622 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



in June, 1771, laden with more valuable spoil than ever ship 

 before ; collections and curiosities of all kinds, wonderful 

 stories from the uttermost parts of the earth, large and import- 

 ant additions to the scanty map of the Southern Hemisphere, 

 faithful drawings of new scenes, and the valuable journals of 

 those who had undertaken this great voyage. All Europe 

 rang with the event, and eagerly awaited the details. The Ad- 

 miralty determined that these should be given to the world in 

 a befitting way, and they therefore intrusted the editing and 

 publication of the journals and papers to a well-known literary 

 man — Dr. John Hawkesworth, who from a very humble origin 

 had raised himself to a position of eminence in the literary 

 world. His degree of LL.D. was conferred by the Archbishop 

 of Canterbury, who, amongst other functions, exercises to this 

 day the curious one of granting degrees without examination. 

 Hawkesworth was a miscellaneous writer, had been associated 

 in literary ventures with Johnson and others, had written 

 poetry, essays, romances, and plays, all of which had been 

 well received. It was doubtless through his connection with 

 Garrick, in the matter of the drama, that the influence of this 

 great actor was exercised in procuring for him in 1771 his post 

 of editor under the Lords of the Admiralty. His task was 

 completed in what we should now consider the protracted 

 time of nearly two years, and then appeared, in 1773, in three 

 volumes quarto, his " Account of the Voyages undertaken by 

 the Order of His present Majesty for making Discoveries in 

 the Southern Hemisphere." The first volume is devoted to 

 the voyages of Captains Byron, Wallis, and Carteret, who had 

 conducted their explorations during the nine years previous to 

 Cook ; the second and third volumes contain the account of 

 Captain Cook's first voyage ; and the whole three form part of 

 the eight which, together with the separate atlas of plates, 

 form the editio princess of "Cook's Three Voyages." Now, 

 how did Dr. Hawkesworth execute his really difficult task ? 

 The papers and periodicals of the time reply that it was exe- 

 cuted very badly indeed. He was accused of justifying the 

 murder of savages, of introducing obscenities, of failing to 

 recognize the protecting hand of Providence throughout the 

 dangers of a remarkable voyage, of interpolating his own heavy 

 remarks upon its varied incidents, and generally of present- 

 ing to his readers an exceedingly ponderous and unreadable 

 version of what should have shone and sparkled with the 

 genius of Cook and the accomplished descriptions of Banks. 

 So beset was the unfortunate editor by these pungent criti- 

 cisms that he died of chagrin and low fever two years later, 

 at the premature age of fifty-eight. He did not deserve this 

 fate so far as I may judge, and I have carefully read over his 

 narration more than once. The separate journals of Cook, 



