Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/38

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combated against tlisease — infused his owii unconquerable spirit into liis men — and repaired his vessel on the shore in a bay into wliieb lie had warped her, at the Endeavour River, have been shown perhaps by other sailors; l>nt not always have like issues depended on success. The dis- coverer, the a[>propriator for his country, of a vast con- tinent, must have had many high and ennobling thoughts to sanctify and promote his work. The loss of Cook and his ship would have been like the extinction of a dynasty. On the 7th Aug. the Barrier Eeef — called by Cook the "Labyrinth" — so hemnued in the EnthnroHr that Cook and Iiii^ officers on the masthead could see nothing but breakers all the way from the south round by the east as far as N.W., extending out to sea as far as we could see. We were surrounded on every side with dangers in so much that I was quite at a Inss which way to steer wlien the weather will permit us to get under sail.*' A gale came on, the ship drove, in spite of two anchors, *' until we had got down top gallant masts, struck yards and topmasts close down, and made all snug/* Then the Endemumr "rid fast," T])ree days later she was under weigh among reefs. Cook landed on Lizard Island to obtain a view, and to his mortilication discovered "another reef of rocks." He found at length a passage (still called Cook's Passage) and emerged (14th Aug.) to the eastward of the Barrier, * 'which gave us no small joy, after having been entangled among islands and shoals, more or less, ever since the 2()th May, in which time we liave sailed above 1^00 lea-gues by the lead, without ever ha^arig a leadsuian out of the chains when the ship was under sail, a cireimistance that perhaps never happened to any ship before, and yet it was here absolutely neces- sary.'^ Fresh dangers impended. Before (hiy break (Iflth Aug.) "the roaring of the surf was plaiidy heard, and at da,ybreak the vast foaming })reaker8 were too plainly to be seen not a mile from us, towards which we found the ship was carried by the waves surprisingly fast. We had at this time not an air of wind, and the depth of water was unfathomable, flo that there was not a possibility of anchoring. In this distressed situation weliad }iothing but Providence and the smaH assif^tajwe that boats could give us to trust to." I I I I