WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 61 



have been satisfactory in some degree, had not 

 the Indians carried the point a little too far. It 

 is very large, said another Indian, and ships come 

 to it. Now these unfortunate ships were the very 

 things which were not wanted : had he kept them 

 out, it might have done, but his introducing them 

 was sadly against the lake. Thus you must either 

 suppose that the old savage and his companion 

 had a confused idea of the thing, and that proba- 

 bly the Lake Parima they talked of was the 

 Amazons, not far from the city of Para, or that 

 it was their intention to deceive you. You ought 

 to be cautious in giving credit to their stories, 

 otherwise you will be apt to be led astray. 



Many a ridiculous thing concerning the interior 

 of Guiana has been propagated and received as 

 true, merely because six or seven Indians, ques- 

 tioned separately, have agreed in their narrative. 



Ask those who live high up in the Demerara, 

 and they will, every one of them, tell you that 

 there is a nation of Indians with long tails ; that 

 they are very malicious, cruel, and ill-natured; 

 and that the Portuguese have been obliged to stop 

 them off in a certain river, to prevent their depre- 

 dations. They have also dreadful stories con- 

 cerning a horrible beast, called the Watermamma, 

 which, when it happens to take a spite against a 

 canoe, rises out of the river, and in the most unre- 

 lenting manner possible carries both canoe and 

 Indians down to the bottom with it, and there 

 destroys them. Ludicrous extravagances; pleas- 

 ing to those fond of the marvellous, and excellent 

 matter for a distempered brain. 



The misinformed and timid court of policy in 



