244.
Mrs Arrindell having given me to understand that for, some time past, a pair of alligators were lurking in the draining trench immediately behind her fowl-coop, to the serious detriment of its occupants not only my curiosity to watch these voracious gentry at close quarters but also my fondness for hunting would allow of no rest until I should lay the mischievous brutes in triumph at her feet. Cunning and cautious as they were I finally succeeded in outwitting both the thieves: they were Alligator punctualatus Spix. Neither of them was more than four feet but dowered with such a tenacity of life that it was long before we managed to kill them, although I had shot them both in the eye, and particularly to avoid damaging the skin had used ball cartridge. The negroes begged for the flesh: they considered it very delicate and tasty.
Among the domestic animals, I got a great surprise with the sheep which, in the small flocks that are kept on every estate for their mutton, I took to be goats: the wool changes completely into smooth and straight mohair, on which account they are shorn immediately after importation into the Colony so that at least one fleece may be secured.
In these glorious surroundings, in this dear and charming family, my five weeks’ stay had flown quicker than a dream, when one morning my brother in company with a Mr King, the Superintendent of the Barima and Essequibo Districts unexpectedly entered my room. They had come to fetch me for a short trip to Bartika Grove, a Mission Station on the Essequibo where my brother wanted to induce some of the coloured people living in the neighbourhood who had been with him as boathands on his previous journeys, to accompany him again to the mouth of the Orinoco. My most necessary things were quickly packed and within a few hours we were waving goodbye from the schooner to our friends ashore. The vessel my brother took advantage of was on her way to Bartika Grove, to load granite and belonged to a countryman, Mr Spamann who, after a forty years’ residence in the Colony had earned a fairly considerably competency: unfortunately the poor fellow had lost his mother tongue almost completely, for the way he spoke it was so broken that I should have taken him for anything but a German.
Facing like watchmen the twenty mile broad estuary of the Essequibo are the three large wooded islands of Leguan, Wakenaam and Tiger Island all of them decked with sugar estates, Leguan, stretching along the Eastern bank, is about twelve miles long, and contains 24 plantations: Wakenaam, off the Western shore, nine miles long and three broad, has 18 estates: Tiger Island with three plantations, is situate somewhat more to the Northward and is closer to the Western bank.
The commencing flood-tide carried us slowly up the proud stream along the channel between Wakenaam and Tiger Island until suddenly, at the Southern extremity of the latter, a regular island-archipelago spread itself before my astonished gaze. Following this, and divided by but a channel, is Parrot Island, while the 15-mile long Hog Island only cultivated at its Northern end, rather springs itself onto Wakenaam. To the East of Hog Island we find Fort Island (Large and Small) which, constituting the central point of the whole trade of the Colony during the times of Dutch occupation, is at present only occupied by a few coloured people who have erected their unassuming houses among and in the ruins of the proud fortress of former days. To the West of Hog Island, Great and Little Truly (Trouili) Islands are to be seen: they have received their name from the Manicaria saccifera Gart, which the Colonists call Truly Palm: a few estates are also situate on Great Truly. Closely connected with these two islands is a regular chain of smaller ones of which I only make mention of Buriabanelle, Kuketrittekute, Large and Small Laulau as well as Mawuwekute. On the eastern bank, on the other hand, near the Fort Islands, the most important are Kuaepaluri, Kakatiri, and Quatte-banaba. It is only on the Western bank in its lower reaches that there flow into this majestic river a number of small tributaries, amongst which the Capouye,Iteribisce, Supenaam, Arocari, Werri-werri and Abenacari or Groote Creek are the most conspicuous.
We had to pass Large and Small Lulu (Laulau) Islands before both banks of the Essequibo became visible in the far distance, though they still lay eight miles apart. As we ever kept in the middle of the stream, the dark edges of the smooth stretch of water let me have a good guess at the wealth of foliage, but not to distinguish the different sorts of genera and species composing it. It was only the palms, such as Guilielma, Maximiliana, Oreodoxa and the slender leopoldinia vying with the boiler-house chimneys in their efforts to reach the skies, as they towered with their graceful crowns above the obscure fringe, that were distinguishable at a distance through their characteristic shapes of frond.
In the absence of any favourable wind we had to cast anchor with the commencing ebb and wait for the next flood tide. The river here looked like some inland lake studded with numerous woody islands, because those situate behind were so closely packed together that the river mouth was completely hidden. A number of high chimneys that rose in isolated spots above the luxuriant growth of tropical forest and indicated the creative hand of man, lent to the surrounding landscape an infinite charm, and at the same time a character which I have found peculiar only to the Essequibo: the thousands of parrots that towards sundown were flying over the water with deafening din from West to East further helped to improve it. Judging from the rank vegetation, the land here must be unusually fertile. We were able to resume our journey before daybreak a little after which Mr King with a view to visiting certain of the settlements on the Eastern bank, left us for the corial which as he had expected, we soon saw being paddled towards us. Daybreak was greeted with the same flocks of parrots, which now flew over the stream from East to West probably looking to plunder fruit-trees anywhere in this direction of the compass.
The washing tide soon brought us to Itaka Creek which joins the Essequibo from the Eastward. The first rocks now appear. They belong to the primitive series, stretch unusually far into the river and at high flood are completely covered by the waves, for which reason a very experienced steersman is necessary to avoid all the dangers attendant on the passage of boats. Partly avoid these, and partly also with a view to lunching with one of our captain’s acquaintances, a timber merchant whose factory was already beckoning to us, in the far distance from off Saxically, a projecting rock on the Western bank, the schooner was turned in that direction. Mr Moller received us in a most friendly fashion and we gladly let him persuade us to spend the night there. On resuming our journey next morning we found the stream narrowed to more than half on account of the Saxically rocks. The extraordinary sight of a 20 to 30ft high cliff projecting into the river immediately attracted our attention. It was a sandstone full of magnetic iron with wavy strata, similar to Itabirite. In the immediate neighbourhood of this upright rising crag lay at the same time beds of sandstone that were tinged black and cemented by iron and manganese. Directly opposite the cliff on the Eastern bank the river Ampa flows into the Essequibo, the Indian Post (Sec.191) of the same name lying in the close vicinity. Some six miles above Ampa several dangerous rocks again emerge above the surface, the “Three Brothers” and “Three Sisters,” of which one has the exact shape of a huge head bobbing out of the water. As soon as we had turned our backs on the small unoccupied islands of Patta-pateima and Nai-kuripa, the cheery white house of Bartika Grove Mission already at a tolerable distance away smiled invitingly at us from out of the thick succulent foliage of plantains and coconut palms. My brother
had told me that in Mr Bernau the Missionary I would find a German and that a Prussian born. Our schooner soon cast anchor under the houses that had been built upon the rise, the boat paddled quickly to the landing-stage, and we were most heartily received and welcomed by a Silesin, Mr Bernau and his wife.
Bartika Grove is the most important of the new Missions that I found in Guiana. It is maintained by the Episcopal Church, and was established and managed by Armsrong, an Englishman in 1833. He was succeeded by Missionary Youd, who, inspired by an inward passion for the Ideal, was induced by my brother, after a short stay in Bartika Grove to shift the scene of his labours to the country of the Makusis where he founded Pirara Mission. As in the course of my journey I have still much more to say about this station, which at the same time was so full of promise, I propose postponing its short history until later.
Mr Bernau who was educated in the mission schools of Basle and London, accepted the post of Missionary Youd, and has been labouring here now for some years. The mission numbers about some 110 residents, mostly coloured people. In Mr Bernau I came to know not only an unusually industrious and extremely estimable teacher, but also a man who, thoroughly absorbed in his high calling, devotes to it his entire spiritual and bodily strength. Experience unfortunately has taught him that no field is to be found amongst the older generation where the seeds of true Christianity can be sewn with success: not the sort of Christianity that consists in just using the terms “God” or “Lord”, but the kind that is blessed by inward correspondence with our thoughts, desires and actions, whereby we love God with our whole heart and soul and our neighbours as ourselves. A virile civilization and obstacles of that nature, especially among the older folk, have opposed its propagation on such soil with the result that up till now all the efforts of the worthy man have remained without any lasting results.
When first established, several or the Indians accepted his invitation to settle down in the neighbourhood of the Mission, but this always lasted for only a short while, and their unquenchable thirst for an unfettered life soon drove them back into their forests; a bent for the most absolute self-will and their ingrained indolence, according to which they exert themselves physically only when urgent requirements demand it, and after its gratification regard any further labour as unnecessary – all these combined have unfortunately up to the present made ever such sacrificing effort ineffective. So long as the watchful eyes of the missionary rested on his grown-up scholars, he could find no more willing pupils: but hardly were he to turn his gaze aside, than what he had bidden them do was forgotten, the old inclinations became their absolute masters, and one Indian disappeared after the other: indeed the prohibition about drinking spirituous liquors alone had already proved sufficient to drive them away. That the seed sewn by Messrs Armstrong, Yound and Bernau has not been entirely destroyed however, is quite apparent from the fact that on Sundays certainly a number of visitors from settlements near and far are to be seen continually coming to church without any invitation just as unexpectedly as they take their departure when service is concluded.
When after innumerable attempts, Mr Bernau recognized that his sacrifices on behalf of the older generation were in vain, he exerted his utmost with the younger members and in connection with the Mission, established a school for Indian children, especially for the orphans whom he gathered from among the different tribes. At the time of my first visit the number of little brown prot
