ii8 CAPTAIN COOK 



Cook had meant to explore Van Diemen's Land, 

 but as Captain Furneaux had partly done this, 

 he decided to sail eastward towards Tahiti. 



During the voyage twenty of the Adventure's 

 men were stricken with scurvy. The cook of 

 this vessel died. At the same time there was not 

 a single case of the complaint on board the Reso- 

 lution. Others manifesting symptoms later, the 

 evil was completely averted by malt, preserved 

 carrots and lemon and orange jelly. Cook at- 

 tributed the difference in the incidence of scurvy 

 in either ship partly to the fact that the men of 

 the Adventure had only eaten very few vegeta- 

 bles during their stay in New Zealand. The 

 sailors were not fond of the antiscorbutic herbs 

 and vegetables, such as celery, for example, but 

 Cook slowly accustomed them to this wholesome 

 diet. 



After having sighted a group of islands, which 

 he took to be those named by Bougainville the 

 Dangerous Archipelago, Cook arrived off Ta- 

 hiti on August 15th. He determined to anchor 

 in Oaiti-Piha Bay, close to the south-eastern end 

 of the island. The two ships found themselves 

 close to a bank of reefs, from which they only 

 escaped with great difficulty, and on August 

 17th they landed on the perfumed island, which, 

 even to a greater extent than New Zealand, 

 seemed a corner of paradise to men who had 

 come from the southern hell. 



