Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/51

Rh voyage by Wallis, q.v.] Byron was afterwards (1769-72) Governor of Newfoundland, and had command of the West Indian Fleet in 1778-79.

, John (1718-72), F.R.S., electrician, was the first Englishman who successfully repeated Franklin's experiments. He invented an electroscope and an electrometer. The Copley Medal of the Royal Society was awarded him in 1751.

, Captain James (1728-79), the son of an agricultural labourer, was born at Marton in Yorkshire. He served several years in the merchant service, but volunteered for the navy in 1755, entering on the Eagle under Captain Hugh Palliser. It was owing to the influence of the latter that Cook, who had previously surveyed the St. Lawrence river, was afterwards appointed "Marine Surveyor to the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador." He published his results as directions for navigating these coasts (1766-68).

The Admiralty having at the instance of the Royal Society resolved to despatch an expedition to observe the transit of Venus in the Pacific, Cook was appointed Lieutenant and placed in command of the Endeavour (1768): this voyage is described in the following pages.

On his return in 1771, Cook was immediately promoted to the rank of Commander and sent again to the Pacific with the Resolution and Adventure, the primary object of the expedition being to verify the existence or non-existence of an antarctic continent. He left Plymouth in 1772, and proceeded to the Cape of Good Hope, whence sailing in a south-easterly direction, he was the first to cross the Antarctic circle. After revisiting New Zealand, Otahite, and New Zealand again (when the Resolution and Adventure parted company), he sailed to the south, and reached his highest latitude (71°⋅10) in January 1774. After touching at Easter Island he explored the New Hebrides and discovered New Caledonia, whence he returned home by New Zealand, Cape Horn, and South Georgia, reaching Plymouth in July 1775.

Apart from the geographical discoveries, and finally setting at rest the question of a habitable southern continent, this voyage was, even more than the first, remarkable for the fact that Cook kept his crew absolutely free from scurvy, and lost only a single man during the whole of the three years. Cook's demonstration of the possibility of maintaining the health of crews during long periods is one of his greatest titles to fame. He gave an account of his methods for the prevention of scurvy to the Royal Society in 1776, and the Copley Medal was in the same year awarded to him, in recognition of his services to the maritime world and to humanity in this connection.

Having been promoted to the rank of Captain, he offered to take command of an expedition to the North Pacific in search of a Northwest Passage. He left England on this, his third voyage, in July