[[1]]
Camp Sikkim Himal.
1 march above Lachen
10000 ft
July 5 [18]49
My dear Father
I was very sorry to have to send a dispatch of letters on to Darjeeling this morning
& none to you but I could not keep the coolies except to close the letters in my
portfolio, amongst which was one to Lindley who I begged to inform you of my well
being. We have had a hard time since visiting last to you the bridges are all swept
away by the rains & this is the first day we have had food for the last ten past, my
little stash of cocoa[?] dwindled with my 12 people & this with herbs kept us going
& drying plants & drawing do not call for much nourishment. I spent 10 days
waiting in the gorge whence last I wrote, for a fine day to proceed with my
explorations but it rained & blew every day with dense mist & drizzle so that we
were constantly wet & very uncomfortable. On the 1st. July it cleared up & I
reconnoitred & found the route to be across the river now wholly inaccessible & I
therefore left on the 2d. & slept at the foot of the hills & on the 3d. came down here
to my old camping ground at the fork immediately above Lachen. The Bhotheas
annoyed us sadly, first by messages that the Chinese Lepas[sic] were coming to
drive me away & plunder my goods & peoples. I left some plants & papers & two
lads at the sheds at the foot of the valley who came running up one morning in
perfect terror to tell me the Thibetans [Tibetans] had come in a party of 60 turned
my plants out of the sheds
[[2]] into the rain & were coming to rout me out next morning at day break. In the
mean time they sent a message for me to come down at once, to which I paid no
heed & then came another to know why I gave no answer & how long I intended to
stay. I ordered Meepo to go down & bring up my things but he was in too great a
fright; the coolie Sirdar[?] however volunteered to go on my assurance that it was
all a trick & bluster & that I would go myself & alone if he & Meepo did not: so
down they went with 3 stout men brought up the plants & a deal of abuse & threats
for me. they reported 60 people part Sikkim & part huge Thibetans who called
themselves Sikars. The things being given up gave my poor timid Lepchas
confidence in my assurance that it was all a hoax. However next morning was to
prove and sure enough as I was sitting drawing on my bed with a cup of Tea on
one side it was "Jenny Lass who's coming?" & all "the wild Macraw" were winding
up the glen. Twenty of the most uncouth barbarians you ever set eyes on gathered
at the mouth of my tent dressed in scanty tattered blankets kiltes[sic?] with long
knifes, long brass pipes & long matted hair bare legged, bare headed & bare
legged, they reminded me most forcibly of Scotts tales -- I scarcely deigned to lift
my head & look at them, but let them gather as they pleased. & then sent to ask
what they wanted here. -- to speak to the Sahib. I said they must
[[3]] report to me who they individually were, which they refused to do yesterday &
only gave insolence to my Sirdars. It turned out that every man was a Sikkim
Bhothea & the Thibetans had all run away the previous night! I then sent word to
the head man that he must send every one of his ragtag & bobtail away as I would
not speak to him either, this he did with some trouble, as a few were contumacious
& when he came to my tent I took him soundly to task for frightening my people
detaining my things & giving insolence; having raked him soundly & taken all his
answers down on a big sheet of paper I sent him about his business & have seen
no more of the Bhotheas since! Can you fancy? such fools!; if you give in an inch it
is all up, if you get the upper hand an inch you may bully & swagger & knock them
down like nine pins. Really I do not know whether I was in Thibet or no, certainly
not on plateau, but the boundary is S[outh]. of the plateau at Lateng [Litang?],
whither I go, N[orth]. E[ast]. from this in a day or two. Two loads of rice came this
morning for my people have found a long & circuitous route to Choongtam, as this
only saves 4 days I had to send them back without a minutes delay -- in the mean
time two more arrived, 18 days from Darjeeling bringing me part of a good supply
sent by H.I.C. [Honorable India Company?] to Choongtam but they brought only
sugar pepper tea with a little flour rice & biscuit -- I send them back tomorrow with
this. Also they brought letters from Campbell & yours'[sic] enclosing Humboldt's of
May 7th. arrived at Bombay *1 in 34 days! I have
[[4]] just got my Garden bills from Falconer for the last 18 months 350, which is all
for paper postage of English letters & sch like, it is most moderate & I am not charged a
shilling for any thing that the Garden could give gratis. My serv[an]t: Clements
says he is so ill in Calcutta *2 that he cannot come back -- a very great loss,
Falconer has engaged me another man called de Cruz[?] one of the Del crusca[?]
family I suppose. My present man is intolerably dirty & stupid but a willing honest
creature & dries plants extremely carefully & well. All plant drying now falls on my
hands with the Lepchas & I assure you in this weather the toil is great --. The
harvest on the other hand is passing rich & I cannot give you any idea of the
richness & beauty of the vegetation here, if one had but good weather & freedom
from annoyance this would be charming work. A red rose is now in flower the most
splendid thing I ever saw, the scarlet flowers larger than the palm of my hand & in
profusion; both Deutzia, Philadelphus true, & Spiraea are loaded with blossom, the
ground is purple with Roscoea & Prunella Veronica Aster & I cannot tell what all. I
am doing my very best at drying & drawing. I have written to Darjeeling for a tin
case to send home my Rhodod[endron]. drawings; the specimens will not be
[[5]] able to go for months -- so you may ease your mind on that score at once,
part are at Dorjiling [Darjeeling] whither I cannot repair to send them you & it will
be long ere all are dry enough. I can vouch for the fidelity of the drawings but do
not ask any one to believe them till they see the specimens. I sent roots of the red
Rose to Dorjiling by the coolies but only 10, as they must run to Choongtam for
food for us -- & as they will be planted at D[arjeeling]. you may depend on cuttings
or roots reaching Kew. I cannot send Rhod[odendron]: roots from here we are so
cut off. I shall catch the send time this year though. I have such curious new
genera, a most funny one allied to Lonicera that stinks like comfrey & is
herbaceous in the stems, another allied to Parnassia, to Orobanche, to Paris with
3 reflexed sepals -- to Andromeda a beautiful thing with racemes of red flowers &
the stamens in two rows. -- to Ericeae ? genita anomalous -- to Soldanella -- to
Dodecatheon -- to Androsace. to Lardizabala I told Bentham of & to Gangaceae.
The multitude of herbs & flowers & flowering trees is wonderful. Darjiling at this
season is nothing to this elevation & Latitude, yet I have not a Campanula or
Lobelia, but one or two Cerupes & two Saxifrages, 8 Crucifer. all these orders are
late flowering. A yellow Memphis with flowers as big as your hand is great
racemes grow 5 ft high, a purple nodding, flowered one 3ft. Thalictrum 9 feet -Choklibi (a Smilacina ?) & three Polygonata all to feet! Neillia with its beautiful
pearly flowers swarms close to my tent door & the scent of Wallichs Lilium
gigantea 5ft high is wafted in by the breeze. Terrest[rial] orchid are only now
coming at Ara & Arisaema going off with Primula of which I have 15 species.
Nardostachys (genuine Patchouli) was coming into flower at 13000 ft I am
collecting its fragrant roots, also roots of Picrorhiza teeta, two Rhubarbs, Aconite
(true Bikh) & various other things -- I have woods of all the pines now for you &
only want Taxus & the exotic Juniper which is not planted any where on the Teesta
river (only at the G[rea]t Rungeet convents). I have also many other woods
carefully labelled.
Unfortunately I have lost my Pocket lens which I have worn now 11 years, please
get me another Mr Ward knows where. I want very good one with 3 or 4 large plane-convex lenses I will go as high as 20/ or more -- Mr Ward got two for Thomson some
years back & will no doubt do the civil for me, I do want a good one & not mind a
few shillings more.
July 6. The Two coolies go this morning as I must send to Darjiling word that the
Rajah has sent a respectable man to smooth all difficulties -- I suppose Campbell
has been threatening the R[ajah]. for the latter sends me a present of a superb
piece of chocolate cold silk 8 or 9 yards long flowered & worked with gold green &
crimson & two rolls of finest Thibetan cloth (woollen) the Ranee (his wife) some
silk work & a basket of Sultana raisins & a curious fruit I do not recognise but
which you perhaps know -- it is as resembles a fig with a woody calyx & or capsule
below is a dried pulp with
[[6]] two to six of the seeds enclosed pendulous -- The seed ridulate in pulp & look
moist. The name is Gŭndrōom & it is said to come from China but more probably
Persia perhaps the woody capule[sic] is part of a woody covering to all the pulp. I
have put some aside for you; which I consider a special martyrdom to Science as I
am awfully hungry & the raisins are so beastly dirty I can hardly eat them. The
Gundroom is sweet but as hard as horn -- Do tell me what it is -- my Calcutta man
does not know it in the Calc[utta]. Bazaar. [a small illustration of the Gundroom
appears here labelled 'woody' and in another hand 'Dispyros'].*3
I am very sorry you cannot get a man for Ceylon *4. I thought Thwaites would have
taken to Systematic Botany -- of which he was forming a small collection & began
to study -- but I suppose the inaccessibility of books damped his ardour[sic]. his
mother's precarious health & his charge & support of a large family of small
brothers & sisters are I expect his real motives. I will write to him without reference
to Ceylon & urge on him the necessity of looking over the tubes of his microscope.
Whoever goes to Ceylon should give his whole duties to the garden & Systematic
Botany. & take the microscope as a recreation only. Just now there is a
microscope rage & it will calm like all other fevers. I have no time to write more &
will prepare a letter for Frances [Henslow] by next mail Best love to Bessy & all
your most affectionate son Jos D Hooker [signature]
The list of undescribed[?] Orchideae Smith sent are no doubt all mine[.] I have
written such a letter to Falconer as will produce a different train of things or a
quarrel[.] Don't send any one to Ceylon in a hurry either Cergimupore[?] or the
dirty Ralph, Wallich's recommendations are generally very bad.
ENDNOTES
1. The city formerly known as Bombay is now called Mumbai.
2. The city formerly known as Calcutta is now called Kolkata.
3. 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:
'Paid Southampton | Sir W. J. Hooker | Royal Gardens | Kew | Nr London.
4. The country formerly known as Ceylon is now called Sri Lanka.
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