cial duty: indeed, at times he appears to have thought that every
other work should give way to his. It is a somewhat suggestive fact that
Banks hardly makes any reference to Mr. Green throughout his Journal. On
27th February the terrible list of losses was closed by the deaths of
three of the crew, making in all thirty deaths since their arrival at
Batavia.

It was afterwards discovered that the season in Batavia had been
unusually unhealthy, and several ships that had called in there had to
report heavy losses. Cook says:

"Thus we find that ships which have been little more than twelve months
from England have suffer'd as much or more by sickness than we have done,
who have been out near three times as long. Yet their sufferings will
hardly, if at all, be mentioned or known in England; when, on the other
hand, those of the Endeavour, because her voyage is uncommon, will very
probably be mentioned in every News Paper, and, what is not unlikely,
with Additional hardships we never Experienced; for such are the
dispositions of men in general in these Voyages, that they are seldom
content with the Hardships and Dangers which will naturally occur, but
they must add others which hardly ever had existence but in their
imaginations, by magnifying the most Trifling accidents and Circumstances
to the greatest Hardships, and unsurmountable Dangers without the
immediate interposition of Providence, as if the whole merit of the
Voyages consisted in the real dangers and Hardships they underwent, or
that the real ones did not happen often enough to give the mind
sufficient anxiety. Thus Posterity are taught to look upon these Voyages
as hazardous to the highest degree."

AT THE CAPE.

On 6th March land was sighted at daylight, about two leagues away, near
Cape Natal, and on the 15th the Cape of Good Hope was seen. The first
thing to be done was to provide shelter ashore for his sick, of whom he
landed twenty-eight, and during the stay the remainder of the crew were
given every possible opportunity of being on land, as Cook recognised the
value of an entire change of life in shaking off the remnants of
sickness. He lost three more of his men here, and hearing from a Dutch
ship just in from Europe that war was threatening between England and
Spain, he hurried up his preparations for departure and got all his men
on board, though some were still very ill. In addition he managed to
enter some half-dozen men for the voyage home.

I