32 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



malicious, cruel, and ill-natured ; and that the Portu- 

 guese have been obliged to stop them off in a certain 

 river, to prevent their depredations. They have also 

 dreadful stories concerning a horrible beast, called the 

 Watermamma, which, when it happens to take a spite 

 against a canoe, rises out of the river, and in the most 

 unrelenting manner possible, carries both canoe and 

 Indians down to the bottom with it, and there destroys 

 them. Ludicrous extravagances ! pleasing to those fond 

 of the marvellous, and excellent matter for a distem- 

 pered brain. 



The misinformed and timid court of policy 

 in Demerara was made the dupe of a savage 

 who came down the Essequibo, and gave himself out 

 as king of a mighty tribe. This naked wild man of 

 the woods seemed to hold the said court in tolerable 

 contempt, and demanded immense supplies, all which 

 he got ; and moreover, some time after, an invitation to 

 come down the ensuing year for more, which he took 

 care not to forget. 



This noisy chieftain boasted so much of his dynasty 

 and domain, that the Government was induced to send 

 up an expedition into his territories to see if he had 

 spoken the truth, and nothing but the truth. It ap- 

 peared, however, that his palace was nothing but a hut, 

 the monarch a needy savage, the heir-apparent nothing 

 to inherit but his father's club and bow and arrows, and 

 his officers of state wild and uncultivated as the forests 

 through which they strayed. 



There was nothing in the hut of this savage, saving 

 the presents he had received from Government, but 

 what was barely sufficient to support existence ; nothing 

 that indicated a power to collect a hostile force; nothing 



