found, especially
on Mangaia, supports the statement. The Cook Islanders were formerly
man-hunters and cannibals, but they now are nearly all Protestants, wear
European dress and live in stone houses. The total population is about
6200. Since 1890 the islands have enjoyed a general legislature and an
executive council of which the _Arikis_ ("kings" and "queens") are
members. But all enactments are subject to the approval of the British
resident at Rarotonga, and a British protectorate, proclaimed in 1888,
was followed by the annexation of the whole archipelago by the governor
of New Zealand, by proclamation of June 10th, 1901. The archipelago was
discovered by Captain Cook in 1777, and in 1823 became the scene of the
remarkable missionary labours of John Williams, of the London Missionary
Society. The chief products of the group are cocoanuts, fruits, coffee
and copra. Lime-juice and hats are made.

COOKE, GEORGE FREDERICK (1756-1811), English actor, was born in London,
and made his first appearance on the stage in Brentford at the age of
twenty as Dumont in _Jane Shore_. His first London appearance was at the
Haymarket in 1778, but it was not until 1794 in Dublin, as Othello, that
he attained high rank in his profession. In 1801 he appeared in London
as Richard III., Iago, Shylock and Sir Giles Overreach, and became the
rival of Kemble, with whom, however, and with Mrs Siddons, he acted from
1803. His intemperate habits unfortunately grew more and more notorious,
and on at least one occasion the curtain had to be rung down owing to
the audience hissing his drunken condition. He visited the United States
in 1810, and died in New York on the 26th of September 1811. A monument
to his memory was erected in St Paul's churchyard there by Edmund Kean.

COOKE, JAY (1821-1905), American financier, was born at Sandusky, Ohio,
on the 10th of August 1821, the son of Eleutheros Cooke (1787-1864), a
pioneer Ohio lawyer, and Whig member of Congress from that state in
1831-1833. Being destined for a commercial career, Jay Cooke received a
preliminary training in a trading house in St Louis, and in the booking
office of a transportation company in Philadelphia, and at the age of
eighteen entered the Philadelphia house of E.W. Clark & Company, one of
the largest private banking firms in the country. He showed such
aptitude for business that three years later he was admitted to
membership in the firm, and before he was thirty