CHAPTEE II. 



The Vanilla.— Meaning of the word.— Small Cayman. — ^Daddy Quashi. — 

 "Wasps. — Venomous reptiles and wild beasts. — Poison of the Laharri 

 snake. — ^Experiment with a Laharri. — ^The Bete-rouge. — The Chegoe. 

 — Its nest. — Ticks, and how to get rid of them. — The five tribes — 

 Their habitations and mode of life. — Piwarri. — The Pee-ay-man. — A 

 nation without a history. — ^Runaway negroes. — ^Mr. Edmonstone and 

 his services.— Wounded warriors. — Valour rewarded. — Education. — 

 Character of the native. — Skill in hunting. — A bead almanac. — The 

 sun as a compass. — Thinness of population. 



In some parts of these forests I saw the Vanilla growing 

 luxuriantly. It creeps up the trees to the height of 

 thirty or forty feet. I found it difficult to get a ripe pod, 

 as the monkeys are very fond of it, and generally took 

 care to get there before me. The pod hangs from the 

 tree in the shape of a little scabbard, Vayna is the 

 Spanish for a scabbard, and Vanilla for a little scabbard. 

 Hence the name. 



In Mibiri creek there was a cayman of the small species, 

 measuring about five feet in length ; I saw it in the same 

 place for months, but could never get a shot at it ; for the 

 moment I thought I was sure of it, it dived under the 

 water before I could pull the trigger. At last I got an 

 Indian with his bow and arrow ; he stood up in the canoe 

 with his bow ready bent, and as we drifted past the place, 

 he sent his arrow into the cayman's eye, and killed it 

 dead. The skin of this little species is much harder and 



