COOK, Captain JAMES, one of the most eminent among England's celebrated naviga tors, was b. Oct. 27, 1728, at Marton, in Yorkshire, where his father was an agricultural laborer. At first apprenticed to a haberdasher, he afterwards went to sea, and, having spent some years in coasting-vessels, entered the royal navy, in which he soon rose to the rank of master. The charts and observations which he drew up as marine-surveyor of the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador, introduced him to the notice of the royal society, who offered him the command of an expedition to the Pacific ocean, to make an observation of the transit of Venus over the face of the sun. The voyage being one to his taste, C. immediately accepted the offer, and set sail from Plymouth on the 26th of Aug., 1768, in the Endeavor, a small ship of 370 tons. The expedition arrived at Tahiti (or Otaheite, as he named it) on the 13th April of the following year; and the transit was witnessed in a most satisfactory manner on the 3d June. Leaving Tahiti on the 13th July, C. visited New Zealand, which bad not been touched at by Europeans for a century and a quarter; and after exploring the coast for six months, sailed westward, reaching (on the 19th April, 1770) New Holland, now Australia, which he called New South Wales, and took possession of in the name of Great Britain. Having explored a large portion of the coast, he steered for New Guinea, passing between Australia and that island, and thus proving, what bad heretofore been doubted, that the two were distinct islands. Continuing his voyage by Java, Batavia, and the cape of Good Hope, C. anchored in the Downs on 12th June, 1771. This voyage, besides vastly increasing geographical knowledge—one of the important results in this respect being, that it proved that neither Australia nor New Zealand belonged to the southern continent at this time supposed to exist, and that to the northward of lat. 40° s. no continent could exist—also added not a little to the sciences of botany and astronomy. A second voyage, for the discovery of what was then called the Terra Australis Incognita, which was now believed to lie in higher latitudes than had hitherto been explored, was undertaken by C. in the year of his return; and the expedition, consisting of two ships—the Resolution and the Adventure—sailed from Plymouth on the 13th July, 1772. It would be out of
the scope of this article to follow capt. C. through his three years' navigation of the Pacific and Southern oceans, in the course of which time he sailed upwards of 20,000 leagues. It can only be stated generally, that his voyage proved the non-existence of land of any extent between the 50th and 70th parallels. C. arrived in England again on the 30th July, 1775. So admirable had been his arrangements for the health of his crew, that during the whole voyage he lost only one man by sickness; and so skillful his sea manship, that not a spar of any consequence was lost. C. wrote an account of his second voyage himself. The belief in a practicable n.w. passage, notwithstanding the failure of attempts extending over two centuries, still held possession of men's minds; and C. bad no sooner returned from his second voyage, than he offered his services to the admiralty, who had resolved on another effort for the discovery. They were gladly accepted, and C. determined to seek the passage by the way of Behring's strait, instead of by Baffin's bay and Davis' strait, the routes formerly attempted. In his old ship, the Resolution, accompanied by capt. Clerke in the Discovery, C. sailed from Plymouth on the 12th July, 1776. In this last voyage, C. met his death at the hands of savages, on the island of Hawaii, while endeavoring to recover a boat which had been stolen from the Discovery. This tragical event occurred on the 14th Feb.. 1779; not, however, before C. had made valuable additions to our geographical knowledge of the coasts of America and Asia, in the region of Behring's strait. The news of his death occasioned deep and general regret in England. The king granted his widow a pension of £200, and each of his children £25; while the royal society did honor to his name, by having a gold medal struck in his commemoration. C. was one of England's greatest navigators. A practical and scientific seaman, he was also a sagacious, self-possessed commander, kind although strict to his crew, and marked by indomitable perseverance and ready decision.