162 THE ANTAECTIC VOYAGE : PEKSONAL 



would be inherited by some one who could make a good use 

 of them. 



Plans for the future are first outlined in a letter of February 

 3, 1840, written from St. Helena. 



One of your last questions to me on leaving Chatham 

 was : * What do you think of doing on your return ? ' 

 To this, if I remember right, I gave an indirect answer from 

 not knowing the service I was bound for. As I know, from 

 your affection to me, you would like a good reply, now that 

 I can form an opinion, I shall give it honestly. The Naval 

 Service generally is very bad for a Naturalist ; the par- 

 ticular branch, however, in which I serve, is very good. 

 Though there is not such a scope for the Botanist as I could 

 desire, there is a splendid opportunity of improving myself 

 as a general Naturalist. I am very fond of the lower orders, 

 though farther than studying them here, and perhaps aiding 

 in their futm'e publication, I never intend to follow them 

 up nor any other branch but botany. 



Gaiety of any kind has still less charms th^n ever for 

 me. Even at sea, I am quite happy drawing Mollusca in 

 the Captain*s cabin, and I only wish that 1 had more books 

 and were drawing plants. If ever on my return I am enabled 

 to follow up botany ashore, I shall live the life of a hermit, 

 as far as society is concerned ; like Brown perhaps, with- 

 out his genius.^ If I have to serve again on board ship, it 

 will be in a service like this, congenial to my taste and 

 pursuits, and not in the regular King's Service. The sea 

 agrees with me, and I am very happy on it, as long as I can 

 work. I am never sick, nor have been so since leaving 

 Chatham. This hot weather is my only and bitter enemy, 

 and from it I suffer very much, in several ways. 



What I said of my hfe and prospects, my dear father, 

 is, of course, strictly private. I am quite happy where I 



1 To this comparison his father replied : ' I am neither surprized nor sorry 

 that you have no taste for the gaieties of life ; but neither do I wish you to 

 turn " hermit." If you are no more of a hermit than Brown, indeed, I shall 

 not complain. That is, whether you know it or not, he is really fond of Society 

 and calculated to shine in it : and to my certain knowledge, never so happy as 

 when he is in it. But he has unfortunately sceptical notions on religion, which 

 often make life itself a burden to him : and which bring him no comfort in the 

 prospect of eternity. I really wish that he were now in this house that he 

 might see what is the death-bed of a Christian ' (the elder Hooker). 



