Editing Henry Walter Bates (section)

==Life==
Bates was born in [[Leicester]] to a literate middle-class family. However, like Wallace, [[Thomas Henry Huxley]] and [[Herbert Spencer]], he had a normal education to the age of about 13 when he became apprenticed to a hosiery manufacturer. He joined the [[Mechanics' Institute]] (which had a library), studied in his spare time and collected insects in [[Charnwood Forest]]. In 1843 he had a short paper on beetles published in the journal ''Zoologist''.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Bates | first1 = H.W. | year = 1843 | title = Notes on Coleopterous insects frequenting damp places | url =https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/39826637 | journal = The Zoologist | volume = 1 | pages = 114–5 }}</ref>

He became friends with Wallace when the latter took a teaching post in the Leicester Collegiate School. Wallace also became a keen [[entomologist]], (his first interest had been plants) and he read the same kind of books as Wallace, and as Darwin, Huxley and no doubt many others had. These included [[Thomas Robert Malthus]] on population, [[James Hutton]] and [[Charles Lyell]] on geology, Darwin's ''[[The Voyage of the Beagle]]'', and above all, the anonymous ''[[Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation]]'' (by [[Robert Chambers (journalist)|Robert Chambers]]), which put evolution into everyday discussion amongst literate folk. They also read William H. Edwards's ''Voyage Up the River Amazons'' on his Amazon expedition,<ref>Edwards, W.H. ''Voyage Up the River Amazons, Including a Residence at Pará''. London, 1847.</ref> and this started them thinking that a visit to the region would be exciting, and might launch their careers.<ref>Moon H.P. 1976. ''Henry Walter Bates FRS 1825–1892: Explorer, Scientist and Darwinian''. Leicestershire Museums, Leicester.</ref>

===The great adventure===
In 1847 Wallace and Bates discussed the idea of an expedition to the [[Amazon rainforest]], the plan being to cover expenses by sending specimens back to London. There an agent would sell them for a commission. (The often repeated statement that the main purpose was for the travellers to "gather facts towards solving the problem of the origin of species", and that Wallace put this in a letter to Bates, is almost certainly a myth, originating in a convenient adjustment of history by Bates in ''The Naturalist on the River Amazons'' of 1863.<ref>Van Wyhe J. (2014) "A Delicate Adjustment: Wallace and Bates on the Amazon and 'The Problem of the Origin of Species{{'"}} ''Journal of the History of Biology'' 47: 627-659</ref>) The two friends, who were both by now experienced amateur entomologists, met in London to prepare themselves. They did this by viewing South American plants and animals in the main collections.<ref>Bates H.W. 1863. ''The Naturalist on the River Amazons''. 2 vols, Murray, London. Preface</ref> Also they collected "wants lists" of the desires of museums and collectors. All known letters exchanged between Wallace and Bates are available in [http://www.nhm.ac.uk/wallacelettersonline Wallace Letters Online].

[[Image:Naturalist on the River Amazons figure 32.png|thumb|230px|Bates in Amazonia: "Adventure with [[Pteroglossus beauharnaesii|curl-crested toucans]]"]]
Bates and Wallace sailed from [[Liverpool]] in April 1848, arriving in Pará (now [[Belém]]) at the end of May. For the first year they settled in a villa near the city, collecting birds and insects. After that they agreed to collect independently, Bates travelling to Cametá on the [[Tocantins River]]. He then moved up the [[Amazon River|Amazon]], to [[Óbidos, Pará|Óbidos]], [[Manaus]] and finally to the [[Solimões|Upper Amazon (Solimões)]]. [[Tefé]] was his base camp for four and a half years. His health eventually deteriorated and he returned to Britain in 1859, after having spent nearly eleven years on the Amazon. He sent his collection on three different ships to avoid the fate of his colleague Wallace, who had lost his entire collection in 1852 when his ship sank. Bates spent the next three years writing his account of the trip, ''[[The Naturalist on the River Amazons]]'', widely regarded as one of the finest reports of natural history travels.