A.B.BROOKE.
O !PT.
See Page 253.
WANDERINGS
IN
SOUTH AMEEICA,
THE
NORTH-WEST OF THE UNITED STATES,
AND THE ANTILLES, IN THE YEARS 1812, 1S16, 1820, & 1824,
ORIGINAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PERFECT PRESERVATION OF BIRDS, &c.
FOR
CABINETS OF NATURAL HISTORY.
BY CHAELES WATEETOX, ESQ.
SIXTH EDITION.
T. FELLOWES, LUDGATE HILL*
1866.
LONDON :
R CiAY, SON, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, BREAD STREET HILL.
PKEFACE TO THE FIEST EDITION.
I OFFER this book of "Wanderings" with a hesitating hand. It has little merit, and must make its way through the world as well as it can. It will receive many a jostle as it goes along, and perhaps is destined to add pne more to the number of slain, in the field of modern criticism. But if it fall, it may still, in death, be useful to me ; for, should some accidental rover take it up, and, in turning over its pages, imbibe the idea of going out to explore Guiana, in order to give the world an enlarged description of that noble coun- try, I shall say, "fortem ad fortia misi," and demand the armour ; that is, I shall lay claim to a certain portion of the honours he will receive, upon the plea that I was the first mover of his
VI PREFACE.
discoveries ; for, as Ulysses sent Achilles to Troy, so I sent him to Guiana. I intended to have written much more at length; but days, and months, and years have passed away, and nothing has been done. Thinking it very probable that I shall never have patience enough to sit down and write a full account of all I saw and examined in those remote wilds, I give up the intention of doing so, and send forth this account of my " Wanderings," just as it was written at the time.
If critics are displeased with it in its present form, I beg to observe, that it is not totally devoid of interest, and that it contains something useful. Several of the unfortunate gentlemen who went out to explore the Congo, were thankful for the instructions they found in it ; and Sir Joseph Banks, on sending back the journal, said in his letter, " I return your journal, with abundant thanks for the very instructive lesson you have favoured us with this morning, which far excelled, in real utility, everything I have hitherto seen." And in another letter he says, " I hear with particular pleasure your intention of resuming
PREFACE. Vll
your interesting travels, to which natural history- has already been so much indebted." And again, " I am sorry you did not deposit some part of your last harvest of birds in the British Museum, that your name might become familiar to natu- ralists, and your unrivalled skill in preserving birds be made known to the public." And again, " You certainly have talents to set forth a book, which will improve and extend materially the
*
bounds of natural science."
Sir Joseph never read the third adventure. Whilst I was engaged in it, death robbed England of one of her most valuable subjects, and deprived the Eoyal Society of its brightest ornament.
SOUTH AMERICA.
FIRST JOURNEY.
-"nec herba, nee latens in asperis
Eadix fefellit me locis."
IN the month of April, 1812, I left the town of Stabroek, to travel through the wilds of Demerara and Essequibo, a part of ci-devant Dutch Guiana, in South America.
The chief objects in view were to collect a quantity of the strongest "Wourali poison, and to reach the inland frontier fort of Portuguese Guiana.
It would be a tedious journey for him who wishes to travel through these wilds, to set out from Stabroek on foot. The sun would exhaust him in his attempts to wade through the swamps, and the mosquitos at night would deprive him of every hour of sleep.
The road for horses runs ^parallel to the river ; but it extends a very little way, and even ends before the cultivation of the plantation ceases.
The only mode, then, that remains is to proceed by water ; and when you come to the high lands, you may make your way through the forest on foot, or continue your route on the river. B
2 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
After passing the third island in the river Demerara, Face of the there are few plantations to he seen, and those not joining on to one another, but separated by large tracts of wood.
The Loo is the last where the sugar-cane is growing. The greater part of its negroes have just been ordered to another estate ; and ere a few months shall have elapsed, all signs of cultivation will be lost in underwood.
Higher up stand the sugar works of Amelia's Waard, solitary and abandoned ; and after passing these there is not a ruin 'to inform the traveller that either coffee or sugar has been cultivated.
From Amelia's Waard, an unbroken range of forest covers each bank of the river, saving here and there where a hut discovers itself, inhabited by free people of colour, with a rood or two of bared ground about it ; or where the wood-cutter has erected himself a dwelling, and cleared a few acres for pasturage. Sometimes you see level ground on each side of you, for two or three hours at a stretch ; at other times, a gently sloping hill presents itself; and often, on turning a point, the eye is pleased with the contrast of an almost perpendicular height jutting into the water. The trees put you in mind of an eternal spring, with summer and autumn kindly blended into it.
Here you may see a sloping extent of noble trees, whose foliage displays a charming variety of every shade, from the lightest to the darkest green and purple. The tops of some are crowned with bloom of the loveliest hue, while the boughs of others bend with a profusion of seeds and fruits.
Those whose heads have been bared by time, or blasted by the thunder-storm, strike the eye as a
FIRST JOURNEY. 6
mournful sound does the ear in music, and seem to beckon to the sentimental traveller to stop a moment or two, and see that the forests which surround him, like men and kingdoms, have their periods of mis- fortune and decay.
The first rocks of any considerable size that are observed on the side of the river, are at a
Rocks.
place called Saba, from the Indian word, which means a stone. They appear sloping down to the water's edge, not shelvy, but smooth, and their exuberances rounded off, and in some places deeply furrowed, as though they had been worn with continual floods of water.
There are patches of soil up and down, and the huge stones amongst them produce a pleasing and novel effect. You see a few coffee -trees of a fine luxuriant
growth : and nearly on the top of Saba
Residence , , , •,-,-, -n- •
of the post- stands the house of the postnolder. He is appointed by Government to give in his report to the protector of the Indians, of what is going on amongst them, and to prevent suspicious people from passing up the river.
When the Indians assemble here, the stranger may have an opportunity of seeing the Aborigines, dancing to the sound of their country music, and painted in their native style. They will shoot their arrows for him with an unerring aim, and send the poisoned dart from the blow-pipe, true to its destination ; and here he may often view all the different shades, from the red savage to the white man, and from the white man to the sootiest son of Africa.
Beyond this post there are no more habitations of white men, or free people of colour.
B2
4 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
In a country so extensively covered with wood as
Trees this is, having every advantage that a tro- pical sun, and the richest mould in many places, can give to vegetation, it is natural to look for trees of very large dimensions ; but it is rare to meet with them above six yards in circumference. If larger have ever existed, they have fallen a sacrifice either to the axe or to fire.
If, however, they disappoint you in size, they make ample amends in height. Heedless, and bankrupt in all curiosity, must he be, who can journey on without stopping to take a view of the towering niora. Its topmost branch, when naked with age, or dried by accident, is the favourite resort of the toucan. Many a time has this singular bird felt the shot faintly strike him, from the gun of the fowler beneath, and owed his life to the distance betwixt them.
The trees which form these far-extending wilds are as useful as they are ornamental. It would take a volume of itself to describe them.
The green-heart, famous for its hardness and dura- bility; the hackea, for its toughness; the ducalabali, surpassing mahogany ; the ebony and letter-wood, vieing with the choicest woods of the old world ; the locust- tree, yielding copal; and the hayawa and olou trees, furnishing a sweet-smelling resin, — are all to be met with in the forest, betwixt the plantations and the rock Saba.
Beyond this rock, the country has been little ex- plored ; but it is very probable that these, and a vast collection of other kinds, and possibly many new species, are scattered up and down, in all directions, through the swamps, and hills, and savannas of ci-devant Dutch Guiana.
FIRST JOURNEY. 5
On viewing the stately trees around him, the natu- ralist will observe many of them bearing leaves, and blossoms, and fruit not their own.
The wild fig-tree, as large as a common English The wild apple-tree, often rears itself from one of the thick branches at the top of the mora ; and when its fruit is ripe, to it the birds resort for nourish- ment. It was to an undigested seed, passing through the body of the bird which had perched on the mora, that the fig-tree first owed its elevated station there. The sap of the mora raised it into full bearing ; but now, in its turn, it is doomed to contribute a portion of its own sap and juices towards the growth of different species of vines, the seeds of which, also, the birds deposited on its branches. These soon vegetate, and bear fruit in great quantities ; so, what with their usurpation of the resources of the fig-tree, and the fig- tree of the mora, the mora, unable to support a charge which nature never intended it should, languishes and dies under its burden ; and then the fig-tree, and its usurping progeny of vines, receiving no more succour from their late foster-parent, droop and perish in their turn.
A vine called the bush-rope by the wood-cutters,
The bush- on account of its use in hauling out the
heaviest timber, has a singular appearance
in the forests of Demerara. Sometimes you see it nearly
as thick as a man's body, twisted like a corkscrew round
the tallest trees, and rearing its head high above their
tops. At other times, three or four of them, like strands
in a cable, join tree and tree, and branch and branch
together. Others, descending from on high, take root as
soon as their extremity touches the ground, and appear
6 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
like shrouds and stays supporting the mainmast of a line-of-battle ship ; while others, sending out parallel, oblique, horizontal, and perpendicular shoots in all directions, put you in mind of what travellers call a matted forest. Oftentimes a tree, above a hundred feet high, uprooted by the whirlwind, is stopped in its fall by these amazing cables of nature ; and hence it is that you account for the phenomenon of seeing trees, not only vegetating, but sending forth vigorous shoots, though far from their perpendicular, and their trunks inclined to every degree from the meridian to the horizon.
Their heads remain firmly supported by the bush- rope ; many of their roots soon refix themselves in the earth, and frequently a strong shoot will sprout out per- pendicularly from near the root of the reclined trunk, and in time become a fine tree. No grass grows under the trees, and few weeds, except in the swamps.
The high grounds are pretty clear of underwood, and, with a cutlass to sever the small bush-ropes, it is not difficult walking among the trees.
The soil, chiefly formed by the fallen leaves and
decayed trees, is very rich and fertile in the
, valleys. On the hills, it is little better than
sand. The rains seem to have carried away, and swept
into the valleys, every particle which nature intended
to have formed a mould.
Four-footed Four-footed animals are scarce, consider- ing how very thinly these forests are in- habited by men.
Several species of the animal commonly called tiger, though, in reality, it approaches nearer to the leopard, are found here ; and two of their diminutives, named
FIRST JOURNEY. 7
tiger-cats. The tapir, the lobba, and deer afford excel- lent food, and chiefly frequent the swamps and low ground, near the sides of the river and creeks.
In stating that four-footed animals are scarce, the peccari must be excepted. Three or four hundred of them herd together, and traverse the wilds in all directions, in quest of roots and fallen seeds. The Indians mostly shoot them with poisoned arrows. When wounded, they run about one hundred and fifty paces ; they then drop, and make wholesome food.
The red monkey, erroneously called the baboon, is heard oftener than it is seen ; while the common brown monkey, the bisa, and sacawinki rove from tree to tree, and amuse the stranger as he journeys on.
A species of the polecat, and another of the fox, are destructive to the Indian's poultry ; while the opossum, the guana, and salempenta afford him a delicious morsel.
The small ant-bear, and the large one, remarkable for its long, broad, bushy tail, are sometimes seen on the tops of the wood-ants' nests ; the armadillas bore in the sand-hills, like rabbits in a warren ; and the porcupine is now and then discovered in the trees over your head.
This, too, is the native country of the sloth. His
looks, his gestures, and his cries, all conspire
to entreat you to take pity on him. These
are the only weapons of defence which nature hath
given him. While other animals assemble in herds, or
in pairs range through these boundless wilds, the sloth
is solitary, and almost stationary; he cannot escape
from you. It is said, his piteous moans make the tiger
relent, and turn out of the way. Do not, then, level
your gun at him, or pierce him with a poisoned arrow ;
8 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
he has never hurt one living creature. A few leaves, and those of the commonest and coarsest kind, are all he asks for his support. On comparing him with other animals, you would say that you could perceive defi- ciency, deformity, and superabundance in his com- position. He has no cutting teeth, and, though four stomachs, he still wants the long intestines of rumi- nating animals. He has only one inferior aperture, as in birds. He has no soles to his feet, nor has he the power of moving his toes separately. His hair is flat, and puts you in mind of grass withered by the wintry blast. His legs are too short; they appear deformed by the manner in which they are joined to the body ; and when he is on the ground, they seem as if only calculated to be of use in climbing trees. He has forty- six ribs, while the elephant has only forty; and his claws are disproportionably long. Were you to mark down, upon a graduated scale, the different claims to superiority amongst the four-footed animals, this poor ill-formed creature's claim would be the last upon . the lowest degree.
Demerara yields to no country in the world in her wonderful and beautiful productions of the feathered race. Here the finest precious stones are far surpassed by the vivid tints which adorn the birds. The naturalist may exclaim that nature has not known where to stop in forming new species, and painting her requisite shades. Almost every one of those singular and elegant birds described by Buffon as belonging to Cayenne, are to be met with in Demerara ; but it is only by an indefatigable naturalist that they are to be found.
The scarlet carew breeds in innumerable quantities
FIRST JOURNEY. 9
in the muddy islands on the coasts of Pomauron ; the egrets and crabiers in the same place. They resort to the mud-flats at ebbing water, while thousands of sand- pipers and plovers, with here and there a spoonbill and flamingo, are seen amongst them. The pelicans go farther out to sea, but return at sundown to the courada trees. The humming-birds are chiefly to be found near the flowers at which each of the species of the genus is wont to feed. The pie, the gallinaceous, the columbine, and passerine tribes, resort to the fruit-bearing trees. You never fail to see the common vulture where there is carrion. In passing up the river
The vulture. -L * • • ?
there was an opportunity 01 seeing a pair ot the king of the vultures ; they were sitting on the naked branch of a tree, with about a dozen of the common ones with them. A tiger had killed a goat the day before ; he had been -driven away in the act of sucking the blood, and not finding it safe or prudent to return, the goat remained in the same place where he had killed it ; it had begun to putrefy, and the vultures had arrived that morning to claim the savoury morsel.
At the close of day, the vampires leave the hollow trees, whither they had fled at the morning's
The vampire.
dawn, and scour along the river s banks in quest of prey. On waking from sleep, the astonished traveller finds his hammock all stained with blood. It is the vampire that hath sucked him. K"ot man alone, but every unprotected animal, is exposed to his depre- dations ; and so gently does this nocturnal surgeon draw the blood, that, instead of being roused, the patient is lulled into a still profounder sleep. There are two species of vampire in Demerara, and both suck living animals : one is rather larger than the common
10 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
bat ; tile other measures above two feet from wing to wing extended.
Snakes are frequently met with in the woods betwixt the sea-coast and the rock Saba, chiefly near
Snakes. .. ,
the creeks and on the banks ol the river. They are large, beautiful, and formidable. The rattle- snake seems partial to a tract of ground known by the name of Canal Number Tliree ; there the effects of his poison will be long remembered.
The Camoudi snake has been killed from thirty to forty feet long ; though not venomous, his size renders him. destructive to the passing animals. The Spaniards in the Oroonoque positively affirm that he grows to the length of seventy or eighty feet, and that he will destroy the strongest and largest bull. His name seems to confirm this ; there he is called " matatoro," which literally means " bull-killer." Thus he may be ranked amongst the deadly snakes ; for it comes nearly to the same thing in the end, whether the victim dies by poison from the fangs, which corrupts his blood and makes it stink horribly, or whether his body be crushed to mummy, and swallowed by this hideous beast.
The whipsnake of a beautiful changing green, and the coral with alternate broad transverse bars of black and red, glide from bush to bush, and may be handled with safety ; they are harmless little creatures.
The Labarri snake is speckled, of a dirty brown colour, and can scarcely be distinguished from the ground or stump on which he is coiled up ; he grows to the length of about eight feet, and his bite often proves fatal in a few minutes.
Unrivalled in his display of every lovely colour of the rainbow, and unmatched in the effects of his deadly
FIRST JOURNEY.
poison, the couuacouchi glides undaunted on, sole monarch of these forests ; he is commonly known by the name of the bush-master. Both man and beast fly before him, and allow him to pursue an undisputed path. He sometimes grows to the length of fourteen feet.
A few small caimen, from two to twelve feet long, may
be observed now and then in passing up and down the
river ; they just keep their heads above the water, and a
stranger would nat know them from a rotten stump.
Lizards of the finest green, brown, and copper colour,
from two inches to two feet and a half long,
are ever and anon rustling among the fallen
leaves, and crossing the path before you ; whilst the
chameleon is busily employed in chasing insects round
the trunks of the neighbouring trees.
The fish are of many different sorts, and well-tasted, but not, generally speaking, very plentiful. It is probable that their numbers are con- siderably thinned by the otters, which are much larger than those of Europe. In going through the overflowed savannas, which have all a communication with the river, you may often see a dozen or two of them sporting amongst the sedges before you.
This warm and humid climate seems particularly
adapted to the producing of insects ; it gives
birth to myriads, beautiful past description
in their variety of tints, astonishing in their form and
size, and many of them noxious in their qualities.
He whose eye can distinguish the various beauties of uncultivated nature, and whose ear is not shut to the wild sounds in the woods, will be delighted in passing up the river Demerara. Every now and then the rnaani or tinamou sends forth one long and plaintive
12 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
whistle from the depth of the forest, and then stops ; whilst the yelping of the toucan, and the shrill voice of the bird called pi-pi-yo, are heard during the interval. The campanero never fails to attract the attention of the passenger : at a distance of nearly three miles, you may hear this snow-white bird tolling every four or five minutes like the distant convent-bell. From six to nine in the morning, the forests resound with the mingled cries and strains of the feathered race ; after this they gradually die away. From eleven to three all nature is hushed as in a midnight silence, and scarce a note is heard, saving that of the campanero and the pi-pi-yo ; it is then that, oppressed by the solar heat, the birds retire to the thickest shade, and wait for the refreshing cool of evening.
At sundown the vampires, bats, and goat-suckers dart from their lonely retreat, and skim along the trees on the river's bank. The different kinds of frogs almost stun the ear with their hoarse and hollow-sounding croaking, while the owls and goat-suckers lament and mourn all night long.
About two hours before daybreak you will hear the red monkey moaning as though in deep distress ; the houtou, a solitary bird, and only found in the thickest recesses of the forest, distinctly articulates " houtou, houtou," in a low and plaintive tone, an hour before sunrise ; the maam whistles about the same hour ; the hannaquoi, pataca, and maroudi announce his near ap- proach to the eastern horizon, and the parrots and the parroquets confirm his arrival there.
The crickets chirp from sunset to sunrise, and often during the day when the weather is cloudy. The beterouge is extremely numerous in these extensive
FIRST JOURNEY. 13
•wilds, and not only man, but beasts and birds, are tor- mented by it. Mosquitos are very rare after you pass the third island in the Demerara, and sand-flies but seldom appear.
Courteous reader, here thou hast the outlines of an amazing landscape given thee ; thou wilt see that the principal parts of it are but faintly traced, some of them scarcely visible at all, and that the shades are wholly wanting. If thy soul partakes of the ardent flame which the persevering Mungo Park's did, these outlines will be enough for thee : they will give thee some idea of what a noble country this is ; and if thou hast but courage to set about giving the world a finished picture of it, neither materials to work on, nor colours to paint it in its true shades, will be wanting to thee. It may appear a difficult task at a distance ; but look close at it, and it is nothing at all; provided thou hast but a quiet mind, little more is necessary, and the genius which presides over these wilds will kindly help thee through the rest. She will allow thee to slay the fawn and to cut down the mountain-cabbage for thy support, and to select from every part of her domain whatever may be necessary for the work thou art about ; but having killed a pair of doves in order to enable thee to give mankind a true and proper de- scription of them, thou must not destroy a third through wantonness, or to show what a good marks- man thou art : that would only blot the picture thou art finishing, not colour it.
Though retired from the haunts of men, and even without a friend with thee, thou wouldst not find it solitary. The crowing of the hannaquoi will sound in thine ears like the daybreak town-clock ; and the
14 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
wren and the thrush will join with thee in thy matin hymn to thy Creator, to thank Him for thy night's rest
At noon the Genius will lead thee to the troely, one leaf of which will defend thee from both sun and rain. And if, in the cool of the evening, thou hast been tempted to stray too far from thy place of abode, and art deprived of light to write down the information thou hast collected, the fire-fly, which thou
The fire-fly. . •"
wilt see in almost every bush around thee, will be thy candle. Hold it over thy pocket-book, in any position which thou knowest will not hurt it, and it will afford thee ample light. And when thou hast done with it, put it kindly back again on the next branch to thee. It will want no other reward for its services.
When in thy hammock, should the thought of thy little crosses and disappointments, in thy ups and downs through life, break in upon thee, and throw thee into a pensive mood, the owl will bear thee company. She will tell thee that hard has been her fate too ; and at intervals, " Whip-poor- Will," and " Willy come go," will take up the tale of sorrow. Ovid has told thee how the owl once boasted the human form, and lost it for a very small offence ; and were the poet alive now, he would inform thee that " Whip-poor- Will " and " Willy come go " are the shades of those poor African and Indian slaves who died worn out and broken-hearted. They wail and cry " Whip-poor-Will," " Willy come go," all night long ; and often, when the moon shines, you see them sitting on the green turf, near the houses of those whose ancestors tore them from the bosom of their helpless
FIRST JOURNEY. 15
families, which all probably perished through grief and want, after their support was gone.
About an hour above the rock of Saba stands th« habitation of an Indian, called Simon, on
Simon's hut. , „ , .., „, . , ,
the top of a hill. Ihe side next the river is almost perpendicular, and you may easily throw a stone over to the opposite bank. Here there was an oppor- tunity of seeing man in his rudest state. The Indians who frequented this habitation, though living in the midst of woods, bore evident marks of attention to their persons. Their hair was neatly collected, and tied up in a knot ; their bodies fancifully painted red, and the paint was scented with hayawa. This gave them a gay and animated appearance. Some of them had on necklaces, composed of the teeth of wild boars slain in the chase ; many wore rings, and others had an orna- ment on the left arm, midway betwixt the shoulder and the elbow. At the close of day, they regularly bathed in the river below ; and the next morning seemed busy in renewing the faded colours of their faces.
One day there came into the hut a form which literally might be called the wild man of the woods. On entering, he laid down a ball of wax which he had collected in the forest. His hammock was all ragged and torn ; and his bow, though of good wood, was without any ornament or polish, — " erubuit domino, cultior esse suo." His face was meagre, his looks for- bidding, and his whole appearance neglected. His long black hair hung from his head in matted confusion ; nor had his body, to all appearance, ever been painted. They gave him some cassava bread and boiled fish, which he ate voraciously, and soon after left the hut. As he went out, you could observe no traces in his
16 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
countenance or demeanour which indicated that he was in the least mindful of having been benefited by the society he was just leaving.
The Indians said that he had neither wife, nor child, nor friend. They had often tried to persuade him to come and live amongst them ; but all was of no avail. He went roving on, plundering the wild bees of their honey, and picking up the fallen nuts and fruits of the forest. When he fell in with game, he procured fire from two sticks, and cooked it on the spot. When a hut happened to be in his way, he stepped in, and asked for something to eat ; and then months elapsed ere they saw him again. They did not know what had caused him to be thus unsettled ; he had been so for years; nor did they believe that even old age itself would change the babits of this poor, harmless, solitary wanderer.
From Simon's, the traveller may reach the large fall with ease in four days.
The first falls that he meets are merely rapids, scarce a stone appearing above the water in the rainy season ; and those in the bed of the river barely high enough to arrest the water's course, and, by causing a bubbling, show that they are there.
With this small change of appearance in the stream the stranger observes nothing new till he comes within eight or ten miles of the great fall. Each side of the river presents an uninterrupted range of wood, just as it did below. All the productions found betwixt the plan- tations and the rock Saba, are to be met with here.
From Simon's to the great fall, there are five habi- tations of the Indians : two of them close to the river's side ; the other three a little way in the forest.
FIRST JOURNEY. 17
These habitations consist of from four to eight huts, Indian ha- situated on about an acre of ground, which bitations. they have cleared from the surrounding woods. A few pappaw, cotton, and mountain cabbage- trees are scattered round them.
At one of these habitations, a small quantity of the wourait poi- wourali poison was procured. It was in a son- little gourd. The Indian who had it, said
that he had killed a number of wild hogs with it, and two tapirs. Appearances seemed to confirm what he said ; for on one side it had been nearly taken out to the bottom, at different times, which probably would not have been the case had the first or second trial failed.
Its strength was proved on a middle-sized
Its strength.
dog. He was wounded in the thigh, in order that there might be no possibility of touching a vital part. In three or four minutes he began to be affected, smelt at every little thing on the ground around him, and looked wistfully at the wounded part. Soon after this he staggered, laid himself down, and never rose more. He barked once, though not as if in pain. His voice was low and weak ; and in a second attempt it quite failed him. He now put his head betwixt his fore legs, and, raising it slowly again, he fell over on his side. His eye immediately became fixed; and though his extremities every now and then shot con- vulsively, he never showed the least desire to raise up his head. His heart fluttered much from the time he laid down, and at intervals beat very strong ; then stopped for a moment or two, and then beat again ; and continued faintly beating several minutes after every other part of his body seemed dead.
18 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
In a quarter of an hour after he had received the poison he was quite motionless.
A few miles before you reach the great
The great fall. . .
fall, and which, indeed, is the only one which can be called a fall, large balls of froth come floating past you. The river appears beautifully marked with streaks of foam, and on your nearer approach the stream is whitened all over.
At first, you behold the fall rushing down a bed of rocks, with a tremendous noise, divided into two foamy streams, which, at their junction again, form a small island covered with wood. Above this island, for a short space, there appears but one stream, all white with froth, and fretting and boiling amongst the huge rocks which obstruct its course.
Higher up it is seen dividing itself into a short channel or two, and trees grow on the rocks which caused its separation. The torrent, in many places, has eaten deep into the rocks, and split them into large fragments, by driving others against them. The trees on the rocks are in bloom and vigour, though their roots are half bared, and many of them bruised and broken by the rushing waters.
This is the general appearance of the fall from the level of the water below, to where the river is smooth and quiet above. It must be remembered, that this is during the periodical rains. Probably, in the dry season, it puts on a very different appearance. There is no perpendicular fall of water of any consequence throughout it, but the dreadful roaring and rushing of the torrent, down a long, rocky, and moderately sloping channel, has a fine effect ; and the stranger returns well pleased with Avhat he has seen. No animal,
FIRST JOURNEY. 19
nor craft of any kind, could stem this downward flood. In a' few moments the first would be killed, the second dashed in pieces.
The Indians have a path alongside of it, through the forest, where prodigious crabwood trees grow. Up this path they drag their canoes, and launch them into the river above ; and, on their return, bring them down the same way.
About two hours below this fall, is the habitation of an Acoway chief called Sinkerman. At
Habitation . , . , . „ , „ ,, „
of an Acoway night you hear the roaring of the iall from it. It is pleasantly situated on the top of a sand-hill. At this place you have the finest view the river Demerara affords : three tiers of hills rise in slow gradation, one above the other, before you, and present a grand and magnificent scene, especially to him who has been accustomed to a level country.
Here, a little after midnight, on the 1st of May, was heard a most strange and unaccountable noise ; it seemed as though several regiments were engaged, and musketry firing with great rapidity. The Indians, terrified beyond description, left their hammocks, and crowded all together, like sheep at the approach of the wolf. There were no soldiers within three or four hundred miles. Conjecture Avas of no avail, and all conversation next morning on the subject was as useless and unsatisfactory as the dead silence which succeeded to the noise.
He who Avishes to reach the Macoushi country, had better send his canoe over land from Sinkerman's to the Essequibo.
There is a pretty good path, and, meeting a creek about three quarters of the way, it eases the labour, c2
20 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
and twelve Indians will arrive with it in the Essequibo in four days.
The traveller need not attend his canoe ; there is a shorter and a better way. Half an hour below Sinker- man's he finds a little creek on the western bank of the Demerara. After proceeding about a couple of hundred yards up it, he leaves it, and pursues a west-north-west direction by land for the Essequibo. The path is good, though somewhat rugged with the roots of trees, and here and there obstructed by fallen ones; it extends more over level ground than otherwise. There are a few steep ascents and descents in it, with a little brook running at the bottom of them ; but they are easily passed over, and the fallen trees serve for a bridge.
You may reach the Essequibo with ease in a day and a half ; and so matted and interwoven are the tops of the trees above you, that the sun is not felt once all the way, saving where the space which a newly fallen tree occupied lets in his rays upon you. The forest contains an abundance of wild hogs, lobbas, acouries, powisses, maams, maroudis, and waracabas, for your nourishment, and there are plenty of leaves to cover a shed, whenever you are inclined to sleep.
The soil has three-fourths of sand in it, till you come within half an hour's walk of the Essequibo,
The Essequibo. L
where you find a red gravel and rocks. In this retired and solitary tract, Nature's garb, to all appearance, has not been injured by fire, nor her pro- ductions broken in upon by the exterminating hand of man.
Here the finest green-heart grows, and wallaba, purple-heart, siloabali, sawari, buletre, tauronira, and mora, are met with in vast abundance, far and near,
FIRST JOURNEY. 21
towering up" in majestic grandeur, straight as pillars, sixty or seventy feet high, without a knot or branch. .
Traveller, forget for a little while the idea thou hast of wandering further on, and stop and look at this grand picture of vegetable nature ; it is a reflection of the crowd thou hast lately been in, and though a silent monitor, it is not a less eloquent one on that account. — See that noble purple-heart before thee ! Nature has been kind to it. Not a hole, not the least oozing from its trunk, to show that its best days are passed. Vigorous in youthful blooming beauty, it stands, the ornament of these sequestered wilds, and tacitly rebukes those base ones of thine own species, Avho have been hardy enough to deny the existence of Him who ordered it to flourish here.
Behold that one next to it ! — Hark ! how the ham- merings of the red-headed woodpecker resound through its distempered boughs ! See what a quantity of holes he has made in it, and how its bark is stained with the drops which trickle down from them ! The lightning, too, has blasted one side of it. Nature looks pale and wan in its leaves, and her resources are nearly dried up in its extremities : its sap is tainted ; a mortal sickness, slow as a consumption, and as sure in its consequences, has long since entered its frame, vitiating and destroy- ing the wholesome juices there.
Step a few paces aside, and cast thine eye on that remnant of a mora behind it. Best part of its branches, once so high and ornamental, now lie on the ground in sad confusion, one upon the other, all shattered and fungus-grown, and a prey to millions of insects, which are busily employed in destroying them. One branch of it still looks healthy ! Will it recover 1 No, it
22 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
cannot : Mature has already run her course, and that healthy-looking branch is only as a fallacious good symptom in him who is just about to die of a mortifi- cation, when he feels no more pain and fancies his dis- temper has left him ; it is as the momentary gleam of a wintry sun's ray close to the western horizon. — See ! while we are speaking a gust of wind has brought the tree to the ground, and made room for its successor.
Come further on, and examine that apparently luxuriant tauronira on thy right hand. It boasts a verdure not its own ; they are false ornaments it wears ; the bush-rope and bird-vines have clothed it from the root to its topmost branch. The succession of fruit which it hath borne, like good cheer in the houses of the great, has invited the birds to resort to it, and they have disseminated beautiful, though destructive, plants on its branches, which, like the distempers vice brings into the human frame, rob it of all its health and vigour ; they have shortened its days, and probably in another year they will finally kill it, long before nature intended that it should die.
Ere thou leavest this interesting scene, look on the ground around thee, and see what everything here below must come to.
Behold that newly-fallen wallaba ! The whirlwind has uprooted it in its prime, and it has brought down to the ground a dozen small ones in its fall. Its bark has already begun to drop off! And that heart of mora close by it is fast yielding, in spite of its firm, tough texture.
The tree which thou passedst but a little ago, and which perhaps has laid- over yonder brook for years,
FIRST JOURNEY. 23
can now hardly support itself, and in a few months more it will have fallen into the water.
Put thy foot on that large trunk thou seest to the left. It seems entire amid the surrounding fragments. Mere outward appearance, delusive phantom of what it once was ! Tread on it, and, like the fuss-ball, it will break into dust.
Sad and silent mementos to the giddy traveller as he wanders on ! Prostrate remnants of vegetable nature, how incontestably ye prove what we must all at last come to, and how plain your mouldering ruins show that the firmest texture avails us nought when Heaven wills that we should cease to be ! —
" The cloud-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces. The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inhabit, shall dissolve, And, like the baseless fabric of a vision, Leave not a wreck behind."
Cast thine eye around thee, and see the thousands of nature's productions. Take a view of them from the opening seed on the surface, sending a downward shoot, to the loftiest and the largest trees, rising up and blooming in wild luxuriance ; some side by side, others separate ; some curved and knotty, others straight as lances ; all, in beautiful gradation, fulfilling the mandates they had received from Heaven, and though condemned to die, still never failing to keep up their species till time shall be no more.
Reader, canst thou not be induced to dedicate a few months to the good of the public, and examine with thy scientific eye the productions which the vast and well-stored colony of Demerara presents to thee1?
What an immense range of forest is there from the
24 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH , AMERICA.
rock Saba to the great fall ! and what an uninterrupted extent "before thee from it to the banks of the Essequibo ! Xo doubt, there is many a balsam and many a medicinal root yet to be discovered, and many a resin, gum, and oil yet unnoticed. Thy work would be a pleasing one, and thou mightest make several useful observations in it.
Would it be thought impertinent in thee to hazard a conjecture, that with the resources the government of Demerara has, stones might be conveyed from the rock Saba to Stabroek, to stem the equinoctial tides, which are for ever sweeping away the expensive wooden piles round the mounds of the fort 1 Or would the timber- merchant point at thee in passing by, and call thee a descendant of La Mancha's knightj because thou main- tainest that the stones which form the rapids might be removed with little expense, and thus open the navi- gation to the wood-cutter from Stabroek to the great fall? Or wouldst thou be deemed enthusiastic or biassed, because thou givest it as thy opinion that the climate in these high lands is exceedingly wholesome, and the lands themselves capable of nourishing and maintaining any number of settlers 1 In thy disserta- tion on the Indians, thou mightest hint, that possibly they could be induced to help the new settlers a little ; and that, finding their labours well requited, it would be the means of their keeping up a constant communi- cation with us, which probably might be the means of laying the first stone towards their Christianity. They are a poor, harmless, inoffensive set of people, and their wandering and ill-provided way of living seems more to ask for pity from us, than to fill our heads with thoughts that they would be hostile to us.
FIRST JOURNEY. 25
What a noble field, kind reader, for thy experimental philosophy and speculations, for thy learning, for thy perseverance, for thy kind-heartedness, for everything that is great and good within thee !
The accidental traveller who has journeyed on from Stabroek to the rock Saba, and from thence to the banks of the Essequibo, in pursuit of other things, as he told thee at the beginning, with but an indifferent interpreter to talk to, no friend to converse with, and totally unfit for that which he wishes thee to do, can merely mark the outlines of the path he has trodden, or tell thee the sounds he has heard, or faintly describe what he has seen in the environs of his resting-places ; but if this be enough to induce thee to undertake the journey, and give the world a description of it, he will be amply satisfied.
It will be two days and a half from the time of entering the path on the western bank of the Demerara till all be ready, and the canoe fairly afloat on the Essequibo. The new rigging it, and putting every little thing to rights and in its proper place, cannot well be done in less than a day.
After being night and day in the forest impervious to the sun and moon's rays, the sudden transition to light has a fine heart-cheering effect. Welcome as a lost friend, the solar beam makes the frame rejoice, and with it a thousand enlivening thoughts rush at once on the soul, and disperse, as a vapour, every sad and sorrowful idea, which the deep gloom had helped to collect there. In coming out of the woods, you see the western bank of the Essequibo before you, low and flat. Here the river is two-thirds as broad as the Demerara at Stabroek.
26 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
To the northward there is a hill higher than any Pace of the in *ne Demerara; and in the south-south- country. wegj. quarter a mountain. It is far away, and appears like a bluish cloud in the horizon. There is not the least opening on either side. Hills, valleys, and lowlands, are all linked together by a chain of forest. Ascend the highest mountain, climb the loftiest tree, as far as the eye can extend, whichever way it directs itself, all is luxuriant and unbroken forest.
In about nine or ten hours from this, you get to an Indian habitation of three huts, on the point of an island. It is said that a Dutch post once stood here.
But there is not the smallest vestige of it remaining, and, except that the trees appear younger than those on the other islands, which shows that the place has been cleared some time or other, there is no mark left by which you can conjecture that ever this was a post.
The many islands which you meet with
Islands.
in the way, enliven and change the scene, by the avenues which they make, which look like the mouths of other rivers, and break that long-extended sameness which is seen in the Demerara.
Proceeding onwards, you get to the falls and rapids.
In the rainy season they are very tedious to and P*88? an(i often stop your course. In the
dry season, by stepping from rock to rock, the Indians soon manage to get a canoe over them. But when the river is swollen, as it was in May, 1812, it is then a difficult task, and often a dangerous one too. At that time many of the islands were overflowed, the rocks covered, and the lower branches of the trees in the water. Sometimes the Indians were obliged to
FIRST JOURNEY. 27
take everything out of the canoe, cut a passage through the branches, which hung over into the river, and then, drag up the canoe by main force.
At one place, the falls form an oblique line quite across the river, impassable to the ascending canoe, and you are forced to have it dragged four or five hundred yards by land.
It will take you five days, from the Indian habitation, on the point of the island, to where these falls and rapids terminate.
There are no huts in the way. You must bring your own cassava bread along with you, hunt in the forest for your meat, and make the night's shelter for yourself.
Here is a noble range of hills, all covered with the finest trees, rising majestically one above the other, on the western bank, and presenting as rich a scene as ever the eye would wish to look on. ^Nothing in vegetable nature can be conceived more charming, grand, and luxuriant.
How the heart rejoices in viewing this beautiful landscape ! when the sky is serene, the air cool, and the sun just sunk behind the mountain's top. . The hayawa-tree perfumes the woods around ; pairs of scarlet aras are continually crossing the river. The maam sends forth its plaintive note, the wren chants its evening song. The caprimulgus wheels in busy flight around the canoe, while " Whip-poor- Will " sits on the broken stump near the water's edge, complaining as the shades of night set in.
A little before you pass the last of these
•ocks- rapids, two immense rocks appear, nearly on
the summit of one of the many hills which form this
28 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
far-extending range, where it begins to fall off gradually to the south.
They look like two ancient stately towers of some Gothic potentate, rearing their heads above the sur- rounding trees. What with their situation and their shape together, they strike the beholder with an idea of antiquated grandeur which he will never forget. He may travel far and near, and see nothing like them. On looking at them through a glass, the summit of the southern one appeared crowned with bushes. The one to the north was quite bare. The Indians have it from their ancestors, that they are the abode of an evil genius, and they pass in the river below with a reve- rential awe.
In about seven hours from these stupen-
and enter the river Apoura-poura, which falls into it from the south. The Apoura-poura is nearly one-third the size of the Demerara at Stabroek. For two days you see nothing but level ground, richly clothed in timber. You leave the Siparouni to the right hand, and on the third day come to a little hill. The Indians have cleared about an acre of ground on it, and erected a temporary shed. If it be not intended for provision ground alone, perhaps the next white man who travels through these remote wilds will find an Indian settlement here.
Two days after leaving this, you get to a rising ground on the western bank, where stands a single hut; and about half a mile in the forest there are a few more ; some of them square, and some round, with spiral roots.
Here the fish called Pacou is very plentiful : it is
FIRST JOURNEY. 29
perhaps the fattest and most delicious fish in Guiana. It does not take the hook, but the Indians decoy it to the surface of the water by means of the seeds of the crabwood tree, and then shoot it with an arrow.
You are now within the borders of Macoushia, in- habited by a different tribe of people, called
Macoushi Macoushi Indians : uncommonly dexterous
Indians.
in the use of the blow-pipe, and famous for their skill in preparing the deadly vegetable poison, commonly called Wourali.
It is from this country that those beautiful paroquets, named Kessi-kessi, are procured. Here the crystal mountains are found ; and here the three different species of the ara are seen in great abundance. Here, too, grows the tree from which the gum elastic is got : it is large, and as tall as any in the forest. The wood has much the appearance of sycamore. The gum is contained in the bark ; when that is cut through, it oozes out very freely : it is quite white, and looks as rich as cream : it hardens almost immediately as it issues from the tree ; so that it is very easy to collect a ball, by forming the juice into a globular shape as fast as it comes out : it becomes nearly black by being exposed to the air, and is real India rubber without undergoing any other process.
The elegant crested bird called Cock of the rock, admirably described by Buff on, is a native of the woody mountains of Macoushia. In the daytime, it retires amongst the darkest rocks, and only comes out to feed a little before sunrise, and at sunset : he is of a gloomy disposition, and, like the houtou, never associates with the other birds of the forest.
The Indians, in the just- mentioned settlement, seemed
30 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
to depend more on the wourali poison for killing their game, than upon anything else. They had only one gun, and it appeared rusty and neglected ; but their
poisoned weapons were in fine order. Their tdJ^Dtoe blow-pipes hung from the roof of the hut,
carefully suspended by a silk grass cord ; and on taking a nearer view of them, no dust seemed to have collected there, nor had the spider spun the smallest web on them ; which showed that they were in constant use. The quivers were close by them, with the jawbone of the fish Pirai tied by a string to their brim, and a small wicker-basket of wild cotton, which hung down to the centre ; they were nearly full of poisoned arrows. It was with difficulty these Indians could be persuaded to part with any of the wourali poison, though a good price was offered for it; they gave to understand that it was powder and shot to them, and very difficult to be procured.
On the second day after leaving this settlement, in passing along, the Indians show you a place where once a white man lived. His retiring so far from those of his own colour and acquaintance seemed to carry some- thing extraordinary along with it, and raised a desire to know what could have induced him to do so. It seems he had been unsuccessful, and that his creditors had treated him with as little mercy as the strong generally show to the weak. Seeing his endeavours daily frustrated, and his best intentions of no avail, and fearing that when they had taken all he had, they would probably take his liberty too, he thought the world would not be hard-hearted enough to condemn him for retiring from the evils which pressed so heavily on him, aud which he had done all that an honest man
FIRST JOURNEY. 31
could do, to ward off. He left his creditors to talk of him as they thought fit, and, bidding adieu for ever to the place in which he had once seen better times, he penetrated thus far into these remote and gloomy wilds, and ended his days here.
According to the new map of South
Lake Piirima.
America, Lake Parima, or the White Sea, ought to be within three or four days' walk from this place. On asking the Indians whether there was such a place or not, and describing that the water was fresh and good to drink, an old Indian, who appeared to be about sixty, said that there was such a place, and that he had been there. This information would have been satisfactory in some degree, had not the Indians carried the point a little too far. It is very large, said another Indian, and ships come to it. Now, these unfortunate ships were the very things which were not wanted : had he kept them out, it might have done, but his intro- ducing them was sadly against the lake. Thus you must either suppose that the old savage and his com- panion had a confused idea of the thing, and that pro- bably the Lake Parima they talked of was the Amazons, not far from the city of Para, or that it was their inten- tion to deceive you. You ought to be cautious in giving credit to their stories, otherwise you will be apt to be led astray.
Many a ridiculous thing concerning the interior of Guiana has been propagated and received as true, merely because six or seven Indians, questioned sepa- rately, have agreed in their narrative.
Ask those who live high up in the Demerara, and they will, every one of them, tell you that there is a nation of Indians with long tails ; that they are very
32 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
malicious, cruel, and ill-natured ; and that the Portu- guese have been obliged to stop them off in a certain river, to prevent their depredations. They have also dreadful stories concerning a horrible beast, called the Watermamma, which, when it happens to take a spite against a canoe, rises out of the river, and in the most unrelenting manner possible, carries both canoe and Indians down to the bottom with it, and there destroys them. Ludicrous extravagances ! pleasing to those fond of the marvellous, and excellent matter for a distem- pered brain.
The misinformed and timid court of policy in Demerara was made the dupe of a savage who came down the Essequibo, and gave himself out as king of a mighty tribe. This naked wild man of the woods seemed to hold the said court in tolerable contempt, and demanded immense supplies, all which he got ; and moreover, some time after, an invitation to come down the ensuing year for more, which he took care not to forget.
This noisy chieftain boasted so much of his dynasty and domain, that the Government was induced to send up an expedition into his territories to see if he had spoken the truth, and nothing but the truth. It ap- peared, however, that his palace was nothing but a hut, the monarch a needy savage, the heir-apparent nothing to inherit but his father's club and bow and arrows, and his officers of state wild and uncultivated as the forests through which they strayed.
There was nothing in the hut of this savage, saving the presents he had received from Government, but what was barely sufficient to support existence ; nothing that indicated a power to collect a hostile force; nothing
FIRST JOURNEY. 33
that showed the least progress towards civilization. All was rude and barbarous in the extreme, expressive of the utmost poverty and a scanty population.
You may travel six or seven days without seeing a hut, and when you reach a settlement, it seldom con- tains more than ten.
The further you advance into the interior, the more you are convinced that it is thinly inhabited.
The day after passing the place where the white man lived, you see a creek on the left hand, and shortly after the path to the open country. Here you drag the canoe up into the forest, and leave it there. Your baggage must now be carried by the Indians. The creek you passed in the river intersects the path to the next settlement ; a large mora has fallen across it, and makes an excellent bridge. After walking an hour and a half, you come to the edge of the forest, and a savanna unfolds itself to the view.
The finest park that England boasts, falls far short of this delightful scene. There are about two^thousand acres of grass, with here and there a clump of trees, and a few bushes and single trees, scattered up and down by the hand of nature. The ground is neither hilly nor level, but diversified with moderate rises and falls, so gently running into one another, that the eye cannot distinguish where they begin nor where they end ; while the distant black rocks have the appearance of a herd at rest. Nearly in the middle there is an eminence, which falls off gradually on every side ; and on this the Indians have erected their huts.
To the northward of them the forest forms a circle, as though it had been done by art ; to the eastward it hangs in festoons ; and to the south and west it rushes
D
34 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
in abruptly, disclosing a new scene behind it at every step as you advance along.
This beautiful park of nature is quite surrounded by lofty hills, all arrayed in superbest garb of trees ; some in the form of pyramids, others like sugar-loaves, tower- ing one above the other, some rounded off, and others as though they had lost their apex. Here two hills rise up in spiral summits, and the wooded line of com- munication betwixt them sinks so gradually, that it forms a crescent ; and there the ridges of others re- semble the waves of an agitated sea. Beyond these appear others, and others past them ; and others still further on, till they can scarcely be distinguished from the clouds.
There are no sand-flies, nor bete-rouge, nor mosquitos, in this pretty spot. The fire-flies, during the night, vie in numbers and brightness with the stars in the firmament above; the air is pure, and the north-east breeze blows a refreshing gale throughout the day. Here the white-crested maroudi, which is never found in the Demerara, is pretty plentiful ; and here grows the tree which produces the moran, sometimes called balsam-capivi.
Your route lies south from this place; and at the extremity of the savanna, you enter the
Route.
forest, and journey along a winding path at the foot of a hill. There is no habitation within this day's walk. The traveller, as usual, must sleep in the forest ; the path is not so good the follow- ing day. The hills, over which it lies, are rocky, steep, and rugged; and the spaces betwixt them swampy, and mostly knee-deep in water. After eight hours' walk, you find two or three Indian huts, surrounded by the
FIRST JOURNEY. 35
forest; and in little more than half an hour from these, you come to ten or twelve others, where you pass the night. They are prettily situated at the entrance into a savanna. The eastern and western hills are still covered with wood ; but on looking to the south-west quarter, you perceive it begins to die away. In these forests you may find plenty of the trees which yield the sweet-smelling resin called Acaiari, and which, when pounded and burnt on charcoal, gives a delightful fragrance.
From hence you proceed, in a south-west direction, through a long swampy savanna. Some of the hills, which border on it, have nothing but a thin coarse grass and huge stones on them ; others quite wooded ; others with their summits crowned, and their base quite bare ; and others again with their summits bare, and their base in thickest wood.
Half of this day's march is in water, nearly up to the knees. There are four creeks to pass : one of them has a fallen tree across it. You must make your own bridge across the other three. Probably, were the truth known, these apparently four creeks are only the meanders of one.
The Jabiru, the largest bird in Guiana, feeds in the marshy savanna through which you have
The Jabiru. . , T . '
just passed. He is wary and shy, and will not allow you to get within gunshot of him.
You sleep this night in the forest, and reach an Indian settlement about three o'clock the next evening, after walking one-third of the way through wet and miry ground.
But bad as the walking is through it, it is easier than where you cross over the bare hills, where you
D2
36 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
have to tread on sharp stones, most of them lying ' edgewise.
The ground gone over these two last days, seems con- demned to perpetual solitude and silence. There was not one four-footed animal to be seen, nor even the marks of one. It would have been as silent as mid- night, and all as still and unmoved as a monument, had not the jabiru in the marsh, and a few vultures soaring over the mountain's top, shown that it was not quite deserted by animated nature. There were no insects, except one kind of fly, about one-fourth the size of the common house-fly. It bit cruelly, and was much more tormenting than the mosquito on the sea- coast.
This seems to be the native country of the Arrow- root. Wherever you passed through a patch
Arrow-root. ...... .,
oi wood in a low situation, there you round it growing luxuriantly.
The Indian place you are now at is not the proper place to have come to, in order to reach the Portuguese frontiers. You have advanced too much to the west- ward. But there was no alternative. The ground betwixt you and another small settlement (which was the right place to have gone to) was overflowed ; and thus, instead of proceeding southward, you were obliged to wind along the foot of the western hills, quite out of your way.
But the grand landscape this place affords, makes you ample amends for the time you have spent in reaching it. It would require great descriptive powers to give a proper idea of the situation these people have chosen for their dwelling.
The hill they are on is steep and high, and full of
FIRST JOURNEY. 37
immense rocks. The huts are not all in one place, but dispersed wherever they have found a place levef enough for a lodgement. Before you ascend the hill, you see at intervals an acre or two of wood, then an open space, with a few huts on it ; then wood again, and then an open space, and so on; till the inter- vening of the western hills, higher and steeper still, and crowded with trees of the loveliest shades, closes the enchanting scene.
immense At the base of this hill stretches an im- piam. mense plain, which appears to the eye, on
this elevated spot, as level as a bowling-green. The mountains on the other side are piled one upon the other in romantic forms, and gradually retire, till they are undiscernible from the clouds in which they are involved. To the south-south-west this far-extending plain is lost in the horizon. The trees on it, which look like islands on the ocean, add greatly to the beauty of the landscape ; while the rivulet's course is marked out by the aata-trees which follow its meanders.
Not being able to pursue the direct course from hence to the next Indian habitation, on account of the floods of water which fall at this time of the year, you take a circuit westerly along the mountain's foot.
At last a large and deep creek stops your progress : it is wide and rapid, and its banks very
Creek. . r ' .
steep, ihere is neither curial nor canoe, nor purple-heart tree in the neighbourhood to make a wood skin to carry you over, so that you are obliged to swim across ; and by the time you have formed a kind of raft, composed of boughs of trees and coarse grass, to ferry over your baggage, the day will be too far spent to think of proceeding. You must be very cautious
38 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
before you venture to swim across this creek, for the alligators are numerous, and near twenty feet long. On the present occasion, the Indians took uncommon pre- cautions, lest they should be devoured by this cruel and voracious reptile. They cut long sticks, and ex- amined closely the side of the creek for half a mile above and below the place where it was to be crossed ; and as soon as the boldest had swum over, he did the same on the other side, and then all followed.
After passing the night on the opposite bank, which is well wooded, it is a brisk walk of nine hours before you reach four Indian huts, on a rising ground, a few hundred paces from a little brook, whose banks are covered over with coucourite and aeta trees.
This is the place you ought to have come to, two days ago, had the water permitted you. In crossing the plain at the most advantageous place, you are above ankle-deep in water for three hours ; the re- mainder of the way is dry, the ground gently rising. As the lower parts of this spacious plain put on some- what the appearance of a lake, during the periodical rains, it is not improbable but that this is the place which hath given rise to the supposed existence of the famed Lake Parima, or El Dorado ; but this is mere conjecture.
A few deer are feeding on the coarse rough grass of this far-extending plain ; they keep at a
Deer.
distance from you, and are continually on the look-out.
The spur-winged plover, and a species of the curlew, black, with a white bar across the wings, nearly as large again as the scarlet curlew on the sea-coast, frequently rise before you. Here, too, the Moscovy
FIRST JOURNEY. 39
duck is numerous ; and large flocks of two other kinds wheel round you as you 'pass on, but keep out of gun-shot. The milk-white egrets, and jabirus, are dis- tinguished at a great distance ; and in the seta and coucourite trees, you may observe flocks of scarlet and blue aras feeding on the seeds.
It is to these trees that the largest sort of toucan resorts. He is remarkable by a large black
The Toucan. . J °
spot on the point ol his tine yellow bill. He is very scarce in Demerara, and never seen except near the sea-coast.
The ants' nests have a singular appearance on this
plain ; they are in vast abundance on those
parts of it free from water, and are formed
of an exceedingly hard yellow clay. They rise eight or
ten feet from the ground, in a spiral form, impenetrable
to the rain, and strong enough to defy the severest
tornado.
The wourali poison, procured in these last-mentioned huts seemed very good, and proved afterwards to be very strong.
There are now no more Indian settlements betwixt
you and the Portuguese frontiers. If you
Portuguese -yyish to visit their fort, it would be advisable
frontiers.
to send an Indian with a letter from hence, and wait his return. On the present occasion a very fortunate circumstance occurred. The Portuguese com- mander had sent some Indians and soldiers to build a canoe, not far from this settlement ; they had just finished it, and those who did not stay with it had stopped here on their return.
The soldier who commanded the rest said, he durst not, upon any account, convey a stranger to the fort ;
40 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
but he added, as there were two canoes, one of them might be despatched with a letter, and then we could proceed slowly on in the other.
About three hours from this settlement, there is a river called Pirarara; and here the soldiers had left their canoes while they were making the new one. From the Pirarara you get into the river Maou, and then into the Tacatou; and just where the Tacatou falls into the Rio Branco, there stands the Portuguese frontier fort, called Fort St. Joachim. From the time of embarking in the river Pirarara, it takes you four days before you reach this fort.
There was nothing very remarkable in passing down these rivers. It is an open country, producing a coarse grass, and interspersed with clumps of trees. The banks have some wood on them, but it appears stinted and crooked, like that on the bleak hills in England.
The tapir frequently plunged into the river ; he was by no means shy, and it was easy to get a shot at him on land. The kessi-kessi paroquets were in great abundance ; and the fine scarlet aras innumerable in the coucourite trees at a distance from the river's bank. In the Tacatou was seen the troupiale. It was charm- ing to hear the sweet and plaintive notes of this pretty songster of the wilds. The Portuguese call it the nightingale of Guiana.
Towards the close of the fourth evening, the canoe, -, which had been sent on with a letter, met us
Message
from the For- with the commander's answer. During its
tuguese com- mander, absence, the nights had been cold and stormy,
the rain had fallen in torrents, the days cloudy, and there was no sun to dry the wet hammocks. Ex- posed thus, day and night, to the chilling blast and
FIRST JOURNEY. 41
pelting shower, strength of constitution at last failed, and a severe fever came on. The commander's answer was very polite. He remarked, he regretted much to say, that he had received orders to allow no stranger to enter the frontier, and this being the case, he hoped I would not consider him as uncivil : " However," con- tinued he, " I have ordered the soldier to land you at a certain distance from the fort, where we can consult together."
We had now arrived at the place, and the canoe which brought the letter returned to the fort, to tell the commander I had fallen sick.
The sun had not risen above an hour the morning after, when the Portuguese officer came to the spot where we had landed the preceding evening. He was tall and spare, and appeared to be from fifty to fifty- five years old; and though thirty years of service under an equatorial sun had burnt and shrivelled up his face, still there was something in it so inexpressibly affable and kind, that it set you immediately at your ease. He came close up to the hammock, and taking hold of my wrist to feel the pulse, " I am sorry, sir," said he, " to see that the fever has taken such hold of you. You shall go directly with me," continued he, " to the fort ; and though we have no doctor there, I trust," added he, " we shall soon bring you about again. The orders I have received forbidding the admission of strangers, were never intended to be put in force against a sick English gentleman."
As the canoe was proceeding slowly down the river towards the fort, the commander asked, with much more interest than a question in ordinary conversation is asked, where was I on the night of the 1st of May ?
42 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
On telling him that I was at an Indian settlement a little below the great fall in the Demerara, and that a strange and sudden noise had alarmed all the Indians, he said the same astonishing noise had roused every man in Fort St. Joachim, and that they remained under arms till morning. He observed, that he had been quite at a loss to form any idea what could have caused the noise ; but now learning that the same noise had been heard at the same time far away from th& Bio Branco, it struck him there must have been an earth- quake somewhere or other.
Good nourishment and rest, and the unwearied atten- tion and kindness of the Portuguese commander, stopped the progress of the fever, and enabled me to walk about in six days.
Fort St. Joachim was built about five-and- JoacMnf*' forty years ago, under the apprehension, it is said, that the Spaniards were coming from the Rio Kegro to settle there. It has been much neg- lected ; the floods of water have carried away the gate, and destroyed the wall on each side of it ; but the present commander is putting it into thorough repair. When finished, it will mount six nine, and six twelve pounders.
In a straight line with the fort, and within a few yards of the river, stand the commander's house, the barracks, the chapel, the father confessor's house, and two others, all at little intervals from each other ; and these are the only buildings at Fort St. Joachim. The neighbouring extensive plains afford good pasturage for a fine breed of cattle, and the Portuguese make enough of butter and cheese for their own consumption.
On asking the old officer if there were such a place
FIRST JOURNEY. 43
as Lake Pariina, or El Dorado, lie replied, he looked upon it as imaginary altogether. " I have been above forty years," added he, "in Portuguese Guiana, but have never yet met with anybody who has seen the lake."
So much for Lake Parima, or El Dorado, or the "White Sea. Its existence at best seems doubtful ; some affirm that there is such a place, and others deny it.
" Grammatici certant, et adliuc sub judice lis est."
Having now reached the Portuguese inland frontier,
Wovraiipoi- an(^ collected a sufficient quantity of the
"^ wourali poison, nothing remains but to give
a brief account of its composition, its effects, its uses,
and its supposed antidotes.
It has been already remarked, that in the extensive wilds of Demerara and Essequibo, far away from any European settlement, there is a tribe of Indians who are known by the name of Macoushi.
Though the wourali poison is used by all the South American savages betwixt the Amazons and the Oroo- noque, still this tribe makes it stronger than any of the rest. The Indians in the vicinity of the Eio Negro are aware of this, and come to the Macoushi country to purchase it.
Much has been said concerning this fatal and extra- ordinary poison. Some have affirmed that its effects are almost instantaneous, provided the minutest particle of it mixes with the blood ; and others again have maintained that it is not strong enough to kill an animal of the size and strength of a man. The first have erred by lending a too willing ear to the marvellous, and believing assertions without
44 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
sufficient proof. The following short story points out the necessity of a cautious examination.
One day, on asking an Indian if lie
Anecdote. ,•,•,.,•, • -, -, -, ••,-, -,
thought the poison would kill a man, he replied, that they always go to battle with it ; that he was standing by when an Indian was shot with a poisoned arrow, and that he expired almost immedi- ately. Hot wishing to dispute this apparently satisfac- tory information, the subject was dropped. However, about an hour after, having purposely asked him in what part of the body the said Indian was wounded, he answered without hesitation, that the arrow entered betwixt his shoulders, and passed quite through his heart. Was it the weapon, or the strength of the poison, that brought an immediate dissolution in this case 1 Of course the weapon.
The second have been misled by disappoinment, caused by neglect in keeping the poisoned arrows, or by not knowing how to use them, or by trying inferior poison. If the arrows are not kept dry, the poison loses its strength, and in wet or damp weather it turns mouldy, and becomes quite soft. In shooting an arrow in this state, upon examining the place where it has entered, it will be observed that, though the arrow has penetrated deep into the flesh, still by far the greatest part of the poison has shrunk back, and thus, instead of entering with the arrow, it has remained collected at the mouth of the wound. In this case the arrow might as well have not been poisoned. Probably, it was to this that a gentleman, some time ago,' owed his disap- pointment, when he tried the poison on a horse in the town of Stabroek, the capital of Demerara ; the horse never betrayed the least symptom of being affected by it.
FIRST JOURNEY. 45
"Wishful to obtain the best information concerning this poison, and as repeated inquiries, in lieu of dissi- pating the surrounding shade, did but tend more and more to darken the little light that existed ; I deter- mined to penetrate into the country where the poisonous ingredients grow, where this pernicious composition is prepared, and where it is constantly used. Success attended the adventure ; and the information acquired made amends for one hundred and twenty days passed in the solitudes of Guiana, and afforded a balm to the wounds and bruises which every traveller must expect to receive who wanders through a thorny and obstructed path.
Thou must not, courteous reader, expect a disserta- tion on the manner in which the wourali poison ope- rates on the system ; a treatise has been already written on the subject, and, after all, there is probably still reason to doubt. It is supposed to affect the nervous system, and thus destroy the vital functions ; it is also said to be perfectly harmless, provided it does not touch the blood. However, this is certain, when a suf- ficient quantity of it enters the blood, death is the inevitable consequence ; but there is no alteration in the colour of the blood, and both the blood and flesh may be eaten with safety.
All that thou wilt find here is a concise, unadorned account of the wourali poison. It may be of service to thee some time or other, shouldst thou ever travel through the wilds where it is used. Neither attribute to cruelty, nor to a want of feeling for the sufferings of the inferior animals, the ensuing experiments. The larger animals were destroyed in order to have proof positive of the strength of a poison which hath hitherto
46 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
been doubted ; and the smaller ones were killed with the hope of -substantiating that which has commonly been supposed to be an antidote.
It makes a pitying heart ache to see a poor creature in distress and pain ; and too often has the compas- sionate traveller occasion to heave a sigh as he journeys on. However, here, though the kind-hearted will be sorry to read of an unoffending animal doomed to death, in order to satisfy a doubt, still it will be a relief to know that the victim was not tortured. The wourali poison destroys life's action so gently, that the victim appears to be in no pain whatever ; and probably, were the truth known, it feels none, saving the momentary smart at the time the arrow enters.
A day or two before the Macoushi Indian prepares his poison, he goes into the forest, in quest of the in- gredients. A vine grows in these wilds, which is called wourali. It is from this that the poison takes its name, and it is the principal ingredient. When he has pro- cured enough of this, he digs up a root of a very bitter taste, ties them together, and then looks for about two kinds of bulbous plants, which contain a green and glutinous juice. He fills a little quake, which he carries on his back, with the stalks of these; and lastly, ranges up and down till he finds two species of ants. One of them is very large and black, and so venomous, that its sting produces a fever ; it is most commonly to be met with on the ground. The other is a little red ant, which stings like a nettle, and gene- rally has its nest under the leaf of a shrub. After obtaining these, he has no more need to range the forest.
A quantity of the strongest Indian pepper is used ;
FIRST JOURNEY. 47
"but this he has already planted round his hut. The pounded fangs of the Labarri snake, and those of the Counacouchi, are likewise added. These he commonly has in store ; for when he kills a snake, he generally extracts the fangs, and keeps them by him.
Having thus found the necessary ingredients, he scrapes the wourali vine and bitter root into
Preparation . .
of the wourali thin shavings, and puts them into a kind ot colander made of leaves : this he holds over an earthen pot, and pours water on the shavings : the liquor which comes through has the appearance of coffee. When a sufficient quantity has been procured, the shavings are thrown aside. He then bruises the bulbous stalks, and squeezes a proportionate quantity of their juice through his hands into the pot. Lastly, the snake's fangs, ants, and pepper are bruised, and thrown into it. It is then placed on a slow fire, and as it boils, more of the juice of the wourali is added, ac- cording as it may be found necessary, and the scum is taken off with a leaf : it remains on the fire till reduced to a thick syrup of a deep brown colour. As soon as it has arrived at this state a few arrows are poisoned with it, to try its strength. If it answer the expectations, it is poured out into a calabash, or little pot of Indian manufacture, which is carefully covered with a couple of leaves, and over them a piece of deer's skin, tied round with a cord. They keep it in the most dry part of the hut ; and from time to time suspend it over the fire, to counteract the effects of dampness.
The act of preparing this poison is not considered as a common one : the savage may shape his bow, fasten the barb on the point of his arrow, and make his other implements of destruction, either lying in his hammock,
48 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
or in the midst of his family; "but, if he has to prepare the wourali poison, many precautions are supposed to be necessary.
The women and young girls are not allowed to be present, lest the Yabahou, or evil spirit, e Yabahou, or shouicl do them harm. The shed under which it has been boiled, is pronounced polluted, and abandoned ever after. He who makes the poison must eat nothing that morning, and must continue fasting as long as the operation lasts. The pot in which it is boiled must be a new one, and must never have held anything before, otherwise the poison would be deficient in strength : add to this, that the operator must take particular care not to expose him- self to the vapour which arises from it while on the fire.
Though this and other precautions are taken, such as frequently washing the face and hands, still the Indians think that it aifects the health ; and the operator either is, or, what is more probable, supposes himself to be, sick for some days after.
Indian su- Thus it appears that the making the perstition. wourali poison is considered as a gloomy and mysterious operation ; and it would seem that they imagine it affects others as well as him who boils it ; for an Indian agreed one evening to make some for me, but the next morning he declined having anything to do with it, alleging that his wife was with child !
Here it might be asked, are all the ingredients just mentioned necessary, in order to produce the wourali poison 1 Though our opinions and conjectures may militate against the absolute necessity of some of them, still it would be hardly fair to pronounce them added
FIRST JOURNET. 49
by the hand of superstition, till proof positive can be obtained.
We might argue on the subject, and by bringing forward instances of Indian superstition, draw our conclusion by inference, and still remain in doubt on this head. You know superstition to be the offspring of ignorance, and of course that it takes up its abode amongst the rudest tribes of uncivilized man. It even too often resides with man in his more enlightened state.
The Augustan age furnishes numerous examples. A bone snatched from the jaws of a fasting bitch, and a feather from the wing of a night owl — " ossa ab ore rapta jejuna canis, plumamque nocturnae strigis," — were necessary for Canidia's incantations. And in aftertimes, parson Evans, the Welshman, was treated most ungen- teelly by an enraged spirit, solely because he had for- gotten a fumigation in his witch-work.
If, then, enlightened man lets his better sense give way, and believes, or allows himself to be persuaded, that certain substances and actions, in reality of no avail, possess a virtue which renders them useful in producing the wished-for effect ; may not the wild, un- taught, unenlightened savage of Guiana, add an ingre- dient which, on account of the harm it does him, he fancies may be useful to the perfection of his poison, though, in fact, it be of no use at all 1 If a bone snatched from the jaws of a fasting bitch be thought necessary in incantation ; or if witchcraft have recourse to the raiment of the owl, because it resorts to the tombs and mausoleums of the dead, and wails and hovers about at the time that the rest of animated nature sleeps ; certainly the savage may imagine that E
50 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
the ants, whose sting causes a fever, and the teeth of the Labarri and Counacouchi snakes, which convey death in a very short space of time, are essentially necessary in the composition of his poison ; and being once impressed with this idea, he will add them every time he makes the poison, and transmit the absolute use of them to his posterity. The question to be answered seems not to be, if it is natural for the Indians to mix these ingredients, but, if they are essential to make the poison.
' So much for the preparing of this vegetable essence ; terrible importer of death, into whatever animal it enters. Let us now see how it is used ; let us examine the weapons which bear it to its destination, and take a view of the poor victim, from the time he receives his wound, till death comes to his relief.
When a native of Macoushia goes in quest of the blow- of feathered game or other birds, he seldom carries his bow and arrows. It is the blow- pipe he then uses. This extraordinary tube of death is, perhaps, one of the greatest natural curiosities of Guiana. It is not found in the country of the Macoushi. Those Indians tell you that it grows to the south-west of them, in the^vilds which extend betwixt them and the Rio Negro. The reed must grow to an amazing length, as the part the Indians use is from ten to eleven feet long, and no tapering can be perceived in it, one end being as thick as the other. It is of a bright yellow colour, perfectly smooth both inside and out. It grows hollow ; nor is there the least appearance of a knot or joint throughout the whole extent. The natives call it Ourah. This, of itself, is too slender to answer the end of a blow-pipe ; but there is a species of palma, larger
FIRST JOTJRXEY. 51
and stronger, and common in Guiana, and this the Indians make use of as a case, in which they put the ourah. It is brown, susceptible of a fine polish, and appears as if it had joints five or six inches from each other. It is called Samourah, and the pulp inside is easily extracted, by steeping it for a few days in water.
Thus the ourah and samourah, one within the other, form the blow-pipe of Guiana. The end which is ap- plied to the mouth is tied round with a small silk-grass cord, to prevent its splitting ; and the other end, which is apt to strike against the ground, is secured by the seed of the acuero fruit, cut horizontally through the middle, with a hole made in the end, through which is put the extremity of the blow-pipe. It is fastened on with string on the outside, and the inside is filled up with wild bees' -wax.
The arrow is from nine to ten inches long.
The arrow.
It is made out of the leal of a species of palm-tree, called Coucourite, hard and brittle, and pointed as sharp as a needle. About an inch of the pointed end is poisoned. The other end is burnt to make it still harder, and wild cotton is put round it for about an inch and a half. It requires considerable practice to put on this cotton well. It must just be large enough to fit the hollow of the tube, and taper off to nothing downwards. They tie it on with a thread of the silk-grass, to prevent its slipping off the arrow.
The Indians have shown ingenuity in
The quiver. .
making a quiver to hold the arrows. It will contain from five to six hundred. It is generally from twelve to fourteen inches long, and in shape resembles
£ 2
52 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
a dice-box used at backgammon. The inside is prettily done in basket work, with wood not unlike bamboo, and the outside has a coat of wax. The cover is all of one piece, formed out of the skin of the tapir. Eound the centre there is fastened a loop, large enough to admit the arm and shoulder, from which it hangs when used. To the rim is tied a little bunch of silk-grass, and half of the jaw-bone of the fish called pirai, with which the Indian scrapes the point of his arrow.
Before he puts the arrows into the quiver, he links them together by two strings of cotton, one string at each end, and then folds them round a stick, which is nearly the length of the quiver. The end of the stick, which is uppermost, is guarded by two little pieces of wood crosswise, with a hoop round their extre- mities, which appears something like a wheel ; and this saves the hand from being wounded when the quiver is reversed, in order to let the bunch of arrows drop out.
There is also attached to the quiver a little kind of basket, to hold the wild cotton which is put on the blunt end of the arrow. With a quiver of poisoned arrows slung over his shoulder, and with his blow-pipe in his hand, in the same position as a soldier carries his musket, see the Macoushi Indian advancing towards the forest in quest of powises, maroudis, waracabas, and other feathered game.
These generally sit high up in the tall and tufted trees, but still are not out of the Indian's
The Indian . .
in pursuit of reach ; ior his blow-pipe, at its greatest
elevation, will send an arrow three hundred
feet. Silent as midnight he steals under them, and so
FIRST JOURNEY. 53
cautiously does he tread the ground that the fallen leaves rustle not beneath his feet. His ears are open to the least sound, while his eye, keen as that of the lynx, is employed in finding out the game in the thickest shade. Often he imitates their cry, and decoys them from tree to tree, till they are within range of his tube. Then taking a poisoned arrow from his quiver, he puts it in the blow-pipe, and collects his breath for the fatal puff.
About two feet from the end through which he blows, there are fastened two teeth of the acouri, and these serve him for a sight. Silent and swift the arrow flies, and seldom fails to pierce the object at which it is sent. Sometimes the wounded bird remains in the same tree where it was shot, and in three minutes falls down at the Indian's feet. Should he take wing, his flight is of short duration, and the Indian, following the direction he has gone, is sure to find him dead.
It is natural to imagine that, when a slight wound only is inflicted, the game will make its escape. Far
Effects of otherwise ; the wourali poison almost in- thePwou°nd°d stantaneously mixes with blood or water, bird- so that if you wet your finger, and dash it
along the poisoned arrow in the quickest manner pos- sible, you are sure to carry off some of the poison. Though three minutes generally elapse before the con- vulsions come on in the wounded bird, still a stupor evidently takes place sooner, and this stupor manifests itself by an apparent unwillingness ia the bird to move. This was very visible in a dying fowl.
Having procured a healthy full-grown one, a short piece of a poisoned blow-pipe arrow was broken oft" and
§4 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
run up into its thigh, as near as possible betwixt the skin and the flesh, in order that it might not be in- commoded by the wound. For the first minute it walked about, but walked very slowly, and did not appear the least agitated. During the second minute it stood still, and began to peck the ground ; and ere half another had elapsed, it frequently opened and shut its mouth. The tail had now dropped, and the wings almost touched the ground. By the termination of the third minute it had sat down, scarce able to support its head, which nodded, and then recovered itself, and then nodded again, lower and lower every time, like that of a weary traveller slumbering in an erect posi- tion ; the eyes alternately open and shut. The fourth minute brought on convulsions, and life and the fifth terminated together.
The flesh of the game is not in the least injured by the poison, nor does it appear to corrupt sooner than that killed by the gun or knife. The body of this fowl was kept for sixteen hours, in a climate damp and rainy, and within seven degrees of the equator ; at the end of ' which time it had contracted no bad smell whatever, and there were no symptoms of putrefaction, saving that, just round the wound, the flesh appeared some- what discoloured.
The Indian, on his return home, carefully suspends his blow-pipe from the top of his spiral roof ; seldom placing it in an oblique position, lest it should receive a cast.
Here let the blow-pipe remain suspended, while you take a view of the arms which are made to slay the larger beasts of the forest.
When the Indian intends to chase the peccari, or
FIRST JOURNEY. __ 55'
surprise the deer, or rouse the tapir from his marshy - retreat, he carries his bow and arrows, which are very- different from the weapons already described.
The bow is generally from six to seven feet long, and strung with a cord spun out of the
The bow
used for the silk-grass. The forests of Guiana furnish
chase.
many species of hard wood, tough and elastic, out of which beautiful and excellent bows are formed.
The arrows are from four to five feet in Arrows. iength, made of a yellow reed without a knot or joint It is found in great plenty up and down throughout Guiana. A piece of hard wood, about nine inches long, is inserted into the end of the reed, and fastened with cotton well waxed. A square hole, an inch deep, is then made in the end of this piece of hard wood, done tight round with cotton to keep it from splitting. Into this square hole is fitted a spike of Coucourite wood, poisoned, and which may be kept there or taken out at pleasure. A joint of bamboo, about as thick as your finger, is fitted on over the poisoned spike, to prevent accidents and defend it from the rain, and is taken off when the arrow is about to be used. Lastly, two feathers are fastened on the other end of the reed, to steady it in its flight. .
Besides his bow and arrows, the Indian carries a
little box, made of bamboo, which holds a dozen or
fifteen poisoned spikes, six inches long. They are
poisoned in the following manner : — A small
Spikes. . . j ° .
piece ot wood is dipped in the poison, and with this they give the spike a first coat. It is then exposed to the sun or fire. After it is dry, it receives
56 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
another coat, and is then dried again ; after this a third coat, and sometimes a fourth.
They take great care to put the poison on thicker at the middle than at the sides, by which means the spike retains the shape of a two-edged sword. It is rather a tedious operation to make one of these arrows complete ; and as the Indian is not famed for industry, except when pressed by hunger, he has hit upon a plan of preserving his arrows which deserves notice.
About a quarter of an inch above the part where the Coucourite spike is fixed into the square hole, he cuts it half through ; and thus, when it has entered the animal, the weight of the arrow causes it to break off there, by which means the arrow falls to the ground uninjured ; so that, should this be the only arrow he happens to have with him, and should another shot immediately occur, he has only to take another poisoned spike out of his little bamboo box, fit it on his arrow, and send it to its destination.
Thus armed with deadly poison, and hungry as the hysena, he ranges through the forest in quest of the wild beasts' track. No hound can act a surer part. Without clothes to fetter him, or shoes to bind his feet, he observes the footsteps of the game, where an Euro- pean eye could not discern the smallest vestige. He pursues it through all its turns and windings with astonishing perseverance, and success generally crowns his efforts. The animal, after receiving the poisoned arrow, seldom retreats two hundred paces before it drops.
In passing overland from the Essequibo to the Demerara, we fell in with a herd of wild hogs. Though
FIRST JOURNEY. 57
encumbered with baggage, and fatigued with a hard
day's walk, an Indian got his bow ready, and let
fly a poisoned arrow at one of them. It
hojm a wild entered the cheek-bone, and broke off. The
wild hog was found quite dead about one
hundred and seventy paces from the place where he had
been shot. He afforded us an excellent and wholesome
supper.
Thus the savage of Guiana, independent of the com- mon weapons of destruction, has it in his power to prepare a poison, by which he can generally ensure to himself a supply of animal food ; and the food so de- stroyed imbibes no deleterious qualities. Nature has been bountiful to him. She has not only ordered poisonous herbs and roots to grow in the unbounded forests through which he strays, but has also furnished an excellent reed for his arrows, and another, still more singular, for his blow-pipe ; and planted trees of an amazing hard, tough, and elastic texture, out of which he forms his bows. And in order that nothing might be wanting, she has superadded a tree which yields him a fine wax, and disseminated up and down a plant not unlike that of the pine-apple, which affords him capital bow-strings.
Having now followed the Indian in the chase, and described the poison, let us take a nearer view of its action, and observe a large animal expiring under the weight of its baneful virulence.
Many have doubted the strength of the wourali poison. Should they ever by chance read what follows, probably their doubts on that score will be settled for ever.
In the former experiment on the hog, some faint
58 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
resistance on the part of nature was observed, as if Further re- existence struggled for superiority ; but in the virulence of following instance of the sloth, life sank in e poison, (jgg^ without the least apparent contention, without a cry, without a struggle, and without a groan. This was an Ai, or three-toed sloth. It was in the possession of a gentleman who was collecting curiosities. He wished to have it killed, in order to preserve the skin, and the wourali poison was resorted to as the easiest death.
Of all animals, not even the toad and tortoise ex- cepted, this poor ill-formed creature is the most tena- cious of life. It exists long after it has received wounds which would have destroyed any other animal ; and it may be said, on seeing ar mortally wounded sloth, that life disputes with death every inch of flesh in its body.
The Ai was wounded in the leg, and put down on the floor, about two feet from the table ; it contrived to reach the leg of the table, and fastened itself on it, as if wishful to ascend. But this was its last advancing step : life was ebbing fast, though imperceptibly ; nor could this singular production of nature, which has been formed of a texture to resist death in a thousand shapes, make any stand against the wourali poison.
First, one fore-leg let go its hold, and dropped down motionless by its side ; the other gradually did the same. The fore-legs having now lost strength, the sloth slowly doubled its body, and placed its head betwixt its hind legs, which still adhered to the table ; but when the poison had affected these also, it sank to the ground, but sank so gently, that you could not distin- guish the movement from an ordinary motion; and had
FIRST JOURNEY. 59
you been ignorant that it was wounded with a poisoned arrow, you would never have suspected that it was dying. Its mouth was shut, nor had any froth or saliva collected there.
There was no subsultus tendinum, or any visible alteration in its breathing. During the tenth minute from the time it was wounded it stirred, and that was all ; and the minute after, life's last spark went out. From the time the poison began to operate, you would have conjectured that sleep was overpowering it, and you would have exclaimed, " Pressitque jacentem, dulcis et alta quies, placidseque simillima morti."
There are now two positive proofs of the effect of this fatal poison : viz. the death of the hog, and that of the sloth. But still these animals were nothing remarkable for size ; and the strength of the poison in large animals might yet be doubted, were it not for what follows.
A large well-fed ox, from nine hundred u^anc*nt *° a thousand pounds' weight, was tied to a stake by a rope sufficiently long to allow him to move to and fro. Having no large Coucourite spikes at hand, it was judged necessary, on account of his superior size, to put three wild-hog arrows into him. One was sent into each thigh just above the hock, in order to avoid wounding a vital part, and the third was shot transversely into the extremity of the nostril.
The poison seemed to take effect in four minutes. Conscious as though he would fall, the ox set himself firmly on his legs, and remained quite still in the same place, till about the fourteenth minute, when he smelled the ground, and appeared as if inclined to walk. He advanced a pace or two, staggered, and fell, and re-
60 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
mained extended on his side, with his head on the ground. His eye, a few minutes ago so bright and lively, now became fixed and dim ; and though you put your hand close to it, as if to give him a blow there, he never closed his eyelid.
His legs were convulsed, and his head from time to time started involuntarily ; but he never showed the least desire to raise it from the ground ; he breathed hard, and emitted foam from his mouth. The startings, or subsultus tendinum, now became gradually weaker and weaker ; his hinder parts were fixed in death ; and in a minute or two more his head and fore-legs ceased to stir.
Nothing now remained to show that life was still within him, except that his heart faintly beat and fluttered at intervals. In five-and-twenty minutes from the time of his being wounded, he was quite dead. His flesh was very sweet and savoury at dinner.
On taking a retrospective view of the two sections °b" different kinds of poisoned arrows, and the animals destroyed by them, it would appear that the quantity of poison must be proportioned to the animal ; and thus those probably labour under an error who imagine that the smallest particle of it introduced into the blood has almost instantaneous effects.
Make an estimate of the difference in size betwixt the fowl and the ox, and then weigh a sufficient quantity of poison for a blow-pipe arrow, with which the fowl was killed, and weigh also enough poison for three wild-hog arrows, which destroyed the ox, and it will appear that the fowl received much more poison in proportion than the ox. Hence the cause why the fowl died in five minutes, and the ox in five-and-twenty.
FIRST JOURNEY. 61
Indeed, were it the case that the smallest particle of it introduced into the blood has almost instantaneous effects, the Indian would not find it necessary to make the large arrow ; that of the blow-pipe is much easier made, and requires less poison.
And now for the antidotes, or rather the supposed antidotes. The Indians tell you, that if the wounded animal be held for a considerable time up to the mouth in water, the poison will not prove fatal ; also that the juice of the sugar-cane, poured down the throat, will counteract the effects of it. These antidotes were fairly tried upon full-grown healthy fowls, but they all died, as though no steps had been taken to preserve their lives. Eum was recommended, and given to another, but with as little success.
It is supposed by some, that wind introduced into the lungs by means of a small pair of bellows, would revive the poisoned patient, provided the operation be continued for a sufficient length of time. It may be so : but this is a difficult and a tedious mode of cure, and he who is wounded in the forest, far away from his friends, or in the hut of the savages, stands but a poor chance of being saved by it.
Had the Indians a sure antidote, it is likely they would carry it about with them, or resort to it immediately after being wounded, if at hand ; and their confidence in its efficacy would greatly diminish the horror they betray when you point a poisoned arrow at them.
One day while we were eating a red monkey, erroneously called a baboon, in Demerara, an Arowack Indian told an affecting story of what happened to a
62 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
comrade of his. He was present at his death. As it did not interest this Indian in any point to tell a false- hood, it is very probable that his account was a true one. If so, it appears that there is no certain antidote, or, at least, an antidote that could be resorted to in a case of xirgent need ; for the Indian gave up all thoughts of life as soon as he was wounded.
The Arowack Indian said it was but four years ago, that he and his companion were ranging in the forest in quest of game. His companion took a poisoned arrow, and sent it at a red monkey in a tree above him. It was nearly a perpendicular shot. The arrow missed the monkey, and, in the descent, struck him in the arm, a little above the elbow. He was convinced it was all over with him. " I shall never," said he to his companion, in a faltering voice, and looking at his bow as he said it, " I shall never," said he, " bend this bow again." And having said that, he took off his little bamboo poison box, which hung across his shoulder, and putting it together with his bow and arrows on the ground, he laid himself down close by them, bid his companion farewell, and never spoke more.
He who is unfortunate enough to be wounded by a poisoned arrow from Macoushia, had better not depend upon the common antidotes for a cure. Many who have been in Guiana will recommend immediate immer- sion in water, or to take the juice of the sugar-cane, or to fill the mouth full of salt ; and they recommend these antidotes, because they have got them from the Indians. But were you to ask them if they ever saw these an- tidotes used with success, it is ten to one their answer woitld be in the negative.
FIRST JOURNEY. 63
Wherefore let him reject these antidotes as unprofit- able, and of no avail. He has got an active and a deadly foe within him, which, like Shakspeare's fell Sergeant Death, is strict in his arrest, and will allow him but little time — very — very little time. In a few minutes he will be numbered with the dead. Life ought, if possible, to be preserved, be the expense ever so great. Should the part affected admit of it, let a ligature be tied tight round the wound, and have immediate recourse to the knife :
" Continue, culpam'ferro compesce priusquam, Dira per iufaustum serpant contagia corpus."
And now, kind reader, it is time to bid thee farewell. The two ends proposed have been obtained. The Por- tuguese inland frontier fort has been reached, and the Macoushi wourali poison acquired. The account of this excursion through the interior of Guiana has been sub- mitted to thy perusal, in order to induce thy abler genius to undertake a more extensive one. If any diffi- culties have arisen, or fevers come on, they have been caused by the periodical rains, which fall in torrents, as the sun approaches the tropic of Cancer. In dry weather there would be no difficulties or sickness.
Amongst the many satisfactory conclusions which thou Avouldst be able to draw during the journey, there is one which, perhaps, would please thee not a little ; and that is, with regard to dogs. Many a time, no doubt, thou hast heard it hotly disputed, that dogs existed in Guiana previous to the arrival of the Spaniards in those parts. Whatever the Spaniards introduced, and which bore no resemblance to anything the Indians had been accustomed to see, retains its Spanish name to this day.
64 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
Thus the Warrow, the Arowack, the Acoway, the Macoushi, and Carib tribes, call a hat, sombrero ; a shirt, or any kind of cloth, camisa ; a shoe, zapato ; a letter, carta; a fowl, gallina; gunpowder, colvora (Spanish, polvora) ; ammunition, bala ; a cow, vaca ; and a dog, perro.
This argues strongly against the existence of dogs in Guiana, before it was discovered by the Spaniards, and probably may be of use to thee, in thy next canine dispute.
In a political point of view, this country presents a large field for speculation. A few years ago, there was but little inducement for any Englishman to explore the interior of these rich and fine colonies, as the British Government did not con- sider them worth holding at the peace of Amiens. Since that period their mother country has been blotted out from the list of nations, and America has unfolded a new sheet of politics. On one side, the crown of Braganza, attacked by an ambitious chieftain, has fled from the palace of its ancestors, and now seems fixed on the banks of the Janeiro. Cayenne has yielded to its arms. La Plata has raised the standard of indepen- dence, and thinks itself sufficiently strong to obtain a Government of its own. On the other side, the Caraccas are in open revolt ; and should Santa Fe Join them in good earnest, they may form a powerful association.
Thus, on each side of ci-devant Dutch Guiana, most unexpected and astonishing changes have taken place. Will they raise or lower it in the scale of estimation at the Court of St. James's ? "Will they be of benefit to these grand and extensive colonies 1 Colonies enjoy-
FIRST JOURNEY. 60
ing perpetual summer. Colonies of the richest soil. Colonies containing within themselves everything ne- cessary for their support. Colonies, in fine, so varied in their quality and situation, as to be capable of bringing to perfection every tropical production ; and only wanting the support of Government, and an en- lightened governor, to render them as fine as the finest portions of the equatorial regions. Kind reader, fare thee well.
LETTER TO THE PORTUGUESE COMMANDER.
MUY SEXOR,
Como no tengo el honor, de ser conocido de VM. lo pienso major, y mas decoroso, quedarme aqui, hastaque huviere recibido su respitesta. Haviendo caminado hasta la chozo, adonde estoi, no quisiere volverme, antes de haver visto la fortaleza de los Portugueses ; y pido licencia de VM. para que me adelante. Honradissimos son mis motivos, ni tengo proyecto ninguno, o de comercio, o de la soldadesca, no sieudo yo, o comerciante, o oficial. Hidalgo catolico soy, -de hacienda in Ynglatierra, y muchos anos de mi vida he pasado en caminar. Ultimamente, de Demeraria vengo, la qual dexe el 5 dia de Abril, para ver este hermoso pais, y coger unas curiosidades, especialmente, el veneno, que se llama wourali. Las mas recentes noticias que tenian en Demeraria, antes de mi salida, eran medias tristes, medias alegres. Tristes digo, viendo que Valencia ha caido en poder del enemigo comun, y el General Blake, y sus valientes tropas quedan prisioneros de guerra. Alegres, al contrario, porque Milord Wellington se ha apoderado de Ciudad Rodrigo. A pesar de la caida de Valencia, parece claro al mundo, que las cosas del enemigo, estan andando, de pejor a pejor cada dia. Nosotros debemos dar gracias al Altissimo, por haver sido ser- vido dexarnos castigar ultimamente, a los robadores de sus santas Yglesias. Se vera VM. que yo no escribo Portugues ni aun lo hablo, pero, haviendo aprendido el Castellano, no nos faltara medio de communicar y tener conversacion. Ruego se
66 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
escuse esta carta escrita sin tinta, porque un Indio dcxo caer mi tintero y quebrose. Dios le de a VM. muckos aiios de salud. Entretanto, tengo el honor de ser
Su mas obedeciente servidor,
CARLOS WATERTON.
EEMAEKS.
"Incertus, quo fata ferant, ubi sistere detur."
KIND and gentle reader, if the journey in quest of
the wourali poison has engaged thy attention, probably
thou mayest recollect that the traveller took leave of
thee at Fort St. Joachim, on the Rio Branco. Shouldst
thou wish to know what befell him after-
Illness at
Fort st. Jo- -wards, excuse the following uninteresting
achim.
narrative.
Having had a return of fever, and aware that the
further he advanced into these wild and lonely regions,
the less would be the chance of regaining his health ;
Returns to he gave UP a^ idea of proceeding onwards,
Demerara. ^ went giowiv ^ck towards the Deme-
fara, nearly by the same route he had come. Fails of the On descending the falls in the Essequibo, iseqmbo. -which form an oblique line quite across the river, it was resolved to push through them, the down- ward stream being in the canoe's favour. At a little distance from the place, a large tree had fallen into the river, and in the meantime the canoe was lashed to one of its branches.
The roaring of the water was dreadful; it foamed and dashed over the rocks with a tremendous spray, like breakers on a lee shore, threatening destruction to whatever approached it. You would have thought, by she confusion it caused in the river, and the whirlpools
FIRST JOURNEY. 67
it made, that Scylla and Charybdis, and their whole pro- geny, had left the Mediterranean, and come and settled here. The channel was barely twelve feet wide, and the torrent in rushing down formed transverse furrows, which showed how near the rocks were to the surface.
Nothing could surpass the skill of the Indian who steered the canoe. He looked stedfastly at it, then at the rocks, then cast an eye on the channel, and then looked at the canoe again. It was in vain to speak. The sound was lost in the roar of waters ; but his eye showed that he had already passed it in imagination. He held up his paddle in a position, as much as to say, that he would keep exactly amid channel ; and then made a sign to cut the bush-rope that held the canoe to the fallen tree. The canoe drove down the torrent with inconceivable rapidity. It did not touch the rocks once all the way. The Indian proved to a nicety, " niedio tutissimus ibis."
Shortly after this it rained almost day and night, the Thunder and lightning flashing incessantly, and the roar of thunder awful beyond expression.
The fever returned, and pressed so heavy on him,
Fever re- that to all appearance his last day's march
was over. However, it abated ; his spirits
rallied, and he marched again ; and after delays and
inconveniences he reached the house of his worthy
Reaches Mi- friend Mr. Edmonstone, in Mibiri Creek,
bin creek. wWch falls j^ the Demerara. No words
of his can do justice to the hospitality of that gentleman, whose repeated encounters with the hostile negroes in the forest have been publicly rewarded, and will be remembered in the colony for years to come.
Here he learned that an eruption had taken place in
68 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
St. Vincent's ; and thus the noise heard in the night of the first of May, which had caused such terror amongst the Indians, and made the garrison at Fort St. Joachim remain under arms the rest of the night, is accounted for.
Sails for After experiencing every kindness and attention from Mr. Edmonstone, he sailed for Granada, and from thence to St. Thomas's, a few days before poor Captain Peake lost his life on his own quarter-deck, bravely fighting for his country on the coast of Guiana.
St. Thomas's At St. Thomas's they show you a tower, a little distance from the town, which they say formerly belonged to a bucanier chieftain. Probably the fury of besiegers has reduced it to its present dis- mantled state. What still remains of it bears testimony of its former strength, and may brave the attack of time for centuries. You cannot view its ruins without calling to mind the exploits of those fierce and hardy hunters, long the terror of the western world. While you admire their iindaunted courage, you lament that it was often stained with cruelty ; while you extol their scrupulous justice to each other, you will find a want of it towards the rest of mankind. Often possessed of enormous wealth, often in extreme poverty, often trium- phant on the ocean, and often forced to fly to the forests ; their life was an . ever-changing scene of ad- vance and retreat, of glory and disorder, of luxury and famine. Spain treated them as outlaws and pirates, while other European powers publicly disowned them. They, on the other hand, maintained that injustice on the part of Spain first forced them to take up arms in self-defence; and that, whilst they kept in-
FIRST JOURNEY. 69
violable the laws which they had framed for their own common benefit and protection, they had a right to consider as foes those who treated them as outlaws. Under this impression they drew the sword, and rushed on as though in lawful war, and divided the spoils of victory in the scale of justice.
After leaving St. Thomas's, a severe ter- ThomasXami ^an ague» every now and then, kept putting a t'ertknilue the traveller in mind that his shattered Eiit'ian™310 frame> " starting and shivering in the incon- stant blast, meagre and pale, the ghost of what it was," wanted repairs. Three years elapsed after arriving in England, before the ague took its final leave of him.
During that time several experiments were
Experi- . r
mentsinLon- made with the wourali poison. In London
don of the r
wourali poi- an ass was inoculated with it, and died in
son.
twelve minutes. The poison was inserted into the leg of another, round which a bandage had been previously tied a little above the place where the wourali was introduced. He walked about as usual, and ate his food as though all were right. After an hour had elapsed, the bandage was untied, and ten minutes after, death overtook him.
A she-ass received the wourali poison in the shoulder, and died apparently in ten minutes. An incision was then made in its windpipe, and through it the lungs were regularly inflated for two hours with a pair of bellows. Suspended animation returned. The ass held up her head, and looked around; but the inflating being discontinued, she sunk once more in apparent death. The artificial breathing was immediately recom- menced, and continued without intermission for two
70 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
hours more. This saved the ass from final dissolution : she rose up and walked about ; she seemed neither in agitation nor in pain. The -wound through which the poison entered was healed without difficulty. Her con- stitution, however, was so severely affected, that it was long a doubt if ever she would be well again. She looked lean and sickly for above a year, but began to mend the spring after ; and by Midsummer became fat and frisky.
The kind-hearted reader will rejoice on learning that Earl Percy, pitying her misfortunes, sent her down from London to Walton Hall, near "VVakefield. There she goes by the name of Wouralia. Wouralia shall be sheltered from the wintry storm ; and when summer comes, she shall feed in the finest pasture. ~No burden shall be placed upon her, and she shall end her days in peace.*
For three revolving autumns, the ague-beaten wan- derer never saw, without a sigh, the swallow bend her flight towards warmer regions. He wished to go too, but could not ; for sickness had enfeebled him, and prudence pointed out the folly of roving again, too soon, across the northern tropic. To be sure, the Con- tinent was now open, and change of air might prove beneficial ; but there was nothing very tempting in a trip across the Channel ; and as for a tour through England ! — England has long ceased to be the land for adventures. Indeed, when good King Arthur reappears to claim his crown, he will find things strangely altered here ; and may we not look for his coming ? for there is written upon his grave -stone : —
* Poor Wouralia breathed her last on the 15th of February, 1839, having survived the operation nearly flve-and-twenty years.
FIRST JOURNEY. 71
"Hie jacet Arturus, Rex quondam Rexque futurus."
" Here Arthur lies, who formerly Was king— and king again to be."
Don Quixote was always of opinion that this famous king did not die, but that he was changed into a raven by enchantment, and that the English are momentarily expecting his return. Be this as it may, it is certain that when he reigned here, all was harmony and joy The browsing herds passed from vale to vale, the swains sang from the bluebell-teeming groves, and nymphs, with eglantine and roses in their neatly-braided hair, went hand in hand to the flowery mead, to weave gar- lauds for their lambkins. If by chance some rude un- civil fellow dared to molest them, or attempted to throw thorns in their path, there was sure to be a knight- errant, not far off, ready to rush forward in their de- fence. But, alas ! in these degenerate days it is not so. Should a harmless cottage maid wander out of the highway to pluck a primrose or two in the neighbour- ing field, the haughty owner sternly bids her retire ; and if a pitying swain hasten to escort her back, he is perhaps seized by the gaunt house-dog ere he reach her !
^Eneas's route on the other side of Styx could not have been much worse than this, though, by his account, when he got back to earth, it appears that he had fallen in with " Bellua Lernae, horrendum stridens, flammis- que, armata Chimsera."
Moreover, he had a sybil to guide his steps ; and as such a conductress, now-a-days, could not be got for love or money, it was judged most prudent to refrain from sauntering through this land of freedom, and wait with patience the return of health. At last this long- looked-for, ever-welcome stranger, came.
72 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
SECOND JOURNEY.
Sails for Per- IN the year 1816, two days before the aco' vernal equinox, I sailed from Liverpool for Pernambuco, in the southern hemisphere, on the coast of Brazil There is little at this time of the year, in the European part of the Atlantic, to engage the atten- tion of the naturalist. As you go down the channel, you see a few divers and gannets. The middle-sized gulls, with a black spot at the end of the wings, attend you a little way into the Bay of Biscay. When it blows a hard gale of wind, the stormy petrel makes its appearance. While the sea runs mountains high, and every wave threatens destruction to the labouring vessel, this little harbinger of storms is seen enjoying itself, on rapid pinion, up and down the roaring billows. When the storm is over, it appears no more. It is known to every English sailor by the name of Mother Carey's chicken. It must have been hatched in ^Eolus's cave, amongst a clutch of squalls and tempests ; for whenever they get out upon the ocean, it always con- trives to be of the party.
Though the calms, and storms, and adverse
Trade winds. . ° .
winds in these latitudes are vexatious, still, when you. reach the trade winds you are amply repaid for all disappointments and inconveniences. The trade winds prevail about thirty degrees on each side of the equator. This part of the ocean may be called the Elysian Fields of Neptune's empire ; and the torrid zone, notwithstanding Ovid's remark, " non est habita- bilis sestu," is rendered healthy and pleasant by these
SECOND JOURNEY. 73
gently-blowing breezes. The ship glides smoothly on, and you soon find yourself within the northern tropic. When you are on it, Cancer is just over your head, and betwixt him and Capricorn is the high road to the zodiac, forty- seven degrees wide, famous for Phaeton's misad- venture. His father begged and entreated him not to take it into his head to drive parallel to the five zones, but to mind and keep on the turnpike which runs obliquely across the equator. "There you will dis- tinctly see," said he, "the ruts of my chariot wheels, ' manifesta rotre vestigia cernes.' " " But," added he, " even suppose you keep on it, and avoid the by-roads, nevertheless, my dear boy, believe me, you will be most sadly put to your shifts ; ' ardua prima via est,' the first part of the road is confoundedly steep ! ' ultima via prona est,' and after that it is all down hill ! More- over, 'per insidias iter est, formasque ferarum,' the road is full of nooses and bull-dogs, ' Haemoniosque arcus,' and spring guns, ' ssevaque ' circuitu, curvan- tem brachia longo, Scorpio,' and steel traps of uncom- mon size and shape." These were nothing in the eyes of Phaeton : go he would ; so off he set, full speed, four-in-hand. He had a tough drive of it ; and after doing a prodigious deal of mischief, very luckily for the world, he got thrown out of the box, and tumbled into the river Po.
Some of our modern bloods have been shallow enough to try to ape this poor empty-headed coachman, on a little scale, making London their zodiac. Well for them if tradesmen's bills, and other trivial perplexities, have not caused them to be thrown into the King's Bench. The productions of the torrid zone are un-
Torrid zone.
commonly grand. Its plains, its swamps, its
74 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
savannas, and forests, abound' with the largest serpents and wild beasts ; and its trees are the habitation of the most beautiful of the feathered race. "While the tra- veller in the old world is astonished at the elephant, the tiger, the lion, and the rhinoceros, he who wanders through the torrid regions of the new, is lost in admi- ration at the cotingas, the toucans, the humming-birds, and aras.
The ocean, likewise, swarms with curiosi- ties. Probably the flying-fish may be con- sidered as one of the most singular. This little scaled inhabitant of water and air seems to have been more favoured than the rest of its finny brethren. It can rise out of the waves, and on wing visit the domain of the birds. After flying two or three hundred yards, the intense heat of the sun has dried its pellucid wings, and it is obliged to wet them, in order to continue its flight. It just drops into the ocean for a moment, and then rises again and flies on ; and then descends to re- moisten them, and then up again into the air : thus passing its life, sometimes wet, sometimes dry, sometimes in sunshine, arid sometimes in the pale moon's nightly beam, as pleasure dictates, or as need requires. The additional assistance of wings is not thrown away upon it. It has full occupation both for fins and wings, as its life is in perpetual danger.
The bonito and albicore chase it day and night ; but the dolphin is its worst and swiftest foe. If it escape into the air, the dolphin pushes on with proportional velocity beneath, and is ready to snap it up the moment it descends to wet its wings.
You will often see above one hundred of these little marine aerial fugitives on the wing at once. They
SECOND JOURNEY. 75
appear to use every exertion to prolong their flight, hut vain are all their efforts; for when the last drop of water on their wings is dried up, their flight is at an end, and they must drop into the ocean. Some are instantly devoured by their merciless pursuer, part escape by swimming, and others get out again as quick as possible, and trust once more to their wings.
It often happens that this unfortunate little creature, after alternate dips and flights, finding all its exertions of no avail, at last drops on board the vessel, verifying the old remark,
" Ineidit in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Chary bdim."
There, stunned by the fall, it beats the deck with its tail and dies. When eating it, you would take it for a fresh herring. The largest measure from fourteen to fifteen inches in length. The dolphin, after pursuing it to the ship, sometimes forfeits his own life.
In days of yore, the musician used to play in softest, sweetest strain, and then take an airing amongst the dolphins ; " inter delphinas Arion." But now-a-days, our tars have quite capsized the custom ; and instead of riding ashore on the dolphin, they invite the dolphin aboard. While he is darting and playing around the vessel, a sailor goes out to the spritsailyard-arm, and with a long staff, leaded at one end, and armed at the other with five barbed spikes, he heaves it at him. If successful in his aim, there is a fresh mess for all hands. The dying dolphin affords a superb and brilliant sight:
" Mille trahit moriens, adverse sole colores."
All the colours of the rainbow pass and repass in rapid succession over his body, till the dark hand of death closes the scene.
76 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
From the Cape de Verd islands to the coast of Brazil, you see several different kinds of gulls, which, probably, are bred in the island of St. Paul. Some- times the large bird called the Frigate Pelican, soars majestically over the vessel, and the tropic bird comes near enough to let you have a fair view of the long feathers in his tail. On the line, when it is calm, sharks of a tremendous size make their appearance. They are descried from the ship by means of the dorsal fin, which is above the Avater.
On entering the bay of Pernambuco, the
cj,f gate Peli" Frigate Pelican is seen watching the shoals
of fish from a prodigious height. It seldom
descends without a successful attack on its numerous
prey below.
As you approach the shore, the view is charming. The hills are clothed with wood, gradually rising towards the interior, none of them of any considerable height. A singular reef of rocks runs parallel to the coast, and forms the harbour of Pernam- buco. The vessels are moored betwixt it and the town, safe from every storm. You enter the harbour through a very narrow passage, close by a fort built on the reef. The hill of Olinda, studded with houses and convents, is on your right hand, and an island thickly planted with cocoa-nut trees adds considerably to the scene on your left. There are two strong forts on the isthmus, betwixt Olinda and Pernambuco, and a pillar midway to aid the pilot.
Pernambuco probably contains upwards
Pernambuco
of fifty thousand souls. It stands on a flat, > and is divided into three parts ; a peninsula, an island, and the continent. Though within a few degrees of
SECOND JOURNEY. 77
the line, its climate is remarkably salubrious, and ren- dered almost temperate by the refreshing sea-breeze. Had art and judgment contributed their portion to its natural advantages, Pernambuco, at this day, would have been a stately ornament to the coast of Brazil. On viewing it, it will strike you that every one has built his house entirely for himself, and deprived public convenience of the little claim she had a right to put in. You would wish that this city, so famous for its har- bour, so happy in its climate, and so well situated for commerce, could have risen under the flag of Dido, in lieu of that of Braganza.
As you walk down the streets, the appearance of the
houses is not much in their favour. Some
housed*8 and °^ ^em are very high, and some very low ;
some newly whitewashed, and others stained,
and mouldy, and neglected, as though they had no owner.
The balconies, too, are of a dark and gloomy appear- ance. They are not, in general, open, as in most tropical cities, but grated like a farmer's dairy window, though somewhat closer.
There is a lamentable want of cleanliness in the streets. The impurities from the houses, and the accu- mulation of litter from the beasts of burden, are un- pleasant sights to the passing stranger. He laments the want of a police as he goes along ; and when the wind begins to blow, his nose and eyes are too often exposed to a cloud of very unsavoury dust.
When you view the port of Pernambuco, full of
ships of all nations ; when you know that
nambuco Per~ ^ie Behest commodities of Europe, Africa,
and Asia are brought to it ; when you see
immense quantities of cotton, dye-wood, and the choicest
78 "WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
fruits pouring into the town, you are apt to wonder at the little attention these people pay to the common comforts which one always expects to find in a large and opulent city. However, if the inhabitants are satisfied, there is nothing more to be said. Should they ever be convinced that inconveniences exist, and that nuisances are too frequent, the remedy is in their own hands. At present, certainly, they seem perfectly regardless of them; and the Cap tain- General of Per- nambuco walks through the streets with as apparent content and composure, as an English statesman would proceed down Charing-cross. Custom reconciles every- thing. In a week or two the stranger himself begins to feel less the things which annoyed him so much upon his first arrival, and after a few months' residence, he thinks no more about them, while he is partaking of the hospitality, and enjoying the elegance and splendour within doors in this great city.
Close by the river-side stands what is
Pslcics of
the Captain- called the, palace of the Captain-General of Pernambuco. Its form and appearance alto- gether, strike the traveller that it was never intended for the use it is at present put to.
Eeader, throw a veil over thy recollection for a little while, and forget the cruel, unjust, and unmerited cen- sures thou hast heard against an unoffending order. This palace -was once the Jesuits' college, and originally built by those charitable fathers. Ask the aged and respectable inhabitants of Pernambuco, and they will tell thee that the destruction of the Society
Destruction
of the Society of Jesus was a terrible disaster to the public,
of Jesus.
and its consequences severely felt to the present day.
SECOND JOURNEY. 79
"When Pombal took the reins of power into his own hands, virtue and learning beamed bright within the college walls. Public catechism to the children, and religious instruction to all, flowed daily from the mouths of its venerable priests.
They were loved, revered, and respected throughout the whole town. The illuminating philosophers of the day had sworn to exterminate Christian knowledge, and the college of Pernambuco was doomed to founder in the general storm. To the long-lasting sorrow and dis- grace of Portugal, the philosophers blinded her king, and nattered her prime minister. Pombal was exactly the tool these sappers of every public and private virtue wanted. He had the naked sword of power in his own hand, and his heart was as hard as flint. He struck a mortal blow, and the Society of Jesus, throughout the Portuguese dominions, was no more.
One morning all the fathers of the college in Per- nambuco, some of them very old and feeble, were sud- denly ordered into the refectory. They had notice beforehand of the fatal storm, in pity from the governor, but not one of them abandoned his charge. They had done their duty and had nothing to fear. They bowed with resignation to the will of Heaven. As soon as they had all reached the refectory, they were all locked up, and never more did they see their rooms, their friends, their scholars, or acquaintance. In the dead of the following night, a strong guard of soldiers literally drove them through the streets to the water's edge. They were then conveyed in boats aboard a ship, and steered for Bahia. Those who survived the barbarous treatment they experienced from Pombal's creatures, were at last ordered to Lisbon. The college of Per-
80 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
nambuco was plundered, and sortie time after an ele- phant was kept there.
Thus the arbitrary hand of power, in one night, smote and swept away the sciences ; to which succeeded the low vulgar buffoonery of a showman. Virgil and Cicero made way for a wild beast from Angola ! and now a guard is on duty at the very gate where, in times long past, the poor were daily fed ! ! !
Trust not, kind reader, to the envious remarks which their enemies have scattered far and near ; believe not the stories of those who have had a hand in the sad tragedy. Go to Brazil, and see with thine own eyes the effect of Pombal's short-sighted policy. There vice reigns triumphant, and learning is at its lowest ebb. Neither is this to be wondered at. Destroy the com- pass, and will the vessel find her far distant port ? Will the flock keep together, and escape the wolves, after the shepherds are all slain ? The Brazilians were told, that public education would go on just as usual. They might have asked Government, who so able to instruct our youth, as those whose knowledge is prover- bial 1 who so fit, as those who enjoy our entire confidence? who so worthy, as those whose lives are irreproachable 1
They soon found that those who succeeded the fathers of the Society of Jesus, had neither their manner nor their abilities. They had not made the instruction of youth their particular study. Moreover, they entered on the field after a defeat, where the officers had all been slain ; where the plan of the campaign was lost ; where all was in sorrow and dismay. ISTo exertions of theirs could rally the dispersed, or skill prevent the fatal consequences. At the present day, the seminary of Olinda, in comparison with the former Jesuits'
SECOND JOURNEY. 81
college, is only as the waning moon's beam to the sun's meridian splendour.
When you visit the places where those learned fathers once flourished, and see, with your own eyes, the evils their dissolution has caused ; when you hear the inha- bitants telling you how good, how clever, how cha- ritable they were, — what will you think of our poet laureate, for calling them, in his " History of Brazil," " Missioners, whose zeal the most fanatical was directed by the coolest policy 1 "
"Was it fanatical to renounce the honours and com- forts of this transitory life, in order to gain eternal glory in the next, by denying themselves, and taking up the cross ? Was it fanatical to preach salvation to innumerable wild hordes of Americans ? to clothe the naked ? to encourage the repenting sinner ? to aid the dying Christian ? The fathers of the Society of Jesus did all this. And for this their zeal is pronounced to be " the most fanatical, directed by the coolest policy." It will puzzle many a clear brain to comprehend how it is possible, in the nature of things, that zeal the most fanatical Should be directed by the coolest policy. Ah, Mr. Laureate, Mr. Laureate, that " quidlibet audendi " of yours may now and then gild the poet, at the same time that it makes the historian cut a sorry figure !
Could Father ^obrega rise from the tomb, he would thus address you : — " Ungrateful Englishman, you have drawn a great part of your information from the writings of the Society of Jesus, and in return you attempt to stain its character by telling your countrymen that ' we taught the idolatry we believed ! ' In speaking of me, you say, it was my happy fortune to be stationed in a country where none but the good principles of my order
G
82 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
were called into action. Ungenerous laureate, the nar- row policy of the times has kept your countrymen in the dark with regard to the true character of the Society of Jesus ; and you draw the bandage still tighter over their eyes, by a malicious insinuation. I lived, and taught, and died in Brazil, where you state that none but the good principles of my order were called into action, and still, in most absolute contradiction to this, you remark we believed the idolatry we taught in Brazil. Thus we brought none but good principles into action, and still taught idolatry.
"Again, you state there is no individual to whose talents Brazil is so greatly and permanently indebted as mine, and that I must be regarded as the founder of that system so successfully pursued by the Jesuits in Paraguay ; a system productive of as much good as is compatible with pious fraud. Thus you make me, at one and the same time, a teacher of none but good principles, and a teacher of idolatry, and a believer in idolatry, and still the founder of a system for which Brazil is greatly and permanently indebted to me, though, by the bye, the system was only productive of as much good as is compatible with pious fraud !
" "What means all this ? After reading such incom- parable nonsense, should your countrymen wish to be properly informed concerning the Society of Jesus, there are in England documents enough to show that the system of the Jesuits was a system of Christian charity towards their fellow-creatures, administered in a manner which human prudence judged best calculated to ensure success ; and that the idolatry which you un- charitably affirm they taught, was really and truly the very same faith which the Catholic church taught for
SECOND JOURNEY. 83
centuries in England, which she still teaches to those who wish to hear her, and which she will continue to teach, pure and unspotted, till time shall be no more."
The environs of Pernambuco are very pretty. You see country houses in all directions, and the p«-nambucof appearance of here and there a sugar plan- tation enriches the scenery. Palm-trees, cocoa-nut-trees, orange and lemon groves, and all the different fruits peculiar to Brazil, are here in the greatest abundance.
At Olinda there is a national botanical garden ; it wants space, produce, and improvement. The forests, which are several leagues off, abound with birds, beasts, insects, and serpents. Besides a brilliant plumage, many of the birds have a very fine song. The troupiale, noted for its rich colours, sings delightfully in the environs of Pernambuco. The red-headed finch, larger than the European sparrow, pours forth a sweet and varied strain, in company with two species of wrens, a little before daylight. There are also several species of the thrush, which have a song somewhat different from that of the European thrush ; and two species of the linnet, whose strain is so soft and sweet that it dooms them to captivity in the houses. A bird called here Sangre do Buey, blood of the ox, cannot fail to engage your attention : he is of the passerine tribe, and very common about the houses ; the wings and tail are black, and every other part of the body a flaming red. In Guiana, there is a species exactly the same as this in shape, note, and economy, but differing in colour, its whole body being like black velvet; on its breast a tinge of red appears through the black. Thus nature has ordered this little Tangara to put on mourning
84 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
to the north of the line, and wear scarlet to the south of it.
For three months in the year the environs of Pernam- buco are animated beyond description. From November to March the weather is particu- larly fine ; then it is that rich and poor, young and old, foreigners and natives, all issue from the city to enjoy the country till Lent approaches, when back they hie them. Villages and hamlets, where nothing before but rags was seen, now shine in all the elegance of dress ; every house, every room, every shed become eligible places for those whom nothing but extreme necessity could have forced to live there a few weeks ago : some join in the merry dance, others saunter up and down the orange-groves; and towards evening the roads become a moving scene of silks and jewels. The gaming- tables have constant visitors ; there thousands are daily and nightly lost and won ; parties even sit down to try their luck round the outside of the door as well as in the room : —
" Vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus aulas Luctus et ul trices, posuere sedilia curse."
About six or seven miles from Pernambuco stands a
pretty little village called Monteiro; the
river runs close by it, and its rural beauties
seem to surpass all others in the neighbourhood ; there
the Captain-General of Pernambuco resides during this
time of merriment and joy.
The traveller who allots a portion of his time to peep at his fellow-creatures in their relaxations, and accustoms himself to read their several little histories in their looks and gestures as he goes musing on, may have full occupation for an hour or two every day at this season
SECOND JOURNEY. 85
amid the variegated scenes around the pretty village of Monteiro. In the evening groups sitting at the door, he may sometimes see with a sigh how wealth and the prince's favour cause a booby to pass for a Solon, and be reverenced as such, while perhaps a poor neglected Camoens stands silent at a distance, awed by the dazzling glare of wealth and power. Retired from the public road he may see poor Maria sitting under a palm- tree, with her elbow in her lap, and her head leaning on one side within her hand, weeping over her for- bidden bans. And as he moves on " with wandering step and slow," he may hear a broken-hearted nymph ask her faithless swain, —
" How could you say my face was fair,
And yet that face forsake ? How could you win my virgin heart, Yet leave that heart to break?"
One afternoon, in an unfrequented part not far from Monteiro, these adventures were near being brought to a speedy and a final close : six or seven blackbirds, with a white spot betwixt the shoulders, were making a noise, and passing to and fro on the lower branches of a tree in an abandoned, weed-grown, orange orchard. In the long grass underneath the tree, apparently a pale green grasshopper was fluttering, as though it had got entangled in it. When you once fancy that the thing you are looking at is really what you take it for, the more you look at it the more you are convinced it is so. In the present case, this was a grasshopper beyond all doubt, and nothing more remained to be done but to wait in patience till it had settled, in order that you might run no risk of breaking its legs in attempting to lay hold of it while it was fluttering — it still kept fluttering ; and having quietly approached it, intending
86 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
to make sure of it — behold, the head of a large rattle- snake appeared in the grass close by : an instantaneous spring backwards prevented fatal consequences. What had been taken for a grasshopper was, in fact, the -elevated rattle of the snake in the act of announcing that he was quite prepared, though unwilling, to make a sure and deadly spring. He shortly after passed slowly from under the orange-tree to the neighbouring- wood on the side of a hill : as he moved over a place bare of grass and weeds, he appeared to be about eight feet long : it was he who had engaged the attention of the birds, and made them heedless of danger from another quarter : they flew away on his retiring ; one alone left his little life in the air, destined to become a specimen, mute and motionless, for the inspection of the curious in a far distant clime.
It was now the rainy season ; the birds
Rainy Season.
were moulting : fifty-eight specimens of the handsomest of them in the neighbourhood of Pemam- buco had been collected ; and it was time to proceed elsewhere. The conveyance to the interior was by horses ; and this mode, together with the heavy rains, would expose preserved specimens to almost certain damage. The journey to Maranham by land, would take at least forty days. The route was not wild enough to engage the attention of an explorer, or civilized enough to afford common comforts to a traveller. By sea there were no opportunities, except slave ships. As the transporting poor negroes from port to port for sale pays well in Brazil, the ships' decks are crowded with them. This would not do.
Excuse here, benevolent reader, a small tribute of gratitude to an Irish family, whose urbanity and goodness
SECOND JOURNEY. 87
have long gained it the esteem and respect of all ranks in Pernambuco. The kindness and attention I received from Dennis Kearney, Esq. and his amiable lady, will be remembered with gratitude to my dying day.
After wishing farewell to this hospitable cEyeaneksf°r family, I embarked on board a Portuguese brig, with poor accommodations, for Cayenne in Guiana. The most eligible bed-room was the top of a hen-coop on deck. Even here, an unsavoury little beast, called bug, was neither shy nor deficient in appetite.
The Portuguese seamen are famed for catching fish. One evening, under the line, four sharks made their appearance in the wake of the vessel. The sailors caught them all.
On the fourteenth day after leaving Pernambuco, the brig cast anchor off the island of Cayenne. The entrance is beautiful. To windward, not far off, there are two bold wooded islands, called the Eather and Mother; and near them are others, their children, smaller, though as beautiful as their parents. Another is seen a long way to leeward of the family, and seems as if it had strayed from home, and cannot find his way back. The French call it "1'enfant perdu." As you pass the islands, the stately hills on the main, ornamented with ever-verdant foliage, show you that this is by far the sublimest scenery on the sea-coast, from the Amazons to the Oroonoquo. On casting your eye towards Dutch Guiana, you will see that the moun- tains become unconnected and few in number; and long before you reach Surinam, the Atlantic wave washes a flat and muddy shore.
Considerably to windward of Cayenne, and about
88 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
>
twelve leagues from land, stands a stately
Constable rock. J
and towering rock, called the Constable. As nothing grows on it to tempt greedy and aspiring man to claim it as his own, the sea-fowl rest and raise their offspring there. The bird called the frigate is ever soaring round its rugged summit. Hither the phaeton bends his rapid flight, and flocks of rosy flamingos here defy the fowler's cunning. All along the coast, opposite the Constable, and indeed on every uncultivated part of it to windward and leeward, are seen innumerable quantities of snow-white egrets, scarlet curlews, spoon- bills, and flamingos.
Cayenne is capable of being a noble and Cayenne*7 °f productive colony. At present it is thought
to be the poorest on the coast of Guiana. Its estates are too much separated one from the other, by immense tracts of forest ; and the revolutionary war, like a cold eastern wind, has chilled their zeal, and blasted their best expectations.
The clove-tree, the cinnamon, pepper and nutmeg, and many other choice spices and fruits of the Eastern and Asiatic regions, produce abundantly in Cayenne.
The town itself is prettily laid out, and
was once well fortified. They tell you it might easily have been defended against the invading force of the two united nations ; but Victor Hugues, its governor, ordered the tri-coloured flag to be struck ; and ever since that day, the standard of Braganza has waved on the ramparts of Cayenne.
Governor of He who has received humiliations from cayenne. ^ hand of thig haughty, iron-hearted
governor may see him now in Cayenne, stripped of all his revolutionary honours, broken down and ruined,
SECOND JOURNEY. 89
and under arrest in his own house. He has four accomplished daughters, respected hy the whole town. Towards the close of day, when the sun's rays are no longer oppressive, these much-pitied ladies are seen walking up and down the balcony with their aged parent, trying, by their kind and filial attention, to remove the settled gloom from his too guilty brow. This was not the time for a traveller to enjoy Cayenne.
The hospitality of the inhabitants was the tantsf Ichabl" same as ever, but they had lost their wonted
gaiety in public, and the stranger might read in their countenances, as the recollection of recent humiliations and misfortunes every now and then kept breaking in upon them, that they were still in sorrow for their fallen country : the victorious hostile cannon of Waterloo still sounded in their ears : their Emperor was a prisoner amongst the hideous rocks of St. Helena ; and many a Frenchman who had fought and bled for France was now amongst them, begging for a little support to prolong a life which would be forfeited on the parent soil. To add another handful to the cypress and wormwood already scattered amongst these polite colonists, they had just received orders from the court of Janeiro to put on deep mourning for six months, and half-mourning for as many more, on account of the death of the Queen of Portugal.
About a day's journey in the interior, is the cele- brated national plantation. This spot was judiciously chosen, for it is out of the reach of enemies' cruisers. Plantation of ^ is called La Gabrielle. No plantation LaGabrieUe. ^ fl^ western W0rld can vie with La
Gabrielle. Its spices are of the choicest kind ; its soil particularly favourable to them ; its arrangements beau-
90 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
tiful ; and its director. Monsieur Martin, a botanist of first-rate abilities. This indefatigable naturalist ranged through the East, under a royal commission, in quest of botanical knowledge ; and during his stay in the western regions, has sent over to Europe from twenty to twenty- five thousand specimens, in botany and zoology. La Gabrielle is on a far-extending range of woody hills. Figure to yourself a hill in the shape of a bowl reversed, with the buildings on the top of it, and you will have an idea of the appearance of La Gabrielle. You approach the house through a noble avenue, five hundred toises long, of the choicest tropical fruit-trees, planted with the greatest care and judgment; and should you chance to stray through it, after sunset, when the clove-trees are in blossom, you would fancy yourself in the Idalian groves, or near the banks of the Nile, where they were burning the finest incense, as the Queen of Egypt passed.
On La Gabrielle there are twenty-two thousand clove- trees in full bearing. They are planted thirty feet asunder. Their lower branches touch the ground. In general the trees are topped at five-and-twenty feet high ; though you will see some here towering up above sixty. The black pepper, the cinnamon, and nutmeg are also in great abundance here, and very productive.
While the stranger views the spicy groves of La Gabrielle, and tastes the most delicious fruits which have originally been imported hither from all parts of the tropical world, he will thank the government which has supported, and admire the talents of the gentleman who has raised to its present grandeur, this noble collection of useful fruits. There is a large nursery attached to La Gabrielle, where plants of all the
SECOND JOURNEY. 91
different species are raised and distributed gratis to those colonists who wish to cultivate them.
Not far from the hanks of the river Oyapoc, to
windward of Cayenne, is a mountain which thehRockCk °f contains an immense cavern. Here the
Cock of the Rock is plentiful. He is about the size of a fan-tail pigeon, his colour a bright orange, and his wings and tail appear as though fringed ; his head is ornamented with a superb double-feathery crest, edged with purple. He passes the day amid gloomy damps and silence, and only issues out for food a short time at sunrise and sunset. He is of the gallinaceous tribe. The South- American Spaniards call him " Gallo del Rio Negro," (Cock of the Black River,) and suppose that he is only to be met with in the vicinity of that far-inland stream ; but he is common in the interior of Demerara, amongst the huge rocks in the forests of Macousliia ; and he has been shot south of the line, in the captainship of Para.
The bird called by Buffon Grand Gobe-mouche, has never been found in Demerara, although very common in Cayenne. He is not quite so large as the jackdaw, and is entirely black, except a large spot under the throat, which is a glossy purple.
You may easily sail from Cayenne to the river
Surinam 'in two days. Its capital, Para-
Paramaribo. ., . . ,
man bo, is handsome, rich, and populous : hitherto it has been considered by far the finest town in Guiana ; but probably the time is not far off when the capital of Demerara may claim the prize of superiority. You may enter a creek above Paramaribo, and travel through the interior of Surinam, till you come to the Nlcari, which is close to the large river
92 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
Coryntin. "When yon have passed this river, there is a good public road to New Amsterdam, the capital of Berbice.
On viewing New Amsterdam, it will sterdam Am immediately strike you that something or
other has intervened to prevent its arriving at that state of wealth and consequence for which its original plan shows it was once intended. What has caused this stop in its progress to the rank of a fine and populous city, remains for those to find out who are interested in it ; certain it is, that New Amsterdam has been languid for some years, and now the tide of com- merce seems ebbing fast from the shores of Berbice.
Gay and blooming is the sister colony of
Demerara. Perhaps, kind reader, thou hast not forgot that it was from Stabroek, the capital of Demerara, that the adventurer set out, some years ago, to reach the Portuguese frontier fort, and collect the wourali poison. It was not intended, when this second sally was planned in England, to have visited Stabroek again by the route here described. The plan was, to have ascended the Amazons from Para, and got into the Kio Negro, and from thence to have returned towards the source of the Essequibo, in order to examine the crystal mountains, and look once more for Lake Parima, or the White Sea; but on arriving at Cayenne, the current was running with such amazing rapidity to leeward, that a Portuguese sloop, which had been beating up towards Para for four weeks, was then only half-way. Finding, therefore, that a beat to the Amazons would be long, tedious, and even uncertain, and aware that the season for procuring birds with fine plumage had already set in, I left Cayenne in an American ship
SECOND JOURNEY. 93
for Paramaribo, went through the interior to the Coryntin, stopped a few days in New Amsterdam, and proceeded to Demerara. If, gentle reader, thy patience be not already worn out, and thy eyes half closed in slumber, by perusing the dull adventures of this second sally, perhaps thou wilt pardon a line or two on De- merara ; and then we will retire to its forests, to collect and examine the economy of its most rare and beautiful birds, and give the world a new mode of preserving them.
Stabroek, the capital of Demerara, has been rapidly increasing for some years back : and if pro-
Stabroek. D . J '
sperity go hand in hand with the present enterprising spirit, Stabroek, ere long, will be of the first colonial consideration. It stands on the eastern bank at the mouth of the Demerara, and enjoys all the advantages of the refreshing sea breeze ; the streets are spacious, well bricked, and elevated, the trenches clean, the bridges excellent, and the houses handsome. Almost every commodity and luxury of London may be bought in the shops at Stabroek : its market wants better regu- lations. The hotels are commodious, clean, and well attended. Demerara boasts as fine and well-disciplined militia as any colony in the western world.
The court of justice, where, in times of old, the
bandage was easily removed from the eyes of OoartoUM- the goddess, and her scales thrown out of
equilibrium, now rises in dignity under the
firmness, talents, and urbanity of Mr. President Rough.
The plantations have an appearance of
Thepianta- high cultivation: a tolerable idea may be
tions. »
formed of their value, when you know that last year Demerara numbered seventy-two thousand
94 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
nine hundred and ninety-nine slaves. They made about forty-four million pounds of sugar, near two million gallons of rum, above eleven million pounds of coffee, and three million eight hundred and nineteen thousand five hundred and twelve pounds of cotton ; the receipt into the public chest was five hundred and fifty-three thousand nine hundred and fifty-six guilders ; the public expenditure, four hundred and fifty-one thousand six hundred and three guilders.
Slavery can never be defended ; he whose heart is not of iron can never wish to be able to defend it : while he heaves a sigh for the poor negro in captivity, he wishes from his soul that the traffic had been stifled in its birth ; but, unfortunately, the govern- ments of Europe nourished it, and now that they are exerting themselves to do away the evil, and ensure liberty to the sons of Africa, the situation of the plantation slaves is depicted as truly deplorable, and their condition wretched. It is not so. A Briton's heart, proverbially kind and generous, is not changed by climate, or its streams of compassion dried up by the scorching heat of a Demerara sun ; he cheers his negroes in labour, comforts them in sickness, is kind to them in old age, and never forgets that they are his fellow-creatures.
Instances of cruelty and depravity certainly occur here as well as all the world over ; but the edicts of the colonial government are well calculated to prevent them ; and the British planter, except here and there one, feels for the wrongs done to a poor ill-treated slave, and shows that his heart grieves for him by causing immediate redress, and preventing a repetition.
Long may ye flourish, peaceful and liberal inhabitants
SECOND JOURNEY. 95
of Demerara. Your doors are ever open to harbour the harbourless ; your purses never shut to the wants of the distressed ; many a ruined fugitive from Oroonoque will bless your kindness to him in the hour of need, when, flying from the woes of civil discord, without food or raiment, he begged for shelter underneath your roof. The poor sufferer in Trinidad, who lost his all in the devouring flames, will remember your charity to his latest moments. The traveller, as he leaves your port, casts a longing, lingering look behind ; your attentions, your hospitality, your pleasantry, and mirth are upper- most in his thoughts ; your prosperity is close to his heart. Let us now, gentle reader, retire from the busy scenes of man, and journey on towards the wilds in quest of the feathered tribe.
Leave behind you your high-seasoned dishes, your wines, and your delicacies : carry nothing but
Instructions
to future ad- what is necessary for your own comfort, and
venturers. . . .... ,
the object in view, and depend upon the skill of an Indian, or your own, for fish and game. A sheet, about twelve feet long, ten wide, painted, and with loop-holes on each side, will be of great service; in a few minutes you can suspend it betwixt two trees in the shape of a roof. Under this, in your hammock, you may defy the pelting shower, and sleep heedless of the dews of night. A hat, a shirt, and a light pair of trowsers will be all the raiment you require. Custom will soon teach you to tread lightly and barefoot on the little inequalities of the ground, and show you how to pass on, unwounded, amid the mantling briers.
Snakes, in these wilds, are certainly an annoyance, though, perhaps, more in imagination than reality ; for you must recollect that the
96 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
serpent is never the first to offend : his poisonous fang was not given him for conquest : he never inflicts a wound with it but to defend existence. Provided you walk cautiously, and do not absolutely touch him, you may pass in safety close by him. As he is often coiled up on the ground, and amongst the branches of the trees above you, a degree of circumspection is necessary, lest you unwarily disturb him.
Tigers are too few, and too apt to fly before the noble face of man, to require a moment of your attention.
The bite of the most noxious of the insects, at the very worst, only causes a transient fever, with a degree of pain more or less.
Birds in general, with a few exceptions,
Birds.
are not common in the very remote parts of the forest. The sides of rivers, lakes, and creeks, the borders of savannas, the old abandoned habitations of Indians and wood-cutters, seem to be their favourite haunts.
Though least in size, the glittering mantle bird™111111118" of the humming-bird entitles it to the first
place in the list of the birds of the new world. It may truly be called the bird of paradise ; and had it existed in the old world, it would have claimed the title instead of the bird which has now the honour to bear it. See it darting through the air almost as quick as thought ! — now it is within a yard of your face ! — in an instant gone ; — now it flutters from flower to flower to sip the silver dew — it is now a ruby — now a topaz — now an emerald — now all burnished with gold ! It would be arrogant to pretend to describe this winged gem of nature after Buffon's elegant de- scription of it
SECOND JOURNEY. 97
Cayenne and Demerara produce the same humming- birds. Perhaps you would wish to know
Haunts of .
the humming- something of their haunts. Chiefly in the
birds.
months of July and August, the tree called Bois Immortel, very common in Demerara, bears abun- dance of red blossom, which stays on the tree for some weeks ; then it is that most of the different species of humming-birds are very plentiful. The wild red sage is also their favourite shrub, and they buzz like bees round the blossom of the wallaba-tree. Indeed, there is scarce a flower in the interior, or on the sea-coast, but what receives frequent visits from one or other of the species.
On entering the forests, on the rising land in the in- terior, the blue and green, the smallest brown, no bigger than the humble bee, with two long feathers in the tail, and the little forked-tail purple- throated humming-birds, glitter before you in ever-changing attitudes. One species alone never shows his beauty in the sun ; and were it not for his lovely shining colours, you might almost be tempted to class him with the goat-suckers, on account of his habits. He is the largest of all the humming-birds, and is all red and changing gold green, except the head, which is black. He has two long feathers in the tail, which cross each other, and these have gained him the name of Karabimiti, or Ara humming-bird, from the Indians. You never find him on the sea-coast, or where the river is salt, or in the heart of the forest, unless fresh water be there. He keeps close by the side of woody fresh-water rivers, and dark and lonely creeks. He leaves his retreat before sunrise to feed on the insects over the water ; he returns to it as soon as the sun's rays cause a glare of light, is sedentary all day long, and comes out again for a short time after sunset. He builds his nest
H
98 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
on a twig over the water in the unfrequented creeks ; it looks like tanned cow leather.
As you advance towards the mountains of Demerara, other species of huniniing-birds present themselves before you. It seems to be an erroneous opinion, that the hum- ming-bird lives entirely on honey-dew. Almost every flower of the tropical climates contains insects of one kind or other ; now, the humming-bird is most busy about the flowers an hour or two after sunrise, and after a shower of rain, and it is just at this time that the insects come out to the edge of the flower, in order that the sun's rays may dry the nocturnal dew and rain which they have received. On opening the stomach of the hum- ming-bird, dead insects are almost always found there.
Next to the humming-birds, the cotingas TheCotingas. ' f
display the gayest plumage. Iney are ol the
order of passeres, and you number five species betwixt the sea-coast and the rock Saba. Perhaps the scarlet co- tinga is the richest of the five, and is one of those birds which are found in the deepest recesses of the forest. His crown is flaming red ; to this abruptly succeeds a dark shining brown, reaching half way down the back : the remainder of the back, the rump, and-tail, the extremity of which is edged with black, are a lively red ; the belly is a somewhat lighter red ; the breast reddish black ; the wings brown. He has no song, is solitary, and utters a monotonous whistle which sounds like "quet." He is fond of the seeds of the hitia-tree, and those of the siloabali and bastard siloabali-trees, which ripen in December, and continue on the trees for about two months. He is found throughout the year in Demerara ; still nothing is known of Ins incubation. The Indians all agree in telling you that they have never seen his nest.
SECOND JOURNEY. 99
The ur le- ^ne Purple-breasted cotinga has the throat breasted Co- an(j breast of a deep purple, the wings and tail black, and all the rest of the body a most lively shining blue.
The purple-throated cotinga has black wings and tail, and every other part a light and glossy blue, save the throat, which is purple.
The Pompadour cotinga is entirely purple, ex- cept his wings, which are white, their foiir
The Pom- r
padour Co- first feathers tipped with brown. The great
tinga. J r
coverts of the wings are stiff, narrow, and pointed, being shaped quite different from those of any other bird. When you are betwixt this bird and the sun in his flight, he appears uncommonly brilliant. He makes a hoarse noise, which sounds like " Wallababa." Hence his name amongst the Indians.
None of these three cotingas have a song. They feed on the hitia, siloabali, and bastard siloabali seeds, the wild guava, the fig, and other fruit-trees of the forest. They are easily shot in these trees during the months of December, January, and part of February. The greater part of them disappear after this, and probably retire far away to breed. Their nests have never been found in Demerara.
The fifth species is the celebrated Campanero of the The Cam- Spaniards, called Dara by the Indians, and panero. Bell-bird by the English. He is about the size of the jay. His plumage is white as snow. On his forehead rises a spiral tube nearly three inches long. It is jet black, dotted all over with small white feathers. It has a communication with the palate, and when filled with air, looks like a spire ; when empty, it becomes pendulous. His note is loud and clear, like the sound
H2
100 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
of a bell, and may be beard at the distance of three miles. In the midst of these extensive wilds, generally on the dried top of an aged mora, almost out of gun reach, you will see the campanero. No sound or song from any of the winged inhabitants of the forest, not even the clearly pronounced "Whip-poor-will " from the goat-sucker, causes such astonishment as the toll of the campanero.
With many of the feathered race, he pays the common tribute of a morning and an evening song ; and even when the meridian sun has shut in silence the mouths of almost the whole of animated nature, the campanero still cheers the forest. You hear his toll, and then a pause for a minute, then another toll, and then a pause again, and then a toll, and again a pause. Then he is silent for six or eight minutes, and then another toll, and so on. Acteon would stop in mid chace, Maria would defer her evening song, and Orpheus himself would drop his lute to listen to him, so sweet, so novel, and romantic is the toll of the pretty snow-white campanero. He is never seen to feed with the other cotingas, nor is it known in what part of Guiana he makes his nest.
While the cotingas attract your attention
TheToucan. . ° J .
by their superior plumage, the singular form of the toucan makes a lasting impression on your memory. There are three species of toucans in Demerara, and three diminutives, which may be called toucanets. The largest of the first species frequents the mangrove trees on the sea-coast. He is never seen in the interior till you reach Macoushia, where he is found in the neighbourhood of the river Tacatou. The other two species are very common. They feed entirely on the fruits of the forest, and though of the pie kind, never
SECOND JOURNEY. 101
kill the young of other birds, or touch carrion. The larger is called Bouradi "by the Indians, (which means nose,) the other, Scirou. They seem partial to each other's company, and often resort to the same feeding tree, and retire together to the same shady noon-day retreat. They are very noisy in rainy weather at all hours of the day, and in fair weather, at morn and eve. The sound which the bouradi makes, is like the clear yelping of a puppy dog, and you fancy he says "pia-po-o-co," and thus the South American Spaniards call him Piapoco.
All the toucanets feed on the same trees on which the toucan feeds, and every species of this family of enor- mous bill lays its eggs in the hollow trees. They are social, but not gregarious. You may sometimes see eight or ten in company, and from this you would suppose they are gregarious ; but, upon a closer exami- nation, you will find it has only been a dinner party, which breaks up and disperses towards roosting time.
You will be at a loss to conjecture for what ends nature has overloaded the head of this bird with such an enormous bill. It cannot be for the offensive, as it has no need to wage war with any of the tribes of animated nature ; for its food is fruits and seeds, and those are in superabundance throughout the whole year in the regions where the toucan is found. It can hardly be for the defensive, as the toucan is preyed upon by no bird in South America, and were it obliged to be at war, the texture of the bill is ill adapted to give or receive blows, as you will see in dissecting it. It can- not be for any particular protection to the tongue, as the tongue is a perfect feather.
The flight of the toucan is by jerks : in
Its flight. " . . '
the action of flying it seems incommoded by
JLU2 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AJU^A^^.
this huge disproportioned feature, and the head seems as if bowed down to the earth by it against its will. If 'the extraordinary form and size of the bill expose the toucan to ridicule, its colours make it amends.
Were a specimen of each species of the thf bin"* °f toucan presented to you, you would pro- nounce the bill of the bouradi the most rich and beautiful ; on the ridge of the upper mandible a broad stripe of most lovely yellow extends from the head to the point ; a stripe of the same breadth, though somewhat deeper yellow, falls from it at right angles next the head down to the edge of the mandible ; then follows a black stripe, half as broad, falling at right angles from the ridge, and running narrower along the edge to within half an inch of the point. The rest of the mandible is a deep bright red. The lower mandible has no yellow ; its black and red are distributed in the same manner as on the upper one, with this difference, that there is black about an inch from the point. The stripe corresponding to the deep yellow stripe on the upper mandible is sky blue. It is worthy of remark that all these brilliant colours of the bill are to be found in the plumage of the body, and the bare skin round the eye.
All these colours, except the blue, are inherent in the horn ; that part which appears blue is in reality transparent white, and receives its colour from a thin piece of blue skin inside. This superb bill fades in death, and in three or four days' time, has quite lost its original colours.
Till within these few years, no idea of the true colours of the bill , could be formed from the stuffed toucans brought to Europe. About eight years ago, while eating
SECOND JOURNEY. 103
a "boiled toucan, the thought struck me that the colours in the bill of a preserved specimen might be kept as
bright as those in life. A series of experiments a'Mii of the proved this beyond a doubt. If you take
your penknife and cut away the roof of the upper mandible, you will find that the space betwixt it and the outer shell contains a large collection of veins, and small osseous fibres running in all directions through the whole extent of the bill. Clear away all these with, your knife, and you will come to a substance more firm than skin, but of not so strong a texture as the horn itself; cut this away also, and behind it is discovered a thin and tender membrane ; yellow, where it has touched the yellow part of the horn; blue, where it has touched the red part, and black towards the edge and point. "When dried, this thin and tender membrane becomes nearly black ; as soon as it is cut away, nothing remains but the outer horn, red and yellow, and now become transparent ; the under mandible must undergo the same operation. Great care must be taken, and the knife used very cautiously, when you are cutting through the different parts close to where the bill joins on to the head. If you cut away too much, the bill drops off; if you press too hard, the knife comes through the horn ; if you leave too great a portion of the membrane, it appears through the horn, and by becoming black when dried, makes the horn appear black also, and has a bad effect ; judgment, caution, skill, and practice, will ensure success.
You have now cleared the bill of all those bodies which are the cause of its apparent fading ; for, as has been said before, these bodies dry in death, and become quite discoloured, and appear so through the horn ; and
104 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
reviewing the bill in this state, you conclude that its former bright colours are lost.
Something still remains to be done. You have ren- dered the bill transparent by the operation, and that transparency must be done away to make it appear perfectly natural. Pound some clean chalk, and give it enough water till it be of the consistency of tar ; add a proportion of gum arabic to make it adhesive ; then take a camel-hair brush, and give the inside of both mandibles a coat ; apply a second when the first is dry, then another, and a fourth to finish all. The gum arabic will prevent the chalk from cracking and falling off. If you remember, there is a little space of trans- parent white in the lower mandible, which originally appeared blue, but which became transparent white as soon as the thin piece of blue skin was cut away ; this must be painted blue inside. When all this is com- pleted, the bill will please you ; it will appear in its original colours. Probably your own abilities will suggest a cleverer mode of operating than the mode here described. A small gouge would assist the pen- knife, and render the operation less difficult.
The Houtou ranks high in beauty amongst the birds of Demerara ; his whole body is green, with a bluish cast in the wings and tail ; his crown, which he erects at pleasure, consists of black in the centre, surrounded with lovely blue of two different shades : he has a triangular black spot, edged with blue, behind the eye extending to the ear ; and on his breast a sable tuft, consisting of nine feathers edged also with blue. This bird seems to suppose that its beauty can be increased by trimming the tail, which undergoes the same operation as our hair in a barber's shop, only
SECOND JOURNEY. 105
with this difference, that it uses its own beak, which is serrated, in lieu of a pair of scissors. As soon as his tail is full grown, he begins about an inch from the extremity of the two longest feathers in it, and cuts away the web on both sides of the shaft, making a gap about an inch long : both male and female Adonise their tails in this manner, which gives them a remark- able appearance amongst all other birds. While we consider the tail of the houtou blemished and defective, were he to come amongst us, he would probably con- sider our heads, cropped and bald, in no better light. He who wishes to observe this handsome bird in his native haunts, must be in the forest at the morning's dawn. The houtou shuns the society of man : the plantations and cultivated parts are too much disturbed to engage it to settle there ; the thick and gloomy forests are the places preferred by the soli- tary houtou. In those far-extending wilds, about day- break, you hear him articulate, in a distinct and mourn- ful tone, "houtou, houtou." Move cautiously on to where the sound proceeds from, and you will see him sitting in the underwood, about a couple of yards from the ground, his tail moving up and down every time he articulates "houtou." He lives on insects and the berries amongst the underwood, and very rarely is seen in the lofty trees, except the bastard siloabali-tree, the fruit of which is grateful to him. He makes no nest, but rears his young in a hole in the sand, generally on the side of a hill.
While in quest of the houtou, you will now and
then fall in with the jay of Guiana, called by the
, Indians Ibibirou. Its forehead is black, the
The Jay of
Guiana. rest of the head white ; the throat and
106 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
breast like the English magpie : about an inch of the extremity of the tail is white, the other part of it, together with the back and wings, a greyish changing purple ; the belly is white. There are generally six or eight of them in company ; they are shy and garrulous, and tarry a very short time in one place; they are never seen in the cultivated parts.
Through the whole extent of the forest, chiefly from
sunrise till nine o'clock in the morning, you hear a
sound of " wow, wow, wow, wow." This is the bird
called Boclora by the Indians. It is smaller
The Boclora. ,, ., ...
than the common pigeon, and seems, in some measure, to partake of its nature : its head and breast are blue ; the back and rump somewhat resemble the colour on the peacock's neck ; its belly is a bright yellow ; the legs are so very short that it always appears as if sitting on the branch • it is as ill adapted for walking as the swallow ; its neck, for about an inch all round, is quite bare of feathers ; but this deficiency is not seen, for it always sits with its head drawn in upon its shoulders. It sometimes feeds with the cotingas on the guava and hitia-trees ; but its chief nutriment seems to be insects, and, like most birds which follow this prey, its chaps are well armed with bristles : it is found in Demerara at all times of the year, and makes a nest resembling that of the stock dove. This bird never takes long flights, and when it crosses a river or creek, it goes by long jerks.
The boclora is very unsuspicious, appearing quite heedless of danger : the report of a gun within twenty yards will not cause it to leave the branch on which it is sitting, and you may often approach it so near as almost to touch it with the end of your bow. Perhaps
SECOND JOURNEY. 107
there is no bird known whose feathers are so slightly fixed to the skin as those of the boclora. After shoot- ing it, if it touch a branch in its descent, or if it drop on hard ground, whole heaps of feathers fall off : on this account it is extremely hard to procure a specimen for preservation. As soon as the skin is dry in the preserved specimen, the feathers become as well fixed as those in any other bird.
Another species, larger than the boclora.
TheCuia. r \i • a. -1,1
attracts much of your notice in these wilds :
it is called Cuia by the Indians, from the sound of its voice ; its habits are the same as those of the boclora, but its colours different; its head, breast, back, and rump, are a shining, changing green ; its tail not quite so bright; a black bar runs across the tail to- wards the extremity, and the outside feathers are partly white as in the boclora ; its belly is entirely ver- milion, a bar of white separating it from the green on the breast.
There are diminutives of both these birds; they have the same habits, with a somewhat different plumage, and about half the size. Arrayed from head to tail in a robe of richest sable hue, the bird16 Bice" kird called Eice-bird loves spots cultivated by the hand of man. The woodcutter's house on the hills in the interior, and the planter's habitation on the sea-coast, equally attract this songless species of the order of pie, provided the Indian corn be ripe there. He is nearly of the jackdaw's size, and makes his nest far away from the haunts of men ; he may truly be called a blackbird : independent of his plumage, his beak, inside and out, his legs, his toes, and claws are jet black.
108 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
Mankind, by clearing the ground, and sowing a variety of seeds, induces many kinds of birds to leave their native haunts, and come and settle near him : their little depredations on his seeds and fruits prove that it is the property, and not the proprietor, which has the attractions.
One bird, however, in Demerara is not sique.6 Cas actuated by selfish motives : this is the Cassique ; in size, he is larger than the star- ling; he courts the society of man, but disdains to live by his labours. When nature calls for support, he repairs to the neighbouring forest, and there par- takes of the store of fruits and seeds which she has produced in abundance for her aerial tribes. When his repast is over, he returns to man, and pays the little tribute which he owes him for his protection ; Le takes his station on a tree close to his house, and there, for hours together, pours forth a succession of imitative notes. His own song is sweet, but very short. If a toucan be yelping in the neighbourhood, he drops it, and imitates him. Then he will amuse his protector with the cries of the different species of the wood- pecker ; and when the sheep bleat, he will distinctly answer them. Then comes his own song again, and if a puppy dog, or a Guinea fowl interrupt him, he takes them off admirably, and by his different gestures during the time, you would conclude that he enjoys the sport.
The cassique is gregarious, and imitates any sound he hears with such exactness, that he goes by no other name than that of Mocking-bird amongst the colonists.
At breeding time, a number of the pretty choristers resort to a tree near the planter's house, and from its
SECOND JOURNEY. 109
outside branches weave their pendulous nests. So conscious do they seem that they never give offence, and so little suspicious are they of receiving any injury from man, that they will choose a tree within forty yards from his house, and occupy the branches so low down, that he may peep into the nests. A tree in Waratilla creek affords a proof of this.
The proportions of the cassique are so fine, that he may be said to be a model of symmetry in ornithology. On each wing he has a bright yellow spot, and his rump, belly, and half the tail, are of the same colour. All the rest of the body is black. His beak is the colour of sulphur, but it fades in death, and requires the same operation as the bill of the toucan to make it keep its colours. Up the rivers, in the interior, there is another cassique, nearly the same size, and of the same habits, though not gifted with its powers of imi- tation. Except in breeding time, you will see hundreds of them retiring to roost, amongst the moca-moca-trees and low shrubs on the banks of the Demerara, after you pass the first island. They are not common 6n the sea-coast. The rump of the cassique is a flaming scarlet. All the rest of the body is a rich glossy black. His bill is sulphur colour. You may often see numbers of this species weaving their pendulous nests on one side of a tree, while numbers of the other species are busy in forming theirs on the opposite side of the same tree. Though such near neighbours, the females are never observed to kick up a row, or come to blows !
Another species of cassique, as large as a crow, is very common in the plantations. In the
Another J r
species of the morning he generally repairs to a large tree, and there, with his tail spread over his back,
110 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
and shaking his lowered wings, he produces notes which though they cannot be said to amount to a song, still have something very sweet and pleasing in them. He makes his nest in the same form as the other cassiques. It is above four feet long ; and when you pass under the tree, which often contains fifty or sixty of them, you cannot help stopping to admire them as they wave to and fro, the sport of every storm and breeze. The rump is chestnut ; ten feathers of the tail are a fine yellow, the remaining two, which are the middle ones, are black, and an inch shorter than the others. His bill is sulphur colour ; all the rest of the body black, with here and there shades of brown. He has five or six long narrow black feathers on the back of his head, which he erects at pleasure.
There is one more species of cassique in Demerara, Avhich always prefers the forests to the cultivated parts. His economy is the same as that of the other cassiques. He is rather smaller than the last described bird. His body is greenish, and his tail and rump paler than those of the former. Half of his beak is red.
, . You would not be long in the forests of
peckers'1" Demerara, without noticing the woodpeckers. You meet with them feeding at all hours of the day. Well may they do so. Were they to follow the example of most of the other birds, and only feed in the morning and evening, they would be often on short allowance, for they sometimes have to labour three or four hours at the tree before they get to their food. The sound which the largest kind makes in hammering against the bark of the tree, is so loud, that you would never suppose it to proceed from the efforts of a bird. You would take it to be the woodman, with
SECOND JOURNEY. Ill
his axe, trying by a sturdy blow, often repeated, whether the tree were sound or not. There are four- teen species here ; the largest the size of a magpie, the smallest no bigger than the wren. They are all beauti- ful ; and the greater part of them have their heads ornamented with a fine crest, movable at pleasure.
It is said if you once give a dog a bad name, whether innocent or guilty, he never loses it. It sticks close to him wherever he goes. He has many a kick and many a blow to bear on account of it ; and there is nobody to stand up for him. The woodpecker is little better off. The proprietors of woods, in Europe, have long accused him of injuring their timber, by boring holes in it, and letting in the water, which soon rots it. The colonists in America have the same complaint against him. Had he the power of speech, which Ovid's birds possessed in days of yore, he could soon make a defence. " Mighty lord of the woods," he would say to man, " why do you wrongfully accuse me 1 why do you hunt me up and down to death for an imaginary offence ] I have never spoiled a leaf of your property, much less your wood. Your merciless shot strikes me, at the very time I am doing you a service. But your short- sightedness Avill not let you see it, or your pride is above examining closely the actions of so insignificant a little bird as I am. If there be that spark of feeling in your breast, which they say man possesses, or ought to possess, above all other animals, do a poor injured creature a little kindness, and watch me in your woods only for one day. I never wound your healthy trees. I should perish for want in the attempt. The sound bark would easily resist the force of my bill ; and were I even to pierce through it, there would be nothing
112 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
inside that I could fancy, or my stomach digest. I often visit them, it is true, but a knock or two convince me that I must go elsewhere for support ; and were you to listen attentively to the sound which my bill causes, you would know whether I am upon a healthy or an unhealthy tree. Wood and bark are not my food. I live entirely upon the insects which have already formed a lodgement in the distempered tree. When the sound informs me that my prey is there, I labour for hours together till I get at it ; and by consuming it, for my own support, I prevent its further depredations in that part. Thus I discover for you your hidden and un- suspected foe, which has been devouring your wood in such secrecy, that you had not the least suspicion it was there. The hole which I make in order to get at the pernicious vermin, will be seen by you as you pass under the tree. I leave it as a signal to tell you, that your tree has already stood too long. It is past its prime. Millions of insects, engendered by disease, are preying upon its vitals. Ere long it will fall a log in useless ruins. Warned by this loss, cut down the rest in time, and spare, 0 spare the unoffending wood- pecker."
In the rivers, and different creeks, you fisiwr6 King" number six species of the King-fisher. They make their nest in a hole in the sand on the side of the bank. As there is always plenty of foliage to protect them from the heat of the sun, they feed at all hours of the day. Though their plumage is prettily varied, still it falls far short of the brilliancy dis- played by the English king-fisher. This little native of Britain would outweigh them altogether in the scale of beauty.
SECOND JOURNEY. 113
A bird called Jacamar is often taken for a mar16 3ac!l~ king-fisher, but it has no relationship to that
tribe ; it frequently sits in the trees over the water, and as its beak bears some resemblance to that of the king-fisher, this may probably account for its being taken for one. It feeds entirely upon insects ; it sits on a branch in motionless expectation, and as soon as a fly, butterfly, or moth passes by, it darts at it, and returns to the branch it had just left. It seems an indolent, sedentary bird, shunning the society of all others in the forest. It never visits the plantations, but is found at all times of the year in the woods. There are four species of jacamar in Demerara ; they are all beautiful ; the largest, rich and superb in the extreme. Its plumage is of so fine a changing blue and golden green, that it may be ranked with the choicest of the humming-birds. Ma- ture has denied it a song, but given a costly garment in lieu of it. The smallest species of jacamar is very common in the dry savannas. The second size, all golden green on the back, must be looked for in the wallaba forest. The third is found throughout the whole extent of these wilds ; and the fourth, which is the largest, frequents the interior, where you begin to perceive stones in the ground.
When you have penetrated far into Ma- naie16 Tr°U" cousnia> y°u hear the pretty songster, called
Troupiale, pour forth a variety of sweet and plaintive notes. This is the bird which the Portuguese call the nightingale of Guiana ; its predominant colours are rich orange and shining black, arrayed to great advantage ; his delicate and well-shaped frame seems unable to bear captivity. The Indians sometimes bring down troupiales to Stabroek, but in a few months they
114 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
languish and die in a cage. They soon become very familiar ; and if you allow them the liberty of the house, they live longer than in a cage, and appear in better spirits ; but, when you least expect it, they drop down and die in epilepsy.
Smaller in size, and of colour not so rich, cies of Trou- and somewhat differently arranged, another
species of troupiale sings melodiously in Demerara. The woodcutter is particularly favoured by him ; for while the hen is sitting on her nest built in the roof of the woodcutter's house, he sings for hours together close by : he prefers the forests to the culti- vated parts. You would not grudge to stop for a few minutes as
you are walking in the plantations, to ob-
Third spe- J .... 6. .' .
cies of Trou- serve a third species of troupiale : his wings, tail, and throat are black, all the rest of the body is a bright yellow. There is something very sweet and plaintive in his song, though much shorter than that of the troupiale in the interior.
A fourth species goes in flocks from place
Fourth spe- cies of Trou- to place in the cultivated parts at the time
the Indian corn is ripe ; he is all black, except the head and throat, which are yellow ; his attempt at song is not worth attending to.
Wherever there is a wild fig-tree ripe, a desDgara8pe~ numer°us species of birds, called Tangara, is
sure to be on it. There are eighteen beau- tiful species here. Their plumage is very rich and diversified ; some of them boast six separate colours ; others have the blue, purple, green, and black so kindly blended into each other, that it would be impossible to mark their boundaries; while others again exhibit them
SECOND JOURNEY. 115
strong, distinct, and abrupt : many of these tangaras have a fine song. They seem to partake much of the nature of our linnets, sparrows, and finches. Some of them are fond of the plantations ; others are never seen there, preferring the wild seeds of the forest to the choicest fruits planted by the hand of man.
On the same fig-trees to which they repair, Manikin an(j often accidentally up and down the
species.
forest, you fall in with four species of Manikin. The largest is white and black, with the feathers on the throat remarkably long ; the next in size is half red and half black ; the third, black, with a white crown ; the fourth, black, with a golden crown, and red feathers at the knee. The half red and half black species is the scarcest. There is a creek in the Demerara called Camouni. About ten minutes from the mouth you see a common-sized fig-tree on your right hand, as you ascend, hanging over water ; it bears a very small fig twice a year. When its fruit is ripe, this manikin is on the tree from morn till eve.
On all the ripe fig-trees in the forest you TvThev5™,a11 see the bird called the small Tiger-bird.
Tiger-bird.
Like some of our belles and dandies, it has a gaudy vest to veil an ill-shaped body ; the throat, and part of the head, are a bright red ; the breast and belly have black spots on a yellow ground ; the wings are a dark green, black, and white ; and the rump and tail black and green. Like the manikin, it has no song : it depends solely upon a showy garment for admiration. Devoid, too, of song, and in a still superber garb, the
Yawaraciri comes to feed on the same tree.
It has a bar like black velvet from the eyes
•
to the beak ; its legs are yellow ; its throat, i2
116 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA.
wings, and tail, black ; all the rest of the body a charm- ing blue. Chiefly in the dry savannas, and here and there accidentally in the forest, you see a songless yawaraciri still lovelier than the last : his crown is whitish blue, arrayed like a coat of mail ; his tail is black, his wings black and yellow ; legs red ; and the whole body a glossy blue. Whilst roving through the forest, ever and anon you see individuals of the wren species, busy amongst the fallen leaves, or seeking in- sects at the roots of the trees.
Here, too, you find six or seven species of small birds, Avhose backs appear to be overloaded with silky plumage. One of these, with a chestnut breast, smoke-coloured back, tail red, white feathers like horns on his head, and white narrow- pointed feathers under the jaw, feeds entirely upon ants. When a nest of large light brown ants emigrates, one following the other in meandering lines above a mile long, you see this bird watching them, and .every now and then picking them up. When they disappear he is seen no more : perhaps this is the only kind of ant he is fond of : when these ants are stirring, you are sure to find him near them. You can- not well mistake the ant after you have once been in its company, for its sting is very severe, and you can hardly shoot the bird, and pick it up, without having five or six upon you.
Parrots and Parrots and Paroquets are very numerous Paroquets. here, an(j of manv different kinds. You will know when