SIK JOSEPH BANKS. 345 



was only in his twenty-sixth year, while Cook was 

 upwards of forty. 



On the 25th of August, 1768, the Endeavour sailed 

 from Plymouth Sound; but the jealousy of the Brazil 

 Government preventing them from landing at Rio de 

 Janeiro, the first land at which they touched, (except 

 a few days at Madeira,) was the Terra del Fuego, the 

 southernmost point of the great American continent. 

 Here Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander made extensive 

 botanical collections ; but though it was the height of 

 summer in that severe climate, their attempts to ascend 

 the mountains were attended with extreme danger from 

 the severity of the snow storms and the excessive cold. 

 Three of their attendants perished ; and Dr. Solander 

 could only be saved from that deep sleep which proves 

 the forerunner of death, by the greater activity and 

 more powerful constitution of his younger companion, 

 who succeeded himself in casting off the drowsiness by 

 a strong and painful effort, and was enabled also to 

 rescue his friend. I have more than once heard him 

 discourse on the subject: he described the desire of 

 sleep which then stole over his senses as altogether 

 irresistible, and ascribed its force to the effect of the 

 cold in making all other desires with all the faculties 

 torpid. Motion seemed to produce little effect, for the 

 irresistible tendency was at every step to sink down, as 

 if the greatest suffering was to continue alive and awake, 

 the most delightful state to fall asleep and expire ; nor, 

 so far as I recollect his account, did any of them, while 

 yielding to this propensity, doubt that it was indulged 

 at the cost of life itself. Dr. Solander's case was pecu- 

 liarly remarkable. Accustomed to excessive cold in 

 travelling among the Norwegian and Swedish Alps, he 

 had warned his companions of the fate that awaited 

 them should they yield to drowsiness. " Whoever," 

 said he, " sits down, will sleep ; whoever sleeps will 

 wake no more." Yet was he soonest overpowered. 

 He insisted on being suffered to lie down. One of the 



