oad as a man's thumb-nail, and linked together with fibres. I was
allowed to examine it, and had no doubt that the pieces were of pure
gold, beaten flat by the savages. When questioned about it, they said
it was originally obtained from the Indians of Parahuari, and Parahuari,
they further said, was a mountainous country west of the Orinoco. Every
man and woman in that place, they assured me, had such a necklet. This
report inflamed my mind to such a degree that I could not rest by night
or day for dreaming golden dreams, and considering how to get to that
rich district, unknown to civilized men. The Indians gravely shook their
heads when I tried to persuade them to take me. They were far enough
from the Orinoco, and Parahuari was ten, perhaps fifteen, days' journey
further on--a country unknown to them, where they had no relations.

In spite of difficulties and delays, however, and not without pain and
some perilous adventures, I succeeded at last in reaching the upper
Orinoco, and, eventually, in crossing to the other side. With my life
in my hand I struggled on westward through an unknown difficult country,
from Indian village to village, where at any moment I might have been
murdered with impunity for the sake of my few belongings. It is hard for
me to speak a good word for the Guayana savages; but I must now say this
of them, that they not only did me no harm when I was at their mercy
during this long journey, but they gave me shelter in their villages,
and fed me when I was hungry, and helped me on my way when I could make
no return. You must not, however, run away with the idea that there is
any sweetness in their disposition, any humane or benevolent instincts
such as are found among the civilized nations: far from it. I regard
them now, and, fortunately for me, I regarded them then, when, as I have
said, I was at their mercy, as beasts of prey, plus a cunning or low
kind of intelligence vastly greater than that of the brute; and, for
only morality, that respect for the rights of other members of the same
family, or tribe, without which even the rudest communities cannot hold
together. How, then, could I do this thing, and dwell and travel freely,
without receiving harm, among tribes that have no peace with and no
kindly feelings towards the stranger, in a district where the white
man is rarely or never seen? Because I knew them so well. Without that
knowledge, always available, and an extreme facility in acquirin