WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 205 



journeys on ; and the second will always lend a hand to 

 assist him, if he has unavoidably got entangled in them. 

 The little distinctions which have been shown him at hi3 

 own home ought to be forgotten when he travels over the 

 world at large ; for strangers know nothing of his former 

 merits, and it is necessary that they should witness them 

 before they pay him the tribute which he was wont to re- 

 ceive within his own doors. Thus, to be kind and affable 

 to those we meet, to mix in their amusements, to pay a 

 compliment or two to their manners and customs, to respect 

 their elders, to give a little to their distressed and needy, 

 and to feel, as it were, at home amongst them, is the 

 sure way to enable you to pass merrily on, and to find 

 other comforts as sweet and palatable as those which you 

 were accustomed to partake of amongst your friends and 

 acquaintance in your own .native land. 



We will now ascend in fancy on Icarian wing, and 

 take a view of Guiana in general. See an immense 

 plain] betwixt two of the largest rivers in the world, 

 level as a bowling-green, save at Cayenne, and covered 

 with trees along the coast quite to the Atlantic wave, 

 except where the plantations make a little vacancy 

 amongst the foliage. 



Though nearly in the centre of the torrid zone, the sun's 

 rays are not so intolerable as might be imagined, on account 

 of the perpetual verdure and refreshing north-east breeze. 

 See what numbers of broad and rapid rivers intersect it in 

 their journey to the ocean, and that not a stone or a pebble 

 is to be found on their banks, or in any part of the country, 

 till your eye catches the hills in the interior. How beauti- 

 ful and magnificent are the lakes in the heart of the forests, 

 and how charming the forests themselves, for miles after 

 miles on each side of the rivers ! How extensive appear 

 the savannas or natural meadows, teeming with innumer- 



