10 



remains to be effected. For nine years, during which he 

 was stationed in Ireland, Mr. Carmichael seems to have been 

 preparing his mind for future discoveries, and by a fortunate 

 coincidence, Robeit Brown, Esq., who has justly been called 

 " the first botanist of this or any other age," held a similar 

 appointment upon the same station. That the advantages 

 arising from this circumstance were improved by Mr. Car- 

 michael, can hardly be doubted ; and an intimacy was then 

 formed between him and the great British botanist, which 

 was renewed in after life, when each had risen to eminence 

 in his respective line. 



Whatever pleasure he may have received from society 

 such as this, his eye could only rest upon objects that others 

 had discovered long before, and so long as foreign lands lay 

 untrodden and unexplored, Mr. Carmichael could not but 

 have a longing desire to visit them. He therefore gladly 

 embraced the opportunity of entering the 72d regiment, in 

 hopes of being sent to some foreign station; and whether it 

 was that he deemed it most conducive to his interests to drop 

 his profession as a surgeon, or, as is more probable, that he 

 found his duties interfere too much with his favourite pur- 

 suits, he exchanged the lancet for the sword, and entered the 

 72d regiment as Ensign. In 1805, his wishes were fully 

 accomplished ; the corps to which he belonged being one of 

 those which formed the expedition under Sir David Baird, 

 against the Cape of Good Hope; and from this period he 

 carefully noted whatever occurred to him that was deserving 

 of remark, keeping a diary, in which, from time to time, he 

 entered such observations on men, opinions, climate, plants, 

 &c. as might be instructive to others, or amusing to himself. 

 He was engaged in the action with the enemy which took 

 place on landing at the Cape, and from the account which 

 he gives of it, as well as from his general description of 

 military movements and stations, we learn that he made his 

 new profession his study, and that he was not contented 

 merely witli being an officer, but brought his talents to bear 

 on his occupations, until he knew the general duties which 

 he might have to perform, as well as the general rules of the 



