sands of the sea-going
population of England.

But new hazards, arising alike from the imperfect condition of the
vessel and their ignorance of the coast, continued to pursue them. Never
was a voyage attempted with greater difficulties to surmount, or
achieved with more triumphant success; after having explored two
thousand miles of this perilous coast, Cook took possession of it in the
name of his king, giving it the title of New South Wales.

At length he arrived at Batavia, where, on laying up his ship to repair,
it was discovered that their preservation throughout this long voyage
had been little less than miraculous, her planks having been in many
instances worn "as thin as the sole of a shoe." But their trials were
not yet over: the marsh fever quickly laid up the crew; the captain,
Banks, and Solander, were taken seriously ill. They set sail from this
pestilential island as soon as possible; but before they reached the
Cape, three-and-twenty had died, including Green the astronomer, and the
midshipman whose suggestion had saved the ship. At length, on the 12th
of July 1771, they cast anchor in the Downs, and Cook and his companions
were received with national acclamation.

The triumph of the navigation was naturally due to Cook, but the most
important part of the knowledge which had been communicated to the
empire was due to the labours of Banks. It was from his journals, that
the chief details of the habits, manners, and resources of the natives
were derived. The vegetable, mineral, and animal products of the Society
Islands, and of New Holland, New Zealand, and New Guinea, had been
explored, and a vast quantity of general intelligence was obtained
relative to countries, which now form an essential portion of the
British empire. The novelty of those possessions has now worn off, their
value has made them familiar. We are fully acquainted with their
products, however we may be still ignorant of their powers. But, at the
period of this memorable voyage, the Southern Hemisphere was scarcely
more known than the hemisphere of the moon. Every league of the coasts
of New Holland, and the islands of the Great Southern Ocean, abounded
with natural perils, heightened by the necessary ignorance of the
navigator. Even to this day, many a fearful catastrophe attests the
difficulties of the navigation; the coral rocks were a phenomenon wholly
new to nautical experience; and, in all the modern improvements of
nautical scien