Tl 



of a yard, and feed them with fruit, herbs, Indian corn, and other grain, on which they 

 fatten exceedingly, and stewed in any manner are most delicious eating. 



Thus a speculative man can find few opportunities of securing his collections, or of 

 making observations, while surrounded by the hospitable chief, the trader, the planter, and 

 their families, who scarce finding room enough in their houses for themselves, think all 

 time lost that is not spent in lucrative business, active pleasures, or social festivity. If to 

 this we add frequent sickness, the want of boats or cattle for conveyance in cases where 

 moving without is impracticable ; the want of information, of guides, of assistance, the 

 means of transporting things, of candlelights, or even a table to write on, it will not be 

 surprising we have so little knowledge of the uncultivated tropical regions. Even travellers, 

 who go expressly to make observations, have other great difficulties to encounter. They 

 are sometimes obliged to pass much of their time in providing the mere necessaries of life, 

 and some in securing themselves from danger, while their industry is always exposed to 

 the avarice, the neglect, or the ill-will of ignorant people, whose services, though poor, are 

 not to be easily dispensed with. 



Sometimes the cottages have no windows, and the larger houses, which they contrive 

 to form in such manner as to receive the breezes, are generally without glass ; so that the 

 student frequently has his subject, his pen, or his paper blown away, with various other 

 disappointments and vexations too numerous and too trivial to mention, but altogether 

 distressing, and in many instances insurmountable. 



As this is the case, we have not much reason to wonder that our accounts of some 

 foreign countries, and their natural productions, are so short and imperfect. We must 

 content ourselves with slight sketches, which, repeated and corroborated by various 

 travellers, may at last amount to one great descriptive and useful work, of which those 

 contained in this Preface are offered only as so many scattered seeds. 



(The various observations upon the economy of different species figured in these 

 Illustrations, and inserted in this Preface, have been respectively introduced under the 

 species to which they belonged.) 



