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Hope, where the governor received him with the greatest politenefs, and promised every affiftance which the place afforded. From the Cape, our commander departed, on the 22d of November, in fearch of a southern continent; and having got clear of the land, directed his courfe for Cape Circumcifion; but a dreadful gale of wind coming on about the 6th of December, which at times was fo furious, that the fhips could carry no fail, they were driven fo far to the eastward of, their course, that no hopes were left of reaching the defired spot.

by the name of the Aurora Borealis. Captain Cook had never heard, that an Aurora Australis had been seen before. The officer of the watch obferved that it fometimes broke out in fpiral rays, and in a circular form; at which time its light was very strong, and its appearance beautiful. It diffufed its light throughout the whole atmosphere, without appearing to have any particular direction. On the 17th of March, after two months longer navigation amidst islands and mountains of ice, confidering that it would be very improper to continue longer in high fouthern latitudes, he refolved to quit them, and to proceed to New Zealand, with a view of looking for the Adventure, which had accidentally parted from him on the 8th of February, and that he might procure fome refreshments. He therefore fteered his course for that ifland, and came to anchor in Dusky Bay the 26th of March. From this place, he proceeded to Queen Charlotte's Sound; where he had the fatisfaction of finding the Adventure, from which they had been separated fourteen weeks.

December the 10th, our navigators began to be obstructed with iflands of ice; one of which was fo much concealed by the hazinefs of the weather, that they were almoft clofe upon it before it was perceived. Captain Cook judged, that it might be about fifty feet high, and half a mile in circumference: it was flat on the top, and its fides rofe in a perpendicular direction, against which the fea broke with amazing fury, and was dashed up to a great height. Six of them were paffed on the 12th, fome of which were nearly two miles in circuit, and fixty feet high; but, fuch was the force and height of the waves, that the fea broke quite over them. Hence was exhibited a view that, for a few moments, was pleafing to the eye; but the pleasure was foon swallowed up in the horror which feized upon the mind, from the profpect of furrounding danger. On the 14th, the veffels were ftopped by an immenfe field of low ice, to which no end could be feen, ei ther to the east, weft, or fouth. By the 17th of January 1773, he had reached the latitude of 67°. 15'. where he found the ice entirely lofed. In the morning of the 17th of February, between midnight and three o'clock, lights were feen in the heavens, fimilar to thofe which are known in the northern hemisphere, VOL. II.

After quitting New Zealand, in company with the Adventure, Mr. Cook paid a vifit to his old friends at Otaheite, the Society and Friendly Ifles; and having examined a space of more than forty degrees of longitude, between the tropics, returned to Queen Charlotte's Sound.

He again fet fail the 27th of November, to explore the unknown parts of the Pacific Ocean. In this perilous navigation, he was often interrupted by islands of ice; among which he was fometimes as it were inclosed; and though his vessel was almost every moment in hazard of being dafhed to pieces, by large maffes, which floated around, he advanced, amidst all these obsta cles, till Nature fet bound to his courfe.

M

January

January the 26th, 1774, our navigators paffed the Antarctic circle, for the third time, in 109 degrees of weft longitude; where they found the mildeft fun-fhine they had experienced in the frigid zone. This induced them to hope, that they fhould be able to proceed as far towards the fouth as others had towards the north: but the next day, a folid field of ice appeared before them, which extended from east to weft farther than the human eye could reach. Within this field ninety-feven iflands were counted, befides those on the outfide, many of which were large, and had the appearance of a ridge of mountains, rifing regularly above each other, till the most diftant ones feemed as if loft in the clouds. The outer, or northern edge of this immenfe field, was compofed of loofe or broken ice, packed fo clofely together, that it could not be entered. Captain Cook, however, was of opinion, that there must be land to the fouth behind it." If there is," fays he, "It can afford no better retreat for birds, or any other animals, than the ice itself, with which it must be entirely covered." He then adds, "I, who was ambitious not only of going farther than any body had gone before, but as far as it was poffible for man to go, was not forry at meeting with this interruption, as it in fome measure relieved us, and fhortened the dangers and hardfhips infeparable from the navigation of the fouthern polar regions. Since, then, we could not proceed farther to the fouth, no other rea fon need be affigned for my tacking and ftanding back to the north, being at this time in the latitude of 70. 10. fouth, and longitude 106°. 54'. west."

Mr. Cook, after this, went in queft of land, faid to have been difcovered by Juan Fernandez; but

no veftiges of it could he find. He next proceeded to the Marquefas, difcovered in 1595; and viited, for the fecond time during this voyage, the island of Otaheite.When he had procured fome refreshments, he failed for the New Hebrides; which, though discovered as early as 1606, by Quiros, had never been fufficiently explored. Exclufive of afcertaining the extent and fituation of these islands, which had barely been feen by others, captain Cook acquired a knowledge of feveral before unknown, which entitled him to bestow on the whole, that appellation by which they are now diftinguifhed.

He

During the month of August 1774, captain Cook continued furveying thefe iflands; and having fet fail on the 1ft of Auguft, difcovered a large track of land, to which he gave the name of New Caledonia. alfo explored the coafts of this country, and found it to be the most confiderable of all the tropical iflands in thofe parts, and, except New Holland and New Zealand, the largest that has been feen in the South Pacific Ocean. Our navigator, on leaving New Caledonia, fell in with an uninhabited ifland, on the 10th of October, which he named Nor folk Ifle, in honour of the noble fa mily of Howard; and finding that provifions were now beginning to run fhort, he failed again for New Zealand; where he accordingly came to anchor the 18th of October Here he continued till November 10, when he again fet out in pursuit of his great object, the existence of a fouthern continent. Having failed till the 27th, in different degrees of latitude, extending from 43. to 55% 48. fouth without fuccefs, he gave up all hopes of finding the object of his purfuit, and refolved to steer directly for the weft entrance of the traits of Maghalhaens, with a view

of

Strait Le Maire, to Staten Ifland; and, having explored part of the neighbouring feas, directed his courfe to the Cape of Good Hope, from which place he failed to England. He arrived on the 19th of July 1775, having been absent three years and eighteen days.

From the period of captain Cook's leaving the Cape of Good Hope to that of his return to it again, he had traversed no lefs a fpace than twenty thousand leagues; an extent nearly equal to three times the equatorial circumference of the earth. But what will appear still more furprifing is, that though expofed to almost every change of climate, he loft no more than four men during his voyage.

Lord Sandwich, who was ftill at the head of the Admiralty, took the earliest opportunity of laying the fervices of our navigator before the king, who seemed anxious to confer on him fome mark of diftinction. On the 9th of Auguft, he was in confequence raised to the rank of a poft captain, and, on the 12th, was appointed a captain in Greenwich Hofpital; a fituation intended to afford him an honourable reward for his eminent fervices. On the 7th of March 1776, he was admitted a member of the Royal Society; and that fame evening a paper was read, which he addreffed to fir John Pringle, giving an account of the method he had purfued to preserve the health of the crew of the Refolution during her voyage round the world. At the request of the

our navigator. "If Rome," faid he, "decreed the civic crown to him who faved the life of a fingle citi zen, what wreaths are due to the man who, having himself faved many, perpetuates, in your Tranfac tions, the means by which Britain may now, on the moft diftant voy ages, preferve numbers of her intre pid fons, her mariners, who, braving every danger, have fo liberally con tributed to the fame, to the opu lence, and to the maritime empire of their country."

Captain Cook, however, was not prefent to receive the honour conferred on him. Some months before the anniversary of St. Andrew's day, he had failed on his last expedition. The medal was therefore delivered into the hands of Mrs. Cook.

There remained ftill another important object to be investigated; the practicability of a northern paffage to the Pacific Ocean. It had long been a favourite scheme with navigators, and particularly the Englifh, to difcover a fhorter and more commodious courfe to the Eaft Indies, than that by the Cape of Good Hope. Several attempts were formerly made for this purpose, by our own countrymen, as well as the Dutch; but it had ceased for many years to be an object of pur fuit. In the beginning of the prefent century, however, it was again revived by Mr. Dobbs; and cap. tain Middleton was fent out by government in 1741, and captains Smith and Moore in 1746: but thefe attempts proved ineffectual,

been paffed, fecuring a reward of twenty thousand pounds to the dif

coverer.

Thus the matter refted, till lord Sandwich, the first lord of the Ad miralty, efpoufed the caufe; and it was refolved, in confequence, that a voyage fhould be undertaken for that purpose. To conduct this enterprize, great skill and ability were undeniably requifite; and though no one was fo well qualified as captain Cook, yet no one prefumed to folicit him on the fubject. The fervice he had already rendered to fcience, and navigation, was fo great, the labours he had fuftained, and the dangers he had encountered, were fo various, and fo many, that it was deemed unreasonable to afk him to engage in fresh perils. But his advice was requested, as to the perfon best calculated for undertaking the voyage; and in order to determine this point, the captain, fir Hugh Pallifer, and Mr. Stephens, were purpofely invited to dine at lord Sandwich's houfe. The favourite fubject was of courfe introduced; but with fuch earnestnefs, that Cook's mind was inftantaneously fired with the magnitude of the object; he fuddenly started up, and declared, that he himself would undertake the direction of it. Nothing could be. received with more pleature by the company. Lord Sandwich foon after laid the affair before his majesty, and, on the 10th of February 1776, captain Cook was appointed to the expedition.

All former navigators round the globe had returned by the Cape of Good Hope; but to captain Cook was affigned the arduous task of attempting the fame thing, by reaching the high northern latitudes, between Afia and America; and this plan was adopted, in confequence of his own particular fuggeftions. He was, therefore, ordered to pro

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ceed to the Pacific Ocean, through that chain of iflands, in the tropical regions of the fouth, which he had before vifited, and thence, if practicable, to make his way into the Atlantic.

To give every poffible encouragement to the promotion of this great defign, motives of interest were added. In the act passed in 1745, the reward of twenty thousand pounds was only offered to veffels belonging to any of his majesty's fubjects; fhips belonging to government being excluded. The reward, be fides, was entirely confined to fuch as fhould difcover a paffage through Hudfon's Bay: but by a new act, paffed in 1776, it was declared, that if any fhip belonging to any of his majesty's fubjects, or to his majesty, fhould discover, and fail through, any paffage by fea, between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, in any direction, or parallel of the northern hemifphere, to the northward of the fifty-fecond degree of northern latitude, the owners of fuch fhips, if belonging to any of his majesty's fubjects, or the commander, officers, and feamen of fuch ship, if belonging to his majesty, fhould receive the fum of twenty thousand pounds, aa a reward.

The veffels fixed on for this fer vice were, the Refolution and the Difcovery. Captain Cook commanded the former, and captain Clerk, who had been our naviga tor's fecond lieutenant in his fecond voyage, the latter. About the fame complement of men and officers was affigned as before, and the utmost attention was employed to have them equipped in the completeft manner.

That the inhabitants of Otaheite, and of the other South Sea islands, where the English had been treated with hofpitality, might be benefited by the expedition, his majesty ordered an affortment of useful ani

mals

to induce them to accede to a profitable traffic. Additional cloathing, fuited to the rigours of a cold climate, was ordered for the fhips crews; and, in fact, nothing was denied these navigators, that could leffen the hardships of the expedition. -Several nautical and aftronomical

geon of the Refolution, took the department of natural history; and, that nothing might be deficient, Mr. Webber was engaged to make mafterly drawings of fuch objects as could only be properly reprefented by the aid of the pencil.

[To be continued.]

REVIEW OF HISTORICAL BOOKS.

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HE author of this work, who is supposed to be a courtier, gives a full account of all the most striking events, which he profeffes to have witneffed, in Sweden, from 1770 to June 1789 at which period his defultory narrative closes. A northern traveller is faid to have obtained these volumes in manufcript; but whether from the firft writer, or by other means, we are not informed. Perhaps, however, it is fufficient to fay, that the facts ftated, bear marks of authenticity; and that the characters are drawn by a writer who is not deftitute of information. That our readers may judge with ourselves, we shall felect the author's account of the royal pair of Sweden, efpecially as it includes a piece of fecret hiftory, which ftrikes us as particularly interefting.

66, As to the character of the king of Sweden, he is generally allowed to be one of the most amiable and popular princes in Europe. He has a particular gift to gain the heart of every one. His converfation in public is full of wit, politeness, and a kind attention to make every one eafy; in private he fpeaks with the cordiality and fimplicity of a friend; he grants favours with ap

fatisfadion to himfolf and

knows how to refufe without giving
uneafinefs. His clemency is founded
on his great fenfibility, which could
never yet permit him to punish with
death or infamy any one perfonally
known to him. He has often wished
that he might never unavoidably be
forced to fuch an act of severity, be-
caufe the remembrance would ever
make him unhappy. It may be said,
that he inherits his father's heart with
the genius of his mother. Had he been
a private man, he would have made his
fortune either in the line of politics or
literature. His knowledge in hiftory
and diplomatics is prodigious; his pub-
lic fpeeches in the diets, and upon other
occafions, have an uncommon force and
elegance worthy fuch a fpeaker; and
feveral plays he has compofed for the
newly-conftituted national stage, are of
a richness in their compofition, and pu-
rity in their morals, that befpeak the
prince and the legislator; and notwith-
ftanding all the pains he had taken to
prevent being known as the author, it
foon became no fecret, that they were
from the pen of majesty.

"Next to the king, the queen is a worthy object of our attention. Among other eminent qualities in that princefs, it is perhaps her firft merit that the meddles not in politics: fhe is the king's wife, and nothing elfe. Sweden has had fufficient experience of the

evile exiling from female inquence in

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