628 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



was confined to that of the Thames, he formed one, and 

 a magna pars, among the voyagers, and his qualifications 

 seem complete. Unfortunately he was of overbearing temper, 

 quarrelsome, and passionate, and during the voyage he suc- 

 ceeded in securing the hearty dislike of his comrades. By 

 the time New Zealand was reached he had fallen out with all. 

 During his disputes he had a childish trick of saying, " I shall 

 tell the King ; I shall tell the King." The very sailors 

 caught up the words, and jeeringly used them in their own 

 quarrels. On two occasions he behaved so severely, if not 

 cruelly, to the natives that Captain Cook placed him under 

 arrest. It is, however, gratifying to observe that his refer- 

 ences to the great commander are invariably couched in terms 

 of praise and admiration. On arrival home, to his chagrin 

 he learnt that, whilst the Admiralty expected him to publish 

 his own scientific observations, for which purpose the artists' 

 drawings were placed at his disposal, he was forbidden to 

 contribute to the history of the voyage. This the Admiralty 

 desired that Captain Cook should undertake. An agreemeut 

 was drawn up precisely specifying the special part allotted 

 to each, and Forster was informed that any infringement 

 would entail the loss of half the profit accruing from the 

 sale of the books. Forster, obliged to acquiesce in these ar- 

 rangements, published his "Observations . . . on the Physi- 

 cal Geography, Natural History, and Ethic Philosophy" of 

 the voyage, in a thick quarto. But father and son conjointly 

 w 7 ere not thus to be outwitted. If the father was strin- 

 gently bound the son was not, and so there speedily ap- 

 peared — anticipating, indeed, by three or four months Cook's 

 publication — "A Voyage round the World in His Britannic 

 Majesty's Sloop the ' Besolution.' ' This was in two large 

 volumes quarto, with the son's name, George Forster, on the 

 title-page, the said son being then but just twenty-two years 

 of age: curiously enough he was at this tender age a F.E.S., 

 as the initials appended to his name attest. The Admiralty 

 were naturally incensed with such sharp practice, and at once 

 withdrew all further countenance and patronage. The result 

 was that the twain soon found it necessary to depart for Ger- 

 many, their native land, whence from time to time they issued 

 other contributions which have much enriched our knowledge 

 of this voyage. In his preface the son naively says, " I was 

 bound by no agreement whatever, and that to which my 

 father had signed did not make him answerable for my 

 actions, nor in the most distant manner preclude him from 

 giving me assistance. Therefore in every important circum- 

 stance I had leave to consult his journals, and have been 

 enabled to draw up my narrative with the most scrupulous 

 attention to historical truth." This is queer morality : qui 



