CHAPTER XLVI 
CAPTAIN COOK— BELLINGSHAUSEN 
It was a bright page in English history when our 
Government awoke to its duties in taking a lead in 
discovery. In the instructions, dated June 17th, 1764, 
to Commodore Byron, who was despatched to the Pacific 
in that year, that duty is recognised in a very noble 
passage : — 
Whereas nothing can redound more to the honour of this nation 
as a maritime power, to the dignity of the crown of Great Britain, 
and to the advancement of the trade and navigation thereof than to 
make discoveries of countries hitherto unknown ; and whereas there is 
reason to believe that lands and islands of great extent, hitherto un- 
visited by any European Power may be found, His Majesty, conceiving 
no conjuncture so proper for an enterprise of this nature as a time of 
profound peace, which his kingdoms at present happily enjoy, has 
thought tit that it should now be undertaken. 
In this spirit our Government resolved to despatch 
an expedition with the object of deciding the question 
of the existence of a great southern continent such as 
had long been delineated on maps of the world. Two 
vessels built at Whitby, the Resolution (462 tons) and 
Adventure (336 tons) were selected, and carefully fitted 
out at Woolwich and Deptford with great store of anti- 
scorbutics. Captain Cook received his appointment on 
November 28th, 1771, with Captain Furneaux as his 
second, on board the Adventure. Cook had with him two 
of the Lieutenants who were in his first voyage, Clerke 
and Pickersgill. Another Lieutenant, James Burney, was 
the future Admiral and author of Voyages to the South 
Sea 1 . One of the midshipmen, Vancouver, was the future 
explorer and surveyor of the north-west coast of America. 
Johann Reinhold Forster and his son were appointed as 
naturalists, and the Board of Longitude sent Mr Wales 
to make astronomical observations. The Board also 
supplied four chronometers, three by Arnold, and one 
1 Elder brother of Madame D'Arblay. 
