476 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



in the Friendly Islands ; " future navigators," he writes, 

 " may behold these meadows stocked with cattle brought 

 by the ships of England." Once more he discusses with 

 understanding and with charity the psychology of the 

 innocent kleptomaniac ; " great allowance should be 

 made for the foibles of these poor natives of the Pacific, 

 whose minds are overpowered with the glare of objects 

 equally new and captivating." A flogging made no 

 more impression on them .than it would have made on 

 the mainmast. But Clerke thought of a punishment 

 that proved wonderfully effective ; he shaved their heads. 

 In August they came to Tahiti, and Omai, the native 

 whom Furneaux had taken to England, was restored to 

 his fatherland. In November Cook sailed Northward, 

 and passed out of our story of the South Pacific. 

 Cook's The sense of Cook's greatness grows in the student's 



character. mmc j. j-[ e does not storm our admiration as, for example, 

 does Drake or Wolfe. There is a certain quietness and 

 reticence in his life, as in his conversation, and as in his 

 writings. He was, we are told, a good talker, yet none 

 of his talk has lived. He wrote accounts of his own 

 voyages in admirable English, but his object was to get 

 the story told, and, as we read, we think rather of the story 

 than of the man. In no one moment does Cook shine 

 forth the evident hero. His character in some way reminds 

 one of that of his greatest contemporary, George Washing- 

 ton he who won a great war without winning a battle. 

 His greatness appears as we think, not of one moment, 

 Heroism, but of the whole life. Heroism was so wrought into 

 the texture of character, that he tells a heroic story in 

 a way that makes one imagine it a matter-of-course affair. 

 We think that the story lacks interest, when the fact 

 is that it lacks egotism. Cook solves the riddle of the 

 Pacific, and he tells you that he has done his duty, and 

 has made " a complete voyage." We have to find for 

 ourselves that none but Cook could have done this 

 duty, or could have completed this voyage ; that the 

 reason of victory was greatness of mind, of will, and of 

 spirit. 



