CorzNs0.—JManibus Parkinsonibus sacrum. 118 
man dwell with pleasure on the relation of his singular simplicity of 
conduct, his sincere regard for truth, his ardent thirst after knowledge, his 
indefatigable industry to obtain it, and his generous disposition in freely 
communicating with the most friendly participation to others, that informa- 
tion which none but himself could have obtained. That this is more than’ 
probable will appear, on comparing the different manner in which Sydney 
and his associates passed their time in the most interesting situations. 
While many others, for want of a more innocent curiosity or amusement, 
were indulging themselves in sensual gratifications,—we find him gratifying 
no other passion than that of a laudable curiosity, which enabled him 
inoffensively to employ his time and escape those snares into which the 
vicious appetites of some others betrayed them. It doth equal honour to 
his ingenuousness and ingenuity, to find him protected by his own innocence, 
securely exercising his pleasing art amidst a savage, ignorant, and hostile 
people; engaging their attention by the powers of his pencil, disarming 
them of their native ferocity, and rendering them even serviceable to the 
great end of the voyage in cheerfully furnishing him with the choicest 
productions of the soil and climate, whieh neither force or stratagem might 
otherwise have procured. 
** By such honest arts and mild demeanour he soon acquired the con- 
fidence of the inhabitants of most places at which the voyagers went on 
shore; obtaining thus, as I am well-informed, with remarkable facility, the 
knowledge of many words in various languages hitherto little, if at all, 
known in Europe. 
* These paved the way also to his success in acquiring a choice and 
rare collection of curiosities, consisting of garments, domestie utensils, 
rural implements, instruments of war, uncommon shells, and other natural 
curiosities of considerable value—of so much value, indeed, as even to 
seduce men of reputed sense, fortune, and character, to attempt, by means 
unworthy of themselves, to deprive me of what, after the loss sustained in 
the death of so deserving a brother, one would think none ought to envy 
me the gain. 
* * * * x * * x 
* Of these curiosities, the shells alone Dr. John Fothergill (a common 
friend of my late brother and Joseph Banks) had valued at £200; yet neither 
the shells, nor anything else, hath Joseph Banks to this day returned me. 
The reasons he gives for the detention are—that I have used him ill; that 
he hath given me a valuable consideration for them ; and, in short, that he 
will keep them. Of this pretended valuable eonsideration I am now to 
speak. On the readiness I showed to oblige Joseph Banks with such of the 
shells as he might not have in his collection, Dr. Fothergill informed me 
o 
