Editing James Cook (section)

===North America===
From Hawaii, Cook sailed northeast to reach the west coast of North America and begin his search for a Northwest Passage.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=316-321}} He sighted the Oregon coast at approximately 44°30′ north latitude, naming it [[Cape Foulweather]], after the bad weather which forced his ships south to about [[43rd parallel north|43° north]] before they could begin their exploration of the coast northward.<ref name="Hayes 1999 42–43">{{harvnb|Hayes|1999|pp=42–43.}}</ref> He unwittingly sailed past the [[Strait of Juan de Fuca]] and soon after entered [[Nootka Sound]] on [[Vancouver Island]].{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=319-322}} Cook's two ships remained in Nootka Sound from 29 March to 26 April 1778, in what Cook called Ship Cove, now Resolution Cove, at the south end of [[Bligh Island (Canada)|Bligh Island]].<ref>{{cite bcgnis|18990|Resolution Cove |access-date=6 March 2013}}</ref>{{efn|Relations between Cook's crew and the people of [[Yuquot]] were cordial but sometimes strained. In trading, the people of Yuquot demanded much more valuable items than the usual trinkets that had been acceptable in Hawaii.{{sfn|Fisher|1979|pp=87-97}}}} After leaving Nootka Sound, Cook explored and mapped the coast all the way to the [[Bering Strait]], on the way identifying what came to be known as [[Cook Inlet]] in Alaska.<ref name="Hayes 1999 42–43"/> 

[[File:Captain James Cook in Matavai Bay, Tahiti; by John Cleveley the Younger.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15
|alt=Two large wooden ships in a bay of Tahiti, with several Tahitian canoes
|HMS ''Resolution'' and ''Discovery'' in [[Matavai Bay]], Tahiti. By [[John Cleveley the Younger]].]]
By the second week of August 1778, Cook had sailed through the Bering Strait, crossed the [[Arctic Circle]], and sailed into the [[Chukchi Sea]].{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=325-327}} He headed northeast up the coast of Alaska until he was blocked by sea ice at a latitude of 70°44′ north.{{sfn|Hough|1994|p=327}} Cook then sailed west to the [[Siberia]]n coast, and then southeast down the Siberian coast back to the Bering Strait.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=328-329}} 

During this voyage, Cook charted the majority of the North American northwest coastline for the first time, determined the extent of Alaska, and closed the gaps in Russian (from the west) and Spanish (from the south) exploratory probes of the northern Pacific.<ref name="G_Williams" /> 

By early September 1778, he was back in the [[Bering Sea]] to begin the trip to back to Hawaii.<ref>{{harvnb|Beaglehole|1968|pp=615–623.}}</ref> Cook became increasingly frustrated and irritable on this voyage, and sometimes exhibited irrational behaviour towards his crew, such as forcing them to eat walrus meat, which they considered inedible.{{sfn|Hough|1994|pp=328,331-332,363-364}}{{sfn|Obeyesekere|1992|p=42}}{{sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=392-393}}