34 
WANDERINGS IN 
FIRST 
JOURNEY. 
Anecdote. 
satisfactory in some degree, had not the Indians 
carried the point a little too far. It is very large, 
said another Indian, and ships come to it. Now, 
these unfortunate ships were the very things which 
were not wanted : had he kept them out, it might 
have done, but his introducing them was sadly 
against the lake. Thus you must either suppose that 
the old savage and his companion had a confused 
idea of the thing, and that probably the Lake Parima 
they talked of was the Amazons, not far from the city 
of Para, or that it was their intention to deceive you. 
You ought to be cautious in giving credit to their 
stories, otherwise you will be apt to be led astray. 
Many a ridiculous thing concerning the interior of 
Guiana has been propagated and received as true, 
merely because six or seven Indians, questioned 
separately, have agreed in their narrative. 
Ask those who live high up in the Demerara, and 
they will, every one of them, tell you that there is a 
nation of Indians with long tails ; that they are very 
malicious, cruel, and ill-natured; and that the 
Portuguese have been obliged to stop them off in a 
certain river, to prevent their depredations. They 
have also dreadful stories concerning a horrible beast, 
called the Watermamma, which, when it happens to 
take a spite against a canoe, rises out of the river, 
and in the most unrelenting manner possible, carries 
both canoe and Indians down to the bottom with it, 
and there destroys them. Ludicrous extravagances ! 
pleasing to those fond of the marvellous, and ex¬ 
cellent matter for a distempered brain. 
The misinformed and timid court of policy in 
