48 cook's voyage to feb. 



Sandwich Land, the thule of the Southern hemis- 

 phere ; and having twice visited the tropical seas, he 

 settled the situations of the old, and made several 

 new discoveries. 



But the voyage we are now relating is distin- 

 guished above all the rest by the extent and import- 

 ance of its discoveries. Besides several smaller 

 islands in the Southern Pacific, he discovered, to 

 the north of the equinoctial line, the group called 

 the Sandwich Islands ; which, from their situation 

 and productions, bid fairer for becoming an object 

 of consequence, in the system of European navi- 

 gation, than any other discovery in the South Sea. 

 He afterward explored what had hitherto remained 

 unknow r n of the western coast of America, from the 

 latitude of 43° to 70° north, containing an extent of 

 three thousand five hundred miles ; ascertained the 

 proximity of the two great continents of Asia and 

 America ; passed the straits between them, and 

 surveyed the coast, on each side, to such a height of 

 northern latitude, as to demonstrate the impractica- 

 bility of a passage in that hemisphere, from the 

 Atlantic into the Pacific Ocean, either by an eastern 

 or a western course. In short, if we except the sea 

 of Amur, and the Japanese Archipelago, which still 

 remain imperfectly known to Europeans, he has com- 

 pleted the hydrography of the habitable globe. 



As a navigator, his services were not perhaps less 

 splendid 5 certainly not less important and meri- 

 torious. The method which he discovered, and so 

 successfully pursued of preserving the health of sea- 

 men, forms a new aera in navigation, and will trans- 

 mit his name to future ages amongst the friends and 

 benefactors of mankind. 



Those who are conversant in naval history need 

 not be told at how dear a rate the advantages which 

 have been sought through the medium of long 

 voyages at sea have always been purchased. That 



