ELLIS, William

An Authentic Narrative of a Voyage performed by Captain Cook and Captain Clerke...

      G. Robinson, London, 1782. Two volumes, octavo, with a folding chart and 21 engraved plates; only very slight offsetting and generally crisp; a handsome set in early continental glazed blue boards, red paper spine labels gilt, shelf mark removed at base of spines, lightly bumped. First edition: a lovely copy in a well preserved contemporary binding. This important narrative account of Cook's third voyage was an unauthorised publication which landed its author Ellis in trouble. Surgeon's mate and talented amateur artist, William Ellis sailed first on the Discovery and later on the Resolution. Despite the prohibition by the Admiralty of the publication of any unauthorised account of the voyage, Ellis, in financial straits, sold his narrative to a London publisher for fifty guineas, thus earning the condemnation of Sir Joseph Banks, who wrote to him in January 1782 that 'I fear it will not in future be in my power to do what it might have been, had you asked and followed my advice'.Ellis' narrative is particularly detailed on Alaska, the Northwest Coast, and Hawaii, and the attractive engraved plates, after Ellis' own drawings, include eight of Hawaii, two of Alaska, and three of the Northwest Coast, among the earliest published of these areas; Choris' famous views did not appear until almost forty years later. Ellis' views of Hawaii provide the first general depictions of the islands, as Rickman's book, published in the previous year, showed only the death of Cook while Zimmermann's account was not illustrated.There is a chapter devoted to their visit to Van Diemen's Land in January 1777, in the course of which Ellis painted a famous watercolour view of Adventure Bay, now in the National Library of Australia.Beddie, 1599; Davidson, 'A Book Collector's Notes', p. 66; Hill, 555; Hocken, pp. 20-21; Holmes, 42; Judd, 59; Kroepelien, 399; Lada-Mocarski, 35.