4 Sir Joseph Banks – In London
The voyage of the Endeavour was considered a huge success notwithstanding its
almost fatal encounter with Endeavour Reef. The ship had spent more than two years
at sea without any of the crew contracting scurvy, thanks to the diet provided by Cook
and all the breadfruit they ate in Tahiti. However, the three months the crew stayed in
Batavia while the Endeavour was being repaired for the voyage back to England were
a disaster. Seven crew members died in this cholera-ridden city and another seventeen
died after they sailed for Cape Town. Batavia, Cook wrote:
I firmly believe is the death of more Europeans than any other place upon the globe ... We
came here with as healthy a ship’s company as need to go to sea and after a stay of not quite
three months left in the condition of a Hospital Ship.Of Banks’ original party of eight only three survived the voyage. His Negro
servants, Richmond and Dorlton, both perished in the snows of Tierra del Fuego,
the artist Alexander Buchan died of epilepsy in Tahiti, Sydney Parkinson and the
naturalist’s assistant Herman Spöring died from cholera contracted in Batavia.
After their return to England, James Cook was presented to King George III and
promoted to master and commander. Banks and Solander were received by the King
at Windsor Castle and travelled up to Oxford to receive honorary degrees. The voyage
had collected examples of the flora and fauna from an entirely new continent and
before his untimely death Sydney Parkinson had made 674 outline drawings and
269 finished paintings of their botanical specimens. Banks and Solander reaped both
social glory and scientific acclaim, and invitations were forthcoming from the greatest
houses in the land. John Ellis wrote to Carl Linnaeus saying that Banks and Solander
had returned laden with the greatest treasures of natural history that were ever brought
to England. It was Linnaeus himself who addressed a letter to ‘the immortal Banks’
and on behalf of all botanists thanked God for having brought Banks and Solander
safely through all their perils:
Thanks and glory to God, who has protected him through the dangers of such a voyage! If I
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