And reconciles man to his lot.
COWPER.
THE END OF ALEXANDER SELKIRK.
STARBOARD.
HISTORY
OF
THE WANDERINGS
OF
TOM STARBOARD.
I herewith give my young readers extracts from a little work under this title, which I think they will find entertaining. Mr. Starboard is one of those redoubted travellers, who are generally the heroes of their best stories, and his adventures are no less varied than wonderful. But we will let him speak for himself:
“I was two years and a few days wandering over South America. I travelled about one thousand eight hundred miles; but I did not walk all the way; oh no! I frequently went with the Indians up their rivers; and for about five hundred miles I rode on mules, or wild horses, which I caught by stratagem.
“At night I would find a tree, and lace a rope in and out of two boughs, so as to form a kind of cradle; thus supported, I slept in peace, excepting that sometimes the vampire bat would annoy me by sucking my blood; he did it though so quietly, that I suffered no pain; and perhaps it was serviceable to me to lose a little blood; it is not improbable that these flying surgeons kept me in health by their gentle bleedings. The vampire bat does not subsist entirely by sucking the blood of living animals; it feeds also on insects and young fruits.
“One morning, I remember, when I awoke, and was coming down from my cradle, I found that a rattle snake had coiled itself round the stem of the tree, and then I really thought it would be all over with me; but my presence of mind did not forsake me even in this case; for, as the reptile reared his flat, wide, terrible head, I took such good aim, and was so near to it that I blew it to atoms. Once I caught a poisonous serpent, called a labarri snake, that I might look for, and examine the fangs, which contained its venom. I saw it asleep; and coming cautiously towards it, I sprang at its neck, which I grasped tightly with my hands; its mouth was thus forced open; then taking a small piece of stick, I pressed it on the fang, (the point of which communicated with the root where the bag of poison is situated,) and I distinctly saw the venom ooze out: it was of a thick substance and of a yellow color; of course I killed the creature.”