END OF TERRA AUSTRALIS 471 



He retained his kindly view of the Maori character ; Humane 

 " notwithstanding they are cannibals," he remarks quaintly ' 

 and truthfully, " they are naturally of a good disposition, 

 and have not a little humanity." Even later, when news 

 of the massacre of the Adventure's men had been followed 

 by news of the massacre of Captain Marion and his French- 

 men, Cook, after mentioning the facts, could add : 

 " nevertheless I think them a good sort of people ; at least 

 I have always found good treatment from them." Surely 

 never was man better able than Cook to distinguish between 

 essential and irremediable bad nature and a troublesome 

 but passing phase of Toryism in a noble character. 



He left New Zealand in November 1774, and now made Cape Horn, 

 the voyage thence to Cape Horn, which he had desired 

 to make in the Endeavour in 1770. " I have now done 

 with the South Pacific," he wrote, " and flatter myself 

 that no one will think I have left it unexplored, or that 

 more could have been done." Passing Cape Horn, he 

 sought to explore the " extensive coast " laid down by 

 Dalrymple in the South Atlantic. He discovered only 

 an island which had been discovered two and a half 

 centuries before by Amerigo Vespucci l and named 

 it South Georgia. It was midsummer, and the island South 

 was no further South than 54 or 55, yet it was wholly 

 covered with snow ; a fact that made Cook reflect that 

 perhaps after all he had been mistaken about Bouvet's 

 Cape of Circumcision. Cook's thought, when he failed 

 to discover that cape, had been that Bouvet had seen 

 an iceberg, and had imagined it to be an island. In view 

 of snow-covered South Georgia, Cook now thought that 

 perhaps Bouvet had discovered an island, and that he 

 (Cook) had imagined the island to be an iceberg. If one 

 looks at a modern photograph of Bouvet Island, one realizes 

 that Cook's second thought was likely enough to be true ; 

 the island, even at photographic distance, looks more like 

 an iceberg. 2 Cook, therefore, would have liked to search 

 once more for " Cape Circumscission " ; but the ship 



1 See Fiske's Discovery of America, vol. ii. p. 104. 



2 Mills' Siege of the South Pole, p. 404. 



