"
Let us suppose for an instant that it is a new species. Well; "Una
golondrina no hace verano": One swallow does not make summer, as Sancho
Panza says. Still, for all that, it would be well worth while going out to
search for it; and these times of Pasco-Peruvian enterprise are favourable
to the undertaking. Perhaps, gentle reader, you would wish me to go in
quest of another. I would beg leave respectfully to answer that the way is
dubious, long and dreary; and though, unfortunately, I cannot allege the
excuse of "me pia conjux detinet," still I would fain crave a little
repose. I have already been a long while errant:
Longa mihi exilia, et vastum maris aequor aravi,
Ne mandate mihi, nam ego sum defessus agendo.
Should anybody be induced to go, great and innumerable are the discoveries
yet to be made in those remote wilds; and should he succeed in bringing
home even a head alone, with features as perfect as those of that which I
have brought, far from being envious of him, I should consider him a modern
Alcides, fully entitled to register a thirteenth labour.
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