22 EARLY PLEASUKES. 



/' From my earliest days my parents, who could 

 not live without me, and were often undertaking 

 tedious journeys to the farthest part of the colony, 

 took me with them. Thus my first steps were in 

 the desert, and I was almost born a savage. When 

 reason began to dawn, my inclinations soon mani- 

 fested themselves, and my parents aided to their 

 utmost these first indications of curiosity. Under 

 such good preceptors, I daily enjoyed fresh pleasures 

 aiforded by those natural objects to which all my 

 studies pointed. 



" Soon a desire of imitation, the favourite passion 

 of infancy, gave impetuosity, I might say impa- 

 tience, to my amusements. Flattered by self-love, 

 I imagined I likewise ought to have a cabinet of 

 natural history ; and without loss of time declared 

 war against caterpillars, butterflies, scarabaei, and, 

 in a word, all sorts of insects. 



" Thus everyday I saw raj collection of specimens 

 accumulate, which I valued beyond measure, as 

 they were all of my own procuring. So far it was 

 all enjoyment, and I had not yet felt the obstacles 

 that present themselves between enterprise and suc- 

 cess. In one of our excursions we had killed a mon- 

 key. It was a female, and carried a young one on 

 her back, which was not wounded. We took them 

 both up, and on our return to the plantation the 

 young one had not yet left the back of its mother, 



