FIRST JOURNEY. 



25 



What a noble field, kind reader, for thy experimental 

 philosophy and speculations, for thy learning, for thy 

 perseverance, for thy kind-heartedness, for everything 

 that is great and good within thee ! 



The accidental traveller who has journeyed on from 

 Stabroek to the rock Saba, and from thence to the 

 banks of the Essequibo, in pursuit of other things, as 

 he told thee at the beginning, with but an indifferent 

 interpreter to talk to, no friend to converse with, and 

 totally unfit for that which he wishes thee to do, can 

 merely mark the outlines of the path he has trodden, 

 or tell thee the sounds he has heard, or faintly describe 

 what he has seen in the environs of his resting-places ; 

 but if this be enough to induce thee to undertake the 

 journey, and give the world' a description of it, he will 

 be amply satisfied. 



It will be two days and a half from the time of 

 entering the path on the western bank of the Demerara 

 till all be ready, and the canoe fairly afloat on the 

 Essequibo. The new rigging it, and putting every 

 little thing to rights and in its proper place, cannot 

 well be done in less than a day. 



After being night and day in the forest impervious 

 to the sun and moon's rays, the sudden transition to 

 light has a fine heart-cheering effect. Welcome as a 

 lost friend, the solar beam makes the frame rejoice, 

 and with it a thousand enlivening thoughts rush at 

 once on the soul, and disperse, as a vapour, every sad 

 and sorrowful idea, which the deep gloom had helped 

 to collect there. In coming out of the woods, you see 

 the western bank of the Essequibo before you, low and 

 flat. Here the river is two-thirds as broad as the 

 Demerara at Stabroek. 



