Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks/Biographical Sketches
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
SIR JOSEPH BANKS[1]
The name of Sir Joseph Banks is pre-eminent amongst the many distinguished scientific men who adorned the long reign of George the Third, and his career practically coincides with the reign of that monarch, closing in the same year. The hold he has always had on popular estimation is perhaps less due to his high position in the royal favour, or his long tenancy of the presidential chair of the Royal Society, than to the prominent part he took in the voyage of H.M.S. Endeavour under Lieutenant Cook, and his contributions to Hawkesworth's account of it. Cook's story is that of a sailor, and his account of his discoveries is rendered more attractive by the introduction of passages from the more graphic pages of Banks's Diary: it is these passages which attracted so much attention in the narrative drawn up by Dr. Hawkesworth. Cook's own Journal, recently published by Admiral Wharton, shows this very clearly, and the naturalist’s own record of their discoveries and adventures is now for the first time given to the public.
Joseph Banks was born in Argyle Street, London, on 2nd February 1743 (o.s.). He was the son of William Banks (sometime Sheriff of Lincolnshire and M.P. for Peterborough), of Revesby Abbey, Lincolnshire, a gentleman of some fortune, due to his father's successful practice of medicine in that county. At the age of nine he was sent to Harrow, and four years later was transferred to Eton, where he displayed an extreme aversion from study, especially of Greek and Latin, and an inordinate love of all kinds of energetic sports. It was while he was here that he was first attracted to the study of botany, and having no better instructor he paid some women—"cullers of simples," as Sir Joseph himself afterwards called them—who were employed in gathering plants, for which he paid them sixpence for each article they collected and brought to him. During his holidays he found on his mother's dressing-table an old torn copy of Gerard's Herbal, having the names and figures of some of the plants with which he had formed an imperfect acquaintance; and he carried it back with him to school. While at Eton he made considerable collections of plants and insects. He also made many excursions in company with the father of the great Lord Brougham, who describes him as a fine-looking, strong, and healthy boy, whom no fatigue could subdue, and no peril daunt.
He left Eton when seventeen to be inoculated for the small-pox, and on his recovery he went up to Oxford, entering as a gentleman commoner at Christ Church. Prior to this, however, after his father's death in 1761, he had resided with his mother at Chelsea, where he had availed himself of the then famous botanical garden of the Apothecaries' Company. He found himself unable to get any teaching in botany at Oxford, but obtaining leave, he proceeded to Cambridge and returned with Israel Lyons,[2] the astronomer and botanist, under whom a class was formed. In December 1763 he left Oxford with an honorary degree, and coming of age in the year following, found himself possessed of an ample fortune, which enabled him to devote himself entirely to the study of natural science. At this time also he formed a friendship with Lord Sandwich, a neighbouring landowner, both being devoted to hunting and other field sports. The two are credited with having formed a project 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 amount of material, the botanical part of which was for the most part already described, and needed but little to prepare it for the press. The descriptive tickets, which had been drawn up by Solander, were arranged in systematic order in what are still known as "Solander cases," and transcribed fairly by an amanuensis for publication. About 700 plates were engraved on copper in folio at Banks's expense, and a few prints or proofs were taken, but they were never published. Five folio books of neat manuscript, and the coppers, rest in the hands of the trustees of the British Museum. The question arises, why were they never utilised? The descriptions were ready long before Solander's death, although the plants collected in Australia do not seem to have been added to the fair copies, and the plates were mainly outlines. This has always been regarded as an insoluble problem, but the following extracts from a letter written by Banks very shortly before Solander died, may be accepted as evidence of his intention to publish. The letter from which the extract is taken is undated, and takes the shape of a draft without any name, but it is a reply to a letter addressed to Banks by Hasted, who was then collecting materials for the second edition of his history of the county of Kent.
Botany has been my favourite science since my childhood; and the reason I have not published the account of my travels is that the first from want of time necessarily brought on by the many preparations for my second voyage was entrusted to Dr. Hawkesworth, and since that I have been engaged in a botanical work, which I hope soon to publish, as I have near 700 folio plates prepared; it is to give an account of all such new plants discovered in my voyage round the world, somewhat above 800.
Hasted's letter, to which this is an answer, was dated 25th February 1782, little more than two months before Solander's death (alluded to on a subsequent page), an event which has generally been accepted as determining the fate of the intended publication.
But we must now go back a few years. In 1772 preparations were made for a second expedition under Cook in the Resolution, with the object of ascertaining the existence, or the contrary, of an Antarctic continent, and Lord Sandwich invited Banks to accompany it as naturalist, to which he readily consented. Towards this new venture he made elaborate preparations, on a scale for which even his ample fortune did not suffice, for he had to raise money to complete his outfit.[3] Various surmises or explanations have been advanced to account for Banks's abandonment of his intention to proceed on this voyage; amongst others it has been said that Cook raised difficulties concerning the accommodation; and it is stated that Banks's equipment would have necessitated the addition of a poop-deck on the vessel destined for the voyage, which would have materially interfered with its sailing powers. But the reason given by Sir John Barrow, who was for many years Secretary of the Admiralty, is no doubt the correct one. He states (Sketches of the Royal Society, p. 26) that "such a system was adopted by the Navy Board to thwart every step of his proceedings, especially on the part of its chief, the Comptroller of the Navy, Sir Hugh Palliser, whereby his patience was worn out, and his indignation so far excited as to cause him, though reluctantly, to abandon this enterprise altogether." It may be incidentally mentioned that the great chemist Priestley, whom Banks had invited to join the expedition (on advantageous terms, including a provision for his family), was also objected to, in his case on account of religious principles, by the Board of Longitude. Although thus bitterly disappointed, Banks nevertheless used his utmost endeavour to promote the objects of the voyage; and that there was no personal bitterness between Banks and Cook seems certain from the following extract from a hasty note by Solander to Banks after Cook's return:—
Two o'clock, Monday, 14th August 1775.
This moment Captain Cook is arrived. I have not yet had an opportunity of conversing with him, as he is still in the Board-room 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 a Privy Councillor, was an honorary member of the Board of Trade, the indulgence was granted" (Barrow, loc. cit. p. 29).
That Banks contemplated a voyage to the North Pole appears from a statement by Barrow that he announced such an intention at a meeting of the Batavian Society at Rotterdam in 1773, when he desired to be put in possession of such discoveries and observations as had been made by the Dutch, promising to acquaint them with any discoveries he might make in the course of such a voyage.
On his return from Iceland, Banks settled in Soho Square, where he accumulated a magnificent library (as well as at Revesby Abbey) and large collections, the whole being arranged in the most methodical manner. These business-like habits formed a marked feature in everything he undertook throughout his life, as to which interesting testimony is afforded by Barrow, who, during a visit shortly before Banks's death, was shown his papers and correspondence carefully assorted and labelled. In this he received considerable assistance from his successive librarians, Solander and Dryander.
On the resignation of Sir John Pringle in November 1778, Banks was chosen to succeed him as President of the Royal Society, an honour for which he had incontestable claims, in his many sacrifices to science in all climates during the voyages to Newfoundland, round the world with Cook, and to Iceland, in his ardent love of natural science, his many accomplishments, his wealth and social position, his habitual intercourse with the king and with the heads of public departments whose influence was greatest for the furtherance of scientific research, and, above all, perhaps, in the disinterestedness with which he placed his collections and library at the disposal of all applicants of merit, and in the expenditure of his wealth.
Notwithstanding all these claims on the votes of the Fellows of the Society, Banks was not destined to retain tranquil possession of the Presidency, and two or three circumstances, arising out of the zeal with which he discharged his duties, made him several enemies. One of these causes was his action with regard to the election of Fellows. Owing to the absence of any scrutiny of the claims of the candidates proposed for the Fellowship, Banks announced his intention of performing this office himself, and of making known his views concerning each proposal to the Council and Fellows. This measure, which created considerable dissatisfaction amongst a certain section of the Fellows, was nevertheless necessary, owing to the recent election of numerous candidates of no scientific merit whatever. "D'Alembert, in allusion to the extreme prodigality with which the honours of the Fellowship were distributed, was in use to ask jocularly any person going to England, if he desired to be made a Member, as he could easily obtain it for him, should he think it any honour. . . . Upon this subject Lord Brougham says: 'Two principles were laid down by him [Banks]; first, that any person who had successfully cultivated science, especially by original investigations, should be admitted, whatever might be his rank or fortune; secondly, that men of wealth, or station, disposed to promote, adorn, and patronise science, should, but with due caution and deliberation, be allowed to enter'" (Weld's History of the Royal Society).
A crisis was, however, brought about by the following circumstance. The Council, under the influence, it is said, of the President, passed a resolution recommending that the Foreign Secretary should reside in London; and this measure was followed by the resignation of Dr. Hutton, then Foreign Secretary, and Professor at Woolwich, who, it was complained, had neglected his duties as secretary of the Society. Dr. Horsley, afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph, attacked the President in very bitter terms, lamenting that the chair which had been filled by Newton should be thus lowered in dignity, and predicting all kinds of disasters as the direct consequence of electing a naturalist as President. He induced several influential members to follow him, but when the fact became clear, as it soon did, that he desired the reversion of the chair for himself, his influence declined; he withdrew from the Society with a few intimates, and Banks remained in undisputed possession of the chair till his death in 1820.
The excellent qualities of the President whom this victory kept in the chair were clearly exhibited by the temper with which he regarded the opposition. The sketch of his character (says Barrow) given by Lord Brougham is true to the life: "He showed no jealousy of any rival, no prejudice in anybody's favour rather than another's. He was equally accessible to all for counsel and help. His house, his library, his whole valuable collections, were at all times open to men of science, while his credit both with our own and foreign Governments, and, if need were, the resource of his purse, were ever ready to help in the prosecution of their inquiries."
One of the earliest official acts of the new President was a proof of the estimation in which he held his late fellow—voyager Cook. On the death of the latter in 1779, Banks proposed to the Council that a medal should be struck as a mark of the high sense entertained by the Society of the importance of his extensive discoveries in different parts of the globe, the cost being defrayed by subscription among the Fellows. The medal, designed by L. Pingo, bears a portrait of the great navigator in profile on the obverse, with a representation of Britannia pointing to the south pole of a globe on the reverse.
Amongst other noteworthy services rendered by Banks in his capacity as President of the Royal Society, the following may be mentioned. In 1784 the Council obtained the permission of George III. to commence a geodetical survey under General Roy: this served as the basis of the Ordnance Survey. In the following year he made successful application to the king to guarantee the cost (amounting to £4000) of Sir William Herschel's 40-foot telescope. He served on a committee of the Society appointed, at the instance of the Secretary of State, to ascertain the length of the pendulum vibrating seconds of time at various localities in Great Britain. In 1817 the Council at his suggestion recommended Government to fit out an Arctic expedition: as a result, two were sent, the one under Captain John Ross in search of the North-West Passage; the other, which included Franklin, to sail northwards by the east coast of Greenland.
He was on several occasions invited to stand for Parliament, but always declined, preferring to devote his entire time to his duties as President of the Royal Society, and to the innumerable functions it entailed.
It is sometimes said that Banks viewed with strong disapproval the formation of other societies for the pursuit of natural science. This was certainly so in the case of the Astronomical Society, which he considered would seriously decrease the importance of that over which he himself presided. But this was only because he conceived the objects of the former association to be so intimately connected with those of the Royal Society that there would not be sufficient scope for both. On the other hand, he was one of the founders of the Linnean Society in 1788, and took an even more prominent part in the formation of the Royal Institution in 1799.
In March 1779 he married Dorothea, daughter of William Western Hugessen, Esq., of Provender, Kent. In 1782 Solander died, and from that time onward Banks became more and more absorbed in the duties of the Royal Society, and acted as chief counsellor in all scientific matters to the king. In this capacity he had virtual control of the Royal Gardens at Kew, then under the cultural care of the elder Aiton, where were raised the plants produced by seeds brought home by himself, and so many of the novelties described in l'Héritier's Sertum Anglicum, Aiton's Hortus Kewensis, and other botanical works. It was due to his indefatigable exertions and representations that the Royal Gardens at Kew were raised to the position of the first in the world, and that collectors were sent to the West Indies, the Cape Colonies, and Australia, to send home living plants and seeds, and herbaria, for the Royal Gardens. He kept Francis Bauer (who, and his brother Ferdinand, were the most accomplished botanical artists of the century) at Kew constantly occupied in making drawings of Australian and other plants, keeping him in liberal pay, and leaving him a legacy in his will.
He was the first to bring indiarubber into notice, and early advocated the cultivation of tea in India. He established botanic gardens in Jamaica, St. Vincent, and Ceylon, besides giving invaluable support to Colonel Kyd in the foundation of the garden at Sibpur, near Calcutta.
He was a keen agriculturist, and amongst his very few published writings one is on Blight Mildew and Rust, another on the introduction of the Potato, and a third on the Apple Aphis. The Horticultural Society was founded in 1804, and Banks is named as one of the persons to whom the Charter was granted in 1809. The esteem in which he was held by this Society is shown by their electing him an honorary member, and by their instituting, after his death, a Banksian medal.
Services of an international character were rendered by him when, in the course of war, the collections of foreign naturalists had been captured by British vessels; on no less than eleven occasions were they restored to their former owners through the direct intervention of Banks with the Lords of the Admiralty and Treasury. The disinterestedness of such a course will be at once understood when it is remembered that these collections, some of them of inestimable value (now at the Jardin des Plantes at Paris), would otherwise have contributed to the aggrandisement of his own magnificent museum. "He even sent as far as the Cape of Good Hope to procure some chests belonging to Humboldt; and it is well known that his active exertions liberated many scientific men from foreign prisons. He used great exertions to mitigate the captivity of the unfortunate Flinders, and it was principally by his intercession that our Government issued orders in favour of La Perouse" (Weld's History of the Royal Society).
Great as his services to science are known to have been, these will never be fully realised till his correspondence in the British Museum and elsewhere shall have been thoroughly searched. That they were not confined to natural history is evident. He was an assiduous promoter of the Association for the Exploration of Tropical Africa, and it was under his auspices that Mungo Park, Clapperton, and others were sent out. He was one of a committee to investigate the subject of lightning conductors. His letters to Josiah Wedgwood show his keen appreciation not only of the work of the great potter, but of his other ingenious contrivances; among the mass of papers left by him on his death was an illustrated dissertation on the history and art of the manufacture of porcelain by the Chinese. He took a deep interest in the coinage, and was in close communication with Matthew Boulton on questions of minting. On applying for information on this latter point to Dr. Roberts-Austen, that gentleman informed the editor that, though not officially an officer of the Mint, Banks had probably served on some departmental or Parliamentary commissions charged with mint questions; and further, that he had presented the mint with a really fine library, embracing all the books it possessed relating to numismatics and coinage questions generally, together with a valuable collection of coins. In reference to this, the editor has also found, on looking over some Banksian MS. in the British Museum, that these included a draft code of regulations for the conduct of the officers of the Mint.
His interest in manufactures was also constant; could his letters be brought together, a flood of light would thereby be thrown upon the progress of arts and sciences in Europe during his long tenure of the presidency of the Royal Society.
As an instance of his zeal for science may be mentioned the interest he took in Sir Charles Blagden's experiments to determine the power of human beings to exist in rooms heated to an excessive temperature. Sir Joseph Banks was one of the first who plunged into a chamber heated to the temperature of 260° Fahr., and was taken out nearly exhausted. It may be mentioned that Sir Francis Chantrey once remained two minutes in a furnace at a temperature of 320°.
For a man of his distinction the dignities which were conferred upon him by royal favour seem disproportionate. He was created a Baronet in 1781, a Knight of the Bath in 1795, and two years subsequently was sworn of the Privy Council. In 1802 he was chosen one of the eight foreign members of the French Académie des Sciences, in Paris.
To the last his house, library, and museum were open to all scientific men, of whatever nationality, and the services of his successive librarians, Solander, Dryander, and Brown, cannot be over-estimated. His Thursday breakfasts and Sunday soirées in Soho Square made his house the centre of influential gatherings of an informal kind; curiosities of every description were brought by visitors and exhibited, and each new subject, book, drawing, animal, plant, or mineral, each invention of art or science, was sure to find its way to Sir Joseph's house. It was at one of these parties that he strongly recommended the acquisition of the Linnean Library and collections to James Edward Smith, a young Norwich physician, and an ardent botanist. This was the turning-point of Smith's life, and led to the foundation of the Linnean Society, which held its meetings for many years, during the lifetime of Robert Brown, in Banks's house in Soho Square, where the Linnean collections were placed previous to the Society's removal to apartments provided by Government in Burlington House.
Sir Joseph Banks became latterly a great martyr to the gout, "which grew to such an intensity as to deprive him entirely of the power of walking, and for fourteen or fifteen years previous to his death, he lost the use of his lower limbs so completely as to oblige him to be carried, or wheeled, as the case might require, by his servants in a chair: in this way he was conveyed to the more dignified chair of the Royal Society, and also to the [Royal Society] Club—the former of which he very rarely omitted to attend, and not often the latter; he sat apparently so much at his ease, both at the Society and in the Club, and conducted the business of the meetings with so much spirit and dignity, that a stranger would not have supposed that he was often suffering at the time, nor even have observed an infirmity, which never disturbed his uniform cheerfulness.
"As the gout increased his difficulty of locomotion, Sir Joseph found it convenient to have some spot to retire to in the neighbourhood of London, and fixed upon a small villa near Hounslow Heath, called Spring Grove, consisting of some woods and a good garden laid out with ornamental shrubs and flower-beds, and neatly kept under the inspection of Lady and Miss Banks" (his sister) [Barrow, loc. cit. pp. 40-42]. Since his death the building has been pulled down and replaced by a mansion now in the possession of A. Pears, Esq.
The last occasion on which Banks took the chair at the Royal Society was on 16th March 1820. In May, declining health led him to announce his resignation of the Presidency, which he had held for over forty-one years; but the universal desire which was expressed, both by the Council of the Society and by the king himself, that he would retain the office, induced him to withdraw his resignation. He died, however, very shortly afterwards at Spring Grove, on the 19th June 1820, leaving a widow but no lineal issue.
He was buried at Heston, Middlesex, in which parish Spring Grove is situated. The church has since been rebuilt, and now covers the spot where he was buried. A tablet with a simple inscription marks as nearly as possible the place where his body lies. By his will he expressly desires that his body be interred in the most private manner in the church or churchyard of the parish in which he should happen to die, and entreats his dear relatives to spare themselves the affliction of attending the ceremony, and earnestly requests that they will not erect any monument to his memory.
In July of the same year the Council of the Royal Society resolved to erect a full-length marble statue of Sir Joseph Banks, to be executed by Mr. (afterwards Sir Francis) Chantrey. A sum of £2000 was subscribed, of which £525 was paid to the sculptor, the surplus being devoted to an engraving of the statue, copies of which were distributed to various institutions and individuals. The monument now stands in the Natural History Department of the British Museum.
Amongst public notices of Sir Joseph Banks after his death, the best known are Cuvier's Éloge delivered before the French Academy, and Sir Everard Home's Hunterian Oration.
The lease of his house in Soho Square, and an annuity of £200, were left to Robert Brown, to whom were also bequeathed his library and natural history collections, with reversion to the British Museum. On condition of being appointed keeper of the botanical department, Brown made over the whole in 1828, reserving to himself the fullest use of the collections during his life, and accepting the duty of preparing a Life of Banks, as told in the preface to this "Journal."
Considering the eminence of Banks's position in the scientific world, it is surprising to find how little he wrote. The following are the most important of his publications—
"An attempt to ascertain the time when the Potato (Solanum tuberosum) was first introduced into the United Kingdom; with some Account of the Hill Wheat of India" (1805).—Hortic. Soc. Trans. i. 1812, pp. 8-12.
"Some Hints respecting the proper Mode of inuring tender Plants to our Climate,” l.c. pp. 21-25.
"On the Forcing-houses of the Romans, with a List of Fruits cultivated by them now in our Gardens," l.c. pp. 147-156.
"On ripening the second Crop of Figs that grow on the new Shoots,” l.c. pp. 252-254.
"Notes relative to the first appearance of the Aphis lanigera, or the Apple Tree Insect, in this Country" (1812), l.c. ii. pp. 162—170.
"Observations on the nature and formation of the Stone incrusting the Skeletons which have been found in the Island of Guadeloupe, with some account of the origin of those Skeletons" (1818).—Trans. Linn. Soc. xii. (1818), pp. 53-61.
He also published various papers in Archæologia.
To the labours of J. Dryander (who succeeded Solander as Banks's secretary and librarian, and who was on his death succeded by Robert Brown in 1810) is due the publication of the catalogue of Banks's library. It is entitled "Catalogus Bibliothecæ historico-naturalis Josephi Banks . . . auctore Jono Dryander," 5 vols. 8vo, 1798-1800. In it are enumerated the works of upwards of 6000 authors, with analyses of their writings, arranged according to the subjects treated. This work has never been superseded.
The name of Banks is commemorated botanically in the Australian genus Banksia, so named in his honour by the younger Linnæus.
DR. SOLANDER
Swan Electric Engraving Company.
Dr. Daniel Solander. F.L.S.
From a portrait in the possession of the Linnean Society of London.
I must now inform you that Joseph Banks, Esq., a gentleman of £6000 per annum estate, has prevailed on your pupil, Dr. Solander, to accompany him in the ship that carries the English astronomers to the new-discovered country in the South Sea[4] . . . where they are to collect all the natural curiosities of the place, and, after the astronomers have finished their observations on the transit of Venus, they are to proceed under the direction of Mr. Banks, by order of the Lords of the Admiralty, on further discoveries. . . . No people ever went to sea better fitted out for the purpose of natural history, nor more elegantly. They have got a fine library of natural history: they have all sorts of machines for catching and preserving insects; all kinds of nets, trawls, drags, and hooks for coral fishing; they have even a curious contrivance of a telescope by which, put into the water, you can see the bottom at a great depth, where it is clear. They have many cases of bottles with ground stoppers, of several sizes, to preserve animals in spirits. They have the several sorts of salts to surround the seeds; and wax, both bees'-wax and that of the Myrica; besides, there are many people whose sole business it is to attend them for this very purpose. They have two painters and draughtsmen, several volunteers who have a tolerable notion of natural history; in short, Solander assured me this expedition would cost Mr. Banks £10,000. . . . About three days ago I took my leave of Solander, when he assured me he would write to you and to all his family, and acquaint them with the particulars of this expedition. I must observe to you that his places are secured to him, and he has promises from persons in power of much better preferment on his return. Everybody here parted from him with reluctance, for no man was ever more beloved, and in so great esteem with the public from his affable and polite behaviour.
On his return from the South Seas, Dr. Solander was installed under Banks's roof in Soho Square as his secretary and librarian; and at the British Museum he was advanced to the post of under-librarian. A short time after his return the project of a second voyage was mooted, as already mentioned on p. xxvii. How this idea was received by Linnæus, the following extracts from his correspondence with Ellis will show:—
I have every day been figuring to myself the occupations of my pupil Solander, now putting his collection in order, having first arranged and numbered his plants, in parcels, according to the places where they were gathered, and then written upon each specimen its native country and appropriate number. I then fancied him throwing the whole into classes, putting aside and naming such as were already known; ranging others under known genera, with specific differences, and distinguishing by new names and definitions such as formed new genera, with their species. Thus, thought I, the world will be delighted and benefited by all these discoveries; and the foundations of true science will be strengthened, so as to endure through all generations!
I am under great apprehension that, if this collection should remain untouched till Solander's return, it might share the same lot as Forskål's Arabian specimens at Copenhagen. . . . Solander promised long ago, while detained off the coast of Brazil, in the early part of his voyage, that he would visit me after his return, of which I have been in expectation. If he had brought some of his specimens with him, I could at once have told him what were new; and we might have turned over some books together, and he might have been informed or satisfied upon many subjects, which after my death will not be so easily explained.
I have no answer from him to the letter I enclosed to you, which I cannot but wonder at. You, yourself, know how much I have esteemed him, and how strongly I recommended him to you. By all that is great and good, I entreat you, who know so well the value of science, to do all that in you lies for the publication of these new acquisitions, that the learned world may not be deprived of them. . . .
Again the plants of Solander and Banks recur to my imagination. When I turn over Feuillée's figures, I meet with more extraordinary things among them than anywhere else. I cannot but presume therefore, as Peru and Chili are so rich, that in the South Sea Islands, as great abundance of rarities have remained in concealment, from the beginning of the world, to reward the labours of our illustrious voyagers. I see these things now but afar off. . . .
When I ponder upon the insects they have brought, I am overwhelmed at the reported number of new species. Are there many new genera? . . .
When I think of their Mollusca, I conceive the new ones must be very numerous. These animals cannot be investigated after death, as they Contract in dying. Without doubt, as there were draughtsmen on board, they would not fail to afford ample materials for drawing.
Do but consider, my friend, if these treasures are kept back, what may happen to them. They may be devoured by vermin of all kinds. The house where they are lodged may be burnt. Those destined to describe them may die. Even you, the promoter of every scientific undertaking in your country, may be taken from us. All sublunary things are uncertain, nor ought anything to be trusted to treacherous futurity. I therefore once more beg, nay I earnestly beseech you, to urge the publication of these new discoveries. I confess it to be my most ardent wish to see this done before I die. To whom can I urge my anxious wishes but to you, who are so devoted to me and to science?
Remember me to the immortal Banks and Solander.The writer clearly recognised the dangers of that dilatoriness which evidently formed a marked feature in the character of Solander; he had repeatedly complained of his pupil's neglect in writing, not only to him, but to his mother. This was the subject of reproach even before the great expedition, but it seems to have been intensified afterwards, for after Solander's death, letters from his mother addressed to him were found actually unopened!
The closing scene came with startling suddenness. Sir Joseph Banks was out of town, and to that fact we owe the following details from the pen of Dr. (afterwards Sir Charles) Blagden, an intimate acquaintance.
Soho Square,
Wednesday, 8th May 1782, 2.30 p.m.
Soon after breakfast this morning Dr. Solander began to find himself much indisposed, and in a short time the symptoms of a palsy of the left side began to appear. I was conversing with him at the time, and as soon as the stroke became certain, dispatched a messenger for Mr. Hunter, whilst Professor Linnæus[5] went to call Dr. Heberden and Dr. Pitcairne. All these gentlemen have been with him, and the necessary remedies prescribed. I dare not say what the event will be, but am not without hopes, notwithstanding the extreme danger with which you know all paralytic strokes are attended. It was found impossible to move him; Lady Banks has therefore been so kind as to order an apartment for him in her house, and I shall quit him as little as possible, particularly not to-night. You may judge of the affliction of every one here. I am so much affected myself that I know not what to say to you, but that I am most affectionately yours,
C. Blagden.
It is a striking testimony of the regard in which Solander was held, that the foremost physicians of the day should be summoned to his side at the moment of attack, and that the son and successor of his botanical preceptor should be one of the messengers in search of medical aid. All efforts were unavailing to prolong his life, for he died at Soho Square on the 16th of the same month.
He is stated to have been a short, fair man, somewhat stout, with small eyes, and a good-humoured expression of countenance. The genus Solandra is his botanical memorial, named after him by his fellow-countryman, Swartz. A full-length portrait of him, by an unknown artist, in the possession of the Linnean Society (to which body it was given by R. A. Salisbury), is here reproduced.
- ↑ No adequate Life of Sir Joseph Banks having as yet appeared, the compiler of the following notes is indebted mainly for his information to Weld's History of the Royal Society, Sir John Barrow's Sketches of the Royal Society and the Royal Society Club, to Mr. B. Daydon Jackson's article on Banks in the Dictionary of National Biography, and to scattered incidental notices.
- ↑ Afterwards calculator for the Nautical Almanac, and, owing to the influence of Banks, astronomer to Captain Phipps' Polar Voyage in 1773.
- ↑ The last few cases of specimen bottles prepared for this voyage were not utilised until they were transferred by Robert Brown to the editor of this "Journal," when the latter was preparing to accompany Captain James Ross on his voyage to the Antarctic Ocean in 1839.
- ↑ The Society Islands.
- ↑ Carl von Linné, son of the eminent naturalist.