influence, but to sheer genius. Of humble
birth, he passed from the merchant service into the navy and rose
by his extraordinary abilities to the rank of master. Later he
was commissioned lieutenant and finally attained the rank of post
captain.[1] Such rank was hardly adequate recognition of his great
powers, but it was unusually high for a man who was not born a
"gentleman."

[Footnote 1: Full captain's rank, held only by a captain in command
of a vessel of at least 20 guns.]

At the end of the Seven Years' War he distinguished himself, by
his work in surveying and sounding an the coasts of Labrador and
Newfoundland, as a man of science. In consequence, he was detailed
to undertake expeditions for observing the transit of Venus and
for discovering the southern continent which was supposed to exist
in the neighborhood of the Antarctic circle. In the course of this
work Cook practically established the geography of the southern half
of the globe as we know it to-day. And by his skill and study of
the subject he conquered the great enemy of exploring expeditions,
scurvy. Thirty years before, another British naval officer, Anson,
had taken a squadron into the Pacific and lost about three-fourths
of his men from this disease. When the war of the American Revolution
broke out, Cook was abroad on one of his expeditions, but the French
and American governments issued orders to their captains not to
molest him on account of his great service to the cause of scientific
knowledge. Unfortunately he was killed by savages at the Sandwich
Islands in 1779.

The bearing of his work on the British empire lies chiefly in his
careful survey of the east coast of Australia, which he laid claim
to in the name of King George, and the circumnavigation of New
Zealand, which later gave title to the British claim on those islands.
Thus, while the American colonies in the west were winning their
independence, another territory in the east, far more extensive,
was being brought under British sway, destined in another century
to become important dominions of the empire. The Dutch had a claim
of priority in discovery through the early voyages of Tasman, but
they attempted no colonization and Dutch sea power was too weak
to make good a technical claim in the face of England's navy.

Finally, when the results of a century of wars between France and
England are summarized, we find that France had lost all her great
domain in America except a few