"
He was, perhaps, not a great man, though a good sailor, who had certain
qualities which placed him above his fellows. We imagine somehow that his
expressed pious dislike for buccaneering was not altogether the cause of
his abandoning the life, and that when he set out upon his career as an
explorer the search for a land where gold could be easily got without
fighting for it was his main motive. He himself tells us so, but we think
that he might have been a greater man if his mind had been capable of a
little higher aim than the easy getting of riches. The obscurity of his
end is not remarkable when one considers how little was then thought of
the value of his discoveries. It took many years for Cook's survey of New
Holland to bring forth fruits.
In his third volume, written after his return from Ascension, he says:--
"It has always been the fate of those who have made new
discoveries to be disesteemed and slightly spoken of by such as
either have had no true relish and value for the things themselves
that are discovered, or have had some prejudice against the
persons by whom the discoveries were made. It would be vain,
therefore, and unreasonable in me to expect to escape the censure
of all, or to hope for better treatment than far worthier persons
have met with before me. But this satisfaction I am sure of
having, that the things themselves in the discovery of which I
have been employed are most worthy of our diligent search and
inquiry, being the various and wonderful works of God in different
parts of the world; and, however unfit a person I may be in other
respects to have undertaken this task, yet, at least, I have given
a faithful account, and have found some things undiscovered by any
before, and which may at least be some assistance and direction to
better qualified persons who shall come after me.
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