1779. THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 47 



gaged, his eagerness and activity were never in the 

 least abated. No incidental temptation could detain 

 him for a moment; even those intervals of recreation, 

 which sometimes unavoidably occurred, and were 

 looked for by us with a longing, that persons who 

 have experienced the fatigues of service will readily 

 excuse, were submitted to by him with a certain im- 

 patience, whenever they could not be employed in 

 making further provision for the more effectual pro- 

 secution of his designs. 



It is not necessary, here, to enumerate the in- 

 stances in which these qualites were displayed, 

 during the great and important enterprizes in which 

 he was engaged. I shall content myself with stating 

 the result of those services, under the two principal 

 heads to which they may be referred, those of 

 geography and navigation, placing each in a separate 

 and distinct point of view. 



Perhaps no science ever received greater additions 

 from the labour of a single man, than geography has 

 done from those of Captain Cook. In his first voyage 

 to the South Seas, he discovered the Society Islands ; 

 determined the insularity of New Zealand ; dis- 

 covered the straits which separate the two islands, 

 and are called after his name ; and made a complete 

 survey of both. He afterward explored the eastern 

 coast of New Holland, hitherto unknown; an extent 

 of twenty-seven degrees of latitude, or upward of two 

 thousand miles. 



In his second expedition, he resolved the great 

 problem of a southern continent ; having traversed 

 that hemisphere between the latitudes of 40° and 

 70°, in such a manner as not to leave a possibility 

 of its existence, unless near the pole, and out of the 

 reach of navigation. During this voyage he dis- 

 covered New Caledonia, the largest island in the 

 Southern Pacific, except New Zealand ; the island 

 of Georgia ; and an unknown coast, which he named 



