106 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
I may claim to be classed among individuals possessing the 
latter attributes; but certain it is, that to the astonishment of 
the whole population of Surinam, I have accepted the office 
of government resident among the Bush Negroes of Anka, 
as the district is termed. The salary which attaches to the 
post is very small, owing to the reasons which have caused it 
to fall into the hands of the lowest individuals. Our present 
governor, Rear-Admiral Ryck, the most enlightened indi- 
vidual who has ever presided over this colony, aware as he 
said of the advantages which might accrue from confiding a 
situation of such eminent importance to me, and regretting 
that it had been hitherto held by people chosen from the very 
populace, gave it me instantly. 
Holding, as I now do, this public office, I forbear making 
any remarks on the narrow salary which is injudiciously at- 
tached to it. I will only say, that while the remuneration 
may have sufficed for individuals of such a description as 
those who have hitherto occupied it, I found it so inadequate 
to the position which I hold in society, that I was obliged to 
part with the collection of birds, insects, and plants which I 
had by me, in order to cover the costs of an expedition 
which I hope will prove eventually advantageous to the 
cause of botany. My plants, 11,000 in number, I could 
have wished to offer first to you, but I am the more recon- 
ciled to their being otherwise disposed of, because as they 
were collected before my late excursion to the Mapauna and 
Tempati rivers, 1 have materially improved since that time in 
the process of drying my specimens, and I should be sin- 
cerely sorry to send you anything of which there was cause 
to complain. : 
F. W. HosTMANN, 
Med. and Chirurg. Doctor. 
April 23rd, 1841. 
