DISCOVERIES BY SEA.
and hardships, the 71st degree of southern latitude; on his third and last voyage, which he undertook on the 29th February 1776, he discovered in January 1778 the Sandwich or Hawaiian Islands, went as far as the passage of Behring, and returned to the Hawaiian Islands where he was killed by the inhabitants on the 14th February 1779. During his voyages he discovered many islets in the Pacific Ocean now comprised under the name of Australasia and Polynesia.
     Long before Cook's time the English, wishing to find a north-western route to Asia, sent several fleets in that direction, among which one commanded by Sir Martin Frobisher who, in 1576, explored Greenland and found the Frobisher's Strait. John Davies discovered in 1587 Davies'Bay; Henry Hudson examined during the years 1607-14 the passages called after him Hudson's Strait and Hudson's Bay, which had been discovered a hundred years before by the Italian Sebastian Caboto; William Baffin explored in 1616 Biffin’s Bay.
     It having been found that navigation in these cold regions was both too difficult and little promising, explorations to North America were not afterwards pursued with the same alacrity.
     A century later the Dane Vitus Behring on exploring the Kamschatka Sea discovered in 1728 a passage between Asia and America, called after him Behring's Strait; thereupon he undertook another voyage in order to explore the western coasts of Siberia, when, during a storm, his ship was dashed against an island (Behring) on which he died December 8th 1741. It is now a general opinion that the so called American aborigines or Indians emigrated thither in ancient times from northern Asia by passing the Behring’s Strait, which is scarcely larger than the English Channel, and which the present