Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/54

 xliv AN INTRODUCTORY beautiful! and useful! Plants with which the Country in the neigli lx)rliood of Jackson's Bay is knovrn to abound I l)eg leave to suggest to you Sir that if the Tafferel! of the Ship Guardian he fitted for the reception of Pots in the same manner as was done in the case of the bounty, and one Line along the sides of the Great Cabbin she will be able without any inconvenience to the officers to bring home a great num!>er. if this Plan is approved I shall be happy to pay all the attention in my power to the Execution of it which as the Bounty has been so lately fitted cannot be a matter of the least difficulty. I have the honor to be with much respect Your Most Obedient and Most Humble Servant Evan Nepean, Esq. Jos. Banks. The date of this letter shows that it was written exactly nine- teen years from the day on which Banks and Cook made their first attempt to land on the coast near Botany Bay — ^wllich they entered on the following day. That was a long space of time ; but " the many beautiful! and useful! plants '' which had been seen about the bay had not been forgotten ; and the first oppor- tunity was taken for the purpose of procuring specimens from Port Jackson. It was in the beginning of winter that Banks saw the plants in their native soil, but at that season of the year the land was no longer covered with the wonderful wild flowers which have always attracted so much admiration. If he had been there in the summer months, when the flowers were in full bloom, he might have fancied himself in some deserted garden in the East, in which an endless variety of tropical plants had been left to spread themselves over the ground in wild confusion. It was not, however, with the eyes of a botanist only that Banks looked upon this country. Although his opportunities for examining it were very limited — owing, we may suppose, to Cook^s anxiety to reach England as soon as possible — ^he saw enough to convince him that it was eminently suited for colon- isation ; the climate was perfect, and a soil which, in its natural state, could produce such vegetation as ho saw, could be made with little labour to grow anything. If only the Endeavour had run into one or other of the nearest bays to the north — Digitized by Google