Letter 3939

Robinson was glad to hear Sloane made the voyage to Jamaica safely and was surviving ‘under the fiery sun, and new climate.’ He forwarded Sloane’s letter to his ‘friends at Dicks, Bettys, Trumpet, etc.’ Mr Courten showed Robinson Sloane’s letters. Robinson sent John Ray’s latest book by Captain Brooks. For Ray’s next volume Robinson believes Sloane can furnish ‘dryd samples, seeds, or written observations, Mr Key publishing them in your name’. Robinson expects ‘many discoveries of North America from Mr Bannister’. Van Drakensteen and Dr Claudius were expected to return from the East Indies soon where they visited ‘all the Dutch plantations and Colonies’. Dr Claudius spent 10 years in Asia, including China, Japan, and Java. He also visited Africa. Dr Hermann was working on a history of Ceylon. Robinson hopes Sloane makes progress on a history of the West Indies while he is in Jamaica. He heard rumours Dr Trapham was growing ‘Jesuits Tree in his garden at Port Royall’. The apothecaries and surgeons have been complaining about the ‘late laws made by the College of Physitians’. Robinson does not expect a war with the Dutch despite recent problems. A ‘Prince of Wales is expected next July’. Colonel Talmash was leading a regiment in Holland and Lord Cook ‘is master of the Houshold to the Prince of Orange.’ Sloane did not respond to Robinson’s letters of the previous November and December, making him think they were lost en route. Robinson was a naturalist, physician, and fellow of the Royal College of Physicians from 1685. He was appointed physician-in-ordinary to King George I 1714 (G. S. Boulger, Robinson, Sir Tancred (1657/81748), rev. Kaye Bagshaw, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2010 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/23873, accessed 26 June 2013]).