At length the moon, which was full, cleared somewhat, and Lekha decided to risk the attempt of climbing the rapid. Nelly and Potaro were lashed side by side and, steaming together, were to surmount the rapid. But the first attempt failed. We steamed up, gaining ground inch by inch, till, just as we were at the crest of the rapid, Nelly’s engines stopped again, and we had to slide back. Next time, however, Potaro made the attempt towing Nelly as dead-weight, and just did it. Lekha then said that Potaro drew too much water to continue safely upstream, as she might hit on a sand-bank. But I declared that I would prefer any fate to that of returning to Nelly; and Lekha, who was really a sportsman, agreed to transfer our few belongings to the bigger launch and take us on. Two miles above Crabbu Falls we entered the mouth of the Potaro River, and puffed our hesitating way over its black course, the moon having disappeared again as soon as she had seen us safely surmount the rapid. Darkness, of course, hid from us the lovely view of blue mountain ranges, which we have subsequently seen from Potaro mouth, hills which verily looked to us the “delectable mountains.” We reached Tumatumari, ten miles up the Potaro, shortly before midnight, as tired as dinnerless folk well could be; but that was the only really unpleasant day of all our forty days in the wilderness.
Such an experience naturally prompts the question: Is there no better way of getting from Georgetown to the Potaro? Cannot this section also of the Essequebo be circumvented? Yes, a better way has been found, but it has not yet been made available for public use. There already exist eighteen and a half miles of railway from Vreed-en-hoop, on the Demerara River, opposite Georgetown, to Parika, on the Essequebo estuary. There also exists a much-neglected road, 67 miles long, built years ago by prison labour, from Bartika to the Kaburi gold-fields. It is now proposed to extend the railway for a distance of some thirty-four miles from Parika to a point opposite Bartika; and the trace has also been cut of a road extension from Kaburi to a place known as Garraway’s Landing, on the Potaro. The total distance from Bartika to Garraway’s Landing would be about a hundred miles; and, if this route were made available for motor traffic, it would be possible with suitable arrangements to make the journey by train from Georgetown to Bartika and onwards by motor-car from Bartika to the Potaro River in a single day between sunrise and sunset. Such a line of communication would be a boon to the colonists both at Bartika and on the Potaro River, besides being a great step towards bringing the Kaietuk plateau within reach; and I hope the day may not be far distant when its construction will be taken in hand.
THE POTARO DISTRICT
CHAPTER III
THE POTARO DISTRICT
Quid non mortalia pectora cogis,