Investigator sailed from London on 18 July. They made brief landfalls at Bugio Island (Desertas Islands) and Madeira, but Brown was disappointed to collect almost nothing of note from either site. They arrived at the Cape of Good Hope on 16 October, staying a little over two weeks, during which time Brown made extensive botanical expeditions, and climbed Table Mountain at least twice. Many years later he would write to William Henry Harvey, who was considering emigrating there, that some of the pleasantest botanizing he ever had was on Devil's Mountain, near Cape Town, and he thought I could not pitch on a more delightful field of study. Amongst the plants collected at the Cape were two new species of Serruria (Proteaceae), S. foeniculacea and S. flagellaris.