296 WANDERINGS IN 



Fourth passcs Oil apace ; and I want to take thee to have a peep 



Journey. 



at the spots where mines are supposed to exist in Guiana. 



As the story of this singular head has probably not been 

 made out quite to thy satisfaction, perhaps (I may say it 

 nearly in corporal Trim's words) on some long and 

 dismal winter's evening, but not now, I may tell thee 

 more about it ; together with that of another head, which 

 is equally striking. 



It is commonly reported, and I think there is no reason 

 to doubt the fact, that when Demerara and Essequibo 

 were under the Dutch flag, there were mines of gold and 

 silver opened near to the river Essequibo. The miners 

 were not successful in their undertaking, and it is gene- 

 rally conjectured, that their failure proceeded from 

 inexperience. 



Now, when you ascend the Essequibo, some hundred 

 miles above the place where these mines are said to be 

 found, you get into a high, rocky, and mountainous 

 country. Here many of the mountains have a very 

 barren aspect, producing only a few stinted shrubs, and 

 here and there a tuft of coarse grass. I could not learn 

 that they have ever been explored, and at this day their 

 mineralogy is totally unknown to us. The Indians are 

 so thinly scattered in this part of the country, that there 

 would be no impropriety in calling it uninhabited : — 



" Apparent rari errantes in giirgite vasto." 



It remains to be yet learnt, whether this portion of 



