BIOGEAPHY. 13 



It was indeed fortunate for Waterton that he succeeded 

 in making his escape, for in the following spring the plague 

 returned with increased violence, and no less than thirty- 

 six thousand more victims perished. Waterton never 

 dwells on the hardships and sufferings which he under- 

 went in his travels, but he remarks that his constitution 

 was much shaken by the Malaga illness, and that in all 

 probability he would not have survived a second attack. 

 He had tried to persuade another uncle to take part in the 

 escape, but he declined, and was carried off by the second 

 outbreak of the pestilence. 



So ended Waterton 's first experience of foreign travel. 

 It was not by any means an encouraging tour, for he had 

 lost relatives, friends, and health, while he had gained 

 little except a knowledge of travel, and the sight of 

 flamingos, vultures, and apes at liberty. 



It was characteristic of Waterton that when he found 

 himself at Hull, forty-four years after he started on his 

 travels, he made inquiries about the captain of the ship in 

 which he took his first voyage, discovered that he was 

 alive, sought him out, and renewed the acquaintance 

 begun so many years before. 



His weakened state caused him to take cold as he was 

 sailing up the Channel ; the cold settled on the lungs, and 

 he was scarcely in less danger in England than he had 

 been in Malaga. However, he again rallied, and was able 

 once more to join the hunting-field. Still, the shock to 

 the system had been very great, and to the end of his 

 life, though he could endure almost any amount of heat, 

 he was painfully sensitive to cold, and especially to cold 

 winds. The chilly cHmate of England did not agree with 

 his health, and he found himself again obhged to go 

 abroad. He longed, he said, " to bask in a warmer sun." 



Some estates in Demerara beiiig in possession of the 



