446 CAPTAIN COOK'S VOYAGES 



eldest son, who was appointed master and commander of 

 the Spitfire sloop of war, while she lay off Poole waiting 

 for hands, in attempting to get on board, was driven to sea 

 in a boat during the night in a heavy gale of wind, and 

 he and every person in the boat perished. But what 

 considerably aggravates this misfortune is, as was after- 

 wards disclosed by one of the sailors on board the vessel, 

 that in their distress they were met by a revenue cutter, the 

 hands of which threw them a rope, and lay to till they 

 could bale their boat, or the fury of the wind should cease. 

 But the master of the cutter, who was then in bed, was 

 no sooner made acquainted with these circumstances, and 

 that it was a king's boat, than, with an oath, he ordered his 

 men immediately to set them adrift, and in that situation 

 they were left to be overwhelmed by a tempestuous sea. 



His body was afterwards found, and conveyed to Spithead 

 on board his own vessel, whence it was conveyed to Cam- 

 bridge, and buried by the side of the youngest brother, 

 who had suddenly died of a fever, and whose funeral he had 

 attended only about six weeks before. 



Thus was a tender mother prematurely deprived of her 

 husband and children, and left to mourn their untimely 

 fates, which had so powerful an effect upon her mind as to 

 reduce Mrs. Cook to a mere shadow of what she was formerly. 



One thing yet remains to be done, a public monument to 

 Captain Cook, and one worthy of his great achievements, 

 the benefits he has rendered to mankind, and the lustre shed 

 by his name on the navy of England, some noble light- 

 house in the pathway of ships of all nations, which may 

 lead them safely to their respective havens ; or, if this 

 cannot be, at least a statue in Trafalgar Square, where Dr. 

 Jenner and Sir Charles Napier are most grievously out of 

 place, occupying, as they do, the site of statues of Colling- 

 wood, Hardy, St. Vincent, Howe, Duncan, etc. 



The only memorial to Cook at present is at Cambridge, 

 and is as follows : 



Inscription on the Tablet near the Communion Table in 

 the church of St. Andrew the Great, Cambridge 



IN MEMOBY 



OF CAPTAIN JAMES COOK, of the Eoyal Navy. 

 One of the moat celebrated Navigators that this or former ages 



can boast of ; 



Who was killed by the natives of Owyhee, 



In the Pacific Ocean, on the 14th day of February, 1779, 



In the olst year of his age. 



