REFLECTIONS ON THE SOUTH AMERICAN REVOLUTIONS. 



2o 



This I could follow: and it was singularly interest- 

 ing to mark, in the eagerness in these debates, the 

 rapid effect which the alteration of the times had 

 produced, by stimulating even the ladies to become 

 acquainted with a class of subjects, which, two or 

 three years before, the most resolute man in the 

 country dared not think of, much less give an 

 opinion upon. 



Being resolved to see somewhat more of these 

 good people than one evening afforded, I invited 

 the whole party to breakfast on board next morn- 

 ing, an invitation which was accepted by accla- 

 mation, for they had already set their hearts upon 

 seeing my ship. They were by far the merriest and 

 lightest-hearted people, besides be ing the fairest 

 and handsomest, we had met with in South America. 



Accordingly next morning, at the expense of a 

 little crowding, we contrived to seat the whole 

 party to a substantial breakfast. As most of the 

 officers of the ship spoke Spanish, we took good 

 care of our party, who split themselves into groups, 

 and roved about the ship as they pleased : a sort 

 of freedom which people greatly prefer to being 

 dragged mechanically round to see everything. 

 Our fiddler being unfortunately indisposed, we 

 could not have a dance, which evidently disap- 

 pointed no small number of our fair friends ; but 

 even without this powerful auxiliary to form ac- 

 quaintance, we were all soon wonderfully at ease 

 with one another. 



I lamented sincerely that my duty obliged me 

 so precipitately to leave a spot holding out a pro- 

 mise of such agreeable society ; and where every- 

 thing, domestic and political, was at the same 

 time so peculiarly well circumstanced for the 

 exhibition of national character ; and calculated 

 to show, in a more striking light than in quieter 

 times, the real spirit and essence of a country, 

 that has never yet had justice done it, and of which 

 in Europe we still know but little. 



There has seldom, perhaps, existed in the world 

 a more interesting scene than is now passing in 

 South America ; or one in which human character, 

 in all its modifications, has received so remark- 

 able a stimulus to untried action ; where the field 

 is so unbounded, and the actors in it so numerous ; 

 where every combination of moral and physical 

 circumstances is so fully subjected to actual trial ; 

 or where so great a number of states living under 

 different climates, and possessed of different soils, 

 are brought under review at the same moment ; 

 are placed severally and collectively in similar 

 situations ; and are forced to act and think for 

 themselves, for the first time : where old feelings, 

 habits, laws, and prejudices, are jumbled along 

 with new institutions, new knowledge, new cus- 

 toms, and new principles, all left free to produce 

 what chance, and a thousand unthought-of causes, 

 may direct ; amidst conflicting interests and pas- 

 sions of all kinds, let loose to drift along the face 

 of society. To witness the effects of such a pro- 

 digious political and moral experiment as this, 

 even in our hurried way, was in the highest degree 

 gratifying and instructive. But the impossibility 

 of examining the whole at leisure ; of watching 

 its progress ; of arranging and connecting the 

 different parts together ; and of separating what 

 was accidental and transient, from that which was 

 general and permanent ; was, indeed, a source of 

 the greatest mortification to us. 



As we had now completed our supplies, and 

 finished all our business at Guayaquil, I decided 

 upon sailing ; and at the recommendation of the 

 pilot, agreed to proceed the same evening. It 

 would have been satisfactory to have returned in 

 day-light, that we might have seen that part of 

 the country which we had before passed in the 

 night-time ; but the tides had changed in the 

 interval of our stay, and again perversely served 

 only at night. 



I took a farewell dinner on shore, and in the 

 early part of the evening, just as I was stepping 

 into the boat, was assailed by a large party of 

 ladies, who were on their way to a ball, at which 

 all the world, they said, was to be present. The 

 temptation to stay one day longer was great, and 

 I might, perhaps, have yielded, had I not fore- 

 seen that these good and merry people would have 

 discovered means to render our departure more 

 and more difficult every day. On going on board, 

 I found the pilot had deferred moving the ship till 

 eleven o'clock, by which time, he said, the ebb-tide 

 would be running strongly down. 



When I came upon deck, accordingly, at that 

 hour, the night was pitch dark, and the damp 

 land-breeze was sighing mournfully among the 

 ropes. On turning towards the town, we saw a 

 blaze of light from the ball-room windows ; and, 

 on looking attentively, could detect the dancers 

 crossing between us and the lamps ; and now and 

 then a solitary high note was heard along the 

 water. Far off in the south-eastern quarter, a 

 great fire in the forest cast a bright glare upon 

 the clouds above, though the flames themselves 

 were sunk by the distance below the horizon. This 

 partial and faint illumination served only to make 

 the sky in every other direction look more cold 

 and dismal. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 



Interesting Navigation down the River of Guayaquil by 

 means of an operation called Kedging.— Meeting with 

 the American Frigate Constellation.— Visit to the Gala- 

 pagos Islands.— Experiments made with Captain Kater's 

 Pendulum.— Terrapins or Land Tortoises. 

 The manner in which we proceeded down the 

 river is so curious, and, as far as I know, so rare, 

 that I shall attempt to make it intelligible even to 

 readers who are not nautical. 



In the navigation of rivers which have many 

 windings and shallow places, the chief danger is, 

 that the tide will force the ship either on the banks 

 or on some shoal lying in the stream : there is a 

 risk of this even when under all sail, and with a 

 good breeze of wind ; for the tide sometimes runs 

 so rapidly and irregularly as to hustle her on 

 shore before the sails can be made to act. When 

 the wind is blowing faintly, and at the same time 

 not quite fair, the danger of this happening is 

 much increased. On such occasions, instead of 

 sailing in the usual manner, with the ship's head 

 foremost, no sails whatever are set, and the stern, 

 instead of the bow, is made to go first, an operation 

 technically called Kedging. 



If the anchor by which a vessel is riding in a 

 tide's-way be raised off the ground, she will, of 

 course, immediately begin to drift along with the 

 stream, and most probably soon run aground. 



