THROUGH COOK’S STRAST. 297

‘a shower of stones from the natives. Capt. Cook’s men escaped to
their boats, and as the captain also turned he was severely struck, and
fell into the water, his face downwards. Like tigers, the savages fell
upon him, trampling him down until dead. His body was terribly
mutilated, and only the bones could be found when his men afterwards
came ashore and by violence wrested the remains from the savages’
possession. In the blue sea he loved so fondly and sailed so persistently,
they laid away all that was left of the famous mariner. You will find
traces of him all over these Pacific seas.

“Tn New Zealand, down to the year 1836, the story of Capt. Cook’s
visit was preserved among the natives. They told Mr. Polack that
their fathers took the captain’s ship ‘at first for a gigantic bird, and
were struck with the beauty and size of its wings, as they supposed the
sails to be. But on seeing a smaller bird, unfledged, descending into
the water, and a number of parti-colored beings, apparently in human
shape, the bird was regarded as a houseful of divinities.’ They were
very much astonished. Then, too, the death of one of their number,
killed by a musket, and a great fighting man among them, was a deep
mystery. How could they obtain revenge on divinities that could kill
them at a distance ?

“Capt. Cook will long be sc enbered as a ceane navigator: <A.
aman who climbed up ‘high from a low round on the ladder. Let
not the boys here forget him.”

Ralph, Rick and Siah drew a long breath. The story had intensely
interested them. Each one resolved to see how high he could mount
in life. Siah, that night in his dreams, was continually rising up
and bumping his head against the low ceiling above his berth. In
disgust, he ceased at last, and fell back into deep unbroken slumbers.
The doctor declared the next morning that the ambitious spirit of
the Pacific navigator had pervaded all living things on board the