A VALUABLE SHIP’S LOG

Evening Star, Issue 20137, 30 March 1929, Page 21

A VALUABLE SHIP’S LOG

[C'OXTKIBCTED.] The catalogues of antiquarian booksellers are of fascinating interest to book collectors, anti one recently issued by Mr Francis Edwards, of London, will make the mouths of many librarians and many collectors of Australasian water. It contains many items relating to Captain James Cook, the famous circumnavigator and the illustrious discoverer of these islands. The chief item is the original log book of Henry Ro berts, who was mate of the Resolution, and who was in charge of the pinnace in which Captain Cook went ashore for the last time. It was discovered only last year, and is the only MS. account of the explorer’s death written by an eye-witness. It consists of 144 pages, neatly -written, and contains six charts (14Jin x 9in). The log commences on October 4,. 1778, and ends on November 30, 1779. was surrendered to tho captain under order of the Lords of the Admiralty, and it is not stated how it lias come to be now offered for sale. The price asked for this unique and precious document is £3,000, and it is this figure which will make collectors lament their financial limitations. Such a, rarity ought to find a permanent home in one of our public libraries, and a wealthy citizen eager to rear for himself an enduring monument could hardly do better than purchase it and present it to our library with his name attached to it as the donor. Rosentat, the famous book collector of Philadelphia, gave £6,800 for the only known copy of John Eliot’s translation of Baxter’s ‘ Call to the Unconverted ’ into an American Indian language which is now utterly dead; and £3,000 cannot be regarded as an exorbitant price for such a unique treasure ns Roberts’s log. It would form a central attraction to any library to which it was donated. Some avaricious American with boundless resources may snap up this item and add it to the other literary rarities which have already crossed the Atlantic, but its proper resting place is in a library beneath the Southern Cross. Captain Cook’s name is so intimately associated with New Zealand that no more appropriate homo could be found for it than our own Public Library. In closing bis log Mato Roberts refers to the captain as “such an able navigator, equalled by few and excelled by none, justly ntiled (sic) father of his people from his great good care and attention, honoured and beloved by those who knew or ever heard of him.” Another alluring item in Mr Edwards’s catalogue is an original oil painting by James Webber, R.A., artist on the Resolution (1776-1780), depicting the murder of Cook by the natives of Hawaii on Sunday, February 14, 1799. The canvas is 48in x 34in, ahd the price £I,OOO. It is a graphic portrayal of tho terrible tragedy which robbed the world of its most eminent discoverer and cub short a career which Englishmen must always regard with X»ride.