480 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



name of New South Wales, with all its bays, rivers, harbors, and 

 islands. Three volleys of small-arms were then fired, and the 

 spot upon which the ceremony was performed was named Pos- 

 session Island. The ship passed out to the westward, finding 

 open sea to the north of New Holland, — a circumstance which 

 gave great satisfaction to all on board, as it showed that New 

 Holland and New Guinea were separate islands, and not, as had 

 been imagined, different parts of the supposed Southern conti- 

 nent. On Thursday, the 24th of August, the ship left New 

 Holland, steering towards the northwest, with the intention of 

 making the coast of New Guinea. 



Early in September they arrived among a group of islands 

 which they supposed to lie along the coast of New Guinea. As 

 they attempted to land, Indians rushed out of the thickets upon 

 them, with hideous shouts, one of them throwing something from 

 his hand which burned like gunpowder but made no report. 

 Their numbers soon increased, and they discharged these noise- 

 less flashes by four and five at a time. The smoke resembled 

 that of a musket ; and, as they held long hollow canes in their 

 hands, the illusion would have been perfect had the combustion 

 been accompanied by concussion. Those on board the ship were 

 convinced the natives possessed fire-arms, supposing that the 

 direction of the wind prevented the sound of the discharge from 

 reaching them. Cook determined to lose no time in this latitude, 

 having accomplished what he considered as of paramount import- 

 ance ; that is, he had sailed between the two lands of New Hol- 

 land and New Guinea, and had thus established their insular 

 character beyond any possibility of controversy. 



He now sailed to the west, and anchored, on the 8th of October, 

 at Batavia, in Java. H?re he laid up the ship for repairs. "What 

 anxieties we had escaped," he writes, "in our ignorance that a, 

 large portion of the keel had been diminished to the thickness 

 of the under leather of a shoe !" But the ship's company, 



