204 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



The very time of thy absence from the tables of hetero- 

 geneous luxury will be profitable to thy stomach, perhaps 

 already sorely drenched with Londo-Parisian sauces, and a 

 new stock of health will bring thee an appetite to relish 

 the wholesome food of the chase ; never-failing sleep will 

 wait' on thee at the time she comes to soothe the rest of 

 animated nature ; and, ere the sun's rays appear in the 

 horizon, thou wilt spring from thy hammock fresh as the 

 April lark. Be convinced also, that the dangers and diffi- 

 culties which are generally supposed to accompany the 

 traveller in his journey through distant regions, are not 

 half so numerous or dreadful as they are commonly 

 thought to be. 



The youth who incautiously reels into the lobby of 

 Drury-lane, after leaving the table sacred to the god of 

 wine, is exposed to more certain ruin, sickness, and decay, 

 than he who wanders a whole year in the wilds of Deme- 

 rara. But this will never be believed ; because the disasters 

 arising from dissipation are so common and frequent in 

 civilized life, that man becomes quite habituated to them ; 

 and sees daily victims sink into the tomb long before their 

 time, without ever once taking alarm at the causes ^vhich 

 precipitated them headlong into it. 



But the dangers which a traveller exposes himself to in 

 foreign p9,rts are novel, out of the way things to a man at 

 home. The remotest apprehension of meeting a tremen- 

 dous tiger, of being carried off by a flying dragon, or hav- 

 ing his bones picked by a famished cannibal; oh, that 

 makes him shudder. It sounds in his ears like the burst- 

 ing of a bomb-shell. Thank Heaven, he is safe by his own 

 fire-side ! 



Prudence and resolution ought to be the traveller's con- 

 stant companions. The first will cause him to avoid a 

 number of snares which he will find in the path as he 



