AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HISTORY Published Quarterly by the Australian Museum, College Street, Sydney Editor : F. H . TALilOT, Ph.D., F.L.S. Annual sub cription, $2.20 po ted A ssi stant Editor: P. F. COLLIS Single copy, 50c (55c posted) VOL. 16, 0 . 8 D ECEMBER 15, 1969 This issue marks the bicentenary of Captain James Cook' s landing in Australia in 1770. lt contains 16 extra pages. CONTENTS PAGE CAP I AI . JAMI:o COOK, A POIHRAIT 24 1 CAPTA I CooK's Ro LE IN ATU RAL HISTORY- Pew· J. Whi1ehead 242 THE "E DI:AVOUR's'" ATURALISTS IN A USTRALIA Gi/ber/ P. 11'/til/ey 247 TH~o FIR T BOTAN ICAL STUDII,S 1 1 A USTRALIA- D. J. M cGillirray 251 CAI'TAI COOK AND THE A USTRALIA ABORIGINE- ). V. S. M eglllr 255 CAPTAI CooK·s A uSTRALI A L ANDMARKS- R . 0. C!talmers 261 EA HR A usTRA LI A 1 BI RDS RI:.COR DI::D o THI:: "ENDEAVOUR's" VovAGJ::- H. J. de S. Disney 26 7 A uSTRALI A M AMMALS St CL 1770 J. 11. Calaby 271 A '' P ARAD I S~o LoT"- TH J:: K uR . t:LL P1: 1 suLA S1 c 1:. 1770 . Caner 276 THE RI:COVERY o ~ THE ' ' ENDI:.AVOUifs'" CA NO s- James C. Tyler 28 1 BooK REVIEWS 260, 266 M EET OuR Co 1 RIB TORS 288 e FRO T 0 BACK CO\'ER : Tl\o hundred years of dc\clopment of the Botany Bay area ~ h o l\ in this compari on bcl\\ een Ca ptain Cook's sketch map. \\hich he prepared from his O\\n charts, and a modern aeria l photo. Of the la ndscape that Cook beheld little remains; ma n's activities have changed all except the coastline and the contours of the bay itself. The aeria l photo is by courtesy of Adastra Aerial Surveys. CA PTAIN l AMES COOK, R.N., F. R.S. ( 1728- 1779) This portrait of the great IIOI'igator and disco1•erer of eastern A ustra/ia 11·as painted by N atha11iel Da11ce in 1776, and is in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, E11gland. As the ponrait suggests, Caproin Cook 11·as of impressive appearance. bei11g o1•er 6 feel rail a11d of strong physique. Australian atural 1/istory Page 24 1 The Earl of Pembroke, the Whitby collier which was refi tted and commissioned as the Endeal·our for Cooks' voyage to Australia, leaving Whitby harbo ur. [Painting by T homas Luny in the collection of the National Library of Australia, Canberra ; reproduced by permission o f the ational Librarian.) CAPTAIN COOK'S ROLE IN NATURAL HISTORY By PETER J . W H ITEH EAD Ichthyologist, British 1useum (t atural H istory), London I hare gil•en the best accou111 of things in my power. I hare neither had an education, nor hare I acquired abilities for writing. I ha1·e been a/lmost constantly at sea from my youth and ha1•e draged myself . through all the Stations, from a Prentice Boy to a Commander.- Captain Cook. O say that James Cook, R . ., F.R .S., succeed in a ny age. H e was described by T was a product of his age is no t to o ne of his contempora ries as " the most belittle his tremendous achievements. A able a nd enlightened a"V igator that England Yorkshire farm-labourer's son who could ever produced", a nd, with Drake and soar fro m such humble o rigins to become el o n, he tands as o ne of the three mo t not o nl y a nati o nal hero but a figure of fa mo us seamen in British histo ry. The internatio nal standing- and this in an age mid-eighteenth century o ffered a n enormou when the comma nd of a naval vessel o breadth of o ppo rtunity to those with ability, frequently depended on birth a nd ocial a cope that was to be drasticall y reduced po itio n- a man of this calibre would surely by the middle of the next century a a Page 242 December. 1969 result of specializatio n in almost every Jsland soon to be known as Otaheite field. In the mid-eighteenth century, (Tahiti). Measurements of the previous however, it was still possible to sail w h~re transit in 176 1, from which a mo re accurate none had sailed before, to chart quite calculation of the distance of the earth unknown coasts, even to search for an from the sun could be made, had proved unknown continent, and at the same time disappointing, a nd the Royal Society was to almost in evita bly contribute to other anxious that this expedition would be fie lds of human endeavour. Thus, Ja mes successful. The King placed £4,000 at the Cook was not merely the discoverer of new disposal of the Society, a nd Charles Green lands· he was also the man who fi rst defeated was a ppointed o fficial astro nomer. scurvy on British ships, he laid the However, Cook a lso had secret orders. fo undations for scientific hydrography and After the o bservati ons on Tahiti he was to oceanography, he was a bri ll i a ~t and proceed southwards to latitude 40° S. and courageous navigator, and he left hiS ma rk to investi gate the possible existence of a as a great humanita rian. He is a lso southern continent, the Terra australis remembered for the part he played in incognito tha t geographers such as Buache, bringing back to England the most and especially Da lrymple, believed must comprehensive and best documented exist to ba lance the land masses of the assortment of plants and a nimals yet collected o rthern Hemisphere. Politically, the from the vast Pacific area. This was a discovery a nd colonizatio n of such a tremendous achievement, owing its success continent would be an impo rtant triumph as much to Cook's mastery of seama nshi p fo r England in her s trug~ les wi th Fra nce­ as to the energy and enthusiasm of that hence the secrecy of the o rders. dominant fi gure in the early history of Austra lia, Sir Joseph Banks (1743- 1820). Finally, there was a third aspect to the voyage, the investi gati o n of the natural The expedition that set sail from Plymo uth history of the Pacific region. The R oyal a t 2 o'clock in the afternoon of 26th August, Society had presented to the Lords of the J 768 had a number of unusual features. Admira lty a memora ndum urging them to ln the first place, the ship was a converted include in the expeditio n " Joseph Banks, Whitby colli er, the Earl of Pembroke, Esq., Fellow of this Society, a gentleman rena med Endeavour Bark, broad in the beam of la rge fortune, who is well versed in a nd of sha ll ow draught. Placed in command atura l Histo ry . together with his of this ship, a nd o nl y shortly before raised suite ... ". A fortnight before Endeavour to commissioned rank, was Li eutenant James sailed, Ba nks a nd his retinue were granted Cook, a lmost unknown except to a few permissio n to join Cook o n the voyage. astute men at the Admiralty who had been Ba nks entirely fin anced this si de of the impressed by the thoroughness of his surveys voyage, reputedly to the extent of £I 0,000. of the St Lawrence and the coasts of What is mo re important, however, is that Newfo undla nd. Alexander D alrymple, Banks set a precedent for the official geographer and scholar, who had full y recognitio n of natura lists on Briti sh voyages expected to be given the command, had of discovery a nd many young men benefited been passed over in favour of the fo rmer from this enlightened policy, including the Whitby seaman, to Dalrymple's lasting most fa mo us of a ll , Charles Darwin. chagrin. lt was Cook who chose Endeavo~r in preference to one of the East Jndi a Banks' team Compa ny's ships, a frigate or o ne of the la rge three-decked West lndiamen- a choice Banks, whose educati o n included Harrow, that was to be fully vindicated by subsequent Eto n, and Oxford, and whose personal events. income amo unted to some £6,000 a year, was principall y a botanist, but had a wide range of interests. Finding tha t Humphrey Aims of the voyage Sibthorp, who held the chair of botany at The object of the voyage was ostensibl y Oxford, had ma naged o nly a single lecture to o bserve a nd to record the tra nsi t of the duri ng his career, Banks imported his own pl a net Venus across the disc of the sun tutor from Cambridge. At 23 Banks from the newly discovered George Il l voyaged to Newfoundla nd in H MS Niger A ustralian Natural History Page 243 to study natural history, and in the same year he was elected a Fell ow of the Royal Society. Learning of the Endeavour expeditio n, he lost no time in persuading the Society to a ll ow him to pa rticipate. Banks chose his companio ns carefully. The naturalist was Daniel Cart So lander ( 1733-82), favourite pupil of Linnaeus and o ne o f the several Swedes wi th who m Banks was associated.