394 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION E. 



ABSTEACT OF LECTURE DELIVERED IN THE ALBERT HALL, 

 BRISBANE, JANUARY, 1909, ON SIR JOSEPH BANKS, THE 

 FATHER OF AUSTRALIA. 



By J.H. MAIJDE.V, Ooiernmen/ Botanist and Director of the Botanic Gardens, Si/dney 



Joseph Banks was bom at Revesby, Lincolnshire, in 1743, and 

 inherited considerable wealth. After leaving Oxford, he became 

 imbued with the desire for foreign travel, and, in 1766, made a 

 botanical tour in Newfoundland and Labrador, then but little known. 

 In 1768, Lieutenant James Cook having been appointed to the 

 command of H.M.S. " Endeavour," 269 tons. Banks decided to 

 accompany him, and, at his own expense, took with him his naturalist- 

 librarian (Dr. Solander, a pupil of Linnaeus), three accomplished 

 artists, and a number of attendants and servants, besides supplying 

 equipment for collecting natural histoiy specimens on a scale which 

 was unprecedented, and which was destined not to be repeated for 

 many years. 



The " Endeavour"' left England in August, 1768, and the east 

 coast of New Holland having been sighted, and, indeed, discovered 

 by Cook, the " Endeavoui-" put into Botany Bay (called by Cook 

 Stingray Harbour) from 28th April to 6th May, 1770. This is, of 

 course, now a suburb of Sydney. 



A number of interesting observations were made by Banks, who 

 wrote a journal of the voyage, and duplicates of the identical plants 

 collected by him at Botany Bay were presented by the trustees of 

 the British Museum to the Botanic Gardens in Sydney in 1905. 



The ship then headed north, and Cook named the principal 

 features of the coast. She stinick on the Barrier Reef, and was with 

 difficulty brought into the Endeavour River, near Cooktown, but 

 this delay was a blessing in disguise, in that it gave Banks an 

 opportunity of recording valuable information in regard to the botany, 

 zoology, and aborigines of Northern Queensland. This stay in modem 

 Queensland was far longer than in Botany Bay. 



Cook and Banks left Australian shores on 27th August, and went 

 home via New Guinea, Java, Cape of Good Hope, St. Helena, and 

 Ascension, arriving at Deal, England, on 12tli July, 1771. 



Banks employed engravers to depict the Australian plants which 

 his artists had drawn, and it is a remarkable fact that these fine 

 engraved plates were not printed until eight or nine years ago. 



One cannot read Banks' journal without being impressed with 

 the fact that he was a most observant naturalist and a broad-minded 

 man. The heir to wealth and luxury, he underwent the hardships 

 and perils of the tiny " Endeavour" for the pure love of knowledge. 

 In 1772 he went to Iceland with Solander, a far more formidable 

 undertaking than it is at present, and this voyage also resulted 

 fruitfully, while he secured the affection of the islanders. 



The matter of transportation of convicts being suggested, he 

 attended a Committee of the House of Commons, gave evidence in 

 regard to this great southern land, and, doubtless as a result of his 

 advocacy, tlie colonisation of this country was decided upon. What 

 followed is a matter of liistory. 



