FIRST VOYAGE 109 



land. The captain of that vessel came on board, and 

 received from Captain Cook a letter to the Admiralty, 

 together with a box, in which were deposited the journals 

 of many of the officers, and the ship's log-books. 



On the 23rd, they lost sight of all the ships they sailed 

 in company with from St. Helena ; and in the afternoon of 

 the same day, Mr. Hicks, the first lieutenant, died of a 

 consumption, with which he had been afflicted during the 

 whole voyage. 



No single occurrence worth recording happened from this 

 time till the ship came to an anchor in the Downs, which 

 was on the 12th of July following, after an absence of two 

 years, nine months, and fourteen days. 



Whoever has carefully read, and duly considered, the 

 wonderful protection of this ship, in cases of danger the most 

 imminent and astonishing, particularly when encircled in 

 the wide ocean with rocks of coral, her sheathing beaten off, 

 her false keel floating fry her side, and a hole in her bottom, 

 will naturally turn his thoughts with adoration to that 

 Divine Being, whose mercies are over all his works. 



The grand object of Captain Cook's expedition will be 

 found detailed in the sixty-first volume of the Philosophical 

 Transactions. But independent of this, no navigator, since 

 the time of Columbus, had made more important original 

 discoveries. Exclusive of several islands, never visited 

 before, he ascertained New Zealand to be composed of 

 two islands, by sailing between them ; and he explored an 

 immense tract of the coast of New Holland, till then little 

 known by Europeans. 



These are the appropriate merits of Captain Cook's first 

 and glorious voyage ; and though the sequel will show that 

 he improved on himself, he still remains unrivalled for 

 what he had already accomplished. 



The curiosities alluded to in the following letter from Captain 

 Cook, will be found in the Ethnographical Collection in the British 

 Museum : 



Mile End, 13th August, 1771. 



SIB, Herewith you will receive the bulk of the curiositys I have 

 collected in the course of the voyage, as undermentioned, which 

 you will please to dispose of as you think proper. 

 I am, Sir, your most humble servant, 



JAMES COOK. 

 One chest of So. Sea Islands cloth, breast-plates, and NewZeland 



clothing, etc. 



One long-box or So. Sea Island chest, sundry small articles. 

 One cask, a small carved box from New Zeland, full of several small 

 articles from the same place, 1 drum, 1 wooden tray, 5 pillows, 

 2 scoops, 2 stone and 2 wooden axes, 2 cloth beaters, 1 fish 

 hook. 



