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 wiL. 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 ; a,nd, 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 common!)- 

 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 which 

 precipitated them headlong into it. 



But the dangers which a traveller exposes himself to in 

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

 home. The remotest apprehension of meeting a tremen- 

 dous tiger, of being carried oflF 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 



