Chapter IV: Part I: I.--Wallace and Darwin--Early Years (2)

Although the fact is not definitely stated by Wallace, it may readily be inferred that the idea of making this the starting-point of a new life was clearly in his mind; while Darwin simply accepted the opportunity when it came, and was only brought to a consciousness of its full meaning and bearing on his future career whilst studying the geological aspect of Santiago when "the line of white rock revealed a new and important fact," namely, that there had been afterwards subsidence round the craters, which had since been in action and had poured forth lava. "It then," he says, "first dawned on me that I might perhaps write a book on the geology of the various countries visited, and this made me thrill with delight. That was a memorable hour to me; and how distinctly I can call to mind the low cliff of lava, beneath which I rested, with the sun glaring hot, a few strange desert plants growing near, and with living corals in the tidal pools at my feet!"[11]

Another point of comparison lies in the fact that at no time did the study of man or human nature, from the metaphysical and psychological point of view, appeal to Darwin as it did to Wallace; and this being so, the similarity between the impression made on them individually by their first contact with primitive human beings is of some interest.

Wallace's words have already been quoted; here are Darwin's: "Nothing is more certain to create astonishment than the first sight in his native haunt of a barbarian, of man in his lowest and most savage state. One asks: 'Could our progenitors have been men like these--men whose very signs and expressions are less intelligible to us than those of the domesticated animals; men who do not possess the instinct of those animals, nor yet appear to boast of human reason, or at least of arts consequent on that reason?' I do not believe it is possible to describe or paint the difference between a savage and civilised man. It is the difference between a wild and tame animal."[12]

The last words suggest the seed-thought eventually to be enlarged in "The Descent of Man," and there is also perhaps a subtle suggestion of the points in which Wallace differed from Darwin when the time came for them to discuss this important section of the theory of Evolution. It needed, however, the further eight years spent by Wallace in the Malay Archipelago to bring about a much wider knowledge of nature-science before he was prepared in any way to assume the position of exponent of theories not seriously thought of previously in the scientific world.

In the autumn of 1853, on the completion of his "Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro," Wallace paid his first visit to Switzerland, on a walking tour in company with his friend George Silk. On his return, and during the winter months, he was constant in his attendance at the meetings of the Entomological and Zoological Societies. It was at one of these evening gatherings that he first met Huxley, and he also had a vague recollection of once meeting and speaking to Darwin at the British Museum. Had it not been for his extreme shyness of disposition, and (according to his own estimation) "lack of conversational powers," he would doubtless have become far more widely known, and have enjoyed the friendship of not a few of the eminent men who shared his interests, during this interval before starting on his journey to Singapore.

It was due to his close study of the Insect and Bird Departments of the British Museum that he decided on Singapore as a new starting-point for his natural history collections. As the region was generally healthy, and no part of it (with the exception of the Island of Java) had been explored, it offered unlimited attractions for his special work. But as the journey out would be an expensive one, he was advised to lay his plans before Sir Roderick Murchison, then President of the Royal Geographical Society, and it was through his kindly interest and personal application to the Government that a passage was provided in one of the P. and O. boats going to Singapore. He left early in 1854. Arrived at Singapore, an entirely new world opened up before him. New peoples and customs thronged on all hands, a medley of nationalities such as can only be seen in the East, where, even to-day, and though forming part of one large community, each section preserves its native dress, customs and religious habits. After spending some time at Singapore he moved from place to place, but finally decided upon making Ternate his head-quarters, as he discovered a comfortable bungalow, not too large, and adaptable in every way as a place in which to collect and prepare his specimens between the many excursions to other parts of the Archipelago. The name is now indelibly associated with that particular visit which ended after a trying journey in an attack of intermittent fever and general prostration, during which he first conceived the idea which has made Ternate famous in the history of natural science.

One or two points in the following letters recall certain contrasts similar to those already drawn between Darwin's impression of places and people and those made on the mind of Wallace by practically the same conditions. A typical instance is found in their estimate of the life and work of the missionaries whom they met and from whom they received the warmest hospitality. Their experience included both Protestant and Roman Catholic, and from Darwin's account the former appeared to him to have the more civilising effect on the people, not only from a religious but also from the economic and industrial points of view.

In the "Journal" (p. 419) we find a detailed account of a visit to the missionary settlement at Waimate, New Zealand. After describing the familiar English appearance of the whole surroundings, he adds: "All this is very surprising when it is considered that five years ago nothing but the fern flourished here. Moreover, native workmanship, taught by these missionaries, has effected this change--the lesson of the missionary is the enchanter's wand. The house had been built, the windows framed, the fields ploughed, and even the trees grafted, by the New Zealander. When I looked at the whole scene it was admirable. It was not that England was brought vividly before my mind; ... nor was it the triumphant feeling at seeing what Englishmen could effect; but rather the high hopes thus inspired for the future progress of this fine island."

No such feeling was inspired by the conditions surrounding the Roman Catholic missionaries whom he met from time to time. In an earlier part of the "Journal" he records an evening spent with one living in a lonely place in South America who, "coming from Santiago, had contrived to surround himself with some few comforts. Being a man of some little education, he bitterly complained of the total want of society. With no particular zeal for religion, no business or pursuit, how completely must this man's life be wasted."

In complete opposition to these views, passages occur in the following letters which show that Wallace thought more highly of the Roman Catholic than of the Protestant missionaries. In one place, speaking of the former, he says: "Most are Frenchmen ... well-educated men who give up their lives for the good of the people they live among, I think Catholics and Protestants are equally wrong, but as missionaries I think Catholics are the best, and I would gladly see none others rather than have, as in New Zealand, sects of native Dissenters more rancorous against each other than in England. The unity of the Catholics is their strength, and an unmarried clergy can do as missionaries what married men never can undertake."

As a sidelight on these contradictory estimates of the same work, it should be borne in mind that Darwin had but recently given up the idea of becoming a clergyman, and doubtless retained some of the instinctive regard for sincere Christian Protestantism (whether represented by the Church of England or by Nonconformists), while Wallace had long since relinquished all doctrinal ideas on religion and all belief in the beneficial effect produced by forms of worship on the individual.

Among the regions Wallace visited was Sarawak. Of one of his sojourns here some interesting reminiscences have been sent to me by Mr. L.V. Helmes. He says:

It was in 1854 that Wallace came to Sarawak. I was there then,
sent by a private firm, which later became the Borneo Company, to
open up, by mining, manufacture and trade, the resources of the
country, and amongst these enterprises was coal-mining on the
west. Wallace came in search of new specimens of animal and
especially insect life. The clearing of ancient forests at these
mines offered a naturalist great opportunities, and I gave Wallace
an introduction to our engineer in charge there. His collections
of beetles and butterflies there were phenomenal; but the district
was also the special home of the great ape, the orang-utan, or
meias, as the natives called them, of which he obtained so many
valuable specimens. Many notes must at that time have passed
between us, for I took much interest in his work. We had put up a
temporary hut for him at the mines, and on my occasional visits
there I saw him and his young assistant, Charles Allen, at work,
admired his beautiful collections, and gave my help in forwarding
them.

But it was mainly in social intercourse that we met, when Wallace,
in intervals of his labours, came to Ku-ching, and was the Rajah's
guest. Then occurred those interesting discussions at social
gatherings to which he refers in a letter to me in 1909, when he
wrote: "I was pleased to receive your letter, with reminiscences
of old times. I often recall those pleasant evenings with Rajah
Brooke and our little circle, but since the old Rajah's death I
have not met any of the party."

Wallace was in Sarawak at the happy period in the country's
history. It was beginning to emerge from barbarism. The Borneo
Company was just formed, and the seed of the country's future
prosperity was sown. Wallace, therefore, found us all sanguine and
cheerful; yet we were on the brink of a disaster which brought
many sorrows in its train. But the misfortunes of the Chinese
revolt had not yet cast their shadows before them. The Rajah's
white guests round his hospitable table; the Malay chiefs and
office-holders, who made evening calls from curiosity or to pay
their respects; Dyaks squatting in dusky groups in corners of the
hall, with petitions to make or advice to seek from their white
ruler--such would be the gathering of which Wallace would form a
part. No suspicion or foreboding would trouble the company; yet
within a few months that hall would be given to the flames of an
enemy's torch, and the Rajah himself and many of those who formed
that company would be fugitives in the jungle....

The Malay Archipelago, in the unregenerated days when Wallace
roamed the forests, and sailed the Straits in native boats and
canoes, was full of danger to wanderers of the white race. Anarchy
prevailed in many parts; usurping nobles enslaved the people in
their houses; and piratical fleets scoured the sea, capturing and
enslaving yearly thousands of peaceful traders, women and
children. The writer was himself in 1862 besieged in a Bornean
river by a pirate fleet, which was eventually destroyed by a
Sarawak Government steamer with the following result of the fight:
190 pirates and 140 captives were killed or drowned, and 250 of
the latter were liberated and sent to their homes; showing how
formidable these pirates were. But Wallace, absorbed in his
scientific pursuits, minded not these dangers, nor the hardships
of any kind which a roving life in untrodden jungles 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 _tædium vitæ_ 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 of sleeping under cover of an open palm-leaf hut as calmly as under the protection of the Metropolitan Police!

Up to that time, also, he was the only Englishman who had actually seen the beautiful "birds of paradise in their native forests," this success being achieved after "five voyages to different parts of the district they inhabit, each occupying in its preparation and execution the larger part of a year." And then only five species out of a possible fourteen were procured. His enthusiasm as a naturalist and collector knew no bounds, butterflies especially calling into play all his feelings of joy and satisfaction. Describing his first sight of the _Ornithoptera croesus_, he says that the blood rushed to his head and he felt much more like fainting than he had done when in apprehension of immediate death; a similar sensation being experienced when he came across another large bird-winged butterfly, _Ornithoptera poseidon_.

"It is one thing," he says, "to see such beauty in a cabinet, and quite another to feel it struggling between one's fingers, and to gaze upon its fresh and living beauty, a bright-green gem shining out amid the silent gloom of a dark and tangled forest. The village of Dobbo held that evening at least one contented man."

These thrills of joy may be considered as some compensation for such experiences as those contained in his graphic account of a single journey in a "prau," or native boat. "My first crew," he wrote, "ran away; two men were lost for a month on a desert island; we were ten times aground on coral reefs; we lost four anchors; our sails were devoured by rats; the small boat was lost astern; we were thirty-eight days on the voyage home which should have taken twelve; we were many times short of food and water; we had no compass-lamp owing to there not being a drop of oil in Waigiou when we left; and to crown it all, during the whole of our voyage, occupying in all seventy-eight days (all in what was supposed to be the favourable season), we had not one single day of fair wind."

The scientific discoveries arising out of these eight years of laborious work and physical hardship were first--with the exception of the memorable Essay on Natural Selection--included in his books on the Malay Archipelago, the Geographical Distribution of Animals, Island Life, and Australasia, besides a number of papers contributed to various scientific journals.

A bare catalogue of the places visited and explored includes Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, the Moluccas, Timor, New Guinea, the Aru and Ké Islands. Comparing this list with that given by Darwin at the close of the "Journal," we find that though in some respects the ground covered by the two men was similar, it never actually overlapped. The countries and islands visited by the _Beagle_ came in the following order: Cape de Verde Islands, St. Paul's Rocks, Fernando Noronha, South America (including the Galapagos Archipelago, the Falkland Isles, and Tierra del Fuego), Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia, Tasmania, Keeling Island, Maldive coral atolls, Mauritius, St. Helena, Ascension. Brazil was revisited for a short time, and the _Beagle_ touched at the Cape de Verde Islands and the Azores on the homeward voyage.

The very nature of this voyage did not permit Darwin to give unlimited time to the study of any particular spot or locality; but his accurate observation of every detail, together with his carefully kept journal, afforded ample scope and foundation for future contemplation. To Wallace, the outstanding result may be summed up in the fact that he discovered that the Malay Archipelago is divided into a western group of islands, which in their zoological affinities are Asiatic, and an eastern, which are Australian. The Oriental Borneo and Bali are respectively divided from the Australian Celebes and Lombok by a narrow belt of sea known as "Wallace's line," on the opposite side of which the indigenous mammalia are as widely divergent as in any two parts of the world.

To both men Darwin's estimate of the influence of travel may aptly apply in the sense that from a geographical point of view "the map of the world ceases to be a blank ... each part assumes its proper dimensions," continents are no longer considered islands, nor islands as mere specks.

Wallace's homeward journey was not so eventful as the previous one had been, except for the unsuccessful efforts to bring back several species of live birds, which, with the exception of his birds of paradise, died on the way. On reaching London in the spring of 1862, he again made his home with his married sister, Mrs. Sims (who was living in Westbourne Grove). In a large empty room at the top of the house he found himself surrounded with packing-cases which he had not seen for five or six years, and which, together with his recent collections, absorbed his time and interest for the first few weeks. Later, he settled down to his literary work, and, with the exception of one or two visits to the Continent and America, spent the remainder of his life in England--a life full of activity, the results of which still permeate scientific research.