[628]
de Janeiro,—an economy of fifteen thousand francs at the start.
Yesterday evening I received a letter from the Secretary of the Navy, at Washington, desiring the officers of all vessels of war stationed along the coasts I am to visit, to give me aid and support in everything concerning my expedition.
The letter was written in the kindest terms, and gratified me the more because it was quite unsolicited.
I am really touched by the marks of sympathy I receive, not only from near friends, but even from strangers. ... I seem like the spoiled child of the country, and I hope God will give me strength to repay in devotion to her institutions and to her scientific and intellectual development, all that her citizens have done for me.
I am forgetting that you will be anxious to know what special work I propose to do in the interest of science in Brazil.
First, I hope to make large collections of all such objects as properly belong in a Museum of Natural History, and to this end I have chosen from among the employees of our Museum one representative from each department.
My only regret is that I must leave Alex.
in Cambridge to take care of the Museum itself.
He will have an immense amount of work to do, for
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