A Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas
1773 book about the first voyage of James Cook / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas, in His Majesty's ship, the Endeavour is a 1773 book based on the papers of Sydney Parkinson, who accompanied Joseph Banks as botanical illustrator on the first voyage of James Cook. Parkinson died at sea in 1771 on the return voyage, and the Journal was compiled by William Kenrick for Parkinson's brother Stanfield, who quarrelled with Banks about his brother's papers and belongings and attacked Banks and others in the book's preface. A legal injunction prevented the publication of the Journal until after the official account of Cook's voyage, edited by John Hawkesworth, had appeared. A second edition appeared in 1784 with explanatory remarks by John Fothergill.
The book is organised chronologically and mainly describes the voyage from England to Tahiti, the time spent there, and the encounters with New Zealand and Australia. It contains Parkinson's vocabularies of several Pacific languages and also many plant names given by Daniel Solander, but most of these have not been accepted as botanical names. The book is illustrated by engravings based on Sydney Parkinson's drawings. It has been praised for its authenticity but criticised by botanists for the low quality of the botanical content.