[[1]]
H.M.S. "Erebus" Hobart Town Van Dieman's Land
November 9th, 1840
My dear Father,
This shall be the last letter that I shall have an opportunity of addressing to you
for some time, except some chance whaler at the Southward should cross our
track. We are now all ready for sea & as is invariably the case at such times the
wind is foul & we are in status quo all ready for up anchor, with the Governor on
board who will go a little way down the channel with us. So Mr. Brown *1 has
received the plants I sent home, I am sorry for it because bad as they were, after
you having described the plants of the former voyages, they ought, as a common
compliment to have been handed over to you, however there is no one that I
could have liked them to be sent to better than Mr. Brown. You say he was
pleased with my notes, as far as I remember they were very few indeed, I have
many now of the Kerguelen's Land plants and more of those of this colony,
chiefly of Orchidae but had I dreamt of the former going to Brown, I should have
been afraid to send them--I really think that he will be pleased with the collection
made in this Island where I assure you I have spared neither trouble or expense,
none of them however are arranged & all I send home at present are some
duplicates for you, picked out in a hurry to show you I have not been idle, they go
privately through Mr. Gunn *2, they exclude Orchidae & Gum trees &
Cryptogamia but of all I have a complete & very good set for you, amounting to
about 400 sp[ecies] of flowering plants. Amongst Mr. Gunn's collections are
many of mine which you will find acknowledged, I thought it only fair to half my
stock with him of the rare & curious, for I am very much indebted to him indeed--I
hope sincerely that Lord Monteagle *3 will procure Kew for you if it is only for the
quiet life & it would please me much to live with you in so snug a quarter. You are
a capital correspondent especially in giving accounts of old friends which please
me exceedingly. Fitch *4 is well & with you still, there to continue I hope, give him
my kindest & best wishes, I should much like to find him ensconced at home; his
picture of Skye is really most excellent & pleases me very much[.] I like those
sort of little presents more than any thing--The news of Gardner *5 is excellent[.] I
now often think that his first collections did not please you at all--I am very sorry
that Harvey *6 goes to the Cape again, for I dread his again being affected, you
have heard that one of the Ecklon's[sic] has gone in the same manner; his Cape
letter of Introd[uction] was only one to the governor & as he would only have
invited me to dinner I would not deliver it. Poor William *7 I am very sorry for him
indeed, we have lots of mosquitoes here about the size of a small English gnat,
but they do not trouble me much. Cummings*8 success is great & I am glad that
he beat me at St. Helena, since the plants were so interesting, if we call there on
our return I shall do better, I have got more into the way of it now -- I think of Mr.
Arnott *9 now as one of our family, he was always an inseparable friend & now
from his kindness to poor William *10 I am doubly attached to him, it would give
me great joy to hear of him as in your chair & you none the worse, I wish he
would take Invereck if he stays in Glasgow, you have no idea how much I was
attached to that spot. You could not do better than to take Bessy *11 to Dr.
Jephson's & I feel very confident of the result. Poor girl I hope I shall not
[[2]] hear of her again as an invalid. -- of poor Grandpapa I do not know what to
think or ask all affectionate remembrances may arrive too late, I can quite
imagine his death bed. Maria *12 & Mamma *13 are all well of course, I have
written to both if I could I would write d[itt]o[?] letters to all hands--my little niece,
too, is, I suppose, all right, Mamma & Maria will I know attend to it & will not, if
possible, let the mother spoil it. I have written half a letter to Brown or rather did
so from Kerguelen's Land but now that the plants have gone to him, I begin to
fear that I may have committed myself, he is so dreadfully acute. Can you send
Mr. Gunn a portrait of him it would please him exceedingly--when here he lived I
suppose at a place now called Risdon, where Mr. Gunn & I collected a new
Eucalyptus with connate leaves & a new Cryptandra, Cruciferous plant &, when
there, I staid[sic] with a Mr. Gregson *14 one of the first gentlemen here, whose
son *15 is most steady & for one bred here[,] a most clever young fellow[,] goes
home with Johnstone & takes a letter of Introd[uction] from me to you & Uncle
Palgrave *16. Gregson is one of the few that came out here as a gentleman with
private property, he is both talented & accomplished. [H]is property includes a
great deal of what must have been Brown's Botanizing country, I wish you would
ask him about it & if he knows the hill here covered with grass trees.
(Xanthorrhoea's). Lady Franklin *17 is a most queer person, very good at heart I
believe, & would like to show me kindness but does not understand how & I hate
dancing attendance at Government house, I have dined there 5 or 6 times. Old
Sir John*18 is a good hearted old fellow but she is the governor. She very kindly
invited me to go to Port Arthur in their yacht to botanize, we were three days
away 2 of them at sea & the third a Sunday rained furiously[.] I got about 500
specimens on Monday & a few after service on Sunday though Lady F[ranklin]
did not like it & very properly, but I thought it excusable as being my only chance
of gathering Anopterus glandulosus. [D]o not think this as being habit. Capt.
Ross *19 is too strict, were there no other reasons--out of my 500 Lady F[ranklin]
wishes for some & Capt. Crozier *20 for some & Miss Craycroft[sic] *21 for more, &
how could I refuse so situated & having to think it an honor to be asked for them,
however I weathered as much as I could, & by dint of some plants from the
Paddock opposite the ships have made up their collections quite to their
satisfaction--I am just interrupted by two pretty specimens of fossil wood brought
to me, if I can I shall send them to Gunn for you--you would hardly believe it, but
Mr. & Mrs. Gunn are the only persons I have had to take leave of in Hobart
Town--except the officers of the 51st.. I know no other persons here & they
appreciate me much more than if I had been gay[,] they are a set of excellent
fellows the very best regiment I ever saw.--Mr. Gunn's kindness to me was
beyond my expectations.--Since being here I have collected nothing but plants
and fossil wood & if my former sketches pleased Brown much more will those I
have made here though there should be more yet than are made. Mr. Ward *22
has written me a nice long letter & sent a copy of Meyen's *23 book by Francis it is
the only new Bot[any] book I have to take to the Southward--what you have so
very kindly sent on two occasions have not yet arrived, I expect it on account of
the German books more than any others. I have however a dictionary from Gunn
but can get no books here. Jorgen Jorgenson *24 had nearly skipped my mind--I
have seen him one or twice[,] but he is quite incorrigable[sic], his drunken wife
has lately died & left a more drunken widower, he was always in that state when I
saw him, & used to cry about you[.] I have consulted several persons who have
shown him kindness about him & have offered money & every thing, but he is
unreclaimable, telling the truth with him is quite an effort. When once openly
employed
[[3]] by his friends against some bush rangers he was at the same time betraying
his employers, he wrote to me asking me to lend him your tour in Iceland, Mr.
Gunn was luckily present & told me that he had had a copy lent him many
months ago & still had not returned--He lives entirely at the Tap, where he picks
up a livelyhood[sic] by practicing as a sort of Hedge layer, drawing out petitions
&c.--||Lady Franklin asks me often about a gardener for her gardens, she wrote
to you before about one[.] [S]he would ensure such a one £70 or 100 a year, with
a good house & of course could get kitchen stuff[,] cow feed &c I told her you had
done & would still do all you could[.] It would be a very fair situation for any young
man who would not mind engaging himself for a term of 5 years or so, his
passage west would be provided; livings at the gardens about 5 miles from Town
would be very cheap, it is the Town here that is so expensive & in Lady F[ranklin]
he would find a most kind friend & mistress -- We are now about to start on the
most interesting part of the voyage, as far as a voyage is concerned, I cannot
inform you how long it will be before we return here, nor does any one know, but
shall go from this to Campbell's Island where I shall collect largely, especially of
seaweeds I hope with more comfort than at K.G. [Kerguelen's] Land, where I
used to scrape off the snow like a Reindeer, or sit on tufts of mosses to thaw
them before gathering them. We shall be at C[ampbell's] Island for more than a
month, then start toward the land the [F]rench have discovered, after that trace
the coast as far as practicable, & either winter there or return here next Autumn, I
am quite indifferent as to which;--all hands are in the best health & spirits, & for
my part, I am anxious to get to this far famed ice & so are all of us. I have plenty
to do at the S[outhward] with my V[an] D[iemans] L[and] plants & notes, I have
besides two bottles of Orchidae[,] & odds & ends to sketch, immersed, the one in
gin, the other in Pyr[uvic?] acid. My collections I think improve as I go on, at least
the collecting comes with more facility to me, but this season has been a most
unusually wet & backward out here; all yesterday it was raining and to day the
same. Capt. Biscoe *25 sometimes comes off to mess with us, his is a very nice
fellow[.] he has been (I was told) at Campbell's Island & says it is covered with a
sort of brushwood--I devoutly hope so, but that it was always blowing, snowing &
fogging there[.] The harbor is however good, another edition of Kerguelen's Land
I suppose. I know I shall be happy there for I was sorry at leaving Xmas harbor;
by finding food for the mind one may grow attached to the most wretched spots
on the globe--yet hitherto I fear I have rather played with Botany than done any
good at it. We shall not visit New Zealand till our return, whether we go any
where else or no I cannot tell. Wardian cases are sadly ticklish things to take to
sea, our hatches are so small that they cannot be [1 word deleted illeg.] taken
below when full, they are a sad annoyance to the first Lieutenant, who is luckily a
good friend of mine, a good sea breaking over us demolishes the glass at once;
out of the 18 plants I brought from K.G.[Kerguelan's] Land only 5 survived, those
three days, the cabbage is among them, the Compos[itae], the Ranunculus & 2
grasses. All grew close to high water mark -- Mr. Gregson has some of my
Cabbage seed growing & Capt. Forman *26 of the 51st has many more[.] I am
taking strawberries, Rasp[berries], gooseberries & currants to Campbell Island,
we are going to leave there fowls--pigs--goats--sheep & rabbits. Mr. Evans *27
tells me that there been a long discussion about the Wardia & that you have
come off victorious; Harvey you know is not the original discoverer. [T]here is an
sp[ecies] in your herb[arium] from some German out of fruit. You have long ere
this received McCormick *28 & Capt. Ross's letters concerning my health. I have a
letter half finished to Mamma & hope to have time
[[4]] to finish it but letter writing takes me so long & we may be off in an hour. Mr.
Bentham *29 has one in a similar state, both were begun long ago. We have to go
to sea without a Steward, our's[sic], an excellent man, having been sent to the
Hospital, so we shall have to provide very much for ourselves thought it is a sad
loss, & we have tried all we can for another but cannot get one. I have written to
Thomson *30 & hope he will collect, especially if he should be sent with any troops
to China or Persia. I owe letters too to Bessy & Mary *31, also to Aunt Elizabeth *32
who has most kindly written to me. The old governor goes down with us about 10
or 12 miles & returns again. I have left the remainder of my money with Gunn to
send to you to cancel my unjustifiable debt to W[illia]m & also the £2.1 I owed
you by Smith[.] I do not know how much Gunn has to send, as not wanting
money myself, I emptied my pockets to him after cancelling the mess debts--if
there is any thing over pray employ it as you think best, *33 especially for my little
niece. No one can be more ignorant of the money matters in our family than I am,
it is a subject that never comes into my head & only does now because I have
been urged to tell you, that it is well worth while sending any money to this
Colony to be put out at a certain interest of 10--14 P[er] C[ent] or to invest at
much more profit in Land or sheep. Mr. Gunn would willingly be surety & so
would Sir John Franklin that nothing happened to it. I merely suggest this to you:
should you think of it I may tell you that Mr. Gunn invariably[?] bears the
character here of the strictest integrity--When I return I hope to send you a
cheque that will cover the money you have laid out on the books you have
bought me before & since leaving England. In the mean time believe me your
most affectionate Son Jos D Hooker [signature]
ENDNOTES
1. Robert Brown (1773--1858). Scottish botanist and palaeobotanist, discoverer
of Brownian motion.
2. Ronald Campbell Gunn (1808--1881). South African born Tasmanian botanist
and politician.
3. Thomas Spring Rice (1790--1866). 1st Baron Monteagle of Brandon, British
Whig politician.
4. Walter Hood Fitch (1817--1892). Scottish botanical illustrator.
5. George Gardner (1810--1849). Scottish naturalist.
6. William Henry Harvey (1811--1866). Irish botanist.
7. John George Champion (1850--1896). English soldier, botanist and explorer.
8. R. H. Cummings, Botanist.
9. George Arnott Walker--Arnott (1799--1868). Scottish botanist.
10. William Dawson Hooker (1816--1840). Older brother of Joseph Dalton
Hooker.
11. Elizabeth Hooker (1820--1898). Sister of Joseph Dalton Hooker.
12. Maria Hooker (1819--1889). Sister of Joseph Dalton Hooker.
13. Maria Turner Hooker (1797--1872). Wife of William Jackson Hooker & mother
of Joseph Dalton Hooker.
14. Thomas George Gregson (1798--1874). Second Premier of Tasmania, 1857.
15. John Compton Gregson (1821--1867). Tasmanian politician.
16. Sir Francis Palgrave (1788--1861). English archivist and historian
17. Lady Jane Franklin (1791--1875). Early Tasmanian pioneer, traveler and
second wife of the explorer, Sir John Franklin. Sir John Franklin was Lieutenant
Governor of Tasmania from 1837--1843.
18. Rear-Admiral Sir John Franklin (1786--1847). Lieutenant Governor of Van
Diemen's Land 1837--1843, Arctic explorer.
19. Sir James Clark Ross (1800--1862). Commander of the Antarctic expedition
(1839 to 1843), captain of HMS 'Erebus'.
20. Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier (1796--1848). Second in command of the
Ross Antarctic expedition, captain of HMS 'Terror'.
21. Sophia Cracroft (1816--1892). Niece of Lady Franklin.
22. Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward (1791--1868). Popularized glass cases for
transporting plants which became known as 'Wardian cases'.
23. Franz Meyen (1804--1840). Prussian physician and botanist.
24. Jørgen Jørgensen (1780--1841). Danish adventurer, writer, nicknamed
'Jørgen the Dog--Days King' in Iceland.
25. John Biscoe (1794--1843). English mariner and Antarctic explorer.
26. Edward Forman, died 1852 in Hobart, Captain HM 51st Kings Own Light
Infantry, 2nd Yorkshire West Riding.
27. Possibly George William Evans (1780--1852). Surveyor, early explorer of
New South Wales.
28. Robert McCormick (1800--1890). Surgeon on HMS 'Erebus'.
29. George Bentham (1800--1884). English botanist.
30. Thomas Thomson (1817--1878). Scottish surgeon with British East India
Company and botanist.
31. Mary Harriet Hooker (1825--1841). Sister of Joseph Dalton Hooker.
32. Elizabeth Turner Palgrave (1799--1852). Sister of Joseph Hooker's mother
Maria Turner Hooker.
33. The address of the recipient appears here as the letter would originally have
been folded in such a way that it formed its own 'envelope'. The address reads:
"To | Sir Wm. J. Hooker | Woodside Crescent | Glasgow | N[orth].B[ritain]."
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