292 THE LIFE OF SIR JOSEPH BANKS 



came to men who knew how to seize the peculiar ad- 

 vantages which it offered to serious intelligence and 

 industry. Barrow began life in a modest way as a clerk ; 

 went to sea in a Greenland whaler ; taught mathematics 

 at Woolwich ; was " discovered " by Sir George L. 

 Staunton, who took him into China in the suite of Lord 

 Macartney ; and had two years as his Lordship's private 

 secretary at the Cape of Good Hope. All Barrow's 

 leisured time, wherever he happened to be, was devoted 

 to scientific and literary inquiry. He was an excellent 

 botanist and geographer. When he was appointed to the 

 second secretaryship of the Admiralty, in 1804, he had 

 drawn the public notice by a published account of his 

 travels in South Africa, and by his appearance in Society 

 as a young man of varied attainments and general 

 promise. He became a F.R.S. in 1806. 



When Barrow became acquainted with Sir Joseph is 

 not clear. Probably soon after his coming to London, 

 through Sir George L. Staunton. It was not long before 

 they were the best of friends. They had most ideas in 

 common ; and Barrow was exactly the style of young 

 man likely to commend himself to Banks. His official 

 post brought them necessarily into communication ; 

 and, as he held that post for about forty years, while he 

 continued to hold a prominent place in the learned and 

 scientific world, Barrow's recollections of his old friend 

 may be read with great point and authority : l 



" A similarity of tastes, my having been also a traveller, 

 and my unfeigned respect for his character, soon estab- 

 lished for me an intimacy with Sir Joseph Banks ; 

 who invited me, with more than common cordiality, 

 to join his Sunday evening conversations at his house in 

 Soho Square. This intimacy continued without in- 

 terruption to the last days of his life. ..." 



1 v. Sketches of the Royal Society and the Royal Society Club (London, 

 1849). 



