28 
WANDERINGS IN 
FIRST 
JOURNEY 
Face of 
the coun¬ 
try. 
Islands. 
pervious to the sun and moon’s rays, the sudden 
transition to light has a fine heart-cheering effect. 
Welcome as a lost friend, the solar beam makes the 
frame rejoice, and with it a thousand enlivening 
thoughts rush at once on the soul, and disperse, as a 
vapour, every sad and sorrowful idea, which the deep 
gloom had helped to collect there. In coming out 
of the woods, you see the western bank of the 
Essequibo before you, low and flat. Here the river 
is two-thirds as broad as the Demerara at Stabroek. 
To the northward there is a hill higher than any 
in the Demerara; and in the south-south-west 
quarter a mountain. It is far away, and appears 
like a bluish cloud in the horizon. There is not the 
least opening on either side. Hills, valleys, and 
lowlands, are all linked together by a chain of forest. 
Ascend the highest mountain, climb the loftiest tree, 
as far as the eye can extend, whichever way it 
directs itself, all is luxuriant and unbroken forest. 
In about nine or ten hours from this, you get to 
an Indian habitation of three huts, on the point of 
an island. It is said that a Dutch post once stood 
here. But there is not the smallest vestige of it 
remaining, and, except that the trees appear younger 
than those on the other islands, which shows that 
the place has been cleared some time or other, there 
is no mark left by which you can conjecture that 
ever this was a post. 
The many islands which you meet with in the way, 
enliven and change the scene, by the avenues which 
they make, which look like the mouths of other 
