During the long and tedious voyages in which he was engaged, his eagerness and activity were never in the least abated.

No incidental temptation could detain him for a moment: even those intervals of recreation, which sometimes unavoidably occurred, and were looked for by us with a longing, that persons who have experienced the fatigues of service will readily excuse, were submitted to by him with a certain impatience, whenever they could not be employed in making a farther provision for the more effectual prosecution of his designs.' 'The character of Captain Cook,' says Mr.Samwell, 'will be best exemplified by the services he has performed, which are universally known, and have ranked his name above that of any navigator of ancient or of modern times.

Nature had endowed him with a mind vigorous and comprehensive, which in his riper years he had cultivated with care and industry.

His general knowledge was extensive and various: in that of his own profession he was unequalled.

With a clear judgment, strong masculine sense, and the most determined resolution; with a genius peculiarly turned for enterprise, he pursued his object with unshaken perseverance:--vigilant and active in an eminent degree:--cool and intrepid among dangers; patient and firm under difficulties and distress; fertile in expedients; great and original in all his designs; active and resolved in carrying them into execution.