74 SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
with the visionary continent of Quiros and Dalrymple, 
but no land of any kind was sighted. 
Toward the end of August the two ships cast anchor 
in Matavai Bay, in the sailor's paradise Tahiti, and there 
the life for a few brief weeks would have justified the 
sternest moral censure of Dalrymple. The men had 
worked hard and endured much, and sailors have always 
had large license in the manner of their “ refreshment.” 
Forster, with his usual spitefulness, observed that the 
scenes of debauchery on board the ships at Tahiti almost 
made him believe they were in Spithead. This brief in- 
terlude over, the stern discipline which Cook always ex- 
ercised when at sea was again imposed and the ships re- 
turned toward New Zealand. The Adventure was lost 
sight of and not seen again until the return to England, 
but the Resolution arrived at Queen Charlotte Sound 
on November 3d, 1773, and after catching and salting a 
quantity of fish, and gathering every green thing which by 
any possibility could be eaten to keep away scurvy they 
sailed for the frozen seas on the 26th. 
The 60th parallel was crossed in 177 0 W., whence a 
course was held to the southeast and the first ice met with 
on December 12th in 62° 10' S., and 172 0 W., much far- 
ther south than was the case a year earlier to the south of 
the Cape of Good Hope. The ice, once met with, soon in- 
creased in quantity and on the 15th it was necessary to 
turn northward, but on the 20th the Antarctic circle was 
reached in 147 0 30' W., and for three days the Resolution 
pushed her way eastward within the circle, reaching 
the farthest latitude of 67° 31' S. on December 22nd. On 
the 23rd it was found necessary on account of the exhaus- 
tion of the officers and men and the continued bad 
weather to stand northward again in 135 0 W., after mak- 
