38 



WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



before you venture to swim across this creek, for the 

 alligators are numerous, and near twenty feet long. On 

 the present occasion, the Indians took uncommon pre- 

 cautions, lest they should he devoured by this cruel 

 and voracious reptile. They cut long sticks, and ex- 

 amined closely the side of the creek for half a mile 

 above and below the place where it was to be crossed ; 

 and as soon as the boldest had swum over, he did the 

 same on the other side, and then all followed. 



After passing the night on the opposite bank, which 

 is well wooded, it is a brisk walk of nine hours before 

 you reach four Indian huts, on a rising ground, a few 

 hundred paces from a little brook, whose banks are 

 covered over with coucourite and aeta trees. 



This is the place you ought to have come to, two 

 days ago, had the water permitted you. In crossing 

 the plain at the most advantageous place, you are 

 above ankle-deep in water for three hours ; the re- 

 mainder of the way is dry, the ground gently risi^ig. 

 As the lower parts of this spacious plain put on some- 

 what the appearance of a lake, during the periodical 

 rains, it is not improbable but that this is the place 

 which hath given rise to the supposed existence of the 

 famed Lake Parima, or El Dorado ; but this is mere 

 conjecture. 



A few deer are feeding on the coarse rough grass 

 of this far-extending plain ; they keep at a 

 distance from you, and are continually on 

 the look-out. 



The spur-wdnged plover, and a species of the curlew, 

 black, with a white bar across the wings, nearly as 

 large again as the scarlet curlew on the sea-coast, 

 frequently rise before you, Here, too, the Moscovy 



