From J. D. Hooker   [8 May 1863]1

Kew

Friday.

Dear Darwin

Mr Salwyn who has twice been to Guatemala & just returned—says he is game to go to Gallapagos if he had sufficient encouragement—(from scientific men in a scientific way)— he is a gentlemanly sort of fellow, but I believe sells his birds &c & has travelled as naturalist wholly.2 I have offered to take all his plants, divide them into sets for him to sell for his own profit—& purchase the first set myself & describe them too.— A word of encouragement from you dwelling mainly on the scientific interest of the investigation might clinch it.— I told him I would write to you about him.

—Salwyn Esqr.

11. Hanover Terrace

Regents Park.

He can probably answer any questions about Guatemala annuals.— Why should he not go on to Sandwich Isds?

J D Hooker

1
The date is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to Osbert Salvin, 11 [May 1863], and by the reference in the letter from Osbert Salvin, 12 May 1863, to Hooker’s having suggested ‘the other evening’ that Salvin might travel to the Galápagos Islands. The Friday preceding 11 May 1863 was 8 May.
2
After graduating from Trinity Hall, Cambridge, Osbert Salvin began his scientific travels with a natural history expedition to North Africa. He first travelled to Guatemala in 1857, and soon ‘proved himself an unsurpassed collector’. Salvin, whose primary interests were ornithology and entomology, subsequently made several further expeditions to Guatemala, before returning to England in January 1863 (DNB).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-4154,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-4154