From Edward Blyth   13 September 1869

Dear M^r Darwin,

I find that I have an unanswered letter from you dated so long back as May 28^th—¹ Meanwhile, I have been much away, & have had much trouble to undergo, entirely through the misconduct of others. You ask me about the mandrils at Antwerp, & I have since passed more than a fortnight at Antwerp,² as you will probably have seen by the last three Nos. of the Field, for which paper I write now instead of Land and Water, to my own great pecuniary advantage.³ One reason that I did not reply to you before was that I rather expected to revisit Antwerp, but I found that the mandrils, parents & infant, were all dead, & I could get no satisfactory answer to your queries. When I saw the animals they were half-concealed in deep straw, which answered the purpose of a garment. My impression is that both wild boar and elephant are polygamous, but I could not undertake to speak positively.⁴ However, I think that there is hardly a doubt that such is the case. I was exceedingly ill treated by a vulgar upstart Glass, who calls himself “manager” of the Land & Water concerning ⁠⟨⁠th⁠⟩⁠e [getter] up of the paper. His object was to put J K. Lord in my place, & he succeeded, for I could brook his impertinence no longer, & besides I had no end of trouble in getting paid by him for my contributions.⁵ Now I receive considerably more than double from the Field.

Trusting that this will find you better in health, I remain | Yours Sincerely | E. Blyth