108 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



Header, canst thou not be induced to dedicate a few 

 months to the good of the public, and examine with thy 

 scientific eye the productions which the vast and well- 

 stored colony of Demerara presents to thee ? 



What an immense range of forest is there from the rock 

 Saba to the great fall ! and what an uninterrupted extent 

 before thee from it to the banks of the Essequiba! No 

 doubt, there is many a balsam and many a medicinal root 

 yet to be discovered, and many a resin, gum, and oil yet 

 unnoticed. Thy work would be a pleasing one, and thou 

 mightest make several useful observations in it. 



Would it be thought impertinent in thee to hazard a 

 conjecture, that with the resources the government of 

 Demerara has, stones might be conveyed from the rock 

 Saba to Stabroek, to stem the equinoctial tides, which are 

 lor ever sweeping away the expensive wooden piles round 

 the mounds of the fort ? Or would the timber-merchant 

 point at thee in passing by, and call thee a descendant of 

 La Mancha's knight, because thou maintainest that the 

 stones which form the rapids might be removed with little 

 expense, and thus open the navigation to the woodcutter 

 from Stabroek to the great fall ? Or wouldst thou be 

 deemed enthusiastic or biassed, because thou givest it as 

 thy opinion that the climate in these high lands is exceed- 

 ingly wholesome, and the lands themselves capable of 

 nourishing and maintaining any number of settlers ? In 

 thy dissertation on the Indians, thou mightest hint, that 

 possibly they could be induced to help the new settlers a 

 little; and that finding their labours well requited, it 

 would be the means of their keeping up a constant com- 

 munication with us, which probably might be the means 

 of laying the first stone towards their Christianity. They 

 are a poor, harmless, inoffensive set of people, and their 

 wandering and ill-provided way of living seems more to 



