CAPTAIN COOK'S LETTERS

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2200, 13 July 1914, Page 7

CAPTAIN COOK'S LETTERS

SOLD AT AUCTION. By Telcgrapll—Press Association— Copyright July 10. ! Captain Cook's letters and diary were ■cold at auction^for, £1070.•; The letters and diary, were offered at Messrs. Sotheby on I'riday. .There were four letters, .two .lonff - and two short, all. * : addressed lto John AValker, 1 who; wafriy partner! in' the firm of Whitby. shipowners,' to , whoin Cook was : bound apprentice,' and in whose' service:.he had his first' Experience. of 'a ; sailoi:'s life.'-. The farliest of these 'letters,- from: Mile , End,. London, 'September 13. 1 1771, begins with riii acbount of the South Sea, Islands, .which Cook';describes, as 'au' eartUy paradise; and speaks of the. natives as. "ex-\ empteel ■ from the curse of our forefathers." the necessity of -. earning, their "bread, -with.- the .sweat, of -their, brows,": for ■ benevolent Nature had' not only'sup-, plied them with the .necessities, but with ' many. of the luxuries of life, t . The seoo'ndletter is , dated; from the - Cape -of Good - Hope, November. 20, 1772, and the third, from Mile End} August 19, 1775, a-.few days before ' Cook . had'!,received' an' appointment'at Hospital. The fourth and longest ' letter', in' the series' is dated from Mile. End, September 14,: 1775, and 'extends/.to 6}°;pages quartoY this! very fine , letter gives : an account of his second ybyage; v..He .'.describes. .his. threa ..visitsto Antarctio,: regions,■ in'; to reach the great southern continent fabled to exist.; The' second property , consists' of ' the - original;, unpublished autograph: ,diary and letter, boolcvof Ralph Clark, lieutenant "of .Marines,,and, extend, with : a' gap.of twoiyears, from May 13,' 1787, to 'June 17, '1792,','.;.They \were,ttfl written during his voyage' to. Botany Bay.. in ■ the Friendship,. transport, his- stay in .Australia, and on Ivorfolk Island, and his. voyage" Home; on' the Gbrgvui 'transport.-:,