66 IN THE GUIANA FOREST. 



happiness, as we said before, consists in perfect 

 accommodation to the environment, then the Indian 

 is the happiest of men ; but this naturally brings up 

 the question whether it is good for man to be 

 happy. Nature answers most emphatically, No ; 

 but at the same time tells us to strive for its 

 attainment. If it were possible to conceive of 

 the attainment of perfection, with nothing left 

 to hope for, we could only think of such a state 

 as the extreme of dulness. Even if we lost every 

 desire and aspiration and could settle down to a 

 state of do-nothing for our life-times, it would still 

 be a particularly unenviable condition. Even rest 

 is the complement of labour, the one is only 

 possible in connection with the other. 



It seems pitiful that the Guiana Indian should 

 be exterminated, but, nevertheless, this end is 

 certain. Unless the whole country were abandoned 

 by the European he could never again come to 

 the front, and even if such an unlikely thing ever 

 came to pass, the consequences of present inter- 

 ference would probably affect the result. During the 

 last few years the gold prospector has been intruding 

 within the Indian's domains, with the result that he 

 retires farther and farther away, often carrying with 

 him the germs of diseases unknown to his ancestors. 

 Formerly, he had remedies for all sicknesses with 



