detect various blemishes. In a field so extensive, and amidst objects so multitudinous, it is difficult to give every thing its proper place, and its proportionate share of attention. A prominent position may have been assigned to inferior topics, while others more worthy of notice are placed in the back ground; and matters comparatively trivial are perhaps amply set forth, while subjects of greater moment are unreasonably compressed, or altogether thrust out. The author has not, in every instance, preserved as he intended, a uniformity in the spelling of S. Sea names and words. Inaccuracies of this kind are, however, excusable, as the names are spelled differently in the different voyages; and, having then no written language as a guide, each navigator adopted an orthography of his own. Thus, the name Tamehameha is written by Samwell, Ka-mea-mea; by Vancouver, Tamaahmaah; by Turnbull, Tamahama; while, in Cook's last voyage, it is Maiha-maiha: and hence, Capt. Beechey, not adverting to this, erroneously states, that this chief "is not mentioned in the official account of Cook's voyage."
Yet, whatever faults may be discerned by a critical eye, in this account of the life and voyages of Cook, the author flatters himself, that it will be found both ample and interesting. Care has been taken, to preserve as nearly as possible in all their freshness, those graphic delineations of nature and of man, which abound in the original narratives; and to give a becoming prominence to those passages which best display the grand features of our navigator's character, and to those also which convey the most important moral lessons. In this way, it is hoped, the work is calculated to profit,
