An Authentic Narrative of a Voyage Performed by Captain COOK and Captain CLERKE, in His Majesty's Ships RESOLUTION and DISCOVERY during the Years 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779 and 1780; in search of a NORTH-WEST PASSAGE Between the Continents of Asia and America…

2 vols., FIRST EDITION, 1 engraved folding map, 21 engraved plates, ownership inscription to front free endpaper of vol. 1, without half titles, occasional light foxing, contemporary polished calf, ruled in gilt, rebacked, original red morocco label, 8vo, for G. Robinson, 1782

FIRST EDITION OF A RARE UNAUTHORISED ACCOUNT OF COOK’S LAST VOYAGE by the surgeon’s mate (not assistant surgeon, as claimed on the title-pages), on both Discovery and Resolution, published two years before the official account.

Although Ellis was not an eyewitness to Cook’s death (nor were Rickman, Ledyard or Zimmermann), Beaglehole writes in his edition of the voyages that “the most reliable tradition, on the Hawaii side, is probably that incorporated in Ellis’s narrative.” He assumed the naturalist’s duties after the death of Anderson and his plates are especially interesting. The attractive engraved plates, after the author’s drawings, include eight of Hawaii, two of Alaska, and three of the Northwest Coast. The plates show Ellis to have been a talented amateur artist, and represent a significant contribution to the graphic record of the voyage. They ‘are among the earliest published on the Hawaiian Islands, Alaska, and the Northwest’ (Hill). Choris’s famous views did not appear until almost forty years later. Ellis’ views of Hawaii provide the first general depictions of the islands, as Rickman’s book, published in the previous year, showed only the death of Cook, while Zimmermann’s account was not illustrated. He also provides the earliest published description of Hawaiian natives riding surfboards. Since the word surfboard did not exist, he decided to call them sharkboards.

Ellis’ narrative contains much valuable information on Alaska and the Northwest Coast. There is a chapter devoted to their visit to Van Diemen’s Land in January 1777, in the course of which Ellis painted a famous watercolour view of Adventure Bay, now in the National Library of Australia.

Returning to England and in financially-strained circumstances, Ellis sold his Narrative to a bookseller for fifty guineas. By publishing it against the instructions of the Admiralty which required the surrender of all records of the voyage, he ruined any prospects he had in the Navy. Banks responded to his publication by saying, “I fear it will not in the future be in my power to do what it might have been had you asked and followed my advice.”

Ellis died in 1785 after a fall from the main mast of a ship lying at Ostend.

Provenance:

Claude Benezet (Bookplate):

Claude Benezet and his father, James, were descendants of Huguenot refugees who had made a considerable fortune as merchants in London. During the mid-18th century, they remained active in mercantile pursuits, establishing trading connections with British colonial possessions in south Asia and the Far East. Today, however, the family is best remembered through a first cousin of Claude’s, Anthony Benezet, who converted to the Society of Friends, emigrated to America, and became one of the earliest and most successful antislavery and antiwar activists.

Harry Iain Martin, 1856

[Beddie 1599; Forbes 41; Hill 555; Holmes 42; Sabin 22333; Lada-Mocarski 35; Mitchell Library Cook 1599.]