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the town in a small pony-cart. But the rent was too high, and it did not pay; so in the spring of 1849, he gave it up and sailed for California in April, soon after the discoveries of gold there and when San Francisco was a city of huts and tents, and he lived there till his death in 1895, having only once visited England, in the winter of 1850-51, in order to marry the only daughter of his former employer, Mr. Webster.

Shortly after this my sister married Mr. Thomas Sims, eldest son of the Mr. Sims with whom I and my brother had lodged in Neath. He had taught himself the then undeveloped art of photography, and he and his wife settled first in Weston-super-Mare, and afterwards came to London, where I lived with them in Upper Albany Street, after my return from the Amazon.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE JOURNEY TO THE AMAZON

WHAT decided our going to Para and the Amazon rather than to any other part of the tropics was the publication in 1847, in Murray's Home and Colonial Library, of “A Voyage up the Amazon," by Mr. W. H. Edwards. This little book was so clearly and brightly written, described so well the beauty and the grandeur of tropical vegetation, and gave such a pleasing account of the people, their kindness and hospitality to strangers, and especially of the English and American merchants in Para, while expenses of living and of travelling were both very moderate, that Bates and myself at once agreed that this was the very place for us to go to if there was any chance of paying our expenses by the sale of our duplicate collections. I think we read the book in the latter part of the year (or very early in 1848), and we immediately communicated with Mr. Edward Doubleday, who had charge of the butterflies at the British Museum, for his advice upon the matter. He assured us that the whole of northern Brazil was very little known, that some small collections they had recently had from Para and Pernambuco contained many rarities and some new species, and that if we collected all orders of insects, as well as landshells, birds, and mammals, there was no doubt we could easily pay our expenses. Thus encouraged, we determined to go to Para, and began to make all the necessary arrangements. We found that by sailing in early spring we should reach Para at the beginning of the dry season, which is both

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the most agreeable for new-comers and the best for making collections. We arranged, therefore, to meet in London towards the end of March to study the collections at the British Museum, make purchases of books, collecting apparatus, and outfit, arrange with an agent to receive and dispose of our collections, and make inquiries as to our passage.

By a curious coincidence we found that Mr. Edwards, whose book had determined us to go to the Amazon, was in London exhibiting a very fine ivory crucifix of Italian workmanship. We called upon him in a street out of Regent Street, and we had an interesting talk about the country. He kindly gave us letters of introduction to some of his American friends in Para, among others, to Mr. Leavens at the Saw Mills, with whom we went on our short expedition up the Tocantins river. We also saw the crucifix, which was certainly a very fine work of art, carved out of an unusually large mass of ivory. Mr. Edwards, who, though a little older than myself, is still alive, writes to me (October 23, 1904) that the crucifix was the work of a monk of St. Nicholas, Genoa, and was purchased by Mr. C. Edwards Lester, United States consul in that city. A brother of our Mr. Edwards purchased it for ten thousand dollars, and exhibited it successfully in many American cities. He died, however, in 1847, and as it was necessary to sell it, our Mr. Edwards, who was his executor, brought it to London, and was exhibiting it with the object of finding a purchaser. But the Louis Philippe revolution in France occurred just at the time he arrived in London, and caused such disturbances and excitement throughout Europe as to be very unfavourable for the disposal of works of art, and he was obliged to take it back to America. In a year or two it was sold to the Catholics, and he thinks it is now in one of their churches at Cleveland, Ohio. Nearly forty years later I had the pleasure of visiting Mr. Edwards at his residence in Coalburgh, West Virginia, as will be referred to in its proper place.

Among the interesting visits we paid while in London was one to Dr. Horsfield at the India Museum, who showed

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