le English ships was slow. By 22nd March they had passed
Cape Flattery; a week later they named Hope Bay, "in which we hoped
to find a good harbour, and the event proved we were not mistaken."
All this part of the coast was called by Cook King George's Sound,
but the native name of Nootka has since prevailed. We have an amusing
account of these natives. At first they were supposed to be dark
coloured, "till after much cleaning they were found to have skins like
our people in England." Expert thieves they were. No piece of iron
was safe from them. "Before we left the place," says Cook, "hardly
a bit of brass was left in the ship. Whole suits of clothes were stripped
of every button, copper kettles, tin canisters, candlesticks, all went
to wreck, so that these people got a greater variety of things from
us than any other people we had visited."

It was not till 26th April that Cook at last managed to start forward
again, but a two days' hard gale drove him from the coast and onwards
to a wide inlet to which he gave the name of Prince William's Sound.
Here the natives were just like the Eskimos in Hudson's Bay. The ships
now sailed westward, doubling the promontory of Alaska, and on 9th
August they reached the westernmost point of North America, which they
named Cape Prince of Wales. They were now in the sea discovered by
Behring, 1741, to which they gave his name. Hampered by fog and ice,
the ships made their way slowly on to a point named Cape North. Cook
decided that the eastern point of Asia was but thirteen leagues from
the western point of America. They named the Sound on the American
side Norton Sound after the Speaker of the House of Commons. Having
passed the Arctic Circle and penetrated into the Northern Seas, which
were never free from ice, they met Russian traders who professed to
have known Behring. Then having discovered four thousand miles of new
coast, and refreshed themselves with walrus or sea-horse, the
expedition turned joyfully back to the Sandwich Islands.

On the last day of November, Cook discovered the island of Owhyhee
(Hawaii), which he carefully surveyed, till he came to anchor in
Karakakooa Bay.

The tragic death of Captain Cook at the hands of these natives is well
known to every child. The reason for his murder is not entirely
understood to-day, but the natives, who had hitherto proved friendly,
suddenly attacked the English explorer and slew him, and "he fell into
the water and spoke no m