The Ruins op Pikara Repaired. 
317 
Georgetown. Of our own people there remained only the four Germans, 
three Negroes, including Hamlet, and the coloured man Hendrick, the 
coxswain, under whose authority our men were to be placed from now 
on. The officers who took their departure included the Adjutant, 
Lieutenant Rush, Police Inspector Crichton and Post-holder McOlintock; 
the military doctor had to go along with them because his sickness seemed 
to be getting ever worse and worse. 
882. On saying good-bye to Mr. Bach, he had promised to pack all 
consignments of living plants coming from the interior as carefully as 
possible and despatch them to Berlin, for it was more than a matter of 
impossibility that I myself could accompany every transport from the 
interior to the coast. I accordingly seized this favourable opportunity 
and despatched my valuable and comprehensive collection of living 
orchids and palms with the boats to Georgetown, in certain hope that 
they would reach Berlin in good condition. Unfortunately, however, I 
had to suffer bitter experiences in this respect, although I found at least 
a certain amount of consolation in the absolute knowledge that nothing 
it was at all in my power to do, had been neglected. 
883. As the military had paid the Indians in cash for the work of 
transporting their effects, one noticed now amongst the buckeens nothing 
but neck-chains made of Spanish quarter-dollar pieces, of which many a 
pretty young girl wore from ten to twelve, as presents from her admirers. 
Included in this money was almost the whole of the soldiers’ pay which, 
in the absence of other opportunities, was spent in the purchase of fowls, 
game, etc., from the Indians. 
884. After the boat-hands left, general quiet prevailed. Mr. Youd 
moved into his former quarters where he made himself as comfortable as 
he could. The house which hitherto had served as church and had to 
continue so until a new one could be built, was supplied with benches 
and a simple altar, etc., the missionary at the same time starting to give 
lessons in which eyen the grown-ups, particularly girls and women, took 
part. The population had now increased to 300 souls ; the wholly and 
half dilapidated houses were again repaired, streets to be bordered with 
new buildings were laid out on a regulated plan, and a site pegged out for 
a church, so that the work of reconstruction should start straight away 
with the commencement of the wet season, when the building-materials, 
palm! leaves, etc., could be fetched more easily out of the distant forests 
by corial: in short, everything promised that the dreamed of El Dorado 
would indeed soon be rising on the former site of the little village. 
Unfortunately it happened otherwise, otherwise at least for the present. 
Should however this thrice-favoured tract of country ever be taken up in 
the future, should civilisation sooner or later make its way from the coast 
into the interior, Pirara, owing to its favourable situation, would 
constitute the proper centre whence its products could be conveyed just as 
easily along the continuous waterways to the Orinoco and Amazon as to 
the mouth of the Essequibo, an advantage that only a few spots could 
offer in the hinterland of a continent with lands so extensive and 
conditions of soil so rich. 
885. Although the main curiosity of most of the Indians had been 
satisfied, and we now on the whole could move about more freely and 
