PEERAGE TO THE FIRST EDITION 



I offer this book of Wanderings with a hesitat- 

 ing hand. It has little merit, and must make its 

 way through the world as well as it can. It will 

 receive many a jostle as it goes along, and per- 

 haps is destined to add one more to the number 

 of slain, in the field of modern criticism. But if 

 it fall, it may still, in death, be useful to me ; for, 

 should some accidental rover take it up, and, in 

 turning over its pages, imbibe the idea of going 

 out to explore Guiana, in order to give the 

 world an enlarged description of that noble coun- 

 try, I shall say, ''fortem ad fortia misi," and 

 demand the armour ; that is, I shall lay claim to 

 a certain portion of the honours he will receive, 

 upon the plea, that I was the first mover of his 

 discoveries ; for, as Ulysses sent Achilles to Troy, 

 so I sent him to Guiana. I intended to have writ- 

 ten much more at length; but days, and months, 

 and years, have passed away, and nothing has 

 been done. Thinking it very probable that I shall 

 never have patience enough to sit down and write 

 a full account of all I saw and examined in those 

 remote wilds, I give up the intention of doing so, 

 and send forth this account of my Wanderings, 

 just as it was written at the time. 



If critics are displeased with it in its present 

 form, I beg to observe that it is not totally devoid 

 of interest, and that it contains something useful. 

 Several of the unfortunate gentlemen who went 



