Hugo didn't know much about Downing's financial situation and thought that his defeat might affect his support for his "Republican". He and his friend Dumas came to comfort the injured heart of the rich man. Unexpectedly, Downing was so peaceful that he was very happy about their visit.

In order to show his prosperity but not rustic in front of the two writers, he also recited the poems of Wordsworth, a British Lakeside poet, in French:

Get up, get up, friend, put aside your books, or you will be hunched!

Get up, get up, friend, stretch your eyebrows,

Why bother to suffer?

-

The sun on the hill,

Soft and fresh,

In the long green fields, the sweet light of dusk is sprinkled.

-

Book! Only brings dullness and endless troubles,

Why not come and listen to the cardinal in the forest,

How sweet it sings! I can guarantee that

There is more talent in the singing.

...

Yoho, I've been away for three days. When I looked at him with admiration, I saw that our great tycoons could actually recite poems in French. It's great. Seeing that Downing was in such a state, Hugo and Dumas suddenly became cheerful and spoke a lot of French. Downing basically didn't understand it, so he called for a translation awkwardly. It turned out that Dumas proposed to go to the lake district of Northern England to go for a hike in the hometown of Wordsworth, the author of the poem Downing read.

The old nest of the Lakeside poets has been famous for a long time, and this idea is good.

Although they set a destination for their trip, they did not make it immediately. Tangning still had time to meet with a botanist who came to apply for a job.

Tangning has now reorganized the Nanhai Company and turned it into a sole proprietorship trading company, following the original company name and paying off all government debts in advance. The rubber tree seeds he offered had also been smuggled back from Brazil, spending him 800 pounds in total. The next plan is to find a person familiar with the properties of the plant and lead a group of workers and farmers who are willing to go to the Straits colony to open a rubber plantation.

There is an interesting candidate named Alfred Russell Wallace. Strictly speaking, Wallace is not a real botanist, he is a surveyor. Long-term field surveying work has made Wallace more interested in animals, insects and plants in the wild. With the accumulation of work experience, Wallace's talent has gradually emerged, and he encouraged his brother to open a construction company together and undertake the projects of the Nice Technical College. He gradually suffered financial difficulties. The old brother bought a small villa in Nice, and his mother, younger brother and sister had a good place to settle down.

It was in this small villa that Wallace read widely according to his own interests, including "The Relics of the Origin of Natural History". The book collects some contemporary theories, including the origin of stars and the process of species variation. There is also "Darwin's "The Beagle's Navigation", which is Darwin's famous work. The book records his discoveries related to biology, geology and anthropology during his five-year global navigation, and demonstrates Darwin's keen observation skills. There is also "Principles of Geology", which is a masterpiece of British geologist Charles Lair. Lair expounds the view of uniform change in the book, believing that the formation of mountains, rivers and rivers are the consequences of long-term accumulation.

Inspired by travel naturalists such as Darwin, a biologist and geologist named Humboldt, who is known as Columbus, Wallace also decided to conduct scientific research and sailing. His destination was the Amazon jungle in Brazil to find evidence of species mutation.

From 1848 to 1852 this year, he and his friends explored their own adventures and met regularly to discuss. Travel naturalists are adventurers. Wallace's younger brother, who joined in 1949, died of yellow fever two years later. In 1952, Wallace encountered a fire when he returned to his hometown on the Helen brig. The most interesting geology, animals and plant specimens he collected in the past year were all sunk into the sea, and only a small part of the notes and manuscripts were left to rescue him. He almost lost his life. After more than ten days of wandering in the lifeboat, he was rescued by the already crowded brig. After suffering, the traveler finally returned to London on October 1 this year.

Fortunately, Wallace insured his travels, and with the compensation from some insurance companies, he would not fall into the streets. People like Wallace who love science will of course choose the Telegraph as the main source of news. The Telegraph has always believed that popular science is his responsibility, and rarely commits bloody news such as murder and affair. He spares no effort to provide large-scale pages for scientific progress.

Wallace saw the news of Downing recruiting botanists to transplant rubber trees in the Straits colony, and felt that this was a good opportunity. The tropical rainforest in Southeast Asia is as famous as the Amazon rainforest. It is a paradise for naturalists. His next target is the area of ​​the Straits colony. In his eyes, Downing is worthy of being a top-notch scientist and industrialist, and he saw it at a glance that it is a good place to successfully transplant rubber trees.

In the "National Banquet Hall", Downing prepared sumptuous Italian Lombardy cuisine for Wallace and seven other young and energetic explorers. Their solemnity was no less than when welcoming the queen, the prime minister and others. It can be seen that he admired these brave travelers very much.

Tangning has a certain understanding of the eight candidates and personally gave them a brief introduction one by one. The eight King Kongs are not only scholars who have a certain research on botany, but also will become scientific journalists at Reuters. Tangning took out a popular Leica prototype for them to see. This is the small suit of Reuters reporters.

He promised that in a month, when Leica cameras are mass-produced, each of them will receive a Leica camera and provide enough consumables to record important moments in scientific navigation.

This is really a great thing from the treasures from heaven. When the little camera is the stunning photo of Princess Victoria, the travelers are happy and excited.

While eating, they passed this rare treasure, and everyone who got it was reluctant to leave it.

Downing provided each of the eight botanists with 10,000 seeds and £1,000 in startup funds. They will each lead their team to develop their own estates and plant these rubber trees in the way they think is the best and fastest way to plant these rubber trees, which can not only diversify risks, but also inspire these smart young people to use their brains to find ways to improve survival rates. Downing claims that in the future, some of the proceeds from these rubber gardens will be used as natural science funds, so that they can all benefit. They will no longer worry about diseases, shipwrecks, etc.

Of course, after they arranged the plantation, they could freely explore and travel in Southeast Asia, and there was no need to watch the trees every day.
Chapter completed!