Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton
JHC74
Camp, Sikkim, Himalayas, 1 march above Lachen, 1000ft,India
JDH/1/10 f.189-190
Hooker, Sir William Jackson
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
5-7-1849
© Descendants of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
Indian Letters 1847-1851
The Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
English
Original MS
6 page letter over 2 folios
 

JDH wrote to Lindley, asking him to inform WJH of his wellbeing. They have had bad weather & dwindling food stores since JDH last wrote. They are now at the fork of the river immediately above Lachen. The Bhoteas [Bhotias] have reported that Chinese Lepchas are coming to drive them away & they heard that 60 Tibetans seized JDH’s plants. He sent the Coolie Sirdar to retrieve them as Meepo was too afraid & he reported seeing huge Tibetans called Sikars[?]. JDH describes an encounter with the men at camp & is not sure if he had crossed the Tibetan border or not. Their rice finally arrived after his people found a circuitous route to Choongtam & another load came from Darjeeling along with letters from Campbell & Humboldt. JDH’s servant Clements is ill in Calcutta [Kolkata] & Falconer has engaged another man for him named de Cruz[?], probably one of the Del Crusca[?] family. JDH describes some of the plants he has collected & discusses the drawings & specimens he is sending to RBG Kew. JDH writes of the new genera of Rhododendron & has collected woods all along the Teesta River. He requests a new pocket lens; Mr Ward will know the type as he got one for Thomson. The Rajah has sent a man to resolve the difficulties & sends gifts of silk, fine Tibetan cloth & curious fruits named ‘Gundroom’ from Persia, of which he includes a sketch. JDH is sorry WJH cannot get a man for Ceylon [Sri Lanka]; he thinks Thwaites could be suitable & will encourage him to renew his attention to systematic botany to qualify himself. He will write to Frances [Henslow] next mail. The list of unidentified Orchidaceae Smith sent are undoubtedly JDH's.

Transcript

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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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