SOUTH AMERICA. 
223 
sun, which was very hot and powerful. Had it 
been the wet season, almost every thing would have 
been spoiled. 
After this, the voyage down the Essequibo was 
quick and pleasant till we reached the sea-coast; there 
we had a trying day of it; the wind was dead against 
us, and the sun remarkably hot; we got twice 
aground upon a mud-flat, and were twice obliged to 
get out, up to the middle in mud, to shove the canoe 
through it. Half way betwixt the Essequibo and 
Demerara the tide of flood caught us; and after the 
utmost exertions, it was half-past six in the evening 
before we got to George-town. 
We had been out from six in the morning in an 
open canoe on the sea-coast, without umbrella or 
awning, exposed all day to the fiery rays of a tro¬ 
pical sun. My face smarted so that I could get no 
sleep during the night, and the next morning my lips 
were all in blisters. The Indian Yan went down to 
the Essequibo a copper colour, but the reflection of 
the sun from the sea, and from the sand-banks in the 
river, had turned him nearly black. He laughed at 
himself, and said the Indians in the Demerara would 
not know him again. I staid one day in George¬ 
town, and then set off the next morning for head 
quarters in Mibiri creek, where I finished the cayman. 
Here the remaining time was spent in collecting 
birds, and in paying particular attention to their 
haunts and economy. The rainy season having set 
in, the weather became bad and stormy; the light¬ 
ning and thunder were incessant : the days cloudy, 
THIRD 
JOURNEY. 
Reaches 
George¬ 
town. 
