13th October 1838

On this day, 13th October 1838, Allan Cunningham returned to Port Jackson on the schooner “Currency Lass” from the Bay of Islands New Zealand, he was very ill.

Mr Cunningham writes as follows :

I returned from the Bay of Islands on the 13th of October, having had a fair and expeditious passage across of fourteen days, in a small schooner of ninety tons. I landed in very ill health, arising from the excessive chill I experienced in New Zealand and the consequent paralysed state of my poor limbs and general organic derangement, in consequence of the meagre food and poverty of my diet generally, during the period of my sojourn among my missionary friends since the 25th of May last. ¹

Allan Cunningham quoted in Robert Heward’s Biographical Sketch of allan Cunningham

Passengers aboard the vessel were as follows:

• Mr Allan Cunningham, (Colonial Botanist),
• Mr Alexander Busby (Brother of the Consul of New Zealand),
• Mrs Sargant,
• Miss Gray,
• Mr Jones,
• Mr Boyle,
• Mr Holdane,
• Mr Brown,
• Mr Rutledge. ²

1. Robert Heward’s Biographical Sketch of Allan Cunningham[↩]
2. Sydney Gazette 16th October 1838[↩]