Details
[COOK, Captain JAMES. Second Voyage]. [MARRA, JOHN]. Journal of the Resolution's Voyage, In 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775. On Discovery to the Southern Hemisphere, by which The Non-Existence of an undiscovered Continent, between the Equator and the 50th Degree of Southern Latitude, is demonstratively proved. Also a Journal of the Adventure's Voyage, In the Years 1772, 1773, and 1774. With an Account of the Separation of the two Ships. London: Printed for F. Newbery 1775. 8vo, contemporary calf, edges stained green, rebacked, new inner hinges, small marginal chip in P1. FIRST EDITION, engraved frontispiece folding map, 5 engraved plates (of volcanoes, natives, etc.), with an engraved folding map of the New Hebrides and New Caledonia (not called for in this edition) entitled "Part of the Tropical Discoveries of the Resolution Sloop, Captain J. Cook in 1774."
"This rare account of Cook's second voyage [the first full account to appear in print] was published surreptitiously eighteen months before Cook's official narrative. It records many incidents omitted by Cook and gives the reasons which caused Sir Joseph Banks and his twelve assistants to withdraw from the expedition at the last moment. Marra was a gunner's mate of the Resolution. [He] made an unsuccessful attempt to desert at Tahiti...Marra probably supplied material from his private journal which was put into shape by some literary person in the pay of the publisher Newbery [a "D. Henry," according to the BL Catalogue]"--Hill, p. 60; Streeter sale IV, 2408; Sabin 16247; Holmes 16; BCJC 1270.
"This rare account of Cook's second voyage [the first full account to appear in print] was published surreptitiously eighteen months before Cook's official narrative. It records many incidents omitted by Cook and gives the reasons which caused Sir Joseph Banks and his twelve assistants to withdraw from the expedition at the last moment. Marra was a gunner's mate of the Resolution. [He] made an unsuccessful attempt to desert at Tahiti...Marra probably supplied material from his private journal which was put into shape by some literary person in the pay of the publisher Newbery [a "D. Henry," according to the BL Catalogue]"--Hill, p. 60; Streeter sale IV, 2408; Sabin 16247; Holmes 16; BCJC 1270.