364) cook's voyage to june, 



If the discovery of this great river*, which pro- 

 mises to vie with the most considerable ones already 

 known to be capable of extensive inland navigation, 

 should prove of use either to the present or to any 

 future age, the time we spent in it ought to be the 

 less regretted. But to us, who had a much, greater 

 object in view, the delay thus occasioned was an es- 

 sential loss. The season was advancing apace. We 

 knew not how far we might have to proceed to the 

 south ; and we were now convinced that the conti- 

 nent of North America extended farther to the west 

 than, from the modern most reputable charts, we had 

 reason to expect. This made the existence of a pas- 

 sage into Baffin's or Hudson's Bays less probable, or, 

 at least, showed it to be of greater extent. It was a 

 satisfaction to me, however, to reflect that, if I had 

 not examined this very considerable inlet, it would 

 have been assumed, by speculative fabricators of 

 geography, as a fact that it communicated with the 

 sea to the north, or with Baffin's or Hudson's Bay to 

 the east ; and been marked, perhaps, on future maps 

 of the world, with greater precision, and more cer- 

 tain signs of reality, than the invisible, because ima- 

 ginary, Straits of de Fuca, and de Fonte. 



In the afternoon I sent Mr. King again, with two 

 armed boats, with orders to land on the northern 

 point of the low land, on the south-east side of the 

 river ; there to display the flag, and to take posses- 

 sion of the country and river in his Majesty's name; 

 and to bury in the ground a bottle, containing some 

 pieces of English coin, of the year 177^, and a paper, 

 on which were inscribed the names of our ships, and 

 the date of our discovery. In the mean time, the 

 ships were got under sail, in order to proceed down 

 the river. The wind still blew fresh, easterly ; but 



* Captain Cook having here left a blank which he had not filled 

 up with any particular name, Lord Sandwich directed, with the 

 greatest propriety, that it should be called Cook's River, 



