were provided with a sufficient stock of clothing, so that they were not obliged to remain in wet clothes for want of a change. To these means may be added the example of the commander, who from the beginning to the end of the voyage ruled with gentle firmness the little community intrusted to his charge, careful in all things that affected their welfare, doing his duty thoroughly, and trusting in God.

Preparations for a Third Voyage-Question concerning the North-West Passage -The Resolution and Discovery Fitted Out-Kerguelen's Land-Island of Desolation-Van Diemen's Land-Passage to New Zealand-The Friendly Islands-Taboo-Human Sacrifices at Otaheite-Visit to Eimeo and Bolabola-Christmas Island-Nootka Sound-The Natives: their Shrewdness and Rapacity.

COOK'S second voyage had thus been brilliantly successful, and our

commander was rewarded with post rank in the navy and an appointment as one of the captains of Greenwich Hospital, a nomination to which a sufficient pension was attached. The Earl of Sandwich, under whose patronage the late voyage had been undertaken, was delighted with its result. The public interest in voyages had been stimulated by

the discoveries and explorations of the Resolution and Adventure, and there was a general desire that further efforts should be made to obtain an accurate knowledge of distant shores.

A question, moreover, which was as old as the Elizabethan period, now began to be discussed and debated with renewed interest and, vigour. The idea of a north-west passage to India through Hudson's Bay, across the north of America to Behring's Strait, had occupied the attention of the scientific world for more than a century and a half, and the boldness with which Cook had pushed forward towards the icy regions of the south seemed to suggest that the same measures would in the north be crowned with equal success, and that the question of the existence of a north-west passage might be set at rest as that of the existence of a southern continent had been. Defective knowledge concerning the climate, and the length and severity of winter in the Arctic regions, also left room for a hope which was afterwards dispelled long before the main question of the existence of a northwest passage had, in our own times, been settled in the affirmative. It was thought that the discovery of the passage would produce important commercial results, and that the route across the northern ocean could be made available for ordinary trading ships; whereas subsequent experience showed that a peculiar construction and equipment are necessary for the very existence of a ship in those wild seas. But in 1775 these facts were not known, the public attention and interest had been thoroughly awakened, and it was determined that the course of discovery, so gloriously begun, should be prosecuted with diligence to the end.

It might well be supposed that Cook, who had twice circumnavigated the globe and had borne the burden and heat of the day, might enjoy the repose he had so thoroughly earned, and leave to others the task of concluding the exploration of the Pacific by a survey of its northern coasts. But it happened that, early in 1776, a few months after his return to England, he was a guest at Lord Sandwich's house, and the feasibility of exploring a north-west passage by entering through Behring's Strait instead of Hudson's Bay was fully discussed. Cook, who had every right to give an opinion on such a subject, entered into the discussion with avidity, and when it appeared that Lord Sandwich had determined to send an expedition to the North Pacific, zealously offered to take the command himself. This so exactly coincided with Lord Sandwich's wishes that the offer was

accepted as soon as made. It was quickly decided that two ships should be despatched as early in the year as they could be got ready, and the preparations for this, the third voyage of Cook, were pushed forward with all speed. The zeal of the sailors was further stimulated by the extension to ships of his majesty's navy of the reward of £20,000 that had been offered by Act of Parliament some thirty years before to any private English ship that should sail through the northwest passage, and whereas the old Act had defined that the route should be through Baffin's Bay and Davis's Strait, the terms were extended to ships sailing in any direction. Under such favourable auspices did the good captain sail, in July, 1776, from Plymouth Bay on the expedition from which he was never to return. He was in his old ship the Resolution, and among the company were many of his old men. A second ship, the Discovery, was put under the command of Captain Clerke; and as some unavoidable delay occurred in fitting her out, it was determined that she should join the Resolution at the Cape of Good Hope.

Cook's instructions were to proceed to the north-west coast of America, and to begin his explorations in 65 degrees north latitude; if possible, he was to make his way across the north of the American continent in an easterly direction to Davis's Strait. In the first instance he proposed to call at Otaheite and other islands of the Pacific groups, and took on board at the Cape several bulls and heifers, goats and horses, with the view of leaving them in those islands as a valuable gift to the inhabitants. Omai, the South Sea Islander, also took this opportunity of returning to his own people. He had been treated with great kindness and distinction during his stay in England, and parted from his new friends with evident sorrow, declaring that nothing but the certainty that this was the only opportunity he should ever have of returning to his own country would have induced him to quit them so soon.

Steering, as before, towards the Southern Pole, Cook came in sight of an icy shore that had been discovered a short time before by Kerguelen, a French navigator, and had by him been considered as a southern continent; but Cook, whose practical mind was not satisfied with mere conjecture, ascertained by exploration of the coast that Kerguelen's Land, or, as it is generally called on the maps, the Land of Desolation, is an island. From these southern latitudes the voyagers proceeded to Van Diemen's Land, which Cook, relying upon the

account given by Captain Furneaux, held to be a portion of Australia. The natives are described as a degraded race, destitute of the ordinary curiosity and intelligence of savages. The only weapon observed among them was a kind of stick, and even this they used very unskilfully, failing several times to hit a block of wood set up by them as a mark; whereupon Omai, burning to exhibit the superiority of the weapons of his friends the English, and his own skill, fired off a musket which he held in his hand. The report set all the natives scampering into the woods, in spite of the reassuring exclamations of the travellers, and so great was their terror that one of them dropped an axe and several other presents he had received just before. From Van Diemen's Land the ships steered for the former harbour of the Resolution and the Adventure, Queen Charlotte's Sound, in New Zealand.

It was manifest that the natives here looked upon the arrival of the ships with no very cordial feeling of welcome, or even of security. They recognised Omai and several officers and men who had been on board the Adventure when the unfortunate affray happened that terminated in the death of Mr. Rowe, the midshipman, and his unfortunate boat's crew, and evidently expected that Cook had returned to take vengeance upon them for that atrocity. Their apprehensions were speedily quieted by the assurance that no further notice would be taken of an event that had happened long ago, but that any attempt to molest their visitors would be visited with condign punishment. On receiving this assurance they laid aside their fear, and many families took up their residence in the bay, close to the place where the ships had anchored. Cook now learned the particulars of the fray, which had originated in the attempt of some natives to snatch bread and fish from the English sailors, who were at dinner. The Englishmen resented this, and beat the thieves; whereupon, with the sudden vindictiveness of savages, the New Zealanders made an unexpected onslaught on the boat's crew, who were all killed in a few moments. Happy would it have been for the kind-hearted commander had he remembered this incident, and learned caution in his dealings with such men as these; but there was no place in his open, honest heart for suspicion; and, scrupulously careful where the interests and safety of others were concerned, he continued careless of his own, till that mournful day when his valuable life was sacrificed through just such a sudden burst of savage fury as that which had proved fatal to the boat's crew of the Adventure.

Several fresh islands were discovered, and upon one of these, at a distance of two hundred leagues from the Society Islands, Omai met with four of his own countrymen, who had been driven to the island by a storm, in one of their frail canoes. Events of this kind had more than once happened in the Pacific Ocean. One notable instance s recorded, which occurred in 1696, when two canoes, with no less han thirty persons of both sexes on board, were tossed about at sea for seventy days, and finally cast on one of the Philippine Islands, after having performed a voyage of three hundred leagues. The island

on which these Otaheitan castaways were found was called by the natives Wateeo. A trip to the Friendly Islands formed the next stage of the voyage, and the travellers were received with the same demonstrations of goodwill as on their first visit. A certain Feenou, who was first represented to Cook and his companions as the king of the whole group of islands, was evidently a very great personage. The very highest respect was shown him by all his countrymen, who implicitly obeyed his commands; but he proved to be only a kind of police commissioner, invested with extraordinary powers. They were afterwards introduced to the real king, who proved to be a very benign