Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
most cape of Antarctica? No. Cook travelled the length of its coast
and realised that it was but an isolated island. He gave it the name of
South Georgia and set course south-eastward, back into the ice floes.
No more land was to be seen and before steering for the Cape, at last,
Cook allowed himself a rare moment of boastfulness: if he had not
found the Antarctic continent, no one could:
. . . the greatest part of this Southern Continent (supposing there
is one) must lay within the Polar Circle, where the sea is so pestered
with ice, that the land is thereby inaccessible. The risk one runs in ex-
ploring a coast in these unknown and icy seas, is so very great, that I
can be bold to say, that no man will ever venture farther than I have
done and that the lands which may lie to the South will never be ex-
plored. Thick fogs, snow storms, intense cold and every other thing
that can render navigation dangerous one has to encounter and these
difficulties are greatly heightened by the inexpressibly horrid aspect
of the country, a country doomed by Nature never once to feel the
warmth of the sun's rays, but to lie for ever buried under everlasting
snow and ice. The ports which may be on the coast are in a manner
wholly filled up with frozen snow of a vast thickness, but if any should
so far be open as to admit a ship in, it is even dangerous to go in, for
she runs a risk of being fixed there for ever, or coming out in an ice is-
land. The islands and floats of ice on the coast, the great falls from the
ice cliffs in the port, or a heavy snow storm attended with a sharp frost,
would prove equally fatal.
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'The lands which may lie to the South will never be explored'?
Cook failed to make allowance for the existence of men as adventur-
ous and determined as himself.
On 22 March
Resolution
entered Table Bay and, after a five week
stay, sailed for England, which she reached on the penultimate day
of July. The incredible journey was over. It was the greatest voyage
