New Zealand was once more reached on 11 October, 1774. There were evident traces in Queen Charlotte Sound that the _Adventure_ had been there. The natives received them with a certain reserve, though at first very joyfully. They told a story, however, of a white man's ship which some months ago had been beaten to pieces on the rocks. The white men had landed, but after their muskets had ceased to be of any use they had been attacked, killed, and eaten by the natives, though not by the people of Queen Charlotte Sound.[103] There being nothing now to detain Cook at New Zealand, he left Queen Charlotte Sound in November, 1774, and, sailing across the Southern Pacific, reached Tierra del Fuego, at the extremity of South America, and, after visiting the Falkland (Natives of the remotest Pacific Archipelagoes. From drawings by W. Hodges, who accompanied Captain Cook's Second Expedition) Islands and discovering the large island of South Georgia, he continued his journey round the southern waters of the globe till he reached the Cape of Good Hope, from which he made his way to England, having been absent three years and eighteen days, during which voyage he had lost but four men, and only one of them from sickness. "The nature of our voyage carried us into very high latitudes, but the hardships and dangers inseparable from that situation were in some degree compensated with the singular felicity we enjoyed in extracting inexhaustible supplies of fresh water from an ocean strewed with ice." [103] The actual truth of this story was that the _Adventure_, returning to New Zealand to keep her tryst with the _Resolution_, had sent a boat with a landing party to get wood and water. These had landed, and, for some reason not explained, had been attacked by the natives, who had killed them all but one, and eaten a good deal of their remains. Apparently a midshipman, Woodhouse, escaped slaughter, and afterwards managed in some way to get in a native canoe to other islands and return to England in a foreign ship. The _Adventure_ was obliged through shortage of supplies to give up the idea of meeting her consort and make the best of her way to England. Accordingly, she steered through the southern latitudes for South America and the Cape of Good Hope. With a continual wind blowing eastwards she was almost blown across the Pacific, and reached Cape Horn in only a month from New Zealand, and from here sailed onwards till she reached the Cape of Good Hope, and, eventually, England. Her gallant captain, Furneaux, afterwards died in the American war, at the early age of forty-six. [Illustration: A CHIEF AT ST. CHRISTINA IN THE MARQUEZAS ARCHIPELAGO] [Illustration: A MAN OF EASTER ISLAND] * * * * *