His work as a scientific collector began at Madeira. [Sidenote: _Ibid._, MS. Sloane, 3962, f. 310.] To botanize in that pleasant island was an enjoyment all the more welcome after an unusual share of suffering from seasickness, in the midst of professional toil. For it was honourably characteristic of SLOANE that, under all circumstances and forms of temptation, medical duties had the first place with him. What he achieved for science, throughout his life, was achieved in the intervals of more immediate duty. He reached Barbadoes in November. Thence he wrote to COURTEN: ‘This is indeed a new world in all things. You may be sure the task I have is already delightful to me.’ [Sidenote: Sloane to Courten; _Ib._, 1687, Nov. 28.] Then he continues: ‘I am heartily sorry that I, being new landed here, cannot now send [what I have collected for you] with this letter. What I had at Madeira cannot be come at. What is here I have not, as yet, gathered. But you may assure yourself that what these parts of the West Indies afford is all your own, the best way I can send them.’ The collections begun thus favourably were continued at the beginning of December in the islands of Nevis, St. Christopher, and Hispaniola. The fleet reached Port Royal on the 19th of that month. Jamaica was explored with ardent enthusiasm and with minutest care. Its animals and minerals, as well as its plants; its history, as well as its meteorology, were thoroughly studied. [Sidenote: Medical Cases appended to _Voyage to Jamaica_; vol. i (1708).] And the medical skill of the new-comer was put as heartily at the service of the toil-worn negro as at that of the wealthiest planter, or of the highest officer of the Crown. But presently SLOANE himself needed the care and skill he so willingly bestowed. ‘I had a great fever,’ he says, ‘though those about me called it a little seasoning.’ He had scarcely recovered before his knowledge of the natural history of Jamaica was suddenly and unpleasantly increased. ‘Ever since the beginning of February,’ I find him writing to the Lord Chief Justice HERBERT (who seems to have been one of the earliest of the many patients who became also friends): ‘I dread earthquakes more than heat. For then we had a very great one. Finding the house to dance and the cabinets to reel, I looked out of window to see whether people removed the house (a wooden structure) or no. Casting my eyes towards an aviary, I saw the birds in as great concern as myself. Then, another terrible shake coming, I apprehended what it was, and betook me to my heels to get clear of the house; but before I got down stairs it was over. If it had come the day after, it had frighted us ten times more. [Sidenote: Sloane to Lord Chief Justice Herbert; MS. Sloane, 4069, ff. 277, 278.] For the day it happened there arrived a Spanish sloop from Porto Bello, giving an account of the destruction of great part of the kingdom of Peru.’