s' volumes,
and such charts as the library of the _Endeavour_ furnished, old maps
afforded no help to Cook in his survey of New Holland. Of the charts Cook
says something in his journal. In September, 1770, he writes:--

"The charts with which I compared such parts of this coast as I
visited are bound up with a French work entitled _Histoire des
Navigations aux Terres Australes_, which was published in 1756,
and I found them tolerably exact."

As to what Cook did in the matter of dry geographical details, if the
reader wants them he must go to one or other of the hundred or more books
on the subject. In a few words, he sailed between the two main islands of
New Zealand, discovering for himself the existence of the straits
separating them. He first saw the south-east coast of New Holland at Point
Hicks, named by him after his first lieutenant, and now called Cape
Everard, in the colony of Victoria; from here he ran north to Botany Bay,
where he anchored, took in water and wood, and buried a sailor named Forby
Sutherland, who died of consumption and whose name was given to the
southern headland of the bay. It is worth noting that in every original
document relating to this voyage, save one chart, this bay is called
Stingray Bay, after, as Cook himself says, the great number of stingrays
caught in it. In one chart, in Cook's own writing, the name Botany Bay is
given; but all the _Endeavour_ logs call it Stingray Bay, and the name
Botany Bay was probably an afterthought.

From here Cook coasted north, marking almost every point and inlet with
such accuracy and such minuteness as fully justifies in its particular
meaning the statement that Cook discovered and surveyed the whole of the
eastern coast of Australia. He then sailed through Torres Straits, proving
that New Guinea was a separate island, and thence made his way to Batavia.

Before leaving the coast he landed on August 21st on Possession Island,
which lies about a couple of miles off the western shore of the Cape York
peninsula, and there formally took possession of the continent, observing
the usual ceremony of hoisting the colours and firing a volley. According
to Hawkesworth, Cook took possession of the country, and named it New
South Wales. There is no evidence whatever of this, and Hawkesworth
himself was probably the first person to write the name. In none of the
official log-books or other documents does any other name than New Holland
occur