Biographical Memoir of I he late Sir Joseph Banks. 41 



lated bv art, was a plan of travel worthy of the desire and the 

 contrivance of virtne and genius. 



It was with such views operating on his mind, that Mr. Banks, 

 upon leaving the University of 0>;ford in 1763, went on a voyage 

 across the Atlantic, to the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador. 

 That voyage was not without its difficulties and dangers ; but it 

 afforded a rich compensation in the new knowledge with which 

 it filled his mind, and in those curiosities of natural history which 

 it enabled him to collect. 



The spirit of naval discovery, so eminently encouraged since 

 the commencement of the last reign, soon presented a new op- 

 portunity by which Mr. Banks was engaged in a more distant 

 and laborious voyage than that in which he made his first ad- 

 venture of scientific inquiry. This was in the first voyage of 

 Lieut. Cook, whom Government determined to send out for the 

 double purpose of pursuing still further the discoveries which had 

 been already made in the South Seas, and for the benefit of 

 astronomy, and all the arts dependent upon it, to observe in the 

 latitude of Otaheite an expected transit of Venus over the sun. 

 In this voyage, young Mr. Banks resolved to sail with Cook. 

 His liberal spirit and generous curiosity were regarded with ad^ 

 miration ; and every convenience from the Government was rea- 

 dily supplied to render the circumstances of the voyage as little 

 unpleasant to him as possible. 



Far, however, from soliciting any accommodation that might 

 occasion expense to Government, Mr. Banks was ready to con- 

 tribute largely out of his own private fortune towards the general 

 purposes of the expedition. He engaged as his director in na- 

 tural history during the voyage, and as the companion of his re- 

 searches. Dr. Solander, of the British Museum, a Swede by 

 birth, and one of the most eminent pupils of Linnaeus, whose 

 scientific merits had been his chief recommendation to patronage 

 in England. He also took with him two draughtsmen, one to 

 delineate views and figures, the other to paint sul)jects of natural 

 history. A secretary and four servants formed the rest of his 

 suite. He took care to provide likewise the necessary instru- 

 ments for his intended observations, with conveniences for pre- 

 serving such specimens as he might collect of natural or artificial 

 objects, and with stores to be distributed in the remote isles he 

 was going to visit, for the improvement of the condition of 

 bavagc life. 



In the course of the voyage, dangers were encountered of 

 more than ordinary magnitude. On the coast of Terra del 

 Fuego, in an excursion to view the natural productions* of the 

 country, Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander had nearly perished in 

 a storm of snow. After passing a night on land amidst the 



Vol. 5G. No. 2G7. Jiil>j 1S20. F >torm, 



