Owing mainly to Mrs. Burton's solicitation, Burton was now transferred
from Fernando Po to Santos, in Brazil, so it was no longer necessary
for him and his wife to live apart. He wrote altogether upon his West
African adventures, the enormous number of 9 volumes! namely: Wanderings
in West Africa (2 vols.), Abeokuta and the Cameroons (2 vols.), A
Mission to the King of Dahome (2 vols.), Wit and Wisdom from West Africa
(1 vol.), Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo (2
vols.). Remorselessly condensed, these nine might, with artistry, have
made a book worthy to live. But Burton's prolixity is his reader's
despair. He was devoid of the faintest idea of proportion. Consequently
at the present day his books are regarded as mere quarries. He dedicated
his Abeokuta "To my best friend," my wife, with a Latin verse which has
been rendered:

"Oh, I could live with thee in the wild wood
Where human foot hath never worn a way;
With thee, my city, and my solitude,
Light of my night, sweet rest from cares by day."

In her own copy Mrs. Burton wrote close to the lines, "Thank you, sweet
love!" [210]

Burton and his wife now set out for Lisbon, where they saw a bull-fight,
because Burton said people "ought to see everything once," though this
did not prevent them from going to several other bull-fights. Mrs.
Burton was not at all afraid of the bulls, but when some cockroaches
invaded her apartment she got on a chair and screamed, though even then
they did not go away. More than that, numbers of other cockroaches came
to see what was the matter; and they never left off coming. After "a
delightful two months" at Lisbon, Burton set out for Brazil, while his
wife returned to England "to pay and pack." She rejoined him some weeks
later at Rio Janeiro, and they reached Santos on 9th October 1865. They
found it a plashy, swampy place, prolific in mangroves and true ferns,
with here and there a cultivated patch. Settlers, however, became
attached to it. Sandflies and mosquitoes abounded, and the former used
to make Burton "come out all over lumps." Of the other vermin, including
multitudinous snakes, and hairy spiders the size of toy terriers they
took no particular notice. The amenities of the place were wonderful
orchids, brilliantly coloured parrots and gigantic butterflies with
great prismy wings. The Burtons kept a number of slaves, whom, however,
they paid "as if they were free men," and Mrs. Burton