176 CAPTAIN COOK 



ther to the South. It was, however, not for want 

 of inclination, but for other reasons. It would 

 have been rashness in me to have risqued all that 

 had been done during the voyage, in discovering 

 and exploring a coast, which, when discovered 

 and explored, would have answered no end what- 

 ever or have been of the least use, either to 

 navigation or geography, or indeed to any other 

 science." 



Cook therefore decided to change his course, 

 and he set sail for the parts where he might find 

 Bouvet's land, for which he had already searched 

 in vain at the beginning of his voyage. He dis- 

 covered nothing further to prove to him the 

 existence of Cape Circumcision. So, since the 

 vessel had sustained much damage, stores were 

 spoiling and provisions were getting low, Cook 

 decided to proceed homewards. 



On March 22nd he anchored in Table Bay. 

 He found there a letter from Captain Furneaux, 

 who had called there in the Adventure a year 

 previously, on his way to England. In this letter 

 Furneaux described to his chief what had hap- 

 pened since their separation, and informed him 

 that one of his lieutenants and nine of his men 

 had been massacred by the New Zealanders in 

 the course of an expedition undertaken while the 

 Adventure was lying in Queen Charlotte Sound. 



