220 



CANNIBALISM. 



During the whole of the time, which I spent 

 in the regions, extending from that part which 

 Captain Stedman terms the wild coast of Surinam, 

 near the Atlantic Ocean, to the Portuguese frontier 

 fort on the Rio Branco, (see the " Wanderings,") 

 I never fell in with a cannibal. 



Still, I could wish to mention a circumstance, 

 which a stranger would consider tantamount to 

 proof positive, that certain Indians of Guiana, have 

 really a liking for human flesh, in its dried state ; 

 as hands of this description, have occasionally 

 been discovered in pegalls, which are a kind of 

 band-box, composed of a species of reed; and 

 used for the purpose of conveying their hammocks, 

 with other little matters, from place to place. 



This ominous discovery is thus explained. 



Whenever the fugitive, or maroon negroes had 

 mustered sufficient force in the forests, to place the 

 colonies in jeopardy, then it was, that armed troops 

 were dispatched into the interior, to attack their 

 settlements. 



In these warlike expeditions, the Indians acted 

 the part of auxiliaries to the colonists, who 

 rewarded their services, for every maroon taken 

 or slain, under the following condition : viz., that 

 the Indian, when he came to claim the reward, 

 should produce the right hand of the maroon 



