r police duty alone; but
from the very commencement of the peace, it was one continual struggle to
evade the terms by one side, and to enforce them by the other, without
coming to an actual rupture.

JUDICIOUS PROCRASTINATION.

According to his expressed intention, Captain Graves, on arriving at St.
John's, despatched Captain Charles Douglas in the Tweed to superintend
the removal of the British settlers from the two islands, and Cook
accompanied him with orders to press on the survey as rapidly as possible
in order that it might be completed before the arrival of the French.
Unfortunately, M. d'Anjac, who was charged with the duty of receiving the
islands on behalf of the French king, arrived on the same day as the
Tweed, off the islands. Captain Douglas refused to permit the French to
land until the islands had been formally handed over by his superior
officer, and by a little judicious procrastination in communicating with
Captain Graves, and persistent energy on the part of Cook in conducting
the survey, sufficient time was gained to complete it. Graves writes to
the Admiralty on 20th October 1763:

"Meanwhile the survey went on with all possible application on the part
of Mr. Cook. At length, Monsieur d'Anjac's patience being quite
exhausted, I received a letter from him on the 30th of June, of which I
enclose a copy together with my answer returned the same day. This
conveyance brought me a letter from Captain Douglas, expressing his
uneasiness on the part of Monsieur d'Anjac and pressing to receive his
final instructions, and at the same time gave me the satisfaction to
learn St. Peter's was completely surveyed, Miquelon begun upon and
advanced so as to expect it would be finished before the French could be
put in possession: so that any interruption from them was no longer to be
apprehended."

In a paper amongst the Shelbourne manuscripts, said to be an extract from
a Journal of Cook's, there is a short description of these islands, and
it conveys the impression that the writer looked upon them as absolutely
worthless as either naval or military stations, but for all that Captain
Graves's successor, Pallisser, was kept continually on the alert to
defeat the efforts of the French to strengthen their position.

THE KING'S SURVEYOR.

After the official surrender of these islands, Cook was engaged in
surveying different places which the Admiralty had specially marked out,
and was borne on the books of either