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Oct 1
My dear sir
You have no doubt heard from Capt Vancouver that a dispute has taken place between him & the Botanist Menzies who was sent out as you remember, under the orders of the Sec of State when you was in that office to make observations on the nat hist of the NW Coast & to Collect Curious Plants for the Royal Gardens & that Menzies was put under arrest by him in July last and now remains in the same situation.
This matter has given me much uneasiness & the more so because the Alerts which by letters I have received from him when at Vaporaese [Valparaiso] appeard to be extremely anxious have in all probability been the sacrifice of this unfortunate misunderstanding.
What the cause has been we neither of us you nor I can think ourselves able fully to know till both parties have been heard. I fear it will appear that Menzies did not do exactly as I could have wished him to do & indeed as I already directed him to do implicitly obey the Captains orders without murmur or remonstrance.
I understand the dispute to have originated in the Captains putting Menzies servant into a watch as soon as the ship left St Helena by which means he was prevented from attending to the plants which after having been brought from a vast distance with unwearied attention & diligence were supposed to out of danger have passd the most of the dangers of their Passage if proper care of them was Continued no doubt the Capt had good reason for his conduct but I incline to believe that flesh and blood which expects promotion in the world as the fruits of long continued diligence could not see