CHAPTER XLIV. 



COOK'S SECOND VOYAGE — A STORM — SEPARATION OF THE SHIPS — AURORA AUS- 

 TRALIS — NEW ZEALAND — SIX WATER-SPOUTS AT ONCE — TAHITI AGAIN — PETTY 



THEFTS OF THE NATIVES — COOK VISITS THE TAHITIAN THEATRE — OMAI 



ARRIVAL AT THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS THE FLEET AVITNESS A FEAST OF HUMAN 



FLESH — THE NEW HEBRIDES — NEW CALEDONIA — RETURN HOME — HONORS BE- 

 STOWED UPON COOK. 



The English Government now determined to despatch an expe- 

 dition in search of the supposed Southern or Austral continent. 

 A Frenchman, by the name of Benoit, had seen in 1709, to the 

 south of the Cape of Good Hope, in latitude 54° and in longi- 

 tude 11° East, what he believed to be land, naming it Cape Cir- 

 cumcision. Cook was placed in command of the Resolution and 

 Adventure, and instructed to endeavor to find this cape and 

 satisfy himself whether it formed part of the great continent in 

 question. He left Plymouth on the 13th of July, 1772, and the 

 Cape of Good Hope on the 22d of November. 



A terrific gale soon drove bojh vessels from their course, 

 washed overboard their live-stock, and well-nigh disabled the Reso- 

 lution. The cold increased suddenly, and drawers and fearnaughts 

 were served in abundance to the crew. Immense ice-islands now 

 occupied the horizon, and the sea, dashing over them to the height 

 of sixty feet, filled the air with its ceaseless roar. On Sunday, 

 the 13th of December, they were in the latitude of Cape Circum- 

 cision, but ten degrees cast of it. For weeks they kept in 

 high Southern latitudes, now menaced by towering peaks of ice, 

 now enclosed by immense fields and floating masses, till, towards 

 the 1st of February, 1773, Cook came to the unwelcome conclu- 

 sion that the cape discovered by Benoit was nothing more than 

 a huge tract of ice, which, being chained to no anchorage and 

 subject to no latitude, he had no reason to expect to find in the 

 'spot where the credulous Frenchman had discovered it sixty 

 years before. 



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