This, which has been exaggerated by the few (and they are indeed few) who are unfavourable to his memory, is acknowledged by his friends.

It is mentioned both by Captain King and Mr.Samwell, in their delineations of his character.

Mr.Hayley, in one of his poems, calls him the _mild Cook_; but, perhaps, that is not the happiest epithet which could have been applied to him.

Mere mildness can scarcely be considered as the most prominent and distinctive feature in the mind of a man, whose powers of understanding and of action were so strong and elevated, who had such immense difficulties to struggle with, and who must frequently have been called to the firmest exertions of authority and command.
Lastly, Captain Cook was distinguished by a property which is almost universally the concomitant of truly great men, and that is, a simplicity of manners.

In conversation he was unaffected and unassuming; rather backward in pushing discourse; but obliging and communicative in his answers to those who addressed him for the purposes of information.