ISLANDS IN THE SOUTH SEA.

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1774, and found the natives to belong to the same race as that which peoples Tahiti and so many of the Polynesian Islands. The Marquesas, discovered by Mendana in 1595, were next visited, and, after a brief stay at Tahiti, he cruised to the westward, and discovered a group which he named the Friendly Islands, in commemoration of the amicable intercourse that had subsisted between their inhabitants and the English. On the 16th of July, he anchored off Mallicolo, one of a scattered archipelago of islands which Quiros, their discoverer, had mistaken for a portion of the mythic southern continent.

Keeping southward, he visited a group which he named Shepherd's Isles, and a large well-wooded island which, in honour of the First Lord of the Admiralty, he christened Sandwich. Next he discovered Erromanga-afterwards the scene of the murder of the missionary Williams-and thoroughly surveyed the large and important group of the New Hebrides. On his return voyage to New Zealand he discovered New Caledonia, and the steep and mountainous Norfolk Island, formerly a penal settlement of terribly infamous character, and now the home of the descendants of the mutineers of the 'Bounty.'

9. The Resolution' anchored in Queen Charlotte Sound on the 10th of October, and the voyagers renewed their friendly intercourse with the manly and courageous New Zealanders. After a month's stay Cook bore away for Cape Horn; examined the coasts of Magellan's Strait and Tierra del Fuego; and, sailing towards the east, discovered the desolate mountain land of New Georgia. Proceeding further south, he fell in with another tract of bleak and frozen country, which he christened Sandwich Land, and then he turned his prow towards the Cape of Good Hope, and in due time arrived at Portsmouth (July 13, 1775), after an absence from England of three years and eighteen days. No expedition,' says Mr. Cooley, 'fitted out for the purpose of maritime discovery had ever equalled that from which Captain Cook had now returned, in the magnitude and arduous nature of its peculiar object, and none had ever so completely answered its intentions, and

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MARITIME DISCOVERY.

performed its task with so little loss of life or injury to the ships.'

10. Cook's third and last voyage of discovery was designed to settle the disputed question of the existence of a North-west Passage—that is, of a communication between Europe and China by an Arctic or Polar Sea. So desirable was such a discovery deemed that Parliament offered a reward of 20,000l. to any adventurer who should realise it; and at length the British Government decided upon despatching an expedition for the express purpose of solving a problem which might justly be considered of national importance.

Under Cook's orders were placed the 'Resolution' and the Discovery,' the latter commanded by Lieutenant Clerk. They sailed from Plymouth Sound on July 12, 1776. On Christmas Eve they came in sight of Kerguelen's Land, a region so barren of all the graces of Nature, that Cook appropriately re-christened it the 'Isle of Desolation.' On January 20, 1777, they anchored in Adventure Bay, on the coast of New Zealand. Afterwards they visited Queen Charlotte Sound, and, about the close of February, bore away for the Friendly Islands, where, at Anamooka, they were hospitably received. At Tongataboo they also met with a generous welcome. Tahiti and the Society Islands were next visited, and their'airy joys of social solitudes' were quitted by Cook and his companions with sincere regret.

discovered a group, First Lord of the It consists of five

11. On January 18, 1778, he which he named, in honour of the Admiralty, the Sandwich Islands. islands, of which Atovi is the largest. The inhabitants in language and customs are akin to the Tahitians. Pursuing his course to the northward, our great navigator arrived off the coast of New Albion in March, and, still carrying out his purpose with resolute tenacity, pushed on towards the Arctic regions, until, having doubled the headland of Alushka, he gained, on the 9th of August, the western extremity of the North American continent, and discovered that it was only separated from Asia by the channel known

A TERRIBLE CATASTROPHE.

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as Behring's Strait. His further progress was checked by the ice, which rose before them like a massive rampart, some ten or twelve feet high. They regained the Sandwich Islands on the 26th of October; on the 30th, they discovered Owhyhee, which Cook, from its extent and importance, thought worthy of a minute examination, occupying seven days. It was here that Cook's illustrious career was closed by a terrible catastrophe. Yet was his death not unworthy of his life, for it happened through his anxiety to prevent a sanguinary conflict from taking place between the natives and his marines. Endeavouring to secure the safety of the men, with whom he had landed, on a visit to King Tereeaboo, and whom he became anxious to re-embark immediately the natives showed signs of hostility, he exposed himself too much, and was unable to escape to his boat. The particulars of his death are thus narrated by one who was an eye-witness of the melancholy tragedy :

arm.

12. Captain Cook was 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 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 advanced 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 bight 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 solicit 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 up his head once more, and, being 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. They hauled him up lifeless on the rocks, where they seemed to take a savage pleasure in using every barbarity to his dead body, snatching the daggers out of each other's hands, to have the horrid satisfaction of piercing the fallen victim of their barbarous rage.

'This fatal accident happened at eight o'clock in the morning, about an hour after Captain Cook landed.'

13. Thus perished the great English discoverer, at the comparatively early age of fifty-two, on February 14, 1779. He has left behind him a name which England does well to cherish. 'Peace hath her victories,' says the poet, 'no less renowned than war;' and the triumphs which Cook so bloodlessly won, for the benefit of humanity and the advancement of civilisation, are not less deserving of grateful recognition than the victories wrested from the foe on many a deadly field, for the gratification of a nation's pride or a monarch's ambition.

EPILOGUE.

Ir is unnecessary for us to adduce further examples in illustration of our theme from the careers of men who have become eminent in the naval or military profession. For him who follows the trade of arms, or goes down to the great deep in ships, fixity of purpose and steadfastness of will are as needful, if he would attain to distinction.or satisfactorily tread the path of duty, as for the engineer who raises the lighthouse on the wind-swept rock, or burrows a tunnel through the depths of the everlasting hills. "To scorn delight, and live laborious days;' to endure cheerfully the inclemencies of climate or scarcity of food; to watch, and wait, and persevere; to seize every opportunity of acquiring information; to keep ever in