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OF DISCOVERY.

CHAP. Palliser, a Lord, and Mr. Stephens, the Secretary, LIX. of the Admiralty. In the conversation which VOYAGES ensued, these gentlemen descanted on the grandeur and dignity of the new design, and its results to navigation and science; until at last Captain Cook was so far wrought upon by their representations of the importance of the voyage, that he started from his seat, and declared that he would conduct it himself. This was precisely what the party present had desired, and, perhaps, expected. His generous offer being without delay transmitted to the King, was joyfully accepted.*

It was in July, 1776, twelve months after his return, that Captain Cook, departing on his last voyage, sailed from Plymouth Sound. He had embarked in his old ship the Resolution. To this, as on the last occasion, was adjoined a smaller vessel; it was now the Discovery, entrusted to Captain Charles Clarke, who had served under Cook in both the former voyages. With Cook there had also gone on board Omai, now returning to his native country, and enriched with many valuable presents, from the generosity of the King and of his private friends.

"It could not but occur to us," writes Cook, "as a singular and affecting circumstance, that at "the very instant of our departure upon a voyage "the object of which was to benefit Europe, by

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making fresh discoveries in North America, there "should be the unhappy necessity of employing

Encyc. Britann. sub voce Cook.

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"others of his Majesty's ships, and of conveying CHAP. 66 numerous bodies of his land forces to secure the "obedience of those parts of that continent which VOYAGES "had been discovered and settled by our country"men in the last century. On the 6th of July, a "fleet of transports, consisting of sixty-two sail, "bound to America, with the last division of the "Hessian troops and some horse, were forced into

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Plymouth Sound by a strong north-west wind." * Yet the war against the Thirteen Colonies afforded at least one gratifying point of contact with the expedition of Cook. Many months afterwards, when that expedition was thought to be near its return, Dr. Franklin, as American Minister at Paris, took, greatly to his honour, some steps for its defence. He issued a letter to the commanders of American cruisers, enjoining them, if they should happen to fall in with these English ships, to do them no injury, but, on the contrary (here are his own words), to "afford Captain Cook and his "people, as common friends to mankind, all the "assistance in your power."+

Cook, in the first instance, directed his course to the Cape, and from thence to New Zealand. Thence again he passed to an archipelago, several new points of which he had discovered in his former

* Third Voyage, vol. i. p. 9.

† Circular Letter, dated Passy, March 10. 1779. Franklin's Works, vol. v. p. 123. When in 1784 Cook's last Voyage appeared in print, a copy was sent to Dr. Franklin by His Majesty's orders, and was respectfully acknowledged. (vol. x. p. 125.)

OF DISCOVERY.

CHAP. voyage, and given to the whole cluster the name LIX. of the Friendly Islands. A stay of nearly three VOYAGES months enabled him to become well acquainted with the people. Their language and manners were in some respects almost the same as at Otaheite. But they had more especially divers superstitious rites for secluding either persons or things from the offices of common life; and this, in their phrase, was to TABOO, - a word which, from Cook's description, may almost be said to have passed into the English tongue.

During the summer of 1777 Cook arrived at Otaheite and the Society Islands, where he had the satisfaction of restoring Omai to his friends. He also put on shore a bull and cows, a horse and mare, and other animals sent over by the King for the benefit of these islanders, and preserved with infinite care and pains throughout the voyage. On sailing from hence, he discovered a new and important archipelago, to which he gave the name of his patron and chief, Lord Sandwich. He then pursued his voyage to the north coast of America, which, at these high latitudes, he was the first to explore. He anchored for some weeks at Nootka's Sound; and in the spring of 1778 carried his discoveries beyond Behring's Straits, until within the Polar Circle he encountered, even in the midsummer months, a season far more rigorous than the winter he had passed. Still he struggled onwards through every toil and obstacle, but was

unable to proceed beyond a head-land, which he CHAP. named Icy Cape.

At this point, where the sea, like the land, was but one frozen mass, the season also being far advanced, Cook desisted from his attempts to find a passage into the Atlantic, fully resolved, however, to renew his search in the ensuing year. Meanwhile he sailed back to the southward along the coasts of Kamtschatka, which he carefully explored. Returning to the Sandwich Islands, he cast anchor in a bay which the islanders called by the uncouth name of Warakakooa. "No where in the course "of my voyages" says Cook, "had I seen so nume"rous a body of people assembled at one place. "For besides those who had come off to us in "canoes, all the shore of the bay was covered with spectators, and many hundreds were swimming "round the ships like shoals of fish.” *

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With these people Captain Cook maintained during many weeks a friendly intercourse, and when he sailed from their country left them on good terms. Unhappily, soon after his departure he was compelled to return by a violent storm, which damaged one of his ships. During that second visit, the cutter of the Discovery being stolen by the natives, Cook went on shore with a party of nine or ten marines in hopes to regain it. He immediately marched into the village, where he was received with the usual marks of

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CHAP. respect, the people prostrating themselves before LIX. him, and bringing their accustomed offerings of VOYAGES Small hogs. He was still in parley with their Chief close to the sea-shore, when the news came that in another part of the bay, the boats' companies had engaged against some canoes and killed one of their principal men. Upon this a disorderly conflict soon arose. The marines and boats' crew appear to have fired without waiting for orders. Their fire was answered by a volley of stones and a struggle hand to hand. The Captain himself then found it necessary to discharge both barrels of his gun, the second loaded with ball. His undaunted demeanour struck awe into the natives, and so long as he continued to face them it was observed that they offered him no violence. But in his anxiety to prevent further bloodshed, he turned round, calling to the boats to cease firing and pull in. Just then he was stabbed in the back, and fell with his face into the water. Of his little party, four were killed, and the survivors, some of them mortally wounded, could only save themselves by swimming to the boats.

Thus in February, 1779, died Captain James Cook; a name deserving of an honourable place in the British annals. Self-taught, and rising from the lowest rank by his merits alone, temperate and hardy, clear-sighted and intrepid, he was ever foremost in the path of danger or of duty. His friends allow that he was prone to sudden starts of anger, yet these were tempered, and as it were

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