was the name it received,) to its confluence with the sea.

That it really was the ocean before him, Hearne had no doubt, from the quantity of seal skin and whalebone observed in the tents of the unfortunate

Esquimaux; and, although this has since been doubted, and he has been accused of many inaccuracies and unsatisfactory statements, modern geography has proved that his opinion was correct.

Having accomplished the object of their journey, they set out on their return home, and arrived at Prince of Wales's Fort on the 29th of June, 1772, after an absence of eighteen months and twentythree days.

Hearne's journey threw a great light on the geography of the North American continent, and laid open that career of discovery which has since been pursued with such brilliant success.

CHAPTER XII.

Expedition under the sanction of George III. and the Admiralty Board, commanded by Captains Phipps and Lutwidge, in which the immortal Nelson was coxswain-Captains Cook and Clerke, sent out on a Voyage of Discovery-Nootka SoundCook Killed at the Sandwich Islands-Expedition resumed by Captains Clerke and King-Death of Clerke-Meares, Vancouver, and Kotzebue, visit the North-west Coast of AmericaCharacteristics of the Nootkans-Voyages of Pickersgill and Young-King of Denmark sends out a vessel commanded by Captain Lowenorn.

For more than a century the idea of a passage across the pole had slumbered in England, when a gentleman, whose name is distinguished for the union of rank and talent, took up the question with great ardour. The Hon. Daines Barrington having paid great attention to the subject, and collected a mass of evidence with regard to the navigation of the northern seas, laid it before the Royal Society, of which he was an eminent member, who represented to Earl Sandwich, then at the head of the Admiralty Board, the great desirableness of renewing the attempt in that quarter.

A plan of an expedition was accordingly drawn up, and submitted to his Majesty George III., who heartily concurred in the proposal; and, accordingly, two bombs, the Racehorse and the Carcass, were equipped for the purpose. The Racehorse was commanded by Captain Constantine John Phipps, (afterwards Lord Mulgrave,) and the Carcass by Captain Skeffington Lutwidge, whose coxswain, then a mere

boy, was the future naval hero of England-Horatio Nelson.

They departed from the Nore on the 4th of June, 1773, and, on the 29th, were close to the bold and lofty coast of Spitzbergen, along which they sailed until they rounded its northern extremity, when an easterly course was taken, between the closely-packed ice and the land. On the 31st of July, in latitude 80° 37', both ships became encompassed by ice, and remained in this perilous position for some days; after having had recourse, without effect, to the laborious operation of sawing, and just as they had commenced preparations for leaving the ship, and had hoisted out the boats and dragged them over the ice for more than two miles, a slight opening was observed, on which, all sail being set, and the ice becoming more loose owing to the weather turning moist and foggy, they began to make more progress. The ships came up with the boats and took them in ; and, on the 10th, a brisk gale from the N. E. springing up, they at length, after many hard knocks, succeeded in getting clear of the pack, and repaired to the harbour of Smeerenburg for rest and refreshment, from whence they returned to England.

Though the hopes of the savans and eminent men who had projected the expedition of Captain Phipps were considerably damped by its failure, they did not entirely lose courage, but advised that the next attempt should be made from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and not, as had hitherto been the case, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

To execute this plan, the government fixed upon the immortal Cook, who had, in his two previous voyages, showed himself to be the most illustrious navigator of the age, and who accordingly sailed from Plymouth Sound, in his old ship, the Resolution, on 12th July, 1776, leaving instructions for the Dis

covery, which was to be entrusted to the command of Captain Charles Clerke, to join him at the Cape of Good Hope. From thence they proceeded in company on their voyage through the southern hemisphere, which, however, is so well known, that we shall only take up their course when they arrived off the coast of New Albion, in latitude 444° north.

On the 29th of March, they stood into a passage which had the appearance of a harbour, but which on entering, they found to be an unfathomable sound; where, instead of anchoring, there appeared a probability that they would have to make fast to the trees which skirted the shores; but after penetrating into the sound for a distance of six miles, they at length came to an anchor.

Cook learnt from the natives that this extraordinary still pool of water was called by them Nootka Sound, —a name by which it is known to the present day. The natives were "docile, courteous, and goodnatured; but quick in resenting what they looked upon as an injury, and, like most other passionate people, as soon forgetting it;" and, with the exception of an innate thievish propensity, they were likewise pretty fair in their mode of barter.

Captain Cook supposed that they had never before held communication with Europeans, from the fact that they were quite unacquainted with fire-arms, and from the consternation they displayed, when one day an officer fired a ball through a war-dress, folded six times, and impenetrable to either spear or arrow, furnishing a convincing proof that they had never before seen or heard of such a dreadful weapon.

From Nootka Sound, Cook coasted along to the northward,―prevented, however, by his instructions, from devoting any time to the examination of the numerous bays, inlets, and rivers which exist on this part of the N. W. coast of America-until he had

attained a latitude of 65°. He, however, thought it his duty to make an accurate survey of an inlet in 60°, which held out some hope of a passage, (which is now known by his name,) and of the coasts of the peninsula of Alaska. Shortly after this, to the great regret of every person in both ships, the surgeon of the Resolution died; and an island, fallen in with on the 3rd August, was named after him, Anderson's Island.

In 65° 45' N., they doubled a promontory, to which the name of Cape Prince of Wales was given. They had now fairly entered the strait, and they commenced making careful observations as to the tides, and found that the flood ran both stronger and longer than the ebb; from which Cook concluded that, besides the tide, there was a westerly current. From this they stood over to the westward, and landed in a bay of the Tschutzki country, where they were most politely received by the natives, who came down to the boats, taking off their caps and making low bows, but still, however, keeping, with great caution, on the alert, as if fearful of some depredation on the part of their visitors; by degrees, however, this timidity wore off.

These people differed greatly from the dwarfish Americans they had left on the other continent, whose round chubby faces and high cheek bones formed a striking contrast to the long visages, and stout and well made persons of this polite people. They displayed great ingenuity in their articles of dress and various implements.

Leaving this bay, which Cook named St. Lawrence, they stood to the north-east, and on the 11th of August, midway between the two continents, each being seven leagues distant, their soundings were twenty-nine fathoms, which was the greatest depth they found in the strait. In latitude 67° 45', a point of the American shore was named after Lord Mui