es and feverish
swamps brings.

When Wallace left Sarawak after his fifteen months' residence in
the country, he left his young assistant, Charles Allen, there. He
entered my service, and remained some time after the formation of
the Borneo Company. Later, he again joined Wallace, and then went
to New Guinea, doing valuable collecting and exploring work. He
finally settled in Singapore, where I met him in 1899. He had
married and was doing well; but died not long after my interview
with him. He had come to the East with Wallace as a lad of 16, and
had been his faithful companion and assistant during years of
arduous work.--L.V.H.

The eight years spent by Wallace in this almost unknown part of the
world were times of strenuous mental and physical exertion, resulting in
the gathering together of an enormous amount of matter for future
scientific investigation, but counterbalanced unfortunately by more or
less continuous ill-health--which at times made the effort of clear
reasoning and close application to scientific pursuits extremely
difficult.

An indication of the unwearying application with which he went about his
task is seen in the fact that during this period he collected 125,660
specimens of natural history, travelled about 14,000 miles within the
Archipelago, and made sixty or seventy journeys, "each involving some
preparation and loss of time," so that "not more than six years were
really occupied in collecting."

A faint idea of this long and solitary sojourn in lonely places is
given in a letter to his old friend Bates, dated December 24th, 1860, in
which he says: "Many thanks for your long and interesting letter. I have
myself suffered much in the same way as you describe, and I think more
severely. The kind of _taedium vitae_ you mention I also occasionally
experience here. I impute it to a too monotonous existence." And again
when he begs his friend to write, as he is "half froze for news."

As already stated, Wallace, at no time during these wanderings, had any
escort or protection, having to rely entirely upon his own tact and
patience, combined with firmness, in his dealings with the natives. On
one occasion he was taken ill, and had to remain six weeks with none but
native Papuans around him, and he became so attached to them that when
saying good-bye it was with the full intention of returning amongst them
at a later period. In another place he speaks