GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 379 



the victim to his imposture, and had contrived to send 

 him out of the world by poison ; an opinion in which I am 

 the more confirmed, from the relations of the deceased 

 having found it necessary to present the priest with a larger 

 quantity of manioc and nuts than what had been stolen, 

 a necessary precaution, as my interpreter assures me, to 

 preserve their own lives." 



The following circumstance, which passed between Mr. 

 Fitzmaurice and his friend the Chenoo of the village, is a 

 curious trait of simplicity or cunning in the manners of 

 these people. This Chenoo had boasted of a war fetiche, 

 which if any one attempted to shoot at, the flint would fall 

 out, and the person so attempting would fall down dead. 

 On Mr. Fitzmaurice and Mr. Hodder expressing a wish to 

 have a shot at this redoubtable deity, he observed, that 

 he loved them too much to let them try ; on telling him 

 however that if, on firing, they missed it, or if they sus- 

 tained any harm, they wou^d give him a whole piece of 

 baft and two bottles of brandy, his fears for their safety 

 immediately vanished before the prospect of gain, and he 

 consented ; six yards was the distance measured off. The 

 fetiche was the figure of a man rudely carved in wood and 

 covered with rags, about two feet high, and one foot broad, 

 and the time appointed was the following morning. In 

 the course of the evening, the interpreter, who had a great 

 regard for the strangers, appeared extremely sad and pen- 

 sive, and being asked the cause, replied, that he very much 

 feared his good masters were going to die, and intreated in 

 the most urgent manner, that they would give the baft and 



