Half-way betwixt the Essequibo and Demerara the tide
of flood caught us, and, after the utmost exertions, it was half-past six
in the evening before we got to Georgetown.
We had been out from six in the morning in an open canoe on the sea-coast,
without umbrella or awning, exposed all day to the fiery rays of a tropical
sun. My face smarted so that I could get no sleep during the night, and the
next morning my lips were all in blisters. The Indian Yan went down to the
Essequibo a copper-colour, but the reflection of the sun from the sea and
from the sandbanks in the river had turned him nearly black. He laughed at
himself, and said the Indians in the Demerara would not know him again. I
stayed one day in Georgetown, and then set off the next morning for
headquarters in Mibiri Creek, where I finished the cayman.
Here the remaining time was spent in collecting birds and in paying
particular attention to their haunts and economy. The rainy season having
set in, the weather became bad and stormy; the lightning and thunder were
incessant; the days cloudy, and the nights cold and misty.
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