rest, in the most airy births: many were attacked with teazing coughs; others complained of violent pains in the head; and even the healthiest felt a sensation of suffocating heat, together with an insuperable languor, and total loss of appetite; but not a man died; owing in part to the vigorous health of the crews when the ships arrived in those parts, as well as to the strict attention, now become habitual in the men, to the salutary regulations introduced among them by captain Cook. In the evening of the 25th of February, the wind changed suddenly to the southward, accompanied with heavy rains, and began to blow with great violence. During the night, almost every sail that was bent gave way, and most of them were split to rags; their rigging also suffered materially; and they were obliged the next day, to bend their last suit of sails on board the Discovery, and to knot and splice the rigging, their cordage being all expended. This sudden storm they attributed to the change from the monsoon to the regular trade-wind. Their latitude was then about 13° 10' S. From this time to the 28th of March, a regular trade-wind blew from S. E. by S. with fine weather; it then left them in a violent thunder-storm, in latitude 31° 42' S. longitude, 35° 26' E. On the 12th of April the ships dropped anchor in False Bay, at the Cape of Good Hope.

When the captains waited on baron Plettenberg, the governor, they received a very agreeable testimony of the high veneration in which he held the character of captain Cook; for in one of the principal apartments of his house, a picture of Van Trump was placed, and another of De Ruyter, with a vacant space left between them, which the governor said he meant to fill up with the portrait of

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captain Cook, and for that purpose he requested their assistance, when they should arrive in England, to purchase one for him at any price.

From a Spanish ship which had touched at the Cape, the governor had learnt that orders were given to all the officers of his nation not to molest the ships under the command of captain Cook; these assurances confirmed captain Gore in the resolution he had taken to maintain, on his part, a neutral conduct. The ships left this place on the 14th of May; on the 12th of June they passed the equator, for the fourth time during this voyage. On the 12th of August our navigators made the western coast of Ireland, and were compelled by strong southerly winds to steer to the northward; on the 27th both ships came to an achor at Stromness, from whence captain King was dispatched to acquaint the board of admiralty with their arrival; and on the 4th of October, the ship arrived safe at the Nore, after an absence of four years, two months and twenty-two days.