Case 12
- Inhabitants in the South Seas
Sydney Parkinson. A Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas in His Majesty's Ship the Endeavour. London: Printed for Stanfield Parkinson, the Editor, 1773.
Artist and draftsman Sydney Parkinson (c.1745 - 71) died of dysentery on Cook's first voyage, on board the HMS Endeavour, one month after leaving Batavia (now Jakarta) in the East Indies. Parkinson's journal of the voyage was published posthumously by his brother Stanfield Parkinson, after a public fracas with Sir Joseph Banks (1743–1820), Sydney's employer, over the ownership of Sydney's papers. John Hawkesworth took out an injunction against the publication of Parkinson's journal, so that his own official record of the voyages to the South Seas could be published first. Hawkesworth also cut Parkinson's name from his narrative and did not give the artist credit for his botanical illustrations.
Sydney Parkinson. A Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas in His Majesty's Ship the Endeavour. London: Printed for Stanfield Parkinson, the Editor, 1773.
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John Hawkesworth et al. New Discoveries Concerning the World and its Inhabitants. London: J. Johnson, 1778.
This 'digested summary' of earlier accounts of eighteenth-century exploration—anonymously compiled for a public eager to read about the explorers'exploits—is arranged geographically, rather than in the chronological order of the original publications. The original texts include Parkinson's journal (also on display) and the official three-volume account of the voyages of discovery to the Southern Hemisphere written by John Hawkesworth (1715–73). Hawkesworth, a friend and literary collaborator of Samuel Johnson, earned £6000 for the sale of the copyright. The work was a bestseller, but Hawkesworth died soon after his volumes were published, and it was thought that the criticism the work received—for its frank descriptions of the social relations of the Tahitians and for his loose adaptation of the voyagers' journals—contributed to his demise.
John Hawkesworth et al. New Discoveries Concerning the World and its Inhabitants. London: J. Johnson, 1778.
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