thence returned by different routes to England.

In the latter part of the year 1767, it was resolved by the Royal
Society, that it would be proper to send persons into some part of the
South Sea to observe a transit of the planet Venus over the sun's disc,
which, according to astronomical calculation, would happen in the year
1769; and that the islands called Marquesas de Mendoza, or those of
Rotterdam or Amsterdam,[2] were the properest places then known for
making such observation.

[Footnote 2: So called by Tasman, but by the natives Anamooka and
Tongataboo; they belong to that large cluster which Cook named the
Friendly Isles.--E.]

In consequence of these resolutions, it was recommended to his majesty,
in a memorial from the Society, dated February, 1768, that he would be
pleased to order such an observation to be made; upon which his majesty
signified to the lords commissioners of the Admiralty his pleasure that
a ship should be provided to carry such observers as the society should
think fit to the South Seas; and, in the beginning of April following,
the society received a letter from the secretary of the Admiralty,
informing them that a bark of three hundred and seventy tons had been
taken up for that purpose. This vessel was called the Endeavour, and the
command of her given to Lieutenant James Cook,[3] a gentleman of
undoubted abilities in astronomy and navigation, who was soon after, by
the Royal Society, appointed, with Mr Charles Green, a gentleman who had
long been assistant to Dr Bradley at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich,
to observe the transit.[4]

[Footnote 3: The gentleman first proposed for this command was Mr