Letter from Theodor Hartweg to the secretary of Horticultural Society [George Bentham], 21 Regent Street, London

Information

Title: Letter from Theodor Hartweg to the secretary of Horticultural Society [George Bentham], 21 Regent Street, London

Scope & content: Written from Quezaltenango [Quetzaltenango, Guatemala]

Postmarked ('Cove [Cobh, Ireland] ship letter', 'Cove 1840 MR27' and '5 MR23 40'). The letter includes an impression of an opened seal

Letter No 35

He acknowledges receipt of a letter dated 15 Jul, which he received on 12 Nov; he promises to give more precise directions to the agents about consigning and shipping the boxes to the Society: 'but if they will not attend to these instructions repeated in every letter, surely the fault lies with them'; he heard that last of the boxes from Oaxaca [Mexico] (HS38-43) had been shipped from Veracruz [Mexico] on board the Bride to Liverpool; he has made several excursions to tierra templada ['temperate land' in Spanish, referring to places at a higher, and therefore cooled, altitude than those on the tierra caliente, or places with a hot climate], tierra caliente and the seashore nearby: 'the changes of vegetation are so rapid as to be scarcely able to point out the characters of each climate'

The letter includes accounts, annotated in pencil in another hand. Hartweg's expenses for 17 Oct-17 Nov 1839 comprise 'monthly allowance' $50, 'wages of mozo [servant]' $14, 'keeping of 4 beasts' $10.2 and 'postage' $2.4