at one of the forwardest of them and Mr Banks and two of the men fired immediately after.
This made them retire back a little, but in less than a minute one of the Chiefs rallied them
again. Dr Solander, seeing this, gave him a peppering with small shot, which sent him off
and made him retire a second time.After Cook circumnavigated both the North and South islands he disproved the
idea that this was the land they had been sent to discover. Banks describes how
Cook proved ‘the total demolition of our aerial fabric called a continent’ and now
the southern continent seemed more myth than a reality. For Banks this meant the
abandonment of their search and he wrote:
This for my own part I confess I could not do without much regret. That a Southern Continent
really exists I firmly believe; but if asked why I believe so, I confess my reasons are weak;
yet I have a prepossession in favour of the fact which I find it difficult to account for.Having now completed his instructions from the Admiralty, Lieutenant Cook had
to decide how they would return to England. Forever the explorer, he wanted to search
for the yet undiscovered east coast of New Holland (Australia) which was unknown
anywhere north of Tasmania, or Van Diemen’s Land as it was named by Abel Tasman
in 1642. To return by way of the East Indies meant he would also have to sail through
the uncharted strait that the Spanish explorer Luis Vas de Torres had apparently
navigated between New Guinea and New Holland almost 200 years earlier in 1606.
Cook wrote in his journal:
Being now resolved to quit this Country altogether and to bend my thoughts towards
returning home by such a route as might Conduce to the advantage of the Service I am upon,
I consulted with the Officers upon the most Eligible way of putting them in Execution.
To return by way of Cape Horn was what I most wished, because by this route we should
have been able to prove the existence or non-existence of a Southern Continent which yet
remains doubtful; but in order to ascertain this we must have kept in a higher Latitude in
the very Depth of Winter but the Condition of the Ship, in every respect was not thought
sufficient for such an Undertaking. For the same reason thoughts of proceeding directly to
the Cape of Good Hope were laid aside, especially as no Discovery of any moment could be
hoped for in that route. It was therefore decided to return by way of the East Indies.
To return by way of the East Indies by the following route: upon leaving this coast to
steer westwards until we fall in with the East Coast of New Holland and then follow the
direction of that coast to the northward or what other direction it may take until we arrive
at its northern extremity.Joseph Banks – The Voyage of the Endeavour^31