On Cook's return from his second voyage he received, from the hands of King George III, his commission as a post captain in the navy, and soon afterwards was appointed to be a fourth captain at the Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich, with a salary of £200 a year, a residence, and certain allowances, subject, however, to the right of the Admiralty to call on him for further sea service should they require him. And the call--provoked by the eagerness of Cook--was not long delayed, for in the following year (1776) he was appointed to command once more the _Resolution_. To this ship was added a smaller consort, the _Discovery_, which had a capacity of only 300 tons, to be commanded by Lieutenant Clerke, formerly of the _Resolution_. In the Third Voyage, which began in the summer of 1776, the exploration of the Pacific was to be continued, but more with the intention that Cook should explore the western coast of North America and find out conclusively if there was or was not any sea way which would give a passage for ships across the North American continent.[104] The new voyage to be undertaken by the ships _Resolution_ and _Discovery_ was designed to proceed to the Pacific by the Cape of Good Hope across the Indian Ocean in southern latitudes, and past New Zealand and Tahiti to the west coast of North America. Rumours had begun to reach England about French discoveries in the South Indian Ocean, notably those by du Fresne and Crozet and by de Kerguélen-Trémarec in 1772, which it was desirable to investigate. An interesting member of Cook's crew was a Tahitian--Omai--who had been brought to England by the _Adventure_, and had not been spoilt by the kindliness of his reception. Omai was to return with Cook to his native land, and proved himself as useful, plucky, good-natured, and well-mannered an interpreter as had done the unfortunate Tupia, whose bones lay buried at Batavia. After the usual stay at the Cape of Good Hope, the _Resolution_ and _Discovery_ made their way into the Southern Indian Ocean through mountainous seas and bitter cold weather, and discovered or rediscovered Prince Edward's Island,[105] the Marion du Fresne and the Crozet Islands, and came to an anchor off the large island in 48° S. latitude, which had been already noted by the French sea captain, de Kerguélen-Trémarec. This last-mentioned island now bears Kerguélen's name. Captain Cook and the great French explorers who had preceded him had found no vast southern continent in the Southern Indian Ocean, but all unknowing they had found the last remaining vestiges of such; for Kerguélen, St. Paul, and Amsterdam Islands, the Crozets and Prince Edward's Islands, are the only portions remaining above the sea of a great Antarctic land which probably once united South America with Australia and New Zealand. All these scattered oceanic islands rise from what is called the Kerguélen Plateau, a region of the bed of the Indian Ocean in which