4 TlMEHRl. 



consisting of 22 persons, including himself and Lieu- 

 tenant HAINING, embarked in three corials, and proceeded 

 up the Essequebo. His first obje£l was to ascertain the 

 source of this river, and the nature of the country through 

 which it runs. Arrangements had been made for a 

 probable absence of six months, and every convenience 

 possiole had been provided, including credentials to 

 secure respect from the authorities on the frontier. 



On arriving at the Creek An nay on the Rupununi, 

 October 23, temporary head-quarters were established, 

 and letters, reporting progress, forwarded to George- 

 town, where they were reported as having been 

 received on November 19th. From a letter to Mr. 

 George BENTHAM,* the Botanist, it appears that all 

 the party had suffered more or less from fatigue and 

 exposure ; fever and dysentery having been the prevail- 

 ing disorders, but in no cases however to a dangerous 

 degree. His own servant insisted on going back with 

 the people who had been hired at the post, hiving be- 

 come alarmed at his own indisposition, and the account s 

 of tigers and rattlesnakes,, the latter of which had paid 

 several visits to their Indian huts. He had already col- 

 lected about 2,000 plants, and expected to find the 

 savannahs a rich field. When Lieut. HAINING should 

 eave him in about three months, he would send his col- 

 lections of plants, birds and minerals ; the opportunity 

 of the people then leaving he did not consider sufficiently 

 safe. He had enclosed a paper on the species of Lacis 

 for the Linnean Society, and had drawings of several 

 other plants, but was too weak from fever and ague, to 

 finish the accounts of them. 



* Hooker's Companion to Bot. Mag., Vol. I. 



