WCP3105

Letter (WCP3105.3073)

[1]1

Kensington

[Adelaide]

4 & 5 Sept[ember] / [18]782

My dear Cousin,3

Am still perusing with pleasure your "Essays on Tropical Nature".4 Seeing a letter from you in "Nature"5 on an error in the published Geography of N[orth]. Australia6 I sent a copy of it to the Editors of my paper (the Register)7 with a preface — The paper I send herewith — I could have cut out the paragraph, but papers go to England Post free so forward as it is.

In matter of nephew Charlie Wilson8 (— Brother Percys [sic] eldest)9 — I think I told you that Central African Mission10 had collapsed, all the party (or 2 parties) having [2] been massacred or died from fever — & as far as we know Charlie still in Central Africa the only survivor. — By last mail but one I received a long letter from himself 20 close note pages detailing his journey from Zanzibar11 to his present Station of the Chief M'Tse12 of Uganda — quoted by Stanley13 — Col[onel] Long[?]14 & others[.] This was dated Dec[ember]. last & therefore before the late disastrous failure. — 2 columns of the most interesting of this acc[ount]/. will be in the Register newspaper — & I will send.

An American Butterfly Danaus Archippus15 [sic] now acclimatized here with a vengeance. I have sent a full acc[ount]/ of it to our publication here "The garden & field"[.]16 [3]17 Being too long for one no. [number] they with my leave have cut into 2 — I will send you (re[garding] acclimatization) copy of that when published — Darwin’s18 Theory is also touched by it in the "Australasian"19 of Melbourne.

One of [the] great topics of the day is the destruction of rabbits! — but when I tell you that they threaten the success of all the pastoral and agricultural Districts of the Colony it is time they were looked after — Three years ago in New Zealand they had to legislate about them, — many thousand square miles of grass being devoured by them, & sheep dying in consequence by hundreds — They are indeed acclimatized as I said of the Amer[ican]. Butt[erfly]. with a vengeance & prolific [4]20 to such an extent that no bounds seem set to their numbers:— Cleared off farmers [sic] & enclosed grounds they revel & breed in swarms in the waste lands & grounds of the squatters & sheep farmers — Fancy 2 little children killing 2000 in a very short time by enticing them & then knocking on the head, receiving so much for each scalp & skin[.] The meat of some is salted but their very numbers give people a distaste for them. — Add to above the English sparrow21 increasing slowly everywhere & you have some addit[iona]l facts for the article "Acclimatization"22 —

Season fine to present time, promising a good harvest — "Advance Australia" — !23

Governor Jervois24 returned after 6 months "leave" — bringing wife25 — (Lady J[ervois]) & 3 daughters of course Levee & drawing room followed[.] I’m former as Reg[istrar]. of Probates26 — wife27 in lather [5]28 (See summary herewith) — Telephone — Microphone & Phonograph exciting much attention here:— experiments & results useful. — Also in Phil[osophical]. Soc[iet]y.29 & Private Parties I do experiments showing to young people including these[.]

Paris Exhibition30 we being well represented by at — Mess[ieu]rs. Boothby31 & Twopeny32 sent over by us. —

Re[garding] we to England: can’t yet say when, so many little official matters to settle. — What kind of work is yours[?] on Geog[raphy]. of Australia33 — & are you assisted — I send herewith if poss[ible] D[octo]r. Schomburgk[’]s34 catalogue of plants &c &c in our [6] Botanical Gardens35 for the year — [18]/78. — This I only found on acc[ount]/ of the views of different parts of our gardens, as the catalogue alone is too dry except to an out & out Botanist[.] Some of plates tolerable & all like[?]

Our Town & Suburbs Tramways36 are now in full work carrying thousands daily & running every ¼ hour from Kensington to [the] centre [of] Adelaide.

We also have gas now in Kensington in drawing & dining rooms a great convenience. —

With kind regards to self & wife37 & little ones38 (how many now)[?]

I am ever yours affectionately | C A Wilson39 [signature]

My children 5 in no. [number] Youngest & last 3 years.40

1
The document bears the seal of the Supreme Court House, Adelaide and the page is numbered 49 in pencil in the top RH corner and annotated "Wilson" across the top LH corner.
2
Year deduced from birth and death dates of author.
3
ARW.
4
Wallace, A. R. (1878). Tropical Nature and Other Essays London, Macmillan & Co.
5

Wallace, A. R. (1878). A Twenty Years' Error in the Geography of Australia.

A letter to the Editor printed in the Nature issue of 20 June 1878, p. 193.

6
The error was in the reported height of cliffs above the Alligator River. ARW quotes an entry in the Encyclopaedia Britannica in his letter to Nature: "On the north side of the continent, except around the Gulf of Carpentaria, the edge of the sandstone table-land has a great elevation; it is cut by the Alligator River into gorges 3,800 ft. deep." In fact the plateau is nowhere higher than 1,600 ft above sea level. The error derived from a map copied from the journal of Ludwig Leichhardt (1813 — c.1848) the Prussian naturalist and leader of an expedition in 1844-45 to Port Essington in northern Australia, which was published in London in 1847 and escaped correction.
7
Originally the South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register, it was the first South Australian newspaper. It was first published in London in June 1836 and folded in February 1931. It is the sole primary source for almost all information about the settlement and early history of South Australia.
8
Record of only one son of Theodore Percival Wilson found, not named Charlie: Theodore Cameron Wilson (1857-1940).
9
Wilson, Theodore Percival ("Percy") (1820-1881). Vicar of Christchurch, Paignton, Devon. One of three brothers and two sisters of the author. Married to Barbara S. Wilson (née Cameron) (b.1818), one son (b.1857).
10
Stanley attempted to convert the king M’Tse of Uganda to Christianity. Finding him apparently receptive, Stanley wrote to the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in London and persuaded it to send missionaries to the Buganda state on the northern shore of Lake Victoria in 1877. Two years after the CMS established a mission, French Catholic White Fathers also arrived at the king's court, and the stage was set for a fierce religious and nationalist rivalry in which Zanzibar-based Muslim traders also participated.
11
The Zanzibar Archipelago lies 25-50 km off the coast of present-day Tanzania in the Indian Ocean. Leading large caravans financed by Indian moneylenders, Arab traders based in Zanzibar reached Lake Victoria by 1844.
12
M’Tse was the King of Uganda in 1875. Stanley’s expedition to the African lakes was ostensibly in the interest of discovery, but in reality to take possession of Uganda and the headwaters of the Nile. However he was forstalled by the Khedive Ismail of Egypt, who 9 months earlier had appointed an American officer in his service, Chief of Staff to General Gordon, to strike a treaty with King M’Tse to occupy the Nile with Egyptian military posts.
13
Stanley, Henry Morton (born John Rowlands) (1841-1904). Welsh journalist and explorer, famous for his exploration of central Africa and his search for missionary and explorer David Livingstone. He met the Ugandan King M'Tse in 1875 during his exploration of the Western side of Lake Victoria.
14
If this reading is correct, perhaps Charles Chaillé-Long (1842-1917). American soldier, lawyer, explorer, diplomat and author.
15
Danaus archippus (Fabricius, 1793) is a synonym for Papilio plexippus (Linn. 1758) and Danaus plexippus (Linn. 1758), commonly known as the Monarch butterfly, is a milkweed butterfly (subfamily Danainae) in the family Nymphalidae. The eastern North American monarch population is notable for its annual southward late-summer/autumn migration from the United States and southern Canada to Mexico. Its range extends to Indonesia, Eastern Australia and New Zealand.
16
Some years after the closure of Farm and Garden, two Adelaide printers, Albert Molineux and Samuel Richards, revived the publication as Garden and Field — later Garden and the Field in 1887. It ceased publication in 1940.
17
The page is numbered 50 in pencil in the top RH corner.
18
Darwin, Charles Robert (1809-1882). English naturalist and writer, jointly with ARW, originator of the theory of evolution by natural selection.
19
Newspaper published in Melbourne, Victoria 1864-1946.
20
The page is numbered 4 in ink in the top LH corner.
21
Sparrows are a family of small passerine birds, the Passeridae. They are also known as true sparrows, or Old World sparrows, as distinct from American species, and are not native to Australia. The author probably refers to an introduced common British bird, the house sparrow Passer domesticus.
22
Wallace, A. R. (1875). Acclimatisation in Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th ed., 25 vols., Adam & Charles Black, Edinburgh, 1875-1889), Vol. 1:84-90 (Jan. 1875).
23
"Advance Australia Fair" is the national anthem of Australia since 1984. Created by the Scottish-born composer Peter Dodds McCormick, the song was first performed in 1878 and sung in Australia as a patriotic song.
24
Jervois, William Francis Drummond (1821-1897). British military engineer and diplomat. During an 1877 inspection of Australian maritime defences, he was appointed tenth Governor of South Australia (1877-1883), after which he served as tenth Governor of New Zealand (1883-1889).
25
Jervois, Lucy (?-1895). Wife of William Francis Drummond Jervois, with whom she had three daughters and two sons after their marriage in 1850.
26
The author was appointed to the staff of the South Australian Supreme Court in September 1846, and became Registrar of Probates and Commissioner of Inland Revenue in March 1858.
27
Wilson, Matilda (née King) (?-1909). Wife of the author (see Endnote 38).
28
The page is numbered 51 in pencil in the top RH corner and bears the seal of the Supreme Court House Adelaide, as page 1.
29
The Adelaide Philosophical Society was established in January 1853; the author was one of the founding members. In 1880 the Society gained the prefix 'Royal' and became known as the Royal Society of South Australia.
30
The third Paris World’s Fair (Exposition Universelle) was held from 1 May to 10 November 1878. It celebrated the recovery of France after the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian War. The United Kingdom, British India, Canada, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Cape Colony and some British crown colonies occupied nearly one-third of the space set aside for nations outside France.
31
Boothby, William Robinson (1829-1903). British born Electoral Commissioner for South Australia, in charge of every parliamentary election from 1856 to 1903. He emigrated to Australia with his parents in1853.
32
Twopeny, Richard Ernest Nowell (1857-1915). British born journalist and newspaper editor/owner in New Zealand and Australia who arrived in Melbourne in May 1876. He was secretary to the South Australian Commissions to the Paris, Sydney, and Melbourne Exhibitions of 1878, 1879 and 1880 respectively.
33
This is probably Wallace, A. R. (1879). Australasia, edited and extended by Alfred Russel Wallace with Ethnological Appendix by A. H. Keane Stanford’s Compendium of Geography and Travel: London, Edward Stanford.
34
Schomburgk, Moritz Richard ("Richard") (1811-1891). German botanist and Curator of the Adelaide Botanic Garden (see Endnote 34). He was brother to the German naturalist Robert Hermann Schomburgk (1804-1865) who carried out geographical, ethnological and botanical studies in South America and the West Indies in which Moritz Richard participated. He was a major advocate for the establishment of forest reserves in the increasingly deforested South Australian countryside.
35
The Adelaide Botanic Garden was established in 1855 and officially opened in 1857. The garden's design was influenced by the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and Versailles, France.
36
The Government of South Australia passed an act authorising construction of Adelaide's first horse tram network in 1876. It was scheduled for completion within two years, with 17.4 km of lines from Adelaide’s city centre to the suburbs of Kensington and North Adelaide. Completed in May 1878, services began in June from Adelaide to Kensington Park. Adelaide ran horse trams from 1878 to 1914 and electric trams from 1909.
37
Wallace, Annie (née Mitten) (1846-1914) Wife of ARW.
38
ARW and his wife Annie had two children at the date of the letter: Violet Isabel (1869-1945) and William Greenell (1871-1951). Their eldest son Herbert Spencer ("Bertie") died in 1874, aged 6 years.
39
Wilson, Charles Algernon ("Ally") (1818-1884). ARW’s cousin, second son of Martha (née Greenell) (1790-1858), the sister of ARW's mother Mary Ann Wallace (née Greenell) (1792-1868). He came to South Australia in 1838 and was a natural history painter and sketcher as well as a solicitor, public servant and entomologist. In 1860 he was elected a fellow of the Linnaean Society of London.
40
Post script written vertically in LH margin of page. The author and his wife Matilda (see Endnote 26) had five children: Ella Dorothy Martha (1867-1907); Algernon Theodore King (1863-1925); Emily Annie Layard (1865-1953); Percy Major Graham (1868-1931); and Charles Ernest Cameron (1875-1951) (the last born, mentioned as aged 3 years at the date of the letter).

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP3105.3073)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by O'Dell, Sandra [2018-08-15]

Please cite as “WCP3105,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 29 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP3105