xv MENDEZ DA COSTA 213 



reading his proofs, and, most essential of all, advancing 

 him some of the needed funds. Da Costa was very 

 grateful, and science profited. 1 



Specimens, too, from other departments of the animal 

 kingdom tound their way to the house in Harpur Street. 

 In 1765 part of the skin of the Argus or '' Chinese 

 Pheasant " was sent him from Canton ; its great wings 

 and tail, which it is wont to display peacock-wise, shot 

 with marvellous colour and embroidery. 2 Was it wholly 

 strange that the plain Quaker should unconsciously 

 delight in the gorgeous hues of orchid and tropical fowl, 

 and in the brilliancy of his mosaic table and his 

 corals ? 



He had, too, a cabinet of insects ; on these he corre- 

 sponded with Seymer : it contained many specimens 

 from America. In order to investigate the natural 

 history and products of Spain and the West Coast of 

 Africa, Henry Smeathman was engaged in 1771 by 

 Fothergill, acting in co-operation with Drury, Banks 

 and Marmaduke Tunstall, to spend three years in those 

 countries. Armed with Fothergill's instructions, Smeath- 

 man was enabled to survive the malignant fevers and 

 fluxes of the Sierra Leone coast, although his com- 

 panion in travel died. Large numbers of new plants 

 were sent home by him to Banks a beautiful passion- 

 flower is named Smeathmannia and many remarkable 

 insects came to Fothergill. Smeathman's chief work 

 was to write the first detailed account of the Termites 

 or so-called white ants of Guinea, their habits, buildings 

 and mode of propagation. It was a " traveller's tale " 

 of no little wonder, for the ants dwelt in cities with 

 towers ; but the Royal Society gave it due hearing, and 

 its truth has been established. The explorer allied him- 

 self by marriage with the native chiefs, and afterwards 

 wandered to the \Vest Indies, staying out long years 



1 The price paid for Fothergill's shells, etc., is variously stated at 1200 or 

 1500. Works, iii. pp. Hi, liii ; S. F. Simmons, Life of W. Hunter ; many MS. 

 Letters from Da Costa to Fothergill, Brit. Mus. MSS. ; Nichols, Lit. Anecd. 

 ix. 816 ; Gent. Mag., 1781, 165 ; Phil. Trans, xliv-lvi. 



2 Now known as Argus giganteus of Tcmminck. Phil. Trans. Iv. 88. 



