THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

' ' Tlie Enipeiur c»f all the Parrots''

WANDERINGS IN
SOUTH AMERICA

THE NORTH-WEST OF THE UNITED STATES

AND THE ANTILLES,

IN THE YEARS 1812, 1816, 1820, & 1824

With Original Instructions for the perfect preservation of Birds, etc.

for Cabinets of Natural History

BY

CHARLES ,WATERTON

Including a Memoir of the Author

BY

NORMAN MOORE, M.D.

With Illustrations and a Brief Introduction

BY

CHARLES LIVINGSTON BULL

NEW YORK

STURGIS & WALTON
COMPANY

1909

Copyright 1909
By STURGIS & WALTON COMPANY

Set up and Electrotyped. Published June, 1909

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Y/zl
idod

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

434455

PEERAGE TO THE FIRST EDITION

I offer this book of Wanderings with a hesitat-
ing 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 per-
haps is destined to add one 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
discoveries ; for, as Ulysses sent Achilles to Troy,
so I sent him to Guiana. I intended to have writ-
ten 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

X PREFACE

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 par-
ticular pleasure your intention of resuming 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 naturalists,
and that 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 de-
prived the Eoyal Society of its brightest orna-
ment.

CONTENTS

Preface to First Edition ix

Contents xi

List of Illustrations xvii

Introduction ^ . xix

Memoir < 1

FIRST JOURNEY

CHAPTER I

Object of the Wanderings — Demerara R. — Saba — Toucan —
Forest Trees — Parasites — Bush-rope — Red Monkey — Wild
animals — Sloths — Venomous snakes — Lizards — Bell-bird —
Houtou — Insects — Dog poisoned with Wourali — Falls — Es-
sequibo R. — Rapid decay — Falls of the Essequibo — ^Macou-
shia — A white recluse — The Watermamma — A savage finan-
cier— The Jabiru — Ants' nests — Fort St. Joachim — Lake
Parima 29-73

CHAPTER II

The Maeoushi Indians — ^Poison vendors — apparent failure of
poison — Collecting materials for wourali-poison — Prepar-
ing the poison — Superstitions — The blow-pipe gun — The
Ourah — The Samourah — Silk-grass — ^Acuero fruit — Cou-
courite palm — Wild cotton — Arrows — Quivers — Jaw of
Pirai — Packing the arrows — Cotton basket — Gun sight
made of Acouri teeth — Poisoned fowl — Suspending the
guns — 'The bow — Ingenious arrows — Small quivers — A wild
hog shot — Utilization of indigenous products 74-89

xii CONTENTS

CHAPTEE III

Operation of the Wourali — Its effects on the Ai, or Three-
toed Sloth — Death resembling sleep — A poisoned Ox —
Poison proportionate to size of animal — Alleged antidotes
An Indian killed by his own arrow — Ligatures and the
knife — Descent of the Essequibo — Skill of the boatman —
The Buccaneers — Tertian ague — ^Experiments with Wour-
ali— ^ Value of a ligature — Artificial respiration — Long life
and quiet death of Wouralia — When good King Arthur
ruled this land— Eeturn of health 90-98

Eemaeks 99-105

SECOND JOURNEY

CHAPTEE I

From Liverpool to Pernambuco — Stormy petrels — Tropical
zoology — Flying fish — Bonito, Albicore, and "Dolphin"
— Frigate bird — Arrival at Pernambuco — The expelled
Jesuit — Pombal, the Captain-General — Southey's history of
Brazil — Botanical garden — Sangre do Buey — Eattlesnake
Narrow escape — Eainy — Sail for Cayenne — Shark-catch-
ing 106-122

CHAPTEE II

Arrival at Cayenne — Flamingos — Curlews, &c. — ^Vegetable pro-
ductions of Cayenne — La Gabrielle — Cock of the Eock —
Grand Gobe-mouche — Surinam — The Coryntin — New Am-
sterdam— Stabroek, now George-town — Produce of Dem-
erara — Slavery — A traveler's necessaries — Walking bare-
foot— The best costume — Humming-birds — Cotinga — Cam-
panero, or Bell-bird — Toucans, or Toucanets — Beak of the
Toucan — Evanescence of the colours — The only mode of
preserving them 123-141

CONTENTS xiii

CHAPTER III

The Houtou — Curious habit of trimming the tail and feathers
— its habits — The Guianan Jay — The Boelora — Slight at-
tachment of the feathers — The Cuia — Eice-birds — Cas-
siques, their habit of mockery — Pendulous nests — Gregari-
ous nesting of different species — Wood-peckers of America
and England — Kingfishers — Jacamars and their fly-catch-
ing habits — Troupiales and their songs — Tangaras — Mani-
kins— Tiger-birds — Yawaraciri — Ant Thrushes — Parrot of
the Sun — Aras, or Macaws — Bitterns — Egret, Herons, etc.
— Goatsuckers — Whip-poor-Will — Superstitions — Tinamous
— Powis and Maroudi — Horned Screamer — Trimipeter —
King Vulture — Anhinga — ^Dangers of travel — Quartan
ague 142-167

TEIED JOURNEY

CHAPTER I

From the Clyde to Demerara — Yellow fever — A deserted Plan-
tation— Black John — Medicines for tropical climates —
Bats — The lancet — Severe accident and recovery — A primi-
tive spear — History of the Sloth — An inhabitant of the
trees — Structure of the limbs — A domesticated Sloth — A
life of suspense — Structure of the hair — Mark on the back
— Capture of a Sloth — Release and escape — Ants — Ant-
bears — The great Ant-bear — Its powers of defence — Atti-
tude when standing — How it catches its prey — Glutinous
saliva — The Vampire and its habits — Bleeding gratis — __

Coushie Anta — Armadillo and its habits — Tortoise — Eggs " ~~/
of Tortoise and Turtle 168-195 -^

CHAPTER II

The Vanilla; — ^Meaning of the word — Small Cayman — Daddy
Quashi — Wasps — Venomous reptiles and wild beasts —
Poison of the Labarri snake — Experiment with a Labarri
— The Bete-rouge — The Chegoe — Its nest — Ticks, and how
to get rid of them — The five tribes — Their habitations and
mode of life — Piwarri — The Pee-ay-man — A nation with-

xiv CONTENTS

out a history — Runaway negroes — Mr. Edmonstone and
his services — Wounded warriors — Valour rewarded — Edu-
cation— Character of the native — Skill in hunting — A bead
almanac — The sun as a compass — Thinness of population.
196-213

CHAPTEE III

Discovery of a large Coulacanara snake — A Bush-master —
Stag swallowed by a Boa — Negroes and the snake — Ar-
rangements for the attack — The snake struck — Carrying
off the enemy — A snake in a bag — An unquiet night — Dis-
section of the snake — ^Daddy Quashi and his dread of
snakes — Capture of a Coulacanara — Vultures and their
food — Habits of Vultures — The Aura Vulture — Black Vul-
tures— Severe blisters — An inquisitive Jaguar — Fish shoot-
ing— Goatsuckers and Campanero 214-231

CHAPTEE rv

Fishing for a Cayman — A shark-hook useless — Sting-rays —
Turtle and Guana nests — Numbers of eggs — Another fail-
ure— Meeting a Jaguar — Guard against fever — More fail-
urea — A native hook and way of baiting — The Cayman's
dinner-bell — Caught at last — How to secure the reptile —
Mounting a Cayman — An improvised bridle — Skin and
teeth of the Cayman — ^Embarkment for England — Collision
with the Custom House 232-256

FOURTH JOURNEY

CHAPTEE I

Three years in England — Sail for New York — Nomenclature
— Alteration of scenery — A sprained ankle — ^Magnificent
cure — Feats of climbing — Quebec — Irish emigrants — Ti-
eonderoga — Saratoga — ^Philadelphia — White-headed Eagle
— Form and Fashion — Climatei — Forebodings of the civil
war — Sail for Antigua 257-285

CONTENTS XV

CHAPTEE II

Arrival at Antigua — Dominica — Frogs and Humming-birds —
Martinico — Diamond rock — Barbadoes — Quashi and Venus
— The Alien Bill — Sail for Demerara — More about the
Sloth — Scarlet Grosbeak — Crab-eating Owl — Sun-heron —
Feet of the Tinamou — Vampires again — The Karabimiti
Humming-bird — The Monkey tribe — The Eed Howler —
Eoast monkey — The Nondescript — Altered physiognomy —
Gold and silver mines — Changes of Government — Politics
— India-rubber — An ingenious deception 286-314

ON PEESEEVING BIEDS FOE CABINETS OF NATUEAL
HISTOEY

Faults in bird-stuffing — Tools required — Knowledge of anat-
omy— Attitudes of birds — Flow of the plumage — How to
skin a bird — Inserting cotton — Killing wounded birds —
— Stuffing a hawk — The first incision — The skin to be
pushed, not pulled — Arrangement of wings — Modeling the
body — Spreading the tail — Constant attention required — ■
Strength and elasticity — Value of corrosive sublimate —
Experience and patience 315-332

Index 333

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

From Drawings by Charles Livingston Bull
< ' The Emperor of all the Parrots" Feontispiece

Facing Page
"The Peccari herd together and traverse the wilds in all

directions " 34

The Cock of the Rock 58

Macoushia Indian with Blow-pipe 82

Blackbirds and Rattle-snake 120

The Egret 124

The Flight of the Toucan 138

The Cassique 146

Trumpeter walking with his Master 160

The Sloth 176

' ' The Ant-bear is a pacific animal " 186

"I drove my fist, shielded by my hat, full in his jaws" 222

' * An immense Jaguar, standing on the trimk of an aged Mora-
tree" 236

"I seized his forelegs, and twisted them on his back" 244

"The water foamed, and dashed and boiled, amongst the

rocks" 248

The Song of the Red Monkey 300

xvii

INTRODUCTION

Many years ago, when reading this book for
the first time, my boyish imagination was so fired
that I determined the first opportunity should
find me on my way to Waterton's beloved Deme-
rara, and in March of the year 1908, I sailed from
New York on a journey in which I covered most
of the country which he describes so well and so
thoroughly. There are but slight changes in the
hundred years which have elapsed since he visited
South America. The great exuberant jungles are
just as dense and unbroken now as then; there
are a very few new clearings and small settle-
ments along the rivers, but some of those of his
time have disappeared, and inland the immense
range of forest still remains unbroken. I heard
the weird night song of the red monkeys, the toll-
ing of the bell bird, the coughing roar of the
jaguar and the many other night sounds just as
he must have heard them. The jungles are still
alive with toucans, parrots, jacamars, trogons,
motmots, cassiques, etc. Every little clearing is
the gathering place of great numbers of such
small birds as the hummingbirds, tanagers, fly-
catchers, and cotingas of many varieties and
colors. I saw a few snakes, the camoudi or ana-
conda, the labarri, the bushmaster, or couana-
couchi, and a most beautiful bright green parrot
snake.

XX INTRODUCTION

The lizards and iguanas are very plentiful and
interesting, and the insects are just as numerous
and attentive as they were one hundred years
ago. A week after my return to New York I
happened to notice a small swelling on the side
of my foot and upon examination found that it
was a colony of chigoes that I had unwittingly
smuggled past the Customs Inspectors. I quickly
evicted them after Waterton's prescription and
was much surprised to find that there neither
was nor had been the slightest pain connected
with their occupation or eviction. The ants were
everywhere and tried to destroy everything.
The ticks and bete-rouge were annoying at times,
and the scorpions and centipedes were rather too
plentiful, but there were great numbers of beau-
tiful and interesting insects, splendid morphos,
heliconias, papilios and many other butterflies in
great variety and most gorgeous coloring: lovely
great brown moths and resplendent jeweled
beetles and dragonflies. Also many curious and
remarkable forms of that little-known family,
the leaf hoppers. The grasshoppers, locusts,
cicadas and mantises grow to a great size and are
most beautifully colored in greens, reds, yellows
and browns.

The traveler in these immense forests may go
for days and see no animal life save a few birds
and insects, for the vegetation is so dense and
matted together with lianas, bushropes, and
orchid roots that the cover is perfect, and the
largest animals can conceal themselves almost
instantly. Even the great tapir, nearly as large
as a cow, can thread its way noiselessly through

INTRODUCTION xxi

the tangled iindergrowtli among the tree trunks,
and the jaguar and puma or cougar can disap-
pear in a single bound. The peccaries, of which
there are great herds, scattered through the
forest everywhere, can silently steal away, or if
discovered go crashing and squealing among the
great buttressed roots and trunks of the trees.
I found that the only way to see the more timid
beasts and birds was to go well into the jungle,
sit down and keep perfectly still and they would
come into sight. I found a great wild cashew
tree, the fruit of which was ripe and falling and
attracting many beasts and birds, and by taking
up a position near its base I saw many curious
little incidents of jungle life. I watched the timid
agoutis, ever on the lookout for danger, come with
short, jerky steps from under the great fallen
leaves which everywhere strewed the ground.
At the slightest movement or unusual sound they
would disappear instantly. I was watching two
of them one afternoon when hearing a slight
sound behind me I very cautiously turned my
head and discovered a peccary standing about
twenty feet away, watching me most intently. I
stared at him for a few moments, and then, re-
membering that they usually go in herds, I glanced
about beyond him and made out another and yet
another, both of them staring hard at me. I
watched them for a few minutes, but at last,
unable longer to bear the suspense, I moved a
little, and with many squeals and grunts, they
went rushing away, with eight or ten others which
I had not seen before. The natives have no fear
of these little black pigs, and say that they never

xxii INTRODUCTION

attack man, but I found my nerves rather shaken,
and I was very glad to see them disappear.

I found a pocket field glass to be of the greatest
assistance, as with its aid I was able to identify
many birds and beasts. Several times I found
that what seemed to be merely a mass of greenish
orchid roots was in reality a sloth, and once when
examining through its lenses a large thatch-like
nest of termites high in a tree, I noticed an ex-
crescence on the nest and was able to make out a
tamandua or ant-eater, which was making a meal
of the insects. Several times I identified the
cunning little sacawinki monkeys and marmosets
watching me from a tree. What a great advan-
tage Waterton would have found it, and likewise,
how he would have enjoyed the pocket electric
flash-light, that night when the jaguar investi-
gated his camp. I found it of great value in
identifying bats, and night-birds, as well as in
finding which kinds of toads and frogs made the
different notes of the chorus that swelled out
every evening just at dusk.

I foimd the camera of comparatively little use,
for the sun was too bright and the shade too
dense. The heat and dampness spoiled my films
and softened the glue which held together the
camera, but then I am but an indiiferent pho-
tographer at best, and another may well succeed
where I failed.

The scenery is rather monotonous going up the
Demerara Eiver, but after crossing over to the
Essequibo, it improves greatly and the islands,
rocks, rapids, and the wooded hills are very beau-
tiful— and the waterfalls are magnificent; the

INTRODUCTION xxiii

great Kaieteur Falls being several times as high
as our Niagara, and nearly as great an amount qf^
water going over it. The greatest beauty of the
Guiana jungles, however, is not the scenic beauty
of its broad landscapes, but the beauty of the
intimate, the little bits, that go to make up the
whole wonderful, fascinating jungle; a single
orchid, for instance, growing high on a branch
of a forest giant with strap-like leaves and lovely
flowers and long aerial roots streaming down far
below ; or one of the big Arums with great heart-
shaped velvety leaves and curious blossoms called
tail flowers. Every tree, plant and vine has its
own beautiful or curious flower, or leaf, or both,
and the flowers all have their attendant bees,
wasps, butterflies or moths. The lovely jeweled
hummingbirds go from one to another and add to
the beauty of the little group, while on the twig
beside the flower is perched a toucan or cotinga.
The roots of the jungle trees are nearly always
buttressed, great shoulders thrust out from the
trunks, sometimes round and massive, but more
often thin and flat, with edges hard and strong to
resist the impact of falling trunks and branches,
and too narrow to afford lodgement for seeds or
parasites which are trying everywhere to gain a
footing. On the ground between these great
roots are masses of dead leaves, fruits, seeds and
seed pods, of all shades of reds, yellows, and
browns; and the dead trunks and branches are
covered with most beautiful mosses and lichens.
Everywhere is beauty; everywhere in the light of
day are most lovely little pictures, and, when
the shades of night have fallen, everywhere is

xxiv INTRODUCTION

tragedy and drama, for then the killers walk
abroad, and they are many and very hungry.
The jaguar leaves the great branch whereon he
has slept away the day in the shadow of a mass
of foliage. On the ground he reminds one of a
great spotted bulldog, for his broad chest, mas-
sive shoulders, and thick bowed forelegs give him
a rather stiff, heavy or ''clumpy" walk, but in
the trees he is at once the true cat, graceful,
sinuous and blending in color with the lights and
shadows. His sturdy body seems almost to
change its entire character; he leaps easily from
branch to leaning trunk, threads his way noise-
lessly through a tangle of vines, creeps out upon
a big trunk overhanging the sandbar and leaps
like a flash upon the timid Capybara, his favorite
prey.

As he leisurely makes his meal, the great
Cayman swims slowly up and down just at the
edge of the sandbar, watching the great cat with
cold, unwinking eye. Perhaps he is hoping the
jaguar will leave a part of the game uneaten.

Out in midstream lies a school of the fish known
as the Perai, waiting for the faintest taint of
blood in the water, for though no larger than a
very thick, muscular black bass of about four
pounds ' weight, they will kill anything which falls
wounded into the water. Even the great Cayman
himself, should he be torn by the claws of a jaguar
caught by a sudden rush as it was drinking, would
find his armor plate of no avail, for these wicked
little killers are in such numbers, and can bite so
savagely with their powerful jaws, that the bleed-
ing scratch would instantly be greatly enlarged

INTRODUCTION xxv

and the monster reptile would be literally eaten
alive. On the other hand, a small Cayman will
dash fearlessly into a school of these fish and
snap up as many as he can catch.

"Who is master of the Jungle?" said the
great snake in Kipling's story, ''Red Dog."
There is no master of the jungle, for each master
will find his master. Even the wild bees in that
wonderful story are snapped up by the fly-
catchers.

Far in the forest a little band of red monkeys^
are sitting high in a giant palm, which spreads
its great fan-leaves twenty feet out from the
trunk. They sing their weird song in the moon-
light, the most awe-inspiring sound in all animate
nature. For twenty minutes or half an hour
their night-song swells out in great pipe-organ
chords, then dies slowly away, and the monkeys
go roving over the roof of the jungle, leaping
from branch to branch as they pass from one tree
to another. Crossing a bridging liana, the leader
suddenly stops and leaps back, but too late, for
the beautifully mottled tree boa lying coiled on
the liana has struck. Quicker than the leap
of the frightened monkey, quicker than the stroke
of a jaguar's paw, so quick that the eye of man
could not follow it, the snake has struck and the
big monkey is snatched from midair and is in-
stantly wrapped in the tight coils, with every bone
broken, every muscle crushed in one lightning
stroke.

Everywhere in the jungle is beauty, everywhere
is love and life, hate and death, feast and famine,
but it is all most alluring.

xxvi INTRODUCTION

There is a saying in Demerara that, ''He who
has once eaten of the labba and drank of the bush
water must come back to the jungle," and I feel
as Waterton felt, that I, too, must one day go
back.
— Charles Livingston Bull.

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

MEMOIR

Plutarch, the most famous biographer of an-
cient times, is of opinion that the uses of telling the
history of the men of past ages are to teach wis-
dom, and to show us by their example how best to
spend life. His method is to relate the history of
a Greek statesman or soldier, then the history of
a Roman whose opportunities of fame resembled
those of the Greek, and finally to compare the two.
He points out how in the same straits the one
hero had shown wisdom, the other imprudence;
and that he who had on one occasion fallen short
of greatness had on another displayed the high-
est degree of manly virtue or of genius. If Plu-
tarch's method of teaching should ever be followed
by an English biographer, he will surely place
side by side and compare two English naturalists,
Gilbert White and Charles Waterton. White was
a clergyman of the Church of England, educated
at Oxford. Waterton was a Roman Catholic
country gentleman, who received his education in
a Jesuit college. White spent his life in the
south of England, and never travelled. Waterton
lived in the north of England, and spent more
than ten years in the forests of Guiana. With all
these points of difference, the two naturalists
were men of the same kind, and whose lives both
teach the same lesson. They are examples to
show that if a man will but look carefully round
1 1

2 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

him; in the oountry his every-day walk may supply
him with an enjoyment costing nothing, but sur-
pyssed by none which wealth can procure; with
food for reflection however long he may live ; with
problems of which it will be an endless pleasure to
attempt the solution; with a spectacle of Infinite
Wisdom which will fill his mind with awe and with
a constantly increasing assurance of Infinite
Goodness, which will do much to help him in all
the trials of life. He who lives in the country and
has the love of outdoor natural history in his
heart, will never be lonely and never dull. Water-
ton himself thought that this love of natural his-
tory must be inborn and could not be acquired.
If this be so, they ought indeed to be thankful who
possess so happy a gift. Even if Waterton's
opinion be not absolutely true, it is at least certain
that the taste for outdoor observation can only be
acquired in the field, and that this acquisition is
rarely made after the period of boyhood. How
important, then, to excite the attention of children
in the country to the sights around them. A few
will remain apathetic, the tastes of some will lie
in other directions, but the time will not be lost,
for some will certainly take to natural history,
and will have happiness from it throughout life.
No study is more likely to confirm them in that
content of which a favourite poet of Waterton's
truly says : —

"Content is wealth, the riches of the mind,
And happy he who can that treasure find.**

Gilbert White and Charles Waterton are pre-
eminent among English naturalists for their com-

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 3

plete devotion to the study; both excelled as
observers, and the writings of both combine the
interest of exact outdoor observation with the
charm of good literature. Waterton was born on
June 3rd, 1782, at Walton Hall, in the West Riding
of Yorkshire, a place which had for several centu-
ries been the seat of his family. His father,
Thomas Waterton, was a squire, fond of fox-hunt-
ing, but with other tastes, well read in literature,
and delighting in the observation of the ways of
birds and beasts. His grandfather, whose grave
is beneath the most northern of a row of old elm
trees in the park, was imprisoned in York on ac-
count of his known attachment to the cause of the
Young Pretender. As he meant to join the rebel
forces, the imprisonment probably saved his own
life and prevented the ruin of the family. In his
grandson's old age, when another white-haired
Yorkshire squire was dining at Walton Hall, I
remember that Waterton and he reminded one
another that their grandfathers had planned to
march together to Prince Charley, and that they
themselves, so differently are the rights of kings
regarded at different ages, when schoolboys to-
gether, had gone a-bird's-nesting on a day, in
1793, set apart for mourning for the decapitation
of Louis XVI. Waterton has himself told the
history of his earlier ancestors in an autobiogra-
phy which he wrote in 1837 : —

*'The poet tells us, that the good qualities of
man and of cattle descend to their offspring.
'Fortes creantur fortibus et bonis.' If this holds
good, I ought to be pretty well off, as far as
breeding goes; for, on the father's side, I come

4 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

in a direct line from Sir Thomas More, through
my grandmother; whilst by the mother's side I
am akin to the Bedingfelds of Oxburgh, to the
Charltons of Hazelside, and to the Swinburnes of
Capheaton. My family has been at Walton Hall
for some centuries. It emigrated into Yorkshire
from Waterton, in the island of Axeholme in Lin-
colnshire, where it had been for a very long time.
Indeed, I dare say I could trace it up to Father
Adam, if my progenitors had only been as careful
in preserving family records as the Arabs are in
recording the pedigree of their horses; for I do
most firmly believe that we are all descended from
Adam and his wife Eve, notwithstanding what
certain self-sufficient philosophers may have ad-
vanced to the contrary. Old Matt Prior had prob-
ably an opportunity of laying his hands on family
papers of the same purport as those which I have
not been able to find; for he positively informs
us that Adam and Eve were his ancestors : —

'Gentlemen, here, by yo\ir leave,

Lie the bones of Matthew Prior,
A son of Adam and of Eve:

Can Bourbon or Nassau go higher?*

Depend upon it, the man under Afric's burning
zone, and he from the frozen regions of the North,
have both come from the same stem. Their dif-
ference in colour and in feature may be traced to
this: viz., that the first has had too much, and
the second too little, sun.

*'In remote times, some of my ancestors were
sufficiently notorious to have had their names
handed down to posterity. They fought at Cressy,

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 5

and at Agincourt, and at Marston Moor. Sir
Robert Waterton was Governor of Pontefract
Castle, and had charge of King Richard II. Sir
Hugh Waterton was executor to his Sovereign's
will, and guardian to his daughters. Another
ancestor was sent into France by the King, with
orders to contract a royal marriage. He was
allowed thirteen shillings a day for his trouble
and travelling expenses. Another was Lord Chan-
cellor of England, and preferred to lose his head
rather than sacrifice his conscience."

Waterton 's childhood was spent at Walton Hall,
and in his old age he used sometimes to recall the
songs of his nurses. "One of them," he said,
*'is the only poem in which the owl is pitied. She
sang it to the tune of 'Cease, rude Boreas, bluster-
ing railer, ' and the words are affecting : —

*Onee I was a monarch's daughter.
And sat on a lady's knee; »

■But am now a nightly rover,
Banished to the ivy tree.

'Crying, Hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo,

Hoo, hoo, my feet are cold!
Pity me, for here you see me
Persecuted, poor, and old.' "

He was already proficient in bird's-nesting
when, in 1792, he was sent to a school kept by a
Roman Catholic priest, the Reverend Arthur Sto-
rey, at Tudhoe, then a small village, five miles
from Durham. Three years before his death he
wrote an account of his school days, which is
printed in the Life prefixed to Messrs, Warne's
edition of his ''Natural History Essays." The

6 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

honourable character of the schoolmaster, and
the simple, adventurous disposition of his pupil,
are vividly depicted in this account. The follow-
ing quotations from it show that preparatory
schools were less luxurious in the last century
than they commonly are at the present day: —

"But now let me enter into the minutiae of Tud-
hoe School. Mr. Storey had two wigs, one of
which was of a flaxen colour, without powder, and
had only one lower row of curls. The other had
two rows, and was exceedingly well powdered.
AVhen he appeared in the schoolroom with this
last wig on, I knew that I was safe from the birch,
as he invariably went to Durham and spent the
day there. But when I saw that he had his flaxen
wig on, my countenance fell. He was in the
schoolroom all day, and I was too often placed in
a very uncomfortable position at nightfall. But
sometimes I had to come in contact with the birch-
rod for various frolics independent of school eru-
dition. I once smarted severely for an act of
kindness. We had a boy named Bryan Salvin,
from Croxdale Hall. He was a dull, sluggish, and
unwieldy lad, quite incapable of climbing exer-
tions. Being dissatisfied with the regulations of
the establishment, he came to me one Palm Sun-
day, and entreated me to get into the schoolroom
through the window, and write a letter of com-
plaint to his sister Eliza in York. I did so, having
insinuated myself with vast exertion through the
iron stanchions which secured the window; ^sed
revocare gradum.' Whilst I was thrusting might
and main through the stanchions, on my way out
— suddenly, oh, horrible ! the schoolroom door flew

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 7

open, and on the threshold stood the Keverend
Mr. Storey — a fiery, frightful, formidable spectre!
To my horror and confusion I drove my foot quite
through a pane of glass, and there I stuck, im-
paled and imprisoned, but luckily not injured by
the broken glass. Whilst I was thus in unex-
pected captivity, he cried out, in an angry voice,
*So you are there, Master Charles, are youT He
got assistance, and they pulled me back by main
force. But as this was Palm Sunday my exe-
cution was obligingly deferred until Monday
morning.

''But let us return to Tudhoe. In my time it
was a peaceful, healthy farming village, and
abounded in local curiosities. Just on the king's
highway, betwixt Durham and Bishop- Auckland,
and one field from the school, there stood a public-
house called the 'White Horse,' and kept by a
man of the name of Charlton. He had a real
gaunt English mastiff, half-starved for want of
food, and so ferocious that nobody but himself
dared to approach it. This publican had also a
mare, surprising in her progeny; she had three
foals, in three successive years, not one of which
had the least appearance of a tail.

"One of Mr. Storey's powdered wigs was of so
tempting an aspect, on the shelf where it was laid
up in ordinary, that the cat actually kittened in
it. I saw her and her little ones all together in
the warm wig. He also kept a little white and
black bitch, apparently of King Charles's breed.
One evening, as we scholars were returning from
a walk, Chloe started a hare, which we surrounded
and captured, and carried in triumph to oily

8 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

Mrs. Atkinson, who begged us a play-day for our
success.

''On Easter Sunday Mr. Storey always treated
us to 'Pasche eggs.' They were boiled hard in a
concoction of whin-flowers, which rendered them
beautifully purple. We used them for warlike
purposes, by holding them betwixt our forefinger
and thumb with the sharp end upwards, and as
little exposed as possible. An antagonist then ap-
proached, and with the sharp end of his own egg
struck this egg. If he succeeded in cracking it,
the vanquished egg was his ; and he either sold it
for a halfpenny in the market, or reserved it for
his own eating. When all the sharp ends had been
crushed, then the blunt ends entered into battle.
Thus nearly every Pasche egg in the school had
its career of combat. The possessor of a strong
egg with a thick shell would sometimes vanquish
a dozen of his opponents, all of which the con-
queror ultimately transferred into his own stom-
ach, when no more eggs with unbroken ends
remained to carry on the war of Easter Week.

"The little black and white bitch once began to
snarl, and then to bark at me, when I was on a
roving expedition in quest of hens' nests. I took
up half a brick and knocked it head over heels.
Mr. Storey was watching at the time from one of
the upper windows ; but I had not seen him, until
I heard the sound of his magisterial voice. He
beckoned me to his room there and then, and
whipped me soundly for my pains.

''Four of us scholars stayed at Tudhoe during
the summer vacation, when all the rest had gone
home. Two of these had dispositions as malicious

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 9

as those of two old apes. One fine summer's
morning they decoyed me into a field (I was just
then from my mother's nursery) where there was
a flock of geese. They assured me that the geese
had no right to be there; and that it was neces-
sary we should kill them, as they were trespassing
on our master's grass. The scamps then furnished
me with a hedge-stake. On approaching the flock,
behold the gander came out to meet me; and
whilst he was hissing defiance at us, I struck him
on the neck, and killed him outright. My comrades
immediately took to flight, and on reaching the
house informed our master of what I had done.
But when he heard my unvarnished account of
the gander's death, he did not say one single un-
kind word to me, but scolded most severely the
two boys who had led me into the scrape. The
geese belonged to a farmer named John Hey,
whose son Ralph used to provide me with birds'
eggs. Ever after when I passed by his house,
some of the children would point to me and say,
'Yaw killed aur guise.'

*'At Bishop- Auckland there lived a man by the
name of Charles the Painter. He played extremely
well on the Northumberland bagpipe, and his
neighbour was a good performer on the flageolet.
When we had pleased our master by continued
good conduct, he would send for these two musi-
cians, who gave us a delightful evening concert in
the general play-room, Mr. Storey himself sup-
plying an extra treat of fruit, cakes, and tea.

''Tudhoe had her own ghosts and spectres, just
as the neighbouring villages had theirs. One was
the Tudhoe mouse, well-known and often seen in

10 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

every house in the village; but I cannot affirm
that I myself ever saw it. It was an enormous
mouse, of a dark brown colour, and did an im-
mensity of mischief. No cat could face it ; and as
it wandered through the village, all the dogs would
take off, frightened out of their wits, and howling
as they ran away. William Wilkinson, Mr. Sto-
rey's farming man, told me he had often seen it,
but that it terrified him to such a degree that he
could not move from the place where he was
standing.

' ' Our master kept a large tom-cat in the house.
A fine young man, in the neighbouring village of
Ferryhill, had been severely bitten by a cat, and
he died raving mad. On the day that we got this
information from Timothy Pickering, the carpen-
ter at Tudhoe, I was on the prowl for adventures,
and in passing through Mr. Storey's back kitchen,
his big black cat came up to me. Whilst I was
tickling its bushy tail, it turned round upon me,
and gave me a severe bite in the calf of the leg.
This I kept a profound secret, but I was quite sure
I should go mad every day, for many months
afterwards.

"There was a blacksmith's shop leading down
the village to Tudhoe Old Hall. Just opposite this
shop was a pond, on the other side of the road.
When any sudden death was to take place, or any
sudden ill to befall the village, a large black horse
used to emerge from it, and walk slowly up and
down the village, carrying a rider without a head.
The blacksmith's grandfather, his father, himself,
his three sons, and two daughters, had seen this
midnight apparition rise out of the pond, and re-

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 11

turn to it before the break of day. John Hickson
and Neddy Hunt, two hangers-on at the black-
smith's shop, had seen this phantom more than
once, but they never durst approach it. Indeed,
every man and woman and child believed in this
centaur-spectre, and I am not quite sure if our
old master himself did not partly believe that
such a thing had occasionally been seen on very
dark nights.

^'Tudhoe has no river, a misfortune 'valde de-
flendus/ In other respects the vicinity was charm-
ing; and it afforded an ample supply of woods
and hedgerow trees to insure a sufficient stock of
carrion crows, jackdaws, jays, magpies, brown
owls, kestrels, merlins, and sparrow-hawks, for
the benefit of natural history and my own instruc-
tion and amusement."

In 1796 Waterton left Tudhoe School and went
to Stonyhurst College in Lancashire. It was a
country house of the picturesque style of King
James I., which had just been made over by Mr.
Weld of Lulworth to the Jesuits expelled from
Liege. The country round Stonyhurst is varied
by hills and streams, and there are mountains at
no great distance.

"Whernside, Pendle Hill, and Ingleboro*,
Three higher hills you'll not find England thoro*,"

as they are described, with equal disregard of
exact mensuration and of rhythm, in a local rhyme
which Waterton learned. Curlew used to fly by
in flocks, and the country people had also a rhyme
about the curlew: —

12 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

**Be she white or be she black,
She carries sixpence on her back,"

which Waterton used to say showed how our an-
cestors valued the bird at table.

At Stonyhurst he read a good deal of Latin and
of English literature, and acquired a taste for
writing Latin verse. He always looked back on
his education there with satisfaction, and in after-
life often went to visit the college. Throughout
life he never drank wine, and this fortunate habit
was the result of the good advice of one of his
teachers : —

"My master was Father Clifford, a first cousin
of the noble lord of that name. He had left the
world, and all its alluring follies, that he might
serve Almighty God more perfectly, and work his
way with more security up to the regions of eternal
bliss. After educating those entrusted to his
charge with a care and affection truly paternal,
he burst a blood-vessel, and retired to Palermo for
the benefit of a warmer climate. There he died
the death of the just, in the habit of St. Ignatius.

**One day, when I was in the class of poetry,
and which was about two years before I left the
college for good and all, he called me up to his
room. 'Charles,' said he to me, in a tone of voice
perfectly irresistible, 'I have long been studying
your disposition, and I clearly foresee that noth-
ing will keep you at home. You will journey into
far-distant countries, where you will be exposed
to many dangers. There is only one way for you
to escape them. Promise me that, from this day
forward, you will never put your lips to wine, or

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 13

to spirituous liquors.' 'The sacrifice is nothing,*
added he; 'but, in the end, it will prove of incal-
culable advantage to you.' I agreed to his en-
lightened proposal; and from that hour to this,
which is now about nine-and-thirty years, I have
never swallowed one glass of any kind of wine or
of ardent spirits."

After leaving college Waterton stayed at home
with his father, and enjoyed fox-hunting for a
while. To the end of his days he liked to hear of a
good run, and he would now and then look with
pleasure on an engraving which hung in the usual
dining-room at Walton Hall, representing Lord
Darlington, the first master of hounds he had
known, well seated on a powerful horse and sur-
rounded by very muscular hounds. In 1802 he
went to visit two uncles in Spain, and stayed for
more than a year, and there had a terrible ex-
perience of pestilence and of earthquake; —

"There began to be reports spread up and down
the city that the black vomit had made its appear-
ance ; and every succeeding day brought testimony
that things were not as they ought to be. I myself,
in an alley near my uncles' house, saw a mattress
of most suspicious appearance hung out to dry.
A Maltese captain, who had dined with us in good
health at one o'clock, lay dead in his cabin before
sunrise the next morning. A few days after this
I was seized with vomiting and fever during the
night. I had the most dreadful spasms, and it was
supposed that I could not last out till noon the
next day. However, strength of constitution got
me through it. Tn three weeks more, multitudes
were seen to leave the city, which shortly after

14 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

was declared to be in a state of pestilence. Some
affirmed that the disorder had come from the
Levant ; others said that it had been imported from
the Havafnna ; but I think it probable that nobody
could tell in what quarter it had originated.

'*We had now all retired to the country-house
— my eldest uncle returning to Malaga from time
to time, according as the pressure of business de-
manded his presence in the city. He left us one
Sunday evening, and said he would be back again
some time on Monday; but that was my poor
uncle's last day's ride. On arriving at his house
in Malaga, there was a messenger waiting to in-
form him that Father Bustamante had fallen sick,
and wished to see him. Father Bustamante was
an aged priest, who had been particularly kind to
my uncle on his first arrival in Malaga. My uncle
went immediately to Father Bustamante, gave
him every consolation in his power, and then re-
turned to his own house very unwell, there to die
a martyr to his charity. Father Bustamante
breathed his last before daylight; my uncle took
to his bed, and never rose more. As soon as we
had received information of his sickness, I im-
mediately set out on foot for the city. His friend,
Mr. Power, now of Gibraltar, was already in his
room, doing everything that friendship could sug-
gest or prudence dictate. My uncle's athletic
constitution bore up against the disease much
longer than we thought it possible. He struggled
with it for five days, and sank at last about the
hour of sunset. He stood six feet four inches
high; and was of so kind and generous a dispo-
sition, that he was beloved by all who knew him.

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 15

Many a Spanish tear flowed when it was known
that he had ceased to be. We got him a kind of
coffin made, in which he was conveyed at midnight
to the outskirts of the town, there to be put into
one of the pits which the galley-slaves had dug
during the day for the reception of the dead. But
they could not spare room for the coffin; so the
body was taken out of it, and thrown upon the
heap which already occupied the pit. A Spanish
marquis lay just below him.

** Thousands died as though they had been
seized with cholera, others with black vomit, and
others of decided yellow fever. There were a few
instances of some who departed this life with very
little pain or bad symptoms : they felt unwell, they
went to bed, they had an idea that they would not
get better, and they expired in a kind of slumber.
It was sad in the extreme to see the bodies placed
in the streets at the close of day, to be ready f©r
the dead-carts as they passed along. The dogs
howled fearfully during the night. All was gloom
and horror in every street ; and you might see the
vultures on the strand tugging at the bodies which
were washed ashore by the eastern wind. It was
always said that 50,000 people left the city at the
commencement of the pestilence ; and that 14,000
of those who remained in it fell victims to the
disease.

^' There was an intrigue going on at court, for
the interest of certain powerful people, to keep the
port of Malaga closed long after the city had been
declared free from the disorder; so that none of
the vessels in the mole could obtain permission
to depart for their destination.

16 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

*'In the meantime the city was shaken with
earthquakes; shock succeeding shock, till we all
imagined that a catastrophe awaited us similar
to that which had taken place at Lisbon. The pes-
tilence killed you by degrees, and its approaches
were sufficiently slow, in general, to enable you
to submit to it with firmness and resignation; but
the idea of being swallowed up alive by the yawn-
ing earth at a moment's notice, made you sick at
heart, and rendered you almost fearful of your
own shadow. The first shock took place at six in
the evening, with a noise as though a thousand
carriages had dashed against each other. This
terrified many people to such a degree that they
paced all night long up and down the Alameda, or
public walk, rather than retire to their homes. I
went to bed a little after midnight, but was roused
by another shock about five o'clock in the morning.
It gave the bed a motion which made me fancy
that it moved under me from side to side. I
sprang up, and having put on my unmentionables
(we wore no trousers in those days), I ran out,
in all haste, to the Alameda. There the scene was
most distressing: multitudes of both sexes, some
nearly in a state of nudity, and others sick at
stomach, were huddled together, not knowing
which way to turn or what to do.

'Omnes eodem cogimur.'

However, it pleased Heaven, in its mercy, to spare
us. The succeeding shocks became weaker and
weaker, till at last we felt no more of them. ' '

A courageous sea-captain at last sailed away in
safety, though chased by the Spanish brigs of

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 17

war, and after thirty days at sea Waterton landed
in England.

Another uncle had estates in Demerara, and in
the autumn Waterton sailed thither from Ports-
mouth. He landed at Georgetown, Demerara, in
November, 1804, and was soon delighted by the
natural history of the tropical forest. In 1806 his
father died, and he returned to England. He made
four more journeys to Guiana, and, in 1825, pub-
lished an account of them, entitled ''Wanderings
in South America, the North- West of the United
States, and the Antilles, in the years 1812, 1816,
1820, and 1824 ; with original instructions for the
perfect preservation of birds, &c., for cabinets
of natural history." The book at once attracted
general attention, became popular, and has taken
a place among permanent English literature. Un-
like most travellers, Waterton tells nothing of his
personal difficulties and discomforts, and encum-
bers his pages with neither statistics nor informa-
tion of the guide-book kind. His observation of
birds and beasts, written down in the forests, and
the description of the forests themselves, fill all
his pages. The great ant-eater and the sloth were
for the first time accurately described by him.
He showed that the sloth, instead of being a de-
formed, unhappy creature, was admirably adapted
to its habitat. He explained the use of the great
claws of the ant-eater, and the curious gait which
they necessitated. The habits of the toucan, of
the houtou, of the campanero, and of many other
birds, were first correctly described by him. He
determined to catch a cayman or alligator, and

2

18 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

at last hooked one with a curious wooden hook of
four barbs made for him by an Indian.

The adventure which followed is perhaps one
of the most famous exploits of an English nat-
uralist.

'*We found a cayman, ten feet and a half long,
fast to the end of the rope. Nothing now re-
mained to do, but to get him out of the water
without injuring his scales, 'hoc opus, hie labor.'
We mustered strong: there were three Indians
from the creek, there was my own Indian, Yan;
Daddy Quashi,* the negro from Mrs. Peterson's;
James, Mr. R. Edmonstone's man, whom I was
instructing to preserve birds ; and, lastly, myself.

''I informed the Indians that it was my inten-
tion to draw him quietly out of the water, and then
secure him. They looked and stared at each
other, and said I might do it myself, but they
would have no hand in it; the cayman would
worry some of us. On saying tliis, 'consedere
duces,' they squatted on their hams with the most
perfect indifference.

"The Indians of these wilds have never been
subject to the least restraint ; and I knew enough
of them to be aware, that if I tried to force them
against their will, they would take off, and leave
me and my presents unheeded, and never return.

** Daddy Quashi was for applying to our guns,
as usual, considering them our best and safest

* The negroes of the West Coast of Africa, as I am informed
by Dr. Kodjoe Benjamin William Kwatei-kpakpafio, of Accra,
take their names from the day of the week on which they are
born: Quashi (Kwasi) is Sunday; Kodjoe, Monday; Koffie,
Tuesday. — N. M.

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 19

friends. I immediately offered to knock him down
for his cowardice, and he shrank back, begging
that I would be cautious, and not get myself wor-
ried ; and apologising for his own want of resolu-
tion. My Indian was now in conversation with the
others, and they asked me if I would allow them
to shoot a dozen arrows into him, and thus disable
him. This would have ruined all. I had come
above three hundred miles on purpose to get a
cayman uninjured, and not to carry back a muti-
lated specimen. I rejected their proposition with
firmness, and darted a disdainful eye upon the
Indians.

** Daddy Quashi was again beginning to remon-
strate, and I chased him on the sand-bank for a
quarter of a mile. He told me afterwards, he
thought he should have dropped down dead with
fright, for he was firmly persuaded, if I had caught
him, I should have bundled him into the cayman's
jaws. Here then we stood, in silence, like a calm
before a thunder-storm. *Hoc res summa loco.
Scinditur in contraria vulgus.' They wanted to
kill him, and I wanted to take him alive.

* ' I now walked up and down the sand, revolving
a dozen projects in my head. The canoe was at a
considerable distance, and I ordered the people to
bring it round to the place where we were. The
mast was eight feet long, and not much thicker
than my wrist. I took it out of the canoe, and
wrapped the sail round the end of it. Now it ap-
peared clear to me, that if I went down upon one
knee, and held the mast in the same position as
the soldier holds his bayonet when rushing to the
charge, I could force it down the cayman's throat,

20 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

should lie come open-mouthed at me. When this
was told to the Indians, they brightened up, and
said they would help me to pull him out of the
river.

" * Brave squad!' said I to myself, ' ''Audax
omnia perpeti, ' ' now that you have got me betwixt
yourselves and danger.' I then mustered all
hands for the last time before the battle. We
were, four South American savages, two negroes
from Africa, a Creole from Trinidad, and myself,
a white man from Yorkshire. In fact, a little
Tower of Babel group, in dress, no dress, address
and language.

' 'Daddy Quashi hung in the rear ; I showed him
a large Spanish knife, which I always carried in
the waistband of my trousers: it spoke volumes
to him, and he shrugged up his shoulders in ab-
solute despair. The sun was just peeping over
the high forests on the eastern hills, as if coming
to look on, and bid us act with becoming fortitude.
I placed all the people at the end of the rope, and
ordered them to pull till the cayman appeared on
the surface of the water; and then, should he
plunge, to slacken the rope and let him go again
into the deep.

* ' I now took the mast of the canoe in my hand
(the sail being tied round the end of the mast) and
sank down upon one knee, about four yards from
the water's edge, determining to thrust it down
his throat, in case he gave me an opportunity. I
certainly felt somewhat uncomfortable in this
situation, and I thought of Cerberus on the other
side of the Styx ferry. The people pulled the
cayman to the surface; he plunged furiously as

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 21

soon as be arrived in these upper regions, and im-
mediately went below again on tlieir slackening
tbe rope. I saw enougb not to fall in love at first
sight. I now told them we would run all risks,
and have him on land immediately. They pulled
again, and out be came — 'monstrum horrendum,
informe.' This was an interesting moment. I
kept my position firmly, with my eye fijsed stead-
fast on him.

*'By the time the cayman was within two yards
of me, I saw he was in a state of fear and pertur-
bation : I instantly dropped the mast, sprang up,
and jumped on his back, turning half round as I
vaulted, so that I gained my seat with my face in
a right position. I immediately seized his fore-
legs, and by main force twisted them on his back ;
thus they served me for a bridle.

''He now seemed to have recovered from his
surprise, and probably fancying himself in hostile
company, he began to plunge furiously, and lashed
the sand with his long and powerful tail. I was
out of reach of the strokes of it, by being near
his head. He continued to plunge and strike, and
made my seat very uncomfortable. It must have
been a fine sight for an unoccupied spectator.

* ' The people roared out in triumph, and were so
vociferous, that it was some time before they
heard me tell them to pull me and my beast of
burthen farther inland. I was apprehensive the
rope might break, and then there would have been
every chance of going down to the regions under
water with the cayman. That would have been
more perilous than Arion's marine morning
ride : —

'Delphini insidens vada cserula sulcat Arion. '

22 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

* * The people now dragged us about forty yards
on the sand; it was the first and last time I was
ever on a cayman's back. Should it be asked, how
I managed to keep my seat, I would answer — I
hunted some years with Lord Darlington's fox-
hounds.

"After repeated attempts to regain his liberty,
the cayman gave in, and became tranquil through
exhaustion. I now managed to tie up his jaws,
and firmly secured his fore-feet in the position I
had held them. We had now another severe strug-
gle for superiority, but he was soon overcome, and
again remained quiet. Wliile some of the people
were pressing upon his head and shoulders, I
threw myself on his tail, and by keeping it down
to the sand, prevented him from kicking up an-
other dust. He was finally conveyed to the canoe,
and then to the place where we had suspended our
hammocks. There I cut his throat; and after
breakfast was over commenced the dissection."

After his fourth journey Waterton occasionally
travelled on the Continent, but for the most part
resided at Walton Hall. In the park he made the
observations afterwards published as ''Essays on
Natural History," in three series, and since re-
printed, with his Life and Letters.

Walton Hall is situated on an island sur-
rounded by its ancient moat, a lake of about five-
and-twenty acres in extent. From the shores of
the lake the land rises; parts of the slope, and
nearly all the highest part, being covered with
wood.

In one wood there was a large heronry, in an-
other a rookery. Several hollow trees were

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 23

haunted by owls ; in the summer goat-suckers were
always to be seen in the evening flying about two
oaks on the hill. At one end of the lake in summer
the kingfisher might be watched fishing, and
throughout the year herons waded round its
shores picking up fresh-water mussels, or stood
motionless for hours, watching for fish. In win-
ter, when the lake was frozen, three or four hun-
dred wild duck, with teal and pochards, rested on
it all day, and flew away at night to feed ; while
widgeons fed by day on its shores. Coots and
water hens used to come close to the windows and
pick up food put out for them. The Squire built
a wall nine feet high all round his park, and he
used laughingly to say that he paid for it with
the cost of the wine which he did not drink after
dinner.

A more delightful home for a naturalist could
not have been. No shot was ever fired within the
park wall, and every year more birds came. Wat-
erton used often to quote the lines : —

"No bird that haunts my valley free
To slaughter I condemn;
Taught by the Power that pities me,
I learn to pity them ; ' '

and each new-comer added to his happiness. In
his latter days the household usually consisted of
the Squire, as he was always called, and of his two
sisters-in-law, for he had lost his wife soon after
his marriage in 1829. He breakfasted at eight,
dined in the middle of the day, and drank tea in
the evening. He went to bed early, and slept upon
the bare floor, with a block of wood for his pillow.

24 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

He rose for the day at half -past three, and spent
the hour from four to five at prayer in his chapel.
He then read every morning a chapter in a Span-
ish Life of St. Francis Xavier, followed by a
chapter of "Don Quixote" in the original, after
which he used to stuff birds or write letters till
breakfast. Most of the day he spent in the open
air, and when the weather was cold would light a
fire of sticks and warm himself by it. So active
did he continue to the end of his days, that on his
eightieth birthday he climbed an oak in my com-
pany. He was very kind to the poor, and threw
open a beautiful part of his park to excursionists
all through the summer. He had a very tender
heart for beasts and birds, as well as for men. If
a cat looked hungry he would see that she had a
meal, and sometimes when he had forgotten to
put a crust of bread in his pocket before starting
on his afternoon walk, he would say to his com-
panion, "How shall we ever get past that goose?"
for there was a goose which used to wait for him
in the evening at the end of the bridge over the
moat, and he could not bear to disappoint it. If
he could not find a bit of food for it, he would
wait at a distance till the bird went away, rather
than give it nothing when it raised its bill.

Towards the end of his life I enjoyed his friend-
ship, and can never forget his kindly welcome, his
pithy conversation, the happy humour with which
he expressed the conclusions of his long experi-
ence of men, birds and beasts, and the goodness
which shone from his face. I was staying at
Walton when he died, and have thus described
his last hours in the biography which is prefixed

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 25

to the latest edition of his Essays. I was read-
ing for an examination, and used, on the Squire's
invitation, to go and chat with him just after
midnight, for at that hour he always awoke, and
paid a short visit to his chapel. A little before
midnight on May 24th I visited him in his room.
He was sitting asleep by his fire wrapped up in a
large Italian cloak.

His head rested upon his wooden pillow, which
was placed on a table, and his thick silvery hair
formed a beautiful contrast with the dark colour
of the oak. He soon woke up, and withdrew to the
chapel, and on his return we talked together for
three-quarters of an hour about the brown owl,
the nightjar, and other birds. The next morning.
May 25, he was unusually cheerful, and said to
me, *'That was a very pleasant little confab we
had last night: I do not suppose there was such
another going on in England at the same time."
After breakfast we went with a carpenter to finish
some bridges at the far end of the park. The
work was completed, and we were proceeding
homewards when, in crossing a small bridge, a
bramble caught the Squire's foot, and he fell
heavily upon a log. He was greatly shaken, and
said he thought he was dying. He walked, not-
withstanding, a little way, and was then compelled
to lie down. He would not permit his sufferings
to distract his mind, and he pointed out to the
carpenter some trees which were to be felled. He
presently continued his route, and managed to
reach the spot where the boat was moored. Hith-
erto he had refused all assistance, but he could not
step from the bank into the boat, and he said, "I

26 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

am afraid I must ask you to help me in." He
walked from the landing-place into the house,
changed his clothes, and came and sat in the large
room below. The pain increasing, he rose from
his seat after he had seen his doctor, and though
he had been bent double with anguish, he persisted
in walking up-stairs without help, and would have
gone to his own room in the top storey, if, for the
sake of saving trouble to others, he had not been
induced to stop half-way in Miss Edmonstone's
sitting-room. Here he lay down upon the sofa,
and was attended by his sisters-in-law. The pain
abated, and the next day he seemed better. In
the afternoon he talked to me a good deal, chiefly
about natural history. But he was well aware of
his perilous condition, for he remarked to me,
"This is a bad business," and later on he felt his
pulse often, and said, "It is a bad case." He was
more than self-possessed. A benignant cheerful-
ness beamed from his mind, and in the fits of pain
he frequently looked up with a gentle smile, and
made some little joke. Towards midnight he grew
worse. The priest, the Eeverend E. Browne, was
summoned, and Waterton got ready to die. He
pulled himself upright without help, sat in the
middle of the sofa, and gave his blessing in turn to
his grandson, Charlie, to his grand-daughter,
Mary, to each of his sisters-in-law, to his niece,
and to myself, and left a message for his son, who
was hastening back from Eome. He then received
the last sacraments, repeated all the responses.
Saint Bernard's hymn in English, and the first
two verses of the Dies Irce. The end was now at
hand, and he died at twenty-seven minutes past

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 27

two in the morning of May 27, 1865. The window
was open. The sky was beginning to grow grey,
a few rooks had cawed, the swallows were twit-
tering, the landrail was craking from the ox-close,
and a favourite cock, which he used to call his
morning gun, leaped out from some hollies, and
gave his accustomed crow. The ear of his master
was deaf to the call. He had obeyed a sublimer
summons, and had woke up to the glories of the
eternal world.

He was buried on his birthday, the 3rd of June,
between two great oaks at the far end of the lake,
the oldest trees in the park. He had put up a
rough stone cross to mark the spot where he
wished to be buried. Often on summer days he
had sat in the shade of these oaks watching the
kingfishers. **Cock Robin and the magpies,'* he
said to me as we sat by the trees one day, ''will
mourn my loss, and you will sometimes remember
me when I lie here." At the foot of the cross is
a Latin inscription which he wrote himself. It
could hardly be simpler: "Pray for the soul of
Charles Waterton, whose tired bones are buried
near this cross." The dates of his birth and death
are added.

Walton Hall is no longer the home of the Wat-
ertons, the oaks are too old to flourish many
years more, and in time the stone cross may be
overthrown and the exact burial place of Water-
ton be forgotten; but his "Wanderings in South
America" and his "Natural History Essays" will
always be read, and are for him a memorial like
that claimed by the poet he read oftenest —

"quod nee Jovis ira, nee ignes,
Nee poterit ferrum, nee edax abolere vetustas."

NOBMAN MOOEE.

Wanderings in South America

FIRST JOURNEY

CHAPTER I

- "nee herba, nee latens in asperis

Radix fefellit me locis. "

In the month of April, 1812, I left the town of
Stabroek, to travel through the wilds of Demerara
and Essequibo, a part of ci-devant Dutch Guiana,
in South America.

The chief objects in view were to collect a
quantity of the strongest Wourali-poison ; and to
reach the inland frontier fort of Portuguese
Guiana.

It would be a tedious journey for him who
wishes to travel through these wilds, to set out
from Stabroek on foot. The sun would exhaust
him in his attempts to wade through the swamps,
and the Mosquitos at night would deprive him of
every hour of sleep.

The road for horses runs parallel to the river,
but it extends a very little way, and even ends
before the cultivation of the plantation ceases.

The only mode then that remains is to proceed

29

30 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

by water; and when you come to the high lands,
you may make your way through the forest on
foot, or continue your route on the river.

After passing the third island in the river
Demerara, there are few plantations to be seen,
and those not joining on to one another, but sepa-
rated 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 pass-
ing these there is not a ruin to inform the trav-
eller that either coffee or sugar have ever 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 per-
pendicular 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

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 31

green and purple. The tops of some are crowned
with bloom of the loveliest hue ; while the boughs
of others bend with a profusion of seeds and
fruits.

Those whose heads have been bared by time, or
blasted by the thunder-storm, strike the eye, as a
mournful sound does the ear in music ; and seem
to beckon to the sentimental traveller to stop a
moment or two, and see that the forests which
surround him, like men and kingdoms, have their
periods of misfortune and decay.

The first rocks of any considerable size that are
observed on the side of the river are at a place
called Saba, from the Indian word, which means
a stone. They appear sloping down to the water's
edge, not shelvy, but smooth, and their exuber-
ances rounded off, and, in some places, deeply fur-
rowed, as though they had been worn with
continual floods of water.

There are patches of soil up and down, and
the huge stones amongst them produce a pleasing
and novel effect. You see a few Coffee-trees of a
fine luxuriant growth; and nearly on the top of
Saba stands the house of the post-holder.

He is appointed by government to give in his
report to the protector of the Indians of what is
going on amongst them, and to prevent suspicious
people from passing up the river. -^1

When the Indians assemble here the stranger
may have an opportunity of seeing tlje 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

32 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

\ to its destination ; and here he may often view all
the different shades, from the red savage to the
white man, and from the white man to the sootiest
son of Africa.

Beyond this post there are no more habitations
of white men, or free people of colour.

In a country so extensively covered with wood
as this is, having every advantage that a tropical
sun and the richest mould, in many places, can
give to vegetation, it is natural to look for trees of
very large dimensions ; but it is rare to meet with
them above six yards in circumference. If larger
have ever existed, they 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 jour-
ney on without stopping to take a view of the
towering Mora. Its topmost branch, when naked
with age or dried by accident, is the favourite
resort of the Toucan. Many a time has this
singular bird felt the shot faintly strike him from
the gun of the fowler beneath, and owed his life
to the distance betwixt them.

The trees which form these far-extending wilds
are as useful as they are ornamental. It would
take a volume of itself to describe them.

The Green-heart, famous for its hardness and
durability; the Hackea, for its toughness; the
Ducalabali, surpassing mahogany ; the Ebony and
Letter-wood, vying with the choicest woods of the
old world; the Locust-tree, yielding copal; and
the Hayawa and Olou-trees, furnishing a sweet-

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 33

smelling resin, are all to be met with in the forest,
betwixt the plantations and the rock Saba.

Beyond this rock the country has been little
explored ; but it is very probable that these, and
a vast collection of other kinds, and possibly many
new species, are scattered up and down, in all
directions, through the swamps, and hills, and sa-
vannas of ci-devant Dutch Guiana.

On viewing the stately trees around him the
naturalist will observe many of them bearing
leaves, and blossoms, and fruit, not their own.

The Wild Fig-tree, as large as a common Eng-
lish 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 ele-
vated 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 a different species
of vines, the seeds of which, also, the birds de-
posited on its branches. These soon vegetate, and
bear fruit in great quantities ; so what with their
usurpation of the resources of the fig-tree, and the
fig-tree of the mora, the mora, unable to support
a charge which nature never intended it should,
languishes and dies under its burden; and then
the fig-tree, and its usurping progeny of vines,
receiving no more succour from their late foster-
parent, droop and perish in their turn.

A vine, called the Bush-rope by the wood-
cutters, on account of its use in hauling out the

3

34 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

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 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 direc-
tions, 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 perpendic-
ular, 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 them-
selves in the earth, and frequently a strong shoot
will sprout out perpendicularly from near the
root of the reclined trunk, and in time become a
fine tree. No grass grows under the trees; and
few weeds, except in the swamps.

The high grounds are pretty clear of under-
wood, and with a cuilass 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.

i UVINC^TCH ffOCl,.

' T]ie Peccari herd together, and traverse the wilds in all
directions ' '

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 35

The rains seem to have carried away, and swept
into the valleys, every particle which nature in-
tended to have formed a mould.

Four-footed animals are scarce, considering how
very thinly these forests are inhabited by men.

•Several species of the animal, commonly called
Tiger, though in reality it approaches nearer to
the leopard, are found here; and two of their
diminutives, named Tiger-cats. The Tapir, the
Labba, and Deer, afford excellent food, and chiefly
frequent the swamps and low ground, near the
sides of the river and creeks.

In stating that four-footed animals are scarce,
the 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 poi-
soned arrows. When wounded, they run about
one hundred and fifty paces ; they then drop, and
make wholesome food.

The Red Monkey, erroneously called the ba-
boon, 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, remarka-
ble for his long, broad, bushy tail, are sometimes
seen on the tops of the wood-ants' nests; the
Armadillos bore in the sand-liills, like rabbits in

36 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

a warren ; and the Porcupine is now and then dis-
covered 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 ; — he has never hurt one liv-
ing creature. A few leaves, and those of the com-
monest and coarsest kind, are all he asks for his
support. On comparing him with other animals,
you would say that you could perceive deficiency,
deformity, and superabundance in his composi-
tion. He has no cutting teeth, and though four
stomachs, he still wants the long intestines of
ruminating animals. He has only one inferior
aperture, as in birds. He has no soles to his feet,
nor has he the power of moving his toes sepa-
rately. 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

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 37

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 na-
ture has not known where to stop in forming new
species, and painting her requisite shades. Al-
most every one of those singular and elegant birds
described by Buffon as belonging to Cayenne, are
to be met with in Demerara; but it is only by an
indefatigable naturalist that they are to be found.

The Scarlet Curlew breeds in innumerable quan-
tities in the muddy islands on the coasts of
Pomauron; the Egrets and Crabiers.in the same
place. They resort to the mud-flats at ebbing
water, while thousands of Sandpipers and Plovers,
with here and there a Spoonbill and Flamingo,
are seen amongst them. The Pelicans go farther
out to sea, but return at sundown to the Courada-
trees. The Humming-birds are chiefly to be found
near the flowers at which each of the species of
the genus is wont to feed. The pie, the gallina-
ceous, the columbine, and passerine tribes, resort
to the fruit-bearing trees.

You never fail to see the common Vulture where
there is carrion. In passing up the river there
was an opportunity of seeing a pair of the King
of the Vultures; they were sitting on the naked
branch of a tree, with about a dozen of the com-
mon 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

'■:^.iji'^:'-±J.J>-3

38 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

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 morn-
ing to claim the savoury morsel.

At the close of day, the Vampires leave the
hollow trees, whither they had fled at the morn-
ing's dawn, and scour along the river's banks in
quest of prey. On waking from sleep, the as-
tonished traveller finds his hammock all stained
with blood. It is the vampire that hath sucked
him. Not man alone, but every unprotected
animal, is exposed to his depredations: and so
gently does this nocturnal surgeon draw the
blood, that instead of being roused, the patient is
lulled into a still profounder sleep. There are
two species of vampire in Demerara, and both
suck living animals ; one is rather larger than the
common bat; the other measures above two feet
from wing to wing extended.

Snakes are frequently met with in the woods
betwixt the sea-coast and the rock Saba, chiefly
near the creeks and on the banks of the river.
They are large, beautiful, and formidable. The
Rattlesnake seems partial to a tract of ground
known by the name of Canal Number-three ; there
the effects of his poison will be long remembered.

The Camoudi snake has been killed from thirty
to forty feet long; though not venomous, his size
renders him destructive to the passing animals.
The Spaniards in the Oroonoque positively affirm
that he grows to the length of seventy or eighty
feet, and that he will destroy the strongest and
largest bull. His name seems to confirm this;
there he is called ^'matatoro," which literally

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 39

means ''bull-killer." Thus lie 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 harm-
less little creatures.

The Labarri snake is speckled, of a dirty brown
colour, and can scarcely be distinguished from
the ground or stump on wliich he is coiled up ; he
grows to the length of about eight feet, and his
bite often proves fatal in a few minutes.

Unrivalled in his display of every lovely colour
of the rainbow, and unmatched in the effects of
his deadly poison, the Couanacouchi glides un-
daunted 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 not know
them from a rotten stump.

Lizards of the finest green, brown, and copper
colour, from two inches to two feet and a half
long, are ever and anon rustling among the fallen
leaves, and crossing the path before you; whilst

40 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AJMERICA

the Chameleon is busily employed in chasing in-
sects round the trunks of the neighbouring trees.

The fish are of many different sorts, and well-
tasted, but not, generally speaking, very plentiful.
It is probable that their numbers are considerably
thinned by the Otters, which are much larger than
those of Europe. In going through the over-
flowed 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 particu-
larly 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 beau-
ties of uncultivated nature, and whose ear is not
shut to the wild sounds in the woods, will be de-
lighted in passing up the river Demerara. Every
now and then, the Maam or Tinamou sends forth
one long and plaintive whistle from the depths of
the forest, and then stops; whilst the yelping of
the Toucan, and the shrill voice of the bird called
Pi-pi-yo, is heard during the interval. The Cam-
panero 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.
Prom six to nine in the morning, the forests re-
sound 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,

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 41

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
coarse 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 dis-
tress ; the Houtou, a solitary bird, and only found
in the thickest recesses of the forest, distinctly
articulates, "houtou, houtou," in a low and plain-
tive tone, an hour before sunrise ; the maam whis-
tles about the same hour ; the Hannaquoi, Pataca,
and Maroudi announce his near approach to the
eastern horizon, and the Parrots and Paroquets
confirm his arrival there.

The Crickets chirp from sunset to sunrise, and
often during the day, when the weather is cloudy.
The Bete-rouge is exceedingly numerous in these
extensive wilds, and not only man, but beasts and
birds, are tormented by it. Mosquitos are very
rare after you pass the third island in the Deme-
rara, 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

42 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AJMERICA

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 neces-
sary, and the genius which presides over these
wilds will kindly help thee through the rest. She
will allow thee to slay the fawn, and cut down the
Mountain-cabbage for thy support, and to select
from every part of her domain whatever may be
necessary for the work thou art about ; but having
killed a pair of Doves in order to enable thee to
give mankind a true and proper description of
them, thou must not destroy a third through wan-
tonness, or to show what a good marksman thou
art; that would only blot the picture thou art
finishing, not colour it.

Though retired from the haunts of men, and
even without a friend with thee, thou wouldst not
find it solitary. The crowing of the Hannaquoi
will sound in thine ears like the daybreak town-
clock; and the Wren and the Thrush will join with
thee in thy matin hymn to thy Creator, to thank
Him for thy night's rest.

At noon thy Genius will lead thee to the Troely,
one leaf of which will defend thee from both sun
and rain. And if, in the cool of the evening, thou
hast been tempted to stray too far from thy place
of abode, and art deprived of light to write down
the information thou hast collected, the Firefly,

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 43

which thou wilt see in almost every bush around
thee, will be thy candle. Hold it over thy pocket
book, in any position which thou knowest will not
hurt it, and it will afford thee ample light. And
when thou hast done with it, put it kindly back
again on the next branch to thee. It will want no
other reward for its services.

When in thy hammock, should the thought of
thy little crosses and disappointments, in thy ups
and downs through life, break in upon thee, and
throw thee into a pensive mood, the Owl will bear
thee company. She will tell thee that hard has
been her fate too; and at intervals, '^Whip-poor-
Will," and "Willy come go," will take up the tale
of sorrow. Ovid has told thee how the owl once
boasted the human form, and lost it for a very
small offence; and were the poet alive now, he
would inform thee, that "Whip-poor- Will," and
"Willy come go," are the shades of those poor Af-
rican and Indian slaves, who died worn out and
broken-hearted. They wail and cry, "Whip-poor-
Will," and "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 help-
less families, which all probably perished through
grief and want, after their support was gone.

About an hour above the rock of Saba, stands
the habitation of an Indian, called Simon, on the
top of a hill. The side next the river is almost
perpendicular, and you may easily throw a stone
over to the opposite bank. Here there was an op-
portunity of seeing man in his rudest state. The
Indians who frequented this habitation, though

44 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

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 neck-
laces, composed of the teeth of wild boars slain
in the chase ; many wore rings, and others had an
ornament on the left arm, midway betwixt the
shoulder and the elbow. At the close of day
they regularly bathed in the river below ; and the
next morning seemed busy in renewing the faded
colours of their faces.

One day there came into the hut a form which
literally might be called the wild man of the
woods. On entering, he laid down a ball of wax,
which he had collected in the forest. His ham-
mock was all ragged and torn; and his bow,
though of good wood, was without any ornament
or polish; ''erubuit domino, cultior esse suo."
His face was meagre, his looks forbidding, and his
whole appearance neglected. His long black hair
hung from his head in matted confusion ; nor had
his body, to all appearance, ever been painted.
They gave him some Cassava bread and boiled
fish, which he ate voraciously, and soon after left
the hut. As he went out you could observe no
traces in his countenance or demeanor, which
indicated that he was in the least mindful of hav-
ing 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 per-
suade him to come and live amongst them; but it

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 45

was of no avail. He went roving on, plundering
the "Wild Bees of their honey, and picking up the
fallen nuts and fruits of the forest. When he fell
in with game, he procured fire from two sticks,
and cooked it on the spot. When a hut happened
to be in his way, he stepped in, and asked for
something to eat, and then months elapsed ere
they saw him again. They did not know what
had caused him to be thus unsettled ; he had been
so for years; nor did they believe that even old
age itself would change the habits of this poor,
harmless, solitary wanderer.

From Simon's, the traveller may reach the
large fall, with ease, in four days.

The first falls that he meets are merely rapids,
scarce a stone appearing above the water in the
rainy season; and those in the bed of the river,
barely high enough to arrest the water's course,
and by causing a bubbling, show that they are
there.

With this small change of appearance in the
stream, the stranger observes nothing new till
he comes within eight or ten miles of the great
fall. Each side of the river presents an uninter-
rupted range of wood, just as it did below. All
the productions found betwixt the plantations and
the rock Saba, are to be met with here.

From Simon's to the great fall there are five
habitations of the Indians — two of them close to
the river's side; the other three a little way in
the forest. These habitations consist of from four
to eight huts, situated on about an acre of ground
which they have cleared from the surrounding

46 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

woods. A few Pappaw, Cotton, and mountain
cabbage-trees, are scattered round them.

At one of these habitations a small quantity of
the Wourali-poison was procured. It was in a
little gourd. The Indian who had it said that he
had killed a number of Wild Hogs with it, and
two Tapirs. Appearances seemed to confirm what
he said; for on one side it had been nearly
taken out to the bottom, at different times, which
probably would not have been the case had the
first or second trial failed.

Its strength was proved on a middle-sized dog.
He was wounded in the thigh, in order that there
might be no possibility of touching a vital part.
In three or four minutes he began to be affected,
smelt at every little thing on the ground around
him, and looked wistfully at the wounded part.
Soon after this he staggered, laid himself down,
and never rose more. He barked once, though
not as if in pain. His voice was low and weak;
and in a second attempt it quite failed him. He
now put his head betwixt his fore-legs, and rais-
ing it slowly again, he fell over on his side. His
eye immediately became fixed, and though his
extremities every now and then shot convulsively,
he never showed the least desire to raise up his
head. His heart fluttered much from the time he
lay down, and at intervals beat very strong; then
stopped for a moment or two, and then beat
again; and continued faintly beating several
minutes after every other part of his body seemed
dead.

In a quarter of an hour after he had received
the poison he was quite motionless.

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 47

A few miles before you reach the great fall, and
"which, indeed, is the only one which can be called
a fall, large balls of froth come floating past you.
The river appears beautifully marked with streaks
of foam, and on your nearer approach the stream
is whitened all over.

At first, you behold the fall rushing down a bed
of rocks, with a tremendous noise, divided into
two foamy streams, wliich 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 ap-
pearance. There is no perpendicular fall of water
of any consequence throughout it, but the dreadful
roaring and rushing of the torrent down a long,
rocky, and moderately sloping channel, has a fine
effect; and the stranger returns well pleased
with what he has seen. No animal, nor craft of

48 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH .\.AIERICA

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 habita-
tion of an Acoway chief called Sinkerman. At
night you hear the roaring of the fall from it. It
is pleasantly situated on the top of a sand-hill.
At this place you have the finest view the river
Demerara affords: three tiers of hills rise in
slow gradation, one above the other, before you,
and present a grand and magnificent scene, espec-
ially to him who has been accustomed to a level
country.

Here, a little after midnight on the first of May,
was heard a most strange and unaccountable
noise; it seemed as though several regiments
were engaged, and musketry firing with great
rapidity. The Indians, terrified beyond descrip-
tion, left their hammocks, and crowded all to-
gether, like sheep at the approach of the wolf.
There were no soldiers within three or four hun-
dred miles. Conjecture was of no avail, and all
conversation next morning on the subject was as
useless and unsatisfactory as the dead silence
which succeeded to the noise.

He who wishes to reach the Macoushi country
had better send his canoe over land from Sinker-
man's to the Essequibo.

There is a pretty good path, and meeting a

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 49

creek about three-quarters of the way, it eases the
labour, and twelve Indians will arrive with it in
the Essequibo in four days.

The traveller need not attend his canoe ; there
is a shorter and a better way. Half an hour below
Sinkerman's he finds a little creek on the western
bank of the Demerara. After proceeding about
a couple of hundred yards up it, he leaves it,
and pursues a west-north-west direction by land
for the Essequibo. The path is good, though
somewhat rugged with the roots of trees, and
here and there obstructed by fallen ones; it ex-
tends 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, Labbas, Acouries, Powisses, Maams, Ma-
roudis, and Waracabas, for your nourishment,
and there are plenty of leaves to cover a shed
whenever you are inclined to sleep.

The soil has three-fourths of sand in it, till you
come within half an hour's walk of the Essequibo,
where you find a red gravel and rocks. In this
retired and solitary tract, nature's garb, to all
appearance, has not been injured by fire, nor her
productions broken in upon by the exterminating
hand of man.

4

50 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

Here the finest Green-heart grows, and Wal-
laba, Purple-heart, Siloabali, Sawari, Buletre,
Tauronira, and Mora, are met with in vast abun-
dance, far and near, towering up in majestic gran-
deur, straight as pillars, sixty or seventy feet
high, without a knot or branch.

Traveller, forget for a little while the idea thou
hast of wandering farther on, and stop and look
at this grand picture of vegetable nature ; it is a
reflection of the crowd thou hast lately been in, and
though a silent monitor, it is not a less eloquent
one on that account. See that noble Purple-heart
before thee! Nature has been kind to it. Not a
hole, not the least oozing from its trunk, to show
that its best days are pasto Vigorous in youthful
blooming beauty, it stands the ornament of these
sequestered wilds, and tacitly rebukes those base
ones of tliine own species who 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
hammerings of the Red-headed Woodpecker re-
sound 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 sick-
ness, slow as a consumption, and as sure in its
consequences, has long since entered its frame, vi-
tiating and destroying the wholesome juices there.

Step a few paces aside, and cast thine eye on
that remnant of a Mora behind it. Best part of its

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 51

branches, once so high and ornamental, now lie
on the ground in sad confusion one upon the
other, all shattered and fungus-grown, and a prey-
to millions of insects, which are busily employed
in destroying them. One branch of it still looks
healthy! Will it recover? No, it cannot; nature
has already run her course, and that healthy-look-
ing branch is only as a fallacious good symptom in
him who is just about to die of a mortification
when he feels no more pain, and fancies his 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 dissemi-
nated 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 proba-
bly 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 whirl-
wind has uprooted it in its prime, and it has

52 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

brought down to the ground a dozen small ones in
its fall. Its bark has already begun to drop off!
And that heart of Mora close by it is fast yielding,
in spite of its firm, tough texture.

The tree which thou passedst but a little ago,
and which perhaps has lain over yonder brook for
years, can now hardly support itself, and in a
few months more it will have fallen into the water.

Put thy foot on that large trunk thou seest to
the left. It seems entire amid the surrounding
fragments. Mere outward appearance, delusive
phantom of what it once was! Tread on it, and
like the fuss-ball, it will break into dust.

Sad and silent mementos to the giddy traveller
as he wanders on! Prostrate remnants of vege-
table 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 cloiid-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
iYea, all which it inhabit, shall dissolve,
And, like the baseless fabric of a vision,
Leave not a wrack behind."*

Cast thine eye around thee, and see the thou-
sands of nature's productions. Take a view of
them from the opening seed on the surface, send-
ing a downward shoot, to the loftiest and the
largest trees, rising up and blooming in wild lux-
uriance ; 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 con-

*A curious misquotation of the author's. See The Tempest,
Act IV, Sc. I.

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 53

demned to die, still never failing to keep up their
species till time shall be no more.

Eeader, canst thou not be induced to dedicate
a few months to the good of the public, and exam-
ine with thy scientific eye the productions which
the vast and well-stored colony of Demerara pre-
sents to thee?

What an immense range of forest is there from
the rock Saba to the great fall ! and what an un-
interrupted extent before thee from it to the banks
of the Essequibo ! No doubt, there is many a bal-
sam and many a medicinal root yet to be discov-
ered, and many a resin, gum, and oil yet un-
noticed. 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? Or would the timber-mer-
chant point at thee in passing by, and call thee a
descendant of La Mancha's knight, because thou
maintainest that the stones which form the rapids
might be removed with little expense, and thus
open the navigation to the wood-cutter from Sta-
broek 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 main-
taining any number of settlers? In thy disser-

54 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

tation on the Indians, thou mightest hint, that
possibly they could be induced to help the new
settlers a little ; and that finding their labours well
requited, it would be the means of their keeping
up a constant communication with us, which prob-
ably 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.

What a noble field, kind reader, for thy experi-
mental philosophy and speculations, for thy
learning, for thy perseverance, for thy kind-heart-
edness, 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 jour-
ney, 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 Dem-
erara till all be ready, and the canoe fairly afloat
on the Essequibo. The new rigging it, and put-

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 55

ting 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 imper-
vious to the sun's 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 enliven-
ing thoughts rush at once on the soul, and dis-
perse, as a vapour, every sad and sorrowful idea
which the deep gloom had helped to collect there.
In coming out of tlie woods, you see the western
bank of the Essequibo before you, low and flat.
Here the river is two-thirds as broad as the Dem-
erara at Stabroek.

To the northward there is a hill higher than any
in the Demerara; and in the south-south-west
quarter a mountain. It is far away, and appears
like a bluish cloud in the horizon. There is not
the least opening on either side. Hills, valleys,
and lowlands, are all linked together by a chain of
forest. Ascend the highest mountain, climb the
loftiest tree, as far as the eye can extend, which-
ever way it directs itself, all is luxuriant and un-
broken forest.

In about nine or ten hours from this, you get
to an Indian habitation of three huts, on the point
of an island. It is said that a Dutch post once
stood here. But there is not the smallest vestige
of it remaining, and, except that the trees appear
younger than those on the other islands, which
shows that the place has been cleared some time
or other, there is no mark left by which you can
conjecture that ever this was a post.

The many islands which you meet with in the

56 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

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 same-
ness which is seen in the Demerara.

Proceeding onwards, you get to the falls and
rapids. In the rainy season they are very tedious
to pass, and often stop your course. In the dry
season, by stepping from rock to rock, the Indians
soon manage to get a canoe over them. But when
the river is swollen, as it was in May, 1812, it is
then a difficult task, and often a dangerous one
too. At that time many of the islands were over-
flowed, the rocks covered, and the lower branches
of the trees in the water. Sometimes the Indians
were obliged to take everything out of the canoe,
cut a passage through the branches, which hung
over into the river, and then drag up the canoe by
main force.

At one place, the falls form an oblique line quite
across the river, impassable to the ascending
canoe, and you are forced to have it dragged four
or five hundred yards by land.

It will take you five days, from the Indian habi-
tation, 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.

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 57

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 Caprimul-
gus wheels in busy flight around the canoe, while
''Whip-poor- Will" sits on the broken stump near
the water's edge, complaining as the shades of
night set in.

A little before you pass the last of these rapids
two immense rocks appear, nearly on the summit
of one of the many hills which form this far-ex-
tending range, where it begins to fall off grad-
ually to the south.

They look like two ancient stately towers of
some Gothic potentate, rearing their heads above
the surrounding trees. What with their situation
and their shai^e 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 an-
cestors that they are the abode of an evil genius,
and they pass in the river below with a reverential
awe.

In about seven hours from these stupendous
sons of the hill, you leave the Essequibo, and enter
the river Apourapoura, which falls into it from the

58 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AINIERICA

south. The Apourapoura is nearly one- third the
size of the Demerara at Stabroek. For two
days you see nothing but level ground, richly
clothed in timber. You leave the Siparouni to the
right hand, and on the third day come to a little
hill. The Indians have cleared about an acre of
ground on it, and erected a temporary shed. If
it be not intended for provision-ground alone,
perhaps the next white man who travels through
these remote wilds will find an Indian settlement
here.

Two days after leaving this, you get to a rising
ground on the western bank, where stands a sin-
gle hut ; and about half a mile in the forest there
are a few more; some of them square, and some
round with spiral roofs.

Here the fish called Pacou is very plentiful : it
is perhaps the fattest and most delicious fish in
Guiana. It does not take the hook, but the Indians
decoy it to the surface of the water by means of
the seeds of the Crabwood-tree, and then shoot it
with an arrow.

You are now within the borders of Macoushia,
inhabited by a different tribe of people, called
Macoushi Indians; uncommonly dexterous in the
use of the blow-pipe, and famous for their skill
in preparing the deadly vegetable poison, com-
monly called Wourali.

It is from this country that those beautiful paro-
quets 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

i i^Viijfi^^mi^vi-i~

The Cock of the Rock

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 59

any in the forest. The wood has much the ap-
pearance 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 process.

The elegant crested bird called Cock of the Eock,
admirably described by Buffon, is a native of the
woody mountains of Macoushia. In the daytime,
he retires amongst the darkest rocks, and only
comes out to feed a little before sunrise, and at
sunset: he is of a gloomy disposition, and, like
the Houtou, never associates with the other birds
of the forest.

The Indians, in the just-mentioned settlement,
seemed to depend more on the wourali-poison for
killing their game than upon anything else. They
had only one gun, and it appeared rusty and neg-
lected; but their poisoned weapons were in fine
order. Their 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 jaw-bone of the fish Pirai
tied by a string to their brim, and a small wicker-
basket of wild cotton, which hung down to the
centre; they were nearly full of poisoned arrows.
It was with difficulty these Indians could be per-

60 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

suaded to part with any of the wourali-poison,
though a good price was offered for it ; they gave
me to understand that it was powder and shot to
them, and very difficult to be procured.

On the second day after leaving the settlement,
in passing along, the Indians show you a place
where once a white man lived. His retiring so far
from those of his own colour and acquaintance
seemed to carry something extraordinary along
with it, and raised a desire to know what could
have induced him to do so. It seems he had been
unsuccessful, and that his creditors had treated
him with as little mercy as the strong generally
show to the weak. Seeing his endeavours daily
frustrated, and his best intentions of no avail, and
fearing that when they had taken all he had they
would probably take his liberty too, he thought
the world would not be hard-hearted enough to
condemn him for retiring from the evils which
pressed so heavily on him, and which he had done
all that an honest man could do to ward off. He
left his creditors to talk of him as they thought fit,
and, bidding adieu forever to the place in which
he had once seen better times, he penetrated thus
far into those remote and gloomy wilds, and
ended his days here.

According to the new map of South America,
Lake Parima, or the Wliite Sea, ought to be within
three or four days* walk from this place. On ask-
ing 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

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 61

have been satisfactory in some degree, had not
the Indians carried the point a little too far. It
is very large, said another Indian, and ships come
to it. Now these unfortunate ships were the very
things which were not wanted : had he kept them
out, it might have done, but his introducing them
was sadly against the lake. Thus you must either
suppose that the old savage and his companion
had a confused idea of the thing, and that proba-
bly the Lake Parima they talked of was the
Amazons, not far from the city of Para, or that
it was their intention to deceive you. You ought
to be cautious in giving credit to their stories,
otherwise you will be apt to be led astray.

Many a ridiculous thing concerning the interior
of Guiana has been propagated and received as
true, merely because six or seven Indians, ques-
tioned separately, have agreed in their narrative.

Ask those who live high up in the Demerara,
and they will, every one of them, tell you that
there is a nation of Indians with long tails ; that
they are very malicious, cruel, and ill-natured;
and that the Portuguese have been obliged to stop
them off in a certain river, to prevent their depre-
dations. They have also dreadful stories con-
cerning 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 unre-
lenting manner possible carries both canoe and
Indians down to the bottom with it, and there
destroys them. Ludicrous extravagances; pleas-
ing to those fond of the marvellous, and excellent
matter for a distempered brain.

The misinformed and timid court of policy in

62 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

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 tol-
erable 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 terri-
tories to see if he had spoken the truth, and noth-
ing but the truth. It appeared, however, that his
palace was nothing but a hut, the monarch a
needy savage, the heir-apparent nothing to inherit
but his father's club, and bow and arrows, and
his officers of state wild and uncultivated as the
forests through which they strayed.

There was nothing in the hut of this savage,
saving the presents he had received from govern-
ment, but what was barely sufficient to support
existence; nothing that indicated a power to col-
lect a hostile force ; nothing that showed the least
progress towards civilization. All was rude and
barbarous in the extreme, expressive of the ut-
most poverty and a scanty population.

You may travel six or seven days without see-
ing a hut, and when you reach a settlement it
seldom contains more than ten.

The farther 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

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 63

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 inter-
sects 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 un-
folds 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 Na-
ture. The ground is neither hilly nor level, but
diversified with moderate rises and falls, so
gently running into one another that the eye can-
not distinguish where they begin, nor where they
end, while the distant black rocks have the ap-
pearance 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 foremost forms a
circle, as though it had been done by art; to the
eastward it hangs in festoons; and to the south
and west it rushes in abruptly, disclosing a new
scene behind it at every step as you advance
along.

This beautiful park of nature is quite sur-
rounded by lofty hills, all arrayed in superbest
garb of trees; some in the form of pyramids,
others like sugar-loaves towering one above the
other, some rounded off, and others as though
they had lost their apex. Here two hills rise up

64 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

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
resemble the waves of an agitated sea. Beyond
these appear others, and others past them; and
others still farther on, till they can scarcely be
distinguished from the clouds.

There are no sand-flies, nor bete-rouge, nor
mosquitos, in this pretty spot. The fire-flies dur-
ing 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 Ma-
roudi, which is never found in the Demerara, is
pretty plentiful; and here grows the tree which
produces the Moran, sometimes called Balsam-
capivi.

Your route lies south from this place; and at
the extremity of the savanna you enter the forest,
and journey along a winding path at the foot of
a hill. There is no habitation within this day's
walk. The traveller, as usual, must sleep in the
forest ; the path is not so good the following day.
The hills over which it lies are rocky, steep, and
rugged, and the spaces betwixt them swampy, and
mostly knee-deep in water. After eight hours*
walk you find two or three Indian huts, sur-
rounded by the forest; and in little more than
half an hour from these you come to ten or twelve
others, where you pass the night. They are pret-
tily 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 for-

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 65

ests you may find plenty of the trees which yield
the sweet-smelling resin called Acaiari, and which,
when pomided and burnt on charcoal, gives a de-
lightful fragrance.

From hence you proceed, in a south-west direc-
tion, through a long swampy savanna. Some of
the hills which border on it have nothing but a
thin coarse grass and huge stones on them ; others
quite wooded ; others with their summits crowned,
and their base quite bare ; and others, again, with
their summits bare, and their base in thickest
wood.

Half of this day's march is in water, nearly up
to the knees. There are four creeks to pass : one
of them has a fallen tree across it. You must
make your own bridge across the other three.
Probably, were the truth known, these apparently
four creeks are only the meanders of one.

The Jabiru, the largest bird in Guiana, feeds in
the marshy savanna through which you have just
passed. He is wary and shy, and will not allow
you to get within gun-shot of him.

You sleep this night in the forest, and reach an
Indian settlement about three o'clock the next
evening, after walking one-third of the way
through wet and miry ground.

But, bad as the walking is through it, it is
easier than where you cross over the bare hills,
where you have to tread on sharp stones, most of
them lying edgewise.

The ground gone over these two last days seems
condemned to perpetual solitude and silence.
There was not one four-footed animal to be seen,
nor even the marks of one. It would have been as

66 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

silent as midnight, and all as still and unmoved as
a monument, had not the Jabirn 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 tor-
menting than the mosquito on the sea-coast.

This seems to be the native country of the Ar-
rowroot. Wherever you passed through a patch
of wood in a low situation, there you found it
growing luxuriantly.

The Indian place you are now at is not the
proper place to have come to in order to reach the
Portuguese frontiers. You have advanced too
much to the westward. But there was no alterna-
tive. 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 de-
scriptive powers to give a proper idea of the situ-
ation these people have chosen for their dwelling.

The hill they are on is steep and high, and full
of immense rocks. The huts are not all in one
place, but dispersed wherever they have found a
place level enough for a 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

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 67

on, till the intervening of the western hills, higher
and steeper still, and crowned with trees of the
loveliest shades, closes the enchanting scene.

At the base of this hill stretches an immense
plain, which appears to the eye, on this elevated
spot, as level as a bowling-green. The mountains
on the other side are piled one upon the other in
romantic forms, and gradually retire, till they are
undiscernible from the clouds in which they are
involved. To the south-south-west this far-ex-
tending 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 ^ta-trees which fol-
low its meanders.

Not being able to pursue the direct course from
hence to the next Indian habitation on account of
the floods of water that fall at this time of the
3^ear, you take a circuit westerly along the moun-
tain's foot.

At last a large and deep creek stops your
progress : it is wide and rapid, and its banks very
steep. There is neither curial nor canoe, nor pur-
]^le-heart tree in the neighbourhood to make a
Wood-skin to carry you over, so that you are ob-
liged 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 bag-
gage, the day will be too far spent to think of pro-
ceeding. You must be very cautious before you
venture to swim across this creek, for the alliga-
tors are numerous, and near twenty feet long. On
the present occasion the Indians took uncommon
precautions lest they should be devoured by this

68 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

cruel and voracious reptile. They cut long sticks,
and examined closely the side of the creek for half
a mile above and below the place where it was to
be crossed ; and as soon as the boldest had swum
over, he did the same on the other side, and then
all followed.

After passing the night on the opposite bank,
which is well wooded, it is a brisk walk of nine
hours before you reach four Indian huts, on a
rising ground a few hundred paces from a little
brook, whose banks are covered over with Cou-
courite and ^ta-trees.

This is the place you ought to have come to two
days ago had the water permitted you. In cross-
ing the plain at the most advantageous place you
are above ankle-deep in water for three hours;
the remainder of the way is dry, the ground gently
rising. As the lower parts of this spacious plain
put on somewhat the appearance of a lake during
the periodicals rains, it is not improbable but that
this is the place which hath given rise to the sup-
posed existence of the famed Lake Parima, or
El Dorado ; but this is mere conjecture.

A few Deer are feeding on the coarse rough
grass of this far-extending plain ; they keep at a
distance from you, and are continually on the
look-out.

The Spur-winged Plover, and a species of the
Curlew, black, with a white bar across the wings,
nearly as large again as the scarlet curlew on the
sea-coast, frequently rise before you. Here, too,
the Moscovy Duck is numerous ; and large flocks
of two other kinds wheel round you as you pass
on, but keep out of gun-shot. The milk-white

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 69

Egrets and Jabirus are distinguished at a great
distance ; and in the asta and coucourite trees you
may obsrerve flocks of scarlet and blue Aras feed-
ing on the seeds.

It is to these trees that the largest sort of
Toucan resorts. He is remarkable by a large
black spot on the point of his fine yellow bill. He
is very scarce in Demerara, and never seen except
near the sea-coast.

The ants' nests have a singular appearance on
this plain. They are in vast abundance on those
parts of it free from water, and are formed of an
exceedingly hard yellow clay. They rise eight or
ten feet from the ground, in a spiral form, impen-
etrable to the rain, and strong enough to defy the
severest tornado.

The wourali-poison, procured in these last-men-
tioned huts, seemed very good, and proved after-
wards to be very strong.

There are now no more Indian settlements be-
twixt you and the Portuguese frontiers. If you
wish to visit their fort, it would be advisable to
send an Indian with a letter from hence, and wait
his return. On the present occasion a very for-
tunate circumstance occurred. The Portuguese
commander had sent some Indians and soldiers to
build a canoe, not far from this settlement ; they
had just finished it, and those who did not stay
with it had stopped here on their return.

The soldier who commanded the rest, said, he
durst not, upon any account, convey a stranger to
the fort ; but, he added, as there were two canoes,
one of them might be despatched with a letter,
and then we could proceed slowly on in the other.

70 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH A]\IERICA

About three liours 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 Tacaton; and just
where the Tacaton 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, produc-
ing a coarse grass, and interspersed with clumps
of trees. The banks have some wood on them, but
it appears stunted and crooked, like that on the
bleak hills in England.

The Tapir frequently plunged into the river;
he was by no means shy, and it was easy to get a
shot at him on land. The Kessi-kessi paroquets
were in great abundance; and the fine scarlet
Aras innumerable in the coucourite-trees at a dis-
tance from the river's bank. In the Tacaton was
seen the Troupiale. It was charming to hear the
sweet and plaintive notes of this pretty songster
of the wilds. The Portuguese call it the Nightin-
gale of Guiana.

Towards the close of the fourth evening, the
canoe, which had been sent on with a letter, met us
with the commander's answer. During its ab-
sence, 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
pelting shower, strength of constitution at last

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH A^IERICA 71

failed, and a severe fever came on. The com-
mander'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 con-
sider him as uncivil: ''However," continued he,
"I have ordered the soldier to land you at a cer-
tain 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 morn-
ing 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

72 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

of the first of May? On telling him that I was at
an Indian settlement a little below the great fall
in the Demerara, and that a strange and sudden
noise had alarmed all the Indians, he said the
same astonishing noise had roused every man in
Fort St. Joachim, and that they remained under
arms till morning. He observed, that he had
been quite at a loss to form any idea what could
have caused the noise ; but now learning that the
same noise had been heard at the same time far
away from the Rio Branco, it struck him there
must have been an earthquake somewhere or
other.

Good nourishment and rest, and the unwearied
attention and kindness of the Portuguese com-
mander, stopped the progress of the fever, and en-
abled me to walk about in six days.

Fort St. Joachim was built about five and forty
years ago, under the apprehension, it is said, that
the Spaniards were coming from the Rio Negro to
settle there. It has been much neglected; the
floods of water have carried away the gate, and
destroyed the wall on each side of it ; but the pres-
ent 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 con-
fessor's house, and two others, all at little inter-
vals from each other; and these are the only
buildings at Fort St. Joachim. The neighbouring
extensive plains afford good pasturage for a fine

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 73

breed of cattle, and the Portuguese make enough
of butter and cheese for their own consumption.

On asking the old officer if there were such a
place as Lake Parima, or El Dorado, he replied,
he looked upon it as imaginary altogether. "I
have been above forty years,'* added he, "in Por-
tuguese Guiana, but have never yet met with any-
body 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.

CHAPTER II

"Grammatici certant, et adhuc sub judice lis est."

Having now reached the Portuguese inland
frontier, and collected a sufficient quantity of the
wourali-poison, nothing remains but to give a
brief account of its composition, its effects, its
uses, and its supposed antidotes.

It has been already remarked, that in the exten-
sive wilds of Demerara and Essequibo, far away
from any European settlement, there is a tribe
of Indians who are known by the name of Ma-
coushi.

Though the wourali-poison is used by all the
South American savages betwixt the Amazons and
the Oroonoque, still this tribe makes it stronger
than any of the rest. The Indians in the vicinity
of the Rio Negro are aware of this, and come to
the Macoushi country to purchase it.

Much has been said concerning this fatal and
extraordinary poison. Some have affirmed that
its effects are almost instantaneous, provided the
minutest particle of it mixes with the l)lood; 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 asser-
tions without sufficient proof. The following short

74

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 75

story points out the necessity of a cautious ex-
amination.

One day, on asking an Indian if he thought the
poison would kill a man, he replied, that they al-
ways go to battle with it; that he was standing
by when an Indian was shot with a poisoned ar-
row, and that he expired almost immediately. Not
wishing to dispute this apparently satisfactory
information, the subject was dropped. However,
about an hour after, having purposely asked him
in what part of the body the said Indian was
wounded, he answered without hesitation, that the
arrow entered betwixt his shoulders, and passed
quite through his heart. Was it the weapon, or
the strength of the poison, that brought on im-
mediate dissolution in this case? Of course the
weapon.

The second have been misled by disappoint-
ment, 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 col-
lected at the mouth of the wound. In this case the
arrow might as well have not been poisoned. Prob-
ably, it was to this that a gentleman, some time
ago, owed his disappointment, when he tried the
poison on a horse in the town of Stabroek, the

76 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

capital of Demerara; the horse never betrayed
the least symptom of being affected by it.

Wishful to obtain the best information concern-
ing this poison, and as repeated inquiries, in lieu
of dissipating the surrounding shade, did but tend
more and more to darken the little light that ex-
isted, I determined to penetrate into the country
where the poisonous ingredients grow, where this
pernicious composition is prepared, and where it
is constantly used. Success attended the adven-
ture ; and the information acquired made amends
for one hundred and twenty days passed m 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 dis-
sertation on the manner in which the wourali-
poison operates on the system ; a treatise has been
already written on that subject, and after all,
there is probably still reason to doubt. It is sup-
posed to affect the nervous system, and thus de-
stroy the vital functions; it is also said to be
perfectly harmless, provided it does not touch the
blood. However, this is certain, when a sufficient
quantity of it enters the blood, death is the inevit-
able 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, una-
dorned 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 crueltv, nor to a want

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 77

of feeling for the sufferings of the inferior ani-
mals, the ensuing experiments. The larger
animals were destroyed in order to have proof
positive of the strength of a poison which hath
hitherto been doubted : and the smaller ones were
killed with the hope of substantiating that which
has commonly been supposed to be an antidote.

It makes a pitying heart ache to see a poor
creature in distress and pain; and too often has
the compassionate traveller occasion to heave a
sigh as he journeys on. However, here, though
the kind-hearted will be sorry to read of an unof-
rending animal doomed to death, in order to sat-
isfy 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 Macouslii Indian pre-
pares his poison, he goes into the forest in quest
of the ingredients. A vine grows in these wilds,
which is called Wourali. It is from this that the
poison takes its name, and it is the principal in-
gredient. When he has procured enough of this,
he digs up a root of a very bitter taste, ties them
together, and then looks about for two kinds of
bulbous plants, which contain a green and glutin-
ous 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

78 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

other is a little red ant, which stings like a nettle,
and generally has its nest nnder the leaf of a
shrub. After obtaining these, he has no more
need to range the forest.

A quantity of the strongest Indian pepper is
used; but this he has already planted round his
hut. The pounded fangs of the Labarri snake,
and those of the Counacouchi, are likewise added.
These he commonly has in store ; for when he kills
a snake, he generally extracts the fangs, and
keeps them by him.

Having thus found the necessary ingredients,
he scrapes the wourali vine and bitter root into
thin shavings, and puts them into a kind of colan-
der 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 cof-
fee. When a sufficient quantity has been pro-
cured, the shavings are thrown aside. He then
bruises the bulbous stalks, and squeezes a pro-
portionate quantity of their juice through his
hands into the pot. Lastly, the snakes' fangs,
ants, and pepper are bruised, and thrown into it.
It is then placed on a slow fire, and as it boils,
more of the juice of the wourali is added, accord-
ing 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

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 79

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 consid-
ered as a common one: the savage may shape his
bow, fasten the barb on the point of his arrow,
and make his other implements of destruction,
either lying in his hammock, or in the midst of his
family; but, if he has to prepare the wourali-
poison, many precautions are supposed to be nec-
essary.

The women and young girls are not allowed to
be present, lest the Yabahou, or evil spirit, should
do them harm. The shed under which it has been
boiled 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 ex-
pose himself to the vapour which arises from it
while on the fire.

Though this and other precautions are taken,
such as frequently washing the face and hands,
still the Indians think that it affects the health;
and the operator either is, or, what is more prob-
able, supposes himself to be, sick for some days
after.

Thus it appears that the making the wourali-
poison is considered as a gloomy and mysterious
operation; and it would seem that they imagine

80 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

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 any-
thing to do with it, alleging that his wife was with
child!

Here it might be asked, are all the ingredients
just mentioned necessary, in order to produce the
wourali-poison? Though our opinions and con-
jectures may militate against the absolute neces-
sity of some of them, still it would be hardly fair
to pronounce them added by the hand of supersti-
tion, till proof positive can be obtained.

We might argue on the subject, and, by bring-
ing 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 exam-
ples. A bone snatched from the jaws of a fasting
bitch, and a feather from the wing of a night owl,
— "ossa ab ore rapta jejunae canis, plumamque
nocturnge strigis," — were necessary for Canidia's
incantations. And in aftertimes, parson Evans,
the Welshman, was treated most ungenteelly by
an enraged spirit, solely because he had forgotten
a fumigation in his witch-work.

If, then, enlightened man lets his better sense
give way, and believes, or allows himself to be
persuaded, that certain substances and actions,
in reality of no avail, possess a virtue which ren-
ders them useful in producing the wished-for

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AJVIERICA 81

effects ; may not the wild, untaught, unenlightened
savage of Guiana add an ingredient which, on ac-
count 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? If a bone snatched
from the jaws of a fasting bitch be thought neces-
sary 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 ani-
mated nature sleeps; certainly the savage may
imagine that the ants, whose sting causes a fever,
and the teeth of the Labarri and Couanacouchi
snakes, which convey death in a very short space
of time, are essentially necessary in the composi-
tion 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 what-
ever 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.

Wlien a native of Macoushia goes in quest of
feathered game or other birds, he seldom carries
his bow and arrows. It is the blow-pipe he then
uses. This extraordinary tube of death is, perhaps
one of the greatest natural curiosities of Guiana.

6

82 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH A^IERICA

It is not found in the country of the Macoushi.
Those Indians tell you that it grows to the south-
west of them, in the wilds which extend betwixt
them and the Rio Negro. The reed must grow to
an amazing length, as the part the Indians use is
from ten to eleven feet long, and no tapering can
be perceived in it, one end being as thick as the
other. It is of a bright yellow colour, perfectly
smooth both inside and out. It grows hollow;
nor is there the least appearance of a knot or
joint throughout the whole extent. The natives
call it Ourah. This, of itself, is too slender to
answer the end of a blow-pipe; but there is a
species of palma, larger and stronger, and com-
mon 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 in-
side is easily extracted, by steeping it for a few
days in water.

Thus the ourah and samourah, one within the
other, form the blow-pipe of Guiana. The end
which is applied to the mouth is tied round with
a small silk-grass cord, to prevent its splitting;
and the other end, which is apt to strike against
the ground, is secured by the seed of the Acuero
fruit, cut horizontally through the middle, with a
hole made in the end, through which is put the
extremity of the blow-pipe. It is fastened on
with string on the outside, and the inside is filled
up with wild bees '-wax.

The arrow is from nine to ten inches long. It
is made out of the leaf of a species of palm-tree,

Macoushia Indian with Blow-pipe

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 83

called Coiicourite, 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 slii^ping off the arrow.

The Indians have shown ingenuity in making a
quiver to hold the arrows. It will contain from
five to six hundred. It is generally from twelve
to fourteen inches long, and in shape resembles
a dice-box used at backgammon. The inside is
prettily done in basket-work, with wood not un-
like 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 fas-
tened 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 extremities, which ap-
pears something like a wheel ; and this saves the
hand from being wounded when the quiver is

84 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

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 In-
dian advancing towards the forest in quest of
powises, maroudis, waracabas, and other feath-
ered game.

These generally sit high up in the tall and
tufted trees, but still are not out of the Indian's
reach; for his blow-pipe, at its greatest eleva-
tion, will send an arrow three hundred feet. Si-
lent as midnight he steals under them, and so
cautiously does he tread the ground, that the
fallen leaves rustle not beneath his feet. His ears
are open to the least sound, while his eye, keen as
that of the lynx, is employed in finding out the
game in the thickest shade. Often he imitates
their cry, and decoys them from tree to tree, till
they are within range of his tube. Then taking a
poisoned arrow from his quiver, he puts it in the
blow-pipe, and collects his breath for the fatal
putf.

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 ob-
ject 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

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 85

duration, and the Indian, following the direction
he has gone, is sure to find him dead.

It is natural to imagine that, when a slight
wound only is inflicted, the game will make its
escape. Far otherwise; the wourali-poison al-
most instantaneously mixes with blood or water,
so that if you wet your finger, and dash it along
the poisoned arrow in the quickest manner possi-
ble, you are sure to carry off some of the poison.
Though three minutes generally elapse before the
convulsions come on in the wounded bird, still a
stupor evidently takes place sooner, and this stu-
por manifests itself by an apparent unwillingness
in the bird to move. This was very visible in a
dying fowl.

Having procured a healthy full-grown one, a
short piece of a poisoned blow-pipe arrow was
broken off and run up into its thigh, as near as
possible betwixt the skin and the flesh, in order
that it might not be incommoded by the wound.
For the first minute it walked about, but walked
very slowly, and did not appear the least agitated.
During the second minute it stood still, and began
to peck the ground; and ere half another had
elapsed, it frequently opened and shut its mouth.
The tail had now dropped, and the wings almost
touched the ground. By the termination of the
third minute, it had sat down, scarce able to sup-
port its head, which nodded, and then recovered
itself, and then nodded again, lower and lower ev-
ery time, like that of a weary traveller slumbering
in an erect position ; the eyes alternately open and
shut. The fourth minute brought on convulsions,
and life and the fifth terminated to2:ether.

86 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

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 sus-
pends 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 surprise the deer, or rouse the tapir from his
marshy retreat, he carries his bow and arrows,
which are very different from the weapons al-
ready described.

The bow is generally from six to seven feet
long, and strung with a cord, spun out of the silk-
grass. The forests of Guiana furnish many
species of hard wood, tough and elastic, out of
which beautiful and excellent bows are formed.

The arrows are from four to five feet in length,
made of a yellow reed without a knot or joint. It
is found in great plenty up and down throughout
Guiana. A piece of hard wood, about nine inches
long, is inserted into the end of the reed, and fas-
tened with cotton well waxed. A square hole, an
inch deep, is then made in the end of this piece of

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 87

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 acci-
dents and defend it from the rain, and is taken off
when the arrow is about to be used. Lastly, two
feathers are fastened on the other end of the reed
to steady it in its flight.

Besides his bow and arrows, the Indian carries
a little box made of bamboo, which holds a dozen
or fifteen poisoned spikes, six inches long. They
are poisoned in the following manner: a small
piece of wood is dipped in the poison, and with this
they give the spike a first coat. It is then exposed
to the sun or fire. After it is dry, it receives an-
other 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

88 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

with him, and should another shot immediately
occur, he has only to take another poisoned spike
out of his little bamhoo box, fit it on his arrow,
and send it to its destination.

Thus armed with deadly poison, and hungry as
the hyaena, he ranges through the forest in quest
of the wild 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 European eye could not
discern the smallest vestige. He pursues it
through all its turns and windings, with astonish-
ing perseverance, and success generally crowns
his efforts. The animal, after receiving the poi-
soned arrow, seldom retreats two hundred paces
before it drops.

In passing overland from the Essequibo to the
Demerara we fell in with a herd of wild hogs.
Though encumbered with baggage, and fatigued
with a hard day's walk, an Indian got his bow
ready, and let fly a poisoned arrow at one of
them. It entered the cheek-bone and broke off.
The wild hog was found quite dead about one hun-
dred and seventy paces from the place where he
had been shot. He afforded us an excellent and
wholesome supper.

Thus the savage of Guiana, independent of the
common weapons of destruction, has it in his
power to prepare a poison, by which he can gen-
erally ensure to himself a supply of animal food;
and the food so destroyed imbibes no deleterious
qualities. Nature has been bountiful to him.
She has not only ordered poisonous herbs and
roots to grow in the unbounded forests through

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AJVIERICA 89

which he strays, but has also furnished an excel-
lent 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 dessemi-
nated up and down a plant not unlike that of the
pine-apple, which affords him capital bow-strings.

CHAPTER III

Having now followed the Indian in the chase,
and described the poison, let us take a nearer view
of its action, and observe a large animal expiring
under the weight of its baneful virulence.

Many have doubted the strength of the wourali-
poison. Should they ever by chance read what
follows, probably their doubts on that score will
be settled for ever.

In the former experiment on the hog, some faint
resistance on the part of nature was observed,
as if existence struggled for superiority; but in
the following instance of the sloth, life sank in
death without the least apparent contention, with-
out a cry, without a struggle, and without a groan.
This was an Ai, or three-toed Sloth. It was in
the possession of a gentleman who was collecting
curiosities. He wished to have it killed, in order
to preserve the skin, and the wourali-poison was
resorted to as the easiest death.

Of all animals, not even the toad and tortoise
excepted, this poor ill-formed creature is the most
tenacious of life. It exists long after it has re-
ceived wounds which would have destroyed any
other animal; and it may be said, on seeing a
mortally-wounded sloth, that life disputes with
death every inch of flesh in its body.

The Ai was wounded in the leg, and put down
on the floor, about two feet from the table ; it con-

uo

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 91

trived to reacli the leg of the table and fastened
himself on it, as if wishful to ascend. But this
was its last advancing step : life was ebbing fast,
though imperceptibly; nor could this singular
production of nature, which has been formed of
a texture to resist death in a thousand shapes,
make any stand against the wourali-poison.

First, one fore-leg let go its hold, and dropped
down motionless by its side; the other gradually
did the same. The fore-legs having now lost their
strength, the sloth slowly doubled its body, and
placed its head betwixt its hind-legs, which still
adhered to the table; but when the poison had
affected these also, it sank to the ground, but sank
so gently, that you could not distinguish the move-
ment from an ordinary motion ; and had you been
ignorant that it was wounded with a poisoned
arrow, you would never have suspected that it
was dying. Its mouth was shut, nor had any
froth or saliva collected there.

There was no subsultus tendinum, or any visible
alteration in its breathing. During the tenth
minute from the time it was wounded it stirred,
and that was all; and the minute after, life's last
spark went out. From the time the poison began
to operate, you would have conjectured that sleep
was overpowering it, and you would have ex-
claimed, "Pressitque jacentem, dulcis et alta
quies, pacidseque 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

92 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

the poison in large animals might yet be doubted,
were it not for what follows.

A large well-fed ox, from nine hundred to a
thousand pounds weight, was tied to a stake by a
rope sufficiently long to allow him to move to and
fro. Having no large Coucourite spikes at hand,
it was judged necessary, on account of his supe-
rior 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 min-
utes. 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 ap-
peared as if inclined to walk. He advanced a pace
or two, staggered, and fell, and remained ex-
tended 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

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH MIERICA 93

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 dif-
ferent kinds of poisoned arrows, and the animals
destroyed by them, it would appear that the quan-
tity of poison must be proportioned to the animal,
and thus those probably labour under an error
who imagine that the smallest particle of it intro-
duced into the blood has almost instantaneous
effect.

Make an estimate of the difference in size be-
twixt the fowl and the ox, and then weigh a suffi-
cient 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 m five
minutes, and the ox in five-and-twenty.

Indeed, were it the case that the smallest parti-
cle of it introduced into the blood has almost in-
stantaneous 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 sup-
posed 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

94 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH A]\IERICA

full-grown healthy fowls, but they all died, as
though no steps had been taken to preserve their
lives. Rum was recommended and given to an-
other, 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 di-
minish the horror they betray, when you point a
poisoned arrow at them.

One day, while we were eating a red monkey,
erroneously called the baboon in Demerara, an
Arowack Indian told an affecting story of what
happened to a comrade of his. He was present at
his death. As it did not interest this Indian in
any point to tell a falsehood, it is very probable
that his account was a true one. If so, it appears
that there is no certain antidote, or at least no
antidote that could be resorted to in a case of ur-
gent 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

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 95

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 that 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 lit-
tle 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 deiDend upon the common antidotes for a cure.
Many who have been in Guiana will recommend
immediate immersion in water, or to take the
juice of the sugar-cane, or to fill the mouth full of
salt; and they recommend these antidotes be-
cause they have got them from the Indians. But
were you to ask them if they ever saw these anti-
dotes used with success, it is ten to one their an-
swer would be in the negative.

Wlierefore let him reject these antidotes as un-
profitable, and of no avail. He has got an active
and deadly foe within him, which, like Shake-
speare's fell Sergeant Death, is strict in his arrest,
and will allow him but little time — very — very lit-
tle time. In a few minutes he will be numbered
with the dead. Life ought, if possible, to be pre-
served, be the expense ever so great. Should the
part affected admit of it, let a ligature be tied

96 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

tight round the wound, and have immediate re-
course to the knife : —

"Continuo, culpam ferro compesce priusquam,
Dira per infaustum serpant contagia corpus."

And now, kind reader, it is time to bid thee
farewell. The two ends proposed have been ob-
tained. The Portuguese inland frontier fort has
been reached, and the Macoushi wourali-poison
acquired. The account of this excursion through
the interior of Guiana has been submitted to thy
perusal, in order to induce thy abler genius to un-
dertake a more extensive one. If any difficulties
have arisen, or fevers come on, they have been
caused by the periodical rains, which fall in tor-
rents as the sun approaches the tropic of Cancer.
In dry weather there would be no difficulties or
sickness.

Amongst the many satisfactory conclusions
which thou wouldst be able to draw during the
journey, there is one which, perhaps, would please
thee not a little ; and that is with regard to dogs.
Many a time, no doubt, thou hast heard it hotly
disputed, that dogs existed in Guiana previously
to the arrival of the Spaniards in those parts.
Whatever the Spaniards introduced, and which
bore no resemblance to anything the Indians had
been accustomed to see, retains its Spanish name
to this day.

Thus the Warow, the Arowac, the Acoway, the
Macoushi, and Carib tribes, call a hat, sombrero;
a shirt, or any kind of cloth, camiso ; a shoe, za-
pato; a letter, carta; a fowl, gallina; gunpowder,

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 97

colvora, (Spanish, polvora) ; ammunition, bala;
a cow, baca ; 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 tliis country pre-
sents a large field for speculation. A few years
ago there was but little inducement for any Eng-
lishman to explore the interior of these rich and
fine colonies, as the British Government did not
consider them worth holding at the peace of
Amiens. Since that period their mother-country
has been blotted out from the list of nations, and
Ajnerica has unfolded a new sheet of politics. On
one side, the crown of Braganza, attacked by an
ambitious chieftain, has fled from the palace of
its ancestors, and now seems fixed on the banks of
the Janeiro. Cayenne has yielded to its arms.
La Plata has raised the standard of independence,
and thinks itself sufficiently strong to obtain a
government of its own. On the other side, the
Caraccas are in open revolt, and should Santa Fe
join them in good earnest, they may form a pow-
erful association.

Thus, on each side of the ci-devant Dutch Gui-
ana, 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 ?
Will they be of benefit to these grand and ex-
tensive colonies? Colonies enjoying perpetual
summer. Colonies of the richest soil. Colonies
containing within themselves everything neces-
sary for their support. Colonies, in fine, so varied

7

08 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

in their quality and situation, as to be capable
of bringing to perfection every tropical produc-
tion; and only want the support of government,
and an enlightened governor, to render them as
fine as the finest portions of the equatorial re-
gions. Kind reader, fare thee well.

LETTER TO THE PORTUGUESE COMMANDEE

MUT Senor,
Conio no tengo el honor, de scr conocido de VM. lo pienso
mejor, y mas decoroso, quedarme aqui, hastaque huviere recibido
su respuesta. Haviendo caminado hasta la chozo, adbnde estoi,
no quisiere volverme, antes de haver visto la fortaleza de los
Portugueses; y pido licencia de VM. para que me adelante. Hon-
radissimos son mis motivos, ni tengo proyecto ninguno, o de
comercio, o de la soldadesca, no siendo yo, o comereiante, o
oficial, Hidalgo eatolico soy, de hacienda in Ynglatierra, y
muehos 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, espeeialmente, 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 eaido en poder del encmigo
comun, y le General Blake, y sus valientes tropas quedan prision-
eroa de guerra. Alegres, al contrario, porque Milord Wellington
se ha apoderado de Ciudad Kodrigo. A pesar de la caida de
Valencia, parece claro al mundo, que las cosas del enemigo, estan
andando, de pejor a pejor cada dia. Nosotros debemos dar
gracias al Altissimo, por haver sido servido dexarnos castigar
ultimamente, a los robadores de sus santas Yglesias. Se vera
VM. que yo no escribo Portugues ni aim lo hablo, pero, haviendo
aprendido el Castellano, no nos faltara medio de communicar y
tener conversacion. Kuego se escuse esta carta escrita sin tinta,
porque un Indio dexo caer mi tintero y quebrose. Dios le de
a VM. muehos anos de salud. Entretanto, tengo el honor de ser

Su mas obedeciente servidor,

Carlos Wateeton,

EEMARKS

"Incertus, quo fata ferant, ubi sistere detirr. "

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. Shouldest thou wish to know what
befell him afterwards, excuse the following umn-
teresting narrative.

Having had a return of fever, and aware that
the farther he advanced into these wild and
lonely regions, the less would be the chance of
regaining his health; he gave up all idea of pro-
ceeding onwards, and went slowly back towards
the Demerara, nearly by the same route he had
come.

On descending the falls in the Essequibo, which
form an oblique line quite across the river, it was
resolved to push through them, the downward
stream being in the canoe's favour. At a little
distance from the place, a large tree had fallen
into the river, and in the meantime the canoe was
lashed to one of its branches. "^

The roaring of the water was dreadful; it
foamed and dashed over the rocks with a tre-
mendous spray, like breakers on a lee-shore,
threatening destruction to whatever approached
it. You would have thought, by the confusion it

99

100 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

caused in the river, and the whirlpools it made,
that Scylla and Charybdis, and their whole
progeny, had left the Mediterranean, and come
and settled here. The channel was barely twelve
feet wide, and the torrent in rushing down formed
traverse furrows, which showed how near the
rocks were to the surface.

Nothing could surpass the skill of the Indian
who steered the canoe. He looked steadfastly
at it, then at the rocks, then cast an eye on the
channel, and then looked at the canoe again. It
was in vain to speak. The sound was lost in the
roar of waters; but his eye showed that he had
already passed it in imagination. He held up
his paddle in a position, as much as to say, that
he would keep exactly amid channel; and then
made a sign to cut the bush rope that held the
canoe to the fallen tree. The canoe drove down
the torrent with inconceivable rapidity. It did
not touch the rocks once all the way. The Indian
proved to a nicety, ''medio tutissimus ibis."

Shortly after this it rained almost day and
night, the lightning flashing incessantly, and the
roar of thunder awful beyond expression.,

The fever returned, and pressed so heavy on
him, that to all appearance his last day's march
was over. However, it abated ; his spirits rallied,
and he marched again; and after delays and
inconveniences he reached the house of his worthy
friend, Mr. Edmonstone, in Mibiri Creek, which
falls into the Demerara. No words of his can
do justice to the hospitality of that gentleman,
whose repeated encounters with the hostile ne-
groes in the forest have been publicly rewarded,

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 101

and will be remembered in the colony for years
to come.

Here he learned that an eruption had talicn
place in St. Vincent's; and thus'thc iioise heard
in the night of the first of May. wliit^hhad caiis-ad
snch terror amongst the Indians, and 'made tne
garrison at Fort St. Joachim remain under arms
the rest of the night, is accounted for.

After experiencing every kindness and atten-
tion from Mr. Edmonstone, he sailed for Gra-
nada, and from thence to St. Thomas's, a few
days before poor Captain Peake lost his life on
his own quarter-deck, bravely fighting for his
country on the coast of Guiana.

At St. Thomas's they show you a tower, a little
distance from the town, which they say formerly
belonged to a Bucanier chieftain. Probably the
fury of besiegers has reduced it to its present
dismantled state. What still remains of it bears
testimony of its former strength, and may brave
the attack of time for centuries. You cannot
view its ruins without calling to mind the exploits
of. those fierce and hardy hunters, long the terror
of the western world. While you admire their
undaunted courage, you lament that it was often
stained with cruelty; while you extol their scru-
pulous justice to each other, you will find a want
of it towards the rest of mankind. Often pos-
sessed of enormous wealth, often in extreme
poverty, often triumphant on the ocean, and often
forced to fly to the forests, their life was an ever-
changing scene of advance and retreat, of glory
and disorder, of luxury and famine. Spain
treated them as outlaws and pirates, while other

102 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AINIERICA

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 'd'efeDce; and that, whilst they kept
icviolahle the laws' "which they had framed for
their -own common benefit and protection, they
had a right to consider as foes those who treated
them as outlaws. Under this impression they
drew the sword, and rushed on as though in
lawful war, and divided the spoils of victory in
the scale of justice.

After leaving St. Thomas's a severe tertian
ague every now and then kept putting the travel-
ler in mind that his shattered frame, "starting
and shivering in the inconstant blast, meagre and
pale — the ghost of what it was" — wanted re-
pairs. Three years elapsed after arriving in
England before the ague took its final leave of
him.

During that time several experiments were
made with the wourali-poison. In London an
ass was inoculated with it, and died in twelve
minutes. The poison was inserted into the leg
of another, round which a bandage had been pre-
viously 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 un-
tied, 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

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 103

animation returned. The ass held up her head,
and looked around; but the inflating being dis-
continued, she sunk once more in apparent death.
The artificial breathing was immediately recom-
menced, and continued without intermission for
two hours. This saved the ass from final dis-
solution; she rose up, and walked about; she
seemed neither in agitation nor in pain. The
wound, through which the poison entered, was
healed without difficulty. Her constitution, how-
ever, 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 Midsum-
mer became fat and frisky.

The kind-hearted reader will rejoice on learn-
ing that Earl Percy, pitying her misfortunes,
sent her down from London to Walton Hall, near
Wakefield. There she goes by the name of
Wouralia. Wouralia shall be sheltered from the
wintry storm ; and when summer comes she shall
feed in the finest pasture. No burden shall be
placed upon her, and she shall end her days in
peace.^

For three revolving autumns the ague-beaten
wanderer never saw, without a sigh, the swallow
bend her flight towards warmer regions. He
wished to go, too, but could not ; for sickness had
enfeebled him, and prudence pointed out the folly
of roving again too soon across the northern
tropic. To be sure, the continent was now open,
and change of air might prove beneficial; but

* Poor Wouralia breathed her last on the 15th of February,
1839. having survived the operation nearly five-and-twenty years.

104 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AIMERICA

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 : —

"Hie jacet Arturus, Rex quondam Eexque 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 Eng-
lish are momentarily expecting his return. Be
this as it may, it is certain that when he reigned
here all was harmony and joy. The browsing
herds passed from vale to vale, the swains sang
from the bluebell-teeming groves, and nymphs
with eglantine and roses in their neatly-braided
hair went hand in hand to the flowery mead to
weave garlands for their lambkins. If by chance
some rude, uncivil fellow dared to molest them,
or attempted to throw thorns in their path, there
was sure to be a knight-errant not far off ready
to rush forward in their defence. But alas! in
these degenerate days it is not so. Should a
harmless cottage maid wander out of the high-
way 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.

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 105

^neas'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, hor-
rendum stridens, flammisque, armata Chimaera.'*

Moreover, he had a sibyl to guide his steps;
and as such a conductress nowadays could not be
got for love nor money, it was judged most pru-
dent to refrain from sauntering through this
land of freedom, and wait with patience the
return of health. At last this long-looked for,
ever welcome stranger came.

SECOND JOURNEY

CHAPTER I

In the year 1816, two days before the vernal
equinox, I sailed from Liverpool for Pernam-
buco, in the southern hemisphere, on the coast of
Brazil. There is little at this time of the year in
the European part of the Atlantic to engage the
attention of the naturalist. As you go down the
Channel you see a few divers and gannets. The
middle-sized gulls, with a black spot at the end
of the wings, attend you a little way into the Bay
of Biscay. Wlien 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 bolus's cave, amongst a clutch of
squalls and tempests; for whenever they get out
upon the ocean it always contrives to be of the
party.

Though the calms and storms, and adverse
winds in these latitudes are vexatious, still, when
you reach the trade winds you are amply repaid
for all disappointments and inconveniences. The

106

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 107

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 Em-
pire; and the torrid zone, notwithstanding Ovid's
remark, "non est habitabilis sestu," is rendered
healthy and pleasant by these gently-blowing
breezes. The ship glides smoothly on, and you
soon fmd yourself within the northern tropic.
When you are on it, Cancer is just over your
head, and betwixt him and Capricorn is the high
road of the Zodiac forty-seven degrees wide,
famous for Phaeton's misadventure. His father
begged and entreated him not to take it into his
head to drive parallel to the five zones, but to
mind and keep on the turnpike which runs
obliquely across the equator. ''There you will
distinctly see," said he, "the ruts of my chariot
wheels, 'manifesta rotae vestigia cernes.' But."
added he, "even suppose you keep on it, and
avoid the 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. Moreover,
'per insidias iter est, formasque ferarum,' the
road is full of nooses and bull-dogs, 'Haemon-
iosque arcus,' and spring guns, 'saevaque cir-
cuitu, curvantem brachia longo, Scorpio,' and
steel traps of uncommon size and shape." These
were nothing in the eyes of Phaeton; go he would,
so off he set, full speed, four-in-hand. He had a
tough drive of it; and after doing a prodigious
deal of mischief, very luckily for the world, he

108 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AIMERICA

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 uncom-
monly grand. Its plains, its swamps, its savan-
nas, and forests abound with the largest serpents
and wild beasts; and its trees are the habitation
of the most beautiful of the feathered race.
While the traveller in the old world is astonished
at the elephant, the tiger, the lion, and rhinoceros,
he who wanders through the torrid regions of the
new, is lost in admiration at the cotingas, the
toucans, the humming-birds, and aras.

The ocean, likewise, swarms with curiosities.
Probably the Flying-fish may be considered as one
of the most singular. This little scaled inhabit-
ant of water and air seems to have been more
favoured than the rest of its finny brethren. It
can rise out of the waves, and on wing visit the
domain of the birds.

After flying two or three hundred yards, the
intense heat of the sun has dried its pellucid
wings, and it is obliged to wet them in order to
continue its flight. It just drops into the ocean
for a moment, and then rises again and flies on;
and then descends to remoisten them, and then
up again into the air ; thus passing its life, some-
times wet, sometimes dry, sometimes in sunshine,
and sometimes in the pale moon's nightly beam,

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 109

as pleasure dictates, or as need requires. The
additional assistance of wings is not thrown away
ujion it. It has full occupation both for fins and
wings, as its life is in perpetual danger.

The Bonito and Albicore chase it day and
night; but the Dolphin is its worst and swiftest
foe. If it escape into the air, the dolphin pushes
on with proportional velocity beneath, and is
ready to snap it up the moment it descends to wet
its wings.

You will often see above one hundred of these
little marine aerial fugitives on the wing at once.
They appear to use every exertion to prolong
their flight, but vain are all their efforts; for
when the last drop of water on their wings is
dried up, their flight is at an end, and they must
drop into the ocean. Some are instantly devoured
by their merciless pursuer, part escape by swim-
ming, and others get out again as quick as pos-
sible, and trust once more to their wings.

It often happens that this unfortunate little
creature, after alternate dips and flights, finding
all its exertions of no avail, at last drops on board
the vessel, verifying the old remark,

"Incidit in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim. "

There, stunned by the fall, it beats the deck
with its tail and dies. When eating it, you would
take it for a fresh herring. The largest measure
from fourteen to fifteen inches in length. The
dolphin, after pursuing it to the ship, sometimes
forfeits his own life.

In days of yore, the musician used to play in
softest, sweetest strain, and then take an airing

110 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH A^IERICA

amongst the dolphins; ''inter delphinas Arion."
But nowadays, 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.

From the Cape de Verd islands to the coast of
Brazil, you see several different kinds of gulls,
which probably are bred in the island of St. Paul.
Sometimes the large bird called the Frigate Peli-
can soars majestically over the vessel, and the
Tropic-Bird comes near enough to let you have a
fair view of the long feathers in his tail. On the
line, when it is calm. Sharks of a tremendous size
make their appearance. They are descried from
the ship by means of the dorsal fin, which is
above the water.

On entering the bay of Pernambuco, the Frigate
Pelican is seen watching the shoals of fish from a
prodigious height. It seldom descends without a
successful attack on its numerous prey below.

As you approach the shore, the view is charm-
ing. The hills are clothed with wood, gradually

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 111

rising towards the interior, none of them of any
considerable height. A singular reef of rocks
runs parallel to the coast, and forms the harbour
of Pernambuco. The vessels are moored betwixt
it and the town, safe from every storm. You
enter the harbour through a very narrow passage,
close by a fort built on the reef. The hill of
Olinda, studded with houses and convents, is on
your right hand, and an island thickly planted
with cocoa-nut trees, adds considerably to the
scene on your left. There are two strong forts
on the istlmius, betwixt Olinda and Pernambuco,
and a pillar midway to aid the pilot.

Pernambuco probably contains upwards of fifty
thousand souls. It stands on a flat, and is divided
into three parts — a peninsula, an island, and the
continent. Though within a few degrees of the
line, its climate is remarkably salubrious, and
rendered almost temperate by the refreshing sea
breeze. Had art and judgment contributed their
portion to its natural advantages, Pernambuco
at this day, would have been a stately ornament
to the coast of Brazil. On viewing it, it will
strike you that every one has built his house en-
tirely 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
of them are very high, and some very low; some
newly whitewashed, and others stained, and

112 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

mouldy, and neglected, as though they had no
owner.

The balconies, too, are of a dark and gloomy
appearance. They are not, in general, open, as
in most tropical cities, but grated like a farmer's
dairj^ window, though somewhat closer.

There is a lamentable want of cleanliness in the
streets. The impurities from the houses, and the
accumulation of litter from the beasts of burden,
are unpleasant sights to the passing stranger.
He laments the want of a police as he goes along ;
and when the wind begins to blow, his nose and
eyes are too often exposed to a cloud of very
unsavoury dust.

When you view the port of Pernambuco, full of
ships of all nations, when you know that the
richest commodities of Europe, Africa, and Asia
are brought to it; when you see immense quanti-
ties of cotton, dye-wood, and the choicest fruits
pouring into the town, you are apt to wonder at
the little attention these people pay to the common
comforts which one always expects to find in a
large and opulent city. However, if the inhabit-
ants 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, cer-
tainly, they seem perfectly regardless of them;
and the Captain-General of Pernambuco walks
through the streets with as apparent content
and composure as an English statesman would
proceed down Charing-cross. Custom reconciles
everything. In a week or two the stranger him-
self begins to feel less the things which annoyed

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 113

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 en-
joying the elegance and splendour within doors
in this great city.

Close by the river-side stands what is called
the palace of the Captain-General of Pernambuco.
Its form and appearance altogether strike the
traveller that it was never intended for the use it
is at present put to.

Reader, throw a veil over thy recollection for a
little while, and forget the cruel, unjust, and
unmerited censures thou hast heard against an
unoffending order. This palace was once the
Jesuits' college, and originally built by those
charitable fathers. Ask the aged and respectable
inhabitants of Pernambuco, and they will tell
thee that the destruction of the Society of Jesus
was a terrible disaster to the public, and its con-
sequences severely felt to the present day.

When Pombal took the reins of power into his
own hands, virtue and learning beamed bright
within the college walls. Public catechism to the
children, and religious instruction to all, flowed
daily from the mouths of its venerable priests.

They were loved, revered, and respected
throughout the whole town. The illuminating
philosophers of the day had sworn to exterminate
Christian knowledge, and the college of Pernam-
buco was doomed to founder in the general storm.
To the long-lasting sorrow and disgrace of Por-
tugal, the philosophers blinded her king and
flattered her prime minister. Pombal was exactly
the tool these sappers of every public and private

8

114 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

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 hlow, and the Society
of Jesus, throughout the Portuguese dominions,
was no more.

One morning all the fathers of the college in
Pemambuco, some of them very old and feeble,
were suddenly ordered into the refectory. They
had notice beforehand of the fatal storm, in pity
from the governor, but not one of them aban-
doned his charge. They had done their duty, and
had nothing to fear. They bowed with resigna-
tion to the will of Heaven. As soon as they had
all reached the refectory, they were there locked
up, and never more did they see their rooms, their
friends, their scholars, or acquaintance. In the
dead of the following night, a strong guard of
soldiers literally drove them through the streets
to the water's edge. They were then conveyed
in boats aboard a ship, and steered for Bahia.
Those who survived the barbarous treatment they
experienced from Pombal's creatures were at
last ordered to Lisbon. The college of Pernam-
buco was plundered, and some 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 suc-
ceeded 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;

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 115

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 triiunphant,
and learning is at its lowest ebb. Neither is this
to be wondered at. Destroy the compass, and
will the vessel find her far-distant port? "Will
the flock keep together, and escape the wolves,
after the shepherds are all slain? The Brazilians
were told that public education would go on just
as usual. They might have asked government,
who so able to instruct our youth as those whose
knowledge is proverbial? who so fit, as those who
enjoy our entire confidence? who so worthy, as
those whose lives are irreproachable?

They soon found that those who succeeded the
fathers of the Society of Jesus had neither their
manners nor their abilities. They had not made
the instruction of youth their particular study.
Moreover, they entered on the field after a defeat,
where the officers had all been slain; where the
plan of the campaign was lost; where all was in
sorrow and dismay. No exertions of theirs could
rally the dispersed, or skill prevent the fatal con-
sequences. At the present day, the seminary of
Olinda, in comparison with the former Jesuits'
college, is only as the waning moon's beam to the
sun's meridian splendour.

AVhen you visit the places where those learned
fathers once flourished, and see with your own
eyes the evils their dissolution has caused; when
you hear the inhabitants telling you how good,
how clever, how charitable they were; what will
you think of our poet laureate for calling them,

116 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

in his ''History of Brazil," "Missioners, whose
zeal the most fanatical was directed by the coolest
policy"?

Was it fanatical to renounce the honours and
comforts of this transitory life, in order to gain
eternal glory in the next, by denying themselves,
and taking up the cross? Was it fanatical to
preach salvation to innumerable wild hordes of
iVmericans? to clothe the naked! to encourage the
repenting sinner? to aid the dying Christian?
The fathers of the Society of Jesus did all this.
And for this their zeal is pronounced to be the
most fanatical, directed by the coolest policy. It
will puzzle many a clear brain to comprehend how
it is possible, in the nature of things, that zeal the
most fanatical should be directed by the coolest
policy. Ah, Mr. Laureate, Mr. Laureate, that
"quidlibet audendi" of yours, may now and then
gild the poet, at the same time that it makes the
historian cut a sorry figure !

Could Father Nobrega rise from the tomb, he
would thus address you: — ** Ungrateful English-
man, you have drawn a great part of your in-
formation from the writings of the Society of
Jesus, and in return you attempt to stain its char-
acter by telling your countrymen that 'we taught
the idolatry we believed!' In speaking of me,
you say, it was my happy fortune to be stationed
in a country where none but the good principles
of my order were called into action. Ungenerous
laureate, the narrow policy of the times has kept
your countrymen in the dark with regard to the
true character of the Society of Jesus; and you
draw the bandage still tighter over their eyes by

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 117

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 pur-
sued by the Jesuits in Paraguay; a system pro-
ductive 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 by, the system was only
productive of as much good as is compatible with
pious fraud !

''What means all this? After reading such in-
comparable 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 fel-
low-creatures, administered in a manner which
human prudence judged best calculated to ensure
success ; and that the idolatry which you unchari-
tably affirm they taught, was really and truly the
very same faith which the Catholic Church taught
for centuries in England, which she still teaches
to those who wish to hear her, and which she will

118 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

continue to teacli, pure and unspotted, till time
shall be no more."

The en\'irons of Pernambuco are very pretty.
You see country houses in all directions, and the
appearance of here and there a sugar plantation
enriches the scenery. Palm-trees, Cocoa-nut-
trees, Orange and Lemon groves, and all the
different fruits peculiar to Brazil, are here in the
greatest abundance.

At Olinda there is a national botanical garden;
it wants space, produce, and improvement. The
forests, which are several leagues off, abound
with birds, beasts, insects, and serpents. Besides
a brilliant plumage, many of the birds have a very
fine song. The Troupiale, noted for its rich
colours, sings delightfully in the environs of
Pernambuco. The Red-headed Finch, larger than
the European sparrow, pours forth a sweet and
varied strain, in company with two species of
wrens, a little before daylight. There are also
several species of the tlirush, 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 cap-
tivity 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
different 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

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 119

little Tangara to put on mourning to tlie north of
the line, and wear scarlet to the south of it.

For three months in the year the environs of
Pernambuco are animated beyond description.
From November to March the weather is 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 becomes eligible places for
those whom nothing but extreme necessity could
have forced to live there a few weeks ago : some
join in the merry dance, others saunter up and
down the orange-groves ; and towards evening the
roads become a moving scene of silk and jewels.
The gaming-tables have constant visitors; there,
thousands are daily and nightly lost and won;
parties even sit down to try their luck round the
outside of the door as well as in the room : —

"Vestibulum ante ipsnm primisque in fancibus aulas
Luctus et ultrices, posuere sedilia curge. "

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 dur-
ing 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

12 J WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

musing on, may have full occupation for an hour
or two every day at this season amid the varie-
gated scenes round the pretty village of Monteiro.
In the evening groups sitting at the door, he may
sometimes see with a sigh how wealth and the
prince's favour cause a booby to pass for a Solon,
and be reverenced as such, while perhaps a poor,
neglected Camoens stands silent at a distance,
awed by the dazzling glare of wealth and power.
Retired from the public road he may see poor
Maria sitting under a palm-tree, with her elbow
in her lap, and her head leaning on one side within
her hand, weeping over her forbidden 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 shoul-
ders, were making a noise, and passing to and
fro on the lower branches of a tree in an aban-
doned, 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. Wlien 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 con-
vinced that it is so. In the present case, this was

Blaekliirds and Eattle-snake

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 121

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 to make
sure of it — behold, the head of a large rattle-
snake appeared in the grass close by: an instan-
taneous spring backwards prevented fatal conse-
quences. 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 un-
der 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 atten-
tion of the birds, and made them heedless of dan-
ger 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 motion-
less, for the inspection of the curious in a far
distant clime.

It was now the rainy season; the birds were
moulting; fifty-eight specimens of the hand-
somest of them in the neighbourhood of Pernam-
buco had been collected; and it was time to
proceed elsewhere. The conveyance to the in-
terior was by horses; and this mode, together
with the heavy rains, would expose preserved
specimens to almost certain damage. The jour-
ney to Maranham by land would take at least
forty days. The route was not wild enough to

122 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AlVIERICA

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, wliose urbanity
and goodness have long gained it the esteem and
respect of all ranks in Pernambuco. The kindness
and attention I received from Dennis Kearney,
Esq., and his amiable lady, will be remembered
with gratitude to my dying day.

After mshing farewell to this hospitable fam-
ily, I embarked on board a Portuguese brig, with
poor accommodation, for Cayenne in Guiana. The
most eligible bedroom was the top of a hen-coop
on deck. Even here, an unsavoury little beast,
called bug, was neither shy nor deficient in appe-
tite.

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.

CHAPTER II

On the fourteenth day after leaving Pernam-
bueo, the brig cast anchor off the island of Cay-
enne. The entrance is beautiful. To windward,
not far off, there are two bold wooded islands,
called the Father and Mother; and near them
are others, their children, smaller, though as
beautiful as their parents. Another is seen a
long way to leeward of the family, and seems as
if it had strayed from home, and cannot find its
way back. The French call it ''1 'enfant perdu."
As you pass the islands, the stately liills 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 Oroo-
noque. On casting your eye towards Dutch Guiana,
you will see that the mountains become uncon-
nected and few in number, and long before you
reach Surinam the Atlantic wave washes a flat
and muddy shore.

Considerably to windward of Cayenne, and
about twelve leagues from land, stands a stately
and towering rock, called the Constable. As noth-
ing 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.

133

124 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMEHICA

All along the coast, opposite the Constable, and
indeed on every uncultivated part of it to wind-
ward and leeward, are seen innumerable quanti-
ties of Snow-white Egrets, Scarlet Curlews,
Spoonbills, and Flamingos.

Cayenne is capable of being a noble and pro-
ductive 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 im-
mense 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 abun-
dantly in Cayenne.

The town itself is prettily laid out, and was
once well fortified. They tell you it might easily
have been defended against the invading force
of the two united nations ; but Victor Hugues, its
governor, ordered the tri-coloured flag to be
struck; and ever since that day the standard of
Braganza has waved on the ramparts of Cayenne.

He who has received humiliations from the
hand of this haughty, iron-hearted governor, may
see him now in Cayenne, stripped of all his revo-
lutionary honours, broken down and ruined, and
under arrest in his own house. He has four ac-
complished daughters, respected by the whole
town. Towards the close of day, when the sun's
rays are no longer oppressive, these much-pitied
ladies are seen walking up and down the balcony
with their aged parent, trying, by their kind and

The Ecret

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 125

filial attention, to remove the settled gloom from
his too guilty brow.

This was not the time for a traveller to enjoy
Cayenne. The hospitality of the inhabitants was
the same as ever, but they had lost their wonted
gaiety in public, and the stranger might read in
their countenances, as the recollection of recent
humiliations and misfortunes every now and then
kept breaking in upon them, that they were still
in sorrow for their fallen country : the victorious
hostile cannon of Waterloo still sounded in their
ears : their Emperor was a prisoner amongst the
hideous rocks of St. Helena ; and many a French-
man who had fought and bled for France was now
amongst them, begging for a little support to pro-
long a life which would be forfeited on the parent
soil. To add another handful to the cypress and
wormwood already scattered amongst these po-
lite 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
celebrated national plantation. This spot was
judiciously chosen, for it is out of the reach of
enemies' cruisers. It is called La Gabrielle. No
plantation in the western world can vie with La
Gabrielle. Its spices are of the choicest kind ; its
soil particularly favourable to them; its arrange-
ments beautiful; and its directeur, Monsieur
Martin, a botanist of first-rate abilities. This
indefatigable naturalist ranged through the East,
under a royal commission, in quest of botanical
knowledge; and during his stay in the western

126 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

regions lias 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 ap-
pearance 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 in-
cense 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 been originally imported hither from
all parts of the tropical world, he will thank the
government which has supported, and admire the
talents of the gentleman who has raised to its
present grandeur, this noble collection of useful
fruits. There is a large nursery attached to La
Gabrielle, where plants of all the different species
are raised and distributed gratis to those colon-
ists who wish to cultivate them.

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 127

Not far from the banks of the river Oyapoc, to
windward of Cayenne, is a mountain which con-
tains 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 Deme-
rara, amongst the huge rocks in the forests of
Macoushia ; and he has been shot south of the line,
in the captainship of Para.

The bird called by Buffon Grand 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, Paramaribo,
is handsome, rich and populous: hitherto it has
been considered by far the finest town in Guiana ;
but probably the time is not far off when the capi-
tal of Demerara may claim the prize of superior-
ity. You may enter a creek above Paramaribo,
and travel through the interior of Surinam, till
you come to the Nicari, which is close to the large
river Coryntin. When you have passed this river.

128 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

there is a good public road to New Amsterdam,
the capital of Berbice.

On viewing New Amsterdam, it will immedi-
ately strike you that something or other has in-
tervened to prevent its arriving at that state of
wealth and consequence for which its original
plan shows it was once intended. What has
caused this stop in its progress to the rank of a
fine and populous city remains for those to find
out who are interested in it; certain it is, that
New Amsterdam has been languid for some years,
and now the tide of commerce seems ebbing fast
from the shores of Berbice.

Gay and blooming is the sister colony of Deme-
rara. Perhaps, kind reader, thou hast not forgot
that it was from Stabroek, the capital of Deme-
rara, 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 de-
scribed. The plan was to have ascended the Ama-
zons from Para and got into the Eio 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 rapid-
ity 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 in fine plumage had already set

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 129

in, I left Cayenne in an American ship for Para-
maribo, went through the interior to the Coryntin,
stopped a few days in New Amsterdam, and pro-
ceeded to Demerara. If, gentle reader, thy pa-
tience be not already worn out, and thy eyes half
closed in slumber, by perusing the dull adventures
of this second sally, perhaps thou wilt pardon a
line or two on Demerara ; and then we will retire
to its forests, to collect and examine the economy
of its most rare and beautiful birds, and give the
world a new mode of preserving them.

Stabroek, the capital of Demerara, has been
rapidly increasing for some years back; and if
prosperity go hand in hand with the present en-
terprising 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 com-
modity and luxury of London may be bought in
the shops at Stabroek: its market wants better
regulations. The hotels are commodious, clean,
and well attended. Demerara boasts as fine and
well-disciplined militia as any colony in the west-
ern world.

The court of justice, where, in times of old, the
bandage was easily removed from the eyes of the
goddess, and her scales thrown out of equilibrium,
now rises in dignity under the firmness, talents,
and urbanity of Mr. President Rough.

The plantations have an appearance of high
cultivation; a tolerable idea may be formed of

9

130 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

their value when you know that last year Deme-
rara numbered seventy-two thousand nine hun-
dred and ninety-nine slaves. They made about
forty-four million pounds of sugar, near two mil-
lion 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 himdred and fifty-three thousand nine
hundred and fifty-six guilders; the public ex-
penditure, four hundred and fifty-one thousand
six hundred and three guilders.

Slavery can never be defended ; he whose heart
is not of iron can never wish to be able to defend
it: while he heaves a sigh for the poor negro in
captivity, he wishes from his soul that the traffic
had been stifled in its birth; but, unfortunately,
the governments of Europe nourished it, and
now 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 calcu-
lated to prevent them; and the British planter,
except here and there one, feels for the wrongs

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 131

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 in-
habitants of Demerara ! Your doors are ever open
to harbour the harbourless; your purses never
shut to the wants of the distressed : many a ruined
fugitive from the Oroonoque will bless your kind-
ness to him in the hour of need, when flying from
the woes of civil discord, without food or raiment,
he begged for shelter underneath your roof. The
poor sufferer in Trinidad, who lost his all in the
devouring flames, will remember your charity to
his latest moments. The traveller, as he leaves
your port, casts a longing, lingering look behind ;
your attentions, your hospitality, your pleasantry
and mirth, are uppermost in his thoughts: your
prosperity is close to his heart. Let us now, gen-
tle reader, retire from the busy scenes of man, and
journey on towards the wilds in quest of the
feathered tribe.

Leave behind you your high-seasoned dishes,
your wines and your delicacies; carry nothing
but what is necessary for your own comfort and
the object in view, and depend upon the skill of
the Indian, or your own, for fish and game. A
sheet, about twelve feet long, ten wide, painted,
and with loop-holes on each side, will be of great
service; in a few minutes you can suspend it
betwixt two trees in the shape of a roof. Under
this, in your hammock, you may defy the pelting
shower, and sleep heedless of the dews of night.
A hat, a shirt, and a light pair of trousers, will be
all the raiment you require. Custom will soon

132 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

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 annoy-
ance, though perhaps more in imagination than
reality; for you must recollect that the serpent
is never the first to offend; his poisonous fang
was not given him for conquest : he never inflicts
a wound with it but to defend existence. Provided
you walk cautiously, and do not absolutely touch
him, you may pass in safety close by him. As he
is often coiled up on the ground, and amongst the
branches of the trees above you, a degree of cir-
cumspection is necessary, lest you unwarily dis-
turb him.

Tigers are too few, and too apt to fly before the
noble face of man, to require a moment of your
attention.

The bite of the most noxious of the insects, at
the very worst, only causes a transient fever,
with a degree of pain more or less.

Birds in general, with few exceptions, are not
common in the very remote parts of the forest.
The sides of rivers, lakes, and creeks, the borders
of savannas, the old abandoned habitations of
Indians and woodcutters, seem to be their favour-
ite haunts.

Though least in size, the glittering mantle of
the Humming-bird entitles it to the first place in
the list of the birds of the new world. It may
truly be called the Bird of Paradise ; and had it
existed in the old world, it would have claimed the
title instead of the bird which has now the honour

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 133

to bear it : — see it darting tlirongli the air almost
as quick as thought ! — now it is within a yard of
your face! — in an instant gone! — now it flutters
from flower to flower to sip the silver dew — it is
now a ruby — now a topaz — now an emerald — now
all burnished gold ! It would be arrogant to pre-
tend to describe this winged gem of nature after
Buff on 's elegant description of it.

Cayenne and Demerara produce the same hum-
ming-birds. Perhaps you would wish to know
something of their haunts. Chiefly in the months
of July and August the tree called Bois Immortel,
very common in Demerara, bears abundance of
red blossom, which stays on the tree some weeks;
then it is that most of the different species of
humming-birds are very plentiful. The wild red
sage is also their favourite shrub, and they buzz
like bees round the blossoms of the wallaba-tree.
Indeed, there is scarce a flower in the interior, or
on the sea-coast, but what receives frequent visits
from one or other of the species.

On entering the forests, on the rising land in
the interior, the blue and green, the smallest
brown, no bigger than the bumblebee, with two
long feathers in the tail, and the little forked-tail
purple-throated humming-birds, glitter before
you in ever-changing attitudes. One species alone
never shows his beauty to the sun; and were it
not for his lovely shining colours, you might al-
most be tempted to class him with the goatsuckers
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

134 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

other, and these have gained him the name of
Karabimiti, or Ara humming-bird, from the In-
dians. You never find him on the sea-coast, or
where the river is salt, or in the heart of the for-
est, unless fresh water be there. He keeps close
by the side of woody fresh-water rivers and dark
and lonely creeks. He leaves his retreat before
sunrise to feed on the insects over the water;
he returns to it as soon as the sun's rays cause a
glare of light, is sedentary all day long, and comes
out again for a short time after sunset. He builds
his nest on a twig over the water in the unfre-
quented creeks; it looks like tanned cow-leather.

As you advance towards the mountains of Dem-
erara, other species of humming-birds present
themselves before you. It seems to be an errone-
ous opinion that the humming-bird lives entirely
on honey-dew. Almost every flower of the trop-
ical climate contains insects of one kind or other ;
now, the humming-bird is most busy about the
flowers an hour or two after sunrise and after a
shower of rain, and it is just at this time that the
insects come out to the edge of the flower in order
that the sun's rays may dry the nocturnal dew and
rain which they have received. On opening the
stomach of the humming-bird, dead insects are
almost always found there.

Next to the humming-birds, the Cotingas dis-
play the gayest plumage. They are of the order
of Passeres, and you number five species betwixt
the sea-coast and the rock Saba. Perhaps the
Scarlet Cotinga is the richest of the five, and is
one of those birds which are found in the deepest
recesses of the forest. His crown is flaming red ;

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 135

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 red-
dish 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 bas-
tard-siloabali trees, which ripen in December, and
continue on the trees for above two months. He
is found throughout the year in Demerara; still
nothing is known of his incubation. The Indians
all agree in telling you that they have never seen
his nest.

The Purple-breasted Cotinga has the throat
and breast of a deep purple, the wmgs and tail
black, and all the rest of the body a most lovely
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 four first
feathers tipped with brown. The great coverts
of the wings are stiff, narrow, and pointed, being
shaped quite different from those of any other
bird. Wlien you are betwixt this bird and the sun
in his flight, he appears uncommonly brilliant.
He makes a hoarse noise, which sounds like " Wal-
lababa." Hence his name amongst the Indians.

None of these three eotingas have a song. They
feed on the hitia, siloabali, and bastard-siloabali
seeds, the wild guava, the fig, and other fruit

136 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AIMERICA

trees of the forest. They are easily shot in these
trees during the months of December, January,
and part of February. The greater part of them
disappear after this, and probably retire far away
to breed. Their nests have never been found in
Demerara.

The fifth species is the celebrated Campanero
of the Spaniards, called Dara by the Indians, and
Bell-bird by the English. He is about the size of
the jay. His plumage is white as snow. On his
forehead rises a spiral tube nearly three inches
long. It is jet black, dotted all over with small
white feathers. It has a communication with the
palate, and when filled with air looks like a spire;
when empty it becomes pendulous. His note is
loud and clear, like the sound of a bell, and may
be heard at the distance of three miles. In the
midst of these extensive wilds, generally on the
dried top of an ancient mora, almost out of gun
reach, you will see the campanero. No sound or
song from any of the winged inhabitants of the
forest, not even the clearly pronounced ''Whip-
poor- Will," from the goatsucker, cause such as-
tonishment 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 ani-
mated nature, the campanero still cheers the for-
est. 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,

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 137

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 by
their superior plumage, the singular form of the
Toucan makes a lasting impression on your mem-
ory. There are three species of toucans in Deme-
rara, and three diminutives, which may be called
Toucanets. The largest of the first species fre-
quents the mangrove-trees on the sea-coast. He
is never seen in the interior till you reach Ma-
coushia, where he is found in the neighbourhood of
the river Tacatou. The other two species are
very common. The)' feed entirely on the fruits of
the forest, and though of the pie kind, never kill
the young of other birds or touch carrion. The
larger is called Bouradi by the Indians, (which
means Nose,) the other, Scirou, They seem par-
tial to each other's company, and often resort to
the same feeding tree, and retire together to the
same shady noon-day retreat. They are very
noisy in rainy weather at all hours of the day, and
in fair weather, at morn and eve. The sound
which the bouradi makes is like the clear yelping
of a puppy dog, and you fancy he says ' ' Pia-po-o-
co," and thus the South American Spaniards call
him Piapoco.

All the toucanets feed on the same trees on
which the toucan feeds, and every species of this
family of enormous bill, lays it eggs in the hollow
trees. They are social, but not gregarious. You

138 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

may sometimes see eight or ten in company, and
from this you would suppose they are gregarious ;
but, upon a closer examination, 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 offen-
sive, as it has no need to wage war with any of
the tribes of animated nature; for its food is
fruit 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 de-
fensive, as the toucan is preyed upon by no bird
in South America, and were it obliged to be at
war, the texture of the bill is ill adapted to give
or receive blows, as you will see in dissecting it.
It cannot be for any particular protection to the
tongue, as the tongue is a perfect feather.

The flight of the toucan is by jerks ; in the ac-
tion of flying it seems incommoded by this huge
disproportioned feature, and the head seems as
if bowed down to the earth by it against its will ;
if the extraordinary form and size of the bill
expose the toucan to ridicule, its colours make it
amends. Were a specimen of each species of the
toucan presented to you, you would pronounce
the bill of the bouradi the most rich and beautiful ;
on the ridge of the upper mandible a broad stripe
of most lovely yellow extends from the head to
the point; a stripe of the same breadth, though
somewhat deeper yellow, falls from it at right
angles next the head down to the edge of the man-
dible; then follows a black stripe, half as broad,

The Fliylit of the Toucan

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 139

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 man-
ner 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
realitj^ transparent white, and receives its colour
from a thin piece of blue skin inside. This superb
bill fades in death, and in three or four days' time
has quite lost its original colours.

Till within these few years, no idea of the true
colours of the bill could be formed from the
stuffed toucans brought to Europe. About eight
years ago, while eating a boiled toucan, the
thought struck me that the colours in the bill of
a preserved specimen might be kept as bright as
those in life. A series of experiments proved this
beyond a doubt. If you take your penknife and
cut away the roof of the upper mandible, you will
find that the space betwixt it and the outer shell
contains a large collection of veins, and small os-
seous 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

140 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

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 trans-
parent; the under mandible must undergo the
same operation. Great care must be taken, and
the knife used very cautiously when you are cut-
ting 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 eifect; judgment, caution, skill, and prac-
tice, will insure success.

You have now cleared the bill of all those bodies
which are the cause of its apparent fading; for,
as has been said before, these bodies dry in death,
and become quite discoloured, and appear so
through the horn; and reviewing the bill in this
state, you conclude that its former bright colours
are lost.

Something still remains to be done. You have
rendered the bill transparent by the operation,
and that transparency must be done away to make
it appear perfectly natural. Pound some clean
chalk, and give it enough water till it be of the
consistency of tar; add a proportion of gum-
arabic to make it adhesive; then take a camel-

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 141

hair brush, and give the inside of both mandibles
a coat ; apply a second when the first is dry, then
another, and a fourth to finish all. The gum-
arabic will prevent the chalk from cracking and
falling off. If you remember, there is a little space
of transparent white in the lower mandible, which
originally appeared blue, but which became trans-
parent white as soon as the thin piece of blue skin
was cut away; this must be painted blue inside.
When all this is completed, the bill will please
you ; it will appear in its original colours. Prob-
ably your own abilities will suggest a cleverer
mode of operating than the one here described.
A small gouge would assist the penknife, and ren-
der the operation less difficult.

CHAPTER III

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 dif-
ferent shades: he has a triangular black spot,
edged with blue, behind the eye extending to the
ear ; and on his breast a sable tuft, consisting of
nine feathers edged also with blue. This bird
seems to suppose that its beauty can be increased
by trimming the tail, which undergoes the same
operation as our hair in a barber's shop, only
with this difference, that it uses its own beak,
which is serrated, in lieu of a pair of scissors ; as
soon as his tail is full grown, he begins about an
inch from the extremity of the two longest
feathers in it, and cuts away the web on both sides
of the shaft, making a gap about an inch long:
both male and female Adonise their tails in this
manner, which gives them a remarkable appear-
ance amongst all other birds. While we consider
the tail of the houtou blemished and defective,
were he to come amongst us, he would probably
consider our heads, cropped and bald, in no better
light. He who wishes to observe this handsome
bird in his native haunts, must be in the forest at
the morning's dawn. The houtou shuns the so-
ciety of man : the plantations and cultivated parts

142

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 143

are too much disturbed to engage it to settle there ;
the thick and gloomy forests are the places pre-
ferred by the solitary lioutou. In those far-
extending mlds, about daybreak, you hear him
articulate, in a distinct and mournful tone, ''Hou-
tou, houtou." Move cautious 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 in-
sects 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 grate-
ful to him. He makes no nest, but rears his young
in a hole in the sand, generally on the side of a
hill.

While in quest of the houtou, you will now and
then fall in with the Jay of Guiana, called by the
Indians Ibibirou. Its forehead is black, the rest
of the head white; the throat and breast like the
English magpie: about an inch of the extremity
of the tail is white, the other part of it, together
with the back of the 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 ''V7ow, wow, wow, wow." This
is the bird called Boclora by the Indians. It is
smaller than the common pigeon, and seems, in
some measure, to partake of its nature : its head
and breast are blue ; the back and rump somewhat

144 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AjMERICA

resemble the colour on the peacock's neck; its
belly is a bright yellow; the legs are so very short
that it always appears as if sitting on the branch ;
it is as ill-adapted for walking as the swallow;
its neck, for above an inch all round, is quite bare
of feathers, but this deficiency is not seen, for it
always sits with its head drawn in upon its shoul-
ders : it sometimes feeds with the cotingas on the
guava and hitia trees; but its chief nutriment
seems to be insects, and, like most birds which
follow this prey, its chaps are well armed with
bristles: it is found in Demerara at all times of
the year, and makes a nest resembling that of the
stock-dove. This bird never takes long flights,
and when it crosses a river or creek it goes by
long jerks.

The boclora is very unsuspicious, appearing
quite heedless of danger; the report of a gun
within twenty yards will not cause it to leave the
branch on which it is sitting, and you may often
approach it so near as almost to touch it with the
end of your bow. Perhaps there is no bird known
whose feathers are so slightly fixed to the skin as
those of the boclora. After shooting it, if it touch
a branch in its descent, or if it drop on hard
ground, whole heaps of feathers fall off; on this
account it is extremely hard to procure a speci-
men 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, at-
tracts 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

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 145

boclora, but its colours different ; its head, breast,
back, and rump, are a shining, changing green;
its tail not quite so bright ; a black bar runs across
the tail towards the extremity, and the outside
feathers are partly white, as in the boclora; its
belly is entirely vermilion, a bar of white separat-
ing it from the green on the breast.

There are diminutives of both these birds ; they
have the same habits, with a somewhat different
plumage, and about half the size. Arrayed from
head to tail in a robe of richest sable hue, the bird
called Rice-bird loves spots cultivated by the hand
of man. The woodcutter's house on the hills in
the interior, and the planter's habitation on the
sea-coast, equally attract this songless species of
the order of pie, provided the Indian corn be ripe
there. He is nearly of the jackdaw's size, and
makes his nest far away from the haunts of man;
he may truly be called a blackbird: independent
of his plumage, his beak, inside and out, his legs,
his toes, and claws are jet black.

Mankind, by clearing the ground, and sowing a
variety of seeds, induces many kinds of birds to
leave their native haunts and come and settle near
him; their little depredations on his seeds and
fruits prove that it is the property, and not the
proprietor, which has the attractions.

One bird, however, in Demerara is not actuated
by selfish motives : this is the Cassique ; in size, he
is larger than the starling; he courts the society
of man, but disdains to live by his labours. When
nature calls for support, he repairs to the neigh-
bouring forest, and there partakes of the store of
fruits and seeds which she has produced in abun-

10

146 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

dance for her aerial tribes. When his repast is
over, he returns to man, and pays the little tribute
which he owes him for his protection ; he takes his
station on a tree close to his house ; and there, for
hours together, pours forth a succession of imi-
tative notes. His own song is sweet, but very-
short. If a toucan be yelping in the neighbour-
hood, he drops it, and imitates him. Then he will
amuse his protector with the cries of the ditferent
species of the woodpecker; and when the sheep
bleat, he will distinctly answer them. Then comes
his own song again; and if a puppy-dog, or a
Guinea-fowl interrupt him, he takes them off ad-
mirably, and by his different gestures during the
time, j^ou would conclude that he enjoj^s the sport.

The cassique is gregarious, and imitates any
sound he hears with such exactness, that he goes
by no other name than that of Mocking-bird
amongst the colonists.

At breeding time, a number of these pretty chor-
isters resort to a tree near the planter's house,
and from its outside branches weave their pen-
dulous nests. So conscious do they seem that they
never give offence, and so little suspicious are they
of recei\ang any injury from man, that they will
choose a tree within forty yards of his house, and
occupy the branches so low down, that he may
peep into the nests. A tree in Waratilla creek af-
fords a proof of this.

The proportions of the cassique are so fine, that
he may be said to be a model of s}inmetry in or-
nitholog;s^ 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.

ti^!?L.ei UVlNai>ToN e^OLU

The Cassique

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 147

His beak is the colour of sulphur, but it fades in
death, and requires the same operation as the bill
of the toucan to make' it keep its colours. Up the
rivers, in the interior, there is another cassique,
nearly the same size, and of the same habits,
though not gifted with its powers of imitation.
Except in breeding time you will see hundreds
of them retiring to roost, amongst the moca-
moca-trees and low shrubs on the banks of the
Demerara, after you pass the first island. They
are not common on the sea-coast. The rump
of this 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 num-
bers of this species weaving their pendu-
lous nests on one side of a tree, while numbers of
the other species are busy in forming theirs on
the other 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 morn-
ing, he generally repairs to a large tree, and there,
with his tail spread over his back, and shaking
his lowered wings, he produces notes, which
though they cannot be said to amount to a song,
still have something very sweet and pleasing in
them. He makes his nest in the same farm as the
other cassiques. It is above four feet long; and
when you pass under the tree, which often con-
tains fifty or sixty of them, you cannot help stop-
ping 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,

148 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

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 Deme-
rara, which always prefers the forests to the culti-
vated parts. Ilis 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 Deme-
rara 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 exam-
ple 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 la-
bour three or four hours at the tree before they
get to their food. The sound which the largest
kind makes in hammering against the barl^ of the
tree, is so loud, that you would never suppose it
to proceed from the efforts of a bird. You would
take it to be the woodman, with his axe, trying by
a sturdy blow, often repeated, whether the tree
were sound or not. There are fourteen species
here ; the largest the size of a magpie, the smallest
no bigger than the wren. They are all beautiful ;
and the greater part of them have their heads
ornamented with a fine crest, movable at pleasure.

It is said, if you once give a dog a bad name,
whether innocent or guilty, he never loses it. It

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 149

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 pro-
prietors of woods, in Europe, have long ac-
cused him of injuring their timber, by bor-
ing holes in it, and letting in the water,
which soon rots it. The colonists in Ajnerica
have the same complaint against him. Had he
the power of speech, which Ovid's birds possessed
in days of yore, he could soon make a defence.
''Mighty lord of the woods," he would say to man,
"why do you wrongfully accuse me? why do you
hunt me up and down to death for an imaginary
offence ? I have never spoiled a leaf of your prop-
erty, much less your wood. Your merciless shot
strikes me, at the very time I am doing you a serv-
ice. But your shortsightedness will not let you
see it, or your pride is above examining closely
the actions of so insignificant a little bird as I am.
If there be that spark of feeling in your breast
which they say man possesses, or ought to possess,
above all other animals, do a poor injured creature
a little kindness, and watch me in your woods only
for one day. I never wound your healthy trees.
I would perish for want in the attempt. The sound
bark would easily resist the force of my bill : and
were I even to pierce through it, there would be
nothing inside that I could fancy, or my stomach
digest. I often visit them, it is true, but a knock
or two convinces 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.

150 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

Wood and bark are not my food. I live entirely
upon the insects which have already formed a
lodgment in the distempered tree. When the sound
informs me that my prey is there, I labour for
hours together till I get at it ; and by consuming
it, for my own support, I prevent its further dep-
redations in that part. Thus I discover for you
your hidden and unsuspected foe, wliich 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 dis-
ease, 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 woodpecker ! ' '

In the rivers and different creeks, you number
six species of the Kingfisher. They make their
nest in a hole in the sand on the side of the bank
As there is always plenty of foliage to protect
them from the heat of the sun, they feed at all
hours of the day. Though their plumage is pret-
tily varied, still it falls far short of the brilliancy
displayed by the English kingfisher. This little
native of Britain would outweigh them altogether
in the scale of beauty.

A bird called Jacamar is ofteii taken for a 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
kingfisher, this may probably account for its being

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 151

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 jaca-
mar in Demerara; they are all beautiful; the
largest, rich and superb in the extreme. Its plu-
mage is of so fine a changing blue and golden
green, that it may be ranked with the choicest of
the humming-birds. Nature has denied it a song,
but given a costly garment in lieu of it The small-
est 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 per-
ceive stones in the ground.

When you have penetrated far into Macoushia,
you hear the pretty songster called Troupiale
pour forth a variety of sweet and plaintive notes.
This is the bird which the Portuguese call the
Nightingale of Guiana; its predominant colours
are rich orange and shining black, arrayed to
great advantage; his delicate and well-shaped
frame seems unable to bear captivity. The In-
dians sometimes bring down troupiales to Sta-
broek, but in a few months they languish and die
in a cage. They soon become very familiar ; and
if you allow them the liberty of the house, they
live longer than in a cage, and appear in better

152 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

spirits; but, when you least expect it, they drop
down and die in epilepsy.

Smaller in size, and of colour not so rich and
somewhat differently arranged, another species of
troupiale sings melodiously in Demerara. The
woodcutter is particularly favoured by him; for
while the hen is sitting on her nest, built in the
roof of the woodcutter's house, he sings for hours
together close by: he prefers the forests to the
cultivated parts.

You would not grudge to stop for a few min-
utes, as you are walking in the plantations, to ob-
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 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; Ms attempt at song is
not worth attending to.

Wlierever there is a wild fig-tree ripe, a numer-
ous species of birds, called Tangara, is sure to be
on it. There are eighteen beautiful species here.
Their plumage is very rich and diversified ; some
of them boast six separate colours; others have
the blue, purple, green, and black so kindly
blended into each other, that it would be impossi-
ble to mark their boundaries ; while others again
exhibit them strong, distinct, and abrupt: many
of these tangaras have a fine song. They seem to
partake much of the nature of our linnets, spar-
rows, and finches. Some of them are fond of the

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 153

plantations; others are never seen there, prefer-
ring the wild seeds of the forest to the choicest
fruits planted by the hand of man.

On the same fig-trees to which they repair, and
often accidentally up and down the forest, you
fall in with four species of Manikin. The largest
is white and black, with the feathers on the throat
remarkably long: the next in size is half red and
half black : the third, black, with a white crown :
the fourth, black, with a golden crown, and red
feathers at the knee. The half red and half black
species is the scarcest. There is a creek in the
Demerara called Camouni. About ten minutes
from the mouth, you see a common-sized fig-tree
on your right hand, as you ascend, hanging over
water; it bears a very small fig twice a year.
When its fruit is ripe, this manikin is on the tree
from morn till eve.

On all the ripe fig-trees in the forest you see
the bird called the small Tiger-bird. Like some of
our belles and dandies, it has a gaudy vest to veil
an ill-shaped body: the throat, and part of the
head, are a bright red ; the breast and belly have
black spots on a yellow ground; the wings are a
dark green, black, and white; and the rump and
tail black and green. Like the manikin, it has no
song: it depends solely upon a showy garment
for admiration.

Devoid, too, of song, and in a still superber
garb, the Yawaraciri comes to feed on the same
tree. It has a bar like black velvet from the eyes
to the beak; its legs are yellow; its throat, wings
and tail black ; all the rest of the body a charming
blue. Chiefly in the dry savannas, and here and

154 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

there accidentally in the forest, you see a songless
yawaraeiri still lovelier than the last : liis 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 individ-
uals of the wren species, busy amongst the fallen
leaves, or seeking insects at the roots of the trees.

Here, too, you find six or seven species of small
birds, whose backs appear to be overloaded with
silky plumage. One of these, with a chestnut
breast, smoke-coloured back, red tail, white
feathers like horns on his head, and white, nar-
row-pointed feathers under the jaw, feeds entirely
upon ants. When a nest of large, light brown
ants emigrates, one following the other in mean-
dering lines above a mile long, you see this bird
watching them, and every now and then picking
them up. When they disappear he is seen no
more: perhaps this is the only kind of ant he is
fond of; when these ants are stirring, you are
sure to find him near them. You cannot well mis-
take the ant after you have once been in its com-
pany, for its sting is very severe, and you can
hardly shoot the bird, and pick it up, without hav-
ing five or six upon you.

Parrots and Paroquets are very numerous here,
and of many different kinds. You will know when
they are near you in the forest, not only by the
noise they make, but also by the fruits and seeds
which they let fall while they are feeding.

The Hia-hia Parrot, called in England the Par-
rot of the Sun, is very remarkable: he can erect
at pleasure a fine radiated circle of tartan feathers

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 155

quite round the back of his head from jaw to jaw.
The fore-part of his head is white ; his back, tail,
and wings, green ; and his breast and belly tartan.

Superior in size and beauty to every parrot of
South America, the Ara will force you to take
3"our eyes from the rest of animated nature, and
gaze at him : his commanding strength, the flaming
scarlet of his body, the lovely variety of red, yel-
low, blue and green in his wings, the extraordi-
nary length of his scarlet and blue tail, seem all to
join and demand for him the title of ''emperor of
all the parrots." He is scarce in Demerara till
3^ou reach the confines of the Macoushi country;
there he is in vast abundance ; he mostly feeds on
trees of the palm species. Wlien the coucourite-
trees have ripe fruit on them, they are covered
with this magnificent parrot: he is not shy or
wary ; you may take your blow-pipe and quiver of
poisoned arrows, and kill more than you are able
to carry back to your hut. They are very vocifer-
ous, and like the common parrots, rise up in bodies
towards sunset, and fly two and two to their place
of rest. It is a grand sight in ornithology to see
thousands of aras flying over your head, low
enough to let you have a full view of their flaming
mantle. The Indians find their flesh very good,
and the feathers serve for ornaments in their
head-dresses. They breed in the holes of trees,
are easily reared and tamed, and learn to speak
pretty distinctly.

Another species frequents the low lands of Dem-
erara. He is nearly the size of the scarlet ara, but
much inferior in plumage. Blue and yellow are
his predominant colours.

156 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

Along the creeks and river sides, and in the wet
savannas, six species of the Bittern will engage
your attention. They are all handsome. The
smallest not so large as the English water-hen.

In the savannas, too, you will sometimes sur-
prise the snow-white Egrette, whose back is
adorned with the plumes from which it takes its
name. Here too the spur-winged Water-hen, the
blue and green Water-hen, and two other species
of ordinary plumage, are found. While in quest
of these, the Blue Heron, the large and small
Brown Heron, the Boat-bill, and Muscovy Duck,
now and then rise up before you.

When the sun has sunk in the western woods,
no longer agitated by the breeze; when you can
only see a straggler or two of the feathered tribe
hastening to join its mate, already at its roosting-
place, then it is that the Goatsucker comes out of
the forest, where it has sat all day long in slum-
bering ease, unmindful of the gay and busy scenes
around it. Its eyes are too delicately formed to
bear the light, and thus it is forced to shun the
flaming face of day, and wait in patience till night
invites him to partake of the pleasures her dusky
presence brings.

The harmless, unoffending goatsucker, from the
time of Aristotle down to the present day, has
been in disgrace with man. Father has handed
down to son, and author to author that this noc-
turnal thief subsists by milking the flocks. Poor
injured little bird of night, how sadly hast thou
suffered, and how foul a stain has inattention to
facts put upon thy character! Thou hast never

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 157

robbed man of any part of his property, nor de-
prived the kid of a drop of milk.

When the moon shines bright, you may have a
fair opportunity of examining the goatsucker.
You will see it close by the cows, goats, and sheep,
jumping up every now and then, under their
bellies. Approach a little nearer, — he is not shy,
*'he fears no danger, for he knows no sin." See
how the nocturnal flies are tormenting the herd,
and with what dexterity he springs up and catches
them, as fast as they alight on the belly, legs, and
udder of the animals. Observe how quiet they
stand, and how sensible they seem of his good
oflBces, for they neither strike at him, nor hit him
with their tail, nor tread on him, nor try to drive
him away as an uncivil intruder. Were you to
dissect him, and inspect his stomach, you would
find no milk there. It is full of the flies which
have been annoying the herd.

The prettily mottled plumage of the goatsucker,
like that of the owl, wants the lustre which is ob-
served in the feathers of the birds of day. This
at once marks him as a lover of the pale moon's
nightly beams. There are nine species here. The
largest appears nearly the size of the English
wood-owl. Its cry is so remarkable, that having
once heard it you will never forget it. When night
reigns over these immeasurable wilds, whilst lying
in your hammock, you will hear this goatsucker
lamenting like one in deep distress. A stranger
would never conceive it to be the cry of a bird.
He would say it was the departing voice of a mid-
night-murdered victim, or the last wailing of Ni-
obe for her poor children, before she was turned

158 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

into stone. Suppose yourself in hopeless sorrow,
begin with a high loud note, and pronounce, "ha,
ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ' ' each note lower and lower,
till the last is scarcely heard, pausing a moment
or two betwixt every note, and you will have
some idea of the moaning of the largest goat-
sucker in Demerara.

Four other species of the goatsucker articulate
some words so distinctly, that they have received
their names from the sentences they utter, and
absolutely bewilder the stranger on his arrival in
these parts. The most common one sits down close
by your door, and flies and alights three or four
yards before you, as you walk along the road,
crying, "A¥lio-are-you, who-who-who-are-you?"
Another bids you, "Work-away, work- work- work-
away." A third cries, mournfully, "Willy-come-
go. Willy- Willy- Willy-come-go. ' ' And high up in
the country, a fourth tells you to "Whip-poor-
Will. Whip-whip-whip-poor- Will. ' '

You will never persuade the negro to destroy
these birds or get the Indian to let fly his arrow
at them. They are birds of omen and reverential
dread. Jumbo, the demon of Africa, has them
under his command; and they equally obey the
Yabahou, or Demerara Indian Devil. They are
the receptacles for departed souls, who come back
again to earth, unable to rest for crimes done in
their days of nature; or they are expressly sent
by Jumbo, or Yabahou, to haunt cruel and hard-
hearted masters, and retaliate injuries received
from them. If the largest goatsucker chance to
cry near the white man's door, sorrow and grief
will soon be inside; and they expect to see

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 159

the master waste away with a slow-consuming
sickness. If it be heard close to the negro's or
Indian's hut, from that night misfortune sits
brooding over it ; and they await the event in ter-
rible suspense.

You will forgive the poor Indian of Guiana for
this. He knows no better ; he has nobody to teach
him. But shame it is, that in our own civilized
country, the black cat and broomstaff should be
considered as conductors to and from the regions
of departed spirits.

Many years ago I knew poor harmless Mary;
old age had marked her strongly, just as he will
mark you and me, should we arrive at her years
and carry the weiglit of grief which bent her dou-
ble. The old men of the village said she had been
very pretty in her youth; and nothing could be
seen more comely than Mary when she danced on
the green. He who had gained her heart, left her
for another, less fair, though richer than Mary.
From that time she became sad and pensive ; the
rose left her cheek, and she was never more seen
to dance round the May-pole on the green: her
expectations were blighted; she became quite in-
different to everything around her, and seemed to
think of nothing but how she could best attend
her mother, who was lame, and not long for this
life. Her mother had begged a black kitten from
some boys who were going to drown it, and in her
last illness she told Mary to be kind to it for her
sake.

When age and want had destroyed the sym-
metry of Mary's fine form, the village began to
consider her as one who had dealings with spirits ;

160 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

her cat confirmed the suspicion. If a cow died, or
a ^dllager wasted away with an unknown com-
plaint, Mary and her cat had it to answer for.
Her broom sometimes served her for a walking-
stick; and if ever she supported her tottering
frame with it as far as the May-pole, where once,
in youthful bloom and beauty, she had attracted
the eyes of all, the boys would surround her, and
make sport of her, while her cat had neither friend
nor safety beyond the cottage wall. Nobody con-
sidered it cruel or uncharitable to torment a
witch ; and it is probable, long before this, that
cruelty, old age, and want, have worn her out, and
that both poor Mary and her cat have ceased to be.
Would you wish to pursue the different species
of game, well stored and boundless is your range
in Demerara. Here no one dogs you, and after-
wards clandestinely inquires if you have a hun-
dred a year in land to entitle you to enjoy such
patrician sport. Here no saucy intruder asks if
you have taken out a licence, by virtue of which
you are allowed to kill birds which have bred upon
your own property. Here

"You are as free as when God first made man,
Ere the vile laws of servitude began,
And wild in woods the noble savage ran."

Before the morning's dawn you hear a noise in
the forest, which sounds like "duraquaura" often
repeated. This is the Partridge, a little smaller,
and differing somewhat in colour from the English
partridge ; it lives entirely in the forest, and prob-
ably the young brood very soon leave their par-
ents, as you never flush more than two birds in the
same place, and in general only one.

^rWK: I- •• I iVjh'. '. i,

Trumpeter walking with liis Master

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 161

About the same hour, and sometimes even at
midnight, you hear two species of Maam, or Tin-
amou, send forth their long and plaintive whistle
from the depth of the forest. The flesh of both is
delicious. The largest is plumper, and almost
equals in size the black cock of Northumberland.
The quail is said to be here, though rare.

The Hannaquoi, which some have compared to
the pheasant, though with little reason, is very-
common.

Here are also two species of the Powise, or
Hocco, and two of the small wild turkeys called
Maroudi; they feed on the ripe fruits of the for-
est, and are found in all directions in these exten-
sive wilds. You will admire the Horned Screamer
as a stately and majestic bird: he is almost the
size of the turkey cock; on his head is a long
slender horn, and each wing is armed with a
strong, sharp, triangular spur, an inch long.

Sometimes you will fall in with flocks of two or
three hundred Waracabas, or Trumpeters, called
so from the singular noise they produce. Their
breast is adorned with beautiful changing blue
and purple feathers; their head and neck like
velvet; their wings and back grey, and belly
black. They run with great swiftness, and when
domesticated, attend their master in his walks
with as much apparent affection as his dog. They
have no spurs, but still, such is their high spirit
and activity, that they browbeat every dunghill
fowl in the yard, and force the Guinea birds, dogs
and turkeys to own their superiority.

If, kind and gentle reader, thou shouldst ever
visit these regions with an intention to examine
11

162 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

their productions, perhaps the few observations
contained in these Wanderings may be of service
to thee; excuse their brevity: more could have
been written, and each bird more particularly de-
scribed, but it would have been pressing too hard
upon thy time and patience.

Soon after arriving in these parts, thou wilt find
that the species here enumerated are only as a
handful from a well-stored granary. Nothing has
been said of the Eagles, the Falcons, the Hawks,
and Shrikes; nothing of the different species of
Vultures, the king of which is very handsome, and
seems to be the only bird which claims regal hon-
ours from a surrounding tribe. It is a fact beyond
all dispute, that when the scent of carrion has
drawn together hundreds of the common vultures,
they all retire from the carcass as soon as the
King of the Vultures makes his appearance.
When his majesty has satisfied the cravings of his
royal stomach with the choicest bits from the most
stinking and corrupted parts, he generally retires
to a neighbouring tree, and then the common vul-
tures return in crowds to gobble down his leav-
ings. The Indians, as well as the whites, have
observed this; for when one of them, who has
learned a little English, sees the king, and wishes
you to have a proper notion of the bird, he says,
* ' There is the governor of the carrion crows. ' '

Now, the Indians have never heard of a per-
sonage in Demerara higher than that of governor ;
and the colonists, through a common mistake, call
the vultures carrion crows. Hence, the Indian,
in order to express the dominion of this bird over
the common vultures, tells you he is governor

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 163

of the carrion crows. The Spaniards have also
observed it ; for, through all the Spanish Main, he
is called Eey de Zamuros, King of the Vultures.
The many species of Owls, too, have not been no-
ticed; and no mention made of the Columbine
tribe. The prodigious variety of Water Fowl on
the sea-shore has been but barely hinted at.

There, and on the borders and surface of the
inland waters, in the marshes and creeks, besides
the flamingos, scarlet curlews, and spoonbills, al-
ready mentioned, will be found Greenish-Brown
Curlews, Sandpipers, Rails, Coots, Gulls, Peli-
cans, Jabirus, Nandapoas, Crabiers, Snipes, Plov-
ers, Ducks, Geese, Cranes, and Anhingas; most
of them in vast abundance ; some frequenting only
the sea-coast, others only the interior, according
to their different natures ; all worthy the attention
of the naturalist, all worthy of a place in the cab-
inet of the curious.

Should thy comprehensive genius not confine
itself to birds alone, grand is the appearance of
other objects all around. Thou art in a land rich
in botany and mineralogy, rich in zoology and
entomology. Animation will glow in thy looks,
and exercise will brace thy frame in vigour. The
very time of thy absence from the tables of hetero-
geneous luxury will be profitable to thy stomach,
perhaps already sorely drenched with Londo-
Parisian sauces, and a new stock of health will
bring thee an appetite to relish the wholesome
food of the chase; never-failing sleep will wait
on thee at the time she comes to soothe the rest of
animated nature; and, ere the sun's rays appear
in the horizon, thou wilt spring from thy ham-

164 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

mock fresh as tlie April lark. Be convinced also,
that the dangers and difficulties which are gener-
ally supposed to accompany the traveller in his
journey through distant regions, are not half so
numerous or dreadful as they arQ commonly
thought to be.

The youth who incautiously reels into the lobby
of Drury-lane, after leaving the table sacred to
the god of wine, is exposed to more certain ruin,
sickness and decay, than he who wanders a whole
year in the wilds of Demerara. But this will
never be believed; because the disasters arising
from dissipation are so common and frequent in
civilized life, that man becomes quite habituated
to them ; and sees daily victims sink into the tomb
long before their time, without ever once taking
alarm at the causes which precipitated them head-
long into it.

But the dangers which a traveller exposes him-
self to in foreign parts are novel, out of the way
things to a man at home. The remotest apprehen-
sion of meeting a tremendous tiger, of being car-
ried off by a flying dragon, or having his bones
picked by a famished cannibal; oh, that makes
him shudder. It sounds in his ears like the burst-
ing of a bomb- shell. Thank Heaven, he is safe by
his own fire-side !

Prudence and resolution ought to be the trav-
eller's constant companions. The first will cause
him to avoid a number of snares which he
will find in the path as he journeys on; and the
second will always lend a hand to assist him, if
he has unavoidably got entangled in them. The
little distinctions which have been shown him at

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 165

his own home ought to be forgotten when he
travels over the world at large; for strangers
know nothing of his former merits, and it is nec-
essary that they should witness them before they
pay him the tribute which he was wont to receive
within his own doors. Thus, to be kind and affa-
ble to those we meet, to mix in their amusements,
to pay a compliment or two to their manners and
customs, to respect their elders, to give a little to
their distressed or needy, and to feel, as it were,
at home amongst them, is the sure way to enable
you to pass merrily on, and to find other comforts
as sweet and palatable as those which you were
accustomed to partake of amongst your friends
and acquaintance in your own native land.

We will now ascend in fancy on Icarian wing,
and take a view of Guiana in general. See an im-
mense plain! betwixt two of the largest rivers
in the world, level as a bowling-green, save at
Cayenne, and covered with trees along the coast
quite to the Atlantic wave, except where the plan-
tations make a little vacancy amongst the foliage.

Though nearly in the centre of the torrid zone,
the sun's rays are not so intolerable as might be
imagined, on account of the perpetual verdure
and refreshing north-east breeze. See what num-
bers of broad and rapid rivers intersect it in their
journey to the ocean, and that not a stone or a
pebble is to be found on their banks, or in any
part of the country, till your eye catches the hills
in the interior. How beautiful and magnificent
are the lakes in the heart of the forests, and how
charming the forests themselves, for miles after
miles on each side of the rivers! How extensive

166 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

appear the savannas or natural meadows, teeming
with innumerable herds of cattle, where the Por-
tuguese and Spaniards are settled, but desert as
Saara, where the English and Dutch claim domin-
ion ! How gradually the face of the country rises !
See the sand-hills all clothed in wood first emerg-
ing from the level, then hills a little higher, rugged
with bold and craggy rocks, peeping out from
amongst the most luxuriant timber. Then come
plains, and dells, and far-extending valleys, ar-
rayed in richest foliage ; and beyond them, moun-
tains piled on mountains, some bearing prodigious
forests, others of bleak and barren aspect. Thus
your eye wanders on, over scenes of varied loveli-
ness and grandeur, till it rests on the stupendous
pinnacles of the long-continued Cordilleras de los
Andes, which rise in towering majesty and com-
mand all America.

How fertile must the low-lands be, from the
accumulation of fallen leaves and trees for cen-
turies! How propitious the swamps and slimy
beds of the rivers, heated by a downward sun, to
the amazing growth of alligators, serpents, and
innumerable insects! How inviting the forests
to the feathered tribes, where you see buds, blos-
soms, green and ripe fruit, full grown and fading
leaves, all on the same tree ! How secure the wild
beasts may rove in endless mazes ! Perhaps those
mountains too, which appear so bleak and naked,
as if quite neglected, are, like Potosi, full of pre-
cious metals.

Let us now return the pinions we borrowed
from Icarus, and prepare to bid farewell to the
wilds. The time allotted to these Wanderings is

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 167

drawing fast to a close. Every day for the last
six montlis has been employed in paying close
attention to natural history in the forests of Dem-
erara. Above two hundred specimens of the finest
birds have been collected, and a pretty just knowl-
edge formed of their haunts and economy. From
the time of leaving England, in March, 1816, to
the present day, nothing has intervened to arrest
a fine flow of health, saving a quartan ague, which
did not tarry, but fled as suddenly as it appeared.
And now I take leave of thee, kind and gentle
reader. The new mode of preserving birds, here-
tofore promised thee, shall not be forgotten. The
plan is already formed in imagination, and can be
penned down during the passage across the At-
lantic. If the few remarks in these Wanderings
shall have any weight in inciting thee to sally
forth and explore the vast and well- stored regions
of Demerara, I have gained my end. Adieu.

Charles Waterton.

April 6, 1817.

THIRD JOURNEY

CHAPTER I

"Desertosque videre locos, littusque relictura. "

Gentle reader, after staying a few months in
England, I strayed across the Alps and the Ap-
penines, and returned home, but could not tarry.
Guiana still whispered in my ear, and seemed to
invite me once more to wander through her dis-
tant forests.

Shouldst thou have a leisure hour to read what
follows, I pray thee pardon the frequent use of
that unwelcome monosyllable /. It could not well
be avoided, as will be seen in the sequel. In Feb-
ruary, 1820, I sailed from the Clyde on board the
Glenbervie, a fine West-Indiaman. She was driven
to the north-west of Ireland, and had to contend
with a foul and wintry wind for above a fortnight.
At last it changed, and we had a pleasant passage
across the Atlantic.

Sad and mournful was the story we heard on
entering the river Demerara. The yellow fever
had swept off numbers of the old inhabitants, and
the mortal remains of many a new comer were
daily passing down the streets, in slow and mute
procession to their last resting-place.

After staying a few days in the town, I went up
the Demerara to the former habitation of my
worthy friend, Mr. Edmonstone, in Mibiri creek.

168

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 169

The house had been abandoned for some years.
On arriving at the hill, the remembrance of scenes
long past and gone naturally broke in upon the
mind. All was changed ; the house was in ruins,
and gradually sinking under the influence of the
sun and rain ; the roof had nearly fallen in ; and
the room where once governors and generals had
caroused, was now dismantled, and tenanted by
the vampire. You would have said,

** 'Tia now the vampire's bleak abode,
'Tis now the apartment of the toad;
'Tia here the painful Chegoe feeds,
'Tis here the dire Labarri breeds,
Conceal 'd in ruins, moss, and weeds."

On the outside of the house, nature had nearly
reassumed her ancient right: a few straggling
fruit-trees were still discernible amid the varied
hue of the near approaching forest ; they seemed
like strangers lost, and bewildered, and unpitied,
in a foreign land, destined to linger a little longer,
and then sink down for ever.

I hired some negroes from a woodcutter in an-
other creek to repair the roof; and then the
house, or at least what remained of it, became
head-quarters for natural history. The frogs, and
here and there a snake, received that attention
which the weak in this world generally experience
from the strong, and which the law commonly de-
nominates an ejectment. But here, neither the
frogs nor serpents were ill-treated; they sallied
forth, without buffet or rebuke, to choose their
place of residence ; the world was all before them.
The owls went away of their own accord, prefer-

170 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AIMERICA

ing to retire to a hollow tree rather than to asso-
ciate with their new landlord. The bats and
vampires stayed with me, and went in and out as
usual.

It was upon this hill in former days that I first
tried to teach John, the black slave of my friend
Mr. Edmonstone, the proper way to do birds.
But John had poor abilities, and it required much
time and patience to drive anything into him.
Some years after this his master took him to Scot-
land, where, becoming free, John left him, and
got employed in the Glasgow, and then the Edin-
burgh museum. Mr. Eobert Edmonstone, nephew
to the above gentleman, had a fine mulatto capa-
ble of learning anything. He requested me to
teach him the art. I did so. He was docile and
active, and was with me all the time in the forest ;
I left him there to keep up this new art of preserv-
ing birds, and to communicate it to others. Here
then I fixed my head quarters, in the ruins of this
once gay and hospitable house. Close by, in a
little hut, which in times long past had served
for a store to keep provisions in, there lived a
coloured man and his wife, by name Backer.
Many a kind turn they did to me ; and I was more
than once of service to them and their children,
by bringing to their relief in time of sickness
what little knowledge I had acquired of medicine.

I would here, gentle reader, wish to draw thy
attention, for a few minutes, to physic, raiment,
and diet. Shouldst thou ever wander through
these remote and dreary wilds, forget not to carry
with thee bark, laudanum, calomel, and jalap, and
the lancet. There are no druggist shops here,

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 171

nor sons of Galen to apply to in time of need. I
never go encumbered with many clothes. A thin
flannel waistcoat under a check shirt, a pair of
trousers, and a hat, were all my wardrobe; shoes
and stockings I seldom had on. In dry weather
they would have irritated the feet, and retarded
me in the chase of wild beasts; and in the rainy
season they would have kept me in a perpetual
state of damp and moisture. I eat moderately,
and never drink wine, spirits, or fermented
liquors in any climate. This abstemiousness has
ever proved a faithful friend; it carried me
triumphant through the epidemia at Malaga,
where death made such havoc about the begin-
ning of the present century; and it has since
befriended me in many a fit of sickness, brought
on by exposure to the noon-day sun, to the dews
of night, to the pelting shower and unwholesome
food.

Perhaps it will be as well, here, to mention a
fever which came on, and the treatment of it; it
may possibly be of use to thee, shouldst thou turn
wanderer in the tropics : a word or two also of a
wound I got in the forest, and then we will say
no more of the little accidents which sometimes
occur, and attend solely to natural history. We
shall have an opportunity of seeing the wild ani-
mals in their native haunts, undisturbed and un-
broken in upon by man. We shall have time and
leisure to look more closely at them, and probably
rectify some errors which, for want of proper
information or a near observance, have crept into
their several histories.

It was in the month of June, when the sun was

172 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH A^IERICA

within a few days of Cancer, that I had a severe
attack of fever. There had been a deluge of rain,
accompanied with tremendoiis thunder and light-
ning, and very little sun. Nothing could exceed
the dampness of the atmosphere. For two or
three days I had been in a kind of twilight state
of health, neither ill nor what you may call well ;
I yawned and felt weary without exercise, and my
sleep was merely slumber. This was the time to
have taken medicine; but I neglected to do so,
though I had just been reading, ''0 navis referent
in mare te novi fluctus, 0 quid agis? fortiter
occupa portum." I awoke at midnight; a cruel
headache, thirst, and pain in the small of the
back, informed me what the case was. Had
Chiron himself been present, he could not have
told me more distinctly that I was going to have
a tight brush of it, and that I ought to meet it
with becoming fortitude. I dozed, and woke, and
startled, and then dozed again, and suddenly
awoke, thinking I was falling down a precipice.

The return of the bats to their diurnal retreat,
which was in the thatch above my hammock, in-
formed me that the sun was now fast approach-
ing to the eastern horizon. I arose, in languor
and in pain, the pulse at one hundred and twenty.
I took ten grains of calomel and a scruple of
jalap, and drank during the day large draughts
of tea, weak and warm. The physic did its duty ;
but there was no remission of fever or headache,
though the pain of the back was less acute, I
was saved the trouble of keeping the room cool,
as the wind beat in at every quarter.

At five in the evening the pulse had risen to one

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 173

hundred and thirty, and the headache almost in-
supportable, especially on looking to the right or
left. I now opened a vein, and made a large
orifice, to allow the blood to rush out rapidly; I
closed it after losing sixteen ounces. I then
steeped my feet in warm water, and got into the
hammock. After bleeding, the pulse fell to ninety,
and the head was much relieved; but during the
night, which was very restless, the pulse rose
again to one hundred and twenty, and at times
the headache was distressing. I relieved the
headache from time to time by applying cold
water to the temples, and holding a wet hand-
kerchief there. The next morning the fever ran
very high, and I took five more grains of calomel
and ten of jalap, determined, whatever might be
the case, this should be the last dose of calomel.
About two o'clock in the afternoon the fever re-
mitted, and a copious perspiration came on ; there
was no more headache, nor thirst, nor pain in the
back, and the following night was comparatively
a good one. The next morning I swallowed a
large dose of castor oil : it was genuine, for Louisa
Backer had made it from the seeds of the trees
which grew near the door. I was now entirely
free from all symptoms of fever, or apprehensions
of a return; and the morning after I began to
take bark, and continued it for a fortnight. This
put all to rights.

The story of the wound I got in the forest, and
the mode of cure, are very short. — I had pursued
a red-headed woodpecker for above a mile in the
forest, without being able to get a shot at it.
Thinking more of the woodpecker, as I ran along,

174 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

than of the way before me, I trod upon a little
hardwood stump, which was just about an inch
or so above the ground ; it entered the hollow part
of my foot, making a deep and lacerated wound
there. It had brought me to the ground, and
there I lay till a transitory fit of sickness went
off. I allowed it to bleed freely, and on reaching
head-quarters, washed it well and probed it, to
feel if any foreign body was left within it. Being
satisfied that there was none, I brought the edges
of the wound together, and then put a piece of lint
on it, and over that a very large poultice, which
was changed morning, noon, and night. Luckily,
Backer had a cow or two upon the hill: now as
heat and moisture are the two principal virtues
of a poultice, nothing could produce those two
qualities better than fresh cow-dung boiled: had
there been no cows there, I could have made it
with boiled grass and leaves. I now took entirely
to the hammock, placing the foot higher than the
knee; this prevented it from throbbing, and was,
indeed, the only position in which I could be at
ease. When the inflammation was completely
subdued, I applied a wet cloth to the wound, and
every now and then steeped the foot in cold
water during the day, and at night again applied
a poultice. The wound was now healing fast,
and in three weeks from the time of the accident,
nothing but a scar remained; so that I again
sallied forth sound and joyful, and said to my-
self—

"I, pedes, quo te rapiunt et auras
Dum favet sol, et locus, i secundo
Omine, et conto latebras, ut olim,

Eumpe f erarum. ' *

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 175

Now, this contus was a tough, light pole, eight
feet long, on the end of which was fixed an old
bayonet. I never went into the canoe without it ;
it was of great use in starting tlie beasts and
snakes out of the hollow trees, and, in case of
need, was an excellent defence.

In 1819, I had the last conversation with Sir
Joseph Banks. I saw with sorrow that death was
going to rob us of him. We talked much of the
present mode adopted by all museums in stuffing
quadrupeds, and condemned it as being very im-
perfect: still we could not find out a better way;
and at last concluded, that the lips and nose ought
to be cut off, and replaced with wax; it being im-
possible to make those parts appear like life, as
they shrink to nothing, and render the stuffed
specimens in the different museums horrible to
look at. The defects in the legs and feet would
not be quite so glaring, being covered with hair.

I had paid great attention to this subject for
above fourteen years ; still it would not do ; how-
ever, one night while I was lying in the hammock,
and harping on the string on which hung all my
solicitude, I hit upon the proper mode by in-
ference; it appeared clear to me that it was the
only true way of going to work, and ere I closed
my eyes in sleep, I was able to prove to myself
that there could not be any other way that would
answer. I tried it the next day, and succeeded
according to expectation.

By means of this process, which is very simple,
we can now give every feature back again to the
animal's face, after it has been skinned; and
when necessary, stamp grief, or pain, or pleasure,

176 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

or rage, or mildness upon it. But more of this
hereafter.

Let us now turn our attention to the Sloth,
whose native haunts have hitherto been so little
known, and probably little looked into. Those
who have written on this singular animal, have
remarked that he is in a perpetual state of pain,
that he is proverbially slow in his movements,
that he is a prisoner in space, and that as soon
as he has consumed all the leaves of the tree upon
which he had mounted, he rolls himself up in the
form of a ball, and then falls to the ground. This
is not the case.

If the naturalists who have written the history
of the sloth had gone into the wilds, in order to
examine his haunts and economy, they would not
have drawn the foregoing conclusions ; they would
have learned, that though all other quadrupeds
may be described while resting upon the ground,
the sloth is an exception to this rule, and that
his history must be written while he is in the tree.

This singular animal is destined by nature to
be produced, to live and to die in the trees; and
to do justice to him, naturalists must examine him
in this his upper element. He is a scarce and
solitary animal, and being good food, he is never
allowed to escape. He inhabits remote and
gloomy forests, where snakes take up their abode,
and where cruelly stinging ants and scorpions,
and swamps, and innumerable thorny shrubs and
bushes, obstruct the steps of civilized man. Were
you to draw your own conclusions from the de-
scriptions which have been given of the sloth,
you would probably suspect, that no naturalist

/Aij^ /ill I
The Sloth

<ErtS£L£.ti . ihWfcif eci iiifiL

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 177

has actually gone into the wilds with the fixed
determination to find him out and examine his
haunts and see whether nature has committed any
blunder in the formation of this extraordinary
creature, which appears to us so forlorn and
miserable, so ill put together, and so totally unfit
to enjoy the blessings which have been so boun-
tifully given to the rest of animated nature; for,
as it has formerly been remarked, he has no soles
to his feet, and he is evidently ill at ease when he
tries to move on the ground, and it is then that he
looks up in your face with a countenance that
says, "Have pity on me, for I am in pain and
sorrow."

It mostly happens that Indians and Negroes
are the people who catch the sloth, and bring it
to the white man: hence it may be conjectured
that the erroneous accounts we have hitherto had
of the sloth, have not been penned down with the
slightest intention to mislead the reader, or give
him an exaggerated history, but that these errors
have naturally arisen by examining the sloth in
those places where nature never intended that he
should be exhibited.

However, we are now in his own domain. Man
but little frequents these thick and noble forests,
which extend far and wide on every side of us.
This, then, is the proper place to go in quest of
the sloth. We will first take a near view of him.
By obtaining a knowledge of his anatomy, we
shall be enabled to account for his movements
hereafter, when we see him in his proper haunts.
His fore-legs, or, more correctly speaking, his
arms, are apparently much too long, while his

12

178 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

hind-legs are very sliort, and look as if they
could be bent almost to the shape of a corkscrew.
Both the fore and hind legs, by their form, and
by the manner in which they are joined to the
body, are quite incapacitated from acting in a
perpendicular direction, or in supporting it on
the earth, as the bodies of other quadrupeds are
supported, by their legs. Hence, when you place
him on the floor, his belly touches the ground.
Now, granted that he supported himself on his
legs like other animals, nevertheless he would be
in pain, for he has no soles to his feet, and his
claws are very sharp and long, and curved; so
that, were his body supported by his feet it would
be by their extremities, just as your body would
be, were you to throw yourself on all fours, and
try to support it on the ends of your toes and
fingers — a trying position. Were the floor of
glass, or of a polished surface, the sloth would
actually be quite stationary ; but as the ground is
generally rough, with little protuberances upon
it, such as stones, or roots of grass, &c., this just
suits the sloth, and he moves his fore-legs in all
directions, in order to find something to lay hold
of; and when he has succeeded, he pulls himself
forward, and is thus enabled to travel onwards,
but at the same time in so tardy and awkward a
manner, as to acquire him the name of Sloth.

Indeed his looks and his gestures evidently
betray his uncomfortable situation ; and as a sigh
every now and then escapes him, we may be en-
titled to conclude that he is actually in pain.

Some years ago I kept a sloth in my room for
several months. I often took him out of the house

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 179

and placed him upon the ground, in order to have
an opportunity of observing his motions. If the
ground were rough, he would pull himself for-
wards, by means of his fore-legs, at a pretty good
pace; and he invariably immediately shaped his
course towards the nearest tree. But if I put him
upon a smooth and well-trodden part of the road,
he appeared to be in trouble and distress: his
favourite abode was the back of a chair : and after
getting all his legs in a line upon the topmost
part of it, he would hang there for hours together,
and often with a low and inward cry, would seem
to invite me to take notice of him.

The sloth, in its wild state, spends its whole
life in trees, and never leaves them but through
force or by accident. An all-ruling Providence has
ordered man to tread on the surface of the earth,
the eagle to soar in the expanse of the skies,
and the monkey and squirrel to inhabit the
trees : still these may change their relative situa-
tions without feeling much inconvenience : but the
sloth is doomed to spend his whole life in the
trees; and, what is more extraordinary, not upon
the branches, like the squirrel and the monkey,
but under them. He moves suspended from the
branch, he rests suspended from it, and he sleeps
suspended from it. To enable him to do this, he
must have a very different formation from that
of any other known quadruped.

Hence his seemingly bungled conformation is
at once accounted for; and in lieu of the sloth
leading a painful life and entailing a melancholy
and miserable existence on its progeny, it is but
fair to surmise that it just enjoys life as much

180 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

as any other animal, and that its extraordinary
formation and singular habits are but further
proofs to engage us to admire the wonderful
works of Omnipotence.

It must be observed, that the sloth does not
hang head-downwards like the vampire. When
asleep, he supports himself from a branch parallel
to the earth. He first seizes the branch with one
arm, and then with the other; and after that,
brings up both his legs, one by one, to the same
branch; so that all four are in a line: he seems
perfectly at rest in this position. Now, had he a
tail, he would be at a loss to know what to do with
it in this position: were he to draw it up within
his legs, it would interfere with them; and were
he to let it hang down, it would become the sport
of the winds. Thus his deficiency of tail is a
benefit to him ; it is merely an apology for a tail,
scarcely exceeding an inch and a half in length.

I observed, when he was climbing, he never
used his arms both together, but first one and
then the other, and so on alternately. There is a
singularity in his hair, different from that of all
other animals, and, I believe, hitherto unnoticed
by naturalists ; his hair is thick and coarse at the
extremity, and gradually tapers to the root,
where it becomes fine as a spider's web. His fur
has so much the hue of the moss which grows on
the branches of the trees, that it is very difficult
to make him out when he is at rest.

The male of the three-toed sloth has a longi-
tudinal bar of very fine black hair on his back,
rather lower than the shoulder-blades; on each
side of this black bar there is a space of yellow

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 181

hair, equally fine ; it has the appearance of being
pressed into the body, and looks exactly as if it had
been singed. If we examine the anatomy of his
fore-legs, we shall immediately perceive by their
firm and muscular texture, how very capable they
are of supporting the pendent weight of his body,
both in climbing and at rest; and, instead of
pronouncing them a bungled composition, as a
celebrated naturalist has done, we shall consider
them as remarkably well calculated to perform
their extraordinary functions.

As the sloth is an inhabitant of forests within
the tropics, where the trees touch each other in
the greatest profusion, there seems to be no rea-
son why he should confine himself to one tree
alone for food, and entirely strip it of its leaves.
During the many years I have ranged the forests,
I have never seen a tree in such a state of nudity ;
indeed, I would hazard a conjecture, that, by the
time the animal had finished the last of the old
leaves, there would be a new crop on the part of
the tree he had stripped first, ready for him to be-
gin again, so quick is the process of vegetation
in these countries.

There is a saying amongst the Indians, that
when the wind blows, the sloth begins to travel.
In calm weather he remains tranquil, probably
not liking to cling to the brittle extremity of the
branches, lest they should break with him in pass-
ing from one tree to another; but as soon as the
wind rises, the branches of the neighbouring
trees become interwoven, and then the sloth seizes
hold of them, and pursues his journey in safety.
There is seldom an entire day of calm in these

182 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

forests. The trade-wind generally sets in about
ten o'clock in the morning, and thus the sloth
may set off after breakfast, and get a considerable
way before dinner. He travels at a good round
pace; and were you to see him pass from tree to
tree, as I have done, you would never think of call-
ing him a sloth.

Thus, it would appear that the different his-
tories we have of this quadruped are erroneous
on two accounts: first, that the writers of them,
deterred by difficulties and local annoyances, have
not paid sufficient attention to him in his native
haunts; and secondly, they have described him
in a situation in which he was never intended by
nature to cut a figure; I mean on the ground.
The sloth is as much at a loss to proceed on his
journey upon a smooth and level floor, as a man
would be who had to walk a mile in stilts upon a
line of feather beds.

One day, as we were crossing the Essequibo, I
saw a large two-toed sloth on the ground upon the
bank ; how he had got there nobody could tell :
the Indian said he had never surprised a sloth
in such a situation before : he would hardly have
come there to drink, for both above and below the
place, the branches of the trees touched the water,
and afforded him an easy and safe access to it.
Be this as it may, though the trees were not above
twenty yards from him, he could not make his way
through the sand in time enough to escape before
we landed. As soon as we got up to him he threw
himself upon his back, and defended himself in
gallant style with his fore-legs. ''Come, poor
fellow," said I to him, "if thou hast got into a

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 183

hobble to-day, thou shalt not suffer for it : I'll take
no advantage of thee in misfortune; the forest
is large enough both for thee and me to rove in:
go thy ways up above, and enjoy thyself in these
endless wilds; it is more than probable thou wilt
never have another interview with man. So fare
thee well." On saying this, I took a long stick
which was lying there, held it for him to hook on,
and then conveyed him to a high and stately mora.
He ascended with wonderful rapidity, and in
about a minute he was almost at the top of the
tree. He now went off in a side direction, and
caught hold of the branch of a neighbouring tree ;
he then proceeded towards the heart of the forest.
I stood looking on, lost in amazement at liis singu-
lar mode of progress. I followed him with my eye
till the intervening branches closed in betwixt us ;
and then I lost sight for ever of the two-toed
sloth. I was going to add, that I never saw a
sloth take to his heels in such earnest; but the
expression will not do, for the sloth has no heels.

That which naturalists have advanced of his
being so tenacious of life is perfectly true. I saw
the heart of one beat for half an hour after it was
taken out of the body. The wourali-poison seems
to be the only thing that will kill it quickly. On
reference to a former part of these wanderings,
it will be seen that a poisoned arrow killed the
sloth in about ten minutes.

So much for this harmless, unoffending ani-
mal. He holds a conspicuous place in the cata-
logue of the animals of the new world. Though
naturalists have made no mention of what fol-
lows, still it is not less true on that account. The

184 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

sloth is the only quadruped known, which spends
its whole life from the branch of a tree, suspended
by his feet. I have paid uncommon attention to
him in his native haunts. The monkey and squir-
rel will seize a branch with their fore-feet, and
pull themselves up, and rest or run upon it; but
the sloth, after seizing it, still remains suspended,
and suspended moves along under the branch, till
he can lay hold of another. Whenever I have seen
him in his native woods, whether at rest, or asleep,
or on his travels, I have always observed that he
was suspended from the branch of a tree. When
his form and anatomy are attentively considered,
it will appear evident that the sloth cannot be at
ease in any situation, where his body is higher,
or above his feet. We will now take our leave
of him.

In the far-extending wilds of Guiana, the trav-
eller will be astonished at the immense quantity
of Ants which he perceives on the ground and in
the trees. They have nests in the branches, four
or five times as large as that of the rook; and
they have a covered way from them to the ground.
In this covered way thousands are perpetually
passing and repassing; and if you destroy part
of it, they turn to, and immediately repair it.

Other species of ants again have no covered
way; but travel, exposed to view, upon the sur-
face of the earth. You will sometimes see a string
of these ants a mile long, each carrying in its
mouth to its nest a green leaf, the size of a six-
pence. It is wonderful to observe the order in
which they move, and with what pains and labour
they surmount the obstructions of the path.

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 185

The ants have their enemies, as well as the rest
of animated nature. Amongst the foremost of
these stand the three species of Ant-bears. The
smallest is not much larger than a rat; the next
is nearly the size of a fox; and the third a stout
and powerful animal, measuring about six feet
from the snout to the end of the tail. He is the
most inoffensive of all animals, and never injures
the property of man. He is chiefly found in the
inmost recesses of the forest, and seems partial
to the low and swampy parts near creeks, where
the troely-tree grows. There he goes up and down
in quest of ants, of which there is never the least
scarcity ; so that he soon obtains a sufficient sup-
ply of food, with very little trouble. He cannot
travel fast; man is superior to him in speed.
Without swiftness to enable him to escape from
his enemies, without teeth, the possession of which
would assist him in self-defence, and without the
power of burrowing in the ground, by which he
might conceal himself from his pursuers, he still
is capable of ranging through these wilds in per-
fect safety; nor does he fear the fatal pressure
of the serpent's fold, or the teeth of the famished
jaguar. Nature has formed his fore-legs wonder-
fully thick, and strong, and muscular, and armed
his feet with three tremendous sharp and crooked
claws. Whenever he seizes an animal with these
formidable weapons, he hugs it close to his body,
and keeps it there till it dies through pressure,
or through want of food. Nor does the ant-bear,
in the meantime, suffer much from loss of aliment,
as it is a well-known fact, that he can go longer
without food than, perhaps, any other animal, ex-

186 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

cept the land-tortoise. His skin is of a texture
that perfectly resists the bite of a dog ; his hinder
parts are protected by thick and shaggy hair,
while his immense tail is large enough to cover his
whole body.

The Indians have a great dread of coming in
contact with the ant-bear; and after disabling
him in the chase, never think of approaching him
till he be quite dead. It is perhaps on account of
this caution, that naturalists have never yet given
to the world a true and correct drawing of this
singular animal, or described the peculiar posi-
tion of his fore-feet when he walks or stands. If,
in taking a drawing from a dead ant-bear, you
judge of the position in which he stands from that
of all other terrestrial animals, the sloth excepted,
you will be in error. Examine only a figure of
this animal, in books of natural history, or inspect
a stuffed specimen in the best museums, and you
will see that the fore-claws are just in the same
forward attitude as those of a dog, or a common
bear when he walks or stands. But this is a dis-
torted and unnatural position ; and in life, would
be a painful and intolerable attitude for the ant-
bear. The length and curve of his claws cannot
admit of such a position. When he walks or
stands, his feet have somewhat the appearance of
a club-hand. He goes entirely on the outer side
of his fore-feet, which are quite bent inwards ; the
claws collected into a point, and going under the
foot. In this position he is quite at ease; while
his long claws are disposed of in a manner to ren-
der them harmless to him, and are prevented from
becoming dull and worn, like those of the dog,

The Ant-bear is a pacific Animal"

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 187

which would inevitably be the case, did their
points come in actual contact with the ground ; for
his claws have not that retractile power which is
given to animals of the feline species by which
they are enabled to preserve the sharpness of
their claws on the most flinty path. A slight in-
spection of the fore-feet of the ant-bear, will im-
mediately convince you of the mistake artists and
naturalists have fallen into, by putting his fore-
feet in the same position as those of other quad-
rupeds ; for you will perceive that the whole outer
side of his foot is not only deprived of hair, but
is hard and callous ; proof positive of its being in
perpetual contact with the ground. Now, on the
contrary, the inner side of the bottom of his foot
is soft and rather hairy.

There is another singularity in the anatomy of
the ant-bear, I believe, as yet unnoticed in the
page of natural history. He has two very large
glands situated below the root of the tongue.
From these is emitted a glutinous liquid, with
which his long tongue is lubricated when he puts
it into the ants' nests. These glands are of the
same substance as those found in the lower jaw of
the woodpecker. The secretion from them, when
wet, is very clammy and adhesive, but on being
dried it loses these qualities, and you can pul-
verize it betwixt your finger and thumb ; so that,
in dissection, if any of it has got upon the fur of
the animal, or the feathers of the bird, allow it to
dry there, and then it may be removed without
leaving the least stain behind.

The ant-bear is a pacific animal. He is never
the first to begin the attack. His motto may be,

188 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

**Noli me tangere." As his habits and his haunts
differ materially from those of every other ani-
mal in the forest, their interests never clash, and
thus he might live to a good old age, and die at
last in peace, were it not that his flesh is good
food. On this account the Indian wages per-
petual war against him, and as he cannot escape
by flight, he falls an easy prey to the poisoned
arrow, shot from the Indian's bow at a distance.
If ever he be closely attacked by dogs, he immedi-
ately throws himself on his back, and if he be
fortunate enough to catch hold of his enemy with
his tremendous claws, the invader is sure to pay
for his rashness with the loss of life.

We will now take a view of the vampire. As
there was a free entrance and exit to the vampire
in the loft where I slept, I had many a fine oppor-
tunity of paying attention to this nocturnal sur-
geon. He does not always live on blood. When
the moon shone bright, and the fruit of the banana-
tree was ripe, I could see him approach and eat it.
He would also bring into the loft, from the for-
est, a green round fruit, something like the wild
guava, and about the size of a nutmeg. There
was something also, in the blossom of the sawarri
nut-tree, which was grateful to him ; for on com-
ing up Waratilla creek, in a moonlight night, I
saw several vampires fluttering round the top of
the sawarri tree, and every now and then the
blossoms, which they had broken off, fell into the
water. They certainly did not drop off naturally,
for on examining several of them, they appeared
quite fresh and blooming. So I concluded the
vampires pulled them from the tree, either to get

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 189

at the incipient fruit, or to catcli tlie insects which
often take up their abode in flowers.

The vampire, in general, measures about twen-
six inches from wing to wing, extended, though
I once killed one which measured thirty- two
inches. He frequents old abandoned houses and
hollow trees; and sometimes a cluster of them
may be seen in the forest hanging head down-
wards, from the branch of a tree.

Goldsmith seems to have been aware that the
vampire hangs in clusters; for in the Deserted
Village, speaking of America, he says, —

' ' And matted woods, where birds forget to sing,
But silent bats in drowsy clusters cling."

The vampire has a curious membrane, which
rises from the nose, and gives it a very singular
appearance. It has been remarked before, that
there are two species of vampire in Guiana, a
larger and a smaller. The larger sucks men and
other animals ; the smaller seems to confine him-
self chiefly to birds. I learnt from a gentleman,
high up in the river Demerara, that he was com-
pletely unsuccessful with his fowls, on account
of the small vampire. He showed me some tliat
had been sucked the night before, and they were
scarcely able to walk.

Some years ago I went to the river Paumaron
with a Scotch gentleman, by name Tarbet. We
hung our hammocks in the thatched loft of a
planter's house. Next morning I heard this gen-
tleman muttering in his hammock, and now and
then letting fall an imprecation or two, just about
the time he ought to have been saying his morn-

190 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

ing prayers. ''What is the matter, Sir," said
I, softly; "is any thing amiss?" ''What's the
matter?" answered he, surlily; "why, the vam-
pires have been sucking me to death." As soon
as there was light enough, I went to his hammock,
and saw it much stained with blood. "There,"
said he, thrusting his foot out of the hammock,
"see how these infernal imps have been drawing
my life's blood." On examining his foot, I found
the vampire had tapped his great toe : there was
a wound somewhat less than that made by a leech ;
the blood was still oozing from it ; I conjectured
he might have lost from ten to twelve ounces of
blood. Whilst examining it, I think I put him into
a worse humour by remarking, that an European
surgeon would not have been so generous as to
have blooded him without making a charge. He
looked up in my face, but did not say a word: I
saw he was of opinion that I had better have
spared this piece of ill-timed levity.

It was not the last punishment of this good gen-
tleman in the river Paumaron. The next night
he was doomed to undergo a kind of ordeal un-
known in Europe. There is a species of large red
ant in Guiana, sometimes called Eanger, some-
times Coushie. These ants march in millions
through the country, in compact order, like a regi-
ment of soldiers ; they eat up every insect in their
march; and if a house obstruct their route, they
do not turn out of the way, but go quite through
it. Though they sting cruelly when molested, the
planter is not sorry to see them in his house; for
it is but a passing visit, and they destroy every

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 191

kind of insect vermin that has taken shelter under
his roof.

Now, in the British plantations of Guiana, as
well as in Europe, there is always a little temple
dedicated to the goddess Cloacina. Our dinner
had chiefly consisted of crabs, dressed in rich
and different ways. Paumaron is famous for
crabs, and strangers who go thither consider them
the greatest luxury. The Scotch gentleman made
a very capital dinner on crabs ; but this change of
diet was productive of unpleasant circumstances :
he awoke in the night in that state in which Virgil
describes Caeleno to have been, viz. '^fsedissima
ventris proluvies." Up he got, to verify the re-
mark,

"Serius aut citius, sedem properamus acl unara."

Now, unluckily for himself, and the nocturnal
tranquility of the planter's house, just at that un-
fortunate hour, the Coushie Ants were passing
across the seat of Cloacina 's temple; he had
never dreamed of this; and so, turning his face
to the door, he placed himself in the usual situa-
tion which the votaries of the goddess generally
take. Had a lighted match dropped upon a pound
of gunpowder, as he afterwards remarked, it
could not have caused a greater recoil. Up he
jumped, and forced his way out, roaring for help
and for a light, for he was worried alive by ten
thousand devils. The fact is, he had sat down
upon an intervening body of coushie ants. Many
of those which escaped being crushed to death,
turned again, and, in revenge, stung the uninten-
tional intruder most severely. The watchman had

192 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

fallen asleep, and it was some time before a light
could be procured, the fire having gone out; in
the mean time, the poor gentleman was suffering
an indescribable martyrdom, and would have
found himself more at home in the Augean stable
than in the planter's house.

I had often wished to have been once sucked by
the vampire, in order that I might have it in my
power to say it had really happened to me. There
can be no pain in the operation, for the patient
is always asleep when the vampire is sucking him ;
and as for the loss of a few ounces of blood, that
would be a trifle in the long run. Many a night
have I slept with my foot out of the hammock to
tempt this winged surgeon, expecting that he
would be there ; but it was all in vain ; the vam-
pire never sucked me, and I could never account
for his not doing so, for we were inhabitants of
the same loft for months together.

The armadillo is very common in these forests ;
he burrows in the sand-hills like a rabbit. As it
often takes a considerable time to dig him out of
his hole, it would be a long and laborious business
to attack each hole indiscriminately without know-
ing whether the animal were there or not. To
prevent disappointment, the Indians carefully ex-
amine the mouth of the hole, and put a short
stick down it. Now if, on introducing the stick,
a number of mosquitos come out, the Indians
know to a certainty that the armadillo is in it:
wherever there are no mosquitos in the hole there
is no armadillo. The Indian having satisfied him-
self that the armadillo is there, by the mosqui-
tos which come out, he immediately cuts a long

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 193

and slender stick, and introduces it into the hole :
he carefully observes the line the stick takes, and
then sinks a pit in the sand to catch the end of
it : this done, he puts it farther into the hole, and
digs another pit, and so on, till at last he comes
up with the armadillo, which had been making
itself a passage in the sand till it had ex-
hausted all its strength through pure exertion.
I have been sometimes three quarters of a day
in digging out one armadillo, and obliged to sink
half a dozen pits, seven feet deep, before I got up
to it. The Indians and negroes are very fond of
the flesh, but I considered it strong and rank.

On laying hold of the armadillo you must be
cautious not to come in contact with his feet : they
are armed with sharp claws, and with them he
will inflict a severe wound in self-defence: when
not molested, he is very harmless and innocent;
he would put you in mind of the hare in Gay's
fables, —

"Whose care was never to offend,
And every creature vpas her friend. ' '

The armadillo swims well in time of need, but
does not go into the water by choice. He is very
seldom seen abroad during the day; and when
surprised, he is sure to be near the mouth of his
hole. Every part of the armadillo is well pro-
tected by his shell, except his ears. In life, this
shell is very limber, so that the animal is enabled
to go at full stretch, or roll himself up into a
ball, as occasion may require.

On inspecting the arrangement of the shell, it
puts vou very much in mind of a coat of armour ;

13*^

194 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

indeed it is a natural coat of armour to the arma-
dillo, and being composed both of scale and bone,
it affords ample security, and has a pleasing effect.

Often, when roving in the wilds, I would fall
in with the Land Tortoise ; he too adds another to
the list of unoffending animals ; he subsists on the
fallen fruits of the forest. When an enemy ap-
proaches he never thinks of moving, but quietly
draws himself under his shell, and there awaits
his doom in patience : he only seems to have two
enemies who can do him any damage ; one of these
is the Boa Constrictor: this snake swallows the
tortoise alive, shell and all. But a boa large
enough to do this is very scarce, and thus there
is not much to apprehend from that quarter ; the
other enemy is man, who takes up the tortoise, and
carries him away. Man also is scarce in these
never-ending wilds, and the little depredations
he may commit upon the tortoise will be nothing,
or a mere trifle. The tiger's teeth cannot pene-
trate its shell, nor can a stroke of his paws do it
any damage. It is of so compact and strong a
nature, that there is a common saying, a London
waggon might roll over it and not break it.

Ere we proceed, let us take a retrospective
view of the five animals just enumerated; they
are all quadrupeds, and have some very particu-
lar mark, or mode of existence, different from all
other animals. The sloth has four feet, but never
can use them, to support his body on the earth;
they want soles, which are a marked feature in
the feet of other animals. The ant-bear has not
a tooth in his head, still he roves fearless on,
in the same forests with the Jaguar and boa con-

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 195

stridor. The vampire does not make use of his
feet to walk, but to stretch a membrane, which
enables him to go up into an element where no
other quadruped is seen. The armadillo has only
here and there a straggling hair, and has neither
fur, nor wool, nor bristles, but in lieu of them
has received a movable shell, on which are scales
very much like those of fishes. The tortoise is
oviparous, entirely without any appearance of
hair, and is obliged to accommodate itself to a
shell which is quite hard and inflexible, and in no
point of view whatever obedient to the will or
pleasure of the bearer. The egg of the tortoise
has a very hard shell, while that of the turtle is
quite soft.

CHAPTER II

In some parts of these forests I saw Vanilla
growing luxuriantly. It creeps up the trees to
the height of thirty or forty feet. I found it
difficult to get a ripe pod, as the monkeys are very
fond of it, and generally took care to get there
before me. The pod hangs from the tree in the
shape of a little scabbard. Vayna is the Spanish
for a scabbard, and Vanilla for a little scabbard.
Hence the name.

In Mibiri creek there was a cayman of the small
species, measuring about five feet in length; I
saw it in the same place for months, but could
never get a shot at it; for the moment I thought
I was sure of it, it dived under the water before
I could pull the trigger. At last I got an Indian
with his bow and arrow ; he stood up in the canoe
with his bow ready bent, and as we drifted past
the place, he sent his arrow into the cayman's eye
and killed it dead. The skin of this little species
is much harder and stronger than that of the
large kind : it is good food, and tastes like veal.

My friend, Mr. Edmonstone, had very kindly
let me have one of his old negroes, and he con-
stantly attended me ; his name was Daddy Quashi ;
he had a brave stomach for heterogeneous food;
it could digest, and relish too, cayman, monkeys,
hawks, and grubs. The Daddy made three or four
meals on this cayman while it was not absolutely

196

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 197

putrid, and salted the rest. I could never get him
to face a snake ; the horror he betrayed on seeing
one was beyond description; I asked him why
he was so terribly alarmed ; he said it was by see-
ing so many dogs, from time to time, killed by
them.

Here I had a fine opportunity of examining
several species of the caprimulgus. I am fully
persuaded that these innocent little birds never
suck the herds; for when they approach them,
and jump up at their udders, it is to catch the
flies and insects there. When the moon shone
bright, I would frequently go and stand within
three yards of a cow, and distinctly see the capri-
mulgus catch the flies on its udder. On looking
for them in the forest, during the day, I either
found them on the ground, or else invariably sit-
ting longitudinally on the branch of a tree, not
crosswise like all other birds.

The Wasps, or Maribuntas, are great plagues
in these forests, and require the naturalist to be
cautious as he wanders up and down. Some make
their nests pendent from the branches; others
have them fixed to the underside of a leaf. Now
in passing on, if you happen to disturb one of
these, they sally forth and punish you severely.
The largest kind is blue; it brings blood where
its sting enters, and causes pain and inflammation
enough to create a fever. The Indians make a
fire under the nest, and after killing or driving
away the old ones, they roast the young grubs in
the comb and eat them. I tried them once by way
of dessert after dinner, but my stomach was of-
fended at their intrusion; probably it was more

198 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

the idea than the taste that caused the stomach to
rebel.

Time and experience have convinced me that
there is not much danger in roving amongst
snakes and wild beasts, provided only that you
have self-command. You must never approach
them abruptly; if so, you are sure to pay for
your rashness; because the idea of self-defence
is predominant in every animal, and thus the
snake, to defend himself from what he considers
an attack upon him, makes the intruder feel the
deadly effect of his poisonous fangs. The jaguar
flies at you and knocks you senseless with a
stroke of his paw: whereas, if you had not come
upon him too suddenly, it is ten to one but that
he had retired, in lieu of disputing the path with
you. The labarri snake is very poisonous, and I
have often approached within two yards of him
without fear. I took care to move very softly and
gently without moving my arms, and he always
allowed me to have a fine view of him, without
showing the least inclination to make a spring at
me. He would appear to keep his eye fixed on
me, as though suspicious, but that was all. Some-
times I have taken a stick ten feet long, and
placed it on the labarri 's back. He would then
glide away without offering resistance. But when
I put the end of the stick abruptly to his head,
he immediately opened his mouth, flew at it, and
bit it.

One day, wishful to see how the poison comes
out of the fangs of the snake, I caught a labarri
alive. He was about eight feet long. I held him
by the neck, and my hand was so near his jaw.

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 199

that he had not room to move his head to bite it.
This was the only position I could have held him
in with safety and effect. To do so, it only re-
quired a little resolution and coolness. I then
took a small piece of stick in the other hand, and
pressed it against the fang, which is invariably
in the upper jaw. Towards the point of the fang,
there is a little oblong aperture on the convex side
of it. Through this, there is a communication
down the fang to the root, at which lies a little
bag containing the poison. Now, when the point
of the fang is pressed, the root of the fang also
presses against the bag, and sends up a portion
of the poison therein contained. Thus, when I
applied a piece of stick to the point of the fang,
there came out of the hole a liquor thick and yel-
low, like strong camomile tea. This was the poi-
son which is so dreadful in its effects, as to render
the labarri snake one of the most poisonous in the
forests of Guiana. I once caught a fine labarri,
and made it bite itself. I forced the poisonous
fang into its belly. In a few minutes I thought
it was going to die, for it appeared dull and heavy.
However, in half an hour's time, he was as brisk
and vigorous as ever, and in the course of the
day showed no symptoms of being affected. Is
then the life of the snake proof against its own
poison? This subject is not unworthy of the con-
sideration of the naturalist.

In Guiana there is a little insect in the grass
and on the shrubs, which the French call Bete-
rouge. It is of a beautiful scarlet colour, and so
minute, that you must bring your eye close to it
before you can perceive it. It is most numerous

200 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

in the rainy season. Its bite causes an intoler-
able itching. The best way to get rid of it, is to rub
the part affected with oil or rum. You must be
careful not to scratch, it. If you do so, and break
the skin, you expose yourself to a sore. The first
year I was in Guiana, the bete-rougq, and my own
want of knowledge, and, I may add, the little at-
tention I paid to it, created an ulcer above the
ankle, which annoyed me for six months, and if I
hobbled out into the grass, a number of bete-rouge
would settle on the edges of the sore, and increase
tlie inflammation.
(^ Still more inconvenient, painful, and annoying
is another little pest, called the Chegoe. It looks
exactly like a very small flea, and a stranger
would take it for one. However, in about four and
twenty hours, he would have several broad hints
that he had made a mistake in his ideas of the
animal. It attacks different parts of the body,
but chiefly the feet, betwixt the toe-nails and the
flesh. There it buries itself, and at first causes
an itching not unpleasant. In a day or so, after
examining the part, you perceive a place about the
size of a pea, somewhat discoloured, rather of a
blue appearance. Sometimes it happens that the
itching is so trivial, you are not aware that the
miner is at work. Time, they say, makes great
discoveries. The discoloured part turns out to
be the nest of the chegoe containing hundreds of
eggs, which, if allowed to hatch there, the young
ones will soon begin to form other nests, and in
time cause a spreading ulcer. As soon as you
perceive that you have got the chegoe in your
flesh, you must take a needle, or a sharp-pointed

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 201

knife, and take it out. If the nest be formed,
great care must be taken not to break it, otherwise
some of the eggs remain in the flesh, and then you
will soon be annoyed with more chegoes. After
removing the nest, it is well to drop spirit of tur-
pentine into the hole; that will most effectually
destroy any chegoe that may be lurking there.
Sometimes I have taken four nests out of my feet
in the course of the day. ^

Every evening, before sundown, it was part of
my toilette to examine my feet, and see that they
were clear of chegoes. Now and then a nest
would escape the scrutiny, and then I had to
smart for it a day or two after. A chegoe once
lit upon the back of my hand ; wishful to see how
he worked, I allowed him to take possession. He
immediately set to work, head foremost, and in
about half an hour he had completely buried
himself in the skin. I then let him feel the point
of my knife, and exterminated him.

More than once, after sitting down upon a rot-
ten stump, I have found myself covered with
Ticks. There is a short and easy way to get quit
of these unwelcome adherents. Make a large fire
and stand close to it, and if you be covered with
ticks, they will all fall off.

Let us now forget for a while the quadrupeds,
serpents, and insects, and take a transitory view
of the native Indians of these forests.

There are five principal nations or tribes of
Indians in ci-devant Dutch Guiana, commonly
known by the name of "Warow, Arowack, Acoway,
Carib, and Macoushi. They live in small hamlets,
which consist of a few huts, never exceeding

202 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

twelve in number. These huts are always in the
forest, near a river or some creek. They are
open on all sides (except those of the Macoushi),
and covered with a species of palm leaf.

Their principal furniture is the hammock. It
serves them both for chair and bed. It is com-
monly made of cotton; though those of the Wa-
rows are formed from the *ta tree. At night they
always make a fire close to it. The heat keeps
them warm, and the smoke drives away the mos-
quitos and sand-flies. You sometimes find a table
in the hut; but it was not made by the Indians,
but by some negro, or mulatto carpenter.

They cut down about an acre or two of the
trees which surround the huts, and there plant
Pepper, Papaws, Sweet and Bitter Cassava, Plan-
tains, Sweet Potatoes, Yams, Pine-Apples, and
Silk-Grass. Besides these, they generally have a
few acres in some fertile part of the forest fortfceir
cassava, which is as bread to them. They make
earthen pots to boil their provisions in ; and they
get from the white men flat circular plates of iron,
on which they bake their cassava. They have to
grate the cassava before it is pressed, preparatory
to baking; and those Indians who are too far in
the wilds to procure graters from the white men,
make use of a flat piece of wood, studded with
sharp stones. They have no cows, horses, mules,
goats, sheep, or asses. The men hunt and fish,
and the women work in the provision ground, and
cook their victuals.

In each hamlet there is the trunk of a large tree,
hollowed out like a trough. In this, from their
cassava, they make an abominable ill-tasted and

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 203

sour kind of fermented liquor, called piwarri.
Tliey are very fond of it, and never fail to get
drunk after every brewing. The frequency of
the brewing depends upon the superabundance
of cassava.

Both men and women go without clothes. The
men have a cotton wrapper, and the women a bead-
ornamented square piece of cotton, about the size
of your hand, for the fig-leaf. Those far away in
the interior, use the bark of a tree for this pur-
pose. They are very clean people, and wash in the
river, or creek, at least twice every day. They
paint themselves with the roucou, sweetly per-
fumed with hayawa or accaiari. Their hair is
black and lank, and never curled. The women
braid it up fancifully, something in the shape of
Diana's head-dress in ancient pictures. They
have very few diseases. Old age and pulmonary
complaints seem to be the chief agents for re-
moving them to another world. The pulmonary
complaints are generally brought on by a severe
cold, which they do not know how to arrest in its
progress, by the use of the lancet. I never saw an
idiot amongst them, nor could I perceive any that
were deformed from their birth. Their women
never perish in childbed, owing, no doubt, to their
never wearing stays. _

They have no public religious ceremony. They
acknowledge two superior beings, — a good one,
and a bad one. They pray to the latter not to hurt
them, and they are of opinion that the former is
too good to do them an injury. I suspect, if the
truth were known, the individuals of the village
never offer up a single prayer or ejaculation.

204 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

They have a kind of a priest called a Pee-ay-man,
who is an enchanter. He finds out things lost.
He mutters prayers to the evil spirit over them
and their children when they are sick. If a fever
be in the village, the Pee-ay-man goes about all
night long, howling, and making dreadful noises,
and begs the bad spirit to depart. But he has
very seldom to perform this part of his duty, as
fevers seldom ^dsit the Indian hamlets. However,
when a fever does come, and his incantations are
of no avail, which I imagine is most commonly the
case, they abandon the place for ever, and make
a new settlement elsewhere. They consider the
owl and the goatsucker as familiars of the evil
spirit, and never destroy them.
"^ I could find no monuments or marks of an-
tiquity amongst these Indians ; so that after pene-
trating to the Rio Branco, from the shores of
the Western Ocean, had any body questioned me
on this subject, I should have answered, I have
seen nothing amongst these Indians which tells
me that they have existed here for a century;
though, for aught I know to the contrary, they
may have been here before the Redemption, but
their total want of civilization has assimilated
them to the forests in which they wander. Thus,
an aged tree falls and moulders into dust and you
cannot tell what was its appearance, its beauties,
or its diseases amongst the neighbouring trees;
another has shot up in its place, and after nature
has had her course, it will make way for a suc-
cessor in its turn. So it is with the Indian of
Guiana; he is now laid low in the dust; he has
left no record behind him, either on parchment,

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 205

or on a stone, or in earthenware, to say what he
has done. Perhaps the place where his huried
ruins lie was unhealthy, and the survivors have
left it long ago, and gone far away into the wilds.
All that you can say is, the trees where I stand
appear lower and smaller than the rest, and from
this I conjecture, that some Indians may have had
a settlement here formerly. Were I by chance to
meet the son of the father who moulders here, he
could tell me that his father was famous for slay-
ing tigers and serpents and caymen, and noted
in the chase of the tapir and wild boar, but that he
remembers little or nothing of his grandfather.

They are very jealous of their liberty, and much
attached to their own mode of living. Though
those in the neighbourhood of the European set-
tlements have constant communication with the
whites, they have no inclination to become civi-
lized. Some Indians who have accompanied
white men to Europe, on returning to their own
land, have thrown off their clothes, and gone
back into the forests.

In George-town, the capital of Demerara, there
is a large shed, open on all sides, built for them
by order of government. Hither the Indians
come with monkies, parrots, bows and arrows,
and pegalls. They sell these to the white men
for money, and too often purchase rum with it,
to which they are wonderfully addicted.

Government allows them annual presents in
order to have their services, when the colony
deems it necessary to scour the forests in quest
of runaway negroes. Formerly these expeditions
were headed by Charles Edmonstone, Esq., now

206 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

of Cardross Park, near Dumbarton. This brave
colonist never returned from the woods without
being victorious. Once, in an attack upon the
rebel negroes' camp, he led the way, and received
two balls in his body; at the same moment that
he was wounded, two of his Indians fell dead by
his side ; he recovered after his life was despaired
of, but the balls could never be extracted.

Since the above appeared in print, I have had
the account of this engagement with the negroes
in the forest from Mr. Edmonstone's own mouth.

He received four slugs in his body, as will be
seen in the sequel.

The plantations of Demerara and Essequibo
are bounded by an almost interminable extent of
forest. Hither the runaway negroes repair, and
form settlements, from whence they issue to
annoy the colonists, as occasion may offer.

In 1801, the runaway slaves had increased to
an alarming extent. The Governor gave orders
that an expedition should be immediately or-
ganized, and proceed to the woods, under the
command of Charles Edmonstone, Esq. General
Hislop sent him a corporal, a sergeant, and eleven
men, and he was joined by a part of the colonial
militia, and by sixty Indians.

With this force Mr. Edmonstone entered the
forest, and proceeded in a direction towards
Mahaica.

He marched for eight, days through swamps,
and over places obstructed by fallen trees and
the bush-rope; tormented by myriads of mos-
quitos, and ever in fear of treading on the

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 207

poisonous snakes, which can scarcely be dis-
tinguished from the fallen leaves.

At last he reached a wooded sand-hill, where
the Maroons had intrenched themselves in great
force. Not expecting to come so soon upon them,
Mr. Edmonstone, his faithful man Coffee, and two
Indian chiefs, found themselves considerably-
ahead of their own party. As yet, they were un-
perceived by the enemy, but, unfortunately, one
of the Indian chiefs fired a random shot at a dis-
tant Maroon. Immediately the whole negro
camp turned out, and formed themselves in a
crescent, in front of Mr. Edmonstone. Their
chief was an uncommonly fine negro, about six
feet in height ; and his head-dress was that of an
African warrior, ornamented with a profusion of
small shells. He advanced undauntedly with his
gun in his hand, and, in insulting language, called
out to Mr. Edmonstone to come on and fight him.

Mr. Edmonstone approached him slowly, in
order to give his own men time to come up; but
they were yet too far off for him to profit by this
manoeuvre. Coffee, who carried his master's
gun, now stepped up behind him, and put the gun
into his hand, which Mr. Edmonstone received,
without advancing it to his shoulder.

He was now within a few yards of the Maroon
chief, who seemed to betray some symptoms of
uncertainty; for instead of firing directly at Mr.
Edmonstone, he took a step sideways, and rested
his gun against a tree; no doubt with the inten-
tion of taking a surer aim, Mr. Edmonstone, on
perceiving this, immediately cocked his gun, and

208 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

fired it off, still holding it in the position in which
he had received it from Coffee.

The whole of the contents entered the negro's
body, and he dropped dead on his face.

The negroes, who had formed in a crescent, now
in their turn fired a volley, which brought Mr.
Edmonstone and his two Indian chiefs to the
ground. The Maroons did not stand to reload,
but on Mr. Edmonstone 's party coming up, they
fled precipitately into the surrounding forest.

Four slugs had entered Mr. Edmonstone 's
body. After coming to himself, on looking
around, he saw one of the fallen Indian chiefs
bleeding by his side. He accosted him by name,
and said he hoped he was not much hurt. The
dying Indian had just strength enough to answer,
*'0h no," — and then expired. The other chief
was lying quite dead. He must have received his
mortal wound just as he was in the act of cocking
his gun to fire on the negroes; for it appeared
that the ball which gave him his death wound,
had carried off the first joint of his thumb, and
passed through his forehead. By this time his
wife, who had accompanied the expedition, came
up. She was a fine young woman, and had her
long black hair fancifully braided in a knot on the
top of her head, fastened with a silver ornament.
She unloosed it, and, falling on her husband's
body, covered it with her hair, bewailing his
untimely end with the most heartrending cries.

The blood was now running out of Mr. Edmon-
stone's shoes. On being raised up, he ordered
his men to pursue the flying Maroons, requesting
at the same time that he might be left where he

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 209

had fallen, as he felt that he was mortally
wounded. They gently placed him on the ground,
and after the pursuit of the Maroons had ended,
the corporal and sergeant returned to their com-
mander, and formed their men. On his asking
what this meant, the sergeant replied, ''I had the
General's orders, on setting out from town, not
to leave you in the forest, happen what might."
By slow and careful marches, as much as the
obstructions in the woods would admit of, the
party reached Plantation Alliance, on the bank
of the Demerara, and from thence it crossed the
river to Plantation Vredestein.

The news of the rencounter had been spread far
and wide by the Indians, and had already reached
town. The General, Captains ]^.Iacrai and John-
stone, and Doctor Dunkin, proceeded to Vredes-
tein, On examining Mr. Edmonstone's wounds,
four slugs were found to have entered the body;
one was extracted, the rest remained there till
the year 1824, when another was cut out by a
professional gentleman of Port Glasgow, The
other two still remain in the body; and it is sup-
posed that either one or both have touched a
nerve, as they cause almost continual pain. Mr.
Edmonstone has commanded fifteen different ex-
peditions in the forest in quest of the Maroons.
The Colonial Government has requited his serv-
ices, by freeing his property from all taxes, and
presenting him a handsome sword, and a silver
urn, bearing the following inscription :

"Presented to Charles Edmonstone, Esq., by the Governor
and Court of Policy of the Colony of Demerara, as a token of
their esteem, and the deep sense they entertain of the very great
14

210 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

activity and spirit manifested by him on various occasions in his
successful exertions for the internal security of the Colony. —
January 1st, 1809. ' '

I do not believe that there is a single Indian
in ci-devant Dutch Guiana who can read or write,
nor am I aware that any white man has reduced
their language to the rules of grammar; some
may have made a short manuscript vocabulary
of the few necessary words, but that is all. Here
and there a white man, and some few people of
colour, talk the language well. The temper of
the Indian of Guiana is mild and gentle, and he
is very fond of his children.
f Some ignorant travellers and colonists call
these Indians a lazy race. Man in general will
not be active without an object. Now when the
Indian has caught plenty of fish, and killed game
enough to last him for a week, what need has he to
range the forest? He has no idea of making
pleasure-grounds. Money is of no use to him,
for in these wilds there are no markets for him
to frequent, nor milliners' shops for his wife and
daughters; he has no taxes to pay, no highways
to keep up, no poor to maintain, nor army nor
navy to supply ; he lies in his hammock both night
and day (for he has no chair or bed, neither does
he want them), and in it he forms his bow, and
makes his arrows, and repairs his fishing tackle.
But as soon as he has consumed his provisions,
he then rouses himself, and, like the lion, scours
the forest in quest of food. He plunges into the
river after the deer and tapir, and swims across
it; passes through swamps and quagmires, and
never fails to obtain a sufficient supply of

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 211

food. Should the approach of night stop his
career, while he is hunting the wild boar, he stops
for the night, and continues the chase the nerty
morning. In my way through the wilds to the
Portuguese frontier, I had a proof of this: we
were eight in number, six Indians, a negro, and
myself. About ten o'clock in the morning, we
observed the feet-mark of the wild boars; we
judged by the freshness of the marks that they
had passed that way early the same morning.
As we were not gifted, like the hound, with scent,
and as we had no dog with us, we followed their
track by the eye. The Indian after game is as
sure with his eye as the dog is with his nose.
We followed the herd till three in the afternoon,
then gave up the chase for the present ; made our
fires close to a creek where there was plenty of
fish, and then arranged the hammocks. In an
hour the Indians shot more fish with their arrows
than we could consume. The night was beauti-
fully serene and clear, and the moon shone as
bright as day. Next morn we rose at dawn, got
breakfast, packed up, each took his burden, and
then we put ourselves on the track of the wild
boars, which we had been following the day
before. We supposed that they, too, would sleep
that night in the forest, as we had done ; and thus
the delay on our part would be no disadvantage
to us. This was just the case, for about nine
o'clock their feet-marks became fresher and
fresher: we now doubled our pace, but did not
give mouth like hounds. We pushed on in silence,
and soon came up with them; they were above
one hundred of them ; we killed six, and the rest

212 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

took off in different directions. But to the point.

Amongst us the needy man works from light
to dark for a maintenance. Should this man
chance to acquire a fortune, he soon changes his
habits. No longer under "strong necessity's
supreme command," he contrives to get out of
bed betwixt nine and ten in the morning. His
servant helps him to dress, he walks on a soft
carpet to his breakfast table, his wife pours out
his tea, and his servant hands him his toast.
After breakfast, the doctor advises a little gentle
exercise in the carriage for an hour or so. At
dinner-time he sits down to a table groaning be-
neath the weight of heterogeneous luxury: there
he rests upon a chair for three or four hours,
eats, drinks, and talks (often unmeaningly) till
tea is announced. He proceeds slowly to the
drawing-room, and there spends the best part of
his time in sitting, till his wife tempts him with
something warm for supper. After supper, he
still remains on his chair at rest, till he retires
to rest for the night. He mounts leisurely up
stairs upon a carpet, and enters his bed-room:
there, one would hope, that at least he mutters a
prayer or two, though perhaps not on bended
knee: he then lets himself drop into a soft and
downy bed, over which has just passed the comely
Jenny's warming-pan. Now, could the Indian
in his turn see this, he would call the white men
a lazy, indolent set.

Perhaps then, upon due reflection, you would
draw this conclusion; that men will always be
indolent where there is no object to rouse them.

As the Indian of Guiana has no idea whatever

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AINIERICA 213

of communicating his intentions by writing, he
has fallen upon a plan of communication sure and
simple. When two or three families have de-
termined to come down the river and pay you a
visit, they send an Indian beforehand with a
string of beads. You take one bead off every
day; and on the day that the string is headless,
they arrive at your house. _^

In finding their way through these pathless
wilds, the sun is to them what Ariadne's clue was
to Theseus. When he is on the meridian, they
generally sit down, and rove onwards again as
soon as he has sufficiently declined to the west;
they require no other compass. "WTien in chase,
they break a twig on the bushes as they pass by
every three or four hundred paces, and this often
prevents them from losing their way on their
return.

You will not be long in the forests of Guiana,
before you perceive how very thinly they are
inhabited. You may wander for a week together
without seeing a hut. The wild beasts, snakes,
the swamps, the trees, the uncurbed luxuriance
of everything around you, conspire to inform you
that man has no habitation here — man has sel-
dom passed this way.

CHAPTER III

Let us now return to natural history. There
was a person making shingles, with twenty or
thirty negroes, not far from Mibiri-hill. I had
offered a reward to any of them who would find a
good-sized snake in the forest, and come and let
me know where it was. Often had these negroes
looked for a large snake, and as often been dis-
appointed.

One Sunday morning I met one of them in the
forest, and asked him which way he was going:
he said he was going towards Warratilla creek to
hunt an armadillo : and he had his little dog with
him. On coming back, about noon, the dog began
to bark at the root of a large tree, which had
been upset by the whirlwind, and was lying there
in a gradual state of decay. The negro said, he
thought his dog was barking at an acouri, which
had probably taken refuge under the tree, and he
went up with an intention to kill it : he there saw
a snake, and hastened back to inform me of it.

The sun had just passed the meridian in a
cloudless sky; there was scarcely a bird to be
seen, for the winged inhabitants of the forest, as
though overcome by heat, had retired to the
thickest shade : all would have been like midnight
silence, were it not for the shrill voice of the
Pi-pi-yo, every now and then resounding from a
distant tree. I was sitting with a little Horace

214

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 215

in my hand, on what had once been the steps
which formerly led up to the now mouldering and
dismantled building. The negro and his little
dog came down the hill in haste, and I was soon
informed that a snake had been discovered ; but it
was a young one, called the Bush-master, a rare
and poisonous snake.

I instantly rose up, and laying hold of the
eight-foot lance, which was close by me, ''Well
then, Daddy," said I, ''we'll go and have a look
at the snake." I was barefoot, with an old hat,
and check shirt, and trousers on, and a pair of
braces to keep them up. The negro had his cut-
lass, and as we ascended the hill, another negro,
armed with a cutlass, joined us, judging, from
our pace, that there was something to do. The
little dog came along with us, and when we had
got about half a mile in the forest, the negro
stopped, and pointed to the fallen tree: all was
still and silent: I told the negroes not to stir
from the place where they were, and keep the
little dog in, and that I would go in and re-
connoitre.

I advanced up to the place slow and cautious.
The snake was well concealed, but at last I made
him out ; it was a Coulacanara, not poisonous, but
large enough to have crushed any of us to death.
On measuring him afterwards, he was something
more than fourteen feet long.

This species of snake is very rare, and much
thicker, in ' proportion to his length, than any
other snake in the forest. A coulacanara of four-
teen feet in length is as thick as a common boa
of twenty- four. After skinning this snake I could

216 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

easily get my head into his mouth, as the singular
formation of the jaws admits of wonderful ex-
tension.

A Dutch friend of mine, by name Brouwer,
killed a Boa, twenty-two feet long, with a pair of
stag's horns in his mouth: he had swallowed the
stag, but could not get the horns down: so he
had to wait in patience with that uncomfortable
mouthful till his stomach digested the body, and
then the horns would drop out. In this plight
the Dutchman found him as he was going in his
canoe up the river, and sent a ball through his
head.

On ascertaining the size of the serpent which
the negro had just found, I retired slowly the
way I came, and promised four dollars to the ne-
gro who had shown it to me, and one to the
other who had joined us. Aware that the day
was on the decline, and that the approach of night
would be detrimental to the dissection, a thought
struck me that I could take him alive. I imagined
if I could strike him with the lance behind the
head, and pin him to the ground, I might succeed
in capturing him. When I told this to the ne-
groes, they begged and entreated me to let them
go for a gun, and bring more force, as they were
sure the snake would kill some of us.

I had been at the siege of Troy for nine years,
and it would not do now to carry back to Greece,
^'nil decimo nisi dedecus anno." I mean, I had
been in search of a large serpent for years, and
now having come up with one, it did not become
me to turn soft. So, taking a cutlass from one
of the negroes, and then ranging both the sable

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 217

slaves behind me, I told them to follow me, and
that I would cut them down if they offered to fly.
I smiled as I said this, but they shook their heads
in silence, and seemed to have but a bad heart
of it.

When we got up to the place, the serpent had not
stirred, but I could see nothing of his head, and I
judged by the folds of his body that it must be
at the farthest side of his den. A species of
woodbine had formed a complete mantle over the
branches of the fallen tree, almost impervious to
the rain, or the rays of the sun. Probably he
had resorted to this sequestered place for a length
of time, as it bore marks of an ancient settlement.

I now took my knife, determining to cut away
the woodbine, and break the twigs in the gentlest
manner possible, till I could get a view of his
head. One negro stood guard close behind me
with the lance; and near him the other with a
cutlass. The cutlass which I had taken from the
first negro was on the ground close by me in case
of need.

After working in dead silence for a quarter of
an hour, with one knee all the time on the ground,
I had cleared away enough to see his head. It
appeared coming out betwixt the first and second
coil of his body, and was flat on the ground. This
was the very position I wished it to be in.

I rose in silence and retreated very slowly, mak-
ing a sign to the negroes to do the same. The
dog was sitting at a distance in mute observance.
I could now read in the face of the negroes, that
they considered this a very unpleasant affair ; and
they made another attempt to persuade me to let

218 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

them go for a gun. I smiled in a good-natured
manner, and made a feint to cut them down with
the weapon I had in my hand. This was all the
answer I made to their request, and they looked
very uneasy.

It must be observed, we were now about twenty
yards from the snake's den. I now ranged the
negroes behind me, and told him who stood next
to me to lay hold of the lance the moment I
struck the snake, and that the other must attend
my movements. It now only remained to take
their cutlasses from them, for I was sure, if I
did not disarm them, they would be tempted to
strike the snake in time of danger, and thus for
ever spoil his skin. On taking their cutlasses
from them, if I might judge from their physi-
ognomy, they seemed to consider it as a most
intolerable act of tyranny in me. Probably noth-
ing kept them from bolting, but the consolation
that I was to be betwixt them and the snake.
Indeed, my own heart, in spite of all I could do,
beat quicker than usual; and I felt those sensa-
tions which one has on board a merchant-vessel
in war time, when the captain orders all hands on
deck to prepare for action, while a strange vessel
is coming down upon us under suspicious colours.

We went slowly on in silence, without moving
our arms or heads, in order to prevent all alarm
as much as possible, lest the snake should glide
off, or attack us in self-defence. I carried the
lance perpendicularly before me, with the point
about a foot from the ground. The snake had
not moved; and on getting up to him, I struck
him with the lance on the near side, just behind

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 219

the neck, and pinned him to the ground. That
moment, the negro next to me seized the lance,
and held it firm in its place, while I dashed head
foremost into the den to grapple with the snake,
and to get hold of his tail before he could do any
mischief.

On pinning him to the ground with the lance, he
gave a tremendous loud hiss, and the little dog
ran away, howling as he went. We had a sharp
fray in the den, the rotten sticks flying on all
sides, and each party struggling for superiority.
I called out to the second negro to throw himself
upon me, as I found I was not heavy enough.
He did so, and the additional weight was of great
service. I had now got firm hold of his tail ; and
after a violent struggle or two, he gave in, find-
ing himself overpowered. .This was the moment
to secure him. So, while the first negro con-
tinued to hold the lance firm to the ground, and
the other was helping me, I contrived to unloose
my braces, and with them tied up the snake's
mouth.

The snake now finding himself in an unpleasant
situation, tried to better himself, and set reso-
lutely to work, but we overpowered him. We
contrived to make him twist himself round the
shaft of the lance, and then prepared to convey
him out of the forest. I stood at his head and
held it firm under my arm, one negro supported
the belly, and the other the tail. In this order
we began to move slowly towards home, and
reached it after resting ten times; for the snake
was too heavy for us to support him without
stopping to recruit our strength. As we pro-

220 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

ceeded onwards with Mm, lie fouglit hard for
freedom, but it was all in vain. The day was
now too far spent to think of dissecting him.
Had I killed him, a partial putrefaction would
have taken place before morning. I had brought
with me up into the forest a strong bag, large
enough to contain any animal that I should want
to dissect. I considered this the best mode of
keeping live wild animals when I was pressed for
daylight; for the bag yielding in every direction
to their efforts, they would have nothing solid or
fixed to work on, and thus would be prevented
from making a hole through it. I say fixed, for
after the mouth of the bag was closed, the bag
itself was not fastened or tied to anything, but
moved about wherever the animal inside caused
it to roll. After securing afresh the mouth of
the coulacanara, so that he could not open it, he
was forced into this bag, and left to his fate till
morning.

I cannot say he allowed me to have a quiet
night. My hammock was in the loft just above
him, and the floor betwixt us, half gone to decay,
so that in parts of it no boards intervened betwixt
his lodging-room and mine. He was very rest-
less and fretful ; and had Medusa been my wife,
there could not have been more continued and
disagreeable hissing in the bedchamber that night.
At daybreak, I sent to borrow ten of the negroes
who were cutting wood at a distance ; I could have
done with half that number, but judged it most
prudent to have a good force, in case he should
try to escape from the house when we opened the
bag. However, nothing serious occurred.

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AINIERICA 221

We untied the mouth of the bag, kept him down
])y main force, and then I cut his throat. He bled
like an ox. By six o'clock the same evening, he
was completely dissected. On examining his
teeth, I observed that they were all bent like ten-
ter-hooks, pointing down his throat, and not so
large or strong as I expected to have found them ;
but they are exactly suited to what they are
intended by nature to perform. The snake does
not masticate his food, and thus the only service
his teeth have to perform is to seize his prey, and
hold it till he swallows it whole.

In general, the skins of snakes are sent to mu-
seums without the head: for when the Indians
and Negroes kill a snake, they seldom fail to cut
off the head, and then they run no risk from its
teeth. When the skin is stuffed in the museum,
a wooden head is substituted, armed with teeth
which are large enough to suit a tiger's jaw; and
this tends to mislead the spectator, and give him
erroneous ideas.

During this fray with the serpent, the old ne-
gro. Daddy Quashi, was in George-town procuring
provisions, and just returned in time to help to
take the skin off. He had spent best part of his
life in the forest with his old master, Mr. Ed-
monstone, and amused me much in recounting
their many adventures amongst the wild beasts.
The Daddy had a particular horror of snakes, and
frankly declared he could never have faced the
one in question.

The week following, his courage was put to the
test, and he made good his words. It was a
curious conflict, and took place near the spot

222 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

where I had captured the large snake. In the
morning I had been following a new species of
paroquet, and the day being rainy, I had taken an
umbrella to keep the gun dry, and had left it
under a tree; in the afternoon I took Daddy
Quashi with me to look for it. Whilst he was
searching about, curiosity took me towards the
place of the late scene of action. There was a
path where timber had formerly been dragged
along. Here I observed a young coulacanara, ten
feet long, slowly moving onwards; I saw he was
not thick enough to break my arm in case he got
twisted round it. There was not a moment to be
lost. I laid hold of his tail with the left hand,
one knee being on the ground; with the right I
took my hat, and held it as you would hold a
shield for defence. The snake instantly turned,
and came on at me, with his head about a yard
from the ground, as if to ask me, what business
I had to take liberties with his tail. I let him
come, hissing and open-mouthed, within two feet
of my face, and then, with all the force I was
master of, I drove my fist, shielded by my hat,
full in his jaws. He was stunned and confounded
by the blow, and ere he could recover himself, I
had seized his throat with both hands, in such a
position that he could not bite me ; I then allowed
him to coil himslf round my body, and marched
off with him as my lawful prize. He pressed me
hard, but not alarmingly so.

In the meantime. Daddy Quashi having found
the umbrella, and having heard the noise which
the fray occasioned, was coming cautiously up.
As soon as he saw me, and in what company I

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 223

was, he turned about and ran off home, I after
him, and shouting to increase his fear. On scold-
ing him for his cowardice, the old rogue begged
that I would forgive him, for that the sight of the
snake had positively turned him sick at stomach.

When I had done with the carcass of the large
snake, it was conveyed into the forest, as I ex-
pected that it would attract the king of the vul-
tures, as soon as time should have rendered it
sufficiently savoury. In a few days it sent forth
that odour which a carcass should send forth,
and about twenty of the common vultures came
and perched on the neighbouring trees; the king
of the vultures came too ; and I observed that none
of the common ones seemed inclined to begin
breakfast till his majesty had finished. "When he
had consumed as much snake as nature informed
him would do him good, he retired to the top of a
high mora-tree, and then all the common vultures
fell to, and made a hearty meal.

The head and neck of the king of the vultures
are bare of feathers ; but the beautiful appearance
they exhibit fades in death. The throat and the
back of the neck are of a fine lemon colour; both
sides of the neck, from the ears downwards, of a
rich scarlet; behind the corrugated part there is
a white spot. The crown of the head is scarlet;
betwixt the lower mandible and the eye, and close
by the ear, there is a part which has a fine silvery
blue appearance; the corrugated part is of a
dirty light brown; behind it, and just above
the white spot, a portion of the skin is blue, and
the rest scarlet ; the skin which juts out behind the

224 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

neck, and appears like an oblong caruncle, is blue
in part, and part orange.

The bill is orange and black, the caruncles on
his forehead orange, and the cere orange; the
orbits scarlet, and the irides white. Below the
bare part of the neck there is a cinereous ruff.
The bag of the stomach, which is only seen when
distended with food, is of a most delicate white,
intersected with blue veins, which appear on it
just like the blue veins on the arm of a fair-
complexioned person.

The tail and long wing-feathers are black, the
belly white, and the rest of the body a fine satin
colour.

I cannot be persuaded that the vultures ever
feed upon live animals, not even upon lizards,
rats, mice, or frogs; I have watched them for
hours together, but never could see them touch
any living animals, though innumerable lizards,
frogs, and small birds swarmed all around them.
I have killed lizards and frogs, and put them in a
proper place for observation; as soon as they
began to stink, the Aura vulture invariably came
and took them off. I have frequently observed,
that the day after the planter had burnt the trash
in a cane-field, the aura vulture was sure to be
there, feeding on the snakes, lizards, and frogs
which had suffered in the conflagration. I often
saw a large bird (very much like the common
gregarious vulture at a distance) catch and de-
vour lizards; after shooting one, it turned out to
be not a vulture, but a hawk, with a tail squarer
and shorter than hawks have in general. The
vultures, like the goatsucker and woodpecker,

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 225

seems to be in disgrace with man. They are gen-
erally termed a voracious, stinking, cruel, and
ignoble tribe. Under these impressions, the
fowler discharges his gun at them, and probably
thinks he has done well in ridding the earth of
such vermin.

Some governments impose a fine on him who
kills a vulture. This is a salutary law, and it
were to be wished that other governments would
follow so good an example. I would fain here say
a word or two in favour of this valuable scavenger.

Kind Providence has conferred a blessing on
hot countries in giving them the vulture; he has
ordered it to consume that which, if left to dis-
solve in putrefaction, would infect the air, and
produce a pestilence. When full of food, the vul-
ture certainly appears an indolent bird; he will
stand for hours together on the branch of a tree,
or on the top of a house, with his wings droop-
ing, and, after rain, with them spread and ele-
vated to catch the rays of the sun. It has been
remarked by naturalists, that the flight of this
bird is laborious. I have paid attention to the
vulture in Andalusia, and to those in Guiana,
Brazil, and the West Indies, and conclude that
they are birds of long, even, and lofty flight. In-
deed, whoever has observed the aura vulture, will
be satisfied that his flight is wonderfully majestic,
and of long continuance.

The bird is above five feet from wing to wing
extended. You will see it soaring aloft in the
aerial expanse on pinions which never flutter, and
which at the same time carry him through the
fields of ether with a rapidity equal to that of the
15

226 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

golden eagle. In Paramaribo the laws protect
the vulture, and the Spaniards of Angustura
never think of molesting him. In 1808, I saw the
vultures in that city as tame as domestic fowls;
a person who had never seen a vulture would
have taken them for turkeys. They are very use-
ful to the Spaniards ; and had it not been for
them, the refuse of the slaughter-houses in
Angustura would have caused an intolerable
nuisance.

The common black, short, square-tailed vulture
is gregarious ; but the aura vulture is not so ; for,
though you may see fifteen or twenty of them
feeding on the dead vermin in a cane-field, after
the trash has been set fire to, still, if you have
paid attention to their arrival, you will have
observed that they came singly and retired singly,
and thus their being all together in the same
field was merely accidental, and caused by each
one smelling the effluvia as he was soaring through
the sky to look out for food. I have watched
twenty come into a cane-field; they arrived one
by one, and from different parts of the heavens.
Hence we may conclude, that though the other
species of vulture are gregarious, the aura vul-
ture is not.

If you dissect a vulture that has just been feed-
ing on carrion, you must expect that your olfac-
tory nerves will be somewhat offended with the
rank effluvia from his craw; just as they would
be were you to dissect a citizen after the Lord
Mayor's dinner. If, on the contrary, the vulture
be empty at the time you commence the opera-

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 227

tion, there will be no offensive smell, but a strong
scent of mnsk.

I had long wished to examine the native haunts
of the Cayman; but as the river Demerara did
not afford a specimen of the large kind, I was
obliged to go to the river Essequibo to look for
one.

I got the canoe ready, and went down in it to
George-town; where, having put in the necessary
articles for the expedition, not forgetting a couple
of large shark-hooks, with chains attached to
them, and a coil of strong new rope, I hoisted a
little sail, which I had got made on purpose, and
at six o'clock in the morning shaped our course
for the river Essequibo. I had put a pair of
shoes on to prevent the tar at the bottom of the
canoe from sticking to my feet. The sun was
flaming hot, and from eleven o'clock till two beat
perpendicularly upon the top of my feet, betwixt
the shoes and the trousers. Not feeling it dis-
agreeable, or being in the least aware of painful
consequences, as I had been barefoot for months,
I neglected to put on a pair of short stockings
which I had with me. I did not reflect, that sit-
ting still in one place, with your feet exposed to
the sun, was very different from being exposed
to the sun while in motion.

We went ashore in the Essequibo, about three
o'clock in the afternoon, to choose a place for the
night's residence, to collect firewood, and to set
the fish-hooks. It was then that I first began to
find my legs very painful : they soon became much
inflamed and red and blistered; and it required
considerable caution not to burst the blisters,

228 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

otherwise sores would have ensued. I imme-
diately got into the hammock, and there passed
a painful and sleepless night, and for two days
after I was disabled from walking.

About midnight, as I was lying awake, and in
great pain, I heard the Indian say, ^'Massa,
massa, you no hear tiger?'* I listened atten-
tively, and heard the softly sounding tread of his
feet as he approached us. The moon had gone
down; but every now and then we could get a
glance of him by the light of our fire : he was the
jaguar, for I could see the spots on his body.
Had I wished to have fired at him, I was not able
to take a sure aim, for I was in such pain that I
could not turn myself in my hammock. The
Indian would have fired, but I would not allow
him to do so, as I wanted to see a little more of
our new visitor; for it is not every day or night
that the traveller is favoured with an undisturbed
sight of the juguar in his own forests.

Whenever the fire got low, the jaguar came a
little nearer, and when the Indian renewed it, he
retired abruptly ; sometimes he would come within
twenty yards, and then we had a view of him,
sitting on his hind legs like a dog; sometimes he
moved slowly to and fro, and at other times we
could hear him mend his pace, as if impatient.
At last the Indian, not relishing the idea of hav-
ing such company in the neighbourhood, could
contain himself no longer, and set up a most
tremendous yell. The jaguar bounded off like a
racehorse, and returned no more ; it appeared by
the print of his feet the next morning that he was
a full-grown jaguar.

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 229

In two days after this we got to the first falls
in the Essequibo. There was a superb barrier of
rocks quite across the river. In the rainy season
these rocks are for the most part under water;
but it being now dry weather, we had a fine view
of them, while the water from the river above
them rushed through the different openings in
majestic grandeur. Here, on a little hill, jutting
out into the river, stands the house of Mrs.
Peterson, the last house of people of colour up
this river; I hired a negro from her, and a col-
oured man, who pretended that they knew the
haunts of the cayman, and understood everything
about taking him. We were a day in passing
these falls and rapids, celebrated for the Pacou,
the richest and most delicious fish in Guiana.
The coloured man was now in his element; he
stood in the head of the canoe, and with his bow
and arrow shot the pacou as they were swimming
in the stream. The arrow had scarcely left the
bow before he had plunged headlong into the
river, and seized the fish as it was struggling with
it. He dived and swam like an otter, and rarely
missed the fish he aimed at.

Did my pen, gentle reader, possess descriptive
powers, I would here give thee an idea of the
enchanting scenery of the Essequibo ; but that not
being the case, thou must be contented with a
moderate and well-intended attempt.

Nothing could be more lovely than the appear-
ance of the forest on each side of this noble river.
Hills rose on hills in fine gradation, all covered
with trees of gigantic height and size. Here their
leaves were of a lively purple, and there of the

230 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

deepest green. Sometimes the Caracara ex-
tended its scarlet blossoms from branch to branch,
and gave the tree the appearance as though it had
been hung with garlands.

This delightful scenery of the Essequibo made
the soul overflow with joy, and caused you to rove
in fancy through fairy-land; till, on turning an
angle in the river, you were recalled to more
sober reflections on seeing the once grand and
towering mora, now dead and ragged in its top-
most branches, while its aged trunk, undermined
by the rushing torrent, hung as though in sorrow
over the river, which, ere long, would receive it,
and sweep it away forever.

During the day, the trade-wind blew a gentle and
refreshing breeze, which died away as the night
set in, and then the river was as smooth as glass.

The moon was within three days of being full,
so that we did not regret the loss of the sun,
which set in all its splendour. Scarce had he
sunk behind the western hills, when the Goat-
suckers sent forth their soft and plaintive cries;
some often repeating, "Who are you — who, who,
who are youf" and others, "Willy, Willy, Willy
come go."

The Indian and Daddy Quashi often shook
their heads at this, and said they were bringing
talk from Yabahou, who is the evil spirit of the
Essequibo. It was delightful to sit on the branch
of a fallen tree, near the water's edge, and listen
to these harmless birds as they repeated their
evening song; and watch the owls and vampires
as they every now and then passed up and down
the river.

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 231

The next day, about noon, as we were proceed-
ing onwards, we heard the Campanero tolling in
the depth of the forest. Though I should not then
have stopped to dissect even a rare bird, having
a greater object in view, still I could not resist
the opportunity offered of acquiring the cam-
panero. The place where he was tolling was low
and swampy, and my legs not having quite re-
covered from the effects of the sun, I sent the
Indian to shoot the campanero. He got up to the
tree, which he described as very high, with a
naked top, and situated in a swamp. He fired at
the bird, but either missed it, or did not wound it
sufficiently to bring it down. This was the only
opportunity I had of getting a campanero during
this expedition. We had never heard one toll
before this morning, and never heard one after.

CHAPTER IV

About an hour before sunset, we reached the
place which the two men who had joined us at the
falls pointed out as a proper one to find a Cay-
man. There was a large creek close by, and a
sand-bank gently sloping to the water. Just
within the forest on this bank, we cleared a place
of brushwood, suspended the hammocks from the
trees, and then picked up enough of decayed
wood for fuel.

The Indian found a large land tortoise, and
this, with plenty of fresh fish which we had in the
canoe, afforded a supper not to be despised.

The tigers had kept up a continued roaring
every night since we had entered the Essequibo.
The sound was awfully fine. Sometimes it was
in the immediate neighbourhood; at other times
it was far off, and echoed amongst the hills like
distant thunder.

It may, perhaps, not be amiss to observe here,
that when the word tiger is used, it does not
mean the Bengal tiger. It means the jaguar,
whose skin is beautifully spotted, and not striped
like that of the tiger in the East. It is, in fact,
the tiger of the new world, and receiving the name
of tiger from the discoverers of South America,
it has kept it ever since. It is a cruel, strong,
and dangerous beast, but not so courageous as
the Bengal tiger.

282

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 233

We now baited a shark-hook with a large fish,
and put it upon a board about a yard long, and
one foot broad, whicli we had brought on purpose.
This board was carried out in the canoe, about
forty yards into the river. By means of a string,
long enough to reach the bottom of the river, and
at the end of which string was fastened a stone,
the board was kept, as it were, at anchor. One
end of the new rope I had bought in town was
reeved through the chain of the shark-hook, and
the other end fastened to a tree on the sand-bank.

It was now an hour after sunset. The sky was
cloudless, and the moon shone beautifully bright.
There was not a breath of wind in the heavens,
and the river seemed like a large plain of quick-
silver. Every now and then a huge fish would
strike and plunge in the water ; then the owls and
goatsuckers would continue their lamentations,
and the sound of these was lost in the prowling
tiger's growl. Then all was still again, and silent
as midnight.

The caymen were now upon the stir, and at
intervals their noise could be distinguished amid
that of the jaguar, the owls, the goatsuckers, and
frogs. It was a singular and awful sound. It
was like a suppressed sigh, bursting forth all of
a sudden, and so loud that you might hear it
above a mile off. First one emitted this horrible
noise, and then another answered him; and on
looking at the countenances of the people around
me, I could plainly see that they expected to have
a cayman that night.

We were at supper, when the Indian, who
seemed to have had one eye on the turtle-pot and

234 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

the other on the bait in the river, said he saw the
cajTnan coming.

Upon looking towards the place, there appeared
something on the water like a black log of wood.
It was so unlike anything alive, that I doubted
if it were a cayman; but the Indian smiled, and
said he was sure it was one, for he remembered
seeing a cayman, some years ago, when he was in
the Essequibo.

At last it gradually approached the bait, and
the board began to move. The moon shone so
bright that we could distinctly see him open his
huge jaws, and take in the bait. We pulled the
rope. He immediately let drop the bait; and
then we saw his black head retreating from the
board, to the distance of a few yards, and there it
remained quite motionless.

He did not seem inclined to advance again;
and so we finished our supper. In about an hour's
time he again put himself in motion, and took
hold of the bait. But, probably, suspecting that
he had to deal with knaves and cheats, he held it
in his mouth but did not swallow it. We pulled
the rope again, but with no better success than
the first time.

He retreated as usual, and came back again in
about an hour. We paid him every attention till
three o 'clock in the morning ; when, worn out with
disappointment, we went to the hammocks, turned
in, and fell asleep.

WTien day broke, we found that he had con-
trived to get the bait from the hook, though we
had tied it on with string. We had now no more
hopes of taking a cayman till the return of night.

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 235

The Indian took off into the woods, and brought
back a noble supply of game. The rest of us went
into the canoe, and proceeded up the river to
shoot fish. We got even more than we could use.

As we approachd the shallows, we could see
the large Sting-rays moving at the bottom. The
coloured man never failed to hit them with his
arrow. The weather was delightful. There was
scarcely a cloud to intercept the sun's rays.

I saw several scarlet aras, anihingas, and
ducks, but could not get a shot at them. The
parrots crossed the river in innumerable quan-
tities, always flying in pairs. Here, too, I saw
the Sun-bird, called Tirana by the Spaniards in
the Oroonoque, and shot one of them. The black
and white Scarlet-headed Finch was very com-
mon here. I could never see this bird in the
Demerara, nor hear of its being there.

We at last came to a large sand-bank, probably
two miles in circumference. As we approached
it we could see two or three hundred Fresh-water
Turtle on the edge of the bank. Ere we could
get near enough to let fly an arrow at them, they
had all sunk into the river and appeared no more.

We went on the sand-bank to look for their
nests, as this was the breeding season. The
coloured man showed us how to find them.
Wherever a portion of the sand seemed smoother
than the rest, there was sure to be a turtle's nest.
On digging down with our hands, about nine
inches deep, we found from twenty to thirty white
eggs ; in less than an hour we got about two hun-
dred. Those which had a little black spot or two
on the shell we ate the same day, as it was a sign

236 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

that they were not fresh, and of course would not
keep : those which had no speck were put into dry
sand, and were good some weeks after.

At midnight, two of our people went to this
sand-bank, while the rest stayed to watch the
cayman. The turtle had advanced on to the sand
to lay their eggs, and the men got betwixt them
and the water ; they brought off half a dozen very
fine and well-fed turtle. The egg-shell of the
fresh-water turtle is not hard like that of the land
tortoise, but appears like white parchment and
gives way to the pressure of the fingers; but it
is very tough, and does not break. On this sand-
bank, close to the forest, we found several Guana's
nests; but they had never more than fourteen
eggs a-piece. Thus passed the day in exercise
and knowledge, till the sun's declining orb re-
minded us it was time to return to the place from
whence we had set out.

The second night's attempt upon the cayman
was a repetition of the first, quite unsuccessful.
We went a fishing the day after, had excellent
sport, and returned to experience a third night's
disappointment. On the fourth evening, about
four o'clock, we began to erect a stage amongst
the trees, close to the water's edge. From this
we intended to shoot an arrow into the cayman:
at the end of this arrow was to be attached a
string, which would be tied to the rope, and as
soon as the cayman was struck we were to have
the canoe ready and pursue him in the river.

Wliile we were busy in preparing the stage, a
tiger began to roar. We judged by the sound
that he was not above a quarter of a mile from

■An immense Jaguar, staindng on tlie Trunk or an agi'il Mora-tree

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 237

us, and that he was close to the side of the river.
Unfortunately, the Indian said it was not a jaguar
that was roaring, but a couguar. The couguar is
of a pale, brownish red colour, and not as large
as the jaguar. As there was nothing particular
in this animal, I thought it better to attend to the
apparatus for catching the cayman than to go in
quest of the couguar. The people, however, went
in the canoe to the place where the couguar was
roaring. On arriving near the spot, they saw it
was not a couguar, but an immense jaguar, stand-
ing on the trunk of an aged mora-tree, which
bended over the river; he growled and showed
his teeth as they approached; the coloured man
fired at him with a ball, but probably missed him,
and the tiger instantly descended, and took off
into the woods. I went to the place before dark,
and we searched the forest for about half a mile
in the direction he had fled, but we could see no
traces of him, or any marks of blood; so I con-
cluded that fear had prevented the man from tak-
ing steady aim.

We spent best part of the fourth night in try-
ing for the cayman, but all to no purpose. I was
now convinced that something was materially
wrong. We ought to have been successful, con-
sidering our vigilance and attention, and that we
had repeatedly seen the cayman. It was useless
to tarry here any longer ; moreover, the coloured
man began to take airs, and fancied that I could
not do without him. I never admit of this in any
expedition where I am commander ; and so I con-
vinced the man, to his sorrow, that I could do
without him; for I paid him what I had agreed

238 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

to give him, which amounted to eight dollars, and
ordered him back in his own curial to Mrs. Peter-
son's, on the hill at the first falls. I then asked
the negro if there were any Indian settlements in
the neighbourhood ; he said he knew of one, a day
and a half off. We went in quest of it, and about
one o'clock the next day the negro showed us the
creek where it was.

The entrance was so concealed by thick bushes
that a stranger would have passed it without
knowing it to be a creek. In going up it we
found it dark, winding, and intricate beyond any
creek that I had ever seen before. When Orpheus
came back with his young wife from Styx, his
path must have been similar to this, for Ovid
says it was

"Arduus, obliquus, ealigine densus opaca,**

and this creek was exactly so.

When we had got about two-thirds up it, we
met the Indians going a fishing. I saw, by the
way their things were packed in the curial, that
they did not intend to return for some days.
However, on telling them what we wanted, and
by promising handsome presents of powder, shot,
and hooks, they dropped their expedition, and
invited us up to the settlement they had just left,
and where we laid in a provision of cassava.

They gave us for dinner boiled ant-bear and
red monkey; two dishes unknown even at Beau-
villiers in Paris, or at a London city feast. The
monkey was very good indeed, but the ant-bear
had been kept beyond its time; it stunk, as our
venison does in England ; and so, after tasting it,

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 239

I preferred dining entirely on monkey. After
resting here, we went back to the river. The In-
dians, three in number, accompanied us in their
own curial, and, on entering the river, pointed to
a place a little way above, well calculated to har-
bour a cayman. The water was deep and still,
and flanked by an immense sand-bank ; there was
also a little shallow creek close by.

On this sand-bank, near the forest, the people
made a shelter for the night. My own was
already made; for I always take with me a
painted sheet, about twelve feet by ten. This,
thrown over a pole, supported betwixt two trees,
makes you a capital roof with very little trouble.

"We showed one of the Indians the shark-hook.
He shook his head and laughed at it, and said it
would not do. Wlien he was a boy, he had seen
his father catch the caymen, and on the morrow
he would make something that would answer.

In the meantime, we set the shark-hook, but it
availed us nought; a cayman came and took it,
but would not swallow it.

Seeing it was useless to attend the shark-hook
any longer, we left it for the night, and returned
to our hammocks.

Ere I fell asleep, a reflection or two broke in
upon me. I considered, that as far as the judg-
ment of civilized man went, everything had been
procured and done to ensure success. We had
hooks, and lines, and baits, and patience; we had
spent nights in watching, had seen the cayman
come and take the bait, and after our expecta-
tions had been wound up to the highest pitch, all
ended in disappointment. Probably this poor

240 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

wild man of the woods would succeed by means
of a very simple process; and thus prove to his
more civilized brother that, notwithstanding books
and schools, there is a vast deal of knowledge to
be picked up at every step, whichever way we
turn ourselves.

In the morning, as usual, we found the bait
gone from the shark-hook. The Indians went
into the forest to hunt, and we took the canoe to
shoot fish and get another supply of turtle's eggs,
which we found in great abundance on this large
sand-bank.

We went to the little shallow creek, and shot
some young caymen, about two feet long. It was
astonishing to see what spite and rage these little
things showed when the arrow struck them; they
turned round and bit it, and snapped at us when
we went into the water to take them up. Daddy
Quashi boiled one of them for his dinner, and
found it very sweet and tender. I do not see
why it should not be as good as frog or veal.

The day was now declining apace, and the In-
dian had made his instrument to take the cayman.
It was very simple. There were four pieces of
tough hard wood, a foot long, and about as thick
as your little finger, and barbed at both ends;
they were tied round the end of the rope, in such
a manner, that if you conceive the rope to be an
arrow, these four sticks would form the arrow's
head; so that one end of the four united sticks
answered to the point of the arrow-head, while
the other ends of the sticks expanded at equal
distances round the rope. Now it is evident, that
if the cayman swallowed this (the other end of

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 241

the rope, whicli was thirty yards long, being fas-
tened to a tree), the more he pulled, the faster
the barbs would stick into his stomach. This
wooden hook, if you may so call it, was well baited
with the flesh of the acouri, and the entrails were
twisted round the rope for about a foot above it.

Nearly a mile from where we had our ham-
mocks, the sand-bank was steep and abrupt, and
the river very still and deep; there the Indian
pricked a stick into the sand. It was two feet
long, and on its extremity was fixed the machine ;
it hung suspended about a foot from the water,
and the end of the rope was made fast to a stake
driven well into the sand.

The Indian then took the empty shell of a land
tortoise and gave it some heavy blows with an
axe. I asked him why he did that. He said it
was to let the cajTuan hear that something was
going on. In fact the Indian meant it as the
cayman's dinner-bell.

Having done this, we went back to the ham-
mocks, not intending to visit it again till morning.
During the night, the jaguars roared and grum-
bled in the forest, as though the world was going
wrong with them, and at intervals we could hear
the distant cayman. The roaring of the jaguars
was awful ; but it was music to the dismal noise
of these hideous and malicious reptiles.

About half -past five in the morning, the Indian
stole off silently to take a look at the bait. On
arriving at the place he set up a tremendous
shout. We all jumped out of our hammocks, and
ran to him. The Indians got there before me, for
they had no clothes to put on, and I lost two

16

242 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

minutes in looking for my trousers and in slip-
ping into them.

We found a cayman, ten feet and a half long,
fast to the end of the rope. Nothing now re-
mained to do, but to get him out of the water
without injuring his scales, "hoc opus, hie labor."
We mustered strong: there were three Indians
from the creek, there was my own Indian Yan,
Daddy Quashi, the negro from Mrs. Peterson's,
James, Mr. R. Edmonstone's man, whom I was
instructing to preserve birds, and lastly, myself.

I informed the Indians that it was my intention
to draw him quietly out of the water, and then
secure him. They looked and stared at each other,
and said I might do it myself; but they would
have no hand in it ; the cayman would worry some
of us. On saying this, "consedere duces," they
squatted on their hams with the most perfect in-
difference.

The Indians of these wilds have never been
subject to the least restraint; and I knew enough
of them to be aware, that if I tried to force them
against their will, they would take off, and leave
me and my presents unheeded and never return.

Daddy Quashi was for applying to our guns, as
usual, considering them our best and safest
friends. I immediately offered to knock him down
for his cowardice, and he shrunk back, begging
that I would be cautious, and not get myself
worried; and apologizing for his own want of
resolution. My Indian was now in conversation
with the others, and they asked if I would allow
them to shoot a dozen arrows into him, and thus
disable him. This would have ruined all. I had

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 243

come above three hundred miles on purpose to
get a cayman uninjured, and not to carry back
a mutilated specimen. I rejected their proposi-
tion with firmness, and darted a disdainful eye
upon the Indians.

Daddy Quashi was again beginning to remon-
strate, and I chased him on the sand-bank for a
quarter of a mile. He told me afterwards, he
thought he should have dropped down dead with
fright, for he was firmly persuaded, if I had
caught him, I should have bundled him into the
cayman's jaws. Here then we stood, in silence,
like a calm before a thunder-storm. "Hoc res
summa loco. Scinditur in contraria \nilgus."
They wanted to kill him, and I wanted to take
him alive.

I now walked up and down the sand, revolving
a dozen projects in my head. The canoe was at a
considerable distance, and I ordered the people
to bring it round to the place where we were. The
mast was eight feet long, and not much thicker
than my wrist. I took it out of the canoe, and
wrapped the sail round the end of it. Now it
appeared clear to me that if I went down upon
one knee, and held the mast in the same position
as the soldier holds his bayonet when rushing to
the charge, I could force it down the cayman's
throat, should he come open-mouthed at me.
When this was told to the Indians, they bright-
ened up, and said they would help me to pull him
out of the river.

** Brave squad!" said I to myself, " 'Audax
omnia perpeti,' now that you have got me betwixt
yourselves and danger." I then mustered all

244 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

hands for the last time before the battle. We
were, four South American savages, two negroes
from Africa, a Creole from Trinidad, and myself
a white man from Yorkshire. In fact, a little
tower of Babel group, in dress, no dress, address,
and language.

Daddy Quashi hung in the rear ; I showed him
a large Spanish knife, which I always carried in
the waistband of my trousers: it spoke volumes
to him, and he shrugged up his shoulders in ab-
solute despair. The sun was just peeping over
the high forests on the eastern hills, as if coming
to look on, and bid us act with becoming fortitude.
I placed all the people at the end of the rope, and
ordered them to pull till the cayman appeared on
the surface of the water; and then, should he
plunge, to slacken the rope and let him go again
into the deep.

I now took the mast of the canoe in my hand
(the sail being tied round the end of the mast)
and sunk down upon one knee, about four yards
from the water's edge, determining to thrust it
down his throat, in case he gave me an oppor-
tunity. I certainly felt somewhat uncomfortable
in this situation, and I thought of Cerberus on the
other side of the Styx ferry. The people pulled
the cayman to the surface; he plunged furiously
as soon as he arrived in these upper regions, and
immediately went below again on their slacken-
ing the rope. I saw enough not to fall in love at
first sight. I now told them we would run all
risks, and have him on land immediately. They
pulled again, and out he came, — ''monstrum hor-
rendum, informe." This was an interesting mo-

) c;

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 245

ment. I kept my position firmly, with my eye fixed
steadfast on liim.

By tliis time the cayman was within two yards
of me. I saw he was in a state of fear and per-
turbation; I instantly dropped the mast, sprang
up, and jumped on his hack, turning half round as
I vaulted, so that I gained my seat with my face
in a right position. I immediately seized his fore-
legs, and, by main force, twisted them on his
back ; thus they served me for a bridle.

He now seemed to have recovered from his
surprise, and probably fancying himself in hostile
company, he began to plunge furiously, and
lashed the sand with his long and powerful tail.
I was out of reach of the strokes of it, by being
near his head. He continued to plunge and strike,
and made my seat very uncomfortable. It must
have been a fine sight for an unoccupied spectator.

The people roared out in triumph, and were
so vociferous, that it was some time before they
heard me tell them to pull me and my beast of
burden farther inland. I was apprehensive the
rope might break, and then there would have been
every chance of going down to the regions under
water with the cayman. That would have been
more perilous than Arion's marine morning
ride : —

"Delphini insidens vada cserula sulcat Arion."

The people now dragged us above forty yards
on the sand: it was the first and last time I was
ever on a cayman's back. Should it be asked,
how I managed to keep my seat, I would answer.

246 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

— I hunted some years with Lord Darlington's
fox-hounds.

After repeated attempts to regain his liberty,
the cayman gave in, and became tranquil through
exhaustion. I now managed to tie up his jaws,
and firmly secured his fore-feet in the position I
had held them. We had now another severe strug-
gle for superiority, but he was soon overcome
and again remained quiet. While some of the
people were pressing upon his head and shoulders,
I threw myself on his tail, and by keeping it down
to the sand, prevented him from kicking up an-
other dust. He was finally conveyed to the canoe,
and then to the place where we had suspended
our hammocks. There I cut his throat ; and, after
breakfast was over, commenced the dissection.

Now that the affray had ceased, Daddy Quashi
played a good finger and thumb at breakfast ; he
said he found himself much revived, and became
very talkative and useful, as there was no longer
any danger. He was a faithful, honest negro.
His master, my worthy friend Mr. Edmonstone,
had been so obliging as to send out particular
orders to the colony, that the Daddy should attend
me all the time I was in the forest. He had lived
in the wilds of Demerara with Mr. Edmonstone
for many years; and often amused me with the
account of the frays his master had had in the
woods with snakes, wild beasts, and runaway
negroes. Old age was now coming fast upon him ;
he had been an able fellow in his younger days,
and a gallant one too, for he had a large scar
over his eyebrow, caused by the stroke of a cut-

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 247

lass, from another negro, while the Daddy was
engaged in an intrigue.

The back of the cayman may be said to be al-
most impenetrable to a musket-ball, but his sides
are not near so strong, and are easily pierced
with an arrow; indeed, were they as strong as
the back and the belly, there would be no part of
the cajTuan's body soft and elastic enough to ad-
mit of expansion after taking in a supply of food.

The cayman has no grinders ; his teeth are en-
tirely made for snatch and swallow; there are
thirty-two in each jaw. Perhaps no animal in
existence bears more decided marks in his coun-
tenance of cruelty and malice than the cayman.
He is the scourge and terror of all the large
rivers in South America near the line.

One Sunday evening, some years ago, as I was
walking with Don Felipe de Ynciarte, governor of
Angustura, on the bank of the Oroonoque, ' ' Stop
here a minute or two, Don Carlos," said he to
me, ''while I recount a sad accident. One fine
evening last year, as the people of Angustura
were sauntering up and down here, in the Ala-
meda, I was within twenty yards of this place,
when I saW' a large cayman rush out of the river,
seize a man, and carry him down, before anybody
had it in his power to assist him. The screams
of the poor fellow were terrible as the cayman
was running off with him. He plunged into the
river with his prey; we instantly lost sight of
him, and never saw or heard him more."

T was a day and a half in dissecting our cay-
man, and then we all got ready to return to
Demerara.

248 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

It was much more perilous to descend than to
ascend the falls in the Essequibo.

The place we had to pass had proved fatal to
four Indians about a month before. The water
foamed, and dashed and boiled, amongst the
steep and craggy rocks, and seemed to warn us
to be careful how we ventured there.

I was for all hands to get out of the canoe, and
then after lashing a long rope ahead and astern,
we might have climbed from rock to rock, and
tempered her in her passage down, and our get-
ting out would have lightened her much. But the
negro who had joined us at Mrs. Peterson's said
he was sure it would be safer to stay in the
canoe while she went down the fall. I was loath
to give way to him ; but I did so this time against
my better judgment, as he assured me that he was
accustomed to pass and repass these falls.

Accordingly we determined to push down: I
was at the helm, the rest at their paddles. But
before we got half way through, the rushing
waters deprived the canoe of all power of steer-
age, and she became the sport of the torrent ; in a
second she was half full of water, and I cannot
comprehend to this day why she did not go down ;
luckily the people exerted themselves to the ut-
most,— she got headway, and they pulled through
the whirlpool ; I being quite in the stern of the
canoe, part of a wave struck me, and nearly
knocked me overboard.

We now paddled to some rocks at a distance,
got out, unloaded the canoe, and dried the cargo in
the sun, which was very hot and powerful. Had

'The wiiter t'(i;iiiH'<l, and daslied, and Ijoiled, amongst the rocks'

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 249

it been the wet season, almost everytliing would
have been spoiled.

After this, the voyage down the Essequibo was
quick and pleasant till we reached the sea-coast;
there we had a trying day of it; the wind was
dead against us, and the sun remarkably hot ; we
got twice aground upon a mud-flat, and were twice
obliged to get out, up to the middle in mud, to
shove the canoe through it. Half way betwixt
the Essequibo and Demerara the tide of flood
caught us ; and after the utmost exertions, it was
half-past six in the evening before we got to
George-town.

We had been out from six in the morning in
an open canoe on the sea-coast, without umbrella
or awning, exposed all day to the fiery rays of
a tropical sun. My face smarted so that I could
get no sleep during the night, and the next morn-
ing my lips were all in blisters. The Indian Yan
went down to the Essequibo a copper colour, but
the reflection of the sun from the sea, and from
the sand-banks in the river, had turned him nearly
black. He laughed at himself, and said that the
Indians in the Demerara would not know him
again. I stayed one day in George-town, and then
set off the next morning for head-quarters in
Mibiri creek, where I finished the cayman.

Here the remaining time was spent in collect-
ing birds, and in paying particular attention to
their haunts and economy. The rainy season
having set in, the weather became bad and
stormy; the lightning and thunder were inces-
sant: the days cloudy, and the nights cold and
misty. I had now been eleven months in the

250 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

forests, and collected some rare insects, two hun-
dred and thirty birds, two land tortoises, five ar-
madillos, two large serpents, a sloth, an ant-bear,
and a cayman.

I left the wilds and repaired to George-town to
spend a few days with Mr. R. Edmonstone pre-
vious to embarking for Europe. I must here
return my sincerest thanks to this worthy gentle-
man for his many kindnesses to me; his friend-
ship was of the utmost service to me, and he never
failed to send me supplies up into the forest by
every opportunity.

I embarked for England, on board the Bee
West-Indiaman, commanded by Captain Grey.

Sir Joseph Banks had often told me, he hoped
that I would give a lecture in public, on the new
mode I had discovered of preparing specimens in
natural history for museums. I always declined
to do so, as I despaired of ever being able to hit
upon a proper method of doing quadrupeds ; and
I was aware that it would have been an imperfect
lecture to treat of birds only. I imparted what
little knowledge I was master of, at Sir Joseph's,
to. the unfortunate gentlemen who went to Africa
to explore the Congo ; and that was all that took
place in the shape of a lecture. Now that I had
hit upon the way of doing quadrupeds, I drew
up a little i^lan on board the Dee, which I trusted
would have been of service to naturalists; and
by proving to them the superiority of the new
plan, they would probably be induced to abandon
the old and common way, which is a disgrace to
the present age, and renders hideous every speci-
men in every museum that I have as yet visited.

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 251

I intended to have given three lectures; one on
insects and serpents; one on birds; and one on
quadrupeds. But, as it will be shortly seen, this
little plan was doomed not to be unfolded to
public view. Illiberality blasted it in the bud.

We had a pleasant passage across the Atlantic,
and arrived in the Mersey in fine trim and good
spirits. Great was the attention I received from
the commander of the Dee. He and his mate, Mr.
Spence, took every care of my collection.

On our landing, the gentlemen of the Liver-
pool Custom-house received me as an old friend
and acquaintance, and obligingly offered their
services.

Twice before had I landed in Liverpool, and
twice had I reason to admire their conduct and
liberality. They knew I was incapable of trying
to introduce anything contraband, and they were
aware that I never dreamed of turning to profit
the specimens I had procured. They considered
that I had left a comfortable home in quest of
science ; and that I had wandered into far-distant
climes, and gone barefooted, ill-clothed, and ill-
fed, through swamps and woods, to procure
specimens, some of wdiich had never been seen in
Europe. They considered that it would be diffi-
cult to fix a price upon specimens which had
never been bought or sold, and which never were
to be, as they were intended to ornament my OAvn
house. It was hard, they said, to have exposed
myself, for years, to danger, and then be obliged
to pay on returning to my native land. Under
these considerations, they fixed a moderate duty,
which satisfied ."'11 rrirties.

252 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

However, tliis last expedition ended not so.
It taught me how hard it is to learn the grand
lesson, "sequam memento rebus in arduis servare
mentem."

But my good friends in the Custom-house of
Liverpool were not to blame. On the contrary,
they did all in their power to procure balm for
me instead of rue. But it would not answer.

They appointed a very civil officer to attend
me to the ship. AVliile we were looking into some
of the boxes, to see that the specimens were
properly stowed, previous to their being conveyed
to the king's depot, another officer entered the
cabin. He was an entire stranger to me, and
seemed wonderfully aware of his own consequence.
Without preface or apology, he thrust his head
over my shoulder, and said, we had no business
to have opened a single box without his permis-
sion. I answered, they had been opened almost
every day since they had come on board, and
that I considered there was no harm in doing so.

He then left the cabin, and I said to myself as
he went out, "I suspect I shall see that man
again at Philippi." The boxes, ten in number,
were conveyed in safety from the ship to the
depot. I then proceeded to the Custom-house.
The necessary forms were gone through, and a
proportionate duty, according to circumstances,
was paid.

This done, we returned from the Custom-house
to the depot, accompanied by several gentlemen
who wished to see the collection. They expressed
themselves highly gratified. The boxes were
closed, and nothing now remained but to convey

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 253

them to the cart, which was in attendance at the
door of the depot. Just as one of the inferior
officers was carrying a box thither, in stepped the
man whom I suspected I should see again at
Philippi. He abruptly declared himself dissatis-
fied with the valuation which the gentlemen of the
Customs had put upon the collection, and said
he must detain it. I remonstrated, but it was all
in vain.

After this pitiful stretch of power, and bad
compliment to the other officers of the Customs,
who had been satisfied with the valuation, this
man had the folly to take me aside, and after as-
suring me that he had a great regard for the arts
and sciences, he lamented that conscience obliged
him to do what he had done, and he wished he had
been fifty miles from Liverpool at the time that
it fell to his lot to detain the collection. Had he
looked in my face as he said this, he would have
seen no marks of credulity there.

I now returned to the Custom-house, and after
expressing my opinion of the officer's conduct at
the depot, I pulled a bunch of keys (which be-
longed to the detained boxes) out of my pocket,
laid them on the table, took my leave of the gentle-
men present, and soon after set off for Yorkshire.

I saved nothing from the grasp of the stranger
officer but a pair of live Malay fowls, which a
gentleman in George-town had made me a present
of. I had collected in the forest several eggs of
curious birds, in hopes of introducing the breed
into England, and had taken great pains in doing
them over with gum-arabic, and in packing them
in charcoal, according to a receipt I had seen in

254 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

the gazette, from the Edinburgh Philosophical
Journal. But these were detained in the depot,
instead of being placed under a hen ; which utterly
ruined all my hopes of rearing a new species of
birds in England. Titled personages in London
interested themselves in behalf of the collection,
but all in vain. And vain also were the public and
private representations of the first officer of the
Liverpool Custom-house in my favour.

At last there came an order from the Treasury
to say, that any specimens Mr. Waterton intended
to present to public institutions might pass duty
free; but those which he intended to keep for
himself must pay the duty!

A friend now wrote to me from Liverpool, re-
questing that I would come over and pay the duty,
in order to save the collection, which had just
been detained there six weeks. I did so. On pay-
ing an additional duty (for the moderate duty
first imposed had already been paid), the man
who had detained the collection delivered it up
to me, assuring me that it had been well taken
care of, and that a fire had been frequently made
in the room. It is but justice to add, that on
opening the boxes, there was nothing injured.

I could never get a clue to these harsh and
unexpected measures, except that there had been
some recent smuggling discovered in Liverpool ;
and that the man in question had been sent down
from London to act the part of Argus. If so, I
landed in an evil hour; ''nefasto die;" making
good the Spanish proverb, ^' Pagan a las voces,
justos por pecadores;" at times the innocent suf-
fer for the guilty. After all, a little encourage-

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AIMERICA 255

ment, in the shape of exemption from paying the
duty on this collection, might have been expected ;
but it turned out otherwise ; and after expending
large sums in pursuit of natural history, on my
return home I was doomed to pay for my
success : —

' ' Hie finis, Caroli f atorum, hie exitus ilium,
Sorte tulit ! ' '

Thus, my fleece, already ragged and torn with the
thorns and briers, which one must naturally ex-
pect to find in distant and untrodden wilds, was
shorn, I may say, on its return to England,

However, this is nothing new; Sancho Panza
must have heard of similar cases; for he says,
^'Muchos van por lana, y vuelven trasquilados;"
many go for wool, and come home shorn. In
order to pick up matter for natural history, I
have wandered through the wildest parts of South
America's equatorial regions. I have attacked
and slain a modern Python, and rode on the back
of a cayman close to the water's edge; a very
different situation from that of a Hyde-park
dandy on his Sunday prancer before the ladies.
Alone and barefoot I have pulled poisonous
snakes out of their lurking-places; climbed up
trees to peep into holes for bats and vampires,
and for days together hastened through sun and
rain to the thickest parts of the forest to procure
specimens I had never got before. In fine, I have
pursued the wild beasts over hill and dale, through
swamps and quagmires, now scorched by the
noon-day sim, now drenched by the pelting

256 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

shower, and returned to the hammock, to satisfy
the cravings of hunger, often on a poor and
scanty supper.

These vicissitudes have turned to chestnut hue
a once English complexion, and changed the colour
of my hair, before Father Time had meddled with
it. The detention of the collection after it had
fairly passed the Customs, and the subsequent
order from the Treasury that I should pay duty
for the specimens, unless they were presented to
some public institution, have cast a damp upon
my energy, and forced, as it were, the cup of
Lethe to my lips, by drinking which I have forgot
my former intention of giving a lecture in public
on preparing specimens to adorn museums. In
fine, it is this ungenerous treatment that has par-
alyzed my plans, and caused me to give up the
idea I once had of inserting here the newly-
discovered mode of preparing quadrupeds and
serpents ; and without it, the account of this last
expedition to the wilds of Guiana is nothing but
a — fragment.

Farewell, Gentle Beader.

FOURTH JOURNEY

CHAPTER I

**Nunc hue, nunc illuc et utrinque sine ordin© curro."

Courteous reader, when I bade thee last fare-
well, I thought these Wanderings were brought
to a final close; afterwards I often roved in
imagination through distant countries famous
for natural history, but felt no strong inclination
to go thither, as the last adventure had terminated
in such unexpected vexation. The departure of
the Cuckoo and Swallow, and summer birds of
passage, for warmer regions, once so interesting
to me, now scarcely caused me to turn my face to
the south ; and I continued in this cold and dreary
climate for three years. During this period, I
seldom or ever mounted my hobby-horse; indeed
it may be said, with the old song —

* * The saddle and bridle were laid on the shelf, ' *

and only taken down once, on the night that I was
induced to give a lecture in the philosophical hall
of Leeds, A little after this, Wilson's Ornithology
of the United States fell into my hands.

The desire I had of seeing that country, to-
gether with the animated description which Wil-
son had given of the birds, fanned up the almost

17 257

258 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

expiring flame. I forgot the vexations already
alluded to, and set off for New York, in the beau-
tiful packet John Wells, commanded by Captain
Harris. The passage was long and cold ; but the
elegant accommodations on board, and the polite
attention of the commander, rendered it very
agreeable; and I landed, in health and merri-
ment, in the stately capital of the new world.

We will soon pen down a few remarks on this
magnificent city, but not just now. I want to
venture into the north-west country, and get to
their great canal, which the world talks so much
about, though I fear it will be hard work to make
one's way through bugs, bears, brutes, and buf-
faloes, which we Europeans imagine are so fre-
quent and ferocious in these never-ending western
wilds.

I left New York on a fine morning in July,
without one letter of introduction, for the city of
Albany, some hundred and eighty miles up the
celebrated Hudson. I seldom care about letters
of introduction, for I am one of those who depend
much upon an accidental acquaintance. Full
many a face do I see, as I go wandering up and
down the world, whose mild eye, and sweet and
placid features, seem to beckon to me, and say,
as it were, "Speak but civilly to me, and I will
do what I can for you." Such a face as this
is worth more than a dozen letters of introduc-
tion ; and such a face, gentle reader, I found on
board the steam-boat from New York to the city
of Albany.

There was a great number of well-dressed
ladies and gentlemen in the vessel, all entire

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 259

strangers to me. I fancied I could see several
whose countenances invited an unknown wan-
derer to come and take a seat beside them; but
there was one who encouraged me more than the
rest. I saw clearly that he was an American, and
I judged, by his manners and appearance, that he
had not spent all his time upon his native soil. I
was right in this conjecture, for he afterwards
told me that he had been in France and England.
I saluted him as one stranger gentleman ought
to salute another when he wants a little informa-
tion ; and soon after, I dropped in a word or two
by which he might conjecture that I was a for-
eigner ; but I did not tell him so ; I wished him
to make the discovery himself.

He entered into conversation with the openness
and candour which is so remarkable in the Amer-
ican; and in a little time observed that he pre-
sumed I was from the old country. I told him
that I was, and added, that I was an entire stran-
ger on board. I saw his eye brighten up at the
prospect he had of doing a fellow-creature a kind
turn or two, and he completely won my regard
by an affability which I shall never forget. This
obliging gentleman pointed out everything that
was grand and interesting as the steam-boat plied
her course up the majestic Hudson. Here the
Catskill mountains raised their lofty summits;
and there the hills came sloping down to the
water's edge. Here he pointed to an aged and
venerable oak, which having escaped the levelling
axe of man, seemed almost to defy the blasting
storm and desolating hand of time; and there,
he bade me observe an extended tract of wood.

260 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

by which I might form an idea how rich and
grand the face of the country had once been. Here
it was that, in the great and momentous struggle,
the colonists lost the day; and there, they car-
ried all before them :—

"They closed full fast, on every side
No slackness there was found;
And many a gallant gentleman
Lay gasping on the ground."

Here, in fine, stood a noted regiment; there,
moved their great captain; here, the fleets fired
their broadsides; and there, the whole force
rushed on to battle : —

"Hie Dolopum manus, hie magnus tendebat Achilles,
Classibus hie locus, hie acies certare solebat."

At tea-time we took our tea together, and the
next morning this worthy American walked up
with me to the inn in Albany, shook me by the
hand, and then went his way. I bade him fare-
well, and again farewell, and hoped that fortune
might bring us together again once more. Pos-
sibly she may yet do so; and should it be in
England, I will take him to my house, as an old
friend and acquaintance, and offer him my choic-
est cheer.

It is at Albany that the great canal opens into
the Hudson, and joins the waters of this river
to those of Lake Erie. The Hudson, at the city
of Albany, is distant from Lake Erie about three
hundred and sixty miles. The level of the lake is
five hundred and sixty-four feet higher than the

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 261

Hudson, and there are eighty-one locks on the
canal. It is to the genius and perseverance of
De Witt Clinton that the United States owe the
almost incalculable advantages of this inland nav-
igation. **Exegit monumentum sere perennius."
You may either go along it all the way to Buffalo,
on Lake Erie, or by the stage; or sometimes on
one and then in the other, just as you think fit.
Grand, indeed, is the scenery by either route, and
capital the accommodations. Cold and phleg-
matic must he be who is not warmed into admira-
tion by the surrounding scenery, and charmed
with the affability of the travellers he meets on
the way.

This is now the season of roving, and joy and
merriment for the gentry of this happy country.
Thousands are on the move from different parts
of the Union for the springs and lakes, and the
falls of Niagara. There is nothing haughty or
forbidding in the Americans; and wherever you
meet them, they appear to be quite at home. This
is exactly what it ought to be, and very much in
favour of the foreigner who journeys amongst
them. The immense number of highly polished
females who go in the stages to visit the different
places of amusement, and see the stupendous nat-
ural curiosities of this extensive country, incon-
testably proves that safety and convenience are
ensured to them, and that the most distant attempt
at rudeness would, by common consent, be im-
mediately put down.

By the time I had got to Schenectady, I began
strongly to suspect that I had come into the wrong
country to look for bugs, bears, brutes, and buf-

262 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

faloes. It is an enclianting journey from Albany
to Schenectady, and from thence to Lake Erie.
The situation of the city of Utica is particularly
attractive; the Mohawk running close by it, the
fertile fields and woody mountains, and the falls
of Trenton, forcibly press the stranger to stop a
day or two here before he proceeds onward to
the lake.

At some far-distant period, when it will not
be possible to find the place where many of the
celebrated cities of the East once stood, the world
will have to thank the United States of America
for bringing their names into the western regions.
It is, indeed, a pretty thought of these people to
give to their rising towns the names of places so
famous and conspicuous in former times.

As I was sitting one evening under an oak, in
the high grounds behind Utica, I could not look
down upon the city without thinking of Cato and
his misfortunes. Had the town been called Crof-
ton, or Warmfield, or Dewsbury, there would have
been nothing remarkable in it; but Utica at once
revived the scenes at school long past and half for-
gotten, and carried me with full speed back again
to Italy, and from thence to Africa. I crossed the
Rubicon with Caesar; fought at Pharsalia; saw
poor Pompey into Larissa, and tried to wrest the
fatal sword from Cato's hand in Utica. Wien I
perceived he was no more, I mourned over the
noble-minded man who took that part which he
thought would most benefit his country. There
is something magnificent in the idea of a man
taking by choice the conquered side. The Roman
gods themselves did otherwise.

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 263

"Victrix causa Diis placuit, sed victa Catoni. "

"In this did Cato with the Gods divide,

They chose the conquering, he the conquer 'd side,"

The whole of the country from Utica to Buffalo
is pleasing; and the intervening of the inland
lakes, large and deep and clear, adds considerably
to the effect. The spacious size of the inns, their
excellent provisions, and the attention which the
traveller receives in going from Albany to Buf-
falo, must at once convince him that this country
is very much visited by strangers; and he will
draw the conclusion that there must be some-
thing in it uncommonly interesting to cause so
many travellers to pass to and fro.

Nature is losing fast her ancient garb, and
putting on a new dress in these extensive regions.
Most of the stately timber has been carried away;
thousands of trees are lying prostrate on the
ground ; while meadows, corn-fields, villages, and
pastures are ever and anon bursting upon the
traveller's view as he journeys on through the
remaining tracts of wood. I wish I could say a
word or two for the fine timber which is yet
standing. Spare it, gentle inhabitants, for your
country's sake; these noble sons of the forest
beautify your landscapes beyond all description;
when they are gone, a century will not replace
their loss ; they cannot, they must not fall ; their
vernal bloom, their summer richness and au-
tumnal tints, please and refresh the eye of man;
and even when the days of joy and warmth are
fled, the wintry blast soothes the listening ear

264 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

with a sublime and pleasing melancholy as it
howls through their naked branches.

"Around me trees vmnumber'd rise,
Beautiful in various dyes:
The gloomy pine, the poplar blue.
The yellow beech, the sable yew;
The slender fir, that taper grows.
The sturdy oak, with broad-spread boughs."

A few miles before you reach Buffalo, the road
is low and bad, and in stepping out of the stage
I sprained my foot very severely; it swelled to
a great size, and caused me many a day of pain
and mortification, as will be seen in the sequel.

Buffalo looks down on Lake Erie, and possesses
a fine and commodious inn. At a little distance
is the Black Rock, and there you pass over to the
Canada side. A stage is in waiting to convey you
some sixteen or twenty miles down to the falls.
Long before you reach the spot you hear the
mighty roar of waters, and see the spray of the
far-famed falls of Niagara, rising up like a
column to the heavens, and mingling with the
passing clouds.

At this stupendous cascade of nature, the
waters of the lake fall one hundred and seventy-
six feet perpendicular. It has been calculated,
I forget by whom, that the quantity of water dis-
charged down this mighty fall, is six hundred
and seventy thousand two hundred and fifty-five
tons per minute. There are two large inns on
the Canada side; but, after you have satisfied
your curiosity in viewing the falls, and in seeing
the rainbow in the foam far below where you are

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 265

standing, do not, I pray you, tarry long at either
of them. Cross over to the American side, and
there yon will find a spacious inn, which has
nearly all the attractions: there you meet with
great attention, and every accommodation.

The day is passed in looking at the falls, and
in sauntering up and down the wooded and rocky
environs of the Niagara ; and the evening is often
enlivened by the merry dance.

Words can hardly do justice to the unaffected
ease and elegance of the American ladies who
visit the falls of Niagara. The traveller need not
rove in imagination through Circassia in search
of fine forms, or through England, France, and
Spain, to meet with polished females. The num-
bers who are continually arriving here from all
parts of the Union confirm the justness of this
remark.

I was looking one evening at a dance, being
unable to join in it on account of the accident I
had received near Buffalo, when a young Amer-
ican entered the ball-room with such a becoming
air and grace, that it was impossible not to have
been struck with her appearance.

"Her bloom was like the springing flower
That sips the silver dew,
The rose was budded in her cheek,
Just opening to the view."

I could not help feeling a wish to know where
she had

"Into such beauty spread, and blown so fair."

Upon inquiry, I foimd that she was from the city

266 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

of Albany. The more I looked at the fair Al-
banese, the more I was convinced, that in the
United States of America may be found grace
and beauty and symmetry equal to anything in
the old world.

I now for good and all (and well I might) gave
up the idea of finding bugs, bears, brutes, and
buffaloes in this country, and was thoroughly
satisfied that I had laboured under a great mis-
take in suspecting that I should ever meet with
them.

I wished to join in the dance where the fair
Albanese was "to brisk notes in cadence beating,"
but the state of my unlucky foot rendered it im-
possible; and as I sat with it reclined upon a
sofa, full many a passing gentleman stopped to
inquire the cause of my misfortune, presuming at
the same time that I had got an attack of gout.
Now this surmise of theirs always mortified me;
for I never had a fit of gout in my life, and more-
over, never expect to have one.

In many of the inns in the United States, there
is an album on the table, in which travellers insert
their arrival and departure, and now and then
indulge in a little flash or two of wit.

I thought, under existing circumstances, that
there would be no harm in briefly telling my mis-
adventure; and so, taking up the pen, I wrote
what follows ; and was never after asked a single
question about the gout.

**C. Waterton, of Walton-Hall, in the county
of York, England, arrived at the Falls of Niag-
ara in July, 1824, and begs leave to pen down
the following dreadful accident: —

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 267

"He sprained his foot, and hurt his toe,
On the rough road near Buffalo.
It quite distresses him to stagger a-
Long the sharp rocks of famed Niagara,
So thus he's doomed to drink the measure
Of pain, in lieu of that of pleasure.
On Hope's delusive pinions borne,
He came for wool, and goes back shorn.
N. B. — Here he alludes to nothing but
Th' adventure of his toe and foot;
Save this, — he sees all that which can
Delight and charm the soul of man,
But feels it not, — because his toe
And foot together plague him so."

I remember once to have sprained my ankle
very violently, many years ago, and that the doc-
tor ordered me to hold it under the pump two or
three times a day. Now, in the United States of
America, all is upon a grand scale, except taxa-
tion; and I am convinced that the traveller's
ideas become much more enlarged as he journeys
through the country. This being the case, I can
easily account for the desire I felt to hold my
sprained foot under the fall of Niagara. I de-
scended the winding staircase which has been
made for the accommodation of travellers, and
then hobbled on to the scene of action. As T
held my leg under the fall, I tried to meditate
on the immense difference there was betwixt a
house-pump and this tremendous cascade of na-
ture, and what effect it might have upon the
sprain ; but the magnitude of the subject was too
overwhelming, and I was obliged to drop it.

Perhaps, indeed, there was an unwarrantable
tincture of vanity in an unknown wanderer wish-

268 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

ing to have it in liis power to tell the world, that
he had held his sprained foot under a fall of
water which discharges six hundred and seventy
thousand two hundred and fifty-five tons per
minute. A gentle purling stream would have
suited better. Now, it would have become Wash-
ington to have quenched his battle-thirst in the
fall of Niagara; and there was something royal
in the idea of Cleopatra drinking pearl-vinegar,
made from the grandest pearl in Egypt; and it
became Caius Marius to send word, that he was
sitting upon the ruins of Carthage. Here, we
have the person suited to the thing, and the thing
to the person.

If, gentle reader, thou wouldst allow me to
indulge a little longer in this harmless pen-
errantry, I would tell thee, that I have had my
ups and downs in life, as well as other people ; for
I have climbed to the point of the conductor above
the cross on the top of St. Peter's, in Rome, and
left my glove there. I have stood on one foot,
upon the Guardian Angel's head, on the castle of
St. Angelo ; and, as I have just told thee, I have
been low down under the fall of Niagara. But
this is neither here nor there; let us proceed to
something else.

When the pain in my foot had become less vio-
lent, and the swelling somewhat abated, I could
not resist the inclination I felt to go down On-
tario, and so on to Montreal and Quebec, and
take Lakes Champlain and George in my way
back to Albany.

Just as I had made up my mind to it, a family
from the Bowling-green, in New York, who was

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 269

going the same route, politely invited me to join
their party. Nothing could be more fortunate.
They were highly accomplished. The young ladies
sang delightfully; and all contributed their por-
tion, to render the tour pleasant and amusing.

Travellers had already filled the world with
descriptions of the bold and sublime scenery from
Lake Erie to Quebec : —

"The fountain's fall, the river's flow.
The woody valleys, warm and low;
The windy summit, wild and high,
Eoughly rushing to the sky."

And there is scarce one of them who has not de-
scribed the achievements of former and latter
times, on the different battle-grounds. Here,
great Wolfe expired. Brave Montcalm was car-
ried, mortally wounded, through yonder gate.
Here fell the gallant Brock; and there General
Sheaffee captured all the invaders. And in yon-
der harbour may be seen the mouldering remnants
of British vessels. Their hour of misfortune has
long passed away. The victors have now no use
for them in an inland lake. Some have already
sunk, while others, dismantled and half-dismasted,
are just above the water, waiting, in shattered
state, that destiny which must sooner or later
destroy the fairest works of man.

The excellence and despatch of the steam-boats,
together with the company which the traveller is
sure to meet with at this time of the year, render
the trip down to Montreal and Quebec very
agreeable.

The Canadians are a quiet, and apparently

270 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

a happy people. They are very courteous and
affable to strangers. On comparing them with
the character which a certain female traveller, a
journalist, has thought fit to give them, the
stranger might have great doubts whether or not
he were amongst the Canadians.

Montreal, Quebec, and the falls of Montmorency,
are well worth going to see. They are making
tremendous fortifications at Quebec. It will be
the Gibraltar of the new world. When one con-
siders its distance from Europe, and takes a view
of its powerful and enterprising neighbour, Vir-
gil's remark at once rushes into the mind,

*'Sic vos non vobis nidificatis aves, "

I left Montreal with regret. I had the good
fortune to be introduced to the Professors of the
College. These fathers are a very learned and
worthy set of gentlemen ; and on my taking leave
of them, I felt a heaviness at heart, in reflecting
that I had not more time to cultivate their ac-
quaintance.

In all the way from Buffalo to Quebec, I only
met with one bug; and I cannot even swear that
it belonged to the United States. In going down
the St. Lawrence, in the steam-boat, I felt some-
thing crossing over my neck; and on laying hold
of it with my finger and thumb, it turned out to
be a little half-grown, ill-conditioned bug. Now,
whether it were going from the American to the
Canada side, or from the Canada to the American,
and had taken the advantage of my shoulders to
ferry itself across, I could not tell. Be this as it

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 271

may, I thought of my uncle Toby and the fly ; and
so, in lieu of placing it upon the deck, and then
putting my thumb-nail vertically upon it, I quietly
chucked it amongst some baggage that was close
by, and recommended it to get ashore by the first
opportunity.

When we had seen all that was worth seeing in
Quebec and at the falls of Montmorency, and had
been on board the enormous ship Columbus, we
returned for a day or two to Montreal, and then
proceeded to Saratoga by Lakes Champlain and
George.

The steam-boat from Quebec to Montreal had
above five hundred Irish emigrants on board.
They were going "they hardly knew whither,"
far away from dear Ireland. It made one's heart
ache to see them all huddled together, without
any expectation of ever revisiting their native
soil. We feared that the sorrow of leaving home
for ever, the miserable accommodation on board
the ship which had brought them away, and the
tossing of the angry ocean, in a long and dreary
voyage, would have rendered them callous to good
behaviour. But it was quite otherwise. They
conducted themselves with great propriety.
Every American on board seemed to feel for
them. And then 'they were so full of wretched-
ness. Need and oppression stared in their eyes.
Upon their backs hung ragged misery. The
world was not their friend. ' ' ' Poor dear Ireland, ' '
exclaimed an aged female, as I was talking to
her, * * I shall never see it any more ! ' ' and then her
tears began to flow. Probably the scenery on the
banks of the St. Lawrence recalled to her mind

272 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

the remembrance of spots once interesting to her :

"The lovely daughter, — lovelier in her tears,
The fond companion of her father 's years,
Here silent stood, — ^neglectful of her charms,
And left her lover 's for her father 's arms.
With louder plaints the mother spoke her woes,
And blessed the cot where every pleasure rose;
And pressed her thoughtless babes with many a t»ar.
And clasped them close, in sorrow doubly dear,
"While the fond husband strove to lend relief.
In all the silent manliness of grief. ' '

We went a few miles out of our route to take a
look at the once formidable fortress of Ticon-
deroga. It has long been in ruins, and seems as
if it were doomed to moulder quite away.

**Ever and anon there falls

Huge heaps of hoary moulder 'd walls.

But time has seen, that lifts the low

And level lays the lofty brow.

Has seen this ruin'd pile complete,

Big with the vanity of state;

But transient is the smile of fate."

The scenery of Lake George is superb ; the inn
remarkably spacious and well attended; and the
conveyance from thence to Saratoga very good.
He must be sorely afflicted with spleen and jaun-
dice, who, on his arrival at Saratoga, remarks,
there is nothing here worth coming to see. It is
a gay and fashionable place; has four uncom-
monly fine hotels; its waters, for medicinal vir-
tues, are surpassed by none in the known world ;
and it is resorted to, throughout the whole of the
summer, by foreigners and natives of the first

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 273

consideration. Saratoga pleased me much; and
afforded a fair opportunity of forming a pretty
correct idea of the gentry of the United States.

There is a pleasing frankness, and ease and
becoming dignity, in the American ladies; and
the good humour, and absence of all haughtiness
and puppyism in the gentlemen, must, no doubt,
impress the traveller with elevated notions of the
company who visit this famous spa.

During my stay here, all was joy, and affability,
and mirth. In the mornings the ladies played and
sang for us; and the evenings were generally
enlivened with the merry dance. Here I bade
farewell to the charming family, in whose com-
pany I had passed so many happy days, and pro-
ceeded to Albany.

The stage stopped a little while in the town of
Troy. The name alone was quite sufficient to
recall to the mind scenes long past and gone.
Poor king Priam! Napoleon's sorrows, sad and
piercing as they were, did not come up to those
of this ill-fated monarch. The Greeks first set
his town on fire, and then began to bully : —

"Ineensa Danai dominantur in urbe. "

One of his sons was slain before his face; **ante
ora parentum, concidit." Another was crushed
to mummy by boa-constrictors ;''immensis orbibus
angues." His city was rased to the ground,
"jacet Ilion ingens." And Pyrrhus ran him
through with his sword, "capulo tenus abdidit
ensem." This last may be considered as a for-
tunate stroke for the poor old king. Had his life
been spared at this juncture he could not have

18

274 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AINIERICA

lived long. He must have died broken-hearted.
He would have seen his son-in-law, once master
of a noble stud, now, for want of a horse, obliged
to carry off his father, up hill, on his own back,
''cessi et sublato, montem genitore petivi." He
would have heard of his grandson being thrown
neck and heels from a high tower, ''mittitur
Astyanax illis de turribus. ' ' He would have been
informed of his wife tearing out the eyes of king
Odrysius with her finger nails, ' ' digitos in perfida
lumina condit." Soon after this, losing all ap-
pearance of woman, she became a bitch,

"Perdidit infelix, hominis post omnia formam,"

and rent the heavens with her bowlings,

* ' Externasque novo latratu terruit auras."

Then, becoming distracted with the remembrance
of her misfortunes, "veterum memor ilia ma-
lorum,'* she took off howling into the fields of
Thrace, —

"Turn quoque Sithonios, ululavit mcesta per agros."

Juno, Jove's wife and sister, was heard to declare,
that poor Hecuba did not deserve so terrible a
fate, —

"Ipsa Jovis conjuxque sororque,
Eventus Hecubam meruisse negaverit illos."

Had poor Priam escaped from Troy, one thing,
and only one thing, would have given him a small
ray of satisfaction, viz., he would have heard of
one of his daughters nobly preferring to leave this

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 275

world, ratlier than live to become servant-maid
to old Grecian ladies : —

"Non ego Myrmidonum sedes, Dolopumve superbas,
Adspiciam, aut Graiis servitum matribus ibo. "

At some future period, should a foreign armed
force, or intestine broils (all which heaven avert),
raise Troy to the dignity of a fortified city, Vir-
gil's prophecy may then be fulfilled,

"Atque iterum ad Trojam magnus mittetur Achilles."

After leaving Troy, I passed through a fine
country to Albany; and then proceeded by steam
down the Hudson to New York.

Travellers hesitate whether to give the prefer-
ence to Philadelphia or to New York. Phila-
delphia is certainly a noble city, and its environs
beautiful; but there is a degree of quiet and
sedateness in it, which, though no doubt very
agreeable to the man of calm and domestic habits,
is not so attractive to one of speedy movements.
The quantity of white marble which is used in the
buildings, gives to Philadelphia a gay and lively
appearance ; but the sameness of the streets, and
their crossing each other at right angles, are some-
what tiresome. The water-works wliich supply
the city, are a proud monument of the skill and
enterprise of its inhabitants; and the market is
well worth the attention of the stranger.

When you go to Philadelphia, be sure not to
forget to visit the Museum. It will afford you a
great treat. Some of Mr. Peale's family are con-
stantly in it, and are ever ready to show the
curiosities to strangers, and to give them every

276 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

necessary information. Mr. Peale has now passed
his eightieth year, and appears to possess the
vivacity, and, I may almost add, the activity of
youth.

To the indefatigable exertions of this gentle-
man is the western world indebted for the pos-
session of this splendid museum. Mr. Peale is,
moreover, an excellent artist. Look attentively,
I pray you, at the portrait he has taken of himself,
by desire of the State of Pennsylvania. On en-
tering the room he appears in the act of holding
up a curtain, to show you his curiosities. The
effect of the light upon his head is infinitely strik-
ing. I have never seen anything finer in the way
of light and shade. The skeleton of the mam-
moth is a national treasure. I could form but a
faint idea of it by description, until I had seen
it. It is the most magnificent skeleton in the
world. The city ought never to forget the great
expense Mr. Peale was put to, and the skill and
energy he showed, during the many months he
spent in searching the swamps, where these enor-
mous bones had been concealed from the eyes of
the world for centuries.

The extensive squares of this city are orna-
mented with well-grown and luxuriant trees. Its
unremitting attention to literature might cause it
to be styled the Athens of the United States.
Here, learning and science have taken up their
abode. The literary and philosophical associa-
tions, the enthusiasm of individuals, the activity
of the press, and the cheapness of the publica-
tions, ought to raise the name of Philadelphia to
an elevated situation in the temple of knowledge.

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 277

From the press of this city came Wilson's
famous ''Ornithology." By observing the birds
in their native haunts, he has been enabled to
purge their history of numberless absurdities,
which inexperienced theorists had introduced into
it. It is a pleasing and a brilliant work. We
have no description of birds in any European
publication that can come up to this. By perus-
ing Wilson's ''Ornithology" attentively before I
left England, I knew where to look for the birds,
and immediately recognized them in their native
land.

Since his time, I fear the White-headed Eagles
have been much thinned. I was perpetually look-
ing out for them, but saw very few. One or two
came now and then, and soared in lofty flight over
the falls of Niagara. The Americans are proud
of this bird in effigy, and their hearts rejoice when
its banner is unfurled. Could they not then be
persuaded to protect the white-headed eagle, and
allow it to glide in safety over its own native
forests'? Were I an American, I should think I
had committed a kind of sacrilege in killing the
white-headed eagle. The Ibis was held sacred by
the Egyptians ; the Hollanders protect the Stork ;
the Vulture sits unmolested on the top of the
houses in the city of Angustura; and Robin-red-
breast, for liis charity, is cherished by the
English : —

"No burial these pretty babes
Of any man receives,
Till robin-red-breast painfully
Did cover them with leaves."*

* The fault against grammar is lost in the beauty of the idea.

278 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

Poor "Wilson was smote by the liand of death,
before he had finished his work. Prince Charles
Buonaparte, nephew to the late emperor Na-
poleon, aided by some of the most scientific gentle-
men of Pennsylvania, is continuing this valuable
and interesting publication.

New York, with great propriety, may he called
the commercial capital of the new world : —

"Urbs augusta potens, nulli cessura."

Ere long, it will be on the coast of North America
what Tyre once was on that of Syria. In her port
are the ships of all nations ; and in her streets is
displayed merchandise from all parts of the known
world. And then the approach to it is so enchant-
ing! The verdant fields, the woody hills, the
farms, and country houses, form a beautiful land-
scape as you sail up to the city of New York.

Broadway is the principal street. It is three
miles and a half long. I am at a loss to know
where to look for a street, in any part of the
world, which has so many attractions as this.
There are no steam-engines to annoy you by
filling the atmosphere full of soot and smoke ; the
houses have a stately appearance; while the eye
is relieved from the perpetual sameness, which is
common in most streets, by lofty and luxuriant
trees.

Nothing can surpass the appearance of the
American ladies, when they take their morning
walk, from twelve to three, in Broadway. The
stranger will at once see that they have rejected
the extravagant superfluities which appear in the

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 279

London and Parisian fashions; and have only re-
tained as much of those costumes, as is becoming
to the female form. This, joined to their own
just notions of dress, is what renders the New
York ladies so elegant in their attire. The way
they wear the Leghorn hat deserves a remark or
two. With us, the formal hand of the milliner
binds down the brim to one fixed shape, and that
none of the handsomest. The wearer is obliged
to turn her head full ninety degrees before she
can see the person who is standing by her side.
But in New York the ladies have the brim of the
hat not fettered with wire, or tape, or ribbon, but
quite free and undulating; and by applying the
hand to it, they can conceal or expose as much of
the face as circumstances require. This hiding
and exposing of the face, by the bye, is certainly
a dangerous movement, and often fatal to the.
passing swain. I am convinced in my own mind,
that many a determined and unsuspecting bache-
lor, has been shot down by this sudden manoeuvre,
before he was aware that he was within reach of
the battery.

The American ladies seem to have an abhor-
rence (and a very just one too) of wearing caps.
Wlien one considers for a moment, that women:
wear the hair long, which nature has given them
both for an ornament and to keep the head warm,
one is apt to wonder, by what perversion of good
taste they can be induced to enclose it in a cap.
A mob cap, a lace cap, a low cap, a high cap, a flat
cap, a cap with ribbons dangling loose, a cap with
ribbons tied under the chin, a peak cap, an angular
cap, a round cap, and a pyramid cap ! How would

280 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

Canova's Venus look in a mob cap? If there be
any ornament to the head in wearing a cap, it
must surely be a false ornament. The American
ladies are persuaded that the head can be orna-
mented without a cap. A rose-bud or two, a wood-
bine, or a sprig of eglantine, look well in the
braided hair ; and if there be raven locks, a lily or
a snowdrop may be interwoven with effect.

Now that the packets are so safe, and make
such quick passages to the United States, it would
be as well if some of our head milliners would go
on board of them, in lieu of getting into the Dili-
gence for Paris. They would bring back more
taste, and less caricature. And if they could
persuade a dozen or two of the farmers' servant
girls to return with them, we should soon have
proof positive, that as good butter and cheese
may be made with the hair braided up, and a
daisy or primrose in it, as butter and cheese
made in a cap of barbarous shape; washed,
perhaps, in soap-suds last new moon.

New York has very good hotels, and genteel
boarding houses. All charges included, you do
not pay above two dollars a day. Little enough,
when you consider the capital accommodations,
and the abundance of food.

In this city, as well as in others which I visited,
every body seemed to walk at his ease. I could
see no inclination for jostling; no impertinent
staring at you; nor attempts to create a row in
order to pick your pocket. I would stand for an
hour together in Broadway, to observe the pass-
ing multitude. There is certainly a gentleness
in these people, both to be admired and imitated.

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 281

I could see very few dogs, still fewer cats, and
but a very small proportion of fat women in the
streets of New York. The climate was the only
thing that I had really to find fault with ; and as
the autumn was now approaching, I began to
think of preparing for warmer regions.

Strangers are apt to get violent cold, on ac-
count of the sudden change of the atmosphere.
The noon would often be as warm as tropical
weather, and the close of day cold and chilly.
This must sometimes act with severity upon the
newly-arrived stranger; and it requires more
care and circumspection than 1 am master of to
guard against it. I contracted a bad and obsti-
nate cough, which did not quite leave me till I
had got under the regular heat of the sun, near
the equator.

I may be asked, was it all good fellowship and
civility during my stay in the United States?
Did no forward person cause offence, was there
no exhibition of drunkenness, or swearing, or
rudeness; or display of conduct which disgraces
civilized man in other countries'? I answer, very
few indeed : scarce any worth remembering, and
none worth noticing. These are a gentle and a
civil people. Should a 'traveller, now and then in
the long run, witness a few of the scenes alluded
to, he ought not, on his return home, to adduce
a solitary instance or two, as the custom of the
country. In roving through the wilds of Guiana,
I have sometimes seen a tree hollow at heart,
shattered and leafless; but I did not on that ac-
count condemn its vigorous neighbours, and put
down a memorandum that the woods were bad;

282 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

on the contrary, I made allowances: a thunder-
storm, the whirlwind, a blight from heaven might
have robbed it of its bloom, and caused its present
forbidding appearance. And, in leaving the for-
est, I carried away the impression, that though
some few of the trees were defective, the rest
were an ornament to the wilds, full of uses and
virtues, and capable of benefiting the world in a
superior degree.

A man generally travels into foreign countries
for his own ends ; and I suspect there is scarcely
an instance to be found of a person leaving his
own home solely with the intention of benefiting
those amongst whom he is about to travel. A
commercial speculation, curiosity, a wish for in-
formation, a desire to reap benefit from an ac-
quaintance with our distant fellow-creatures, are
the general inducements for a man to leave his
own fire-side. This ought never to be forgotten;
and then the traveller will journey on under the
persuasion that it rather becomes him to court
than expect to be courted, as his own interest is.
the chief object of his travels. With this in view,
he will always render himself pleasant to the na-
tives; and they are sure to repay his little acts
of courtesy with ample interest, and with a fund
of information which will be of great service to
him.

While in the United States, I found our western
brother a very pleasant fellow; but his portrait
has been drawn in such different shades, by dif-
ferent travellers who have been through his terri-
tory, that it requires a personal interview before,
a correct idea can be formed of his true colours.

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 283

He is very inquisitive; but it is quite wrong on'
that account to tax him with being of an imperti-
nent turn. He merely interrogates you for infor-
mation ; and when you have satisfied him on that
score, only ask him in your turn for an account
of what is going on in his own country, and he
will tell you everytliing about it with great good
humour, and in excellent language. He has cer-
tainly hit upon the way (but I could not make
out by what means) of speaking a much.,
purer English language than that which is in
general spoken on the parent soil. This as-
tonished me much; but it is really the case.
Amongst his many good qualities, he has one
unenviable, and, I may add, a bad propen-
sity: he is immoderately fond of smoking.
He may say, that he learned it from his nurses
with whom it was once much in vogue. In Dutch
William's time (he was a man of bad taste), the
English gentleman could not do without his pipe.
During the short space of time that corporal Trim
was at the inn inquiring after poor Lefevre's
health, my uncle Toby had knocked the ashes out
of three pipes. ''It was not till my uncle Toby
had knocked the ashes out of his third pipe," &c.
Now these times have luckily gone by, and the
custom of smoking amongst genteel Englishmen
has nearly died away with them ; it is a foul cus-
tom; it makes a foul mouth, and a foul place
where the smoker stands ; however, every nation
has its whims. John Bull relishes stinking veni-
son; a Frenchman depopulates whole swamps in
quest of frogs; a Dutchman's pipe is never out;
of his mouth; a Russian will eat tallow candles;

284 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

and the American indulges in the cigar. **De
gustibus non est disputandnm."

Our western brother is in possession of a
couu/try replete with everything that can con-
tribute to the happiness and comfort of mankind.
His code of laws, purified by experience and com-
mon sense, has fully answered the expectations
of the public. By acting up to the true spirit
of this code, he has reaped immense advantages
from it. His advancement, as a nation, has been
rapid beyond all calculation; and, young as he
is, it may be remarked, without any impropriety,
that he is now actually reading a salutary lesson
to the rest of the civilized world.

It is but some forty years ago, that he had the
dispute with his nurse about a dish of tea. She
wanted to force the boy to drink it according to her
own receipt. He said, he did not like it, and that
it absolutely made him ill. After a good deal of
sparring, she took up the birch rod, and began to
whip him with an uncommon degree of asperity.
When the poor lad found that he must either
drink the nauseous dish of tea or be flogged to
death, he turned upon her in self-defence ; showed
her to the outside of the nursery door, and never
more allowed her to meddle with his affairs.

Since the independence, the population has in-
creased from three to ten millions. A fine navy
has been built; and everything attended to that
could ensure prosperity at home, and respect
abroad.

The former wilds of North America bear ample
testimony to the achievements of this enterprising
people. Forests have been cleared away, swamps

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 285

drained, canals dug, and flourishing settlements
established. From the shores of the Atlantic an
immense column of knowledge has rolled into the
interior. The Mississippi, the Ohio, the Mis-
souri, and their tributary streams, have been won-
derfully benefited by it. It now seems as if it
were advancing towards the stony mountains and
probably will not become stationary till it reaches
the Pacific Ocean. This almost immeasurable
territory affords a shelter and a home to mankind
in general: Jew or Gentile, king's-man or repub-
lican, he meets with a friendly reception in the
United States. His opinions, his persecutions,
his errors, or mistakes, however they may have
injured him in other countries, are dead, and of
no avail on his arrival here. Provided he keeps
the peace, he is sure to be at rest.

Politicians of other countries imagine that in-
testine feuds will cause a division in this com-
monwealth; at present there certainly appears
to be no reason for such a conjecture. Heaven
forbid that it should happen ! The world at large
would suffer by it. For ages yet to come, may this
great commonwealth continue to be the United
States of North America.

The sun was now within a week or two of
passing into the southern hemisphere, and the
mornings and evenings were too cold to be com-
fortable. I embarked for the island of Antigua,
with the intention of calling at the different
islands in the Carribean sea, on my way once
more towards the wilds of Guiana.

CHAPTEE II

We were thirty days in making Antigua, and
thanked Providence for ordering us so long a
passage. A tremendous gale of wind, approach-
ing to a hurricane, had done much damage in the
West Indies. Had our passage been of ordinary
length, we should inevitably have been caught in
the gale.

St. John's is the capital of Antigua. In better
times it may have had its gaities and amusements.
At present, it appears sad and woe-begone. The
houses, which are chiefly of wood, seem as if they
had not had a coat of paint for many years ; the
streets are uneven and ill-paved; and as the
stranger wanders through them, he might fancy
that they would afford a congenial promenade
to the man who is about to take his last leave of
surrounding worldly misery, before he hangs
himself. There had been no rain for some time,
so that the parched and barren pasture near the
town might, with great truth, be called Eosi-
nante's own. The mules feeding on them, put
you in mind of Ovid's description of famine: —

"Dura cutis, per quam spectari viscera possent,"

It is somewhat singular, that there is not a single
river or brook in the whole island of Antigua.
In this it differs from Tartary in the other world ;

286

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 287

which, according to old writers, has five rivers;
viz., Acheron, Phlegethon, Cocytus, Styx, and
Lethe.

In this island I found the Red Start, described
in Wilson's ''Ornithology of the United States/'
I wished to learn whether any of these birds re-
main the whole year in Antigua, and breed there ;
or whether they all leave it for the north when the
sun comes out of the southern hemisphere; but,
upon inquiry, I could get no information what-
ever.

After passing a dull week here, I sailed for
Guadaloupe, whose bold and cloud-capped moun-
tains have a grand appearance as you approach
the island. Basseterre, the capital, is a neat
town, with a handsome public walk in the middle
of it, well shaded by a row of fine tamarind trees
on each side. Behind the town. La Souffriere
raises its high romantic summit; and on a clear
day, you may see the volcanic smoke which issues
from it.

Nearly midway, betwixt Guadaloupe and Do-
minica, you descry the Saintes. Though high,
and bold, and rocky, they have still a diminutive
appearance when compared with their two gigan-
tic neighbours. You just see Marigalante to
windward of them, some leagues off, about a yard
high in the horizon.

Dominica is majestic in high and rugged moun-
tains. As you sail along it, you cannot help ad-
miring its beautiful coffee plantations, in places
so abrupt and steep, that you would pronounce
them almost inaccessible. Roseau, the capital, is
but a small town, and has nothing attractive ex-

288 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

cept the well-lmown hospitality of the present
harbour-master, who is particularly attentive to
strangers, and furnishes them with a world of in-
formation concerning the West Indies. Roseau
has seen better days; and you can trace good
taste and judgment in the way in which the town
has originally been laid out.

Some years ago it was visited by a succession
of misfortunes, which smote it so severely, that it
has never recovered its former appearance. A
strong French fleet bombarded it ; while a raging
fire destroyed its finest buildings. Some time
after, an overwhelming flood rolled down the
gullies and fissures of the adjacent mountains,
and carried all before it. Men, women, and chil-
dren, houses, and property, were all swept away
by this mighty torrent. The terrible scene was
said to beggar all description, and the loss was
immense.

Dominica is famous for a large species of Frog,
which the inhabitants keep in readiness to slaugh-
ter for the table. In the woods of this island,
the large Rhinoceros Beetle is very common; it
measures above six inches in length. In the same
woods is found the beautiful Humming-bird, the
breast and throat of which are of a brilliant
changing purple. I have searched for this bird
in Brazil, and through the whole of the wilds
from the Rio Branco, which is a branch of the
Amazons, to the river Paumaron, but never could
find it. I was told by a man in the Egyptian-
Hall, in Piccadilly, that this humming-bird is
found in Mexico ; but upon questioning him more
about it, his information seemed to have been

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 289

acquired by hearsay; and so I concluded that
it does not appear in Mexico, I suspect that it
is never found out of the Antilles.

After leaving Dominica, you soon reach the
grand and magnificent island of Martinico. St.
Pierre, its capital, is a fine town, and possesses
every comfort. The inhabitants seem to pay con-
siderable attention to the cultivation of the trop-
ical fruits. A stream of water runs down the
streets with great rapidity, producing a pleasing
effect as you pass along.

Here I had an opportunity of examining a
Cuckoo, which had just been shot. It was ex-
actly the same as the Metallic Cuckoo in Wilson's
^'Ornithology." They told me it is a migratory
bird in Martinico. It probably repairs to this
island after its departure from the United States.

At a little distance from Martinico, the cele-
brated Diamond Rock rises in insulated majesty
out of the sea. It was fortified during the last
war with France, and bravely defended by an
English captain.

In a few hours from Martinico, you are at St.
Lucie, whose rough and towering mountains fill
you with sublime ideas, as you approach its rocky
shore. The town Castries is quite embayed. It
was literally blown to pieces by the fatal hurri-
cane, in which the unfortunate governor and his
lady lost their lives. Its present forlorn and
gloomy appearance, and the grass which is
grown up in the streets, too plainly show that
its hour of joy is passed away ; and that it is in
mourning, as it were, with the rest of the British
West Indies.

19

290 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

From St. Lucie, I proceeded to Barbadoes in
quest of a conveyance to the island of Trinidad.

Near Bridgetown, the capital of Barbadoes, I
saw the metallic cuckoo, already alluded to.

Barbadoes is no longer the merry island it was
when I visited it some years ago : —

"Infelix habitum, temporis hujus habet. "

There is an old song, to the tune of La Belle
Catharine, which must evidently have been com-
posed in brighter times: —

"Come let us dance and sing,
While Barbadoes bells do ring;
Quashi scrapes the fiddle-string,
And Venus plays the lute."

Quashi 's fiddle was silent; and mute was the
lute of Venus during my stay in Barbadoes. The
difference betwixt the French and British islands
was Yerj striking. The first appeared happy and
content ; the second were filled with murmurs and
complaints. The late proceedings in England,
concerning slavery, and the insurrection in Dem-
erara, had evidently caused the gloom. The abo-
lition of slavery is a question full of benevolence
and fine feelings, difficulties and danger: —

"Tantum ne noceas, dum vis prodesse videto. '*

It requires consummate prudence, and a vast fund
of true information, in order to draw just conclu-
sions on this important subject. Phaeton, by awk-
ward driving, set the world on fire: "Sylvae cum
montibus ardent." Daedalus gave his son a pair

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 291

of wings without considering the consequence;
the boy flew out of all bounds, lost his wings, and
tumbled into the sea: —

"Icarus, Icariis nomina feeit aquis.'*

When the old man saw what had happened, he
damned his own handicraft in wing-making; *'de-
vovitque suas artes." Prudence is a cardinal
virtue : —

"Omnia consulta mente gerenda tegens. "

Foresight is half the battle. * ' Hombre apercebido,
medio combatido," says Don Quixote, or Sancho,
I do not remember which. Had Queen Bess
weighed well in her own mind the probable conse-
quences of this lamentable traffic, it is likely she
would not have been owner of two vessels in Sir
John Hawkins's squadron, which committed the
first robbery in negro flesh on the coast of Africa.
As philanthropy is the very life and soul of this
momentous question on slavery, which is certainly
fraught with great difficulties and danger, per-
haps it would be as well at present for the nation
to turn its thoughts to poor ill-fated Ireland,
where oppression, poverty, and rags make a
heart-rending appeal to the feelings of the benev-
olent.

But to proceed. There was another thing which
added to the dulness of Barbadoes, and which
seemed to have considerable effect in keeping
away strangers from the island. The legislature
had passed a most extraordinary bill, by virtue
of which every person who arrives at Barbadoes
is obliged to pay two dollars, and two dollars

292 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

more on his departure from it. It is called the
alien bill; and every Barbadian who leaves or
returns to the island, and every Englishman too,
pays the tax !

Finding no vessel here for Trinidad, I em-
barked in a schooner for Demerara, landed there
after being nearly stranded on a sand-bank, and
proceeded without loss of time to the forests in
the interior. It was the dry season, which ren-
ders a residence in the woods very delightful.

There are three species of Jacamar to be found
on the different sand-hills and dry savannas of
Demerara ; but there is another much larger and
far more beautiful to be seen when you arrive
in that part of the country where there are rocks.
The jacamar has no affinity to the wood-
pecker or kingfisher nothwithstanding what trav-
ellers affirm), either in its haunts or anatomy.
The jacamar lives entirely on insects, but never
goes in search of them. It sits patiently for hours
together on the branch of a tree, and when the
incautious insect approaches, it flies at it with the
rapidity of an arrow, seizes it, and generally re-
turns to eat it on the branch which it had just
quitted. It has not the least attempt at song, is
very solitary, and so tame that you may get within
three or four yards of it before it takes flight.
The males of all the different species which I have
examined have white feathers on the throat. I
suspect that all the male jacamars hitherto dis-
covered have this distinctive mark. I could learn
nothing of its incubation. The Indians informed
me that one species of jacamar lays its eggs in
the Wood- Ants' nests, which are so frequent in

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 293

the trees of Guiana, and appear like huge black
balls. I wish there had been proof positive of
this ; but the breeding time was over ; and in the
ants' nests which I examined, I could find no
marks of birds having ever been in them. Early
in January the jacamar is in fine plumage for
the cabinet of the naturalist. The largest species
measures ten inches and a half from the point of
the beak to the end of the tail ; its name amongst
the Indians is Una-waya-adoucati, that is, grand-
father of the jacamar. It is certainly a splendid
bird ; and in brilliancy and changeableness of its
metallic colours, it yields to none of the Asiatic
and African feathered tribe. The colours of the
female are nearly as bright as those of the male,
but she wants the white feathers on the throat.
The large jacamar is pretty common about two
hundred miles up the river Demerara.

Here I had a fine opportimity once more of
examining the Three-toed Sloth. He was in the
house with me for a day or two. Had I taken a
description of him as he lay sprawling on the
floor, I should have misled the world, and injured
natural history. On the ground he appeared
really a bungled composition, and faulty at all
points; awkwardness and misery were depicted
on his countenance; and when I made him ad-
vance he sighed as though in pain. Perhaps it was,
that by seeing him thus out of his element as it
were, that the Count de Buffon, in his history of
the sloth, asks the question — "Wliy should not
some animals be created for misery, since, in the
human species, the greatest number of individuals
are devoted to pain from the moment of their

294 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

existence'?" Were the question put to me, I would
answer, I cannot conceive that any of them are
created for misery. That thousands live in misery
there can be no doubt; but then, misery has
overtaken them in their path through life, and
wherever man has come up with them, I should
suppose they have seldom escaped from experi-
encing a certain proportion of misery.

After fully satisfying myself that it only leads
the world into error to describe the sloth while
he is on the ground, or in any place except in a
tree, I carried the one I had in my possession to
his native haunts. As soon as he came in con-
tact with the branch of a tree, all went right with
him. I could see as he climbed up into his own
country, that he was on the right road to happi-
ness; and felt persuaded more than ever, that
the world has hitherto erred in its conjectures
concerning the sloth, on account of naturalists,
not having given a description of him when he
was in the only position in which he ought to have
been described, namely, clinging to the branch of
a tree.

As the appearance of this part of the country
bears great resemblance to Cayenne, and is so
near to it, I was in hopes to have found the
Grande Gobe Mouche of Buffon, and the septi-
coloured Tangara, both of which were common in
Cayenne; but after many diligent searches, I
did not succeed; nor could I learn from the In-
dians that they had ever seen those two species of
birds in these parts.

Here I procured the Grosbeak with a rich scar-
let body, and black head and throat. Buff on

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 295

mentions it as coming from America. I had been
in quest of it for years, but could never see it,
and concluded that it was not to be found in Dem-
erara. The bird is of a greenish brown before
it acquires its rich plumage.

Amongst the bare roots of the trees, alongside
of this part of the river, a red crab sometimes
makes its appearance, as you are passing up and
down. It is preyed upon by a large species of
Owl, which I was fortunate enough to procure.
Its head, back, wings, and tail, are of so dark
a brown as almost to appear black. The breast
is of a somewhat lighter brown. The belly and
thighs are of a dirty yellow white. The feathers
round the eyes are of the same dark brown as the
rest of the body ; and then comes a circle of white,
which has the appearance of a large pair of
spectacles. I strongly suspect that the dirty yel-
low white of the belly and thighs has originally
been pure white; and that it has come to its
present colour by means of the bird darting down
upon its prey in the mud. But this is mere con-
jecture.

Here too, close to the river, I frequently saw
the bird called Sun-bird by the English colonists,
and Tirana by the Spaniards in the Oroonoque,
It is very elegant ; and in its outward appearance
approaches near to the heron tribe; still it does
not live upon fish. Flies and insects are its food ;
and it takes them just as a heron does fish, by ap-
proaching near and then striking with its beak
at its prey so quick, that it has no chance to
escape. The beautiful mixture of grey, yellow,
green, black, white, and chestnut in the plumage

296 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

of this bird, baffles any attempt to give a descrip-
tion of the distribution of them which would be
satisfactory to the reader.

There is something remarkable in the great
Tinamou, which I suspect has hitherto escaped
notice. It invariably roosts in trees ; but the feet
are so small in proportion to the body of this
bulky bird, that they can be of no use to it in
grasping the branch; and, moreover, the hind
toe is so short, that it does not touch the ground
when the bird is walking. The back part of the
leg, just below the knee, is quite fiat, and some-
what concave. On it are strong pointed scales,
which are very rough, and catch your finger as
you move it along from the knee to the toe.
Now, by means of these scales, and the particular
flatness of that part of the leg, the bird is enabled
to sleep in safety upon the branch of a tree.

At the close of day the great tinamou gives a
loud, monotonous, plaintive whistle, and then im-
mediately springs into the tree. By the light of
the full moon, the vigilant and cautious naturalist
may see him sitting in the position already de-
scribed.

The small Tinamou has nothing that can be
called a tail. It never lays more than one egg,
which is of a chocolate colour. It makes no
nests, but merely scratches a little hollow in the
sand, generally at the foot of a tree.

Here we have an instance of a bird, the size of
a partridge, and of the same tribe, laying only
one egg, while the rest of the family, from the
peahen to the quail, are known to lay a consid-
erable number. The foot of this bird is very

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 297

small in proportion, but the back part of the leg
bears no resemblance to that of the larger tina-
mon; hence one might conclude that it sleeps
upon the ground.

Independent of the hollow trees, the Vampires
have another hiding-place. They clear out the
inside of the large ants' nests, and then take pos-
session of the shell. I had gone about half a day
down the river, to a part of the forest where the
wallaba-trees were in great plenty. The seeds
had ripened, and I was in hopes to have got the
large scarlet ara, which feeds on them. But, un-
fortunately, the time had passed away, and the
seeds had fallen.

While ranging here in the forest, we stopped
under an ants' nest; and, by the dirt below, con-
jectured that it had got new tenants. Thinking
it no harm to dislodge them, ^'vi et armis," an
Indian boy ascended the tree; but, before he
reached the nest, out flew above a dozen Vampires.

I have formerly remarked, that I wished to have
it in mj power to say, that I had been sucked by
the vampire. I gave them many an opportunity,
but they always fought shy ; and though they now
sucked a young man of the Indian breed very
severely, as he was sleeping in his hammock in
the shed next to mine, they would have nothing
to do with me. His great toe seemed to have all
the attractions. I examined it minutely as he
was bathing it in the river at daybreak. The
midnight surgeon had made a hole in it, almost
of a triangular shape, and the blood was then
running from it apace. His hammock was so
defiled and stained with clotted blood, that he

298 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

was obliged to beg an old black woman to wash
it. As she was taking it down to the river side,
she spread it out before me, and shook her head.
I remarked, that I supposed her own toe was too
old and tough to invite the Vampire-doctor to
get his supper out of it; and she answered, with
a grin, that doctors generally preferred young
people.

Nobody has yet been able to inform me how it
is that the vampire manages to draw such a large
quantity of blood, generally from the toe, and
the patient, all the time, remain in a profound
sleep. I have never heard of an instance of a
man waking under the operation. On the con-
trary, he continues in a sound sleep, and at the
time of rising, his eyes first inform him that there
has been a thirsty thief on his toe.

The teeth of the vampire are very sharp, and
not unlike those of the rat. If it be that he in-
flicts the wounds with his teeth, (and he seems to
have no other instruments), one would suppose
that the acuteness of the pain would cause the
person who is sucked, to awake. We are in dark-
ness in this matter; and I know of no means by
which one might be enabled to throw light upon
it. It is to be hoped that some future wanderer
through the wilds of Guiana, will be more fortu-
nate than I have been, and catch this nocturnal
depredator in the fact. I have once before men-
tioned that I killed a vampire which measured
thirty- two inches from wing to wing extended;
but others, which I have since examined, have
generally been from twenty to twenty-six inches
in dimension.

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 299

The large Immming-bird, called by the Indians
Karabimiti, invariably builds its nests in the
slender branches of the trees which hang over the
rivers and creeks. In appearance, it is like brown
tanned leather, and without a particle of lining.
The rim of the nest is double inwards, and I al-
ways conjectured that it had taken this shape
on account of the body of the bird pressing
against it while she was laying her eggs. But
this is quite a wrong conjecture. Instinct has
taught the l)ird to give it this shape, in order that
the eggs may be prevented from rolling out.

The trees on the river's bank are particularly
exposed to violent gusts of wind, and while I have
been sitting in the canoe, and looking on, I have
seen the slender branch of the tree which held the
humming-bird's nest so \'iolently shaken, that the
bottom of the inside of the nest has appeared,
and had there been nothing at the rim to stop the
eggs, they must inevitably have been jerked into
the water. I suspect the humming-bird never
lays more than two eggs. I never found more
than two in any of the many nests which have
come in my way. The eggs were always white,
without any spots on them.

Probably travellers have erred in asserting that
the monkeys of South America throw sticks and
fruit at their pursuers. I have had fine oppor-
tunities of narrowly watching the different species
of monkeys which are found in the wilds, betwixt
the Amazons and the Oroonoque. I entirely ac-
quit them of acting on the offensive. When the
monkeys are in the high trees over your head,
the dead branches will now and then fall down

300 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

upon yon, having been broken off as the monkeys
pass along them ; but they are never hurled from
their hands.

Monkeys, commonly so called, both in the old
and new continent, may be classed into three
grand divisions: namely, the ape, which has no
tail whatever ; the baboon, which has only a short
tail; and the monkey, which has a long tail.
There are no apes, and no baboons, as yet dis-
covered in the new world. Its monkeys may be
very well and very briefly ranged under two
heads : namely, those with hairy and bushy tails ;
and those whose tails are bare of hair under-
neath, about six inches from the extremity. Those
with hairy and bushy tails climb just like the
squirrel, and make no use of the tail to help them
from branch to branch. Those who have the tail
bare underneath towards the end, find it of infinite
advantage to them, in their ascent and descent.
They apply it to the branch of the tree, as though
it were a supple finger, and frequently swing by
it from the branch like the pendulum of a clock.
It answers all the purposes of a fifth hand to the
monkey, as naturalists have already observed.

The large red monkey of Demerara is not a
baboon, though it goes by that name, having a
long prensile tail.^ Nothing can sound more
dreadful than its nocturnal bowlings. While lying
in your hammock in these gloomy and immeasur-
able wilds, you hear him howling at intervals,
from eleven o'clock at night till daybreak. You
would suppose that half the wild beasts of the

' I believe prensile is a new-coined word. I have seen it, but
do not remember where.

The Song of the Red Monkey

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 301

forest were collecting for the work of carnage.
Now, it is the tremendous roar of the jaguar, as
he springs on his prey: now it changes to his
terrible and deep-toned growlings as he is pressed
on all sides by superior force ; and now, you hear
his last dying moan, beneath a mortal wound.

Some naturalists have supposed that these aw-
ful sounds, which you would fancy are those of en-
raged and dying wild beasts, proceed from a
number of the red monkeys howling in concert.
One of them alone is capable of producing all these
sounds; and the anatomists, on an inspection
of his trachea, will be fully satisfied that this is
the case. When you look at him, as he is sitting
on the branch of a tree, you will see a lump in
his throat, the size of a large hen's egg. In dark
and cloudy weather, and just before a squall of
rain, this monkey will often howl in the daytime ;
and if you advance cautiously, and get under the
high and tufted tree where he is sitting, you may
have a capital opportunity of witnessing his won-
derful powers of producing these dreadful and
discordant sounds. --,

His flesh is good food; but when skinned, his
appearance is so like that of a young one of our
own species, that a delicate stomach might pos-
sibly revolt at the idea of putting a knife and
fork into it. However, I can affirm, from experi-
ence, that after a long and dreary march through
these remote forests, the flesh of this monkey is
not to be sneezed at, when boiled in Cayenne pep-
per, or roasted on a stick over a good fire. A
young one tastes not unlike a kid, and the old ones
have somewhat the flavour of he-goat. -^

302 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

I mentioned, in a former adventure, that I had
hit upon an entirely new plan of making the skins
of quadrupeds retain their exact form and feature.
Intense application to the subject has since that
period enabled me to shorten the process, and
hit the character of an animal to a very great
nicety, even to the preservation of the pouting
lip, dimples, warts, and wrinkles on the face. I
got a fine specimen of the howling monkey; and
took some pains with it, in order to show the im-
mense difference that exists betwixt the features
of this monkey, and those of man.

I also procured an animal which has caused not
a little speculation and astonishment. In my
opinion, his thick coat of hair, and great length
of tail, put his species out of all question; but
then his face and head cause the inspector to
pause for a moment, before he ventures to pro-
nounce his opinion of the classification. He was
a large animal, and as I was pressed for daylight,
and moreover, felt no inclination to have the
whole weight of his body upon my back, I con-
tented myself with his head and shoulders, which
I cut off: and have brought them with me to
Europe.^ I have since found, that I acted quite
right in doing so, having had enough to answer
for the head alone, without saying anything of his
hands and feet, and of his tail, which appendage,
Lord Kames asserts, belongs to us.

The features of this animal are quite of the

*My young friend, Mr. J. H. Foljambe, eldest son of Thomas
Foljambe, Esq. of Wakefield, has made a drawing of the head and
shoulders of this animal, and it is certainly a most correct and
striking likeness of the original.

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 303

Grecian cast; and he has a placidity of counte-
nance which shows that things went well with him
when in life. Some gentlemen of great skill and
talent, on inspecting his head, were convinced
that the whole series of its features has been
changed. Others again have hesitated, and be-
trayed donbts, not being able to make up their
minds, whether it be possible, that the brute fea-
tures of the monkey can be changed into the noble
countenance of man. — ''Scinditur vulgus." One
might argue at considerable length on this novel
subject; and perhaps, after all, produce little
more than prolix pedantry. "Vox et praeterea
nihil.''

Let us suppose for an instant, that it is a new
species. Well ; ' ' Una golondrina no hace verano ; * *
one swallow does not make summer, as Sancho
Panza says. Still, for all that, it would be well
worth while going out to search for it ; and these
times of Pasco-Peruvian enterprise are favour-
able to the undertaking. Perhaps, gentle reader,
you would wish me to go in quest of another. I
would beg leave respectfully to answer, that the
way is dubious, long, and dreary; and though,
unfortunately, I cannot allege the excuse of ''me
pia conjux detinet," still I would fain crave a
little repose. I have already been a long while
errant : —

"Longa mihi exilia, et vastum maris aequor aravi,
Ne mandate mihi, nam ego sum def essus agendo. ' *

Should anybody be induced to go, great and in-
numerable are the discoveries yet to be made
in those remote wilds ; and should he succeed in

304 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

bringing home, even a head alone, with features
as perfect as those of that which I have brought,
far from being envious of him, I should consider
him a modern Alcides, fully entitled to register
a thirteenth labour. Now if, on the other hand,
we argue, that this head in question has had all
its original features destroyed, and a set of new
ones given to it, by what means has this hitherto
unheard-of change been effected? Nobody in our
museums has as yet been able to restore the nat-
ural features to stuffed animals ; and he who has
any doubts of this, let him take a living cat or
dog, and compare them with a stuffed cat or dog
in any of the first-rate museums. A momentary
glance of the eye would soon settle his doubts on
this head.

If I have succeeded in effacing the features of
a brute, and putting those of a man in their place,
we might be entitled to say, that the sun of Pro-
teus has risen to our museums : —

"Unius hie faciem, facies transformat in omnes;

Nunc homo, nunc tigris; nunc equa, nunc mulier.**

If I have effected this, we can now give to one
side of the skin of a man's face the appearance
of eighty years, and to the other side that of
blooming seventeen. We could make the forehead
and eyes serene in youthful beauty, and shape
the mouth and jaws to the features of a malicious
old ape. Here is a new field opened to the ad-
venturous and experimental naturalist: I have
trodden it up and down till I am almost weary.
To get at it myself I have groped through an

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 305
alley, which may be styled, in the words of Ovid, —

**Arduus, obliquus, caligine densus opacit.'*

I pray thee, gentle reader, let me out a while.
Time passes on apace; and I want to take thee
to have a peep at the spots where mines are sup-
posed to exist in Guiana. As the story of this
singular head has, probably, not been made out
to thy satisfaction, perhaps (I may say it nearly
in Corporal Trim's words), on some long and
dismal winter's evening, but not now, I may tell
thee more about it ; together with that of another
head, which is equally striking.

It is commonly reported, and I think there is no
reason to doubt the fact, that when Demerara
and Essequibo were under the Dutch flag, there
were mines of gold and silver opened near to
the river Essequibo. The miners were not suc-
cessful in their undertaking, and it is generally
conjectured that their failure proceeded from
inexperience.

Now, when you ascend the Essequibo, some hun-
dred miles above the place where these mines are
said to be found, you get into a high, rocky, and
mountainous country. Here many of the moun-
tains have a very barren aspect, producing only
a few stinted shrubs, and here and there a tuft of
coarse grass. I could not learn that they had
ever been explored, and at this day their miner-
alogy is totally unknown to us. The Indians are
so thinly scattered in this part of the country,
that there would be no impropriety in calling it
uninhabited : —

"Apparent rari errantes in gurgite vasto.*'

20

306 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

It remains to be yet learnt, wlietlier tliis portion
of Guiana be worth looking after, with respect
to its supposed mines. The mining speculations
at present are flowing down another channel.
The rage in England for working the mines of
other states has now risen to such a pitch, that
it would require a considerable degree of caution
in a mere wanderer of the woods, in stepping for-
ward to say anything that might tend to raise or
depress the spirits of the speculators.

A question or two, however, might be asked.
When the revolted colonies shall have repaired in
some measure the ravages of war, and settled
their own political economy upon a firm founda-
tion, will they quietly submit to see foreigners
carrying away those treasures which are abso-
lutely part of their own soil, and which necessity
(necessity has no law) forced them to barter away
in their hour of need? Now, if it should so happen
that the masters of the country begin to repent of
their bargain, and become envious of the riches
which foreigners carry off, many a teasing law
might be made, and many a vexatious enaction
might be put in force, that would, in all proba-
bility, bring the speculators into trouble and
disappointment.

Besides this consideration, there is another
circumstance which ought not to be overlooked.
I allude to the change of masters nearly through-
out the whole of America. It is a curious subject
for the European philosopher to moralize upon,
and for the politician to examine. The more they
consider it, the more they will be astonished. If
we may judge by what has already taken place,

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 307

we are entitled to predict, that in a very few years
more, no European banner will be seen to float in
any part of the new world. Let us take a cursory
view of it.

England some years ago possessed a large por-
tion of the present United States. France had
Louisiana; Spain held the Floridas, Mexico,
Darien, Terra Firma, Buenos Ayres, Paraguay,
Chili, Peru, and California; and Portugal ruled
the whole of Brazil. All these immense regions
are now independent states. England, to be sure,
still has Canada, Nova Scotia, and a few creeks
on the coast of Labrador; also a small settle-
ment in Honduras, and the wilds of Demerara and
Essequibo; and these are all. France has not a
foot of ground except the forests of Cayenne.
Portugal has lost every province; Spain is
blockaded in nearly her last citadel ; and the Dutch
flag is only seen in Surinam. Nothing more now
remains to Europe of this immense continent,
where, but a very few years ago, she reigned
triumphant.

With regard to the West India Islands, they
may be considered as the mere outposts of this
mammoth domain. St. Domingo has already
shaken off her old masters, and become a star of
observation to the rest of the sable brethren.
The anti-slavery associations of England, full of
benevolence and activity, have opened a tremen-
dous battery upon the last remaining forts, which
the lords of the old continent still hold in the new
world ; and, in all probability, will not cease firing
till they shall have caused the last flag to be
struck, of Europe's late mighty empire in the

308 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

Transatlantic regions. It cannot well be doubted,
but that the sable hordes in the West Indies will
like to follow good example, whenever they shall
have it in their power to do so.

Now with St. Domingo as an example before
them, how long will it be before they try to raise
themselves into independent states? And if they
should succeed in crushing us in these our last
remaining tenements, I would bet ten to one that
none of the new governments will put on mourn-
ing for our departure out of the new world. We
must well remember, that our own government
was taxed with injustice and oppression by the
United States during their great struggle; and
the British press for years past has, and is still
teeming with every kind of abuse and unbecoming
satire against Spain and Portugal for their con-
duct towards the now revolted colonies.

France also comes in for her share of obloquy.
Now, this being the case, will not America at
large wish most devoutly for the day to come
when Europe shall have no more dominion over
her? WiU she not say to us, our new forms of
government are very different from your old
ones. We will trade with you, but we shall al-
ways be very suspicious of you as long as you
retain possession of the West Indies, which are,
as we may say, close to our door-steads. You
must be very cautious how you interfere in our
politics; for, if we find you meddling with them,
and by that means cause us to come to logger-
heads, we shall be obliged to send you back to
your own homes, three or four thousand miles
across the Atlantic; and then, with that great

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 309

ditch betwixt us, we may hope we shall be good
friends. He who casts his eye on the East Indies,
will there see quite a different state of things.
The conquered districts have merely changed
one European master for another; and I believe
there is no instance of any portion of the East
Indies throwing off the yoke of the Europeans
and establishing a government of their own.

Ye who are versed in politics, and study the rise
and fall of empires, and know what is good for
civilized man, and what is bad for him, or in
other words, what will make him happy and what
will make him miserable — tell us how comes it
that Europe has lost almost her last acre in the
boundless expanse of territory which she so lately
possessed in the west, and still contrives to hold
her vast property in the extensive regions of the
east?

But whither am I going? vl find myself on a
new and dangerous path. Pardon, gentle reader,
this sudden deviation. Methinks I hear thee say-
ing to me, —

"Tramite quo tendis, majoraque viribus audes."

I grant that I have erred, but I will do so no
more. In general I avoid politics; they are too
heavy for me, and I am aware that they have
caused the fall of many a strong and able man;
they require the shoulders of Atlas to support
their weight.

When I was in the rocky mountains of Ma-
coushia, in the month of June, 1812, I saw four
young Cocks of the Rock in an Indian's hut; they

310 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

had been taken out of the nest that week. They
were of a uniform dirty brown colour, and by the
position of the young feathers upon the head,
you might see that there would be a crest there
when the bird arrived at maturity. By seeing
young ones in the month of June, I immediately
concluded that the old cock of the rock would be
in fine plumage from the end of November to the
beginning of May: and that the naturalist, who
was in quest of specimens for his museum, ought
to arrange his plans in such a manner as to be
able to get into Macoushia during these months.
However, I find now, that no exact period can be
fixed; for, in December, 1824, an Indian, in the
river Demerara, gave me a young cock of the rock
not a month old, and it had just been brought
from the Macoushi country. By having a young
specimen at this time of the year, it puts it out of
one's power to say at what precise time the old
birds are in full plumage. I took it on board a
ship with me for England, but it was so very
susceptible of cold that it shivered and died, three
days after we had passed Antigua.

If ever there should be a great demand for
large supplies of gum-elastic, commonly called
India-rubber, it may be procured in abundance
far away in the wilds of Demerara and Essequibo.

Some years ago, when I was in the Macoushi
country there was a capital trick played upon me
about India-rubber. It is almost too good to be
left out of these Wanderings, and it shows that
the wild and uneducated Indian is not without
abilities. Weary and sick, and feeble through
loss of blood, I arrived at some Indian huts, which

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 311

were about two hours distant from the place
where the gum-elastic trees grew. After a day
and a night's rest I went to them, and with my
own hands made a fine ball of pure India-rubber ;
it hardened immediately it became exposed to the
air, and its elasticity was almost incredible.

While procuring it, exposure to the rain, which
fell in torrents, brought on a return of inflamma-
tion in the stomach, and I was obliged to have
recourse again to the lancet, and to use it with
an unsparing hand. I wanted another ball, but
was not in a state the next morning to proceed to
the trees. A fine interesting young Indian ob-
serving my eagerness to have it, tendered his
services, and asked me two handsful of fish-hooks
for his trouble.

Off he went, and to my great surprise returned
in a very short time. Bearing in mind the trouble
and time it had cost me to make a ball, I could
account for this Indian's expedition in no other
way except that, being an inhabitant of the forest,
he knew how to go about his work in a much
shorter way than I did. His ball, to be sure, had
very little elasticity in it. I tried it repeatedly,
but it never rebounded a yard high. The young
Indian watched me with great gravity, and when
I made him understand that I expected the ball
would dance better, he called another Indian, who
knew a little English, to assure me that I might
be quite easy on that score. The young rogue,
in order to render me a complete dupe, brought
the new moon to his aid. He gave me to under-
stand that the ball was like the little moon, which
he pointed to, and by the time it grew big and old,

312 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

the ball would bounce beautifully. This satisfied
me, and I gave him the fish-hooks, which he re-
ceived without the least change of countenance.

I bounced the ball repeatedly for two months
after, but I found that it still remained in its
infancy. At last I suspected that the savage (to
use a vulgar phrase) had come Yorkshire over
me; and so I determined to find out how he had
managed to take me in. I cut the ball in two, and
then saw what a taught trick he had played me.
It seems he had chewed some leaves into a lump,
the size of a walnut, and then dipped them in the
liquid gum-elastic. It immediately received a
coat about as thick as a sixpence. He then rolled
some more leaves round it, and gave it another
coat. He seems to have continued this process
till he made the ball considerably larger than the
one I had procured; and in order to put his
roguery out of all chance of detection, he made
the last and outer coat thicker than a dollar.
This Indian would, no doubt, have thriven well
in some of our great towns.

Finding that the rainy season was coming on,
I left the wilds of Demerara and Essequibo with
regret, towards the close of December, 1824 ; and
reached once more the shores of England, after
a long and unpleasant passage.

Ere we part, kind reader, I could wish to draw
a little of thy attention to the instructions which
are to be found at the end of this book. Twenty
years have now rolled away since I first began to
examine the specimens of zoology in our museums.
As the system of preparation is founded in error,
nothing but deformity, distortion, and dispro-

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 313

portion, will be the result of the best intentions
and utmost exertions of the workman. Canova's
education, taste, and genius enabled him to pre-
sent to the world statues so correct and beautiful
that they are worthy of universal admiration.
Had a common stonecutter tried his hand upon
the block out of which these statues were sculp-
tured, what a lamentable want of symmetry and
fine countenance there would have been. Now,
when we reflect that the preserved specimens in
our museums and private collections are always
done upon a wrong principle, and generally by
low and illiterate people, whose daily bread de-
pends upon the shortness of time in which they
can get through their work, and whose opposition
to the true way of preparing specimens can only
be surpassed by their obstinacy in adhering to the
old method; can we any longer wonder at their
want of success ; or hope to see a single specimen
produced that will be worth looking atf With
this I conclude, hoping that thou hast received
some information, and occasionally had a smile
upon thy countenance, while perusing these
''Wanderings;" and begging, at the same time,
to add that

Well I know thy penetration

Many a stain and blot will see,
In the languid, long narration,

Of my sylvan errantry.

For the pen too oft was weary
In the wandering writer's hand,

As he roved through deep and dreary
Forests, in a distant land.

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 314

Show thy mercy, gentle reader,

Let him not entreat in vain;
It will be his strength's best feeder,

Should he ever go again.

And who knows how soon, complaining

Of a cold and wifeless home.
He may leave it, and again in

Equatorial regions roam?

C. W.

ON PRESERVING BIRDS FOR CABINETS
OF NATURAL HISTORY

Were you to pay as much attention to birds as
the sculptor does to the human frame, you would
immediately see, on entering a museum, that the
specimens are not well done.

This remark will not be thought severe when
you reflect that that which once was a bird has
probably been stretched, stuffed, stiffened, and
wired by the hand of a common clown. Consider
likewise how the plumage must have been disor-
dered by too much stretching or drying, and per-
haps sullied, or at least deranged, by the pressure
of a coarse and heavy hand — plumage which, ere
life had fled from within it, was accustomed to be
touched by nothing rougher than the dew of
heaven, and the pure and gentle breath of air.

In dissecting, three things are necessary to
ensure success, viz., a penknife, a hand not coarse
or clumsy, and practice. The first will furnish
you with the means; the second will enable you
to dissect; and the third cause you to dissect
well. These may be called the mere mechanical
requisites.

In stuffing, you require cotton, a needle and
thread, a little stick the size of a common knitting-
needle, glass eyes, a solution of corrosive subli-
mate, and any kind of a common temporary box

315

316 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

to hold the specimen. These also may go under
the same denomination as the former. But if you
wish to excel in the art, if you wish to be in orni-
thology what Angelo was in sculpture, you must
apply to profound study and your own genius to
assist you. And these may be called the scientific
requisites.

You must have a complete knowledge of orni-
thological anatomy. You must pay close atten-
tion to the form and attitude of the bird, and know
exactly the proportion each curve, or extension,
or contraction, or expansion of any particular
part bears to the rest of the body. In a word,
you must possess Promethean boldness, and bring
down fire and animation, as it were, into your
preserved specimen.

Repair to the haunts of birds on plains and
mountains, forests, swamps, and lakes, and give
up your time to examine the economy of the dif-
ferent orders of birds.

Then you will place your eagle in attitude com-
manding, the same as Nelson stood in, in the day
of battle, on the Victory's quarter-deck. Your
pie will seem crafty, and ,iust ready to take flight,
as though fearful of being surprised in some mis-
chievous plunder. Your sparrow will retain its
wonted pertness by means of placing his tail a
little elevated, and giving a moderate arch to the
neck. Your vulture will show his sluggish habits
by having his body nearly parallel to the earth,
his wings somewhat drooping, and their extrem-
ities under the tail instead of above it — expressive
of ignoble indolence.

Your dove will be in artless, fearless innocence ;

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 317

looking mildly at you, with its neck, not too much
stretched, as if uneasy in its situation; or drawn
too close into the shoulders, like one wishing to
avoid a discovery; but in moderate, perpendic-
ular length, supporting the head horizontally,
which will set off the breast to the best advantage.
And the breast ought to be conspicuous, and have
this attention paid to it; for when a young lady
is sweet and gentle in her manners, kind and af-
fable to those around her; when her eyes stand
in tears of pity for the woes of others, and she
puts a small portion of what Providence has
blessed her with into the hand of imploring pov-
erty and hunger — then we say she has the breast
of a turtle-dove.

You will observe how beautifully the feathers
of a bird are arranged, one falling over the other
in nicest order; and that, where this charming
harmony is interrupted, the defect, though not
noticed by an ordinary spectator, will appear im-
mediately to the eye of a naturalist. Thus, a bird
not wounded and in perfect feather must be pro-
cured if possible, for the loss of feathers can
seldom be made good; and where the deficiency
is great, all the skill of the artist will avail him
little in his attempt to conceal the defect, because,
in order to hide it, he must contract the skin,
bring down the upper feathers, and shove in the
lower ones, which would throw all the surround-
ing parts into contortion.

You will also observe that the whole of the
skin does not produce feathers, and that it is very
tender where the feathers do not grow. The bare
parts are admirably formed for expansion about

318 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

the throat and stomach, and they fit into the dif-
ferent cavities of the body at the wings, shoulders,
rump, and thighs with wonderful exactness; so
that in stuffing the bird, if you make an even
rotund surface of the skin where these cavities
existed, in lieu of reforming them, all symmetry,
order, and proportion are lost forever.

You must lay it down as an absolute rule that
the bird is to be entirely skinned, otherwise you
can never succeed in forming a true and pleasing
specimen.

You will allow this to be just, after reflecting a
moment on the nature of the fleshy parts and ten-
dons, which are often left in : 1st, they require to
be well seasoned with aromatic spices ; 2dly, they
must be put into an oven to dry; 3dly, the heat
of the fire and the natural tendency all cured flesh
has to shrink and become hard renders the speci-
men withered, distorted, and too small; 4thly,
the inside then becomes like a ham or any other
dried meat. Ere long the insects claim it as their
own ; the feathers begin to drop off, and you have
the hideous spectacle of death in ragged plumage.

Wire is of no manner of use, but, on the con-
trary, a great nuisance; for where it is intro-
duced, a disagreeable stiffness and derangement
of symmetry follow.

The head and neck can be placed in any atti-
tude, the body supported, the wings closed, ex-
tended or elevated, the tail depressed, raised or
expanded, the thighs set horizontal or oblique,
without any aid from wire. Cotton will effect all
this.

A very small proportion of the skull bone, say,

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 319

from the forepart of the eyes to the bill, is to be
left in; though even this is not absolutely neces-
sary. Part of the wing-bones, the jaw-bones, and
half of the thigh-bones, remain. Everything else,
flesh, fat, eyes, bones, brains, and tendons are all
to be taken away.

While dissecting, it will be of use to keep in
mind, — That, in taking off the skin from the body,
by means of your fingers and a little knife, you
must try to shove it, in lieu of pulling it, lest you
stretch it.

That, you must press as lightly as possible on
the bird, and every now and then take a view of
it, to see that the feathers, &c., are all right.

That, when you come to the head, you must
take care that the body of the skin rests on your
knee; for if you allow it to dangle from your
hand, its own weight will stretch it too much.

That, throughout the whole operation, as fast
as you detach the skin from the body, you must
put cotton immediately betwixt the body and it;
and this will effectually prevent any fat, blood, or
moisture from coming in contact with the plu-
mage. Here it may be observed that, on the belly
you find an inner skin, which keeps the bowels in
their place. By a nice operation with the knife,
you can cut through the outer skin, and leave the
inner skin whole. Attention to this will render
your work very clean; so that, with a little care
in other parts, you may skin a bird without even
soiling your finger ends.

As you can seldom get a bird without shooting
it, a line or two on this head will be necessary.
If the bird be still alive, press it hard with your

320 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

finger and thumb, just behind the wings, and it
will soon expire. Carry it by the legs, and then,
the body being reversed, the blood cannot escape
down the plumage through the shot-holes. As
blood will often have issued out before you have
laid hold of the bird, find out the shot-holes, by
dividing the feathers with your fingers, and blow-
ing on them, and then, with your penknife, or the
leaf of a tree, carefully remove the clotted blood,
and put a little cotton on the hole. If, after all,
the plumage has not escaped the marks of blood ;
or if it has imbibed slime from the ground, wash
the part in water, without soap, and keep gently
agitating the feathers, with your fingers, till they
are quite dry. Were you to wash them, and leave
them to dry by themselves, they would have a
very mean and shrivelled appearance.

In the act of skinning a bird, you must either
have it upon a table, or upon your knee. Prob-
ably, you will prefer your knee; because when
you cross one knee over the other, and have the
bird upon the uppermost, you can raise it to your
eye, or lower it, at pleasure, by means of the foot
on the ground, and then your knee will always
move in unison with your body, by which much
stooping will be avoided and lassitude prevented.

With these precautionary hints in mind, we will
now proceed to dissect a bird. Suppose we take a
hawk. The little birds will thank us, with a song
for his death, for he has oppressed them sorely;
and in size he is just the thing. His skin is also
pretty tough, and the feathers adhere to it.

We will put close by us a little bottle of the solu-
tion of corrosive sublimate in alcohol; also a

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 321

stick like a common knitting-needle, and a handful
or two of cotton. Now fill the mouth and nostrils
of the bird with cotton, and place it upon your
knee on its back, with its head pointing to your
left shoulder. Take hold of the knife with your
two first fingers and thumb, the edge upwards.
You must not keep the point of the knife perpen-
dicular to the body of the bird; because, were
you to hold it so, you would cut the inner skin of
the belly, and thus let the bowels out. To avoid
this, let your knife be parallel to the body, and
then you will divide the outer skin with great
ease.

Begin on the belly below the breast-bone, and
cut down the middle, quite to the vent. This done,
put the bird in any convenient position, and sepa-
rate the skin from the body, till you get at the
middle joint of the thigh. Cut it through, and do
nothing more there at present, except introducing
cotton all the way on that side, from the vent
to the breast-bone. Do exactly the same on the
opposite side.

Now place the bird perpendicular, its breast
resting on your knee, with its back towards you.
Separate the skin from the body on each side at
the vent, and never mind at present the part from
the vent to the root of the tail. Bend the tail
gently down to the back, and while your finger
and thumb are keeping down the detached parts
of the skin on each side of the vent, cut quite
across, and deep, till you see the back-bone, near
the oil-gland at the root of the tail. Sever the
back-bone at the joint, and then you have all the

21

322 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

root of the tail, together with the oil-gland, dis-
sected from the body. Apply plenty of cotton.

After this, seize the end of the back-bone with
your finger and thumb : and now you can hold up
the bird clear of your knee, and turn it round and
round, as occasion requires. While you are hold-
ing it thus, contrive, with the help of your other
hand and knife, by cutting and shoving, to get the
skin pushed up till you come to where the wing
joins on to the body.

Forget not to apply cotton; cut this joint
through; do the same at the other wing, add
cotton, and gently push the skin over the head;
cut out the roots of the ears, which lie very deep
in the head, and continue skinning till you reach
the middle of the eye; cut the nictitating mem-
brane quite through, otherwise you would tear
the orbit of the eye; and after this, nothing diffi-
cult intervenes to prevent your arriving at the
root of the bill.

When this is effected, cut away the body, leav-
ing a little bit of skull, just as much as will reach
to the fore-part of the eye; clean well the jaw-
bones, fasten a little cotton at the end of your
stick, dip it into the solution, and touch the skull
and corresponding part of the skin, as you can-
not well get to these places afterwards. From
the time of pushing the skin over the head, you
are supposed to have had the bird resting upon
your knee; keep it there still, and with great
caution and tenderness return the head through
the inverted skin, and when you see the beak ap-
pearing, pull it very gently till the head comes
out unruffled and unstained.

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 323

You may now take the cotton out of the mouth ;
cut away all the remaining flesh at the palate,
and whatever may have remained at the under
jaw.

Here is now before you the skin, without loss
of any feathers, and all the flesh, fat, and un-
cleaned bones out of it, except the middle joint of
the wings, one bone of the thighs, and the fleshy
root of the tail. The extreme point of the wing
is very small, and has no flesh on it, comparatively
speaking, so that it requires no attention, except
touching it with the solution from the outside.
Take all the flesh from the remaining joint of the
wing, and tie a thread about four inches long to
the end of it ; touch all with the solution, and put
the wing-bone back into its place. In baring this
bone you must by no means pull the skin; you
would tear it to pieces beyond all doubt, for the
ends of the long feathers are attached to the bone
itself; you must push off the skin with your
thumb-nail and forefinger. Now skin the thigh
quite to the knee ; cut away all flesh and tendons,
and leave the bone : form an artificial thigh round
it with cotton ; apply the solution, and draw back
the skin over the artificial thigh: the same to
the other thigh.

Lastly, proceed to the tail; take out the inside
of the oil-gland, remove all the remaining flesh
from the root, till you see the ends of the tail-
feathers ; give it the solution, and replace it. Now
take out all the cotton which you have been putting
into the body from time to time to preserve the
feathers from grease and stains. Place the bird
upon your knee on its back; tie together the two

324 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

threads which you had fastened to the end of the
wing-joints, leaving exactly the same space be-
twixt them as your knowledge in anatomy informs
you existed there when the bird was entire ; hold
the skin open with your finger and thumb, and
apply the solution to every part of the inside.
Neglect the head and neck at present; they are
to receive it afterwards.

Fill the body moderately with cotton, lest the
feathers on the belly should be injured whilst you
are about the following operation. You must
recollect that half of the thigh, or in other words,
one joint of the thigh-bone, has been cut away.
Now, as this bone never moved perpendicular to
the body, but, on the contrary, in an oblique di-
rection, of course, as soon as it is cut off, the
remaining part of the thigh and leg, having noth-
ing now to support them obliquely, must naturally
fall to their perpendicular. Hence the reason
why the legs appear considerably too long. To
correct this, take your needle and thread, fasten
the end round the bone inside, and then push the
needle through the skin just opposite to it. Look
on the outside, and after finding the needle
amongst the feathers, tack up the thigh under the
wing with several strong stitches. This will
shorten the thigh, and render it quite capable of
supporting the weight of the body without the
help of wire. This done, take out every bit of
cotton, except the artificial thighs, and adjust the
wing-bones (which are connected by the thread)
in the most even manner possible, so that one
joint does not appear to lie lower than the other ;
for unless they are quite equal, the wings them-

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 325

selves will be unequal when you come to put tliem
in tlieir proper attitude. Here then rests the shell
of the poor hawk, ready to receive, from your
skill and judgment, the size, the shape, the fea-
tures and expression it had, ere death, and your
dissecting hand, brought it to its present still
and formless state. The cold hand of death
stamps deep its mark upon the prostrate victim.
When the heart ceases to beat, and the blood no
longer courses through the veins, the features
collapse, and the whole frame seems to shrink
within itself. If then you have formed your idea
of the real appearance of the bird from a dead
sj^ecimen, you will be in error. With this in mind,
and at the same time forming your specimen a
trifle larger than life, to make up for what it will
lose in drying, you will reproduce a bird that will
please you.

It is now time to introduce the cotton for an
artificial body, by means of a little stick like a
knitting-needle; and without any other aid or
substance than that of this little stick and cotton,
your own genius must produce those swellings
and cavities, that just proportion, that elegance
and harmony of the whole, so much admired in
animated nature, so little attended to in preserved
specimens. After you have introduced the cotton,
sew up the orifice you originally made in the
belly, beginning at the vent. And from time to
time, till you arrive at the last stitch, keep adding
a little cotton, in order that there may be no de-
ficiency there. Lastly, dip your stick into the
solution, and put it down the throat three or four
times, in order that every part may receive it.

326 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

When the head and neck are filled with cotton
quite to your liking, close the bill as in nature.
A little bit of bees' wax, at the point of it, will
keep the mandibles in their proper place. A
needle must be stuck into the lower mandible per-
pendicularly. You will shortly see the use of it.
Bring also the feet together by a pin, and then
run a thread through the knees, by which you may
draw them to each other, as near as you judge
proper. Nothing now remains to be added but the
eyes. With your little stick make a hollow in the
cotton within the orbit, and introduce the glass
eyes through the orbit. Adjust the orbit to them,
as in nature, and that requires no other fastener.

Your close inspection of the eyes of animals
will already have informed you, that the orbit is
capable of receiving a much larger body than that
part of the eye which appears within it when in
life. So that, were you to proportion your eye to
the size the orbit is capable of receiving, it would
be far too large. Inattention to this has caused
the eyes of every specimen, in the best cabinets
of natural history, to be out of all proportion.
To prevent this, contract the orbit, by means of a
very small delicate needle and thread, at that
part of it farthest from the beak. This may be
done with such nicety, that the stitch cannot be
observed; and thus you have the artificial eye in
true proportion.

After this, touch the bill, orbits, feet, and
foimer oil-gland at the root of the tail, with the
solution, and then you have given to the hawk
everything necessary, except attitude, and a

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 327

proper degree of elasticity, two qualities very
essential.

Procure any common ordinary Box, fill one end
of it, about three-fourths up to the top, with cot-
ton, forming a sloping plane. Make a moderate
hollow in it to receive the bird. Now take the
hawk in your hands, and, after putting the wings
in order, place it in the cotton, with its legs in a
sitting posture. The head will fall down. Never
mind. Get a cork, and run three pins into the
end, just like a three-legged stool. Place it under
the bird's bill, and run the needle, which you
formerly fixed there, into the head of the cork.
This will support the bird's head admirably. If
you wish to lengthen the neck, raise the cork, by
putting more cotton under it. If the head is to
be brought forward, bring the cork nearer to the
end of the box. If it requires to be set backwards
on the shoulders, move back the cork.

As in drying, the back-part of the neck will
shrink more than the fore-part, and thus throw
the beak higher than you wish it to be, putting
you in mind of a star-gazing horse, prevent this
fault, by tying a thread to the beak, and fastening
it to the end of the box with a pin or needle. If
you choose to elevate the wings, do so, and sup-
port them with cotton; and should you wish to
have them particularly high, apply a little stick
under each wing, and fasten the end of them to
the side of the box with a little bees' wax.

If you would have the tail expanded, reverse
the order of the feathers, beginning from the two
middle ones. Wlien dry, replace them in their
true order, and the tail will preserve for ever the

328 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

expansion you have given it. Is the crest to be
erect? move the feathers in a contrary direction
to that in which they lie, for a day or two, and
it will never fall down after.

Place the box anywhere in your room, out of
the influence of the sun, wind, and fire; for the
specimen must dry very slowly, if you wish to
reproduce every feature. On this account the solu-
tion of corrosive sublimate is uncommonly service-
able ; for at the same time that it totally prevents
putrefaction, it renders the skin moist and flexible
for many days. While the bird is drying, take it
out and replace it in its position once every day.
Then, if you see that any part begins to shrink
into disproportion, you can easily remedy it.

The small covert feathers of the wings are apt
to rise a little, because the skin will come in con-
tact with the bone which remains in the wing.
Pull gently the part that rises, with your finger
and thumb, for a day or two. Press the feathers
down. The skin will adhere no more to the bone,
and they will cease to rise.

Every now and then touch and retouch all the
different parts of the features, in order to render
them distinct and visible, correcting at the same
time any harshness, or unnatural risings or sink-
ings, flatness or rotundity. This is putting the
last finishing hand to it.

In three or four days the feet lose their natural
elasticity, and the knees begin to stiffen. When
you observe this, it is time to give the legs any
angle you wish, and arrange the toes for a stand-
ing position, or curve them to your finger. If
you wish to set the bird on a branch, bore a little

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 329

hole under each foot, a little way up the leg; and
having fixed two proportional spikes on the
branch, you can, in a moment, transfer the bird
from your finger to it, and from it to your finger,
at pleasure.

When the bird is quite dry, pull the thread out
of the knees, take away the needle, &c., from under
the bill, and all is done. In lieu of being stiff
with wires, the cotton will have given a consid-
erable elasticity to every part of your bird; so
that, when perching on your finger, if you press
it down with the other hand, it will rise again.
You need not fear that your hawk will alter, or
its colours fade. The alcohol has introduced the
sublimate into every part and pore of the skin,
quite to the roots of the feathers. Its use is two-
fold. 1st. It has totally prevented all tendency to
putrefaction ; and thus a sound skin has attached
itself to the roots of the feathers. You may take
hold of a single one, and from it suspend five times
the weight of the bird. You may jerk it; it will
still adhere to the skin, and, after repeated trials,
often break short. 2dly. As no part of the skin
has escaped recei\dng particles of sublimate con-
tained in the alcohol, there is not a spot exposed
to the depredation of insects, for they will never
venture to attack any substance which has re-
ceived corrosive sublimate.

You are aware that corrosive sublimate is the
most fatal poison to insects that is known. It is
antiputrescent ; so is alcohol; and they are both
colourless; of course they cannot leave a stain
behind them. The spirit penetrates the pores
of the skin with wonderful velocity, deposits

330 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

invisible particles of the sublimate, and flies off.
The sublimate will not injure the skin, and noth-
ing can detach it from the parts where the alcohol
has left it.*

Furs of animals, immersed in this solution, will
retain their pristine brightness and durability in
any climate.

Take the finest curled feather from a lady's
head, dip it in the solution, and shake it gently
till it be dry; you will find that the spirit will
fly oif in a few minutes, not a curl in the feather
will be injured, and the sublimate will preserve
it from the depredation of the insect.

Perhaps it may be satisfactory to add here,
that, some years ago, I did a bird upon this plan
in Demerara. It remained there two years. It
was then conveyed to England, where it stayed
five months, and returned to Demerara. After
being four years more there, it was conveyed back
again through the West Indies to England, where
it has now been near five years, unfaded and un-
changed.

On reflecting that this bird has been twice in the
temperate and torrid zone, and remained some
years in the hot and humid climate of Demerara,
only six degrees from the line, and where almost
everything becomes a prey to the insect, and that
it is still as sound and bright as when it was first
done, it will not be thought extravagant to surmise

* All the feathers require to be touched with the solution, in order
that they may be preserved from the depredation of the moth.
The surest way of proceeding is, to immerse the bird in the solu-
tion of corrosive sublimate, and then dry it before you begin to
dissect it.

WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 331

that this specimen will retain its pristine form
and colours for years after the hand that stuffed
it has mouldered into dust.

I have shown this art to the naturalists in
Brazil, Cayenne, Demerara, Oroonoque, and
Rome, and to the royal cabinets of Turin and
Florence. A severe accident prevented me from
communicating it to the cabinet of Paris, accord-
ing to my promise. A word or two more, and
then we will conclude.

A little time and experience will enable you to
produce a finished specimen. "Mox similis
volucri, mox vera volucris." If your early
performance should not correspond with your
expectations, do not let that cast you down. You
cannot become an adept all at once. The poor
hawk itself, which you have just been dissecting,
waited to be fledged before it durst rise on ex-
panded pinion ; and had parental aid and frequent
practice ere it could soar with safety and ease
beyond the sight of man.

Little more remains to be added, except that
what has been penned down with regard to birds
may be applied, in some measure, to serpents,
insects, and four-footed animals.

Should you find these instructions too tedious,
let the wish to give you every information plead
in their defence. They might have been shorter :
but Horace says, by labouring to be brief you
become obscure.

If, by their means, you should be enabled to
procure specimens from foreign parts in better
preservation than usual, so that the naturalist
may have it in his power to give a more perfect

332 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA

description of them than has hitherto been the
case; should they cause any unknown species to
be brought into public view, and thus add a little
more to the page of natural history, it will please
me much. But should they, unfortunately, tend
to cause a wanton expense of life; should they
tempt you to shoot the pretty songster warbling
near your door, or destroy the mother, as she is
sitting on the nest to warm her little ones; or
kill the father, as he is bringing a mouthful of
food for their support; — oh, then! — deep indeed
will be the regret that I ever wrote them.
Adieu,

Charles Waterton.

INDEX

Aborigines, 31.
Acaiari, 65, 203.
Accident to foot, 174.
Acouri, 49.

Teeth of, 84.
Acoways, 201.
Acuero, 82,
^ta, 67, 68.
Ague, Tertian, 102.
Ai, 90.

Ai killed by Wourali, 91.
Albicore, 109.
Alligator, 67.
Anhingas, 163, 235.
Ants, 77, 184.

Coushie, 190.

Nests of, 69.

Eanger, 190,

Wood, 35.
Ant-bears, 35, 185, 194, 238.

Larg3, 35.

Small, 35.
Antidotes to Wourali, 93.
Antigua, 286.
Apourapotira, 57.
Apron, Indian, 203.
Ara humming-bird, 134.
Ara, Scarlet, 57, 70, 235, 297.
Aras, 58, 69, 108, 155.
Armadillo, 35, 192, 193.
Arowacks, 201.
Arrows, 86, 205.

Wourali, 82.
Arrowroot, 66.

Balsam-capivi, 64.
Banana, 188.
Banks, Sir Joseph, 175.
Barbadoes, 290.

Bats, 41.

Beetle, Ehinoceros, 288.

Bell-bird, 136.

Bete-rouge, 41, 64, 199,

Bill of Toucan, 138.

Birds of Demerara, 37, 132,

Bird-stuffing, 175, 315.

Bird-vine, 51.

Bisa, 35.

Bittern, 156.

Blackbirds, 120.

Blow-pipe, 59, 82,

Blue Heron, 156.

Boa Constrictor, 194.

Boat-bill, 156.

Boclora, 143.

Bois Immortelles, 133.

Bonito, 109.

Bouradi, 137.

Bows, 86, 205.

Broadway, 278.

Brown Monkey, 35.

Buflfalo Town, 264.

Buletre, 50.

Bush-master, 39.

Bush-rope, 33, 34, 51.

Cabbage-tree, 46.
Camoudi, 38.
Camouni, E., 153.
Campanero, 40, 136, 231.
Canadians, 269.
Canoe, 67.

Capnmulgus, 57, 197.
Capture of Cayman, 242,
Caracara, 230.
Caribs, 201.
Cassava, Bitter, 202,

Sweet, 202.
Cassiques, 145,

333

334

INDEX

Castor oil, 173.

Castries, 289.

Cayenne, 124.

Cayman, 39, 196, 233, 240.

Back of, 247.

Capture of, 242.

Hook, 239.

Noise of, 233.

Teeth of, 247.
Chameleon, 40.
Chegoe, 200.
Cinnamon, 124, 126.
Climate of New York, 281.
Clove-tree, 124, 126.
Cocoa-nut, 118.

Cock of the Eock, 59, 127, 309.
Coffee-trees, 31.
Coot, 163.
Coral Snake, 39.
Corrosive sublimate, 320.
Cotton, 46.
Cotingas, 108, 135.

Pompadour, 135.

Purple-breasted, 135.

Purple-throated, 135.

Scarlet, 134.
Couanacouchi, 39, 78, 81.
Coucourite, 68, 70, 83.
Couguar, 237.
Coulacanara, 215, 222.
Courada-tree, 37.
Coushie Ant, 190.
Crab, 295.
Crabier, 37, 163.
Crabwood, 48.
Cranes, 163.
Crickets, 41.
Cuckoo, 289.
Cuia, 144.
Curial, 67.
Curlews, 163.
Curlew, Black, 68.

Scarlet, 37, 68, 124, 163.
Custom-house duties, 251.
Cutlass or Machete, 34.

Daddy Quashi, 196.
Dara, 136.
Deer, 35, 68.
Demerara, 128.

Diamond Rock, 289.
Diet and raiment, 170.
Dissecting, Eequisites for, 315.
Divers, 106.

Dog, Experiment on with
Wourali, 46.
In Guiana, 96.
Dolphin, 109.
Dominica, 287.
Ducalabali, 32.
Ducks, 163, 235.
Duck, Muscovy, 68, 156.
Duraquara, 160.
Duty on specimens, 252.

E

Eagles, 162, 277.

Eagle, White-headed, 277,

Ebony, 32.

Edmonstone, Charles, 205,

Egret, 37, 68, 124, 156.

El Dorado, 73.

Emigrants, Irish, 271.

Escape from Spain, 16.

Essequibo, Falls of, 56, 248.

Eyes, False, 326.

Face of Country, 263.
Falcons, 162.
Falls, 47, 58.

Essequibo, 56, 248.
False eyes, 326.

Fever at Demerara, Yellow,
168,

Severe attack of, 171.
Fig, Wild, 33, 135, 152.
Finch, Red-Beaded, 118, 235.
Firefly, 42, 64.
First Journey, 29.
Fish, 40.

Fish, Flying, 108.
Flamingo, 37, 123, 163.
Fly, 66.

Sand, 41, 65.
Flying Fish, 108.
Forest on banks of Demerara,

30.
Fort St. Joachim, 72.
Fourth Journey, 257.

INDEX

335

Fowls, Malay, 253.
Fox, 35.

Frigate Pelican, 110, 123.
Frogs, 41, 233, 288.

G

Gannets, 106.
Geese, 163.
George-town, 205.
Goat, 37.

Goatsuckers, 41, 156, 230, 233.
Gobe-TDOuche, 127.
Green-heart, 32, 50.
Grosbeak, scarlet, 294.
Guadaloupe, 287.
Guana, 35, 236.
Nest of, 236.
Guava, Wild, 135.
Gulls, 106, 110, 163.

H

Habitations, Indian, 45.

Hackea, 32.

Hannaquoi, 41, 42, 161.

Hawks, 162, 224.

Hayawa, 32, 44, 57, 203.

Herons, Blue, 156.

Hia-hia Parrot, 154.

Hills, 56.

Hitia, 135.

Hocco, 161.

Hog, Wild, 35, 46, 49.

Hook, Cayman, 239.

Horned Screamer, 161.

Hotels in JSTew York, 280.

Houtou, 41, 59, 142.

Howler Monkey, 35, 41, 238,

300.
Humming-birds, 37, 108, 132,
288, 299.

Ara, 134.

Nests, 299.
Huts, Indian, 45.

Indians, Acoway, 201.

Arowack, 201.

Carib, 201.

Macoushi, 58, 74, 201.

Warow, 201.

Eeligion of, 201.
Indian apron, 203.

Huts, 45.

Tribes, 201.
Insects, 40, 132.
Instructions to adventurers,

131.
Irish emigrants, 271.

jABiRtr, 65, 66, 69, 163.

Jacamar, 150, 292.

Jaguar, 228, 233, 237, 241.

Jay, 143.

Jesuits in Pernambuco, 113.

Journey, first, 29.

SECOND, 106.
third, 168.
FOURTH, 257.
Jumbo, 158.

Ibibirou, 143.
India-rubber, 59, 310.

Karabimiti, 134, 299.
Kessi-kessi, 58, 70.
King, Savage, 62.
King Vulture, 37.
Kingfisher, 150.

Labarei, 39, 78, 81, 198.

Poison of, 199.
Labba, 35, 49.
Ladies, American, 265, 273,

278.
La Gabrielle, 125.
La Souffriere, 287.
Lemon trees, 118.
Letter-wood, 32.
Linnets, 118.
Lizards, 39.
Locust-tree, 32.

M

Maam, 41, 49, 57, 161.
Macoushi Indians, 58, 74, 84.

336

INDEX

Manakins, 153.
Maou, E., 70.
Maribuntas, 197.
Marigalante, 287.
Maroudi, 41, 49, 84, 161.

White-crested, 64.
Martinico, 289.
Matatoro, 38.
Moca-moca, 147.
Monkeys, 205, 300.
Monkey, Brown, 35.

Flesh of, 301.

Eed, 35, 41, 238, 300.
Monteiro, 120.

Mora, 32, 33, 50, 63, 223, 230.
Moran, 64.
Mosquitos, 41, 64.
Mother Carey's chicken, 106.
Muscovy Duck, 68, 156.

N

Nandapoa, 163.
Negroes, Eunaway, 205.
New York, 278.

Climate of, 281.

Hotels, 280.

Streets of, 278.
Niagara, 264, 267.
Nondescript, 302.
Nutmeg, 124, 126.

O

Objects of Wanderings, 29.

Olou, 32.

Opossum, 35.

Orange trees, 118.

Otters, 40.

Ourah, 82.

Owl, 41, 43, 233, 295.

Ox killed by Wourali, 92.

Pacou, 58, 229.
Palms, 118.
Papaw, 46, 202.
Paramaribo, 127.
Parima, 60, 68, 73.
Paroquets, 41, 58, 70, 154, 222.
Parrots, 41, 154, 205, 235.
Parrot, Hia-hia, 154.

Partridge, 160.
Pataca, 41.
Peccari, 35.
Pee-ay-man, 204.
Pegalls, 205.
Pelican, 37, 163.

Frigate, 110, 123.
Pepper, 78, 124, 126, 202.
Pernambuco, 110.

Jesuits in, 113.

Port of. 111.
Petrel, Stormy, 106.
Phaeton, 123.
Philadelphia, 275.

Museum at, 275.
Piapoco, 137.
Pine-apples, 202.
Pi-pi-yo, 40, 214.
Pirai, 59, 83.
Pirarara, E., 70.
Piwarri, 203.
Plantains, 202.

Plantations of Stabroek, 129.
PloTer, 37, 163.

Spur-winged, 68.
Polecat, 35.
Porcupine, 36.
Potato, Sweet, 202.
Powises, 49, 84, 161.
Purple-breasted Cotinga, 135.
Purple-throated Cotinga, 135.
Purple-heart, 50, 67.

Quadrupeds, 35.
Quail, 161.
Quake, 129.
Quebec, 271.

Juiver, 84.

R

Rails, 163.

Raiment and diet, 170.

Rattlesnake, 38, 121.

Adventure with, 121.
Rajiids of Essequibo, 56.
Ray, Sting, 235.
Recluse, White, 60.
Red-headed Finch, 118.
Red-headed Woodpecker, 173.

INDEX

337

Red Monkey, 35, 41, 238, 300.

Bed Start, 287.

Remarks on First Journey, 99.

Rhinoceros Beetle, 288.

Rice Bird, 145.

Roseau, 287.

Roucou, 203.

Runaway negroes, 205.

Saba, 31.
Sage, red, 133.
Saintes, 287.
Salempenta, 35.
Samourah, 82.
Sandflies, 41, 64.
Sandpiper, 37, 163.
Sangre do Buey, 118.
Saratoga, 272.
Savage King, 62.
Savanna, 63.
Sawari, 50, 188.
Scarlet Ara, 57, 235.
Curlews, 163.
Grosbeak, 294.
Scenery, 229, 259.
Scirou, 137.

Screamer, Horned, 161.
Second Journey, 106
Sharks, 110, 122.
Shrikes, 162.
Silk-grass, 82, 83, 202.
Siloabali, 50, 135.

Bastard, 135, 143.
Siparouni, 58.
Sir Joseph Banks, 175.
Slavery, 130, 290.
Sloth, 36, 176, 194, 293.
Habits of, 176.
Killed by Wourali, 90.
Two-toed, 182.
Three-toed, 293.
Snakes, 38, 132, 198, 214
Snipes, 163.
Soil, 32.
Sounds, strange, 48.

Explanation of, 101.
Spikes for arrows, 87.
Spoonbill, 37, 124, 163
Spur-winged Plover, 68.
Stabroek, 128.

Sting-ray, 235.

St. Joachim, Fort, 70, 72.

St. John's, Antigua, 286.

St. Lucie, 290.

Storm, 100.

Stormy Petrel, 106.

Strange sounds, 48.

Explanation of, 101.
St. Thomas's Tower, 101.
Stuffing, Bird, 175, 315.

Materials for, 315.
Sun-bird, 235, 295.

T

Tacatou, R., 70.
Tangara, 119.
Tapir, 35, 46, 70.
Tauronira, 50, 51.
Taxidermy, 315.
Tertian ague, 102.
Third Journey, 168.
Thrush, 42, 118.
Ticks, 201.
Ticonderoga, 272.
Tiger, 35, 37, 132, 232.
Bird, 153.
Oats, 35.
Tinamous, 40, 49, 57.
Great, 296.
Small, 296.

Tirana, 235.

Tortoise, Land, 194, 232.

Toucan, 32, 69, 108, 137.
Bill of, 138.

Tribes, Indian, 201.

Troely, 42.

Tropic Bird, 110.

Troupials, 70, 118, 151.

Troy, 273.

Trumpeter, 161.

Turtle, Nest of, 235.

U

XiNA-WATA-ADOUCATI, 293

Vampire, 38, 41, 188, 192, 297.

Teeth of, 298.
Vanilla, 196.

338

INDEX

Vines, 33.

Vine, Wourali, 77.

Vulture, Aura, 224.

Common, 37, 66, 162, 223.

Beak of, 223.

King, 37, 223.

W

Wallaba, 50, 51, 297.

Wallababa, 135.

Wanderings, Objects of, 29.

Waracaba, 49, 84, 161.

Warows, 201.

Wasps, 197.

Water-hen, Spur-winged, 156.

Watermamma, 61.

Wax, 82, 83.

Weeds 34.

' ' Whip-poor-will, ' ' 43, 57, 158.

Whipsnake, 39.

White-headed Eagle, 277.

White Kecluse, 60.

" Who-are-you, " 158, 230.

Wild beasts, 198.

Hogs, 88, 211.

Man, 44.

" Willy-come-go, " 43, 158, 230.
Wood Ants, 35.
Woodpeckers, 148.

Eed-headed, 50, 173.
Woodskins, 67.
"Work-away," 158.
Wourali, 46, 58, 60, 69, 74, 90.
Antidotes, 93.
Experiment on Ai, 90.
Ass, 102.
Dog, 46.
Ox, 92.
Sloth, 90.
Preparation of, 77
Strength of, 46.
Vine, 77.
Wouralia, 103.
Wren, 42, 57, 118.

Yabahou, 79, 158.
Yams, 202.
Yawaraciris, 153.
Yellow-fever at Demerara, 168.

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