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he found a deep-water channel. Two days later his ship was almost
smashed to pieces against the outer wall of the reef. At the last mo-
ment a cleft in that wall was observed and he slipped through into
sheltered water with as much relief as he had earlier escaped sea-
wards.
By now he was developing a knowledge of his enemy. Though
his respect for the reef never diminished, the confidence grew that
he could outwit it. He had to do so if he was to explore Torres Strait,
the gulf that he believed lay between New Guinea and New Holland.
So he kept, now, as close to land as possible, always preceded by one
or two boats and always anchoring at night. On 21 August he identi-
fied and sailed past the northernmost point of Australia and proved
that it had no connection with New Guinea.
Endeavour made a brief landfall on the island of Savu but it was
under Dutch influence and Cook, like earlier British captains, exper-
ienced nothing but suspicion and hostility. So there was nothing for
it but to go on to unwholesome Batavia, where Endeavour arrived
on 11 October. Because she needed a thorough overhaul and there
was no way of hurrying the Dutch shipyard workers, the ship and
her complement were obliged to stay for two and a half months. The
result was inevitable. Cook, who had prided himself that, up to this
point he had lost only one man through illness, now had the chagrin
of watching seamen, officers and scientists drop like flies. By early
December, when the ship was ready, he had only a dozen men fit to
sail her and he was obliged to hire nineteen fresh hands. Eventu-
ally, thirty men died of malaria and dysentery contracted at Batavia.
Considering Cook's remarkable record of having kept scurvy almost
completely at bay this was a cruel irony indeed. Losing a third of his
men through disease was something which weighed heavily on his
mind and made him on his subsequent voyages redouble his already
considerable efforts to ensure health and hygiene.
 
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