xlii 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 



home once in three years, at farthest, and then all 

 will go right." I followed this admirable advice 

 with great success : still, I used to think that I ran 

 less risk of perishing in those unwholesome swamps 

 than most other Europeans, as I never found the 

 weather too hot, and I could go bareheaded under 

 a nearly equatorial sun, without experiencing any 

 inconvenience. Too often, however, might others 

 have exclaimed with Admiral Hosier s ghost : — 



" Sent in this foul clime to languish, 

 Think what thousands fall in vain, 

 Wasted with disease and anguish, 

 Not in glorious battle slain." 



I sailed from Portsmouth in the ship Fame, 

 Captain Brand, on November 29. 1804, and landed 

 at the town of Stabroek, in ci-devant Dutch Guiana, 

 after a passage of about six weeks. I liked the 

 country uncommonly, and administered to the es- 

 tates till 1812; coming home at intervals, agreeably 

 to the excellent and necessary advice which I had 

 received from Sir Joseph Banks. In the month of 

 April, 1812, my father and uncle being dead, I 

 delivered over the estates to those concerned in 

 them, and never more put foot upon them. 



In my subsequent visits to Guiana, having no 

 other object in view than that of natural history, 

 I merely stayed a day or two in the town of Stabroek 

 (now called George Town), to procure what ne- 

 cessaries I wanted ; and then I hastened up into 

 the forests of the interior, as the Wanderings will 

 show. 



Whilst I was on the estates, I had the finest 



