After this separation, ‘our Admiral’ says Sloane, ‘pretended he wanted water and must make the best of his way for England, without staying to convoy us home, which accordingly he did.’ The voyage, nevertheless, was made in safety.
Voyage to Jamaica, &c., vol. ii, p. 344.
They learned very little of what had happened at home, until they had arrived within a few leagues of Plymouth. Then Sloane himself went out, in an armed boat, with the intention of picking up such news as could be gathered from any fishermen who might be met with near the coast. The first fishing vessel they hailed did her best to run away, but was caught in the pursuit. |Ibid., p. 347.| To the question, ‘How is the King?’ the master’s reply was, ‘What King do you mean? King William is well at Whitehall. King James is in France.’
Early Years in England.
Sloane landed at Plymouth on the 29th of May, with large collections in all branches of natural history, and with improved prospects of fortune. The Duchess of Albemarle behaved to him with great liberality, and for some years to come he continued to be her domestic physician, and lived, for the most part, in one or other of her houses as his usual place of residence. In 1690 much of his correspondence bears date from the Duchess’ seat at New Hall, in Essex. In 1692 we find him frequently at Albemarle House, in Clerkenwell. He had also made, whilst in the West Indies, a lucky investment in the shape of a large purchase of Peruvian Bark. |Sloane Corresp., in MSS. Sloane.| It was already a lucrative article of commerce, and the provident importer had excellent professional opportunities of adding to its commercial value by making its intrinsic merits more widely known in England.
The botanists, more especially, were delighted with the large accessions to previous knowledge which Sloane had brought back with him. ‘When I first saw,’ said John 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.’
1693.
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.
The Catalogue of West Indian Plants, and the Controversy with Plukenet.