268 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 



ceive this letter, promises in my judgment the most interest- 

 ing discoveries to you ; it will be particularly interesting, as it 

 is not likely the north-west country should be soon visited 

 again, so that the sole credit of all the new plants you obtain, 

 will be entirely your own. May the success that your 

 talents, your industry, and your activity deserve, always at- 

 tend you, is the sincere wish of 



" Your assured good friend, 



"Joseph Banks. 

 "To Mr Allan Cunningham. ^^ August^ 1818." 



The Mermaid having been condemned, as not sea-worthy, 

 a vessel called the Haldane, an India teak-built brig, of 170 

 tons, was purchased by the colonial government for the ful- 

 filment of the survey. Her name, on entering His Majesty's 

 service, was changed to the Bathurst ; and by her larger size, 

 and greater accommodations, she afforded the voyagers much 

 more room and conveniences than the cutter had done. 



After various delays, the Bathurst sailed from Port-Jack- 

 son on the 26th of May, 1821, in company with the Dick 

 merchant-vessel bound to Batavia. The first place touched 

 at on this their fourth voyage, was one of the Percy isles, the 

 summits of which were crowned with stunted Araucaria (A. 

 Cunninghamia) ; the plants generally were the same as those 

 collected two years previously on one of the other islands of 

 the same group. On the 18th of June, they landed at Cape 

 Grafton, the botany of which produced many interesting 

 plants to our collector, who says,—" I could not but observe 

 the extreme luxuriance of the plants on the north and north- 

 western sides of the hills immediately connected with the 

 ridge forming Cape Grafton, where the vegetation is affected 

 very slightly by a tropical sun, and where a continued humi- 

 dity in a mild atmosphere had induced a most exuberant 

 growth in the plants. The larger blocks of granite diat were 

 detached from the solid mass of the range, and had found 

 a lodgment in the abrupt declivities, were literally over- 

 whelmed with the richest vegetation." Landings were also 



