262 CAPTAIN COOK 



''There Is perhaps no science which owes so 

 much to the efforts of a single man as geography 

 does to Captain Cook. In his first voyage to the 

 South Seas he; discovered the Society Islands; 

 he proved that New Zealand consisted of two 

 islands; he traversed the strait which separates 

 them, and took the bearings of the whole coast; 

 he followed the eastern coast of New Holland 

 (Australia), unknown before his time, and he 

 added to the maps of this part of the globe a 

 stretch of land of more than 2000 miles. 



"His second voyage round the world solved 

 the great problem of the southern continent. He 

 showed that there can be no such continent un- 

 less it lies near the pole and in regions inacces- 

 sible to ships. He discovered New Caledonia, 

 the most extensive island in the Pacific after 

 New Zealand. He also discovered South 

 Georgia and a new coast which he called Sand- 

 wich Land. Having twice visited the tropical 

 seas, he fixed the position of lands seen earlier 

 by navigators, and found several which were 

 unknown. 



"But his third voyage is pre-eminently dis- 

 tinguished by the extent and importance of his 

 discoveries. Apart from many little islands 

 which he found in the South Pacific Ocean, he 

 discovered, north of the Equator, the group 

 called the Sandwich Islands, whose position and 



