by the end of September, " when you will have 



all the summer before you," and run to the Eastward 



in as high a latitude as you please, and then either return 



home by Cape Horn, or haul to the Northward, visit 



the lands already known, or seek to rediscover those 



