36 THE ANTARCTIC. 



Newfoundland. Cook left England with the Endeavour 

 in the summer of 1768, having three eminent scientists 

 on board. Passing through the Straits of Le Maire, 

 and round Cape Horn, he at once made for Tahiti in 

 order to fulfil his first and principal task. Having ac- 

 complished this, he undertook a voyage of discovery 

 to the practically unknown waters south of latitude 15 

 S., and east of New Zealand. He first discovered 

 several island groups, and attained to a latitude of 40° 

 22' S. on the meridian 174° 29' E. without a trace of land 

 far and wide. Then he shaped his course for New 

 Zealand, which he completely circumnavigated, and 

 verified not only as an island that was disconnected 

 with a continent, but as really consisting of two islands. 

 After laying all this down with the greatest accuracy, 

 he turned to New Holland, laying down the east coast 

 and Torres Straits (the first discovery by Torres had 

 remained entirely unknown). Thus he gave the true 

 outlines of the island continent which subsequently 

 received the name of Austral Land, or Australia. 



The remarkable results of Cook's first circumnaviga- 

 tion of the world determined the English Government to 

 send him out in charge of a second expedition, larger and 

 still more completely equipped. His task was to be the 

 solution of the problem concerning the extent of the south- 

 ern continent so emphatically insisted upon by the French 

 navigators ; indeed, Cook's achievement in sailing round 

 New Zealand had already gone far towards disproving 

 the extent attributed to it. He was this time placed in 

 command of two vessels, the Adventure under Four- 

 neaux' command and the Resolution under his own. The 

 astronomers Wales and Bayley accompanied them, as 

 well as the German naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster 

 and his son George. At Cape Town the party was in- 

 creased by the Swede Sparrmann. Cook made for Cape 

 Town in the first instance, because he had determined on* 



