458 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



of the people that no explorers could ever vvdn, and 

 will be remembered long after we are forgotten. He 

 had brought from the United States an entire circus 

 company, with spotted horses, a portable theatre, con- 

 taining seats for a thousand persons, riders, clowns, 

 and monkeys, all complete. No such thing had ever 

 been seen before ; it threw far into the shade Da- 

 guerreotype and curing biscos. He had turned 

 Campeachy upside down, and leaving his company 

 there to soothe the excitement and pick up the pesos, 

 he had come up to make arrangements for opening 

 in Merida. And this was by no means Mr. Clay- 

 ton's first enterprise. He had brought the first gi- 

 raffes into the United States from the Cape of Good 

 Hope, and his accounts of penetrating fifteen hun- 

 dred miles into the interior of Africa, of his adven- 

 tures among the Caffres, of shooting lions, and his 

 high excitement when, on a fleet horse, he ran down 

 and shot his first giraffe, made the exploration of 

 ruins seem a rather tame business. He reached the 

 Cape with four giraffes, but two died after their ar- 

 rival, and with the others he embarked for New- 

 York, where he expected to deliver them over to the 

 parties interested ; but from the great care required 

 in their treatment, it became indispensable for him 

 to travel with them while they were exhibited. In 

 one of the Western states he encountered a travelhng 

 circus company, which undertook to run an opposi- 

 tion on the same fine of travel. The giraffes were 

 rather too strong for the horses, and a proposition 

 was made to him to unite the two and become di- 



