Narrative of the Voyages Round the World, Performed by Captain James Cook Part 20

Of the gold medals which were struck on this occasion, one was presented to His Majesty, another to the Queen, and a third to the Prince of Wales. Two were sent abroad: the first to the French king on account of the protection he had granted to the ships under the command of Captain Cook; and a second to the Empress of Russia, in whose dominions the same ships had been received and treated with every degree of friendship and kindness. Both these presents were highly acceptable to the great personages to whom they were transmitted. The French king expressed his satisfaction in a very handsome letter to the Royal Society, signed by himself, and undersigned by the Marquis de Vergennes; and the Empress of Russia commissioned Count Osterman to signify to Mr. Fitzherbert the sense she entertained of the value of the present, and that she had caused it to be forthwith deposited in the Museum of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. As a farther testimony of the pleasure she derived from it, the Empress presented to the Royal Society a large and beautiful gold medal, containing on one side the effigies of herself, and on the reverse a representation of the statue of Peter the Great.

After the general a.s.signment of the medals (which took place in the spring of the year 1784), there being a surplus of money still remaining, the president and council resolved, that an additional number should be struck off in gold, to be disposed of as presents to Mrs. Cook, the Earl of Sandwich, Dr. Benjamin Franklin, Dr. Cooke, provost of King's College, Cambridge, and Mr. Planta. About the same time it was agreed, that Mr. Aubert should be allowed to have a gold medal of Captain Cook, on his paying for the gold, and the expense of striking it: in consideration of his intention to present it to the King of Poland.

During the two visits of the Resolution and Discovery at Kamtschatka, it was from Colonel Behm, the commandant of that province, that the ships, and the officers and men belonging to them, had received every kind of a.s.sistance which it was in his power to bestow. His liberal and hospitable behaviour to the English navigators is related at large in Captain King's Voyage. Such was the sense entertained of it by the Lords of the Admiralty, that they determined to make a present to the colonel, of a magnificent piece of plate, with an inscription expressive of his humane and generous disposition and conduct. The elegant pen of Dr. Cooke was employed in drawing up the inscription, which, after it had been subjected to the opinion and correction of some gentlemen of the first eminence in cla.s.sical taste, was as follows:

'VIRO EGREGIO MANGO DE BEHM; qui Imperatricis Augustissimae Catherinae auspiciis, summaque animi benignitate, saeva, quibus praeerat, Kamtschatkae littora, navibus nautisque Britannicis, hospita praebuit; eosque, in terminis, si qui essent Imperio Russico frustra, explorandis, mala multa perpessos, iterata, vice excepit, refecit, recreavit, et commeatu omni c.u.mulate auctos dimisit; REI NAVALIS BRITANNICAE SEPTEMVIRI in aliquam benevolentiae tam insignis memoriam, amicissimo, gratissimoque animo, suo, patriaeque nomine, D. D. D. M.

DCC. Lx.x.xI.'

Sir Hugh Palliser, who through life manifested an invariable regard and friendship for Captain Cook, has displayed a signal instance, since the Captain's decease, of the affection and esteem in which he holds his memory. At his estate in Buckinghamshire Sir Hugh hath constructed a small building, on which he has erected a pillar, containing the fine character of our great navigator that is given at the end of the Introduction to the last Voyage, and the princ.i.p.al part of which has been inserted in the present work. This character was drawn up by a most respectable gentleman, who has long been at the head of the naval profession, the honourable Admiral Forbes, admiral of the fleet, and general of marines; to whom Captain Cook was only known by his eminent merit and his extraordinary actions.

Amidst the numerous testimonies of regard that have been paid to Captain Cook's merits and memory, the important object of providing for his family hath not been forgotten. Soon after the intelligence arrived of his unfortunate decease, this matter was taken up by the lords of the Admiralty, with a zeal and an effect, which the following authentic doc.u.ment will fully display:

'At the Court at St. James's, the 2nd of February, 1780;

'(L. S.) 'Present,

'The KING's Most Excellent Majesty in Council.

'Whereas there was this day read, at the Board, a memorial from the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, dated the 27th of last month, in the words following: viz.

'Having received an authentic account of the death of that great Navigator, Captain James Cook, who has had the honour of being employed by Your Majesty, in three different voyages, for the discovery of unknown countries in the most distant parts of the globe; we think it our duty humbly to represent to Your Majesty, that this meritorious officer, after having received from Your Majesty's gracious benevolence, as a reward for his public services in two successful circ.u.mnavigations, a comfortable and honourable retreat, where he might have lived many years to benefit his family, he voluntarily relinquished that ease and emolument to undertake another of these voyages of discovery, in which the life of a commander, who does his duty, must always be particularly exposed, and in which, in the execution of that duty, he fell, leaving his family, whom his public spirit had led him to abandon, as a legacy to his country. We do therefore humbly propose, that Your Majesty will be graciously pleased to order a pension of two hundred pounds a year to be settled on the widow, and twenty-five pounds a year upon each of the three sons of the said Captain James Cook, and that the same be placed on the ordinary estimate of the navy.

'His Majesty, taking the said memorial into his Royal consideration, was pleased, with the advice of His Privy Council, to order, as it is hereby ordered, that a pension of two hundred pounds a year be settled on the widow, and twenty-five pounds a year upon each of the three sons of the said Captain James Cook, and that the same be placed on the ordinary estimate of His Majesty's navy; and the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty are to give the necessary directions herein accordingly.

W. FAWKENER.'

The preceding memorial to the king was signed by the Earl of Sandwich.

Mr. Buller, the Earl of Lisburne, Mr. Penton, Lord Mulgrave, and Mr.

Mann; and the several officers of the Board of Admiralty seconded the ardour of their superiors, by the speed and generosity with which his majesty's royal grant to Captain Cook's widow and children pa.s.sed through the usual forms.

Another occasion was afterwards seized of conferring a substantial benefit on the captain's family. The charts and plates belonging to the Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, were provided at the expense of government; the consequence of which was, that a large profit accrued from the sale of the publication. Of this profit, half was consigned, in trust, to Sir Hugh Palliser and Mr. Stephens, to be applied to the use of Mrs. Cook, during her natural life, and afterwards to be divided between her children.

Honour as well as emolument, hath graciously been conferred by his majesty upon the descendants of Captain Cook. On the 3rd of September, 1785, a coat of arms was granted to the family, of which a description will be given below.[19]

[Footnote 19: Azure, between the two polar stars Or, a sphere on the plane of the meridian, north pole elevated, circles of lat.i.tude for every ten degrees, and of longitude for every fifteen, shewing the Pacific Ocean between sixty and two hundred and forty west, bounded on one side by America, on the other by Asia and New Holland, in memory of the discoveries made by him in that ocean, so very far beyond all former navigators. His track thereon is marked with red lines. And for crest, on a wreath of the colours, is an arm imbowed, vested in the uniform of a captain of the royal navy. In the hand is the union jack, on a staff Proper. The arm is encircled by a wreath of palm and laurel.]

Our navigator had six children; James, Nathaniel, Elizabeth, Joseph, George, and Hugh. Of these, Joseph and George died soon after their birth, and Elizabeth in the fifth year of her age. James, the eldest son, who was born at St. Paul's, Shadwell, on the 13th of October, 1763. is now a lieutenant in his majesty's navy. In a letter, written by Admiral Sir Richard Hughes, in 1785, from Grenada, to Mrs. Cook, he is spoken of in terms of high approbation. Nathaniel, who was born on the 14th of December, 1764, at Mile-End Old Town, was brought up likewise in the naval service, and was unfortunately lost on board his majesty's ship Thunderer, Commodore Walsingham, in the hurricane which happened at Jamaica, on the 3rd of October, 1730. He is said to have been a most promising youth. Hugh, the youngest, was born on the 22nd of May, 1776; and was so called after the name of his father's great friend, Sir Hugh Palliser.

It hath often been mentioned, in terms of no small regret, that a monument hath not yet been erected to the memory of Captain Cook, in Westminster Abbey.

The wish and the hope of such a monument are hinted at in the close of Dr. Douglas's Introduction to the government edition of the last voyage; and the same sentiment is expressed by the author of the Eulogium, at the end of that Introduction. Sir Hugh Palliser has also spoken to the like purpose, in a communication I received from him. It would certainly redound to the honour of the nation, to order a magnificent memorial of the abilities and services of our ill.u.s.trious navigator; on which account, a tribute of that kind may be regarded as a desirable thing. But a monument in Westminster Abbey would be of little consequence to the reputation of Captain Cook. His fame stands upon a wider base, and will survive the comparatively perishing materials of bra.s.s, or stone, or marble. The name of Cook will be held in honour, and recited with applause, so long as the records of human events shall continue in the earth; nor is it possible to say, what may be the influence and rewards, which, in other worlds, shall be found to attend upon eminent examples of wisdom and of virtue.

APPENDIX.

After the death of Captain Cook, and the events immediately succeeding it, Captain Clerke, upon whom the command of the expedition had devolved, proceeded from Owhyhee, and coasted several of the other islands of the group. The ships anch.o.r.ed at Atooi to procure water; in doing this our voyagers experienced some interruption from the natives, and a slight conflict took place, in which one of the islanders was wounded by a musket-shot. They were here told, that, at their preceding visit, they had left a disorder amongst the women, of which several persons of both s.e.xes had died; and as there was not the slightest appearance of the disorder amongst the natives, at the first arrival of the vessels, there is too much reason to believe that some of the crew were the authors of that irreparable mischief. Atooi was in a state of internal warfare; the quarrel had arisen about the goats Captain Cook had left at Oneeheow the year before, the property of which was contested by two different chiefs. The goats, which had increased to the number of six, and would probably in a few years have stocked all these islands, were destroyed in the contest.

Our voyagers left the Sandwich Islands finally on the 15th of March: and stood to the south-west, in hopes of falling in with the island of Modoopapappa, which they were told by the natives lay in that direction, about five hours' sail from Taohora; but though the two vessels stretched asunder several miles, they did not discover it. It is possible it might have been pa.s.sed in the night, as the islanders described it to be small, sandy, and almost even with the surface of the sea.

The harbour of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, in Awatska Bay, was appointed for the next rendezvous of the two vessels, in case of separation. In the course of their navigation towards Kamtschatka, they traversed that part of the Northern Pacific, in which some islands and lands were laid down in the charts, such as the island of Reia de Plata in De l'Isle's chart, and the land said to have been seen by John de Gama, in a voyage from China to New Spain, first delineated in a chart published by Texeira, a Portuguese geographer, in 1649; but though at sundry times they had various indications of land, they discovered none, and those islands and lands must therefore either be of trifling extent, or wholly imaginary.

A leak, under the larboard bow of the Resolution, which had kept the people almost constantly at the pumps, ever since their leaving the Sandwich Islands, occasioned a great alarm on the 13th of April. The water, which had lodged in the coal-hole, not finding a sufficient vent into the well, had forced up the platforms over it, and in a moment deluged the whole s.p.a.ce between decks. The coals would very soon choke up a pump, and the number of bulky materials that were washed out of the gunner's store room, and which, by the ship's motion, were tossed violently from side to side, rendered it impracticable to bale the water out. No other method was therefore left, than to cut a hole through the bulk-head, that separated the coal-hole from the fore-hold. As soon as the pa.s.sage was made, the greatest part of the water was emptied into the well: but the leak was now so much increased, that it was necessary to keep one half of the people constantly pumping and baling, till the noon of the 15th.

On the 23rd, at six in the morning, on the fog clearing away, the land of Kamtschatka appeared, in mountains covered with snow. The weather was most severe: the ship appeared to be a complete ma.s.s of ice, and the shrouds were so incrusted with it, as to measure in circ.u.mference more than double their usual size. The crews suffered very severely from the cold, particularly from having lately left the tropical climates; and, but for the foresight and care of their officers, would indeed have been in a deplorable state. It was natural to expect, that their experience, during their voyage to the north the year before, would have made them sensible of the necessity of paying some attention to their clothing; as it was generally known in both ships, that they were to make another voyage towards the pole; but, with the thoughtlessness of infants, upon their return to a warm climate, their fur jackets and the rest of their cold-country clothes, were kicked about the decks, as things of no value. They were of course picked up by the officers, and being put into casks, were, in due season, restored to their owners.

On the 25th, when off the entrance of Awatska Bay, the Resolution lost sight of the Discovery, and on the 28th entered the Bay. The officers of the Resolution examined every corner of it, with their gla.s.ses, in search of the town of St. Peter and St. Paul, which they had conceived to be a place of some strength and consideration. At length they discovered, on a narrow point of land a few miserable loghouses, and some conical huts raised on poles, amounting in all to about thirty, which, from the situation, they were under the necessity of concluding to be Petropaulowska. 'However,' says Captain King, 'in justice to the generous and hospitable treatment we found here, I shall beg leave to antic.i.p.ate the reader's curiosity, by a.s.suring him that our disappointment proved to be more of a laughable than a serious nature; for, in this wretched extremity of the earth, situated beyond every thing that we conceived to be most barbarous and inhospitable, and, as it were, out of the very reach of civilization, barricadoed with ice, and covered with summer snow, in a poor miserable port, far inferior to the meanest of our fishing-towns, we met with feelings of humanity, joined to a greatness of mind, an elevation of sentiment, which would have done honour to any nation or climate.'

In the morning of the 29th, Captain, then Lieutenant King was sent on sh.o.r.e; and after experiencing much difficulty from the broken ice that extended nearly half a mile, across which he was obliged to make the best of his way on foot, was received by the commander of the garrison at the head of his men consisting of about thirty soldiers. They had not seen the ship the preceding day, nor indeed that morning, till the boats were pretty near the ice. Much panic ensued; the garrison was put under arms, and two field piece placed at the entrance of the commander's house. All, however, soon wore a friendly aspect, and nothing could exceed the kindness and hospitality of the officer, a serjeant, who commanded in the ostrog, and at whose house they were entertained. He furnished Lieutenant King, who bad fallen in between the disjointed ice, with a complete suit of clothes of his own; the dinner that was served up consisted of four courses; but the conversation, from the want of an interpreter, no other language being understood there but Russian and Kamtschatdale, was confined to a few bows and other signs of mutual respect. The serjeant sent of an express to Bolcheretsk, where the governor of the province usually resided, and whence he had to look for orders what to do, as to the procurement of the supplies of provisions, and naval stores, which our people wanted.

On their return, a sledge drawn by five dogs, with a driver, was provided for each of the party. The sailors were highly delighted with this mode of conveyance, and, what diverted them most was, that the two boat-hooks which they had brought, had also a sledge to themselves.

On the 1st of May, the Discovery entered the bay. On the day after, early in the morning, an answer was received from Bolcheretsk. The dispatches had been sent off on the 29th, about noon, by a sledge drawn by dogs, so that they were only a little more than three days and a half in performing a journey of two hundred and seventy miles; Bolcheretsk being about one hundred and thirty-five rules from St.

Peter and St. Paul.

As the whole stock of live cattle which the country about the bay could afford, amounted only to two heifers, Captain Clerke found it necessary to send to Bolcheretsk, and Captain Gore and Lieutenant King were fixed on for the excursion. They proceeded by boats up the Awatska river, then across part of the country in sledges, and then down the Bolchoireka in canoes.

Major Behm, the governor of Kamtschatka, received them, not only with the utmost politeness, but with the most engaging cordiality; and all the princ.i.p.al people of the town vied with each other who should shew the most civility to strangers from the other extremity of the globe.

A list of the naval stores, the number of cattle, and the quant.i.ty of flour wanted by the navigators, was given to Major Behm, who insisted upon supplying all their wants; and when they desired to be made acquainted with the price of the articles, with which they were to be supplied, and proposed, that Captain Clerke should give bills to the amount on the Victualling-office in London, the major positively refused, and whenever it was afterward urged, stopped them short by saying, he was certain he could not oblige his mistress, the empress, more than in giving every a.s.sistance in his power to her good friends and allies, the English; and that it would be a particular satisfaction to her, to hear, that, in so remote a part of the world, her dominions had afforded any relief to ships engaged in such services; that he could not therefore act so contrary to the character of his empress, as to accept of any bills; but that, to accommodate the matter, he would take a bare attestatation of the particulars with which we might be furnished, and that this he would transmit to his court, as a certificate of having performed his duty.

The town of Bolcheretsk consists of several rows of low buildings, barracks for the Russian soldiers and Cossacks, a good looking church, and a court-room, with a great number of balagans (summer habitations) belonging to the Kamtschatdales, at the end of the town. The inhabitants amount to between five and six hundred.

It would exceed the bounds to which this sketch must necessarily be confined, to enumerate one half of the instances of civility and attention which Major Behm, his lady, the officers of the garrison, and the inhabitants of the town bestowed upon the English travellers.

One generous present cannot, however, be pa.s.sed over in silence, both because it consisted of the greatest part of their small store of the article, and because it called forth from the British seamen a corresponding generosity. Being informed of the privations the sailors had suffered from the want of tobacco, Major Behm sent four bags of it, weighing upwards of one hundred pounds each, which he begged might be presented, in the name of himself and the garrison under his command, to our sailors. When the seamen were told of it, the crews of both ships desired, entirely of their own accord, that their grog might be stopped, and their allowance of spirits, presented, on their part, to the garrison of Bolcheretsk, as they had reason to conclude, that brandy was scarce in the country and would be very acceptable, since the soldiers on sh.o.r.e had offered four roubles a bottle for it.

When it is considered how much the sailors would feel from the stoppage of their allowance of grog, and that this offer would deprive them of it during the inclement season they had to expect on their ensuing expedition to the north, the sacrifice must be looked upon as generous and extraordinary; and, that they might not suffer by it, Captain Clerke subst.i.tuted, in the room of the very small quant.i.ty the major could be prevailed on to accept, the same quant.i.ty of rum.

When the party returned to Petropaulowska, Major Behm accompanied them, and visited the ships. He had resigned the command of Kamtschatka, and was in a short time to return to St. Petersburgh; our navigators therefore committed to his care dispatches for England, with the journals and charts of the voyage so far.

They got about twenty head of cattle, about nine thousand weight of rye flour, and a variety of other provisions and refreshments here, especially fish, with which they were absolutely overpowered from every quarter; and, having completed their water, they weighed anchor on the 13th of June, and on the 16th cleared the bay. The volcano, situated to the north of the harbour, was in a state of eruption at the time.

On the 5th of July, our navigators pa.s.sed through Beering's Straits, having run along the Asiatic coast; they then stretched over to that of America, with a view of exploring it between the lat.i.tudes of 68 and 69. But in this attempt they were disappointed, being stopped, on the 7th, by a large and compact field of ice connected with the land.

On the 9th, they had sailed nearly forty leagues to the westward, along the edge of the ice, without seeing any opening, and had therefore no prospect of advancing farther north.--Until the 27th, however, they continued to seek a pa.s.sage, first on the American, and then on the Asiatic side; but were never able to penetrate farther north than 70 33', which was five leagues short of the point to which they had advanced the season before.

At one time, in attempting to penetrate to the northwestward, the Discovery was in a very dangerous situation. She became so entangled by several large pieces of ice, that her way was stopped, and immediately dropping bodily to leeward, she fell broadside foremost on the edge of a considerable body of ice, and having at the same time an open sea to windward the surf caused her to strike violently upon it.

This ma.s.s at length either so far moved or broke, as to set them at liberty to make another trial to escape; but, before the ship gathered way enough to be under command, she again fell to leeward on another fragment; and the swell making it unsafe to lie to windward, and finding no chance of getting clear, they pushed into a small opening, furled their sails, and made fast with ice-hooks. A change of wind, however, taking place in the afternoon, the ice began to separate, and, setting all their sails, they forced a pa.s.sage through it. The vessel had rubbed off a great deal of the sheathing from her bows, and became very leaky from the strokes she received when she fell on the edge of the ice.

In these high lat.i.tudes, our navigators killed several sea-horses, and also two white bears; the flesh of the latter afforded a few excellent meals of fresh meat. It had indeed a strong fishy taste, but was in every respect superior to that of the sea-horse, which nevertheless, the sailors were again persuaded, without much difficulty, to prefer to their salted provisions.

Finding a farther advance to the northward, as well as a nearer approach to either continent, obstructed by a sea blocked up with ice, Captain Clerke at length determined to lose no more time in the pursuit of what seemed utterly unattainable, and to sail for Awatska Bay, to repair their damages, and before the winter should set in, to explore the coast of j.a.pan on their way towards Europe. To the great joy, therefore, of every individual on board both ships, they turned their faces towards home; and the delight and satisfaction they experienced on the occasion, notwithstanding the tedious voyage they had to make, and the immense distance they had to run, were as freely entertained, and perhaps as fully enjoyed, as if they had been already in sight of the land's End.

On the 31st, they repa.s.sed Beering's Straits. With respect to the practicability of a north-east or north-west pa.s.sage into the Pacific Ocean, through those straits, from the result of their attempts it appears, that the north of the straits is clearer of ice in August than in July, and perhaps in a part of September it may be still more free. But, after the equinox, the days shorten so fast, that no farther thaw can be expected, and so great an effect cannot rationally be allowed to the warm weather in the first half of September as to imagine it capable of dispersing the ice from the most northern parts of the American coast. But admitting this to be possible, it would be madness to attempt to run from the Icy Cape to the known parts of Baffin's Bay (a distance of four hundred and twenty leagues) in so short a time as that pa.s.sage can be supposed to remain open. Upon the Asiatic side, there appears still less probability of success; for, though Deshneff, a Russian navigator, about a century and a half ago, pa.s.sed round the north-east point of Asia, no voyager has yet been able to double Cape Taimura beyond the mouth of the Lena, which stretches to the 78 of lat.i.tude.

Captain Clerke's health now rapidly declined, and, on the 17th of August he was no longer able to get out of his bed. On the 21st, they made the coast of Kamtschatka; and on the following day, at nine in the morning. Captain Clerke died.[19] His disease was a consumption, which had evidently commenced before he left England, and of which he had lingered during the whole voyage.

[Footnote 19: Captain Clerke departed this life in the thirty-eighth year of his age. He was brought up to the navy from his earliest youth, and had been in several actions during the war which began in 1756. In the action between the Bellona and the Courageux, being stationed in the mizen-top, he was carried over-board with the mast; but was taken up without having received any hurt. He was a midshipman in the Dolphin, commanded by Captain Byron, in her voyage round the world: after which he served on the American station. In 1768, he made his second voyage round the world, in the Endeavour, as master's mate: and, in consequence of the death of Mr. Hicks, which happened on the 23rd of May, 1771, he returned home a lieutenant. His third circ.u.mnavigation of the globe was in the Resolution, of which he was appointed the second lieutenant; and he continued in that situation till his return in 1775; soon after which he was promoted to the rank of master and commander. In what capacity he sailed with Captain Cook in this last expedition, need not be added. The consumption, of which Captain Clerke died, had evidently commenced before he left England, and he lingered under it during the whole voyage. Though his very gradual decay had long made him a melancholy object to his friends, nevertheless, they derived some consolation from the equanimity with which he bore his disorder, from the constant flow of good spirits maintained by him to his latest hour, and from his submitting to his fate with cheerful resignation. 'It was, however, impossible,' says Mr. King, 'not to feel a more than common degree of compa.s.sion for a person, whose life had been a continued scene of those difficulties and hardships, to which a seaman's occupation is subject, and under which he at last sunk.'