24 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH , AMERICA. 



rock Saba to the great fall ! and what an uninterrupted 

 extent "before thee from it to the banks of the Essequibo ! 

 Xo doubt, there is many a balsam and many a medicinal 

 root yet to be discovered, and many a resin, gum, and 

 oil yet unnoticed. Thy work would be a pleasing one, 

 and thou mightest make several useful observations 

 in it. 



Would it be thought impertinent in thee to hazard 

 a conjecture, that with the resources the government of 

 Demerara has, stones might be conveyed from the rock 

 Saba to Stabroek, to stem the equinoctial tides, which 

 are for ever sweeping away the expensive wooden piles 

 round the mounds of the fort 1 Or would the timber- 

 merchant point at thee in passing by, and call thee a 

 descendant of La Mancha's knightj because thou main- 

 tainest that the stones which form the rapids might be 

 removed with little expense, and thus open the navi- 

 gation to the wood-cutter from Stabroek to the great 

 fall? Or wouldst thou be deemed enthusiastic or 

 biassed, because thou givest it as thy opinion that the 

 climate in these high lands is exceedingly wholesome, 

 and the lands themselves capable of nourishing and 

 maintaining any number of settlers 1 In thy disserta- 

 tion on the Indians, thou mightest hint, that possibly 

 they could be induced to help the new settlers a little ; 

 and that, finding their labours well requited, it would 

 be the means of their keeping up a constant communi- 

 cation with us, which probably might be the means of 

 laying the first stone towards their Christianity. They 

 are a poor, harmless, inoffensive set of people, and their 

 wandering and ill-provided way of living seems more 

 to ask for pity from us, than to fill our heads with 

 thoughts that they would be hostile to us. 



