WCP2254

Letter (WCP2254.2144)

[1]

Turin

1st July 1870

Dear Sir,

Commissioned by my government,1 I have just made a tour in the Celebres [Sulawesi] & Moluccas, as well as in the western coast of Papua; and I must say that often and often indeed I have availed myself of the valuable information of which your book2 is so rich. Allow me therefore to thank you for myself and my friends who have had so many opportunities to appreciate your good advices, as regard character, manners, &c. &c. of the natives, as well as regard [to] important zoological & geological or philosophical [?] questions. When a place, no matter how wild or extensive, is visited by an intelligent pioneer like your good self, it cannot remain long in its misterious3 condition [2] and I have no doubt but that all the island illustrated by you will ere long be conquered to civilisation, owing chiefly to your doings, and good initiation.

I was in hope to be able to come at once to England, when I should have made a point to call upon you; but being rather ill (liver of course) I am afraid that I shall not be coming to your country until near September. Plaisir retardé n'est pas plaisir perdu [French: pleasure delayed is not pleasure lost]: so I hope to have then the honour & pleasure to meet you and to submit to your good judgment a few quiries [sic] which I have had opportunity to raise during my voyage which has lasted over 9 months in the archipelago.

[3] I take this opportunity to inform you that I have been successful in bringing home alive one fine specimen of the twelfe [sic] wired paradise bird4 without having had much trouble with it. The bird I got from the Rajah of Salawathy [Salawati];5 it was very wild at first, but before three months were over it was as tame and good as desirable; I made of it a present to the King6, and now it adorns the Royal Zoological garden of Florence.7 Many specimens of birds, fishes, shells & butterflies I have occasionally collected; but prof. Lessona8 & prof. Salvadori9 of our museum,10 tell me that only few are new species, most of my individuals having had the honour of being described already [4] your good self. I am no man of science; my mission was a politico-commercial one, tending chiefly to improve our interests in that little Review[e]d portion of the world; so I have been able to do very little indeed in the way of collecting but I have often regretted my ignorance chiefly when in new guinea where a proper person could do so much in a so short time, provided he knew how to get to work......

I hope, dear Sir, that you will not consider an impudence my addressing you; as I do, without being known to you; consider it as a testimonial of my great esteem to a pioneer and master in the way in which I have only lately attempted to follow your steps.

Yours faithfully | G. E. Cerruti [signature]

14. Place Victor Emanuel, Turin.

1
Cerruti was commissioned by the Italian government to select a location suitable for developing a penal settlement. In November 1869 Cerruti left for Italy with Guiseppe De Lenna and in Singapore hired a British yacht, 'Alexandra' for an expedition to Sulawesi with Captain Prescott and a crew of twenty men. (Cora. G. 1879. Esplorazioni di G. Emilio Cerruti. Cosmos: Communicazioni Sui Progressi Piú Recenti e Notevoli della Geografia e delle Scienze Affini. 1. 147-152).
2
Wallace, A. R. 1869. The Malay Archipelago; the Land of the Orang-utan and the Bird of Paradise, 2 vols. London, UK: Macmillan.
3
Archaic form of mysterious.
4
ARW reported on Cerruti's specimen of Seleucidis melanoleucus in a letter to the editor of Nature. (Wallace, A. R. 1870. Twelve-wired Bird of Paradise. Nature. 2(38): 234).
5
Kasim, Abu (fl. 1870). Rajah of Salawati.
6
Savoy, Victor Emmanuel of (1820-1878). King of Sardinia 1849-61, King of Italy 1861-78.
7
The Royal Zoological Garden of Florence was opened in 1861 by an Acclimatisation Society', it was acquired by the Kingdom of Italy in 1863 and closed in 1880. (Gippoliti, S. 1997. A Contribution to the History of Zoos in Italy up to the Second World War. International Zoo News. 44 (8): 458-465 [p.459]).
8
Lessona, Michele (1823-1894). Italian zoologist; Chair of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at the University of Turin from 1867.
9
Salvadori, Tommaso Paleotti (1835-1923). Italian zoologist and ornithologist.
10
The Zoological Museum of the University of Turin was established in 1739 and became a major centre for research amongst zoologists in the beginning of the nineteenth century. Naturalists working at the museum included Franco Andrea Bonell, Giuseppe Gené, and Filippo De Filippi. In 1878 under the directorship of Michele Lessona (1865-1894), the museum was transferred to the Palazzo dell'Accademia delle Scienze. (Passerin d'Entrèves, P. & Gavetti, E. 2014. La collezione di cetacei dei Musei di Zoologia e di Anatomia comparata dell’Università di Torino. Museologia Scientifica Memorie. 12: 13-21. [p.13]).

Editorial information

Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Letter (WCP2254.2144)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Hamburger, Esther [2015-03-25] Transcription checked by Benny, Ruth [2015-03-25] Transcription checked by Sherwood, Danni [2020-08-10] Transcription checked by Beros, Matt [2020-09-15] Transcription checked by Ghosh, Susan [2022-06-19]

Please cite as “WCP2254,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2254