A Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas, in His Majesty's Ship, the Endeavour

1773

de Beer Ec 1773 P

London: Printed for Stanfield Parkinson

‘On the 22d of July, 1768, I went on board the ship, Endeavour, then lying in the Galleons Reach…’. So begins Sydney Parkinson’s journal of the first expedition under the command of Captain Cook, the prime object being to study the Transit of Venus from the island of Tahiti. Engaged as natural history draughtsman by Joseph Banks, Parkinson made numerous botanical, portrait and landscape drawings. He also compiled a valuable list of South Sea vocabularies. On leaving Batavia and heading towards the Cape of Good Hope, Parkinson died. Parkinson’s brother, Stanfield, saw the work through the presses: this is a large paper copy of the edition. Here is Parkinson’s ‘priest of Yoolee-Etea’ (Rai’atea) on display.