The Warapüta Mission. 
321 
supplied contents of the trunk, we landed at a small Island and started 
on the dittieult metamorphosis. While thus engaged I was startlingly 
interrupted out ol" my attempts at beautifying myself liy the shouting of 
an Indian who had noticed, immediately above my head upon one of 
the branches of tlie low tree under Avhicli I stood, a large coiled-up snake 
that was keenly watching my movements with its glossy eyes. A shot 
with the gun brought it down. It was the first occasion I had seen the 
snake, and in its broad cordiform scaly head and the thin sharply mark- 
ed-off neck believed I surely recognised one of the most poisonous of 
the kind, as was likewise confirmed by the accounts of tlie Indians. It 
was a surprise to me that it had its fangs, not in the upper jaw, but in 
the lower, and that, as was subsequently discovered in Berlin, they are 
not hollow : it was Xiphosonia liortidan um, Wagl. On my journey up the 
Pomerooai, I also came across some specimens, but always on liushes. 
Green branches must accordingly be their favourite resort. In spirits, 
the beautiful light grey colouring — with the irregular IjroAvn specks 
which extend from head to tail, and when held to the light pass into a 
pretty light blue and green, — loses much of its brilliancy. 
775. Some Indians who Avei-e tishing. as well as the loud reports of 
our two mortars, gave notice of our coming to the Waraputa villagers, 
who had collected at the landing-])]ace, where Mr. I'ollitt, a young nuui, 
received us most cordially, and his wife and sister-in-law, a yonng lady 18 
years of age, extended us an e<iually liearty wdcome: tliev took us u)» to 
the ]\rission House where the clergyman's two cliildi-en Avere. A peculiar 
sensation overcame me as I suddenly found myself mixing with civilised 
people again. 
776. That Mr. Pollitt had i)ictured his stay among the Indians of 
Guiana as very different from Avhat lie had already found it within so 
short a time, was evident to me not only from the elegant furniture which 
would have been no disgrace to the most fashionable draw*.ng-rooni in 
Georgetown, — even the stylish riding-saddle which, before I entered the 
room, had forced from me an inward smile, had not been forgotten — but 
particularly from the truly unfortunate state of mind in Avhich the ])oor 
woman and her sister found themselves. How romantically, how 
picturesquely idyllic must these ladies have j^ainted their residence 
among the children of Nature, and lunv bitter must the awakening have 
been, when they now stepped into the modest, but to a Londoner, miser- 
able hovel which the brave-hearted Youd had looked upon as a palace. We 
had hardly been in their company a few hours before their cramped-up 
mental excitement burst into a flood of tears, and both unburdened their 
more than heavy hearts. In so many months, how few the tears tliat I 
had seen : thev accordingly aroused my interest all the more, and with in- 
ward sympathy I gazed upon the poor woman, between her sobs, pressing 
to her breast her children — a boy of five years of age and another of one 
— and assuring them that they would soon be orphans if they were to 
live any longer among these awful people. The words found the truest 
echo in her sister. Most of all I had to pity the poor missionary, whose 
sense of duty had come into such hard conflict with love for his wife, 
who now implored and then urged him to forward Iiis resignation to 
U 1. 
