Charles Waterton and his Demerara Friend, 



By James Rod-way, F.L.S. 



s^'fj^O the thousands of readers of that delightful 

 2 3^ book " Waterton's Wanderings," any little 

 ^iala contribution to the personal history of its 

 author will, no doubt, be interesting, and as I have come 

 across some particulars concerning " the most valued 

 friend he ever had in the vrorld," CHARLES EdmonsTONE, 

 it has been thought desirable to bring them before the 

 readers of Timehri. 



In Demerara we see around us the beautiful scenes 

 which the traveller and naturalist so vividly described, 

 and in a walk along the West Coast, may observe the 

 descendants of the curri-curris, egrets and spurwings 

 which he admired so much. In a few hours' journey up 

 the Demerara river we may reach the Camouni Creek, 

 pass through its affluent the Warratilla, and follow the 

 windings of that little stream into the Mibiri, where 

 Waterton spent many happy days in the enthusiastic 

 study of the forest creatures he loved so much. The 

 house is gone, and there is nothing remaining of the 

 wood-cutting establishment, but the forest remains and 

 the fauna is still the same. The howling of the red 

 monkey, the barking of the toucan and the screaming of 

 flocks of parrots overhead, may be heard and appre- 

 ciated to-day as they were eighty years ago. At night, 

 when lying in our hammocks we can compare the voices 

 of the owls and goat-suckers with the description in the 

 Wanderings, and listen to their weird cries of "Whip 

 poor Will," "Who are you," and that other wailing 



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