28 CAPTAIN COOK 



the return of the Northumberland, on December 

 2ist, 1762, the bells of St. Margaret's, Barking, 

 sounded a wedding peal for James Cook and 

 Elizabeth Batts. 



A short time afterwards they installed them- 

 selves in a comfortable little house in the East 

 of London. But the joys of a prolonged honey- 

 moon are not for sailors. The sea, that exacting 

 mistress, claims them, and, four months after his 

 marriage, James Cook embarked for Newfound- 

 land. 



After the Treaty of Paris, "the baptism of 

 England's world-power," had been signed on 

 February loth, 1763, Captain Graves, Governor 

 of Newfoundland, then in London, asked for a 

 commission to map out the coast. Having ob- 

 served in the preceding year the remarkable 

 ability which James Cook had displayed in 

 drawing up the chart of the bay of Placentia, he 

 asked him for his assistance. Cook accepted 

 without hesitation, and in April 1763 he sailed 

 with the Governor in the capacity of surveyor. 



At first he was employed in mapping the 

 islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, which re- 

 mained to France. Captain Graves would not 

 allow M. d'Anjac, the new French Governor, to 

 disembark until Cook's work was finished. 



