TTTSTC*^!- AT i^virricA ;}.) 



ut' liorroi> when you step fortli ti) make an intimate acciuaint- 

 aiice within tlie l)eaiities so hivishly (lis])hiye(l on every sitle. 

 Tlie l)ete rouu'e ahnost (h-i\es you to (hstraction. the wood- 

 tiek torments you hoirihly. the .snakes fri^^hten you out of 

 voui- ht'e, the l)at will hardlv allow von to sleep for (h-ead 

 of heino- drained o\' yt)ur life-blood, and the ehigoe threatens 

 von with a prospeet of amputation. Sueh are some of the 

 deliuhts of a life in the wilds of Guiana. Let no timid man 

 attempt it." 



^^'ith missionaries who eould helieve and write sueh ab- 

 surdities it is hardly remai'kable that im Thnrn. visitint^' 

 Bartiea in 1878. writes that Bartica Grove, once a tlonrish- 

 ino' mission station, is now reduced to a few wooden huts, 

 used as stores, a ehurch recently half restored from a most 

 ruinous condition, a few small li\ in^- houses and some timber 

 sheds. These latter, he adds, are ])ietiiresniie hnildiuii-s. eon- 

 sisting of a few u})riuht posts supporting roofs of withered 

 palm leaves, lender their eaves colonies of gigantic greeii 

 spiders, as large as thrushes' eggs, watcli their webs, undis- 

 turbed from year's end to year's end. The \vlu>le sleepy, 

 beautiful village lies under the shade of an avenue of large 

 manii'o trees. From this avenue the view riverward is of an 

 enormous stretch of water: the view landward is of a tangled 

 shrubbery of tiowering bushes. I'roiii which i-ise groups of 

 graceful palms, and is bounded in the distance by the edge 

 of the forest. The ditches and paths in the village are choked 

 bv oTcat masses of maidenhair ferns and silver-backed 

 gymnograms. 



A few vears after the decadence of the mission station 

 came a second K\ Dorado, when the discovery of gold and 

 diamonds up the Mazaruni and Cuyuni rivers brought hosts 

 of blacks and bovianders. The only changes which the suc- 

 ceeding two score years have wrought in im Thurn's de- 

 scription of Bartiea, are an increase in small houses to ac- 

 commodate the several hundred inhabitants, and unlovely 

 telegraph, police and ])ost ottices. besides a stelling for the 



