|
powerful neighbours so he and his chief
minister, the Dewan, were
particularly suspicious of travellers like Hooker who surveyed
and made maps during their travels. (Their suspicions proved
well-founded, as Hooker’s maps later proved to have both
economic and military importance to the British.) When Hooker
first sought permission to enter Sikkim, the Dewan made
considerable efforts to prevent him, and even after pressure
from the British administration forced the Dewan to submit, he
obstructed their progress in various ways. He particularly
urged them not to cross the northern border with Tibet during
their explorations, but Hooker and Campbell knowingly ignored
his order and the border violation was used by the Dewan as a
pretext to arrest and imprison them in November 1849. The
British government secured their release within weeks by
threatening to invade Sikkim. The elderly Rajah was punished
with the annexation of some of his land and the withdrawal of
his British pension; a response that even some of the British
thought excessive.
Following his release, Hooker spent 1850
travelling with Thomas Thomson in Eastern Bengal and the two
returned to England in 1851. Together they wrote the first
volume of a projected Flora Indica (1855), which was
never completed because of a lack of support from the East
India Company (although Hooker eventually produced the
Flora of British India, 1872–1897). However, the
introductory essay on the geographical relations of India’s
flora was to be one of Hooker’s most important statements on
biogeographical issues.
Altogether Hooker collected about 7,000
species in India and Nepal and on his return to England,
managed to secure another government grant while he classified
and named them. The first publication was the
Rhododendrons
of the Sikkim-Himalaya (1849–51), edited by his father and
illustrated by Walter Hood Fitch, whose fine drawings enriched
many of both Hookers’ publications. Hooker and Campbell’s
travels added 25 new rhododendron species to the 50 already
known and the spectacular new species they introduced into
Britain helped create a rhododendron craze among British
gardeners. Hooker’s journey also produced his
Himalayan
Journals (1854), which were dedicated to Darwin.
|
