Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. A 



bres of which are more tenacious than those of any other plant, 

 is cultivated among us, and will infallibly prove, one day, an 

 important acquisition for our marine. Several of our ponds are 

 embellished with the black swan ; the kangaroo and phascolome 

 are kept in some of our parks ; and there is nothing to prevent 

 their becoming animals of game in our woods, as useful as the 

 fallow-deer or the rabbit, which were equally exotic animals. 

 But these are results of ittle importance compared with the ge- 

 neral knowledge which this voyage began to afford us of the Pa- 

 cific Ocean ; of the multitude of islands which nature has spread 

 through it ; and of the creatures, in some measure peculiar, with 

 which they are peopled. New Holland especially, if we except 

 man and the dog, (and these, without doubt, have arrived in it at a 

 comparatively recent period, so miserable is the condition in 

 which they occur there), bears no resemblance, in its organic na- 

 ture, so to speak, to the rest of the world. It possesses other 

 animals, often appearing to unite forms which are contrary to 

 each other ; vegetables which seem destined to subvert all our 

 rules and systems. Within these thirty years, the English have 

 formed an establishment in the middle of this continent, among 

 this creation almost as new to Europe as that of another planet 

 would be. What it has already furnished to science is prodi- 

 gious, and is a source of general advantage to all nations. With 

 regard to the advantages which it gives, and will give, to the 

 mother country, it is not my business to detail them at length ; 

 but every one will perceive what commercial, political, and mili- 

 tary importance a great European colony, in a temperate zone, 

 in a healthy and fertile country, placed between Asia and Ame- 

 rica, and communicating as easily with Peru as with Bengal, 

 must necessarily assume. This much is certain, that, before 

 many years elapse, whether it become independent, or remain 

 subject, it will have multiplied that race of the human species, 

 the most susceptible of civihzation, as extensively as the English 

 colonies of North America have done. 



Such will be, such already are, in a great measure, the re- 

 sults of the voyage of Cook, Banks, and Solander ; and the rea- 

 son is obvious, because the voyage in question, having men of 

 scientific attainments embarked in it, was directed with more 

 enlightened views, and conducted with more philosophy, than 

 any that had been made for three centuries. 



