xlviii 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 



" Nunc est bibendum, nunc pede libero 

 Pulsanda tellus," 

 was all the go in Bridgetown. 



Notwithstanding the most guarded sobriety and 

 abstinence on my part, the fever and ague would at 

 times assault me with great obstinacy. The attacks 

 could always be traced to my getting wet, and re- 

 maining in my wet clothes until the sun had dried 

 them ; a custom never to be sufficiently condemned 

 in any country. But, as Fenelon remarks, "La 

 jeunesse est presomptueuse : elle se promet tout 

 d'elle-meme ; quoique fragile, elle croit pouvoir 

 tout, et n'avoir jamais rien a craindre : elle se 

 confie legerement, et sans precaution." 



When the ague came on to any serious extent, I 

 would go up to Mr. Edmonstone's house, in Mibiri 

 Creek, for change of air. He was the most valued 

 friend I ever had in the world ; and I seldom failed 

 to recover my health during the time that I remained 

 with him. His nephew, Mr. Archibald Edmon- 

 stone, was all hospitality and kindness. He was 

 very knowing in the woods, and would find out the 

 fruit-bearing trees, where the finest birds in Guiana 

 were to be seen. Nobody was better acquainted 

 with the forest trees than he was. I have by me a 

 catalogue of his, in which he enumerates nearly 

 seventy trees found in that neighbourhood ; and he 

 gives the size at which they generally arrive, their 

 Indian names, their qualities, and their uses. 



In the year 1808, Admiral Collingwood having 

 sent despatches to Demerara for the Spanish govern- 

 ment in the Orinoco, I was requested by Governor 

 Ross to be the bearer of them. 



