REMINISCENCES OF A VOYAGE TO AND FROM CHINA. 
259 
cumstances under which we procured the collection, and the subse¬ 
quent influences to which they became exposed. All those which had 
not been removed from the pots in which they were purchased, were 
comparatively healthy, while those which had been raised from the 
open ground, or which had been shifted into baskets before coming on 
board, were in a feverish state of excitement, and evidently much 
exhausted. By preparing them for the voyage, their roots necessarily 
suffered some disturbance, though no positive violence ; and before 
these had recovered their wonted activity, they were launched, as it 
were, from the edge of the temperate, into the midst of the torrid 
zone in the course of a few days. This was more than the so-recently- 
shifted plants were prepared to withstand ; nor with all our means, 
and skill, and constant care, could we check their restless efforts to 
waste their natural powers. 
There was still some hope left to cheer and dispel our anxious fore¬ 
bodings ;—we should shortly be under more temperate skies in crossing 
the Indian ocean, and we trusted to our well-designed means of protec¬ 
tion to double the Cape of Good Hope with safety. 
While in this sultry clime, and within a degree or two of being 
under a vertical sun at noon, in latitude one degree south, (the north 
declination being at that time very trifling,) we often thought of the 
advice given us by the experienced Sir Joseph Banks. He said that 
“ a person, however voluntarily ardent in the pursuit of any object 
while in the temperate latitudes, feels very different when exposed to 
the great and relaxing effects of tropical climates; a kind of lassitude 
seizes the most determined spirit, and for the love of ease ordinary 
duties are often neglected from the pain and dread of exertion.” To 
lie stretched out in some quiet and shady situation, is the greatest 
luxury; and no native of a cold climate can have the least idea of how 
much the energies of the human frame become neutralised under the 
all-pervading solar heat as felt at North Island. 
For ourselves, we may confess that we were no more free from such 
infirmity than others; but as our exertions were never required to be 
long continued under a burning sun, they were performed with greater 
alacrity. On this score we had, at the end of the voyage, nothing to 
upbraid ourselves. 
From this anchorage the fleet weighed, and stood to the eastward 
across the straits of Sunda, which divides the islands of Sumatra and 
Java, and anchored again at Angora Point, a roadstead nearly opposite 
the town of Bantam, at the western extremity of the latter island. 
Here we went on shore, and spent a pleasant day with Mr. Ilaxton of 
the embassy, ranging about in the woods and among the enclosures of 
