WALLACE, Alfred Russel (1823-1913). A Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro, with an account of the Native Tribes, and Observations on the Climate, Geology, and Natural History of the Amazon Valley. London: Reeve & Co., 1853. 8vo (222 x 140 mm). 16pp. publisher's advertisements. Tinted lithographed frontispiece, 8 plates, engraved map. Publisher's brown cloth decorated in gilt and blind (rear joint repaired). Provenance: Sarah Seat Matthews (signature, 1854).FIRST EDITION, describing Wallace's expedition to the Amazon which solidified his reputation as a naturalist. Wallace credits American naturalist William H. Edwards, who explored the lower Amazon as far as Manaus in 1846, for influencing him to explore the same region and collect Natural History samples. On his return to England in 1853, a ship fire destroyed his collections of specimen, but his drawings and notes were saved. He used those notes to compile this work, and a work about palm trees in the Amazon, published in the same year.