Creature record / 1910
1910. British Guiana. A man named Haines was prospecting for gold in the forest along the Konawaruk River. He was unarmed. Then he came upon two strange creatures. They had human features. They were entirely covered with reddish brown fur. When they saw him, they stood up on their hind feet. Then the pair retreated slowly and disappeared into the forest, without once taking their eyes off him. Haines later linked them to the di-di, the hairy forest men of local Indigenous legend. His story was not written down for about 21 years. It became one of the founding reports of the Didi.
The Konawaruk River runs about 97 kilometres through the forests of what is now Guyana, and joins the Essequibo just above its junction with the Potaro. As early as 1900, gold mining was the main industry along the river. Among those working its forests was a Briton remembered only as Mr. Haines. The Indigenous people he had lived among told him of something in those forests. The di-di.