1?7P- THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 49 



dreadful disorder which is peculiar to this service, 

 and whose ravages have marked the tracks of dis- 

 coverers with circumstances almost too shocking to 

 relate, must, without exercising an unwarrantable 

 tyranny over the lives of our seamen, have proved 

 an insuperable obstacle to the prosecution of such 

 enterprizes. It was reserved for Captain Cook to 

 show the world, by repeated trials, that voyages 

 might be protracted to the unusual length of three 

 or even four years, in unknown regions, and under 

 every change and rigour of climate, not only without 

 affecting the health, but even without diminishing 

 the probability of life in the smallest degree. The 

 method he pursued has been fully explained by him- 

 self in a paper which was read before the Royal 

 Society, in the year 1776 * ; and whatever improve- 

 ments the experience of the present voyage has sug- 

 gested, are mentioned in their proper places. 



With respect to his professional abilities, I shall 

 leave them to the judgment of those who are best 

 acquainted with the nature of the services in which 

 he was engaged. They will readily acknowledge, 

 that to have conducted three expeditions of so much 

 danger and difficulty, of so unusual a length, and in 

 such a variety of situation, with uniform and in- 

 variable success, must have required not only a 

 thorough and accurate knowledge of his business, 

 but a powerful and comprehensive genius, fruitful 

 in resources, and equally ready in the application of 

 whatever the higher and inferior calls of the service 

 required. 



Having given the most faithful account I have 

 been able to collect, both from my own observation, 

 and the relations of others, of the death of my ever- 

 honoured friend, and also of his character and ser- 



* Sir Godfrey Copley's gold medal was adjudged to him, en 

 that occasion. 



VOL, VII. K 



