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, &c. for cabinets of natural history / By Charles Waterton.

  • Charles Waterton
Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: 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, &c. for cabinets of natural history / By Charles Waterton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    PREFACE. I OFFER this book of Wanderings” with a he- sitating hand. It has little merits and must make its way through the world as well as it can. It will receive many a jostle as it goes along, and perhaps is destined to add one more to the number of slain, in the field of modern criticism. But if it fall, it may still, in death, be useful to me ; for should some accidental rover take it up, and, in turning over its pages, inil)ibe the idea of going out to ex])lore Guiana, in order to give the world an enlarged description of that noble country, I shall say, fortem ad fortia misi,” and demand the armour; that is, I shall lay claim to a certain portion of the honours he will receive, upon the plea, that I was the first mover of his discoveries ; for, as Ulvsses sent Achilles to Troy, so I sent him to Guiana. I intended a