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A surgeon's mate during Cook's third voyage, first on the Discovery and later on the Resolution, Ellis contravened Admiralty instructions to surrender all journals and logs by publishing this account. Holmes writes "it appears...that, being hard up Ellis sold his narrative to a bookseller for fifty guineas, the only alternative being `half profits.'" He also notes a letter from Joseph Banks to Ellis, reprimanding the latter for his imprudence, and saying that "from my situation, and connexion with the Board of Admiralty, from whence only I could have hoped to have served you, I fear it will not in future be in my power to do what it might have been, had you asked and followed my advice." Sabin 22333; Hill 2, 555; Holmes 42. Provenance: From the library of Arctic Explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson with his bookplate in each volume. Each volume also with the bookplate of Joseph Berens, cousin of Edward Riou who served as Midshipman on the Discovery during Cook's third voyage.