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 CAPTAIN COOK: vl»«-iT'1. 
 HIS VOYAGES, AND THE PLACES HE VISITED. 
 
 AMES COOK, the celebrated navi- 
 gator, was born at Marton, in the 
 North Riding of Yorkshire, on the 
 27th of October, 1728. His parents 
 were poor and honest. His father 
 was a farm-baiHff to a Mr. Skottow, 
 and his mother was the daughter of 
 a farm-labourer. When the boy was 
 eight years old, his fattier was pro- 
 ' moted to be Mr. Skottow's lund at a place called 
 
 Airy Holme, near Great Ayton ; and Mr. Skottow, 
 finding James to be an intelligent lad, put him to 
 school, at his own expense, with a schoolmaster 
 at Great Ayton, where he learned to write and to 
 cipher. 
 
 Though James's father was willing that his son 
 should reap all the advantage possible from his 
 schoohng, he could not afford, with the claims of 
 eight other children upon liim, to support the boy 
 after he could earn a living for himself. Before 
 
 VOL. I. N.S. — NO. VI. 
 
 
322 
 
 CAPTAIN COOK. 
 
 lPcopIc's Magazine, June 1, 1868. 
 
 James was thirteen years old, he was taken from 
 Bchool and bound apprentice to Mr. Sanderson, a 
 haberdasher at Staiths, about ten miles north of 
 Wliitby. His occupation was thoroughly uncon- 
 genial to him. Ho had a natural liking for a 
 sailor's life, and his desire to indulge this liking 
 grew into a longing that could not fail to be now 
 and again a hindrance to the haberdashery busi- 
 ness, and to the displeasure of his master. A 
 quarrel ensued, the result of which was that Mr. 
 Sanderson gave up the indentures to his appren- 
 tice, who forthwith bound himself for seven years 
 to Messrs. John and Henry Walker, of Whitby, 
 owners of several vessels engaged in the coal 
 trade. 
 
 While Cook was serving in this capacity in the 
 spring of 1755, war broke out between England 
 and France, and Cook determined to enter the 
 royal navy. His vessel was lying in the Thames, 
 so he betook himself to a rendezvous in Wapping, 
 and entered on board the Eagle man-of-war, com- 
 manded by Captain Hamer, and mounting sixty 
 guns. For six months he served as an able seaman, 
 when Captain (afterwards Sir Hugh) Palliser super- 
 seded Captain Hamer in command of the Eagle. 
 Captain Palliser quickly singled out James Cook 
 from the rest, as an unusually intelligent and excel- 
 lent seaman ; all the officers spoke in the highest 
 terms of him, and the captain promised him all 
 the encoui-agement in his power. 
 
 In due course a master's warrant was obtained 
 for him, and in the summer of 1759 Cook was ap- 
 pointed to the Mercury frigate, then under orders 
 to sail for the North American station. 
 
 Arrived on the station, whither Captain Palliser 
 "had preceded him, James Cook at once distin- 
 guished himself by a service which required both, 
 skill and hardihood, and which was also of the 
 very highest importance. Sir Charles Saunders, 
 the naval commander-in-chief, co-operating vnth 
 General Wolfe in his proposed attack on Quebec, 
 wished to place some of his largest ships in such 
 a position that they might effectually engage the 
 enemy's batteries and also cover the army when 
 it should be landed for the assault on the French 
 camp at Montmorency and Beauport. Before he 
 could do this he must have the soundings of the 
 river St. Lawrence between the island of Orleans 
 and the shore opposite to the French camp. Who 
 was the fittest man to perform this duty ? Cap- 
 tain Palliser told the admiral tliat on board the 
 Mercury was a young man who was equal to the 
 occasion, and that man was James Cook, the 
 master. 
 
 Cook performed this difficult and dangerous ser- 
 vice to the complete satisfaction of the admiral, 
 though not without considerable risk to himself. 
 On one occasion the Indians employed by the 
 
 French to cut him off were so close upon him that 
 he had only time to run his boat — a barge belong- 
 ing to one of the men-of-war — into the sedge on 
 the Isle of Orleans, and as he jumped out at the 
 bow of the boat the Indians stepped in over the 
 stem. 
 
 After the capture of Quebec, Lord Colvill ap- 
 pointed Cook to be master of the Northuniberlomd, 
 his lordship's flag-ship, and in this vessel Cook 
 availed himself freely of much leisure time to 
 study mathematics, astronomy, and the principles 
 of drawing. The Northumberland assisted at the 
 recapture of Newfoundland from the French in 
 1762, and Cook was employed, with great gain of 
 reputation, in surveying the heights and harbours 
 along the coast. Towards the end of the same 
 year he returned to England, and married, at 
 Barking, in Essex, Miss Elizabeth Batts, to whom 
 he ever remained sincerely and devotedly at- 
 tached. 
 
 Early in 1763, after peace had been arranged 
 with France and Spain, Captain Graves, who, as 
 former Governor of Newfoundland, had noticed 
 the excellent ability and intelligence of Mr. Cook, 
 was again sent out as governor ; and wishing to 
 obtain information for the construction of better 
 charts than then existed of the North American 
 coast line, obtained the appointment of Cook as 
 marine surveyor of Newfoundland and Labrador. 
 This appointment Cook held under Captain Graves 
 and under his successor. Cook's old friend. Sir 
 Hugh Palliser, till 1767, when he returned bo 
 England, and remained unemployed for a year, en- 
 joying the rest he had so well earned by many 
 years of labour. 
 
 The occasion which next called him into notice 
 was an unusual one. Astronomers calculated that 
 in 1769 there would be a transit of Venus over ttie 
 sun's disc, and as it was of great importance to 
 the science of astronomy that accurate observation 
 should be made of the phenomenon, the Royal 
 Society petitioned the King, in February 1768, 
 that he would be pleased to order a vessel to be 
 fitted out for the purpose of conveying suitable 
 persons to the Marquesas, or Friendly Islands, at 
 which places it was reckoned the transit could be 
 best observed, and there to make such observations 
 as might be deemed necessary. The petition was 
 favourably answered ; a barque was taken up for 
 the purposes of the expedition, and Alexander 
 Dalrymple, Esq., a member of the Royal Society, 
 was selected by his brethren to take charge. Mr. 
 Dalrymple made it a condition of his accepting the 
 command, that he should be granted a brevet com- 
 mission as captain in the royal navy, a condition 
 with which Sir Edward Hawke, who then presided 
 at the Admiralty, declared that he would rather 
 cut off his right hand than comply ; urging that it 
 
reople'B Magazine. June ), 19i58.] 
 
 CAPTAIN COOK. 
 
 323 
 
 ■was a monstrous thing to require seamen, bom 
 and bred, officers as well as sailors, to yield obedi- 
 ence to a civilian who knew no more of seaman- 
 ship or of naval discipline than they did of church 
 architecture. Mr. Dalrymple being as firm as Sir 
 Edward Hawke, Mr. Stephens, the secretary of 
 the Admiralty, suggested that some naval ofiicer 
 might be found who could carry out the object of 
 the expedition as well as Mr. Dalrymple. Mr. 
 Cook was already known as an able surveyor, and 
 no mean astronomer, and Mr. Stephens mentioned 
 his name to the board. Sir Hugh Palhser readily 
 and warmly recommended him as being thoroughly 
 qualified for the post, and in consequence of this 
 recommendation James Cook, the farm-labourer's 
 son, was first promoted to be a lieutenant in the 
 royal navy, and was then appointed to command 
 the expedition to the South Sea. The time occu- 
 pied in the voyage was from July 30, 1768, to June 
 12, 1771. 
 
 On the 29th of August, 1771, Cook was pro- 
 moted to be a commander, and on the 22nd of 
 June, 1772, sailed again, to determine whether or 
 not there was a great continent in the high 
 southern latitudes, as had been reported, and also 
 denied. He returned from this voyage on the 30th 
 of July, 1775, and on the 9th of August was made 
 post-captain, and a captain of Greenwich Hospital. 
 
 On the 12th of July, 1776, he quitted England 
 for the last time, in his ship Resolution, accom- 
 panied by the Discovenj, under Captain Gierke, 
 bound on the quest which has occupied so many 
 hardy seamen, from Erobisher to McClintock — the 
 discoveiy of a north-west passage. The particu- 
 lars of this voyage, and of the sad event which 
 dimmed the lustre of it, are given below. Let us 
 now say a few words as to Captain Cook's cha- 
 ^poter and personal appearance. Captain King, 
 who sailed with him as second lieutenant, and who 
 succeeded him in command of the Resolution when 
 he died, thus speaks of his former commander : — 
 
 ' The constitution of his body was robust, in- 
 ured to labour, and capable of undergoing the 
 severest hardships. His stomatii bore, without 
 difiiculty, the. coarsest and most ungrateful food. 
 Great was the indifierence with which he sub- 
 mitted to every kind of self-denial. The qualities 
 of his mind were of the same hardy, vigorous kind 
 with those of his body. His understanding was 
 strong and perspicacious. His judgment, in what- 
 ever related to the services he was engaged in, 
 quick and sure. His designs were bold and manly ; 
 and both in the conception and in the mode of 
 execution bore evident marks of a great original 
 genius. His courage was cool and determined, 
 and accompanied with an admii-able presence of 
 mind in the moment of danger. His temper might 
 perhaps have been justly blamed, as subject to 
 
 hastiness and passion, had not these been disarmed 
 by a disposition the most benevolent and humane.' 
 
 Another quality of Cook's mind, and one that 
 helped him most effectually, by seconding the 
 plans his genius had formed, was that of perseve- 
 rance, unflagging, unabated, even in the presence 
 of difficulties the most formidable and discourag- 
 ing. He had contrived, in spite of defective ori- 
 ginal education, to acquire a vast amount of varied 
 and sterhng knowledge. The son of the farm- 
 labourer became, by dint of unwearied effort and 
 ceaseless application, not only a thorough seaman 
 in every sense of the word, but a worthy com- 
 mander of men, the companion of the learned, a 
 scientific astronomer, an elegant writer. 
 
 Cook was about six feet in height, good-looking, 
 and of simple address. His face was full of ex- 
 pression, his eyes were small, of a brown colour, 
 and quick and piercing. His hair was of a dark 
 brown, and there was a presence about him which 
 marked him for one of Nature's most favoured 
 sons. He was a faithful and affectionate husband 
 and father, and the posthumous reward which was 
 given to him by the Government was of such a 
 kind as a loving man, solicitous for those depen- 
 dent upon him, would have desired. A pension of 
 2001. a-year was settled on his widow, and an an- 
 nuity of 25L upon each of his three surviving sons ; 
 and an arrangement was made for the sale of 
 Cook's published charts, by which the great navi- 
 gator's family were placed in a position of com- 
 fort, if not of affluence. Two* of his sons were also 
 received into the naval service. 
 
 Of the three great voyages of discoveiy in which 
 Captain Cook had the chief command, the first 
 was undertaken by the express desire of the King 
 (George III.), and at the instance of the Royal 
 Society, under the circumstances already men- 
 tioned. 
 
 Cook's companions in this voyage were Mr. 
 Banks (afterwards Sir Joseph Banks), who went 
 at his own cost, and also suppHed many valuable 
 contributions to the instruments and knowledge 
 of the explorers ; Dr. Solander, the eminent natu- 
 ralist ; Mr. Charles Green (from the Greenwich 
 Observatory) ; Mr. Monkhouse, surgeon of the 
 ship, and several other persons of less note. 
 
 On the 30th of July, 1768, the Endeavour, a vessel 
 of 370 tons, left the Thames. She touched at Ma^ 
 deira and Rio, and then made no further halts till 
 she arrived off Strait le Maire, between the soxth- 
 eastem point of Terra del Fuego and Staten Island. 
 The question with Captain Cook now, was whether 
 to make the passage round the Horn, or, as sea- 
 men in those days preferred, to ' plod his weary 
 way ' through the tiresome navigation of the 
 Straits of Magelhaens. Cook doubted perhaps the 
 truth of the stories he had heard of the perennial 
 
824 
 
 CAPTAIN COOK. 
 
 [People** MosKcIne, June 1, 1968. 
 
 bad weather said to prevail about Capo Horn, and 
 he resolved to try. He was the first to maintain 
 that the passage by the Horn, from the Atlantic to 
 the Pacific, is not only the safest but the most 
 economical in point of time, and to lay down the 
 rule for navigation in these parts, which has been 
 poted upon by seamen ever since. He passed round 
 the Horn, experiencing only the mildest weather, 
 and sailed at once into the Pacific, shaping a north- 
 west course across it. 
 
 After a fair-weather voyage he came upon an 
 Tiiiknown island, which he called Lagoon Island, 
 and afterwards discovered others, which he called 
 Thumb-Cap, Bow Island, the Groups, Bird Island, 
 and Chain Island, besides some others of what are 
 now known as the Society Islands ; but the place 
 to which he considered himself bound was Ota- 
 heite, the principal island of this group, for at 
 this place Captain Wallis, who returned from a 
 voyage of discovery while Cook was preparing for 
 86*, had recommended that the transit of Venus 
 should be observed. On the 11th of April, 1769, 
 the Endeavour came in sight of this island, and on 
 the 13th cast anchor in a bay called Port Royal 
 Bay by Captain Wallis, but by the natives, Matavia. 
 Before landing, or allowing any of his men to do 
 80, Lieutenant Cook drew up a set of rules, which 
 he ordered to be observed by the men during their 
 8tay in the island. These rules inculcated the 
 most humane principles for the guidance of the 
 men in their conduct towards the natives ; pre- 
 scribed the way in which trade with them should 
 be conducted ; and warned the men against any 
 infringement of the known rules of naval disci- 
 pline. AU being done that was requisite for the 
 maintenance of peace on the part of the English, 
 Lieutenant Cook proceeded to land, in order to 
 find a spot suitable for making astronomical obser- 
 vations. The natives, who up to this time had 
 been somewhat shy, crowded near him when, hav- 
 ing selected a spot, he proceeded to erect a tempo- 
 rary fort to defend the party on shore. So far as 
 Cook himself was concerned, there was nothing 
 but goodwill towards him on the part of the na- 
 tives ; a feeling which was preserved in spite of 
 some acts of severity he was compelled to commit 
 in order to check the barbarians' habit of thieving, 
 and stiU more in spite of not a few unwarrantable, 
 not to say brutal actions done by the English to- 
 wards the natives. Cook was firm in repressing 
 such actions on his followers' part, as ho was also 
 firm in insisting on redress for theft committed by 
 the natives. Any of his seamen caught flagrante 
 delicto, or convicted on reliable evidence of in- 
 juries done to the people, were as certain of punish- 
 ment as they were of being supported against any 
 imposition attempted by the natives; and as a 
 matter of fact he several times flogged men of his 
 
 crew in the presence of the people, for offences 
 done against them. On the other hand, he on one 
 occasion found it necessary to seize all the canoes 
 he could lay his hands on, and keep them until 
 certain things which had been stolen were given 
 up. 
 
 From the fort which had been erected the transit 
 of Venus across the sun's disc was distinctly seen 
 in all its stages ; and several parties of observers 
 were also sent to adjacent parts jn order to notice 
 the phenomenon. 
 
 Before quitting the island Lieutenant Cook made 
 a complete coast survey of it, while Mr. Banks and 
 the other scientific gentlemen took occasion to ex- 
 amine minutely the natural history specimens the 
 place afforded. Garden seeds, pigs, and sheep were 
 also left, in hope that they might extend and 
 multiply in the island, which as yet had nothing 
 of the kind ; horses and oxen were also unknown 
 there. 
 
 From Otaheite the Endeavour went on a southerly 
 course, inclining westward, with the intention of 
 seeking the great continent which some folks de- 
 clared to exist in the high southern latitudes. Going 
 on this course for about three weeks, during which 
 time he visited several other of the Society Islands, 
 Lieutenant Cook sighted the high land of what he 
 supposed might be the great southern continent. 
 It proved to be high land in New Zealand, a coun- 
 trj^ on which as yet no European had landed. 
 
 Finding nothing that he wanted in the baj- where 
 he first put in, and unable to come to any under- 
 standing with the people. Lieutenant Cook left the 
 place, which he called Poverty Bay, and sought a 
 convenient harbour elsewhere. He visited Hawke's 
 Bay (so called by him after the first lord of the 
 Admiralty) and the Bay of Islands, stopping some 
 time in the latter place, which seemed to him a 
 most admirable place for a colony. It was at these 
 places he succeeded in opening a sort of trade with 
 the New Zealandcrs, and in learning most of the 
 information he acquired during this voyage, about 
 the people and the products of the country ; but 
 the hostile disposition of the natives was such as 
 to preclude the obtaining of much information. 
 Cook found from the people, however, that they 
 had some tradition of a great country, which they 
 called UHmaroa, lying towards the north-east, and 
 from which they seemed to think the strangers 
 must have come. 
 
 Cook continued his voyage, surveying as closely 
 as possible the coast line of the new land, and 
 landing on all convenient occasions, for the purpose 
 of making astronomical observations, in company 
 with Mr. Banks and the others. He skirted the 
 northern island, passing round the top of it by 
 Capo Maria Van DiemCn, as Tasman had called the 
 north- westernmost headland, and sailing down the 
 
People's Magazine, June 1, 1868.] 
 
 CAPTAIN COOK. 
 
 325 
 
 west coast, came to an anchor in Queen Charlotte's 
 Sound, which he ever afterwards made his chief 
 resting-place in New Zealand. Here he landed 
 animals and sowed seeds, and tried to make friends 
 with the natives, whom he so won over as to in- 
 duce them to entertain a real friendship for him. 
 Cook had much difficulty on all occasions in keeping 
 his own people from doing violence, whereby they 
 threw back, and sometimes quite frustrated, his 
 efforts to civilise and improve. The Englishmen 
 thought no more of killing an Indian than of shoot- 
 ing a hare ; and one of them, when detected and 
 punished for rifling an Indian plantation, boldly 
 asserted there was no harm in taking a savage's 
 property. Cook, however, wishing to impress the 
 natives with a sense of his justice, not only punished 
 his men, as has been said, when proved to have 
 wronged the Indians, but always paid in nails, 
 hatchets, cloth, or other things, for whatever he 
 took away from the land for the use of the vessels. 
 
 Cook now established for the first time that 
 New Zealand consisted of two islands, of which he 
 ascertained also the extent. After some time spent 
 in Queen Charlotte's Sound, the Endeavour was 
 turned southward from Cape Turnagain, and kept 
 along the east coast of Poenammoo (the south- 
 em island), weathered Cape South, which is the 
 southernmost point of Stewart's Island, and re- 
 turned coastwise to the western entrance of Cook's 
 Strait, that divides the northern island from the 
 southern. 
 
 On the 31st of March, the Endeavour left Cape 
 Farewell, and standing west, came on the 19th of 
 April in sight of a place which, by reason of the 
 many specimens of plants obtained there, the 
 lieutenant called Botany Bay. Here the natives 
 were at first hostile, but seeing the effect of the 
 firearms they became shy, and it was with much 
 difficulty Cook was able to win them to any confi- 
 dence. Tupia, who was able to converse in Ota- 
 heite language with the natives of New Zealand, 
 was not able to understand, or to be understood, 
 by the people here. They seemed to be an in- 
 tractable race, very barbarous and simple. 
 
 Cook surveyed the eastern coast of Australia 
 between the thirteenth and fifteenth desrrees of 
 south latitude, and first established the fact that 
 New Guinea and New Holland were distinct. At 
 Batavia, where the repairs of the ship detained 
 the explorers for some weeks, sickness, for which 
 the hardships of the voyage and the want of suit- 
 able provisions had prepared the frames of the 
 seamen, committed sad havoc among the crew. 
 Tupia and his son died, as did also Mr. Monk- 
 house, the surgeon. Mr. Banks's life was despaired 
 of, and the'-e was but one man in the whole of the 
 Endeavour^s crew who was not down with the 
 fever. Even after thev loft Batavin the illness 
 
 continued among the crew. Before they had gone 
 many miles, Mr. Sporing, assistant to Mr. Banks, 
 Mr. Parkinson, the natural history painter, Mr. 
 Green, the astronomer, the boatswain, carpenter, 
 cook, and others, making in all twenty-three, be- 
 sides seven who died at Batavia, were carried off ; 
 and when the ship put into the Cape of Good Hope, 
 her crew were a poor weakly set, in sore need of 
 rest and wholesome diet. 
 
 At the Cape, Cook remained till the 14th of 
 April, recruiting the sick and refitting the ship. 
 On the 1st of May he arrived at St. Helena, shortly 
 after leaving which place Mr. Hicks, bis first lieu- 
 tenant, died, and Charles Clarke, who was subse- 
 quently allied with Cook in the command of the 
 third exploring expedition, was promoted to fill 
 the vacancy. On the 18th of June, the Lizard 
 was sighted, and on the 12th, Lieutenant Cook 
 landed at Dover, and proceeded to London to re- 
 port himself. 
 
 The professional reward which Cook received, 
 on the 29th of August, 1771, for his services, was 
 a commander's commission, and the appointment 
 to command an expedition which was to determine 
 whether there was a continent in high southern 
 latitudes. 
 
 For such a voyage the old Eiideavour was not 
 suited. He sailed in a new vessel, called the Re- 
 solution, accompanied by the Adventure, to which 
 Captain Tobias Fumeaux was appointed. After a 
 prosperous voyage they arrived at the Cape of 
 Good Hope, whence they started in the direction 
 of Cape Circumcision, and in search of the land 
 said to have been seen by the French navigator, 
 Bouvet, a few years before. 
 
 In latitude 55° 8' south, and longitude 24° 3' east, 
 they were stopped in their progress southward by 
 a set field of ice, which seemed firm and unyield- 
 ing, and might have been there for centuries. 
 Thirty leagues up and thirty leagues down the 
 great icy barrier did the ships sail, but no opening 
 was discovered ; so, on the 17th of January, 1773, 
 being in south latitude 67° 15', and despairing of 
 finding their quest, the voyagers bore away to the 
 eastward in search of the land reported to have 
 been seen by Bouvet. 
 
 Captain Cook and a few more were the minority 
 who thought there was no land in these parts. 
 Captain Fumeaux thought there was, and appealed 
 to the proofs afforded by birds and weeds that 
 were seen, in order to bear him out. On the other 
 hand Cook felt certain, from the way in which the 
 swell of the sea set, that there was not any large 
 tract of land near ; and he rejected the signs of 
 birds and weeds as non-conclusive of the proximity 
 of a continent or island, though he admitted that 
 far to the southward, too far to be accessible, 
 there mig-ht he land. He deferred, however, to the 
 
326 
 
 CAPTAIN COOK. 
 
 [People's Mizazine. June 1, IMS. 
 
 opinion of Lis companions, and continued the 
 search eastward, till on the 8th of February the 
 ships were parted by a storm. Not meeting 
 the Adventure again when the storm was over, 
 Captain Cook determined, as winter was coming 
 on, to give up the search for the land for this 
 reason, and to stand to the northward. This he 
 accordingly did, and on the 25th of March, after 
 having been one hundred and seventeen days at 
 sea, cast anchor in Dusky Bay, New Zealand. 
 Immediately negotiations were opened with the 
 natives for the supply of wood and vegetables ; 
 and the captain, whose incessant care for the 
 health of his men had been abundantly rewarded, 
 took measures for still more effectually keeping 
 away scurvy and such like diseases. For the good 
 of the natives he loft some geese and sowed some 
 garden seeds, trying to make the people under- 
 stand the use and importance of them. After 
 resting his men, watering the ship, and making 
 an accurate survey of the coast. Cook sailed on to 
 Queen Charlotte's Sound, where to his great joy 
 he found the Adventure, from which he had been 
 separated fourteen weeks. Some time was spent 
 in examining the country, and trying to improve 
 the condition of the natives. Sheep and hogs were 
 given to them, and garden seeds were sown, some 
 of the natives engaging to preserve them and look 
 after them when they should have grown up. 
 
 Leaving this place, the Besolufion and Adventure 
 revisited Otaheite, and on their return route to 
 Queen Charlotte's Sound discovered, on the 23rd 
 of September, Harvey's Island. From Queen 
 Charlotte's Sound, Cook sailed on the 26th of No- 
 vember on another search after the great southern 
 continent. In latitude 71° 10' south, longitude 
 106° 54' west, he got encumbered in the ice ; and 
 finding no way on, but having, as he deemed, 
 every reason to think that the ice extended to the 
 pole, gave up the search, went about and stood for 
 the northward, his intention being to winter in 
 the tropics and to go on exploring the Pacific in 
 the following season. In pursuance of this plan 
 Cook sailed out of the inhospitable southern re- 
 gions, and on the 11th of March sighted Easter 
 Island, whence he visited the Marquesas, St. 
 George's Island, and another island, which, in 
 honour of his friend and patron, he called Pal- 
 liser's Island. On the 22nd of April he again put 
 into the harbour of Matavi, at Otaheite, where he 
 was received with the most unbounded enthusiasm. 
 A naval review, in which a hundred and sixty 
 double war canoes, besides many others laden with 
 spectators, the total number of men afloat being 
 about seven thousand, was held in his honour. 
 Other signs of the goodwill of the king were not 
 wanting, though one proof of his subjects' en- 
 thusiasm took the form of attachment to the coods. 
 
 rather than to the persons of the strangers, and 
 Cook had to teach in a forcible manner the as yet 
 unknown difference between meum and tuum. 
 After visiting the other islands he sailed west- 
 ward, discovered Home Island, Palmerston Island, 
 and Savage Island, the last being so named because 
 of the implacable hostility of the natives, who re- 
 sisted fiercely all attempts of the strangers to 
 land. Still on the westerly route, he came to 
 Anamocka, or Rotterdam, discovered by Tasman 
 in his voyage ; and on the 16th of June saw some 
 land which he took for Quiros's Tierra Australis, 
 but it turned out to be the island of Malicollo. 
 Shepherd's Islands and the New Hebrides were 
 then visited, the latter having been seen by Qniros 
 in 1606, and by Bourgainville in 1768. New Cale- 
 donia and the Isle of Pines next came under 
 notice, and on the route thence to Queen Char- 
 lotte's Sound, Norfolk Island was first discovered, 
 a place uninhabited, but having apparently all the 
 attributes of an earthly paradise. 
 
 Two attempts were subsequently made to find 
 the great southern continent, but without success, 
 and Cook was fully persuaded that he had satis- 
 factorily proved beyond all question that there 
 was no such thing attainable, if it existed at all, 
 as a continent in the liigh southern latitudes. On 
 the 22nd of March, 1775, he returned to Table 
 Bay, having accomplished twenty thousand league-s 
 of sea since he last cast anchor there. He stayed 
 only a short while at the Cape, and then sailed for 
 England, arriving at Portsmouth on the 30th of 
 July. 
 
 The third and last voyage of Captain Cook was 
 undertaken with the view of discovering a north- 
 west passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The 
 Hesolutionvfhs still Cook's vessel, but the Discovery, 
 under the command of Captain Clarke, an acting 
 lieutenant on Cook's first voyage, was substituted 
 for the Adventure. 
 
 They left Plymouth on the 8th of July, 1776, 
 and sailed southward till they arrived at New 
 Zealand. Traversing the seas of this quarter, he 
 discovered the island of Mangeea, and finally ar- 
 rived at the Friendly Islands. In and about these 
 islands Cook remained for three months, doing 
 liis best to promote a good understanding with 
 the people, and to introduce among them the 
 benefits of a higher civilisation. He then visited 
 Otaheite and other islands of that group, and 
 started on his way to the north. 
 
 It was on the 19th of January, 1798, as he was 
 crossing the waters of the North Pacific, that Cook 
 discovered several islands, of which the first he 
 understood to be called Atooi by the natives. He 
 visited one or two of them, and called the group 
 the Sandwich Islands, in honour of the first lord 
 of the Admiralty ; but he stayed only a short time. 
 
reople*9 Magazine. June 1, 19C8.] 
 
 CAPTAIN COOK. 
 
 327 
 
 and went forward, intending to return to what lie 
 rightly considered ' a discovery which, though 
 the last, seemed in many respects to be the 
 most important that had hitherto been made by 
 Europeans throughout the extent of the Pacific 
 Ocean.' 
 
 Concerning the main object of the voyage, the 
 discovery of a north-west passage, it will be enough 
 to say here that it was a failure. There is no 
 knowing what Cook might have done liad his life 
 been spared to make a second attempt, but it may 
 be said, without disrespect to the memory or the 
 character of Captain Cook, that he was not the 
 man for arctic work. His forte lay in navigating 
 in more genial climates ; not that he lacked courage 
 to venture wherever duty might call him, but his 
 genius as a navigator seemed to expand and his 
 ability as a civiliser to increase more in the warm 
 than in the frigid zone. After spending some 
 weeks in the neighbourhood of Nootka Sound, or 
 as it is also called. King George's Sound, and pene- 
 trating Behring's Straits to latitude 65° 46' N., 
 and 191° 45' W. longitude. Cook considered him- 
 self to be so fast bound by the ice, that all further 
 operations must bo deferred till the following 
 season. He turned to the eastward, and succeeded 
 in getting 5° farther to the northward, but then 
 set fields of ice prevented his going any farther, 
 and he put about for the Sandwich I.slands, in- 
 tending to go to Kamtschatka in the following 
 May. 
 
 On the 26th of November, 1778, he came in 
 sight of the island of Mowee, one of the Sandwich 
 group, that had not been before visited, and on the 
 30th approached Hawaii, the largest of them all, 
 and conspicuous at a distance of more than a hun- 
 dred and fifty miles, by the snow-capped heads of 
 Mauna Kea and Manna Loa, each of which is 
 fourteen thousand feet above the sea level. Seven 
 weeks were spent in sailing round and surveying 
 this fine island, and the natives showed during 
 that time every disposition to be more friendly 
 than any of the natives of other i.slands in the 
 Pacific. They brought hogs, fruit, and vegetables, 
 the articles in wliich they were most rich, and 
 freely exchanged them against naUs, knives, 
 hatchets, and daggers, and other iron articles 
 which the strangers had to ofier. When Cook 
 landed, he was received with the utmost deference, 
 all the people falling on their faces and addressing 
 him as Orono, the highest title of honour they 
 could give him. It seems they took him for the 
 god Lono, who having years ago, according to 
 their tradition, left the islands in a canoe, had 
 promised to return on an island bearing cocoa-nut 
 trees, swine, and dogs. The ship's masts they 
 took for cocoa-nut trees, and the firing of the guns 
 for Lono's lightning and thunder ; and when they 
 
 saw ' fires burning at the mouths ' of the strangers 
 (who smoked cigars), and that the men were 
 horned (i. e. wore cocked hats), and ' took any- 
 thing they wanted out of their bodies ' (pockets), 
 they made no doubt that they were Lono's won- 
 derful people come back with him. 
 
 All the time Cook stayed he received the utmost 
 attention and kindness from these people, the great 
 difficulty he had to contend with being their inve- 
 terate habit of theft. On the 4th of February, 1789, 
 the Resolution and Discovery stood out of Keala- 
 keakua Bay on their voyage to Kamtschatka, laden 
 with provisions and all things necessary to their 
 enterprise ; but a storm in which they were 
 caught so disabled the Sesohttion, that Captain 
 Cook put back to Hawaii to repair her. The in- 
 habitants, who had begun to tire of their guests, 
 who ate so much food, did not welcome them back 
 with much alacrity ; moreover, they began to ply 
 their thievish tricks so continuously, as seriously 
 to endanger the peaceful relations between them 
 and the Englishmen. 
 
 The circumstances which led to the rupture of 
 this relation and to the death of Captain Cook 
 were connected with this thievishness, and may be 
 stated quite shortly. Several thefts had been 
 committed, for which various punishments had 
 been inflicted ; but theft still continued, and the 
 officers and men of the ships took care to make 
 severe reprisals by seizing canoes and other pro- 
 perty, and even by the personal detention of the 
 chiefs. A spirit of animosity was thus engen- 
 dered, and being at its height, it happened that 
 some of the natives carried off the large cutter 
 belonging to the Discovery. Captain Cook ordered 
 the armed boats of both ships to intercept any 
 canoes that might be coming to or going from the 
 bay, and also determined himself to seize the king, 
 in accordance with the practice he had found effi- 
 cacious in the other islands, until restitution of the 
 boat should be made. The boats were sent accord- 
 ingly, and Captain Cook landed with an armed 
 boat's crew, intending to persuade the king if 
 possible, if not, to compel him, to come on board 
 the Resolution. 
 
 Kariopoo, the king, agreed to come in spite of 
 the remonstrances and entreaties of his family and 
 the chiefs, and was on his way to the beach when 
 the Hawaiians, believing that harm was intended 
 to him, began to arm themselves, and to threaten 
 the English. Captain Cook, with a lieutenant of 
 marines, a small party of marines, and the king, 
 was within fifty yards of where the boats lay, and 
 a great crowd of natives gathered round the king, 
 urging him not to go. While things were in this 
 state, an altercation arose between some of the 
 natives and the marines ; several of the former 
 were killed, and after the melee became general. 
 
328 
 
 CAPTAIN COOK. 
 
 CTeople's Masazine, June 1, 1S68. 
 
 in spite of Cook's efforts to stop it, the officers in 
 charge of boats mistook the Captain's signs that 
 they should come nearer in shore, and drew their 
 boats farther out, their men meanwhile keeping 
 up a fire on the people on the beach. 
 
 At that time it was to the boats alone that 
 Captain Cook had to look for his safety ; for 
 when the marines had fired the Indians rushed 
 among them, and forced them into the water, where 
 four of them were killed. Their lieutenant was 
 wounded, but fortunately escaped, and was taken 
 up by the pinnace. Captain Cook was then the 
 only one remaining on the rock ; he was observed 
 making for the pinnace, holding his left hand 
 against the back of his head, to guard it from the 
 stones, and carrying his musket under the other 
 arm. An Indian was seen following him, but with 
 caution and timidity, for he stopped once or twice, 
 as if undetermined to proceed. At last he ad- 
 vanced upon him unawares, and with a large club 
 or common stake gave him a blow on the back of 
 the head, and then precipitately retreated. The 
 stroke seemed to have stunned Captain Cook. 
 He staggered a few paces, then fell on his hand 
 and one knee, and dropped his musket. As he 
 was rising, and before he could recover his feet, 
 another Indian stabbed him in the back of the 
 neck with an iron dagger. He then fell into a bit 
 of water about knee deep, where others crowded 
 upon him and endeavoured to keep him under ; 
 but struggling very strongly with them, he got 
 his head up, and casting his look towards the 
 pinnace, seemed to sohcit assistance. Though 
 the boat was not above five or six yards distant 
 from him, yet from the crowded and confused 
 state of the crew, it seems it was not in their 
 power to save him. The Indians got him under 
 again, but in deeper water ; he was, however, able 
 to get his head up once more, and beiug almost 
 spent in the struggle, he naturally turned to the 
 rock, and was endeavouring to support himself by 
 it, when a savage gave him a blow with a club, 
 and he was seen alive no more. 
 
 With what happened to the expedition after the 
 death of its leader we have not now any concern. 
 It wUl be enough to say that the ships returned 
 home in the following year, without liaving suc- 
 ceeded in attaining the object of their voyage. 
 Let us, before closing this account of him and his 
 voyages, say a few words respecting the ' now and 
 then ' of the places that he visited. 
 
 Concerning Madeira and the Cape there is not 
 much to be said, except that the latter has changed 
 hands, having passed from the Dutch to the 
 English ; but concerning the other places visited 
 by Cook, and which were more particularly con- 
 nected with his name, a great deal might be 
 written. Otaheite, or Tahiti, where Captain Cook 
 
 received so much kindness and attention, is still 
 governed by a native sovereign, who has certain 
 rights over the adjacent islands. He and his 
 people, however, besides having been converted 
 to Christianity, have to a very great extent de- 
 veloped the resources of the islands into a regular 
 trade with New South "Wales. This trade consists 
 chiefly in sugar, cocoa-nuts, and arrow-root, the 
 staple products of the Society Islands, which are 
 exchanged against hardware, clothes, and manu- 
 factured goods. The population of the island at 
 the last census was 9,000. The Marquesas Islands, 
 which Cook also visited, and on which he found a 
 people kindred with other South Sea Islanders, 
 were glad in 1842 to acknowledge the sovereignty 
 of France, under whose dominion they remain a 
 tolerably flourishing colony, with 20,000 inhabi- 
 tants. The question of the north-west passage, 
 which Cook tried to answer, has since received 
 solution at hands not less brave, and the experi- 
 ence of later explorers has shown that Cook's 
 verdict of ' no continent ' in high southern lati- 
 tudes was fallacious. 
 
 It would be long to describe the changes that 
 have come over three other places — Australia, 
 New Zealand, and the Sandwich Islands — since 
 the days Cook first visited them. A few particu- 
 lars may, however, be interesting. As regards New 
 Zealand, it wUl be remembered that the banks of 
 the Thames and the Bay of Islands were the places 
 spoken of by Cook as the most suitable and desir- 
 able of all he saw for the estabhshment of colonies. 
 Subsequent experience has not shown the latter 
 place to be so desirable as at first sight it seemed 
 to Captain Cook ; but on the Firth of Thames the 
 erection of the city of Auckland has justified the 
 recommendation of the navigator. 
 
 On the south-east point of the northern island, 
 nearly opposite to Cook's favourite spot — Queen 
 Charlotte's Sound — is Port Nicholson, with Wel- 
 lington city inside of it ; and on the southern 
 island there have arisen, in addition to many less 
 important places. Nelson, in Blind Bay, and Otago 
 or Dunedin, on the south-east coast. Poverty Bay 
 of Captain Cook's time, is still Poverty Bay, and 
 though places which Cook did not visit have since 
 become the sites for flourishing towns, there are 
 not many striking contrasts to draw between the 
 now and then of other districts which he explored. 
 The northern island is now divided into four pro- 
 vinces — WelHngton, Auckland, Hawke's Bay, and 
 Taranaki ; the southern island into five — Canter- 
 bury, Nelson, Marlborough, and Southland ; and 
 the population of the two is estimated at 200,000 
 English and 50,000 Maories. There is every rea^ 
 son to think that the Maori population has greatly 
 diminished in number since Cook's time ; and, 
 under the advance of a higher civilisation, it is 
 
People's Maf;a2lne, June 1, 1868.] 
 
 CAPTAIN COOK. 
 
 329 
 
 exceedingly probable that the saying current 
 among the Maories may come true : — ' As the 
 white man's rat has driven away the native rat ; 
 as the European fly drives away our own ; as the 
 clover kills our fern ; so will the Maories disappear 
 before the white man himself.' 
 
 Concerning the islands which, of all Cook's dis- 
 coveries, have been most associated with his name, 
 the Sandwich Islands, very much that is interest- 
 ing might be said. The necessary considerations 
 of space, however, forbid the insertion of more 
 than a few general remarks. The islands are vol- 
 canic in their origin, and mountainous ; active 
 volcanoes exist in several of them, and the volcano 
 of Kilauea, 6,000 feet high, on the shoulder of 
 Mauna Loa, is perhaps the grandest in the world. 
 On the occasion of the last eruption, a column of 
 molten lava was flung into the air to a height of 
 500 feet, thence descending in liquid fire upon the 
 adjoining country, which it overran for miles, and 
 was only stopped by the sea. The. inhabited islands 
 are eight in number, and lie in a .slant between 
 north-west and south-east. Hawaii is the largest, 
 though not the most commodious in respect of' 
 harbours ; Oahu, the second largest, bearing the 
 palm, and having for its chief port the excellent 
 harbour of Honolulu, now the seat of a bishopric 
 and the capital of the islands. Soon after Cook's 
 death, the more powerful of the two chiefs who 
 divided the sovereignty of the islands conquered 
 them all, and established a dynasty, which has 
 remained to this time. In the year 1786 this 
 king, by way of retaliation for injuries done to 
 him by an Ameiican captain, detained two English 
 sailors — Isaac Davies and John Young — who hap- 
 pened to be on shw-e at the time. These men 
 were treated with great kindness, settled down 
 among the people, and were married — the latter 
 to a woman of the royal house. When Captain 
 Vancouver visited the islands in 1790-4 he had 
 frequent interviews with these men, and with 
 Kamehameha, the king. Finding the king well 
 disposed to the reception of ChristLanity, and 
 quite disgusted with the idolatry of his people. 
 Captain Vancouver asked Mr. Pitt to send out 
 missionaries, but nothing was done ; and it was 
 not till 1820 that any steps were taken to carry 
 the light of Christian truth into these islands. Then 
 some CongregationaUsts from America, and subse- 
 quently some Roman Catholics, came there, and 
 first preached the Gospel to the Hawaiians. In 
 the year 1860, and several times after that date. 
 King Kamehameha IV., under whom the govern- 
 ment was formed into a constitutional monarchy, 
 applied for a Church of England mission to be 
 established in his kingdom ; and the appointment 
 of the Bishop of Honolulu was the result of the 
 application. This king, Kamehameha IV., married 
 
 Emma, the granddaughter of John Young, the 
 Liverpool shipwright, who was one of the men 
 detained in the islands. 
 
 When people read, a few months back, how 
 Emma, Queen Dowager of the Sandwich Islands, 
 was entertained in this country, and saw in her 
 the representative of a high and a Christian civili- 
 sation that was establishing itself with effect in 
 the islands, they might have been excused for 
 thinking that more than eighty years must have 
 elapsed since Captain Cook was worshipped as the 
 god Lono, and since he was savagely slain on the 
 little promontory in what is now called Cook's 
 Bay. 
 
 CASTLES IN THE AIR. 
 
 I BTJILT a castle in the air, 
 
 In my wild boyhood's thoughtless glee ; 
 And all the world was good and fair, 
 
 And every heart was true to me ; 
 TUl Time's cold blasts, too rudely blown. 
 Shook down my castle stone by stone. 
 
 I built a caatle in the air. 
 
 In manhood's mom, and called it Home ; 
 And, though sweet love and joy were there. 
 
 Yet wind's would blow, and clouds would come ; 
 And, spite of all my heart's fond trust, 
 I felt my castle stood on dust. 
 
 I built a castle in the air, 
 
 And decked it o'er with wealth untold ; 
 But soon I saw that carking care 
 
 Was not kept out by bars of gold ; 
 And Death tcould stalk through jewelled doors, 
 And haunt my gilded corridors. 
 
 I built a castle in the air, 
 
 Ambition gave the wood and stone ; 
 But I looked forth, and everywhere 
 
 These castles lay on earth o'ertlirown, 
 And nought siu'vived but a tarnished pall. 
 Or a shivered tablet on the wall. 
 
 So I ceased these airy domes to rear, 
 
 For time and thought had made me wise, 
 
 And taught me how 'twas bootless here 
 To ' build on aught beneath the skies,' 
 
 And air and earth alike were vain 
 
 The soiil's large longings to sustain. 
 
 And chastened thus, as calm I roam, 
 What earth refuses, heaven suppHes ; 
 
 For the thresholds of my Father's home 
 Shine bright and glorious from the skies ; 
 
 And steadfast now, 'mid life's brief stages, 
 
 I budd me on the ' Rock of Ages.' 
 
830 
 
 FIOTUBES OF DUTCH LIFE. 
 
 CPeoplo'a Mnsraine, Jan; I , ISGS. 
 
 PICTURES OF DUTCH LIFE. 
 
 A Tirrcn rouTEit. 
 
 5E propose, from time to time, to 
 give sketches of foreign towns, 
 sometimes of the buildings and the 
 historical associations connected 
 therewith, and sometimes of the 
 social and trading ma"nners and customs of the 
 inhabitants. We shall thus bring before our tarry- 
 at-home readers, pictures of the life going on in 
 foreign countries, and we propose to begin with 
 Amsterdam. 
 
 Anyone who wishes to study the life and doings 
 
 of the street population of Amsterdam, must visit 
 its 'grachten.' These are the real streets of 
 this famous old commercial city, although their 
 name is derived from the canals which run be- 
 tween the rows of houses. The canal generally 
 leaves a space free on both sides for carriages and 
 foot-passengers, and this road and pathway bear 
 the same name as the canal. On the larger Grach- 
 ten, these roads become complete stT-eets, and on 
 the water-side, as well as by the houses, they are 
 furnished with trottoirs, not composed of slabs of 
 
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