It will not be easy to find, in the history of navigation, a parallel example of courageous exertion.

The other circumstance I would refer to, is the boldness with which, in his second voyage after he left the Cape of Good Hope, he pushed forward into unknown seas, and penetrated through innumerable mountains and islands of ice, in the search of a southern continent.

It was like launching into chaos: all was obscurity, all was darkness before him; and no event can be compared with it, excepting the sailing of Magelhaens, from the straits which bear his name into the Pacific Ocean.
The fortitude of Captain Cook, being founded upon reason, and not upon instinct, was not an impetuous valour, but accompanied with complete self-possession.

He was master of himself on every trying occasion, and seemed to be the more calm and collected, the greater was the exigence of the case.

In the most perilous situations, when our commander had given the proper directions concerning what was to be done while he went to rest, he could sleep, during the hours he had allotted to himself, with perfect composure and soundness.