CHAPTER XIX 



" IN MEMORIAM " 



In memory of 



Herbert Edward Wallace, 



who died of yellow fever at Para, June 8, 1851, 



Age 22 years. 



During the three or four years my brother lived at Neath 

 he contributed a considerable number of verses and enigmas 

 to the local newspapers, while some of his old notebooks 

 contain many others in an unfinished state. While on the 

 Amazon he wrote several more, and I will here give a few 

 samples of these, which may perhaps be thought worth pre- 

 serving, and as a memento of a young life prematurely closed 

 in a distant land. He was a great admirer of Hood and of 

 Longfellow, and several of his little poems are reflections of 

 their writings, while the enigmas were inspired by those of 

 William Mackworth Praed. 



The only two likenesses of my brother we possess are copied 

 here. The first is from a pencil sketch by an old friend of the 

 family (Miss Townsend), taken at Hoddesdon when he was 

 about eight years old, which was always thought to be a strik- 

 ing likeness. The other is a copy of a black silhouette taken 

 before he came out to the Amazon in 1849, when he was just 

 twenty years old. 



My lamented friend Dr. Spruce kindly sent me two letters 

 he received from my brother in the interval between our part- 

 ing at Santarem and on his return to Para, and as they are 

 probably the last he ever wrote I give them here (omitting 

 one or two personal matters) in order to show his usual good 

 spirits and random style of writing. 



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