Page images
PDF
EPUB

nothing better to urge against it than the multitude and goodness of the roads we have already? No: when in the character of a serious bar to the measure in hand, be that measure what it may, an argument so palpably inapplicable is employed, it can only be for the purpose of creating a diversion;-of turning aside the minds of men from the subject really in hand, to a picture which, by its beauty, it is hoped, may engross the attention of the assembly, and make them forget for the moment for what purpose they came there.'-(pp. 196, 197.)

The Quietist, or no Complaint.A new law or measure being proposed in the character of a remedy for some incontestable abuse or evil, an objection is frequently started to the following effect:-"The measure is unnecessary. Nobody complains of disorder in that shape, in which it is the aim of your measure to propose a remedy to it. But even when no cause of complaint has been found to exist, especially under governments which admit of complaints, men have in general not been slow to complain: much less where any just cause of complaint has existed." The argument amounts to this:-Nobody complains, therefore nobody suffers. It amounts to a veto on all measures of precaution or prevention, and goes to establish a maxim in legislation directly opposed to the most ordinary prudence of common life;-it enjoins us to build no parapets to a bridge till the number of accidents has raised an universal

clamour.'-pp. 190, 191.)

Procrastinator's Argument." Wait a little, this is

not the time."

sance!

This is the common argument of men, who, being in reality hostile to a measure, are ashamed or afraid of appearing to be so. To-day is the plea-eternal exclusion commonly the object. It is the same sort of quirk as a plea of abatement in law-which is never employed but on the side of a dishonest defendant, whose hope it is to obtain an ultimate triumph, by overwhelming his adversary with despair, impoverishment, and lassitude. Which is the properest day to do good? which is the properest day to remove a nuiwe answer, the very first day a man can be found to propose the removal of it; and whoever op poses the removal of it on that day will (if he dare) oppose it on every other. There is in the minds of many teeble friends to virtue and improvement, an imaginary period for the removal of evils, which it would certainly be worth while to wait for, if there was the smallest chance of its ever arriving-a period of unexampled peace and prosperity, when a patriotic king and an enlightened mob united their ardent efforts for the amelioration of human affairs; when the oppressor is as delighted to give up the oppression, as the oppressed is to be liberated from it; when the difficulty and the unpopularity would be to continue the evil,not to abolish it! These are the periods when fair weather philosophers are willing to venture out, and hazard a little for the general good. But the history of human nature is so contrary to all this, that almost all improvements are made after the bitterest resist ance, and in the midst of tumults and civil violence

|

itself afford the slightest presumption that a writer is engaged in any thing blamable. If his attack is only directed against that which is bad in each, his efforts may be productive of good to any extent. This essen. tial distinction, however, the defender of abuses uniformly takes care to keep out of sight; and boldly imputes to his antagonists an intention to subvert all government, lau, morals, and religion. Propose any thing with a view to the improvement of the existing practice, in relation to law, government, and religion, he will treat you with an oration upon the necessity and utility of law, government, and religion. Among the several cloudy appellatives which have been commonly employed as cloaks for misgovernment, there is none more conspicuous in this atmosphere of illusion than the word order. As often as any measure is brought forward which has for its object to lessen the sacrifice made by the many to the few, social order is the phrase commonly opposed to its progress.

By a defalcation made from any part of the mass of factitious delay, vexation, and expense, out of which, and in proportion to which, lawyers' profit is made to flow-by any defalcation made from the mass of needless and worse

than useless emolument to office, with or without service or

pretence of service-by any addition endeavoured to be made to the quantity, or improvement in the quality of service rendered, or time bestowed in service rendered in return for such emolument--by every endeavour that has for its object the persuading the people to place their fate at the disposal of any other agents than those in whose hands breach of trust is certain, due fulfilment of it morally and physically impossible-social order is said to be endangered, and threatened to be destroyed.,-(p. 234.)

In the same way establishment is a word in use to protect the bad parts of establishments, by charging those who wish to remove or alter them, with a wish to subvert all good establishments.

Mischievous fallacies also circulate from the con

vertible use of what Mr. B. is pleased to call dyslogistic and eulogistic terms. Thus a vast concern is expressed for the liberty of the press, and the utmost abhorrence for its licentiousness: but then, by the licenwhich any abuse is brought to light and exposed to tiousness of the press is meant every disclosure by shame-by the liberty of the press is meant only publications from which no such inconvenience is to be the sham approbation of liberty as a mask for the real apprehended; and the fallacy consists in employing opposition to all free discussion. To write a pamphlet so ill that nobody will read it; to animadvert in terms so weak and insipid upon great evils, that no disgust is excited at the vice, and no apprehension in the evildoer, is a fair use of the liberty of the press,— and, is not only pardoned by the friends of govern ment, but draws from them the most fervent eulogium. The licentiousness of the press consists in doing the thing boldly and well, in striking terror into the guilty, and in rousing the attention of the public to the defence of their highest interests. This is the licen tiousness of the press held in the greatest horror by Snail's Pace argument.—One thing at a time! Not too timid and corrupt men, and punished by semianimous fast! Slow and sure!-Importance of the business-ex-semicadaverous judges, with a captivity of many treme difficulty of the business-danger of innovation-years. In the same manner the dyslogistic and euloneed of caution and circumspection-impossibility of fore- gistic fallacies are used in the case of reform. seeing all consequences-danger of precipitation-every thing should be gradual-one thing at a time-this is not the time great occupation at present-wait for more leisurepeople well satisfied-no petitions presented-no complaints heard -no such mischief has yet taken place-stay till it has taken place!-uch is the prattle which the magpie in office, who, understanding nothing, yet understands that he must have something to say on every subject, shouts out among his auditors as a succedaneum to thought.'-(pp. 203, 204.) Vague Generalities.-Vague generalities comprehend a numerous class of fallacies resorted to by those who, in preference to the determinate expressions which they might use, adopt others more vague and indeterminate.

the worst period at which they can be made, compared to which any period is eligible, and should be seized hold of by the friends of salutary reform.

Take, for instance, the terms, government, laws,morals, religion. Every body will admit that there are in the world bad governments, bad laws, bad morals, and bad religions. The bare circumstance,therefore, of being engaged in exposing the defects of government, law, morals, and religion, does not of

Between all abuses whatsoever, there exists that connec

tion;-between all persons who see each of them, any one abuse in which an advantage results to himself, there exists, in point of interest, that close and sufficiently understood connection, of which intimation has been given already. To no one abuse can correction be administered without endangering the existence of every other.

If, then, with this inward determination not to suffer, so far as depends upon himself, the adoption of any reform which he is able to prevent, it should seem to him necessary or advisable to put on for a cover, the profession or appearance of a desire to contribute to such reform-in pursuance of the device or fallacy here in question, he will represent that which goes by the name of reform as distinguishable into two species; one of them a fit subject for approbation, the other for disapprobation. That which he thus professes to have marked for approbation, he will accordingly, for the expression of such approbation, characterize by some

adjunct of the eulogistic cast, such as moderate, for example,

or temperate, or practical, or practicable.

To the other of these nominally distinct species he will,

at the same time, attach some adjunct of the dyslogistic cast, such as violent, intemperate, extravagant, outrageous, theoretical, speculative, and so forth.

The species to which his disapprobation is attached is, on the contrary, a crowded species, a receptacle in which the whole contents of the genus of the genus Reform are intended to included.-(pp. 277, 278.)

Noodle's Oration.

'What would our ancesters say to this, sir? How How Thus, then, in profession and to appearance, there are in does this measure tally with their institutions? his conception of the matter two distinct and opposite species does it agree with their experience? Are we to put of reform, to one of which his approbation, to the other his dis- the wisdom of yesterday in competition with the wis approbation is attached. But the species to which his appro-dom of centuries? (Hear, hear!) Is beardless youth bation is attached is an empty species-a species in which no to show no respect for the decisions of mature age?individual is, or is intended to be, contained. (Loud cries of hear! hear!) If this measure is right, would it have escaped the wisdom of those Saxon progenitors to whom we are indebted for so many of our best political institutions? Would the Danes have passed it over? Would the Norman have rejected it? Anti-rational Fallacies-When reason is in opposi- Would such a notable discovery have been reserved tion to a man's interests, his study will naturally be for these modern and degenerate times? Besides, to render the faculty itself, and whatever issues from sir, if the measure itself is good, I ask the honourable it, an object of hatred and contempt. The sarcasm gentlemen if this is the time for carrying it into exeand other figures of speech employed on the occasion cution-whether, in fact, a more unfortunate period are directed not merely against reason but against could have been selected than that which I e has chothought, as if there were something in the faculty of sen? If this were an ordinary measure, I should not thought that rendered the exercise of it incompatible oppose it with so much vehemence; but, sir, it calls in with useful and successful practice. Sometimes a question the wisdom of an irrevocable law a law plan, which would not suit the official person's inter- passed at the memorable period of the Revolution.est, is without more ado pronounced a speculative one; What right have we, sir, to break down this firm coland, by this observation, all need of rational and de- umn, on which the great men of that day stampt a liberate discussion is considered to be superseded. character of eternity? Are not all authorities against The first effort of the corruptionist is to fix the epithet this measure, Pitt, Fox, Cicero, and the Attorney and speculative upon any scheme which he thinks may Solicitor General? The proposition is new, sir; it is cherish the spirit of reform. The expression is hailed the first time it was ever heard in this house. I am with the greatest delight by bad and teeble men, and not prepared, sir-this house is not prepared, to rerepeated with the most unwearied energy; and, to the ceive it. The measure implies a distrust of his majword speculative, by way of reinforcement. are added, esty's government; their disapproval is sufficient to theoretical, visionary, chimerical, romantic, Utopian. warrant opposition. Precaution only is requsite where danger is apprehended. Here the high character of the individual in question is a sufficient guarantee against any ground of alarm. Give not, then, your sanction to this measure; for, whatever be its character, if you do give your sanction to it, the same man by whom this is proposed, will propose to you others to which it will be impossible to give your consent. I care very little, sir, for the ostensible measure; but what is there behind? What are the honourable gentleman's future schemes? If we pass this bill, what fresh conWhat farther degradacessions may he not require? tion is he planning for his country? Talk of evil and inconvenience, sir! look to other countries-study other aggregations and societies of men, and then see There is a propensity to push theory too far; but whether the laws of this country demand a remedy, what is the just inference? not that theoretical pro- or deserve a panegyric. Was the honourable gentle. positions (ie., all propositions of any considerable man (let me ask him) always of this way of thinkcomprehension or extent) should, from such their ex-ing? Do I not remember when he was the advocate tent, be considered to be false in toto, but only that, in this house of very opposite opinions? I not only in the particular case, inquiry should be made whe- quarrel with his present sentiments, sir, but I declare ther, supposing the proposition to be in the character very frankly I do not like the party with which he of a rule generally true, an exception ought to be acts. If his own motives were as pure as possible, taken out of it. It might almost be imagined that they cannot but suffer contamination from those with there was something wicked or unwise in the exercise whom he is politically associated. This measure may of thought; for every body feels a necessity for dis- be a boon to the constitution, but I will accept no faclaiming it. I am not given to speculation; I am vour to the constitution from such hands. (Loud cries no friend to theories.' Can a man disclaim theory, of hear! hear!) I profess myself, sir, an honest and can he disclaim speculation, without disclaiming thought?

'Sometimes a distinction is taken, and thereupon a concession made. The plan is good in theory, but it would be bad in practice i. e., its being good in theory does not hinder its being bad in practice.

Sometimes, as if in consequence of a farther progress made in the art of irrationality, the plan is pronounced to be too good to be practicable; and its being so good as it is, is thus represented as the very cause of its being bad in practice. In short, such is the perfection at which this art is at length arrived, that the very circumstance of a plan's being susceptible of the appellation of a plan, has been gravely stated as a circumstance sufficient to warrant its being rejected, if not with hatred, at any rate with a sort of accompaniment, which to the million is commonly felt still more galling-with contempt.'-(p.296.)

The description of persons by whom this fallacy is chiefly employed are those who, regarding a plan as adverse to their interests, and not finding it on the ground of general utility exposed to any predominant objection, have recourse to this objection in the character of an instrument of contempt, in the view of preventing those from looking into it who might have been otherwise disposed. It is by the fear of seeing it practised that they are drawn to speak of it as impracticable. Upon the face of it (exclaims some feeble or pensioned gentleman), 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 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.

it.

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

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 they
are; and it will be my pride and pleasure to hand down
this country to my children as I received it from those
The honourable gentleman pre-
who preceded me.
tends to justify the severity with which he has at-
tacked the noble lord who presides in the Court of
Chancery. But I say such attacks are pregnant with
mischief to government itself. Oppose ministers, you
oppose government: disgrace ministers, you disgrace
government: bring ministers into contempt, you bring
government into contempt; and anarchy and civil war
are the consequences. Besides, sir, the measure is
unnecessary. Nobody complains of disorder in that
shape in which it is the aim of your measure to pro-
pose a remedy to it. The business is one of the great-
est importance; there is need of the greatest caution
and circumspection. Do not let us be precipitate, sir;
it is impossible to foresee all consequences. Every
thing should be gradual; the example of a neighbour-
ing nation should fill us with alarm! The honourable
gentleman has taxed me with illiberality, sir. I deny
the charge. I hate innovation, but I love improve-

a dislike to the regular form of a journal, he throws his travels into detached pieces, which he, rather af fectedly, 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-derant Dutch Guiana, in South America. The sun exhausted him by day, the musquitoes bit him by night; but on went Mr. Charles Waterton!

ment. I am an enemy to the corruption of govern, ment, but I defend its influence. I dread reform, but I dread it only when it is intemperate. I consider the liberty of the press as the great palladium of the constitution, but, at the same time, I hold the licentiousness of the press in the greatest abhorrence. Nobody is more conscious than I am of the splendid abilities of the honourable mover, but I tell him at once, his scheme is too good to be practicable. It savours of Utopia. It looks well in theory, but it won't do in The first thing which strikes us in this extraordina practice. It will not do, I repeat, sir, in practice; and ry chronicle, is the genuine zeal and inexhaustible deso the advocates of the measure will find, if. unfortu- light with which all the barbarous countries he visits nately, it should find its way through Parliament. are described. He seems to love the forests, the ti(Cheers.) The source of that corruption to which the gers, and the apes;-to be rejoiced that he is the only honourable member alludes, is in the minds of the man there; that he has left his species far away; people; so rank and extensive is that corruption, that and is at last in the midst of his blessed baboons! no political reform can have any effect in removing it. He writes with a considerable degree of force and Instead of reforming others-instead of reforming the vigour; and contrives to infuse into his reader that state, the constitution, and every thing that is most admiration of the great works, and undisturbed scenes excellent, let each man reform himself! let him look of nature, which animates his style, and has influencat home, he will find there enough to do, without looked his life and practice. There is something, too, to be ing abroad, and aiming at what is out of his power.- highly respected and praised in the conduct of a coun (Loud Cheers.) And now, sir, as it is frequently the try gentleinan, who, instead of exhausting life in the custom in this house to end with a quotation, and as chase, has dedicated a considerable portion of it to the the gentleman who preceded me in the debate, has an- pursuit of knowledge. There are so many tempta. ticipated me in my favorite quotation of the "Strong tions to complete idleness in the life of a country genpull and the long pull," I shall end with the memora- tleman, so many examples of it, and so much loss to ble words of the assembled Barons.-Nolumus leges the community from it, that every exception from the Anglia mutari.' practice is deserving 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 Lincoln2. They are all of them such, that the application of these shire, might have given up his existence to doubleirrelevant arguments affords a presumption either of the weak-barrelled gums and persecutions of poachers—and all

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. Whatsoever be the measure in hand, they are, with rela

tion to it, irrelevant.

ness 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. 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 defect of all such measures as have for their object the removal of the abuses o other imperfections still discernible in the frame and practice

of the government.

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.

6. By that irritative quality which, in virtue of their irrelevancy, with the improbity or weakness of which it is indicative, they possess, all of them, in a degree more or less considerable, but in a more particular degree such of them as consist in personalities, they are productive of ill-humour, which in some instances has been productive of bloodshed, and is continually productive, as above, of waste of time and hin

drance of business.

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 understandings 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 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. 359, 960.)

WATERTON. (EDINBURGH REVIEW, 1826.) 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 Preservation of Birds, &c., for Cabinets of Natural History. By Charles Waterton, Esq. London, Mawman. 4to. 1825.

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 volite English conversation. From

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 is not easy for a Scotch imagination to reach. Among these, pre-eminent in height ked by age, or dried by accident, is perched the tourises the mora-upon whose top branches, when nacan, too high for the gun of the fowler;-around this are the green heart, famous for hardness; the tough hackea; the ducalabali, surpassing mahogony; the ebony and letter-wood, exceeding the most beautiful woods of the Old World; the locust-tree, yielding copal; and the hayawa and olou trees, furnishing sweetsmelling 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. Ainong 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 trav eller, 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 vari. ous sounds in these wild regions as very striking, and done with very considerable powers of style.

He whose eye can distinguish the various beauties of uncultivated nature, and whose ear is not shut to the wild sounds

150

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 plaintive whistle from the depths of the forest, and then stops; whilst the yelping of the toucan, and the shrill voice of the bird called pi-pi-yo, is 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 car with their hoarse and hollow-sounding croaking, while the owls and goatsuckers lament and mourn all night long.

:-Traveller!

|

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 around 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 rusthe 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.

About two feet from the end through which he blows, there are fastened two teeth of the acouri, and these serve him for a sight. Silent and swift the arrow flies, and sel dom fails to pierce the object at which it is sent. Sometimes the wounded bird remains in the same tree where it was shot, but in three minutes falls down at the Indian's feet. Should he take wing, his flight is of short duration, and the Indian, following in the direction he has gone, is sure to find him dead.

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 hammaquoi, 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 dost thou think? apostrophizing:Reader! dost thou imagine! Mr. Waterton should It is natural to imagine that, when a slight wound only remember, that the whole merit of these violent deviis inflicted, the game will make its escape. Far otherwise; ations from common style depends upon their rarity, the Wourali poison instantaneously mixes with blood or and that nothing does, for ten pages together, but the indicative mood. This fault gives an air of affecta-water, so that if you wet your finger, and dash it along the tion to the writing of Mr. Waterton, which we believe poisoned arrow in the quickest manner possible, you are We do sure to carry off some of the poison. to be foreign from his character and nature. not wish to deprive him of these indulgences altogeth er; 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.

[ocr errors]

This was

Though three minutes generally clapse before the convulsions come on in the wounded bird, still a stupor evian apparent unwillingness in the bird to move. dently takes place sooner, and this stupor manifests itself by The flesh of the game is not in the slightest degree This gentleman's delight and exultation always ap. very visible in a dying fowl.'-(pp. 60-62.) pear to increase as he loses sight of European inventions, and comes to something purely Indian, Speak-injured by the poison; nor does it appear to be corrupted sooner than that killed by the gun or knife. ing of an Indian tribe, he says,For the larger animals, an arrow with a poisoned spike is used.

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 suspended 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 The quivers were close by that they were in constant use. 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 Indians could be persuaded to part with any of the Wourali poison, though a good price was offered for it: they gave us to understand that it was powder and shot to thein, and very difficult to be procured.'-(pp. 34, 35.)

A wicker-basket of wild cotton, full of poisoned arrows, for shooting fish! This is Indian with a ven geance. 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

Thus armed with deadly poison, and hungry as the hy na, 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 foot cern the smallest vestige. He pursues it through all its steps of the game, where an European eye could not discess generally crowns his efforts. The animal, after receivturns and windings, with astonishing perseverance, and sucing the poisoned arrow, seldom retreats two hundred paces before it drops.

In passing over land from Essequibo to the Demarara, we fell in with a drove of wild hogs. Though encumbered with baggage, and fatigued with a hard day's walk, an Indian got his how ready, and let fly a poisoned arrow at one of them. It entered the cheek-bone, and broke right off. The wild hog was found quite dead about one hundred and seventy paces excellent and wholesome supper.'-(p. 65.)

from the place where he had been shot. He afforded us an

Being a Wourali poison fancier, Mr. Waterton has recorded several instances of the power of his favour. ite 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 con gratulate ourselves, 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 year 1816, was to Pernambuco, in the southern hemisphere, on the coast of Brazil, and from thence he proceeds to Cayenne. His plan was, to have ascended the Ama zoй from Para, and get into the Rio Negro, and from

[ocr errors]

thence to have returned towards the source of the Essequibo, in order to examine the Crystal Mountains, and 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 or 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 quarrelsome; he considers his fangs to be given for defence, and not for annoyance, and never inflicts a wound but to defend exis tence. 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!

mons with their ignorance and folly, and impeding the business of the country? There is no end of such questions. 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 aerial tribes. When his repast is over, he returns to man, 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 woodpecker; and when the sheep bleat, he will distinctly answer them. Then comes his own song again, or 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 mocking-bird amongst the colonists.'-(pp. 127, 128.)

There is no end to the extraordinary noises of the forest of Cayenne. The woodpecker, in striking against the tree with his bill, makes a sound so loud, that Mr. Waterton says it reminds you more of a wood-cutter than a bird. While lying in your hammock, you hear the goatsucker lamenting like one in deep distress-a stranger would take it for a Weir murdered by Thurtell."

'Suppose yourself in hopeless sorrow, begin with a loud note, and pronounce "ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha," each note The description of the birds is very animated and lower, till the last is scarcely heard, pausing a moment or two interesting; but how far does the gentle reader im-betwixt every note, and you will have some idea of the moanagine the campanero may be heard, whose size is that ing of the largest goatsucker in Demerara.'-(p. 141.)

[ocr errors]

of a jay? Perhaps 300 yards. Poor innocent, igno. One species of the goatsucker cries,' Who are you? rant reeder! 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 dean-just appointed on account of shabby politics, small understanding, and good family!

who are you?' Another exclaims, Work away, work away.' A third, Willy come go, Willy come go.' A fourth, Whip poor Will, whip poor Will. It is very flattering to us that they should all speak Eng lish!-though we cannot much commend the elegance of their selections. The Indians never destroy these birds, believing them to be the servants of Jumbo, the African devil.

Great travellers are very fond of triumphing over The fifth species is the celebrated campanero of the Span-civilized life; and Mr. Waterton does not omit the iards, 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. opportunity of remarking, that nobody ever stopt him On his forehead rises a spiral tube about three inches long. It in the forests of Cayenne to ask him for his license, or is jet black, dotted all over with small white feathers. It has to inquire if he had an hundred a year, or to take away a communication with the palate, and when filled with air, his gun, or to dispute the limits of a manor, or to looks like a spire; when empty, it becomes pendulous. His threaten him with a tropical justice of the peace. We note is loud and clear, like the sound of a bell, and may be hope, however, that in this point we are on the eve of heard at the distance of three miles. In the midst of these improvement. Mr. Peel, who is a man of high cha extensive wilds, generally on the dried top of an aged mora, almost out of gun reach, you will see the campanero. No sound acter and principles, may depend upon it that the or song from any of the winged inhabitants of the forest, not time is come for his interference, and that it will be a even the clearly pronounced Whip-poor-Will," from the loss of reputation to him not to interfere. If any one goatsucker, causes such astonishment as the toll of the cam- else can and will carry an alteration through Parliament, there is no occasion that the hand of government should appear; but some hand must appear. The common people are becoming ferocious, and the perdricide criminals are more numerous than the viclators of all the branches of the Decalogue.

panero.

With many of the feathered race he pays the common tribute of a morning and an evening song; and even when the of animated nature, the campanero still cheers 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 toll, and again a pause.'-(pp. 117, 118,)

meridian sun has shut in silence the mouths of almost the whole

The king of the vultures is very handsome, and seems to be the only bird which claims regal honours from the surroundIt is impossible to contradict a gentleman who has ing tribe. It is a fact beyond all dispute, that when the scent been in the forests of Cayenne; but we are determined, of carrion has drawn together hundreds of the common vulas soon as a campanero is brought to England, to make tures, they all retire from the carcass as soon as the king of the him toll in a public place, and have the distance mea-fied the cravings of his royal stomach with the choicest bits vultures makes his appearance. When his majesty has satissured. The toucan has an enormous bill, makes a from the most stinking and corrupted parts, he generally retires neise like a puppy dog, and lays his eggs in hollow to a neighbouring tree, and then the common vultures return in trees. How astonishing are the freaks and fancies of crowds to gobble down his leavings. The Indians, as well as nature! To what purpose, we say, is a bird placed in the whites, have observed this; for when one of them, who has the woods of Cayenne, with a bill a yard long, making learned a little English, sees the king, and wishes you to have a a noise like a puppy dog, and laying eggs in hollow proper notion of the bird, he says, "There is the governor of trees? The toucans, to be sure, might retort, to what Now, the Indians have never heard of a personage in Demepurpose were gentlemen in Bond street created? To rara higher than that of governor; and the colonists, through what purpose were certain foolish prating members of a common mistake, call the vultures carrion crows. Hence the Parliament created ?-pestering the House of Com-Indian, in order to express the dominion of this bird over the

the carrion crows."

« PreviousContinue »