100 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
The almanae makers and others, as I have said, givethe 15th jai, 
1769, as the day, and Mercury Bay as the place in which this act was done, 
and, to a certain extent, they are right, viz., that on that day, according to 
what is related in Dr. Hawkesworth’s narrative of Cook’s first voyage, such 
a circumstance took place. The words are as follows :— 
** Before we left the bay, we cut upon one of the trees near the watering- 
place the ship’s name and that of the commander, with the date of the year 
and the month when we were there; and after displaying the English 
colours, I took a formal agente of it in the name of His Britannic 
Majesty King George the Third.’ 
And here I may remark, in passing, that this sentence stands alone as à 
short paragraph added on at the end of the chapter; after we had been told 
of their having left the bay, and of their having been obliged through . 
contrary winds to change their course at sea. 
Dr. Hawkesworth, who was employed to edit this first voyage of Cook, 
says in his introduction that he was largely indebted to Mr. (afterwards 
Bir Joseph) Banks, for much of his scientifie, popular, and interesting 
information; indeed, as it would appear, to a far greater extent than to 
Capt. Cook himself, from whom, however, were derived **the particular 
. account of the nautical incidents of the voyage, the figure and extent of the 
countries, witli the bearings, harbours, soundings, the latitudes, longitudes, 
and variation of the compass, and such other particulars as lay in his 
department." And, in still plainer language, the editor further says: “As 
the materials furnished by Mr. Banks were so interesting and copious, there 
arose an objection against writing an account of this voyage in the person 
of the commander, the descriptions and observations of Mr. Banks would 
be absorbed without any distinction in a general narrative given under 
another name: but this objection he generously overruled, and it therefore 
became necessary to give some account of the obligations which he has laid 
upon the public and myself in this place." 
I quote this rather fully, because, as I think, it will Dads serve to show 
how the error (if an error) came about. For it must not be forgotten that 
Captain Cook did not himself write his first voyage as we have it printed 
and published ; neither was he in England during the time of publication, 
and consequently knew nothing whatever of it until three or four years 
afterwards. . 
Having said so much by way of introduction, I shall now give you my 
reasons for supposing an error to exist. I propose, therefore, to consider : 
(1.) Cook's usual custom in taking possession of any newly-discovered 
country. 
* dto edn., vol, II, p. 348. 
