Puwa village consisted of three houses, and another, in process of building for us, was in much the same state as that we occupied in Chiung. The villagers made me a nice little dressing-room in one corner of our benab with tarpaulins and a cowhide; and on arrival I subsided into my hammock to enjoy a glorious cool breeze blowing up the valley, whilst my husband climbed the steep rocky hill just above the village to take observations. Meantime all sorts of offerings came in. Piles of cassava, plantains and bananas, enormous yams, pumpkins, eggs, and a couple of fowls, one of which Haywood had in the soup in a jiffy. The people seemed to have a great affection and respect for Mr. Menzies, and he usually got them to understand somehow what he wanted, although he does not speak more than six words of their language. “Walky” takes the place of “makey” in pidgin Makusi. “Um” represents “piecey” of pidgin Chinese. We went to bed early, the young moon and stars shining in beautifully upon us; but dogs marauding about amongst our baggage disturbed us a good deal, as did attendant fleas. Indian dogs are never fed, so that they may be keen hunters, and they are always mangy and horribly thin.
Next day we spent in Puwa, as there was so much to do. Everyone was very busy. Haywood did some satisfactory and much-needed laundry work. The Indians drove up a herd of fine short-horn cattle for our inspection, then a bullock was separated from the rest, driven down to the edge of the stream, and killed at a blow by a Makusi, after which all the village assisted at the cutting up and salting. The rest of the cattle smelt blood, and set up a fearsome bellowing. This herd had been purchased by Mr. Menzies from Indians in Brazil, and by him driven across the Ireng River. Another matter to be settled was the method of carrying me, when necessary, on the line of march. My husband insisted that from time to time in the heat of the day I should be carried in a hammock slung on a pole between two carriers. This, of course, was never possible when the trail ran at all steeply up or down hill. It was quite impossible in the forest, and my hammock did not come into use for this purpose until we left Puwa. The expedient was adopted principally to give me opportunities of rest without thereby delaying the progress of our caravan. Johnny and Jack, two stalwart Indians from Chiung village, undertook the carrying job. Then we selected from our stores what we thought we should ourselves consume during the next fortnight—jam, oatmeal, sausages, chocolate, dried fruit, cheese, biscuits, tea and coffee, enough to make a load for one man. The rest, together with a few of our personal belongings, we handed over to the headman of Puwa, to keep in his banaboo until we returned. We also settled that the whole of our droghers from Chenapowu, save two, should remain and be fed in Puwa during such time as we were on our way to and from Roraima. The two we took with us were Edward and Moses, both Makusis, who particularly requested to be allowed to come. The Amik boys went with us next day to Mataruka, and then returned to Puwa to rest, so that they might be fresh for the return journey through the Kowatipu forest.
When the chief part of cutting up the bullock had been accomplished and long strips of it had been salted and dried in the sun, Mr. Menzies worked a gramophone, to everyone’s great delight. This gramophone had been brought up in fulfilment of a request from Albert, the headman of Mataruka. He had asked for a church bell, a gramophone, and “high wines”—that is, rum—as a reward for the services which he would give us in connection with our farther journey. Mr. Menzies had undertaken on our behalf that the first two of his wishes should be fulfilled if he arranged to have his people ready to convey us from Mataruka to Roraima. With the gramophone we supplied half a dozen records; and as I listened to the hideous machine screaming out its ragtime, “Tipperary,” etc., sung with an appalling Yankee twang, I wished we could have done something better for the poor dears.
A nice breeze blew all day, and we were not troubled by kabouru save in the very early morning. After tea-time we strolled up a little hill close by and enjoyed the cool of the afternoon and a lovely view of the Puwa and Ireng valleys. We had excellent grilled steak for dinner; but the dogs were worse than ever at night, trying to get at the meat that had been hung up to dry. The Indians sat up eating the remains of the bullock nearly all night. They made remarkably little noise over their feast, and appeared perfectly fresh and gay next morning.
On the following morning there was great delay in getting off owing to the redistribution of loads; so my husband and I started off by ourselves, with my hammock-bearers ahead to show us the way. But more haste, less speed! Johnny and Jack, for reasons best known to themselves, saw fit to guide us down into a low stuffy valley, shut off by high hills from any breath of wind, and we struggled along for an hour and a half through bush and old yam and cassava cultivation by a path which at times did not admit of our standing upright. Finally we climbed out of the valley, up a steep col, where we joined our caravan of droghers and Mr. Menzies, who had come by a shorter and quicker route along a hill-ridge, affording a fine view of mountain scenery far and near. From the point where the two trails converge, an hour’s march over a charming and spacious savannah valley, in which there are some rice-fields, and up a low hill, leads to a banaboo, beautifully situated some six hundred feet above the Ireng, now in full view, and commanding a superb panorama. To the south lay the fertile, golden-looking Mataruka plain, crossed by the line of the Waikana creek; to the south-east was a tangle of big hills beyond the Ireng; to the east the Puwa hills and a glimpse of the Karto tableland; from north through west to south, beyond the winding Ireng, the most glorious stretch of open rolling grass hills and valleys that one could wish to see; and beyond all that, in the far, far distance, was Roraima’s great block, some sixty miles away in the direct line of vision. Of course, it was impossible at that distance to distinguish between Roraima, Kukenaam, and Weitipu. We merely saw a dim blue mass, obviously very much higher than anything near it.
The air on our hill-top was absolutely glorious, and a strong breeze blew steadily. The place is too high for the kabouru, and we spent a couple of hours enjoying ourselves, and ate a most excellent midday meal. Our menu consisted of beefsteak, potatoes, onions, yams, biscuits, cheese, prunes, lemonade and coffee; and we laughed at the idea of the starvation journey which an expedition to Roraima is always supposed to be. Haywood cooked inside the banaboo, to get out of the wind, and his grilled steak was first-class. The banaboo gave us pleasant shade during the meal, for we sat in the open immediately under the thatch-eaves. In the afternoon we descended sharply to the left bank of the Ireng, which is here the boundary of British Guiana. By the river-side the kabouru were one black cloud, and I was thankful for my dark blue veil, which appeared to scare them off me. The boat we wanted was on the Brazilian side of the river, so one of our men sprang into the water, swam across for it, and paddled gaily back to us, apparently not the least out of breath, although the Ireng here is wide and flows with a swirling current. We hastily got into the dug-out and crossed the river, landing at a point where the Waikana creek from the Mataruka plain flows into the Ireng. So we left British Guiana for Brazil.