Page:A voyage round the world, in His Britannic Majesty's sloop, Resolution, commanded by Capt. James Cook, during the years 1772, 3, 4, and 5 (IA b30413849 0001).pdf/144

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any land, we gave over the attempt to stand in search of it, and directed our course once more to the south-eastward, to the main object of our voyage. The smoothness of the sea, whilst we had strong easterly gales, however persuaded us, that there was probably some land near us to the eastward, and the situation given to the French discoveries, in M. Vaugondy's late chart, has confirmed our supposition; for, according to it, we must have been at least 2 degrees of longitude to the west of it, on the second of February, when we were farthest to the east in the given latitude. Though we did not fall in with the land itself, yet we have done so much service to geography by our track, as to put it beyond a doubt, that the French discovery is a small island, and not, what it was supposed at first to be, the north cape of a great southern continent.

On the 8th in the morning, we had an exceeding thick fog, during which we lost sight of the Adventure, our consort. We fired guns all that day and the next, at first every half hour, and afterwards every hour, without receiving any answer; and at night we burnt false fires, which likewise proved ineffectual.

On the 10th in the morning, notwithstanding all our endeavours to recover our consort, we were obliged to proceed alone on a dismal course to the southward, and to expose ourselves once more to the dangers of that frozen climate, without the hope of being saved by our fellow