WCP5526

[1]

Guayaquil.

Jan. 1^st. 1861.

My dear Sir William,

I write to you on the first day of the New Year, & wish it may bring every happiness to you. Three days ago I wrote a hurried note to you, expecting I was just about to have Mr. Cross¹ and his plants embarked, but instead of that the steamer from Panamá (which should have taken them to Paita, then to be re-embarked on the steamer which goes direct from Lima to Paita to Panamá) did not come in until last night and started again in an hour for Paita, but all too late to meet the mail steamer, which would pass Paita yesterday. The delay was caused by waiting at Panamá [for] the arrival of the steamer from the other side of the Isthmus. We had, however, already embarked the cases on board the New Granada, a steamer which runs between Lima & Guayaquil. She sails tomorrow & reaches Paita on the 3rd, where Mr. Cross will have to wait until the 14th, for the next mail steamer which passes from Lima to Panamá. This further delay is unfortunate, for though the plants are perfectly healthy, the heat stimulates them very much & they will soon be too big for their cases. — You see the town of Guayaquil is ten hours' steaming up the Gulf, so that the mails are generally left in Paita. Sometimes the mails from Panamá (& England) are left there, & brought hither by a small sailing craft, which may be tossing about for days on the way. We expected the same would have been the case now, when 3 days have passed over the date when the steamer is expected from Panamá. She came after all & brought me your interesting letter of Nov. 25, & the valuable Fern-books², for which I thank you most sincerely. I should certainly be very thankful for the first numbers of the 'Species Filicum'³, but I cannot remember how many are wanting ^to me, & my books are still in the sierra. — I find it quite impossible to send the herb[ariu]^m specimens from the Cinchona forests by Mr. Cross[.] — I have no table whereon to open out the parcels, and whatever I take out of my boxes by day I have to put in again at night, or it w[oul]^d be eaten up by the rats, who have already made sad havoc among my clothes.

[2] In glancing through 'Species Filicum', I note your Asplenium virens, from Guayaquil. I have lately gathered it by the river-side at the roots of old Cacao-trees. — A. ferulaceum is very like a fern from the Cinchona woods, but in the latter the pinnae are exactly opposite & the lowest pair gracefully recurvo-divaricate. — I wish you c[oul]^d have looked through my Ecuadorean ferns[.] — You w[oul]^d have found some of those described in your 'Century [of Ferns]'⁴ & some new ones. — I think I found and dried two ^fertile specimens of Equisetum giganteum — in small state — the larger state (15 to 20 ft.) is always sterile.

I have some recollection of having requested Mr. Bentham⁵ to keep back my Ecuadorean forms ferns, in the hope that I might succeed in collecting a larger stock of some of the species; but there is no longer any motive for this, as I do not hope to gather any more plants in the cold region. I have still by me a few Andine ferns, and so soon as I can send them to England, which will I trust be shortly, I should feel obliged if Mr. Bentham w[oul]^d get Mr Oldfield⁶ to make up the sets of ferns &c.

It is singular that I c[oul]^d find but a single small plant of my Stelis calodyction. Mr Cross sought long & anxiously for it, and at last found a small plant of it which he will try to take alive to England.

I am glad the seeds reached you safely. I have your announcement of this and a printed copy of my report, & yet I have not had a word yet from Jamaica to say that the seeds have been received, or even from Mr. Bidwell⁷, Pro-Consul at Panamá, to whom I sent the packet of seeds & my letter to Mr. Wilson⁸, although we have letters from Panamá in 5 days. When you write to Mr. Wilson, pray ask him if he has rec[eive]^d the seeds.

Another parcel of mine seems to be missing. When I wrote to the Under Secretary of State for India⁹ — I think in March last — to intimate my acceptance of the Indian Govt's offer, I enclosed (to your care) a map and memoir on the volcanic & mineral district of Llanganáte [Llanganates], in the Quitenian Andes, for the R[oyal] Geogr[aphical] Society; but as you do not allude to having received them, in either of your letters, I fear they may have miscarried, which I shall be very sorry for, as they had cost me much labour.¹⁰

[3] If I have health & leisure, I propose, according to your suggestion, drawing up a corrected account of all I have noted, that is worth preserving, during my wanderings; and I have a good many sketches to illustrate my descriptions. I should like to devote the remainder of my life to study during the rainy months & to travelling & collecting when the months are dry. On the Rio Negro rain or fair weather never made any difference to me, but I can no longer rough it as I could in former years, and I find it necessary to husband my little remaining strength.

Would it not be possible to obtain for me some Vice-Consulate or Consular Agency Agency anywhere along the Pacific coast? — Where the Ecuador ends, to the northward, the coast of N. Granada tends inwards and forms the great bay of Chocό, whose shores are as rainy & fertile as those of Peru are dry & sterile. The first port in this bay is Tumáco, on a small island about 8 miles in circumf[erenc]^e — less rainy than any other point along the coast, but still sufficiently so to make the island like a garden all the year round. On the slopes of the Cordillera ^{towards the volcano of Parto} much Bark (yellow) is now got out, and I am assured by those who collect it that there are various sorts of bark there; and especially a Red Bark,¹¹ which has never been touched, as they know not whether it is of any value or no. The French have had for some a years a Vice-Consul there. Do you think the English Gov^t. w[oul]^d think it worth while to appoint a Consular Agent at Tumaco (or Buenaventura) with a recommendation to explore the natural products of the country? I have now perhaps such a familiarity with the vegetation of tropical America, that I c[oul]^d render a more faithful account of its character and productions than almost any other person. — Indeed, with such a recommendation attached to my commission, the point where I might be located is almost indifferent. For instance, if stationed at Paita or Lambayeque, &c. it would be easy to visit the forests of Guayaquil in the summer time, or the still richer district of Jaen de Bracomoros [Jaén] (on the Maran̄on) which none but Humboldt,¹²Bonpland¹³ and Warcziewicz [sic]¹⁴ have partially explored. Guayaquil is far too expensive and unhealthy a place for a permanent residence, unless with a good income, and in the rainy season (of which we have already had a taste) all [4] the surrounding country is all mud and water. — I would rather live at Panamá than at Guayaquil, but I am still undecided where to stay the winter. — I was up a month up the country, awaiting Mr. Cross — putting together the Wardian cases¹⁵ — making a raft — and then assisting him with the plants. — Until I see him and his freight fairly off, I cannot apply my mind to anything else.

The box of mosses &c. sent me by Mr Bentham from Kew arrived here so much smashed that I have had to transfer its contents to another, & in doing so I lighted on a copy which Dr. Hooker¹⁶ sends me of his valuable Introductory Essay to [the] Flora of Tasmania,¹⁷ for which I beg you will give him my best thanks. I hope soon to read it carefully. — Wallace's map of Rio Negro¹⁸ also turned up.

I suppose by this time you may have rec[eive]^d the rest of the Cinchona seeds from Mr. T. V. Clarke.^{19, 20} That gentleman I now learn will remain 4 months in London, & on his return w[oul]^d bring out anything for me.

The famous Emigration scheme of the Ecuador Land Co[mpan]^{y 21} has terminated as I predicted[.] — their [sic] ship the Kittywake has been sold at Panamá & has been for some time in the port of Guayaquil, where she is to form the nucleus of a naval force with which the Ecuadoreans are going to thrash the Peruvians. Whether their road-making will have any better result, I cannot yet say, but I believe Jameson²² & Wilson are doing what they can.

Remember me very kindly to Mr. Bentham & Dr. Hooker.

Your faithful & obliged | Richard Spruce. [signature]

Sir W.J. Hooker, K. H.

Director of the Royal Gardens Kew.