Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/29

Rh to drain the Serpentine, in order to obtain some light on the fishes it contained.

In May 1766 he was elected F.R.S., at the early age of twenty-three, and in the summer of that year accompanied his friend Lieutenant Phipps (afterwards Lord Mulgrave) to Newfoundland, where he investigated the Flora of that then botanically unknown island, returning next year by way of Lisbon. His journal of the trip is preserved in manuscript in the British Museum. After his return home, he became acquainted with Dr. Solander, of whom a brief notice is appended, and with whom he was closely connected until the death of the latter.

Shortly after the accession of George III., several ships had been sent to the Southern Seas in the interest of geographical science. Commodore Byron sailed in 1764, Captains Wallis and Carteret in 1766, and these had no sooner returned than the Government resolved to fit out an expedition to the island of Tahiti, or, as it was then called, Otahite, under Lieutenant James Cook, in order to observe the transit of Venus in 1769. Mr. Banks decided to avail himself of this opportunity of exploring the unknown Pacific Ocean, and applied to his friend Lord Sandwich, then at the head of the Admiralty, for leave to join the expedition. At his own expense, stated by Ellis to be £10,000, he furnished all the stores needed to make complete collections in every branch of natural science, and engaged Dr. Solander, four draughtsmen or artists, and a staff of servants (or nine in all) to accompany him.

The adventures of Banks and his companions on this voyage in the Endeavour are told in the diary which is the main object of this volume. It will be enough here to point out his untiring activity, whether in observing or collecting animals and plants, investigating and recording native customs and languages, bartering for necessaries with the inhabitants, preventing the pillaging to which the expedition was frequently subjected, or in the hazardous chase of the stolen quadrant in the interior of Otahite.

In July 1771 the travellers returned with an immense