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

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

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

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 Darjeeling 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

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

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

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

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.