COOK'S REMAINS.

Ellis, in his Tour through Hawaii, says that King's account of Cook's death, from which the above has been largely drawn, agrees in a remarkable manner with that given by the natives. They in no way blamed their visitors for what occurred, and even after his death appear to have looked upon Cook as a man of a superior race to themselves. His breastbone and ribs were long preserved as relics, and in 1832 Ellis states there were many living who remembered the occasion, and all agreed that Cook's conduct to their countrymen was humane.

Captain Clerke says:

"Upon examining the remains of my late honoured and much lamented friend, I found all his bones, excepting those of the back, jaw, and feet—the two latter articles Earpo brought me in the morning—the former, he declared, had been reduced to ashes with the trunk of the body. As Carnacare (Kerriakair) had told us, the flesh was taken from all the bones, excepting those of the hands, the skin of which they had cut through in many places, and salted, with the intention, no doubt, of preserving them; Earpo likewise brought with him the two barrels of Captain Cook's gun—the one beat flat with the intention of making a cutting instrument of it; the other a good deal bent and bruised, together with a present of thirteen hogs from Terreaboo."

The hands, as has been mentioned before, were identified by the scar left by the explosion of his powder flask in Newfoundland, which almost severed the thumb from the fingers.

On 22nd February they were able to sail from this unlucky place, and touching at one or two of the islands worked their way northwards to Kamtschatka, the Resolution reaching Owatska Bay on 29th April, followed by the discovery on 1st May. They were very handsomely treated by Major Behm, the Governor of Bolcheretsk, a place about 135 miles from the town of St. Peter and St. Paul in Awatska Bay, notwithstanding Mr. Ismailoff's letters of introduction were on somewhat unsatisfactory lines. Mr. Webber was fortunately able to converse in German, which the Russian officers understood; and he ascertained that Ismailoff had represented the two vessels as very small, and hinted that he believed them to be little better than pirates. The Governor provided the ships with what he could give them, and promised to obtain further stores from Okotsk for them against their return. For these kindnesses the English could make but little return, and even then it was with difficulty that the Russians could be persuaded to receive anything, for they said they were only acting up to the wishes of their Empress, who desired all her allies should be treated with courtesy. One return, however, they were able to make which was of great service. At the time of the visit of the ships a large number of the soldiers and inhabitants were suffering very seriously from scurvy, and Clerke at once put them under the care of his medical officers, who, by the use of sour kraut and sweet wort made from the ship's stock of malt, soon caused "a surprising alteration in the figures of most of them and their speedy recovery was chiefly attributed to the effects of the sweet wort."

They were informed by the Major that on the day of the arrival of the English party at Bolcheretsk he had received a letter from the most northerly outpost on the Sea of Okotsk, stating that the tribe of Tschutski, which had been long at feud with the Russians, had sent in an embassy offering friendship and tribute, giving as a reason that they had been visited by two large vessels in the preceding summer, and had been received on board with great kindness, and had entered into a league of friendship with their visitors: they therefore thought it their duty to ratify this treaty formally. These two ships could have been none other than the Resolution and Discovery, though evidently the Tschutski thought they were Russian.