34 CAPTAIN COOK 



were going to observe the transit of Venus upon 

 one of the islands of the South Seas." 



The King replied that he would be glad to see 

 the execution of the project, and on April 3rd 

 following, Mr. Stephens, the Secretary of the 

 Admiralty, informed the Royal Society that they 

 had only to nominate the observers who were to 

 embark. An eminent hydrographer, Mr. Alex- 

 ander Dalrymple, a Fellow of the Royal Soci- 

 ety, was at first chosen to lead the expedition, 

 but, foreseeing the difficulty which he would 

 encounter in piloting, in these unknown seas, a 

 vessel the crew of which was not commanded by 

 officers of the Royal Navy, he declared that he 

 would not set sail unless he was given the rank 

 of ship's captain, as had been done before in the 

 case of Dr. Halley. The latter was a learned 

 astronomer who, in 1699, had been appointed to 

 the command of the Paramour and left for the 

 South Seas in this ship in order to carry out re- 

 searches upon longitudes and the variations of 

 the compass. His crew had mutinied and re- 

 fused to obey their astronomer-captain. Owing 

 to this, the expedition did not accomplish all 

 that it might have done. 



Sir Edward Hawke, who was at the head of 

 the Admiralty, basing himself upon Dr. Hal- 

 ley's experiences, refused Mr. Dalrymple's re- 

 quest. He declared that his conscience would 



