Title: Early New Zealand Botanical Art

Author: F. Bruce Sampson

Publication details: Reed Methuen, 1985, Auckland

Digital publication kindly authorised by: F. Bruce Sampson

Part of: New Zealand Texts Collection

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Final New Zealand visit

Again, Cook headed for Ship Cove, Queen Charlotte Sound, and anchored on 19 October 1774. Repairs were made during a stay of just over three weeks. The Forsters and Sparrman collected some plants, but "New plants are not more to be gotten in any plenty ... & as it is the third time already, that we are here in this same harbour; nor can we expect many new plants, having searched for them very closely before." The Resolution left Queen Charlotte Sound on 11 November and headed east along the mid-50s in latitude to examine this unmapped region, reaching South America on 18 December. Christmas was spent on Tierra del Fuego. Cook then went into southern waters again and discovered South Georgia and the South Sandwich group. On 21 March 1775 they reached Cape Town, where Sparrman disembarked. Five weeks were spent there while the ship was refitted and recaulked, and the Resolution reached Spithead, England, on 30 July 1775. They had been away for just over three years and Cook had achieved his objectives — proving there was no southern continent (although he suggested there was probably land in Antarctica below the ice) and more or less completing the exploration of the South Pacific.