Reprint Of Noted
p. 94 · Read in the full issue
Biography Of
Sir Joseph Banks
Of all the eminent men who trod the stage of 18th century England, no one exercised more sway in so many fields of scien tific endeavour than Sir Joseph Banks.
HAVING decided to devote nim self to botany from the age of 15, Banks first came into public prominence in 1768 when, with his large personal fortune, he and a party of scientists sailed with Cap tain Cook on his first great voyage round the world.
This voyage gave Banks a lasting interest in Australia, the South Pacific and the East Indies, and from then until the end of his life more than half a century later, Banks had a hand in almost every important British project concerning those areas and many others.
In 1779, Banks gave evidence before a committee of the House of Commons that a convict settlement should be established at Botany Bay; in 1787 he obtained the first merino sheep from Spain for this new set tlement as well as securing Captain Bligh’s appointment to the Bounty and supervising the equipment of that ship for its voyage to Tahiti to get breadfruit for the West Indies.
In 1788, Banks advised the East India Company on the transfer of the tea-plant from China to India; in 1792 he sent Mungo Park on a scientific expedition to Sumatra; and in 1801, he played a prominent part in the outfitting of Matthew Flinders’ famous survey voyage of the Aus tralian coast in HMS Investigator.
So numerous were his interests and so voluminous was his cor respondence about them that any writer essaying biography of Banks is in danger »f becoming bogged down in a multitude of details or of skipping too lightly over the mass of documentary material available.
Dr. H. C. Cameron in his biography, Sir Joseph Banks, has steered a judicious middle course, which has resulted in a well-rounded portrait of his subject that is both highly readable and useful for re ference.
Dr. Cameron’s book was originally published in 1952. It has now been
reprinted for the first time.-
RL.
(FIR JOSEPH BANKS. Angus and Robertson. $4.50.)