This gentleman was Capt. James Cook, the celebrated circumnavigator, who made, by authority, three voyages round the earth; in the last of which he was killed by the natives of one of the Sandwich Islands, the 14th of Feb., 1779, at 51 years of age. An ample account of the life of this extraordinary man is given in the Biographia Britannica. The following are a few particulars of him. He was born at Marton, in Yorkshire, in 1728, of parents in humble circumstances; and at an early age he was apprenticed to a shopkeeper at Snaith; but afterwards bound himself to a ship owner in the coal trade at Whitby, in which line he served many years. But, on the breaking out of the war in 1755, he entered on board a man of war; where distinguishing himself, by his good conduct, in 1759 he obtained a master's warrant. In that capacity he served at the reduction of Quebec, where he took the soundings of the river St. Laurence, and made an accurate chart of it. He next served at the retaking of Newfoundland, where also he made a survey of the coast, with other curious researches, and observed there an eclipse of the sun, Aug. 5, 1766, printed in the Philos. Trans., vol. 57. In 1768, with the rank of lieutenant, he was appointed to the command of the Endeavour, accompanied by Mr. Green, astronomer, to observe the transit of Venus at Otaheite, in the South Seas; and an account of their observations on that occasion is given in the article above. Along with them also sailed Mr., now Sir Joseph Banks, and Dr. Solander. After the transit was discovered, Mr. Cook sailed on a voyage of discovery, in which he discovered and visited a number of new lands; as the Society Islands, New Zealand, Nevis Holland, Botany Bay, &c. In June, 17, 1771, he arrived in England, and was appointed a commander in the navy, an account of the voyage being published by Dr. Hawksworth.
In 1772 he was again sent out on another voyage, with two ships, the Resolution, commanded by himself, and the Adventure, by Capt. Furneaux. In this voyage he explored the southern hemisphere as far as latitude 71° 10', amidst immense fields and mountains of ice. Capt. Cook then touched at Otaheite to refresh, and hence sailed to the westward, and visited several groups of islands; as, what he called the Friendly Isles, also the islands discovered by Quiros, called by Capt. C. the New Hebrides; also New Caledonia, and Norfolk Island, which has since been colonized. After many other additions to our geographical knowledge, but without attaining the main object, the discovery of a southern continent, he arrived in England, July 1775, having lost only one man, out of 118 on board his ship,owing to the excellent means he employed for preserving the health of the crew. Of these means he gave an account in a paper sent lo the R. S., where he was chosen a member of their body, and his paper honoured with the prize medal in 1776. He was also, by the Government, raised to the rank of a post captain in the navy, and appointed to an office in Greenwich Hospital; and an account of his voyage was drawn up by himself and Mr. Wales.
The government having resolved to ascertain whether there be a northern communication between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, Capt. C. volunteered his services on the occasion, and in July 1776, he sailed in the Resolution, accompanied by another vessel. After touching at some of the South Sea islands, he proceeded northwards, and discovered the group which he named the Sandwich Islands; hence proceeding to the northwest coast of America, he traced along all that coast, as far as latitude 74°, where their progress was stopped by an impenetrable mass of ice, extending between the north-east point of Asia and the north-west point of America. Hence he returned to the southward, and in November 1778, he revisited the Sandwich Islands, where he was unfortunately killed in a quarrel with the natives.
Of these observations, the first is a series of equal altitudes of the sun, for the time, made with the astronomical quadrant: from the whole of these it is inferred, hence the daily rate of the clock's losing on mean time, by a mean of 40 results, is 20.8 seconds. By else first and last days observations compared together, the clock lost 19m 49s.9 on mean time in 57 days, which is at the rate of 20s.88 or 20s.9 per day. The swing of the pendulum on each side of the perpendicular during this time, varied between 1° 50' and 1° 55.