[[1]]
Seetakoond 25m[iles] N[orth]. of Chittagong
Jan[uar]y 13/1851
My dear Father
My letters all arrived in a bunch the day after my posting the Jan[uar]y Southampton
letters to you, & as I have written for a berth in the steamer which leaves Calcutta
[Kolkata] on the 7th February I need not make this very long. This will bring me to
England about the 22nd March. & there will probably be a couple of days delay at
South[hampto]n for Quarantine & Custom House.
Please write to your Custom House agent & ask him to let one of his agents, at
Southampton be ready with a note from himself, to meet the me on board South
Hindustan on Her arrival.
Though I have written for any accommodation, it is quite possible that at this full
season I may be disappointed, in getting a berth -- but as Mr Emmerson would I am
sure strain a point for me I do not expect this. I am I need not say much concerned at
hearing of your throat complaint & though not alarmed -- uneasy at the
[[2]] prospect of March winds & your not taking care of yourself. I showed Tom
]Thomas Thomson] your & my Mother's acc[oun]t. & he said at once it was all
stomach & analogous to Hooping[sic] cough. I am satisfied it is only a phase of your
complaint in 1845 -- when you know you had a constant deposit of thick brown mucus
over night that irritated you till breakfast, & which you often asked me about. I do
hope my dear Father you will be careful & rely much on Mr Webber's advice. When
you dine out you really should not drink wine, & eat but very little -- though you do
not feel the effects of them at the time still taken so late in the day they gradually do
much damage to the system & you may be sure that any deposits on the fawes[?]
throat or tongue in the morning unaccompanied by any organic complaint can arise
from the stomach alone being overloaded.
We all of us eat a great deal more than is good for us, that is a universal habit, &
people in India are worse than at home. Temperance in wine is stopping short of the
head being affected regardless of
[[3]] the stomach. & People call it moderation in eating to leave off on the first feeling
of tension. In both cases the stomach is overloaded. Many men can stand this sort of
work for a life--time. Most cannot. You & I are of the latter. I attribute my own health
in India to abstinence from wine beer & spirits, greatly as I like such things, & as
much to early meals, very few courses, generally but one of meats & potatoes, &
never eating too much as to feel distended. You will remark that I do not pretend to
have lived by rule, for I drink wine & beer when I can get them, & the consequence is
that after what most people call a temperate meal I have a restless night foul tongue
& sore eyes & the later I dine the worse it is. Such is my experience. I am not an
example, for I have no present intentions of binding myself to live as I ought
consistently with perfect health & prudence when I get home.
We have been getting some very good plants here, apparently unknown since
[William] Roxburgh's time, who received plants from this through his son I believe -Orchideae are however very few, & the higher hills at the back are inaccessible from
the
[[4]] savage nature of the Loochai--Kookies who are said to have taken 30 heads
from one Bengalli[sic] village last week. The interior ranges must be splendid
Botanizing but the climate is deadly except for the 3 winter months & the said
Kookies are not yet amenable to John company *1.
You have I think since unnecessarily alarmed yourself about "Chittagong Arracan &
Ceylon [Sri Lanka]"& forgotten my letters & your own. EG. of Tom's & my visit to his
relations at Chittagong I wrote you from Dajeeling in April -- To have gone there to
Arracan would not have taken 3 weeks including the passage to Calcutta [Kolkata].
My object was to see the hot springs, mud--volcanoes etc. & especially to get the
marine plants such as Rhizophora, Kandelia, Avicennia & many others which should
be drawn in the live state & of which you have I expect most wretched Herbarium
specimens[.] The monthly steamer would have taken me to Calcutta in time for the
March mail. As to Ceylon I do not comprehend your saying you never heard of it
except through the Gardeners Chronicle. Had I gone to Borneo I must have gone
first to Ceylon & awaited the Simapore steamer. & on that account & for my own
improvement I prepared then
[[5]] spending one month with [George] Gardner.
You virtually transferred this visit to Thwaites & told me that you thought the prospect
of meeting me there one of his great inducements to accepting the app[ointmen]t.
After Borneo was given up & Gardner dead, Ceylon was nothing to me but till you
made it something by what you told Thwaites. To tell you the truth I always feared
you spoke hastily on that point to Thwaites, as he is a person who, however much I
like & value, could not have been the benefit to me that Gardner would have been &
have made a delay & expense of a month worth the while. I therefore wrote him in
answer that I could only go to Ceylon if it was your desire, for that Gardner & especially
the Flora Zeylanica were my original objects -- both now at an end for the present. I
have not had Thwaites' answer to this & further fearing that as the time of my going
home drew near you would not approve, I wrote again saying I feared it would be
impossible -- Happily I can now put it on your state of health & make it final to him &
all our satisfaction.
As to the time of my leaving India -- I always thought that in justice to my employers
that should not be till I had spent the whole 3 years for which I was allowed the
grants at my work -- & therefore that their
[[6]] demand upon me would be from till the 12th January (or whatever day I landed)
at least I cannot make any other returning tally with your assurance that I am liberally
treated in having this money to spend in India & have no right to expect any
allowance for passage money home. Had I gone home before my year was out, it is
clear that directly or indirectly part of the grant would have gone for expenses
travelling homewards, or that I should have spent the money in India at a faster rate
than was prepared.
As to the question of liberality & of the gov[ernmen]t that I will not urge, if you are
content I have no reason to complain nor do I complain of the W. & F. [Woods &
Forests Department] what I cannot see is, that the £300 transferred for another year
in India, is an equivalent to that seen in Borneo -- plus my full navy pay of £200,
time, allowances, cheaper living & a passage home free. All of which L[or]d Auckland
promised through the Meander & which the Navy Admiral afloat would have carried out
transferred to some other ship now on the coast, I forget which. I am not at all
complaining of the change which is judicious & good me -- the liberality of the
arrangement
[[7]] is another thing.
Tom is truly obliged for your exertions with the India house & lost no time in
forwarding the application as suggested to the local gov[ernmen]t -- they will most
probably refuse & transfer it to the Court at home. Sykes & shepherds answer to you
we look on as most satisfactory -- for if they grant Tom this furlough 12 months as
service, they will be more inclined to employ him in publishing the results. I have
thought a great deal about asking Lord Dalhousie to recommend Tom's employment;
but how can I well do so, when Lord D[alhousie] thinks Botany all nonsense, & the
time money & officers--service's are all so much many good things thrown away. He
always says such things are very well if the gov[ernmen]t is rich but in the present
state of the E.I.C. [East India Company] it is a clear misappropriation of money.
Either I or my mother must have made some great mistake in supposing that I found
fault with Kew Men as connected with the garden or in any other way in my letter to Mr Phillips -- on
the contrary I praised it up to the skyes[sic] & made the high flourishing reports I heard of
it in India an excuse for my mentioning it -- I thought it would please him to hear that
its fame reached so far -- & he could not otherwise know of it. -- what I regretted was
that it was made a handle for abuse of Brown & the Brit[ish] Mus[eum]. You may be
sure I praised all the W. & F. [Woods & Forests Department] were doing. What I
should doubt the success of would be a great museum & lecturing institution with a
staff of officers unconnected with the
[[8]] garden or connected in an anomalous a state as the several parts of the
Brit[ish]. Mus[eum]. are with one another. -- Kew gardens, Museum. Library &
Herb[arium] should I think be all under one head with as many assistants as one
would -- if ever they are severed any difference between the 2 heads would do great
evil to both establishments. Lectures & a school of Botany I greatly doubt the
success of, they are cumbrous impracticable bodies. -- Every letter I get from the
geol[ogical]. survey tells me of the squabbles & troubles between De la Beche & his
officers. but pray keep that private -- he aims at too much by far in a school &
college, lectures & teaching.
Tom has got a craze at present to catalogue your Herbarium at home, whatever he
does would be well done but, I think he has no idea of the labor. I quite agree with
you that the best thing for me would be getting me on the garden staff, at as small
salary as they please with a house, & as great a one as we can get if without a
house. To be free of house rent repairs & taxes would be to me Elysium, & any
accommodation, provided it is Gov[ermen]t, is respectable. All this however when we
get time[?].
Meanwhile Believe me yr ever affection[ate] son | Jos D Hooker [signature]
Never mind the Pope & Cardinals. If you get up a persecution or any thing that can
be called so it will only strengthen the hands of the Catholics. I cannot see what is to
hinder the Pope appointing Spiritual heads to his English admirers or under what
plea of religious toleration we can refuse assent -- He has been ill advised & it is the
last flash of a candle going out. The more we agitate it the worse it will be for us, I
think.
ENDNOTES
1. John Company is a colloquial name for the Honorable East India Company.
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