First Voyage Round the World | Page 7

This was generally designated Terra Australis
Incognita, and many is the ancient chart that shows it, sketched with a
free and uncontrolled hand, around the South Pole. It was held by many
that Tasman had touched it in New Zealand; that Quiros had seen it
near his island of Encarnacion, and again at Espiritu Santo (New
Hebrides), but no one had been to see.
In George III's reign the desire to know more of this unknown ocean
arose in England. The king himself took great interest in it, and for the
first time since Queen Elizabeth's age, when Davis, Frobisher, Drake,
Narborough, and others, had gone on voyages of discovery, the pursuit
was renewed.
In 1764 the Dolphin and Tamor, under the command of Commodore
Byron and Captain Mouat, sailed on a voyage round the world. They
spent some time, as ordered, in exploring the Falkland Islands, and,
after a two months' passage through Magellan Strait, they stood across
the Pacific. They, however, also followed near the well-beaten track,
and passing north of the Paumotus, of which they sighted a few small
islands, they too made for the Ladrones. As usual, they suffered much
from scurvy, and the one idea was to get to a known place to recover.
Byron returned in May 1766, having added but little to the knowledge
of the Pacific, and the Dolphin was again sent in the August of the
same year, with the Swallow, under the command of Captains Wallis
and Carteret, on a similar voyage.
They did somewhat better. After the usual struggle through the long
and narrow Strait of Magellan, against the strong and contrary winds
that continually blow, and which occupied four months, they got into
the Pacific.
As they passed out they separated, the Dolphin outsailing the Swallow,
and a dispassionate reader cannot well escape the conclusion that the
senior officers unnecessarily parted company.
The Dolphin kept a little south of the usual route, fell in with some of
the Paumotu Group, and finally discovered Tahiti, where she anchored
at Royal Bay, after grounding on a reef at its entrance, with her people,

as usual, decimated by scurvy. They were almost immediately attacked
by the natives, who, however, received such a reception that they
speedily made friends, and fast friends too. The remainder of the month
of the Dolphin stay was marked with the most friendly intercourse, and
she sailed with a high opinion of Tahiti and the Tahitians; the Queen,
Cook's Obereia, being especially well disposed to them. Their
communication with the natives must, however, have been limited, as
they remained too short a time to learn the language, and we gather
little of the manners and customs from the account of the voyage.
After sailing from Tahiti we hear the same tale--sickness, want of water,
doubt of what was before them. After sailing by several small islands,
and an attempt to water at one, course was steered as before for the
Ladrones. Let Wallis tell his own story. He says:--
"I considered that watering here would be tedious and attended with
great fatigue; that it was now the depth of winter in the southern
hemisphere; that the ship was leaky, that the rudder shook in the stern
very much, and that what other damage she might have received in her
bottom could not be known. That for these reasons she was very unfit
for the bad weather which she would certainly meet with, either in
going round Cape Horn or through the Streight of Magellan; that if she
should get safely through the streight or round the Cape, it would be
absolutely necessary to refresh in some port; but in that case no port
would be in her reach. I therefore determined to make the best of my
way to Tinian, Batavia, and so to Europe by the Cape of Good Hope.
"By this rout, as far as we could judge, we should sooner be at home;
and if the ship should prove not to be in a condition to make the whole
voyage, we should still save our lives, as from this place to Batavia we
should probably have a calm sea, and be not far from a port."
These are scarcely the sentiments of a bold explorer, and we shall look
in vain for any similar ideas on the part of Cook. Here was a ship just a
year from England, just come from a convenient and friendly island,
where every refreshment and opportunity for refit were to be found,
and the only thought is how to get home again!
It was the vastly different conduct of Cook's voyages; the determination
that nothing should stop the main object of the expedition; his resource
in every difficulty and danger; that caused, and rightly caused, him to
be hailed