PREFACE 



MY principal motive for editing the Journal kept by Sir 

 Joseph Banks during Lieutenant Cook's first voyage round 

 the world is to give prominence to his indefatigable labours 

 as an accomplished observer and ardent collector during the 

 whole period occupied by that expedition, and thus to pre- 

 sent him as the pioneer of those naturalist voyagers of later 

 years, of whom Darwin is the great example. 



This appears to me to be the more desirable, because in 

 no biographical notice of Banks are his labours and studies 

 as a working naturalist adequately set forth. Indeed, the 

 only allusion I can find to their literally enormous extent 

 and value is in the interesting letter from Linnaeus to Ellis, 

 which will be found on p. xl. In respect of Cook's first 

 voyage this is in a measure due to the course pursued by 

 Dr. Hawkesworth in publishing the account of the expedi- 

 tion, when Banks, with singular disinterestedness, placed his 

 Journal in that editor's hands, with permission to make 

 what use of it he thought proper. The result was that 

 Hawkesworth * selected only such portions as would interest 



1 Dr. Hawkesworth devotes his "Introduction to the First Voyage" 

 almost exclusively to the services which Banks rendered, and gratefully 

 acknowledges that all such details as are not directly connected with navi- 

 gation are extracted 'from the diary of that naturalist. But for the purpose 

 of identifying the work of each observer this is insufficient, and barely does 

 justice to the second of the two authors, who is in reality responsible for 

 the greater portion of the book. In reference to Hawkesworth being 

 employed as editor of Cook's Journal, the following passage is extracted 



