25 December 1770

James Cook's Journal: Daily Entries

Table of Contents On this day ... 25 December 1770 Endeavour Voyage Maps James Cook's Journal Ms 1, National Library of Australia Joseph Banks's Journal The authorised published account of Cook's Voyage by John Hawkesworth Other Accounts ... • Sydney Parkinson's Journal 1770 Index Search Contact us Search for Nautical Term in Falconer's Dictionary of the Marine...

25 December 1770 Tuesday 25th Having now compleatly refited the Ship ^& taken in a sufficient quantity of Wood Provisions of all kinds, I this afternoon tooke leave of the General and such others of the principal Gentlemen as I had any connections with all of whome upon every occasion gave me all the assistance I required. A small dispute ^however now aser happend between me and some of the Dutch Naval Officers about a seaman that had run from one of the Dutch Ships in the Road and enter'd on board mine,   this man the General demanded as a subject of Holland and I promised to deliver him up provide[d] he was not an English Subject, and sent the necessary orders on board for that purpose   In the Morning the Commodores Captain came and told me that he had been on board my ship for the Man but that the officer had refused to give him up alidging that he was an Englishman and that he, the Captain / was just than come from the General to demand the man of me as a Deanish Subject, he standing upon their Ships Books as born at Elsinore. I told him that I beleived there must be some Mistake in the Generals Message for I apprehended he would not demand a Deanish Seaman from me who had commited no other crime than prefering the English service to that of the Dutch but to convince him how unwilling I was to disoblige any one concern'd I had sent orders on board to deliver the Man to him in case he was found to be a Foreigner but as that was not done I was convinced ^suspected that the Man was a Subject of England and if I found him to be such I was resolved to keep him — Soon after this I received a letter from Mr Hicks which I carried to the Shabandar and desired that it might be shewn to the General and at the same time to acqua[i]nt him that after my having such unanswerable proofs of the Man be[ing] an English subject as was mentioned in that letter it was impossible for me to deliver him up. after this I heard no more about it — Voyaging Accounts © Transcription by Paul Turnbull of National Library of Australia, Manuscript 1 page 335, 2004 Published by kind permission of the Library To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/cook/17701225.html