CHAPTER XXIV 



THE END OF TERRA AUSTRALIS 



AUTHORITIES : 



COOK'S Voyage towards the South Pole. 

 COOK'S Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. 

 FORSTER'S Voyage Round The World. 



I regret that in Australia we have not the material 

 for a thorough study of Cook's second and third voyages. 

 It seems that, after his return from the second voyage, 

 Cook himself wrote a narrative, based on his own Logs 

 and Journals, and on those of Furneaux, of the scientists, 

 and of other officers. These documents exist in London, 

 and have been used by Mr. Kitson, but they have never 

 been printed. What was printed was an edition of 

 Cook's narrative by the Rev._ John Douglas, Canon of 

 Windsor, and afterwards Bishop of Carlisle. I gather 

 that this deceitful clergyman also edited the narrative 

 of the third voyage, using the Logs and Journals as he 

 pleased. " Though," writes Mr. Kitson, " he does not 

 approach the absurdities of Hawkesworth, he has ' im- 

 proved ' Cook's manuscript to such an extent in many 

 places that passages are quite irreconcilable with the 

 original." I regret that I have had to use this un- 

 trustworthy edition. 



COOK had not discovered the Southern Continent, but Another 

 he had not proved that the Southern Continent did not 

 exist. Somewhere in the huge vacancy of the Endeavour's 

 zigzag a continent might lie hidden, rich and large, though 

 not so large as Quiros and Dalrymple had imagined. 

 Both Cook and Banks had urged another " voyage of 

 curiosity," to complete the discovery of the South Sea : 

 a voyage which should prove once for all whether a 

 continent did or did not exist, which should rediscover 



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