Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/38

 combated against disease—infused his own unconquerable spirit into his men-and repaired his vessel on the shore in a bay into which he had warped her, at the Endeavour River, have been shown perhaps by other sailors; but not always have like issues depended on success. The discoverer, the appropriator for his country, of a vast continent, must have had many high and ennobling thoughts to sanctify and promote his work. The loss of Cook and his ship would have been like the extinction of a dynasty. On the 7th Aug. the Barrier Reef called by Cook the "Labyrinth"-so hemmed in the Endeavour that Cook and his officers on the masthead "could see nothing but breakers all the way from the south round by the east as far as N.W., extending out to sea as far as we could see. We were surrounded on every side with dangers in so much that I was quite at a loss which way to steer when the weather will permit us to get under sail." A gale came on, the ship drove, in spite of two anchors, "until we had got down top gallant masts, struck yards and topmasts close down, and made all snug." Then the Endeavour "rid fast." Three days later she was under weigh among reefs. Cook landed on Lizard Island to obtain a view, and to his mortification discovered "another reef of rocks." He found at length a passage (still called Cook's Passage) and emerged (14th Aug.) to the eastward of the Barrier, "which gave us no small joy, after having been entangled among islands and shoals, more or less, ever since the 26th May, in which time we have sailed above 360 leagues by the lead, without ever having a leadsman out of the chains when the ship was under sail, a circumstance that perhaps never happened to any ship before, and yet it was here absolutely necessary.

Fresh dangers impended. Before daybreak (16th Aug.) "the roaring of the surf was plainly heard, and at daybreak the vast foaming breakers were too plainly to be seen not a mile from us, towards which we found the ship was carried by the waves surprisingly fast. We had at this time not an air of wind, and the depth of water was unfathomable, so that there was not a possibility of anchoring. In this distressed situation we had nothing but Providence and the small assistance that boats could give us to trust to."