Lot 8
8. [BIBLIOGRAPHY & SUPPORTING MATERIAL]. SAMWELL, David. Captain Cook
and Hawaii. San Francisco: David Magee; London: Francis Edwards, 1957.
[6], x, [2], 2, 26, [2] 27-34, [2] 35-42 pp., 6 photographic plates (1 folded).
8vo, original red cloth, spine gilt, profile on front board, in plain white
dust wrapper. Wrapper with minor tear and lightly browned, otherwise a very
fine, mostly unopened copy.
Second edition,
one of 750 copies printed by Lawton Kennedy. Beddie 1626. Kroepelien 1145. Samwell’s Narrative was
first published London, 1786 (Beddie 1620, O’Reilly-Reitman 452) and is
for the first time reprinted here. Samwell (1751-1798?) was a surgeon on Cook’s
third voyage and supposedly an eye-witness to his death. The two main questions
in the work that concerned earlier readers and now modern ones are the manner
in which Cook died and whether his crews introduced venereal disease into the
islands. On the former matter, Samwell believes that Cook perhaps died unnecessarily;
on the latter matter, despite all evidence to the contrary, Samwell believes
the disease existed in the islands before Cook arrived. ($100-200)
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