his position as Superintendent of the H.E.I.C. Botanic Garden at
Calcutta, would enable hum to give. He also drew my attention to the
fact that we were ignorant even of the geography of the central and
eastern parts of these mountains, while all to the north was involved
in a mystery equally attractive to the traveller and the naturalist.

On hearing of the kind interest taken by Baron Humboldt in my
proposed travels, and at the request of my father (Sir William
Hooker), the Earl of Carlisle (then Chief Commissioner of Woods and
Forests) undertook to represent to Her Majesty's Government the
expediency of securing my collections for the Royal Gardens at Kew;
and owing to the generous exertions of that nobleman, and of the late
Earl of Auckland (then First Lord of the Admiralty), my journey
assumed the character of a Government mission, £400 per annum being
granted by the Treasury for two years.

I did not contemplate proceeding beyond the Himalaya and Tibet, when
Lord Auckland desired that I should afterwards visit Borneo, for the
purpose of reporting on the capabilities of Labuan, with reference to
the cultivation of cotton, tobacco, sugar, indigo, spices,
guttapercha, etc. To this end a commission in the navy (to which
service I was already attached) was given me, such instructions were
drawn up as might facilitate my movements in the East, and a suitable
sum of money was placed at my disposal.

Soon after leaving England, my plans became, from various causes,
altered. The Earl of Auckland* [It is with a melancholy satisfaction
that I here record the intentions of that enlightened nobleman.
The idea of turning to public account what was intended as a
scientific voyage, occurred to his lordship when considering my