LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 



every step ; he must fight his own cause through surrounding diffi- 

 culties, and lose many a day for want of somebody to take him by 

 the hand. In 1824, I was at St John's, in the island of Antigua, 

 and had to attend at a public office prior to my going on board the 

 mail-boat for Dominica. I had lately arrived from the United 

 States, very much out of health ; and I wore one of those straw 

 hats, with a green riband round it, so common in the republic. The 

 harbour-master, who presided, and outwardly appeared much of a 

 gentleman, eyed me, as I thought, contemptuously on my entering 

 the room. I was right in my conjecture, for he seemed determined 

 to wear out my patience ; and he kept me standing above half an 

 hour, without once asking me to take a seat, although there were 

 plenty of chairs in the room. In returning to the hotel with the 

 captain of the mail-boat, I observed to him how very deficient the 

 harbour-master had been in common courtesy. He replied, that as 

 soon as I had gone out of the door of the office, the harbour-master 

 stopped him to inquire who I was ; and when he had told him that 

 I was an English gentleman, travelling in quest of Natural History, 

 he remarked that he had been mistaken in his surmise, for that he 

 had taken me for a damned Yankee. 



"In the autumn of 1814, as I was shooting with my excellent 

 brother-in-law, Mr Carr, I had a proof that, although a man may 

 escape with impunity in distant regions, he may stumble on misfor- 

 tune at home, when he least expects it. My gun went off acciden- 

 tally. I had just rammed the paper down upon the powder, when 

 the ramrod, which was armed with brass at both ends, passed quite 

 through my fore-finger, betwixt the knuckle and the first joint, with- 

 out breaking the bone the paper and ignited powder following 

 through the hole, and rendering its appearance as black as soot. I 

 repaired to a tenant's house and poured warm water plentifully 

 through the wound, until I had washed away the marks of the gun- 

 powder ; then collecting the ruptured tendons, which were hanging 

 down, I replaced them carefully, and bound up the wound, not for- 

 getting to give to the finger its original shape as nearly as possible. 

 After this I opened a vein with the other hand, and took away to 

 the extent of two-and-twenty ounces of blood. Whilst I am on 

 phlebotomy, I may remark, that I consider inflammation to be the 



