Alfred Russel Wallace – The Voyages on the Amazonscampering of small animals, and the whizzing flight of ground birds, clearing the path for
their dreaded enemy.In May 1852, after almost two years exploring the Rio Negro and the Rio Vuapés,
Alfred Russel Wallace returned to Barra. There was a large packet of mail waiting for
him and bad news from Belém do Pará:
Mr Miller, informed me of the dangerous illness of my brother, who had been attacked
by yellow fever; and when the canoe left, which brought the letter, was exhibiting such
symptoms as left little hope of his recovery ... from no one could I obtain a word of
information about my brother, and so remained in a state of great suspense.Wallace was also very weak from recurring malaria. Dosing himself with quinine,
his delirium and fever would abate for a day or two then re-emerge in a new cycle of
depression, shivering and fatigue. He could only stay close to his room tending his
menagerie of animals and wait for more news about his brother:
Every alternate day I experienced a great depression ... this always followed a feverish
night, in which I could not sleep. The next night I invariably slept well, perspiring profusely,
and the succeeding day, was able to move about, and had a little appetite.But why had there been no further news about his brother? Wallace had to find a
boat and hurry down river with his mass of luggage – boxes full of specimens as well
as the live animals as he had acquired – 20 parrots, 5 monkeys, 2 macaws, 5 smaller
birds, a pheasant and a toucan. The journey down the Amazon took twenty-two days
in a small vessel loaded to the gunnels with his boxes and fitted out with a small cabin
for him to sleep. On reaching Belém do Pará he tragically found his brother’s cross
in the town cemetery, along with those of many other victims of the yellow fever
outbreak. It seemed incomprehensible:
The weather was beautiful; the summer or dry season was just commencing, vegetation was
luxuriously verdant, and the bright sky and clear fresh atmosphere seemed as if they could
not harbour the fatal miasma which had crowded the cemetery with funeral crosses, and
made every dwelling in the city a house of mourning.Wallace had to bring this sad news to the rest of his family and recover his own115