SOUTH AMERICA. 
227 
the depot, accompanied by several gentlemen who THIRD 
wished to see the collection. They expressed them- -- 
selves highly gratified. The boxes were closed, and 
nothing now remained but to convey them to the 
cart, which was in attendance at the door of the 
depot. Just as one of the inferior officers was 
carrying a box thither, in stepped the man whom I 
suspected I should see again at Philippi. He ab¬ 
ruptly declared himself dissatisfied with the valu¬ 
ation which the gentlemen of the customs had put 
upon the collection, and said he must detain it. I 
remonstrated, but it was all in vain. 
After this pitiful stretch of power, and bad com¬ 
pliment to the other officers of the customs, who 
had been satisfied with the valuation, this man had 
the folly to take me aside, and after assuring me 
that he had a great regard for the arts and sciences, 
he lamented that conscience obliged him to do what 
he had done, and he wished he had been fifty miles 
from Liverpool at the time that it fell to his lot to 
detain the collection. Had he looked in my face as 
he said this, he would have seen no marks of credu¬ 
lity there. 
I now returned to the Custom-house, and after 
expressing my opinion of the officer’s conduct at the 
depot, I pulled a bunch of keys (which belonged to 
the detained boxes) out of my pocket, laid them on 
the table, took my leave of the gentlemen present, 
and soon after set off for Yorkshire. 
I saved nothing from the grasp of the stranger 
officer, but a pair of live Malay fowls, which a 
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