Letter 4444

Houstoun was working as a surgeon on a South Sea Company ship when it was driven ashore. He managed to save many of his belongings. Houstoun requests Sloane’s help. He is to travel to Carolina in a fortnight. Houstoun ‘sent [Sloane] a collection of Plants’ from Jamaica, ‘among which was the Contrayerva’. ‘About 10 days ago there was a Spanish Vessel put ashore here, and 40 of her people drowned’. Houstoun offers his service to Drs Motimer and Amman. William Houstoun (c. 1704-1733) was a botanist and physician. He was elected a member of the Académie des sciences in 1728. Houstoun worked as a surgeon for the South Sea Company from 1730 and collected plants in Jamaica and Cuba among other places (G. S. Boulger, ‘Houstoun, William (c.1704–1733)’, rev. D. E. Allen, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/13876, accessed 27 Aug 2014]).