MONUMENT TO MR. DOUGLAS. 
317 
the above particulars are extracted)—“ we cannot tell what might have 
been the state of his mind on that night, which had urged him repeat¬ 
edly to rise in the dead stillness of midnight among his anxious sleep¬ 
less companions, and thereby excite their suspicions. Could he have 
composed himself, he probably would have been recovered in a day or 
two by his companions, who came to the native encampment but a day 
or so too late ! He had a mind well disciplined by the religious educa¬ 
tion he had received, and might have reconciled himself to a short .stay 
in a remote desert, even among savages, until rescued by his party. 
“ I can add nothing farther,” continues his brother ; “ but, standing 
relatively as I do in this sad business, let me now for ever draw a veil 
upon the whole, just remarking, that two of the guilty natives found 
means to escape from the soldiers; and what has been done with the 
third, who was conveyed to Sidney, and there lodged in gaol, is not 
known; for it appears very doubtful whether any evidence could be 
obtained sufficient legally to substantiate his guilt.—A. Cunningham, 
Kew, June 17, 1836.” 
We cannot help observing, that this is the third instance which has 
occurred within the space of two years ; of the loss of three eminent and 
adventurous British collecting botanists;—the deaths of the first and 
last under circumstances of the most distressing nature, where there 
was no friendly arm to succour, nor friendly hand to close their eyes! 
Mr. Drummond, we believe, fell a victim to the insalubrity of the 
Mexican climate ; so that all three may be said to have been martyrs 
in the cause of botany. Though departed from among us, and though 
their early deaths have deprived us of the hope of receiving what we 
expected from their intended labours, the plants which they intro¬ 
duced into our collections, and which bear their names, will ever remain 
as memorials of their exertions, and perpetuate their memories to the 
latest posterities. 
A debt of gratitude is due from the living to the worthy dead. 
From the influence of this sentiment, it is now in contemplation to 
erect a monument to the honour of the lamented Douglas. This will 
appear from the following notice extracted from a printed paper handed 
to us by Mr. Loudon :— 
“ To Gardeners , Botaiiists , and Amateurs .—The Perthshire Royal 
Horticultural Society, desirous to express their sense of the advantages 
conferred on the science of botany by the late indefatigable Mr. David 
Douglas, through whose exertions a great and valuable addition has 
been made to the exotic flora and arboretum of Great Britain ; in 
consideration of his successful exertions and lamented end, have re- 
solved to erect a monument to his memory, in his native parish of 
