Samples from the book, Vol I

1780

Anton Friedrich Biischings Wochentlichte

Anton Friedrich Biischings Wochentlichte Nachrichten von neuen Landcharten, geographischen, statistichen und historischen Buchern und Sachen. Des achten Jahrgangs, Zwentes Snick. Am zehnten Januar, 1780 [i.e., Vol. 8, No. 2, 10 January 1780]. [Berlin, Haude und Spener, 1780]

8vo. 17.3 x 9.3 cm.

This periodical has the first printed reference to the death of Captain Cook, at "Cara-ca-coosa," and the first printed mention of "O-why-he," or the Hawaiian Islands, in a report on Cook's Third Voyage, found on pages 9-12.

This article, signed "Pallas" and dated "St. Pettersburg, den 10/21 Dec. 1779," is derived from a letter of Peter Simon Pallas in St. Petersburg. Pallas had access to dis­patches from Captains Clerke and King sent overland from Kamchatka to St. Petersburg (received in St. Petersburg in December 1779) prior to their being forwarded to the Admiralty in London. From these he extracted details of the voyage and of Cook's death and also sent an account of the same to Joseph Banks in London (manuscript in the Brit­ish Library, Add. Ms. 8094.243-245). See also Nos. 19-21. This article in Busching's Wochentlichte Nachrichten predates the announcement of the same published in the London Gazette the following day (see No. 2).

Busching's Wochentlichte Nachrichten was published between 1773 and 1787. Each issue was generally eight pages, and the entire series comprised a total of 15 volumes. I have derived this entry from information kindly supplied by the University of British Columbia and from the James Ford Bell Library at the University of Minnesota.

Copies: The NUC lists copies at the University of Minnesota (in the James Ford Bell Library), the University of British Columbia (Vancouver), and a partial run at Harvard. A set is also in the British Library.

The London Gazette

The London Gazette. Published by Authority. Number 12047. From Saturday, January 8, to Tuesday, January 11, 1780.

4to.

This newspaper contains the first printed notice in English of the Hawaiian Islands. Under the date Admiralty Office, January n, 1780 (on page 2), appears the following notice:

Captain Clerke, of His Majesty's Sloop the Resolution, in a letter to Mr. Stephens, dated the 8th. of June, 1779, in the Harbour of St. Peter and St. Paul, Kampschatka [sic], which was received Yesterday, gives the melancholy Account of the celebrated Captain Cook, late Commander of that Sloop, with Four of his private Mariners, having been killed on the 14th of February last at the Island of O'why'he, One of a Group of new discovered Islands, in the 22d Degree of North Latitude, in an Affray with a numerous and tumultuous Body of the Natives.

Captain Clerke adds, that he had received every friendly Supply from the Russian Government; and that as the Companies of the Resolution and her Consort the Dis­covery were in perfect Health, and the Two Sloops had Twelve Months Stores and Provisions on Board, he was preparing to make another Attempt to explore a North­ern Passage to Europe.