LOVE of maritime enterprise is one of those well-known characteristics of British youth which have led to innumerable instances of daring intrepidity on the seas around our coasts, as well as the most distant parts of the ocean. This quality of mind, to which Britain owes so much of her supremacy in the scale of nations, has been seldom more strikingly manifested than in the case of Captain Cook, a man who, from the humblest rank in life, and after encountering the difficulties which usually lie in the path of a sailor, rose, by dint of good behaviour, intelligence, and the energy of his character, to the highest honours of his profession. As an inspiring page in general No. 41. I |