42 



MEMOIR OF 



branches, giving them an appearance as if they 

 were fringed. 



The party retraced their steps to Curassawaka, a 

 settlement of the chief Irai-i, or Jacobus, where 

 they remained during the rest of their stay on the 

 Rupununi, making astronomical observations, and 

 collecting information as to the features and natural 

 productions of the country. As it was long since 

 sugar had sweetened their coffee, they resolved to 

 build an Indian sugar-mill, and to buy from a Ma- 

 cusi woman the canes then on her grounds. By 

 the mechanical skill of one of the party, a mill was 

 soon erected ; the Indians were employed in press- 

 ing out the juice of the cane, which was converted 

 into syrup, and next morning coffee was sweetened ! 

 Trifling as this circumstance might appear, it was 

 nevertheless a novelty ; and a most welcome one, 

 after the privations of the wilderness. 



But novelty lasts not long. The stay at Curassa- 

 waka was becoming irksome ; legions of chigoes and 

 their next of kin, fleas, had taken possession of the 

 travellers' hut ; the former, in particular, not only 

 penetrated under the nails of their feet, but also 

 attacked their hands, burying themselves under the 

 finger-nails. Add to this, the rainy season was 

 approaching. It was thought desirable, therefore, 

 to depart without further loss of time, and return 

 to Georgetown ; so, after a stay of about a month 

 in these once comfortable quarters, the expedition, 

 numbering now upwards of eighty persons (for the 

 Indian will always travel in company when ho 



