To H. W. Bates   11 June [1862]1

Down Bromley Kent

June 11th

Dear Bates.

The writer of the enclosed is my Brother-in-law who studies & writes on Language.2 Can you answer his question & tell me? I hope that your Book progresses & all goes well.—3 I have been not so well lately—

Yours very sincerely | C. Darwin

1
The year is established by the relationship to the letter from H. W. Bates, 14 June 1862.
2
The enclosure has not been found. Emma Darwin’s brother, Hensleigh Wedgwood, was probably collecting material for his book on the origin of language (Wedgwood 1866). Wedgwood cited Bates 1863 regarding the language of Amazonian Indians in Wedgwood 1866, pp. 29–30 and 132.
3
Bates 1863. Following Bates’s return to Britain in 1859 after 11 years spent exploring the Amazon region, CD had encouraged him to write an account of his travels in South America (see Correspondence vol. 9, and this volume, letter from H. W. Bates, 6 January 1862, and letter to H. W. Bates, 13 January [1862]).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3596,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3596