the rest of the month Banks and Phipps collected plants and birds with the same zeal, although the weather was upon the whole unpleasant, with fog and rain; however, it improved in June.
June 1 This Even very Fine walk’d out Gatherd Currants, Ribes, some Lichens which seemd to be only Varieties of English species & abundance of Water Mnium, Mnium aquaticum, the Female of which has Stellate Heads I have not seen any with dusty ones as they are in England the men of the ship brought me some Large Specimens of a Kind of Stone Coral which is found Fossil in Many Parts of England by the Name of Honeycombstone another man brought me the shell of a tortoise which he told me he got in the Archipelago and that it was found there in fresh water a ship Came into harbour from which I procured specimens of a shell fish calld Glams of a Peculiar use in the fishery as the fishermen depend upon them for their Baitts in their first Voyage to the Banks at that time of the Year the fish feed upon them & Every fish they take has a number of them in his Stomach which the Fishermen take out & with them Bait for others the fish itself is Remarkable as it is far too large for the shell which is so little adapted to Cover its inhabitants that Even when the fish is taken out the sides will not Close together a boy brought me two shells
6 Walkd out to day gatherd some of the Northern English Plants which grow here Every where not Coveting high Land tho indeed we have seen no high Land here (1) the Little dwarf Honeysuckle, Cornus Herbacea, said to grow upon the cheviot hills which part Scotland from England (2) alsinan-themos, Trientalis Europaea & (3) the stone Bramble, Rubus Saxatilis, also some Common English Plants as (4) (5) sorts of Rush grass, Juncus Campestris, Juncus Pilosus (6) Black Carex, Carex strata, (7) vernal grass, Anthoxanthum odoratum, (8) Black headed Bog rush, Scirpus Caespitosus, (9) sundew with round leaves, Drosera rotundifolia, & several more which I mention in my Catalogue – of English Plants Some Plants also of this Country a (10) Kind of Alder, Betula, differing very little if at all from the English sort a beautiful Kind of (11) Medlar, Mespilus Canadensis?, a Kind of cherry, Prunus, which however is so Scarce here that I have got very few Specimens. I have not seen above 2 Plants of it neither in Blossom but at a few Extremities it differ very little if at all from our English garden cherry
7 Today shooting Killd 3 small Birds Probably varieties of the Gold Bird as there is but little difference between them chiefly the want of a black spot on the head, Foemina? N°: 10, & a small Bird N°: 11 which seems to be scarce here as I have seen it only this once.
8 Walk out this day Gatherd a Species of Solomons Seal, Convallaria Racemosa
11 this day at 12 set sail for Croque.
Here a few lines about Newfoundland may help to set Phipps’ and Banks’s journey in its historical context. John Cabot, sailing from Bristol, discovered the island in 1497, claimed it for Henry VII and brought back an account of the extraordinary fishing – his men had only to let down baskets and cod swam into them. Throughout most of the sixteenth century English, French, Spanish Basque and Portuguese ships came to the Banks in the summer, and they carried home immense quantities of dried and salted cod; but no one stayed there for the winter. In 1583 Sir Humphry Gilbert sailed for St John’s with five ships and founded the first British colony in North America; but that same year he was lost at sea. James I encouraged settlement, yet progress was very slow, partly because of raids by the French from Canada and partly because of opposition from the shipowners, who wanted to retain a monopoly of the fishing and who therefore induced government to pass restrictive laws. Indeed, successive governments were very hard on the Newfoundlanders: in 1713 the ministry that negotiated the treaty of Utrecht gave the French the right of fishing and drying their cod from Cape Bonavista northwards and so down the western side of the island as far as Rich Point; and even when the French had been beaten again in the Seven Years War and Canada taken from them, they were given back the islands of St Pierre and Miquelon together with these same fishing rights.
However, by the end of the war, in 1763, Newfoundland had some eight thousand permanent inhabitants, and with the French threat gone at least for the time, the authorities, headed by the Governor and Commander-in-Chief, Commodore Hugh Palliser of the Royal Navy, were filled with energy; and among other things James Cook, then a master in the Royal Navy, carried out a most painstaking and accurate survey of the coasts and harbours between 1763 and 1767, including part of the coast of Labrador, which, right up to Hudson’s Strait in the icy north, had been added to the colony.
This was largely Eskimo country, and the government hoped that relations with them would be more successful than they had been with the Beothuks, the original Red Indian inhabitants of Newfoundland. At this point Europeans and Indians were killing one another on sight, and since the white men had firearms and the red men had none there was no question which side would win in the end. By Banks’s time there were said to be about five hundred Beothuks living in the most retired parts of the island, as far as they could get from the fishermen; by 1829 they were totally extinct.
The official attitude towards the Eskimos was quite different. For some years the Moravian Brethren, so well known to the Bankses, had been in contact with them, and the Moravians’ influence was regarded as entirely good. If they had been Jesuits the official view of their activities might not have been the same, but the Moravians had been legally recognized as “an ancient Protestant Episcopal Church” and their settlements in Labrador were actively helped and encouraged, since apart from anything else the missionaries told the Eskimos in their own language that King George loved the Innuit; he was like a father to them, and when they obeyed the Governor it was the same as if they were being obedient to the King.
In 1765, the year before Banks’s voyage, the Niger had taken four Moravians to Chateau Bay in Labrador, where two were made to stay (much against their will – Adams was an autocratic captain and by no means a scrupulous one) and two went much farther north in the schooner Hope, commanded by Lieutenant Candler, RN, who was to survey and chart the coast. One of Niger’s tasks in 1766 was to take Phipps up to Croque (it is now usually spelt Croc), a small bay and harbour in the north-west part of the island, well within the Frenchmen’s fishing zone, where he was to set up the building that in his jovial way he called Crusoe Hall and where he also planted a garden. The frigate was then to sail north, crossing the Strait of Belle Isle to Chateau Bay in Labrador, where her Marines and some civilian workmen were to make a regular fortification, a blockhouse and stockaded fort “for the Protection and Encouragement of His Majesty’s Subjects to carry on the Fisheries on the Coast, for the Security of their Boats and Fishing craft and Tackle from being Stolen or destroyed by the Savages of the Country or by Lawless Crews resorting thither from the Colonies”.
June 13 this Morn at 7 anchor in Croque harbour5 after a very favourable Passage Walk out gather a species of Bilberry, Vaccinium mucronatum, a species of Orchis, Ophrys, a Beautifull Plant described No: 5, Uvularia Amplexifolia, another of the Hexandria Class No: 6 another No: 7 which is of the Pentandria Class tho both Calyx and Corolla are divided into 6 Laciniae water Ranunculus several sorts of Lichens two sorts of Mosses This morn Experienced a Very Extraordinary Transition from Cold to Heat The air at 5 in the morning while we were at sea being so Cold that with the great Coat buttoned I was forced Every moment to Come down to the Fire at seven we came into harbour in ½ of an hour were set on shore where the weather was as hot or hotter than Ever I knew it in England I lament much not having noted the Difference by Thermometer but hope for future opportunities
14 This day still Extremely Hot spend most of our time working in the garden go out however in the Evening Find (1) a Kind of Bramble, Rubus Arcticus, (2) a Kind of Meadow Rue, Thalictrum alpinum, (3) Dwarf Birch, Betula Nana, (4) 2 Varieties of a Beautifull Plant Possibly our English Birds Eye one of which had flowers of a Clear white the other Blueish (5) in the woods found one tree only of Takamahaka in the Evening went out Fishing had no sport at all at the harbours mouth tho there seemd to be abundance of Small Trout saw no signs of Large ones Killd today a Kind of Mouse, Mus Terrestris, which Differs scarce at all From the English Sort but is Rather Larger & his
