COOK'S VOYAGES. 489 



frequently washed, and in rainy weather fire often made between 

 decks, to dispel unwholesome damps and effluvia. 



He now sailed to the south far into a desert and unknown 

 sea, crossed it in various directions, and after having spent 117 

 days on the ocean, mostly among floating ice-fields, and without 

 having once seen land, he steered northwards to the well-known 

 coast of New Zealand, where on the 25th of January, 1773, he 

 cast anchor in Dusky Bay. The feelings of the seaman may be 

 imagined, when, after long wanderings over the waste of waters, 

 he sees land, mountains, forests, and green plains rise above the 

 horizon, when singing-birds take the place of the wild sea-mew, 

 and friendly faces greet him on the strand. A beneficent 

 mind is ever anxious to do good, and thus before sailing 

 farther on to Otaheite, Cook caused a little garden to be 

 planted, in which European vegetable seeds were sown and con- 

 fided with proper instructions to the care of the intelligent 

 savages, who were moreover presented with goats and pigs. 



On the return voyage from Tahiti to New Zealand, -where he 

 intended to provide himself with fire-wood and provisions, 

 before advancing once more into the high southern latitudes, he 

 was pleased with the discovery of the small but lovely Harvey 

 Islands, whose green girdle of cocoa-nut palms mirrors itself in 

 the dark blue waters. 



And now again he cruised in all directions through the icy 

 sea, over an extent of 65° of longitude and as far as the 71st 

 degree of southern latitude, without having seen any land ; and 

 having thus satisfied himself of the non-existence of a southern 

 continent, or at least of its circumscription within bounds which 

 must ever render it perfectly useless to man, he left those dreary 

 regions of eternal winter, to continue his discoveries under a less 

 inclement sky. 



He first visited Easter Island and the Marquesas, where a new 

 discovery received the name of Hood's Island, and on the way 

 thence to Tahiti added the Palisser Group to the map of the 

 world. We now follow him to the extensive archipelago of 

 Espiritu Santo, first seen by Quiros in 1606, who .took it for a 

 part of the imaginary southern continent. Since then it had 

 only been visited by Bougainville (1768), who however had 

 contented himself with landing on the Isle of Lepers, and ascer- 

 taining the fact that it did not form part of a continent but 



