CAPTAIN COOK’S DIARY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 671, 3 April 1923, Page 6

CAPTAIN COOK’S DIARY.

AUSTRALIA’S PURCHASE

LOST FOR A CENTURY,

Captain Cook’s autograph journal of the voyage of the Endeavour has been acquired by the Commonwealth Government, and is to go to Australia. That is a very notable event (writes a London correspondent). In historic and literary interest the manuscript transcends any book sold for many a long year past at Sotheby’s famous auotic»i room. If the authentic manuscript journal written by the hand of Columbus, and describing his first voyage to America could bo found, how much would it be worth?

Tho history of the manuscript itself is mysterious enough to sharpen the interest of investigators who realise that it is an authentic historic document penned by the hand of Cook on board the Endeavour from day to day as the voyage proceeded. It disappeared entirely after Cook’s death, on tlie beach of Hawaii, for more than a century, and the British Admiralty, who wore looking for it everywhere, tailed to locate it until 1895. In that year tne late Mr C. F. 11. Bolckow, then the owner of the book, received a letter from RearAdmiral Wharton, stating that ho was much interested in the Cook documents sent to the International Geographical Congress,, and asking where they came from. Mr C. F. 11. Bolckow replied, staling that he had inherited Captain Cook s journal from his uncle, Mr H. W. F. Bolckow, but could not say for certain how his uncle had become the owner ot it. He believed, however, that Mr H. »• F. Bolckow obtained it by purchase from the executors of Captain Cook s widow.

BOUGHT BY GERMAN IRONMASTER. Captain Cook’s widow, nee Elizabeth Batts, who was married to him in 1<62, survived him for 55 years, and died at Clapharu in 1835, in the 94th year of her age. It may be conjectured that site kept possession of ifie journal all the time. It is curious that it did not occur to anyone at the Admiralty to ask Cook’s widow n she knew the whereabouts of her late husband’s missing journal—a document ot national importance. . „ , After Mrs Cook’s death, in !805, the fir-t Mr H. W, F. Bolckow, a native of Hanover and founder of the great linn of Bolckow and Vaughan, ironmasters ot Middlesbrough, four miles from Marten, went to live at the little village which was Captain Cook’s birthplace. No doubt he Thereby became interested in the celebrity who was bom there. V hen Mrs Cook die in 1835, the fact that she was the widow of the circum-navigator would be noted in the newspapers. What would be more natural than for the rising ironmaster, who was laving the foundations of a great fortune drawn from the iron deposits oi the adjacent Cleveland Hills, to get into touch with the executors of Cook's widow in ordei to obtain some memento of the famous explorer, whose name shed a lustre upon the village where the ironmaster had made hi, tool. Imferf. he built h,. ntJa j.l mansion almost on the very spot wheie the Jowly cottage in which Cook was born once stood. , ii In some such way at that, one may nctl imagine, Cook’s autograph journal of the voyage of the Endeavour came into the possession of the original air if. " • ■ Bolckow. whose grand-nephew, tne present ■Mr H. W. F. Bolckow. has just disposed of it bv public auction at Sotheby’s rooms, tho buyer— undisclosed at the time— being the Commonwealth Government. How the deal came to be brought to a successful conclusion is a long story, but a few salient points may be summarised. The first Australian visitor to examine the autograph journal at Mr 11. W. K Bolckow’s beautiful liome, Brackenhoe, at Marten, was Professor Woodhouse. ot Sydney University, in 1921. He examined it and” sent a valuable report upon it to the University. That report came m due course before the trustees of the Mitchell Library. The second Australian visitor to examine the journal at “Brackenhoe” was this present writer, Mr John gandes, wlio visited Marlon m May, 1922, being at that time the London correspondent of a Sydney morning newspaper. In conversation with Mr Bolckow 1 learned he was willing to sell the journal, but he declined to name his price. He kindly sent me photographed facsimiles of. three pages of the journal dealing with Captain Cook’s discovery of Botany Bay and landinn- on the shore near the south head of the bay. I showed the facsimiles to S.r Timothy Coghlan at Australia House. Nou gotiations were subsequently undertaken with the owner of the journal by a member of a London firm of booksellers acting on behalf of the trustees of the Mitchell Library, and more than one oiler was made bv that agent to the owner of the journal. But Mr Bolckow refused to name a price, and finally intimated that he intended to offer the journal for sale by public auction. Following upon certain representations made to them from Sydney, the BrutePage Government decided to purchase the journal for tho Commonwealth of Australia when the book should be put up for auction in London. T hey made detailed arrangements for carrying that decision into effect, The closest secrecy was maintained m regard to the whole matter, and the success which has attended the Federal Government’s determination that Australia should possess the title deed of her own land, given in the authentic handwriting of the discoverer who took possession of it in the name of the British Crown in 1770, is told in the cable message that reports the sale to Mr ifould.