Copy letter from Edward Sabine [geophysicist, naturalist and astronomer, brother of Joseph Sabine] to the secretary of the Horticultural Society of London [Joseph Sabine]
Information
Title
Copy letter from Edward Sabine [geophysicist, naturalist and astronomer, brother of Joseph Sabine] to the secretary of the Horticultural Society of London [Joseph Sabine]
Record type
Archive
Original Reference
RHS/Col/2/4/1
Date
12 Dec 1821
Scope & content
Written on board HMS Iphigenia
He writes to the secretary of the Horticultural Society [Joseph Sabine] as the superintendent of George Don; the accommodation provided for Don is inadequate, and prevents him from performing his duties; he has only a hammock hung at night in the gangway under the half deck, his meals are eaten in the cabin of the gunner and his chest of clothes is on the lower deck, with no privacy or place to read or write, or to air, arrange, examine and store his specimens: 'Mr Don's instructions can only be deemed a dead letter, and his employment an expense for which no return can properly be expected'; this situation has caused him much 'anxious consideration' from the beginning, but considering the circumstances temporary, with Don's situation rectified on arrival at Madeira [Spain], at which stage Don's employment will properly begin, he deferred interfering in the matter; he was reluctant to talk about the matter to Sir Robert Mends [Robert Mends, captain of HMS Iphigenia] 'when his family were with him'; on raising the issue with Mends, he received an unsatisfactory reply: 'I learnt with equal surprise and disappointment that he did not consider himself required by his instruction to do more for Mr Don, than simply to give him a passage in the Iphigenia'; he asks that the Horticultural Society communicate with the Admiralty to obtain an explanation regarding their intentions towards Don, or authorise his being sent back to England from Sierra Leone as he is unable to perform his duties at present; he praises Don's conduct 'under certainly trying circumstances': he has shown 'laudable disregard […] of personal comfort, which is the more creditable to him, as he is not unaware of the very contrasted reception prepared for the Societies [sic] naturalist, embarking under similar instructions in HMS the Leven [referring to John Forbes, who travelled as the Horticultural Society's plant collector on HMS Leven in Feb 1822]'; this complaint concerns Don's professional, rather than personal, inconveniences; instructions should be requested from the Admiralty, 'as it cannot be expected that persons of respectability will embark as the Societies [sic] Naturalists in His Majesty's ships of war, unless, for instance, the same personal attendance be allowed them as is granted to the warrant officer, and which is not granted to Mr Don'; the letter will be transmitted by Sir George Cockburn [British Royal Navy officer]