HISTORY OF DISCOVERY. 37 



this voyage to carry out the plan of sailing in the high 

 latitudes from west to east. The only navigator who 

 can be in a sense regarded as his predecessor was Abel 

 Tasman in the voyage which led to the discovery of 

 New Zealand. Cape Town, with its resources, seemed 

 to Cook the most favourably situated for completing- the 

 preparations for the long voyage through unknown seas, 

 and here he heard the news of the latest discoveries made 

 by the French (Marion and Crozet). On the 22nd of 

 November, 1772, the ships left the Cape and took a 

 course almost due south. Scarcely three weeks later, on 

 the 10th of December, in latitude 50° 40' S. and longi- 

 tude 20 E., the first ice came in sight, an iceberg with 

 the tabular form characteristic of the south polar waters, 

 and with vertical sides. The farther they penetrated 

 south the more numerous were the icebergs and the 

 more difficult the navigation, owing to the prevalence 

 of stormy weather and of sudden fog and mists. As 

 early as the 14th of December the vessels were checked in 

 their progress in latitude 54° 50' S. and longitude 21° 

 24' E., by a vast mass of drift-ice which compelled them 

 to steer to the S.E. After several futile attempts they 

 succeeded in going round the mass of pack-ice and drift- 

 ice, and having reached a latitude 58° S., Cook steered to 

 the west, constantly surrounded by field-ice and numerous 

 icebergs, though the ice was not so thick as to prevent 

 their forcing their way along. By degrees the field-ice 

 disappeared, and Cook rightly conjectured that the great 

 ice masses which had turned him from his course had 

 drifted to the north, and that therefore there was no land 

 of any extent between his present position — latitude 6o° 

 S. in round numbers — and the Cape. After he had 

 reached longitude 9 45' E. on the 2nd of January, 1773, 

 he again shaped his course towards the south-east, and 

 soon came in sight of fresh icebergs. 



On the 17th of January the south polar circle was 



