Guiana: The Wild and Wonderful. 237 
official uniform. Waterton was very glad to follow suit. The Dutch 
planter ultimately learnt that a loose linen covering and a broad hat 
were the most suitable and healthy. 
When Van Berkel went overland from Fort Nassau to the Demerara 
there were no settlements on that river nor even on the Essequebo below 
-Bartica. All the coast was a wilderness and not the least clearance 
could be seen anywhere. A stranger night easily come to the conclusion 
that no white men lived here; nothing could be seen but the line of 
couridas with here and there an opening into a river. The trading 
settlements of Essequebo and Berbice were of such small importance that 
even when reached they made little impression. ‘True, Kyk-over-al was 
built of stone and brick, and in its insulation, no doubt, well protected 
against Indian foes, but Fort Nassau could be fired and could hardly be 
expected to stand a siege. It is reported that the defenders of Kyk- 
over-al once repelled a party of corsairs by pouring melted fat over them 
as they attempted to mount the steps. 
The traders from Kyk-over-al and Fort Nassau made long journeys 
in the interior and could, no doubt, have told stories of what they had 
seen and heard. But, they thought only of their bargams—what could 
be got for a pound of beads, an axe or a hawk's bell. The only wonder 
seen was the Crystal Mountain, which shone in the sunlight like a big 
diamond ; possibly this nay have been an exaggeration of Roraima. 
Whether the pictured rocks were noticed in early times is not 
recorded—they were however seen by Dr. Hortesmann in 1749. 
Possibly also some were engraved or touched up at this period, although 
it appears as if most of them were of an earlier date. The fact that a 
figure of a ship was seen by Humboldt goes to prove that this particular 
Timehri rock was engraved after the arrival of the white man. This 
however is not strange in face of the fact that picture writings are still 
being made on some of the branches of the Rio Negro. 
This was reported by Dr. Theodore Koch-Grunberg in his book 
Sudamerikansche Felszeichnungen, 1907, in which a flood of light is 
thrown upon these supposed ancient relics. In his journeys 1903-5 on 
the Upper Rio Negro and its branches he came across a fair number of 
rock pictures, most of which he figured. He does not agree with the 
opinion that they are ancient, in fact he saw some that could easily be 
recognised as newly cut. Nevertheless some of the tribes ascribed thein 
to an ancestral hero, Yaparkuli. Possibly the aboriginals of Guiana may 
be near the truth when they say that some ancient tribe engraved 
them, and it is not unlikely that the descendants of this tribe may be 
now in the Upper Riv Negro and still at work on similar figures. 
The learned Doctor considers that many of the figures represent 
dancers in their elaborate dresses. Certainly the more ornate answer 
to such an identification; two of those in our block can be easily 
recognised and those from the branches of the Rio Negro, although 
