456 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



as Moses saw Canaan. He has been distressed, and even 

 deprived of sleep, by the report that Solander intends 

 to set out on a new voyage before cataloguing what he 

 has brought home : this matchless and truly astonishing 

 collection, such as has never been seen before, nor 

 may ever be seen again. There were good reasons in 

 those days to approve the change of name of Stingray 

 to Botany ! The week spent on its sandy shores was 

 to make an epoch in botanical studies as well as in political 

 geography. It led to the foundation of Sydney and to 

 the British colonization of Australia. And it also, wrote 

 a famous botanist of later date, " proved the example 

 and spur of all that has been done for natural science 

 during half a century, in Britain, perhaps in every quarter 

 of the world." 1 



1 Maiden, p. 94. 



