Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/32

xxviii giving an account of himself and company. He looks as well as ever.

Captain Cook desires his best compliments to you; he expressed himself in the most friendly manner towards you that could be; he said, "Nothing could have added to the satisfaction he has had in making this tour, but having had your company." He has some birds in spr. v. [spirits of wine] for you, etc. etc.

Thus baulked of their design, Banks and Solander set out on a scientific expedition to Iceland in a vessel specially chartered for them at a cost of £100 a month. They sailed on the 12th July 1772, and on the way Banks carried out an intention he had formed to visit Staffa, to which he was the first to draw the attention of scientific men, sending a complete description, with drawings and measurements, to Thomas Pennant, who inserted it in his Tour to the Highlands of Scotland. They spent a month in Iceland, exploring Mount Hecla, the geysers, and other remarkable features of the island. Banks made copious observations, which Dr. Troil, one of the party, and afterwards Archbishop of Upsala, included in his interesting account of the island, without, however, according to Barrow, doing full justice to the exertions of Banks and his companions, whom he dismisses with a too vague and general eulogium. Banks also afterwards placed his MS. journal at the disposal of Sir William Hooker, whom he had advised to visit the island for scientific purposes, and who made copious use of it, with due acknowledgment, in his Tour in Iceland.

Banks always continued to take a keen interest in the Icelanders, and his humanity "was of signal service to these poor creatures; for when, some years afterwards, they were in a state of famine, the benevolence and powerful interest of this kind-hearted man brought about the adoption of measures which absolutely saved the inhabitants from starvation. We were at war with Denmark, and had captured the Danish ships, and no provisions could be received into Iceland. Clausen, a merchant, was sent to England to implore the granting of licences for ships to enter the island, and through the active intervention of Sir Joseph, who, as