It is an adventure book. Although I have often appeared before the public as a writer, I never did it with so much diffidence and anxiety as on the present occasion. This arises from the peculiar nature of the work in which I have now engaged. A Narrative of the Life and Actions of Captain Cook must principally consist of the voyages and discoveries he has made, and the difficulties and dangers to which he was exposed. The private incidents concerning him, though collected with the utmost diligence, can never compare, either in Dumber or importance, with his public transactions. His public transactions are the things tna mark the man, that, display his mind and his character; and therefore, they are grand objects to which the attention of his biographer must be directed.
