Under May 13 we read: "we found (in the space) Bottonist Harbour." Eight lines lower, though in distinctly altered form, we read: "saw at Botany Harbour."
How different all this from the unaltered, unspaced account by the Captain's copy, given by himself to Sir Hugh Palliser, in which it only says: "The great Quantity of these sort of fish found here occasion'd my giving it the name of Stingray Harbour"!
So it is hardly correct to say, "It is, however, called Botany Bay from the first in the Journals," any more than "No autograph Journal is, so far as is known, in existence."
The fact of this "Corner's Log" becoming another ground for the publication of one, or many more, "Cook's Endeavour," can arise only from the supposition of its likeness to the so-called "Queen's Log" and "Admiralty Log." But these, admitted to be copies, cannot compare with the one personally sent by Cook, with his signature, to Palliser, or that sent to the British Museum as Cook's by his companion on the voyage, Sir Joseph Banks; or, far more, that in Cook's own hand and signature, as seen in his own official letters.
Yet this Harbour was placed on a French map, dating from the reign of our Henry VIII, as Baie des Herbages.
Geographers have not been the most reticent upon the singularity and apparent after-thought of the name Botany Bay. It was hardly to be expected that Cook, though a skilled draftsman and interested in charts, would trouble himself about old Mappemondes, dealing with localities that were scarcely likely to come in his way, or, at any rate, until his appointment to observe the Transit of Venus in the Northern Pacific; yet he was not ignorant of what French navigators had done. In the British Museum one may see his translation of a French Voyage from Havre up the St. Lawrence. This copy is dated 1755. He may, therefore, be credited with the knowledge of French Mappemondes before the Fronde Civil Wars; in which charts, parts, at least, of Australia were delineated, and of dates anterior to Dutch movements.
The Gazette Nationale of February 11, 1807, discusses the question as to the possibility of Cook making acquaintance of a celebrated map in London, before the Endeavour sailed in August, 1768.
That wonderful and precious Dauphin Mappemonde, which I have seen at the Museum, dating from 1542, might not have been known to non-scientific Englishmen, but found a home at last in our Museum. Was Dr. Solander, Cook's botanical fellow-voyager, curator at the Museum when it arrived there? Were he or his friend Banks aware of its existence, or only learnt of it after their return? On that Map the whole eastern coast of New Holland, afterwards known as New South Wales, is laid down distinctly.
In that case, there was no marvel in Cook's striking from New Zealand, in a direct line to the southern extremity of that coast, at Cape Howe, and following the shore northward, instead of seeking a connection with the Dutch Nuyt's discovery to the south-west. He would be going over the old waters traversed by the ships from Spain and Portugal.