ITINERAKY. XXV 



the water, returning in a comparatively short time with a crowd of 

 people and a very much larger number of boats, old and new, than we 

 requn-ed. He evidently meant to make sure of his gun, and there 

 was hardly any doubt a settlement must have been not far away where 

 many of the boats had been made expressly for us, and probably the 

 man himself was its chief. 



We had thought the delay a point of tactics to secure high prices for 

 the woodskins ; and we were therefore much surprised that what was 

 asked for those we selected was very moderate, considering we picked 

 out all the largest and best. They had to be paid for in barter — no 

 one would take money, for a reason we learnt later. 



It seems that a German orchid collector, s, who had been to 



Roraima some years ago for~ the rare Cattleya Lawrenceana, had given 

 the people false coin, some stamped base metal, whether in whole or 

 part payment was not clear ; and they had only learnt its nature when 

 they went later to the gold-mining camp across the river to exchange 

 it for goods, such as beads, powder, knives, etc. The transaction would 

 be such a base and cruel fraud on these ignorant aborigines that one 

 was loth to believe the story as told, and one wondered whether perhaps 

 the man, with ordinary payments in barter, may have given presents 

 of common metal tokens to be worn as trinkets on necklaces, which are 

 so commonly worn by the people, made of teeth, seeds, or beads. Even 

 this would be a very doubtful proceeding, however, unless they were 

 already made into necklaces, as the people in these far districts could 

 not possibly discriminate in the matter. Anyhow, it had caused very 

 bad feeling against travellers, and it was the common report they would 

 be killed. This was to be our fate higher up, we understood, by means 

 of poisoned blow-pipe arrows apparently from among the trees ; and 

 our men were greatly alarmed, even though we assured them we had 

 enough dynamite — which they all greatly feared — to blow up the 

 Akkawoios. No doubt it was largely an attempt of the residents to 

 frighten the strangers, and it would lose nothing of its menace through 

 tribal suspicion and dread. In fact, we not only did not meet with any 

 unpleasantness of any kind anywhere, but were cordially received, and 

 found that a house had been put up specially for us by the chief of the 

 next settlement, on the Kako, for which no arrangements had been 

 made. These reports, that travellers will be killed by people farther 

 up, seem to be common rumours at various times, and no doubt they 

 had some real cause for their origin in past times. 



We quickly struck camp and started down the creek, which was 

 much obstructed by rocks, and it was some time before we got out on the 

 river. At a rather long portage, where the boats had to be carried across, 

 one of our craft slipped from the heads of the two men as it was being 

 put down, and striking a rock in the water split right down the middle. 

 Unfortunately, it was the largest ; however, the accident was quickly 

 rectified, for we had distributed our baggage in a larger number 

 than we really required, as a precaution against just such a liability. 

 We were able to rearrange them, setting another quite large one free 

 for ourselves, as the damaged one was quite useless, and the long time 

 for needed repairs was out of the question. Woodskins have to be 

 carefully handled, being easily damaged ; and while they float lightly 



