COOK'S LOGS.
These are of two ages, determined by their contents. Those which introduce Stingray Bay instead of Botany Bay, and which mention neither New South Wales nor New Wales pertain to the primitive order, executed while on the voyage, like the logs of the Lieutenant, the Gunner, the Boatswain, the Master's-Mate, &c.
Of this class there are two in the British Museum, one of which (a copy) was presented there by Cook's friend, Sir Joseph Banks, and the other, containing only a portion of the voyage, written in Cook's own hand as seen in his own official letters. Outside the Museum only one Log can be identified as genuine; being, though a copy, signed by Cook, and declared to be a present from the Captain himself to his friend and patron, Sir Hugh Palliser, and ever since remaining in the custody of the Palliser family.
These three Logs know nothing of New South Wales nor Botany Bay.
Several other Logs, purporting to have been sent home later by the Captain, have filled up spaces with the names of New South Wales, Port Jackson, and Botany Bay, all unknown to Captain Cook or Lieutenant Hickes.
It does not yet appear that Dr. Hawkesworth, Editor of the Voyage of the Endeavour, had access to any original Cook's Log or Journal. Sir Joseph Banks is said to have repudiated supplying the Doctor with any material. Cook and his Lieutenant were absent on another voyage, nor does any other person connected with the voyage, as Dr. Solander and James Matra, appear to have communicated information. The Editor was perforce driven to make use of other and less reliable sources for his story, framed, as it was, on the model of a personal narrative—the Adventures of Captain Cook.
That Journal of Cook's presented by Sir Joseph Banks, and still to be examined by a visitor at the Museum, is numbered among the "Additional Manuscripts" as 8959. It is well bound, bearing at the back the words Mus. Brit.—ex legato—Banks, Bart.—8959. The priceless copy in Cook's own hand, well written, if not always correctly spelled, is numbered 27,885 in the Museum Catalogue, and contains on a fly-sheet at the beginning the statement that the Log was purchased of Messrs. Borne on 13th of May, 1868.
Cook's own Journal is known generally as the Autograph, from bearing his correct signature. The transcriber of the Endeavour Log, 8959, possessed by Banks, wrote in a neat but rather small hand, very different from Cook's. It is, as might be well expected of such an early Journal, though passing through Banks's hands, ignorant of the existence of a Botany Bay, but refers to Skeats rather than Stingray, after which Cook's Autograph Log names the Bay. It has neither Point Hickes nor Cape Howe as in later days, though indicating Pidgeon's House Hill and Mount Dromedary. Yet we have smoaks and smooks as in Cook's own hand work.
THE PALLISER LOG.
The Palliser Log, presented by Cook himself to his old American Commander and patron, Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser, was examined by me in Sunderland, when invited there by its owner for some days, Mr. R. W. Hudson, the northern shipowner. His lady, a Palliser, assured me the book had never been out of the possession of the family since Cook's gift.