This lovely book describes itself as "a new translation accompanying a facsimile of 'Cook, der Entdecker. Versuch eines Denkmals' being a memoir of Captain Cook written by Georg Forster. First published in Berlin in 1787"

It is very easy to criticise a book and appear to be negative when you want to be positive, and this is no exception. The book starts with the essay "After The Fall - George Forster and the image of Captain Cook" by Dr. Nigel Erskine, which discusses the text of the book, the relationship between the Forsters and Cook and how it appears to have changed following Cook's death; the relationship between them and other members of the expedition; and how John Reinhold Forster appeared to be "short-changed" by the Admiralty when publishing his works. This essay is then followed by "Cook, der Entdecker", a facsimile of the original German publication, the Translator's Note, and then "Cook, the Discoverer", a translation into English. I felt the essay should have been positioned at the end of the book as it discusses items the reader has not yet had the opportunity to read in the text.

Having discussed my only negative criticism, let me look at the more positive aspects.

Georg Forster did not intend this to be a biography, but a different perspective by which to view Cook's deeds. Because this work is an appreciation and not a chronological diary of events, I had to keep thinking (not a bad idea!) about which voyage Forster was referring to when he was discussing his thoughts.

The writing is more of a philosophical analysis of Cook and how he achieved his great standing in the eighteenth century. Forster also confirms the idea that Cook had the ambition to get to the top and used his not inconsiderable talents to get there. He also confirms Cook's talent as a teacher, instructing in the art of navigation and surveying. He notes that Cook was generally the best estimator of distances after they had been confirmed by calculation.

At times Forster seems to ramble on, making me wonder what he is trying to tell me, but eventually he gets to the point. Perhaps it was the style of the day. He makes some very relevant comments, some of which I was partially aware of, but did not understand why. This book enabled me to understand not only some of the measures Cook took, but also the planning and forethought before the expeditions set sail.

A prime example of this was the "watch". At the time both the Royal and Merchant Navies split the crew into two, so that half of the crew would be on duty, whilst the other half was resting. The day was split into seven watches, two of two hours and five of four hours, so that the crew would work all of the watches in two days. Cook altered this to three watches, which gave the crew a longer recuperation period between watches. Whereas the Navy usually assigned one lieutenant and two midshipmen for a ship of the size of Resolution, Cook was assigned three lieutenants and six midshipmen. Consequently, Cook could send shore parties out without stripping the ship of all of its officers.

Forster also conjectures as to whether or not New Holland was an island or a continent. He then proceeds to call it a continent. Is this the first use of New Holland being called a continent? The translation carries marginal notes to help us understand references to Greek mythology and the works of contemporary scientists that all scholars of that time would have understood.

In conclusion, the book is relatively expensive, but beautifully presented with kangaroo leather binding. The book almost shouts at you "Read me!" It is very readable, but needs to be read once to get the flavour of it and then again, quite carefully, to bring home the salient points. I was amazed at how much I had not taken in when I started to re-read it.

Reviewer: Richard Hindle

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 43, volume 30, number 4 (2007).

Just when you thought that you had read all the different ways of recounting Cook's voyages of discovery, along comes John Gascoigne with a new approach. Voyager between Worlds is the book's subtitle and reflects Cook's physical and cultural journeys between England and the Pacific. However, after reading the book I found that this subtitle is replete with interpretations relating to Cook and his personal "voyage" through life.

The first chapter is devoted to Cook's life and covers the usual subjects. But the meat of the book is in the seven chapters that follow. These are essays into different thematic aspects of the life of Cook and the peoples he encountered; they cover the Sea, Trade, War, Politics, Religion, Sex and Death. Each topic is sufficiently broad to enable the author to cover a range of issues, e.g. "The Sea" contrasts each culture's approach to the construction of vessels, sailing, navigation, superstitions, fishing, etc. In the author's comparison of these different aspects he highlights the similarities that exist as well as contrasting their differences. It is on reading these sections that one is reminded that within the Pacific there were many separate "worlds" that Cook visited.

Most books are a balance between what the author wanted to write and what the publisher wanted to produce for his budget. The structure of this book made me wonder how many thematic sections the author had begun before ending up with the seven contained in this book.

I enjoyed reading the book as the author is a good storyteller, and is able to link together topics that at first sight appear quite disparate. Whilst the chapter on Cook's life contains no surprises, each of the thematic chapters is an unpredictable pot-pourri that makes for an interesting read. His comparative analyses of the different cultures provide the reader with much information and interpretation. I would have enjoyed the book more without Gascoigne's extensive use of footnotes. The first footnote is encountered in the third line of the Preface, and they come thick and fast thereafter, so much so that 37 pages of the book's 300 pages are needed to list the author's notes; that listing requires more pages than any of the thematic chapters. One wonders if the author really needed to substantiate every fact and statement, but this is a very subjective area, and other readers may appreciate such a detailed approach.

The book is illustrated with some good maps and images, but I found their reproduction to be rather poor with many of the contemporary images "flat" and lacking contrast and detail.

The author is both well-travelled (having visited many museums with important collections) and well read, as the book has an extensive bibliography covering manuscripts as well as printed material. There is also a very detailed index. I suspect that this book will prove to be popular with students facing a topic on Cook, particularly those undergraduates who find that they no longer have to wade through Beaglehole's volumes as Gascoigne has already collated so much material under his thematic headings.

Reviewer: Cliff Thornton

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 43, volume 30, number 4 (2007).

In the spring of 2006, I was in Honolulu with my family on our way to the big island of Hawaii with a four-hour lay over. This was fortunate as it gave us enough time to grab a taxi to get to the Honolulu Academy of Art to see the exhibit "Life in the Pacific of the 1700's" [see Cook's Log, pages 13 and 31, vol. 29, no. 2 (2006)]. The exhibit guide and boxed set of essays, etc., were not available at the time, and when they were I had trouble ordering online, so I decided to get only the guide, and phoned the gift shop.

It is pocket-sized at only 18cm by 12cm, but its 192 pages are packed with many, many colour photographs of the artefacts on display and some paintings.

The exhibit was fabulous, but photography was not allowed. This book is not only a reminder of the exhibit but also a great reference guide. As a collector of Captain Cook on stamps I was delight-ed to see images of artefacts in the book that appear on postage stamps, such as the Mourning Dress that appears on French Polynesia 60f stamp of 1968 [see Cook's Log, page 113, vol. 4, no. 2 (1981)].

There are three prologues, dealing with William Hodges, Sydney Parkinson and John Webber. The body of the book is the Cook/Forster exhibit broken down into categories, such as clothing, mats, barkcloth, ritual, fishing and hunting. The notes about their use, the culture, materials and Cook related anecdotes are great.

Reviewer: James Corbet

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 44, volume 31, number 1 (2008).

In 1778 Joseph Banks was elected President of the Royal Society, and automatically became a trustee of the British Museum, which had been founded twenty-five years earlier in 1753. He held both posts until his death in 1820, and took them both seriously. This book explorers the transition of the British Museum from a national to an international institution by describing the nature and extent of Banks's contribution as both trustee and benefactor.

During his time as Trustee, Banks attended "some 112 general meetings and some 263 standing committee meetings" of the British Museum. He collected and gave away much. "It should be noted that Banks did not sell his collections, or profit from them financially. Instead he frequently made gifts that enhanced his standing among collectors, gained him positions of seniority in institutions or which furthered learning itself. In return he obtained material for his personal collections".

On his return in Endeavour in 1771 Banks sent his collections to his home at 14 New Burlington Street, London, which became "in effect an early 'Museum of the South Seas', anticipating the opening of similar displays at the British Museum." In 1777 Banks moved to 32 Soho Square, London and "appears to have reasoned that anything not strictly to do with herbarium and library might be offered to one of the institutions with which he was connected. Thus, he gave his ethnographic collections, en masse to the British Museum".

Chambers divides his book into chapters that reflect each type of collection: ethnography, natural history and zoology, earth sciences, and libraries and antiquities. This approach is, thus, not strictly chronological, but enables the subjects to be better handled, and improves our understanding of what took place and why.

Since the Wallis voyage to the Pacific, "collections acquired by the Admiralty on missions launched under the Royal navy were regarded as belonging to the nation" and many were sent to the British Museum. "In keeping with this, but as a private individual, Banks braved indignation from foreign savants when he offered the British Museum his entire collection of ethnographic artefacts" in 1778. Daniel Solander, with assistance from "gunner William Peckover and carpenter James Cleveley, was instructed to arrange and label everything. The South Sea Room was suitably organized to accommodate the new material, and open by August 1781."

Also in 1781 "the Royal Society finally conceded that it was in no position to maintain its Repository. Banks oversaw the transferral to the British Museum of this valuable collection, parts of which survive today in institutions like the Natural History Museum, London." In 1789, George Dixon, who had sailed on Cook's Third Voyage, returned from a voyage that he had undertaken with Nathaniel Portlock. Dixon "gave Banks 'Various Articles from the N:W: Coast of America' ", which Banks then gave to the British Museum. Upon the return of Archibald Menzies in 1795 from the voyage of the Discovery, under George Vancouver, his "artificial curiosities" were presented by Banks to the British Museum.

"By June 1808 the South Sea Room was being reorganized to display objects from the increasing coastlines and continents that had been visited", including gifts from Banks of "cloth and matting from Madagascar."

Banks's "early gifts of birds and animals indicate the widening range of his contacts abroad, as distinct from the gifts he made of material that he obtained directly through his own exploration." They included stuffed birds from Senegal, fish from South Carolina and bird skins from Brazil, Bombay and China. He also worked closely with the officers of the British Museum, some of whom were picked for their posts by him.

Sometimes items that Banks gave to other people and institutions eventually found their way to the British Museum. For example, "in 1815 Banks presented a collection of shells, insects and crustaceans to the Linnean Society" that formed part of the material given by the Society to the Museum in 1863.

The British Museum often sold duplicates, both to free space and raise funds, but the records were so poor that it is difficult for us to know where they went, including many Cook Voyage items. Following a review of the Museum in 1805 specialist departments "were created to manage the collections".

Banks did not collect minerals but he was involved "with the development and use of such collections at the British Museum", even using his estate at Overton in Derbyshire to supply specimens from its mines. He was also involved in building up the Museum's collection of antiquities. He was elected a Fellow of the Society for Antiquaries in 1766 and to the Society of Dilettanti in 1774. The latter's taste was for "classical antiquities and lively conviviality, and Banks partook heartily of both."

In 1767 he toured part of Wales and led a dig at a Bronze Age round barrow, using a trench cut through it, possibly the "earliest recorded cairn excavation in South Wales". In 1772 he examined some burial sites in the Orkney Islands. In 1775 he visited Mulgrave Hall, "the Yorkshire home of his old friend Constantine John Phipps" accompanied by the playwright George Colman and his son, also George, and Omai. In August they excavated a round barrow just west of Goldsborough and "Banks kept longer and more detailed notes than before". Various finds were made and each carefully recorded.

Banks was a great book collector, both for himself and the Museum. He not only donated many books to the Museum, but also ensured institutions with which he was involved did the same. He was a member of the Board of Longitude from 1778, which frequently "sent its printed tables and observations to the Museum". And whilst he was President of the Royal Society it presented copies of its Philosophical Transactions to both the Museum and to Harvard University and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The "last important service he rendered the Museum" was the bequest of his great herbarium and natural history library. The former was moved in the 1880s to Kensington to form part of the Natural History Museum.

Chambers intends this book to show how the British Museum developed during the time that Banks was one if its trustees, but is fearful that it might appear "in terms of one man's contribution." I found the book valuable in showing how Banks's interests in natural history developed before, during and after his Endeavour voyage, shaped his life and one of the many institutions with which he was linked. I learnt much about him and the Museum and enjoyed doing so.

Reviewer: Ian Boreham

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 45, volume 31, number 1 (2008).

This folio sized volume first attracts the eye with its pacific blue cloth cover, silver title and nice typography. For the first time this famous book has been published complete, true to the original and fully illustrated with a selection of about 80 items from 572 paintings, drawings and sketches (with an emphasis on then newly discovered species as well as animals and plants having become extinct by now). Four of the images are so large they are on fold-out pages.

The book begins with a 28-page biographical essay by Klaus Harpprecht (who wrote a detailed biography about Georg Forster in 1990 titled "The Adventure of Freedom and the Love for the World"). It is followed by the reproduction of Georg's original text - using his typical punctuation and spelling - including his preface, introduction and footnotes. At the end of the book there are helpful notes on the text, eight copperplate engravings by Georg, who refers to them in his journal, and a chronological table. In his eleven-page epilogue Frank Vorpahl explains the circumstances surrounding Forster's drawings, their relation to the text and his own representative selection from 301 botanical and 271 zoological drawings and paintings. There is also an index of persons, animals, plants and places rounding off the whole work.

Georg wrote: "It was a morning, more beautiful than any poet has ever described it, when we saw the island of O-Tahiti appearing 2 miles ahead of us. The easterly wind which had been our companion all the time had calmed down; a breeze from the shore fanned the most refreshing and most wonderful fragrances towards us..." Such literary portrayals made people like Heyne and Wieland fall into raptures. Georg Forster was a contemporary of Schiller, Goethe, Kant, Johnson, Buffon and Humboldt, but is nowadays regarded as the secret, repressed and withdrawn classic writer of German literature.

There's no grave for him. There's no birthplace cottage. On November 27, 1754 Johann Georg Adam Forster was born in Nassenhuben near Danzig (Prussian Poland). From poor and humble origins he became an explorer and writer devoted to the world of the enlightenment, and endeavouring to meet the peoples of the south seas with empathy, sympathy, few Christian prejudices and avoiding an idealisation of the "noble savages".

Georg Forster wasn't yet 18 years old when he joined his father Johann Reinhold Forster on Captain Cook's Second Voyage. After 1111 days they had seen more of the world than any German before them. The circumstances of the voyage were as unfavourable and adverse as the publication of the journal afterwards. Georg's paintings and drawings were supposed to serve as the basis for the copper engravings of the official report written by Georg's father whose well-known quarrels with Cook and the Admiralty ended at court.

Cook wrote his own description of the voyage illustrated by engravings based on William Hodges's paintings. Georg, whose father's hands were tied, was forced to write his own book with the intent of publishing it before the official account came out; he succeeded by one month. He wrote an English and German version at the same time, the English edition being published in March 1777, the German edition in 1778/80 in Berlin by Haude and Spener. It would be interesting to compare both versions and find out how they differ. Both appeared without illustrations. His paintings had to be sold in order to finance the printing of the books. In fact the water colours and drawings were bought by Joseph Banks and Georg had to watch his treasures disappear. They came to rest in the archives of the Natural History Museum in London where they lay quite unnoticed for more than 200 years.

At long last a fraction of the collection has come back to light again in this magnificent book. Averil Lysaght's wrote about the "Birds painted by Georg Forster on Cook's Second Voyage, 1772-75" in 1959¹ and P.J.P. Whitehead wrote about his zoological drawings in 1978².

All former editions of Reise um die Welt (A Voyage Round the World) were published without illustrations. The first German edition of 1778 contained one copper engraving, a chart. 1784 followed the next edition. A complete edition of Forster's works was published in 1843 in Leipzig. Between 1958 and 1967 (and newly edited in 1983 and 1989) Gerhard Steiner produced a new, historically-critically edition of the complete works of Georg Forster including, of course, Reise um die Welt, on which this text is based upon. At least five other editions in hardcover and paperback were published between 1998 and 2008.

However, I feel this fully illustrated edition pays tribute to a "great German" whose achievements will now, hopefully, come to the awareness of more people. Georg Forster deserves to be remembered and his life looked at more closely. Considering his youth and his circumstances writing this book and producing the images that accompany it makes this book even more remarkable. It is a gem about which a German critic said: "This book seems to have a magical force, its sheer sight enchants a whole room with, as pathetic as it may sound, beauty and perfect tranquillity. Or as the French would put it: a book pour tout la vie."

A highly recommendable 648 pages!

Reviewer: Anke Oberlies

References

1. Lysaght Averil. Some Eighteenth Century Bird Paintings in the Library of Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Historical Series Vol. 1 No. 6. 1959.
2. Whitehead, P.J.P. The Forster Collection of Zoological Drawings in the British Museum (Natural History). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Historical Series Vol. 6 No. 2. 1978.

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 39, volume 31, number 2 (2008).

Harriet Guest has been preparing this book for many years, and most of the chapters are revised versions of essays that have appeared in journals or books, including one on William Hodges¹.

I didn't get off to a good start with this book. The introduction is divided into seven numbered sections and it was only in section six that I discovered the purpose of the book: "This is not an attempt to tell again the story of the second voyage, and nor is it a narrative of Hodge's career as an artist. This book narrates a cumulative process of exploration and analysis through the discussion of particular moments which expose the difficulties and uncertainties of constructing an imperial vision in the South Pacific."

The section continues with a 3˝-page summary of the following six chapters and epilogue, and it was tempting to stop here, skipping the rest of the book, apart from looking at the illustrations, 50 of which are in colour and only 32 in monochrome. I presume it is the printing process that has determined that the monochrome images are spread through the book and the colour ones grouped together in the middle. However, turning the pages of these colour reproductions of Hodges paintings (and so many of them) is a great joy and worth the price of the book alone.

Whilst I didn't understand everything I read, I was glad I worked my way through the book for the enlightenment it brought me of how Hodges's paintings were probably perceived in London in the 18th century, the Age of Enlightenment, and what we can learn from them today. Let me illustrate this by looking at one painting that is considered in depth by Guest in the first chapter, "A View Taken in the Bay of Otaheite Peha", i.e. Vaitepiha in Tahiti, probably produced in 1775-6 when Hodges was back in London.

Guest writes the painting suggests "the fertile abundance of vegetation, the physical or sensual ease, that made the idea of Tahiti an image of Paradise to Europeans." She quotes from a reviewer in 1777 of several Pacific landscapes saying "It is rather surprising however, that a man of Mr. Hodges's genius should adopt such a ragged mode of colouring; his pictures all appear as if they were unfinished, and as if the colours were laid on the canvas with a skewer." Guest goes on to discuss the painting in great detail bringing out many aspects that I'd not seen before. She uses her knowledge of paintings the 18th century spectators would have been familiar with, and of which I am certainly ignorant. For example, she notes "the posture of the woman alludes to that of Diana, in Titian's Diana and Actaeon", which is illustrated in the book so we get the point.

Guest describes details in Hodges's painting that are not easy to see in most reproductions in books, as they are much smaller than the original 36 inches by 54 inches (915 mm x 1371 mm). Fortunately for me, I've seen the original which hangs at Anglesey Abbey, a country house in Lode, Cambridgeshire and owned by the National Trust. Even so, I hadn't noticed that to the right of the seated woman are a tii (a carved image) and a tupapau (a platform bearing a corpse) close to the edge of the painting. And the meaning of their inclusion, as described by Guest, would certainly not be apparent to me if I had looked at them. But it is now.

I wasn't sure if this book by an academic was aimed at other academics or the general public. It is of value to both groups, being packed full of information, but its sometimes dense language will make it harder for the layman to enjoy.

Reviewer: Ian Boreham

References

1. Quilley, Geoff and Bonehill, John (editors). William Hodges, 1744-1797: the Art of Exploration. Yale University Press. 2004. ISBN 0-948-06558-3. Reviewed in Cook's Log, page 28, vol. 28, no. 1 (2005).

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 38, volume 31, number 2 (2008).

In some ways this is a straightforward biography of the American John Ledyard, corporal of marines on Cook's Third Voyage. A "long series of failures" according to Gray, as he failed to graduate, failed to become a lawyer or join the clergy, failed in business, failed to make money from the publication of his journals of the Third Voyage, failed to cross Russia and failed to penetrate Africa. However, it is fascinating to read of Ledyard's various quests and difficult not to like him. Along the way Gray points out that Cook's crew "received no individual recognition in his journals unless they had died or had somehow failed in their duties", so Cook's description of the mission he sent Ledyard on to visit some Russians makes him stand out.

In two of the ten chapters Gray diverts from "a tale of Ledyard's life to an analysis of a specific aspect of his thought or behavior." In chapter four Gray writes about journal keeping on Cook's ships. According to James Burney, Ledyard had petitioned his superiors before the voyage for an appointment as the official historian of the voyage. Later he presented Captain Charles Clerke with a specimen of his writing. Burney's own attempts at writing are illustrated in this book with a sheet from his journal written "in tiny script on Chinese rice paper", which I'd never seen before. Gray also includes in his biography a reproduction of a page from "the Resolution's paybook" listing the marines. Beneath Ledyard's name is "a small notation recording his promotion to sergeant". Something else I'd not seen before.

Ledyard published his journal of the voyage in 1783. It was the first book in America to be protected by a new copyright law and Gray describes how that came about and its importance. According to Gray the writing is a typical mingling by Ledyard of "speculative natural history with romantic prose". It is one of the few journals that included questions about Cook's leadership.

Gray notes that the tattoos Ledyard obtained at Tahiti later marked him "as a distinct sort of gentleman" though in Russia there were people who thought the marks were "the appellation of wild men". Gray concludes that Ledyard's principal assets were "his experience, his intellect, his candor".

There have been two other recent biographies of Ledyard, so is there any value in a third? Yes, is the answer.

Reviewer: Ian Boreham

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 47, volume 31, number 3 (2008).

I have known Dan O'Sullivan for some time and knew that this book has been in gestation for several years.

I have waited eagerly to read what the author had discovered. The wait was well worthwhile!

The author is a retired history teacher, but I suspect that he would have had an equally successful career in the forensic field. His meticulous examination of Cook's journals is a work of art in itself. First, he dissects the journals to separate Cook's own writing from those sections that Cook had copied from others, and from those parts that his editors had added. Then he educates the reader into the context in which certain words were used, and explains the meanings that some words had in the eighteenth century so that we do not misconstrue the captain with our 21st century interpretation.

I wondered what references the author would draw upon in his biographic analysis. I found that whilst some of the expected passages from Cook's journals are quoted to illustrate particular points, the author also draws on a wide and interesting range of references many of which are new to this reviewer. There is a comprehensive list of the references used at the back of the book.

There are relatively few illustrations in this book, but then few are needed as this is a book primarily about the words of Cook and others. I was attracted by the author's very personable writing style in which he informally addresses the reader in the first person. Members will be pleased to hear that the author (a member of the CCS) mentions the society and recommends readers to our website.

After eighteen thoroughly interesting chapters the reader reaches the final section, called the Conclusion. I had spotted this section when I first looked at the contents page, and I am pleased to say that during my reading I managed to resist the temptation to jump to the Conclusion and see how the author had summarised his findings. Suffice to say that this section continues the high standard set by the preceding chapters, but I will leave you to read the author's findings for yourself.

Many books have been written about Cook and most rehearse the same well-worn scenarios. This book does not follow the usual formula and I found it to be a most educational and enlightening read.

The author has already written several history textbooks. This book is his first venture into Captain Cook. I hope that it will not be his last.

Reviewer: Cliff Thornton

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 47, volume 31, number 3 (2008).

There are nine pages of the actual catalogue, plus 43 pages of what are called "contributions". All of the 32 items in the exhibition are listed in the catalogue section, with useful notes on each and with nearly all of them illustrated.

The first of the four essays is by CCS member Glyn Williams. He describes the visits of the Resolution and Discovery to Kamchatka in 1779. A very interesting account of why Captain James Cook didn't go there but the ships did, once under the command of Captain Charles Clerke and then under that of Captain John Gore. The first visit was in the winter and the second in summer. As Webber showed, the locals lived in very different habitations during the two seasons. The reaction of the Russian authorities, especially the governor Magnus von Behm to the foreigners arriving on their shore is explained and put into perspective.

The second essay by Geoff Quilley is about the career of the Swiss John Webber, not only the artist on the Third Voyage but also the main interpreter between the ships' officers and the Russians. Quilley compares Webber with Hodges in terms of their artistic ability and the analysis of their work today. Whilst both were official artists, Webber was much more "the Captain's artist". I was intrigued to read about Webber's style of painting, including the explanation that, "Webber conspicuously renders the harsh Russian terrain in terms of a Dutch seventeenth-century tradition of landscape depiction". Quilley also gives reasons why one painting depicts some cattle even though James King observed there were none there.

A brief survey of the native peoples of the Siberian coast visited by the ships is written by S. A. Arutiunov. How they came to be there, their way of life and relationships with each other are all described. Webber's paintings depict a great deal more of the native way of life than I had realised, and this essay helped me study them in a different light.

Lastly, CCS member Sophie Forgan gives the results of her researches into how Kamchatka has been viewed by the rest of the world since the Third Voyage journals brought the area to the attention of the British and the rest of the world. Kamchatka became a metaphor or distance from civilisation and of coldness. In the pantomime "Omai or a Trip round the World", for which the scenery was partly created by Webber, Kamchatka appeared even though Omai never went there. Forgan ends by telling us the volcanoes of the smoking coast are a designated World Heritage Site and the place has a richer afterlife than when visited by the ships.

I counted a total of 59 illustrations across the 52 pages, 28 pictures being in colour. The book costs about the same as two monthly magazines, which I reckon is fantastic value.

Reviewer: Ian Boreham

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 47, volume 31, number 3 (2008).

Captain James Cook died on 14 February 1779 and on that day and ever since people have argued over how he died, why he died, who killed him, with what, how much his own actions contributed to his death, how he should be regarded and lots more.

In this book Glyn Williams covers the circumstances that led to Cook's death, the reports of his officers and company as to what happened, how the news was taken back in London (and elsewhere), the glorification of him as a hero, the reassessment that began almost immediately, and the conflicting views of the man and the events during the colonial age and in modern times. Williams argues "that the circumstances and reporting of his death are the key to his reputation."

Williams begins with whether Cook should have sailed on the Third Voyage or retired, as most captains of his age in the Whitby coal trade would have done. Quickly, we are on the Alaskan coast "when Cook, already a season later than planned, was driven to distraction by his failure to find a passage." So, by the time Cook arrived at Hawai'i in January 1779 he was a "weary, disappointed, and possibly quite sick man."

Leaving what happened on the island until later in the book, Williams turns to how Charles Clerke's report of Cook's death reached England in 1780. A summary was presented by the Admiralty for publication that left out the Hawaiians' reverent attitude towards Cook so it was not until his ships arrived that the sensational aspects became widely discussed. John Rickman's account of the voyage, published in 1781, described a more violent Cook than was expected, and how he was first felled by a club then stabbed in the back by a dagger. It was not until 1784 that the official account was published. So eagerly was it awaited that it was almost sold out on the first day. It remained the standard account until Beaglehole's work of 1967.

Williams describes how Cook's account was edited by Dr John Douglas, who made many changes to the words of James Cook, some of which "amounted to a manipulation of the record." Williams goes on to relate the events in January 1779 in Hawai'i quoting occasionally from the official account. Then he tells of what followed the return to the island in February quoting from several accounts, most of which have been published only in the last 40 years. These accounts differ remarkably from one to another, perhaps due, as Williams puts it, to "the protective urge of individuals when they set down their recollections in writing to absolve themselves from any blame for the catastrophe on the beach." So, it is difficult to decide "whether Cook died because of his excessive anger or his excessive humanity."

An important diversion is then made by Williams into why Cook's own journal stopped on 6 January 1779. A separate log by Cook goes on for only another eleven days. Two pieces of evidence are produced that "seem to support the possibility that Douglas had in his possession more of Cook's journal than was published."

After working through the various accounts and the edited words that appeared in the official account, Williams points out that Douglas "made much of Cook's humanity in ordering the boats to stop firing, but omitted [Lieutenant Molesworth] Phillips's recollection that it was Cook who had given the order to fire in the first place." Indeed, the official account "played a major part in establishing Cook as a hero."

Another part was played by John Webber's painting of Cook's death, produced after the return to England and published as an engraving before the official account came out. Williams compares it in some detail with the other contemporary paintings of the death scene by George Carter, D.P. Dodd and John Cleveley, and considers whether they tell us anything about the actual event as none of them had seen what happened.

To understand more about his death, Williams explores the accounts of the subsequent visitors to the Hawaiian Islands, such as Nathaniel Portlock in 1786, James Colnett in 1788 and George Vancouver in 1792 and 1793. These and later visitors added many contradictory details about Cook's death, so that even today "scholars differ in emphasis on the Lono issue, and... whether Cook was being given the status of a high chief or that of a god".

The first biography of Cook was by Andrew Kippis in 1788, though it was more a summary of his voyages. It became the standard biography with at least 48 editions up to 1925, not giving way to George Young's work of 1836 nor Walter Besant's book of 1890. The last two were published during the colonial age, when abridged accounts of Cook's voyages and short biographies appeared by the dozen. Although prints of Cook's death appear on the walls of rooms in two of the books by Charles Dickens, Williams notes the centenary of Cook's death in 1879 "passed without much notice in Britain", whereas a statue of him was erected that year in Hyde Park, Sydney. It was part of various Cook celebrations that took place in Australia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in which "Cook, the self-made man of humble beginnings, represented the pioneering virtues of the new nation", which Williams calls a cult. Although the Dutch had discovered the west coast of Australia in the seventeenth century, for many people (and I've come across many in Britain) "Cook discovered Australia".

Williams documents show how hostile attitudes to Cook emerged in the Hawaiian Islands "as American traders and missionaries jostled with their British counterparts for positions of influence." Several books about the island group's history were produced in the nineteenth century. Sheldon Dibble's described Cook as "taking as his sexual partner a Kauai princess". David Malo's later book threw much light on the identification of Cook as Lono, explaining how his arrival at Hawai'i coincided with the Makahiki season of pleasure and leisure and the ships' sails bore a resemblance to the tapa of the god. Even Mark Twain, who visited the islands in 1866, recounted the story of how Cook took advantage of the Hawaiian people's assumption he was the god Lono.

Williams brings the story of Cook's reputation up-to-date by describing the effect of Beaglehole's "mighty volumes". This work "marked the beginning of a new stage in Cook scholarship, much of which opened up very different paths from those he [Beaglehole] had followed". Williams explores them notably through the works of Bernard Smith, Alan Moorehead, Marshall Sahlins, Gananath Obeyesekere and the 1978 conference held in Vancouver.

Williams ends by looking at the "rise of popular interest during the 1990s" with dozens of Cook statues, monuments marking where he landed, philatelists putting together "whole albums of stamps showing Cook or his ships", and relics of him fetching high prices at auctions, including "the spear that killed Cook" though there is no record he was struck by one.

Unlike so many people who review Cook's life and death, Williams uses the latest research of the 21st century to enhance our knowledge of what took place over 229 years ago.

If you have read everything that has been written about Cook then you will not need this book but, if not, then reading this summary (over 197 pages) of the most relevant facts and interpretations will better help you make up your own mind as to what to believe about Cook's death and his reputation.

There are no footnotes in the book, which I found made it easier to read than many academic books. Instead there is a section on Further Reading. It is full of the titles of the books, articles and journals (including Cook's Log) referred to within the pages. But I disliked the way they are so densely packed together, making it difficult to find the source of any particular quotation.

One aspect of Cook's reputation touched upon but not really covered in the book is the difference in the way he is regarded by academics, interested laymen and the general public. Perhaps there is room for another book?

Reviewer: Ian Boreham

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 18, volume 31, number 4 (2008).