WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 253 



them to the cart, which was in attendance at the 

 door of the depot. Just as one of the inferior 

 officers was carrying a box thither, in stepped the 

 man whom I suspected I should see again at 

 Philippi. He abruptly declared himself dissatis- 

 fied with the valuation which the gentlemen of the 

 Customs had put upon the collection, and said 

 he must detain it. I remonstrated, but it was all 

 in vain. 



After this pitiful stretch of power, and bad 

 compliment to the other officers of the Customs, 

 who had been satisfied with the valuation, this 

 man had the folly to take me aside, and after as- 

 suring me that he had a great regard for the arts 

 and sciences, he lamented that conscience obliged 

 him to do what he had done, and he wished he had 

 been fifty miles from Liverpool at the time that 

 it fell to his lot to detain the collection. Had he 

 looked in my face as he said this, he would have 

 seen no marks of credulity there. 



I now returned to the Custom-house, and after 

 expressing my opinion of the officer's conduct at 

 the depot, I pulled a bunch of keys (which be- 

 longed to the detained boxes) out of my pocket, 

 laid them on the table, took my leave of the gentle- 

 men present, and soon after set off for Yorkshire. 



I saved nothing from the grasp of the stranger 

 officer but a pair of live Malay fowls, which a 

 gentleman in George-town had made me a present 

 of. I had collected in the forest several eggs of 

 curious birds, in hopes of introducing the breed 

 into England, and had taken great pains in doing 

 them over with gum-arabic, and in packing them 

 in charcoal, according to a receipt I had seen in 



