168 



WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



I do not believe that there is a single Indian in ci- 

 devant Dutch Guiana who can read or write, 

 General Re- nor am j aware that any white man has 



m irks, y 



reduced their language to the rules of gram- 

 mar ; some may have made a short manuscript vocabu- 

 lary of the few necessary words, but that is all. Here 

 and there a white man, and some few people of colour, 

 talk the language well. The temper of the Indian of 

 Guiana is mild and gentle, and he is very fond of his 

 children. 



Some ignorant travellers and colonists call these 

 Indians a lazy race. Men in general will not be active 

 without an object. Now, when the Indian has caught 

 plenty of fish, and killed game enough to last him for 

 a week, what need has he to range the forest ? He has 

 no idea of making pleasure-grounds. Money is of no 

 use to him, for in these wilds there are no markets for 

 him to frequent, nor milliners' shops for his wife and 

 daughters ; he has no taxes to pay, no highways to 

 keep up, no poor to maintain, nor army nor navy to 

 supply ; he lies in his hammock both night and day, 

 (for he has no chair or bed, neither does he want them,) 

 and in it he forms his bow, and makes his arrows, and 

 repairs his fishing-tackle. But as soon as he has con- 

 sumed his provisions, he then rouses himself, and, like 

 the lion, scours the forest in quest of food. He plunges 

 into the river after the deer and tapir, and swims across 

 it ; passes through swamps and quagmires, and never 

 fails to obtain a sufficient supply of food. Should 

 the approach of night stop his career while he is hunt- 

 ing the wild boar, he stops for the night, and continues 

 the chase the next morning. In my way through the 

 wilds to the Portuguese frontier, I had a proof of this. 



