SIR JOSEPH BANKS xxv 



to drain the Serpentine, in order to obtain some light on 

 the fishes it contained. 



In May 1766 he was elected F.K.S., at the early age of 

 twenty-three, and in the summer of that year accompanied 

 his friend Lieutenant Phipps (afterwards Lord Mulgrave) to 

 Newfoundland, where he investigated the Flora of that then 

 botanically unknown island, returning next year by way of 

 Lisbon. His journal of the trip is preserved in manuscript 

 in the British Museum. After his return home, he became 

 acquainted with Dr. Solander, of whom a brief notice is 

 appended, and with whom he was closely connected until 

 the death of the latter. 



Shortly after the accession of George III., several ships 

 had been sent to the Southern Seas in the interest of 

 geographical science. Commodore Byron sailed in 1764, 

 Captains Wallis and Carteret in 1766, and these had no 

 sooner returned than the Government resolved to fit out an 

 expedition to the island of Tahiti, or, as it was then called, 

 Otahite, under Lieutenant James Cook, in order to observe 

 the transit of Venus in 1769. Mr. Banks decided to avail 

 himself of this opportunity of exploring the unknown 

 Pacific Ocean, and applied to his friend Lord Sandwich, then 

 at the head of the Admiralty, for leave to join the expedi- 

 tion. At his own expense, stated by Ellis to be 10,000, 

 he furnished all the stores needed to make complete collec- 

 tions in every branch of natural science, and engaged Dr. 

 Solander, four draughtsmen or artists, and a staff of servants 

 (or nine in all) to accompany him. 



The adventures of Banks and his companions on this 

 voyage in the Endeavour are told in the diary which is the 

 main object of this volume. It will be enough here to point 

 out his untiring activity, whether in observing or collecting 

 animals and plants, investigating and recording native customs 

 and languages, bartering for necessaries with the inhabitants, 

 preventing the pillaging to which the expedition was 

 frequently subjected, or in the hazardous chase of the stolen 

 quadrant in the interior of Otahite. 



In July 1771 the travellers returned with an immense 



