remarkable man. He himself notices the disinclination of the sailor to
any new article of food, especially when not particularly palatable; but
he soon found the means to induce them to understand that their lives
greatly depended upon these rather nasty messes. Sour krout; the
unsavoury portable soups of that day; the strange greens that Cook
insisted on hunting up at every land he visited, and boiling with their
ordinary food; the constant washing between decks; the drying below with
stoves, even in the hottest weather; the personal baths; the change of
wet clothing; the airing of bedding, were all foreign and repugnant to
the notions of the seamen of the day, and it required constant
supervision and wise management to enforce the adoption of these odd
foods and customs.

It is evident that it is to Cook's personal action the success was due.
Wallis and Byron had anti-scorbutics, but they suffered from scurvy;
Furneaux, sailing with Cook in the second voyage, under precisely similar
circumstances, suffered from scurvy. It was only in Cook's ships, and in
the Discovery, commanded and officered by men who had sailed with Cook,
and seen his methods, that exemption occurred.

Cook did more, incomparably more, than any other navigator to discover
new lands. This was only accomplished by dint of hard work; and yet his
men suffered less than in any ships, British or foreign, or similar
expeditions. Though his tracks were in new and unknown waters, we never
hear of starvation; he always manages to have an abundant supply of
water.

The completeness and accuracy of his accounts and charts are no less
remarkable.