210 THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. 



"and am now only just arrived by the Clyde. I have 

 "taken some pains to ascertain the botanical names of 

 " the woods, but have not succeeded in all cases. What- 

 u ever little personal trouble I have been at in procuring 

 " these woods, I beg you to consider has been undertaken 

 "con aniore. It is but a very small return for the kind- 

 " ness you exhibited towards me in so very promptly 

 " advancing me aid when I was rather short of cash. 

 "Any allusion to pecuniary remuneration, direct or 

 " indirect, for this, will only grieve my feelings, so that 

 " you will permit me gratefully to decline it. The 

 " expenses actually incurred I have no objection to your 

 " refunding, though it will be pleasing to me if you will 

 " accept this also. But as you might find this disagree- 

 " able, I enclose a little note of the expenses incurred in 

 "procuring and shipping the specimens. Should you 

 " have an opportunity of seeing Mr. John A. Hankey, 

 " I beg that you will present my compliments to him, 

 "with cordial thanks for his politeness in allowing my 

 " specimens of natural history to pass freight free." 



It appears from this letter, and from other documents, 

 that, eminently successful as the Jamaica trip had been, it 

 had not led to any definite addition to Gosse's means of 

 income. He had supported himself with independence in 

 the West Indies, and he had brought back, in addition to 

 his sales, a collection of miscellaneous objects for which he 

 slowly found purchasers ; but he had no security for the 

 future. The British Museum proposed another excursion, 

 this time to the Azores, and he made some preliminaries 

 towards starting in the winter of 1846, bought a Portu- 

 guese grammar, learned the mode of arriving at Fayal 

 from Madeira, and began a list of Azorean desiderata. 

 But the scheme fell through, mainly because an abundance 



