idence; he was going to
try for that reward of twenty thousand pounds to the crew that
discovered a Northeast Passage; and even if he missed the reward, he
was going to have a shy at the most northern latitude ever attempted by
navigator--89 degrees; would they do it? The crew cheered. Whether
they reached 89 degrees or not, they decided to preserve their grog for
the intense cold to be encountered in the north; so that the daily
allowance was now cut to half.

By March, the ships were off from the Sandwich Islands to the long
swell of the Pacific, the slimy medusa lights covering the waters with
a phosphorescent trail of fire all night, the rockweed and sea leek
floating past by day telling their tale of some far land. Cook's
secret commission had been very explicit: "You are to proceed on as
direct a course as you can to the coast of New Albion, endeavoring to
fall in with it in latitude 45 degrees north . . . and are strictly
enjoined {183} not to touch on any part of the Spanish dominions . . .
unless driven by accident . . . and to be very careful not to give any
umbrage to the subjects of his Catholic Majesty . . . and if in further
progress northward . . . you find any subjects of a European
prince . . . you are not to give any cause of offence . . . proceed
northward to 65 degrees, carefully search for such inlets as appear
pointing to Hudson Bay . . . use your utmost endeavors to pass
through." The commission shows that England was unaware Spain had
pushed north of 45 degrees, and Russia north of 65 degrees; for Spain
jealously kept her explorations secret, and Russia's were not accepted.
The commission also offered a reward for any one going within 1 degree
of the Pole. It may be added--the offer is still open.

For days after leaving the Sandwich Islands, not a bird was to be seen.
That was a bad omen for land. Land must be far, indeed; and Cook began
to fear there might be as much ocean in that northern hemisphere as the
geographers of Russia and France--who actually tabulated Bering's
discoveries as an island--had placed on the maps. But in the first
week of March, a sea-gull came swimming over the crest of a wave.
Where did she come from? Then an albatross was seen wheeling above the
sea. Then, on March 6, two lonely land seals went plying past; and
whales were noticed. Surely they were nearing the region that Drake,
the English freebooter, had seen and named New Albion two hundred years
before