in- h^,:R 4 Int ~.- NCiX ' * C; 4X ji us - 'C I__ PI. K- I rx ll —) i- /07, 1-11, I'll) ",- I 5,- a,-:11.4-, e 'A.".0 /C") -,", ;,,( 1, t I t TIHE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. I` 5 44 k 7w7,, \ w i'T, y"sI..................................................... \fECE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~, M ~ ~ ~.,,....,.,.,.-............., Yr H.Br't". VY BreW N I)li\H A ' \AI K! IR. I i I i I TI1 E INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA; THEIR CONDITION AND, HABITS. WIT7'Hl RESEAR0CHlE INTO THEIR. PA ST HISTOlRY, SUI'ERSTITIONS, LEGENDS, ANTIQUITIES,<, LAI '(t GIGES, C.c. REV. w. H.'BHRETT, MITSSTONARY TN CONNEXION WITH THE SOCIETY FOR THIE'' PIOPAGATION OF THE C.OSPFTL IN FOREIGN PARi'S, AND RF(TOR OF TRINITY PARTSII, ESSEQIRl;) LONDON: BELL AND )ALDY, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN 1868. ! 8 -LONDON: R. CLAY, SON, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, BREAD STREET HILL. PREFACE. THE Aborigines of Guiana, who form the chief subj ect of the following pages, are of no political importance. The country is indeed a good land and a large; but civilized man has settled on its coast, and the Indian races, who still possess the vast regions of the interior, are very scanty in number. Scattered over tracts as wide as soeic populous countries in Europe are fewer souls than are usually sent into eternity by civilized nations in the course of one campaign. Yet among those feeble tribes are found remnants of races who were formidable opponents to the discoverers of the New World, and for more than two centuries drew the attention of learned or adventurous Europeans. And it may be that a slight glance at their past history, with such an account of their present condition, and the efforts made for their vi PREFACE. benefit, as the writer's long intercourse with them enables him to give, will still possess some interest, -to those especially who believe that it is more blessed to save than to destroy. The writer takes this opportunity of thanking those gentlemen who, like himself, have taken an interest in the Aborigines of Guiana, and have aided him with much valuable information. CONTENTS. PART I. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.-THE COAST AND ITS POPULATION. PAGE Guiana colonized by different European Nations-Various Races inhabiting our Province-Introduction of Christianity among the African Population - Hindoo ImmigrantsChinese —lany Languages spoken... 3 CHAPTER II. THE INTERIOR AND ITS INHABITANTS. Sketch of the Interior of Guiana-A Day in its ForestsTheir luxuriant Vegetation-Birds, Insects, Reptiles, &c. &c.-Indians-Their personal Appearance, Food, Habitations, and Way of Life...... 14 CHAPTER III. EARLY EXPLORERS OF GUIANA, AND FIRST MISSIONS TO THE INDIAN THIBES. Indian Ideas of God, &c.-Object of First Explorers-El Dorado-First Colonists-Their Contests with the NativesMissions to the Indians in French Guiana, and of the Moravians in Berbice and Surinam-Their Fate.... 36 viii CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. THE ESSEQUIBO AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. PAGE The Essequibo-Its Size and Beauty-Bartica, &c. -The Indian Nations near the Coast-The Macusis-Stations among them destroyed by the Brazilians..... 55 CHAPTER V. THE POMEROON. Indian Territory-Its Inhabitants —The Writer's first Reception by and Sojourn among them.... 69 CHAPTER VI. THE ARAWAKS OR LOKONO. Their Character-Weapons-Name-Division of FamiliesPolygamy-Birth and Rearing of Children-Paiwari Feasts -Funeral Customs-Chiefs-Law of Retaliation-Progress -Mode of Instruction- Indian Astronomy- Use of Pictures-Manners of School Children-Venezuelan Expedition-Visit to the Akawini Lake.. 96 CHAPTER VII. THE CARIBS, OR CARINYA, Account of the Writer's First Visit to the Country of the Caribs-Their Costume and Appearance-Their national Character and Customs-A Glance at their Condition and Habits during the last Century-Their cruel Wars-Ancient Chiefs-Former Cannibalism...... 119 CONTENTS. ix CHAPTER VIII. VISIT TO THE ACAWOIOS. PAGE Journey through the Caribi Country to an Acawoio Settlement -Reception and Results of the Visit-Description of the Acawoios-Their Persons, Ornaments, &c.-The Blow-pipe and Ourali, or Arrow Poison-The Haiarri, and Method of poisoning Fish-Their roving Disposition, and long Journeys for Traffic and Plunder-The Small-pox-State of the Pomeroon Mission in 1842........... 135 CHAPTER IX. WAKAPOA LAKE AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. Expedition to Manawarin and Wakapoa-Its Results-MNaquarri Dance of the Arawa'ks- Difficulties -" Captain Peter's Church "-Mosquitoes.......... 147 CHAPTER X. THE WARAUS OR GUARANOS. Cabacaburi-Opposition among the Caribs-The WarausUnsuccessful Voyages and Journeys -Great and sudden Change-Efforts of the Post-holder and the Indians.. 163 CHAPTER XI. WARAMURI. Conversation with an old Warau-Erection of the Mission Buildings-Sickness of Missionaries-Extraordinary Imposture-Long Drought-Waramuri Mission nearly destroyed by Fire-Famine-Mortality by Dysentery-Progress of the Mission-Distant Indians desire a Teacher.. 176 X CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII. TRIALS. PAGE Causes which led to the first Abandonment of WaramuriDangerous Passage across the Sea-Narrow Escape from Death by an Arrow-Panic among the Caribs at the Pomeroon Station-Its Abandonment........ 188 CHAPTER XIII. MAHAICONI. Situation of the Mahaiconi - Expedition in 1844 - Great Indian Assembly and Maquarri Dance-Result-Gloomy Prospects.............. 200 PART II. CHAPTER I. INCIDENTS OF CARIBI LIFE. State of the Caribs in 1851-Visits to their Head-quartersIncidents-Child killed by a Cougar-Caribi Man devoured by a Jaguar-Subsequent Visits-Quashinikotahpo-Moratree Bridge-Impediments to Navigation-The Slayer of Jaguars-An Acawoio Clan from a distant River join us. 209 CHAPTER II. EPIDEMIC DISEASES. Mortality from Epidemics: Small-pox, Measles, &c. —The " Caribi," "Buck," or Indian Sickness-Destructive Visit of Cholera-Diminished Numbers..223 CONATENTS. xi CHAPTER III. REVIVAL OF WARAMURI MISSION. PACE The desolate Mission-Efforts for its Revival-Arrival of Mr. Wadie-His Missionary Career and Services-Severe Sickness-Perilous and lonely Condition-Slow Recovery and Return-Relapse-Unwilling Resignation - DepartureDeath................ 230 CHAPTER IV. PROGRESS. Indians take down and remove their Chapel in one DayProgress-Superstitions of the Waraus, and Impostures practised on them-Their Habits, &c. 216 CHAPTER V. TII E K A 'POIIN. Retrospect-The Acawoios of Barahma duped by the false Prophet of 1845-Their Return-Their Coming to usArrival of suspicious-looking Strangers-Unexpected Result -Coming of distant Acawoios, Arecunas, Maiongkongs, &c.-Great Gathering in 1865-Sketch of their Character, &c., and of the Regions inhabited by them.. 255 CHAPTER VI. THE DEMERARA. The Lower District of that River-Places of Worship of various Denominations-Its few Indian Inhabitants-The Upper District-Arampa-Malali-Visit to the aboveIncidents......... 282 xii CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. BERBICE AND EASTERN GUIANA. PAGE The old Dutch Colony on the lerbice gradually abandoned for the Coast Lands-Scene of the Moravian LaboursEfforts to Christianize the Indians during the present Century-Missionary Expedition to the Acawoios near the Cataracts, 1866-Incidents —Open and healthy Savannahs which border the Berbice. The Corentyn-Indian District-Indian Slave-trade-Report on the various Tribes on that River, 1866-Orealla. Indian Tribes of Dutch and French Guiana... 292 CHAPTER VIII. ABOVE THE FALLS. Decline of the Aborigines-Desolate Regions-Paths from River to River-The Country above the Falls crossed in 1839-Missionary Expedition to the Acawoios residing there in 1867. Indian Tribes near the Sources of the Essequibo, and on the Brazilian Border.......326 CHAPTER IX. THE CHARACTER. HABITS, AND SUPERSTITIONS OF THE INDIANS. Their Indolence, Apathy, Acute Observation, &c. - Hospitality - Drunkenness - Polygamy - Superstitions - The Kanaima-Yauhahu or Demons-System of Sorcery or Piai-ism-The Orehu —Her Qualities, &c... 343 CHAPTER X. MYTHOLOGY AND LEGENDARY TALES. Legends of supernatural Beings-Kanaima Tiger and other Animals possessed by them-Myths arising from singular CONTENT.S. xiii PA(; Appearances in natural Objects-Of the Creation, Deluge, &c.-Legends of the Acawoios, Macusis, Caribs, Tamanacs, &c. - Legends of the Coast Tribes, the Waraus and ArawAks-Remarks on the above...... 373 CHAPTER XI. REVIEW. Diversity of Language among the Aboriginal Tribes-Other Impediments to Improvement-Favourable Results of the Introduction of Christianity among them... 404 CHAPTER XIT. THE SHELL MOUNDS OF GUIANA. The Tumulus on Waramuri Hill-Causes which led to its Excavation-Found to consist of Shells and broken Bones -Human Remains-Their Condition-Search for other Mounds-The Governor's Visit-Incidents-Tumulus cut through to its Base-Other Mounds discovered and examined near the Pomeroon, Waini, &c.-The Evidence of their Contents..............420 CHAPTER XIII. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE INDIAN NATIONS. Difficulty in tracing their Origin-Timehri Rocks-Historical Traditions-Early Accounts of the Caribs-Various Opinions of their Origin-Conflicts with other RacesSupremacy-Decline-The Kapohn and cognate TribesThe Macusis, &c.-The Waraus-The Arawaks-Accounts of early Discoverers-Their historical Traditions-Contests with the Caribs-Struggles of the Indian Races with the early Colonists, &c...............444 CHAPTER XIV. Conclusion........... 496 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. SNAKE CAT(CHER (coloured)... INDIAN SHOOTING BLACK TIGER.... SAMBURA (coloured)....... TIlE COKORITO PALM...... MISSION CIIAPEL, POMEROON, 1843... MAQUARRI DANCE (coloured).... INDIAN MISSION AT POMEROON, 1846.. WARAMURI (1846) (coloured)..... ASSEMBLY OF ARAWAKS AT MAIIAICONI, 1844 CARIBI ENCAMPMENT ON TIIE UPI'PER POMEROON COUGAR SEIZING CHILD (coloured) AIECUNA. INDIANS..... CORODUNI (coloured)..... TIMEIIRI ROCKS...... DEMERARA FALLS. LANDING PLACE ABOVE DEMERAIIA FALLS (coloured) SHIELD-WRESTLING..... INDIAN SORCERER......;Frontispiece. T.. itile-page..page 31.........110.........146.......... 154.........164................178...... 202.......211...... 214........268.........306......... 314 ~...... 330...... 332........ 350.........364 ASSEMBLY OF INDIANS AT WARAIMUlI, 1866 (coloured)..... 430 HUMAN REMAINS AND RELICS. 434, 438, 439, 440 COMUrI, OR WATERI-JAR:OCK; AND ATARAIPIU, OR I)EVIL'S IOCK(. 447 MAP OF GUIANA................. 500 ERU.ATA. Page 41, line 15, for and read or. Page 64, foot note, for track read tract. ERRP. A T U M. P. 60(, lote, for 1,500')()() or 2,000, r.5a 1050 or 200). PART I. B THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.-THE COAST AND ITS POPULATION. Guiana colonized by different European Nations-Various Races inhabiting our Province-Introduction of Christianity among the African Population-Hindoo Immigrants-Chinese-Many Languages spoken. BETWEEN the great rivers Amazon and Orinoco lies the extensive region called by Sir Walter Raleigh "that mighty, rich, and beautiful empire of Guiana," and, by its less enthusiastic Dutch explorers, " the wild coast." It forms the north-eastern part of South America; and during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was colonized by several European nations. The Spaniards, proceeding up the Orinoco, took possession of the western part, which is now included in the State of Venezuela. The Portuguese formed settlements in the southern portion, which is watered by the tributaries of the Amazon, and now forms B 2 4 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. part of the Brazilian empire. To the provinces which lie east of Venezuela, and north of Brazil, the name of Guiana has been restricted by some recent geographers. Their area has been estimated at from 150,000 to 170,000 square miles. Cayenne, the most eastern of these, was occupied by the French. The Dutch received from the English a fine colony on the Surinam (the capital of which is Paramaribo), and formned others on the Berbice, Demerara, and Essequibo. The whole of these, in the early part of this century, were, by the fortune of war, placed in the hands of the British, who, in 1814, when Surinam and Cayenne were restored to their former possessors, retained the other three. The latter were afterwards united, forming a province which has a coast line of nearly 200 miles in length, and extends far into the interior to the border of Brazil. The population of this country has been very scanty, compared with its size and resources. Only a narrow strip of land, the edge of the alluvial flat which forms the coast and extends some distance up the rivers, is in regular cultivation, or at all thickly inhabited. This, being low and level, and covered in front with a thick grove of courida and mangrove trees, appears uninteresting when viewed from the sea. Tall chimneys, however, appearing here and there above the bush, show the approaching voyager that it has been laid out in plantations; chiefly of sugar, which is produced in great abundance by the rich soil and tropical climate. THE COAST AND ITS POPULATION. 5 Georgetown, the capital, is situated at the mouth of the river Demerara, and on its eastern bank. Its streets are mostly wide, with canals or drains on either side. They are rendered pleasant by the gardens, and the cocoa-nut and cabbage-palm trees, which surround the houses. Those stately trees, with others less conspicuous, appearing in great numbers among the buildings of the city, give it a handsome and cheerful appearance. Ini the streets of Georgetown many a busy and motley group may be seen, composed of men, women, and children of many races, presenting a spectacle of interest to a stranger, who may there behold the native American, surrounded by people from Europe, Asia, and Africa. There are the Anglo-Saxons, Portuguese immigrants from Madeira, Coolies from Calcutta and Madras, and Chinese from still more distant regions of the East. These, with individuals from other lands, are seen mingled with the Creoles, who form the bulk of the population. While looking on the busy scene, the stranger's attention may be arrested by a group differing in many respects from the others. By the bright copper tint of their skins, their long, glossy, straight black hair, and too frequently by their very scanty clothing, may be recognised the aborigines of the country. They usually bear in their hands little articles of their own manufacture for sale, such as baskets of various shapes, bows and arrows, models of canoes and Indian houses, &c. Frequently parrots, monkeys, and other animals are added to their little stock, 6 THE INDIAN TRIBE$ OF GUIANA. the price of which will supply the family with axes, cutlasses, hoes, and other necessary implements-with perhaps a gun, and a few other articles of European manufacture for the ensuing year; —if, indeed, the elder ones can refrain from rum, the bane and destroyer of their race. From the manner of these children of the wilderness it is easy to perceive that they are more or less strangers to the habits of civilized life. The young ones stare around, and seem bewildered by the various objects which meet their gaze. Their home is in the vast forest, and on the banks of some one of the rivers which intersect the interior of the country. They sometimes visit the coast and the city, but only for the purpose of procuring the articles before mentioned, after which they return to their forest-home until necessitated to seek a fresh supply. It is the principal object of the following pages, while describing some of the efforts which have been made for the benefit of those Indians, to represent their condition, past and present; and to give an idea of their habits and way of life. The reader must not, however, from the prominence here given them, suppose that the aborigines of the country are the most important race; or that they have been the chief objects of attention there. They are few in number; a feeble remnant thinly scattered through the forests and savannahs in the regions of the interior. Other races, in far greater numbers, occupy and cultivate the line of coast; and for their benefit much labour has been expended for many years. THE COAST AND ITS POP ULATrON. i Though the religious and moral state of the people is still very far indeed (especially with regard to marriage) from being what we desire, it cannot be compared with that which formerly prevailed. During the last century, the duties of religion were scarcely at all regarded by the colonists. Their slaves were brought from Africa in heathenism, and generally suffered to remain so. Public worship was so neglected, that there was but one church in the united colony of Demerara and Essequibo at the termination of the Dutch rule in 1803. The beautiful hymn of the American Church, "Then, through our solitary coast The desert features soon were lost, Thy temples there arose! Our shores, as culture made them fair, Were hallow'd by Thy rites, by prayer; And blossom'd as the rose,"could not then have been sung in that part of Guiana. By degrees, and notwithstanding much opposition, a favourable change took place. Even in the rural districts, places of worship and ministers of religion were provided. Efforts were made for the conversion of the black population to Christianity; and at the period of the Emancipation, considerable care was taken that they should generally receive instruction in the duties of religion. Provision was made for that purpose by the liberality of the colonists, with assistance from England. Parishes were formed, churches, chapels, and schools built along the line of coast, the peasantry aiding willingly according 8 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. to their means, and zealous ministers and catechists were appointed to labour among them. Shortly after the Emancipation, the very great diminution of labour, and the imperative necessity of keeping up the cultivation, led to the introduction of immigrants. More than 100,000 were brought from various countries in less than thirty years following that great event. Of that number more than one-fourth were blacks, from the West Indian Islands, or from Africa. The Portuguese from Madeira were rather more than a fifth. A few hundreds were obtained from the Cape de Verde Islands, the Azores, Malta, and one or two other places. But more than half the entire number were supplied by the teeming populations of Southern Asia; the earliest introduced being Coolies from Hindostan, who came under indenture for five years. Those HINDOOS, retaining the costume and manners of their native land, soon imparted something of an Oriental appearance to the estates on which they were placed. When not at work, their usual dress is a close vest of thin calico, with sleeves, and sometimes ornamented, while a long cloth is wrapped round their loins, which they gird up tightly when setting forth on a journey. Their women generally wear a large cloth or veil, in which they envelope the head. They are fond of ornament, and, as soon as they can procure them, wear massive silver rings on their wrists and ankles. The feet of both sexes are THE COAST AND ITS POPULATION. 9 bare, or shod with rude sandals; which, with the long girdle, earrings, large jewelled ornaments in the nose, &c., forcibly remind the beholder of the representations of Holy Scripture. Those natives of India naturally brought with them the superstitions and ceremonies in which they had been brought up, and to which their race clings with remarkable tenacity. The Mohammedan portion soon attracted attention by the annual celebration of the Mohurrim: a solemnity in which the clay effigies of Hassan and Hosein,1 the grandsons of Mohammed, were borne about in tall pagoda-like shrines, adorned with gay colours, glass, and gilding. After several nights of noisy procession, with beating of tom-toms and firing of 1 Hassan and Hosein were the sons of Ali, by Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed; Hassan was poisoned by his enemies in the 49th year of the Hegira (about A.D. 670), and Hosein was slain while journeying with his family near the banks of the Euphrates, a few years after. Cut off from the water by a body of 4,000 men, he heroically defended his household, until he sank exhausted with thirst, and covered with wounds. Seventy-two devoted followers perished with him; while of his foes eightyeight were killed, and a great number wounded. The many virtues and sanctity (according to the standard of the Koran) of the two brethren, their high birth and claim to the caliphate, and their tragical ends, especially that of Hosein, made a deep impression on the mind of the Eastern section of the Mohammedan world, and are annually commemorated with a strange mixture of. pathetic lamentation, warlike show, and barbaric magnificence at the celebration of the Mohurrim. The rich Mohammedans of India are lavish in their ex'saulture on these occasions, a fact which those who witnessed the display made by their poorer brethren in Guiana would readily believe. 10 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. guns, the solemnity concludes by bringing the tajas, as they are called, in great pomp to an appointed spot, and burying the images. Not long after the arrival of the first Hindoos, they attempted to establish the custom, too common indeed in India, but which seemed strangely horrible in Guiana, of suspending devotees, by hooks fixed through the muscles of their back or sides, to one end of a long beam, which was turned upon a pivot fixed on a tall, upright post, by a rope attached to the other end. In 1848-9, there were many such spectacles. The practice, being horrid and brutalizing, was soon after forcibly stopped by the Government of the colony, and it is now mentioned merely to record, with thankfulness, its suppression. Attempts of the Hindoos to establish the public worship of their idols have been unsuccessful. They were in Guiana separated from their time-honoured shrines; and the surrounding influences in a great measure weakened their faith in their own superstitions. But, notwithstanding, they still clung to their caste; and there were found to be many and great impediments to the spread of Christianity among them. Fresh bodies of heathen were continually being added to those already in the land. The latter, who had served a few years, were looking forward to the return free passage to India; with their savings, often considerable,' and the valuable ornaments of silver 1 In 1864, the ship Ganges took back to India 371 adult Coolies, with 76 children; the amount of savings deposited by them for remittance was 12,5221. 14s. 5d. Their jewellery was worth at least THE COAST AND ITS POPULATION. 11 and gold, which regular labour had enabled them to procure. Among those temporary sojourners, the most zealous Christian teachers, ignorant of their language, could be of little service; and a number of years elapsed ere missionaries, specially qualified to labour successfully among them, could be procured and brought from Hindostan. Some of the Coolies, however, after revisiting their native land, returned to Guiana. A much greater number, after fulfilling their engagements, preferred to remain in it, apparently making it their home. These now understand and speak English, and, with no ancient temples of idolatry before their eyes (as in India), come within reach of ordinary ministrations. A number of their children also receive instruction at our Christian schools. The CHINESE labourers, more recently introduced, are larger and stronger in person than the Hindoos: they are also energetic and ingenious. Gambling, opium-eating, daring theft, and disregard of life, are vices which tarnish the better qualities of their race. They wore the loose costume of their native land, well known from the pictures on tea-chests, and other familiar representations. Some, however, soon discarded the long pig-tail and hat of enormous size, 1,0001. more. Beside the sums remitted through Government, one individual took with him a bill of exchange for 4161. 13s. 4d. In the following year, the ship Clarence took back 389 adults, with 80 children. The amount transmitted with them, exclusive of jewellery, was 11,2351. 4s. 2d. 12 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIA NA. and began to adopt the costume and, to a certain extent, the manners of Europeans. The heathen Chinese, who formed the majority of those immigrants, either had few religious rites, or were not demonstrative in performing them. But a certain number were Christians, converted in their own land, most of whom have appeared to be very sincere in their profession; and with them came some who have diligently and successfully striven to convert their heathen brethren. The testimony thus unexpectedly afforded, of the efficacy of Christian missions in the far distant East, was most encouraging; causing us, amidst our embarrassment at the pouring of so many different heathen races into Guiana, to "thank God, and take courage." Many of these Chinese had some education, and the signs of their written language are common to all. But the dialects spoken by them vary greatly, according to the province from which the immigrant comes. To them we must add the various languages from the provinces of India -Hindustani, Bengali, Tamil, and their variations; and again to these the several African dialects spoken by the recaptured and liberated slaves; to those also the Portuguese, Creole-Dutch, and others of European origin; and, to crown all, the various languages of the aborigines. The reader may then imagine something of the position of the religious teachers in many districts, during the introduction of new races in the thirty years following the emancipation of which this chapter treats, amidst such a Babel of tongues. THE COAST AND ITS POPULATION. 13 The superstitions of the various races brought together from Africa, Asia, and elsewhere to that province will, of necessity, long exist among its population. They whose duty it is painfully and prayerfully to spread the light of Christian knowledge there must labour with much patience, remembering how thick the darkness which for thousands of years overshadowed the people; taking encouragement from each favourable sign; and firmly believing that in the end "Every plant which the Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up." CHAPTER II. THE INTERIOR AND ITS INHABITANTS. Sketch of the Interior of Guiana-A Day in its Forests -Their luxuriant Vegetation-Birds, Insects, Reptiles, &c. &c.Indians-Their personal Appearance, Food, Habitations, and Way of Life. WE will now leave the cultivated coast of Guiana, and take a brief glance at the wide-spreading interior. Though in so large a country there is considerable variety of surface, forests and rivers may be said to form its most striking features. The woods commence at the very edge of the sea, and even in the sea trees are seen standing covered with leaves. The tall courida and mangrove prevail there, and at the mouths of the rivers.. A dense forest spreads thence over many thousands of square miles,-broken in certain places by swamps, and in others by extensive savannahs,-open tracks covered with grasses, with clumps of trees here and there. The sand-hills and ridges of moderate height near the Atlantic are covered by those immense forests; which extend to, and climb the sides of, the rocky mountains of the distant interior. Magnificent timber trees-the green heart and the purple heart, the stately mora, the THE INTERIOR AND ITS INHABITANTS. 15 simiri or locust tree, and others too numerous to mention-rear their heads above the smaller kinds, which fill the spaces between them, all struggling to find room for their foliage; while from a moist carpet of fallen leaves, moss, and fungi, springs humbler vegetation in rank luxuriance. Numerous species of palms give beauty and variety to the wild forest scenery. Among them are the turu, akuyuru, and awarra; with the cocorite, which supplies the wood of which the small poisoned arrows are made. There is also the trooly, whose leaves, very long and broad, are used in thatching houses; and the elegant manicole, which abounds on the banks of rivers, rising to a considerable height, with its slender stem bending gracefully over the water. The cabbages at the top of this and several other species are excellent food. Creepers and bush-ropes, as they are called, increase the difficulty of penetrating those dense forests. They ascend and descend, binding and interlacing trunks and branches in every direction. They sometimes destroy, by their abundance and ever-tightening embraces, the trees which support them; and large branches, and even trunks, may be seen, half fallen, with their descent arrested by them. Beautiful parasites abound. The surface of the ground is strewed with dead leaves, fallen branches, and trees, in every stage of decay; some of which will crumble into dust beneath the foot which may be placed upon them. He who would see the beasts and birds of these forests should rise from his hammock and ramble with 16 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. the Indian, at early dawn, through the bush dripping with dew. The jaguar, having completed his nightly prowl, is retiring to his lair;-the red howling monkey is uttering less terrible cries, beginning to tire of his own noise, which must be heard to be duly appreciated;-the birds and smaller animals are coming forth to feed; and everything teems with life. High overhead green parrots of various species, numerous and noisy as rooks or jackdaws, are flying to their feeding-places. Macaws-blue and yellow, or blue and crimson-occasionally show themselves; and in the higher regions is seen the larger species, the magnificent ara, the plumage of which is chiefly of a brilliant scarlet, set off with tints of purple and gold. The toucan, or "bill-bird," is displaying his gorgeous red and yellow bosom, and tossing his enormous beak with fantastic jerks, on the top of the highest tree. The hannaqua and duraqua, the marudi and the maam; the stately crested powis, large as a turkey, with jet black feathers and yellow beak; and many others, beautiful in shape and colour, or good for food, may then be heard, if not seen. Least in size, but not in beauty, are the various species of humming-birds; flitting hither and thither like bees, and flashing like jewels of many colours in the rays of the morning sun. Insects, creeping or flying, meet the eye in every direction. The huge black nests of the destructive wood-ants are fixed on decaying trunks or branches. The coushi ants are stripping a favourite tree; some nipping off the leaves above, while others below cut THE INTERIOR AND ITS INHABITANTS. 17 them into small pieces, which thousands bear away to their nests deep in the earth. Very singular is the appearance of those portions of green leaves, which, as you stand at a little distance, seem to be moving along the track of their own accord, with undulating motion; as their bearers in close succession surmount the inequalities of the ground, and climb over the little obstacles in their path. Other kinds of ants abound; as do butterflies and winged insects of innumerable species, and large spiders, which on every side are lurking to ensnare them. But the heat of the day increases, and the birds seek shelter and repose. You may then hear in the distance the wood-pigeon's mournful call: and in certain districts the solemn toll of the snow-white campanero, or bell-bird, resounds for miles over forest and river: but few birds disport themselves during the sultry noon, save the merry, restless pai-pai-yo; which flits over head from branch to branch, and disturbs the general stillness by its strong clear note, from the sound of which the Indian has taken its name. When evening approaches the busy scene of the morning is repeated. The cassiques, called by the colonists mocking-birds, black and yellow, or black and scarlet, become particularly loquacious, as they fly in and out of their pendent nests. The flocks of parrots noisily fly homeward, and a large winged insect, heard also at morning and noon, comes forth as if to give notice of the close of day by a loud harsh noise, from which it is commonly called by the settlers the razorc 18 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. grinder. After this all gradually subsides into the stillness of night; broken by the croaking of frogs, the occasional cry of nocturnal birds, the chirping of insects, and the slight sound of the vampire and other bats in their eccentric flight. But let the wanderer be cautious where he treads, and sit not on a fallen tree until he has examined it, for bush-centipedes, huge black spiders, and scorpions may be in dangerous proximity; and ants, the bites of which are very painful, will begin to cover the clothes of the intruder ere he is aware of their presence. Certain risks and annoyances counterbalance the pleasure afforded by the luxuriant and beautiful garb which Nature here assumes-mosquitoes and sand-flies are very numerous and annoying in many parts;-and the marabunta and other species of wasp infest certain localities. But the serpents which abound are chiefly to be dreaded. The konokosi, or bush-master, is the largest and most dangerous of all the venomous snakes: it is said to attack man even when unmolested. Next to this, the rattlesnake is most feared in dry situations, and the labaria in damp places; but many other kinds are equally deadly. The names of some of the species of snakes cannot be learned even from the Indians themselves. No one who has seen the agonies which the bite of a venomous serpent inflicts on a human being can look upon those reptiles again without a feeling almost amounting to horror. It has unhappily been my lot to witness on more than one occasion the effects of the THE INTERIOR AND ITS INHABITANTS. 19. bite of the labaria; but only in one instance have I heard of a full-grown man being fairly seized by one of the huge constrictors which are found in the country. A large camudi, or water-python, in the swamps of Akawini, sprang on an Indian, and coiled sound his body, confining one arm; ere it could master the other, the man's wife handed him a knife, with which he inflicted a deep cut, causing the snake to quit him and retreat. Some Indians also once found and killed a large camudi in a state of torpidity, which had just swallowed a boy of the Caribi nation. Deer, and even the smaller kinds of alligator, have been sometimes found in them. In catching these reptiles the Indian displays great subtlety and dexterity. I have seen a man creep on his hands and knees, and capture a kolokonaro by means of a noose which he dropped over its head with a forked stick, as it was raised to look at the intruder. The reptile, its head being kept down by the stick, was then hauled out, and the Indian, grasping it by the neck, allowed it to coil round his arm. The kolokonaro (a young one) was only about five feet in length, but so thick and strong that the man soon had to call for assistance to release his arm from its pressure. This species is marked all over (but more vividly near the tail) with brown, orange, white, and other colours. It is sometimes called the landcamudi, to distinguish it from the other and larger kind, which takes to the water. Some of the latter attain, in desolate regions, to a length of more than thirty feet. The longest I have 2 20 20 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. known was little more than twenty. The Indians found it gorged with food, tied it by the neck to the stern of a canoe, and towed it to the residence of a settler, to whom they disposed of it alive. Of the quadrupeds found in these forests the largest is the tapir or maipuri, commonly called the bushcow; it is of the size of a large calf, and its flesh resembles beef It is a thick and clumsy-looking animal, with a tapering and flexible upper lip, feeding on vegetable productions, harmless, and taking to the water when assailed. Several kinds of deer are also hunted by the Indians, one of which, the wiribisiri, is remarkable for its elegance of form and very diminutive size. Herds of bush-hogs, as they are called, may sometimes be met with, the larger species of which will turn savagely on an assailant. They have an offensive orifice on the back, which the hunters cut out as soon as the animal is taken; the other flesh then is good. The acouri or agouti somewhat resembles the guinea-pig, but it is larger, has legs much longer in proportion, and is much more nimble. Its colour is a reddish brown. There is no animal whose flesh is more highly valued than the labba. It is of the size and shape of a small pig; though its nose, feet, and some other parts of its body more resemble those of a hare. Being delicious food it is hunted without mercy; but always keeps near the water, and plunges in when pursued. The Indians hunt it in two parties, one chasing it with dogs to the stream, while the other, in a small canoe, follows the sound of the chase. The THE INTERIOR AND ITS INHABITANTS. 21 hunter in the bow of the canoe observes the plunge, watches the bubbles that rise to the top of the water, and with ready-pointed arrow shoots the terrified creature as it approaches the surface to breathe. The sloth is occasionally seen, moving along with its back downwards, being suspended by its powerful claws to the branches of trees.-Opossums of different species are also met with.-But there are no animals which give more life to forest scenes than the monkeys, of which there are many kinds. The red howlers are perhaps the most disagreeable; the greyish-brown monkeys, the most common; and the sakuwinkis, the most pretty and amusing. Those playful little creatures will keep company with a canoe for some distance, whistling and chattering to the paddlers; while the woods resound with the crashing of branches as they spring, one after another, from tree to tree in their merry course. Another kind of monkey, called quata (or coaita), with long shaggy black hair, and melancholy aspect, may be seen occasionally taking a grave and apparently critical survey of an approaching party; till the necessity of taking care of his personal safety seems to flash across his mind, and he makes a wild and undignified retreat. Some of the other species are rarely met with. There are two or three kinds of ant-eaters, one of considerable size. With tapering muzzle, crested mane, and enormous sweeping tail, it moves on quietly in quest of its prey; but, when provoked, will rush furiously on its assailant. Woe to the enemy whom it can overturn and hold in the unrelaxing grip of 22 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. its huge claws! The armadillo, coatimondi, and other more or less remarkable animals, are also met with on terra firma; while the capybara, or water-haas, frequents the muddy margin of lakes and rivers. The excitement of the life in the woods is kept up by the possibility of meeting with animals of the feline species; the ocelot, the puma, the beautifully spotted jaguar, and the black variety, the rarest and most dreaded of all. In the deepest glades of the forest, or near the streams which wind in every direction through the woods, these animals may be seen, though but seldom where Indian hunters are numerous, and armed with guns. Although the spotted jaguar is a beast of prey, it is impossible to gaze without admiration on his rich glossy skin, as the sunbeams fall on it through the opening in the tall trees caused by the stream. He will not, however, allow you much time for observing the black spots, disposed in rings or rosettes on his tawny hide; as he generally retreats after gazing for a few seconds at the intruding party; often looking round, as he glides off with noiseless step, and bounds carelessly, and without the least apparent effort, over the fallen trees which may lie in his path. He is very seldom seen in the day-time. At night he approaches the dwellings of men, where his yell is often heard, and his track is visible in the morning. Although the jaguar rarely attacks man, it is well known that he will do so if very hungry or favoured by darkness. A winding in the river Arapaiaco is THE INTERIOR AND ITS INHABITANTS. 23 called Tiger-hand (or bend), from the circumstance of a solitary and benighted Indian having been killed and eaten there by one of those animals. Whether he was intoxicated, and forgot to kindle a fire, or slept too soundly, and let the guardian fire go out, was not known; but his remains, half devoured, were found there next morning. There are also wellknown instances in which the jaguar has attacked man even by day.l The rivers of the country are very numerous. The largest is the Essequibo; which, including windings, is more than six hundred miles in length, and receives the waters of several large tributaries. To the eastward of this are the Demerara, Berbice, and Corentyn, with several others. The main rivers form magnificent cataracts and rapids as they descend from the higher lands of the interior. Some are beautified with numerous islands, and are very broad at the mouth; the estuary of the Corentyn being ten miles across, and that of the Essequibo nearly twenty. To the westward of the Essequibo are the Pomeroon, Moruca, Waini, Barima, and others of various sizes, 1 One of those animals came to a settlement on the Haimara -Cabura, in October 1864, at mid-day. It was, said the Arawak whose family it came to attack, "excessively kaiima, or savage (probably having cubs), and shouts did not terrify but enraged it." He had just time to drop a slug into his gun, which had been loaded with small shot, and to fire as he met the beast, without bringing it to his shoulder. The skin (in my possession) shows that the small shot flew over the head, and sprinkled the back, striking off the hair; while the slug, taking a lower course, entered just beneath the eye, killing the animal, and saving the man on. whom it was about to spring. 24 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. which drain the large tract of country lying between the cultivated coast and the delta of the Orinoco. This district may be described as an immense swampy forest, intersected by a few ridges of sand, and abounding in lakes, and what are called wet savannahs; which become sheets of dry-crusted mud in the hot season. Some of them are studded with islands covered with trees; and clusters of ita-palms are seen growing in the swamp itself, on spots of land a little higher than the rest. Those palms, with their fan-like leaves, and trunks that resemble stone columns, give beauty to a scene otherwise dreary and desolate. Many fine fish are found in the rivers and lakes. In some of the streams of the interior are found arapaima (or pirarucu) of more than 200 lbs. weight, which the Indians kill with arrows. Of the smaller kinds many are delicious, as the haimara, pacu, &c. Others are rather dangerous to bathers, the pirai especially, which I have known (in two instances) to have nearly severed the great toe of an Indian standing in the water. The formidable cayman inhabits the larger rivers, and a smaller kind of alligator is found in the waters near the coast. Otters are so pugnacious that they will sometimes follow your canoe, and bite at the steering paddle. Those rivers are the only means of communication with the interior. The dense forests have no roads, save the foot-track of the Indian. To visit the aboriginal tribes, we must ascend those streams. THE INTERIOR AND ITS INHABITANTS. 25 The Indian in his native forests is by no means the half-stupified being he may have appeared to you when wandering (intoxicated perhaps) through the city, or on the plantations. Surrounded then by strange people, and objects to which he was unaccustomed, he was out of his place, and conscious of it; but when he returns to the woods, he is at home, and feels himself infinitely superior in the requirements of forest life to the civilized stranger who may visit him. The latter, endeavouring to make his way through the tangled bush, or staggering across a swampy place on slender pieces of wood, must appear to the Indian at least as awkward as the Indian, surrounded by the objects of civilized life, appeared to him. The Guiana Indian seldom exceeds five feet five inches in height, and the greater number are much shorter. They are rather stout in proportion, and it is rare to see an instance of deformity among them. Their skin is of a copper tint, a little darker than that of the natives of Southern Europe. Their hair is straight and coarse, and continues jet black till an advanced period of life. Their eyes are also black and keen, and their sight and hearing very acute. The only dress which the Indian (in his heathen state) thinks necessary for everyday life, is a strip of cotton, bound tightly round the loins, or secured by a cord tied round the waist. In this they generally carry a knife (similar to our carving-knives), which they use in clearing their way through tangled briers or lianas, and as a weapon in any emergency. A single string of beads is worn round the neck, and 26 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. sometimes a collar made of the teeth of the bush-hog, or peccary, or of other wild animals. Many individuals wear a small cord round the wrists and ankles. They also make beautiful coronals or tiaras of the feathers of parrots, macaws, and other birds, set off with the brilliant scarlet breast of the toucan, and surmounted by the tail-feathers, scarlet or purple, of the macaw; but these, with many other gay and fantastic ornaments, are seldom worn, except on festive occasions, or the days of their great dances. The women of most tribes in their heathen condition are as scantily attired as the men, but wear more ornaments. They have many necklaces of beads of different lengths, to which silver coins, &c., the teeth of the jaguar and other beasts, and sometimes shells, are attached. Those necklaces, with a very small apron of beads, worked in some handsome pattern, and called queyu, form the full dress of an Indian belle. The females of the ArawAk tribe had, however, been a little civilized by intercourse with the wives of settlers, and often possessed a kind of petticoat, which they called kimisa, from the Spanish camisa, and suspended with a string over one shoulder, leaving the other bare. Their husbands also generally had at least a shirt, with a cap or hat. These were put on when they expected to meet civilized persons, and then carefully laid by until a similar occasion called for their use. In selecting the site for his habitation, the Indiani is guided by three or four requirements. It must be near the water, that his wife and daughter may fetch it THE INTERIOR AND ITS INHABITANTS. 27 with little trouble for the use of the family, and that his canoe may be in readiness for loading, when setting out on one of their frequent migrations. It must be in the neighbourhood of a light sandy soil, fit for the growth of cassava and other vegetables. Lastly, it must be in a place little frequented, for he is shy and retiring, and will leave his quarters if too much disturbed. When he has found a spot possessing these advantages, he builds a house, and cuts down a large space of forest to form his field. This is generally done in August, at the commencement of the hot season. The foliage and branches being soon dried by the sun, he sets them on fire, and the fierce conflagration consumes all but the charred and blackened trunks and limbs of the large trees. These he leaves on the ground. He has done his part in clearing the field; the planting, weeding, and other parts of cultivation belong to the females of the family. While they attend to this and their household work, he occupies himself in hunting and fishing, spending much time in making baskets, &c., and lying indolently in his hammock until necessitated to fish, or use the more violent exercise of the chase, to provide for the wants of his family. If a visitor to the dwelling of the Indian expects much in the way of architecture, he will be disappointed; a roof of trooly or some other thatch, supported on a few posts and beams, being generally all. There is some variety in the shape of these habitations; sometimes one or two sides are enclosed, and some 28 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. times the roof itself slopes to the ground. Some of the inland tribes have steeple or bell-shaped huts, supported by a tall central post. The women usually cook in a smaller out-building or kitchen, and, with their children, eat and live there. In the man's apartment, we find a few low seats, sometimes carved out of blocks of wood into the rude form of quadrupeds. From the beams are suspended the hammocks of the persons residing there, which form their luxurious places of repose, waking or sleeping. Those hammocks are made of network of cotton, or of the fibres of the ita palm-leaf, called tibisire. They are not only convenient, but absolutely necessary, that the person sleeping may be out of the way of most of the venomous creatures which infest the forests. Fires are lighted under the hammocks, which keep off wild animals, and counteract the excessive dampness of the night air. The apartment is also furnished with the implements used in hunting and fishing. Strong bows, five or six feet long, made of polished wood, and arrows of neat manufacture, are there, with fish-hooks and rods of various sizes. In the settlements near the coast, there is generally a gun, if the man be industrious, and among the more distant tribes its place is supplied by the long blow-pipe and the poisoned arrows which are discharged through it. We see also the Indian baskets, called pegalls (Caribi pegalla), which are made of the outer skin of a large reed or cane, called iturite. This is split into long strips, half of which are coloured black or red, which are then interwoven THE INTERIOR AND ITS INHABITANTS. 29 in various ornamental patterns, resembling those found on the carved ruins of Mexico and Central America, or on the tombs and pottery of ancient Egypt or Etruria.l The pegall has a cover that entirely encloses the under part, and in it the Indian keeps his scanty wardrobe —a comb, a looking-glass, and other articles for his toilet, and sometimes an article intended for a very different purpose, being a small club with sharp corners, made of very hard and heavy wood, and capable of killing an enemy by a single blow. A supply of tobacco will probably be not far off; it is an article of which the Indians are very fond, and it has almost a sacred character with them from its use in their superstitious rites. They make cigars by rolling the leaf up in the inner bark of a tree. The woman's apartment, or kitchen, as we may call it, is seen to be furnished with a number of vessels for culinary purposes. Those of Indian manufacture are formed by themselves of a certain kind of clay, and baked and blackened over. The goglets, or closenecked vessels for holding water, are also made by themselves; but for the rough work of fetching it from the river they generally manage to procure one of our large and strong stone bottles, which the women carry, as they do their other burdens, on the back, 1 Similar ornamental patterns are used by the Indians on the Orinoco and elsewhere. Humboldt, describing those which he found on the funeral urns in the cavern of Ataruipe, says, "They are found in every clime, and in every stage of human cultureamong the Greeks and Romans, the South Sea islanders, and in all regions where a rhythmical repetition of regular forms delights the eye."-Views of Nature, p. 172. 30 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. supporting its weight by a strap or band placed across the forehead. We see also a large grater,l on which they scrape the cassava root into a pulpy mass, which is received in a shallow trough,-generally part of an old canoe. There is also a strainer, made of plaited material, like that of the pegall before described, but much coarser. It is a long tube, open at the top and closed at the bottom, which ends in a strong loop. The white pulpy mass of cassava is put into this tube, which is suspended from a beam. One end of a staff is then placed through the loop at the bottom; the woman sits on the staff (or attaches a heavy stone to the end) and the weight stretches the elastic tube, which contracting on the pulpy mass within, forces its white juice by compression through the plaited material of which it is made. This liquor is carefully collected in a vessel placed beneath. It is a most deadly poison, and any animal that drinks it while it remains in that state swells and dies in great agony. But by being boiled it changes to a deep brown colour, and becomes the wholesome and nutritious sauce called casareep, which is a chief ingredient in the pepper-pot, a favourite dish of the country. 1 The grater made by the native tribes in the distant interior, consists of a board 21 or 3 feet long and 18 inches broad. It is made of the soft outer layers of the purple-heart tree. The Indian, having shaped this, and marked it with cross-lines, beats in small angular fragments of hard green stone, which project slightly from the surface. The milk of a certain tree, coloured with roucou (or arnotto), being spread over the board, glues in the rocky fragments, and gives a varnish to the whole. 1; I' I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ;_ IC 4.1",~ I!rt~! I. CD r, ~L~ Frr CD:3 L THE INTERIOR AND ITS INHABITANTS. 31 In the woman's apartment we also see a circular iron plate, on which the cassava is spread and baked in broad thin cakes. These form the bread of the Indian. Yams, sweet potatoes, and other esculents are also cultivated by them. Some of the Indian " places" have a rude apparatus for extracting the juice of the sugar-cane-a sort of mill with small rollers being used by the more advanced. Another kind which I saw used by the Caribs was very primitive. It consisted of a thick post, the upper part of which was carved into a rude resemblance of a human bust. The cane was placed on the part answering to the collar-bone, and crushed there by a long lever or staff inserted in a hole through the neck, and worked by hand, the sweet juice flowing down the breast into a vessel placed to receive it. The task of cultivation, after the field is cleared and burnt off, falls chiefly on the females. They are expected also to provide firewood, bear burdens on the march, and perform the general drudgery of the settlement. Many of the implements used by the Indians are, as we have seen, now made of iron. Before Europeans introduced that metal, stones with sharpened edges were used, specimens of which are sometimes, though rarely, found in digging. Very difficult and laborious it must have been to fell a tree, or " dig out" a canoe, with such poor tools. The Indians now obtain from us guns, axes, hoes, cutlasses, knives, and many other articles of metal. They make the barbed heads of their arrows out of old cutlasses, and shape them very 32 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. neatly. Monkey-bones are used for that purpose by the more distant and barbarous tribes. Many of the arrows used by all are still pointed with tough wood, hardened in the fire; and they boast that such as these have been known to pierce through the body of a man, when discharged by a powerful arm. They travel much, the coast tribes chiefly by water. The canoe then bears the burden, which they must otherwise carry themselves. The light vessels or woodskins used in the interior are generally made of a single piece of bark, and will be hereafter described. Those used near the coast are each made of the trunk of a tree, hollowed out and opened by manual labour and the action of fire. They are generally pointed both at stem and stern; and in that shape are called corialsb by the settlers, from a Caribi word signifying a canoe.1 The latter word is mostly used to denote the larger craft, which have the pointed head and stern cut off, and the openings thus caused filled by pieces of plank, on which various fantastic devices are painted according to the owner's taste. Sometimes a plank, cut and smoothed out of a soft kind of wood, is laced tightly on the side to make it higher, and the seam is caulked. 'He who possesses one of these large canoes is a great man among them. They use paddles, those made of the fluted projections of the lower part of the trunk of the yaruru tree being considered the best. The stroke is regular, but they often vary the measure, the signal for which 1 The latter word will be used in this work, as more extensively understood. THE INTERIOR AND ITS INHABITANTS. 33 is usually given by the water being thrown high in the air from the blade of a paddle. This is done by the bowman, who gives the stroke to the others.-All the paddlers sit facing the head of the canoe. The following is the description given by a former writer of an Indian family in a canoe on the Berbice:" Before the canoe reached the fort, we observed the long black hair and naked skins of the man, his two wives, and several children, who were all seated about the vessel, trimming it most neatly. The canoe was large, and loaded with cedar, or other kinds of wood for sale or barter. On the top appeared a ferociouslooking animal, setting up his bristles like the quills of a porcupine." (This was doubtless a young bush-hog, a pet of the family.) "A small monkey also was skipping about the canoe. On one side sat two very fine parrots, and on the other was a very large and beautiful macaw, exhibiting all the splendours of his gay plumage. On the canoe arriving at the landingplace, the bow and arrows, clay cooking-vessels, calabashes, hammocks, and crab-baskets were all brought into view, forming a very complete and striking specimen of original equipage and accommodation. The whole family, with the apparatus, furniture, and implements for cooking, sleeping, shooting, fishing, and travelling, were here moved in one complete body." 1 This description of what is usually called a 1 Dr. Pinckard, 1806. D 34 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. "Buck" 1 family on the water might serve for many at the present day. Though for nearly three centuries some of the native tribes had been in gradually increasing contact with Europeans of different nations,-first as bitter foes, exterminating where they could, and afterwards as friends and allies, —still, whether foes or friends to civilized man, their habits remained but little altered. They used our better tools and weapons, indeed, but retained their own way of life, with little modification. Their tastes and propensities remained unchanged. Instances have been known where young individuals of both sexes have been taken away from the country and carefully educated, so that it seemed impossible. they could ever again sink into their natural condition. Opportunity offered; the dark green forest was before their eyes, the Indian was the Indian still, and the unconquerable longing for the wild life in the woods has ever been too strong in them for the restraints of our civilization. The experience of later years has, however, shown us that the Indians-if allowed.to range their native woods, fish, hunt, and plant cassava, as their fathers before them-may, in the intervals of their own work, by cutting and squaring timber, clearing bush on plantations, thatching cottages or logies, &c., render valuable service to the community on whose borders they dwell. 1 The Indian men and women were called by the Dutch "Bucks" and "Buckeens," and those rather inelegant expressions are still in common use. THE INTERIOR AND ITS INHABITANTS. 35 Those more industrious and civilized habits are, however, of recent development. They have been in great measure the result of missions planted among their wild forests and rivers; and of the influence, gradually spreading from them, of that which in the seventh and eighth centuries gave the impulse which resulted in the civilization of the fiercer and hardier inhabitants of the forests of Northern Europe,-the religion of our Lord. CHAPTER III. EARLY EXPLORERS OF GUIANA, AND FIRST MISSIONS TO THE INDIAN TRIBES. Indian ideas of God, &c.-Object of First Explorers-El DoradoFirst Colonists-Their Contests with the Natives-Missions to the Indians in French Guiana, and of the Moravians in Berbice and Surinam-Their Fate. THE aborigines of Guiana, in their naturally wild and untaught condition, have had a confused idea of the existence of one good and supreme Being, and of many inferior spirits, who are supposed to be of various kinds, but generally of malignant character. The Good Spirit they regard as the Creator of all, and, as far as we could learn, they believe Him to be immortal and invisible, omnipotent and omniscient. But notwithstanding this, we have never discovered any trace of religious worship or adoration paid to Him by any tribe while in its natural condition. They consider Him as a Being too high to notice them; and, not knowing Him as a God that heareth prayer, they concern themselves but little about Him. It is not therefore surprising that they should pass their lives in abject dread of evil spirits, and, not regarding God as their protector, seek blindly to EARLY EXPLORERS OF GUIANA. 37 propitiate devils. Their belief in the power of demons is craftily fostered by a class of men who are their sorcerers or priests, who pretend to hold intercourse with the evil spirits, and to cure diseases by their means. It was long after the discovery of the country ere any effectual efforts were made to bestow on its aboriginal inhabitants the blessings of Christianity and civilization. The Europeans who first visited its shores, sailed up its broad rivers, or penetrated its dense forests, had one all-absorbing purpose-the rapid acquisition of wealth in a land of gold. Very different from the truth were the ideas which prevailed during the sixteenth century, and, to a later period, respecting the interior of Guiana. It was believed that in the heart of that country there existed a golden region, whose riches exceeded those of Peru. A branch of the royal race of the Incas, flying from their conquered country with as much wealth as could be saved from the Spanish invaders, was said to have established in Guiana a new empire. As Manco Capac, the founder of that dynasty, had first reigned on the shores of the lake Titicaca, so his exiled descendants were believed to have fixed their abode near a lake called Parima, the sands of which contained immense quantities of gold. The city of Manoa on its banks had houses covered with plates of that precious metal; and not only were all the vessels in the royal palace made of the same, but gold-dust was so abundant that the natives sprinkled it over their bodies, which they first anointed with 38 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. a glutinous substance, that it might stick to them.1 Especially was the person of their sovereign thus adorned daily by his chamberlains. "But," says an old Spanish writer,2 " as this kind of garment would be uneasy to him while he slept, the prince washes himself every evening, and is gilded anew in the morning, which proves that the empire of El Dorado is infinitely rich in mines." All this was implicitly. believed, and the city of "the gilded" king became the object of many expeditions on the part of the early Spanish conquistadores. The German subjects of Charles V. vied with the Spaniards in these bold adventures. George von Spier, with his companions, spent two years in penetrating from the northern shore of Terra Firma to the Caqueta (or Yapura), a tributary of the Amazon. The steady resistance of the Indians compelled his return in 1537. The following year three small armies, led by the conquistadores Belalcazar, Queseda, and Federmann, coming from different regions, met fortuitously on the plains of Cundina1 " On the banks of the Caura and in other wild parts of Guiana, where painting the body is used instead of tattooing, the natives anoint themselves with turtle fat, and stick spangles of mica with a metallic lustre, as white as silver, and as red as copper, on the skin, so that at a distance they seem to wear laced clothes. The fable of the 'gilded man' is perhaps founded on a similar custom."-HuMBOLDT'S Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, chap. xxv. 2 Oviedo:-whose writings, according to Las Casas, contain as many fictions almost as pages. EARLY EXPLORERS OF GUIANA. 39 marca.1 Not being discovered in those parts, El Dorado was next supposed to be somewhere in the immense region between the Orinoco and the Amazon, -Orellana, who first descended the latter mighty stream, having reported that there was a region rich in gold to the northward of it. But as the Orinoco had been previously explored from its mouth to the cataracts by the expeditions of Ordaz and Herrera, with great pains and little profit (the Indians fiercely opposing both, and the latter commander having gone mad from the effects of a wound with a poisoned arrow), the search was for many years chiefly carried on by land expeditions to the westward of that river. The wide-spreading plains and forests watered by its large tributaries, the Apure, Meta, and Guaviare, were traversed from time to time by bold and gallantly equipped cavaliers; each undeterred by the total failure of his predecessors. One of the most famous of those adventurers, Philip von Huten, a German knight, at the head of a little band of Spaniards, marched in 1541, amidst the greatest perils and privations, from Coro, on the northern shore of the continent, to the country of the Omaguas mentioned by Orellana. The survivors of his little army being unable, in a desperate battle, to overcome the resistance of that tribe, or to procure subsistence, were compelled to return,-disappointed, indeed, in their attempts to reach the golden city, yet still believing in its existence, and imagining that they 1 Humboldt's Narrative, chap. xxv. 40 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. had seen its splendid roofs shining from afar. So sanguine was their leader that he was preparing a second expedition, when he fell by the hand of an assassin. The weaker tribes through which those expeditions passed, desirous to get rid as soon as possible of their rapacious guests, always described El Dorado as easy to be reached, and at no great distance; thus keeping up the delusion, and luring on the adventurers, by false hopes, to encounter stronger foes and greater dangers. Of those early adventurers, some had served under Cortes in Mexico, others in Peru under Pizarro. Great must have been their disappointment on finding that they had exchanged regions of wealth and comparative civilization-where fair cities, surrounded by beautiful gardens and fruitful fields, abounded-for wild interminable forests, swamps, or plains; where only assemblages of rude huts were to be met with, and they few and far between. Nor could it have been gratifying to those veterans to have exchanged, as antagonists, the bold and gorgeously equipped Aztec warriors, who met them in the open field,each chief "In golden g]itt'rance, and the feather mail More gay than glitt'ring gold,"for the naked and painted savages whom they encountered in Guiana. Some of these latter, especially those of Carib race, were indeed formidable from their headlong ferocity; while the others, launching EARLY EXPLORERS OF GUIANA. 41 their poisoned missiles from the shelter of trees or rocks, must have been, as enemies, equally dangerous, and still more unsatisfactory. As years passed on, the expeditions in search of the golden region increased in number. It would be wearisome to recount the names even of those leaders which have come down to us. Men of various callings and of different nations, Portuguese, French, &c. as well as Spaniards, were led to join in the delusive pursuit. About the end of the sixteenth century, the search for El Dorado was chiefly carried on in another direction. Having been vainly sought elsewhere, it was thought that it must be in the eastern part of Guiana (as yet unexplored), and somewhere near the Caroni. Berrio, the Spanish Governor of Trinidad, sent an agent to prepare in Europe an expedition of two thousand men; and adventurers, selling their lands, embarked as on a small crusade in that expedition; to which a number of priests and monks were attached. Of those unfortunates, about thirty returned to the Spanish settlements, the others having perished by sickness, famine, and the weapons of the natives. The terrible misfortunes which befell the expedition of Berrio did not deter his captor, Sir Walter Raleigh, from undertaking, in 1595, the exploration of that region. The natives, conciliated by the attacks of the English on the Spaniards, and receiving no injury from them, rather assisted than opposed him; and his expedition was only stopped by the cataracts of the 42 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. Caroni. But, though he procured specimens of auriferous quartz,' he of course did not discover the wealthy monarch of the lake, and his golden city. No failure, however, could dispel those visionary ideas and dreams of boundless riches. Some of Raleigh's men declared that they saw, near the Caroni, rocks shining with gold, and a mountain " containing diamonds and other valuable stones, the lustre of which is often seen to blaze at a considerable distance."2 The other famous expedition of Sir W. Raleigh to Guiana, the unfortunate issue of which brought him to the scaffold, did not take place till 1617, after his disgrace and long imprisonment. During that interval his interest in the country continued unabated. Being prevented from continuing his enterprises in person, he sent his faithful adherent, Captain Keymis, and others, to explore its coast and rivers. Those expeditions, pursuing the same course, made land to windward, near the mouth of the Amazon. They then proceeded in a north-westerly direction 1 The enemies of the brave and unfortunate Raleigh pretended to believe that those specimens were not found in Guiana. But time has brought his full vindication from that charge of imposture. There have been "diggings" for some time between the Caroni and Cuyuni. Gold was also discovered by Mr. M'Clintock in May 1860, on the Warili, a tributary of the latter, and a company has been since formed to work it. Quartz containing gold I have myself met with in another district, and it is probably widely scattered, though in most places too poor as regards the precious metal to repay the search for it. 2 Vide "Raleigh's Voyages. EARLY EXPLORERS OF GUIANA. 43 along a thousand miles of coast covered with verdant forest; the low and level line of which was only broken by a few hills in the eastern part. No sign of civilization existed on that wild shore; though the casual appearance of Indians, predatory or fishing in their canoes, and the distant smoke arising from some burning "field" inland, would show that the country was inhabited. The larger rivers, whose presence was indicated by wide openings in the dense line of mangrove and courida trees, were entered and explored. The Oyapok and Marowini were ascended as far as their first falls. The Corentyn was also explored several days' voyage above the Indian town Orealla; and the Essequibo to a much greater distance. The names and positions of the smaller streams were also accurately laid down. But the chief object of those English navigators was to gather information which might tend to fix the site of the golden city; and Keymis, in exploring the Essequibo, carefully noted the report that, by ascending its tributary, the Rupununi, a communication might be opened with the lake Parima.1 1 The wonders of the New World, and the immense wealth acquired by the Spanish conquerors in many parts of it, had greatly inflamed the imaginations of those explorers. Nothing seemed incredible to them, if it gratified their love of the marvellous, and favoured their golden dreams. They everywhere saw, or fancied they saw, traces of the precious metals. The captain and crew of an English vessel, which about that time explored the Marowini, declared that they had seen on its banks " a gigantic race of men, who carried in their hands bows of gold:"-whether for ornament or use we are not informed. (Drake's Voyages, p. 296.) 44 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. It was in the direction thus indicated,-the territory (then unexplored) between the Essequibo and the heads of the Caroni and Rio Branco,-that the search for El Dorado was subsequently carried on by adventurers from the Orinoco and the Amazon. The fact that it had been vainly sought in other directions only increased their certainty that it would be found there. And the exaggerated reports of the Indians concerning a lake with glittering islands (by which it is now supposed that the little Amucu was intended), helped to strengthen the delusion. -Thus, having been vainly followed from west to east across the wide continent, like a phantom continually evading its pursuers, the fable made a last stand, previous to its final disappearance, near the boundaries or within the limits of our province. No expeditions of numerous bands of colonists have taken place within the last two centuries, but enterprises by daring adventurers were encouraged by the Governors of the Spanish and Portuguese territories. Some of the unfortunates, who from time to time set out on those wild journeys, fell by the hands of the natives, others by famine and fatigue. In the last expedition (1775-6) hundreds perished.' It is said that only one man returned to tell the fate of his comrades. But, long before that delusion ended, colonies had been planted by the Dutch, French, and English, along the Atlantic coast, and a way to wealth adopted in cultivating the fertile soil, which was not followed 1 Humboldt's Views of Nature, p. 188. EARLY EXPLORERS OF G UIA NA. 45 by the disappointment attending the seekers of El Dorado. The DUTCH had, as early as 1580, tried to establish small trading posts on the Pomeroon and Abari, which the attacks of the Spaniards as well as of the natives compelled them to abandon. But at the beginning of the seventeenth century they succeeded in planting a colony on the Essequibo, and fortified a small island at the junction of the Masaruni with the Cuyuni, which they named Kyk-over-al. This was at first their seat of government, which was afterwards removed to Fort Island, near the mouth of the Essequibo. Some years after, a company, headed by Jan Van Peere, founded a colony on the river Berbice, and protected it by a fort named Nassau. The power of the Hollanders then gradually spread over the western part of the coast of Guiana. The wild Indian tribes remained sole possessors of the eastern part for some years longer. They were noted for their ferocity, and Father Sala, a Spanish missionary and seeker of El Dorado, had been put to death by them while endeavouring to penetrate their country in 1560. At length the FRENCH, who had repeatedly attempted to settle on the coast of Brazil, and been as often repulsed by the Portuguese, -turned their attention to the country north of the Amazon. Twenty-six colonists, sent by a company formed at Rouen, settled in 1626 'on the Sinamari. A few years later, a larger number took possession of the 46 THE INDIAN TBIBES OF GUIANA. island of Cayenne, and built a small fort on a hill called Ceperou, after a celebrated Indian chief of that name. These attempts met with little success. The survivors of those bands were found some years after living in the uncivilized manner of the Indians around them, and using their language. A more energetic attempt at colonization was made in 1644, by 300 men under M. de Bretigny. But the Galibis (or Caribs), exasperated by oppression, destroyed the infant settlement and massacred the inhabitants; forty colonists and some Capuchin missionaries alone escaping. The triumphant Indians put to death two other Capuchins (who unhappily arrived at that period) with sixteen of their fellowvoyagers. They also attacked and destroyed a body of forty fresh colonists, only one of whom escaped the slaughter. Another attempt at colonization, made in 1652 by about 800 men, totally failed, through civil strife, followed by anarchy, famine, and the attacks of the natives. It was not until twelve years later that the French, under M. de la Barre, succeeded in firmly fixing themselves in Cayenne.1 On the establishment of the colony the Jesuits were charged with its religious service, and received grants of land. Having formed parishes and stations on the coast, they turned their attention to the interior, then almost unknown. A small expedition had in 1652 reached the country 1 La Guyane Franjaise, by M. LUon Riviere, chap. i. EARLY EXPLORERS OF GUIANA. 47 of the Racalet Indians, and been well received by them. Heavy rains had then prevented further exploration. But in the year 1674, Fathers Grillet and Bechamel ascended the Oyapok and Aproague; and, having visited the chief of the Nouragues, penetrated to the country of the Acoquas. There they heard that some Englishmen, who had preceded them in the dangerous exploration of that region, had been captured and eaten by the natives. Descending the rivers, after enduring much fatigue and privation, followed by sickness, the two enterprising priests returned to Cayenne, and died soon after. This exploration was followed by others, undertaken by the government of the colony or by private persons, in the interests of science and commerce. They increased the knowledge already acquired of the interior and its inhabitants. In the early part of the eighteenth century, the Jesuit fathers attempted the establishment of missions in Cayenne on the model of those in Paraguay.Commencing with the Indians near the coast, they gradually extended their labours to the interior. In 1729 Pere Fauque, accompanied by Sergeant Duvillard, was favourably received by the chief of the Acoquas. The result of their efforts was the establishment, by the year 1738, of three principal stations or points of meeting among the native tribes,-on the Oyapok, the Camopi, and near the Ouanari. In 1744 an Anglo-American privateer (or pirate) having forced the ill-defended entrance of the Oyapok, 48 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. barbarously destroyed one of their churches, and put the Indians to flight.1 In 1762 the labours of the Jesuit missionaries in Cayenne, as on the Orinoco and elsewhere, were brought to a sudden end by the suppression of their order.2 While the French were struggling with the natives for the possession of Cayenne, some ENGLISH colonists had attempted to settle at Paramaribo, and been driven off by the Caribs, who had formerly lived there. 1 La Guayane Franiaise, chaps. ix.-xviii. 2 During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the labours of the missionaries of the Church of Rome secured the submission and obedience of many barbarous American tribes. Among the various orders the Jesuits were pre-eminent in zeal, in labours, and in influence, until the jealousy excited by their vast and growing power, and the distrust with which they were regarded by the Roman Catholic Governments in Europe, led to their suppression. Their missions, though far apart, at that time nearly surrounded Guiana. They occupied the most important situations on the Orinoco, were planted at its great cataracts, Atures and Maypures, and above them. Their missionaries also had their share in the discovery of the great natural canal of the Cassiquiare, and by it had opened communication with the stations of their Portuguese brethren on the Rio Negro and Amazon. When Humboldt, nearly forty years after, visited these stations, he found them occupied by the Franciscans, but the period of their highest prosperity had passed away. The missions of the Catalonian Capuchins at Upata, near the Caroni, were, however, at that time flourishing. One or two other missions had been founded by Spaniards (1780-83) south of the Pacaraima Mountains, chiefly, it would seem, te encroach on the Brazilian frontier. These perished in a short time, and the great revolution which in the early part of the present century destroyed the power of Old Spain on the American continent brought calamity and ruin on the others. EARLY EXPLORERS OF GUIANA. 49 In a second attempt they met with less opposition. The colony of Surinam was then established by them, which in the reign of Charles II. was given over to the Dutch in exchange for what is now the State of New York. The Dutch possessions, Surinam, Berbice, and Essequibo, then extended in an unbroken line from French to Spanish Guiana. Another colony was planted by them on the Demerara between the years 1740 and 1773, which was soon after united to that of Essequibo. The seat of government was at first on. the little island called Borselen, but was in the next year removed to Stabroek, the present Georgetown. The early settlements of the Dutch were greatly harassed by the Indians. They at length succeeded in attaching to themselves the Arawak nation, which had from time immemorial suffered from the hostility of the Caribs, and now aided the whites in repressing their incursions. In course of time all the Indian races became friendly to the colonists; seeing that they procured slaves from Africa, and did not deprive them of their liberty.1 Presents were also periodically 1 Though the colonists made no incursions on the Indian tribes for the purpose of enslaving them, they encouraged them in the capture of each other, and purchased the slaves so taken. It is, however, certain that the system of enslaving each other did not then commence, but had existed among the aborigines of Guiana (as among the nations of Africa) from the earliest times. Their discoverers found it in full force. "Francis Sparrow," whom Sir W. Raleigh left to explore the country, "bought, to the southward of the Orinoco, eight beautiful young women, the eldest not eighteen years of age, for a red-handled knife, the value of which in England at that time was but one halfpenny." —Drake's Voyages, p. 295. E 50 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. distributed among the tribes at certain stations called Indian "posts," and their services thus secured as allies against the runaway slaves or bush-negroes. The latter, knowing the resentment of the Indians against them, as intruders into their territories, waged exterminating war with the red men whenever they absconded in numbers sufficient to make good their position. When a solitary negro ran away, he was often reduced by hunger to the necessity of coming by night to the field of the Indian, and robbing it. As soon as the depredation was discovered, he was tracked, if possible, to his lurking-place; and either taken alive and led to the plantations, or, if he resisted, put to death. Sometimes, however, the Indian apparently took no notice, but waited till a clear moonlight night, when, placing himself upon a rude frame among the branches of a tree, he shot the unfortunate marauder as he would any wild beast. It was in the times of such wild bush-warfare that the Moravians planted their first missions in Dutch Guiana. Those missions were resolved on by the Moravian Brethren after many consultations between Bishop Spangenberg, one of their most influential members, and the Directors of the Dutch Trading Company of Surinam. Two of the Brethren were first sent, at the request of a gentleman of Amsterdam, to his estate on the river Berbice, in the year 1738. Circumstances soon induced them to go higher up the river; and on EARLY EXPLORERS OF GUIANA. 51 the estate Savonette they founded a station called "Pilgerhut," whence they made long journeys to the Indian settlements around. A mulatto boy, who had been given to them by a planter, and understood the Arawak language, was of great use to them as an interpreter, and translated into that language a narrative of the life and sufferings of Christ. That branch of labour was taken up by T. Schuman, a man of learning and talent, who superintended the station for twelve years. Many ArawAks had by that time joined them; and a few even had been brought by their friends from the Spanish territory. A terrible epidemic then visited the colony, which carried off the Governor, and many others, both of the colonists and Indians. Schuman and two other missionaries died in 1760, and two years later only twenty-three members of their flock remained, while the garrison of the colony was diminished to twenty men. The station was totally destroyed during the terrible revolt of the Berbice negroes in 1763. Of the missionaries, who with difficulty escaped to the Demerara, all but two returned to Europe. Those two, Cleman and Vester, who nobly remained for further labour, died soon after. This was the sad end of the Moravian mission on the Berbice, after a promising course of twenty-five years. In 1739, the Moravians had also founded a mission on the Cottica in Surinam, which only lasted five years. Another on the Saramaca was established in E2 52 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. 1757, and called "Sharon." This was burnt down four years after by the bush negroes, who craftily attacked it on a Sunday, slew some of the Indians, and carried off others, leaving one of the missionaries, badly wounded, with the dead bodies on the ground. This station was finally abandoned in 1779, in consequence of their unrelenting hostility. The mission on the Corentyn, established in 1757, had a longer existence. It was commenced by Daehne, one of their most eminent men, at a place which he called "Ephraim." Here he laboured, though sometimes left quite alone, and exposed to danger from wild beasts and reptiles. That place they were forced to abandon when the Berbice mission was destroyed. They afterwards went higher up the eastern or Surinam bank of the Corentyn, and called their new settlement "Hope." This was very prosperous for about twenty years; but smallpox and other calamities caused it to decline after its founder had gone to his rest. Fischer, an active and talented missionary, revived it greatly by his zeal and acquirement of the ArawAk tongue, and by opening a school for the young; but the Surinam Government ordered him to quit it about the end of the century. Depression and calamity followed this blow. The whole of the mission buildings were burnt down in 1806. The small-pox carried off many of the Christian Indians, and dispersed the remainder, causing its abandonment two years after. An attempt was made to revive it by two fresh missionaries in 1812, but they soon after re EARLY EXPLORERS OF GUIANA. 53 moved to a wider field of usefulness, among the negroes of the plantations on the Nikeri, near the mouth of the Corentyn. The labours of the Moravians among the black population of Surinam have since been very successful, but the work among the Indians was abandoned.1 When Bishop Coleridge (of Barbados), Archdeacon Austin (since Bishop of Guiana), and others visited the Corentyn in 1839, they heard an old blind Indian sing the well-remembered hymns which he had learned from the Moravians when a boy at their school. But of the labours of the Brethren, even at this, their longest held and last relinquished post, few other traces remained. The country in which the Moravians laboured was in many respects highly favourable to missionary exertion. Its rivers are bordered by high and healthy savannah lands. Dangerous rapids do not abound, as in the Essequibo and its large tributaries; nor vast swamps, most difficult to traverse and prejudicial to health, as in the more western region, through which flow the Pomeroon, Moruca, Waini, and other streams. But the times were unfavourable to them. They had to contend, not only with that which 1 See "Historical Sketches of Missions of the UnitedBrethren,"&c. Most of the black population professing Christianity in Surinam have been indebted to the labours of the Moravian Brethren. They have used the common (or " talkie-talkie ") dialect of the colony. At Paramaribo they have had an establishment at which newcomers from Europe were obliged to spend a certain time, that they might become familiar with the language of the people among whom they would have to minister. 54 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANVA. every missionary expects-the opposition of the wild heathen,-but were also thwarted continually by the open or covert animosity of the colonists around them. Evil were the reports propagated (and believed) at that time in Surinam against men whose memories are now held in honour. CHAPTER IV. THE ESSEQUIBO AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. The Essequibo-Its Size and Beauty-Bartica, &c.-The Indian Nations near the Coast-The Macusis-Stations among them destroyed by the Brazilians. THE Essequibo is the largest stream between the Amazon and the Orinoco. During the seventeenth century the Dutch, as has been said, planted a small colony at its junction with two large tributaries, the Masaruni and Cuyuni. The seat of government was removed, and few of their settlements now remain. The wide sea-reach of that noble river, which was called by the Indians "the younger brother of the Orinoco," extends thirty-five or forty miles from its mouth, with an average breadth of seven or eight. This expanse of water, with its distant banks and intervening islands covered with the exuberant verdure of a tropical forest, has, in many parts, rather the appearance of a lake than of a river; and the blue hills peeping above the horizon in the distant south add to its beauty, and form a pleasing contrast to the dead level of the coast. Near Ampa, a settlement on the eastern bank, about thirty miles from the sea, 56 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. some picturesque rocky islands rise abruptly from the water; and four miles beyond, on the opposite side, the united streams of the Masaruni and Cuyuni flow into it by a mouth one mile in breadth. The southern point of their confluence, called Bartica, was selected as the site of an Indian station. The work there was commenced in 1829 by Mr. Armstrong, one of those laymen who, as catechists, did at that time much good service in the colony. He for four years bore alone the burden and heat of the day. He dwelt in a thatched cottage, and travelled from place to place among the people. After a time a rude chapel-school was erected. The Rev. Mr. Youd then succeeded him. In 1836 the measles nearly destroyed this station, carrying off seventy Indians. Mr. Youd soon after undertook a mission to the Macusi tribe in the distant interior, for which the way had been prepared by a previous visit of Mr. Armstrong. The Rev. J. H. Bernau then took charge of Bartica, and in his zealous labours was afterwards assisted by other missionaries. In 1840 I saw at that station an excellent school, filled with little Indians; a new chapel was afterwards erected, and its prosperity increased. Strangers visited the mission to behold and admire its progress, and numerous settlers asked permission to reside there and share its benefits. The stations commenced by Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Youd were supported by the efforts of the English Church Missionary Society; and their successful THE ESSEQUIBO AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. 57 revival of missionary labour among the aborigines was followed by efforts of a similar nature by other religious bodies. At Caria-caria, lower down the Essequibo, a number of Indians were gathered under Mr. Peters; who some years after formed another station in that neighbourhood, the former being continued under the supervision of the Rev. J. Ketley. In November 1841, a station in connexion with the Church of Scotland was, by the aid of Messrs. G. and W. Jeffrey, established near their wood-cutting establishment, at Indiana, on the Supenaam. The Rev. R. Duff, who opened that mission, has given a full account of its establishment and subsequent history.' The first and grand difficulty in the way of evangelizing those Indians was found to be the number of distinct tribes or nations, with their various languages. One who had a better opportunity than any other of examining the country thus wrote:-" The number of vocabularies which I collected during my voyages was eighteen, none of which bear a closer affinity to each other than the French and Italian."2 One of the most striking instances of this diversity is seen immediately on quitting the coast of our province. Three nations, the Arawak, Warau, and Carib, may be found residing close to each other on the rivers Pomeroon and Moruca, and also on the Notes on British Guiana, chap. xi. 2 Sir R. Schomburgk. One half at least of that number must have been collected beyond our boundary. 58 TIE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. Corentyn; and they have dwelt so for at least three centuries, and yet no intermixture has taken place in their respective languages. They are of different origin, and remain distinct. Those three tribes, with the Acawoio, have been the principal subjects of missionary labour. The first of these, the ArawAk, is the least barbarous of all the tribes. Their settlements are scattered in an extended line, generally within one hundred miles of the sea, from the Orinoco to the Marowini. Their ideas of spiritual things are those briefly stated in the last chapter. They call the Supreme Being " Wa'cinaci" (our Father), "Wa'murretikwonci" (our Maker), and "Aiomun Kondi" (the Dweller on High). Their sorcerers are called "Semecici," and the evil spirits "Yauhahu." The Warau tribe comes next. Their settlements are numerous along the swampy coast district extending from the Pomeroon to the Orinoco, the delta of which may be considered their head-quarters; and a few are found as far east as Surinam. They sometimes use the word " Kororomana" when speaking of God; but it is doubtful what ideas some of them attach to that name. Concerning the title "Kanonatu " (our Maker) there is, however, no doubt. The evil spirits they call "Hebo." The Caribi tribe, famous in history, is regarded with some degree of awe by the others even now, when verging on extinction. Their numbers have been estimated at 300, 500, and even 100. All these are much too low. We found in the neighbourhood of our THE ESSEQUIBO AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. 59 western missions more than 400 of that tribe, whose existence seems to have been quite unknown to those who estimated their numbers as above. They have, however, rapidly diminished during the last century. They call the Great Father, " Tamosi Kabo-tano" (the Ancient of Heaven), and the evil spirits " Yurokon." The Acawoios are the most wandering in their habits of all the tribes. Their language has a strong affinity to that of the Caribs, but is more complex and difficult to acquire. "Makonaima" is their name for the Supreme Being, and the evil spirits they call "Imawari." Of the above-named tribes, a particular account will be given, as each passes under our notice, in the course of the following narrative. There is, however, one tribe, yet unnoticed, of considerable importance, the Macusi, which occupies the open and often inundated savannahs of the distant interior. Schomburgk, who saw much of them, estimated their total number at about 3,000. The site of the mission undertaken to this tribe by the Rev. Mr. Youd was first fixed at Pirara, on the banks of the small lake called Amucu; which is thought, from the geological structure of the surrounding country, to have been much larger formerly than it is at present. It is supposed to have given origin to the fable of the Lake Parima and El Dorado.' This, which may 1 During the last century, the colonists fully believed in the existence of the inland sea or lake of Parima, but they placed it farther north. An old Dutch writer says, "It is proved to be situated between the rivers Masserouny and Cajouny; a very large 60 THE INDIAN TRIBES OP GUIANA. in a measure be considered as classic ground, was the spot selected for the mission to the Macusis. Mr. Youd's first service among them, as described by himself, was an interesting though grotesque scene. Many of the Macusis came armed, some with cutlasses, others with bows and arrows. Some wore their feathered crowns and other ornaments; and all, with the exception of their chief, were profusely and deep sea, the border of which is inhabited by populous nations, without allowing any stranger to come to them. The Spaniards have made abortive attempts at discovery, and even, by the report of an Indian chief, in 1755 were repeatedly repulsed in attempts at invasion, having, however, taken to Oronoque four of those clothed people."-HARTSINCK'S Essequibo, Demerary, and Berbice, 1770. Where that "very large and deep sea" was then supposed to be, the mountain region of Roraima is now known to exist. Hillhouse, who, in 1830 and subsequently, ascended the Masaruni, thought that its romantic valley had been once the bed of an immense lake, ten or twelve miles in width, and 1,500 or 2,000 in length, which burst its barriers long ago; and that the remembrance of it, preserved among the Indians, had given rise to the celebrated fable. Lastly, Schomburgk speaks of the banks of the little rushy lake Amucu as the supposed site of the imperial and golden city of Manoa. Humboldt, agreeing in that opinion, says: "Here, in a river called Parima, and a small lake connected with it, called Amucu, we have basis enough on which to found the belief of the great lake bearing the name of the former; and in the islets and rocks of mica-slate and talc which rise up within and around the latter, we have materials out of which to form that gorgeous capital, whose temples and houses were overlaid with plates of beaten gold." That question, which cost so many lives and so much discussion during three centuries, may now be considered as exhausted, if not satisfactorily settled. THE ESSEQUIBO AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. 61 painted on face, arms, and legs. Some, during service, occupied themselves in detecting vermin; others, with the inveterate shyness of Indian nature, turned their backs on the minister, or lounged with affected carelessness against the posts of the rude chapel they had built. On the first Sunday, there were 156 present. The morning service was conducted through an interpreter; that in the evening was in English, for the benefit of the very few who had come with the missionary, and could understand it. The mission soon flourished, and gave prospect of the speedy conversion of that tribe and of others. But it unfortunately became an object of jealousy to the Brazilians. Its ruin was resolved on, and carried out in a manner strangely contrasting with the conduct of the Government of our colony, which, from 1837, had not only tolerated, but mainly supported a mission of the Roman Church on or within our western boundary. A descimento, or slaving expedition from Fort St. Joaquim, on the Rio Branco, first threatened the devoted mission. The influence of Schomburgk, who was then in those parts, was in some measure instrumental in averting the blow. It fell, however, on another unfortunate border district, from the burnt and pillaged huts of which forty poor Indians, men, women, and children, he saw being led into slavery. But the mission was also doomed. He soon afterwards witnessed its fate, and has recorded it in terms which show how deeply he regretted the calamity. ';2 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. Speaking of Mr. Youd, he says: " The Indians soon collected around him, and evinced the greatest desire to be instructed in the Word of God, and our language. I have seen from 300 to 400 on a Sabbath, dressed according to their circumstances, and in an orderly manner, assembled within a rude house of prayer, built by their own hands, to receive instruction in the Holy Word of God. "The mission was not established many months, when the Brazilian Government of the Upper and Lower Amazon despatched a detachment of militia, and took possession of it, under the plea that the village belonged to the Brazilian territory. The missionary of the Church of England was accused of having alienated the Indians from the Brazilian Government, and instructed them in the English language and religion, and received an injunction to leave the village. The Indians, fearing lest the Brazilians might conduct them into slavery, dispersed in the forest and in the mountains; and the work which promised such favourable results was destroyed. "On our return from an exploring expedition to Pirara, in May 1839, we found it occupied by a detachment of Brazilian National Guards, under Seinhor Pedro Ayres. " The church in which formerly hymns to the praise of our Lord had been sung, and where the first seeds of Christianity had been planted among the benighted Indians, was now converted into barracks, and become the theatre of obscene language and nightly revels. The missionary removed to the eastern bank of the THE ESSEQUIBO AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. 63 Rupununi, and after his departure the inhabitants of Pirara dispersed and wandered about the wilderness. Too many desolate places are now to be seen in the savannahs, which were once the site of villages, and which have met with a similar fate." Such is the statement of Sir R. Schomburgk. Driven from Pirara, Mr. Youd commenced another mission at Urwa (or Curua) rapids, which are unquestionably within the system of our chief river, the Essequibo. There he had the same prospect of success, as the Macusis and others flocked thither to him, though strictly forbidden by the Brazilians to do so. The latter resolved to break up this second mission also. A priest, who had visited Pirara, and taken note of the mission there in its flourishing condition, now reappeared. He took possession of the house of Mr, Youd, and baptized many Indians, affixing to each a cross or rosary. The missionary of the Church of England, with those who listened to his instructions, also received a cross-but of another kind. An order, which the Brazilian troops were at hand to enforce, was given him to leave his second station; and he was compelled to do so, after burying there his poor wife, whose death took place amidst those harassing trials. The conduct of the Brazilians was considered unjustifiable, both by the colonists and in the mother country. But the missionary, following the instructions of his Society, to avoid political complications, withdrew half-way down the Essequibo, and founded 64 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. a third mission at Waraputa.1 This situation, however, being remote from the Macusi country, was less favourable; and though ably conducted, first by himself, and afterwards by Mr. Pollitt his successor, it never gave promise of such a plentiful harvest as the former, and was finally abandoned. I saw Mr. Youd on his arrival at Georgetown after his double expulsion from Pirara and Urwa rapids. He was accompanied by a great number of Indians, who, leaving their country, were resolved to share his fortunes, and paid him affectionate and reverential obedience. They were mostly Macusis; but some were Caribs, among whom was Irai, the grandson of 1 It would have astonished our enterprising but unfortunate missionary (and most of the colonists at that period), to learn that both Waraputa, where he had taken refuge from the Brazilians, and also Bartica, the parent mission, were on territory claimed by the Venezuelans, though its only occupants, before our present settlers, were the native tribes and the former Dutch colonists, whose rights were ceded to us! In the great map of Venezuela, published by authority at Caracas, 1840, the western bank of Essequibo between the mouths of Rupununi and Masaruni, a track (following the river's course) of nearly 200 miles, is made part of that State; also the vast region watered by the Masaruni and Cuyuni, save a few miles of the northern bank of the latter, which include the spot where our penal settlement was afterwards founded. The left bank of Essequibo below its confluence with the united Masaruni and Cuyuni is, in the same map, most inconsistently with the above claim, given to our province; also the sea-coast, though only to Moruca mouth and the right bank of that stream. The mural precipices of Roraima separate the waters which flow towards the Orinoco from those which descend to the Essequibo: and that wild and rugged Indian territory is the boundary placed by nature in that direction between our province and Venezuela. THE ESSEQUIBO AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. 65 their great chief Mahanarva. That young man was distinguished from the others, who went in procession to lay their wrongs before the Governor, by a large crescent of gold, set in a frame of polished wood, which he wore on his breast. A military expedition was sent from Georgetown some time after, which recovered, and for a time held, Pirara. We are most thankful that no blood was shed in this dispute, which had then become national between the Empires of Great Britain and Brazil. But the effect of this second military occupation was, as may be conceived, by no means favourable to the spread of the Gospel of Christ. The work, overturned by the weapons of carnal warfare raised by the enemy, could not be restored by similar means, which rather completed its destruction. Mr. Youd died soon after on his passage home. He had been broken in health and spirits by his many privations and trials, and suffering much from the effects of poison, thrice administered, it is said, by an old heathen Acawoio. The death of his wife previously at Urwa rapids was also attributed to the same cause. The English missionaries on the Essequibo and its tributaries had indeed their full share of trials and dangers. On one occasion Mr. Youd's canoe was entered by one of those snakes which attain immense size in the desert tracts of the interior. Deserted by his terrified Indians, who, after vainly striking at it with their paddles, had leaped into the river, he killed it with a cutlass (the first blow of which providentially took effect on the neck of the reptile), and F 66 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. thus saved his own life. Its skin measured thirty-one feet in length. His successor, Mr. Pollitt, had also a narrow escape. His canoe was capsized, the crew having attempted to ascend one of the rapids by night, while he was sleeping; and he remained in great jeopardy, clinging to a bush, and swayed to and fro by the current, till the Indians had recovered the canoe, emptied it of water, and brought it up to him. Fever was the result of this accident, and it compelled his return to England. For a full and particular account of the missions which then existed on the Essequibo, see the interesting work of the Rev. J. H. Bernau;1 whose then flourishing post, Bartica, became the last (as it had been the first) station on it supported by the Church Missionary Society. The mission to Pirara was by far the brightest attempt yet made in those parts. It was not perhaps advisable (judging, as is so easy, after the event) to go so far to establish a mission. Yet the ground was quite unoccupied and believed to be ours, as the subsequent interference of Government fully proved: the jealousy, the opposing claim, and above all its enforcement by bayonets brought against a peaceful mission, could not have been foreseen; the Indians received their teacher with joy, and the prospect of the great good work to be wrought justified the attempt. The effects of a prosperous mission,-civilizing as well as evangelizing the people of those far 1 Missionary Labours in British Guiana, 1847. THE ESSEQUIBO AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. 67 distant regions, and educating their children,-would not have been confined to the Macusis alone. The Word in a few months had already spread to other tribes, and would have extended itself still farther over savannah and mountain, while in the other direction its influence would have aided that of the missions near the coast. To form a correct idea of the natural difficulties of this undertaking, it must be considered that the distance traversed from Georgetown to Pirara is about 300 miles of almost uninhabited country, and that the course of the Essequibo is interrupted by the dangerous falls and rapids of Itaballi, Waraputa, and many others;' which, with the strong current elsewhere, 1 Those falls and rapids have not only prevented the Essequibo from attaining that commercial importance which its great size and the partial communication of its upper tributaries with the rivers of Brazil would otherwise have given it, but have likewise permitted only a few travellers to behold that " enchanting scenery" which made the soul of the enthusiastic Waterton " overflow with joy, and roam in fancy through fairy-land." To surmount those obstacles to navigation, it is necessary in some places to carry or haul the canoe or boat overland at the side of the fall. At others, advantage is taken of the eddies which are found at the base of the huge rocks that intercept the stream. The Indians pass from rock to rock by wading, leaping, or swimming, and by means of a hawser haul the boat through the rushing water from one resting-point to another,-the steersman, keeping his seat (and sometimes lashed to it), striving with his large paddle to guide in some degree her course. The roar of the water dashing and foaming amidst the surrounding rocks renders this operation as exciting as it is difficult. Still more exciting and dangerous is the task of descending those rapids. The safety of all then depends on their perfect steadiness, and on the bowman and steersman acting in concert and with F 2 68 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. render the labour of ascending it very great, and of several weeks' duration. Taking into consideration these and other obstacles and dangers, and the complete isolation of such a post, we may form a just estimate of the zeal of the missionary who thought lightly of them all in fulfilling his duty. After short but severe labour he went to his rest; but his example remains to others who desire to fulfil the great command, "Go ye and teach all nations." instant decision. The canoe is kept in the very centre of the current, one of her best hands kneeling, with quick eye and ready paddle, in the bow, and the rest of the crew exerting their strength to give her head-way. Darting swiftly along, she arrives at the edge of the fall, and pointing downward, shoots into the surf below it, dashing it up on either side, and leaving her crew alone visible. If all be well, rising above the foam she obeys the guiding paddles in stem and stern, and dances over the tumbling waves, while her excited crew with a triumphant cry exult at their success. Not always, alas! is this the case. If the craft be too heavily laden, or badly managed in stem or stern, the risk is very great. Whole families, even of Indians, are sometimes drowned; and the lamentable accident by which, in September 1865, Captain Beresford, son-in-law of the Governor, and four other gentlemen, with two of their crew, lost their lives in shooting the lower falls of the Masaruni, will long be painfully remembered in the province. CHAPTER V. THE POMEROON. Indian Territory-Its Inhabitants-The Writer's first Reception by and Sojourn among them. WHILE, amidst warlike demonstrations by foe and friend, the English stations among the Indian tribes which border the Upper Essequibo were being crushed, and their people dispersed, attention was being drawn to the inhabitants of the wild region of forest and swamp which stretches beyond that river towards the mouth of the Orinoco. Considerably to the westward of the cultivated part of the colony is a spot which is marked on most maps as Cape Nassau. It is at the mouth of the river Pomeroon, on its eastern bank. Adjoining this is a small estuary or bay, into which flows the river Moruca, from a different direction; which drains a large tract of country still farther to the westward. The Pomeroon, or Bouruma (as it is called by the Indians), is of small size when compared with some other rivers in the colony. Its source is in the Sierra Imataca, which is a ridge stretching from the 70 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. Essequibo to the Orinoco, and giving rise to many large streams. The Dutch formed their earliest settlement, which they called Nieuw Zealand, near the Pomeroon, as early as 1580; and in the course of the following century erected towns on its banks, and on those of the Moruca. These were destroyed by the French. The only remains of their settlements are the bricks which are found in some places embedded in the earth. The Indians again resumed possession of their lands, and, with the exception of a very few settlers, are their sole occupants at the present day. In that district they are more numerous than in any other. The good Bishop Coleridge, while visiting that river, had his attention called by the Rev. J. H. Duke to the number and condition of the Indians there. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, at his recommendation, resolved to send out forthwith a missionary in holy orders, with a young lay assistant, to live and labour among them. But the health of the former, the Rev. C. Carter, gave way ere he reached the river; and I had to proceed thither alone. About forty-three miles from the sea, the Pomeroon receives the waters of its largest tributary, the Arapaiaco. On the banks of the latter, just above the confluence, there was a small strip of cleared land, formerly inhabited by a gang of negroes employed in cutting wood. Those negroes, finding the rivers rather dull, had taken the earliest opportunity, after the emancipation, of quitting them for the society of their gayer THE POMEROON. 71 brethren on the coast. But there were still remaining, in the beginning of 1840, three decaying huts which had been occupied by them. There was also a wooden building, which had been used as a place of worship on those rare occasions when they were visited by a clergyman or itinerant catechist. It was, when I first saw it, in a wretched state; the thatched roof being full of large holes, and several of the window shutters having fallen off. There was free access to the wind and rain. Not having been used for a long time, it was almost inaccessible from the long grass and weeds which grew all round in rank luxuriance. The frame of the building was, however, sound, though the boarded sides and floor were much decayed. This was to serve as a mission chapel. One of the three huts before mentioned was occupied by an old white sail-maker, who was sick with ague and fever, and soon after left the place. The next was the dwelling of a kind old negro woman, named Jeannette, who had several black children residing with her. The third, being decayed and abandoned, was at my service. It was a singular and not very inviting residence: the front was boarded and covered with shingles (or wooden tiles); the two ends were of shingles nailed upon laths, and the back was composed of the split trunks of the manicole palms, covered on the outside with the leaves of the trooly. The roof was also thatched, but the thatch was full of holes. It was divided by partitions of rough boards into three apartments, two of which had boarded floors resting on the earth, and very much decayed; and the third 72 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. had apparently been used for some light kinds of blacksmith's work, a block of very tough wood, which had been the anvil, standing firmly fixed in the earthen floor. The situation of the building being low, the water appeared between the chinks of the old floor when the river was swollen by the spring tides, and a number of small frogs were accustomed to come out in wet weather, and spring upon the walls; one part of which, being very damp and green, seemed to possess particular attractions for them. The roof was open, and flakes of mingled soot and cobwebs, which had been long collecting there, were continually falling, as the insects which abounded disturbed and shook them down. There was also a large nest of destructive wood-ants, which were devouring the building. These forthwith contrived to get into my clothes-chest, and seriously damage its contents. A dose of arsenic was put into their nest, and in a day or two all were dead or gone. The next task was to whitewash the filthy walls, which abounded with vermin. Spiders of all sorts and sizes, —numerous fine specimens of the great South American cockroach,-and oftentimes the white scorpion or huge bush-centipede, would make their appearance from holes and corners. Pallid-looking unclean lizards, as the wood-slaves,some with monstrous bulbous tails, others which had lost theirs by the fortune of reptile war,-would crawl along the beams and sooty rafters; and sometimes, falling flat down, lie staring in apparent astonishment, clinging tightly with broad adhesive toes to whatever they chanced to alight on. More graceful and welcome THE POMEROON. 73 visitors were the olive-green lizards, with mottled coats that shone like burnished copper. These were useful allies, devouring the insects. One little fellow became in time very tame and friendly, and would allow me to touch him. In this wild place it would have been impossible for me to have resided but for the old woman's aid. She immediately saluted me as master, and placed her household at my disposal. A strange-looking black boy, with a defect in one eye, and a small scrap of blue rag as a garment, was, she said, to be my "butler," I got that youth to sling his hammock with me in my new abode, not thinking it quite safe to sleep there alone. The first night we were disturbed by some creature getting in at a hole in the roof, which my companion said was a tiger-cat. I was more apprehensive of snakes, which abounded there; but we had no opportunity of ascertaining the nature of our unwelcome visitor, as it was perfectly dark; and, being alarmed at the noise we made, it quickly scrambled out again, and returned no more. Having no furniture, it became necessary to borrow some for present use. This was difficult. However, a table with three legs was procured, and the place of a fourth supplied with a stick from a neighbouring tree. It was, after all, so rickety that it could only stand against the wall. A small chair was also obtained, the seat of which being lower in front than behind, the person sitting in it had a tendency to slip off. It was quite a curiosity in its way, and why it was made so it was difficult to conceive. A small 74 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. bench or form supplied a more convenient seat. In other respects we managed somewhat better, being supplied from a wood-cutting establishment, where there was a small store, or shop, from whence rice, plantains, salt fish, and pork might be procured, almost the only food obtainable for several months. This, with the damp situation, was very injurious to health, though other inconveniences were trifling, and it was impossible to refrain from smiling at the grotesque appearance of the dwelling and its contents. The rivers being in front, and a swampy forest behind us, we were obliged to go by water whenever we wished to leave the place, and a canoe was kindly lent me for two or three months, till an opportunity presented itself of purchasing one. A school was soon after commenced with two or three black and coloured children living in the neighbourhood, whom it was difficult at first to manage: their parents being accustomed to use the lash unsparingly, with other severe punishments, hardening to the children and painful to witness. One girl had her hands blistered for a trifling theft. Her mother roasted a lime (a small kind of lemon), and forced her to grasp it in her hands, which she held tightly compressed within her own, till the palms were severely burnt. On another occasion I found on the opposite bank of the river three women chastising a girl. They had stripped her, and two held her extended by the hands and feet while the third flogged her with a long switch. In remitting further punishment they always said: "Ah, sir, you do not yet know! If THE POMEROON. 75 young creoles are not well flogged, they never do good." There were no such scenes on the spot where I lived, though old Jeannette frequently administered chastisement to her young creoles all round with a large strap. On these occasions, there was terrific outcry with very little pain, most of the strokes being received on their loose though scanty garments, or dexterously avoided by goblin-like capers and contortions of body. The culprits had to hold each other in turn, an office which they eagerly performed, and which seemed to afford them much consolation. The youngest boy of her establishment was always in trouble. He was a " dirt-eater," with a heavy look and swollen body. He would lie on his face, with the grass uprooted beside him, eating earth to satisfy his unnatural craving. Loud howls, and piercing cries of "Ah, poor me!" resounding through the forest and over the river, proclaimed from time to time that the wretched boy had been again caught while indulging his depraved appetite, and was then suffering the penalty which Jeannette, with rigid conscientiousness, inflicted. These things, and others of similar nature, were by no means attractive to the Indians passing in their canoes; nor likely to induce them to place their children there. Some Waraus, employed in cutting the leaves of the trooly palm, became the next objects of attention In order to visit them it was necessary for me to paddle myself to their sleeping-place every evening, 76 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. assisted by my negro boy. They were very wild in their appearance and manners, and it was impossible to look on their degraded condition, especially that of the females, without an earnest prayer that they might soon be led to sit clothed at the feet of the Lord Jesus. An elderly man named Manwaiko was their capitan, or chief. He was as ignorant of our language as any of his people. I endeavoured to enter into conversation with him, but he invariably answered in the jargon of the rivers, "Me no sabby" (I do not understand). When he spoke to me, I was equally at a loss to comprehend his meaning, his knowledge of English being confined to a very few words, which he pronounced indistinctly, and as though labouring under a severe and perpetual cold. Hoping to get on by degrees, I asked him the names of different objects in his language, and wrote them down to commit to memory. This at once interested him; and it is indeed a passport to the favour of every Indian to express an interest in his language. We were soon on friendly terms, and his people, as well as himself, began to look for my arrival every evening after they had done work. They could not, however, be induced to visit me. One Sunday, a coloured wood-cutter brought five Waraus of his gang to attend Divine service. To give them a more decent appearance, he had dressed them all in red woollen shirts. To these they had added, from the suggestions of their native taste, very tall sharp-pointed caps, a natural production, the spathe of the trooly palm. Their appearance, as TIlE POMEROON., 77 they entered our humble place of worship in Indian file, with those extraordinary caps and long scarlet shirts, was strangely comical. They seemed at first painfully conscious of unusual finery, and nervously apprehensive of the supernatural consequences of attending Christian worship. But those feelings were lost in mirth, when one of them, in trying to kneel, involuntarily squatted on his heels (as an Indian at first invariably does), lost his balance, and nearly overturned his companions. Loud exclamations of delight and a burst of Warau merriment followed. Their behaviour after this was so irreverent that it was a relief when they went out. Such incidents, though painfully annoying, must be expected at first among barbarous and heathen people. Manwaiko had two wives, and each of these had a family of young children. His eldest daughter was a girl of about ten years of age, and a fine young man of the party was pointed out to me as her husband; the Indian girls being betrothed at a very early age. Between the two wives and their respective children little kindness seemed to exist. One evening, while the party were squatting on the ground, eating their supper, which consisted of salt fish and pounded plantains, called "foo-foo," being the rations provided by their employer, one of the wives, who with her children had been employed in cutting firewood, discovered, on her return, that the supper for herself and family was not to be found, having been carried off by some animal through the neglect or connivance of her rival. It could hardly 78 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. be expected that she would sit down quietly without the evening meal for her children, even if disposed to submit as regarded herself; and she accordingly applied to Manwaiko for a share of his allowance, which was ample. He treated her request with contempt, and hardly vouchsafed her a denial. She then commenced a furious torrent of abuse; during which he finished his meal with great composure; until, being irritated at his indifference, she at last told him that he was no "capitan," no father, and no man. He was rather roused by this last remark, and in a stern hoarse voice said something which silenced her. Finding it was impossible to do any good, I left them. Such stormy ebullitions of temper are rare in the Indian families, though, where polygamy is practised, continual variance and ill-feeling are found. There were at that time no Warau settlements on the Pomeroon. I did not know this at first; but, seeing that there were many of that tribe employed near me, thought that their dwellings were not far off. However, that party lived more than one hundred and fifty miles away, and were brought from that distance, as their work was cheaper and more profitable than that of the tribes inhabiting the river. In a few weeks they departed. These efforts with the Waraus having proved ineffectual, as far as human eye could see,-the only good result being the acquisition of a very small vocabulary of their language, which proved useful in after times,-I found that the sole prospect of THE POMEROON. 79 establishing a mission was among the people of the district. We were in the country of the Arawaks, and I had already had frequent interviews with them in their canoes on the river. The external appearance of the Arawaks is very superior to that of the Waraus;-not that they are superior in size and strength, but they have a more civilized appearance and manner, and greater cleanliness of person. The women seldom appeared on the river without putting on the "kimisa;" and their hair, which is thick and long, was generally neatly braided, and, in some instances, secured by ornaments of silver at the back of the head. Most of them were less squalid in figure, and possessed finer and more intelligent features, than the females of the other tribes. Many of the younger men knew something of the broken English spoken on the river; and with them I was able to converse, though with difficulty. The older men used only the Creole-Dutch in their intercourse with the settlers, and with this I was unacquainted. The females spoke nothing but their own beautiful language; although some individuals knew enough of ours to comprehend the meaning of a few sentences expressed in the simplest form. I frequently fell in with them on the river. They possessed a natural courtesy, which kept them from reviling or insult; but it was very evident that they looked on me as a troublesome person. They never would visit my abode, though often invited to do so; and when they called at 'the 80 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. cottage of the old negro woman, they took their leave when they perceived me approaching to speak to them. By commencing a school for the five or six black and mulatto children in the neighbourhood, I had hoped to attract the Indians also; but the antipathy of race rendered it anything but an attraction to them. One Indian alone promised to send me his son, and he broke his word. To push off in my canoe, and speak to them as they were passing, was soon the only means of intercourse left; and it was mortifying to see them paddle quickly by with as little noise as possible, keeping close to the bush on the opposite side to escape observation. One man, more plain in his speech than the rest, expressed the sentiment of his tribe (and, I may add, of the Indians generally) in words to the following effect:- "My father knew not your book, and my grandfather knew not your book;-they were wiser than we;-we do not wish to learn anything which they did not know." The chief cause of their unwillingness arose from the fact, which I afterwards discovered, that their "semicici" or sorcerers, foreseeing in the reception of Christianity the loss of their gains and influence, had forbidden the people to hold any intercourse with me. Sickness and death were denounced against any who should do so. Being thus taught to shun the place, no game could be purchased from them, and fresh meat was consequently seldom seen among us during that period. To satisfy the natural craving, many hours THE POMEROON. 81 were spent in the little canoe with the black boy, angling for small fish among the moco-moco and other plants which fringed the banks of the river. We had, I remember, better fortune with the rude hooks he made out of common pins than with those of English manufacture; but, not being a "complete angler," I was not very successful with either. Still we managed now and then, chiefly by his skill, to get a dish of "congo boys,' or other small fish, for dinner, and generally caught enough to flavour the negro soup, our standing dish. After a time a goat was purchased, the milk of which was a great luxury. A settler had been engaged to erect a mission cottage eight months before. He had fixed the posts in the ground, put on the thatched roof, and departed, taking no further steps to finish it. The low swampy ground was flooded by the heavy rains, and at high spring-tides the river overflowed it. One morning our canoe was missed, and after a time found in the forest behind us, whither it had floated during the night. But those discomforts were very trifling things compared with the apparently hopeless prospect among the people around. It was wrong to despond, though difficult at times to avoid it. "Men ought always to pray, and not to faint." Jeannette, the old mistress of the place, could do but little to aid in that respect. But in others her kindness and support were invaluable. When the sickness (inevitable in that marshy spot) came at G 82 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. last, and she found me on the floor of my hut in a raging fever, her attention was unremitting, though her practice of physic was unfortunate. For being unable to weigh medicine, and in much fear lest "Master William," as she called me, should die of yellow fever, like many young whites she had known, she administered most violent remedies at random, and nearly brought on the issue she sought to avoid. But though no doctor, the old African was a kind and attentive nurse. She sometimes beguiled the weary hours by tales of her past life. Many a story had she to relate, how, when a young girl, betrayed by a female companion, she had been kidnapped by two negro men on the banks of the Gambia, and feared that the food given by the whites who bought her was only to fatten her for their eating:-how she had escaped the horrors of the hold of the slaveship, by becoming the favourite of its captain, and the inmate of his cabin:-and what she had since witnessed and experienced. With all its evils, she very strangely, as I thought, preferred the past state of things, fearing destitution in old age. Her stories, though not always of the most cheerful nature, were a diversion from the listless watching of the tide ebbing and flowing past the open door; or listening to the parrots flying high over head in pairs to their nests, and telling by their cries that another weary day was drawing to its close. An accident soon after occurred, the consequences of which, had they been fatal, would have increased THE POMEROON. 83 the superstitious fears of the natives, and confirmed the predictions of their sorcerers. Three coloured children were preparing to cross the river from school to their home one evening, in a small canoe, when it unfortunately swung round with a puff of wind, and a little boy, who was standing and gaily flourishing his paddle in the sharp-pointed stern, toppled over into the river, and was carried down by the deep and rapid current. He went under twice amidst the screams of his sisters. On the bank, a little lower down, was an old tree, one long branch of which swept the stream. By grasping the extremity of this with one hand, and swinging out into the water, I was enabled to lay hold of him as his head came again to the surface. The branch holding firm, by God's mercy his life was saved. The hope of eventual success among the Indians was revived by the following incident: One day, about noon, I was surprised by a visit from an Arawak, who was accompanied by his son, a boy of about five years of age, and was still more surprised when, after a friendly salutation on his part, he asked me if I would instruct his child. I had never seen the man before, and had become so accustomed to indifference and rejection, that I could hardly believe him serious in his request. He was, however, perfectly in earnest, and said that he had just returned to his "place" after a long absence, and had now come to see me as soon as he heard of my arrival among his people. He was not well acquainted with English, but we managed to underG 2 84 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. stand each other's meaning, helping out the words by signs and gestures; and an hour or two passed away more pleasantly than any I had experienced for a long time. He had been to the mouth of the Essequibo, and had seen what was doing there. He seemed to have his eyes open to the state of the Indians, as living " without God in the world," and expressed disgust at the superstition of his countrymen in serving devils. Some time afterwards I found out that he had been himself a sorcerer, but, forsaking the practice, had broken his magical gourd, and cast away the fragments, when placing himself under instruction. He had been a great traveller for one of his tribe, having been a long way up the Essequibo, and he was also well acquainted with the lower part of the Orinoco. Though not then a recognised chief, he was the principal man at his settlement, and possessed of extensive family influence among his people. He was small in stature, but had keen eyes, and his black hair was slightly curled: from this he had derived his Indian name, which he told me was " Saci-barra" (good or beautifil hair). I found that hlie fully believed in the existence and goodness of God, and desired to serve Him, but lihe listened with surprise and wonder to the account I gave him of the life and work of the Redeemer. He was, however, firmly convinced of the impossibility of knowing the way to " Ifilici Wa'cinaci," the I 1 In Arawak tile termination ci is pronounced as che in "' cheer." THE POMEBOON. 85 "Great Our Father," without revelation from God Himself, and promised to come every Saturday, and stay till Monday morning, that he might see his child, and himself receive instruction. I would willingly have kept the boy with me, but lie said he was not prepared as yet to leave him, and seemed hurt at the distrust implied. He said that his words were true, and I had, a day or two after, proof that they were so, by his bringing not only the boy, but his eldest daughter, a girl eight years of age, whom he placed with me, assuring me that all his children should be brought as soon as they were old enough. After some further conversation he returned to his canoe, went home, and induced his wife to come with him on the following Sunday; and the next week a company, consisting of the four sisters of his wife, with the husbands of three of them, two other persons, and the children of all, filled my little hut. Two of the party left their children with me. Saci-barra, or Cornelius (by which name he was baptized in the course of the next year), was regular in supplying his children with food, as were also the others. They frequently brought me presents of game after a successful hunt, in token of gratitude. Such was the commencement of the work in the Pomeroon. A single Indian, whom I had never seen, was induced, by his secret convictions, to come forward in defiance of the sorcerers of his tribe, and break, by his example, the spell which seemed to have been cast over his countrymen. 86 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. The father of the women before mentioned soon after joined us. My little hut would by no means hold all, so they suspended their hammocks beneath the roof of the future mission dwelling. Matters being in this encouraging state, I felt anxious to extend the sphere of labour, but resolved to wait a short time and feel the way before making any fresh attempt. The people with me, though well disposed, required much instruction, and from them and others I heard much of the denunciations of their sorcerers. The following incident, however, led me to commence at once with other families of their tribe. While engaged one afternoon in teaching the little school, a violent thunderstorm came on, which compelled an ArawAk, with his wife and children, to bring their canoe to land for the purpose of seeking shelter. I saw them looking at our hut, which they never before would visit, and asked them to enter till the storm abated. As the rain was falling in torrents they did so, and the man seemed amazed at the sight of the Indian children learning their alphabet. After inquiring about his own children, to whom he seemed much attached, I pressed him to learn things good and profitable for this life and the life eternal, or at least to allow them to do so. He was moved, but would not yield, and seemed indignant that others should have dared to attend instruction without the consent of their tribe, and said that before anything of the kind were done, the " capitan " should have made all of them acquainted with it. To remove I THE POMEROON., 87 this objection, I asked him if he and his family would consider these things well, if laid before him by the mouth of the chief? He answered that he would, and went his way, the storm having ceased. Accordingly I soon after visited the settlement of their chief. Our little canoe had an unusual number of paddlers, there being myself, a black boy and girl, one of our Indian men, and his wife, who wished to accompany us. The chief we went to see had no more clothing, when we first met him, than the meanest individual of his tribe; but after returning our salutation, he soon put on one or two garments, and assuming dignity with his apparel, entered into a long conversation. I found him better acquainted with English than any individual of his nation whom I had previously met with. His Indian name he told me was " Waramaraka,' which is derived from the name of the ornamented gourd or rattle used by their sorcerers. He was, however, known to the settlers by the name of John William. He was shrewd and intelligent; but both himself and his people were much contaminated by intercourse with civilized but unprincipled persons, and very different from the simple-minded family who had joined me. They all attended, however, with outward reverence at our worship that night in the forest. The next morning we again had family prayers; after which he presented to me two fine lads, each about thirteen years of age, and desired me to teach them. He then took his gun, and the youths pro, 88 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. vided themselves with hammocks, paddles, and their bows and arrows; and we all proceeded to visit the people at other settlements who acknowledged him as their head. I found myself regarded with great curiosity at the first place we came to: and after an interview of about an hour, during which we were regaled with crabs and cassava bread, and my companion was served with paiwari (the intoxicating drink made by the 'Indians), the mother of the fimily called her son Ifili, a handsome youth of about eleven, and put on him a white shirt. The father then delivered him over to me, together with his sister, a little girl about seven years of age. Both parents promised to visit me on the Sabbath. We again embarked, our small craft being hardly able to contain us all. The settlements we had visited were on the Tapacuma, but we now re-entered the Arapaiaco; and, having landed, proceeded through the forest, following each other in Indian file along the narrow path, to three other Indian "places." We were received with great hospitality at each, and again feasted with crabs and cassava bread. The crabs were of a purple colour, and I at first wondered at finding them so far inland, but afterwards learned that the Indians go in their canoes to the sea, at certain seasons; and, having first plastered their naked bodies with mud and clay to keep off the mosquitoes, which are beyond measure annoying, they catch the crabs, and put them into quakes, or small baskets, with which they load their canoes, and return home to feast on them for I I TH E POMEROON. 89 several days. They are immoderately fond of them. Having already partaken of crabs as much as I wished, I was about to decline taking any more: but my companion checked me, and said that I should give offence if I did not accept of all the food offered to me. "It is our fashion," said he; "if you are not able to eat it, you must carry it away with you." He conducted himself with great gravity, and was received with much ceremony. At every hoiue we came to, the owner twice desired him to be seated; and when the paiwari was brought, he was twice desired to drink; and when he had drunk, the woman in attendance immediately took the bowl, replenished it, and offered it again. The same invitations to drink then followed from the observant host; and after he had again done so, he handed what remained to the boys. To every invitation to sit or to drink, or to any expression of civility whatever, the word "Waangc" was the invariable response. This, an expression of polite acknowledgment, is almost the only word in their language of disagreeable sound. They continually repeat it, being very polite to each other. At one house we found a man sitting in his hammock, and practising on a violin, which he had procured on a visit to the coast. My companion John William pointed out a spot in the forests as the place where he had once encountered and killed a bush-master, the most dangerous of snakes. I congratulated him on this; but remarked that strong drink was also dangerous, and 90 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. that he should not take so much as he had already done that day. He seemed greatly amused at such simplicity, and to convince me of the strength of his head (a quality which they highly value), he said that he could drink two bottles of English porter without being intoxicated. The warning was repeated, but without effect. The last settlement we visited was much the largest, and contained the neatest houses. Here assembled the people front the places we had previously visited. The same ceremonies were gone through, the same compliments passed, and paiwari was offered and drunk as before. I was then called on to explain the object of my visit, which I endeavoured to do, using the plainest terms I could think of. The chief followed my remarks with an explanatory speech, in the course of which, when he stated my wish that their children should be placed with me for instruction, I was surprised to see some of the little ones run to their mothers, who caught them up in their arms, looking at me with much curiosity and no small suspicion. They were as little! inclined to place them with me as a civilized mother would be to give her darlings to the care of an Indian. All that I could get from these people was a promise to talk the matter over: and as John William obstinately declined going any further that day, I was obliged to take my leave. Indeed, he had drunk so much that his presence would have been little assistance to the propagation of the Gospel any THE POMEROON. 91 where. The disgust I felt was fully shared by the Indian I had brought with me; who, pointing to the blood on my foot, which had been cut in crossing a swamp, said, "You hurt yourself: but they mean to get drunk now, and will not mind your words." The results of this little expedition were, on the whole, of a favourable character. It imparted an additional knowledge of Indian life and manners; and I found that these " barbarians " were " no ways barbarous:" but gentle and hospitable to strangers, and very polite to each other, after their own fashion. It was, however, too evident that intemperance was the bane of their race, and that I must seek an interpreter less addicted to that vice than their chief; for whose friendship and assistance I could not but feel grateful, though his company and example more than counterbalanced all the help we could derive from the former, while his habits remained unaltered. The number of Indian children with me was now doubled. They were all very docile and gentle in their dispositions. Three of the boys were strong and useful lads, and very expert in all things necessary to a life in the forests, as I soon found. A few days after their arrival, an alarm was given that a camudi snake had made its appearance close to the school: and we proceeded to search for it. It was soon found in a hole, whither it had retired, after helping itself to a fowl belonging to Jeannette, around which it was tightly coiled. While the rest of the party stood by with stout sticks, one of the Indian lads, who had assumed the English name of Barnwell, 92 TEE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. took his bow and arrow, and having taken deliberate aim at the neck (which I was unable to distinguish among the variegated folds of its body), he transfixed it with an arrow, the barbed point of which stuck deep in the ground. The snake immediately threw out its body with a convulsive effort, and writhed itself with the most rapid motions, until several of the vertebrae were dislocated by the heavy blows it received from us. Then the youth with unerring aim sent another arrow through its head, behind the eyes. The snake was then hung up and skinned; after which its body continued to contract and writhe slowly for about two hours. It was young and small, being not quite eight feet in length, though very thick in proportion. The cry of an acouri in distress was heard one day from the opposite bank of the river. The boys cried "Pocoraro," its Arawak name, and one paddled over alone, and found the animal at the water's edge, and a "tiger" killing it. Startled at the sudden noise of the little canoe crashing through the branches, the latter retired, and ere it recovered from its surprise, the bold lad seized its prey, and brought it over in triumph to me. Those Indian boys were of the greatest service as paddlers. With their ready assistance, I could visit any settlement in the neighbourhood. But severe fever came on me ere we had gone over the whole of the adjacent country. In an intermittent form its exhausting attacks continued more or less severe during the next eleven months. THE POMEROON. 93 Through that trying time the ArawAks showed much attachment, and an earnest desire for Christian knowledge; often waiting on the Sunday for hours until the fit went off, that I might be able to speak to them. Their regard showed itself in many little ways, as bringing fish (either fresh or smoked), a pineapple, or other fruit, or a piece of cassava bread: all gifts of little value in themselves, but highly valuable from the motive which induced them. In the beginning of the new year the missioncottage was completed. It had a small gallery in front of the centre room, and was built of rough posts, with rods nailed across, to which were tied the trooly-leaves, forming the thatched sides and partitions. The roof was also composed of troolythatch. But the great advantage was its boarded floor, which was three feet from the damp ground. I was able to occupy this dwelling by the end of February, and resigned my former abode to the schoolchildren, whose friends removed the old sooty roof soon after, and replaced it with a new one, making it quite neat and comfortable. The chapel also had a new thatched roof put on it by the Indians. The window-shutters had long since been replaced, strips of leather cut from my old shoes having supplied the place of iron hinges for a short time. Some of the Indians also began to collect posts and other materials for erecting a few lodging-places for themselves when they came on the Saturday evening. These were soon after put up, though they 94 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. exceedingly disliked the low situation; and, indeed, to any one who knows how invariably they select a dry and elevated spot for the site of their settlements, it must appear no small act of self-denial which could have induced them to frequent a place so repugnant to their habits, and to send their children to reside there. By this time the nature of the position had become clearer. The Indian country which lay before us was evidently very thinly inhabited, but of vast extent.' Two days' journey to the northward was the territory of the Waraus, stretching about two hundred miles along the sea-coast, and intersected by numerous rivers. 1 There are, in the interior of Guiana, immense tracts without a single human habitation. Waterton says of one region which he passed through, "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.'" They were somewhat more numerous, as has been said, in the region immediately before me. A census, taken eleven years after, by Mr. M'Clintock, the postholder or officer charged with the protection of the Indians in that quarter, gave the following numbers:Pomeroon and its Tributaries... 977 Moruca,,,,... 1,161 Waini,,,,.....1,171 Barima,,,,..... 956 4,265 It would be difficult to form a correct estimate of the number of Indians in the entire province. They have been variously stated at 7,000, 12,000, and even at 20,000, or upwards. THE POMEROON. 95 In a southwesterly direction, between us and the head of the Pomeroon, were a few hundred Caribs. Behind them lay the country of the Acawoios, extending very far into the interior. Beyond these latter were many still wilder tribes, of some of which the very names were unknown to us; scattered here and there over the vast space lying without our boundary, between the Pacaraima mountains and the Orinoco. Our only foothold in that most western region of the province had been given us by the coming in of the few ArawAk families above mentioned. It was indeed a "day of small things;" but other families of their tribe, and eventually other races, might be led to follow their example, by the blessing of Him with whom " all things are possible." CHAPTER VI. A THE ARAWAKS OR LOKONO. Their Character-Weapons-Name-Division of Families-Polygamy-Birth and Rearing of Children-Paiwari Feasts-Funeral Customs - Chiefs-Law of Retaliation - Progress - Mode of Instruction - Indian Astronomy-Use of Pictures - Manners of School Children-Venezuelan Expedition-Visit to the Akawini Lake. THE ArawAks have always been noted for their mild and peaceable disposition, and their attachment to the European colonists. They were much esteemed, and their alliance highly valued by the Dutch, who by law exempted them from that slavery to which individuals of the other tribes were then liable on their being sold by each other. 1 Although unwarlike to a degree of timidity, and desirous of preserving their independence without fighting, yet they were sometimes compelled to take up arms, both against the bush negroes and aggressive tribes of Indians. Stedman, in his account of Surinam, mentions an instance of an Arawak who, having received an act of kindness from a gentleman of that colony, presented him with a 1 Bancroft, p. 271. THE ARA W4KS OR LOKONO. 97 beautiful boy of the Acawoio tribe, whom he had taken in war. He adds, that this was extremely uncommon even in those barbarous times, as a more peaceable people does not exist. In those casual encounters their weapons were chiefly bows and arrows and clubs. One kind of club, which they still make, though now only as a specimen of the weapons used by their ancestors, is of a very formidable description. It is made of the hardest and heaviest wood, and has a broad blade, thick in the middle, and with sharp edges. The handle is covered with cotton, wound tightly round it, to prevent the hand from slipping, and it has also a stout loop of the same material, which is placed round the wrist. They call it "sapakana." Some of these were of large size, and required both hands to wield them. They are now well provided with fire-arms, and skilled in the use of them. This tribe furnished 400 men at short notice, all well acquainted with the country in the neighbourhood of the plantations, and of great service as rangers. They are called "Arawaks" by the other tribes and the colonists; but that is not the name by which they designate themselves in their converse with each other. Each Arawak calls himself a "Loko;" and speaks of his tribe and language as those of the "Lokono," which word is the plural of the former, and literally means " the people." 1 Each American tribe seems, with national vanity, to consider itself as pre-eminently "the people." The word "Carinya," by H 98 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. Their tribe exhibits in its customs traces of an organization which was probably much more perfect in former times than it is at present. They are divided into families, each of which has a distinct name, as the Siwidi, Karuafudi, Onisidi, &c. Unlike our families, these all descend in the female line, and no individual of either sex is allowed to marry another of the same family name. Thus, a woman of the Siwidi family bears the same name as her mother, but neither her father nor her husband can be of that family. Her children and the children of her daughters will also be called Siwidi, but both her sons and daughters are prohibited from all alliance with any individual bearing the same name; though they may marry into the family of their father, if they choose. These customs are strictly observed, and any breach of them would be considered as wicked. Mr. Hillhouse, who resided among them for some years, has given the names of various families of this tribe, to the number of twenty-seven.' The shades of character among these Indians vary as much as in other races. In general they are faithful and attached to their wives, with whom they live very happily, except where polygamy is which the Caribs of Guiana designate themselves, has precisely the same meaning, "the people." So also with the neighbouring nations. 1 The researches of Mr. M'Clintock have enabled him to increase the list, by the addition of many fresh names, making more than fifty now known to us. THE ARA WiKS OR LOKONO. 99 practised.1 They are also fond of their children, and so indulgent that they very rarely indeed chastise them. Little reverence is consequently paid by the child to its parents; the boys in particular are so little controlled by the mother, as to be remarkable for their disregard of her. In every race there is probably more parental love than filial affection; but this seems particularly the case with the Indians. The Indian mother may be seen following and calling "Satchi, Satchi!" after her son, who is perhaps pursuing some unfortunate lizard with his tiny arrow, but not the slightest notice will " Satchi" take of her, until it suits his pleasure to do so. This is during childhood. But when they grow up, and become themselves the heads of families, there is no want either of respect or attachment towards their aged parents. Parents frequently contract marriages for their children during infancy or childhood, and this engagement is considered binding on the part of the young couple; the females, especially, are allowed little 1 The Indian wife would sometimes accompany her husband on dangerous expeditions. Waterton, describing one of these, in which the white gentleman commanding the party was severely wounded, and two Indian chiefs, his supporters, were killed, by the Maroon negroes, in 1801, thus speaks of the wife of one of them, who had accompanied the expedition:-" She was a fine young woman, and had her long black hair fancifully braided in a knot on the top of her head, and fastened with a silver ornament. She unloosed it, and falling on her husband's body, covered it with her hair, bewailing his untimely end with the most heartrending cries." Some of our Indians knew this woman, who died at Mahaica about thirty years after. H 2 100 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. choice in the matter. Sometimes they are promised to persons who have already one or more wives. An incident of this kind came under my notice, soon after the Indians in the Pomeroon began to attend instruction. A young female was pointed out to me as having been betrothed to a man who already had a wife and children. As she, her father, and all his family were under Christian instruction, it became necessary to interfere. Her father was therefore told that such a connexion was contrary to the law of Christ, and must be broken off. To this he was very averse, and urged his promise given, the ancient customs of his people, and many other things in excuse, but at last said that he would not enforce the matter, if the other parties could be induced to give it up. The young girl was then called, and on hearing the law of Christ with respect to marriage, she at once expressed her determination to obey it. A few days after, the young man came, as it seemed, to claim his bride, and was not a little amazed to find how the matter stood. He was a native of Ituribisi, where the instructions of the Rev. W. Austin were beginning to take effect. He had been a hearer of the Word in that quarter, which had not been without some good effect on his mind, and now, finding himself assailed where he had little expected any such thing, he reluctantly withdrew his claim. He desired, however, permission to see the young woman before he went away. She was sent for, and he then formally demanded restitution of a hammock, some:.. THE A RA WBKS OR LOKONO. 101 calico, a comb, and various other articles which he had formerly given her, and which were, in fact, nearly the whole of her little property. This demand was complied with, the matter ended much more agreeably than I had expected, and a deeply-rooted evil custom received a severe blow at a critical time. The young woman led an exemplary life, and died unmarried four years after. There are no particular marriage ceremonies observed in their heathen state. The wife's father expects the bridegroom to work for him in clearing the forest, and in other things, and the young couple often remain with him until an increasing family renders a separate establishment necessary. On the birth of a child, the ancient Indian etiquette requires the father to take to his hammock, where he remains for some days as if he were sick, and receives the congratulations and condolence of his friends. An instance of this custom came soon under my own observation; where the man, in robust health and excellent condition, without a single bodily ailment, was lying in his hammock in the most provoking manner; and carefully and respectfully attended by the women, while the mother of the new-born infant was cooking-none apparently regarding her!' 1 That was, however, no hardship for an Indian mother, who suffers but little. I once saw a Warau woman carry her infant, two hours after its birth, from one cottage to another, at some little distance. She also carried her hammock, and tied it up for use, though encumbered with the new-born babe. 102 02 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. The women carry their infants in small hammocks, which are slung over one shoulder. When the child has grown bigger, it is carried upon the mother's hip, clinging to her body, with one leg before and the other behind it. They suckle one child until the birth of another, and even for a short time after. The want of cows and goats, together with their great reluctance to use the milk of any animal, is probably the reason for this custom, which must weaken the mother considerably. The boys are early trained to fish and paddle, and as they get older they accompany the men on their hunting expeditions. The girls are obliged to labour at an early age, and assist the women, whose time is mnuch more fully occupied than that of the men. They lead a simple life, without quarrels, except such as arise from that fruitful source of evil, intoxication. Their native drink, the paiwari, has been already mentioned. It is prepared in a very disgusting way. The flat cakes of cassava bread are toasted brown, boiling water is poured on them, and the lumps which remain are masticated by Indian women. This assists the fermentation, after which a feast is given, where drinking and dancing are kept up until all the liquor is consumed. I have seen Caribi women sitting round a large earthen vessel, all chewing cassava in the disgusting manner above described. There is a drink made in a more cleanly i manner from potatoes, called kasiri. Several other beverages are made and used by Indians. When a death takes place among this tribe, notice THE ARA WiKS OR LOKONO. 103 is given to the neighbouring settlements by the discharge of guns, and preparation is immediately made for the funeral. They formerly used to make a rude coffin, by hollowing a solid piece of wood, or by cutting a small canoe in halves to receive the body: but now some of them manage to construct one of boards. There were certain dances connected with their ancient funeral customs, which will be hereafter described, as also the ceremonies practised by their sorcerers, and the superstitions inculcated by them. Their chiefs, or captains, were either appointed, or confirmed in their office, by the governor of the colony. They were formerly expected to summon their men together at his command; and to lead them to battle if required. At present, there is scarcely the shadow of authority possessed by any of them, except over his own family. The power of the ancient cacique has perished with the title. When any offence is taken, they seldom manifest it otherwise than by not speaking to the offending party. This seems to grieve them much. If one tells another that he is bad, it is almost looked upon as a curse. As to profane swearing, it is unknown in their language, which even wants the word to express it. After a long inquiry, one of their chiefs told me " We, in our language, do not swear; it is only your people who do that."' A just reproof, surely, of those profane habits by which too many of our countrymen are distinguished abroad as well as at home! 1 A drunken Indian will, however, sometimes swear fearfully in English. 104 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. When any crime, such as murder, was committed, they followed strictly the law of retaliation. A tragical incident of tliis nature took place the year before I went among them. Two young men, sons of their oldest chief, were invited to a paiwari dance at an Indian settlement, near the Arapaiaco. One or two white men also attended, as was too frequently the case. These left the following morning, after the dance was over, but had not long been gone before the younger brother, who had taken up his gun, as if going to his canoe, turned round and discharged it at his wife. She received the contents in her bosom as she was kneeling on the ground with her babe at her breast -fell on her face, and expired. The cause of this (if the deed were intentional) was probably jealousy of something that had occurred during the debauch of the previous night. No inquiry was made, however, as to his motives. The nearest relative to the poor young woman started up, declared his intention of seeking vengeance, and then hastened after the white men; to whose laws he intended to consign the culprit. But before he could overtake them, the fearful deed had been avenged by another hand. When the young man saw what he had done, he stood for some little time aghast; then, perceiving his countrymen approaching to seize him, he fled to the forest. He was soon taken and brought back to the fatal spot. There two of them held him by the outstretched hands, and he submitted to his fate from his own brother, Kaikaiko, who took up a THE ARA WIKS OR LOKONO. 105 billet of wood, and killed him by a blow upon the temples. This tragical occurrence was related to me by the settlers, and by the family at whose dwelling it took place. An aged Indian pointed out to me the now abandoned spot where it occurred, and where these two unhappy victims, who, but for an evil practice, might have witnessed the introduction of the hope of the Gospel, and grown old surrounded by their children, now sleep in one untimely grave. The elder brother, who had thus become the minister of justice, and doubtless thought at the time that he was acting right, never seemed happy afterwards. The horror excited by the melancholy event above related had a beneficial effect upon the minds of those who saw or heard of it. It showed more plainly than any words could do the evil tendency of those drunken feasts in which they so much delighted; and was not without its effect in inducing many to listen more readily to the doctrines which cause men to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. It now became a pleasant sight to see the Indian canoes coming in from different directions on the Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Our congregation had already increased to about eighty-four persons. A sudden and manifest improvement took place in their apparel, all being anxious to procure European clothing.' Owing to the utter darkness of the minds 1 One poor fellow came to me with a brilliant sky-blue hat, a very striking article, evidently manufactured for a savage market. On a visit to the coast he had been persuaded by some sharp sales 106 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. of most, undue importance soon began to be attached to this; and it became necessary to caution them repeatedly against supposing that any change in external appearance could avail in the sight of Him who " looketh on the heart." Several of the people now became so anxious for instruction as to bring sufficient cassava bread to last them as food for a week, with what few fish the river afforded. In the course of the year we were visited for the second time by the Rev. Mr. Duke, who baptized twelve adults, and twenty-five children of different ages. Other catechumens now came forward, and the mission cottage was well frequented by them. It was desirable not only to impart to them the knowledge that leadeth to salvation, but also to improve their minds, and enlarge the circle of their ideas, by descriptions of other countries and people, to them most wonderful. The most valuable book (not of a sacred character) which I possessed for this purpose, was a volume of the " Saturday Magazine," which the late Bishop Coleridge, thinking it might prove useful, had given me at Barbados, with some others and his blessing. The ArawAks were much interested in the man to purchase it at a high price: and he was now in great trouble, having been told by some officious person that his soul was in sad case, and that no Christian minister would ever baptize and marry a man who had been guilty of the wicked vanity of wearing such a hat. He was much relieved when he found that I did not consider uncultivated taste a fatal barrier between him and his God. That man and his wife were until death among our steadiest converts. THE ARAWIlKS OR LOKONO. 107 engravings. The wicker idol in which the ancient Britons burnt their victims, particularly excited their wonder, and they could not comprehend how the former inhabitants of England could have been so cruel. They considered them even worse than their ancient enemies, the Caribs. They thus learned to think more highly of the power of the Gospel of peace, which can abolish, wherever it fully prevails, the cruel and barbarous works of heathen darkness. In this manner it was easy to blend religious instruction with interesting information, when catechetical duties were over. They were also anxious to teach me all they knew themselves, which was but little, except the arts of hunting and fishing peculiar to their country. They had some rude knowledge of the stars, which was probably acquired by the experience of their ancestors in former voyages. They distinguished some of them as constellations; one of which is called the Camudi, from its fancied resemblance to that snake. They call the Milky Way by two names, one of which signifies the path of the maipuri or tapir; and the other is " Waie onnakici abonaha,"the path of the bearers of waie,-a species of whitish clay, of which their vessels are made. The nebulous spots are supposed to be the track of spirits whose feet were smeared with that material.-Venus is distinguished by the name of "Warakoma;" and Jupiter is generally called "Wiwa kalimero," the star of brightness. Great was their astonishment at learning some of the more simple facts of astronomy, especially the 108 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. cause of eclipses, which had always puzzled and alarmed them. They did not show much emotion, however, at the appearance of the large comet of 1843, which terrified the Africans on the coast, and the Indians of the distant interior. The Arawaks seemed to think an eclipse much more portentous than the "star with the tail."' The properties of the magnet excited much won~-\ der; and a small pocket compass was regarded with great interest. They all looked upon it as something supernatural, and though its use was soon understood, yet they regarded it with evident suspicion for some time. A very grave man, who had been induced to take it into his hand, after it had been shaken and turned in every possible way, when he saw it still pointing towards the north star, delivered his opinion in these words: "It is alive." -When convinced that the evil spirits had nothing to do with it, they said that the knowledge of its construction was a gift from God to the white man. N- They were totally unacquainted with geography beyond the limits of Guiana. They knew that the white people came from the other side of the great sea; but were amazed at hearing that it was so large as to take a vessel some weeks to cross it. They were always delighted to be shown on a map the various 1 Schomburgk, on an island of the Essequibo, witnessed the terror of the Indians who formed his crew. The Arecunas present with him called the comet "WAtaima;" and the Wapisianas "Capishi;" which, in their respective tongues, signify "The Spirit of the stars." The Macusis called it " Cpoeseima," "a fiery cloud," or " Wce-inopsa," " a sun casting its light behind." THE ARA WAiKS OR LOKONO. 109 countries of Europe, or those parts of the world from whence the Africans and Hindoos had been brought to their shores. Of history and the affairs of other nations they knew nothing. They had, however, an indistinct idea that there had been great wars between the white nations in the days of their fathers. They knew the name of one European warrior alone, Bonaparte; whose fame had reached the ears of some, long before they had heard the name of the Saviour Jesus pronounced except in a profane or blasphemous manner. We were much in want of a set of Scripture prints, which would have been of great help in enabling them to understand the historical parts of Holy Writ. These they could comprehend but very imperfectly by oral communication. A set of engravings had been sent out from England, but never reached their destination; and I was often obliged to make a rude sketch before they could understand the most simple historical circumstance. The Creation and the fall of man, the Deluge, and the giving of the Law on Sinai, were those parts of Old Testament history which most interested them; but they seemed to regard them with transient interest as mere historical facts; and one of them observed, after I had been carefully explaining to them the Ten Commandments: " This word is good, but we knew most of it before." Nothing but the love of God, as manifested in His Son working righteousness, and dying for sins, seemed to create a permanent interest in any of them. 110 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. Our school gradually increased to nearly thirty ArawAk children, but there were always some absent, from occasional scarcity of food, and their natural desire of change. I was greatly averse to letting them go home; but soon found that they would stay away altogether if they thought undue restraint were practised; and after a while it became apparent that the good they did in teaching their friends at their homes in the forest more than made amends for the evil occasioned by their irregularity. These children used to assist in cultivating a little garden, and keeping the paths free from weeds. Occasionally they went to gather the forest fruits. A fine cocorite palm grew close to the little school, and the day on which one of its enormous bunches of fruit was cut was always a time of rejoicing. Shooting with bows and arrows, either at birds or at a mark set up for the purpose; catching fish with a small rod, and other Indian pursuits, filled up the time which was not occupied by the school. I made several attempts to introduce English games, as ball, &c. among them; but they met with no success. Even their amusements were all of a practical character, and such as would help them to get a living. They generally bathed, morning, noon, and evening, and more expert swimmers are scarcely to be found. They used to spring into the water, one after another, in rapid succession, with a great noise and splashing, keeping in rapid motion, and swimming with the head often under water. Sometimes they amused themselves with turning over, striking at their com THE ARA WAKS OR LOKONO. 111 panions with their feet at the same time, which was dexterously avoided by diving. With the stronger lads to paddle the canoe we often voyaged to the habitations of their friendsgoing by water up the little streams, and then journeying some distance on foot. Sometimes we crossed a shallow stream dryshod, on fallen timbers lying in the bottom, and found on our return that the rising of the tide compelled us to strip ere we could recross it. I had perfect confidence in my little crew, who could swim, and at the same time carry my clothes dry above the water, and their sharp eyes would soon have detected the presence of one of the huge watersnakes or camudis which, lurking in such damp and gloomy places, are chiefly dreaded. Some of our Christian Indians now commenced the practice of family prayer. Very cheering it was to hear from their open lodging-places, in the stillness of night or early morning, the low sound of the simple petitions offered in their own tongue; a sure proof that they no longer looked on the Great Father as afar off, but as the God "who heareth prayer," to whom "all flesh" should "come." About this time our little congregation was thrown into excitement by seeing three strange canoes pass the chapel during evening prayer. Their crews were of all shades of colour; and their high-peaked, broadbrimmed hats and large mantles, plain or striped, showed them to be foreigners. They were twenty-six in number, all well armed and strong men; neither woman nor boy being with them. We saw them land 112 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. at the wood-cutter's settlement, and after a pause proceed down the river. I soon after went over to make inquiries, and the proprietor, who was in the commission of the peace, said that the appearance and behaviour of the strangers had been so suspicious that he felt it his duty, in the post-holder's absence, to follow and demand their business. Having no men with him, save an English servant who had been a soldier, and a traveller, who was on his way from the Orinoco, he asked me to take two Arawak men and a boy, who had paddled me over the river, and accompany him. Three sturdy Warau women made the rest of our crew, the eldest of them steering. We found the party about eight miles off, encamped for the night, and preparing coffee, the fragrant odour of which spread over the river. Their appearance, as seen partly by the moonbeams broken by the forest trees and partly by their flickering fires, conveyed the idea of a gang of banditti, which impression was not diminished by the scowling looks with which they greeted our intrusion. Two white men, respectably dressed, were their leaders. One lay still in his hammock as if sick; the other, a handsome young man, came to meet us in a defiant manner; went into a furious passion when asked his name and business; and refused to give any account of himself. After a sharp altercation, my companion arrested him;-a bold act, and probably without sufficient warrant. We were entirely in the hands of the strangers. There was no force to support sri r~ -i ~r rn~a -,r CffS r ''I ~~!,i i, iu;Ii.',,;%ii I~\ I': I:,~ ~I I )'II '~ Iv i C:~ iB Yi i i ih Yi4 I: n c i r: s 3 g 1 \\ 7:,,i:Ij,,!i 'I: ii II i)' E 1 Jli'' j!/i iii7i''' \ 1Ulrll " C IC i'1; s i j br t,,n "`" =i ijiji $ 1Y ~- Yi ~ ~1';:~r I; 5-E L`~. I - Y~ i (~ ) I~ THE ARAWIAKS OR LOEKONO. 113 the arrest, save the white man, Turner, who stood behind his master in the attitude of "attention," and, with only a constable's baton, seemed ready to arrest or fight the whole foreign party, if the word were given; and Cornelius the Arawak, who, paddle in hand, placed himself by me. The rest of our party had kept in or near the boat. Fierce glances and murmurs were exchanged among the dusky group around us, who seemed about to use their knives when the old soldier laid his hand on their leader's shoulder, and told him that he was his prisoner. But the latter, restraining his passion by a strong effort, quieted them by a few words in Spanish. Then turning to us, he said, "I have told my men to allow me to be taken, or where would you be? You cannot stop them-they will proceed. Schomburgk is now in our country: reprisals will be taken upon him." The other white man, who probably thought that the matter had gone far enough, now got out of his hammock, slipped on a white jacket, and in good English, but with a foreign accent, politely requested that proceedings might be stayed. He then explained that his companion was the son of the late Colonel Hamilton, famous for his services to Bolivar in the Venezuelan revolution; that he had travelled by way of the Cuyuni to seek a path by which his numerous herds might be brought for sale in our colony; and was now returning by a different route. Letters to prove the identity of Carlos Hamilton were produced, and the party then I 114 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. allowed to proceed, with a supply of salt fish, biscuits, &c. which my companion, with provident liberality, had brought for their relief if he should find them in want, and able to give a good account of themselves. We afterwards heard that their expedition had been undertaken chiefly for a political object, having reference to the vexed boundary question, and the military expedition then fitting out in Georgetown to recapture Pirara. They had been to Demerara, and left without calling on the authorities. The gentleman who had so blandly explained matters to us, and appeared to be their real leader, was said to be Seinhor Ayres, the commander of the Brazilian force which had destroyed the Pirara mission two years before. Our Indians, who knew nothing of politics, thought that their object was to capture and enslave them, as in the olden time; but tranquillity was restored when they learned that the party had left the country, and we saw them no more. The Rev. Mr. Duke died suddenly about this time. He was deeply lamented. His part in the foundation of the mission has been noticed: he had visited it more than once, and seen with satisfaction its promising appearance. In the following year most of the settlers left the river, owing to the failure of the arnotto trade, and the introduction of white pine and other cheap woods from North America, which in a great degree superseded the more durable but costly productions of the native forests. THE ABA WAKS OR LOKONO. 115 Being now completely isolated fromn civilized society, save when an occasional traveller asked shelter, an excellent opportunity was afforded me of investigating the Indian manners, ideas, languages, and traditions. Some of the last will be given in the conclusion of this work. It soon became possible to extend the sphere of labour. The Arawaks informed me that many of their tribe resided at a place called Akawini, and some offered to accompany me on a visit to them. Having visited the settlement of Cornelius, and slept there, we set out early next morning, and had a cool walk of some hours through the forest. At length we came to a very narrow stream, which it was necessary to descend. The Indians had expected to find a small canoe which they usually kept there, but some person had removed it. A tree of enormous size had fallen near the spot, and lay with a part of its roots elevated several feet from the ground. An Indian climbed upon it, and, standing high above our heads, with a heavy piece of wood struck one of the broad fluted projections of the trunk near the root, which gave a loud ringing sound that echoed through the forest and across the swamp. This was to give notice to the party who might have borrowed the canoe, that we were in need of it. A man and a woman, who had been fishing in it, returned as soon as they heard the signal. It was old and rotten, and the sides were so low that the water entered in three places, as soon as our party i 2 116 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. were seated. To remedy this, some thick stems of the moco-moco plant were cut and grooved. These being fitted on to the upper edge of the canoe, made it an inch or two higher; and we then proceeded, sitting as still as we could; one of the party baling out all the way, while another paddled us through the still water. We came to a beautiful savannah and lake, and saw on a small island the cottage of the principal man in that secluded district. It was embosomed amid the tall trees, and the evening sun shone brightly on its thatched roof. Its owner received us kindly, and summoned his people, with whom we had an interesting meeting, which was prolonged to so late an hour that several of them were unable to return to their homes that night. They therefore took up their quarters in an old house on the island. One of the corner posts of this, being rotten, gave way. A child fell into the fire beneath her, and was severely burned. Fortunately no other person was injured, but this distressing accident threw a gloom over our visit. These people had had less intercourse with civilized men than any others whom I had yet seen, owing to their retired situation. The lake discharges its superabundant waters into the Pomeroon by a small stream, which is blocked up with fallen trees. They said that no white man had previously visited their settlements. My attention was soon after drawn to other races, and the visit to that secluded lake was not repeated. THTE A RA W.4 K OR E OKIONO. 117 But from time to time its inhabitants, brought by Cornelius and others of their countrymen, came forth to join us. Meanwhile, the ArawAks, who dwelt nearer to civilized man, were also receiving benefit: especially those of the Ituribisi lake, and the Aruabisi coast,1 between the Pomeroon and the island-studded mouth of the Essequibo. 1 Ituribisi " and "Aruabisi." These names respectively signify in Arawak, "the resorts of the Ituri," or large red howling monkey, and of the "Arua," or jaguar. The sense of the latter is preserved in the name of the adjacent "Tiger" Island, as the colonists call it; though the word " Aruabisi," as applied to the coast, has been somewhat strangely corrupted by them into "Arabian." The language of the Arawaks is the softest of all the Indian tongues. Though deficient, as compared with ours, in the number of words, it is capable of great nicety of expression. I was surprised at the number of the moods and tenses of its verbs. In some respects it is copious, as in words expressing family relationship, which are more strictly definite than ours. For example, in the words " brother" and " sister," each has three forms, according to the age and sex of the speaker. An Arawak man will sayr elder brother..... d'abugici younger brother... d'augtci my elder siste or younger d'aiyuradatu Lste or younger An Arawak woman will sayr elder sister.......d'atilatu tyounger sister..... d'augitu my bohr elder brother or younger d'aciligfci Other very striking peculiarities abound in this as in the other Indian tongues, the words of which differ greatly from each other, while in their construction all are totally opposite to our modes of speech. .118 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. Many of the former were brought out of the forests on the shores of that beautiful lake by the efforts of the Rev. W. Austin, Rector of St. John's, in their neighbourhood. His two daughters opened a school for the Arawak children, acquired their language, and devoted themselves to the daily task of teaching, and caring for them in health and sickness. A few miles from the (now settled and cultivated) Aruabisi coast, are three other lakes,-the Capoub, Quacabuca, and Tapacuma. Much good was done some years after among the few Indians who dwelt on their shores, by the Rev. J. F. Bourne and the the Rev. H. Hunter. But in that district there were many drawbacks, not the least being the facility with which ardent spirits, the red man's curse, are obtainable. Still it was evident to all that a rapid change had taken place among the ArawAks on our western border. Much interest in them was felt and expressed at that time in the colony at large: and we had reason to thank Him " who giveth the increase." CHAPTER VII. THE CARIBS, OR CARINYA. Account of the Writer's First Visit to the Country of the CaribsTheir Costume and Appearance-Their national Character and Customs-A Glance at their Condition and Habits during the last Century-Their cruel Wars-Ancient Chiefs-Former Cannibalism. THE upper part of the Pomeroon is inhabited by the Caribs, who occupy a large tract of country, including not only the banks of that river, but those of the Manawarin, a tributary of the Moruca. They are more numerous in that district than in any other part of the lower lands of Guiana. Their settlements were much higher up the river than the site of the mission, and they would not visit it, though often passing in their canoes. The appearance of their naked bodies, and faces painted with the bright vermilion of the arnotto, was wild and savage. At some distance from us there was a "water-side," or landing-place, on the banks of the river, where they often took up their quarters for the night; and the sound of the bamboo flute proceeding from their bivouac would sometimes reach our ears, when the noisy parrots had retired to roost, 120 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. and the last breeze from the distant sea-coast had died away at sunset. Their music when close at hand is harsh and unpleasant, but it was so mellowed by passing over the still water as to possess a plaintive and melancholy sweetness; so that one might have fancied that they were bewailing their benighted condition. Such was by no means the case. They had, as yet, no idea of anything better than their present state; and while they possessed health, were perfectly satisfied to eat, drink, and enjoy the passing moment, without care for future interests, whether of a temporal or eternal nature. On one occasion, some members of the family of their chief had called to visit me. I was surprised at first, but soon discovered from their manner that they were slightly intoxicated, which accounted for so unusual a circumstance. Having acquired all the information I could concerning them, the Arawaks at the mission were informed of my intention to visit the Caribi country. Some of them offered to accompany me. The two nations seemed on friendly terms, often trafficking with each other; but a quarrel had taken place in the neighbourhood a short time before between two individuals, in the course of which the one betook himself to his cutlass, while the other ran for his club. The affair ended with mutual threats. It did not seem expedient to take any adult person with me, as unpleasant results might ensue; for even friendly feelings, as I knew by experience, might lead to a THE CARIBS OR CARINYA. 121 paiwari drinking, and a feast or fray would alike be but little conducive to the end in view. The youths who generally paddled my canoe seemed best fitted to be my companions in this expedition. Accompanied by four of these lads, I set out one Monday morning in June 1841; the ArawAks, who had been to church on the previous day, standing on the banks of the river, and waving their hands, in token of wishing good success to the Gospel of Christ among their neighbours and ancient foes. We went briskly up the river for several miles with the flowing tide, and, turning up a small stream to the left, arrived before noon at the first Caribi settlement, called "Kamwatta" (or the Bamboo), from an enormous cluster of those trees which stands near it. This was the residence of " France," the brother of their chief. He was not at home, being absent with most of the male inhabitants, but his two wives were present, with several other women, all busily engaged in their usual occupations. The appearance of those women was very barbarous, as is indeed the case with most of the Caribi females. Their dress was merely a narrow strip of blue cloth, and their naked bodies were smeared with the red arnotto, which gave them the appearance of bleeding from every pore. As if this were not sufficiently ornamental, some of them had endeavoured to improve its appearance by blue spots upon their bodies and limbs. They wore round each leg, just below the knee, a tight strap of cotton, painted red, and another above each ankle. These are fastened on while the 122 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. girl is young, and hinder the growth of the parts by their compression, while the calf, which is unconfined, appears, in consequence, unnaturally large. All the Caribi women wear these, which they call sapuru, and consider as a great addition to their beauty. But the most singular part of their appearance is presented by the lower lip, which they perforate, and wear one, two, or three pins sticking through the hole, with the points outward. Before they procured pins, thorns or other similar substances were thus worn. Should they wish to use the pin, they will take it out, and again replace it in the lip when its services are no longer required. Of these women I inquired respecting their husbands, and received an answer in their language, very copious, but to me perfectly unintelligible. Perceiving this, they pointed to a man standing at some distance, whom I found to be a stranger from the interior. He was the most picturesque object I had yet seen in Guiana, possessing a symmetrical figure, which was seen to great advantage in his native costume. His name he said was " Wericum." This I afterwards found to be a corruption of the English word " welcome." The cloth which is worn by the Caribi men, secured by a cord round the loins, is often of sufficient length to form a kind of scarf. As it would otherwise trail on the ground, they dispose it in a graceful manner over the shoulders, so that part of it falls on the bosom, while the end hangs down the back. It is often adorned with large cotton tassels, and is the THE CARIBS, OR CARINYA. 123 most decent and serviceable, as well as the most picturesque covering worn by any of the native tribes. The coronal of feathers for the head is sometimes worn, but not generally. The head is usually adorned by a large daub of arnotto on the hair above the brow, and the forehead and cheeks are painted in various patterns with the same vermilion colour. This renders them ferocious in their appearance, and was probably adopted by their ancestors with that view, but the modern Caribs have an idea that it adds greatly to the beauty of their faces. Some men of this tribe also smear their bodies with the arnotto, in the manner already mentioned as practised by the women. There was at that settlement an old man, whose white hair and eyes dim with age showed that he must have far exceeded the usual term of human life. He lay in his hammock continually, and seemed to have lost part of his faculties. That old man could doubtless once have told many a tale of strife and carnage, derived from his ancestors, and some perhaps witnessed by himself, during the sanguinary contests in which his nation was engaged in his youth. The stranger whom I have mentioned received directions from the principal wife of the master of the settlement, and I understood, by the names used, that he was to guide me through the forest to the residence of the chief. To this I gladly assented, and dismissed my lads with the canoe, with directions for them to go to a certain place on the banks of the main river, where I would rejoin them. The Carib 124 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. then threw over his shoulder the elegant tasselled scarf worn by his nation, and, taking his gun, led the way into the forest. The walk was cool, the trees magnificent in size and beauty, and the path good, with the exception of a swamp which we had to cross. As this was always a difficult task, and one which occasioned me some delay, I lost sight of our guide for a time, but he soon reappeared, standing among the tall trees on a bank above us; and as he saw Ifili, the Arawak boy whom I had retained with me, fetching water in a large leaf to cleanse my feet, he smiled, apparently at the inconvenience of shoes and other necessaries of civilized life. Borowai, which was the name of the village we next came to, was superior in the neatness and cleanliness of its houses to any Indian place which I had yet seen. Although several of the inhabitants were unclothed, yet none of the women were smeared with the arnotto like those at Kamwatta. The chief was called " Commodore" by the settlers, as was his father before him, and it has become the fixed surname of the family. He was gone farther into the interior with his son and most of the men, to my regret; for I had calculated on persuading him to accompany me to visit his people. The principal part of the design was thus, to all appearance, frustrated. There were but three men present, one of whom, I was happy to find, spoke a little English. Having seated myself on a low, rudely-carved stool in the house appointed for conference among the men, I began to talk with them, telling them that good people THE CARIBS, OR CARINYA. 125 in my own country had sent me over the great sea, to teach them how they might serve " Tamosi " acceptably, and live with Him after death. They listened with great interest, and gave me a large pine and a cluster of ripe bananas at taking leave, which showed that they were not displeased at the visit. There was but one settler residing in their country, and he was on the point of quitting it. We slept at his house, which was situated on a hill named Carowob, the burial-place of the ancient Caribi chiefs of Pomeroon, and at early dawn again went on our way. About 9 A.M. we arrived at a place where the Pomeroon divides into two branches; the left being the main stream, while that to the right is called Issororo. Up this latter we proceeded. The weather was delightful, and though our prospect was very limited, yet each object was beautiful and striking: the venerable forests, with the manicole palms growing out of the river, and reaching a great height; the mirror-like stream, reflecting every leaf on its unruffled surface; the fish springing from the waters, and the splendid azure butterflies fluttering among the leaves, -all rendered the scene interesting to a stranger. Over our heads the king of the vultures hovered motionless on his strong pinions, while many of the common species were at a respectful distance, flying in circles through the sultry air. To complete a picture so purely South American, a party of Caribs, with their bright copper skins, black hair, and brows variously adorned, now passed us. They were seated apparently on the surface of the water, their frail 126 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. canoes, or woodskins, made of the bark of the purpleheart tree, being at a little distance scarcely visible beneath them. The people at the settlements on the Issororo seemed rather pleased than otherwise at our visit, when they understood its object. Most of the men were absent from this district also, so that we seemed to have come at a very unseasonable time. In seeking for the first settlement, Pegassa, we took a wrong direction, which led us by an abandoned path, first through a very disagreeable and difficult swamp, and then through an old provision ground, so overgrown with thick grass, shrubs, and briers, that it was only with great exertion we could get through. The sun is intensely hot in these fields, as the surrounding forest prevents the breeze from cooling the air. Having at length reached the right path, I was surprised at a loud scream from three little Caribi girls, who were terrified at the object which, with scorched face, and clothes soiled with mud from the swamp, and covered with grassseeds from the jungle, suddenly presented itself before them. One of them took to her heels, and ran shrieking to give the alarm. As this was an unpleasant introduction to her family, it seemed best to follow and attempt to pacify her, but her swiftness rendered the attempt vain. Her mother came hastily from the house to meet her, and perceiving the object of her child's alarm, said something which quieted her. There was no one but this woman at the place; and as I had collected a few words of their language at Borowai, I asked for "Wakuri," the man. She smiled THE CARIBS, OR CARINYA. 127 at the bad pronunciation of the Caribi, and pointed with her hand to the path which led to the next settlement, Tonambo. We arrived there much fatigued. A very tall man, named Yan, soon came in from hunting, and to him I told the object of my visit. He seemed favourably disposed, and, when I left, gave me a large pine in token of good feeling. An old woman added a piece of cassava bread. After three days' absence we returned to the mission; and the first question put by the ArawAks was this, "Did you get any of them?" It showed a right feeling in some of them, who seemed very anxious to spread the little knowledge they possessed. Three weeks elapsed without our hearing anything of the Caribs. I had given up all hopes of them, and was meditating another visit, when on my return from a day's journey among the Arawaks, I was told they had been at the mission inquiring for me. The next day (Sunday) we had the pleasure of seeing old Commodore arrive with the people from his village. The next Sunday he again came with nine of his people, and the following week we rejoiced to see five canoes full of Caribs of both sexes, and among them our friends from the Issororo. I soon after visited the settlement of the chief to induce him to place his children under my care for instruction, and to use his influence with the people of his tribe for the same purpose. This he promised to do. The national character of the Caribs has ever been that of obstinate, fearless bravery. They are 128 8 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF aUIANA. acknowledged by the other tribes as superior in desperate courage, and have always been dreaded by them. They are fully, aware of this, and there is consequently as much national pride in them as in any European race. The Arawaks also possess a great degree of national pride, but it is founded more on superior intelligence and civilization; while that of the Caribs arises from the remembrance of former domination and the consciousness of daring valour. They are, however, very credulous, and easily excited by any flying rumour, of which I have known several instances. They are not larger in person than the people of other tribes, but are generally very well proportioned. Their young men may claim preference over those of the other aboriginal races for elegance of form. Their dress, and custom of painting their bodies, has been already described. They also lubricate their skins with oil, made of the seeds of the caraba-tree. They consider this and the use of the arnotto as a great improvement of their beauty. The women of this tribe are noted for weaving excellent and durable hammocks of cotton, which they cultivate for that purpose. These are all made by hand, and the process is very slow and tedious; but the hammocks so made are said to surpass all others. They form an important article of their traffic; but, though expensive, the price is by no means an adequate remuneration for the time and labour bestowed on them. THE CARIBS, OR CARINYA. 129 Their customs with respect to marriage do not greatly differ from those of the other tribes. In the treatment of the dead, their habits are said to have been peculiar. If the person deceased were of some distinction, his bones, after burial for some months, were cleaned by the women, and carefully preserved in their houses. This custom was practised by several of the tribes of Guiana, some of which immersed the body in water until the bones' had been picked clean by the pirai and other fish, when they were carefully dried, tinged with red, and suspended in the roof of their habitation, as the greatest proof of attachment which could be shown.' This custom of preserving the bones 'of their dead for some time, though still observed in remote places, is now becoming obsolete, and must expire as Christianity spreads among them. It is difficult for any one who should visit the Caribs at their peaceful settlements to believe that they are the descendants of those savage warriors who spread terror over the West Indian Islands, and a great portion of the continent of South America. I found them in a tranquil state, undisturbed except by occasional quarrels among themselves, which arose at a paiwari feast, or from the use of rum. When excited they are, however, ungovernably fierce. I once met a Carib who had lost a portion of his nose, which had been bitten off by his own brother, as he said, in a drunken quarrel. Such occurrences were not very frequent; and disputes were generally taken to the 1 Stedman, chap. xv. K 130 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. post-holders, or others, who used their influence to prevent quarrelling and fighting between them; for whose protection the Indians were grateful, and by whose determinations they would faithfully abide. But, up to the close of the last century, their savage propensities had full scope. When any dispute happened with another tribe, they were accustomed to attack those who had offended them, and, surrounding their scattered villages in the night, would make them prisoners; the men, who would be likely to escape, were put to death, while the women and children of both sexes were reserved for sale.' Sometimes they attacked their enemies openly in the day-time; and it is said to have been a boast of theirs, that they would paddle their canoes against the current to the settlements they intended to attack, that the sound of their paddles might give warning of their approach, and their enemies prepare to engage them. At that time the Caribs were considered as the most numerous as well as the most warlike of all the tribes. They were independent of the colonists, though latterly in alliance with them. They had no strictly hereditary sovereigns:-if the son of a great leader equalled his father in bravery and skill, he might succeed to his power;-if not, they would choose another to head them in any warlike undertaking. It was necessary for the candidates for such an office to possess more strength and courage than their fellows, and to be perfectly acquainted with every art and stratagem of savage warfare. They were required, by 1 Bancroft, p. 258. THE CARIBS, OR CARINYA. 131 long fasting, to give proof of their powers of endurance, and to show their bodily strength by bearing heavy burdens. It has been even said, that the Carib chief who aspired to the honour of commanding his brethren, was exposed to the biting of ants for a certain time.' The man who could thus bear torture and fatigue of any kind, and was a stranger to fear, was chosen to be their captain; and the bows and arrows of the tribe were laid at his feet in token of obedience.2 Those customs were gradually laid aside. It was the evident interest of the colonists to flatter the pride of the Indian chiefs, which they effectually did by presenting to them insignia of office, consisting of a plate of one of the precious metals to be worn on the bosom, and a silver-headed staff of office to be borne in the hand. By degrees, the Indians came to look upon these as indispensable to the office; and the power of confirming the appointment of their chiefs fell into the hands of the colonists. The honour of the chieftainship is at present but small. The alliance of the Dutch colonists with this tribe greatly assisted in saving them from destruction during the insurrection of their slaves in 1763. The Caribs killed many, as appeared by the number of dried hands which they brought in. For each of these the sum of 1 Abbd Raynal's History of the Indies, book xiii. 2 The war councils of the island Caribs are said to have been held in a secret dialect or jargon, known only to their chiefs and elders. The men were initiated in this only after attaining distinction as warriors; the women, never. K 2 132 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. twenty-five florins was usually paid, and for a living captive fifty. Such is one portion of the dreadful picture which the life of the Indian, as well as of every other race in the colony, presented during those sad times. But that is not all. The Caribs are said to have eaten the bodies of the slain. This is expressly asserted by Bancroft, who, as a resident in the colony, had the best opportunity of knowing the truth. Another writer, who was himself engaged soon after in the same warfare, thus writes of the Caribs: "However unnatural it may seem, and however much it has been contradicted, they are anthropophagi, or cannibals;1 at least, they most certainly feast on their enemies, whose flesh they tear and devour with the avidity of wolves."2 No other tribe near the coast of Guiana has been so recently accused of cannibalism; and it is probable that, even with respect to the Caribs, exaggeration has prevailed. It is, however, impossible to disprove the accounts handed down to us; though it would be pleasant to do so. It is needless to say that this custom no 1 Humboldt says that the Caribs of Guiana were not man-eaters, like those of the islands, and those whom he met at the Spanish missions had certainly abandoned the practice long before. Yet, with some inconsistency, he repeatedly uses the above epithets in speaking of the incursions and deeds of the heathen Caribs of Guiana. 2 Stedman, chap. xv. The same author also mentions it incidentally in other parts of his work, as a well-known fact. He also obtained a flute, made by them, of a thigh-bone of one of their enemies, of which he has given a representation. THE CARIBS, OR CARINYA. 133 longer prevails, and of their present habits it has been observed: "It is true the Caribisce make flutes of the thigh-bones of their enemies, but they abhor the idea of eating their flesh or drinking their blood, and this abhorrence is general."' Being desirous of knowing the ideas of the existing race as to those practices of their ancestors, I once inquired of an intelligent young Christian Carib. He became much excited, seemed both ashamed and indignant, and answered, "That he had heard of their doing such things, but he thought they must have eaten the flesh of animals, while they pretended to eat that of their enemies." I made no further inquiry, as it seemed to give them pain. Wherever Christianity prevails, there barbarous practices must not only fall, but come to be regarded with horror and surprise. May God grant that, even in Hindostan, future generations may yet, in the fulness of Gospel light, doubt the reality of the Suttees, and other abominations of their fathers! Long before the abolition of negro slavery, the custom of the Indian tribes enslaving each other was discountenanced by the British, and the purchase of slaves so taken was prohibited. This was successful in removing a great inducement to predatory expeditions, which were generally attended with bloodshed. It was, however, accompanied by a melancholy circumstance. "A Caribi chief, indignant at the refusal of the Governor to accept of a fine slave, immediately dashed out the brains of 1 M1. Martin, West Indies, p. 53. 134 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. the slave, and declared that for the future his nation should never give quarter."' "The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.'" 1 The usual club of the Caribs is made of the heaviest wood in the forest; it is about eighteen inches long, flat, and square at both ends, but heavier at one end than the other. It is thinner in the middle, and wound round with cotton thread, with a loop to secure it to the wrist. It is called by them " Potu." One blow with this club, in which they sometimes fixed a sharp stone, will scatter the brains. They used to fix the stone in the future club by sticking it in the tree while growing; it soon became firm, and in due time the tree was cut and shaped according to the fancy of the Indian. This latter kind is, however, seldom met with, and the weapon is sufficiently formidable when made of wood alone. CHAPTER VIII. VISIT TO THE ACAWOIOS. Journey through the Caribi Country to an Acawoio SettlementReception and Results of the Visit-Description of the Acawoios -Their Persons, Ornaments, &c.-The Blow-pipe and Ourali, or Arrow Poison-The Haiarri, and Method of poisoning Fish -Their roving Disposition, and long Journeys for Traffic and Plunder-The Small-pox-State of the Pomeroon Mission in 1842. THE two tribes, the ArawAk and Caribi, continued to meet at the mission on the most friendly terms, and their lodging-places formed a small village along the bank of the river. The settlements of each tribe were occasionally visited; those of the Caribs the more frequently, as they were the least advanced. On one of those occasions, we saw at a landingplace on the bank of the river one of those beautifully spotted but destructive animals which infest the country. It was approaching the water to drink, and, as the canoe ran ashore, it placed itself on a fallen tree, where it stood with its brilliant eyes fixed upon one of the lads, who went forward with his paddle to drive it away. It was not till the number of its assailants had increased that it retreated; which it did with a light 136 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. and agile motion, of which those who have seen those animals only in confinement can have but little idea. The Caribs on the Issororo continued to show every willingness to receive Christian instruction; and at Pegassa, where we usually took up our quarters for the night, the people who assembled for evening prayers would sit for a long time afterwards, listening to words which were interpreted by one of their countrymen. On one of those occasions the scene was very impressive. Our place of meeting was a small area in the centre of the village, where the white sandy soil was kept free from weeds. Here, with the bright tropical moon over head, sat, or squatted, a group of wildlooking people in every attitude of attention, listening to the "good word." It was indeed a scene of beauty, from the various kinds of trees and shrubs seen in the clear moonlight, while the solemn stillness, unbroken save by the low chirping of various insects, made it seem as if Nature were hushed to hear of the sufferings of her Lord. The children, who had been so alarmed at my first appearance among them, had long since got over their fright, and some were attendants at the missionschool. From thence I set out one morning, under the escort of Yan and one or two other Caribs, to visit every settlement in that quarter. The presence of those guides insured a good reception at every place we came to, and our company gradually increased, till at last we had twelve fine-looking men in our train. In the -more remote settlements there was VISIT TO THE ACA WOIOS. 137 not a shirt, frock, or other European garment to be seen; the people all looked wild and careless, being perfectly satisfied with their condition. The stream becoming smaller as we ascended it, further progress was only practicable in a very small canoe, which would scarcely hold three persons. Our companions went along a footpath, being frequently lost to sight for a time, and then were seen emerging from the forest and crossing the stream before us on fallen trees, which form the usual bridges of the Indians. Some of these the canoe must be hauled over, and others it passes under, the people inside lying down to avoid coming in contact with them. At last we quitted the river, and proceeded through a very marshy forest. They then halted, and told me that we had passed all the Caribi settlements, and were now entering the country of the Acawoios. Having expressed a wish to proceed, they agreed to conduct me to a settlement called Konosa. As we drew near it, twelve or thirteen dogs, which heard our approaching footsteps, came rushing down the path, and made directly at me, as the most unusual object, but were driven back by the paddles of the Caribs, who ran forward to my assistance. The settlement we found tc be in great confusion. There were an equal number of other dogs seated on a long rude table, each being tied to a stout bar of wood fastened to the posts of the house. An Acawoio woman was endeavouring to catch those which were loose, and tie them up in like manner, to keep them from her guests. Most of them were 138 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. growling and snarling with all their might, and the efforts of the woman to restore order among six-and-twenty dogs were ineffectual, until she had chastised the most noisy with a long switch. In answer to my inquiries, the Caribs told me that the master of the settlement carried on a traffic with those animals, which were of an excellent hunting breed. He soon made his appearance, and saluted me in Creole Dutch. Yan then entered into a long conversation with him, and at my desire explained the little he had learned himself: told him of the intentions of some of the Caribs to learn the good word of God: and asked him to come with his family to the mission, as people of all nations were called by the Son of God. The old man listened with great attention to our Caribi friend, who was simple-minded and earnest, and prevailed with him to give his consent. I was myself perfectly useless in the conference, from ignorance of their tongue. After this we were invited to take some refreshment; and, as there was no meat to be obtained until the young men came from hunting, cassava bread was set before us, with a sauce made of the casareep or boiled cassaXa juice, to which a quantity of red pepper is added. I had frequently partaken of a similar sauce, but never of anything equal to that. The Caribs ate of it with impunity; but it was sufficient to excoriate the mouth of any other person than an Indian. On our return journey the Caribs gradually left me, VISIT TO THE ACA WOIOS. 139 each remaining at his own settlement. My host having gone round in the canoe, I had to walk the last stage alone. It was not more than a mile; but, being tired and very footsore from having worn no shoes that day on account of swamps, I made slow progress; and at length wandered from the path in the twilight, and found myself on the banks of a little stream which I had not before seen. The prospect of being benighted, alone and without fire or weapons, in a district so infested with jaguars as the Issororo, was not a pleasant one. While doubting whether to cross the rivulet and push on, or endeavour in the dim light to regain the lost path, I heard a loud scream at some little distance. Concealed by a projecting bank was a Carib woman of the settlement to which I was going, who had just been bathing her children for the night. One of them had rolled down the steep sandy bank, and uttered the cry which guided me to them. It was a most providential circumstance, for I had lost the track entirely, but was now safe. A few weeks after our return to the mission, the Acawoio family from Konosa commenced attendance there, with most of the Caribs from Issororo. Near the sources of the Pomeroon there were some settlements of the Acawoios, whom I was preparing to visit, though with little hope of inducing them to attend from such a distance. They soon, however, quitted their abode, so as to be able to attend the missions on the Essequibo, to which they were much nearer than to ours. Their neighbours informed us 140 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. of this, and the welcome intelligence prevented our intended visit. In person and stature the Acawoios resemble the other tribes, but they may be recognised by their peculiar physiognomy, and the manner in which they contrive to adorn, or rather disfigure, their features, which are not unpleasing, though grave and somewhat melancholy. They use the bright red of the arnotto, and also paint their faces and bodies with blue streaks, in which they take great pains. They wear a piece of wood or a quill stuck through the cartilage of the nose, and some individuals have similar ornaments through the lobe of the ear. They formerly distinguished themselves by a circular hole, about half an inch in diameter, made in the lower part of the under lip, in which was inserted a piece of wood of equal size with the hole, which was cut off almost even with the outer skin, the inner end pressing against the roots of the teeth. This latter ornament is now but seldom seen, but the others are general. The ourali, or arrow poison, which they use in common with other tribes of the interior of Guiana, is now well known. The arrows or spikes anointed with it are made of the cocorite palm. They are usually about one foot in length, and very slender. One end is sharpened and envenomed with the ourali: and around the other is wound a ball or tuft of fleecy cotton, adapted to the size of the cavity of the blow-pipe, through which it is to be discharged. 1 Written also "wourali," "urali," "urari" "curare," &c., according to the pronunciation of the various tribes. VISIT TO THE ACA WOIOS. 141 To preserve these delicate and dangerous spikes, and to guard himself from the death which a slight prick from one of them would convey, the Indian hunter makes a small quiver of bamboo, which he covers with deer-skin and ornaments with cotton strings. To this is usually attached the maxilla (or jaw bone) of the fish called pirai. This is used for partly cutting off the poisoned part of the arrow, which is done by rapidly turning it between the teeth of the maxilla: so that when the game is struck, the envenomed point may break off in the wound, while the shaft, which falls on the ground, can be recovered by the Indian, sharpened, and poisoned for further use. The blow-pipe is a reed, or small palm, about nine feet in length, which is hollowed and lined with another smooth reed.' The Indians are very careful of them, and frequently turn them when placed in their houses, lest they should become in the slightest degree bent or warped by remaining in one position. They sometimes cover them with handsome "pegall" work, and sell them as curiosities to the colonists. The small poisoned arrows are, by a single blast from the lungs, sent through the cavity of the reed, and fly for some distance with great swiftness and accurate aim, conveying speedy and certain death. The tribes which use these weapons are accustomed to them from their infancy, and by long practice they acquire a degree of dexterity which is inimitable by strangers, and would be incredible, were it not for the 1 The Arundinaria Schomburgkii, a single internode of which is sometimes 16 feet in length. 142 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. fact that they depend upon them for most of their animal food. As an Indian said to one of our countrymen, "The blow-pipe is our gun, and the poisoned arrow is to us powder and shot." The ourali is said to be fatal when it has mixed with the blood in the smallest degree, but to have no poisonous effect on an unbroken skin. The animals killed with it appear to suffer no violent pain, though convulsions occur as they expire. It does not affect the flesh, which is perfectly good for food.1 The Macusis, who prepare a very strong kind, use more than a dozen different plants in its composition. Of these the only ingredients really essential seem to be the bush-rope which contains the poisonous 1 Some of the Indians who prepare this poison affect to consider it as superior to gunpowder. "I know," said an old poison master to Humboldt, "that you whites can make soap, and prepare the black powder which has the defect of making a noise while killing animals. But this poison is superior to anything you can make. It kills silently, so that no one knows whence the stroke comes." The same traveller says of this poison, "The Otomacs on the Orinoco frequently poison their thumb-nails with the curare. The mere impress of the nail proves fatal, should it mix with the blood." He procured at Esmeralda specimens of the poison and of the plant which yields it, but could not find the latter in blossom. He states, however, that more than forty years after, it was discovered in flower on the banks of the Pomeroon and Issororo, by Richard Schomburgk. That traveller visited our mission district about the time of which this chapter treats. The poison is not manufactured there. " Experiments have shown that the ourali does not belong to the class of tetanic poisons, and that it especially produces a cessation of voluntary muscular movements, while the functions of the involuntary muscles, as the heart and intestines, remain unimpaired." -HUMBOLDT'S Narrative and Views of Nature. VISIT TO THE ACA WOIOS. 143 principle, and a kind of lily, the bulb of which supplies the thick juice which gives the poison the necessary consistence. The Acawoios also supply the coast tribes with considerable quantities of the haiarri root, which is used in poisoning fish. These roots are usually cut in pieces of about two feet in length, and tied up in small bundles, which have a powerful and disagreeable scent. Some of these pieces, bruised till the fibres separate, and then washed in an inclosed piece of water; or in a small stream, at the turn of the tide, when there is little or no current, will cause the fish to rise to the surface apparently intoxicated and gasping. In a few minutes they float motionless, and the larger kinds are shot with barbed arrows, while the smaller ones are struck with knives previously to their being taking out of the water. This is done to save trouble, as they might revive if a heavy shower of rain were suddenly to fall, or fresh water to reach them. The fish so taken are perfectly wholesome; -perhaps the action of fire has some effect in destroying any noxious quality which these poisons may possess, as in the well-known instance of the juice of the cassava. The Acawoios also carry on a traffic in many other things; and they have been called, from their roving propensities, the pedlars and news-carriers of the northeastern coast. They are in constant communication with the inhabitants of Venezuela and the Brazils, as well as with the colonists of Demerara, Surinam, and Cayenne. 144 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. Notwithstanding this roving disposition, they are attentive to agriculture, and are said to cultivate more land than any other tribe; that they may have not' only a supply of provisions for themselves, but for any other party who may chance to call, the rules of hospitality being strictly observed. But after they have planted their fields, and prepared their warlike implements, they sell whatever articles they may have on hand, and with a supply of English goods, and as many fire-arms as they can muster, set off to the Venezuelan or Brazilian territories to barter them there for other articles. Of the nature of those journeys through the wilds of the interior, the following account has been given by one who was well acquainted with the habits of this tribe: — "In these expeditions, in which several families join, their chief care is to provide a good stock of bread; they then march for three days, and halt for two, during which they hunt, and barbacote or dry their game; and they are in no distress for provisions, for even two or three months, which is frequently the duration of their journeys. "In these marches, when they approach a village, it signifies not of what nation, they prepare to attack it. If it be on the alert, and strong enough to resist, they conclude a treaty of commerce, eat together, and trade, without reserve or suspicion; but if the place be weak, and the inhabitants off their guard, those who resist are instantly massacred, and the remainder become slaves to the victors. 1 Mr. Hillhouse. VISIT TO THE ACAWOIOS. 145 "Their audacity in these predatory excursions is astonishing. If a party can muster eight or ten stand of fire-arms, it will fight its way through all the mountain tribes, though at open war with them, and by the rapidity of their marches, and nightly enterprises, they conceal the weakness of their numbers, and carry terror before them." Soon after my journey to the Acawoio settlement, the Caribi territory through which I had passed was ravaged by the small-pox. Its neat and flourishing villages became the scenes of death and misery. Many sad tales were told respecting this visitation. At one settlement, where many had died, a young stranger, when stricken with the disease, had been left to perish; none daring to approach him with a draught of water. It was said that at another place fire had been set to a house, that a corpse within it might be therewith consumed. At my own settlement the small-pox attacked the negro family, which by other arrivals now numbered sixteen. The school was for a time broken up, and the Indians, warned to avoid the place. But my ArawAk boy, Ifili (or David), positively refused to leave me. He remained while the small-pox successively attacked every individual at the settlement with me except himself. The destructive sweep of this disease overcame the reluctance of the Indians to use the remedies of civilized man; and many of them consented to be vaccinated. 1 For a further account of the Acawoio or Kapohn race, see Part II. chap. v. &c. L 146 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. When the small-pox had passed away the Indian congregation increased. Our chapel had been enlarged and beautified by the addition of a chancel, porch, and belfry, and the whole was raised on stout blocks of timber. We frequently had therein people of six different languages-the English, Creole-Dutch, Arawak, Caribi, Acawoio, and Warau, individuals of the latter degraded tribe being sometimes brought by the others. They could at first scarcely be prevented from getting in and out at the windows. Sometimes one would place himself on the window-sill, and squatting on his heels, rest his elbows on his knees, and his jaw on both hands, and quietly, with gaping mouth, and somewhat vacant look, observe what was going on. But, however motley and uncouth our assembly, it was satisfactory to see that the once wretched building was fast becoming the house of prayer for all the tribes around. MISSION CHAPEL, PO1E.ROON, 184'. I~ CHAPTER IX. WAKAPOA LAKE AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. Expedition to Manawarin and Wakapoa-Its Results-Maquarri Dance of the Arawaks-Difficulties-" Captain Peter's Church" Mosquitoes. To the westward of the Pomeroon there are several fine lakes, or "wet" savannahs, as they are called. One of these has been already mentioned. A larger one, called Wakapoa, is situated a few miles' distance from the river's mouth. Their borders were inhabited by Indians of the ArawAk nation. On the banks of the Pomeroon itself, and at no great distance from the Wakapoa, there were several plantations, on which provisions were cultivated by a population of about 300 labourers, chiefly of African origin. In the beginning of 1842 Mr. W. T. Smithett arrived as lay reader of that district, and it was soon arranged that we should in company visit the heathen ArawAks of the Wakapoa, and take with us Cornelius and his brother-in-law Thomas, as paddlers and interpreters. While we were embarking at the landing-place of one of the plantations, called Caledonia, an Indian canoe drew near. In it was an old chief, named John L 2 148 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. Wanyawai, the head of the Caribs in a more distant river, the Manawarin. Learning our object, the old man said that he would be glad of a visit from us. This seemed an opening for Christianity in h still wilder and more distant territory. We therefore resolved to accompany him first to his settlement, though ill prepared (our canoe being too small for such an expedition); and to visit the Wakapoa on our return. It was necessary to descend the river, and go on the sea for four or five miles. A dense mangrove forest borders the river's mouth, and there the manati, or sea-cow, is often met with. This creature is of great length, very thick, and clumsy in shape. It sometimes raises its blunt head out of the water, and feeds on the herbage which grows on the banks; supporting its body on two strong pectoral fins, which the female also uses in holding her young. Its tail is flat, and of a circular shape. Though very large, it is quiet and timid, and its flesh is good food. The estuary or bay which extends between the Pomeroon and Moruca was crossed without difficulty, the day being fine. Near the mouth of the latter stream we saw a number of wooden piles standing in the sea, the remains of an old Dutch fortification. The Spaniards attacked this post in 1797, but were repulsed with severe loss. Their vessels grounded on the mud flat, and were disabled by the fire of the garrison. An old coloured man who saw the fight, described to me the Spanish crew of a burning vessel as struggling through the "drift mud" to the WAKAPOA LAKE. 149 shore, with white cloths bound round their heads as a token of surrender. On the opposite bank cannonballs have been found, the relics of that engagement: but the fort, and the land on which it stood, have long since disappeared. In the estuary sharks and saw-fish are often seen.' The Moruca is a narrow stream of no great length. It is, however, valuable as affording an inland water communication with the Orinoco, by way of the Waini and Barima. A number of Venezuelans, of the mixed race called Spanish Arawaks, having some years before sought refuge from revolutionary horrors within our boundaries, had settled on the Moruca. They were, of course, members of the Church of Rome. At the 1 The saw-fish is sometimes found twenty feet in length. Its " saw" resembles the elongated snout of the sword-fish, with the addition of a row of formidable teeth on each side along its edges. As these cause it to resemble a comb more than a saw, the negroes call it the "comb-fish." Large specimens of those creatures may sometimes be seen with their dorsal fins just visible above the surface. They are dangerous to approach, and if molested turn savagely on the assailant. A young man, whom I knew, having discharged an arrow at one, it immediately attacked and broke his small canoe, striking right and left with its formidable weapon, and killing his dog which was sitting in the bow. The young man himself escaped from the stern into a large Warau canoe, which was fortunately in company. Some years after the above incident, while crossing the same spot with the Rev. W. G. G. Austin, we disturbed one of those creatures, which was apparently taking its siesta at the rippling surface in the heat of the day. It swam swiftly round us for a considerable time, evidently angry and desirous to attack, but deterred by the size of our boat and the stroke of its eight paddles. 150 1THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. time we visited the river, a station called Santa Rosa had recently been established there, and the Rev. J. Cullen, who remained with them more than fourteen years, was their padre. We did not enter their district, but left it on the right hand. Our object was to penetrate the widespreading heathen country which no Christian teacher had ever visited. We therefore turned up the Manawarin, which, though called a tributary, is larger than the Moruca itself. We had to take up our quarters for the night on the banks of the Manawarin, and after prayers endeavoured to compose ourselves to sleep. Our shelter was imperfect, consisting of a small flat roof of manicole leaves, just sufficient to cover two hammocks. The Indians made large fires, and suspended their hammocks over them between the trees. This is the best protection from the wild animals and reptiles which abound in that dense forest. A loud splash was occasionally heard in the water, which the Indians said was occasioned by the plunging of an alligator. About midnight it began to rain heavily, and the water which dripped through the roof compelled me to rise, and stand till morning. The Indians were likewise wet, and with difficulty managed to shelter one of the fires, so as to keep it from being extinguished. The sound of the heavy dropping of the rain from the leaves and branches was only varied by the occasional falling of some large seed-pod from the tall trees. All seemed uncomfortable, except my WAKAPOA LAKE. 151 friend, who still slept on, and Thomas, who had contrived to fix one of our umbrellas over his hammock so as to keep his body pretty dry. A little negro boy had been admitted to share this shelter, and lay in the hammock fast asleep, with his black woolly head on the red bosom of the good-natured Indian. The next day we passed through a district inhabited by about one hundred Waraus, several of whom we visited. They listened with perfect indifference to all we said, and were most importunate beggars. Very different was the reception we experienced at the dwelling of the old Caribi chief, who seemed to consider our visit as a great honour. He introduced us to his two sons, and to several of his tribe, promising to use all his influence to induce them to listen to Christian teaching. He would doubtless have done so had he lived; but the hand of death was even then overshadowing himself and his people. The small-pox soon came upon them, and destroyed many, dispersing the survivors in terror all over the country for a time. At a Warau settlement which we visited, we found a poor girl who had been dreadfully burnt some time before, the fire having caught her hammock while she slept. She was in a shocking state, and it was evident that the Indian remedies were only increasing her sufferings. We offered to procure medical assistance, if her family would remove her to the coast. She seemed a very meek and patient child, and her look of gratitude for our sympathy 152 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. was most affecting. Her friends, however, took no trouble about her, and she probably died soon after. On our return, being anxious to reach our stations before the Sabbath, we ventured to cross the sea soon after midnight, the weather being fine, though the night was dark. Our small canoe, however, met with heavier waves than we had expected, which in the darkness we could not avoid. Paddling and baling in the gloom, we were thankful to reach the Pomeroon in safety, though wet with the sea-water, and waited shivering till daylight enabled us to ascend the Wakapoa. Accidents frequently occur on the sea at that place. A few months later, a canoe much larger than ours was swamped, and a settler named Stoll, and several Indians, were drowned, while attempting to cross it during the night. The entrance to the Wakapoa is very narrow, but after proceeding a few miles, through many impediments from trees, which have fallen from the banks into the stream, and remain fixed by their branches to the bottom, we at length reached a scene of great beauty, having an extensive prospect across a savannah. Through this flows a deep stream, which, overflowing its banks during many months of the year, forms a beautiful lake, adorned with clumps of the ita palm, and several islands. A similar stream enters it from a savannah on the right hand, called Koraia. Having ascended the Wakapoa, we went direct to the habitation of the chief of the district, an infirm WAKAPOA LAKE. 153 old Arawak named Sabaiko. After such remarks as my limited acquaintance with their language enabled me -to make (the old man understanding only a word or two of English), Cornelius addressed him. He was the most eloquent speaker I have known among the Indians; and we listened with silence and pleasure to his words. The old man seemed moved, and promised to tell his people when they returned, most of them being absent. We left him, after prayer, according to our custom, and returned to our stations. Our visit to Wakapoa having apparently produced no good effect, we repeated it after some weeks, but with similar results. On this occasion the old chief's wife made her appearance with what seemed at a distance to be a singular head-dress; but proved to be a young baboon or red monkey, which she carried in this manner, its feet being placed on her shoulders, and its grinning visage resting on its forepaws upon her forehead. The Indian women take great care of various young animals, even suckling them as if they were their children. This disgusting practice is not confined to any one tribe, nor indeed to the Indian females alone. We visited this district many times, but with little good effect. Most of the young men of the different settlements had been engaged to accompany the military expedition to Pirara, and returned much worse disposed than they were before. Some families were there who had lived on the Demerara, and were remarkable for drunkenness. 154 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. On one occasion I visited the Wakapoa alone, Mr. Smithett being prevented from going by indisposition. On arriving there, I found that the people had all gone to the Koraia, where there was a great Maquarri dance. We arrived at the place of festivity in the afternoon, being guided by the shouts of the people there assembled. The scene surpassed all that I had previously heard or seen of Indian life. The young men and boys, fantastically adorned, were ranged in two parallel rows, facing each other, each holding in his right hand the Maquarri from which the dance takes its name. The Maquarri is a whip, more than three feet long, and capable of giving a severe cut, as their bleeding legs amply testified. They waved those whips in their hands as they danced, uttering alternate cries, which resembled the note of a certain bird often heard in the forests. At some little distance from the dancers were couples of men lashing each other on the leg. The man whose turn it was to receive the lash stood firmly on one leg, advancing the other; while his adversary, stooping, took deliberate aim, and, springing from the earth to add vigour to his stroke, gave his opponent a severe cut. The latter gave no other sign that he was hurt than by a contemptuous smile, though blood might have been drawn by the lash, which, after a short dance, was returned with equal force. Nothing could exceed the good humour with which those proceedings were carried on. Every man, unless aged or infirm, is expected to engage in the contest. One of them was V.,O. "V.'I:i~ r: MAOUARRI DANCE OF THE ARAWAKS AT KORAIA II WAKAPOA LAKE. scarcely able to walk from the punishment he had received; but in general, after a few lashes, they drank paiwari together, and returned to the main body of the dancers, from which fresh couples were continually falling out to test each others' mettle. The old chief, Sabaiko, met and saluted me in a friendly manner; and then seated himself in the house to view the proceedings of his people. He was dressed for the occasion in European clothing, had suspended round his neck the silver plate which marked his chieftainship, and bore his silver-headed staff in his hand. Some of his people wore shirts, &c. which contrasted in a singular manner with the ornaments of their native costume. I am sorry to add that most of them were in different stages of intoxication. Some time before the whip dance ended, a sturdy little Warau, in an evil hour for his legs, arrived from a neighbouring settlement. The young Araw8ks thought, and probably with justice, that he had purposely delayed his coming until the close of the proceedings, in the hope of avoiding the lash while getting a share of the liquor. They therefore quietly passed the word among themselves to keep him employed, by challenging in succession; and the grim joke was carried into effect. In a corner of the ground near me the poor fellow was kept engaged with fresh antagonists, giving and receiving the cuts of the Maquarri. He bore it with unflinching fortitude, though, as he at last perceived their design, there became an evident difference between his demeanour and theirs; especially in the nature of the grins with 156 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. which the lash was welcomed, and the capers which preceded and followed it. They let him off at last, but his small share of paiwari had been very dearly earned. The dance was given in honour of a deceased female, who had been buried in the house. A broad plank lay on her grave, and on it were placed two bundles, containing the refuse of the silk grass of which the whips were made, which had been carefully preserved;-there were also two pieces of wood, rudely carved to resemble birds, and two others which were intended to represent infants. At a signal from the master of the house the dancing ceased; and all the men, arranging themselves in procession, went round the house with slow and measured steps, the plank and wooden images being carried before them. After this they arranged themselves near the grave, and one of them chanted something in a low voice, to which the others answered at intervals with four moans, by way of chorus. The articles carried in procession were then taken to a hole previously dug in the earth, and buried there. Two or three men appointed for the purpose then drew forth their long knives, and, rushing in among the dancers, snatched the whips from them, cut off the lash from each, and buried them with the other articles. It seemed to be a point of etiquette not to resign the whips without a struggle, and, while the one party were snatching and cutting, the others were leaping and throwing somersaults to avoid them, and it was surprising that none of them received any injury amid the confusion. WAKAPOA LAKE. 157 After an interval of rest, twelve of the young men came forward to engage in another kind of dance, called Owiarri. These performers carried rods about twelve feet in length, on the top of which were fixed small gourds with stones in them, and decorated with streamers of silk grass, painted red. They ranged themselves in parallel rows as before, facing each other: and danced backwards and forwards, striking the lower ends of their rods upon the earth, and keeping time with the clash. Some young women went up to these dancers from time to time, and taking them by the arm danced with them; then at a signal given by their partners, who shook the coverings of beetles' wings and other ornaments with which their legs were adorned, they ran off to their companions like frightened deer. Two canoes full of paiwari had been made for the occasion, and as these were now exhausted the spirits of the company began to flag. I slept at the house of a young Indian named Hubbard, at some little distance from the scene of the revels. The noise of the drunken orgies by degrees died away, the moon rose in all the soft beauty of a tropical night, and the stillness which pervaded all nature formed a striking contrast to the noise and turbulence which had marked the day. The next day, the visitors from the Wakapoa arose early and went to their canoes, to avoid meeting me. On sending a request for them to return, they replied "that if I wished to speak with them I must go to them." On hastening to the water-side, I found about 158 THIE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. fifty people present, who were all seated in their canoes about to start; and when I spoke to them they listened in gloomy silence, and without turning their heads towards me. Sabaiko then said, "I have no power over my people; myself and a few will hear, but most of them are unwilling." Returning to the scene of the preceding day's festivity I found that headaches and sore legs were abundant, and received many applications for remedies. Under the influence of present feelings, some of them said that their dances were very bad, and that they would forsake them, and put themselves under Mr. Smithett's instructions;-good resolutions, which with most abated as their headaches went off and their legs became well. The Maquarri dances had often been mentioned to me, but, as our own people had discontinued them, I had given up all expectation of witnessing one. I was particularly surprised at their indifference to pain, which they said was owing in a great measure to the paiwari and the presence of the women, who sit by as spectators of their powers of endurance. This entertainment had been given by one of the men in honour of his sister, who had been dead many months; her husband was present, and I was told that, after the dance, his connexion with her family would entirely cease. Some have supposed that those dances were connected with the giving in marriage of some young female, and that contending rivals settled their claims with the Maquarri; but this I am unable to decide, though it is not exclusively a funeral game. [WAKAPOA LAKE. 159 With respect to the images I could learn nothing: they were ceremonies derived from their ancestors, but they seemed to have lost their original meaning.1 During the year 1842 and the early part of 1843, Mr. Smithett and myself repeatedly visited the Wakapoa and Koraia. On one occasion, being unable to discover the path leading to their settlements, we attempted to cross the swamp, and found ourselves in an unpleasant position: the crust of the quagmire, which was hardened by the sun, being in most places strong enough to bear our weight, but in some parts very thin, and giving way beneath our feet. We at length sunk deep at every step, and I received a wound in the sole of my foot, by a splinter from a tree which was imbedded beneath the surface. This confined me to my hammock for two days. Mr. Smithett got safely across, though he sunk in the mud very deeply at one spot. On our return the Indians made a path for us across the swamp by a layer of the large trooly-leaves, which was perfectly safe. 1 I have not seen among other tribes anything similar to the Maquarri, the institution of which seems to bear a faint resemblance to the funeral games of classic antiquity. It is also the nearest approach, observable among the Indians, to the friendly contests practised in Europe during the ages of chivalry. Though sufficiently barbarous, it is by no means to be compared to our own brutal prize-fights, or to pugilistic contests in general. And it would be a great benefit to the obstinate duellists of Europe and America, and especially to their unfortunate families, were the Maquarri to supersede among them the use of sword and pistol, rifle and bowie.knife. 160 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. In returning, we saw a young alligator asleep on the surface of the water, which one of our Indians struck with a paddle, and placed in the hinder part of the canoe, thinking it to be dead. It soon revived, and, as it began to move, the two lads who were sitting on the seat just over it,, nearly overturned us in their hurry to escape. Having its head towards the pointed stern, it began to move up towards the steersman, who hastily threw a foot over each side of the canoe, and was preparing to slip backward into the stream, when the alligator, instinctively perceiving that by ascending it would not find water, turned round, and began to run forwards. Its skull was then fractured by a blow from the blade of a paddle, which prevented the reptile doing further mischief. On another occasion, while descending the narrow gorge or outlet of the Wakapoa, we were carried by the velocity of the current upon one of those dangerous stumps (called snags on the rivers of the United States), which brought us up with great violence; and the canoe, after quivering for a few seconds, fell broadside into the water. She providentially righted, but was half full, and we were in a state of great anxiety lest the bottom should have been pierced: that, however, was not the case, or the consequences, in that obstructed rapid, might have been fatal to us. Mr. Smithett, who was most indefatigable in his labours, succeeded, during a visit of nine days, in inducing about thirty Indians to commence attendance at Caledonia: and there was at length every WtAKAPOA LAKE. 161 prospect of success following much disappointment, among the Arawaks of the Wakapoa. In the Manawarin, among the Caribs, the prospect was even more cheering. The old chief, John Wanyawai, had indeed, to our regret, died of smallpox with many of his family and people. But one of his sons, named Peter, had recovered from the disease, and succeeded to his father's office. His first act was to assemble all the Caribs in the neighbourhood; who, at the suggestion of Mr. M'Clintock, the Post-holder, constructed a large shed on a hill called Wasiba; to be used as a place of worship when the missionaries might visit their river. This building was used for that purpose more than once, both by Mr. Smithett and myself; and was known among the Indians by the name of " Captain Peter's Church." More than one hundred Caribs sometimes assembled there. The great drawback to the formation of an Indian station at Hackney, Caledonia, or the neighbouring estates, was the annoyance experienced from the mosquitoes, for which that district is notorious; and which are numerous and tormenting to a degree which, without experience, can scarcely be comprehended. The negroes and others fill their houses with smoke in the evenings, to drive them out; a remedy almost as bad as the evil which it is designed to counteract. The Indians avoid fixing their habitations in the neighbourhood of the sea, where those insects are most abundant.' 1 The evenings and nights of Guiana are generally very pleasant M 162 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. Notwithstanding this, the ArawAks from the Wakapoa, and occasionally a few Caribs from Manawarin, endured this annoyance for one or two nights in the week, taking shelter among the negroes, or in any shed which they could find vacant. on the higher land, remote from the coast. There, as a friendly visitor beneath the humble roof of the Indian, you can, after a hot and fatiguing voyage, peacefully recline in your hammock, enjoy the cool night air, and watch the bright moon or stars; while the goat-sucker, flitting from stump to stump of the field or clearing, will amuse you with his cry, which strangely resembles the human voice. One of those weird birds in a shrill inquiring tone asks, "Who are you?" which question will be repeated by a second (and perhaps a third) at some distance. Other kinds will peremptorily request you to " Work, work, work away!" or to " Whip poor Will!" If the night air be too cold, your kind host will place more wood on the fire, and make you comfortable by a cheerful blaze. In those Indian dwellings you are seldom annoyed by mosquitoes or the still more terrible sand-flies. But alas for him who, unsheltered, has to spend the night among the insects and reptiles of the marshy lands near the coast! Soon will the old complaint be his" Mali culices ranaeque palustres Avertunt somnos." With face swollen and smarting, eyes bleared with smoke, limbs unrefreshed, and temper most unpleasantly tried, the traveller, as soon as the tide will allow, takes down his hammock and hastens his departure. CHAPTER X. THE WARAUS OR GUARANOS. Cabacaburi-Opposition among the Caribs-The Waraus-Unsuccessful Voyages and Journeys-Great and sudden ChangeEfforts of the Post-holder and the Indians. ABOUT one mile from the Indian station which we had formed on the Pomeroon is the first hill met with on the banks of the river. From the side of that hill there rises a giant silk-cotton tree, towering high above the surrounding forest and attracting the eye of every passer-by. High up amidst its overhanging foliage are seen the pendent nests of the mockingbirds and parasites of various kinds cover its branches and entwine its trunk. The Indian name of the hill is Cabacaburi. In the olden time it belonged to the Arawaks, and had since been occupied by settlers as a woodcutting establishment. It was abandoned in 1843. Dr. Austin, then newly consecrated as first Bishop of Guiana, in the course of his voyages among the aborigines, visited our Indians, and after admitting their teacher to holy orders, purchased Cabacaburi for their use. The station (with the exception of the chapel) was soon after removed thither. M2 164 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. It was not without a feeling of regret that the old settlement could be quitted; for, though unhealthy, it had been endeared by many associations. But for health and comfort the new place of residence was much superior. It soon became a pleasant and picturesque spot. A large village there sprang up, the Caribs erecting one half, and the Arawaks the other. Among the houses were large clumps of tall and feather-like bamboos; while the cocoa-nut and paripi palms-the bread-nut, mango, orange, lime, guava, and other trees, " pleasant to the sight or good for food" added to the beauty of the settlement by their. varied shapes and foliage. The Caribs of the vicinity had joined us; but those who dwelt near the head of the Pomeroon still held aloof. The majority of them knew very little English, and were influenced by one of their number who could speak it very well, but acted in opposition to us. I visited this person, and found him an intelligent man, though living in the barbarous fashion of his heathen countrymen. He was very civil in his language, but took no pains to conceal his aversion to Christianity. Rising from his stool, he cut short our interview by asking me to go with him, and see a fine "king of the vultures " which he had captured. It was a splendid bird, and of large size. Its head, destitute of feathers, but shaded with delicate tints of pink and orange, and set off with brilliant pearlcoloured eyes, seemed, with the ruff round its neck and other plumage, to call forth the admiration of my Carib host. But we were both obliged to keep Ij z THE WARAUS OR GUARANOS. 165 to windward, on account of the odour of a number of putrefying fish given it for food; over which, though they were not yet in a sufficiently advanced stage of decomposition, the feathered epicure was beginning to spread and flap his wings, anticipating the future banquet. The object of my visits to this district was totally defeated for the time by the influence of this man and others of the Caribi leaders. The state of the WARAUS in the remoter districts then became a subject of reflection and solicitude. They had always ranked lowest among the coast tribes of Guiana; and not one hopeful sign had as yet appeared among them. In person the Waraus are short, stoutly built, and capable of great exertion; but they are generally very careless of their personal appearance, and their filthiness is proverbial. They care so little for clothing, that even their females frequently content themselves with a small piece of the bark of a tree, or the net-like covering of the young leaf of the cocoa-nut or cabbage-palm; and their appearance is squalid and disagreeable. Many of the young persons of this tribe possess very good features, which I have once or twice seen disfigured by a thin piece of silver, suspended from the cartilage of the nostrils, and covering the upper lip. As they so seldom cover their bodies, their skins are darker than those of the other tribes. It has been said that it is difficult at times to distinguish the Warau from the negro; but this is incorrect: from 166 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. continual exposure and want of cleanliness their skins are somewhat darker than those of other Indians, but that is all. Though careless to the last degree, and averse to continuous employment, no Indians are so much sought after as labourers. When they can be induced to begin, they will do more work than others, and are satisfied with less wages if rum be given liberally. They inhabit the swampy district so often mentioned, and, being near the sea, are excellent fishermen, and subsist much upon the productions of the waters. They cultivate cassava and other vegetables, but do not pay sufficient attention to agriculture, and in times of scarcity betake themselves to the ita palms, which abound in the swamps. This tree is of the greatest service to them. They are fond of its fruit, and at certain seasons make of its pith a substitute for bread, while its trunk is sometimes split and used in flooring their dwellings, and its leaf supplies the fibrous material of which, among other useful things, they make strong and serviceable hammocks, which form an important article in their little traffic. They are also noted for making canoes, with which they supply the whole colony, the Arawaks sometimes undertaking long voyages to their remote settlements, and bringing the canoes, to be again sold to the settlers, or disposed of among themselves. The canoe, or "woibaka," as it is called by the Waraus, is most excellently adapted to the wants of the Indians, though shaped and hollowed with rude THE WARA US OR G UA RANOS. 167 implements and without any assistance from the rules of art. Some of them used by the Spaniards are said to have been known to carry one hundred men and a three-pounder;1 but the largest I have seen could not have carried more than fifty persons. Were the Waraus more careful of their gains, and more prompt to avail themselves of advantages, no tribe in Guiana could be in more respectable circumstances; but they have not yet learned to make the slightest provision beyond what absolute necessity requires. If successful in hunting, a scene of excessive gluttony follows, until the game is consumed, and returning hunger forces them to exertion. If unsuccessful, they are capable of enduring great privation. They can also paddle a canoe with greater vigour and for a longer time than the other Indians. Such are the Waraus; strong and hardy in person, but slovenly and dirty; merry and cheerful in disposition, but careless and improvident. They were utterly ignorant, and consequently very superstitious, their sorcerers being considered to possess greater power over the evil spirits than those of any other tribe. After repeated efforts during two years among the Waraus of Manawarin, finding no change in their disposition, I resolved to try another field of labour, and began to visit a small river in the vicinity, called Haimara-Cabura. Little satisfaction attended the first visit, as the people at the settlement where we took 1 MI. Martin, p. 50. 168 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. up our quarters were at no pains to conceal their indifference or dislike. A fine young fellow had a kind of javelin, the shaft of which was made of a strong reed, in one end of which was inserted a piece of hard wood, forming the point. He continued to hurl this at a mark on the soft stem of a plantaintree, which was pierced through; the pointed wood remaining firmly fixed in the tree while the elastic staff flew back towards the man who had cast it. He told me that it was used in striking the morocote and other large fish: fruit or seeds which they are fond of being scattered on the still water, while the Indian watches their rising and kills them with an arrow or this kind of dart. These people paid little or no attention to our evening worship,-did not wish to be taught,-and seemed thoroughly ill-tempered. After we had retired to rest, a child happening to cry, one of the women arose from her hammock, and taking a large piece of firewood, struck it violently several times as it lay, and then suddenly caught it up, ran to the bush, and hurled it from her. It fell on the ground, apparently much hurt. I had not witnessed such brutality among the other tribes; but concluded that they were all out of temper because I had brought no rum to give them, for which they were very importunate. The next morning they demanded money for the shelter they had afforded myself and party,-a thing I had never heard of among the Indians of Guiana. They were thoroughly wedded to their superstitions, and practised them without reserve. On one occasion THE WARAUS OR GUARANOS. 169 we passed an old man fishing in a canoe on the Manawarin. The clouds threatened rain, and when he perceived it, he began to use extraordinary gesticulations, flourishing his arms, and shouting his incantations to drive it away. It soon cleared up, and the old sorcerer rejoiced at his success, as he deemed it. In the course of another voyage, we passed a Warau similarly engaged in fishing, and apparently so intent upon his pursuit that he could neither observe us passing nor answer our salutation. When we had got a little distance from him, he inquired of the ArawAk who was steering our canoe, whether I had many of the "hebo," or evil spirits, attending me. The answer, "They are entirely wanting," was accompanied by a loud laugh from my crew. It appeared that the Waraus in their ignorance regarded a missionary as a powerful enchanter, and the change in the other tribes as the effect of magic. These discouragements continued up to the close of 1844. But at that time, and while their case appeared to me as utterly hopeless, some of those people commenced attending the station on the Lower Pomeroon. An account of this was speedily sent to me by Mr. Campbell, who had succeeded Mr. Smithett as teacher there: and it seemed expedient to visit them without delay. Accordingly, I set out on the 15th of December for the Haimara-Cabura; resting the second night at an Arawak settlement in the Koraia, the scene of the Maquarri dance. The weather was tempestuous, the rainy season having set 170 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. in with violence, and we took this route to avoid the necessity of crossing the sea, as there is a passage called the Itabbo leading to the Manawarin through the forests, which is only navigable when the whole country is inundated. On the morning of the 18th we set out from the settlement in the Koraia, across the savannah, then covered with water. The reeds and grass appearing above the surface caused it to resemble at a little distance a pleasant lawn; while the islets and the main land were finely wooded, and an ita-tree here and there stood in solitary beauty in the midst of the savannah. A double rainbow appeared as we started, whose bright colours contrasted vividly with the dark clouds as it spanned our intended course. We proceeded through the Itabbo, meeting with much difficulty, owing to the fallen trees which obstructed the channel. I had formerly travelled that way with Mr. Smithett, but the impediments had much increased in number since that time. We arrived at the settlement in Haimara-Cabura, and the intelligence soon spread through the neighbourhood. The Waraus began to assemble. I was not sorry, for there were but two men at the place,an old and a young one; the former very savage and crabbed in his manner. Endeavours to soothe him, by praising the beauty of the skin of an ocelot, which he had made into a cap, and wore with the tail appending behind, were all in vain; he turned a deaf ear to everything spoken, whether pleasant or serious. The young fellow was also very annoying, and ridiculously insolent, for placing himself imme THE WARAUS Oil GUARANOS. 171 diately in front he continued to dance (at me as it seemed) the ungraceful, staggering dance of his nation at intervals during the whole day. When their chief, named Damon, arrived, he told me that the old man was a great sorcerer, which explained his moroseness. When I began to speak to the people he seemed much excited; and when he saw them arrange themselves for evening worship, probably thinking it a proof that the spirits who favoured the Christian religion were more powerful than his own familiars, he paid them the compliment of putting on a clean white shirt and joining us. The last party who came were heard about this time a long distance off, shouting with all their might. I met them as they landed from their canoes, and told them that we were about to speak to the great God our Maker and Lord, whom they must approach with reverence. This had the desired effect, and those poor ignorant beings behaved with great reverence during the singing and prayer. I afterwards addressed them kin the broken English of which many of them knew a little. They now appeared very anxious to be taught, and I was astonished at the change; while hoping that it might be the commencement of their ingathering to the Church of God. When night came on, the people whose habitations were near departed; the others tied up their hammocks wherever they could find a place. There was much laughter over their fires, and more talking; 172 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. but all agreed to follow me on my return to Caledonia, and to continue to attend there until a teacher could be placed among them. They fulfilled their promise, and on the Lord's day the place of worship was crowded with Indians,-Arawaks, Waraus, and Caribs. People from every neighbouring creek, some even from Moruca, came without having been invited. This sudden change in the disposition of the Waraus drew the attention of the Post-holder, Mr. M'Clintock, who had always used his influence in inducing the Indians to receive Christian instruction. They were now become too numerous to be accommodated at Caledonia, where the mosquitoes were also painfully annoying, depriving them of sleep. The sea, which they had to cross, had sometimes swamped the Caribi canoes, which were very small, and only adapted for smooth water and the heads of the rivers. On those occasions both men and women jumped into the sea, and hung by the canoe with one hand till the water could be baled out. Notwithstanding, they complained that they had sometimes lost their hammocks, and got their bread spoiled by the sea-water. A new station thus became necessary. Mr. M'Clintock informed me of the existence of a fine hill, or elevated sand-reef, on the banks of the Moruca, near the mouth of Haimara-Cabura; and he took advantage of the disposition of the Waraus to assemble a great number of them, who began to cut down the forest to form a mission-station among themselves. THE WARA US O1R G(ARANOS. 173 While he was thus engaged, I went to Georgetown, and brought the matter before the Demerara and Essequibo branch of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. The application was immediately received, and a sum of money voted to commence with, but there was no missionary whose services were available. When this was made apparent, and the question, "Whom shall we send?" proposed by Archdeacon Lugar, Mr. J. H. Nowers, who was present, rose up, offered himself for the work, and was immediately appointed to the mission. On my return, I found some hundreds of Indians assembled at the site of the proposed mission-station. They had already cleared a large tract of sand-reef under the superintendence of the Post-holder, who had erected a shed for his accommodation, over which a large flag was waving in the breeze. Some of the Waraus present had come from very remote quarters. They were headed by an old chief named Clementia, who drew them up in order, forming three sides of a square, to hear what I had to say. The old chief bore his silver-headed staff in his hand, and had on a once fashionable black coat, with long swallow tails and very high collar, but no other garment, except his scanty Indian cloth. His people were even wilder and more grotesque than himself. The message with which I was charged was explained to the Waraus by Stoll, Mr. M'Clintock's interpreter, and great was their joy to hear that a resident missionary was about to be placed among them. 174 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. The work then proceeded with great rapidity. In every direction were heard the crash of falling trees, and the shouts of the Waraus. The posts and timber for the erection of the chapel and missionhouse were soon cut, and a settler employed to erect the latter. None of the Indians received wages. They provided their own cassava bread, and a few casks of salt fish furnished them with rations. A puncheon of molasses was also sent for their use by Mr. Hughes, manager of Plantation Anna Regina, who had heard of their exertions. Sixty men went to that estate, after the clearing was over, to work for clothing. How different were the prospects in March 1845, as it regarded the spread of the Gospel of Christ among them, to those presented six months before! Those events were surprising at the time to those who witnessed them. To myself especially, who during many fruitless expeditions had seen so many proofs of their unwillingness, the present change seemed the work of God. Nor was this feeling lessened at beholding the manner in which the altered disposition of the Waraus was met by the exertions of the Post-holder, and the appointment of a missionary, between whom and myself there existed the bond of former friendship, and a recent family tie. Of the promising appearance of all the Indian Missions in the colony, the Hon. H. C. F. Young, then Government Secretary, publicly stated that it THE WARAUS OR G UARA NOS. 175 might (at that time) have been said, " almost without a figure of speech:"" The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." NOTE.-Though a few scattered hordes of Waraus (to be noticed hereafter) are found in other parts of our province, especially on its eastern boundary, yet the region mentioned above, which extends in a north-westerly direction from the Pomeroon to (and beyond) the Orinoco, must be considered as the proper territory of their nation. It is in the delta of the latter river, and the low country which borders its mouth, that their rude and peculiar way of life is seen in its perfection. There, the lands being completely inundated by the overflowing river for some months in each year, the Warau is forced to construct his dwelling above the flood, and among the trees from which a large portion of his food is derived. He uses, where possible, their upright trunks as posts;-thatches the roof beneath their leafy crowns;-fixes the lower beams a few feet above the highest level of the water, and lays thereon the split ita trunks for flooring. On the latter the hearth and fire are placed and culinary operations performed; while from the upper beams the hammocks of his family are suspended. The ever-ready woibaka, or canoe, gives th th the means of locomotion for fishing and other purposes, until the flood has subsided and terra firma again appears. CHAPTER XI. WARAMURI. Conversation with an old Warau-Erection of the Mission Buildings-Sickness of Missionaries-Extraordinary ImpostureLong Drought-Waramuri Mission nearly destroyed by FireFamine-Mortality by Dysentery-Progress of the MissionDistant Indians desire a Teacher. THE name of the hill which the Indians had so speedily cleared of the venerable forest that had covered it for ages is Waramuri. This is the name of a species of black ant with which the spot abounded. It is situated near the junction of the Haimara-Cabura with the Moruca, and is about sixty miles (travelling by water) from the Upper Mission in Pomeroon. About a month after the circumstances recorded in the last chapter, I found the clearing completed, and the frame of the mission-house erected. All the people were gone, except the interpreter, and an old wild-looking Warau, named John, and his family, who were awaiting the arrival of the new missionary. As this was delayed for some days, a good opportunity was afforded of examining the situation. 'WARAMUR. 1 77 A ridge of sand gradually ascends from the mouth of the Haimara-Cabura to a considerable height, and terminates abruptly in a tumulus resembling an ancient barrow. One side of this mound is precipitous, the other connected with the sand reef. It seemed chiefly composed of small shells, resembling those of periwinkles, and marked with alternate stripes of white and black. These were so abundant that the mould when taken up in a shovel appeared full of them. Between this hill and the Moruca there is a swamp, about a quarter of a mile in width. Both the swamp and the high land were then completely covered with the newly felled trees. From the top of the hill we could look down upon the forest, and trace the course of the Moruca and two tributary streams; the trees on their banks being higher than those in the other parts of the forest. Being desirous of knowing what the Waraus thought of the sand reef and the heap of shells on which we stood, I inquired of the old man through the interpreter. He at once said, that when the world was made that ridge was the sea-coast. A conversation then arose respecting the creation of mankind. The old man said that " three different races were made by God,-white, red, and black. Each of those races was intended to live as we then saw them." The religion of our Lord, he said, was doubtless "good for white men, as they professed it, but not for the red men, or they would have followed it from the beginning." It soon appeared that his principal objection to Christianity arose from the fact that he had two N 178 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. wives, and had already discovered that Christians were only allowed to have one. He spoke with great animation on this point. "I really cannot put away my young wife," said he; "and as for the old one, I certainly will not dismiss her; for she grew up with me, and is the mother of most of my children." When told that God had appointed but one wife for each man, he seemed to think it very hard. On being asked why a man should have two wives, and a woman not be allowed two husbands, he directly said that his tribe did not consider either practice to be bad;' and that he knew a Warau woman who had three. Our further conversation showed the utter grossness of their minds, and that my brother would have no easy task before him. When Mr. Nowers arrived, his exertions were so well seconded by the Indians that the erection of the buildings advanced rapidly. They were built of rough timber, and thatched with trooly leaves. As the Moruca and its tributary streams are destitute of this tree, every leaf had to be fetched from the Pomeroon in their small canoes, each trip occupying at least three days. The labour thus bestowed was only remunerated by a small allowance of salt fish and molasses. As no sailing-vessel can enter the Moruca, the boards for the buildings were brought by the Indians in the same manner from its mouth, a few at a time. The Waraus and Manawarin Caribs did most of this laborious work; the ArawAks in the vicinity of the mission thatched I, ~~~~~~~C 44~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IIr~, II. . WARAMURI. 179 the sides and roofs of the buildings, and the carpenter's work was performed by settlers from the Pomeroon. The sum granted by the Demerara and Essequibo District Society was about 1701. sterling, and the labour of the Indians would have cost an equal sum had it been necessary to pay them. As soon as the house was habitable, Mr. Nowers brought his family to the mission. An accident happened while they were passing up the Moruca, which might have been attended with fatal consequences. The mouth of this stream forms a rapid' during the rainy season, from its extreme narrowness and the immense quantity of water which there finds its outlet. Wild mangroves overhang it, whose roots and branches, somewhat resembling those of the banian-tree in the East, descend into the water. While the crew of the large canoe which contained the family were vainly striving to overcome the opposing current, two Indian boys from the Pomeroon Mission, who were in a small canoe loaded with plantains, got entangled among the mangroves; their frail craft turned broadside to the current, and was driven violently against a mass of spreading roots. One of them, an Arawak, was completely hoisted out by a branch, and hung suspended, clinging to it for some little time; then, without losing his presence of mind, he swung himself several feet over the whirling and dashing water into the nearly-overturned canoe. It was a moment of great anxiety to us, as we were quite unable to approach them. But providentially the canoe N2 180 TIHE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. was not swamped, though very small; the impeding roots and branches gave way, and they slipped through them, and shot down the stream with us to await the moment of high water. They were neither of them twelve years old, and, though excellent swimmers, must have been carried under the roots of the trees and drowned had they fallen into the stream. A little after dark we reached Waramuri, and as the sound of the paddles was heard by the people on the hill, a great number of lights were seen advancing to meet us; and on landing, the hearty greeting of about one hundred Caribi men and women was almost overwhelming. All were pressing to shake hands, and to carry some little article from t.e canoe to the house. It was a grateful spectacle, and very cheering to the new comers. I was soon after compelled to leave my station for a time by the effects of a severe fever, and Mr. Nowers had a very serious illness while visiting Georgetown for the purpose of being admitted into holy orders, his wife being dangerously ill at the same time. About this time a remarkable imposture was practised upon the Indians in that part of Guiana. A person pretending to be the Lord went into the interior with some deluded followers, and established himself in the upper part of the Masaruni. From this distant spot, he sent emissaries into the neighbourhood of all the missions, calling on the Indians to quit their homes and provision-grounds, and go to him. They WARAMURI. 181 were told that they should possess lands which would yield a large crop of cassava from a single stick, and various other absurdities, very alluring to the indolent Indian. Those tales, joined to threats of horrible destruction which should come upon all who refused to go, had their influence upon the minds of many, and lured them away. The movement commenced with the Acawoios near the Essequibo, who had been observed to be providing themselves with fire-arms for some time before they set out. They were anxious to get the Caribs to join them, and hundreds of Indians of different tribes went from all parts of the country to "see God," as they termed it, some of whom perished by sickness on the way, and others found themselves in a state of destitution on arriving at the spot. Intelligence of this singular movement was conveyed to the Bishop of Guiana, whose invalid guest I was at that time. Having learned the particulars, I hastened to the mission, though still very weak; and Mr. Nowers followed with his family as soon as he was able to travel. We found that not one baptized person, and only one catechumen, had been enticed away; but those who had kept aloof from Christian instruction had fallen readily into the deceitful snare. In the more remote districts some settlements were completely deserted. The inhabitants of others had been part of the way, and then returned, famished and ashamed. In the upper part of the Pomeroon I found that the course of the river was obstructed 182 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. by two trees of great height, which had been cut from the banks to afford their families the means of crossing in their hasty march. Still the number of Caribs who went was but small compared with that of the Acawoios, who left their settlements on the Barima and Barahma for a long time. Kobise, the Caribi catechumen, who had been deluded away, soon returned to Waramuri, and thus detailed the particulars of his journey: —"We travelled as fast as we could for thirteen days, and at length arrived at a savannah where some hundreds of Acawoios and others were assembled. They had as yet scarcely any field provisions, and game was scarce from the multitude of hunters. I was led to a little enclosed hut, from which I heard a voice commanding me to return, and fetch my friends and neighbours, as a great fire and water would come upon the whole world except that spot." He said also that the impostor did not make himself visible, but remained concealed from all, as far as he could learn, delivering his predictions by night; and that his voice sounded like that of a white person. He also added, that on looking around him he could see nothing but drinking and dancing, a portion of the little cassava bread which they could obtain being made into paiwari; and from this he became apprehensive that it'was a delusion of the Yurokon, or evil spirit, and made his escape from them the same night, and returned. This strange story, the leading facts of which have been well authenticated by other evidence, is .WARAMURI. 183 a remarkable illustration of Matt. xxiv. 26 (a text which struck the Indians greatly when it was explained to them on that occasion), inasmuch as the impostor was both "in a secret chamber" and in "the desert." It showed us the necessity of using every effort to spread among those simple people the knowledge which alone could make them truly wise. At the same time, it proved that the knowledge of the existence of a Saviour from destruction had even then spread very widely, although to many it was but as a faintly gleaming light, not sufficient to keep them from going into error. A long period of drought ensued. The rainy season, which is expected to commence in November, was confined to a few partial showers; and the earth was parched, and vegetation dried up by the long period of heat, which lasted from August, 1845, until the following May. During the height of that drought, Waramuri Mission was in danger of being destroyed by fire. The swamp in front of it has been already described. It was then covered with dry vegetation, and the trees which had been cut down a year before. A Caribi Indian, named Plata, incautiously set fire to the dry grass, and the flames soon began to rise, and spread with rapidity, covering a space a quarter of a mile in extent, and advancing towards the mission. As soon as the alarm was given, Mr. Nowers and the Indians present ran to clear away the dried grass and brushwood which covered the slope, that the fire might have nothing to feed upon. It reached 184 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. the foot of the hill, and as it began to climb in any place, it was beaten down with long poles. The heat was suffocating, and both the missionary and Indians were blackened by the smoke: but after a severe struggle with the devouring element, by God's blessing on their exertions, the buildings and their families were saved. At four P. M. the fire rushed over the hill about thirty feet from the chapel, and passed on in a broad sheet of flame, devouring everything in its progress. Mr. Nowers requiring medical assistance for his family, I took charge of Waramuri for six weeks after this. The broad track of the conflagration was perfectly black. The fire continued burning in many places for weeks, feeding upon the peat, of which the soil is partly composed, and upon the enormous trunks of trees which lay in every direction. Some of those burning masses looked perfectly white during the glare of the sun by day, and glowed with intense brightness as night came on. The swamps were on fire in various directions. One evening six conflagrations were visible in different parts of the horizon. The nearest of these communicated with a portion of the forest, the flames catching the dry leaves, and mounting the trees in succession until their further progress was stopped by the river. Charred skeletons of small animals and reptiles might be seen among the ashes, the remains of snakes being especially numerous. While proceeding one day up the river, a crackling noise was heard at a distance, accompanied by a WARAMUI. 185 dense smoke. The Indians said that a savannah which we were approaching was on fire, and immediately rested on their paddles. We soon saw the flames driving before the wind, and devouring the reeds and grass, while our further progress was prevented by the burning flakes and smoke, until the fire had burnt down to the edge of the stream. We had to keep our faces close to the water, to escape the suffocating vapour. The drought was severely felt in the cultivated part of the country, the navigable trenches of the sugar estates being nearly dry. The rivers, from the want of rain, had become salt and brackish to a great distance from their mouths. The heads of the little streamlets were sought for fresh water, and some of them became dry. The cassava which had been planted by the Indians in October, not having the expected rain to nourish it, did not grow. Hence food became scarce, and many expedients were resorted to to supply the deficiency. The Waraus betook themselves to their favourite resource, the ita swamps; and subsisted there as well as they could. When the famine was at its height, the fruit of the wild cashew became ripe, and afterwards that of the simiri, or locust tree. From these and others the Indians managed to procure a scanty subsistence, and might be seen emerging from the forest with their quakes or baskets full of them. Unwholesome food! for using which they afterwards suffered greatly. The rain fell at length in torrents, and vegetation revived and flourished. But dysentery began to 186 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. carry off many of the Waraus and others, who had been subsisting for months on the natural productions of the swamps and forests. There came from the ita-swamps to Waramuri canoes full of miserably attenuated beings, who applied to the missionary for medicine and food. A great number of them died before they made this application. It was painful to visit their settlements, and hear the repeated exclamation, "Wabaiya, wabaiya! " (Sick, sick!) On visiting the settlement where they been so uncivil to me, Mr. Nowers discovered that eight had already died out of twentythree, and others would probably have perished but for God's blessing on the remedies supplied. As many as 300 doses of medicine were administered in one month, and with great apparent benefit, the reluctance of the Indians' to use it being overcome by the urgent danger. It was a period of much distress and misery, and were there no other result than the temporal benefit that then flowed from the mission at Waramuri, all the exertion and the small expense of its establishment would have been amply rewarded. When the sickness abated, the mission began to assume a most flourishing appearance. Three hundred Indians attended instruction, and there were sixtyfive children at school. As the benefits, both spiritual and temporal, of missions became apparent to the people, so the desire for similar establishments began to spread. Intelligence was brought to us that the Waraus in the Aruka were desirous of having a missionary of our Church WARAMURI. 187 placed among them, and that their chief had even caused them to erect a large building to serve as a place of worship. We were preparing to visit that part of the country, though the distance is so great that the voyage would occupy about three weeks in going and returning. It is situated in the midst of the tract which lies between our territory and the Orinoco, and through which flow several large streams, one of the principal being the Waini. Our visit was unavoidably prevented, and nothing was done. Still the desire of those benighted people to be instructed in the religion of Christ seems worthy of commemoration, as no missionary had been to visit them, and the reports conveyed by their own countrymen were all they had to found their desires upon. It seemed like the fulfilment of the words of prophecy:-" As soon as they hear of Me, they shall obey Me." CHAPTER XII. TRIALS. Causes which led to the first Abandonment of Waramuri-Dangerous Passage across the Sea-Narrow Escape from Death by an Arrow-Panic among the Caribs at the Pomeroon Station-Its Abandonment. WARAMURI had been threatened with destruction by fire, and the Indians who attended it had been scattered by famine, and had their numbers thinned by dysentery. Still, notwithstanding these things, the number of attendants increased, and the mutual attachment between the missionary and his flock grew stronger daily. One Sunday thirty-three canoes full of people came, besides those that travelled overland. But the malaria from the cleared swamp had affected the health of the mission family, in which unceasing sickness and prostration prevailed. In August 1846, Mr. Nowers's youngest child died. The father, having no materials of which to construct a coffin, was obliged to take the foot-boards of the mission bateau.' While burying this child, the life 1 The bateau is shaped somewhat like an Indian canoe, but built, instead of being hollowed from a single tree. Like the canoe, it has no keel. TE.IA LS. 189 of his second son was despaired of. This was followed by a violent illness, which attacked both parents, and compelled their removal to the Pomeroon, where the family remained in a languishing state till the end of the year. Mr. Nowers partially recovered; but his complaint rendered him unable to bear the climate, and, as the health of his family did not improve, he was compelled to resign his mission. After erecting a wooden slab bearing a simple inscription at the head of the grave of the departed infant, and surrounding it with a rail, an affectionate leave was taken of the people, and Waramuri quitted on the 21st of December, to the great grief of all. As we were embarking, a young Carib presented himself with his paddle in his hand, and his hammock over his shoulder, and offered his services as a paddler. On being told that our crew was complete, he still persisted in requesting a passage, which was granted. The weather was unsettled and stormy at that season. In passing over the sea, we encountered three furious squalls, which continued for an hour and a half. We were unable to bring the boat round, as she would have instantly filled if exposed broadside to the waves, which broke over her bows in rapid succession. Our tent was cut away, and Mr. Nowers and an Indian engaged during the whole time in baling out the water with a bucket and a large calabash. The shore was near, but unsafe; and we were unable from the rain and spray of the sea to see more than a few yards of tossing waves around us. While the steersman was striving to keep her head to the wind, his large paddle 190 10 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. broke short; but we fortunately had a spare one on board, which was immediately handed to him. When the weather cleared we found that, notwithS standing our crew had strained every nerve, we were still in the same spot in which the first squall had met us. We were now thankful to God for our additional hand, which had enabled us to maintain the struggle. On reaching the mouth of the Pomeroon we saw a schooner, which had been caught by the same storm, and driven across the mud-flat nearly into the forest, although she had dropped her anchor. The master said he hoped to get off next tide, which happened accordingly. Another schooner belonging to the same person was sunk in her next voyage, all on board being drowned except two hands. In this vessel were lost most of Mr. Nowers's goods, which had been removed from Waramuri. He thus had sorrow upon sorrow; and continued ill-health compelled him to depart for England. The Indians, by whom he was greatly beloved, inquired continually whether "Noa" would not soon come again. We must now relate the course of events in the Pomeroon. The Indian women there had, by my marriage some time before, obtained for the first time the valuable services of a teacher of their own sex, whose life was about this time nearly cut short by a sudden danger. Some young Indian men, in an open space at the back of the mission house, were testing their strength by discharging arrows from -their powerful bows per TRIALS. 191 pendicularly into the air. One of their largest arrows (of the kind used for killing the tapir), ascending to a great height, was caught by an upper current of air, and carried over the house, which we were just leaving at the summons to evening prayer. The arrow in its lightning-like descent almost grazed the head of Mrs. Brett, and suddenly arrested her steps, with its feathered end quivering against her shoulder, and its spear-headed iron point buried some inches deep in the earth at her feet. It was a moment of sudden terror, where all had been peace and apparent safety; for her life (under God) had depended on one inch of space, or one second of time. Our thankfulness was fully shared by the Indians around, and equalled by the regret of the young fellows for the carelessness which had so nearly caused a fatal accident. The people of this river suffered less during the famine than the improvident Waraus; having had a better stock of provisions, and taken care to replant their fields as soon as they saw "the sun kill' the first crop. But depredations were frequently committed by parties who, having been the dupes of the great imposture, had neglected their own fields, and were now destitute of provisions on their return. A report reached us that two Acawoios had been killed by Caribs, who had detected them in the act of robbing their fields, in a distant part of the country. This and other circumstances, whether true or not, seemed to threaten a feud. The dysentery had also visited the Indians in Pomeroon, but was chiefly fatal 192 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. when it attacked children, many of whom died, but few adults. In March 1847, an occurrence took place which exhibited a new feature in Indian life. The mission was, as usual, in a state of the greatest tranquillity, when Commodore, the Caribi chief, came thither to reside, with his son and family, for protection. He had built a large house in front of our Caribi village for the accommodation of himself and family on the Sabbath, and planted a tall flag-staff before it as a symbol of his rank; but during the week he usually lived at his settlement in the forest. The latter he now quitted, as he said, in consequence of having discovered that a strong party of Acawoios, painted and equipped for war, were lurking near it. I thought but little of the circumstance, as the Indians generally had been in a very unsettled state ever since the unhappy migration. The family had with them a young man, who had taken to wife a heathen daughter of the old chief. He was a stranger from a distant part, and was noted for never moving from the house without a short-barrelled gun in his hand. After the services of the following Sunday were concluded, we were disturbed about nine in the evening by a loud outcry proceeding from the Caribi portion of the village. While we were doubting as to the cause, Commodore's son and another young man came in a hurried manner to summon me, bearing torches and cutlasses in their hands. They declared that the Acawoios were upon them, and had struck down the young stranger. Proceeding TRIALS. 193 to the spot, I found the young man writhing in his hammock, apparently in great pain from a blow on his thigh. The women were crying around him in a frantic manner, and the whole village was in an uproar, every man getting his weapons to defend himself and family. With great difficulty I learned that the young man, who had gone some little distance from the houses, had seen an Acawoio approaching behind him from the forest, and had suddenly turned and sprung upon him, throwing his arms around him, but had been hurled to the ground by the superior strength of his enemy, and received a random blow as he fell, the Acawoio escaping into the forest, as the cry for assistance was raised and answered. Nothing could exceed the panic of the women and children, and the men were all asking what they should do. It seemed best to tell them to assemble outside the chief's house, while the women and children should keep inside. This they did, but the confusion was great, the house being quite full, and some of the females crying, others laughing hysterically, and many talking with great vehemence at the same time. At this moment, the wife of the young man ran into the midst of us, crying out that a man was concealed,behind a bush near the house. Immediately every gun was pointed in that direction, and some of the Caribs began to spread themselves around, gliding close to the ground, with their pieces cocked and advanced, ready to be discharged o 194 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. at the slightest motion. The night was very dark, but many torches were blazing around, and the young woman before mentioned rushed wildly forward with the men, whirling a blazing firebrand to give them additional light. A low cry was now heard close at hand, which was answered from a distance. The Caribs exclaimed, "Acawoio!" and became exasperated. I then desired young Commodore to tell them all to stop and listen. This arrested them, and he then interpreted, that "even if they should kill an Acawoio, they would make bad worse, and the blood feud would never end. If enemies were there at all, they were probably few, and unprovided with fire-arms, and the Post-holder should be instantly sent for, who when he came would settle the matter between their tribes in a peaceable and Christian manner." The messengers were accordingly sent, and the Caribs satisfied themselves with posting guards outside the house till morning. I then went to see the state of the ArawAks, one of the Caribs running after me with a torch (which I had forgotten), lest I should have been shot by mistake in the dark. It was no needless precaution, for each ArawAk had his gun prepared, having heard the sound in the forest, which they said was the voice of men. No woman went to the water that night unless attended by her husband, who carried his cutlass and a blazing firebrand. Many tales were afloat to account for an attack of the Acawoios, which seemed to have been expected for some time TRIALS. 195 before. Most of our people thought that they were a party from Cuyuni, or from Masaruni, sent by the impostor there to attack our mission. The next morning young Commodore with a party of his men scoured the forest in hopes of discovering the Acawoios, and entering into a parley. They returned without success, having only found a small basket of Acawoio manufacture. On the second morning the Post-holder arrived from his house at the mouth of the Pomeroon, having travelled all night. We went together towards the head of the river. As we were proceeding on the following morning up the beautiful windings of the stream, we heard a low whoop from the high bank above us. This proceeded from France, Commodore's brother, who had quitted his settlement, and, with his two wives and children, was going to seek shelter among his heathen relatives. He said that a woman had seen two Acawoios in a field not far distant, and had been pursued by them towards her house. All the people in that part were in a great panic, and though much allowance was to be made for excitement and exaggeration, it seemed certain that there was a strong party lurking in the forests with no good intentions. It afterwards appeared that the father of the young Carib who had been assaulted had, two years before, been assassinated before his eyes, and that he, having discharged an arrow at the men who killed him, had been marked out to be put to death. Whether he considered himself as bound by their 0o 196 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. fearful custom to be the avenger of blood, we know. not, but it seemed evident, from his wild manner, that his mind was affected by the circumstances in which he was placed. His life having been attempted in the Essequibo, where he resided, he fled to Pomeroon, and this led to the events here related. I did not consider his presence desirable at the mission, and recommended him to seek employment at the coast on one of the sugar estates, whither his enemies would not be able to follow him with any prospect of success in their murderous design. The mission again became quiet as before. Never had its buildings appeared so neat; and all the paths which led to the different parts of the village were kept in good order, and bordered with lilies, whose flowers of brilliant scarlet contrasted beautifully with their dark green leaves. At this time the sad news of the famine in Ireland and in the Highlands of Scotland reached us. Collections were made all over the colony for the relief of the sufferers. The subject was laid before the Indians at the mission, and they at once offered to contribute cassava and other provisions, for the relief of the hungry people. When told that they would spoil in their passage over the wide sea, they said that they had little money, as the drought of the preceding year had reduced them to penury, and their clothes were nearly worn out, their young men being at that time absent working for money to buy more. This was the truth, as I knew. TRIALS. 197 Cornelius was present, and, seeing how matters stood, he went quietly away. He had just returned from the sugar estates, bringing with him about ten dollars, the produce of his industry, with which he was about to proceed to Georgetown to purchase clothes for his family. This sum he brought and laid before me. Taking one dollar, he said, "I give this for myself, and this," said he, adding another, "for my wife and eldest daughter." Then turning to his countrymen, he continued, "Friends, you have little money, I will lend you from this till it is gone, and repay me when you are able." One after another availed themselves of the offer; others rummaged up a little more; some poor old widows brought their " half-bits," (two-pence) and fifty-two dollars were sent that week fiom Pomneroon. Half of that sum was collected among the inhabitants of the lower district of the river. The mission at Waramuri was then lying desolate, and that on the Pomneroon was about to share its fate. I became at -this period too weak to continue my duties. After lingering many days, I was reluctantly compelled to send for paddlers to convey me to the sea-coast. The messenger told the Indians whom he met, and the news spread widely along the rivers during the night.1 The next morning before 1 The rapidity with which news spreads over an Indian district has struck others as well as myself. Mr. M'Clintock says in reference to it, "Let a woman, for instance, of the Caribi tribe, be injured, and a report to that effect will reach the ear of every Carib throughout the district in almost as short a time as a pigeon would convey it; and as the report of the injury reaches 198 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. daybreak we heard a low hum of voices around the mission house. It was the lament of our poor people, some of whom had come many miles through the darkness, and brought little presents of pines and other fruits, which we could not eat. As if they had not previously been kind enough to us, or we had needed gifts to induce us to stay! Our parting need not be described. The voyage was very sorrowful. My wife and new-born infant beside me were both suffering greatly from the want of medical aid, and when at times I raised my head I saw that Cornelius, who steered, could not restrain his tears, which ran down his cheeks, as he silently looked on us and thought he saw in our departure the ruin of his hopes for his people's good. Several months elapsed. At length I was enabled to pay a monthly visit of several days to the mission. But in May 1849, increasing debility compelled me to return to England; leaving, with deep regret, both stations vacant. To that at Waramuri Mr. Currie was soon after sent as catechist; but he too was in about a year disabled by sickness, and compelled to leave, having lost his wife and child a few months before. Repeated afflictions of that kind seemed likely to compel the final abandonment of that station, which was far beyond the reach of medical aid. We knew that in such a case the verdant forest would soon cover the place where stood the house of them, every man makes ready on the, instant to defend or aid, not at his own place, but at the abode of the injured person." TRIALS. 199 prayer, and where the departed members of the mission families await the resurrection morn. But we knew also that the story of the mission at Waramuri would not be soon forgotten; but that the Indian fathers would point to that hill with its mysterious mound, and tell their children of the hundreds of men who assembled and cleared that extent of ground, and willingly assisted in building a place of worship where themselves and families might be taught the religion of the Lord Jesus. A dark cloud now hung over the sister missions; During its continuance we could only exercise faith in the divine promises, and pray that He whose religion we had feebly endeavoured to plant amidst those dense forests and marshy savannahs would yet " look down from heaven, behold and visit that vine." CHAPTER XIII. MAHAICONI. Situation of the Mahaiconi-Expedition in 1844-Great Indian Assembly and Maquarri Dance-Result-Gloomy Prospects. THE events related in the foregoing pages occurred near the western boundary of the province. That which we will now briefly notice took place in the Indian country between the Demerara and the Berbice; where there are three smaller rivers, the Mahaica, the Mahaiconi, and the Abari. The ArawAks of that district, having heard of the change among their western brethren, made application for a Christian teacher to be placed among themselves. Accordingly, in April 1844, the Bishop visited those streams, taking me with him. We first ascended the Mahaica, and found only forty-one Indians. We next proceeded to examine the Mahaiconi: the Post-holder of that district, Mr. Hancock, accompanying us in a bateau with four black rowers. A large canoe was in attendance, containing tell Arawaks, a deputation from the Mahaiconi clan, who had come to meet us. MA HAICONI. 201 The weather was fine, and the river scenery, though confined, extremely pleasant. Many parrots and macaws were flying above us, or seated among the branches of the trees on both sides of the stream. Having bivouacked in the forest from 3 A.M. until 9, we again set forward, and after rowing some miles, our party landed and proceeded on foot through the forest, leaving the bateau in charge of the crew, the principal man of whom bore the name of Bacchus.1 About noon we got clear of the forest, and entered on a large plain. At a distance appeared an Indian village, the principal settlement of the Arawiks. As we drew near, the singular and well-remembered shouts of the assembled Indians told that they were all engaged in a grand Maquarri dance, similar to that which I had witnessed in the Koraia, and of which an account has been given. There were about two hundred Indians present. Most of the men were dancing, having their faces painted red in various patterns, and their heads adorned, some with coronals of feathers, and others with the white down of birds. Beads in great abundance, and the shining cases of the wings of beetles, which glittered in the sunlight, and rattled as they 1 The names of the gods and goddesses, heroes and tyrants, of classic antiquity, were given to the negroes in their days of heathenism and slavery. One of our paddlers on the Mahaica was Apollo. I have had the honour of being conveyed in a small canoe by Jupiter and Vulcan. African names, as Quashi, Cudjo, A mba, Adjuba, &c., and those of modern warriors and statesmen, were mingled with the above, sometimes presenting strange combinations, as Adonis Bob, Cupid Toby, &c. THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. 202 danced, were added to their other showy and fantastic ornaments. The females were quietly looking on, being seated on the ground under a large house, where on a raised stand was placed a canoe full of paiwari. There was a wild beauty in the whole scene, mingled with much that in our eyes was grotesque and absurd. A drunken festival was a singular preparation for the reception of Christianity, and a strange mode of welcoming a Bishop. It was indeed the best way they could think of to show their good-will, but the absurdity reached its climax when one of their leaders apologetically said, " If we had known sooner that the Bishop was coining to see us, we should have been better prepared for him; and two canoes of paiwari would have been made instead of one." We were glad, however, to find that they were still sober, the entertainment having but just commenced. Their chief, named Swey, was lying sick in his hammock. While the Bishop was visiting him, I requested the dancers to desist. They did so immediately, and assembled in the large house. The men as they entered laid their whips (which, in their ideas, have a sort of sacred character) on a board placed for that purpose. They then seated themselves in rows, with the women and children ranged behind them, and silently awaited the address of the Bishop. The object of our visit was then explained, and the main doctrines of Christianity set before them. They were also kindly reminded of the natural consequences -.r4 IID L 1-1 T 11 9 z j e r r~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MAHAICON1. 203 of some of their heathen practices, especially of their drunken festivals. They were much moved when this part of the Bishop's address was interpreted; some instances of murder and suicide having lately occurred among them, the effects of intoxication. An animated discussion ensued. We had two Christian Arawaks with us, each of whom was surrounded by a throng of the late Maquarri dancers. The latter eagerly asked when a teacher would come to live with them. When we took leave of them it was near night, and, as the forest path would have been difficult and dangerous, the Bishop, myself, and three Indians embarked in a canoe. It was so small and " crank " that the whole party were obliged to sit on small pieces of wood laid in the bottom. In this manner we proceeded, groping along, as it were, in the increasing darkness, for about two hours, when we reached a wider stream. The moon then rose, and by her light we saw the bateau. Bacchus had kindled a fire on the shore, and provided for us a meal, of which we were all in great need. At three the next morning we went on our way down the river. The result of this visit was the establishment of a station among the ArawAks who inhabit those savannahs. Mr. Berry was the first teacher. In 1846 he was succeeded by Mr. S. Manning, who was compelled by severe illness to leave in less than two years. At that time nearly all our Indian stations, so prosperous a little before, were in a 204 THE INDIAN TBIBES OF GUIANA. state of abandonment on account of the sickness of their teachers. It was also a very gloomy period for the colony at large. Cuba and other slave countries had seen, with joyful surprise, the British nation (a few years after sweeping slavery from their own colonies) freely opening their markets to slave-grown sugar. To avail themselves to the fullest extent of the advantage thus offered to the slave owners, a largely increased consumption of African flesh and blood was needed; and this was being rapidly supplied by vessels built expressly for that nefarious traffic, and well fitted in size and swiftness to escape our cruisers.1 On the other hand, our planters, whose sugar was raised by free and paid labour, had been much depressed. A very large number of fine estates had been sold, others abandoned. Those who had been able to survive the crisis were struggling hard, by improved machinery, agricultural chemistry, and by the energetic expedient of bringing labourers from the other side of the earth, to keep up their cultivation, most of which would otherwise have disappeared. But it was impossible, under those circumstances, to keep up the rate of wages demanded by the emancipated labourers. Crime, especially incendiarism, was very prevalent in the colony at that time. Our Indian stations seemed to share the general 1 Some of those slavers, new vessels, and remarkable for their beautiful lines and complete equipment, were captured and brought to Demerara about that time. MAHAICONI. 203 depression, though from a different cause. Perhaps, encouraged by the success which had attended our later efforts, we had begun to look on that success almost as a matter of course, not sufficiently regarding Him who alone giveth the increase. Then, rapidly, teacher after teacher sank disabled, and, at the time, it seemed doubtful if some of our stations would ever revive. "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit," was the lesson which those adversities seemed sent to teach us. PART IL I f CHAPTER I. INCIDENTS OF CARIBI LIFE. State of the Caribs in 1851-Visits to their Head-quarters-Incidents-Child killed by a Cougar-Caribi Man devoured by a Jaguar-Subsequent Visits-Quashinikotahpo-Mora-tree Bridge-Impediments to Navigation-The Slayer of JaguarsAn Acawoio Clan from a distant River join us. WE resume our narrative with the latter part of the year 1851. At that period matters had become somewhat more promising as regarded the prosperity of the colony. Renewed efforts were also being made for the advancement of the aborigines. Bartica1 was flourishing, and other stations were progressing favourably. But those in the great Indian district with which 1 Bartica was at that time under the joint care of the Rev. Messrs. Bernau and Lohrer, though soon to lose the services of those good men, by the death of the latter and the departure of the former. The Rev. Mr. Hillis succeeded them. The influx of settlers of other races, and the establishment of a large penal settlement on the Masaruni in its neighbourhood, gradually deprived Bartica of its original character as a purely Indian mission. Many of the Christian Indians left it to reside in more secluded districts, carrying with them the knowledge they had acquired. One of them, whom I accidentally met long after, showed me letters well written in English, which he had received from his sisters (pure Arawaks like himself, who were then in England), with the photographic carte de visite of one of them. P 210 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. I had been connected were much depressed. They had lain desolate more than two years, during which period lingering sickness had detained me in England. On my return, the Bishop, wishing to keep up my connexion with a district in which my state of health no longer allowed me to reside permanently, placed me in charge of the parish of the Holy Trinity, of which that district was nominally a part. I was thus enabled to visit at short intervals the people among whom I had lived long and happily. The first of those visits was with the Bishop. We found Waramuri totally abandoned, and in a state of perfect ruin and desolation, in which it remained several years longer. At Cabacaburi we found a large number of Arawaks under a new teacher-Mr. Landroy. There were also many Caribs present. Some of these latter were living as Christians, but others had fallen away during the years in which they had been as sheep not having a shepherd. The wives of some who had been catechumens in former years, significantly, and as one means of showing their condition, pointed to their tattered and scanty garments as we passed, and said, "Look on these!" They spoke regretfully of the decent apparel which their husbands had worked to procure for them when, a few years before, the summons to embrace Christianity had first reached their ears. We were much moved at those signs of retrogression; and, as there was great need for exertion among them, the Bishop resolved to accompany me I CARIBI ENCAMPMENT ON THE UPPER POMEROON. INCIDENTS OF CARIBI LIFE. 211 to their "country," the head of the Pomeroon, in the course of the following year. At the appointed time we visited their settlements on the Issororo and Upper Pomeroon, and found a large number of Caribs assembled to meet us at a place about two days' paddle from Cabacaburi. Most of these had never been under instruction, and were as wild and savage in their appearance as any I had seen in former years-the men being adorned with their bright red paint, the women with their sapuru or leg-bandages, and both sexes almost naked. That settlement was named Touboondu, from the rocks in the bed of the stream, "toubo," in the Caribi tongue, signifying a stone, or rock. In that district they are numerous, and quite unmixed with other tribes. It may be considered the head-quarters of the remnant of their nation, which here awaits its fate,-silent extinction, or incorporation with other races in the Church of Christ. We spent two days among them, having prayers and religious instruction morning and evening, using as interpreters the Christian Caribs who formed our crew. At night we were much incommoded by the want of sleeping-room, there being eighty persons of both sexes who had to swing their hammocks in three small open houses or sheds. And a singular scene those houses presented, crowded as they were with so many wild-looking Indians, who were hanging around us in rows one above another, the lower ones, after their manner, dangling their naked legs through the smoke and flickering flame of their P 2 212 2THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. numerous fires, and all seeming to enjoy:their position immensely. Of course, privacy was out of the question,-thirty female heads rising from the hammocks at the slightest sound,-and sleep was equally difficult to obtain, since, from the manner in which the strained beams creaked as the men and women got out from time to time to replenish the fires beneath them, there was evidently some danger of our all coming down with a crash together. The next morning we sent out two huntsmen, who returned in the afternoon with a deer and an acouri, also two birds-a large powis and a maam. Their good fortune made a feast for all, and our Carib friends were soon busy cleaning, cutting up, cooking, and eating in every direction; while the Bishop's faithful old black servant, Branch, took care of us. Towards evening, we observed that most of the younger men had washed their faces, and appeared less ferocious. It must, without soap, have been a difficult task, and in spite of all their scouring they could not entirely get rid of the bright vermilion pigment, which obstinately clung to and stiffened the hair on their foreheads. Although so wild in their appearance, those Caribs manifested much good feeling, were very grateful to us for our visit, and on our departure accompanied us to our boat with many kind farewells. This was the Bishop's first visit to the Upper Pomeroon, and he was struck, as I had been, with the beauty of that part of the river, and the wild magnificence of the forest through which it flows. INCIDENTS OF CARIBI LIFE. 213 The banks are very high, and crowned with timber trees of enormous size, which are interlaced with bush-ropes and creepers of proportionate magnitude, and adorned by parasites of the most brilliant colours. In some places the interlacing vines form widespreading leafy curtains, which hang from the upper branches to the river's bank, and stretch along from tree to tree, as if to screen the forest glades from the fierce rays of the sun. Below, the stream winds in a most singular manner, and is very rapid in the rainy season. Sometimes, as the bank wears away, rows of immense trees, bound together by bush-ropes, are precipitated with a noise like thunder down into the river, turning over in their fall. In one of my early voyages I found the upper part of the river obstructed by a prodigious fall of that kind, but being in a very small canoe, with two or three careful Indians, we were enabled to pass close to the bank, under the roots of the trees, which rested against it with their tops submerged below. This required most delicate steering, as the confined current was rushing rapidly through, and there were large masses of loosened earth adhering to and resting on the roots overhead, of which the slightest concussion would have brought down sufficient to sink us. During this voyage of the Bishop, however, we met with no such obstruction, the weather being dry and the water low. As we came down the river, our Caribi paddlers paused to point out a gloomy-looking stream, which had been the scene of a shocking occurrence a short 214 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. time before. There was then a Caribi family living there, some little children belonging to which had gone into the water to bathe. While thus engaged, their attention was drawn by a cry from the youngest, a fine little boy whom they had left seated at the water-side, and looking round they saw that a deertiger or cougar, which had been attracted by their merry noise and splashing, had come behind the poor child, and was standing with one paw on his shoulder. The elder sister and a brother, while screaming for help, attempted bravely to drive away the savage beast; but their efforts only caused it to seize the poor little fellow's head with its powerful jaws. It was a moment of agony. Their father was absent, but another Carib, who was near, rushed to the spot, followed by the child's mother and other females. The beast, startled at this sudden increase in the number of its assailants, dropped its little victim, whom the man immediately took up and gave to the mother. But assistance had come too late. The upper part of the head was nearly torn off, and the child gave his last struggle as his mother received him into her arms. They carried the body into the house, and the man went off to fetch the child's father. When night set in, the disappointed beast came back to claim his prey, raging and yelling through the hours of darkness around the open shed which formed their dwelling. No man was present, and the females had great difficulty with firebrands and shouting in CARIBI CHILD SETIED BYA COUGAR. I-( I I I INCIDENTS OF CARIBI LIFE. 215 keeping him off. A more wretched night we can scarcely conceive,-for all, especially the poor mother! Welcome must the light of morning have been, when the savage animal retired, and the father of the slain infant came to bury him. About the same time a Caribi man in a more distant part was killed and eaten by a jaguar. He had gone into the forest to procure a certain kind of bark, in which the Indians roll the tobacco-leaf to form their cigars, and did not return. His friends, searching for him, found on the second day his foottracks, and those of a very large jaguar by which he had evidently been beset. Following these for a long way in anxious suspense, they at length came to a spot where there were marks of a conflict, and saw their comrade's bow broken on the ground. Still the man had apparently had other weapons, and for a time beaten off his assailant, for the tracks of both passed on. At length they reached the scene of a last struggle. On the ground lay the Indian's knife, which he had lashed to the end of a stick as a kind of lance, but it had been loosened, and turned aside against the tough hide of the animal. From the marks on a tree it was evident that the poor fellow, in dire extremity at the approach of night and the failure of his weapons, had been trying to climb it, but, ere he had ascended it ten feet, the jaguar had sprung after him, pulled him down, and torn him in pieces. The remains, terribly mangled, and half devoured, lay near. One of the two Caribs who 216 - THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. found the body afterwards told the Bishop and myself of the sickness which came over him at the sight, and said that he had never since felt secure, when traversing the forest with only his knife, bow, and arrows. "Tigers," as the settlers call them, seemed indeed at that period more numerous and daring than usual. As we that evening passed Makasina, the Post-holder's residence, we saw a number of persons at the waterside, and were informed by Mrs. M'Clintock that an Indian of her household had that morning shot a "deer-tiger." The skin, newly stripped off, was held up to be seen by us. It was, exclusive of the tail, about as long as the Indian who held it, of a silvery red colour, without spots or stripes; and we saw by the holes that two bullets had entered, one on each side of the spine. Ever anxious to aid personally in evangelizing the Indians, our good Bishop, at a subsequent period, revisited with me the Caribi territory. That voyage was not, however, so propitious as others had been. A heavy squall during the night had caused our tent-boat to break from her moorings at the mission, and in the morning she was nowhere to be seen. The Indians, searching in their smaller craft, recovered her after the lapse of some hours, and we started. But a violent storm came on soon after-the thunder rolled, and the lightning swept the river around us, while heavy squalls of wind alternated with such torrents of rain as are only encountered within the tropics. Our boat was INCIDENTS OF CARIBI LIFE. 2:17 small and very crank; and we found that, in the hurry occasioned by the delay, she had been carelessly laden, with light packages below and the heavier ones above, so that we had much difficulty, in keeping her from being capsized as the heavy gusts of wind caught the tent. Our men were unable to paddle, all their efforts being required in trimming the boat. Fortunately we drifted near the residence of the Post-holder, and ran in till the abatement of the storm enabled us to re-arrange our luggage. But as the weather continued very threatening, at the Bishop's suggestion I left my little son (who had come with us to the river to re-visit his birth-place) under the care of Mr. M'Clintock, and that gentleman having lent us a lighter tentcovering, we went on more safely and comfortably than before. The Caribi settlement we were now to visit bears the rather singular name of Quashinikotahpo. Its principal inhabitant had taken the name of Perry, from a gentleman with whom he had lived when a boy. He was an attendant at the mission, and had invited us to his house, sending also a messenger to summon his heathen, neighbours to meet us there. We landed at nightfall, and found the forest path so dark that we had to be led by Perry and his friends, who had come to the water-side to receive us. As we were thus groping our way, we heard the sound of running water, and found that we had to cross a stream on the trunk of a large tree. This, in the dark, was unpleasant and dangerous; but the 218 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. Indians grasped our hands firmly, telling us to feel our way and hold on with our feet, which was, however, not quite so easy for us with shoes, as for themselves who wore none. The water seemed by its sound to be flowing over a rugged bed some twenty feet below, and we were glad when we got over. But ere we could congratulate each other, we found that we had a similar stream to cross on the same tree, a discovery which gave us more surprise than pleasure. When we were at length safely over both, an Indian woman came down a hill to meet us, bearing a blazing fire-brand, by the light of which our crew also crossed with our luggage on their heads. All then went up to the house, where, after prayers, we gladly swung our hammocks for repose. Early the next morning we went to examine the rustic bridge, and found that what had seemed two streams was, in fact, one and the same, which, at some distance, takes a singular bend and winds back again. Across the deep bed of the stream where it is thus doubled, the Indians had thrown their bridge, by felling a mora so lofty as to in-,clude both portions in its span. I measured the - trunk of this tree, and found it 108 feet from the part where it had been cut to that where its lowest branch had grown. A noble size; yet there seemed many others around of equal magnitude and beauty in those calmly majestic forests. We found Perry, with the other Caribs, busily engaged in fixing long stakes in the bed of the INCIDENTS OF CARIBI LIFE. 219 stream, and tying a hand-rail with bush-ropes to their tops, for our convenience in re-crossing their bridge. This we had not asked for: it was entirely the suggestion of their own native courtesy; and they must have risen at earliest dawn to set about it. We met but few Indians at Quashinikotahpo, some mistake having been made in announcing our visit; and, as the Bishop's time was limited, we were obliged to depart, after exhorting our kind host and his neighbours, "with full purpose of heart to cleave unto God." On our return, we found that a very large tree had fallen into the river during the storm, and it now completely obstructed our passage, reaching from bank to bank. This caused us to rest on our paddles for some time. As we could not venture to haul our crank boat over the trunk, against which the swift stream was chafing and leaping, and the banks were too steep to allow of our landing, one of our crew, an active young Carib, stepped on the tree with an axe, and proceeded to cut it through. The weight of the stream assisting him, it soon gave way with a crash, and as we darted through the opening, we picked up our Indian, who did not even lose his axe, as we had feared he would. Those missionary expeditions were not without fruit among the Caribs; but the great distance the 1 This settlement was abandoned by the Indians some years after, in consequence, Perry told me, of the danger to his children, of falling from his locally-famous mora bridge into one or other portion of the stream. THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. people had to travel, and the heavy labour of paddling up the stream on their return during the wet season, with the scarcity of canoes, all conspired to keep them from visiting our station with that regularity which was essential to their progress in Christianity. We found several whom I had gathered and taught when children, in the early days of the mission, now grown-up men and women. Some of these were following heathen practices: one in particular had become a piai-man, or sorcerer. I shall not soon forget his look of shame when I asked him to read to the Bishop a portion of the English New Testament, which he could do very well. Others gave us much comfort, and were the means of bringing their parents to the knowledge of God. The father of one of these, a man named " France," the chief Carib on the Issororo, thus became one of our most steady converts. He was a man of considerable personal strength and cool courage, of which he gave a remarkable proof about the time of the Bishop's visit narrated above. He was one day in his field with a little dog playing beside him, when he perceived a jaguar at a distance watching him. The beast slunk away when observed, and as the man had no gul he went quietly on with his work, clearing away the bush with his cutlass, which was a new and good one. But "Kaikusi," as the Caribs call the jaguar, had marked the dog at least for his prey, and only retreated to execute a flank march through the bush and come unperceived on the rear. Having effected INCIDENTS OF CARIBI LIFE. 221 this, he crept noiselessly forward and sprang upon the dog, which was instantly killed. The Carib rushed to the assistance of his favourite, causing the animal to relinquish his prey, and turn to spring upon him; but the man anticipated the attack, and dashing forward, decided the contest by a single blow, which buried his cutlass deep in the jaguar's skull. The skin of that animal came into the possession of a friend of mine, and was regarded with unusual interest, the only wound having been the long gash by which the head had been cloven down to the nose. On a subsequent occasion the same Carib had a similar encounter with another of those animals, which abound in that quarter, and shivered its skull with an axe with which he was going to fell some trees. His countrymen regarded him with pride on account of these and similar exploits; but he himself never spoke of them to us, unless directly questioned on the subj ect, and then modestly and without boasting. While our labours in the Pomeroon were during those years chiefly directed to the work of evangelizing the Caribs; with somewhat chequered results, as has been shown; an event took place, which caused considerable uneasiness for a time, and had consequences of some importance. This was the arrival of several families of the Acawoio nation; who, to the astonishment of all, had come from a distance of nearly two hundred miles, begging to be received as catechumens. 222 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. As the general character of that nation had been very bad, the other tribes telling terrible stories of them as poisoners and night murderers, the excitement at the mission was not small. Most of our other Indians thought that their days were numbered if those strangers were to be admitted among them; and Mr. Landroy and his family, remembering the fate of Mr. Youd, the missionary on the Essequibo (who, with his wife, had been poisoned by an old man of that tribe), were not free from apprehension. But Mr. M'Clintock, who knew the people, gave them a letter of recommendation, and as I desired that they might be received, they were so, though it was, so to speak, with fear and trembling. The result of the coming of those Acawoios must be reserved to a subsequent chapter. It is sufficient here to say that they justified the confidence reposed in them; and that in Christian faith and practice those strangers, whose coming was in no respect due to us, and whose motives were regarded with such suspicion, soon surpassed many of those whom we had sought with long and painful labour to gather into the Church of Christ. Good is the lesson taught in Holy Writ:" Thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all. "In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand, for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good." CHAPTER II. EPIDEMIC DISEASES. Mortality from Epidemics: Small-pox, Measles, &c.-The "Caribi," Buck," or Indian Sickness-Destructive Visit of CholeraDiminished Numbers. THE numbers of the Indian races have been periodically thinned by epidemic diseases. Some of these visitations have been already noticed. Small-pox, which had raged in 1841, returned in 1854, and carried off many whom we had not been able to vaccinate. This was followed by measles. The number attacked was very large. Few died at the missions, where remedies were used, and the sick were nursed and prevented from bathing in the rivers, as an Indian always will if able to crawl from his hammock. A long drought and scarcity of food increased their liability to sickness. In the year 1856 the ranks of our Arawaks were further thinned by a sore disease, an endemic, known by the name of the "Caribi (or Indian) sickness." As it is chiefly confined to the aborigines, few medical men have witnessed it; but it is really one of the 224 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. most frightful and deadly scourges which affect the Indian tribes. It is highly infectious, and when it seizes a person eats its way upwards through the rectum and other intestines till the sufferer dies. There are various remedies in the early stage, which may save the patient; but as the Indians, from false modesty, object to the necessary mode of their application, they seldom, when stricken, will divulge the presence of the disease, until it is too late. They silently pine and droop, until they sink down in the last stage, from which there is no recovery. This terrible disease had, indeed, been no stranger to us before; but it now broke out with unexampled violence among our ArawAks, having been brought from the Demerara to the Pomeroon by a family of that tribe. Its severity may be seen by the following instance:Among the persons seized was a man called Cabouca Thomas and his family. They came in their canoe, in a most deplorable condition, to the residence of the Post-holder; and Mrs. M'Clintock, with true Christian-womanly compassion, received and nursed them, using every effort to save their lives. It was in vain; the whole family died, with the exception of one child. The victims were ten in number, five being communicants at the mission. These sad events, being rapidly followed by the lamented death of Mrs. M'Clintock, and the dangerous illness of her husband, our good Post-holder, greatly alarmed the EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 225 Caribs. Some of them went into the most inaccessible parts of the forest to escape the disease, and we learned that they had even cut down large trees to obstruct the paths, lest our people should too easily follow them. Those trials had scarcely passed, when another came, more sudden and equally destructive. The cholera afflicted the whole colony in the early part of 1857. In Trinity parish there were 772 cases, about a twelfth part of the population; and of. these 224 were fatal, the sufferers being chiefly of the African and Hindoo races. From thence it spread into the interior, and soon attacked Cabacaburi. The first case was that of a little Arawak boy, who was seized with cholera in a canoe on the river, and cast ashore by heathen Indians. The unfortunate child lay unnoticed till surrounded by the rising tide. Some one then saw him, and told Mrs. Landroy, who brought him ashore through the water, and did her best to save him. But aid came too late, and he died the same evening. The next day was Sunday, and the cholera broke out among the congregation. The poor boy had been carried by a young Arawak convert named Daniel to his house: and the wife of Daniel was attacked by the disease, and died in a few hours. Two other persons next died in the same house. Then a panic began, and in alarm and terror the Indians fled. But about five-and-twenty of our best people remained, having relatives sick, and feeling it their duty, conQ 226 TIHE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. trary to the practice of their heathen countrymen, to attend upon them. Wilhelmina, one of the first ArawAk women who had joined us, seeing the spread of the disease and the sore trouble all around, quietly took her paddle and went to her field a few miles away, returning with her small canoe laden with yams and cassava; "lest," as she said, "want of food should increase the distress of those who might survive." Her calm and wise forethought seemed afterwards to have been almost prophetic. Daniel and some others were attacked the same evening. Excessive fear now began to prevent those who were yet unstricken from nursing those who were seized with this (to them) unknown and fearful malady. Wilhelmina, ever foremost in good works, then devoted herself to nurse Daniel. He soon died, and she herself was next stricken. Her family wished to remove her to her own house, but she forbade it, lest she should carry the infection thither. Bidding them farewell, she joined her husband in prayer in their native tongue, after which she remained a few hours silent, and in a state of collapse, until her soul was released. Hers was the tenth death. Seventeen others were lying around, ill with the same disease. Two of them soon after died, and the mission family was exhausted with incessant watching and nursing. Our venerable catechist, being ill of a lingering disease of which he afterwards died, could do but little. While his people were dying around he was EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 227 unable to aid; but the female members of his family were moving night and day among the cottages to answer the calls made upon them. On the Tuesday Mr. Landroy had sent me information of the outbreak, with a request for a further supply of medicines, which were immediately forwarded. After this I received no certain information of their fate, but heard alarming rumours, it being even reported that all were dead. Fearing that not only the Indians, but also a part of the mission family might have been cut off, or deprived by the disease of all whom they might send for assistance, I felt great anxiety, and resolved, if possible, to visit the spot with further aid to ascertain the truth. A supply of drugs and remedies was provided, and a boat borrowed: but the great difficulty was to get a crew, it being considered a sort of forlorn hope. Mr. R. Bunbury, one of our health officers, who had agreed to go with me, found at last three Indians, who had been working on the coast; but, being alarmed at the deaths among the black population there, were willing to try the interior for a few days. We arrived at the mission at sunset on a beautiful evening, and found that the teacher and his family had been spared, only one of them having been attacked by the cholera. But of the Indians there were, indeed, none left strong enough to have brought a message to me. All had been stricken with the disease, and more than one-third of the number were dead. 228 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. The surviving Arawaks had been removed from the infected houses to the Caribi portion of the village (no Caribs, fortunately, having been present), — there they recovered, and the plague was stayed. One family alone was still sick, but the others all bore fearful traces of the narrowness of their escape. Cornelius, emaciated and weak, was among the survivors, but death had visited his house: and there was not an Indian present who had not lost some very near and dear relative. One poor woman, named Maria, had lost her husband just before, and now the cholera had swept away her two children, her mother, two sisters, and a nephew. She had attended them all, and performed the last offices for all; and, though she looked very ill, was quite resigned. The next day the surviving members of the Church were called together, and the Holy Communion was administered to them in the thatched school-house. It was one of the most solemn services it has ever been my lot to perform, for we all seemed to stand on the brink of the grave. There were ten Arawaks, the mission family, ourselves, and two settlers who had come to me for medicines-twenty in all. Before leaving we paid a very sad visit to ths burial-ground. There, beneath the tall feather-like bamboos, were resting the mortal remains of most of my old friends, the first-fruits to the Church of Christ in that quarter. We grieved especially for the loss of Wilhelmina; a woman who possessed a most kind heart and excellent disposition, was EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 229 deeply thoughtful, and had rendered services among the women of her tribe equal to those of Corneliis among the men. She had formerly lived in my family, and had been of the greatest use to my wife, as well as myself, in acquiring their language; and, as an assistant in the work of translation, I ever found her judgment and intelligence much superior to that of any individual, male or female, of her race. By this time repeated visitations had swept off most of our old Arawaks,1 and driven away the Caribs. We could but mourn over the dead, yet not as those who have no hope, for we had seen Christian charity, fortitude, and self-devotion, during those sharp visitations. In the hope of a meeting hereafter, there was much to console and help us to say, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." 1 The Berbice river was also visited by the cholera at that, its first appearance in Guiana. The Arawaks of that river were decimated by it. CHAPTER III. REVIVAL OF WARAMURI MISSION. The desolate Mission-Efforts for its Revival-Arrival of Mr. Wadie-His Missionary Career and Services-Severe Sickness -Perilous and lonely Condition-Slow Recovery and Return -Relapse-Unwilling Resignation-Departure-Death. WHILE the trials narrated in the last chapter afflicted the mission on the Pomeroon, an attempt was being made to revive the sister mission at Waramuri on the Moruca. When the Bishop, accompanied by Mr. M'Clintock and myself, visited the abandoned site in 1851, it bore a most desolate appearance. The chapel had been damaged by the wind and rain, and nearly devoured by wood-ants, during the five years which had elapsed since Mr. Nowers's departure: the bush had grown up, and the whole aspect of the settlement presented a grievous contrast to its former pleasant and flourishing condition. The Indian cottages had disappeared, and we saw instead a number of miserable sheds, with flat roofs of manicole thatch; each just large enough to screen two or three hammocks from the weather. We' wondered at seeing these placed immediately in front REVIVAL OF WARAMURI MISSION. 231 of the mission dwelling-house; but found afterwards that Mr. Currie (who in the interval had been catechist there for a short period) had insisted on the people placing their dwellings immediately under his eye. It was a great mistake; but the good teacher had commanded a ship in former days, and, having probably a lingering attachment to naval habits and discipline, desired, from the gallery of his house, as from a quarter-deck, to see all that was going on among the people un der his charge. But, though this was intended for their moral benefit, the Indians were by no means grateful for such close supervision, and would only put up the temporary sheds we saw, waiting for a superintending clergyman to visit the mission and relax the rule. Mr, Currie had been compelled to resign his post through severe illness, and at the time of our visit the place was entirely deserted. It had a bad name for sickness; and there seemed little prospect of obtaining another teacher. Hoping for better times, although it was impossible to save the chapel, I was desirous of still keeping up the dwelling-house; and as a family from Georgetown asked permission to occupy it for a season, for the purpose of procuring and stuffing specimens of the beautiful birds in the neighbourhood, I gladly consented, on condition of their keeping the thatch in repair. The cause of the incessant fevers and mortality which had driven away the missionaries was, unquestionably, the large swamp in front. I read about 232 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. this period a medical report, in which it was stated that a belt of bush between a swamp and human dwellings in the tropics acts in a great degree as a barrier to the passage of the malaria. Our missionaries had kept the slope of the hill perfectly free from bush, thinking it best for health as well as for neatness; but it was now grown up again, and I requested that it might be allowed to remain. The result seems to prove the correctness of the above theory, for the mission has since been as free from fever as any other settlement I know of in the interior; and I would strongly recommend the trial of so simple a plan at any station where that disease prevails. Three more years rolled away-the bird-stuffers were gone, and the mission still remained without a teacher. The Post-holder more than once urged the necessity of re-establishing it, even for the temporal benefit of the Indians around, among whom, especially the Waraus, murder and violence were frequent. In one of his official, reports, dated Dec. 3d, 1853, after stating the circumstances of the murder of a poor woman in the Upper Moruca, and his arrest of five Waraus who had committed the deed with extreme cruelty, he went on to say, "I must respectfully suggest the re-establishment of Waramuri Mission; and if a fit and proper person be appointed to it, and he become acquainted with the Indians entrusted to his care, murders and every other description of crime will vanish from amongst them. 4 REVIVAL OF WARAMURI MISSION. 233 "The Arawak Indians, who attend the mission in the Pomeroon, afford the strongest example of the correctness of the opinion just offered;-for example, when I first arrived in this district, many years before any missionary was appointed to it, a more disorderly people than the present Arawaks could not be found in any part of the province; murders and violent cases of assaults were of frequent occurrence. But now the case is reversed: no outrages of any description ever happen, they regularly attend Divine service, their children are being educated, they themselves dress neatly, are lawfully married, and, as a body, there are no people, in point of general good conduct, to surpass them. This change, which has caused peace and contentment to prevail, has been brought about solely through missionary labour; and why not, may I inquire, extend similar benefits to the more benighted children of the woods?'1 This recommendation gave powerful aid to our efforts, and the Bishop was soon after enabled to inform me that he had engaged the services of Mr. J. W. Wadie, who came out as a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in April 1854, to take charge of the vacant mission. On my return from a visit to the rivers, I found Mr. Wadie at my house-a man of middle age, and 1 It will be observed that the above (though true to the present day) was written by Mr. M'Clintock before the period of the epidemics, when our first and best converts among the Arawaks were nearly all living, and the work among them was in its highest prosperity. 234 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. very prepossessing appearance; of sanguine temperament, and full of zeal for the good cause in which he had embarked. Having been instructed by Mr. Nowers before he left England, he had provided all things necessary for the life he was to lead-had a good supply of medicines, carpenter's tools, gun, &c., and could use them all. Thus equipped, after a sojourn of a few days, he bade us farewell, and departed in good spirits for his solitary post. On his way he stopped at the Pomeroon mission, as I had advised, and left half his goods: the boat not being large enough to carry all in safety over the sea between the mouths of the two rivers. On arriving at Waramuri, two days after, he immediately sent back the boat, with all her crew, for the rest. He then remained at the deserted mission, with a large swamp in front and the impervious forest behind, in solitude as complete (for the time) as that of Selkirk, or the fabled Crusoe, on his desert island. He found the mission-cottage much decayed, and full of vermin and noxious reptiles, which harboured in the thatch. There was also a large hole in one of the sides. This he barricaded for the present with his packages, to keep out wild animals, tied up his hammock for the night) and, with his loaded gun ready at his side to greet any intruder, proceeded to make himself as comfortable as circumstances would permit. On looking over his goods he was rather astonished and dismayed to find that he had left all his pro REVIVAL OF WAPAMURI MISSION. 235 visions behind, except a large supply of tea and a few biscuits. However, there was now no help for the oversight until the return of the boat. He had no means of quitting the spot, and was compelled to subsist on that slender diet for five or six days, during which time he remained quite alone, as the Indians had not heard of his arrival. At last a party of Waraus found him out. They came and took up their quarters under the sheds I have mentioned, immediately in front of the house, and in full view. He had, as yet, seen only the Christianized and comparatively civilized Indians at the other mission, and was not at all prepared for the misery and filth of these. Of all the Indians near the coast the Waraus are least attentive to personal cleanliness; and those Waraus were amongst the most unsavoury of their race. The wretched appearance of both sexes;-the squalor of the younger women and the haggard and weird appearance of the old;-their almost entire want of clothing; and the filthy habits which he witnessed,filled the new comer with profound disgust. He forthwith resolved to admit no Indian as an inmate of his house, but to cook and do everything for himself; a resolution to which for years he stedfastly adhered. Those miserable Waraus being, as usual, halfstarved, had come to beg; and, as Mr. Wadie was one of the most generous of men, his provisions, when they did arrive, underwent such a rapid con 236 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. sumption that he found he should soon be in want himself. This was an unfortunate beginning. His liberality being thus made known, every idle, skulking Indian in the district came to prey upon him; and by such, almost exclusively, on my first visit, I found him surrounded. But the better and more honourable sort, perceiving that the new missionary kept his apartments closed, and would admit no Indian as a member of his household, felt deep resentment, and held themselves aloof, as from a man who disliked and despised their race. The houses of the Indians being open to all who come peaceably, they expect the same from all who profess friendship towards them; and the system of exclusion which Mr. Wadie thought himself compelled to adopt retarded his usefulness for a long time. The missioii-house, having no keeper, was entered and robbed while Mr. Wadie was gone to Georgetown to be ordained Deacon; and the thieves, on his return, cleverly arranged matters so as to turn his suspicions on the Indians. He forthwith had his house surrounded by a palisade of strong posts and wattles, more than fifteen feet in height, as an additional protection. The erection of this outwork gave increased offence. Notwithstanding those serious drawbacks, he laboured very hard for the benefit of those around him. Morning and evening all were summoned to Divine worship; he was most diligent and successful in school REVIVAL OF WARAMURI MISSION. 237 duties, and, being a man of pure Christian life and morals, his example began to take effect. In 1855, the Bishop visited the mission. He saw and appreciated the zealous labours, and the good that was being done; and his mild and fatherly counsel was of great service in pointing out the impediments to further usefulness. Among other things, he recommended the immediate cutting down of the high fence, telling Mr. Wadie that, "notwithstanding its height, it could keep out no Indian who wished to enter." These words were scarcely spoken when, from the window of the mission-house, we saw an amusing proof of their correctness. A wild young Carib, who was anxious to have a better view of the congregation then assembling for Divine service, ran up the fence like a monkey, and perched himself on the top of one of the corner posts. There, squatting on his heels, and with his coppertinted back shining in the sun, from that small perch he gravely surveyed the other Indians who, in every variety of dress and undress, were passing beneath him towards the place of worship. We were amused, both at his grotesque appearance and at the unintentional proof he had given of the truth of the remark just made. As a matter of course, the fence was soon after reduced to a less obnoxious height. The next day we went on a missionary expedition to the Indians who live beyond the head waters of Moruca. 238 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. There is in that part (as I have already said) an immense savannah, deeply covered with water in the wet season, but an impassable bog in the dry. It drains in two directions: towards the Moruca on the one hand, and on the other towards the large river Waini (or Guainia, as the Spaniards wrote it), from which the country derives its name. In the wet season, bly a network of streams, there is inland navigation from the mouth of the Moruca to that of the Orinoco; and at one time there was considerable traffic by Venezuelan boats that way. We found the savannah so shallow, that after passing through some of the tributaries of the Waini, and spending a night among the Indians on the banks of the Asagata, we judged it best to return, as the August heat had set in. And it was well we did so, for we had much labour in forcing our return passage through the rapidly drying swamp. Returning to the mission, we commenced the building of another chapel-school in the room of the one destroyed. It was to be a very humble structure, merely an open logie; the eastern end being enclosed, and having a raised floor for the performance of Divine worship. We had no funds, and could do no better in the then precarious circumstances of that poor mission. Before the Bishop departed, an Acawoio Indian, known by the name of Hughes, came with the skin of a very large specimen of the black jaguar, an animal rarely seen even by the Indians themselves. It is said by Humboldt to be "the largest and most blood REVIVAL OF WARAMURI MISSION. 239 thirsty variety;" and is more feared than any other, as its dark colour renders it almost invisible when prowling or crouching in the deep shades of the forest. In the present instance the animal was detected by the Indian's dog, and shot dead by an arrow, which entered the thorax, and came out behind one of the fore-legs. The Bishop purchased the skin, and also wished to buy the formidable spear-headed arrow by which the beast had been slain. But the Indian declined to part with it; not (as we at first thought) from a sentimental attachment to the weapon which had done such good service, but because he would not go unarmed. When we had procured a similar arrow from a Warau who was present, he readily exchanged. This visit had done much to strengthen the hands of Mr. Wadie, who evidently felt, with us, that it had been a time of profitable and pleasant communion. On our departure he went with us a little way down the river, and was as much affected as we were ourselves when he bade farewell, and with tears in his eyes stepped from our boat into the small canoe that was to convey him back to his hermit-like life at the mission. Before many months had passed he experienced a terrible proof that it is not good for man to live alone. He had fitted up his cottage with great ingenuity, having made shelves, cupboards, windowblinds, screens, &c., and painted and papered' the 1 The engravings of the Illustrated London News and other papers have been much used for that purpose in the cottages of the 240 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. interior, until it had a neat and even elegant appearance; but he had little comfort in it, for, except at my visits, he had no society whatever. We could not persuade him to admit a domestic, his liberality indeed being such that he could hardly afford to keep one. His food (prepared, not too skilfully, by himself) consisted too much of salt provisions, with hard biscuits instead of bread. This diet, combined with incessant work in teaching, and the debilitating climate, brought on indigestion in its most aggravated form. He became too weak to perform any duty, or even to go out: and the Indians, who were not admitted to his house, and knew not the cause of his seclusion, gradually withdrew from the place, taking with them their children. In this sad plight he would certainly have died without one friendly hand to close his eyes; and was indeed stretched on his bed awaiting death, when a kind Providence sent unexpected relief. A Christian ArawAk from the Pomeroon Mission, who was voyaging alone in his little canoe, found himself at nightfall near Waramuri. He thought that he would land, pay his respects to the missionary, and perhaps stay there that night. To his astonishment he found the place deserted; there were neither the usual fires nor the people. He then went up to the mission-house, and heard low groans from within. Having forced his way in through a window, creole peasantry and settlers, and may be even seen on the thatched partitions of the Indian dwellings near the coast. They aid our efforts in enlarging the circle of their ideas, and I consider their effect as most civilizing and beneficial. REVIVAL OF WARAMURI MISSION. 241 he found Mr. Wadie as above described, who thankfully, with feeble voice, accepted his offered services. Being told by him that he would probably find some Indians at a neighbouring settlement, he took a light, and, following the path indicated, went through the bush to seek them. He found two men, who, on hearing his tale, immediately took down their hammocks, caught up their paddles, and hastened with him to remove their sick teacher. The mission had a boat with a good tent, in which the three men placed him; but it was too large and heavy for such a slender crew; and the passage over the sea against wind and tide was very painful and tedious to the poor sufferer. At length he reached Pomeroon, and was most kindly received, first by some hospitable ladies on a small plantain estate called Phoenix Park, in the lower district; and the next night at the Pomeroon Mission. On the fourth day he reached my residence, and we Yre astonished and alarmed at his emaciated and ghastly appearance. Medical aid was soon obtained, but an attempt to administer medicine gave his ulcerated stomach such agony that the doctor desisted, telling us that, if his life were saved, it could be, humanly speaking, by nursing only. He had taken nothing but milk, which was fortunately obtainable at each station, since he left Waramuri, and could bear no other sustenance. For many days he lay between life and death: but at length, by God's blessing, we saw symptoms of returning strength. In a few weeks he was R 242 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. able to bear a voyage to Georgetown; and under the kind care and hospitality of the Archdeacon and his brother, Mr. J. Jones, of Plantation Houston, he then recovered rapidly. By the end of the year he was again ready for duty; and, though other work was offered, he would not resign his Indian mission, but returned to it with unabated zeal. The Archdeacon and myself visited him in the following April, and were pleased to see that he had greatly relaxed his habit of seclusion; and that an excellent feeling was existing between him and the Indians, who now understood him, appreciated his devotion, and applied to him for aid in every emergency. A corpse had that evening been brought for burial (which cannot in the tropics be delayed), and he was making a coffin for it of some boards intended for the chapel floor. It was late; and though the Archdeacon lent a hand at the coffin, and in preparing the grave, the interment did not take place till towards midnight. The mission-school was flourishing, and at that period numbered more than one hundred Indian children. How Mr. Wadie delighted in this part of his work, may be seen from his own words in one of his last reports to the society which had sent him out:" I shall never forget the gladsome manner in which the children rallied around me on my return to the mission, after my late long and almost fatal illness. Few can mistake the simple honest-heartedness of a REVIVAL OF WARAMURI MISSION. 243 child, especially the children I have to deal with; one look told me more than words could do, and their ready compliance to do all I may ask them is another proof of their sincerity and attachment. The children who attend the school come from various districts of the mission, although they may be said to reside at Waramuri, as they only go to their respective places for a supply of food, or for a few days occasionally. I am glad to inform you also that there is a feeling of pride exhibiting itself among the adults of this mission, as to the proper and decent appearance of their children, both at the day and Sunday schools. Many children are kept away at this time, on account of their parents not being able to clothe them like the others. This I have endeavoured to remedy, as far as I can afford it, by quarterly giving to a few of them clothing; but cannot do so as effectually as I could wish from want of means, as I supply out of my salary all that is necessary for the working of the schools. I do here everything for myself, so that I may devote a portion of my stipend every quarter to the benefit of the mission, either by clothing children, finding books, or as the case may be. And this I firmly believe, that every missionary who has truly his work at heart, will in every possible way deny himself to advance the interest of Christ's kingdom?, among the people where he is placed." In the same report he mentions the better observance of the Lord's day. " Very few of the Indians now devote the time between school and the service R 2 244 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. of the Church as heretofore to making 'quakes' (baskets) for holding fish, or sails for their corials, or in preparing ita-palm leaves for making hammocks." After describing his method of combining the ArawAk and Caribi translations I had given him with the ordinary instruction to those tribes in English in his Sunday-school, he states his intention of "making an attempt to supply the same to the Warau in his own tongue." This was greatly needed in that district, which is chiefly inhabited by Waraus, but ere he felt himself qualified by study to commence the task his strength had given way. In September 1857, the Bishop found a congregation of 271 Indians, while 133 children were present in the school. But the missionary's health had again broken down, his head being at times seriously affected by his returning malady, and he was reluctantly compelled to resign his post. His labours, always energetic, had during the last year been even more abundant; they had been also more wisely directed and effectual, and the Indians of all the tribes regretted his departure, as they had that of Mr. Nowers eleven years before. After a short period of duty with me in Trinity parish, and afterwards in St. Paul's, Demerara, Mr. Wadie died in Georgetown, at the house of his good friend, Archdeacon Jones. At the Pomeroon Mission, our venerable catechist, Mr. Landroy, after more than a year and a half of lingering decay, died soon after. Thus within a REVIVAL OF WARAMURI MISSION. 245 short period I had to mourn the loss of both my fellow-labourers in the Indian field. Both missions were again vacant. The elder station, my own old post, after a period of comparative prosperity, had been nearly crushed by three years of various kinds of sickness, as related in the last chapter. The other, which had previously suffered such great depression, and been abandoned six years out of nine, had, as we have just seen, suddenly revived, and begun to flourish greatly, when it was deprived of its missionary, just as the seed which had been sown by his predecessors and himself seemed ripening to the harvest. The Church, looking on this part of her work, could but see that these things were, in appearance, against her. Still she had met with many encouragements, as well as great difficulties. And as high above the consideration of either rose the Master's great command, "Teach all nations," our duty was, through good and evil, still to persevere. " Faint, yet pursuing." CHAPTER IV. PROGRESS. Indians take down and remove their Chapel in one Day-Progress-Superstitions of the Waraus, and Impostures practised on them-Their Habits, &c. AFTER the various trials and losses related in the last two chapters, the Indian tribes in our vicinity enjoyed a period of comparative tranquillity. Children grew up, and new faces began to fill the gaps which death had made. The handsome little chapel at the junction of the Arapaiaco with the Pomeroon had not been built twenty years; yet it had become so decayed and eaten by wood-ants as to compel the erection of a new one. We decided to quit that spot, which, though rendered picturesque by the meeting of the waters, was only accessible from the river, and to build a new chapel on Cabacaburi hill. The Indians, at my request, readily cut and squared the timbers for the frame; the work being divided among the respective tribes, so that each might contribute its allotted portion. But to provide boards, &c., was beyond their power; and, as it was desirable PROGRESS. 247 to make use of the sound portions of the old building as far as we could, I begged them to assist in taking it down, and bringing the materials to the site proposed for the new one. To this they readily consented. Accordingly, the next morning they turned out with their axes, and went to the chapel in a flotilla of canoes of all sizes, headed by Cornelius, who, though now grown old, had lost none of his energy and zeal. Pemberton, a man of colour, who acted as lay-reader, and was an experienced carpenter, directed and led their labour in taking the building to pieces. These they brought to the hill in their little craft,-benches, shingles, boards, uprights, and other timbers; the women and children, with many a merry laugh, receiving the loads at the water-side, and dragging them up the hill. As the day wore on their interest in the work increased: some put up handkerchiefs of various colours, which served as flags, and drew attention to their little canoes reeling under preposterously unwieldy loads, as they came again and again with fresh supplies. Thus the whole buiding (except one load, which remained till the next day, and some rotten timbers) was removed to the mission hill, a distance of one mile, before sunset, by the united labour of the Indian tribes, who on that 20th of April, 1858, certainly seemed moved by God to do all in their power for the erection of a building for the glory of His Name. When I returned to the spot the next week (after visiting the other stations) I found that Pemberton had erected the frame of the chancel of the new 248 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. building; and that the Indians, to enable me to perform the service of that one day, had covered it in with a thatch of the leaves of the trooly-palm. While thanking them, I told them that "the state of our funds caused me to despair of getting a roof of better materials." They all seemed disappointed at this announcement, though they acquiesced in the silent manner of Indians, as to a thing for which there was no help. But Cornelius, who had set his heart on having a thoroughly good and suitable house for the worship of God, assembled the leading men that evening; and, unknown to me, held a consultation with them in the partly-built place of worship by moonlight. The result of this was a deputation to express to me their regret "that the roof of God's house was to be of thatch —no better than their own!" They offered to try to make shingles instead, if I could find money to pay for putting them on. The Lieutenant-Governor of the colony, Mr. W. Walker, soon after hearing of this circumstance, kindly gave the amount required. Meanwhile the Indians cut down the wallaba-trees, and split them into shingles; though they had not before attempted that kind of work, and had to use their cutlasses for the want of more suitable tools. Soon after this the lay-reader died. His place was supplied by an Englishman, named Thomas Minns. He was then about seventy years of age, and had been a sailor in early life under Admirals Collingwood and Duckworth. He had been with the latter in the PROGRESS. 249 action of the Dardanelles; and was the last man saved from the Ajax, burnt February 14th, 1807. He told me that he was then in a most perilous position, hanging by the jib-boom of the blazing vessel, while a poor woman below was clinging to the martingale. The latter being observed from one of the boats of the fleet, which had all withdrawn to await the explosion of the magazine, the brave tars, with shouts of "Save the woman!" pulled again under the bows to take her in, and afforded him the opportunity of dropping in also. He had since then visited many climes, and experienced many vicissitudes by sea and land; and now desired to end his pilgrimage in the service of religion among the Indians. He had become very deaf, but his voice was strong and clear, and, until his death at the age of seventy-seven, he read the Holy Scriptures and the daily prayers in a manner that for reverence and distinctness left nothing to be desired. Meanwhile Mr. D. Campbell had offered his services as teacher among the Waraus and other tribes at Waramuri, and we now, after our various calamities and losses by disease and death in that quarter, began to reap some fruit from the seed sown fourteen years before. Many were baptized, and a little band of communicants was formed there. But from that time also the Indian sorcerers, who are so powerful among the Waraus, used every artifice to excite superstitious terror, and keep their tribe from joining us, and in this they were but too successful. 250 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. Some of their artifices were of the most absurd character; so ridiculous indeed that we could but wonder at the impudence which invented, and the credulity which believed in them. An instance occurred in March, 1863, just after the Bishop had visited the mission and met many Waraus there. To counteract the effects of his visit the following plan was adopted:A Warau woman' of singularly weird appearance was employed to spread a report that she had seen, near a place called Kamwatta (or "the bamboo ") the figure of a white man on horseback, riding through the air, who promised to give money and other valuable presents to her, and to all of her tribe who would assemble at that spot and dance from early morning till early afternoon. But, as Christianity would be an effectual barrier to the reception of that supernatural benefit, all baptized persons were warned not to attend. This, while it marked the animus of the impostors in disparaging the Christians, would also tend to save' the credit of their prophetess, as none of her dupes could positively say that one of the forbidden might not te lurking near, and so preventing the expected benefit. The result of this ridiculous story was a gathering in great force of the heathen Waraus, who made and drank paiwari; and daily, during the prescribed hours, obeyed the mandate they had received. Warau dancing is in general more grotesque than elegant; as it chiefly consists in staggering backwards and forwards with the body slightly bent, and PRIOGRESS. 251 stamping violently on the ground: but it was kept up on this occasion with a vigour and perseverance that might have atoned for its want of grace, and fairly earned the expected reward. But, dance as lustily as they would, the aerial horseman remained invisible, and made no sign. "There was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded." They reaped no pecuniary emolument, but had only their dances for their pains. At length they dispersed to their homes, there to rest their wearied limbs, get over their disappointment and the effects of the paiwari; and.-after a while, -lend a willing ear to the next delusion of their sorcerers. Mr. Campbell, taking with him Hubbard, the Christian chief of the Moruca ArawAks, went to Kamwatta while this imposture was going on, hoping to reason with and convince them of their folly:-a hazardous attempt in their then excited state. He met seven men fishing in the stream, and found six women in a house baking cassava bread. These were providing food for the merry dancers, who were in the depth of the forest. But neither the men nor the women would give the least information.to guide him to their rendezvous; and as the ArawAks were unacquainted with the locality, he was obliged to return, rightly judging, however, that if the dancers were some hundreds in number, as he had been told, a scarcity of cassava would, in a few days, break up the assembly. Although the crafty inventors of schemes so clumsy 252 THE INDIAN- TRIBES OF GUIANA. (as this appears to us) could not stop the progress of the mission, they nevertheless, among a people so very credulous as those poor Waraus, contrived seriously to retard it; for scarcely was one delusion ended than another was set on foot. The next year, while our Christian Indians were preparing to celebrate the high festival of Christmas, and a great number of heathens were assembled to join them, a report was spread that the Spaniards (as the Venezuelan half-breeds of the mission of Santa Rosa and their countrymen are called) were about to attack the mission at Waramuri, and slay all the Indians there, in revenge for the death of a man killed in a quarrel some time before. In vain the teacher assured them that there was no truth in the report. The Indians of the other tribes believed him, and remained quietly to celebrate the nativity of the Prince of Peace; but the Waraus decamped with great celerity, as the inventors of the report had rightly judged they would. Not only were our expectations disappointed of the good they might have received from that day's services and instruction, but their attendance was prevented and rendered irregular for a considerable time after. The enemy thus worried and impeded what he could not destroy, and made our labour more painful and difficult with the Waraus than with any tribe we had yet reached, save the haughty and indolent Caribs. Their superstitions are in themselves a great barrier, but this is increased, as we have seen, by the PROGRESS. 253 drunkenness attending their assemblies, which is encouraged by their sorcerers, in opposition to the sobriety which the Gospel enjoins. To these impediments we must also add their reckless improvidence. The beautiful ita or Mauritial palm, with its crown of fan-like leaves waving over the swamps among which he dwells, is the refuge and support of the Warau in all times of scarcity. Having that to fall back upon he is too often careless in cultivating the land and raising more wholesome food. The ripening of a cassava field is frequently the signal for a great paiwari-making; and its produce, the Indian's staff of life, is speedily converted into the means of intoxication. Hence arise the savage murders from time to time committed among them, in which the poor women are usually the victims. Their fondness for intoxicating drink has long been taken advantage of by unscrupulous men, who have 1 "The Mauritia yields numerous articles of food. Before the tender spathe unfolds its blossoms on the male palm, and only at that particular period of vegetable metamorphosis, the medullary portion of the trunk is found to contain a sago-like meal, which, like that of the jatropha (or cassava) root, is dried in thin bread-like slices. The sap of the tree, when fermented, constitutes the sweet inebriating palm-wine of the Guaranes (Waraus). The narrow scaled fruit, which resembles reddish pinecones, yields different articles of food, according to the period at which it is gathered, whether its saccharine properties are fully matured, or whether it is still in a farinaceous condition. Thus, in the lowest grades of man's development, we find the existence of an entire race dependent upon almost a single tree, like certain insects which are confined to particular portions of a flower."HUMBOLDT'S Views of Nature. 254 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. gone among them to bring out gangs for cutting wood or clearing bush on the plantations; using, as their means of attraction, large quantities of rum. After a debauch they would take them while still under the influence of the liquor, for an Indian in that state will follow it anywhere. After two or three months' work, attended with small profit, they would be taken back, and another gang procured in the same way. Labour thus conducted has been a curse and not a blessing to the Waraus. It is only by the spread of Christian knowledge that such evils can be overcome. About the end of 1863 the Indian tribes from the far-distant interior began to visit our two stations. Horde after horde of wild-looking people, belonging to races which we had scarcely heard of, began to gather themselves together in the higher lands within or without our western boundary; and to come by journeys of some weeks' duration, that they might learn somewhat of the truths of Christianity. These events were quite unexpected by us. We could not have anticipated them. Like one or two already related, they were the result of apparently spontaneous movements among the people themselves, the course of which will be described in the next chapter. CHAPTER V. THE KAPOHN. Retrospect-The Acawoios of Barahma duped by the false Prophet of 1845-Their Return-Their Coming to us-Arrival of suspicious-looking Strangers —Unexpected Result-Coming of distant Acawoios, Arecunas, Maiongkongs, &c.-Great Gathering in 1865-Sketch of their Character, &c., and of the Regions inhabited by them. THE word Kapohn (or Kapong) which, like the "Carinya" of the Caribs, in the language of the Acawoios signifies "the people," is that by which they designate the various branches of their widelyextended and enterprising race. Their language, with its dialectic variations, is spread over a vast territory, and they are either allied by blood, or have intercourse and traffic, with many other tribes within and without our boundaries. In a former chapter we noticed the coming over to us of several families of the Acawoio nation. The circumstances which led to their coming, and the results which followed, will be best understood if given in a connected narrative, though in so doing we must necessarily go back many years. In 1841 I had visited some of this tribe, who then resided at the distance of two days' journey from the 256 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. mission. That visit (related in the first part of this work) had little immediate effect, as they migrated soon after to the Essequibo, where the labours of Mr. Youd, Mr. Bernau, and others, had already attracted some of their brethren. That period was one of great enterprise. Schomburgk, starting from the coast of Guiana, had just before penetrated, through strange desert regions, and races little known, to Esmeralda, on the Orinoco. Missionary zeal was aroused to evangelize the Indian tribes throughout the territory thus laid open to us. And not without effect, for though the labourers sent into this wide field were only two or three in number, and they sinking at their posts from time to time, rumours of the word they preached spread far and wide among the various races, and greatly excited many who had no opportunity of hearing it themselves. Far away from all civilized settlements, on the banks of the Upper Waini, and its beautiful tributary the Barahma, there were many Acawoios then residing, who heard rumours of what was taking place in other parts of the country, and had their minds aroused thereby. Their habitations, being very distant, had never been visited by any missionary; but our enterprising Post-holder used to undertake long overland journeys on foot to their settlements. To him they repeatedly applied for the establishment of a mission among themselves, and so anxious were they, that they cleared an eligible site, and erected fifty cottages, hoping that a teacher might be sent THE KAPOHN. 257 to them: a circumstance which he reported to the Governor. Though their hopes were disappointed, the desire of those Barahma Acawoios for the knowledge of God continued unabated. We cannot, therefore, greatly wonder that when, in 1845, they received a message from the impostor in the distant interior, who pretended to be the Lord come down from heaven, summoning all Indians to his presence, they should readily have fallen into the snare. I have already related' the circumstances of that imposture, which the reader will not confound with the petty delusions practised many years after on the Waraus, and related in the last chapter. The latter were influenced only by sordid feelings, and underwent no privations; but with the victims of the great imposture of 1845-6 the case was different. Though all were grossly deceived, many among them acted from motives which were certainly of a religious character, and entitled to the respect, and even sympathy, of Christians: for they had heard strange rumours of a Christ once on earth, declaring the Great Father's will, and again to come from heaven; but of the warnings He has left us against "false Christs and false prophets," who should "deceive, if possible, even the elect," they had not heard. So Indians from all parts went to the appointed spot. The movement even affected the Caribs in Pomeroon and the neighbouring rivers in a partial degree. Among the more distant Acawoios it was 1 Part I. chap. xi. S 258 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. general, and none more willingly undertook that long and toilsome journey " to see God," as they said, than those of the Barahma. Under their chief, Capui (the Moon), they set out with their wives and little children for a far distant land, where they were told to expect earthly plenty and salvation from destruction. They crossed the river Cuyuni in "wood-skins," by the aid of their countrymen there; and, being assisted by them at every settlement they came to, according to the fraternal custom of their tribe, after several weeks' journey they. arrived at the abode of the mysterious personage who had summoned them, near the head of the Masaruni. As they approached that place they saw, to their surprise, bananas growing without apparent cultivation; a convincing proof to them that they had at length reached the land so highly blessed by " Makonaima,' the great Lord and Maker of all. They found multitudes of Indians, of their own and other nations, there assembled, who all listened with deep and superstitious awe to the oracular mandates and denunciations which proceeded by night from the false prophet's chamber, and were trying to keep up their spirits against the approaching end of the. world which he threatened, by dancing and drinking paiwari as fast as their poor women could make it. At that place they stayed some months, in vain expectation of something more satisfactory to their souls than that which they saw and heard. At length THE KAPOHN. 259 the conviction that they had been duped could no longer be resisted. In sadness and despondency, therefore, they retraced their steps, through a country which had become parched by the terrible drought of that year; and at last reached their deserted abodes and grass-grown fields in Barahma, after an absence of about twelve months. A document, cunningly inscribed with hieroglyphic characters, had been given to their chief on his departure, which he was told was a commission from Makonaima, the Almighty, to collect and send to that place all the Indians he could gather. But, as they now attributed their delusion to the direct agency of Satan, they feared to keep that scroll in their possession, and got rid of it as soon as they dared. They had suffered much from fatigue, and afterwards by hunger, in consequence of that imposture; but their desire to acquaint themselves with the true God was not in the least damped thereby. They were just as ready as before to undergo privations, and leave their ancient homes, could they thereby draw nearer to Him; but they knew not whither to turn. To me there has been something very touching in the remembrance of the earnest desire of those untaught Indians in the midst of the darkness which they felt; their saying, by actions more than by words, " Oh that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come even to His seat." A few years afterwards a cousin of Capui, who bore the name of Ingles (or English), was induced s2 260 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. by a Christian Acawoio, named Edwin, who visited them, to accompany him to the little Scotch mission, which had been quietly working during those years at Indiana, in Supenaam, near the mouth of the Essequibo. From thence he came over to the Pomeroon, learning all he could of Christianity on his way, and on his return to Barahma, his account of what he had seen and learned induced his people to undertake another migration-this time to cast in their lot with us. Capui had died in the interval; and his brother, who had taken the name of Hendrick, was now their leader. Being in some doubt as to the reception they might meet with at the mission, he wisely applied first to Mr. M'Clintock, who, knowing their history and the sincerity of their motives, gave them a letter to Mr. Landroy, our resident teacher, who was then living, recommending him to receive them. The other Indians regarded them with great distrust, from the dread which the evil name of their tribe inspired, and which their famous gathering in the far interior had by no means tended to diminish. The new-comers soon saw that they were objects of suspicion to the others; and accordingly put up their humble lodging-places in the yard of the mission-house, thus placing themselves and their children (whom they hoped to see educated) immediately under the eye of the teacher and his family. I visited the mission about this time, and was pleased to see those strangers (numbering about fifty, THE KAPOHN. 261 of all ages) so anxiously desirous of Christian instruction. But how to impart it was the difficulty, as their language was strange to us. Ingles was their spokesman, but he knew so little of English that he could not understand me when speaking of Christian truths, and I could make nothing of the Kapohn or Acawoio. The teacher's family then tried him with the Creole-Dutch, but that also was a failure. We were "barbarians" to each other: his people were standing around much concerned, and I was beginning to despair of any immediate good result, when he suddenly addressed me by my usual Arawak title, "Adaieli," and begged me to speak in the language of the "Lokono," as he could partly converse in it, having had much intercourse with ArawAks in his youth. This was most fortunate, as on my departure I could put him into the hands of Cornelius, with the certainty that he would be well cared for. In that way-mainly through the medium of a third tongue-the rudiments of Christian knowledge were imparted, with profit to them and satisfaction to us. The fear of danger from the new-comers was fast dying away, when a report was spread among the tribes of the massacre of the inhabitants of an Arawak settlement at Etooni, on the Berbice, by some Acawoios (or Waikas) who, according to their custom, attacked the place by night, slaying all they could, without mercy to sex or age. It was believed that the murderers had been hired and brought from Essequibo by persons of the same nation as the victims, who had 262 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. animosity against the head-man of the place, but lacked courage to attack him themselves. He had been a hard drinker, and it was found that, in derision of that propensity, the assassins had placed an empty flask under his arm, after completing their bloody work. This report was soon after confirmed in its main points by the colony newspapers, the matter having been investigated by the Government. This crime, perpetrated by men of their own nation, as they were considered, greatly increased the discomfort of the new-comers at our mission, by reviving the distrust with which the other tribes regarded them. But they behaved themselves wisely and well; gave offence to none, and made more progress, considering their disadvantages, than any Indians we had yet seen. They spent their leisure time at the mission, where they had placed their children at school, but made their fields on the banks of the Arapaiaco, which was then nearly denuded of its Arawak inhabitants by the mortality which had recently prevailed amongst them. In a few years they were baptized, not all at once, but successively, as they became prepared. I shall not soon forget the occasion of the baptism of Hendrick and his wife, with many of the young people. There were nine young females, nearly all of the same age, and bearing a strong family likeness, whose clean white muslin dresses, neatly arranged hair, and general appearance, were a great contrast to the condition in which I first beheld them, and showed a rapid progress in civilization. THE KAPOHN. 263 They were very quiet and serious in their demeanour; gentle and affectionate to each other; and so attentive to religious duties that it seemed to us almost impossible that they could be of the same blood with those of whom we heard such reports from time to time. But quiet resolution and strength of purpose seem to be characteristic of this more than of any other aboriginal tribe; and they enter thoroughly into whatever business they take in hand, whether it be for evil or for good. So at least we found it with this clan, then separate from all their brethren. Having believed and embraced Christianity they were evidently trying to live up to it. Of those who first came to us, there remained, in a few years, not one unbaptized, nor a couple unmarried; and the young people, as each became old enough, ratified their baptismal vows, and were confirmed by the Bishop in his successive visitations, preparatory to approaching the Table of the Lord. The ArawAks and Caribs at our missions at that time possessed over these Acawoios the advantage not only of knowing more English, but also of having various little translations which I had made for the benefit of those individuals (very numerous in the purely Indian territory) who could not understand it. The Lord's Prayer, Apostles' Creed, &c., had been printed in those two languages by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, on a sheet with an illustrated border, representing, in small medallions, some of the chief events of the Old Testament history 264 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. and the life of our Lord. Some hundreds of these had been distributed, but as yet the Acawoios had nothing of the kind. One of their young men, named Philip, the son of their late chief Capui, became desirous of benefiting his own people in a similarway. To accomplish his purpose, he went and lived some months in the country of the Caribs, whose language approaches nearest to his own; and when he found himself able to translate their creed into Acawoio, he offered his services to me, which, I need scarcely say, were accepted with equal joy and surprise. This was in 1861. The Society, with its usual liberality, soon after printed for us several hundred copies of the illustrated sheets in Acawoio, and also in Warau, which latter translation I had been enabled (after experiencing great difficulty from the poverty of that language and other causes) to complete about the same time. Our Acawoios had lived in comparative isolation from the rest of their nation about ten years, since they first came to us. But in the year 1863 this isolation was broken by a movement among their heathen countrymen, which at first gave us some anxiety. In the month of August, in that year, a rumour reached Waramuri, where I then was, that the Acawoios and their allies in the distant interior had risen in arms, and were approaching the missions, destroying the Indian settlements on their way. Mr. Campbell and myself set it down as one of those panics which continually arise among the Indians THE KAPOHN. 265 from the slightest causes, and it proved to be untrue, though a movement of some kind was really going on. When I reached the Pomeroon Mission on my return, however, I found that the Christian Acawoios had taken to flight the morning before, alarmed at the appearance of a party of their heathen countrymen, who had arrived at the mission in the darkness, and were discovered hovering about their open houses at the first faint gleam of approaching day. This party consisted of an old man and four others, who seemed to be his sons; all being very wild, and adorned in savage style. Our people recognised the old man as belonging to a family which, in the prosecution of a feud, had sought the blood of their fathers for some generations, and considering their object to be assassination, and not knowing how many supporters they might have at hand, judged it best to seek present safety by a hasty retreat. The wild strangers then took possession of their houses, caught a fowl, and killed it for their breakfast. Apparently regarding all around as lawful spoil, they were proceeding to scatter Indian corn and catch the other poultry which they saw near, when the schoolmistress claimed them, and they desisted at her request. For three or four days they kept the mission in great uneasiness, hovering about and showing themselves from time.to time. During that period, however, they had full opportunity of seeing the mission chapel- school, and what was doing there. The 266 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. Indian children reading English struck them with amazement, and they felt a desire, and were invited, to share the same advantages. From the time of the visit of those strangers, the Acawoios from the far-distant interior began to come to our two missions. To that in Pomeroon there came in the following year many from the Cuyuni, who had a long overland journey to accomplish in order to reach us. They had come to see and judge for themselves; and when they left they took with them a number of the illustrated sheets from which they had been taught at the mission. " In seven months," they said, "we shall have reaped our provisions in Cuyuni, and we will then come and live with you." One poor old woman preferred to stay behind, fearing that if she undertook the fatigues of that long journey she might not live to return. At the sister mission of Waramuri there was a similar influx. A few Acawoios, who had embraced Christianity, had been already living there for some time, of whom Hughes (who killed the large black tiger, as I have mentioned in a former chapter) was the chief. There had been no prospect of any addition to their numbers, for there were no more within several days' journey. But now there suddenly came from the Waini and its tributary streams almost as many as had come to Pomeroon from the Cuyuni; and the class of Acawoios receiving instruction at that mission suddenly increased from five or six to sixty. THE KAPOHIN. 267 The teachers and people at both stations were surprised at this movement. "We did not fetch these people, but God hath brought them to us," was the remark of all. It soon appeared as if the Acawoios, by their extensive intercourse with other tribes, held the key of the interior, and were doing their best to bring the other nations to the knowledge of the great truths of Christianity. Those who visited Waramuri brought with them some of the very distant tribe of Maiong-kongs: and a few months later there came to the same mission a large party, about seventy in number, of mixed Acawoios and (to ourf surprise) Arecunas. The latter, whom we had not seen before, had journeyed from the high lands between the heads of the Cuyuni and the Caroni, a large tributary of the Orinoco. They had come from thence to the head of the Waini, where they had cut down some large trees and made " wood-skin" canoes, as they are called. These woodskins are formed by stripping off the bark of the mariwayani, or purple-heart, in one large piece, forcing it open in the middle, and fixing sticks across it:-downward slits being cut near the extremities, which are supported on beams till the bark be dry, to give them a slight spring above the surface of the water. In those frail barks they had descended the Waini, and come through the connecting streams to our mission. Those strangers were fine stalwart men, with clear copper-tinted skins, and larger in person than the 268 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. Indians near the coast. Though not greatly encumbered with clothing, they possessed unusual attractions in the way of ornament. They wore long sticks through the cartilage of the nostrils, and had still longer ones, very handsomely adorned with tufts of black feathers at the extremities, fixed through their ears. Evidently they were most attentive to their personal appearance, and they made a great sensation. For our Indians, unaccustomed to such an extreme style of adornment, were alarmed at the sight; the Waraus especially, who, with their usual cowardice, immediately quitted the mission, and did not return in any numbers till the stalwart strangers had departed. The Arecunas, however, though formidable inl appearance, behaved like amiable savages, and as soon as they saw the alarm their presence had excited, they laid aside such of their cherished ornaments as they could. But both sexes had their countenances much tattooed, and those facial ornaments were, of course, indelible. Some of the women had the dark blue lines traced across the upper lip, and extending in wavy curves over either cheek, resembling immense curled moustachios; but the favourite style seemed to be a broad line round the mouth, so wide that each lip appeared to be an inch broader, and the aperture itself two inches longer than nature had made it. Those apparently enormous mouths could not be laid aside, nor had the poor creatures, otherwise finelooking women, any means of procuring clothes, to soften the disagreeable impression produced. To f c- e P. 2/< fl'e :;; -5,JX -,-1. s. it:~ 5 ~ -: 111-. Ald f - i-Vl- A~,.ru-JINkI BJL1S Ir~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~r, ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ II. I Ie THE KAPOHN. 269 But, barbarous as the appearance of both men and women might seem to us, there was no mistaking their single-minded purpose. They stayed at the mission, attending prayers and instruction, till their means of subsistence were exhausted. During the last few days I paid my usual visit, and they were taught by some zealous young Acawoios of my crew: one of whom, named Thomas, had a fair knowledge of the English New Testament, and was engaged in communicating it to them by night as well as by day. 'At length it was necessary to pronounce the final blessing; and while we turned the head of our boat down the river towards the cultivated coast, they embarked in their wood-skins, again to thread the network of streams, re-ascend the Waini, and return overland to their far distant homes:-there to spread, as we humbly trusted, the knowledge at least of their Saviour's name, in a part of the interior as yet unexplored by civilized man. The brother of one of our recent Acawoio converts was murdered about this time on the banks of Manawarin. The deed was perpetrated by a "Kanaima" devotee, in the usual manner, and close to the Indian settlement. A loud shout was heard in the forest, and when the friends of the victim ran to the spot, they found him on the ground, with his back and neck bruised, but not bleeding. He had been deprived of speech by the murderer according to the cruel system followed in those crimes (which are perpetrated, where possible, according to strict rule), and left to linger till death released him. A Carib in 270 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. another district was also said to have been murdered not long before. These things account for the frequent panics among the Indians. In the former instance the deed was thought to be in fulfilment of a threat of the heathen sorcerers, to "kanaima" in detail all the Acawoios and others who dared to attend Christian instruction, either at our missions or at Supenaam. In August following, our good Bishop again visited the missions. This visit was remarkable beyond former ones for the great numbers of Indians assembled at each station. At Cabacaburi about 600 must have been present-at Waramuri there were many more: 881 of five nations having been counted at one time. Stragglers, and those who came after, made the total number approach 1,000. A new chapel had been erected at the latter mission, the Indians there also having contributed excellent timber for the frame, and given their labour freely in its erection. But it could not hold onehalf the number present at its opening, and hundreds were standing in groups outside. We were three days at this mission, unceasingly engaged in examining catechumens, administering holy ordinances, and giving instruction to the different nations (for the latter purpose taking each separately), and it was an unspeakable comfort to us that each person had heard something of Divine truth in his own tongue ere he departed. My young Acawoios showed their usual zeal, and we saw them from a distance teaching their people by moonlight as before. THE KAPOHN. 2-71 The children at this mission had been accustomed from the days of their late kind teacher, Mr. Wadie, to have an annual ftte, the amusements being such as Indians would engage in,-archery, foot-races, and leaping. Our Campus Martius was a clear sandy space between the chapel and the mission-house. On this occasion we had more than two hundred archers, every young man present bringing his bow. I am rather ashamed to mention the prizes, which were of less intrinsic value than the corruptible crown of the Isthmian games, and by no means so elegant, being either salt fish, or silver coins of different value, according to the excellence of the shot;-the former, of which the Indians are very fond, being preferred by them. The target was also shabby, though the best we could extemporize, being a piece of dark pasteboard, with a circle and bull's-eye marked with chalk, in the absence of paint. In the shooting, we were glad to see the boys of the mission-school distinguish themselves, one of them first piercing the white, and showing the assembled Indians that instruction in Christian truth, and the acquired power of reading and writing the English language in some degree, did not make their sons worse marksmen. After several rounds from each man and boy, the archery contest closed by a simultaneous discharge of arrows from every bow. More than two hundred shafts flying through the air together presented a novel spectacle, and in an instant demolished the target, amidst loud shouts from all. A dog, which 272 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. unheeded had wandered behind it just before, was surrounded by the crop of arrows which suddenly stuck in the sand, some even beneath him. He was a lucky dog, however, for with marvellous fortune he escaped unhurt; though bewildered by the adventure, and the roar of applause which followed his somewhat hasty retirement, with deprecating look and drooping tail, from the arena. The wild rush and cry of those young men, as, headed by the Caribs, they sprang forward to recover their arrows, helped us to form some idea of those whirlwind-like onslaughts with which, in the bloody battles of former days, their fathers attacked each other; and sometimes, rushing from an ambuscade, would cause the destruction of even veteran European soldiers. The next day the Bishop, Mr. Campbell, and myself, started for the Waini, crossing the Moruca swamps, and proceeding afterwards through a series of streams, which at that season have no visible banks; the higher portions of the roots of the dense forest-trees appearing above the water, but scarcely any of the earth from which they grow. This is the nature of the whole district extending from the Pomeroon to the great Orinoco, which was well called by ancient navigators " the wild coast;"-a desolate region, which civilized man has not yet thought fit to occupy, but has left to the aboriginal inhabitants. Here and there, by ascending narrow and difficult creeks, you may find a spot a little more elevated, and an Indian shed in which you may sleep, but the borders of the THE KAPOHN. rivers are in a state of inundation for many months during each year. The tide being against us in the Barimani on the second day, we tried to land on a spot where the roots seemed somewhat higher, and tied a hammock between the trees for Mr. Campbell, who had fallen sick. But, though the Indians made a rude platform of sticks and branches beneath it, the damp compelled the invalid's return to the boat. Insects, however, appeared to thrive there, though man could not. Huge black forest spiders abounded, living in apparently friendly communities; and some goldentinted threads of a web, with which I came in contact, were stout enough for me to bring away, wound on a paper as silk is wound. Above the mouth of the Barimani, the banks of the Waini become gradually higher, and the camping grounds good; until in four or five days' voyage its romantic falls are reached.1 We were unable to extend our voyage so far. 1 Mr. M'Clintock, the only white man who has yet explored that comparatively unknown region, says that the Aqueari Falls of the Waini differ from all others he has seen. Their height is about 25 feet, and their. breadth about 750. The rocks over which they rush are formed into three steps, so very regular as to give them the appearance of masonry. Although the body of water here precipitated is very great, it has failed in opening for itself a direct channel. This is partly owing to the great height of the lands immediately fronting the falls, but chiefly to the circumstance of their being faced throughout by immense boulders. The waters thus opposed, dashing against the boulders and receding with almost equal violence, have formed at the foot of the falls a basin about 300 yards square, which is always much agitated, and during heavy rains dangerous for small craft. rT After 274 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. Space would fail me were I to describe all the events of this (to us) most interesting, and, I may add, fatiguing expedition. How on our return we got the boat firmly fixed in pushing through the shallow swamp of Koraia, and all had to labour for some hours amidst rain and thunder in forcing her on; how we next lost the proper channel, and fortunately recovered it just before darkness came on; how we collected all the inhabitants of Wakapoa who still remained in heathenism at a settlement opposite the scene of the great Maquarri dance of twenty-three years before, and the result of that meeting; with many other matters, we cannot here further describe. After the descending torrent has here exhausted its fury against the rocks, it escapes at last by a passage on the left side of not more than twelve or fifteen feet in width, the waters of which are strangely placid. This narrow passage,-so still, —so thickly shaded and gloomy, leads the voyager ascending the stream to imagine at the moment that he is entering some place still more dark and gloomy than the passage itself. This feeling is soon dispelled. A trifling exertion of his boatmen will convey him, as if Tby magic, into a very different scene-the wide basin of foaming waters. Quartz abounds on the right side of these falls, and granite on the left. The land is very high, and on one side of the narrow gorge a delicious spring trickles from the summit, and offers its refreshing waters to the passers-by. The Indians, after passing these falls, ascend the Waini for six hours more, to a place called Emoti. Thence, crossing the Imataca range, they can descend into the valley of the Cuyuni. A journey of twenty hours brings them to the settlement of the Acawoio chief,-twelve hours more to the mouth of the Eruma on the Cuyuni, which is about sixteen hours' voyage from the penal settlement near the mouth of that river. THE KAPOHN. 275 No such assemblies of Indians had been seen for many years as those we met on that occasion. Many had come from an immense distance: the Acawoios, who were thoroughly in earnest, having stirred up the other tribes. Serrawyk, their old white-bearded chief from Cuyuni, afterwards repeatedly undertook that fatiguing journey. The following account of the Kapohn, or Acawoios, is from the pen of Mr. M'Clintock, and the result of actual observation during an acquaintance of many years. It will be seen that, though so dreaded by the other tribes in their uncivilized and heathen state, they possess many domestic virtues for which they have not hitherto received credit. Mr. M'Clintock indeed considers them in this respect superior to all other aboriginal races he has known. "The Acawoio Indians differ from other tribes in many points, a few of which are as follow:-First, with respect to polygamy (so common to Caribs and Waraus, and, before the missions were established, equally so to Arawaks), it is unknown among them.1 Secondly, no alliances are permitted before a suitable age. Thirdly, Acawoio women are decidedly virtuous, and attentive both in sickness and old age. After a birth the mother is relieved from every description of labour, even that of preparing food for her husband, for the space of five days; not from any superstitious motive, however, but simply because an infant requires the mother's whole care and attention 1 Some few of the Waika branch of their nation are, however, said to practise it. T2 276 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. during that period. In their domestic arrangements the Acawoios are cleanly, and (like all the Indian tribes in this province) passionately fond of their children; hospitable to every one; and,' among themselves, generous to a fault. "Acawoios by themselves, unless much excited, seldom talk above a whisper; and at their orgies (happily now of rare occurrence), however intoxicated they may be, never quarrel; nay more, an angry look, as such, is never observable. On the whole, a more orderly and peaceably disposed people can scarcely be found anywhere. " Both sexes make almost continual use of tobacco, which may account for their having, generally speaking, good teeth. " Their mode of preparing the ' weed' for chewing is as follows. They take from the stalk as many green leaves as will cover the pan on which their cassava is baked; over this layer of tobacco-leaves they sprinkle salt, then another layer of green leaves, and salt as before; this must be repeated till the whole becomes one inch or more in thickness. A slow fire is then applied to the pan, and after the cake (if such it may be called) is partially heated, it is removed, and distributed among a number of small calabashes, where it remains till 'quids' be in demand; not, however, to be chewed, but to be kept simply between the lips. By this method the teeth are preserved, hunger appeased (Indians always assure me of this, saying, ' When I have tobacco I never feel hungry'), and thirst is quenched." THE KAPOHN. 277 - Such is the account of those people given by Mr. M'Clintock, whose various journeys, distant expeditions in their company, and long intercourse, have given him a most intimate acquaintance with them. The localities inhabited by the Acawoios extend from the Essequibo and its tributaries, westward and north-westward, round to the heads of the Waini, Barahma, and Barima. Others live to the eastward on the Upper Demerara and Berbice. That branch of the Kapohn is called Waika' by some; others incorrectly give that name to the entire race. The Arecunas, mentioned in this chapter, dwell on the high table-land from which the castle-like rocks of Mount Roraima rise 7,500 feet above the level of the sea. The historians Montiero and Ribiero describe them as cannibals, and say that "they perforate their ears, in which they wear haulms of grass; and that they use quippos or knotted strings, like 1 " Guaica," as written by the Spaniards. There is a tribe of the same name, the people of which, as described by Humboldt, are of short stature, fair skins, and savage habits, and with a confederate tribe, the Guaharibos, prevented all access to the sources of the Orinoco. Bridging the cataracts from rock to rock with lianas, and concealing themselves behind crags and trees on the steep banks, they directed their arrows, tipped with the most deadly ourali, against all strangers. Military expeditions were unable to ascend, and the Franciscan missionaries fared no better. I have not hitherto been able to ascertain whether those Guaicas are of the same race as ours, or accidentally resemble them in name. Schomburgk, coming from the eastward, was also prevented from reaching the sources of the Orinoco by the ferocity of the Kirishanas who infest that quarter. 278 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. the Peruvians, by which they communicate not only numbers but likewise sentences to each other." They certainly indulge to a considerable extent in the luxury of perforating and wearing strange ornaments in their ears, and they are said still to use the quippos; but they are no longer cannibals. The Arecunas would seem to be very fond of ornaments, and to use a greater variety than most other tribes. Schomburgk, who visited their mountain country, speaks of a party as wearing in their ears birds' heads (chiefly those of the humming-bird), and a small creeper of a brilliant blue colour. Their girdles were of monkeys' hair. At one of their villages they made a great feast in honour of that traveller, who says, "Feasting and dancing by the natives, dressed in their gayest ornaments, lasted the whole night; and the constantlyrepeated burden of their song was, 'Roraima of the red rocks, wrapped in clouds, the ever-fertile source of streams."'" On that occasion there was a grand display of gorgeous plumes and head-dresses; the whole winged tribe having apparently been put in requisition to furnish forth the most brilliant of their feathers. They had also necklaces of monkeys' teeth, peccary teeth, and porcupines' quills, to which were attached long cotton fringes that hung down their backs, and suspended squirrel, toucan, and various other skins. We thought that the party who came to Waramuri Mission were elaborately adorned for the visit, but they probably wore only their every-day attire. THE KAPOHN. 279 It may assist the reader in forming some idea of the region from which our wild-looking visitors came, and of the various tribes which inhabit it, if he will, in imagination, place himself in some central spot, in the country of the Arecunas, for instance; the high land near Mount Roraima.' 1 Schomburgk's party had a fine view of Roraima from an elevation of 3,700 feet above the principal Arecuna village, Arawayam. Its steep sides rose to a height of 1,500 feet above them. Those sides, of compact sandstone, are as perpendicular as if erected with the plumb-line, and are overhung in part with low shrubs. The most remarkable feature of those rocks is the precipitation from their enormous heights of waters which flow in different directions into three great rivers, the Amazon, Orinoco, and Essequibo. The whole scenery of that high and rocky watershed, and of the rivers which flow from it, is extremely grand and picturesque. Hillhouse, who explored a great part of the Masaruni, speaks of perpendicular cliffs 1,000 or 1,500 feet in height, which the traveller knows to be distant, but which seem as if in dangerous proximity. "You see all around you detached masses, apparently torn from those gigantic walls of nature, and expect every moment to see one of them block up the path before you, or cut off your retreat."-The channel is at some places narrowed by those blocks, so that the canoe can barely pass, at others it widens into a shallow claret-coloured lake.-"At last you enter a capacious basin, black as ink, surrounded by a bold and extensive sandy shore, as white as chalk; and you hear a fall of water before you, but perceive no current, though there is a foam like yeast on the surface, which remains all day without visible alteration. On a more attentive examination you perceive at a distance a broken white line struggling through a cluster of granite rocks, at the base of two quartz cliffs of a mixed character, and this is the Fall of Macrebah." Some distance higher is the Fall of Coomarow, where the body of water descends from a (supposed) height of 600 feet. Roraima is several "days " beyond this fall. The Cuyuni is not so picturesque as the Masaruni, but is even more difficult and dangerous to ascend. 280- THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. He would then have to the northward the sources of the Cuyuni and some of its tributaries. That river describes a wide curve in its course, with many falls and rapids, until it joins the Masaruni, and their united waters flow into the Essequibo. Many Acawoios dwell on the banks of the Cuyuni, and the Kamarokotos are located near its head. To the eastward of Roraima are the Masaruni and its tributaries, winding downwards to the north-east to meet the Essequibo. The following tribes are enumerated by Mr. M'Clintock as dwelling on or near that river: the Quatimko; Yaramuna; Etoeko; Passonko; Komarani; Koukokinko; and Skamana. The Cuyarako live near its head, and towards the Caroni. From inquiries I have made, most of these appear to be mere subdivisions of the Kapohn; differing slightly in dialect and in other respects, and taking their names from the districts in which they dwell. Southward of Roraima the great range of the Pacaraima Mountains extends from east to west; and beyond it are the savannahs of the Rupununi, inhabited by the Wabean or Wapisiana nation, the Macusis, mentioned in the former part of this work, the Atorais and others. On the west of Roraima the Caroni takes its rise, and turning towards the north flows into the Orinoco. Still farther to the west, on the Marewari and other streams near the head of the Orinoco, reside the Guinaus or Kenous, and the Mianko or Maiongkongs. THE KAPOHN. 281 With all the above nations the Acawoios are connected by blood or alliance, and hold continual intercourse. NOTE.-The story, first mentioned by Orellana, of the existence of a tribe of Amazons, or women living separate from men, though receiving their visits at certain seasons, and only rearing female children, is firmly maintained by many of the Acawoios who profess to have visited the distant interior. La Condamine and Father Gili, who wrote during the last century, respectively notice them under the somewhat formidable titles of Coignantesecouima and Aikeambenanos. The latter speaks of them as living near the Cuchivero, but our Indians, when questioned by Mr. M'Clintock, placed them farther south, and nearer the Parima mountain range; others have fancied that they live beyond the source of the Corentyn. Humboldt, who notices the accounts given of them, thought that they had probably some foundation in the circumstance of Indian women, deprived of their male protectors by the fortune of war, banding together for mutual defence and assistance. Whatever foundation there may have been for this tale of the Amazons, unlike that of El Dorado it still exists, and may long survive among the Indian tribes. The adventurous knight-errant who would visit their supposed locality, to explode the legend or ascertain on what foundation it has rested, would have to pass through the land of the blow-pipe and arrows tipped with ourali, noiseless but deadly weapons in the hands of the wild mountaineers, whom Schomburgk, in his adventurous exploration, had to make many a tedious circuit to avoid. CHAPTER VI. THE DEMERARA. The Lower District of that River-Places of Worship of various Denominations - Its few Indian Inhabitants - The Upper District-Arampa-Malali-Visit to the above-Incidents. QUITTING now the wild and purely Indian territory between the Essequibo and the Orinoco, we will take a brief glance at what was being done, or attempted, nearer the civilized districts of our province. The Demerara was, in point of time, behind other rivers of less importance as the scene of special efforts for the conversion of its aboriginal inhabitants. The Indians on the lower portion of that river, near the city, had become few in number, and did not occupy so important a position comparatively as those in districts more remote from civilization. Sugar and other estates were formed on either bank, extending a few miles from Georgetown; and for a long distance above them the diminishing native tribes, who until the middle of the eighteenth century had been the only inhabitants, were necessarily THE DEMERARA. 283 overshadowed and kept in the background by the larger and ever increasing number of settlers. The provision grounds of the latter-with their cottages nestling among the large and bright green leaves of the bananas, plantains, and other tropical fruit-trees-are very numerous and picturesque; breaking in an agreeable manner the more sombre character of the wild forest scenery. Those settlers were at first mostly of the black or coloured races, but among them many of Portuguese and Asiatic origin are now found.1 They support themselves by cultivating provisions, cutting timber, shingles, and firewood, and by making charcoal. The river near the city is often covered with their craft of various sizes, from the light canoe to the heavilyladen punt, bringing down their produce to a ready market. In the division of that county into parishes by the Legislature (1826-7), St. Matthew's, on the right bank, was allotted to the Church of England, and St. Mark's, on the left, to the Church of Scotland. Beside the churches and chapels belonging to those bodies, other places of worship were from time to 1 Mr. O Tye Kim, whose zealous labours at Singapore in the conversion of his countrymen to Christianity were honourably mentioned in the Quarterly Paper of the S.P.G. in May 1863, established, amidst many difficulties, the first settlement of Chinese at Camuni Creek on the Demerara, in 1865. While acting with great energy in temporal matters, as the head and director of the village, he preached there in both the Amoy and Hakka dialects, and with assistant catechists itinerated among the Chinese immigrants in other parts of the colony. . 284 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. time erected, until there were ten or twelve of various sizes and denominations scattered on the banks of the river, in what for convenience' sake we may here call its lower district; i.e. within fifty or sixty miles of its mouth. At some of these Indian worshippers might be found. The district, which is the subject of this brief sketch, extends above, to the cataract commonly called the Great Falls of the Demerara. It has been, in the upper portion especially, very thinly inhabited. -A station was founded, at a place called Dalgin, by the exertions of three successive rectors of St. Matthew's-the Revs. T. Gill, H. H. Jones, and D. Smith-who from time to time paid missionary visits to the upper portion of the river. They were aided by religious persons among the settlers, one of whom, a respectable black man named Alleyne, offered land, collected timber, and secured the services of a schoolmaster. A chapel school was at length built there; Governor (afterwards Sir Philip) Wodehouse and many influential inhabitants of Georgetown attending the consecration, October 7th, 1856. To the congregation of settlers worshipping there, the neighbouring ArawAks by degrees joined themselves. Their visits to the Mahaicony mission (which during those years had been steadily progressing, through the labours of its resident teacher, Mr. Taylor, and the supervision of the Rev. Mr. May, and others), contributed, in no small degree, to that result. Many of the Demerara ArawAks were baptized at Dalgin, THE DEMERARA. 285 and by the year 1865 about thirty of that race were in full communion there. The traveller proceeding from this station up the river would soon see on its left bank the fine settlement of Christianburg, with its extensive woodcutting establishment and saw-mills. The Church of Scotland have here had a place of meeting and a school. A few miles farther he would pass the beautiful hill of Akayma, in the neighbourhood of which other efforts of the English Church among the Indians have been made. Passing onward he would find the number of settlers gradually diminishing, and the aborigines coming more prominently into view. Ere reaching Siba, "the Rock," a boldly projecting hill of granite, which commands the river, and was the site of the old Indian post, one or two of their thatched habitations may be seen from the water, peeping through the trees on the summit of an overhanging hill, while their canoes are observed gliding near the bank, or passing in and out of the smaller streams. Higher up, the want of clothing and generally wild appearance of the redskins show that they belong, not to the ArawAk race, but to that of the Kapohn. Mingled with the latter are individuals of the Macusi, Wapisiana, and other tribes of the remote interior, who have come from the Brazilian borders to labour or seek protection among the settlers. The large punts, deeply laden and hung round with massive timbers, which are met descending the river above and below the rapids, show the skill and 286 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. energy of another portion of the inhabitants, the hardy woodcutters, whose operations extend to the Great Falls. The higher wants of this mixed population of woodcutters and Indians, scattered along a space of one hundred miles, were for a long period unprovided for. Here and there a settler might be found, who would gather his people together for united worship; but little else was (or could be) done, to keep alive a sense of religion among them. At length, after repeated disappointments, a mission was commenced for their benefit, which was placed for a short time under the Rev. Mr. Eastman. He was succeeded by the Rev. A. S. Tanner, a young clergyman, who entered zealously upon the missionary work before him. With a small boat, and a crew of four Indian lads, he moved along that extensive tract, holding periodical services at eight stations, and commencing the erection of a chapel above the rapids, on the picturesque and precipitous hill of Arampa. About Christmas 1856, this work was suspended for lack of funds. He had also to dismiss his crew from the same cause, and was then compelled to find his way from station to station as he best could; sometimes paddling, with a little boy to steer, in a small wood-skin, and at other times taking a passage in a passing bateau. The cholera then visited the colony, and the dread of that disease caused the Indians to hide themselves, and avoid the missionary. The work was, however, perseveringly carried on, and in the August following the Bishop found the THE DEMEABRA. 287 building crowded with worshippers. More than one hundred Indians were present among them. There were, however, certain inconveniences attending the locality, which had been, perhaps, too hastily chosen, and a better situation had to be sought. About midway between Dalgin and the Falls are the rapids, commonly called Malali, from an Arawak word, signifying "swiftly rushing" (or flowing) water. The Demerara here cuts its way through a densely-wooded gorge two miles in length; containing reefs of rocks which the heavily-laden punts cannot pass, except when the river is swollen. It was thought advisable to form a station and build a chapel at the foot of those impediments to navigation; a haltingplace for most persons ascending or descending the river. That work was undertaken and successfully acconmplished by the Rev. G. H. Butt, who, after an interval, succeeded Mr. Tanner in the charge of that mission, and erected a building both picturesque and of good materials. I accompanied Archdeacon Jones in visiting that district, in May 1865. Although it was then terrporarily vacant, and only served by monthly visits of the clergy of Georgetown and its neighbourhood, we had large gatherings of respectable settlers and Indians. Cornelius, now grown old and feeble in body, and Philip Capui, the young Acawoio from Pomeroon, went with us on this occasion, and were of great service among their respective tribes. From the chapel at Malali, we ascended the rapids, 288 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. and went on to the abandoned chapel at Arampa. Owing to the late heavy rains, we were about eight hours in going ten miles. This caused us, on our return, to be overtaken by night at the entrance of the rapids; and just when there was no retreat, a violent thunderstorm, which had been for hours gathering around the summit of Tiger Hill, in the neighbourhood, suddenly descended, and burst over our heads. The peals reverberated grandly among the precipitous rocks from side to side, and the lightning flashed vividly through torrents of rain. After each blinding flash total darkness seemed to enclose us, and it was with difficulty our swift course could be guided through that thickly-wooded gorge by a black boy, whom a kind settler had lent to steer us. A slight swerve from loss of nerve on his part might have been fatal. A double flash, fiercer than any that had preceded it, at length showed us with vivid distinctness the mission chapel, our desired haven. As we descended the river, two days after, we had another proof of the insecurity of human life among the tribes of the interior. Two Indians passed us in a very light canoe. One was unadorned; but the man who steered wore a handsome tiara of feathers, and had his skin covered all over with bright red spots, like those of a jaguar, save in colour. His eyes gleamed wildly through circles of the same paint; and both himself and his companion were paddling with all their might against the stream.l 1 One of our Indians recognised that spotted man as one whom THE DEMERARA. 289 We soon after reached Siba, and landed to visit the hospitable family residing there, and to speak to some Indians from the interior in their employ. The latter we could not then find; but, as we were re-embarking, a strange Indian came over the steep rock, and descended hastily to the water-side. He was a man of singular and somewhat grotesque appearance, having both arms and thighs scarified in parallel downward lines, which were cross-barred with streaks of blue paint; the former being considered by his tribe a remedy against rheumatic pains, and the latter very ornamental. He was excited-pointed up the river, and finding that Philip understood his language, told us that "the painted man, who had so hurriedly passed us, had assassinated another Indian the day before, and was then flying back to the distant interior." The remote mountain tribes of the south-west had been for some time at war, as we had already heard, and many Arecunas and others had come among our settlements to avoid the strife. Safety is, however, in such cases, difficult to obtain. When an Indian has once devoted himself to accomplish the death of another, he will follow him any distance, and undergo any privation, to fulfil his deadly purpose. The Indians of the Essequibo, and from the he had seen watching a group of Indians from the corner of a street in Georgetown, ten days before. He had not then assumed his paint. He probably tracked his intended victim from the remote interior to the city, and afterwards back to the forest, where he accomplished his deadly purpose of Kanaima. 'U 290 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. tributaries of that river, in their journeys to and from that part of the Demerara, avail themselves of the path by which Waterton crossed, at a place called Coomaparo, a few miles below the falls.1 Those falls we had not time to visit on that occasion. The Bishop, however, had seen them in 1851, and noticed them in his published journal. The following circumstance, then witnessed by the Bishop, exhibits one of the most pleasing traits in the Indian character. The reader may place it in contrast with the dark incident which, on the same river, came under our notice. 1 Between the Demerara Falls and the Essequibo is a remarkable rock, which few save Indians have hitherto seen. The name of that rock is Maboora; it is the uppermost of a succession of huge natural terraces. The ascent to the summit from the level forest below occupies some hours. The rock itself is almost perpendicular. Its face is worn with the streams which have run down it during the heavy tropical rains of many ages, and broken up into huge boulders. Its top is level and of considerable extent. From the west end there is a fine view over an immense tract of country, with the broad Essequibo flowing through it and partly hidden by a range of hills. The forest at the base of the terraces appears from that height like a well-stocked cabbage garden. In the western base of the rock is a large cave, which has an inner chamber with a narrow entrance. The cave is reached by another path than that which leads to the summit, and the distance is too great for both to be visited on the same day. The cock of the rock, beautiful in the golden-orange tints of his plumage, and his double fan-like crest, has made that cavern his abode. The nests of those brilliant birds are at some distance from the sandy floor, attached to the rocky sides. Mr. C. Bispham, lay reader at Malali station after our visit, made a journey to Maboora, and from his description the above account is taken. THE DEMEBARA. 291 "In approaching the falls we halted at an Indian settlement on the left bank, and here we saw a young jaguar. It was a few weeks old, and extremely savage when any of us went near it. But never did I observe such apparent gentleness and attachment in any animal as when, after one or two of our party had certainly not gone the way to win the little creature's affections, it allowed itself to be drawn close to us by an Indian woman, and afterwards by a little child. Not a moment before it was as angry and savage as could be; but no sooner did the child draw it towards her, than, looking up with an expression of intelligence and trustfulness quite new to me, it nestled itself within the embrace of its kind protectress. The Indians are proverbially famed for the facility with which they attract animals towards them." May an influence like that obtained over the young jaguar by the little Indian maid be exerted by the mildly-subduing power of Christianity over her wild heathen countrymen, who, in devoting themselves, like the spotted man we saw, to "Kanaima" murder, have avowedly taken the jaguar1 as their pattern. May the Saviour's example and meek doctrines of mercy and forgiveness soften their hearts until, in the words of the Holy Scripture: " A little child shall lead them." 1 See Chap. x. u 2 CHAPTER VII. BERBICE AND EASTERN GUIANA. The old Dutch Colony on the Berbice gradually abandoned for the Coast Lands-Scene of the Moravian Labours-Efforts to Christianize the Indians during the present Century-Missionary Expedition to the Acawoios near the Cataracts, 1866 -Incidents-Open and healthy Savannahs which border the Berbice. The Corentyn-Indian District-Indian Slave-trade-Report on the various Tribes on that River, 1866-Orealla. Indian Tribes of Dutch and French Guiana. ABOUT sixty miles to the eastward of Georgetown, the Berbice, a larger river than the Demerara, flows into the Atlantic. In the early part of the seventeenth century its banks became the seat of a flourishing colony, which was established about twenty years after that on the Essequibo, and more than a century before the settlements on the Demerara became important. The latter river, having a more central position, and an entrance-channel of greater depth, has now become the chief port of the united province. The more shallow entrance of the Berbice, however, though a great disadvantage of late, could have offered little impediment to the Dutch navigators of those days, THE BERBICE. 293 whose flat-bottomed ships were of far less tonnage than many which now visit the colony. Where the neat and quiet town of New Amsterdam now stands, and where cultivation and cattle-farms are seen stretching eastward and westward along the line of coast, there was then an unbroken tract of marshy forest. The old Dutch maps show that that woody wilderness extended up the river nearly to Fort Nassau, about forty-five miles from its mouth. From that spot, then the seat of government, plantation succeeded plantation for many miles-there being more than one hundred on the Berbice, and a considerable number high up its tributary, the Canje. On those estates coffee, sugar, and other tropical productions were grown. In those lawless times, when the West Indian seas were overrun by buccaneers, whose piratical descents rendered it dangerous to cultivate the rich alluvial lands of the coast, the colonists were confined to the rivers, whose channels could be, by means of forts, defended with comparative ease. Among all the fine streams which water the land there is none equal to the Berbice for the purposes of colonization. The banks are, with few interruptions, of moderate and equal height; and the rapids and cataracts,-picturesque but fatal obstacles to navigation, — are situated much higher up than in any other of our rivers, there being none within 160 miles of its mouth. Moreover, while the many windings of the river gave ample frontage to the estates for drainage and water communication, the vast open savannahs, a 294 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. peculiar feature of Berbice, allowed of easy landcommunication in their rear. The colonists could ride by short cuts from place to place, and paths were made across the "downs;" which, connecting post with post, were valuable for military purposes, as well as for those of business and pleasure. From the settlement of those plantations till near the end of the last century, that part of the Berbice must have presented a lively scene. Light and gailypainted tent-boats, with punts and heavy craft, were moving on its waters, while sounds of labour, or of evening merriment, not unmixed, however, at times with different and less pleasant cries, arose from the plantations which studded its banks. But at length the coast lands and the lower parts of the rivers began to be cultivated. The seat of government was transferred to the present New Amsterdam, and that once prosperous district became gradually deserted. Nature resumed her sway, and tall forests once more stand where the garden-like Dutch plantations flourished. The old colony of Berbice has a history of considerable interest, for its vicissitudes were great. Accounts of the early invasions of the French, &c., and of the terrible insurrection of 1763, are of course to be found in the works of Dutch authors: and many incidents connected with them may still be heard from the lips of the descendants of the old colonists, though most of those traditions will expire with the present generation. From the accounts, both written and oral, which THE BERBICE. 295 have come down to us, it appears that religion was at a very low ebb among the community at large. No effectual efforts were made to impart Christianity, 'either to their slaves or to the Indians in the forests around. The Moravians alone, in this respect, seem to have striven to fulfil the Divine command. In the First Part of this work we have given a brief sketch of the Moravian Mission in Berbice. It lasted only a quarter of a century, and was destroyed in 1763. A long period of neglect ensued. Even after the work among the Indians had been begun by our Church missionaries on the Essequibo in 1829, several years elapsed ere any efforts were made for the conversion of those on the Berbice. About the year 1842, a Mr. Meyers (who was, I believe, of German extraction), having previously visited the Pomeroon, and found that important Indian district pre-occupied, undertook the office of teacher on the Berbice. For a few years he laboured with much zeal, travelling from place to place by land as well as by water. On one occasion, having rashly dismissed a guide whom a settler had charged to convey him safely to an Indian settlement, he lost his way on the great Manacaburi savannah. He had his hammock with him, and fortunately found some ripe wild fruits, on which he managed to sustain life, but the danger to which he was exposed from wild beasts and reptiles was very great. After wandering for some days, and being exhausted with fatigue, anxiety, and privation, the unfortunate man 296 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. was at length found, and rescued from impending death by some ArawAks near the Abari. He died some years after at Coomacka, where he had collected some Indians around him. They dispersed' after his death, and our Bishop, when in 1851 he ascended the river as far as that spot, found few remaining. On that occasion the settlers petitioned that a clergyman might be sent to labour among them. The Rev. J. M'Clelland was first appointed. He was succeeded by the Revs. T. Farrer, R. Hillis, and L. M'Kenzie, each for a short period. In 1858 the Rev. M. B. Johnson was placed in charge of the district, and remained there nearly seven years. During that period a chapel was built near the Hitia savannah. A malignant sore, supposed to have been first occasioned by the poisonous bite of a fly between the eyes, compelled him at length to relinquish his post, and after great and protracted suffering, endured with much patience, his weary spirit sought its rest. It being desirable, for missionary purposes, to explore the whole river as far as it is inhabited, and ascertain by ersonal inspection the tribes, numbers, and condition- of its entire Indian population, an expedition was resolved on for that purpose. The Bishop decided to go in person, and to take with him the Rev. Mr. Wyatt and myself. As there were said to be Acawoios living very high up the river, I sent for Philip Capui from the Pomeroon, hoping that he might be of service among his heathen brethren. THE BERBICE. 297 We left New Amsterdam April 13th, 1866, in two boats; our party being large, and having to carry provisions for many days. That evening we reached Mara, the highest point of sugar cultivation. We left the manager's hospitable roof about midnight, and at daybreak reached the first savannahs, called Bartika Downs, and swung our hammocks under some trees in an old cattle-pen. In the afternoon we passed the site of Fort Nassau and the Old Town (relics of which may still be found among the over-growing bush), and came a little before sunset to some sand-hills, from the back of which the Hitia savannah stretches towards the Mahaicony. Here we saw the little mission-chapel, standing on the summit of a steep and picturesque hill. The next day was Sunday, and our service was attended not only by the settlers, but also by the ArawAks from Hitia and Manacaburi. It was cheering to see every race on the banks of the river joining in the various services, and represented at the Holy Eucharist, though the numbers were not large. The ArawAks, having been catechized after service, expressed their desire for further instruction, and intention of meeting us on our return. At nightfall we resumed our course, resting during the next ebb-tide at the settlement of a Mr. Hartmann, near the Wieroni. There was a small community of ArawAks a little distance up that stream, and Mr. Wyatt took me at daybreak in the smaller boat to visit them. On landing we saw several neat cottages, but only 298 THE INDIAN TRIBEB OF GUIANA. two women were visible. They, according to Indian ideas of propriety, declined to converse with strangers of the opposite sex. A few kind words, however, and the title of mother in her own language, overcame the reserve of the elder woman, who immediately became copious and voluble in her communications. She told us that the men were in another part of the village, and led us through a shady grove to see them. They were few in number, shy at first, and unwilling to converse, but in a little time that feeling wore off. They then told us of their position-that they were Christians, with no resident teacher, and that a Mr. Avelyn, from the Demerara, had been formerly accustomed to visit them. Their place of meeting was well suited to their circumstances, and to the climate; being a large room, open at the sides and at one end. They had paved it with old Dutch bricks, which may be obtained in great quantities on the sites of the abandoned plantations. Most of the party were dressed in European clothing. The nearest approach to their natural habits which we saw was in a young woman, who carried about with her a little black monkey. The poor animal, which had lost one eye by a shot, was borne, according to their custom, on her head, with its paws tightly grasping her glossy hair. They all accompanied us to the water-side, partly to say farewell, and partly to see Philip, of whom we had told them, evidently regarding an Acawoio Christian who could read and teach as something THE BERBICE. 299 very marvellous. They were probably not a little disappointed at finding him unpainted,-with no sticks through his ears and nose,-and in dress and appearance much like one of themselves. Not far from that place we reached a district where settlers were rather numerous. There the London missionaries had built a chapel five or six years before on the left bank of the river. At length we reached Coomacka. A range of richlywooded high land here forms the western bank, behind which the open downs stretch for many miles towards the Demerara. We found quarters at the settlement of an intelligent Arawak named Jeremiah. His house was neat and spacious; and it was gratifying to see that, in order to accommodate his Indian brethren and the settlers who were in the habit of there meeting the clergyman for Divine service, he had fitted up one half with benches. These were made, not of boards, which he could not afford, but of straight sticks, laid close together and secured on uprights. Rain fell so heavily this day that we saw only a few Indians. A little girl present had on her head a small black monkey, like the one we had seen before, save that this had both eyes. The forest around, and for some miles above, was full of the relics of former cultivation. Bricks in great numbers showed where the buildings of the old estates had stood. At a very wild-looking place, where we chanced to land to rest our crews, the well-marked beds and drains, over which tall trees 300 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. were growing, showed that civilized man had once "replenished and subdued" that part of the earth. It was rather saddening to see those signs of abandonment, where man had once planted his foot and made his mark so firmly, though we knew that the former cultivators had not been driven off, but had migrated by degrees to a richer soil. In the course of the next day we left those relics of civilization far behind, and among them the site of the old Moravian mission, destroyed 103 years before. There were no more settlements. We had to find a little "bawn~boho" (or shed) to sleep under-tie our hammocks between the trees, or lie upon the narrow benches of our boats, as the case might be. Our fifth and sixth days' voyage was through the same dense forest, in which were the scattered dwellings of a very few ArawAks. Our chief object being to reach and open communication with the Acawoios, we pushed on. Having been told by the settlers below that we should find Acawoios near a small stream called Mombaca, it was arranged that Mr. Wyatt and myself should go on before in-the smaller boat, with Philip, to visit them. We had been told that we should have to leave our boat at the mouth of the stream, whence a path would lead us direct to the settlement. Instead of this, we found neither landing-place nor path until we had been nearly an hour cutting and forcing our way up the obstructed stream. Philip and Jeremiah then took their guns and went with me to the settlement. It was about two miles THE BERBICE. 301 distant, situated on a pleasant lawn-like plain, fringed with woodland, which admitted here and there a view of the distant savannah. In this charming spot, which was kept very clean, were six or seven houses, and as many dogs. The latter rushed at us, barking fiercely, but no human being was visible, and no voice answered our hail. At last we found an old woman who had shut herself in an enclosed house, and pretended to be busy sifting cassava meal. She would neither look at us, nor reply to Philip's civil salutation and questions. At length, finding us importunate, she said, sharply, in Arawak, " No Acawoios live here." Being asked where the ArawAk men of the settlement then were, she said, " Absent,"which was indeed sufficiently evident. We then asked where we should find the Acawoios, and she replied, " At Coroduni." We then ventured to inquire where that place was situated, and were told, " At the head of the river." As no traveller had yet reached the head of the Berbice, this information was rather vague and indefinite, but it was all we could get from her. She spoke with laconic severity, as if she knew that we were after no good, or our ignorance of the locality were something quite inexcusable and personally offensive. We therefore took our leave, after trying to explain the object of our visit, which she heard with a sort of grunt, betokening indifference. There was no reason to doubt the truth of the poor old woman's statement, though contrary to the information we had received. Her village seems to have 302 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. been a frontier-post between the nations. Mombaca, who had lived there some years before, was of mixed Arawak and Acawoio race, and acted as a sort of consul for both. He seems to have been a man of some consequence, attentive to his personal dignity and Indian etiquette in general. A gentleman of New Amsterdam told me that he one day found him entertaining a party of Acawoios-distinguished visitors, it seemed, from the interior. He was, of course, in full costume as an Indian chief, and decorated for the occasion. One of his legs he had painted red, and the other black,-a tasteful variety which might have been assumed as significant of the two races to which he belonged, and the just and equal manner in which his affection and duty were divided between them. Having extricated our boat from that obstructed stream, we pushed on to communicate to the Bishop the scanty information we had acquired. But it happened that the other boat, some miles ahead, was pushing on at equal speed in the hope of overtaking us. Our little craft not having been visible at the mouth of the Mombaca, they concluded that we had already gone on. Passing a high and precipitous hill of white sand, rising direct from the water, and affording from its summit one of the finest views of woodland imaginable, we arrived at a place where the river divides, forming Yowanna Island. Up one side of this we went, and should have descended the other to search for the Bishop's boat; had not Jeremiah, who in his THE BERBICE. 303 little canoe hovered about us with guardian care, proceeded quietly up the other channel, and meeting us above, told us that it was not there. Some miles higher, after a glorious sunset, the shades of evening overtook us on the still river. We had reached a place where it seemed to divide again, and we knew not which course to take. We feared also that the Bishop might not have come on so far. Therefore we landed, our prospect for the night being rather a poor one. The stores and luggage were in the larger boat. We had no hammocks, nor any food, save one small tin of preserved meat. One of our black rowers, however, had a few plantains, which were shared among all. Large fires were made on the shore; the night was dry, and after prayers we lay down on the benches of the boat. The landingplace seemed a charming spot to bathe in, but there was a strange commotion, with gleaming flashes, in the water, occasioned, we found, by the movements of the bloodthirsty little fishes called pirai, of which we had never seen such a multitude together. They attacked with their formidable jaws and ravenous ferocity everything that fell overboard.' 1 "Serrasalmo niger" (Calibi "Pirai," Arawak "Huma'). Schomburgk, who attentively, observed the habits of these voracious creatures, says that they will attack and devour fish of ten times their own weight, beginning at the caudal fin, and so disabling their victim. On the Corentyn he fell in with a large lugunani (or sun-fish) surrounded by pirais. They had devoured it piecemeal to within its pectoral fins, yet it was still alive. There is scarcely any animal that they will not attack-man certainly is not excepted. " Large alligators, which have been wounded on the tail, afford them a fine chance of satisfying their hunger." '304 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. Our kind Araw&k, though tired, and unacquainted with the river so high up, went on, and fortunately taking the right channel, found the Bishop encamped about two hours' paddle farther on, and very anxious about us. He returned the same night with the welcome news, and after telling Philip which course to steer, departed homewards to his family. His companionship had been providential. But for him both parties (one entirely without food) would have descended the river some distance next day to search for each other, and by keeping the same distance apart, or taking different channels, might have failed -in meeting again. The loss of even a few hours would, as we afterwards found, have prevented our reaching the Acawoios; while, as it fortunately happened, our forced progress alone enabled us to accomplish that-the main object of our voyage. Early the next morning we reached the Bishop's encampment, to the satisfaction of all. On landing, I observed the deep track of a tapir or maipuri in the soft forest earth immediately behind it. Large drops of blood on the fallen leaves showed that it had been wounded. A jaguar or some other savage animal had probably sprung on it during the night, and been dislodged by the tapir's dashing against a tree, or taking to the river. Whatever the cause, the The sun-fish mentioned above is so named from a golden circle on the tail, and differs much in shape and size from the clumsylooking sea-fish commonly known by that name. THE BERBICE. 305 freshness of the blood and the state of the track showed that the bleeding animal had passed only a few hours before. A short pull brought us into the Mapa Lake, a small sheet of water with high land on one side, which we ascended for a few minutes to enjoy the view. We found some difficulty in getting out of this lake, there being several apparent openings which resemble the river. Three of these we entered in succession before we found the right one. Those false openings, which probably show its former channels, are a peculiar feature of that part of the Berbice. That day we passed an encampment, with hammocks slung to trees, and wood-skin canoes and captive turtles tied at the water side. The people, who were probably the Arawaks from Mombaca, were not visible. They were catching fish by poisoning a stream in the neighbourhood, as we judged from the haiarri roots left in the camp. Our rowers now had heavy work. The tide, which ascends in the Berbice higher than in any other of our rivers, no longer checked the current, which, narrowed by sandbanks, ran strongly against us. Those banks, where they rise above the water, are frequented by guanas, which bask luxuriously in the sun and lay their eggs there. A few shrubs grow on them, and in one spot wild vines intertwining had formed a fairy bower, surmounted by the slender stem and feathery crown of a small palm which supported it;-the light green of the whole being x 306 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. beautifully relieved by the dark foliage of the forest behind. As we bivouacked the night following among the trees on the river's bank, we were getting very anxious as to the success of our expedition. Having engagements for service down the river, it was an imperative duty to commence our return the next day. Of the people we sought we could see and hear nothing, though we had expected to meet them long before. Very early the next morning we proceeded, still winding onward through an interminable and uninhabited forest. For the last forty-two hours we had not met a human being-but we knew that the cataracts of the Berbice could not now be far off, and that the Acawoios lived below them, and therefore resolved to push on for three hours longer before giving up the effort to find them. Ere we had sufficient daylight clearly to discern our course, both boats struck sharply on the rocky bed of a rapid. Finding a channel to the left we went on. Our prospect of success was rapidly diminishing as minutes and half-hours flew past, when on rounding a point we came suddenly in view of a newly-cleared Indian settlement, which was greeted with a shout of joy from our weary crews. Very pleasant it was to see it peeping from the tall forest on the river's bank, with several small islands in front;-while the higher region, from which the river descends by many falls, was rendered visible by the rising sun, above the morning mist which still hung over the intervening forest. ~-cr~'l C'''" ''"Z"L D?:"-,. c m; ~;.; 1 ~. ~~ ~ u~i' C r ~E\ ~f\-.: i II -.1.i,z",, 1 1 c-1 rr"7 fC B.C tLD VC!) V) CD 'r4 ED 1> 1-71 tD C) u 0 , C,,,. I,. 1 4 8, f 1 C..*,. I 0 - THE BERBICE. 30 7, The settlement was Coroduni, and we found there the few Acawoios we had come so far to seek. The men present were handsome and well-shaped, wore small moustachios, unusual with Indians, and were not disfigured by uncouth ornaments. The chief, Simon, who was the finest man at the settlement, came down the trunk of one of the felled trees, and, after a short parley with Philip, piloted us to the landing-place. We found there two or three settlers, who had come that great distance to procure and salt fish. All were invited to join us in morning prayers, after which Philip and myself sat down on the timber to confer with the Indians in their native manner, while the rest of our party, that they might not distract attention, proceeded onward some distance up the river. It was a great satisfaction to find that the dialect of the western Acawoios spoken by Philip did not differ materially from that of this most eastern clan. The words of the Creed, &c., were well understood, though they had never heard them before. We gave each a copy, knowing by experience that, though they could not read, the Scripture illustrations would interest them, and the explanation we gave of them be remembered. They then begged for some for absent members of their families, and for strangers who might visit them. But their greatest interest was excited by some large coloured Scripture prints which Mr. Wyatt had brought. All, save one individual, pressed forward to hear them explained. The exception was the wife of the chief man, a fine intelligent-looking x 2 308 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. woman, who, evidently ashamed in our presence of her scanty attire, sat brooding over the fire and tried hard to take no notice. But when Philip spoke of God as having sent His Son into the world to take our nature upon Him, and a picture of the babe lying in the manger at Bethlehem was shown, the poor Indian matron could not, resist that attraction, but quietly crept close to us, and became from that moment most deeply interested in the narrative of the Saviour's life. When the Bishop and party again landed, we had nearly completed the series. From the manger we had come to the cross. He found our little audience gazing intently on a lithograph of the Crucifixion, and through the interpreter addressed them on that solemn subject. The singing of the 100th Psalm, followed by prayer and the Benediction, completed this, the first missionary service among them. The sun was now high in the heavens. Gladly would we have remained longer with those Indians, but could not. It would also have been pleasant to have visited, under their guidance, the interesting tract of country above them, the blue outline of which was visible from their settlement. They could have gone with us, they said, in about three hours, to the lowest fall, the cascade of Idurewadde, and in less than a day to itabru cataract. Above these are the falls and rapids, said to be more than forty in number, of the Christmas' cataracts, I Schomburgk's party spent the Christmas of 1836 at those cataracts, and named them after that festival. None of the Indians THE BERBICE. 309 which cost Schomburgk's exploring party such labour and peril to surmount; and where, on their return, one of his companions, rashly standing on the thwarts of the canoe while "shooting" a fall, upset it, and was drowned. Large alligators (or caymans) abound there. They lie like logs of wood at the foot of cataract or rapid, ready to snatch and swallow whatever the increased rapidity of the current may bring down to them.l At no great distance above, though only to be reached with much toil and difficulty, is the lagoon where the above-named traveller discovered the magnificent lily of the Berbice-the now world-famed Victoria Regia. From the Acawoio settlement where we then were, to the highest point explored on the Berbice, the distance in a direct line is little more than one degree of latitude, though it would have taken many weeks to surmount the impediments which intervene. The upper cataracts could only be passed by an expedition specially fitted out (with stores and hawsers) for that purpose, but the two lower were within easy reach from the point we had attained-had duty permitted us to spare but a few hours. With a feeling of natural regret, therefore, we left themunvisited, though so near. But we had done, howknew of any name previously given them, or had believed it possible to surmount them. 1 "The upper river Berbice seemed, above all others, to swarm with those horrid monsters."-ScHOMBURaGK'S Natural History of. the Fishes of Guiana. 310 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. ever imperfectly, the work we came to do-had given a call in Christ's name to the few Acawoios in this part. It was indeed a very little seed, and cast upon ground totally unprepared by man's labour, but God could cause it to take root, and fruit to follow. Our swift run down the river was attended by no incident of importance. We again visited Mapa Lake, and again our pilots took a false channel in leaving it. The crews of the two boats had been merry, each at the other's expense, respecting the former mistakes, and were now proceeding side by side in a wrong course, till our Indian, by the absence of current, detected the error, and we had to try back again. The white sand-hill was passed by night. Masses of watery cloud were flitting over the moon, and the white precipice, high above the river, resembled a giant phantom, fitfully gleaming forth for a few minutes in the light, and then apparently sinking back in the returning gloom. We reached Coomacka at the appointed time, having accomplished our last two forced stages through torrents of rain. The next day Jeremiah's house was filled with his countrymen from the Etooni, Wikkie, and other streams, and by the respectable settlers from the neighbourhood. Among the Indians was a young woman whose father, and the other members of her family, had been massacred by hired Acawoios some years before, as has been related.1 1 Part II. chap. v. THE BERBICE. 311 I Two more stages brought us into the neighbourhood of the Hitia ArawAks, who, true to their appointment, came from their settlements to meet us. A few days later our party separated at New Amsterdam. By the end of the week Philip and myself had returned to the other end of the colony. The former on reaching his forest home had travelled, both ways included, 700 miles,-a good distance even for an Acawoio. We soon after heard that his countrymen whom we had visited in the vicinity of the Berbice falls had been down to Coomacka' for further instruction. From the above imperfect sketch, the reader may gather that the Arawaks of the Berbice had made a considerable advance since the revival of missionary labour there. Very much, indeed, remained to be done, but it was evident to us that many Indians as well as settlers were believers in Christ, and attentive to moral and religious duties. There were probably about 250 settlers in the mission district at the time of our visit, and 500 ArawAks. The latter were said to have greatly diminished of late years; But those numbers are not given as exact, and there may be more. To conclude our notice of the Berbice. The savannahs, which are a peculiar feature of the country watered by that fine stream, extend eastward to 1 A station was, some time after, formed at Coomacka, and the Rev. Mr. Dance placed as missionary there. The neighbouring Indians and others willingly aided in the erection of a cottage and a building to be used as a chapel-schooL 312 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. the Corentyn, and westward to the Demerara. They are from twenty to eighty feet above the level of the river. Though the soil is probably only suited for pasturage, the breeze that blows over them is most pure and bracing. Favourite spots were resorted to by the old Dutch colonists for health and recreation. The view from Coomacka across those downs resembled certain parts of England more than a tropical region. There were indeed neither hedgerows, nor village spires, and no white flocks dotted the landscape; but small copses were scattered here and there, and a line of trees, seen among the undulations, marked the course of the distant Etooni. The air was temperate and the breeze refreshing. Coveys of "besuru" sprang up before us with a whirring noise, so like partridges that one might for the moment almost have expected to see the sportsman in quest of them with dog and gun. The illusion (recalling scenes which I had not revisited for many long years) was broken by glimpses of the leaves and golden fruit of the Awarra palm, peeping from beneath the taller trees-by swarms of dust-like flies entering eyes, ears, and nostrilsand by the care necessary to avoid the rattlesnakes, which are found on those dry and elevated lands;" One, one, not many," said my quiet ArawAk guide. -Still, notwithstanding snakes, flies, and other points of difference, it was impossible to look upon the scene without thinking of that which the wandering Briton and the Anglo-American equally call "the THE COREBNTYN. 313 old country." It recalled to mind the touching lines, written in the far distant East, in which the good Bishop Heber expressed the feelings of those who, amidst the glowing luxuriance of "Indian bowers," still think on and long for the temperate bracing clime, and "good greenwood" of their mother land:"And bless, beneath the palmy shade, Her hazel and her hawthorn glade, And breathe a prayer (how oft in vain) To gaze upon her oaks again!" The CORENTYN, to the eastward of the Berbice, forms the boundary of the colony on that side. It is a river only inferior in size to the Essequibo, and is supposed to have its source near the Equator, in the same mountain chain, the Sierra Acarai. Though a large river, the banks of the Corentyn are very thinly inhabited. It was considered inferior to the Berbice for the purposes of colonization, and left by the Dutch to its aboriginal inhabitants, now fast dwindling away. The district occupied by the Indians, who are of the ArawAk, Warau, and Caribi races, commences about forty miles from its mouth, at Orealla, the " chalk" hills, and does not extend very far. Above the last Carib settlement all is desolate. The voyager passes day after day through the wildest and most romantic scenery, meeting numerous islands, rocks, and rapids; —but though the handiwork of man in days long past may be seen in rude carvings on 314 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. the perpendicular sides of the rocks, there are no human habitations on the banks of the river,-no light canoes on its waters,-and the solitude is oppressive. At length, in about nine days' voyage, the Falls are reached, and the traveller's patience rewarded by the scene which meets his view. Enormous rocks, heaped together, oppose further progress even on foot; immense chasms yawn beneath, and at certain places the streams disappear as if by magic, and make their reappearance where least expected. The thundering noise, and hovering mist, in which thousands of birds disport themselves, mark the position of the larger falls; but the scene is too extensive for the whole to be beheld in its full grandeur from any single point of view. Those great cataracts of the Corentyn have been seen by few save the Indians themselves. Schomburgk considered them as superior in grandeur to anything he had met with in Guiana.' Subsequently to his explorations, an expedition, consisting of Governor (afterwards Sir Henry) Barkly, the Bishop of Guiana, and others of the principal colonists, reached them in 1852. Few others have visited them. In days of old, when the Caribs were supreme in Guiana, this river was one of their favourite abodes. 1 The most western of the falls was named by him after the then governor, Sir James Carmichael Smyth, the eastern after Sir John Barrow. The Caribs have their own names for these, and other parts of the Great Falls of the Corentyn. M., ca 4a II. (1) C) C) z 0 C3 H;4; L3 PS C) . I II( tI THE CORENTYN. 315 Large numbers lived on its banks, keeping up a communication between their brethren on the Surinam and other eastern rivers, and those on the Upper Essequibo, Caroni, and Orinoco to the west. All these aided each other in their predatory expeditions and exterminating wars. In later times the Corentyn became a great channel of the slave-trade, which that man-hunting tribe carried on with the interior. They used to ascend it some distance above the great falls, and thence striking overland, cross the Berbice on their way to the Essequibo. The territory to the westward of that river was their chief hunting-ground, and the Macusis their usual game-the slaves so captured being brought down the Corentyn, latterly to the colony of Surinam. When Schomburgk ascended this river in 1836, that nefarious traffic was still carried on. He found three Macusi women in captivity at the Caribi settlement Tomatai. Another having recently attempted to escape from them, had been recaptured and sent on to the Dutch settlements on the Copename. At the time of that traveller's visit, the Caribs had a large slaving expedition in course of preparation. They rightly considered that his presence on the Upper Corentyn would interfere with their plans, and therefore withheld from him the knowledge of a small stream and path by which they had been accustomed to avoid the (otherwise fatal) impediment to navigation presented by the Great Falls. Three canoes of Caribs followed his expedition uninvited, 316 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF aUIANA. and uniting with their brethren whom the traveller had hired as paddlers, they overawed the ArawAk and Warau portion of his crews, none of whom had previously passed that way. Their conduct prevented his further progress, and was, at the time, inexplicable. After the expedition, thus defeated in its object, had returned to the post Orealla, a canoe, forty feet in length, arrived with Caribs from the Wayambo, who exhibited a pass from the Dutch authorities. That party openly stated that they were bound to the Macusi country for slaves, and that the Corentyn Caribs had engaged to go with them. This explained the secret reasons for the conduct of the latter.' Their expedition, however, did not proceed immediately. An old sorcerer, who had planned it, was then suffering from a pulmonary complaint. Schomburgk, from unmistakeable symptoms, had told them that his end was approaching, and that event happening soon after the prediction, excited their superstitious fears, delayed for a time their voyage, and eventually modified their plans. During that delay the traveller, baffled by them on the Corentyn, had penetrated the interior by way of the Berbice cataracts; and great was the astonishment of the Carib chief 1 The Caribs whom Schomburgk had hired as paddlers, also feared that it was his intention to visit the country of the Amazons, or women without husbands (called by them Wori-samacos); and that, if they went, they would be detained some months among them. They, equally with the western tribes, believed in the existence of that female republic; but they supposed it to be located nearer to themselves, and on the head of the Corentyn. THE CORENTYN. 317 "Smittee" (Smith) and his men, when they saw the boats of his apparently ubiquitous expedition before them on that river, at the path leading to the Essequibo! They professed penitence,-told him that they had given up all design of making slaves, and now only intended friendly traffic with the Macusis, in proof of which they showed him that they had brought their wives and children with them, whom they never take on warlike or predatory expeditions. They had not, however, finally abandoned that practice. When Mr. A. Winter, Captain Allen, and two other gentlemen ascended the Corentyn a few years later, they found those same Caribs, at Tomatai, celebrating their return from a recent expedition. They had brought back with them many articles of value to Indians, and also a young Macusi female, a slave, whom it was observed they kept hard at work grating cassava, while they were all in full paint, enjoying the revels. An Arawak girl, whom they had carried off from the Berbice a few years before, was also present, and recognised by her brother, who had come with the white men as one of their crew. Their meeting was unexpected and affecting; but a young Caribi lover or husband, and the birth of two children, had reconciled the female in a great measure to her captivity. The Carib chief accompanied that party to the cataracts, and showed the portage they had cunningly concealed from Schomburgk, with the timbers laid, over which they used to haul their own canoes. 318 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. From these accounts the reader may see how prevalent the Indian slave-trade has been, and how recently carried on, even within our boundaries. It still prevails on the southern borders of our colony and the northern tributaries of the Amazon, and its miseries may in great part account for the wasting away of many Indian tribes. While that practice, with the vices which ever attend it, existed in force, the continual demoralization of the Caribs was inevitable, as also of less powerful tribes, by their influence and example. From the abolition of slavery in Surinam that evil custom has, in the coast regions, probably received its death-wound-not, however, until the tribe which chiefly practised it has nearly disappeared from the face of the earth. In the brief outline given in a former chapter of the Moravian labours, we have shown how their mission on the Dutch side of the Corentyn, after various calamities, including fire and wasting sicknesses, was finally abandoned. Though never forgotten, and visited from time to time by English clergymen and others from the cultivated district near the river's mouth, the Indians of Corentyn remained without a resident minister or teacher. Our missions in other places were in a very precarious state, as we have seen; some of them lying vacant for long periods. Having a hard struggle to hold the ground we had occupied in the west, our labours could only be extended eastward by slow degrees. THE CORENTYN. 319 Meanwhile the aborigines, left to the vices of neighbouring civilization without the antidote of Christian teaching, diminished rapidly. The Post-holder's returns gave 752 in 1831, 575 in 1838. In 1866, 245 were found on the western side, and very few on the other, by the Rev. W. T. Veness, who went through all their settlements at the request of the Bishop, and gave a most interesting though mournful account of their condition. He found the proportion of children surprisingly small-an average of one child only to each couple. Among the same tribes at our western missions (Waramuri especially), children swarm. The pure Caribs had almost disappeared. There were only twenty-nine in the district who claimed to be of that once numerous and dominant race, and of these only three were unmixed with negro blood. Of the other Indians, 79 were Waraus, and 137 ArawAks. About forty of the latter tribe were gathered for Divine service by Mr. Veness at the residence of Mrs. de Wolff, widow of the former Post-holder at Orealla. The Waraus held themselves aloof on that occasion, in obedience, it was thought, to their captain and chief sorcerer, Christmas, a man who, though blind, exercised unlimited control over them. Mr. Veness mentions, as "a striking instance of the deeds of cruelty which prevail where men's hearts are not softened by the mild and genial influence of the Gospel," that he had been deprived of sight by his own wife. It appears that she did not come 320 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. up to even the Warau standard of morality, and her husband frequently complained of her gadding propensities. At length she found him in his hammock one day, in a state of partial inebriation, and deliberately stabbed him in the eyes with a knife, saying that " now he could not see when she left her home." That woman afterwards lived with another man, who, having his jealous and revengeful feelings excited by her licentious conduct, gave vent to them by hamstringing her. Polygamy, as we may suppose, was prevalent on the Corentyn. Several Indians had each two wives, and some had three. Among the latter was the blinded sorcerer above mentioned. A young girl is sometimes given as payment for the professional services of the piai-man during sickness, which may account for the scale of his domestic establishment. At one place, Mr. Veness found about thirty Waraus engaged in the ordinary native dance. "It was little more than a measured series of steps, accompanied with stamping, while the persons advanced or receded, sometimes in single rank, sometimes in two ranks facing each other, having their right arms over their right-hand neighbour's shoulders, and their left arms round their left-hand neighbour's waist, swaying their bodies to and fro. Occasionally the women would run, and inserting themselves between the men, join in the dance. The effect was somewhat heightened by a monotonous chant sung in unison, and by the clatter of bracelets and anklets made of hard seeds and the wings of THE CORENTYN AND SURINAM. 321 beetles. The dance was intended to represent the antics of a herd of kairounies, or bush-hogs, and the chant was a succession of mocking or jeering expressions." At another place he found a number of Indians drinking paiwari, the women handing round bowls of that beverage filled from large earthen jars. On such occasions the Indians, though intoxicated even to vomiting, will not cease their potations while any of the liquor remains. By engaging them in conversation, and singing hymns at their request in the clear star-light, Mr. Veness was able to stop their carouse, and from what passed that evening, thought that it would not be a very difficult task for a zealous Christian teacher to wean them from their heathenish practices. His able report was followed by efforts for the establishment of a small mission station at Orealla, a step most necessary, both for the welfare of the Indians on the Corentyn, and as completing the chain of missions across our province from west to east:-so that the migratory Indian or settler of any race may find, on each of the main rivers, a place of Christian worship or instruction provided to give, or keep alive in his mind, the knowledge of his God and Saviour. SURINAM, or Dutch Guiana, lies beyond the Corentyn, extending eastward to the Marowini (or Maroni). Its most important river is the Surinam, Y 322 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. with its affluent, the Comowini: between which and our territory are the Saramaca, Copename, and other streams. Many thousands of bush-negroes dwell in the interior. They are a more hardy race than the aborigines; and have increased in numbers and power as the latter have diminished. The Caribs and Arawaks are the most numerous of the Indian tribes inhabiting Surinam. They differ little from their brethren described in the foregoing pages. The Caribs chiefly inhabit the Marowini, Copename, Tibiti, and Wayambo. They are, as elsewhere, indolent and haughty. Many are partly of negro blood; and such are hardier as well as darker than the pure Caribs. The ArawAks are thinly spread over the country. They are, as with us, intelligent and skilful axemen. The Waraus, few in number, live near the Nikeri and Corentyn. Another and wilder tribe inhabits the mountain region near the head of the Marowini. They possess fine hunting dogs, which they barter with the bushnegroes, but hold themselves aloof from the cultivated parts of the colony. The total number of Indians in Surinam has been variously estimated at from 2,000 to nearly 4,000; and of these there are many of mixed race. All agree that their fondness for rum, with other causes, is rapidly diminishing their numbers. SURINAM AND CAYENNE. 323 The early Moravian missions among the Indians on the Cottica and Saramaca, and their fate, have been already noticed. Members of the various tribes are found among the congregations of that body; but there appears to be no mission east of our colony established for the especial benefit of Indians. CAYENNE, or French Guiana, lies beyond the broad and rocky Marowini: on which establishments containing thousands of convicts from the mother country have been formed. Between that river and the eastern boundary the relics of four or five Indian tribes are met with. The entire number of aborigines has been stated in the official journal of Cayenne as not exceeding 1,800; while of the bush-negroes dwelling on the Upper Marowini alone there were 1,400 or 1,500.1 A feeble remnant of the once powerful Galibis (Caribs) is thinly scattered among the various rivers. In the interior, on both sides of the mountain range of Tumuc-Humac or Tumucurague, the Roucouyennes are found. The Emerillons live between the Aprouague and the Oyapok. The Aramisas dwell beyond the last-named tribe, at the head of the Aroua. The Oyampis inhabit the Upper Oyapok, and are found on both banks of that river. 1 Feuille de la Guyane Franqaise, June 2d, 1866. Y 2 324 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. To the above we may add a few Tapuyo Indians, refugees from Brazil. Though the Indian tribes of French Guiana differ more or less from ours in name and language, their customs and habits of life are much the same. They have the same skill in hunting and fishing; use the same scanty apparel; and have apparently the same ideas of the beautiful-their women enlarging the calf of the leg in the manner of our Caribs, by tight bands above the ankle and below the knee. They live in a state of independence, save that their chiefs are appointed to, or confirmed in, their office by the Governor, as in the other colonies; receiving a silver-headed staff as the symbol of their rank. On grand occasions they usually array themselves in some old uniform, without much regard to its exact significance: the chief of the Oyampis (an inland tribe), wearing that of a captain in the French navy, which his father, Waninika (who afterwards fell fighting bravely against the bush-negroes), had received as a present from'a former Governor. The state of warfare in which the Indians, both of Cayenne and Surinam, have been from time to time engaged with those people, whose losses were continually recruited and their numbers increased by fresh African runaways from the Dutch plantations, must have greatly aided other influences in diminishing their numbers. More than twenty tribes, as the Trios, Racalets, Palicouras, Nouragues, &c. &c. mentioned by the early explorers and former missionaries in Cayenne, CAYENNE. 325 have either become extinct, or mingled with the few at present found.1 Thus, within and around the three colonies of Guiana during the last three centuries, many races have passed away in heathen darkness. Let " all who profess and call themselves Christians," whatever their " unhappy divisions," join at least in lifting up a prayer for the survivors,-"the remnant that are left." 1 La Guyane Frangaise en 1865, by M. Leon Riviere, chap. ix. CHAPTER VIII. ABOVE THE FALLS. Decline of the Aborigines-Desolate Regions-Paths from River to River-The Country above the Falls crossed in 1839 -Missionary Expedition to the Acawoios residing there in 1867. Indian Tribes near the Sources of the Essequibo, and on the Brazilian Border. IN the eastern provinces of Guiana, briefly noticed in the last chapter, the bush-negroes, as we have seen, gradually increasing in number and strength, occupied a great portion of the Indian territory. Adopting the habits of the aborigines, they assumed even the beads, feathered head-dresses, and other articles of Indian adornment; and regarded with great contempt the negroes of the plantations. Under the names of Youca, Boni, &c., their clans occupy certain inland districts far to the eastward of the Corentyn, and have strongholds among the cataracts of the Upper Marowini, and the swamps of Surinam.1 1 Many superstitious and barbarous customs, derived from their African forefathers, are followed by those wild clans. M. Leprieur, a French naturalist and explorer, who in 1836 fell in with a party of those negroes near the Aroua, was taken to a small island, and there obliged to mingle his blood with theirs, and drink ABOVE THE FALLS. 327 The territory which, within our boundary, extends from the Upper Corentyn westward above the cataracts of the Berbice, appears to be almost, or altogether, uninhabited. Vast tracts in which the Timehri, or hieroglyphics on rocks, show traces of former Indian inhabitants, now lie desolate. The war (or slave) path of the Caribs from Eastern Guiana, intersecting that region, must have long ago rendered it unsafe for other tribes. In the more distant parts of the interior, the Indians, though not unfriendly to our colonists, have been neither protected nor controlled by them. Being virtually independent, they follow their ancient customs, prosecute their blood-feuds, enslave the weak, and do generally what is right in their own eyes. The Acawoios whom we visited at their settlement just below the Berbice cataracts told us that (with the exception of five other families) they were all of their race residing on that river. "But," added their chief, pointing towards the head of the Demerara, "many are living on that side." the mixture diluted with water, as a covenant of peace. After this, his hosts bravely defended his person against the attacks of a stronger and hostile body of their countrymen, though they were unable to prevent the pillage of his instruments and baggage. In 1861, a joint expedition, sent by the French and Dutch Governments to explore the Marowini to its sources, had to pause above the rapids which form a stronghold of the Youcas, while the latter made an offering to a formidable-looking rock, supposed to represent the tutelary spirit or god of that locality. Efforts for the conversion of those bush-negroes have been made by the Moravians of Surinam. Their Report for 1866 spoke highly of the zeal and success of one of their native agents among them. 328 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. With a view to the spread of Christianity among their race generally, it was desirable to gather further information respecting that branch of it. But few educated persons had ever visited, or had intercourse with them. Mr. Alexander Winter, of Berbice, had, however, in 1839 crossed, with Mr. W. Nicolson, directly through their territory. He kindly furnished me with an interesting account of that region, and the Indians then inhabiting it. Those gentlemen, having been disappointed in reaching the Berbice cataracts (the shallowness of the river at that season not allowing their boat to approach the lowest fall), struck overland towards the Demerara. Mombaca, before mentioned, was their guide. The path led through high forest land, abounding with the useful wallaba timber. On the second day they fell in with Indians. Mombaca's presence insured a good reception, and they spent that night at one of their settlements. The natives were hospitable, and seemed an amiable race. They were apparently very happy, having enough for their own wants, and not being desirous of mixing with the distant world. Dwelling in that secluded district, and on the banks of small rivulets, some of them, the travellers were told, could not even swim. Their wonder was greatly excited by the dress and equipments of white people, whom some of them apparently had not seen before. A pair of red morocco slippers became objects of especial admiration. A ABOVE THE FALLS. 329 group of women collected near the hammock in which the wearer was lying, and kept whispering among themselves and pointing, till one of them ventured to touch them, and then looked at her fingers to see if the colour, like their own red pigment, would come off. A corkscrew puzzled them greatly. Without bottle or cork its use could not satisfactorily be explained, and so it remained still an implement very mysterious in their eyes. At night they celebrated the arrival of the unexpected visitors (to the disgust and annoyance of Mr. Nicolson, who was unwell) by dancing round their hammocks, to the sound of their rude music, for several hours. The next morning the two gentlemen proceeded on their way, escorted by ten or twelve men and boys in grand costume, i.e. with fresh paint on their bodies, and feathered crowns on their heads. These, with four or five flutes and a drum, marched ahead.-So jovial a set of Indians the travellers had never before seen. The little stream on which were situated the villages of that primitive and secluded people is called Atacopara. Farther on the travellers found it navigable; and, having procured wood-skins at another settlement, they reached the Demerara at sunset, at a point far above the cataract known as the great falls of that river. Schomburgk having reported the Demerara as non-existent at the place where he had crossed from the Berbice to the Essequibo, the 330 TIlE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. two travellers ascended it in their wood-skins, in the hope of reaching its source. The next day they came to a place where the river, lessened by the drought, rushed through a channel so narrow that my informant was able to leap across it. But, from a neighbouring bluff, crowned with an Indian settlement, they saw its windings like a silver thread, stretching far away, showing its source to be still distant. As, in their overland journey, they had brought no stores of provisions, and could obtain no cassava bread, they were compelled to return without further exploration. The information derived from the above and other sources led, after much anxious consultation, to a missionary expedition to the country of those Indians. We decided to proceed by way of the Falls of the Demerara. The party consisted of the Bishop, the Rev. Mr. Wyatt, Mr. G. Couchman (warden of the chapel at Malali rapids, who voluntarily acted as pilot), Philip my Acawoio assistant, and myself. We arrived at the foot of the falls on the afternoon of the 26th of March, 1867, and ascended the rugged forest path leading to their top. The Demerara here precipitates itself in one body over a rocky barrier. Huge masses of rock, crowned with stately trees, divide it into several channels ere it reaches its lower bed. Of these channels there are two large ones in the centre, with smaller ones on either side. All are filled with great boulders, over which the dark waters toss and dash, I.I *. 11..: 0 1 Is 00 4 To face p. 331.;.... -.. - - T._w.._ ll_ THE DEMERARA FALLLS ABOVE THE FALLS. 331 until they roll into the wide basin below, covering its sides and margin with masses of yeasty foam.] Three-fourths of this cataract are hidden from view by the luxuriant forest which clothes its sides, and covers its islands. The misty spray rising, when the river is full, from the channels between the tall trees; the rushing noise; and a glimpse of the torrent, here and there, show imperfectly its divided course. Should the hand of civilization ever remove portions of that leafy screen, the Falls of the Demerara, -though not entitled to the epithet of " Great" when compared with many cataracts of the Western world,will be found to present a spectacle full of beauty and interest to those who, in quest of health or pleasure, may visit them from the distant coast: The weather had been pleasant while we examined the falls, but evening set in with sudden and ominous gloom. Torrents of rain and an awful storm of lightning and thunder, which shook the rocks around, crashed among the trees of the forest, and lasted far into the night, made us thankful for the shelter of a neighbouring Indian settlement. The next morning our baggage was carried above the falls:-the two boats, in which we had reached them, being left below. Some Acawoios had accompanied us in a wood-skin, which they hauled upon 1 The length of the fall appeared to be between 300 and 400 feet. The perpendicular difference between the levels of the river above and below was ascertained by Mr. Des Vceux, magistrate of the Demerara, in an expedition to the interior, October 1866, who (from memory) gave me the result as 65 feet. 332 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. the rocks, turned bottom upwards, and carried on their heads along the rugged path leading to the upper landing place. We found there another wood-skin of larger size. Two Indians were "sewing up its ears," as they said, i.e. lashing or lacing up with bush-rope the downward slits which are made on both sides near the stem and stern to give those extremities a slight spring above the surface of the water. On this we embarked; the Indian paddlers squatting in the bottom, and the passengers being seated on boxes, &c., which that frail craft had to carry, as well as ten persons. The flatness of these woodskins renders them, however, very steady. Ours bore its heavy freight easily, though its sides were only three or four inches above the surface of the water. Our bark being thus well laden, the rest of our baggage was placed on the smaller craft, which had been brought over from below. As soon as its crew were seated, the water flowed in at the open stern. To remedy this, a large lump of clay was stuck there, which one, who spoke a little English, called a "back-dam." The place of embarkation was sheltered by lofty trees, and protected by a ledge of rocks from the current of the fall, which rolls over at a distance of not more than 100 feet. It required some skill to emerge from this recess and keep the heavilyladen wood-skin from swinging broadside to the stream. At the most critical moment, a young Indian tc Is -HiT! ( D C.l::Z? j=-,A) I rI II IC< ABOVE THE FALLS. 333 in the bow, named "Tiger," a sturdy fellow, but one who had never before occupied such a responsible position, looked round with hesitation. At a word promptly given by Mr. Couchman, all our crew sprang into the water, and jumping, wading, and swimming from rock to rock, dragged our craft along the river-side until a point was reached from which we could launch forth with safety. After a few hours' paddle we met three small wood-skins, on which were seated a party of Indian revellers, young men and women, whose bodies and limbs were marked all over with black paint, in grotesque patterns; the mouth of each being favoured with an especially large daub. To appear with distinction at a grand native dance or carnival, they had apparently endeavoured (and not without success) to make themselves as like demons as possible.Another wood-skin followed. This was occupied by a young man of bolder taste than those who preceded him. Disdaining the use of any pattern, he had produced a marked effect by blackening himself all over, save on the nose and cheeks. This simple style of adornment, combined with his squatting attitude and shaggy black hair, gave him a striking resemblance (save in size) to the solemn black monkey of Guiana, with pinkish face, called the quata. Other Indians on wood-skins soon after came in sight. They were smeared with red paint. Since passing the falls, we seemed to have entered an enchanted region, where goblins, red, black, and mottled,-of aquatic habits,-came skimming along 334 TfHE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. the surface to meet intruders. But, though grotesque, they were not unfriendly. Some of them, having asked our errand, turned back with us. Towards evening, we reached a settlement where the grand entertainment had evidently taken place. Seventy-eight Indians stood looking down on our little flotilla from a precipitous bank. Some of them wore feathered crowns; but few were painted. The Bishop, beholding such an assembly, stood up in the wood-skin and saluted them. His salute was returned by Kanaimapo, the principal chief of those Waika-Acawoios, a strongly-built man of about sixty years of age, who came to the front of his people, and, standing on the edge of the bank, placed both hands on his breast and then waved them in token of welcome. His settlement, called Pongobai, was on a neighbouring hill. A huge rock, like a massive fragment of Cyclopean masonry, rises from the river close to the bank, and marks the landing-place. Thither most of the party, who, notwithstanding their recent festivity, were quite sober, followed us. They listened that night with eager attention to the tracts in their own tongue, and to Philip's explanation of the Scripture prints with which they were illustrated. Leaving him to benefit his assembled countrymen, we proceeded next day higher up the river. Passing a small but beautiful cascade on the left bank, which comes leaping down the rocky side of a hill, and falls into the river in sheets of silvery spray, we ABOVE THE FALLS. 335 went through all the Indian settlements in that part, and reached Igook. This is a small creek, from which a path (one of three above the falls) leads to the Essequibo, striking that river above the Waraputa rapids, and at no great distance from the singular gigantic rock, which, from its resemblance to a water-jar with its cover, is called Taquiari or Comuti by the Indians. On our return to the village of Kanaimapo, the old chief had one of his largest houses cleared out for the performance of Divine service. Logs of wood were ranged all around to serve as benches for his people. On these more than 150 Indians seated themselves as darkness set in; their copper skins assuming a more fiery tint in the red light cast by the burning gum of the simiri, or locust tree, or by that of the fragrant hyawa, the incense tree of Guiana. A few candles, which we had brought with us, aided this native illumination. To honour Almighty God, in giving as much solemnity as possible to this, the first public act of Christian worship performed among those people, each of the clergy present, robed, took part in the service. There was, of course, neither pulpit nor desk, and not even a table could be procured. But two of our boxes placed one on -the other made a good substitute, and, when covered with a blue rug, looked very well. Philip stood beside us, explained the service, and interpreted the Bishop's address, the portion of Scripture read, and other instruction given while old Kanaimapo, surrounded by his fine 336 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. looking sons, responded from time to time in the Indian manner, by words expressive of assent, wonder, or attention. We were much struck with the manner in which the Indians tried to join us in the hymns. Without understanding one line of the English verses, they caught up and helped to swell the strains of the Old Hundredth and Hanover, with a sweetness of voice and correctness of ear which surprised us greatly. Since we had reached the Acawoio country, the work of instruction had been carried on by night as well as by day. Philip especially was almost worn out, his countrymen giving him no rest. Their attention had been greatly excited by the great doctrines (then first plainly set before them) of the Redemption, the Resurrection to Eternal Life, &c., and when we were departing, they made an earnest request at the water-side that he, at least, might be be left to satisfy their craving for Christian knowledge. We found the Demerara much swollen on our return. Heavy squalls of wind and rain had profusely covered its waters with the bright yellow blossoms of the moroji, or cork-wood tree. Few sights are more beautiful than the river when those trees are in full bloom, especially while the rays of the setting sun are falling on those which stud its banks, and, glancing across the flower-besprinkled waters, cause them to resemble a stream of molten gold. To leave the landing-place at the edge of the falls had been a delicate operation, and to re-enter ABOVE THE FALLS. 337 it was perhaps still more so. "Tiger" by common consent had been deposed from his position in the bow, and we had now an experienced hand there; who, as the rumbling noise of the cataract increased, and we came within its suction, stood up warily to reconnoitre; and by a wave of the hand, or a quiet word, regulated our course, and the rate of headway necessary to keep the frail craft under command. At a certain spot, a signal was given; the paddles all plied in concert, and we glided out of the current, and down over a small ledge or fall between two rocks, into the shady recess. This, by the swelling of the river, had now become part of the falls, the water rushing through it. Our crew jumped overboard, and brought us safely to the bank; but a like good fortune did not await our little tender. She was swamped, notwithstanding her "back-dam" of clay; but the Indians got on the rocks, and held her on the surface till her lading could be removed.-Civilized man would make a landing-place farther from the cataract. The region we were quitting is the most central part of our province. The falls, preventing continuous navigation, have cut it off in a great measure from the lower regions. Since our expedition to the Berbice Acawoios, it had remained the only inhabited part of our undisputed territory previously unvisited by Christian missionary. We had now seen and spoken with all the Waika-Acawoios, save a very small remnant still living on the Atacopara, and some other families under Kanaimapo, whose z 338 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUI.ANA. settlements were, he told us, three or four days' voyage to the southward. Beyond these last, the land between the Corentyn and Essequibo stretches three degrees farther south. It gradually narrows between the upper courses of those two rivers to a width of little more than thirty miles, and can scarcely be called inhabited. The Caribs, once dominant on both those rivers, laid waste that land in former days. The Upper Demerara especially was completely swept by them of its ancient inhabitants, until the Acawoios (a horde from the Masaruni) took possession of the vacant territory, and, allying themselves with the ArawAks below, were able to hold it against all comers. Such is their tradition. The Caribs have now in their turn almost disappeared from the Upper Essequibo. Near the distant sources of the latter river dwell two feeble tribes,-the Tarumas and Woyawais. The TARUMAS once lived in a very remote region near the mouth of the Rio Negro. There the Carmelites had a mission among them as early as 1670. Disagreeing with other tribes, and being ill-used by the Portuguese, a portion of them fled northward. Death made such ravages among those who remained that their race was considered extinct:-but those who fled had settled near the head of the Essequibo. Mahanarva, the famous Caribi chief,1 brought the 1 Mahanarva had one of his numerous residences on the Upper Essequibo, but after his death his people, diminished in numbers, ABOVE THE FALLS. 339 first information of their existence to Demerara. He described them, however, as amphibious, and taking shelter in caverns under water,-an exaggeration, it is probable, of their timidity and rapid disappearance by diving among rocks when surprised on the river by his man-stealing countrymen. When Schomburgk departed from Pirara Mission on his great exploring journey to Roraima, and to Esmeralda on the Orinoco, he left the Rev. Mr. Youd preparing to start the same day on an expedition to the Tarumas. The missionary's hopes among that tribe soon after perished in his own expulsion. The WOYAWAIS are chiefly noted for a fine breed of dogs, with which they carry on a traffic with other tribes; and for their filthy habits. This last-named tribe dwell on the skirts of the Sierra Acarai. Off-shoots, or continuations of that mountain-range, run in a north-easterly direction towards the Atlantic. From the northern slopes of that water-shed flow the chief rivers of Surinam and Cayenne. Others flow southward through the old Portuguese Guiana into the Amazon. Of the wild abandoned that part of the river. The serious obstruction to its navigation presented by the cataract (since named by Schomburgk after King William IV.) was probably one chief cause of their removal. "At that fall, conical hills of granitic structure, covered with verdure, narrow the river to within 50 yards. The whole body of water then dashes down a precipice of 14 feet, then foams over a rugged bed of rocks for 20 yards, and again precipitates itself 10 feet into the basin below." It is a picturesque fall, but by no means to be compared to those of the Corentyn. z 2 340 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUI.4 NA.t. tribes inhabiting the heads of those latter streams little is known.' 1 The Indian races inhabiting the Lower Amazon and its tributaries have been baptized, and are in various degrees of civilization. They are now generally called Tapuyos, from a nation of that name, very powerful on the coast of Brazil in former days, which is said to have been driven northward by hordes from the interior more fierce and savage than itself. Of the ferocity of some of the latter terrible accounts have been handed down. They have been represented as devouring every prisoner they culd capture, as a sacred duty, and a sacrifice acceptable to the manes of their fallen brethren. They are also said to have practised a refined cruelty similar to that of the Aztecs of ancient Mexico, in cherishing and fattening their victim, giving him wives, &c., until an appointed day, when, after many tedious and revolting ceremonies, in which old women were chief actors, he was put to death,-not, however, with the prolonged tortures inflicted by the North American tribes, but by a single blow of a sacred club. The offspring of such captives, without regard to the mother's feelings, are said to have been inexorably reared for a similar fate. The ancient Tapuyos are reported to have been less cruel, sparing their captives' lives, and selling them for slaves. A strange custom of eating a portion of their dead relatives, as the last mark of affection, is said, however, to have existed among them in their former wild condition. Many of those Brazilian tribes were reclaimed from their barbarous practices by the missionaries of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. From their numerous dialects the Jesuits selected the Tupi-Guarani, or Lingua Geral, and made it the common language of their missions, which up to the middle of the last century flourished greatly. Soon after that period their order lost its widely-extended power, and, as elsewhere, the missions declined. The Indians who reside in the more central districts of Brazil are specially protected by law. But of the remoter tribes, who prefer an independent life, the milder races have been oppressed and hunted down by unscrupulous traders and others; while some ABOVE THE FALLS. 341 The Parima, or Rio Branco, which, flowing southward, joins the Rio Negro on its way to the Amazon, has its rise in that more northern chain which divides Brazil from Venezuela. Some Paramuna Indians from the banks of the Parima were the guests of Kanaimapo at the time of our visit, and descended the Demerara with us. They were distinguished from the Acawoios, their hosts, by very large feathered coronals, having soft white plumes which drooped over their brows. Between the Rio Branco and the Essequibo is the country of the Macusis, Wapisianas, and Atorais. There also is the ruined site of Pirara, the scene in former years of our Church's peaceful Mission, and of the labours, too soon destroyed, of a good.soldier of the Cross. From the highest point we reached on the Demerara, that spot lay distant, in a direct line, about 100 miles. We thought on its fate with sadness. Yet there was comfort in reflecting on the noble effort then made, and in the knowledge that if, like Gideon's fleece, that region now lay dry, the gracious dew was widely falling on the aborigines elsewhere. The Indians of that disputed territory have not been a happy people. Schomburgk witnessed and described the descimentos with which the Brazilians have wasted their villages. In addition, they have been frequently attacked by the mountain-tribes. Insecurity of life and personal freedom has caused savage nations, who are said to retain all the ferocity and cannibalism of their forefathers, resolutely defend their territories, and allow no strangers to enter them. 342 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. many families of Indians to quit those border-lands for the comparative security afforded by the vicinity of our settlements. Some of them have come overland to the Demerara, and received Christian instruction there. We saw proof of this during the expedition described in this chapter. Among fifty Indians of all ages, whom we then baptized in the chapels of the Mission district below the falls, were several from the west, of the Macusi and Arecuna nations.-Others have descended to the missions of the Lower Essequibo.-And when Serrawyk, the aged chief of the Acawoios of Cuyuni, after four fatiguing journeys for instruction at Waramuri Mission, was baptized there in November 1866, I found among his followers several Macusis, refugees from Pirara. In this way the baffled "fierceness of man" sometimes turns to the "praise of God." CHAPTER IX. THE CHARACTER, HABITS, AND SUPERSTITIONS OF THE INDIANS. Their Indolence, Apathy, Acute Observation, &c.-HospitalityDrunkenness-Polygamy-Superstitions -The Kanaima-Yauhahn or Demons-System of Sorcery or Piai-ism-The Orehu -Her Qualities, &c. FROM the foregoing pages some idea will have been formed of the condition of the various Indian races. The points on which they differ have been briefly stated, but there are some things in which they mostly agree which may require further notice. Indolence is one of these. The chief desire of the Indian in his uncivilized condition is to get through life with as little trouble as possible. They are energetic only by fits and starts; and as the climate renders clothing unnecessary, they have little to provide for beyond their daily food, and spend hours in their hammocks, picking their teeth, examining their features in a piece of looking-glass, or meditating some new and striking pattern in daubing their faces with arnotto. At other times they may be seen eradicating the hairs of their beards and eyebrows, in the room of which latter some tribes tattoo lines 344 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. according to their own ideas of beauty;-the corners of the mouth, and sometimes the cheeks, being also tattooed in various patterns. The women work continuously in agricultural and domestic duties, and cannot justly be called idle. The apathy of their race is also noted. Much 'of it is assumed, however; he who lives among them will find that their feelings are stronger than is generally supposed, but they possess great control over them, and seldom give vent to them in the presence of strangers. The senses of the Indians are very acute; their sight, hearing, and sense of smell, naturally keen, being sharpened by necessity and continual exercise. They are peculiarly fitted for following game, or tracking an enemy through the forests and swamps. The turn of a leaf, or a broken twig, is examined with minute attention. They will tell how many men, women, and children have passed, where a stranger could only see faint and confused marks on the path before him; and from the appearance of the track, and the state of the weather, will tell within a little the time that has elapsed since the foot-marks were made. Frequently, when on arriving at a settlement I have been disappointed by the absence of the people, I have seen the Indians with me examine the fire-place, the dust on the utensils that had been left, and the various paths leading from the place, from which they would tell when the people left the house and the direction in which they were gone. INDIAN CHARACTER AND HABITS. 345 The keen eye of an Indian boy once (by Divine Providence) saved me from the bite of a labaria. I was about to put my hand into a box of loose school papers, when the lad arrested it, crying " Snake!" I tried in vain to get a sight of the snake, but he still persisted in saying it was there, on which I overturned the box. The deadly reptile darted about, seeking a way of escape, but being in a school-room, was easily destroyed by the Indian boys with long sticks, though, as may be supposed, he cleared the apartment at first. Notwithstanding the indolence and apathy with which the Indians are charged, they are keen observers of natural objects. Though utterly unacquainted with scientific rules, their knowledge of medicinal and poisonous plants shows that their race must have studied the properties of the vegetable kingdom. They are also perfectly acquainted with the habits of the animals, birds, reptiles, and insects which inhabit their country, and will sometimes point out facts connected with them which are little known save to professed naturalists. An Indian girl in our service called the attention of her mistress to a white scorpion, surrounded by bands of the warrior, or hunting ants, which had taken possession of the house, and were, in return, destroying all the vermin. The scorpion seemed to have seven loose scales on her back, which the Indian girl said were her young 1 More than 140 medicinal barks, &c., used by the Indians in the vicinity of our missions, and collected by Mr. M'Clintock, were forwarded to the London International Exhibition in 1862. 346 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. ones. It was so, and the parent with outstretched claws was brandishing her venomous tail as she hurried on, in the vain hope of preserving their lives, as well as her own, from the attack of the surrounding ants.1 An accurate knowledge of the nature and habits of wild animals is indispensable to men whose subsistence is in a great measure derived from the chase. The Indian hunter possesses it in perfection. He will 1 Those ants paid an unusually long visit on that occasion, staying with us nearly a fortnight. They took possession of an empty box, where they formed themselves into a mass of more than two cubic feet in size. They always form themselves into such a mass at nightfall, but on that occasion they remained day and night in the position they had assumed. Detachments sallied out from those head-quarters every morning to hunt, taking each room in succession; and when the weather was dry, apertures appeared in the living mass, from which issued streams of ants bearing their eggs or pupae, which are nearly as large as themselves, and placing them in the sun. They brought them in again when damp or night came on. They did not molest us in the least, but destroyed the vermin in each room in succession, and seemed to have made their temporary sojourn for the purpose of rearing their young, for when they quitted their retreat the bottom of the box was found to be covered with their white skins or cocoons. They probably have no regular nests, but avail themselves of such shelter as they can find. Mr. Bates, who attentively observed the habits of the different species of foraging ants on the Amazon, says, "I never met with a hive; wherever the Ecitons were seen they were always on the march." It is a well-known fact that those ants have many leaders or captains, whose heads and forceps are twice as large as those of the others, who appear to marshal the columns on the march, and direct their operations in a style that would delight a soldier to witness. I have seen one of those large-sized warriors pushing the smaller ones through a chink which he could not himself enter. INDIAN CHARACTER AND HABITS. 347 exactly imitate the cry of various birds and animals, and shoot them when he has thus brought them within reach of his gun, arrow, or blow-pipe. He then hastens home, casts the game before his wife, and reposes in his hammock till she has cooked it. Some of the tribes are not very nice about the way in which their food is prepared. The Waraus will merely take out the inside of a fish, and, without washing, cook and eat it. Indians generally are perfectly ignorant of our domestic arrangements. Having, in an emergency, employed an Indian girl to cook some fish, we afterwards made the unpleasant discovery that she had boiled it in the tea-kettle. They are strict observers of hospitality. When a stranger enters the dwelling of an Indian, he is sure of being entertained by him with the best at his command. Food will be set before him, the kasiri drink presented, if paiwari be wanting, and every kindness shown, if his conduct be civil and decent. It is true that the Indian looks on himself as entitled to a similar reception, but that is no more than just. They are fond of paying visits to their friends in distant parts of the country. In clearing the forest, and planting their fields, they calculate upon provisions for twelve months. They will probably be absent for three months of the year on visits to their friends, but nothing is gained thereby, as their friends are sure to pay them a visit in return. In this manner the distant families preserve a connexion with each other, and maintain an extensive knowledge of the country. 348 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. They cannot, generally speaking, be commended for punctuality. An Indian may promise to come to you next week, but a very slight cause will induce him to put off his visit for one month, or even for three. Time is with them a matter of no consideration, though so valuable to us. But when a case occurs which imperatively demands punctuality, as when a son leaves his aged and dependent parents to go on a journey, he will give them a string with a number of knots in it, one of which is to be untied every morning, and he will arrive, if well, on the day on which the last is untied. I have seen an aged couple regarding with great solicitude the knots on a cord thus left by their only son. Theft is unusual among the Indians. They leave their open houses, with several articles, valuable or useful to them, merely suspended out of the reach of destructive animals; but seldom indeed is anything stolen during their absence. When any such depredation does occur, the Indian thinks that the missing article has been carried off by people of some other race than his own. The love of liberty is deeply implanted in the Indian bosom, and no people on earth are more tndependent in their way of life. Each man selects the site for his own dwelling, which he builds himself, and also makes most of the implements required for hunting and fishing. They love the excitement of the chase, though it does not always fully supply their wants, and the successful -hunter throws himself into his hammock, takes his repose, and enjoys INDIAN 'HARA ('TER AND HABITS. 349 himself, without any concern for the artificial comforts which we have learned to value, and unmindful of the wants of the morrow. We must now consider some other points of the Indian character and habits. Their drunkenness has been already noticed. They are not addicted to the systematic dram-drinking practised by so many among ourselves, but to fearful excess at intervals. When they have tasted the intoxicating draught they seem incapable of moderation. Most of their quarrels spring from this cause, as they then become violent and overbearing. When the Indian is intoxicated, the causes of offence which he may fancy he has against his wife come into his mind, and, in the manner of our own brutal sots, he will then give her a severe beating. Allusion has been made to the dances of the Indians, and the Maquarri and Owiarri dances of the Arawaks have been already described. In these there is order, and a certain degree of gracefulness; but the general dance of the Indians, if it can be called such, consists chiefly in stamping on the ground, balancing on one foot, and staggering in different attitudes as if intoxicated. And "well the music with the dancing suits!" being painfully monotonous and dismal. There is also a kind of wrestling, or trial of strength, practised by the Waraus at their drinkingbouts, in which each of the antagonists is furnished with a sort of shield made of the light branches of the ita, cut into equal lengths, and firmly lashed 350 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. across a frame three or four feet in height, but somewhat less in width, and slightly bending outwards. The front of each shield is painted in various colours, and with some peculiar device, according to the fancy of the owner. From its upper edge arise elastic stems, generally three in number, adorned with coloured tassels, and surmounted with streamers made of the same material as the maquarri whips, and not much unlike them. It has altogether a picturesque appearance. Each champion grasps the edges of his shield firmly with both hands, and after various feints and grimaces to throw his opponent off his guard a clash is heard, as one springs forward and his shield strikes that of his antagonist. The contest is generally one of mere strength, the shield being pushed forward by the whole force of the body, and supported by one knee, while the other leg is extended firmly behind. Sometimes one of the players is able to push the other off the ground, or by a dexterous slip and thrust on the flank, sends him rolling on the sand; but more frequently they remain pressing, panting, and struggling, until exhausted, when the contest ceases by mutual consent. It is then a point of Warau etiquette to shake the shields at each other in a jeering manner, and with a tremulous motion of their elastic ornaments, and to utter a very peculiar and ridiculously defiant sound, something like the whinnying of a young horse. This is generally followed by a hearty good-humoured laugh, in which the bystanders join. Another couple then step forward to engage. ____ ___ __ __ __ ---— L_____;- ____ ---? --—,-.:; — ---— 3 I — / —c --- ir =.._:,._ - r v fl. -I I' I?. Aj i,,:?: "' 1 4 -. I J! I -8! //I/ I j" - It I /r _ _ I. 1/41. /. -;-. _ - -, SHIELD-WRESTLING. SHIELD-WRESTLING. -7- I INDIAN CHARACTER AND HABITS. 351 This contest is called by the Waraus, from the name of the shield, "Isahi." Polygamy has been mentioned as the great bane of Indian domestic life. They live in comfort as long as the man is content with one wife, and instances of conjugal attachment are very frequent. But as the heathen Indian is allowed to take as many wives as he wishes for, or can maintain, we frequently find, among some tribes, men possessed of more wives than one. They regard this as a mark of greatness. A well-known Warau, named Tamenawari, was pointed out to me in 1840 as having nine wives. He was reported to be very jealous, and to have shot one and cut through the arm of another with a cutlass. A settler in our neighbourhood taxed him with these crimes, and threatened to apprehend him. Tamenawari immediately complained of sickness, and took to his hammock, where I saw him; but the next morning he and his wives were met forty miles away, the whole establishment paddling as if for their lives, having decamped when night came on with all possible celerity and silence. About four years after he came to the Mission, and attended Divine Service. He was much altered in his looks, and on my inquiring after his wives, who did not appear, he said, pathetically, that he had "not one left! that they had all deserted him during a long and dangerous illness, and that he then lived with his son." His countrymen laughed at his domestic sorrows. 352 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. Some years after I passed, on the sea, a canoe, in which were a number of Warau women and children with naked skins and dishevelled hair, paddling one man, who, looking as dignified in a very tall (and once black) hat as its battered and broken-brimmed condition would allow, was seated behind and steering at his ease. This, my crew told me, was the son of Tamenawari, and his domestic establishment. Unwilling to profit by his father's woes, he was doing his best to imitate him in the number of his wives. It is not an uncommon thing to see an Indian, who has already a wife and family of young children, bringing up a little girl who will become his second wife. In a few years this odious process is repeated. The unhappiness attendant on this practice must be manifest to all, as the first wife will not always tamely submit; for though in a degraded condition, the natural feelings of woman rebel at such cruel treatment, and jealousy and unhappiness have, in repeated instances, led to suicide. Sometimes a struggle against polygamy takes place. I knew of one in which the injured first wife came off victorious. Three ArawAk sisters lived, with their respective husbands, at one settlement. The husband of the eldest, having been on a visit to some friends, was induced by them to take a second wife, a young but full-grown woman. When he brought her home, the first wife (who, having heard of it, had attempted to hang herself, and was desperate) commenced an assault* on her, supported by her two sisters, whose husbands looked quietly on-probably learning a I INDIAN CHARACTER AND HABITS. 353 lesson for themselves. Against such odds it was useless to contend. After paddling the strange woman back to her friends, the transgressing husband returned to his first wife and the children she had borne him,-a wiser if not a better man. This happened the year before the introduction of Christianity among them. The Caribs were often falling out about their wives, polygamy being very prevalent among them. The male relations of the women would sometimes demand payment, before they would consent to give them in marriage, even when the woman was a widow, and no longer very young. I knew two instances in which the parties were obliged to fly to avoid the consequences of a stolen match. One of the men told me that he narrowly escaped having his head cleft by a blow from the brother of the woman, a widow of middle age, whom, with her own consent he had taken. The Carib woman is always in bondage to her male relations. To her father, brother, or husband she is ever a slave, and seldom has any power in the disposal of herself. Her family claim authority over her even after they have given her in marriage. The whole domestic system of that tribe is bad. The following instance will show, in some degree, its I Among the Macusis in the distant interior the custom of selling each other, even near relatives, prevails; and it has been said that "when a man dies his wife and children are at the disposal of his eldest surviving brother, who may sell or kill them at pleasure."-DR. HANCOCK, A A 354 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. working, and the extent to which those painted proprietors of women can carry their rights of ownership. A high-spirited Caribi girl, indignant at being given in marriage to an elderly man, who had already other wives (one being her own sister), ran away from him and bestowed her hand on one of the Essequibo Caribs, a younger man whom she liked better. After a while the old man visited that quarter,-not however to exercise his unquestioned right to bring her back and beat her, -but to claim compensation for the loss of her services. It was willingly allowed; and for a gun, a barrel of salt, or some article of like value, the woman was left with the man of her choice, who perhaps thought himself secure, and the business well ended. But the next year the old man, who well knew what he was doing, paid them another visit, still, as he said, in quest of compensation. On being reminded by the husband that he had already been paid for the woman, he replied, "Yes,-for the woman; but she has since borne you a child,-you must now pay me for that." The unwritten law of Caribi usage was decidedly in the old man's favour, and he received compensation for that child. For each succeeding birth he could, if he chose, reappear, like an unquiet spirit, make a similar demand, and be supported therein by the custom of his nation. There are many strangely superstitious customs observed by the Indians. Some of them connected with the births of their children may perhaps provoke a smile from the reader. We have already noticed that most absurd custom INDIAN SUPERSTITIONS. 355 which compels the husband to share his wife's confinement by lying in his hammock and pretending sickness, and the ridiculous attentions with which he is nursed by the women when in that very unpleasant condition. This I had myself witnessed. But as many years had elapsed without our meeting a similar instance, we thought the custom had disappeared under the combined influence of reason and ridicule. It revived, however, with the influx of strangers, and a young Christian Indian was so importuned by his female relatives to comply with it, that he left his wife and new-born babe, and, to escape the annoyance, went to work at a distance for three weeks. At the end of that time he thought he might fairly be considered convalescent, even by the old women, and returned to his home. Some of the men of the Acawoio and Caribi nations, when they have reason to expect an increase of their families, consider themselves bound to abstain from certain kinds of meat, lest the expected child should, in some very mysterious way, be injured by their partaking of it. The Acouri (or Agouti) is thus tabooed, lest, like that little animal, the child should be meagre;-the Haimara, also, lest it should be blind-the outer coating of the eye of that fish suggesting film or cataract;-the Labba, lest the infant's mouth should protrude like the labba's, or lest it be spotted like the labba, which spots would ultimately become ulcers. The Marudi is also forbidden, lest the infant be still-born, the screeching of that bird being considered ominous of death. AA2 356 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. " Both the above tribes and the Waraus consider it their duty to abstain from venison after their wives are confined, lest the child on arriving at manhood be found wanting in speed, exemplified by the slow pace which the female deer, when she has a young fawn at her feet, is obliged to observe." Such are some of the dietetic rules laid down for the men by their system of superstition. They are probably observed by very few in their full rigour, for the forbidden animals form a large proportion of the Indian's bill of fare as found in the forests, and a Carib or other polygamist with three or four wives might be debarred from tasting them during the whole, or the best period, of his manhood. Mr. M'Clintock, to whose exact research I am indebted for the above list of things forbidden, has also investigated the customs of the wilder tribes with respect to burial, He says that the Kapohn or Acawoio races (those who have embraced Christianity excepted) like to bury their dead in a standing posture, assigning this reason,-" Although my brother be in appearance dead, he (i. e. his soul) is still alive." Therefore, to maintain by an outward sign this belief in immortality, some of them bury their dead erect, which they say represents life, whereas lying down represents death. Others bury their dead in a sitting posture, assigning the same reason. When the death of any member of that tribe is supposed to have been brought about by unfair means, the knife of the deceased is buried with him, with the horrid idea that he may have the means of INDIAN SUPERSTITIONS. 357 avenging himself in the world of spirits. The Waraus, in similar circumstances, place a bow and arrows by the side of the dead man, that he may by means of those weapons keep off malignant spirits in his passage to the other world. We come now to the worst feature in the character of the Indians of Guiana,-their proneness to blood-. revenge,-by which a succession of retaliatory murders may be kept up for a long time. It is closely connected with their system of sorcery, which we shall presently consider. A person dies,-and it is supposed that an enemy has secured the agency of an evil spirit to compass his death. Some sorcerer, employed by the friends of the deceased for that purpose, pretends by his incantations to discover the guilty individual or family, or at any rate to indicate the quarter where they dwell. A near relative of the deceased is then charged with the work of vengeance. He becomes a " Kanaima," or is supposed to be possessed by the destroying spirit so called, and has to live apart, according to strict rule, and submit to many privations, until the deed of blood be accomplished, If the supposed offender cannot be slain, some innocent member of his family-man, woman, or little child-must suffer instead. If the victim cannot be approached with safety to the assassin, he may be shot from behind, and buried by the Kanaima near the spot where lie falls. But such vengeance, though allowed, is considered imperfect, the manes of the deceased being supposed to demand more cruelty in 358 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. the appeasing sacrifice. So the victim, where it can be done, is approached softly from behind while off his guard, and struck down by a violent blow across the neck. While he lies insensible (according to some accounts) his throat is grasped, and the fangs of a poisonous serpent are thrust through his tongue. Others say that a poisonous powder (prepared in the far interior from the strongest kind of a plant called Urupa,l and which the Kanaima carries in the wingbone of a powis, concealed in his hair) is forced into the mouth. Horrible agony and inability to speak, followed in due course by death, are the inevitable result.2 The work of the Kanaima is not yet ended. If the sufferer be found by his friends and carried home, the perpetrator of the deed is obliged to hover near, to discover the place of burial; as he cannot be released from the power of the evil spirit which possesses him until he has performed certain acts to the victim's body. What those acts are it is difficult to learn. Some of the Indians say that the corpse must be disinterred for the purpose, but the statement given by the Rev. Mr. Bernau in his excellent account, derived from the Essequibo Indians, seems to me more probable.3 He says that the murderer goes to 1 Mr. M'Clintock. 2 Some of our Acawoios have told us that there are other poisonous powders used by the Kanaimas for the above purpose, and that the whole system is taught from father to son in many families, to be brought into use against their enemies as occasion may require. 3 Bernau's Missionary Labours, p. 58. INDIAN SUPERSTITIONS. 359 the grave on the third night and presses a pointed stick through the body, that he may taste the victim's blood. If this, which is an offering to the Kanaima spirit within him, be accomplished, he becomes like other men, and can return to his family,-but if not, he wanders on till madness or some other dire consequences, by the agency of the disappointed spirit, are believed to come upon him.1 The family of his victim are, of course, desirous that the corpse should not be desecrated, and that the murderer should suffer. To insure the former, they endeavour to bury the body in some place where the Kanaima may not find it. This is difficult, for where one Indian goes another can track him. So to make certain of revenge, if the grave be molested, some will open the body, take out the liver, and put a red-hot axe-head into its place. If, after that be 1 An Indian, reduced almost to a skeleton, and in a dreadful state of exhaustion, was picked up in the forest by some Arawaks and brought to the Pomeroon Mission. He had lost a portion of his scalp, and had his lower lip torn down at each corner. This, he said, had been done by a small " tiger," which had sprung on him while lying in the forest. Those wounds were in a most loathsome condition. The Acawoios at the mission, whose language he spoke, took much care of him at first, but afterwards judged, from his refusing certain kinds of food and other signs, that he was a devotee and victim of unappeased Kanaima, and the murderer of a man killed some time before. From this, and his savage ungrateful demeanour (though Mr. M'Clintock, aided by myself, cleansed and dressed his sores to encourage them), we had some difficulty in getting him nursed till his strength had returned, as they feared lest they should become his future victims. 360 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. done, the Kanaima disturb the corpse, the intense heat which was in the axe-head when placed.there will pass into his body, consume his vitals, and cause him to perish miserably. Such is their belief. An Acawoio toldme also of another plan that is sometimes followed. A small quantity of the ourali (or worali) poison placed on the dead body will equally insure the death of the murderer. Should he return to desecrate the remains, the venom of the ourali will pass into and destroy him. In consequence of those practices, and the terror they inspire, the Indians of the interior seldom consider themselves in perfect safety. Those near the coast will, if unfortunately entangled in a quarrel, apply to some influential person, whose agency is generally successful. When a murder of the above kind is committed near the coast, the Kanaima and victim are generally both from the interior. In cases of secret enmity poison is sometimes resorted to. The Indians are acquainted with various preparations, both vegetable and animal,' which may 1 Venomous serpents, as may be supposed, are used in their composition. A preparation, for instance, from a certain part of the inside of the deadly bush-master snake, mixed with a little of the juice of the bitter cassava (which is itself poisonous), and given in a draught of paiwari, is said to cause death quickly, and if smoked with tobacco to be more slow, but equally fatal, causing the throat to swell for days till death ensues. The above was privately communicated to me, with a caution to myself and other teachers to be careful of giving offence to the Indians who are said to prepare it. Whether its effects would be as above stated I cannot say, having happily known no instance of its use, but there could be no doubt of the deadly nature of INDIAN SUPERSTITIONS. 361 be used secretly to remove an obnoxious person, or to avenge a real or supposed injury, The religious belief (if it can be called such) of the Indian in his natural state has been already noticed. Ages have elapsed since his ancestors neglected to walk with, serve, or worship God; yet still tradition has handed down a belief in the existence of the Supreme Being, which the observation of nature has confirmed. The words of the poet"Lo! the poor Indian, whose untutor'd mind Sees God in clouds, or hears Him in the wind," are, to a certain extent, true. It is from the convulsions and phenomena of nature, such as thunder and lightning that the Indian forms his idea of the power of God, while the growth of his cassava, and the other provision made for his wants, convince him of His goodness. Strange it is, that with such ideas of the Supreme Being, they should seek to inferior spirits, and those of a malignant nature, to avert calamity! Of those beings, according to their belief, there are more kinds than one. The yauhahu and orehu of the ArawAks are objects of faith to the other tribes, though under different names. The Yazuhahu are the beings applied to by their sorcerers. They delight in inflicting miseries on mankind. They are believed to be unceasingly active in the pursuit of evil, and to occasion sickness and death. Pain is called, in the poetical idiom of the ArawAks, the intention which could inspire the preparation and administration of such a dose. 362 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. "yauhahu simaira," the evil spirit's arrow. This is its general name among them. While the Great Creator, having formed all things, and established the laws of nature, is believed by the Indians to exist in tranquil bliss, unaffected by the miseries of man; the afflictions occasioned by the yauhahu can only be remedied by propitiating the demons themselves. The evil spirits are supposed to have a peculiar fondness for tobacco, and to be continually inhaling its fumes. It is by using this sacred plant that their votaries secure their aid. When an Indian has made up his mind to become a sorcerer, or " doctor," he applies to some professor of that art, who takes him into a small hut prepared for the purpose. After certain preliminaries, including solitude and spare diet, a quantity of water, containing about ten leaves of cured tobacco, is boiled down to about a fourth. This horribly nauseous and emetic dose he must swallow, and, in the death-like state of sickness to which it reduces him, his spirit is supposed to leave the body, and to visit and receive power from the yauhahu, or hebo, as the Waraus call the dreaded beings under whose influence he is believed to remain ever after. Meanwhile, his death is loudly proclaimed, and his countrymen called to witness his state. Recovery is slow, and about the tenth day he comes forth from the sacred hut in a most emaciated condition. For ten months after the new sorcerer must abstain from the flesh of birds and beasts, and only the smallest INDIAN SUPERSTITIONS. 363 kinds of fish are allowed him. Even cassava bread is to be eaten sparingly, and intoxicating drinks avoided during that period. Meats and food not indigenous to the country are especially tabooed. I have known one of those men refuse to pick up some 'North American salt fish which had fallen on the ground, lest by touching it he should neutralize the power of his enchantments. And among the Indian paddlers attached, under Mr. M'Clintock, to the military expedition to Pirara, was one who, being unable to procure his set diet, was obliged to eat the rations served out, or starve. He preferred the former, but thereby lost his spiritual power and influence, his countrymen alleging that the forbidden food had "spoiled his mouth" for incantation.1 Those sorcerers are usually called by the settlers " piai (or pe-i-) men."2 They are each furnished with a large gourd or calabash, which has been emptied of its seeds and 1 Mr. M'Clintock states that "the above rules are common to the Caribs as well as the Waraus, but that the former are allowed during their period of abstinence to take a little meat-the flesh of the Acouri." "The Acawoios differ in some respects from the other tribes, inasmuch as not less than four, and frequently more, become M.D.'s at the same time. Each contributes as much tobacco as would fill both hands, and this is boiled down to a quantity which gives about half a pint to each person, a beverage stronger than that of the Waraus, but less in quantity." 2 From the Caribi word " Puiai," which denotes their profession. The Acawoios call it "piatsan," from the same root; the Arawiks, " semecihi;" and the Waraus, " wisidaa." 364 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. spongy contents, and has a round stick run through the middle of it by means of two holes. The ends of this stick project-one forms the handle of the instrument, and the other has a long string to which beautiful feathers are attached, wound round it in spiral circles. Within the calabash are a few small white stones, which rattle when it is shaken or turned round. The calabash itself is usually painted red. It is regarded with great awe by the heathen Indians, who fear to touch it, or even to approach the place where it is kept. When attacked by sickness, the Indians cause themselves to be conveyed to some friendly sorcerer, to whom a present of more or less value must be made. Death is sometimes occasioned by those removals, cold being taken from wet or the damp of the river. If the patient cannot be removed, the sorcerer is sent for to visit him. The females are all sent away from the place, and the men must keep at a respectful distance, as he does not like his pro. ceedings to be closely inspected. He then commences his exorcisms, turning and shaking his marakka, or rattle, and chanting an address to the yauhahu. This is continued for hours, until about midnight the spirit is supposed to be present, and a conversation to take place, which is unintelligible to the Indians who may overhear it. These ceremonies are kept up for successive nights. If the patient be strong enough to endure the disease, the excitement, the noise, and the fumes of tobacco in which he is at times enveloped, and the INDIAN SORCERER. I I INDIAN SUPERSTITIONS. 365 sorcerer observe signs of recovery, he will pretend to extract the cause of the complaint by sucking the part affected. After many ceremonies he will produce from his mouth some strange substance, such as a thorn or gravel-stone, a fish-bone or bird's claw, a snake's tooth, or a piece of wire, which some malicious yauhahu is supposed to have inserted in the affected part. As soon as the patient fancies himself rid of this cause of his illness his recovery is generally rapid, and the fame of the sorcerer greatly increased. Should death, however, ensue, the blame is laid upon the evil spirit whose power and malignity have prevailed over the counteracting charms. " Some rival sorcerer will at times come in for a share of the blame, whom the sufferer has unhappily made his enemy, and who is supposed to have employed the yauhahu in destroying him. The sorcerers being supposed to have the power of causing, as well as of curing diseases, are much dreaded by the common people, who never wilfully offend them. So deeply rooted in the Indian's bosom is this belief concerning the origin of diseases, that they have little idea of sickness arising from other causes. Death may arise from a wound or a contusion, or be brought on by want of food, but in other cases it is the work of the yauhahu. I once came upon a Warau practising his art upon a woman afflicted with a severe internal complaint. He was, when I first saw him, blowing violently into his hands and rubbing them upon the affected part. He very candidly acknowledged his imposture when 366 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. I taxed him with it, put up his implements, and went away. The fate of the poor woman, as it was related to me some time afterwards, was very sad. Though a Venezuelan half-breed, and of the Church of Rome, she was wedded to the Indian superstitions, and after trying the most noted sorcerers without relief, she inflicted on herself a mortal wound with a razor in the vain attempt to cut out the imaginary cause of her internal pain! Some have imagined that those men have faith in the power of their own incantations from their performing them over their own children, and even causing them to be acted over themselves when sick. This practice it is indeed difficult to account for. The juggling part of their business is such a gross imposture as could only succeed with a very ignorant and credulous people; but it is perhaps in their case, as in some others, difficult to tell the precise point where credulity ends and imposture begins. It is certain that they are excited during their incantations in a most extraordinary way, and positively affirm that they hold intercourse with spirits; nor will they allow themselves to be laughed out of the assertion however ridiculous it may appear to us. The Waraus, in many points the most degraded of the tribes, are the most renowned as sorcerers. The huts which they set apart for the performance of their superstitious rites are regarded with great veneration. Mr. Nowers, on visiting a Warau settlement, entered one of those huts, not being aware of the offence he INDIAN SUPERSTITIONS. 367 was committing, and found it perfectly empty, with the exception of the gourd, or "mataro," as it is called by that tribe. There was in the centre of the hut a small raised place about eighteen inches high, on which the fire had been made for burning tobacco. The sorcerer being asked to give up the gourd, peremptorily refused, saying that if he did so his "two children would die the same night." Those men are generally called upon to confer Indian names on the children of their tribe. Each of those names has its meaning. A few may be mentioned as showing the taste of the Arawaks in this particular. Some are derived from personal appearance, the hair especially being noticed; as, " Ka-barrali," having hair; " Ma-barra-'si-li," head without hair; "Ka-korri-'si-li," curly head, &c. One boy whom I knew was called by a name signifying soft-head. Some derive their names from birds or other animals, as "Koiali," the red and blue macaw. Others are named after the tobacco, their favourite plant, as "Yuri," tobacco; "Yuri-banna," tobacco-leaf; "Yuritokoro," tobacco-flower,-the latter name being often given to a handsome child of either sex. Others again are named from some quality or title, as " Ifili," the great; " Adaiahu," the governor, &c.. A present is given to the sorcerer who names the child. We have now to consider the Orehu, an important being in the Indian mythology. The orehu is a mysterious female inhabiting the waters. Though not so decidedly malignant as the yauhahu, she is very capricious, and consequently dreaded by the 368 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. benighted Indian. Her supposed form agrees with that of the mermaid of European fancy (which must certainly be well suited to her watery abode and habits); but she does not confine herself to that alone, for with extraordinary taste in a female, she sometimes presents herself above the water with the head of a horse, or other animal, as it may suit her fancy, or the object she has in view. She often amuses herself with merely terrifying mankind, but sometimes bears both canoe and people to the bottom.1 There was a spot on the banks of the Pomeroon where the earth, being undermined by the current, had sunk, and the trees which formerly flourished there stood out of the water withered and bare, presenting a desolate appearance. That was supposed to be a favourite resort of the orehu. Many, especially of the Waraus, if compelled to pass the spot by night, would keep close to the opposite bank, and glide with noiseless paddles past the place where the water-spirit was believed to have fixed her abode. The superstitious belief concerning this being prevailed also among the black people dwelling on the rivers of Guiana. During the first few months of my residence, before any Indians attended the infant I The occasional appearance above the surface, of the Manati, or Water-cow, may have given rise to this superstition in former days. But however that may be, the Indians have for ages drawn a wide distinction between the " Orehu " and the "Koiamoora," or manati, believing them to differ in nature as in name. The orehu may at pleasure assume the figure of the manati, as of any other animal, but the latter does not, in their belief, possess any supernatural power, and is eaten when captured. INDIAN SUPERSTITIONS. 369 Mission, I had often observed the terror of the black boy who lived with me, when he perceived a light near the surface of the water. It was merely the great lantern-fly, which sometimes flies low. On one occasion, while fishing by moonlight on the stream in my small canoe, our line was seized by something which we were unable to bring to the surface. The boy cried with terror, and begged me to "let the 'Water-mama' 1 (as they call her) take 1 One of the Obia dances of the blacks is commonly called the "water-mama dance," from the appellation usually given by them to their adopted patroness, the Orehu of the Indians. It may be interesting briefly to notice here the superstitions of African origin, still very prevalent among the black inhabitants of the remote coast and river districts of Guiana. In detail they differ materially from those of the red men, though the principle of assumed intercourse with, and dependence on, evil spirits, is the same in the fetishism of Africa as in the piai system of the Indians. There are some ideas which the blacks seem to have borrowed from the Indians, and others which they have communicated in return,-as their superstitious veneration for the silk-cotton tree. I have known Indians as well as negroes refuse to cut one down, supposing that their death would follow. In the days of slavery offerings were presented to some of those trees. The Africans would meet under them to consult their priests and perform their ceremonies, and hence they became invested with a sacred character. But many of the superstitions of Obia (or negro witchcraft) are of a dark and malignant character, and the dread of poison increases the apprehensions they inspire. The spread of Christian instruction, and the reverential obedience paid to it in the good days which immediately followed the emancipation, drove those abominations into obscure corners; but they have been carefully preserved, practised in secret, and believed in by many. I once attended an aged female, who could not die in peace till she had confessed that, though baptized and an attendant on B B 370 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. possession of it, as otherwise she would rise, seize, and carry us under water in her anger!" The line Christian worship, she had "worked" a charm to cause the death of some unknown person who had stolen her fowls. The charm consisted in pounding certain herbs in a wooden mortar for nine successive days, with magical incantations.-Among the inhabitants of the rivers, I have heard women obstinately attributing the deaths of their children to others, whom they accused of -having destroyed them by Obia, and of keeping their souls confined in bottles!-To relics and scraps of rubbish, such as hair, feathers, blood, animal's teeth, bones and dirt from graves, &c., they attribute -great power. A man shot while committing a burglary had human bones bound on his arm as an amulet, to render him invulnerable. Other human bones, which had been charred, were found on him, and had been used by him and his accomplices. When burnt 'with certain herbs, their vapour was believed to cause their victims!to sleep soundly. Those monstrous ideas, too lamentable for ridicule, will show the nature of the superstition which still darkens the minds of many, but can hardly appear surprising to those who consider the popular notions of witchcraft formerly so prevalent, and still lingering in many countries, and among races which have been for ages called Christian. In Guiana this superstition has not ceased to have its priestsmen who preside by night over secret dances of abominable character-and its votaries, who resort to them for aid in various unlawful ways. The orgies which have taken place at some of their meetings cannot be fully described here. Commencing quietly, they gradually increase in excitement, until both sexes, throwing off all their clothes, have worked themselves into a state of temporary madness. A kind of baptism has been sometimes performed, as an initiatory rite to adults and children. A gentleman who was an unknown and unwelcome eye-witness of one of those ceremonies, saw the officiating priest or "doctor" dancing round and jumping over an infant, with many strange noises and incantations. At a certain stage of the proceedings he dashed water over it. After that, he took it up and passed his hands over its body, holding it by each INDIAN SUPERSTITIONS. 37:1 suddenly snapped and our hooks were all lost, which compelled us to return home, and he would not venture again on the stream to fish by night. The Orehu, though a very capricious lady, is not always malicious and cruel; on the contrary, she has sometimes exerted herself in a benevolent manner, and is supposed by the Indians to have been the authoress of that system of sorcery by which they seek to defend themselves from the attacks of the yauhahu. Their tradition respecting this will be given in the next chapter. In the above picture of the habits of the Indians of Guiana, as our missionaries found them, we see limb in succession, and muttering charms. The child having been thus fortified for life, as he said, by the power of his familiar spirits, was then given back to its mother, who stood amidst the admiring votaries around. Charms and potions to cause love are obtained from the professors of that evil art. They are dangerous in their effects. I have myself known more than one instance of raging insanity produced by them. The reader must not, however, suppose that those practices (though too prevalent in isolated districts, and among the more ignorant and vicious portion of the creole population) are universally followed. Far from it. The provision which (as stated in our introductory chapter) was long ago made for the spread of religion and education has not been without effect. Many thousands have received benefit from the churches, chapels, and schools, which stud our line of cultivated coast between the mouths of the Corentyn and Pomeroon.-But even among those who from education have learned to despise, or from religious principles abhor, those works of darkness, there is a natural and well-grounded dread of the men or women who practise them. Few would think it altogether safe to incur the vengeance of one who is supposed to be an adept in " working Obia." B B 2 372 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. many dark shadows. They are not, indeed, idolaters, nor addicted to human sacrifices, as were some American races far more advanced in civilization. Their general character is also in many respects amiable. But superstition-Satan's substitute for true religion-in their case, as in many other instances, has greatly perverted it, causing much blighting terror, sin, and misery. The craft of the wicked one led their fathers to forsake the Fountain of Good, and to seek intercourse with that which they believe and confess to be evil. Something similar to their superstitions was practised among the sinful Jews of old, as we may -learn from the expostulation of the Prophet: "When they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God?" CHAPTER X. MYTHOLOGY AND LEGENDARY TALES. Legends of supernatural Beings-Kanaima Tiger and other Animals possessed by them-Myths arising from singular Appearances in natural Objects-Of the Creation, Deluge, &c.-Legends of the Acawoios, Macusis, Caribs, Tamanacs, &c.-Legends of the Coast Tribes, the Waraus and Arawaks —Remarks on the above. THE heathen Indian has been taught, from his earliest infancy, to reverence and follow the superstitious practices detailed in our last chapter. He is in consequence attached to them by early training and the force of habit. Believing that he has no other defence against sickness and the ills of life, he clings to them as his refuge and strength, and only help in time of trouble. We now turn from the consideration of those practices to that of the traditionary lore on which some of them are founded. They have, as we have seen, a basis in the mythology of the various tribes, and are supported by many legendary tales which relate the deeds of the yauhahu, the demons dreaded by all, or of the still more terrible "Kanaima," which last expression, though applied to the man 374 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. who has devoted himself to perform a deed of blood, seems more properly to belong to the murderous spirit under whose influence he acts, and which is supposed to possess him. Some of their legends describe the destructive deeds of animals of which the same spirit, or a human soul under its influence, has taken possession. A jaguar which displays unusual audacity in approaching men will often unnerve even a brave hunter by the fear that it may be a Kanaima tiger. "This," reasons the Indian, "if it be but an ordinary wild beast, I may kill with bullet or arrow; but what will be my fate if I assail the man-destroyer-the terrible Kanaima?" 1 Tales of a different kind describe the grotesque dances and doings of bush-hogs and other animals, 1 Many of the Indians believe that those " Kanaima" animals are possessed by the spirits of men who have devoted themselves to deeds of blood and cannibalism. To enjoy the savage delight of killing and devouring human beings, such a person will assume the shape, or his soul animate the body, of a jaguar, approach the sleeping-places of men, or waylay the solitary Indian in his path. As with Lycaon, who in the ancient story of a far-distant land, became a wolf, the outward figure is changed, while the look and impulse of savage ferocity are unaltered: " — eadem violentia vultu: Iidem oculi lucent, eadem feritatis imago est." It is strange to find a superstition so closely resembling that of the "were-wolf" or "loup-garou" of the European races in full force in the forests of Guiana. The dreaded jaguar in those parts takes the place of the wolf, which is unknown. There is no superstition more prevalent among the Indians than this, and none which causes more terror. MYTHOLOGY AND LEGENDARY TALES. 375 possessed for the time by spirits of another class, full of mirth and jollity, and more desirous of fun or merry enjoyment than of injuring mankind. Of those tales, which rather amuse than terrify, the Indians are fond, and in some of their dances attempt to imitate the antics of the animals possessed by those merry beings.' Another and very numerous class of fables has evidently arisen from the efforts of Indians of imaginative minds to account for unusual appearances in natural objects. Thus the Indians of the Corentyn account for certain cliffs being bare of vegetation, by the superstition that at certain seasons an enormous serpent issues from its lurking place, and glides along them on its way to drink of the waters of the river.2 And the fiction of the leap of the tiger across the Demerara, from the hill which bears his name, arose from the fancied resemblance to a jaguar's footprint of some marks found on the rock from which the spring is said to have been made. It being allowed that spirits often enter into those animals or assume their form, a moderate leap of a furlong or two by a beast so possessed had nothing in it incredible to an Indian whose mind was imbued with that superstition. Of similar origin are the traditions relating to that singular basaltic column called "Pure-piapa," or the 1 In one of the Acawoio dances each performer has a rude kind of trumpet, with the carved figure of some animal or reptile affixed to it, which for the time he is supposed to personate. 2 Schomburgk's Ascent of the Corentyn. 376 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. "headless tree " (of which Schomburgk has given a representation), and some others of the same kind, which are supposed to have been cut down by the Great Spirit, and by His touch converted into stone. Many rocks, bearing in figure remote resemblance to animal or vegetable objects, are met with in the interior, and are supposed by the wilder tribes to have been thus petrified by the touch of Makonaima during his visits to this lower world. With legends such as these, which might have furnished rough materials for the verse of an Indian Ovid (could their race have produced such a poet), are mingled traditions of the Creation and the Deluge, such as are found to prevail among uncivilized people. Unlike the aborigines of Hayti, whose patriotic vanity led them to believe that their island was the first of all things, and that the sun and moon issued from one of its caverns, and men1 from another: the tribes of Guiana acknowledge the immediate work of a Creator. Among those near the coast, the belief formerly 1 Those men wandered about for a long time destitute of women. At length, on the borders of a certain lake, among the branches of the trees, they discovered some animals, which proved to be women. But it was very difficult to get near them, and impossible to hold them when overtaken, as they were as slippery as eels. At length they employed certain men whose hands were rendered rough by a kind of leprosy. They succeeded in capturing four of those slippery females, from whom the world was peopled.-This was the belief of the Indians of Hayti. (Irving's Columbus, book vi. chap. x.) MYTHOLOGY AND LEGENDARY TALES. 377 prevailing was, that " the Great Spirit, having created the heavens and the earth, seated Himself on a huge silk-cotton tree by a river side, and cut off pieces of its bark or wood, which he cast all around. Those which touched the water became fishes; others flew in the air as birds; while some, as animals of various kinds, and lastly man, moved on the earth." To this very ancient legend various additions have been made during the last three centuries. According to one of these the white race sprung from the branch of a certain tree, which the Great Maker cast upon the water.-There is in this a little quiet satire, as the tree from which the branch was taken is of little or no value. The Indians who have been much in contact with civilization are rapidly forgetting the ancient traditions of their race. But those tales still flourish in the far interior, and the dreary swamp region stretching towards the Orinoco. In the villages of those distant wilds, as yet unvisited by civilized man, those legends, preserved through many generations, are still repeated by the elders, reclining in their hammocks over the evening fires, to their children;who, having no other lore, implicitly believe and carefully preserve and transmit them. From one thus instructed in childhood by the ancients of his tribe, I obtained the following legend. It will, I think, give a tolerably correct idea of those "old peoples' stories," as the rising race somewhat contemptuously call them. It is a fable in which, 378 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. as in those of ~Esop, animals largely figure; and some parts are very absurd, as was to be expected in the fanciful tales with which those children of larger growth amuse their leisure hours. The Acawoio who repeated it, while striving to maintain a very grave aspect, as befitted the general nature of the subject, evidently enjoyed some parts of the recital. "In the beginning of this world the birds and beasts were created by Makonaima,-the great spirit whom no man hath seen. They, at that time, were all endowed with the gift of speech. Sigu, the son of Makonaima, was placed to rule over them. All lived in harmony together and submitted to his gentle dominion. They were daily sent forth to feed in the forests around, and on their return each brought a portion of the best food it could find as an act of respectful homage to its protector and lord. "The wild productions of the forest were then the only food of man and beast. Cultivation was unknown. But Makonaima, to surprise his creatures with his bounty, was causing to spring out of the earth an enormous and wonderful tree. Each branch of that great tree produced a different kind of fruit; while from and around its trunk grew bananas, plantains, and cassava; with maize, and corn of all kinds. Yams and other edibles also grew from and clustered around the roots of this famous tree, which (though white men do not know it) is the original stock from whence have sprung MYTHOLOGY AND LEGENDARY TALES. 379 all the plants now cultivated among the nations of the earth. "The acouri, trotting inquisitively about with his nimble, slender legs, and bright-black eyes, first discovered this great tree. Daily he came to the spot, and selfishly ate his fill, without making it known for the public benefit. His excellent condition, however, and some remains of delicious fruit adhering to his lips, caused the truth to be suspected in spite of his denials. "Sigu accordingly commissioned the wood-pecker to keep him in sight. The wood-pecker, a wellmeaning and honest bird, did so perseveringly, yet failed to detect him. For having a great fondness for wood-ants and other insects, it could not resist the temptation of examining every dry branch in the way. The wary acouri, hearing a continual tap-tap overhead wherever he went, would not visit the tree that day. "The rat was then sent forth, who proved an excellent detective. He brought home specimens of the finest fruit, convicted the acouri, in the presence of Sigu and the whole community, of selfishness and falsehood, and conducted them to that choice feeding-ground. "All were glad, and desirous of continual enjoyment until the whole should be consumed. But Sigu, gifted with reason, and mindful of future generations, determined to cut down the tree, and replenish the whole earth around by planting every slip and seed that it would furnish. In the latter 380 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. task he employed all the beasts and birds for some time, it being for the public good.-This was the first attempt on earth at cultivation. "All assisted willingly except Iwarrika" (the monkey), " who being very lazy and full of mischief, avoided his share of the labour, and by his tricks thwarted the efforts of the others. As he would do no good, Sigu, to keep him from doing harm, at last sent him to a stream to fetch water, giving him only a 'quake,' or open-work basket, to bring it in. "The stump of the wondrous tree was found to be hollow, and the cavity filled with water, containing the fry of every variety of fresh-water fish. (Up to that period fishes had only existed in the great salt sea.) Sigu determined to stock with them all the streams and lakes upon earth, in so just a manner that every variety of choice fish should be found in each." But this intention,-so equitable and benevolent to future generations, —was unexpectedly frustrated. "The water in the cavity, being connected with a subterraneous fountain or reservoir, began to overflow. To stop its increase, he hastily constructed a closely-woven basket of the kind called 'wallamba' (or warrampa), with which he covered the stump, and this, by some magical power, restrained the swelling fountain within. "Iwarrika, the mischievous monkey, tired of his profitless task, stealthily returned. Seeing the inverted wallamba, he imagined that it covered the choicest fruit, specially reserved for his master's refreshment when the labour of planting should be MYTHOLOGY AND LEGENDARY TALES. 381 over. To monkey-nature the temptation thus offered was irresistible. There were the finest delicacies, and no one near! Such a chance might never happen again. So he hastily forced up the magic cover, and the next instant was gasping and struggling in abject terror and astonishment, being overturned and nearly drowned by a mighty torrent which burst forth, and from a rapidly enlarging aperture overspread the earth around.1 "Gathering his little flock together to save them from the rising waters, Sigu led them to the highest spot of land, on which grew some enormous cocorite palms. Selecting the tallest of these, he made the birds and climbing animals ascend. The animals which could not climb, and were not amphibious, he placed in a cave with a very narrow entrance. This he carefully closed, and sealed with wax, after giving the inmates a long thorn with which to pierce the wax, and ascertain whether the waters were above their level or no." What they did for AIR we are not informed. "Sigu, having thus done his best for the safety of 1 The belief of the natives of Hayti, that the waters of the universal deluge burst forth from a large gourd, in which a cacique had placed the bones of his only son (after killing him for treason), and which was accidentally thrown down by some meddlers who wished to peep into it, was even more absurd than the above. In the swelling water and fishes found in the gourd by the cacique previously to the accident, and his care after that discovery to keep it closed, there is a great resemblance to this Acawoio legend, though all the other circumstances are widely different. (See Irving's Columbus, book vi. chap. x,) 382 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. all, climbed the cocorite; being driven by the rising water to the topmost branches. A terrible night, or rather period of darkness and storm equal in length to many days and nights, then ensued, during which all suffered intensely from cold and hunger. " Arowta"1 (the large red monkey, erroneously called the baboon, an animal of no great beauty, but, as it seems, of sensitive nature) " acutely felt that painful state of things, and being at length quite overpowered by his feelings, gave vent to his own misery, and increased that of all around, by yelling in the most dismal manner. His horrible cries,-issuing from distended throat, and increasing with his terrorbecame deafening, when at length he found his feet and tail, and the branch to which they tightly clung, immersed in the swelling waters. "The good Sigu, anxious for the safety of all, patiently endured this and every other discomfort, and from time to time dropped the seeds of the cocorite into the water, that he might judge by the sound of its elevation. At length the periods which elapsed before the splash was heard became longer and longer. Then at last was heard the dull sound of the seeds striking the soft earth, and at the same time the birds, each with its own peculiar note, began joyfully to hail the approach of day." The adventures which followed-how the hungry waracabba, or trumpeter-bird, disobeying Sigu, ven1 Called by the Caribs Araw&ta.-The words Araguato and AlouAte, by which some writers designate the Mycetes or howling monkey, are derived.from the above. MYTHOLOGY AND LEGENDARY TALES. 383 tured on the earth in the dim light to seek for food; and had his legs, till then of respectable size, immediately covered and devoured by legions of hungry ants issuing from their nests, so that little but the slender stick-like bones remained;-how Sigu rescued his unfortunate trumpeter, and with infinite trouble kindled a spark of fire, which, while he sought for fuel, the marudi (or bush-fowl) snapped up in mistake for a red shining insect;-how the alligator, who had just come ashore to pay his respects, being accused, on account of his ugliness and general bad character, of having maliciously swallowed it, had his tongue drawn out by the roots that, by looking down his throat, the truth might be ascertained in a manner most satisfactory (at least to the others);-how the marudi was then shown to be the real culprit by the glowing spark which stuck in his throat, causing the bright red wattle or enlargement of the outer skin;-these and the various faults and mishaps of the other birds and animals need not be further related. It is enough to say, should any be sceptical, that the Indians can point to their effects, which are manifest and visible to all at the present day. For "the marudis all bear on their throats the red mark of their ancestor's unlucky haste;-the waracabbas perpetuate, in their slender apologies for legs, the effects of the misfortune which befel the first trumpeter;-and all the alligators" (so the Indians say) "are, to this day, destitute of tongues." In like manner, the strenuous efforts of the" baboon" to express his sorrows during the flood we must 384 4 THEE INDIAN T.RIBES OF GUIANA. suppose to have occasioned that swelling of the throat (or drum-like bony expansion of the larynx) which is seen in his descendants, and enables them, in bellowing notes worthy of their progenitor, to express their feelings, whenever they are excited, or, towards morning, feel hungry and cold. The monkey, whose dishonest propensities caused the flood, remained uncured of his idleness, love of mischief, and pilfering, and transmitted those qualities unimpaired to his children. He seems, however, to have acquired a profound horror of a ducking, which they also fully share, and will manifest to any one administering it to them. " Sigu's plan of cultivation prospered, as the plants all grew up after the waters had subsided; but the fresh-water fishes, having been dispersed and left to themselves, found their way into the streams so irregularly, that many rivers are to this day destitute of the choicest kinds." In this way the Acawoios and other Indians fancifully, and with some humour, endeavour to account for whatever strikes them as remarkable in nature, and engraft those fancies on traditions of the Deluge, and what bears some resemblance to that of "the golden age." To this legend there is a second part repeated by some, in which the mother of Sigu appears, and two wicked brethren who hate and persecute him, which he bears with invincible patience. They beat him to death, burn him to ashes, and bury him alive; but with all their wicked efforts cannot make. an end MYTHOLOGY AND LEGENDARY TALES. 385 of him, as he continually revives. After bearing all manner of injuries, he finally ascends a high and precipitous mountain, rising higher and higher till he is lost to view. Those additions to the original tale may have arisen from some imperfect accounts, heard by their ancestors from Europeans, of the sufferings of saints, or of Him who is higher than all saints. As the ancient Greeks attributed to their demi-god Hercules, and the heroes of their own mythology, the wonderful deeds they heard of the heroes of other lalnls, so in the story of Sigu, the heroic personage of the Acawoios, whatever greatly struck their fancy would naturally be incorporated, in some altered shape, after its true source had been forgotten.-I may add that it was a pleasant surprise to me to find, in the mythology of so wild a race, a hero so generally patient and benevolent as he is represented. To enable the reader to judge fairly of the legendary tales of this important tribe, I have given the above almost in full, notwithstanding the puerility of certain portions. Many Indian legends, not in themselves descriptive of the flood of great waters, have reference to it. The following every classical scholar will deem worthy of preservation. The Macusis told Sir R. Schomburgk that "the only person who survived the general deluge re-peopled the earth by converting stones into human beings." And the Tamanacs of the Orinoco have, according to Humboldt, the same tradition in a modified form. "When those people are asked how the human race c c 3S6 THIE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. survived the great flood (the 'age of waters' of the Mexicans), they unhesitatingly reply that one man and one woman were saved by taking refuge on the lofty mountain of Tamanacu, on the banks of the Asiveru (Cuchivero), and that they then threw over their heads the fiuits of the Mauritia (or ita) palm, from the kernels of which sprang men and women, who again peopled the earth." 1 1 Humboldt's Views of Nature. These two legends, which were doubtless in their origin one and the same, bear a marvellous likeness to the Thessalian tradition of the flood, according to which, assisted by his wife Pyrrha,"Deucalion vacuum lapides jactavit in orbem, Unde homines nati;"-a resemblance which of course did not fail to strike the learned travellers who have brought the legends to our notice. It is indeed so surprisingly great that, when we consider the vast distance, both of time and country, and the extreme difference of race, we should certainly feel tempted to doubt the genuineness of the Indian tradition, did it not rest on such high authority. The reader of the foregoing pages may also have noticed another singular resemblance between the accounts given by ancient authors of Amazonian communities in the Old World, and those we have already mentioned as current among our Indian tribes in the New. Sir W. Raleigh, who in 1595 heard the latter from an old cacique, notices the conformity between those tales and what is recorded of the ancient Amazons, save in the cutting off of their right breasts, which, saith he, " I do not find to be true." The general resemblance holds good also in the great distance from each other of the localities which those independent women were supposed to inhabit. For, as some of the ancient authors placed those female communities near the Euxine or Caspian seas, -others on the borders of India, and some even in Libya;-so in MYTHOLOGY AND LEGENVDA1RY TALES. 387 i II I I I, i It was during the subsidence of the great waters that Amalivaca-venerated by the Caribs, and more especially by the Tamanacs-is said to have arrived in a bark, and carved the sculptures now seen high on the perpendicular sides of the rocks which border the great rivers. The same Amalivaca also performed many other mighty works. He was tolerably successful in making the earth's surface sufficiently level for the habitation of man, but failed in removing the impediment which the currents of rivers offer to persons ascending them. Endeavouring to rectify that evil, and heroically commencing with the mighty Orinoco, he strove to arrange its waters in such a way that its current should, in every part and at the same time, assist paddlers both up and down. But the obstinacy of the stubborn river baffled all his endeavours to impart a double slope to its waters, and make them run in two opposite ways at once, so that this well-meant but singularly difficult undertaking had to be abandoned. This mythical personage seems to have known, and required the power of music, to arouse his spirit to fresh efforts, and to console it under disappointment. His house, consisting of some blocks of stone piled one on another, and forming a sort of cavern, may still be seen on the plains of Maita, and near the legends of the red men of Guiana we find them placed by different tribes in regions widely separated from each other —on the south of the Amazon, within the curve of the Orinoco, or on the borders of our province. C C 2 388 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. it is "a large stone, which the Indians say was an instrument of music, the drum of Amalivaca." In this latter legend, heard by Humboldt in the remote interior of Guiana, we have another instance of the tendency of the Indians, in common with most wild races, to consider rocks which resemble other objects in form as those objects in a state of petrifaction, and to connect them with the supernatural beings and heroic personages of their mythology. We come now to the traditions of those tribes who dwell nearer to the shore of the Atlantic. The Warau legends, into which I have inquired, like those of the Acawoios already noticed, have hitherto been known to few (if any) but the Indians themselves. They are exceedingly extravagant, and display a fertility of imagination such as we could hardly expect to find in a race whose mental powers have been so little cultivated. The following wild legend contains their ancient belief respecting their own origin and that of the Caribs. It was told me by a Warau from the remote Aruca, a man very small in stature, but great as an authority in the legends of his people. His countrymen had referred me to him for an answer to the question "whether it were true, as I had been told, that their nation had formerly inhabited the banks of the Essequibo, and been driven thence to the swamps by the fortune of war?" In reply to this question he, with grave earnest 1 Humboldt's Narrative, chap. xxiv. MYTHOLOGY AND LEGENDARY TALES. 389 ness and certainly to my surprise, told me that, according to their ancient belief, "the original abode of the Waraus was not on this lower earth at all, but in a pleasant region above the sky. In that region they were happy, there being neither wicked men nor noxious animals to make them afraid. Beautiful birds abounded, and were the game of their young hunters. One of these, named Okono rote, having wandered far in pursuit of a choice bird, discharged an arrow at it, which missed its mark and disappeared. While searching for the arrow he found a hole through which it had fallen, and on looking through it he saw this lower world stretched out beneath, with herds of bush-hogs, numerous deer, and other animals, feeding and roaming undisturbed through its green forests and savannahs. Finding that the aperture would allow him to pass through, he resolved to make a rope or ladder of cotton," of which there seems to have been abundance above, "and descend. Assisted by his friends, he at length completed the rope,-descended by it, and again with infinite labour returned to the upper regions;-to report the wondrous things he had seen (and eaten) below, and to counsel a migration thither. "The Warau race listened to his tale of unlimited animal food till their desires and appetites could no longer be controlled, and without regarding, as it seems, the will of the Great Spirit, they unanimously resolved on a descent to the terrestrial huntinggrounds. They accordingly descended by the same 390 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. means, followed by their children and their wives, all except the last,-an unfortunate person who, being too stout to squeeze through, remained fixed in the narrow aperture, completely filling it. No effectual assistance could be given from below; and as none were left above to render aid, all communication with the regions above the sky was closed by her sad mishap, and return rendered impossible. The Waraus were thus of necessity confined to this earth, without even a glimpse of their former abode! "They found the lower world abundantly supplied with game, but water was scarce. The Great Spirit, in reply to their supplications, created the Essequibo and other streams. Moreover, he formed for the Waraus, his dear though erring children, a small lake of delicious water, charging them 'only to drink of it, but not to bathe therein, or evil would ensue.' This was the test of obedience, and all the men, religiously observed it. "Near that pleasant spot there dwelt a family of note among the Waraus, consisting of four brothers, named respectively, Kororoma, Kororomana, Kororomatu, and Kororomatitu, with their sisters Korobona and Korobonako. The latter, two beautiful but wilful maidens, disregarded the injunction, and in an evil hour ventured into the forbidden water. In the centre there was planted a pole, which, while it remained untouched, was their safeguard. This excited their curiosity. There was a secret which they must find out. The boldest of the two at last ventured to shake MYTHOLOGY AND LEGENDARY TALES. 391 it, and thereby broke the charm which had bound the spirit of the pool" (who seems to have been in nature and propensities very like a river-god of ancient Greece), "and ihe immediately took possession of the maiden as his lawful prize. "Great was the indignation of her brothers when, after a time, their sister became a mother. But as the babe was in all respects like one of their own children, they, after long consultation, allowed it to live and grow up with them, and the mother's offence was forgiven. "She could not, however, forget the pleasant pool and its mysterious inhabitant, and after a while repeated her transgression. Then came the threatened woe! The offspring of the second offence only resembled the human race in the head and upper parts, which were those of a beautiful boy." Like Milton's Sin, though of the opposite sex, this child, according to the Warau legend" -- ended foul in many a snaky fold," the other extremity resembling that of the variegated python or camudi of the rivers and swamps of Guiana. "Though terrified at the appearance of her offspring, Korobona yet cherished it secretly in the depth of the forest where she had brought it forth. Her brothers at length discovered her secret, and transfixed the serpent-child with their arrows, leaving it for dead. But under the mother's nursing it revived, and soon grew to a formidable size. The suspicions of her brothers having been again aroused 39:2 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. by her frequent visits to the forest, they followed her, and from a distance beheld her conversing with it, themselves remaining unseen. " Fearing that they would themselves be eventually overpowered by a creature so terrible, which, after what had happened, must naturally look on them as foes, they resolved on an onslaught with all the power at their command. Accordingly, they made many arrows and put their other weapons in order. Their sister, asking the purpose of those preparations, received an evasive answer. On this shle fled to give warning, and they pursued. Attacking1 the mysterious being, which sought refuge in its mother's embrace, they disabled it from a distance Nwith showers of arrows, and, to make all sure, cut it in pieces before her eyes. "The unhappy Korobona carefully collected the remains into a heap, which she kept continually covered with fresh leaves and guarded with tender assiduity.-After long watching, her patience was rewarded. The vegetable covering began to heave, and show signs of life. From it there slowly arose an Indian warrior of majestic and terrible appearance. His brow was of a brilliant red, he held bow and arrows in his hand, and was otherwise equipped for instant battle. "That warrior was the first CARIB-the great father of a powerful race. "He forthwith commenced the task of revenge for the wrongs suffered in his former existence. Neither his uncles, nor the whole Warau race whom they MYTHOLOGY AND LEGENDARY TALES. 393 summoned, could stand before him. He drave them hither and thither like deer-took possession of such of their women as pleased him, and by them became the father of brave and terrible warriors like himself. From their presence the unhappy Waraus retired, till they reached the swampy shores of the Atlantic, forsaking those pleasant hunting-grounds which they had occupied on their first descent from heaven."1 Such is the Warau account of the early history of their race. I was amazed to hear so romantic. legend in such an unexpected quarter. It certainly does credit to their inventive powers. They cover the disgrace of defeat most adroitly, by making their conquerors to be of their own race as far as they were human, and on the other side of supernatural descent, and consequently invincible.-Their high pretensions to a celestial origin are also most amusing when viewed in connexion with their very low condition and general squalid appearance. The Warau traditions of the flood are of little interest. They differ from those of other tribes chiefly in the circumstance that the survivors saved themselves by a large woodskin, and made trial of various kinds of trees ere they decided on the bark fittest for their purpose. 1 I have been obliged to omit certain portions of the above legend. They contained nothing of importance to the real story, but were merely foul excrescences, which had been gradually added by the grossness of their minds. My informant would by no means suppress them when requested, saying that the whole tale must be repeated just as it had been handed down to him. 394 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. The "woibaka," or canoe, of which they are such experienced makers, is said to have been invented by a celebrated Warau named Abore-the first man who traversed the ocean. Their traditions respecting this personage can scarcely be surpassed by any in point of extravagance. The following arc portions:"In very ancient days a female spirit named Wowta, of evil disposition, wandered among the damp places of the earth in the shape of a huge frog. She at length thought of changing her figure into that of a woman, that she might obtain possession of Abore, then a beautiful little boy. Accordingly, having assumed the form of a Warau matron, she obtained a footing in his family. The child being one day left under her care by his mother, she brought him under her magical power, and exerted it to such an extent that, by her vigorous stretching and skilful handling, he grew in that one day more than he would have grown naturally in several years, and the mother on her return did not know her own son." Passing over the deaths of his parents, and many minor incidents of this legend, we find Abore in ripening manhood the slave of this terrible female. He believes her to be his mother, but is undeceived by a friendly spirit, whom he finds (also in the shape of a woman) sitting alone under a tree in the-shady forest. She informs him of the real state of things, and advises him at all risks to escape from thraldom. He then attempts to run away, but is invariably tracked MYTHOLOGY AND LEGENDARY TALES. 395 and brought back by Wowta. He next tries to kill her by causing a cocorite palm to fall upon her, but fails, as she is not mortal. Finally, unable to endure that state of existence, and (according to some) disgusted with her design to marry him, he determines to escape across the great salt sea, and seek some unknown shore. "But neither logs of wood nor pieces of bark could bear him in safety over the mighty waves of tllht great ocean, and he saw that some other means of transit must be provided. Long ruminating, therefore, and experimenting on the subject, he at last hit upon the proper shape of a vessel, and formed a canoe of wax, a material which excited no suspicion. In this lie was just preparing to embark, when his vigilant mistress came upon him, seized his vessel and destroyed it; ruining his hopes for that time. "But Wowta had a great fondness for honey, and daily sent him to ransack the forest for fresh supplies from its stingless bees, which she received with a loud croak of delight, a relic of her former condition." The narrator here paused to embellish the legend by imitating this croak, which lie did several times with much apparent relish and satisfaction.-He then went on to tell how Abor6, availing himself of her love of sweets, removed the wax after she had drained it, and laid it in a secret place as material for another canoe. Having collected enough, he one day took Wowta to a hollow tree, and showed her a crack from which honey was dripping. She crept into the tree to regale herself, and he immediately wedged her in so 396 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. tightly that she could not escape. Then rapidly forming a new craft, he loaded it with provisions, and while his admiring countrymen observed its shape, he bade them farewell, boldly paddled out on the broad ocean, and was seen no more in Warau land. From that time his countrymen became skilful makers of canoes, following his pattern, but changing the material from wax to wood. "Wowta, imprisoned in the hollow tree, from which none would set her free, at length abandoned the human form, and returned to her original shape as a huge frog. In this she still wanders through swamps and marshy forests. The Waraus, when, in their nightly bivouacs among the ita palms, they are sometimes startled by a sudden croak of preternatural loudness, know well that it is the miserable Wowtd, vainly seeking her handsome runaway slave, and inconsolable for the loss of him. "Abore safely reached the other side of the great sea. There he found a people with white skins, destitute of the necessary comforts of life enjoyed by the Waraus, and altogether in a very barbarous condition. The genius which in its first essay had taught his countrymen how to shape a vessel which could ride over the waves, now undertook the benevolent task of enlightening the benighted white people. He invented and taught them all the useful arts, of which they are now so proud, showed them how to use the metals which their country produced, and to him their clever manufacturers owe all their skill and power to get wealth." MYTHOLOGY AND LEGENDARY TALES. 397 This is not all. "By virtue of the magical power exerted over him in infancy and youth, his life has been preserved during many generations. Abore still lives beyond the great salt sea, the head of all rich merchants there. Ever mindful of his origin, and of the wants of his poor countrymen, he continually sends shiploads of such things as their country cannot supply. But such is the bad faith of those to whom these valuable articles are consigned, that for a long time the Waraus have not received them as presents. On the contrary, they are now obliged to pay for every knife, axe, cutlass, or piece of calico they get; while, as to guns,-they are altogether beyond the reach of most. Yet, independently of the commands of Abore, common gratitude for the benefits their race has received from him should lead the whites to supply the poor Waraus, his brethren, with all such things free of charge." After this rather audacious winding-up, the reader will probably not be surprised to learn that my informant asked me for a shirt, nor that the reception of the shirt was followed by requests for a formidable list of other articles. It seemed as if the tale had been invented on the spot as an excuse for unlimited begging. But such was not the case. By examining other Waraus separately, I heard the same in substance. The legend of Abore is certainly one of the most popular among them, though there are considerable variations (as in all Indian tales), according to the district or family of the narrator. The first part is evidently very ancient; the latter 398 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. mlust have been added since white men became known to them. The annual presents formerly received from the colonists have, as we see, been already ingeniously fitted into their mythology.1 With a brief notice of the traditions of the Arawcdks, we will conclude the subject. Their ancient belief that man and other living creatures were formed by the Supreme Being out of pieces of bark or wood has been already mentioned. They also believe that, since the Creation, the world has been twice destroyed; first, by a flame of fire sent to sweep over it, and afterwards by a flood of water. Each of those destructions was on account of the evil doings of men, and specially threatened by Aiomun Kondi, the great " Dweller on High." "Those men who believed the warning of the coming 1 It must have been pleasant for the Indians, during the last century and the early part of the present, to lounge around a postholder's residence, and have guns, iron implements, salempores, beads, &c., annually distributed among them. But that system of disarming animosity and securing allegiance greatly fostered their native indolence. Their forefathers, with only rude stone implements, must of necessity have been more industrious. At any rate, they had to exert infinitely more labour in clearing land, making canoes, &c. The present generation have to purchase by the fruit of their own labour the articles which were formerly given, and many other things which the influence of Missions has taught the Christian Indians to consider indispensable. And this is the only way to teach them self-reliance. A return to the system of presents (were it possible) would be pernicious in its consequences, and most obstructive to the spread of true Christian principles among them. MYTHOLOGY AND LEGENDARY TALES. 399 fire dug deep into a sand-reef, and formed a retreat therein, consisting of a roof of timber, supported ly massive pillars of the same. This they covered with layers of earth, and a thick upper coating of sand. Having removed everything combustible from the neighbourhood, they then remained quietly in their subterranean abode, till the flame which swept the earth's surface had passed by them. "When the great waters were about to be sent, a chief of distinguished piety and wisdom, named Marerewana, was informed of the coming flood, and saved himself and his family in a large canoe. Being desirous not to drift over the ocean, or far from the home of his fathers, he had prepared a cable of 'bush-rope' of great length, and with it he tied his bark to the trunk of a large tree. When the waters subsided, he found himself not far from his former abode." A comparison of this last tradition with those of the other tribes on the same subject shows us a belief, among all, in the main fact that a great flood of waters once overspread the earth. Of that general belief there can be no dispute. The reader may see it in the traditions here collected from the various races which dwell in our province, within two or three hundred miles of the Atlantic coast, while travellers show its existence in the very heart of the continent. "The belief in a great deluge is not confined to one nation singly; it makes part of a system of historical tradition, of which we find scattered 400 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. notions among the Maypures of the great cataracts; among the Indians of the Rio Erevato, which runs into the Caura, and among almost all the tribes of the Upper Orinoco."1 The rude nations of South America agree in this with the aborigines of the West Indian islands, with the ancient Mexicans, and the other races of the north. At the same time we see that while all agree in the main fact, each nation has its own peculiar account of the circumstances attending it; which accounts, coming through various channels, and receiving from each tribe a local colouring, differ as widely from each other as they do from the narrative of Holy Scripture. While investigating the practices of the Indian sorcerers, during the earlier years of my residence among them, I was at a loss to understand the source from whence the use of the rattle and other parts of their strange system could have arisen. It seemed evident that they must be based on some ancient legend, but none were willing, or dared, to communicate that legend to me. An old semni-cici of the Arawaks, who bore the appropriate name of " Maraka-kore" (the red-rattle), became one of our catechumens in 1841. As he was the great oracle of his tribe, I used frequently to question him, and derived much curious information, which it was only in the power of an aged man of his class to communicate. Having one day begged him to tell me what were their real ideas of the origin of their system, 1 Humboldt. MYTHOLOGY AND LEGENDARY TALES. 401 after some reluctance he complied. The following tradition was then delivered in the presence of several persons, and interpreted by their chief:" In very ancient times the yauhahu, being unrestrained in their practices, inflicted continual misery on mankind, causing not only great affliction, such as sickness, but perpetual annoyance in other ways, even destroying their food, and defiling their cooking utensils. An Arawak, named ArawAnili,1 was walking by the water side, brooding over the condition. to which men were reduced, when a female figure, the Orehu, arose from the stream, bearing in her hand a small branch, which she presented to the man, desiring him to plant it, and afterwards gather its fruit. He did so, and thus obtained the calabash, till then unknown among them. She again emerged from the water with small white stones in her hand, which she desired him to enclose in the gourd, in the manner before described. After instructing him in the mysteries of semecihi, she again retired to her watery abode. He followed her directions, and thus became the founder of that system, which has since prevailed among all the Indian tribes." On my inquiring where Arawanili was now, and whether he had not " long ago died like other men?" the old man said that, according to their belief, " he went up, and did not die." I then asked if he knew where those events were 1 Orowama, according to some; others say that those names belong respectively to two individuals, the elder of many brothers, who all became great sorcerers. D D 402 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. supposed to have happened? He replied, "Not in this land, but at Kaieri" (an island), pointing with his hand to the northward.- The tradition showed that this tribe had in former ages some connexion with the islands, and did not entirely confine their abode to Terra Firma or Guiana. It is worthy of note that many of the persons whom the traditions of the various ancient races of America point out as lawgivers, founders of institutions, or benefactors of their respective nations, are said to have departed from among their people in some mysterious way. Quetzalcoatl, famous among the people of ancient Mexico;-Nemterequeteba, whom the partially civilized Muyscas of New Granada called "the messenger of God;"-Amalivaca, once venerated, as we have seen, in the vast countries through which the Orinoco flows, are all said to have departed, after fulfilling their work, to some unknown region, from which they were believed to have originally come. While in the mythological tales of the less noted tribes of Guiana, as the ArawAks and Acawoios, their celebrated personages having each in his own way, according to Indian ideas, benefited mankind, finally depart by "going up" in some mysterious manner. Whether this "going up". be part of the pure and original traditions existent before intercourse with Europeans, or have been derived, through the latter, from the accounts given of Enoch and Elijah in the Old Testament, or from that in the New, in which we see MYTHOLOGY AND LEGENDARY TALES. 403 "Christ, awhile to mortals given, Re-ascend His native heaven," it would be difficult to decide. The people from whom I heard those legends had certainly, when I first knew them, no knowledge whatever of the Holy Scriptures. In concluding this subject, I may remark that the Indians with whom I have conversed all maintain the Invisibility of the Eternal Father. In their traditionary legends they never confound Him — the Creator,-the "Ancient of Heaven"-with the mythical personages of what, for want of a better term, we must call their heroic age; and though their sorcerers claim familiarity with, and power to control, the inferior (and malignant) spirits, none would ever pretend to hold intercourse with hIim, or that it were possible for mortal man to behold HIim. To the solemn declaration of the inspired Baptist, "No man hath seen God at any time," the heathen Indians of Guiana readily assent. It is for us to teach them that " God, who," as they already rightly believe, "made the world and all things therein," "the Lord of heaven and earth," is, though unseen, "not far from every one of us;" that "the only begotten Son hath declared Him;" and to say to each soul now distressed and in bondage to the terrors of their many superstitions:"Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace." D D 2 CHAPTER XI. REVIEW. Diversity of Language among the Aboriginal Tribes-Other Impediments to Improvement-Favourable cesults of the Introduction of Christianity among them. THE diversity of languages among the Indian nations of America has been often noticed, and it is as strongly marked in Guiana as in any other part of the Western world. In Eastern Polynesia the dialects of islands thousands of miles apart have sprung from a common original, and do not very greatly differ. But it is far otherwise with the country and races we have endeavoured to describe. Four, or even five, very different tongues may sometimes be heard at the same place.1 Even the most common birds and animals are called by different names. The jaguar, for instance, is called by the ArawAks, arua; by the Waraus, tobi; and by the Caribs, kaikusi. This diversity of tongues has been an obstacle to the advancement of the Indians, only to be overcome by the gradual spread of our language among them. 1 See Note at the end of this chapter. REVIE W. 405 Other difficulties in the way of improvement-as the systematic opposition of their sorcerers,-the Kanaima (not always an empty menace),-the hereditary jealousy of the different races,-and their migratory habits, we have already noticed. To them we may add the very great impediment offered by the vices of nominal Christians, which the Indians witness and are tempted to imitate, and from which they morally and physically suffer. Notwithstanding these drawbacks, and others which our narrative has shown, the spread of Christianity has, by God's blessing, had many cheering results among the aborigines of Guiana. As regards man's duty to God his Maker, the effect of the instruction given has been shown in the number of worshippers baptized and married, and by the many miles (hundreds in numerous instances) which they who formerly neither worshipped nor cared for God have travelled to partake of Divine ordinances. Indians, naturally and proverbially indolent, would not have done so had they not felt their exceeding value. And the greatest enemy of Christian Missions may perhaps admit, that neither savage nor civilized man will voluntarily take great pains and labour to follow that which is indifferent to him. So also with respect to man's duty to his neighbour. The diminution of crime among the aboriginal races in proportion to the spread of Christian knowledge among them has been noticed and recorded by one whose official position enabled him to speak with 406 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. authority on that head. His words, already quoted,1 need not be repeated here. There are other marks of elevation and improvement, visible to all who know them, though of secondary importance. In the early part of this century the late Mr. Waterton stated that not a single Indian in cidevant Dutch Guiana could read or write. That reproach has long since ceased. They also who were formerly unclad, now clothe themselves from head to foot; and while the heathen of both sexes, fresh from their forest homes, have even to this present date visited our public places in a state of almost complete nudity, causing shame and disgust, nothing would induce an Arawak Christian woman to appear in such a condition. Many of their families now have washing-tubs, irons, &c.; and their females may be seen practising, not unskilfully, the art of the laundress. Those things all cost money, and that is only procured by industry and labour, which benefit others as well as themselves. It may not be amiss to endeavour to give the reader some idea of the gradual change of Indian taste in this respect, as I have seen it in hundreds of instances. The first garment which the wild man of the woods purchases is generally (but not always) a shirt. This he wears till it be ready to drop off, and he then buys a new one, which he puts on over the other to appear in at church. It sometimes happens that the new one 1 Part II. chap. iii. REVIEW 407 is the shorter, and the effect is then more striking than becoming. I have seen a Carib with a flowered waistcoat, and with no other covering than his native cloth, strut about with much complacent vanity. By degrees, the example of others is followed; he even endures the torture of shoes, and appears clothed from top to toe. The belle of the forest, whose only attire has been a small apron and necklaces of beads, with a few ornaments of silver, and the teeth of the jaguar, when she begins to assume an attire better suited to our ideas of decency, shows more avidity to possess clothes than taste in putting them on. The Caribi women seemed at first to think that they never could wear enough. The face, hands, and bare feet alone were visible, the rest appearing a confused heap of printed cotton handkerchiefs, &c. of the most glaring colours,-huge balloons (one of which nearly covered the front of the body) being at one time the most fashionable pattern. Accustomed from their birth to unrestrained freedom of limb and body, those poor women were evidently most uncomfortable in their unusual attire. The ArawAk females more readily adopted civilized apparel, and set the example of great neatness to those of other tribes. But these, though not unimportant, are external things. In order to see how fully the Indian shares with other men in the rich blessings which the religion of the Lord Jesus bestows, his character and condition require to be closely observed. And these, in reality, 408 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. differ much from the picture formed in the imagination of many. The life of "the noble savage" running " wild in woods" is invested with a certain charm by the novelist and the poet; and unquestionably there is a charm in such a life, and much enjoyment for the noble savage, while young and healthy, in managing the light canoe, or pursuing his game through the forest. But it is animal enjoyment merely, and, like all such, fades under the pressure of hunger or at the approach of sickness. When the Indian falls sick (which in Guiana is very frequently), he has neither comfort nor consolation;-his superstition, far from supporting, teaches him that his sickness and pain are the torments inflicted by an evil spirit, which has taken possession of, and is slowly destroying him;-while of the Supreme Being, as the God that heareth prayer, he knows nothing. When the sorcerer, whom he has summoned, fails to relieve him by incantations, he finds himself shunned by his friends, who fear lest they should be the next victims. Those friends, better taught, would be kind and affectionate; it is superstition that in this, as in other things, hardens the heart. But in the hour of sickness, pain, and sorrow, the comfort of the religion of Christ is truly felt. The assurance that affliction is sent by a loving Father to bring us nearer to Himself, and that through the grave and gate of death we pass to a joyful resurrection and eternal life, is as full of comfort to the Indian dying in his hammock as to the Christian of another race expiring in his bed. REVIEW. 409 Some years ago we lost one of our most steady converts by the bite of a labaria snake. He was named Hendrick Yanke. While following his game through the forest he put his foot close to the reptile without perceiving it, and it immediately struck him with its poisonous fangs. I saw him three days afterwards. He was in great agony-his foot, leg, and the whole of his right side being swollen to an enormous size. He said that he had "shot the snake to pieces" at once, and that "a dark cloud" then came before his eyes. After a little time his sight returned sufficiently to enable him to crawl to his house, which was close by. He thought that as he had survived so many hours he might recover. He did apparently recover, and was able to go about, but the poison had thoroughly tainted his blood, and he soon began to droop. He journeyed to the coast to seek medical assistance, but it was of no avail. A large abscess formed on each side of the spine, and he began to show signs of approaching dissolution. A little before his death he came to the Mission, where all manifested much sympathy for him. When I last spoke to him, his eyes, filled with tears as he looked on his young children, showed the natural feeling within,"These bind to earth; for these I pray to live." But he expressed his resignation to the will of God. -Poor Hendrick died eight months after he had received the bite. His only surviving brother was bitten by a labaria soon after. He was with another Indian hunting far 410 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. from home; and when the accident occurred, his companion, being unable to carry him, slung his hammock between two trees, placed him in it, and hurried to seek assistance. All night the poor sufferer lay there, exposed to the perils of the forest, yet still survived. The next day his friends arrived, and bare him to his house by means of a stout rod to which his hammock was slung. He was, like his departed brother, a Christian; was much comforted when visited, and received the Holy Sacrament. His aged parents were present, and their grief was excessive. They implored me to tell them, if I could, whether this, their " last son, would die!" The limb was enormously swollen, though the puncture of the serpent's fang was almost imperceptible; but after he had taken a strong decoction of sarsaparilla, which I was able to supply, a large hole formed about an inch from the bite, which continued to discharge profusely for many weeks, after which he recovered his health completely. We are convinced, from what we have often witnessed, that the heart of the apparently apathetic red man is very susceptible of affectionate and tender feeling, when better influences have overcome his superstitious fears. The wife of one of the small party of Maiongkongs, who had joined the Mission at Waramuri, died in 1866 at a settlement on the Waini, many miles distant. Her husband and friends knew that it had been her wish to be buried with Christian rites near the chapel in which she had been a worshipper and REVIEW'. 411 communicant. They accordingly brought her body in a canoe, meeting with such obstacles in forcing their way across the half-dry swamps, that they did not bury it until the fifth day, by which time it was in a fearful state of decomposition. This was an instance of endurance which few (who know the effect of the hot and humid climate on a corpse in twenty-four hours only) could have believed possible. We may question their prudence, considering the risk they ran, but of the pious and loving feeling which upheld them there can be no doubt; and it formed a striking contrast to that superstitious terror which, among their heathen countrymen, sometimes leads to abandonment even before death. POLYGAMY, the great source of their domestic troubles, is of course prevented by Christian matrinmony. When before God, and in the presence of the congregation of the people of his tribe, an Indian has vowed to keep to one wife, the woman is from that time delivered from the constant apprehension of a future rival. Well then may those women thankfully say, as they do, of Christian marriage, "It is a good thing." Their position is raised, and they are better treated. The heathen Indians often treat their wives harshly; and it is nothing unusual to see Warau and Caribi women paddling continuously, while their husbands amuse themselves with a stroke now and then. But as the power of Christianity is felt, so woman rises to her proper place; and though still obliged to work hard, it is only in what she considers her appropriate 412 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. duties. She still plants the field, and bears the best part of the household utensils to and from the canoe. This may seem to us a hardship, but they do not consider it as such. Customs and habits of feeling vary in different countries. I once desired a man to take a heavy bunch of plantains off his wife's head, and to carry it himself. He did so with a smile, but his wife seemed hurt at what she considered a degradation of her husband. She seemed to feel much as the wife of one of our own labourers would, who should see her husband compelled by some oppressive tyrant to scrub the floor and wash the clothes of the family. The wives of Christian Indians, like those of our own poor, must still lead a life of labour, but there is a manifest improvement in their condition;-they are not looked on as mere servile beings. The system of SORCERY, inveterate and deeply rooted in the minds of the Indians of every tribe, has doubtless been the greatest obstacle to their reception of Christianity. Yet some of our earliest and most stedfast converts were of the dreaded class of Piai-men. Two of them broke their marakkas, or sacred rattles, before joining us. Others surrendered theirs in pledge of their renunciation of the practice. The old man, Maraka-kore, who related to me their tradition concerning the Orehu, was the first who did so. Five of those magical implements thus came into my possession at different times, some of which were hung up in the Mission-school, that the young people, by familiarity with them, might learn to despise RE VIEW. 413 their pretended power. Occasionally the children would be amused by seeing the nervous apprehension of some heathen stranger who, paying us a visit, would suddenly and unexpectedly find his head in close proximity to such dreaded instruments. The other gourds were sent to England, and two of them presented to the Missionary College of St. Augustine at Canterbury.1 Many a life which would have been thrown away under the noise, excitement, and tobacco vapour of the piai system has, under God, been saved at our stations by the use of proper remedies in sickness. Reluctant as all Indians are to take medicine, experience of its efficacy reconciles them to its use, and the number of deaths is thereby diminished. Many little children are now also reared, who under the old savage way of life would have died in the forests, and on those long journeys to which their strength is by no means equal.2 1 By the Rev. T. Medland, vicar of Steyning, to whom they had been sent, in grateful acknowledgment of many services to our Missions his early pastoral care, and personal kindness to myself and others of the missionaries. 2 The aboriginal population of Guiana was undoubtedly much larger formerly than it is at present, but we can hardly suppose that it was ever very dense, even before Europeans settled on their shores. The wars and predatory habits of tribes so differing in language and character must from time to time have thinned their numbers; and their way of life, all being hunters, and each family requiring a certain tract to range in, would prevent their living together in large communities. Their women are prolific, but, owing to their uncivilized way of life, only a comparatively small proportion of their children arrive at maturity. The adults have been thinned by frequent epidemics 414 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. In the foregoing narrative we have had to record various trials and vicissitudes. We have noticed the extinction of Missions which during the last century were very prosperous, and have seen more recently the work of the English Church at Pirara and Urwa Rapids brought violently to an end. We have also seen the light thus extinguished break forth in other places in God's good time and way. Of all existing Missions our expectations should and intemperate habits, rum having been the great bane to those who lived near or visited the plantations. During the last, and the early part of the present century, their numbers everywhere diminished. And this decrease, in certain districts, as the Corentyn, has gone on to this date (1868). Other districts, on the contrary, have increased their Indian population, especially those in which Christianity has been most favourably received. On the shores of the Ituribisi the number of Indians in 1844 was 139. In October 1865, during a missionary visit to that beautiful lake by the Rev. C. Morgan and myself, 365 were counted by Miss Austin, who introduced us to her people. That increase was both by births and immigration from other districts. Among the few Acawoio families who from 1853 to 1865 lived secluded at the Pomeroon Mission, there was in those years a natural increase from 58 to 83, the births having numbered 35 and the deaths 10. This increase was unfortunately checked in 1866-7, by famine and sickness, the result of a general failure in the cassava crop. The most industrious Indians were then suffering want, but the scarcity came early, and with the greatest severity on the Acawoios at our stations, whose fields had been exhausted by their hospitality during the great influx of their countrymen, related in chapter v. The coming of those inquirers was also, to our deep regret, checked thereby, large parties having turned back when half way on hearing that there was starvation before them. REVIEW. 415 be very moderate, while doing our best and praying for their success, as is our Christian duty. We know from experience how many things have power to depress, and even to crush them. But we also know full surely that the work must still go on, and God's purpose be accomplished, whether they, having borne their witness for Him among the nations, be swept away,-or (as we rather trust, and in many places behold) become centres of Christian districts, changing their Mission character by the fulness of success.. NOTE.-The following short vocabulary will show in the languages of neighbouring tribes in Guiana: the difference English. Sun Moon Star Fire Water Rain Stone or Rock Sand Island Aan Woman (My) Head (My) Hand House One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Arawrk. Adaili Kaci Wiwa Ikihi Oniabn Oini Siba Motogo Kaieri Wadili Hiaro Da'si Da'kabo Bawhu Abar Biaima Kabuin Bibici Abar-dakabo Abar-timen Bialn-timen Warau. Ya Wanika Hura Eykuno Ho Naha Hoeyn Kahemura Hota-boroho Nebora Tida Ma'qua Ma'uliho Anoko Ishakka Manam Dianam Orabakaia Moabass Momatani-shakka Momatani-manam Caribi. Acawoio. Weyu Nono Sidigyu Watu Tona Konobo Toubo Sakou Pahu Wakuri Wori U'bopo U'enari Owtuh Ohi Oko Oroa Okobainme Unyatone Ohi-yopemako Oko-yopemako Oroa-yopelmako Okobaime-yopeniako Unyabatura Wiyenu Kapui Sirigyu Ahpoh Tona Tona Touk Wotsuk Opahwo Warraio Orichan U'bopai U'yenzari Owteh Tegina Azara Osorowa Azagrene Miararoe-pukin Tegina-miararoe Azare-iniararoe Osorowa-mliararoe Azagrene-miararoe Miararo-lmara Kabuin-timen Momatani-dianam Bibici-timen Momatani-orabakaia Biam-dakabo Mohoreko 416 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. Of the above languages, that of the Arawaks, as has been before observed, is most remarkable for its softness. It abounds in vowels, and from the manner in which the words combine with, and run into each other, it is very difficult for a learner to acquire it. Hence there is a proverbial saying, that "None can thoroughly master their tongue, unless his mother were one of the lokono." The people of this tribe, inhabiting the various river districts, have in each locality certain peculiarities of speech, but those differences are small, and in all important points the language is the same. The Warau, or Guarano, tongue is more easily acquired than any other, its words being comparatively few, and very distinctly pronounced. It is used, not only by the Waraus themselves, through ' the immense swampy region inhabited. chiefly by them, from the Pomeroon to and beyond the Delta of the Orinoco, but also by the tribes which dwell around them, as a common medium of communication. The Caribi tongue, though somewhat more guttural than either of the above, is spoken in a smart vivacious manner. Those with whom I had more immediate intercourse claimed to speak it in its purity, and regarded as corrupt the language of those Caribs who elsewhere had intermarried with other races. The Acawoio tongue, as may be seen above, bears a strong resemblance to the Caribi, but has even a closer affinity to the dialects of the remoter tribes of the interior. The Acawoios readily understand the Caribs, but are not as easily understood by them. Their language has considerable variation, owing to the vast extent of territory over which it is spoken. Of all the native tongues it seems the most difficult for a stranger to pronounce; and there are in it some sounds which no combination of the letters of the English alphabet can accurately express. This tongue is spoken on the upper parts of all our large rivers, from the Corentyn to the Orinoco. From the small comparative vocabulary given above, it will be seen how the Arawak and Warau tongues differ from each other, and from the rest. The dissimilarity observable in words extends also to many points in their grammatical construction. But, though in many things there is a wide distinction, there are others in which all the Indian dialects of Guiana seem to agree. For instance, the words which have the power of prepositions in English, always follow the noun or pronoun to which they refer. NOTE ON THE INDIAN LAN-GUAGES. 417 This will be seen in the following examples, the words Nwhich answer to our preposition being in italics:English-On earth, Arawak —Ororo ajeago, Warau —Hota' rai, Caribi-Noano kopo,.Acawoio —Nohn bo. Another point in which the different nations agree is their method of numeration. The first four numbers are represented by simple words, as in the table above given. Five is "my one hand," abar-d(kabo in Arawak. Then comes a repetition, abar-timen, biam-timen, &c., up to nine. Biamn-dakabo, "my two hands," is ten. From ten to twenty they use the toes (kuti or okuti), as CCab(r-kUti-bana, "eleven," biam-kuti-bana, "twelve," &c. They call twenty abar-loko, one lokco or man. They then proceed by men or scores; thus forty-five is laboriously expressed by biam-loko abar-dakabo tajeago, " two men and one hand upon it." For higher numbers they have now recourse to our words hundred and thousand. This method of numeration prevails among the different tribes as far as my researches have extended. The Indian children, who learn to read and write with facility, and comprehend with no great difficulty the elementary instruction given them in geography, &c., are most backward in acquiring the simplest rudiments of arithmetic. The imperfect and barbarous method of reckoning by hanids, feet, and complete men, which each learns with his mother tongue, is a formidable obstacle to the acquirement of our decimal system. The American-Indian languages mostly belong to what has been called the polysynthetic class, and are well known to be very different in structure from the European tongues. In some of then words are abbreviated and combined in a manner that to us appears confused and embarrassing, but which is really full of order and method. The Arawak language, though of course not to be compared with our own in the number of its words, has considerable power of expression, and its verbs are very rich in moods and tenses. It would be out of place to attempt here any explanation of its structure; E E 418 T'HE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. but it may be briefly observed, that its complexity is greatly increased by a system of regimen which pervades it, and in various ways affects different parts of speech,-the governed words almost always ending with the letter n. The sentences lajiagoba tohojin and tohojia la-goba-cjian have precisely the same meaning, "he spake thus;" but in the former the verb governs the adverb, which follows it, while in the latter the adverb preceding governs, and entirely changes the form of the verb. There are other changes of form in each conjugation, according to the nature and position of the governing word. Some of the Indian words are of great length, and, though not quite so extensive as those used by certain tribes of the Northern continent (among whom polysyllables stretching across a page are not uncommon), are yet sufficient to dismay a learner. Among the Arawaks, such words as lokoborokwatoasia, "his thought" or "remembrance;" kabuintirmen-kattibanano, " eighteen," &c., are continually used. The length of their verbs is increased by the manner in which the pronouns are combined with them; and sometimes also from the syllables which contain the root of the verb being doubled, to express the continuance or intensity of the action. In nahadadadikitagobai, "they continued asking him" (pronounced by the Arawaks as a single word), the reduplication may be observed, and both the nominative and objective pronouns (each expressed by a single letter) are contained. In those long words, almost every syllable would be found to have its own particular force and meaning, though some to us may appear redundant. For example, an Arawak says simply, Dai-iyu, "my mother;" but cWa-iyu-na-tu, our mother. To us the sense of this latter word would appear sufficiently expressed by the first two syllables wa and iyu, which are respectively "our" and "mother." But, as if the idea of plurality (of offspring) were not sufficiently expressed by the first syllable, the Indian repeats it in the penultimate na, and closes the word with tu, the usual singular feminine termination. So also in the Caribi word, keyoboturi-kun, which signifies "our lord." Yoboturi is equivalent to "lord" or "ruler," and the idea of plurality in those whom he rules, which the first syllable conveys, is repeated in the last. The Acawoio form of the same word, keyobororikun; and kikaibunikun, by which they express "our father," are exactly similar in their construction. NOTE ON THE INDIAN LANGUAGES. 419 To enter further into this subject would exceed our limits and weary the reader. It may be sufficient to observe that the remarks made by a laborious investigator' on the American native languages in general will be found to hold good of more than one now moribund in Guiana:-" They are rich in words and grammatical forms, and in their complicated construction the greatest order, method, and regularity prevail." Many words of Spanish origin have been added to those of the aboriginal languages. They are the names of objects with which the Indians were unacquainted previously to their discovery by that nation. Thus they call a goat kabaritu, and a fowl karina, from the Spanish words cabarita and gallina. Sapatu, their word for shoe, is from the Spanish zapato; and from arcabuz comes arakab'sa, which the Indians apply to fire-arms. In like manner, several Dutch words, more or less altered, are now incorporated with the native tongues. 1 Mr. Du Ponceau. E E 2 CHAPTER XII. THE SHELL MOUNDS OF GUIANA. The Tumulus on Waramuri IHill-Causes which led to its Excavation-Found to consist of Shells and broken Bones-Human Remains-Their Condition-Search for other Mounds-The Governor's Visit-Incidents-Tumulus cut through to its Base-Other Mounds discovered and examined near the Pomeroon, Waini, &c.-The Evidence of their Contents. IN the course of the foregoing narrative we have more than once noticed the tumulus on the brow of the sand-reef at Waramuri. From the establishment of that Mission in 1844-5, when the reef and mound were cleared of trees, the latter had been an object of interest to the five or six civilized visitors who had reached that secluded spot. The sand-reef, which is extensive, rises to a height of eighty or ninety feet above the level of the swamp. It contains, as far as we have seen, no organic remains. At one part it is precipitous, and on that spot stood the tumulus, swelling upwards with a graceful curve to the height of about twenty or twenty-five feet more. The diameter of its base was about one hundred and thirty feet. Its surface, when first cleared, was found to be composed of shells. chiefly periwinkle, embedded in a rich mould. THE SHELL MIOUNTArDS OF GUIANA. 421 From the symmetry of its outline, I had at first thought that it was a sepulchral barrow, containing the remains of some great chief, or of warriors fallen in battle. But this idea was relinquished, for shells were strange material for a sepulchral mound;-the sadcl-reef contained none-and the sea, ten or twelve miles away, seemed the nearest place whence they could have been procured. It was also evident that no power possessed by any wild Indian tribe could suddelcly have collected and brought together such a mass from a distance. The throwing up of so large a, mound, and of such singular materials, must have extended over a number of years. Moreover, broken bones, which were found mixed with the shells, seemed to be the relies of meals. We inquired of the Indians, but they knew no more than we of the mound or its origin; and so it remained for more than twenty years,-a pleasant place from which to look over the surrounding forest, and enjoy the cool evening breeze, when the day's work was over,-but a standing puzzle to all. The accounts which at length appeared in the public press of the exploration of shell-heaps in various parts of Europe seemed to me to throw a ray of light upon the origin of this. Could it be that (notwithstanding the great distance of place and perhaps of time) the early inhabitants of the coast of Guiana were of similar habits with the people whose remains are found on certain bleak parts of the shores of the Old World?-And could this be a refuse heap, or "kitchen-midden," similar to theirs? 422 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. Thinking that a search within the mound might clear up the mystery, and perhaps reveal something of the habits of an ancient race, I requested Mr. D. Campbell, the resident teacher, to engage Indians to excavate it, a few days previous to my visit, in November 1865. Mr. Campbell accordingly commenced operations by a cutting of twenty feet in width at the top, to allow of a gradual narrowing in the descent. The mass of the mound we found to consist chiefly of shells. There were those of mussels, &c., in infinite number, and the large claws of crabs were very abundant, with comminuted particles of their shells; but the periwinkle, with its black and white stripes very distinct through age, far exceeded all the rest in quantity. Those shells were found disposed in layers, which indicated by their streaks, or slight varieties in colour, where each deposit had been spread forth. The fragmentary bones of vertebrate fishes and land animals were also found mingled with them throughout the heap. The whole presented the appearance of having been the refuse of innumerable meals of some race with whom shell-fish must have been a chief article of food. The Indians worked willingly enough in throwing out the above, as well as some hard slabs of clayey substance, which resembled the baking-pans or plates used by the wilder tribes at the present day, and which the shells, &c., plentifully adhered to and encrusted. But they had not dug far into the mass when they THE SHELL MOUNDS OF GUIANA. 423' were startled by coming upon human bones, in irregular positions, and at unequal depths. Those bones were not found stretched out, either in horizontal or perpendicular positions, but huddled and jumbled together in a manner impossible to describe. The skulls, some of which were of great thickness, were in fragments;-the long bones had all been cracked open and contained sand and dust. Each mass appeared to have been deposited without ceremony in the common heap. There they had become welded into singular clusters during the lapse of years. An elbow bone, for instance, was found so tightly fixed in the spinal vertebra, that the brittle substance would break ere they could be separated. Bones from various parts of the body, and in some instances of more than one body, were dug up in masses, which also had fish-bones and shells adhering to and consolidated with them. Scarcely any were found in natural juxtaposition. Our Indians having dug up the bones of several adults, came upon the remains of an unfortunate little child. One side of its head had been beaten in, and the other bones broken open. At that sight they left their work, and could not be induced to resume it. They feared that supernatural vengeance would overtake them for disturbing those remains; and though they allowed me to make a selection from them for examination by scientific men in Georgetown, it was only on the express condition that every bone should be brought back again, which, I scarcely need say, was fulfilled. 424 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIA NA. Together with those poor human relics, several heads of stone-axes, or tomahawks (most of them broken), were dug up, and a sharp-edged stone, which might have been used as a knife; also several lumps of a red earthy substance, which our Indians said must have been used as paint. We also found a singular rod-like petrifaction, and the vertebral joints of fishes of great size. The Indians made no objection to our removing these, but were very uneasy at having meddled with the human remains; or, as they said, "troubled the bones of the old-time people." Those apprehensions were increased by a fever which seized one of the diggers, and they rose into a panic when another man, who was at the time sick unto death, became delirious (his mind having probal-ly been excited by the talk around him); and, eluding the vigilance of his friends, was found wandering by night in the cutting. The heathen sorcerers then said, "The bones of the dead have been disturbed, and their spirits are beginning to seize you as victims." Their words seemed confirmed by the death of the sick man, after which no Indian would touch a shovel there. The excavation had been undertaken with no expectation of finding human remains. We were as much surprised as the Indians (and probably more shocked) at the discovery. But having thus strangely and unexpectedly come upon them, it was desirable to continue the work. By doing so we should at any rate combat superstitious fears, and probably THE SHELL MOUNDS OF GUIANrA. 425 find something which might clear up the mystery of the presence of those relics, and their singularly shattered condition. The labour necessary to enable us to do this came from an unexpected quarter. Soon after my departure there arrived at that Mission another horde of the Kapohn, or Acawoios, from the head waters of the Masalruni. They were a singular and interesting party, eighty-three in number, who, following the example of the Arecunas and others in the beginning of that year, had undertaken a journey of some weeks to hear something of the religion of Christ. They had with them three venerable-looking patriarchs, whose beards, white and long (a strange sight in an Indian), showed extreme old age. Three young men of this party, being either free fiom superstitious fears, or fancying that they should soon be on their return far out of the reach of the spirits, consented to dig in the intervals of instruction. Mr. Campbell, with much energy, carried on the work by their aid, until lie got down to within seven or eight feet of the base of the mound. He found the same shells, with human and other bones,1 as above, but 1 Among the relics found in this second digging, was a cluster of small size, but of remarkable variety. A medical friend, Dr. Goring, at my request, carefully examined and pointed out to me the various fragments of which it is composed. It consists of a portion of the head and neck of a femur of small size, fixed to the lower jaw-bone of an adult, and a confused mass, composed chiefly of the spinous processes of the vertebra, apparently dorsal, and others belonging to the cervical region. Welded, as it were, into the same mass, are portions of the sphenoid and upper 426 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. the mass at that depth was scarcely penetrable by the shovel, being hardened almost into stone by the superincumbent weight. When, in the first part of the excavation, human remains were found within a few feet of the surface, we thought it possible that they might have been interred there by friendly hands (as in a spot conspicuous and easily recognisable) perhaps at a period long after the mound had been formed. Their dislocation might, we thought, be accounted for by the well-known fact that several tribes, now existing, used to preserve the skeletons of their deceased relatives for a long time before burying them. Occasionally also they tinged the bones with red by way of respectful adornment, which might perhaps have accounted for the red earthy lumps found in the heap. This was our first idea. But it was impossible to explain, by any supposition of respectful or decent interment, the broken jaw-bones, teeth, the grinding surfaces of which are worn fiat and smooth (as is the case with most of the other human teeth dug up), broken phalanges (of the toes apparently), shells, sand, and the broken ends of the bones of birds. Like the other relics, it is exceedingly brittle, crumbling rapidly, and very light, the weight of the mass being only seven ounces. That cluster was found low in the mound, and must have been an early deposit. From this description of one specimen some faint idea may be formed of the manner in which those poor remains of humanity had been treated. It appeared also from the positions in which some of the long bones were found, firmly fixed in the larger masses or clusters, that, though broken open, in several instances they had not been severed from each other at the large joints, but merely doubled or twisted one upon the other before they were cast aside. THE SHELL MOUNDS OF GUIANA. 427 condition of those relics, the violence with which they had been treated, or the apparent contumely with which they had been cast into the common receptacle for refuse matter. The great depth at which we found many of those remains also seemed a convincing proof that they had not been deposited after the completion of the shell heap, but rather during its accumulation. An old Indian, with whom I discussed the matter, expressed the opinion of his people very plainly. "That," said he, "is the way in which the nations who used to eat men always broke open the bones to get out the marrow. So our fathers have told us." We knew well that cannibalism had anciently prevailed in those lands, but this aggravated form of it was so revolting that it was not until relic after relic had been brought to light, all in the same state, that the Indian explanation was reluctantly admitted to be the most probable. The Caribs, with whom this is rather a sore point, anxiously assured me that they "knew nothing whatever about the mound, and that their fathers had never lived in its neighbourhood." Their assertion was doubtless true. The race which formed it may perhaps have passed away ere the Caribs became powerful and overran the land. It at first seemed strange that the refuse heap should have been formed on the highest and most conspicuous part of the hill. But the reason became apparent when we considered the nature of the locality. A little distance behind is a small spring, 428 TIHE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIAN1A. or pool of clear water, from which I had drunk when the river was salt and the swamps dry, in 1846. The mound-makers must have dwelt on the sandy plain in front of this, and at first thrown their refuse, shells and bones, not on the hill, but dlown the steep declivity. Resting and accumulating itgainst the hill-side, they at length rose above the Ibrow, wllere successive additions formed the mound we saw. Assuming that the mound had been thus raised by an ancient race, it seemed unlikel that Waramuri should have been their only place of residence. And if they were more widely spread, then other mounds, -the result of similar habits, would be in existence on the edges of swamps elsewhere. Being desirous to ascertain this, I sent out a party to explore. A young black man named Hamburgh, who had been brought up at the Pomeroon Mission, was entrusted with that duty, and instructed to measure, and bring specimens of shells, &c. from, any similar mound lie might discover. Accompanied and assisted by the Arawaks, whose language he spoke, he searched both east and west of the Pomeroon river, but at first without success. Cornelius,' who had a dim recollection of having come upon a heap of shells 1 That good old chief, whose name has been often mentioned in these pages, was then drawing near the end of his course; which, from the day when he (first of all his countrymen in that quarter) embraced the religion of the Lord Jesus, had been a most useful one. Probably few men in humble life have worked with more simple earnestness for God's glory, and the good of their countrymen, than that poor Ilndian. THE SHELL MOUNDS OF GUIANA. 429 while hunting in his younger days, endeavoured to guide him to the spot, but, from age and recent sickness, his strength failed, and he had to return. This was a disappointment; but the young man was both desirous to gratify his old master, and ambitious of success; and, with a little encouragement, I induced him to undertake a second expedition, and after that a third. Meanwhile, reports of the opening of the mound at Waramuri had got abroad in Georgetown and elsewhere, some of which assumed the most amusing and fantastic shapes. Certain gentlemen, however, who were informed of the circumstance, attached importance to the relics thus brought to light. His Excellency, Governor Hincks, lhaving seen the specimens, and read the account sent to Archdeacon Jones, forwarded a copy of the latter to the Colonial Secretary, and undertook to have the explorations completed in an efficient manner. He afterwards, at our request, kindly consented to visit the Mission, and meet our Indians in person. That visit accordingly took place in the end of February 186. The Governor, accompanied by the Bishop and a party of gentlemen, left Georgetown by sea for the mouth of the Moruca; and the next day they were conveyed by Mr. M'Clintock in bateaux and canoes, and attended by a large Indian flotilla to the Mission. There they were received by the Archdeacon, Mr. Campbell and myself, and welcomed by a fe, sde joie, and loud cheers from a far greater number of Indians than had been seen together in those countries 430 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. during the present century. The school-children, bearing banners, and having their ranks lengthened by a great number of little naked Warau and Caribi recruits, lined one side of the wide path, with the men ranged behind them; while the women and infants occupied the other side. The Governor and three gentlemen of his suite appeared in full uniform, a circumstance which gave immense delight to the assembled multitude. After an interval of rest during the noon-tide heat, the Indians again assembled on the plain before the new chapel. The pressing forward of all, men, women and children, to shake hands, was now resumed with increased vigour, and endured with much patience by the Governor, who afterwards expressed, in a few words, his pleasure at meeting such numbers of the various tribes as were there assembled. He also announced his wish to explore the mound still further. To this the chiefs assented, as the work was to be done by black men brought for the purpose. As no tribe knew anything of the origin of the mound, or would acknowledge affinity with the people whose bones were there found, none cared particularly about their being disinterred for examination, if the risk of offending their manes were incurred by strangers, not by themselves. The next day there was a distribution of presents, which the Governor had brought. In the evening games of archery, and foot-races among the schoolchildren, took place. Some wild-looking Waraus then brought forward their isahi, or decorated shields, and CO ID) 0-1 Zi.-I, C-1, IIm C I 71! I I, I I I,c I I I, I I.:I.1 I -,, -, , I THE SHELL MOUNDS OF GUIANA. 431 engaged in friendly contests with each other for the entertainment of the visitors. Many severe struggles took place, in some of which the unsuccessful Indian rolled on the sand; one champion, by a peculiar and dexterous manceuvre, overturning three antagonists in succession. The total number of Indians present was about 2,000. About 250 more were on their way from Barima, but, being too late, turned back again. The unusual excitement of the day was followed by the calm quiet of a glorious moonlight night, the stillness of which was broken by the low hum of voices from the multitude housed or encamped over hundreds of fires around, and by the occasional sound of a hymn sung by our Christian Acawoios, who, with their usual perseverance, were holding one of their religious meetings for the instruction of their wilder brethren.1 1 The following is an extract from a more particular account of the Governor's visit, by the Hon. J. L. Smith:"In the evening the sound of singing was heard from the Acawoio quarter, and on proceeding thither silently, an interesting scene presented itself. The house was crowded with Acawoios; and a number of young Indians of both sexes, who had been taught at the Missions, were singing, 'Angels from the realms of glory,' a most intelligent young Acawoio, named Philip (Capui), giving out each verse of the hymn. Then he took up his Bible and began to read from the seventh chapter of Matthew, interpreting each verse as he went along, to his countrymen, in their own language. With much fervour he read to them, 'What man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to 432 TIE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. On the morning of the third day the Governor and his suite departed. During their stay the excavation of the base of the mound, under the superintendence of some gentlemen of the party of scientific tastes, had been assiduously carried on. Though the hardness of the consolidated mass prevented rapid progress, the pick-axe being required in the lower strata, the sand-reef on which the tumulus stands was reached. Two singular teeth, resembling (and at first mistaken for) arrow-heads, were found. Quantities of a substance resembling silvery scales were also met with, which appeared to be flakes of shells, partly decomposed by age, and crushed by the superincumbent weight. There were also pieces of charcoal found, and the lowest stratum, where the sand-reef was reached, was of a dark colour, being mixed with ashes, as if the spot had been cleared and the bush burnt when man first settled there, and ere the shells and bones had been deposited. Photographs of the excavated tumulus, and of the various scenes which occurred, were taken by Mr. Bennett, a gentleman of the party. One represents a large group, consisting of Christian Indians on one them that ask Him V The affection of the Indians for their children is extreme, and the appeal seemed to come home to their hearts with extraordinary force. Earnest murmurs of assent showed how deep an impression this passage had made upon them, and that it had sunk into their minds with all the freshness and power of a new idea, and Philip enlarged upon the theme with a sincerity which evidently had a great effect upon his audience." THE SHELL MOUNDS OF GUIANA. 433 side, and wild heathen on the other, ranged in that manner by the Governor's direction. Neither pen nor pencil could show the contrast in their appearance as the faithful sun-sketch has, or so forcibly exhibit the degraded state from which our Missions had striven to raise those people, and what, by God's blessing, the result with many had been. Ere the party left, Hamburgh, whom I had sent to search for other shell-mounds, arrived, having completed his third exploration. He had at last been completely successful, and triumphantly exhibited specimens in proof. He had found a large shell-mound near the Akawini, a little beyond the spot where Cornelius' strength had failed him. It is situated, like that at Waramuri, on the edge of a swamp; but is broader, more flat in shape, and not like that in an elevated position. He had also found another and much larger mound, near Siriki, a small stream on the opposite or eastern side of the Pomeroon. This latter he had roughly measured, and described as being oblong, about 250 feet in length and 90 in width, and of about the same height as that at Waramuri. This also, like the last, stands on the edge of, and partly in, a swamp, adjoining higher land. I had five small pits afterwards dug in this mound, and a large quantity of human bones were found, in the same broken state as those at Waramuri. Some were of great size, and must have been the remains of a man of large stature for an Indian, and of immense strength. His skull, F F 434 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. which was very thick and hard, was found to have been broken into twenty-seven pieces.l These relics were all embedded in shells as at Waramuri. I, - On my return to the Cabacaburi Mission, in Pomeroon, Miss Reed, the schoolmistress there, seeing specimens of the shells which I had with me, pointed out a spot on the opposite side of the giant silk-cotton tree, which overshadows the Mission-house, and adorns the hill; and told me that similarly striped shells had been found there among the herbage. Search being made, it proved to be another shellmound, which, resting against the side of the hill, and not upon it, and being thickly covered with coffee-bushes, had escaped my attention, though for 1 Those pieces were lying near but detached from each other. They fitted exactly, but when built up a hole still remained in the right side near the crown, where, it would seem, the crushing, fatal blow of a pointed stone tomahawk had been given. THE SHELL MOUNDS OF GUIANA. 435 several years I had lived almost over it. This heap contained relics similar to those found in the others. It was singular that we should, without its being known either to the Indians or ourselves, have erected our two Mission chapels, each within a stone's-throw of one of those memorials of barbarism. On the very spots where of late years have been offered the morning and evening oblation of prayer and praise, horrid banquets may have been held in days long past. God grant that the light there kindled may remain, and those days of thick darkness never return! Soon after, I received information respecting another shell-mound near the Moreybo, a stream which, adjoining a swamp, connects the river Waini with the Barima. Mr. Campbell afterwards visited and examined it. He described it as about sixteen feet in height, with a base of 400 feet in circumference. It stands hard by a small stream, called after it, "Alaka," the shells. Being satisfied, from the uniform and concurrent testimony of the other mounds, as to the savage habits of the race which had raised them, I had requested that no more human remains should be disturbed. But a piece of a fractured skull, which an Indian unwittingly threw in with the specimens of oyster and other shells sent to me, showed this mound to be, in that respect, similar to the others. Another very large mound was reported to be near a place called Comonoballi, discovered, as in a former instance, by an Indian when hunting. Tbe; site of FF 2 436 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. this is somewhat higher up the river Waini. Others doubtless exist in various places. Of these six mounds, that at Waramuri is nearest to the sea, being only two or three hours' paddle from it. Those on or near the Pomeroon are more distant, and the two last mentioned are situate two or three days' pull up the Waini. The periwinkle (the shells of which form so large a portion of all these masses, and, being washed bare by the rain, led to their discovery) is found near the mouths of the rivers, and in lagoons and savannahs where the water is brackish and running. The Indians of the present day, in their continual expeditions to the coast for sea-fish or crabs, occasionally collect these and other kinds of shell-fish which fall in their way. Some they eat on the spot; others are carried with the canoe-load of crabs to their settlements. But the quantity they procure is comparatively small, and they make no such heaps as those here mentioned. It would take a long period to accumulate as many as are found in one of those masses, unless they were more abundant than at present they appear to be. The general contents and the plurality of those mounds having been thus ascertained, it was desirable in the next place to examine and compare the few articles of man's workmanship found in each. This was comparatively easy with those at the Missions; though distance, swamps, and (in one or two instances) clouds of mosquitoes preventing all sleep, and, driving away my workmen, rendered it difficult thoroughly to search the' others. THE SHELL MOUNDS OF GUIANA. 437 The tumulus at Waramuri is evidently an ancient one. Everything found in it seemed to show that the people who gradually raised it had not attained even to the low degree of civilization possessed by the natives of those regions at the time of their discovery by Europeans. There was, for instance, an entire absence of fragments of pottery, which the cannibal Caribs are known to have manufactured in the fifteenth century, as they probably did long before. Into that common refuse heap such fragments, had they then existed, would, with the fish-bones, shells, and other articles dangerous to naked feet, certainly have been thrown. But though a most careful search was made, both in digging to the very base of the mound and while filling in again, none were found; the nearest approach being the coarse clayey slabs, which had apparently, as baking-plates, been on the fire. Neither was anything discovered which could have been used for personal adornment, save the red earth.1 1 If the early mound-makers adorned their persons at all, it was probably in some such style as the most uncivilized Indians at the present day-with paint, feathers, the teeth of animals, beetles' wings, and other perishable ornaments. At the time of the discovery of Guiana, in the sixteenth century, a few articles of gold were found among the natives, and may have been wrought by them, though some have supposed that they were brought by traffic from the Far West. In the larger West Indian islands, Cuba, Hayti, &c., golden ornaments were also worn. The great chief or king of Jamaica, at an interview with Columbus, was thus adorned. "Around his head was a band of stones of various colours, chiefly green, with large white stones at intervals, connected in front with a plate of gold. Two other plates of gold were attached to his ears by rings of small green stones. To a necklace of white stones was 438 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. The stone axes, even those with sharpened edges, are very rude, and, from the traces of the habits of their makers, we may conclude that the latter were as SPECIMENS OF BROKEN STONE IMPLEMENTS FOUND IN THE MOUNDS. degraded as the natives of Tierra del Fuego are in our day, and probably more savage. But while all the contents of that well-searched mound indicated a state of things more or less ancient, suspended a plate of guanin (an inferior kind of gold), shaped like a fleur-de-lys, and a girdle of variegated stones completed his regal decorations. His wife was similarly adorned, having also a very small apron of cotton, and bands of the same round her arms and legs. The eldest and handsomest daughter of the family had a girdle of small stones, from which was suspended a small tablet of various coloured stones, embroidered on a network of cotton." The Caribs and Arawaks of Guiana were branches of the two Indian races in the islands, and their ornaments appear to have been similar in pattern, the materials being according to their means. Such also were worn on the coast of Paria, which is close to Guiana, at its discovery, with the addition of pearls obtained from the islands to the northward. The Indian belles, who could not procure either pearls or variegated stones, wore the seeds of plants as beads are worn now. THE SHELL MOUNDS OF GUIANA. 439 and differing considerably from that which now exists among our Indians, the contents of at least one other mound bring us to a comparatively recent period. UNBROKEN STONE AXE-HEAD FOUND IN THE BED OF A STREAM. Cabacaburi mound, when first examined, seemed to contain only such articles as had been found at WVaramuri. But, in the subsequent search for Indian implements, I discovered proofs that some advance in useful arts had taken place ere the upper layers had been deposited, and successive vegetation had covered the surface with its present thick coating of black mould. Fragments of Indian pottery were found among the layers of shells about four feet from the surface. They were small and few, but sufficient to show that earthenware had been known, used, and broken, ere that heap had attained its present size. Whether by the same race (slightly advanced), which had formed the other mounds, or by another conquering and superseding it, there is no evidence to show. While searching for those fragments we came upon the first personal ornaments yet found,-two small plates of silver, with holes bored in them, by which 440 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. they must have been worn suspended from the ears. One had lost a corner, but they had originally been cut or broken to the same size and form, and were evidently /ff l. i "/I' "ii I~"'^ i'iiI a pair. Between them lay a skull, which had been placed by itself, and was the first we had found unbroken. Those ornaments, from their position, seemed to have been attached to that head when deposited there. A few feet from the crown of that relic lay the remains of the lower limbs of a female of slight and delicate form. They were, like the cranium (to which, notwithstanding their position, they seemed to belong), unbroken, less discoloured, and much sounder than any others found there. But where were the remains of the body, arms, and feet? Save a portion of the pelvis, they could nowhere be found; though the heap was carefully opened and searched, under my own inspection, through a space of several feet around and beneath. In doing this we came at length upon many others; older deposits, which had been cracked open as usual, and were much more decayed than the above, being indeed in a crumbling state. As we could not proceed without disturbing them, I stopped the excavation, and had the several pits we had dug filled in. While everything about the relics previously dis THE SIELL MOUNDS OF GUIANA. 441 covered in the several mounds had indicated a condition almost like that of savage animals, those little silver trinkets, though rude, spoke of tastes and feelings approaching those of woman in a state of civilization. They, with the unbroken condition and comparative soundness of the bones found with them, bring us near to our own times.1 Those remains may have belonged to an unfortunate female, slain and dismembered in a fit of furious rage and jealousy, deposited there after the others, and not very long ago. This, however, is mere conjecture. As the condition of her remains differed from those of the others, so probably did the time and circumstances of her fate; but there is a mystery about it which cannot now be explained. Arawaks have dwelt on that hill for several generations, but none could throw any light on the subject. A few months later I caused a cutting to be made nearly across that mound. The contents of the lower strata were like those at Waramuri, and appeared to be as ancient. A small stone chisel with sharpened edge, found with the usual broken tomahawks, was the only novelty. Among other relics were the frag1 This we may consider partly proved by the material of these ornaments, silver, which must have been brought from a distance, and was probably obtained from the Spaniards or Dutch, though rudely shaped by the Indians themselves. It is fully proved by the unperished fragment of a loop, apparently of cotton cord, which had attached one of the plates to the ear,-was, to our great surprise, found in it when dug up,-and at the time of writing this still remains in the hole. The plates are very thin, and their greatest width is about one inch and three-quarters. 442 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. ments of a cranium, widely scattered, though all at the same level, about five feet deep. About three feet from the surface on one side were broken pieces of red brick, probably relics of the Dutch attempts at colonization in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. (Similar old crumbling fragments are spread over a large adjoining portion of the hill.) Above these were other layers of shells, and fragments of the bones of animals and fishes, from which it would appear that the Indians had resumed their occupancy, and again thrown their refuse there, after the white men's settlement had been broken up. But in those upper layers, above the bricky fragments, no traces of apparent cannibalism were found. In reviewing the general evidence of those mounds, we find that their sad and silent testimony tends to confirm both the ancient traditions of the native tribes, and the accounts of early discoverers, respecting the anthropophagous habits of the former inhabitants of the coast, as well as of the interior of Guiana. Though used by Defoe as materials for his pleasant fiction of "Robinson Crusoe" (the delight of our boyhood,whose imaginary island he placed not far from those shores), those things were stern and savage realities, terrible to their victims, in days gone by. The dismal practice, always associated with the land, would seem, from the evidence of those mounds, to have had a long existence there. It prevailed in times anterior to the three centuries on which alone the history of Guiana sheds a very feeble light, THE SHELL MOUNDS OF GUIANA. 443 and continued until Europeans had established their ascendency. The retrospect is a gloomy one. We have, however, cause for thankfulness, that with respect to all the tribes near the coast, those things are now of the past, and that our Indians abhor them as we do. How great the difference between the scenes which must have occurred during the construction of Waramuri tumulus, and that which took place after its excavation! In the evening of the day following the completion of the latter work, the Indian congregation, neatly dressed, went in procession with their pastor and teacher from the chapel to the mound; and, ranged around and over it, the various tribes joined us in singing the glorious hymn," Jesus shall reign where'er the sun Doth his successive journeys run," &c. while the Lamb, the Dove, and other Christian emblems and inscriptions, on the banners borne by the school-children, waved over the yawning cavity which had disclosed to us such relics of barbarous days. " In the region and shadow of death light is sprung up." CHAPTER XIII. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE INDIAN NATIONS. Difficulty in tracing their Origin-Timehri Rocks-Historical Traditions-Early Accounts of the Caribs-Various Opinions of their Origin-Conflicts with other Races-SupremacyDecline-The Kapohn and cognate Tribes-The Macusis, &c. -The Waraus-The Arawaks-Accounts of early Discoverers -Their historical Traditions-Contests with the CaribsStruggles of the Indian Races with the early Colonists, &c. To trace the early history of the races which were found in America at the time of its discovery is a task of acknowledged difficulty. After all the labour bestowed on this subject by learned men, obscurity still rests on the origin of those nations which were the most civilized, and have left behind them the most durable monuments. And if this be the case with the races possessing hieroglyphic records, as the Toltecs, Aztecs, and others, who raised the great teocallis of Cholula and Tenochtitlan, and carved the elaborate sculptures found amidst the ruins of Copan and Palenque,-and with those who formed the roads, aqueducts, and hanging bridges, and built the temples of ancient Peru,-we cannot expect to learn much of the early history of the barbarous tribes who inhabited Guiana. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE INDIAN NATIONKS. 445 From the records preserved by the ancient Mexicans of the races which had successively peopled the plateau of Anahuac and the surrounding regions, it would seem that they had come from the north, following each other as wave follows wave, each in the course of years disappearing in broken fragments, as a fiercer and stronger race succeeded it. Guiana may have been reached at an early period by remnants or offshoots of some of those broken nations, gradually retreating across the Southern continent, in the course of ages, and yielding in succession fair and fertile spots, of which they were unable to keep possession. Or it may have been first peopled by a race deriving its subsistence chiefly from the sea, who reached it by creeping round the shores of Terra Firma, or came from the Northern continent by crossing from island to island of the West Indian Archipelago. On those points, however, all is uncertainty and conjecture. We know neither the name of the people which first inhabited the country, the quarter from whence they came, the period of their arrival, nor whether any of the more barbarous existing Indian tribes may, wholly or in part, have descended from them. As the Indians found in Guiana had no written languages, nor adequate means of recording past events, the little that can be known of them can only be gathered from the accounts of those who first discovered them, from their own imperfect traditions, from the investigation of their languages, or from the examination of their sculptured relics. 446 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. Few inhabited countries are more destitute of the last than Guiana. The masses of crumbling bricks, found on the banks of our rivers, may enable the future antiquary to fix the sites of the early settlements of the Dutch colonists. But no such durable traces of the more ancient Indian habitations remain. Their towns and villages have perished, leaving no wreck behind. For, as the Indians of our day construct their dwellings of a few timbers and a roof of thatch, so their predecessors, from the earliest times, appear to have been content with similar habitations. All traces of these were soon lost in the ever-springing vegetation, as their inhabitants, from choice or necessity, shifted their abode. Amidst the dense forests of Guiana no traveller has come upon the carved ruins of temples and palaces, remains of ancient Indian greatness, such as are found near the western shore of the Southern continent, or in the regions of Central America and Yucatan. Nor do pyramidal structures, as in the latter country, raise their summits, long defiled with the blood of human sacrifices, above the tall trees around. No ruins of any such edifices have been discovered, and for memorials of past generations we must turn to the rocks in the interior. Among these there are several remarkable objects, with the representations of which the works of Sir R. Schomburgk have made us acquainted. In the rugged hilly region to the westward of the Essequibo are found masses of rock, some of which bear a rude resemblance to the figures of men or I I Montgomery, THE COMIJIl COR I'AODJARL BOULr.. 0"M M &NF~Ha'In t!i TAFI2AIPU; OJR IDEVliJS ROCK. HISTORICAL SKETCII OF THE INDIAN NA TIONS. 447 animals, while others are of columnar or fantastic forms.1 On the bank of that river is seen the huge Comuti, Taquiari, or water-jar rock;2 and near the distant Guidaru the pyramid of Ataraipu raises its sharp peak many hundreds of feet above the verdant forest which climbs and clothes its base.3 But in the erection of these the hand of man had no part, though at a distance some of them resemble his works. 1 One of those columns is an object of wonder to the Indians far and near. They call it Pure-piapa, "the felled tree." Schomburgk thus describes it:-" So complete was the illusion, that I almost doubted my guides when they told me that it was the work of nature, and composed of stone. The rock rises to a height of at least 50 feet; its sides are partly covered with a red lichen, and in some places it is more acted on by the weather than in others. The delusion being increased by the play of colours, the mind can scarcely divest itself of the belief that it is the gigantic trunk of a tree, the head of which, stricken by years and shivered by lightning, lies mouldering at its foot." Another column standing near is called Canuye-piapa, "the Guava-tree stump."-A third mass is surmounted by a pillar about fifty feet in height, the middle of which bulges out, and is likened by the natives to the calabash fixed on the middle of a stick, which is used by the sorcerers in their incantations. They call it Mara-etshiba. 2 The pile called by the Arawaks Comuti, and by the Caribs Taquiari, consists of blocks of blue granite. The second is seated on the lower one by only three supporting points; the third has entirely the shape of a large jar, and is surmounted by a fourth, rather flat, which the Indians have likened to its cover. It does not lose its resemblance to a water-jar, whether it be viewed from the river or from its immediate vicinity, and the mass is upwards of 160 feet in height. 3 The base of Ataraipu, or "Devil's Rock," is wooded for about 350 feet high; thence arises the mass of granite, devoid of all vegetation, for 550 feet more. Its peak is 900 feet above the savannah, and 1,300 above the level of the sea. . I:. g I m " a1-4- - -. 448 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. Other rocks however are found, chiefly on the banks of rivers, and near cataracts or rapids, which bear on their sides rude hieroglyphics graven by man's device,-relics of ancient days, when their meaning was probably well understood by passers-by, though none can now explain it. These Timehri, as they are called, are found on the banks of the Corentyn, Berbice, Essequibo, and other' rivers, but by what race they were carved, or at what period, is not certainly known. Similar inscriptions on rocks have been found far beyond the boundaries of our province. They are known to extend beyond the Orinoco, and as far as the Yapura (a large tributary of the Amazon), over a tract of more than half the width of the continent. In one part of that wide territory, there is a district of more than 8,000 square miles in extent, now wholly uninhabited. Some of those hieroglyphic figures are doubtless of great antiquity. On the banks of the Orinoco Humboldt found sculptures on the sides of rocks which can now only be reached by very high scaffolding, and the Indians told him that " in the days of the great waters their fathers sailed in canoes at that height."' 1 Others of those carvings must be comparatively modern. Schomburgk observed on hard granite blocks at the Ilha de Pedra on the Rio Negro, carved representations of two vessels under sail, the smaller with two masts, the larger not unlike a galleon. These must have been executed at a period subsequent to the arrival of Europeans. Other figures represent birds, animals, and men. Thirteen of the latter appear in a row, as if dancing with joy at the sight of the ships, in happy ignorance of the consequences to their own race which would soon follow their arrival. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE INDIA N NA TIONS. 449 Sir R. Schomburgk inclined to the opinion that the Timehri on our rivers were the work of the Carib race. He had at a former period examined some sculptured rocks near a cascade on St. John's-one of the Virgin Islands, known to have been formerly inhabited by Caribs —and found that the carvings near the rapids at Waraputa on the Essequibo closely resemble them. But Humboldt, reviewing that opinion of their origin in connexion with the vast extent of territory through which they are found, says, " Notwithstanding the wide extent of the Carib invasions, and the ancient power of that fine race, I cannot believe that this vast belt of carved rocks, which intersects a great portion of South America, is actually to be ascribed to the Caribs. These remains seem rather to be traces of an ancient civilization, which may have belonged to an epoch when the tribes which we now distinguish by various names and races were still unknown." From the Timehri then, those singular and interesting carvings, of whose origin men of the highest attainments speak so doubtfully, we can gather little information. The shell-mounds, with their human remains mingled with those of fishes and other animals, of which the discovery has been mentioned in the preceding chapter, may have been formed by a race more barbarous than that which carved the hieroglyphics on the rocks. Some appear to be very ancient, others of more recent formation. Their G G 450 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. construction must have occupied a long period, but among the tribes who now dwell around, I could find no legend or tradition respecting them. Of the Indian TRADITIONS in general, many, as we have seen, relate only to their mythology and superstitions. Others, descriptive of the fights and massacres of bygone days, have a certain historical value, but they are chiefly attached to particular localities, and utterly fail in point of chronology; — "long time" being the only expression of the Indians to denote the period of an event which may have happened twenty, fifty, or five hundred years ago. Of the deeds to which their historical traditions refer, many were terribly cruel; the wars of the Indian races (as distinguished from their predatory expeditions) having been almost always wars of extermination. " Vae victis" might have been their motto. Some young females might be reserved as slaves and concubines; but death, or a precarious existence as a hunted fugitive, was the usual lot of every male of the vanquished tribe. Many races must have thus flourished and been destroyed in succession; the fugitive survivors of one naturally uniting with the broken remnant of another for mutual support, and thus producing the great number of tribes, and their endless shades and diversities of language. Some of the historical traditions of the coasttribes mention races which are no longer found. Among these they particularly speak of a nation HISTORICAL SKETCH OF TIE INDIAN NATIONS. 451 called Meyanow, who are described as having been ferocious cannibals, with whom their fathers had in early times to fight desperately for existence. Some of those extinct tribes may have been the barbarous primitive inhabitants of the land, but the traditions respecting them are so dim and corrupted that no reliable information can be gathered from them.1 The early European discoverers also mention many tribes which have since disappeared, as well as some of those which still remain. From their accounts we learn more of the CARIBI nation than of the others, and there is, perhaps, no race equally uncivilized which has attracted more attention. This is owing, not only to their having been the second race discovered in the New World, but also to their ferocity and warlike spirit, and their ravages over islands and continent. The mild and hospitable people discovered by Columbus in his first voyage in 1492, then inhabited the Lucayos or Bahamas, together with the extensive islands of Cuba, Hayti, Jamaica, and Boriquen or Porto Rico. Their race seems to have possessed originally the whole of the islands, from Florida to the coast of Paria on the Southern continent. Being mild and peaceful, they engaged in war with reluctance, and could scarcely maintain possession of the islands where they were most numerous and 1 The Arawak traditions, as related to me respecting the terrible Mdyanow (whom they carefully distinguish from the Caribs), speak with horror of their anthropophagous habits. But they add other circumstances which are quite incredible. a G 2 452 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. powerful. In Porto Rico and in Hayti they were exposed to continual attacks from the Caribs, and a part of the latter island was under the power of Caonabo, a Caribi chief, when discovered by the Spaniards. In his second voyage (1493), Columbus discovered the Caribi Islands, so called from their inhabitants. This beautiful group extends almost in a semicircle from the eastern end of Porto Rico to the coast of South America. The appearance and habits of the Caribs then discovered corresponded with those of that tribe afterwards found in Guiana. While cruising among the islands, their discoverer had many proofs of the spirit of this people. He found that they went on predatory expeditions in their canoes to the distance of 150 leagues. Their arms were clubs, with bows and arrows, the latter pointed with the bones of fishes and poisoned. They attacked the other islands and the main land, carried off the women as slaves or companions, and made prisoners of the men to be killed and eaten. With all their ferocity they paid considerable attention to agriculture, and brought home with them valuable plants and seeds from the countries which they overran. The Spaniards had what they considered full evidence of the cannibalism of this savage race. They found at Turuqueira, or Guadaloupe, human limbs suspended to the beams of the houses, and the head of a young man recently killed, some parts of whose body were roasting before the fire, and others boiling HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE INDIAN NATIONS. 453 with the flesh of geese and parrots.' On that island they found some captive women, and learned from them that the Carib chief, with ten canoes and three hundred warriors, was then absent on an expedition in quest of prisoners and booty. On such occasions the wives of the Caribs, who were expert archers, and almost equalled their husbands in strength and courage, remained to defend their shores. The discoverers soon after had proof of the courage and ferocity of the Caribs at the island of Ayay, now Santa Cruz. A canoe came round the island and approached the ships. The Caribs in it were so amazed at beholding them, that they allowed their retreat to be cut off by a Spanish bark with twentyfive men. When they at length perceived this, they attacked them with undaunted courage, discharging their arrows with amazing force and rapidity. The women in the canoe, which contained the queen of the island, fought as well as the men, and one of them sent an arrow completely through a Spanish buckler. Their canoe being run down, some got upon sunken rocks, and others used their bows while swimming in the sea, nor was it without great difficulty that they could be overpowered and taken. The hair of those savage islanders was coarse and long; their eyes were encircled with paint, so as to give them a hideous expression, and bands of cotton were bound tightly round their limbs, causing them to swell, where unconfined, to a disproportionate size. This description would apply almost as well to the 1 Irving's Columbus, book vi. chap. ii. 454 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. Caribs inhabiting Guiana:-whose ferocity has been equally noted; who still paint their faces and bodies; and whose women continue to wear the " sapuru," or bands of cotton tightly fixed on their limbs. Those enterprising and barbarous islanders had a tradition that their fathers came originally from the river Orinoco,l and having conquered and exterminated the former inhabitants of those islands, had taken possession of their lands and their women.2 This, being the idea of the Caribs themselves,3 may be considered as entitled to a certain degree of respect. It is supported also by the great affinity of their language to the dialects of various other tribes in Guiana.4 Some learned men, however, thought at one period that they came from the vicinity of Darien. This opinion seems to have arisen chiefly from the similarity of their name to Caribana, a cape so called by the natives of that region. A third opinion is that they came from the Northern continent. It is said that they can be traced to the ancient province of Confachiqui in the north of Florida, and that their name "Caribes," signifying "valiant 1 Humboldt's Narrative, book xxvi. 2 From the union of the Caribs with the women of the conquered islanders arose a distinction of dialect between the two sexes in the Caribi Islands. The language of the men had nothing in common with that spoken in the larger islands. The dialect of the women considerably resembled it.-Labat, 129. 3 Raynal's History of the Indies, book x. 4 See Note B, p. 474. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE INDIAN NATIONS. 455 strangers," was given them by the Apalachites; with whom they had long waged war, and who at length yielded to them a fertile district and received them as confederates. A dispute, however, having arisen with their neighbours respecting their religious rites, the Caribs found it necessary to quit Florida, and fell in succession upon the smaller islands in the West Indian seas, avoiding the larger, where the inhabitants, though unwarlike, were powerful by their numbers. A late eminent writer, who favours this account of their origin, speaks of them as passing "from island to island of that vast and verdant chain which links, as it were, the end of Florida to the coast of Paria, on the Southern continent. The archipelago extending from Porto Rico to Tobago was their stronghold, and the island of Guadaloupe in a manner their citadel. Hence they made their expeditions, and spread the terror of their name through all the surrounding countries. Swarms of them landed upon the Southern continent, and overran some parts of Terra Firma. Traces of them have been discovered in the interior of that vast country through which flows the Orinoco. The Dutch found colonies of them on the banks of the Cottica, which empties into the Surinam, along the Essequibo, the Marowini, and other rivers of Guiana, and in the country watered by the windings of the Cayenne; and it would appear that they extended their wanderings to the shores of the Southern ocean, where, among the aborigines of Brazil, were some who called themselves Caribs, distinguished from the 456 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. surrounding Indians by their superior hardihood, subtlety, and enterprize."l The island Caribs, the cannibal Vikings of the West, were found, by the companions and successors of Columbus, spreading terror and desolation over very distant shores. In 1499 the ship of Nino and Guerra, after sailing along the coast of Guiana, was attacked by eighteen canoes of Caribs near the Boca del D)rago. The Spaniards dispersed them by a discharge of artillery, and captured a canoe with one of the warriors who had manned it. In the bottom of the canoe lay an Indian of another nation, a prisoner, bound hand and foot, who informed the Spaniards by signs that those Caribs had been on a marauding expedition along the neighbouring coasts, shutting themselves up by night in a stockade, which they carried with them, and issuing forth by day to plunder and make captives. He had been one of seven prisoners,-his companions had been devoured before his eyes,-and he had himself been awaiting the same fate. The Spaniards, indignant at the recital, gave up the Carib to be slain by his late captive, who mauled and beat him to death in the most savage manner. In the same year the famous Alonzo de Ojeda found the inhabitants of Cumana and Macarapana, on the 1 Irving's Columbus, book vi. chap. iii. Those who believe the Caribs to have come originally from the. Northern continent, consider the emigration to have taken place about the end of the eleventh century of the Christian era.HUMBOLDT'S Narrative, chap. xxvi. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE INDIANNATIONS. 457 northern coast of Terra Firma, suffering greatly from their ravages; and at their request, attacked one of the Caribi Islands from which their cannibal invaders came. The latter, thus assailed in their own stronghold, fought for two successive days with great fury, but could do very little against the superior weapons, armour, artillery, and discipline of the Spaniards, who slew many of them in battle, plundered and burnt their dwellings, and took many captives.' This was a foretaste of the fate which the Caribs were to experience from the Europeans who afterwards came to occupy those fair isles of the West. To reduce their power and numbers Columbus proposed that they should be captured and sent to Spain as slaves, in exchange for live-stock to be furnished to the colonies he had established. The admiral thus hoped to make their bodies profitable and useful, and also to save their souls, according to the tenet which allowed the conversion of infidels by force as well as persuasion. But Queen Isabella (who, yielding to her spiritual guides, had allowed myriads of her subjects to perish by the Inquisition) found a difference of opinion among her advisers on the subject of Indian slavery; and, following the dictates of her own conscience, refused to sanction it until2 her death in 1504. In that year, however, they were declared to be slaves by a royal decree; and, by a subsequent order of King Ferdinand, were branded on the 1 Irvingt's Companions of Columbus. 2 Irving's Columbus, book vi. 458 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. leg when caught, to distinguish them from other Indians.l In the sanguinary struggles which then ensued, the Caribs fought with the fury of despair. When attacked in their islands few of the men could be taken alive, and the women defended themselves with equal desperation after their husbands were slain. From those islands they also sallied, and struck terror into the Spanish.colonists by sudden descents, in which they carried off many of them. A small but well-appointed squadron, under a gallant old warrior, Juan Ponce de Leon, was sent by Ferdinand to scour the islands, and free the seas from their presence. But at Guadaloupe, where this force first landed, the Caribs rushed from an ambuscade, captured all the Spanish women, who were washing the clothes of the crews, and slew so many of the men as to compel the abandonment of the expedition.2 For a long period their race by its wild bravery retained possession of the islands, but in the struggle their numbers gradually diminished, and they were at length exterminated by colonists of various nations. As they had destroyed or driven out the original inhabitants, so they were themselves now destroyed or expelled; their weapons being unequal to those of their invaders. They found that the bow and arrow were no match for the musket, nor the war-club for the sword. At St. Christopher's, in 1625, two thousand Caribs perished in battle, whilst their European 1 Appendix to Irving's Columbus, No. II. 2 Companions of Columbus. IIISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE INDIAN NA TIONS. 459 invaders, French and English united, lost one hundred men.l In the other islands their losses were equally great. Those calamities would naturally cause a migration, when they found it useless to fight more. Some of the islands, as Martinico, were suddenly abandoned by them, after a fierce but unavailing struggle.2 In others, as Grenada, they remained unmolested a few years longer. In 1650 the French from Martinico visited them there, and were kindly received. Pretending to have purchased the island for a few knives, beads, &c., which the natives had received from them as presents, they built a fort, and then commenced the work of extirpation. One of the precipices of that island was named " La Morne de Sauteurs," because forty of the Caribs, seeing death inevitable, leapt from it into the sea, and perished there.3 Dominica and St. Vincent were the last islands retained by them. Those of the Caribs who chose to forsake the islands entirely would naturally take refuge with their brethren in Guiana, and by their valour secure to themselves such portions of that country as they might 1 Martin's West Indies, p. 368. 2 Abbe Raynal, book xiii. 3 Father du Tertre, having described how one of the captive survivors, a young Carib girl, was shot by one officer of the party, because two others were disputing for the possession of her, says of that expedition, what alas, has been true of many such by various civilized nations: Our people having lost but one man, proceeded to set fire to the cottages, and root up the provisions of the savages, &c. &c., and returned in high spirits."-MARTIN's British Colonies, p. 40. 460 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. think fit to occupy; as few tribes would be able, or indeed dare, to oppose them. At St. Vincent many still remained. They committed great devastations from time to time on the plantations, especially in a war stirred up by the French revolutionists, which commenced in 1795, and lasted two years, laying waste a great part of the island. The British Government removed the Carib insurgents, when conquered, to the island of Ruatan, in the bay of Honduras.A Their descendants migrated to the neighbouring coast and may be found settled there.' While in the islands called by their name the fortunes of the Carib race were thus declining, on NOTE A.-Descendants of the Caribs are still found at St. Vincent. Through the kind instrumentality of the Bishops of Barbados and Guiana, a small vocabulary of their language was collected for me by the Rev. T. A. Browne, late rural dean of that island, a service I gratefully acknowledge. It consisted of forty-nine words. Ten of them, including "Wayeu," the sun, and their words for water, tree, bird,fish, fire, &c., agree with those spoken by our Caribs in Guiana. Ten others, as "Barawa," the sea, "IHeinyarro," woman, and their words for moon, stars, &c., are Arawak, with slight variations; and are evidently from the women's language. Other eight, as "Aragaboos," gun, are of Spanish or European origin, and are mostly the same as our Indians use. Of the remaining twenty-one, two or three have a great resemblance to words used by our Indians; the others are unknown to me. These latter may have been derived in part from the African element in the black Caribs, who were found with the pure race when the island was settled by Europeans, and who are supposed to have sprung from the union of negroes (escaped from the wreck of a slave-ship, or from neighbouring islands) with the native Indian race. 1 Stephen's Central America. IIISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE INDIAN NATIONS. 461 the Southern continent they were extending their power. With the Arawaks inhabiting the coast of Guiana, they had been in a state of hostility from time immemorial. So many of that tribe had from time to time become their victims, and so greatly had they suffered from their predatory attacks, that the survivors became warlike of necessity, and resolutely opposed their aggressions by land and water. When overmatched they would retire to the swampy lands usually inhabited by the Waraus, and there maintain the struggle, never losing their independence, though suffering much from time to tine. Meanwhile, the Caribs had become the dominant race on the banks of the lower Orinoco, the Essequibo, and the other large rivers to the eastward; extending their incursions to the provinces watered by the Amazon. Wherever they chose to settle, the weaker tribes were driven to the forest or the mountain. The settlement of Europeans in various parts of the continent was regarded by the Caribs with jealous animosity, and many attempts made to expel the intruders. Some towns, as Cariaco, were repeatedly sacked by them. In 1578-80, their cannibal hordes assembled in great numbers, ascended the Guarico (a northern tributary of the Orinoco), and crossed the llanos (or plains) to destroy the settlements of the Spaniards and the city of Valencia, then recently founded. Though finally repulsed and driven back to their forests, they still continued very powerful, holding dominion 462 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. over all the countries through which El Dorado was then being vainly sought, and cutting off those who from time to time engaged in that adventure. The capture of the Spanish settlements at Trinidad, Caracas, and other places, and the great damage inflicted on that nation by Sir Walter Raleigh and his lieutenants at the close of the sixteenth century, seem to have inclined the Caribs and other tribes to give the English a more favourable reception. Looking on them in some measure as friends, because they had the same foes, they allowed them to explore the Caroni, Corentyn, and other large rivers to a considerable distance; and seem to have entered into an alliance with them against the Spaniard as a common enemy. Of that alliance our Caribs on the Essequibo long cherished the memory, and regarded as a sacred relic the English colours which Raleigh, at parting, left with them,' that they might recognise the vessels of his nation. They were not, however, inclined to allow the English, or any other European nation, to settle among them, and we find them in the next century resolutely opposing all their efforts to found colonies on the Atlantic shore. The attempt of the Portuguese to settle at the junction of the Essequibo and its large tributaries -of which the only relic seems to have been the rudely-carved arms of their nation, found by the 1 Bancroft, who wrote in 1769, speaks of that flag as preserved by them. IIISTORICAL SKETCH OF TIE INDIAN NllATIONS. 463 Dutch over the gateway of a ruined fort on the island of Kyk-over-al-was probably frustrated by the opposition of the Caribs, who were then very numerous and powerful on those rivers. The English, under Captain Marshall, attempting about the year 1626 to settle, first on the Comowini, and then on the great Coma or Surinam, were successively driven by the Caribs from both places. The French made a similar attempt, and were also driven off. Another attempt of the English about 1652 was, however, successful. A colony was founded at Paramaribo, which some years after was given over by treaty to the Dutch, who had already, after much difficulty, established themselves on the Essequibo and Berbice. The French had meanwhile settled at Cayenne. Their Governor, Bretigny, was cruel both to colonists and natives, and the Caribs laid a plot for his destruction. One of their women revealed it to the Governor, who seized some of the conspirators. The latter escaped, threw themselves into the river, and swam to the main land. Bretigny, following in a canoe with an armed force, was overtaken by night, and in the morning saw the thatched hut in which he had taken shelter surrounded by a multitude of savages equipped for battle. Without attempting resistance he wrapped himself in his cloak, and fell, with his men, under the arrows and clubs of the exasperated natives. The Caribs then attacked and destroyed the French settlements, and massacred the inhabitants. 464 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. The attempt to re-establish the colony in 1652 failed completely. De Royville, the Governor, having been assassinated on the voyage out, insubordination, bloodshed, and anarchy prevailed; a grievous famine ensued, and the Caribs again attacked the colonists. The miserable survivors fled in an open boat and two canoes, and finally reached one of the Leeward Islands. The Dutch then occupied and cultivated the vacant lands, but the French in 1664 retook them, and, after many vicissitudes, remained masters of Cayenne. While Europeans were thus occupying the eastern rivers in succession, the Caribs had much of their attention and strength engaged in another direction by their continual conflicts with the distant tribes of the interior. Their feuds on the Orinoco were incessant, and carried on with the greatest ferocity. Sometimes they ascended that great river with numerous canoes; at other times they came upon their enemies by crossing the high lands, and descending one or other of its many tributary streams. A glance at a map will show the reader that the upper course of the Orinoco is almost semicircular, and that consequently the heads of the tributaries on its right bank are at no great distance from each other. Availing themselves of this, the Caribs of the Caroni, being strengthened for great expeditions by those of the Essequibo and other parts, would cross by short portages from one stream to another, HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THB INDIAN NATIONS. 465 and descending the Caura, the Ventuari, or some intermediate river, precipitate themselves on the tribes they desired to attack, some of which were more wild and savage than themselves. To surprise their foes, they would bind canoes or rafts together, and cover them with branches of trees or grass, to resemble those masses which are always floating on the water. Crouching under these, they would silently drift near, and take them at a disadvantage. Nor were their foes inferior either in craft or ferocity. Attacks and reprisals would in this way follow each other for a long time, until at length each side, thoroughly exasperated, would assemble all its warriors for a decisive action. Those battles, so fatal to one or other of the contending tribes, usually commenced with flights of arrows (many of them poisoned) at long range, and ended in a deadly conflict with clubs and other hand-weapons till one party gave way. The result was a great slaughter, generally followed by a merciless pursuit, and the extermination, if possible, of the defeated tribe. Of all the Indian nations, the Cabres (or Caberres), who, in common with many tribes in that part of Guiana and of Brazil, were cannibals, most fiercely opposed the Caribs. For a long period the banks of the Orinoco had been ensanguined by the obstinate struggle between them. At length, in the early part of the eighteenth century, the Cabres, having placed all their warriors under one valiant chief named Tep, gave their enemies a terrible overthrow near 1- I1 466 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. the mouth of the Caura. Great numbers of the Caribs perished in the precipitate flight that ensued. The Cabres devoured their prisoners, and by a refinement of cruelty spared the life of one, whom they compelled to climb a tree that he might witness the harrowing spectacle of their savage banquet, and then carry tidings to his vanquished countrymen. The result, however, was not such as the victors had anticipated, and their triumph was of short duration. For the Caribs, calling their warriors together for vengeance from the most remote parts, and putting forth all their strength, attacked them with such fury that the power of the Cabres was utterly broken, and their nation almost exterminated, only a feeble remnant being left on the banks of the Cuchivero.l After this event the Caribs were masters of the greater part of the interior of Guiana. Their power extended from the settlements of the white men to the two great cataracts of the Orinoco, Atures, and Maypures. At each of these that great river presents a foaming surface some miles in length, and "intersected by numerous iron-black masses of rock projecting like battlemented ruins from the waters;" every islet and rock being adorned with luxuriant forest trees and palms, whose summits pierce through clouds of vapoury spray. 1 Humboldt, who has noticed the fate of the Cabres as above, says that so great was the detestation in which the Caribs held them, that he has seen a little boy foam with rage at being called "a Cabre." The site of the chief town or village of the latter race is still called Cabritu. IISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE INDIAN NATIONS. 467 There was a legend among the Guareke or Guahibo Indians, who dwelt near those falls, "that the brave Atures, when closely pursued by the cannibal Caribs, took refuge among the rocks of the cataracts which bear their name, where that oppressed race perished, together with its language." In an immense vault, formed by a far-projecting and overhanging cliff, Humboldt and Bonpland saw the skeletons of the extinct tribe, six hundred in number, placed in baskets formed of the stalks of palm leaves. There were also large urns of half-baked clay, which seemed to contain the bones of whole families. They were of elegant oval form and greenish colour, with handles shaped like serpents and crocodiles, and rims ornamented with scrolls and labyrinthine figures. The race which manufactured these may have been in many points superior to its destroyers.1 Above the great cataract the supremacy of the Caribs was disputed by the Guaypunaves, who came northward from the Inirida, were of the same race as the Cabres, and, like them, cannibals.2 With these 1 A few individuals of this ill-fated tribe were still surviving in 1767. There was an old parrot still living in 1800 which could not be understood, "because," as the natives said, "it spoke the language of the Atures."-HUMBOLDT'S Personal Narrative, chap. xxiv., and Cataracts of the Orinoco. 2 In the days of Shakespeare and Raleigh, two kinds of fearful beings were said to inhabit the wilds of Guiana"The anthropophagi, and men whose heads Do grow beneath their shoulders." It would have been well had the former been as fabulous as the latter. But it is too certain that cannibalism was formerly practised H H 2 468 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. a third powerful tribe, the Manitivitanos, were also at constant strife. But during the progress of those miserable and bloody feuds, and the weakness they by the aborigines of that country, as well as by those of Brazil. It also prevailed among many of the tribes who formed part of the Peruvian Empire, until suppressed by the generally benevolent, but despotic, power of the conquering Inca race.-In Mexico, the human sacrifices, celebrated with pompous cruelty by the Aztecs, ended with a cannibal feast.-And perhaps, if the veil, which shrouds the early history of mankind in the New World, could be withdrawn, we should find but few parts of it in which the horrid custom has not at some time or other been practised by former barbarous races, either to gratify a savage appetite, to strike terror into foes, or as a fit completion of the bloody rights of superstition. Humboldt, who inquired most strictly into the truth of the reports he heard, had overwhelming evidence of the cannibalism, even at the date of his voyage, of many of the tribes on the Upper Orinoco and its vicinity. They themselves spoke of it to him without discomposure, and with gestures of savage satisfaction. Even after a sojourn of some time at the missions, it was found that the Indians of those tribes still retained the horrid propensity. An aged missionary on the banks of the Cassiquiare complained to him that new-comers were, from that cause, unfit to take part in the " entradas" against the unconverted Indians. "Suffer them," said he, "to take part in an incursion to bring in the natives, and you can scarcely prevent them from murdering all they meet, and hiding," for cannibal purposes, " some portions of the dead bodies." Those "entradas," or expeditions for the so-called "conquest of souls" (conquista de almas), appear to have been, without the addition of cannibalism, sufficiently repugnant both to the natural feelings of humanity and the teaching of Christ. The great traveller from whom we quote thus describes the system as practised during the last century by the monks, though strictly prohibited by the Spanish laws:-" The soldiers," of the mission garrison sent on them, " killed all those who dared to resist, burnt their huts, destroyed their plantations, and carried away the women, children, and old men as prisoners," who were distributed among HTSTORICAL SKETCH OF THE INDIAN NATIONS. 469 caused, another and very different power was silently arising. Missions, destined to supersede the authority of all the conflicting tribes, were gradually being established. The zeal and courage of the Spanish monks, by whom those missions were founded, call forth the admiration even of those who must ever differ from them in many points of doctrine, and could not conscientiously practise all the means they used. Some of those who commenced the work were slain by the Caribs; but the perseverance of their brethren overcame all obstacles, and the most important points on the Orinoco, as well as on the Rio Negro, were occupied in succession. Some of those stations were not missions only, as we use and understand the term, but military posts, fortified and garrisoned by soldiers in the service of the order. One of those forts on the Orinoco, dismantled by the Spanish Government after the suppression of the Jesuits, had three batteries of cannon. By these, as well as by gentler means, the the missions most distant from their homes. In his account (derived from the Franciscan missionaries themselves) of the " Mother's rock," on which a Guahibo woman was stretched and flogged for having jumped overboard from the canoe in which she was being carried away from her children to a distant station, and of the wonderful four days' journey through an inundated forest by which she succeeded in rejoining them, only to be again torn away and borne to a more distant mission, where she died of maternal anguish, he gives a sad instance of the working of that unnatural system, which seems soon to have superseded gentler means in dealing with the tribes not reduced to obedience.-Narrative, chaps. xix., xxii., xxiii. 470 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. missionaries extended their power and influence, the milder races sought their protection and submitted to their governance, while the bolder tribes were effectually checked, and had their power broken. Most of the Caribs who resided near the Orinoco were led by degrees to attach themselves to the missions there. The stations of the Catalonian Capuchins' at Upata, and other places near the Caroni, were for many years in a very flourishing condition. Under the guidance and authority of the mission fathers (who exercised temporal as well as spiritual power over all within their bounds) the chiefs, laying aside the bow and war-club for the staff or whip, maintained discipline as alcaydes and alguazils over the unruly. The bolder spirits chafed at the lash, and more especially at the rigid system of seclusion which was enforced, but the people generally were tractable and obedient. Being well cared for, with abundance of vegetable food, and herds of cattle on the plains, they increased in number, and in the enjoyment of peace and security must have been much happier, though less energetic and active, than when in their independent, but savage and perilous condition. In the early part of the present century the revolution destroyed the Spanish power in South America. Amidst scenes of horror those flourishing missions were broken up, and the Indians dispersed. The families of Caribs who took refuge with us, preserve the remembrance of diabolical deeds which were perpetrated at that time. Some of the mission fathers, HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE INDIAN NATIONS. 471 who fled the vengeance of the revolutionists, were pursued to the confines of our colony. Ten were shot down at Coroowa Creek on the Cuyuni, while seeking to escape to Georgetown.l A lamentable fate, yet one which their unhappy brethren, who in Venezuela were barbarously burnt by their savage and successful foes, might, alas! have envied. During that period of missionary power on the Orinoco, the Caribs on the Essequibo and other eastern rivers still retained their independence, but seem to have used it chiefly in the support or propagation of slavery. They were courted and caressed by the Dutch colonists, received large presents from them, and rendered them important services in return. Their efforts against the revolted negroes were most effectual in the insurrection which took place in 1763, during the government of Van Hogenheim, and lasted eleven months. The colony of Berbice was then nearly destroyed; the colonists, awaiting help from Holland, had taken refuge in the ships at the mouth of the river, and a rising of the slaves in Demerara and Essequibo was daily expected. The Director-General of the latter rivers engaged the Caribs to take arms. Coming through the forests on the rear of the revolters (who were murdering and burning on every side), and concealing themselves 1 Hillhouse's Journal of an Ascent of the Cuyuni. Schomburgk, in 1839, found the missions on the Upper Orinoco virtually abandoned. Those near the Cassiquiare, were visited once in three years by a priest from Angostura, 600 miles distant. (SCHOMBURGK'S Tours, Journal of Royal Geographical Society.) 472 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. by day, they would sally forth by night, fire their thatched roofs, and slaughter the inmates when they fled out in confusion. Their presence added to the horrors, while it helped to shorten the period of that dreadful struggle. The Caribs were also chief agents in the slave-trade which the Indians carried on among themselves. Receiving from the Dutch or Brazilian traders supplies of knives, fish-hooks, beads, looking-glasses, and other attractive articles, they incited the various tribes to make incursions on each other, and purchased the prisoners with the above-named merchandise;-not forgetting to add to their number all whom they could seize themselves. In those expeditions the Essequibo Caribs would ascend the Rupununi and other streams leading to the Rio Branco, or, with the Caribs of Caroni, follow the route already described by portages from stream to stream towards the head of the Orinoco, and thence to the Rio Negro, to meet the Brazilian Portuguese, who were the chief promoters of this Indian slavetrade, and purchased, or as it was termed, " ransomed," the slaves they had procured. To give an appearance of equity to this traffic, monks accompanied the troop of "ransomers," to examine whether those who sold the slaves had a right to do so, by having made them prisoners in open war.' The mind, wearied and pained, turns from the horrors of Indian life which prevailed in Guiana 1 Humboldt's Narrative, chap. xxiii. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE INDIAN NATIONS. 473 during the last century, and which, in the remoter districts, still exist in some degree. We cannot wonder that under such circumstances many of the weaker tribes should have become extinct, and the stronger, the very Caribs themselves, rapidly diminish in numbers. For the spiritual good of that tribe, little was, or could have been, done in Dutch Guiana, under the state of things which then prevailed. One exception, however, meets the eye. Some of the Caribs, who on the Corentyn went to kill or expel the Moravian Daehne, being moved by his meek behaviour, were led to receive Christian instruction from him; but that good influence ceased when the Moravian Indian stations were given up, and until the establishment of our Church Missions no further efforts were made for their conversion. The superficial glance we have here taken at the career of this remarkable race,-called by Sir W. Raleigh, who knew them well, " a naked people, but valiant as any under the sky,"-shows us their fierce indomitable spirit, which enabled them to conquer many tribes, overrun a vast territory, and offer a stubborn resistance even to European arms and discipline. But we see them remaining still rude and savage, from first to last of their independent existence. There arose among them no master spirit who, combining the wisdom of the legislator with the bravery of the warrior, might have established humane and civilizing institutions among his people, and permanently united their scattered hordes. In 474 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. great emergencies the necessity for united action led them readily to follow, and implicitly obey, some one of their chiefs, invested by themselves with supreme authority, like a Dictator of ancient Rome; but at other times each petty head of a clan or family moved and acted in a great measure as he pleased, there being no central power, or hereditary authority, sufficiently respected to command the obedience of all. Having thus no permanent bond of cohesion, their wild hordes could only fight, overrun, oppress, and destroy, and in their highest prosperity were incapable of accomplishing any great and useful work which might have remained as their memorial to future ages. The KAPOHN (Acawoios, Waikas, &c.) claim kindred with the Caribs. The affinity between their respective dialects has been already shown.B But though the resemblance is so great, as to indicate a common parent stock, there is a considerable difference between them as at present spoken. The same difference is also observable in their national character. The Acawoios, though resolute and determined, are less hasty and impetuous than the Caribs in forming their designs, and more cautious in their execution. They are also less haughty towards the other tribes, with whom they NOTE B.-Humboldt points out the same affinity with the Caribi in the dialect of the Tamanacs of the Orinoco, and that of the Chayma Indians to the north of that river. It may be found also in the languages of other inland tribes as far south as the Rio Branco (the Wapisiana being an exception), but is not found in HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE INDIAN NATIONS. 475 maintain friendly relations over a wide extent of country. those of the tribes which inhabit our coast. The following table of four important words in various dialects will show this:Sun. Moon. Fire. Water. Carib of St. Vincent. Wayeu Karti* Wartu Douna Carib of Guiana... Wey Nuno Watu, or} ona i Uatu I Tamanac..... Weyu Nuna Uapto Tuna Chayma........Nuna Apoto Tuna Kapohn or Acawoio Wiyenu Kapui {Ahpoh, Tona (various branches). Wpey T INLAND Wey TRIBES. Macusi...... Wey Kapui Ahpoh Tona Arecuna..... Wey Kapui Ahpoh Tona Paramuna.... Wey Kapui Ahpoh Tona Maiongkong.... Shi Nona Watu Tona Wapisiana... WeY, or.r {Kaer, or } Tikahri Wuni, or Wamu I \ Kairi J ] Wiami COAST Arawk...... Adaili Kartchi, kihi Oniabu COASTt. or Kaci I TRIBES. Warau.... Ya Wanika Eykuno Ho From the above, and other evidence, the Caribi would appear to belong to a large family of dialects spread over the interior of Guiana, and extending beyond the Orinoco. If their race came originally from Florida, they must certainly have commenced their descents at a very early period, to have imparted their language to so many others. But it is difficult to believe that so many inland tribes could either have partly descended from, or would in any great degree have acquired the tongue of, a sea-roving or invading horde; especially while the coast-tribes did not. Might not the island Caribs, according to their own tradition, have been an offshoot from a common parent stock, once settled in Guiana, but long since broken up, the same perhaps which carved the sculptures on the rocks in the interior, which hieroglyphics the Caribs in their migrations would naturally imitate? This would in a great measure reconcile the conflicting opinions of Humboldt and Schomburgk respecting those sculptures. Carvings resembling those of Guiana, and a language'bearing a close affinity to a family of dialects spoken there, mark the abode of 476 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. While the Caribs have for more than a century been declining in numbers and power, those races which claim kindred with them have succeeded, not, indeed, to their power and reputation as warriors,-to which circumstances have been unfavourable,-but to the position they occupied as leaders in the traffic which the Indian tribes carry on with each other. Of their history, as distinct from that of the Caribs, little can be gathered from their traditions. They chiefly commemorate the deeds of a famous leader, named Orawimara, and a valiant champion called Piapu, or "the stump," from his sturdy thickthe Caribs in the islands. If they were " valiant strangers " on the coast of Florida, they may (reversing the usually assumed order of conquest) have passed on from the Lesser Antilles to the Bahamas, and from those islands to the mainland, found footing, and for a time settled there;-and when all their conquests were lost they would naturally seek refuge in the land which they believed to have been the ancient cradle of their race, with which their intercourse had never ceased, and which the affinity of language would show to be inhabited by tribes of the same lineage, at least in part, as themselves. The importance of this similitude and derivation of languages in historical researches is now recognised by all. Of them, Dr. Johnson long ago observed, that "they not only add physical certainty to historical evidence, but often supply the only evidence of ancient migrations, and of the revolutions of ages which have left no written monument behind them." Although the Caribs, as a race, are now nearly extinct, the position they once occupied, and the impression they made upon the learned in Europe (by whom the discovery of their cannibal habits was supposed to reflect some light upon the origin of the classical stories of the Lestrygones and of Polyphemus), impart a certain interest to every relic of their progress, whether it be an existing dialect, an imperfect tradition, or a rudely-sculptured "Timehri" stone. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE INDIAN NATIONS. 477 set figure. These distinguished themselves in a war with the Caribs, which was succeeded, or accompanied, by a civil war among the Kapohn themselves. The carrying off of a handsome woman and the murder of her husband are said to have occasioned those struggles, which convulsed for a long time all the tribes of the interior, led to various migrations, and took place, as nearly as we can judge from their very imperfect accounts, six or seven generations ago. The party vanquished in the civil war, unable afterwards to face its opponents in the field, and smarting from the loss of its bravest men, sought to cut off the victors in detail by private assassination. This was handed down as a duty from father to son, and hence have arisen those murders, or attempts to murder, by parties of from three to five, which have continued even to the present day. They are said by the Indians to be quite distinct from the ordinary Kanaima murder, which is perpetrated according to superstitious rules, and usually by a single devotee. It was probably during those intestine conflicts that the Acawoios first settled on the Upper Demerara. According to their tradition, one of their hordes removed thither from the Masaruni. The Parawianas, who originally dwelt on the Demerara, having been exterminated by the continual incursions of the Caribs, the Waika-Acawoios occupied their vacant territory, and, forming an alliance with the Arawaks who dwelt below the falls, successfully defended themselves against the Caribs and all other invaders. 478 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. Of the tribes inhabiting the more distant parts of the interior, our historical information becomes more and more scanty, until we are left in a great measure to the uncertainty of conjecture. The MACUsIs, probably the most numerous, are supposed by some to have formerly inhabited the banks of the Orinoco. Sir R. Schomburgk considers them to have been the ancient "Orenoque-poni," a tribe mentioned by Sir W. Raleigh, and with whom he had intercourse in 1595. " Pona, in the Macusi language, signifies upon, on; and Raleigh tells us that the nation called themselves by that name because they bordered upon the Orenoque."1 They probably retired at an early period to the territory they now inhabit, being little fitted to contend with the Spaniards. This, however, is only conjecture. As they are industrious and unwarlike, they have been the prey of every savage tribe around them. The Wapisianas are supposed to have driven them northward, and taken possession of part of their country. The Brazilians, as well as the Caribs, Acawoios, &c., have long been in the habit of enslaving them. The intrepid surgeon, Hortsmann, who, in vain quest of El Dorado, visited the country surrounding 1 (" The names of several rivers, points, islands, and settlements along the Orinoco are decidedly Macusi, and Raleigh mentions the names of rivers, villages, and chieftains, which are of the same origin."-ScHOMBURGK'S Remarks on the Languages and Dialects of the Indian Tribes inhabiting Guiana. Pona and many other words are, however, common to the Kapohn and other tribes, as well as to the Macusi, so that the above reasoning is not quite conclusive. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE INDIAN NATIONS. 479 the Lake Amucu, found them settled there in 1749, and they have probably inhabited that region from a much earlier period. The ARECUNAS have been accustomed to descend from the higher lands and attack the Macusis. There have been frequent wars between them, and among the neighbouring tribes, but of the causes and progress of those petty and miserable feuds little can be learned; only their results-misery, terror, and diminution of numbers-are certain and evident. This tribe is said to have formerly dwelt on the banks of the Uaupes or Ucayari, a tributary of the Rio Negro.' 1 It would be interesting, were it possible, to trace the more ancient history of this and other cognate tribes, and ascertain whether, at an early period, they had intercourse with the more civilized races which dwelt near the western shore of the continent. We need not of course suppose that those wild tribes derived from the people of Cuzco or Quito their taste for perforating and wearing large ornaments in their ears, though in the court of the Incas a similar custom prevailed, and widely-distended cartilages were indispensable in all who aspired to any degree of gentility. But the alleged use of the quippos (or quipus) among the Arecunas in former times would seem to indicate an intercourse with some of the more civilized nations of the west. To a tribe dwelling as they then did on the Rio Negro, in the heart of the continent, such communication was indeed not impossible. The Indian races have long availed themselves of the magnificent system of water-communication presented by the Amazon and its tributaries for the purposes of traffic. The falls and rapids found on those large streams offered no insurmountable obstacles to them. Articles produced or manufactured in one country were thus gradually passed on to others far distant. Some have even thought that it was from Peru that those "idols" and jewels of gold were brought, which European adventurers obtained on the Orinoco and elsewhere, and which, though few in number, gave 480 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. We will now briefly glance at the history of the Waraus and ArawAks, the tribes inhabiting the seacoast. Of these the WARAUS appear to have been the most ancient inhabitants of the land. Very little, however, can be gleaned from them respecting their early history. Unwarlike, though hardy, they probably took up their abode on the muddy and uninviting shores in consequence of having been driven from a more pleasant territory. The banks of the Essequibo seem to be pointed out in their mythical legends as the region in which they formerly dwelt, but on that subject nothing more certain is known. The Tivitivas, mentioned by Raleigh, were probably a branch of the Waraus, whom he calls Quarawetes. They are described by him as dwelling among the islands formed by the channels of the Orinoco, which, being low and flat, are exposed to frequent inundations, to avoid which they made their habitations in the trees, where the English navigator was surprised to behold their fires, as he passed by on his memorable expedition.1 While missions were being established among tribes more distant from the sea, the inhabitants of those swamps continued in their original condition: the strength to their reports of the riches of the land noticed by Milton in his greatest poem, as"<- yet ur spoiled Guiana, whose great city Geryon's sons Call El Dorado." 1 See Yote, p. 175. HIST'ORICAL SKETCH OF THE INDIAN NATIONS. 481 I inundations, with their attendant mud, mosquitoes, and malaria, preventing even the most zealous of the monks from remaining among them. Some Waraus were, however, led from the northern bank of the Orinoco to join the missions on the llanos or plains of Cumana. Those missions were ravaged, and some of their villages burnt, by the wild and independent Caribs in the years 1681, 1697, and 1720. From 1730 to 1736 small-pox greatly diminished their population, and the Waraus left them, returning to their native marshes. Some families however were still remaining there in Humboldt's time, associated with the Chayma Indians.' The Waraus described in the preceding pages have lived in their present swampy territory and degraded condition certainly for the last three centuries, and probably for many previous. They have been frequently attacked both by Caribs and Acawoios, who seem to have browbeaten and enslaved them almost at pleasure. Of late years,. however, that has ceased; and on one river, the Manawarin, the Caribs and Waraus have become much mixed by intermarriage. 1 Narrative, chap. ix. The same writer says that the Guayqueria Indians, found by the companions of Columbus on the coast of Cumana, were originally a branch of the Warau (Guarano) nation, and spoke a dialect of their language. Long before the days of that traveller they had laid aside their native tongue, and used the Spanish exclusively. He describes them as hardy, skilful fishermen, and in that respect resembling the Waraus, but very superior to the latter in stature, personal appearance, and civilization. I I 482 TIHE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. The ARAWAKS now claim attention. They occupied, when first discovered, the country about the mouths of the Orinoco, and extended along the coast to the eastward, where they are at present found. The third voyage of Columbus, in 1498, brought him to the shore of the Southern continent. In his first interview with the natives, they displayed a mixture of boldness and caution, differing both from the headlong ferocity of the Caribs, and the timidity of the people of Hayti, on first meeting the white men. While his little fleet lay at anchor before the narrow strait which divides the island of Trinidad from the main land, a canoe approached with twenty-five men, who at some distance rested on their paddles and hailed the ships. They were all young men, well formed, and naked, except that they wore bands and fillets of cotton about their heads, and cloths of the same about their loins. Their arms were bows and arrows, the latter feathered, and pointed with bone. They had also bucklers, which had not hitherto been seen among the natives of the New World, but which appear to have been in use on this part of the continent. For two hours they remained at a distance, gazing at the ships. At length the Admiral, wishing to attract them, made his ship-boys dance on the deck, while the men sang to the sound of the tabor. But this had quite a contrary effect, for the Indians mistook it for a war dance, and seizing their bows and bucklers, discharged a shower of arrows, which, being answered by the Spanish cross-bows, they took to flight. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE INDIAN NATIONTS. 483 Notwithstanding this repulse, having been opposed only by weapons similar to their own, and knowing as yet nothing of fire-arms, they readily approached a smaller vessel, and, running under the stern, entered into a parley with the pilot, who made their chieftain a present of a cap and mantle. Being delighted with these, he invited the Spaniard to land, giving him to understand that he should be well entertained, and receive large presents in return. But when the pilot went in his boat to ask the Admiral's permission; the Indians, fearing treachery, darted off in their canoe, and were no more seen. The following circumstance, mentioned by Raleigh, must have occurred at this time. Speaking of the mistakes which are made, from ignorance of the native languages, respecting the names of hitherto unknown regions, he says, "The same happened to the Spaniard in asking the name of the island Trinidado; for a Spaniard, demanding the name of that selfsame place which the sea encompassed, they answered 'Caeri,' which signifieth an island." As the word Caeri," or "Kaieri," in the language of the Aramwaks, signifies an island, it must have been with that nation that Europeans first held intercourse on the shores of the Southern continent of America. The Araw&ks seem to have been at that period numerous and powerful. They have been called by some writers, who had little or no personal acquaintance with them, "a nation of Caribs; " but they are of a race which differs considerably from the Caribs 1 Raleigh's History of the World, book i. chap. viii. sect. 15. II 2 484 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. of Guiana in person, features, and habits, and still more in language. No two Indian races in that part of the continent are more distinct. The Caribs had a tradition, that the Indians whom they conquered in the smaller West Indian islands, exterminating the males, as has been related, were Arawaks. The original island race, to which the latter belonged, is said by some to have come from Florida long before that invasion. Of that unfortunate race the Arawak branch in Guiana seems to be the sole existing representative; the inhabitants of the larger islands having long since perished under the oppressive yoke of the early Spanish colonists. The above opinions respecting their origin rest partly on tradition, are greatly supported by the similarity of language,c and seem to be confirmed by NOTE C. -The language of the Arawaks possesses considerable affinity to that spoken by the aborigines of the larger islands. The few words of the latter, of which the meanings are given in works written in English, show this resemblance. The word ciba, in the language of Hayti, signified a stone (Irving's Columbus, book vi. chap. v.). Cibao, which was the name of a rocky district in that island, is said also to signify a stone, and is evidently derived from the other. The Arawaks call a stone siba, and have given that name to a well-known rocky place on the banks of the Demerara. Bohio was the word used by the people of Cuba to express the populousness of Hayti (Ibid. book iv. chap. iv.). It has been said to mean " house " (" cottages," according to some). It seems to be identical with the Arawak phrase bohio or bohyo, a common abbreviation of bawhu-yuho, " house-many," a term always used to denote a place where there are many human habitations. By the word Cubanacan was designated a province in the centre of Cuba, nacan in their language signifying "the midst" HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE INDIAN NA TIONS. 485 the position of this tribe on the coast-line of Guiana, which is such as would naturally be occupied by a people who at one time possessed, or had close connexion with, the Antilles. Dwelling on the north-eastern coast of the Southern continent, they were continually attacked by the Caribs from the islands. Those of Tobago, being nearest, were most troublesome. Their attacks at length led to reprisals, and expeditions to destroy that nest of cannibal pirates. After a long.and (Ibid. book v. chap. iii.). The Arawaks use the wor(d tanaca vl in a similar sense, anakabo n signifying "in the midst." Agi. This was the name of the pepper of the Indians, which the Spaniards learned from the people of Hayti to use as an important article of food (Ibid. book v. chap. ii.). The Arawaks call pepper by a similar name. The guana was first discovered in the islands, and so called by the natives. The Arawaks call it yuana. The islanders, neglecting the Supreme Being, like the Indians of Guiana, addressed themselves to inferior deities. These they called Cem.i or Zemi, and the priest who consulted them was called Bttio. To this last title I have been unable to discover any resemblance in the language of the Arawaks, but the word semi-cici, by which they call their sorcerers, is evidently derived from the cemi or zemi of the islanders. In many points their character and office exactly correspond. The word biama, " two," used by the Caribs in Dominica, was a relic of the language of the original inhabitants of that island, preserved by the women taken as wives by the Caribs after their conquest. It is also a pure Arawak word, and of the same origin with those preserved in the language of the Caribs of St. Vincent, as mentioned in a preceding note. In the word acaera, "island," used by the females of the latter, we see again the caeri of the Arawaks, their husbands using the word oubao (similar to the patio or opahwo of our Caribs and Acawoios), to denote an "island." 486 TIlE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. desperate struggle1 the Caribs were beaten, and finally obliged to leave that island to avoid the pursuit of the Arawaks. They withdrew to St. Vincent and the neighbouring islands, from whence expeditions against the main land continually issued, which called at Tobago to refresh themselves on their way.2 Sir Walter Raleigh, in the account of his expedition in 1595, mentions his meeting some Arawaks in the Amana (or Manamo) mouth of the Orinoco, and that he was guided by them to the main river. He speaks of the intercourse between them and his people as of a friendly and virtuous character;-the latter being probably of rare occurrence. Those whom he met appear to have been already reduced by the Spaniards to a state of vassalage, and it is probable that as the latter race began to settle on the banks of that river, most of the Arawaks went along the coast eastward to avoid them. They were found there by Harcourt and other English captains, in the beginning of the seventeenth century. The Arawaks, being intelligent, and possessing a strong national feeling, have preserved several traditions of conflicts, which took place on the main land, between their tribe and its various enemies. They have an indistinct remembrance of cruelties perpetrated by the Spaniards, clothed and armed with "siparari" or iron, who hunted their forefathers through the forests with ferocious dogs. But by far the greater number of their traditions relate to engagements between themselves and the 1 Raynal, book xiv. 2 Martin's West Indies, p. 257. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE IND AN NATIONS. 487 Caribs. Various places are pointed out as the spots where they occurred. They seem to have suffered much. The head of the Arapaiaco is said to have been the scene of a horrid massacre on one occasion, when the Caribs suddenly came on in great force to exterminate their tribe, together with the Waraus. A desperate and bloody struggle also took place near the head of Ituribisi, in which the Arawaks were overthrown and lost many of their best men. Civilized nations take more pleasure in the remiemI)rance of victories than in recording defeats, and this feeling is fully shared by the rude Indian. Accordingly, the circumstances of some successful encounters, which checked the progress of their foes, are still remembered and spoken of with pride among the Arawaks to the west of Essequibo. One of these is said to have occurred in the swampy district near the Waini, whither the ArawAks had retreated from various parts of the country. Expecting to be followed by the Caribs, they all placed themselves under the command of one chief, a man of experience and skill. This leader placed his men in ambush among the islands of a lake or "wet savannah," through which the invaders must of necessity pass. He there stationed a line of watchmen, to communicate by signals the tidings of their approach, so that his warriors might be prepared to receive them. The Caribs had a great number of war-canoes of large size,1 which followed each other in line through the The war-canoes with which the Caribs ravaged the coast and 488 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. mazy channels of the savannah. As they rounded a certain island, their red-painted warriors in the first canoe were transfixed by a shower of arrows from an unseen enemy on both sides of them, and totally disabled. Those in the second canoe shared the same fate; the others, who could not see what had happened, hurried forward to ascertain the cause of the cries, but each, on arriving at the fatal spot, was saluted with a deadly shower of arrows. The Arawaks then rushed from their ambush, grappled the canoes, and fought till their victory was completed. It is said that only two Caribs survived, whose lives were spared, and they were dismissed by the ArawAk leader on promise of a ransom to be paid in cotton hammocks, for the manufacture of which their nation is noted. They were also requested by the elated victors to assemble their countrymen, and, if they should find them still desirous of war, to " bring them on a similar expedition, that they might share the same fate." An old chief of the Arawaks told me that the spot where the bodies of the slain were interred is still marked by the traces of three mounds, which were. pointed out to him when a boy.1 rivers seem to have contained about thirty men each. Some used in the islands were much larger. One found at Jamaica was 96 feet long and 8 feet broad, yet made of a single tree. Those large canoes had cabins in the centre, and were adorned with carving and painting. 1 The above tradition I have heard from several individuals. The most circumstantial account was given by an Arawak woman, who spoke English well, and was also a mistress of the Waranl HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE INDIAN NATIONS. 489 At one time the Caribs from the Essequibo made periodical incursions into the Pomeroon district, compelling the inhabitants to fly before them, and carrying off prisoners and spoil. Wearied at length by those continual aggressions, the Arawaks of that river determined to fly no more to the swamps, but to make a resolute stand for the defence of their homes. On the banks of a rivulet called Tuyurokonelli, they accordingly erected a house to serve as a citadel and magazine. This they surrounded with a rude fortification of felled trees, with their branches pointing outwards, and stored therein an abundant supply of arrows, the produce of one year's manufacture, in which all hands had been employed. There assembling at the usual season of invasion, they awaited the coming of the Carib flotilla. The invaders were induced to land by the appearance of a small party on the banks of the Pomeroon. Following these they came to the house, which was guarded by the main body of the Arawaks, who were ranged behind their breastwork, and provided with large wooden bucklers.1 With these they caught or turned aside most of the arrows which the Caribs, unable to come to close quarters, showered upon them to drive them from their defences. Their plan tongue. I found her sitting by the dead body of a Warau man, and, in the manner of the Irish "keeners," chanting with melancholy cadence an address to his departed spirit. 1 The above is the only tradition I have heard from the Indians in which bucklers are mentioned, though we know from the account of Columbus that they were in use among the natives of the coast of Guiana. 490 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. was to reply sparingly to this discharge, but maintain their position without flinching, till their enemies' supply of shafts should fail. When from that cause the attack of the latter slackened, the ArawAks commenced theirs in earnest, their archers being rapidly supplied by the women and boys from the ample store they had provided. The Caribs suddenly found themselves exposed to a continuous stream of missiles, by which their foremost warriors were immediately stricken down. Reluctantly they gave way. In the retreat which followed they lost many more, >and were sorely harassed until they had quitted the river. This repulse did not stop their predatory incursions, though it probably rendered them more cautious. The ArawAks, on the contrary, became more confident, and offered a bolder resistance. The great swamp at the head of the Moruca was often the scene of those sanguinary struggles. Near Parakisa, and other settlements on its banks, the old Indians point out spots where the bodies of the slain were buried. One of the last fights between the ArawAks and Caribs took place on the well-shaded stream called Haimara-Cabura, near Waramuri hill. The former, by a well-planned ambuscade, again succeeded in defeating their invaders. On that occasion they had formed a camp of refuge on a suitable hill, a little distance from the mouth of the stream, and thither all the families of their tribe repaired when the alarm of invasion was HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE INDIAN NATIONS. 491 given. The warriors assembled on a rising ground near the river, and lined the thick forest on its bank. They had firmly fixed a huge piece of timber across the dark stream, at such a depth that large canoes could only pass by being hauled over, while smaller ones could glide over without impecliment. The invading horde of Caribs on this occasion came from the Orinoco, by way of the Barima and Waini. But so good a watch had been kept,. and so complete were the arrangements made to avoid them, that they found but empty houses as they passed along. Crossing the large swamp abovementioned with their well-manned canoes, they then rapidly descended the Moruca, seeing many traces of flight in that direction. At length their hopes of obtaining captives and booty were raised by observing some fugitives, as they thought (who were really decoys), paddling as if for their lives. These turned, as if for shelter, into the Haimara-Cabura, with the whole force of the invaders in hot pursuit. The savage yells of the latter, with which they sought to unnerve their destined prey, gave warning to the ambush of their approach. The pursued party in their light skiff passed over the submerged timber, and the Caribs, closely following, mad with the excitement of the chase on that dark stream, ran their large canoes violently upon it and into each other. They were immediately thrown into terrible confusion by the arrows showered on them from the bank by the concealed Arawaks, 492 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. who gained an easy victory over their bewildered foes.1 The Caribi chief, who was named Manarrawa, with some of his canoes, escaped from the scene of conflict, and returning to the Orinoco, assembled another force with which to avenge his slain warriors. This was encountered on the Waini. In the fight which ensued, a valiant Arawak, named Bohirasiri, who had taken the lead in the action and overthrown many, shot the Caribi chief through the nose and cheek with a sarapa, or three-pronged arrow, and took him prisoner while in the act of tearing it from the wound. In that disabled condition Manarrawa was brought by the victors before their old men and chief warriors, who asked, "Why have you and your people thus come to attack us? What harm have we done to you?" To those questions (in such circumstances not very easy to be answered) the wounded Carib replied by an offer, that " if his life were spared, he would cause his people to cease from all wars and predatory attacks upon their nation." The Arawaks, never a cruel or bloodthirsty race, spared him and four other survivors, and giving them a canoe, allowed them to depart on that condition, which, 1 Hubbard, the head man of the Moruca Arawaks, took me to the scene of that fight, and told me that his people believe that the bones of the slain may still be found in the banks or bed of the stream, but that the fight took place "long-long-long time before the birth of his grandfather," an era beyond which the Indians cannot correctly fix the date of any event, however well the circumstances may be preserved in their traditions. I I HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE INDIAN NATIONS. 493 they say, was faithfully fulfilled. The Caribs acknowledged the compact made with their chief, and invaded the ArawAks no more. Serious differences between individuals have since arisen, but there has been no open war between the two nations. The above are the historical traditions chiefly, though not entirely, of one side. The reader will form his own judgment of them. There is in them nothing mythological or incredible;-the palm of daring courage is allowed to the invaders, while.that of skilful conduct is claimed by the Arawaks for themselves,-and the main fact that their nation, often attacked, and sometimes defeated with much slaughter, was never conquered, is admitted by all. Those sanguinary contests took place before Europeans settled in their country, at least in any great numbers. The presence of such formidable intruders would naturally give the Caribs and others full occuplation in endeavouring to drive them out. The ArawAks, though at first opposed to them, soon saw that an alliance would be more profitable than war. They accordingly, first of all the Indians, listened to friendly overtures, and were rewarded by the Dutch with exemption from slavery, and privileges beyond those of other tribes. Peace was made about 1686, by Somelsdyk, Governor of Surinam, with all the Indian tribes, who in course of time became the allies of the colonists, and received annual presents from them.-The intercourse thus established was, however, ruinous to the Arawaks and the others. They were debased by 494 TIlE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIAN4. the use of ardent spirits, and contaminated by the vices of civilized men, while Christianity, the antidote to moral poison, was not imparted to them. A new enemy then arose. The number of negroes who, in the course of the next century, escaped to the forests, kept both colonists and Indians in alarm, and gave them full occupation. Even when the colonists had made peace with those on the Saramaca, and others, acknowledged their independence, and engaged their services, by annual presents, to prevent others from joining them, there still remained a feeling of enmity between the black man and the red, leading to frequent collision and bloodshed. It is painful to look upon this sketch of the history of the Indian races of Guiana.-A cloud, more or less dense, hangs over the origin of each. They then appear before us in the sixteenth century; the Caribs and fiercer tribes attacking, and the others flying, or defending themselves as well as they were able; while the practice of enslaving each other seems to have generally prevailed. In the course of the next century we see them chiefly engaged in resisting the encroachments of a fairer and stronger race, which arrived from various countries of Europe with more destructive weapons. In the eighteenth century, while still enslaving each other, we find them frequently engaged by the side of the white man in deadly contest with the black. The middle of the nineteenth century-a period more blessed than those which went before-saw HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE INDIAN NATIONS. 495 those various conflicting races united in peace. The Arawak, the Carib, the Warau, the Acawoio, and, we may add, in many instances, the Arecuna and the Macusi, met together in the same house of prayer with the black man and the white. May God continue His goodness, and extend it throughout the land! May long cherished antipathies of race be laid aside in obedience to the Gospel of Christ, and all find a common bond of brotherhood by communion in Himn, whose coming was proclaimed by the angels' song:" --- -on earth peace, Good will towards men." CHAPTER XIV. CONCLUSION. SINCE the appearance of Europeans in their land, the Indian races have continually diminished in numbers. In Guiana, as in many other parts of the Western world, it has been found that, as civilized man has extended his power, the aborigines have dwindled away. It has been truly said of them, " Their forlorn situation engages all our sympathy, -their present history is the finale of a tragical drama,-a whole race of men is wasting away." In the foregoing pages we have seen their present state, and endeavoured to trace some portion of their past history, according to the very few glimpses afforded us. Their future is known to God alone. It may be that some tribes will expire in cold and gloomy heathenism, while others, as we hope and pray (and in part behold), may progress in Christianity and civilization, acquire our language, become useful to the community at large, and gradually forget their ancient distinctions and animosities in the common name of Christian. CONCL USION. 497 The tribes nearest to the coast, the Arawaks, Waraus, and Caribs, with the Acawoios and. their cognate races, have been especially noticed in the course of our narrative, as also, in a lesser degree, the Arecunas, Macusis, Tarumas, and others. But beside those of whose condition and progress an account has been given, there are various other tribes (or fragments of tribes), of which less is known, as they are more remote from civilization. Among them we find:The ZAPARAS.-These have arisell from the intermarriages of the Arecunas and Macusis. Sir R. Schomburgk supposed them to be, at the time of his visit, about three hundred in number. The men and women of this tribe (with the exception of their chief and one young girl) were so ill-favoured that his party called them the " Ugly Faces." Some had sore eyes, others squinted; some appeared dropsical, and their voices were squeaking and disagreeable. Their houses were round, but not pointed at the top like those of the Macusis, and were neatly thatched and clean. The SOERIKONGS are a tribe which have sprung from the intermarriages of the Arecunas with the Acawoios. They are, like the latter, a predatory tribe, frequently committing depredations on the Macusis. They are likewise accused of being " Kanaima," and slow poisoners. They threatened to attack the expedition of Schomburgk in 1835, and had formed a camp for that purpose, but afterwards abandoned it, and allowed the party to pass unmolested. K K 498 TIHE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. The WAPISIANAS are more athletic, and darker in colour than the Macusis. Their females are often good-looking, and. stain and puncture the skin round the mouth in an elliptical form. Their language is very peculiar, arid stands isolated among those of the tribes who dwell near them. The ATORAIS are now nearly extinct. Including a sister tribe, the TAURIS or DAUPTS, who formerly dwelt apart in the forests, but are now united with them, the Atorais probably do not exceed one hundred persons. They appear to have been the only tribe in Guiana who have burnt their dead upon a funeral pile. Their language differs materially from that of the Wapisianas, and those of the other neighbouring tribes. The above dwell near our western boundary, but there are others more remote, whom our people (the Acawoios especially) occasionally visit. Some of them have been casually noticed, as the MAIONGKONGS, who, with their neighbours the GUINAUS, manufacture the blow-pipes, and exchange them for the ourali poison with the Macusis and others. The OEWAKUS (or Oavacas), who, with the PURIGOTOS, live near the sources of the Uraricapara,l are in a most wild and degraded condition, neither men nor women wearing any clothing whatever. The Oewakus are timid and despised, while the fierce 1 Both the Uraricapara and the Urariquera (the Parima or Rio Branco, of which the former is a tributary) derive their Indian names from the urari (ourali, or arrow-poison), which is obtained in the country through which they flow. CONCL USION. 499 KIRISHANAS and others, who dwell near the sources of the Orinoco, are dreaded by all. Within the borders of Venezuela and Brazil there are also many other tribes, some of whom still practise cannibalism; while others are exceedingly ferocious, and keep all strangers at a distance. The PIANOGHOTTOS, one of those wild races, are so averse to intercourse with civilized persons that they have defeated, and in some instances murdered, the crews of expeditions sent from the Amazonas to explore their territory. The ZARAMATAS and DRIOs do not differ greatly from this latter tribe, either in language or appearance, save that the Drios tattoo their skins all over. Some of the Indian races are now almost extinct; as the MAOPITYANS, who, when visited by Schomburgk in 1843, had dwindled to thirty-nine individuals. A single hut on the left bank of the Upper Caphiwuin sheltered the whole nation. The AMARIPAS have entirely perished;-in 1843 an old woman was the only surviving remnant of that tribe. Thus, throughout the wild regions of Guiana, in this nineteenth century of the Christian era, remnants of ancient races have been found, scattered and withering here and there like the dry bones seen in the vision of the prophet. To many it has seemed impossible that they should ever be raised from their low estate. But there is One with whom " all things are possible." He has elevated our own and other races once barbarous, and given them light and life. And we pray that He may extend 500 THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA. the like blessings even to those poor scattered fragments, and gather them into the Church of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. "Son of man, can these bones live? -0 Lord God, Thou knowest!" THE END. JUL C 1920 R. CLAY, SON, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, BREAD STREET lILL. 0 ~0 I II