SOUTH AMERICA. 
61 
Thus armed with deadly poison, and hungry as first 
the hyaena, he ranges through the forest in quest of-- 
the wild beasts’ tract. No hound can act a surer 
part. Without clothes to fetter him, or shoes to bind 
his feet, he observes the footsteps of the game, where 
an European eye could not discern the smallest 
vestige. He pursues it through all its turns and 
windings, with astonishing perseverance, and success 
generally crowns his efforts. The animal, after 
receiving the poisoned arrow, seldom retreats two 
hundred paces before it drops. 
In passing over land from the Essequibo to the 
Demerara. we fell in with a herd of wild hos;s. 
Though encumbered with baggage, and fatigued with 
a hard day’s walk, an Indian got his bow ready, and 
let fly a poisoned arrow at one of them. It entered Kill a 
the cheek bone and broke off. The wild hog was 
found quite dead about one hundred and seventy 
paces from the place where he had been shot. He 
afforded us an excellent and wholesome supper. 
Thus the savage of Guiana, independent of the 
common weapons of destruction, has it in his power 
to prepare a poison, by which he can generally ensure 
to himself a supply of animal food; and the food so 
destroyed imbibes no deleterious qualities. Nature 
has been bountiful to him. She has not only ordered 
poisonous herbs and roots to grow in the unbounded 
forests through which he strays, but has also fur¬ 
nished an excellent reed for his arrows, and another, 
still more singular, for his blow-pipe; and planted 
trees of an amazing hard, tough, and elastic texture, 
