After coasting the two islands which form New Zealand, the voyagers pro ceeded towards the coast of New Hol land, to which part Cook gave the name of New South Wales, where Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander made so many botanical acquisitions in one bay, that the name of Botany Bay was given to it; but Port Jackson they merely passed so as to see that it was a harbour deserving of a name. Whilst running along the coast of New Holland, they met with an accident which had nearly deprived Mr. Banks, and the world at large, of the fruits of all his labours; for the ship having struck upon a coral reef, to the manifest risk of all their lives, of which there is a most interesting account in Hawkesworth, they afterwards got her into Endeavour River, where, on bring ing her by the stern to get at the leak under the bows, the water in the limbers rushed aft into the bread-room, where all his botanical collections were stowed, together with his other acquisitions in natural history, which were so completely wetted through, that it was with the utmost difficulty they could be restored. From New Holland they visited New Guinea, proceeding thence through the Indian Archipelago to Batavia, where both Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander had nearly lost their lives from that unhealthy climate. There too, to his inexpressible regret, he lost his Otaheitean friend, Tupia, whose superior intelligence and goodness of heart had endeared him to his patron. After visiting the Cape of Good Hope and St. Helena, the Endeavour anchored in the Downs on the 12th of June, 1771; and Mr. Banks had the pleasure of landing on his native shore, after an absence of three years all but two months. Our enterprising philosopher was received on his return, by all ranks, with the most eager admiration and the utmost kindness; and on the 10th of August, by his Majesty's express desire, Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, accompanied by Sir John Pringle, then President of the Royal Society, attended at Richmond, where they had the honour of a private royal interview, which lasted some hours. Indeed neither of those distinguished naturalists had been unmindful of the predilection which he, whom we may now call the great father and patron of British science, had for botanical novelty; and accordingly they had taken care to bring home a great many specimens for the royal gardens at Kew, which were most graciously received. Amidst the display of philosophic admiration of the voyagers, there were still some envious individuals who affected to despise their exertions and acquisitions. The younger Forster, who, with his father, accompanied Captain Cook in his second voyage, seems to allude to this when he says, "The British legislature did not send out and liberally support my father as a naturalist, who was merely to bring home a collection of butterflies and dried plants." But this is the less deserving notice, as Forster was a professed grumbler, became afterwards an admirer of the rights of man, and through the exercise of those rights, lost his head somewhere in Germany. Soon after the arrival of Mr. Banks in London, he became entangled in a dispute with the relations of one of his draughtsmen, Sydney Parkinson, who had died in the course of the voyage, having been engaged at a salary of 801. per annum, as natural history painter, for which he had shewn considerable genius. Parkinson's friends seemed to have formed the most extravagant ideas respecting the property left by their young friend in general effects, curiosities, and drawings; and consequently they felt much disappointed, accusing Mr. Banks, by implication, of having unfairly taken possession of various articles, independently of drawings, which he claimed as the work of his own draughtsman. But these charges, with the whole affair of the publication of Parkinson's account of the voyage, may be found in the preface to that book but as much of it seems the result of. passion and prejudice, no farther notice of it is necessary here; and indeed Mr. Banks appears not to have considered himself as at all called on to offer any vindication in the affair. Early in 1772 an expedition was prepared under the command of Captain Cook, to proceed in search of the so much talked of Southern Continent; in which Mr. Banks most anxiously took a part, intending to perform the voyage; he prepared his establishment upon the most extensive scale, and was to be accompanied by Zoffany the painter, under his Majesty's express patronage. On this account orders were given by the Admiralty for fitting the ships out with every possible accommodation that Mr. 13 10 Banks could desire; but the Resolution having sailed from Long Reach for Ply mouth on the 10th of May, she was found so very crank, from the additional upper works, even in the smooth water of the river, as to be obliged to be carried into Sheerness to have the additional cabins, cut away, with such other alterations as were necessary to make her sea-worthy. This of course struck at the very root of Mr. Banks's project, in curtailing him of the space and accommodation absolutely necessary for the establishment which he had formed; but so anxious were the Admiralty to do every thing possible for him, that the first Lord, the Earl of Sandwich, and Sir Hugh Palliser, actually went down to Sheerness to superintend the alterations, and to preserve things in such a state as to accommodate the man who was nobly resigning all the delights of polished society in the cause of science. It was impracticable, however, with any regard to the safety of the ship, and the success of the geographical objects of the expedition, to preserve the necessary accommodations; and Mr. Banks gave up his plans, though with great regret, and not before the early part of June, on the 11th of which month the Messrs. Forster were engaged to perform the voyage upon a smaller scale of preparation; during all which Mr. Banks most sedulously gave his best advice and assistance. Disappointed in this expedition, Mr. Banks was prompted to engage in some other active research, and accordingly determined on a voyage to Iceland and the western islands of Scotland; partly for the purpose of scientific observation, and, as Van Troil states, who accompanied him, in order to keep together and employ the draughtsmen, and other persons, whom he and Dr. Solander had engaged for the South Sea expedition. The vessel which he hired for this voyage was engaged at 1007. per month; and the party was agreeably increased by Dr. James Lind of Edinburgh as astronomer, and the late Captain Gore, who accompanied Cook in his third voyage, then a Lieutenant; to which we may add another Lieutenant of the navy, three draughtsmen, two writers, and seamen, and servants, to the number of forty in all. They sailed from the river in July, and called at Portsmouth, thence to Plymouth, and proceeded up St. George's Channel, meaning to call at the Isle of Man for the purpose of examining some Runic inscriptions; but the weather being unfavourable, they gave up the design, and pushed on for the Western Islands, visiting Oransay, Columbkill, Scarba, and Staffa, so remarkable for its basaltic columns, but till then, we may say, comparatively unknown. In fact, previous to this, Staffa had only been slightly mentioned by Buchanan; so that Mr. Banks had no idea or intention of stopping there, nor would he, had it not been that the strength of the tides obliged them to anchor, during the night, in the sound between the Isle of Mull and Morven, opposite to Drumen, the seat of Maclean, a Highland chieftain, who invited the travellers on shore to breakfast the next morning, when they received information of the pillars from Mr. Leach, who had visited them a few days before. Mr. Banks' desire for information could not resist the offer of that gentleman to accompany the party to Staffa, and accordingly they set off in the boats the same day, arriving at the spot late in the evening, the distance being about nine leagues from their anchorage. For probable inconveniences they had well provided, having taken two days' provisions, and a small tent, in which they cooked their sup pers and slept, in preference to taking up their abode in the only house on the island. Having ordered their vessel to wait for them at Tobirmore, a very fine harbour on the Mull side, they joined her, after gratifying their curiosity by an accurate investigation, and proceeded on their voyage, which was now directed through seas hitherto unexplored by the eye of philosophic science. They passed the Orkneys and Shetland islands without any particular investigation; being anxious to have the whole summer before them for the examination of Iceland, whose rocky coasts promised them great acquisitions in ichthyology, whilst its extensive plains, under the rapid and exuberant fertility of the northern hemisphere, would present a new scene in the botanical world. On the 28th of August, 1772, they arrived off the coast of Iceland, and anchored near to Bassestedr; from. whence they proceeded to investigate the natural curiosities of that extraordi nary, and then little known, island. Their journey to Mount Hecla occupied twelve days, the distance being 1 love for the sciences.' In this he was successful, the British government feeling the same liberal principles, and acting as they did afterwards on several similar occasions. A life of such general advantage to the country, could not fail to merit the attention of his venerable and patriotic sovereign, who speedily selected him as an effective member of the Privy Council, and conferred upon him, in 1795, the red ribband of the Bath. Sir Joseph, however, took no part in politics, at least as a partizan; he had not even a seat in Parliament, notwithstanding his parliamentary connexion with Boston, as Recorder of that borough. In 1804, he became active in forming the Horticultural Society, to which he was a contributor of several papers, explanatory of his mode of cultivating several scarce, yet useful productions, in his garden at Spring Grove, and also at Revesby Abbey; particularly his plan with respect to the American cranberry, the paper on which, in the Society's first volume, gives an interesting description of the garden and orchard at his suburban villa, where he expended large sums, though only a tenant until 1808, when he purchased it in fee. In 1817, Sir Joseph Banks had the misfortune to lose his sister, Sarah Sophia, a loss which he severely felt, as her amiable qualities, together with those of Lady Banks, had often rendered Spring Grove the favourite and familiar resort of royalty, not only before his ORIGINAL AND Extract from the Epilogue spoken at Reading School, after the Representation of the Raging Hercules of Euripides, and before the Afterpiece of the Critic.* "TIS done our toils are past-the prompter's bell Bids to the grand heroic style, farewell- * We give part of this epilogue, though its occasion is not very recent, because it is not merely of temporary interest, and will be found to illustrate that state of literature to which we have alluded in our observations on the Remains of Peter Corcoran. The representations of Greek plays at Reading school have a perfection and beauty which can only be believed by those who have witnessed them. late Majesty's unhappy illness, but afterwards. During the latter years of a well-spent life, Sir Joseph laboured under an afflicting complaint, which in a great measure had so deprived him of the use of his lower extremities, that he was unable to take his accustomed exercise; but his spirits still supported him, and to the last he was the active patron of science and literature. In the month of April of the present year, however, he found himself so totally unable to sustain the duties of his office at Somerset House, that he expressed a wish to resign: but this resignation the society were unwilling to accept of, and he continued to hold the office until his demise, which took place soon after, on the morning of the 19th of May, 1820, at his house in Soho-square. We have not space to record the numerous instances which we could adduce of his liberal encouragement of science, of his benevolent attention to public and private charities, or of his generous hospitality. His last will displays his feelings towards his country, by the bequest of his library and collection to the British Museum. Dying without issue his title is extinct; and his estates go to collateral connexions, after the death of his dowager. We trust that public gratitude will do honour to him and to the country, by all that can now be done-an appropriate monument. SELECT POETRY. Since past are mantling joys and tragic pains, Blest age of authors! chiefs of ancient time rhyme; Thy tender bosoms learn in song to melt, gleam, And build an epic by the aid of steam! With no cold admiration do I gaze On thy full gliding mirror; when thy ways SONNETU MOUNT ETNA. Hail to thy world of desolation! here career. Kings' earth-borne sceptres fall-but in thy drear In dread communion with the weeping shade T. N. T. SONNET. SONNET. Fame the Symbol and the Evidence of Immortality. Departed hours! as Memory fondly pores In Lethean draught, methinks, an age of tears, And be the happy being that I was, As careless and as innocent-but oh! It wisely is forbidden man to pause Amidst this earthly piigrimage of woe→ He journeys on;-yet 'mid Hope's withering blight T. N. T. HOPE. WISDOM. (From the Russian of Davidoff.) "O my children, take care!" said the beldame, "With thee in his company, no man "Can err," said our wag with a wink, "But come thou good-humour'd old woman, "(There's a drop in the goblet)—and drink." She frown'd, but her scruples soon twisting She drank-but continued her teaching, But to say, "Fill the goblet again !" When smiling in the pride of May, Fond hopes, that numerous watery spoils, And homeward takes his dripping way, Which varied joys were wont to greet, When silly boyhood, sanguine, gay, Sought all within the passing minute; The morrow brought his wishes in it. I mean not that from pleasure's gleam I mean not that the cradled boy May image in the close of day; I mean not that the madman's brain I mean not that which hope hath cherish'd But what in one day grew and perish'd, Ere scarce it felt the sunbeam's kiss.— To charm the loving morn of youth;- To speak the bosom's fond belief. To live those moments o'er again. OSCAR. Lonely I no longer roam Like the cloud, the wind, the wave; Tell me not of gain and loss, Shame, reproach, affliction's hour! J. MONTGOMERY. TO NATHAN DRAKE, M. D. On reading the First Paper in his " Winter Nights."", With witching eloquence and truth Hast thou described the dear delights, In frowning Winter's stormiest nights. While turning o'er thy first essay, My heart so warmly feels its spell, It cannot for an hour delay The thanks which thou hast won so well. Such pictures-whether they describe, Happy in early innocence ; In whose bright eyes the vivid gleam Of Home's loved fire-side gaily glances; From older ones, their mirth enhances; Which erst o'er Cowper's spirit stole; Sheds its own stillness o'er the soul;— Such pictures do not merely pass Before the eye--and fade in air; But fraught with bliss, yet unforgot. Yes, bliss!-for joys so calm and pure E'en when not actually possess'd. A more delightful boon than this? Than-that thy Mother's green old age May be her Child's, or Children's too; Woodbridge, 5th Mo. 25th, 1820. |