Monday, 12 October 2015

A New Zealand Book in the Grimes Collection

An Illustration of a 'Man of the
Island of Mallicolo'
When perusing the texts in the Grimes collection, I was surprised to discover a rare text about New Zealand history, considering that Bishop Grimes’ origins were British. Although I can understand why Grimes collected the texts relating to the Pacific Islands and Māori, based on the need to understand a minority of his congregation, it is a little harder to understand why he became the owner of a book written by Captain James Cook about his 1772-1775 voyage to the South Pole. On one hand, Grimes would have wanted to learn about the British colony that he would be a Bishop of, but on the other hand, a text about New Zealand specifically, not a Captain’s voyage, may have been more useful. Despite this, the book itself is a valuable text to have and seems to be one of the only exploration texts he acquired. Before we look further into the book, it is important to first examine the Captain who wrote it.

Captain James Cook is one of the most prominent historical figures in the discovery of New Zealand. Born in 1728, he rose through the ranks of the Navy to the rank of Captain. He completed three voyages to New Zealand during the last decade of his life before his death in 1779.

Captain's Log
Cape Hope to New Zealand
Captain Cook played a vital role in surveying and mapping the New Zealand coastline. Although New Zealand had already been discovered by Abel Tasman, his role in New Zealand history still remains important. The second author of this text, Captain Tobias Furneaux (1735-1781), another British naval officer, was the first to circumnavigate the world in both directions.

Cook’s Second Voyage (1772-75) was taken on two ships, the Resolution and the Adventure (in the charge of Captain Furneaux). It was in this same voyage that the two captains became the first people in history to cross the Antarctic Circle, an action that they would repeat a number of times during their voyages.

I mention the second voyage specifically because of the text that Grimes has in his collection. The official title of the text is:
A voyage towards the South Pole, and round the world. Performed in His Majesty's ships in the Resolution and Adventure, in the years 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775. Written by James Cook, Commander of the Resolution. In which is included, Captain Furneaux's narrative of his proceedings in the Adventure... illustrated with maps and charts by Mr Hodges.

Sir John Pringle's
Discourse
It was published in 1777 as a second edition, complete with maps and illustrations. Our set has two volumes, both of which contain the ink stamp of Bishop Grimes, with no other signs of provenance. It is one of seven copies in the Southern Hemisphere. In addition, it contains a discourse written by Sir John Pringles on the improvements of preserving the health of mariners.

 In his Reference Journal, Grimes has this text sorted into ‘General’ which was situated in the Fathers’ Study, with other books categorised into ‘Reviews’ and ‘Biographies’. Grimes’ copy of Captain Cook’s Voyages is only one of many texts about Captain Cook that are housed at the University of Canterbury.  The Macmillan Brown library also holds a second set of this same edition, which had belonged to John Bell Condliffe.



References

Resources of Pacific Discovery in the age of the Resolution from our Collection. University of Canterbury. 2015.

Captain Cook Society. Last updated October 2105.

Tobias Furneaux. Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2015.

A Voyage towards the South Pole, and round the World... 1777. University of Canterbury Rare Books Collection - 125519 - Voyage -Illustration47 

A Voyage towards the South Pole, and round the World... 1777. University of Canterbury Rare Books Collection - 125519 - Voyage -CaptainsLog

A Voyage towards the South Pole, and round the World... 1777. University of Canterbury Rare Books Collection - 125519 - Voyage - EndDiscourse


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