70 
The Mouth of the Essequibo. 
ularly to avoid damaging the skin had used bail cartridge. The negroes 
begged for the flesh : they considered it very delicate and tasty. 
245. Among the domestic animals, I got a great surprise with the 
sheep which, in the small flocks that are kept on every estate for their 
mutton, T took to be goats: the wool changes completely into smooth and 
straight mohair, on which account they are shorn immediately after 
importation into ihe Colony so that at least one fleece may be secured. 
246. In these glorious surroundings, in this dear and charming fam- 
ily, my five weeks’ stay had flown quicker than a dream, when one morn- 
ing my brother in company with a Mr. King, the Superintendent of the 
Barima and Essequibo Districts unexpectedly entered my room. They 
had come to fetch me for a short trip to Bartika Grove, a Mission Sta- 
tion on the Essequibo where my brother wanted to induce some of the 
coloured people living in the neighbourhood who had been with him as 
boitt-hands on his previous journeys, to accompany him again to the 
month of the Orinoco. My most necessary things were quickly packed 
and within a few hours we were waving good-bye from the schooner to 
our friends ashore. The vessel my brother took advantage of was on 
her way to Bartika Grove to load granite and belonged to a country- 
man, Mr. Spamann who, after a forty years' residence in the Colony had 
earned a fairly considerably competency: unfortunately the poor fel- 
low had lost his mother-tongue almost, completely, for the way he spoke 
it was so broken that I should have taken him for anything but a Ger- 
man. 
247. Facing like watchmen the twenty mile broad estuary of the 
Essequibo are the three large wooded islands of Leguan, Wakenaam 
and Tiger Island all of them decked with sugar estates. Leguan, stretch- 
ing along the Eastern bank, is about twelve miles long, and contains 24 
plantations: Wakenaam, off the Western shore, nine miles long and three 
broad, has 18 estates: Tiger Island with three plantations, is situate 
somewhat more to the Northward and is closer to the Western bank. 
248. The commencing flood-tide carried us slowly up the proud 
stream along the channel between Wakenaam and Tiger Island until 
suddenly, at the Southern extremity of the latter, a regular island-arch - 
ipelago spread itself before my astonished gaze. Following this, and 
divided by but a channel, is Parrot Island, while the 15-mile long Hog 
Island only cultivated at its Northern end, rather strings itself onto 
Wakenaam. To the East of Hog Island we find Fort Island (Large 
and Small) which, constituting the central point of the whole trade of 
the Colony during the times of Dutch occupation, is at present only 
occupied by a few coloured people who have erected their unassuming 
houses among and in the ruins of the proud fortress of former days. To 
the West of Hog Island, Great and Little Truly (Trouili) Islands are 
to lie seen : they have received their name from the Manicaria saccifera 
Gärt., which the Colonists call Truly-Palm: a few estates are also sit- 
uate on Great Truly. Closely connected with these two islands is a 
regular chain of smaller ones of which I only make mention of Buria- 
banalle, Ivuketritte-kute, Large and Small Laulau as well as Mawuwe- 
kute. On ihe Eastern bank, on the other hand, near the Fort Islands, 
ihe most important are Kuaepaluri, Kakatiri, and Quatte-banaba. It 
is only on ihe Western bank in its lower reaches that there flow into this 
