resources the Government of Demerara has, stones might be
conveyed from the rock Saba to Stabroek to stem the equinoctial tides,
which are for ever sweeping away the expensive wooden piles around the
mounds of the fort? Or would the timber-merchant point at thee in
passing by, and call thee a descendant of La Mancha's knight, because
thou maintainest that the stones which form the rapids might be removed
with little expense, and thus open the navigation to the woodcutter from
Stabroek to the great fall? Or wouldst thou be deemed enthusiastic or
biassed, because thou givest it as thy opinion that the climate in these
high lands is exceedingly wholesome, and the lands themselves capable of
nourishing and maintaining any number of settlers? In thy dissertation
on the Indians, thou mightest hint, that possibly they could be induced
to help the new settlers a little; and that, finding their labours well
requited, it would be the means of their keeping up a constant
communication with us, which probably might he the means of laying the
first stone towards their Christianity. They are a poor, harmless,
inoffensive set of people, and their wanderings and ill-provided way of
living seem more to ask for pity from us, than to fill our heads with
thoughts that they would be hostile to us.

What a noble field, kind reader, for thy experimental philosophy and
speculations, for thy learning, for thy perseverance, for thy
kind-heartedness, for everything that is great and good within thee!

The accidental traveller who has journeyed on from Stabroek to the rock
Saba, and from thence to the banks of the Essequibo, in pursuit of other
things, as he told thee at the beginning, with but an indifferent
interpreter to talk to, no friend to converse with, and totally unfit for
that which he wishes thee to do, can merely mark the outlines of the path
he has trodden, or tell thee the sounds he has heard, or faintly describe
what he has seen in the environs of his resting-places; but if this be
enough to induce thee to undertake the journey, and give the world a
description of it, he will be amply satisfied.

It will be two days and a half from the time of entering the path on the
western bank of the Demerara till all be ready, and the canoe fairly
afloat on the Essequibo. The new rigging it, and putting every little
thing to rights and in its proper place, cannot well be done in less than
a day.

After being night and day in the forest