322 MY LIFE 



artistic touches to give them life and variety, and in a few 

 cases some botanical details from species living in the gar- 

 dens. In one of the drawings a large native house on the 

 Uaupes is introduced, with some figures which, I am sorry 

 to say, are as unlike the natives as are the inhabitants of a 

 London slum. I arranged with Mr. Van Voorst to publish 

 this small volume, and it was not thought advisable to print 

 more than two hundred and fifty copies, the sale of which 

 just covered all expenses. 



At the same time I was preparing my " Travels on the 

 Amazon and Rio Negro " from the scanty materials I had 

 saved, supplemented by the letters I had written home. I 

 arranged with Mr. Lovel Reeve for its publication on an 

 agreement for " half profits." Only 750 copies were printed, 

 and when I returned home from the East in 1862, about 

 250 copies were still unsold, and there were consequently no 

 profits to divide. We agreed, however, to share the remain- 

 ing copies, and my portion was disposed of by my new pub- 

 lisher, Messrs. Macmillan & Co., and brought me in a few 

 pounds. 



I had brought with me vocabularies of about a hundred 

 common words in ten different Indian languages, and as the 

 greatest philologist at that time was the late Dr. R. G. Latham, 

 I obtained an introduction to him, and he kindly offered to 

 write some " Remarks " upon the vocabularies, and these are 

 published in the first edition of my " Travels." 



Dr. Latham was at this time engaged in fitting up groups 

 of figures to illustrate the family life and habits of the various 

 races of mankind at the new Crystal Palace at Sydenham, 

 then just completed, and he asked me to meet him there and 

 see whether any alterations were required in a group of 

 natives, I think, of Guiana. 



I found Dr. Latham among a number of workmen in 

 white aprons, several life-size clay models of Indians, and a 

 number of their ornaments, weapons, and utensils. The head 

 modellers were Italians, and Dr. Latham told me he could 

 get no Englishmen to do the work, and that these Italians, 



