diff options
Diffstat (limited to '31811.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 31811.txt | 4731 |
1 files changed, 4731 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/31811.txt b/31811.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9706a47 --- /dev/null +++ b/31811.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4731 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Wanderings in South America, by Charles +Waterton + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Wanderings in South America + + +Author: Charles Waterton + + + +Release Date: March 28, 2010 [eBook #31811] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA*** + + +This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler. + + CASSELL'S NATIONAL LIBRARY. + + * * * * * + + + + + + WANDERINGS + IN + SOUTH AMERICA. + + + BY + CHARLES WATERTON. + + _WITH AN INTRODUCTION_ + _BY_ + _NORMAN MOORE_, _M.D._ + + [Picture: Medallion] + + CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED: + _LONDON, PARIS & MELBOURNE_. + 1891. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +Plutarch, the most famous biographer of ancient times, is of opinion that +the uses of telling the history of the men of past ages are to teach +wisdom, and to show us by their example how best to spend life. His +method is to relate the history of a Greek statesman or soldier, then the +history of a Roman whose opportunities of fame resembled those of the +Greek, and finally to compare the two. He points out how in the same +straits the one hero had shown wisdom, the other imprudence; and that he +who had on one occasion fallen short of greatness had on another +displayed the highest degree of manly virtue or of genius. If Plutarch's +method of teaching should ever be followed by an English biographer, he +will surely place side by side and compare two English naturalists, +Gilbert White and Charles Waterton. White was a clergyman of the Church +of England, educated at Oxford. Waterton was a Roman Catholic country +gentleman, who received his education in a Jesuit college. White spent +his life in the south of England, and never travelled. Waterton lived in +the north of England, and spent more than ten years in the Forests of +Guiana. With all these points of difference, the two naturalists were +men of the same kind, and whose lives both teach the same lesson. They +are examples to show that if a man will but look carefully round him in +the country his every-day walk may supply him with an enjoyment costing +nothing, but surpassed by none which wealth can procure; with food for +reflection however long he may live; with problems of which it will be an +endless pleasure to attempt the solution; with a spectacle of Infinite +Wisdom which will fill his mind with awe and with a constantly increasing +assurance of Infinite Goodness, which will do much to help him in all the +trials of life. He who lives in the country and has the love of outdoor +natural history in his heart, will never be lonely and never dull. +Waterton himself thought that this love of natural history must be inborn +and could not be acquired. If this be so, they ought indeed to be +thankful who possess so happy a gift. Even if Waterton's opinion be not +absolutely true, it is at least certain that the taste for outdoor +observation can only be acquired in the field, and that this acquisition +is rarely made after the period of boyhood. How important, then, to +excite the attention of children in the country to the sights around +them. A few will remain apathetic, the tastes of some will lie in other +directions, but the time will not be lost, for some will certainly take +to natural history, and will have happiness from it throughout life. No +study is more likely to confirm them in that content of which a favourite +poet of Waterton's truly says:-- + + "Content is wealth, the riches of the mind, + And happy he who can that treasure find." + +Gilbert White and Charles Waterton are pre-eminent among English +naturalists for their complete devotion to the study; both excelled as +observers, and the writings of both combine the interest of exact outdoor +observation with the charm of good literature. Waterton was born on June +3rd, 1782, at Walton Hall, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, a place which +had for several centuries been the seat of his family. His father, +Thomas Waterton, was a squire, fond of fox-hunting, but with other +tastes, well read in literature, and delighting in the observation of the +ways of birds and beasts. His grandfather, whose grave is beneath the +most northern of a row of old elm trees in the park, was imprisoned in +York on account of his known attachment to the cause of the Young +Pretender. As he meant to join the rebel forces, the imprisonment +probably saved his own life and prevented the ruin of the family. In his +grandson's old age, when another white-haired Yorkshire squire was dining +at Walton Hall, I remember that Waterton and he reminded one another that +their grandfathers had planned to march together to Prince Charley, and +that they themselves, so differently are the rights of kings regarded at +different ages, when schoolboys together, had gone a-bird's-nesting on a +day, in 1793, set apart for mourning for the decapitation of Louis XVI. +Waterton has himself told the history of his earlier ancestors in an +autobiography which he wrote in 1837:-- + +"The poet tells us, that the good qualities of man and of cattle descend +to their offspring. '_Fortes creantur fortibus et bonis_.' If this +holds good, I ought to be pretty well off, as far as breeding goes; for, +on the father's side, I come in a direct line from Sir Thomas More, +through my grandmother; whilst by the mother's side I am akin to the +Bedingfelds of Oxburgh, to the Charltons of Hazelside, and to the +Swinburnes of Capheaton. My family has been at Walton Hall for some +centuries. It emigrated into Yorkshire from Waterton, in the island of +Axeholme in Lincolnshire, where it had been for a very long time. +Indeed, I dare say I could trace it up to Father Adam, if my progenitors +had only been as careful in preserving family records as the Arabs are in +recording the pedigree of their horses; for I do most firmly believe that +we are all descended from Adam and his wife Eve, notwithstanding what +certain self-sufficient philosophers may have advanced to the contrary. +Old Matt Prior had probably an opportunity of laying his hands on family +papers of the same purport as those which I have not been able to find; +for he positively informs us that Adam and Eve were his ancestors:-- + + 'Gentlemen, here, by your leave, + Lie the bones of Matthew Prior, + A son of Adam and of Eve: + Can Bourbon or Nassau go higher?' + +Depend upon it, the man under Afric's burning zone, and he from the +frozen regions of the North, have both come from the same stem. Their +difference in colour and in feature may be traced to this: viz., that the +first has had too much, and the second too little, sun. + +"In remote times, some of my ancestors were sufficiently notorious to +have had their names handed down to posterity. They fought at Cressy, +and at Agincourt, and at Marston Moor. Sir Robert Waterton was Governor +of Pontefract Castle, and had charge of King Richard II. Sir Hugh +Waterton was executor to his Sovereign's will, and guardian to his +daughters. Another ancestor was sent into France by the King, with +orders to contract a royal marriage. He was allowed thirteen shillings a +day for his trouble and travelling expenses. Another was Lord Chancellor +of England, and preferred to lose his head rather than sacrifice his +conscience." + +Waterton's childhood was spent at Walton Hall, and in his old age he used +sometimes to recall the songs of his nurses. "One of them," he said, "is +the only poem in which the owl is pitied. She sang it to the tune of +'Cease, rude Boreas, blustering railer,' and the words are affecting:-- + + 'Once I was a monarch's daughter, + And sat on a lady's knee; + But am now a nightly rover, + Banished to the ivy tree. + + 'Crying, Hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, + Hoo, hoo, my feet are cold! + Pity me, for here you see me + Persecuted, poor, and old.'" + +He was already proficient in bird's-nesting when, in 1792, he was sent to +a school kept by a Roman Catholic priest, the Reverend Arthur Storey, at +Tudhoe, then a small village, five miles from Durham. Three years before +his death he wrote an account of his schooldays, which is printed in the +Life prefixed to Messrs. Warne's edition of his "Natural History Essays." +The honourable character of the schoolmaster, and the simple, adventurous +disposition of his pupil, are vividly depicted in this account. The +following quotations from it show that preparatory schools were less +luxurious in the last century than they commonly are at the present +day:-- + +"But now let me enter into the minutiae of Tudhoe School. Mr. Storey had +two wigs, one of which was of a flaxen colour, without powder, and had +only one lower row of curls. The other had two rows, and was exceedingly +well powdered. When he appeared in the schoolroom with this last wig on, +I know that I was safe from the birch, as he invariably went to Durham +and spent the day there. But when I saw that he had his flaxen wig on, +my countenance fell. He was in the schoolroom all day, and I was too +often placed in a very uncomfortable position at nightfall. But +sometimes I had to come in contact with the birch-rod for various frolics +independent of school erudition. I once smarted severely for an act of +kindness. We had a boy named Bryan Salvin, from Croxdale Hall. He was a +dull, sluggish, and unwieldy lad, quite incapable of climbing exertions. +Being dissatisfied with the regulations of the establishment, he came to +me one Palm Sunday, and entreated me to get into the schoolroom through +the window, and write a letter of complaint to his sister Eliza in York. +I did so, having insinuated myself with vast exertion through the iron +stanchions which secured the window; '_sed revocare gradum_.' Whilst I +was thrusting might and main through the stanchions, on my way +out--suddenly, oh, horrible! the schoolroom door flew open, and on the +threshold stood the Reverend Mr. Storey--a fiery, frightful, formidable +spectre! To my horror and confusion I drove my foot quite through a pane +of glass, and there I stuck, impaled and imprisoned, but luckily not +injured by the broken glass. Whilst I was thus in unexpected captivity, +he cried out, in an angry voice, 'So you are there, Master Charles, are +you?' He got assistance, and they pulled me back by main force. But as +this was Palm Sunday my execution was obligingly deferred until Monday +morning. + +"But let us return to Tudhoe. In my time it was a peaceful, healthy +farming village, and abounded in local curiosities. Just on the king's +highway, betwixt Durham and Bishop-Auckland, and one field from the +school, there stood a public-house called the 'White Horse,' and kept by +a man of the name of Charlton. He had a real gaunt English mastiff, +half-starved for want of food, and so ferocious that nobody but himself +dared to approach it. This publican had also a mare, surprising in her +progeny; she had three foals, in three successive years, not one of which +had the least appearance of a tail. + +"One of Mr. Storey's powdered wigs was of so tempting an aspect, on the +shelf where it was laid up in ordinary, that the cat actually kittened in +it. I saw her and her little ones all together in the warm wig. He also +kept a little white and black bitch, apparently of King Charles's breed. +One evening, as we scholars were returning from a walk, Chloe started a +hare, which we surrounded and captured, and carried in triumph to oily +Mrs. Atkinson, who begged us a play-day for our success. + +"On Easter Sunday Mr. Storey always treated us to 'Pasche eggs.' They +were boiled hard in a concoction of whin-flowers, which rendered them +beautifully purple. We used them for warlike purposes, by holding them +betwixt our forefinger and thumb with the sharp end upwards, and as +little exposed as possible. An antagonist then approached, and with the +sharp end of his own egg struck this egg. If he succeeded in cracking +it, the vanquished egg was his; and he either sold it for a halfpenny in +the market, or reserved it for his own eating. When all the sharp ends +had been crushed, then the blunt ends entered into battle. Thus nearly +every Pasche egg in the school had its career of combat. The possessor +of a strong egg with a thick shell would sometimes vanquish a dozen of +his opponents, all of which the conqueror ultimately transferred into his +own stomach, when no more eggs with unbroken ends remained to carry on +the war of Easter Week. + +"The little black and white bitch once began to snarl, and then to bark +at me, when I was on a roving expedition in quest of hens' nests. I took +up half a brick and knocked it head over heels. Mr. Storey was watching +at the time from one of the upper windows; but I had not seen him, until +I heard the sound of his magisterial voice. He beckoned me to his room +there and then, and whipped me soundly for my pains. + +"Four of us scholars stayed at Tudhoe during the summer vacation, when +all the rest had gone home. Two of these had dispositions as malicious +as those of two old apes. One fine summer's morning they decoyed me into +a field (I was just then from my mother's nursery) where there was a +flock of geese. They assured me that the geese had no right to be there; +and that it was necessary we should kill them, as they were trespassing +on our master's grass. The scamps then furnished me with a hedge-stake. +On approaching the flock, behold the gander came out to meet me; and +whilst he was hissing defiance at us, I struck him on the neck, and +killed him outright. My comrades immediately took to flight, and on +reaching the house informed our master of what I had done. But when he +heard my unvarnished account of the gander's death, he did not say one +single unkind word to me, but scolded most severely the two boys who had +led me into the scrape. The geese belonged to a farmer named John Hey, +whose son Ralph used to provide me with birds' eggs. Ever after when I +passed by his house, some of the children would point to me and say, 'Yaw +killed aur guise.' + +"At Bishop-Auckland there lived a man by the name of Charles the Painter. +He played extremely well on the Northumberland bagpipe, and his neighbour +was a good performer on the flageolet. When we had pleased our master by +continued good conduct, he would send for these two musicians, who gave +us a delightful evening concert in the general play-room, Mr. Storey +himself supplying an extra treat of fruit, cakes, and tea. + +"Tudhoe had her own ghosts and spectres, just as the neighbouring +villages had theirs. One was the Tudhoe mouse, well known and often seen +in every house in the village; but I cannot affirm that I myself ever saw +it. It was an enormous mouse, of a dark brown colour, and did an +immensity of mischief. No cat could face it; and as it wandered through +the village, all the dogs would take off, frightened out of their wits, +and howling as they ran away. William Wilkinson, Mr. Storey's farming +man, told me he had often seen it, but that it terrified him to such a +degree that he could not move from the place where he was standing. + +"Our master kept a large tom-cat in the house. A fine young man, in the +neighbouring village of Ferry-hill, had been severely bitten by a cat, +and he died raving mad. On the day that we got this information from +Timothy Pickering, the carpenter at Tudhoe, I was on the prowl for +adventures, and in passing through Mr. Storey's back kitchen, his big +black cat came up to me. Whilst I was tickling its bushy tail, it turned +round upon me, and gave me a severe bite in the calf of the leg. This I +kept a profound secret, but I was quite sure I should go mad every day, +for many months afterwards. + +"There was a blacksmith's shop leading down the village to Tudhoe Old +Hall. Just opposite this shop was a pond, on the other side of the +road. When any sudden death was to take place, or any sudden ill to +befall the village, a large black horse used to emerge from it, and walk +slowly up and down the village, carrying a rider without a head. The +blacksmith's grandfather, his father, himself, his three sons, and two +daughters, had seen this midnight apparition rise out of the pond, and +return to it before the break of day. John Hickson and Neddy Hunt, two +hangers-on at the blacksmith's shop, had seen this phantom more than +once, but they never durst approach it. Indeed, every man and woman and +child believed in this centaur-spectre, and I am not quite sure if our +old master himself did not partly believe that such a thing had +occasionally been seen on very dark nights. + +"Tudhoe has no river, a misfortune '_valde deflendus_.' In other +respects the vicinity was charming; and it afforded an ample supply of +woods and hedgerow trees to insure a sufficient stock of carrion crows, +jackdaws, jays, magpies, brown owls, kestrels, merlins, and +sparrow-hawks, for the benefit of natural history and my own instruction +and amusement." + +In 1796 Waterton left Tudhoe school and went to Stonyhurst College in +Lancashire. It was a country house of the picturesque style of King +James I., which had just been made over by Mr. Weld of Lulworth to the +Jesuits expelled from Liege. The country round Stonyhurst is varied by +hills and streams, and there are mountains at no great distance. + + "Whernside, Pendle Hill, and Ingleboro', + Three higher hills you'll not find England thoro'," + +as they are described, with equal disregard of exact mensuration and of +rhythm, in a local rhyme which Waterton learned. Curlew used to fly by +in flocks, and the country people had also a rhyme about the curlew:-- + + "Be she white or be she black, + She carries sixpence on her back," + +which Waterton used to say showed how our ancestors valued the bird at +table. + +At Stonyhurst he read a good deal of Latin and of English literature, and +acquired a taste for writing Latin verse. He always looked back on his +education there with satisfaction, and in after-life often went to visit +the college. Throughout life he never drank wine, and this fortunate +habit was the result of the good advice of one of his teachers:-- + +"My master was Father Clifford, a first cousin of the noble lord of that +name. He had left the world, and all its alluring follies, that he might +serve Almighty God more perfectly, and work his way with more security up +to the regions of eternal bliss. After educating those entrusted to his +charge with a care and affection truly paternal, he burst a blood-vessel, +and retired to Palermo for the benefit of a warmer climate. There he +died the death of the just, in the habit of St. Ignatius. + +"One day, when I was in the class of poetry, and which was about two +years before I left the college for good and all, he called me up to his +room. 'Charles,' said he to me, in a tone of voice perfectly +irresistible, 'I have long been studying your disposition, and I clearly +foresee that nothing will keep you at home. You will journey into +far-distant countries, where you will be exposed to many dangers. There +is only one way for you to escape them. Promise me that, from this day +forward, you will never put your lips to wine, or to spirituous liquors.' +'The sacrifice is nothing,' added he; 'but, in the end, it will prove of +incalculable advantage to you.' I agreed to his enlightened proposal; +and from that hour to this, which is now about nine-and-thirty years, I +have never swallowed one glass of any kind of wine or of ardent spirits." + +After leaving college Waterton stayed at home with his father, and +enjoyed fox-hunting for a while. To the end of his days he liked to hear +of a good run, and he would now and then look with pleasure on an +engraving which hung in the usual dining-room at Walton Hall, +representing Lord Darlington, the first master of hounds he had known, +well seated on a powerful horse and surrounded by very muscular hounds. +In 1802 he went to visit two uncles in Spain, and stayed for more than a +year, and there had a terrible experience of pestilence and of +earthquake:-- + +"There began to be reports spread up and down the city that the black +vomit had made its appearance; and every succeeding day brought testimony +that things were not as they ought to be. I myself, in an alley near my +uncles' house, saw a mattress of most suspicious appearance hung out to +dry. A Maltese captain, who had dined with us in good health at one +o'clock, lay dead in his cabin before sunrise the next morning. A few +days after this I was seized with vomiting and fever during the night. I +had the most dreadful spasms, and it was supposed that I could not last +out till noon the next day. However, strength of constitution got me +through it. In three weeks more, multitudes were seen to leave the city, +which shortly after was declared to be in a state of pestilence. Some +affirmed that the disorder had come from the Levant; others said that it +had been imported from the Havanna; but I think it probable that nobody +could tell in what quarter it had originated. + +"We had now all retired to the country-house--my eldest uncle returning +to Malaga from time to time, according as the pressure of business +demanded his presence in the city. He left us one Sunday evening, and +said he would be back again some time on Monday; but that was my poor +uncle's last day's ride. On arriving at his house in Malaga, there was a +messenger waiting to inform him that Father Bustamante had fallen sick, +and wished to see him. Father Bustamante was an aged priest, who had +been particularly kind to my uncle on his first arrival in Malaga. My +uncle went immediately to Father Bustamante, gave him every consolation +in his power, and then returned to his own house very unwell, there to +die a martyr to his charity. Father Bustamante breathed his last before +daylight; my uncle took to his bed, and never rose more. As soon as we +had received information of his sickness, I immediately set out on foot +for the city. His friend, Mr. Power, now of Gibraltar, was already in +his room, doing everything that friendship could suggest or prudence +dictate. My uncle's athletic constitution bore up against the disease +much longer than we thought it possible. He struggled with it for five +days, and sank at last about the hour of sunset. He stood six feet four +inches high; and was of so kind and generous a disposition, that he was +beloved by all who knew him. Many a Spanish tear flowed when it was +known that he had ceased to be. We got him a kind of coffin made, in +which he was conveyed at midnight to the outskirts of the town, there to +be put into one of the pits which the galley-slaves had dug during the +day for the reception of the dead. But they could not spare room for the +coffin; so the body was taken out of it, and thrown upon the heap which +already occupied the pit. A Spanish marquis lay just below him. + +"Thousands died as though they had been seized with cholera, others with +black vomit, and others of decided yellow fever. There were a few +instances of some who departed this life with very little pain or bad +symptoms: they felt unwell, they went to bed, they had an idea that they +would not get better, and they expired in a kind of slumber. It was sad +in the extreme to see the bodies placed in the streets at the close of +day, to be ready for the dead-carts as they passed along. The dogs +howled fearfully during the night. All was gloom and horror in every +street; and you might see the vultures on the strand tugging at the +bodies which were washed ashore by the eastern wind. It was always said +that 50,000 people left the city at the commencement of the pestilence; +and that 14,000 of those who remained in it fell victims to the disease. + +"There was an intrigue going on at court, for the interest of certain +powerful people, to keep the port of Malaga closed long after the city +had been declared free from the disorder; so that none of the vessels in +the mole could obtain permission to depart for their destination. + +"In the meantime the city was shaken with earthquakes; shock succeeding +shock, till we all imagined that a catastrophe awaited us similar to that +which had taken place at Lisbon. The pestilence killed you by degrees, +and its approaches were sufficiently slow, in general, to enable you to +submit to it with firmness and resignation; but the idea of being +swallowed up alive by the yawning earth at a moment's notice, made you +sick at heart, and rendered you almost fearful of your own shadow. The +first shock took place at six in the evening, with a noise as though a +thousand carriages had dashed against each other. This terrified many +people to such a degree that they paced all night long up and down the +Alameda, or public walk, rather than retire to their homes. I went to +bed a little after midnight, but was roused by another shock about five +o'clock in the morning. It gave the bed a motion which made me fancy +that it moved under me from side to side. I sprang up, and having put on +my unmentionables (we wore no trousers in those days), I ran out, in all +haste, to the Alameda. There the scene was most distressing: multitudes +of both sexes, some nearly in a state of nudity, and others sick at +stomach, were huddled together, not knowing which way to turn or what to +do. + + --'Omnes eodem cogimur.' + +However, it pleased Heaven, in its mercy, to spare us. The succeeding +shocks became weaker and weaker, till at last we felt no more of them." + +A courageous sea-captain at last sailed away in safety, though chased by +the Spanish brigs of war, and after thirty days at sea Waterton landed in +England. + +Another uncle had estates in Demerara, and in the autumn Waterton sailed +thither from Portsmouth. He landed at Georgetown, Demerara, in November, +1804, and was soon delighted by the natural history of the tropical +forest. In 1806 his father died, and he returned to England. He made +four more journeys to Guiana, and, in 1825, published an account of them, +entitled "Wanderings in South America, the North-West of the United +States, and the Antilles, in the years 1812, 1816, 1820, and 1824; with +original instructions for the perfect preservation of birds, &c., for +cabinets of natural history." The two first journeys are now reprinted +from the original text. The book at once attracted general attention, +became popular, and has taken a place among permanent English literature. +Unlike most travellers, Waterton tells nothing of his personal +difficulties and discomforts, and encumbers his pages with neither +statistics nor information of the guidebook kind. His observation of +birds and beasts, written down in the forests, and the description of the +forests themselves, fill all his pages. The great ant-eater and the +sloth were for the first time accurately described by him. He showed +that the sloth, instead of being a deformed, unhappy creature, was +admirably adapted to its habitat. He explained the use of the great +claws of the ant-eater, and the curious gait which they necessitated. +The habits of the toucan, of the houtou, of the campanero, and of many +other birds, were first correctly described by him. He determined to +catch a cayman or alligator, and at last hooked one with a curious wooden +hook of four barbs made for him by an Indian. + +The adventure which followed is perhaps one of the most famous exploits +of an English naturalist. + +"We found a cayman, ten feet and a half long, fast to the end of the +rope. Nothing now remained to do, but to get him out of the water +without injuring his scales, 'hoc opus, hic labor.' We mustered strong: +there were three Indians from the creek, there was my own Indian, Yan; +Daddy Quashi, {24} the negro from Mrs. Peterson's; James, Mr. R. +Edmonstone's man, whom I was instructing to preserve birds; and, lastly, +myself. + +"I informed the Indians that it was my intention to draw him quietly out +of the water, and then secure him. They looked and stared at each other, +and said I might do it myself, but they would have no hand in it; the +cayman would worry some of us. On saying this, 'consedere duces,' they +squatted on their hams with the most perfect indifference. + +"The Indians of those wilds have never been subject to the least +restraint; and I knew enough of them to be aware, that if I tried to +force them against their will, they would take off, and leave me and my +presents unheeded, and never return. + +"Daddy Quashi was for applying to our guns, as usual, considering them +our best and safest friends. I immediately offered to knock him down for +his cowardice, and he shrank back, begging that I would be cautious, and +not get myself worried; and apologising for his own want of resolution. +My Indian was now in conversation with the others, and they asked me if I +would allow them to shoot a dozen arrows into him, and thus disable him. +This would have ruined all. I had come above three hundred miles on +purpose to get a cayman uninjured, and not to carry back a mutilated +specimen. I rejected their proposition with firmness, and darted a +disdainful eye upon the Indians. + +"Daddy Quashi was again beginning to remonstrate, and I chased him on the +sand-bank for a quarter of a mile. He told me afterwards, he thought he +should have dropped down dead with fright, for he was firmly persuaded, +if I had caught him, I should have bundled him into the cayman's jaws. +Here then we stood, in silence, like a calm before a thunder-storm. 'Hoc +res summa loco. Scinditur in contraria valgus.' They wanted to kill +him, and I wanted to take him alive. + +"I now walked up and down the sand, revolving a dozen projects in my +head. The canoe was at a considerable distance, and I ordered the people +to bring it round to the place where we were. The mast was eight feet +long, and not much thicker than my wrist. I took it out of the canoe, +and wrapped the sail round the end of it. Now it appeared clear to me, +that if I went down upon one knee, and held the mast in the same position +as the soldier holds his bayonet when rushing to the charge, I could +force it down the cayman's throat, should he come open-mouthed at me. +When this was told to the Indians, they brightened up, and said they +would help me to pull him out of the river. + +"'Brave squad!' said I to myself, '"Audax omnia perpeti," now that you +have got me betwixt yourselves and danger.' I then mustered all hands +for the last time before the battle. We were, four South American +savages, two negroes from Africa, a creole from Trinidad, and myself, a +white man from Yorkshire. In fact, a little Tower of Babel group, in +dress, no dress, address, and language. + +"Daddy Quashi hung in the rear; I showed him a large Spanish knife, which +I always carried in the waistband of my trousers: it spoke volumes to +him, and he shrugged up his shoulders in absolute despair. The sun was +just peeping over the high forests on the eastern hills, as if coming to +look on, and bid us act with becoming fortitude. I placed all the people +at the end of the rope, and ordered them to pull till the cayman appeared +on the surface of the water and then, should he plunge, to slacken the +rope and let him go again into the deep. + +"I now took the mast of the canoe in my hand (the sail being tied round +the end of the mast) and sank down upon one knee, about four yards from +the water's edge, determining to thrust it down his throat, in case he +gave me an opportunity. I certainly felt somewhat uncomfortable in this +situation, and I thought of Cerberus on the other side of the Styx ferry. +The people pulled the cayman to the surface; he plunged furiously as soon +as he arrived in these upper regions, and immediately went below again on +their slackening the rope. I saw enough not to fall in love at first +sight. I now told them we would run all risks, and have him on land +immediately. They pulled again, and out he came--'monstrum horrendum, +informe.' This was an interesting moment. I kept my position firmly, +with my eye fixed steadfast on him. + +"By the time the cayman was within two yards of me, I saw he was in a +state of fear and perturbation: I instantly dropped the mast, sprang up, +and jumped on his back, turning half round as I vaulted, so that I gained +my seat with my face in a right position. I immediately seized his +fore-legs, and by main force twisted them on his back; thus they served +me for a bridle. + +"He now seemed to have recovered from his surprise, and probably fancying +himself in hostile company, be began to plunge furiously, and lashed the +sand with his long and powerful tail. I was out of reach of the strokes +of it, by being near his head. He continued to plunge and strike, and +made my seat very uncomfortable. It must have been a fine sight for an +unoccupied spectator. + +"The people roared out in triumph, and were so vociferous, that it was +some time before they heard me tell them to pull me and my beast of +burthen farther in. I was apprehensive the rope might break, and then +there would have been every chance of going down to the regions under +water with the cayman. That would have been more perilous than Arion's +marine morning ride:-- + + 'Delphini insidens vada caerula sulcat Arion.' + +"The people now dragged us about forty yards on the sand; it was the +first and last time I was ever on a cayman's back. Should it be asked, +how I managed to keep my seat, I would answer--I hunted some years with +Lord Darlington's fox-hounds. + +"After repeated attempts to regain his liberty, the cayman gave in, and +became tranquil through exhaustion. I now managed to do up his jaws, and +firmly secured his fore-feet in the position I had held them. We had now +another severe struggle for superiority, but he was soon overcome, and +again remained quiet. While some of the people were pressing upon his +head and shoulders, I threw myself on his tail, and by keeping it down to +the sand, prevented him from kicking up another dust. He was finally +conveyed to the canoe, and then to the place where we had suspended our +hammocks. There I cut his throat; and after breakfast was over, +commenced the dissection." + +After his fourth journey Waterton occasionally travelled on the +Continent, but for the most part resided at Walton Hall. In the park he +made the observations afterwards published as "Essays on Natural +History," in three series, and since reprinted, with his Life and +Letters, by Messrs. Warne and Co. + +Walton Hall is situated on an island surrounded by its ancient moat, a +lake of about five-and-twenty acres in extent. From the shores of the +lake the land rises; parts of the slope, and nearly all the highest part, +being covered with wood. + +In one wood there was a large heronry, in another a rookery. Several +hollow trees were haunted by owls, in the summer goat-suckers were always +to be seen in the evening flying about two oaks on the hill. At one end +of the lake in summer the kingfisher might be watched fishing, and +throughout the year herons waded round its shores picking up fresh-water +mussels, or stood motionless for hours, watching for fish. In winter, +when the lake was frozen, three or four hundred wild duck, with teal and +pochards, rested on it all day, and flew away at night to feed; while +widgeons fed by day on its shores. Coots and water-hens used to come +close to the windows and pick up food put out for them. The Squire built +a wall nine feet high all round his park, and he used laughingly to say +that he paid for it with the cost of the wine which he did not drink +after dinner. + +A more delightful home for a naturalist could not have been. No shot was +ever fired within the park wall, and every year more birds came. +Waterton used often to quote the lines:-- + + "No bird that haunts my valley free + To slaughter I condemn; + Taught by the Power that pities me, + I learn to pity them;" + +and each new-comer added to his happiness. In his latter days the +household usually consisted of the Squire, as he was always called, and +of his two sisters-in-law, for he had lost his wife soon after his +marriage in 1829. He breakfasted at eight, dined in the middle of the +day, and drank tea in the evening. He went to bed early, and slept upon +the bare floor, with a block of wood for his pillow. He rose for the day +at half-past three, and spent the hour from four to five at prayer in his +chapel. He then read every morning a chapter in a Spanish Life of St. +Francis Xavier, followed by a chapter of "Don Quixote" in the original, +after which he used to stuff birds or write letters till breakfast. Most +of the day he spent in the open air, and when the weather was cold would +light a fire of sticks and warm himself by it. So active did he continue +to the end of his days, that on his eightieth birthday he climbed an oak +in my company. He was very kind to the poor, and threw open a beautiful +part of his park to excursionists all through the summer. He had a very +tender heart for beasts and birds, as well as for men. If a cat looked +hungry he would see that she had a meal, and sometimes when he had +forgotten to put a crust of bread in his pocket before starting on his +afternoon walk, he would say to his companion, "How shall we ever get +past that goose?" for there was a goose which used to wait for him in the +evening at the end of the bridge over the moat, and he could not bear to +disappoint it. If he could not find a bit of food for it, he would wait +at a distance till the bird went away, rather than give it nothing when +it raised its bill. + +Towards the end of his life I enjoyed his friendship, and can never +forget his kindly welcome, his pithy conversation, the happy humour with +which he expressed the conclusions of his long experience of men, birds +and beasts, and the goodness which shone from his face. I was staying at +Walton when he died, and have thus described his last hours in the +biography which is prefixed to the latest edition of his Essays. {31} I +was reading for an examination, and used, on the Squire's invitation, to +go and chat with him just after midnight, for at that hour be always +awoke, and paid a short visit to his chapel. A little before midnight on +May 24th I visited him in his room. He was sitting asleep by his fire +wrapped up in a large Italian cloak. + +His head rested upon his wooden pillow, which was placed on a table, and +his thick silvery hair formed a beautiful contrast with the dark colour +of the oak. He soon woke up, and withdrew to the chapel, and on his +return we talked together for three-quarters of an hour about the brown +owl, the nightjar, and other birds. The next morning, May 25, he was +unusually cheerful, and said to me, "That was a very pleasant little +confab we had last night: I do not suppose there was such another going +on in England at the same time." After breakfast we went with a +carpenter to finish some bridges at the far end of the park. The work +was completed, and we were proceeding homewards when, in crossing a small +bridge, a bramble caught the Squire's foot, and he fell heavily upon a +log. He was greatly shaken, and said he thought he was dying. He +walked, notwithstanding, a little way, and was then compelled to lie +down. He would not permit his sufferings to distract his mind, and he +pointed out to the carpenter some trees which were to be felled. He +presently continued his route, and managed to reach the spot where the +boat was moored. Hitherto he had refused all assistance, but he could +not step from the bank into the boat, and he said, "I am afraid I must +ask you to help me in." He walked from the landing-place into the house, +changed his clothes, and came and sat in the large room below. The pain +increasing, he rose from his seat after he had seen his doctor, and +though he had been bent double with anguish, he persisted in walking +up-stairs without help, and would have gone to his own room in the top +storey, if, for the sake of saving trouble to others, he had not been +induced to stop half-way in Miss Edmonstone's sitting-room. Here he lay +down upon the sofa, and was attended by his sisters-in-law. The pain +abated, and the next day he seemed better. In the afternoon he talked to +me a good deal, chiefly about natural history. But he was well aware of +his perilous condition, for he remarked to me, "This is a bad business," +and later on he felt his pulse often, and said, "It is a bad case." He +was more than self-possessed. A benignant cheerfulness beamed from his +mind, and in the fits of pain he frequently looked up with a gentle +smile, and made some little joke. Towards midnight he grew worse. The +priest, the Reverend R. Browne, was summoned, and Waterton got ready to +die. He pulled himself upright without help, sat in the middle of the +sofa, and gave his blessing in turn to his grandson, Charlie, to his +granddaughter, Mary, to each of his sisters-in-law, to his niece, and to +myself, and left a message for his son, who was hastening back from Rome. +He then received the last sacraments, repeated all the responses, Saint +Bernard's hymn in English, and the first two verses of the _Dies Irae_. +The end was now at hand, and he died at twenty-seven minutes past two in +the morning of May 27, 1865. The window was open. The sky was beginning +to grow grey, a few rooks had cawed, the swallows were twittering, the +landrail was craking from the Ox-close, and a favourite cock, which he +used to call his morning gun, leaped out from some hollies, and gave his +accustomed crow. The ear of his master was deaf to the call. He had +obeyed a sublimer summons, and had woke up to the glories of the eternal +world. + +He was buried on his birthday, the 3rd of June, between two great oaks at +the far end of the lake, the oldest trees in the park. He had put up a +rough stone cross to mark the spot where he wished to be buried. Often +on summer days he had sat in the shade of these oaks watching the +kingfishers. "Cock Robin and the magpies," he said to me as we sat by +the trees one day, "will mourn my loss, and you will sometimes remember +me when I lie here." At the foot of the cross is a Latin inscription +which he wrote himself. It could hardly be simpler: "Pray for the soul +of Charles Waterton, whose tired bones are buried near this cross." The +dates of his birth and death are added. + +Walton Hall is no longer the home of the Watertons, the oaks are too old +to flourish many years more, and in time the stone cross may be +overthrown and the exact burial place of Waterton be forgotten; but his +"Wanderings in South America" and his "Natural History Essays" will +always be read, and are for him a memorial like that claimed by the poet +he read oftenest-- + + "quod nec Jovis ira, nec ignes, + Nec poterit ferrum, nec edax abolere vetustas." + + NORMAN MOORE. + + + + +First Journey. + + + --"nec herba, nec latens in asperis + Radix fefellit me locis." + +In the month of April, 1812, I left the town of Stabroek, to travel +through the wilds of Demerara and Essequibo, a part of _ci-devant_ Dutch +Guiana, in South America. + +The chief objects in view were to collect a quantity of the strongest +wourali-poison; and to reach the inland frontier fort of Portuguese +Guiana. + +It would be a tedious journey for him who wishes to travel through these +wilds to set out from Stabroek on foot. The sun would exhaust him in his +attempts to wade through the swamps, and the mosquitos at night would +deprive him of every hour of sleep. + +The road for horses runs parallel to the river, but it extends a very +little way, and even ends before the cultivation of the plantation +ceases. + +The only mode then that remains is to proceed by water; and when you come +to the high lands, you may make your way through the forest on foot, or +continue your route on the river. + +After passing the third island in the river Demerara, there are few +plantations to be seen, and those not joining on to one another, but +separated by large tracts of wood. + +The Loo is the last where the sugar-cane is growing. The greater part of +its negroes have just been ordered to another estate; and ere a few +months shall have elapsed all signs of cultivation will be lost in +under-wood. + +Higher up stand the sugar-works of Amelia's Waard, solitary and +abandoned; and after passing these there is not a ruin to inform the +traveller that either coffee or sugar has been cultivated. + +From Amelia's Waard an unbroken range of forest covers each bank of the +river, saving here and there where a hut discovers itself, inhabited by +free people of colour, with a rood or two of bared ground about it; or +where the wood-cutter has erected himself a dwelling, and cleared a few +acres for pasturage. Sometimes you see level ground on each side of you +for two or three hours at a stretch; at other times a gently sloping hill +presents itself; and often, on turning a point, the eye is pleased with +the contrast of an almost perpendicular height jutting into the water. +The trees put you in mind of an eternal spring, with summer and autumn +kindly blended into it. + +Here you may see a sloping extent of noble trees, whose foliage displays +a charming variety of every shade from the lightest to the darkest green +and purple. The tops of some are crowned with bloom of the loveliest +hue; while the boughs of others bend with a profusion of seeds and +fruits. + +Those whose heads have been bared by time, or blasted by the +thunder-storm, strike the eye, as a mournful sound does the ear in music; +and seem to beckon to the sentimental traveller to stop a moment or two, +and see that the forests which surround him, like men and kingdoms, have +their periods of misfortune and decay. + +The first rocks of any considerable size that are observed on the side of +the river are at a place called Saba, from the Indian word, which means a +stone. They appear sloping down to the water's edge, not shelvy, but +smooth, and their exuberances rounded off, and, in some places, deeply +furrowed, as though they had been worn with continual floods of water. + +There are patches of soil up and down, and the huge stones amongst them +produce a pleasing and novel effect. You see a few coffee-trees of a +fine luxuriant growth; and nearly on the top of Saba stands the house of +the post-holder. + +He is appointed by government to give in his report to the protector of +the Indians of what is going on amongst them, and to prevent suspicious +people from passing up the river. + +When the Indians assemble here the stranger may have an opportunity of +seeing the aborigines dancing to the sound of their country music, and +painted in their native style. They will shoot their arrows for him with +an unerring aim, and send the poisoned dart from the blow-pipe true to +its destination; and here he may often view all the different shades, +from the red savage to the white man, and from the white man to the +sootiest son of Africa. + +Beyond this post there are no more habitations of white men, or free +people of colour. + +In a country so extensively covered with wood as this is, having every +advantage that a tropical sun and the richest mould, in many places, can +give to vegetation, it is natural to look for trees of very large +dimensions; but it is rare to meet with them above six yards in +circumference. If larger have ever existed, they had fallen a sacrifice +either to the axe or to fire. + +If, however, they disappoint you in size, they make ample amends in +height. Heedless and bankrupt in all curiosity must he be who can +journey on without stopping to take a view of the towering mora. Its +topmost branch, when naked with age or dried by accident, is the +favourite resort of the toucan. Many a time has this singular bird felt +the shot faintly strike him from the gun of the fowler beneath, and owed +his life to the distance betwixt them. + +The trees which form these far-extending wilds are as useful as they are +ornamental. It would take a volume of itself to describe them. + +The green-heart, famous for its hardness and durability; the hackea, for +its toughness; the ducalabali, surpassing mahogany; the ebony and +letter-wood vieing with the choicest woods of the old world; the locust +tree, yielding copal; and the hayawa and olon trees, furnishing a +sweet-smelling resin, are all to be met with in the forest, betwixt the +plantations and the rock Saba. + +Beyond this rock the country has been little explored; but it is very +probable that these, and a vast collection of other kinds, and possibly +many new species, are scattered up and down, in all directions, through +the swamps, and hills, and savannas of _ci-devant_ Dutch Guiana. + +On viewing the stately trees around him the naturalist will observe many +of them bearing leaves, and blossoms, and fruit, not their own. + +The wild fig-tree, as large as a common English apple-tree, often rears +itself from one of the thick branches at the top of the mora; and when +its fruit is ripe, to it the birds resort for nourishment. It was to an +undigested seed, passing through the body of the bird which had perched +on the mora, that the fig-tree first owed its elevated station there. +The sap of the mora raised it into full bearing; but now, in its turn, it +is doomed to contribute a portion of its own sap and juices towards the +growth of different species of vines, the seeds of which, also, the birds +deposited on its branches. These soon vegetate, and bear fruit in great +quantities; so what with their usurpation of the resources of the +fig-tree, and the fig-tree of the mora, the mora, unable to support a +charge which nature never intended it should, languishes and dies under +its burden; and then the fig-tree, and its usurping progeny of vines, +receiving no more succour from their late foster-parent, droop and perish +in their turn. + +A vine called the bush-rope by the wood-cutters, on account of its use in +hauling out the heaviest timber, has a singular appearance in the forests +of Demerara. Sometimes you see it nearly as thick as a man's body, +twisted like a cork-screw round the tallest trees, and rearing its head +high above their tops. At other times three or four of them, like +strands in a cable, join tree and tree and branch and branch together. +Others, descending from on high, take root as soon as their extremity +touches the ground, and appear like shrouds and stays supporting the +main-mast of a line-of-battle ship; while others, sending out parallel, +oblique, horizontal, and perpendicular shoots in all directions, put you +in mind of what travellers call a matted forest. Oftentimes a tree, +above a hundred feet high, uprooted by the whirlwind, is stopped in its +fall by these amazing cables of nature; and hence it is that you account +for the phenomenon of seeing trees not only vegetating, but sending forth +vigorous shoots, though far from their perpendicular, and their trunks +inclined to every degree from the meridian to the horizon. + +Their heads remain firmly supported by the bush-rope; many of their roots +soon refix themselves in the earth, and frequently a strong shoot will +sprout out perpendicularly from near the root of the reclined trunk, and +in time become a fine tree. No grass grows under the trees; and few +weeds, except in the swamps. + +The high grounds are pretty clear of underwood, and with a cutlass to +sever the small bush-ropes, it is not difficult walking among the trees. + +The soil, chiefly formed by the fallen leaves and decayed trees, is very +rich and fertile in the valleys. On the hills it is little better than +sand. The rains seem to have carried away and swept into the valleys +every particle which nature intended to have formed a mould. + +Four-footed animals are scarce, considering how very thinly these forests +are inhabited by men. + +Several species of the animal commonly called tiger, though in reality it +approaches nearer to the leopard, are found here; and two of their +diminutives, named tiger-cats. The tapir, the labba, and deer, afford +excellent food, and chiefly frequent the swamps and low ground, near the +sides of the river and creeks. + +In stating that four-footed animals are scarce, the peccary must be +excepted. Three or four hundred of them herd together, and traverse the +wilds in all directions, in quest of roots and fallen seeds. The Indians +mostly shoot them with poisoned arrows. When wounded, they run about one +hundred and fifty paces; they then drop, and make wholesome food. + +The red monkey, erroneously called the baboon, is heard oftener than it +is seen; while the common brown monkey, the bisa, and sacawinki, rove +from tree to tree, and amuse the stranger as he journeys on. + +A species of the polecat, and another of the fox, are destructive to the +Indian's poultry; while the opossum, the guana, and salempenta afford him +a delicious morsel. + +The small ant-bear, and the large one, remarkable for its long, broad +bushy tail, are sometimes seen on the tops of the wood-ants' nests; the +armadillos bore in the sand-hills, like rabbits in a warren; and the +porcupine is now and then discovered in the trees over your head. + +This, too, is the native country of the sloth. His looks, his gestures, +and his cries, all conspire to entreat you to take pity on him. These +are the only weapons of defence which nature has given him. While other +animals assemble in herds, or in pairs range through these boundless +wilds, the sloth is solitary, and almost stationary; he cannot escape +from you. It is said, his piteous moans make the tiger relent, and turn +out of the way. Do not then level your gun at him, or pierce him with a +poisoned arrow; he has never hurt one living creature. A few leaves, and +those of the commonest and coarsest kind, are all he asks for his +support. On comparing him with other animals, you would say that you +could perceive deficiency, deformity, and superabundance in his +composition. He has no cutting teeth, and though four stomachs, he still +wants the long intestines of ruminating animals. He has only one +inferior aperture, as in birds. He has no soles to his feet, nor has he +the power of moving his toes separately. His hair is flat, and puts you +in mind of grass withered by the wintry blast. His legs are too short; +they appear deformed by the manner in which they are joined to the body; +and when he is on the ground, they seem as if only calculated to be of +use in climbing trees. He has forty-six ribs, while the elephant has +only forty; and his claws are disproportionably long. Were you to mark +down, upon a graduated scale, the different claims to superiority amongst +the four-footed animals, this poor ill-formed creature's claim would be +the last upon the lowest degree. + +Demerara yields to no country in the world in her wonderful and beautiful +productions of the feathered race. Here the finest precious stones are +far surpassed by the vivid tints which adorn the birds. The naturalist +may exclaim, that nature has not known where to stop in forming new +species, and painting her requisite shades. Almost every one of those +singular and elegant birds described by Buffon as belonging to Cayenne +are to be met with in Demerara; but it is only by an indefatigable +naturalist that they are to be found. + +The scarlet curlew breeds in innumerable quantities in the muddy islands +on the coasts of Pomauron; the egrets and crabiers in the same place. +They resort to the mud-flats at ebbing water, while thousands of +sandpipers and plovers, with here and there a spoonbill and flamingo, are +seen amongst them. The pelicans go farther out to sea, but return at +sundown to the courada trees. The humming-birds are chiefly to be found +near the flowers at which each of the species of the genus is wont to +feed. The pie, the gallinaceous, the columbine, and passerine tribes, +resort to the fruit-bearing trees. + +You never fail to see the common vulture where there is carrion. In +passing up the river there was an opportunity of seeing a pair of the +king of the vultures; they were sitting on the naked branch of a tree, +with about a dozen of the common ones with them. A tiger had killed a +goat the day before; he had been driven away in the act of sucking the +blood, and not finding it safe or prudent to return, the goat remained in +the same place where he had killed it; it had begun to putrefy, and the +vultures had arrived that morning to claim the savoury morsel. + +At the close of day, the vampires leave the hollow trees, whither they +had fled at the morning's dawn, and scour along the river's banks in +quest of prey. On waking from sleep, the astonished traveller finds his +hammock all stained with blood. It is the vampire that has sucked him. +Not man alone, but every unprotected animal, is exposed to his +depredations; and so gently does this nocturnal surgeon draw the blood, +that instead of being roused, the patient is lulled into a still +profounder sleep. There are two species of vampire in Demerara, and both +suck living animals; one is rather larger than the common bat; the other +measures above two feet from wing to wing extended. + +Snakes are frequently met with in the woods betwixt the sea-coast and the +rock Saba, chiefly near the creeks and on the banks of the river. They +are large, beautiful, and formidable. The rattlesnake seems partial to a +tract of ground known by the name of Canal Number Three; there the +effects of his poison will be long remembered. + +The camoudi snake has been killed from thirty to forty feet long; though +not venomous, his size renders him destructive to the passing animals. +The Spaniards in the Oroonoque positively affirm that he grows to the +length of seventy or eighty feet, and that he will destroy the strongest +and largest bull. His name seems to confirm this; there he is called +"matatoro," which literally means "bull-killer." Thus he may be ranked +amongst the deadly snakes: for it comes nearly to the same thing in the +end, whether the victim dies by poison from the fangs, which corrupts his +blood and makes it stink horribly, or whether his body be crushed to +mummy and swallowed by this hideous beast. + +The whipsnake, of a beautiful changing green, and the coral with +alternate broad transverse bars of black and red, glide from bush to +bush, and may be handled with safety; they are harmless little creatures. + +The labarri snake is speckled, of a dirty brown colour, and can scarcely +be distinguished from the ground or stump on which he is coiled up; he +grows to the length of about eight feet, and his bite often proves fatal +in a few minutes. + +Unrivalled in his display of every lovely colour of the rainbow, and +unmatched in the effects of his deadly poison, the counacouchi glides +undaunted on, sole monarch of these forests; he is commonly known by the +name of the bush-master. Both man and beast fly before him, and allow +him to pursue an undisputed path. He sometimes grows to the length of +fourteen feet. + +A few small caymans, from two to twelve feet long, may be observed now +and then in passing up and down the river: they just keep their heads +above the water, and a stranger would not know them from a rotten stump. + +Lizards of the finest green, brown, and copper colour, from two inches to +two feet and a half long, are ever and anon rustling among the fallen +leaves, and crossing the path before you; whilst the chameleon is busily +employed in chasing insects round the trunks of the neighbouring trees. + +The fish are of many different sorts, and well-tasted, but not, generally +speaking, very plentiful. It is probable that their numbers are +considerably thinned by the otters, which are much larger than those of +Europe. In going through the overflowed savannas which have all a +communication with the river, you may often see a dozen or two of them +sporting among the sedges before you. + +This warm and humid climate seems particularly adapted to the producing +of insects; it gives birth to myriads, beautiful past description in +their variety of tints, astonishing in their form and size, and many of +them noxious in their qualities. + +He whose eye can distinguish the various beauties of uncultivated nature, +and whose ear is not shut to the wild sounds in the woods, will be +delighted in passing up the river Demerara. Every now and then, the maam +or tinamou sends forth one long and plaintive whistle from the depths of +the forest, and then stops; whilst the yelping of the toucan, and the +shrill voice of the bird called pi-pi-yo, is heard during the interval. +The campanero never fails to attract the attention of the passenger: at a +distance of nearly three miles you may hear this snow-white bird tolling +every four or five minutes, like the distant convent bell. From six to +nine in the morning the forests resound with the mingled cries and +strains of the feathered race; after this they gradually die away. From +eleven to three all nature is hushed as in a midnight silence, and scarce +a note is heard, saving that of the campanero and the pi-pi-yo; it is +then that, oppressed by the solar heat, the birds retire to the thickest +shade and wait for the refreshing cool of evening. + +At sun-down the vampires, bats, and goat-suckers dart from their lonely +retreat, and skim along the trees on the river's bank. The different +kinds of frogs almost stun the ear with their hoarse and hollow-sounding +croaking, while the owls and goat-suckers lament and mourn all night +long. + +About two hours before daybreak you will hear the red monkey moaning as +though in deep distress; the houtou, a solitary bird, and only found in +the thickest recesses of the forest, distinctly articulates, "houtou, +houtou," in a low and plaintive tone, an hour before sunrise; the maam +whistles about the same hour; the hannaquoi, pataca, and maroudi announce +his near approach to the eastern horizon, and the parrots and parroquets +confirm his arrival there. + +The crickets chirp from sunset to sunrise, and often during the day, when +the weather is cloudy. The beterouge is exceeding numerous in these +extensive wilds, and not only man, but beasts and birds, are tormented by +it. Mosquitos are very rare after you pass the third island in the +Demerara, and sand-flies but seldom appear. + +Courteous reader, here thou hast the outlines of an amazing landscape +given thee; thou wilt see that the principal parts of it are but faintly +traced, some of them scarcely visible at all, and that the shades are +wholly wanting. If thy soul partakes of the ardent flame which the +persevering Mungo Park's did, these outlines will be enough for thee: for +they will give some idea of what a noble country this is: and if thou +hast but courage to set about giving the world a finished picture of it, +neither materials to work on, nor colours to paint it in its true shades, +will be wanting to thee. It may appear a difficult task at a distance; +but look close at it, and it is nothing at all; provided thou hast but a +quiet mind, little more is necessary, and the Genius which presides over +these wilds will kindly help thee through the rest. She will allow thee +to slay the fawn, and to cut down the mountain-cabbage for thy support, +and to select from every part of her domain whatever may be necessary for +the work thou art about; but having killed a pair of doves in order to +enable thee to give mankind a true and proper description of them, thou +must not destroy a third through wantonness, or to show what a good +marksman thou art; that would only blot the picture thou art finishing, +not colour it. + +Though retired from the haunts of men, and even without a friend with +thee, thou wouldst not find it solitary. The crowing of the hannaquoi +will sound in thine ears like the daybreak town-clock; and the wren and +the thrush will join with thee in thy matin hymn to thy Creator, to thank +Him for thy night's rest. + +At noon the Genius will lead thee to the troely, one leaf of which will +defend thee from both sun and rain. And if, in the cool of the evening, +thou hast been tempted to stray too far from thy place of abode, and art +deprived of light to write down the information thou hast collected, the +firefly, which thou wilt see in almost every bush around thee, will be +thy candle. Hold it over thy pocket-book, in any position which thou +knowest will not hurt it, and it will afford thee ample light. And when +thou hast done with it, put it kindly back again on the next branch to +thee. It will want no other reward for its services. + +When in thy hammock, should the thought of thy little crosses and +disappointments, in thy ups and downs through life, break in upon thee, +and throw thee into a pensive mood, the owl will bear thee company. She +will tell thee that hard has been her fate too; and, at intervals, +"Whip-poor-Will" and "Willy come go" will take up the tale of sorrow. +Ovid has told thee how the owl once boasted the human form, and lost it +for a very small offence; and were the poet alive now, he would inform +thee that "Whip-poor-Will," and "Willy come go," are the shades of those +poor African and Indian slaves, who died worn out and broken-hearted. +They wail and cry, "Whip-poor-Will," "Willy come go," all night long; and +often when the moon shines you see them sitting on the green turf, near +the houses of those whose ancestors tore them from the bosom of their +helpless families, which all probably perished through grief and want +after their support was gone. + +About an hour above the rock of Saba stands the habitation of an Indian, +called Simon, on the top of a hill. The side next the river is almost +perpendicular, and you may easily throw a stone over to the opposite +bank. Here there was an opportunity of seeing man in his rudest state. +The Indians who frequented this habitation, though living in the midst of +woods, bore evident marks of attention to their persons. Their hair was +neatly collected, and tied up in a knot; their bodies fancifully painted +red, and the paint was scented with hayawa. This gave them a gay and +animated appearance. Some of them had on necklaces, composed of the +teeth of wild boars slain in the chase; many wore rings, and others had +an ornament on the left arm, midway betwixt the shoulder and the elbow. +At the close of day they regularly bathed in the river below; and the +next morning seemed busy in renewing the faded colours of their faces. + +One day there came into the hut a form which literally might be called +the wild man of the woods. On entering, he laid down a ball of wax, +which he had collected in the forest. His hammock was all ragged and +torn; and his bow, though of good wood, was without any ornament or +polish; "erubuit domino, cultior esse suo." His face was meagre, his +looks forbidding, and his whole appearance neglected. His long black +hair hung from his head in matted confusion; nor had his body to all +appearance ever been painted. They gave him some cassava bread and +boiled fish, which he ate voraciously, and soon after left the hut. As +he went out you could observe no traces in his countenance or demeanour +which indicated that he was in the least mindful of having been benefited +by the society he was just leaving. + +The Indians said that he had neither wife, nor child, nor friend. They +had often tried to persuade him to come and live amongst them; but all +was of no avail. He went roving on, plundering the wild bees of their +honey, and picking up the fallen nuts and fruits of the forest. When he +fell in with game, he procured fire from two sticks, and cooked it on the +spot. When a hut happened to be in his way, he stepped in and asked for +something to eat, and then months elapsed ere they saw him again. They +did not know what had caused him to be thus unsettled; he had been so for +years; nor did they believe that even old age itself would change the +habits of this poor, harmless, solitary wanderer. + +From Simon's, the traveller may reach the large fall with ease in four +days. + +The first falls that he meets are merely rapids, scarce a stone appearing +above the water in the rainy season; and those in the bed of the river +barely high enough to arrest the water's course, and by causing a +bubbling, show that they are there. + +With this small change of appearance in the stream, the stranger observes +nothing new till he comes within eight or ten miles of the great fall. +Each side of the river presents an uninterrupted range of wood, just as +it did below. All the productions found betwixt the plantations and the +rock Saba are to be met with here. + +From Simon's to the great fall there are five habitations of the +Indians--two of them close to the river's side; the other three a little +way in the forest. These habitations consist of from four to eight huts, +situated on about an acre of ground which they have cleared from the +surrounding woods. A few pappaw, cotton, and mountain cabbage-trees are +scattered round them. + +At one of these habitations a small quantity of the wourali-poison was +procured. It was in a little gourd. The Indian who had it said that he +had killed a number of wild hogs with it and two tapirs. Appearances +seemed to confirm what he had said; for on one side it had been nearly +taken out to the bottom at different times, which probably would not have +been the case had the first or second trial failed. + +Its strength was proved on a middle-sized dog. He was wounded in the +thigh, in order that there might be no possibility of touching a vital +part. In three or four minutes he began to be affected, smelt at every +little thing on the ground around him, and looked wistfully at the +wounded part. Soon after this he staggered, laid himself down, and never +rose more. He barked once, though not as if in pain. His voice was low +and weak; and in a second attempt it quite failed him. He now put his +head betwixt his fore-legs, and raising it slowly again, he fell over on +his side. His eyes immediately became fixed, and though his extremities +every now and then shot convulsively, he never showed the least desire to +raise up his head. His heart fluttered much from the time he lay down, +and at intervals beat very strong; then stopped for a moment or two, and +then beat again; and continued faintly beating several minutes after +every other part of his body seemed dead. + +In a quarter of an hour after he had received the poison he was quite +motionless. + +A few miles before you reach the great fall, and which, indeed, is the +only one which can be called a fall, large balls of froth come floating +past you. The river appears beautifully marked with streaks of foam, and +on your nearer approach the stream is whitened all over. + +At first, you behold the fall rushing down a bed of rocks, with a +tremendous noise, divided into two foamy streams, which at their junction +again form a small island covered with wood. Above this island, for a +short space, there appears but one stream all white with froth, and +fretting and boiling amongst the huge rocks which obstruct its course. + +Higher up it is seen dividing itself into a short channel or two, and +trees grow on the rocks which caused its separation. The torrent in many +places has eaten deep into the rocks, and split them into large fragments +by driving others against them. The trees on the rocks are in bloom and +vigour, though their roots are half bared, and many of them bruised and +broken by the rushing waters. + +This is the general appearance of the fall from the level of the water +below to where the river is smooth and quiet above. It must be +remembered that this is during the periodical rains. Probably in the dry +season it puts on a very different appearance. There is no perpendicular +fall of water of any consequence throughout it, but the dreadful roaring +and rushing of the torrent down a long, rocky, and moderately sloping +channel has a fine effect; and the stranger returns well pleased with +what he has seen. No animal, nor craft of any kind, could stem this +downward flood. In a few moments the first would be killed, the second +dashed in pieces. + +The Indians have a path alongside of it, through the forest, where +prodigious crabwood trees grow. Up this path they drag their canoes, and +launch them into the river above; and on their return bring them down the +same way. + +About two hours below this fall is the habitation of an Acoway chief +called Sinkerman. At night you hear the roaring of the fall from it. It +is pleasantly situated on the top of a sand-hill. At this place you have +the finest view the river Demerara affords: three tiers of hills rise in +slow gradation, one above the other before you, and present a grand and +magnificent scene, especially to him who has been accustomed to a level +country. + +Here, a little after midnight on the first of May, was heard a most +strange and unaccountable noise; it seemed as though several regiments +were engaged, and musketry firing with great rapidity. The Indians, +terrified beyond description, left their hammocks and crowded all +together, like sheep at the approach of the wolf. There were no soldiers +within three or four hundred miles. Conjecture was of no avail, and all +conversation next morning on the subject was as useless and +unsatisfactory as the dead silence which succeeded to the noise. + +He who wishes to reach the Macoushi country had better send his canoe +over land from Sinkerman's to the Essequibo. + +There is a pretty good path, and meeting a creek about three-quarters of +the way, it eases the labour, and twelve Indians will arrive with it in +the Essequibo in four days. + +The traveller need not attend his canoe; there is a shorter and a better +way. Half an hour below Sinkerman's he finds a little creek on the +western bank of the Demerara. After proceeding about a couple of hundred +yards up it, he leaves it, and pursues a west-north-west direction by +land for the Essequibo. The path is good, though somewhat rugged with +the roots of trees, and here and there obstructed by fallen ones; it +extends more over level ground than otherwise. There are a few steep +ascents and descents in it, with a little brook running at the bottom of +them; but they are easily passed over, and the fallen trees serve for a +bridge. + +You may reach the Essequibo with ease in a day and a half; and so matted +and interwoven are the tops of the trees above you, that the sun is not +felt once all the way, saving where the space which a newly-fallen tree +occupied lets in his rays upon you. The forest contains an abundance of +wild hogs, lobbas, acouries, powisses, maams, maroudis, and waracabas for +your nourishment, and there are plenty of leaves to cover a shed whenever +you are inclined to sleep. + +The soil has three-fourths of sand in it, till you come within half an +hour's walk of the Essequibo, where you find a red gravel and rocks. In +this retired and solitary tract, nature's garb, to all appearance, has +not been injured by fire, nor her productions broken in upon by the +exterminating hand of man. + +Here the finest green-heart grows, and wallaba, purple-heart, siloabali, +sawari, buletre, tauronira, and mora, are met with in vast abundance, far +and near, towering up in majestic grandeur, straight as pillars sixty or +seventy feet high, without a knot, or branch. + +Traveller, forget for a little while the idea thou hast of wandering +farther on, and stop and look at this grand picture of vegetable nature; +it is a reflection of the crowd thou hast lately been in, and though a +silent monitor, it is not a less eloquent one on that account. See that +noble purple-heart before thee! Nature has been kind to it. Not a hole, +not the least oozing from its trunk, to show that its best days are past. +Vigorous in youthful blooming beauty, it stands the ornament of these +sequestered wilds, and tacitly rebukes those base ones of thine own +species who have been hardy enough to deny the existence of Him who +ordered it to flourish there. + +Behold that one next to it!--Hark! how the hammerings of the red-headed +woodpecker resound through its distempered boughs! See what a quantity +of holes he has made in it, and how its bark is stained with the drops +which trickle down from them. The lightning, too, has blasted one side +of it. Nature looks pale and wan in its leaves, and her resources are +nearly dried up in its extremities; its sap is tainted; a mortal +sickness, slow as a consumption, and as sure in its consequences, has +long since entered its frame, vitiating and destroying the wholesome +juices there. + +Step a few paces aside, and cast thine eye on that remnant of a mora +behind it. Best part of its branches, once so high and ornamental, now +lie on the ground in sad confusion one upon the other, all shattered and +fungus-grown, and a prey to millions of insects, which are busily +employed in destroying them. One branch of it still looks healthy! Will +it recover? No, it cannot; nature has already run her course, and that +healthy looking branch is only as a fallacious good symptom in him who is +just about to die of a mortification when he feels no more pain, and +fancies his distemper has left him; it is as the momentary gleam of a +wintry sun's ray close to the western horizon.--See! while we are +speaking, a gust of wind has brought the tree to the ground, and made +room for its successor. + +Come farther on, and examine that apparently luxuriant tauronira on thy +right hand. It boasts a verdure not its own; they are false ornaments it +wears; the bush-rope and bird-vines have clothed it from the root to its +topmost branch. The succession of fruit which it hath borne, like good +cheer in the houses of the great, has invited the birds to resort to it, +and they have disseminated beautiful, though destructive, plants on its +branches, which, like the distempers vice brings into the human frame, +rob it of all its health and vigour; they have shortened its days, and +probably in another year they will finally kill it, long before nature +intended that it should die. + +Ere thou leavest this interesting scene, look on the ground around thee, +and see what everything here below must come to. + +Behold that newly fallen wallaba! The whirlwind has uprooted it in its +prime, and it has brought down to the ground a dozen small ones in its +fall. Its bark has already begun to drop off! And that heart of mora +close by it is fast yielding, in spite of its firm, tough texture. + +The tree which thou passedst but a little ago, and which perhaps has lain +over yonder brook for years, can now hardly support itself, and in a few +months more it will have fallen into the water. + +Put thy foot on that large trunk thou seest to the left. It seems entire +amid the surrounding fragments. Mere outward appearance, delusive +phantom of what it once was! Tread on it, and like the fuss-ball, it +will break into dust. + +Sad and silent mementoes to the giddy traveller as he wanders on! +Prostrate remnants of vegetable nature, how incontestably ye prove what +we must all at last come to, and how plain your mouldering ruins show +that the firmest texture avails us nought when Heaven wills that we +should cease to be!-- + + "The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, + The solemn temples, the great globe itself, + Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, + And, like the baseless fabric of a vision, + Leave not a rack behind." + +Cast thine eye around thee, and see the thousands of nature's +productions. Take a view of them from the opening seed on the surface, +sending a downward shoot, to the loftiest and the largest trees, rising +up and blooming in wild luxuriance; some side by side, others separate; +some curved and knotty, others straight as lances, all in beautiful +gradation, fulfilling the mandates they had received from Heaven, and +though condemned to die, still never failing to keep up their species +till time shall be no more. + +Reader, must thou not be induced to dedicate a few months to the good of +the public, and examine with thy scientific eye the productions which the +vast and well-stored colony of Demerara presents to thee? + +What an immense range of forest is there from the rock Saba to the great +fall! and what an uninterrupted extent before thee from it to the banks +of the Essequibo! No doubt, there is many a balsam and many a medicinal +root yet to be discovered, and many a resin, gum, and oil yet unnoticed. +Thy work would be a pleasing one, and thou mightest make several useful +observations in it. + +Would it be thought impertinent in thee to hazard a conjecture, that, +with the resources the Government of Demerara has, stones might be +conveyed from the rock Saba to Stabroek to stem the equinoctial tides, +which are for ever sweeping away the expensive wooden piles around the +mounds of the fort? Or would the timber-merchant point at thee in +passing by, and call thee a descendant of La Mancha's knight, because +thou maintainest that the stones which form the rapids might be removed +with little expense, and thus open the navigation to the woodcutter from +Stabroek to the great fall? Or wouldst thou be deemed enthusiastic or +biassed, because thou givest it as thy opinion that the climate in these +high lands is exceedingly wholesome, and the lands themselves capable of +nourishing and maintaining any number of settlers? In thy dissertation +on the Indians, thou mightest hint, that possibly they could be induced +to help the new settlers a little; and that, finding their labours well +requited, it would be the means of their keeping up a constant +communication with us, which probably might he the means of laying the +first stone towards their Christianity. They are a poor, harmless, +inoffensive set of people, and their wanderings and ill-provided way of +living seem more to ask for pity from us, than to fill our heads with +thoughts that they would be hostile to us. + +What a noble field, kind reader, for thy experimental philosophy and +speculations, for thy learning, for thy perseverance, for thy +kind-heartedness, for everything that is great and good within thee! + +The accidental traveller who has journeyed on from Stabroek to the rock +Saba, and from thence to the banks of the Essequibo, in pursuit of other +things, as he told thee at the beginning, with but an indifferent +interpreter to talk to, no friend to converse with, and totally unfit for +that which he wishes thee to do, can merely mark the outlines of the path +he has trodden, or tell thee the sounds he has heard, or faintly describe +what he has seen in the environs of his resting-places; but if this be +enough to induce thee to undertake the journey, and give the world a +description of it, he will be amply satisfied. + +It will be two days and a half from the time of entering the path on the +western bank of the Demerara till all be ready, and the canoe fairly +afloat on the Essequibo. The new rigging it, and putting every little +thing to rights and in its proper place, cannot well be done in less than +a day. + +After being night and day in the forest impervious to the sun and moon's +rays, the sudden transition to light has a fine heart-cheering effect. +Welcome as a lost friend, the solar beam makes the frame rejoice, and +with it a thousand enlivening thoughts rush at once on the soul, and +disperse, as a vapour, every sad and sorrowful idea, which the deep gloom +had helped to collect there. In coming out of the woods, you see the +western bank of the Essequibo before you, low and flat. Here the river +is two-thirds as broad as the Demerara at Stabroek. + +To the northward there is a hill higher than any in the Demerara; and in +the south-south-west quarter a mountain. It is far away, and appears +like a bluish cloud in the horizon. There is not the least opening on +either side. Hills, valleys, and lowlands, are all linked together by a +chain of forest. Ascend the highest mountain, climb the loftiest tree, +as far as the eye can extend, whichever way it directs itself, all is +luxuriant and unbroken forest. + +In about nine or ten hours from this, you get to an Indian habitation of +three huts, on the point of an island. It is said that a Dutch post once +stood here; but there is not the smallest vestige of it remaining, and, +except that the trees appear younger than those on the other islands, +which shows that the place has been cleared some time or other, there is +no mark left by which you can conjecture that ever this was a post. + +The many islands which you meet with in the way, enliven and change the +scene, by the avenues which they make, which look like the mouths of +other rivers, and break that long-extended sameness which is seen in the +Demerara. + +Proceeding onwards, you get to the falls and rapids. In the rainy season +they are very tedious to pass, and often stop your course. In the dry +season, by stepping from rock to rock, the Indians soon manage to get a +canoe over them. But when the river is swollen, as it was in May, 1812, +it is then a difficult task, and often a dangerous one too. At that time +many of the islands were overflowed, the rocks covered, and the lower +branches of the trees in the water. Sometimes the Indians were obliged +to take everything out of the canoe, cut a passage through the branches, +which hung over into the river, and then drag up the canoe by main force. + +At one place, the falls form an oblique line quite across the river, +impassable to the ascending canoe, and you are forced to have it dragged +four or five hundred yards by land. + +It will take you five days, from the Indian habitation on the point of +the island, to where these falls and rapids terminate. + +There are no huts in the way. You must bring your own cassava-bread +along with you, hunt in the forest for your meat, and make the night's +shelter for yourself. + +Here is a noble range of hills, all covered with the finest trees, rising +majestically one above the other, on the western bank, and presenting as +rich a scene as ever the eye would wish to look on. Nothing in vegetable +nature can be conceived more charming, grand, and luxuriant. + +How the heart rejoices in viewing this beautiful landscape! when the sky +is serene, the air cool, and the sun just sunk behind the mountain's top. + +The hayawa-tree perfumes the woods around; pairs of scarlet aras are +continually crossing the river. The maam sends forth its plaintive note, +the wren chants its evening song. The caprimulgus wheels in busy flight +around the canoe, while "whip-poor-will" sits on the broken stump near +the water's edge, complaining as the shades of night set in. + +A little before you pass the last of these rapids two immense rocks +appear, nearly on the summit of one of the many hills which form this +far-extending range where it begins to fall off gradually to the south. + +They look like two ancient stately towers of some Gothic potentate, +rearing their heads above the surrounding trees. What with their +situation and their shape together, they strike the beholder with an idea +of antiquated grandeur which he will never forget. He may travel far and +near and see nothing like them. On looking at them through a glass, the +summit of the southern one appeared crowned with bushes. The one to the +north was quite bare. The Indians have it from their ancestors that they +are the abode of an evil genius, and they pass in the river below with a +reverential awe. + +In about seven hours from these stupendous sons of the hill, you leave +the Essequibo, and enter the river Apourapoura, which falls into it from +the south. The Apourapoura is nearly one-third the size of the Demerara +at Stabroek. For two days you see nothing but level ground, richly +clothed in timber. You leave the Siparouni to the right hand, and on the +third day come to a little hill. The Indians have cleared about an acre +of ground on it, and erected a temporary shed. If it be not intended for +provision-ground alone, perhaps the next white man who travels through +these remote wilds will find an Indian settlement here. + +Two days after leaving this, you get to a rising ground on the western +bank, where stands a single hut; and about half a mile in the forest +there are a few more; some of them square, and some round with spiral +roofs. + +Here the fish called pacou is very plentiful: it is perhaps the fattest +and most delicious fish in Guiana. It does not take the hook, but the +Indians decoy it to the surface of the water by means of the seeds of the +crabwood-tree, and then shoot it with an arrow. + +You are now within the borders of Macoushia, inhabited by a different +tribe of people, called Macoushi Indians; uncommonly dexterous in the use +of the blowpipe, and famous for their skill in preparing the deadly +vegetable poison commonly called wourali. + +It is from this country that those beautiful paroquets named kessi-kessi +are procured. Here the crystal mountains are found; and here the three +different species of the ara are seen in great abundance. Here, too, +grows the tree from which the gum-elastic is got; it is large, and as +tall as any in the forest. The wood has much the appearance of sycamore. +The gum is contained in the bark: when that is cut through it oozes out +very freely: it is quite white, and looks as rich as cream: it hardens +almost immediately as it issues from the tree; so that it is very easy to +collect a ball, by forming the juice into a globular shape as fast as it +comes out; it becomes nearly black by being exposed to the air, and is +real Indian rubber without undergoing any other process. + +The elegant crested bird called cock of the rock, admirably described by +Buffon, is a native of the woody mountains of Macoushia. In the daytime +he retires amongst the darkest rocks, and only comes out to feed a little +before sunrise, and at sunset; he is of a gloomy disposition, and, like +the houtou, never associates with the other birds of the forest. + +The Indians in the just-mentioned settlement seemed to depend more on the +wourali-poison for killing their game than upon anything else. They had +only one gun, and it appeared rusty and neglected; but their poisoned +weapons were in fine order. Their blowpipes hung from the roof of the +hut, carefully suspended by a silk-grass cord; and on taking a nearer +view of them, no dust seemed to have collected there, nor had the spider +spun the smallest web on them; which showed that they were in constant +use. The quivers were close by them, with the jaw-bone of the fish pirai +tied by a string to their brim, and a small wicker-basket of wild cotton, +which hung down to the centre; they were nearly full of poisoned arrows. +It was with difficulty these Indians could be persuaded to part with any +of the wourali-poison, though a good price was offered for it; they gave +me to understand that it was powder and shot to them, and very difficult +to be procured. + +On the second day after leaving the settlement, in passing along, the +Indians show you a place where once a white man lived. His retiring so +far from those of his own colour and acquaintance seemed to carry +something extraordinary along with it, and raised a desire to know what +could have induced him to do so. It seems he had been unsuccessful, and +that his creditors had treated him with as little mercy as the strong +generally show to the weak. Seeing his endeavours daily frustrated, and +his best intentions of no avail, and fearing that when they had taken all +he had they would probably take his liberty too, he thought the world +would not be hard-hearted enough to condemn him for retiring from the +evils which pressed so heavily on him, and which he had done all that an +honest man could do to ward off. He left his creditors to talk of him as +they thought fit, and bidding adieu for ever to the place in which he had +once seen better times, he penetrated thus far into those remote and +gloomy wilds, and ended his days here. + +According to the new map of South America, Lake Parima, or the White Sea, +ought to be within three or four days' walk from this place. On asking +the Indians whether there was such a place or not, and describing that +the water was fresh and good to drink, an old Indian, who appeared to be +about sixty, said that there was such a place, and that he had been +there. This information would have been satisfactory in some degree, had +not the Indians carried the point a little too far. It is very large, +said another Indian, and ships come to it. Now these unfortunate ships +were the very things which were not wanted; had he kept them out, it +might have done, but his introducing them was sadly against the lake. +Thus you must either suppose that the old savage and his companion had a +confused idea of the thing, and that probably the Lake Parima they talked +of was the Amazons, not far from the city of Para, or that it was their +intention to deceive you. You ought to be cautious in giving credit to +their stories, otherwise you will be apt to be led astray. + +Many a ridiculous thing concerning the interior of Guiana has been +propagated and received as true, merely because six or seven Indians, +questioned separately, have agreed in their narrative. + +Ask those who live high up in the Demerara, and they will, every one of +them, tell you that there is a nation of Indians with long tails; that +they are very malicious, cruel and ill-natured; and that the Portuguese +have been obliged to stop them off in a certain river, to prevent their +depredations. They have also dreadful stories concerning a horrible +beast, called the watermamma, which, when it happens to take a spite +against a canoe, rises out of the river, and in the most unrelenting +manner possible carries both canoe and Indians down to the bottom with +it, and there destroys them. Ludicrous extravagances; pleasing to those +fond of the marvellous, and excellent matter for a distempered brain. + +The misinformed and timid court of policy in Demerara was made the dupe +of a savage, who came down the Essequibo, and gave himself out as king of +a mighty tribe. This naked wild man of the woods seemed to hold the said +court in tolerable contempt, and demanded immense supplies, all which he +got; and moreover, some time after, an invitation to come down the +ensuing year for more, which he took care not to forget. + +This noisy chieftain boasted so much of his dynasty and domain, that the +Government was induced to send up an expedition into his territories to +see if he had spoken the truth, and nothing but the truth. It appeared, +however, that his palace was nothing but a hut, the monarch a needy +savage, the heir-apparent nothing to inherit but his father's club and +bow and arrows, and his officers of state wild and uncultivated as the +forests through which they strayed. + +There was nothing in the hut of this savage, saving the presents he had +received from Government, but what was barely sufficient to support +existence; nothing that indicated a power to collect a hostile force; +nothing that showed the least progress towards civilisation. All was +rude and barbarous in the extreme, expressive of the utmost poverty and a +scanty population. + +You may travel six or seven days without seeing a hut, and when you reach +a settlement it seldom contains more than ten. + +The further you advance into the interior the more you are convinced that +it is thinly inhabited. + +The day after passing the place where the white man lived you see a creek +on the left hand, and shortly after the path to the open country. Here +you drag the canoe up into the forest, and leave it there. Your baggage +must now be carried by the Indians. The creek you passed in the river +intersects the path to the next settlement: a large mora has fallen +across it, and makes an excellent bridge. After walking an hour and a +half you come to the edge of the forest, and a savanna unfolds itself to +the view. + +The finest park that England boasts falls far short of this delightful +scene. There are about two thousand acres of grass, with here and there +a clump of trees, and a few bushes and single trees scattered up and down +by the hand of Nature. The ground is neither hilly nor level, but +diversified with moderate rises and falls, so gently running into one +another that the eye cannot distinguish where they begin, nor where they +end, while the distant black rocks have the appearance of a herd at rest. +Nearly in the middle there is an eminence, which falls off gradually on +every side; and on this the Indians have erected their huts. + +To the northward of them the forest forms a circle, as though it had been +done by art; to the eastward it hangs in festoons; and to the south and +west it rushes in abruptly, disclosing a new scene behind it at every +step as you advance along. + +This beautiful park of nature is quite surrounded by lofty hills, all +arrayed in superbest garb of trees; some in the form of pyramids, others +like sugar-loaves towering one above the other; some rounded off, and +others as though they had lost their apex. Here two hills rise up in +spiral summits, and the wooded line of communication betwixt them sinks +so gradually that it forms a crescent; and there the ridges of others +resemble the waves of an agitated sea. Beyond these appear others, and +others past them; and others still farther on, till they can scarcely be +distinguished from the clouds. + +There are no sand-flies, nor bete-rouge, nor mosquitos in this pretty +spot. The fire-flies during the night vie in numbers and brightness with +the stars in the firmament above: the air is pure, and the north-east +breeze blows a refreshing gale throughout the day. Here the +white-crested maroudi, which is never found in the Demerara, is pretty +plentiful; and here grows the tree which produces the moran, sometimes +called balsam capivi. + +Your route lies south from this place; and at the extremity of the +savanna you enter the forest, and journey along a winding path at the +foot of a hill. There is no habitation within this day's walk. The +traveller, as usual, must sleep in the forest. The path is not so good +the following day. The hills over which it lies are rocky, steep, and +rugged, and the spaces betwixt them swampy, and mostly knee-deep in +water. After eight hours' walk you find two or three Indian huts, +surrounded by the forest; and in little more than half an hour from these +you come to ten or twelve others, where you pass the night. They are +prettily situated at the entrance into a savanna. The eastern and +western hills are still covered with wood; but on looking to the +south-west quarter you perceive it begins to die away. In those forests +you may find plenty of the trees which yield the sweet-smelling resin +called acaiari, and which, when pounded and burnt on charcoal, gives a +delightful fragrance. + +From hence you proceed, in a south-west direction, through a long swampy +savanna. Some of the hills which border on it have nothing but a thin +coarse grass and huge stones on them; others, quite wooded; others with +their summits crowned, and their base quite bare; and others, again, with +their summits bare, and their base in thickest wood. + +Half of this day's march is in water, nearly up to the knees. There are +four creeks to pass; one of them has a fallen tree across it. You must +make your own bridge across the other three. Probably, were the truth +known, these apparently four creeks are only the meanders of one. + +The jabiru, the largest bird in Guiana, feeds in the marshy savanna +through which you have just passed. He is wary and shy, and will not +allow you to get within gun-shot of him. + +You sleep this night in the forest, and reach an Indian settlement about +three o'clock the next evening, after walking one-third of the way +through wet and miry ground. + +But, bad as the walking is through it, it is easier than where you cross +over the bare hills, where you have to tread on sharp stones, most of +them lying edgewise. + +The ground gone over these two last days seems condemned to perpetual +solitude and silence. There was not one four-footed animal to be seen, +nor even the marks of one. It would have been as silent as midnight, and +all as still and unmoved as a monument had not the jabiru in the marsh, +and a few vultures soaring over the mountain's top, shown that it was not +quite deserted by animated nature. There were no insects, except one +kind of fly about one-fourth the size of the common house-fly. It bit +cruelly, and was much more tormenting than the mosquito on the sea-coast. + +This seems to be the native country of the arrowroot. Wherever you +passed through a patch of wood in a low situation, there you found it +growing luxuriantly. + +The Indian place you are now at is not the proper place to have come to +in order to reach the Portuguese frontiers. You have advanced too much +to the westward. But there was no alternative. The ground twixt you and +another small settlement (which was the right place to have gone to) was +overflowed; and thus, instead of proceeding southward, you were obliged +to wind along the foot of the western hills, quite out of your way. + +But the grand landscape this place affords makes you ample amends for the +time you have spent in reaching it. It would require great descriptive +powers to give a proper idea of the situation these people have chosen +for their dwelling. + +The hill they are on is steep and high, and full of immense rocks. The +huts are not all in one place, but dispersed wherever they have found a +place level enough for a lodgment. Before you ascend the hill you see at +intervals an acre or two of wood, then an open space, with a few huts on +it, then wood again, and then an open space, and so on, till the +intervening of the western hills, higher and steeper still, and crowded +with trees of the loveliest shades, closes the enchanting scene. + +At the base of this hill stretches an immense plain, which appears to the +eye, on this elevated spot, as level as a bowling-green. The mountains +on the other side are piled one upon the other in romantic forms, and +gradually retire, till they are indiscernible from the clouds in which +they are involved. To the south-south-west this far-extending plain is +lost in the horizon. The trees on it, which look like islands on the +ocean, add greatly to the beauty of the landscape; while the rivulet's +course is marked out by the aeta-trees which follow its meanders. + +Not being able to pursue the direct course from hence to the next Indian +habitation on account of the floods of water which fall at this time of +the year, you take a circuit westerly along the mountain's foot. + +At last a large and deep creek stops your progress: it is wide and rapid, +and its banks very steep. There is neither curial nor canoe, nor +purple-heart tree in the neighbourhood to make a wood-skin to carry you +over, so that you are obliged to swim across; and by the time you have +formed a kind of raft, composed of boughs of trees and coarse grass, to +ferry over your luggage, the day will be too far spent to think of +proceeding. You must be very cautious before you venture to swim across +this creek, for the alligators are numerous, and near twenty feet long. +On the present occasion the Indians took uncommon precautions lest they +should be devoured by this cruel and voracious reptile. They cut long +sticks, and examined closely the side of the creek for half a mile above +and below the place where it was to be crossed; and as soon as the +boldest had swum over, he did the same on the other side, and then all +followed. + +After passing the night on the opposite bank, which is well wooded, it is +a brisk walk of nine hours before you reach four Indian huts, on a rising +ground a few hundred paces from a little brook, whose banks are covered +over with coucourito and aeta trees. + +This is the place you ought to have come to two days ago had the water +permitted you. In crossing the plain at the most advantageous place you +are above ankle-deep in water for three hours; the remainder of the way +is dry, the ground gently rising. As the lower parts of this spacious +plain put on somewhat the appearance of a lake during the periodical +rains, it is not improbable but that this is the place which hath given +rise to the supposed existence of the famed Lake Parima, or El Dorado; +but this is mere conjecture. + +A few deer are feeding on the coarse rough grass of this far-extending +plain; they keep at a distance from you, and are continually on the +look-out. + +The spur-winged plover, and a species of the curlew, black, with a white +bar across the wings, nearly as large again as the scarlet curlew on the +sea-coast, frequently rise before you. Here, too, the Moscovy duck is +numerous; and large flocks of two other kinds wheel round you as you pass +on, but keep out of gun-shot. The milk-white egrets, and jabirus, are +distinguished at a great distance; and in the aeta and coucourito trees +you may observe flocks of scarlet and blue aras feeding on the seeds. + +It is to these trees that the largest sort of toucan resorts. He is +remarkable by a large black spot on the point of his fine yellow bill. +He is very scarce in Demerara, and never seen except near the sea-coast. + +The ants' nests have a singular appearance on this plain. They are in +vast abundance on those parts of it free from water, and are formed of an +exceeding hard yellow clay. They rise eight or ten feet from the ground +in a spiral form, impenetrable to the rain, and strong enough to defy the +severest tornado. + +The wourali-poison, procured in these last-mentioned huts, seemed very +good, and proved afterwards to be very strong. + +There are now no more Indian settlements betwixt you and the Portuguese +frontiers. If you wish to visit their fort, it would be advisable to +send an Indian with a letter from hence, and wait his return. On the +present occasion a very fortunate circumstance occurred. The Portuguese +commander had sent some Indians and soldiers to build a canoe, not far +from this settlement; they had just finished it, and those who did not +stay with it had stopped here on their return. + +The soldier who commanded the rest, said he durst not, upon any account, +convoy a stranger to the fort; but he added, as there were two canoes, +one of them might be despatched with a letter, and then we could proceed +slowly on in the other. + +About three hours from this settlement there is a river called Pirarara; +and here the soldiers had left their canoes while they were making the +new one. From the Pirarara you get into the river Maou, and then into +the Tacatou; and just where the Tacatou falls into the Rio Branco, there +stands the Portuguese frontier fort, called Fort St. Joachim. From the +time of embarking in the river Pirarara, it takes you four days before +you reach this fort. + +There was nothing very remarkable in passing down these rivers. It is an +open country, producing a coarse grass, and interspersed with clumps of +trees. The banks have some wood on them, but it appears stunted and +crooked, like that on the bleak hills in England. + +The tapir frequently plunged into the river; he was by no means shy, and +it was easy to get a shot at him on land. The kessi-kessi paroquets were +in great abundance; and the fine scarlet ara innumerable in the +coucourito trees at a distance from the river's bank. In the Tacatou was +seen the troupiale. It was charming to hear the sweet and plaintive +notes of this pretty songster of the wilds. The Portuguese call it the +nightingale of Guiana. + +Towards the close of the fourth evening, the canoe, which had been sent +on with a letter, met us with the commander's answer. During its +absence, the nights had been cold and stormy, the rain had fallen in +torrents, the days cloudy, and there was no sun to dry the wet hammocks. +Exposed thus, day and night, to the chilling blast and pelting shower, +strength of constitution at last failed, and a severe fever came on. The +commander's answer was very polite. He remarked, he regretted much to +say that he had received orders to allow no stranger to enter the +frontier, and this being the case, he hoped I would not consider him as +uncivil. "However," continued he, "I have ordered the soldier to land +you at a certain distance from the fort, where we can consult together." + +We had now arrived at the place, and the canoe which brought the letter +returned to the fort, to tell the commander I had fallen sick. + +The sun had not risen above an hour the morning after when the Portuguese +officer came to the spot where we had landed the preceding evening. He +was tall and spare, and appeared to be from fifty to fifty-five years +old; and, though thirty years of service under an equatorial sun had +burnt and shrivelled up his face, still there was something in it so +inexpressibly affable and kind, that it set you immediately at your ease. +He came close up to the hammock, and taking hold of my wrist to feel the +pulse, "I am sorry, sir," said he, "to see that the fever has taken such +hold of you. You shall go directly with me," continued he, "to the fort; +and though we have no doctor there, I trust," added he, "we shall soon +bring you about again. The orders I have received forbidding the +admission of strangers were never intended to be put in force against a +sick English gentleman." + +As the canoe was proceeding slowly down the river towards the fort, the +commander asked, with much more interest than a question in ordinary +conversation is asked, where was I on the night of the first of May? On +telling him that I was at an Indian settlement a little below the great +fall in the Demerara, and that a strange and sudden noise had alarmed all +the Indians, he said the same astonishing noise had roused every man in +Fort St. Joachim, and that they remained under arms till morning. He +observed that he had been quite at a loss to form any idea what could +have caused the noise; but now learning that the same noise had been +heard at the same time far away from the Rio Branco, it struck him there +must have been an earthquake somewhere or other. + +Good nourishment and rest, and the unwearied attention and kindness of +the Portuguese commander, stopped the progress of the fever, and enabled +me to walk about in six days. + +Fort St. Joachim was built about five-and-forty years ago, under the +apprehension, it is said, that the Spaniards were coming from the Rio +Negro to settle there. It has been much neglected; the floods of water +have carried away the gate, and destroyed the wall on each side of it; +but the present commander is putting it into thorough repair. When +finished, it will mount six nine- and six twelve-pounders. + +In a straight line with the fort, and within a few yards of the river, +stand the commander's house, the barracks, the chapel, the father +confessor's house, and two others, all at little intervals from each +other; and these are the only buildings at Fort St. Joachim. The +neighbouring extensive plains afford good pasturage for a fine breed of +cattle, and the Portuguese make enough of butter and cheese for their own +consumption. + +On asking the old officer if there were such a place as Lake Parima, or +El Dorado, he replied, he looked upon it as imaginary altogether. "I +have been above forty years," added he, "in Portuguese Guiana, but have +never yet met with anybody who has seen the lake." + +So much for Lake Parima, or El Dorado, or the White Sea. Its existence +at best seems doubtful; some affirm that there is such a place, and +others deny it. + + "Grammatici certant, et adhuc sub judice lis est." + +Having now reached the Portuguese inland frontier, and collected a +sufficient quantity of the wourali-poison, nothing remains but to give a +brief account of its composition, its effects, its uses, and its supposed +antidotes. + +It has been already remarked that in the extensive wilds of Demerara and +Essequibo, far away from any European settlement, there is a tribe of +Indians who are known by the name of Macoushi. + +Though the wourali-poison is used by all the South American savages +betwixt the Amazons and the Oroonoque, still this tribe makes it stronger +than any of the rest. The Indians in the vicinity of the Rio Negro are +aware of this, and come to the Macoushi country to purchase it. + +Much has been said concerning this fatal and extraordinary poison. Some +have affirmed that its effects are almost instantaneous, provided the +minutest particle of it mixes with the blood; and others again have +maintained that it is not strong enough to kill an animal of the size and +strength of a man. The first have erred by lending a too willing ear to +the marvellous, and believing assertions without sufficient proof. The +following short story points out the necessity of a cautious +examination:-- + +One day, on asking an Indian if he thought the poison would kill a man, +he replied that they always go to battle with it; that he was standing by +when an Indian was shot with a poisoned arrow, and that he expired almost +immediately. Not wishing to dispute this apparently satisfactory +information, the subject was dropped. However, about an hour after, +having purposely asked him in what part of the body the said Indian was +wounded, he answered without hesitation that the arrow entered betwixt +his shoulders, and passed quite through his heart. Was it the weapon, or +the strength of the poison, that brought on immediate dissolution in this +case? Of course the weapon. + +The second have been misled by disappointment, caused by neglect in +keeping the poisoned arrows, or by not knowing how to use them, or by +trying inferior poison. If the arrows are not kept dry, the poison loses +its strength; and in wet or damp weather it turns mouldy, and becomes +quite soft. In shooting an arrow in this state, upon examining the place +where it has entered, it will be observed that, though the arrow has +penetrated deep into the flesh, still by far the greatest part of the +poison has shrunk back, and thus, instead of entering with the arrow, it +has remained collected at the mouth of the wound. In this case the arrow +might as well not have been poisoned. Probably, it was to this that a +gentleman, some time ago, owed his disappointment, when he tried the +poison on a horse in the town of Stabroek, the capital of Demerara; the +horse never betrayed the least symptom of being affected by it. + +Wishful to obtain the best information concerning this poison, and as +repeated inquiries, in lieu of dissipating the surrounding shade, did but +tend more and more to darken the little light that existed, I determined +to penetrate into the country where the poisonous ingredients grow, where +this pernicious composition is prepared, and where it is constantly used. +Success attended the adventure; and the information acquired made amends +for one hundred and twenty days passed in the solitudes of Guiana, and +afforded a balm to the wounds and bruises which every traveller must +expect to receive who wanders through a thorny and obstructed path. + +Thou must not, courteous reader, expect a dissertation on the manner in +which the wourali-poison operates on the system; a treatise has been +already written on the subject; and, after all, there is probably still +reason to doubt. It is supposed to affect the nervous system, and thus +destroy the vital functions; it is also said to be perfectly harmless, +provided it does not touch the blood. However, this is certain, when a +sufficient quantity of it enters the blood, death is the inevitable +consequence; but there is no alteration in the colour of the blood, and +both the blood and flesh may be eaten with safety. + +All that thou wilt find here is a concise, unadorned account of the +wourali-poison. It may be of service to thee some time or other, +shouldst thou ever travel through the wilds where it is used. Neither +attribute to cruelty, nor to a want of feeling for the sufferings of the +inferior animals, the ensuing experiments. The larger animals were +destroyed in order to have proof positive of the strength of a poison +which hath hitherto been doubted: and the smaller ones were killed with +the hope of substantiating that which has commonly been supposed to be an +antidote. + +It makes a pitying heart ache to see a poor creature in distress and +pain; and too often has the compassionate traveller occasion to heave a +sigh as he journeys on. However, here, though the kind-hearted will be +sorry to read of an unoffending animal doomed to death in order to +satisfy a doubt, still it will be a relief to know that the victim was +not tortured. The wourali-poison destroys life's action so gently, that +the victim appears to be in no pain whatever; and probably, were the +truth known, it feels none, saving the momentary smart at the time the +arrow enters. + +A day or two before the Macoushi Indian prepares his poison, he goes into +the forest in quest of the ingredients. A vine grows in these wilds, +which is called wourali. It is from this that the poison takes its name, +and it is the principal ingredient. When he has procured enough of this, +he digs up a root of a very bitter taste, ties them together, and then +looks about for two kinds of bulbous plants, which contain a green and +glutinous juice. He fills a little quake, which he carries on his back, +with the stalks of these; and, lastly, ranges up and down till he finds +two species of ants. One of them is very large and black, and so +venomous that its sting produces a fever; it is most commonly to be met +with on the ground. The other is a little red ant, which stings like a +nettle, and generally has its nest under the leaf of a shrub. After +obtaining these, he has no more need to range the forest. + +A quantity of the strongest Indian pepper is used; but this he has +already planted round his hut. The pounded fangs of the labarri snake, +and those of the counacouchi, are likewise added. These he commonly has +in store; for when he kills a snake, he generally extracts the fangs, and +keeps them by him. + +Having thus found the necessary ingredients, he scrapes the wourali vine +and bitter root into thin shavings, and puts them into a kind of colander +made of leaves; this he holds over an earthen pot, and pours water on the +shavings: the liquor which comes through has the appearance of coffee. +When a sufficient quantity has been procured, the shavings are thrown +aside. He then bruises the bulbous stalks and squeezes a proportionate +quantity of their juice through his hands into the pot. Lastly, the +snakes' fangs, ants, and pepper are bruised, and thrown into it. It is +then placed on a slow fire, and as it boils more of the juice of the +wourali is added, according as it may be found necessary, and the scum is +taken off with a leaf: it remains on the fire till reduced to a thick +syrup of a deep brown colour. As soon as it has arrived at this state, a +few arrows are poisoned with it to try its strength. If it answers the +expectations, it is poured out into a calabash, or little pot of Indian +manufacture, which is carefully covered with a couple of leaves, and over +them a piece of deer's skin, tied round with a cord. They keep it in the +most dry part of the hut; and from time to time suspend it over the fire, +to counteract the effects of dampness. + +The act of preparing this poison is not considered as a common one: the +savage may shape his bow, fasten the barb on the point of his arrow, and +make his other implements of destruction, either lying in his hammock, or +in the midst of his family; but if he has to prepare the wourali-poison, +many precautions are supposed to be necessary. + +The women and young girls are not allowed to be present, lest the +yabahou, or evil spirit, should do them harm. The shed under which it +has been boiled has been pronounced polluted and abandoned ever after. +He who makes the poison must eat nothing that morning, and must continue +fasting as long as the operation lasts. The pot in which it is boiled +must be a new one, and must never have held anything before, otherwise +the poison would be deficient in strength: add to this that the operator +must take particular care not to expose himself to the vapour which +arises from it while on the fire. + +Though this and other precautions are taken, such as frequently washing +the face and hands, still the Indians think that it affects the health; +and the operator either is, or, what is more probable, supposes himself +to be, sick for some days after. + +Thus it appears that the making the wourali-poison is considered as a +gloomy and mysterious operation; and it would seem that they imagine it +affects others as well as him who boils it; for an Indian agreed one +evening to make some for me, but the next morning he declined having +anything to do with it, alleging that his wife was with child! + +Here it might be asked, are all the ingredients just mentioned necessary, +in order to produce the wourali-poison? Though our opinions and +conjectures may militate against the absolute necessity of some of them, +still it would be hardly fair to pronounce them added by the hand of +superstition, till proof positive can he obtained. + +We might argue on the subject, and, by bringing forward instances of +Indian superstition, draw our conclusion by inference, and still remain +in doubt on this head. You know superstition to be the offspring of +ignorance, and of course that it takes up its abode amongst the rudest +tribes of uncivilised man. It even too often resides with man in his +more enlightened state. + +The Augustan age furnishes numerous examples. A bone snatched from the +jaws of a fasting bitch, and a feather from the wing of a +night-owl,--"ossa ab ore rapta jejunae canis, plumamque nocturnae +strigis,"--were necessary for Canidia's incantations. And in aftertimes, +Parson Evans, the Welshman, was treated most ungenteelly by an enraged +spirit, solely because he had forgotten a fumigation in his witch-work. +If, then, enlightened man lets his better sense give way, and believes, +or allows himself to be persuaded, that certain substances and actions, +in reality of no avail, possess a virtue which renders them useful in +producing the wished-for effect; may not the wild, untaught, +unenlightened savage of Guiana, add an ingredient which, on account of +the harm it does him, he fancies may be useful in the perfection of his +poison, though, in fact, it be of no use at all? If a bone snatched from +the jaws of a fasting bitch be thought necessary in incantation; or if +witchcraft have recourse to the raiment of the owl, because it resorts to +the tombs and mausoleums of the dead, and wails and hovers about at the +time that the rest of animated nature sleeps; certainly the savage may +imagine that the ants, whose sting causes a fever, and the teeth of the +labarri and counacouchi snakes, which convey death in a very short space +of time, are essentially necessary in the composition of his poison; and +being once impressed with this idea, he will add them every time he makes +the poison, and transmit the absolute use of them to his posterity. The +question to be answered seems not to be if it is natural for the Indians +to mix these ingredients, but if they are essential to make the poison. + +So much for the preparing of this vegetable essence--terrible importer of +death into whatever animal it enters. Let us now see how it is used; let +us examine the weapons which bear it to its destination, and take a view +of the poor victim, from the time he receives his wound till death comes +to his relief. + +When a native of Macoushia goes in quest of feathered game or other +birds, he seldom carries his bow and arrows. It is the blow-pipe he then +uses. This extraordinary tube of death is, perhaps, one of the greatest +natural curiosities of Guiana. It is not found in the country of the +Macoushi. Those Indians tell you that it grows to the south-west of +them, in the wilds which extend betwixt them and the Rio Negro. The reed +must grow to an amazing length, as the part the Indians use is from ten +to eleven feet long, and no tapering can be perceived in it, one end +being as thick as the other. It is of a bright yellow colour, perfectly +smooth both inside and out. It grows hollow; nor is there the least +appearance of a knot or joint throughout the whole extent. The natives +call it ourah. This, of itself, is too slender to answer the end of a +blow-pipe; but there is a species of palma, larger and stronger, and +common in Guiana, and this the Indians make use of as a case, in which +they put the ourah. It is brown, susceptible of a fine polish, and +appears as if it had joints five or six inches from each other. It is +called samourah, and the pulp inside is easily extracted, by steeping it +for a few days in water. + +Thus the ourah and samourah, one within the other, form the blow-pipe of +Guiana. The end which is applied to the mouth is tied round with a small +silk-grass cord, to prevent its splitting; and the other end, which is +apt to strike against the ground, is secured by the seed of the acuero +fruit, cut horizontally through the middle, with a hole made in the end, +through which is put the extremity of the blow-pipe. It is fastened on +with string on the outside, and the inside is filled up with wild +bees'-wax. + +The arrow is from nine to ten inches long. It is made out of the leaf of +a species of palm-tree, called coucourito, hard and brittle, and pointed +as sharp as a needle. About an inch of the pointed end is poisoned. The +other end is burnt to make it still harder, and wild cotton is put round +it for about an inch and a half. It requires considerable practice to +put on this cotton well. It must just be large enough to fit the hollow +of the tube, and taper off to nothing downwards. They tie it on with a +thread of the silk-grass, to prevent its slipping off the arrow. + +The Indians have shown ingenuity in making a quiver to hold the arrows. +It will contain from five to six hundred. It is generally from twelve to +fourteen inches long, and in shape resembles a dice-box used at +backgammon. The inside is prettily done in basket-work, with wood not +unlike bamboo, and the outside has a coat of wax. The cover is all of +one piece, formed out of the skin of the tapir. Round the centre there +is fastened a loop, large enough to admit the arm and shoulder, from +which it hangs when used. To the rim is tied a little bunch of +silk-grass, and half of the jawbone of the fish called pirai, with which +the Indian scrapes the point of his arrow. + +Before he puts the arrows into the quiver, he links them together by two +strings of cotton, one string at each end, and then folds them round a +stick, which is nearly the length of the quiver. The end of the stick, +which is uppermost, is guarded by two little pieces of wood crosswise, +with a hoop round their extremities, which appears something like a +wheel; and this saves the hand from being wounded when the quiver is +reversed in order to let the bunch of arrows drop out. + +There is also attached to the quiver a little kind of basket, to hold the +wild cotton, which is put on the blunt end of the arrow. With a quiver +of poisoned arrows slung over his shoulder, and with his blowpipe in his +hand, in the same position as a soldier carries his musket, see the +Macoushi Indian advancing towards the forest in quest of powises, +maroudis, waracabas, and other feathered game. + +These generally sit high up in the tall and tufted trees, but still are +not out of the Indian's reach; for his blowpipe, at its greatest +elevation, will send an arrow three hundred feet. Silent as midnight he +steals under them, and so cautiously does he tread the ground that the +fallen leaves rustle not beneath his feet. His ears are open to the +least sound, while his eye, keen as that of the lynx, is employed in +finding out the game in the thickest shade. Often he imitates their cry, +and decoys them from tree to tree, till they are within range of his +tube. Then taking a poisoned arrow from his quiver, he puts it in the +blowpipe, and collects his breath for the fatal puff. + +About two feet from the end through which he blows there are fastened two +teeth of the acouri, and these serve him for a sight. Silent and swift +the arrow flies, and seldom fails to pierce the object at which it is +sent. Sometimes the wounded bird remains in the same tree where it was +shot, and in three minutes falls down at the Indian's feet. Should he +take wing, his flight is of short duration, and the Indian, following the +direction he has gone, is sure to find him dead. + +It is natural to imagine that, when a slight wound only is inflicted, the +game will make its escape. Far otherwise; the wourali-poison almost +instantaneously mixes with blood or water, so that if you wet your +finger, and dash it along the poisoned arrow in the quickest manner +possible, you are sure to carry off some of the poison. Though three +minutes generally elapse before the convulsions come on in the wounded +bird, still a stupor evidently takes place sooner, and this stupor +manifests itself by an apparent unwillingness in the bird to move. This +was very visible in a dying fowl. + +Having procured a healthy full-grown one, a short piece of a poisoned +blowpipe arrow was broken off and run up into its thigh, as near as +possible betwixt the skin and the flesh, in order that it might not be +incommoded by the wound. For the first minute it walked about, but +walked very slowly, and did not appear the least agitated. During the +second minute it stood still, and began to peck the ground; and ere half +another had elapsed, it frequently opened and shut its mouth. The tail +had now dropped, and the wings almost touched the ground. By the +termination of the third minute, it had sat down, scarce able to support +its head, which nodded, and then recovered itself, and then nodded again, +lower and lower every time, like that of a weary traveller slumbering in +an erect position; the eyes alternately open and shut. The fourth minute +brought on convulsions, and life and the fifth terminated together. + +The flesh of the game is not in the least injured by the poison, nor does +it appear to corrupt sooner than that killed by the gun or knife. The +body of this fowl was kept for sixteen hours, in a climate damp and +rainy, and within seven degrees of the equator; at the end of which time +it had contracted no bad smell whatever, and there were no symptoms of +putrefaction, saving that, just round the wound, the flesh appeared +somewhat discoloured. + +The Indian, on his return home, carefully suspends his blowpipe from the +top of his spiral roof; seldom placing it in an oblique position, lest it +should receive a cast. + +Here let the blowpipe remain suspended, while you take a view of the arms +which are made to slay the larger beasts of the forest. + +When the Indian intends to chase the peccari, or surprise the deer, or +rouse the tapir from his marshy retreat, he carries his bow and arrows, +which are very different from the weapons already described. + +The bow is generally from six to seven feet long, and strung with a cord, +spun out of the silk-grass. The forests of Guiana furnish many species +of hard wood, tough and elastic, out of which beautiful and excellent +bows are formed. + +The arrows are from four to five feet in length, made of a yellow reed +without a knot or joint. It is found in great plenty up and down +throughout Guiana. A piece of hard wood, about nine inches long, is +inserted into the end of the reed, and fastened with cotton well waxed. +A square hole, an inch deep, is then made in the end of this piece of +hard wood, done tight round with cotton to keep it from splitting. Into +this square hole is fitted a spike of coucourite wood, poisoned, and +which may be kept there, or taken out at pleasure. A joint of bamboo, +about as thick as your finger, is fitted on over the poisoned spike, to +prevent accidents and defend it from the rain, and is taken off when the +arrow is about to be used. Lastly, two feathers are fastened on the +other end of the reed to steady it in its flight. + +Besides his bow and arrows, the Indian carries a little box made of +bamboo, which holds a dozen or fifteen poisoned spikes six inches long. +They are poisoned in the following manner: a small piece of wood is +dipped in the poison, and with this they give the spike a first coat. It +is then exposed to the sun or fire. After it is dry, it receives another +coat, and is then dried again; after this a third coat, and sometimes a +fourth. + +They take great care to put the poison on thicker at the middle than at +the sides, by which means the spike retains the shape of a two-edged +sword. It is rather a tedious operation to make one of these arrows +complete; and as the Indian is not famed for industry, except when +pressed by hunger, he has hit upon a plan of preserving his arrows which +deserves notice. + +About a quarter of an inch above the part where the coucourite spike is +fixed into the square hole, he cuts it half through; and thus, when it +has entered the animal, the weight of the arrow causes it to break off +there, by which means the arrow falls to the ground uninjured; so that, +should this be the only arrow he happens to have with him, and should +another shot immediately occur, he has only to take another poisoned +spike out of his little bamboo box, fit it on his arrow, and send it to +its destination. + +Thus armed with deadly poison, and hungry as the hyaena, he ranges +through the forest in quest of the wild beast's track. No hound can act +a surer part. Without clothes to fetter him, or shoes to bind his feet, +he observes the footsteps of the game, where an European eye could not +discern the smallest vestige. He pursues it through all its turns and +windings with astonishing perseverance, and success generally crowns his +efforts. The animal, after receiving the poisoned arrow, seldom retreats +two hundred paces before it drops. + +In passing overland from the Essequibo to the Demerara we fell in with a +herd of wild hogs. Though encumbered with baggage, and fatigued with a +hard day's walk, an Indian got his bow ready; and let fly a poisoned +arrow at one of them. It entered the cheek-bone and broke off. The wild +hog was found quite dead about one hundred and seventy paces from the +place where he had been shot. He afforded us an excellent and wholesome +supper. + +Thus the savage of Guiana, independent of the common weapons of +destruction, has it in his power to prepare a poison, by which he can +generally ensure to himself a supply of animal food; and the food so +destroyed imbibes no deleterious qualities. Nature has been bountiful to +him. She has not only ordered poisonous herbs and roots to grow in the +unbounded forests through which he strays, but has also furnished an +excellent reed for his arrows, and another, still more singular, for his +blowpipe; and planted trees of an amazing hard, tough, and elastic +texture, out of which he forms his bows. And in order that nothing might +be wanting, she has superadded a tree which yields him a fine wax, and +disseminated up and down, a plant not unlike that of the pineapple, which +affords him capital bowstrings. + +Having now followed the Indian in the chase, and described the poison, +let us take a nearer view of its action, and observe a large animal +expiring under the weight of its baneful virulence. + +Many have doubted the strength of the wourali poison. Should they ever +by chance read what follows, probably their doubts on that score will be +settled for ever. + +In the former experiment on the hog some faint resistance on the part of +nature was observed, as if existence struggled for superiority; but in +the following instance of the sloth life sank in death without the least +apparent contention, without a cry, without a struggle, and without a +groan. This was an ai, or three-toed sloth. It was in the possession of +a gentleman who was collecting curiosities. He wished to have it killed, +in order to preserve the skin, and the wourali-poison was resorted to as +the easiest death. + +Of all animals, not even the toad and tortoise excepted, this poor +ill-formed creature is the most tenacious of life. It exists long after +it has received wounds which would have destroyed any other animal; and +it may be said, on seeing a mortally wounded sloth, that life disputes +with death every inch of flesh in its body. + +The ai was wounded in the leg, and put down on the floor, about two feet +from the table; it contrived to reach the leg of the table, and fastened +himself on it, as if wishful to ascend. But this was its last advancing +step: life was ebbing fast, though imperceptibly; nor could this singular +production of nature, which has been formed of a texture to resist death +in a thousand shapes, make any stand against the wourali-poison. + +First, one fore-leg let go its hold, and dropped down motionless by its +side; the other gradually did the same. The fore-legs having now lost +their strength, the sloth slowly doubled its body, and placed its head +betwixt its hind-legs, which still adhered to the table; but when the +poison had affected these also it sank to the ground, but sank so gently, +that you could not distinguish the movement from an ordinary motion; and +had you been ignorant that it was wounded with a poisoned arrow, you +would never have suspected that it was dying. Its mouth was shut, nor +had any froth or saliva collected there. + +There was no _subsultus tendinum_, or any visible alteration in its +breathing. During the tenth minute from the time it was wounded it +stirred, and that was all; and the minute after life's last spark went +out. From the time the poison began to operate, you would have +conjectured that sleep was overpowering it, and you would have exclaimed, +"Pressitque jacentem, dulcis et alta quies, placidaeque simillima morti." + +There are now two positive proofs of the effect of this fatal poison, +viz., the death of the hog, and that of the sloth. But still these +animals were nothing remarkable for size; and the strength of the poison +in large animals might yet be doubted, were it not for what follows. + +A large well-fed ox, from nine hundred to a thousand pounds' weight, was +tied to a stake by a rope sufficiently long to allow him to move to and +fro. Having no large coucourito spikes at hand, it was judged necessary, +on account of his superior size, to put three wild-hog arrows into him; +one was sent into each thigh just above the hock, in order to avoid +wounding a vital part, and the third was shot transversely into the +extremity of the nostril. + +The poison seemed to take effect in four minutes. Conscious as though he +would fall, the ox set himself firmly on his legs, and remained quite +still in the same place till about the fourteenth minute, when he smelled +the ground, and appeared as if inclined to walk. He advanced a pace or +two, staggered, and fell, and remained extended on his side with his head +on the ground. His eye, a few minutes ago so bright and lively, now +became fixed and dim, and though you put your hand close to it, as if to +give him a blow there, he never closed his eyelid. + +His legs were convulsed, and his head from time to time started +involuntarily; but he never showed the least desire to raise it from the +ground; he breathed hard, and emitted foam from his mouth. The +startings, or _subsultus tendinum_, now became gradually weaker and +weaker; his hinder parts were fixed in death; and in a minute or two more +his head and fore-legs ceased to stir. + +Nothing now remained to show that life was still within him, except that +his heart faintly beat and fluttered at intervals. In five-and-twenty +minutes from the time of his being wounded he was quite dead. His flesh +was very sweet and savoury at dinner. + +On taking a retrospective view of the two different kinds of poisoned +arrows, and the animals destroyed by them, it would appear that the +quantity of poison must be proportioned to the animal, and thus those +probably labour under an error who imagine that the smallest particle of +it introduced into the blood has almost instantaneous effects. + +Make an estimate of the difference in size betwixt the fowl and the ox, +and then weigh a sufficient quantity of poison for a blowpipe arrow with +which the fowl was killed, and weigh also enough poison for three +wild-hog arrows which destroyed the ox, and it will appear that the fowl +received much more poison in proportion than the ox. Hence the cause why +the fowl died in five minutes and the ox in five-and-twenty. + +Indeed, were it the case that the smallest particle of it introduced into +the blood has almost instantaneous effects, the Indian would not find it +necessary to make the large arrow; that of the blowpipe is much easier +made and requires less poison. + +And now for the antidotes, or rather the supposed antidotes. The Indians +tell you, that if the wounded animal be held for a considerable time up +to the mouth in water, the poison will not prove fatal; also that the +juice of the sugar-cane poured down the throat will counteract the +effects of it. These antidotes were fairly tried upon full-grown healthy +fowls, but they all died, as though no steps had been taken to preserve +their lives. Rum was recommended and given to another, but with as +little success. + +It is supposed by some that wind introduced into the lungs by means of a +small pair of bellows would revive the poisoned patient, provided the +operation be continued for a sufficient length of time. It may be so; +but this is a difficult and a tedious mode of cure, and he who is wounded +in the forest far away from his friends, or in the hut of the savages, +stands but a poor chance of being saved by it. + +Had the Indians a sure antidote, it is likely they would carry it about +with them, or resort to it immediately after being wounded, if at hand; +and their confidence in its efficacy would greatly diminish the horror +they betray when you point a poisoned arrow at them. + +One day, while we were eating a red monkey, erroneously called the baboon +of Demerara, an Arowack Indian told an affecting story of what happened +to a comrade of his. He was present at his death. As it did not +interest this Indian in any point to tell a falsehood it is very probable +that his account was a true one. If so, it appears that there is no +certain antidote, or at least an antidote that could be resorted to in a +case of urgent need; for the Indian gave up all thoughts of life as soon +as he was wounded. + +The Arowack Indian said it was but four years ago that he and his +companion were ranging in the forest in quest of game. His companion +took a poisoned arrow, and sent it at a red monkey in a tree above him. +It was nearly a perpendicular shot. The arrow missed the monkey, and in +the descent struck him in the arm a little above the elbow. He was +convinced it was all over with him. "I shall never," said he to his +companion in a faltering voice, and looking at his bow as he said it, "I +shall never," said he, "bend this bow again." And having said that he +took off his little bamboo poison-box, which hung across his shoulder, +and putting it, together with his bow and arrows, on the ground, he laid +himself down close by them, bid his companion farewell, and never spoke +more. + +He who is unfortunate enough to be wounded by a poisoned arrow from +Macoushia had better not depend upon the common antidotes for a cure. +Many who have been in Guiana will recommend immediate immersion in water, +or to take the juice of the sugar-cane, or to fill the mouth full of +salt; and, they recommend these antidotes because they have got them from +the Indians. But were you to ask them if they ever saw these antidotes +used with success, it is ten to one their answer would be in the +negative. + +Wherefore let him reject these antidotes as unprofitable, and of no +avail. He has got an active and a deadly foe within him, which, like +Shakespeare's fell Sergeant Death, is strict in his arrest, and will +allow him but little time--very, very little time. In a few minutes he +will be numbered with the dead. Life ought, if possible, to be +preserved, be the expense ever so great. Should the part affected admit +of it, let a ligature be tied tight round the wound, and have immediate +recourse to the knife:-- + + "Continuo, culpam ferro compesce priusquam, + Dira per infaustum serpant contagia corpus." + +And now, kind reader, it is time to bid thee farewell. The two ends +proposed have been obtained. The Portuguese inland frontier fort has +been reached, and the Macoushi wourali-poison acquired. The account of +this excursion through the interior of Guiana has been submitted to thy +perusal, in order to induce thy abler genius to undertake a more +extensive one. If any difficulties have arisen, or fevers come on, they +have been caused by the periodical rains, which fall in torrents as the +sun approaches the tropic of Cancer. In dry weather there would be no +difficulties or sickness. + +Amongst the many satisfactory conclusions which thou wouldst be able to +draw during the journey, there is one which, perhaps, would please thee +not a little, and that is with regard to dogs. Many a time, no doubt, +thou hast heard it hotly disputed that dogs existed in Guiana previously +to the arrival of the Spaniards in those parts. Whatever the Spaniards +introduced, and which bore no resemblance to anything the Indians had +been accustomed to see, retains its Spanish name to this day. + +Thus the Warrow, the Arowack, the Acoway, the Macoushi, and Carib tribes, +call a hat, "sombrero;" shirt, or any kind of cloth, "camisa;" a shoe, +"zapato;" a letter, "carta;" a fowl, "gallina;" gunpowder, "colvora" +(Spanish, "polvora"); ammunition, "bala;" a cow, "vaca;" and a dog, +"perro." + +This argues strongly against the existence of dogs in Guiana before it +was discovered by the Spaniards, and probably may be of use to thee in +thy next canine dispute. + +In a political point of view this country presents a large field for +speculation. A few years ago there was but little inducement for any +Englishman to explore the interior of these rich and fine colonies, as +the British Government did not consider them worth holding at the peace +of Amiens. Since that period their mother-country has been blotted out +from the list of nations, and America has unfolded a new sheet of +politics. On one side the crown of Braganza, attacked by an ambitious +chieftain, has fled from the palace of its ancestors, and now seems fixed +on the banks of the Janeiro. Cayenne has yielded to its arms. La Plata +has raised the standard of independence, and thinks itself sufficiently +strong to obtain a government of its own. On the other side, the +Caraccas are in open revolt, and should Santa Fe join them in good +earnest they may form a powerful association. + +Thus, on each side of the _ci-devant_ Dutch Guiana, most unexpected and +astonishing changes have taken place. Will they raise or lower it in the +scale of estimation at the Court of St. James's? Will they be of benefit +to these grand and extensive colonies?--colonies enjoying perpetual +summer--colonies of the richest soil--colonies containing within +themselves everything necessary for their support--colonies, in fine, so +varied in their quality and situation, as to be capable of bringing to +perfection every tropical production; and only want the support of +government, and an enlightened governor, to render them as fine as the +finest portions of the equatorial regions. Kind reader, fare thee well. + + + +LETTER TO THE PORTUGUESE COMMANDER. + + +MUY SENOR, + +Como no tengo el honor, de ser conocido de VM. lo pienso mejor, y mas +decoroso, quedarme aqui, hastaque huviere recibido su respuesta. +Haviendo caminado hasta la chozo, adonde estoi, no quisiere volverme, +antes de haver visto la fortaleza de los Portugueses; y pido licencia de +VM. para que me adelante. Honradissimos son mis motivos, ni tengo +proyecto ninguno, o de comercio, o de la soldadesca, no siendo yo, o +comerciante, o oficial. Hidalgo catolico soy, de hacienda in +Ynglatierra, y muchos anos de mi vida he pasado en caminar. Ultimamente, +de Demeraria vengo, la qual dexe el 5 dia de Abril, para ver este hermoso +pais, y coger unas curiosidades, especialmente, el veneno, que se llama +wourali. Las mas recentes noticias que tenian en Demeraria, antes de mi +salida, eran medias tristes, medias alegres. Tristes digo, viendo que +Valencia ha caido en poder del enemigo comun, y el General Blake, y sus +valientes tropas, quedan prisioneros de guerra. Alegres, al contrario, +porque Milord Wellington se ha apoderado de Ciudad Rodrigo. A pesar de +la caida de Valencia, parece claro al mundo, que las cosas del enemigo +estan andando de pejor a pejor cada dia. Nosotros debemos dar gracias al +Altissimo, por haver sido servido dexarnos castigar ultimamente a los +robadores de sus santas Yglesias. Se vera VM. que yo no escribo +Portugues ni aun lo hablo, pero, haviendo aprendido el Castellano, no nos +faltara medio de communicar y tener conversacion. Ruego se escuse esta +carta escrita sin tinta, porque un Indio dexo caer mi tintero y quebrose. +Dios le de a VM. muchos anos de salud. Entretanto, tengo el honor de ser + + Su mas obedeciente servidor, + CARLOS WATERTON. + + + +REMARKS. + + + "Incertus, quo fata ferant, ubi sistera detur." + +Kind and gentle reader, if the journey in quest of the wourali-poison has +engaged thy attention, probably thou mayst recollect that the traveller +took leave of thee at Fort St. Joachim, on the Rio Branco. Shouldst thou +wish to know what befell him afterwards, excuse the following +uninteresting narrative. + +Having had a return of fever, and aware that the farther he advanced into +these wild and lonely regions the less would be the chance of regaining +his health, he gave up all idea of proceeding onwards, and went slowly +back towards the Demerara nearly by the same route he had come. + +On descending the falls in the Essequibo, which form an oblique line +quite across the river, it was resolved to push through them, the +downward stream being in the canoe's favour. At a little distance from +the place a large tree had fallen into the river, and in the meantime the +canoe was lashed to one of its branches. + +The roaring of the water was dreadful; it foamed and dashed over the +rocks with a tremendous spray, like breakers on a lee-shore, threatening +destruction to whatever approached it. You would have thought, by the +confusion it caused in the river, and the whirlpools it made, that Scylla +and Charybdis, and their whole progeny, had left the Mediterranean, and +come and settled here. The channel was barely twelve feet wide, and the +torrent in rushing down formed transverse furrows, which showed how near +the rocks were to the surface. + +Nothing could surpass the skill of the Indian who steered the canoe. He +looked steadfastly at it, then at the rocks, then cast an eye on the +channel, and then looked at the canoe again. It was in vain to speak. +The sound was lost in the roar of waters; but his eye showed that he had +already passed it in imagination. He held up his paddle in a position, +as much as to say, that he would keep exactly amid channel; and then made +a sign to cut the bush rope that held the canoe to the fallen tree. The +canoe drove down the torrent with inconceivable rapidity. It did not +touch the rocks once all the way. The Indian proved to a nicety "medio +tutissimus ibis." + +Shortly after this it rained almost day and night, the lightning flashing +incessantly, and the roar of thunder awful beyond expression. + +The fever returned, and pressed so heavy on him, that to all appearance +his last day's march was over. However, it abated; his spirits rallied, +and he marched again; and after delays and inconveniences he reached the +house of his worthy friend Mr. Edmonstone, in Mibiri Creek, which falls +into the Demerara. No words of his can do justice to the hospitality of +that gentleman, whose repeated encounters with the hostile negroes in the +forest have been publicly rewarded, and will be remembered in the colony +for years to come. + +Here he learned that an eruption had taken place in St. Vincent's; and +thus the noise heard in the night of the first of May, which had caused +such terror amongst the Indians, and made the garrison at Fort St. +Joachim remain under arms the rest of the night, is accounted for. + +After experiencing every kindness and attention from Mr. Edmonstone, he +sailed for Granada, and from thence to St. Thomas's, a few days before +poor Captain Peake lost his life on his own quarter-deck, bravely +fighting for his country on the coast of Guiana. + +At St. Thomas's they show you a tower, a little distance from the town, +which, they say, formerly belonged to a buccaneer chieftain. Probably +the fury of besiegers has reduced it to its present dismantled state. +What still remains of it bears testimony of its former strength, and may +brave the attack of time for centuries. You cannot view its ruins +without calling to mind the exploits of those fierce and hardy hunters, +long the terror of the western world. While you admire their undaunted +courage, you lament that it was often stained with cruelty; while you +extol their scrupulous justice to each other, you will find a want of it +towards the rest of mankind. Often possessed of enormous wealth, often +in extreme poverty, often triumphant on the ocean, and often forced to +fly to the forests, their life was an ever-changing scene of advance and +retreat, of glory and disorder, of luxury and famine. Spain treated them +as outlaws and pirates, while other European Powers publicly disowned +them. They, on the other hand, maintained that injustice on the part of +Spain first forced them to take up arms in self-defence; and that, whilst +they kept inviolable the laws which they had framed for their own common +benefit and protection, they had a right to consider as foes those who +treated them as outlaws. Under this impression they drew the sword, and +rushed on as though in lawful war, and divided the spoils of victory in +the scale of justice. + +After leaving St. Thomas's a severe tertian ague every now and then kept +putting the traveller in mind that his shattered frame, "starting and +shivering in the inconstant blast, meagre and pale--the ghost of what it +was"--wanted repairs. Three years elapsed after arriving in England +before the ague took its final leave of him. + +During that time several experiments were made with the wourali-poison. +In London an ass was inoculated with it, and died in twelve minutes. The +poison was inserted into the leg of another, round which a bandage had +been previously tied a little above the place where the wourali was +introduced. He walked about as usual, and ate his food as though all +were right. After an hour had elapsed the bandage was untied, and ten +minutes after death overtook him. + +A she-ass received the wourali-poison in the shoulder, and died +apparently in ten minutes. An incision was then made in its windpipe, +and through it the lungs were regularly inflated for two hours with a +pair of bellows. Suspended animation returned. The ass held up her +head, and looked around; but the inflating being discontinued, she sank +once more in apparent death. The artificial breathing was immediately +recommenced, and continued without intermission for two hours; this saved +the ass from final dissolution. She rose up, and walked about; she +seemed neither in agitation nor in pain. The wound, through which the +poison entered, was healed without difficulty. Her constitution, +however, was so severely affected that it was long a doubt if ever she +would be well again. She looked lean and sickly for above a year, but +began to mend the spring after, and by Midsummer became fat and frisky. + +The kind-hearted reader will rejoice on learning that Earl Percy, pitying +her misfortunes, sent her down from London to Walton Hall, near +Wakefield. There she goes by the name of Wouralia. Wouralia shall be +sheltered from the wintry storm; and when summer comes she shall feed in +the finest pasture. No burden shall be placed upon her, and she shall +end her days in peace. + +For three revolving autumns the ague-beaten wanderer never saw, without a +sigh, the swallow bend her flight towards warmer regions. He wished to +go too, but could not; for sickness had enfeebled him, and prudence +pointed out the folly of roving again too soon across the northern +tropic. To be sure, the Continent was now open, and change of air might +prove beneficial; but there was nothing very tempting in a trip across +the Channel, and as for a tour through England--England has long ceased +to be the land for adventures. Indeed, when good King Arthur reappears +to claim his crown he will find things strangely altered here; and may we +not look for his coming? for there is written upon his gravestone:-- + + "Hic jacet Arturus, Rex quondam Rexque futurus," + "Here Arthur lies, who formerly + Was king--and king again to be." + +Don Quixote was always of opinion that this famous king did not die, but +that he was changed into a raven by enchantment, and that the English are +momentarily expecting his return. Be this as it may, it is certain that +when he reigned here all was harmony and joy. The browsing herds passed +from vale to vale, the swains sang from the bluebell-teeming groves, and +nymphs, with eglantine and roses in their neatly-braided hair, went hand +in hand to the flowery mead to weave garlands for their lambkins. If by +chance some rude uncivil fellow dared to molest them, or attempted to +throw thorns in their path, there was sure to be a knight-errant not far +off ready to rush forward in their defence. But alas! in these +degenerate days it is not so. Should a harmless cottage-maid wander out +of the highway to pluck a primrose or two in the neighbouring field the +haughty owner sternly bids her retire; and if a pitying swain hasten to +escort her back, he is perhaps seized by the gaunt house-dog ere he reach +her. + +AEneas's route on the other side of Styx could not have been much worse +than this, though by his account, when he got back to earth, it appears +that he had fallen in with "Bellua Lernae, horrendum stridens, +flammisque, armata Chimaera." + +Moreover, he had a sibyl to guide his steps; and as such a conductress +nowadays could not be got for love nor money, it was judged most prudent +to refrain from sauntering through this land of freedom, and wait with +patience the return of health. At last this long-looked-for, +ever-welcome stranger came. + + + + +SECOND JOURNEY. + + +In the year 1816, two days before the vernal equinox, I sailed from +Liverpool for Pernambuco, in the southern hemisphere, on the coast of +Brazil. There is little at this time of the year in the European part of +the Atlantic to engage the attention of the naturalist. As you go down +the Channel you see a few divers and gannets. The middle-sized gulls, +with a black spot at the end of the wings, attend you a little way into +the Bay of Biscay. When it blows a hard gale of wind the stormy petrel +makes its appearance. While the sea runs mountains high, and every wave +threatens destruction to the labouring vessel, this little harbinger of +storms is seen enjoying itself, on rapid pinion, up and down the roaring +billows. When the storm is over it appears no more. It is known to +every English sailor by the name of Mother Carey's chicken. It must have +been hatched in AEolus's cave, amongst a clutch of squalls and tempests; +for whenever they get out upon the ocean it always contrives to be of the +party. + +Though the calms and storms and adverse winds in these latitudes are +vexatious, still, when you reach the trade winds, you are amply repaid +for all disappointments and inconveniences. The trade winds prevail +about thirty degrees on each side of the equator. This part of the ocean +may be called the Elysian Fields of Neptune's empire; and the torrid +zone, notwithstanding Ovid's remark, "non est habitabilis aestu," is +rendered healthy and pleasant by these gently-blowing breezes. The ship +glides smoothly on, and you soon find yourself within the northern +tropic. When you are on it, Cancer is just over your head, and betwixt +him and Capricorn is the high road of the Zodiac, forty-seven degrees +wide, famous for Phaeton's misadventure. His father begged and entreated +him not to take it into his head to drive parallel to the five zones, but +to mind and keep on the turnpike which runs obliquely across the equator. +"There you will distinctly see," said he, "the ruts of my chariot wheels, +'manifesta rotae vestigia cernes.' But," added he, "even suppose you +keep on it, and avoid the byroads, nevertheless, my dear boy, believe me, +you will be most sadly put to your shifts; 'ardua prima via est,' the +first part of the road is confoundedly steep! 'ultima via prona est,' and +after that it is all down hill. Moreover, 'per insidias iter est, +formasque ferarum,' the road is full of nooses and bull-dogs, +'Haemoniosque arcus,' and spring guns, 'saevaque circuitu, curvantem +brachia longo, Scorpio,' and steel traps of uncommon size and shape." +These were nothing in the eyes of Phaeton; go he would, so off he set, +full speed, four-in-hand. He had a tough drive of it; and after doing a +prodigious deal of mischief, very luckily for the world, he got thrown +out of the box, and tumbled into the river Po. + +Some of our modern bloods have been shallow enough to try to ape this +poor empty-headed coachman, on a little scale, making London their +Zodiac. Well for them if tradesmen's bills, and other trivial +perplexities, have not caused them to be thrown into the King's Bench. + +The productions of the torrid zone are uncommonly grand. Its plains, its +swamps, its savannas, and forests abound with the largest serpents and +wild beasts; and its trees are the habitation of the most beautiful of +the feathered race. While the traveller in the Old World is astonished +at the elephant, the tiger, the lion, and the rhinoceros, he who wanders +through the torrid regions of the New is lost in admiration at the +cotingas, the toucans, the humming-birds, and aras. + +The ocean, likewise, swarms with curiosities. Probably the flying-fish +may be considered as one of the most singular. This little scaled +inhabitant of water and air seems to have been more favoured than the +rest of its finny brethren. It can rise out of the waves, and on wing +visit the domain of the birds. + +After flying two or three hundred yards, the intense heat of the sun has +dried its pellucid wings, and it is obliged to wet them in order to +continue its flight. It just drops into the ocean for a moment, and then +rises again and flies on; and then descends to remoisten them, and then +up again into the air; thus passing its life, sometimes wet, sometimes +dry, sometimes in sunshine, and sometimes in the pale moon's nightly +beam, as pleasure dictates, or as need requires. The additional +assistance of wings is not thrown away upon it. It has full occupation +both for fins and wings, as its life is in perpetual danger. + +The bonito and albicore chase it day and night; but the dolphin is its +worst and swiftest foe. If it escape into the air, the dolphin pushes on +with proportional velocity beneath, and is ready to snap it up the moment +it descends to wet its wings. + +You will often see above one hundred of these little marine aerial +fugitives on the wing at once. They appear to use every exertion to +prolong their flight, but vain are all their efforts; for when the last +drop of water on their wings is dried up, their flight is at an end, and +they must drop into the ocean. Some are instantly devoured by their +merciless pursuer, part escape by swimming, and others get out again as +quick as possible, and trust once more to their wings. + +It often happens that this unfortunate little creature, after alternate +dips and flights, finding all its exertions of no avail, at last drops on +board the vessel, verifying the old remark-- + + "Incidit in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim." + +There, stunned by the fall, it beats the deck with its tail, and dies. +When eating it, you would take it for a fresh herring. The largest +measure from fourteen to fifteen inches in length. The dolphin, after +pursuing it to the ship, sometimes forfeits his own life. + +In days of yore, the musician used to play in softest, sweetest strain, +and then take an airing amongst the dolphins; "inter delphinas Arion." +But nowadays, our tars have quite capsized the custom; and instead of +riding ashore on the dolphin, they invited the dolphin aboard. While he +is darting and playing around the vessel, a sailor goes out to the +spritsailyard-arm, and with a long staff, leaded at one end, and armed at +the other with five barbed spikes, he heaves it at him. If successful in +his aim, there is a fresh mess for all hands. The dying dolphin affords +a superb and brilliant sight: + + "Mille trahit moriens, adverso sole colores." + +All the colours of the rainbow pass and repass in rapid succession over +his body, till the dark hand of death closes the scene. + +From the Cape de Verd Islands to the coast of Brazil you see several +different kinds of gulls, which probably are bred in the island of St. +Paul. Sometimes the large bird called the frigate pelican soars +majestically over the vessel, and the tropic-bird comes near enough to +let you have a fair view of the long feathers in his tail. On the line +when it is calm sharks of a tremendous size make their appearance. They +are descried from the ship by means of the dorsal fin, which is above the +water. + +On entering the Bay of Pernambuco, the frigate pelican is seen watching +the shoals of fish from a prodigious height. It seldom descends without +a successful attack on its numerous prey below. + +As you approach the shore the view is charming. The hills are clothed +with wood, gradually rising towards the interior, none of them of any +considerable height. A singular reef of rocks runs parallel to the +coast, and forms the harbour of Pernambuco. The vessels are moored +betwixt it and the town, safe from every storm. You enter the harbour +through a very narrow passage, close by a fort built on the reef. The +hill of Olinda, studded with houses and convents, is on your right hand, +and an island, thickly planted with cocoa-nut trees, adds considerably to +the scene on your left. There are two strong forts on the isthmus, +betwixt Olinda and Pernambuco, and a pillar midway to aid the pilot. + +Pernambuco probably contains upwards of fifty thousand souls. It stands +on a flat, and is divided into three parts--a peninsula, an island, and +the continent. Though within a few degrees of the line, its climate is +remarkably salubrious, and rendered almost temperate by the refreshing +sea-breeze. Had art and judgment contributed their portion to its +natural advantages, Pernambuco at this day would have been a stately +ornament to the coast of Brazil. On viewing it, it will strike you that +every one has built his house entirely for himself, and deprived public +convenience of the little claim she had a right to put in. You would +wish that this city, so famous for its harbour, so happy in its climate, +and so well situated for commerce, could have risen under the flag of +Dido, in lieu of that of Braganza. + +As you walk down the streets, the appearance of the homes is not much in +their favour. Some of them are very high, and some very low; some newly +whitewashed, and others stained and mouldy and neglected, as though they +had no owner. + +The balconies, too, are of a dark and gloomy appearance. They are not, +in general, open, as in most tropical cities, but grated like a farmer's +dairy window, though somewhat closer. + +There is a lamentable want of cleanliness in the streets. The impurities +from the houses, and the accumulation of litter from the beasts of +burden, are unpleasant sights to the passing stranger. He laments the +want of a police as he goes along; and when the wind begins to blow, his +nose and eyes are too often exposed to a cloud of very unsavoury dust. + +When you view the port of Pernambuco, full of ships of all nations; when +you know that the richest commodities of Europe, Africa, and Asia are +brought to it; when you see immense quantities of cotton, dye-wood, and +the choicest fruits pouring into the town, you are apt to wonder at the +little attention these people pay to the common comforts which one always +expects to find in a large and opulent city. However, if the inhabitants +are satisfied, there is nothing more to be said. Should they ever be +convinced that inconveniences exist, and that nuisances are too frequent, +the remedy is in their own hands. At present, certainly, they seem +perfectly regardless of them; and the Captain-General of Pernambuco walks +through the streets with as apparent content and composure as an English +statesman would proceed down Charing Cross. Custom reconciles +everything. In a week or two the stranger himself begins to feel less +the things which annoyed him so much upon his first arrival, and after a +few months' residence he thinks no more about them, while he is partaking +of the hospitality and enjoying the elegance and splendour within doors +in this great city. + +Close by the riverside stands what is called the Palace of the +Captain-General of Pernambuco. Its form and appearance altogether strike +the traveller that it was never intended for the use it is at present put +to. + +Reader, throw a veil over thy recollection for a little while, and forget +the cruel, unjust, and unmerited censures thou hast heard against an +unoffending order. This palace was once the Jesuits' college, and +originally built by those charitable fathers. Ask the aged and +respectable inhabitants of Pernambuco, and they will tell thee that the +destruction of the Society of Jesus was a terrible disaster to the +public, and its consequences severely felt to the present day. + +When Pombal took the reins of power into his own hands, virtue and +learning beamed bright within the college walls. Public catechism to the +children, and religious instruction to all, flowed daily from the mouths +of its venerable priests. + +They were loved, revered, and respected throughout the whole town. The +illuminating philosophers of the day had sworn to exterminate Christian +knowledge, and the college of Pernambuco was doomed to founder in the +general storm. To the long-lasting sorrow and disgrace of Portugal, the +philosophers blinded her king and flattered her Prime Minister. Pombal +was exactly the tool these sappers of every public and private virtue +wanted. He had the naked sword of power in his own hand, and his heart +was as hard as flint. Ho struck a mortal blow, and the Society of Jesus +throughout the Portuguese dominions, was no more. + +One morning all the fathers of the college in Pernambuco, some of them +very old and feeble, were suddenly ordered into the refectory. They had +notice beforehand of the fatal storm, in pity from the governor, but not +one of them abandoned his charge. They had done their duty, and had +nothing to fear. They bowed with resignation to the will of Heaven. As +soon as they had all reached the refectory, they were there locked up, +and never more did they see their rooms, their friends, their scholars, +or acquaintance. In the dead of the following night, a strong guard of +soldiers literally drove them through the streets to the water's edge. +They were then conveyed in boats aboard a ship, and steered for Bahia. +Those who survived the barbarous treatment they experienced from Pombal's +creatures were at last ordered to Lisbon. The college of Pernambuco was +plundered, and some time after an elephant was kept there. + +Thus the arbitrary hand of power, in one night, smote and swept away the +sciences; to which succeeded the low vulgar buffoonery of a showman. +Virgil and Cicero made way for a wild beast from Angola! and now a guard +is on duty at the very gate where, in times long past, the poor were +daily fed!!! + +Trust not, kind reader, to the envious remarks which their enemies have +scattered far and near; believe not the stories of those who have had a +hand in the sad tragedy. Go to Brazil, and see with thine own eyes the +effect of Pombal's short-sighted policy. There vice reigns triumphant, +and learning is at its lowest ebb. Neither is this to be wondered at. +Destroy the compass, and will the vessel find her far-distant port? Will +the flock keep together, and escape the wolves, after the shepherds are +all slain? The Brazilians were told that public education would go on +just as usual. They might have asked Government, who so able to instruct +our youth as those whose knowledge is proverbial? who so fit as those who +enjoy our entire confidence? who so worthy, as those whose lives are +irreproachable? + +They soon found that those who succeeded the fathers of the Society of +Jesus had neither their manner nor their abilities. They had not made +the instruction of youth their particular study. Moreover, they entered +on the field after a defeat, where the officers had all been slain; where +the plan of the campaign was lost; where all was in sorrow and dismay. +No exertions of theirs could rally the dispersed, or skill prevent the +fatal consequences. At the present day the seminary of Olinda, in +comparison with the former Jesuits' college, is only as the waning moon's +beam to the sun's meridian splendour. + +When you visit the places where those learned fathers once flourished, +and see with your own eyes the evils their dissolution has caused; when +you hear the inhabitants telling you how good, how clever, how charitable +they were--what will you think of our poet laureate for calling them, in +his "History of Brazil," "Missioners, whose zeal the most fanatical was +directed by the coolest policy"? + +Was it _fanatical_ to renounce the honours and comforts of this +transitory life, in order to gain eternal glory in the next, by denying +themselves, and taking up the cross? Was it _fanatical_ to preach +salvation to innumerable wild hordes of Americans, to clothe the naked, +to encourage the repenting sinner, to aid the dying Christian? The +fathers of the Society of Jesus did all this. And for this their zeal is +pronounced to be the most fanatical, directed by the coolest policy. It +will puzzle many a clear brain to comprehend how it is possible, in the +nature of things, that _zeal_ the most _fanatical_ should be directed by +the _coolest policy_. Ah, Mr. Laureate, Mr. Laureate, that "quidlibet +audendi" of yours may now and then gild the poet, at the same time that +it makes the historian cut a sorry figure! + +Could Father Nobrega rise from the tomb, he would thus address +you:--"Ungrateful Englishman, you have drawn a great part of your +information from the writings of the Society of Jesus, and in return you +attempt to stain its character by telling your countrymen that 'we taught +the idolatry we believed!' In speaking of me, you say, it was my happy +fortune to be stationed in a country where _none_ but the good principles +of my order were called into action. Ungenerous laureate, the narrow +policy of the times has kept your countrymen in the dark with regard to +the true character of the Society of Jesus; and you draw the bandage +still tighter over their eyes by a malicious insinuation. I lived, and +taught, and died in Brazil, where you state that _none_ but the good +principles of my order were called into action, and still, in most +absolute contradiction to this, you remark we believed the _idolatry_ we +taught in Brazil. Thus we brought none but good principles into action, +and still taught idolatry! + +"Again, you state there is no individual to whose talents Brazil is so +greatly and permanently indebted as mine, and that I must be regarded as +the founder of that system so successfully pursued by the Jesuits in +Paraguay; a system productive of as much good as is compatible with pious +fraud. Thus you make me, at one and the same time, a teacher of none but +good principles, and a teacher of idolatry, and a believer in idolatry, +and still the founder of a system for which Brazil is greatly and +permanently indebted to me, though, by-the-bye, the system was only +productive of as much good as is compatible with pious fraud! + +"What means all this? After reading such incomparable nonsense, should +your countrymen wish to be properly informed concerning the Society of +Jesus, there are in England documents enough to show that the system of +the Jesuits was a system of Christian charity towards their +fellow-creatures, administered in a manner which human prudence judged +best calculated to ensure success; and that the idolatry which you +uncharitably affirm they taught was really and truly the very same faith +which the Catholic Church taught for centuries in England, which she +still teaches to those who wish to hear her, and which she will continue +to teach pure and unspotted, till time shall be no more." + +The environs of Pernambuco are very pretty. You see country houses in +all directions, and the appearance of here and there a sugar plantation +enriches the scenery. Palm-trees, cocoa-nut trees, orange and lemon +groves, and all the different fruits peculiar to Brazil, are here in the +greatest abundance. + +At Olinda there is a national botanical garden; it wants space, produce, +and improvement. The forests which are several leagues off, abound with +birds, beasts, insects, and serpents. Besides a brilliant plumage, many +of the birds have a very fine song. The troupiale, noted for its rich +colours, sings delightfully in the environs of Pernambuco. The +red-headed finch, larger than the European sparrow, pours forth a sweet +and varied strain, in company with two species of wrens, a little before +daylight. There are also several species of the thrush, which have a +song somewhat different from that of the European thrush; and two species +of the linnet, whose strain is so soft and sweet that it dooms them to +captivity in the houses. A bird, called here _sangre do buey_ (blood of +the ox), cannot fail to engage your attention: he is of the passerine +tribe, and very common about the houses; the wings and tail are black, +and every other part of the body a flaming red. In Guiana there is a +species exactly the same as this in shape, note, and economy, but +differing in colour, its whole body being like black velvet; on its +breast a tinge of red appears through the black. Thus nature has ordered +this little tangara to put on mourning to the north of the line, and +wears scarlet to the south of it. + +For three months in the year the environs of Pernambuco are animated +beyond description. From November to March the weather is particularly +fine; then it is that rich and poor, young and old, foreigners and +natives, all issue from the city to enjoy the country, till Lent +approaches, when back they hie them. Villages and hamlets, where nothing +before but rags were seen, now shine in all the elegance of dress; every +house, every room, every shed become eligible places for those whom +nothing but extreme necessity could have forced to live there a few weeks +ago: some join in the merry dance, others saunter up and down the orange +groves; and towards evening the roads become a moving scene of silk and +jewels. The gaming-tables have constant visitors; there, thousands are +daily and nightly lost and won; parties even sit down to try their luck +round the outside of the door as well as in the room:-- + + "Vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus aulae + Luctus et ultrices, posuere sedilia curae." + +About six or seven miles from Pernambuco stands a pretty little village +called Monteiro; the river runs close by it, and its rural beauties seem +to surpass all others in the neighbourhood; there the Captain-General of +Pernambuco resides during this time of merriment and joy. + +The traveller who allots a portion of his time to peep at his +fellow-creatures in their relaxations, and accustoms himself to read +their several little histories in their looks and gestures as he goes +musing on, may have full occupation for an hour or two every day at this +season amid the variegated scenes around the pretty village of Monteiro. +In the evening groups sitting at the door, he may sometimes see with a +sigh how wealth and the prince's favour cause a booby to pass for a +Solon, and be reverenced as such, while perhaps a poor neglected Camoens +stands silent at a distance, awed by the dazzling glare of wealth and +power. Retired from the public road he may see poor Maria sitting under +a palm-tree, with her elbow in her lap and her head leaning on one side +within her hand, weeping over her forbidden banns. And as he moves on, +"with wandering step and slow," he may hear a broken-hearted nymph ask +her faithless swain, + + "How could you say my face was fair, + And yet that face forsake; + How could you win my virgin heart, + Yet leave that heart to break?" + +One afternoon, in an unfrequented part not far from Monteiro, these +adventures were near being brought to a speedy and a final close: six or +seven blackbirds, with a white spot betwixt the shoulders, were making a +noise, and passing to and fro on the lower branches of a tree in an +abandoned, weed-grown, orange orchard. In the long grass underneath the +tree, apparently a pale green grasshopper was fluttering, as though it +had got entangled in it. When you once fancy that the thing you are +looking at is really what you take it for, the more you look at it the +more you are convinced it is so. In the present case, this was a +grasshopper beyond all doubt, and nothing more remained to be done but to +wait in patience till it had settled, in order that you might run no risk +of breaking its legs in attempting to lay hold of it while it was +fluttering--it still kept fluttering; and having quietly approached it, +intended to make sure of it--behold, the head of a large rattlesnake +appeared in the grass close by: an instantaneous spring backwards +prevented fatal consequences. What had been taken for a grasshopper was, +in fact, the elevated rattle of the snake in the act of announcing that +he was quite prepared, though unwilling, to make a sure and deadly +spring. He shortly after passed slowly from under the orange-tree to the +neighbouring wood on the side of a hill: as he moved over a place bare of +grass and weeds, he appeared to be about eight feet long; it was he who +had engaged the attention of the birds, and made them heedless of danger +from another quarter: they flew away on his retiring; one alone left his +little life in the air, destined to become a specimen, mute and +motionless, for the inspection of the curious in a far distant clime. + +It was now the rainy season, the birds were moulting; fifty-eight +specimens of the handsomest of them in the neighbourhood of Pernambuco +had been collected, and it was time to proceed elsewhere. The conveyance +to the interior was by horses; and this mode, together with the heavy +rains, would expose preserved specimens to almost certain damage. The +journey to Maranham by land would take at least forty days. The route +was not wild enough to engage the attention of an explorer, or civilised +enough to afford common comforts to a traveller. By sea there were no +opportunities, except slave ships. As the transporting poor negroes from +port to port for sale pays well in Brazil, the ships' decks are crowded +with them. This would not do. + +Excuse here, benevolent reader, a small tribute of gratitude to an Irish +family, whose urbanity and goodness have long gained it the esteem and +respect of all ranks in Pernambuco. The kindness and attention I +received from Dennis Kearney, Esq., and his amiable lady, will be +remembered with gratitude to my dying day. + +After wishing farewell to this hospitable family, I embarked on board a +Portuguese brig, with poor accommodation, for Cayenne in Guiana. The +most eligible bedroom was the top of a hen-coop on deck. Even here, an +unsavoury little beast, called bug, was neither shy nor deficient in +appetite. + +The Portuguese seamen are famed for catching fish. One evening, under +the line, four sharks made their appearance in the wake of the vessel. +The sailors caught them all. + +On the fourteenth day after leaving Pernambuco, the brig cast anchor off +the island of Cayenne. The entrance is beautiful. To windward, not far +off, there are two bold wooded islands, called the Father and Mother; and +near them are others, their children, smaller, though as beautiful as +their parents. Another is seen a long way to leeward of the family, and +seems as if it had strayed from home, and cannot find its way back. The +French call it "l'enfant perdu." As you pass the islands, the stately +hills on the main, ornamented with ever-verdant foliage, show you that +this is by far the sublimest scenery on the sea-coast, from the Amazons +to the Oroonoque. On casting your eye towards Dutch Guiana, you will see +that the mountains become unconnected, and few in number, and long before +you reach Surinam the Atlantic wave washes a flat and muddy shore. + +Considerably to windward of Cayenne, and about twelve leagues from land, +stands a stately and towering rock, called the Constable. As nothing +grows on it to tempt greedy and aspiring man to claim it as his own, the +sea-fowl rest and raise their offspring there. The bird called the +frigate is ever soaring round its rugged summit. Hither the phaeton +bends his rapid flight, and flocks of rosy flamingos here defy the +fowler's cunning. All along the coast, opposite the Constable, and +indeed on every uncultivated part of it to windward and leeward, are seen +innumerable quantities of snow-white egrets, scarlet curlews, spoonbills, +and flamingos. + +Cayenne is capable of being a noble and productive colony. At present it +is thought to be the poorest on the coast of Guiana. Its estates are too +much separated one from the other by immense tracts of forest; and the +revolutionary war, like a cold eastern wind, has chilled their zeal and +blasted their best expectations. + +The clove-tree, the cinnamon, pepper, and nutmeg, and many other choice +spices and fruits of the eastern and Asiatic regions, produce abundantly +in Cayenne. + +The town itself is prettily laid out, and was once well fortified. They +tell you it might easily have been defended against the invading force of +the two united nations; but Victor Hugues, its governor, ordered the +tri-coloured flag to be struck; and ever since that day the standard of +Braganza has waved on the ramparts of Cayenne. + +He who has received humiliations from the hand of this haughty, +iron-hearted governor, may see him now in Cayenne, stripped of all his +revolutionary honours, broken down and ruined, and under arrest in his +own house. He has four accomplished daughters, respected by the whole +town. Towards the close of day, when the sun's rays are no longer +oppressive, these much-pitied ladies are seen walking up and down the +balcony with their aged parent, trying, by their kind and filial +attention, to remove the settled gloom from his too guilty brow. + +This was not the time for a traveller to enjoy Cayenne. The hospitality +of the inhabitants was the same as ever, but they had lost their wonted +gaiety in public, and the stranger might read in their countenances, as +the recollection of recent humiliations and misfortunes every now and +then kept breaking in upon them, that they were still in sorrow for their +fallen country: the victorious hostile cannon of Waterloo still sounded +in their ears; their Emperor was a prisoner amongst the hideous rocks of +St. Helena; and many a Frenchman who had fought and bled for France was +now amongst them begging for a little support to prolong a life which +would be forfeited on the parent soil. To add another handful to the +cypress and wormwood already scattered amongst these polite colonists, +they had just received orders from the court of Janeiro to put on deep +mourning for six months, and half-mourning for as many more, on account +of the death of the Queen of Portugal. + +After a day's journey in the interior is the celebrated national +plantation. This spot was judiciously chosen, for it is out of the reach +of enemies' cruisers. It is called La Gabrielle. No plantation in the +western world can vie with La Gabrielle. Its spices are of the choicest +kind; its soil particularly favourable to them; its arrangements +beautiful; and its directeur, Monsieur Martin, a botanist of first-rate +abilities. This indefatigable naturalist ranged through the East, under +a royal commission, in quest of botanical knowledge; and during his stay +in the western regions has sent over to Europe from twenty to twenty-five +thousand specimens in botany and zoology. La Gabrielle is on a +far-extending range of woody hills. Figure to yourself a hill in the +shape of a bowl reversed, with the buildings on the top of it, and you +will have an idea of the appearance of La Gabrielle. You approach the +house through a noble avenue, five hundred toises long, of the choicest +tropical fruit-trees, planted with the greatest care and judgment; and +should you chance to stray through it after sunset, when the clove-trees +are in blossom, you would fancy yourself in the Idalian groves, or near +the banks of the Nile, where they were burning the finest incense as the +Queen of Egypt passed. + +On La Gabrielle there are twenty-two thousand clove-trees in full +bearing. They are planted thirty feet asunder. Their lower branches +touch the ground. In general the trees are topped at five-and-twenty +feet high; though you will see some here towering up above sixty. The +black pepper, the cinnamon, and nutmeg are also in great abundance here, +and very productive. + +While the stranger views the spicy groves of La Gabrielle, and tastes the +most delicious fruits which have originally been imported hither from all +parts of the tropical world, he will thank the Government which has +supported, and admire the talents of the gentleman who has raised to its +present grandeur, this noble collection of useful fruits. There is a +large nursery attached to La Gabrielle, where plants of all the different +species are raised and distributed gratis to those colonists who wish to +cultivate them. + +Not far from the banks of the river Oyapoc, to windward of Cayenne, is a +mountain which contains an immense cavern. Here the cock-of-the-rock is +plentiful. He is about the size of a fantail-pigeon, his colour a bright +orange, and his wings and tail appear as though fringed; his head is +ornamented with a superb double-feathery crest, edged with purple. He +passes the day amid gloomy damps and silence, and only issues out for +food a short time at sunrise and sunset. He is of the gallinaceous +tribe. The South-American Spaniards call him "gallo del Rio Negro" (cock +of the Black River), and suppose that he is only to be met with in the +vicinity of that far-inland stream; but he is common in the interior of +Demerara, amongst the huge rocks in the forests of Macoushia; and he has +been shot south of the line, in the captainship of Para. + +The bird called by Buffon _grand gobemouche_ has never been found in +Demerara, although very common in Cayenne. He is not quite so large as +the jackdaw, and is entirely black, except a large spot under the throat, +which is a glossy purple. + +You may easily sail from Cayenne to the river Surinam in two days. Its +capital, Paramaribo, is handsome, rich, and populous: hitherto it has +been considered by far the finest town in Guiana; but probably the time +is not far off when the capital of Demerara may claim the prize of +superiority. You may enter a creek above Paramaribo, and travel through +the interior of Surinam, till you come to the Nacari, which is close to +the large river Coryntin. When you have passed this river, there is a +good public road to New Amsterdam, the capital of Berbice. + +On viewing New Amsterdam, it will immediately strike you that something +or other has intervened to prevent its arriving at that state of wealth +and consequence for which its original plan shows it was once intended. +What has caused this stop in its progress to the rank of a fine and +populous city remains for those to find out who are interested in it; +certain it is that New Amsterdam has been languid for some years, and now +the tide of commerce seems ebbing fast from the shores of Berbice. + +Gay and blooming is the sister colony of Demerara. Perhaps, kind reader, +thou hast not forgot that it was from Stabroek, the capital of Demerara, +that the adventurer set out, some years ago, to reach the Portuguese +frontier fort, and collected the wourali-poison. It was not intended, +when this second sally was planned in England, to have visited Stabroek +again by the route here described. The plan was to have ascended the +Amazons from Para and got into the Rio Negro, and from thence to have +returned towards the source of the Essequibo, in order to examine the +crystal mountains, and look once more for Lake Parima, or the White Sea; +but on arriving at Cayenne, the current was running with such amazing +rapidity to leeward, that a Portuguese sloop, which had been beating up +towards Para for four weeks, was then only half-way. Finding, therefore, +that a beat to the Amazons would be long, tedious, and even uncertain, +and aware that the season for procuring birds with fine plumage had +already set in, I left Cayenne in an American ship for Paramaribo, went +through the interior to the Coryntin, stopped a few days in New +Amsterdam, and proceeded to Demerara. If, gentle reader, thy patience be +not already worn out, and thy eyes half closed in slumber, by perusing +the dull adventures of this second sally, perhaps thou wilt pardon a line +or two on Demerara; and then we will retire to its forests, to collect +and examine the economy of its most rare and beautiful birds, and give +the world a new mode of preserving them. + +Stabroek, the capital of Demerara, has been rapidly increasing for some +years back; and if prosperity go hand in hand with the present +enterprising spirit, Stabroek, ere long, will be of the first colonial +consideration. It stands on the eastern bank at the mouth of the +Demerara, and enjoys all the advantages of the refreshing sea-breeze; the +streets are spacious, well-bricked, and elevated, the trenches clean, the +bridges excellent, and the houses handsome. Almost every commodity and +luxury of London may be bought in the shops at Stabroek; its market wants +better regulations. The hotels are commodious, clean, and well attended. +Demerara boasts as fine and well-disciplined militia as any colony in the +western world. + +The court of justice, where, in times of old, the bandage was easily +removed from the eyes of the goddess, and her scales thrown out of +equilibrium, now rises in dignity under the firmness, talents, and +urbanity of Mr. President Rough. + +The plantations have an appearance of high cultivation; a tolerable idea +may be formed of their value when you know that last year Demerara +numbered seventy-two thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine slaves. They +made about forty-four million pounds of sugar, near two million gallons +of rum, above eleven million pounds of coffee, and three million eight +hundred and nineteen thousand five hundred and twelve pounds of cotton; +the receipt into the public chest was five hundred and fifty-three +thousand nine hundred and fifty-six guilders; the public expenditure, +four hundred and fifty-one thousand six hundred and three guilders. + +Slavery can never be defended; he whose heart is not of iron can never +wish to be able to defend it; while he heaves a sigh for the poor negro +in captivity, he wishes from his soul that the traffic had been stifled +in its birth; but, unfortunately, the Governments of Europe nourished it, +and now that they are exerting themselves to do away the evil, and ensure +liberty to the sons of Africa, the situation of the plantation slaves is +depicted as truly deplorable, and their condition wretched. It is not +so. A Briton's heart, proverbially kind and generous, is not changed by +climate, or its streams of compassion dried up by the scorching heat of a +Demerara sun; he cheers his negroes in labour, comforts them in sickness, +is kind to them in old age, and never forgets that they are his +fellow-creatures. + +Instances of cruelty and depravity certainly occur here as well as all +the world over: but the edicts of the colonial Government are well +calculated to prevent them; and the British planter, except here and +there one, feels for the wrongs done to a poor ill-treated slave, and +shows that his heart grieves for him by causing immediate redress, and +preventing a repetition. + +Long may ye flourish, peaceful and liberal inhabitants of Demerara! Your +doors are ever open to harbour the harbourless; your purses never shut to +the wants of the distressed: many a ruined fugitive from the Oroonoque +will bless your kindness to him in the hour of need, when, flying from +the woes of civil discord, without food or raiment, he begged for shelter +underneath your roof. The poor sufferer in Trinidad, who lost his all in +the devouring flames, will remember your charity to his latest moments. +The traveller, as he leaves your port, casts a longing lingering look +behind; your attentions, your hospitality, your pleasantry and mirth, are +uppermost in his thoughts; your prosperity is close to his heart. Let us +now, gentle reader, retire from the busy scenes of man, and journey on +towards the wilds in quest of the feathered tribe. + +Leave behind you your high-seasoned dishes, your wines and your +delicacies; carry nothing but what is necessary for your own comfort and +the object in view, and depend upon the skill of an Indian, or your own, +for fish and game. A sheet, about twelve feet long, ten wide, painted, +and with loop-holes on each side, will be of great service; in a few +minutes you can suspend it betwixt two trees in the shape of a roof. +Under this, in your hammock, you may defy the pelting shower, and sleep +heedless of the dews of night. A hat, a shirt, and a light pair of +trousers, will be all the raiment you require. Custom will soon teach +you to tread lightly and barefoot on the little inequalities of ground, +and show you how to pass on, unwounded, amid the mantling briers. + +Snakes in these wilds are certainly an annoyance, though perhaps more in +imagination than reality: for you must recollect, that the serpent is +never the first to offend; his poisonous fang was not given him for +conquest: he never inflicts a wound with it but to defend existence. +Provided you walk cautiously, and do not absolutely touch him, you may +pass in safety close by him. As he is often coiled up on the ground, and +amongst the branches of the trees above you, a degree of circumspection +is necessary, lest you unwarily disturb him. + +Tigers are too few, and too apt to fly before the noble face of man, to +require a moment of your attention. + +The bite of the most noxious of the insects, at the very worst, only +causes a transient fever, with a degree of pain more or less. + +Birds in general, with few exceptions, are not common in the very remote +parts of the forest. The sides of rivers, lakes, and creeks, the borders +of savannas, the old abandoned habitations of Indians and woodcutters, +seem to be their favourite haunts. + +Though least in size, the glittering mantle of the humming-bird entitles +it to the first place in the list of the birds of the New World. It may +truly be called the Bird of Paradise; and had it existed in the Old +World, it would have claimed the title instead of the bird which has now +the honour to bear it. See it darting through the air almost as quick as +thought!--now it is within a yard of your face!--in an instant gone!--now +it flutters from flower to flower to sip the silver dew--it is now a +ruby--now a topaz--now an emerald--now all burnished gold! It would be +arrogant to pretend to describe this winged gem of nature after Buffon's +elegant description of it. + +Cayenne and Demerara produce the same humming-birds. Perhaps you would +wish to know something of their haunts. Chiefly in the months of July +and August the tree called _bois immortel_, very common in Demerara, +bears abundance of red blossom, which stays on the tree some weeks; then +it is that most of the different species of humming-birds are very +plentiful. The wild red sage is also their favourite shrub, and they +buzz like bees around the blossom of the wallaba-tree. Indeed, there is +scarce a flower in the interior, or on the sea-coast, but what receives +frequent visits from one or other of the species. + +On entering the forests, on the rising land in the interior, the blue and +green, the smallest brown, no bigger than the humblebee, with two long +feathers in the tail, and the little forked-tail purple-throated +humming-birds, glitter before you in ever-changing attitudes. One +species alone never shows his beauty to the sun; and were it not for his +lovely shining colours, you might almost be tempted to class him with the +goat suckers on account of his habits. He is the largest of all the +humming-birds, and is all red and changing gold-green, except the head, +which is black. He has two long feathers in the tail, which cross each +other, and these have gained him the name of karabimiti, or ara +humming-bird, from the Indians. You will never find him on the +sea-coast, or where the river is salt, or in the heart of the forest, +unless fresh water be there. He keeps close by the side of woody +fresh-water rivers and dark and lonely creeks. He leaves his retreat +before sunrise to feed on the insects over the water; he returns to it as +soon as the sun's rays cause a glare of light, is sedentary all day long, +and comes out again for a short time after sunset. He builds his nest on +a twig over the water in the unfrequented creeks; it looks like tanned +cow-leather. + +As you advance towards the mountains of Demerara, other species of +humming-birds present themselves before you. It seems to be an erroneous +opinion that the humming-bird lives entirely on honey-dew. Almost every +flower of the tropical climate contains insects of one kind or other; +now, the humming-bird is most busy about the flowers an hour or two after +sunrise and after a shower of rain, and it is just at this time that the +insects come out to the edge of the flower in order that the sun's rays +may dry the nocturnal dew and rain which they have received. On opening +the stomach of the humming-bird, dead insects are almost always found +there. + +Next to the humming-birds, the cotingas display the gayest plumage. They +are of the order of passeres, and you number five species betwixt the +sea-coast and the rock Saba. Perhaps the scarlet cotinga is the richest +of the five, and is one of those birds which are found in the deepest +recesses of the forest. His crown is flaming red; to this abruptly +succeeds a dark shining brown, reaching half-way down the back: the +remainder of the back, the rump, and tail, the extremity of which is +edged with black, are a lively red; the belly is a somewhat lighter red; +the breast, reddish-black; the wings, brown. He has no song, is +solitary, and utters a monotonous whistle which sounds like "quet." He +is fond of the seeds of the hitia-tree, and those of the siloabali and +bastard-siloabali trees, which ripen in December, and continue on the +trees for about two months. He is found throughout the year in Demerara; +still nothing is known of his incubation. The Indians all agree in +telling you that they have never seen his nest. + +The purple-breasted cotinga has the throat and breast of a deep purple, +the wings and tail black, and all the rest of the body a most lively +shining blue. + +The purple-throated cotinga has black wings and tail, and every other +part a light and glossy blue, save the throat, which is purple. + +The pompadour cotinga is entirely purple, except his wings, which are +white, their four first feathers tipped with brown. The great coverts of +the wings are stiff, narrow, and pointed, being shaped quite different +from those of any other bird. When you are betwixt this bird and the sun +in his flight, he appears uncommonly brilliant. He makes a hoarse noise, +which sounds like "wallababa." Hence his name amongst the Indians. + +None of these three cotingas have a song. They feed on the hitia, +siloabali, and bastard-siloabali seeds, the wild guava, the fig, and +other fruit trees of the forest. They are easily shot in these trees +during the months of December, January, and part of February. The +greater part of them disappear after this, and probably retire far away +to breed. Their nests have never been found in Demerara. + +The fifth species is the celebrated campanero of the Spaniards, called +dara by the Indians and bell-bird by the English. He is about the size +of the jay. His plumage is white as snow. On his forehead rises a +spiral tube nearly three inches long. It is jet-black, dotted all over +with small white feathers. It has a communication with the palate, and +when filled with air, looks like a spire; when empty, it becomes +pendulous. His note is loud and clear, like the sound of a bell, and may +be heard at the distance of three miles. In the midst of these extensive +wilds, generally on the dried top of an aged mora, almost out of gun +reach, you will see the campanero. No sound or song from any of the +winged inhabitants of the forest, not even the clearly-pronounced +"Whip-poor-Will," from the goatsucker, causes such astonishment as the +toll of the campanero. + +With many of the feathered race, he pays the common tribute of a morning +and an evening song; and even when the meridian sun has shut in silence +the mouths of almost the whole of animated nature, the campanero still +cheers the forest. You hear his toll, and then a pause for a minute, +then another toll, and then a pause again, and then a toll, and again a +pause. Then he is silent for six or eight minutes, and then, another +toll, and so on. Actaeon would stop in mid chase, Maria would defer her +evening song, and Orpheus himself would drop his lute to listen to him, +so sweet, so novel, and romantic is the toll of the pretty snow-white +campanero. He is never seen to feed with the other cotingas, nor is it +known in what part of Guiana he makes his nest. + +While cotingas attract your attention by their superior plumage, the +singular form of the toucan makes a lasting impression on your memory. +There are three species of toucans in Demerara, and three diminutives, +which may be called toucanets. The largest of the first species +frequents the mangrove-trees on the sea-coast. He is never seen in the +interior till you reach Macoushia, where he is found in the neighbourhood +of the river Tacatou. The other two species are very common. They feed +entirely on the fruits of the forest, and though of the pie kind, never +kill the young of other birds or touch carrion. The larger is called +bouradi by the Indians (which means "nose"), the other, scirou. They +seem partial to each other's company, and often resort to the same +feeding tree, and retire together to the same shady noon-day retreat. +They are very noisy in rainy weather at all hours of the day, and in fair +weather, at morn and eve. The sound which the bouradi makes is like the +clear yelping of a puppy dog, and you fancy he says, "pia-po-o-co," and +thus the South American Spaniards call him piapoco. + +All the toucanets feed on the same trees on which the toucan feeds, and +every species of this family of enormous bill lays its eggs in the hollow +trees. They are social, but not gregarious. You may sometimes see eight +or ten in company, and from this you would suppose they are gregarious; +but, upon a closer examination, yon will find it has only been a dinner +party, which breaks up and disperses towards roosting-time. + +You will be at a loss to conjecture for what ends nature has overloaded +the head of this bird with such an enormous bill. It cannot be for the +offensive, as it has no need to wage war with any of the tribes of +animated nature; for its food is fruits and seeds, and those are in +superabundance throughout the whole year in the regions where the toucan +is found. It can hardly be for the defensive, as the toucan is preyed +upon by no bird in South America, and were it obliged to be at war, the +texture of the bill is ill adapted to give or receive blows, as you will +see in dissecting it. It cannot be for any particular protection to the +tongue, as the tongue is a perfect feather. + +The flight of the toucan is by jerks; in the action of flying it seems +incommoded by this huge disproportioned feature, and the head seems as if +bowed down to the earth by it against its will; if the extraordinary form +and size of the bill expose the toucan to ridicule, its colours make it +amends. Were a specimen of each species of the toucan presented to you, +you would pronounce the bill of the bouradi the most rich and beautiful; +on the ridge of the upper mandible a broad stripe of most lovely yellow +extends from the head to the point; a stripe of the same breadth, though +somewhat deeper yellow, falls from it at right angles next the head down +to the edge of the mandible; then follows a black stripe, half as broad, +falling at right angles from the ridge, and running narrower along the +edge to within half an inch of the point. The rest of the mandible is a +deep bright red. The lower mandible has no yellow; its black and red are +distributed in the same manner as on the upper one, with this difference, +that there is black about an inch from the point. The stripe +corresponding to the deep yellow stripe on the upper mandible is sky +blue. It is worthy of remark that all these brilliant colours of the +bill are to be found in the plumage of the body, and the bare skin round +the eye. + +All these colours, except the blue, are inherent in the horn; that part +which appears blue is in reality transparent white, and receives its +colour from a thin piece of blue skin inside. This superb bill fades in +death, and in three or four days' time has quite lost its original +colours. + +Till within these few years no idea of the true colours of the bill could +be formed from the stuffed toucans brought to Europe. About eight years +ago, while eating a boiled toucan, the thought struck me that the colours +in the bill of a preserved specimen might be kept as bright as those in +life. A series of experiments proved this beyond a doubt. If you take +your penknife and cut away the roof of the upper mandible, you will find +that the space betwixt it and the outer shell contains a large collection +of veins, and small osseous fibres running in all directions through the +whole extent of the bill. Clear away all these with your knife, and you +will come to a substance more firm than skin, but of not so strong a +texture as the horn itself; cut this away also, and behind it is +discovered a thin and tender membrane: yellow where it has touched the +yellow part of the horn, blue where it has touched the red part, and +black towards the edge and point. When dried, this thin and tender +membrane becomes nearly black; as soon as it is cut away, nothing remains +but the outer horn, red and yellow, and now become transparent. The +under mandible must undergo the same operation. Great care must be +taken, and the knife used very cautiously when you are cutting through +the different parts close to where the bill joins on to the head: if you +cut away too much, the bill drops off; if you press too hard, the knife +comes through the horn; if you leave too great a portion of the membrane, +it appears through the horn, and by becoming black when dried, makes the +horn appear black also, and has a bad effect. Judgment, caution, skill, +and practice will ensure success. + +You have now cleared the bill of all those bodies which are the cause of +its apparent fading; for, as has been said before, these bodies dry in +death, and become quite discoloured, and appear so through the horn; and +reviewing the bill in this state, you conclude that its former bright +colours are lost. + +Something still remains to be done. You have rendered the bill +transparent by the operation, and that transparency must be done away to +make it appear perfectly natural. Pound some clean chalk, and give it +enough water till it be of the consistency of tar; add a proportion of +gum-arabic to make it adhesive; then take a camel-hair brush, and give +the inside of both mandibles a coat; apply a second when the first is +dry, then another, and a fourth to finish all. The gum-arabic will +prevent the chalk from cracking and falling off. If you remember, there +is a little space of transparent white on the lower mandible which +originally appeared blue, but which became transparent white as soon as +the thin piece of blue skin was cut away; this must be painted blue +inside. When all this is completed, the bill will please you; it will +appear in its original colours. Probably your own abilities will suggest +a cleverer mode of operating than the one here described. A small gouge +would assist the penknife, and render the operation less difficult. + +The houtou ranks high in beauty amongst the birds of Demerara--his whole +body is green, with a bluish cast in the wings and tail; his crown, which +he erects at pleasure, consists of black in the centre, surrounded with +lovely blue of two different shades: he has a triangular black spot, +edged with blue, behind the eye, extending to the ear; and on his breast +a sable tuft, consisting of nine feathers edged also with blue. This +bird seems to suppose that its beauty can be increased by trimming the +tail, which undergoes the same operation as our hair in a barber's shop, +only with this difference, that it uses its own beak, which is serrated, +in lieu of a pair of scissors; as soon as his tail is full grown, he +begins about an inch from the extremity of the two longest feathers in +it, and cuts away the web on both sides of the shaft, making a gap about +an inch long; both male and female Adonise their tails in this manner, +which gives them a remarkable appearance amongst all other birds. While +we consider the tail of the houtou blemished and defective, were he to +come amongst us he would probably consider our heads, cropped and bald, +in no better light. He who wishes to observe this handsome bird in his +native haunts must be in the forest at the morning's dawn. The houtou +shuns the society of man: the plantations and cultivated parts are too +much disturbed to engage it to settle there; the thick and gloomy forests +are the places preferred by the solitary houtou. In those far-extending +wilds, about daybreak, you hear him articulate, in a distinct and +mournful tone, "Houtou, houtou." Move cautiously on to where the sound +proceeds from, and you will see him sitting in the underwood, about a +couple of yards from the ground, his tail moving up and down every time +he articulates "houtou." He lives on insects and the berries amongst the +underwood, and very rarely is seen in the lofty trees, except the +bastard-siloabali tree, the fruit of which is grateful to him. He makes +no nest, but rears his young in a hole in the sand, generally on the side +of a hill. + +While in quest of the houtou you will now and then fall in with the jay +of Guiana, called by the Indians ibibirou. Its forehead is black, the +rest of the head white; the throat and breast like the English magpie: +about an inch of the extremity of the tail is white, the other part of +it, together with the back and wings, a greyish changing purple; the +belly is white: there are generally six or eight of them in company; they +are shy and garrulous, and tarry a very short time in one place; they are +never seen in the cultivated parts. + +Through the whole extent of the forest, chiefly from sunrise till nine +o'clock in the morning, you hear a sound of "Wow, wow, wow, wow." This +is the bird called boclora by the Indians. It is smaller than the common +pigeon, and seems, in some measure, to partake of its nature; its head +and breast are blue; the back and rump somewhat resemble the colour on +the peacock's neck; its belly is a bright yellow; the legs are so very +short that it always appears as if sitting on the branch; it is as +ill-adapted for walking as the swallow; its neck, for above an inch all +round, is quite bare of feathers, but this deficiency is not seen, for it +always sits with its head drawn in upon its shoulders: it sometimes feeds +with the cotingas on the guava and hitia trees; but its chief nutriment +seems to be insects, and, like most birds which follow this prey, its +chaps are well armed with bristles: it is found in Demerara at all times +of the year, and makes a nest resembling that of the stock-dove. This +bird never takes long flights, and when it crosses a river or creek it +goes by long jerks. + +The boclora is very unsuspicious, appearing quite heedless of danger: the +report of a gun within twenty yards will not cause it to leave the branch +on which it is sitting, and you may often approach it so near as almost +to touch it with the end of your bow. Perhaps there is no bird known +whose feathers are so slightly fixed to the skin as those of the boclora. +After shooting it, if it touch a branch in its descent, or if it drop on +hard ground, whole heaps of feathers fall off; on this account it is +extremely hard to procure a specimen for preservation. As soon as the +skin is dry in the preserved specimen, the feathers become as well fixed +as those in any other bird. + +Another species, larger than the boclora, attracts much of your notice in +these wilds; it is called cuia by the Indians, from the sound of its +voice; its habits are the same as those of the boclora, but its colours +different; its head, breast, back, and rump are a shining, changing +green; its tail not quite so bright; a black bar runs across the tail +towards the extremity; and the outside feathers are partly white, as in +the boclora; its belly is entirely vermilion, a bar of white separating +it from the green on the breast. + +There are diminutives of both these birds; they have the same habits, +with a somewhat different plumage, and about half the size. Arrayed from +head to tail in a robe of richest sable hue, the bird called rice-bird +loves spots cultivated by the hand of man. The woodcutter's house on the +hills in the interior, and the planter's habitation on the sea-coast, +equally attract this songless species of the order of pie, provided the +Indian corn be ripe there. He is nearly of the jackdaw's size, and makes +his nest far away from the haunts of men; he may truly be called a +blackbird: independent of his plumage, his beak, inside and out, his +legs, his toes, and claws, are jet black. + +Mankind, by clearing the ground, and sowing a variety of seeds, induces +many kinds of birds to leave their native haunts and come and settle near +him; their little depredations on his seeds and fruits prove that it is +the property, and not the proprietor, which has the attractions. + +One bird, however, in Demerara, is not actuated by selfish motives; this +is the cassique; in size, he is larger than the starling; he courts the +society of man, but disdains to live by his labours. When nature calls +for support, he repairs to the neighbouring forest, and there partakes of +the store of fruits and seeds which she has produced in abundance for her +aerial tribes. When his repast is over, he returns to man, and pays the +little tribute which he owes him for his protection; he takes his station +on a tree close to his house, and there, for hours together, pours forth +a succession of imitative notes. His own song is sweet, but very short. +If a toucan be yelping in the neighbourhood, he drops it, and imitates +him. Then he will amuse his protector with the cries of the different +species of the woodpecker; and when the sheep bleat, he will distinctly +answer them. Then comes his own song again; and if a puppy-dog or a +Guinea-fowl interrupt him, he takes them off admirably, and by his +different gestures during the time, you would conclude that he enjoys the +sport. + +The cassique is gregarious, and imitates any sound he hears with such +exactness, that he goes by no other name than that of mocking-bird +amongst the colonists. + +At breeding-time, a number of these pretty choristers resort to a tree +near the planter's house, and from its outside branches weave their +pendulous nests. So conscious do they seem that they never give offence, +and so little suspicious are they of receiving any injury from man, that +they will choose a tree within forty yards from his house, and occupy the +branches so low down, that he may peep into the nests. A tree in +Waratilla creek affords a proof of this. + +The proportions of the cassique are so fine, that he may be said to be a +model of symmetry in ornithology. On each wing he has a bright yellow +spot, and his rump, belly, and half the tail are of the same colour. All +the rest of the body is black. His beak is the colour of sulphur, but it +fades in death, and requires the same operation as the bill of the toucan +to make it keep its colours. Up the rivers, in the interior, there is +another cassique, nearly the same size, and of the same habits, though +not gifted with its powers of imitation. Except in breeding time, you +will see hundreds of them retiring to roost, amongst the mocamoca-trees +and low shrubs on the banks of the Demerara, after you pass the first +island. They are not common on the sea-coast. The rump of the cassique +is a flaming scarlet. All the rest of the body is a rich glossy black. +His bill is sulphur colour. You may often see numbers of this species +weaving their pendulous nests on one side of a tree, while numbers of the +other species are busy in forming theirs on the opposite side of the same +tree. Though such near neighbours, the females are never observed to +kick up a row, or come to blows! + +Another species of cassique, as large as a crow, is very common in the +plantations. In the morning he generally repairs to a large tree, and +there, with his tail spread over his back, and shaking his lowered wings, +he produces notes which, though they cannot be said to amount to a song, +still have something very sweet and pleasing in them. He makes his nest +in the same form as the other cassiques. It is above four feet long; and +when you pass under the tree, which often contains fifty or sixty of +them, you cannot help stopping to admire them as they wave to and fro, +the sport of every storm and breeze. The rump is chestnut; ten feathers +of the tail are a fine yellow, the remaining two, which are the middle +ones, are black, and an inch shorter than the others. His bill is +sulphur colour; all the rest of the body black, with here and there +shades of brown. He has five or six long narrow black feathers on the +back of his head, which he erects at pleasure. + +There is one more species of cassique in Demerara, which always prefers +the forest to the cultivated parts. His economy is the same as that of +the other cassiques. He is rather smaller than the last described bird. +His body is greenish, and his tail and rump paler than those of the +former. Half of his beak is red. + +You would not be long in the forests of Demerara without noticing the +woodpeckers. You meet with them feeding at all hours of the day. Well +may they do so. Were they to follow the example of most of the other +birds, and only feed in the morning and evening, they would be often on +short allowance, for they sometimes have to labour three or four hours at +the tree before they get to their food. The sound which the largest kind +makes in hammering against the bark of the tree is so loud, that you +would never suppose it to proceed from the efforts of a bird. You would +take it to be the woodman, with his axe, trying by a sturdy blow, often +repeated, whether the tree were sound or not. There are fourteen species +here; the largest the size of a magpie, the smallest no bigger than the +wren. They are all beautiful; and the greater part of them have their +heads ornamented with a fine crest, movable at pleasure. + +It is said, if you once give a dog a bad name, whether innocent or +guilty, he never loses it; it sticks close to him wherever he goes. He +has many a kick and many a blow to bear on account of it; and there is +nobody to stand up for him. The woodpecker is little better off. The +proprietors of woods in Europe have long accused him of injuring their +timber, by boring holes in it, and letting in the water, which soon rots +it. The colonists in America have the same complaint against him. Had +he the power of speech, which Ovid's birds possessed in days of yore, he +could soon make a defence. "Mighty lord of the woods," he would say to +man, "why do you wrongfully accuse me? why do you hunt me up and down to +death for an imaginary offence? I have never spoiled a leaf of your +property, much less your wood. Your merciless shot strikes me at the +very time I am doing you a service. But your short-sightedness will not +let you see it, or your pride is above examining closely the actions of +so insignificant a little bird as I am. If there be that spark of +feeling in your breast which they say man possesses, or ought to possess, +above all other animals, do a poor injured creature a little kindness, +and watch me in your woods only for one day. I never wound your healthy +trees. I should perish for want in the attempt. The sound bark would +easily resist the force of my bill: and were I even to pierce through it, +there would be nothing inside that I could fancy, or my stomach digest. +I often visit them, it is true, but a knock or two convince me that I +must go elsewhere for support; and were you to listen attentively to the +sound which my bill causes, you would know whether I am upon a healthy or +an unhealthy tree. Wood and bark are not my food. I live entirely upon +the insects which have already formed a lodgment in the distempered tree. +When the sound informs me that my prey is there, I labour for hours +together till I get at it; and by consuming it, for my own support, I +prevent its further depredations in that part. Thus I discover for you +your hidden and unsuspected foe, which has been devouring your wood in +such secrecy, that you had not the least suspicion it was there. The +hole which I make in order to get at the pernicious vermin will be seen +by you as you pass under the tree. I leave it as a signal to tell you +that your tree has already stood too long. It is past its prime. +Millions of insects, engendered by disease, are preying upon its vitals. +Ere long it will fall a log in useless ruins. Warned by this loss, cut +down the rest in time, and spare, O spare the unoffending woodpecker." + +In the rivers, and different creeks, you number six species of the +kingfisher. They make their nest in a hole in the sand on the side of +the bank. As there is always plenty of foliage to protect them from the +heat of the sun, they feed at all hours of the day. Though their plumage +is prettily varied, still it falls far short of the brilliancy displayed +by the English kingfisher. This little native of Britain would outweigh +them altogether in the scale of beauty. + +A bird called jacamar is often taken for a kingfisher, but it has no +relationship to that tribe; it frequently sits in the trees over the +water, and as its beak bears some resemblance to that of the kingfisher, +this may probably account for its being taken for one; it feeds entirely +upon insects; it sits on a branch in motionless expectation, and as soon +as a fly, butterfly, or moth passes by, it darts at it, and returns to +the branch it had just left. It seems an indolent, sedentary bird, +shunning the society of all others in the forest. It never visits the +plantations, but is found at all times of the year in the woods. There +are four species of jacamar in Demerara; they are all beautiful; the +largest, rich and superb in the extreme. Its plumage is of so fine a +changing blue and golden green, that it may be ranked with the choicest +of the humming birds. Nature has denied it a song, but given a costly +garment in lieu of it. The smallest species of jacamar is very common in +the dry savannas. The second size, all golden green on the back, must be +looked for in the wallaba forest. The third is found throughout the +whole extent of these wilds; and the fourth, which is the largest, +frequents the interior, where you begin to perceive stones in the ground. + +When you have penetrated far into Macoushia, you hear the pretty songster +called troupiale pour forth a variety of sweet and plaintive notes. This +is the bird which the Portuguese call the nightingale of Guiana; its +predominant colours are rich orange and shining black, arrayed to great +advantage; his delicate and well-shaped frame seems unable to bear +captivity. The Indians sometimes bring down troupiales to Stabroek, but +in a few months they languish and die in a cage. They soon become very +familiar; and if you allow them the liberty of the house, they live +longer than in a cage, and appear in better spirits; but, when you least +expect it, they drop down and die in epilepsy. + +Smaller in size, and of colour not so rich and somewhat differently +arranged, another species of troupiale sings melodiously in Demerara. +The woodcutter is particularly favoured by him; for while the hen is +sitting on her nest, built in the roof of the woodcutter's house, he +sings for hours together close by: he prefers the forests to the +cultivated parts. + +You would not grudge to stop for a few minutes, as you are walking in the +plantations, to observe a third species of troupiale: his wings, tail, +and throat are black; all the rest of the body is a bright yellow. There +is something very sweet and plaintive in his song, though much shorter +than that of the troupiale in the interior. + +A fourth species goes in flocks from place to place in the cultivated +parts at the time the Indian corn is ripe; he is all black, except the +head and throat, which are yellow; his attempt at song is not worth +attending to. + +Wherever there is a wild fig-tree ripe, a numerous species of birds, +called tangara, is sure to be on it. There are eighteen beautiful +species here. Their plumage is very rich and diversified; some of them +boast six separate colours; others have the blue, purple, green, and +black so kindly blended into each other, that it would be impossible to +mark their boundaries; while others again exhibit them strong, distinct, +and abrupt: many of these tangaras have a fine song. They seem to +partake much of the nature of our linnets, sparrows, and finches. Some +of them are fond of the plantations; others are never seen there, +preferring the wild seeds of the forest to the choicest fruits planted by +the hand of man. + +On the same fig-trees to which they repair, and often accidentally up and +down the forest, you fall in with four species of manikin. The largest +is white and black, with the feathers on the throat remarkably long; the +next in size is half red and half black; the third, black, with a white +crown; the fourth, black, with a golden crown, and red feathers at the +knee. The half red and half black species is the scarcest. There is a +creek in the Demerara called Camouni. About ten minutes from the mouth, +you see a common-sized fig-tree on your right-hand, as you ascend, +hanging over water; it bears a very small fig twice a year. When its +fruit is ripe, this manikin is on the tree from morn till eve. + +On all the ripe fig-trees in the forest you see the bird called the small +tiger-bird. Like some of our belles and dandies, it has a gaudy vest to +veil an ill-shaped body: the throat, and part of the head, are a bright +red; the breast and belly have black spots on a yellow ground; the wings +are a dark green, black, and white; and the rump and tail black and +green. Like the manikin, it has no song: it depends solely upon a showy +garment for admiration. + +Devoid, too, of song, and in a still superber garb, the yawaraciri comes +to feed on the same tree. It has a bar like black velvet from the eyes +to the beak; its legs are yellow; its throat, wings, and tail black; all +the rest of the body a charming blue. Chiefly in the dry savannas, and +here and there accidentally in the forest, you see a songless yawaraciri +still lovelier than the last: his crown is whitish blue, arrayed like a +coat of mail; his tail is black, his wings black and yellow, legs red, +and the whole body a glossy blue. Whilst roving through the forest, ever +and anon you see individuals of the wren species busy amongst the fallen +leaves, or seeking insects at the roots of the trees. + +Here, too, you find six or seven species of small birds, whose backs +appear to be overloaded with silky plumage. One of these, with a +chestnut breast, smoke-coloured back, tail red, white feathers like horns +on his head, and white narrow-pointed feathers under the jaw, feeds +entirely upon ants. When a nest of large, light brown ants emigrates, +one following the other in meandering lines above a mile long, you see +this bird watching them, and every now and then picking them up. When +they disappear he is seen no more: perhaps this is the only kind of ant +he is fond of; when these ants are stirring, you are sure to find him +near them. You cannot well mistake the ant after you have once been in +its company, for its sting is very severe, and you can hardly shoot the +bird, and pick it up, without having five or six upon you. + +Parrots and paroquets are very numerous here, and of many different +kinds. You will know when they are near you in the forest, not only by +the noise they make, but also by the fruits and seeds which they let fall +while they are feeding. + +The hia-hia parrot, called in England the "parrot of the sun," is very +remarkable: he can erect at pleasure a fine radiated circle of tartan +feathers quite round the back of his head from jaw to jaw. The fore-part +of his head is white: his back, tail, and wings green; and his breast and +belly tartan. + +Superior in size and beauty to every parrot of South America, the ara +will force you to take your eyes from the rest of animated nature and +gaze at him: his commanding strength, the flaming scarlet of his body, +the lovely variety of red, yellow, blue, and green in his wings, the +extraordinary length of his scarlet and blue tail seem all to join and +demand for him the title of "emperor of all the parrots." He is scarce +in Demerara till you reach the confines of the Macoushi country; there he +is in vast abundance; he mostly feeds on trees of the palm species. When +the coucourite-trees have ripe fruit on them, they are covered with this +magnificent parrot: he is not shy or wary; you may take your blow-pipe +and quiver of poisoned arrows, and kill more than you are able to carry +back to your hut. They are very vociferous, and, like the common +parrots, rise up in bodies towards sunset, and fly two and two to their +place of rest. It is a grand sight in ornithology to see thousands of +aras flying over your head, low enough to let you have a full view of +their flaming mantle. The Indians find their flesh very good, and the +feathers serve for ornaments in their head-dresses. They breed in the +holes of trees, are easily reared and tamed, and learn to speak pretty +distinctly. + +Another species frequents the low lands of Demerara. He is nearly the +size of the scarlet ara, but much inferior in plumage. Blue and yellow +are his predominant colours. + +Along the creeks and river sides, and in the wet savannas, six species of +the bittern will engage your attention. They are all handsome. The +smallest is not so large as the English water-hen. + +In the savannas, too, you will sometimes surprise the snow-white egrette, +whose back is adorned with the plumes from which it takes its name. +Here, too, the spur-winged water-hen, the blue and green water-hen, and +two other species of ordinary plumage are found. While in quest of +these, the blue heron, the large and small brown heron, the boat-bill, +and Muscovy duck now and then rise up before you. + +When the sun has sunk in the western woods, no longer agitated by the +breeze; when you can only see a straggler or two of the feathered tribe +hastening to join its mate, already at its roosting-place, then it is +that the goatsucker comes out of the forest, where it has sat all day +long in slumbering ease, unmindful of the gay and busy scenes around it. +Its eyes are too delicately formed to bear the light, and thus it is +forced to shun the flaming face of day, and wait in patience till night +invites him to partake of the pleasures her dusky presence brings. + +The harmless, unoffending goatsucker, from the time of Aristotle down to +the present day, has been in disgrace with man. Father has handed down +to son, and author to author, that this nocturnal thief subsists by +milking the flocks. Poor injured little bird of night, how sadly hast +thou suffered, and how foul a stain has inattention to facts put upon thy +character! Thou hast never robbed man of any part of his property, nor +deprived the kid of a drop of milk. + +When the moon shines bright you may have a fair opportunity of examining +the goatsucker. You will see it close by the cows, goats, and sheep, +jumping up every now and then under their bellies. Approach a little +nearer--he is not shy, "he fears no danger, for he knows no sin." See +how the nocturnal flies are tormenting the herd, and with what dexterity +he springs up and catches them, as fast as they alight on the belly, +legs, and udder of the animals. Observe how quiet they stand, and how +sensible they seem of his good offices, for they neither strike at him, +nor hit him with their tail, nor tread on him, nor try to drive him away +as an uncivil intruder. Were you to dissect him, and inspect his +stomach, you would find no milk there. It is full of the flies which +have been annoying the herd. + +The prettily-mottled plumage of the goatsucker, like that of the owl, +wants the lustre which is observed in the feathers of the birds of day. +This at once marks him as a lover of the pale moon's nightly beams. +There are nine species here. The largest appears nearly the size of the +English wood-owl. Its cry is so remarkable that, having once heard it, +you will never forget it. When night reigns over these immeasurable +wilds, whilst lying in your hammock, you will hear this goatsucker +lamenting like one in deep distress. A stranger would never conceive it +to be the cry of a bird. He would say it was the departing voice of a +midnight-murdered victim, or the last wailing of Niobe for her poor +children, before she was turned into stone. Suppose yourself in hopeless +sorrow, begin with a high loud note, and pronounce, "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, +ha, ha," each note lower and lower, till the last is scarcely heard, +pausing a moment or two betwixt every note, and you will have some idea +of the moaning of the largest goatsucker in Demerara. + +Four other species of the goatsucker articulate some words so distinctly, +that they have received their names from the sentences they utter, and +absolutely bewilder the stranger on his arrival in these parts. The most +common one sits down close by your door, and flies and alights three or +four yards before yon, as you walk along the road, crying, "Who-are-you, +who-who-who-are-you?" Another bids you, "Work-away, +work--work-work-away." A third cries mournfully, "Willy-come-go. +Willy-Willy-Willy-come-go." And high up in the country, a fourth tells +you to "Whip-poor-Will. Whip-whip-whip-poor-Will." + +You will never persuade the negro to destroy these birds, or get the +Indian to let fly his arrow at them. They are birds of omen and +reverential dread. Jumbo, the demon of Africa, has them under his +command; and they equally obey the Yabahou, or Demerara Indian devil. +They are the receptacles for departed souls, who come back again to +earth, unable to rest for crimes done in their days of nature; or they +are expressly sent by Jumbo, or Yabahou, to haunt cruel and hard-hearted +masters, and retaliate injuries received from them. If the largest +goatsucker chance to cry near the white man's door, sorrow and grief will +soon be inside; and they expect to see the master waste away with a slow +consuming sickness. If it be heard close to the negro's or Indian's hut, +from that night misfortune sits brooding over it; and they await the +event in terrible suspense. + +You will forgive the poor Indian of Guiana for this. He knows no better; +he has nobody to teach him. But shame it is that, in our own civilised +country, the black cat and broomstaff should be considered as conductors +to and from the regions of departed spirits. + +Many years ago I knew poor harmless Mary; old age had marked her +strongly, just as he will mark you and me, should we arrive at her years +and carry the weight of grief which bent her double. The old men of the +village said she had been very pretty in her youth; and nothing could be +seen more comely than Mary when she danced on the green. He who had +gained her heart left her for another, less fair, though richer than +Mary. From that time she became sad and pensive; the rose left her +cheek, and she was never more seen to dance round the May-pole on the +green: her expectations were blighted; she became quite indifferent to +everything around her, and seemed to think of nothing but how she could +best attend her mother, who was lame, and not long for this life. Her +mother had begged a black kitten from some boys who were going to drown +it, and in her last illness she told Mary to be kind to it for her sake. + +When age and want had destroyed the symmetry of Mary's fine form, the +village began to consider her as one who had dealings with spirits; her +cat confirmed the suspicion. If a cow died, or a villager wasted away +with an unknown complaint, Mary and her cat had it to answer for. Her +broom sometimes served her for a walking-stick; and if over she supported +her tottering frame with it as far as the May-pole, where once, in +youthful bloom and beauty, she had attracted the eyes of all, the boys +would surround her and make sport of her, while her cat had neither +friend nor safety beyond the cottage wall. Nobody considered it cruel or +uncharitable to torment a witch; and it is probable, long before this, +that cruelty, old age, and want have worn her out, and that both poor +Mary and her cat have ceased to be. + +Would you wish to pursue the different species of game, well stored and +boundless is your range in Demerara. Here no one dogs you, and +afterwards clandestinely inquires if you have a hundred a year in land to +entitle you to enjoy such patrician sport. Here no saucy intruder asks +if you have taken out a licence, by virtue of which you are allowed to +kill the birds which have bred upon your own property. Here + + "You are as free as when God first made man, + Ere the vile laws of servitude began, + And wild in woods the noble savage ran." + +Before the morning's dawn you hear a noise in the forest, which sounds +like "duraquaura" often repeated. This is the partridge, a little +smaller, and differing somewhat in colour from the English partridge; it +lives entirely in the forest, and probably the young brood very soon +leave their parents, as you never flush more than two birds in the same +place, and in general only one. + +About the same hour, and sometimes even at midnight, you hear two species +of maam, or tinamou, send forth their long and plaintive whistle from the +depth of the forest. The flesh of both is delicious. The largest is +plumper, and almost equals in size the black cock of Northumberland. The +quail is said to be here, though rare. + +The hannaquoi, which some have compared to the pheasant, though with +little reason, is very common. + +Here are also two species of the powise, or hocco, and two of the small +wild turkeys called maroudi; they feed on the ripe fruits of the forest, +and are found in all directions in these extensive wilds. You will +admire the horned screamer as a stately and majestic bird: he is almost +the size of the turkey cock; on his head is a long slender horn, and each +wing is armed with a strong, sharp, triangular spur, an inch long. + +Sometimes you will fall in with flocks of two or three hundred waracabas, +or trumpeters, called so from the singular noise they produce. Their +breast is adorned with beautiful changing blue and purple feathers; their +head and neck like velvet; their wings and back grey, and belly black. +They run with great swiftness, and, when domesticated, attend their +master in his walks with as much apparent affection as his dog. They +have no spurs, but still, such is their high spirit and activity, that +they browbeat every dunghill fowl in the yard, and force the Guinea +birds, dogs, and turkeys to own their superiority. + +If, kind and gentle reader, thou shouldst ever visit these regions with +an intention to examine their productions, perhaps the few observations +contained in these Wanderings may be of service to thee; excuse their +brevity; more could have been written, and each bird more particularly +described, but it would have been pressing too hard upon thy time and +patience. + +Soon after arriving in these parts, thou wilt find that the species here +enumerated are only as a handful from a well-stored granary. Nothing has +been said of the eagles, the falcons, the hawks, and shrikes; nothing of +the different species of vultures, the king of which is very handsome, +and seems to be the only bird which claims regal honours from a +surrounding tribe. It is a fact beyond all dispute, that when the scent +of carrion has drawn together hundreds of the common vultures, they all +retire from the carcase as soon as the king of the vultures makes his +appearance. When his majesty has satisfied the cravings of his royal +stomach with the choicest bits from the most stinking and corrupted +parts, he generally retires to a neighbouring tree, and then the common +vultures return in crowds to gobble down his leavings. The Indians, as +well as the whites, have observed this, for when one of them, who has +learned a little English, sees the king, and wishes you to have a proper +notion of the bird, he says, "There is the governor of the carrion +crows." + +Now, the Indians have never heard of a personage in Demerara higher than +that of governor; and the colonists, through a common mistake, call the +vultures carrion crows. Hence the Indian, in order to express the +dominion of this bird over the common vultures, tells you he is governor +of the carrion crows. The Spaniards have also observed it; for, through +all the Spanish Main, he is called "rey de zamuros"--king of the +vultures. The many species of owls, too, have not been noticed; and no +mention made of the Columbine tribe. The prodigious variety of waterfowl +on the sea-shore has been but barely hinted at. + +There, and on the borders and surface of the inland waters, in the +marshes and creeks, besides the flamingos, scarlet curlew, and +spoonbills, already mentioned, will be found greenish-brown curlews, +sandpipers, rails, coots, gulls, pelicans, jabirus, nandapoas, crabiers, +snipes, plovers, ducks, geese, cranes, and anhingas, most of them in vast +abundance; some frequenting only the sea-coast, others only the interior, +according to their different natures; all worthy the attention of the +naturalist, all worthy of a place in the cabinet of the curious. + +Should thy comprehensive genius not confine itself to birds alone, grand +is the appearance of other objects all around. Thou art in a land rich +in botany and mineralogy, rich in zoology and entomology. Animation will +glow in thy looks, and exercise will brace thy frame in vigour. The very +time of thy absence from the tables of heterogeneous luxury will be +profitable to thy stomach, perhaps already sorely drenched with +Londo-Parisian sauces, and a new stock of health will bring thee an +appetite to relish the wholesome food of the chase; never-failing sleep +will wait on thee at the time she comes to soothe the rest of animated +nature; and, ere the sun's rays appear in the horizon, thou wilt spring +from thy hammock fresh as April lark. Be convinced, also, that the +dangers and difficulties which are generally supposed to accompany the +traveller in his journey through distant regions, are not half so +numerous or dreadful as they are commonly thought to be. + +The youth who incautiously reels into the lobby of Drury Lane, after +leaving the table sacred to the god of wine, is exposed to more certain +ruin, sickness, and decay than he who wanders a whole year in the wilds +of Demerara. But this will never be believed; because the disasters +arising from dissipation are so common and frequent in civilised life, +that man becomes quite habituated to them; and sees daily victims sink +into the tomb long before their time, without ever once taking alarm at +the causes which precipitated them headlong into it. + +But the dangers which a traveller exposes himself to in foreign parts are +novel, out-of-the-way things to a man at home. The remotest apprehension +of meeting a tremendous tiger, of being carried off by a flying dragon, +or having his bones picked by a famished cannibal--oh, that makes him +shudder. It sounds in his ears like the bursting of a bomb-shell. Thank +Heaven, he is safe by his own fireside! + +Prudence and resolution ought to be the traveller's constant companions. +The first will cause him to avoid a number of snares which he will find +in the path as he journeys on; and the second will always lend a hand to +assist him, if he has unavoidably got entangled in them. The little +distinctions which have been shown him at his own home ought to be +forgotten when he travels over the world at large; for strangers know +nothing of his former merits, and it is necessary that they should +witness them before they pay him the tribute which he was wont to receive +within his own doors. Thus, to be kind and affable to those we meet, to +mix in their amusements, to pay a compliment or two to their manners and +customs, to respect their elders, to give a little to their distressed +and needy, and to feel, as it were, at home amongst them, is the sure way +to enable you to pass merrily on, and to find other comforts as sweet and +palatable as those which you were accustomed to partake of amongst your +friends and acquaintance in your own native land. + +We will now ascend in fancy on Icarian wing, and take a view of Guiana in +general. See an immense plain, betwixt two of the largest rivers in the +world, level as a bowling-green, save at Cayenne, and covered with trees +along the coast quite to the Atlantic wave, except where the plantations +make a little vacancy amongst the foliage. + +Though nearly in the centre of the torrid zone, the sun's rays are not so +intolerable as might be imagined, on account of the perpetual verdure and +refreshing north-east breeze. See what numbers of broad and rapid rivers +intersect it in their journey to the ocean, and that not a stone or a +pebble is to be found on their banks, or in any part of the country, till +your eye catches the hills in the interior. How beautiful and +magnificent are the lakes in the heart of the forests, and how charming +the forests themselves, for miles after miles on each side of the rivers! +How extensive appear the savannas, or natural meadows, teeming with +innumerable herds of cattle, where the Portuguese and Spaniards are +settled, but desert as Sahara where the English and Dutch claim dominion. +How gradually the face of the country rises! See the sand-hills all +clothed in wood first emerging from the level, then hills a little +higher, rugged with bold and craggy rocks, peeping out from amongst the +most luxuriant timber. Then come plains, and dells, and far-extending +valleys, arrayed in richest foliage; and beyond them, mountains piled on +mountains, some bearing prodigious forests, others of bleak and barren +aspect. Thus your eye wanders on, over scenes of varied loveliness and +grandeur, till it rests on the stupendous pinnacles of the long-continued +Cordilleras de los Andes, which rise in towering majesty, and command all +America. + +How fertile must the lowlands be, from the accumulation of fallen leaves +and trees for centuries. How propitious the swamps and slimy beds of the +rivers, heated by a downward sun, to the amazing growth of alligators, +serpents, and innumerable insects. How inviting the forests to the +feathered tribes, where you see buds, blossoms, green and ripe fruit, +full-grown and fading leaves, all on the same tree. How secure the wild +beasts may rove in endless mazes. Perhaps those mountains, too, which +appear so bleak and naked, as if quite neglected, are, like Potosi, full +of precious metals. + +Let us now return the pinions we borrowed from Icarus, and prepare to bid +farewell to the wilds. The time allotted to these Wanderings is drawing +fast to a close. Every day for the last six months has been employed in +paying close attention to natural history in the forests of Demerara. +Above two hundred specimens of the finest birds have been collected, and +a pretty just knowledge formed of their haunts and economy. From the +time of leaving England, in March, 1816, to the present day, nothing has +intervened to arrest a fine flow of health, saving a quartan ague, which +did not tarry, but fled as suddenly as it appeared. + +And now I take leave of thee, kind and gentle reader. The new mode of +preserving birds, heretofore promised thee, shall not be forgotten. The +plan is already formed in imagination, and can be penned down during the +passage across the Atlantic. If the few remarks in these Wanderings +shall have any weight in inciting thee to sally forth and explore the +vast and well-stored regions of Demerara, I have gained my end. Adieu. + + CHARLES WATERTON. + +_April_ 6, 1817. + + + + +NOTES. + + +{24} The negroes of the West Coast of Africa, as I am informed by Dr. +Kodjoe Benjamin William Kwatei-kpakpafio, of Accra, take their names from +the day of the week on which they are born: Quashi (Kwasi) is Sunday; +Kodjoe, Monday; Koffie, Tuesday.--N. M. + +{31} "Natural History Essays," by Charles Waterton, edited, with a life +of the author, by Norman Moore (Warne and Co.). + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA*** + + +******* This file should be named 31811.txt or 31811.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/1/8/1/31811 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://www.gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: +http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + |