Watson, Frederick:

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LIEUTENANT JAMES COOK AND HIS VOYAGES IN H.M. BARK ENDEAVOUR. A controversial publication casting doubt on the details of Cook's discovery of Australia. James Frederick Watson (1878-1945) was an editor, historian, surgeon, and "a knowledgeable collector of Australiana" with a "flair for documentary research" (Ritchie). Having examined the records, Watson here concludes that "the major portion of the journals, now extant, was compiled and written in England under official instructions and censorship"; that "many of the names, including New South Wales and Botany Bay, were given in London, and not by Cook"; and that "the journals were written for publication...to claim possession by prior right of discovery under a belief that the Dutch or some other nation were the first discoverers."Of the present publication, Holmes writes: "The author, following Bonwick, is suspicious of the accepted story of Cook's discovery of the east coast of Australia. He revives the theory, exploded by R.H. Major in Early Voyages to Terra Australis, that Cook was familiar with early maps of what may be that coast. His contention that the name Botany Bay was not decided upon until the return to England falls to the ground in the light of the fact that Parkinson's Journal gives the name Botany Bay. The history of the publication of that Journal makes it impossible that any alterations from the original text were made as the result of official representations" - Holmes.An interesting - if controversial -

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