190 CAPTAIN COOK 



and since the object of the expedition was to 

 render that long detour unnecessary, Cook was 

 to endeavour to return to England by high 

 northern latitudes, between America and Asia. 

 Instead of seeking, as had always been done 

 hitherto, to sail from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 

 Captain Cook was to try to enter the Atlantic 

 from the Pacific. In order to carry out this 

 plan, he was to "enter the Pacific, explore the 

 chain of new islands which he had already seen 

 in the neighbourhood of the Tropic of Capri- 

 corn, cross the Equator into the northern part 

 of the ocean, and then follow the route which 

 appeared to him most convenient for fixing sev- 

 eral points useful geographically, for making 

 discoveries and to reach the vicinity where he 

 might think it possible to find a passage." 



On July 1 2th the Resolution and Discovery 

 left Plymouth Sound. Standing on deck. Cook 

 watched the coasts of England disappear. His 

 thoughts flew to his wife, his sons, his friends. 

 Little by little the land sank, until the shores of 

 his well-loved country were no more than a faint 

 line merging with the sky upon the horizon. 

 Cook kept his eyes upon them obstinately, as 

 though he knew, with a presentiment of fate, that 

 he would never see them again. 



