WCP4258

King Street

Leicester

16 April 1863

My Dear Sir¹

I am glad to find I made no mistake in supposing you would be greatly interested in a new book on the Amazons. Mr Wallace told me you had made the literature concerning South America your particular study & I anticipate a great treat from your forthcoming article in Macmillan.²

I shall be eager to give you any [2] information you require that may be in my power. I can answer at once your query concerning Alfred R[ussel]. Wallace. He is the same man who explored the Malay Archipelago & New Guinea. His history & connection with me are briefly these.

In 1847 Mr. A. R. W. being then an Architect & Surveyor at Neath, South Wales proposed to me a journey to the banks of the Amazon, I having previously made his acquaintance whilst he was a master at the Collegiate School of my native [3] town, Leicester. He remained 4 years in the Amazons, returning in 1852. In 1854 He departed on his journey to the East, returning thence, after having thoroughly explored ^{many of} the islands of S. E. Asia in April 1862. He told me he had met you at Cambridge during [a] meeting [of the] Brit[ish]. Ass[ociation]. last year.³ There is nothing very remarkable in persons going out to make collections in new countries for sale; what (I venture to say) [4] ^{merits some attention} about Mr Wallace, and in a very far less degree of myself, is that his main object — one which he never lost sight of — was the study of the objects so[?] collected with a view to philosophical conclusions. For this end we ^{have both} retained complete collections of certain large groups for our private study.

Your suggestions regarding mocking butterflies⁴ are very important; but I must ^{defer a} reply to them until next week. I am now extremely busy packing up my collections for removal to London, whither I go tomorrow. I will write to you soon from my new address

Yours sincerely | H W Bates [signature]