Cook's final voyage
In July 1776, Cook set out with two ships, the Resolution and the Discovery, to look for the Northwest Passage, a possible northern sea route between Europe and Asia. Cook first sailed to New Zealand and other Pacific islands. In January 1778, he became the first known European to reach the Hawaiian Islands. Cook named them the Sandwich Islands for the Earl of Sandwich, Britain's chief naval minister.
Later in 1778, Cook sailed to the northwest coast of North America. He was the first European to land on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. Cook then continued up the coast, sailed through Bering Strait, and entered the Arctic Ocean. But walls of ice blocked the expedition, and so Cook headed back to the Sandwich Islands in August.
In February 1779, an islander stole a boat from the Discovery at Kealakekua Bay. Cook tried to investigate the theft but was stabbed to death in a fight with islanders on February 14. The expedition returned to England in October 1780.
Excerpt adapted from the "James Cook" article, The World Book Encyclopedia © 1999