Pondicherry, Siberia, and the Mauritius. But the weather was
unfavourable, and the observations were to be regarded as a failure. But
there was a second transit in 1769, and the leading powers of Europe
sent out observers; England sending a vessel to the South Seas, an
observer to India, and two to Hudson's Bay. Captain Wallace having
lately made several discoveries in the Pacific, public attention had
been strongly drawn to that hitherto scarcely known portion of the
globe. The celebrated Captain Cook was appointed commander, and Sir
Joseph Banks, stimulated by an honourable zeal and a rational desire of
knowledge, obtained leave from his friend, Lord Sandwich, to join the
expedition. He took with him Dr Solander the botanist, and two
draughtsmen.

On the 25th of August 1768, Cook's vessel, the Endeavour, sailed from
Plymouth Sound, and the first point of land at which they touched was
the Terra del Fuego, the southern extremity of the American continent.
There they encountered such severity of cold, that, although it was the
summer of those regions, Banks and Solander, in one of their botanical
excursions, had nearly shared the fate of three of their attendants, who
perished from the intensity of the cold. The effect of this excess of
low temperature has been often felt and often described. It was a
general torpor of the frame, producing an almost irresistible propensity
to sleep. Every exertion was painful, and the strongest desire was to
lie down in the snow and give way to slumber. Solander, who had acquired
his experience in botanizing among the Swedish mountains, warned the
party of their danger. "Whoever," said he, "sits down, will sleep;
whoever sleeps, will wake no more." Yet he himself was one of the first
to yield; he insisted on lying down, fell asleep before he could be
brought to the fire which Banks had kindled, and was restored with
difficulty. His companion had felt a similar inclination, but resisted
it, by the greater energy of youth, and probably of a more vigorous
mind.

Cook then sailed for Otaheite, which he reached in April. The contrast
of the luxurious climate with the inclement region which they had left
behind them, was doubly striking to men who, for upwards of half a year,
had seen nothing but the ocean or the deserts of Cape Horn. They now
proceeded vigorously to the chief purposes of their voyage. The captain
and his officers prepared their instruments to observe the transit,
while B