8 
SIR JOSEPH BANKS. 
The request of the Council of the Koyal Society* * * § having been 
approved, flanks equipped the “ Endeavour ” for natural history 
pursuits, and took with him l)r. Carl Solander, three draughtsmen — 
Mr. Alexander Buchan, for landscape and figure (died 17th April, 
1769) ; Mr. Sydney Parkinson (died 26th January, 1771), for objects 
of natural history; and also Mr. John Keynolds (died 18th December, 
1770) ; also Herman Sporing, assistant (died 24th January, 1771); 
James Roberts and Peter Briscoe, servants; also Thomas Richmond 
and George Dollin, negro servants, frozen to death, 16th January, 
1769. The journal which he kept was largely utilised by Dr. Hawkes- 
worth in his relation of the Voyages of Byron, Carteret, Wallis, and 
Cook.f Perusal of it and comj^arison with Banks’ Journal will show 
how largely indebted Hawkesworth was to Banks, and yet what little 
prominence was given to Banks’ work. The work is, indeed, known 
as “ Hawkesworth’s Voyages,” and Hawkesworth probably never did 
more than cross the English Channel. ]; 
The following two letters of John Ellis to the great Linnaeus are 
interesting : — 
I must now inform you that Joseph Banks, Esq., a gentleman of £6,000 per annum 
estate, has jwevailed on your ])upil. Dr. Solander. to accompany him in the ship 
that carries the English astronomers to the new-iliscovered country in the South 
Sea, lat. about gO® south, and long, between 130° and 1.50° west from London, 
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 of the great Southern Continent.§ And again, “ They have 
the several sorts of salts to surround the seeds, and wax. both beeswax and that 
of the Myrica ; besides, there are many peojile whose sole business it is to attend 
them for this very purpose. They have two [three, J.H.51. | painters and draughts- 
men, several volunteers who have a tolerable notion of natural history; in short, 
Solander assured me this expedition would co.st Mr. Banks ten thousand pounds. 
All this is owing to you and your writings.”|l 
Banks journal of this voyage^ teems with notes on marine biology 
and aquatic birds ; tvhen on land he gave attention to botany and 
did not neglect other branches of natural history. 
He was entirely loyal to Cook, yet we find that, tvriting to Robert 
Brown,** he compares Cook with Flinders in regard to the opportunities 
given to the naturalist. Banks stated that he would have done more 
* “ Historical Records of New South Wales,” edited by F, M. Bladen, i (I), 313. 
t " An account of tlie voyages, Ac., for making . iscoveries in the Southern Hemisphere, and 
■successiveiy performed by Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis, Captain Carteret, and Captain 
Cook, drawn up from the journals which were kept by the several commanders and from the 
papers of Sir Joseph Bunks, Bart.” By John Hawksswonh, LL.l). {1st ed , Maj', 1773 ; 
2nd ed., August, 1773; 3rd ed , 1785.) 
X See p. 32 for an account of Dr. Hawkesworth. Prof. E. E. Morris (Viet. Nat., xvii, 149), quotes 
the Gentleman’s Magazine for September, 1900, as giving the fullest account of him. 
§ Sir J. E. Smith's ” Selection of the Correspondence of Linnams,” vol. i, p. 230. 
i| Ib., p. 231. 
T ” Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, Bart., K.B., P.R.S., during Captain Cook’s 
CFirst Voyage, &c.” Edited by Sir Joseph D. Hooker (Macmillan, 1896). 
•• Hist, llec., V, 88. 
