3H MY LIFE 



shop, where I got a warm suit, then to his own tailor, where I 

 was measured for what clothes I required, and afterwards to a 

 haberdasher's to get a small stock of other necessaries. Having 

 at that time no relatives in London, his mother, with whom he 

 lived in the south of London — I think in Kennington — had 

 invited me to stay with her. Here I lived most comfortably 

 for a week, enjoying the excellent food and delicacies Mrs. 

 Stevens provided for me, which quickly restored me to my 

 usual health and vigour. 



Since I left home, and after my brother John had gone to 

 California in 1849, mv sister had married Mr. Thomas Sims, 

 the elder son of my former host at Neath. Mr. Sims had 

 taught himself the then rapidly advancing art of photography, 

 and as my sister could draw very nicely in water-colours, they 

 had gone to live at Weston-super-Mare, and established a 

 small photographic business. As I wished to be with my sister 

 and mother during my stay in England, I took a house then 

 vacant in Upper Albany Street (No. 44), where there was 

 then no photographer, so that we might all live together. 

 While it was getting ready I took lodgings next door, as the 

 situation was convenient, being close to the Regent's Park 

 and Zoological Gardens, and also near the Society's offices in 

 Hanover Square, and with easy access to Mr. Stevens's office 

 close to the old British Museum. At Christmas we were all 

 comfortably settled, and I was able to begin the work which 

 I had determined to do before again leaving England. 



In the small tin box which I had saved from the wreck 

 I fortunately had a set of careful pencil drawings of all the 

 different species of palms I had met with, together with notes 

 as to their distribution and uses. I had also a large number 

 of drawings of fish, as already stated, carefully made to scale, 

 with notes of their colours, their dentition, and their fin-rays, 

 scales, etc. I had also a folio Portuguese note-book contain- 

 ing my diary while on the Rio Negro, and some notes and 

 observations made for a map of that river and the Uaupes. 

 With these scanty materials, helped by the letters I had sent 

 home, I now set to work to write an account of my travels, 

 as well as a few scientific papers for which I had materials in 



