150 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



copy. It was afterwards said that the publishers lost heavily by 

 the bargain. Cook himself was quickly sent off upon his second 

 voyage, which disproved the existence of " Terra Australis Incog- 

 nita," a great continent believed to reach from the South Pole far 

 to the north of the Antarctic Circle ; but it is said that on his 

 return he was not well pleased with the way in which the first 

 voyage had been described. Mr. Banks is mentioned with grati- 

 tude by Hawkesworth as having contributed valuable material for 

 his narrative.* Now Banks strongly desired to accompany Cook 

 on the second voyage, and made lavish preparations ; but disputes 

 arose, chiefly with the Comptroller of the Navy Board (Sir Hugh 

 Palliser), about the accommodation on the ships, and neither 

 Banks nor Solander went. 



Whatever of natural history found a place in Hawkesworth was 

 of the popular kind. Banks felt that, in addition, a scientific book 

 was needed to give due account of the many treasures new to 

 science that Solander and he had discovered. Banks, therefore, 

 retained Solander as his secretary at the same salary of ^400 a 

 year, and caused, at his own cost, copper plates to be engraved 

 of the plants, animals, shells, and the like found on the voyage, 

 and was preparing an elaborate work. But, young as he was, he 

 gained a very prominent place in the learned world of London. 

 Before many years had passed he was elected President of the 

 Royal Society, a position that he held for an extraordinary length 

 of time — more than 41 years. Nor did he allow, as others had 

 done, the office to be a sinecure. Work grew upon his hands, so 

 that it was hard to find leisure for the bringing out of his magnum 

 opus. Had Dr. Solander been a vigorous and energetic man he 

 could practically have done the business for Banks, but it is not 

 difficult to read this philosopher's character. Amiable and 

 beloved by all, he was by nature dilatory. From a letter 

 published by Sir Joseph Hookerf it is evident that Linnseus 

 regarded his disciple as prone to put off until the morrow what he 

 felt disinclined to do to-day, and after Solander's death letters 

 were found in his pockets from his mother received some time 

 previously but unopened. 



In Hasted's " History of Kent," J Banks is represented as giving 

 forth the following statement : — " Botany has been my favourite 

 science since my childhood, and the reason I have not published 

 the account of my travels is that the first from want of time 

 necessarily brought on by the many preparations for my second 

 voyage was entrusted to Dr. Hawkesworth, and since that I have 

 been engaged in a botanical work, which I hope soon to publish, 



* Hawkesworth's book was published in 1773. 



+ Hooker's edition of the Journal of Sir Joseph Banks (Macmillans, 1896), 

 pp. xl., xli. 



+ Apvd Hooker, edition of the Journal of Banks, p. 26. 



