Oapture and Death of a large Alligator, $6 



of fioience who have been permitted to carry their researches 

 into the interior, have either been too easily satisfied with the 

 wonders they encountered at the outset, or have not been 

 spared to give the result of their labours. The one best fitted 

 for the work, who visited that country during ray residence in 

 it, was an Italian. He penetrated where the white man had 

 not been seen since the earliest days of the colony, when the 

 followers of Magellan made the circuit of the island with the 

 daring spirit of investigation which distinguished that age of 

 discovery. 



He made his way to the wandering Negro tribes which roam 

 through a tract of mountain country near the middle of the 

 island ; and who, uninfluenced by the semi-civilization around 

 them, pass an erratic life without fixed habitations, gathering 

 their food from the wild fruit-trees, and offering wide field for 

 conjecture on their origin and insulated position. 



The individual I allude to returned from his interesting ex- 

 cursions stored with most valuable information. His indefati- 

 gable spirit was undaunted at the great plan he had laid out 

 before him, and he left Manilla with the determination to 

 penetrate to the centre of Borneo — -that unknown world, whpse 

 savage inhabitants have not been overcome or softened, even 

 by the cupidity of commerce, and whose resources can only be 

 imagined from its magnitude, situation, and the exceeding 

 fruitfulness of its coasts. He had scarcely entered on his new 

 discoveries, when approaching too near a volcano, he slipped 

 into the hot ashes of its burning crater, which in a few days 

 caused his death. 



If, ip recnrring to some of the incidents of my life jp Lu-- 

 conia, I have inclined to dwell on what may seem irrelevant to 

 the object of this communication, it is that I am fond of re- 

 membering the days J have passed in the solitudes pf that 

 lovely land. The dreams of fancy have never pictured scenes 

 of more romantic beauty than are there lavishly spread around ; 

 where the principle of life is profusely scattered, and every 

 thing is glowing with apimated being — where the bla^d air 

 makes mere existence enjoyment ; and the day, with its miW 

 sky and refreshing sea breeze, gives place to the more serene 

 nig^t, w^ her ,cleAr brilliancy, when, the eye )^Q^ deep into 



