John G ideon
L oten.
to the (ides of the twigs; are of a round fhape, and o f the fize
of a common plumb: each has within two nuts, o f no fort o f
ufe-; the leaves are triangular, and grow in pairs. The timber
is ufeful, efpecially for fhingles to cover houfes. Of the pith
may be made a fort o f Sago, but far inferior to the true kind.
1 am fo much indebted to my late worthy friend John Gideon
Loten, Efq. for my acquaintance with the zoology o f Ceylon,
,and various particulars refpeiting its natural hiftory, that it
would be ungrateful in me not to pay the full tribute of praife
to his memory, I became acquainted with him a few years
after his arrival in 'England, in 1758, and long enjoyed the
valuable friendfhip -of a man of the ft rifted: honor, integrity,
liberality, fimplicity, and gentlenefs o f manners. He was by
birth a Dutchman, a native o f Utrecht. He went to India
in the year 1732, where he exercifed feveral of the higheft
offices at Batavia, and in the iflands of Ceylon and Celebes, with
the higheft credit, he alleviating the cares of his important
duties with the fulleft cultivation of the liberal arts. At Colombo1
he eftablifhed a botanical garden; and in every place made the
pleafing ftudy o f natural hiftory a principal obje£t. He brought
over with him a large collection of drawings, done with equal
neatnefs and accuracy, fome by the natives, others by Europeans
whom he found in the country. I was indebted to his
friendfhip for copies o f feveral; but the greater part he at my
requeft liberally communicated to Teter Brtmn, an ingenious
artift, a Dane by birth, who engraved not fewer than twenty-
one, and, with feveral others from different places, publifhed a
2 fplendid
fplendid work in 1776, with the title of ‘ New Illustrations
* of Zoology,’ under the patronage o f my late worthy friend
Marmaduke Tunjlal, Efq. and myfelf.
From the fame collection was formed my In d ia n Z o o lo g t ,
begun in 1769, and left a fragment. It was refumed and pub-
lifhed more complete in one volume quarto, in 1790. I refer
the reader to the preface to that work for an account o f its rife
and progrefs.
Mr. Loten returned into Europe in 1758, and coming into
England, where he lived feveral years, in 1765 he married his
iecond wife, Latitia Cotes, o f the refpeCtable houfe o f Cotes,
in Shropjhire, feveral years after which he returned into Holland,
and died at Utrecht, on February 25, 1789, aged eighty,
and was interred in St. Jacob's church in that city. During
the whole o f my acquaintance with him, at frequent periods he
endured the molt fevere fpaimodic complaints in his cheft,
which for months together difabled him from the ufe o f a bed.
I fliould not have mentioned thefe circumftances, was it not to-
add to his other virtues, thofe o f unfeigned piety, and refig-
natian unexampled amidft the trial o f fevereft mifery.
I n the north aifle, weftward o f Wejlminjler Abby, is a m o f t
magnificent cenotaph, ereCted in 1795, to perpetuate the memory
of this- excellent man, the performance o f T h om a s
B a n k s . A fingle figure, reprefenting Generality attended by a
lion, fuftains a medallion of his head; and on a pedeftal is a brief
hiftory o f his life and his character, in Latin. There is another
infcription, confiding o f the fifteenth pfalm (excepting the laft
K k 2 verfe)