WCP1658

Lettersheet (WCP1658.1531)

[1]

Pára1

13th June 1851

Dear Madam2

I am very sorry to be the bearer of very bad news to yourself & family but believe it to be my duty to communicate what has happened as being the only person here nearly connected with your sons. The event we deplore is the death of your son Edward3 who breathed his last here on Sunday morning4 last at 2 o'clock, a victim of the fatal black vomit the worst form of yellow fever. My poor young friend had arrived from the interior about three weeks & had engaged passage immediately in a vessel to leave for Liverpool on Friday the 6th inst. To amuse [sic] the time until the ship sailed he had taken the same lodgings he had had with his brother in the suburb, very pleasantly situated near the forest & was very frequently at my house which was in the neighbourhood. On the day he was taken ill we [2] were in the city together took a cup of tea at Mr. Millers5 [sic] & went around to make a few small purchases. This was Monday night the 2nd Inst.6 On this night he was taken with a shivering & immediately fever & vomit so as to be unable to reach home, I therefore took him into a house on the road where I knew he would be as well or better attended to than at his lodgings. It happened well that he remained here as we should not have been able to have induced a medical man to go out so far to attend a patient — illness being now very prevalent in the city. We got immediately the best medical advice, thinking his disease was merely a constipation as it is called here but the Doctor treated him for the yellow fever & he was progressing very well on Tuesday when he committed the great improvidence of getting up & walking barefoot about a cold brick floor after mustard plasters had just been taken from his feet. The fever immediately struck inwards & black vomit declared itself early on Wednesday morning resisting all the skill of [3]7 Dr. Camillio, until he died as I have already stated after suffering fearfully. It will be some consolation to you to know that he met with the kindest attention from the English residents here especially from the Vice consul Mr Miller who frequently visited him. I myself slept by his side four nights when I was rather alarmed by being suddenly seized with similar symptoms myself, shivering fever & vomit in rapid succession but being <of a> lighter constitution I suppose it <did not> lay as firm a hold of me, I got better in four days though even now am a little weak from its effects. Poor Edward was much regretted here as being of a genial temper & a good heart, he was in a very robust state of health: he did not converse freely after being first taken but felt regret at being taken thus 8 when on the eve of departure for England. The little property he left is in the Vice Consul's hands who will I suppose arrange accounts with Alfred — Pára is still very sickly another death from yellow fever today[.]

Dear Madam | Yours very respectfully | Henry W Bates9 [signature]

The city of Pará (now Belém), the capital of the state of Pará, Brazil.
Wallace (née Greenell), Mary Ann (1792-1868), mother of ARW and his siblings, is the addressee. See also WCP1659_L1532, H. W. Bates, Pará, 18 Oct. 1851, to Mary Ann Wallace.
Wallace, Herbert Edward ("Edward") (1829-1851). Brother of ARW and assistant to him in Brazil
Annotated "8th." in pencil in an unknown hand above "morning".
Miller, Mr (died 1851). British Vice-consul at Belém, capital of the state of Pará, Brazil.
"2nd" underlined in pencil by an unknown hand.
Page [[3]] has been folded to form an envelope addressed in Bates' hand "Mrs. Wallace | Weston super Mare | near Bristol — | late of Neath, Glamorganshire". An inked line connects an illegible word or initials above "late" to "Mr W Clapp,[?] | West Stoughton | Blackford | [1 word illegible]" in a different hand above the first address. The page is postmarked Liverpool 1 Aug. 1851, Weston-Super-Mare 2 Aug. 1851 and Ba<th> (date illegible).
"taken thus" is underlined in black ink or pencil by an unknown hand.
Bates, Henry Walter (1825-1892). British naturalist, explorer and close friend of ARW.

Please cite as “WCP1658,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 29 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP1658