WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 13 



to spirituous liquors.' 'The sacrifice is nothing,* 

 added he; 'but, in the end, it will prove of incal- 

 culable advantage to you.' I agreed to his en- 

 lightened proposal; and from that hour to this, 

 which is now about nine-and-thirty years, I have 

 never swallowed one glass of any kind of wine or 

 of ardent spirits." 



After leaving college Waterton stayed at home 

 with his father, and enjoyed fox-hunting for a 

 while. To the end of his days he liked to hear of a 

 good run, and he would now and then look with 

 pleasure on an engraving which hung in the usual 

 dining-room at Walton Hall, representing Lord 

 Darlington, the first master of hounds he had 

 known, well seated on a powerful horse and sur- 

 rounded by very muscular hounds. In 1802 he 

 went to visit two uncles in Spain, and stayed for 

 more than a year, and there had a terrible ex- 

 perience of pestilence and of earthquake; — 



"There began to be reports spread up and down 

 the city that the black vomit had made its appear- 

 ance ; and every succeeding day brought testimony 

 that things were not as they ought to be. I myself, 

 in an alley near my uncles' house, saw a mattress 

 of most suspicious appearance hung out to dry. 

 A Maltese captain, who had dined with us in good 

 health at one o'clock, lay dead in his cabin before 

 sunrise the next morning. A few days after this 

 I was seized with vomiting and fever during the 

 night. I had the most dreadful spasms, and it was 

 supposed that I could not last out till noon the 

 next day. However, strength of constitution got 

 me through it. Tn three weeks more, multitudes 

 were seen to leave the city, which shortly after 



