Letter from Edward Sabine to Joseph Sabine esq [secretary of the Horticultural Society of London], Horticultural Society's House, Regent Street, London

Title

Letter from Edward Sabine to Joseph Sabine esq [secretary of the Horticultural Society of London], Horticultural Society's House, Regent Street, London

Record type

Archive

Original Reference

RHS/Col/2/Z1/19

Date

26 Apr 1822

Scope & content

Written from HMS Pheasant, off Accra [Ghana]. Dated 26 Apr [1822]

A small section of the letter has been torn away by an opened seal

He will be at Accra tomorrow morning, and will leave a box of bulbs from Don [George Don] at Cape Coast [Ghana] to send to England on a schooner expected to sail shortly; they stayed for three pleasant days at Cape Coast; he caught a few birds there, but Smith [John Smith, Edward Sabine's assistant] has not sufficiently recovered from the effects of calomel [mercurous chloride, used as a diuretic and purgative to cure illness] to go ashore, so he was shooting only with Don, who 'did kill a small bird himself. He keeps his health very well, and I hope will reap a fine harvest' at St Thomas's [Sao Tome, Sao Tome and Principe]; they will not arrive there for a fortnight as Clavering [Douglas Charles Clavering, captain of HMS Pheasant] wishes to search for 'slavers' on the passage down; his finds at Cape Coast leave him optimistic for collecting at St Thomas's; Mr Robertson [G.A. Robertson, merchant from Liverpool and author of 'Notes on Africa', 1819] gave Sir George Collier [commander in chief of the Royal Navy before his death in 1795] 75 species and promised to send him a box of birds ('he is a collector for his own amusement'); Joseph should investigate these, as they are valuable specimens from the Bight of Benin and Biafra; Dr Nicoll [Andrew Nicoll, medical officer in Sierra Leone] has ordered someone at Cape Coast and Accra to collect for him; Robertson is still trying to colonise Fernando Po [Bioko, Equatorial Guinea, an island in the Bight of Biafra, which Robertson recommended that the British colonise in order to capture slavers in the area] and talks of being there next year; Edward thinks him 'wild in his speculations', yet finds him 'shrewd, keen, and sharp-witted' in other respects; he hopes that he will receive Joseph's letters in Jamaica by the August mail; Don is satisfied with the collections he has made so far, and Edward hopes Joseph will feel the same; Don has been successful in his collection of bulbs; if Joseph meets the former governor, John Hope Smith [British governor of Gold Coast], who is returning to Europe, he will find him 'full of information, and a very agreeable person'

Extent

4 page letter (1 sheet)

Is part of

RHS archive: plant collector papers

Repository

Royal Horticultural Society Lindley Library

Copyright

John J. Timothy Jeal

Credit Line

Courtesy John J. Timothy Jeal / RHS Lindley Collections

Usage terms

Non-commercial use with attribution permitted (CC BY-NC 4.0)