FIRST JOURNEY. 



81 



could do, to ward off. He left his creditors to talk of 

 him as they thought fit, and, bidding adieu for ever to 

 the place in which he had once seen better times, he 

 penetrated thus far into these remote and gloomy wilds, 

 and ended his days here. 



Lak p . According to the new map of South 

 America, Lake Parima, or the White Sea, 

 ought to be within three or four days' walk from this 

 place. On asking the Indians whether there was such a 

 place or not, and describing that the water was fresh 

 and good to drink, an old Indian, who appeared to be 

 about sixty, said that there was such a place, and that 

 he had been there. This information would have been 

 satisfactory in some degree, had not the Indians carried 

 the point a little too far. It is very large, said another 

 Indian, and ships come to it. Now, these unfortunate 

 ships were the very things which were not wanted : had 

 he kept them out, it might have done, but his intro- 

 ducing them was sadly against the lake. Thus you 

 must either suppose that the old savage and his com- 

 panion had a confused idea of the thing, and that pro- 

 bably the Lake Parima they talked of was the Amazons, 

 not far from the city of Para, or that it was their inten- 

 tion to deceive you. You ought to be cautious in giving 

 credit to their stories, otherwise you will be apt to be 

 led astray. 



Many a ridiculous thing concerning the interior of 

 Guiana has been propagated and received as true, 

 merely because six or seven Indians, questioned sepa- 

 rately, have agreed in their narrative. 



Ask those who live high up in the Demerara, and 

 they will, every one of them, tell you that there is a 

 nation of Indians with long tails ; that they are very 



