GUI 
which you are, from being wide grows narrower by de¬ 
grees. It is from about one and a half to three-fourths 
of a mile broad near the entrance ; and, when it joins 
the main dream, is not more than about two hundred 
yards. It has then acquired a confiderable depth, and 
the banks may be about twenty feet high. Along the 
main ftream of the river, or Boca de Nafics, the gra¬ 
dual rife, and other circumftances' attending it, are 
quite fimilar. All this height of the bank is entirely 
acquired ground, formed by the fediment of the floods, 
greater near the ftreams than at a diftance from them ; 
and though I have no knowledge of the nature of the 
land in the Deltas and their vicinity, I would not heft- 
tale to fay, that great part of the interior body of each 
ifland, and moft probably of the main on either fide, 
where it is low country, confifts of nothing elfe than 
wet favannahs.” 
The inhabitants of Guiana are either native Indians, 
who are of a reddifli-brown; or negroes and Europeans; 
er a mixed progeny of thefe in various combinations. 
The natives are divided into different tribes, more or 
lefs enlightened and polifhed, as they are more or lefs 
remote from the fettlements Of the Europeans. They 
allow polygamy, and have no divifion of lands. The 
men go to war, hunt, and fifli; and'the women look af¬ 
ter domeftic concerns, fpin, weave in their fafhion, and 
manage the planting of caflava and manive, the only 
things which in this country are cultivated by the na¬ 
tives. Their arms are bows and arrows ; fharp poifoned 
arrows, blown through a reed, which they ufe in hunt¬ 
ing; and clubs made of the iron-wood. They eat the 
dead bodies of thofe that are flain in war ; and fell for 
flaves thofe they take prifoners. As this country lies 
under the torrid zone, all the different tribes go naked. 
On particular occafions they wear caps of feathers ; but, 
as cold is wholly unknown, they cover no part but that 
which diftinguifhes the fex. Their houfes confiftof four 
flakes fet up in a quadrangular form, with crofs poles, 
bound together, and covered with the large leaves called 
troolies. Their life is'ambulatory; and their hovel, which 
is put up and taken down like a tent, is all they have 
to carry with them. When they remove from place to 
place, which, as they inhabit the banks of rivers, they 
do by water in fmall canoes, a few veffels of clay made 
by the women, a flat ftone on which they bake their 
bread, and a rough ftone on which they grate the roots 
of the caffava, a hammock, and a hatchet, are all their 
furniture and utenfils; moft of them, however, have a 
bit of looking-glafs framed in paper, and a comb. It is 
alfo added by M. Suard, in his “ Literary Mifcellanies,” 
publifhed in 1803, that they live in rather a cultivated 
fociety, form families, and promote a national affocia- 
tion ; their village is their community ; they have a ma- 
giftrate who afils for them in their civil relations, and 
who commands them in war. They have no civil code, 
becaufe they have no lands, and are ftrangers to fixed 
habitations, but they religioully obferve the ufages.and 
cuftoms of their fathers. In all matters, the community 
deliberates, and the chief executes. The equality which 
many have contended for, but failed to attain, they 
have found, and they maintain without effort. They 
enjoy the moft perfect independence, without knowing 
its value. In all the tribes, widely different as they are, 
from Hudfon’s Bay to the Straits of Magellan, one fen- 
timent animates all, that of a decided preference in fa¬ 
vour of favage life over civilization. 
They are very averfe from all agricultural labour, 
but exceed the Europeans in addrefs, in tlje chace, and 
in fifhing. The author ftates a fa£t, which fhews how 
rapidly information circulates among the widely-fcat- 
tered communities fpread over the face of this immenfe 
country. On the authority of a learned Jew, Ifaac 
Nafci, refiding at Surinam, we are here informed that 
their language, which he calls the Galibi dialed, and 
which is common to all the tribes of Guiana, is foft and 
A N A. 79 
agreeable to the ear, abounding in vowels and fynonymes^ 
and poffeffing a fyntax as regular as it would have been 
if eftablifhed by an academy. The Jew fays that all the 
fubftantives are Hebrew. The word exp^eftive of the 
foul in each language means breath. Their fynonymes re¬ 
fer only to natural objefts; and in courfe they want 
words to denote thofe things which we owe to civiliza¬ 
tion. They have no term by whi.ch they can exprefs 
laws but they have the fame word as in Hebrew to de¬ 
nominate God, by which they underftand fupreme majler , 
or lords yet dill their ideas of religion are but one re¬ 
move above the brute creation. Of this we have a 
ftriking proof in M. Mafouet’s “ Memoirs of hjs Admi- 
niftration in Guiana,” with refpedt to the progrefs of 
the French miflionaries. “ Shortly after' my arrival, 
(fays he,) I fent the miflionaries up the bay Vincent 
Pinion; I ordered two priefts to go thither, with work¬ 
men, a number of commodities for fale, and a lerjeant’s 
guard to be at the command of the miflionaries. They 
travelled up the country, and, by means of prefents, 
fucceeded in aflembling the Indians every Sunday in a 
chapel which had been built for that purpofe. They 
were catechized and baptized, and they attended regu¬ 
larly at divine fervice, for which they conftantly re¬ 
ceived each a dram of taffia or rum ; but no fooner was 
the taffia expended, than the Indians omitted their at- 
tCndance.at chapel. One of the miflionaries was fo im¬ 
prudent as to fend fpme armed foldiers for them: but 
they refilled this force, and fent their chiefs to the go- , 
vernment, in order to prefer'their complaints.- M. de 
Fiemond, the old governor, happening to be abfent', 
they came to me; and on feeing the reflection of their 
figures and motions in the looking-glafles which orna¬ 
mented the apartment in which I received them, they 
uttered loud fhrieks of joy and furprize : they danced,, 
touched theglafles, fpoike to them, and then looked be¬ 
hind them to find out the caufe of this reflection. No 
fooner, however, had aftonifhrrient fubfided, than they 
refuified their former grave countenances, and fquatted 
on thVfloor ; where, (taring at me with a look of dif- 
content, they exprelfed hhemfelves nearly in the follow¬ 
ing terms, which were explained to me by an interpre¬ 
ter, in the prefence of the ecclefiaftical prefect,, and fe» 
veral civil and military officers: 
* We come to inquire what thou wanted of us, and 
why thou haft fent the whites to diftrefs us? They 
figned a treaty with us, which they have been the firft 
to break. We agreed to attend their finging, and to 
kneel down in their Carbet, for which we were to re¬ 
ceive weekly a bottle of taffia. As long as they gave 
us this taffia, we came; when they withdrew it, we left 
them unmolefted, and demanded nothing: they then 
fent foldiers, to compel us by force to attend them: but 
to this we will not fubmit.—They alfo require us to fow 
and to labour after the manner of the whites, which we 
will not do.—We are able to furnilh thee with twenty 
hunters, and fifhermen, at the rate of three piaftres per 
month for each man : if this fuit thee, we are at thy fer¬ 
vice : but, if we are to bemofcefted,. we (hall.fettle on. 
fome other river.’ 
“ I adored them that in future they fhould have no, 
more caufe for complaint; and that the miflionaries had 
been fent to them for their benefit, and not for their in¬ 
jury. I commiffioned the prefect to explain the reli¬ 
gious object of his miflion :. but his difeourfe was of no 
ufe, for they replied to it Only by peals of laughter., I 
loaded them with prefents, and. lent them home'con-, 
tented. I charged the miflionaries to aCt with more cir- 
cumfpe&ion ; the treaty of the taffia was renewed : but 
i.t produced not a Angle converfion ; not a field of cleared 
land; nor did it facilitate any intimacy between the 
Indians and the whites.” 
From hence it may be inferred, that the civilization, 
of the Indians is no eafy talk; and that, in their prefent 
date, there is little profpeCt of giving them correct no¬ 
tions 
