These are of two ages, determined by their contents. Those which
introduce _Stingray Bay_ instead of _Botany Bay_, and which mention
neither _New South Wales_ nor _New Wales_ pertain to the primitive
order, executed while on the voyage, like the logs of the Lieutenant,
the Gunner, the Boatswain, the Master's-Mate, &c.
Of this class there are two in the British Museum, one of which (a copy)
was presented there by Cook's friend, Sir Joseph Banks, and the other,
containing only a portion of the voyage, written in Cook's _own hand_ as
seen in his own official letters. Outside the Museum only one _Log_ can
be identified as genuine; being, though a copy, signed by Cook, and
declared to be a present from the Captain himself to his friend and
patron, Sir Hugh Palliser, and ever since remaining in the custody of
the Palliser family.
These three _Logs_ know nothing of _New South Wales_ nor _Botany Bay_.
Several other _Logs_, purporting to have been sent home later by the
Captain, have filled up spaces with the names of _New South Wales_,
_Port Jackson_, and _Botany Bay_, all unknown to Captain Cook or
Lieutenant Hickes.
It does not yet appear that Dr. Hawkesworth, Editor of the Voyage of the
_Endeavour_, had access to any _original_ Cook's Log or Journal. Sir
Joseph Banks is said to have repudiated supplying the Doctor with any
material. Cook and his Lieutenant were absent on another voyage, nor
does any other person connected with the voyage, as Dr. Solander and
James Matra, appear to have communicated information. The Editor was
perforce driven to make use of other and less reliable sources for his
story, framed, as it was, on the model of a personal narrative--the
Adventures of Captain Cook.
That Journal of Cook's presented by Sir Joseph Banks, and still to be
examined by a visitor at the Museum, is numbered among the "Additional
Manuscripts" as _8959_. It is well bound, bearing at the back the words
_Mus. Brit.--ex legato--Banks, Bart.--8959_. The priceless copy in
Cook's own hand, well written, if not always correctly spelled, is
numbered _27,885_ in the Museum Catalogue, and contains on a fly-sheet
at the beginning the statement that the _Log_ was purchased of Messrs.
Borne on 13th of May, 1868.
Cook's own Journal is known generally as the _Autograph_, from bearing
his correct signature. The transcriber of the _Endeavour Log, 8959_,
possessed by Banks, wrote in a neat but rather small hand, very
different from Cook's. It is, as might be well expected of such an early
Journal, though passing through Banks's hands, ignorant of the existence
of a _Botany Bay_, but refers to _Skeats_ rather than _Stingray_, after
which Cook's _Autograph Log_ names the Bay. It has neither _Point
Hickes_ nor _Cape Howe_ as in later days, though indicating _Pidgeon's
House Hill_ and _Mount Dromedary_. Yet we have _smoaks_ and _smooks_ as
in Cook's own hand work.