206 
THE SNAKE. 
before me ; and then, as might be expected, it im-» 
mediately raised itself and came at me, and I had i 
to fight it for my pains ; but, until I had seized its 
tail, it showed no inclination whatever either to 
chase me or to attack me. Had I been ignorant of 
the habits of snakes, I should certainly have taken 
myself off as soon as I perceived that it was ap- i 
proaching the place where I was standing; and then : 
I should have told every body that I had been pur- 
sued by a serpent, and had had to run for my life. • 
This snake was ten feet long. 
In 1820, on my way to the interior of Guiana, I 
accompanied Mr. President Rough to the hospitable 
house of Archibald Edmonstone, Esq., in Hobbabba 
Creek, which falls into the river Demerara. We 
had just sat down to breakfast. I was in the act of ■ 
apologising for appearing barefoot, and in a check : 
shirt, alleging, by way of excuse, that we were now ! 
in the forest, when a negro came running up from ! 
the swamp, and informed us that a large snake had \ 
just seized a tame Muscovy duck. My lance, which 
was an old bayonet on the end of a long stick, being 
luckily in a corner of the room, I laid hold of it in 
passing, and immediately ran down to the morass. 
The president and his son followed ; and I think 
, that Mr. Edmonstone and his late lamented brother 
joined them. As the scene of action was within a 
few yards of the ground on which they stood, they 
had a full view of all that passed, from the com- \ 
mencement of the fray up to its final close. A 
number of trees had been felled in the swamp, and 
the snake had retreate<d among them. I walked on 
