58 SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
Government agreed to send out an expedition, giving 
instructions to Captain Wallis, then about to start on his 
circumnavigation, to look out for a suitable place for 
the observations. Mr. Dalrymple took a great interest 
in preparing the plans, selecting the vessels, if we inter- 
pret one of his statements correctly, and drawing up 
draft instructions. He published in 1767 a short resume 
of the Spanish voyages in the Pacific in order to direct 
public attention to the great continent awaiting dis- 
covery, and made himself so thoroughly master of the 
whole subject that the Royal Society nominated him for 
the leadership of the astronomical expedition. 
It would be tedious to trace the steps of an old griev- 
ance, but it appears that Dalrymple expected the com- 
mand of the ship as well as of the expedition, and to 
be given the commission of Captain in the Royal Navy 
like Halley seventy years before. But the precedent of 
Halley's voyage was not forgotten at the Admiralty, 
and mindful of the troubles that arose from the thrusting 
of a naval officer's duties upon a man of science 
the First Lord, Sir Edward Hawke, swore roundly 
that he would rather cut off his right hand than sign 
a commission for anyone to command a king’s ship 
who was not a naval officer. Dalrymple would go in 
no other capacity. Sir Hugh Palliser thereupon 
strongly recommended that the appointment should be 
given to James Cook, a Master in the Royal Navy, who 
had seen much service as a surveying officer on the 
North American coast and was fitted to undertake the 
scientific leadership as well as the naval command. 
Dalrymple became Cook's enemy and critic from that 
time. After the return of the expedition and the publi- 
cation of its results he wrote : 
