But his failure was

in by ice that he returned home. not held to have set the question at rest. More than one expedition had been subsequently sent out with the same object, one of which is memorable from the circumstance of the greatest of all sailors, Nelson, having made his first voyage in it as a midshipman in the Racehorse. But though they were all forced to give way before the impenetrable obstacles which Nature seemed to have opposed to their progress, the conviction of the value of such a passage, if one could be found, was undiminished; and as the Admiralty now resolved to make a fresh trial, Cook offered himself for the 'command, and his offer was eagerly accepted. His own ship was the Resolution, in which he had made his last voyage; he had also under his command Captain Clerke, in the Discovery, a vessel similar in size to the Endeavour; and again he was accompanied by several men eminent for their acquirements in different branches of science, who gladly embraced this opportunity of extending their investigations.

In July, 1776, he set sail on this, which was destined to prove his last voyage. His instructions, which had probably been concerted with himself, prescribed him a different course from that taken by Middleton. That officer had at once gone to the north, up the eastern coast of America; but Cook was now directed to sail up the Pacific, so as to enter the northern waters by Behring's Straits, and then to keep an easterly course, in the hope of thus effecting his return to Europe by

leaving those waters where Middleton had commenced his explorations.* It was perhaps in his eyes an additional recommendation of this line that it increased his chance of making fresh discoveries. And. keeping this object also in view, he took his way to the Pacific, not by Cape Horn, but by the Cape of Good Hope; and from thence by Van Diemen's Land and New Zealand to his old quarters at Otaheite, which he reached in August, 1777.

There was but little novelty in what befell him in this early part of his voyage. The chiefs in the Society Islands were as friendly as ever, and the natives as incurably addicted to theft; so that he was forced to use sterner methods to repress their dishonesty than he had ever had resource to before. One native was so pertinacious in his thefts, and so acute in selecting the most valuable articles, that Cook resolved to make him a standing warning to his countrymen, and cut off his ears. And his countrymen approved of the punishment, which seemed rather to increase their respect for Cook, as a proof of the absoluteness of his power. And their admiration of him and of the nation which he represented was further increased by the account which Omai, who had returned with him, gave of England. He had been kindly treated by every one; he had even been presented to the King; and he now related to his

* It is worth remarking that one of the most successful of recent expeditions, that of Captain Collinson and Captain McChree in 1850, took the same course.

countrymen, with perhaps something of a traveller's exaggeration, the wonders which he had seen; while his eloquence was powerfully assisted by a display which Cook himself unconsciously made of his European accomplishments. He had brought out in the Resolution a couple of horses; and, wishing to see more of the interior of Otaheite than he had been able to explore on foot, he and Captain Clerke mounted them and rode about the island. It is recorded that when Cortez invaded Mexico, the barbarians, who had scorned to flee before his artillery, though they had never seen nor heard a gun before, were panic-stricken at the sight of a mounted knight, fancying him and his horse to be one animal of a Divine character whom it would be impious to resist. The Otaheitians, if less dismayed, were as much astonished as the Mexicans, and were the more disposed to believe all Omai's tales of the power and greatness of England when they saw an Englishman possessed of such inconceivable address. Nothing had ever given them such an idea of European pre

eminence.

Cook did not leave the Society Islands till the commencement of 1778, when, in pursuance of his instructions to make for Behring's Straits, he steered to the northward, and soon came upon a group of islands previously unknown, to which he gave the name of the Sandwich Islands. In many points the natives resembled those of the Society Islands, especially in their language, of which he had now acquired some knowledge, and in

their practice of human sacrifice.

In some respects, such as intelligence and steadiness of character, he thought them superior to any barbarians whom he had seen. But he made no long stay there, being eager to reach the American coast. At the beginning of March he came in sight of the territory now known as Oregon, but at that time honoured with the title of New Albion. From thence he coasted along, discovering the strait called Nootka Sound and the insular character of Vancouver's Island; and opening a traffic in furs with the natives he hastened onwards, landing occasionally at spots which appeared favourable, and giving English names to the different capes and bays which he passed. One he called Prince William's Sound, from the youthful prince who had recently entered on a sailor's career, and who afterwards ascended the throne as William IV. One has been known by, and still bears, his own name, as Cook's River. As he advanced, the stunted stature of the natives began to bear witness to the fearful severity of the climate. But he found that he was not the first European who had made their acquaintance; since they brought to the ships some Russian newspapers of that very year, which had been left there by traders from the Russian settlements in Asia. And he had reason to think that the intercourse between these parts of the Old and New World was frequent, if not regular. He had, however, the honour of being the first navigator who measured the width of Behring's Strait, which he ascertained to be thirteen leagues.