"
Having adopted this course and having reached the coast, Cook made the
very best use of his time, and surveyed it as probably no other man then
living would have done, but that he did so is unquestionably due to the
fact that the season did not admit of the old regulation pursuit of
explorers--the search for the solution of the southern continent problem.
CHAPTER IV. [Sidenote: 1779]
ARTHUR PHILLIP, FOUNDER AND FIRST GOVERNOR OF NEW SOUTH WALES.
Captain Cook's "discovery" of New Holland was turned to no account until a
generation later, and to Sir Joseph Banks more than to any other man
belongs the credit of the suggestion. In 1779 a commission of the House of
Commons was appointed to inquire into the question of transportation,
then, in consequence of the loss of the American colonies, an important
problem needing a speedy solution. At this period, indeed up to a much
later time, the English prison administration was notoriously bad. The
gaols were crowded and filthy, and there was no discipline; no system
governed them other than the system of rascality practised by many of the
gaolers.
Mr. Banks (as he then was) gave evidence before the House of Commons, and
strongly urged the establishment of a penal colony at Botany Bay, giving
his opinion, of course, as the botanist who had accompanied Cook and had
seen what prospect there was of establishing a settlement at New Holland.
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