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. Three days afterwards, he received a more distinguished and substantial mark of the approbation of government: for he was then appointed a captain in Greenwich Hospital; a situation which was intended to afford him a pleasing and honourable reward for his illustrious labours and services.
It will easily be supposed, that the lovers of science would, in general, be peculiarly attentive to the effects resulting from Captain Cook's discoveries. The additions he had made to the knowledge of geography, navigation, and astronomy, and the new views he had opened of the diversified state of human life and manners, could not avoid commanding their esteem, and exciting their admiration. With many persons of philosophic literature he was in the habits of intimacy and friendship; he was particularly acquainted with Sir John Pringle, at that time president of the Royal Society. It was natural, therefore, that his scientific friends should wish him to become a member of this learned body; the consequence of which was, that, in the latter end of the year 1775, he was proposed as a candidate for election. On the 29th of February, 1776, he was unanimously chosen; and he was admitted on the 7th of March. That same evening, a paper was read, which he had addressed to Sir John Pringle, containing an account of the method he had taken to preserve the health of the crew of his majesty's ship the Resolution, during her voyage round the world. Another paper, at the request of the president, was communicated by him on the 18th of April. relative to the tides in the South Seas. The tides particularly considered were those in the Endeavour River, on the east coast of New Holland.
A still greater honour was in reserve for Captain Cook, than the election of him to be a common member of the Royal Society. It was resolved by Sir John Pringle and the council of the society, to bestow upon him the estimable prize of the gold medal, for the best experimental paper, of the year; and no determination could be founded to greater wisdom and justice. If Captain Cook had made no important discoveries, if he had not determined the question concerning a southern continent, his name would have been entitled to immortality, on account of his humane attention to, and his unparalleled success in preserving the lives and health of his seamen.
He had good reason, upon this head, to assume the pleasurable, but modest language, with which he has concluded his narrative of his second navigation round the globe: 'Whatever,' says he, 'may be the public judgment about other matters, it is with real satisfaction, and without claiming any merit but that of attention to my duty, that I can, conclude this account with an observation, which facts enable us to make, that our having discovered the possibility of preserving health among a numerous ship's company, for such a length of time, in such varieties of climate, and amidst such continued hardships and fatigues, will make this voyage remarkable, in the opinion of every benevolent person, when the disputes about the southern continent shall have ceased to engage the attention, and to divide the judgment of philosophers.'
It was the custom, of Sir John Pringle, at the delivery of Sir Godfrey Copley's annual medal, to give an elaborate discourse, containing the history of that part of science for the improvement of which the medal was conferred. Upon the present occasion, the president had a subject to enlarge upon, which was perfectly congenial to his disposition and studies. His own life had been much employed in pointing out the means which tended not only to cure, but to prevent, the diseases of mankind; and, therefore, it was with peculiar pleasure and affection that he celebrated the conduct of his friend, who, by precautions equally wise and simple, had rendered the circumnavigation of the globe, so far as health is concerned, quite a harmless undertaking. Towards the beginning of his discourse, Sir John justly asks, 'What inquiry can be so useful as that which hath for its object the saving the lives of men? and when shall we find one more successful than that before us? Here,' adds the president, 'are no vain boastings of the empiric, nor ingenious and delusive theories of the dogmatist; but a concise and artless, and an incontested relation of the means by which, under divine favour, Captain Cook, with a company of a hundred and eighteen men, performed a voyage of three years and eighteen days, throughout all the climates, from fifty-two degrees north to seventy-one degrees south, with the loss of only one man by sickness. I would now inquire.' proceeds Sir John Pringle, 'of the most conversant to the study of bills of mortality, whether, in the most healthful climate, and in the best condition of life, they have ever found so small a number of deaths within that space of time? How great and agreeable then must our surprise be, after perusing the histories of long navigations in former days, when so many perished by marine diseases, to find the air of the sea acquitted of all malignity; and, in fine, that a voyage round the world may be undertaken with less danger, perhaps, to health, than a common tour in Europe!'
In the progress of his discourse; the president recounted the dreadful calamities and destruction the scurvy had heretofore brought upon mariners in voyages of great length; after which he pointed out at large, and illustrated with his own observations, the methods pursued by Captain Cook for preserving the health of his men. In conclusion, Sir John remarked, that the Royal Society never more cordially or more meritoriously bestowed the gold medal, that faithful symbol of their esteem and affection. 'For if,' says he, 'Rome decreed the civic crown to him who saved the life of a single citizen, what wreaths are due to that man, who, having himself saved many, perpetuates in your transactions the means by which Britain may now, on the most distant voyages, preserve numbers of her intrepid sons, her mariners; who, braving every danger, have so liberally contributed to the fame, to the opulence, and to the maritime empire of their country!'[10]
[Footnote 10: Sir John Pringle's Six Discourses, p. 145-147, 199.—It cannot but be acceptable to insert here Captain Cook's enumeration of the several causes to which, under the care of Providence, the uncommon good state of health, experienced by his people, was owing. I shall not trespass upon the reader's time in mentioning them all, but confine myself to such as were found the most useful.
'We were furnished with a quantity of malt, of which was made sweet wort. To such of the men as shewed the least symptoms of the scurvy, and also to such as were thought to be threatened with that disorder, this was given, from one to two or three pints a day each man; or in such proportion as the surgeon found necessary, which sometimes amounted to three quarts. This is, without doubt, one of the best antiscorbutic sea medicines yet discovered; and if used in time, will, with proper attention to other things, I am persuaded, prevent the scurvy from making any great progress for a considerable while. But I am not altogether of opinion that it will cure it at sea.