1776.] INSTRUCTIONS TO COOK. 147 



Hearne's journals were not published until 1795, though they 

 were submitted, immediately after his return from his last journey, 

 to the lords commissioners of the British Admiralty, who did not 

 fail to perceive the importance of the information contained in 

 them. The commissioners agreed with Hearne in considering the 

 probability of reaching the Pacific through Hudson's Bay to be 

 destroyed ; but they were, on the other hand, induced to hope that 

 the newly-discovered sea, north of America, might be found to 

 communicate, by navigable passages, with Baffin's Bay on the east 

 and the Pacific on the west : and it was, in consequence, resolved, 

 that ships should* be sent, simultaneously, to explore the western 

 side of Baffin's Bay and the north-easternmost coasts of the Pacific, 

 in search of the desired channels of connection with the Arctic 

 Sea. By an act of parliament, passed in 1745, a reward of twenty 

 thousand pounds had been offered for the discovery of a north-west 

 passage, through Hudson' 's Bay, by ships belonging to his majesty's 

 subjects; and, in order further to stimulate British navigators in 

 their exertions, a new act, in 1776, held out the same reward to the 

 owners of any ship belonging to his majesty's subjects, or to the 

 commander, officers, and crew, of any vessel belonging to his 

 majesty, which should find out, and sail through, any passage by sea 

 between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, in any direction, or 

 parallel of the northern hemisphere, to the northward of the 52d 

 degree of latitude. 



Soon after the adoption of these resolutions, Captain James Cook 

 returned to England from his second voyage of circumnavigation, 

 in which he had completely disproved all reports of the existence 

 of a habitable continent about the south pole ; and, his offer to con- 

 duct the proposed expedition to the North Pacific having been 

 accepted by the government, two vessels were soon prepared and 

 placed under his command for that purpose. 



In the instructions delivered to Cook, on the 6th of July, 1776, 

 he is directed to proceed, by way of the Cape of Good Hope, New 

 Zealand, and Otaheite, to the coast of JSTeiv Albion, which he was 

 to endeavor to reach, in the latitude of 45 degrees. He was 

 " strictly enjoined, on his way thither, not to touch upon any part 

 of the Spanish dominions on the western continent of America, 

 unless driven to it by some unavoidable accident; in which case, 

 he was to stay no longer than should be absolutely necessary, and 

 to be very careful not to give any umbrage or offence to any of the 

 inhabitants or subjects of his Catholic majesty. And if, in his 



