Paramaribo, January 23d, 1827. Although scarcely recovered from the fatigue of receiving social calls and making new acquaintances we are beginning to feel at home. Weigel and I are delighted with the new plants we have found and share, and on the first day we captured a bird- spider (Aranea avicularia) in our room. On the day before yesterday we purchased, at a reasonable price, a two-toed living sloth of unusual size.
The next ship is to sail in such haste that we are scarcely allowed sufficient time to write more than a short first communication. Soon as possible, which will be in about six or seven months, we will be looking for a budget of letters from home. Paramaribo, February 2, 1827. My dear Dehmel: I rejoice with you when I think what great pleasure this and the former letter will have brought to you and the folks at home.
It may possibly arrive a day or so earlier than expected at your European shore where spring has come. It shall not bring new worries. at least such is not the intention. The worst is overcome: the most of our means expended. He (the father) is to forget the older worries. Former letters have given sufficient explanation. The next is to give an accurate account of weekly expenditures and of further excursions to be made. Until then only pleasant things.
The enormous wealth of plants, new varieties, easily pressed; the equally great abundance of rare insects are more difficult to obtain. Bird-spiders are to be caught by the hundred. Flying insects also. Lantern flies are scarce and only to be obtained in the interior.
I wished to prolong my stay here in the hope of having more leisure for scientific observation, for which, as it is now, I must steal the time. When it comes to the work of skinning, for which the time is limited, the work can be but tolerable well accomplished. Most of the bird skins, particularly those of the parrots, are exceedingly difficult to manage, because they easily come apart.
The skin of a humming bird offers no easy task to handle. To flay a tiger one requires the help of an assistant for a whole day, and for a tapir that of two quaymen the same length of time. May heaven soon send more of these monsters; I will be glad to take care of their hides. I hope there will be another consignment ready for shipment soon, even though it may not be of the choicest specimens. We, at first, make use of the most ordinary material and what is close to hand, as beginning and proof of our activity.
Of insects there must be no less than ten thousand available for the first sending, otherwise it would not be worth the packing of them in boxes. The animal skins, in this climate, give us the most trouble. because they are so slow to dry, since this has to be done in ovens, and of these only bake ovens are available. This, with the arsenic, with which the skin are saturated, makes the process difficult, but ways and means must be found. The biggest of enemies here to be met is the smallest.
The small yellow ants, the length of a hyphen, are instantly on hand where they scent dead matter and they clean up with astonishing rapidity what they find. Poison they avoid, but eat around and beneath the spots that contains it. Insects find it hard to hide from these pests. Constant watchfulness and going the same round, from early morn till night, trying to restore what one had thought to be finished, is the only remedy other than quick transportation of the skins to Saxony and the cooler, fresher air of Europe. More soon.
Paramaribo,……1827.
My second report. Not a copy of the first, which was written under most unfavorable circumstances. I had, at that time, begun to sicken without becoming thoroughly aware of it until my condition became so weakened, in body, that I could scarcely walk, and had to lie down almost continually by day and night, the heat being very attack, which was of short duration. To my announcement of a safe arrival I may add that it is in no ways my wish to undertake soon another journey. Our affairs prosper.
We met with a very friendly reception from the governor, to whom we made our first visit, today. We are granted the privilege, which could not well be refreshed, to make expeditions through the colony and were promised letters to the officers at the forts situated in the innermost parts. To these places the governor’s letters will admit us with the privilege of taking up our abode if we so desire. We are likewise provided with introductions and invitations to visit lumber, coffee, sugar, and cotton plantations in all localities, inland and on the coast.
There are very many Germans here who deem it an honour to support an undertaking, which, to my indignation, and to the shame of those in our country, be it said, was left to Hollanders to promote. As for the Dutch, they refrain from hindering, and try to look as if they too had some appreciation.
There is a young German physician here by the name of Husmann, who has a fine zoological museum to which we have access for observation. This man is for us a mine of wealth for advice. He shares the fruits of his own research with the utmost generosity. This intercourse, the only one of the kind that has come our way, will be as blessing.
We has rented a house, which we share. I occupy the upper story, the part under the roof. We expect to move to another place shortly. My friend cannot get possession of his own under fifteen months. The houses here are very commodious, giving sufficient room to spread oneself. Animal hunting is purely a matter of luck, depending upon the blacks and the Indians, and what they bring to our door.
This means an outlay of cash although the things are dirt cheap at that. Trying to do the trapping ourselves is difficult and seldom succeeds. We have skinned a sloth (Bradypus didactylus) of usual size. The large Iguana, its body measuring a yard and its tail two, we have caught alive. We also have a live marsupial mammal of a small variety, and a skeleton of a colibri.
We have added to our household a black servant, essential to our needs, and worth what he costs us. He carries our guns and containers on our expeditions into the bush, can shoot and manage wild beasts, helps with the skinning and has a good time in our service.
It is certain that the so-called bird-spider does not devour humming-birds, which is a fairy tale of the negroes. The colibri, of his region, does not suck honey from flowers, probably none does; it lives on small hugs which hide in the flowers. Paramaribo, March 30, 1827. I wrote you about our first reception here upon our arrival, and of our impressions and expectations, with a promise of writing again, after several weeks, a fuller account of our neighbors. In the meantime two months have passed.
I may assume that our present outlook is riper and gives more promise of continuance. Otherwise your answer, to this letter, could only arrive at a time when we would have to make preparations for leaving. I would much prefer a longer stay, as long as possible, not to miss too much in Germany.
Our reception here might well be called brilliant, its brightness being more of a subjective character than objective. There is on the whole a general desire to favor us. One cannot tell how long this may continue. At the present I have not the leisure to carry out my intention to describe all of the men and their families, or to give you a more picture of our social life. The time must come when there will be less work and then it will be possible to study the manners and custom of the country and its people. Social intercourse is expensive, but to live without it would cost more, with less of gain.
I will ask you to send a message to Carlowitz in Frankfort expressing our appreciation of all he has done for us. It was through his introduction to the colonies, in this foreign land, that we have everywhere met such so favorable a reception; at first from minister Clout in Holland, then by the governor here. Clout, who lives here, near the governor, introduced us to other people, influential residents of the town, one of them being Hayungen, counsellor of justice, formerly from Germany and an admirer of German literature.
After we made his acquaintance he introduced us further, and himself favored us by sending us rare specimens he had collected. He accompanied us to Fort Amsterdam, nearby, which is in charge of Major Duersteler, who superintends the cordon of colonies, with their military posts, reaching to the- farthest boundaries. To accompany him on one of his excursions to these distant places would give us an opportunity to study the natives, which is quite likely to happen, for we have already received so many invitations to plantations, some near, others distant, that we are at a loss to choose.
In February we spent eight days on a newly laid out plantation belonging to a Dr. Husmann, a young German physician who came here to study natural history and to secure an independent living. We were invited to call and examine his interesting collection, and found his conversation entertaining and enlightening. He has served in both the German and Russian campaigns. Other collections were freely opened for us and we were glad to take advantage of this privilege. While getting ready, in March, to make a visit to a more distant plantation there came a hurried invitation from the major to accompany him on a journey to the Saramacca, one of the wildest and least populated rivers.
In 1878 and 1879 he published 2 editions of his book, Sunstroke and Its Homeopathic Treatment.
Upon Hering's death in 1880 Knerr became responsible for the completion of the 10-volume Guiding Symptoms.
Dr. Knerr wrote 2-volume Repertory to the Guiding Symptoms,