* ■ 



174 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 1771, 



at King George s Island in the South Sea; by Mr. Charles Green, formerly 

 Assistant of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, and Lieut. James Cook,* 

 of His Majesty's Ship the Endeavour, p. 397. 



Of these observations, the first is a series of equal altitudes of the sun, for the 

 time, made with the astronomical quadrant: from the whole of these it is inferred, 



* This gentleman was Capt. James Cook, the celebrated circumnavigator, who made, by autho- 

 rity, three voyages round the earth j in the last of which he was killed by the natives of one 

 of the Sandwich Islands, the 14th of Feb., 1779, at 51 years of age. An ample account of the 

 life of this extraordinary man is given in the Biographia Britannica. The following are a few 

 particulars of him. He was born at Marton, in Yorkshire, in 1728, of parents in humble circum- 

 stances 5 and at an early age he was apprenticed to a shopkeeper at Snaithj but afterwards bound 

 himself to a ship owner in the coal trade at Whitby, in which line he served many years. But, on 

 the breaking out of the war in 1755, he entered on board a man of war; where distinguishing 

 himself, by his good conduct, in 1759 he obtained a master's warrant. In that capacity he served 

 at the reduction of Quebec, where he took the soundings of the river St. Laurence, and made an 

 accurate chart of it. He next served at the retaking of Newfoundland, where also he made a 

 survey of the coast, with other curious researches, and observed there an eclipse of the sun, Aug. 5, 

 1766, printed in the Philos. Trans., vol. 57. In 1768, with the rank of lieutenant, he was 

 appointed to the command of the Endeavour, accompanied by Mr. Green, astionomer, to observe 

 the transit of Venus at Otaheite, in the South Seas ; and an account of their observations on that 

 occasion is given in the article above. Along with them also sailed Mr., now Sir Joseph Banks, 

 and Dr. Solander. After the transit was discovered, Mr. Cook sailed on a voyage of discovery, in 

 which he discovered and visited a number of new lands j as the Society Islands, New Zealand, New 

 Holland, Botany Bay, &c. In June, 17, 1771, he arrived in England, and was appointed a com- 

 mander in the navy, an account of the voyage being published by Dr. Hawksworth. 



In 1772 he was again sent out on another voyage, with two ships, the Resolution, commanded by 

 himself, and the Adventure, by Capt. Furneaux. In this voyage he explored the southern hemis- 

 phere as far as latitude 71° 10', amidst immense fields and mountains of ice. Capt. Cook then 

 touched at Otaheite to refresh, and hence sailed to the westward, and visited several groups of 

 islands ; as, what he called the Friendly Isles, also the islands discovered by Quiros, called by 

 Capt. C. the New Hebrides; also New Caledonia, and Norfolk Island, which has since been 

 colonized. After many other additions to our geographical knowledge, but without attaining the 

 main object, the discovery of a southern continent, he arrived in England, July 1775, having lost 

 only one man, out of 118 on board his ship, owing to the excellent means he employed for pre- 

 serving the health of the crew. Of these means he gave an account in a paper sent to the r. s., 

 where he was chosen a member of their body, and his paper honoured with Ihe prize medal in 1776'.' 

 He was also, by the Government, raised to the rank of a post captain in the navy, and appointed to 

 an office in Greenwich Hospital ; and an account of his voyage was drawn up by himself and 

 Mr, Wales. 



The government having resolved to ascertain whether there be a northern communication between 

 the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, Capt. C. volunteered his services on the occasion, and in July 1776, 

 he sailed in the Resolution, accompanied by another vessel. After touching at some of the South 

 Sea islands, he proceeded northwards, and discovered the group which be named the Sandwich 

 Islands ; hence proceeding to the northwest coast of America, he traced along all that coast, as far 

 as latitude 74°, where their progress was stopped by an impenetrable mass of ice, extending between 

 the north-east point of Asia and the north-west point of America- Hence he returned to the 

 southward, and in November 1778, he revisited the Saudwich Islands, where be was unfortunate]/ 

 killed in a quarrel with the natives. 



