150 COOK REACHES THE AMERICAN COAST. [1778. 



From England, Cook passed around the Cape of Good Hope, 

 and through the Southern Ocean, into the Pacific ; and, after 

 spending more than a year in examinations about Van Dieman's 

 Land, New Zealand, the Friendly Islands, the Society Islands, and 

 other places in the same division of the great sea, he bent his course 

 towards the north, in the beginning of 1778. The first fruit of 

 his researches in the North Pacific, was the discovery, on the 18th 

 of January, of Atooi, (or Kauai,) one of the islands of a group 

 near the 20th degree of latitude, to which he gave the name of 

 Sandwich Islands, in honor of the first lord of the Admiralty. This 

 discovery was by no means the least important of the many effected 

 by the great navigator ; as those islands, situated nearly midway 

 between America and Asia, possessing a delightful climate, and a 

 fertile soil, offer invaluable facilities for the repair and refreshment 

 of vessels traversing the vast expanse of sea which there separates 

 the two continents, and will, no doubt, be made the basis for the 

 exertion of a powerful influence on the destinies of North-west 

 America. 



From the Sandwich Islands, the British exploring ships took their 

 departure for the north-west coast of America, in sight of which 

 they arrived on the 7th of March, 1778, near the 44th degree of 

 latitude, about two hundred miles north of Cape Mendocino. For 

 several days afterwards, Cook was prevented from advancing north- 

 ward by contrary winds, which forced him a hundred miles in 

 the opposite course ; but he was thereby enabled to see and par- 

 tially examine a larger extent of coast, and to determine the longi- 

 tude of that part of America, which had been left uncertain by all 

 previous observations. The weather at length permitting, he took 

 tie desired direction, and, running rapidly northward, at some dis- 

 tance from the land, he was, on the 22d of the month, opposite a 

 projecting point of the continent, a little beyond the 48th parallel, 

 to which he gave the name of Cape Flattery, in token of the 

 improvement in his prospects. 



The coast south of Cape Flattery, to the 47th degree, was care- 

 fully examined by the English in search of the strait through which 

 Juan de Fuca was said to have sailed to the Atlantic in 1592 ; and 

 as, in the account of that voyage, the entrance of the strait into the 

 Pacific is placed betiveen the 41th and the 48th parallels, over which 

 space the American coast was found to extend unbroken, Cook 

 did not hesitate to pronounce that no such passage existed. Had 

 he, however, also traced the coast north and east of Cape Flattery, 



