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30 COROMANDEL LIFE 2016 LATE AUTUMN / WINTER
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Sir Joseph Banks, Bt, by Sir Joshua Reynolds,
1771-1773: National Portrait Gallery, London.
Aboard this first voyage was a team of naturalists headed and
funded by botanist (and patron of the natural sciences) Joseph
Banks and fellow naturalist Daniel Solander. Also along were
astronomer Charles Green, botanists, and fine botanical artists
including Sydney Parkinson, who completed 264 drawings before
he died near the end of this first voyage.
Captain Cook’s journals were published upon his return to
England. These gave the English descriptions galore of New
Zealand’s plants and animals, with assessments of the nature of
the land, resources and settlement possibilities.
Banks and Solander were
‘in-demand celebrities’ on
the scientific and social
scene. On his return
Banks started to process
nearly 3000 exotic plant
specimens from the
voyage – eight locations
were from NZ – working
with artists and engravers
on the many-year project
to bring the expedition’s
botanical drawings to
publication. His place
in British and Australian
history reaches beyond
the natural sciences,
however, as Banks was a
key figure in the settlement, governing, and growth of Australia.
The wealthy and influential Squire Banks, shown above, also
brought along on this journey two private servants (one apparently
a musician) and two pet greyhounds. The ship’s great room was
often abuzz with activities to dry and flat press the specimens,
lack of paper being a constant concern.
The expedition’s artists provided drawings of the native peoples,
and Cook’s generally kind dealings with them set the stage for
future relationships...which unfortunately did not go so well on his
1779 return trip to Hawaii where Cook was killed by the natives.
Another current Kiwi connection with Cook was his recipe for
‘spruce beer’ containing manuka leaves, which has inspired some
recent distinctive local craft brews. (See next page.)
ENDEAVOUR
Painting by Paul Deacon
continued from previous page...
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