244 
Smyth’s Settlement. 
Benhuri-Bumocu Falls were now also crossed without any damage and 
upon the southern point of Benhuri-Bumocu Island, in 5° 17' lat. N., we 
found a longed-for rest. Mr. Youd had already left us yesterday to 
hurry ahead with his boats to Waraputa Station and receive us there. 
After landing, the coloured men told us that in the neighbourhood, in 
fact on the eastern bank, there ought to be a small settlement of Arawaks 
over whom a European, by the name of Smyth, had presided as chief for 
several years past, and hence the reason for calling it Smyth’s place. 
They described this man as an absolute villain. Formerly a merchant 
in Georgetown, lie had committed such mean frauds and rogueries that 
he had been banished from the city and declared an outlaw. He retired 
up here to the regions of the upper Essequibo, obtained a footing in the 
settlement, and through his extraordinary cunning acquired such a 
reputation for himself that, upon the death of the chief, he was chosen 
successor. Amongst other things that he had brought away on his 
flight from Georgetown was a number of knives, hooks, axes, etc., and 
these, before his entrance into the camp, he had buried in the forest. 
After now spending a considerable time among his hospitable friends, 
be proclaimed that the Great Spirit had appeared to him in a dream 
and had shewn him a spot where all the tools that they required would 
be found: what he told them was confirmed and the harmless childreu 
of nature willingly bowed down to his absolute sway. He had tried to 
prevent the development of the neighbouring Waraputa Mission in every 
possible way: with his dependents, he had destroyed its fields of a night 
and had raised every means of inciting the neighbouring Indians against 
the new Institution. He had even threatened to burn down Bartika 
Grove and it was only through the watchfulness of Mr. Bernau, to whom 
someone had betrayed the plan as well as the night fixed for its commit- 
ment, that the crime had been frustrated. Smyth’s settlement seemed 
also to stand in sufficiently evil repute among the other Indians and was 
carefully avoided by them. 
730. We were fortunately able to escape the most dangerous of the 
Waraputa cataracts by means of a side channel and, rejoicing over the 
luck that had remained faithful to us up to now, we landed at Waraputa 
Mission where we were welcomed by salvoes of all small arms available 
and capable of being fired. Mr. Youd had already reached yesterday. It 
rises upon a 40 to 50-foot high granite bed extending about a mile wide on 
the western bank of the river, situate 5° 15 13" lat. N. and 58° 47 26" 
long. W., which at the same time constitutes the little Waraputa Fall 
immediately below the Mission. When my brother travelled up the 
river in 1835 the Waraputa settlement was already there with 50 resi- 
dents, Carib and Akawai, under the rule of chieftain Cambori : at the 
present time it numbers 30 houses and possesses a small church built of 
clay and embellished with a tower, that Mr. Youd has had erected by his 
wards since he was driven away here from Pirara. The two-storeyed 
residence of the courageous missionary stood upon a projection of the 
rocky hill and, with the exception of the weatherside, was built of split 
trunks of Enter pc oleracen and surrounded by a gallery. Below this 
building, the wild raging element with its foaming and destructive eddies 
