INTRODUCTION. THE papers now published as Part 1 of the First Volume of the Historical Records of New South Wales belong to the period 1762 to 1780. They deal with the visit of Lieutenant (afterwards Captain) Cook to these shores in the years 1769-70, and, incidentally, with his career both before and after that period. It was intended, when the History of New South Wales from the Records was projected in 1887, that the foundation of the Colony by Governor Phillip should be the starting-point. The work of Captain Cook was regarded as belonging to the history of discovery rather than to that of colonisation; moreover, it had been described with minuteness by so many writers that there seemed no justification for an official publication, which could hardly be more than a réchauffé of familiar second-hand narratives. When, however, it was decided, in 1891, to enlarge the original plan, and give the full text of the RECORDS in a series of volumes published concurrently with the HISTORY, the most serious objection to the inclusion of the Cook papers disappeared. There could no longer be any reason-after the lapse of more than a century, and the attempts of so many authors to describe Cook's voyage to these seas-why the famous navigator should not be allowed to speak in his own person. The present volume will serve to illustrate the propriety of publishing the Records as they stand. Hitherto, Cook's career and achievements have been made known through the medium of an Editor; and it has been impossible to say to what extent he should be held responsible for the opinions he is made to express. In the case of the narrative of the voyage in the Endeavour-which is naturally of most interest to Australians-this is very marked. When the Endeavour returned to England, Cook's manuscripts, together with those of Banks, Solander, and the officers of the ship, were placed in the hands of Dr. Hawkesworth, a celebrated littérateur of the time, to prepare them for the press. With the object of "bringing the adventurer and the reader nearer together," the account was written by Hawkesworth in the first person. He was allowed to relate the events of the voyage in his own words, and to embellish the narrative by "such sentiments and observations as my subject should suggest."+ So extensively did the Editor avail himself of this privilege that the man who should have been the central figure seldom appeared. It is Dr. Hawkesworth who speaks; not Captain Cook. It is now proposed to place before the public the simple narratives of the discoverers themselves. This plan will involve some loss of continuity; for that, however, the reader is offered the compensation of being brought face to face, for the first time, with Captain Cook and his officers. As might be expected, from the circumstances of his youth and the surroundings of his early manhood, errors in Cook's spelling and grammar often occur; but there is no difficulty in arriving at his meaning, nor is there any reason for believing that he was more illiterate than the average naval officer of his time. The expeditions sent out by the British Government under the leadership of Byron, Wallis, Carteret, and Cook, during the period of quiet which followed the general peace of 1763, mark a new era in maritime exploration. Prior to that date, the results of voyages to unknown seas, whether made at the expense of private individuals or of States, had, in nearly every instance, been carefully suppressed; many of them had been embarked upon with no other object than immediate pecuniary gain; and, in too many instances, had been prosecuted with little regard to justice or humanity, and less to science. One consequence of the reticence of those who visited these new lands in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, was the spread of extravagant fictions respecting their inhabitants and products. As the pre-historic periods in *Hawkesworth's Voyages, vol. i, p. iv. + Ibid, p. v. the histories of old-world nations had been peopled with heroes of superhuman prowess, so the terræ incognita became the homes of men of gigantic stature, the seats of mighty empires, and the repositories of fabulous wealth. The investigations, however, of Cook and his immediate predecessors were of a different nature. Not only were they prosecuted exclusively with a view to the advancement of geographical knowledge; but, in keeping with that intention, the results were immediately made known to the whole world with a minuteness of detail previously unknown. It is because there can be no question as to the authenticity of these Records, and because they mark the period when the knowledge of Australia began to assume a definite and accurate form, that they have been selected as the starting-point of the Historical Records of New South Wales. Unfortunately, they throw no direct light upon the controversy originated by Dalrymple* some time after Cook's death, and revived in recent years, whether Cook had any knowledge of old charts, which were, beyond doubt, in existence prior to his voyage, showing the contour and position of the eastern coast of New Holland with tolerable accuracy; and on which a bay, corresponding approximately in position and name with Botany Bay (Coste des herbaiges), was shown.† Since Dalrymple's time, several old charts of the Sixteenth Century have been brought to light, which indicate a knowledge of our eastern coast more than two hundred years before Cook visited it. These charts, when due allowance is made for the imperfect method of ascertaining longitude then in vogue, give so correct a representation of the eastern coast that it is impossible to regard them as the creations of fancy. It does not, however, follow that Cook was cognisant of their existence. fact, if his career, from the time when he joined the Navy until his appointment to the Endeavour, is taken into account, it will appear extremely improbable that he knew anything In * Memoir of a Chart of Chagos and the adjacent Islands, by Alexander Dalrymple, p. 4. + See Note 14, post, p. 161. : whatever about them. It must be borne in mind that during the period of Cook's service, up to 1763, England was almost continuously engaged in maritime war; and that the very little time which could be spared for private study on a King's ship in active service was required by him to make good the deficiencies of his early training. When hostilities ceased, Cook was called upon to engage in an undertaking which left him even less time to himself namely, the survey and exploration of the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is, therefore, not difficult to understand that Cook had little or no opportunity of making himself acquainted with the labours of these early navigators. Moreover, there is no conclusive proof that, at this time, the existence of these old maps was known to any of the cartographers of the day. Dalrymple, who appeared to be willing to lead the public to believe that it was possible Cook had seen these charts in 1768, had, himself, no knowledge of them in 1770; for in his Historical Collection of the Several Voyages and Discoveries in the South Pacific, published in that year, he makes no mention of them; on the contrary, the "Chart of the Pacific Ocean" inserted therein, although giving the western and northern parts of New Holland, has no eastern coast-line. De Brosses, in his Histoire des Navigationes aux Terres Australes, 1756, does not allude to them. In his chart also, the eastern coast-line is a blank. It is fair to presume that if Dalrymple had not seen them in 1770 they were not known to Cook in 1768. As the leading English hydrographer of his day, and the author of a work on discoveries in the South Seas, Dalrymple was much more likely to be cognisant of their existence than Cook. The following extract from an address by M. Barbié du Bocage, read before the Institute of France, on 3rd July, 1807, will serve to show that at the time all knowledge of the existence of these charts, prior to the voyage of the Endeavour, was denied by the English :-" The English pretend that none of these charts were discovered till after the death of the celebrated Captain Cook; and that they had no knowledge of them when this navigator set sail. But their prior existence in well-known libraries in England may cause this assertion to be doubted." So far as is now known, the only chart |