Here they contrived, by saving up all their pence
(the only pocket-money that came to them), to make crackers and other
simple fireworks, and to turn old keys into toy cannon, besides making a
large variety of articles for practical domestic purposes. Thus he
cultivated the gift of resourcefulness and self-reliance on which he had
so often to depend when far removed from all civilisation during his
travels on the Amazon and in the Malay Archipelago.
A somewhat amusing instance of this is found in a letter to his sister,
dated June 25th, 1855, at a time when he wanted a really capable man for
his companion, in place of the good-natured but incapable boy Charles,
whom he had brought with him from London to teach collecting. In reply
to some remarks by his sister about a young man who she thought would be
suitable, he wrote: "Do not tell me merely that he is 'a very nice young
man.' Of course he is.... I should like to know whether he can live on
rice and salt fish for a week on occasion.... Can he sleep on a
board?... Can he walk twenty miles a day? Whether he can work, for there
is sometimes as hard work in collecting as in anything.
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