Fort Zeelandia, 
209 
dangerous Wackupang cataract, the whole of the provisions being en- 
gulfed in the waters of the fall : furthermore that several valuable instru- 
ments had got lost and that even the crew who had been on the very brink 
of great danger had only saved their lives with difficulty. After paying 
off the Indians from Haiowa my brother resumed his journey down 
stream with the ship-wrecked crew. Luckier than the latter they passed 
the ominous Wackupang Fall 'with which the second series of Cuyuni 
cataracts commences. The river bed was also covered with islands, an 
appearance which only ceased on the farther side of the Cutuau Mountains 
and River in 6° 47 lat. N. On the morning of the 26th July they 
reached the third series of cataracts, which takes its origin in an 
insignificant mountain range through which the river has broken its way. 
At the Aruaka-Ematuba cataract they had again to discharge the corials 
and transport overland, in the course of which they had to cross the 
Woka or Powis range which rises to about 600 feet above sea-level and 
stretches W.N.W. to E.S.E. Farther down, several small islands of 
heaped, up masses of rock split the Cuyuni into innumerable channels 
and at the same time form the Camaria cataract. This is the most 
dangerous one of all and only the presence of mind of one of the crew 
saved my brother and his companions from certain death. At the 
Ematuba Fall the site allowed of their emptying the boat once more 
and bringing it overland to the foot: they were just as lucky in getting 
over the Aeayu Fall whence they now had continuous smooth water as 
far as Bartika Grove where they met us all right, on the 27th July. 
668. By the following morning- we all left the friendly Mission at 
Bartika and, travelling down stream along the eastern bank, started on 
the journey for Georgetown. At noon next day we already lay opposite 
Fort Island, the one-time centre of the whole Dutch trade and former 
colonial capital, the remains of which still proudly rise above some 
scattered plain-looking cottages occupied by coloured people and over 
impenetrable leafy bush. We stopped to get a closer look at the ruins. 
Fort Zeelandia was built in the year 1 7 43 in a quadrangle with four 
bastions furnished with 18 cannon: in addition, an outwork surrounded 
with palisades containing 12 cannon covered the side facing the water. 
Every estate had to supply one slave for constructing the Fort, but on 
its completion no further cost of upkeep was demanded of the planters. 
The offices of the Secretariat and rest of the Company's staff were 
formerly located here. Amidst what was left of this once so proud a 
building, e.ver creative Nature had long ago retaken possession of the 
land whence she had been despoiled, and her vigorous progeny peacefully 
entwined the dark barrels of several iron cannon which, without gun- 
carriages but even still defying destruction, protruded from out of the 
gay confusion of succulent creepers. One alone of the buildings, the 
church, still stood in its surprisingly sublime simplicity: it was the only 
church that the English found when they took possession in 1803, and 
Divine Service is still held there. 
669. Directly opposite the Island, on the eastern bank, is the mouth 
of a small tributary, the Bonasika. We had hardly resumed our journey 
than the incoming flood forced us to land at the opening of an insigni- 
ficant creek, and to wait for the next ebb. Everybody hurried to sling 
