JACK'S LETTERS TO WALLICH, 1819-1821. 239 



Jack's letters to Wallich thus end eight months before his 

 death with an admission that he was ill. He apparently had not 

 complained before to Wallich, but in a letter home dated April 

 8th, 1821, he told his parents that he had recovered from another 

 attack of lung trouble. His illnesses added to the sadness of that 

 rear when Baffles' three children died. Jack himself seems to 

 have been ill from this date continuously, the lung trouble re- 

 curring ; but according to Baffles acute Malaria carried him off 

 which was contracted on a trip to Mocomoco. He took a voyage 

 to Java in the hope that it might place him on the road to re- 

 covery; but it did not; and he returned to Bencoolen worse. As 

 a last resort he was put on board another vessel for the Cape. From 

 what Baffles wrote it appears that he was landed again dying, and 

 was buried in the Settlement. 



This is how Baffles wrote (i.) on September -1th, 1822, " My in- 

 estimable friend, Jack, still remains in a very dangerous state, 

 and is obliged to embark in the Layton for the Cape. In him I 

 lose my right hand/' and again (ii.) September 14th, " I have very 

 little hope for him; I shall feel his loss most severely, both as a 

 private friend and as an able assistant," and yet again (iii.) Sep- 

 tember loth. '' We were to have embarked this morning for Singa- 

 pore, but the wind has proved foul; and it was ordained that we 

 should remain another day, to bury our dear and invaluable friend, 

 William Jack. Poor fellow ! a finer head or heart there never 

 was ; and whether as a bosom friend, or as a scientific assistant, 

 he was to me invaluable ; he had been long ill and returned from 

 Java about a fortnight ago, after an unsuccessful visit for change 

 of air: we embarked him yesterday in the Layton for the Cape; 

 and he died this morning before the ship weighed her anchor." 



In a letter to Wallich telling him of the loss Baffles says that 

 he died at Government House: if so he was landed again to die. 

 He was but twenty-seven. 



He was unmarried; and Buckley's one-time speculation that 

 Jack's was among the children taken home in 1824 by Sir Stam- 

 ford, is without foundation (vide Anecdotal History i. p. 10). 



Wallich received the news of his death at Singapore on Octo- 

 ber 10th, 1822, where lie had arrived on a voyage for his health. 

 His letter of condolence to the parents is reprinted in the com- 

 panions to the Botanical Magazine. It appears that he had had 

 no premonition of the approaching end: and that Jack's last letter 

 to Wallich here printed was in reality the last written. 



The following lines written by Baffles under the date of Febru- 

 ary 4th, 1824, give rather histrionically the fate of Jack's collec- 

 tions : — 



"We (that is Sir Stamford's party) embarked on the 2nd in- 

 stant in the Fame, and sailed at daylight for England with a 

 fair wind, and every prospect of a quick and comfortable passage. 



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



