Letter received by Banks from Robert Brown, December 1804 (Series 23.13) - No. 0002

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The two additional Boxes mention'd in my last letter, containing seeds Vessels &c. I have retain'd.

About the end of Novr 1803 I left Port Jackson in the Colonial Tender Lady Nelson hoping to be able to add largely to my collection in Van Diemen's Land, but not expecting to be absent more than eight or ten weeks;  from various unavoidable circumstances however, my stay was protracted to nine months, of which time a very great part was entirely lost.  In this unfortunate expedition I had an opportunity of examining Kent's Island in Bass Strait, of revisiting Port Phillip & of examining both extremities of Van Dieman's Land viz Port Dalrymple, & the neighbourhood of the River Derwent.  At this last place to which I went on the removal of Coll. Collins' Establishment from Port Phillip I was detaind nearly six Months there occuring  in that time no opportunity of getting back to Port Jackson.  This detention was the more unfortunate, as without such assistance, as I could hardly expect in an Infant Colony, but little was to be done;  for without having a Boat at my disposal;  I found it impossible to get to any great distance from the settlement & its neighbourhood was soon exhausted.  My researches were consequently confin'd in great measure to the nearest chain of Mountains & the Rivers which descend from there.  Table Mountain (the Plateau of the French Charts) which in appearance & height much resembles the Table Land of the Cape of Good Hope, I ascended ten times & found it uncommonly productive, most of the new species of plants acquir'd in Van Diemens Land belonging to it.

Van Diemens Land is by no means so rich in plants as I expected to have found it. My Florula exclusive of Cryptogamic plants not containing more than 540 species