206 THE SNAKE. 



before me ; and then, as might be expected, it im- 

 mediately raised itself and came at me, and I had 

 to fight it for my pains ; but, until I had seized its 

 tail, it showed no inclination whatever either to 

 chase me or to attack me. Had I been ignorant of 

 the habits of snakes, I should certainly have taken 

 myself off as soon as I perceived that it was ap- 

 proaching the place where I was standing; and then 

 I should have told everybody that I had been pur- 

 sued by a serpent, and had had to run for my life. 

 This snake was ten feet long. 



In 1820, on my way to the interior of Guiana, I 

 accompanied Mr. President Rough to the hospitable 

 house of Archibald Edmonstone, Esq., in Hobbabba 

 Creek, which falls into the river Demerara. We 

 had just sat down to breakfast. I was in the act of 

 apologising for appearing barefoot, and in a check 

 shirt, alleging, by way of excuse, that we were now 

 in the forest, when a negro came running up from 

 the swamp, and informed us that a large snake had 

 just seized a tame Muscovy duck. My lance, which 

 was an old bayonet on the end of a long stick, being 

 luckily in a corner of the room, I laid hold of it in 

 passing, and immediately ran down to the morass. 

 The president and his son followed ; and I think 

 that Mr. Edmonstone and his late lamented brother 

 joined them. As the scene of action was within a 

 few yards of the ground on which they stood, they 

 had a full view of all that passed, from the com- 

 mencement of the fray up to its final close. A 

 number of trees had been felled in the swamp, and 

 the snake had retreated among them. I walked on 



