196 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 



tenderness begins where fear ends ; there is in all their affec- 

 tions, a something of contempt ; it is extended to women, to 

 children, to the young, rarely to the adult. They are grate- 

 ful to the most punctilious honor ; but like people, who feel 

 an obligation as an indignity, and who, being defied to an 

 emulation of good offices, wish to surpass in them. A white 

 planter, in this district, who showed hospitality to a travelling 

 Indian family, of which the woman happened to lie in at his 

 house, was called on a year after by the husband, and pre- 

 sented with a beautiful female slave, the booty of a remote 

 campaign. The negroes, on the contrary, have a something 

 fawning in their affection, like men who solicit and not who 

 vouchsafe protection. 



Between the Berbice and the Demerary, there are three 

 small rivers, the Abary, the Mahaicony, so called from the ma- 

 hogany trees on its banks, and the Mahaica, which has long 

 had a reputation for peculiar salubrity. Military posts have 

 been established there, to which sick soldiers were transferred; 

 strangers attacked with the seasoning, were sent thither for re- 

 covery. Experience still supports this character for whole- 

 someness ; and it begins to be considered as an expedient 

 luxury to have a villa on the Mahaica, whither to retire in 

 case of the yellow fever, or other contagion, entering the pro- 

 vince. Thus a considerable settlement has been formed. The 

 village of Mahaica is situated on a small river of that name. 



