Unearthed during my ‘Daily Darwin’ reading this morning:
From Patagonia I brought home some ostriches a gunaco, & from the Rivers Plate, Uruguay, & Parana, a great many animals, comprising some ostriches [i.e. rheas], a Capybara & a little jaguar. The mother attacked me & followed me up a tree, in self defence I was obliged to shoot her but saved one of the cubs from the gauchos.–– Since then he has been my almost constant companion following me abt. like a dog altho’ of an enormous size being now 2. years old. I only yesterday took him to the Zoological Gardens, much to my regret, but he was growing so big that it was not safe keeping him longer at large. I have mentioned this fact to prove how these animals can be tamed by kindness as completely as a dog.––
—Florence Dixie to Charles Darwin, 4 November [1880]
…No, no, no!! I am most definitely not going to disappear down yet another so-called ‘research’ rabbit-hole!
(That said, Lady Florence Dixie does sound like the sort of larger-than-life character someone ought to be researching a book about. Here’s her Wikipedia entry.)
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