END OF TERRA AUSTRALIS 461 



got his own way, even when matched against Banks and 

 Sandwich. The new structures w r ere removed, and Cook 

 again declared that the ship was the most proper ship 

 for the service he had ever seen. Towards the close 

 of his life Banks told the story of his defeat in words 

 which showed that the injury still rankled. He was, 

 he says, " again offered the alternative to go or let it alone, 

 with a good deal of coolness." He had inadvertently 

 allowed the Navy Board to see his Journal ; and, knowing 

 his ideas, they thought that they could do without his 

 assistance. " As the alternative they had made rendered 

 it impossible for my people to be lodged, or to do their 

 respective duties, I resolved to refuse to go." 1 



One must regret that Banks did not sail in this famous Cook and 

 voyage. The two Forsters, who took his place, were Banks - 

 competent men of science, and the younger Forster wrote 

 a book which Besant calls " a very good book indeed." 

 But they were doleful and querulous comrades. In the 

 story of the second voyage one misses the radiancy of 

 the human boy, and no doubt Cook missed it too. And 

 still more must one regret the " coolness " between old 

 comrades in adventure and in ^research. Fortunately, the 

 letter which gives evidence of the " coolness " gives 

 evidence also that warmth soon returned. " Dear Sir," 

 wrote Cook to Banks from Capetown in November 1772, 

 " some cross circumstances which happened at the latter 

 part of the equipment of the Resolution created, I have 

 reason to think, a coolness between you and me. But 

 I can by no means think it was sufficient to me to break 

 off a correspondence with a man I am under many obliga- 

 tions to." And he wrote a simple newsy letter, admirably 

 calculated to restore an easy and friendly intercourse. 

 When he returned from the voyage, he visited Solander, 

 and sent his curiosities to him at the British Museum. 

 " Captain Cook," wrote Solander to Banks, " desires 

 his best compliments to you ; he expressed himself in 

 the most friendly manner towards you that could be ; 

 he said ' Nothing could have added to the satisfaction he 

 1 Smith's Banks, p. 26 note. 



