Though our commander had not only the ambition of going farther than any one had done before, but of proceeding as far as it was possible for man to go, he was the less dissatisfied with the interruption he now met with, as it shortened the dangers and hardships inseparable from the navigation of the southern polar regions.

In fact he was impelled by inevitable necessity to tack, and stand back to the north.
The determination which Captain Cook now formed was to spend the ensuing winter within the tropic, if he met with no employment before he came there.

He was well satisfied, that no continent was to be found in this ocean, but what must lie so far to the south, as to be wholly inaccessible on account of ice.

If there existed a continent in the southern Atlantic Ocean, he was sensible that he could not explore it, without having the whole summer before them.

Upon a supposition, on the other hand, that there is no land there he might undoubtedly have reached the Cape of Good Hope by April.