Letter from John Forbes to Joseph Sabine [secretary of the Horticultural Society of London], Horticultural Society, Regent Street, London
Information
Title
Letter from John Forbes to Joseph Sabine [secretary of the Horticultural Society of London], Horticultural Society, Regent Street, London
Record type
Archive
Original Reference
RHS/Col/3/5/20
Date
11 Jul 1822
Scope & content
Written from Simon's Town [Cape of Good Hope, South Africa]
An opened seal is attached to the letter
Marked at the top of the page 'No 10'. Annotated at the top of page: 'Joseph Sabine received Oct 21 1822'
They sailed from Rio de Janeiro [Brazil] on 9 Jun, arriving at Cape of Good Hope two days previously; the passage was good, apart from one gale, during which the window in his cabin broke, and his cabin half filled with water; after the gale the ship was almost becalmed for two or three days; Captain Owen [William FitzWilliam Owen, captain of HMS Leven] lowered boats for them to shoot birds at sea; he has acquired a fine white albatross skin, two skins of sooty albatrosses and skins of several kinds of petrels; he will send them to England when they are dry, along with specimens and seeds collected in Rio de Janeiro and a copy of his journal, 'which I have not been able to complete at sea for want of room and day light', as since his window broke, he has had to have the wooden port nailed shut; he had expected to find letters from Sabine on his arrival but received none: 'I almost despair of hearing from you now before we sail for the coast'; Owen received answers to his Lisbon [Portugal] letters in Brazil, and most of the officers received answers to their letters from Brazil on arriving at the Cape of Good Hope; he is anxious to hear whether Sabine received the boxes sent from Lisbon; he was disappointed to learn that the Society's correspondent Dr Duke [Valentine Duke, British Royal Navy surgeon and former corresponding member of the Horticultural Society at Cape of Good Hope] had returned to England a month previously, and he encloses Sabine's letter to him; he has not yet been able to visit Cape Town [South Africa] where all the other correspondents live, due to the 'excessive bad' weather rendering the roads almost impassable; he has brought all his specimens on shore 'to a house belonging to government that is used as an observatory'; they will stay at least a month due to repairs required to the vessel bought by Owen in Brazil and to 'complete our equipment for the coast'; everything is expensive; he needs to have several boxes made at the expense of the Society so he can take soil with him for seeds and plants while travelling, as Owen has informed him that he 'may expect nothing from the ship's carpenters'; he has drawn a bill for £15 for the purpose; he is healthy and hopes the same is true of Sabine
Extent
3 page letter (1 sheet)
Is part of
RHS archive: plant collector papers
Repository
Royal Horticultural Society Lindley Library
Copyright
Royal Horticultural Society
Credit Line
RHS Lindley Collections
Usage terms
Non-commercial use with attribution permitted (CC BY-NC 4.0)