Letter from John Forbes to Joseph Sabine [secretary of the Horticultural Society of London]
Information
Title - Letter from John Forbes to Joseph Sabine [secretary of the Horticultural Society of London]
Record type - Archive
Original Reference - RHS/Col/3/5/41
Date - 19 Jun 1823
Scope & content - Written from HMS Barracouta, off Cape Aghullas [Cape Agulhas, South Africa]
Marked at the top of the page 'No 19'
They left Simon's Bay [South Africa] three days ago, travelling towards Quilemani [Quelimane, Mozambique], where Captain Owen [William FitzWilliam Owen, captain of HMS Leven] has ordered the Barracouta to sail; they will probably reach Quelimane within a few days and stay for a day or two to acquire provisions and to land Lieutenant Browne [Charles William Browne, lieutenant on HMS Leven] and the surveying party; Owen himself will not leave Cape of Good Hope [South Africa] for another ten days, 'but he as well as ourselves are desirous that no more time should be lost'; the rainy season will commence at the end of October, and they wish to get out of the 'marshy neighbourhood of the mouth of the river' and into more mountainous and dry ground; they expect to begin their 'operations' in about 20 days' time; he has left most of his baggage at the Cape, including equipment belonging to the Horticultural Society, in charge of Mr Pennell, the 'naval store keeper' in the dock yard at Simon's Town [South Africa]; he has with him some reams of paper, canisters of preservation powder, shot, notebooks, 'a very few clothes' and hardly any books; they will probably have to walk parts of the journey, 'therefore the less baggage we have, the better, for we may have to carry all ourselves'; while within the Portuguese territory, they will be able to transmit notes, specimens and charts to Quelimane for Owen; he will be able to send letters, but they will probably not reach Sabine until the following year; he hopes he will be able to send specimens and information about that part of Africa; 'this certainly presents a field at once the most extensive and interesting, and if we succeed (which, if we have our health, we have every reason to expect), at least some light will be shown on a part of the world with which Europe is at present almost entirely unacquainted'; the Portuguese, who are the only Europeans with any knowledge of the area, have 'either through ignorance or design' kept the information to themselves, apart from some information from 'about three hundred years ago, at the time it was first conquered by them'; the surgeon [George Kilpatrick, assistant surgeon on HMS Leven] accompanying the party is interested in natural history, 'except botany', and is familiar with taxidermy, making him 'altogether a very scientific and desirable companion'; the party is composed of 'only us three officers and our servants, one only of which is European, the other both natives of Africa; the one appointed to me is a native of the banks of the Zambezi [Zambezi River, Zambia, Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique] and of course very valuable to us [Forbes' servant was called Adonis; the other servant was Antonio, a freed slave from Cape Town, South Africa]'; for carrying baggage and rowing boats, 'we shall purchase or hire slaves from the Portuguese and set them at liberty again when we are done with them, but it is much better to buy them than to hire them'; he will be able to acquire 'more specimens and more useful information of the vegetable history of an unknown part' by joining the expedition than by staying with the ships; Owen will be collecting specimens, seeds and roots when he is able, and is intending to get the assistant surgeon to help him; Forbes has left paper with Owen for preserving specimens, although the short stops of the ships are not ideal for forming large collections or preserving specimens; they have acquired another correspondent for the Horticultural Society in Cape Town [South Africa], the Rev J. Philip of the London Missionary Society [John Philip, missionary in South Africa], 'a gentleman well acquainted with the theory of botany' and with collections from his journeys to the interior of the continent, he is also a 'very good geologist' and familiar with natural history in general; he wrote to Philip but has not received a response yet, and requested he direct his correspondence to Owen in case Forbes has sailed before receiving a reply; Philip's 'constant communications … with the interior' suggest he may become more useful than 'any other person in this colony', being able to procure specimens, seeds and bulbs not available to any of the other correspondents; 'it is not without considerable regret and astonishment that I leave the Cape without either myself or Captain Owen having heard a word from you' since Madeira in March 1822; he will now be unable to receive communications for at least 18 months, speculating that 'some unforeseen accident or misfortune' must be preventing Sabine's letters from reaching him; since his last letter, he has drawn £67 8s 10d in three bills from Cape of Good Hope, for £25 on 12 May, £20 on 7 Jun and £22 8s 10d on 10 Jun [annotated in the margin in another hand: 'see letters']; a 'considerable portion' of the money is for his own use and will be refunded to the Society; the rest is for his expenses at Cape of Good Hope and for exchanging Spanish dollars in order to purchase boats, and 'hiring or purchasing slaves and other equipment' for the expedition; during the time spent at Cape of Good Hope he has made few additions to his collections; it is not the best season for collecting, although it might be possible to find some specimens in 'this immense field'; Owen advised him to prepare for the expedition by learning Portuguese and astronomical observations, 'as absolutely necessary to our journey'; they expect to arrive at Algoa Bay [South Africa] within a day or two, and he will send the letter from there
Extent - 3 page letter (1 sheet)
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)