Bligh Manuscript

Found Among Old Books In Suva

From a Suva Correspondent Discovery in the Suva Lib of about 200 old books lex away in a corner case thr the librarian (Miss J. Damm

in January.

AND, even of greater inte ***■ there was found stuck beU two of the old books, a letter wr by Governor William Bligh, of South Wales, on November 5, 1 to Sir Joseph Banks, the great century botanist and scientist sailed with Captain Cook.

The letter appears to be an ( inal, for Bligh’s signature correspi with one in Bligh’s map of his se< voyage in the Pacific.

How long the books have bee the library Miss Damman is un to establish.

The oldest she found was A 1 age to New Holland, etc. in 1699 Captain William Dampier, printed in London in 1703. 1 there is A Voyage to the South and along the Coasts of Chili (Cl and Peru, dated 1714.

There is a translation of the age of La Perouse round the w in 1785, 1786, 1787 and 1 printed in London in 1798. Anc old book. Voyages of Discoverie the World, deals with the epic: Commodore John Byron in Captains Wallis and Carteret in 1 68 and Captain Cook in 1768-71 Nearer home is At Home in Fi two volumes by Miss C. F. Goi Gumming, printed in 1881.

The letter from Bligh to B: deals with how Bligh found cc tions in New South Wales, the * culty in keeping rebellious sub in order, and how he tried to with Blaxland.

PIM learned in Sydney from Mitchell Library that the Bligh h is listed in Warren R. Dawson’s Banks Letters issued by the Br Museum in 1958. This book every original letter to and f] Banks that is known to exist anc copies of correspondence where whereabouts of the originals is known.

The reference in the book: Bligh’s letter is to a copy made Dawson Taylor between 1833 1844.