NARRATIVE OF AN 



CHAP, quantities. It grows about fix or eight feet high, thick at 

 bottom, jointed and prickly all the way to the top, where 

 it is very fmall, and divided into three or four large 

 fmooth oval leaves, which pofTefs almoft the quality of 

 bliftering by their violent adhefion to the Ikin. 



As we approached the Charon in the evening, I found 

 my fentinel fall: alleep, which enraged me fo much, that 

 having quietly entered on board the barge, I fired my 

 piftol clofe to his ear, juft over his head, affuring him 

 that I would the next time blow it through his brains : 

 the whole crew flew to their arms, and the poor fellow 

 had nearly leaped into the water. But however it might 

 be neceffary to threaten in this manner, at a pofl where 

 a furprize might be fatal, it would have been ex- 

 ceilive cruelty to have executed it in fuch a lituation, 

 w'here the bite of the mufquitoes rendered it impoffible 

 to reckon upon fleep at ftated times ; and thus the inter- 

 ruption of it at one time made the approach of it un- 

 avoidable at another. 



We now returned, on the 27th, to Cormoetibo Creek, 

 where my negroes, having been afhore to cut wood for 

 the furnace, brought on board a poor animal alive, with 

 all its four feet chopped off with the bill-hook, and 

 which lay ftill in the bottom of the canoe. Having 

 freed it from its torment by a blow on the head, I was 

 acquainted that this was the Jloth^ called loyaree or beay 

 ' by the natives, on account of its plaintive voice. It is 

 about the fize of a fmall water-fpaaiel, with a round 



