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SAILING UP THE ESSEQUIBO.

_By Captain J.E. Alexander, H.P., late 16th Lancers, M.R.G.S., &c._


My purpose was now to proceed up the noble Essequibo river towards
the El Dorado of Sir Walter Raleigh, and view the mighty forests of
the interior, and the varied and beautiful tribes by which they are
inhabited. Our residence on the island of Wakenaam had been truly
a tropical one. During the night, the tree frogs, crickets,
razor-grinders, reptiles, and insects of every kind, kept up a continued
concert. At sunrise, when the flowers unfolded themselves, the humming
birds, with the metallic lustre glittering on their wings, passed
rapidly from blossom to blossom. The bright yellow and black
mocking-birds flew from their pendant nests, accompanied by their
neighbours, the wild bees, which construct their earthen hives on the
same tree. The continued rains had driven the snakes from their holes,
and on the path were seen the bush-master (cona-couchi) unrivalled for
its brilliant colours, and the deadly nature of its poison; and the
labari equally poisonous, which erects its scales in a frightful manner
when irritated. The rattlesnake was also to be met with, and harmless
tree snakes of many species. Under the river's bank lay enormous caymen
or alligators,--one lately killed measured twenty-two feet. Wild deer
and the peccari hog were seen in the glades in the centre of the island;
and the jaguar and cougour (the American leopard and lion) occasionally
swam over from the main land.