wpipe and famous for their skill in preparing the deadly
vegetable poison called Wourali, to which I alluded at the outset of
this narration.

From this country are procured those beautiful paroquets named
Kessikessi. Here too is found the india-rubber tree. The elegant crested
bird called Cock of the Rock is a native of the wooded mountains of
Macoushia. The Indians in this district seem to depend more on the
Wourali poison for killing their game than on anything else. They had
only one gun, and it appeared rusty and neglected; but their poisoned
weapons were in fine order. Their blowpipes hung from the roof of the
hut, carefully suspended by a silk grass cord. The quivers were close by
them, with the jawbone of the fish Pirai tied by a string to their brim,
and a small wicker-basket of wild cotton, which hung down the centre;
they were nearly full of poisoned arrows.

On the fifth day our canoe reached the fort on the Portuguese inland
frontier. I had by this time contracted a feverish attack. The
Portuguese commandant, who came to greet us, discovered that I was sick.
"I am sorry, sir," said he, "to see that the fever has taken such hold
of you. You shall go with me to the fort; and though we have no doctor
there, I trust we shall soon bring you about again. The orders I have
received, forbidding the admission of strangers, were never intended to
be put in force against a sick English gentleman."

Good nourishment and rest, and the unwearied attention and kindness of
the Portuguese commander, stopped the progress of the fever, and
enabled me to walk about in six days. Having reached this frontier, and
collected a sufficient quantity of the Wourali poison, nothing remains
but to give a brief account of its composition, its effects, its uses,
and its supposed antidotes.

Much has been said concerning this fatal and extraordinary poison.
Wishful to obtain the best information, I determined to penetrate into
the country where the poisonous ingredients grow. Success attended the
adventure, and this made amends for the 120 days passed in the solitudes
of Guiana. It is certain that if a sufficient quantity of the poison
enters the blood, death is the result; but there is no alteration in the
colour of the blood, and both the blood and the flesh may be eaten with
safety.

This poison destroys life so gently that the victim seems to be in no
pain whatever. The Indian finds in the wilds a vine called Wourali,
which furni