40 TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



that an animal of the kind had been sent him from 

 Amboyna, where its name was "coes-coes." For this, 

 Buffon, in the tenth volume (1763) of his "Natural 

 History," takes Seba roundly to task, asserting that 

 the animal may have been first sent to Amboyna from 

 America. 



■ Yet earlier, in 171 1, a Dutch traveller, Cornelius de 

 Bruins, saw a creature which we now know to have been 

 a kind of kangaroo. This was at Batavia, where several 

 kangaroos were kept in captivity. He gave a fairly 

 good figure of it in that account of his travels through 

 Muscovy, Persia, and India, which was published at 

 Amsterdam in 17 14. This publication seems, however, 

 to have excited little attention. 



Rather more than half a century after this work 

 appeared, the Royal Society of England took a step 

 which was the starting-point of those discoveries which 

 have resulted in enabling us at last to understand what 

 an opossum really is. 



At the recommendation and request of the Royal 

 Society, Captain (then Lieutenant) Cook set sail in May 

 1768, in the ship Endeavour, on a voyage of exploration, 

 and for the observation of the transit of Venus of the 

 year 1769, which transit the travellers observed from 

 the Society Islands on Jvme 3 of that year. 



Thus it was that 120 years ago a kangaroo was first 

 observed distinctly and unequivocally by Englishmen. 

 For, in the spring of 1770, Cook's ship started from 

 New Zealand for the eastern part of New Holland, visit- 

 ing, among other places, a spot which, on account of the 

 number of plants found there by Mr. (afterward Sir 

 Joseph) Banks, received the name of Botany Bay. Sub- 

 sequently, when detained in Endeavour River (about 15° 

 South lat.), owing to the need of repairing a hole made 



