revered, while there remains a page of his own modest account of his voyages, and as long as mariners and geographers shall be instructed, by his new map of the Southern hemisphere, to trace the various courses and discoveries he has made.

If public services merit public acknowledgments; if the man who adorned and raised the fame of his country is deserving of honours, then Captain Cook deserves to have a monument raised to his memory, by a generous and grateful nation. Virtutis uberrimum alimentum et honos.

VAL. MAXIMUS, lib. ii. cap. 6.

INTRODUCTION.

WHEN the general peace of 1763 left Britain at liberty to turn her undivided energies to those pursuits which had too long been interrupted by war, the extension of her commerce, and the improvement of her people, a strong desire was manifested to increase the extent of our geographical knowledge; and by none was this object more eagerly pursued than by the young King George III. Under his auspices an expedition under Commodore Byron, and another under Captain Wallis and Captain Carteret, were fitted out. The more immediate commission of each of these navigators was the discovery and examination of islands in the South Atlantic ocean; but on their homeward voyage through the straits of Magelhaens or Magellan, and across the Pacific Ocean, out of the track of former voyagers, they made many discoveries which greatly stimulated curiosity at home, and gave additional strength to an opinion, then very generally entertained, that a southern continent must necessarily exist to counterbalance the weight of land in the north.

In the latter part of the year 1767, while Wallis and Carteret were still at sea, it was resolved by the Royal Society, that it would be proper to send persons into some part of the South Sea, to observe a transit of the planet Venus over the sun's disc, which, according to astronomical calculation, would happen in the year 1769; and that the islands called Marquesas de Mendoza, or those of Rotterdam or Amsterdam, were the fittest places then known for making such observation.

This resolution having been communicated to His Majesty, he directed that a vessel should be fitted out for the purpose. The command was intrusted to Lieutenant Cook, who had recently been employed on surveys in Newfoundland, and had been pointed out as an officer especially qualified for the service; and he was appointed by the Royal Society, in conjunction with Mr. Charles Green, a gentleman who had long been assistant to Dr. Bradley at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, to observe the transit.

Whilst the vessel was getting ready, Captain Wallis returned; and upon his representation that the island he had recently discovered, and named King George's Island (now known as Otaheite or Tahiti), was the fittest place for the observation, the Royal Society made choice of it for the purpose.

The vessel employed on this occasion was the Endeavour, a barque of 370 tons, built for the coal trade. A vessel of this class was preferred by Cook to any other: the colliers are particularly distinguished as excellent sea-boats, and their build

B

allows more room, and permits them to take the ground or to be laid on shore with more safety than any other vessels of equal size; they also require fewer men for their navigation.

Her complement of officers and men was, Lieutenant Cook the commander, with two lieutenants under him; a master and boatswain, with each two mates; a surgeon and carpenter, with each one mate; a gunner, a cook, a clerk and steward, two quarter-masters, an armourer, a sailmaker, three midshipmen, forty-one able seamen, twelve marines, and nine servants-in all eighty-four persons, besides the commander. She was victualled for eighteen months, and took on board ten carriage and twelve swivel guns, with good store of ammunition and other necessaries.

The instructions given to the commander were, after making the necessary astronomical observations at Otaheite, to prosecute the design of making discoveries in the South Seas, returning home by way of the Cape of Good Hope. The happy results of this voyage more than equalled the most sanguine hopes that had been entertained of its success, and excited public interest in a high degree.

Mr., afterwards Sir Joseph Banks, long so well known as president of the Royal Society, but then a young man ardently devoted to scientific pursuits, and liberally expending an ample fortune in the advancement of his favourite studies, accompanied Lieutenant Cook on this expedition. He carried with him Dr. Solander, by birth a Swede, and a pupil of the celebrated Linnæus. Such a companion Mr. Banks considered as an acquisition of no small importance; nor was he disappointed, for Dr. Solander proved as indefatigable as himself in the collection of every specimen of natural history that could be procured throughout the voyage, in the pursuit of which neither hesitated to encounter toil or danger. Mr. Banks also took with him two draftsmen-one to delineate views and figures, the other to paint such subjects of natural history as might offer-together with a secretary and four servants, two of whom were negroes.

Mr. Banks kept an accurate and circumstantial account of the voyage, which he did not publish himself, but freely communicated to Dr. Hawkesworth, to whom the care of preparing the following account was intrusted; and many of the most interesting parts of the narration are derived from this source.

It is to be regretted that Mr. Banks did not accompany Captain Cook in his subsequent voyages: he had formed the design of joining him in his second expedition, and had made every arrangement for coming on board, when a slight misunderstanding between them induced him to abandon his intention.

The particular objects in view in the second and third voyages performed by Captain Cook are fully entered into in the several introductions to the respective narratives, to which we refer our readers.