t could have been done to
save the valuable life which had been so cruelly sacrificed, and whether
the object which had been attempted was adequate to the risk that had
been run. So furious was the rage of the crews of the two ships that
they almost mutinied against their officers, when prevented from going
on shore, as they desired, to wreak their vengeance on the heads of the
natives. It is remarkable that Captain Clerke had received orders to go
on shore and seize the king; but, suffering from the consumption which
was rapidly hurrying him to his grave, he was too weak to leave his
cabin; and, on hearing this, Cook immediately exclaimed that he would go
himself.

Captain Cook was in the fifty-first year of his age when he was thus
suddenly cut off. He was a man of great intelligence, perseverance,
energy, and determination. He possessed a calm judgment and cool
courage under the most trying difficulties. As a seaman he was probably
unsurpassed. By employing every moment he could snatch from his
professional duties, with the aid of such books as came to his hand, he
made himself a good mathematician and a first-rate astronomer, while few
officers of his day could have equalled him as a marine surveyor and
draughtsman. All subsequent navigators, who have visited the regions he
traversed, have borne evidence to the great accuracy of his surveys, and
the exactness with which he laid down on his charts the numerous lands
he discovered.

Various opinions have been expressed as to Captain Cook's temper. That
he was, at times, hasty and irritable, there seems to be no doubt; but
this fault was greatly counterbalanced by his kind-hearted and humane
disposition. He seems to have had the power of attracting both officers
and men to his person; hence many who had accompanied him in his first
voyage volunteered to serve under him again in his subsequent
expeditions. At the same time he was stern and determined, though
always just; and he considered it his duty, when necessary, to carry out
to the full the rigid discipline of the Navy in those days. He was a
kind and affectionate husband and father, and it is said that his
portrait at Greenwich Hospital, from which numerous copies have been
made, does not convey a satisfactory idea of the ordinary expression of
his countenance. It was painted, at the earnest desire of Sir Joseph
Banks, by Sir Nathaniel Dance, just before Cook left England on his last
expedition, and