TWO HISTOKICAL NOTES IN REGARD TO CAPTAIN COOK. 47 



TWO HISTORICAL NOTES IN REGARD TO CAPTAIN 

 COOK THE CIRCUMNAVIGATOR. 



By J. H. Maiden, Government Botanist and Director of the 

 Botanic Gardens, Sydney. 



[Read before the Royal Society of N. S. Wales, June 5, 190 1J] 



1. The Club which, it is believed, partly contributed to his death. — 

 When recently in England, Mrs. Lowther of Shrigley Hall, 

 Macclesfield, Cheshire, was kind enough to permit me to examine 

 the collection of objects brought together by her father Thomas 

 Legh Esquire of Lyme Hall, the Leghs being of course one of the 

 most ancient families in the county. (Mr. Legh was known by 

 his contemporaries as "Traveller Legh," and was one of the 

 original Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society). The objects 

 •are mostly Egyptian and Oriental, but a South Sea Island Club 

 at once attracted my attention. On my displaying interest in the 

 club, Admiral Lowther (Mrs. Lowther's brother-in-law) was kind 

 enough to say that he would have it and its label photographed 

 and give copies to me. These I exhibit to you to night, after 

 which I shall send them to the Australian Museum, where they 

 will be always available for reference. 



The label, old and faded, and evidently written early in the 

 last century, is as follows : — 



"Cap n . Ja s . Cook, the celebrated circumnavigator, born 27 

 October 1728, at Marton in Cleveland, near great Ay ton in the 

 County of York. 



"Cap 11 . Cook was killed on the 14 Feb y 1779 by the Indians of 

 Owhyee— he was first stabbed, and with a (the word a is crossed 

 out and the word this inserted) Club gave him a blow on the back 

 of the head. 



