SOUTH AMERICA. 51 



FIRST 

 JOURNEY. 



extensive plains afford good pasturage for a fine 

 breed of cattle, and the Portuguese make enough 

 of butter and cheese for their own consump- 

 tion. 



On asking the old officer if there were such a 

 place as Lake Parima, or El Dorado, he replied, 

 he looked upon it as imaginary altogether. " I 

 have been above forty years," added he, " in Por- 

 tuguese Guiana, but have never yet met with any 

 body who has seen the lake." 



So much for Lake Parima, or El Dorado, or the 

 White Sea. Its existence at best seems doubtful ; 

 some affirm that there is such a place, and others 

 deny it. 



" Grammatici certant, et adhuc sub judice lis est." 



Having now reached the Portuguese inland 

 frontier, and collected a sufficient quantity of the p 

 wouraii poison, nothing remains but to give a 

 brief account of its composition, its effects, its 

 uses, and its supposed antidotes. 



It has been already remarked, that in the 

 extensive wilds of Demerara and Essequibo, far 

 away from any European settlement, there is a 

 tribe of Indians who are known by the name of 

 Macoushi. 



Though the wouraii poison is used by all the 

 South American savages betwixt the Amazons and 

 the Oroonoque, still this tribe makes it stronger 

 than any of the rest. The Indians in the vicinity 



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