SETTLEMENTS OK THE DEMERARY, &C. 371 



The central parts of Guyana not having been visited by any 

 missionaries, the religion of nature still prevails there. Certain 

 vapors, or spirits, to which the savages ascribe thunders and fevers, 

 are the objects of their fear and propitiatory worship. They do 

 not ascribe a human form to these divinities, but conceive them 

 to have brought hither the first man, whom they call Longwo; 

 their heathenism is not yet advanced to idolatry. The catholic 

 religion flourishes in the western and southern borders of Guy- 

 ana; and begins to extend from the Spanish and Portuguese 

 settlements into the Indian villages, the inhabitants of which 

 flock on procession-days to the churches, with parrots' feathers 

 stuck in their hair, to see the parade and listen to the music. 

 The protestant religions are professed along the north-eastern, 

 or Atlantic, coast. In these parts, however, there are many 

 Jews, whom the Dutch do not regard with a liberal benevo- 

 lence. A Dutch lady from superstition will not visit a Jewess. 

 The wives of the richest Jews were not invited to the official 

 festivals and balls of the Dutch governors. Nor has the laud- 

 able example of the Prince of Wales, in visiting the jew 

 banker, Goldschmidt, been imitated by the chiefs of our own 

 establishments. Such dramas as Cumberland's Jew, or Nathan 

 the Wise, should be performed at Paramaribo. There is less 

 of this religious repulsion in the catholic setdement at Cay- 

 enne. Intolerance is in every view a public misfortune ; for 

 the insulted sect has always its allegiance ready for a new so- 

 vereign, in the hope of future favor. If the French were in 



B b b 2 



