The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. I. Being the First of the First Voyage

The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. I. Being the First of the First Voyage.

With Lieutenant Cook, in this voyage, embarked Joseph Banks, Esquire, a gentleman possessed of considerable landed property in Lincolnshire. He received the education of a scholar rather to qualify him for the enjoyments than the labours of life; yet an ardent desire to know more of Nature than could be learnt from books determined him, at a very early age, to forego what are generally thought to be the principal advantages of a liberal fortune, and to apply his revenue not in procuring the pleasures of leisure and ease, but in the pursuit of his favourite study, through a series of fatigue and danger, which, in such circumstances, have very seldom been voluntarily incurred, except to gratify the restless and insatiable desires of avarice or ambition. Upon his leaving the university of Oxford, in the year 1763, he crossed the Atlantic, and visited the coasts of Newfoundland and Labradore. The danger, difficulty, and inconvenience that attend long voyages are very different in idea and experience; Mr. Banks, however, returned, undiscouraged, from his first expedition; and when he found that the Endeavour was equipping for a voyage to the South Seas, in order to observe the Transit of Venus, and afterwards attempt farther discoveries, he determined 4to embark in the expedition, that he might enrich his native country with a tribute of knowledge from those which have been hitherto unknown, and not without hope of leaving among the rude and uncultivated nations that he might discover, something that would render life of more value, and enrich them, perhaps, in a certain degree, with the knowledge, or at least with the productions, of Europe. As he was determined to spare no expense in the execution of his plan, he engaged Dr. Solander to accompany him in the voyage. This Gentleman, by birth a Swede, was educated under the celebrated Linnus, from whom he brought letters of recommendation into England, and his merit being soon known, he obtained an appointment in the British Museum, a public institution, which was then just established; such a companion Mr. Banks considered as an acquisition of no small importance, and, to his great satisfaction, the event abundantly proved that he was not mistaken. He also took with him two draftsmen, one to delineate views and figures, the other to paint such subjects of natural history as might offer; together with a secretary and four servants, two of whom were negroes. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 56196
Author: Cook, James
Release Date: Dec 17, 2017
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Hawkesworth, John, 1715?-1773