450 



COOCH BEHAR 



COOK 



as Fleabane and Ploughman's Spikenard, and has 

 a strong peculiar smell, traditionally said to drive 

 away fleas and gnats. 



Cooch Behar. See BEHAR. 



Cook* BUTTON, dramatic critic and author, the 

 son of a solicitor, was born in London, 30th Janu- 

 ary 1829, spent four years in his father's office, then 

 entered a railway office, which he left to follow the 

 full bent of his literary and artistic tastes. He 

 studied painting and engraving, wrote a successful 

 melodrama, acted as dramatic critic for the Pall 

 Mall Gazette, 1867-75, and then for the World 

 till his death, llth September 1883. He wrote 

 for various newspapers and magazines, including 

 Temple Bar and Chambers 's Journal, and his eight 

 novels, and others, were always interesting and 

 well written, but sometimes failed in catching the 

 average novel-reader. He wrote the dramatic and 

 theatrical lives for the first two volumes of the 

 Dictionary of National Biography, was also author 

 of A Book of the Play (1876)j Hours with the 

 Players (1881), and On the Stage (1883). 



Cook, ELIZA, a favourite minor English poetess, 

 daughter of a London tradesman, was born at 

 Southwark in 1818. She contributed poetical 

 pieces to various magazines from an early age, and 

 issued her Melaia and Other Poems in 1838, which, 

 along with the issue of volumes in 1864 and 1865, 

 established her reputation as a meritorious verse 

 writer of sound morality, and clear, sensible, and 

 simple treatment. She conducted Eliza Cook's 

 Journal (1849-54) till ill-health obliged her to 

 relinquish it ; in 1864 a pension of 100 a year 

 was conferred upon her by government. She also 

 wrote Jottings from My Journal (1860), and La- 

 conics (1865). Died September 25, 1889. 



Cook, JAMES, one of England's greatest navi- 

 gators and maritime exploiters, was born at Marton, 

 in Cleveland, Yorkshire, where his father was an 

 agricultural labourer, on October 28 (according to 

 another authority, November), 1728. After a 

 meagre education, Cook was apprenticed at the 

 age of thirteen to a haberdasher at Staithes, 10 

 miles north of Whitby. After a short experience of 

 this life, he was bound apprentice to Whitby ship- 

 owners, and spent several years in the coasting 

 and Baltic trade. In 1755 he entered the royal 

 navy as an able seaman, and in four years rose to 

 the rank of master. For about ten years after this 

 he was mostly engaged in surveying about the 

 St Lawrence and the shores of Newfoundland, and 

 the results as embodied in his sailing directory 

 (1766-78), are of value even at the present day. 

 During this period he devoted himself to the 

 study of mathematics, and otherwise qualified 

 himself for the highest rank in the navy. In 

 1768 he was raised to the rank of lieutenant, and 

 placed in command of the Endeavour, appointed to 

 convey the expedition for the observation of the 

 transit of Venus in the Pacific. The Endeavour 

 sailed on August 25, and arrived at Tahiti in the 

 following April, the transit being successfully 

 observed on June 3. On the return, New Zealand 

 was for the first time circumnavigated, and its 

 coasts charted ; the east coast of Australia 

 was surveyed and taken possession of in the 

 name of Great Britain. The strait which separates 

 Australia from New Guinea was sailed through, 

 and the distinction of those two islands estab- 

 lished beyond doubt. Continuing his voyage by 

 Java (Batavia) and the Cape of Good Hope, Cook 

 anchored in the Downs on June 12, 1771. One 

 important result of the voyage was to disprove the 

 existence of the 'great southern Continent,' which 

 had been supposed to extend from the Antarctic as 

 far north as 40 S. Cook was promoted to the 

 rank of commander, and given the command of a 



second voyage of discovery in the Resolution and 

 Adventure, which sailed from Plymouth, July 13, 

 1772. This expedition was out for three years. 

 The great object was to discover how far the land* 

 of the Antarctic stretched northwards. For this 

 purpose Cook sailed round the edge of the ice, and 

 penetrated as far south as possible, his farthest- 

 south point being 71 10', in long. 110 54' W. 

 During the intervals between the Antarctic voy- 

 ages, Cook cruised in the Southern Pacific, visiting 

 Tahiti, exploring the New Hebrides, discovering 

 New Caledonia, and many of the island groups in 

 the Pacific. Plymouth was reached on July 29, 

 1775. One important feature of the second voyage 

 was that, owing to the precautions taken by Cook,, 

 there was only one death among his crews during 

 all the three years a marked contrast to the fear- 

 ful losses sustained during other voyages of this- 

 period. 



Cook, who had been promoted to captain, and 

 received an appointment in Greenwich Hospital, 

 had scarcely oeen home for a year before he- 

 was appointed to the command of another ex- 

 pedition, the main object of which was to dis- 

 cover a passage round the north coast of America, 

 from the Pacific. Cook sailed from Plymouth in 

 the Resolution, July 12, 1776, followed by Captain. 

 Clarke in the Discovery. Leaving the Cape on 

 November 30, the expedition visited Tasmania and 

 New Zealand, "and spent the year 1777 cruising 

 among the Pacific Islands. In the beginning of 

 1778 the Sandwich Islands were discovered, when 

 Cook made for the west coast of North America. 

 This he followed and surveyed from 45 N. as far as. 

 Icy Cape on the inside of Behring Strait, where he 

 was compelled to turn back, reaching Karakakoa 

 Bay in Hawaii, Sandwich Islands, January 17, 

 1779. At first the expedition was treated in the 

 most friendly way by the natives. For some 

 reason their attitude changed, and on February 

 14, when Cook landed with a party to recover a. 

 stolen boat, the natives set upon them with sudden 

 fury, Cook being clubbed and stabbed to death at 

 the edge of the water. Part of the body was. 

 recovered and buried, and in 1874 a monument was 

 erected near the spot where he fell. Many varied 

 accounts have been given of Cook's death, and 

 many reasons adduced for the changed attitude of 

 the Hawaiians ; but the probability is that he 

 simply fell a victim to a sudden outbreak of 

 savage fury. Cook did more than any other navi- 

 gator to add to our knowledge of the Pacific and 

 the Southern Ocean ; his observations have stood 

 the test of modern investigations ; in character he- 

 was honest and just, both to his own men and to 

 the natives with whom he came into contact, and 

 who almost invariably became greatly attached to 

 him. A pension of 200 was granted to his widow 

 (whom he married in 1762), and 25 to each of his; 

 three children. 



An account of the first voyage originally appeared as 

 vols. ii. and iii. of Hawkesworth's Voyages ( 1773 ) ; the 

 narrative of the second was written by Cook himself, 2 

 vols. with 1 vol. of plates ( 1777 ) ; that of the third 

 appeared in 3 vols. and an atlas ( 1784 ), partly by Cook 

 and partly by Captain James King. See Kippis's Life 

 and Voyages of Captain James Cook ( 1788 ; reprinted 

 1883 ) ; Professor Laughton's article in the Diet. Nat. 

 Biog. ; Besant's monograph ( 1890 ) ; and the unabridged 

 reprint of Cook's Journal of his First Voyage, by Captain 

 Wharton (1893). 



Cook, JOSEPH, lecturer and author, born at 

 Ticonderoga, New York, in 1838, graduated at 

 Harvard and Andover, and after three years' 

 preaching went to Europe in 1871, where he 

 studied in Germany, and made a tour of the Medi- 

 terranean countries. In 1873 he commenced a 

 series of ' Monday Lectures ' in Boston, which, 

 endeavouring to harmonise science and religion,, 



