Up the CuYUNi IN 1837. 3^' 



My first objeft be< ime therefore the filling up of that 

 blank on the Map wh h exists between the mouth of the 

 Cuyuny and the Misjions of the Carony river, so as to 

 give an a6lual and tangible idea of that part of the course 

 filled up hitherto in 11 the maps by an imaginary line, 

 with localities not in existence. My second to furnish 

 the Conservatory at Chatsworth with Orchidea of the 

 elevated savannahs of the interior, the noble proprietor 

 having munificently furnished the pecuniary means re- 

 quired. 



The Cuyuny river is peopled from the mouth to the 

 first falls on the south bank with straggling Caribisce 

 Indians, for the most part refugees from the Missions of 

 the interior. Lazy, drunken and faithless, they are 

 nevertheless the only crew to be got for exploring the 

 upper river. I found them and the coloured people 

 generally in a state t starvation, subsisting solely on 

 the green papaya boiled; not a cake of cassada to be 

 purchased at any rate (price) — they were mere animated 

 skeletons, and on enquiring the cause of all this squalid 

 misery, I found it, strange to say, the result of the Protes- 

 tant Mission established at the confluence of the Massa- 

 roony with the Essequebo, whose first essay at conversion 

 had this melancholy effe6l. They had taught religion but 

 not industrious habits, supplying the wantsof the Indians 

 without an equivalent return of labour, and by the abolition 

 of feasts and dances, abolishing also that provision of 

 cultivation requisite for the supply of Piworry, their 

 native drink, consumed enormously on such occasions, 

 but the stock of cassada planted for which was always a 

 security from famine. I visited some of the Indian fields 

 and found their cultivation limited to less than a half of 



