Ɛpsilon

From Florence Dixie   4 November [1880]1

Bosworth Park. | Hinckley. | Leicestershire.

Nov. 4th.

Dear Mr. Darwin.—

I must write a line to thank you for your kind letter in reply to mine.––2 The books you recommend I shall certainly procure & read with interest;–– I have myself written a short description of my wanderings in Patagonia which appears this month in print and if you will do me the honour of accepting a copy I shall feel very proud to send you one.3 The work does not comprise the extent of my whole expedition which on leaving Patagonia I carried on up the Rivers Plate Uruguay & Parana.4

From Patagonia I brought home some ostriches a gunaco, & from the Rivers Plate, Uruguay, & Parana, a great many animals, comprising some ostriches, a Capybara & a little jaguar.5 The mother attacked me & followed me up a tree, in self defence I was obliged to shoot her but saved one of the cubs from the gauchos.–– Since then he has been my almost constant companion following me abt. like a dog altho’ of an enormous size being now 2. years old. I only yesterday took him to the Zoological Gardens, much to my regret, but he was growing so big that it was not safe keeping him longer at large. I have mentioned this fact to prove how these animals can be tamed by kindness as completely as a dog.––

With many apologies for thus troubling you | I beg to remain | very faithfully yrs. | Florence Dixie

1
The year is established by the reference to Dixie 1880 (see n. 3, below).
2
CD’s reply to the letter from Florence Dixie, 29 October [1880], has not been found.
3
CD’s copy of Across Patagonia (Dixie 1880) is in the Darwin Library–CUL.
4
The Río Paraná runs through Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina, merging with the Río Uruguay to form the Río de la Plata estuary, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean near Buenos Aires and Montevideo.
5
The guanaco (Lama guanicoe) is a South American camelid, related to the llama. Two species of rhea (an ostrich-like flightless bird) are extant in South America, Rhea americana and R. penata. The capybara (Hydrochoeris hydrochaeris) is the largest extant rodent, related to guinea pigs. The jaguar is Panthera onca.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12795,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12795