JACK'S LETTERS TO WALLICH, 1819-1821. 177 



which. 101 I enclose a sprig with one of these fruits. The cones 

 I formerly found, belonged to the Pinus Dammara, which is 

 abundant. 102 



This goes for the Bishop; 103 he has been with us once or 

 twice, and has seen all that is going on in the various departments 

 of Natural History, at which, between ourselves, he expressed 

 nothing more than common vulgar wonder, and we certainly did 

 give him enough for that, however as you will probably meet him 

 at the Society, you will probably hear his account of Penang and 

 its wonders. What attracted most his attention was two natives 

 of the Andamans, who w r ere brought here some time ago, whom 

 he pronounced to be in the lowest state of civilization in which 

 he had yet seen human nature, and certainly there could not well 

 be conceived a greater contrast than was exhibited between the 

 portly figure of the Bishop himself, and the two poor wretches 

 he was examining. I should have liked to have asked him whether 

 he really believed himself to have sprung from the same common 

 stock with them; and whether Adam resembled these Aboriginees. 



I made a memorandum of the peculiarities of form of these 

 men, which I will send you when I have time to copy- it. The 

 most striking peculiarity, is their diminutive stature, the taller of 

 the two being 4 ft. 7 in. 



My best regards to Mrs. Wallich, and believe me. 



Yours very sincerely 



William Jack. 



SERIES 2-SINGAPORE LETTERS. 



Singapore, June 8th, 1819. 



[Eeceived July 27th]. 

 My dear Wallich, 



We got clear of Penang on the 22nd ult., and arrived here 

 on the 31st. It is impossible to conceive any thing more beauti- 

 ful 104 than the approach to this place through the Archipelago of 



101. Dacrydium elatum, Wall. Jack had mentioned this as a fir and 

 as a Pinus in his earlier letters. The finding of the fruit put him on the 

 right track. 



102. Agathis loranthifolia, Salisb. otherwise known as Agathis alba, 

 Foxworthy, or Dammar a alba, Lamk. 



103. The Right Rev. Thomas Fanshaw Middleton (1769-1822), first 

 Bishop of Calcutta under the East India Company, a competent organiser, 

 but narrow towards dissenters. We know that there were several baptist 

 missionaries in association with Raffles, so that the Bishop might not have 

 felt inclined to be very friendly. 



Raffles (Memoir of the life of Sir T. S. Raffles, p. 400) mentions Dr. 

 Middleton 's visit to Penang, in a long letter there printed. 



104. Jack in a letter to his family which is printed in the Botanical 

 Magazine (1847) under plate 4285, uses these same words and then goes on 

 to a more detailed description than that above. 



R. A. Soc, No. 73, 1916. 



