Cook, Captain James--Dalrymple, Alexander

FIRST EDITION, second state (see footnote), 4to (314 x 240mm.), 32pp., vellum-backed marbled paper covers

Holmes 55; Cook A102 (see http://hdl.handle.net/10023/2634); not in BCJC or Hill

A fine copy
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VERY RARE, and of considerable importance for its remarks on the early discovery of the east coast of Australia. Dalrymple attacks Cook's honesty and suggests that Cook was familiar with the sixteenth century Dauphin map when he sailed along the east coast of Australia. "The absurdity as well as the dishonesty of this suggestion was first shown in 1805 by Frederic Metz, who pointed out that if Cook had known of the map and had wished to appropriate to himself the discoveries of another, the one thing he would not have done was to keep the very names which would have exposed his plagiarism if ever the sources to which he had access to came to light." (Holmes)

This is the second state with corrections and re-setting to gatherings G (pp.21-24) and I (pp.29-32); for details see Cook (below). There is no record of this book at auction and ESTC lists 8 copies only.