SOUTH AMERICA. 19 



least mindful of having been benefited by the FIRST 



JOURNEY. 



society he was just leaving. 



The Indians said that he had neither wife, nor 

 child, nor friend. They had often tried to per- 

 suade him to come and live amongst them; but 

 all was of no avail. He went roving on, plun- 

 dering the wild bees of their honey, and picking 

 up the fallen nuts and fruits of the forest. When 

 he fell in with game, he procured fire from two 

 sticks, and cooked it on the spot. When a hut 

 happened to be in his way, he stepped in, and 

 asked for something to eat, and then months 

 elapsed ere they saw him again. They did not 

 know what had caused him to be thus unsettled ; 

 he had been so for years ; nor did they believe 

 that even old age itself would change the habits 

 of this poor, harmless, solitary wanderer. 



From Simon's, the traveller may reach the large 

 fall, with ease, in four days. 



The first falls that he meets are merely rapids, 

 scarce a stone appearing above the water in the 

 rainy season ; and those in the bed of the river, 

 barely high enough to arrest the water's course, 

 and by causing a bubbling, show that they are 

 there. 



With this small change of appearance in the 

 stream, the stranger observes nothing new till he 

 comes within eight or ten miles of the great fall. 

 Each side of the river presents an uninterrupted 

 range of wood, just as it did below. All the 



c 2 



