204 



WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



After this, the voyage down the Essequibo was quick 

 and pleasant till we reached the sea-coast : there we had 

 a trying day of it ; the wind was dead against us, and 

 the sun remarkably hot ; we got twice aground upon a 

 mud-flat, and were twice obliged to get out, up to the 

 middle in mud, to shove the canoe through it. Half-way 

 betwixt the Essequibo and Demerara the tide of flood 

 caught us ; and after the utmost exertions, it was half- 

 past six in the evening before we got to George-town. 



Reaches We had been out from six in the morning 

 George-town. j n an p en canoe on the sea-coast, without 



umbrella or awning, exposed all day to the fiery rays of 

 a tropical sun. My face smarted so that I could get no 

 sleep during the night, and the next morning my lips 

 were all in blisters. The Indian Yan went down to the 

 Essequibo a copper colour, but the reflection of the sun 

 from the sea, and from the sand-banks in the river, had 

 turned him nearly black. He laughed at himself, and 

 said the Indians in the Demerara would not know him 

 again. I stayed one day in George-town, and then set 

 off the next morning for head-quarters in Mibiri creek, 

 where I finished the cayman. 



Here the remaining time was spent in collecting birds, 

 and in paying particular attention to their haunts and 

 economy. The rainy season having set in, the weather 

 became bad and stormy ; the lightning and thunder 

 were incessant : the days cloudy, and the nights cold 

 and misty. I had now been eleven months in the 

 forests, and collected some rare insects, two hundred 

 and thirty birds, two land tortoises, five armadillos, two 

 large serpents, a sloth, an ant-bear, and a cayman. 



I left the wilds and repaired to George-town to spend 

 a few days with Mr. E. Edmonstone previous to embark- 



