NAVY PKOSPECTS 165 
Unlikely as it is, there is a possibility of your not being able 
to help me five months hence, and how foolish I should be 
to have thrown away the certainty of promotion for the 
uncertainty of anything else 1 I also told him that I had 
no idea of being applied for, until our arrival in England ; 
but as he was good enough to do so before, I should take 
advantage of his offer, provided that he would not be offended 
at my throwing away that offer on my arrival, adding, that 
I beheved and expected I should be worth being employed 
by you for my hving ; that nothing but absolute necessity 
should make me enter the ordinary service ; and that it 
was highly improbable that I should ever feel myself at 
hberty to enter any Govetoment Expedition, which would 
employ me more than ten or twelve months. I have no 
wish to be a drag on the service by remaining in it and not 
serving ; and when I explained this to him, he answered, 
* it would be a piece of great injustice in the Navy to employ 
me in any way but Natl. Hist.,' and said a great many 
flattering things which I divided by two, and appropriated 
one half (perhaps the better). He also told me that he 
would apply for a sum of money to defray the publica- 
tion of the Natl. Hist., the Botany of which should be 
recommended to me ; and that I ought to be employed 
still on pay (perhaps half -pay), in the service, till they were 
done, as very inadequate compensation for my trouble ; 
to this, of course, I had no objections, except on the grounds 
of passing the boards. On this head I am told the regulations 
are altered, and that having a diploma from Edinbro', I 
am not required to pass anywhere but before Sir William 
Burnett ; such was not the case when we sailed, but I am 
told is now ; a matter of very great consequence, as I have 
no notion of working up to pass Edinbro' again, which would 
cost three to five months' study in classes. 
The long and short of the matter being— that Capt. 
Boss must either apply for my promotion, or write home 
and state that I would not take it if offered me, I of course 
(having no competency of my own) took the promotion 
offer, being at liberty to decHne it on my arrival in England, 
without giving him offence for having put him to trouble 
for nothing. I took two days to think over the matter 
before giving him a final answer, and hope you will approve 
of what I have done. I weighed the question in all its 
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