JDH informs his father, William Jackson Hooker, that he expects to be home soon after this letter arrives. Captain Ross is keen to leave Rio de Janeiro as soon as the Bowsprit is replaced & before despatched from Monte Video can order them to stay. JDH reflects on the expedition now it is nearly over. He is glad to have done it, though it was not what he expected, & he would have found it tedious if not for the study of botany to fill his hours with. Captain Ross has been kind to JDH & he is grateful but he does not love the man & thinks he should have shown kindness to other deserving parties. JDH briefly speculates on his future with the Naval Service, before receiving a Surgeon's Commission he would have to take further exams at Edinburgh [University]. He would rather remain in the service than be a burden on his family but thinks he will be able to pay his way by acting as an assistant to his father in his work at Kew. JDH collected 22 different species of fern at St Helena & 8 at Ascension with only 1 species common to both. Some of JDH's duplicate Auckland Island plant specimens have begun to moulder but the New Zealand ferns are resisting the damp. He discusses the morphology of a Diplazium fern species from St Helena. JDH wrote to Brown from the Cape of Good Hope. Under the heading 8pm JDH continues that e has received a letter from [George] Gardner with letters of introduction to people in Rio, but JDH will have little time to make use of the introductions. JDH regrets that he has been prevented from making his planned excursion to Tejuca in the Sierra dos Organõs to collect Cladonia perfilata. JDH is pleased WJH has got Gardner a position with Fielding. He wishes the prospects for Arnott were as good.