Then we crossed the Andes again.

I had made arrangements by this time for the men and the staff to go to England.
All hands were keen to take their places in the Empire's fighting forces.

My own immediate task was the relief of the marooned Ross Sea party, for news had come to me of the 'Aurora's' long drift in the Ross Sea and of her return in a damaged condition to New Zealand.

Worsley was to come with me.

We hurried northwards via Panama, steamship and train companies giving us everywhere the most cordial and generous assistance, and caught at San Francisco a steamer that would get us to New Zealand at the end of November.