DR. SOLANDER XXxix 
that institution, and in 1764 elected a Fellow of the Royal 
Society. It was in 1767 that he first made the acquaintance 
of Banks, who, when he had in the following year resolved to 
accompany Cook to the Pacific, induced Solander to go with 
him. His situation in the Museum was kept open for him, a 
deputy being put in to act during his absence with Banks. 
An extract from a letter from Ellis to Linneus gives a 
clear idea of the arrangements made for the journey :— 
I must now inform you that Joseph Banks, Esq., a gentleman of 
£6000 per annum estate, has prevailed on your pupil, Dr. Solander, 
to accompany him in the ship that carries the English astronomers to 
the new-discovered country in the South Sea! . . . where they are to 
collect all the natural curiosities of the place, and, after the astronomers 
have finished their observations on the transit of Venus, they are to 
proceed under the direction of Mr. Banks, by order of the Lords of 
the Admiralty, on further discoveries. . . . No people ever went to 
sea better fitted out for the purpose of natural history, nor more 
elegantly. They have got a fine library of natural history: they have 
all sorts of machines for catching and preserving insects; all kinds of 
nets, trawls, drags, and hooks for coral fishing ; they have even a 
curious contrivance of a telescope by which, put into the water, you 
can see the bottom at a great depth, where it is clear. They have 
many cases of bottles with ground stoppers, of several sizes, to preserve 
animals in spirits. They have the several sorts of salts to surround the 
seeds ; and wax, both bees’-wax and that of the Myrica ; besides, there 
are many people whose sole business it is to attend them for this very 
purpose, They have two painters and draughtsmen, several volunteers 
who have a tolerable notion of natural history ; in short, Solander 
assured me this expedition would cost Mr. Banks £10,000.... 
About three days ago I took my leave of Solander, when he assured 
me he would write to you and to all his family, and acquaint them 
with the particulars of this expedition. I must observe to you that 
his places are secured to him, and he has promises from persons in 
power of much better preferment on his return. Everybody here 
parted from him with reluctance, for no man was ever more beloved, 
and in so great esteem with the public from his affable and polite 
behaviour. 
On his return from the South Seas, Dr. Solander was 
installed under Banks’s roof in Soho Square as his secretary 
and librarian; and at the British Museum he was advanced 
to the post of under-librarian. A short time after his return 
1 The Society Islands. 
