owing to their less scrupulous integrity? My
own conviction has always been, that want of success in any particular
pursuit or profession, has arisen in most cases, out of an absence of
that firmness which enables a man to reject the pleasures of the world,
and the world's frivolities, for the sake of the one purpose to which he
should rightly devote all his energies. When men practise a rigid course
of self-denial in this respect; immolating all vain desires upon the
altar of science, or of interest, they seldom fail to attain the utmost
point of their ambition.

I found myself very weak, and much reduced by the low regimen which I
had necessarily observed during the violence of my inflammatory cough. A
blister had also been kept open on my breast during the whole time of my
sojourn at Rio de Janeiro, this had only received its first dressing
just before I mounted my mule, and I had not got clear of the city
before the inflamed state of my chest, so dried up the dressing, that
the irritation produced was like a red hot iron applied to the surface:
this torture I was compelled to endure for more than three hours, before
I could obtain any relief. About four o'clock we arrived at Venda Nova,
or Traja, also known by the name of Willis's, it having been kept by an
Englishman of that name. It was much patronized by the English, who
frequently made excursions of pleasure to this place, distant from Rio
de Janeiro four Brazilian leagues or sixteen English miles. We were well
supplied here with provisions, but our lodgings were of a very inferior
description, all the party, excepting myself, being literally, and
actually, necessitated to exclaim

"My lodging is on the cold ground."

The only imitation of a bed-place was considerately resigned to me. It
consisted of a crib in a small room, no larger than a closet; however,
as the horizontal position still continued most distressing to me, a bed
of down could not have procured me repose, for I do not think I ceased
coughing for three consecutive minutes the whole night. And it was no
small aggravation to my misery, to know that I was the means of
disturbing all my friends in the next apartment. Under these
circumstances, I heard the summons for preparation, at a very early
hour, with infinite satisfaction, and, ill as I was, though the morning
was extremely raw and cold, I rejoiced to find that we were all in the
saddle before daylight (half-past five)--Mr. Raynsford, on his