512 DISCOVERIES OF 1776 to 



gated the globe, was appointed to command it. 

 On this occasion the plan of discovery which had 

 hitherto been followed was reversed, and instead 

 of attempting to pass from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific, it was now intended to try it from the 

 latter into the former. The two ships fitted 

 out for this purpose were the Resolution and the 

 Discovery ; the former of which was under the 

 immediate command of Captain Cook, the latter 

 of Captain Clerke. It has been mentioned, that 

 by the Act of 18 Geo. II. a reward of ^£20,000 was 

 held out to ships belonging to any of his Majesty's 

 subjects which should make the passage; but it 

 excluded his Majesty's own ships ; the reward was 

 moreover confined to such ships as should discover 

 a passage through Hudson's Bay. This Act was 

 therefore, on the present occasion, amended, and so 

 framed as to include his Majesty's ships, and to ap- 

 propriate the reward for the discovery of " any nor- 

 thern passage" for vessels by sea between the At- 

 lantic and Pacific Oceans ; and it also awards the 

 sum of five thousand pounds to any ship that shall 

 approach to w ithin one degree of the North Pole.* 

 On the 12th July, 177^, the Resolution sailed 

 from Plymouth Sound, leaving instructions for the 

 Discovery to join her at the Cape of Good Hope ; 

 and after various discoveries in the southern hemi- 

 sphere, the Pacific, and the two coasts of Asia and 



* l6 Geo. III. chap. 6. 



