Observations and Remarks Made during a Voyage to t…

Number 68 of the Bibliotheca Australiana series.

Lieutant George Mortimer’s account of the brig Mercury under of the command of John Henry Cox sailed via Teneriffe to Van Diemens Land, named and charted Oyster Bay in 1789. He went on to chart Maria Island and Marion Bay on the east coast of Tasmania. The ship also visited the Sandwich Islands, north west coast of America and Canton.

Of great interest is the fact that the members of the Mercury were the first Europeans to hear anything of the mutiny on the Bounty. They learned in Tahiti that “Titreano” had returned in the Bounty two months after she had sailed without Bligh. There are also many references to Cook, whose path the voyage followed from Tahiti, and on Tahiti they are shown Webber’s ship-board portrait of Cook, now lost, with Bligh’s notes on the reverse recording the sailing of the Bounty with 1015 bread-fruit plants in April 1789. The visit to Hawaii in 1789 was one of the earliest visits to the islands.