I Was Also
Directed To Observe The Genius, Temper, Disposition, And Number Of The
Inhabitants, If There Were Any, And
Endeavour, by all proper means, to
cultivate a friendship and alliance with them; making them presents of such
things as
They might value; inviting them to traffic, and shewing them
every kind of civility and regard. I was to continue to employ myself on
this service, and making discoveries either to the eastward or westward, as
my situation might render most eligible; keeping in as high a latitude as I
could, and prosecuting my discoveries as near to the South Pole as
possible, so long as the condition of the ships, the health of their crews,
and the state of their provisions, would admit of; taking care to reserve
as much of the latter as would enable me to reach some known port, where I
was to procure a sufficiency to bring me home to England. But if Cape
Circumcision should prove to be part of an island only, or if I should not
be able to find the said Cape, I was in the first case to make the
necessary survey of the island, and then to stand on to the southward, so
long as I judged there was a likelihood of falling in with the continent,
which I was also to do in the latter case, and then to proceed to the
eastward in further search of the said continent, as well as to make
discoveries of such islands as might be situated in that unexplored part of
the southern hemisphere; keeping in high latitudes, and prosecuting my
discoveries, as above mentioned, as near the pole as possible until I had
circumnavigated the globe; after which I was to proceed to the Cape of Good
Hope, and from thence to Spithead.
In the prosecution of these discoveries, wherever the season of the year
rendered it unsafe for me to continue in high latitudes, I was to retire to
some known place to the northward, to refresh my people, and refit the
ships; and to return again to the southward as soon as the season of the
year would admit of it. In all unforeseen cases, I was authorised to
proceed according to my own discretion; and in case the Resolution should
be lost or disabled, I was to prosecute the voyage on board the Adventure.
I gave a copy of these instructions to Captain Furneaux, with an order
directing him to carry them into execution; and, in case he was separated
from me, appointed the island of Madeira for the first place of rendezvous;
Port Praya in the island of St Jago for the second; Cape of Good Hope for
the third; and New Zealand for the fourth.
During our stay at Plymouth, Messrs Wales and Bayley, the two astronomers,
made observations on Drake's Island, in order to ascertain the latitude,
longitude, and true time for putting the time-pieces and watches in motion.
The latitude was found to be 50 deg.
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