ds, viz. Cook's journal, the diaries of the two
naturalists, Banks and Solander, and <i>quartum quid</i>, the
Johnsonian pomposity of Dr. Hawkesworth. Cook's journal was
published in 1893, edited by Captain Wharton, hydrographer to
the Admiralty; Banks's journal, in 1896, edited by Sir J. D.
Hooker. Solander's journal has never been printed.

When Englishmen next came to Australia in 1788, it was found
that the word <i>Kangaroo</i> was not known to the natives
round Port Jackson, distant 1500 miles to the South of
Cooktown. In fact, it was thought by them to be an English
word. (See quotation, Tench, 1789.) It is a question whether
the word has belonged to any aboriginal vocabulary since.
"Capt. Philip P. King, the explorer, who visited that locality
[sc. Endeavour River] forty-nine years after Cook, relates in
his `Narrative of the Survey of the Intertropical and Western
Coasts of Australia,' that he found the word kangaroo unknown
to the tribe he met there, though in other particulars the
vocabulary he compiled agrees very well with Captain Cook's."
(Curr's `Australian Race,' vol. i. p. 27.) In the fourth
volume of Curr's book a conspectus is given of the words used
in different parts of Australia for various objects. In the
list of names for this animal there are a few that are not far
from <i>Kangaroo</i>, but some inquirers suspect the accuracy
of the list, or fancy that the natives obtained the words
sounding like <i>Kangaroo</i> from English. It may be assumed
that the word is not now in use as an aboriginal word. Has it,
then, disappeared? or was it an original mistake on the part of
Banks or Cook ?

The theory of a mistake has obtained widely. It has figured in
print, and finds a place in at least one dictionary. Several
correspondents have written that the word <i>Kangaroo</i> meant
"I don't understand," and that Banks mistook this for a name.
This is quite possible, but at least some proof is needed, as
for instance the actual words in the aboriginal language that
could be twisted into this meaning. To find these words, and
to hear their true sound, would test how near the explanation
hits the mark. Banks was a very careful observer, and he
specially notes the precautions he took to avoid any mistake in
accepting native words. Moreover, according to Surgeon
Anderson, the aborigines of Van Diemen's Land described the
animal by the name of <i>Kangaroo</i>. (See quotation, 1787.)

On the ot