132 



WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



retarded me in the chase of wild beasts; and in the 

 rainy season they would have kept me in a perpetual 

 state of damp and moisture. I eat moderately, and 

 never drink wine, spirits, or fermented liquors in any 

 climate. This abstemiousness has ever proved a faith- 

 ful friend ; it carried me triumphant through the epi- 

 demia at Malaga, where death made such havoc about 

 the beginning of the present century ; and it has since 

 befriended me in many a fit of sickness, brought on by 

 exposure to the noon-day sun, to the dews of night, to 

 the pelting shower, and unwholesome food. 



Perhaps it will be as well, here, to mention a fever 

 which came on, and the treatment of it ; it may pos- 

 sibly be of use to thee, shouldst thou turn wanderer in 

 the tropics : a word or two also of a wound I got in 

 the forest, and then we will say no more of the little 

 accidents which sometimes occur, and attend solely to 

 natural history. We shall have an opportunity of see- 

 ing the wild animals in their native haunts, undisturbed 

 and unbroken in upon by man. We shall have time 

 and leisure to look more closely at them, and probably 

 rectify some errors which, for want of proper informa- 

 tion, or a near observance, have crept into their several 

 histories. 



It was in the month ^of June, when the sun was 

 Severe at- within a few days of Cancer, that I had a 

 taek of fever. severe attack of fever. There had been a 

 deluge of rain, accompanied with tremendous thunder 

 and lightning, and very little sun. Nothing could 

 exceed the dampness of the atmosphere. For two or 

 three days I had been in a kind of twilight state of 

 health, neither ill nor what you may call well; I 

 yawned and felt weary without exercise, and my sleep 



