dated August 29,
1771. He was also introduced to the King at Saint James's Palace, and
had the honour of presenting the journal of his voyage, illustrated by
maps and charts; while their Majesties the King and Queen, and numerous
people of high rank and attainments, took delight in listening to the
accounts given by the explorers of their adventures, and in examining
the specimens of manufactures and of natural history which they had
brought home.

It was not, however, present _eclat_, nor the apparent magnitude of the
discoveries made, but their consequences, which rendered this voyage of
real importance. The ultimate result was the founding of two nations of
the Anglo-Saxon race; and whatever cause there may be to question, if
not to condemn, the manner in which possession has been obtained of
distant countries, and in which, also, their colonisation has been
effected, in almost every instance, and by almost all nations having the
power which civilisation gives, it must still be borne in mind that God
has overruled, and is overruling, these transactions for His own glory
and for the spiritual benefit of the world. He makes not only "the
wrath," but the ambition, and pride, and cupidity of man "to praise
Him;" and then the remainder "He restrains." And all circumstances are
made, in His infinite wisdom and power, to advance the spread of "the
glorious Gospel of the blessed God," and to usher in the kingdom of Him
whose right it is to reign, even of Christ Jesus, the Prince of peace,
the Lord of lords, and the King of kings.

With regard to the discoveries made in the voyage just recorded, it is
almost superfluous to say that the countries then visited for the first
time by our countrymen have, after the lapse of a century, become
familiar as household words to the whole world. Australia, Tasmania,
and New Zealand have become component parts of the British empire, and
have already been made the home of hundreds of thousands of the crowded
population of the British Isles, as well as of emigrants from other
European countries; and these lands will, probably, before another
century has passed away, become centres, not only of civilisation, but
of evangelical truth and saving faith. And herein the Christian reader
will and must rejoice.

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Note 1. The names of several places visited by Captain Cook have, in
course of time, been varied or alte