64 SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
it may not seem so to him, and therefore altho’ I think the 
act, murder, I cannot deem him, absolutely, a murderer; 
or perhaps he may have repented : at the same time, if 
I thought I could obtain any information useful to the 
Public by associating with the Devil or Dr. Hawkesworth, 
I should have no scruples of conscience to be in their 
company, tho’ the one could not induce me wantonly to 
destroy my fellow-creatures, nor the other, by all his 
erudition and elocution, convince or persuade me that 
‘ in little more than seven years, Discoveries have been 
made far greater than those of all the navigators of the 
world collectively, from the expedition of Columbus to 
the present time/ ” 
While this unedifying strife was in progress the Ad- 
miralty had taken a shorter way to settle the question 
in dispute. Cook, whose only official reward had been 
the simple promotion to Commander, received at least 
“ the glory of going on.” He was appointed to com- 
mand a new expedition intended to solve the problem of 
the Southern Continent finally, and he had scarcely 
wound up the affairs of his first voyage before he was 
deep in the preparations for the second. These prepara- 
tions were of no ordinary kind. He had to procure 
ships, and arrange for their stores and provisioning. The 
latter was a matter to which he gave the minutest personal 
attention. In his previous voyage he had made success- 
ful experiments in the prevention of scurvy which in all 
earlier voyages of circumnavigation had played havoc 
with the crew. He determined to get rid of this bug-bear 
to exploration, and accordingly laid in quantities of pre- 
served vegetables, mostly in the form of pickles and 
“sour krout,” as well as malt and various extracts of 
herbs. The necessity of cleanliness was also present 
