, 34 



NARRATIVE OF AN 



CHAP, pofed upon; vvheii, in Goldfmith's Animated Nature,, 

 XVII 



Vol. V. p. 253, that author ailerts, that they are built 

 on the banana and plantain trees, where he alio defcribes 

 the monkies,and numbers of large ferpents as affembling* 

 All this I here think it my duty to pronounce erroneous,, 

 as I confider it would' be unpardonable in me to let fucli 

 abfurdities pafs by unnoticed. 



On the 9th, an accident had nearly befallen me, whicb 

 muft have caufed me much poignant and lafting forrow.. 

 My black boy, wafliing my cotton hammock in the Tem- 

 patee Creek, was fuddenly carried to the bottom by the 

 rapidity of the ftream, and entangled in its lafliings, fo 

 that both the one and the other difappeared ; the boy^ 

 however, luckily extricated himfelf, though with great 

 difficulty, and to my great joy, though more than half 

 drowned, appeared once more on terra firraa; when he 

 had the prefence of mind infcantly to link a large fifli- 

 hook, with a lead tied to a ftrong line, fome yards below 

 the fpot, with v/hich he adlually brought up the ham- ^ 

 mock, to our aftonifhment, the ftream running fo fwift 

 that it rolled over the ground, and was liable to fiiift its- 

 flation every moment. 



The following day, as Captain Hamel was angling, his^ 

 tackle got faft at the bottom of the creek, when, in div- 

 ing to clear it, I ftruck my ancle with fuch violence 

 againft a rock, that it was feveral months before it was 

 perfectly recovered. 



Thefe accidents appeared greatly to entertain Colonel 

 Seyburg, while in return I could not help feeling a de- 

 I gree 



