610 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
seemed hospitably to bid us look thither for shelter, and on 
approaching its copper-coloured patriarchal inhabitants, their 
kindness did not belie the promise of their simple huts. 
These people belonged to the Gallina tribe, and their Chief 
immediately ordered his men to aid us in passing a shoal, 
behind which our little fleet might find safe anchorage. An 
entire hut was placed at our disposal, and these good-natured 
Aborigines, far from asking any present, offered us with the 
utmost frankness their little gifts. The chief set the example, 
with easy and unembarrassed manners, just as if it were a 
thing of course, he brought us a fowl, and the women each 
gave a cake of manioc, neither of which was at all despicab.e 
food. With equal frankness, these people requested some 
rum, and though the men seemed to relish this nauseous 
beverage, l am sorry to say their partners far exceeded them, 
their passion for spirits being perfectly insatiable. Soon the 
liquor did its wonted work, and the aged chief, with savage 
eloquence, began relating his military exploits, just as if the 
affair had occurred yesterday, whereas he was referring to the 
conflict between the free inhabitants and revolted slaves, 
upwards of eighty years ago! He must have been nearly 
one hundred years old to have taken part in this battle, and 
yet there was not a single white hair to be seen on his strong- 
looking skull, and he lived with three wives, the youngest of 
whom had an infant at her breast, and he looked as if he 
might last for half a century more. 
Anxious to obtain all the information I could, as to the 
communication existing between the rivers Amanza, Oya- 
pok and Aproaga (all on the French territory) with the Ta- 
panoni, I spent a day with these Indians. It is truly dis- 
graceful to any civilized government that these poor creatures 
and the numerous other tribes of Aborigines in Guyana have 
hitherto been utterly neglected. Simple as they are, one 
may always learn something from them. "They told me of a 
shrub, which seems to be the Schousbwa coccinea, of which 
they aver, that applied externally, it induces vomiting. 
On the 6th, we pursued our way up the Marowina, and 
