Letter and/or further information available at http://jdh.aetopia.net/p/jdh?q=jhc279.
Please cite as “JHC279,” in Ɛpsilon: The Joseph Dalton Hooker Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/hooker/letters/JHC279
As it is Christmas day JDH wanted to write to his sisters, Elizabeth 'Bessy' & Mary Harriet Hooker. Recounts the progress of the expedition over the last 3 months. Describes stops at Madeira's Cape Braza & Bay of Funchal & his visits to Mr Muir's house. Plants in the island's gardens incl: Vines, Daturas, Fuchsias, Chinarose, Hibiscus & Heliotrope, many fruits, & on the cliffs chestnut trees. JDH describes a type of small guitar made by the Madeira natives. JDH got rheumatism on a trip to the mountains & Captain [James Clark] Ross tried to keep him on the ship but JDH went ashore to visit Mrs Montgomery Hampton, now married to a Dr Renton, & other acquaintances incl. Mr Halley & a brother of Miss Shortridge. He describes their visit to the Funchal nunneries, Santa Clara & the convent of the Incarnation, where he bought artificial flowers made of duck feathers. Next they went to Tenerife, JDH describes a visit to the Spanish town of Santa Cruz where Lord Nelson lost his arm. At the Cape Verde Islands the 'Erebus' anchored at Porto Praia a Portuguese town on the island of St Jago [Santiago], a very desolate place except for coconut trees & some oases of fruit trees. JDH collected plant specimens in the heat with the help of resident freed black slaves. JDH describes a trip through the mountainous interior of St Jago to St Domingo, during which he saw baobab trees, a beautiful kingfisher, Gallina or Guineafowl, Acacias, Castor Oil Trees, hawks, wild monkeys & tiger cats. At St Domingo sugar cane, maize, oranges, Cassava & other tropical vegetables are cultivated. They are now sailing towards St Helena via the ocean near Pernambuco, Brazil because of the trade winds. En route they have seen St Paul's Rocks & Trindada [Trindade & Martim Vaz] only notable for the birdlife: terns & boobies etc. After St Helena they will visit Tristan d'Acunha, Cape Horn, Kerguelen's Land, Van Diemen's Land [Tasmania], New Zealand & Antarctica. JDH spends the voyage drawing sea animals.
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