426 MEMOIR OF LOUIS-CLAUDE-MARIE RICHARD. 



during fifteen years, by the study of drawing and by attention 

 to every branch of Natural History, advantages in which he 

 excelled nearly all his predecessors. He quilted France in 

 May, 1781, and after spending several months in Cayenne, 

 where he had landed in December, he travelled through 

 a great part of French Guiana, Martinique, Guadeloupe, 

 Jamaica, St Thomas', and most of the islands situated in the 

 Mexican Gulf. Equally a Zoologist, Botanist, and Mineralo- 

 gist, he described and dissected animals, analyzed and drew 

 plants, and studied the stratification of rocks, examining all 

 with the same interest, and daily adding to the richness of 

 his collections. Under a burning sun, and in the most noxi- 

 ous atmosphere, he thought nothing of fatigue and danger; but 

 while traversing immense deserts, bivouacking in deep forests, 

 scaling lofty mountains, and even exploring the yet smoking 

 crevices of volcanic craters, he was more than once on the point 

 of falling a victim to his ardour and fearless zeal. Sometimes 

 he was forsaken by his guides, remote from any human dwel- 

 ling, and occasionally he was in peril of being plundered, and 

 perhaps massacred by them. In these perilous circumstances 

 his intrepidity and presence of mind proved his salvation : 

 he knew how to sway the spirits of the poor wretches who 

 were around him, and to keep them in awe by his own 

 courage. He frequently went to the chase of the jaguar, 

 and was seen to attack, without fear of being devoured by 

 the beast, this savage creature which furiously springs on 

 any one who but slightly wounds it. 



A residence of eight years in a country where money alone 

 can avail to procure the slightest aid from the natives, together 

 with the indispensable outlay requisite for the preparation 

 and carriage of his collections, having finally exhausted all the 

 funds that he had contrived to get together, he wrote to 

 France to ask for more; but all his requests were unanswer- 

 ed. The affairs that then agitated the sovernment were of 

 too pressing a nature to allow of a thought being given to 

 the distant traveller ; and he therefore found himself compel- 

 led to return home, which he did in the month of May, 1789. 



