Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/15

Rh 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 Zealanders, 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 importance 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, Preface), 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 interesting. 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, Robert Brown, F.R.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 writing a Life of Banks, which he had agreed to do. Age and infirmities, however, interfered with his prosecution of this