while Dr Solander Mr Green Mr Monkhouse and myself advancd for the alp which we reachd almost immediately, and found according to expectation plants which answerd to those we had found before as alpine ones in Europe do to those which we find in the plains.
The air was here very cold and we had frequent snow blasts. I had now intirely given over all thoughts of reaching the ship that night and thought of nothing but getting into the thick of the wood and making a fire, which as our road lay all down hill seemd very easy to accomplish, so Msrs Green and Monkhouse returnd to the people and appointed a hill for our general rendezvous from whence we should proceed and build our wigwam. The cold now increasd apace, it might be near 8 O’Clock tho yet exceedingly good daylight so we proceeded for the nearest valley, where the short Birch, the only thing we now dreaded, could not be ½ a mile over. Our people seemd well despite the cold and Mr Buchan was stronger than we could have expected. I undertook to bring up the rear and see that no one was left behind. We passd about half way very well when the cold seemd to have at once an effect infinitely beyond what I have ever experienced. Dr Solander was the first who felt it, he said he could not go any farther but must lay down, tho the ground was coverd with snow, and down he laid notwithstanding all I could say to the contrary. Richmond a black Servant now began also to lag and was much in the same way as the dr: at this Juncture I dispatched 5 forwards of whom Mr Buchan was one to make ready a fire at the very first convenient place they could find, while myself with 4 more staid behind to persuade if possible the dr and Richmond to come on. With much persuasion and intreaty we got through much the largest part of the Birch when they both gave out; Richmond said that he could not go any further and when told that if he did not he must be Froze to death only answerd that there he would lay and dye; the Dr on the contrary said that he must sleep a little before he could go on and actually did full a quarter of an hour, at which time we had the welcome news of a fire being lit about a quarter of a mile ahead. I then undertook to make the Dr Proceed to it; finding it impossible to make Richmond stir left two hands with him who seemd the least affected with Cold, promising to send two to releive them as soon as I should reach the fire. With much difficulty I got the Dr to it and as soon as two people were sufficiently warmd sent them out in hopes that they would bring Richmond and the rest; after staying about half an hour they returnd bringing word that they had been all round the place shouting and hallowing but could not get any answer. We now guess’d the cause of the mischeif, a bottle of rum the whole of our stock was missing, and we soon concluded that it was in one of their Knapsacks and that the two who were left in health had drunk immoderately of it and had slept like the other.
For two hours now it had snowd almost incessantly so we had little hopes of seeing any of the three alive: about 12 however to our great Joy we heard a shouting, on which myself and 4 more went out immediately and found it to be the seaman who had wakd almost starvd to death and come a little way from where he lay. Him I sent back to the fire and proceeded by his direction to find the other two, Richmond was upon his leggs but not able to walk the other lay on the ground as insensible as a stone. We immediately calld all hands from the fire and attempted by all the means we could contrive to bring them down but finding it absolutely impossible, the road was so bad and the night so dark that we could scarcely ourselves get on nor did we without many Falls. We would then have lit a fire upon the spot but the snow on the ground as well as that which continually fell renderd that as impracticable as the other, and to bring fire from the other place was also impossible from the quantity of snow which fell every moment from the branches of the trees; so we were forc’d to content ourselves with laying out our unfortunate companions upon a bed of boughs and covering them over with boughs also as thick as we were able, and thus we left them hopeless of ever seeing them again alive which indeed we never did.
In these employments we had spent an hour and a half expos’d to the most penetrating cold I ever felt as well as continual snow. Peter Briscoe, another servant of mine, now began to complain and before we came to the fire became very ill but got there at last almost dead with cold.
Now might our situation truely be calld terrible: of twelve our original number were 2 already past all hopes, one more was so ill that tho he was with us I had little hopes of his being able to walk in the morning, and another very likely to relapse into his fitts either before we set out or in the course of our journey: we were distant from the ship we did not know how far, we knew only that we had been the greatest part of a day in walking it through pathless woods: provision we had none but one vulture which had been shot while we were out, and at the shortest allowance could not furnish half a meal: and to compleat our misfortunes we were caught in a snow storm in a climate we were utterly unacquainted with but which we had reason to beleive was as inhospitable as any in the world, not only from all the accounts we had read or heard but from the Quantity of snow which we saw falling, tho it was very little after midsummer: a circumstance unheard of in Europe for even in Norway or Lapland snow is never known to fall in the summer.
17 The Morning now dawnd and shewd us the earth coverd with snow as well as all the tops of the trees, nor were the snow squalls at all less Frequent for seldom many minutes were fair together; we had no hopes now but of staying here as long as the snow lasted and how long that would be God alone knew.
About 6 O’Clock the sun came out a little and we immediately thought of sending to see whether the poor wretches we had been so anzious about last night were yet alive, three of our people went but soon returnd with the melancholy news of their being both dead. The snow continued to fall tho not quite so thick as it had done; about 8 a small breeze of wind sprung up and with the additional power of the sun began (to our great Joy) to clear the air, and soon after we saw the snow begin to fall from the tops of the trees, a sure sign of an approaching thaw. Peter continued very ill but said he thought himself able to walk. Mr Buchan thank god was much better than I could have expected, so we agreed to dress our vulture and prepare ourselves to set out for the ship as soon as the snow should be a little more gone off so he was skinnd and cut into ten equal shares, each man cooking his own share which furnished about 3 mouthfulls of hot meat, all the refreshment we had had since our cold dinner yesterday and all we were to expect till we could come to the ship.
About ten we set out and after a march of about 3 hours arrivd at the beach, fortunate in having met with much better roads in our return than we did in going out, as well as in being nearer to the ship than we had any reason to hope; for on reviewing our track as well as we could from the ship we found that we had made a half circle round the hills, instead of penetrating as we thought we had done into the inner part of the countrey. With what pleasure then did we congratulate each other on our safety no one can tell who has not been in such circumstances.
It scarcely seems believable that later the same day Banks, “considering our short Stay & the Uncertainty of the weather” as the master put it in his journal, asked for a boat in order to haul the seine, or that two days later, after some very heavy weather and a good deal more snow, both he and Solander should have gone ashore to collect shells and plants and to visit an Indian settlement, inquiring as closely as they could into the Fuegian way of life; but such is the case.
On 21 January the Endeavour sailed, having completed her water at Good Success Bay, and four days later she was probably off the Horn in moderate weather, but too foggy for them to be certain of the Cape. Cook made sure that he was clear of the land by keeping to his south-westerly course day after day, until by the end of the month they reached sixty degrees of south latitude: and here, in seventy-five degrees of longitude west of Greenwich, with plenty of sea-room all round him, Cook shaped his general north-west course for Tahiti.
Something in the nature of four thousand miles lay between this point and the island on which he was to observe the transit of Venus: four thousand miles that is to say in a straight line, which no ship dependent upon wind could possibly hope to follow. These were largely unknown waters, for although by this time about a dozen sailors had taken their ships round the world and although Cook and Banks between them possessed either these captains’ own accounts or Charles de Brosses’ or Harris’s or Alexander Dalrymple’s versions of them (Dalrymple, in spite of his feeling of ill-usage, had handsomely given Banks his printed but as yet unpublished octavo Account of the Discoveries made in the South Pacifick Ocean previous to 1764 with its valuable chart), vast areas were wholly unknown, the comparatively few reports of winds and currents could not be relied