Xow,  when  you  ascend  the  Essequibo,  some  hundred
miles  above  the  place  where  these  mines  are  said  to  be
found,  you  get  into  a  high,  rocky,  and  mountainous
country.  Here  many  of  the  mountains  have  a  very
barren  aspect,  producing  only  a  few  stinted  shrubs,  and
here  and  there  a  tuft  of  coarse  grass.  I  could  not  learn
that  they  have  ever  been  explored,  and  at  this  day
their  mineralogy  is  totally  unknown  to  us.  The  Indians
are  so  thinly  scattered  in  this  part  of  the  country,
that  there  would  be  no  impropriety  in  calling  it
uninhabited  : —

"  Apparent  rari  errantes  in  gurgite  vasto."


256  WANDERINGS    IN   SOUTH   AMERICA.
It  remains  to  be  yet  learnt,  whether  this  portion  of
Guiana  be  worth  looking  after,  with  respect  to  its
supposed  mines.  The  mining  speculations  at  present
are  flowing  down  another  channel.  The  rage  in
England  for  working  the  mines  of  other  states  has
now  risen  to  such  a  pitch,  that  it  would  require  a
considerable  degree  of  caution  in  a  mere  wanderer
of  the  woods  in  stepping  forward  to  say  anything
that  might  tend  to  raise  or  depress  the  spirits  of  the
speculators.
