es for Christian exertion which certainly were not
improved. So far, indeed, as the existing records of this voyage inform
us, we are led to the conclusion that instead of setting an example of
morality and virtue to the ignorant heathen they visited, it would, in
many instances, have been better for the heathen had they never known
these so-called Christians.

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Note 1. Among sailors, a ship is said to be _crank_ when the rigging is
too weighty for the hull, so as to risk being upset.

Note 2. It seems strange that this "horrid proceeding" should have been
permitted on board the English ship; and that Captain Cook, with his
well-established character, should have stood by and witnessed it, is
unaccountable.

CHAPTER FOUR.

THIRD VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY, FROM JULY 1776 TO OCTOBER 1778.

It will be remembered that Captain Cook landed in England on July 30,
1775. He at once received well-merited acknowledgments of the services
he had rendered to his country. On August 9 he received post rank, and
three days afterwards was nominated a Captain in Greenwich Hospital, an
appointment that would have enabled him to spend the remainder of his
days in honourable retirement. In February of the following year he was
elected a Fellow of the Royal Society; and on the evening of his
admission, March 7, a paper was read, in which he gave a full account of
the various means he had adopted for the preservation of the health of
his crew.

The importance of this paper, and the way in which it was received, will
be best understood by those who have read accounts of Lord Anson's and
other voyages, where the scurvy made fearful havoc among the ship's
companies. In consequence of this paper, it was resolved by Sir John
Pringle, the President of the Council of the Society, to bestow on
Captain Cook the gold medal known as the Copley Annual Medal, for the
best experimental paper of the year. Cook was already on his third
voyage before the medal was bestowed, though he was aware of the honour
intended him; and his wife had the pleasure of receiving it.

Sir John Pringle's words are worthy of repetition. Having pointed out
the means by which Captain Cook, with a company of a hundred and
eighteen men, performed a voyage of three years and eighteen days, in
all climates, with the loss of only one man from sickness, he proceeds!
"I would now inquire of those mos