Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

200 NOTES OF A BOTANIST
Quito, where they are obliged to be during the
three months the Congress is sitting. Mr. White
is a man of middle age. In his younger days he
has been United States Consul at Hamburg and
other ports in the north of Europe, and he has
travelled also in England and France. Afterwards
he was for some years Navy Agent on the coast of
Peru and Chile ; so that he is a man with more
cosmopolitan sympathies and fewer local prejudices
than many of his countrymen. Like many diplo-
matic gentlemen, he is apt to run into long-windecl
dissertations, not remarkable for either depth or
brilliancy ; and, at the same time, he is a very
amiable, sound-hearted man. Mrs. White is a very
friendly, chatty lady, who gets all her dresses out
from New York, in the latest style of fashion, to
the admiration and envy of the belles of Ambato.
I often step into Mr. \Vhite's of an evening, just
as I used to do into yours, when in England. We
have, however, no chess-playing, and, instead, we
rail against the people of the country after the
fashion of foreigners in all countries and I listen
patiently to Mr. White's lectures on political
aspects and complications.
To Mr. George Bentliaui
AMBATO, March 16, 1858.
As I mentioned in my last letter, my labours at
Barios were terminated sooner than I wished in
consequence of having filled all my paper ; and this
was the more provoking because just at that time
there were more trees in flower than at any other.