My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

LONDON, AND VOYAGE tO THE EAST 169During my constant attendance at the meetingsof the Zoological and Entomological Societies, andvisits to the insect and bird departments of theBritish Museum, I had obtained sufficient informationto satisfy me that the very finest field for anexploring and collecting naturalist was to be foundin the great Malayan Archipelago, of which justsufficient was known to prove its wonderful richness,while no part of it, with the one exception of theisland of Java, has been well explored as regardsits natural history. Sir James Brooke had recentlybecome Rajah of Sarawak, while the numerousDutch settlements in Celebes and the Moluccasoffered great facilities for a traveller. So far asknown also, the country was generally healthy, andI determined that it would be much better for meto go to such a new country than to return to theAmazon, where Bates had already been successfullycollecting for five years, and where I knew there wasa good bird-collector who had been long at work inthe upper part of the river towards the Andes.As the journey to the East was an expensive one,I was advised to try to get a free passage in someGovernment ship. Through my paper on the RioNegro, I had made the acquaintance of Sir RoderickMurchison, then President of the Royal GeographicalSociety, and one of the most accessible and kindlyof men of science. On calling upon him and statingmy wishes, he at once agreed to make an applicationon my behalf for a passage to some Malayan port,and as he was personally known to many membersof the Government and had great influence withthem, a passage was promised me on the first shipgoing to those seas. This was, I think, near the endof the year 1853, when I had published my two