CHAPTER XXXIX 



A CHAPTER ON MONEY MATTERS — EARNINGS AND LOSSES 

 — SPECULATIONS AND LAW-SUITS 



Up to the age of twenty-one I do not think I ever had a 

 sovereign of my own. I then received a small sum, perhaps 

 about £$o, the remnant of a legacy from my grandfather, 

 John Greenell. This enabled me to get a fair outfit of 

 clothes, and to keep myself till I got the appointment at the 

 Leicester school. While living at Neath as a surveyor I did 

 little more than earn my living, except during the six months 

 of the railway mania, when I was able to save about ,£100. 

 This enabled me to go to Para with Bates, and during the 

 four years on the Amazon my collections just paid all 

 expenses, but those I was bringing home with me would 

 probably have sold for ^"200. My agent, Mr. Stevens, had 

 fortunately insured them for £150, which enabled me to live 

 a year in London, and get a good outfit and a sufficient cash 

 balance for my Malayan journey. 



My eight years in the Malay Archipelago were successful, 

 financially, beyond my expectations. Celebes, the Moluccas, 

 the Aru Islands, and New Guinea were, for English museums 

 and private collections, an almost unknown territory. A 

 large proportion of my insects and birds were either wholly 

 new or of extreme rarity in England ; and as many of them 

 were of large size and of great beauty, they brought very 

 high prices. My agent had invested the proceeds from time 

 to time in Indian guaranteed railway stock, and a year after 

 my return I found myself in possession of about ,£300 a year. 

 Besides this, I still possessed the whole series of private 



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