Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
8
A COUNTRY DOOMED BY NATURE
Once the mystery of the southern continent had been solved, at-
tention focused once more on the northern Pacific and, in particular,
on the old quest for a north-west passage. This was what Cook was
seeking when he set out in Resolution and Discovery once again on
12 July 1776. He reached the coast of Alaska in about 60°N before
being forced to turn back and seek a warmer location for the winter
months. While the ship was anchored at Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii, a
dispute arose with the local people. It was the old misunderstand-
ing about stealing metal equipment. But this time it had a tragic out-
come. A dispute over a pair of armourer's tongs ended with Cook be-
ing hacked to death at the water's edge, on St Valentine's Day, 1779.
Cook's discoveries and his death at the height of his fame
spurred others on to complete the work of Pacific exploration. They
also kept Anglo-French rivalry alive. The two countries were once
more at war between 1778 and 1783 but, as soon as the hostilities
were over and ships could be released, the French Government:
. . . with a view of occupying usefully the leisure of peace, and of
procuring for the officers of our navy great means of instruction, inten-
ded to give orders for the equipment of two frigates, which, in sailing
round the world, should be employed in examining such portions of the
earth as navigators had not yet visited; in completing various discov-
eries made in the Great Ocean by the French; and in improving, by as-
tronomical observations and by researches into the different branches
of physics and natural history, the general and particular description of
the globe which we inhabit. 1
 
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