(_Concluded from page 360._)
A family of Indians was seen crossing the river in their log canoe, and
disappearing under the bushes on the opposite side; my companion and
myself paddled after them, and we landed under some locust trees, and
found an Indian settlement. The logies were sheds, open all round, and
covered with the leaves of the trooly-palm, some of them twenty-four
feet long; and suspended from the bamboo timbers of the roof were
hammocks of net-work, in which the men were lazily swinging. One or two
of those who were awake were fashioning arrow-heads out of hard wood.
The men and children were entirely naked, with the exception of the blue
_lap_ or cloth for the loins; the women in their blue petticoat and
braided hair were scraping the root of the cassava tree into a trough of
bark; it was then put into a long press of matting, which expresses the
poisonous juice; the dry farina is finally baked on an iron plate. The
old women were weaving the square coëoo or _lap_ of beads, which
they sometimes wear without a petticoat; also armlets and ankle
ornaments of beads. Some were fabricating earthen pots, and all the
females seemed actively employed. They offered us a red liquor, called
_caseeree_, prepared from the sweet potato; also _piwarry_,
the intoxicating beverage made by chewing the cassava, and allowing it
to ferment. At their _piwarry_ feasts the Indians prepare a small
canoe full of this liquor, beside which the entertainers and their
guests roll together drunk for two or three days. Their helpmates look
after them, and keep them from being suffocated with the sand getting
into their mouths: but _piwarry_ is a harmless liquor, that is to
say, it does not produce the disease and baneful effects of spirits, for
after a sleep the Indians rise fresh and well, and only occasionally
indulge in a debauch of this kind. Fish, which the men had shot with
their arrows, and birds, were brought out of the canoe, and barbacoted
or smoke-dried on a grating of bamboos over a fire; and we followed an
old man with a cutlass to their small fields of cassava, cleared by
girdling and burning a part of the forest behind the logies. These
Indians were of the Arrawak nation; we afterwards saw Caribs, Accaways,
&c.
The rivers and creeks, and the whole of the interior of British Guiana
at a distance from the sea, are unknown and unexplored. October and
November are the driest months in the year, and the best for expeditions
into the interior. I was unable to go as far up the river as I wished,
from the great freshes; the rain fell every day, yet I penetrated in all
directions as far as I could, and I trust to be able, at some more
favourable season, to return to that interesting country.
Two years ago, a Mr. Smith, a mercantile man from Caraccas, was joined
at George Town by a Lieutenant Gullifer, R.N. They proceeded down the
Pomeroon river, then up the Wyeena creek, travelled across to the
Coioony, sailed down it, and then went up the Essequibo to the Rio
Negro, which, it appears, connects the Amazons and Oroonoco rivers.
At Bara, on the Rio Negro, Mr. Smith, from sitting so long cramped up
in coorials or canoes, became affected with dropsy; and allowing himself
to be tapped by an ignorant quack, died after a fortnight's illness.
Lieutenant Gullifer sailed down the Rio Negro to the Amazons, and
remained at Para for some months, till he heard from England. From
domestic details he received at Para, he fell into low spirits, and
proceeded to Trinidad, where, one morning, he was found suspended to
a beam under the steeple of the Protestant church! His papers, and
Mr. Smith's, consisting of journals of their travels, were sent to a
brother of Lieutenant Gullifer's, on the Marocco coast of Essequibo,
where I went and saw the papers, and was most anxious to obtain them for
the Geographical Society; but Mr. Gullifer said that he must consult
first with the other relatives.
Among other interesting details I found in the notes, I may mention
the following:--High up the Essequibo they fell in with a nation of
anthropophagi, of the Carib tribe. The chief received the travellers
courteously, and placed before them fish with savoury sauce; which being
removed, two human hands were brought in, and a steak of human flesh!
The travellers thought that this might be part of a baboon of a new
species; however, they declined the invitation to partake, saying that,
in travelling, they were not allowed to eat animal food. The chief
picked the bones of the hands with excellent appetite, and asked them
how they had relished the fruit and the sauce. They replied that the
fish was good and the sauce excellent. To which he answered, "Human
flesh makes the best sauce for any food; these hands and the fish were
all dressed together. You see these Macooshee men, our slaves; we lately
captured these people in war, and their wives we eat from time to time."
The travellers were horrified, but concealed their feelings, and before
they retired for the night, they remarked that the Macooshee females
were confined in a large logie, or shed, surrounded with a stockade of
bamboos; so that, daily the fathers, husbands, and brothers of these
unfortunate women, saw them brought out, knocked on the head, and
devoured by the inhuman cannibals. Lieutenant Gullifer, who was _in
bad condition_, got into his hammock and slept soundly; but Mr.
Smith, being in excellent case, walked about all night, fearing that
their landlord might take a fancy to a steak of white meat. They
afterwards visited a cave, in which was a pool of water; the Indians
requested them not to bathe in this, for if they did, they would die
before the year was out. They laughed at their monitors and bathed; but
sure enough were both "clods of the valley" before the twelvemonth had
expired.--_Journal of the Geographical Society_, Part 2.
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Fine Arts.
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