96 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 



tight round the wound, and have immediate re- 

 course to the knife : — 



"Continuo, culpam ferro compesce priusquam, 

 Dira per infaustum serpant contagia corpus." 



And now, kind reader, it is time to bid thee 

 farewell. The two ends proposed have been ob- 

 tained. The Portuguese inland frontier fort has 

 been reached, and the Macoushi wourali-poison 

 acquired. The account of this excursion through 

 the interior of Guiana has been submitted to thy 

 perusal, in order to induce thy abler genius to un- 

 dertake a more extensive one. If any difficulties 

 have arisen, or fevers come on, they have been 

 caused by the periodical rains, which fall in tor- 

 rents as the sun approaches the tropic of Cancer. 

 In dry weather there would be no difficulties or 

 sickness. 



Amongst the many satisfactory conclusions 

 which thou wouldst be able to draw during the 

 journey, there is one which, perhaps, would please 

 thee not a little ; and that is with regard to dogs. 

 Many a time, no doubt, thou hast heard it hotly 

 disputed, that dogs existed in Guiana previously 

 to the arrival of the Spaniards in those parts. 

 Whatever the Spaniards introduced, and which 

 bore no resemblance to anything the Indians had 

 been accustomed to see, retains its Spanish name 

 to this day. 



Thus the Warow, the Arowac, the Acoway, the 

 Macoushi, and Carib tribes, call a hat, sombrero; 

 a shirt, or any kind of cloth, camiso ; a shoe, za- 

 pato; a letter, carta; a fowl, gallina; gunpowder, 



