RICKMAN, John

Troisieme voyage de Cook...

      Chez Pissot et Laporte, Paris, 1782.. Octavo, with folding engraved frontispiece and folding map; a superb copy, uncut in the original French marbled paper wrappers, contained in a folding cloth box.. A superb copy in completely original condition of the scarce French version of Rickman's surreptitious account of Cook's third voyage, published the year after the English original. The frontispiece to the first volume is a re-engraved image of Cook's death, entitled "Mort du capitaine Cook a Owhy-hee, Fevrier 1779", one of the earliest representations of Hawaii. Rickman's account is one of the the most significant of the surreptitious accounts of Cook's voyages - the unauthorised accounts published anonymously to avoid repercussions from the Admiralty, who had embargoed the publication of private narratives before the appearance of the official version. Rickman scooped the official version by a full three years, and even this translation, by J.N. Demounier, reached the public a long time before any version of the official narrative was published. This surreptitious account of the third voyage was published anonymously, but was conclusively shown by Judge Howay (Zimmermann's Captain Cook, Toronto, 1930) to have been the work of John Rickman, a lieutenant on the voyage. His description of the voyage, as well as predating the official account, differs from it in many respects - particularly regarding the death of Cook, for which this is a prime source. Beddie, 1611; Kroepelien, 1080; O'Reilly-Reitman, 419.