THIRD VOYAGE 445 



the whole quantity usually carried out by sturgeons in such 

 vessels as ours. Had more been affected in the same 

 manner, they would probably all have perished from the 

 want of the only remedy capable of affording them effectual 

 relief. 



" Another circumstance attending this voyage, which, if 

 we consider its duration and the nature of the service in 

 ; which we were engaged, will appear scarcely less singular 

 than the extraordinary healthiness of the crews, was, that 

 the two ships never lost sight of each other for a day to- 

 gether, except twice, which was owing, the first time, to an 

 accident that happened to the Discovery off the coast of 

 Owhyhee, and the second, to the fogs we met with at 

 the entrance of Awatska Bay. A stronger proof cannot 

 be given of the skill and vigilance of our subaltern officers, to 

 whom this share of merit almost entirely belongs. 



" Thus ended a voyage distinguished by the extent and 

 importance of its discoveries. > Besides other inferior 

 islands, it added that fine group called the Sandwich Islands, 

 to the former known limits of the terraqueous globe, and 

 ascertained the proximity of the two great continents of 

 Asia and America." 



This enterprise proved fatal to its principal conductors 

 Captains Cook and Clerke, as we have seen, never returned. 

 Captain King, with a constitution broken by climate and 

 fatigue, lived indeed to publish the voyage which will 

 immortalize his name ; but he soon after fell a martyr to 

 what he had undergone in the service of his country. He 

 died at Nice, whither he had retired for the mild salubrity 

 of the air, in the autumn of 1784 ; and though cut off 

 in the bloom of life, left a name covered with honour and 

 remembered with regret. He was the fourth son of the 

 Dean of Raphoe in Ireland, but of an English family. 



Having come to a conclusion of the voyages in which 

 the genius and talents of that great navigator Captain Cook 

 are so pre-eminently displayed, we cannot omit the oppor- 

 tunity of gratifying a propensity which our. readers must 

 naturally feel of being made acquainted with what family 

 he left behind him, and how the dispensations of Providence 

 may have disposed of them ; but in doing this, sorry are 

 we to say, that we impose on ourselves a very painful duty, 

 for we are unfortunately compelled to relate a tale of woe, 

 melancholy and distressing in the extreme. 



When he set out on his last voyage, Captain Cook's 

 family consisted of his wife and three sons, the second 

 of whom was lost on board the Thunderer man of war, about 

 six months after the unfortunate death of his father. The 



