NEW CALEDONIA AND THE RETURN 177 



After five weeks' rest at the Cape of Good 

 Hope, Cook left for England, and after an un- 

 eventful voyage landed at Portsmouth v^ith his 

 valiant companions on July 30th, 1775. 



He had been away three years and sixteen 

 days, and had explored twenty thousand leagues 

 of sea. Although he had experienced the great- 

 est extremes of climate and had sailed among the 

 ice of the south and the sun of the tropics, he had 

 only lost four men, of whom only one died of 

 disease. This, perhaps, was his greatest tri- 

 umph. 



Cook thus reviewed in his Journal the results 

 of his second voyage, "I had now made the cir- 

 cuit of the Southern Ocean in a high latitude, 

 and traversed it in such a manner as to leave not 

 the least room for the possibility of there being a 

 continent, unless near the pole, and out of the 

 reach of navigation. By twice visiting the 

 tropical sea, I had not only settled the situation 

 of some old discoveries, but made there many 

 new ones, and left, I conceive, very little more 

 to be done even in that part. Thus I flatter my- 

 self, that the intention of the voyage has, in every 

 respect, been fully answered; . . ." 



Captain Cook had once more deserved well of 

 his country. 



