A FORMIDABLE STORY. 



495 



of February, 1776, Cook received the command of the sloop-of- 

 war Resolution, — the vessel in which he had made his last voyage, 

 — the Discovery, of three hundred tons, being appointed to 

 accompany the expedition. Both ships were equipped in a 

 manner befitting the nature of their mission : they were well 

 supplied with European animals and plants, which they were 

 to introduce into the islands of the Pacific. Omai, the young 

 Tahitian whom Cook had brought to England, was placed on 

 board the Resolution, as it was not likely another opportunity 

 would occur of sending him home. He left London with regret ; 

 but the consciousness that the treasures he carried with him 

 would raise him to an enviable rank among his countrymen 

 operated by degrees to alleviate his sorrow. The Resolution 

 sailed from Plymouth on the 12th of July, and was followed, on 

 the 10th of August, by the Discovery : both vessels joined com- 

 pany, early in November, at the Cape of Good Hope. 



As we have already been frequently over the track now for 

 the third time traversed by Cook, we shall merely give his route, 

 without detailing his adventures, which did not materially differ 

 from those of his former voyages. He arrived at Van Diemen's 

 Land in December, and passed a fortnight of the month of 

 February, 1777, in Queen Charlotte's Sound, New Zealand. 

 Soon after he discovered an island which the natives called 

 Mangya : he noticed that the inhabitants, for want of a better 

 pocket, slit the lobe of their ear and carried their knife in it. 

 At another island of the same group, Omai extricated himself 

 and a party of English from a position of great danger by 

 giving the natives an exaggerated account of the instruments 

 of war used on board the two ships anchored in the offing. 

 "These instruments," he said, " were so huge that several 

 people could sit conveniently within them ; and one of them was 

 sufficient to crush the whole island at a shot." Had it not been 

 for this formidable story, Omai thought the party would have 

 been detained on shore all night. At one of the Society Islands 



