JOUENAL OF THE EIGHT HON. SIE JOSEPH BANKS •--."- '"-v. • ' I {>->. t ' . JOUBNAL OP THE EIGHT HON. SIE JOSEPH BANKS BART., K.B., P.K.S. DURING CAPTAIN COOK'S FIRST VOYAGE IN H.M.S. ENDEAVOUR IN 1768-71 TO TERRA DEL FUEGO, OTAHITE, NEW ZEALAND, AUSTRALIA, THE DUTCH EAST INDIES, ETC. EDITED BY SIE JOSEPH D. HOOKEE WITH PORTRAITS AND CHARTS MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd. NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN CO. 1896 All rights reserved — TO &eat=8bmftal 3. TO. &. TOfjarton, &M„ $M.$b., ice. ice. Hydrographer of the Admiralty My dear Admiral—Allow me to dedicate to you, as the able Editor of Captain Cook's Journal of his first voyage round the world, that of his fellow-voyager Sir Joseph Banks, in token of the great assistance afforded me through your labour on the aforesaid work, and as the efficient and accomplished tenant of an office for which I have ever entertained a profound respect, that of Hydrographer of the Admiralty. Let me at the same time take the opportunity of coupling with your name my tribute to the memory of three of your predecessors, who honoured me with their friendship, and encouraged me in my scientific career as an officer in the service to which you belong Admiral Sir ¥. Beaufort, Admiral "Washington, and Captain Sir F. Evans. Believe me, Very sincerely yours, J. D. HOOKER. The Camp, Sunningdale, May 1896. PREFACE My principal motive for editing the Journal kept by Sir Joseph Banks during Lieutenant Cook's first voyage round the world is to give prominence to his indefatigable labours as an accomplished observer and ardent collector during the whole period occupied by that expedition, and thus to pre- sent him as the pioneer of those naturalist voyagers of later years, of whom Darwin is the great example. This appears to me to be the more desirable, because in no biographical notice of Banks are his labours and studies as a working naturalist adequately set forth. Indeed, the only allusion I can find to their literally enormous extent and value is in the interesting letter from Linnaeus to Ellis, which will be found on p. xl. In respect of Cook's first voyage this is in a measure due to the course pursued by Dr. Hawkesworth in publishing the account of the expedi- tion, when Banks, with singular disinterestedness, placed his Journal in that editor's hands, with permission to make what use of it he thought proper. The result was that Hawkesworth x selected only such portions as would interest 1 Dr. Hawkesworth devotes his "Introduction to the First Voyage" almost exclusively to the services which Banks rendered, and gratefully acknowledges that all such details as are not directly connected with navi- gation are extracted from the diary of that naturalist. But for the purpose of identifying the work of each observer this is insufficient, and barely does justice to the second of the two authors, who is in reality responsible for the greater portion of the book. In reference to Hawkesworth being employed as editor of Cook's Journal, the following passage is extracted viii PREFACE the general public, incorporating them with Cook's Journal, often without allusion to their author, and not unfrequently introducing into them reflections of his own as being those of Cook or of Banks. Fortunately the recent publication by Admiral Wharton of Cook's own Journal 1 has helped to rectify this, for any one comparing the two narratives can have no difficulty in recognising the source whence Hawkes- worth derived his information. Another motive for editing Banks's Journal is to empha- sise the important services which its author rendered to the expedition. It needs no reading between the lines of the great navigator's Journal, to discover his estimation of the ability of his companion, of the value of his researches, and of the importance of his active co-operation on many occasions. It was Banks who rapidly mastered the lan- guage of the Otahitans and became the interpreter of the party, and who was the investigator of the customs, habits, etc., of these and of the natives of New Zealand. It was often through his activity that the commissariat was sup- plied with food. He was on various occasions the thief- taker, especially in the case of his hazardous expedition for the recovery of the stolen quadrant, upon the use of which, in observing the transit of Venus across the sun's disc, the success of the expedition so greatly depended. And, above all, it is to Banks's forethought and at his own risk that an Otahitan man and boy were taken on board, through whom Banks directed, when in New Zealand, those inquiries into the customs of its inhabitants, which are the founda- from Prior's Life of Malone ;—" Hawkesworth, the writer, was introduced by Gtarriok to Lord Sandwich, who, thinking to put a few hundred pounds into his pocket, appointed him to revise and publish Cook's Voyages. He scarcely did anything to the MSS., yet sold it to Cadell and Strahan, the printer and bookseller, for £6000. ..." 1 Captain Cook's Journal during his First Voyage round the World in S.M. Bark "Endeavour," 1768-71, with Notes and Introduction by Captain W. J. L. Wharton, R.N., F.E.S., Hydrographer of the Admiralty. PREFACE ix tion of our knowledge of that interesting people. And when it is considered that the information obtained was at comparatively few points, and those on the coast only, the fulness and accuracy of the description of the New Zea- landers, even as viewed in the light of modern knowledge, are very remarkable. Nor should it be forgotten that it was to the drawings made by the artists whom Banks took in his suite that the public is indebted for the magnificent series of plates that adorn Hawkesworth's account of the voyage. Still another motive is, that Banks's Journal gives a life-like portrait of a naturalist's daily occupation at sea and ashore nearly one hundred and thirty years ago ; and thus supplements the history of a voyage which, for extent and im- portance of geographic and hydrographic results, was unique and " to the English nation the most momentous voyage of discovery that has ever taken place " (Wharton's Cook, Pre- face), and which has, moreover, directly led to the prosperity of the Empire ; for it was owing to the reports of Cook and Banks, and, it is believed, to the representations of the latter on the advantages of Botany Bay as a site for a settlement, that Australia was first colonised. The following brief history of the Journal itself is in- teresting. On Sir J. Banks's death without issue in 1820, his property and effects passed to the Hugessen (his wife's) family, with the exception of the library, herbarium, and the lease of the house in Soho Square. These were left to his librarian, the late eminent botanist, Bobert Brown, F.B.S., with the proviso that after that gentleman's death, the library and herbarium were to go to the British Museum. Banks's papers and correspondence, including the Journal of the voyage of the Endeavour, were then placed by the trustees in Mr. Brown's hands, with the object of his writ- ing a Life of Banks, which he had agreed to do. Age and infirmities, however, interfered with his prosecution of this — PREFACE work, and at his suggestion the materials were transferred with the same object to my maternal grandfather, Dawson Turner, F.K.S., 1 an eminent botanist and antiquarian, who had been a friend of Banks. Mr. Turner at once had the whole faithfully transcribed, but for which precaution the Journal would as a whole have been irretrievably lost, as the sequel will show. Beyond having copies of the manuscript made, Mr. Turner seems to have done nothing towards the Life, and after a lapse of some years the. originals were returned, together with the copies, to Mr. Knatchbull Hugessen, who placed them in the hands of the late Mr. Bell, Secretary of the Eoyal Society, in the hopes that he would undertake to write the Life. For their subsequent wanderings and the ultimate fate of many portions, I am indebted to Mr. Carruthers, F.B.S., late Keeper of the Botanical Collections at the British Museum, who has favoured me with the following interesting letter concerning them : British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, South Kensington, S.W., lith July 1893. Dear Sir Joseph—Since I saw you about the Journal of Sir Joseph Banks in Captain Cook's "Voyage, I have been making further inquiries regarding the original document. The Banksian Journal and correspondence were sent to the Botani- cal Department, after correspondence with Mr. Knatchbull Hugessen, to remain in my keeping till the death of Lady Knatchbull, when it would become the property of the trustees. I was instructed to deposit it in the Manuscript Department. This was in October 1873. Some time thereafter I persuaded Mr. Daydon Jackson to look at the correspondence with the view of preparing a biography of Banks. This he agreed to do. I wrote to Mr. Bell, who informed me in a letter written 14th February 1876, that he had tried to get Lord 1 It was when a, on visit to my grandfather in 1833 that I first saw the original Journal in Banks's handwriting. It was then being copied, and I was employed to verify the copies of the earlier part by comparison with the original.