From W. W. Reade   6 November 1870

My dear Sir

I trust you got the note I sent you just after my return in August.¹ Will you permit me to congratulate you on having completed a work which must have cost you so much labour? I see it announced.² I do not know whether you considered the case of “rogueing” among the Jollofs worth quoting.³ If you require independent evidence as to the beauty of that tribe you will find it in Prichard; though he goes too far when he speaks of their European features.⁴

I am looking forward most eagerly to the appearance of your book because I anticipate that it will suggest points of research. I do not intend to write a narrative of my travels except as part of a work on Africa generally.⁵ I am ambitious of doing for negro Africa what Tennent has done for Ceylon;⁶ & I intend to read every book of travels relating to W & Central Africa & East Africa. I am now going through the Portuguese authorities. In wading through these chronicles of the old voyagers, which as you are aware, are very rich in detail I might hit upon facts which would be of value to men of science; the danger is that I might pass over some custom or incident insignificant in itself but most important for the solution of a problem with which I am unacquainted. I remember that in the Origin of Species you allude to something w^h. you had not met with in the old voyagers, but that you had not completed the examination of them:⁷ I need scarcely say that if there is any class of facts in relation to savage people of which you require instances I would note them down, as I go on, & send them to you; and I should be very grateful to you for advice of any kind though I appreciate the value of your time, & the immense mass of correspondence which you have to dispose of.

I am | yours very truly | Winwood Reade

I see Forbes in his Aryamese Indians has spoken of natural selection taking place among the infants of the Indians who are exposed to all weathers.⁸ If you remember I suggested that possibly the thickness of the negro scull m^t. be accounted for in that way as the infant is always bareheaded in Africa.⁹ By the bye the negro does not enjoy perfect immunity from malarious fever. Respecting yellow fever I cannot speak from experience: but I have had my own men, pure negroes, down with fever. It is rather curious though, that both the men who suffered from fever in my expedition were light coloured—as many pure Africans are—and the fact that negroes do suffer from fever more or less might indicate, not that D^r. Wells’ theory was baseless, but that Nat. Sel: is still going on.¹⁰ We want, not the mere passing notes of travellers, but a series of medical observations extended over years; but how get them in West Africa?