Foreign Notices: — South America. 487 



then, as the Indians have no reel, the canoe is paddled after the fish in its 

 struggle to escape ; and, when the fish is fairly tired, it is hauled up to the 

 surface, and speared. 



The Indian possesses a perfect knowledge of the trees, &c., of the forest, 

 and has a name for each ; nor is this the extent of his botanical knowledge, 

 for in most instances he is acquainted with their medicinal properties. In all 

 their excursions, the men are very studious to impress on the minds of their 

 children the names, properties, times of flowering, fruiting, &c., of the various 

 trees they fall in with. The flowering of different trees is also the medium 

 through which the Indian ascertains the progress of the seasons. 



The honesty of the natives of Guiana is great, and greatly to be respected. 

 In my expedition up the Masseroni, and on several other excursions, I took 

 with me a box containing beads, hooks, knives, cutlasses, and other articles of 

 Indian commerce, to exchange for cassava bread, and also as part payment of 

 those Indians who paddled me up the river. The box I had often occasion 

 to leave in the different Indian settlements which I visited ; and although, as 

 I was well aware, the box being open, the Indians turned over and examined 

 every article in it, I never lost so much as a bunch of beads. One thing, 

 however, I am sorry to add, overcomes the scruples of an Indian's conscience : 

 if you should chance to take with you a bottle of rum or brandy as a remedy 

 against the rains and dews, keep it by all means out of the Indian's way ; for, 

 if you leave it in his sight, you will surely find your bottle empty at your 

 return. The vice of drunkenness is the great, I may say, perhaps, the only, 

 stain on the character of the Indian of Demerara; and as, however unwil- 

 lingly I may expose the failing, I must not conceal the truth, I have every 

 reason to believe that this vice existed among them previously to their ac- 

 quaintance with the ardent spirits of the European. When 1 first entered 

 an Indian settlement, I was much struck at observing, in some of the logics, 

 four or five large pieces of the triuiks of trees ; they might probably be about 

 5 ft. or 6 ft. long, and 2 ft. in diameter: upon examination, they proved to 

 have been hollowed by fire ; and, on making enquiries as to their utility, I was 

 informed that they were used to contain the drink called piewarrie : and I 

 further ascertained that, occasionally, when the Indians have a large crop of 

 cassava, the women chew away till sufficient piewarrie is accumulated to fill 

 all these large vessels. The Indians then invite tiieir friends ; and, being all 

 painted in their best style, they commence drinking; each man being com- 

 pelled to empty, as often as the females present them, large calabashes, 

 containing, probably, three pints. It is easy to suppose that drunkenness 

 succeeds quickly to this deep drinking, and that the Indians tumble over one 

 another, male and female, in a state of beastly intoxication. It would be well 

 if the scene ended here ; but, according to the Indian customs, this drinking 

 must be continued day after day, until every drop of the stock is exhausted; 

 the Indians drinking and vomiting incessantly for sometimes a fortnight at a 

 time. Let us drop a veil over this failing of the poor Indian, and turn to a 

 more pleasing trait in his character, his hospitality. Never did I enter an 

 Indian logie without having the best fare the Indian possessed set unosten- 

 tatiously before me : indeed, they scarcely seemed to consider any invitation 

 to eat or drink necessary ; a glance of the eye, or a graceful wave of the 

 hand intimating their wish to see yon commence. The flesh of the jaguar, 

 the young cayman, the wild hog, the laba, the atrouri, are among the dainties 

 I have been offered, aiul have freely partaken of, among them. 



The Indians still pretend to hold in contempt the Europeans, who, they 

 assert, are merely suffered by them to remain on the Indian territory. The 

 ways in which this fancied superiority shows itself are often highly amusing. 

 For instance, when one of the various chiefs to whom the English govern- 

 ment has granted the title of captain proceeds to Georgetown, he is always 

 accompanied by thirty or forty of his tribe ; being himself habited in an old 

 retl coat presented by government, and the rest of his body being naked. 

 Thus attired, the chief, on his arrival at the town^ goes first to pay a visit to 



