But, As This Had No Effect On My
Conduct, This Obstinate Kind Of Prejudice By Little And Little Wore Off;
They began to like it as well as the others; and now, I believe, there was
hardly a man in
The ship that did not attribute our being so free from the
scurvy, to the beer and vegetables we made use of at New Zealand. After
this I seldom found it necessary to order any of my people to gather
vegetables, whenever we came where any were to be got, and if scarce, happy
was he who could lay hold on them first. I appointed one of my seamen to be
cook of the Adventure, and wrote to Captain Furneaux, desiring him to make
use of every method in his power to stop the spreading of the disease
amongst his people, and proposing such as I thought might tend towards it.
But I afterwards found all this unnecessary, as every method had been used
they could think of.[6]
The wind continued in the N.W. quarter, and blew fresh at times, attended
with rain; with which we stood to the N.E. On the 1st of August, at noon,
we were in the latitude of 25 deg. 1', longitude 134 deg. 6' W., and had a great
hollow swell from N.W. The situation we were now in, was nearly the same
that Captain Carteret assigns for Pitcairn's Island, discovered by him in
1767. We therefore looked well out for it, but saw nothing. According to
the longitude in which he has placed it, we must have passed about fifteen
leagues to the west of it. But as this was uncertain, I did not think it
prudent, considering the situation of the Adventure's people, to lose any
time in looking for it. A sight of it would, however, have been of use in
verifying, or correcting, not only the longitude of this isle, but of the
others that Captain Carteret discovered in this neighbourhood; his
longitude not being confirmed, I think, by astronomical observations, and
therefore liable to errors, which he could have no method to correct.
As we had now got to the northward of Captain Carteret's tracks, all hopes
of discovering a continent vanished. Islands were all we were to expect to
find, until we returned again to the south. I had now, that is on this and
my former voyage, crossed this ocean in the latitude of 40 deg. and upwards,
without meeting any thing that in the least induced me to think I should
find what I was in search after. On the contrary, every thing conspired to
make me believe there is no southern continent, between the meridian of
America and New Zealand; at least, this passage did not produce any
indubitable signs of any, as will appear by the following remarks. After
leaving the coasts of New Zealand, we daily saw floating on the sea rock-
weed, for the space of 18 deg. of longitude. In my passage to New Zealand in
1769, we also saw this weed, for the space of 12 or 14 deg. of longitude before
we made the land. The weed is undoubtedly the produce of New Zealand;
because the nearer the coast, the greater quantity you see. At the greatest
distance from the coast, we saw it only in small pieces, generally more
rotten, and covered with barnacles, an indubitable sign that it had been
long at sea. Were it not for this, one might be led to conjecture that some
other large land lay in the neighbourhood; for it cannot be a small extent
of coast to produce such a quantity of weed, as to cover so large a space
of sea. It hath been already mentioned, that we were no sooner clear of the
straits, than we met with a large hollow swell from the S.E., which
continued till we arrived in the longitude of 177 deg. W., and latitude 46 deg..
There we had large billows from the N. and N.E., for five days
successively, and until we got 5 deg. of longitude more to the east, although
the wind, great part of the time, blew from different directions. This was
a strong indication that there was no land between us and my track to the
west in 1769. After this, we had, as is usual in all great oceans, large
billows from every direction in which the wind blew a fresh gale, but more
especially from the S.W. These billows never ceased with the cause that
first put them in motion; a sure indication that we were not near any large
land, and that there is no continent to the south, unless in a very high
latitude. But this was too important a point to be left to opinions and
conjectures. Facts were to determine it, and these could only be obtained
by visiting the southern parts; which was to be the work of the ensuing
summer, agreeable to the plan I had laid down. As the winds continued to
blow from the N.W. and W., we had no other choice but to stand to the
north, inclining more or less every day to the east. In the latitude of 21 deg.
we saw flying-fish, gannets, and egg-birds. On the sixth, I hoisted a boat
out, and sent for Captain Furneaux to dinner, from whom I learnt that his
people were much better, the flux having left them, and the scurvy was at a
stand. Some cyder which he happened to have, and which he gave to the
scorbutic people, contributed not a little to this happy change. The
weather to-day was cloudy, and the wind very unsettled. This seemed to
announce the approach of the so-much-wished-for trade-wind; which, at eight
o'clock in the evening, after two hours calm, and some heavy showers of
rain, we actually got at S.E. We were, at this time, in the latitude of 19 deg.
36' S., longitude 131 deg.
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