JOURNAL OF THE RESOLUTION'S VOYAGE, In 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775

London: F. Newbery, 1775. On discovery to the Southern Hemisphere, by which the Non-Existence of an undiscovered Continent, between the Equator and the 50th Degree of Southern Latitude, is demonstratively proved. Also a Journal of the Adventure's Voyage, In the years 1772, 1773, and 1774. With an Account of the Separation of the two Ships, and the most remarkable Incidents that befel each. Interspersed with Historical and Geographical Descriptions of the Islands and Countries discovered in the Course of their respective Voyages. Illustrated with a Chart, in which the Tracks of both Vessels are accurately laid down, and other Cuts. Pp. xiv+328 (leaf D2 being a cancel, as usual), folding frontispiece chart, plus 5 engraved plates; demy 8vo; twentieth century full calf, spine with gilt lettered and decorated red leather title label and five raised bands, edges of boards decorated in blind, the lower board faintly scuffed, spine a trifle faded and with a couple of tiny surface grazes; bookplate (Dr. Eric Stock) on upper pastedown, scattered light foxing; F. Newbery, London, 1775. First edition. Beddie 1270; Hill (Second Edition) 1087; Hocken, page 14; Spence 758. *The earliest published account of Cook's second voyage, issued anonymously more than a year before the official version. Cook himself named John Marra as the author in a letter to the Admiralty dated 18 September, 1775. The journal 'records many incidents omitted by Cook, and gives the reasons which caused Sir Joseph Banks and his twelve associates to withdraw from the expedition at the last moment. John Marra was a gunner's mate on the Resolution, captained by Cook. He was an Irishman whom Cook had picked up in Batavia during the first voyage, and he made an unsuccessful attempt to desert at Tahiti on May 14, 1774, during this second voyage. Although Cook is sometimes wrongly identified as the author of this narrative, it was probably Marra who supplied material from his private journal, which was then edited by a literary person in the pay of the publisher, Newbery. This editor or ghostwriter has been identified as David Henry . . . who had edited a comprehensive collection of English circumnavigations' [Hill page 382]. The voyage included the first crossing of the Antarctic circle, and Marra's narrative is thus 'the first printed account of man's entry into the region South of the Antarctic Circle, and his observations thereupon' [Spence]. Nearly forty pages of text deal with the Antarctic visit, and the frontispiece shows the tracks of the Resolution and the Adventure into the Antarctic circle, while the second plate depicts 'the large Fields of Ice by which their Passage was obstructed.' Although Marra sailed on the Resolution, he also gives an account of the voyage of the Adventure when the two ships were separated, including reference to time the Adventure spent on the Tasmanian coast. Marra later became a gunner's mate on Sirius, the flagship of the First Fleet.