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Historical Records of New Zealand Vol. II.

Lieutenant Cook*to Secretary Stephens

Lieutenant Cook*to Secretary Stephens.

Endeavour, at Deptford, 27 May, 1768.

Sir,—

I have received their Lordships' order of the 25th inst., touching the fitting of his Majesty's bark the Endeavour, which I shall immediately set about complying with.

I am, &c.,


James Cook.

* Cook was appointed a First Lieutenant of the Royal Navy, and Commander of the Endeavour, on the 25th May, 1768, and Captain on 29th August, 1771.—(Kippis's Life of Cook, pp. 17 and 182.) Pelham, in his Collection of Voyages, states (vol. i, p. 142) that Cook received his lieutenant's commission on 1st April, 1760. This, however, is an error. A Lieutenant James Cook, a protégé of the Duke of Newcastle, was serving in 1765 on board the Wolf, at Jamaica, under Sir William Burnaby. This, doubtless, is the officer whose commission issued in 1760, and whom Pelham confounded with James Cook, the circumnavigator.— See Annual Register, vol. viii, p. 100.