loins; the women in their blue petticoat and
braided hair were scraping the root of the cassava tree into a trough of
bark; it was then put into a long press of matting, which expresses the
poisonous juice; the dry farina is finally baked on an iron plate. The
old women were weaving the square coeoo or _lap_ of beads, which
they sometimes wear without a petticoat; also armlets and ankle
ornaments of beads. Some were fabricating earthen pots, and all the
females seemed actively employed. They offered us a red liquor, called
_caseeree_, prepared from the sweet potato; also _piwarry_,
the intoxicating beverage made by chewing the cassava, and allowing it
to ferment. At their _piwarry_ feasts the Indians prepare a small
canoe full of this liquor, beside which the entertainers and their
guests roll together drunk for two or three days. Their helpmates look
after them, and keep them from being suffocated with the sand getting
into their mouths: but _piwarry_ is a harmless liquor, that is to
say, it does not produce the disease and baneful effects of spirits, for
after a sleep the Indians rise fresh and well, and only occasionally
indulge in a debauch of this kind. Fish, which the men had shot with
their arrows, and birds, were brought out of the canoe, and barbacoted
or smoke-dried on a grating of bamboos over a fire; and we followed an
old man with a cutlass to their small fields of cassava, cleared by
girdling and burning a part of the forest behind the logies. These
Indians were of the Arrawak nation; we afterwards saw Caribs, Accaways,
&c.

The rivers and creeks, and the whole of the interior of British Guiana
at a distance from the sea, are unknown and unexplored. October and
November are the driest months in the year, and the best for expeditions
into the interior. I was unable to go as far up the river as I wished,
from the great freshes; the rain fell every day, yet I penetrated in all
directions as far as I could, and I trust to be able, at some more
favourable season, to return to that interesting country.

Two years ago, a Mr. Smith, a mercantile man from Caraccas, was joined
at George Town by a Lieutenant Gullifer, R.N. They proceeded down the
Pomeroon river, then up the Wyeena creek, travelled across to the
Coioony, sailed down it, and then went up the Essequibo to the Rio
Negro, which, it appears, connects the Amazons and Oroonoco rivers.
At Bara, on the Rio Negro, Mr. Smith, from sitting so long cramped up
in