I am still in the process of writing this all up in a book. There are a lot of threads to tie together and a lot of research to do, so it will take me some time.

My hypothesis is that Alexander Dalrymple was a key figure in initiating James Cook’s first voyage. Normally, Dalrymple is portrayed as a butt-hurt, jealous person who was bitter over being overlooked in favour of Cook for that big prestigious voyage that “discovered Australia”.

My feeling is that this is inaccurate. Dalrymple was trained by the British East India Company in a kind of spy/diplomat/propagandist role. Alexander Dalrymple’s older sister married a high-ranking East India Company official and this got a teenaged Dalrymple’s foot in the door. Dalrymple initially worked as a clerk based in Madras, India under the Governor of Madras – Lord Pigot.

The Cuddalore Mission

After a few years, Lord Pigot then sent Dalrymple off for about 2 years (April 1759 – Jan 1762) on what seems a very secretive mission. Dalrymple was first trained to sail, and then given his own ship – the Cuddalore. This was funded out of Pigot’s own pocket – so it was done off-the-books of the East India Company. The conventional story is that all Dalrymple achieved in these two years was securing some trade deals with the Sultanate of Sooloo. However the trading deal itself was never honored on the British side. Under the deal, Dalrymple should have delivered a ship full of goods to Jolo (Sooloo). When it came time for the British to deliver – the goods bound for Jolo were for some unexplained reason diverted to Canton. The conventional story shows a pretty pathetic outcome on Dalrymple’s part, and it’s a wonder why Dalrymple was not fired for being completely useless. Question is – what was Dalrymple really doing in those two years, off-the-books?

The British invasion of Manila happened in this time period. And Dalrymple was in Manila in 1761, allegedly taking notes on the fortifications of Manila a year or so before the British attacked. He was accused of this in Spanish correspondence. He was a spy.

Now, looking at the geo-political situation at the time… What were the British motivations for attacking Manila?

Demand for Chinese goods was larger than what the British could take. This was due to the Qing dynasty and their trading policy called the Canton system. Europeans could only trade out of the Pearl River Delta (current day Hong Kong/Macau/Shenzhen area). There was a lot a red-tape and restrictions. The British wanted to find a way around the restriction. See also earlier attempts by James Flint to circumvent Chinese red-tape restrictions – this did not end well. The monopoly in the Pearl Delta was also a breeding ground for corruption which was resented by European traders.

This may have been what Dalrymple’s secret voyage was all about. The idea being – instead of the British going to China and dealing with red-tape and corruption, a British base near China could be set up where Chinese merchants could meet with British ships. Dalrymple was surveying the east indies area trying to find a potential port and a safe and convenient sailing route to said port. This idea eventually came to fruition 60 years later with British Singapore.

While Dalrymple was in Manila in 1761, he met Sultan Alimud-Din I of Sooloo. Alimud was living in Manila in exile. Sultan Alimed came to be in exile because as Sultan back in his land, he converted to Christianity an he protected Jesuit missionaries. This didn’t go down well with his Muslim subjects, and the story goes that he was stabbed by his younger brother who took over. Alimud fled and lived in exile in Spanish Manila.

This situation is something that can definitely be leveraged by the British. Dalrymple brokered a deal with the exiled Sultan. The British will restore Alimud as Sultanate in exchange for cession of a suitable port – Balambangan.

This seems to be exactly what happened. And there is documentation to support this hypothesis including a trail of treaties. The British played the Sultan in power (the younger brother), the cabinet that this younger brother established, and the Sultan in exile against each other.

Before Manila was invaded, some instructions by an anonymous author detailing a plan to invade Manila were given to Lord Egremont in 1761. These instructions included detail on the need to evacuate Sultan Alimud and his entourage from Manila. These instructions were apparently written in William Draper‘s handwriting. Draper and Dalrymple were in contact with each other during Dalrymple’s two-year mystery voyage, as Draper was based in Canton and Dalrymple periodically checked into Canton for supplies. I think the instructions to invade Manila were drafted by Dalrymple, but Draper’s name was put to them to protect Dalrymple’s cover as a spy.

After the Manila invasion, the Sultanate of Sooloo under the freed and restored Sultan Alimud ceded Balambangan to the British. The cession was ‘in return for the benefits I have received from the company‘. This makes it fairly obvious that Balambangan was ceded as a thank-you to the British for restoring the exiled Sultan back to his throne.

What’s all this got to do with Cook?

What this story shows is that Dalrymple was gathering intelligence in Manila, and that he had a line of communication back to England while he was doing this work. Not just a line of communication, but he had enough influence to initiate a full-scale invasion of Manila.

Dalrymple was not someone who was ignored. He had real influence.

Dalrymple was a very smart, strategist. The point of capturing Manila was not to establish a British port at Manila. That would not have worked anyway because the treaty at end of the Seven Years War required the British to restore Manila to the Spanish. The point was not to trade with Sooloo, as that never even happened. The point was to get some locals to cede a British port in a stones throw from China. And it worked.

The Manila Documents – Juan Fernandez – New Zealand

In Manila, Dalrymple found a trove of Spanish documents. I wrote a bit about that in this post.

I think he found the 5 drawings by Prado y Tobar, only 4 of which are known today. The missing drawing was of the passage that Cook passed through just after he rounded Cape York. Cook followed the missing chart to guide him through the passage. Dalrymple published a book while Cook was out on his first voyage. The book has the Torres Strait labelled and marked as a dotted line. It is clear from reading Cook’s and his companions journals that they expected the Torres Strait to be there.

Dalrymple also had the Arias Memorial. The Arias Memorial is generally what is presented as being Dalrymple’s sole source for his knowledge of the Torres Strait, but the British knew more than they let on.

The Arias Memorial refers to Tobar/Torres voyage. But it also refers to Juan Fernandez’s discovery of a terra incognita populated with white people lying at latitude 40 degrees south.

Here’s what I think happened – Dalrymple had this chain of thought. Arias was correct about Tobar and the Torres Strait. Therefore Arias is a credible source. So Arias is probably also right about Juan Fernandez. This is why Cook’s instructions were, after watching the Venus transit to proceed to latitude 40 degrees south. Cook was looking for the land discovered by Fernandez. Dalrymple had influenced the instructions for Cook’s first voyage not just regarding the Torres Strait. The whole voyage may have been Dalrymple’s idea.

After the official voyage accounts were published, Dalrymple gets in a public war of words with Hawkesworth. A very public war. For the benefit of the public. Propaganda. Dalrymple plays the part of a little whiny sooky-bum who everybody ignores as a way to distance Dalrymple’s influence and to distance the strategy and the intelligence Dalrymple acquired in Manila.

But Cook was the best man for the job, and I think Dalrymple would have been smart enough to know that. You need someone very good at cartography, mathematics, and astronomy. Someone without association with the East India Company is also an advantage. Cook is the man. You also need Charles Green because he was on the board of longitude Barbados trial – Green knows what is needed to determine longitude.