In the year 1758, we find him master of the Northumberland, the flag-ship of Lord Colville, who had then the command of the squadron stationed on the coast of America.  It was here, as I have often heard him say, that, during a hard winter, he first read Euclid, and applied himself to the study of mathematics and astronomy, without any other assistance than what a few books, and his own industry, afforded him.  At the same time that he thus found means to cultivate and improve his mind, and to supply the deficiencies of an early education, he was engaged in most of the busy and active scenes of the war in America.  At the siege of Quebec, Sir Charles Saunders committed to his charge the execution of services of the first importance in the naval department.  He piloted the boats to the attack of Montmorency; conducted the embarkation to the Heights of Abraham; examined the passage, and laid buoys for the security of the large ships in proceeding up the river.  The courage and address with which he acquitted himself in these services, gained him the warm friendship of Sir Charles Saunders and Lord Colville, who continued to patronize him during the rest of their lives, with the greatest zeal and affection.  At the conclusion of the war, he was appointed, through the recommendation of Lord Colville and Sir Hugh Palliser, to survey the Gulf of St Laurence and the coasts of Newfoundland.  In this employment he continued till the year 1767, when he was fixed on by Sir Edward Hawke to command an expedition to the South Seas, for the purpose of observing the transit of Venus, and prosecuting discoveries in that part of the globe.  From this period, as his services are too well known to require a recital here, so his reputation has proportionably advanced to a height too great to be affected by my panegyrick.  Indeed, he appears to have been most eminently and peculiarly qualified for this species of enterprise.  The earliest habits of his life, the course of his services, and the constant application of his mind, all conspired to fit him for it, and gave him a degree of professional knowledge, which can fall to the lot of very few.

The constitution of his body was robust, inured to labour, and capable of undergoing the severest hardships.  His stomach bore, without difficulty, the coarsest and most ungrateful food.  Indeed, temperance in him was scarcely a virtue; so great was the indifference with which be submitted to every kind of self-denial.  The qualities of his mind were of the same hardy, vigorous kind with those of his body.  His understanding was strong and perspicuous.  His judgment, in whatever related to the services he was engaged in, quick and sure.  His designs were bold and manly; and both in the conception, and in the mode of execution, bore evident marks of a great original genius.  His courage was cool and determined, and accompanied with an admirable presence of mind in the moment of danger.  His manners were plain and unaffected.  His temper might, perhaps, have been justly blamed, as subject to hastiness and passion, had not these been disarmed by a disposition the most benevolent and humane.