The Naturalist on the River Amazons, subtitled A Record of the Adventures, Habits of Animals, Sketches of Brazilian and Indian Life, and Aspects of Nature under the Equator, during Eleven Years of Travel, is an 1863 book by the British naturalist Henry Walter Bates about his expedition to the Amazon basin. Bates and his friend Alfred Russel Wallace set out to obtain new species and new evidence for evolution by natural selection, as well as exotic specimens to sell. He explored thousands of miles of the Amazon and its tributaries, and collected over 14,000 species, of which 8,000 were new to science. His observations of the coloration of butterflies led him to discover Batesian mimicry.
The book contains an evenly distributed mixture of natural history, travel, and observation of human societies, including the towns with their Catholic processions. Only the most remarkable discoveries of animals and plants are described, and theories such as evolution and mimicry are barely mentioned. Bates remarks that finding a new species is only the start; he also describes animal behaviour, sometimes in detail, as for the army ants. He constantly relates the wildlife to the people, explaining how the people hunt, what they eat and what they use as medicines. The book is illustrated with drawings by leading artists including E. W. Robinson, Josiah Wood Whymper, Joseph Wolf and Johann Baptist Zwecker.
On Bates's return to England, he was encouraged by Charles Darwin to write up his eleven-year stay in the Amazon as a book. The result was widely admired, not least by Darwin:
Other reviewers sometimes disagreed with the book's support for evolution, but generally enjoyed his account of the journey, scenery, people, and natural history. The book has been reprinted many times, mostly in Bates's own effective abridgement for the second edition, which omitted the more technical descriptions.
Publication history
The first edition, in 1863, was long and full of technical description. The second edition, in 1864, was abridged, with most of the technical description removed, making for a shorter and more readable book which has been reprinted many times. Bates prefaced the 1864 edition by writing
An unabridged edition was reissued only after 30 years, in 1892; it appeared together with a 'memoir' of Bates by Edward Clodd.
Major versions
Bates H.W. 1863. The naturalist on the river Amazons. 2 volumes, Murray, London. Bates H.W. 1864. The naturalist on the river Amazons. 2nd edition as one volume, Murray, London. [abridged by removing natural history descriptions; much reprinted] Bates H.W. 1892. The naturalist on the river Amazons, with a memoir of the author by Edward Clodd. [only full edition since 1863, with good short biography by Clodd]
Approach
In 1847, Bates and his friend Alfred Russel Wallace, both in their early twenties, agreed that they would jointly make a collecting trip to the Amazon "towards solving the problem of origin of species". They had been inspired by reading the American entomologist William Henry Edwards's pioneering 1847 book A Voyage Up the River Amazon, with a residency at Pará.Edwards, 1847.
Neither had much money, so they determined to fund themselves by collecting and selling fine specimens of birds and insects. Both made extensive travels—in different parts of the Amazon basin—creating large natural history collections, especially of insects. Wallace sailed back to England in 1852 after four years; on the voyage, his ship caught fire, and his collection was destroyed; undeterred, he set out again, leading eventually (1869) to a comparable book, The Malay Archipelago.Wallace, 1869. By the time he came home in November 1859, Bates had collected over 14,000 species, of which 8,000 were new to science. His observations of the coloration of butterflies led him to describe what is now called Batesian mimicry, where an edible species protects itself from predators by appearing like a distasteful species. Bates's account of his stay, including observations of nature and the people around him, occupies his book.
In the abridged version, there is a balance between descriptions of places and adventures, and the wildlife seen there. The style is accurate, but vivid and direct:
The book begins and ends suddenly. The journey out, as reviewer Joseph James observes, is dismissed in a few words. The last few lines of the book run:
Illustrations
There are 39 illustrations, some of animals and plants, some of human topics such as the "Masked-dance and wedding-feast of Tucuna Indians", which is signed by Josiah Wood Whymper. Some illustrations including "Turtle Fishing and Adventure with Alligator"Bates, 1864. p. 359. are by the German illustrator Johann Baptist Zwecker; some, such as "Bird-Killing Spider (Mygale Avicularia) Attacking Finches"Bates, 1864. p. 97. are by E.W. Robinson; others by the zoological artist Joseph Wolf.
Chapters
The structure of the readable, cut-down second edition of 1864 is as follows:
1 Pará — arrival, aspect of the country, etc. (now the city of Belém) Bates arrives, and at once starts learning about the country's peoples and natural history.
He soon notices and describes the leafcutter ants.Bates, 1864. pp. 10–14. He stays in Pará for 18 months, making short trips into the interior; the city is clean and safe compared to others in Brazil.Bates, 1864. p. 23.
2 Pará — the swampy forests, etc. Bates takes a house a few miles outside town on the edge of the forest, and soon starts to notice butterflies and climbing palms. He begins collecting during the day, and making notes and preparing specimens in the evening. At first he is disappointed by how few signs there are of larger animals such as monkeys, tapir or jaguar. Later he realizes these do exist, but are widely scattered and very shy. He meets a landowner who complains of the high price of slaves. There are colossal trees with buttressed trunks.
3 Pará — religious holidays, marmoset monkeys, serpents, insects He witnesses Catholic processions, notably the festival for Our Lady of Nazareth at Pará. He describes the few monkeys that can be seen in the area, and the strange Amphisbaena, a legless lizard. There are beautiful Morpho butterflies of different species, and assorted spiders, including "monstrous" hairy ones.
4 The Tocantins and Cametá Bates and Wallace travel up the Tocantins river, hiring a two-masted boat, a crew of three, and taking provisions for three months. At Baiao he is astonished to be shown a young man's books including Virgil, Terence, Cicero and Livy: "an unexpected sight, a classical library in a mud-plastered and palm-thatched hut on the banks of the Tocantins".Bates, 1864. p. 75. Their host kills an ox in their honour, but Bates is kept awake by swarms of rats and cockroaches.Bates, 1864. pp. 76–77. They see the hyacinthine macaw which can crush hard palm nuts with its beak,Bates, 1864. pp. 79–80. and two species of freshwater dolphin, one new to science.Bates, 1864. p. 88. Bates visits Cameta; Wallace goes to explore the Guama and Capim rivers.Bates, 1864. p. 89. The large bird-eating spider (Mygalomorphae) has urticating hairs: Bates handles the first specimen "incautiously, and I suffered terribly for three days". He sees some children leading one with a cord around its waist like a dog.Bates, 1864. pp. 95–97. On the return journey, the boat with his baggage leaves before him; when he catches up with it, he finds it "leaking at all points".Bates, 1864. pp. 100–101.
5 Caripí and the Bay of Marajó Bates stays three months in an old mansion on the coast, going insect-hunting with a German who lives in the woods. His room is full of four species of bat: one leaf-nosed bat, Phyllostoma, bites him on the hip: "This was rather unpleasant".Bates, 1864. p. 108. He finds stewed giant anteater delicious, like goose.Bates, 1864. p. 109. Several times he shoots hummingbird hawkmoths, mistaking them for hummingbirds.Bates, 1864. p. 115. He catches a pale brown tree snake long, but only thick, and a pale green one long "undistinguishable amidst the foliage".Bates, 1864. p. 116. When he has shot all the game around his house, he goes hunting with a neighbour by canoe, getting some agouti and paca rodents.Bates, 1864. p. 124.
6 The Lower Amazons — Pará to Obydos (now the city of Óbidos) He describes how travellers went upriver before the steamboats arrived, and gives a history of earlier explorations of the Amazons. His preparations for the voyage to Obydos include household goods, provisions, ammunition, boxes, books and "a hundredweight (50 kg) of copper money".Bates, 1864. p. 135. There are many species of palms along a river channel.Bates, 1864. p. 139. A rare species of alligator and the armoured Loricaria fish are caught.Bates, 1864. pp. 141–142. Obydos is a pleasant town of 1200 people, on cliffs of pink and yellow clays, surrounded by cocoa plantations with four kinds of monkey and the huge Morpho hecuba butterfly up to across, as well as slow-flying Heliconius butterflies in great numbers.Bates, 1864. p. 149. He obtains a musical cricket, Chlorocoelus tanana.Bates, 1864. pp. 156–157.
7 The Lower Amazons — Obydos to Manaos, or the Barra of the Rio Negro Bates leaves Obydos; he finds the people lazy, as otherwise they could easily become comfortable with mixed farming. They sail through a tremendous storm.Bates, 1864. pp. 165–167. He finds a Pterochroza grasshopper whose forewings perfectly resemble leaves,Bates, 1864. p. 170. the Victoria waterlily, masses of ticks, the howler monkey and large Morpho butterflies. He meets Wallace again at Barra.Bates, 1864. p. 201. Back in Para, he catches yellow fever.
8 Santarem He describes Santarem and the customs of its people. He goes on short "excursions" around the little town. The pure "Indians" choose to build light open shelters, resting inside in hammocks, whereas those of mixed or African origin build more substantial mud huts.Bates, 1864. p. 219. He enjoys watching small pale green Bembex and other kinds of sand wasps.Bates, 1864. pp. 221–223. He regrets that the people cut down the Oenocarpus distichus palm to harvest its fruits, which yield a milky, nutty beverage.Bates, 1864. pp. 224–225. He describes some potter wasps and mason bees.Bates, 1864. pp. 225–229. He meets a "feiticeira" or witch who knows the uses of many plants, but remarks that "the Indian men all become sceptics after a little intercourse with the whites" and that her witchcraft "was of a very weak quality" though others have more dangerous tricks.Bates, 1864. p. 234.
9 Voyage up the Tapajos Bates hires a boat made of stonewood for a three month trip up the Tapajos river. He prepares for the trip by salting meat, grinding coffee, and placing all the food in tin boxes to keep insects and damp out. He buys trade-goods such as fishhooks, axes, knives and beads.Bates, 1864. p. 238. He witnesses poison-fishing using lianas of Paullinia pinnata.Bates, 1864. p. 242. At Point Cajetuba he finds a line of dead fire-ants, "an inch or two in height and breadth", washed up on the shore "without interruption for miles".Bates, 1864. p. 244. Terrible wounds are inflicted by the stingray and the piranha.Bates, 1864. p. 247. His men make a canoe from a trunk of the stonewood tree,Bates, 1864. p. 265. and an anaconda steals two chickens from a cage on his boat; the snake is "only 18 feet nine inches (6 metres) in length".Bates, 1864. p. 262–263. Becoming weak from a diet of fish, he eats a spider monkey, finding it delicious.Bates, 1864. p. 266. They notice the river is gently tidal, 530 miles (850 km) from its mouth, "a proof of the extreme flatness of the land".Bates, 1864. p. 269. Bates is unimpressed by a homeopathy-crazed priest,Bates, 1864. p. 250. especially when his pills prove useless against fever.Bates, 1864. p. 281.
10 The Upper Amazons — Voyage to Ega (now the city of Tefé)