Maggs Bros.

Parkinson had been appointed as botanical draughtsman to the first voyage of Captain Cook by Sir Joseph Banks, and his “unbounded industry” extended greatly the collection of drawings relating to the voyage. His untimely death at sea, however, led to an unfortunate controversy over the title to his papers and drawings between his brother, Stanfield Parkinson and Sir Joseph Banks. In spite of a generous payment made to Stanfield, he had the papers transcribed while they were on loan to him, and prepared the present work. His publication threatened to preempt the official account of the voyage by Hawkesworth and an injunction was granted to prevent this, but the unpleasantness led to the exclusion of any mention of Parkinson in Dr. Hawkesworth’s An Account of the Voyages… for making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere in spite of the fact that he drew on his journals and reproduced some of Parkinson’s drawings. Hill, p.223; Holmes, 7.