lii 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 
governor. Nothing couid surpass the hospitality of 
the principal inhabitants. They never seemed satis- 
fied unless we were partaking of the dainties which 
their houses afforded. Indeed, we had feasting, 
dancing, and music, in superabundance. The go- 
vernor, Don Felipe de Ynciarte, was tall and corpu- 
lent. On our first introduction, he told me that he 
expected the pleasure of our company to dinner 
fevery day during our stay in Angustura. We had 
certainly every reason to entertain very high notions 
of the plentiful supply of good things which the 
Orinoco afforded ; for, at the first day's dinner, we 
counted no less than forty dishes of fish and flesh. 
The governor was superbly attired in full uniform 
of gold and blue ; the weight of which alone, in that 
hot climate, and at such a repast, was enough to 
have melted him down. He had not got half through 
his soup, before he began visibly to liquefy. I looked 
at him, and bethought me of the old saying, " How 
T sweat ! said the mutton chop to the gridiron." He 
now became exceedingly uneasy ; and I myself had 
cause for alarm ; but our sensations arose from very 
different causes. He, no doubt, already felt that the 
tightness of his uniform, and the weight of the orna- 
ments upon it, would never allow him to get through 
that day's dinner with any degree of comfort to 
himself. I, on the other hand (who would have been 
amply satisfied with one dish well done), was horri- 
fied at the appalling sight of so many meats before 
me. Good breeding whispered to me, and said, " Try 
a little of most of them." Temperance replied, " Do 
so at your peril : and, for your over-strained courtesy, 
