natives then remove to houses near the sources of the small streams, where, in
the shady depths of the forest, a small quantity of water still remains. Even then
many of them have to go miles for their water, which they keep in large
bamboos and use very sparingly. They assure me that they catch and kill game
of all kinds, by watching at the water holes or setting snares around them. That
would be the time for me to make my collections; but the want of water would
be a terrible annoyance, and the impossibility of getting away before another
whole year had passed made it out of the question.
Ever since leaving Dobbo I had suffered terribly from insects, who seemed
here bent upon revenging my long-continued persecution of their race. At our
first stopping-place sand-flies were very abundant at night, penetrating to every
part of the body, and producing a more lasting irritation than mosquitoes. My
feet and ankles especially suffered, and were completely covered with little red
swollen specks, which tormented me horribly. On arriving here we were
delighted to find the house free from sand-flies or mosquitoes, but in the
plantations where my daily walks led me, the day-biting mosquitoes swarmed,
and seemed especially to delight in attaching my poor feet. After a month's
incessant punishment, those useful members rebelled against such treatment and
broke into open insurrection, throwing out numerous inflamed ulcers, which
were very painful, and stopped me from walking. So I found myself confined to
the house, and with no immediate prospect of leaving it. Wounds or sores in the
feet are especially difficult to heal in hot climates, and I therefore dreaded them
more than any other illness. The confinement was very annoying, as the fine hot
weather was excellent for insects, of which I had every promise of obtaining a
fine collection; and it is only by daily and unremitting search that the smaller
kinds, and the rarer and more interesting specimens, can be obtained. When I
crawled down to the river-side to bathe, I often saw the blue-winged Papilio
ulysses, or some other equally rare and beautiful insect; but there was nothing
for it but patience, and to return quietly to my bird-skinning, or whatever other
work I had indoors. The stings and bites and ceaseless irritation caused by these
pests of the tropical forests, would be borne uncomplainingly; but to be kept
prisoner by them in so rich and unexplored a country where rare and beautiful
creatures are to be met with in every forest ramble—a country reached by such a
long and tedious voyage, and which might not in the present century be again
visited for the same purpose—is a punishment too severe for a naturalist to pass
over in silence.
I had, however, some consolation in the birds my boys brought home daily,
more especially the Paradiseas, which they at length obtained in full plumage. It