Arriving in England, by way of the Cape of Good Hope, on the 12th of
June, Cook was made a commander, and soon after was appointed to command
another expedition for examining and determining once for all the
question of the supposed great southern continent. With the "Resolution"
of 462 tons, the "Adventure" (Captain Furneaux) of 330 tons, and 193
men, he sailed from Plymouth on the 13th of July 1772; he touched at the
Cape of Good Hope, and striking thence south-east (November 22nd) passed
the Antarctic Circle (January 16th, 1773), repassed the same, and made
his way to New Zealand (March 26th) without discovering land. From New
Zealand he resumed his "search for a continent," working up and down
across the South Pacific, and penetrating to 67 deg. 31' and again to 71
deg. 10' S., with imminent risk of destruction from floating ice, but
with the satisfaction of disproving the possibility of the disputed
continent in the seas south-eastward of New Zealand. He then made for
Easter Island, whose exact position he determined, for the first time,
with accuracy; noticing and describing the gigantic statues which
Roggewein, the first discoverer of the island, had made known. In the
same manner he accomplished a better determination and examination of
the Marquesas, as well as of the Tonga or Friendly Islands, than had yet
been made; and after a stay at Tahiti to rest and refit, crossed the
central Pacific to the "New Hebrides," as he renamed Quiros's "Southern
Land of the Holy Spirit" (a name preserved in the modern island of
_Espiritu Santo_), called by Bougainville the "Great Cyclades" (_Grandes
Cyclades_), whose position, extent, divisions and character were now
verified as never before. Next followed the wholly new discoveries of
New Caledonia, Norfolk Island, and the Isle of Pines. Another visit to
New Zealand, and yet another examination of the far southern Pacific,
which was crossed from west to east through the whole of its extent,
from south Australia to Tierra del Fuego, were now undertaken by Cook
before he finally closed his work in refutation of the Antarctic
continent, as previously understood, on this side of the world. The
voyage closed with a rapid survey of the "Land of Fire," the rounding of
Cape Horn, the rediscovery of the island now named Southern Georgia, the
discovery of Sandwich Land, the crossing of the South Atlantic (here
also exploding the great _Terra Australis_ delusion), and visits to the
Cap