1.
GV London Street pan to bookshop.
0.10

2.
LV INT..Salesman with old manuscripts.
0.14

3.
SV Ditto.
0.18

4.
CU Picture of Captain Cook in manuscript.
0.21

5.
SV Buyer and chairman looking at two volumes.
0.26

6.
CU PAN UP..maps in log.
0.31

7.
SCU Turning pages of log.
0.36

8.
CU Captain Cook's signature.
0.40

9.
CU Two volumes showing titles, and being put on table.
0.51



Initials JRG/V/AHS/PB



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: A London dealer in rare books became the owner Nov 29 of the manuscript log book and journal of Captain Cook's first and second voyages, in two volumes.

He bought then the previous day at an auction for GBP53,000 - the highest sum paid for an 18th century manuscript. The New Zealand Government, acting through agents, were the unsuccessful underbidders. Each volume contains the original charts of the voyages.

The log book and journal were sent for sale by a retired British naval commander, a descendant of Sir Hugh Palliser, Captain Cook's naval commander, to whom they were presented as a gift by the explorer.

The log consists of a contemporary manuscript of Cook's own log of the Endeavour on her voyage to the South Seas between 1768 and 1771 and the journal is of the activities of the sloop Resolution during explorations of the South Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans in 1772. The manuscript of the log bears corrections, insertions and the signature of the author.