It was not till 1778 that, under Pitt's direction, Captain Cook was sent into the Pacific ocean on a voyage of discovery. He discovered the Sandwich Islands circumnavigated New Zealand and took possession of Australia, or New Holland, in the name of the English king. The reports which he published of that vast ocean and those far-off islands, of their coral reefs, and palms, and bread-fruit, and gum trees, and kangaroos, and tattooed warriors, awoke an interest in the minds of the English concerning this world of wonders. They saw in all this a vast realm opened for the expansion of the English race, and English civilization. {157} The extension of the English language over vast territories and populations is without a parallel in the history of the world. Fully one-fifth of the surface of the globe and one-fourth of its population are under the dominion of England and the United States. The English language is now spoken, and English and American literature is read in every zone. "They spread where Winter piles deep snows on bleak Canadian plains, And where on green Pacific isles eternal summer reigns. They glad Acadia's misty coasts, Jamaica's glowing isle, And bide where gay with early flowers green Texan prairies smile. "They dwell where Californian brooks wash down their sands of gold, And track the Frazier's swelling flood thro' sunset valleys rolled; They're found in Borneo's camphor groves, on shores of fierce Malay, In valleys washed by Ganges' flood where Ceylon's zephyrs stray. "Old Albions laws, Columbia's songs rejoice the captive's limbs; The dark Liberian soothes her child with English cradle hymns, Tasmanian maids are wooed and won, in gentle Saxon speech. Australian boys read Crusoe's life, by Sidney's sheltered beach. "They speak to men so far apart, that while this praise we sing, Some may rejoice with autumn fruits, others with flowers of spring, They speak with Shakspeare's searching thoughts and Bryant's lofty mind, With Alfred's laws and Franklin's lore, to cheer and bless mankind." Who does not see a marvelous wisdom in all this? The language thus widely spread was destined to be the medium by which the gospel is to be spread in all the nations of the earth. Who does not perceive that the statesmanship of Pitt was one of the great instrumentalities for the execution of the divine purposes? Like all great men, Pitt was in advance of the age in which he lived. But England could not forget the eminent services of him, who had done so much to promote her greatness. The ashes of Pitt (now best known as the earl of Chatham) repose in Westminster Abbey, the burial place of {158} the kings of England. History will declare that among statesmen, few have left a more stainless, none a more splendid name. While these leading events were transpiring around them two remarkable persons were developing in the American colonies. One of these was George Washington, the other, Benjamin Franklin.