Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/40

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12

CAPTAIN COOK.

by publishing Cook's Log, gave Cook's eloquent words to the world.

Still threading his way and naming places on the mainland until he reached Cape York, Cook entered the Endeavour Straits "in great hopes that we had at last found a passage in the Indian Seas," and "confident that the eastern coast of Australia (from lat. 38° S.) was never seen or visited by any European before us; and, notwithstanding I had in the name of His Majesty taken possession of several places upon this coast, I now once more hoisted English colours, and in the name of His Majesty King George the Third took possession of the whole eastern coast from the above latitude down to this place by the name of New South Wales,^[1] together with all the bays, harbours, rivers, and islands situated upon the said coast, after which we fired three volleys of small arms, which were answered by the like number from the ship."

Having satisfied himself that he had "an open sea^[2] to the westward" and that he had thus been "able to prove

↑ The Admiralty copy and Her Majesty's copy of Cook's journal include the word "South," which was not contained in the copy in the hands of Mr. Secretary Stephens.
↑ "Though the main passage now bears the name of Torres, Cook called his own passage Endeavour Strait, knowing that he had passed between New Guinea and Australia. When Torres passed he supposed that the land he saw at Cape York was an island, and that there were more islands to the southward. Cook was therefore the real discoverer, for only he discovers who proves. Mr. Major ("Early Voyages," &c.) says that when, at the capture of Manilla by the English in 1762, it was found that Torres, in sailing along the south coast of New Guinea, had unwittingly passed through the strait, "Dalrymple paid a fitting tribute" to Torres by giving his name to the strait, "which it has ever since retained." It is to be feared that Alexander Dalrymple had a meaner motive. He had applied for the command of a vessel sent for the purpose of obtaining observations of the transit of Venus in 1769, and Cook had been preferred. With Cook's Voyages" a large map, "by Lieutenant H. Roberts, R.N.." was published in 1785. In that map the name of Torres was not used; and it is strange that the Admiralty Banctioned (if indeed they ever formally sanctioned) the cancelling of the honour acquired by Cook. Mr. Major was aware of Dalrymple's injustice to Cook, for in his "Discoveries of Prince Henry the Navigator" (London, 1877) he says it is greatly to be regretted that Dalrymple hydrographer who panted for the glory of discovering a great southern continent, should have allowed his jealousy of Captain Cook's appointment to the Endeavour to lead him into an injurious insinuation that the great captain's discoveries on the coast of New Holland were the result of his acquaintance with one of pre-existent maps." Perhaps it is now too late to remedy the

[1] The Admiralty copy and Her Majesty's copy of Cook's journal include the word "South," which was not contained in the copy in the hands of Mr. Secretary Stephens.

[p40-2] "Though the main passage now bears the name of Torres, Cook called his own passage Endeavour Strait, knowing that he had passed between New Guinea and Australia. When Torres passed he supposed that the land he saw at Cape York was an island, and that there were more islands to the southward. Cook was therefore the real discoverer, for only he discovers who proves. Mr. Major ("Early Voyages," &c.) says that when, at the capture of Manilla by the English in 1762, it was found that Torres, in sailing along the south coast of New Guinea, had unwittingly passed through the strait, "Dalrymple paid a fitting tribute" to Torres by giving his name to the strait, "which it has ever since retained." It is to be feared that Alexander Dalrymple had a meaner motive. He had applied for the command of a vessel sent for the purpose of obtaining observations of the transit of Venus in 1769, and Cook had been preferred. With Cook's Voyages" a large map, "by Lieutenant H. Roberts, R.N.." was published in 1785. In that map the name of Torres was not used; and it is strange that the Admiralty Banctioned (if indeed they ever formally sanctioned) the cancelling of the honour acquired by Cook. Mr. Major was aware of Dalrymple's injustice to Cook, for in his "Discoveries of Prince Henry the Navigator" (London, 1877) he says it is greatly to be regretted that Dalrymple hydrographer who panted for the glory of discovering a great southern continent, should have allowed his jealousy of Captain Cook's appointment to the Endeavour to lead him into an injurious insinuation that the great captain's discoveries on the coast of New Holland were the result of his acquaintance with one of pre-existent maps." Perhaps it is now too late to remedy the

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