[1] In 1862, Fletcher sailed more than 3,000 kilometers through the Amazon River to collect species for professor Louis Agassiz.

In 1864 and 1865, Fletcher and the liberal Brazilian politician Aureliano Cândido Tavares Bastos convinced the governors of Brazil and the USA to set up a steamboat line between Rio de Janeiro and New York.

Influenced by Fletcher, Aureliano and other Brazilian politicians tried and in some cases managed to make many political, social and economic reforms in Brazil; they also encouraged European and North American migrants.

Fletcher left many important friends in Brazil, including liberal politicians and intellectuals as well as the emperor Dom Pedro II.

[3] He worked as a North American diplomatic secretary, and his book left a strong image of Brazil in the USA.