From Robert FitzRoy 20 June [1839]
Bromham | Bedford
20th. June
Dear Darwin
Thank you for the communication respecting Mr. Brown. What your own opinions are you do not say—but I have no hesitation in telling you that upon his own showing I think he has treated King worse than I was before aware. It appears he has not only kept back King’s plants from the British Museum, but also from the Edinburgh for nine years! King’s letter to him might tell in law but is sadly against him with reference to feeling.1
Though Anderson was (at all events partly) paid by a London Seedsman or Nursery Gardener—he was accommodated & victualled by the public for whose interests the Captain of the Ship was in some degree resp⟨on⟩sible to the Admiralty. 2
Your’s very truly | Robt FitzRoy
PS. I am eagerly and most agreeably occupied with your book— I will write in a few days about it.
We both beg to be kindly remembered to Mrs. Darwin whom I hope soon to see again.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Narrative: Narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty’s ships Adventure and Beagle, between the years 1826 and 1836. [Edited by Robert FitzRoy.] 3 vols. and appendix. London: Henry Colburn. 1839.
Summary
Robert Brown has mistreated Capt. P. P. King by holding back for nine years the plants collected on King’s voyage of the Adventure and Beagle.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-522
- From
- Robert FitzRoy
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Bromham, Bedford
- Source of text
- DAR 204: 147
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 522,” accessed on 22 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-522.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 2