field, extending, as far as the eye could reach, from the south-east round to the west; and as the summer was nearly over, Cook decided it was unwise to attempt anything further southwards, and ordered a retreat to the north.  Again making for the land claimed to have been discovered by the French, he spent some days searching for it, but nothing was seen except some floating weed and a few birds that are supposed never to get far away from land.  On 8th February a brisk gale sprang up, accompanied by very hazy weather, thickening into fog, and the two vessels separated.  The Resolution cruised about, firing guns and burning flares, but no response was heard, and when the weather cleared up, the Adventure was not to be seen.  Poor Mr. Forster was dreadfully scared when he realised the two ships had parted company; he says that none of the crew “ever looked around the ocean without expressing concern on seeing our ship alone on this vast and unexplored expanse.”  He seems to have been thoroughly unhappy, for he describes the whole voyage, from the Cape to New Zealand, as a series of hardships such as had never before been experienced by mortal man.  Cook conjectured, rightly as it proved, that being a little to the south of Tasman’s track, Furneaux would make for the rendezvous he had been given at New Zealand, and therefore felt himself free to push on to the south-east, as he judged that if any large body of land was in the vicinity, it must lie in that direction, for the swell coming from the south-west precluded the possibility of any mass of land being in that quarter.

On 17th February a display of the Aurora Australis was reported to Cook, who speaks of it as something quite new to him, although Banks noted a display during the voyage of the Endeavour between Timor and Batavia.  The present one is described as having a spiral motion, the direction not strongly defined, and at times strong flashes of light.  A second display was seen on the 25th, but not so marked.  On this day, too, some of the ship’s boats engaged in watering from a small iceberg, had a narrow escape from destruction as the berg turned completely over whilst they were at work.

The weather becoming very unsettled the Resolution was obliged to make to the north, and on 8th March, the finest day they had experienced since leaving the Cape, they were able to fix their position by observation as 59 degrees 44 minutes South, 121 degrees 9 minutes East, the thermometer registering 40 degrees.  Of course this pleasant break was followed by a heavy gale, with a tremendously heavy sea, and the ship ran before it for New Zealand.  Cook’s wish was to touch at Van Diemen’s Land, so as to satisfy himself as to its forming a part of New Holland, but the wind kept obstinately between west and north, having shifted after the gale, and he thought it would occupy a longer time than he could spare, so he bore up for the South Island.  It was soon found that a few degrees of latitude made a great difference in the temperature, “which we felt with an agreeable satisfaction.”