THE VULTURE. 19 
is destined by an all-wise Providence to be its sup- 
port and nourishment. 
I will here bring forward the common vulture of 
the West Indies, the Vultur Aura of Guiana, the 
king of the vultures of Terra Firma, and the vulture 
which is found in European Andalusia. I am inti- 
mately acquainted with all these useful scavengers ; 
and I have never known any of them to kill the food 
upon which they feed ; or when they are in a com- 
plete state of nature, free from the restraint or al- 
lurements of man, ever feed upon that which was 
not putrid. Having slain the large serpent men- 
tioned in the Wanderings^ though I wished to pre- 
serve the skeleton, still I preferred to forego the 
opportunity, rather than not get the king of the 
vultures. I called Daddy Quasshi, and another 
negro, and we carried the body into the forest. The 
foliage of the trees where we laid it was impervious 
to the sun's rays, and had any vultures passed over 
that part of the forest, I think I may say with safety 
that they could not have seen the remains of the 
serpent through the shade. For the first two days 
i not a vulture made its appearance at the spot, though 
I could see here and there, as usual, a Vultur Aura 
gliding, on apparently immovable pinion, at a mode- 
rate height, over the tops of the forest trees. But 
during the afternoon of the third day, when the 
carcass of the serpent had got into a state of putre- 
faction, more than twenty of the common vultures 
came and perched upon the neighbouring trees, and 
the next morning, a little after six o'clock, I saw a 
magnificent king of the vultures. There was a stu- 
c 2 
