Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton
JHC347
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
JDH/1/3 f.539-544
Hooker, Sir William Jackson
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
21-6-1843
© Descendants of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
Correspondence from Antarctic Expedition
The Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
English
Contemporary MS copy
6 page letter over 3 folios
 

JDH informs his father, William Jackson Hooker, that he expects to be home soon after this letter arrives. Captain Ross is keen to leave Rio de Janeiro as soon as the Bowsprit is replaced & before despatched from Monte Video can order them to stay. JDH reflects on the expedition now it is nearly over. He is glad to have done it, though it was not what he expected, & he would have found it tedious if not for the study of botany to fill his hours with. Captain Ross has been kind to JDH & he is grateful but he does not love the man & thinks he should have shown kindness to other deserving parties. JDH briefly speculates on his future with the Naval Service, before receiving a Surgeon's Commission he would have to take further exams at Edinburgh [University]. He would rather remain in the service than be a burden on his family but thinks he will be able to pay his way by acting as an assistant to his father in his work at Kew. JDH collected 22 different species of fern at St Helena & 8 at Ascension with only 1 species common to both. Some of JDH's duplicate Auckland Island plant specimens have begun to moulder but the New Zealand ferns are resisting the damp. He discusses the morphology of a Diplazium fern species from St Helena. JDH wrote to Brown from the Cape of Good Hope. Under the heading 8pm JDH continues that e has received a letter from [George] Gardner with letters of introduction to people in Rio, but JDH will have little time to make use of the introductions. JDH regrets that he has been prevented from making his planned excursion to Tejuca in the Sierra dos Organõs to collect Cladonia perfilata. JDH is pleased WJH has got Gardner a position with Fielding. He wishes the prospects for Arnott were as good.

Transcript

a smell came out that induced me to have[?] the place unstowed to get at my plants, & found them mouldering already, but not quite spoiled. A set of N[ew]. Zealand duplicate Ferns kept beautifully, it is strange how they resist damp. I have been examining a Diplazium from St Helena, & it appears to me that the double Sori or Indusia are formed because the vein is really a double one, the inner indusium opening towards the rachis with which it is most nearly connected, as arising from the primary venule, & the outer towards the midrile[?] of the pinna because it belongs to the fork or branch of the venule; the specimens show very clearly what I mean. I daresay that Mr Brown knows all about it, & you yourself better than I do.-- I wrote to the latter from the Cape of Good Hope. I am very glad that he comes to Kew sometimes.
8. P.M. I have just received a most kind letter from Mr Gardner which has been lying for me at a Merchant's office, & of which I only heard today, he most handsomely encloses 8 letters of Introduction to different friends here. This is most attentive of him, & though somewhat expected, most gratifying, with only 2 days before me I of course can make little use of them, would that I c[oul]d for his sake & my own. The Sierra dos Organõs frown magnificently over the head of the Bay, alas! it is only their outline I can ever know at present. I had a nice party arranged

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*1
H.M.S. Erebus Rio de Janeiro.
Brazils.
June 21. 1843.

My dear Father
I have given to my sisters the sum of all I know of our proceedings, which is that we fully expect to follow this letter very closely. I may add one circumstance which had better be kept quiet; which is, that a vessel which sailed yesterday for Monte Video (a Packet) took the last English despatches (for May Packet) on to the Admiral, & that though it was believed we had dispatches enclosed, Capt[ain] Ross would not break open the Mail letter bags, though told he might do so in presence of 3 commissioned officers, giving a receipt for what he might take out:-- this shows that he does not wish to be detained here, & there is no doubt but that we start as soon as ever we rig a new Bowsprit, Saturday is the day announced. Nothing but despatches from Monte Video can detain us much beyond; It is a toss up whether they come or no.
And now we may consider the voyage as over.-- I hope never to regret having entered on it, though it has proved in many respects very different from what I expected. My uppermost feelings now, & throughout every day of it are of gratitude to you, not only for all the personal

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comforts I have enjoyed in it as far as regards outfits, correspondence, encouragement, & means of improving my mind by your handsome gifts of books, but for having made me love Botany, & having led me on in it.-- Botany alone has rendered many months tolerable which otherwise would have been to me, as they were to others, scarcely endurable; & your name & fame alone have induced one to treat me with a great deal of kindness who might have made others far happier & more comfortable likewise.-- As it is I am the only one who can look back to pleasant hours spent on board the Erebus: almost the only one who has not fifty times over wailed the day he ever joined.-- The fair fame of the Expedition, & a high principle of honorable[sic] emulation have alone kept us together (tho' we never quarrel among ourselves).-- With hardly an exception, every officer has I am sure, done everything he could in forwarding the objects of the Expedition, out of all which objects none but the Geographical could be of much interest to naval officers, they have not however been treated as if such were the case. This however is meddling with the affairs of others, which (tho' they be all my friends) is no business of mine. I have received a great deal of kindness from Capt[ain] Ross, for which I thank you, had others, who deserved it better, received the same, this Expedition might have been

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a very happy (as well as successful one). To conclude, I may & will honor[sic] & thank Capt[ain] Ross very much, but love him I never can or could.-- This is probably the last letter you will ever [1 word crossed out, illeg.] receive from me before our arrival home, & by it I wish to return you again & again my heartfelt thanks for all the enjoyment this Expedition has afforded me. Every one thinks that his own love is the most valuable gift he can offer to a fellow creature; that I loved you as a child you know: as I have added manhood's years to childhood's, so has my love increased, in spite of distance in time & space.--
In my letter to you from St Helena I told you fully how far I stood affected towards the service, to that I have nothing to add but that I was misinformed in supposing I sh[oul]d not be required to pass again at Edinburgh before receiving a Surgeon's commission. I see there is plenty of time to think of all this after our return to England,-- Capt[ain] Ross has not written for Lyall's or my promotion, though he said he wanted so particularly to do so. I am not in the least vexed at this, it is, as you know, a matter of perfect indifference to me. Until we meet it is impossible to settle the question of my continuance in the service, you know my feelings towards it, & that I far prefer continuing in it to being a burthen *2 to you in any way whatever. I

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must confess however that considering you now go to the expense of another first assistant, I ought to be of some use at home, & hope to be of as much as will cover my food & clothes; of such use I hope to be,-- Come what may I never looked forward to the fulfillment[sic] of any Day or Night dream with so much pleasure as I do to meeting you again, & the more so because we shall shake hands in the home you have so long looked forward to, & I have so often wished you to obtain,-- I mean as at Kew.
The letters of many friends have doubtless accompanied yours, missing or rather aberrant ones to me, had they been received I fear I should not have time to answer them, & so you will thank them all for me, & all other friends who have taken an interest either in me or in the Expedition to whose aims I have devoted these 4 years past.
At St Helena I collected 22 species (distinct) of Ferns including 2 Lycopodia, & at Ascension, 8--, Strange to say, out of the Ascension ones, only one is identical with a St Helena species. What do you think of a Marattia from Ascension? A Genus I longed to see alive. Some of my duplicate Auckland Isl[an]d plants suffered dreadfully in the hold from damp, produced by the hot weather in the holds. They were in good order before arriving at the Cape, when the moisture was as it were fixed by the Cold, but when a few days ago the hold was opened (the Capt[ain]s storeroom)

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a smell came out that induced me to have[?] the place unstowed to get at my plants, & found them mouldering already, but not quite spoiled. A set of N[ew]. Zealand duplicate Ferns kept beautifully, it is strange how they resist damp. I have been examining a Diplazium from St Helena, & it appears to me that the double Sori or Indusia are formed because the vein is really a double one, the inner indusium opening towards the rachis with which it is most nearly connected, as arising from the primary venule, & the outer towards the midrile[?] of the pinna because it belongs to the fork or branch of the venule; the specimens show very clearly what I mean. I daresay that Mr Brown knows all about it, & you yourself better than I do.-- I wrote to the latter from the Cape of Good Hope. I am very glad that he comes to Kew sometimes.
8. P.M. I have just received a most kind letter from Mr Gardner which has been lying for me at a Merchant's office, & of which I only heard today, he most handsomely encloses 8 letters of Introduction to different friends here. This is most attentive of him, & though somewhat expected, most gratifying, with only 2 days before me I of course can make little use of them, would that I c[oul]d for his sake & my own. The Sierra dos Organõs frown magnificently over the head of the Bay, alas! it is only their outline I can ever know at present. I had a nice party arranged

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for 3 days to go to the [1 word crossed out, illeg.] Tejuca, & gather the Cladonia perfilata, but we cannot get leave our stay is so short. I am so glad you have got Gardner a situation with Fielding, which will I hope be profitable as it will certainly be agreeable, & most advantageous to him as a Botanist. Some situation will I hope turn up for him in London ere long. I wish there were any hopes of such for poor Arnott, as valuable a Botanist as he is. You may almost expect to see me before hearing from me, I shall start for home as soon as I can get ashore wherever that may be.
With kindest love to all Believe me | Y[ou]r most affect[ionate] son | Jos. D. Hooker

ENDNOTES


1. This letter is a 19th Century manuscript copy written in a hand not that of the original author, Joseph Dalton Hooker.  The copy was probably made by Hooker’s mother or sister so that a version could be circulated amongst family and friends.
2. Burthen. An archaic form of 'burden'.

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