The Cannibal Islands | Page 2

out. He did not require to
boast or push himself forward. His work spoke for him, and the result
was that he was promoted from the forecastle to the quarter-deck, and
became a master on board the Mercury when he was about thirty years
of age.
About this time he went with the fleet to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence,
and took part in the war then raging between the British and French in
Canada. Winter in that region is long and bitterly cold. The gulfs and
rivers there are at that season covered with thick ice; ships cannot move
about, and war cannot be carried on. Thus the fleet was for a long
period inactive. Cook took advantage of this leisure time to study
mathematics and astronomy, and, although he little thought it, was thus

fitting himself for the great work of discovery which he afterwards
undertook with signal success.
In this expedition to Canada Cook distinguished himself greatly--
especially in his surveys of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, and in piloting
the fleet safely through the dangerous shoals and rocks of that inland
sea. So careful and correct was he in all that he did, that men in power
and in high places began to take special notice of him; and, finally,
when, in the year 1767, an expedition of importance was about to be
sent to the southern seas for scientific purposes, Cook was chosen to
command it.
This was indeed a high honour, for the success of that expedition
depended on the man who should be placed at its head. In order to mark
the importance of the command, and at the same time invest the
commander with proper authority, Cook was promoted to the rank of
lieutenant in the Royal Navy. He had long been a gentleman in heart
and conduct; he was now raised to the social position of one by the
King's commission.
From this point in his career Cook's history as a great navigator and
discoverer began. We shall now follow him more closely in his brilliant
course over the world of waters. He was about forty years of age at this
time; modest and unassuming in manners and appearance; upwards of
six feet high, and good-looking, with quick piercing eyes and brown
hair, which latter he wore, according to the fashion of the time, tied
behind in a pig-tail. It was not until the end of his first voyage that he
was promoted to the rank of captain.
CHAPTER TWO.
SHOWS WHAT MEN WILL DO AND DARE IN THE CAUSE OF
SCIENCE.
Men who study the stars tell us strange and wonderful things--things
that the unlearned find it hard to understand, and harder still to believe,
yet things that we are now as sure of as we are of the fact that two and
two make four!

There was a time when men said that the sun moved round the earth;
and very natural it was in men to say so, for, to the eye of sense, it
looks as if this were really the case. But those who study the stars have
found out that the earth moves round the sun--a discovery which has
been of the greatest importance to mankind--though the importance
thereof cannot be fully understood except by scientific men.
Among other difficult things, these astronomers have attempted to
measure the distance of the sun, moon, and stars from our earth.
Moreover, they have tried to ascertain the exact size of these celestial
lights, and they have, to a considerable extent, been successful in their
efforts. By their complicated calculations, the men who study the stars
can tell the exact day, hour, and minute when certain events will
happen, such as an eclipse of the sun or of the moon.
Now, about the year 1768 the attention of the scientific world was
eagerly turned to an event which was to take place in the following year.
This was the passage of the planet Venus across the face of the sun.
Astronomers term this the Transit of Venus. It happens very seldom: it
occurred in 1769, but not again till 1874, and 1882. By observing this
passage--this transit--of Venus across the sun from different parts of
our earth, it was hoped that such information could be obtained as
would enable us to measure not only the distance of the sun from the
earth with greater accuracy than heretofore, but also the extent of the
whole host of stars that move with our earth around the sun and form
what is called our Solar System.
An opportunity occurring so seldom was not to be lost. Learned men
were sent to all parts of the world to observe the event. Among others,
Captain Cook was sent to the south seas--there, among the far-off