280 
WANDERINGS IN 
FOURTH 
JOURNEY. 
hundred miles above the place where these mines 
are said to be found, you get into a high, rocky, 
and mountainous country. Here many of the moun¬ 
tains have a very barren aspect, producing only a 
few stinted shrubs, and here and there a tuft of 
coarse grass. I could not learn that they have ever 
been explored, and at this day their mineralogy is 
totally unknown to us. The Indians are so thinly 
scattered in this part of the country, that there would 
be no impropriety in calling it uninhabited :— 
“ Apparent rari errantes in gurgite vasto.” 
It remains to be yet learnt, whether this portion 
of Guiana be worth looking after, with respect to its 
supposed mines. The mining speculations at present 
are flowing down another channel. The rage in 
England for working the mines of other states has 
now risen to such a pitch, that it would' require a 
considerable degree of>caution in a mere wanderer 
of the woods, in stepping forward to say any thing 
that might tend to raise or depress the spirits of the 
speculators. 
A question or two, however, might be asked. 
When the revolted colonies shall have repaired in 
some measure the ravages of war, and settled their own 
political economy upon a firm foundation, will they 
quietly submit to see foreigners carrying away those 
treasures which are absolutely part of their own 
soil, and which necessity (necessity has no law) 
forced them to barter away in their hour of need ? 
Now, if it should so happen that the masters of the 
