“Thus we find that ships which have been little more than twelve months from England have suffer’d as much or more by sickness than we have done, who have been out near three times as long.  Yet their sufferings will hardly, if at all, be mentioned or known in England; when, on the other hand, those of the Endeavour, because her voyage is uncommon, will very probably be mentioned in every News Paper, and, what is not unlikely, with Additional hardships we never Experienced; for such are the dispositions of men in general in these Voyages, that they are seldom content with the Hardships and Dangers which will naturally occur, but they must add others which hardly ever had existence but in their imaginations, by magnifying the most Trifling accidents and Circumstances to the greatest Hardships, and unsurmountable Dangers without the immediate interposition of Providence, as if the whole merit of the Voyages consisted in the real dangers and Hardships they underwent, or that the real ones did not happen often enough to give the mind sufficient anxiety.  Thus Posterity are taught to look upon these Voyages as hazardous to the highest degree.”

At the cape.

On 6th March land was sighted at daylight, about two leagues away, near Cape Natal, and on the 15th the Cape of Good Hope was seen.  The first thing to be done was to provide shelter ashore for his sick, of whom he landed twenty-eight, and during the stay the remainder of the crew were given every possible opportunity of being on land, as Cook recognised the value of an entire change of life in shaking off the remnants of sickness.  He lost three more of his men here, and hearing from a Dutch ship just in from Europe that war was threatening between England and Spain, he hurried up his preparations for departure and got all his men on board, though some were still very ill.  In addition he managed to enter some half-dozen men for the voyage home.

In writing of the Cape, Cook draws attention to the fact: 

“that a stranger is at once struck with surprise and disappointment, for no country we have seen this voyage affords so barren a prospect as this, and not only so in appearance but in reality.”

Then further on he says: 

“Notwithstanding the many disadvantages this country labours under, such is the industry, economy, and good management of the Dutch, that not only the necessary, but all the Luxuries of Life are raised here in great abundance, and are sold as cheap, if not cheaper, than in any part of Europe, some few articles excepted.”

On the other hand, he complains of the exorbitant charges made by the Dutch East India Company for naval stores.  As at Batavia, they were sold at a certain fixed price from which there was no deviation.