he Royal Society was naturally amongst the first to recognise the great
worth of its late Fellow, and the loss the Society had suffered from his
death. It had already granted him one of its highest honours in the form
of the Copley Gold Medal for his successful contest with the scurvy, and
it now decided to mark its appreciation by striking a special gold medal
in his honour. This was forwarded by Sir Joseph Banks, President of the
Royal Society, to Mrs. Cook, and acknowledged by her in the following
touching letter:

Mile End,

16th August 1784.

Sir,

I received your exceeding kind letter of the 12th instant, and want words
to express in any adequate degree my feelings on the very singular honour
which you, Sir, and the honourable and learned Society over which you so
worthily preside, have been pleased to confer on my late husband, and
through him on me and his children who are left to lament the loss of
him, and to be the receivers of those most noble marks of approbations
which, if Providence had been pleased to permit him to receive, would
have rendered me very happy indeed.

Be assured, Sir, that however unequal I may be to the task of expressing
it, I feel as I ought the high honour which the Royal Society has been
pleased to do me. My greatest pleasure now remaining is in my sons, who,
I hope, will ever strive to copy after so good an example, and, animated
by the honours bestowed on their Father's memory, be ambitious of
attaining by their own merits your notice and approbation. Let me entreat
you to add to the many acts of friendship which I have already received
at your hands, that of expressing my gratitude and thanks to that learned
body in such a manner as may be acceptable to them.

I am, Sir, etc., etc.,

Elizabeth Cook.

The medal actually presented to Mrs. Cook is now in the British Museum.

DEATHS OF THE SONS.

It is greatly to be regretted that so little can be ascertained about
Cook's private life that would be of service in forming an intimate
knowledge of his character, but this is accounted for by the fact that
after he had joined the Navy his time was so fully occupied by that
service that he had but little opportunity to form private friendships
such as fall to the lot of most men. The intimacies that he did form were
mostly connected very closely with his naval duties, and his
opportunities of correspondence were necessarily limited by absence from
all ordinary means of communica