anks and his botanical attendants ranged the island, made
themselves acquainted with its natural productions, and conciliated the
natives. The effect of his intelligence and intrepidity was conspicuous
on an occasion which might have involved the scientific fate of the
expedition. The quadrant, though under charge of a sentinel, had been
stolen by the adroitness of some of the natives. But without it no
observation could be taken. Banks volunteered to go in search of it into
the woods, made himself master of it, and conveyed it in safety to the
observatory; though followed by parties of the natives, and occasionally
compelled to keep them at bay by exhibiting his pistols.

The transit was successfully observed, but it took six hours for the
operation. As the period approached, even the crew had felt the
strongest anxiety for its success. The state of the sky was reported
every half hour during the night before, and their spirits rose and fell
as the report gave its answer, clear or cloudy. But at dawn the sky was
brilliant, and the day passed without a cloud. Four other observations
had been simultaneously made, in Siberia, Lapland, Hudson's Bay, and
California. The general result gave the sun's distance at nearly
ninety-four millions of miles.

The next object of the voyage was a search for the great southern
continent, which the philosophers of the day had conceived to exist, as
a "necessary balance" to the mass of land in the northern hemisphere.
But conjectural philosophy is often at fault, and necessary as this
terrestrial balance was asserted to be, no "great" southern continent
has yet been found. For a while, even Cook's sagacity seems to have been
deceived by the mountains of New Zealand, which had been discovered, in
1620, by Tasman. Cook sailed round it, and explored its shores for six
months. He then, on his homeward voyage, examined the east coast of New
Holland. Of course, it is not the intention of this paper to trace a
career so well known as that of the celebrated navigator. We refer to
its incidents, merely as connected with Sir Joseph Banks. They had run
about thirteen hundred miles of the coast, when, after having received
some alarm from the neighbourhood of coral reefs, the vessel suddenly
struck. It was Cook's sagacious habit, nightly, to give all his orders
and precautions before he went to rest; and thus, after having done all
that prudence could do, he undressed, went to bed, and such was the