AMONG THE INDIANS OF GUIANA.

CHAPTER I.

A JOURNEY IN THE INTERIOR.

Outline Sketch of the Interior-Methods of Travelling-Bartica Grove-Moraballi-A Creek-Hauling the Canoes up the Rapids-Moë-Night in the Forest-Scenery-Half-bred Brazilians-Paiwarikaira-A Peaiman's Vengeance-Healthiness of the Interior-Aretaka-A Burning Mora-tree-Magic Sticks-Apooterie-Up the Roopoonooni-SceneryKaboori-flies - Stopped by Sand-banks- A New Crew-Quartama--A Pretty Pond-Pirara Landing.

He who would see the beauty and the great, though undeveloped capabilities of the only English part of the continent of South America, must leave behind him the flat and swampy coastland of Guiana, and, passing up wide rivers and through vast forests, reach the magnificent and wide savannahs, intersected by the rugged mountain ridges which lie on the furthest limits of the colony, and stretch away into the interior of the continent. In so doing, the traveller will have to encounter many difficulties and some hardships; but, on the other hand, his travels will be through a land the marvellous beauty of which will more than recompense his pains, and where new objects will occur at every turn to draw his thoughts away from all discomforts. Nor have many travellers yet been before him; so that, though he will have the labour of making his own path, this will be counterbalanced by the pleasure of visiting untrodden ground.

The country may be said to consist of four tracts, lying one beyond the other, parallel to the coast-line. Of these only the outermost or sugar tract, which lies nearest to the

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sea-coast, is at present cultivated and inhabited to any considerable extent. Next to this is the timber tract, from which alone timber has as yet been remuneratively brought to market. This extends toward the interior as far as the lowest cataracts on the various rivers. It is at present impossible to cut timber profitably beyond these cataracts, owing to the difficulty which there would be in carrying any cut beyond that to market; so that an imaginary line, roughly parallel to the sea-coast, and cutting each of the great rivers at their lowest cataracts, marks the further limit from the coast of this tract. This part of the country is only very sparingly inhabited by a few wood-cutters, white men and black, and by a few Indians.

The two remaining tracts are entirely uninhabited except by widely scattered Indians of four or five different tribes. The forest tract immediately succeeds the timber tract; and lastly, furthest from the coast, lies the savannah tract. The former of these is everywhere covered by dense forests, as yet untouched by the woodcutter, and consisting largely of the two most valuable trees of the colony-greenheart (Nectandra rodiai) and mora (Mora excelsa). The land in all these three tracts is generally low, flat and swampy, though in the forest tract the level is occasionally broken by sloping hills, by solitary mountains, and even by low and unimportant ranges.

The last of the tracts is formed by the savannah of the interior. This must be distinguished from the meadows, also called savannahs, of the coast and forest tracts. Nearly all the small tributary streams of those regions rise in treeless marshes, which are under water during a large part of the year; and these are called savannahs. Again, along the banks of the Berbice and Corentyn rivers, often not far from the sea, there are considerable patches of open grass-land; and these, too, are called savannahs. But the chief savannah, that which forms the savannah tract, is of all the land of British Guiana farthest from the sea; it borders on the Brazils, from which it is only separated by the Cotinga and Takootoo rivers; and

it is continued without any significant interruption into the great grass-plain which occupies so much of the interior of South America. Our share of this large meadow is about 14,000 square miles in extent. On it stand the only considerable mountains of British Guiana.

There are no roads in the colony except that which runs along the coast. But four great rivers, the Essequibo, the Demerara, the Berbice, and the Corentyn, run, nearly paralle to each other, from the interior to the sea; and into these pass many tributary streams, often of considerable size. The four main rivers are the high roads, and their tributaries, together with a few Indian tracks through the forest, perhaps hardly discernible to an unpractised eye, are the cross roads, along which all travelling within the forest region must be done by canoe or on foot. When once the savannahs are reached, it becomes possible to travel either, as before, along the rivers or by walking. It was up the largest of the riversthe Essequibo-that I made my way in 1878 on to the savannah, over which I passed to the remote edge of the colony and on into Brazilian territory.

To give some account of the interior of Guiana is a necessary preliminary of my task. On each of my journeys I wrote down day by day the story of my travels. These diaries might, therefore, be transcribed with hardly any alteration. But such a diary, however interesting to the traveller himself and to his friends, and however many interesting facts it may contain, must always be tedious to the general reader. On the other hand, it is very difficult to give a description of a comparatively unknown land without using some such thread, on which to string the facts, as is afforded by a journal. And this is in a special degree true of the interior of British Guiana; for all that is known about it amounts but to a very considerable number of disconnected facts. I shall, therefore, use the diary of one of my journeys as a thread on which will be strung all pertinent facts derived either from my own experiences or from those of previous travellers in the same region.

A line of steamers, largely subsidised by the Government, runs from Georgetown to the Berbice on the one hand, and to the Essequibo on the other; and smaller steamers run twice in each week up the Essequibo, the Demerara, and the Berbice. These steamers are almost the only means yet attempted of opening up the colony. The small steamer runs up the Essequibo for a distance of about thirty-five miles from the mouth, partly for the convenience of the few who travel in that direction, but chiefly for Government purposes, the penal settlement of the colony being situated on the Mazeruni, a large tributary of the Essequibo. It was by this latter steamer that I reached the outskirts of civilisation, at Bartica Grove, which stands at the junction of the Mazeruni with the Essequibo.

Leaving Georgetown early in the morning, we passed for two hours along the coast, and then ran into the Essequibo. On board was a most heterogeneous and picturesque crowd of East Indians, Chinese, Indians, Negroes, together with Portuguese and a few other white men. Nearly every individual of this crowd travelled with a strange assortment of luggage, varying from a bedstead or waggon to a pair of live fowls or a parrot. On either side of the river the banks were low and swampy, densely covered with courida bushes (Avicennia nitida), mangroves (Rhizophora mangal), and palm-trees. In the evening, about four o'clock, we reached Bartica Grove.

Bartica Grove, once a flourishing mission station, is now reduced to a few wooden huts, used as stores, a church recently half-restored from a most ruinous condition, a few small living houses, and some timber-sheds. These latter are picturesque buildings, consisting of a few upright posts supporting roofs of withered palm-leaves. Under their eaves colonies of gigantic green spiders, as large as thrush's eggs, watch their webs, undisturbed from year's end to year's end. The whole sleepy, beautiful village lies under the shade of an avenue of large mango-trees. From this avenue the view riverward is of an enormous stretch of water; the view landward is of a tangled shrubbery of flowering bushes, from

which rise groups of graceful palms, and is bounded in the distance by the edge of the forest. The ditches and paths in the village are choked by great masses of maidenhair ferns and silver-backed gymnograms.

The decaying village is now chiefly inhabited by so-called 'river-men.' These are idle negroes and half-castes who make a living on the timber-grants, or as best they can. There are also a few inhabitants of a better kind, chiefly store-keepers. As many of the river-men have had considerable practice in passing the falls which so greatly obstruct the rivers of the country, these men have generally been employed as boathands by travellers into the interior. They are, however, as I had found on a previous occasion, an unmanageable and disagreeable set, and it is, therefore, far pleasanter to employ only Indians, who are not only much more easily managed, but also and this is a most important consideration to a traveller who must make companions of his crew are far more pleasant in manner. Having already made the necessary arrangements, I was met at the Grove by a crew of Macusi Indians who were to accompany me into the interior.

The party consisted of my companions Messrs. Flint and Eddington, myself, and our Indians.

For some distance from Bartica Grove we passed through scenery which, if somewhat monotonous, is yet extremely beautiful, and is characteristic of this timber tract. The river in this part varies from about one and a half to two miles in width. A few islands of various sizes are scattered through the reaches. The banks on both sides of the river, as well as the islands, are everywhere clothed, down to the edge of the water, with rounded masses of foliage, generally laurellike in character, and really, though not apparently, rising to a great height. The whole scene is on so gigantic a scale that these forests seem hardly more than low bush. There was but little flower to add to the colour; but here and there, highest among the banked foliage, a mora-tree, breaking into new leaf of most varied shades, white, pale liver-coloured, a deeper red, and occasionally even a deep bright crimson, stood