PREFACE
My principal motive for editing the Journal kept by Sir Joseph Banks during Lieutenant Cook's first voyage round the world is to give prominence to his indefatigable labours as an accomplished observer and ardent collector during the whole period occupied by that expedition, and thus to present him as the pioneer of those naturalist voyagers of later years, of whom Darwin is the great example.
This appears to me to be the more desirable, because in no biographical notice of Banks are his labours and studies as a working naturalist adequately set forth. Indeed, the only allusion I can find to their literally enormous extent and value is in the interesting letter from Linnæus to Ellis, which will be found on p. xl. In respect of Cook's first voyage this is in a measure due to the course pursued by Dr. Hawkesworth in publishing the account of the expedition, when Banks, with singular disinterestedness, placed his Journal in that editor's hands, with permission to make what use of it he thought proper. The result was that Hawkesworth[1] selected only such portions as would interest
- ↑ Dr. Hawkesworth devotes his "Introduction to the First Voyage" almost exclusively to the services which Banks rendered, and gratefully acknowledges that all such details as are not directly connected with navigation are extracted from the diary of that naturalist. But for the purpose of identifying the work of each observer this is insufficient, and barely does justice to the second of the two authors, who is in reality responsible for the greater portion of the book. In reference to Hawkesworth being employed as editor of Cook's Journal, the following passage is extracted
