CAPTAIN COOK'S DIARIES.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17720, 23 March 1923, Page 9

CAPTAIN COOK'S DIARIES.

PURCHASES BY AUSTRALIA. HIGH PRICES PAID. ;BT CABLE-rBESS ABSOUAtIOH-COPrBIOHT.) UUSTBALIAN AXB K.Z- CABLE ASSOCIATION) LONDON. March 21. Australia live lots of documents relating to Captain . C«"U at Sotheby's from the library of Mr l>oh> kow. of Mnrton Hall. Yorkshire. A manuscript diary, including the description and naming of Botany Bay am! the coast of New Zealand, was purchased for £SOOO. A contemporary copy of' Captain Coo It's correspondence with the Admiralty during his first voyage, including secret instructions which are known of only in this manuscript, was purchased for £SOO. The Endeavour's log book from l'b\ k to 1770 was bought for £3OO. The log book of the Dolphin, from August, 1766, to October, 1767, was bought for £260. Captain Cook's autograph manuscript, describing the coasts of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland in 1762, while Cook was master of the Northumberland, was bought for £720. Later. The Commonwealth Government has purchased the Captain Cook manuscripts relating to Australia, which were auctioned for £6780. There was an element of uncertainty about the sale, owing to the presence of Da-. A. S. \Y. Rosenbach, of Philadelphia, the fnmous American book buyer, who recently caused a sensation in London by spending £70,000 in one week on rare books from the Britwell Library. Dr. Rosenbach, however, did not participate in the bidding for the Cook manuscript. Bidding began at £SOO, and finally the lot was knocked down to Mr Ifould, representing the Mitchell Library. The only other bidders were two London dealers. Mr Ifould is a satisfied purchaser, as he feared he might have to give considerably more for the diary, and was prepared to do 60.

London dealers bought Cook's sailing directions, 1755 to 1762, relating to the East Indies. Dr. Rosenbach purchased Cook's remarks taken on board the sloop Porcupine in 1761 for £IOO, and the log book of the Weasel, 17751781. The Weasel was operating in the Atlantic and West Indies during the American War of Independence. [lt was announced recently 742 pages of the original manuscript of Captain Cook's diary kept on board the Endeavour from 1768 to 1771, were to be sold at Sotheby's on 'March 21st. The manuscript was found at Marton Hall, near Middlesbrough. The fact that the original log was in the possession of Mr Bolckow, of Marton Hall, Marton, Yorkshire, came to the know* ledge of the Mitchell Public Library (Sydney) trustees some time ago". K was in a cottage on the Marton Hall estate that Cook was horn in 1728. One leaf of the t original journal of Captain Cook's journal was hold at Sotheby's in July, 1911. "The Times" reporting the sale* said: "A leaf rf the lost journal of the first voyage of Captain Cook, in his own handwriting, dated May 6th, 1770, a document of extraordinary interest, being the earliest reference to Botany Bay—the three known copieß of Captain Oook's journal are all in the handwriting of an amanuensis—realised the remarkable figure of £451 (Sabin); two other leaves in hifl log book, one dnted'November 22nd to December 4th, 1774—£47; and the othef'dated March 26th, 1775—£26 —were both purchased bv' Mr Qltnritch." The present find runs to 742 p&e*s ( and though not expressly described fls such in the fable message, appears to he the hulk of this lost journal. On the basis of the price paid for one leaf (two pages) in 1911. fto' value would work out at £167.000! Four letters written by Captain Cook on his second voyage, two long ones and two short ones, the longest running to 6* quarto tisees, fetched £530 ih London in 1014.]