"The Common Center of we Discoverers" Sir Joseph Banks, Exploration and Empire in the Late 18th Century

Whatever the aura of prestige which surrounded Sir Joseph Banks in the multifarious activities of his middle and later careers, for some he always remained the “Mr Banks” who had sailed with James Cook on the Endeavour voyage. Banks's thinking about the Pacific at this time was clearly influenced by his first-hand experience on the Endeavour voyage, but also by the discoveries of Cook's third voyage, of which he had early sight as he helped to prepare the journals for publication. In correspondence and meetings with Banks in 1788 Etches sketched his plans for the future. He had outfitted another venture to the northwest coast, under the command of James Colnett and Charles Duncan, which had arrived there the previous summer. Within weeks of Etches passing on news of this discovery to Banks, one of his own vessels, the tiny Princess Royal, commanded by Charles Duncan, entered the strait and mapped its entrance

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