Captain Cook's Journal. Edited, with Notes and Introduction, by Captain
W. J. L. Wharton. (Elliot Stock.)—It was quite right to publish Captain Cook's Journal in &dense. Indeed, it is strange that this has not been done sooner. At the same time, it cannot be said to add much to our knowledge. What we do get from it is a strong impression of the thoroughness with which Cook did his work. More zealous, more intent upon his duty no man could be ; at the same time, he is uniformly modest, unpre- tending. The Journal is that of the first voyage, made in the
Endeavour,' a Whitby collier, purchased by the Admiralty for the purpose. It was a very poor sailer, and looked so little like a man-of-war that the presence on board of an armed crew seemed highly suspicious to the authorities of some places. Its make, however, was eminently suited to the services which it had to perform. The voyage lasted from August 26th, 1768, when the 'Endeavour' sailed from Plymouth, to July 13th, 1771, when she anchored in the Downs. The outward voyage to Madeira from Plymouth occupied twenty days ; the homeward from the Cape to the Downs eighty-eight days. We get some curious details about sea-life. At Madeira, a seaman and a marine are punished with twelve lashes each for "refusing to take their allow- ance of fresh beef." Presumably it was not from a "prime cut." At Madeira they take in 3,032 gallons of wine, The ship's crew, all told, including the civil staff, numbered 94, so that the allowance was 200 bottles per man. Groat care seems to have been taken about provisioning the ship, and the result was remarkable health during the first part of the voyage, while the disasters of the return were due to another cause. Apart from accidents, three men only died in the first two years of the voyage. Three were drowned, and two (Negro servants) were frozen to death in the course of FL land exploration. This was from their getting access to the liquor. It was the stay at Batavia on the homeward voyage that proved so deadly. On Monday, Octo- ber 19th, 1770, when they wore at Batavia, Cook records, "I had not one man on the sick-list." The first lieutenant was suffering from consumption ; Mr. Green, astronomer, was ill, apparently from excess in eating and drinking; and Tupia, a native of Tahiti, was also indisposed. On October 26th, he records that he put up the ship's tent for the ship's company, "several of whom begin to be taken ill." On November 7th the surgeon died of a fever. On the 16th of the same month, he writes :—" We are now become so sickly that we seldom can muster above twelve or fourteen hands to do duty." Between that time and the end of the voyage, no less than twenty-nine died, nearly all of them from dysentery. Of the eleven "civilians and staff," no less than seven died. Banks, Folander, and two English servants alone survived.
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