GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 379 
the victim to his imposture, and had contrived to send 
him out of the world by poison; an opinion in which I am 
the more confirmed, from the relations of the deceased 
having found it necessary to present the priest with a larger 
quantity of manioc and nuts than what had_ been stolen, 
a necessary precaution, as my interpreter assures me, to 
preserve their own lives.” 
The following circumstance, which passed between Mr. 
Fitzmaurice and his friend the Chenoo of the village, is a 
curious trait of simplicity or cunning in the manners of 
these people. This Chenoo had boasted of a war fetiche, 
which if any one attempted to shoot at, the flint would fall 
oul, and the person so attempting would fall down dead. 
On Mr. Fitzmaurice and Mr. Hodder expressing a wish to 
have a shot at this redoubtable deity, he observed, that 
he loved them too much to let them try; on telling him 
however that if, on firing, they missed it, or if they sus- 
tained any harm, they woujd give him a whole piece of 
aft and two bottles of brandy, his fears for their safety 
immediately vanished before the prospect of gain, and he 
consented ; six yards was the distance measured off. The 
fetiche was the figure of a man rudely carved in wood and 
covered with rags, about two feet high, and one foot broad, 
and the time appointed was the following morning. In 
the course of the evening, the interpreter, who had a great 
regard for the strangers, appeared extremely sad and pen- 
sive, and being asked the cause, replied, that he very much 
feared his good masters were going to die, and intreated in 
the most urgent manner, that they would give the baft and 
