BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES SIR JOSEPH BANKS1 THE name of Sir Joseph Banks is pre-eminent amongst the many distinguished scientific men who adorned the long reign of George the Third, and his career practically coincides with the reign of that monarch, closing in the same year. The hold he has always had on popular estimation is perhaps less due to his high position in the royal favour, or his long tenancy of the presidential chair of the Royal Society, than to the prominent part he took in the voyage of H.M.S. Endeavour under Lieutenant Cook, and his contributions to Hawkesworth's account of it. Cook's story is that of a sailor, and his account of his discoveries is rendered more attractive by the introduction of passages from the more graphic pages of Banks's Diary: it is these passages which attracted so much attention in the narrative drawn up by Dr. Hawkesworth. Cook's own Journal, recently published by Admiral Wharton, shows this very clearly, and the naturalist's own record of their discoveries and adventures is now for the first time given to the public. Joseph Banks was born in Argyle Street, London, on 2nd February 1743 (o.s.). He was the son of William Banks (sometime Sheriff of Lincolnshire and M.P. for Peterborough), of Revesby Abbey, Lincolnshire, a gentleman of some fortune, due to his father's successful practice of medicine in that No adequate Life of Sir Joseph Banks having as yet appeared, the compiler of the following notes is indebted mainly for his information to Weld's History of the Royal Society, Sir John Barrow's Sketches of the Royal Society and the Royal Society Club, to Mr. B. Daydon Jackson's article on Banks in the Dictionary of National Biography, and to scattered incidental notices. county. At the age of nine he was sent to Harrow, and four years later was transferred to Eton, where he displayed an extreme aversion from study, especially of Greek and Latin, and an inordinate love of all kinds of energetic sports. It was while he was here that he was first attracted to the study of botany, and having no better instructor he paid some women-" cullers of simples," as Sir Joseph himself afterwards called them-who were employed in gathering plants, for which he paid them sixpence for each article they collected and brought to him. During his holidays he found on his mother's dressing-table an old torn copy of Gerard's Herbal, having the names and figures of some of the plants with which he had formed an imperfect acquaintance; and he carried it back with him to school. While at Eton he made considerable collections of plants and insects. He also made many excursions in company with the father of the great Lord Brougham, who describes him as a fine-looking, strong, and healthy boy, whom no fatigue could subdue, and no peril daunt. He left Eton when seventeen to be inoculated for the small-pox, and on his recovery he went up to Oxford, entering as a gentleman commoner at Christ Church. Prior to this, however, after his father's death in 1761, he had resided with his mother at Chelsea, where he had availed himself of the then famous botanical garden of the Apothecaries' Company. He found himself unable to get any teaching in botany at Oxford, but obtaining leave, he proceeded to Cambridge and returned with Israel Lyons,1 the astronomer and botanist, under whom a class was formed. In December 1763 he left Oxford with an honorary degree, and coming of age in the year following, found himself possessed of an ample fortune, which enabled him to devote himself entirely to the study of natural science. At this time also he formed a friendship with Lord Sandwich, a neighbouring landowner, both being devoted to hunting and other field sports. The two are credited with having formed a project 1 Afterwards calculator for the Nautical Almanac, and, owing to the influence of Banks, astronomer to Captain Phipps' Polar Voyage in 1773. SIR JOSEPH BANKS XXV to drain the Serpentine, in order to obtain some light on the fishes it contained. In May 1766 he was elected F.R.S., at the early age of twenty-three, and in the summer of that year accompanied his friend Lieutenant Phipps (afterwards Lord Mulgrave) to Newfoundland, where he investigated the Flora of that then botanically unknown island, returning next year by way of Lisbon. His journal of the trip is preserved in manuscript in the British Museum. After his return home, he became acquainted with Dr. Solander, of whom a brief notice is appended, and with whom he was closely connected until the death of the latter. Shortly after the accession of George III., several ships had been sent to the Southern Seas in the interest of geographical science. Commodore Byron sailed in 1764, Captains Wallis and Carteret in 1766, and these had no sooner returned than the Government resolved to fit out an expedition to the island of Tahiti, or, as it was then called, Otahite, under Lieutenant James Cook, in order to observe the transit of Venus in 1769. Mr. Banks decided to avail himself of this opportunity of exploring the unknown Pacific Ocean, and applied to his friend Lord Sandwich, then at the head of the Admiralty, for leave to join the expedition. At his own expense, stated by Ellis to be £10,000, he furnished all the stores needed to make complete collections in every branch of natural science, and engaged Dr. Solander, four draughtsmen or artists, and a staff of servants (or nine in all) to accompany him. The adventures of Banks and his companions on this voyage in the Endeavour are told in the diary which is the main object of this volume. It will be enough here to point out his untiring activity, whether in observing or collecting animals and plants, investigating and recording native customs and languages, bartering for necessaries with the inhabitants, preventing the pillaging to which the expedition was frequently subjected, or in the hazardous chase of the stolen quadrant in the interior of Otahite. In July 1771 the travellers returned with an immense amount of material, the botanical part of which was for the most part already described, and needed but little to prepare it for the press. The descriptive tickets, which had been drawn up by Solander, were arranged in systematic order in what are still known as "Solander cases," and transcribed fairly by an amanuensis for publication. About 700 plates were engraved on copper in folio at Banks's expense, and a few prints or proofs were taken, but they were never published. Five folio books of neat manuscript, and the coppers, rest in the hands of the trustees of the British Museum. The question arises, why were they never utilised? The descriptions were ready long before Solander's death, although the plants collected in Australia do not seem to have been added to the fair copies, and the plates were mainly outlines. This has always been regarded as an insoluble problem, but the following extracts from a letter written by Banks very shortly before Solander died, may be accepted as evidence of his intention to publish. letter from which the extract is taken is undated, and takes the shape of a draft without any name, but it is a reply to a letter addressed to Banks by Hasted, who was then collecting materials for the second edition of his history of the county of Kent. The Botany has been my favourite science since my childhood; and the reason I have not published the account of my travels is that the first from want of time necessarily brought on by the many preparations for my second voyage was entrusted to Dr. Hawkesworth, and since that I have been engaged in a botanical work, which I hope soon to publish, as I have near 700 folio plates prepared; it is to give an account of all such new plants discovered in my voyage round the world, somewhat above 800. Hasted's letter, to which this is an answer, was dated 25th February 1782, little more than two months before Solander's death (alluded to on a subsequent page), an event which has generally been accepted as determining the fate of the intended publication. In 1772 pre But we must now go back a few years. parations were made for a second expedition under Cook in |