20 



WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



and twelve Indians will arrive with it in the Essequibo 

 in four days. 



The traveller need not attend his canoe ; there is a 

 shorter and a better way. Half an hour below Sinker- 

 man's he finds a little creek on the western bank of the 

 Demerara, After proceeding about a couple of hundred 

 yards up it, he leaves it, and pursues a west-north-west 

 direction by land for the Essequibo. The path is good, 

 though somewhat rugged with the roots of trees, and 

 here and there obstructed by fallen ones ; it extends 

 more over level ground than otherwise. There are a 

 few steep ascents and descents in it, with a little brook 

 running at the bottom of them ; but they are easily 

 passed over, and the fallen trees serve for a bridge. 



You may reach the Essequibo wdth ease in a day and 

 a half; and so matted and interwoven are the tops of 

 the trees above you, that the sun is not felt once all 

 the way, saving where the space which a newly fallen 

 tree occupied lets in his rays upon you. The forest 

 contains an abundance of wild hogs, lobbas, acouries, 

 powisses, maams, maroudis, and w r aracabas, for your 

 nourishment, and there are plenty of leaves to cover a 

 shed, whenever you are inclined to sleep. 



The soil has three-fourths of sand in it, till you come 

 within half am hour's walk of the Essequibo, 



The Essequibo. 1 



where you find a red gravel and rocks. 

 In this retired and solitary tract, ^Nature's garb, to all 

 appearance, has not been injured by fire, nor her pro- 

 ductions broken in upon by the exterminating hand 

 of man. 



Here the finest green-heart grows, and wallaba, 

 purple-heart, siloabali, sawari, buletre, tauronira, and 

 mora, are met with in vast abundance, far and near. 



