loo Transactions. — Miscellaneoiis. 



The almanac makers and others, as I have said, give the 15th November, 

 1769, as the day, and Mercury Bay as the place in which this act was done, 

 and, to a certaia extent, they are right, viz., that on that day, accordiug 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 possession 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 a 

 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 

 Sir Joseph) Banks, for much of his scientific, popular, and interesting 

 information ; indeed, as it would aj)pear, 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, with 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 fm-nished 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 fuUy, because, as I think, it will partly 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 lorinted 

 and pubhshed ; neither was he in England during the time of pubhcation, 

 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, 



* ito edn., vol. II, p. 348. 



