Wanderings in South America ... With an introduction by Norman Moore

Chapter I

Objectofthe " Wanderings " — Demerara River — Saba — Toucan — Foresttrees — Parasites — Bush-rope — Red monkey — Wild animals — Sloths — Venomous snakes — Lizards — Bell-bird — Houtou — Insects — Dog poisoned with •wourali — Falls — Essequibo River — Rapid decay — Falls of the Essequibo — Macoushia — A white recluse — The watermamma — A savage financier — Thejabiru — Ants'1 nests — Fort St. Joachim — Lake Parima 41-87

Chapter II

The Macoushi Indians — Poison vendors — Apparent failure of poison — Collecting materials for wourali poison — Preparing the poison — Superstitions — The blow-pipe gun — The ourah — The samourah — Silk-grass — Acuero fruit — Coucourite palm — Wild cotton — Arrows — Quivers — Jaw of pirai — Packing the arrows — Cotton basket — Gun sight made of acouri teeth — Poisoned fowl — Suspending the guns — The bow — Ingenious arrows — Small quivers — A wild hog shot — Utilization of indigenous products 88-103

Chapter III

Operation of the wourali — Its effects on the ai, or three-toed sloth — Death resembling sleep — A poisoned ox — Poison proportionate to size of animal — Alleged antidotes — An Indian killed by his own arrow — Ligatures and the knife — Descent of the Essequibo — Skill of the boatman — The buccaneers — Tertian ague — Experiments with wourali — Value of a ligature — Artificial respiration— Long life and quiet death of wouralia —When good King Arthur ruled this land— Return of health... 104-120 VI CONTENTS. Second Journey.

Chapter I

From Liverpool to Pernambuco — Stormy petrels — Tropical zoology — Flying-fish — Bonito, albicore, and "dolphin" — Frigate-bird — Arrival at Pernambuco — The expelled Jesuits — Pombal, the Captain-General— Southey's History of Brazil — Botanical garden — Sangre do buey — Rattle -snake — Narrow escape — Rainy — Sail for Cayenne — Shark-catching 121-138

Chapter II

Arrival at Cayenne— Flamingoes, Curlews, etc. — Vegetable productions of Cayenne — La. Gabrielle — Cock of the rock — Grand gobe-mouche — Surinam — The coryntin — New Amsterdam — Stabroek, now George Town — Produce of Demerara — Slavery — A traveller's necessaries — Walking barefoot — The best costume — Humming-birds — Cotinga — Campanero, or bell-bird — Toucans, or toucanets — Beak of the toucan — Evanescence of the colours — The only mode of preserving them... 139-158

Chapter III

The houtou — Curious habit of trimming the tail and feathers — Its habits — The Guianan jay — The boclora — Slight attachment of the feathers — The cuia — Rice-birds — Cassiques — Their habit of mockery — Pendulous nests — Gregarious nesting of different species — Woodpeckers of America and England — Kingfishers — Jacamars and their fly-catching habits — Troupiales and their songs — Tangaras — Manikins — Tiger-birds — Yaicaraciri — Ant thrushes — Parrot of the sun — Aras, or macaws — Bitterns, egret, herons, etc. — Goatsuckers — Wliip-jwor-will — Superstitions — Tinamous — Powis and Maroudi — Horned screamei — Trumpeter — King vulture — Anhinga — Dangers of travel — Quartan ague... 159-186 ■JTbirD Journeg.

Chapter I

From the Clyde to Demerara —Yellow feva — A deserted plantation— Black John — Medicines for tropical climates — Bats — The lancet — Severe accident and recovery— A primitive spear — History of the sloth — An inhabitant of the trees— Structure of the limbs— A domesticated sloth — A life of suspension — Structure of the hair— Mark on the back — Capture of a sloth— Release and escape — Ants — Ant-bears — The great CONTENTS. VII ant-beat Its powers of defence — Attitude when standing — How it catches its prey — Glutinous saliva — The vampire and its habits — Bleeding gratis — Armadillo and its habits — Tortoise — Eggs of tortoise and turtle 187-214

Chapter II

The vanilla — Meaning of the word— Small cayman — Daddy Quashi — Wasps — Venomous reptiles and wild beasts — Poison of the labarri snake — Experiment with a labarri — The bite-rouge — The che'joe — Its nest — Ticks, and how to get rid of them — The five tribes — Their habitations and mode of life — Piwarri — The pee-ay-rnan — A nation without a history — Runaway negroes — Mr. Edmonstone and his services — Wounded warriors — Valour reicarded — Education — Character of the native — Skill in hunting — A bead almanac — The sttn as a compass — Th inness of population 215- 233

Chapter III

Discovery of a large coulacanara snake — A bush-mastci — Stag swallowed by a boa — Negroes and the snake — Arrangements for the attack — The snake struck — Carrying off the enemy — A snake in a bag — An unquiet night — Dissection of the snake — Daddy Quashi and his dread of snakes — Capture of a coulacanara — Vultures and their food — Habits of vultures — The aura vulture — Black vultures — Severe blisters — An inquisitive jaguar— Fish shooting — Goatsuckers and campanero 234-252

Chapter IV

Fishing for a cayman — A shark-hook useless — Sting-rays — Turtles' and guanas' nests — Numbers of eggs — Another failure— Meeting a jaguar- Guard against fever— More, failures— A native hook and way of baiting — The cayman's dinner-bell— Caught at last— How to secure the reptile — Mounting a cayman — An improvised bridle — Skin and teeth of the cayman — Embarkmcnt for England— Collision with the custom-house 253-279 jfourtb Journey

Chapter I

Three years in England — Sail for New York— Nomenclature- Alteration of scenery— A sprained ankle — Magnificent cure— Feats of climbing — Quebec — Irish emigrants — Ticonderoga — Saratoga — Philadelphia — White-headed eagle — Form and fashion— Climate— Forebodings of the civil war— Sail for Antigua 280-310 ~e CONTENTS.

Chapter II

Arrival at Antigua — Dominica — Frogs and humming-birds — Martinico — Diamond Rock — Barbadoes — Quashi and Venus — The Alien Bill — Sail for Demerara — More about the sloth— Scarlet grosbeak — Crab-eating owl — Sun heron — Feet of the tinamou — Vampires again — The Karabimiti humming-bird — The monkey tribe — The red howlei — Roast monkey — The nondescript — Altered physiognomy — Gold and silver mines — Changes of government — Politics — India-rubber — An ingenious deception 311-340 ON PRESERVING BIRDS FOR CABINETS OF NATURAL HISTORY. Faults in bird-stuffing — Tools required — Knowledge of anatomy — Attitudes of birds — Flow of the plumage — How to skin a bird — Inserting cotton — Killing wounded birds — Stuffing a hawk — The first incision — The skin to be pushed, not pulled — Arrangement of wings — Modelling the body — Spreading the tail — Constant attention required — Strength and elasticity — Value of corrosive sublimate — Experience and patience... 341-359 Index 361-367 TReview of Waterton's Man-Serings.

By Sydney Smith, 1826. Mr. Waterton is a gentleman of Yorkshire, of good fortune, who, instead of passing his life at balls and assemblies, has preferred living with Indians and monkeys in the forests of Guiana. He appears in early life to have been seized with an unconquerable aversion to Piccadilly, and to that train of meteoro logical questions and answers which forms the great staple of polite English conversation. From a dislike to the regular form of a journal, he throws his travels into detached pieces, which he, rather affectedly, calls Wanderings — and of which we shall proceed to give some account. His first Wandering was in the year 1812, through the wilds of Demerara and Essequibo, a part of ci-devant Dutch Guiana, in South America. The sun exhausted him by day, the mosquitoes bit him by night ; but on went Mr. Charles Waterton !

The first thing which strikes us in this extraor dinary chronicle is the genuine zeal and inexhaustible delight with which all the barbarous countries he X visits are described. He seems to love the forests, the tigers, and the apes — to be rejoiced that he is the only man there, that he has left his species far away, and is at last in the midst of his blessed baboons ' He writes with a considerable degree of force and vigour ; and contrives to infuse into his reader that admiration of the great works and un disturbed scenes of Nature, which animates his style, and has influenced his life and practice. There is something, too, to be highly respected and praised in the conduct of a country gentleman who, instead of exhaustinglife in the chase, has dedicated a considerable portion of it to the pursuit of knowledge.

There are so many temptations to complete idleness in the life of a country gentleman, so many examples of it, and so much loss to the community from it, that every exception from the practice is deserving of great praise. Some country gentlemen must remain to do the business of their counties ; but, in general, there are many more than are wanted, and, generally speak ing also, they are a class who should be stimulated to greater exertions. Sir Joseph Banks, a squire of large fortune in Lincolnshire, might have given up his existence to double-barrelled guns and prosecutions of poachers, and all the benefits derived from his wealth, industry, and personal exertion in the cause of science would have been lost to the community. Mr. Waterton complains that the trees of Guiana are not more than six yards in circumference — a magnitude in trees which it is not easy for a Scotch imagination to reach.

Among these, pre-eminent in height rises the rnora, upon whose top branches, when naked by age or dried by accident, is perched the toucan, too high for the gun of the fowler. Around this are the green-heart, famous for hard ness ; the tough hackea ; the ducalabali, surpassing mahogany ; the ebony and letter-wood, exceeding the most beautiful woods of the Old World ; the locust tree, yielding copal ; and the hayawa and olou trees, furnishing sweet smelling resin. Upon the top of the mora grows the fig-tree. The bush-rope joins tree to tree, so as to render the forest impervious, as, descending from on high, it takes root as soon as its extremity touches the ground, and appears like shrouds and stays supporting the mainmast of a line of-battle ship. Demerara yields to no country in the world in her birds.

The mud is flaming with the scarlet curlew. At sunset the pelicans return from the sea to the courada trees. Among the flowers are the humming birds. The columbine, gallinaceous, and passerine tribes people the fruit-trees. At the close of day, the vampires, or winged-bats, suck the blood of the trav eller, and cool him by the flap of their wings. Nor has Nature forgotten to amuse herself here in the composition of snakes. The camoudi has been killed from thirty to forty feet long. He does not act by venom, but by size and convolution. The Spaniards affirm that he grows to the length of eighty feet, and that he will swallow a bull ; but Spaniards love the superlative. There is a tuhipsnake of a beautiful green ; the labarri snake of a dirty brown, who kills you in a few minutes. Every lovely colour under heaven is lavished upon the couanacouchi, the most venomous of reptiles, and known by the name of the bush-master.

Man and beast, says Mr. Water ton, fly before him, and allow him to pursue an un disputed path. We consider the following description of the various sounds in these wild regions as very striking, and done with very considerable powers of style : — " He whose eye can distinguish the various beauties of uncultivated nature, and whose ear is not shut to the wild sounds in the woods, will be delighted in passing up the river Demerara. Every nowr and then the maam or tinamou sends forth one long and plaintive whistle from the depths of the forest, and then stops ; whilst the yelping of the toucan, and the shrill voice of the bird called pi-pi-yo, are heard during the interval. The campanero never fails to attract the attention of the passenger : at a distance of nearly three miles, you may hear this snow-white bird tolling every four or five minutes, like the distant convent bell.

From six to nine in the morning the forests resound with the mingled cries and strains of the feathered race ; after this, they gradually die away. From eleven to three all nature is hushed as in a midnight silence, and scarce a note is heard, saving that of the campanero and the pi-pi-yo ; it is then that, oppressed by the solar heat, the birds retire to the thickest shade, and wait for the refreshing cool of evening. " At sundown the vampires, bats, and goat-suckers dart from their lonely retreat, and skim along the trees on the river's bank. The different kinds of frogs almost stun the ear with their hoarse and hollow sounding croaking, while the ow-ls and goat-suckers lament and mourn all night long. " About two hours before daybreak, you will hear the red monkey moaning as though in deep distress ; the houtou, a solitary bird, and only found in the thickest recesses of the forest, distinctly articulates ' houtou, houtou,' in a low and plaintive tone, an hour before sunrise ; the maam whistles about the same hour ; the hannaquoi, pataca, and maroudi an nounce his near approach to the eastern horizon, and the parrots and paroquets confirm his arrival there."

His delight and exultation always appear to in crease as he loses sight of European inventions, and comes to something purely Indian. Speaking of an Indian tribe, he says : — " They had only one gun, and it appeared rusty and neglected ; but their poisoned weapons were in fine order. Their blow-pipes hung from the roof of the hut, carefully suspended by a silk -grass cord ; and on taking a nearer view of them, no dust seemed to have collected there, nor had the spider spun the smallest web on them, which showed that they were in constant use. The quivers were close by them, with the jaw-bone of the fish pirai tied by a string to their brim, and a small wicker-basket of wild cotton, which hung down to the centre : they were nearly full of poisoned arrows. It was with difficulty these Indians could be persuaded to part with any of the wourali poison, though a good price was offered for it ; they gave me to understand that it was powder and shot to them, and very difficult to be procured."

A wicker-basket of wild cotton, full of poisoned arrows, for shooting fish ! This is Indian with a vengeance. We fairly admit that, in the contempla tion of such utensils, every trait of civilized life is completely and effectually banished. One of the strange and fanciful objects of Mr. Waterton's journey was to obtain a better knowledge of the composition and nature of the wourali poison, the ingredients with which the Indians poison their arrows. In the wilds of Essequibo, far away from any European settlements, there is a tribe of Indians known by the name of Macoushi. The wourali poison is used by all the South American savages betwixt the Amazon and the Orinoco ; but the Macoushi Indians manufacture it with the greatest skill and of the greatest strength. A vine grows in the forest called wourali, and from this vine the poison is prepared.

When a native of Macoushia goes in quest of feathered game, he seldom carries his bow and arrows. It is the blow-pipe he then uses. The reed grows to an amazing length, as the part the Indians use is from ten to eleven feet long, and no tapering can be perceived, one end being as thick as the other ; nor is there the slightest appearance of a knot or joint. The end which is applied to the mouth is tied round with a small silk-grass cord. The arrow is from nine to ten inches long ; it is made out of the leaf of a palm-tree, and pointed as sharp as a needle. About an inch of the pointed end is poisoned. The other end is burned to make it still harder, and wild cotton is put round it for an inch and a half. The quiver holds from five to six hun dred arrows, is from twrelve to fourteen inches long, and in shape like a dice-box.

With a quiver of these poisoned arrow's over his shoulder and his blow-pipe in his hand, the Indian stalks into the forest in quest of his feathered game. " These generally sit high up in the tall and tufted trees, but still are not out of the Indian's reach ; for his blow-pipe, at its greatest elevation, will send an arrow three hundred feet. Silent as midnight he steals under them, and so cautiously does he tread the ground that the fallen leaves rustle not beneath his feet. His ears are open to the least sound, while his eye, keen as that of the lynx, is employed in finding out the game in the thickest shade. Often he imitates their cry, and decoys them from tree to tree, till they are within range of his tube. Then taking a poisoned arrow from his quiver, he puts it in the blow-pipe, and collects his breath for the fatal puff.

"About two feet from the end through which he blows, there are fastened two teeth of the acouri, and these serve him for a sight. Silent and swift the arrow flies, and seldom fails to pierce the object at which it is sent. Sometimes the wounded bird re mains in the same tree where it was shot, but in three minutes falls down at the Indian's feet. Should he take wing, his flight is of short duration, and the Indian, following in the direction he has gone, is sure to find him dead. " It is natural to imagine that, when a slight wound only is inflicted, the game will make its escape. Far otherwise : the wourali poison almost instantaneously mixes with blood or water, so that if you wet your finger, and dash it along the poisoned arrow in the quickest manner possible, you are sure to carry off some of the poison.

" Though three minutes generally elapse before the convulsions come on in the wounded bird, still a stupor evidently takes place sooner ; and this stupor manifests itself by an apparent unwillingness in the bird to move. This was very visible in a dying fowl." The flesh of the game is not in the slightest degree injured by the poison, nor does it appear to be corrupted sooner than that killed by the gun or knife. For the larger animals, an arrow with a poisoned spike is used. " Thus armed with deadly poison, and hungry as the hyæna, he ranges through the forest in quest of the wild beasts' track. No hound can act a surer part. Without clothes to fetter him or shoes to bind (22S) his feet, he observes the footsteps of the game where an European eye could not discern the smallest vestige. He pursues it through all its turns and windings with astonishing perseverance, and success generally crowns his efforts.

The animal, after receiving the poisoned arrow, seldom retreats two hundred paces before it drops. " In passing overland from the Essequibo to the Demerara, we fell in with a herd of wild hogs. Though encumbered with baggage, and fatigued with a hard day's walk, an Indian got his bow ready, and let fly a poisoned arrow at one of them. It entered the cheek-bone and broke off. The wild hog was found quite dead about one hundred and seventy paces from the place where he had been shot. He afforded us an excellent and wholesome supper." Being a wourali poison-fancier, Mr. Waterton has recorded several instances of the power of his favourite drug. A sloth, poisoned by it, went gently to sleep and died. A large ox, weighing one thousand pounds, was shot with three arrows : the poison took effect in four minutes, and in twenty-five minutes he was dead.

The death seems to be very gentle, and resembles more a quiet apoplexy brought on by hearing a long story, than any other kind of death. If an Indian happens to be wounded with one of these arrows, he considers it as certain death. We have reason to congratulate ourselves that our method of terminating disputes is by sword and pistol, and not by these medicated pins, which, we presume, will become the (228) weapons of gentlemen in the new republics of South America. The second journey of Mr. Waterton, in the year 1816, was to Pernambuco, in the southern hemi sphere, on the coast of Brazil, and from thence he proceeded to Cayenne. His plan was to have ascended the Amazon from Para, and got into the Rio Negro, and from thence to have returned toward the source of the Essequibo, in order to examine the Crystal Mountains and to look once more for Lake Parima, or the White Sea ; but on arriving at Cayenne, he found that to beat up the Amazon would be long and tedious.

He left Cayenne, therefore, in an American ship for Paramaribo, went through the interior to Coryntin, stopped a few days at New Amsterdam, and proceeded to Demerara. " Leave behind you " (he says to the traveller) " your high-seasoned dishes, your wines, and your delicacies ; carry nothing but what is necessary for your own comfort and the object in view, and depend upon the skill of an Indian, or your own, for fish and game. A sheet, about twelve feet long, ten wide, painted, and with loop-holes on each side, will be of great service : in a few minutes you can suspend it betwixt two trees in the shape of a roof. Under this, in your hammock, you may defy the pelting shower, and sleep heedless of the dews of night. A hat, a shirt, and a light pair of trousers, will be all the raiment you require.

Custom will soon teach you to tread lightly and barefoot on the little inequalities of the ground, and show you how to pass on, unwounded, amid the mantling briers." Snakes are certainly an annoyance ; but the snake, though high-spirited, is not quarrelsome. He con siders his fangs to be given for defence and not for annoyance, and never inflicts a wound but to defend existence. If you tread upon him, he puts you to death for your clumsiness merely because he does not understand what your clumsiness means ; and cer tainly a snake who feels fourteen or fifteen stone stamping upon his tail has little time for reflection, and may be allowed to be poisonous and peevish. American tigers generally runaway — from which several respectable gentlemen in Parliament inferred in the American War that American soldiers w7ould run away also !

The description of the birds is very animated and interesting ; but how far does the gentle reader im agine the campanero may be heard, whose size is that of a jay ? Perhaps three hundred yards. Poor, in nocent, ignorant reader ! unconscious of what Nature has done in the forests of Cayenne, and measuring the force of tropical intonation by the sounds of a Scotch duck ! The campanero may be heard three miles !— this single little bird being more powerful than the belfry of a cathedral ringing for a new dean, just appointed on account of shabby politics, small understanding, and good family ! " The fifth species is the celebrated campanero of the Spaniards, called dara by the Indians, and bell- XX bird by the English. He is about the size of the jay. His plumage is white as snow. On his fore head rises a spiral tube nearly three inches long.

It is jet black, dotted all over with small white feathers. It has a communication with the palate, and when filled with air looks like a spire ; when empty, it becomes pendulous. His note is loud and clear, like the sound of a bell, and may be heard at the distance of three miles. In the midst of these extensive wilds, generally on the dried top of an aged mora, almost out of gun reach, you will see the campanero. No sound or song from any of the winged inhabitants of the forest, not even the clearly pro nounced 'Whip poor Will' from the goat-sucker, causes such astonishment as the toll of the campanero. " With many of the feathered race, he pays the common tribute of a morning and an evening song ; and even when the meridian sun has shut in silence the mouths of almost the whole of animated nature, the campanero still cheers the forest.

You hear his toll, and then a pause for a minute ; then another toll, and then a pause again ; and then a toll, and again a pause." It is impossible to contradict a gentleman who has been in the forests of Cayenne ; but we are deter mined, as soon as a campanero is brought to England, to make him toll in a public place, and have the distance measured. The toucan has an enormous bill, makes a noise like a puppy dog, and lays his eggs in hollow trees. How astonishing are the freaks and fancies of Nature ! To what purpose, we say, is a bird placed in the woods of Cayenne with a bill a yard long, making a noise like a puppy dog, and laying eggs in hollow trees ? The toucans, to be sure, might retort, To what purpose were gentlemen in Bond Street created ? To what purpose were certain foolish, prating members of Parliament created, pes tering the House of Commons with their ignorance and folly, and impeding the business of the country ?

There is no end of such questions. So we will not enter into the metaphysics of the toucan. The houtou ranks high in beauty. His whole body is green, his wings and tail blue ; his crown is of black and blue. He makes no nest, but rears his young in the sand. " The cassique in size is larger than the starling. He courts the society of man, but disdains to live by his labours. When nature calls for support, he repairs to the neighbouring forest, and there partakes of the store of fruits and seeds wdiich she has produced in abundance for her aerial tribes. When his repast is over, he returns to man, and pays the little tribute which he owes him for his protection : he takes his station on a tree close to his house, and there, for hours together, pours forth a succession of imitative notes. His own song is sweet, but very short.

If a toucan be yelping in the neighbourhood, he drops it and imitates him. Then he will amuse his protector with the cries of the different species of the woodpecker ; and when the sheep bleat, he will distinctly answer them. Then comes his own song again ; and if a puppy dog or a guinea-fowl interrupts him, he takes them off admirably, and by his different gestures during the time you would conclude that he enjoys the sport. " The cassique is gregarious, and imitates any sound he hears with such exactness that he goes by no other name than that of mocking-bird amongst the colonists." There is no end to the extraordinary noises of the forests of Cayenne. The woodpecker, in striking against the tree with his bill, makes a sound so loud that Mr. Waterton says it reminds you more of a w-oodcutter than a bird.

While lying in your ham mock, you hear the goat-sucker lamenting like one in deep distress ; a stranger would take it for a Weir murdered by Thurtell. " Suppose yourself in hopeless sorrow, begin with a high loud note, and pronounce ' ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,' each note lower and lower, till the last is scarcely heard, pausing a moment or two betwixt every note, and you will have some idea of the moaning of the largest goat-sucker in Demerara." One species of the goat-sucker cries, " Who ave you ? who are you ? " Another exclaims, " Work away, work away." A third, " Willy come go, Willy come go." A fourth, "Whip poor Will, whip poor Will." It is very flattering to us that they should all speak English, though we cannot much commend the elegance of their selections. The Indians never destroy these birds, believing them to be the servants of Jumbo, the African devil.

Great travellers are very fond of triumphing over civilized life, and Mr. Waterton does not omit the opportunity of remarking that nobody ever stopped him in the forests of Cayenne to ask him for his license, or to inquire if he had a hundred a year, or to take away his gun, or to dispute the limits of a manor, or to threaten him with a tropical justice-of the-peace. We hope, however, that in this point we are on the eve of improvement. Mr. Peel,* who is a man of high character and principles, may depend upon it that the time is come for his interference, and that it will be a loss of reputation to him not to interfere. If any one else can and will carry an alteration through Parliament, there is no occasion that the hand of Government should appear ; but some hand must appear. The common people are becoming ferocious, and the perdricide criminals are more numerous than the violators of all the branches of the Decalogue.