NATURALISTS AND VOYAGERS MENTIONED - xlv 
voyage by Wallis, g.v.] Byron was afterwards (1769-72) Governor 
of Newfoundland, and had command of the West Indian Fleet in 
1778-79. 
Canton, John (1718-72), F.RS,, electrician, was the first English- 
man who successfully repeated Franklin’s experiments. He invented 
an electroscope and an electrometer. The Copley Medal of the Royal 
Society was awarded him in 1751. 
Cook, Captain James (1728-79), the son of an agricultural 
labourer, was born at Marton in Yorkshire. He served several years 
in the merchant service, but volunteered for the navy in 1755, enter- 
ing on the Eagle under Captain Hugh Palliser. It was owing to the 
influence of the latter that Cook, who had previously surveyed the St. 
Lawrence river, was afterwards appointed “Marine Surveyor to the 
coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.” He published his results as 
directions for navigating these coasts (1766-68). 
The Admiralty having at the instance of the Royal Society resolved 
to despatch an expedition to observe the transit of Venus in the Pacific, 
Cook was appointed Lieutenant and placed in command of the En- 
deavour (1768): this voyage is described in the following pages. 
On his return in 1771, Cook was immediately promoted to the 
rank of Commander and sent again to the Pacific with the Resolution 
and Adventure, the primary object of the expedition being to verify 
the existence or non-existence of an antarctic continent. He left 
Plymouth in 1772, and proceeded to the Cape of Good Hope, whence 
sailing in a south-easterly direction, he was the first to cross the 
Antarctic circle. After revisiting New Zealand, Otahite, and New 
Zealand again (when the Resolution and Adventure parted company), 
he sailed to the south, and reached his highest latitude (71°10) in 
January 1774. After touching at Easter Island he explored the New 
Hebrides and discovered New Caledonia, whence he returned home by 
New Zealand, Cape Horn, and South Georgia, reaching Plymouth in 
July 1775. 
Apart from the geographical discoveries, and finally setting at rest 
the question of a habitable southern continent, this voyage was, even 
more than the first, remarkable for the fact that Cook kept his crew 
absolutely free from scurvy, and lost only a single man during the 
whole of the three years. Cook’s demonstration of the possibility of 
maintaining the health of crews during long periods is one of his 
greatest titles to fame. He gave an account of his methods for the 
prevention of scurvy to the Royal Society in 1776, and the Copley 
Medal was in the same year awarded to him, in recognition of his 
services to the maritime world and to humanity in this connection. 
Having been promoted to the ‘rank of Captain, he offered to take 
command of an expedition to the North Pacific in search of a North- 
west Passage. He left England on this, his third voyage, in July 
