SIR JOSEPH BANKS xxv 
to drain the Serpentine, in order to obtain some light on 
the fishes it contained. 
In May 1766 he was elected F.R.S., at the early age of 
twenty-three, and in the summer of that year accompanied 
his friend Lieutenant Phipps (afterwards Lord Mulgrave) to 
Newfoundland, where he investigated the Flora of that then 
botanically unknown island, returning next year by way of 
Lisbon. His journal of the trip is preserved in manuscript 
in the British Museum. After his return home, he became 
acquainted with Dr. Solander, of whom a brief notice is 
appended, and with whom he was closely connected until 
the death of the latter. 
Shortly after the accession of George III., several ships 
had been sent to the Southern Seas in the interest of 
geographical science. Commodore Byron sailed in 1764, 
Captains Wallis and Carteret in 1766, and these had no 
sooner returned than the Government resolved to fit out an 
expedition to the island of Tahiti, or, as it was then called, 
Otahite, under Lieutenant James Cook, in order to observe 
the transit of Venus in 1769. Mr. Banks decided to avail 
himself of this opportunity of exploring the unknown 
Pacific Ocean, and applied to his friend Lord Sandwich, then 
at the head of the Admiralty, for leave to join the expedi- 
tion. At his own expense, stated by Ellis to be £10,000, 
he furnished all the stores needed to make complete collec- 
tions in every branch of natural science, and engaged Dr. 
Solander, four draughtsmen or artists, and a staff of servants 
(or nine in all) to accompany him. 
The adventures of Banks and his companions on this 
voyage in the Endeavour are told in the diary which is the 
main object of this volume. It will be enough here to point 
out his untiring activity, whether in observing or collecting 
animals and plants, investigating and recording native customs 
and languages, bartering for necessaries with the inhabitants, 
preventing the pillaging to which the expedition was 
frequently subjected, or in the hazardous chase of the stolen 
quadrant in the interior of Otahite. 
In July 1771 the travellers returned with an immense 
