ous degree of envy and rapacity which destroys a treasure rather than leave it in the possession of a rival. tween Great Britain and France. A rumour of the generous conduct of the latter Government at the same time reached them; an order had been issued in March 1779, by the Minister of the Marine at Paris, to all the commanders of French ships, acquainting them with the expedition and destination of Captain Cook, and instructing them to treat that celebrated navigator wherever they should meet him, as a commander of a neutral and allied power. This measure, so honourable to the nation which adopted it, is said to have originated in the enlightened mind of the celebrated Turgot. Dr Franklin, who at that time resided at Paris as Ambassador from the United States, had a short time before issued a requisition, in which he earnestly recommended the commanders of American armed vessels not to consider Captain Cook as an enemy; but he had no authority to enforce his recommendation, and the Government of the United States had not the magnanimity to adopt it. "Captain Clerke proceeded now to execute the intentions of his late commander, by repeating the attempt to find a passage through the Northern Ocean. He touched at the harbour of St Peter and St Paul in Awatska Bay, where he was treated by the Russians with unbounded hospitality; and then passing Behring's Strait a second time, penetrated as far as 70° 33' N., where the same obstacle which had prevented the progress of the ships the preceding year forbade him to advance any farther. He met here with a firm barrier of ice, seven leagues farther to the south than that which had stopped the progress of Captain Cook. The impossibility of a passage by the north was now thought to be sufficiently proved, and it was resolved to proceed homewards; the chief purpose of the expedition having been thus answered. This resolution of the officers diffused among the crews, who were now heartily tired of the length of the voyage, as lively a joy as if the ships, instead of having nearly the whole earth to compass, were already arrived in the British Channel. When the ships had just reached Kamtschatka, Captain Clerke died of a decline; he had already circumnavigated the globe three times, having sailed first with Commodore Byron, and afterwards with Captain Cook. Captain Gore now succeeded to the command of the expedition, and Lieutenant King took the command of the Discovery. Their voyage to China was not productive of any important geographical results. In navigating these stormy seas they found it necessary to keep at a distance from land, and were thus baffled by constant tempestuous weather in their attempt to survey the coasts of Japan. "On the 3d of December our navigators arrived at Macao, where they first became acquainted with the events which had taken place in Europe since their departure, and of the war which had broken out be "While the ships lay in the River of Canton, the sailors carried on a brisk trade with the Chinese for the sea-otter skins which they had brought with them from the north-west coast of America, and which were every day rising in their value. 'One of our seamen,' says Lieutenant King, 'sold his stock alone for 800 dollars; and a few prime skins, which were clean and had been well preserved, were sold for 120 each. The whole amount of the value, in specie and goods, that was got for the furs in both ships, I am confident, did not fall short of £2000 sterling; and it was generally supposed that at least two-thirds of the quantity we had originally got from the Americans were spoiled and worn out, or had been given away, or otherwise disposed of in Kamtschatka. When, in addition to these facts, it is remembered that the furs were at first collected without our having any idea of their real value; that the greatest part had been worn by the Indians from whom we purchased them; that they were afterwards preserved with little care, and frequently 1779.] COOK'S MERITS AS A DISCOVERER. used for bedclothes and other pur- "In order to estimate the merits of Captain Cook, it will be only neces sary to survey generally the extent 821 and nature of his discoveries, and to examine what influence they exerted immediately on the commercial enterprise of nations. In the extent of the coasts which he surveyed or discovered, he far surpasses every other navigator. The eastern coast of New Holland, 2000 miles in extent, was totally unknown till he traced it; escaping from the dangers of that intricate navigation solely by his cool intrepidity and the resources of his skill. He also circumnavigated New Zealand, the eastern and southern parts of which were quite unknown, and supposed by many to be united to the Terra Australis Incognita. New Caledonia and Norfolk Island were both discovered by him; and the New Hebrides, from his labours, first assumed a definite shape in our maps. He rendered an essential service to geography also by his circumnavigating the globe in a high southern latitude; for, though the exertions and dangers of that difficult navigation were not repaid by any brilliant discoveries, it set at rest a question which had for ages divided the opinions of speculative geographers. Sandwich Land, or Southern Thule, may be numbered among his discoveries, although it is probably the land which Gerritz had descried a century before. "His discoveries on the north-west coast of America were still more important and more extensive. In one voyage, he effected more than the Spanish navigators had been able to accomplish in the course of two centuries. In sailing through Behring's Strait, he determined the proximity of Asia and America, which Behring himself had failed to perceive; and he assigned the coast of the Tshuktzki to its true place, which, in many maps of his time, was placed some degrees too far to the westward. "It is needless to recapitulate here the large additions which he made to our knowledge of the groups of islands scattered through the Pacific Ocean. Some of the Society and Friendly Islands were known before his time; but he carefully surveyed those archipelagoes, and fixed the positions of the chief islands, such as Otaheite and Tongataboo, with an accuracy equal to that of a European observatory. He prided himself especially on having discovered the Sandwich Islands, and there is no good reason to refuse him that honour; for even if it be true that a Spanish navigator, named Gali, discovered those islands in 1576, and that he gave to Owhyhee the name of Mesa or Table Mountain, which is marked in old Spanish charts twentytwo degrees to the west of the Sandwich Islands, but in the same latitude with them; yet no stress can be laid on a discovery from which mankind derived no knowledge. The Spaniards seem soon to have totally forgotten the Sandwich Islands, if they ever knew them, notwithstanding the advantages which they might have derived from those islands in their frequent voyages from New Spain to Manilla. Anson and many other navigators might have been spared infinite distress and suffering in their voyages across the Pacific had anything certain been known of the existence and situation of the Sandwich Islands. "But Cook's merit is not more conspicuous in the extent of his discoveries, than in the correctness with which he laid down the position of every coast of which he caught a glimpse. His surveys afford the materials of accurate geography. He adopted in practice every improvement suggested by the progress of science; and instead of committing errors amounting to two or three degrees of longitude, like most of his predecessors, his determinations were such as to be considered accurate even at the present day. Nor was this the merit of the astronomers who accompanied him on his expeditions. He was himself a skilful observer, and at the same time so vigilant and indefatigable, that no opportunity ever escaped him of ascertaining his true place. He possessed in an eminent degree the sagacity peculiar to seamen; and in his conjectures respecting the configurations of coasts he very rarely erred. La Perouse, who was a highly accomplished seaman, always mentions the name of Cook with the warmest admiration, and frequently alludes to the remarkable correctness of his surveys. Crozet, also, who wrote the narrative of Marion's voyage, speaking of Cook's survey of the shores of New Zealand, says-That its exactness and minuteness of detail astonished him beyond expression;' but Cook's skill as a marine surveyor may be still better estimated from the chart which, at the commencement of his career, he constructed of the coasts of Newfoundland; and of that chart, Captain Frederick Bullock, the able officer who has recently1 completed the survey of Newfoundland, speaks in those terms of warm commendation which a man of ability naturally bestows on whatever is excellent. "From the second expedition of Cook may be dated the art of preserv ing the health of the seamen in long voyages. Before that time, navigators who crossed the Pacific hurried precipitately by the shortest course to the Ladrones or the Philippine Islands; and yet they rarely reached home without the loss of a large proportion of their crew. Cook, on the other hand, felt himself perfectly at home on the ocean; he did not care to limit his voyages either in space of time or of distance; he sailed through every climate, crossing both the arctic and antarctic circles; and proved that a voyage of four years' duration does not necessarily affect the health of seamen. This was a discovery of far greater importance than that of a new continent could have been. By his banishing the terror that arose from the frightful mortality that previously attended on long voyages, he has mainly contributed to the boldness of navigation which distinguishes the present day. 66 Among the immediate effects of Captain Cook's voyages, the most important was the establishment of a colony at Botany Bay. That great navigator seems to have contracted a partiality towards the New Zealanders; he admired their generosity, 1 This was published in 1831. 1779.] THE END. 823 their manly carriage, and their intelli- | originated with this third voyage; but gence. Their country appeared to him his familiarity with the South Sea fertile; abounding in commodities Islanders, the trade which he estabwhich might become valuable in com- lished with them, and the practice merce; and he hints, though with which he commenced of purchasing diffidence, at the possibility of a trade sea stores from them, have had, perbeing carried on between Europe and haps, a still stronger influence on New Zealand. His observations on navigation in the Pacific. this subject had influence, no doubt, on the minds of the English ministers, and they resolved on establishing a colony at New Holland; and the result has justified Cook's sanguine anticipations. The fur trade also, which soon caused such a concourse of European shipping in the Pacific Ocean, 1 Infinitely more so, in this third quarter of the nineteenth century. Finally, to complete the eulogium on this great navigator, it will be sufficient to enumerate some of the distinguished seamen who served under him, such as Vancouver, Broughton, Bligh, Burney, Colnett, Portlock, Dixon, &c. ; these men learned under Cook the arduous duties of their profession, and they always spoke of him with unqualified admiration and respect." END OF COOK'S VOYAGES. |