Excerpt from The Naturalist on the River Amazons, Vol. 1 of 2: A Record of Adventures, Habits of Animals, Sketches of Brazilian and Indian Life, and Aspects of Nature Under the Equator, During Eleven Years of Travel When I first arrived in England, being much depressed in health and spirits after eleven years' residence within four degrees of the equator, the last three of which were spent in the wild country 1400 miles from the sea-coast, I saw little prospect of ever giving my narrative to the world; and indeed, after two years had elapsed, had almost abandoned the intention of doing so. At that date I became acquainted with Mr. Darwin, who, having formed a attering Opinion of my ability for the task, strongly urged me to write a book, and reminded me of it months afterwards, when, after having made a commencement, my half-formed resolution began to give way. Under this encouragement the arduous task is at length accomplished. It seems necessary to make this statement, as it explains why so long a time has intervened between my arrival in England and the publication of my book. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."