Note 60 — Chapter VI · LIFE AT MANAOS.—VOYAGE FROM MANAOS TO TABATINGA.
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To His Excellency M. Couto de Magalhaēs, President of Pará.
My dear Sir:—I thank you sincerely for the kind letter you were so good as to write me last week, and I hasten to inform you of the extraordinary success which continues to crown our efforts. It is certain from this time forth, that the number of fishes inhabiting the Amazons greatly exceeds all that has hitherto been imagined, and that their distribution is very limited on the whole, though a small number of species have followed us since we left Pará and others have a range more or less extensive. You remember, perhaps, that, when alluding to my hopes, I told you one day that I believed in the possibility of finding from two hundred and fifty to three hundred species of fish in the whole basin of the Amazons; even now, having passed over less than one third of the main stream, and only diverged here and there to some points beyond its shores, I have already obtained more than three hundred. It is incredible, above all, if one considers that the total number known to naturalists does not reach one third of what I have already collected. This result scarcely allows one to foresee the discoveries to be made whenever the affluents of the great river are explored with the same care. An exploration of the Araguay for its whole course, in order to teach us how many different combinations of distinct species occur in succession, from its sources to its junction with the Tocantins and lower down till it meets the Amazons, would be an enterprise worthy of you. You have already a sort of scientific property in this river, to which you would add new rights in furnishing science with this information.
Permit me to express to you all the gratitude I feel for the interest you take in my young travelling companion. Mr. Ward is worthy of it, alike from his youth, his courage, and his devotion to science. Mr. Epaminondas has just communicated to me your generous intentions towards myself, and your purpose of sending a steamer to Manaos to take the place of the Piraja, and facilitate our exploration of the Rio Negro and the Rio Madeira. I do not know how to thank you enough; all that I can say is, that this favor will allow me to make an exploration of these rivers which would be otherwise impossible. If the result of these researches be as favorable as my hopes, the honor will be due, in the first instance, to the liberality of the Brazilian government. Encouraged by the results thus far obtained, I think that, if the circumstances are favorable, on arriving at Tabatinga, we shall make a push into the lower part of Peru, while my companions will explore the rivers intermediate between this town and Teffé; so that we shall probably not return to Manaos before the end of October.
Accept, my dear Sir, the assurance of my high regard, &c., &c.
L. Agassiz.