PREFACE.
Although I have often appeared before the public as a writer, I never did it with so much diffidence and anxiety as on the present occasion.
This arises from the peculiar nature of the work in which I have now engaged.

A Narrative of the Life and Actions of Captain Cook must principally consist of the voyages and discoveries he made, and the difficulties and dangers to which he was exposed.

The private incidents concerning him, though collected with the utmost diligence, can never compare, either in number or importance, with his public transactions.

His public transactions are the things that mark the man, that display his mind and his character; and, therefore they are the grand objects to which the attention of his biographer must be directed.

However, the right conduct of this business is a point of no small difficulty and embarrassment.