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 



