[[1]]
H.M.S Erebus, Simon's Bay, Cape of Good Hope
April 29th 1843
My dear Father [William Jackson Hooker]
As I last night prognosticated, we are not yet under weigh, but that is because it
is a dead calm. Your other letters are gone to the Port, & very likely there will go
home along with them on the 25th the "Samarang" arrives, bringing your welcome
letters & kind presents, for which, I return you very many thanks. The Icones are
beautiful, & I even see the descriptions to the spare plates you sent me before -what an extraordinary thing the Thaumasia (not my doing JH.) is; I took it as a Lichen.
The Baumannia I took for one of the few Falkand Island plants I have not
examined, I mean the Senecio candidans. I quite agree with you regarding the
genus Marsippospermum it has many good character & is perfectly natural,
nicely Antarctic too.--Tetroncium I have plenty of for you, I sketched it hastily on
the fly leaf of a book, Endlicher *1 I think; it is very curious, another connate.
Littaea moschata seems really different from the Auckland Island species, if my
notes & drawings are correct, which I think they ought to be for I attempted to be
accurate. Surely the L. moschata must have hypogynous scales, though you do
not figure or describe them -- Azorella trifurcata is I think among my Cape Horn
plants. All the Fuegian plants are characteristic & excellent. So are the Dacrydia
& Podocarpi, I hope that by the time I am ready, we shall have ripe fruit of nearly
all the species, which Coleman*2 will collect if we send the bottles. It would be
worth your while to send him a little box with 4 or 6 6oz glass stopper bottles, 2/3
full of strong spirit, he cannot get such things where he is. -- I have only skimmed
over the Journal, it looks very well & does not go backwards in value, whatever it
may in sale. I am quite pleased with your compliments to Coleman. -- The British
flora I think a vast improvement on the former ones, in spite of Mr. Balfour's *3
generous critique in the Nat. Mag. -- poor fellow he does not know better; what
he says may be true, but he suppresses all its good qualities. -- Many thanks for
the Illustrated London News, it will be a treat at sea, though I have not had
[[2]] time to look even at the plates yet & so also of the Athenaeum's. Mr. Wilkes*4
makes a great mess of his land in the Athenaeum review, but that paper cannot
correct it properly..he did not run over Balleny's Isl[an]ds--he saw them in their
proper place, the morning before..Mr. Wilkes does not not put Balleny's Land into
the chart he sent Capt. Ross *5, but land he called his own, 1 1/2 degree to the
North of those lands over which we ran. It appears to me that Wilkes put in his
land at random, has quite forgot what he sent to Capt. Ross, & tries to haul out
by pretending to have put Balleny's Isl[an]ds into that chart & that we ran over
them..They are better Isl[an]ds than he ever he saw & found by an Englishir too. -I should like to get a set of his plants though from Antarctica. Tell Capt. Beaufort *6
about Balleny's Isl[an]ds. I dare say he can explain it all if I can not. Capt. Ross
has not mentioned the subject, but I shall ask him..A magnificent steamer
HMST.V. [Her Majesty's Steam Turbine Vessel] Thunder -- has arrived, the same
day as Samarang; sailed 28 July & brought out a brother of McLeay[']s *7, it
brought out letters in answer to those received & sent from the Falklands in
November, taken home by Leut. McMurdo *8. I am very glad you received them as
you must have, but do not expect an answer till we get to Rio [de Janeiro], as you will
not risk a chit by the post -- How can Beaufort be led to believe that we should
winter in the Ice; the fact is you will not believe all I can say about it, & now who
is right? As to Sabine *9, he only says what he wants & wishes, & knows nothing,
without Capt. Ross is more communicative to him than to us. -- It was madness
to dream of wintering to the Southward except in the [South] Shetland Isl[an]ds &
such places..summering is bad enough..Capt. Brook [Broke] *10 of the
Thunderbolt has been very civil to me because he wants seeds & roots for his uncle
Sir Wm. Middleton *11 of Barham & wanted me to put him into the way of getting
them which I have done..He knew Kirby *12 very well, & I am glad to hear the
good old man is as well as ever -- Capt. Brook[sic] is a very gentlemanly man
indeed, & comes I believe from Ipswich..I was glad to hear that Brown *13 had
been lately seen by McLeay & that he is still in perfect health & as lively as ever.
-- I have not been introduced to dear Hiddy Belcher *14, he is getting on very well
as yet, hardly being off the home station & under an Admiral's thumb yet. His
officers talk of the strange prejudice against their Capt. Poor wretches they'll
catch something
[[3]] yet when he gets on his old cruizing[sic] ground in the Pacific. His book does
not seem very good, the plates very poor indeed. Is Hind *15 going to turn out a
Botanist[?] he writes many pages on Botanical regions.-- Sinclair *16 wrote me a
most kind letter, which has delighted the whole of us much, he will not see us in
August, should he be here by that time, we shall probably be in Rio de Janeiro. -I am very sorry to hear of Dalton's *17 death, though I never knew him I know too
much of him not to admire & respect his virtues, not to talk of all his kindness to
me in so many ways: will you convey my heartfelt sympathy to his family? The
Governor of the Falklands *18 was very kind indeed to me & we were great
chums; but he & our Ross quarreled most grievously, so that I was often
unpleasantly situated; but told them both that I had nothing to do with their
affairs. The worst of it was that Moodie[Moody] let us go to sea for the South
without fresh beef, so Smith *19 & myself I went & shot a bull calf & horse which
were very good eating. We caught another horse having run it down with the
dogs, quite a little thing & tried to keep it as a pet on board, but the little thing
which was quite fond of me died before we got to the Sea. However keep all this
to yourself for I am going to have nothing to do with their rows. What an
extraordinary yarn you spin me about the Tussac, I hope some of my seed have
struck, & that John Buck Whitington *20 will send home the can I left with him,
containing excellent roots of it & the Botany & other things, but I have many
doubts about him. Send a case to Moodie[sic], he had beautiful seedling Tussacs
in his garden & ask him to fill it with them giving him directions about the case; I
am sure that he will do it with pleasure. Do this, & I will write to Robinson *21 his
secretary from Rio, a most obliging little fellow. Send the box full of things to
Robinson directed M. Robinson Esqr. Secretary to his Ex[cellency] G[overnor]
&c, he is only a clerk but that direction will please him, & he is fond of the
Garden--this will be quite as good if not better than sending it to Moodie[sic] as
Robinson cares about gardening & the governor does not. There is a rumor that
Sir J. Eardley-Wilmot *22 is going to V[an] D[ieman's] L[and] to supersede[sic] Sir
J. Franklin *23, he is Wilmot's *24 Father. I hope that Eugene *25 will turn out a good
Botanist. -- Now I remember if you get Elephantopi do not bury them in earth,
rather place them on the top of a low cone of sandy earth -- water them lightly at
first & afterward
[[4]] give them no water for months, then drench them now & then from May
till[sic] August -- Encephalartos the same. Ludwig *26 wants very much the
common Nymphaea & Nuphar. Also an Acacia growing near the house at Kew
called Julibrissin or some such name, & the Maltese orange, red inside, called
Blute orange, he wants cuttings of it. -- All cape plants should be watered at one
season & parched at another. I have given you the cape months I suppose you
will vice versa for England -- The new Drakaea you mention is very scarce
indeed in the Falklands, remark the immense long funiculi of the seed, I have an
mss [manuscript] description of it, it is not a true Draka[ea].
How flattering old L[or]d. Derby's *27 attentions to you are. Harvey *28 will do all he
can to get things for him I am sure, & I shall write on purpose from Rio; at any
rate he can send the wolf-fox & large rabbit house, I have one of the latter alive
now. I doubt if Penguins or Seals would cross the tropics. A pretty fellow Mr.
Belcher to show, & give away a collection of Chinese curiosities! I am told by
some of the flagship's here, who were to the China fleet, that he forced every
officer & man, on coming over the side, to deliver up to him any thing they had
begged, bought, borrowed, or stolen; & lay them on the capstern[sic] before they
went below.--We go from here to St. Helena & then we believe Ascension & then
Rio.
I am going to finish my letter to my mother so
Believe me your most affectionate son | Jos D Hooker [signature]
Sir Wm. J. Hooker | Old Gardens Kew | W London*
ENDNOTES
1. Stephen Ladislas Endlicher (1804--1849). Hungarian botanist, author of a
Genera Plantarum.
2. William Higgins Coleman (1816?--1863). English botanist
3. John Hutton Balfour (1808--1884). Scottish botanist
4. Charles Wilkes (1798--1877). American naval officer and explorer, led the
United States Exploring Expedition, 1838--1842.
5. Sir James Clark Ross (1800--1862). British naval officer and explorer known
for his exploration of the polar regions. Captain of the Antarctica expedition of
1839-1843, comprising the vessels HMS 'Erebus' and 'Terror'. Joseph Dalton
Hooker was the expedition's assistant surgeon on the 'Erebus'.
6. Rear Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort (1774-1857). Irish hydrographer, officer in
the British Royal Navy, creator of the Beaufort Scale for indicating wind force.
7. Alexander McLeay (1767--1848). Colonial Secretary for New South Wales.
8. Archibald McMurdo (1812--1875). British naval officer after whom several
Antarctic features are named.
9. General Sir Edward Sabine (1788--1883). Irish astronomer, geophysicist,
ornithologist, explorer, soldier and 30th President of the Royal Society.
10. Vice-Admiral Sir George Nathaniel Broke-Middleton, 3rd Baronet (1812-1887). Adopted the surname of Middleton in 1860 after inheriting the estate of his
cousin, Sir William Fowle Fowle Middleton.
11. Sir William Fowle Fowle Middleton (1784--1860). 2nd Baronet of Crowfield, &
Shrubland Park, Suff., cousin of George Nathaniel Broke-Middleton.
12. William Kirby (1759--1850). English entomologist, considered the 'Founder of
Entomology'.
13. Robert Brown (1773--1858). Scottish botanist and palaeobotanist, discoverer
of Brownian motion.
14. Admiral Sir Edward Belcher (1799--1877). British naval officer and explorer.
15. Reverend William Marsden Hind (1815--1894). Irish botanist.
16. Andrew Sinclair (1794--1861). British surgeon noted for his botanical
collections, New Zealand's second Colonial Secretary.
17. Reverend James Dalton, 1764--1843, Rector of Croft, English botanist.
18. Richard Moody (1813--1887). Lieutenant Governor of the Falkland Islands,
1841, later Governor in 1843.
19. Alexander J. Smith, Mate on the HMS 'Erebus'.
20. John Bull Whitington or J.B. Whitington, brother of G.T. Whitington, British
merchant who founded the Falkland Islands Commercial Fishery and Agricultural
Association.
21. Murrell Robinson Robinson (1821--1900). Appointed Deputy SurveyorGeneral to the Government of Cape Colony, Falkland Islands in 1846.
22. Sir John Eardley Eardley-Wilmot, 1st Baronet (1783--1847). British politician,
MP, then Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land [Tasmania].
23. Rear-Admiral Sir John Franklin (1786--1847). Lieutenant Governor of Van
Diemen's Land, Arctic explorer.
24. Frederick Marow Eardley-Wilmot (1812--1877). Lieutenant in the Royal
Artillery, set up a magnetic observatory at the Cape of Good Hope.
25. Possibly Eugene Borgeau (1813--1877). French botanical collector.
26. Carl Ferdinand Heinrich von Ludwig aka Baron von Ludwig (1784--1847).
German-born pharmacist, businessman and patron of the natural sciences,
started Cape Town's first botanic garden.
27. Edward Smith-Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby (1775--1851). English politician,
landowner, farmer, art collector and naturalist. Patron of the writer Edward Lear.
President of the Linnean Society from 1828--1833.
28. William Henry Harvey (1811--1866). Irish botanist.
Please note that work on this transcript is ongoing. Users are advised to study
electronic image(s) of this document where possible.