THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
5i 
peans, he has completed the hydrography of the habitable i 779 . 
globe. , ? ebraar !\ 
As a navigator, his fervices were not perhaps lefs fplen- 
did ; certainly not lefs important and meritorious. The me¬ 
thod which he difcovered, and fo fuccefsfully purfued, of 
preferving the health of feamen, forms a new sera in navi¬ 
gation, and will tranfmit his name to future ages, amongft 
the friends and benefactors of mankind. 
Thofe who are converfant in naval hiltory, need not be 
told, at how dear a rate the advantages, which have been 
fought through the medium of long voyages at fea, have 
always been purchafed. That dreadful diforder which is 
peculiar to this feryice, and whofe ravages have marked the 
tracks of difcoverers with circumltances almolt too block¬ 
ing to relate, mult, without exercifing an unwarrantable 
tyranny over the lives of our feamen, have proved an in- 
fuperable obftacle to the profecution of fuch enterprizes. 
It was referved for Captain Cook to fhew the world, by 
repeated trials, that voyages might be protraCled to the un« 
ufual length of three or even four years, in unknown re¬ 
gions, and under every change and rigour of climate, not 
only without affedling the health, but even without dimi- 
nifhing the probability of life, in the fmalleft degree. The 
method he purfued has been fully explained by himfelf, in 
a paper which was read before the Royal Society, in the 
year 1776 *; and whatever improvements the experience of 
the prefent voyage has fuggefted, are mentioned in their 
proper places. 
With refpeft to his profeflional abilities, I fhall leave them 
to the judgment of thofe who are bell acquainted with the 
nature of the fervices in which he was engaged. They will 
* Sir Godfrey Copley’s gold medal was adjudged to him, on that occafion, 
H 2, readily 
