From W. W. Reade   3 September 1870

My dear Sir

I have been back a fortnight & sh^d. have written to you before, but have been much out of sorts. I was disappointed of a passage up the Niger.¹ The trading steamers would take no passengers suddenly smitten with the brilliant idea of the Phenicians & medieval Portugese &c—& are trying to keep their trade in the dark.² Not good policy nowadays.

I have seen several albinoes in Africa but have never detected a blush. In fact one avoids these disagreeable objects.

I have often thought I have observed a kind of brown flush in the negro cheek— A German missionary declared to me he had seen a dark mahogany coloured blush— Bates³ a better observer than the missionary or myself said the same to me the other day.

I am also almost positive that on that part of the cheek where colour is most abundant with us who have colour there is a glowing brown tint in most negroes especially in children corresponding to it. The neck especially the nape appears more pigmentary than the face. I sh^d. like this to be investigated by an experienced observer. I mistrust my own eye.

I c^d. have answered your inquiry about the chimpanzee a few months earlier.⁴ My friend Heddle at S^a. Leone had a tame one—⁵ I have not see one since. I think chimpanzees often come to Liverpool, live a short time but die before they can be taken to London. Liverpool is the African port & if you have a correspondent there he w^d. be the best person to look out & observe for you. There is no one on that wretched coast who can be relied on in such matters— Trade & red tape & a low form of Christianity—such are the elements of West African Society.⁶

I hope that you will continue to honour me with further inquiries. I have amassed much new material any of which is at your disposal for any fact gathered by me & used by you will acquire a special value on that account. So my offer is perfectly selfish.

Will you allow me to offer one objection to your belief (if I understand it right) that there is no natural standard of beauty?⁷ How is it that the Africans men & women always admire long hair? I can positively assert that they do so. Both sexes wear false hair: & they say on the Gold Coast the Europeans would be good looking if they had better teeth; but their hair is beautifully long.⁸ I also know an instance of a young Mandingo⁹ having fallen in love with a European lady in S^a Leone.

Yours very truly | Winwood Reade