History, Naturally

HENRY Walter Bates is a person who could easily be confused Alfred Russel Wallace, if only because their names have a similar cadence, their lives largely overlapped (they were born within two years of each other), and they both became famous as explorers and naturalists, being keen exponents of Charles Darwin's ideas on evolution.

They spent years together in the Amazon jungle rainforest, collecting specimens that in turn funded more exploring and collecting.

Much of Wallace's collection disappeared when the ship carrying it to Britain sank, but Bates, using three separate vessels, transported home more than 14,000 species.

Today Wallace is undoubtedly the better known, but that was not always the case, and reading Bates' account of his collecting, often in dreadful conditions, is eye-opening.

A modern reprint of the 1864 edition of Bates' book

Bates spent 1848-59 traveling the main Amazon, or, as he calls it, Amazons, and the river's tributaries.

You would have to be a keen naturalist to call the book gripping. I am not, and I found some of his detailed descriptions of insects, birds and plants a little wearying.

But there is no denying Bates' enthusiasm, and there was plenty of travel and history to keep me reading.

Bates comes across as, for his time, enlightened, but he is not an apologist for the people he meets, whether they be indigenous, colonials or slaves.

I doubt if I will ever be tempted to re-read the book, but I am glad I have read it for a first time.