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diff --git a/43051-0.txt b/43051-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c50d8a1 --- /dev/null +++ b/43051-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3014 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43051 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 43051-h.htm or 43051-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43051/43051-h/43051-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43051/43051-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + https://archive.org/details/upmazarunifordia00lavarich + + + + + +UP THE MAZARUNI FOR DIAMONDS + +by + +WILLIAM J. LAVARRE + +Veteran Scout + + + + + + + +Boston +Marshall Jones Company +1919 + +Copyright · 1919 +By Marshall Jones Company + +The·Plimpton·Press +Norwood·Mass·U·S·A + + + + + _To My Mother and Father_ + + + + +_FOREWORD_ + + +LaVarre is adventuring in the right spirit. His diamond hunting is +instructive as well as interesting. He has brought back from the field +information which will help others who intend to traverse similar +trails. + +Though younger than most explorers he has carefully endeavored to +prepare himself for the field by study and travel. He believes in the +theory of hard work and preparedness, the essentials of the successful +explorer. + +In these days when there is so much endeavor which seems to be for the +acclaim of the crowds and the deification of self, it is refreshing to +meet one who seems to be in it for the love of the work and the good +which he may open up for others in the field of exploration. + +William J. LaVarre was born in Richmond, Va., August 4, 1898. His love +for the outdoors was demonstrated early, for he camped in the open at +the age of ten and as a boy scout a few years later won a contest for +leadership of the Honor Patrol of the New York City organization of +the Boy Scouts of America. He also won sixteen merit badges in the +same scout order. He was one of twenty-four scouts chosen from the +East to build a trail in Maine for the Forestry Department of the +United States in 1914. + +He has specialized in Geology and Mineralogy and shown considerable +skill in the use of the camera. He is now in the field as scientific +assistant and photographer of the Rice Amazon Expedition. His diamond +hunting trip was a success. + +We look forward to his return from the Amazon with an interesting +experience and a successful exploration. + + ANTHONY FIALA + AUGUST 11, 1919. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + PAGE + CHAPTER I + "ARE YOU GAME TO TRY IT?" 1 + CHAPTER II + "IN THE LAND O' MAZARUNI" 7 + CHAPTER III + A FIRE BOAT AND A NATIVE WEDDING 14 + CHAPTER IV + JUNGLE DAYS BEGIN 18 + CHAPTER V + GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH THE NATIVES 22 + CHAPTER VI + LIFE ON THE RIVER 29 + CHAPTER VII + MUTINY AMONG THE CREW 34 + CHAPTER VIII + THE GLORIOUS FOURTH 39 + CHAPTER IX + BABOON FOR DINNER 43 + CHAPTER X + IN THE INDIAN COUNTRY 48 + CHAPTER XI + "UNCIVILIZED," BUT COURTEOUS, QUIET AND CLEAN 56 + CHAPTER XII + A VISIT TO A NATIVE HOME 62 + CHAPTER XIII + THE SNAKE THAT DISAPPEARED 68 + CHAPTER XIV + DIFFICULTIES OF JUNGLE TRAVEL 72 + CHAPTER XV + HOSPITALITY OF THE JUNGLE FOLK 82 + CHAPTER XVI + CASSAVA CAKES AND BLOW-PIPES 93 + CHAPTER XVII + ON THE MARCH AGAIN 101 + CHAPTER XVIII + ARRIVAL AT THE DIAMOND FIELDS 107 + CHAPTER XIX + HOW THE NATIVES HUNT AND FISH 113 + CHAPTER XX + PICKING UP JUNGLE LORE 121 + CHAPTER XXI + THE FIRST DIAMOND! 128 + CHAPTER XXII + HOW THE PRECIOUS STONES ARE FOUND 133 + CHAPTER XXIII + GOOD-BYE TO THE JUNGLE 137 + + + + + ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Sketch map _Frontispiece_ + "Jimmy" _facing page_ 4 + We Worked Steadily up the Dangerous River 20 + A Jungle "Hotel" 20 + Once in a While a Boat Shot Past Us 46 + At Times a Portage Must be Made 46 + The First Jungle Indians We Saw 52 + An Indian Fisherman 52 + "Bringing Home the Bacon" 60 + They Seemed Glad to Pose for Us 84 + Jungle Huntsmen 84 + At Fourteen an Indian Girl Must Be Able to Cook Cassava 94 + A Primitive Sugar Cane Press 94 + Two Quick Puffs, a Flutter, and the Bird Drops to Earth 98 + My Jungle Friends 104 + Usually Our Hunters Were Successful 116 + The Toucan Makes an Interesting Pet 118 + Abraham, Felling a Woodskin Tree 122 + Preparing Woodskin Bark for Canoe 124 + Finished Woodskin Canoe with Ends Open 124 + Our Jungle Home 128 + An Interior View of Our "Logie" 132 + A Long Tom Diamond Washer 134 + Jiggers Separating Diamonds from Gravel 134 + + + + +UP THE MAZARUNI FOR DIAMONDS + + + + +CHAPTER I + +"_ARE YOU GAME TO TRY IT?_" + + +"Here's a queer looking letter," I said to myself one day early in the +spring of 1917. I could hardly make out the postmark. It was something +of a surprise to receive a letter from British Guiana, as I finally +deciphered it, but the contents were even more surprising. + +The letter was from my friend Dudley P. Lewis. + +"I need a partner in a diamond mining venture," he wrote. "Are you +game to try it out with me? It will be a long trip full of adventures +and dangers, but there are diamonds here to be had for the digging." + +He wrote much more. I became enthusiastic on the moment and was +determined to go if possible. I had little trouble in arranging this +and wrote him that I would come. + +On the tenth of May I sailed from New York on the steamship _Saga_ to +Barbados, where Lewis met me. He was delighted and quite as +enthusiastic as I. He had been in Georgetown, British Guiana, for a +while on other business and had learned about the diamond fields away +up the famous, and treacherous, Mazaruni River. + +From Barbados we sailed away to South America on the steamer _Parima_. +I was surprised to find Georgetown such a large city, 60,000 +inhabitants, and, as the buildings were all one and two stories, one +can imagine how it spread out. + +"Can we start to-morrow?" I asked, after we had reached our hotel. +Lewis laughed. + +"Hardly," he said. "This isn't like a trip back home where you can +toss some clothes and clean collars in a bag, buy your ticket, catch +your train and be off." + +I had not given much thought to exactly how we were to travel. But I +soon learned that to journey up a great river for hundreds of miles +with a score of natives, taking all the food for a six months' stay, +was a matter that could not be arranged in a moment. + +The starting out place for the trip was twenty miles from Georgetown +at a town upriver called Bartica. But as Bartica has only twenty +inhabitants we bought everything in Georgetown. There we busied +ourselves with the preparations. It seemed as though there were a +million details to look after, and I got an idea of what an explorer +is up against, as we had to outfit ourselves about the same as an +exploring party would. + +"We must get lead guns, beads, mirrors and other trinkets," said +Lewis. + +"What's the big idea?" I asked. "Are we to open a five and ten cent +store for the native Indians up there?" + +"Not exactly," laughed Lewis, "but we must have something to trade +with. What use is a silver or gold coin to a native back hundreds of +miles in the jungle? He'd rather have a twenty-five cent kitchen knife +than a fifty dollar gold piece." + +The "lead guns" are not lead, as I learned, but the very cheapest sort +of cheap guns, manufactured in England solely for trading with +semi-civilized and uncivilized people. No live American boy would take +one as a gift, but I found that the natives treasured them above +everything else they possessed. + +We were fortunate in finding a Dutch captain, a man who has navigated +the turbulent waters of the Mazaruni for twenty years. And he picked +out a skilled "bowman," a native who stands at the bow of your boat, +with an immense paddle, and fends it off rocks, gives steering +directions and acts generally as a sort of life preserver for the +boat. + +Then there was "Jimmy." He was a negro, rather undersized and as black +as the inside of a lump of coal. He appointed himself our special +guardian, a sort of valet, overseer and servant. He looked after our +personal belongings, cooked our food, made our tea and devoted himself +exclusively to us. + +Twenty paddlemen were also engaged. Sixteen of them were quite as +black as our Jimmy, and four of them were in varying shades from +tobacco brown to light molasses candy tint. These latter were of mixed +Dutch and Negro blood. + +"They are 'Bovianders,'" said the captain. + +"Queer tribal name," I commented. + +The captain laughed. "Not exactly a tribal name," he explained. +"They live up the river quite a distance and so it is said that they +come from 'above yonder.' They have twisted that into 'Boviander,' so +that the word always means people who live up the river." + +[Illustration: "JIMMY"] + +While we were engaging our staff the captain was getting boats for us. +He selected a great fifty-foot boat seemingly as heavy as a +locomotive. It looked like a crude craft, made of great thick planks. +I soon learned the necessity of such a heavy boat. We also had a small +boat for emergency and for little side trips here and there. + +Next came the "eats." We had to take enough food for ourselves, our +twenty-two helpers and partly enough for the native Indians that we +were to employ later. When the big boat was finally loaded properly +under the skillful direction of the captain, we had five tons of food +aboard and this included no meat at all except salt fish. There was no +need to take meat, for game and fresh fish were so plentiful that we +were never without them. + +There was a queer, tent-shaped rig amidships of our big craft. +Beneath this was room enough for us to stay sheltered during the heat +of the day. White men can seldom stand the midday heat in British +Guiana. + +Packed all about us was the food. Jimmy climbed to the top of the +pile. The captain took his position aft. The sturdy Boviander bowman +took his place at the bow with his immense paddle, the twenty paddle +men took their places in four groups of five, one group on each side, +forward and aft of the cargo. + +Then they shoved off and began their peculiar, noisy paddling. + +The little town of Bartica fell away behind us as we slid out into the +broad expanse of the old Mazaruni. + +We were off at last, on our great diamond mining adventure! + + + + +CHAPTER II + +"_IN THE LAND O' MAZARUNI_" + + +Eagerly I scanned the waters and either shore, determined that nothing +should escape me, that I should see everything and enjoy all that +there was to be enjoyed. + +The captain sat, complacently smoking, at the stern of the boat, the +great steering paddle, tied to the stern with thongs, in his hands. He +looked as bored as if crossing the street to buy an evening paper. How +could he, when there was such glorious adventure, I wondered. But +afterwards I realized that twenty years of navigating the river had +somewhat dulled the novelty of it for him. With him it was work, and +nothing more. + +To a boy used to paddling our own style of light canoes, the paddling +methods of those black men seemed the most awkward in the world. Yet +they "got there," and I doubt if any crew of white men, without years +of practice, could have propelled the heavy craft as easily as they. +Their method was to bend forward, holding the paddle horizontally and +sliding it along the gunwale with a loud scraping noise, then suddenly +lean over sidewise and dig the paddle viciously into the water, giving +a sturdy backward tug with it, still scraping the paddle against the +gunwales. At the end of this stroke they returned the paddle to the +horizontal position with a loud thumping noise, sat up straight, then +leaned forward and repeated the stroke. + +They kept perfect time. No varsity crew boys ever worked in unison at +the oars any better, and they were forever singing. It didn't matter +whether they were paddling twenty feet across a narrow inlet or making +an all day pull upstream, they always had music with their paddling. + +They were crude songs, partly English that was scarcely +understandable, partly native dialect and partly something else that +may have been handed down to them from their ancestors who were +captured in Africa so many generations ago and brought over by the +early Dutch and English slave traders. + +If the water was smooth and open, with no current, our twenty paddle +men would sing as softly as the whispering of a summer breeze. But if +there was a current they would sing louder. And the more difficult the +paddling, the louder they would sing. In boiling rapids where it took +every ounce of their strength and they had to take quick, short +strokes to keep going, their voices arose to an almost howling +crescendo. + +Soon Bartica was lost to view around a point of land. For nearly six +months we were to see no more civilization than Indian villages here +and there, hidden far back from the river bank. As we swung up into +the broad river where the current became strong enough to cause the +paddlers to use a little extra "elbow grease" they broke into a queer +song which I heard so many times after that, that it still rings in my +ears. I cannot translate it. I do not know what it means, but imagine +that it is some sort of love song to some dusky "Lena." This is the +way it sounds: + + "_San, Lena, chile, I do love yo'; + Me know so, hear so, yes! + Le, le, le, le, le, le, + Blow, ma booly boy, blow! Califo 'ge 'ole! + Splenty o'gol's for A've been tol' + I' th' lan' o' Mazaruni!_" + +We came in sight of another boat. On the Mazaruni every boat one sees +that is going in the same direction is an "adversary" and every +paddler believes that it is his duty to pass it. Then you see some +fancy paddle strokes, so weird and unusual and grotesque that they are +difficult to describe. One would think that they were trying more to +awe each other with their paddle gesticulations than with speed. How +they race upstream, each determined to get and keep the lead! The +captain told me that many lives were lost at rapids because the racing +paddlers would give thought only to getting into the narrow passes +first and were frequently crashed upon the rocks and overturned. + +Not far from the little town is Kalacoon, the biological station where +at various times Professor Beebe and the other scientists take up +their intimate studies of tropical life. This station is on a high +hill where the Mazaruni and Essequibo Rivers join. It was at this +place that Colonel Roosevelt stopped when he visited the colony. + +From this point the vegetation on both sides of the river became so +dense that it seemed almost like greenish-black solid walls. No huts +or signs of human life were visible at first. But finally, with sharp +eyes, we got so we could detect a slight opening, a log landing at the +water's edge or a faint suggestion of a thatched hut in back of the +shore row of trees. + +It would have been fearfully monotonous but for the fact that Lewis +and I devised a new sort of game--to see which one could detect the +greater number of signs of human habitation. Our natives, with sharper +eyes, would verify our discoveries. All this was in the Boviander +section, where the natives come down from "'Bove yonder." Just before +nightfall we reached the foot of the first falls and landed to make +camp for the night. + +Before the big boat touched land Lewis and I had leaped ashore to +stretch our legs. The blacks jumped out into the shoal water and +swung the boat into place and made it fast. Jimmy began taking ashore +our shelters. Suddenly he began a frantic search and in despair cried: + +"No cookum!" + +"You bet you 'cookum,'" I shouted, "I'm starved." + +"No cookum! No cookum!" repeated the distracted boy, mournfully. + +Lewis investigated and came back with a long face. + +"We did a bright thing," he muttered. + +"What's wrong?" I asked. + +"Left all of our cooking outfit down at the village!" + +"There's two things to do, go without them or go back and get them," I +suggested. + +"Can't go without 'em," said Lewis. + +"Then there's one thing to do," I laughed. I was not to be filled with +gloom. The prospects of a great adventure were far too joyous. Our +landing was at the last settlement of the Bovianders. These half +Dutch, half Negro natives speak fairly understandable English. I +scouted around amongst them, found a good canoe, took three black men +and set out downriver. The two paddlers were sturdy boys and, going +down with the current, they fairly made that old canoe whizz. + +It was midnight when we got back to the village. Everyone was asleep +except the dogs. They greeted us with howls, and many of the men +turned out. Perhaps they thought they were to be attacked by some +savage tribe. But we soon explained, got our cooking outfit, lashed it +carefully to the canoe and started back. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +_A FIRE BOAT AND A NATIVE WEDDING_ + + +There was no speeding up against the current, although the light canoe +made better progress than our heavy boats. And then I heard a sound +that made me think I was back home. It was the "put--put--put" of a +gasoline motor. I was amazed. + +"Fire boat," grunted one of the black men. + +I hailed it. A Dutchman answered and came over to us. It was an +ordinary native boat to which he had attached one of those portable +motors which may be put on any boat. He was going upstream and gladly +took us in tow, much to my delight. Otherwise I would not have reached +camp until daylight, and the tropical nights (as I afterward learned) +are not the sort of nights for anyone, especially a white man, to be +out in, because of the terrible dampness and mists as well as insect +pests. + +As we chugged along upriver, my three blacks sitting back and grinning +at their luck because they would be paid just the same for the trip +although they escaped all of the hard work, there suddenly came across +the black water the most weird sounds imaginable. + +There were shrieks and falsetto laughter, squeaks and tinkles and +shrill pipings and heavy stamping. I couldn't imagine what it all +meant. + +"Wedding celebration," said the Dutchman. "Let's put in and see the +fun." + +I stared at the black bank of the river whence came the weird sounds, +but could see nothing. Finally, as my eyes became accustomed, I caught +faint glimmers of light that seemed far inland, miles and miles, I +thought. In reality the natives were no more than a quarter of a mile +inland, or perhaps less. We found a landing place and, guided by the +fearful din and the flickering lights, made our way through the jungle +to the higher, dry ground beyond. I had all sorts of visions of great +snakes dropping on me and wild jungle beasts grabbing at my heels, +but nothing worse than giant mosquitoes came near. + +We came to the opening and a group of huts. In front of one hut was an +improvised porch or platform. The boards were rough, uneven and +loosely laid across supports. At one end sat a wrinkled and grizzled +old man playing a squeaky fiddle. Beside him squatted two younger +natives playing flutes. Another pounded upon the platform with a +cocoanut shell, beating time. + +We were welcomed with nods and smiles, but the natives could not pause +in their festival to do more. They were dancing on that platform. +Overalls and frayed shirts and rough brogans made up the evening dress +of most of the Bovianders, but the women were decked out in gaudy +skirts and waists. Up and down and back and forth over the boards, +pouncing and scraping and stamping their feet, they danced and +laughed. + +Tallow candles, oil lanterns and here and there kerosene lamps were +affixed to hut poles or trees, and by this light the dancers cast +amazing shadows over everything, shadows that moved and swayed and +intertwined in a most awesome manner. + +And everyone was talking and laughing at the same time. Every fourth +word was understandable but there were many dialects and vernaculars. +There were cocoanuts to eat and a peculiar sort of cake or bread. We +watched the merrymaking for quite a while. The newly weds were cheered +by means of peculiar calls when they danced together. I suppose those +brown children of the jungle danced all night. We finally grew weary +of it all and set out for camp. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +_JUNGLE DAYS BEGIN_ + + +Such food as could be eaten without cooking had been served and +everyone was asleep except Jimmy, who awaited my coming, and tumbled +me into a hammock beneath a canvas shelter. I suppose I had slept many +hours but it seemed no more than five minutes before I was awakened +and crawled out for breakfast. The camp kitchen had been set up, the +blacks had already eaten and were getting the boats ready. Our +breakfast consisted of boiled rice, salt fish and biscuits. + +The second day up the river was uneventful. There were broad sweeps of +water, grand, wide curves and the seemingly endless mile after mile of +thick jungle vegetation growing down to the water's edge. That night I +had an opportunity to see how such an outfit was handled. We landed in +a rather likely spot, not far back from the shore, at five o'clock. +Some of the blacks brought the kitchen outfit ashore, others cut long +poles and put up the canvas shelters. It seems that we took our +"hotel" along with us, merely a great canvas cover, and spread it anew +at each night's camp. + +A great pole was placed in the crotch of two trees, about twelve feet +above ground, the canvas stretched across this and propped up with +shorter poles and ropes. Beneath this were stretched two hammocks, one +for Lewis and one for myself. Meanwhile Captain Peter and the bowman +swung their hammocks under the awning of the large boat. + +Our twenty paddlers put up three smaller shelters beneath which they +swung their own hammocks. + +The tropic sun was turning the great Mazaruni to a sheet of molten +gold, deep blue dusk was falling, this turning to gray, and then the +camp fires began to glimmer here and there. + +The captain and bowman needed no camp fire, sleeping on the boat, but +we had our own, and the natives had their own at each shelter. Jimmy +presided over our fire, made coffee for us and prepared our supper. +Captain Pete and the bowman had charge of the food for the natives. +The English laws outline clearly to the last ounce and gramme, just +how much food you must give the natives who work for you, to live on. + +It was interesting to watch Captain Peter, assisted by the bowman, +with their scales, measuring out the rations to our paddlers. The +Government standard of weekly rations for each man is: flour, 7 pints; +salt fish, 1 pound; sugar, 1 pound; rice, three and one-fourth pints; +salt pork, 1 pound; dried peas, one and three-quarters pints; +biscuits, 1 pound. Frequently the men prefer the extra portion of +sugar in place of the peas, as the sugar is a delicacy with them, +desired above all else. + +Captain Peter, through long years of experience, knew just how to +divide this weekly allowance into daily portions and the blacks +trusted him. In line they would march down to the boat, each with a +tin plate, and receive his portion, carefully weighed on the scales, +then he would march back to his camp fire and prepare his food as best +suited himself. + +[Illustration: A JUNGLE "HOTEL"] + +[Illustration: WE WORKED STEADILY UP THE DANGEROUS RIVER] + +At the same time each one was given extra tea, sugar and crackers for +the light morning meal, to save time in breaking camp. With their pint +of flour they baked a cake beside the fire, using the salt from their +fish for the seasoning. Sometimes boiled plantains were eaten with +their supper but these they brought with them as they are not required +by the Governmental regulations to be furnished them. These plantains +are much like bananas, but smaller and really considerably different +in taste. Then there was game and fish to supply additional meat so +that, with the foodstuffs we brought along, everyone fared quite well. + +As soon as they had eaten and had cleaned their tin plates they +crawled into their hammocks and filled their short black clay pipes +with tobacco. I must say that it was not a very attractive brand of +tobacco, to judge from the odor. That night we gave cigarettes to +those who did not have them and after that we sold them cigarette +tobacco and papers from our stock at cost. They are extremely fond of +them. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +_GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH THE NATIVES_ + + +It was at these times, as I soon learned, that there was much +amusement to be had with these blacks. I learned of their many +superstitions, their ambitions, likes and dislikes and much of the +customs of that wild country that could never be learned in any other +manner. This I learned both by means of questions and by listening +carefully as they talked to each other. Their English was about as +easy to understand as that of the Southern Georgia darkey, when they +cared to talk it. + +A "Dodo" they told me--and they believed it, too--is a sort of hairy +bird-beast twenty feet high which either eats men alive or carries +them off to its jungle nest and makes slaves of them. Then they would +name this or that acquaintance and say, "Ah spec' he shuah was et by +a Dodo, yes suh." + +Caven, one of our paddlers, solemnly assured me that he had seen a +Dodo. Caven looked much like a Dodo, or some sort of missing link, +himself. He said he was out hunting monkeys and saw one. + +"He gi' me scar' fo' true," said Caven, and he must have seen some +weird thing, or dreamed that he did, for his teeth chattered even at +the telling of it. These blacks could talk fairly understandable +English when it was necessary for them to make themselves clear to us. +Otherwise they could profess almost absolute ignorance of the +language, and among themselves they frequently talked a jargon that +would defy any linguist to interpret. + +Our men soon formed themselves into cliques and they stuck to these +groupings throughout the long trip. The Bovianders kept by themselves; +the Berbicans (negroes from Berbice) by themselves; and the +Demerarians (who believed themselves to be the salt of the earth) +likewise flocked together. We had one Barbadian negro. Now to a +British Guiana darkey, a darkey from Barbados--one of the Leeward +Islands--is the essence of laziness and good-for-nothingness. I think +the British Guiana darkey is right. I found that Caven and his brother +Berbicans were really the best of the lot. In every test of strength, +bravery, skill and endurance, they led the other blacks. + +I really did not get my initiation into the mysteries of hammock +sleeping in the tropics until the second night because on the first +night I tumbled in about three in the morning too tired to know +whether I was in a hammock or a feather bed. But on this second night +I found myself doubled up like a crescent moon. I twisted and squirmed +and wriggled about in my fantastic debut into the brotherhood of +hammock sleepers before I discovered that the trick was simple enough, +once you got on to it, that of sleeping diagonally across it from head +to foot. + +Having made this discovery I arose and got out the victrola we bought +in Georgetown. It was a small, cheap one, but the best investment I +ever made. I don't know what induced me to do this, but with a large +assortment of records that machine drove away gloom and dull care +through many and many a dreary evening. + +The blacks enjoyed it immensely, and it seemed strange to be mingling +the voices of our opera singers with the screech of monkeys and the +howls of red baboons and piping of strange night birds in the tropical +jungle. + +The camp fire died low, at last. Fresh lanterns were lighted and the +men prepared for sleep. This was no simple matter to them. To me it +was the most astonishing sight I had witnessed. They made ready for +bed by putting on all of the clothing they possessed. Then they +wrapped cloths around their hands, feet and necks. Some even pulled +bags down over their heads and tied them. The "wealthy" blacks had +bags for each foot. Our empty flour bags became grand prizes to be +used for this purpose, which we awarded to the best workers. + +By the faint camp fire light and flicker of lanterns those natives +certainly did look queer, like fantastic goblins, all muffled up. +There was little that seemed human about them as they clambered into +their hammocks and rolled themselves up, pulling over the flaps until +quite lost to view. + +"Does it get so cold at night that we have to wrap up like that?" I +asked Jimmy. + +"No suh, dey's feered o' vampire bats. That there is a _part_ +protection." + +I couldn't get the "part protection" meaning of it, and all Jimmy +would explain was that they had some sort of superstitious "voo-doo" +rigmarole performances to keep away the vampires. + +I was quite excited about it. From early boyhood I had read about the +deadly vampire bats that come upon you when you are sleeping and suck +your life blood away. Secretly I hoped that I would be bitten by one +so that I could boast of it when I got back home. + +The blacks were asleep. By virtue of being a sort of aide-de-camp +Jimmy was allowed to swing his hammock in a corner of our shelter. He +insisted that the lantern be kept burning all night. + +"No need of it," I told him. + +"Yes suh, they is, Mister Laver," (which was the best he could do in +the way of pronouncing my name). "Ef yo' don' bu'n a lantum all night +yo' will shuah be annoyed." + +"Annoyed?" I laughed. + +"Uh, huh, annoyed by vampires," he answered, very solemnly. + +But I couldn't sleep with the lantern light in my eyes and so blew out +the light. Several times in the night, poor scared Jimmy tried to +light it, but I yelled at him. + +Neither Lewis nor myself was ever bitten by a vampire. Sometimes one +would alight on my hammock, but fly away without trying to bite me. +Yet, despite their great care, our blacks were frequently bitten. They +would become restless in the night, kick off some of their wrappings +and then the vampires would get at them. + +I have heard that vampires are deadly. I never knew personally of a +fatal case. I do know that they always pick out a blood vessel for +their biting spot and that they never awaken the sleeper. The more +blood they draw, the sounder is the sleep of the victim and the bite +does not become painful until the next day. + +I should say that our crew of blacks must have lost, among them, a +couple of quarts of blood during the trip. Some of them were quite +lame and sore and a bit weakened as a result, but that was all. As +near as I can figure it out the vampires prefer the blood from +gentlemen of color rather than from pale-faced Americans. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +_LIFE ON THE RIVER_ + + +"Daylight! Daylight!" + +It was the stentorian shout of Captain Peter. He was a human alarm +clock. He never failed to awaken at the first gleam of daylight. In +the tropics it does not come on with a slow pink dawn as here, but +seems to burst through the gray morning sky in a flash. + +There was a scramble everywhere and all tumbled out of the hammocks. +Camp fires were lighted, tea was boiling and in a short time everyone +was getting into the boat. The natives had our shelters down while we +were drinking tea. They came down to the boat with their pots and pans +jangling at their sides, and at the captain's cry, "In boats all!" we +climbed in, the darkies took up their paddles and began their noisy +paddling, singing at the same time. The sun was flaming over the top +of the jungle from the distant shore of the river, three quarters of a +mile away, and we set out on our journey. + +Lewis and I took seats on top of the canvas where we could see +everything. We passed through a wide part of the river full of islands +and deep channels and treacherous currents and whirlpools. Only a +skillful man like Captain Peter could have guided our boat through the +right channels, as some of them contain whirlpools that look smooth +enough on the surface but would have dragged even as heavy a craft as +our own under without a struggle. + +Some of the islands were a mile in area, some no bigger than a +doormat. In and out amongst them we paddled and finally came to a +smoother, more open part of the river. + +"Eleven o'clock!" cried Captain Peter. + +I looked at my watch. It was just eleven o'clock. + +"Your watch is right, Captain," I called. + +"I have no watch, sir," he replied. "I use God's time." + +It was a fact, he told time by the sun, and seldom was a minute out of +the way. + +Eleven o'clock was always breakfast time. How those black men could +paddle up against a strong current towing our smaller boat, from five +o'clock to eleven with only a cup of tea was more than I could +understand. Yet they did it, and worked well and never seemed hungry. +At eleven we always went ashore and cooked breakfast, cakes, rice, +boiled plantains, salt fish and tea. Then we would pile back into the +boat again and keep on until just before sunset, trying to make a good +landing in time to pitch camp before dark. + +That long afternoon was tiresome to me. I scanned the deep foliage +everywhere in hopes to see many wild beasts and reptiles. I recalled +my school geography, with its woodcuts of jungles showing great +alligators on the shores, giant boa constrictors writhing in trees, +monkeys hopping from branch to branch and queer, bright-colored birds +flitting about. This was jungle, surely enough, with such thick +vegetation that only crawling things could penetrate it, yet for hours +I saw no signs of life there. There were wonderful orchids that would, +if they could be brought to New York, sell for fabulous sums. There +were queer looking trees, great fronded palms, hanging moss as thick +as large hawsers and other growing things that I knew nothing about. + +In Georgetown I had heard tales of giant forty-foot snakes. I never +saw one. I did catch a glimpse of a small snake which they told me was +deadly poison. He was hanging from a limb over the water. We were +paddling close inshore to avoid a current. One of the blacks saw it +and in a flash knocked it far away into the stream with a blow of his +paddle and kept on paddling, because to him this was a common +incident. His eyes were trained to see such things. + +That night we camped at Topeka Falls, or just below them, and the roar +lulled me to sleep. + +I discovered that the first part of our trip upriver was not as full +of adventures as I had hoped. But adventure came in good time. The +routine was the same, night after night, but there were many new +things of interest to see, many narrow escapes and considerable +trouble in one way and another. At this camping place I stripped and +was about to take a swim. + +"Hey, quit that," shouted Lewis. + +"I won't hurt your old river," I laughed. + +"You won't come out alive, sir," said the captain. + +"There isn't an alligator or crocodile or whatever you call 'em in +sight," I insisted and started to dive. Jimmy restrained me. + +"No go in. Fish eatum up," he said. + +I laughed at the idea of a fish eating me up. The captain tossed a +salt fish into the water. There was a swish and a big fish came and +grabbed it. I didn't get a very clear look at the fish but he looked +bigger than a whale and his teeth seemed altogether too prominent for +me to fool with. + +I discovered that the river was full of "perai," a decidedly savage +fish extremely fond of human beings. One of them will devour a man in +a short while. + +I gave up my plan of having a swim and Lewis and I satisfied ourselves +by sitting on the edge of the small boat and splashing water over each +other. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +_MUTINY AMONG THE CREW_ + + +Our fifth night was Saturday. We did not intend to travel or work on +Sunday. We selected a splendid camp site. Heretofore the blacks had +waited and given us the best camping place. But we had been treating +them so well that they thought our kindness to them was not kindness +at all, but fear of them. And so they started to make _their_ shelter +on the best spot. + +"You can't have that place," I said. + +"We got it," grinned one of the men. Most of the others stuck by him. +One or two slunk off. + +"Go down there," I commanded. + +"We stay here," he declared and stood his ground. + +I was in an uncomfortable position. If I let them have their way this +time there would be no living with them. If I got in a fight--they +were, after all, twenty-two blacks to three whites--they could +overpower us. + +Suddenly I had a vision of how they would abuse us if I gave in. I +could see them grinning at each other, believing that we were afraid +of them. That situation would be unbearable. I turned on the black man +and pointed with my left hand down the slope. + +"Get down there and stay down!" I commanded. + +"I won't--" + +He didn't say any more. My fist shot out and took him under the ear +and he went over like a stick of wood. Then I wheeled to face the +others. + +I really expected a fight, but the blacks stared at their fallen +companion who rolled down the slope, their eyes bulging, and before I +had time to bark out a short command for them to get out, they hastily +snatched up their belongings and ran down the hill. + +I stood there a moment, waiting to let my anger cool off a little to +make sure that I would not say things or do things unnecessarily +severe or that I would regret. Then I strode down to where they were +grouped and where the first black was dazedly rubbing his chin. When +they saw me approach they again dropped their things and started to +run away. + +"Don't run. You are all right there," I shouted. They paused and +looked at me suspiciously. + +"We are running this little outfit," I said to them, pointing to +Lewis, "and we are hiring you to work for us. You know your places. +Keep them and you will get good treatment, otherwise you will be the +sorriest niggers in British Guiana. For every wrong that you do, you +shall be punished. For every good thing that you do you shall be +rewarded. We are treating you kindly because it is the right thing to +do, not because we are afraid of you. Your punishment for attempting +to dispute our authority shall be to sleep to-night without your +shelter cloth!" + +Then I picked up their shelter cloth, turned my back on them and +walked away. To be quite truthful, I was not a little frightened when +I turned my back, fearing treachery, yet it was the only thing to do. +I knew that I had to make them believe that I was without fear of +them or of anything else, otherwise I would not win their respect or +co-operation. + +Meekly they arranged to hang their hammocks without the shelter cloth, +seeming to take it for granted that they had this penalty coming to +them for the way they had acted. + +"You acted like a veteran explorer," said old Captain Peter to me. +"You did just right, boy. If you had given in they would not have +worked, they would have stolen everything and they would have abused +you during all the trip." + +Most of the white men that these native darkies knew had been of a +rough sort, adventurous Dutchmen and others, who kicked them about and +treated them without the least regard until the poor black boys--we +call all blacks "boys"--thought that it was the white man's natural +way. When we showed kindness to them and full regard for their comfort +they mistook it for fear. And, thinking that we were afraid of them, +they decided to run things themselves. It did not take them long to +learn that American white men are not brutes and that when they worked +hard and acted on the square they would be treated with kindness. And +I am sure no group of native blacks, as a whole, ever worked more +faithfully than this bunch after they had learned their lesson. There +are always a few exceptions. One or two became lazy, one or two tried +to steal diamonds, later, but we had our own methods of handling them. + +For the first time in my life I learned by direct experience the value +of superiority of intelligence. We white men, being mentally far +superior to the blacks, could rule them. Had they known their own +strength they could have overpowered us at any time. And I recalled +that in all of my histories the same has held good. The mentally +superior people have ruled the less intelligent. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +_THE GLORIOUS FOURTH_ + + +This was our fifth night of camping on the banks of the Mazaruni. We +were to be two nights here, as we did not intend to travel or work on +Sunday. + +By the time we had our shelters erected and this little mix-up with +the blacks had been settled, Lewis suddenly looked up from his +notebook in which he was keeping a sort of journal, and said, "Say!" + +"Say it," I remarked, lazily, from my hammock where I was resting. + +"Whoop-ee!" shouted Lewis, leaping to his feet. + +"What's got you?" I demanded. "Is it a vampire down your neck or a +crocodile up your trousers leg?" + +"This, my beloved fellow American, happens to be the fourth day of +July, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and seventeen, and the +one hundred and forty-first year of our country's independence!" was +his reply, whereupon I stared at him a moment and then I, too, leaped +up and emitted a war whoop. Fourth of July in a far-away jungle! + +In the British Guiana wilds we of course couldn't do just as we would +have done back in the United States, but we did the next best thing. +While he was getting out some firearms I dug up several flags we had +with us and soon the Stars and Stripes were much in evidence. We +rigged a pole in the center of our camp, raised our largest flag and, +with hats off, repeated the oath of allegiance. Then we ran the colors +up on our boats and stuck the smaller flags about in various places. + +Our next move was a bit of noise. + +"Bang-bang-bang-bang!" went our repeating rifles. Then we shot our +revolvers and finally we improvised a "cannon" out of a hollow log, +filled it with blasting powder from our stock for mining, attached a +fuse and kept up our firing of small arms until sunset, which was then +but a few minutes coming. + +Lewis lighted the fuse. I stood by at the flag and began to lower it. + +"WHANG!" + +It certainly was some explosion. Bits of the old log flew in every +direction. + +Quickly I lowered the flag, for that final explosion was our "sunset +gun." + +There were some scared blacks in our party. They thought we had surely +gone crazy. Those who had attempted to assert themselves when we +landed were certain that we intended to kill them. But Captain Peter +explained to them that it was our national holiday and that we were +celebrating, and this made them feel better. + +I ordered an especially good feast that night, some tinned fruits and +double portions of food for all. Then we got out the victrola and I +selected all of the old war songs and all of our patriotic music that +we had, and for two hours Lewis and I made a bluff at singing +everything from "Yankee Doodle" and "Columbia the Gem of the Ocean" to +"America" and "The Star Spangled Banner." + +It was the most unusual Fourth of July celebration I had ever +experienced and, now that we are having sane Fourths at home, I +believe we burned more gunpowder away up there in the jungles of +British Guiana on the banks of the Mazaruni than was burned in half +the cities at home. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +_BABOON FOR DINNER_ + + +Sunday we sat about camp, reading and chatting for a while. Then we +heard the peculiar roaring of the wild red baboons, and the blacks +wanted to go into the jungle and shoot some, as these men are +extremely fond of the meat. + +Off a party of us went, through the thick jungle and into the more +open forests on the uplands back from shore. Again I kept my eyes open +for the giant snakes I had been told about. But I saw none. Finally +some of the blacks, circling ahead, came upon some of the red baboons +and we heard their shots. Hurrying on to get into the fun I heard one +howl close to me. Finally I made him out, high in a tree. By good luck +I got him with the first shot and he came tumbling down at my feet, +quite dead and one of the most hideous looking beasts to be found. My +appetite was not whetted in the least at thought of eating him. The +blacks came back with two more which they had got after a dozen or +more shots. The fact that I dropped one the first shot increased their +respect for me because it indicated that I was a dead shot. I did not +deny it, although the truth was that I was by no means a crack +marksman. + +On the way back I suddenly let out a yell and tried to shake something +from the back of my hand. From the feeling I was sure it was a red hot +poker, jabbed quite through my hand. What I did see was a small red +ant. He had hooked his biting apparatus into the skin of my hand and I +had to pull him off. There must have been some sort of poison on him +for sharp pains, like needles of fire, darted through my hand and up +my arm. It was an hour or more before the pain went away. + +Jimmy hailed our arrival with the baboons with delight and proceeded +at once to dress and cook the one I had bagged. Both Lewis and myself +were rather skeptical about eating any. However, we had been without +our customary quantity of fresh meat and decided to try some. + +Jimmy boiled some of it with salt pork, seasoning it well. Very +gingerly Lewis and I tasted it. The meat was dark, very tender and, to +our surprise, tasted much like rabbit or gray squirrel meat. + +"I feel like a cannibal, eating baboon," laughed Lewis. + +"Darwin said we were related to monkeys, not baboons," I argued. + +"Well, a baboon belongs to the same family. I feel as though I were +dining on a distant relative." + +But we soon learned to overcome such feelings and the meat was really +excellent. How the darkies did feast on it! There wasn't an unpicked +bone or a shred of it left by the time they were finished. + +Monday, our seventh day on the river, found us in the midst of some +perilous rapids and facing some tough propositions in the way of +portages. In the shallow waters there was no danger from the Perai, or +man-eating fish, and the darkies could leap out, fasten a line at the +bow and two at the stern and haul the craft up over ledges to still +and deep water. But frequently it meant that we were to pile out and +lighten the boat by removing the five tons of supplies! + +Twice we had to carry those five tons of provisions and other supplies +two or three hundred yards around portages while the boys hauled the +heavy boat up the ledges. To make matters worse, there was a drizzling +rain. After we got further up the river we had less trouble with rains +because they came regularly, morning and night, without fail. We made +a camp in the rain and ate beneath our shelters. + +Early in the forenoon of the next day we came within sight of Caburi, +the largest falls on the Mazaruni River. At this point the Puruni +River joins the Mazaruni. It was a big job to unload and carry our +provisions and other equipment up over the high ledges by hand, for +while it was only a carry of about a hundred yards, it was difficult +clambering up over steep ledges of the falls with them. It took us +more than half the day just to get over the falls and load again. + +I had been taking a number of pictures, but I lost many of them +because I did not know that the warm water of the tropics would ruin +the negatives. The developing tank is excellent at home, but down +there in torrid British Guiana where the water is always from 75 to 80 +degrees above zero in temperature, not even the tanks would save them, +the heat of the water softening and ruining the emulsion on the +celluloid films. The only way I could do, as I afterwards learned, was +to take the pictures and then seal the exposed films in tin boxes and +wait until I got back to a cooler climate or to civilization where I +could get ice to put in the fluids. + +[Illustration: ONCE IN A WHILE A BOAT SHOT PAST US] + +[Illustration: AT TIMES A PORTAGE MUST BE MADE] + + + + +CHAPTER X + +_IN THE INDIAN COUNTRY_ + + +Over the Caburi Falls we found a broad expanse of still water, smooth +and, while the current was fairly swift, by no means like the +treacherous rapids below. + +"Better navigating now, until almost up to the Big Bend, sir," said +Captain Peter. + +The "Big Bend" was a name to conjure with for Lewis and me, for away +up the Mazaruni were the diamonds, where the river makes a sharp bend +and begins to almost double in its tracks. This is due to the hilly +formation and the lowlands between the hills. + +"This is the Indian territory," added the captain, whereupon I became +instantly alert, for I was anxious to see the real natives of this +wild country. + +Our blacks are called "Native Blacks," but in truth they are no more +native to British Guiana than are the negroes of the United States +native to North America. They all had the same ancestors, the blacks +of Africa who were brought over in slave ships to be sold. + +The reason the Indians live in the upper reaches of the river was +plain enough, for here the water was smooth and navigable for their +peculiar light dugouts and their eggshell-like woodskins, canoes made +of bark. + +We had no more than swept around the first great bend in the broad +expanse of still water above the falls than we saw a canoe loaded down +with an Indian family and their possessions. + +"Good!" exclaimed Captain. "We will get them to hunt for us and have +plenty of fresh meat and good fish. I will call them." + +Then he did a peculiar thing. Instead of shouting to them, and they +were surely nearly half a mile away, he called in a very low tone of +voice, softer by far than he would use in speaking to the bowman on +our own craft. + +"Yoo-hoo. Yoo-hoo," he said, over and over, a dozen times. + +"They'll never hear you. Let me show you how to shout to them," I +said. + +"No-no," warned the captain. "A great shout will frighten them. Their +ears are so well trained to every sound of the river and jungle that +they can hear almost every sound. A loud noise startles them." + +"Yoo-hoo," he repeated again, in a low tone. + +The Indians heard, turned their heads and studied us and then began to +paddle toward us. Gradually our boats came together and I studied them +eagerly. It was a strange sight to me, the first really uncivilized +people I had ever seen. Before they got to us one of the men stopped +paddling and called, in a low tone: + +"Me-a-ree! Me-a-ree!" + +"Me-a-ree!" repeated Captain Peter. + +"What does that mean?" I demanded. + +"It is a form of greeting, sir. It means a combination of 'How do you +do?' and 'We are friends.' Always use it when you meet the native +Indians." + +They talked in low mutterings but the captain seemed to be able to +understand them. Later they talked in a sort of pidgin English that I +could understand fairly well myself. + +At first I was a bit bashful about staring at them, thinking that they +would be embarrassed or consider me rude, and that it might affect +their modesty. I laugh now every time I think of that. In the first +place, they do not know the meaning of the word "modesty." Not that +they are immodest, but that they go about with scarcely any clothes, +which seems quite all right to them. And as for embarrassing them by +staring at them, they consider it an honor to be stared at, to have +someone take an interest in them. + +To me they were a great curiosity. The entire family was crowded in +their small canoe, the old grandfather with a gray tinge to his hair +although with bright eyes and strong muscles, as his paddling showed; +his son, son's wife, their son, who was quite a youth; two younger +boys and several babies. Then there were several tame parrots, a large +blue and yellow macaw that croaked incessantly and a worried little +flea-bitten dog much mauled by the babies. + +And packed in about them in their none too safe canoe I saw a dozen +chunks of smoked meat, lying about like so much firewood to be walked +over, a dozen or more very stiff and black smoked fish, several +baskets of queer vegetables, a bunch of small bananas, bows and +arrows, blowpipes and bundles of the dangerous poisoned blowpipe +arrows with tips wrapped, fish spears, game spears and a large iron +pan which was originally used for washing gold, but used by this +Indian family--who prized it above all their worldly goods--as a +kettle, stove, frying pan and griddle. + +In the center of the boat on a large piece of wet and noninflammable +bark, lay a heap of glowing coals, to be used for their cooking fire +wherever they might camp or upon their return to their home. From this +I figured it out that matches in the jungle were not to be had for the +asking. + +We gave each man cigarettes, which at once made us friends. The +captain began to dicker with the men about securing game for us, and +as they talked I made a study of them. One thing is certain, they are +not bothered by the high price of clothing. I looked at the big +boy, he was about sixteen I should judge--about the age when I got +into long trousers and had plenty of difficulties in keeping them +pressed, when I worried about the right style and fit of collars and +the proper tie to go with my shirt, when collar buttons and scarf pins +and cuff links were important to me and I craved silk socks and kept +my shoes polished and my clothes brushed. It was a serious matter in +those days, as every boy knows, getting up in the morning, getting +properly dressed and off to school in time. And I looked at this big +boy. He wore a red loin cloth which was about a foot long, suspended +from a "belt" made of some wild vine. That was all the clothing that +he possessed in the world, all that he needed and I'm sure every boy +will envy him his comfort, if nothing more. The men, too, wore loin +cloths, red, and about two feet long, tucked into vine belts. + +[Illustration: THE FIRST JUNGLE INDIANS WE SAW] + +[Illustration: AN INDIAN FISHERMAN] + +The women wore smaller loin cloths, called an apron or "queyu." These +were decorated with beads and held on by a string of beads instead of +vines. The smaller children wore nothing at all. Some of the women +wear necklaces made of shells, animal teeth or beads or all three. +Some have bright dried beans for beads and most of them wear strings +of beads around their legs just below the knees. + +The men seemed fairly well built. Their light, copper-colored skin was +smooth and remarkably clean. Their hair was jet black and as straight +as that of our own North American Indians, and their features slightly +resembled those of our Indians at home, although not so strong and +picturesque. Some of them, men and women, are tattooed and also +decorated with "beena," done by cutting into the arm and letting the +scars heel deeply in queer designs. This "beena," I learned, is +believed by them to be a charm against all sorts of evil and, on the +women's arms (women mostly use this "decoration"), they think that it +helps them to weave hammocks and to make their everlasting cassava +bread. + +The parrots and the dog seemed very friendly, the birds walking over +him and making queer, low, croaking sounds, the dog lazily watching +them walk over him and now and then wagging his tail. + +One peculiarity about their talk, the pidgin English, was something +like that of the Chinese coolies I had met in the West. They +substitute the letter "l" for the letter "r" and the letter "b" for +the letter "v." They say "belly good" instead of "very good." + +"So," finished the captain to the head man, the grandfather, "you go +hunt some game and shoot some fish for us." + +"Uh huh, me go hunt um. Shoot paccu, shoot maam, anything. Bring 'long +to you bime by." And the Indians then paddled off and were lost to +view around the curve of the river. + +"Will they do it? Will they come and find us?" I asked. + +"They certainly will, sir. They want the sugar and kerosene and other +things we shall trade with them for the game." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +_"UNCIVILIZED," BUT COURTEOUS, QUIET AND CLEAN_ + + +That night we pitched camp on the left bank of the river. While +preparing supper I was investigating the forest that circled the +little clearing and almost jumped out of my skin when I heard, in soft +voices, either side of me, the word "Me-a-ree." + +I am sure I jumped a couple of feet straight up. There, standing right +beside me, were two of our Indian friends. They grinned at my fright. +Such good woodsmen are they that they can come upon a person without +making a sound. Their naked bronze bodies seem to blend with the +forest shadows. + +One of them had two paccu, the large, flat, delicious fish that they +shoot with bow and arrow or sometimes spear. The other had a "maam" +which is a bush turkey, not as large as our wild turkeys. This he +shot with a blowpipe. + +"Me-a-ree," I exclaimed, as soon as I caught my breath. I shuddered to +think how easily they might have killed me had they been enemies. A +white man hasn't a ghost of a chance with such clever natives if they +want to get him, because he cannot travel in the jungle and forests +down there without being heard, so keen is their hearing, while they +can come right up to him, even when his eyes and ears are strained to +see and hear, before he knows their presence. + +"These are real uncivilized men," I thought, as I looked them over, +standing there in the dim, deep forest edge, with bow and arrow and +blowpipe, with the fish and bird, their naked bodies almost the color +of the trees and shadows. But when I came to know them better I +discovered that if uncivilized meant a rude, uncouth, ill-mannered, +treacherous, dirty and disagreeable people, then these natives were +civilized, for I found them to be real "nature's gentlemen," kind, +courteous, quiet and clean. It was father and son who brought the +game. They asked for powder and shot for their guns. The father was a +sort of chief of their own little tribe and he and his son each owned +one of those priceless "lead" guns, the cheap muzzle loaders made +expressly for such people. We had plenty of powder and shot and made +the exchange. + +You or I could never get any game with those "lead" guns because they +will not carry far, they will not shoot accurately and they frequently +miss fire entirely. But the skilled Indians are able to stalk the game +so quietly that they can almost poke the muzzle of the gun into the +ribs of the game before they fire point blank. We entertained them +with showing them our modern guns, and with showing them their faces +in good mirrors and with victrola music, at which they marveled +greatly and chattered excitedly about it. Then, as silently as they +came, they disappeared into the forest to go to their homes before the +night mists should enshroud them. + +I went down to the water's edge to watch the last gleam of light, fast +going, when suddenly there was the most terrific threshing about that +I had ever heard. + +Something gigantic, seemingly as big as a mountain, arose in front of +me. I thought it must be a combination of crocodile and man-eating +fish come out of the water to feast on me. Then I thought of something +else. + +"Good-night!" the thought flashed through my mind, "that nigger, +Cavan, told the truth when he described the 'Dodo' as a hair-covered +bird twenty feet high," and I had visions of being transformed into +either a Dodo's supper or a Dodo's slave. Instinctively I threw up my +arms to ward off the terrible creature, and fell backward. + +The "giant" arose and sailed out across the water. It was a +toucan--that funny bird with the immense bill that we have seen in our +picture books and stuffed and occasionally alive in parks. His loud +flapping, hoarse croaking, and the spread of his wings in the +deepening twilight made him seem fully as big as Cavan's mythological +"Dodo." + +I laughed at myself, yet the sudden rising of a ruffed grouse in the +deep forests at home will frequently startle a chap quite as badly as +this, and I am sure that the poor toucan was more scared than I, for I +nearly stepped on him when I approached the river bank. + +As usual we moved on up the river all the next day and camped at +night. And quite as silently as they had come before, the two Indians +appeared within our camp circle. This time each had a wild boar slung +over his back like a knapsack. The beasts' feet were tied together +with a small vine. Father and son had each killed one with a spear. +They were greeted warmly by us and given cigarettes. But they did not +seem to care about parting with the game. After a while, being +persuaded by the clever Captain Peter, they agreed to let us have +them, but first they must take them to their camp to clean them. I +learned the reason afterwards. + +Here was my opportunity to see the Indians in their homes, to see how +they lived. + +"Will it be all right to go home with them?" I asked the captain. He +said that it would and so I turned to the father. + +"Me walkee with you, savvy? Me go long-side your home." + +"No sabbe, no sabbe," said the Indian. + +"I want to walk along home with you," I said, in straight English this +time. The Indian understood that well enough. + +[Illustration: "BRINGING HOME THE BACON"] + +"All li'. You come," he said. + +Although he talked pidgin English, he couldn't understand it when we +talked it, but he could understand straight English, except when he +didn't want to answer, then he would say "No sabbe," and that settled +it, you couldn't get a word from him. They were all like that. + +I started out with them through the jungle forest. The silence of the +place, their footsteps being almost noiseless, was depressing. I tried +to talk. + +"How far?" I asked. + +"Me no sabbe," said the youth. + +"How long will it take to get there?" I insisted. + +"Little," answered his father. They have no idea of time as divided +into hours and minutes, they judge by nights, before "high sun" or +noon, and back to "no sun" or evening. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +_A VISIT TO A NATIVE HOME_ + + +Their home was not as far away as I had expected. But then, an +Indian's "home" is easily made, consisting of some upright poles, +roughly thatched with long marsh grass. Beneath this they place their +belongings and they sleep in hammocks at night. The forests are full +of little colonies or villages back from the river. They hide well +back, along small streams, to secrete their camp fires from river +travelers. Our friends had moved along by land as we moved by water +and this night they joined some other families. There were several of +the shelters and a fire burning in front of each around which members +of families squatted. This camp was on a wide stream entering the +Mazaruni, and screened by an island. As I entered their camp the +natives jumped up from the fires. Remembering the captain's +instructions I smiled at all of them and said, "Me-a-ree, Me-a-ree." + +They replied with the same greeting. I handed the men presents and at +once it was understood that I was a friend. Our two hunters dropped +the wild boars, squatted beside them and in an amazing short time had +them opened and skinned. No butcher at home with clean blocks and keen +knives and meat saws ever cut up meat as quickly or as skillfully and +neatly as did these men. + +The women gathered about and helped them in their work. The bladders +were given to two of the smaller boys, brothers of the youth. At once +they ran to the water and began to float the bladders and have fun +with them just as white children would do. + +The intestines were carefully hung on poles by a hot fire of green +twigs, to smoke. These, I was told, were to the Indians the "best part +of the boar." I took their word for it, politely refusing to taste of +some of the smoked intestines they already had on hand. This surprised +the people who, I am sure, must have thought that I was all kinds of a +fool to refuse such a wonderful treat as that. + +"Take what you want," said the old man, pointing to the dressed meat. +I selected the hams, shoulders and ribs, and they nodded and walked +down to the water to wash. Without a word it was understood that their +work was done. The women were to do the rest, even to toting the meat +to our camp. Quite a number of the Indians came back to our camp. The +meat was given around to our black men, saving some of it for our own +meals. Our blacks at once proceeded to build a fire of green twigs and +smoke their share of the meat. + +In our shelter the Indians squatted. One of the Indians who had heard +our victrola pointed at it and made a circular motion with his hand, +indicating that he wanted us to make the discs go around. Jimmy was +delighted to play host and proceeded to go through our selection of +records. The flea-bitten dog backed away and howled at certain places +during the concert, but one of the parrots, which had come over +perched on a child's shoulder, was deeply interested and flew to the +victrola, lighted on it, eyed the revolving record sharply, squawked +delight or anger at the music and finally hopped down on the +revolving record. + +He was probably the most surprised parrot in the world, for that +revolving record yanked his feet out from under him and he fell +squawking on his back. The way that old parrot flapped off of the +victrola and back to the child's shoulder was a caution, squawking and +snapping his beak as if he were swearing, in bird talk. + +The Indians laughed noisily and shrilly, like children, at this. + +We gave the women some little trinkets and all of them a little food. +One young woman looked at my hammock and made up a funny face, +jabbering to an older woman who nodded, and without a word to me she +took down my hammock and began to unravel it. I decided to say nothing +and watch her. When it was all unraveled and nothing but a pile of +cords she began deftly to weave it again and when she was finished it +was as even and smooth as any hammock ever made. She had seen an +uneven place in it, knew that it would not be comfortable, and fixed +it. I slept much better in it that night. I gave her a piece of +scented soap, which delighted her. With great pride she walked around +letting everyone have a smell of it. I saw her again and she had bored +a hole through the cake and strung it on her necklace. I have often +wondered how long it lasted. As the Indians never mind the rain but +are out in it just as they are in sunshine, that cake of soap +certainly dissolved in time. + +Jimmy served me a goodly portion of the boar meat. Both Lewis and +myself enjoyed it. The meat was a bit stringy, but it was delicious, +nevertheless. + +The night dampness and mists began to settle. Without a word the +Indians silently departed into the forests, to go back to their +shelters and sleep in their hammocks. I asked Jimmy about the vampires +and he assured me that the Indians were safe. + +"Vampire bats ain't got no use for Injun, suh. Reckin they don't +admire the taste of 'em." + +The Indians sleep without clothes, other than the mesh-like flaps of +the hammocks thrown over them, giving plenty of opportunity for the +vampires and also for the really dangerous mosquitoes, which proved +my undoing, as I will tell about later. The Indians seldom have jungle +fever or malaria and if the mosquitoes do bite them there are no bad +effects. + +[Illustration: TWO QUICK PUFFS, A FLUTTER, AND THE BIRD DROPS TO +EARTH] + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +_THE SNAKE THAT DISAPPEARED_ + + +That night Cavan remarked that we were now getting into the big snake +district. + +"Big snake feller here plenty. Sho' he scar' yo'," said Cavan. + +"How long?" I asked. + +"Some like a tall tree, some not so much," said Cavan. And then +they discussed the snakes, how they encircle wild boars and other +big animals and "squeeze 'em inter a pulp an' eat 'em." It was +interesting, but I found myself looking out into the jungle and +imagining that every branch I could see was a giant snake. + +That night I was awakened and felt my hair standing up and quivering +and prickling at each root, for, hanging down from the tree in front +of me, to which was suspended the foot end of my hammock, was a great +snake. I couldn't stir at first. He lowered his head and swung it +about like a pendulum, finally resting it on the foot of my hammock. +Then, raising his head, he seemed to see me. In the dim light from a +pale moon and a ghastly glow from the coals of our fire I could see +the snake's bright eyes and his tongue darting in and out. + +I tried to shout. I tried to look about and see if Lewis was still +asleep, to see if he couldn't help me. I tried to call Jimmy, to see +if he was awake, but couldn't seem to turn my head. + +The snake slid further down the tree and glided across my stomach. He +was so long that much of him was still draped up the tree and over a +limb. He raised his head and opened his jaws, as if laughing at my +helplessness, and I thought of many things. + +I thought that it was a silly thing to have ventured off into these +wilds. I wondered why I had not been satisfied to stay in a white +man's country and not butt into the wild jungles of the Indians. I +thought of everyone at home and finally decided that no snake was +going to finish me that way without one good struggle. I looked +keenly at his neck to decide just where his throat was, located it +back of his jaws and, as he lunged at me, I let out a terrific yell +and clutched both hands in a life-and-death grip around the neck of +the great snake. + +He tried to yank away and his strength lifted me upright from the +hammock, his whole body quivered. Still I clung on. Then he began to +writhe horribly and to thrash about, swaying me this way and that. + +In the struggle I fell from the hammock to the ground, still with my +deadly grip about that snake's neck. With my fingers clutched in a +death grip about his throat, I felt that I would be better able to +defend myself. I must have had this thought during the process of +falling, for when I struck the ground with a terrific jolt I found my +fingers clutched in the holster of my revolver. + +Instantly I was on my feet, looking this way and that for the snake. +There was no snake in sight! Where had he gone? I looked about again +and discovered that there had been no snake at all! + +It was the result of my talk with Jimmy and Cavan the night before +about mammoth snakes. The perspiration was dripping from my face. I +looked about stealthily to see if any of my companions had witnessed +my dream struggles, but all seemed to be sleeping peacefully, so I +climbed back into my hammock, yet the dream so upset me that I was +unable to sleep any more. However, it was almost dawn. + +"How did you sleep last night?" asked Lewis, when he sat up in his +hammock. + +"Bully," I declared, giving him a sharp look to see if he was trying +to kid me about my foolish dream, but either he had not awakened or +else was a good actor, for he never let on that he knew about it. My +arm was sore for days where I bruised it in striking a rock as I +landed beneath my hammock. It was the only bad dream I had during my +months in the jungle, but it was quite enough. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +_DIFFICULTIES OF JUNGLE TRAVEL_ + + +The next two days our trip was disagreeable because of continued +rains, but on the third day we camped at four-thirty close to a "path" +that led to the largest Indian village. I was determined to visit it +and pictured quite a little town. We could see the tall column of +smoke from their fires. + +My companion and I were so eager to get to this village next morning +that we did not wait to eat, but, taking a handful of food, set out +with one Boviander to carry a knife and lantern. + +For the first time I learned something of the difficulties of jungle +travel. We had to slash through vines, wade through bogs of slime and +mud, clamber over gnarled roots and stumble around in the most tangled +growth of vegetation I ever saw. + +"If this is a 'path,'" I said to Lewis, "I'm glad I'm not in the +wilderness." + +"No go outside path," grinned the Boviander. + +We assured him that we would not, but we could find no trace of a path +at all. When we were not in muddy bogs, feeling our way to make sure +we would not step into some hole over our heads, or clambering around +fallen trees and brush, we were going up short but steep little hills +covered with tangled vines. After two hours of this, and being almost +exhausted, we came to a clearing. + +"Here it is," shouted Lewis. + +And as if to prove it we heard a rooster crow. Eagerly we stumbled out +into the clearing and saw the few huts, but the place was deserted. + +"More further," said the Boviander; "someone he die." + +By this he meant that some member of the village had died. The Indians +always desert their village when anyone dies in it, and move on to +establish another. They will never live in a village where anyone has +died. + +The lonely rooster crowed defiantly at us as we skirted the village +to find the "path." Having found it we moved on about a mile. + +"Ah, here we are," I declared as I came into an opening. + +Not a soul in sight! + +"Another die," commented our Boviander, shrugging his shoulders. + +"If the death rate is very high we'll never overtake that village," +grumbled Lewis. + +Up above were tiny patches of blue, bits of the sky that we could see +through the thick jungle growth. I saw some smoke and decided that at +last we were close to the village. But at the opening we saw but a +single "house" or shelter. The Indian came forward to see us. + +Lewis had prospected up through this section before sending for me, +and when he saw this Indian he exclaimed in a low voice, "That's +Simon." + +He didn't seem at all glad to find him there, but I had no opportunity +to ask him about it before Simon, the Indian, advanced and, smiling as +blandly as a Chinaman, exclaimed cordially: + +"Me-a-ree!" + +He told us that the village was quite a distance on, and offered to +lead us there. Lewis could not well refuse, as we had now gone far +away from our camp and the district was wild and unknown to any of us. +But I could see that he was not very well pleased with the prospect. + +Simon motioned to his boy, a handsome, copper-colored youth, to start +on with him, and proceeded to lead the way, taking a blowpipe and +quiver of the poisoned arrows with him. This, too, troubled Lewis. But +there seemed nothing else to do, so we followed. + +On the way Lewis told me what was worrying him. During his previous +prospecting trip when he went up the river to make sure that there +were diamond fields before sending for me, he had found an old Indian +very sick at one of the villages. This was Simon's father. Lewis did +what he could for the sick old Indian, giving him quinine pills, the +universal cure-all in the jungle, but the old man died. + +On this trip one of our men had heard that Simon believed Lewis had +purposely killed his father and that he did it with the "magic pills," +as he called the quinine. + +"They say Simon has acted queerly ever since," explained Lewis, "and +he may imagine that I really did kill his father and start a little +'ka-ni-a-mer' of his own between just him and me." + +"And what on earth is a 'ka-ni-a-mer'?" I demanded. + +"Just about the same as an old Kentucky feud where two families try +for years to kill each other off. So you see I'm not extremely +trustful of this bland Simon Injun," said Lewis. + +"And to top it all," he added, "I dreamed the other night that my +mother came and warned me to look out as I was to be in great danger." + +This made me decidedly uneasy and I was determined to keep my eye on +Simon every minute, staying between him and Lewis. + +The trip to the village seemed long. There was considerable uphill +going. Every once in a while Simon would turn and jabber at his boy, +who would instantly look around at us, then reply to his father, who +would hurry on faster than ever. They were setting a terrific pace. +Already wearied with our travels before we came to Simon's hut, this +was overdoing it just a little. But, worse than that, I got the idea +that Simon was trying to lose us, to rush on far ahead and then hide +and kill us--or kill Lewis anyway, with his blowpipe from ambush. I +knew that just a scratch from the poisoned tip of one of those slender +arrows would finish Lewis, or anyone else. + +"You take my gun," I said to Lewis, "and take it easy, while I keep up +with him and keep him right in plain sight." + +Lewis is a heavy-built man and it was more difficult for him to keep +up the hot pace uphill. I hurried on and got quite close to them. +Simon spoke to his boy, who turned around and gave a little jump of +astonishment to see me so close. He spoke sharply to his father, who +turned around. Just as he turned around I purposely pulled my revolver +from the holster with a great flourish. + +To these native Indians our revolvers are wonderful and fearful +things. They regard them with awe and also with fear. That so small a +thing held lightly in the hand could deal death is one of the most +amazing things they know about. When Simon saw this he at once +slackened his pace and gave me another bland smile. + +"Me-a-ree. Me-a-ree!" he said. + +"Me-a-ree," I replied, but kept my revolver in my hand. After that he +slowed up and made no attempt to lose us, but he kept looking back +frequently and earnestly to make sure that I was not pointing the +deadly "mystery gun" at him. + +We passed many small platforms lashed to tall trees. I thought they +were the "graves" of Indians, as I knew that many of our American +Indians had the custom of leaving their dead on high platforms. But +the Boviander explained that they were hunting stations. The Indians +climb up and kneel on these platforms motionless for hours, waiting +for game to pass so that they can kill it with blowpipes, spears, bows +and arrows or with their crude guns. + +It was getting late and I had just begun to wonder if we would have to +camp in that dismal swamp all night when I heard the sound of a horn. +It was some Indian call made by blowing on a shell. Simon nodded, +meaning that it was the village. + +Soon we came into a great clearing. I expected to see a thriving +village, since I had been assured that Assura was the largest of the +Indian villages. And it was the largest, yet it consisted of only +seven houses, with A-shaped roofs of reeds, and one larger or communal +house with a conical roof. + +Three of the mangiest, sorriest looking dogs I had ever beheld, howled +mournfully when we came into the clearing, then tucked their tails +between their legs and ran away to hide, having performed their duty +of warning the villagers of our approach. + +I was greatly interested, for the villagers did not know that we were +coming and I was sure to find them in their primitive life without +"putting on" for company. They flocked about us, more curious than we, +for we had seen Indians and knew something about their customs by this +time, but few of them had seen any white men except the Dutch and +half-breed Dutch "pork-knockers," or wandering diamond miners. + +As usual, they wore no clothes except the red loin cloth of the men +and the queyu, or tiny apron of the women. But every garment that we +wore was a curiosity to them. I am sure that had we marched in there, +wearing no more than a loin cloth, they would not have been greatly +interested. But hats, coats, vests, trousers, leggings, shoes--all of +those garments were wonderful curiosities to them all, as you may well +imagine. + +There was an all-around exchange of "Me-a-rees" and we passed around +some cigarettes, whereupon they knew that we were friends. + +How they crowded about us, children with no clothes at all, and tiny +babies that could not walk crawled along over the filthy ground, +through spots of black mud and shallow pools of stagnant water, +picking up the dirt and animal refuse from the ground and apparently +feasting on it. It made us shudder to see them, yet those tiny babies +seemed quite contented and quite healthy. At once I wondered what an +American mother who dresses her baby in costly flannels and +embroidered linens, places it in a hundred dollar baby carriage and +wraps it in another hundred dollar fur robe, would say if her pink +little darling were to be stripped and left to crawl about through +the muck of this jungle clearing to get chummy with chiggers and +stinging red ants, big ugly black beetles, mosquitoes and other +things! + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +_HOSPITALITY OF THE JUNGLE FOLK_ + + +In pidgin English we made the men understand that we wanted six of +them to go up the river with us, some to help us hunt, some to build a +"logie" for Lewis and myself. + +They agreed to go, but when we suggested that we start right away, +they declined. We must wait another day. They could not set out +without a supply of cassava, which is to them what our bread is to us, +the staff of life. And they declared it too late to venture into the +jungle, so we had to arrange to stay with them over night. + +This interested me, as the night trip was not to my liking and I +wanted to see Indian life at close range. Among the Indians was one +called "Abraham," who had been with Lewis on his previous trip. He was +an honest chap, faithful and a hard worker and fond of Lewis because +of his name. It seems that on his prospecting trip Lewis liked this +chap and asked him his name. Alas, he had none. Indians are given +names by their medicine men, called "Peiman," or by the chief of the +colony, at birth, providing their parents can pay enough in Indian +trade goods. When Abraham was born his parents had nothing to give, so +he went without a name. This is considered a calamity among the +Indians, as a nameless one is quite liable, so they believe, to meet +up with all of the misfortunes possible to befall a human being. Lewis +liked him so well that he at once assumed the role of a "Peiman" and +solemnly bestowed upon him the name of "Abraham." For this Abraham +would do anything for Lewis. + +There was another Indian who interested us. He had but one eye, but +was almost a giant in build. He always had a jolly grin and as we +liked him and found him to be nameless, I gravely assured him that I +could bestow names. He begged me to do so. + +"Gi' me call by," he said. + +"You shall henceforth be called by 'Lewis,'" I said, with a dramatic +gesture, winking at Lewis, who grinned at the joke. + +Soon I had taught him just how to speak the word "Lewis" and he was a +very proud Indian. + +Each "house" consisted of only a reed and palm-leaf roof supported on +poles, there being no sides to any of them. The supply of household +goods was pitifully small indeed. There were plenty of weapons, a few +cassava-making implements, a rare metal dish or tin can and hammocks +everywhere. The Indian women sit in these hammocks doing their weaving +or bead work by day and all sleep in them by night. There was a fire +at each hut, made of logs which were arranged like the spokes of a +wheel, the inner ends, or "hub" being the fire. As the ends would burn +away the logs would be pushed in toward the center and new ones added +as the old ones burned up. These fires supplied plenty of heat for +cooking and enough warmth for the night chill and they were never +allowed to go out. In some places a village is not moved for a year or +two, depending upon whether there is a death there, and a fire once +started burns steadily on that spot all of the time. + +[Illustration: THEY SEEMED GLAD TO POSE FOR US] + +[Illustration: JUNGLE HUNTSMEN] + +We were tired and wet. We needed food and rest and told Abraham this, +whereupon he promptly gave up his house to Lewis and myself and took +his wife and flock of children over to the communal house with the +conical roof. + +We livened up the fire and decided to remove our wet clothes and dry +them. We had just about as much privacy as a goldfish, and the +villagers flocked about us in great excitement as we proceeded to +strip off our outer garments. + +We stripped down to our flannel underwear and decided to sit about our +roaring fire and get dry while our clothes dried. But the natives +eagerly asked the privilege of taking our clothes and drying them for +us. There seemed no way out of it and I wondered if I was going to be +left to travel through the jungle in nothing but underwear. But I +should not have feared. They were honest enough. They merely wished to +borrow our clothes to strut about in for a while. One big chap had my +hat cocked on his head at the "tough guy" angle as if he had worn one +all his life. Two giggling young women divided my big boots, each +wearing one, and marched proudly about, the thong ties dragging. An +old man put on my coat. But the trousers were too wet, so they +escaped. Next morning they were returned, well dried and nothing +whatever missing from the pockets. + +I sat in a hammock, slung close to the fire, drying my wet socks and +the legs of my underclothes, watching the women prepare a meal of +eggs, venison, labbas and cassiri for us, and grinned at the picture +we must have made. + +"Not quite up to the etiquette of polite society at home," I said to +Lewis. + +"But we are overdressed, even now," he answered, "according to the +style down here." + +The houses are called "benabs." Abraham said he would bring the food +over to our benab. This he did. It was smoking hot, heaped up in one +big wooden dish, and with it a calabash, or gourd, of cassiri. This +was a bright pink liquid, most sickening in appearance. The Indians +all drank out of the same big gourd and seemed to enjoy it. + +Lewis took a taste. + +"Great," he said. + +I didn't like his expression when he said it, but was determined to +try anything once, so I tasted it. + +"U-r-r-r-gh!" + +Dud. Lewis had his back to me. I could see that he was shaking with +laughter. + +"For two cents I'd pour this pink slop down your neck!" I gasped. + +The Indians looked on and grinned. I did not wish to be impolite, so I +said, "Yaa! Cassiri too much humbug Yankee man's stomach!" and I +hugged my stomach as if in pain and smiled to assure them of good +feeling. They merely laughed. + +This drink tasted like sour milk, long overripe strawberries, vinegar, +pepper, sour yeast, cassava meal and whatever else they might have had +left over to dump into it. But the venison was delicious and the +labba, which is a sort of pig about the size of a rabbit, was as good +meat as I ever tasted. The cassava is not bad at all and so we managed +to make out a very good meal. But if I had taken a big swallow of that +pink cassiri I am sure my stomach would have burned up or exploded. + +It came time for us to get some sleep if ever we were to turn in. +While we were fairly dry, there was a dampness in the air and we had +only our underclothes. But the headman of the village brought out +three strips of cotton cloth he had been hoarding in an old canister, +another loaned a frayed old shirt he had got in some trade, another +contributed a pair of red cotton trousers. My shirt and tunic were dry +and with these, divided between Lewis and me, we turned in to our +hammocks. We tried a fire of glowing coals under our hammocks as did +some of the Indians, but the smoke was too much for us and we had to +move the fire. Besides, I didn't want to have any more snake dreams +and fall out in a bed of hot coals. + +I lay there listening to the jungle noises and trying to guess what +sort of beast, bird or reptile was making them, when it came time for +the Indians to turn in. Just as the village became quiet and the +babies stopped squalling and the kids stopped chattering, there came a +native song. + +"This is a great time to start singing!" I grumbled to Lewis. + +"Go to sleep and don't mind it," he advised. + +"I can't sleep until he stops that fool song," I insisted. + +"Ha-ha," laughed Lewis, "you've got some fine little wait coming." He +covered himself in his hammock and proceeded to sleep. I didn't +understand what he meant at the time, but I learned, for I waited and +waited for the singer to stop. But when he got tired, another singer +took it up and then another and another. + +They keep that song going _all night_ every night of their lives. + +There was nothing for me to do but to remain in my hammock and listen +to that terrible singing. The voices were not so bad, nor were they +harsh, but there didn't seem to be much melody in what they sang and +after you have heard the same gibberish sung over and over and over +for about a million times (so it seemed to me) you certainly get good +and tired of it. + +It was no effort on my part to learn the song. I got so that I knew +just what the next line would be and I found myself muttering it +along with whichever Indian happened to be taking his "spell" at +singing it. + +"What does it mean?" I asked many. But the best answer I could get was +that it was a "sort of song to keep danger away at night." + +It also kept sleep away from me for several hours, although I finally +did get to sleep in spite of it and did not awaken until daylight had +come and the singing had ceased. I always wished that I could get a +translation of the song, but I will repeat it as it sounded: + + "_Ip phoo ke na, pagee ko, ip phoo ke na; + Waku beku yean gee ma ta ne ke, ip phoo ke na pegge ko. + Ip phoo ke na, ip phoo ke na pagee ko, + Ip phoo ke na, ip phoo ke na pagge ko, + Ip phoo ke na, ip phoo ke na._" + +These Indians seemed the most restless people on earth. Before I fell +asleep I watched them in the big communal hut which was within twenty +feet of me. I learned afterwards that when going on a long trip they +sit up most of the night and stuff themselves with food. They seemed +to be eating all night here, and drinking that pink cassiri. They +would wander about inside their shelter, sit in a hammock eating, walk +over to the calabash and drink the cassiri and back to the hammock +again. + +"If that's the life of a British Guiana Indian, then I'm glad that I +am not one of them. None of this free and untrammeled child-of-nature +life for me," I told Lewis afterward. + +"Wonder what they would say if they saw so many of our people back +home sitting up until nearly daylight having banquets, dancing the +fox-trot and one-step and hesitation and opening wine and smoking and +having a regular night of it," was his quiet comment. + +It was good food for thought. The more I figured it out, the more I +wondered just where the line between "civilization" and "barbarity" +was drawn. I am sure that they did not injure their health as much +with their cassava cakes and fruits, eaten during the night, as so +many of our so-called "sports" do with their all night dancing and +drinking and smoking and eating of lobster a la king and other fancy +and expensive foods. + +Some of them were drinking a black liquid from a gourd. This was +"piwarree." + +"Don't drink it," warned Lewis. + +"Thanks for the tip, old man," I answered, "but there aren't enough +diamonds in South America to get me to touch it." + +It was the most vile looking liquid I ever saw, yet the Indians seemed +to enjoy it and it did not appear to intoxicate them, although there +was probably alcohol in it, as it was made by a fermenting process. I +had seen a number of women who wore a peculiar tattoo mark on their +foreheads. I had thought it merely some sort of barbaric adornment, +but it seems this was their "trade mark." It indicated that they were +piwarree makers. These women, to make this drink, sit in a circle +about a fire where cassava cakes are allowed to bake until they are +burned through quite crisp and black. Each woman chews this burned +bread until it is soft and pulpy with her saliva. This she strains +through her teeth into a vessel in the center. When the vessel is full +the contents are thrown into a large wooden trough and boiling water +poured over it. It is allowed to ferment. When quite sour and black it +is ready for drinking. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +_CASSAVA CAKES AND BLOW-PIPES_ + + +In the morning I expected to start out, but learned that the cassava +cakes must be made. The women had started the process the night +before. But after that I frequently saw it made and the process is +interesting. + +Cassava is a root, something like a large turnip, yet longer and more +in the shape of an immense sweet potato. The inside is quite white and +somewhat soft, a trifle "woody," like a turnip that we would throw +away. These roots grow wild. There is no cultivating necessary, +although in some localities they cut away the other vegetation and +allow the cassava plants to thrive a little better. + +A grater is made by driving sharp bits of flint into a board. This is +covered with a sort of wax which hardens and leaves only the sharp +tips of the flints sticking out. The women peel the cassava roots +with dull knives or sharp flints. The root is then grated over this +flint grater and the fine particles fall down into a woven frame. + +Next comes the "metapee." This is a most peculiar basket, made solely +for the manufacture of cassava flour. It may be pulled out long or +pushed in short. It works something like an old-fashioned "accordion" +hat rack. When pushed down short it is very large around but as it is +pulled out it grows smaller and smaller in circumference. It is a +great trick to weave these metapee baskets, for they must be +exceedingly strong. + +The grated cassava is put in the metapee when it is squat down short +and large around. One end of this basket is hung from a pole or limb. +In the bottom of the metapee is a loop through which a pole is run. +One end of the pole is lashed to the ground, at the foot of a tree. +The woman now sits on the other end of the pole. This makes a lever +and her weight stretches the metapee out into a long wicker cylinder. +This squeezes all of the moisture out of the ground cassava root. And +here is a most remarkable thing--that juice is a deadly poison! Yet +the pulp that remains makes a nourishing bread. + +[Illustration: AT FOURTEEN AN INDIAN GIRL MUST BE ABLE TO COOK +CASSAVA] + +[Illustration: A PRIMITIVE SUGAR CANE PRESS] + +The woman bounces up and down on her end of the pole until every bit +of the juice is out. This juice is saved, as the poison can be used by +the men. Or the juice may be allowed to evaporate and what remains of +that, instead of being poison, is good seasoning for food! + +The pulp is spread in the sun to dry. When dry it is sifted through a +basket sieve and becomes rather coarse flour. To this water is added, +the dough is kneaded with the fists much as our women knead wheat +flour and water into dough. This dough is flattened out into cakes +three feet in diameter and half an inch thick and baked on a flat +slab, a sheet of iron if it be possible to get it, or on anything +handy. The bread is now ready to eat. It is firm, fairly hard, rather +crisp and has but little flavor. To me it tasted like refined sawdust. +But it is extremely nourishing. + +It takes half an hour to cook these cassava cakes and, kept dry, they +will last a great while. That is why the women baked a number of them +to take with them upon the impending journey. It was comforting to +have this much certain about the uncertain journey which we were now +to take. + +While the Indian women busied themselves making cassava cakes for the +journey back to our camp I studied all of the weapons of the men in +the village, for they interested me. There were but two guns in the +village, owned by the chief and another very "wealthy" native. These +were the muzzle-loading "lead" guns. + +What interested me most of all was the blowpipe. It is really a +wonderful weapon. It is a wonder to me that we boys back home did not +make similar weapons. I am sure that with a little skill we could have +picked off rabbits, squirrels and game birds, although, of course, we +would have had to become good woodsmen. Of all the weapons to be +faced, I believe the blowpipe as made and used by these Indians is the +most deadly. I would rather face almost anything else. + +These pipes are from eight to twelve feet long. They are made of two +strong reeds, a hollow-stemmed variety that grows in the jungle. They +take the midribs of a great palm leaf, dry them, split them up, char +one end in the fire to make it hard, and with this force out the +little partitions that appear at the joints in all reeds, as in +bamboo. Then a smaller reed is found that will just slide inside the +larger one. They now have a double reed which makes an extremely long +yet strong tube. The hole is made through the inner reed in the same +manner, and these palm midribs and fine sand are worked inside the +inner tube until it is quite as smooth as a rifle bore. + +The arrows are made from the same palm midribs, split as fine as an +eighth of an inch in thickness. While at work mining I hired an Indian +boy to make a collection of bird skins for me. These boys can skin a +bird perfectly and prepare the skin so that it will be like soft, thin +kid, without misplacing a feather. I watched this boy make blowpipes +and arrows. He dried the palm midribs in the sun a few days and they +split readily into as fine arrows as he needed. + +Just how he made the deadly poison with which he tipped them I was not +certain. I will admit that we kept clear of that poison just as you +would keep clear of dynamite. I know that it was made from crushed +leaves and roots and put in a gourd. This poison is called "waurali." +As soon as the poison is dried on, in the sun, a string is woven in +and out around each end of each arrow until there is a long row of +them, and this is rolled around a stick so that there is a solid roll +of these arrows, which may be pulled out one by one. + +The quiver is made of woven grass, the bottom made of some wax that +hardens from trees. This roll of arrows is placed, poison tips up, in +the quiver and a skin top put over them to keep out moisture. Attached +to the quiver is a small basket containing loose cotton. + +When the boy was ready to shoot a bird he would remove one of the +arrows, pinch off a bit of cotton from the basket and wrap it loosely +around the blunt end. Thrusting the arrow into the tube this cotton +made it fit just enough to take the compression of air. Sighting the +bird, the boy placed the blowpipe to his lips, aimed at the bird and +gave a sudden sharp puff. + +The speed of that slender arrow was marvelous. Seldom did the boy +miss. If the bird was merely scratched, it would fly but a short +distance before the deadly poison would get in its work and then it +would come fluttering to the ground, quite dead by the time the boy, +running after it, would pick it up. Sometimes the great tapirs, as +large as a hog, would be killed by these slender arrows. + +Their bows and arrows interested me. Their bows are longer than most +of those used by the American Indians, being six feet or more. And +these men are generally smaller than the American Indians. They have +many kinds of arrows for the various game, and they also use a sort of +harpoon, a large barbed spearhead on the arrow with a long stout woven +cord fastened to it. This is for shooting fish. + +One day an Indian took the fruit of a star apple tree, wove a loose +covering for it, hung it in a pool of water at the shore of the river +from a limb overhead and waited. I saw a great fish dart for this bait +and at the same time "Zowie!" went this harpoon arrow. + +There was a great thrashing about in the water, but the Indian calmly +hauled in his harpoon and there was a big pacu on it, a very tasty +fish when properly cooked. They also use hand spears with a half dozen +barbed points branching out and get many fish in that manner. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +_ON THE MARCH AGAIN_ + + +By the time I had watched the cassava cake making process and examined +the weapons in the village and noted almost everything of how they +lived, the Indians were ready to go on with us. They had been eating +all night as I explained. Now they took a hasty farewell drink of that +pink stuff, cassiri, and took a large mouthful of cassava cake; their +baskets were already packed for travel, and so we started. + +But did they carry their baskets? + +No indeed! That would have been a disgrace, like a man washing dishes +or making a dress for baby. Carrying the luggage was woman's work. +What did each man have a wife for if not to do his work? The men set +off with only their weapons, and the women fastened the heavy baskets +to their backs by means of vine ropes around their foreheads. + +Each man carried various objects in his basket, some tools, hunks of +smoked meat, some extra loin cloths with perhaps a ragged old shirt +secured from some "pork knocker." On top of these belongings was +placed a stack of the cassava cakes and covered with palm leaves to +keep out the rain, for it showed signs of raining when we set out. + +The Indians went on ahead. The women followed. They had removed +whatever garments they owned--some of them had loose garments, merely +for style, made of strips of cotton--and traveled only with those +little beaded aprons or queyus. We came last, but after a while the +women stepped out of the path and let us go on ahead. I think they +wanted to watch us, just as we would like to stay behind and watch +something curious walking on ahead. + +We thought we had a hard trip getting to the village, but we were in +for the hardest traveling afoot that I ever knew. I called it "land +swimming." The mud was literally knee deep. We would put one foot +down, then the next one, stand still and pull one foot out with a +great effort, step ahead with that, pull the other out with a great +sucking sound, and so on. It was only with great endurance that we +made this trip through the rain, but even the worst journey must come +to an end and finally we reached our own camp. Nothing ever looked +more homelike than our shelters, our fires and the boats moored +alongside. + +Lewis and I made a dash for the boat to get some dry warm clothes. +Jimmy, glad to see us back, made some hot tea. Soon we had on lighter +shoes, dry woolen underclothes and dry suits and socks, lay back in +our hammocks and drank good hot tea and felt none the worse for our +journey into the primitive homes of the Indians. + +We gave the women plenty to eat and made them presents of sugar, rice, +salt and tea to take back with them. They were the happiest women you +ever saw and chattered among themselves like kids at a Christmas tree. +Then they turned and went back into the forests without a word of +leave taking to their husbands, as this toting of their husbands' +baskets was all in their day's work. + +Of all the sticky, funny messes I ever saw it was the packs of these +Indians. The rain had soaked through the palm leaves on top and +through the meshes of the baskets at the sides. The cassava cakes had +dissolved into a soft, semi-liquid dough. This had run down through +the contents of the baskets. Nearly every one contained bits of red +cloth--an Indian's choice possession. The colors had run and there +were pink dough and dough-covered arrows and pink smoked meat and +sticky, cassava dough enameled shirts. It was a great mess, but the +Indians scraped the dough together to dry out in the sun the next day +and worried not at all, for the cassava dough would all dry and be +rubbed off their belongings. + +While the Indians like the white men, they do not like the blacks. +They get along with them all right because they have nothing whatever +to do with the "Me-go-ro-man" as they call them. Our blacks, as usual, +had their three shelters a distance from ours. The Indians built a +hasty shelter alongside our canvas one, slung their hammocks, now +daubed with dough, and climbed in. Jimmy started the victrola, the +camp fires burned brightly despite the rain, and the Indians sat up +and stared open-eyed, at the "hoodoo" box from which came the, to +them, weird sounds. They believed that the spirits of the dead were +inside that victrola, but when they saw Jimmy putting on the records +and saw that no ghosts came out to kill them, they lost their fear of +it. + +[Illustration: MY JUNGLE FRIENDS] + +The plaintive Southern melodies seemed to please them most. Next in +their favor was a weird jazz number. From the wet jungle came the +peculiar roar of red baboons. We would have fresh baboon steak next +day, if we could spare an hour for hunting. + +And then from the black, dismal depths of that dripping jungle came +the most pitiful sobbing that I ever heard. Whether a child or a +woman, or a number of them, I could not make out. I leaped from my +hammock, wondering what was happening to them, if they were lost, and +trying to guess how far into the jungle we would have to travel to +rescue them. + +Never had I heard such distress as that weeping and wailing and +heartbreaking sobbing. + +I pictured some helpless women there, perhaps being attacked by wild +animals. Even if they were Indian women, still they were humans, I +thought-- + +"Black night monkey," said Jimmy. + +I looked at Lewis. He smiled and nodded. + +For a moment I could scarcely believe that such human crying could +come from animals. + +"They always cry all night," Lewis told me. "Very annoying at first. +You'll get used to it. Just remember that they are ugly black monkeys, +that they like to make that noise, that they are not really crying any +more than a dog is crying when he barks, and now go to sleep." + +No one else seemed to mind it. But I must admit that it kept me awake +a long while. I couldn't force myself to think that it was a natural +noise made by an animal. I couldn't believe anything could make such a +noise unless it was actual crying caused by grief or suffering. +Finally I fell asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +_ARRIVAL AT THE DIAMOND FIELDS_ + + +Next morning the sun was shining brightly. The Indians were coming in +from a hunting trip with game. + +Our blacks had finished their tea and crackers, the shelters were +coming down and soon we would be on the way up the river. + +"We ought to make the big bend by to-morrow," said Captain Peters. + +Those were thrilling words to me, for up just around the big bend in +the Mazaruni River, which I have already described, lay our diamond +fields, and while every inch of the seventeen days' boat trip up this +mad, wild river, among the primitive Indians, had been one of interest +and adventure for me, after all, I was out for diamonds and naturally +eager to get to the fields and try my luck at digging up the +sparklers. Of course I did not expect to pick them up off the ground. +"Dud" Lewis had told me of the process and I had read up on diamond +mining before starting, yet I had high hopes of finding wealth there +in the gravel of the old river bed. Mountains could be seen in the +distance rising like temples above the low land. + +Nothing startling occurred that day. I believe I saw more birds than +usual, and the banks became less marshy. The jungle seemed to be +slightly changing into a trifle higher and drier forest land. It was +still thick, almost impenetrable, yet a bit different. + +On the seventeenth day we came to a small portage. We could not paddle +over it, yet it was not necessary to remove all of our five tons of +supplies. Lightening our cargo about one half, the men jumped out, +fastened the ropes astern and the single rope to the bow for the last +time on our upriver trip and hauled away with a will. + +Soon we were over, goods repacked and the blacks paddling in still, +smooth water, but more vigorously than usual as they, too, were glad +to be at the end of their hard journey. Seventeen days of paddling a +fifty-foot boat made of great planks and laden with five tons of +goods, hauling it over portages, is not exactly a picnic, and the men +certainly earned their forty-eight cents a day. And so they thumped +and scraped their much-worn paddles along the gunwales of that old +boat, worn smooth with constant paddling, and they sang their +everlasting paddle song with more cheerfulness than they had done for +days. + +Finally Captain Peter spoke something to the bowman while he swung his +steering paddle over, and our craft put in shore. We nosed about and +found just the site we needed, and proceeded to unload everything, +this time to set up our mining camp. + +A temporary shelter went up to store the goods under, with low hanging +eaves to keep out the rain. We had now got into a country where there +were no more haphazard rains. We could almost set our watches by the +rains, which came regularly every morning about daybreak, for a half +hour or more, and again every night right after sunset, for a little +while. Although these twice-a-day rains were of short duration the +water certainly came down in bucketfuls while it was raining. + +A rack of poles kept our goods from the ground so that the rain could +run underneath. Our shelters went up for that night, and eagerly I +began to study the gravel formation, really not expecting to see any +diamonds, but anxious to study the soil and somehow all the time +wondering if, by chance, I might not see a diamond in the dirt. Every +sparkling bit of rock I picked up. Lewis laughed good-naturedly at +this, but he was quite as eager as I to get at the business for which +we had the long, tiresome and really costly trip. + +We had journeyed 300 miles up the river. At this point the Mazaruni +had once flowed over the dry land where our camp was located. Some +convulsion of nature, probably of volcanic origin, had changed the +course of the river, and it was in this dry and ancient river bed that +we hoped to find a fortune. + +For tools we had brought along only the simplest kind, good old picks +and shovels, and a hand pump. We had plenty of material with us for +making the mining apparatus, crude but necessary, but there was a +great deal to be done and we decided to get well settled and start in +right. + +First we had to have a permanent home, a "logie," which is much like +a bungalow, only more open and quite high and dry. Then we had to make +good shelters for our three groups of blacks, and also for what +Indians we would find it necessary to hire. + +We also had to set up our mine, arrange with Indians to hunt a steady +supply of food, make a permanent cooking place and get as comfortable +as possible so that we could go ahead with our diamond mining without +interruption. + +Two beautiful white egrets sailed up the river and, without fear of us +at all, proceeded to make a nesting place close to our camp site. I +considered this to be a good omen. The wonderful crest feathers on +their heads would have brought several hundred dollars in the days +before wise lawmakers at home forbade bringing such feathers into the +country. + +"How about tigers?" I asked of Captain Peter. + +There had been frequent talk of them. It is true that there is a +species of large and ferocious jaguar that haunts the wilds of British +Guiana and I hoped to bag at least one and take the skin home as a +trophy. Captain Peter smiled. + +"As scarce as hens' teeth," he said. + +I wondered where he got that expression. Perhaps they use it all over +the world. I know that we use it at home in all parts of the country, +yet it surprised me to hear this Dutchman, who for twenty years had +navigated the wild waters of the old Mazaruni, say it. + +It was a disappointment to hear him declare that tigers were scarce. I +had visions of stalking one and proudly bringing his carcass into +camp. + +I got a tiger skin all right before I left the country, but there is +no glamor of adventure about it. I cannot exhibit it at home and spin +yarns of stalking the ferocious jungle beast, for it was an old skin +and I bought it from an Indian for five dollars' worth of trade +articles. + +The Indians get a tiger now and then, but will not journey far afield +just to bag them as they are not fit to eat and are extremely +dangerous beasts to face, even for the skilled natives. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +_HOW THE NATIVES HUNT AND FISH_ + + +For four long, busy months, we were to delve into that pebbly soil, +and during that time I would also learn much of hunting and fishing +that was strange indeed. I was especially interested in the manner in +which the Indians get fish by poisoning them. Of course that seems +very unsportsmanlike to us at home, but remember that these natives do +not hunt and fish for the _sport_ of it, but to _live_. And then, bear +in mind that while we have telescope steel rods and artificial bait +and ball bearing automatic reels and oiled silk lines and transparent +gut leaders, floats, spoons, spinners, rubber minnows, hundreds of +artificial flies, nets for landing the fish, gaffs, and every sort of +fishing tackle, these Indians have not even common hooks and sinkers. +Spears and harpoon arrows are their only means of fishing, aside +from poison. Consequently one should not say that they were +unsportsmanlike, although I felt that way about it at first. Thinking +it over I decided differently. + +They have several means of catching fish by poison and I must say that +it is a far better way than that of some of the game hogs in this +country who dynamite lakes and rivers for fish, killing far more than +they can get, while with the poison the fish not taken soon recover +and are as lively as ever. + +Our Indians paddled into a small inlet of the river one day where +there is quite a deep pool that back-waters in. Hauling the canoe out +on land they proceeded to fill it with haiarry vines and water. With +heavy sticks they crushed these vines. As I looked on with interest, +one Indian pointed to the liquid and said, "Kill um," meaning that it +was poison. + +After the vines were well crushed they tipped the contents of the +canoe into the pool and within five minutes a great quantity of fish +arose and floated on the surface. They collected the largest and best +of these for food and as soon as the poison in the pool had thinned +out the other fish recovered and were as well as ever. I was afraid +that the poison would render the fish unfit for food but found that +it did not affect them at all in that manner. It certainly was an easy +way to catch fish and for a party as large as ours, the twenty blacks +and the group of Indian hunters, it took a lot of fish and game to +feed us. + +Probably the most interesting method of catching fish as practiced by +these clever Indians was by means of poisoned grasshoppers. They made +a paste of the leaves of the quanamia, a strong narcotic plant. +Catching large grasshoppers they filled the stomachs of these insects +with the paste and tossed them into the water. The fish would leap up +and swallow the grasshoppers, only soon after to turn, belly up, and +float on the surface where they were picked up. + +Here we found the game more abundant than ever, which was natural as +we were far out of the haunts of blacks and Dutch, except for the few +"pork knockers," or tramp diamond miners, and there were probably no +more than a score all up and down the fields. + +Several kinds of animals were shot, but the favorite food was deer and +labbas. The tapirs are like great hogs and their meat is rather tough +though nourishing. The labbas also belong to the hog family but are +about as big as jack rabbits. Small game birds were also plentiful. +The maams were the best game birds, about the size of a very small +turkey and much like them. The white people call them bush turkeys but +scientists say that they do not properly belong to the turkey family. +We didn't care what family they belonged to, we found the meat +delicious. + +I do not mean that the game was so plentiful that it came down to us +and begged to be shot. But our Indian hunters seldom went out without +bringing back some meat. It was a cheerful sight to see three or four +hunters come marching in, each with a part of a great tapir or deer +slung over his back. We were sure of "fresh pork," as we called it, +for days. + +One of our Indians had hunted steadily for three days without any +success and he was getting decidedly sore about it. He had not seen an +animal in any of his wanderings. When he returned empty handed on the +third day I tried to cheer him. + +"How come, buck man?" + +[Illustration: USUALLY OUR HUNTERS WERE SUCCESSFUL] + +"No thing," he grunted. + +"Too much sit down," I said. + +"No sit down!" he protested. "Wakwakwak (walk), all tam wak. Me no +see. How can shoot um me no see?" + +There was no argument there. If he saw nothing he certainly could bag +no game. But this Indian was superstitious, as all are. He got an idea +that there was black magic in my camera, and it bothered him. + +"Too much humbug," he said, pointing to my camera which I happened to +have with me. "You tak picture all tam, put um picture on paper and +sho all mans. Deer know this and be bexed (vexed) see um picture on +paper. Run away. How go for catch if no see?" + +This was a lengthy outburst for an Indian. He had reference to my +taking his picture as he came into camp with various kinds of game +over his shoulders. He believed that the dead game knew its picture +was taken and that its spirit warned the living game to keep away +because the picture taking was an insult. He did not reason that the +game would be warned to keep away from him to save its life, but only +to escape the insult of having its picture taken. Hence his argument +that the game was "bexed" and kept out of sight. + +"No get um. Must catch beena," he said, earnestly. A "beena" is some +sort of a rite or charm that the hunters go through in order to give +them good fortune or luck or whatever it is they most desire. There is +a different sort of beena for each thing. I gave him a half day +holiday to "catch beena." Being especially anxious to bag deer he was +going to "catch deer beena." The sly fellow had hidden away somewhere, +just for this emergency, the nose of a deer. + +Beena may bring good luck but I would not care for good luck earned in +that manner. This chap heated the nose of the deer on a shovel over +coals until it fairly sizzled. Then he cut slashes, not deep, but +enough to draw blood, on his chest, arms and legs and rubbed that hot, +greasy nose into the cuts. He believed that the fat thus entering his +body or blood would enable him to get all the deer he wished, as it +would give him power over them. + +That afternoon he went out, and, sure enough, he returned with a +big deer. I did not dare photograph it for fear the Indian would +become frightened or discouraged, and leave. No power on earth could +persuade him that it was due to any other reason than his beena that +he got the deer. + +[Illustration: THE TOUCAN MAKES AN INTERESTING PET] + +As I explained, I took many pictures but lost the greater part of them +through attempting to develop the films in the hot climate. Birds of +unusual variety, to me, were photographed in plenty. The toucans were +interesting birds. They would come quite close to us, and I managed to +get a snapshot of one not more than ten feet away, just as he was +apparently sharpening his gigantic beak on the shore gravel. + +I found the Indians to be not only interesting but very likable chaps. +I formed a strong friendship and they likewise became very friendly +with me. I learned much of their language, had them at our logie for +guests on a great many occasions and, after a manner, got so that I +could talk well with them and learn much of their lives, their +ambitions, their joys and sorrows. Their language is called +"Akowoia." + +The taste of the Indians in food I could never learn, such as their +terrible drinks, the smoked intestines and the eyes of animals which +they cook as a great delicacy. Nor am I at all fond of their pastry. +It is simply a dough made of flour, salt and soda mixed with river +water and fried in much grease in a frying pan. But their cooked fresh +fish, their boiled tapir and other game meats are always good, clean +and appetizing. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +_PICKING UP JUNGLE LORE_ + + +The upper part of the Mazaruni River is no place for a white man to +take up a permanent abode. Only once in a great while has a white man +been known to live more than a year in that climate. I have heard of +one or two who lived there for several years, but they finally died. +It is a strange thing the lure of fortune. Such men know full well +that no white man can escape death if he stays there for much more +than six months. Yet each individual seems to feel that he will manage +in some way to escape the dread and deadly jungle fever. He is having +good luck getting diamonds, he stays on and on for "just a few more, +just a few more," so that he may go back wealthy, and then comes the +fever and either death or a quick get-away. I could not then foresee +the danger that faced me and was to bring a sudden end to my own +adventures in the wilds. + +Most white men have to use quinine continually. Dud. Lewis took +quantities of it every day. He took so much that it made him +temporarily deaf. I was afraid to take too much of it as I didn't care +to become deaf nor did I want the headaches that it frequently caused. +Of course I took some from time to time, but in small quantities. + +One great trouble was our lack of fresh water. We had only the river +water and it was dangerous to drink that without purifying it. The +Indians and even the blacks seemed to get along well enough on it and +would drink right out of the river. + +We had "steel drops" with us, a highly concentrated form of iron. One +drop in a gallon of water was sufficient to remove the danger of +disease from drinking the water. We also used bits of rusty iron. By +keeping these in the water it was fairly safe, but it was always +muddy. And it was always warm. I learned to get used to it. We used to +keep it in jars and pails with a wet cloth over it in order to cool +it. + +[Illustration: ABRAHAM, FELLING A WOODSKIN TREE] + +While there were a few poisonous snakes about, they seemed no more +plentiful than are the rattlesnakes, copperheads and moccasins in +certain parts of the United States, and we had no trouble with them. I +never saw any of the big boa constrictors or other snakes, that I had +been told about, but presume there were plenty of them in the deep +marshlands if one cared to hunt the reptiles. + +Frequently I had seen Indians gliding about the river in the most +peculiar and frail looking craft I had ever beheld. + +"Make um woodskin," the Indians told me. + +I examined one and it was nothing more than the bark of a tree. Not at +all like the birch bark used by our Indians, nor like rough elm bark, +but more like the tough, smooth bark of the basswood or ironwood trees +at home. + +One time I was fortunate enough to see and photograph the whole +process of woodskin canoe making. I went with the Indians back +somewhat from the water to where they had located a giant woodskin +tree. These trees start at the base with mammoth trunks, which taper +up for fifteen feet or more before they continue as a straight and +rather symmetrical trunk. The bark of the tapering part is useless in +canoe making and so the Indians build a frail platform or foot rest of +poles that will enable them to reach the straight, even part of the +trunk with an axe. Standing there they soon have the tree felled. But +before it falls they build a supporting frame so that it will not lie +on the ground, because if this heavy tree were resting its weight on +the ground it would be impossible to remove the bark. + +When the tree is down and resting on the frames upon which it fell, +the Indians arrange poles that will enable them to stand and reach one +side. They cut the bark clear around the tree at the length which they +wish for the canoe, then they slit the bark in an even line between +the two cuts and gradually pry it off, putting in braces until it is +wedged open sufficiently to slip off the trunk. + +Two braces are then fitted into this, and it is left to dry; as the +drying takes place the ends are drawn up a little. That is all there +is to it. The canoe is ready for ordinary smooth water traveling, +once it is dry, for in the shrinking the braces are so wedged in that +they will never pull out. For smooth water paddling the canoe is left +with both ends open. But for rough water, in currents and rapids, it +is necessary to stop up each end with a sort of vegetable wax drawn +from trees much as we get pitch from pine. This wax hardens and thus +closes the ends. + +[Illustration: PREPARING WOODSKIN BARK FOR CANOE] + +[Illustration: FINISHED WOODSKIN CANOE WITH ENDS OPEN] + +There were many things to learn before we were quite comfortable. We +had learned how to keep our food, how to have the Indians hunt and cut +wood for us, which was all the work they did. For this they were paid +the equivalent of $10 a month each, and clothing and lodging. They +wouldn't mine--at least there are few Indians who will mine. They +would rather have an old red flannel shirt than a peck of diamonds. + +We learned about keeping iron in the drinking water and we put tin +grease cups on all of the supporting poles of our logie, and of all +buildings and shelters, to keep out the stinging ants and other +insects. + +These insects were decidedly troublesome and we had to keep constant +watch of ourselves to prevent serious trouble with them. There is an +especially large mosquito which not only stings fearfully but deposits +larvae beneath the skin. It is almost impossible to notice this at the +time but it soon becomes a live worm in there, and then a great sore +breaks out, caused by the bug so that he can crawl out and grow into a +mosquito and sting someone else, and start another bug, and so on. + +Worse than this were the "nail beetles." These chaps bore beneath the +finger nails and toe nails. They do this boring so cleverly that +frequently one does not feel it at all. They, too, deposit larvae, and +the result is extremely dangerous as great sores come up beneath the +nails and one is likely to lose not only the nail, but the finger or +toe from blood poisoning, if even worse effects from the poisoning do +not set in. + +We used a ten per cent solution of carbolic acid as a preventive. +Constant watchfulness was the price of freedom from becoming nesting +places for 'skeeters and bugs. + +If we had food in kettles we had to set the legs in cups of oil to +keep out the bugs. + +Not far from where our mine is located is the property of the late +Major John Purroy Mitchel, former mayor of New York City and later an +aviator, who was killed while in training at a Southern aviation +field. He knew this country well and had had many adventures down +through here where he had considerable success in mining diamonds. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +_THE FIRST DIAMOND!_ + + +Of course, once landed at the site of our diamond mine, we had to have +a comfortable, permanent home. A "logie" it is called here, doubtless +a corruption of the Italian "loggia" which has as its equivalent in +English the word "lodge." Strictly speaking, a logie is a building +that is partly open at the sides and consists of more veranda than +closed in room. Ours we had built so that it could be closed in, but +except in driving rains the sides were always open. We could screen +them to keep out mosquitoes and keep quite comfortable. + +We selected a site that was a little back from the river, out of the +dampness, on a high and dry sloping hillside. We made a little +clearing, but with the forest all about three sides to protect us from +high winds. Instead of driving foundation posts we cut the trees +and used the stumps where possible. This slope left a sort of +basement where we could store such things as rain might injure but +insects could not. + +[Illustration: OUR JUNGLE HOME] + +We did not trust to palms and reeds for roofing but brought tarred +roofing paper with us. This was much better, storm-proof, and helped +keep insects away as they are never fond of tar. Facing the river we +had a wide veranda. Inside we made good but crude tables and chairs, a +desk, and strong supports for our hammocks. The rear end was but a +step from the ground, but the front end was some fifteen feet up. It +made us a snug and comfortable home for the more than four months we +were digging into the gravel of the river banks for "shiners." + +Meanwhile we got busy with our mining. Jimmy acted as our cook and +personal servant. The captain was an expert in this river life, the +Indians were chopping wood and bringing in game and fish, the blacks +were busy now getting the mine started and later in digging, so that +we were a very busy and quite contented colony. + +Diamond mining on the Mazaruni is not unlike gold dust mining. The +diamonds, like the gold, being the heaviest substance in the gravel, +naturally settle down to the bottom when a sieve is twisted about so +as to make the water move around and around. The centrifugal force +sends the heavy material to the bottom. + +We started in with pick and shovel. Later we built a "Long Tom," which +is a wooden trough through which water runs, there being several +compartments and cleats. The gravel is put in at the upper end and +carried down by the rush of water. The gravel, being lighter, is +carried on down and off, the diamonds are mixed in with tin ore, +pulsite and ordinary quartz, all of these being heavy. + +Finally the residue, after the gravel is washed out, is put in a sieve +and either "jigged" by hand or by means of wire supports, over a box +of water. + +The soil was made up of loose gravel and also of conglomerate, not +quite solid, yet not loose like gravel, and much muscle with the picks +was needed to loosen the stuff. + +Once our sieves were ready we could scarcely wait to get busy. Gravel +was shoveled into the first sieve and one of the blacks, an expert +"jigger," took it up and started the peculiar circular motion. + +"Lucky baby," he said. The men who do this work are called "jiggers" +and they call the sieves "baby." + +We watched his every move. Around and around the sieve went. He +paused. We stretched our necks to see but he merely scooped off the +lighter top gravel that his circular motion had forced up, then +continued. + +Over and over he repeated this, for about an hour, continually washing +it, the water dripping through the fine mesh of the sieve. Then it was +ready. With a final "swish" of the sieve and another washing, with the +last handful of gravel brushed off, the contents, just a few handfuls +of material, were dumped on a crude table and spread out with a sweep +of the hand. + +"Here's one!" + +It looked bright enough, but Lewis, who had been prospecting there and +had seen them mine diamonds, had learned the difference between the +dull sparkle of ordinary quartz and the brilliant sheen of diamonds; +he took up the particle, pressed it between two knife blades and +crushed it. + +"Everything here except diamonds can be crushed by that sort of +pressure," he said. + +"Here's one!" I picked it out. It would not crush. + +"Yes. That's a diamond. About half a carat," said Lewis. + +I have that tiny glittering pebble now and hope to always keep it. The +first diamond from our mine! We found a few more in that lot, none +very large, but all of them of value. None are too small, in fact, to +be of some value. We find them in various colors, pure white, which is +the average sort; brilliant blue white, the most valuable and rare; +pink or rose, also quite valuable; and yellow, not so valuable. Also a +few green and black. Most of the stones we get down there are too +small for jewelry, and are used in commerce. Drills are made of them +and machinery for boring, and for probably a hundred different uses in +manufacture. + +[Illustration: AN INTERIOR VIEW OF OUR "LOGIE"] + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +_HOW THE PRECIOUS STONES ARE FOUND_ + + +Then we settled down to steady mining. We built a shed for our tools, +and we got the hand pump out, we prepared sieves for jigging and we +made "Long Toms" and swinging sieves, washing troughs and all the +necessary apparatus. + +If you had happened to come across our outfit it would have seemed +very crude to you. Rough washing boxes, rough troughs through which we +turned water, shapeless holes in the ground partly filled with water, +great heaps of worthless gravel, the dismal sucking sound of the old +hand pump, and a clutter of boards, pans, shovels, and picks. + +Yet we had one of the few good mines down there. The "pork knockers" +have no mines; they journey from place to place up and down the river +with pick and shovel and sieve, with a small quantity of food on their +backs, and make shelter wherever they happen to be. They generally +borrow money for the outfit, river traders bring up food and gin--I am +sorry to say that it is generally more gin than food--and these pork +knockers, niggers for the most part, exchange their few diamonds for +the strong drink and food and keep on. They generally come out at the +end of the dry season with enough, or about enough, to square their +debts and leave a little over to live on until next season when they +borrow again and once more set out. + +They have to give a certain percentage of their diamonds to the +British Government for the privilege of mining. We had to pay $25 for +every 250 carats, which was not excessive at all, when you figure that +250 carats of diamond are worth around $2,000 these days. + +We sunk a shaft sixty feet, which was remarkable in that locality as +the gravel is loose and washes in with rains. We propped it up with +planks but had to keep constant watch of it. Finally water seeped +through faster than our hand pump could get it out. + +[Illustration: A LONG TOM DIAMOND WASHER] + +[Illustration: JIGGERS SEPARATING DIAMONDS FROM GRAVEL] + +Some of the jiggers are so expert that, impossible as it seems, they +can jig a baby--to use their own expression--so that the diamonds, +heavy as they are, will actually come to the top. They then pick off +the biggest ones and then go on jigging as usual. But they do not get +away with many. A close watch is kept on the jiggers and if they are +caught stealing they are fined a month's pay or more. We had some +trouble but not much. These men are bound out to us by the British +Government and must work. If they run away they are outcasts and +cannot get more work to do. On the other hand we must feed them +according to the law and work them only so many hours. + +One day we were watching the results of a jigging from the "Long Tom" +and suddenly there sparkled before us a large, brilliant stone. + +It weighed more than seven carats! + +This was the largest stone we found. But all together we cleaned up, +in only a few months of actual mining, more than $20,000 worth of +diamonds! + +Rough diamonds are mostly of odd shapes. Seldom do you find them in +the almost perfect form that we find quartz crystals. Once in a while +I have picked out a small diamond that looked as though it had come +directly from a skilled lapidary, so perfect in form it seemed to be. + +The largest diamond known to have been found in these fields weighed +fourteen carats. A pork knocker named "London" found it. He was a +giant of a black man, noted for his lawlessness, and greatly feared. +He was working for another man at the time and, strange to say, he +turned it over. The reason was that he knew he could not sell so large +a gem without being caught. + +There is also much gold in that region, but we did not go after it. +Having come for diamonds, and finding them in paying quantities, we +stuck to it. + +Day after day Lewis took his eight or ten grains of quinine. Day after +day I seemed to get along without it and I feared to take too much. +The mosquitoes were there in plenty, the sort whose sting gives one +the jungle fever, so deadly to white men, just as, at home, they cause +malarial fevers. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +_GOOD-BYE TO THE JUNGLE_ + + +I was in excellent health. There seemed no danger at all and I +believed that I could stay there three or four months longer. It is a +great game, full of fascination. You get a few diamonds to-day. Next +day less, next day more, next day scarcely any, next day a big one, +and so on. Always it is "To-morrow we may get a ten carat stone," or +"To-morrow we may pull a fistful out of one 'baby,'" and so the +temptation is great to stay on and on. At the rate that we were +gathering in diamonds it seemed that we ought to pile up about $50,000 +in six months. But after we had been actually mining more than four +months I was returning from a hunting trip. I had a great burden of +deer meat on my back. I walked through bogs where it was almost +impossible to pull my feet out of the mud. I was hungry and extremely +tired. + +Now that is just when the white man succumbs to the bite of the +mosquito down there. One nailed me on the back of the hand but I +thought nothing of it. + +But next morning I hated to get up. I had no strength. I became worse +during the day and for several days lay in a sort of semi-stupor, weak +and listless. + +"Very bad," said Captain Peter; "get him back before he dies!" + +Poor Lewis broke camp in record time. They bundled me into the boat +and I was conscious only a small part of the time. + +Going downriver is far different from coming up. They made the trip to +Georgetown in a few days and when they got me to the hospital the +doctors looked me over and demanded a deposit of $85. + +"Why?" demanded Lewis, quite indignant. + +"To cover funeral expenses. He can't live," they said. + +But I fooled them and recovered rapidly. + +Lewis and I still own that mine. We came out with a good little pot of +money, clean profit. The war took all of the time of both of us--but +now that it's over we are planning to go back there some day. + +With our experience we feel sure that we can make much money, both in +gold and diamond mining. We shall take back better equipment, power +pumps, and everything this experience taught us we should have. + +My adventure was satisfactory in every way. I wish I could have stuck +it out six months longer. But I think the best plan would be for white +men to set up their mines and work them about five months, go back +home for seven months, work them another five months, and so on, thus +avoiding the great dangers. + +I am looking forward to the day when I can get back there, meet my +Indian friends, go tapir and labba hunting with them and, above all, +enjoy the wonderful thrill that comes when you spread out the residue +of a jigging and pick out, here and there, a sparkling diamond! + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43051 *** |