JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 85 



ble who will each in his turn, exclaim on perus- 

 ing it, 



"Why was not such and such an escape, such 

 and such a feat, such and such a daring act re- 

 corded ?" 



Most exemplary Reader ! I can only say that of the 

 multitude of anecdotes that I have eargerly listened 

 to by the hour as I sat tete-a-tete at the dinner- table 

 of poor Rogers (where, after a hard day's work, he 

 would recount over claret and cheroots, the perils he 

 had undergone, by far the greater part have escaped 

 my recollection, solely from the fact of their being of 

 such frequent occurrence that no ordinary memory 

 could by any possibility have treasured them all up 

 without adventitious aid ; and little did I then think 

 that the narrator was so soon and untimely to be 

 taken from the scenes of his exploits, or many a 

 daring act (the knowledge of which has sunk into 

 the tomb with him) should have been noted down, 

 and handed through these unpresuming little pages 

 to posterity, as a memento of the extraordinary 

 courage and the almost supernatural coolness in dan- 

 ger, of the subject of my present theme. 



It would have puzzled a physiognomist to have 

 looked in that pale pensive countenance, and to have 

 read in those extremely mild, though manly, features 

 the daring spirit that made its owner exclaim with 

 Titus, " PERDIDI DIEM," unless his existence had 

 been risked at all events once in the twenty-four 



