Joseph Banks. Patrick O’Brian

was Come in I was Easily Persuaded that I was safer on board the Niger than in any Boat in the Country

      About the latter End of this month Partridges Became much more Plenty then they were before Possibly they Came from the Norward Mr Ankille while Shooting in the neighbourhood of St Peters Bay saw by his account at Least 100 in one Company while he was making up to them to have shot at them an Eagle made a stoop among them & Carried of one the rest immediately took wing & went off I should mention here that tho I have not been able to Procure an Eagle from the Scarcity here are two sorts one of which we had a young one who got away is the Chrysaetos of Linnae the other I apprehend to be a Canadensis but I never could see him but upon the Wing

      Just before we Left this Place the Sergeant of marines belonging to York fort brought me a Porcupine alive it is quite Black except the Quills which are Black & white alternately about the size of an English hare but shorter made after sulking for three or four Days he begins to Eat & I have great hopes of Carrying him home alive

      Early in October the Niger left Labrador for Newfoundland, putting in at Croque, where Banks went to see the garden that Phipps had planted.

      This is a very Strong Vegetable mould which with the Quickness of Vegetation in the Climate had such an Effect on many of our English Seeds that they Run themselves out in stalk Producing little or no fruit Pea haulm we had 11 feet high & as thick as my finger which Produced scarce anything Beans ran till they could not support their own weight & fell without Producing a Pod Probably from the ignorance of the gardener we Left behind who did not Know the Common Practise Even in England of Cutting of their tops Cabbage & Lettuce Throve surprizingly as did our Radishes & small Sallet carrots & Turnips which especially the Last were remarkably Sweet The Coldness of our nights made it necessary to Cover our Onions with Hammocks we left them also till the Very Last but when we got them tho they were very small they were very good

      The garden had thriven, upon the whole, in spite of the fieldmice, and so had the poultry, in spite of the weasels and goshawks; but Banks could not really love the place:

      Croque tho tolerably Pleasant now was intolerable in the Summer on account of its heat & the Closeness of its situation confind on all sides by woods & no place but the Ship Free From mosketos and Gadflies in Prodigious abundance we had only one Clear walk on a morass a little above the Gardens but there you could not Long walk dry shod Sr Thomas & I were both Very Ill here especially me who at one time they did not Expect to recover I know not whether that gave a disgust but we both Joind in Pronouncing the Place the Least agreable of any we had Seen in the Countrey

      Banks then gives an account of the seal fishery and goes on

¹¹After this Short Stay at Croque intended only for filling Water & getting on board the Produce of the Gardens & Poultry we Saild for St Johns on the 10th & arriv’d there on the 13th without any Particular Transaction During our Passage Here we found the Greater Part of the Squadron under the Command of Mr Palliser in the Guernsey whose Civilities We ought to acknowledge as he Shewd us all we could Expect we all Felt great Pleasure in Returning to Society which we had so long been deprivd of St Johns tho the Most Disagreeable Town I Ever met with was For some time Perfectly agreable to us I should not omit to mention the Ceremonies with which we Celebrated the Coronation which happened whilst we were there the Guernsey was Dressd upon the Occasion & if I may compare Great things with small Looked Like a Pedlars Basket at a Horse race where ribbons of divers Colours fly in the wind fastend to yard wands stuck around it after this we were all invited to a Ball Given by Mr Governor where the want of Ladies was so great that My Washerwoman & her sister were there by formal invitation but what surprized me the most was that after Dancing we were Conducted to a realy Elegant Supper Set out with all Kinds of Wines & Italian Liqueurs To the Great Emolument of the Ladies who Eat & Drank to some Purpose Dancing it seems agreed with them By its getting them such Excellent Stomachs

      The Governor’s ball was given on Saturday, 25 October 1766: on the morning of Monday, 27 October, James Cook arrived in HM Brig Grenville, the vessel in which he had been surveying so much of the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador since 1764. The Niger did not sail until the following Wednesday (Banks says Tuesday, but he was writing this part of his journal from memory, whereas Cook’s log, a daily record of events, gives the later date, which is surely more probable) and although there is no evidence of their having met, naval etiquette required Cook to call upon Commodore Palliser and Sir Thomas Adams, and once he was aboard the Niger it is scarcely possible that he and Banks should not at least have exchanged a how do you do. Banks, however, though a zealous botanist, was no seer; his journal makes no mention of the encounter but goes on

      It is very difficult to Compare one town with another tho that Probably is the Best way of Conveying the Idea St Johns however Cannot be Compard to any I have seen it is Built upon the side of a hill facing the Harbour Containing two or three hundred houses & near as many fish Flakes interspersed which in summer time must Cause a stench scarce to be supported thank heaven we were only there spring & fall before the fish were come to the Ground & after they were gone off

      For dirt & filth of all Kinds St Johns may in my opinion Reign unrivald as it Far Exceeds any Fishing town I Ever saw in England here is no regular Street the houses being built in rows immediately adjoining to the Flakes Consequently no Pavement offals of Fish of all Kinds are strewd about The remains of The Irish mens chowder who you see making it skinning and gutting fish in Every Corner.

      As Every thing here smells of fish so You cannot get any thing that does not Taste of it hogs Can scarce be Kept from it by any Care and When they have got it are by Far the Filthyest meat I ever Met with Poultry of all Kinds Ducks geese Fowls & Turkies infinitely more Fishy than the Worst tame Duck That Ever was sold For a wild one in Lincolnshire The Very Cows Eat the Fish offal & thus milk is Fishy This Last Particular indeed I have not met with myself but have been assured it is often the Case

      While we remaind here I Employd some of my Time in searching for Plants but the Season was so far advanced that I could find none in Blossom by the Leaves & remains indeed I discovered that there were several here different from any I had seen to the northward the Leaves of Some I Collected but many were so far destroyd by the Cold that Even that was Impossible so that there remains a feild for any body who will Examine this And the more southern Part of the Island but I have Vanity enough to beleive that to the northward not many will be found to have Escapt my observation

¹²On the 28th of Octr we Left St Johns in our Passage to Lisbon where we arrived on the 17th on the fifth of Novr we had a very hard Gale of Wind of the Western Islands^* which has almost ruind me in the Course of it we shipp’d a Sea which Stove in our Quarter & almost Filld the Cabbin with water in an instant where it washd backward & forward with such rapidity that it Broke in Peices Every chair & table in the Place among other things that Suffered my Poor Box of Seeds was one which was intirely demolish’d as was my Box of Earth with Plants in it which Stood upon deck

      This disaster may to some degree account for Banks’s rather cross and censorious remarks about Portugal, where the Niger stayed for some weeks before going home, and about the Portuguese, who had no notion of gardening or of planting trees. “… their Taste in Gardening is more trifling than Can be Conceivd a Pond Scarce Large Enough for a frog to swim in the Sides of Which are lind with Glaz’d tiles and which has two or three fountains in it about as thick as a quill is their Greatest Ornament this with a few Close Walks of Myrtle and Vines & a Statue or two Placed on awkward Pedestals at the Entrance of the Walks make a Place that People are Carried to See.” But these few pages were written as a set piece, not in the true, day-by-day diary form that shows Banks at his best; and in any case they give a somewhat false impression, because in fact when he was not disapproving of Portuguese gardens and Popish magnificence he had quite a good time, becoming a member of the local natural history society and meeting English and Portuguese botanists, some of whom remained his friends for life.

      Yet even if the loss of his seeds and some of his plants did combine