24 



WANDERINGS IN 



First The soil lias three fourths of sand in. it, till you come 



Journey. 



~ within half an hour's walk of the Essequibo, where you 



Essequibo. fy^i^ ^ j.g^j gravel and rocks. In this retired and solitary 

 tract nature's garb, to all appearance, has not been 

 injured by fire, nor her productions 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, towering up in 

 majestic grandeur, straight as pillars, sixty or seventy feet 

 high, without a knot or branch. 



Traveller, forget for a little while the idea thou hast 

 of wandering farther on, and stop and look at this grand 

 picture of vegetable nature ; it is a reflection of the crowd 

 thou hast lately been in, and though a silent monitor, it 

 is not a less eloquent one on that account. — See that 

 noble purple -heart before thee ! Nature has been kind to 

 it. Not a hole, not the least oozing from its trunk, to 

 show that its best days are past. Vigorous in youthful 

 bloom and beauty, it stands the ornament of these 

 sequestered wilds, and tacitly rebukes those base ones of 

 thine own species, who have been hardy enough to deny 

 the existence of Him who ordered it to flourish here. 



Behold that one next to it ! — Hark ! how the hammer- 

 ings of the red-headed woodpecker resound through its 

 distempered boughs! See what a quantity of holes he 

 has made in it, and how its bark is stained with the drops" 



