126 



WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



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 

 tremendous tiger, of being carried off by a flying dragon, 

 or having his bones picked by a famished cannibal ; oh, 

 that makes him shudder ! It sounds in his ears like the 

 bursting of a bomb-shell. Thank Heaven, he is safe by 

 his own fire-side ! 



Prudence and resolution ought to be the traveller's 

 constant companions. The first will cause him to avoid 

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

 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 

 his 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 receive 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 man- 

 ners 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 

 w^orld, level as a bowling green, save at Cayenne, and 



