in equal (hares to captain Cook and my father. An agreement
was drawn up on the i 3th of April, 1776, between
captain Cook and my father, in the prefence, and with the
fignature of the earl of Sandwich, fpecifying the particular
parts of the account which were to be prepared for the prefs
by each of the parties feparately, and confirming to them
both jointly the generous gift of the plates from the Board
of Admiralty. In confequence of this, my father prefented
a fecond fpecimen of his narrative for the perufal of the
earl of Sandwich, and was much furprifed at firft that this
fecond eflfay was entirely difapproved ; but after fome time
he was convinced, that as the word “ narrative” was
omitted in the agreement, he had no right to compofe a
connected account of the voyage. He was told that if he
meant to preferve his claim to half the profit arifing from
the plates which the Board of Admiralty provided, he muft
conform to the letter of the agreement; and though he had
always confidered himfelf as fent out chiefly with a view to
write the hiftory of the voyage, he acquiefced for the benefit
of his family, and ftricftly confined himfelf to the publication
of his unconnected philofophical obfervations made
in the courfe of the voyage.
I muft confefs, it hurt me much, to fee the chief intent
of my father’s million defeated, and the public difappointed
ip their expectations of a philofophical recital of facts.
.However,
However, as I had been appointed his afliftant in the
courfe of this expedition, I thought it incumbent upon me,
at leaft to attempt to write fitch a narrative. Every con-
fideration prompted me to undertake the talk, which it
was no longer in his power to perform. It was a duty we
owed to the public ; I had collected fufficient materials
during the voyage, and I had as much good will to begin
with, as any traveller- that ever wrote, or any compiler
that was ever bribed to mutilate a narrative. I was bound
by no agreement whatfoever, and that to which my father
had figned, did not make him anfwerable for my actions,
nor in the mod diftant manner preclude his giving me
affiftance; Therefore in every important circumftance, I
had leave to confult his journals, and have been enabled to
draw up my narrative with the moft fcrupulous attention to
hiftoricalitruth.
Two anonymous publications on the fubjecft of our
voyage have already appeared; but the prefent age is too
enlightened to credit marvellous hiftories, which would
have difgufted even the romantic difpofition of our anceftors.
The incidents of our voyage are various, and deeply in-
terefting, without the affiftance of ficftion. Our courfe has
been by turns fertile, and barren of events ; but as the
induftry of the labourer reaps fome advantage from the
moft ungrateful foil, fo the moft dreary folitudes have
yielded inftrudlion to the inquifitive mind.
Another