Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 03.djvu/137

 indefatigable care and attention, were saved, but some were utterly ruined.

Whilst here the kangaroo and other Australian animals which were new to science were observed, and some cockles so large that one was more than two men could eat.

On 4 July Banks and his party left the Endeavour River, so named by Cook, and by the 13th they managed to find a channel to the open sea through the great Barrier Reef, which they re-entered through Providential Channel.

From the mainland the voyage was prosecuted to New Guinea, and thence by the Dutch possessions in the Malay Archipelago to Batavia, which was reached on 9 Oct. 1770. Here it was found necessary to refit. Ten days after their arrival almost everybody was attacked by fever. Banks and Solander were so affected that the physician declared their cases hopeless, unless they were removed to the country. A house about two miles out was therefore hired for them, and, to secure attentive nursing, each bought a !Malay female slave. They recovered slowly, and were able to rejoin the Endeavour on Christmas day, sailing from Batavia on 27 Dec, with forty sick on board and the rest in a very feeble state. During the passage from Java to the Cape of Good Hope, Sporing, one of Banks’s assistants, and Sydney Parkinson, the natural history draughtsman, died and were buried at sea: the total number lost by death being twenty-three, besides seven buried at Batavia.

The Endeavour touched at St. Helena, and left that place on 4 May 1771. On 10 June the Lizard was sighted, and two days afterwards they landed at Deal.

The success of this voyage, and the enthusiasm it evoked, led to a second voyage under the same commander in the Resolution. At the solicitation of Lord Sandwich, first lord of the admiralty. Banks offered to accompany this expedition. The offer being accepted, the outfit was begun, and Zoffany the painter, three draughtsmen, two secretaries, and nine other skilled assistants were engaged. The accommodation on board was found insufficient, and additional cabins were built on deck. These were found on trial not only to affect the ship's sailing powers, but also her stability. They were therefore ordered to be demolished, and Banks abandoned his intention of sailing in the Resolution. Dr. Lind had been appointed naturalist to the expedition under a grant of 4,000l., but on hearing of Banks's decision he declined the post. Dr. Johann Reinhold Forster and his son Georg ultimately sailed with the expedition.

Being disappointed in this quarter. Banks resolved to visit Iceland with his followers and Dr. Solander. He reached that island in August 1772, climbed to the top of Hecla, and returned in six weeks, the results being summarised in Dr. von Troil's volume.

Sir John Pringle, president of the Royal Society, retired from the chair in 1777, and Banks was chosen as his successor on 30 Nov. 1778, and held that distinguished position until his death. He found, it is stated, secretaries assuming the power which belonged to the president alone, and other abuses which he determined to rectify. This intention, coupled with the fact that natural history had been less cultivated than mathematics in the Royal Society, caused an amount of discontent amongst some of the members, which broke out a few years later in the session of 1783-4. The office of foreign secretary at that time was filled by Dr. Hutton, professor of mathematics at Woolwich; and he having been charged with neglecting his duties, a rule was framed by the council requiring the secretaries to live in London. Upon this Dr. Hutton resigned, after having defended his conduct in open meeting and a vote of the society having been recorded in his favour. This action was followed by several stormy meetings, in which one of the chief speakers in opposition to the chair was the Rev. Dr. Horsley, formerly one of the secretaries and afterwards bishop of St. Asaph. His speeches were of extreme bitterness, and as a last resource he threatened to quit the society with his friends. He said: ‘I am united with a respectable and numerous band, embracing, I believe, a majority of the scientific part of this society, of those who do its scientific business. Sir, we shall have one remedy in our power when all others fail: if other remedies should fail, we can at least secede. Sir, when the hour of secession comes the president will be left, with his train of feeble amateurs and that toy’ (pointing to the mace) ‘upon the table, the ghost of that society in which philosophy once reigned, and Newton presided as her minister.’ A motion was ultimately carried in support of the president's conduct, and a few members, Dr. Horsley among them, left the society. Harmony was restored, and the ascendency of Banks never again questioned.

In March 1779 Banks married Dorothea, daughter of William Weston-Hugessen, of Provender, in Kent, who survived him. He was created a baronet in 1781, invested with the order of the Bath 1 July 1796, and sworn of the privy council 29 March 1797.

In 1802 he was chosen a member of the National Institute of France; and his letter 