THE TROPIC BIRD. 
289 
there. I once made the attempt^ as will be seen in 
the sequel ; but fortune failed me : verifying the 
remark of Sancho Panza, " Tai vez hay, que se 
busca una cosa; y se halla otra," — sometimes we go 
in search of one thing, and find another. 
Having hired a canoe and seven negroes in the 
town of Cayenne, I set off at six in the evening, and 
proceeded through the waters of the interior, where 
they flow betwixt the island of Cayenne and the 
adjacent continent, calculating to come out on the 
sca-coast about the break of day, should things go 
on well. It rained piteously during the greater 
part of the night ; and I do not remember ever to 
have had such wretched accommodations, or to 
have been exposed for so long a spell to such an 
incessant soaking. Soon after the dawn of day, we 
were on the sea-coast to windward ; and about ten 
o'clock the ebbing waters left us high and dry, upon 
an almost boundless mud-flat. Here we lay all day 
long, without any chance of returning to the shore, 
or of getting out to sea. 
We were not surprised that every thing had got 
wet, for during our nocturnal progress it had taken 
the labour of one negro to bale the water out of 
the canoe. 
I felt grateful for a sunny day to dry our clothes, 
after such a night of rain. The day, indeed, was 
scorching. A blazing sun beat full upon us, and 
gave to the surrounding mud -flat the appearance of 
an immeasurable looking-glass. On every side of 
us were egrettes and herons, scarlet curlews and 
spoonbills, and other sea fowl, in countless num- 
