348 SIR JOSEPH BANKS. 



and placed at the head of this expedition. Such was the 

 chief under whom Mr. Banks embarked in this important 

 enterprise; and in admiration of his great qualities he 

 yielded to none of his followers. There was, indeed, 

 something exceedingly congenial in the two characters; 

 the same love of discipline, the same firmness of purpose, 

 the same exclusive devotion to the one object in view, the 

 same strict and even punctilious* regard to the perform- 

 ance of his duty, the same active habits, and the same 

 contempt of all save action, distinguished alike these 

 eminent individuals, and knit them together in an indis- 

 soluble friendship notwithstanding the somewhat stern 

 temper of the one and the occasionally irascible dispo- 

 sition of the other, and notwithstanding the wide differ- 

 ence of the favourite pursuits to which their several lives 

 had been devoted. There was, moreover, a considerable 

 difference of age ; for Banks was only in his twenty -sixth 

 year, while Cook was upwards of forty. 



On the 2.3th of August, 1768, the Endeavour sailed 

 from Plymouth Sound; but the jealousy of the Brazil 

 Government preventing them from landing at Rio dc 

 Janeiro, the first laud 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 



