128 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 



there is a good public road to New Amsterdam, 

 the capital of Berbice. 



On viewing New Amsterdam, it will immedi- 

 ately strike you that something or other has in- 

 tervened to prevent its arriving at that state of 

 wealth and consequence for which its original 

 plan shows it was once intended. What has 

 caused this stop in its progress to the rank of a 

 fine and populous city remains for those to find 

 out who are interested in it; certain it is, that 

 New Amsterdam has been languid for some years, 

 and now the tide of commerce seems ebbing fast 

 from the shores of Berbice. 



Gay and blooming is the sister colony of Deme- 

 rara. Perhaps, kind reader, thou hast not forgot 

 that it was from Stabroek, the capital of Deme- 

 rara, that the adventurer set out, some years ago, 

 to reach the Portuguese frontier fort, and collect 

 the wourali-poison. It was not intended, when 

 this second sally was planned in England, to have 

 visited Stabroek again by the route here de- 

 scribed. The plan was to have ascended the Ama- 

 zons from Para and got into the Eio Negro, and 

 from thence to have returned towards the source 

 of the Essequibo, in order to examine the crystal 

 mountains, and look once more for Lake Parima, 

 or the White Sea; but on arriving at Cayenne, 

 the current was running with such amazing rapid- 

 ity to leeward, that a Portuguese sloop, which had 

 been beating up towards Para for four weeks, 

 was then only half way. Finding, therefore, that 

 a beat to the Amazons would be long, tedious, and 

 even uncertain, and aware that the season for 

 procuring birds in fine plumage had already set 



