Letter from Edward Sabine to Joseph [Joseph Sabine, secretary of the Horticultural Society of London]
Information
Title - Letter from Edward Sabine to Joseph [Joseph Sabine, secretary of the Horticultural Society of London]
Record type - Archive
Original Reference - RHS/Col/2/Z1/28
Date - 24 Sep 1822
Scope & content - Written from Trinidad [Trinidad and Tobago]
He has received the four packets that Joseph sent to Trinidad; he is pleased to hear that the plants and birds have arrived safely; he has not heard of one cargo from St Thomas's [Sao Tome, Sao Tome and Principe], and another from Sierra Leone sent on the Fletcher, but he expects to hear of the latter when they arrive in Jamaica; Lockhart [David Lockhart, gardener for the British governor of Trinidad] speaks highly of the plants which Don [George Don] has with him, which will be kept in his cabin when they encounter cold weather; they will leave duplicate plants here to be sent next spring, in case those they take with them die; he is pleased by Joseph's letters and those from Portland Place [London, where his sister Caroline Browne and her husband Henry Browne lived]; he thanks Sir Humphry Davy [chemist and inventor, president of the Royal Society] for sending the principal scientific news since he left; there is still a chance that letters sent to the coast of Africa may be waiting for him in Jamaica, however it is unlikely as Robert Mends [Robert Mends, captain of HMS Iphigenia] sent them from Sierra Leone to Ascension [Ascension Island, British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha], assuming that they would find the Pheasant there; he thanks Joseph for his interest in Smith's [John Smith, Edward Sabine's assistant] welfare and prospects; both Smith and Don were very ill when they left Maranham [Maranhao, Brazil], but they are well again and working as usual; Smith is very zealous and Edward expects he will not recover completely until they have left the tropics, as he exercises himself too hard; 'I can well believe that Mr Don received the advice you mention from Mr Robert Brown [botanist, former librarian of the Linnean Society]; his conduct towards me has been so much beyond that inattention which I might suppose to arise from his natural selfishness and incivility, that I have long considered it as systematic; indeed he has masked it, whenever occasions have given him the opportunity, by preferring to stand by and do nothing, to rendering me even the commonest assistance in packing and preserving any subjects of natural history which may have been furnished me by the kindness of others, and which any individual but himself would have offered. His services would have been but little, and only during Smith's illness; but the principle of withholding that little assistance, from a person to whom he was continually obliged for good offices, was in itself so ungracious, that however he might have been originally advised, few individuals but Mr Don would have persisted in it. The advice was in itself unwise firstly because it was in opposition to the letter as well as to the spirit of his instructions, secondly because, in the relations in which we stood to each other, and in our peculiar situations on board ship, as well as at so many different stations, mutual assistance was a duty (even if it had not been prescribed) of which the gain to him could not fail of being greater than to me; and thirdly because there could be no reason to fear that my other pursuit should delay Mr Don from that in which his whole heart and soul are wrapped up - these reasons could not have escaped the sagacity and thought of Mr Brown, and I give him full credit for knowing at the time he gave the advice that it would be of no service to Mr Don, but that it would be of disservice to you'; they have received public news up to 10 Aug, and also a private letter announcing Lord Londonderry's death [Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh and marquess of Londonderry, Irish and British politician; he committed suicide in 1822], which he presumes is of the same cause as Mr Whitbread's case [Samuel Whitbread, British politician, committed suicide in 1815], being 'too much hard work'; he assumes the Ministry will be anxious to show the world that this event makes no change in title occupancy, but the Whigs however will be full of hope; he accepts Joseph's offer of Goods'[?] room, as if his northern voyage goes ahead he will not be in England long; he asks Joseph to put the bird room in order; the abundance of specimens from so many quarters make it even more necessary that the British birds should be arranged and done with; he would do better if he had specific instruction from Joseph as to what birds to collect; he is very sorry for James Boswell [the younger, barrister, who died suddenly in 1822], but less so for his brother, the baronet [Alexander Boswell, who died a few weeks later in a duel after writing two libellous articles on a member of Scottish Parliament], stating that 'barbarous as is the custom of duelling it is not so much so as abasing the liberty of the press by anonymous attacks'; he thinks that Mackay [?James Townsend Mackay, botanist] is the best candidate for the presidency of the Linnean Society, unless he intends to leave London; he would prefer Thomas Furly Forster [botanist] to Robert Brown, 'who is no favourite of mine as you perceive', as he is much too lazy and allows narrow mindedness and jealousy to interfere with the correct line of conduct; he believes that Joseph would be the fittest candidate for the presidency if he were not already deep in the Horticultural Society [James Edward Smith remained the president of the Linnean Society until his death in 1828; Robert Brown eventually became a president in 1849]; he sends thanks to Mr Daniell [John Frederic Daniell, chemist and physicist, friend of Edward's at the Royal Society] as he was aware he was correcting his barometers wrong, but was unsure why, and Daniell's paper 'On the Corrections to be applied in Barometric Mensuration' [1822] will surely help when he has a chance to read it; he is at Colonel Young's [Aretas William Young, lieutenant governor of Trinidad while Ralph Woodford was in Europe] and finds everyone most kind in conveyance of Sir Ralph's [Ralph Woodford, British governor of Trinidad] letters; they should be at Jamaica around 14 Oct, and leave it on 1 Nov for New York [United States of America], unless Commander Rowley [Charles Rowley, commander at Port Royal] prevents it; he suggests that Joseph write immediately to Hesketh [Robert Hesketh, British consul in Maranham] at Maranham [Maranhao, Brazil] for everything he wants from Para [Brazil], as it is an excellent opportunity; Hesketh's brother is at Para and has just married a Portuguese lady from there; Hesketh is a 'princely' correspondent and Joseph may depend on him 'ransacking the whole country' for his commissions; he suggests that Joseph has a Brazil room in his museum, with Caldcleugh's [Alexander Caldcleugh, merchant, who had returned from Brazil in 1821 with collections of plants] collection and what Hesketh will obtain him, which would be the first Brazil collection in Europe; they shall also have the best African collection if they are 'alert in description'; if they judiciously distribute a few copies of 'A Description of the Birds of Western Africa' [unidentified], half the English people in the colonies there might convert to collectors; he encloses a letter to Mr Gould [?William Baring-Gould, husband of Diana Amelia Sabine, sister of Edward and Joseph Sabine] for Joseph to send on at no hurry; Joseph will get on better at the Horticultural Society 'when old Roger Wilbraham [British MP, vice-president of the Horticultural Society and fellow of the Royal Society] is gathered to his fathers'; Motteux [John Motteux, vice-president of the Horticultural Society] will trouble Joseph much less when he has no companions to assist in making him dissatisfied; Edward would like to gain a little horticultural knowledge himself, as he begins to fancy it, but 'botany requires too much study'; he asks if Andrew Knight [?Thomas Andrew Knight, president of the Horticultural Society] will accompany them to Spitsbergen [Svalbard, Norway]; he asks Joseph to give his thanks to Woodford for the provision he has made for their reception in Trinidad, as he seems to have written to 'half the people in the island'; he regrets he will not be able to go on half the interesting excursions Sir Ralph had planned for him; he is pushing through his observations in order to have time to visit the Pitch Lake [Trinidad] and the mud volcanoes; he will write to Barrow [John Barrow, second secretary to the Admiralty, fellow of the Royal Society] to ask that orders await the HMS Pheasant at Portsmouth to proceed northward to the Thames, in order to disembark his instruments at Deptford and transfer Don's plants from his cabin to Joseph's garden houses without exposure to frost; he asks that an order be obtained from the Treasury for the bird skins to be admitted to England without examination or duty, as there will be several hundred and it would be inconvenient to unpack them all; he is sending this on the HMS Morgiana, commanded by Captain Knight [Christopher Knight, captain of HMS Morgiana], who is a good friend of his and a fine young man; Knight was with them on the coast of Africa, in Brazil and here; he is 'sorry that that clattering drunkard Finlaison [William M. Finlaison, commander in the British Royal Navy] killed the ducks'; he hopes that 'the young ladies know that Kelly [Benedictus Marwood Kelly] is Kelly of Fernando Po [Bioko, Equatorial Guinea]'; he sends thanks to Major Rowsell [unidentified] for his letter and is glad that Rowsell has not suffered more since he saw him; Don is sending a collection of plants in a box on the Morgiana; the letter to Mr Gould requires sealing
Extent - 4 page letter (1 sheet)
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)