MAR. 1770 SUPPOSED SOUTHERN CONTINENT 255 
sails and rigging, with which, the former especially, we were 
at first but ill provided, were rendered so bad by the blow- 
ing weather that we had met with off New Zealand that we 
were by no means in a condition to weather the hard gales 
which must be expected in a winter passage through high 
latitudes. The second was to steer to the southward of Van 
Diemen’s Land and stand away directly for the Cape of Good 
Hope, but this was likewise immediately rejected. If we 
were in too bad a condition for the former, we were in too 
good a one for this; six months’ provision was much more 
than enough to carry us to any port in the East Indies, and 
the overplus was not to be thrown away in a sea where so 
few navigators had been before us. The third, therefore, 
was unanimously agreed to, which was to stand immediately 
to the westward, fall in with the coast of New Holland as 
soon as possible, and after following that to the northward 
as far as seemed proper, to attempt to fall in with the lands 
seen by Quiros in 1606. In doing this we hoped to make 
discoveries more interesting to trade at least than any we 
had yet made. We were obliged certainly to give up our 
first grand object, the southern continent; this for my own 
part I confess I could not do without much regret. 
That a southern continent really exists I firmly believe ; 
but if asked why I believe so, I confess my reasons aie 
weak: yet I have a prepossession in favour of the fact which 
I find it difficult to account for. Ice in large bodies has 
been seen off Cape Horn now and then. Sharp saw it, as did 
Frézier on his return from the coast of Chili in the month 
of March 1714: he also mentions that it has been seen by 
other French ships in the same place. If this ice (as is 
generally believed) is formed by fresh water only, there must 
be land to the southward, for the coast of Terra del Fuego 
is by no means cold enough to produce such an effect. I 
should be inclined to think also that it lies away to the 
westward, as the west and south-west winds so generally 
prevail, that the ice must be supposed to have followed the 
direction of these winds, and consequently have come from 
these points. When we sailed to the southward, in August 
