[[1]]
Churra [Cherrapunji]
Aug 8/ [18]50 *1
My dear father
We have returned to this place after a very fine trip to Nunklow on the borders of
Assam, by which we have added many hundreds <of> new & fine plants to our
collections. Your's of June 5th reached me the other day & today those of 16 & 23
came together ! Very many thanks for them all so full of news & interest to both Tom
<Thomas Thoson> & myself -- & now to answer them all.
I am very glad you had an interview with Jung Bahadur, & not sorry that he was
unfavourable (fide Kavanagh) to my Nepal trip, as that offers the best excuse for
giving up what no one in India could understand my relinquishing being on slender
ground. How the man can have the impudence to be unfavourable is a monstrous
thing & Lord D[alhousie] will be savage enough in his heart I know, as I believe he
set his mind on my going to the Nepal snows.
[[2]] I however now care nought for his J.B.s motives or wishes & the sooner such
matters are definitely banished <from> one's mind the better. What glorious times
the little man seems to have had & you too seem to bloom with him in a remarkably
refreshing manner. Lord Hardinge is a you describe him a perfect gentleman & a
most kind hearted one -- have you seen his son Chas. H[ardinge].? a very superior
person & young Arthur, the little Adonis -- a very opposite & dissipated rogue.
So both Ld. Jn [John Russell] & Ld Seymour shake their heads at paying my
passage home. This is too atrociously shabby for comment but I care little about it in
comparison with what is to be done on my return & that is a puzzle. In the first place
(you perhaps will not believe it) you cannot house my collection during arrangement,
& if Thomsons & other Indian ones are to be done with them still less can you. I have
collected now upwards of 7000 species including Crypt[ogam]s & I hope to have 9 or
10 000 before I go home. The bulk I sent to Calcutta [Kolkata] last
[[3]] March March is far greater than what went home by the "Queen"[.] I have already
here, around me, nearly the bulk of both together. All splendid specimens packed to
suffocation in vast sheets, & so packed that all must individually come out -- there is no
lifting sheet & specimen together to arrange. Paper has cost me nearly £100 since I
arrived in India & I have just sent to Jenkins for £10 worth more[,] also to Sylhet &
Calcutta. I am quite determined that my collection shall be the most important ever
formed in the same share of time by one individual, taking all things into
consideration, good preservation, interest, variety, & illustration by pen pencil &c. &c.
not to mention number of specimens. I can do nothing with these except I have both
leisure space & a sufficiency to live upon. The W.&.F. [Woods & Forests
Department] had much better give me Aiton's house, as it is, for the purpose, which
of itself would form a good ground for petitioning the Gov[ernmen]t to give me
support whilst publishing. I must recommence Fl. Ant. [Flora Antarctica] the moment
I get back to England, whether the Admiralty will give me £140 again per annum or
[[4]] or no, I must undertake the Geol[ogical]. Survey if nothing else is done for me, &
these are works of such a nature, that nothing would induct induce me to entertain the
notion of working up my Indian results at the same time, as an unpaid amateur.
Except the Govt. aid me, the results of my expedition, (except for the plants grown at
Kew) are pretty well thrown into the sea. I do not say this in any ill--skin or growling
mood -- but would wish you well to see[?] over the matter, & to remember, that I shall
have numerically more species than all the combined Indian collections distributed
by Wallich -- perhaps as many, & certainly much better specimens. My collection has
cost our Govt. fewer hundreds of pounds than W[allich]s. did his thousands, & every
specimen has been collected & dried under my own eyes, most with my own hand,
whilst of salary I have not enjoyed one shilling & my expenses to Govt. is little over
£1100. -I cannot feel too grateful for your unwearying exertion for me, & I feel far more for
your repeated disappointment than for my own. All I can do to merit
[[5]] the attention of Govt. I have tried to do & I will go on till my return, straining
every nerve, even though they definitely refuse every thing presently & prospectively
-- once home to England & I work for money, & only for Govt. if Govt. will feed me &
house me.
I am so glad you are drawing up a list of my collections &c for Govt. as when my
1849 collections go home the matter will be--come too grave for even a Govt. to shut
their eyes. Thuillier sends both my original map of Sikkim & a copy home by this mail
for you, & that is a thing that can be looked at, as can drawings, & you may depend
upon my leaving no stone unturned to merit the great energy warmth & devotion with
which you wrestle on.
I have well pondered all you say about applying to Lord D[alhousie]. & will tell you all
I know, he will never approach the Company on my behalf. The Court looked on my
going out, & his taking me out, as a job, they expected he was going to press me into
the Service as poor Lord Auckland did a Naval Ass[istan]t Surgeon amongst the
persons, who had no claims on the company. I did not expect at all, that he would
[[6]] have sanctioned Campbells outlay of £100 in Sikkim, which as it was, he
referred to the court at home, & pending their answer I am still liable for the whole
amount, & have had to put my name to a document of Govts. to that effect ! Lord
D[alhousie] would much rather give me 100 out of his pocket than ask the Court for it
for me; he sanctioned C[ampbel]s doing so in that form, which is quite another
matter. The Court too will do well if they put Thomson on a decent footing, my
stepping in there might do him harm & neither of us good. What I shall ask from Lord
D[alhousie] is a letter for or to Ld Jn <John Russell> or the Chancellor or Ld
Seymour & I hope he will give it -- though, holding science as "all humbug" as in his
heart I know he does, my hopes are more directed to his writing for me than for
science of for the public good. I am not proud however it is the gold I want & then I
shall set to work with heart & soul.
Ten thousand thanks for your exertions in re "Tom's time", our destinies are so
interwoven that whatever affects his prospects with the
[[7]] India House bears on mine, their employing him at home would [small hole in
letter] be a spur to our Govt. to do justice to my works as a Serv[an]t of theirs in India
& a combination of both would work well for all parties. Tom is well, hearty &
indefatigable under all disappointments he is a rare botanist & worker & a most
amiable well principled & good man, certainly the most valuable friend I ever formed.
He thinks of nothing but my good, works with & for me, encourages & hopes for the
best in the long run, liberal in all his sentiments cheerful & active -- you will find him a
very Planchon at naming plants too.
I am disgusted with Decaisne & if your plants[?] are not returned forthwith must write
him a letter cutting his acquaintance summarily.
You quite mistake me about Brown & the Athenaeum. I never supposed B[rown].
had any pique against me, or still less had done me mischief, what I said was that he
promised to bring me on in the council election of 1848, when to do so would have
been a complement worth paying for, he did not -- but brought Falconer on instead:
whilst the length of time my name has been on the books, bring it now so near that of
election by ordinary
[[8]] routine, that the time for doing so as an honour or a compliment is gone by [small hole in
letter] would not have grudged the £36,[] for the distinction of coming on early would
have been very great, little as I feel I could or should afford it -- how I feel hurt at
Brown's neglect, & do not see how under my present discouraging prospects I shall
be able to afford £36 & £6 a year, on my return, for half a dozen dinners, to none of
which I can take Tom, who will I hope be my constant companion in London, & who,
even if inclined would never become a member under 5 or 6 years -- voila tout. As to
Jock Smith I am most heartily glad you can give so flourishing an ac[coun]t. of his &
my things, but to tell truth, I asked so often about other seeds besides
Rhod[odendron]s & what Jock was doing with them that I began to fear the worst. I
was very anxious about the Larch & Rhubarb which your last tells me of, to my
delight -- which Codonopsis, Bucklandia, Rubi[aceae], Lardizabs. Primulas,
Canapthus[?], Mecanopsis, Lonicerae[,] Balsams &c, are perhaps likely to prove
more generally useful than the Rhododendron in flower gardens. I am now hard at
work colleting fern & other seeds here & sending you stores to Falconer's care.
About my funds I am grieved to say that I made very different calculation.
[[9]] from your memo to meet my expenses of £1100. In the first place you gave me
£500 not 400) for the first year, & I certainly thought (but perhaps misunderstood
something you said) about £400 being always rated as £500, you my dear father
making up the difference. I am very sorry if I was wrong in taking up what I thought
you said. Hence the your statement of 800 for 1848 & 9 I regarded as £1000 & it certainly was
bona fide £900. Again still less did I contemplate a reduction of my salary for 1850 to
£300 believing fully that the W.& F. [Woods & Forests Department] would eventually
not only make that up in one way or another & but pay my passage home. Again, if,
as I urged, you had always sent me out the money instead of leaving me to draw
bills on England I should have been greatly a gainer instead of the looser as I am to
the tune of I forget what percent. My Calcutta trip which I calculated would have
done Tom at least some good cost me well on to £100 & left him no richer than
before. To conclude I have here the means of making extraordinary collections for at
an expenditure, whereas in Sikkim more money would not have got many more
plants, & as I would rather be in debt to you than any other person I fear I must draw
on & hope you will pay my passage home for jug money[?] too. Your having £300 a
year more than when I left home has put me very much at [hole in paper] & I do not
intend to make myself uncomfortable if you will let [hole in paper] <me be> your
debter for £3 £400 more; or to let money in any way fash [hole in paper] till I am
finally put off the coach by the W. & F. in May 1851. [hole in paper] I strike work, -- till
then I shall work on for them with [hole in paper] <all my energy>, though I do not
expect 6d beyond what the £300 from them up to [hole in paper] time. Meanwhile the
C[hancellor]. of the E[xchequer]. may put his head in his own bag & I hope the W. &
F. will draw the string very tight round his neck. As to resources from India I have
never had a shilling but what I have told you of, though if inclined[?] to take service I
daresay I would feather my nest.
You mistake me about Cathcart's artists again there are 5, at salaries varying from
£2 to £4 £4.10 a month, the whole 5 do not turn out a drawing a day, no art[?] half
colored, as many are. Travelling as I do there would never be a stroke done by
Indian artists. I calculated the time & expense of Roxburgh's drawings, the other day,
you would hardly believe the amount of one & the other -- Wight is the only man who
has had good service (considering time & expense) out of Indian artists. The Garden
artists plague Falconer out of his life & would not go to Tenasserim with him. I am
sorry Bentham cannot name the plant -- I have loads of fine specimens but all ♂ I
never saw but one tree any where. Do your pleasure with the Rhododendron pts I
quite forgot all about them. We have only 4 Rhod[odendron]s here (perhaps 3) one is
from 2000[?] ft. Booth went to Dupplah[?] county East of Bhotan [Bhutan] & got a
splendid one I think R. Dalhousiae from a scrap Jenkins sent me -- he returns there
this cold weather
[[10]] it is a horrid country, deadly unhealthy, savage, impracticable. Jenkins most
candidly & kindly put me off Upper Assam altogether. I would quite as soon any
friend of mine went to W. Africa. He Booth will try to penetrate to the snow! I wish him
all success but have more fears than doubts. He will get wondrous plants. I took
angles of the snowy peaks there & to the west[war]d (nearly as far as Sikkim) from
these Mts the other day -- at distances of 160 to 200 miles !!! N.E., N., & N.W. there
are 3 splendid snowy Mts where he is going, probably not under 25,000 ft. None of
these Mts are above 6500 or 7000 ft. Snow never falls but hoar--frost forms in winter
months. Griffiths book is wretched & very inaccurate -- I have only[?] read his letters
&c carefully lately & find horrid slaps at Brown ! Found Benthamia at last to my great
joy. We have 25 Balsams already. Lobb arrived today ! to the great amusement of all
the people *2
here for when here before he snubbed the hills & their plants, being naturally jealous
of other parties sending the fine things home, he is a remarkably steady honest
industrious hard working & intelligent man but ridiculously conceited & opinionative
when you come to converse with him. We expect great fun[?] with him. We had
accommodation for him here, but he met Col[onel]. Lister on his way up who sent
him to his house. Simon's[?] (Jenkin's man) we put on his mettle & he found
Cardiopteris at last ! he (S[imons].) will be of immense service to us all. When my
map of Sikkim goes home pray send it or copy to Mr Melvile or Auber Leach & offer
to lend it if of any service. It might do me good if the Chairman India House saw it, &
L[or]d Seymour. It would be no use my promising to send live birds to L[or]d Derby I
could not take the charge or trouble at any remuneration -- his ungentleman like
neglect of me at Knowlsley[sic] should not be an obstacle I assure you if I could -- I
cannot go above 26 or 30 miles East of this safely -- the Jynta Rajah *3
rather a savage -- The country too, like what Griffiths traversed further East, &
Jenkins says of Munnipore is too much Bamboo & heavy lumber for good botany. It
is difficult for you to understand this. You shall have Plectocomia of course & all
other palms of this region. No ripe seeds for 2 months to come of any. Does
Bentham know an Acanth. with a solitary ascending ovule? I have a lot of such funny
things as will make Brown jump as if pins was in his chair. ((Is the last number of
Fl. Jav. out he shan't see Cardiopteris till it is. Best love & thanks to mamma for her
letter. Your most aff[ectionate] son Jos D Hooker [signature]
P.S. I have the vol of Griffiths -- you may perhaps forget I took it with your leave,
Planchon assuring us you had all the papers elsewhere. I have had the palms
completed.
ENDNOTES
1. An annotation written in another hand records that the letter was "recd. Oct 19th."
2. 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 "via
Marseilles | Sir W. J. Hooker | Royal Gardens | Kew | near London".
3. Text continues vertically along side of page.
4. This postscript is emphasised with two lines to one side.
Please note that work on this transcript is ongoing. Users are advised to study
electronic image(s) of this document where possible.