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Three letters from JamesBurney to sir Joseph banksRolf Du Rietz aa UppsalaPublished online: 20 Jul 2010.

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Three Letters from James Burneyto Sir Joseph Banks.A Contribution to the History of William Bligh's"A Voyage to the South Sea".

ROLF DU RIETZUppsala

In his biography of James Burney [published in 1931] 1 GeorgeErnest Manwaring advanced the theory that Captain William Bligh'sprinted narratives of the fatal voyage of H. M. S. Bounty to Tahitiin 1787-9 were compiled and seen through the press by Burney.2

Manwaring concluded his discussion with the following lines:3 "Un-til some ancestral chest discloses among its treasures other lettersfrom Bligh to Burney, or vice versa, the secret of whether Burneyhelped to produce one of the most popular books of the sea cannotbe definitely settled - though the circumstances are strongly in hisfavour. And so leaving the solution of this interesting literary puzzleto some future student of the period . . . "

The industrious Bounty specialist Owen Rutter, who during the

1 G. E. Manwaring, My friend the admiral: The life, letters, and journals ofRear-Admiral James Burney, F. R. S., the companion of Captain Cook and friendof Charles Lamb, London 1931, pp. 197-201, 254 & 279. For Manwaring (1882-1939) see obituary notice by G. Callender in The Mariner's Mirror, 1940 (vol.26), pp. 4-5. See also P. A. Scholes, The great Dr. Bumey . . ., II, London 1948,p. 232 (cf. p. 353).

2 W. Bligh, A narrative of the mutiny . . ., London 1790; do., A voyage tothe South Sea . . ., London 1792. Several editions, translations and abridgementsappeared, most of which are described in J. A. Ferguson, Bibliography ofAustralia, mainly in vol. I, Sydney 1941. The latest edition, edited by MiltonRugoff, is a paperback in the Signet Classics series, New York 1962.

3 See Manwaring, op. & loc. cit., and my paper William Bligh i Nyköpingin Bokvännen, utgiven av Sällskapet Bokvännerna CStockholm), 1962 (vol. 17),pp. 53-5. See also L. Colcord, The confused records of Bligh of the Bounty inthe New York Herald Tribune Books, November ist, 1936.

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1930's published several books and papers relating to Bligh and themutiny on the Bounty, apparently considered Manwaring's theoryas being definitely proved,4 but as far as I know no published argu-mentation has hitherto been added to that of Manwaring.

Now, however, some letters have turned up, definitely provingManwaring's theory, at least as far as the second book, the Voyage,is concerned. This has been made possible by the publication ofWarren Dawson's monumental calendar of letters to and from SirJoseph Banks preserved in Great Britain,5 an undertaking whichwithout delay ought to be followed by analogous calendars of theenormous quantities of Banksian documents preserved in Australia,New Zealand, the U. S. A., and other countries outside GreatBritain.

Of the correspondence between Banks and Burney, Dawson listsand describes only three letters. They are all from Burney to Banks,are dated London, September 5th, October 13th, and October 22nd1791, and thus are from the very period during which Burney,according to Manwaring, was occupied with the compilation fromBligh's journals of the narrative published in the next year. Theletters are part of the Dawson Turner Copies [Department ofBotany, British Museum, Natural History), vol. 7, folios 248-9,260-2 & 277-8. As to the originals, not seen by me, the letterof October 13th is in the possession of the Alexander TurnbullLibrary, Wellington, New Zealand;8 the letter of September 5this in the Mitchell Library, Sydney. As the Dawson Turner Copiesgenerally can be regarded as comparatively reliable, I here take theliberty of using the transcripts of the three Burney letters as thebase for the present commentary. They are here printed in extensoby kind permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.

Dawson seems not to have known Manwaring's theory, for in

4 O. Rutter, Turbulent journey: A life of William Bligh . . ., London 1936,p. 59; do. (ed.), Bligh's voyage in the Resource . . ., London 1937, p. 8; cf.,however, do. (ed.), The log of the Bounty . . ., I, London [1936], pp. 8-9.

5 W. R. Dawson (ed.), The Banks letters: A calendar of the manuscript cor-respondence of Sir Joseph Banks preserved in the British Museum, the BritishMuseum (Natural History) and other collections in Great Britain, London 1958,p. 190.

6 J. C. Beaglehole (ed.), The journals of Captain James Cook . . ., I: Thevoyage of the Endeavour 1768-1771, Hakluyt Society, extra series, XXXIV,Cambridge 1955, p. CLXXXVIII.

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ROLF DU RIETZ: THREE LETTERS FROM JAMES BURNEY TO SIR JOSEPH BANKS

V O Y A G

S O U T H S E A,

IHCIVDIBO ,*« ACC4VHT Of Tat

- M 0 T 1 N Y OK BOAED THE SAID SHIP,A«» vm

«UBSEQ.UCKT VOYAGE rflVt of d« Cut, in t!» Swrt BOAT,TMIB T0VOA, « • ( ( * r»u»»T !>»>»•,

T. T1M0X. « D»re> l n r ù m

THt WHOtl tt{.U(T>ATBD WITH CHAJtTS, *t.

IT rtKMIiilOK Of T»lLORDS COMMISSIONERS OF THE ADMIRALTY.

C O N D O N )mmo to« cttatw mat», xxnutu» T» an H^UTT, MU.

j

r C O M U A K D o r ••••••-• . ; •• ; *"••••• V . ' ; ; ' . ; v •. =. \ ; > '

.' ••; ''• • ï : : ; ' . i - : i : | : f * ' - i ! ~ A " * * * ; ' K * ' r « * » o i i ; o r . ; :;: ' J > ; • . > " . • . , : . ' • , > : \:.' •'. V : ' )

CONVpiriNO THE BREAD-FRUIT TREE j••-•• / ; ' - ^ : . J . ' . ' ' : T O ^ T 8 * ; W E S T : : I N D I E S , . :

:"y . ? :;,.. .. : ;; . j

;S 'ifitif:<iiW'MAyEirr't'sHiP-jHE

v;i*'>i¥jö'*r;i^N*^N'T'

his summaries of the letters he says7 that the letters deal with anedition of Captain Cook's Voyages, a supposition, however, thatfinds little support in the letters. Burney, however, had taken partboth in Cook's second and third voyage, and probably this fact made

7 Dawson, op. & loc. cit.

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Dawson make his decision.8 No Cook publication edited by Burneyor Banks, and no book Telating to Cook and his voyages has beenfound which could have been the subject of Burney's letters.

Nor seems Beaglehole to have realized that it is Bligh's Voyagethat is discussed in the letter of October 13th.9 According to himthe letter deals with Burney's "history of Pacific discovery". Bur-ney's work on this magnificent monograph,10 however, was notcommenced until the year 1800,11 but apart from that, the wholecontent and sense of the letter contradicts the idea that the bookdiscussed in the letter should have been the forthcoming magnumopus of Burney.

Before Bligh left England at the beginning of August 1791 for thesecond attempt to carry out the plan which had been wrecked bythe mutiny on the Bounty (viz. to transfer the bread-fruit fromTahiti to the British West Indies) he arranged for Burney to getaccess to Bligh's log of the first bread-fruit voyage.12 This maypossibly have been Bligh's private copy, the one now housed in theMitchell Library (Sydney), but more probably that private copyaccompanied Bligh on his second bread-fruit voyage. On his returnhome in March 1790, however, Bligh had handed over a transcriptof his log to the Admiralty.13 Much argues in favour of this versionbeing the one used by Burney. It is now deposited in the PublicRecord Office and was edited and printed, in 1936-7 by Rutter,and this published version is the one I have used in the presentpaper. As the' whole part covering the Tahiti sojourn is lacking inthe Mitchell MS. (and, as far as I know, has not yet come to light)

8 If so, this methodical error is of the same kind as Dawson's conclusion onp. 669 [op. cit.), where he gives a summary of a letter from Molesworth Phillipsto Banks, December 12th 1792. Since Phillips had participated in Cook's thirdvoyage, Dawson hazarded a guess that the narrative alluded to in the letterdealt with that voyage. In reality the question here must be about a narrativewritten by James Morrison, former boatswain's mate of the Bounty. For furtherparticulars see my monograph Peter Heywood's Tahitian vocabulary and thenarratives of James Morrison. Some notes on their origin and history (MS. inthe possession of the present author; to be published during 1963).

9 Beaglehole, op. & loc. cit.10 J. Burney, A chronological history of the discoveries in the South Sea or

Pacific Ocean, I-V, London 1803-17.11 Manwaring, op. cit., p. 214.12 Letter from Bligh to Burney, July 26th 1791 (in the Dixson Library,

Sydney), printed in G. Mackaness, The life of Vice-Admiral William Bligh . . .,new edition, Sydney 1951, pp. 18-9.

13 See Rutter, Log of the Bounty, 1, pp. 6-8.

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we are in any case forced to keep to the Log in the P. R. O. (andRutter's edition thereof) when comparing the Tahitian parts of thelog with those of the printed narrative [it is in the Tahitian sectionof the printed book that Burney's reflections mentioned below areincluded).

Burney's three letters are interesting not only because of thelight they throw upon the important parts played by Burney andBanks during the compiling of Bligh's Voyage, but also becausethey reveal Burney (and perhaps partly and indirectly Banks aswell) as the originator and author of a passage, which is histori-cally the most interesting and for the epoch most typical passageof discussion in the book, viz. the concluding pages of chapter 6.

Mackaness, in his classic and pioneering biography of Bligh,ascribes those pages to Bligh.14 He writes: "At the present time,when the lack of population in Australia is a daily subject of news-paper discussion, and when the problems of a White Australia arecontinually before our eyes, Bligh's fanciful suggestion made in 1788,the very year in which Australia was first colonized, is particularlyworth recalling." Mackaness then quotes from Burney's optimisticconclusion of chapter 6 in the Voyage, however, without men-tioning the source quoted.

Burney's letters of October 13th & 22nd 1791, demonstrate that"Bligh's fanciful suggestion made in 1788" actually was written byBurney three years later, without the collaboration of Bligh butpossibly with that of Banks, the "Father of Australia"! It shouldbe added that the whole passage has no counterpart in Bligh'slog;15 compare, however, the first paragraph with Bligh's descrip-tion of the Arioi society at Tahiti.16

14 Mackaness, op. cit., p. 74.15 That Mackaness's otherwise well documented biography at this very quo-

tation lacks the source reference must of course be explained by his not findingthe counterpart of this passage from the Voyage in the P. R. O. log, which wasMackaness's principal source for the chapters dealing with the stay at Tahiti1788-9. A reference to the Voyage, from which Mackaness actually derived thequotation, would however have revealed that he had failed to locate the cor-responding passage in the log-book, thus contradicting his statement made imme-diately previously that the said proposition by Bligh was made already in "1788,the very year in which Australia was first colonized". Thus, the source refer-ence was here omitted in order to attain a literary effect.

16 O. Rutter (ed.), The log of the Bounty . . ., II, London 1937, pp. 77-9.For the Arioi see also Beaglehole, op. cit., pp. CLXXXVI-CXCI.

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Burney's draft (divided on the two latter epistles) is here printedin italics in order to distinguish it from the ordinary text of theletter. The whole passage is to be found in Bligh's Voyage withoutalterations of any importance.17

Twenty years later Burney evidently still maintained his opinionsexpressed on pp. 78-81 in the Voyage. In 1811 appeared in Londona book containing a poem written by Mary Russell Mitford anddealing with the Bounty mutiny and Pitcairn Island, Christina, themaid of the South Seas. In the preface we are told that the authoress"cannot conclude without expressing her grateful acknowledgementsto Captain Burney, for the friendly assistance which he has renderedher in arranging and revising her notes; an office which none wouldhave performed so readily, and none could have performed so well"(pp. ix-x). The notes, which occupy some 150 pages, are to a largeextent made up of quotations from the Voyage, inter alia from pp.78-81, i. e. the passage written by Burney (Mitford, op. cit., pp.241-6). The quotation seems not to have been revised in any degreeworth mentioning. Curiously enough, Manwaring does not mentionMiss Mitford and Christina in his biography of Burney.

Thus Bligh's Voyage should henceforth be stated as having beenwritten partly by James Burney and partly by William Bligh (onwhose journal and directions Burney of course still based his com-pilation). Since no author's name at all appears on the title-page ofthe Voyage (a fact very noteworthy indeed), both the authors'names must be mentioned in square brackets, e.g.: "[W. Bligh &J. Burney], A voyage to the South Sea . . . , London 1792." ThatBurney during the course of the work frequently consulted withBanks goes without saying but is also confirmed by Burney's lettersto Banks and by Bligh's letter to Burney referred to in note 12. Theinfluence of Banks upon the editing seems not to have been of anunimportant or trivial kind, but it cannot be exactly defined untilhis letters to Burney are available.

17 Voyage, pp. 79-81. Beaglehole [op. cit., p. CLXXXVIII) was very near thetruth regarding Burney's authorship of the passage, when in a foot-note he,after having reported from Burney's letter of October 13th, tells that Bligh "inhis Voyage to the South Sea . . . also makes the suggestion about colonizingNew Holland. - pp. 80-1"!

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ROLF DU RIETZ: THREE LETTERS FROM JAMES BURNEY TO SIR JOSEPH BANKS

Norton Street Septr. 5th 1791.Sir

The first proof came to me only this morning, which is not sayingmuch in favour of our diligence. I called in Soho square/8 where Iwas informed no parcel would be forwarded to you after to day tillnext Sunday, which obliges me to trouble you with this sooner thanI intended. The number of copies to be printed, it did not occur tome to ask before you left Town, or whether it is to be left to Mr.Nichols.19

I have sent the first proof marked with such alterations as Ithought necessary. The instructions in Captain Cook's second voyageare printed in Italics.201 know not whether it is worth altering in ourproof, except at the beginning and end, where I have marked.

The introduction to our description of the Breadfruit is "Ihave here given the following extracts respecting it with the plateannexed."

What I am at a loss in, is, whether instead of annexed, the kindof plate should not be mentioned, and if taken from Hawkesworth'scollection (which I think is the plate you intend.)21

The division into Chapters as far as I have yet gone, isChap. I. as in proof.Chap. II. Departure from England. Arrival at Teneriffe. Sail from

thence. Arrive off Cape Horn. Severity of the weather. Obliged tobear away for the Cape of Good Hope.

Chap. III. Passage towards the Cape of Good Hope, and searchafter Tristan da Cunha. Arrival at False bay. Occurrences there.Reports concerning the Grovesnor's [ = Grosvenor's] people. De-parture from the Cape.

Chap. IV. goes as far as to leaving Van dieman's [sic!] Land,22

18 Banks's London residence, No. 32, Soho Square.19 Burney here aims at Bligh's printer, George Nicol. There is also good

reason to suppose that Nicol is the person alluded to in Bligh's letters toBanks of October 2nd 1794, and September 16th 1796, and not, as Dawson[op. cit., p. 107) assumes, Sir John Nicholl.

20 In the official account of Cook's second voyage the instructions werereported only, not quoted; the report was printed in Roman type [J. Cook,A voyage towards the South Pole . . ., I, London 1777, pp. 2-4). Burney hereseems to have made a mistake, and the book concerned was almost certainlythe official account of the third voyage, whose instructions were quoted inextenso in italics (J. Cook, A voyage to the Pacific Ocean . . ., I, London 1784,pp. xxxi-xxxv]. In the Voyage the instructions were printed in Roman type(PP. 5-9).

21 The corresponding text in the Voyage (p. 9) reads: ". . . I have given thefollowing extracts respecting it, with the plate annexed." The bread-fruit platein J. Hawkesworth, An account of the voyages . . ., I-III, London 1773, is notthe same as the bread-fruit plate in Bligh's Voyage.

22 Van Diemen's Land = Tasmania; Otaheite = Tahiti; New Holland =

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but I have not the copy with me at present, and cannot recollectthe exact title.

Chat [sicl] V. arrives to Otaheite.23

There are other particulars which I wished to mention, but asthey are in a more advanced part of the voyage, they can be de-ferred till I have an opportunity of waiting upon you in Town: tillwhen I believe I shall not have occasion to trouble you again, asafter I am favoured with your answer to this, I hope to go on witha fair wind and plain sailing.

I beg my best respects to Lady Banks and Miss Banks,24 and havethe honour to remain with great respect and regard, / Sir, / Yourmost obedient / humble servant / James Burney.

Norton Street / October 13th 1791.Sir

I hoped I should have been able to have gone on with the voyagewithout being obliged to trouble you again before your arrival intown. We have left Van demen's [sic!] land, and are on our pas-sage to Otaheite, which makes 7 sheets: but I cannot proceed muchfarther without being favoured with your advice. On the otherside, are some reflections which have occurred to me concerning theArreoy society, that, if you do not disapprove, can appear after theaccount of the visit and ceremonies made to a party of the Arreoys.25

Two or three other remarks of less consequence I have venturedupon, but which I believe will not interfere with the progress ofthe press, before I shall have an opportunity of waiting upon youin town.

I have the honour to remain with great regard, Sir, / Your faith-ful & most obedient / humble servant / James Burney.

Those of the natives with whom I conversed about the institu-tion of so extraordinary a society as the Arreoy, asserted that itwas necessary to prevent an over population. "Warrow worrow note my didde, worrow te Tata." We have too many children andtoo many men, was their constant excuse. Yet it does not appearthat they are apprehensive of too great an increase of the lowerclass of people, none of them being ever admitted into the ArreoySociety. The most remarkable instance related to me, of the bar-barity of this institution, was of Teppahoo, the Earee of the district

Australia; Arreoy = arioi; Earee = arii (i.e. chief; cf. Beaglehole, op. cit.,pp. clxxvii et sqq.]. .

23 This division of the chapters was afterwards carried out in its every detailin the Voyage. Moreover, the chapter headings of chapters 2 & 3 in the Voyageare almost identical with the summaries of those chapters given in Burney'sletter.

24 "Miss Banks" = Sarah Sophia Banks, sister of Sir Joseph Banks.25 Voyage, chapter 6.

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of Tettaha, and his wife Tetteehowdeeah, who is sister to Otow,and considered as a person of the first consequence. I was told thatthey have had eight children, every one of which was destroyed assoon as born. That any human beings were ever so devoid of naturalaffection, as not to wish the preservation of one out of so manychildren, is not credible. It is more reasonable to conclude that thedeath of these infants was not an act of choice in the parents, butthat they were sacrificed in compliance with some barbarous super-stition, with which we are unacquainted. What strengthens thisconjecture is, that they have adopted a nephew for their heir, ofwhom they are excessively fond.

In countries so limited as the Islands in the South Seas, thenatives of which, before they were discovered by European navi-gators, probably had not an idea of the existence of other lands,it is not unnatural that an increasing population should occasionapprehensions of univefsal distress. Orders of celibacy which haveproved so prejudicial in other countries, might perhaps in this havebeen beneficial, so far at least as to have answered their purposeby means not criminal. The number of inhabitants at Otaheite havebeen estimated at ooo.28 the island, however, is not cultivatedto the greatest advantage: yet were they continually to improvein husbandry, their improvements could not, for a length of time,keep pace with an unlimited population.

An idea here presents itself which, however fanciful it mayappear at first sight, seems to merit some attention. While we seeamong these islands so great a waste of the human species, thatnumbers are born only to die, and at the same time a large conti-nent so near to them as New Holland, in which there is so greata waste of land, uncultivated and almost destitute of inhabitants,it naturally occurs how greatly the two countries might be madeto benefit each other, and gives occasion to regret that the Islandersare not instructed in the means of emigrating to New Holland,which seems as if designed by nature to serve as an Asylum for thesuperflux of inhabitants in the islands. Such a plan of emigrationif rendered practicable to them, might not only be the means ofabolishing the horrid custom of destroying children, as it wouldremove the plea of necessity, but might lead to other great pur-poses. A great continent would be converted from a desert to apopulous country, a number of our fellow creatures would be saved,the inhabitants of the Islands would become more civilized, andit is not improbable but that our colonies in New Holland wouldderive so much benefit as to more than repay any trouble or ex-pence [sic1.] that might be incurred in endeavouring to promoteso humane a plan.

26 Voyage, p. 80: "above one hundred thousand." Cf. Beaglehole, op. cit.,pp. CLXXIV-CLXXVII.

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Norton Street Marybone / Octbr. 22d 1791.Dear Sir

I am so much gratified by your approbation of my remarks, thatI am encouraged to trouble you again. The ideas in your letter27

would be so great an addition, and are so much wanted, that Ihope you will give permission for their being inserted. What I hadthe honour to send concluded with the idea of our colonies beingbenefitted by the emigration of the Islanders - After which Icould wish the following, or something like it, was added.

The latter, however, is a remote consideration, for the intertropi-cal parts of New Holland are those most suited to the habits andmanner of living of the Islanders, as likewise the soil and climateare the best adapted to their modes of agriculture. Man placed byhis Creator in the warm climates, perhaps would never emigrateinto the colder, unless under the tyrannous influence of necessity;and ages might elapse before the new inhabitants would spread toour settlers, though they are but barely within the limits of frost,that great cause of nine tenths of the necessities of Europeans.Nevertheless besides forwarding the purposes of humanity andgeneral convenience in bringing a people without land to a landwithout people, the benefit of a mutual intercourse with a neigh-bouring and friendly colony would be in itself no inconsiderableadvantage.

Among people so free from ostentation as the Otaheitians, andwhose manners are so simple and natural, the strictness with whichthe punctilios of rank are observed is surprising. I know not if anyaction, however meritorious, can elevate a man above the class inwhich he was born, unless he were to obtain sufficient power toconfer dignity on himself. If a woman of the inferior classes has achild by an Earee, it is not suffered to live. Perhaps the offspringof Teppahoo and Tetteehowdeeah were destined to satisfy somecruel adjustment of rank & precendency [sic?].

The last proof from the printer comes within a few lines of theaddition I have here proposed, page 80. In the title of the Chapter,which contains the incident of the deception practiced on the na-tives with the barbers wooden head dressed up. It may be a littlein the stile of an invitation to a puppetshow, but I think it is fair,& will not look amiss to call it the Adventure of the painted head.2*

I have the honour to remain, / Dear Sir / Your most obedient /& faithful servant / James Burney.

27 Banks's letter to Burney has not been seen by me, and I know nothing ofits present whereabouts.

28 The corresponding part of the chapter heading (chapter 7) in the Voyagereads: "Deception of the painted Head."

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Additional note:Since the present paper went to the printer I have (by kind per-

mission of the Trustees of the Mithchell Library) obtained a micro-film of the original Burney letter of September 5th. It appears thatthe D. T. C. version follows closely the text of the original, savefor some slight differences as to the punctuation etc. However, someof the names were misread by the transcriber; thus the "Nicol" ofthe original appears as "Nichols" in the D. T. C , and "Van diemen'sLand" as "Van dieman's Land".

Mr. Robert Langdon, Sydney, has kindly sent me the followinginteresting information:

"I don't know where (or if) the original of Burney's letter to Banksof October 22, 1791, is preserved; nor have I traced any letters fromBanks to Burney on the subject of Bligh's book. However, amongthe papers of Banks in the Mitchell Library is one on which is writ-ten: 'Plan for the Voyage I With letters from various persons whointerfered in the management of it / Printed extracts concerningbreadfruit / Capt. Burney July 16, 1791.' This is clearly a referenceto the first chapter of Bligh's Voyage, and my reading of it is thatBanks provided Burney with the material for that chapter on July16, 1791. Speaking from memory, I do not think the paper is inBanks' handwriting. If it is not, it is presumably in the hand of asecretary. Other documents which show that Banks had a big handin the editorship of the Voyage are Bligh's letter to Banks of July 17,1791 (Mitchell Library) . . . "

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