The ‘Resolution’ Journal of Johann Reinhold Forster, 1772-1775. Vol. IV

1982

Journals G161 H2 Ser. 2 no. 155

London: The Hakluyt Society

James Cook ‘discovered’ the sub-Antarctic South Sandwich Islands (named for John Montagu, Earl Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty) in January 1775. By this stage, Forster was losing his patience with Cook’s search for the Terra Incognita of the South. Perhaps he was mollified when Cook named Forster’s Bay (‘Passage’ on this map) after the naturalist. Forster’s comprehensive recording of everything lingual, anthropological, zoological, botanical, and geographical is thought to surpass, both ‘intellectually and empirically’ any other journal from the voyage, even Cook’s own. But it was to be Cook, and Forster’s son, George, who received the accolades for their publications on the voyage. Forster’s original manuscript, now in six bound volumes, is held in the State Library in Berlin.