196 CAPTAIN COOK 



On December 27th Cook granted his men a 

 day of rest so that they might worthily celebrate 

 the feast of Christmas. Several landed to ex- 

 plore the desolate island, and one of these 

 brought the Captain a little bottle he had found 

 hung to a rock by a piece of iron wire. 



This bottle contained a piece of parchment 

 bearing the following inscription: 



LuDOvico XV Galliarum 

 Rege et D. de Boynes 

 Regi a Secretis ad Res 



MARITIMAS ANNIS 1772 ET 1 773. 



At the back of this parchment, which proved 

 that the French had been the first to land in the 

 harbour. Cook, in order to leave a record of his 

 visit, wrote these words 



Naves Resolution et 



Discovery 



De Rege Magn.« Britannia 



Decembris 1776. 



He then replaced the parchment in the bottle, 

 with a silver twopenny piece struck in 1772. 

 Having covered the neck with lead, he placed 

 the bottle next day on the top of a cairn which 

 he erected for this purpose on a little hill, and so 



