ship would have sunk’.
It would take at least a week to repair the vessel so sleeping tents, storage tents, a
blacksmith’s forge, a carpenter’s workshop and pens for the animals were set up on
shore. Banks and Solander began collecting specimens. Fortunately the ‘gum’ trees
were now in flower and Parkinson sketched two species of Eucalyptus, the smooth
white-barked Eucalyptus alba and the narrow-leaved red ironbark, Eucalyptus crebra.
Despite their numerous landfalls these were the only sketched example of eucalypts
made during their time in Australia. However, Parkinson also describes the ‘very
grateful odour’ coming from a fire of burning eucalypts.
A hunting party sent to the other side of the river encountered an unusual animal
described as large as a greyhound, of a mouse colour and very swift. Banks went out
on a subsequent hunt and describes another encounter with this strange animal:
With first dawn we set out in search of game. We walked many miles over the flats and saw
four of the animals, two of which my greyhound fairly chased; but they beat him owing
to the length and thickness of the grass, which prevented him from running, while they at
every bound leaped over the tops of it. We observed, much to our surprise, that instead of
going on all fours, this animal went only on two legs, making vast bounds.Next Banks describes how the second lieutenant who was out shooting another
day had the good fortune to kill one of the animals which had long been the subject
of their speculation. Banks wrote ‘kanguru’ in his diary, his anglicized version of the
Aboriginal word ‘ganurru’. The animal weighed twenty-eight pounds and was eaten
for dinner, providing what was described as excellent food, although Banks fails to
mention if its bones were preserved for science:
To compare it to any European animal would be impossible as it has not the least resemblance
of any one I have seen. Its fore legs are extremely short and of no use to it in walking, itsRepairing the Endeavour at Endeavour River, Sydney Parkinson, University of Pittsburgh Library38 Where Australia Collides with Asia
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