THE
LIFE OF COOK.
Birth, Parentage, and early Employments of Cook, to his entering the British Navy.
Captain James Cook, the prince of navigators, one of the brightest ornaments of his country, possessed not the advantage of an illustrious parentage; but, like not a few of the great and noble, he rose to eminence by the splendour of his talents, and the worth of his character. His father, who had the same name, followed the humble occupation of an agricultural labourer. He is said to have come from the village of Ednam, near the banks of the Tweed, well known as the birth-place of Thomson the poet. The circumstances which induced him to quit his native home, and settle in Cleveland, in the north-east part of Yorkshire, are not known; but when he left his father's house, quite a youth, his mother bestowed her parting blessing in these words, "God send you grace!" and when he married a young woman whose christian name was Grace, and who appears to have been a native
