Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/312



now entirely circumnavigated New Zealand, and found it, not as generally supposed, part of a continent, but two islands, and having not the least reason to imagine that any country larger than itself lay in its neighbourhood, it was resolved to leave it and proceed upon further discoveries on our return to England, as we were determined to do as much as the state of the ship and provisions would allow. In consequence of this resolution a consultation was held and three schemes proposed. One, much the most eligible, was to return by Cape Horn, keeping all the way in the high latitudes, by which means we might with certainty determine whether or not a southern continent existed. This was unanimously agreed to be more than the condition of the ship would allow. Our provisions indeed might be equal to it; we had six months' at two-thirds allowance, but our