Page:Enterprise and Adventure.djvu/224

---

Soon after this, Mr. Waterton returned to England, and settled again at his seat of Walton Hall, in Yorkshire, where his remarkable collections of stuffed birds and other animals and natural objects are well known. The tertian ague had unfortunately seized him, and three years passed before it finally took leave of him. "For three revolving autumns," says this enthuiastic writer, "the ague-beaten wanderer never saw, without a sigh, the swallow bend her flight towards warmer regions. He wished to go too, but could not, for sickness had enfeebled him, and prudence pointed out the folly of roving again too soon across the Northern tropic." But the old passion finally prevailed, and again he set sail, his destination being Pernambuco on the coast of Brazil. From Pernambuco he proceeded to Cayenne in Guiana, whence he started again into the interior, encountering hardships similar to those of his first journey; and noting in his own brilliant language, the habits and appearance of the birds and other wild animals which came under his observation. Fevers more than once attacked him, and on one occasion the hardwood stump of a tree wounded the hollow of his foot, in a way which caused him some weeks of suffering, though his habit of going without shoes generally caused him little inconvenience. A traveller in those regions, he says, must be content to leave behind his high-seasoned dishes, his wines and delicacies, carry nothing but what is necessary for his own comfort and the object in view, and depend on the skill of an Indian, or his own, for fish and game. "A sheet," he adds, "of 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 between two trees in