[10] "The officers and passengers entered upon this second cruise
under several difficulties, which did not exist before. They had now
no livestock to be compared to that which they took from the Cape of
Good Hope; and the little store of provisions, which had supplied
their table with variety in preference to that of the common sailor,
was now so far consumed, that they were nearly upon a level,
especially as the seamen were inured to that way of life, by constant
habit, almost from their infancy; and the others had never experienced
it before. The hope of meeting with new lands was vanished, the topics
of common conversation were exhausted, the cruise to the south could
not present any thing new, but appeared in all its chilling horrors
before us, and the absence of our consort doubled every danger. We had
enjoyed a few agreeable days between the tropics, we had feasted as
well as the produce of various islands would permit, and we had been
entertained with the novelty of many objects among different nations;
but according to the common vicissitudes of fortune, this agreeable
moment was to be replaced by a long period of fogs and frosty weather,
of fasting, and of tedious uniformity. If any thing alleviated the
dreariness of the prospect, with a great part of our shipmates, it was
the hope of completing the circle round the South Pole, in a high
latitude, during the next inhospitable summer, and of returning to
England within the space of eight months. This hope contributed to
animate the spirits of our people during the greatest part of our
continuance in bad weather; but in the end it vanished like a dream,
and the only thought which could make them amends, was the certainty
of passing another season among the happy islands in the torrid
zone."--G.F.

SECTION VI.

_Route of the Ship from New Zealand in Search of a Continent; with an
Account of the various Obstructions met with from the Ice, and the Methods
pursued to explore the Southern Pacific Ocean._

AT eight o'clock in the evening of the 26th, we took our departure from
Cape Palliser, and steered to the south, inclining to the east, having a
favourable gale from the N.W. and S.W. We daily saw some rock-weeds, seals,
Port Egmont hens, albatrosses, pintadoes, and other peterels; and on the 2d
of December, being in the latitude of 48 deg. 23' south, l