Volume 1

Richard Schomburgk's Travels in British Guiana, 1840-1844 / translated and edited, with geographical and general indices, and route maps, by Walter E. Roth.

  • Richard Schomburgk
Date:
1922-1923
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Richard Schomburgk's Travels in British Guiana, 1840-1844 / translated and edited, with geographical and general indices, and route maps, by Walter E. Roth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    long and 1| feet girth, as well as a large poisonous snake (Trigono- cephalus atrooo Sell]eg.) 4 feet long, called Labaria by the Colonists. They had found both electric eels in an almost dried up swamp and I am firmly convinced that a “shock” from them would have killed the strong¬ est ox. Mr. Glascott could not describe laughably enough the proce* dures carried out by the negroes in putting the dangerous brutes to death. The Indians had found the Labaria rolled up under a tree, and had killed it. The Gymnotus was served by our negroes for their sup¬ per and eaten dripping over with fat: as our table was supplied with something better, I felt no inclination to share theirs. 372. On account of his hand Stockle was unfortunately still unable to help me with the skinning, and as a large number of birds had to be prepared as quickly as possible or run the risk of turning bad, I was on the 18th May prevented accompanying either my brother or Mr. Glascott, though I did not like missing the opportunity at all, ever since the capture of the Gymnotus. Mr. King accordingly went with the latter as a welcome companion: along with three Indians they both left in the cheeriest mood for the point determined upon, while my brother hastened to the shore opposite. After the lapse of an hour I , ut, hat nidiinod unaccountable to me, was its being immediately followed by a second though much weaker one. Stockle’s genial accounts of the homeland and his younger days had almost made me forget the whole thing when, in about another short hour's time, he called out to me: “There's Mr. Glaseott’s boat coming already back but without him, Mr. King, and the third Indian.” Of course I immediately jumped up and hurried to the boat, where, even before it landed, I heard my name being called amidst an awful wail- ing, and soon recognised a black and bloody body lying in the bottom as Mr. King. His whole face was blackened and trickled with blood which had formed a thick coagulum on the top of his head and on dif¬ ferent parts of his body: his hands and arms appeared to me to be in the same condition, and as for his pride, the beautiful moustache and whiskers, together with the largest part of his crop of hair, had disappeared. At first sight I was momentarily robbed of speech: shud¬ dering in my very soul I stood before my disfigured and suffering friend. Full of life, joking, and chaffing, he had left me hardly two hours before, and now Everyone’s Favourite lay before me in the most deplorable condition, his groaning and moaning only interrupted every now and again with the agonising cries of: “Oh God, my eyes,” “I am blind and always unlucky,” “Both my eyes are shot out,” Close to him lay a figure no less pitiable, the third Indian who stretched both his burnt arms out towards me. «>73. Neither of the two Indians accompanying them spoke a word of English, King was no longer master of his senses, while the un¬ restrained and perplexing pantomime of both paddlers could have driven even the most cold-blooded individual to despair. Help as far as it, lay in mv power to give, was the one thing I felt demanded of me. With the assistance of Stbckle and the two Indians Mr. King was ac¬ cordingly carried as quickly as possible to the house where, while the