PKEFACE 

 TO THE FIEST EDITION. 



I OFFER this book of "Wanderings" with a 

 hesitating hand. It has little merit, and must 

 make its way through the world as well as it can. 

 It will receive many a jostle as it goes along, 

 and perhaps is destined to add pne more to the 

 number of slain, in the field of modern criticism. 

 But if it fall, it may still, in death, be useful to 

 me ; for, should some accidental rover take it up, 

 and, in turning over its pages, imbibe the idea of 

 going out to explore Guiana, in order to give the 

 world an enlarged description of that noble coun- 

 try, I shall say, "fortem ad fortia misi," and 

 demand the armour ; that is, I shall lay claim 

 to a certain portion of the honours he will receive, 

 upon the plea that I was the first mover of his 



