2s2 Deane, Letters, from Sivainson to Audubon. Ifuh 



to England after six years spent in wandering over the Forests 

 and Andes of South America bringing with him collections, that 

 will make everything else in this country sink into titter insignifi- 

 cance, he too, is longing to see me, and if I possibly can get away 

 for a day next week, with two such desirable objects I will, but 

 my literary engagements bind me, hand and foot. 



You think I do not know that you are an F. R. S. 1 — you are 

 mistaken, furthermore, will you be surprised at knowing I have 

 been fighting your battles against a rising opposition which origi- 

 nated among some of your Ornithological friends (at least so I 

 strongly suspect) for the purpose of your name being blackballed. 

 But more of this when we meet, such matters had better not be 

 committed to paper. 



The whole of your bundle of young trees reached me as 

 withered sticks, not a spark of life in any one of them. 



So you are going to write a book 'tis a thing of little moment 

 for one who is not known, because they have no reputation to 

 loose, but much will be expected from you, and you must, there- 

 fore, as the saying is, put your best leg foremost. I am coming 

 fast round to the prejudice, as you may think it, against the 

 Americans. 



Dr. Richardson's and my own volume on the Arctic Birds, 2 is 

 now at press. Not being able to refer to your plates, I have not 

 had the power to quote your work, you know how repeatedly I 

 have applied on this head, both to you and Mr. Havell in vain. 



Prince C. Bonaparte s has long promised me his second &: third 

 volume but they have never come. Ward 4 is a regular Scamp he 

 has taught me a good lesson — fool that he is — and that is, to 

 steal my heart against distress such as his was, and to consult, 

 like all the rest of the world, my own interest only. I am sick of 

 the world and of mankind, and but for my family would end my 

 days in the primeval forests of my beloved Brazil. 



1 Audubon was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of England, March 

 18, 1830. 



2 Fauna Boreali-Americana, Part 11, 1S31. 



3 Charles Lucian Bonaparte. Born 1830, died 1857. 



4 J. F. Ward. Swainson refers to him as an animal preserver of consider- 

 able talent. 



