CHAPTER V.
Account of Captain Cook during the Period between his Second Voyage and his Voyage to the Pacific Ocean.
The able manner in which Captain Cook had conducted the preceding voyage, the discoveries he had made, and his complete determination of the grand point he had been sent to ascertain, justly and powerfully recommended him to the protection and encouragement of all those who had patronized the undertaking.

No alterations had occurred, during his absence, in the presidency of the admiralty department.

The noble lord, whose extensive views had taken such a lead in the plans of navigation and discovery, still continued at the head of that board; and it could not be otherwise than a high satisfaction to him, that so extraordinary a degree of success had attended his designs for the enlargement of science.

His lordship lust no time in representing Captain Cook's merits to the king; nor did his majesty stand in need of solicitations to shew favour to a man, who had so eminently fulfilled his royal and munificent intentions.

Accordingly our navigator, on the 9th of August, was raised to the rank of a post captain.