750 



WALKER WALLACE. 



opposed the impeachment of PITS. Julinson. and 

 the carrying out of tin- Congressional Kceonstiuc- 

 tinii measures in Mississippi, He died Nov. II. 

 1869, at Washington, where he was prominent at tin- 

 bar. 



WALKKK. WILLIAM (1824-1860), filibuster, was 

 born at Nashville, Tenn.. May S. 1>:M. After trav.-l- 

 ling abroad, studying medicine in Paris, and I 

 mined tn tlu> bar, he was connected tor a time with 

 the New Orleans Crexxnt and tlio San !': 

 llrrald. and practised law at Murysville. Cal. In Oc- 

 tober, 1853, he undertook a fantastic enterprise against 

 the north-western states of Mexico. Landing with a 

 few comrades at La Pax on the end of the- California!! 

 peninsula, he proclaimed himself president of the 

 country, "annexed" Sonora. and inarched northward, 

 only to surrender at San Diego. In May, 1854, he was 

 tried at San Francisco for a violation of the neutrality 

 laws and acquitted. Invited to Nicaragua, he landed 

 at Kuelijo in June, 1855, raised a force, won in a few 

 actions, took Granada. Oct, 15, and executed a native 

 general for "treason." In a war with Costa Itica In- 

 retrieved a defeat in March, 1856, by a victory in April. 

 "Elected " president in June, he issued currency on a 

 large scale.re-established slavery, and was recognized by 

 Pres. Pierce. His intrusive tyranny provoked a re- 

 volt, and the opposition of the Vanderbilt Steamship 

 Company, whose property he had confiscated, contrib- 

 uted to his downfall. After burning Granada, he sur- 

 rendered May 1, 1857, to Commodore C. H. Davis, 

 and was sent to New Orleans, whence ho escaped to 

 make another effort, but within two weeks was taken 

 by another U. S. naval officer, and conveyed to New 

 York. His mad; ncouraged by sympathy at 



borne, and Pres. Buchanan ordered his release in .Jan- 

 uary. 1S5S. In the fall he started airain, but was ar- 

 rested, tried in New Orleans, and acquitted. His m 

 riously unamiablc fanaticism despised ail tamuofex 

 perience, and in June, ISfin, he landed at Truxiilo, in 

 Honduras. Two months later he was driven from the 

 town by a British war-vessel ; marching into the coun- 

 try with a small force, he was captured by the native 

 authorities, and shot Sept 8, at iVuxillo. He repre- 

 sented no American or rational principle, and 

 jilished no good end : his reckless exploits belong rather 

 to mediaeval than modern manners, but he is uureirivt- 

 fully remembered as "the gray-eyed man of destiny." 

 arid the chief of "filibusters." His account of The 

 It'-ir in \icnraatia, written before his last expedition, 

 api>cared at Mobile, 1862. 



WALLACE, ALFRED RUSSEL. nn eminent Kng- 

 lish naturalist, was born at I'-k. Monmouthshire. Jan. 

 H. lS:!:i. He re M-ivcd lii.-- e iu,-ation at the grammar 

 School of Hertford, and Wits articled to an elder brother 

 who pursued the business of land surveyor and archi- 

 Harly in lii'e, however, he gave up this jiursuit 

 in favor of the study of natural history, and 

 accompanied the naturalist Henry Waiter Hates on ;i 

 tic expedition to Brazil. They made a long so- 

 in Para, eniraued in a scientilic exploration of 

 the vicinity, and then started on a voyage "I 

 lion of the forest region of the Amazon and Kin Nc 

 pro rivers, from which they returned to Kngland in 

 1852. During thia journey \YallaiM! ohtaim.-d a 

 what extended vocabulary !' the Indian languages ,.t 

 the Amazon valley, and a valuable collection of scien- 

 tific material, which was \eiv rich in the department! 

 of botany and ornithology. I nfortiinately. the 



i this was lost in a shipwreck. In 1S;VJ he puli 



fltf .\IIKI inn mill AY \iiji-n, n-ith lir.- 



iiiark* on I/if Vocabularfo of the Aiit<ixnil<tn I -m- 



ffiiaqat, which work was followed by T/te 1'alm Trees 



of the Antaznn, and their U*e. 



In 1854 ho set out on a yet more important scien- 

 iirney, the field of his exploration living now 

 aiidn of the Malay Archipelago, in which 

 he remained for eight year-, passing In mi i.-i 

 inland, and extending his expeditions to the island of 



linen. tli<>n almost unknown for scientific pur- 

 poses. This lontr period Wallace occupied in the most 

 ardent ami enthusiastic natural history l:il>rs. resulting 

 in the Collection of an extraordinarily rich caliinet of 

 d specimens, indoding more than lihi.OUO in- 

 se.-ts and over SIKI I birds. Among his special studies 

 were the habits of the orang iitan. and. while in New 

 Guinea, the birds of paradise, peculiar to that island. 

 To him we owe the earliest satisfactory account of the 

 habits and haunts of this most beautiful family of 

 birds. He succeeded in addinir to tlmsc already known 

 a new species, the Standard Wing (.SV//,/,,y,r,r,i MW- 

 distinguislicd by a pair of long, narrow whito 

 feathers, springing from the bend of the win 

 capable of being erected at the bird's pi 

 While thua engaged his mind was also occupied with 

 the study of the mystery of the origin of species 

 which has during the present century exercised thc< 

 intellects of so many able naturalists. The result of 

 his thoughts was the conception of an idea of animal 

 derivation remarkably similar to Darwin's celebrated 

 theory of natural selection, and the parallel is the more 

 ins: from the fact that the announcement of the 

 results of Wallace's and l>arwin's studies was made on 

 the same day and before the same scientific body. 

 Wallace embodied hit theory in a paper entitled "On 

 the Tendency of Varietiea to depart indefinitely from 

 the Original Type." which he sent to the l.i 

 Society through Sir Charles Lycll. It was read on 

 July 1, 18.")S ; and at the same meeting was read Dar- 

 win's paper "On the Tendency of Species to l-'nrni 

 Varieties, and on the Perpetuation of Species and Va- 

 rieties by means of Natural Selection." which con- 

 tained the first public statement of his celebrated 

 theory. Wallace 1 natural selection a.s the 



asrent in producing most of tlicehnii<_res pointed out by 

 Darwin, but denied its sufficiency, without aid from 

 some lii.'htT power, to explain the origin of the hu- 

 man species. Though the two nalur.dists arm 

 this theory independently/ of each other, the priority 

 has been given to Darwin, who had privately describ. d 

 his theory to scii ntilic friends several years before, bad 

 conceived it many years previously, and published :i 

 detailed exposition of it immediately after the first 

 public announcement, with a wealth of illustrations, 

 the results of his own studies, far in excess of any- 

 thing that Wallace had to offer. 



In ISt'iiJ Wallace n turned to Kngland, where he 

 spent several years in arranging and classifying his 

 vast collection and in writing a popular account of his 

 explorations, which was published under the title of 



Till' Mil/Hi/ An-lii/lllllr/n, III,' Jslllll llf tllf (ll'illli/ l/lllll 



mill tin' 1'iiril of J'iriii/M' (ISS'.t). and ranks among the 

 most entertaining and instructive narratives of scien- 

 ploratlon. He aUo published many jiapers in 

 the proceedings of the Liniiioan, Zoological. Klhnoloiri- 

 cal. Anthropological, and Kntomoloyical Societi. 

 collection of which was issued in ls.7'>. entitled Cnntri- 

 liiiliniin to I/if Tlniirn at' .\ntiirnl Siln-limi. In i 

 he received, in acknowledgment of the high value of 

 his scientilic labors, the gold medal of the Royal So- 

 ciety, and in INTO the gold medal of the Geographical 

 Society of Paris. The works almvc named were fol- 

 lowed in ISTli by the most valuable of his seientilic 

 productions, an elaborate work (in tin' (ii-ni/ni/i/i 

 Uittn nl.i, which was is-. tied in Kurdish 



h, and (lerinan. and yet remains the stall lard 

 woik on the Subject. In tin 1 same year he was pi< 

 dent of the 15iologic.il section of the British Asso- 

 ciation in its meet ing at (Jlasguw. Hi i.-n- 



voiks coi '/nail Nature (1S7S), which 



contains his latest views on the colors, of natural 



. geographical distribution, 



and Isiiiiil Li/i' (I >;,(!), in which he considers (ho 

 phciiom, na presented by the faunas and floras of the 

 principal islands of the globe and the problem of 

 geological climates. He has also e liied a work on 

 Australasia, chiefly written by himself. In 1SS2 he 



