Wanderings in South America

_I.--First Journey_

Charles Waterton, who was born on June 3, 1782, and who

died on May 27, 1865, was a native of Yorkshire, England.

Brought up in a family loving country life and field

sports, he early learned to cultivate the study of natural

history. Speaking of himself in after life he said, "I

cannot boast of any great strength of arm, but my legs,

probably by much walking, and by frequently ascending

trees, have acquired vast muscular power; so that, on

taking a view of me from top to toe, you would say that

the 'upper part of Tithonus has been placed on the lower

part of Ajax.'" Educated at Tudhoe Catholic School,

Waterton became a sound Latin scholar. He proceeded to the

Jesuit College at Stonyhurst, where his tutors as far as

possible encouraged his love for natural history, at the

same time stimulating his taste for literature.

Fox-hunting was his delight and he became a famous rider.

His parents wished him to see the world, and his travels

began with a tour in Spain, visiting London on the way

back to Yorkshire and there making the acquaintance of Sir

Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society and

scientific Mæcenas of his age. In 1804 he sailed for

Demerara, there to administer the estates of his paternal

uncle, and, liking the country, managed that business till

1812, coming home at intervals. Subsequently, Waterton

undertook arduous and adventurous journeys in Guiana,

simply as a naturalist. His accounts of his experiences

made him famous. He also travelled in the United States

and the Antilles, then in Holland, Belgium, Switzerland,

Italy, and Sicily. Besides his "Wanderings in South

America" he wrote an attractive volume entitled "Natural

History: Essays."

In the month of April, 1812, I left the town of Stabroek, to travel

through the wilds of Demerara and Essequibo, a part of _ci-devant_ Dutch

Guiana, in South America. The chief objects in view were to collect a

quantity of the strongest Wourali poison, and to reach the inland

frontier fort of Portuguese Guiana.

It would be a tedious journey for him who wishes to proceed through

those wilds, to set out from Stabroek on foot. The sun would exhaust him

in his attempts to wade through the swamps, and the mosquitoes at night

would deprive him of every hour of sleep. The road for horses runs

parallel to the river, but it extends a very little way, and even ends

before the cultivation of the plantation ceases.

The only mode then that remains is to travel by water; and when you come

to the high lands, you make your way through the forest on foot, or

continue your route on the river. After passing the third island in the

river Demerara, there are few plantations to be seen, and those are not

joining on to one another, but separated by large tracts of wood. The

first rocks of any considerable size are at a place called Saba, from

the Indian word which means a stone. Near the top of Saba stands the

house of the postholder, appointed by government to report to the

protector of the Indians, of what is going on among them; and to prevent

suspicious people from passing up the river.

When the Indians assemble here, the stranger may have an opportunity of

seeing the aborigines, dancing to the sound of their country music, and

painted in their native style. They will shoot their arrows for him with

unerring aim and send the poisoned dart, from the blowpipe, true to its

destination.

This is the native country of the sloth. His looks, his gestures, his

cries, all conspire to entreat you to take pity on him. These are the

only weapons of defence nature has given him. It is said his piteous

moans make the tiger cat relent and turn out of his way. Do not then

level your gun at him, or pierce him with a poisoned arrow;--he has

never hurt one living creature. A few leaves, and those of the commonest

and coarsest kind, are all he asks for his support.

Demerara yields to no country in the world in her wonderful and

beautiful productions of the feathered race. The scarlet curlew breeds

in innumerable quantities in the muddy islands on the coasts of

Pomauron; the egrets in the same place. They resort to the mudflats in

ebbing water, while thousands of sandpipers and plovers, with here and

there a spoonbill and flamingo, are seen among them. The pelicans go

farther out to sea, but return at sundown to the courada-trees.

You never fail to see the common vulture where there is carrion. At the

close of day the vampires leave the hollow trees, whither they had fled

at morning's dawn, and scour along the river's banks in quest of prey.

On waking from sleep, the astonished traveller finds his hammock all

stained with blood. It is the vampire that has sucked him.

What an immense range of forest is there from the rock Saba to the great

fall, and what an uninterrupted extent from it to the banks of the

Essequibo! It will be two days and a half from the time of entering the

path on the western bank of the Demerara till all be ready, and the

canoe fairly afloat on the Essequibo. The new rigging in it, and putting

everything to rights and in its proper place, cannot well be done in

less than a day.

After being night and day in the forest impervious to the sun and moon's

rays, the sudden transition to light has a fine heart-cheering effect.

In coming out of the woods you see the western bank of the Essequibo

before you, low and flat. Proceeding onwards past many islands which

enliven the scene, you get to the falls and rapids. When the river is

swollen, as it was in May, 1812, it is a dangerous task to pass them.

A little before you pass the last of the rapids two immense rocks

appear, which look like two ancient stately towers of some Gothic

potentate, rearing their heads above the surrounding trees. From their

situation and their shape, they strike the beholder with an idea of

antiquated grandeur, which he will never forget. He may travel far and

wide and see nothing like them. The Indians have it that they are the

abode of an evil genius, and they pass in the river below, with a

reverential awe.

In about seven hours, from these stupendous sons of the hill you leave

the Essequibo and enter the river Apoura-poura, which falls into it from

the south. Two days afterwards you are within the borders of Macoushia,

inhabited by the Macoushi Indians, who are uncommonly dexterous in the

use of the blowpipe and famous for their skill in preparing the deadly

vegetable poison called Wourali, to which I alluded at the outset of

this narration.

From this country are procured those beautiful paroquets named

Kessikessi. Here too is found the india-rubber tree. The elegant crested

bird called Cock of the Rock is a native of the wooded mountains of

Macoushia. The Indians in this district seem to depend more on the

Wourali poison for killing their game than on anything else. They had

only one gun, and it appeared rusty and neglected; but their poisoned

weapons were in fine order. Their blowpipes hung from the roof of the

hut, carefully suspended by a silk grass cord. The quivers were close by

them, with the jawbone of the fish Pirai tied by a string to their brim,

and a small wicker-basket of wild cotton, which hung down the centre;

they were nearly full of poisoned arrows.

On the fifth day our canoe reached the fort on the Portuguese inland

frontier. I had by this time contracted a feverish attack. The

Portuguese commandant, who came to greet us, discovered that I was sick.

"I am sorry, sir," said he, "to see that the fever has taken such hold

of you. You shall go with me to the fort; and though we have no doctor

there, I trust we shall soon bring you about again. The orders I have

received, forbidding the admission of strangers, were never intended to

be put in force against a sick English gentleman."

Good nourishment and rest, and the unwearied attention and kindness of

the Portuguese commander, stopped the progress of the fever, and

enabled me to walk about in six days. Having reached this frontier, and

collected a sufficient quantity of the Wourali poison, nothing remains

but to give a brief account of its composition, its effects, its uses,

and its supposed antidotes.

Much has been said concerning this fatal and extraordinary poison.

Wishful to obtain the best information, I determined to penetrate into

the country where the poisonous ingredients grow. Success attended the

adventure, and this made amends for the 120 days passed in the solitudes

of Guiana. It is certain that if a sufficient quantity of the poison

enters the blood, death is the result; but there is no alteration in the

colour of the blood, and both the blood and the flesh may be eaten with

safety.

This poison destroys life so gently that the victim seems to be in no

pain whatever. The Indian finds in the wilds a vine called Wourali,

which furnishes the chief ingredient. He also adds the juices of a

bitter root and of two bulbous plants. Next he hunts till he finds two

species of ants, one very large, black, and venomous; the other small

and red, which stings like a nettle. He adds the pounded fangs of the

Labarri and the Counacouchi snakes; and the last ingredient is red

pepper.

The mixture is boiled and looks like coffee. It is poured into a

calabash. Let us now note how it is used. When the Indian goes in quest

of game, he seldom carries his bow and arrows. It is the blowpipe he

then uses. This is a most extraordinary instrument of death. The reed

must grow to an amazing length, as the part used is ten feet long. This

is placed inside a larger tube. The arrow is from nine to ten inches

long. It is made out of leaf of a species of palm-tree, and about an

inch of the pointed end is poisoned. The other end is fixed into a lump

of wild cotton made skilfully to fit the tube.

Chiefly birds are shot with this weapon. The flesh of the game is not

in the least injured by the poison. For larger game bows are used with

poisoned arrows.

An Arowack Indian said it was but four years ago that he and his

companions were ranging in the forest for game. His companion took a

poisoned arrow and sent it at a red monkey in a tree above him. It was

nearly a perpendicular shot. The arrow missed the monkey, and, in the

descent, struck him in the arm. He was convinced it was all over with

him. "I shall never bend this bow again," said he. And having said that,

he took off his little bamboo poison box, which hung across his

shoulder, and putting it with his bow and arrow on the ground, he laid

himself close by them, bid his companion farewell, and never spoke more.

Sugar-cane and salt are supposed to be antidotes, but in reality they

are of no avail. He who is unfortunate enough to be wounded by a

poisoned arrow from Macoushia will find them of no avail. He has got a

deadly foe within him which will allow him but very little time. In a

few moments he will be numbered with the dead.

_II.--Second Journey_

In the year 1816, two days before the vernal equinox, I sailed from

Liverpool for Pernambuco, in the southern hemisphere, on the coast of

Brazil. Arrived there, I embarked on board of a Portuguese brig for

Cayenne in Guiana. On the 14th day after leaving Pernambuco, the brig

cast anchor off the island of Cayenne. The entrance is beautiful. To

windward, not far off, are two bold wooded islands, called Father and

Mother; and near them are others, their children, smaller, though

beautiful as their parents.

All along the coast are seen innumerable quantities of snow-white

egrets, scarlet curlews, spoonbills, and flamingoes. About a day's

journey in the interior is the celebrated national plantation called La

Gabrielle, with which no other plantation in the western world can vie.

In it are 22,000 clove-trees in full bearing. The black pepper, the

cinnamon, and the nutmeg are also in great abundance here.

Not far from the banks of the river Oyapoc, to windward of Cayenne, is a

mountain which contains an immense cavern. Here the Cock of the Rock is

plentiful. He is about the size of a fantail pigeon, his colour a bright

orange and his wings and tail appear as though fringed; his head is

adorned with a superb double-feathery crest, edged with purple.

Finding that a beat to the Amazons would be long and tedious, and aware

that the season for procuring birds in fine plumage had already set in,

I left Cayenne for Paramaribo, went through the interior to Coryntin,

stopped a few days in New Amsterdam, and proceeded to Demerara.

Though least in size, the glittering mantle of the humming-bird entitles

it to the first place in the list of the birds of the New World. See it

darting through the air almost as quick as thought. Now it is within a

yard of your face, and then is in an instant gone. Now it flutters from

flower to flower. Now it is a ruby, now a topaz, now an emerald, now all

burnished gold.

Cayenne and Demerara produce the same humming-birds. On entering the

forests the blue and green, the smallest brown, no bigger than the

humble bee, with two long feathers in the tail, and the little

forked-tail purple-throated humming-birds glitter before you in

ever-changing attitudes.

There are three species of toucans in Dememara, and three diminutives,

which may be called toucanets. The singular form of these birds makes a

lasting impression on the memory. Every species of this family of

enormous bill lays its eggs in the hollow trees. You will be at a loss

to know for what ends nature has overloaded the head of this bird with

such an enormous bill. It is impossible to conjecture.

You would not be long in the forests of Demerara without noticing the

woodpeckers. The sound which the largest kind makes in hammering against

the bark of the tree is so loud that you would never suppose it to

proceed from the efforts of a bird. You would take it to be the woodman,

with his axe, striking a sturdy blow, oft repeated. There are fourteen

species here, all beautiful, and the greater part of them have their

heads ornamented with a fine crest, movable at pleasure.

In the rivers, and different creeks, you number six species of the

kingfisher. They make their nest in a hole in the sand on the side of

the bank. Wherever there is a wild fig-tree ripe, a numerous species of

birds, called Tangara, is sure to be on it. There are 18 beautiful

species here. Their plumage is very rich and diversified; some of them

boast six different colours.

Parrots and paroquets are very numerous here, and of many different

kinds. The hia-hia parrot, called in England the parrot of the sun, is

very remarkable. He can erect at pleasure a fine radiated circle of

tartan feathers quite around the back of his head from jaw to jaw.

Superior in size and beauty to every parrot of South America, the ara

will force you to take your eyes from the rest of animated nature and

gaze at him. His commanding strength, the flaming scarlet of his body,

the lovely variety of red, yellow, blue, and green in his wings, the

extraordinary length of his blue and scarlet tail, seem all to join and

demand for him the title of emperor of all the parrots.

There are nine species of the goatsucker in Demerara, a bird with

prettily mottled plumage like that of the owl. Its cry is so remarkable

that, once heard it can never be forgotten. When night reigns over these

wilds you will hear this goatsucker lamenting like one in deep distress.

A stranger would never conceive the cry to be that of a bird. He would

say it was the departing voice of a midnight murdered victim, or the

last wailing of Niobe for her poor children, before she was turned into

stone.

Suppose yourself in hopeless sorrow, begin with a high loud note, and

pronounce "ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha," each note lower and lower, till

the last is scarcely heard, pausing a moment or two betwixt every note,

and you will have some idea of the moaning of the goatsucker of

Demerara. You will never persuade the native to let fly his arrow at

these birds. They are creatures of omen and of reverential dread. They

are the receptacles of departed souls come back to earth, unable to rest

for crimes done in their days of nature.

_III.--Third Journey_

Gentle reader, after staying a few months in England, I strayed across

the Alps and the Apennines, and returned home, but could not tarry.

Guiana still whispered in my ear, and seemed to invite me once more to

wander through her distant forests. In February, 1820, I sailed from the

Clyde, on board the Glenbervie, a fine West Indiaman.

Sad and mournful was the story we heard on entering the river Demerara.

The yellow fever had swept off numbers of the old inhabitants, and the

mortal remains of many a new comer were daily passing down the streets,

in slow and mute procession.

I myself was soon attacked severely by the fever, but was fortunate

enough to recover after much suffering. Next I was wounded painfully in

the foot by treading on a hard stump, while pursuing a red woodpecker in

the depths of the forest. The wound healed in about three weeks, and I

again joyfully sallied forth.

Let us now turn attention to the sloth, whose haunts have hitherto been

so little known. He is a scarce and solitary animal, living in trees,

and being good food, is never allowed to escape. He inhabits remote and

gloomy forests, where snakes take up their abode, and where cruelly

stinging ants and scorpions, and swamps, and innumerable thorny shrubs

and bushes obstruct the steps of civilized man. We are now in the

sloth's own domain.

Some years ago I kept a sloth in my room for several months. I often

took him out of the house and placed him on the ground. If the ground

were rough, he would pull himself forward, by means of his forelegs, at

a pretty good pace. He invariably shaped his course at once towards the

nearest tree. But if I put him on a smooth and well-trodden part of the

road, he appeared to be in trouble and distress. His favourite abode was

the back of a chair, and after getting all his legs in a line on the

topmost part of it, he would hang there for hours together, and often

with a low and inward cry, would seem to invite me to take notice of

him.

We will now take a view of the vampire. As there was a free entrance and

exit to the vampire, in the loft where I slept, I had many fine

opportunities of paying attention to this nocturnal surgeon. He does not

always live on blood. When the moon shone brightly, and the bananas were

ripe, I could see him approach and eat them. The vampire measures about

26 inches from wing to wing extended. He frequents old abandoned houses

and hollow trees, and sometimes a cluster of them may be seen in the

forest hanging head downward from the branch of a tree.

Some years ago I went to the river Paumaron with a Scotch gentleman, by

name Tarbet. Next morning I heard him muttering in his hammock, and now

and then letting fall an imprecation or two, just about the time he

ought to have been saying his morning prayers. "What is the matter,

sir," I said, softly; "is anything amiss?" "What's the matter?" answered

he surlily; "why, the vampires have been sucking me to death."

As soon as there was light enough. I went to his hammock, and saw it

much stained with blood. "There, see how these infernal imps have been

drawing my life's blood," said he, thrusting a foot out of the hammock.

The vampire had tapped his great toe; there was a wound somewhat less

than that made by a leech; the blood was still oozing from it. I

conjectured he might have lost from ten to twelve ounces of blood.

I had often wished to have been once sucked by the vampire, in order

that I might have it in my power to say it had really happened to me.

There can be no pain in the operation, for the patient is always asleep

when the vampire is sucking him; and as for the loss of a few ounces of

blood, that would be a trifle in the long run. Many a night have I slept

with my foot out of the hammock to tempt this winged surgeon, expecting

that he would be there; but it was all in vain; the vampire never sucked

me, and I could never account for his not doing so, for we were

inhabitants of the same loft for months together.

Let us now forget for awhile the quadrupeds and other animals, and take

a glance at the native Indians of these forests. There are five

principal tribes in Demerara, commonly known by the name of Warow,

Arowack, Acoway, Carib, and Macoushi. They live in small hamlets

consisting never of more than twelve huts. These huts are always in the

forest near a river. They are open on all sides (except those of the

Macoushi) and covered with a species of palm-leaf.

Both men and women are unclothed. They are a very clean people, and wash

in the river at least twice a day. They have very few diseases. I never

saw an idiot among their number. Their women never perish at childbirth,

owing no doubt to their never wearing stays. They are very jealous of

their liberty, and much attached to their own mode of living. Some

Indians who have accompanied white men to Europe, on returning to their

own land, have thrown off their clothes, and gone back into the forests.

Let us now return to natural history. One morning I killed a

Coulacanara, a snake 14 feet long, large enough to have crushed any one

of us to death. After skinning it I could easily get my head into his

mouth, as its jaws admit of wonderful extension. A Dutch friend of mine

killed a boa 22 feet long, with a pair of stag's horns in his mouth. He

had swallowed the stag but could not get the horns down. In this plight

the Dutchman found him as he was going in his canoe up the river, and

sent a ball through his head.

One Sunday morning a negro informed me that he had discovered a great

snake in a large tree which had been upset by a whirlwind and was lying

decaying on the ground. I had been in search of a large serpent for a

long time. I told two negroes to follow me while I led the way with a

cutlass in my hand. Taking as an additional weapon a long lance, I

carried this perpendicularly before me, with the point about a foot from

the ground. The snake had not moved, and on getting up to him, I struck

him with the lance just behind the neck, and pinned him to the ground.

That moment the negro next to me seized the lance and held it fast in

its place, while I dashed up to grapple with the serpent, and to get

hold of his tail before he could do any mischief.

The snake on being pinned gave a tremendous hiss. We had a sharp fray,

rotten sticks flying on all sides, and each party struggling for

superiority. I called to the second negro to throw himself on me, as I

found I was not heavy enough. He did so and the additional weight was of

great service. I had now got firm hold of his tail, and after a violent

struggle or two, he gave in. So I contrived to unloose my braces and

with them tied up the snake's mouth.

The serpent now tried to better himself and set resolutely to work, but

we overpowered him. We contrived to make him twist himself round the

shaft of the lance, and then prepared to convey him out of the forest. I

stood at his head and held it firm under my arm, one negro supported the

belly, and the other the tail. In this order we slowly moved towards

home, resting ten times. The snake vainly fought hard for freedom. At my

abode I cut his throat. He bled like an ox. By next evening he was

completely dissected.

When I had done with the carcase of the great snake it was conveyed into

the forest, as I expected it would attract the king of the vultures, as

soon as time should have rendered it sufficiently savoury. In a few days

it sent forth that odour which a carcase should, and about twenty of the

common vultures came and perched on the neighbouring trees. The king of

the vultures came too; and I observed that none of the common ones

inclined to begin breakfast till his majesty had finished. When he had

consumed as much snake as nature informed him would do him good, he

retired to the top of a high mora-tree, and then all the common vultures

fell to and made a hearty meal.

When canoeing down the noble river Essequibo I had an adventure with a

cayman, which we caught with a shark hook baited with the flesh of the

acouri. The cayman was ten and a half feet long. He had swallowed the

bait in the night and was thus fast to the end of a rope. My people

pulled him up from the depths and out he came--"_monstrum horrendum,

informe_." I saw that he was in a state of fear and perturbation. I

jumped on his back, immediately seized his forelegs, and by main force

twisted them on his back; thus they served for a bridle.

The cayman now seemed to have recovered from his surprise and plunged

furiously, and lashed the sand with his long tail. I was out of reach of

the strokes of it, by being near his head. He continued to plunge and

strike, and made my seat very uncomfortable. It must have been a fine

sight for an unoccupied spectator. The people roared in triumph and

pulled us above forty yards on the sand. It was the first time I was

ever on a cayman's back. Should it be asked how I managed to keep my

seat, I would answer that I hunted for some years with Lord Darlington's

foxhounds.

After some further struggling the cayman gave in. I now managed to tie

up his jaws. He was finally conveyed to the canoe and then to the place

where we had suspended our hammocks. There I cut his throat and after

breakfast commenced the dissection.