or GUYANA, a large district of South America, in which the British, the Dutch, the French, the Portuguese, and the Spaniards, have considerable settlements. It is situated between those vast rivers, the Orinoco and the Amazon, and by means of the Negro and the Casiquiare, which unite their streams, forms an extensive island, separated during the rainy season by broad belts of water from the rest of the continent. The settlements on the coast extend but a short distance inland. Those belonging to Great Britain, viz. BERICE and DEMERARA, have been already described in this Supplement. The province of SURINAM is described in the Encyclopaedia, and to that account we have now only to add, that, by the peace recently concluded, it has returned to the dominion of its ancient masters, the Dutch, and is in a state of much higher cultivation than when it surrendered to the British arms. The number of its inhabitants have greatly increased, the cultivated lands have extended farther towards the interior, the clearing the forests has rendered the colony more healthy, and the means of defence against an enemy have been considerably strengthened.

The French settlement of Cayenne extends along the coast from the river Maroni, which separates it from Surinam, to the river Oyapock, which now divides it from Portuguese Guiana. By the treaty of Amiens the French boundary had been extended to the river Arowari; but when the government of Portugal was established in Brazil, a small force detached from thence seized the province, and though, by the late treaties, it is restored to France, the boundary has been considerably contracted towards the south. The frontier of Cayenne towards the sea extends about 130 miles. The few settlements in the province are at the mouths of the rivers which water it, and produce its fertility. These rivers, like those of the English and Dutch settlements, have but short courses, their sources being in that range of mountains which runs parallel to the coast, about 150 miles from it, which is denominated the country of the Carib Indians, and which has not been penetrated by any European. The two rivers which now bound Cayenne have their sources in the cordilleras farther removed from the coast than the country of the Caribs; they have, therefore, much longer courses, and discharge into the ocean much more copious waters than are contributed by those rivers which run through the French settlements. The most northern river of Cayenne is the Makouri, six leagues south of it is the Malmanouri, and farther south, at nearly the same distance, is the Synamari, at the mouth of which was established the hospital for the colony, being deemed the least unhealthy part of the province. The other rivers are the Mana, the Oyac, and the Approuague.

The island of Cayenne, on which the capital is built, extends about eleven miles from east to west, and sixteen from north to south; it is separated from the main by a small river, which is fordable at low-water, but at high-tide is navigable by boats. The city is built on the north-west extremity of the island, at the mouth of a river of the same name. It is fortified strongly, and a hill within the inclosure commands the whole town and the anchorage of the shipping; it is in north latitude 4° 56', and west longitude 52° 15' from London. Both divisions of the town are ill built and badly paved; the streets in the new part are wider, and the houses larger than in the old one, but neither are equal to the generality of even tropical towns in beauty and cleanliness. With the exception of the officers of government, very few of the inhabitants are of the unmixed white race, but are either mulattos, quadroons, sambos, or negro slaves. Debauchery, indolence, and knav- ery, are the characteristics of the greater part of the people of this city.

This colony was first settled in the year 1550 by the celebrated Admiral de Coligny, who, during the civil wars of France, wished to make it an asylum, where the Protestants, if unsuccessful, might retire to follow, in security, their worship and opinions. The course of events in Europe, after the return of Coligny, was such as to prevent the colony from being long an object of attention, and the few settlers were neglected by the government of France for nearly two centuries. Neither the settlers nor the negro slaves increased much, and the few descendants of the original Europeans were so incorporated, by successive intermixtures, with the coloured inhabitants, that the difference of their race was with difficulty to be discovered by their complexions. The colony of Canada engrossed so large a portion of the regard of the French court, that the establishment at Cayenne was only kept from sinking by the accession of a few isolated settlers, who occasionally fixed themselves in it, as a desperate and last resource. When, by the loss of Canada, the other colonial settlements became of more value, an effort was made, upon a grand scale, to increase the population, and promote the cultivation of Guiana.

Under the administration of Choiseul a fleet was equipped, which conveyed to Cayenne 15,000 persons. Few of them possessed property, few of them were handicraftsmen or labourers, and of those, few were disposed to work, supposing the climate would have allowed Europeans to labour.

The settlers were soon visited with the dreadful fevers of the tropics; and those who had the means of returning to Europe abandoned the country with the utmost precipitation. In the year 1763, the numbers that landed were 13,060, of these 2000 quitted it, either for France, Canada, or the West India islands; about 100 enlisted in the colonial battalion, and, at the end of the year 1765, there were only in the colony 430 persons left of the expedition; so that more than 10,000 must have perished in the first two years. The expense of this equipment is estimated to have amounted to thirty-three millions of livres, the whole of which, as well as the vast number of human beings, was sacrificed to a plan in which the splendid rather than the useful was considered, though it was sketched by the celebrated Turgot, and some other of the eminent economists of France. From the period of this disastrous attempt the colony continued to languish till the American war broke out, when the predatory cruisers, both French and Americans, carried in several valuable prizes; many negro slaves were by these captures conveyed to the settlement, and this enabled the planters to extend their cultivation, so that, at the peace of 1783, the colony was in a more thriving condition than it had been at any former period, and it continued to increase in prosperity. The Revolution of France extended its calamities to this colony in a very early stage of its progress. As the rumour of the intended emancipation of all the negroes reached Cayenne, before the absurd decree was passed in the Convention, the richer proprietors, frightened by the menaces of the slaves, fled from the colony; and the popular assembly, consisting principally of men of colour, proclaimed them emigrants, and decreed the forfeiture of their estates. When the decree was received and promulgated at Cayenne, the blacks supposed that their labour was at an end, and that, on the principles of equality, the whites, in their turn, should now be compelled to work for the majority. The whites from the various plantations fled for security to the capital, where the troops were so factions that they could scarcely obtain protection. The miserable slaves in the plantations soon found this boon of freedom to be the severest punishment that could be inflicted. Cultivation became neglected, provisions, in consequence, were scarce, and a short period produced a want of even the commonest aliments. Regulations for fixing the prices of labour were in vain established, for those who could pay their labourers had fled from the country. Though modifications of this absurd decree were afterwards made, they could not produce the former abundance of provisions, and, during the whole period of the war, scarcity continued to be experienced. During the agitations in France, several of the leaders of the unsuccessful factions were banished to this colony, by the decrees of their triumphant opponents. They were not an order of men who were likely to benefit the settlement, and many of them died from the effects of the climate, many from chagrin, and the few survivors who returned to Europe had experienced the most severe and mortifying hardships. As the military force had been neglected, the small body stationed at Cayenne very readily submitted to the Portuguese armament. When it was restored to the King of France, the number of white inhabitants did not exceed 1300, whilst the black and mixed races, including those of Indian origin, amounted together to between 10,000 and 11,000. Many negroes have been since introduced, both from Africa and the other French settlements, and though no accurate returns have been made, the whole population has been recently calculated at 14,000. As the government of France has abolished the slave trade by a formal law, if that abominable traffic should be continued, it must be so cramped, that there is no probability of Cayenne receiving any great addition to its population from the continent of Africa; and as the number of male slaves is greater than that of females, natural increase cannot take place till the sexes approach to an equality in numbers.

The climate and seasons in Cayenne are so nearly similar to those in Demerara, as to make any notice of them unnecessary; but as the country is much less cleared of underwood, and as very little draining has been practised, it is far more unhealthy than any of the British or Dutch settlements on the same coast. That the climate is totally unfit for European labourers was demonstrated in 1794. When the decree for giving freedom to the negroes was promulgated, the soldiers of the regiment of Alsace, then stationed in the province, were induced, by high wages, to work in the plantations; at the end of a month, one half the regiment had died, and the remainder were so ill as to be incapable of any duty. From the scanty population of Cayenne, it is evident that its productions must be of inconsiderable magnitude; but the experiments that have been made sufficiently show that its capabilities are equal to those of the best soils in the tropical climate. The sugar-cane was, from the first, cultivated with success, but the production of that plant was vastly improved by the introduction of the canes of Otaheite, which the celebrated Bougainville brought from the southern hemisphere; and its sugar is equal to that of Surinam or Demerara. A spirit called by the French Tafia, an inferior kind of rum, is distilled from the canes. The coffee of Cayenne is inferior to that of Surinam, none of the plantations of it are extensive, and it is remarked that the trees degenerate when planted in the lower grounds. The cocoa plant is a native of Cayenne, and grows spontaneously on the borders of the Oyapoc. Wild indigo grows in great quantities, and the dye that has been obtained from it is equal in quality to what is extracted from the cultivated plant of the same species. This induced the French government to promote the production of that commodity in the soil which nature indicated to be well adapted for it. The first results were in almost every instance flattering, but the plant soon degenerated, and most of the indigo plantations, like those of St Domingo, were converted into sugar estates, but not till the proprietors had suffered very heavy losses. Cotton grows very luxuriantly, though not a native plant, or, if it be, the species varies from that now cultivated, which was brought from Guadaloupe, when the ruinous project of colonization was attempted in 1768. This plant yields two crops in the year; the second called by the planters la petite recolte, in the month of March is frequently destroyed by a species of caterpillars which cover the trees after a shower of rain. All the fruits peculiar to warm climates are most abundant in Cayenne, and attempts have been repeatedly made to introduce the clove, and the cinnamon trees, with the other plants of the East Indies. The seeds of the clove were distributed proliously by the government, which also encouraged the cultivation of the bread-fruit, the mango, and the sago.

The exportable article of greatest amount, which Cayenne has lately furnished to Europe, is the Roucou, or Roucou, better known in England by the name of Annotta, and which is extensively used as a dye, principally, however, for silks. The tree which yields this substance (Bixa Orellana) grows from twelve to fifteen feet in height, is very bushy, and bears a flower of a pale pink, resembling in shape and colour the dog-rose. The fruit contains a pulpy substance (intermixed with the seeds), of a very glutinous nature, which, by frequent washings and filterings, is separated from them. It is then suffered to ferment during eight or nine days, when it is placed in a vessel, capable of bearing heat, over a fire, and as soon as it forms bubbles on the surface, the fire is withdrawn, and it is suffered to cool. The more gradually it cools, the better the substance is. That which is dried in the shade is much more valuable than that dried by the heat of the sun. When it is macerated in small quantities, it is black and of little value; and is only of the best quality, when the whole that is made at one time is a very great mass. Its purity is ascertained by the whole dissolving in water, without leaving behind it any extraneous substances. When in the state of a soft paste, it is moulded into the form of small cakes, and inclosed in the leaves of the Canna Indica angustifolia, and thus packed for its market. The whole process of preparing this drug is most prejudicial to the health and comfort of the labourers. The smell is offensive beyond the powers of description; and during the preparation, the workmen are afflicted with a constant nausea, and most violent headache. Its offensive smell, however, gradually subsides, and by the time it reaches Europe, is changed into an agreeable flavour, resembling that of the violet. On the Continent of Europe this commodity is extensively used in the dyeing of various kinds of clothing; but in England it is almost exclusively applied as the colouring matter of cheese, to which purpose it is well adapted, being nearly tasteless, and perfectly harmless. The pepper to which this settlement has given a name, though produced every where in the tropics, was first sent to Europe from hence. It is the pod of a species of Capsicum, gathered when ripe, and dried in the sun; it is then, with a little flour and some salt, made into a kind of paste, and baked to a biscuit. When perfectly dry and cold, the pepper is made by rasping them upon a grater. Some cassia and a small quantity of vanilla have been produced here for exportation. As no wheat is grown, the dependance of the inhabitants for flour rests on the United States of North America; but maize, cassava, and rice, are cultivated to a sufficient extent, to supply food to the lower orders of the coloured inhabitants. The French seem to have exceeded other nations in the success of their efforts to conciliate the aborigines, and a much larger proportion of the native Indians have been reclaimed, and induced to labour on their plantations, than in either the Dutch or English settlements on the coast of Guiana. Though the soil of Guiana may be as prolific as that of Demerara or Surinam, yet its future products can scarcely be so great as those colonies. The coast is low, and dangerous to approach, on account of the great number of shoals and sand-banks which border it; and the only good navigable river on the whole line is that on which the capital is built. In the prevalence of fogs, in the general humidity of the atmosphere, and uniform high temperature of the air, Cayenne is assimilated to the rest of Guiana.*

The boundaries of the territories of Portugal in Guiana were much extended to the north by the first peace of Paris, and those boundaries, having

* See Voyage à Cayenne, par Louis-Ange Pitou; Histoire des Plantes de la Guyane Françoise; and Statistique Générale et Particulière de la France et de ses Colonies. been confirmed by the second treaty, may now be considered as finally settled. The northern limit is the mouth of the river Oyapoc, the navigation of which is free, both to the French and Portuguese. A line from the second degree of north latitude till it meets the river Arowari is then the boundary. A line from the first degree of north latitude then separates Portuguese from Spanish Guiana, and proceeds due west till it reaches the mission of St Carlos, on the northern branch of the river Negro. The Negro continues the boundary till it takes an eastern direction, when a line is drawn due south till it strikes the river Maranon or Amazonas, both sides of which to its mouth are thus included within the dominions of Portugal. Portuguese Guiana extends about 980 miles from east to west; its mean breadth is about 250 miles, but is not clearly ascertained from the want of accurate surveys of the upper parts of the rivers Negro and Maranon.

The whole of this extensive country is very thinly peopled. The Portuguese have built three towns on the banks of the Maranon, Macapa, Paru, and Pauxis, but there are very few of the European race settled around them, nor have the cities, as they have been denominated, risen to splendour or opulence. The soil and climate are well calculated for the growth of cotton, and the few plantations that have been established have been principally destined to that purpose. Some sugar has been cultivated, but not to an extent that has yet admitted of any moderate exportation. In its present state, with few white inhabitants, negroes recently brought from Africa, and native Indians, whom it is attempted to reduce to the condition of labourers, the principal exertions are directed to the production of provisions, which consist principally of manioc, rice, and maize. The inhabitants of all descriptions, including the half reclaimed Indians, who have been collected around the religious missions, are not estimated at more than 36,000, but the number is doubtful as all accounts are very contradictory. The soil, climate, and natural productions, differ so little from those of Berbice, Demerara, and Cayenne, as not to demand a special notice.

The most remarkable object in the country is the Maranon, the largest river in the world, which discharges itself, within its limits, into the ocean. It rises in the lake of Lauricocha in Peru in the 11° of south latitude, and crossing the whole of South America, empties itself into the South Atlantic, by both sides of the Island of St John. During its course it receives the waters of sixty rivers, many of which supply as much water as the Danube or the Volga discharge into the sea. The largest of these on the right bank are the Ucayle, Yvari, Yutai, Yurba, Purus, Madeira, Tapajos, and Zingu, and on the left bank the Napo, Ica, Yupura, and Negro. It becomes navigable for barges at the junction of the Madeira, where it is nearly five miles in breadth; but the passage from thence is so intercepted with islands, and has such rapids as render its navigation dangerous till the mouth of the Tapajos, which can be reached by ships. The deficiency of productions on its banks has, however, prevented it from being navigated by any vessels from the ocean above Paru. Macapa is in 8° north latitude, and 51° 8' west longitude. Paru in 1° 25' south latitude, and 52° 15' west longitude.*

This extensive, but thinly peopled province, comprehending a circuit of more than 3000 miles, was but little known to the European world, till the late journey through it by Baron Humboldt, and had scarcely excited any interest since the expeditions undertaken to discover its mines by Sir Walter Raleigh. It has, of late, drawn general attention from being the country where, after his expulsion from New Granada and Caraccas, Bolivar, the chief of the insurgents, concentrated his forces, and rested to collect, from the disbanded warriors of Europe, an army sufficiently powerful to attempt the conquest of the countries from which he had retreated.

It is separated on the north by the extensive plains of St Juan and Quixos from the Spanish province of Caracas, and bounded on the west by the Orinoco and the viceroyalty of New Granada. On the south it touches the British dominions in Guiana, and on the east the sea is its boundary. Before late events had made it the theatre of military operations, it only contained 34,000 inhabitants. Of these, 8000 were Spaniards, or rather descended originally from them, but mixed with the Indian and Negro tribes, so as to have acquired almost wholly their complexions. The remaining 26,000 are the various Indian nations, some collected into communities under the Catholic missionaries, and others still in the nomadic state. The country is watered by the vast river Orinoco, and its various tributary streams, especially the copious rivers Apure, Arauca, Camparano, Sinaruco, and Meta. The plains on the borders of these streams are overflowed during the rainy season, so as to be scarcely habitable by human beings; but as soon as the waters have subsided, a most abundant herbage springs up, and millions of wild cows, of the race originally introduced from Europe, cover the flat country, and find abundant pasture. By moving to higher ground during the inundations, they find subsistence, and have thus multiplied to their present extent. This abundance of animal food seems to have perpetuated the original indolence of the Indian tribes, who seldom cultivate much land for sustenance. Around the missions the monks have induced the converted Indians to labour in the cultivation of gardens, in which are produced all the vegetable luxuries of the tropical climates; and some of the tribes buried in the depth of the forests, where the foot of a European has scarcely ever penetrated, and to whom such abundance of cattle have not extended, cultivate casava and plan-

* See Condamine, Voyage à l'Equateur; and Humboldt's Personal Narrative, Vol. IV. tains for their subsistence at those seasons when the chace affords them insufficient food.

The Spaniards have made a nominal division of this country into two provinces, denominated Upper and Lower Guiana. The upper province contains neither cities nor towns, but a number of forts, or missionary establishments, to which the natives have been attracted or driven, and where they were formed into communities under the government of the monks. This province terminates to the southward, at the mission of St Carlos, on the river Negro, in 1° 58' of north latitude. The Lake of Parima, the supposed site of the fabulous El Dorado, lies to the eastward of this station, surrounded by ranges of mountains, which are inhabited by a tribe of Indians called Guayecas, who, though of a low stature, have always evinced so much ferocity as to prevent any attempts to survey the lake from being successful. These Indians have hitherto resisted all the seductions and the threats of the monks, and still defend the entrance to their territory, so that Baron Humboldt, who wished to have penetrated to the lake, was compelled by them to abandon the attempt. The number of this nation is unknown.

Almost all the natives of this part of Guiana live in a state of nudity; and those around the missions are generally, like their wilder brethren, without clothes. The vanity indulged in adorning their bodies, by painting them, is, however, fully equal to that practised in more civilized society. This rage for finery is carried so far, that Humboldt says it requires the labour of a fortnight for an Indian to get as much of the red paint, called by them chica, as is sufficient to paint himself over; and the first shower of rain to which he is exposed renders it necessary to repeat the costly operation.

The natives of the upper province are a stronger and more laborious race than those on the lower parts of the Orinoco. Those who are in the missions, if they had liberty to do so, would desert them to live among the Spaniards in the lower province, where, by their industry, they enjoy more comforts than in their own districts. Humboldt found them both faithful and tractable, though he did not think it necessary to treat them with that severity which the Spaniards recommended and practised. Whilst the missions of this country were under the guidance of the Jesuits, force was used, and arms employed, to seize the Indians, and compel them to embrace the Catholic religion; and though the court of Madrid most rigidly forbade the practice, it was continued after their dissolution, by the Dominicans and Franciscans, who succeeded them; nor has the system been wholly abandoned till within the last thirty years. Of the effects of the labours of these missionaries, we may form some idea from the account of Humboldt, who saw some of the Indians, whilst mass was performing. "Without having any notion of the practices of the Christian religion, they behaved with the utmost decency at church. They love to exhibit themselves, and will submit temporarily to any restraint or subjection, provided they are sure of drawing attention. At the moment of the consecration, they made signs to one another, to indicate, beforehand, that the priest was going to carry the chalice to his lips. With the exception of this gesture, they remained motionless, and in a state of complete apathy."

The natural history of this country presents many curious specimens of the animal kingdom. The beautiful birds called gallitos (rock manakins) are abundant, the males of which are of a beautiful saffron colour, the females of an olive brown, with yellow on the under wing coverts, and on the tips of the wings. The monkeys are of numerous tribes, most of which our European zoologists are acquainted with, though some had been either ill-described or unknown, till Humboldt's expedition; of these the Titi of the Orinoco (Simia sciurea) is the most curious. Its face is white; and a small bluish spot covers the mouth and the tip of the nose. No other of the monkey tribe has so much the physiognomy of a child. It has the same expression of innocence, the same playful smile, and the same rapidity in the transition from joy to sorrow. Its large eyes are instantly filled with tears, when it is seized with fear. The sagacity of this little animal is great. It is very fond of spiders and other insects, and upon seeing drawings of them, though not coloured, it stretched out its hand in hopes of catching them, but remained in the greatest indifference when shown skeletons or heads of mammiferous animals. It suffers so severely from cold, that it is difficult, if not impossible, to convey it to our climate alive.

Another species, called the viudita (widow in mourning), has hair soft, glossy, and black. Its face is covered with a mask of a square form, of a whitish colour, tinged with blue, which contains the eyes, nose, and mouth. The neck of the widow presents, in front, a white band, an inch broad, and forming a semicircle. The feet, or rather the hind hands, are black, like the rest of the body, but the fore hands are white without, and of a glossy black within. It has a wild yet timid air, and often refuses aliment when in company, though tormented by a ravenous hunger, but when alone, and left to itself, becomes furious at the aspect of a bird, runs and climbs with astonishing rapidity, darts upon its prey like a cat, and kills whatever it can seize. The sight of the smallest Titi puts him instantly to flight.

The most curious and novel species of electrical fish, the gymnoli, are found in stagnant pools in the plains, and possess a degree of electrical or galvanic force far greater than has been recorded of any other kind of torpedo. The mode of catching these eels, and the experiments made on them by Humboldt, are among the most singular narrations of that most observing and intelligent traveller. After unsuccessful attempts to take some of these fish, for the purpose of experiments, with nets and with lines, recourse was had to the following plan. About thirty horses were turned into a pond, the noise occasioned by whose hoofs made the animals issue from the mud, and, by their electric strokes, defend themselves from them. The horses became terrified by the shocks that were communicated, but were prevented from escaping from the pond by the loud shouts and long staffs of numerous Indians who surrounded it. The eels, though alarmed by the noises, defended themselves by the re- peated discharge of the electrical battery, and for a long time seemed to be victorious. Several horses sunk under the violence of the invisible strokes, which they received on all sides, in organs the most essential to life; and, stunned by their force and frequency, disappeared under the water. Others, panting, with manes erect, and haggard eyes, attempted to escape. Most of them were driven back; but the few that were able to regain the shore stumbled at every step, and stretched themselves on the sand; evidently exhausted by the electric shocks. The stroke of the eel was given by pressing itself against the belly of the horse, and making a discharge along the whole extent of its electric organ, attacking at once the heart, the intestines, and the plexus coelicus of the abdominal nerves. In a few minutes, two horses were drowned, probably from the impossibility of rising when they had fallen, amidst the prolonged struggle betwixt the eels and them. The gymnoti require long rest and abundant nourishment to repair what they have lost of galvanic force. They became ultimately exhausted, and approached the borders of the pool, where some of them were taken by means of a line by the Indians. Their force was so much impaired, that the Indians who drew them out felt but a very slight shock, if the line was dry.

On examination, these fish were found to be from five to five feet four inches in length, and weighed from ten to twelve pounds. Two rows of spots are placed along the back, from the head to the tail, each of which contains an excretory aperture. From these the skin of the animal is constantly covered with a mucous matter, which is a much more powerful conductor of electricity than pure water.

The gymnoti are neither charged conductors, nor batteries, nor electromotive apparatuses, but the electric shock given by the fish depends on its will; for when one person held the head, and another the tail, one only of them received the stroke. It clearly appeared that the discharge is made at one point only, which is that most strongly irritated. The gymnotus seemed to direct its strokes sometimes from the whole surface of the body, and sometimes from one point only. The action of this fish on the organs of man is transmitted and intercepted by the same bodies that transmit and intercept the electrical current of a conductor. Their abundance in the pools of the plains sufficiently accounts for no other kind of fish being found in them. They kill many more than they devour; and the Indians relate, that, when young alligators and gymnoti are taken in the same net, the latter never display the slightest trace of a wound, because they disable the young alligators before they are attacked by them. All the other animals dread their society; and it became necessary to change the direction of a road, because these eels were so numerous in one river, that they every year killed a great number of mules of burden as they forded it. The muscular part of their flesh furnishes a good aliment to the Indians, but the electric organs are slimy, and disagreeable to the taste, and are carefully separated from the rest of the body.

One of the most important operations performed by the natives is the taking the eggs of the turtle, and rendering them into oil, which becomes an article of extensive traffic, and is applied to the several purposes for which olive oil is used in other countries. The number of these animals that annually come to the sandy plains or islands of the Orinoco are estimated at more than a million, and they each lay generally from 80 to 140 eggs. The ground on which the nests are made is divided into portions among the natives, who each explores and takes up what is found on the land which for the season is his own property. The nests of eggs are deposited about three feet below the surface. The sand is removed, and the eggs are collected in small baskets. They are thrown into wooden troughs, and exposed to the sun, being frequently stirred with shovels, till the yolk, the oily part which swims on the surface, has time to separate. As fast as this oil is collected from the top, it is boiled over a very quick fire. It then becomes limpid, tasteless, and nearly colourless, and is used both in lamps and for dressing food. The produce of this harvest of eggs, as it is called in the country, is usually about 5000 jars of five gallons, and each jar is calculated to contain the yolks of 5000 eggs. These turtles do not appear to diminish, though, when young, they are the prey of herons, vultures, and crocodiles; and, when full grown, are caught by the jaguars or tigers, who with singular dexterity contrive to extract the flesh for their food, though they are unable to separate the upper from the under shell. The wild Indians also destroy many of them by repairing to the banks of the river at the commencement of the rainy season, and shooting them with poisoned arrows in the head, the only part that is visible as they swim on the water.

The wild tiger cats are both numerous and fierce; but, finding abundance of prey in the flocks of the goat tribe, they are seldom rendered so voracious by hunger as to attack human beings. The number of venomous insects, of various species, almost exceeds belief, and are a terrible annoyance to travellers; the more harmless races of reptiles, the iguanas, lizards, and others, almost cover the surface of even the naked rocks. The heat of the climate is such, even on the most hilly parts of the Orinoco, that it is scarcely supportable by man. The beasts of the forests hide themselves in the thickets, and the birds retire beneath the foliage of the trees, or into the crevices of the rocks. The honey of wild bees is very generally found, and their enormous hives are suspended to the branches of the trees.—We feel some degree of impatience for the future volumes of the Personal Narrative of Humboldt, which, like those which have already appeared, will throw much light on the natural history of this most interesting country.

Lower Guiana is situated between the rivers Orinoco and Essequibo, and on the western side extends to the river Caroni. The greater part of this, like the upper province, is a waste, and not even much traversed by the Indian tribes, all of whom live in terror of the Caribs, who inhabit a range of mountains on the south-eastern part, and are a strong, active, and warlike nation. The only settlements of European foundation are those on the banks of the Orinoco, where a few Spaniards have long been established, and exercise a portion of authority over the whole country. The mouths of the Orinoco give them the means of maintaining some slight intercourse with the European world.

The capital of the Spanish settlements, recently called Angostura, but more properly St Thomas, is on the south side of the river Orinoco, and about a mile from its banks. An indentation of the river forms a natural basin, which reaches the city, and is a receptacle for the vessels that navigate the stream. It consists of one line of houses, large, and built of stone, which extends near a mile in length. The palace formerly belonging to the bishop, that of the governor, the goal, and a few private houses, are handsome; the others, though large, are gloomy, filthy, and destitute of furniture. Though before the present troubles there were a few rich merchants, it never was a flourishing place. A new cathedral was erecting when the insurrection began. It is now suspended; and, in the six years that have elapsed, is nearly in ruins. The fortifications around the city are too extensive to be defended without a more numerous army than the country can subsist, and therefore those who were masters of the field and of the river took it with but little difficulty.

Old Guiana, another town on the same side of the river, but lower down, is a miserable place; but has adjoining to it a citadel of great strength, on a hill, to which there is but one narrow pass, which is enfiladed by the guns of the fort. This place is of considerable importance, because it commands the river, and prevents any vessels ascending to Angostura. The trade of this province was, even in tranquil times, but very insignificant. The produce that it was enabled to export consisted of hides, mules, tobacco, cured beef, and some small quantities of cotton and indigo. These were sent to Trinidad, and the European necessaries for the colony were furnished from the stores there, as long as that island continued in the possession of Spain. When it was ceded to Great Britain, the commerce was carried on with the Spanish port of St Domingo and with Cuba.

The navigation of the Orinoco is very bad. In the dry season, the water is too low to admit vessels of any burden; and in the wet season, the various mouths of the river are difficult to be explored, from the whole delta being so completely covered as to afford no land-marks by which to ascertain the proper channels.

The bands of insurgents under Bolivar, who were conveyed to the Orinoco by Brion's fleet, found it a place of security after Old Guiana was occupied, and they were there enabled to recruit their armies by various volunteers from the disbanded troops of the European powers. The river, too, was a favourable course by which to receive military stores, which could not be intercepted by the large vessels of Spain, who were incompetent to watch its numerous and distant entrances. In this secure asylum, the forces of Bolivar were recruited and organized; and, by ascending the rivers, and crossing a branch of the Cordilleras, they were enabled to reach the rear of the defences of the Spaniards, and, according to accounts which appear to merit some degree of credit, to capture the city of Santa Fé.*