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to speculation; I am no friend to theories." | for, whatever be its character, if you do give Can a man disclaim theory, can he disclaim your sanction to it, the same man by whom speculation, without disclaiming thought?

this is proposed, will propose to you others to The description of persons by whom this which it will be impossible to give your confallacy is chiefly employed are those who, re- sent. I care very little, sir, for the ostensible garding a plan as adverse to their interests, measure; but what is there behind? What are and not finding it on the ground of general the honourable gentleman's future schemes? utility exposed to any predominant objection, If we pass this bill, what fresh concessions have recourse to this objection in the character may he not require? What farther degradaof an instrument of contempt, in the view of tion is he planning for his country? Talk of preventing those from looking into it who might evil and inconvenience, sir! look to other have been otherwise disposed. It is by the fear countries-study other aggregations and socie of seeing it practised that they are drawn to ties of men, and then see whether the laws of speak of it as impracticable. "Upon the face this country demand a remedy, or deserve a of it (exclaims some feeble or pensioned gen- | panegyric. Was the honourable gentleman tleman), it carries that air of plausibility, that, if you were not upon your guard, might engage you to bestow more or less of attention upon it; but were you to take the trouble, you would find that (as it is with all these plans which promise so much) practicability would at last be wanting to it. To save yourself from this trouble, the wisest course you can take is to put the plan aside, and to think no more about the matter." This is always accompanied with a peculiar grin of triumph.

The whole of these fallacies may be gathered together in a little oration, which we will denominate the

Noodle's Oration.

(let me ask him) always of this way of thinking? Do I not remember when he was the advocate in this house of very opposite opinions? I not only quarrel with his present sentiments, sir, but I declare very frankly I do not like the party with which he acts. If his own motives were as pure as possible, they cannot but suffer contamination from those with whom he is politically associated. This measure may be a boon to the constitution, but I will accept no favour to the constitution from such hands. (Loud cries of hear! hear!) I profess myself, sir, an honest and upright member of the British Parliament, and I am not afraid to profess myself an enemy to all change, and all innovation. I am satisfied with things as “What would our ancestors say to this, sir? they are; and it will be my pride and pleasure How does this measure tally with their institu- to hand down this country to my children as I tions? How does it agree with their expe- received it from those who preceded me. The rience? Are we to put the wisdom of yesterday honourable gentleman pretends to justify the in competition with the wisdom of centuries? severity with which he has attacked the noble (Hear, hear!) Is beardless youth to show no lord who presides in the Court of Chancery. respect for the decisions of mature age? (Loud But I say such attacks are pregnant with miscries of hear! hear!) If this measure is right, chief to government itself. Oppose ministers, would it have escaped the wisdom of those you oppose government: disgrace ministers, Saxon progenitors to whom we are indebted you disgrace government: bring ministers into for so many of our best political institutions? contempt, you bring government into contempt; Would the Dane have passed it over? Would and anarchy and civil war are the consethe Norman have rejected it? Would such a quences. Besides, sir, the measure is unnenotable discovery have been reserved for these cessary. Nobody complains of disorder in that modern and degenerate times? Besides, sir, shape in which it is the aim of your measure if the measure itself is good, I ask the honour- to propose a remedy to it. The business is able gentleman if this is the time for carrying one of the greatest importance; there is need it into execution—whether, in fact, a more un- of the greatest caution and circumspection. fortunate period could have been selected than Do not let us be precipitate, sir; it is impossi that which he has chosen? If this were an ble to foresee all consequences. Every thing ordinary measure, I should not oppose it with should be gradual; the example of a neighbourso much vehemence; but, sir, it calls in ques- ing nation should fill us with alarm! The tion the wisdom of an irrevocable law-of a honourable gentleman has taxed me with illibelaw passed at the memorable period of the rality, sir. I deny the charge. I hate innovaRevolution. What right have we, sir, to break tion, but I love improvement. I am an enemy down this firm column, on which the great to the corruption of government, but I defend men of that day stamped a character of eter- its influence. I dread reform, but I dread it nity? Are not all authorities against this mea- only when it is intemperate. I consider the sure, Pitt, Fox, Cicero, and the Attorney and liberty of the press as the great palladium of Solicitor-General? The proposition is new, the constitution; but, at the same time, I hold sir; it is the first time it was ever heard in this the licentiousness of the press in the greatest house. I am not prepared, sir—this house is abhorrence. Nobody is more conscious than not prepared, to receive it. The measure im- I am of the splendid abilities of the honourable plies a distrust of his majesty's government; mover, but I tell him at once, his scheme is their disapproval is sufficient to warrant oppo- too good to be practicable. It savours of sition. Precaution only is requisite where Utopia. It looks well in theory, but it won't do danger is apprehended. Here the high cha- in practice. It will not do, I repeat, sir, in racter of the individuals in question is a suffi- practice; and so the advocates of the measure cient guarantee against any ground of alarm. will find, if, unfortunately, it should find its way Gave not, then, your sanction to this measure; | through Parliament. (Cheers.) The source of

5. By means of their irrelevancy, they all of them consume and misapply time, thereby obstructing the course and retarding the progress of all necessary and useful business.

that corruption to which the honourable mem- | removal of the abuses or other imperfections ber alludes, is in the minds of the people; so still discernible in the frame and practice of rank and extensive is that corruption, that no the government. political reform can have any effect in removing it. Instead of reforming others-instead of reforming the state, the constitution, and every thing that is most excellent, let each man reform himself! let him look at home, he will "6. By that irritative quality which, in find there enough to do, without looking abroad, virtue of their irrelevancy, with the improbity and aiming at what is out of his power. (Loud or weakness of which it is indicative, they cheers.) And now, sir, as it is frequently the possess, all of them, in a degree more or less custom in this house to end with a quotation, considerable, but in a more particular degree and as the gentleman who preceded me in the such of them as consist in personalities, they debate has anticipated me in my favourite | are productive of ill-humour, which in some quotation of the Strong pull and the long instances has been productive of bloodshed, pull,' I shall end with the memorable words of and is continually productive, as above, of the assembled Barons-Nolumus leges Anglia waste of time and hinderance of business. mutari."

"Upon the whole, the following are the characters which appertain in common to all the several arguments here distinguished by the name of fallacies :

"1. Whatever be the measure in hand, they are, with relation to it, irrelevant.

"2. They are all of them such, that the application of these irrelevant arguments affords a presumption either of the weakness or total absence of relevant arguments on the side on which they are employed.

"3. To any good purpose they are all of them unnecessary.

"7. On the part of those who, whether in spoken or written discourses, give utterance to them, they are indicative either of improbity or intellectual weakness, or of a contempt for the understanding of those on whose minds they are destined to operate.

"8. On the part of those on whom they operate, they are indicative of intellectual weakness; and on the part of those in and by whom they are pretended to operate, they are indicative of improbity, viz., in the shape of insincerity.

"The practical conclusion is, that in proportion as the acceptance, and thence the utterance, of them can be prevented, the understanding of the public will be strengthened, the morals of the public will be purified, and the practice of government improved."—(pp.

"4. They are all of them not only capable of being applied, but actually in the habit of being applied, and with advantage, to bad purposes, viz., to the obstruction and defeat of all such measures as have for their object the|359, 360.)

WATERTON.*

[EDINBURGH REVIEW, 1826.]

MR. WATERTON is a Roman Catholic gentleman of Yorkshire, of good fortune, who, instead of passing his life at balls and assemblies, has preferred living with Indians and monkeys in the forests of Guiana. He appears in early life to have been seized with an unconquerable aversion to Piccadilly, and to that train of meteorological questions and answers, which forms the great staple of polite English conversation. From a dislike to the regular form of a journal, he throws his travels into detached pieces, which he, rather affectedly, calls Wanderings-and of which we shall proceed to give some account. His first Wandering was in the year 1812, through the wilds of Demerara and Essequibo, a part of ci-devant Dutch Guiana, in South America. The sun exhausted him by day, the

Wanderings in South America, the North-West of the United States, and the Antilles, in the years 1812, 1816, 1820, and 1824; with Original Instructions for the perfect Preservation of Birds, & for Cabinets of Natural History. By CHARLES WATERTON, Esq. London. Mawman. 4to. 1825.

musquitoes bit him by night; but on went Mr. Charles Waterton !

The first thing which strikes us in this extraordinary chronicle, is the genuine zeal and inexhaustible delight with which all the barbarous countries he visits are described. He seems to love the forests, the tigers, and the apes;-to be rejoiced that he is the only man there; that he has left his species far away; and is at last in the midst of his blessed baboons! He writes with a considerable degree of force and vigour; and contrives to infuse into his reader that admiration of the great works, and undisturbed scenes of nature, which animates his style, and has influenced his life and practice. There is some thing, too, to be highly respected and praised in the conduct of a country gentleman, who, instead of exhausting life in the chase, has dedicated a considerable portion of it to the pursuit of knowledge. There are so many temptations to complete idleness in the life of a country gentleman, so many examples of it, and so much loss to the community from it,

that every exception from the practice is de- | plaintive whistle from the depth of the forest, serving of great praise. Some country gentlemen must remain to do the business of their counties; but, in general, there are many more than are wanted; and, generally speaking also, they are a class who should be stimulated to greater exertions. Sir Joseph Banks, a squire of large fortune in Lincolnshire, might have given up his existence to double-barrelled guns and persecutions of poachers and all the benefits derived from his wealth, industry, and personal exertion in the cause of science would have been lost to the community.

Mr. Waterton complains, that the trees of Guiana are not more than six yards in circumference-a magnitude in trees which it is not easy for a Scotch imagination to reach. Among these, pre-eminent in height rises the mora-upon whose top branches, when naked by age, or dried by accident, is perched the toucan, too high for the gun of the fowler;around this are the green heart, famous for hardness; the tough hackea; the ducalabali, surpassing mahogany; the ebony and letterwood, exceeding the most beautiful woods of the Old World; the locust-tree, yielding copal; and the hayawa and olou-trees, furnishing sweet-smelling resin. Upon the top of the mora grows the fig-tree. The bush-rope joins tree and tree, so as to render the forest impervious, as, descending from on high, it takes root as soon as its extremity touches the ground, and appears like shrouds and stays supporting the mainmast of a line-of-battle ship.

Demerara yields to no country in the world in her birds. The mud is flaming with the scarlet curlew. At sunset, the pelicans return from the sea to the courada trees. Among the flowers are the humming-birds. The columbine, gallinaceous, and passerine tribes people the fruit-trees. At the close of day, the vampires, or winged bats, suck the blood of the traveller, and cool him by the flap of their wings. Nor has nature forgotten to amuse herself here in the composition of snakes: the camoudi has been killed from thirty to forty feet long; he does not act by venom, but by size and convolution. The Spaniards affirm that he grows to the length of eighty feet, and that he will swallow a bull; but Spaniards love the superlative. There is a whipsnake of a beautiful green. The labarri snake of a dirty brown, who kills you in a few minutes. Every lovely colour under heaven is lavished upon the counachouchi, the most venomous of reptiles, and known by the name of the bush-master. Man and beast, says Mr. Waterton, fly before him, and allow him to pursue an undisputed path.

We consider the following description of the various sounds in these wild regions as very striking, and done with very considerable powers of style.

66

He whose eye can distinguish the various beauties of uncultivated nature, and whose car is not shut to the wild sounds in the woods, will be delighted in passing up the river Demerara. Every now and then, the maam or tinamou sends forth one long and

and then stops; whilst the yelping of the toucan, and the shrill voice of the bird called pi-pi-yo, are heard during the interval. The campanero never fails to attract the attention of the passenger: at a distance of nearly three miles you may hear this snow-white bird tolling every four or five minutes, like the distant convent bell. From six to nine in the morning, the forests resound with the mingled cries and strains of the feathered race; after this they gradually die away. From eleven to three, all nature is hushed as in a midnight silence, and scarce a note is heard, saving that of the campanero and the pi-pi-yo; it is then that, oppressed by the solar heat, the birds retire to the thickest shade, and wait for the refreshing cool of evening.

"At sundown the vampires, bats, and goatsuckers, dart from their lonely retreat, and skim along the trees on the river's bank. The different kinds of frogs almost stun the ear with their hoarse and hollow-sounding croaking, while the owls and goatsuckers lament and mourn all night long.

"About two hours before daybreak you will hear the red monkey moaning as though in deep distress; the houtou, a solitary bird, and only found in the thickest recesses of the forest, distinctly articulates, 'houtou, houtou,' in a low and plaintive tone, an hour before sunrise; the maam whistles about the same hour; the hannaquoi, pataca, and maroudi announce his near approach to the eastern horizon, and the parrots and paroquets confirm his arrival there."-(pp. 13-15.)

Our good Quixote of Demerara is a little too fond of apostrophizing:-"Traveller! dost thou think? Reader! dost thou imagine?" Mr. Waterton should remember, that the whole merit of these violent deviations from common style depends upon their rarity, and that nothing does, for ten pages together, but the indicative mood. This fault gives an air of affectation to the writing of Mr. Waterton, which we believe to be foreign from his character and nature. We do not wish to deprive him of these indulgences altogether; but merely to put him upon an allowance, and upon such an allowance as will give to these figures of speech the advantage of surprise

and relief.

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"They had only one gun, and it appeared rusty and neglected; but their poisoned weapons were in fine order. Their blow-pipes hung from the roof of the hut, carefully sus pended by a silk grass cord; and on taking a nearer view of them, no dust seemed to have collected there, nor had the spider spun the smallest web on them; which showed that they were in constant use. The quivers were close by them, with the jaw-bone of the fish pirai tied by a string to their brim, and a small wicker-basket of wild cotton, which hung down to the centre; they were nearly full of

poisoned arrows. It was with difficulty these | wing, his flight is of short duration, and the Indians could be persuaded to part with any of Indian following in the direction he has gone, the Wourali poison, though a good price was is sure to find him dead. offered for it: they gave us to understand that it was powder and shot to them, and very difficult to be procured."—(pp. 34, 35.)

A wicker-basket of wild cotton, full of poisoned arrows, for shooting fish! This is InIdian with a vengeance. We fairly admit that, in the contemplation of such utensils, every trait of civilized life is completely and effectually banished.

One of the strange and fanciful objects of Mr. Waterton's journey was, to obtain a better knowledge of the composition and nature of the Wourali poison, the ingredient with which the Indians poison their arrows. In the wilds of Essequibo, far away from any European settlements, there is a tribe of Indians known by the name of Macoushi. The Wourali poison is used by all the South American savages, betwixt the Amazon and the Oroonoque; but the Macoushi Indians manufacture it with the greatest skill, and of the greatest strength. A vine grows in the forest called Wourali; and from this vine, together with a good deal of nonsense and absurdity, the poison is prepared. When a native of Macoushia goes in quest of feathered game, he seldom carries his bow and arrows. It is the blow-pipe he then uses. The reed grows to an amazing length, as the part the Indians use is from 10 to 11 feet long, and no tapering can be perceived, one end being as thick as another; nor is there the slightest appearance of a knot or joint. The end which is applied to the mouth is tied round with a small silk grass cord. The arrow is from nine to ten inches long; it is made out of the leaf of a palm-tree, and pointed as sharp as a needle: about an inch of the pointed end is poisoned: the other end is burnt to make it still harder; and wild cotton is put round it for an inch and a half. The quiver holds from 500 to 600 arrows, is from 12 to 14 inches long, and in shape like a dice-box. With a quiver of these poisoned arrows over his shoulder, and his blow-pipe in his hand, the Indian stalks into the forest in quest of his feathered game.

"These generally sit high up in the tall and tufted trees, but still are not out of the Indian's reach; for his blow-pipe, at its greatest elevation, will send an arrow three hundred feet. Silent as midnight he steals under them, and so cautiously does he tread the ground, that the fallen leaves rustle not beneath his feet. His ears are open to the least sound, while his eye, keen as that of the lynx, is employed in finding out the game in the thickest shade. Often he imitates their cry, and decoys them from tree to tree, till they are within range of his tube. Then taking a poisoned arrow from his quiver, he puts it in the blow-pipe, and collects his breath for the fatal puff.

"It is natural to imagine that, when a slight wound only is inflicted, the game will make its escape. Far otherwise; the Wourali poison instantaneously mixes with blood or water, so that if you wet your finger, and dash it along the poisoned arrow in the quickest manner possible, you are sure to carry off some of the poison.

"Though three minutes generally elapse before the convulsions come on in the wounded bird, still a stupor evidently takes place sooner, and this stupor manifests itself by an apparent unwillingness in the bird to move. This was very visible in a dying fowl." (pp. 60–62.) The flesh of the game is not in the slightest degree injured by the poison; nor does it appear to be corrupted sooner than that killed by the gun or knife. For the larger animals, an arrow with a poisoned spike is used.

"Thus armed with deadly poison, and hungry as the hyena, he ranges through the forest in quest of the wild beasts' track. No hound can act a surer part. Without clothes to fetter him, or shoes to bind his feet, he observes the footsteps of the game, where an European eye could not discern the smallest vestige. He pursues it through all its turns and windings, with astonishing perseverance, and success generally crowns his efforts. The animal, after receiving the poisoned arrow, seldom retreats two hundred paces before it drops.

"In passing over land from the Essequibo to the Demerara we fell in with a herd of wild hogs. Though encumbered with baggage, and fatigued with a hard day's walk, an Indian got his bow ready, and let fly a poisoned arrow at one of them. It entered the cheek-bone, and broke off. The wild hog was found quite dead about one hundred and seventy paces from the place where he had been shot. He afforded us an excellent and wholesome supper."-(p. 65.)

Being a Wourali poison fancier, Mr. Waterton has recorded several instances of the power of his favourite drug. A sloth poisoned by it went gently to sleep, and died! a large ox, weighing one thousand pounds, was shot with three arrows; the poison took effect in four minutes, and in twenty-five minutes he was dead. The death seems to be very gentle; and resembles more a quiet apoplexy, brought on by hearing a long story, than any other kind of death. If an Indian happens to be wounded with one of these arrows, he considers it as certain death. We have reason to congratulate our. selves, that our method of terminating disputes is by sword and pistol, and not by these medicated pins; which, we presume, will become the weapons of gentlemen in the new republics of South America.

The second journey of Mr. Waterton, in the "About two feet from the end through which year 1816, was to Pernambuco, in the southern he blows, there are fastened two teeth of the hemisphere, on the coast of Brazil, and from acouri, and these serve him for a sight. Silent thence he proceeds to Cayenne. His plan was and swift the arrow flies, and seldom fails to to have ascended the Amazon from Para, and pierce the object at which it is sent. Some- get into the Rio Negro, and from thence to have times the wounded bird remains in the same returned towards the source of the Essequibo, tree where it was shot, but in three minutes in order to examine the Crystal Mountains, and falls down at the Indian's feet. Should he take to look once more for Lake Parima, or the

White Sea; but on arriving at Cayenne, he found that to beat up the Amazon would be long and tedious; he left Cayenne, therefore, in an American ship for Paramaribo, went through the interior to Coryntin, stopped a few days at New Amsterdam, and proceeded to Demerara. “Leave behind you" (he says to the traveller) "your high-seasoned dishes, your wines, and your delicacies; carry nothing but what is necessary for your own comfort, and the object in view, and depend upon the skill of an Indian, or your own, for fish and game. A sheet, about twelve feet long, ten wide, painted, and with loop-holes on each side, will be of great service: in a few minutes you can suspend it betwixt two trees in the shape of a roof. Under this, in your hammock, you may defy the pelting shower, and sleep heedless of the dews of night. A hat, a shirt, and a light pair of trowsers, will be all the raiment you require. Custom will soon teach you to tread lightly and barefoot on the little inequalities of the ground, and show you how to pass on, unwounded, amid the mantling briars."-(pp. 112, 113.)

Snakes are certainly an annoyance; but the snake, though high-spirited, is not quarrel. some; he considers his fangs to be given for defence, and not for annoyance, and never inflicts a wound but to defend existence. If you tread upon him, he puts you to death for your clumsiness, merely because he does not understand what your clumsiness means; and certainly a snake, who feels fourteen or fifteen stone stamping upon his tail, has little time for reflection, and may be allowed to be poisonous and peevish. American tigers generally run away-from which several respectable gentlemen in Parliament inferred, in the American war, that American soldiers would run away

also!

The description of the birds is very animated and interesting; but how far does the gentle reader imagine the campanero may be heard, whose size is that of a jay? Perhaps 300 yards. Poor innocent, ignorant reader! unconscious of what nature has done in the forests of Cayenne, and measuring the force of tropical intonation by the sounds of a Scotch duck! The campanero may be heard three miles!-this single little bird being more powerful than the belfry of a cathedral, ringing for a new deanjust appointed on account of shabby politics, small understanding, and good family!

campa

not even the clearly pronounced Whip-poor Will,' from the goatsucker, causes such as tonishment as the toll of the campanero.

"With many of the feathered race he pays the common tribute of a morning and an evening song; and even when the meridian sun has of animated nature, the campanero still cheers shut in silence the mouths of almost the whole the forest. You hear his toll, and then a pause for a minute, then another toll, and then a pause, again, and then a toll, and again a pause.”—(pp. 117, 118.)

It is impossible to contradict a gentleman who has been in the forests of Cayenne; but we are determined, as soon as a campanero is brought to England, to make him toll in a public place, and have the distance measured. The toucan has an enormous bill, makes a noise like a puppy dog, and lays his eggs in hollow trees. How astonishing are the freaks and fancies of nature! To what purpose, we say, is a bird placed in the woods of Cayenne, with a bill a yard long, making a noise like a puppy dog, and laying eggs in hollow trees? The toucans, to be sure, might retort, to what purpose were gentlemen in Bond street created? To what purpose were certain foolish, prating members of Parliament created?—pestering the House of Commons with their ignorance and folly, and impeding the business of the country? There is no end of such questious. So we will not enter into the metaphysics of the toucan. The houtou ranks high in beauty; his whole body is green, his wings and tail blue; his crown is of black and blue; he makes no nest, but rears his young in the sand.

"The cassique, in size, is larger than the starling; he courts the society of man, but disdains to live by his labours. When nature calls for support, he repairs to the neighbouring forest, and there partakes of the store of fruits and seeds, which she has produced in abundance for her aërial tribes. When his repast is over, he returns to man, and pays the little tribute which he owes him for his protection; he takes his station on a tree close to his house; and there, for hours together, pours forth a succession of imitative notes. His own song is sweet, but very short. If a toucan be yelping in the neighbourhood, he drops it, and imitates him. Then he will amuse his protector with the cries of the different species of the woodpecker; and when the sheep bleat, he will distinctly answer them. Then comes his own song again, and if a puppy dog or a guinea fowl interrupt him, he takes them off admirably, and by his different gestures during the time, you would conclude that he enjoys

the sport.

"The cassique is gregarious, and imitates any sound he hears with such exactness that he goes by no other name than that of mock. ing-bird amongst the colonists."—(pp. 127, 128.)

"The fifth species is the celebrated nero of the Spaniards, called dara by the Indians, and bell-bird by the English. He is about the size of the jay. His plumage is white as snow. On his forehead rises a spiral tube nearly three inches long. It is jet black, dotted all over with small white feathers. It has a communication with the palate, and when filled with air, looks like a spire; when empty, it becomes pendulous. His note is loud and clear, like the sound of a bell, and may be heard There is no end to the extraordinary noises at the distance of three miles. In the midst of of the forest of Cayenne. The woodpecker, in these extensive wilds, generally on the dried striking against the tree with his bill, makes a top of an aged mora, almost out of gun reach, sound so loud, that Mr. Waterton says it reyou will see the campanero. No sound or song minds you more of a wood-cutter than a bird. irem any of the winged inhabitants of the forest, | While lying in your hammock, you hear the

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