CHAPTER XLIII.--Expedition despatched at the Instance of the Royal
Society--Lieutenant James Cook--Incidents of the Voyages--A Night on Shore in Terra del Fuego--Arrival at Tahiti--The Natives pick their Pockets--The Observatory--A Native chews a Quid of Tobacco--The Transit of Venus--Two of the Marines take unto themselves Wives--New Zealand--Adventures there--Remarkable War-Canoe--Cannibalism demonstrated--Theory of a Southern Continent subverted--New Holland--Botany Bay--The Endeavor on the Rocks--Expedient to stop the Leak--A Conflagration--Passage through a Reef--Arrival at Batavia--Mortality on the Voyage Home--Cook promoted to the Rank of Commander 435