213 
A VOYAGE TO 
1777. we were equally in want of water ; and though the inha- 
* —.j bitants had told us, that there was water on their Aland, 
yet we neither knew in what quantity, nor from what dif- 
tance, we might be obliged to fetch it. And, after all, 
fuppoflng no other obftru£tion, we were fure, that to get 
over the reef, would be an operation equally difficult and 
tedious. 
Being thus difappointed at all the iflands we had met 
with, flnce our leaving New Zealand, and the unfavour¬ 
able winds, and other unforefeen circumftances, having 
unavoidably retarded our progrefs fo much, it was now 
impoffible to think of doing any thing this year, in the 
high latitudes of the Northern hemifphere, from which 
we were Hill at fo great a diftance, though the feafon for 
our operations there was already begun. In this fltuation, 
it w r as abfolutely neceffary to purfue fuch meafures as were 
rnoft likely to preferve the cattle we had on board, in the 
firft place; and, in the next place (which was hill a more 
capital object), to fave the ftores and provilions of the Blips, 
that we might be better enabled to profecute our Northern 
difcoveries, which could not now commence till a year 
later than v T as originally intended. 
If 1 had been fo fortunate as to have procured a fupply 
of water, and of grafs, at any of the iflands we had lately 
vifited, it was my purpofe to have hood back to the South, 
till I had met with a Wefterly wind. But the certain con- 
fequence of doing this, without fuch a fupply, would have 
been the lofs of all the cattle, before we could poffibly 
reach Otaheite, without gaining any one advantage, with 
regard to the great object of our voyage. 
I, therefore, determined to bear array for the Friendly 
Iflands, where I was fure of meeting with abundance of 
every 
