[2] As a child, he collected shells and sea urchins, learned the names of the local flora and fauna, and skated on a nearby pond on winter evenings.

Books were scarce, however, and in his earliest childhood, he remembered being permitted to hold in his hands "Goldsmith's Natural History, Abridged," which he treasured like a sacred relic.

His love of natural history was noted by the Dartmouth faculty, who gave him a letter of introduction to study under the well-known Harvard professor Louis Agassiz.

When the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VII) visited Cambridge, MA in 1861, Henry Acland of the University of Oxford joined him.

[3][4] The preface begins by saying, "The object of my voyage to Amboina was simply to re-collect the shells figured in Rumphius's 'Rari-teit Kamer,' and the idea of writing a volume of travels was not seriously entertained until I arrived at Batavia, and, instead of being forbidden by the Dutch Government to proceed to the Spice Islands, as some of my warmest friends feared, I was honored by His Excellency, the Governor-General of 'the Netherlands India,'..." His expedition in the East Indian Archipelago covered April 1865 to May 1866.