LE VAILLANT’S BIRTH-PLACR. 21

his impressions of the things he saw. The author
delineates himself in his pages so unreservedly
and so unconsciously, in his eagerness, buoyancy,
enterprise, vanity, and warmth of affection, as
well as unbounded enthusiasm, that he makes you
his confidant and enlists your sympathies.

Like Audubon, Le Vaillant has prefaced hig
work by an autobiographical sketch of his early
days; and itis so entertaining and natural that the
reader will be pleased to have a considerable part
of it given in his own words.

He was born in 1753, at Paramaribo, in Dutch
Guiana, where his father, a rich merchant and
native of Metz, was French consul.

He thus describes the place of his birth :—“ That
part of Guiana under the government of the Dutch
West India Company is perhaps the least known
to naturalists, though it is, without dispute, of all
South America, the spot that offers the greatest
variety of curious productions. On the left shore,
three leagues from the sea, stands Paramaribo, the
capital of this vast colony, which is my native
country, the cradle of my infancy. Born of well-
educated parents, who delighted in collecting the
interesting and precious objects that enrich this
country, I enjoyed from my boyhood the contem-
plation of a valuable cabinet, of which I shall
hereafter have occasion to speak.