From Andrew Smith 18 July 1871
34 Marine Parade Brighton
18 July 1871
My Dear Darwin.
I left London without your address therefore have had to write to Town before I could get it I have been wishing for some time past to tell you how much I have felt obliged to you for your great kindness in sending me the letter for Mr Galton, it was quite a god send and by the aid of it I have been able to get information on some points I greatly wanted.1 He was exceedingly kind and called at the Athenæum where I first saw him and laterally at my house He travelled in a district of South Africa which I never visited and up to the time I saw him I could not satisfy myself as to the inhabitants2 in fact, though, I am not so ignorant as I was, I am sill doubting and I fear it will be no easy matter to satisfy myself that we have come to a correct conclusion. I am trying to work up the Ethnology of South Africa and all that I fear is I shall get disheartened when I gaze on the amount of material I possess3
I think if my health will permit I ought to do it as the time is passing when when civilisation and its consequences will be taking the command of nature. I hope sincerely you are keeping well and I shall try to see you on some occasion when you are in town after my return to Brompton which I expect will be in the course of September or beginning of October
I am | My Dear Darwin | Yours very faithfully | Andrew Smith
Footnotes
Bibliography
Galton, Francis. 1853. The narrative of an explorer in tropical South Africa. London: John Murray.
Summary
Thanks CD for a letter to Galton which enabled him to get information on the inhabitants of a part of South Africa. Is trying to work up the ethnology of South Africa, but fears he will become disheartened.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-7872
- From
- Andrew Smith
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Brighton
- Source of text
- DAR 177: 186
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7872,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7872.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 19