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Book 1, Chap. VL THE FOUNDERS OF THE

BLOANE

MUSEUM

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him that time for continued research which he had coveted and contracted for. The Duchess of ALBEMARLE had accompanied her husband in his voyage, and, after the first shock of his death had been borne, was naturally desirous to leave the colony. SLOANE could not allow her to take the return voyage without his attendance. He hastened to gather up his collections and prepared to come home. The fleet set sail from Port Royal on the 16th of March, 1689.

The voyage was full of anxiety. Such news from England as had yet reached the West Indies was very fragmentary. And the lack of authentic intelligence about the outbreak of the Revolution and its results, had been cked-out by all sorts of wild rumours. The voyagers looked daily with intense eagerness for outward-bound ships that might bring them news, and were especially anxious to know if war had broken out between England and France. When they caught sight of a sail so wistfully watched for, they commonly observed in the other vessel as great a desire to avoid a meeting, as there was amongst themselves to ensure one.

The Duchess of ALBEMARLE had with her a large amount of wealth in plate and jewels, as well as a large retinue. the anxieties were not lessened when the captain of the Tradte said to her Grace, two or three weeks after the dopreme fom Port Royal: I cannot fight any ship having No commission, from whom I received mine.' On how che tips assurance which seemed to open to her the SANNY MEME last the possible contingency, of being

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the Duchess resolved to change her

Ad with her suite she left the Assistvbarked, first in the late Duke's yacht, and * V* A kargave ships of the theet.

Chap. VI.

FOUNDERS

OF THE SLOANE MUSEUM.

Voyage to

vol. ii, p. 344.

After this separation, 'our Admiral,' says SLOANE, 'pre- BOOK I, ded he wanted water and must make the best of his THE y for England, without staying to convoy us home, ich accordingly he did.' The voyage, nevertheless, was de in safety. They learned very little of what had happened at home, Jamaica, &c., il they had arrived within a few leagues of Plymouth. en SLOANE himself went out, in an armed boat, with intention of picking up such news as could be gathered m any fishermen who might be met with near the coast. first fishing vessel they hailed did her best to run away, I was caught in the pursuit. To the question, 'How is King?' the master's reply was, 'What King do you an? King WILLIAM is well at Whitehall. King JAMES France.'

Ibid., p. 347.

EARLY

YEARS IN

SLOANE landed at Plymouth on the 29th of May, with
çe collections in all branches of natural history, and with
roved prospects of fortune.' The Duchess of ALBEMARLE
aved to him with great liberality, and for some years to
e he continued to be her domestic physician, and lived, for
most part, in one or other of her houses as his usual place
sidence. In 1690 much of his correspondence bears date
the Duchess' seat at New Hall, in Essex. In 1692
ind him frequently at Albemarle House, in Clerkenwell.
had also made, whilst in the West Indies, a lucky
stment in the shape of a large purchase of Peruvian
<. It was already a lucrative article of commerce, and
rovident importer had excellent professional opportuni- S
of adding to its commercial value by making its in-
ic merits more widely known in England.

he botanists, more especially, were delighted with the
- accessions to previous knowledge which SLOANE had
ght back with him. 'When I first saw,' said John

ENGLAND.

Sloane

Corresp.,

in MSS.

Sloane.

BOOK I, Chap. VI. THE

FOUNDERS

OF THE SLOANE

MUSEUM.

1693.

THE CATA-
LOGUE OF

WEST
INDIAN

PLANTS, AND
THE CONTRO-
VERBY WITH

RAY, 'his stock of dried plants collected in Jamaica, and in some of the Caribbee Islands, I was much astonished at the number of the capillary kind, not thinking there had been so many to be found in both the Indies.'

The collector, himself, had presently his surprise in the matter, but it was of a less agreeable kind. 'My collection,' he says, ' of dried samples of some very strange plants excited the curiosity of people who loved things of that nature to see them, and who were welcome, until I observed some so very curious as to desire to carry part of them privately home, and injure what they left. This made me upon my guard.'

On the 30th of November, 1693, SLOANE was elected to the Secretaryship of the Royal Society. A year afterwards he was made Physician to Christ Hospital. It is eminently to his honour that from his first entrance into this office-which he held for thirty-six years—he applied the whole of its emoluments for the advantage and advancement of deserving boys who were receiving their education there. For that particular appointment he was himself none the richer, save in contentment and good works.

in

In 1696 he made his first appearance as an author by the publication of his Catalogus Plantarum quæ in insula Jamaica sponte proveniunt, vel vulgo coluntur, cum earundem synonimis et locis natalibus: Adjectis aliis quibusdam quæ PLURENEE insulis Madeira, Barbadoes, Nevis, et Sancti Christophori nascuntur. He had already seen far too much of the world to marvel that his book soon brought him censure as well as praise. By Leonard PLUKENET, a botanist of great acquirements and ability, many portions of the Jamaica Catalogue were attacked, sometimes on well-grounded objections; more often upon exceptions rather captious than just, and with that bitterness of expression which is the

1696.

failing finger-post of envy. PLUKENET's strictures were BOOK I, ablished in his Almagesti Botanici Mantissa.*

Chap. VI.

SLOANE THE

ade no rash haste to answer his critic. Where the nsure bore correction of real error or oversight, he carelly profited by it. Where it was the mere cloak of malice, awaited without complaint the appropriate time for aling, both with censure and censor, which would be re to come when he should give to the world the ripened sults of the voyage of 1687.

At that

FOUNDERS

OF THE
SLOANE

MUSEUM.

A passage in Dr. SLOANE'S correspondence with Dr.
ARLETT, of Cambridge, written in the same year with
e publication of the Jamaica Catalogue, shows that even
ilst he was still almost at the threshold of his London
, he was able steadily to enlarge his museum.
ly date, CHARLETT, who had seen it during a visit to Charlett to
ndon, calls it already a noble collection of all natural Ms. Corresp.,
iosities.' The collector, when he landed its first fruits 4043, f. 193.
Plymouth, had yet before him-such was to be his un-

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As, for example, under the words 'Lapathum;' Poonnacai Malarum; 'Ricinus ;''Salix ;' and several others. See Almagesti BotaMantissa, pp. 113; 143; 161; 165, &c.

Dr. Arthur Charlett's long and intimate correspondence with Sir as Sloane began in this year (1696), and continued without interion until 1720. It has much interest, and fills MS. Sloane 4040, f. 193 to f. 285. That with John Chamberlayne was of nearly equal tion, and is preserved in the same volume (ff. 100-167). The corredence with James Bobart contains much valuable material for the ory of botanical study in England, and is preserved in MS. Sloane, (ff. 158-185). It began in 1685, and was continued until Bobart's h, in 1716. Still more curious is the correspondence with John net (1722-1738), who was originally a surgeon in the service of East India Company, and afterwards Surgeon to the King of Spain. net's letters to Sloane, written from Madrid, contain valuable illusons of Spanish society and manners as they were in the first half he Eighteenth Century. This correspondence is in MS. Sloane,

Sloane, in

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usan lengah of deve—almost sixty-four years of life. Not one of them probably, passed without some valuable accesAnd those sixty-four years were the

addiescent and formative years of the study of the Physical Scences — Sundin. They were years, too, in the course a vid det Vas to be a great development of British enargy, bath in foreign travel and in colonial enterprise. TEST DENT WHre to run to and fro in the earth, so that knowledge might be re increased. As a traveller, Strand bad already done his spell of work. But just es that was achieved he was placed, by his election to the secretaryship to the Royal Society, precisely in the position where he could most extensively profit by a wide correspondence with men of like scientific pursuits all over the world, and could exercise a watchful observation over the doings and the opportunities of explorers.

But the most immediate result of his secretaryship was the resumption of the suspended Philosophical Transactions. The interruption of a work which had already rendered yooman service to Science, abroad as well as at home, had been caused by a combination of unfavourable circumstances. The death of its first and energetic editor, Henry O; PRNBURG; some diminution in the Society's income; and some personal disagreements at its Council board, seem * in their measure, to have ecncurred to impede a publiversion, the continuance of which the best men in the deyal Society knew to be inseparable from the achievement x true purposes. SLOANE bestirred himself with the gour which had been born with him; impressed into the service; profited by the foreign connecAnd formed ten years earlier at Paris, Bordeaux, so found new channels by which to Missier, and

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