First Voyage Round the World | Page 2

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
appellation 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.
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 are on the left
hand page in log form. To save space they have been placed at the end
of every day's transactions.
The eccentricities in the spelling have been preserved. A good many of
these would seem to be due to Mr. Orton, the transcriber, as Cook's
own letters are generally correct in their orthography. The use of the
capital