44 THE ANTAECTIC VOYAGE : PEELIMINAEIES 
the Exped., but I should much more deeply regret going 
against the advice of my friends and losing my time. 
Matters straightened themselves out, however. * I am 
appointed from the Admiralty as Asst. Surgeon to the 
Erehus, and Capt. Eoss considers me the Botanist to the 
Expedition and pron:iises me every opportunity of collecting 
that he can grant.' McCormick, as will be seen, proved any- 
thing but exacting during the voyage, and indeed made friends 
with him at once when he reached Chatham, and looked after 
him when he met with a shght accident. 
A letter of July 13 to his father tells of another official 
interview, the tone of which he resented and remembered 
against the Society when it made claims on his work or the 
disposal of his collection : 
At the same time as your letter was brought off one 
came from Capt. Eoss calHng me up to town on Tuesday to 
attend the Commission of the Eoyal Society for the purpose 
of giving instructions to the Botanist. Mr. Eoyle,^ Dr. 
Horsfall,^ Mr. Pereira^ and Capt. Eoss were there. They 
gave me a long Hst of advices with little new in them or 
worth reporting but an order to send seeds to the Bot. 
Gardens in India ; you can guess who wanted this. Pereira 
^ John Forbes Royle (1799-1858). His love of natural history made him 
throw up his prospect of a commission in the Indian army and enter the 
Company's medical service, so that he could study Indian botany. In 1823 
he became superintendent of the Saharunpore Gardens, He studied and 
identified many Indian drugs, and with the aid of collectors, gathered vast 
collections, especially of Himalayan plants, Mhich he brought back to England 
in 1831. In 1837 he became F.R.S. and Professor of Materia Medica at King's 
College, London, while at the East India House he organised a department 
relating to vegetable productions, with a technical museum. In his Ilhistra- 
tions of the Botamj, dbc, of the Himalayan Mountains, 1839, he recommended 
the introduction of the cinchona plant into India. But it was not till 1853 
that Royle, at the invitation of the Governor-General, drew up a report on 
the subject, which in turn was only carried out in 18G0, two years after his 
death, by Sir Clements Markham. 
2 Possibly meant for Thomas Horsfield (1773-1859), an American doctor 
and botanist who took service in the Dutch East Indies, but finally joined the 
English service when the Dutch Malayan colonies were temporarily taken 
by us in 1811. In 1820 he was appointed Keeper of the E.I.C. Museum in 
Leadenhall Street, publishing various botanical and zoological papers. 
2 Jonathan Pereira (1804-53), the great authority and lecturer of his day 
on Materia Medica. In 1839 he had begun to publish his great book, The 
Elements of Materia Medica, and had been appointed examiner in the subject 
at the London University. 
