Solomon Islands. These he also just missed, but fell in with New Britain,
and passing between it and New Ireland, demonstrated for the first time
that these two large islands were not one, as had been supposed. He here
managed to do something to repair his leaky vessel, heeling and caulking
her, but got little but fruit for his scurvy-stricken crew. He was
attacked by the fierce islanders, and was altogether unable to do as much
as he evidently earnestly desired towards examining the islands.

Thence they struggled on by Mindanao to Makassar in Celebes, delayed by
contrary winds, disappointed of refreshments at every place they tried,
and losing men from scurvy. At Makassar they met with but an inhospitable
reception from the Dutch, who refused to permit them to receive
refreshments there, and after waiting at Bonthain, a place in Celebes,
several months, for the monsoon to change, they at last arrived at
Batavia, the only port in the Dutch Indies really open to ships, in June
1768. Thence, after heaving down and a thorough repair, they reached
home, via the Cape, on March 20th, 1769.

Of all the voyages before Cook's, Carteret's showed most determination
and true spirit of enterprise; and had his ship been better supplied, and
more suited to the exigencies of such a long cruise, he would, but for
one thing, have accomplished far more. This was the fatal disease, which
no captain had as yet succeeded in warding off, and which hampered and
defeated the efforts of the most enthusiastic. No man could go beyond a
certain point in disregarding the health of his crew.

These, then, were the kind of voyages, with their scanty fruits, to which
the English people were getting accustomed, and they were not such as to
encourage repetition.