36 LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 



your peril : and, for your over-strained courtesy, you shall have 

 yellow fever before midnight.' At last, the Governor said to me in 

 Spanish, * Don Carlos, this is more than man can bear. No puedo 

 sufrir tanto. Pray pull off your coat, and tell your companions to 

 do the same ; and I '11 show them the example.' On saying this, he 

 stripped to the waistcoat ; and I and my friends, and every officer 

 at table, did the same. The next day, at dinner-time, we found his 

 Excellency clad in a uniform of blue Salempore, slightly edged with 

 gold lace. 



" Don Felipe de Ynciarte had been a great explorer of Spanish 

 Guiana in his day. He told me that he in person, dressed as a 

 common sailor, had surveyed the whole of the sea-coast from the 

 Orinoco to the river Essequibo. He let me look at a superb map 

 of his own drawing. It was beautifully finished, and my lips certainly 

 watered to have a copy taken of it. After my return to Demerara, 

 I sent this courteous Governor a fine telescope, which had just arrived 

 from London. I corresponded with him until I sailed to Europe 

 for my health. During his government, beef was so plentiful, that 

 the heads and tongues of the slaughtered oxen were thrown to the 

 vultures. Indeed, beef was only one penny a pound, and the finest 

 fish could be had almost for nothing. Canning's new republics, 

 which have arisen out of the former Spanish Transatlantic Empire, 

 may have tended to enrich a few needy adventurers from Europe ; 

 but, to the natives in general, they have proved a mighty curse. 



" Demerara was now shortly to be deprived of the valuable 

 services of Governor Ross. His health had already begun to give 

 way ; and, after he had battled with his disease for some time, he 

 was obliged to consign his government over to other hands, and to 

 try a voyage to Europe. He got well in his native country. But, 

 alas I we are here to-day, and gone to-morrow. This brave officer, 

 and truly just man, was ordered to Alicante in Spain, where he fell 

 a victim to the prevailing fever. He was beloved to enthusiasm by 

 the inhabitants of Demerara. On the 3ist of March 1809, we sent 

 an address to him, expressive of our warmest gratitude for the many 

 services he had rendered to us during the time that the colony was 

 under his charge; and we made a subscription of 1500 guineas, 

 which token of public gratitude was presented to him with due form. 



