[[1]]
Darjeeling
June 10th. 1848. *1
My dear Mother
I have now many letters to thank you for, all of which have arrived in good time &
safely. Two indeed came in the same week though posted at intervals of a fortnight
owing to more rapid passage of the Steamers. I now write from the home of B. H.
Hodgson Eqr. *2 a very nice place & belonging to one of the most liberal of people a
man too of great attainments & accomplishments. Mr H[odgson]. was Political
Resident at Neapul [Nepal] for many years, when he lived like a prince at the
Nepalese Court. From this position he was forced by Ld Ellenborough during one of
the mad fits of that nobleman when bent on overturning all that Lord Auckland had
previously done, good & bad. Hodgson not only threw up his position but most
foolishly his commission in the E.I.C.S. *3 in disgust went home for redress & was
assured by the court that had he retained his commission they would have replaced
him at Nepaul! -- Hodgson thus thrown in the world & on scanty pensions for he
never laid by 1/ of his enormous salary retired hither where he lives in seclusion
carrying on his Zoological & Ethnological pursuits. The Hodgson collection at the
Brit[ish]. Mus[eum]. was all his formation at a most enormous expense -- Gray *4 as
is well known published the appended catalogue of genera,
[[2]] families & species much of the later new as his own, so you may expect him to
abuse Hodgson who further quarrelled furiously with G[ray]. who wanted to grab
more than his share of the species: Hodgson is a great friend of the Colviles & of Ld
Auckland whose principles he praises more than his ability or policy. Here I am good
800 ft above my former residence & consequently more like Olympian Jove in my
attributes, daily surrounded with clouds. The rains of have fairly set in & it sometimes
pours 8 or 10 (they say it will 50 or 60) hours consecutively. The ground is so high
however that the drainage is excellent & the dampness of the atmosphere is more
than that of the ground. Good as this climate is for Europeans it is death to natives of
the plains of whom I have now none, having been only too glad to get my two
collectors off my hands alive. My Portuguese serv[an]t remains with me & I have 5
Lepchas as the natives of these Mts are called, a horribly dirty good natured active &
kind hearted race who are always collecting & helping me to dry my papers.
[[3]] My prospects of reaching the snows are somewhat shadowy. The Sikkim Rajah
whose territories were once the prey of the Nepalese was replaced on his throne by
us (who thus keep the warlike ghorkas from overunning[sic] Bootan [Bhutan]). The
relative positions of the countries being thus *5. Unluckily we did not demand tribute
even minimal from the Rajah who at once fell under the influence of China, whose
policy is to rule the councils & heads but not the people of their three border powers
& by learning them a wholesome dread of the English exclude them latter from their
several states & prevent [one word crossed out, illeg.] our interference with the
Chinese trade from the East into Thibet [Tibet]. Darjeeling is a narrow strip of land
running N[orth]. into the heart of Sikim[sic] about half way to the snow. It was bought
from the Rajah to be a sanatorium for rich Europeans (as Simla Mussoorie, Ninne-Tal [Nainital], Almorah &c are) we paid 3000 Rup[ees] for the freehold, also
stipulating that merchants should have
[[4]] a right to trade <in> Sikim[sic], but made no agreement of the sort for travellers
surveyors or any other class of people whom the savvy Rajah excludes from his
kingdom. Had we proceeded with any vigor in our policy, we might have still have
retained power over the Rajah, but I look on the conduct of the local gover[nmen]t at
Calcutta *6 & the Pol[itical]. Resid[ent]. here as weak to a degree & prejudicial to the
interests of the country. The Rajah who has not a soldier to his name refused to
allow the Surveyor general (a man whose Indian power & appointments would
astonish an Englishman), to visit a mt. 20 miles from this & not only the S[urveyor].
G[eneral]. but the Gov[ernmen]t who applied for him, only granting it when Col[onel]
Waugh, disgusted, both with the Rajah & gov[ernmen]t went (as I did a few days
ago) without the permission of either.
I have explained all this to Lord D[alhousie]. & asked him to send me to the snow
whether the Rajah likes it or no, offering to be the means of making any overtures to
the Prince that might render my mission less unacceptable than the appearance of
any Feringhi *7 must be[.] Dr Campbell the P[olitical]. R[esident]. recommended that
the
[[5]] Rajah's permission be asked, knowing as well as I & Ld. D[alhousie]. do that,
though the Rajah dare not refuse he dare withhold any answer at all, & thus place
our gov[ermen]t in the quandary of putting up with an insult or sending me with an
armed force. This Ld. D[alhousie]. saw as clearly as I did such is the Rajah's dread
of English that he has refused to receive an ambassador loaded with English
presents & when the hot headed Col[onel] Lloyd (who bargained for Darjeeling)
hunted him like a hare to strike the bargain in person he only met him with a river
between. In pushing my own way there is nothing to dread but want of provisions,
the Rajah is too weak even to put a traveller in confinement as China does, & too
much afraid of England, but they withold[sic] supplies & frighten your servants.
Hence all my wanderings have been hitherto only so far as I could carry provender
for myself & the men, & through the least inhabited parts of the country. Towards the
snow the country is more populous, the convents nunneries & villages numerous
(though small) & the people Booteas, a disagreeable & morose race, immigrants,
from the East into Sikim[sic]. What Ld D[alhousie]. will do I know
[[6]] not & he declares he cannot see his way. Elliott the Secretary to gov[ermen]t,
proposes "douce violence" with the Rajah & insisting on his behaving like a friendly
power; but this view cannot be supported in council. My own conviction is that were
the Rajah to allow me to visit the snowy passes China would punish him, not
ostensibly but indirectly, & the only profitable part of his revenue is derived from
Darjeeling (which did not yield him 200R. when we bought it) & a property called
Chumbi in Thibet, which he rents from China & is a fruitful place, yielding turnips
radishes & pine wood!
To proceed with Oriental crooked policy, Sir Herb[er]t Maddock (a Gover[erno]r of
Bengal during Ld. Hardinge's absence) in a fit of spleen, took it into his head that the
Rajah's rent received for Darjeeling (3000 Rup) was too low, blew up Dr C[ampbell]. the
Pol[itical] Resid[ent]. for allowing the poor prince to be treated so shabbily by
England, & voted the 3000 to be increased to 6000, without Rhyme or reason, &
more than that without stipulating for the Rajahs behaving more civilly to Europeans.
Campbell who
[[7]] ought to have flung the reprimand back in the Gov[erno]r's teeth & complained
of the injust[sic] treatment to the board, took it all quietly; doubled the Rajahs income
& thus threw away a fulcrum which would have moved the Himalayah to within our
reach. The Rajah is consequently more persuaded than ever of our foolishness &
desire to take his once valued kingdom, (of which we would not accept the gift). Is it
not almost incredible that a man can be so weak as to fear the very power which
placed him on his throne & to this day maintains him thereon from then being
trisected as Poland was, by the Ghorkas, Bootanese & Thibetans, any one of which
would swallow him up in an hour. -- Ld. D[alhousie]. has plenty of time now to think
of the affair as I cannot go till October, the rains & the unhealthiness of the intervening
valleys both precluding the attempt.
Major Jenkins writes me from Assam hurrying my visit there & assuring me of the
feasibility of visiting the snow in Bootan or at any rate by the Mishmee hills in upper
Assam. The latter is feasible, the former impossible, the Booteas being as jealous as
the Sikim[sic] Rajah, & with them as with Nepaul, we have no right to interfere. To
the Mishmees as but
[[8]] little beyond the Tea districts I shall certainly go with the objects of visiting the
Tea; getting complete collections of the vegetable products, arms & implements of
the tribes inhabiting those hills; reaching the snow if possible, & ascertaining the true
course of the Burrampooter [Brahmaputra], whether that be the Thibetan Tsampo or
not. To the N[orth]. W[est]. I can always get into little Thibet but that has now been
well explored by Thomson, so that I do not intend to go further N[orth]. W[est]. than
Kumaon, where the new Tea plantations under Jameson are, & where I shall met
Thomson next year & with him ascend the Niti pass & then into Thibet towards the
position of the Mansarovar lake, the loftiest table land in <this> globe most probably.
That I shall do this is more probable from the necessity of leaving Assam in March or
April when it becomes unhealthy, & my desire to see Thomson & the Tea plantations
in Kemaon [Kumaon] which are making a great move.
The Chinese mission is broken up, Capt[ain] Cunningham recalled, Strachey is
[[9]] in Thibet, no one knows where, & Thomson is allowed to prosecute his
researches for another year. This latter I am very glad of as I wrote to Sir Fred
Currie, who is thus I see taking an interest in him. I sent by last mail (or previous)
Tom's last letter to me for insertion in the Journal *8 & will communicate any further
ones.
Falconer is, I grieve to say, very ill in Calcutta having had to come up to the city for
advice & treatment: he wrote to me by an amanuensis, regretting not being able to
forward Niger Flora by that mail; it will go next, with the continuation down to the
orders intervening between Rhamneae & Leguminosae, of which I sent a sketch for
Planchon to work out. The Leguminosae I am now copying as fast as I can.
Tell my Father that Falconer forwarded me the acceptable packet sent free up here
& I cannot tell how delighted I am with it. Bennett has printed Galapagos very
carefully many thanks to him. Hodgson is delighted with the Kew guide. Lindley
tumbled open at the very page I wanted most to see oddly enough. The description
of the order Helwingiae of which I was sure
[[10]] I had a second species. Lindleys book is invaluable, no book half so useful for
a traveller, but the location of the Nat. Ords. miserably bad. How so clear a head can
have allowed analogy to guide him in place of affinity is most marvellous
I have again found Balanophora at an elevation of 8000 ft!. Tomorrow three loads of
live plants go down to Calcutta for Kew they include Rhododendrons, Palm, Arums,
Magnolias & very many other fine things; but all depends on the weather in the
plains below. We have been much[?] distressed at the death of poor Fred[eric]k
Drummond who I met in Purneah [Purnia] district on my way up: he & his party were
kindly anxious that I should accompany them Tiger shooting (I to botanize) last April, I
refused on the grounds of the unhealthyness of the season & anxiety to get on with
my much delayed passage to Darjeeling. Well! 7 of their servants died in one day of
Cholera & 4 days after his return Drummond took ill of Jungle Fever & was dead in
as many more. He was a very fine fellow & most deserving favourite with all. We had
just invited him to stay with us (Mr Barnes & myself) at Darjeeling & he would have
come had his live[sic] been spared. He is a son of Ld Stratheden, a Scottish
nobleman of small property who has many sons in India *9.
[[11]] The post is just in with letters from yourself, my Father, Francis & Eliz. Rigby
alack their receipt is damped by the enclosure from Calcutta written by one of the
Garden men & telling me that Falconer is very ill & suffering much. Should he be
taken away I do not know what I shall do about living plants which must be unpacked
& repacked in Calcutta. I have written to Gurney asking him to see him & execute
some little commissions for me.
My Father commences with the Niger Flora, a terrible heart sore with me & I only
long for the 6 weeks to be over which will place the first part in his hands. I am
extremely busy with my collections drawings & mss. now getting up sketches of
Rhododendrons & a good Journal for the Journal [of Botany], a "Carte
Geognostique" of the vegetation of this place from the plains to 10,000 ft (like
Humboldts of Chimborago) besides copying out the Niger Flora Leguminosae. I have
no excuse for my delays of the Niger Flora & only wish that throwing myself on his
mercy could do any good in speeding it to his hands.
[[12]] I hope by this mail to supply his pressing desideratum: the Ceylon *10 notes & to
go on with my work I break this off sans ceremonie
As I wrote a fortnight ago to Frances I hope she will forgive my not answering the
long & kind letter I have just received from her. I am making notes from readings &c
on the agriculture of the Himalayah for her Father which I will send him in the rough.
Best love to Betsy & all[?]
Your most affectionate son | Jos. D. Hooker. [signature]
ENDNOTES
1. Additional annotation records that the letter was received Aug. 27.
2. Brian Houghton Hodgson (1801? -- 1894). Naturalist and ethnologist who worked
in British India and Nepal. He lived in Nepal as a British Civil Servant and studied the
country's culture, language, architecture & religion.
3. East India Company Service.
4. John Edward Gray (1800--1875. Keeper of Zoology at the British museum from
1840--1874 published catalogues of Hodgson's collections, the first in 1846 and
another in 1863.
5. A small sketch map appears here showing the positions of British India, Nepaul
[Nepal], China Sikkim & Bootan [Bhutan] with an 'x' marking a small region
delineated within Sikkim.
6. The current name of the city Calcutta is Kolkata.
7. A European, especially Portuguese, born in India.
8. Probably referring to The London Journal of Botany.
9. The last part of this sentence has been obscured by the binding of the letters into
a volume and is not visible on the accompanying image.
10. The country formerly known as Ceylon is now called Sri Lanka.
Please note that work on this transcript is ongoing. Users are advised to study
electronic image(s) of this document where possible.