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He sailed on the 3d of July that year. Great secrecy was observed as to the destination of the expedition, and the men were shipped as for the East Indies. Off Brazil the real objects of the voyage were announced, and since the announcement was coupled with the allowance of double pay, the crews joyfully consented to their disappointment. Byron returned after an absence of two years, having added to the previous discoveries of his nation those of the islands of King George, Prince of Wales, Disappointment, Duke of York, and Danger-a queer and perhaps not impertinent concatenation of names. This was about all the ships accomplished, but this was effected with no inconsiderable suffering or hardship. In the latitude of about 14° S. and longitude about 150° W., while at a small island which he named Prince of Wales, the commander was led to believe, from the ceasing of the heavy swell from the south, and from other circumstances, that land of considerable extent lay in that direction. The weak and sickly state of his crew prevented him from sailing thither, and thus he lost the honor of the discovery of Tahiti, chief of the Society Islands, which was left for the happier fortune of Wallis, who sailed but a few months after the return of Byron, in the same vessel, the Dolphin.

This vessel, on her new voyage, was accompanied by the Swallow, under the command of Capt. Philip Carteret, and a storeship. Sailing from Plymouth on the 27th of August, 1766, the vessels reached the western mouth of the Straits of Magellan on the 11th of April the next year, and on that very day, "cold, gloomy, and tempestuous," their first on the South Sea, the vessels separated, and never again met till they reached England. Capt. Wallis held a northwesterly course, and, discovering various small islands on his way, on the 17th of June, 1767, beheld at the distance of five leagues a range of lofty land. In a thick fog the next morning they were close under it. The fog rolled away, and they saw before them the grand mountains, the fair rivers, the beautiful cascades, and the green valleys of Tahiti. Hardly had they cast anchor before their ship was surrounded by numerous canoes, filled with islanders, who sat in groups lively with talk, and in turn evincing every

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kind of astonishment at the presence of the ship. They saw in her arrival the fulfillment of a prophecy which tradition had handed down from the days of Maiu, one of their sages, who told them that "in future ages a vaa amc ore, a vast outriggerless canoe," would come from a distant land to their shores. Most of our readers having seen models of the boats used by the South Sea islanders, will perceive the force of this phraseology. Their canoes are provided with a slight bar parallel with the gunwale, and fastened to it by several cross-pieces at right angles with either, which prevents the boat from oversetting to the one side from its weight, and to the other from its buoyancy. All their boats are provided with this. The vessel of the stranger that had now come to them, vast in size, and not provided with this familiar appendage, answered to the letter of their tradition, and in their simple breasts the awe that distilled from this answer in distant time to the remembered voice of the past, blended with their wonder at the huge proportions of the stranger. Their amazement, however, soon gave way to curiosity, and it was not long before they ventured on board and were treated to gifts of trinkets and nails. Searching for anchorage ground on the afternoon of the day of their arrival, the ship entered a large bay, and while the boats were out sounding ahead, a large number of canoes came around the vessel. Capt. Wallis, fearing that their numbers boded hostility, fired a ninepounder over their heads. They were not greatly terrified at the explosion, and thereupon started to cut off the boats, attacking their crews with stones and wounding several. The Indian who led the attack was fired upon with a musket, and the shot taking effect in his shoulder, his fellows in the canoe no sooner perceived the wound than they leaped into the sea, while the other canoes paddled away in dismay. Nor was the acquaintance of the islanders and the strangers fairly initiated till after several such scenes. ship on one of these occasions was surrounded by a vast number of canoes, filled with their primitive ammunition, round pebble-stones, and an attack really formidable commenced, which was with some difficulty repelled. At length a traffic was established with

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the islanders. Then, as on all occasions before or since, articles of iron were preferred by the South Sea people to every other commodity.

Thus in blood began the connection of the civilized world with the barbarism of the South Seas. The French navigator, De Bourgainville, whose vessels were at sea at the same time with those of Carteret and Wallis, came to Tahiti about ten months after Wallis, on the 2d of April, 1768. His experience

there was much the same as that of the English captain. There was some bloodshed on Bourgainville's visit. Taio, mate! was the exclamation of the natives: Friend! Kill! You call us friends yet you kill us. This expression, which in the mouths of the islanders is so eloquent and touching in its reproach, may be but the laconic subtle advocacy of Tahitan historians. In spite of the fairly written accounts of those eighteenth century voyagers, it will rather be believed on the whole, that the strangers were a little too free in the use of powder and shot. They had reached a quarter of the globe where these things produced a sensation, and they seem to have been willing enough to show off. Bourgainville, on his departure, took one of the islanders, Aotowrou, to Paris, where he was in his time a lion.

The passage of the planet Venus across the sun occurred on the 3d day of June, 1769. The Royal Society were anxious to obtain observations of the transit from a point between the longitudes 140° and 180° W. from Greenwich. To secure this result in the then condition of the funds of the Society, they applied to the Admiralty for aid, and were readily proffered the use of one of his majesty's vessels. It was due to the zeal of Mr. (afterwards Sir Joseph) Banks, that in 1768 the Endeavor frigate was placed under the command of James Cook, then in his fortieth year, and a lieutenant by commission, dated on the 25th of May, of that year. Cook began his life on the water, as apprentice to two worthy Quakers, John and Henry Walker, owners of two vessels engaged in the coal trade. His conduct won him the approbation of his employers, and they made him mate of one of their vessels. He seems to have remained in the coasting business, at least two years, since we find him in his twenty-seventh year going into the navy as a volunteer sea

man, in 1755, at a time when there was active impressment going on on the river Thames. The vessel on board of which he shipped was the Eagle, the command which not long after fell to Sir Hugh Palliser, who, discerning the volunteer's superior seamanship, had him rated as quarter-master. Sir Hugh

never ceased to exhibit his interest in Cook, and it was to his recommendation that the Admiralty gave him the command of the Endeavor, at the period we have indicated. Fortune favoring the diligence, and industry, and capacity of the young marine, helping one who was determined to help himself, offered to him about 1758 the warrant as master of the Mercury frigate, which was soon ordered to join the expedition before Quebec, the same that was followed by the renowned engagement of Wolfe and Montcalm. Accurate soundings of the St. Lawrence were obtained, through the skill and courage of Cook, who was entrusted with this difficult and dangerous service, on the recommendation of Capt. Palliser. Soon afterwards he made a survey of the whole river below Quebec, which was published by order of the Admiralty, and highly praised for its fullness and accuracy. In 1759, Lord Colville selected him as master of his own ship, the Northumberland. Cook employed that winter off Halifax, in removing the difficulties to which his defective education had subjected him. Capt. King relates that it was here, as he heard from Cook himself, that, during a hard winter, he first read Euclid and applied himself to the study of mathematics and astronomy, without any other assistance than what a few books and his own industry afforded him. From 1763 to 1767 he was employed on the Newfoundland station, where he won the highest approbation, by the zeal and accuracy with which he performed various marine and topographical surveys of the coast and country.

The Endeavor sailed from Plymouth on the 20th of August, with the scientific gentleman on board. They reached Rio de Janiero on the 13th of November, but the jealousy of the Portuguese governor imposed restrictions even upon the procuring of necessary refreshments. That functionary's notion of the object of the voyage is said to have been, that it was to see "the passing of the North Star through the South Pole." The paternity of this piece of astronomy,

however, probably belongs to some waggish subaltern of the Endeavor, though in the histories of the expedition the governor is very gravely made to stand godfather to it.

In January, 1769, they were at Terra del Fuego. The effect of the cold of that region on a party who went on shore to view the country, frequently adverted to in the scientific books, has been too often related at length to be repeated here. Dr. Solander, a Swede, who was one of the party, knowing from his experience in the mountains of his native land the effect of fatigue and extreme cold in producing an irresistible desire for sleep, earnestly entreated his companions to keep in motion, however much the effort opposed their inclination. "Whoever sits down," said he, "will sleep, and whoever sleeps will wake no more." The Doctor was the first one to be affected in the manner of which he warned his companions. and, in spite of their expostulations, actually stretched himself upon the snow. One of the black servants also lagged behind. The rest of the party dragged them to the edge of the wood in which they were, when they both declared they could go no further. The poor negro, when he was told that he must be frozen to death if he persisted, said "he desired nothing but to lie down and die," and the naturalist said he was willing to go on, "but that he first must first take some sleep." The two blacks of the party were dead in the morning. Dr. Solander was aroused when he had slept no longer than five minutes, and even in that short interval the muscles of his feet so contracted that his shoes fell off.

On the 22d day of January they passed Cape Horn, and making various islands on the way, anchored in Matavai Bay, Tahiti, on the 13th of March.

The ship was immediately surrounded by the canoes of the natives, who brought their fish and fruits to exchange for trinkets.

Cook immediately went on shore with some gentlemen of the expedition. Hę was met by the natives with every demonstration of submission. One of them approached crouching, and presented a green branch as an emblem of peace.

They mixed freely with the natives, much to their satisfaction, till they discovered that their snuff-boxes, operaglasses, etc., had been extracted from their pockets, as skillfully as if the ope

ration had been effected by the most adroit chevaliers d'industrie of the European capitals. A chief, however, succeeded in recovering them. Capt. Cook's name was rendered by the islanders Toote; Solander they called Torano, Banks. Tapanee; with so little accuracy could the rough consonants of our words be achieved by any one accustomed to the soft, flowing vowels of the Tahitan tongue; Molineaux they gave up in absolute despair, and called the master Boba, from his Christian name of Robert.

The observation of the phenomenon, which was the object of the expedition, was favored with a cloudless day, and these operations were entirely successful. Thirty different parties, comprising the greatest philosophers of the time, stationed at points from Lapland, the north cape, and Hudson Bay in the North, Quebec, Maryland, Norriton, in Pennsylvania, California, on this continent, Batavia and Dinapoor, in the East, were engaged in the same work, on the same day. In the grand result, which was the determination of the sun's parallax, ascertained to be 8' 6", the observations differed less than the quarter part of a second; and it was found that the mean distance of the great fountain of light is 95,158,440 miles, as fixed by Professor Bessel, from a recombination and recomputation of the elements then developed. Some of the observations, as might be expected, vary the sun's distance a few thousand miles; but as the variance is no affair of masters of clipper-ships or railroad contractors, the world will not quarrel about it.

After the observation of the transit, Capt. Cook and Mr. Banks set out on the 26th of June, on a circumnavigation of the island, which they completed on 1st of July. Its circumference they estimated to be ninety miles. On the 13th of July, they bade farewell to their new-found and numerous acquaintances, and the ship resumed her west and northerly course. Tapia, a priest, who had been first minister to the queen Oberea, came on board with a young lad as his servant, and requested to sail with them. Nothing could have pleased the voyagers more. It was about the hour of noon, when the visitors on board took their departure; and, as the account has it, they "wept with a decent and silent sorrow." The people in the

canoes alongside, not so decorous in their manifestations of feeling, indulged in loud lamentations, which the same narrator" considered as affectation rather than grief." Such, perhaps, they may have been. Still it was a very pleasant thing for the islanders to paddle alongside Capt. Cook's vessel of a morning, to carry on board, in exchange for European trinkets, stores of fish, which the genial ocean around offered to their simple art, the fruits which they plucked at will in the orchard which nature gave them, and the little pigs that fed themselves into such delicious roasters among the pleasant groves on the pleasant slopes of their island. Tapia is said to have shown great firmness, but, in spite of his efforts to hold them back, the big tears rolled down his cheeks. He climbed to the masthead and clung there while the last glimpse of land was visible. For the last time he looked upon his native earth, and that love of country which the good God gives us all was swelling his savage heart. Cook sailed to New Zealand, where Tapia made himself understood in the Tahitan tongue. The islanders met the protestations of the strangers with fair promises; still Tapia warned his friends that he saw the indications of hostile purpose, and cautioned them to be careful how they went into the proffered traffic for provisions and water. Going on shore, they met the islanders, who swam to them across a little river. The savages attempted, probably with views of booty rather than hostility, to lay hands upon the weapons of the ship's people, and one actually ran off with a hanger. At this the others are represented to have grown more insolent, whereupon Mr. Banks fired at and wounded, and Mr. Markhouse fired at and killed the robber as he retreated. Capt. Cook, strenuous as he was to establish an amicable intercourse with the natives, seems to have failed in this instance. The next day the islanders in a great many canoes, one of which had sixteen paddles on a side, and carried sixty men, came around the ship: standing up in them, the islanders defied the discoverers, telling them to come on shore if they dared. Haromai, haromai, harre, uta a patoo-patoo oge! were the words of the frequently repeated invitation"Come to us; come on shore and we kill you all with our patoo-patoos

(stone hatchets)." The voyagers declined the civility. Cook took formal possession of the island, however, carving upon a tree the date of his visit, and set sail thence northward on the 15th of November, 1769.

Lieut. Cook anchored in the Downs on the 12th of June, 1771. It is needless to recapitulate the incidents of his voyage, and the places he visited. His conduct of the voyage won him the most general approbation, and he was immediately promoted to the rank of commander. In the accounts of this expedition we find mention made of sealed vessels of the expressed essences of various vegetables, prepared at the instance of Cook as a preventive of scurvy, to which end it was entirely successful.

The Sandwich Islands, now SO familiar to our commerce, were discovered on a subsequent voyage of Cook in 1778. Of this attractive group, so many are the points of interest inviting discussion, that we must adopt the easier course, and decline to present any, rather than to select what might be deemed the most interesting. We may be permitted to state, however, in reference to a transaction happening we think in 1852, what we know upon the authority next to that of the parties themselves-two of whom, the then king of the Islands and the then leader of our administration having been removed by death, while the plenipotentiary of the former charged with this business is now absent from the country -that during the term of Mr. Fillmore the Sandwich Islands were offered to our country for unconditional annexation. The offer was not accepted; the gentleman entrusted with the matter by the Hawaian government returned to Honolulu, where he has since remained, and King Kamehameha dying, has been succeeded by Prince Liholiho, whose present policy does not consort with a renewal of the offer. As we write in the early days of June, with a French fleet in force at San Juan, and a Spanish fleet with suspected French motives at Vera Cruz, England the while in no good humor with us, perhaps it may be thought that we have already ports enough in the Pacific for such part of our navy as we can spare to take care of.

Our glance at the history of the Islands of the Pacific has necessarily

been brief and partial. We can but touch the shores of a few of them. The Bounty's tale, so often told, yet always fresh, we must pass by with but Levitical attention. The many events which cluster about missionary enterprise in the Pacific we must not, for want of space, advert to. And, what is most inviting, the considerations connected with the political or international relations in the present or future, of the islands of those seas, we must resolutely defer discussing. Many volumes, some of them confessed to be the most attractive in the whole range of romance and adventure, have been written in reference to these seas and islands. Perusing the volume whose title we copied at the beginning of this paper, the reader will dwell with delight on the stories of the Encantadas, or charmed islands, that lie near the coast of South America. The author of that volume, in his Typee and Omoo, and other books, whose coloring is the blue South Sea and its green islands, has charmed

thousands upon thousands of readers, so playing with fact and imagination that a world has admired the cunning of his pen. In the preface to his third work he tells us that he wrote fact in the previous two, and all the world took it for fiction, and therefore he has been moved to write a third which shall be fiction, to see if the world will take it for fact. Verily, slight is the difference between good fiction and well-told fact, especially when either lies in the atmosphere of the great western ocean.

Of the islands of the Pacific and its waters, no more to-day. Who can tell what new daring or suffering shall tomorrow add to their store of adventure? Access to them by the southwest passage was found by Magellan, who left his life on the voyage. The dreary northwest passage! The bones of Franklin lie there! Daring and death are brothers that sleep in the same forecastle as they sail those seas.

THE CLOVER BANK.

ILIE upon the clover bank,

And shiver in the rain:
The roses start to see me there,
And then droop back again!

I see beneath the clover bank

The ugly earth-worms crawl, The knotted roots, the rotted seedsAnd this is Beauty's fall!

She lies beneath the clover bank;

We're almost heart to heart:

Only a little mould between

That keeps us long apart!

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