148 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



EEMAEKS. 



"Incertus, quo fata ferant, ubi sistere detur." 



KIND and gentle reader, if the journey in quest of the 

 wourali-poison has engaged thy attention, probably thou 

 mayest recollect that the traveller took leave of thee at 

 Tort St. Joachim, on the Eio Branco. Shouldest thou 

 wish to know what befell him afterwards, excuse the 

 following uninteresting narrative. 



Having had a return of fever, and aware that the 

 farther he advanced into these wild and lonely regions, 

 the less would be the chance of regaining his health ; he 

 gave up all idea of proceeding onwards, and went slowly 

 back towards the Demerara, nearly by the same route he 

 had come. 



On descending the falls in the Essequibo, which form an 

 oblique line quite across the river, it was resolved to push 

 through them, the downward stream being in the canoe's 

 favour. At a little distance from the place, a large tree 

 had fallen into the river, and in the meantime the canoe 

 was lashed to one of its branches. 



The roaring of the water was dreadful ; it foamed and 

 dashed over the rocks with a tremendous spray, like 

 breakers on a lee-shore, threatening destruction to what- 

 ever approached it. You would have thought, by the 

 confusion it caused in the river, and the whirlpools it 

 made, that Scylla and Charybdis, and their whole progeny, 



