WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 309 



ditch betwixt us, we may hope we shall be good 

 friends. He who casts his eye on the East Indies, 

 will there see quite a different state of things. 

 The conquered districts have merely changed 

 one European master for another; and I believe 

 there is no instance of any portion of the East 

 Indies throwing off the yoke of the Europeans 

 and establishing a government of their own. 



Ye who are versed in politics, and study the rise 

 and fall of empires, and know what is good for 

 civilized man, and what is bad for him, or in 

 other words, what will make him happy and what 

 will make him miserable — tell us how comes it 

 that Europe has lost almost her last acre in the 

 boundless expanse of territory which she so lately 

 possessed in the west, and still contrives to hold 

 her vast property in the extensive regions of the 

 east? 



But whither am I going? vl find myself on a 

 new and dangerous path. Pardon, gentle reader, 

 this sudden deviation. Methinks I hear thee say- 

 ing to me, — 



"Tramite quo tendis, majoraque viribus audes." 



I grant that I have erred, but I will do so no 

 more. In general I avoid politics; they are too 

 heavy for me, and I am aware that they have 

 caused the fall of many a strong and able man; 

 they require the shoulders of Atlas to support 

 their weight. 



When I was in the rocky mountains of Ma- 

 coushia, in the month of June, 1812, I saw four 

 young Cocks of the Rock in an Indian's hut; they 



