The little found in these volumes concerning reading and writing has to do with the documents of the expedition itself, as well as the account of earlier voyages.
Volume II:includes summaries of a number of earlier voyages (p. 64ff) including the mutiny against Henry Hudson in 1610 (p. 100-20?).
p. 7, in February 1747 in the region of Newfoundland, commenting upon the relatively mild weather, despite prevalence of scurvy: In that time the Spring was greatly advanced. Neither Water or Ink in the Tent froze; and Water put out at the Tent-Door froze but little.
p. 64, turning from his present 1747 voyage to the retrospective accounts of earlier attempts toward a North-West Passage: I hope I may plead an Excuse for troubling my Readers with my Narration, if they are pleas’d to consider, that a great Number of others, who would willingly know this History, and not having Leisure or Opportunity to collect it for their own Use, would gladly peruse it when done by another. Some of ;these Voyages are also scarce, others have been left out in the late Editions of Voyages, therefore a Recital of them, repeated after this Manner, cannot be improper. But what makes it mostly necessary is, that by giving a History of this Undertaking from the Origin, it will give the Reader a further Insight into the Expedition we are now writing of, than he could otherwise have had; and by considering this Expedition jointly with the rest, he will be able to form some Judgment in himself, whether there is any, and what Probability of a Passage remaining. [An historical account of attempts to locating the Passage, starting with John Cabot, follows.
p. 81, a 1582 report of a discovery of the North-West Passage by the Portuguese: “ (a) I Thomas Cowles of Bedmester in the County of Somerset Mariner, do acknowledge, that six Years past, being at Lisborne in Portugall, I did hear one Martin Chacke a Portugal, read a book of his own making, which he had set out six Years before that Time, in print in the PortugalTongue, declaring, that the said Martin Chacke had found now twelve Years past a Way from the Portugal Indies, through the Gulf of Newfoundland, which he thought to be in
59° 00′ of the North Pole….”
p. 113, during angry debate over the Hudson mutiny terms: Upon this Green took and Swore upon a Bible that he would do no Harm, and that which he did was for the good of the Voyage. [The author claims that this oath was written and taken with no intention of honoring it. The long account is worth reading.]