Details
[COOK, Captain JAMES. First Voyage] [MAGRA, JAMES?]. A Journal of a Voyage round the World, in His Majesty's Ship Endeavour, in the years 1768, 1769, 1770, and 1771...To which is added, A Concise Vocabulary of the language of Otahitee. London: for T. Becket and P.A. de Hondt 1771. 4to, contemporary calf gilt, rebacked, corners repaired, some spotting, mostly at front and at end. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE (with the dedication leaf "To the Right Honourable Lords of the Admiralty, and to Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander.")
THE FIRST PRINTED ACCOUNT OF COOK'S FIRST VOYAGE and his discovery of the eastern coast of Australia. The Journal was published two months after his return and nearly two years before the official Account of the Voyages (1773) by Hawkesworth. The authorship has long been a matter of contention but James Magra, the American midshipman aboard the Endeavour, is the most likely candidate. Banks and Solander swiftly withdrew their association with this clandestine publication, insisting that the dedication be withdrawn. Indeed, it is possible that the author was not even given the dedicatees' formal permission to issue the printed dedication. The duPont copy bears the binder's direction "Place this next the Title" at the foot of the dedication page a1, indicating, perhaps, that it was included just shortly before publication. Sabin 16242; Hill, pp. 157-158; BCJC 693; Streeter sale IV, 2405.
THE FIRST PRINTED ACCOUNT OF COOK'S FIRST VOYAGE and his discovery of the eastern coast of Australia. The Journal was published two months after his return and nearly two years before the official Account of the Voyages (1773) by Hawkesworth. The authorship has long been a matter of contention but James Magra, the American midshipman aboard the Endeavour, is the most likely candidate. Banks and Solander swiftly withdrew their association with this clandestine publication, insisting that the dedication be withdrawn. Indeed, it is possible that the author was not even given the dedicatees' formal permission to issue the printed dedication. The duPont copy bears the binder's direction "Place this next the Title" at the foot of the dedication page a1, indicating, perhaps, that it was included just shortly before publication. Sabin 16242; Hill, pp. 157-158; BCJC 693; Streeter sale IV, 2405.