CAPTAIN COOK. 



45 



He 



funeral service was 

 read over them, and 

 with military honours 

 they were committed 

 to the deep. " What," 

 writes Kippis, " were 

 the feelings of the 

 companies of both the 

 ships on this occasion 

 must be left to the 

 world to conceive, for 

 those who were pre- 

 sent know, that it is 

 not in the power of 

 any pen to express 

 them." 



After Cook's death 

 the command of the 

 expedition devolved on 

 Captain Clerke, of the 

 Discovery, and both 

 ships once more pro- 

 ceeded on their voy- 

 YDE I'ARK, 



age. On the 2nd of 



August Clerke died of 

 five months after the death of his 

 was buried in -Kamschatka, and was 

 the command of . his own ship by 



succeeded in 



Lieutenant King ; Gore, first lieutenant of the Resolution, taking charge of the expedition. 

 The vessels arrived safely in England in October, 1780, after an absence of over four 

 years. They had not succeeded in the attempt to discover a passage to the north of 

 America, although many other islands besides the Sandwich Group had been discovered 

 and charted, and many valuable additions had been made to geographical knowledge. 

 The melancholy fate of Cook is, however, the one especial incident by which the expe- 

 dition will ever be remembered. 



The news of the death of the great explorer was received in his native country 

 with some emotion, and in more than one continental centre with regret. Gold and 

 silver medals were struck by the Royal Society to commemorate its late member, 

 yearly pensions of two hundred pounds to his widow and twenty-five pounds to each of 

 his three sons were awarded by the Government, and a coat of arms was granted to his 

 family. But the noblest memorial of the distinguished services of Captain Cook, outside 

 of the record of his work itself, is to be found in the magnificent statue and monument 

 of the great circumnavigator erected by the people of New South Wales. It stands on 

 a picturesque site in Hyde Park, Sydney a noble memorial of one of England's greatest 



