WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 291 



of wings without considering the consequence; 

 the boy flew out of all bounds, lost his wings, and 

 tumbled into the sea: — 



"Icarus, Icariis nomina feeit aquis.'* 



When the old man saw what had happened, he 

 damned his own handicraft in wing-making; *'de- 

 vovitque suas artes." Prudence is a cardinal 

 virtue : — 



"Omnia consulta mente gerenda tegens. " 



Foresight is half the battle. * ' Hombre apercebido, 

 medio combatido," says Don Quixote, or Sancho, 

 I do not remember which. Had Queen Bess 

 weighed well in her own mind the probable conse- 

 quences of this lamentable traffic, it is likely she 

 would not have been owner of two vessels in Sir 

 John Hawkins's squadron, which committed the 

 first robbery in negro flesh on the coast of Africa. 

 As philanthropy is the very life and soul of this 

 momentous question on slavery, which is certainly 

 fraught with great difficulties and danger, per- 

 haps it would be as well at present for the nation 

 to turn its thoughts to poor ill-fated Ireland, 

 where oppression, poverty, and rags make a 

 heart-rending appeal to the feelings of the benev- 

 olent. 



But to proceed. There was another thing which 

 added to the dulness of Barbadoes, and which 

 seemed to have considerable effect in keeping 

 away strangers from the island. The legislature 

 had passed a most extraordinary bill, by virtue 

 of which every person who arrives at Barbadoes 

 is obliged to pay two dollars, and two dollars 



