CAPTAIN COOK'S JOURNAL. FIRST VOYAGE.
PLATE: PORTRAIT OF CAPTAIN JAMES COOK WITH A FACSIMILE OF HIS SIGNATURE. Collotype, Waterlow & Sons Ltd.
CAPTAIN COOK'S JOURNAL DURING HIS
FIRST VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD MADE IN
H.M. BARK "ENDEAVOUR"
1768-71
A Literal Transcription of the Original MSS. WITH
NOTES AND INTRODUCTION EDITED BY
CAPTAIN W.J.L. WHARTON, R.N., F.R.S. Hydrographer of the Admiralty.
Illustrated by Maps and Facsimiles.
LONDON
ELLIOT STOCK, 62 PATERNOSTER ROW
1893
43931
DEDICATED BY PERMISSION TO
ADMIRAL H.R.H. THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH, K.G., ETC.,
WHOSE DEEP INTEREST IN ALL MATTERS CONNECTED WITH THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE BRITISH NAVY
IS WELL KNOWN TO ALL WHO HAVE HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF SERVING WITH HIM.
PREFACE.
STRANGE it must appear that the account of perhaps the most celebrated and, certainly to the English nation, the most momentous voyage of discovery that has ever taken place--for it practically gave birth to the great Australasian Colonies--has never before been given to the world in the very words of its great leader. It has fallen out in this wise.
After the return of the Endeavour it was decided that a full and comprehensive account of the voyage should be compiled. COOK'S JOURNAL dealt with matters from the point of view of the seaman, the explorer, and the head of the expedition, responsible for life, and for its general success. The Journals of Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander looked from the scientific side on all that presented
itself to their enthusiastic observation.
What could be better than to combine these accounts, and make up a complete narrative from them all?
The result, however, according to our nineteenth-century ideas, was not altogether happy. Dr. Hawkesworth, into whose hands the
Journals were put, not only interspersed reflections of his own, but managed to impose his own ponderous style upon many of
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the extracts from the united Journals; and, moreover, as they are all jumbled together, the whole being put into Cook's mouth, it is impossible to know whether we are reading Cook, Banks, Solander, or Hawkesworth himself.
The readers of the day were not, however, critical. Hawkesworth's book,* (* "Hawkesworth's Voyages" 3 volumes quarto 1773.) which undoubtedly contains all the most generally interesting passages of the three writers, gave a clear description of the events of the voyage in a connected manner, and was accepted as sufficient; and in the excitement of devouring the pages which introduced so many new lands and peoples, probably few wished for more, and the Journals were put away as dealt with.
Since that time it has been on several occasions in contemplation to publish Mr. (after Sir Joseph) Banks' Journal; but this has never been accomplished.
Cook's Journal was in triplicate. The Admiralty Orders of the day enjoined that the captain should keep a journal of proceedings,
a copy of which was to be forwarded to the Admiralty every six months, or as soon after as possible. In the case of this voyage the ship was two and a half years from England before any opportunity of sending this copy occurred. The ship was the whole of this time in new and savage lands. When Batavia was reached the duplicate of Cook's Journal was sent home, and six months later, when the ship arrived in England, the full Journal of the voyage was deposited at the Admiralty.
The Secretary of the Admiralty, Sir Philip Stephens, a personal friend and appreciator of Cook, appears to have appropriated the
Batavia duplicate, as we find it in the hands of his descendants, and passing thence by sale, first to Mr. Cosens in 1868, and then in
1890 to Mr. John Corner.
The other and complete copy is still in possession of the Admiralty, though in some unexplained manner it was absent for some years, and was only recovered by the exertions of Mr. W. Blakeney, R.N.
A third copy of the Journal also terminates a few days before reaching Batavia. It is in the possession of Her Majesty the Queen, and from its appearance was kept for, and probably presented to, George III, who took great interest in the voyage.
Neither private possessors nor the Admiralty have felt moved to publish this interesting document until Mr. Corner acquired his copy, when, being an enthusiastic admirer of Captain Cook, he determined to do so, and was making preliminary arrangements, when he suddenly died, after a few hours' illness. His son, anxious to carry out his father's wishes, which included the devotion of any proceeds to the restoration of Hinderwell Church--the parish church of Staithes, whence Cook ran away to sea--has completed these arrangements, and the present volume is the result.
The text is taken from Mr. Corner's copy so far as it goes, paragraphs from the Admiralty copy, which do not appear in the former, being added, with a notation of their source.
The last portion, from October 23rd, 1770, which is only given in the Admiralty copy, is necessarily taken from it.
The three copies are, practically, identical, except for the period August 13th to 19th, 1770, during which the wording is often different, though the events are the same.
It is not very difficult to account for this.
The two first-mentioned Journals are in the handwriting of an amanuensis, Mr. Orton, the clerk. No autograph journal is, so far as is known, in existence, but some rough original must have been kept, as both copies bear internal evidence of having been written up after the lapse of an interval after the events described.
This is markedly the case in the Australian part of the Journal.
It is known that Botany Bay was at first called by Cook, Stingray Bay, on account of the number of rays caught there; but after Banks had examined his collection, and found all his plants new to science, Cook determined to call it Botany Bay. It is, however, called Botany Bay from the first in the Journals.
The name, "New South Wales," was not bestowed without much consideration, and apparently at one stage New Wales was the ap-
pellation fixed upon, for in Mr. Corner's copy it is so called throughout, whereas the Admiralty copy has "New South Wales."
It would therefore seem that about the period of the discrepant accounts Mr. Corner's copy was first made, and that Cook, in the
Admiralty copy, which for this part is fuller, revised the wording of his description of this very critical portion of the voyage.
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The Queen's Copy has been written with especial care, and by several different hands. It was evidently the last in point of time.
In reading COOK'S JOURNAL of his First Voyage it must be remembered that it was not prepared for publication. Though no doubt the fair copies we possess were revised with the care that characterises the man, and which is evidenced by the interlineations and corrections in his own hand with which the pages are dotted, it may be supposed, from the example we have in the published account of his Second Voyage, which was edited by himself, that further alterations and additions would have been made, to make the story more complete, had he contemplated its being printed.
This does not, however, in any way detract from the interest of a transcript of his record on the spot; and though many circumstances recorded in Hawkesworth, from Banks or others, will not be found, it is probable that an exact copy of the great navigator's own impressions, and the disentanglement of them from the other interpolated matter, will be welcome.
In printing this Journal the only alterations that have been made are the breaking-up into chapters, with modern headings; the addition of punctuation; and in the form of the insertion of the daily record of wind, weather, and position of the ship. These in the original