that, about eleven o'clock, having a breeze from the sea, they were able to sail for the land, with the loss of only an anchor and a cable.
Yet the exhausting work at the pumps might have worn out the strength of the men, had not the expedient of fothering the ship been fallen upon by Mr. Monkhouse, the midshipman, who had seen it employed to save a merchant ship in crossing the Atlantic. Assisted by four or five of the people, he took a large studding sail, and slightly stitched to it handfuls of oakum and wool, which he covered with sheep's dung, and hauling it under the ship's bottom by means of ropes, the suction of the water at the leak carried in oakum and wool, which so reduced its size, that it was now easily kept under with a single pump. This gave a fresh spring to the hopes of our mariners; who, instead of proposing to run the Endeavour on shore, and build a small vessel out of her materials, to convey them to the East Indies, as had been in agitation,—were now cheered with the prospect of repairing her, and prosecuting their voyage home in safety. "Upon this occasion," says Capt. Cook, "I must observe, both in justice and gratitude to the ship's company, and the gentlemen on board, that, although in the midst of our distress, every one seemed to have a just sense of his danger, yet no passionate exclamations, or frantic gestures, were to be heard or seen, every one appeared to have the perfect possession of his mind, and every one exerted himself to the uttermost, with a quiet and patient perseverance, equally distant from the tumultuous violence of terror, and the gloomy inactivity of despair." There cannot be a doubt, that the courage, coolness, and
