NEW CALEDONIA AND THE RETURN i6g 



Farther off, however, the country seemed to be 

 sterile and deserted. 



The natives, robust and well-made, welcomed 

 the newcomers with demonstrations of joy. They 

 were the first Europeans they had seen. The 

 women were amiable, pleasing, and of a modesty 

 rare in the Pacific islands. Cook was greatly 

 pleased with the perfect honesty and extreme 

 willingness of this people. Not being able to 

 learn the native name of the island he had dis- 

 covered, he called it New Caledonia. 



Wishing to explore the coast, he did not stop in 

 this alluring place, from which the astronomer 

 Wales observed an eclipse of the sun, and steered 

 southwards along the shore. Reefs rendered 

 navigation very dangerous in this vicinity, and 

 the ship only escaped, to use Cook's expression, 

 "by a miracle of Providence." 



He was obliged to give up trying to sail round 

 the island, especially as the southern summer was 

 approaching and a vast stretch of ocean re- 

 mained for him to explore before taking the 

 homeward route. 



He resumed his course towards New Zealand, 

 not without enriching the chart of the Pacific 

 with several new islands. He was able to judge 

 the extent of New Caledonia, which he found to 

 be the biggest island in this ocean, after New 



