PERILOUS BUSINESS. 113 



arduous enterprises and for the execution of no 

 common projects-" He traversed, with eager steps, 

 the vast province of Guiana ; dangers, privations, 

 and obstacles, seeming but to increase his energy. 

 He showed great enterprise and courage in ex- 

 ploring the country and dislodging from their 

 strongholds the savages by whom the colony was 

 molested ; and succeeded, at great personal risk, 

 in making a passage by water from Cayenne to 

 the mountain La Gabrielle, the accomplishment of 

 which had been much desired by the colonists, but 

 abandoned by reason of the natural difficulties of 

 the route. This perilous business was eagerly under- 

 taken by Sonnini, who embarked in a frail canoe 

 with a company of Indians, and for ten days per- 

 sisted in navigating those savannahs through im- 

 mense low marshy plains, the haunts of the cayman 

 and myriads of noxious creatures. Difficult beyond 

 conception was the enterprise, and he suffered the 

 horrors of drought and famine in addition to the 

 poisonous exhalations of those infectious regions, 

 the attacks of the mosquitoes, and the murmurs of 

 his savage companions, who despaired of success 

 and were clamorous to return. Thus, when only 

 in his twenty-third year, the youthful Sounini had 

 honourably enrolled his name in the annals of that 

 colony. On his return to France he was for this 

 service promoted to the rank of lieutenant. In 



