Letter: One man's hero is another man's racist oppressor

IT IS worth reminding Captain Moonlight ('The man who put the botany in Botany Bay', 23 May) of some facts about his 'hero' Joseph Banks. This 'jack-the-lad' left his fiancee, Harriet Blosset, behind him when he went to Australia and rejected her when he returned. When he stopped off in Rio, he went ashore illegally to steal plants. He took two black servants with him on the voyage and let them freeze to death in Tierra del Fuego.

Banks called the Aborigines 'savages, perhaps the most uncivilised in the world', despite their 40,000-year-old culture. The 'genus of plants' (Banksias) named after him were a source of nectar for the Aborigines and the seed cones were used as hair brushes, yet now they bear the name of an Englishman. The 'merino sheep', used to stock Australia, Banks had smuggled illegally out of Spain via Portugal, with the connivance of King George III, who took a share in the profit.

As a member of the ruling class, Banks had his house in Soho attacked in 1815 as part of the nationwide bread riots in demonstration against the Corn Laws. One of the 'samples' he left behind him was the severed and pickled head of Permulwoy, an Aboriginal leader who had fought against the British invasion of his country.

If we are going to remember him, let's put him in political perspective. The legacy of racism which he helped to create is still with us today.

Martin Hoyles

London NW5