The romance of the South Pole Author:George Barnett Smith Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. COOK'S LATER VOYAGES AND DEATH. r I HE public feeling had been so much stirred on J. the question of the existence of a southern continent, and ... more »scientific men showed themselves so deeply interested in the settlement of this important topic, that the British Government resolved to send out a second expedition, with the special object of finally ascertaining whether such a continent existed or not. The King himself strongly favoured the expedition, and it was warmly supported by the enlightened nobleman at the head of the Admiralty, the Earl of Sandwich. Commander Cook was appointed head of the new venture, for his claims stood alone in such an enterprise ; and two vessels were secured, built at Whitby. One, the Resolution, under Cook's command, was of 4G2 tons' burden; and the other, the Adventure, which was under the command of Mr. Tobias Furneaux, was of 336 tons' burden. The complement of the Resolution, including officers and men, was fixed at 112 persons; and that of theAdventure at 81. The vessels were admirably and completely fitted out in every respect. The cause of science in general was well cared for. Mr. William Hodges, landscape painter, was engaged to make drawings and paintings of such objects as could not well be comprehended from written descriptions. Mr. John Reinhold Forster and his son were appointed to explore and collect the natural history of the countries visited, and an ample sum was voted by Parliament for this purpose. That nothing might be wanting to accomplish the scientific views of the expedition, the Board of Longitude appointed Mr. William Walls and Mr. William Bayley to make astronomical observations, supplying them with the finest and most recently constructed instruments for so doing. Some delay occurred before the vessels ...« less