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XCII.

These negroes may have, at all times, timber for the BOOK trouble of cutting it; they kindle a fire by rubbing two pieces of hard wood, which they call bi-bi, against each other. Candles are made of their tallow, and their oil is burnt in lamps; the numerous swarms of wild bees with which their country abounds, yield them plenty of wax and honey.

Guiana.

Cayenne.

France has never derived any advantage from its colony French in Guiana. Cayenne, the metropolis of this province, is well fortified on the side of the shore, and almost inaccessible to an invading force on account of the marshes and thick woods which surround it.* The population of the town amounts to three thousand sculs; that of the colony, to eighteen thousand inhabitants without including Indians; the total number of whites has been calculated at two thousand. Although the Oyapok and Marony have been considered the actual limits on the east and west, the habitations of the settlers on the western side do not extend beyond the banks of the Cauron. Arnotto, indigo, and different sorts of spices, are the most valuable productions of this province. Previous to the year 1789, the exports were very inconsiderable; since that time they have been at least tripled. Cayenne appears to be naturally as fine a country as Surinam; but the mismanagement of its directors, their ignorance and the force of custom have checked the efforts of enlightened and enterprising merchants, who were anxious to increase the wealth and resources of the colony.

Tribes:

M. Leblond, an able physician that resided many years Indian at Cayenne, proposed lately to civilize two tribes of Indians, who would have worked as husbandmen had they found masters. Besides the coffee, indigo and cotton, which these Indians cultivated, they could also have furnished a

* Rapport Official, dans le Moniteur.

+ Leblond, description abrégée de la Guyane Française.

BOOK suficient quantity of provisions for a great many negroes. XCII. Had this project been realized, had the colonists expel

bis.

led from St. Domingo by the revolted negrocs been received into this country, we might have seen after the lapse of a few years another Surinam in Guiana, whose reclaimed natives would have been well fitted to repress the insurrections of African slaves. There are a great The Gali- many savage tribes in the interior of Guiana, the Galibis are the most numerous people in the French settlements, and their language is generally spoken by the other tribes. Such as reside in the neighbourhood of Cayenne, live in cottages; twenty or thirty families are sometimes crowded together in a single hut. They never plunder each other; their doors are always open, and the savage, fatigued by hunting, may at all times repose himself in the nearest dwelling. The language of this tribe is said to be harmonious, and rich in synonymes, and an author tells us that its syntax is complicated and ingenious. These savages have given many proofs of their intelligence, but their great love of independence makes them still reject our arts and instructions ;* their population cannot be ascertained, but it is probable that it exceeds ten thousand souls. The Galibis occupy a tract of land between the rivers Cauron and Marony; a danger ous ridge of rocks in that part of the country, is denoDifferent minated the Devil's Coast. The Kiricostos and Parabutribes. zanes, are the principal tribes on the Upper Marony; there were besides many others, that inhabited the marshy lands and rich pastures between the Oyapok and the Araouary; but we are assured that the Portuguese, to whom this territory was ceded by the treaty of Vienna, have driven out the natives, and changed the northern frontiers Traditions of their Brazilian empire into a frightful desert. The El Dorado, state of ignorance and barbarism in which Europeans found different tribes, has made some regard as fabulous

concerning

Malouet, Voyage dans la Guyane.

the traditions concerning the existence of a country abound- BOOK ing in gold, and situated in the interior of Guiana. Many XCII. Spanish and English adventurers attempted to visit this new region and its capital, El Dorado and Manoa. It was even affirmed that there were in Manoa temples and palaces covered with gold. A German knight, Philip of Hutten, set out, about the year 1541, with a small band of Spaniards from Caro on the coast of Caraccas. He came within sight of a town inhabited by the Omegas, the roofs shone as if they had been overlaid with gold; but the land was so ill cultivated that his men had difficulty in obtaining provisions. The bold knight being defeated by the Omegas determined to return against them with a greater force; but he perished by the hands of an assassin, while he was preparing to carry his project into effect. It is not impossible that the enthusiastic German may have mistaken rocks of talc for roofs of gold, and the Omegas may have been confounded with the Omaguas, a warlike people on the banks of the Amazons, who have made some progress in civilization. The Peruvian missionaries tell us that Manoa is a small town on the banks of the Ucayal. Should it however be thought unlikely that Philip de Hutten ever pcnetrated into the country of the Omaguas, the story might be explained independently of this objection. The Indians of Guiana may have had some obscure notions concerning the empire of the Incas, their lake Titicaca, their temples and palaces adorned with gold. The exaggerated and erroneous accounts which the German received, might have misled the Spaniards and induced them to go in quest of a region which they already possessed. At all events, few of the minerals hitherto observed in Guiana are metalliferous, and there is not much reason to believe that El Dorado will ever be found in the interior of that country.

* Oviedo.

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BOOK Table of the Population, in the year 1815, of the British and Dutch Colonies in Guiana, extracted from official

XCII.

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BOOK XCIII.

567

DESCRIPTION OF AMERICA CONTINUED.

Columbian Archipelago, or the Great and Less Antilles.

XCIII.

THERE is a group of islands in the form of an arch be- BOOK tween the two continents of America. Those opposite the American coast were first called Antilles, that name has been since applied to the whole of them. "Dicuntur Antilæ Americæ, quasi ante insulas America, nempe ante insulas sinus Mexicani." They have been vaguely denominated the West Indies, from the term India originally given to America by Columbus. That illustrious navigator planned bis voyage in the expectation of finding a western passage to India shorter and less tedious than that by the coast of Africa.

This undertaking might have been accomplished had the geography of the ancients, on which it was founded, been correct; but although the discovery of the Pacific Ocean detected the fallacy of Columbus, the islands still retained their ancient name. To obviate this error, and to express our gratitude to that great man, these islands have of late years been called the Columbian Archipelago. They extend from the Gulf of Florida to that of Venezuela, and are divided Divisions. into the greater and the less; Cuba, Jamaica, St. Domingo and Porto Rico are still called the Great Antilles. The English, the French and the Spaniards have affixed differ

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