WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 249 



it been the wet season, almost everytliing would 

 have been spoiled. 



After this, the voyage down the Essequibo was 

 quick and pleasant till we reached the sea-coast; 

 there we had a trying day of it; the wind was 

 dead against us, and the sun remarkably hot ; we 

 got twice aground upon a mud-flat, and were twice 

 obliged to get out, up to the middle in mud, to 

 shove the canoe through it. Half way betwixt 

 the Essequibo and Demerara the tide of flood 

 caught us ; and after the utmost exertions, it was 

 half-past six in the evening before we got to 

 George-town. 



We had been out from six in the morning in 

 an open canoe on the sea-coast, without umbrella 

 or awning, exposed all day to the fiery rays of 

 a tropical sun. My face smarted so that I could 

 get no sleep during the night, and the next morn- 

 ing my lips were all in blisters. The Indian Yan 

 went down to the Essequibo a copper colour, but 

 the reflection of the sun from the sea, and from 

 the sand-banks in the river, had turned him nearly 

 black. He laughed at himself, and said that the 

 Indians in the Demerara would not know him 

 again. I stayed one day in George-town, and then 

 set off the next morning for head-quarters in 

 Mibiri creek, where I finished the cayman. 



Here the remaining time was spent in collect- 

 ing birds, and in paying particular attention to 

 their haunts and economy. The rainy season 

 having set in, the weather became bad and 

 stormy; the lightning and thunder were inces- 

 sant: the days cloudy, and the nights cold and 

 misty. I had now been eleven months in the 



