From Conrad Martens 20 January 1862
St. Leonards. | —Sydney.
Jan 20th./62
To Chas. Darwin Esq., &c— .
Many thanks my old Shipmate for your kind message which I have just recd. by the padre,1
I thought you had quite forgotten that I was in existence, and certainly the man who voluntarily sets himself down in such a place as this has no right to grumble if he f⟨inds⟩ such to be the case.
As it appears howev⟨er⟩ you have still two of my sketches hanging up in your room.2 I hope you will not refuse to accept another which I shall have much pleasure in preparing and will send to you by the next mail,3
Your “book of the season” as the reviewers have it, I must own I have not yet read, altho Mr Clarke offered to lend it me, I am afraid of your eloquence, and I don’t want to think I have an origin in common with toads and tadpoles, for if there is anything in human ⟨n⟩ature that I hate it is a toady, but of course I know nothing of the subject, and they do make such microscopes now a-days— I suppose yours is one of Ross’s very best,4 by the by I got him to make two eyepieces for a reflecting telescope just before he died as I had succeeded in casting and polishing two metals of 6 and 7. feet focus, and so now I shew the good people here the mountains in the moon turned up side down, as of course they ought to be when seen from the antipodes.5
but I must apologize, for I suppose you don’t laugh at nonsense now as you used to do in “Beagle or rather I suppose it does not come in your way.
Well, that was a jolly cruize, and I hope you have been well and happy ever since—and that you may continue so for some time to come is Believe me | the sincere wish | of your old shipmate | Conrad Martens.
PS. | I wonder whether, the Admiral, what is now,6 I should like to send my kind regards, if you should see him, but don’t if you don’t like,— coffee without sugar, you remember.—7
Footnotes
Bibliography
Autobiography: The autobiography of Charles Darwin 1809–1882. With original omissions restored. Edited with appendix and notes by Nora Barlow. London: Collins. 1958.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
DNB: Dictionary of national biography. Edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. 63 vols. and 2 supplements (6 vols.). London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1912. Dictionary of national biography 1912–90. Edited by H. W. C. Davis et al. 9 vols. London: Oxford University Press. 1927–96.
Jervis, James. [1945.] W. B. Clarke: ""The father of Australian geology"". Sydney: Royal Australian Historical Society. [Vols. 9,10]
Lindsay, Lionel. 1968. Conrad Martens, the man and his art. Revised edition. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.
Nicholas, F. W. and Nicholas, J. M. 1989. Charles Darwin in Australia. With illustrations and additional commentary from other members of the Beagle’scompany including Conrad Martens, Augustus Earle, Captain FitzRoy, Philip Gidley King, and Syms Covington. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Vols. 7,10,11]
Turner, Gerard L’E. 1989. The great age of the microscope: the collection of the Royal Microscopical Society though 150 years. Bristol and New York: Adam Hilger.
Summary
He will send CD one of his sketches to add to the two CD has kept since Beagle days.
Asks for FitzRoy’s address.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3398
- From
- Conrad Martens
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Sydney
- Source of text
- DAR 171.1: 52
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3398,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3398.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 10
