THIRD JOURNEY. "Desertosque videre locos, littusque relictum." THIRD JOURNEY. GENTLE reader, after staying a few months in England, I strayed across the Alps and the Apennines, and returned home, but could not tarry. Guiana still whispered in my ear, and seemed to invite me once more to wander through her distant forests. Shouldst thou have a leisure hour to read what follows, I pray thee pardon the frequent use of that unwelcome monosyllable I. It could not well be avoided, as will be seen in the sequel. In February, 1820, I sailed from the Clyde, on board the Glenbervie, a fine WestIndiaman. She was driven to the north-west of Ireland, and had to contend with a foul and wintry wind for above a fortnight. At last it changed, and we had a pleasant passage across the Atlantic. THIRD JOURNEY. Demerara. Sad and mournful was the story we heard on entering the river Demerara. The yellow fever Yellow had swept off numbers of the old inhabitants, and fever at the mortal remains of many a new comer, were daily passing down the streets, in slow and mute procession to their last resting-place. at Mibiri After staying a few days in the town, I went up Residence the Demerara to the former habitation of my creek. worthy friend, Mr. Edmonstone, in Mibiri creek. The house had been abandoned for some years. On arriving at the hill, the remembrance of scenes long past and gone, naturally broke in upon the mind. All was changed; the house was in ruins, and gradually sinking under the influence of the sun and rain; the roof had nearly fallen in; and the room, where once governors and generals had caroused, was now dismantled, and tenanted by the vampire. You would have said, ""Tis now the vampire's bleak abode, 'Tis now the apartment of the toad : Conceal'd in ruins, moss, and weeds." On the outside of the house, nature had nearly re-assumed her ancient right: a few straggling fruit-trees were still discernible amid the varied hue of the near approaching forest; they seemed like strangers lost, and bewildered, and unpitied, in a foreign land, destined to linger a little longer, and then sink down for ever. THIRD JOURNEY. Converted into the author's dwelling. I hired some negroes from a woodcutter in another creek to repair the roof; and then the house, or at least what remained of it, became head-quarters for natural history. The frogs, and here and there a snake, received that attention which the weak in this world generally experience from the strong, and which the law commonly denominates an ejectment. But here, neither the frogs nor serpents were ill-treated; they sallied forth, without buffet or rebuke, to choose their place of residence; the world was all before them. The owls went away of their own accord, preferring to retire to a hollow tree rather than to associate with their new landlord. The bats and vampires staid with me, and went in and out as usual. It was upon this hill in former days that I first tried to teach John, the black slave of my friend Mr. Edmonstone, the proper way to do birds. But John had poor abilities, and it required much time and patience to drive any thing into him. Some years after this his master took him to Scotland, where, becoming free, John left him, and got employed in the 'Glasgow, and then the Edinburgh museum. Mr. Robert Edmonstone, nephew to the above gentleman, had a fine mulatto capable of learning any thing. He requested me to teach him the art. I did so. He was docile and active, and was with me all the time in the forest; I left him there to keep up this new art of preserving birds, and to communicate it to others. Here then I fixed THIRD JOURNEY. and diet. I would here, gentle reader, wish to draw thy Raiment attention, for a few minutes, to physic, raiment, and diet. Shouldst thou ever wander through these remote and dreary wilds, forget not to carry with thee, bark, laudanum, calomel, and jalap, and the lancet. There are no druggist shops here, nor sons of Galen to apply to in time of need. I never go encumbered with many clothes. A thin flannel waistcoat under a check shirt, a pair of trowsers, and a hat, were all my wardrobe: shoes and stockings I seldom had on. In dry weather they would have irritated the feet, and retarded me in the chase of wild beasts; and in the rainy season they would have kept me in a perpetual state of damp and moisture. I eat moderately, and never drink wine, spirits, or fermented liquors in any climate. This abstemiousness has ever proved a faithful friend; it carried me triumphant through the epidemia at Malaga, where death made such havoc about the beginning of the THIRD JOURNEY. Severe attack of fever. present century; and it has since befriended me in many a fit of sickness, brought on by exposure to the noon-day sun, to the dews of night, to the pelting shower, and unwholesome food. Perhaps it will be as well, here, to mention a fever which came on, and the treatment of it; it may possibly be of use to thee, shouldst thou turn wanderer in the tropics: a word or two also of a wound I got in the forest, and then we will say no more of the little accidents which sometimes occur, and attend solely to natural history. We shall have an opportunity of seeing the wild animals in their native haunts, undisturbed and unbroken in upon by man. We shall have time and leisure to look more closely at them, and probably rectify some errors which, for want of proper information, or a near observance, have crept into their several histories. It was in the month of June, when the sun was within a few days of Cancer, that I had a severe attack of fever. There had been a deluge of rain, accompanied with tremendous thunder and lightning, and very little sun. Nothing could exceed the dampness of the atmosphere. For two or three days I had been in a kind of twilight state of health, neither ill nor what you may call well; I yawned and felt weary without exercise, and my sleep was merely slumber. This was the time to have taken medicine; but I neglected to do so, though I had just beeen reading, "O navis |