A catalogue of the different specimens of cloth collected in the three voyages of Captain Cook, to the Southern Hemisphere; with a particular account of the manner of the manufacturing the same in the various islands of the South Seas; partly extracted from Mr Anderson and Reinhold Forster's observations, and the verbal account of some of the most knowing of the navigators: with some anecdotes that happened to them among the natives
Description: The book was published in 1787, some seven years after the return of the Resolution and Discovery at the conclusion of the third voyage. The earliest copies issued typically contain just 39 samples, as listed by Shaw in the preface. Later, some copies had additional cloth specimens added, probably in response to new supplies of tapa that became available, likely from the sale of the collections of Sir Ashton Lever and David Samwell (the latter surgeon's mate of the Discovery during the third voyage, and author of the equally rare Narrative of the Death of Captain James Cook, published a year before this). This very desirable expanded example includes 17 additional cloth samples, bringing the total to 56 specimens, and may have been prepared in 1805-1806 (on the basis of dated watermarks of some blank leaves). Most significantly, the majority of these additional specimens were collected by Cook's men and officers in Hawaii. There were relatively few Hawaiian specimens in the copies first issued which were limited to 39 specimens.
Collection: DOCUMENTARY HERITAGEDescription: The book was published in 1787, some seven years after the return of the Resolution and Discovery at the conclusion of the third voyage. The earliest copies issued typically…