18 BIOGRAPHY. 



attired in a full uniform of gold and blue, the weight 

 of which alone, in that hot climate, and at such a 

 repast, was enough to have melted him down. He had 

 not half got through his soup before be began visibly 

 to liquefy. I looked at him, and bethought me of the 

 old saying, ' How I sweat ! said the mutton-chop to the 

 gridiron.' 



" He now became exceedingly uneasy ; and I myself 

 had cause for alarm ; but oui sensations arose from very 

 different causes. He, no doubt, already felt that the 

 tightness of his uniform, and the weight of the orna- 

 ments upon it, would never allow him to get through 

 that day's dinner with any degree of comfort to him- 

 self; I, on the other hand (who would have been amply 

 satisfied with one dish well done) was horrified at the 

 appalling sight of so many meats before me. Good- 

 breeding whispered to me, and said ; ' Try a little of 

 most of them.' Temperance replied, 'Do so at your 

 peril ; and for your over-strained courtesy, you shall 

 have yellow-fever before midnight.' 



" At last the Governor said to me, in Spanish, ' Don 

 Carlos, this is more than man can bear. No jpucdo sufHr 

 tanto. Pray pull off 5^our coat, and tell your companions to 

 do the same ; and I'll show them the example.' On saying 

 this, he stripped to the waistcoat ; and I and my friends 

 and every officer at table did the same. The next day, 

 at dinner-time, we found his Excellency clad in a uniform 

 of blue Salempore, slightly edged with gold lace." 



His tropical Wanderings came to an end in 1825, in 

 which year he published the now famous volume. At 

 first, he received from the critics much the same treat- 

 ment as did Bruce and Le Vaillant. Critics would not 

 believe that Bruce ever saw a living ox cut up for food, oi 



