VAL. MAXIMUS, lib. ii. cap. 6.

COOK'S VOYAGE
TO
THE PACIFIC OCEAN.

CHAPTER I.

TRANSACTIONS FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE VOYAGE TILL OUR DEPARTURE FROM
NEW ZEALAND.

SECTION I.

_Various Preparations for the Voyage.--Omais Behaviour on
embarking.--Observations for determining the Longitude of Sheerness, and
the North Foreland.--Passage of the Resolution from Deptford to
Plymouth.--Employments there.--Complements of the Crews of both Ships,
and Names of the Officers.--Observations to fix the Longitude of
Plymouth.--Departure of the Resolution._

Having, on the 9th day of February, 1776, received a commission to
command his majesty's sloop the Resolution, I went on board the next
day, hoisted the pendant, and began to enter men. At the same time, the
Discovery, of three hundred tons burthen, was purchased into the
service, and the command of her given to Captain Clerke, who had been my
second lieutenant on board the Resolution, in my second voyage round the
world, from which we had lately returned.

These two ships were, at this time, in the dock at Deptford, under the
hands of the shipwrights; being ordered to be equipped to make farther
discoveries in the Pacific Ocean, under my direction.

On the 9th of March, the Resolution was hauled out of dock into the
river; where we completed her rigging, and took on board the stores and
provisions requisite for a voyage of such duration. Both ships, indeed,
were supplied with as much of every necessary article as we could
conveniently stow, and with the best of every kind that could be
procured. And, besides this, every thing that had been found, by the
experience acquired during our former extensive voyages, to be of any
utility in preserving the health of seamen, was supplied in abundance.

It was our intention to have sailed to Long Reach on the 6th of May,
when a pilot came on board to carry us thither; but it was the 29th
before the wind would permit us to move, and the 30th before we arrived
at that station, where our artillery, powder, shot, and other ordnance
stores were received.

While we lay in Long Reach, thus employed, the Earl of Sandwich, Sir
Hugh Palliser, and others of the Board of Admiralty, as the last mark of
the very great attention they had all along shewn to this equipment,
paid us a visit on the 8th of June, to examine whether every thing had
been completed conformably to their intentions and orders, and to the
satisfacti