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 //i-
 
 A VOYAGE 
 
 TO THE 
 
 DEMERARY, 
 
 CONTAINING A 
 
 STA'nSTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE SETTLEMENTS THERE, 
 
 AND OF THOSE ON 
 
 THE ESSEQUEBO, THE BERBICE. 
 
 AND OTHER CONTIGUOUS RIVERS OF 
 
 GUYANA. 
 
 BY HENRY BOLINGBROKE, ESQ. 
 
 OF NORWICH, 
 DEPUTY VENDUE MASTER AT SURINAM. 
 
 LO^'DON, 
 Printed for RICHARD PHILLIPS, No. 6, Bridge-Street. 
 
 STEVENSON AKD MATCHETT, PRINTERS, NORWICH.
 
 TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE V^L'^ / 
 
 WILLIAM WINDHAM. ^^'^I 
 
 OF FELBRIGG IN NORFOLK, 
 
 HIS MAJESTY'S SECRETARY OF STATE FOR 
 THE COLONIAL DEPARTMENT, 
 
 AS A TJRIJBUTE^ 
 
 NO LESS OF PERSONAL GRATITUDE, 
 
 THAN OF UNIFORM ADMIRATION FOR HIS PUBLIC CONDUCT, 
 
 WHICH, 
 IN THE DETAILS OF ADMINISTRATIVE APPOINTMENT, 
 
 IN THE LIBERAL RELAXATION OF MONOPOLOUS RESTRICTIONS, 
 
 AND IN RESISTING THE ABOLITION OF A LIBERTY, ESSENTIAL AT 
 
 NEW SETTLEMENTS, OF IMPORTING ADDITIONAL LABOURERS, 
 
 HAS BEEN ALIKE CONDUCIVE 
 
 TO THE PROSPERITY OF THE COLONIES, 
 
 THIS WORK IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, 
 
 BY HIS OBLIGED AND FAITHFUL SERVANT, 
 
 HEJVRY EOJLIJVGBROKE. 
 
 NORWICH, 31 JANUARY, 1807. 
 
 865712
 
 SUMMARY OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ORIGIN of this work, page 1 — Emigration meritorious, 2 — Sea-sickness, 
 how moderated, 3 — Cork adapted to be the store-house of West-Indian produce 
 for Europe, 5 — Madeira grape cultivable in the British West-Indies, 6 — Coast 
 of Guyana descried, 8 — Mouth of the Courantine, 9 — Mouth of the Berbicc, 
 1 1 — Mouth of the Demerary, 12 — Precautions requisite for a passenger to the 
 West-Indies, 14 — Ruinous effect of the climate on British-built shipping, 16 — 
 Navigation act criticised, 11. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Landing at Stabroek, 24 — First impression of the town, 25 — Of the house- 
 hold manners, 21 — Water-carriage, 28 — River Demerary, 29 — Allotments on 
 its banks, 30— Police of the bridges, canals, and punts, 31— Flatness of the 
 land, 32 — Diamond-point, 32 — Reynestein, 33— Hospitality and hammock- 
 sleeping, 34 — Fort-island, 35 — Sand-hills and springs, 36— Dutch planters, 37 
 — ^Treatment of negroes, 38 — Rapids of the Demerary, 39. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Description of Stabroek, its wharfs, or stellings, 40 — Want of inns, 41^ 
 
 State of tlie drama, 42 — General use of concubines, 43 — Superior beauty of the 
 
 mestees, 44 — Apartments scrubbed with lemons, 46 — General habit of smoak- 
 
 ing segars, 47 — Pepper-pot and otlier soups used at breakfast, 48 — Humility of
 
 SUMMARY OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Dutch servants and negroes, 48 — Splendor of Dutch households, 49 — Variety 
 of inhabitants, 50— Hucksters, 51 — Butchers, 52 — Fishers, 53 — Public wor- 
 ship alternately Dutch and English, 54 — Lazaretto, 55 — Shingles, 55 — House- 
 rent, 56 — Price of labor, 37 — Cost of building, 57 — Law-charges, 58 — Public 
 negroes, or galley-slaves, 59 — Hospital at Labourgade, 60 — Benevolent rate, 
 or kirk en arm geld, 61 — Superfluity of glass bottles, 63— Barbadoes packet- 
 boat, 63 — Macaronic advertisements in the Essequebo gazette, 64 — Public 
 buildings, 65 — Fees of office, 66 — Necessity of attaching an English recorder to 
 the Dutch fiscal, as assessor, 66 — Vast influence of the fiscal, 67 — Law against 
 the private importation of colonists, 67 — Ridiculous anecdote, 68— Exploiteur, 
 68 — Custom-house, 69 — Vendue-master, 70 — Paper money, 70 — Par of ex- 
 change, 71 — State of public defence, 72— Funerals, 73. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Keizcrs, a representative authority, how elected, 75 — Courts of justice, 76 — 
 Ecclesiastic courts, 77 — Orphan Chamber, 78 — Salaries of office, 79 — Custom- 
 house returns, 80 — Kingston,, or Eveleary, described, 81— Labourgade, 82 — 
 Cumingsburg, 83 — Artificers, 84 — Bridge-town and New-town, 85— Werken- 
 rust, 86 — Morning twilight longer than evening twilight, 87 — Climate, 88— 
 Coup'dc-soleil, 89 — Mahaica, 90— Seasoning, 91.— Yaws, 92 — ^Jiggers, 93— 
 Ring-worm, 94. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Reynestcin, 95 — Police of a plantation, 96 — Honesty of the negroes, 96 — 
 Farming-stock, 97— Oxen and mules, 98 — Water-carriage of the sugar-canes, 
 99 — Method of manufacture, 100 — Distillation of Rum, 101 — Negro right of 
 settlement, 1 02— Creole children, 103 — Preference given to white masters, 104 
 ^Acquaintance of Mungo Park, 105 — Punishment by torture, 106 — Noble 
 condi.ct of Colonel Heslop, 107 — Gentler modes of treatment, 108— Reform 
 of criminal legislation recommended, 109— Story of Quamin, 110 — Negro va-
 
 SUMMARY OF CONTENTS. 
 
 nity, 111 — Emancipation rarely coveted, 112 — Surgeons paid by the head, 113 
 — Rashness of Europeans in legislating for the West-Indies, 1 15 — Anecdote of 
 an African prince, 116 — Negro-slavery in Africa, 117 — Redemption of slaves, 
 118 — Slave-carrying-trade bill applauded, 119 — White -slave-trade, 120— Use 
 of removal, 121 — Cause of the selling value of slaves, 122 — Claim of mainte- 
 nance, 1 23— Use of sales by auction, 1 24 — Moment when vassalage begins, 
 125 — Cause of vassalage, 126 — Increase of negro population, 127 — Necessity 
 of negro labourers, 128 — Relative mortality, 129 — Abolition of the trade in free 
 negroes alone justifiable, 1 30. 
 
 CHAPTER VI, 
 
 Borasierri, 131 — Leguan, 132 — Fort-island, 133 — Supinama, 134 — First 
 settlement of Essequebo, in 1698, 135 — Amicable tribunal, 136 — ^Taret, or 
 water-worm, 137 — Usefulness of the Caribbees, 138 — Hammock, derivation of, 
 139 — Distilleries most expedient in new countries, 140 — Lowlands first culti- 
 vated by the English, 142 — Stabroek founded in 1774, 143. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Caribbees, 145 — Language, 146 — Manners, 147— Trade, 148— Cannibalism, 
 149 — Worrows, 151 — Accawaws, 152 — Arrowauks, 153 — Nicholas Hortsman, 
 154 — Religion of the Indians, 155 — Feast of the dead, 156 — Polygamy, 159 — 
 Fish caught by infusing hiarra, 160 — Parturition, 161. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Berbice, 163 — History of the colony, 164 — Van Hoom company, 165 — Di- 
 rectory of seven, 166 — Isle of Crabs, 167 — New Amsterdam, 168 — Tavern- 
 bill, 170 — River Canje, 172— CofFee-plantation, 174— Negro-population, 176— 
 Decay of the West-Indian islands, 177— Barbadoes founded the prosperity of 
 Demerary, 178. 
 
 b 2
 
 SUMMARY OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Limits of Berbice, 179 — Governor not an Englishman, 180 — Acre-gckit, 
 IS'2 — Tract between the Devil's creek and the Courantine, 183 — Mutiny of 
 Dutch troops, 185 — Rebels driven beyond the Canjc, 188 — Arrival of Indian 
 auxiliaries, 189 — Story of Weekee, 190 — Surrender of the mutineers, 193. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Insurrection of slaves in 1763, 193 — Fort Nassau blown up, 194 — Cruel 
 punishment of the insurgents, 195 — Aversion of the red men against the black, 
 195 — Gratitude of an Indian, 196 — Abary, 196 — Mahaica, 197 — Nocturnal 
 pastime, 198 — Mahaicony, 199 — Earthquake, theory of, 200 — Lime brought 
 from Eurqpe, 201 — Arabische coast, 202 — Ruins at the fort of Harlipyak, 202 
 — Pomaroon, 203 — Plaintain, 204 — Maize, 204 — Coiton, 205 — Negroes let 
 their labor on Sundays, 206 — Kapoya creek, 207 — Bamboo wanted, 207 — Ex- 
 pioiteurs not numerous enough, 208. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 'Excessive rage for making sugar-eslates, 209 — Seasoned negroes, 210 — Short 
 apprenticeships sufficient among negroes, 211 — Fears of imported lads, 212 — 
 Story of Jem, 213 — Task-gangs, 215 — Timber-trade, 216 — History and descrip- 
 tion of a Dutch settler, 218 — Miss Quasheba Vos, 219^ — General tendency of 
 remote settlers, 222 — Guyana adapted for the natives of lower Germany, 223 — 
 Success of Mr. Vos, 223 — Emigration recommended to young British far- 
 mers, 224. 
 
 -/ 
 
 '^ > CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Animals, 225 — Deer, called wirrebocerra and bajecr, 226 — Hogs, called 
 picaree and warree, 227 — Pucarara, 228 — Armadillo, 229— Quato, 230 — Sac- 
 eawinkee, 231— Ai, 232— Laubba, 233— Alligator, 233— Manati, 234—
 
 SUMMARY OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Guana, 235— Pipa, 236— Lowlow, 237 — Querimaii, 238 — Frog-fish, 239 — 
 Sun-bird, 240 — Mackaw, 241 — Acushe, 242 — Canicani, 243 — Powese, 244 — 
 Marrodee, 245— Kishee-kisliee, 246 — Humming-bird, 247- Carochc, 248 — 
 Fire-fly, 249— Groe-groe, 250 — Chigo, 251. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 Cabbage-tree, 252 — Silk-cotton-tree, 253 — Pipeira, 254 — Iron-wood, 255— 
 Mangrove, 256— Bourra courra,- 257 — Hiarra, 258 — Cocoa-tree, 259 — Ricinus, 
 260 — Guava, 261— Curetta, 263 — Ginger, 64 — Cassava, 265 — Nibbees, 266 
 — Troolies, 267. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Capture of Demerary, 299 — Public papers of Abercromby, 270 — Of Whyte, 
 272— Of Parr, 274- Of Beaujon, 275— Of Meertens, 276— Origin of the en- 
 terprise, 277 — Consequent rise of property, 278 — Confiscation of a regiment of 
 slaves, 279 — Burgher- watch, 281 — Villa of Anthony Meertens, called Rome, 
 283 — Accommodating spirit of the fiscal, 284 — Arbitrary character of Laraai- 
 son, 285 — Inconvenient ascendancy of the French party after the peace of 
 Amiens, 286— Dutch barracks furnished by an English merchant, 290 — Un- 
 wholesomeness of new rum, 292 — Pestilence among the Dutch soldiery, 294 — 
 Smuggling, 296. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 The English enterprizes permanently beneficial, 300 — Carrabanna district, 
 301 — Mahaicony, 302 — Lot of land exchanged for a turkey, 303 — Megass, 
 304 — Bush negroes, 306 — Anecdotes of a negro named Gentleman, 307 — Bar- 
 barity of warfare, 309 — Lands on the Pomaroon granted to the rifle-corps, 
 310 — Victor Hugues' proclamation to encourage a revolt of slaves, 312 — 
 Cayenne, 313 — History of its settlement, 315 — Its productions, 317 — Caravan 
 to the interior, 318 — Desert state of the coast, 319 — Deficient ambition of for-
 
 SUMMARY OF CONTENTS. 
 
 nier ministers, 321 — Botanic garden of Cayenne a most useful establishment, 
 321 — French West-Indians not hostile to the English, 322 — Emancipation of 
 the negroes unpopular in Dutch America, 323— Surrender by connivance, 324 
 —Benefits of British conquest, 326 — Mischievous versatility of government in 
 giving up these conquests at the peace of Amiens, 321 — Large capital thereby 
 sunk, 327. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 Mode of advance to planters, 330 — Re-establishment of the mercantile con- 
 nection with Holland, 331 — Subsequent discredit, 332 — Damages on returned 
 Bills, 334 — Patience of the blacks during famine, 336 — Inhumanity punished, 
 337 — Paramaribo, 338 — Religious liberties of the Dutch, 340 — Moravians, 341 
 — Original settlers, 343 — Kraals of maroon negroes, 344 — Their successive 
 chiefs, 344 — Colonial paper-money, 345 — Coast on fire, 345 — Cottica rebel- 
 lion, 346. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 Ralegh's discovery of Guyana, 347— Of Cain, or Trinidad, 349— River Oia, 
 orOyapoco, 353 — River Barema, {q. Berbice?) 354 — River Pawroma, or Po- 
 maroon, 354 — River Essequebo, 354— River Red-cross, (q. Demerary ?) 356— 
 Orinoko, 357— Amana, 358— Arraroopana, 361 — Caroli, 363. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 Guyana in general, 366— Mountains of Mei, 367— Lake of Parima, 367— 
 Climate, 368— Caribbee islands overvalued, 369— Religion of the people of 
 Guyana, 371— Tolerance praised, 372— Importance of occupying Cayenne, 
 373 — CiviUzation proportioned to the density of populousness, 374— Fairs and 
 public sports for the Indians ought to be instituted, 375 — Utility of extensive 
 empire, 376— Negotiation with Portugal su3:gested, 377— Navigation of the Ma- 
 ranyo, 373— Importance of unrestricted commerce, 379— General Miranda
 
 SUMMARY OF CONTENTS. 
 
 could have added to British Guyana the western bank of the Orinoko, 380— 
 Bocas of the Orinoko a vomitory of privateers, 381 — British conquest better 
 than independence, 382 — Conspiracy of the Protestants in Grenada, 383 — 
 Religious character of the Spaniards, 383— Value of the banks of the Orinoko, 
 384— Civil character of the Spaniards, 385— Importance of a splendid governor- 
 ship, 387 — Recorders desirable in the municipal constitutions, 389 — Custom- 
 house regulations in England inconvenient and oppressive, 392 — Scientific survey 
 recommended, 394— Chinese labourers desirable, 395. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 Ships cleared from E^sequebo and Demerary from 1145 to 1785, 397— 
 Sale of a slave-cargo, 398 — Slave-ships imported from 1745 to 1785, 398 — 
 Specimen of Negro-English, 400.
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 Mr. HENRY BOLINGBROKE was occupied, during tlie 
 summer of 1 806, m prepaying this book for the press, and gave 
 his manuscript to the printers before the close of that year. In con- 
 sequence of his accepting the office of Deputy Vendue Master of Su- 
 ^ rinam, he quitted Norwich in February 1807, at which period, 
 only about twenty-four sheets had been printed off. The rest of the 
 work has not merely been delayed, but has somewhat suffered from his 
 absence; as it was n$t possible for those, who undertook to superin- 
 tend the remainder of the impression, to supply with the exactness of 
 local knowlege, every little chastn of narrative or expressioji. The 
 followiiig are the more important 
 
 ERRORS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 Page 5 line 9 after passport read and a lantern. 
 
 18 4 for well read ill. 
 
 69 8 after pay read on their inward and outward bound cargo, 2 J per cent. 
 
 71 20 for the same read some. 
 
 100 7 for molasses read melasses. 
 
 363 20 after a drought read being mentioned except the remarkable one of 1 803-4.
 
 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF TUB 
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &c. 
 
 CHAPTER r. 
 
 PREFACE EMIGRATION MERITORIOUS EMBARKATION AT 
 
 LIVERPOOL COVE OF CORK PASS MADEIRA AND TENE- 
 
 EIFFE PROPOSAL TO CULTIVATE THE MADEIRA GRAPE 
 
 AT TRINIDAD FIRST VIEW OF THE COAST OF SOUTH 
 
 AMERICA OFF THE MOUTH OF THE COURANTINE 
 
 ANCHORAGE IN THE RIVER DEMERARY PROVISIONS TO 
 
 BE MADE FOR A WEST INDIA VOYAGE — CENSURE OF THE 
 NAVIGATION ACT. 
 
 XhIS Sketch of the Settlements on the Berblce, the Deme- 
 rary, the Esscquebo, and tlie Pomaroon, is in great part copied 
 from successive letters written by the author to his family, in 
 the course of a seven years residence at Stabroek, without any 
 view to publication. He therefore hopes the reader will be 
 content with a plain statement of what he has seen and thought. 
 
 B
 
 2 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 The original epistolary form has been dropped, and so much 
 of arrangement aimed at, as was necessary to prevent repeti- 
 tion ; but the connection of the topics is not very methodical, 
 and facts oftener occur in the order in which they were ac- 
 quired, than in which they might best have been grouped. 
 
 Emolument is not the inducement for attempting this statis- 
 tical account: but a wish of displaying the importance of the 
 settlements now possessed by the British along the northern 
 coast of South America. They are undervalued; and were 
 abandoned at the peace of Amiens with a levity, which low- 
 ered the character of our statesmen for information. If this 
 endeavour to make the district more known should succeed, 
 the author's end is reached. It will be a sufficient gratifica- 
 tion for him to have had it in his power to disclose a new field, 
 where British industry and perseverance are so likely to reap 
 an early reward, and so able to found an immeasurable 
 empire. 
 
 Emigration ought to be classed among the merits of a 
 citizen. The little void an absentee leaves is presently filled. 
 By withdrawing from the competition for employment at 
 home, he favours an increase in the recompense of industry. 
 "Whether he fails, and dies abroad ; or thrives, and returns 
 with a fortune ; he has helped to keep in motion the great 
 wheel of commercial circulation. He, who quits his coimtry.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. S 
 
 does not forsake it; he only chooses a difi'erent post of activity 
 in its behalf. He assists in extending to a distance the imi- 
 tation of its manners, the consumption of its handiwork, the 
 advantage of its intercourse, the popularity of its literature and 
 law. 
 
 Not that I pretend to have been governed by any such sub- 
 hme moral motives, when I determined to seek my fortune on 
 a transatlantic shore. Accident determined nly destiny. The 
 partner of a house in Stabroek, who was at London in 1798, 
 wished to engage an articled clerk on terms which my friends- 
 thought liberal. Fancy and ambition painted, at the termina- 
 tion of a West-Indian voyage, new forms of pleasure and of 
 gain ; and I embarked with delight on board the Comet, 
 Captain Barrow, at Liverpool, on the 25th December, 1798. 
 
 For many days after we left ihe Mersey I was much troubled 
 by sea-sickness. This is a phenomenon which no medical man 
 I ever met with, could satisfactorily explain, and the only ad- 
 vantage I have derived from conversation on the subject, was to 
 collect a few facts. Sea-sickness is most likely to occur, if you 
 stand still upon the deck and watch the motion of the sea. If 
 the eyes be closed, so that the dancing of surrounding objects 
 cannot be perceived, you are less liable to be sick. If you lie 
 in the horizontal posture, the rocking of the ship is almost im- 
 perceptible; hence the most effectual way of avoiding sea-sick- 
 
 B 2
 
 4- STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 ness, is to lie down on your bed. By these means I have often 
 passed in a few minutes from the most dreadful nausea to a 
 state of perfect ease, and could eat, talk, and read, as well as 
 if I were on shore. This, however, is only an escape from 
 sickness, for as soon as I came upon deck again, I found I 
 was as much affected by the motion of the ship, as at first. 
 The only way to conquer it, is to brave it. Strong exercise is 
 good, such as walking the deck. You arc then not so sensi- 
 ble to the motion of the ship. The eyes and the feet are no 
 longer watchful to the slightest movement of objects. Stimu- 
 lent mental occupation is good, such as mirthful conversation, 
 which fills the mind with amusing ideas, and excludes those 
 strange sensations which seem to be the chief cause of the 
 malady. Various means of inferior importance may be 
 mentioned to diminish the effect of the motion of the vessel. 
 To go on board after a light simple meal ; to live temperately, 
 and to eat a litde food at short intervals, rather than more at 
 longer. Strong drinks taken into the stomach are good, if 
 they do not produce intoxication. A single glass of brandy is 
 often useful, but enough to produce drunkenness would obvi- 
 ously be hurtful. Pure water should never be used, but ought 
 to be mixed with a little wine or lemon juice. When the 
 stomach is sufficiently strong, a glass of spirituous bitters will 
 increase the appetite and relieve the remaining sickness.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 5 
 
 We touched at Cork, and lay in the Cove to await convoy : 
 there we took on board live stock and sea stores. This port 
 promises to become important. If it were made a free port ; 
 if goods cotild be landed within a certain ring of wall, or other 
 inclosure, and warehoused without paying any duty, or giving 
 any bond to the custom-house ; the produce always deposited 
 there for the various inlets of the European market would be 
 very considerable. What West-Indian cargoes are carried for- 
 wards to Liverpool can no longer be destined to the Mediter- 
 ranean, to France, to London, without having incurred a 
 needless expence. 
 
 We left Cork on the 4th January, 1799, having several 
 horses on board, which were very troublesome. The laws that 
 prohibit carrying out our best breeds of cattle render necessary 
 a costly and inconvenient exportation of single animals, which 
 might be bred in our continental colonies at less cost. The 
 object of Great Britain ought not to be the furnishing of her 
 colonies with what can more cheaply be produced there ; but 
 the raising of a large population, whose demand would busy 
 her stationary manufactories. 
 
 There is almost always a north wind off the coast of Portu- 
 gal : I do not know why : but the sailors rely on it with con- 
 fidence, and are seldom disappointed. We fell in with it, 
 and were carried by it into the latitude of Madeira. By
 
 6 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the bye, why should the sort of grapes which thrive in 
 this island not be capable of culture in some of the British 
 islands; on the mountains of Trinidad, for instance? Our peo- 
 ple could learn, as well as the Portuguese, to ferment the 
 must in cellars, and to throw in quick lime, when any ten- 
 dency to acetous fermentation is perceived. The government 
 ought to lower the duty on wines imported from the Cape 
 and from Trinidad, so as to confer the monopoly of the Bri- 
 tish market on the wine-makers, who might arise in our own 
 colonies. The olive could in like manner probably be 
 cultivated in the hilly parts of Jamaica, and elsewhere. — 
 Our laws have not enough reciprocity : the colonies must buy 
 no where but in Great Britain ; while Great Britain gives no 
 corresponding preference to her colonies. Now that the 
 Gallipoli oils grow in French territory, there is some chance, 
 perhaps, that an attempt may be made to supply our woollen 
 manufactories from provinces of our own. Recruiting in the 
 Mediterranean for the garrisons in the West-Indies has been 
 suggested ; it might indirectly improve their agriculture, by 
 introducing some peasants accustomed to grow oil, wine, rice 
 and silk. 
 
 On the 27th January we saw the snow on the Peak of 
 Tcncriffe, the only part of Africa I am ever likely to behold. 
 Three of our liorses died in this neighbourhood. On the 
 7th February we were surrounded by flying-fish. Several of
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 7 
 
 them lit on deck. I ate one for my supper. They are not 
 unlike herrings; and fly, it seems, in order to cool themselves 
 by evaporation; for they do not rise in the night, and always 
 replunge into the water as soon as their wings are dry. The 
 heat was become excessive: the nautilus sailing with his fan; 
 and the cerulean brilliance of the dorado moved by golden 
 fins, were new objects to me. 
 
 On the 8th our main-top-gallant mast caught fire from the 
 friction of a rope newly tarred. This accident retarded us; 
 we fell astern of tlie whole convoy, but recovered our dis- 
 tance a day or two after, though we were all equally assisted 
 by the trade-wind. Some days before we made land the co- 
 lour of the sea changed from a deep sky blue to an olive 
 tinge, as if there was mud below ; but the water when exa- 
 mined in a glass shewed no sign of turbidness. 
 
 After a passage of seven weeks it may naturally be supposed 
 we were very happy when one of the seamen from the fore- 
 top-gallant mast head gave us the joyful warning of " Land, 
 ahead," which was on the 2-1-th of February. The ship 
 Henry, with which we were then in company, having parted 
 convoy in the latitude of Barbadoes, made us a signal " for 
 land discovered on the weather bow." Captain Barrow then 
 went aloft with a glass, and saw plainly a long range of coast 
 running off east to west, distant about five leagues — the land
 
 8 fTATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 appeared very low, and completely covered with trees even 
 down to the water's edge. The day was clear and serene, to 
 the utmost transparency of a tropical atmosphere. On heav- 
 ing the lead we were much alarmed, by being in only quarter 
 less five water, and immediately made a signal to speak our 
 consort. She accordingly came up alongside, and under- 
 standing our apprehension. Captain Hayton assured us there 
 was no danger ; that it was low water and neap tides — that 
 there was a necessity for our standing in for the land close 
 hauled, to discover what part of the coast we were on, and to 
 prevent the flood tide, which was then making, from carrying 
 us too far to leeward. 
 
 As he was acquainted with the coast, we agreed to follow him 
 and obey his signals. The Comet being the best sailer of the 
 two, we shortened sail, and took a reef in the top-sails to keep 
 farther astern of the Henry. About noon we were so close in 
 as to discover a river to windward of us — we were then in 
 three fathom water. The bottom was soft mud, nothing else 
 had adhered to the tallow put into the bottom of the sound- 
 ing lead. While Captain Barrow was in this state of un- 
 pleasant suspense, not knowing where he was or what to 
 do, the Henry made a signal for preparing to anchor. We 
 accordingly coach-wheeled three or four coils of the cable on 
 deck, and in the mean time ran alongside to enquire where 
 we were. Captain Hayton told us the river to windward was
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 9 
 
 tlie Courantine, situate between the Berblce and the Surinam, 
 and that we were about a hundred miles to the eastward of 
 Demerary river, but that he thought It adviseable to come to 
 during the night, and recommended a sharp look-out to be 
 kept, as the coast was much infested with privateers from the. 
 Orinoko. 
 
 We altered our course two points to the westward, which 
 accordingly brought us more in a parallel with the coast, 
 which I had now an opportunity of particularly observing : it 
 was low and perfectly flat, and from its appearance quite 
 wild and uncultivated. Large forests of trees extend along the 
 coast even to the beach,, which appeared to consist of mud, 
 with but few intervals of sand. This prospect of a country, 
 in which I was to become a resident for five years, certainly 
 was not the most flattering, but it being the end of my jour- 
 ney, and the first land I had seen for several weeks^ I beheld 
 it with glad eyes, and really thought it a most delightful place. 
 I looked on the forests of trees as so many pervious groves 
 and pleasant plantations, and compared the situation of the 
 sea-shore, in my mind's eye, to sonie of our watering places 
 in England — I hugged myself with the idea of traversing 
 those rural retreats of wood, and hearing the dashing of the 
 waves against the lofty mangroves in my supposed walks of 
 retirement. 
 
 c
 
 lb STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Highly gratified by this verdant scenery, and the refreshing 
 breeze having completely recovered me from the remaining 
 qualms of sea-sickness, I retired once more to my state-room, 
 but not to sleep. The watch being set, the careful mariner 
 was pacing the deck, and universal silence reigned, inter- 
 rupted at intervals with the hollow yet pleasing sound of 
 " All's well," and the chiming of the half-hour bells. I 
 counted eight when the starboard watch was called, and 
 again visited the deck. The flood tide had made, which hav- 
 ing raised the anchor we had drifted a little, and tlie seamen 
 were employed in veering out more cable — a total stillness 
 seemed to pervade the sky — the breeze which had before been 
 so brisk had died away, and left a perfect calm — the swell 
 and roughness of the sea had subsided — nothing was heard but 
 a rippling against the vessel's side, and the voices of tlie sea- 
 men singing " Yo heave yo," — the moon was just descending 
 below the horizon — the air was m'dd, and I found that repose 
 on a hen-coop on deck which my bed denied me. 
 
 I was aroused in the morning between five and six hy a 
 bustle and confusion on deck: the day was already breaking 
 from the east, and the splendour of the rising sun was surpass- 
 ingly grand. The seamen were weighing the anchor in com- 
 pliance witli a signal from the Henry. This was a more dif- 
 ficult task tlian we were aware of, and after having attempted 
 the execution of it for two houis, we were absolutely obliged
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 1 I 
 
 to relinquish it for the present : as, however, we had neigli- 
 bour's fare, we could not complain — the Henry was in the same 
 situation. Captain Hayton hailed and told us that we should not 
 be able to purchase our anchor while the ebb tide was running, 
 as it had taken such hold of the mud, but advised our hauling 
 the cable short at low water; and that when the flood tide made, 
 the anchor would weigh itself. We had no other resource, 
 and it was not until ten o'clock, that we were under weigh, 
 with a light breeze from the north east, which, however, soon 
 brought us off the mouth of Berbice river. Here the scene 
 began to vary : the stream appeared to be about two miles 
 broad, and nearly in the middle of the channel is an island, 
 which from a chart we had on board, I learnt was called 
 Crab Island. It abounds with land-crabs. With a glass we 
 discovered ships lying at anchor; and the small craft sailing 
 about in shore and coastways were clearly perceptible to the 
 naked eye from the deck. The coast to the eastward of the 
 river was ae wild as that we had seen the day before off the 
 Courantine — that to tlic westward appeared to be cultivated, 
 and we had again the pleasure of beholding habitations on 
 firm ground, interrupted at intervals with clumps of trees, 
 which had been allowed to remain at the searside on some of 
 the estates, and made a pleasing variety. 
 
 Tbe phntations regularly ranged on the coast, which being 
 a Jlat strand, shewed them to advantage as on a map, the foliage 
 
 c2
 
 1^ STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 quite green, clusters of little cottages, some detached buildings, 
 the better sort of houses, of two, tliree, and four stories high, 
 painted white, and the red boarded roofs, made many an in- 
 teresting groupe, and gave to every plantation the air of a se- 
 parate village. The passing and repassing of schooners and 
 other colony-boats, considerably enlivened the landscape. 
 This character of country continued all the way to the De- 
 merary. "We went over the bar safely, but night coming on, 
 we were obliged to anchor about two miles from the river's 
 mouth, and did not get in till the next morning, when a pilot 
 came off and took charge of the vessel, which he brought to 
 anchor under the gmis of Fort William Frederic. Now that the 
 breeze blew over land we were delighted with its orange-like 
 fragrance. The scenery is much more diversified about this 
 river's moutli, than on the other parts of the coast. A number 
 of wind-mills appeared at work both on the east and west side 
 of the Demerary. Several handsome and spacious mansions, 
 with look-outs on the beach, the principal ones of which, 1 
 afterwards understood, belong to the Bel-Air estate and the* 
 Chateau-Margot. 
 
 The mouth of the Demerary lies in 6, 50 north latitude, 
 and 58 west longitude from London. The province which 
 it waters, bears the same name, but might more conveniently 
 bp called Demeraria. Its extent of sea-coast is nearly one 
 hundred mil^s, running west, and by north and west; it is
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DETVrERARY^ 5cC. 15 
 
 bounded on the east by Berbice, and to the Westward by Esse- 
 quebo. The river at its' entrance is nearly a mile and a half 
 broad, and has a bar four milies without of mud, over which 
 no vessel drawing more than nine feet, can pass until half ftood. 
 
 At high water and spring tides, there are eighteen feet on 
 this bar ; but great care must be taken by vessels going in, to 
 keep well up to the east shore. AVhen the mariner is close 
 enough to perceive th€ shipping, fort, &c. he should keep 
 bearing E. S. E. until he gets within a mile and a- half of it,- 
 then keep the river a little more open, which brings him into 
 a- channel where there are three or four fathoms of water, by 
 which means he clears the weather-bank of sand, which runs 
 out from the point; just round Which is a battery called Fort 
 AVilliam Frederic, mounting eighteen heavy pieces of cannon. 
 Half a mile east from it, is a block-house, which has a com- 
 manding view of the sea, and a communication by signal 
 with Berbice, wliich gives immediate notice of any \'iessels 
 being off the coast. 
 
 Captain Barrow went on shore to report the vessel to the 
 commandant, when he got a passport for going up the river. 
 We were then visited by the surgeon of health and the har- 
 bour-master, who left their respective instructions : we were 
 not troubled by any custom-house officer. A clerk of the 
 merchant, to whom I was to be attached, came on board in> the
 
 14- STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 afternoon with Captain Barrow, in a handsome tent-boat, 
 rowed by six negroes, and the ship's yawl followed with a 
 load of grass for the horses, which was no doubt very accept- 
 able to them. 
 
 Let him who is about to set sail for the West Indies, be tho- 
 roughly aware that his voyage may endure three months, that 
 he is likely to incur every variety of climate, that the fresh 
 water on board is too precious to be squandered on the wash- 
 ing of linen, and that stores, which a captain thinks luxurious, 
 pass with the passenger for hard fare. Let him therefore be 
 provided with half a dozen checked shirts, and as many black 
 silk cravats, both which may be worn long without looking 
 dirty. If the north-east wind blows in the channel, he will 
 be glad of cloth pantaloons and a warm jacket, thick boots and 
 a stout great coat; and with all this wrapping, when he sits still 
 in the long boat, his teeth will chatter and his thighs shiver. 
 On the contrary, when he approaches the tropics, he will 
 want nankeen trowsers, fine cotton shirts, silk stockings, 
 cloaths light, airy, large, a chip hat, and loose yellow slip- 
 pers. In the shade of the sail he will complain of the heat of 
 the wind, and were it not for the sharks below, would ask to 
 be towed through the water at a rope's end. The passenger 
 who aspires to be comfortable at the latter part of the voyage, 
 does well to take out two or three dozen fine shirts of cotton 
 twist, as it absorbs the perspiration better than linen, as many
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 15 
 
 muslin cravats, plenty of pocket-handkerchieves, six or eight 
 pair of gingham trowsers, three or four dimity, or jean, or 
 thinner waistcoats with sleeves, and two dozen pair of those 
 cotton stockings called gauze stockings, which are made for 
 the foreign market to be worn under the silk. It is good eco- 
 nomy to take out these things in profusion ; they will be use- 
 ful on shore, where they cost far more than in England. Few 
 English dress cloaths are wanted ; one coat is sufficient ; an 
 umbrella and a travelling cloak may be welcome. 
 
 To fit up a bed, a small mattrass, blanket, and cotton sheets, 
 must be procured at the slop-sellers. Napkins, a square or 
 two of soap, a few needles and some thread and tape will also 
 be found very useful articles. Every traveller should learn to 
 sew, as there is no opportunity on the road or on ship-board, 
 of sending to a tailor or a female, to fasten on a button or stop a 
 seam, and the old adage of " A stitch in time saves nine," is fre- 
 quently found very applicable ; the worst of cloaths are always 
 good enough to wear on ship-board. A passenger should pro- 
 vide himself with a few dozen bottles of wine and porter, and 
 half a dozen of spirits ; but the less he drinks of these the bet- 
 ter for his health ; also four or five dozen fowls, a few ducks, 
 two or three hams, and as many smoaked tongues, a few bottles 
 of pickled cabbage or gherkins, a couple of pounds of tea, and 
 a loaf of sugar. He will have ship's allowance of salt beef, 
 pork, biscuit, and flour. Two or three young pigs and a
 
 15 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 lamb make a welcome change of diet, and can be easily 
 enough conveyed out ; the captain, if he had no other in- 
 ducement than the expectancy of a share, would put them 
 into one of his boats on deck, and take good care of them. 
 Provisions must be laid in for the live stock, such as barley, 
 bran, &c. A West-Indiaman has generally only one large 
 cabin, in which, the passengers, captain, and mate dine (un- 
 less the former engage the cabin to themselves, in which case 
 it is held sacred), and three or four state-rooms, sufficiently 
 large for placing a crib on one side and a trunk on the other. 
 jcj Steerage passengers have their biVth in the steerage, and mess 
 with the crew. 
 
 In the hot latitudes, the British shipping suffers considerable 
 injury from the heat of the sun. The boards of the deck must 
 be continually wetted to prevent their splitting quite asunder. 
 The tar of the caulking liquefies, and the seams open formi- 
 dably. Unless the vessels are copper-bottomed, the adherence 
 of barnacles and other very little shell-fish, and of long sea- 
 grass, is so considerable as to retard the sailing; and the water- 
 worm perforates the timber in so many places, as often to oc- 
 casion a fatal leaklness. Our colony-craft is always bottomed 
 with sieurbally, a very hard wood, but not absolutely worm- 
 proof. Still these hard woods make far fitter vessels for the 
 tropical seas than the European timber. And if the teak-tree
 
 SETTLEMENTS OKT THE DEMERARY, &C. 17 
 
 was cultivated in our districts, as in the East Indies, we should 
 no doubt be still better off. 
 
 The perverseness of the English navigation-laws provides for 
 the West-Indian trade a most perishable sort of shipping; when, 
 by suffering ships to be built on the coast of South America, 
 a much cheaper and more durable commodity could be had. 
 If British-built ships had no peculiar privileges, little colonies 
 of ship-carpenters would go and station themselves in all tlie 
 woody parts of South America, which are within reach of 
 water- carriage ; would there build, at a venture, vessels in- 
 numerable on the spot, and bring them for sale to the chief 
 sea-ports. "With the refuse timber they would construct their 
 own huts, and would found a number of villages, the seats 
 of future commerce and consumption. The lumber and 
 shingle now got from North America, both here and in the 
 West Indies, could in great part be derived from the southern 
 continent, and a set of wood-clearers would originate there 
 also, to prepare the extension of agriculture inland. Lord Bla- 
 quiere, and the other parliamentary advocates of the old navi- 
 gation-laws, do not seem aware of the positive mischief and 
 hourly loss resulting from the use of British-built shipping ; 
 nor of the delay of colonial improvement resulting from re- 
 fusing to tlicir vast forests the natural market. Provinces of 
 w'oods now valueless would acquire an instantaneous impor- 
 tance, a transferable marketable worth, if ships built in the
 
 18 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Esscqucbo, or tlie Orinoko, had all the privileges of British 
 shipping; and vessels could be built, in future much cheaper 
 at home, if the competition of the tropical trade, for which fir 
 and oak shipping are well adapted, were in some measure 
 withdrawn. The navigation laws have done nothing but mis- 
 chief; they delayed, by half a century, tlie natural progress 
 of North America, and therefore in a great degree, occasioned 
 her rebellion ; and if they are not repealed with respect to the 
 "West Indies, they threaten to occasion there a practical anar- 
 chy, in which the sovereignty of Britain will be nominally re- 
 spected in her colonies, but her laws every where disobeyed 
 by a general connivance. The several governors are obliged 
 to exert perpetually a dispensing power, and thus, in fact, to 
 abrogate a system of legislation, which accumulated experi- 
 ence has shown to be pernicious. 
 
 There are some convincing observations on this subject in 
 the Annual Review for ISO^, which I hold it useful to repeat. 
 
 ** The fundamental principle of our navigation-laws, presents 
 itself already in a statute of tlie fifth year of Richard II. which 
 enacts that none bring in or carry out merchandize but in En- 
 glish ships. This regulation was somewhat relaxed in favour 
 of the French provinces belonging to England ; for under 
 Henry VII. additional provisions were made in the fourth 
 year of his reign, for importing the claret of Guienne in
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 19 
 
 English vessels. Selden drew the attention of the long parlia- 
 ment to this subject ; and, by his speeches and controversial 
 pamphlets, prepared that systematic attention of the legislature 
 to secure a monopoly of the shipping-trade employed about 
 our own importations and exportations, which is so efficiently 
 pursued in tjie 12th Charles II. This bill, known by the 
 name of the navigation-act, by its severe and precise definition 
 of English vessels, completely realized what the statute of 
 Richard II. had in view. It is a law which appears singularly 
 wise to Lord Sheffield, which he considers as the trident of 
 the British Neptune, and which he holds up as the principal 
 and perpetual cause of our maritime prosperity and superiority." 
 
 " We doubt the utility of this vaunted navigation-act. 
 
 " I. If EngWsh-built ships had no peculiar privileges, vessels 
 would be built where timber is cheapest: in Canada, in the Su- 
 rinam, and elsewhere. This would occasion some exportation 
 of shipwrights to the woodier regions of the earth, a more 
 rapid colonization of them, and the consequent extension of 
 the British market for produce and manufacture. It would oc- 
 casion some diminution of the value of timber at home, thus 
 cheapening the expei^ce of naval defence and territorial archi- 
 tecture, and favouring the conversion of forest into pasture. 
 The sorts of timber too could then be suited to the probable 
 voyage; and teak shipping could be constructed for the tropl- 
 
 D 'J
 
 20 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 cal seas, which so rapidly destroy Ijr and oak shippmg. It 
 would occasion the Irequeiit purchase of I'orcign vessels, when- 
 ever war or similar causes interrupt the trade ot" the continent, 
 and thus be continually adding the very implements of foreign 
 commerce to our own. Our wealth would long ago have ob- 
 tained a much larger share of the shipping, and of the at- 
 tached commerce of tlie world, but for this restriction of the 
 navigation-law. Besides, if the ships of each country are 
 transferable to every other, a smaller number of shi{>s can ac- 
 complish the business of the world. While the trade of the 
 Baltic becomes inactive from frost, or of the Mediterranean 
 from indolence, the appropriate shipping might be employed 
 in the Atlantic ; but if the proprietors of the Atlantic islands 
 may not employ foreign vessels, they must create native ones; 
 which in their turn will have to repose, while they might 
 have been sold or let, beyond the Sound or the Streights. The 
 builth, wear, and tear of all this needless shipping must be le- 
 vied on the consumer of removed wares in the price of freight; 
 and thus, in some degree, discouriige both the production and 
 removal of such ware, 
 
 " II. If EngVish-mamied sliips had no peculiar privileges, 
 sailors would be hired where they can be hired cheapest. For 
 tropical voyages, lascars; for arctic voyages, norse-men, would 
 mostly be engaged, and thus the drains of war and climate on 
 our population would imperceptibly be replaced ; and the
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 21 
 
 supply of natives requisite for the navy would far more easily 
 be obtained. The expcnce of sailors* wages too, being in that 
 case as low in Great Britain as in any other country, would 
 not be peculiarly burdeiisome to our resident ship-owners. 
 That depreciation of freight, which the successful competition 
 of foreign shipping has often occasioned, and which, at times, 
 threatens to oust us of the carrying-trade, would never result 
 from the relative state of wages, and, therefore, less frequently 
 occur. " If, in consequence of the alertness of our masters of 
 vessels, and of their economy of time, our ship-owners can 
 successfully compete with foreigners, who pay lower wages 
 for their crews, how much vaster would be our shipping-in- 
 terest, but for this restriction of the navigation law i 
 
 "III. If EngVish-oicner'd ships had no peculiar privileges, al- 
 most all vessels, not employed in the coasting-trade, would 
 be owned conjointly by Englishmen and foreigners. The ves- 
 sels trading to Hamburgh or the Baltic, would belong in part 
 to the English houses, to whom they would be consigned 
 here ; and belong in part to the Hamburghers or Anseatic citi- 
 zens, to whom they would be consigned in the North Seas. 
 The vessels trading to America, would have their proprietors 
 resident there. In those trading to the Mediterranean, mer- 
 chants of Livomo and Smyrna would purchase small shares, 
 in order to secure a preference of consignation. The conse- 
 quence of interesting a consignee in the profits of a ship is,
 
 22 ■ STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 that the expence of demurrage, or stay in a foreign port, is 
 thereby greatly lessened. He has to gain by delaying a ship 
 wholly British ; he has to gain by expediting a sliip partly his 
 own. In the one case, the hulk yawns for a cargo, during 
 months, beside the mole ; in the other case, it is discharged 
 and re-charged, like a Scotch still. Immense is the labour 
 lost to the country, and to the world, in consequence of the 
 impediment to foreign partnerships, imposed by this restric- 
 tion of the navigation-act. But it has still another mischievous 
 operation. In time of war, vessels jointly owner'd are easily 
 transferred to the neutral party; and thus commerce would 
 be very exempt from the troubles of war; but vessels, all 
 whose owners are English, cannot suddenly, or in large num- 
 bers be transferred, so as to reap the advantages of neutrality. 
 Hence the necessity of permitting merchants to turn their ves- 
 sels into privateers. This barbarous practice increases during 
 vyar.the quantity of positive destruction and of unproductive 
 labour ; and it supersedes the navy in a sort of piratical vigi- 
 lance, which ought rather to be the occupation and the reward 
 of valour than of industry. 
 
 . ."These three points are the principal provisions of the navi- 
 gation-act. It requires vessels to be built at home, manned 
 from home, oiv7ied at home. Lord Sheffield will not find it 
 easy to prove any one of these regulations beneficial. They 
 existed, without creating £i marine, from Richard the Second
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, Scc. 23 
 
 to Henry the Eighth. As soon as the colonies, or plantations, 
 began to thrive, a marine grew up ; which, in the Dutch war 
 of Cromwell, and in that at tlie beginning of the reign of 
 Charles the Second (both before the navigation-act), was equal 
 or superior to the united navies of France and Holland. Our 
 naval strengsh has gruwn with our colonial intercourse, not 
 by means of, but in spite of the act of navigation. It was 
 found absolutely necessary to break in upon this act in the 
 25th of Geo. UI. by what was calltl the Dutch Property Act; 
 without which Britain could not have profited from the migra- 
 tion of Dutch capital, rendered natural by the French con- 
 quest of Holland. A further inroad of a more equivocal 
 kind was made the year following, by conferring a dispensing 
 power on the privy-council ; a measure the resource of lazi- 
 ness, which cared not to discuss, and dared not to abandon 
 decidedly, the old system."
 
 2'!' STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 LANDING AT STABROEK — FIRST IMPRESSION OF THE PLACE 
 .■ AND PEOPLE VISIT TO THE REYNESTEIN ESTATE 
 
 RIVER DEMERARY ASCENDED TO THE SAND-HILLS AND 
 
 RAPIDS, 
 
 W: 
 
 E landed about noon at the American wharf. It spread 
 like wild-fire that we were from one of the vessels just arri- 
 ved ; and our captain was soon surrounded by the whole band 
 of hucksters and pedlars belonging to the town. Here were 
 blacks, yellows, and tawnies, bawling and vociferating in a 
 wretched jargon, half Dutch and half English, whether he 
 had any thing to sell — each trying to hitch himself closer than 
 his neighbour. Not liking to be inclosed within this stifling 
 ring of people, I took an opportunity of slipping between a 
 stout mulatto woman and a negro butcher six feet high, leav- 
 ing Captain Barrow in the midst of his assurances that he had 
 plenty of goods for sale. Seeing some fine oranges I asked 
 for six-penny-worth; the negress gave me thirty. I was 
 obliged to call in the aid of my handkerchief and pockets to 
 contain them. This was a scene which stamped me as a new- 
 comer. Several negroes standing by oft'ered to carry the 
 oranges for me. Others greeted me on my arrival witk
 
 SETTLEMENTS OjN THE DEMERARY, ScC. 85 
 
 "How d'ye massa? You come from Buchra Country no? 
 Buchra Country Good!" 
 
 Stabrock was to me quite a new sight. I recollected no 
 English town which bore the least resemblance. It stands on 
 the flat strand, and canals, where black and tawny children 
 were plunging about like didappers, inclose the main street: 
 while wooden houses, with colonnaded porticoes and balco- 
 nies shaded by a projecting roof, are orderly arranged between 
 spacious intervals in three parallel lines. They are seldom 
 above two story high : they stand on low brick foundations, 
 arid are roofed with a red wood, which I took for mahogany. 
 No where the glitter of a glass casement; Venetian blinds, or 
 jealousees as they are called by the inhabitants, close every 
 window; and the rooms project in all directions to catch the 
 luxury of a thorough draft of air, so that the ground-plan of a 
 dwelling is mostly in the shape of a cross. There are no trees 
 in the streets as in Holland ; the town would have been plea- 
 santer with this imitation of the old country; but casks and 
 bales lie about, as if every road was a wharf, and numerous 
 warehouses are intermingled with the d\yellings. Even the pub- 
 lic buildings are of wood. Blacks clad only \yith a blue pan- 
 taloon, or with a mere towel of checking supported by a string 
 about the loins, come to perform every office. Here and therQ 
 a white man in a muslin shirt, and gingham trowsers is seen 
 smoaking his segar, and giving directions from under an um- 
 
 E
 
 26 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 brella to his sable messengers; or is led about In a phaeton 
 drawn by ponies to superintend the shipping of his goods. 
 A noon-day sultriness and silence prevail : every motion is 
 performed with such tranquillity for fear of kicking up a dust, 
 that one vt^ould suppose the very labourers at work in a church 
 during service. 
 
 Being now overtaken by Captain Barrow, who came blow- 
 ing and puffing from the fatiguingly warm reception he met 
 with on his landing, we were conducted to the merchant with 
 whom I was destined to reside. The first refreshment offered 
 me was Madeira wine and water. The water was clear and 
 cool, and a great luxury. I had not tasted such all the 
 voyage ; I had not cared for such all my life before. It was 
 rain-water, I found, preserved in a wooden cistern, and puri- 
 fied by dropping through a filtering stone. The river-water is 
 brackish, and there are no good springs near Stabroek. 
 
 I next retired to cleanse myself from the make-shift habits of 
 the voyage. A shower-bath was offered me, which I ac- 
 cepted. I got into an upright square tub or cistern ; and a 
 negress watered me like a transplanted cucumber. The ac- 
 commodations for bathing are unworthy of the climate. In 
 all fevers and especially in that which Europeans call the sea- 
 soning, bathing is the most essential remedy. For luxury, for 
 yieatness, it is a most valuable pastime. By the time I had
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, ^C. 27 
 
 unpacked, washed, and dressed, dinner was ready, namely 
 a^ five. 
 
 A dinner at Stabroek is a sort of mercantile medley of the 
 imitable parts of the manners of remote nations. There wai 
 soop to begin with as in France, and salted ling to begin with 
 as in Holland : there was an English huge joint of beef and a 
 couple of Moscovy ducks: there was an Italian desert of Bo- 
 logna sausages and sallad, anchovies and olives: there was fruit 
 of all kinds, pine-apples, guavas, oranges, shaddocks and 
 avoiras. Wine was taken during the repast, and porter be- 
 tween the courses, for a bonne-bouche. 
 
 At dusk, spermaceti candles were lighted, and placed within 
 large cones of glass, to prevent the wind from blowing them 
 aside. Segars were offered to us at the whist table, and most 
 of the party smoaked, and drank coffee. A hammock, pro- 
 tected by a gauze curtain against the mosquitoes, was allotted 
 me to sleep in, until beds could be put up. 
 
 The household establishment I found to consist of eight 
 male and two female negro-servants; a strange disproportion. 
 The house was spacious, airy, and open, with pervious shut- 
 ters, to admit every where a free circulation of air. 
 
 e2
 
 ^8" STATISTICAL ACCd'tTNt Of tHE 
 
 A few days after my arrival I accompanied my friend up 
 the river on a visit to the Reyncstcin estate. Our conveyance 
 was a tent-boat. They are generally from twenty to thirty 
 feet long, aiid vvid6 in proportion; they afe btiiTt vefy- Sharp 
 for the purpose of sailing 6r rowing fa^t. About six or eight 
 feet of the; s^ern arc occupied by the ^ent, i'n the inside of 
 .which are Winds" to let down as occasion re^uii-es. A" cockpit 
 Js behTnd" for ttve cockswalfi to' steer ht. fife is* styled Captain, 
 a'hd has entire command 6f thfe boat. The negroes while pul- 
 ling fbblc off their hats and jackrets; they appeared quite 
 nierry and sung all the way — the chorus of their principal 
 and most favourite song was " Good Neger make good 
 Massa;" and was repeated at intervals by one whose sole part 
 that was. 
 
 They appeared to have a great pride and" emulation about 
 thcii' boat, and an opportunity offered of shewing it. Ano- 
 ther boat being considerably a-head of us they exerted them- 
 selves of their own accord, and soon passed her. With this 
 they were highly delighted, and, when abreast of their com- 
 petitors, laid oh their oars and insuhingly asked them if they 
 wanted a tow-rope. 
 
 The Demerary is, as' I before' sa'id, two miles broad it its 
 mouth, but inland it does not exceed one mile and a half. Its 
 bed runs up this width perfectly straight to Diamond point.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 2d 
 
 ^^•luch is about ten miles from Stabrock, where it takes a course 
 more westward. The river affords an excellent harbour, and 
 would, in fact, hold all the navy of Great Britain, but unfor- 
 tunately the bar will not admit vessels that draw rhdre than 
 eighteen feet. Ships lying here are completely sheltered from 
 all squalls and tempestuous weather, nor do hurricanes ever 
 occur. The water in the mid-channel deepened as we pro- 
 ceeded from four to six fathoms. 
 
 The cultivation along the river is confined to sugar, coffee^' 
 and plantains, with a small quantity of cocoa and rice. Tltei' 
 latter was but recently introduced ; however, little doubt w^aCs' 
 entertained of its being made perfectly to answer the purp6s6' 
 of the colony; and if the cultivation v^^as encouraged by g^<J- 
 vernment, it would soon rival that of South Carolina, being 
 aided by a great similarity of climate. The river affords pic- 
 turesque but uniform scenery. Plantations regularly ranged' 
 on' either side— dwelling-houses built on the binli^s close t6' the 
 water — other buildings scattered about in different direction^," 
 without respect to order — the wind, water, and cattle rhillsV 
 oW the sugar estates, with the logics, or barns, of three storii^s 
 high, on the coffee ones^-A^ade a pretty conti'a^t. Every 
 plantation has a wharf, di^ landing-place, opposite the' dwel- 
 ling-house, and a canal, or trench, with sluices, which' an- 
 swer two purposes, to drain off the superfluous water on the
 
 so STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 estate, and to harbour boats, &c. while they are loading or 
 disciiarging. 
 
 The plantations along the river, as well as in the other parts 
 of the colonies, were surveyed and laid out in grants, or al- 
 lotments, of live hundred acres, by the Dutch West India 
 Company. They are of an oblong form, the frontage being 
 one hundred roods, and the depth seven hundred and fifty ; 
 with a conditional grant of as much more behind the first, 
 when two thirds of that should be cultivated. All the estates 
 on the river are now entitled to diis, and many of them have 
 already carried their cultivation thirteen or fourteen hundred 
 roods from the banks of the river in a straight line with the 
 extended sides of the front dam, or ditch, thrown up to pre- 
 vent the water in spring tides from inundating the land. Two 
 side dams are likewise thrown up, and extend as far as the 
 cultivation, where they join a back dam: so that an estate is a 
 complete island within itself, and dammed on all sides. Every 
 plantation is therefore obliged to have a bridge on each side, 
 to permit the traveller to cross these trenches and canals, in pro- 
 secution of his journey. Like public roads, these bridges are 
 obliged to be kept in repair, and according to an act of the 
 court of police, to be painted white, that they may be seen 
 with more facility in a dark night.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 31 
 
 The cultivation of sugar and coffee on the banks of the river 
 has a pretty effect. Boats sailing up and down, and windmills 
 at work, gave me a favourable idea of the industry of the in- 
 habitants. The principal craft used in the river are punts, or 
 flat-bottomed boats, about thirty feet long and eight wide, 
 nearly square at both ends, which, from drawing little water, 
 are well calculated for the trenches, or canals, of an estate. 
 They are generally large enough to stow twenty hogsheads of 
 sugar with facility, and may be compared to the lighters on 
 the Thames. In Stabroek there are people who let them out 
 to discharge or load ships, at the moderate price of from 
 twenty to thirty shillings per day. / 
 
 * The estates on the river, I was informed, had greatly in- 
 creased and extended themselves since 1796, as well as those 
 on the coast ; and where there was one sugar-plantation then, 
 there were five now. Three fine new canals are already dug, 
 and carried twenty miles into the Interior, and, as the water- 
 carriage extends, fresh lands are getting into cultivation, in 
 coffee, sugar, and plantains. 
 
 * Pinckard has given an erroneous idea to the public about these estates 
 being abandoned. On the contrary, they are improved, and increased, as is 
 also the number of negroes. The land on the sea-coast is unfit for the pro- 
 duction of sugar, coffee, and plantains, from the soil being too saline.
 
 S? STATISTICAL ACCQUNT OF TKp 
 
 The head of ope of tliese canals which I visited, reposed in 
 a |fine Savannah country, of several miles extent, presenting th^ 
 same flat scenery which ciiaracterizcs the other parts of the 
 colony. Not a mountain, a hill, or a mole-heap was percep- 
 tible. No wonder the Dutch ftxed here: a Lincolnshire man 
 Woiild fancy hirnself at home. The navigatio;i is good a fev( 
 miles up for schooners; but the principal craft used are punts 
 covered in, like the tent-boats. 
 
 f^ After passing Diamond point we came in sight of a small 
 
 ^ island, where was formerly the fort and scat of government. 
 It may be about two miles in circumference, and is possessed 
 by a wood-cutter, who has a plantain walk, here. A consi- 
 derable quantity of swine and poultry are raised for sale, 
 which answers uncommonly well, from its vicinity to Stabroek. 
 
 Nearly opjX)site to the lower point of Fort Island, and on 
 the west side of the river is situated the plantation Reynestein, 
 about two hours and a half from Stabroek. 1 his was the an- 
 swer I got when enquiring the distance between one place, 
 and the other. I smiled at the laconism, and repeated my 
 question In a different form. I was then given to understand 
 i^ was about fifteen or sixteen miles, but that the distances had 
 never been measured, for which reason they always calculated 
 by the length of time they were in performing a journey.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 33 
 
 Wc were received in a handsome, kind, liospitable manner, 
 at the landing-place, by the proprietor, who welcomed me to 
 the country, and wished me my health. He himself had 
 been an inhabitant of this clime for fifteen years, and left his 
 native land at the same age I did. A party of friends was 
 assembled in the house, to whom I was introduced; we after- 
 wards partook of a cold collation, and drank sangaree, a 
 composition resembling negus, and pine-apple punch, 
 
 Yi{|r The Reynestein is a sugar estate, and in my walks about il 
 I had an opportunity of making several remarks. There are 
 navigable canals all over the estate, which fall into one grand 
 stream that turns the water-mill. By these canals the sugar- 
 cane is brought to the mills in punts. In the AVest India 
 islands, I was informed, the planters are obliged to convey the 
 produce from the fields by mules ; herein certainly the De- 
 merary planter possesses an evident advantage, both with re- 
 gard to labor and cxpence. The sugar-reed is naturally a 
 marsh-plant, and succeeds best in wet soils. 
 
 During my perambulation, I was astonished at seeing the 
 quantity of pine-apples, growing apparently in a wild state, on 
 the banks of the canals. I got one, which not proving very 
 good, my friend pulled four or five, and threw them away 
 like so many turnips, until he procured me one that was ripe. 
 It is a common thing to feed swine with them. My astonish- 
 
 F
 
 Si STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 ment was increased when our conductor took us to a large 
 trench, fifty rood long and twelve feet wide, which was abso- 
 lutely filled up with pine-apples : they so completely over- 
 ran the estate at one time, that he was obliged to root them 
 up lor the purpose of preventing their further extei\sbn. On 
 tills estate there is a walk of fruit-trees nearly a mile long, 
 consisting of orange, lime, lemon, mammy-apple, sour sop, 
 cocoa-nut, and wild cherry trees. 
 
 Dinner was served up at five in the greatest elegance of 
 style; it consisted of two courses, and included every rarity 
 the colony produced, aided by European productions. There 
 wivs excellent wine, London porter in its prime, and bottled 
 table beer. The negro attendants displayed great dexterity in 
 laying the cloth, and waiting at table. Every thing appeared 
 like clock-work : not the least confusion was perceptible, 
 tliough there were more than half-a-dozen servants in the 
 room. ' 
 
 All the party had, by the persuasion of our kind host, de- 
 termined on remaining all night. I was surprised about nine 
 o'clock by seeing the tables cleared away, and half a dozen 
 hammocks brought in and hung up to rings placed for that 
 purpose on the beams, two mattrasses were made up on the 
 floor, and a third on the sofa. This manner of accommoda- 
 tion I understood was practised throughout the colonies. As I
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 35 
 
 was a stranger, and unused to hammock sleeping, I was shewn 
 into a separate room, where a good bed, hung with gauze 
 nettings or curtains, to keep out the musquitoes, was prepared 
 for me. 
 
 In the morning, after taking a good cup of coffee Imme- 
 diately upon leaving my bed, and next a breakfast, which 
 consisted of animal food, friccasced fowls, and fruit, I was 
 informed that a farther jaunt up the river, as far as the 
 sand-hills, was agreed on. The boats were accordingly pre- 
 pared and refreshments put on board each. 
 
 The distance is about twenty miles, and the flood tide was 
 then running up. After passing the first or Fort Island, tlie 
 width of the river visibly Ijegan to decrease. The estates and 
 cultivation did not wear that drest and pleasant appearance 
 which that part of the river did below Point Diamond. In 
 particular places the banks, to the water's edge, were covered 
 with thick and almost impenetrable underwood, and heavy 
 trees. Only the centre of the estates seemed cleared, so as to 
 leave a circulation of air, or a view of the river from the 
 dwelling-house. 
 
 We passed three islaivls before we arrived at these sand- 
 hills, or rather mountains. They are situated on the west side 
 of the river, and appeared to be from one hundred to a hun- 
 
 F 2
 
 36 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 dred and fifty feet high, nearly perpendicular. On the sum- 
 mit of one, stood a dwelling belonging to a Mr. Brotherson, a 
 wood-cutter, whom Pinckard properly represents, as inhospit- 
 able as the appearance of the hills themselves. The party 
 knew this propensity, and therefore avoided throwing them- 
 selves on him for refreshment. We took our repast under a 
 tree, and the cool water bubbling from the springs, enabled 
 us to make our sangarce, or negus. These springs are of great 
 use to shipping. In watering, a boat may come up and lie 
 alongside the hills, while a leather pipe conducted from the 
 springs, fills the puncheons without further trouble. For each 
 boat, the king of the sand hills, Mr. Brotherson, demands 
 two dollars, and the same for a load of sand. After strolling 
 about luitU we were quite fatigued, we re-embarkcd with the 
 turning of the tide, and arrived again at the Reynestein about 
 the appointed hour. Next morning we left our hospitable en- 
 tertainer, breakfasted at the Hope, opposite Diamond Point, 
 and arrived in Stabroek by twelve o'clock. 
 
 The dlflerent estates on this river bear a strong resemblance 
 to eacli other, both for extent and distribution : yet one may 
 often distinguish the country of the owner by the appearance 
 of the property. The general neatness and formal regularity 
 of a Dutch estate has a peculiar mien. The houses, buildings, 
 bridges, gates, are carefully painted white, which is the fii- 
 vourite colour of the Hollanders. Roads regularly serpentine
 
 SETTLEMENTS ONTHE DEMERARY, &C. 37 
 
 lead to their dwellings : and little square clusters, or strait 
 alleys, of cocoa-nuts and limes, indicate the measuring me- 
 thodical taste of the continental gardeners. 
 
 AVhat does honor to them, both as individuals and as a 
 nation, is their indiscriminate hospitality. There are no road- 
 houses, inns, or places of public entertainment ; but, in all 
 my subsequent trips by land to the neighbouring settlements, 
 as well as on this occasion, I every where received eager 
 attentions from utter strangers. They accept visitors with all 
 the warmth of friendship ; and give a welcome, which in- 
 cludes the command of whatever the house affords. They 
 keep good tables; and willingly purchase what the country 
 does not supply. For potatoes {ardappeli) such is their relish, 
 that I have known three pounds sterling given for a hamper, 
 from Ireland, which contained about two bushels. 
 
 The Dutch planters arc clear and strict accountants, very 
 regular in all their mercantile transactions. They deserve cre- 
 dit for their industry and perseverance, and according to the 
 old adage, they are slow but sure. They would be better 
 planters than the English, were they to make an equal point 
 of encreasing progressively their cultivation; but they cling to 
 the maxims of their native land; they aspire only to a compe- 
 tency not to a fortune; and they waste labor, under an idea 
 of having their estates look like gardens. The Englishman
 
 38 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 majccs more of his property; but the Dutcliman leaves it a bet- 
 ter hiheritance. All the land is so rich, that it requires little 
 or no attention after being planted, except weeding three or 
 four times within the year. Naturally, therefore, the more 
 ground is planted, the greater the produce. With the same 
 number of negroes a Dutchman has less land under cultivation 
 than an Englishman. 
 
 The Dutch were formerly severe masters, and used to inflict 
 odious cruelties on their negroes. I am happy to have ob- 
 served that this cannot now be laid to their charge. The 
 milder habits of the English planter have gradually taught a 
 better system. The indignation systematically shown by the 
 English authorities, and the fines occasionally levied, by for- 
 mal representation to the Fiscal of the division, have also been 
 conducive to bettering the situation of the Dutch negroes. Yet 
 even now it is felt as a terror to menace a negro with selling 
 him to a Dutchman. The Dutchman, however, has a like 
 terror in reserve, and threatens to sell his slave to a free negro. 
 The Africans are of all masters the worst to one another. 
 They were accustomed on their native coast to a harsher and 
 more abject slavery than they incur in Guyana. 
 
 The English planters were frequently told that by following 
 up their mild measures, and discountenancing all severity to- 
 ward the labourer, they would in a short time bring the colo-
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 3d 
 
 nies into a state of insurrection. Tliis comparative gentleness 
 has, however, been practised for ten years with success; and 
 I am confident, that besides disciiarging a debt due to huma- 
 nity, the planters are the richer for it. 
 
 The river Demcrary is navigable for large vessels about one 
 hundred miles above its mouth. It is settled for nearly ano- 
 ther hundred miles further inland. At that distance are cata- 
 racts, or rapids, which obstruct navigation ; but which, on 
 account of the romantic mountainous scenery around, are oc- 
 casionally visited by parties of pleasure. Arrowauk Indians 
 dwell near them, and are very accommodating to white visitors. 
 
 A few miles above the falls two streams unite to form the 
 Demerary : the one comes from the south-west and the other 
 from the south-east: but whence they descend is unknown to 
 the Europeans. It is supposed to have sources less remote 
 than the Essequebo, as the quantity of water collected, though 
 more rapid, is not so considerable.
 
 40 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER Iir. 
 
 STABROEK ITS CONFIGURATION POPULATION MAN- 
 NERS — AMUSEMENTS CLASSES OF INHABITANTS — PUB- 
 LIC PLACES, BUILDINGS, OFFICES POLICE MONIES OF 
 
 EXCHANGE MILITARY REGULATIONS. 
 
 OtABROEK, the political metropolis, and principal seat of 
 exchange for produce, of all the countries adjacent to the 
 Demcrary and Essequebo, is situated on the east side of the 
 river Demerary. Its site is low and level. It has an oblong 
 form, being about one-fourth of a mile broad and one mile 
 long. The principal streets are quite strait, with carriage 
 roads. The middle street, leading from the King's stelling, is 
 paved with bricks, and has lamps on each side : another pub- 
 lic stelling, or wharf (besides several that are private) is kept 
 purposely in order for landing and shipping goods. A navi- 
 gable canal on each side of the town, which fills and empties 
 with the tide, affords the same convenience to those houses 
 which are not situated near the water-side. The population in 
 Stabroek consists of about fifteen hundred whites, two thousand 
 free people of color, and five thousand negroes.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARV, &C. i\ 
 
 There are no taverns, or lodging-houses, wherefore a mer- 
 chant's house is more like an inn than any thing else. — 
 People coming from England generally bring letters of intro- 
 duction which are always attended to, and secure to the 
 bearers a hospitable reception — a knife and fork is laid for 
 them, and a hammock prepared, which they occupy as long 
 as suits their convenience. Planters residing in the country, 
 always put up at the merchant's house with whom they do 
 business. 
 
 The way of living differs materially from that of England, 
 The general hour for rising is six, far the pleasantest part of 
 the day, by which time coflfee, and often chocolate, is pre- 
 pared. Breakfast is delayed until ten, which is in fact more 
 like a dinner, from the introduction of animal food, wine 
 and water, and sometimes fruit. By four in the afternoon all 
 business is over for the day. Five is the hour of the prin- 
 cipal meal, which is served up by a profusion of attendants : 
 Madeira and Claret are the wines most in request. In the 
 houses there are no bells; every gentleman carries in his pocket 
 an ivory whistle, which when used assembles the servants. The 
 evening is generally passed at the coffee-house, which is si- 
 tuated near the American stelUng, and denominated the Ex- 
 change, from its being so much frequented by the young mer- 
 chants as a lounge. Here the news of the day, the list of ar- 
 rivals and importations, the prices of produce and the departure 
 
 G
 
 42 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 of vessels, are always to be known. Draughts, backgammon, 
 chess, whist, and billiards, share the attention of the guests. 
 A walk to the camp is usual and pleasant, where the band 
 plays after the troops are marched to the barracks. Few 
 weeks pass without a ball, or a concert, the attending of which 
 is, however, very expensive. A ball and supper cost to each 
 of the gentlemen subscribers eight dollars, a concert and ball 
 twelve dollars. His ticket also introduces two ladies of color. 
 
 Strolling players from North America occasionally visit the 
 West Indies. Twice during my six years stay they came to 
 Stabroek, having previously made a tour among the islands. 
 The company consisted but of four or five persons; they had 
 chartered a vessel at New York ; they had embarked a cargo 
 of canvass palaces and painted forests, of crowns and daggers, 
 sceptres and chains, of the purple attire of majesty, and the 
 motley foppery of folly. At Grenada and Barbadoes, they 
 had unpacked their portable theatre, and had been received 
 with an applause, which was re-echoed from the continent. 
 The admission was two dollars for each representation, and 
 public curiosity detained them nearly three months. The 
 plays of Skakspeare require so much show and so many actors, 
 that we had often to be content with select scenes. The sim- 
 plicity of the ancient drama was restored by the economical 
 criticism of the manager. It might be wished that plays, like 
 those of the Greeks and French, were written for the service
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 4-5 
 
 of these cruizing players : such simple compositions would better 
 suit the rude state of their dramatic system, than the complex 
 works of English art and refinement. In the French islands, 
 negro performers have been enlisted to take parts in the mari- 
 time companies ; but there are few Moorish characters on our 
 stage, except Othello, Juba, and Oronoko, which they could 
 personate with propriety. In an illiterate community, which 
 can only learn through the ear, the drama is an important en- 
 gine of instruction, and might be rendered essentially condu- 
 cive to historic and moral information, and even to the civili- 
 zation of the vulgar and undisciplined. 
 
 When an European arrives in the West Indies, and gets set- 
 tled or set down for any length of time, he finds it necessary 
 to provide himself with a housekeeper, or mistress. The 
 choice he has an opportunity of making is various, a black, a 
 tawney, a mulatto, or a mestee ; one of which can be pur- 
 chased for lOOl. or 150l. sterling, fully competent to fulfil all 
 the duties of her station : some of them are so much edu- 
 cated as to be able to read and write. They are tasty and 
 extravagant in their dress ; but when once an attachment 
 takes place it is Inviolable. The strictest scrutiny of their 
 conduct in general cannot glean one particle of impropriety, 
 by which their fidelity or constancy can be brought into 
 question. They embrace all the duties of a wife, except pre- 
 siding at table; so far decorum is maintained, and a distinc- 
 
 G 2
 
 ♦4 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 tion made. They employ themselves in needle-work, and 
 other domestic affairs. Their usefulness in preserving the arts 
 and diffusing the habits of cleanliness is felt and allowed by 
 all, there being a lack of civUized European women. If 
 ^ young progeny of coloured children is brought forth, 
 these are emancipated, and mostly sent by those fathers who 
 can afford it, at the age of three or four years, to be educated 
 in England. Some remain in the country as free subjects, 
 and preserve the stock for a future generation. In these colo- 
 nies, where the population of females of this description is so 
 small, and the demand for them so great, the common method 
 of supplying the deficiency, or the wants of individuals, is 
 to send orders to Barbadoes and other fully peopled islands, 
 for ladies, who are always to be procured either by purchase, 
 or by inducing those that are free to come and settle among 
 the Demerarians. Indeed, there are coloured women residing 
 in Stabroek, who have of late years made a traffic of femi- 
 liine importation, and receive a premium for whatever la- 
 dies they introduce, beside the expences, from the gentle- 
 men with whom they afterwards cohabit. The French 
 islands of Martinique and Grenada have not contributed a 
 little towards populating these infant colonies with free wo- 
 Xnen of color. Perhaps it would be a more useful fashion to 
 make these purchases, which is not impracticable, among the 
 indigenous Americans : the mestees are a more beautiful race 
 than the mulattoes, and the continental savages would gradu-
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 45 
 
 ally be attracted by their kinswomen into habits of intercourse 
 and civilization. Young men, who have not regular estab- 
 lishments, hire small houses in the suburbs of Stabroek and 
 Cumingsburgh, where they invite their friends in an evening 
 to smoak segars, and are enabled to indulge in the customs of 
 the colony. 
 
 As Dutchmen and other foreigners in the colonies differ 
 in some points of their living and household economy from 
 the English, a short sketch of them may not prove unac- 
 ceptable. 
 
 Their general hour of rising is with the sun, about a quarter 
 before six, when they make their appearance in a morning 
 gown and slippers, in the portico or piazza of the house, 
 where a female negro is in waiting with the coffee equipage. 
 After a Dutch planter has taken a dish or two of strong coffee, 
 with little or no sugar in it, the yonge, or boy, brings him his 
 pipe, tobacco, and flask of gin : with these he enjoys himself 
 till between nine and ten o'clock, when he is visited by the 
 baas, or overseer of the estate, who reports progress, and re- 
 ceives orders as to preparing produce for sale or shipment, and 
 any thing else which is needful to be done on the estate. He 
 then dresses himself, calls for a glass of water and a napkin to 
 wash his face and hands with. I scarcely ever saw a hand- 
 basin in any of their houses, even where there are white
 
 46 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OP THE 
 
 females. This is a strange inconsistency when compared to 
 the cleanliness of the interior of their houses, in which they 
 are nicer than about their persons. Their rooms generally 
 undergo a thorough scrubbing with lemons every morning, 
 which diffuses a beautiful odor, in opposition to the no less 
 regular fumes of tobacco. The excuse which is given for their 
 attachment to smoaking is that it has a sedative quality, which 
 corrects the effect of strong drink, and preserves them from 
 the colds and damps, that so often prove fatal in this moist 
 atmosphere. If a Dutchman gets wet, the antidote he takefe 
 against cold is two or three glasses of gin and a pipe ; he al- 
 lows his clothes to dry on him. This idea, perhaps, consti- 
 tutes an apology for the use of tobacco in Holland, though 
 I cannot but think the stupifying or intoxicating effects it 
 produces, have more share in it. Of its efficacy as a re- 
 medy I cannot pretend to say much, but I know many of the 
 English colonists, who adopted the usage, were always ready 
 to shelter themselves with their neighbour's excuse. A lux- 
 urious calm of mind, a mild gaiety and pleasing chearfulness, 
 unlike the boisterous hilarity of wine, but fitter for a climate 
 which compels to sedentary habits, really accompanies the ab- 
 sorption of tobacco-fumes. The smoaker appears only tran- 
 quil, but he feels happy. Nor is our tobacco deprived, like 
 the Virginian, of its native fragrance, by aspersions of urinci 
 by fermentation and pressure ; it has an odor as of incense, 
 and is used in token of reverence. . It is a rarity in Stabroek
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. +7 
 
 to meet a person in the streets at evening without his pipe 
 or segar, and it is always considered a mark of attention, when 
 two people meet smoaking, to discharge a mouthful of smoak 
 at each other. 
 
 But to return — we are leaving my Dutchman without his 
 breakfast, which, from its substantiality, will prove to be 
 the best meal he makes in the day. About eleven o'clock 
 he sits down to a table covered with various kinds of ani- 
 mal food, vegetable soups, and fruit. Pepper-pot, a soup 
 flavoured with the juice of the bitter cassada, and made pun- 
 gent with red and green pepper, is a constant concomitant. 
 Madeira wine and water, and malt liquor, are substituted for 
 tea : they are considered more strengthening and better adapt- 
 ed for the heat of the climate than the other, which generally 
 overheats, and is productive of bile. An hour is appropriated 
 for the gentleman to break his fast, after which he orders his 
 horse and pays a visit to some of his neighbours, or rides round 
 the estate to see the negroes at work, in either of which cases 
 a negro boy follows him on foot, with a pouch of segars and a 
 stick of fire. It is his constant practice whether on horseback, 
 walking, or riding in a carriage, to smoak, and be supplied 
 through the medium of a servant. He dines about three or 
 four o'clock, and after taking a portion of claret, retires for his 
 afternoon's nap, where he sleeps away the fatigues of the day. 
 .He grows tired of the hammock towards evening, when l>e
 
 4-8 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 comes down and takes his coflFee, after which, a walk round 
 the buildings, to enquire into the state of the negroes and 
 their work, concludes the day. Dutch overseers treat their 
 principals with the utmost respect : as they approach Myn- 
 heer within half a dozen yards, the hat is immediately doffed 
 as a token of their inferiority, and is placed under the arm 
 while receiving his orders, to all of which the answer is, 
 *'Ja, weledele gestreenge Heer." — " Yes, great and honoured Sir." 
 Such insignificant and unrestrained flattery as this from one 
 European to another, is truly disgusting, and ought, I think, 
 to be totally laid aside ; but such are the failings of human 
 nature, that I have seen sensible well informed men in other 
 respects, while surrounded by their friends, call up their over- 
 seers to give orders and ask questions, merely to display their 
 greatness, and the respect they are held in, by a public repe- 
 tition of such flattery. The negroes belonging to Dutch 
 estates, copy the overseers' humble politeness, and are consi- 
 derably more respectful to whites than those belonging to 
 English plantations. A certain erect carriage in John Bull 
 imperceptibly introduces itself into the incult address of the 
 English negroes. Or it -may arise from their not being kept 
 so strictly, nor considered in so degraded situation as other 
 negroes are. I am convinced, was it made a general rule 
 among European planters to inculcate into the minds of the 
 negroes proper ideas of their situation, as the English do, it 
 would inspire them with a certain degree of emulation and
 
 SETTLEMENTS OK THE DEMERARY, &C. 49 
 
 pride : seeing themselves respected and held in estimation 
 would answer much better than the fear of punishment, in 
 keeping them to their regular employments. This hint, if 
 properly attended to, may in the course of time bring the 
 slaves in the West Indies on a level with the English peasantry of 
 this day : their present situation may be compared to that vas- 
 salage in which nobles formerly held the lower order of peo- 
 ple throughout Europe. 
 
 The general hour for retiring to rest in the country, is 
 about eight or nine o'clock, the intermediate time between 
 this and sun set, is occupied by smoaking and drinking gin. 
 Should no neighbour, or traveller, call to spend the evening 
 with the great man, he is sometimes induced to send for the 
 convenient overseer to play cards, or draughts, with him, 
 which is considered as a mark of great favor. I should 
 have observed, that sometimes it is the wish of the proprietor, 
 that the negroes, after leaving work, should come and receive 
 their daily allowance of rum before his door, where he sits in 
 state smoaking his pipe, sullenly receiving the reiterated thanks 
 of the negroes in broken English and Dutch " Dankee Meesler." 
 The Dutch planters are vain of a large house and a number 
 of servants, which are mosdy female; their garden, curricle, 
 and pleasure boat, engage anodier part of their attention ; they 
 are particularly fond of good horses, and certainly deserve 
 them, from their attention and care for those animals. 
 
 H
 
 50 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 I have often considered with astonishment, the mixture 
 of European inhabitants which destiny has heaped toge- 
 ther in this community. Dutch, Germans, Prussians, Rus- 
 * sians, Swedes, Danes, Spaniards, French, and Americans, 
 may be incorporated as one-third of the white population, and 
 Great Britain claims the other two. All national enmity seems 
 to be forgotten, while the pursuits of the motley group are di- 
 rected unanimously to climbing the ladder of fortune. Men 
 are seen on all its stages, looking forward with anxious solici- 
 tude for the time of reaching the heighth of their ambition. 
 Happily, commercial competition has in it little of envy; for 
 each finds his own account in the success of his rival. The 
 rich man is a better customer, a more liberal creditor, a safer 
 debtor, than the necessitous: everyone thrives the faster, be- 
 cause his neighbour has already thriven. 
 
 There is a market-place where the negroes assemble to sell 
 their truck, such as fruit, vegetables, fowls, eggs, and where 
 the hucksters expose for sale articles of European manufacture 
 (much in the same manner as the pedlars do in England) in 
 addition to salt beef, pork, and fish, bread, cheese, pipes, 
 tobacco, and other articles, in small quantities, to enable the 
 negroes to supply themselves agreeably to the length of their 
 purses. Hucksters are free women of color, who purchase 
 their commodities of merchants at two or three months credit, 
 and retail them out in the manner described. Many of them
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 51 
 
 are, indeed, wealthy, and possess ten, fifteen, and twenty- 
 negroes, all of whom they employ in this traffic. It is by no 
 means an uncommon thing for negroes in this line to be travel- 
 ling about the country for several weeks together, sometimes 
 with an attendant, having trunks of goods to a considerable 
 amount, say two hundred pounds, and when a good oppor- 
 tunity offers, they remit to their mistresses what money they 
 have taken. It is really surprizing what a large sum is thus 
 returned by these people going from one estate to another. 
 The permission of the manager on every plantation is always 
 necessary, before the huckster ventures to the negro houses, 
 where the bargains are made. Those that have not money 
 barter their fowls, pigs, segars, for what they stand in 
 need of. The hucksters are provided with such an assortment 
 as to be able to supply the negro with a coarse check, or the 
 manager with a fine cambric, tor his shirts. Coloured women 
 of all descriptions are extravagantly fond of dress: but those 
 resident in the covmtry, not having such an opportunity as the 
 ■ Stabroek ladies of seeing every thing new as it arrives, feel a 
 lively sensation of joy and pleasure at the sight of a huckster, 
 and anticipate the pleasure of tumbling over the contents of 
 her trunk; and if it contains any new articles of fashion, their 
 hearts beat high with wishes to obtain them. If a joe or a 
 dollar be still remaining, it is sure to go : should their purse be 
 empty, they make no hesitation in asking for credit: such is 
 
 the general character and conduct of coloured women. 
 
 H 2
 
 52 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 There is a certain stage in the progress of civilization in 
 which a country is most conveniently supplied by pedlars. 
 The inhabitants live too tar asunder, and are not numerous 
 enough to support stationary shops ; yet the probable con- 
 sumption of each estate is sufficient to re.\ard the journey of 
 a hawker of wares. The European jews still exercise this di- 
 vision of labor, which Europe has outgrown : they are con- 
 sequendy sinking in utility: their trade is less profitable and 
 less popidar than it was some centuries ago. They would do 
 well to come over in large numbers to South America, where 
 they might become efficient agents for the distribution of Eu- 
 ropean commodities throughout the interior. The dialect of 
 the European Jews is admirably adapted for the coast of Guy- 
 ana, which speaks a medley of Dutch and English, softened 
 by negro pronunciation into a lingua franca, the very coun- 
 terfeit of their speech in Europe. It may be added, that at 
 Paramaribo, a large Jew population has been found to thrive. 
 
 Adjoining the market-place are the butchers' shambles. 
 The butchers are mostly free men of color, who have pur- 
 chased their emancipation, and have acquired a little capital 
 and credit. They commence their career by the slaughter of 
 pigs, after that of sheep ; oxen soon follow. They supply 
 themselves from the importations of the Americans, and from 
 those few planters who rear cattle for sale. Unless a butcher 
 clears ten or fifteen pounds sterling by an ox, he thinks it a
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 53 
 
 bad bargain. He is at no expcnce whatever, as, on the arrival 
 of an ox in town, it is immediately conveyed to the slaughter 
 house. 
 
 The market is copiously supplied with butchers' meat, but at 
 a most extravagant rate : mutton 3s. veal 2s. 6d. beef 2s. Id. 
 pork lOd. per pound. With lish, the town is not so well pro- 
 vided as the country, no fish-monger has ever yet engaged in 
 the business upon a scale sutficiently extensive to supply the 
 population. The utmost endeavor yet made is that of some 
 negroes, who hire themselves of their masters, at so much a 
 ■ day or month, and go a little beyond the mouth of the river 
 in canoes, returning by one or two o'clock and selling what 
 they may have caught. A very glutinous fish, called a Pau- ^'*' 
 kama, which is esteemed a dainty, is taken in a curious man 
 ner. It finds a principal part of its sustenance in hollow trees, 
 logs of wood, and in the skeletons of old ships, which from 
 laying in mud by the water side, soon decay. These they 
 visit for food during flood tide, but at ebb are left in the ca- 
 vities of the wood, out of which the negroes draw them by a 
 hook fastened to the end of a stick. 
 
 Houses for fire-engines are contiguous to the market-place, 
 and a company of fire men are formed out of the coloured free 
 people, for doing which duty they are exempted from serving 
 in the Burgher militia. There are two engines, but from the
 
 54 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 negligence of those wlio have the care of them, it is feared 
 they are not in repair fit for use. 
 
 At the King's Stelling, ferry boats are always in waiting to 
 carry passengers, horses, chaises, to the other side of the river, 
 where there are two high roads, one leading up the river, 
 the other cross to the Essequebo. 
 
 The public buildings in the town are the governor's house, 
 and a range of offices for conducting public business. — 
 The secretary's office is so large as to comprize the courts of 
 police and justice, and a place of worship, in which the Dutch 
 service is first performed, on a Sunday, by an ecclesiastic of 
 that country, after which the garrison chaplain reads the 
 prayers appointed by the church of England. Next comes 
 the receiver general's office for the king's colonial duties : 
 the commissary's or king's stores : the town guard-house : 
 and the exploiteur, or marshall's office; after which the public 
 goal, for the confinement of criminals, debtors, runaway, or 
 arrested negroes. In the adjoining town, to the south-east, is 
 the burial-ground, comprising ten acres of land. In the new 
 town, or Cumingsburgh, is the fiscal's office, custom-house, 
 post office, and a colonial hospital, for the reception of those, 
 who are unable to defray medical expences, or being reduced 
 by illness are out of employ. When the writer was about 
 leavitig the colonies, the merchants and principal inhabitants
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 55 
 
 were entering into large coniributions, for the purpose of 
 building a marine hospital, or Lazaretto, capable of containing 
 five hundred patients. Should this arrangement be carried into 
 effect, it will be the means of adding greatly to the comforts 
 of the seamen employed in this trade, who for want of such 
 an extensive establishment as this is intended to be, are obliged 
 to linger with the most dreadful distempers in the hold or steer- 
 age of a vessel engaged in the hurry and confusion of taking 
 in, or discharging a cargo, without that attendance and rest, 
 which are so requisite to people in their situation. ■' ^ 
 
 The houses are built of wood, two and three stories high, 
 raised on brick foundations, which include excellent cellars. 
 The frames and shingles (which are laths of twelve inches long 
 and four wide, laid on the tops of houses like tiles) are the pro- 
 duce of the adjacent forests. Boards, planks, clap-boards, 
 for closing in, are imported from America. No tires, nor even 
 stoves are in the dwelling houses, the kitchen being always sepa- 
 rate; but for their cleanliness little indeed can be said, when 
 compared to those in England. The principal fuel used is 
 wood, and the meat, instead of being roasted, is baked. 
 The generality of the cooks are men, and a good one sells for 
 almost any money. Good houses well situated for mercantile 
 concerns, either in Stabroek, or the new town, let with avidity 
 for three, four, and five hundred pounds yearly. This sort of 
 building, if undertaken by a merchant settler, lays a great deal
 
 56 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 of money fast, which could be much better employed. The 
 gross rents do not pay more than twelve or fourteen per cent: 
 certainly, there are no taxes, but wooden houses are continually 
 wanting repairs, and require a coat of paint every twelve 
 months. 
 
 The premium for insuring this sort of buildings, which is 
 done in England, is also very high. At the end of the year, 
 when the landlord receives his rent, and reckons up his out- 
 goings, I am convinced he will not have cleared six per cent, 
 on his money, which if properly employed in other pursuits, 
 where he has the opportunity of returning it two or three times 
 within that period, he would have made cent per cent of it. 
 Again, a certain loss attends all buidings when resold, especi- 
 ally these built of so perishable a material. I am so far satis- 
 fied on this point, that I would recommend any merchant 
 going out, to hire — not to build; and thereby profit by other 
 men's experience. 
 
 The labor of mechanics is with us extravagantly dear. A 
 negro carpenter, or mason, earns from live to ten shillings a day 
 according to his skill. Perhaps it would answer to send out 
 from Europe a company of practised builders, under the com- 
 mand of an able architect, who might undertake, first at Sta- 
 broek, then at New Amsterdam, the constructions requisite. 
 Houses could be built by them for half price, and usually
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C, 57 
 
 yield so high a rent in new countries, that it might be worth 
 the while of European merchants to advance the capital requi- 
 site for their structure : it would supply in the form of rent, a 
 secure and a liberal interest. The principal material used is 
 North-American lumber, of which the market-value fluctuates 
 much : it is thought that down the river Orinoko this material 
 might be fetched at a cheaper rate. I have known the price 
 of lumber vary from six to twenty pounds per thousand feet; 
 the demand indeed exceeds the quantity imported, for which 
 reason the latter price is nearer the standard. Lime is a vast 
 expence, being brought to us from Europe : surely a little 
 search in the interior would discover lime-stone rocks among 
 the mountains. Dutch terras sells for twenty pounds sterling 
 the hogshead. A house of 40 feet long and 28 wide, to be 
 well finished, with outbuildings, two stories high with an attic, 
 and raised on a brick foundation eight feet high, costs here at 
 a moderate calculation two thousand five hundred pounds, be- 
 sides the lot of land, which if conveniently situated could not 
 be had for less than two hundred pounds. The town was 
 originally laid out in lots of one hundred by two hundred feet, 
 many of which, small as they appear, have been divided into 
 quarter and half lots. These lots are continually increasing in 
 value, but they do not form, as in the North-american cities, 
 habitual objects of stock-jobbing and of mercantile speculation. 
 This art of selling the ground on which a house stands, A\'ith- 
 out selling the house, or the right of living in it, has the me- 
 
 I
 
 58 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 lit of rendering circulable a greater portion of the fixed pro- 
 perty of a country, and thus facihtates the obtainal of capital 
 for every sort of enterprize. 
 
 The poUce is very strict, and as the laws are Dutch, so are 
 the names of the officers of justice. The Fiscal is the chief 
 magistrate, who has under him the Drossart (sheriff or jailer) 
 and twenty Dienaars (constables or servants of justice). Ne- 
 groes guilty of improper conduct in the streets, or of being 
 out after eight o'clock of the night without a passport, are com- 
 mitted to the jail, where they remain until liberated by their 
 owners, when they receive such a punishment as their fault 
 deserves, Very exorbitant fees are attached to the jail and 
 jailer. The following is a correct list of the charges : 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Arresting a Negro f. 5 : 10 or 
 
 Admission - 5 : 10 or 
 
 Seven days maintenance at lOd per day. 
 
 Flogging 
 
 Discharge - , - 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 £2 3 
 
 10 
 
 The law permits only thirty-nine lashes at a time, unless for 
 a capital offence, when the culprit is tried openly by the court, 
 which adjudges and passes sentence if he is proved guilty.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, ^C. 59 
 
 There are about fifty negroes belonging to the colony, whose 
 houses are at the back of Stabroek. These negroes are for the 
 common good, and their employment is to keep the town, 
 streets, sewers, and canals, in good repair. Several of them 
 are convicted criminals, and instead of being transported to Bo- 
 tany Bay, or any other place, are sentenced to work in chains 
 about Stabroek; while the owners receive a stipulated sum from 
 the colony funds for them. This is certainly a disgrace to the 
 court of police. To see these poor miserable objects, our fellow 
 creatures, working from morning till night in heavy chains, 
 without regard to weather, destitute of cloaths, with only a coarse 
 rag round their middle, and, as I am told, frequently with no- 
 thing but dry plantains to eat. About half a dozen pipes are 
 attached to the gang ; when one poor fellow has taken a few 
 whiffs, he passes it to another, and so on. I am not going to ob- 
 ject to the punishment of criminals, on the contrary, let them 
 meet their deserts. There is moderation in every thing, and 
 when the court of justice condemned these poor people to la- 
 bour in chains, it was not intended to deprive them of all 
 the comforts of human life. Therefore I blame the court of 
 police for not making their servant, the scavenger, do his duty 
 in providing for the wants of these negroes, at least suitably to 
 their situations. At all events suffering chained negroes to 
 work in Stabroek I consider as improper. It is a common 
 saying that custom familiarizes every thing. Here however 
 I must difVer, for notwithstanding I was in the habit of seeing 
 
 I 2
 
 •60 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 them cvery-day for almost seven years, I never could be recon- 
 ciled to such proceed ings ; my heart and feelings recoiled against 
 them, as inhuman. I now suggest the idea to his Excel- 
 lency Governor Bentinck, to have these negroes with fifty 
 or sixty more who are employed at the fortification, taken 
 farther into the interior; let them be well fed and cloathed, 
 and made more comfortable than they are at present. There 
 they may clear the country, cultivate a track of land for the 
 colony, and the proceeds of their industry would not only 
 keep in repair the town, but improve it. 
 
 The only charitable institution supported by the colony is 
 the hospital in Labourgade, which takes in a certain number 
 of patients through the medium of directors. They are peo- 
 ple unable to defray medical expences, and principally con- 
 sist of seamen, and free people of color from other parts of the 
 West Indies, and only transient residents. 
 
 The whole face of the country presented a gratifying view 
 of hospitality and munificence on my arrival, and when acts 
 of bounty were necessary, the inhabitants seem to vie with 
 each other in their liberality. I could bring forward many in- 
 stances of their charitable acts ; however a few will suflSce. 
 A widow and two children were left destitute by the death of 
 the husband and father, whose only means of supporting them 
 depended on his exertions, while alive; a private subscription
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &:C. G\ 
 
 was entered into for their relief, and nearly five hundred 
 pounds were raised, which enabled them to return to their mother 
 country. An artillery-man belonging to his Majesty's forces, 
 while bringing a vessel to, at Fort William Frederic, by some 
 mismanagement had his arm broken, and so much shat- 
 tered as to cause immediate amputation ; a purse of two 
 hundred and forty or fifty pounds was made up for him just 
 before his leaving the colony. Some Spanish prisoners, taken 
 in one of the piccaroon boats from the Orinoko, were brought 
 into the Demerary last war in a most dreadful situation, being 
 in want of shoes and stockings and cloaths of every descrip- 
 tion. Previously to their being exchanged, a subscription was 
 made among some of the merchants, and fifty Joes, nearly 
 one hundred pounds, were collected and laid out for them. 
 Various other acts of benevolence might be adduced. 
 
 A fund which is daily encreasing called the " Kirk en arm 
 geldt," or church and poor money, is derived from a per 
 centage duty on all sales by auction. As it has been accumulat- 
 ing for a number of years, there are no means of judging of 
 the probable amount, except by an investigation of the ac- 
 counts of those persons who are the receivers of it. This 
 ought immediately to be done by the court of police, and that 
 amount, joined to the overplus of any other colonial fund, 
 would form a considerable capital, which might be lent to 
 new settlers at six per cent interest per annum, for the ex-
 
 62 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 press purpose of commencing cultivation in the interior of this 
 vast tract of valuable territory. It would evidently be the 
 means of forwarding three objects — that of encreasing the fund; 
 that of serving individuals ; and that of e7icouraging agriculture, 
 by enabling planters ivith small capitals, to extend their pursuits 
 beyond the sea coast, and banks of the rivers and creeks. 
 
 This point merits consideration; and I strongly recom- 
 mend it to the notice of the governor and council. Should 
 they not attend to it, our present judicious ministers 
 will, I hope, when the colonies are permanently attached to 
 Great Britain, take such measures as to carry so desirable a 
 plan into execution. The sum expended for support of the 
 poor is nothing. We have none ! at least that are dependent 
 on the colony. The church establishment is very trivial, there 
 is only one English and one Dutch clergyman, and to prove 
 how very tolerant the inhabitants are, they all use the same 
 church. The Dutch service is read from ten till eleven on a 
 Sunday morning, when the Dutch congregation retires, and 
 makes room for the English one. 
 
 The high duty on glass bottles in Great Britain is taken off 
 when exported, and from the immense number of them which 
 are imported with malt liquor into these colonies, they be- 
 come valueless ; indeed they accumulate so fast that people are 
 often glad to get rid of tliem by throwing them into the ditches
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 63 
 
 and trenches about town. The canals abound with bottles, as 
 if natural to the soil, and the free negroes, who make spruce 
 beer, go round the town with baskets to pick them up. 
 Any gentleman who wishes to bottle off a pipe of grey 
 beard Madeira, has nothing to do but send his servants 
 round the town, or a boat alongside any of the shipping, 
 where they may be supplied with bottles in abundance, and 
 have thanks for taking them away, which saves the steward and 
 cabin boy the trouble of throwing them into the river, which 
 they would rather do than land them in England, where the 
 duty would be more than they are worth. On my return to 
 England the other passengers and myself threw into the sea 
 between forty and fifty dozen bottles, emptied in the course 
 of the passage; it was a fund of amusement on a calm day, 
 after throwing in a bottle as a mark, to see who could break 
 it first with others. 
 
 The packets are calculated to arrive at Barbadoes twice a 
 month, whence the mails are conveyed to the different 
 islands and colonies in mail boats engaged for that purpose. 
 How anxiously the arrival of them is expected, is better ex- 
 perienced than described : the merchant and planter desirous 
 of obtaining information of their shipments; the poli- 
 tician wishing to know the state of affairs in Europe ; and 
 those of a more domestic turn, solicitous about tlieir fami- 
 lies, are all gratified by their arrival, and are alike impa-
 
 64 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 tient till the hour is come, which the tardy post-master has. 
 appointed for the delivery of letters and news papers. 
 
 A weekly paper is published here, entitled the Essequebo and 
 Demerary Gazette. The proclamations of government are 
 inserted both in the Dutch and in the English language. Some 
 diverting mixtures of dialect occur in the advertisements: but 
 the English language is constantly gaining ground, as the 
 new settlers all bring that dialect. The European and other 
 news is given in English, and is extracted, as may happen, 
 from the Barbadocs, the Liverpool, the London, or the Balti- 
 more papers. The mass of advertisements respects sales of 
 slaves, of stores, and of estates. 
 
 The state or court house is a large white building, about one 
 hundred feet long and thirty-five feet wide, and two stories 
 and a half high. It is situated on the side of the river in front 
 of Stabroek, one end facing the river to the westward, and 
 the other one east. On the second floor is the council cham- 
 ber, court of justice, and Secretary's office, where the colo- 
 nial business is transacted. Tlie business of the Secretary's 
 office is done by the Colonial Secretary and six or eight 
 clerks. All deeds, contracts, wills, letters of attorney, transfers 
 of estates, mortgages, the proceedings of the courts of po- 
 lice and justice, are recorded here. The Secretary is also a 
 notary public, and a sworn translator.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 6S 
 
 The public offices in Stabroek are numerous; but, as build- 
 ings, they present nothing very striking in architectural gran- 
 deur or beauty ; a sameness of wooden houses pervades the 
 whole town. The best is the governor's office, where there 
 are two clerks and a private secretary employed. As is 
 customary, the captain and myself waited on his excellency, 
 accompanied by the gentleman to whom I was addressed, and 
 presented him with a copy of the manifest, after «igning 
 which, he issued a permission, which was to be given in at the 
 custom-house, authorizing the captain to break bulk. On 
 my being introduced to him, he received me very politely, 
 asked me jocosely if I was a descendant of the famous Lord 
 Bolingbroke, and expressed himself highly pleased with that 
 nobleman's literary works, saying that he had them in his 
 library. 
 
 All official documents and colonial papers pass through 
 the governor's office, and for every time he signs his name, 
 his piivale secretary receives two dollars, for which he no 
 doubt accounts to the principal. Evidences given before the 
 courts of justice are in the form of affidavits, which must be 
 made before his excellency. Passports for people leaving the 
 country, permissions for ships to load or discharge, powers 
 of attorney, and various other papers of a similar tendency, 
 must undergo his signature: thus, beside suftering a previous 
 tax from the office, out of which they are first granted, they 
 
 K
 
 66 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 are burthened by paying for the governor's signature. No 
 wonder our West Indian governors grow rich, when they 
 have such opportunities. 
 
 The office next in importance is the secretary's, where 
 eight clerks are employed in recording deeds, contracts, wills, 
 mortgages, transports, powers of attorney, and notarial protests, 
 in issuijig passports and advertising departures. The proceed- 
 ings of the different courts are also registered here, and trans- 
 lations made from the Dutch to the English language; all the 
 proceedings of the court being Dutch, an Englishman is fre- 
 quently obliged to have their decrees and sentences translated 
 for him. This is a mortifying and under the present distribu- 
 tion of property, an inconvenient regulation for the colony. 
 Surely it would be wise to appoint a Recorder, graduated in 
 the English inns of law, for the avowed purpose of preparing 
 in these courts of justice, the reception of the language and 
 forms of proceeding of the metropolitan country. He would 
 know how to select for the especial sanction of his majesty's 
 privy council, those few Dutch regulations which are inter- 
 woven with the subsisting constitution of property, and may 
 therefore require to be retained. There are two receivers, 
 whose department it is to receive the colonial taxes and so- 
 vereign's fees, duties, and imposts. Our chief magistrate, the 
 fiscal, has his office in Labourgade. He is empowered 
 by the laws to see them put in force and strictly adhered to.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 67 
 
 with the power of levying fines and committing to prison ; 
 he is similar in one point of view to the attorney-general of 
 England, as being advocate for the crown. Appeals can of 
 course be made from his award, to the court, and from the 
 court (if a cause of sufficient consequence) to the king in 
 council. The fiscal has under him, as officers of justice, the 
 drossart and dienaars ; the former, as we before observed, acts 
 as sheriff or head jailer, and the latter as constables or watch- 
 men, who have charge of the jail and police. 
 
 We had the honor of paying our respects to the fiscal, 
 with whom we left a list of the crew and passengers, with 
 an account of their age and place of nativity. A fine of one 
 thousand guilders being inflicted on the captains of vessels for 
 every person they land without giving in his name and de- 
 scription, and the like fine being levied for every such per- 
 son who is taken from the colony in any ship or vessel with- 
 out a passport, this law is very necessary to be known. The 
 consignee of every vessel is obliged to enter into a bond at the 
 secretary's office, for the full performance of these stipula- 
 tions on the part of the captain. 
 
 I cannot leave the fiscal's office without relating a ridicu- 
 lous anecdote of Mynheer Van den V , when that gentle- 
 man filled the employment. A planter one day meeting him on 
 the public road between Stabroek and Mahaica, who had a pri- 
 
 K 2
 
 ©8:. STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 vate pique against him, accosted and requested to know what 
 the amount of the fine would be to give a man, who had 
 treated him ill, a good beating. The fiscal replied it would 
 be one hundred and fifty guilders, for which sum he would 
 insure him against all law proceedings. The planter imme- 
 diately paid him the stipulated amount, and requested the 
 astonished fiscal to alight, that he might take his revenge; 
 which he refusing to do, the planter held the horse's bri- 
 dle with one hand, while he horse-whipped the fiscal with 
 
 the other. Mynheer Van den V was so completely 
 
 ashamed of his disgrace, that he pocketed the affront with the 
 fine, without taking any steps to gain redress. It happened 
 in 1798, and the planter who performed the achievement 
 was a Creole of Barbadoes. 
 
 The business of the exploiteur's, or what I believe is termed 
 in English tlie marshal's or bailiff's, office is to serve citations or 
 summonses, execute arrests, levy executions, and put in force 
 all sentences adjudged by the courts. There are offices for the 
 colonial book-keeper, harbour-master, colonial surgeons and 
 branch pilots, as established by the police. 
 
 The post-office is both badly and extravagantly conducted 
 as to charges, and deserves the immediate notice of the court 
 of police, to fix and arrange a proper tariff to guide the post- 
 master for the future.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 69 
 
 As to the custom-house, I despau* of reducing its exorbitant 
 charges, as the officers who have the conducting of it, reign 
 lords paramount there, uncontrouled by either governor, or 
 councih The charges of clearing a vessel are enormous ; for 
 British ships loaded and bound to England, from sixty to se- 
 venty pound?, in proportion to their tonnage and cargo. 
 To Americans and neutrals the charges are in the same pro- 
 portion doubled ; independendy of the duty, they pay 2^ per 
 cent, on one, and 5 per cent, on the other. The comptrol- 
 lers and collectors of his- Majesty's customs in these colonies 
 are in very lucrative situations, capable of making large 
 fortunes in a short time. But the burden on commerce greatly 
 transcends, I fear, the profits of the revenue : so that a com- 
 mutation of all custom-duties for a tax on the estimated rent of 
 the cultivated land would probably be found, both to the state 
 and the subject, a profitable change. 
 
 The vendue-master's appointment is also very lucrative. This 
 is an office under government, similar to an auctioneer ; 
 there being but one allowed, and authorised, which makes 
 the place so very valuable. The percentage on sales according 
 to law is not more than 5 per cent, but the additional or in- 
 cidental expenses make it ten. The principal people who at- 
 tend these sales are Dutchmen, and the bottle of gin and glass 
 are handed about - so briskly, that the fumes mount into 
 their heads, and give their tongues such volubility, that they
 
 70 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 scarcely know or care or hear what they buy. A drunken 
 man, it is sard, sees double; and I believe it is frequently the 
 case with them, after too great an indulgence in gin, and 
 smoaking, which is quite caxnmon at all these sales, that they 
 often purchase bargains for tWidfe as much as they are worth. 
 Therefore it answers at all times, and especially at the even- 
 ing auctions, to provide plenty of drams and segars. The 
 vendue-masters of Demerary are only deputies themselves, 
 yet they employ another deputy to transact their business in 
 the neighbouring colony of Essequebo, who pays them one 
 thousand pounds per annum as a fee rent of the office. 
 
 The paper money which is in circulation in Essequebo and 
 Demerary amounts to about one hundred thousand guilders. 
 The smallest amount is 5d. sterling, or one bit, and the largest 
 5s. viz. three guilders. The notes are curiously denominated 
 with little figures, that the negroes may know the amount, with- 
 out being subjected to impositions from not being able to read. 
 They are current all over the colonies, and were made to ob- 
 viate the difficulty of obtaining small change; when a person 
 has got a quantity of them, he may turn them into gold by 
 applying at the receiver's office for colonial taxes, whence 
 they are issued again. The colonial currency is like that 
 of Holland, and consists of pennings, stivers, and guilders, 
 though the coin in circulation is various. Guineas are worth 
 twenty-five per cent more here than in England.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 71 
 
 16 pennings make 1 stiver, viz. Id. sterling 
 
 5 stivers — 1 bit — 5d. 
 
 20 do. or 4- bits — 1 guilder — 20d. 
 12 guilders, which is the par of exchange, make 20s. 
 
 The coins, beside those enumerated above, are dollars 5s. 
 each; gold Portugal coins, called ducats, 9s. each; moidores, 
 18s. and Johannes, or joes, which are S6s. <:i--m»<-?^^^-*-<^<^'-*>'V ^. 
 
 Although the par of exchange Is twelve guilders to the 
 pound sterling, it frequently varies accordiijg to the demand 
 for bills on Great Britain, or the quantity of specie which is 
 in request. In the former instance I have known government 
 bills on his majesty's treasury to sell for fourteen guilders the 
 pound, which is equal to ll. 3s. 4d. and even good private 
 bills have sold at the same rate. In the latter case, when a 
 want of specie obliges the planters to value on their corres- 
 pondents, their bills have only sold for eleven guilders and 
 eleven guilders and a half. 
 
 Merchants wanting to remit, always prefer shipping pro- 
 duce, in preference to buying bills at the high exchange of 14 
 guilders, as there is the same chance of that getting to a good 
 market, and probably giving a profit, while the bill transac- 
 tion incurs a certain loss of sixteen and two-thirds per cent, at 
 the first outset.
 
 72 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 The laws oblige every man from the age of sixteen to fifty, 
 to enrol himself in the burgher militia ; they are liable to be 
 called out when the governor thinks proper ; the officers are 
 appointed by the court of police, they are commanded by a 
 lieutenant-colonel ; their service extends no farther than pre- 
 serving the internal tranquillity of the country, but in the last 
 war, a number of British subjects volunteered their services, 
 and were inrolled to act under the military commandant. On 
 the British taking possession of the colonies this present war, 
 a company of volunteer riflemen were formed, and on the 
 arrival, in 1805,^f the combined fleets in the West Indies, be- 
 tween three and four hundred of the burgher militia stepped 
 forward, and offered their services to defend the colony against 
 any attacks of the enemy. Every body now in town and 
 country armed ; every estate on the sea coast provided a 
 trusty negro, who was armed with a pike and cutlas ; a troop 
 of cavalry was formed, and a company of volunteer artillery 
 was also added to the military force. The garrison is gene- 
 rally one thousand or twelve hundred strong. Four hundred 
 seamen can always be had from the merchant ships in the 
 river, by whom, with about six hundred .volunteers, and 
 one hundred pioneers, a good defence might be sustained. 
 But the greatest bulwark lies in the shallowness of the en- 
 trances into the river, and the numerous mud banks and 
 flats which run along the coast; and as there are signal staffs 
 from the Berbice to theDemerary (which ought to be continued
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARV, itc. 73 
 
 across the Essequebo to the Pomaroon) the garrison is sooa 
 apprized of an enemy being oft' the coast. It may be fairly 
 asserted that with the natural and acquired strength of tlir 
 country, and while the colonists are so favourable to Great 
 Britain, an eftectual defence may be made against six or eight 
 thousand men. Such is the advantage possessed by the inha- 
 bitants when they wish to preserve the colony to its possessors. 
 
 In the country, every officer of militia is a justice of the 
 peace, and has under his jurisdiction, a certain division of the 
 country to which he is attached ; these divisions are known 
 and distinguished by different coloured banners under which 
 they are arranged. They are termed burgher officers, 
 issue proclamations, receive depositions on tax schedules, 
 and are the active men in quelling disturbances, for which 
 purpose they have a disposable force in the embodied militia 
 of inhabitants. 
 
 Since the introduction of volunteering, military funerals 
 have usually been allotted to the whites : but the respect and 
 attention paid at funerals of free people, and even of negroes, 
 is very considerable. Not only all their relatives, but strangers 
 feel it an incumbent duty to go. If a coloured free person 
 dies in Stabroek, the remains are followed to the grave by 
 every one in town. I have seen upwards of two hundred 
 people of color followers. They are either in white mus^liu 
 
 L
 
 74? STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 dresses, or deep black mourning, according to whether the 
 deceased is female, or male. Before the solemn procession 
 takes place, the company refresh themselves with scalt wine 
 and cake. The coffin, which though merely covered with 
 black cloth and lined with linen, costs twenty-five pounds ster- 
 ling, is conveyed in a hearse, attended by twelve bearers, then 
 the clergyman, mourners, and followers.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 75 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 STABROEK CONTINUED — FORM OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE 
 
 GOVERNMENT VITIOUS CONSTITUTION OF THE COURTS 
 
 OF JUSTICE ECCLESIASTIC JURISDICTION ORPHAN- 
 CHAMBER — SALARIES OF OFFICE CUSTOM-HOUSE RE- 
 TURNS — CONTIGUOUS VILLAGES — CLIMATE. 
 
 X HE laws in force in the Dutch colonies were moulded on 
 the Roman or civil code, tempered and revised as the respec- 
 tive governors and council thought fit, guided by local cir- 
 cumstances and experience. The burghers, or inhabitants, 
 have the chief appointment of the administrators of justice, 
 through the body of keizers, who are their representatives, and 
 are regularly elected for that purpose, by the planters and 
 merchants. All those possessing twenty-five negroes are en- 
 titled to a vote. There is no dissolution whatever of this body, 
 but as fast as the members drop off, either by death or absence, 
 notice is issued by the governor for electing others in their 
 stead. This is done by sealed notes containing the votes, 
 which are left at one of the public offices. The whole number 
 of keizers consists of six only for each colony ; and when any 
 vacancy takes place, the English party being the strongest, use 
 
 L 2
 
 TG STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 their influence In electing one of themselves, to maintain their 
 majority in the college, as it is termed. A knowlege of the 
 Dutch language is not necessary to obtain a seat in it. The 
 governor is president of this body, with the privilege of a cast- 
 ing vote. The province of the college not only extends to the 
 appointment of members for the courts of police and justice ; 
 but to the financial department of the colony, so far as regards 
 the proper distribution of taxes raised for the internal improve- 
 ments. It is similar, in some degree, to the British house of 
 commons. The appointments in this college of keizers are 
 not enough rotatory. So many proprietors speculate on re- 
 turning eventually to Europe, that seats for life are neither 
 coveted, nor natural. The number of keizers is too limited : 
 they should bear some proportion to the number of estates 
 under cultivation, and increase with the increase of voters. 
 No doubt when peace returns, some uniform system of elect- 
 ing the administrative bodies will be applied to the whole coast 
 of Guyana ; in which the commercial interest, as well as the 
 landed, will be allowed to take a due representative share. 
 
 A court of justice, which consists of six members and the 
 e'overnor, sits every other month at the court house, and de- 
 cides on all causes laid before them according to the evidence 
 produced. The ability of council on either side, has too fre- 
 quently an opportunity of biassing the opinion of the court ; 
 from the members not having received a regular judicial course
 
 XZr^-^ 'h-^--^ ' .<^^^/-^ ^ .^ovy^. 
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 77 
 
 of education, they are sometimes fatally deceived by design- 
 ing aititices and quibbles in law, which, by litigious charac- 
 ters, are considered as good posts of defence, or a fair channel 
 for offensive operations. From the sentence of this court, 
 there is, however, fortunately, an appeal to the mother country, 
 either to their high mightinesses in Holland, or to the king in 
 council in England, to which ever sovereignty the colony 
 happens to owe its obedience. 
 
 The commissary court has only three members, who meet 
 every month to decide on small causes, for debts not exceed- 
 ing six hundred guilders, or fifty pounds sterling, and for grant- 
 ing licenses to parties intending to marry. Those, who ap- 
 proach the altar of hymen, are principally people of color, 
 who, in conformity with the laws, are obliged to receive per- 
 mission from this ecclesiastical court, for which they pay the 
 extravagant fee of one hundred and ten guilders. They are 
 also obliged to have the intended marriage advertized in the 
 colonial gazette. This form of marriage, though strictly bind- 
 ing under the colonial law, seldom or ever satisfies without 
 having recourse to a clergyman. An English gentleman, 
 who was on the eve of marrying a Dutch lady, attempted to 
 break through this law, and intended to be married according 
 to the established form of the church of England ; when the 
 vice-president of the court, fearing he should lose his fees, very 
 charitably informed him, that, if he deviated in the least 
 from the established rule, he would publish throughout the
 
 78 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OP THE 
 
 colony, their living in a state of inconlinency, and the illega- 
 lity of the marriage. 
 
 No persons are of age, or considered capable of acting for 
 themselves, until they have attained the age of twenty-five ; 
 at which time they are authorized to take possession of any 
 estate, or legacy, left them. The laws do not admit of a par- 
 tial division of property from parents to children, but an equal 
 distribution is made among the whole — the younger claims, 
 with the elder an equal portion. The weeskamer's office, or 
 orphan-chamber, administers the affairs of orphans, and of 
 those persons who die intestate. The appointment to this of- 
 fice is a valuable one, and seems to be entirely overlooked by 
 our ministers. 
 
 The fiscal is the chief magistrate, public accuser, and at- 
 torney-general, to prosecute in all cases for the sovereign. He 
 has, beside a stipulated salary, a proportion of all fines he le- 
 vies on the inhabitants, which is a discretionary power con- 
 fided to him, whence there is no other appeal than to the 
 court of justice, the expenses of which are so enormous as 
 to induce appellants to forgo this method of redress in fa- 
 vor of making a composition with the fiscal, who is gene- 
 rally inclined to receive one-third in ready money, rather than 
 throw it into the court, where the seeds of litigation are so 
 completely sown, as to make it dubious when the whole 
 would be recovered. From the preceding statement it will ne^
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 79 
 
 cessarily occur, that the fiscal must be well versed in the Dutch 
 laws ; he fills up that sort of place in our municipal constitu- 
 tion, which is occupied by the recorder of an English corpora- 
 tion. This appointment, exclusive of perquisites, is estimated 
 at three thousand pounds yearly. The governor's salary is 
 supposed to amount to - ^^,000 or jCS,000 
 
 That of the secretary, farmed to a deputy for 1,000 worth 3,000 
 Receiver of colonial taxes «| H'i 800 ditto 2,000 
 
 Receiver of king's dues - - - 500 ditto 1,500 
 Vendue master - -v^- - 1,000 ditto 3,000 
 
 Exploiteur ... i,000 ditto 3,000 
 
 Post master and naval officer, each - 800 ditto 2,000 
 Harbourmaster - - - 500 ditto 1,500 
 
 Collector and comptroller of customs, each 1,000 ditto 4,000 
 Beside these, are many subordinate offices in the customs and 
 other departments. The salaries of the custom-house officers 
 vary somewhat according to the exports and imports. 
 
 The produce* cleared from the port of Demerary since the 
 last establishment of the British custom-house, is thus recorded: 
 
 From the 1st of October, 1803, to the 10th of September, 
 1804, in 394 vessels.— 19,638 hogsheads, 213 tierces, and 151 
 barrels of sugar; 4,887 puncheons of rum; 46,435 bales of cot- 
 ton ; 9,954, 610 pounds of coffee; and 530 casks of melasses. 
 
 * In the appendix will be found a-similar statement from the year 1745 to 1785.
 
 80 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 From the 10th of September, ISO*, to the 5th of January, 
 
 1805, in 71 vessels. — 2,161 hogsheads, 78 tierces, and 19 
 barrels of sugar; 504 puncheons of rum ; 6,318 bales of cot- 
 ton ; 439,520 pounds of coffee ; and 311 casks of melasses. 
 
 From the 5th of January, 1805, to the 5th of January, 
 
 1806, in 200 vessels. — 15,839 hogsheads, 213 tierces, and 
 129 barrels of sugar ; 3,611 puncheons and 17 hogsheads of 
 rum; 21,202 bales and 5 bags of cotton; 2,295,701 pounds 
 of coffee; 1,687 casks of melasses. 
 
 From the 5th of January, 1806, to the 5th of January, 
 
 1807, in 221 vessels. — 19,337 hogsheads, 474 tierces, and 
 801 barrels of sugar; 4,722 puncheons and 17 hogsheads of 
 rum ; 23,604 bales and 2 bags of cotton ; 12,390,102 pounds 
 of coffee; and 1694 casks of melasses. 
 
 The conduct of the British government with regard to con- 
 quered territory, is so strictly praiseworthy, as to require no 
 other, commendation from me than to be held out as a contrast 
 with that of our enemies. In the repeated instances in which 
 the English have made themselves masters of these colonies, 
 they have always respected the existing laws and private pro- 
 perty. The persons of individuals have been held sacred, and 
 colonial vessels, amounting at the last capture to between five 
 and six hundred, were secured to their possessors; although as
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. '^1 
 
 floating property, they might in justice have been claimed by 
 the captors. 
 
 Kingston is an Enghsh village, contiguous to the Ibrt and 
 camp, consisting of very neat and good houses, painted white, 
 raised on brick foundations, and covered with wallaba shingles 
 instead of tiles. Each house has an allotment of garden 
 ground. This pretty little village first reared its head in April 
 1796. The officers of the garrison commenced it, since 
 which it has been greatly increased in size and fame, and is 
 become the residence of a number of professional men, and of 
 merchants, who keep their counting-house injtlie metropolis, 
 Stabroek, and retire here to enjoy the pleasures of relaxation, 
 after the fatigue of business. Situated immediately at the 
 mouth of the Demerary, it has a commanding view, and is 
 quite open to the sea, whence the trade wind, here a regular 
 north-east breeze, pours its refreshing coolness. The society 
 is good of itself, and is enlarged from its adjacency to the 
 camp, as officers with families, prefer residing here to the 
 barracks. The garrison hospital is in this village. It is also 
 noted for the residence of the only English clergyman in the 
 colonies. 
 
 Kingston, so called after the capital of Jamaica, is about a 
 mile from Stabroek, and is approached on an excellent car- 
 riage road, equal to the turnpikes in England ; so indeed are 
 
 M
 
 82 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 all the public roads throughout these colonies. The rent of 
 houses in this village is from five to twenty pounds sterling per 
 month. Since it has been built, the changes of its name have 
 been as frequent as the sovereignty of the country. The 
 Dutch, in the short time they reigned, having a perfect detes- 
 tation against English names, and English things, called it 
 Eveleary. On the British taking the country in 1803, it re- 
 sumed its other name, which I hope will never be changed 
 by any foreign power. 
 
 The adjoining towns to this, are Labourgade and Cumings- 
 burgh, the former are a range of warehouses, or a street, on 
 the bank of the river, eminently situated for shipping pro- 
 duce and landing goods. Several very valuable edifices 
 have been raised here by British merchants for transacting 
 their business with greater celerity. The stores are of consi- 
 derable size, and mostly serve for the reception of a vessel's 
 homeward-bound cargo. I was engaged in one instance 
 which will prove their utility. The brig Convert, of 150 tons, 
 and cargo, were insured to sail with the October 1800 con- 
 voy, and only arriving about a week before it sailed, there was 
 danger of forfeiting the insurance. However, with the greatest 
 exertions, we got her inward-bound cargo out, and completely 
 loaded her again with coffee and cotton, in sixty hours. This 
 unprecedented exertion, however, would have proved fruitless, 
 had not the produce been so conveniently stored on shore.
 
 SETtLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. ^ 
 
 The most extensive of those warehouses belonging to a mercan- 
 tile house of great celebrity, cost in building, between ten and 
 fifteen thousand pounds sterling, and, when the colonies were 
 ceded to the Dutch, were offered for sale at one half the 
 original cost, and that in vain ; such was the decrease in Value 
 of property. In the same street are two ship builder's yards, 
 but the vessels built there do not exceed fifty tons. 
 
 Cinningsburgh is situated directly at the back of Labourgade, 
 
 separated from it by the public road and the Cumingsburgh 
 
 navigable canal, which is brought from the river, and serves 
 
 as the means for the merchants to land their goods. This town 
 
 is two miles in circumference, and the most regularly arranged 
 
 one of any. Its allotments are large and convenient, and sold 
 on long building leases. There are six principal streets, and as 
 
 many canals, with others of a smaller denomination thwarting 
 the town. Over each canal are two large bridges for the passing 
 and re-passing of horses and carriages. New buildings are erect- 
 ing every day, and I am really at a loss to know where the inha- 
 bitants come from to fill them ; as most of the planters reside on 
 their estates. Indeed they all did until very lately, when some of 
 the richer introduced the refinement of requiring town houses. 
 A planter has a great facility in building ; after having made 
 choice of a lot of land for his house ; his plantation affords 
 him all the necessary tradesmen ; his bricklayer lays the 
 foundation of the house, and builds the kitchen ; his car- 
 
 M '2
 
 -84 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 penters are employed in the woods in making the frame, 
 which they put up, board in, and complete; he then pur- 
 chases a few kegs of white lead and jugs of linseed oil, and 
 sets his carpenters about paintmg it. Therefore, a planter 
 with all these advantages, knocks up a snug little box in three 
 or four weeks, without feeling the expence of it; while a mer- 
 chant is obliged to go cap in hand to a master carpenter residing 
 in Stabroek, "to know when it will be convenient for him to 
 set about his house', and that he shall feel himself much obliged 
 if he will do it immediately." These master carpenters are 
 very high fellows, make exorbitant bills, and sometimes will 
 not work without being paid before hand. On the whole, I 
 cannot blame them; public carpenters are scarse; they, there- 
 fore, like the rest of mankind, know and use their power. 
 The same is true of the blacksmiths, millwrights, masons, 
 coppersmiths, coach and harness makers, or repairers, saddlers, 
 watchmakers, and goldsmiths. It is necessarily the case in 
 all new countries, and as it is the natural order of things, and 
 the cause of inviting fresh settlers, nothing should be urged 
 against it. 
 'ill • 
 Bridge town and New town, both built by the English, 
 ■^ he between Stabroek and Labourgade; the former was built 
 almost wholly by an individual, who, when the demand for 
 houses was so great, made of it an advantageous speculation. 
 It has, however, now degenerated, and is become the mere
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &CC. 85 
 
 residence of hucksters, coloured women, and a low race of 
 y Creoles and barbadoans. The new town has four principal 
 streets, and may be considered as the Cheapside of London in 
 - epitome, for business, merchant's stores, retail shops, gold- 
 smiths, watchmakers, hatters, apothecaries, slopsellers, segar- 
 makers, and in fact, every thing is to be found here which 
 can be purchased in the colony. On each side this town, 
 which was also built by the British, are two canals, the banks 
 of which, when the tide is up, appear like so many wharfs, 
 completely strewed with English manufactured goods, in 
 bales, casks, tiTinks, or boxes. Here the spirit of business is 
 perceptible: the negroes, clad with blue trowsers and checked 
 shirts, moving to and fro with alacrity, performing those of- 
 fices, which a white man here and there distributed, dressed 
 in nankeen pantaloons and a line calico shirt, directs from un- 
 der an umbrella. Noon generally retards out-door business ; 
 as the white men then escape into the house, and leave the 
 negroes to themselves, who, thinking it a good maxim " like 
 master like man," set themselves down to play cards, paupa, 
 and other amusing games, for the love of which they are so 
 distinguished. 
 
 In this town there is a large wharf belonging to the mer- 
 chants, called the American stclling, where small vessels are 
 loaded and discharged. American vessels likewise come 
 alongside to land their horses and cattle. On my first landing
 
 86 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 I was much struck with the different shades of coloured people, 
 ^ the mestee,* mulatto, -f- sambo,| and black. 
 
 The foregoing towns are to the north-east of Stabroek, the 
 ^ village or town of Werk en Rust, so called after the name of 
 an estate to which the land formerly was attached, joins it to 
 the south'West, and is the residence of a number of merchants 
 in the American business ; it is not so well or regularly laid 
 out as the others ; besides which, the burial-ground being 
 here, which consists of ten acres, makes it unpleasant ; there 
 are but few grave or tomb stones. 
 
 Before cultivation extended itself, this part of the country 
 was inundated with deluges of rain ; but the seasons, as the 
 land was cleared, soon became more settled, and the rain less 
 heavy. Two wet and two dry seasons complete the year: the 
 former commences in December, and continues January and 
 February, and June, July, and August ; the latter occupies 
 the intervening months. In the rainy season the thermometer 
 is generally lower than at other timies ; the land winds are also 
 prevalent, which are esteemed unhealthy; and the number of 
 mosquitoes which infest all buildings are extremely trouble- 
 some, indeed, so much so, that the planter making a new 
 
 1* Between a white and mulatto. + Between a white and negress. 
 
 X Between a mulatto and negress.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 87 
 
 estate is obliged to be half stifled with smoke to secure a 
 night's rest. Their stings and singing noise are very disagree- 
 able, and the remedy of smoaking them out is thought nearly 
 as bad as the disease. How destructive to insect life is the 
 burning of camphor, was first observed in Sweden : perhaps 
 this, or some other, envenomed vapor, could be employed 
 more eflficaciously than wood-smoak. 
 
 The dry season may really be termed beautiful: a fine clear 
 blue sky prevails throughout the day, which is seen making 
 its appearance from the east between the hours of four and 
 five ; for the morning twilight is gradual and long ; whereas 
 in the evening the sun goes out at six instantly, as if covered 
 with an extinguisher, leaving the country in sudden darkness. 
 This striking difl'erence between the duration of the morning 
 and evening twilight probably arises from the sun's rising over 
 the sea, where the moist atmosphere is very refractive, and 
 setting behind high mountains wliose shadow has definite limits. 
 The greatest heat is from seven to ten, and is almost intole- 
 rable. The sea-breeze then begins to set in, which restores to 
 nature all her animation, and which blows with increasing 
 spirit until dark, but decreases about ten at night. 
 
 August is the commencement of the hurricane months in 
 the West Indies : Guyana, however, is but little aft'ccted, ex- 
 cept by heavy squalls of wind, which do no other injury
 
 88 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 than blowing down a few acres of plaintain trees. Large ac- 
 cumulations of clouds are now seen going to the southward — 
 hollow peals of thunder are heard in the interior, and the day 
 generally closes with faint flashes of lightning from the south 
 and south-west. 
 
 The length of the days are tliirteen hours, and from that to 
 fourteen ; no other variation is perceptible throughout the 
 year. Greater variety of climate is to be found here than is 
 generally expected : the range of the thermometer on the sea- 
 coast, in the dry season, which is esteemed the hottest, is from 
 84 to 90 ; and at the distance of twenty miles in the interior, 
 the degree of heat seldom exceeds 80 in the warmest part of 
 the day, and in the nights is generally as lew as 50 or 60. 
 The mornings come in excessively cold, and with a heavy fall 
 of dew, which, with the swamps and stagnated waters, makes 
 the interior unhealthy to Europeans. The Indians, however, 
 who inhabit these parts, from being accustomed to the soil, 
 enjoy very good health, and are subject to few diseases. 
 Many persons speak of this climate as unwholesome. I have 
 not found it so. In my peregrinations by water to Essequebo 
 and Berbice, which my occupation required, I have fre- 
 quently been wet through three times within the twenty-four 
 hours, and allowed the same cloaths to dry on me without 
 feeling the least inconvenience: not that I recommend a simi- 
 lar experiment to new arrivers, but, on the contrary, I was
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, hc. 89 
 
 obliged to submit to it through necessity. More depends on 
 the management of ourselves than is generally supposed, and 
 temperance is the soul of our existence. It is adviseable for 
 persons going to the West Indies, to keep their bodies open 
 by cooling medicines, and on their arrival, to be particularly 
 shy of the night air and fogs, which are very unhealthy. 
 It should also be remembered to keep as much out of the 
 sun as possible ; too sudden or too lasting an exposure to it, 
 brings on fevers, and other bad consequences. 
 
 Some short time after my arrival in Demcrary, I went up 
 the river on a visit with my friend to his brother's, who 
 had a sugar estate fifteen miles from Stabroek. It happened 
 to be a very warm day, and after our landing I was induced, 
 though cautioned against it, to take a stroll about the planta- 
 tion. On my return to the house, I felt a dizziness in my 
 head, and a sickness at my stomach, my eyes rolled about 
 with the most excrutiating pain, and my skin was burning 
 hot. I had scarsely time to explain my situation, and express a 
 wish of going to bed, before I fainted away, and was prevented 
 falling on the floor by one of my friends, who caught me in 
 his arms. On recovering somewhat, I found myself on a 
 sofa, and many persons busied about me in applying harts- 
 horn to my nostrils, and bathing my temples with brandy. I was 
 now hurried to bed, and advised to take a composing draught. 
 After the removal of my stupor, on enquiring into the nature 
 
 N
 
 StO STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 of my complaint, I was informed it entirely arose from the ex- 
 ercise I had taken in tlie sun-shine, which generally had the 
 same effect on all new comers for the first few months, until 
 custom, like second nature, had rendered them capable of 
 bearing the rays of light. This circumstance I have given at 
 full length, hoping it will act as a'caution to others; for the coup 
 de soleil, though so frequent a disease, is not habitually foreseen 
 and provided against. In reading over Dr. Pinckard's notes on 
 Demerary, I observed in several instances, he complained of the 
 unhealthiness of the climate, and especially at the Mahaica post, 
 which is as fine a situation as any the colony affords, and is 
 indeed frequently visited by convalescents for the benefit of 
 the sea air. However, the cause of my wonder soon ceased, 
 by his saying in another place that the soldiers were frequently 
 employed by their officers at that post, to drag nets through 
 the sea to catch fish for their mess, and were sent in open boats 
 up the Creek for fresh water. The being thus exposed to the 
 burning rays of the sun, before they were properly accustomed 
 to the climate, accounts fully for their unhealthy state. And 
 surely new troops but just arrived from England were not ca- 
 pable of bearing a fatigue and exposure, which not even new 
 negroes can always endure, though born nearly in a similar 
 climate. 
 
 On my first arrival, the necessity was suggested to me 
 of making immediate application for medical assistance on
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C, 91 
 
 any feverish symptoms appearing, or on feeling the least in- 
 disposed. In March, 1799, I had been actively employed 
 in the morning receiving and taking account of several boat 
 loads of goods, whicii were landing from a ship in the river, 
 and very carelessly exposed myself to the sun without an um- 
 brella. About four o'clock in the afternoon, I was taken 
 very ill with a severe pain in my head, and accordingly 
 went to bed. Dr. Dunkin, a man of superior medical talents, 
 and physician to the garrison, attended me in the very friendly 
 manner for which he is so noted, and entered into conversation 
 with me as to the nature of my disease, of which he affected 
 to make light. This conduct was certainly calculated to keep 
 my spirits from drooping, and in fact had the desired effect. 
 My disorder became a bilious fever, which was clearly vi- 
 sible by my very sallow complexion, and the appearance of 
 my eyes and tongue. I looked as if I was turning into a mu- 
 latto. Emetics, purges, pills, and bark, were given me in 
 due order, and after four days, I was pronounced to be out 
 of danger, and removed for better air into the country. 
 This was called my seasoning, and a more ardent attack of 
 fever had not been experienced for some years by any one. 
 This fact I think will clearly prove the necessity of imme- 
 diate-recourse to medical aid, let the symptoms be ever so 
 trivial ; mine was at first merely a head-ache, but if it had 
 been suffered to have passed unnoticed that night, the result I 
 think would have been fatal. I was soon after attacked by 
 
 N 2
 
 92 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the prickly heat, which is a scarlet eruption; it causes a great 
 deal of itching, but is considered as friendly to health. 
 
 As persons of bilious habits are frequently assailed with a 
 sickness at their stomachs, they ought to be very careful in their 
 diet, and avoid every thing which is uneasy of digestion, or 
 likely to create bile. A few drops of oil of orange, or of Stough- 
 ton's bitters, taken in a glass of wine, are reputed to strengthen 
 the stomach, and create an appetite. Good and sumptuous 
 living is necessary here for the support of the system, and 
 to supply the waste of strength occasioned by the daily ex- 
 ertion and the incessant perspiration. Though only two meals 
 are taken in a day, yet they will be found to exceed almost 
 any four eaten in England. 
 
 - The yaws is a most dreadful disorder. It has much the ap- 
 pearance of the small pox from the manner of its coming out. 
 The patient is covered with large ulcers in every part of his 
 body and limbs, and, as it is very infectious, he keeps by 
 himself. Its duration is uncertain, being sometimes from 
 twelve to eighteen months, during which, the eruption re-, 
 turns no less than three times. No effectual cure has, I be- 
 lieve, ever been found for it. Salivation will drive it in, but 
 sulphur, and other opening medicines, are now preferred, to 
 indvice its coming out. Spare diet, with exercise, and na- 
 ture's being left to herself, often prove the best resource. This
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 93 
 
 is a disease which a person can never have but once. I have 
 seen only one instance of a white man's having it: therefore 
 it appears almost peculiar to the negroes. There are black 
 women who inoculate their children for this disorder ; its vio- 
 lence is thereby lessened. 
 
 The stings of musquitoes or gnats, I found very disagreeable, 
 as they are succeeded by large red pimples, the scratching of 
 which frequently occasions so many ulcers. These insects 
 always attack new comers in preference to others. Lime juice 
 and water is found to be the best preservative against their 
 attacks, as also a cure for their stings : I used to bathe my 
 hands and feet with it before going to bed. 
 
 V The chigoe, or jigger, is a sort of flea harboured in the sand, 
 that gets between the skin and the flesh, but oftener under the 
 toe-nails, where in a short time it becomes as large as a pea, 
 when it assumes the form of a bladder, in which are deposited 
 many hundreds of eggs, that in the process of time come to 
 so many young chigoes. But before they arrive at this state 
 of maturity, a most intolerable itching is felt, which is the 
 signal for extracting them. The negroes are very expert at 
 doing it with a sharp-pointed penknife, and the great art is to 
 lake out the bladder without breaking, when the cavity is 
 filled up with tobacco-ash, or snuft'. Sand-flies are a very 
 small but troublesome insect, scarcely larger tlian a pin's-head.
 
 ^^ STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 though their sting is nearly as severe as thart of mosquitoes, but 
 not being quite so fleet they tire frequently killed in the attack. 
 -A ringworm consists of long scarlet spots in dift'erent parts of 
 the body, but they especially make their appearance about 
 the face and neck, and may be prevented from extending, by 
 an immediate application of lime-juice and gunpowder, which 
 ■is ia very painful, but eftectiial remedy.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 9fS( 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 STATE OF FARMING IN DEMERARY — CONDITION OP THE 
 
 NEGRO PEASANTRY REFORMS SUGGESTED EXPEDIENCY 
 
 OF THE SLAVE TRADE. 
 
 I 
 
 Had often occasion to repeat my visits to the liospitab|p 
 proprietor of the Reynestein estate, and took a pleasure in exr 
 amining the condition of the peasantry, and the nature of the 
 agriculture. Previously to my leaving England, I had im- 
 bibed prejudices against tiic negroes, and believed them ha- 
 bitually embittered against their masters, and unfit to be 
 trusted a moment; that a white man's life was always in 
 danger, and that it was necessary to make every house a sort 
 of fort, for the protection of its white inhabitants. But I 
 found that the guardians of security and property were, the 
 negroes themselves. 
 
 During one of my visits on the Reynestein estate, I was 
 astonished after dark by seeing several fires on diflferent parts 
 of the estate: one before the dwelling, another at the wind- 
 mill, and a third between the poultry house, and sheep 
 pen ; which upon enquiry I learnt were made by the negro-
 
 96 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 watchmen, who were appointed and stationed every night 
 by the overseer in different directions, to prevent theft. — 
 " All's well," was echoed from one to another, every half 
 hour, lill the sound was indistinctly heard issuing from the 
 remote plaintain-walk and provision-grounds, where its rever- 
 beration at times seemed to die away. The door of the 
 dwelling-house is always left open during the night, whicli 
 leaves to the negroes a free ingress and egress to any of the 
 apartments. The watchmen are responsible for every thing; 
 and such is their attention and perseverance in their duty, 
 that it rarely happens any thing is lost. The negroes de- 
 light in a low schoolboy sort of drollery, of which an instance 
 may be borne — it bears some analogy to Foote's praise of 
 Calais — there the very children in petticoats can talk French. 
 I one evening left the portico to light my segar at daddy 
 Cudjo's fire, and to see how he was situated. I found him 
 smoaking his pipe, and roasting some salted cod-fish and 
 plaintains for his supper; he had in one hand a calabash of 
 toddy, which he told me was given him by " dat buckra 
 overseer." Upon my asking what toddy was, he uttered an 
 ejaculation, " Kle ! massa, you no sabbc what dat be ? 
 " Buckra been say neger fool because he no hab sense," 
 (meaning that they could neitlier write nor read) " and you 
 " here so, one buckra, ask mc, poor neger, who no hab 
 " sense, what toddy be — why, massa, he no more than rum 
 " and sugar mixed together with water." This tuition of a
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 97 
 
 white made all his companions laugh aloud. The poultry- 
 house contained nearly a thousand head of feathered stock, 
 consisting of chickens, turkics, and ducks, which were taken 
 care of and reared by an old negress, whose sole time was de- 
 dicated to that : she always counted them morning and night, 
 and gave a tally to the overseer both times, with an account 
 of deaths, losses, and increase, and a circumstantial list of 
 all the laying hens, and of the number of eggs, which were 
 delivered to the dairy-maid. There were only eight or ten 
 sheep in the pen, which were fattened and made ready for 
 the knife, previous to being sent from the sea-coast estate, 
 where the body of the flock, consisting of one hundred and 
 fifty, was kept, as they thrive much better on the saline 
 than on the fresh land of the river. A regular account of 
 these was delivered in, every evening, by the shepherd, as well 
 as of the swine, by the pig-keeper, of which there were be- 
 tween twenty and thirty: as they are apt to do considerable 
 damage on sugar estates, these gentry were obliged to be con- 
 fined to the stye. Instances are frequent of some escaping 
 into the woods, where they live wild, and their increase has 
 been immense. They are at chance times to be shot, which 
 is the only way of taking them. The other stock which 
 attracted my notice, were some goats, and between twenty and 
 thirty head of cows : the former provide milk for coffee, the 
 latter supply the family with butter; besides which, bub, or 
 
 o
 
 9S STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 milk punch, made under (he cow, is very much used. 
 When there is a sufficient quantity immediately after the cows 
 have calved, the young negro-children are regaled with a 
 mess of milk each for their breakfast. 
 
 Oxen are bred for the butchers, the gain arising from 
 which, is generally sufficient to pay all colonial taxes. Rear- 
 ing stock on an estate is here highly profitable, but more es- 
 pecially horned cattle, and those planters who lay out a small 
 proportion of their capital that way, and have good pasturage, 
 find their account in it. I knew an instance of ten heifers 
 being purchased out of a cargo brought from the Cape de Verd 
 Islands; four died irrtmediately, the other six were grazed six 
 months, and then sold for double the amount the original ten 
 cost. There is little fear but these colonies will in a short time 
 raise more stock of every kind than can possibly be used, 
 which will be the means of making living considerably 
 cheaper here, and of preparing a new source of supply for 
 the West India islands. The fine savannahs in the interior, 
 present a field for graziers which even North America can- 
 not boast of. What is the case in the Orinoko ? Beef sells 
 for three-halfpence per pound, and the cattle are allowed to 
 run wild in the savannahs. Mules are already bred here in 
 great abundance, and are the finest in the world ; nearly all 
 the West Indies are hence supplied with those animals.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 99 
 
 But the great article o( cultivation is sugar. New land 
 cleared of the bush is unfit to be immediately planted with the 
 sugar-cane; it generally yields two or three crops of plane- 
 tains in the first instance, which prepares the soil for sugar. 
 The land is then laid out in ridges, something like the wheal 
 fields in England ; and the cane plants, which are propa- 
 gated by cuttings about six inches long, are then placed 
 between two of these ridges, at regular distances, and lightly 
 covered with earth. The sugar-cane comes to perfection in 
 twelve, fourteen, or sixteen months, according to the soil or 
 season, in which time the fields are weeded and cleaned three 
 or four times. The average size of the cane at its full growth 
 is nine feet long, and four or five inches in circumference. 
 I have sometimes seen canes thirty feet in length and thick in 
 proportion, but they do not make the best sugar ; the land 
 which yields them is too rich; and it is a curious fact, that 
 every crop of canes, for the first twenty-five years, improves 
 successively, and yields a better quality of sugar. I have be- 
 fore observed, that the canes are transported from the fields in 
 flat-bottomed boats to the mills, where they are ground. The 
 liquor extracted is received into a cistern, whence it is con- 
 ducted by spouts to the boiling-house, a large building one 
 hundred feet long and thirty feet wide, where it is received 
 into a large copper, called the clarifier. It is next boiled, ahd 
 all the skum and filth is taken off by copper skimmers. It is 
 then tempered with lime, which gives it substance, and is 
 
 o 2
 
 100 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 ladled into four other coppers, undergoing in each a thorough 
 skimming and boiling. At length it is conveyed by a wooden 
 gutter into the cooler, where it remains until it is about blood- 
 warm, and is then put into the hogsheads in the curing-house, 
 which is adjoining, and has in it a large platform, on a slope, 
 capable of containing two hundred hogsheads of sugar. The 
 molasses generally continue running from the sugar a fortnight 
 after it is made. On the platform, or starling, are proper 
 channels for conducting it into cisterns. Every sugar estate 
 has its own negro coopers, who make tiie puncheons and 
 hogsheads requisite for the rum and sugar. Mr. George 
 Brumell informed me, that his coopers got the staves and 
 hoops from the forests at the back of his own estate, but that 
 most planters still imported them from North America. 
 
 The materials used for making rum are molasses, skimmings, 
 and water, which, after fermentation, are distilled. A plan- 
 ter expects eighty gallons of rum for every hogshead of sugar 
 which his estate produces, averaging about twelve hundred 
 pounds. The rum made on a sugar estate is generally calcu- 
 lated to pay all its expences. 
 
 The distillation of rum has been carried to a high state of 
 perfection, by the persevereance and skill of several scientific 
 men, who have succeeded in making the Essequebo and De- 
 merary rums as much in request, in the American market, as
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 101 
 
 that from Jamaica is in England. From the method of ma- 
 nufacture, a richness of flavor adheres to them, which is sel- 
 dom found in the island rums ; and I am convinced, when 
 they are more known and noticed in these markets, they will 
 be more esteemed. It was at first with the greatest difficulty 
 the Americans could be induced to take the Demerary rum, 
 as they were so much prejudiced in favor of the Jamaica, but 
 at this time three-fourths of our rum is shipped to North Ame- 
 rica, and in preference. The liqueurs manufactured in the 
 French islands surpass, however, for delicacy of flavor, any 
 of our efforts in distillery. The labors occasioned by the make 
 of sugar are the hardest and most unpleasant to which the 
 negroes are exposed : yet such toils would be laughed at by 
 the workmen of an English foundery. 
 
 When a negro is purchased, and attached to any estate, 
 he acquires a right of settlement thereon. In sickness and 
 in health, in his young and old age, he is alike treated, 
 maintained, clothed, and lodged. Often have I contemplated 
 with inexpressible pleasure, a grey-headed negro and his wife, 
 sitting at the door of their cottage, fondly protecting and en- 
 joying the active sports of their grand-children, while the 
 parents have been engaged pursuing their respective occupa- 
 tions in the fields. All the old settled estates can boast of 
 having reared negroes of three and four generations ; but the 
 mass of cultivated lands having been populated within the little
 
 102 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 space of ten years, there does not appear on them an increase 
 proportioned to the number of negroes in the colony. Great 
 allowances must be made for new settlers — beginning with a 
 small capital, their chief aim was to cultivate the land, not to 
 increase the population : for that purpose they bought men- 
 slaves, as being best adapted for clearing heavy forests of trees, 
 digging trenches and drains, &c. That being done, they 
 then turn their attention to the domestic wants of the men, 
 and purchase a lot of women to supply them with wives ; 
 each makes his choice, and the business is settled. The man 
 works over hours, saves his money, and buys for his wife ex- 
 tra articles of wearing apparel and finery. As a couple, they 
 generally live happy, and are very tenacious of decorum ; but 
 in the rare case of any inconstancy on the part of the 
 female, a complaint is preferred to the manager, or pro- 
 prietor of the estate, and a separation takes place, which 
 gives to the parties a liberty to make another choice. Some 
 negroes on my friend's estate, not being able to accommodate 
 themselves from the collection of females already upon it, and 
 desirous of having wives, were sent for to Stabroek, and taken 
 to a sale-room, where a cargo of negroes was just landed, 
 find there made choice of wives, which their master paid for. 
 Two chose pretty women, and the third an ordinary one. On 
 my asking him why he did not like a handsome wife, he re- 
 plied, " No, massa, me no want wife for handsome, me want 
 " him for do me good, and for work for massa as well as me."
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 103 
 
 She was a stout strong woman, and turned out much better 
 than the other two. 
 
 On the Reynestcin there are an unusual number of Creole 
 children, which may be accounted for from the attention and 
 care which are paid them in their infancy. I have seen eight 
 or ten round their master's chair at breakfast or dinner, having 
 their platters filled: there are generally some pets of the 
 kind on every estate ; but this proprietor was particularly 
 fond of the children, and used to enjoy their antic nakedness. 
 Their sports agreeably recall the basso-relievos of antiquity. 
 Children born in these regions are less helpless than in Europe: 
 they display stronger symptoms of innate intelligence, and 
 learn much earlier to take care of themselves. The nakedness, 
 in which they are so long left, contributes no doubt to their 
 acquiring a freer use of the limbs, and an earlier communica- 
 tion of idea by gesture, 
 
 A negro, in the enjoyment of social happiness, having his 
 wife and children, a garden, his goats, pigs, and feathered 
 stock to attend to, feels a degree of interest in the estate, which 
 would scarcely be expected from an emigrated African. By be- 
 ing transported to a new soil, and a more civilized country, these 
 people become more humanized, more enlightened ; their minds 
 undergo a new formation, and they are enabled to distinguish
 
 104' STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the good treatment they receive here, from the arbitrary and 
 unrelenting mandates of the petty kings and princes in their 
 own country, where they are subject to be butchered Uke a par- 
 cel of swine. Better, sure, are the Africans under the West 
 India planters, protected as they are by the colonial laws, 
 transplanted into a settlement, where their industry and talents 
 will make them useful members of the community, than 
 abandoned to the cruel and rude tyranny of an uncivilized 
 master in their own country. The severe methods of coer- 
 cion, formerly used by the West Indian planters, are tra- 
 ditional among the Africans, and resulted from employing 
 negro task-masters. In proportion as white overseers have be- 
 come numerous, has the treatment improved. During my 
 residence in Demerary, I made it a regular question of en- 
 quiry among plantation-negroes, whom I was constantly in the 
 habit of seeing and conversing with at remote places, as my 
 chief occupation consisted in travelling, whether they pre- 
 ferred their own country to this; and I hereby make a solemn 
 asseveration, which will remain upon record, that of several 
 hundreds of negroes, to whom I have put the question at dif- 
 ferent periods, they have all given the preference to their pre- 
 sent situations. I will venture to assert, that, in case of asking 
 all the negroes round in the colonies, there will be found 
 ninety contents out of every hundred to whom the question 
 shoujd be put.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 105 
 
 I discovered in a singular manner that one of the sailor ne- 
 groes attached to our establishment, and who had been in 
 Demerary about two years, had seen Mungo Park, in his 
 travels in the interior of Africa. I was going down to Essc- 
 quebo in the schooner, and, as was my custom, I had 
 put three or four books into my portmanteau, Mungo Park's 
 Travels was among the number ; in looking over the vo- 
 cabulary of the Mandingo tongue, I called Peter, a negro 
 of that nation, and asked him a question in his own lan- 
 guage. " Kie ! massa, you sabbe talk me country," was 
 the exclamation. I had now an opportunity of proving 
 Mungo Park's correctness, and desired Peter to turn the 
 question I had put to him into English, which he did, with 
 several others, and from their agreeing with the translation, 
 he convinced me that the travels in Africa deserved credit and 
 confidence. However, to prove further, I told Peter what I 
 was reading, when he replied with energy, " massa, me been 
 " see that white man In me country, in de town where me 
 " live, he been come dere one night for sleep, one blacksmith 
 " countryman for me been with him, me been give him rice 
 " for he supper, and soon, soon, in the morning he been go 
 " towards the moor's country." From the earnest manner in 
 which this artless tale was delivered, I was convinced that 
 Peter had seen Mungo Park, the name of the village, and the 
 reception he met with, agreed so exactly with what was nar- 
 rated, that there could be no doubt of it. 
 
 p
 
 lOff STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 It will be a source of gratification to every philanthropic 
 heart to know, that the greatest evil which the negroes la- 
 boured under, in our continental establishments, is nearly, 
 and will in a short time be completely eradicated : I mean 
 the painful punishments : the inflicting of tortures by the 
 rab rack, and the severe floggings with a cart whip. Only 
 one instance of the former has been known since the colonies 
 became British in 1196, and that was authorized by the Dutch 
 laws 710W in force, which are very severe in that respect. 
 A negro had murdered his master, and was accordingly ap- 
 prehended and given over to the law ; upon his trial he was 
 found guilty, and acknowledged his crime. He was sen- 
 N /tenced to the rab rack, a horrid machine, with recesses made 
 for the principal joints to be placed in, upon which the crimi- 
 nals are laid out and extended, when they are broken alive by 
 iron bars, and left in that state to linger out a miserable ex- 
 istence, till some one has the humanity to put an end to it. 
 On the day of execution. Governor Beaujon, sent to the 
 commandant of the troops, Lieut.-Colonel Heslop, now ge- 
 neral and governor of Trinidad, for a file of soldiers, as a 
 guard to keep in awe the populace. To this gentleman's 
 honor be it remembered, that he resisted the application, and 
 returned an answer similar to this : " That as long as he com- 
 " manded a British soldier, he would never allow him to be 
 " present at such an inhuman execution; but that any asslst- 
 " ance which the mlUtary could give to the civil government>
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 107 
 
 " consistently witli the honor and dignity of the army, should 
 " not be withheld." This spirited and manly reply to the go- 
 vernor's requisition, shewed at once the disapprobation which 
 the British government entertained for such horrid and cruel 
 treatment of criminals, and lias hitlierto prevented a repetition 
 of them. 
 
 I assert with confidence and satisfaction, that there is not so 
 much flogging on a West India plantation, as there is obliged 
 to be on board our men of war, with the cat of nine tails, to 
 preserve order. The planters feel an interest in exciting emd- 
 lation among the negroes, and in encouraging them to set ex- 
 amples of industry and order, to the newly imported. It is 
 worthy of remark, that the old seasoned people look with a 
 degree of scorn on the new negroes, because they cannot "talk 
 buckra," and are not so clever and so active as they are, or so 
 familiarized with the customs and manners of their white 
 masters. It was formerly thought necessary for the preserva- 
 tion of good discipline on estates, to correct negroes for every 
 fault which was committed, and the driver's whip was conti- 
 nually cracking to excite fear, and stimulate the poor wretches 
 to work. Different measures have since been adopted, of 
 which experience fully authorizes a continuance, both from 
 the salutary etfect which they have had on the negroes, 
 and from their being more congenial to the feelings of Bri- 
 tish subjects ; who, though they have been stigmatized by 
 
 p 2
 
 108 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the appellation of men dealers, have yet retained those in- 
 nate principles of humanity and virtue, which induce them 
 to seek every opportunity and occasion to ameliorate the situa- 
 tion of their dependants. Faults are now corrected and 
 punishments inflicted by personal deprivations, according to the 
 extent of the misdemeanor ; instead of being flogged, the 
 negroes are debarred their daily portion of rum, or their 
 weekly allowance of tobacco, and in case of the crime being 
 of such importance as to require a severer punishment, they 
 are confined on the Sunday in the stocks, and prevented en- 
 joying the company of their friends, or forbid from joining in 
 the merry dance, which takes place every Saturday night on 
 the estates. If the cook spoils the soup, which was intended 
 for his master's dinner, he is made to eat it, warmly peppered 
 with cayenne. Other domestics acting with impropriety, are 
 sometimes confined, at other times obliged to eat an ounce of 
 Glauber's salts, or to sip them with a tea spoon when dissolved 
 in half a pint of water. This manner of inflicting punish- 
 ments is more rational than any hitherto adopted, and as long 
 as the negroes are stimulated with a degree of pride and emu- 
 lation, it will continue to have the desired eflisct. 
 
 An important and a grievous regulation is the non admis- 
 sion of servile evidence in the courts of justice. AVhy should 
 not negroes be heard against whites, as well as whites against 
 negroes ? Veracity is indeed not a conspicuous virtije of the
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 109 
 
 blacks ; they usually make you put a question twice, in order 
 to gain time for framing an answer such as they wish to give ; 
 they hold it no obligation to answer truly. Still their testi- 
 mony should be heard, and compared with circumstances 
 and with other evidence, until it is duly sifted, and appre- 
 ciated at its probable worth. I am convinced that it would 
 be a useful reform in the jurisprudence of the colonies, to 
 confer on all the shades of complexion an equality of criminal 
 rights. In the islands, the right of inheritance enjoyed by 
 mulattoes is limited to two thousand pounds currency, so that 
 a father cannot provide liberally for his offspring by a negro 
 concubine; no such unjust limitation, as far as I have heard, 
 is included in the Dutch code. 
 
 Nor is it alone in the West Indies that negroes require a further 
 degree of legal protection. A friend of mine brought over to 
 this country a negro servant: he landed at Portsmouth, and left 
 Quamin on board the ship to come round to London, to meet 
 him there. AVe had had a tedious voyage of eleven weeks from 
 Tortola, the last place we touched at, and the general rendezvous 
 for the homeward-bound fleets from the West Indies. Poor 
 Quamin was heartily tired of this long, disagreeable, and dan- 
 gerous passage, and was anxiously wishing to get on shore, to 
 see a country, to use his own language, " where every body 
 been free, and nobody hab massa." Contrary winds detained 
 the ship longer at Spithead than was wished for. In the mean
 
 110 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 time she was frequently boarded by men of war's boats, the 
 first of which, after overhauhng the crew, as they term it, and 
 finding them all foreigners with proper protections, being 
 rather chagrined at their disappointment, and not liking to 
 return empty handed as they came, right or wrong, deter- 
 mined upon seizing poor blacky. Notwithstanding the assevera- 
 tions of the master and crew, that he was a servant belonging 
 to one of the passengers who had landed at Portsmouth, this 
 poor African, who had been on board a ship thirteen weeks 
 from Demerary, and was counting on the pleasures which he 
 had been taught by the crew to expect in England, was in- 
 humanely dragged away, taken on board one of his majesty's 
 ships, and carried a winter's cruize to the north seas, desti- 
 tute of any cloathing at all suitable to the climate he was 
 compelled to visit. By an application to the Admiralty, aided 
 with considerable interest, a discharge was obtained for him 
 on the vessel's return, when Quamiu had again the plea- 
 sure of rejoining his master. I saw him a few weeks after, in 
 London. He asked me when I was going to Demerary again, 
 and begged me to request his master would let him go with 
 me, as he did not like England. Notwithstanding here he 
 had a horse to ride, and in Demerary, if his master was going 
 a journey of a hundred miles, Quamin would have to follow 
 him on foot with the portmanteau on his head, he preferred 
 Demerary. The horse and fine living had no charms for him ; 
 yonder he was protected — yonder he was free.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. Ijl 
 
 The planter, when he purchases negroes out of a cargo, is 
 very careful in what is called the seasoning; they require 
 nearly as much attention as children. Before they are put 
 on to an estate, they have a pair of trovvsers, a shirt, jacket, 
 and hat given them ; and it is really laughable to see the gro- 
 tesque appearance they make when dressed up in their new 
 cloaths. They affect to think so meanly of them, that it is often 
 with the utmost difficulty they are induced to keep them : not 
 that they have been used to better, or even to so good, cloath- 
 ing, but they imagine it gives them consequence, and makes 
 them pass for gentlemen, to affect to despise cloathing, such as 
 is not worn by people in authority. The only thing which is 
 held in estimation by them is a blanket, which is always 
 given them in the first instance to sleep on, until they get a 
 bed. These are mostly stuffed with plantain leaves, as being 
 much cooler than feather beds. Others prefer hammocks, 
 which are made of cotton bagging, similar to those used by 
 our sailors. On their arrival at the plantation for which they 
 were purchased, they are put under the charge of the nurse, 
 who provides food, pipes and tobacco, and every other requi- 
 site to give them confidence in their new situation. They are 
 thus encouraged, until they become acquainted with the place 
 and people, when they are employed in trifling jobs about the 
 buildings, until they get a little seasoned to the climate, and 
 become acquainted with the economy of the estate. It is then 
 customary to place them under the care of old negroes, each
 
 112 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 taking one, whom he makes his servant, and teaches how 
 to dress his food, and to provide for his wants. From that 
 time they turn out with the gang, and are instructed, by the 
 persons they respectively live with, to work, which is gradu- 
 ally done, and soon becomes familiar, as most of them were 
 slaves in their own country, where they were accustomed to 
 harder toil and less regular meals. The plantation bell rings 
 at nine o'clock for breakfast, for which they have an hour 
 allowed ; at one o'clock they come in for their dinner, and 
 have an hour and a quarter ; at sun set tliey return from 
 work, and enjoy themselves at home, with a pipe and their 
 supper, which is a negro's favorite meal. Besides necessary 
 food, the weekly allowance of rum is about a quart, and the 
 weekly allowance of tobacco two pounds ; so that the utmost 
 degree of luxury and accommodation, consistent with sobriety, 
 is willingly promoted. 
 
 The seasoned negroes keep fowls, pigs, goats, and grow 
 gardenstuff; the tradesmen employ their spare time in making 
 those articles of their several trades which they can sell to 
 advantage. At the close of life they often keep a retale shop. 
 It is by no means an uncommon thing in these colonies, for 
 negroes when they have accumulated a sufficiency, to pur- 
 chase their freedom ; and I have known many instances of 
 negroes, who payed their owners a proportion of the pur- 
 chase money, and were allowed after emancipation to work
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, ivc. 113 
 
 out the balance. The generality of negroes prefer deco- 
 rating their persons to purcliasing their freedom. I have 
 known many negroes who were fond of hoarding up their 
 money, and at their deaths, have left considerable sums; one 
 old woman on a sugar estate, in Essequebo, died possessed of 
 nearly three hundred pounds sterling, which she had acquired 
 merely from raising feathered stock. It consisted principally 
 of joes, dollars, and small change, and was equally distributed 
 between her children, which she had left on the estate. 
 
 In general every plantation is visited three times a week by 
 a surgeon, who mostly agrees at two dollars a head yearly to 
 farm the health of the whole population : for this he attends 
 all the sick negroes, and furnishes the requisite medicines. 
 The whites, who require much oftener the interference of the 
 medical practitioner, are often farmed at forty dollars each.* 
 
 * I have visited several islands in the West Indies, Grenada, Saint Kitt's, 
 Tortola, &c. the condition of the negro peasantry is every where comfortable, 
 as far as I have observed, and is fairly described in the following letter from 
 Mr. William Finlayson, of Jamaica. 
 
 " I had opportunities of visiting the neighbouring estates in the vicinity of my 
 uncle's, being mostly penns, and cotton plantations ; the work was light and 
 easy, and I found the proprietors and tlie white people they employed, kind 
 and indulgent to the negroes. They found it their interest, as well as inclina- 
 tion, to treat the negroes well, and make them comfortable. 
 
 Q
 
 ll* STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 The Europeans are a conceited people. They read ; and 
 they fancy that every thing can be known from books. They 
 
 " They turned out to work a little before sunrise, had half an hour to break- 
 fast and two hours to dinner ; the days are generally twelve hours long, as the 
 sun rises and sets with very little variation through the year at six o'clock ; 
 and one English labourer would do as much as three of them. 
 
 " They had each a lot of land, and a sufficient time allowed to plant provi- 
 sions, and clean their ground. They have two or three crops of corn in some 
 parts in the year ; and abundance of plantains, which, when established, with 
 a little care in keeping them clear from weeds, will continue bearing for twenty 
 years, and are a good, wholesome, substantial food. They raise potatoes, of 
 which there are six or seven different sorts, all very good food, and several 
 sorts of yams, which weigh from five pounds to fifty pounds weight, toyas, or 
 cocoas, several kind, as monkey, black, two good, Otaheite and white cocoa, 
 the middle leaves of the last eat like spinnage, and the roots better than English 
 potatoes ; sweet and bitter casava, the latter they grate and press out the juice, 
 which is poison, the flour is made into cakes, the same way nearly that oat-cakes 
 are made, and eat much better. They had good comfortable houses to dwell 
 in, and reared pigs and abundance of poultry. Each family had a garden, 
 well stocked with pease, beans, of which there are a vast variety, and some 
 will bear for a number of years ; plenty of greens, pine apples, melons, pome- 
 granates, pumpkins, sour sops, sweet sops, and numerous other fruits, and 
 growed a good deal of tobacco, and oil nuts, which they make the castor oil 
 from. I assert it was customary then, I am speaking of twenty-one years ago, 
 for a negro to sell provisions, garden stuff, tobacco, &c. out of his own 
 grounds, to a greater amount than the generality of the journeymen labourer's 
 or mechanic's wages in England, Scotland, and Ireland. And I no where saw 
 such wretched outcasts as our beggars, and poorer sort of people in England,
 
 SETTLEMENTS OK THE DEMERARY, &C. 115 
 
 undervalue observation, experience, practical talent of every 
 kind. They listen to metaphysical politicians, who without 
 having visited the West Indies, or knowing at all the nature 
 of the people, and of the properties there, think they can 
 direct the tropical planter how best to cultivate, and the as- 
 sembly of Jamaica how best to legislate. By such vain au- 
 thors, the English people have been goaded into petitioning 
 their legislature for an abolition of the slave-trade. It is the 
 
 Scotland, and Ireland. The old are taken care of by the proprietor, and are 
 never suffered to want ; they are found in clothes, salt, salted fish, and her- 
 rings ; a doctor regularly attends the sick. 
 
 " The negro women have great attention paid to them in tlieir lying-in — a 
 proper nurse and midwife attends them, and every thing that is necessary is 
 supplied them from the estate — they do not work for four weeks afterwards, 
 and have nurses to attend tliem and wash for them during that period. They 
 then turn out to light work considerably later than the other negroes, and 
 have nurses to attend the children ; and notwitlistandlng this care and atten- 
 tion, the children very often die on or before the ninth day, of the lock-jaw. 
 Twenty shillings reward is allowed by the assembly of Jamaica for every child 
 born, and raised upon the estate; and many of the liberal-minded benevo- 
 lent overseers give this money among the nurses, midwives, &c. as an en- 
 couragement. No negro is ever allowed to work in the rain, — and a book- 
 keeper is some years upon trial before he is entrusted with the management of 
 an estate, and if he is passionate and cross to the negroes, no person will em- 
 ploy liim. The negroes value very high, some 2001. to 3001. some even 4001. 
 The murder of a slave is felony without benefit of clergy." 
 
 Q2
 
 116 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 trade In free negroes which alone they ought to abolish. The 
 slave-trade is a universal benefit. 
 
 Piracies and kidnapping take place on the coast of Africa. 
 The grumetas, or free labourers there, and even persons of a 
 higher rank, are sometimes carried off by the force, or fraud, 
 of the negro crimps. I have by me a piece of Arabic writ- 
 ing, executed by a negro in the colony. I doubt not he was 
 a man of education and consequence in his native country. 
 He was a very clever, sensible man. In his own country he 
 was free, and said his father was a king. His owners, who 
 were planters in Berbice, elevated him to a confidential situ- 
 ation on their estate; and he never in the five years that he 
 had been with them when I left the colony, either betrayed 
 their confidence or forfeited their esteem. He was superior to 
 the general run of Africans, and more communicative. Al- 
 though in his own country he was high in rank, he avowedly 
 preferred his residence in Berbice. This fraudulent enthral- 
 ment is a horrible injustice, best to be met by establishing a 
 strong police at the English factories in Africa ; and compel- 
 ling the slave-vessels to account for their passengers. The 
 seizing of free blacks, and reducing them to slavery is detest- 
 able oppression. As well might the people of Hayti come 
 and kidnap the merchants of Stabroek ; and sell them for 
 labourers on the Ohio, where the back-settlers begin to buy 
 indentured whites.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &rc. 117 
 
 But the great mass of negroes purchased in Africa, are 
 already skives at home, most miserable slaves, the slaves of 
 savages, 1 hey are born, bred in slavery ; they have felt, 
 they have known no other lot. Like beasts of burden, they 
 have been used to be sold, worked, flogged any-how ; to be 
 coupled at the owner's pleasure with his cast-off concubines ; 
 to be tortured for witchcraft when he is sick ; to be maimed 
 for his quarrels when he is in heroics ; to be left during dis- 
 ease, wounds, or age, to dry into a mummy in the desert ; or 
 to be recompensed for exemplary fidelity by being butchered 
 on a master's grave. Of this last usage, the high price given 
 for negroes, has in some degree, occasioned the abolition. 
 
 The transfer of such wretches from Africa to America, is a 
 Teal service. I have conversed with hundreds of negroes, 
 who all consider it as such. Our imported slaves almost uni- 
 versally acknowledge that they have not worse work to do 
 than at home ; and that they are better provided with food, 
 with luxuries and indulgences, than in Africa. Their treat- 
 ment is improved by the removal : the lash indeed is still used, 
 as on board ship, to stimulate labor ; but torture, witch-craft, 
 and above all, the despair of bettering their condition, are 
 among the evils withdrawn. Nor is it in Africa only that 
 black slave-owners are the harsher masters. Even a freed 
 negro has so much less humanity of nature than a European, 
 that throughout the AVcst Indies, it is an efficient threat,
 
 118 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 employed to tame the disobedient slave, angrily to say: 
 " Damn you, I'll sell you to a black." 
 
 If in imitation of those pious Spanish brotherhoods, who 
 collected funds for the ransom of captives, Mr. Wilberforce, 
 and his fellow-friends of humanity, were to form societies for 
 the redemption of slaves, they would soon find it to be a duty 
 to expend their treasure on the coast of Africa. There, 
 languish the most unfortunate of the venal negroes. There, 
 ought to be exerted the first efforts of their far-aimed benefi- 
 cence. They would select, for priority of emancipation, 
 those, who are likely to live longest and to suffer most. The 
 aged have something of habit that extenuates their woes, and 
 something of prejudice against the very remedy. Women 
 every where incur a mitigated oppression. The feelings of 
 lust are akin to kindness, and always operate in alleviation of 
 exactions. The young and the male therefore ought prefer- 
 ably to be bought loose. 
 
 Men can be had cheapest where they are worst off. Hence, 
 the Liverpool merchants, from motives of a more natural and 
 more worldly kind than could influence a Wilberforce, do 
 thus employ, on the African coast, in the purchase of young 
 males chiefly, a larger fund than would be collected for the 
 same purpose by the utmost zeal of christian charity. They 
 redeem annually 36,000 slaves.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, liC. 119 
 
 It is not of the original orderly purchase of these people, 
 but of their subsequent destination, that philanthropy has to 
 be jealous. From a country, where if they stayed, the parents, 
 or elder brothers, or princes, who sold them, would seize and sell 
 them again, they must clearly be removed ; but this with every 
 practicable care for their health and accommodation. The 
 act of parliament which regulated the transportation of negroes, 
 the carrying-trade bill, was an eminently useful law. Nor is 
 it at all less applicable to the trade in natural-born white bond- 
 slaves, conducted from many parts of Scotland,* of Ireland, 
 
 * " As the same principles of profit regulated every voyage, the circum- 
 stances attending each were in general extremely similar : in some perhaps 
 the inconvenience was less than in others ; but the following statement, taken 
 from a judicial proceeding before the court of session relative to a ship that 
 carried passengers from the isle of Sky to Carolina in 1*791, is selected both 
 for its publicity and authenticity. * The vessel was about 270 tons burden— 
 
 * the number of passengers about 400, including women and children, so that 
 
 * their situation was most uncomfortable and dangerous, there being hardly 
 ' room for them to stretch themselves. There were three tiers of beds fore 
 
 * and aft, and two midship. The births for a full passenger were 18 inches 
 
 * broad. ITiose fore and aft were only about 2 feet high, including the space 
 
 * occupied by bedding, so that it was scarcely possible to creep into them. 
 ' The others were a little higher, so tliat the passenger could turn himself on 
 ' his side, and rest on his elbow. To add to their calamities, they neither 
 
 * had a sufficiency of victuals nor proper cooking utensils, there being only 
 
 * two pots of twenty-four pints each, which were quite inadequate to the pre- 
 
 * paration in any reasonable time of a meal for 400 persons. Had tlic ves- 
 
 * scl made out its voyage, the chief part of the people must have been con-
 
 120 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 and of Wales, with North America, than to the trade in alien 
 blacks. md 
 
 An aholition of the African slave-trade, such as has hitherto 
 been solicited, would in fact operate merely as a repeal of this 
 wholesome humane law. The small ships, which now execute 
 the smuggling trade of the West Indies, and which alternately 
 visit the British islands, the Spanish main, and the coast of 
 North America, under any flag best suited for the protection 
 of their immediate purpose, would in that case undertake the 
 slave trade. Colony-craft would supersede the regular vessels. 
 These ships have not dimensions for accommodating pas- 
 sengers in the becoming manner required by the British act 
 of parliament : so that the old horrors of the middle passage 
 would all return. The manner of removing out of Africa the 
 
 ' sumed by disease and filth, which last was honible ; but after being twelve 
 ' days at sea, the ship was dismasted and put back to Greenock, where many 
 ' of the passengers, especially children, died from the effects of the short 
 * voyage they had made." 
 
 This white slave-trade is conducted under the cover of the laws concerning 
 apprenticeship. The white bond-slave is indentured for seven years to the 
 captain of the passage-vessel, who, on arriving in Nortli America, sells his 
 apprentices at the market-price, and makes over his indentures to the several 
 purchasers. But as the selling-price does not always produce the passage- 
 money, a claim of debt against tlie apprentice bearing interest, accompanies 
 the indenture ; and thus his servitude is prolonged at pleasure, under pretence 
 of working out tliis debt.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, iScC 121 
 
 slaves bought there, is no longer susceptible of much improve- 
 ment ; but is in danger of grievous deterioration by whatever 
 tends to shift the commerce into bottoms not subject to the 
 parliamentary regulation. 
 
 I still suppose Mr. Wilberforce, and the friends of the blacks, 
 formed into a brotherhood of mercy, and redeeming in Africa, 
 the greatest objects of pity, with a view to provide for their 
 future well-being. I suppose the method of removal acqui- 
 esced in, and the place of destination, to be under discussion. 
 These gentlemen would next be desirous of landing their 
 young charges in the countries where labor has the highest 
 value ; where moderate industry would secure them a better 
 condition than they quitted ; where civil rights are conferred 
 by settlement ; and where tutors are provided for the arts of 
 life, who would attentively teach such occupations as may 
 secure not merely their subsistence, but their well-being, not 
 merely an immediate supply of their wants, but a permanent 
 employ, and a progressive independence. Are there any 
 such countries ? Nearly so. Where is this poor man's 
 paradise ? I answer — where the greatest bounty is paid 
 for the importation of men, where human ware sells highest 
 at a slave-auction. 
 
 In all under-peopled countries men bear a price. It was 
 so, under the patriarchs ; so, in the Grecian and in the early 
 
 R
 
 122 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Roman world ; so, in the northern and middle parts of mo- 
 <lern Europe. It is still so in Turkey, in Russia, in North 
 America. Wherever a labourer of the average strength and 
 health, can habitually earn much more than the expense of 
 his food, clothes, and shelter; he cannot but be a thing of 
 worth. The sovereign will give a sum of money to enlist 
 him among the troops ; the farmer to enlist him among the 
 boors ; the architect to enlist him among the builders. This 
 must be ; and it favours the rapid growth of prosperity in a 
 country, that a premium should be given for arrival and re- 
 sidence. 
 
 This premium, which is represented by the price of a 
 slave, is indeed wholly the natural right of the individual sold; 
 but he has to discharge out of it two just debts. The one to 
 his supercargo for the fare of transportation, for his passage 
 over ; and the other to the state, for a claim of maintenance 
 in case of want, which the first act of sale attaches in his favor 
 to the parish, or estate, for which the purchase is made. The 
 cost of transportation may be valued, I think, at about half 
 the selling price of a slave. If he had contracted for his own 
 fare from Sierra Leone to Stabrock, he would have forty or 
 fifty pounds to pay before he could be lodged ashore, and 
 clad after tlie fashion of the country.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 123 
 
 The claim of maintenance in case of calamity may be valued, 
 I think, at about one-half more than the whole purchase-mo- 
 ney. When a negro chooses to be emancipated (many, who 
 can afford it, do not choose it) he appears before the magis- 
 trate of police, and gives security in a sum of 2000 guilders 
 (1661.) that he shall not become chargeable. This right of 
 settlement, as it would be called in England, the state under- 
 takes to commute with any given proprietor for 1661. by 
 which the state is rather the gainer, so that it may fairly be 
 estimated from 1201. to 1501. A free native of Africa, who 
 had voluntarily come to settle on the Demerary, in order to be 
 as well circumstanced as a negro is after his first sale by auc- 
 tion, would have to expend twice his selling price. His 
 value is doubled. By leaving to the white merchants the 
 whole management of his emigration, it has cost him but half 
 what he must have given to effect it. 
 
 The great use of selling a man by auction is this, that he is 
 thereby beckoned immediately into the form of employment 
 for which there is tlie greatest call. The carpenter, the black- 
 smith, outbid the planter, if their labour is most in demand ; 
 the planter outbids them, when agriculture is the thriving em- 
 ployment. Thus, without waiting for the lessons of observa- 
 tion, a man finds out at once the most productive form of 
 industry ; without paying for instruction, he is at once ap- 
 prenticed to the most expedient department of labor; and he is 
 
 r2
 
 124 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 maintained from his very arrival without any of that preUmi- 
 nary expenditure for food or for utensils, which a free artisan 
 would have to incur. He is, moreover, transferred instanta- 
 neously to the county, nay, to the very parish, where there 
 was most want of such a hand : if not by his first sale, by his 
 second, he is sure to be shifted into the most expedient station 
 which the region affords. The difficulty of conveying infor- 
 mation to the unlettered is the only real obstacle to the ar- 
 rangement of these migrations on a principle of personal con- 
 sent. Voluntary colonists could be gotten by the myriad, did 
 |hey but know the lot that awaits them. 
 
 From the moment a negro is for the first time sold by auc- 
 tion, it is preposterous to call him a slave. He is become in 
 the strict legal sense of the word a vassal. He is ascribed to 
 the soil, and can invoke its nutritious aid, by law, during sick- 
 ness, famine, or decrepitude. He has climbed a step in hu- 
 man society. His sale by auction has conferred not only that 
 civil right which is represented in England by a certificate of 
 settlement; but also a right of property over those savings, 
 which a wise employment of his leisure never fails to bestow. 
 He can acquire a peculium, a distinct personal property, which 
 may serve for the purchase of his freedom, or which, if he 
 dies unenfranchised, will descend share and share alike to his 
 children. The proprietor lodges, feeds, clothes, supplies the 
 luxuries of rum and tobacco, and takes the produce of nine
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 125 
 
 or ten hours of labor every day. The vassal disposes of nearly 
 fifteen hours. What British labourer pays for his shelter, his 
 food, his raiment, and his ale-house bill, with the sacrifice of 
 a smaller proportion of his time ? 
 
 The laws of vassalage may in some rules require amend- 
 ment and revision ; but the system itself is a necessary step in 
 human society, without which agriculture cannot overspread 
 a new country. Vassalage is only a form of bartering labor 
 directly for shelter and food, where there are not cottages to 
 be hired, or shops at which to buy bread and meat. Unless 
 the planter were to make, on a large scale, provision for the 
 lodging, clothing, and feeding of as many peasants as he 
 needs, not one of his labourers could subsist a week upon the 
 estate. In Jamaica, they have to send over to North America 
 for flour, to Novascotia for fish, and to Ireland for the beef, 
 which is to give the negroes their christmas dinner; we are 
 better off on the continent, and shall shortly supply many of 
 the wants of Jamaica ; but where absolute necessaries must 
 be fetched from a vast distance, some one powerful indivi- 
 dual must undertake the contract for the common supply, 
 and take care to proportion it to the mass of his people. No 
 doubt the time will come when our population is numerous ; 
 when, instead of hucksters, we shall have stationary shop- 
 keepers; and when the peasantry will be able to subsist on wages
 
 126 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 issued weekly. Then labor hired for a short term will super- 
 sede labor hired for life; or, as the Europeans would say, free 
 labor will supersede vassalage. In the mean time, whatever 
 accelerates the condensation of populousness tends to bring on 
 the European plan of payment ; and whatever retards the in- 
 crease of people tends to defer the European plan of pay- 
 ment. The abolition of the slave-trade, by putting oflf the in- 
 crease of colonists, will needlessly delay, by half a century, 
 the emancipation of the negro vassalry : so thoughtless, so 
 suicidal is the policy, which would interfere with the natural 
 course of things. Some lascars have lately been brought to 
 Trinidad, who are intended to be let as free labourers. It will 
 soon be found, that they must adopt an ownef responsible for 
 their maintenance when dlsemployed, because they cannot 
 raise the required pledge. It will next be found, that they 
 must leave in pawn the mass of their wages, in order to se- 
 cure the overseer, who delivers out provisions and clothes, for 
 the repayment of his advances : and thus an agreement made 
 after the European manner, will terminate in a practical vas- 
 salage. 
 
 Locke, a friend to liberty, but a man of sense, when he 
 drew up the laws for South Carolina, recognized and esta^ 
 blished the subsisting property in slaves. He did not even at- 
 tack the very questionable principle of the civil law, with re-
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 127 
 
 gard to the progeny of vassals, partus sequitur ventrem; by 
 reversing which, he would have provided for a more rapid 
 growth of free people of color. 
 
 The abolitionists have pretended, that under the West In- 
 dian system of vassalage, the number of labourers is continu- 
 ally on the decrease. They infer this from the perpetual im- 
 portation of fresh negroes ; and suppose that ill-usage must oc- 
 casion such an unnatural decay of populousness. I disbelieve 
 the assertion. From all the fully settled islands, there is an- 
 nually an obvious overflow of people. From Barbadoes and 
 " Antigua, free people of color have come in shoals to settle 
 about Stabroek. From several islands, which, since being 
 cleared of wood to excess, are dried up, and have declined in 
 fertility, proprietors have detached to our continent, batches 
 of Creole slaves, and have occupied fresh estates with the re- 
 dundance of their vassalry. Colony-craft again is provided 
 with crews of various hues, obtained from the superfluous po- 
 pulation of the West India islands ; the petty shipping, which 
 wanders about the American archipelago, and is thus manned, 
 is innumerable. The number of negroes may apparently de- 
 crease, and yet the collective population may be on the in- 
 crease ; for many negro girls cohabit with white overseers, 
 and spend the years of child-bearing in producing a mulatto 
 progeny ; and some negro men marry mulatto women. 
 Where there are many mixt marriages, the posterity may in-
 
 128 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 elude fewer negroes, and yet be more numerous than the paren- 
 tal individuals. In 1787, the collective population of the British 
 islands in the West Indies, amounted to 50,000 whites, 10,000 
 free people of color, and 465,000 slaves. In 1805, it was 
 computed at 55,000 whites, 18,000 free people of color, and 
 510,000 slaves. In Jamaica especially, the free people of 
 color have increased during this interval from 4000 to 9000 ; 
 and the slaves from 256,000 to 280,000 persons ; it is true 
 there was an annual importation of nearly 4000 slaves. Nor 
 can any other proof be needed of a real increase of populous- 
 ness in the West Indies, than the vast augmentation of demand 
 and supply for every article of commercial interchange. This 
 is further corroborated by the circumstance that the number 
 of slaves retained for cultivation (tor of the imported slaves, 
 many are re-exported to foreign settlements) is perpetually de- 
 creasing ; which, as the produce constantly reared has so 
 much increased, could not be, unless the numbers of the 
 Creole or home-born slaves were vastly greater than before. 
 
 How necessary negro labourers are between the tropics ap- 
 pears from their habitual health and strength. The relative 
 mortality of the blacks and whites in the climate of the West 
 Indies, may be appretiated by comparing the Regimental 
 Returns from 1796 to 1802.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 
 
 129 
 
 TABLE 
 
 Of Deaths by Disease in the British Anny serving in the West Indies. 
 
 . 
 
 
 European So 
 
 Idiers. 
 
 
 Negro 
 
 Sold 
 
 ers. 
 
 Officers. 
 
 
 Largest 
 
 Medium Monthly 
 
 
 Per 
 
 
 
 Per 
 
 
 
 Force. 
 
 Returns. 
 
 Died. 
 
 Cent, 
 
 Force. 
 
 Died. 
 
 Cent. 
 
 Died. 
 
 1796, April, 
 
 19,670 
 
 15,881 
 
 6484 
 
 40i 
 
 2495 
 
 7J 
 
 3 
 
 226 
 
 1797, April, 
 
 13,6"27 
 
 11,503 
 
 3766 
 
 32| 
 
 30S0 
 
 118 
 
 4 
 
 99 
 
 1798, April, 
 
 9)92 
 
 8416 
 
 1602 
 
 17i 
 
 3055 
 
 252 
 
 8 
 
 38 
 
 1799, Feb. 
 
 760 1 
 
 7202 
 
 876 
 
 m 
 
 3354 
 
 258 
 
 7i 
 
 24 
 
 1800, Feb. 
 
 8840 
 
 7890 
 
 1221 
 
 nh 
 
 4320 
 
 286 
 
 6h 
 
 58 
 
 1801, Feb. 
 
 11,745 
 
 10,315 
 
 2340 
 
 00a 
 
 4604 
 
 276 
 
 6 
 
 104 
 
 1802, Feb. 
 
 10,198 
 
 9038 
 
 990 
 
 11 
 
 3S40 
 
 199 
 
 5 
 
 41 
 
 Original Army, 
 
 19,676 
 
 
 17,173 
 
 • • 
 
 
 • • 
 
 .. 
 
 590 
 
 It appears, therefore, that the mortality of the whites ex- 
 ceeds that of the negroes in like circumstances by above four 
 to one. 
 
 Not only the negro and the planter are both accommodated 
 by the fetching of labourers from Africa, the general mass of 
 plenty is thereby augmented. It is very little that any negro- 
 slave, living all his life in Africa, can add by his toil to the 
 useful produce of nature. The labor of a negro for one year 
 on a sugar or a coffee plantation beside the Demerary, im- 
 proved and aided as it is by the order of society, by the im- 
 plements and processes of art, and by so many lights from sci- 
 ence, adds more to the means for the sustenance of human 
 life, than the same negro could have produced by ten years
 
 130 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 toil, amid the wilds and barbarism of his native Africa. The 
 productive power of a labor directed by the civilized is en- 
 hanced in a wonderful proportion. 
 
 I conclude with recommending that the trade in free negroes 
 be alone checked ; by causing a due investigation to be made 
 at the slave-factories on the coast of Africa of the methods em- 
 ployed to collect passengers. If some trusty negroes, who have 
 been attached for twenty years to plantations in tlie West In- 
 dies, were sent over to Africa to enlist voluntary recruits only, 
 they would, I doubt not, be followed back by whole nations of 
 their own accord. The slave-trade, properly so called, the 
 trade which redeems slaves to exalt them into vassals, is a benefit 
 to be encouraged by public premiums. Its continuance is of 
 value to the whole negro race, and is essential to the further 
 progress of agriculture, in the fertile but unpeopled tropical 
 portions of America.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 131 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE ESSEQUEBO ITS ISLANDS FORTIFICATIONS — CREEKS, 
 
 OR TRIBUTARY STREAMS — CULTIVATION OF ITS BANKS 
 
 EXPORTATION OF SOIL TO BARBADOES POLITICAL CON- 
 DITION OF THE PLANTERS HISTORICAL PARTICULARS 
 
 OF THE PROGRESS OF THE ORIGINAL COLONISTS AD- 
 VANTAGES DERIVED FROM THE ACCESSION OF BRITISH 
 SETTLERS. 
 
 N. 
 
 INE miles west of the Demerary is the river Essequebo, 
 which at its mouth, commencing from Borasierri, and extend- 
 ing to Kapoeja creek, is twenty-one miles broad; the former 
 serves as a boundary to the two colonies. The navigation here 
 is very dangerous and difficult, even for small craft, which 
 arises from banks of sand running in different directions across 
 the entrance. At the mouth of the river are three islands, 
 which are very valuable for their size, and the high state of 
 their cultivation, principally of sugar and coffee; the eastcr- 
 most is Leguan, that in the centre, AValkenaam, and the other 
 Tiger island ; then comes the west coast of the Essequebo; so 
 that there are four entrances into the river, the best and safest 
 
 s 2
 
 132 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 is between the east shore and Leguan. Southward of these 
 are a succession of other islands, which extend five and 
 twenty or thirty miles beyond the first. Hog and Troohe 
 islands have both sugar and coffee, but a greater proportion 
 of plantains. On that point of Leguan, facing the sea, are 
 eight windmills, belonging to as many sugar estates. The 
 appearance of this island is truly pleasing from the water, a 
 sandy beach insures a good landing, the roads are finely 
 shaded with orange and cocoa nut trees, and indeed, the 
 whole being so beautifully laid out, has the appearance of a 
 gentleman's pleasure ground ; it is six miles long and half as 
 many broad. Separated from it, by a channel sufficiently 
 spacious and deep at high water for the passing and re-passing 
 of colony boats, and at the distance of half a mile, is a small 
 island, about two miles in circumference, which from its 
 proximity to the other, is called Little Leguan. This is a 
 wild but pleasant place, affording an agreeable recreation, 
 both in shooting and fishing; the soil is of sand; some small 
 underwood and shrubbery, which is sufficient for a shade 
 when the heat of the day requires it, is the utmost of its pro- 
 duction. The shires of Essequebo and Demerary, from their 
 conjunction with each other, are comprized under one go- 
 vernment, though two distinct colonies. Each has its court 
 of justice and subordinate offices, but one court of police suf- 
 fices for both, which is held in Demerary, at Stabroek,
 
 SETTLEMEXTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 133 
 
 ^y But to return to the Essequebo river — Fort Island, about fif- 
 teen miles from the mouth, is the seat of the administrative go- 
 vernment, and the residence of the commander, who is president 
 of the court. A considerable expence was incurred here in 
 the erection of a battery, which mounted forty pieces of 
 cannon, with covered ways and ramparts, surrounded by a 
 deep moat, over which a draw-bridge was thrown : this is 
 now fast decaying, the cannon are dismounted, and the fort is 
 totally deserted, save by the wash-women, who still find it a 
 convenient place for hanging linen to dry. A few starved 
 cattle of mynheer Blecker's, the tavern-keeper, are al- 
 lowed to browse there, being intended for the repast of the 
 very honourable members of the court of justice exclusively, 
 who in this instance, shew their spirit of selfishness, in not 
 permitting the numerous people that are obliged to dance 
 attendance, when the court is sitting, to share with them 
 the conveniency of the only tavern in the island, and indeed, 
 in the colony. If that generous hospitality, which is so preva- 
 lent throughout the colonies, was not practised here in a consi- 
 derable degree by some inhabitants, and in their private capa- 
 city by some members of court, the visitors would receive no 
 accommodation whatever. 
 
 The river Supinama falls into the Essequebo. Many estates 
 and settlements are already made on its banks, and it is also
 
 IS^f STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the residence of several timber-cutters and brick-makers, the 
 soil for which is particularly good. 
 
 The water of all the creeks is excellent, which in a great 
 measure makes up for the deficiency of springs. The only 
 one of any consequence is that already described, at the foot 
 of a large sand-hill forty miles up the Demerary river. 
 
 The tides in these rivers are pretty regular, having about 
 five hours and a half flood and six and a half ebb : their influ- 
 ence extends nearly a hundred miles up, and in spring tides, 
 which rise regularly twice a month, at the full and change of 
 the moon, the rivers swell to a considerable degree, especi- 
 ally when accompanied by a strong northerly wind, which is 
 productive of bad consequences to the planter, if his front 
 dams are not in a situation to repel this additional swell of 
 water. 
 
 In 1698, the first settlement was founded on the banks of 
 the Essequebo, but owing to an erroneous idea that the land 
 adjacent to the sea was too low and swampy for cultivation, 
 it was commenced on the higher land, nearly one hundred 
 miles from the mouth, where the soil was by no means so fa- 
 vourable. The land was granted gratis under express stipula- 
 tions that such a proportion should be under cultivation, in a
 
 SETTLEMENTS OK THE DEMERARY, &C. 135 
 
 given time, witli thefartlier inducement of a larger grant, should 
 the terms of the first have been compUed with; and as a punish- 
 ment for non-comphance, a fine was to be levied, which, if not 
 paid, the land and improvements were to be sold for that pur- 
 pose. A governor was appointed, and a conditional code of laws 
 was given by the West Indian company of Holland, subject 
 to the approbation of the States general. Such internal taxes 
 were made by the governor and his council, who were ap- 
 pointed by the burghers, or inhabitants, as were requisite to de- 
 fray the expenses of the colony. 
 
 Coffee, cotton, cocoa, and indigo, were the articles of pro- 
 duce, the culture of which was first attempted on the banks 
 of the Essequebo, and as the planters did not labour under 
 the disadvantages which most new settlers are liable to, great 
 expectations were entertained of their success, both on account 
 of its vicinity to Surinam, and to the West India islands, from 
 which the new adventurers derived considerable assistance. 
 Sugar was soon after Introduced, and cocoa and indigo aban- 
 doned, as not affording an emolument equivalent to their ex- 
 pectations, owing to the great quantity produced and im- 
 ported from Asia by the Dutch East India company. 
 
 Many wise and beneficial laws were instituted tending 
 to benefit the colony, and promote the welfare of its inha- 
 bitants ; who, from having left their native home to settle
 
 136 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 settle In tlic wilds of South America, deserved and met with 
 every encouragement from the legislature. One stipulation, 
 namely the obligation to ship all their produce to the pro- 
 vince of Zealand, operated, however, to their disadvantage, 
 inasmuch as it deprived them of the choice of markets. 
 
 Their courts of judicature were well formed and arranged. 
 Appeals from sentences in cases of debt, exceeding twelve 
 hundred guilders (one hundred pounds) were allowed to be 
 made to Holland. The court adjudged and gave a verdict 
 from such documents and proofs as were laid before them, 
 without hearing counsel on cither side ; the parties merely 
 giving in a statement of their case, and attending afterwards 
 in person to answer the questions which might be necessary 
 for the elucidation of their respective claims, so that it might 
 be considered in the light of an amicable arbitration. The 
 poor man, as well as the rich, had a pleasure in knowing he 
 could gain redress, without the enormous expence of lawyers' 
 fees, and the multiplicity of charges in stamps and duties, 
 which appear so necessary in other countries ; whereas, the 
 the only expence incurred here is a few shillings for a citation 
 or summons. No inhabitant could be arrested, except for a 
 criminal offence, nor were any permitted to leave the colony 
 without a passport, and providing security for the payment of 
 any debts remaining.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 137 
 
 Melasses were allowed to be exported to America, in re- 
 turn for supplies received thence. Mill timber and house- 
 frames, with which these forests abound, were also permitted 
 to be taken away by the inhabitants of the British West India 
 islands, as a compensation for British manufactured goods. 
 Many vessels were sent hither for cargoes of earth, by the 
 people of Barbadoes, with which they manured their lands. 
 This traffic would have been carried on to a considerable 
 extent, but great injury accrued to the vessels bottoms from 
 it; after making two or three trips, a sort of worm, which 
 is natural to the soil, introduced itself into tlie timbers and 
 planks, which in a short time were sure to make the vessel 
 leaky. The water-worm of the rivers on this coast is very in- 
 jurious to all ships whose bottoms are not coppered. Great 
 eare and frequent application of a coat of tar is necessary, to 
 preserve the boats in any kind of order. The petroleum found 
 in Trinidad is said to be a better preservative against the worm 
 than vegetable tar. The art of disgusting insects by strong and 
 peculiar odors has been little studied. Camphor, though so 
 fatal to insects, is seldom burnt in order to displace them. A 
 mixture of cantharides, orpiment, and other drugs, boiled to- 
 gether, is used in Germany for the smearing of window- 
 frames, and it is said to deter flies eft'cctually. Insects in these 
 climates are our most formidable foes.
 
 138 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 The Company provided themselves with negroes from 
 Africa, at a price which did not exceed twenty pounds each: 
 the settlers also derived considerable advantage from gaining 
 the good opinion of the Indians, whom they engaged, by 
 trifling presents, to assist in their cultivation. These natives 
 were also very useful and expert as huntsmen and fishers, be- 
 ing always sure to bring in a couple of hours, more than 
 could be consumed in one day, which made the first colonists 
 indifferent to the scarcity of European cattle and poultry. It 
 may be feared there has been a negligence in not inducing the 
 American Indians to continue for the colonists the occupations 
 of fishing, fowling, hunting, navigating boats, and felling 
 timber. A considerable quantity of labor is thus lost ; and 
 must be supplied from Africa, by persons whose local know- 
 ledge is for these purposes far less efficacious. The Indians, 
 too, would insensibly have learned to want more European 
 commodities, if they were induced to practise, in their mode, 
 arts, and occupations, for the benefit of a civilized population. 
 
 At this time, as there were no public roads, or even foot- 
 paths, for any considerable distance, the only method of tra- 
 velling was by water, in tent-boats, rowed by six or eight In- 
 dians ; and as the seamen are governed by the wind, so were 
 they by the tide, which runs in all these rivers at the rate of 
 six or eight miles an hour. When the current is against them
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 139 
 
 they are obliged to stop, and if near any house, the traveller 
 lands, and is sure of a hearty welcome. The principal con- 
 veniences used in this country for sleeping are large cotton 
 hammocks, made by the Indians, eight or ten feet long, and 
 ten or twelve wide. Mr. Bryan Edwards thinks this a Carib- 
 bee word, I rather suspect it derives from the Dutch liang-mat. 
 
 After the first ten years, the colony made little improve- 
 ment, remaining nearly stationary the succeeding thirty. No 
 cause can be assigned for this circumstance, unless it be 
 the insufficiency of the funds engaged in the undertaking. 
 Holland began to see her error in intrusting the coloniza- 
 tion of her American colonies to private companies, and to be 
 convinced that they would make a greater progress, under the 
 immediate protection of government, than of individual agents. 
 The event in this instance has justified their opinion. The 
 Company, on reviewing the state of their finances, and seeing 
 little probability of success attending their pursuits on the pre- 
 sent plan, determined upon closing with the States General, 
 and finally transferred to them all the possessions and claims, 
 granted them by charter, reserving merely for themselves 
 three or four sugar estates, which soon after reverted to the 
 colony. 
 
 The feature of things in general, now wore a different as- 
 pect, a free trade to Holland, a better supply of negroes and 
 
 t2
 
 140 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 planting utensils. The produce flowing into different chan- 
 nels, and the advantages arising from the colony being so libe- 
 rally offered to those who chose to settle there, induced 
 several British subjects from the West India islands to procure 
 grants of land, which could be obtained with little or no ex- 
 pense on the sea coast, and the land adjacent, as the Dutch 
 planters had neglected these, under an idea of their being 
 low and liable to inundation. This consideration had no 
 weight, however, with the English settlers, who brought over 
 seasoned negroes, and commenced with determined industry, 
 to clear and drain the land, dyked it all round,, and then 
 began planting. With those situated within the river, sugar 
 was their chief object. They introduced the art of distilling 
 rum into the colony, which had never been before attempted, 
 but the melasses had always been disposed of in the raw state. 
 I am convinced it is a mistake in British policy, to encourage 
 distilleries of any kind, in their own island. The grand use 
 of distillation, is to render moveable to any distance, and pre- 
 servable for any length of time, the superfluous produce of 
 agriculture. It ought, therefore, for the greatest good of the 
 whole, to be carried on, where agriculture has most surplus 
 produce ; which is always in the newly settled and therefore 
 underpeopled countries. We could deliver rum in the. British 
 market, cheaper than the English can make gin ; so that the 
 diffusion of comfort, and invigoration could be had by the 
 people for less money, and less labor. The British distilleries
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY hc. 141 
 
 compete with the brewers for malt and barley ; they thus 
 cause a higher price of the materials of beer and porter, and 
 consequently of the wholesomest and most usual drink of the 
 people, than would otherwise be occasioned. Gin-distilleries 
 destroy human food ; they not only endear spirits by the mo- '^^' 
 nopoly they have obtained of the home-market ; but endear 
 beer by distilling the useful grains of which it is made ; 
 whereas rum is manufactured from a refuse produce. The 
 peculiar and somewhat disagreeable taste of rum, may be 
 remedied by attentions to the process ; exquisite liqueurs, of 
 which it is the basis, are prepared in the French "West India 
 islands. It would be equitable to make the duty on the im- 
 portation of rum, and its compounds exactly equal tOithe ex- 
 cise-duty on the distillation of gin ; this would suffice gra- 
 dually to open an European market, for a most important ar- 
 ticle of our produce. The English have use enough for their 
 land without growing their own gin; but to us an additional 
 demand for produce must be perpetually opening, if we are 
 to extend our agriculture in the practicable degree. 
 
 On the sea coast, the British settlers also commenced the 
 culture of cotton, and found that land to answer much better 
 than the soil up the river. The cotton is a trefoil shrub, 
 •about five feet high, which bears yellow flowers ; these are 
 succeeded by an oval bean-pod, containing seeds and cotton. 
 To grow it, holes are made seven or eight feet asunder, in
 
 142 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 which several seeds are thrown ; when the young plants are 
 about six inches high, all the stems are pulled up, except two 
 or three of the strongest. These continue for three or four 
 years to supply two gatherings of cotton in the season. 
 The down is cleared of the seeds by a sort of mill. The 
 success which attended these first adventurers, soon brought 
 more; and from the first coming over of the British settlers, 
 may be fixed the date of the colony's improvement. In 
 1748, several settlements were made on the banks of the 
 Demerary, but some distance up the river ; nor could 
 the Dutch, here, as in the other case, be induced to settle 
 nearer the mouth of it, until the English had set them 
 the example, which they soon did after that period. The 
 Dutch, with a little experience, discovered that the land 
 which they had been cultivating so far up, was not near so 
 fertile and productive, as that which was so frequently inun- 
 dated. And it may be remarked, that the greater part of the 
 1<^ land in Guyana, has grown out of the sea within the last 
 three or four centuries. This soil, partly the work of allu- 
 vion, partly of vegetation, partly of marine insects, is still in- 
 creasing ; the coast is very shallow, and difficult of approach 
 in many parts, and appears to grow continually. 
 
 The indefatiguable industry and perseverance of the Eng- 
 lish planters, brought the west coast of Demerary into cul- 
 tivation ; its contiguousness to Essequebo, soon occasioned a
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 143 
 
 road of communication between it and that place. Deme- 
 rary was hitherto considered a dependency of Essequebo, 
 but in 1774-, having extended itself to a surprising degree, 
 and offering a superior harbour to the other, it was deter- 
 mined to make that the residence of the governor, and capital 
 of the two colonies ; for that purpose the town of Stabroek 
 was commenced about a mile from the fort, and on the same 
 side the river, whilst a commandeur, or deputy governor, was 
 now appointed for Essequebo. Seven years after this change, 
 an English privateer took possession of the two colonies, in 
 the name of his Britannic Majesty, such was the weak state 
 in which Holland left her colonies. The British commanders 
 at Barbadoes, were on the eve of sending troops to the garrison, 
 in order to fortify them, when information was received that 
 the English, in their turn, had been obliged to capitulate to a 
 French corvette ; such was the despicable situation, as far as 
 their means of defence were concerned, of these improving co- 
 lonies. The British inhabitants held out indeed as long as they 
 were able, in expectation of relief from the West India islands ; 
 every possible precaution was taken, but a strict blockade 
 obliged them to accede to the terms. 
 
 In 1783, at the general peace, the colonies were ceded to 
 the Dutch. During the late war, these, with the other pos- 
 sessions of the Dutch in the West Indies, were entirely neg- 
 lected, their whole attention being directed to the east. Under
 
 144? STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OP THE 
 
 these circumstances, little improvement could be expected;, 
 crippled as they were, without trade or support from the mo- 
 ther country, and only deriving a little assistance from the 
 British .West Indies, it was surprising that three hundred 
 estates were absolutely in cultivation at this time, worked by 
 twenty-five or twenty-eight thousand negroes ; the population 
 in white inhabitants did not exceed twelve hundred.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 145 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE ESSEQUEBO CONTINUED — SAVAGE INHABITANTS OF 
 
 THE BANKS THE CARRIBBEES CANNIBALISM THE 
 
 ACCAWAWS THE WORROWS THE ARROWAUKS POLY- 
 GAMY MANNERS AND EXERCISES. 
 
 I 
 
 N my voyages up the Essequebo to contract for produce, or 
 to collect it, I have occasionally met with canoes of the In- 
 dians ; although they are continually receding from the dis- 
 tricts which the Europeans choose to colonize. 
 
 The Carribbecs inhabit that part of the coast which lies be- 
 tween the Essequebo and the Orinoko. They are of a middle 
 stature, and well made. Their complexion is light when 
 compared to the other native tribes, their features agreeable, 
 and the expression of their countenance remarkably sprightly. 
 They colour their bodies by way of ornament with arnotto, 
 and decorate themselves with beads made of fishes teeth: 
 their hair (like that of all the tribes) is straight, long, and 
 black. Their language is articulated with great distinctness, 
 
 u
 
 146 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 and is pronounced with much sharpness of tone. The fol- 
 lowing list of words will give some idea of its euphony. 
 
 Caribbec, 
 
 Meaning in English 
 
 Caribbee, 
 
 Meaning in English. 
 
 Liani, 
 
 His -xife 
 
 Nane-guacte 
 
 I am sick 
 
 Yene-neri, 
 
 My wife 
 
 Halea tibou, 
 
 Good be to you 
 
 Hac yete, 
 
 Come hither 
 
 Plioubae, 
 
 To blow 
 
 Karbet, 
 
 r Walled house 
 C Assembly house 
 
 Toubana oia, 
 Bayou boukaa, 
 
 Hoof of a house 
 Go thy way 
 
 Encka, 
 
 A'ecklace or collar 
 
 Baika, 
 
 Eat 
 
 Yene kali, 
 
 My necklace 
 
 Aika, 
 
 To eat 
 
 Hue-Hue, 
 
 Wood 
 
 Nicbiri, 
 
 The nose 
 
 Nora, 
 
 My skin 
 
 Natoni boman, 
 
 Give me nourishment 
 
 A very copious account of the Caribbee language has been 
 given by a catholic missionary, named Raymond Breton, who 
 published at Auxerre, in 1665. His travels respected the 
 Caribbee islands, where the men, he says, spoke one language, 
 and the women another, the latter being of Floridan extrac- 
 tion. But the Caribbees, or Galibbees, from the southern 
 continent had lately conquered the islands and exterminated 
 the males. 
 
 The Carribbees are the most numerous and warlike of the 
 native tribes of Guyana. During peace they have no sove- 
 reigns or magistrates; but during war a chief is elected, who 
 leads them to battle. Their weapons are bows and arrows.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 147 
 
 and large clubs made of iron wood : they also use poisoned 
 shafts, which are discharged through a reed by the force of 
 the lungs. They are seldom at war with other tribes, but 
 against the Spaniards they carry on an almost constant hosti- 
 lity. Their houses are situated near each other, so that the 
 blowing of a shell, which is their usual signal, will in a very 
 short time assemble many hundreds of the inhabitants. The 
 Carribbees excel the other tribes in industry. The chief em- 
 ployments of the men are hunting and fishing : the women 
 perform the in-door labors; they also cidtivate plaintains and 
 cassava, upon as much ground as they choose, for there is no 
 property in land among the Indians. Their hammocks are 
 made with great labor: the cotton is spun with the hand, and 
 in the process of weaving, the thread analogous to our shoot is 
 passed under every other thread of the warp separately, as in 
 darning, raising them one by one with the finger. When 
 the weaving is finished, the hammock is dyed with red figures. 
 Some part of the produce of their industry they barter for Eu 
 ropean articles. For this purpose they make canoes out of 
 trees, hollowed by fire, some of which are seventy feet in 
 length. Beside these, they exchange wax, gourds full of the 
 balsam capivi, cotton hammocks, different kinds of wood, 
 and staves. For these they get in return hooks, knives, hat- 
 chets, fire arms, combs, looking glasses, beads of glass and 
 of coral. 
 
 u2
 
 148 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 This barter-trade in my opinion, could be greatly increased. 
 By holding fairs at certain known seasons, and ottering some 
 hospitality to the savages, they could be induced to collect 
 from remote places of the interior. They would bring many 
 curious productions, and gradually acquire a variety of wants. 
 The Spaniards have instituted such fairs at Buenos Ayres with 
 the happiest effect. It is true, they fix on the grand festivals 
 of their religion for the assemblage, and hold showy proces- 
 sions, in which the Indians delight to take a part, drest up 
 with crowns of feathers. But games of agility and bodily ex- 
 ercises, shooting with the bow, distributing swimming-prizes, 
 horse-races even, might be made to serve for the pretence of 
 meeting. Fairs are the natural methods of distributing wares 
 in countries insufficiently peopled to maintain stationary shops. 
 They have flourished in all such countries, and decay with 
 the progress of settlement. "What were the Olympic games 
 of Greece originally but fairs, at which there were boxing, 
 wrestling, and running matches ? Yet at these fairs the in- 
 tercourse took place, which founded a national cohesion, and 
 scattered the refinements of civilized life. 
 
 It is an undoubted fact, that the Caribbees have, in some in- 
 stances, devoured their enemies slain in battle. Of all the na- 
 tives of Guyana, this practice is peculiar to the Carribbees. 
 Our aversion to a meal of human flesh is not a feeling origi-
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 149 
 
 nating In our organs of taste, but in some complex mental 
 association. If we were ignorant of what we were about to 
 eat, we might feast on human flesh with pleasure : tell us 
 what we have devoured, and we should sicken at the frightful 
 meal. It seems to be a principle of our nature, to be averse 
 to devouring what has been an object of affection; as if the 
 mind disliked to prostitute that to the low cravings of the body, 
 which had once ministered to the elevated desires of the soul. 
 Man is the object of our strongest affection — the tendercst 
 emotions of the heart are excited by individuals of the human 
 race; and these emotions are extended by association in some 
 degree to all mankind. The form, the countenance, the 
 lineaments of man, excite in our minds faint traces of the love 
 which we had felt for individuals of his kind. It is not sur- 
 prising, therefore, that we should have the most invincible an- 
 tipathy to eating human flesh; that we should shudder at de- 
 vouring that which is so peculiarly associated with our strong- 
 est affections. But man is not the only object which, by lov- 
 ing, we cannot use for food. We never eat the animals which 
 we have domesticated : the reason is, because we feel for 
 them emotions of regard, differing in degree, not in kind, 
 from those which we feel for man. The dog, the companion 
 of my solitary walk ; the cat who sits by my winter's fire-side, 
 and whose purring is music to my ear; and the horse who 
 bears me patiently over many a long rough road, produce in 
 me feelings nearly allied to afl'ection. Why do not the flesh
 
 150 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 of these animals mingle with our dishes ? Because our hearts 
 become in some degree attached to these useful animals, and 
 it is a principle of our nature, to be averse to devouring what 
 has been an object of love. 
 
 Those animals which are esteemed proper articles of food, 
 and which we feed to serve up at our tables, sometimes afford 
 illustrations of this principle. So liable is the heart of man 
 to attach itself to surrounding objects, that those animals 
 which are doomed to the knife, if fed and tended by our- 
 selves, often fix themselves upon our affections, and thus are 
 unfitted for our food. When a boy, I could never have eaten 
 of the rabbit which I had tended myself, and which had so 
 often nibbled the cabbage leaf from my hands. There are 
 instances enough to establish the principle, that we dislike eat- 
 ing what we once had loved, and it is probable that our aver- 
 sion to a meal of human flesh, depends upon this principle. 
 Cannibalism is the practice only of the most savage and fero- 
 cious nations, of those who have little sensibility of heart to 
 render them capable of loving, and who are devoid of the 
 amiable qualities of the mind, which arc the objects of love. 
 It should be observed also, that they only devour their enemies, 
 and rather to satisfy their revenge, than their hunger ; of all 
 passions, revenge is the most destructive of lo\'e. Perhaps the 
 above remarks will throw some light upon the general detesta- 
 tion, and the possible practice of cannibalism.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 151 
 
 I now proceed to descrii^e the other native tribes. 
 
 The Worrows principally inhabit the sea coast lying between 
 the Demerary and Surinam. They are above the middle 
 size, their features are very large and disagreeable, and the 
 colour of their skin is much darker than that of the Carribbees. 
 They pronounce their language in a very disagreeable and in- 
 distinct tone. For ornaments, they suspend oval plates of 
 silver to the cartilages of their nose. For cloathing, they 
 sometimes use the bark of trees, or the net which surrounds 
 the origin of the branches of the cocoa nut tree ; sometimes 
 however, they purchase cloth for this purpose. They live in 
 the wet marshy places on the coast, and feed upon the crabs 
 and fish which they catch there. They are a contented 
 people, patient under suffering, but this patience and con- 
 tentment destroys all industry and cnterprize, for they are 
 dirty, fearful, and indolent. 
 
 The Accawaws inhabit that part of Guyana contiguous to 
 the source of the rivers Essequebo, Demerary, and Berbice. 
 They are above the middle size, with lighter complexions and 
 more agreeable features than the Worrows. In the lower lip 
 a large round hole is made, in which is lifted a piece of wood, 
 which is cut even with the skin externally, and internally 
 presses against the gums. Their manners are grave, and their 
 characters unusually cunning. These Indians are much feared,
 
 152 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 because of the poisons which they. are said to prepare, and to 
 make use of for revenging an insult. If any one has been 
 injured in the chastity of his wife, he hides the most mortal 
 hatred under an outside of friendship ; the injurer is invited to 
 a banquet, and a fatal poison is cunningly mingled with his 
 drink, which slowly but surely kills him. By means of their 
 poisons, they also protect themselves from the attacks of those 
 tribes upon which they have made incursions. Sharp pieces 
 of wood, poisoned and driven into the earth, are placed in all 
 the passages which lead to their houses, one only excepted, 
 which is kept secret among themselves. But these relations 
 resemble the oby stories of the negroes, and must be received 
 with hesitation. Their articles of commerce are, slaves, 
 monkeys, parrots, ebony, and other curious woods, arnotto, 
 winter's bark, wild nut-meg, wild cinnamon, balsam capivi, &c. 
 
 The Arrowauks are the next and last of the tribes I shall 
 describe. It has been said that the Worrows inhabit the 
 marshy sea coast between Demerary and Surinam, the Arro- 
 wauks live at the back of their settlements, where the land is 
 higher and more dry; about twenty leagues from the coast. 
 They are of the middle size, well made, and of a lighter 
 colour than the three former tribes. Their features are re- 
 gular, their teeth very white, their eyes black and piercing, 
 and the whole expression of the face is very agreeable. They 
 have hardly any beard, for those parts of the body which are
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 15S 
 
 usually covered with hair, have nothing but a thin down, 
 which they pick out as often as it grows. The women have 
 agreeable features, and slender, well proportioned limbs, and 
 when young, many of them are very beautiful, but when 
 old, their large bellies and long flaccid breasts make them 
 very disagreeable. The men wear a string round the waist, 
 to which is attached, both before and behind, a piece of cloth, 
 which passes between the thighs. The women wear a litde 
 apron, about six or eight inches square, woven from cot- 
 ton, on which are strung small glass beads of different co- 
 lours; this apron is suspended before by strings of beads 
 passed round the waist. A cotton garter is knit round each 
 ankle. On festival days, they wear caps of feathers and 
 strings of beads round their wrists, arms, ankles, and legs. 
 Their language is distinct, soft, and harmonious. The pro- 
 minent features of their character are vivacity, friendliness, 
 and timidity. Their arms are large sharp clubs, made of iron 
 wood, and bows and arrows. Reside the arrows which they 
 shoot with bows, they use poisoned arrows, which are blown 
 through hollow reeds with the mouth. The art of blowing 
 these arrows from the reed is practiced from childhood, by 
 which means they acquire such dexterity in their manage- 
 ment, that they will hit an object at the distance of thirty or 
 forty yards. These arrows are chiefly used for killing mon- 
 keys, which, when wounded by them, fall from the tree sense- 
 less. The Arrowauks do not constantly reside in one spot, 
 
 X
 
 154 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 but are continually removing from place to place, generally 
 preferring the sides of rivers and creeks for their hahitations. 
 Little time is required for the erection of their houses. They 
 are made by driving four forked poles into the ground per- 
 pendicularly, so as to form a square ; these are united by 
 four others layed horizontally, and the roof is afterwards made 
 by poles layed laterally, and covered by those enormous leaves 
 which are called troolies, and which arc more than twenty 
 feet long, and two broad. From the bread of cassava or ma- 
 nioc, they make a fermented liquor, which in taste is some- 
 what like ale. In the use of this liquor, both men and women 
 are very intemperate. By fermenting maize, a strong drink is 
 also made, which is not much unlike porter. 
 
 The person who saw most of these nations, and who ex- 
 plored the interior of Guyana to the greatest extent, was an 
 European colonist, named Nicholas Hortsman, originally of 
 Hildersheim, in Germany. In the year 1740, he undertook, 
 in a canoe manned by Indians, to ascend the Essequebo as far 
 as possible. After traversing many broads of water, dragging 
 his canoe beside the rapids, and carrying it occasionally, on 
 the shoulders of the crew, across the isthmusses, he came to a 
 great lake, and thence into a river running southwards, which 
 floated him to the Rionegro. This stream falls into the Ma- 
 ranyo, or river of Amazons; so that he must have crossed 
 those highest parts of Guyana, whence the waters descend in
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY &C. 155 
 
 opposite directions. At Para, he saw the French academician 
 M. Condamine, and communicated to him a map of his route, 
 and a sketch of his journal ; but no separate account of bis in- 
 teresting excursion was ever laid before the European public. 
 Solitary journies of this kind are unwise; the amusement 
 would be doubled, and the toil halved, by the society of 
 friendship ; and accident would be less able to intercept the 
 reputation and the fruits of discovery. It seems probable that 
 the great lake, called Parima by the geographers, may supply 
 streams both to the Essequebo and to the Rionegro. In this 
 case, it must be adapted to become the main reservoir and 
 center of traffic for a most extensive inland navigation. 
 
 I have hitherto been descilbhig those things which distin- 
 guish one tribe from another; I now come to those which are 
 common to them all. The natives of Guyana believe in one 
 God, who is the cause of all the good which occurs in the 
 world, and in a race of malevolent beings, of inferior power, 
 called yowahoos, who are the authors of all the evils which 
 befal them. To the former they offer up no prayers, but they 
 supplicate the latter whenever they are oppressed by any mis- 
 fortune. Each family has a priest, or peii, who performs the 
 twofold office of priest and physician, and who is supposed tj 
 have great influence over the minds of the yowahoos, both in 
 averting evils from some, and in calling them down upon tlie 
 heads of others. If an India.; becomes sick, the peii repairs 
 
 X2
 
 156 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 to him: at ten o'clock at night, the room is cleared of persons 
 and darkened, and the peii takes the instrument with which 
 he performs the incantation of the yowahoo. This is hol- 
 lowed calabash, with a few seeds and stones inclosed in it, and 
 a stick thrust through it. With this instrument he rattles, sing- 
 ing meanwhile a prayer to the yowahoo who is supposed to 
 be offended. This incantation is continued till midnight, 
 when an interview takes place between the peli and the 
 yowahoo. Two voices are now heard conversing. The peii 
 afterwards makes his report. If the Indian recovers the peii 
 has the credit; if he does not, the yowahoo is implacable. 
 The office of peii is hereditary, being conferred only on the 
 eldest son. 
 
 At a funeral, the relations and friends show their grief for 
 the deceased by getting drunk, singing, and crying : but of 
 all their instances of regard to their deceased friends, none is 
 so striking as what they call the feast of the dead, or the feast 
 of souls. The day for this ceremony is appointed in the coun- 
 cil of their chiefs, who give orders for every thing, which 
 may enable them to celebrate it with pomp and magnificence. 
 The riches of the nation are exhausted on this occasion, and 
 all their ingenuity displayed. The neighbouring people are 
 invited to partake of the feast, and to be witnesses of the so- 
 lemnity. At this time, all who have died since the last solemn 
 feast of that kind, are taken out of their graves. Those who
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 157 
 
 have been interred at the greatest distance from the villages are 
 diligently sought for, and brought to this great rendezvous of 
 carcases. It is not difficult to conceive the horror of this general 
 disinterment. Some appear dry and withered ; others have a 
 sort of parchment upon their bones; some look as if they were 
 baked and smoaked, without any appearance of rottenness; 
 some are just turning towards the point of putrefaction ; whilst 
 others are all swarming with worms, and drowned in corrup- 
 tion. I know not which ought to strike us most, the horror 
 of so shocking a sight, or the tender piety and affection of 
 these poor people towards their departed friends ; for nothing 
 deserves our admiration more, than that eager diligence and 
 attention with which they discharge this melancholy duty of 
 their tenderness ; gathering up rarefuUy even the smallest 
 bones ; handling the carcases, disgustful as they arc, with 
 every thing loathsome ; cleansing them from the worms, and 
 carrying them upon their shoulders through tiresome journies 
 of several days, without being discouraged by their insupport- 
 able stench, and without suffering any other emotions to arise, 
 than those of regret, for having lost persons who were so dear 
 to them in their lives, and so lamented in their death. 
 
 This strange festival is more or less in use among all the 
 American savages bordering on the gulf of Mexico, on the 
 Missisipi as on the Orinoko, and is probably a remnant of 
 Mexican superstition. A pompous reinterment is given to the
 
 158 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 dead ; and games of all kinds are celebrated on the occasion, 
 in the spirit of those which the ancient Greeks and Romans 
 celebrated upon similar occasions. 
 
 They have no laws, and no magistrates, and the onlv re- 
 straint upon their conduct is the fear of revenge from the in- 
 dividuals they may injure. The want of laws, and of an uni- 
 form strong coercive power, is not perceived in a narrow so- 
 ciety, A\here every man has his eye upon his neighbour, and 
 where the whole bent of every thing they do is to strengthen 
 those natural ties by which society is principally cemented. 
 Family love, rare among us, is a national virtue among 
 them, of which all partake. Friendships there are among 
 them, fit to vie with those of fabulous antiquity; and where 
 such friendships are seen to grow, the families concerned con- 
 gratulate themselves as upon an acquisition, that promises to 
 them a mutual strength, and to their nation the greatest 
 henor and advantage. 
 
 When an Indian marries, he Is perfectly indifferent about 
 the virginity of his wife ; but after his marriage he expects 
 fidelity to his bed : and so strong is the influence of opinion, 
 that adultery is very uncommon, although it is commanded 
 by no part of their religious tenets. Polygamy is universally 
 allowed, but an Indian is never seen witli two young wives ;
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 159 
 
 the only case in which he takes a second, is when his first has 
 become old and ugly. 
 
 Whether or no polygamy is agreeable to the Intention of 
 nature, is an old question. Ry that equality in the number 
 of the sexes which almost every where prevails, it would ap- 
 pear that nature intended one woman for one man, and hence 
 that polygamy is contrary to her obvious intention. The 
 same inference may be drawn from a quality of that passion 
 by which nature produces a union of the sexes. Friendship 
 may have several objects ; love can have only one. It seems 
 therefore, that the union of the sexes was intended to be by 
 pairs. Yet there are some reasons to believe that nature in- 
 tended more than one female for each male : women cease to 
 bear children even In Europe before the fiftieth year, while 
 men are capable of procreation to a much later period of life. 
 Beauty seems to have been given to the female to invite the 
 male to that union which is necessary for the existence of the 
 species ; the glow worm lures the male to her embrace by a 
 phosphorescent light. Beauty is the phosphorescent light 
 which was prepared to effect the union of the male and female 
 of the human race. But this light is of short endurance, it 
 goes out long before the male is incapable of feeling its in- 
 fluence. It seems to be a doubtful question then, whether or 
 no polygamy is agreeable to the intention of nature.
 
 16^0 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Agriculture and the common domestic concerns, are the 
 chief employment of the Indian wife. She plants yams, cas- 
 sava and manioc in sufficient number to supply the family 
 with bread and with piworree, that fermented liquor which 
 has been already described. The employment of the men 
 consists chiefly in hunting and fishing. The fish are taken 
 either by traps, or by inebriating them with the root of hiarra. 
 If a piece of the bruised root be thrown into the water, the 
 fish soon rise to the surface in such a state of insensibility as to 
 be easily taken. The other way of catching them is to stop 
 the mouth of the creek which opens into the river by fences, 
 leaving a small opening about four feet broad. During the 
 flood tide the fish pass into the creek in search of food ; as 
 soon as the ebb begins, the Indian stops this outlet to prevent 
 the return of the fish, which at low water, are seen laying on 
 the mud. The food is boiled, and very highly seasoned with 
 red pepper. When they have more animal food than will 
 serve for present use, they dry and smoak it, after which it 
 will keep for many months. No particular hour of the day 
 is allotted for meals ; the Indian eats when he is hungry. 
 Eating at stated times is only one instance of that systematic 
 regularity of employment, which is enforced by the multi- 
 farious occupations of civilized society. The allotment of 
 certain hours for meals, is a mark of some advancement 
 towards civilization.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 161 
 
 The females of Guyana endure little pain or after-illness 
 from parturition. As soon as it is over, the mother and child 
 are plunged into water, and the woman immediately goes 
 about her usual occupations. Little care is taken of their 
 ofF-spring during infancy. The males, as soon as they are 
 old enough, go a hunting with the father, and the females 
 learn the domestic duties of the mother. Indolence is a uni- 
 versally prevailing feature in the Indian character ; and al- 
 though the game is so plentiful, and the earth so fruitful, that 
 the greater part of their time is unoccupied, excepting by 
 amusements, yet they are often in want of their usual suste- 
 nance. Their indolence is so great, that they spend a much 
 greater part of their time in their hammocks, than in active 
 pleasures. Here an Indian will set a long time picking the 
 hairs out his beard, and then admiring himself in a looking- 
 glass; then he will take a flute and play upon it for some time; 
 then he will eat, converse, and go to sleep. They are very ex- 
 pert swimmers, and are very fond of the exercise : large compa- 
 nies of men and women bathe in the rivers several times a day, 
 without the least regard to the indiscriminate mixture of the 
 sexes : sometimes they form large parties at each others houses, 
 when they divert themselves with stories, dancing, laughter, 
 and drunkenness. They are very quarrelsome in their cups, 
 and almost all their disputes take place in a state of intoxica- 
 tion. They are remarkably deficient in the art of calculation :
 
 162 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 they cannot express precisely any distance of time beyond ten 
 or twelve moons. In describing a number of objects, they tell 
 by units, tens, and scores, up to a hundred, which is the 
 highest number their power of enumeration carries them to. 
 
 ; ;iui.;.i
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. W% 
 
 CHAPTER VIIL . 
 
 THE RIVER BERBICE HISTORY OF THE SETTLEMENTS 
 
 THERE NEW AMSTERDAM ITS BUILDINGS — TAVERNS 
 
 FORTIFICATIONS ROADS AND WATER ROADS CANJE 
 
 CREEK VISIT TO A COFFEE-PLANTER DECLENSION OF 
 
 SEVERAL WEST INDIA ISLANDS WISDOM OF DESERTING 
 
 THEM FOR CONTINENTAL PROPERTY. 
 
 B, 
 
 >ERBICE river lies in N. latitude 6 deg. 20 m. and 57 deg. 
 20 m. west longitude from London. Its stream at the 
 mouth is a mile and a half broad, and in the centre is an 
 island called Crab Island. 
 
 A bar of sand five miles without the river, running from 
 east to west, prevents vessels drawing more than fourteen feet 
 from entering the river ; this navigation is more dangerous 
 than that of the Demerary, from the obstructions to it being 
 of sand. On this account few vessels rendezvous here, but 
 make the port of Demerary their anchorage, whence the 
 Supplies from the mother country are transported in co- 
 
 Y 2
 
 164; STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 lony schooners, and the produce shipped in return is con- 
 veyed to the vessels through the same medium. 
 
 Berbice, by the old boundary, is bounded on the east by the 
 Devil's Creek, and on the west by Abarry Creek, which se- 
 parates that colony from Demerary. The river Berbice is 
 shallow, but broad ; nearly an hundred plantations have been 
 formed on its banks. The directors of the colony obtain from 
 it chiefly sugar. It also supplies cotton, coffee, cocoa, tobacco, 
 and a dying stuff called rokou. The goods carried thither 
 are the same as those traded with in the rest of the West Indies. 
 
 The Dutch laid the foundations of this colony in the begin- 
 ning of the last century. About the year 162^, one Vaq 
 Peere, of Flushing, began to send thither ships, which car- 
 ried out Europeans, who staid there to trade with the In- 
 dians, and collect produce. By the year 1690, this colony 
 was so far increased that the French, who made a hostile 
 landing, could levy a contribution of 20,000 florins. This co- 
 lony was comprehended in the charter of the Dutch West 
 India Company; but in 1678, arrangement was made with 
 the family of Van Peere, who were in fact the founders and 
 proprietors, by which it was granted to them as a perpetual 
 and hereditary fief. This grant was confirmed in 1703, 
 and was respected until 1712, when a flotilla of French priva- 
 teers, under the command of one Cassard, went to attack the
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 165 
 
 settlement. Baron Mouars commanded the troops who were 
 landed, and who agreed for a contribution of 300,000 florins ; 
 which was eventually discharged by the house of Van Hoorn 
 and Co. to whom the family Van Peere ceded three-fourths 
 of the concern, under this condition. 
 
 The Van Hoorn company having become masters of the 
 colony, applied to the Dutch East India Company for leave to 
 import slaves from Asia : this was not conceded ; but an 
 agreement took place to furnish annually, from the 10th of 
 September, 1714, the number of 240 negroes, from the coast 
 of Angola or Ardra, one third of them to be females. For 
 these slaves the Van Hoorn Company were to allow 165 flo- 
 rins a-head. If a larger number of negroes became requisite, 
 these were to be paid for at the rate of 250 florins a-head. The 
 proprietors of the colony were to have the liberty of selling off 
 their lands and slaves at pleasure ; and were to levy 300 florins 
 on every vessel that should go to Berbice. 
 
 These proprietors were apparently in a great degree success- 
 ful ; they extended the cultivation of sugar, of cocoa, and of 
 indigo ; they searched for mines, and invited settlers. They 
 then proposed to raise a capital of 3,200,000 florins in 1600 
 shares, payable in eight instalments, of which the last was to 
 fall due on the 1st of April 1724-. For this sum the lands of the 
 Van Hoorn Company were to be thrown into a sort of common
 
 166 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OP THE 
 
 Stock, and cultivated at a joint expence ; the shipping, the 
 warehouses, the revenues of the custom-house, the produce 
 was all to be the property of the share-holders, and a dividend 
 commensurate with the annual profit was to be made. The 
 actual proprietors were to receive, in lieu of any indemnity or 
 purchase-money, a number of shares proportioned to their oc- 
 cupations: thus they would become interested, it was supposed, 
 in promoting the prosperity of the concern, and in raising its 
 dividends continually. About 1,882,000 florins were thus 
 raised and vested ; dividends, which never exceeded three or 
 four per cent, were made ; and at length the shares fell from 
 2000 to 200 florins, and were chiefly bought in by the set- 
 tlers, as titles requisite to the integrity of their property. 
 
 A garrison of about 200 men was kept there before the 
 penultimate war ; but the colony, says the Abb6 Raynal,. 
 was nevertheless scarcely in a condition to resist the crew of an 
 enterprising privateer. 
 
 In Holland, the colony of Berblce is administered by seven 
 directors, who are chosen by and from among the share-hol- 
 ders. They receive a salary yearly of 200 florins; and give 
 in their accounts to an annual meeting of proprietors, who 
 name auditors. A secretary and two book-keepers suffice for 
 the business of the concern at Amsterdam. On the spot 
 things are conducted much as in Surinam. "^ '
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 167 
 
 The principal articles on which the revenues of the colony 
 are levied, are a capitation tax on the white and black inhabi- 
 tants, an excise on every fifty pounds of sugar made, a weigh- 
 age toll of about two per cent, on all imports and exports, and 
 a tonnage duty of three florins per last on the burden of ships. 
 The directors have undertaken to erect fortifications on the 
 Isle of Crabs; and have ordered, that to every fifteen negroes 
 there should be one white. They grant passports to such in- 
 habitants of Holland as desire to trade to Berbice, with the 
 condition that for thirty florins a-head any passenger-colonists, 
 recommended by the directors, shall be received on board, 
 and if under twelve years of age, for half price. 
 
 From the land adjacent to the sea being so very low and 
 marshy, the first settlers of this colony went fifty miles up the 
 river, where they built a town and fortress, which they called 
 Zealandica. As population began to increase, and cultivation 
 extended itself, the inconvenience of being so far from the 
 river's mouth, presented itself in various forms ; large vessels 
 found a difficulty in working up the crooked course of the 
 river ; the projecting points of mud from the irregularity of 
 the stream, occasioned vessels to ground, where they some- 
 times were obliged to lay until the rising of the spring tides 
 floated them oft. Thus situated, and with a view of inducing 
 vessels from Europe, with cargoes for Berbice, to anchor di-
 
 16S STATISTICAL ACJOUNT OF THE 
 
 rectly in the river, instead of going to Demerary, the seat of 
 government was removed within a mile of the mouth of the 
 river. 
 
 New Amsterdam, the name of the town, as built on the 
 south side of Canje river, running in that direction up the 
 banks of the Berbice a mile and a half, with the houses facing 
 the water. The Dutch in laying out this town, paid every at- 
 tention to health and convenience; each allotment appears an 
 island within itself; the ditches, or trenches, round the houses 
 fill and empty themselves every tide, by which means all the 
 filth and dirt is carried off before it has time to stagnate, or oc- 
 casion unhealthy sensations. Each lot is a quarter of an acre 
 of land, separated as before-mentioned from the adjoining 
 one ; which not only leaves a free circulation of air, but al- 
 lows to every house a kitchen-garden, which produces vegeta- 
 bles sufficient for the family. The houses are different from 
 those of Stabroek, in this respect, they are not more than a 
 story and a half high, very long and narrow, with galleries 
 on either side for the purpose of walking and smoaking in the 
 shade : they are mostly covered with troolie and plantain 
 leaves, a species of thatch, in preference to shingles, as being 
 considered so much cooler; but the quantity of vermin and 
 insects which they harbour does away every other consideration 
 with Englishmen, whose houses in New Amsterdam may be 
 distinguished by being shingled.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, iVc. 1^9 
 
 The government house and attached buildings are laid out 
 in a splendid manner, they are of brick, and built in the Eu- 
 ropean style ; for architectural magnificence in Guyana, they 
 are most noticed ; yet even these are not perfect. The eye 
 and the taste are both insulted on looking at this fine pile of 
 buildings from the river: at the water's edge, in a line directly 
 opposite the house and not twenty yards from it, is a boat 
 builder's yard ; so that his excellency and family, when going 
 over the river to visit his estates, are obliged to wade through 
 a group of negroes at work, a heap of cliips, boiling pitch 
 pots and many other delicate etcaeteras to .embarjc on board the 
 yatcht. The colonial offices, namely, the fiscal's, receiver's, 
 and secretary's, are situated behind the government house, and 
 are all built of brick. 
 
 There are two taverns in New Amsterdam, both of which 
 have billiard tables ; at one of them is a tabic d'hote daily for 
 the convenience of travellers passing through the town, or 
 planters from the country ; this house also affords accommo- 
 dation for slinging hammocks. I have had mine slung without 
 the least ceremony in the same room with a Dutch surgeon 
 and his wife, who slept in separ^t? hammocks, and the only 
 partition between us consisted of a piece of thin cotton bag- 
 ging extended from the sides of the room, reaching half way 
 up to the cieling. I was not aware of this arrangement until 
 I was conducted to my chamber, when I recognised the voices 
 
 z
 
 170 STATISTlCAIf ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 of the Dutch lady and gentleman I had dined with at the or- 
 dinary: we each exchanged a polite 'goednagt' before going 
 to sleep. In the morning after breakfast I called for my bill, 
 and as it may be a novelty I insert it. 
 
 Playing six games of billiards, 10 st. 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 A glass of sangaree 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 A bunch of segars 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Dinner - - 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 Wine - . - . 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 Two cups of coffee, 5 st. 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 Billiards in the evening 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 Sangaree, 2 glasses 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 Slinging your hammock 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 Two cups of coffee in the morning 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 Breakfast - - _ 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 Cleaning boots ' - i 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 G.25 
 
 
 
 Twenty-five gilders is 21. Is. 8d. sterling ; so much for the 
 tavern expences of little more than two meals at an ordinary. 
 The eager hospitality of this country soon placed me in a pri- 
 vate house, beyond the reach of such imposing charges.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 171 
 
 The fortilications are of no great import ; fort St. Andrew 
 and a small battery, guard the entrance of the river on the 
 cast side ; and York redoubt on the opposite or west bank. 
 There are two entrances into the river, one on each side 
 of Crab Island, which is reserved by the colonial government 
 for erecting a fort, that will completely command the pas- 
 sage into the river, and from being an island, will be easier 
 and much better defended than the present fort. Crab Island 
 is about two miles in circumference, and might be made a 
 very defensible post ; but that would not avail much, as what- 
 ever the fate of Demerary is, that of Berbice must be the 
 same, from their being so contiguous; the former once in pos- 
 session of any power, would soon over-run the latter by troops, 
 which could march overland ; the convenient ferries stationed 
 at all the creeks and rivers for the passage of horses and car- 
 riages, would afford a conveyance to any force sent for that 
 purpose, and although the sovereignty of the colony might 
 be for a while contested in the strong holds and fortresses, it 
 could not last long, the very nature of the situation would 
 oblige the garrison to surrender, or be starved out. For these 
 and other obvious reasons, Berbice has regularly capitulated to 
 the British, after Demerary had surrendered. 
 
 The same field for speculators and adventurers presented 
 itself here as in the other colonies. The west coast was first 
 put in cultivation, and in 1799 that to the eastward of the 
 
 z 2
 
 172 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 liver, as far as the Devil's Creek, attracted notice, and was 
 quickly transformed from a heavy impenetrable forest to a field 
 of cotton trees. This coast was surveyed, and was cut into two 
 parallel lines of estates with a navigable canal between the two 
 lines for the convenience of water carriage; behind this second 
 row of estates, runs the stream of the river Canje, the banks of 
 which on both sides are cultivated with sugar, coffee, and 
 plantains. The estates are thus denominated ; that line facing 
 the sea, are the coast estates, the second line the canal estates, 
 and the other are the Canje. 
 
 This is a fine river, and navigable for colony schooners, 
 thirty miles up ; it runs nearly in an easterly direction; at the 
 head of it are immense falls and cataracts; about forty miles 
 below these is a creek which connects itself with the Couran- 
 tine, through which overland dispatches are brought from Su- 
 rinam by the Indians: no Europeans have, as far As I could 
 learn, ever attempted this lonely track ; its ways are long and 
 intricate, and known to few ; there are many creeks to cross, 
 for which purpose the Indians travel with a light canoe, 
 which they carry on their shoulders, and which is launched 
 without any trouble as occasion requires. When the colonies 
 are formally ceded to Great Britain by peace, communications 
 from Surinam will soon be opened with tliese settlements, and if 
 regular mails and stage coaches should follow, I shall not be 
 surprised. Indeed the opening of a regular communication
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 173 
 
 witli Paramaribo, by establishing a ferry over the Courantine, 
 and expending labor on the present rude path, or by digging 
 a canal and establishing drag-schuyts, is a point of the utmost 
 importance to accelerate the improvement of all these colonies. 
 Paramaribo has long been populous ; the division of labor is 
 carried farther there than it can be in our newer towns ; many 
 of the arts of refinement and luxury are already practiced, and 
 would soon carry their accommodations along the road from 
 the metropolis. There is a redundant population, which 
 would come to the relief of our wants, and by setting at liberty 
 a part of the artificers, would supply new cultivators of the 
 ground. I exhort the administrative bodies to complete the 
 road from Stabroek through New Amsterdam to Paramaribo. 
 
 In the Canje are several very fine estates, one of which I 
 visited, a coffee plantation that had been in cultivation forty 
 years. The coffee is a beautiful evergreen, which usually 
 rises to a height of nine or ten feet on a smooth grey stem five 
 or six inches diameter. The leaves resemble those of the bay- 
 tree ; the flowers those of the jessamin. When the white and 
 fragrant blossoms drop oft', they leave a small fruit behind, 
 which is green at first, then red, and which contains two 
 seeds, or kernels, called coffee. The fruit is gathered by 
 shaking the tree, is received on mats and laid to dry in the 
 sun, after which operation the husk becomes suflSciently brittle 
 to be crushed with a v\'ooden roller and separated by sifting.
 
 174 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 The husk has much of the flavor of the kernel ; an infusion 
 is made with it which the slaves drink. Coffee plantation* 
 have usually a pleasing garden-like and picturesque appearance : 
 none more conspicuously so than that on which I had to stop. 
 It belonged to a Dutchman ; every thing appeared in the 
 greatest order ; the dwelling-house, an elegant brick mansion, 
 stood in the midst of a garden, which the occupier took the 
 greatest delight in; even the negro cottages were built on 
 brick foundations, neatly boarded and covered in with shingles. 
 Many grey headed negroes worn with age and labor, were 
 inmates of these comfortable abodes; they had retired from 
 the busy scenes of life to take care of their poultry, while 
 their sons and daughters wielded the shovel and the hoe. Be- 
 fore these huts were several groupes, consisting of between 
 forty and fifty negro children, who with sportive playfulness, 
 were passing the time away until the dinner bell should bring 
 their parents from the fields. 
 
 Well pleased with this scene, I could not resist the worthy 
 proprietor's invitation of dining with him, though we had 
 never seen each other before ; our segars and sangaree pre- 
 vious to dinner, gave to conversation, the appearance of a 
 long standing friendship: we interchanged our ideas respect- 
 ing the slave trade and the treatment of negroes, though he 
 was of the old school, he agreed with me. 1 compli- 
 mented him on the order and arrangement of his negro
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY kc. 175 
 
 houses, and the number of children on the estate, as a cer- 
 tain proof of his humanity ; I observed that the aged and 
 grey headed negroes I had seen in the cottages, proved that 
 he had treated them well in their young days, and now that 
 they were past labor, he provided for them with the careful 
 hand of a kind protector, it gave the most indelible test of his 
 being a worthy man. He said he had been in the colony up- 
 wards of forty years, all of which time had been bestowed 
 upon negroes ; he had been a proprietor thirty years, he was 
 not affluent, but he underwent personal deprivations to render 
 his negroes comfortable, whose claims he considered prefer- 
 able to his own ; thinking and acting as he did, he was a 
 gainer, his negroes were happy and contented, their work was 
 done with ease and his estate improved, the produce of that 
 begot a second and a third, " should I not then be a villain to 
 " discard or ill treat my negroes now they are old and past 
 " labor. Ko ! no ! my friend, I have learnt that humanity 
 " is the best policy, and in the end will produce riches." 
 Our sentiments being so congenial it was late ere I parted from 
 this worthy Dutchman. Having walked from New Amster- 
 dam, my kind host insisted on my taking his tent boat, which 
 was accordingly manned for the purpose, and I arrived in 
 town at nine o'clock at night, highly gratified with my trip, 
 and pleased with the business which introduced mc to such 
 a character in a Dutchman.
 
 176 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 The negro population of Berbice is doubled within the last 
 ten years, principally owing to importations of the English 
 merchants and planters, who had extended their concerns and 
 cultivation of the vacant lands. It amounts to about forty 
 thousand souls ; one thousand free people of colour, and two 
 thousand five hundred whites. Deprived of the means of aug- 
 nienting the population of negroes by importation, it has beeri 
 clearly proved that an average decrement takes place of two 
 per cent per annum, unaided by any other disorders than those 
 which are common to the colonies ; the small pock, the yel- 
 low fever, or a scarcity,* such as to render a change of diet 
 necessary, are circumstances which will make the deaths ten 
 per cent instead of two. 
 
 Situated then as these colonies are, it would be almost utter 
 destruction to them to incur an immediate abolition of the 
 slave trade. It must be gradual, a series of years must be al- 
 lowed for effecting this important object, and proportioning 
 the sexes. Before such a step is taken, the questions for and 
 against it should be canvassed on all sides, and in every form. 
 
 * The scarcity of colonial provision in 1803, obliged the planters to feed 
 the negroes on flour, rice, and maize, which disagreed with them so much, 
 tliat many of them died of dysenteries and other complaints.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 177 
 
 The colonies in Guyana, independently of supplies they have 
 received from Africa, are daily getting more negroes from the 
 West India islands, some of which being nearly worn out from 
 long cultivation, the proprietors of estates there find it very diffi- 
 cult and expensive to make them produce what they used to do. 
 Circumstanced as they are, working on a withered soil, they 
 are certainly justified in abandoning that land for better in 
 Guyana, where there is such an extensive choice. The natural 
 consequence we are to expect from such a procedure in the 
 course of time is the total abandonment of the barren islands 
 for the more fertile soil of the continent. The islands I allude 
 to are Curasso, Eustatia, Saba, St. Martins, Tortola, Tobago, 
 Grenada, and St. Vincent, which will be either partially or 
 wholly forsaken in a few years. When I was at Tortola in 
 1805, there was neither"^ garrison to defend it, nor a governor 
 to govern it ; therefore it is visibly enough seen that the then 
 ministry did not think the revenue or value of it would war- 
 rant the expence of maintaining a regular establishment there. 
 Barbadoes is declining fast in its revenue and productions, but 
 its situation being to windward of all the other islands, and 
 having a good bay, makes it a most desirable place to be re- 
 tained by our government. It is now the head quarters for 
 the commander in chief, and Carlisle bay affords a secure an- 
 chorage for the navy on the station. But the planters of Bar- 
 badoes have as much capital employed in the colonies on the 
 continent, as they have actually in Barbadoes; this certainly is 
 
 A a
 
 178 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 a Strange assertion to make, but it is no less trdc, and will 
 always be the case while Guyana presents such a boundless 
 track of country to cultivate ; indeed I have no hesitation in 
 saying that Demerary owes its present situation and importance 
 to Barbadoes. The planters from that island first emigrated 
 with their negroes, and their rapid successes were an induce- 
 ment for other islands to follow the example. The English 
 planters having so much capital employed there, with other 
 circumstances, was the inducement for the British to take it in 
 1796, which fully completed what had been so ably begun ; 
 the English merchants, struck with the advantages offered 
 them by the capture of the colonies, spared no pains to form 
 establishments and extend cultivation, which eventually raised 
 them to the rank they now hold.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 179 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 BERBICE, A DISTINCT COLONY VAN BATENBURG NOT A 
 
 POPULAR GOVERNOR — -BOUNDARY OF BERBICE EXTENDED 
 
 IN 1799, BY HIS MANAGEMENT MUTINY OF THE DUTCH 
 
 TROOPS DURING THE AUTHOR's STAY ARMAMENT OF 
 
 THE INDIANS IN BEHALF OF THE INHABITANTS. 
 
 T, 
 
 HE government of Berbice is separate from that of Esse- 
 quebo and Demerary ; this appeared to be a fact unknown to 
 General Grinfield and Sir Samuel Hood, in September 1803, 
 when they demanded, in their summons to his excellency the 
 governor of Essequebo and Demerary, the surrender of Ber- 
 bice, which he was incapable of granting. In 1796, when 
 the colony capitulated to the British, his excellency Abraham 
 Van Batenburg, was retained in his government, until the co- 
 lony was surrendered to the Batavian troops by the peace of 
 Amiens, when he, as an English governor, of course resigned 
 the reins to a provisional government, consisting of two 
 members of the court of police. The Batavian government 
 not having sent an ostensible governor in the establishment 
 intended for Berbice, report named several persons who were 
 
 Aa2
 
 180 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 to be appointed to the office, it was indeed mentioned that 
 Mr. Van Batenburg, the late governor, was to be reinstated ; 
 he certainly took his departure from the colony for Holland, 
 and took England in his way, where the commencement of 
 hostilities obliged him to remain. 
 
 Information having reached England that the colonies were 
 again in the possession of the British, it appeared as if the 
 ihtes determined Mr. Van Batenburg to be a governor; for he, 
 though a Dutchman, was appointed governor of Berbice, an 
 English colony ! ! Being provided witli powers from the 
 court of St. James, and a commission under his Majesty's sign 
 manual, he arrived in Berbice and displaced Lieut.-Col. Ni- 
 cholson, who was appointed for the interim by the commanders 
 of the expedition to whom the colonies surrendered. By the 
 laws of Great Britain, no foreigner can be placed in any os- 
 tensible place under government, or appointed governor of 
 any colony, island, place, or any of its dependencies ; this 
 was a stretch however of the Addingtonian power, which 
 was also put in force at Demerary, by sending Mr. Beaujon 
 there, another foreigner, as governor. 
 
 Though the government of Berbice is separate from that 
 of Essequebo and Demerary, the code of laws is the same, 
 with some exceptions as to general rules. Governor Van Ba- 
 tenburg, after he was returned to the government of Berbice
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, ScC. 181 
 
 by the British ministry, has in several instances exceeded his 
 powers, in such a manner as to induce the colonists to come 
 to resolutions and present a memorial to his majesty, setting 
 forth their grievances ; they also appointed agents in London 
 to carry these measures into execution. The charges pre- 
 ferred were these : 
 
 Depriving the colonists of their right and franchise, by an 
 arbitrary dismissal of two members of the court, and appoint- 
 ing others in their stead, without taking the voice of the in- 
 habitants : 
 
 Making new laws and regulations respecting the port of 
 Berbice without taking the advice of the court of police, which 
 deprived the merchants and planters from sending their pro- 
 duce to Demerary to be shipped for England, or employed for 
 the discharge of such debts as they might contract in Stabroek 
 for supplies and plantation stores, which could not be procured 
 in Berbice ; thereby causing considerable dissatisfaction and 
 jealousy between the two colonies, and an absolute check to 
 receiving farther supplies : 
 
 Irregularly administratring the property belonging by capture 
 to the crown of Great Britain, making a mal-appropriation of 
 the proceeds, and converting the labor of the colony negroes 
 to individual advantage, leaving the colonial business undone.
 
 182 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 and the fortifications almost untenable and incapable of de- 
 fence at a time when the combined squadrons were in these 
 seas. Various other charges were brought against Governor 
 Van Batenburg, which are stated in the resolutions. 
 
 The meetings of the colonists were held at one of the taverns 
 in New Amsterdam, which, by the unjustifiable mandates of 
 the said governor, was thereupon closed, thus depriving an 
 industrious man of the only means he had of obtaining a live- 
 hhood. No other pretext was given for this proceeding, than 
 that the tavern keeper refused obeying his excellency's order 
 for not permitting any seditious meetings at his house. Ano- 
 ther step which the governor took to harrass and exert his 
 power over the planters, was to make an immediate demand 
 upon them for " acre geldt" viz. acre money, to the levy of 
 which the recent extension of boundary had in no small de- 
 gree augmented his rights. 
 
 When Surinam capitulated to the British in August 1799, 
 his excellency. Governor Van Batenburg, went there to nego- 
 tiate with Governor Frederici, respecting the land between the 
 Devil's Creek and the Courantine; and on his return he made 
 the result known, which was, that Surinam had conceded to 
 Berbice the track of country between the Devil's Creek and 
 the river Courantine. This addition of territory was a favour- 
 able circumstance for Berbice. The sea coast extending nearly
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 183 
 
 fifty miles, and the west bank of the Courantlne were immedi- 
 ately surveyed and laid out into regular allotments : and though 
 grants could not be obtained for them from Holland, and the 
 British government would not interfere in them, the governor 
 and court of police gave sufficient recommendations, or provi- 
 sional grants, which induced speculators and adventurers to 
 commence their labors. Carriage roads were now made, and 
 communications were opened with the Courantine, the 
 west bank of which river soon participated in the cultivation 
 of the sea coast ; the former in coffee and plantations, and the 
 latter in cotton. Nothing was now wanting to proceed to 
 Surinam by land, but the same active exertions on that side 
 the Courantine, which the Berbice planters had manifested on 
 their part. 
 
 British capital, industry, and perseverance, had accom- 
 plished in eight years, what would not have been done by 
 any other means in half a century. They had populated and 
 brought into an useful state, a track of country which appeared 
 by nature attached to the sea, a low marshy sea coast, covered 
 with overgrown timber and underwood, and inundated by 
 every rising tide, was now transformed into a colony, bestow- 
 ing riches on its founders and support to several thousand in-* 
 dividuals. The extent of this land, stolen, if I may use the 
 term, from the sea, is one hundred and fifty miles, be- 
 tween the Demerary and Courantine. Carriage roads were
 
 184 STATISTICAL ACCOUKT OF THE 
 
 made upon it sixty feet broad, with six-foot parapets on each 
 side for the convenience of traveUing. 
 
 The exertions of the British on the Essequebo and Poma- 
 Toon coasts, met with equal eventual success, but the con- 
 sequences were not so rapid ; they had to contend against 
 many local inconveniences which the Berbiceans had not. 
 
 During 1803, when Berbice was in possession of the Bata- 
 vian Republic, and under the provisional government : the 
 Dutch troops garrisoned there, felt all the miseries which bad 
 food, bad barracks, bad pay, and bad medical attendance 
 could possibly impose : the ravages made on them by the 
 climate aided by the other circumstances, rendered their situa- 
 tion indeed deplorable, even worse than that of the troops in 
 Demerary. Remonstrances followed each other without avail, 
 they were disregarded and treated with neglect. A party was 
 even made among the officers ; some sided with the claims of 
 the men, others with the commanding officer. The neglect 
 of the government, and the unrelenting mandates of Col. Mat- 
 thias, their commandant, soon bred contempt; and an utter dis- 
 respect to orders was followed by a mutiny, which obliged 
 the commandant and a few followers, to evacuate fort St. An- 
 drew, and take possession of the government house, which 
 was fortified ; from this post they were obliged to retreat pre-
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 185 
 
 clpitately to York redoubt, on the opposite side of the river, 
 whence dispatches were sent to Demerary and Surinam, with 
 an account of their situation. The soldiery at Demerary were 
 little better inclined, from their horrid treatment, than the 
 mutineers; however, a hundred men, all that could be trusted, 
 were sent to Berbice, under the command of Major Vaji 
 Hamers, to co-operate with those at York redoubt. The mu- 
 tineers were headed by one of their own captains, who impru- 
 dently, rather than wisely, joined them, with a view of ob- 
 taining by force, a redress of their grievances ; they behaved 
 uncommonly well to all the colonists, especially the English; 
 the provisional governors were put under an arrest, and the 
 centinel who was placed over them, having allowed them to 
 escape, was immediately shot by the mutineers. They hoisted 
 an English jack at the fort, with a piece of beef placed on 
 the head of the flag staff, and sent a deputation to a respectable 
 English planter, to request he would take the government of 
 the colony on himself, and that the troops would enter into 
 the British ser\'ice, and defend the colony, until forces could 
 arrive from Barbadoes to take possession ; these offers were of 
 course mildly rejected, they however received the thanks of 
 many individuals for their conduct to the inhabitants, which 
 was uniformly good. 
 
 Important business called me to Berbice at this time, and 
 on the 7th May, 1803, having provided myself with a pass- 
 
 Bb
 
 186 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 port, I embarked on board a sloop belonging to a free negro, 
 called La Rose. At six o'clock in the morning, the tide 
 answered, there was a little wind, but the stream of the De- 
 merary soon swept us outside the mouth of the river, where 
 we caught a breeze from the N. E. which continued all day. 
 I retired into the cabin, where I amused myself with smoaking 
 and reading till evening. I then went on deck to enjoy the 
 refreshing breeze, and about eleven P. M. discovered the river 
 Berbice, we immediately shaped our course for the west en- 
 trance of the river, to get under the protection of the York 
 redoubt, when we were boarded by a boat from the Serpent 
 Batavian schooner of war, who took a pilot from us to bring 
 in some vessels outside the bar from Surinam, with troops on 
 board, soon after that we were brought to by a gun from the 
 battery, who ordered to anchor at the ferry, and not go over 
 to New Amsterdam, as the insurgents fired at every boat that 
 crossed. I was of course happy to be under any protection, 
 being the only white man on board the sloop, and therefore 
 landed at the ferry at Mynheer D'Hanckars ; before my ser- 
 vant could bring my portmanteau and writing desk on shore, 
 the vessel, with all her hands, were pressed to convey troops 
 from the vessels outside the bar to this place. Mynheer 
 D'Hanckar's I found was the head quarters of Col. Matthias 
 and officers. Major Van Hamers too and the troops from 
 Demerary were also here, and mustering thus early, two 
 o'clock in the morning, in order to cross the river to attack
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 18T 
 
 the fort. A council of war was sitting to determine on the 
 propriety of this measure without waiting for the co-operation 
 of the Surinam forces; Major Van Hamers and the officers 
 under him were impatient for an immediate attack, that their 
 troops might have the honor of queUing the insurrection, 
 thinking no doubt that news of troops having arrived from 
 Surinam, would be sufficient to induce the mutineers to sur- 
 render to an inferior force. Before day light, therefore, 
 the troops from Demerary were embarked on board the Ser- 
 pent, which got under weigh at five A. M. the wind was 
 against their getting over, and exposed them to a galling fire 
 from the mutineers, directed from the government house and 
 fort St. Andrew. In tacking too close in shore on the west side 
 the river, the Serpent grounded, and was obliged to remain un- 
 til the flood made, when she floated, and was joined by two co- 
 lony schooners with troops from the Surinam vessels. During 
 the whole of this day (8th May) a continual fire was kept up 
 between the two forts. The fire from the mutineers was ill di- 
 rected, and the guns of York redoubt fell short in their dis- 
 tance, therefore no harm was done by this sort of warfare. 
 At four P. M. the vessels got underweigh to make another 
 attempt on the town and government house; they were obliged 
 to edge up the river to keep out of gun shot reach, which 
 were fired without intermission by the mutineers, they how- 
 ever effected a landing above New Amsterdam. 
 
 Bb2
 
 188 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Government house was evacuated, and the insurgents re- 
 treated across the Canje ; they were pursued by a party of the 
 Surinam troops, when a partial engagement took place ; the 
 troops crossed the Canje, but were soon obliged to retreat, the 
 mutineers having extended themselves on both sides the road 
 in a field of cotton, fired upon them from their place of am- 
 bush, as a company of riflemen ; several were wounded and 
 one life lost ; none of the insurgents, as it appeared afterwards, 
 were hurt in this aifray. The 9th of May was employed in 
 collecting the remainder of the forces from Surinam, and the 
 evening was the appointed time for making an attack on the 
 fort; the Serpent was to attempt a landing of troops on the 
 side next the river, while a strong body was to attack it on 
 the land side ; little doubt was entertained for the success of 
 this plan. The following morning, Captain Van Evers com- 
 manding the troops from Surinam, very politely offered me a 
 conveyance across the river in his boat, which I accepted ; we 
 were obliged to land a considerable way above New Amster- 
 dam, to keep out of reach of the shot which were flying in 
 all directions from the fort; they were evidently intended 
 against the post at government house, but the artillery was so 
 ill directed, that many of them went into the town, and others 
 obliged the vessels and boats in the river to slip their cables. 
 The burghers were called out to preserve the peace of the 
 town, and two large ships were pressed for the service as 
 prison ships. I was amused by a very novel scene, about two
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, kc. 189 
 
 o'clock, which was the arrival of forty canoes in New Am- 
 sterdam, full of Indians; they consisted of upwards of four 
 hundred, and had been collected in different parts of the river 
 by their respective chiefs, to protect the town and assist the 
 inhabitants to regain possession of the fort. On their landing, 
 they were regularly ranged under their respective chieftains, 
 the canoes were disincumbered of their provisions, and hauled 
 up above high water mark. They were then conducted in 
 separate bodies to outhouses and other buildings, which were 
 lent them for quarters. It is needless to say they were well 
 received and accommodated by the inhabitants with every ne- 
 cessary, which to their wild uncultivated taste was luxury. 
 
 The appearance of these naked warriors was indeed singular. 
 1 have before remarked, that the Indians are low in stature, 
 stout, well made, with long black hair, and strings of beads 
 round their ancles and wrists, the only covering in point of 
 dress is a piece of blue India salempores, except the captains 
 or heads of a clan, who are distinguished by a European suit 
 of cloaths, and the hereditary or acquired staff of office. Their 
 bows were slung at their backs, accompanied with a quiver 
 full of poisoned arrows, and another pointed at the end with 
 steel like javelins; in their hands they carried a club about 
 two feet long, considerably larger at one end than the other, 
 the edges are made so very sharp, and the wood being of 
 tlie hardest kind, that a blow, aimed by a person who knows
 
 190 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the use of these weapons, is sufficient not only to stun, but to 
 kill a man on the spot. 
 
 The Dutch have always been attentive to conciliate the In- 
 dians. About the year 1770, General Desalve sent over to 
 Europe from Berbice, an Indian youth, named Weekee, who 
 resided for education at Bergen-op-zoom. He was taught at 
 his own request, to be something of a tailor, and something of 
 a cook, imagining he could then provide, after the European 
 manner, for his back and for his belly. But finding himself, 
 with all his acquirements, no nearer the obtainal of cloth and 
 food, he ceased to value these dexterities. After a year or 
 two, he expressed a longing desire to return to the colony, 
 and was no sooner landed on the shores of Guyana, than he 
 stripped oft' his European incumbrances, and returned to his 
 native woods, where he ended his days as he began them, 
 among the beloved companions of his youth, in nakedness, 
 idleness, and freedom. Had this lad been apprenticed to a 
 carpenter, or a blacksmith, it is probable he would have found 
 both the means and motive to have used his acquirements at 
 home : these are the mechanic arts which first station them- 
 selves among savages, and which become the causes of the 
 succeeding steps in civilization. 
 
 The policy of the British government is much to be com- 
 mended for following the practice of the Dutch, in keeping
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 191 
 
 up the alliance with so faithful and so useful a body a men, 
 at least to the welfare of these colonies, as the Indians are. 
 They are always ready to take the field, and are the foremost 
 to check any disturbance of the negroes, they are also an im- 
 pediment to their desertion, and from their peregrinations in 
 the interior, and on the borders of the European settlements, 
 are the means of preserving many misguided wretches, who in 
 attempting to leave their masters, would find the worst of 
 deaths in an almost impenetrable forest — that occasioned by 
 hunger. 
 
 The expence of maintaining a good understanding with our 
 Indian allies, is very trifling ; a few hundred pounds in the 
 course of a year, invested in fowling pieces, gun powder, 
 knives, hatchets, felling axes, glass beads, India salempores, 
 and rum, is sufficient. And the presenting of these things to 
 the chieftains, occasions a demand for them among the people. 
 The principal articles we buy of the native Indians are, 
 balsam capivi, bees wax, letter wood, bows and arrows, 
 canoes, hammocks, monkies, parrots and parroquets, cassa- 
 repo, Indian houses in epitome, and any similar curiosities 
 they bring from the interior. In return for which they re- 
 ceive fish hooks, looking glasses, blue and striped cottons, 
 India bafts, corals, and the abovementioned wares.
 
 192 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 A company of soldiers who had taken post at the mouth of 
 Canje river, was attacked by a party of the mutineers, who 
 having covered themselves in some underwood and bushes, 
 obliged the troops to retire, with the loss of one killed and two 
 wounded. During the afternoon of the lOth May, several of 
 the insurgents from the fort surrendered themselves prisoners, 
 and in the evening a proposition was sent to surrender the fort, 
 on conditions which were however refused. Just as the troops 
 were forming themselves to make arrangements for the attack, 
 another courier arrived to say, that the mutineers would give 
 themselves up as prisoners, and stand their trials by court mar- 
 tial. This was accordingly acceded to, and upwards of three 
 hundred men surrendered, only five of whom were found 
 guilty on their trials, and shot. The captain, who commanded 
 the insurgents, could not be tried in the colony, but was sent 
 to Holland for that purpose, where he was found guilty and 
 executed. The Indian auxiliaries were gratified by presents 
 of cutlery, were hospitably entertained, and contentedly dis- 
 missed.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 193 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 FORMER SERVICES OF THE INDIANS TO THE COLONY ON 
 
 THE BERBICE INCIPIENT SETTLEMENTS ON THE ABARY, 
 
 THE MAHAICONY, AND ESPECIALLY THE MAHAICA 
 
 SALUBRITY OF THAT SETTLEMENT PROFITS OF COTTON- 
 PLANTING SHOCK OF AN EARTHQUAKE ACCOUNTED 
 
 FOR PROGRESS OF SETTLEMENT ON THE RIVER POMA- 
 
 ROON ON THE CAPOYA CREEK RAPID INCREASE OF 
 
 AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE. 
 
 A HIS late occasion is far from being the only one in which 
 the Caribbees have testified a strong predilection for the 
 planters on the Berbice, and for the general interests of subor- 
 dination. In the year 1763 an insurrection happened among 
 the slaves of this colony, who rebelled to the amount of several 
 thousands, and massacred a considerable number of tlie white 
 inhabitants, while the rest fled to fort Nassau, where, fearing 
 their communication with the sea coast might be obstructed, 
 the then governor, by the advice of his council, precipitately 
 blew up the fort, and retired, with the white inhabitants, on 
 
 c c
 
 194- STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 board several merchant ships in the river, and sailed to its en- 
 trance, there to wait for assistance from abroad. This retreat 
 left the rebels in undisturbed possession of the whole colony, 
 and threw the inhabitants of the neighbouring colonies, par- 
 ticularly of Demerary and Essequebo, into the utmost conster- 
 nation, as they were the most contiguous to Berbicc, and ap- 
 prehended a visit from the rebels, which must have been at- 
 tended with the most unhappy consequences, as their own 
 slaves were at least five times more numerous than the white 
 inhabitants, and betrayed so eager a disposition for revolting, 
 that it was feared they would not have patience to wait for as- 
 sistance from their brethren in Berbice. 
 
 In this critical situation, however, they experienced the ad- 
 vantage of their connection with the subjects of Great Britain, 
 as at this time a ship of war, belonging to Gedney Clarke, 
 Esq. collector of his majesty's customs at Barbadoes, which 
 had been put into commission by Admiral Douglas, and was 
 commanded by a lieutenant of the British navy, arrived with 
 a company of marines, and anotlier of soldiers, raised at the 
 expence of Mr. Clarke, who was proprietor of several planta- 
 tions in Demerary, as were several other gentlemen of Bar- 
 badoes. This armament effectually frustrated the rebellious 
 designs of the slaves in Demerary. and the civil dissentions 
 among the rebels of Berbice diverted them from their intended 
 visit. In the interim, however, the governor of Berbice re-
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 195 
 
 C€ived a body of soldiers from Surinam, and several armed 
 vessels from the islands of Curasso and St. Eustatia, with 
 which he sailed up the river, and took possession of the 
 Dauger-head, a large plantation belonging to the West India 
 company, where he maintained himself till the arrival of an 
 armament from Holland; when the rebels were soon driven 
 into the woods, whence hunger, and the arrows of the In- 
 dians, obliged them to return, and seek an asylum in their 
 former slavery. Several hundred of the chief promoters 
 of this insurrection were however burnt, or broke on the 
 wheel, with all the various species of cruelty for which the 
 Dutch were then notorious. Before this, however, several 
 hundreds of the Carribbee Indians were, by the governor of 
 Essequebo and Demerary, engaged to take up arms against 
 the rebels, whom they not a little harrassed, concealing them- 
 selves in the woods by day, and setting fire to their houses 
 in the night, by shooting arrows fired at the point among the 
 troolies, with which they were thatched, and then killing the 
 negroes as they fled out in confusion. 
 
 The Indians have a sincere dislike and contempt for the v/ 
 blacks ; considering them apparently as an inferior race, born, 
 like cattle, to labour for the service of their betters. Of the 
 rights of intellect to exert control, they have an instinctive 
 conviction ; and are still less scrupulous than the Europeans, 
 about the means of maintaining ascendancy. With them, 
 
 c c 2
 
 196 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 tenderness begins where fear ends ; there is in all their affec- 
 tions, a something of contempt ; it is extended to women, to 
 children, to the young, rarely to the adult. They are grate- 
 ful to the most punctilious honor ; but like people, who feel 
 an obligation as an indignity, and who, being defied to an 
 emulation of good offices, wish to surpass in them. A white 
 planter, in this district, who showed hospitality to a travelling 
 Indian family, of which the woman happened to lie in at his 
 house, was called on a year after by the husband, and pre- 
 sented with a beautiful female slave, the booty of a remote 
 campaign. The negroes, on the contrary, have a something 
 fawning in their affection, like men who solicit and not who 
 vouchsafe protection. 
 
 Between the Berbice and the Dcmerary, there are three 
 small rivers, the Abary, the Mahaicony, so called from the ma- 
 hogany trees on its banks, and the Mahaica, which has l6ng 
 had a reputation for peculiar salubrity. Military posts have 
 been established there, to which sick soldiers were transferred; 
 strangers attacked with the seasoning, were sent thither for re- 
 covery. Experience still supports this character for whole- 
 someness; and it begins to be considered as an expedient 
 luxury to have a villa on the Mahaica, whither to retire in 
 case of the yellow fever, or other contagion, entering the pro- 
 vince. Thus a considerable settlement has been formed. The 
 village of Mahaica is situated on a small river of that name.
 
 SETTLEMENTS OK THE DEMERARY, &C. 197 
 
 thirty miles east of Stabroek ; it takes its course from that of 
 Demerary, and empties itself into the sea ; it is navigable for 
 colony craft twenty miles up, the banks on each side are under 
 cultivation in coffee, cotton, and sugar ; the entrance and bar 
 of this river is very dangerous, and cannot be crossed at low 
 ebb. A inilitary post and captain's guard is stationed at the 
 mouth of the river. The ferry and its environs are pleasantly 
 situated. There is in the neighbourhood, a great deal ot 
 wood, well adapted for ship-building : and many ship-car- 
 penters are constantly on the spot and at work : but as the 
 sand-banks, at the mouth of the stream, debar exit or entrance 
 to large ships, no considerable constructions can here be com- 
 pleted, and launched with effect. The circumstance of many 
 married families having settled here, makes the society stand 
 high, and indeed unrivalled by any other part of the colonies. 
 Continual parties of pleasure, attended by military music, under- 
 take excursions up the river, sometimes hand-fireworks are ex- 
 hibited on the water, and every amusement calculated to please, 
 is offered by the hospitable inhabitants of Alahaica, to render 
 their visitors happy. I never enjoyed more than here, the lux- 
 ury of a tropical night, after a heat and glare almost intolerable. 
 A brisk sea-breeze still blew, bringing with the murmurs the 
 coolness of the spray. We ordered our cane chairs under the 
 orange trees, our segars and sangaree ; and sat basking in the 
 moonlight and the wind — turning toward the refreshing air — 
 admiring the beautiful serenity of the dark-blue sky — the
 
 198 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 brightness of the stars distinct at the very horizon — the planet 
 Venus casting a sensible shadow — the moon so luminous as to 
 read by — and the thousands of fire-flies hovering about the 
 shrubs, or shaken in sparkling showers from the boughs. 
 The faces of the negroes gladden — the sprawling groupes 
 begin to quench their pipes, to talk, to stir, to laugh, to sing 
 — they are proposing the dance, and will shortly surround our 
 contemplative repose, with the spectacle of graceful activity 
 and cheering enjoyment ; their postures are more lascivious 
 than would be thought decent in F,iirope. 
 
 From the ferry a navigable canal is cut, which runs about 
 eight miles up the coast, parallel with the sea, where it is met 
 by another leading from Mahaicony Creek ; these canals af- 
 ford considerable advantage to the planters, both in drainage 
 and conveyance of produce and plantation stores, to and from 
 the different harbours or shipping places; though almost every 
 estate has a canal large enough for the reception of a boat, 
 yet there is a degree of danger sometimes attending their 
 getting in ; a contrary wind or rough sea are obstacles fre- 
 quently thrown in their way ; if this plan of inland carriage 
 was adopted throughoiit the colonies, it would be highly be- 
 neficial, and might be the means of preventing so many of 
 the colony schooners, that sail coastways, from being taken 
 by the piccaroon boats and privateers from the Orinoko, 
 which are fitted out in time of war.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 199 
 
 A merchant, in the commencement of 1799, knowing 
 that he should require a large parcel of cotton to ship, of 
 the ensuing crop, made engagements with a planter of 
 Mahaica, to give him two thousand five hundred pounds 
 for the crop of his estate, taking upon himself the risk 
 of its being more or less. The average production for the 
 last two or three years, did not exceed twenty thousand 
 weight, which made it evidently a risk for the purchaser. 
 However, the goodness of the season, soon recompensed 
 him, and before two months of the crop time was expired, 
 a larger quantity of cotton was picked than was necessary 
 to pay the purchase money. By considerable attention and 
 assiduity in hiring and giving rewards to the negroes for 
 their exertions, and by complimenting the manager with half 
 a pipe of win,e, a larger crop was made than the most sanguine 
 expectation could have suggested. It amounted to sixty 
 thousand weight, and gave a profit to the purchaser of six 
 thousand pounds sterling. This fortunate hit, with others of 
 a similar sort, which extended themselves throughout the co- 
 lonies, gave an additional zest to cotton planting, many of the 
 planters of that article were enabled to pay off their encum- 
 brances, and retired to live in England on the produce of their 
 estates. Hence it is said, that one good crop in five, makes 
 a cotton planter's fortune. These circumstances, combined, 
 certainly tended to increase the cultivation of cotton, and
 
 200 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 were the means of inducing more settlers and speculators to 
 reside among us. 
 
 A shock arising from an earthquake at a considerable dis- 
 tance toward the interior, was felt here, and at Stabroek, on 
 the loth of December, 1802. It was still more sensible along 
 the Essequebo, but not at all in the Berbice : so that it must 
 have come from a south-west direction, and have nearly spent 
 itself. These shocks are not unfrequent, but they seldom do 
 harm in the flat country. They seem to arise from some ef- 
 forts in the land to lift itself higher, and to grow upwards; for 
 the land is constantly pushing the sea (which of course must 
 retain the same level) to a greater distance ; the inundations 
 of the interior are less frequent, the tides extend less far, and 
 the coast estates, as they are called, become inland property. 
 The incessant eftbrts of crystallization thrusting its innumerable 
 wedges under the foundations of the mountains, or some other 
 less obvious fossil processes, may cause this gradual elevation 
 of whole continents. The area of lifted land, in order to fill, 
 at a higher level, the surface of globe which it formerly co- 
 vered, must diverge, and crack into perpendicular fissures. 
 This operation seems to be the cause of earthquake, and is 
 universally accompanied, as far as I can learn, with the in- 
 gulphment or absorption of large quantities of water, and 
 sometimes with the subsidence of the sides of the fissures. This
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 201 
 
 constant shooting upwards of the land, which is so sensible in 
 the West Indies, has been little heeded by European mine- 
 ralogists. 
 
 The mineralogy of Guyana is a subject still less investigated. 
 It cannot be doubted that, within water-carriage of our settle- 
 ments, there must be lime-stone rocks : lime, or rather its ma- 
 terial, has been so profusely scattered by nature, that it forms 
 the basis of the exterior hills in almost all ridges of mountains. 
 Yet we import, from Europe, the lime, which we use in the 
 sugar manufactory. How vast an economy would result from 
 providing and burning it at home. The very shells on our 
 coast would supply the requisite quantity of lime, if it were 
 tliought worth while to collect and to burn them. But it 
 seems to be the inleutiou of nature that every people should 
 have something to fetch from a distance, in order to unite, by 
 the ties of commerce, the distant quarters of the world. 
 Agriculture still offers a boundless and a profitable field of em- 
 ployment ; the other arts are seldom domesticated, until a su- 
 perfluous population begins to become inquisitive for the means 
 of earning a subsistence. 
 
 The high price of land on the east coast of Demerary had 
 advanced so much, as soon induced adventurers, with a small 
 capital, to seek for other lands at a distance from Stabroek, 
 which from that circumstance could be purchased at a much 
 
 Dd
 
 202 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 lower price; an extensive range of sea coast to the westward " 
 of Essequebo, called the Arabische Coast, and Pomaroon 
 river, and the coast contiguous to it, presented themselves as 
 eligible situations for cultivation, and accordingly a number of 
 adventurers found settlements there, which are at this time 
 held in as high estimation for the production of cotton, as any 
 land in the colonies. The west coast of Pomaroon juts on the 
 boundary of the Orinoko, where there is a military post es- 
 tablished. 
 
 Since the English took possession of the colonies, they have 
 cultivated the whole of that coast, extending upwards of fifty 
 miles, and are now making estates on the banks of the Poma- 
 roon, which river is half a mile broad at its entrance, and is 
 difficult of access, fioui projecling banks of mud on each side ; 
 and a bar of the same consistency, which runs across, pre- 
 vents any vessels entering drawing more than nine feet water. 
 
 Up the edges of this river, the melancholy traces of ancient 
 cultivation, and abandoned residences, are frequently apparent. 
 Above the fork, formed by the junction of the Harlipyak 
 with the Pomaroon, the Hollanders had formerly three settle- 
 ments of some extent. Fort Zealand, which the English 
 destroyed in 1666; Middleburg, which at the same period 
 was plundered and abandoned ; and Harlipyak, which bor- 
 rowed or lent the name of the contiguous stream. The present
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARYi &C. -203 
 
 -English system of cultivation begins with the lands nearest to 
 the sea ; but the Dutch, probably from the fear of those buc- 
 caneering expeditions, of which Sir Walter Raleigh had given 
 a specimen, at the expence of the Spanish settlers in Guyana, 
 began, but fruitlessly, their establishments at the interior eX;- 
 .tremity of the lowlands, and as far up the different rivers as 
 they found the navigation convenient, and the soil docile. 1 
 trust it will not be long before the British have covered the 
 reproachful traces of ruhi and desertion, with new dwellings 
 and wider cultivation. 
 
 The estates already made between the Essequebo and Po-; 
 maroon rivers, are variously valued from five to eighty thou- 
 sand pounds sterling each, according to the extent of culti- 
 vation, number of negroes, buildings, &c. &cc. This coast 
 possesses a considerable advantage over the other sea coasts, 
 from its being able to rear any quantity of plantains, the land 
 being so very luxuriant and rich, while those estates on the 
 east coast of Demerary, are obliged to purchase plantains 
 weekly in the river, and keep a craft employed in conveying 
 then\ for the support of the negroes. 
 
 The plantain or bannanna tree, is a native of Guyana, and 
 produces fruit nine months after planted, it is about ten feet 
 high; one plant produces three or four stems, which grow 
 perfectly straight, but are cut down ^^'ithin six inches of the 
 
 D d2
 
 204 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 ground, after the fruit is gathered, and in succession, it pro- 
 duces another crop. A plantain has nearly the shape of a pars- 
 nip or carrot, but continues of equal circumference to both 
 ends, and Is guarded from the rays of the sun, by a thick peal 
 or skin ; when roasted, it is more like bread than any other 
 vegetable, and is produced in bunches, which weigh from 
 fifty to seventy pounds. 
 
 The only usual species of grain are the maize, or Indian 
 corn, which produces six weeks or two- months after planted; 
 and the Guinea corn, which only yields one or two crops in 
 a year. The Guinea and Scotch grass are cultivated in prefer- 
 ence to hay, and produce abundance of fodder for cattle ; 
 negroes are employed regularly in cutting grass for the supply 
 of the town, which they dispose of for a shilling per bundle. 
 
 Cotton is the only produce which this Pomaroon coast avails 
 itself of to any degree of excellence, for which purpose it is 
 equally as good as any other land in the colonies. Of sugar 
 and coffee, there are estates, but neither answer so well as cot- 
 ton, from the being land too rich and saline. It is a fact that 
 the land improves with every crop that is taken off, as does also 
 the quality of its production. The cultivators and settlers of 
 this coast had a great deal to contend with in accomplishing 
 what they have ; a marshy track of country, covered with 
 immense heavy bush, was entirely to ixe drained, cleared, and
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, kc. 205 
 
 planted by new negroes ; and the first settlers were so scat- 
 tered about, as to be ten and fifteen miles from each other, or 
 any cultivated estates; and then, the only m,ethod of getting to 
 them, was by a boat or canoe, by which means they were also 
 obliged, for the first year, to convey their plantains, till they 
 could have their own planted. The planters and negroes 
 were, also in the first instance, obliged, until they could build 
 temporary huts, to sleep in the open air, with their hammocks 
 hung between two trees ; this was a pretty hard trial for both 
 negroes and master, but nothing to what they are continually 
 obliged to bear in the settlement of new estates. They had 
 not very liberal encouragement, as the east coast planters had 
 examined the land, and declared it incapable of producing 
 cotton, and would not answer cultivating. 
 
 The new adventurers were stimulated by a desire to excel, 
 and by industry and perseverance, soon got a crop off, but 
 which, from the richness of the soil and youngness of the 
 trees, did not produce as much as was expected, from their 
 growing more into wood and branches, than pod ; they then 
 took in more land, and planted with cotton and plantains ; 
 the trees which yielded before, had now grown to a proper 
 age, and the ensuing crop sutficiently repaid them, by pro- 
 ducing a quarter of a pound of cotton per tree; and indeed 
 at the end of six years, these estates improved- themselves, and 
 would produce tree for tree, as much as the east coast. This
 
 206 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 gave general satisfaction, though the east and west coast 
 planters still have a little sparring. In 1799 and 1800, the 
 rage for cotton planting, was greatly increased by the largest 
 crops ever known to be produced in the .colonies, and the 
 price it fetched at market, exceeded every former limit. From 
 the season being so very favourable, it was computed that 
 every tree produced a pound of net cotton, although the ge- 
 neral average is never calculated at more than one fourth. 
 
 The price in the English markets, gradually advanced from 
 two shillings and sixpence to four shillings per pound, and 
 almost all the large crop fortunately arrived for sale, and be- 
 nefitted by the rising prices. The crop commenced in Sep- 
 tember, and continued, with little or no intermission, until 
 July following ; and such was the immense blow and quantity 
 of cotton on the trees, that a great deal was lost and blown 
 away before it could be picked. Many estates hired negroes 
 at three, four, and five shillings per day, under an idea of 
 preserving the cotton, by picking it in time, and on Sundays, 
 those negroes who were willing to work, were paid in the 
 same proportion by their proprietors. Negroes too belonging 
 to sugar and coffee estates, willingly hired themselves for that 
 day, to pick cotton for the neighbouring plantations. 
 
 From several transactions which came under my inspection, 
 I had an opportunity of knowing that considerable profitable
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 207 
 
 speculations were made by the merchants, who purchashig at 
 a low price, shipped the cotton so as to meet the market in 
 England just described. Two, three, and even four thousand 
 pounds have been cleared by one shipment. 
 
 ^The Kapoya creek, which lies between the Essequebo and 
 the Pomaroon, is also beginning to exhibit its villas, its logics, 
 its sugar-houses, and its windmills ; but the established set of 
 crops are raised every where in the same way, and few at- 
 tempts are made to enrich the country by new articles of pro- 
 duce. A great service might be rendered to us by the intro- 
 duction of some East India plants — of the bamboo for instance 
 — which is applicable to so many mechanical purposes of com- 
 mon life, and which some of the lascars in Trinidad, could 
 teach us to employ. Its natural soil is on the delta of rivers, 
 in such mud-islands as we inhabit. 
 
 It appears to me that a distinct exploiteur ought to be ap- 
 pointed for each of the rivers, and that the grants of land 
 ought all to be made on the principle of an increasing quit- 
 rent. The local otlEicers might in some degree depend on a 
 central institution at Paramaribo, an arrangement which could 
 easily be made instrumental to the revenue of the state and to 
 the comfort of Individuals. Perhaps the Courantine offers the 
 most expedient field for the next enterprizes of plantation. 
 Its contiguity to the Surinam, would afford great facilities in
 
 ^08 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the supply of the first wants, both of provision and construc- 
 tion ; and its settlement would complete an inland communi- 
 cation between all the English colonies in Guyana. 
 
 The importation into Liverpool in 1796, of cotton, from 
 the Essequebo and Demerary, was six thousand bales, since 
 which time the quantity has gradually increased, and in 
 1804, amounted to twenty-four thousand, nine hundred, and 
 seventy bales. The increase also into the ports of London, 
 Glasgow, and Bristol, have been upon the same extensive 
 scale.
 
 SET1LEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 'SO^ 
 
 < CHAPTER XI. 
 
 •INCREASE OF SUGAR ESTATES, AS WELL ON THE COAST AS 
 
 • IN THE RIVERS EXPENSIVE UNDERTAKINGS SEASONED 
 
 NEGROES- — SAILORS AND TRADESMEN IMPORTED FROM 
 
 - THE ISLANDS ON ADVANTAGEOUS TERMS TO THEM- 
 SELVES CIRCUMSTANCE WHICH OCCURRED AT THE 
 
 SALE OF AN AFRICAN CARGO PROOF OF GRATITUDE IN 
 
 NEGROES A MELANCHOLY STORY TASK GANGS WOOD 
 
 CUTTERS — VISIT TO AN ECCENTRIC CHARACTER— AC- 
 
 ■ COUNT OF HIS ESTABLISHMENT. 
 
 M< 
 
 .OST of the emigrants from the West India islands have 
 hitherto engaged themselves principally in sugar planting, by 
 which means the number of estates for that article are increased 
 five to one. The genius of the Dutch could never thoroughly 
 dive into the proper method of manufacture, and, for want of 
 capital to carry their njeasures into effect, they almost all 
 failed, and never arrived to any perfection. 
 
 Such was the rage for making sugar estates, which our 
 islanders had introduced into the colony, that several were 
 
 E e
 
 iilO STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 founded at an enormous expence on the sea coast. This land 
 was always considered too saline, and the difficulty, from the 
 shallowness of the water. In landing the heavy articles required 
 for the buildings, such as bricks, lime, miH timber and 
 frames, coppers, stills, and iron work, made the old colonists 
 fearful of engaging in such an undertaking, until the enter- 
 prising and dashing Englishmen launched into it, and boldly 
 sunk in accomplishing their object, some thirty, forty, and 
 fifty thousand pounds, in making a plantation. One gentle- 
 man from the islands, purchased three sugar estates of fo- 
 feigners, valued at one hundred thousand pounds, sixty of 
 which he paid in bills, on London, at sixty and ninety days 
 sight;, the balance wjis paid in equal instalments, with interest. 
 I mention this circumstance merely to give an idea of the in- 
 dividual speculation which was carried on at the time of the 
 surrender, under the idea of the colonies being kept by Great 
 Britain at peace. 
 
 Seasoned and valuable negroes, used to plantation work, 
 were imported in considerable numbers from the West Indies, 
 to. assist in agriculture. Men brought up and used to the sea, 
 were also brought over to instruct our negroes in the manage- 
 ment of the colony boats and craft. Many of them were free, 
 who engaged themselves for that purpose, and others were 
 sold on most advantageous terms to themselves ; so that after 
 a certain period of service, they were intitled to their freedom
 
 SETTLEMENTS OK THE DEMERARY, &C. 211 
 
 and wages. Some of them, besides being provided with pro- 
 visions and grog, received three joes, or five pounds ten shil- 
 lings sterling per month, which eventually enabled many an 
 individual to purchase a share of his master's boat, or to get 
 one for himself, in which case he would be as a carrier, or 
 droger, to those estates which did not keep craft of their own. 
 If he was a careful industrious servant, his employer generally 
 found it for his interest to take him into partnership, or al- 
 low him a proportion of the profits arising from his carrying 
 for other estates. In a similar way were negro and mulatto 
 tradesmen, such as carpenters, bricklayers, coopers, mill- 
 wrights, tailors, and shoemakers, induced to come over and 
 settle among us. These people, of course, worked under the 
 direction of white merchants, who had been engaged and 
 brought over from England and Scotland, but principally from 
 the latter. By these means, we not only increased our num- 
 ber of good tradesmen by importation, but induced many of 
 our own negroes to become such, by apprenticing them to 
 that trade they preferred ; young boys, from the age of twelve 
 to fifteen, were generally fixed on for that purpose, and it has 
 been remarked of the African negroes, that those of the Congo 
 Wand Elbo nations were the better adapted, and quicker at ac- 
 quiring a knowledge of a trade, than any others. I knew a 
 carpenter, who had from fifteen to twenty boys belonging to 
 different people, that were articled to him for two, three, and 
 four years. I cannot conceive for what reason such long ap- 
 
 Ee 2
 
 212 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 prenticeships to the mechanic arts have been introduced in 
 England. The rudest African learns in three years any of the 
 common handiworks : and can the European, accustomed 
 from his childhood to see them exercised, and to handle their 
 tools and their wrought ware, require more than double the 
 time ? It is a great oppression to a young man to find his 
 labour, from eighteen to twenty-one, has been contracted for 
 by his parents at half its value. 
 
 ( I once witnessed a curious debate between two negro boys 
 in a sale room where the cargo of an African ship was landed. 
 I observed all of them dancing and singing previous to getting 
 their dinners, except these two boys, who were apart from the 
 rest, and appeared from their manner of speaking and gestures, 
 to be talking on some. Very interesting subject. I was induced 
 to draw nearer them, when the eldest of the two explained to 
 me> by signs and broken English, (which he had acquired in 
 some of the factories on the coast of Africa, and from the 
 sailors in the course of his passage) that the other boy was 
 afraid he was going to be sold to white men to be eaten ; 
 while he had been attempting to impress on his mind, that 
 the intention of his being brought there, was to work. I soon 
 eased tlie boy's mind by taking him into the yard, where 
 there were some carpenters at work, and putting a hammer 
 into his hand, made him to understand that he was to learn t6 
 build houses and work with the carpenters ; at which, he
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE OEMERARY, &C. 213 
 
 began hammering and knocking away to shew his willingness, 
 then ran to me and hugged me, pointed to my mouth and 
 then to himself, at which I shook my head with abhorrence. 
 The poor fellow was remarkably pleased at my assurance that 
 we were not cannibals, and I had soon the pleasure of seeing 
 him join his comrades in their dancing and singing, with a 
 heart free from care. The next day I had an opportunity of 
 getting him a good purchaser, who, at my request, made him 
 a carpenter. I frequently saw him afterwards, and he always 
 thanked me. with apparent gfatitude, for what I had done for 
 him. The other being a clever quick lad, was taken by the per- 
 son who had the sale of the cargo, and intended for a cook, but 
 not liking such a dull inactive life, he preferred being a sailor, 
 and was accordingly, through my interference, put into a co- 
 lony boat for that purpose. I was afterwards often with him at 
 $ea, and always had reason to believe he would do any thing 
 in his power to serve me. When my segars were done, in con- 
 sequence of being out longer than I expected, from contrary 
 winds or other causes, Jem, for that was his name, has fre- 
 quently deprived himself of his leaf tobacco, to make me 
 segars. I am fully convinced he saved my life, by extricating 
 lae from a situation I had imprudently placed myself in one 
 day while bathing ; I got nearly out of my depth, and from 
 tnot being able to swim, the current, which was running at 
 the rate of six miles an hour, quite overpowered me, and pre- 
 vented my return to shore. Jem, who was on board the
 
 214 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 schooner, which was at that time lying aground at the point 
 of Walkenaam island, at the mouth of the Essequebo river, 
 where the circumstance happened, perceived my situation, 
 plunged into the water, and succeeded in getting me along- 
 side, where with the assistance of the small boat, he brought 
 me on board, heartily tired with my bathing excursion, and my 
 arms, neck, and shoulders, completely blistered by the sun. 
 At another time I had an opportunity of seeing him particu- 
 larly active in attempting to save the captain of the schooner, 
 a white man, who unfortunately fell overboard. We were 
 going very fast at the time before the wind ; the small boat 
 happened to be towing astern ; Jem, and another negro 
 jumped in and cut the tow rope, but their good intent was 
 frustrated, it was too late, the watery deep had closed over him. 
 When the accident happened, it was nearly dark, we came 
 to anchor and hoisted a lanthorn at the mast head, as a signal 
 for the boat to find us. It was a long two hours before it re- 
 turned from the fruitless search, in which time, however, I 
 could not but remark how much the remaining negroes were 
 affected, and admired their assiduity in providing something 
 warm and nourishing for the captain, in case he should be 
 taken up, an event they expected, from his being such a good 
 swimmer, until the boat returned, when their disappointment 
 and grief were excessive. These circumstances tended to raise 
 the African race high in my estimation, and satisfied me that 
 gratitude and affection could be made prominent features in
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 215 
 
 v/* their disposition when properly treated and soothed. I am 
 convinced their's is a character but superficially known, and 
 is worthy of a particular investigation. 
 
 From an increase of cultivated extent of country, employ- 
 ment for negroes of course followed, and as those planters 
 who began with small capitals, were debarred the advantage 
 of stocking their estates with a sufficient number of labourers, 
 the most expedient plan for accomplishing their work, was to 
 hire negroes. Managers and overseers of estates are always 
 enabled, by frugality, to save as much from their salaries as 
 to purchase a negro, whom they let or hire out to work. The 
 next year they can purchase two, and the year after, two 
 more. In this progressive manner, many men have laid the 
 foundation of fortunes. The possession of one negro, has 
 eventually made them owners of fifteen or twenty, at which 
 lime they are formed into a Task Gang; which is so called 
 from its undertaking to do a specific quantity of work,- such 
 as clearing and preparing so many acres of land, draining and 
 planting the same; which they are paid for by the acre. 
 Many of these gangs are in existence, and are of great utility 
 to new settlers. Some of them have fixed residences up the 
 rivers and creeks, and when plantation work does not offer, 
 are employed in timber cutting for the building of houses, 
 mill frames, and various other uses so constantly in request on 
 estates. In Europe, the abolition of vassalage seems to have
 
 21S STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 grown out of the institution of task gangs. The guilds of thfe 
 burghers, which prepared the way for all the chartered li- 
 berties of the people, were originally purse clubs, founded to 
 prevent the artisans from becoming chargeable, in seasons of 
 distress, to the landlord on whose estate they were born. If 
 our task gangs were encouraged by the government, to ap- 
 propriate a part of their earnings for the attainment of a like 
 independence, companies of free labourers would insensibly 
 <be formed, and only agriculture would remain a servile oc- 
 cupation. 
 
 ?n 
 
 We export to the islands, a large quantity of mill tim» 
 
 Jjers, for the erection of sugar works. The forests also sup- 
 ply us in a great measure with shingles, wallaba staves, and 
 hoops for sugar hogsheads. The fuel which is used in the 
 manufacture of sugar and distillation of rum, we also provide 
 ourselves with in abundance ; whereas the estates in the West 
 India islands are obliged to use coals. The valuable woods 
 are sometimes exported to England for the cabinet-makers. 
 A considerable quantity of our hard woods, especially th^ 
 teteuna and sieurbally are sawed into planks for the boat 
 builders' use ; they are most esteemed for that purpose. A 
 flat bottomed boat, called a punt, is much used in the rivers, 
 creeks, and canals, for the conveyance of produce; they are 
 square at both ends, and will not live at sea. '•'
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 217 
 
 The Dutch, as I have before stated, generally live in sump- 
 tuous elegant houses, and in other respects, in a manner 
 which fully proves they are set dovi'n for life. Having, how- 
 ever, one day, some business to transact with Mynheer Vos, 
 of Essequebo, I was convinced this was not, like many other 
 things, a general rule without an exception. Mynheer V. 
 possesses an unincumbered estate worth twenty thousand 
 pounds, has no other relative in the world, than a natural 
 daughter by an Indian, to leave it to ; he is between sixty and 
 seventy, and came to the colony as a common soldier about 
 1770. He contrived, while in that situation, by buying and 
 selling little articles, to amass so much as to purchase his dis- 
 charge, and to reserve a few hundred guilders to trade on. 
 With them he purchased a sloop boat, hired a negro, and 
 commenced regular hoopman, or huckster, by selling on 
 those estates he went to, such articles as he had ; and after a 
 week or two's cruize, he would return to town and replenish his 
 stock for another trading voyage. This course of life he con- 
 tinued for many years, without having any regular house ; he 
 met with several reverses of fortune, and once or twice was 
 nearly ruined by the loss of his little cargoes, from the vessels 
 getting ashore on the sand banks at the mouth of the Esse- 
 quebo, where, to lighten his boat, he was obliged to throw 
 the cargo overboard. These mishaps did not damp his ardor, 
 but on the contrary, proved a stimulus. He now built him- 
 self a hut on the west coast of Demerary, which was intended 
 
 Ff
 
 218 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 for a repository of merchandize. His water excursions became 
 more periodical, and he carried, at one time, only a part of 
 his wares to be freer from risk. The profits of trade were 
 next invested in the surer enterprizes of agriculture. In 1785, 
 he purchased the land where he now lives, consisting of five 
 hundred acres, and commenced the arduous task of clearing 
 it of the heavy forest trees and bush, with three negroes and 
 himself. 
 
 The singularities of this man are many, as such, I shall 
 make no apology for animadverting on those the most striking 
 and characteristic. The inten4;ion of my visit to him was to re- 
 ceive a thousand pounds, which was then due on his note. I 
 was surprised, in the first instance, on my arrival at the middle 
 path of his estate, or road, leading to the buildings, at not see- 
 ing any bridge, or the least trace of one, over the ditch, which 
 was cut across for conveying the water off. How, in the name 
 of convenience, has this man, thought I to myself, lived here 
 twenty years without feeling the want of a bridge ; thinking, 
 however, was of no avail, I leaped my horse over, and followed ; 
 The shadow of a foot path, indistinctly perceptible from being 
 overgrown by weeds and grass, led me to a negro hut, where 
 I enquired for the house of the proprietor, expecting that it 
 would be hid from the road in some rural retreat or grove of 
 orange trees. Judge my surprise when an old Indian woman 
 came to the door and told me in a jargon q( wretched Eng-
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 219 
 
 lish and Dutch that, this was Mynheer's residence, and that, 
 he was in the field with the negroes. I aUghted, and desired 
 he might be called. Cudgo, an old negro superintending others 
 in cleaning cotton, took my horse, and Miss Vos, commonly 
 v^ called Quasheba, a yellow buckeen girl, with long black hair, 
 about the age of twelve or thirteen, and without shoes, was 
 sent for her father. The Indian woman, who proved to be her 
 mother, now insisted on my walking in, out of the sun. I was 
 accordingly shewn into a sort of apartment, indeed the only 
 one there was, which served for parlour, dining room, chamber, 
 and kitchen ; in fact this was a room for every purpose. 
 
 I was now seated on a bench and left to ruminate. The roof 
 of the house was covered in with plantain leaves, time had 
 made several apertures in it, which admitted air, rain, or 
 sun as it occurred ; the sides and gable ends were secured by 
 manicole trees split and slightly tied together. The light was 
 admitted by a wooden shutter, which was kept open by a 
 piece of stick. The roof alforded a favourable retreat for cen- 
 tipedes, scorpions, and cockroaches, ai'id the ants, which 
 were creeping about the chy floor, seemed to be the only 
 scavengers of the habitation. A large carpenter's chest con- 
 tained all his pantry, and kitchen utensils ; an old deal table, 
 two stools, and a bench, completed the scanty furniture; 
 save two or three empty gin cases, whose flasks were converted 
 into water bottles. A hammock was slujig from the cross 
 
 F f 2
 
 220 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 beams, and a mattress stuffed with plantain leaves and covered 
 with cotton bagging, was lying in one corner, A hogshead 
 of salt fish, a barrel each of salt beef, tobacco and salt, had 
 been rolled into another. To this variety of articles, must also 
 be added, to make up the inventory, a few smoked queriman, 
 which were extended from the ceiling, twenty or thirty 
 bunches of plantains, and several thousand ears of Indian corn 
 or maize, with three or four old shovels. Scarcely was there 
 ever such a collection of filth, vermin, household furniture, 
 plantation stores, and provisions ever got together before. 
 The other end of the building was occupied by sick ne- 
 groes, who were then employed in picking and cleaning 
 cotton ; the center was filled with ginnies, machines used for 
 separating the seed from the wool. I was soon driven from 
 my seat by some dirt, which fell on my head from the ceil- 
 ing, on looking up, I discovered several chickens sitting on 
 the beams, which accounted for it. There appeared to be a 
 considerable quantity of stock feeding about the house, such 
 as turkies, ducks, fowls, cabborettos, and pigs, which, on 
 enquiry afterwards, I found to belong to the Indian lady of 
 the mansion. 
 
 I was soon apprised of Mynheer Vos's arrival, by his blow- 
 ing a shell at the door to call his negroes in to dinner ; after 
 which he made his appearance, gave me a most cordial shake 
 of the hand, as is the custom of the country, and inquired
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 221 
 
 after my health ; we were obUged to hold the conversation in 
 our respective languages. 
 
 \y^J will attempt a description of his person and dress. He is 
 nearly six feet high, very thin and emaciated, his face, hands, 
 and feet, for he had no shoes on, bore strong marks of the 
 climate, much wrinkled, and the colour of a piece of tanned 
 leather, his chin was graced with a month's length of beard. 
 His hat, made of plantain leaves, was very broad in the brim, 
 he had a pipe in his mouth, about two inches long in the tube, 
 which was perfectly blacked from frequent application to the 
 fire ; an umbrella, which he carried in his hand, was covered 
 with a thin sort of brown dowlas, not much unlike Scotch Os- 
 naburgh. The jacket and trowsers were made of Russia duck, 
 which, with a checked shirt, comprised the whole of his dress. 
 This grotesque figure, however, received me with the utmost 
 cordiality, and getting a gin bottle from the chest, offered me a 
 sapie, which he had poured into a calabash, but this I declined 
 accepting; however, drink with him I must, and therefore 
 preferred a little lemonade, which was made with lime juice 
 and molasses, and then strained through a piece of cotton 
 bagging. We then went to business. Mynheer made me half 
 a hundred apologies for the trouble I had had in calling for 
 the money, as it was his intention to come to Stabroek to pay it, 
 he had just sold his cotton for a bill of ninety days sight, for the
 
 222 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 amount I wanted; and taking an old Dutch writing desk, oi 
 the fifteenth century, from under the table, asked me for his 
 acceptatie, (note of hand) which I accordingly gave him, 
 when he presented me with a set of drafts on a respectable 
 house in London, for one thousand pounds. I then took 
 some more of his lemonade and called for my horse, which 
 he insisted on leading over the ditch at the road side, where 
 we parted, mutually satisfied, at least I was so, with my visit. 
 
 This curious mixture of European industry, arithmetic, and 
 frugality, with a Carribbec indifference to luxury, grace, and 
 accommodation, is perhaps the form toward which the back- 
 settlers of these districts insensibly tend. By degrees the 
 whole class of planters, who can live like Westfalian boors in 
 the same apartment with their pigs and horses, will find that 
 by ceding the fee simple of an estate just brought into cultiva- 
 tion, and by constantly breaking up fresh lands, they can in- 
 crease their property more rapidly than by a stationary in- 
 dustry. Whenever we have a regular set of wood-clearers, or 
 primary settlers, the progress of colonization in Guyana, will 
 be as rapid as in the most fertile parts of North America. 
 European emigrants will land at the sea ports and accommo- 
 date themselves with the completer properties in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the great town, and within reach of the luxuries 
 they want : but their descendants will learn the simpler man-:
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 223 
 
 ners and more natural habits of the old indigenous nations, 
 and will carry into the interior, the useful and the profitable, 
 without the unnecessary arts. 
 
 To the natives of lower Germany, this whole province is 
 well adapted, and is peculiarly inviting. Their own language, 
 manners, and system of vassalage, has, in a great degree, 
 been already naturalized here by the Dutch ; so that emigrants 
 from Bremen, or the Hanoverian territory, would feel less 
 strange, and have less to learn and to alter, in order to adapt 
 themselves to the colony, than any other Europeans, The 
 English must, perhaps, be excepted, whose predominance is 
 astonishing, considering the novelty of their footing ; and 
 who seem already to counterpoise the Dutch as a landed In- 
 terest, and to outnumber them as a mercantile Interest. 
 
 The progress of Mr. Vos, in about thirty years, from a 
 common soldier to a planter, who can give his daughter a for- 
 tune of twenty thousand pounds, has in it little but what 
 hundreds may expect to rival. There must be a constitution 
 superior to the climate and to intemperance ; there must be 
 frugaliry, industry, perseverance ; there must be some know- 
 ledge of writing and accounts, and much alert observation : 
 yet this progress has been orderly, at no one moment remark- 
 able, nor the effect of luck, but of permanent causes.
 
 224 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 If the young British farmers were aware how various and 
 amusing are our rustic occupations ; how profuse is the profit 
 which attends every Uttle exertion of industry ; how riclily 
 productive is the incessant vegetation of our excellent soil and 
 climate ; and how much of natural luxury there is in the habits 
 and gratifications of the civilized planter, they would more 
 commonly migrate to a country, where the fee simple of an 
 estate costs less than the renewal of a lease in England, and 
 where the superintendence of an agricultural concern, confers 
 not merely the rank of a country gentleman, but that baron-like 
 authority over the growing population of the vassals, which 
 the ancestors of the country gentlemen enjoyed in England 
 during the feudal ages.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 225 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 SOME ACCOUNT OF THE ANIMALS DEER, CALLED BAJEER. 
 
 AND WIRREBOCARRA HOGS, CALLED PICAREE AND 
 
 WARREE RABBITS TIGERS ARMADILLO APES 
 
 SLOTH PORCUPINE LAUBBA ALLIGATOR MANATI 
 
 BATS GUANA ABOMA SMALL SNAKES PIP A 
 
 LOWLOW BARROKETA PERI QUERIMAN GALVANIC 
 
 EEL SUN BIRD SURINAM FALCON BUTCHER BIRD 
 
 MACKAW ACUSHE FLAMINGO TIGERFOWL 
 
 TOUCAN SPOON-BILL- POWESE -MARRODEE MOCK 
 
 BIRD — RICE BIRD KISHEE INSECTS. 
 
 I 
 
 .T is my intention now to give a concise account of the ani- 
 mals and vegetables which are most worthy attention among 
 the native productions of these colonies. Several animals 
 have been imported which are not natural to any part of 
 America, as the horse, the ass, the zebra, the bull, the cow, 
 the sheep, and the hog. Some of these afford instances of 
 the power of climate, in altering the natural qualities of ani- 
 mals, when transported from their own to a foreign country. 
 The bull and the cow grow here to a greater size than in Eu-
 
 226 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 rope, but what they have gained in size, they have lost in the 
 delicacy of their flesh, which is not so tender or so fine in 
 flavor, as that of Europe. The wool of the sheep is converted 
 into hair by the change of climate. Some of these imported 
 animals have got loose, and multiplied. In many places large 
 droves of hogs run wild, and in some of the savannahs, the 
 bull and the cow are found in the same wild state. 
 
 I am now however to describe the native animals of this 
 country. 
 
 There are two kinds of deei', of which the smaller is called 
 wirrebocerra, the t larger bajeer. The bajeer is about the size 
 of an English buck, and is covered by a short hair of a reddish 
 color, but on the belly white ; its head is large, its eyes bright, 
 its ears are long and hang down, its horns are short and 
 curved, its neck is short, and it has a short thick tail. These 
 animals feed in great numbers in the savannahs of the interior, 
 and frequently approach the plantations, where they are often 
 killed by the native hunters. Their flesh is good, but far in- 
 ferior in delicacy and taste to that of the wirrebocerra. 
 
 The wirrebocerra is considerably smaller than the bajeer, 
 and is cloathed by a short soft hair of a reddish yellow colour. 
 It is of a very slender make, its legs are slender but strong, 
 and its feet are cloven ; its head is small, and without horns.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 221 
 
 its eyes sharp and piercing, its ears conical, its neck long 
 and arched, and it has a short tail. It is very timid and swift 
 of foot, which protects it from the tigers, and other voracious 
 animals. The flesh of the wirrebocerra is considered to be the 
 finest of the deer kind. 
 
 The goat is much smaller than that of Europe ; its horns 
 are short, slender, and curved downward. In other particu- 
 lars it is similar to the European goat. It has from three to 
 five kids at a litter. 
 
 There are two kinds of hogs, peculiar to tropical America, 
 and very numerous in all parts of Guyana, the picaree and 
 the warree. The warree hog is about the size of a European 
 hog, and much like it in shape. Its tusks are larger, its ears 
 smaller, and its bristles longer and coarser. These animals 
 run in large droves, and their fiesh. is more delicate than Eng- 
 lish pork. 
 
 The picaree is considerably smaller than the warree. It is 
 covered by yellowish bristles, which are longer and more nu- 
 merous on the back, and has a light mark coming down on 
 each shoulder. It has short tusks and no tail. On the back 
 over the hinder legs is a gland, having a cavity about an inch 
 deep, into which pours a white fluid of a very fetid odour. 
 
 Gg 2
 
 '2'2S STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 The picarees go in large Jierds, are very prolific, and are 
 most frequently to be met with in low marshy places. The 
 flesh of this animal is much admired by the natives, who, as 
 soon as they kill them, immediately cut out the gland upon 
 the back, to prevent the meat from being tainted. 
 
 The Indian coney, as it is called by the Europeans, or the 
 puccarara, by the natives, is common to all parts of Guyana. 
 It is very like both in size and shape to the hare. Its ears are 
 smaller and rounded, and it has no tail. The shape of the 
 head, the division of the hip, and the colour of the fur are 
 like those of the hare. It burrows in the earth, and is very 
 prolific. 
 
 Of all the animals which are eaten by the inhabitants, 
 
 this is the most numerous. It is easily taken. The flesh 
 
 forms a considerable part of the food of the inhabitants, 
 which is very delicate, and lilw that of a rabbit. 
 
 The tiger is precisely similar in the shape of its body, to the 
 tiger of Africa, but is smaller in size, and more slender in 
 make. The colour of its hair is a greyish brown, with black 
 stripes disposed longitudinally. The hair of the belly is white, 
 with black stripes ; its tail is almost eighteen inches long, co- 
 vered with alterniite rings of brown and black. It is a very
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 229 
 
 fierce animal, frequently making attacks upon the sheep and 
 hogs of the plantations, and even sometimes upon the natives, 
 especially at the breeding season. 
 
 The tiger cat of Guyana is something larger than a com- 
 mon house cat ; its eyes fiery, longer tail and ears, and the 
 skin is variegated with spots like the leopard's ; it is un- 
 commonly ferocious. I have seen a tame one play with a 
 rabbit for some time, and afterwards kill and eat it. On at 
 tempting to take away his prey, he would immediately fly at 
 the person. 
 
 The lynx is about the size of a large hound, and similar in 
 shape to the tiger cat ; its head is formed, and the coat striped 
 like that of the tiger; it has long whiskers at the mouth, and 
 its claws are very much curved. The lynx is a very ferocious 
 animal, but never attacks man. 
 
 The tatta or armadillo, is nearly three feet in length from 
 the end of the snout to that of the tail. The length of the 
 head is about four inches, of the body about a foot and a half, 
 and of the tail about a foot. Its body is covered thus: over 
 the shoulders is a hard shell, over the hips is another shell, 
 and between these are nine girdles covered by scales of a tri- 
 angular form, and united by a strong membrane. Thus this
 
 230 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 shelly covering has numerous joints, by which it can vary its 
 form according to the movements of the animal. Its head, 
 snout, and ears, are very much like those of a pig, its tail is 
 thick near the body, where there are several rings, that gra- 
 dually taper to a point ; its feet are short and covered by scales, 
 each fore foot has four toes, and each hind foot five. This 
 animal burrows in the sandy hills distant from the sea ; when 
 young, its flesh is very tender and delicate, but when old, it 
 has a strong disagreeable taste. 
 
 Animals of the ape kind are very numerous and various in 
 this part of the world. 
 
 According to the account of the natives, the oran-outang is 
 to be met with in the woods, and is much larger than that of 
 Africa or Asia, being five feet high. But these accounts 
 merely depend upon the evidence of the natives, as one of 
 these animals has never been seen by any European. 
 
 There is an ape commonly called a quato, which is about 
 two feet in length. Its face is bald, but its body is covered 
 with black hair; it has a nose like that of a negro, large ears 
 like the human, and deeply sunken eyes ; it has no tail. 
 The quato is sometimes tamed, but notwithstanding, is very 
 mischievous. The female menstruates regularly.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON* THE DEMERARY, &C. 231 
 
 The howling baboon is about the size of a fox, covered 
 with smooth black hair ; its ears are smaller, and its eyes not 
 so deep as those of the quato, and it has a long black beard ; 
 the tail is covered with hair, excepting at the end. These 
 animals are very numerous. They sometimes assemble in 
 large numbers, and set up the most disgusting yell imaginable, 
 which they keep up for a long time. This happens almost 
 always before rain, and is a sure sign of its coming, as is also 
 the croaking of frogs. 
 
 The saccawinkee is the smallest monkey that has been found 
 here. The whole trunk is about six inches long ; its head 
 is small, its ears are round, its ncse is flat, its eyes promi- 
 nent and black, and its face covered with fine white hair; 
 its body is cloathed with long black hair, whitish at the end ; 
 its tail is about nine inches long, and covered with long black 
 hair. These animals are frequently tamed, but never live 
 longer than a few months. 
 
 There are two species of the sloth here, one called the ai, 
 the other the unan. The ai is al)out the size of a fox, and is 
 covered by bushy hair of a dirty grey colour ; its hind legs 
 are much shorter than its fore, by which formation it is as- 
 sisted in climbing trees ; each foot has three long sharp claws, 
 by which it clings to branches ; its head is round, and it has 
 a very large mouth in proportion to the size of the head ; its
 
 232 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 eyes are languid, and its voice somewhat like that of a kitten. 
 The curious characteristic from which it has received its 
 name, is its uncommon aversion to motion. When beateru 
 instead of quickening its pace, it sends out the most doleful 
 noise. Some have said, that wlien upon the ground, it takes a 
 day to travel forty or fifty paces, and that it spends no less than 
 two days to mount a tree of a moderate size. When once 
 mounted, it never descends whilst leaf, bud, or fruit, remains 
 for it to devour. This animal coils itself up into a ball, so as 
 often to escape detection. Its flesh is much liked by the na- 
 tives. The other species of the sloth, the unan, differs from 
 the ai only in a few particulars; its head is not so round, its 
 hair, instead of being grey and bushy, is lank and red, and it 
 has only two claws upon each foot. 
 
 The porcupine is Hot very common here. It measures 
 nearly three feet from the tip of the nose to the root of the tail; 
 it has a round head, large piercing eyes, small round ears, 
 and whiskers like those of a cat ; the whole body and part of 
 the tail are covered with sharp highly polished prickles, about 
 three inches long ; these prickles are white at the points^ ap- 
 proaching to a black in the middle, and yellow next the skin. 
 They generally lie flat upon the back, but when the animal 
 is irritated, they are set up. It has a long tail, which twists 
 round the branches of trees for support. Its feet are much 
 like those of a monkey.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, i^C. 233 
 
 The laubba is an animal peculiar to this part of the world, 
 is about the size of a large cat, and is covered by line brown 
 hair, with round white spots ; the hair under the belly is 
 white, the body is round and thick, the head is like that of a 
 pug dog; the eyes and ears are small, the neck is short, it has 
 no tail, and little feet. The laubba is an amphibious ani- 
 mal, and feeds upon herbs and grain. AVhen pursued, it will 
 swim a long time at a short distance from the surface of the 
 water, so that it is often shot under water with arrows. The 
 flesh is very delicate, and is much admired, tasting something 
 like pork. 
 
 Alligators are frequently seen in the rivers near the sea. 
 Their length, when full grown, is about twenty feet, and 
 their shape much like the common lizard. They are a harm- 
 less, but not a pleasing animal. The upper part of the tail 
 has a sharp edge, which is gapped like a saw. Over the eye 
 is a protuberance about the size of a large orange, which is 
 hard, and covered by a scaly coat. The skin of alligators 
 is so thick that a musket ball will not pierce it, except about 
 the head, where it is not so hard. At low water they will 
 come to lie in the mud and bask in the sun-shine, when their 
 young ones, about four feet in length, are often killed by the 
 natives. 
 
 H h
 
 234 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 The manatee, or as it is sometimes called, the sea cow, is 
 about sixteen feet or more in length, and several feet in cir- 
 cumference ; it is covered with a black rough skin, upon 
 which are large wrinkles and inequalities, particularly on the 
 sides, and is scantily supplied with hairs. The breasts, upon 
 which are two fleshy fins about a foot and a half in length, 
 resemble those of a woman : the tail is somewhat like a whale's. 
 The head is like that of a hog, and the nostrils like those of an 
 ox. It has auditory holes, but no external cars. The eyes, 
 which are very small, are placed between the ears and snout. 
 Its mouth is large, and beset with bristles on each side ; 
 without teeth in the front, and its tongue is so small as to be 
 scarce seen in the mouth : its neck is very short. Most com- 
 monly, it is found in fresh water rivers, but sometimes on 
 thecoast: it never quits the water entirely. The flesh of the 
 manatee is fat, and much like veal. 
 
 The bats are twice as large as those of England, and are 
 without tails. They are covered with brown hair, of which 
 the texture is very soft and fine. The inhabitants usually 
 sleep in hammocks, so that the feet are mostly uncovered : 
 whilst they are asleep, the bats often open the veins of the 
 feet without waking them, and then suck till they are satisfied ; 
 and the person upon waking finds himself faint, and his feet 
 bathed in blood. They make similar atlacks upon cattle.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 2S5 
 
 Here is an animal of the lizard kind, called guana. It is 
 about three feet long; its skin is brown, with blue marks on 
 the body, and black spots on the neck, and is covered with 
 small scales. Its back and tail are sharp, and indented; its 
 mouth is armed with sharp teeth; it has a bag under the throat, 
 and crooked claws upon its toes. These guanas are generally 
 found among fruit trees, where the natives shoot them with 
 arrows, and esteem their flesh a great delicacy, which is much 
 like that of a chicken ; the eggs are very fine. 
 
 We have a great number and variety of lizards here, which, 
 however, it would be tedious to describe. 
 
 The snakes in this part of die world are mentioned as va- 
 rious and dangerous. The largest that has ever been found is 
 the aboma. Snakes of this kind have been killed measuring 
 upwards of twenty feet, and they are even said to measure, 
 when full grown, thirty feet in length, and three feet in cir- 
 cumference, at the middle and largest part of the body. I 
 have seen one which lay stretched quite across the road. It is 
 of a brown colour, with black spots upon the back, and upon 
 .the sides are black spots with a white center. It is largest in 
 the middle, and grows smaller as you approach the end of the 
 tail. Its head is broad, its mouth wide, with two rows of 
 teeth, its eyes projecting and sparkling, and near the tail are 
 
 u h '2
 
 '2S6 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 two claws. This enormous but sluggish animal, is not offi- 
 ciously mischievous; it can devour deer and hogs: it entangles 
 them in its grasp, smears them with saliva, and then swallows 
 them whole. These snakes have been killed with the half di- 
 gested remains of deer in them. The aboma is an amphibious 
 animal. 
 
 Other smaller snakes, which climb trees and catch monkies 
 and birds ; and some water-snakes, which devour the wild 
 lovvls, are to be met with, but they are neither so common 
 nor so venomous as is supposed. I have seldom seen any. 
 Perhaps the hogs have thinned their numbers. 
 
 The pipa is one of those animals which at first view every 
 one pronounces deformed and hideous ; the general uncoulh- 
 ness of its shape being often aggravated by a phenomenon un- 
 exampled in the rest of the animal world, viz. the young in 
 various stages of exclusion proceeding from cells dispersed 
 over the back of the parent. The size of the pipa consider- 
 ably exceeds that of the common toad ; the body is of a flat- 
 tish form ; the head like a short cone ; the mouth very wide 
 but covered at the corners with jagged gelatinous lips. The 
 fore feet have four and the hind feet five toes: these last are 
 united by webs. The male pipa is larger than the female ; 
 both have a dark brown colour on the back, but the belly of
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 237 
 
 the female is more yellowish. The back of the female is co- 
 vered with granules, which may be considered as so many 
 teats, to which the ofi'spring attach themselves The spawn 
 is deposited in ditches ; and the progeny, after acquiring the 
 tadpole form, is assisted by the father to fasten on the mother's 
 back, where they nestle until the second transformation is 
 completed. 
 
 On the coast and in the rivers, are a variety of fish, many 
 of which differ so little from those which are well known in 
 England, that I shall only select the most curious for de- 
 scription. 
 
 The lowlow is a salt water fish ; it is about six feet in length 
 and three feet in circumference. Its colour is a light blue, 
 with a metallic splendour. It has six fins, one pair a little be- 
 low the head, another pair on the belly, a single fin on the 
 back, and another large one at the end of the tail. It has a 
 long boney head and a wide mouth. 
 
 The barroketa is about three feet in length, and two feet 
 in circumference ; it is much like a salmon, excepting in its 
 scales, which are larger, and -its body which is rounder. 
 The barroketa is found in plenty at the upper part of rivers : 
 the flesh is white, fat, and delicate. This is the largest fresh 
 water fish found in our streams.
 
 238 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OP THE 
 
 The peri is another fresh water fish ; its length is about 
 eighteen inches, and its breadth, for it is flat, about three 
 inches; it has a broad head and large mouth, armed with 
 long sharp teeth ; it has four fins, one pair on the belly just 
 below the head, a single fin on the back, and another at the 
 end of the tail. It is very formidable to swimmers, as it bites 
 at every thing in its reach, and instances are related of women 
 having a breast taken ofl" by this fish. 
 
 The queriman, a fish about the size and equally as good 
 as a salmon, is caught on the coasts with a cast net in shallow 
 water. 
 
 The galvanic eel, so remarkable for the power of giving a 
 
 sensation similar to the electric shock to any one who touches 
 
 it, is commonly about three feet in length, and twelve inches 
 
 in circumference at the largest part of the body. Its skin is 
 
 smooth, without scales, and of a light blue colour. From 
 
 seven or eight inches below the body to the end of the tail, it 
 
 gradually tapers to a point, and the body separated from the 
 
 fins is almost round. It has three fins, one pair on the back 
 
 of the head, and a long single fin on the belly, which reaches 
 
 from the head to the tail, and which diminishes in size with 
 
 the body. Its head is as large as the largest circumference of 
 
 the body, and flatted on the upper and lower sides, on the
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 239 
 
 former of which, are several holes. It has a wide mouth 
 without teeth. "When the fish is grasped with the hand, a 
 galvanic shock is received ; a similar effect takes place when 
 touched with a metallic rod, when held by a hook and line, 
 or even where there is no other conductor but the air, if 
 the hand be very near the fish. This shock depends upon 
 the will of the animal, for if it is not irritated, the hand 
 may be held near without perceiving any sensation. The 
 galvanic eel is an inhabitant of fresh water, and is often 
 found in the river Essequebo. It appears to be unable to live 
 long without the access of air, as it very frequently comes to 
 the surface of the water to fetch breath. It lives principally 
 upon small fish, and is itself eaten by the natives. 
 
 The frog fish of Guyana is a great curiosity, I never saw 
 but one which embraced the properties of both, as they go 
 through the regular gradations of a frog, a frog fish, and a fish. 
 
 We have a large land crab here, which is much eaten by 
 the inhabitants. It is of a square form, each side being about 
 two inches and a half long, and of a light blue, or whitish 
 colour. It has many legs, and two large claws like those of 
 a lobster. These crabs live in holes in the mud,, on the shores 
 of the sea and rivers near their mouths, and at low water ap- 
 pear in great numbers on the mud.
 
 240 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 The fish which are caught on our coast are far from being 
 deUcate, as the water is very muddy for thirteen or fourteen 
 leagues from the shore. 
 
 I shall next endeavour to give an idea of the birds which 
 are natural here, and which are most worthy our attention. 
 
 The sun bird is not unlike the partridge of England, but a 
 little larger ; when procured tame they are kept in houses to 
 destroy the ants, with which this land abounds. 
 
 The Surinam falcon is about the size of a hawk ; the head 
 and upper part of the body is covered with feathers of a light 
 brown, the under part has feathers spotted with yellow and 
 brown ; the feathers of the tail are like those of the under part 
 
 of the body, and the legs are yellow ; the beak is crooked, 
 and at the root is a substance, in appearance, like wax ; the 
 tongue is cloven. This bird can inflate his head to nearly the 
 size of his body ; he commits great depredations on the 
 poultry of the plantations. 
 
 The strix or owl, is about the size of a thrush ; it is covered 
 with feathers of a light straw colour, shaded with white ; the 
 feathers of the breast are light straw, coloured spots upon a 
 white ground ; its legs arc short and its claws black ; its beak
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, Scc. 241 
 
 is crooked and yellow, its head, eyes, and ears large, and its 
 tongue divided in the middle. 
 
 The red lanius, or butcher bird, has feathers of a bright 
 red colour, which on the wings and tail are spotted with black; 
 its bill is straight, and near the point is a tooth on each side ; 
 its tongue is ragged and appears as if it had been torn. 
 
 The black and white butcher bird is covered with fea- 
 thers, which are coloured with alternate marks of black and 
 white ; its legs and claws are of a dark colour; its bill is brown 
 and tapering, and the end of the upper mandible bends over 
 that of the lower. 
 
 The macknwfi are the Inrgpst of the parrot kind. The blue 
 and yellow mackaw is about the size of a capon, and is covered 
 with feathers, which on the back part of the body are blue, 
 on the fore part yellow ; its legs are short and dark coloured ; 
 it has a black coloured band around the throat ; a beak three 
 inches long, wide, black and semicircular ; the feathers on 
 the top of the head are green, those about the face are black. 
 
 The mackaw is a fine majestic bird, about the size of a 
 turkey ; its plumage is of a superior red colour, and the 
 long bushy tail provides the native Indians with elegant 
 
 I i
 
 242 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 feathers to adorn themselves ; its bill is very large and of an 
 uncommonly thick substance. 
 
 The red and blue mackaw is about the size of a hen. The 
 feathers on the upper side of the wing are blue, those on the 
 under are red ; the tall is red in the middle and blue on the 
 sides, and shaped somewhat like a wedge ; its cheeks are 
 without feathers ; the upper mandible of black and white, the 
 lower black. 
 
 The red and yellow mackaw is peculiar to Guyana, and is 
 rather less than a common hen. It is covered with yellow 
 feathers on the back and upper part of the wings, with blue 
 and red on the tail, and with red on the top of the head and 
 breast; the colour of the whole beak Is black. This bird is 
 not very common even here. 
 
 The acushe is the largest parrot found here, and is very 
 common in Demerary. The feathers of its body are of a 
 beautiful green colour, those on the top of the head are red, 
 and the upper parts of the wings are edged with red ; it has a 
 long tail, of red, green, and blue feathers, with a long, 
 slender, flesh-coloured bill. 
 
 Beside these, we have a great number and variety of the 
 parrot kind, of which I could not give distinct ideas without 
 plates.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 243 
 
 The bird, called by the French, agame, by the natives cani- 
 cani, and vulgarly the trumpeter from its voice, is peculiar 
 to Guyana. It is about the size of a turkey ; its body is with- 
 out a tail, and of an oval figure ; the feathers on the back are 
 grey ; those on the breast are blue and long, and those on the 
 rest of the body are black ; its legs are long, slender, and of 
 a bluish green ; the neck is long, the bill green and pointed, 
 and the eyes bright ; it is very tame, and is often kept among 
 other poultry. 
 
 The flamingo, as it is called from its resemblance to the 
 North American bird of that name, is about the size of a heron. 
 It is covered with feathers of a bright scarlet colour, and is 
 without a tail ; its neck and limbs are long and slender ; its 
 head small, and the bill long, slender, and arched. These 
 birds live together in numbers on tlie banks of the rivers, or 
 on the shores of the sea. They are very tame, and often mix 
 with the poultry on the plantations. 
 
 ' The tigri fowlo, or tiger bird, is about the size of a heron. 
 It has a reddish colour, spotted with black ; hence the name. 
 The bill and legs are long, slender, and of a light green colour; 
 the neck is long and covered with long depending feathers ; 
 the eyes are yellow, and the head small, upon which is a 
 round black spot. 
 
 li 2 ■ '.
 
 244 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 The toucan Is about llie size of a common pigeon ; it is 
 wholly black, with these exceptions only ; there arc two 
 white spots on the fore part of the crown of the head ; the 
 throat and upper part of the breast are white, and there is a 
 red mark in the form of a crescent between the white feathers 
 of the breast and the black feathers of the belly ; its beak is 
 very large and red, six inches long; it has a long thin tongue, 
 and its nostrils are behind the jaws. 
 
 The picus, or woodpecker, is about the size of the Euro- 
 pean woodpecker; it is covered with black and white feathers, 
 excepting those of the crown of the head, and of the belly, 
 which are red ; its bill is straight, and its tongue long, round, 
 and sharp. 
 
 The pelican, or spoon-bill, is covered with red feathers, 
 excepting the head, which is bald, and of a white colour ; 
 its bill is straight, flat, and broad ; it is about six inches long, 
 toothless, and crooked at the point, which is rounded and 
 broader than the rest ; the upper mandible has a nail at the 
 end, and a spoon-like cavity ; it is transparent and is of a 
 whitish brown colour ; the lower mandible is more opaque 
 , than the upper, but of the same colour. 
 
 The peacock pheasant, or, as it is called by natives, powese; 
 is rather smaller than an English turkey ; the whole body,
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 245 
 
 except the belly, which is white, is covered with shining 
 black feathers. On the crown of the head is an erect tuft of 
 black feathers, mixed with white near the points, about an 
 inch and a half in height ; its bill is convex and about an inch 
 and a half long, of a yellow colour, but blue at the point; 
 the upper mandible is arched, and extends further than the 
 lower. This bird is common along the Essequebo and Dema- 
 rary. Its flesh may easily be taken for that of a turkey. 
 
 The marrodee is about the size of a pullet, and covered 
 with very dark brown feathers; the bill is of a dark brown, 
 and the legs, which are longer than those of a chicken, are 
 grey. It is found in great numbers ; the flesh is like that 
 of a chicken, but not so delicate. 
 
 The harmaquau is somewhat like the marrodee. Its make 
 is more slender, and its feathers black. The names of these 
 two birds are given them by the natives from their cry, which 
 has a like articulation. 
 
 The mocking bird is about the size of a black bird. Its 
 body is covered with feathers of a shining black, excepting its 
 breast and the upper edges of its wings, which, with the crown 
 of its head, are crimson. Its bill is conical, gibbous, and flesh 
 coloured. 1 he nests, which are about fourteen inches in length, 
 and about eight in circumference, hang from the branches
 
 24-6 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF HTE 
 
 of the tallest trees, and are so tossed about by the wind, that 
 if not for their length, the birds would be thrown out. These 
 birds imitate many other songsters : whence their name. 
 Their peculiar notes are very sweet, which is a rare quality here, 
 where the greater number of the birds excel rather in the 
 beauty of their plumage, than in the music of their voices. 
 
 The rice bird is about the size of the mocking bird. The 
 feathers on every part of its body are black. Its bill is conical 
 and gibbous. It has small black eyes, and the skin immedi- 
 ately around the eye is without feathers and white. It is 
 commonly met with in the fields of rice. 
 
 The kishee-kishee, as it is called by the natives, is more 
 lavishly decorated with splendid plumage, than any other 
 known bird. It is about the size of a sparrow, with a straight 
 conical pointed bill of a light red colour. Its plumage is 
 adorned with the greatest beauty, splendor, and variety of 
 colours, which are so mixed together, as to afford the eye of 
 the beholder the greatest possible pleasure which can be re- 
 ceived from colour. These birds are not found near tlie coast, 
 but are brought from the inland parts of the country by the 
 Indians. 
 
 The green sparrow is a beautiful bird. The head and back 
 are green, the breast and belly are yellow, and the large fea- 
 thers on the wings are edged with white.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 247 
 
 The red-bellied blue bird is covered with blue feathers, ex- 
 cepting on the belly, where they are red. It has a straight 
 bill, oval nostrils, and forked tongue. 
 
 The humming birds in this part of the world are in great 
 number and variety. Their bill is sabulated, slender, and 
 crooked, of which the upper mandible incloses the lower. 
 The tongue consists of two threads, which are tubulous. They 
 are the smallest of the feathered tribe, some not weighing 
 more than fifty grains. Their nests, which are very small 
 and made of cotton, are built by the female, upon the small 
 twigs of fruit trees. The female lays two eggs at a time, about 
 the size of a pea, which are white and transparent. Their 
 food is the honey of flowers, which they suck by inserting 
 their tongues into the flower, and support themselves, whilst 
 sucking, by the motion of their wings, which make a hum- 
 ming noise. 
 
 The green and crimson humming bird is the most frequent 
 here, but not the smallest. It is about the size of a large 
 cherry. The feathers on the neck, back, and upper edges of 
 the wings, are green. The breast is crimson, and the wings 
 and tail are green, purple, and crimson. It has a small crim- 
 son tuft on the crown of the head; the head itself is small, 
 the eyes round and black, the bill long, black, and slender.
 
 *2i8 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 ■ The black humming bird is the smallest that has yet been 
 found, being about one third smaller than the former. It is 
 covered with feathers of a greenish brown colour, excepting 
 the large ones of the wings and tail, which are of a shining 
 black. All the feathers are beautifully glossy. Its bill is 
 black, in thickness about equal to a pin, and bent near the 
 end. It has a small tuft on the crown of the head, which is 
 green at the bottom, but of a fine glittering gold colour at the 
 top. These birds sometimes weigh less than fifty grains. 
 
 I have thus described some of the most curious of the fea- 
 thered tribe, which are natural to Guyana. To particularise 
 them all would require bulky volumes and numerous plates. 
 There are wild ducks, teal, partridges, &c. which differ very 
 little from those of England, and which it would be tedioue 
 to enumerate minutely. 
 
 Insects abound here in vast numbers, from the continued 
 warmth of the climate, which is favourable to their produc- 
 tion and longevity. I shall mention a few which invite atten- 
 tion by their curious history, or which compel attention by 
 their stings. 
 
 The blatta, cock-roach, or carochc, is about an inch long, 
 and of a brown reddish colour; its form is a flatted oval;
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 249 
 
 it has two soft wings, two long feelers, and six legs with 
 forked extremities; it is a very destructive instict, as it devours 
 victuals, and makes what remains disgusting from the disagre- 
 able smell which it leaves; it also gets into the trunks of tra- 
 vellers, and destroys linen and books. 
 
 The bees in this part of the world are quite unlike those of 
 England, being nearly as small as the common fly, and of a 
 black colour ; they are armed with stings ; they deposit their 
 honey in the cavities of trees ; the wax is dark brown, sweet, 
 slightly mixed with bitter, and quite fluid. 
 
 There is a kind of ant, called the flying ant; it is almost an 
 inch in length ; the body is divided into two parts, which 
 xe united by a slender substance ; on the fore part there are 
 six legs, each of which has three joints ; the head is of a tri- 
 angular form, and has two feelers ; it has four transparent 
 wings of a brown colour. These creatures live under ground 
 in the dry season, but in the wet, the rains drive them from 
 their habitations, when they may be seen in vast swarms fly- 
 ing in the air. 
 
 There are two kinds of flies, called fire flies ; the largest is 
 more than an inch in length, and of a chesnut colour ; it has 
 a large head, two feelers, two wings, and six legs. Under 
 the belly is a round luminous patch, and on each side of the 
 
 Kk
 
 250 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 head is a prominent round luminous body. These animals 
 in the dark emit a strong steady light, so that two or three put 
 into a glass will enable you to read. The smaller fire fly is 
 not above half the size of the former. They are never seen 
 but by night, when they emit sparks of fire at intervals. 
 
 The palm-tree or groe-groe worm, is about three inches 
 in length, and about the thickness of a man's finger. The 
 head is black, and the body of a light yellow. This animal 
 breeds in the heart of the cabbage tree after it is cut down. 
 When roasted and seasoned, it is considered as very fine, and 
 equal to any marrow. 
 
 The scorpion is about six inches long, of a light brown 
 colour, with black spots; it has two claws proceeding from 
 the neck, about an inch long, jointed and having a pair of 
 nippers at the end ; it has four pair of legs ; the tail is jointed, 
 forked, and armed with two small crooked sharp stings, of 
 which the uppermost is the longest. The bite of this insect is 
 venomous. 
 
 The centipede is about six inches in length and five lines in 
 breadth ; its body has twenty joints, to each of which belongs 
 a pair of legs, so that it has forty legs instead of a hundred, as 
 its name expresses; at each end it has a pair of forked feelers, 
 and a pair of strong forceps at its head. It moves with equal
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 251 
 
 rapidity either backward or forward. Its bite is venomous and 
 painful. 
 
 To these may be added the chigoe, a sort of flea, of a dusky 
 color. This insect, as has already been observed, is very 
 troublesome by insinuating itself under the skin of the feet ; 
 if not extracted, it forms for itself a bag, in which it deposits 
 its eggs ; these eggs are hatched, and the new insects form 
 other bags and deposit other eggs ; the consequence of this 
 breeding are ulcers, which are difficult to heal, and very 
 painful ; but they are seldom suffered thus to breed undis- 
 turbed ; they are picked out as soon as the itching which they 
 produce is perceived, and the art consists in extracting the 
 bag unbroken. These insects are very numerous. 
 
 K k 2
 
 252 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 SOME ACCOUNT OF THE MORE CONSPICUOUS VEGETABLE 
 
 PRODUCTIONS CABBAGE-TREES SILK-COTTON PI- 
 
 PEIRAS BULLET-TREE 1 RON- WOOD LAUNA, &C» 
 
 I 
 
 NOW proceed to a description of the vegetables which are 
 natural to this part of the world, and which, from their utility 
 or curiosity, are most worthy of popular attention. Here I 
 must necessarily be select. Volumes might easily be filled 
 with a description of the plants which may be found in the 
 plantations and woods of Guyana, but any thing like a com- 
 prehensive treatise is beyond my range of information. 
 
 The cabbage-tree grows to about the height of a hundred 
 feet. Its trunk is seven or eight feet in circumference, straight, 
 upright, tapering, and covered by a grey bark. The branches 
 commence at about a hundred feet from the earth ; they are 
 twenty feet in length, of a green colour, and diverge in a 
 horizontal direction. TJic leaves are about two feet and a 
 half in length, and threq Inches in breadth near the trunk.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 253 
 
 whence they diminish in size as they approach the end. They 
 arc pinnated and pointed at the extremity. They are dis- 
 posed thickly on two opposite sides of each branch. Where 
 the branches arise the bark is of a deep green colour. From 
 the trunk near the lower branches arises a green husky pod, 
 twenty inches long and four broad, wherein are produced 
 numerous small nuts, which are the seeds from which the tree 
 grows. The cabbage grows on the summit of the trunk, con- 
 sisting of thin white strata, of the taste of an almond, and co- 
 vered by a green thick skin. 
 
 The cockarito tree is of the same genus with the last, but 
 does not grow higher than thirty feet. The external substance 
 of the trunk is extremely hard, and is used by the Indians for 
 pointing their arrows. The cabbage which this tree bears, is 
 the most delicate of the species. 
 
 The silk-cotton-tree generally grows to the height of a 
 hundred feet. Its trunk is about twelve feet in circumference, 
 and is covered with an ash coloured bark, set with short thorn?. 
 The branches arise at about seventy t'cet from the ground. 
 The leaves are long and narrow, and are disposed at the ex- 
 tremity of the branch in a circular form. The flower has five 
 stamina and one pistil, and is placed just without the leaves. 
 The flower falling oft', is succeeded by a conical pod about 
 four inches in length. The pod contains short silky filaments
 
 254 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 with small dark coloured seeds adhering to them. The silk- 
 cotton-tree flowers every three years. The trunk is often made 
 use of for canoes, which are formed by hollowing it with fire. 
 
 Of the pipeira-tree there are two kinds, the black and the 
 yellow ; the bark and wood of the former being much darker 
 than those of the latter. The pipeira-tree, when full grown, is 
 about seventy feet in height and nine feet in circumference. 
 It is without branches until very near the top. The leaves 
 are long, narrow, and terminate in a point. The flowers have 
 four light yellowish petals, which fall off and are succeeded 
 by a round fruit about an inch in diameter, affording a fari- 
 naceous food, which is sometimes used by the Indians for 
 want of better. The timber is very weighty and durable. 
 
 The bullet tree is about fifty feet in height, and seven feet 
 in circumference. Its bark is smooth and ash coloured. Its 
 branches commence very near the top. Its leaves are long 
 and narrow. It bears pentepetalous flowers of a reddish co- 
 lour, somewhat blended with purple. The wood is of a dark 
 colour, spotted with small white spots; it is very durable, and 
 sinks in salt water. 
 
 The iron-wood tree, so called from the hardness, weight, 
 and durability of its wood, is made use of for a variety of pur- 
 poses, such as clubs and windmills. The trunk is about fifty
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 255 
 
 feet in height, and six feet in circumference, and is covered^ 
 with a greyish bark. It bears white flowers, succeeded by 
 small red berries. 
 
 The launa tree grows to the height of about fifty feet; is 
 covered with a grey bark, and sends out numerous branches. 
 The flowers, which are white, are succeeded by a fruit of the 
 size and shape of an hen's egg; it is covered by a whitish 
 green skin, and its substance is somewhat like an apple. 
 The juice of the fruit is at first almost colourless, but in a 
 short time acquires a deep purple colour. It is made use of 
 by the Indians for painting their bodies. The colour, how- 
 everi lasts only for a short time. 
 
 The red mangrove tree affords a most curious instance of the 
 care with which nature protects her productions from sur- 
 rounding dangers. This tree is of considerable size, and is 
 covered by a grey bark; it has numerous branches, covered 
 by oval leaves. It arises from several roots. The ramifica- 
 tions of each root unite into one small trunk, which pierces 
 the earth, and rises two or three yards from the surface of the 
 ground, before it unites with its fellows to form the main 
 trunk of the tree. This tree grows in a loose wet soil, by the 
 side of streams of water, and therefore is guarded from the 
 injury which might arise from the instability of the soil. 
 Slender shoots, about three inches in circumference, bare of
 
 256 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 leaves or branches, and having joints at a few feet distance, 
 grow from the trunk and branches of the tree in great abun- 
 dance; these shoots descend, enter the earth, and take root, 
 and thus afford support to the tree, which might otherwise fall, 
 from the looseness of the soil, and the force of the water. 
 
 There is another species of the same tree, called the white 
 upland mangrove, which, as it grows on firmer ground, has 
 none of these supports. 
 
 The cassia fistula tree is between forty and fifty feet in 
 height, and is covered with uneven light brown bark. At 
 the end of the branches which arise near the top of the tree, 
 grow clusters of the flowers. These have five yellowish petals, 
 which falling off are followed by pods, about eighteen inches 
 in length, and three in circumference. The pod is partitioned 
 into cells, containing a sweet pulp, of the color of treacle. 
 
 The tetermer tree is about fifty feet in height, and eight feet 
 in circumference; its bark is light and rough, and its branches 
 are covered by light green leaves, about four inches in length, 
 and two in breadth. The wood is very useful for a variety of 
 purposes, and is much like mahogany in appearance, but not 
 so hard.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. ^57 
 
 The ducoUabolla tree grows to the height of forty feet. 
 The trunk is about twenty inches in diameter, and is covered 
 by a rough reddish bark. The tree is wholly without branches 
 until near the top. The wood is like mahogany, but excels 
 it in colour, grain, hardness, and weight. 
 
 The bourracourra, or letter wood, is the heart of a tree 
 which grows here. It commonly grows to the height ot 
 thirty feet, and is about sixteen Inches in diameter. The 
 trunk is covered by a reddish bark, and sends out numerous 
 branches, bearing purple flowers. When the bark and sap are 
 cut away, the heart is about twelve inches in diameter. It is 
 of a deep red colour, marked with black spots and figures; 
 is very hard, solid, and ponderous, and receives a polish un- 
 equalled by any other wood. From the smallness of the 
 quantity which can be procured from each tree, and from its 
 beauty, it is rery valuable, even here. It is worked into 
 rows, walking sticks, &c. 
 
 The mahogany-tree has a cedar-like appearance, and grows 
 to a height of fifty feet, which is rendered more conspicuous 
 by its preferring a rocky station, where there is apparently 
 little soil for its nutriment : it is not common, being less 
 adapted for the flat humid land at the mouths of the rivers, 
 than for the mountainous district of the interior. It is of the 
 decandria monogynia class ; the calyx has five segments, the 
 
 lI
 
 SJ58 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 flowers five petals, the nectarium is cylindric, and bears anthers, 
 the capsule is five-celled, ligneous, and opens at the base. The 
 seeds are imbricated and winged like those of firs and pines. 
 
 The hearree-tree commonly grows to above twenty feet in 
 height, and is covered by a rough grey bark, cloathed in a 
 white moss. It has a few branches near the top, with rough 
 green leaves. This tree grows near rivers, and at a distance 
 from any other trees. It is esteemed a strong poison, and is 
 said not to suffer any other vegetable to grow near it. If one 
 of these trees be found on a plantation it is not destroyed, be- 
 cause the smoke of the wood when burning, is fatal to all 
 kinds of animals. 
 
 The cocoa-tree, which is cultivated in the plantations, is 
 seldom, suffered (o grow higher than fourteen feet, although 
 in the interior of Guyana it grows wild to great heights. The 
 trunk is about six inches in diameter, covered with a light 
 green coloured bark, and destitute of branches as high as eight 
 feet. The leaves are pinnated, nine inches long and three 
 broad, of a light green color on the upper, of a dark green 
 on the under surface, which is ribbed. The flowers arise from 
 Uie trunk, or from the lower branches near the trunk. It 
 consists of six petals of a flesh color spotted with red. When 
 the petals fall off, the pod appears about the size and form of 
 a melon, pointed at the end and having longitudinal grooves.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 259 
 
 This is divided into longitudinal cavities, in which the nuts 
 are placed in rows ; they are about the size of a cherry, of an 
 oblong rounded shape. The cocoa trees are planted in rows, 
 at twelve or fourteen feet distance, and form beautiful and 
 shady plantations. . ;: ;',•:* 
 
 The cotfee-bush generally grows in the plantations to six 
 feet in height. The trunk is covered with a bark of a greyish 
 brown colour. The branches arise from the trunk near the 
 earth, and grow all around in a horizontal direction. The 
 lowest branches are about eighteen inches in length, but they 
 grow shorter as they approach the top, so that a cofFee-tree is 
 in the shape of a cone. The leaves are about three inches 
 long, and one and a half broad, pointed and green. The 
 flower consists of five petals, several stamina and one pistil. 
 The germ contains two kernels, covered by a pericarp. Of 
 this fruit there are two crops in the year, and each tree yields 
 about a pound and a half at a crop. The coffee-trees are 
 planted in rows at the distance of five feet. 
 
 The cocoa-nut-tree grows to fifty or sixty feet in height, and 
 is seldom either perfectly straight or erect. It is covered by 
 a bark of an ash colour, which at the top of the tree becomes 
 green. The branches commence very near the top. They 
 are about fifteen feet long, and twenty or thirty in number. 
 The leaves are about eighteen inches long near the trunk, and 
 
 l1 2
 
 260 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 diminish in length as they approach the extremity of the 
 branch ; they are narrow and pinnated, and are placed on 
 two opposite sides of the branch. About six or eight years 
 from the time of planting, the tree bears nuts. The stalk 
 arises from the trunk where the branches grow and bears se- 
 veral nuts. 
 
 Of the ricinus or castor bush, which yields the well known 
 castor oil, therf are two kinds, the red and the white, distin- 
 guished by the color of their stalks, of which the former is 
 of a reddish color, the latter green. The stalk is jointed and 
 about five feet in height. The leaves are about eighteen or 
 nineteen inches in circumference, and divided into eight or 
 ten pointed parts. They are supported by foot stalks ten or 
 twelve inches long, and grow in great numbers both upon the 
 stalk and branches. It bears nuts of a triangular form, and 
 covered with a thin brown fur; these nuts by expression, 
 yield the castor oil. 
 
 The guava-tree grows to about twenty feet in height, and is 
 covered by a smooth grey bark. The leaves are about three 
 inches long and one broad, rough, pointed at the end, and 
 of a dark green color. The flower? have five white petals. 
 It bears a round fruit, which when ripe, is of a light yellow 
 colour. The internal part of the fruit is filled with a red co- 
 loured pulp, with numerous hard seeds ; this pulp is covered
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 261 
 
 by a substance somewhat like apple, and over all is the rind. 
 The external substance is used for tarts and other sweet prepa- 
 rations, and the pulp is made into jelly. 
 
 The aviago pear tree grows to about thirty or forty feet in 
 height. Its branches are long, its leaves large and pointed, 
 and its flower has six petals. The fruit, when ripe, resembles 
 a large pear. It consists of a soft, agreeable, nutricious pulp, 
 covered by a rind, and containing a stone. The pulp is eaten 
 with salt and pepper. 
 
 The female poppau generally grows to tlie height of fifteen 
 feet. The trunk is about seven inches in diameter, covered 
 by a light brown bark, hollow, and wholly without branches. 
 The leaves are three or four feet in circumference, divided 
 into seven or eight sections, which are again subdivided into 
 other section?. The leaves are supported by foot stalks about 
 two feetlong, which grow from the top of the trunk. The 
 flowers have five petals of a light yellow color, supported by 
 >edlclcs which grow from the top of the trunk; they have 
 an agreeable odor, and are used for preserves. The fruit is 
 about six inches in length, of an oval form, and when ripe of 
 a yellow color. The internal part of the fruit consbts of a 
 soft pulp, mixed with small seeds. This pulp is covered by 
 a substance somewhat like that of a pompion, which is eaten 
 when ihe fruit is nearly ripe, being previously boiled. There
 
 ii62 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 is another tree, called the male poppau, which produces no 
 fruit. 
 
 The American aloes tree grows to about twenty-five feet in 
 height. The trunk is about nine inches in diameter, and co- 
 vered by triangular pointed laminae, which arc green through- 
 out the year, and diminish in size as they approach the 
 top. The roots send out leaves, which surround the bottom 
 of the tree with a bush. These leaves are about four feet in 
 length, seven inches in breadth at the middle, which is the 
 broadest part, and about half an inch in thickness. They are 
 pointed at the end, covered by a smooth green skin, and in- 
 ternally consist of a white saponaceous substance. The 
 branches commence about fifteen feet from the earth; they 
 are short, and in considerable numbers. The flowers consist 
 of six petals with a pointed summit, as many stamina with 
 large anthers, and one pistil. These flowers grow in large 
 clusters, one of which arises from each branch. This tree 
 attains its full size in three months; it is very beautiful, and is 
 usually planted in gardens. 
 
 The aloes plant consists of a slender conical stalk, about 
 twenty inches in height, incircled at the bottom, near the 
 earth, by several diverging leaves, and supporting, near the 
 top, several pendulous yellow flowers. The leaves are about 
 two feet in length, five inches in breadth in themiddlc, which
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 263 
 
 is the largest part, and six lines in thickness. They are set 
 yyith short strong prickles on each side, running the whole 
 length of the leaf, and are covered by a smooth green skin. 
 This skin contains a soft bitter pulp, from which exudes a 
 thick juice. The juice when indurated is the aloes. The 
 process of induration is effected either by the sun, or by boil- 
 ing; but the former is much more valuable. 
 
 The silk grass plant, or curretta, as it is called by the na- 
 tives, is smaller than the American aloes, but similar in ap- 
 pearance. The flowers consist of six petals, six stamina, and 
 one pistil. The leaves arise from the root, and form a large 
 cluster. They are much like those of the American aloes, 
 and are about three feet in length. Their internal substance 
 consists of a saponaceous pulp, mixed with fine white strong 
 threads. The threads, when separated from the pulp, are 
 white and glossy, and very much resemble silk; and curious 
 nets and strong ropes are made of them. The pulp is used 
 for washing, instead of soap. 
 
 The siliqua hirsuta, or cow itch, is a plant like the vine, 
 long, slender, and creeping. The leaves are thin, pointed, 
 and covered with a down. The flowers grow in clusters, and 
 are followed by a pod, somewhat similar to the common pea 
 in shape and size, and containing several purple beans. The
 
 '26't STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 pod is thickly covered by very fine stiff pointed hairs, which 
 produce an intolerable itching upon being applied to the skin. 
 
 The Indian yam is peculiar to this part of America. The 
 plant is long, slender, and like a vine ; ihe leaves are large, 
 and digitated ; the root is about eight inches in length, and as 
 thick as a man's wrist ; it is of a reddish purple colour, and 
 affords an agreeable farinaceous food. 
 
 Ginger is the root of a reed. It grows to the height of about 
 sixteen inches. Its leaves are long, narrow, sharp, and rise 
 in a spiral direction. The land near the coast is well adapted 
 to the growth of ginger, which requires a soil frequently 
 drenched in water. 
 
 Of the cassava shrub there are two kinds, the bitter and the 
 sweet. The main stem is knotted, covered with an ash co- 
 loured bark, and grows to the height of four feet. The 
 branches are thin, short, and green, and arise from near the 
 top of the trunk. The leaves are large and digitated, and 
 arise by red foot stalks, six inches long from the branches. 
 The root is about a foot in length, and six inches in circum- 
 ference, of a cylindrical form, and consists of a white farina- 
 ceous substance. To prepare it for food, it is ground into a 
 meal, the meal is then squeezed to express the juice, and is
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 265 
 
 afterwards baked into cakes, which are good food, and will 
 keep for several months. The juice is boiled with meat and 
 seasoned, and makes excellent soup, which is termed Casse- 
 repo, and used in pepper-pot and sauces. The Indians and 
 negroes are very fond of this sauce, highly seasoned with 
 cayenne. Pepper-pot is a standing dish, and if replenished 
 when near the bottom, will keep for any length of time ; it is 
 related of a Dutchman, who lived in Berbice, that he abso- 
 lutely kept one for upwards of twenty years. The whole of 
 this root, both the meal and the juice, before being exposed 
 to fire, are fatal poisons, and cattle are frequently killed by 
 drinking of the juice which has been left in their way by the 
 carelessness of the slaves. This poisonous quality is possessed 
 only by the bitter cassava. 
 
 The plant which bears the caruna poison, is a small tree, 
 covered by a brown bark. Its leaves are small, oval, and of 
 a light green colour. At the end of the branches grows a red- 
 dish coloured blossom, which falls off and is succeeded by 
 small nuts, covered by a thick husk. The nut has a hard 
 shell, and contains a farinaceous kernel. This kernel is a slow 
 poison, which is said to be made use of by some tribes of In- 
 dians to destroy their enemies. 
 
 The nibbees are long creeping plants, without leaves or 
 branches, of immense length, whilst their circumference is 
 
 M m
 
 266 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 seldom more than seventeen or eighteen inches, sometimes 
 not above three or four. In the interior parts of the country 
 they mount from the eartli to the tops of the loftiest trees, then 
 descend to insert themselves in the earth, and then again ^ 
 mount to the neighbouring tree, connecting the trees in this 
 manner in various directions. Sometimes they coil themselves 
 round the trees, and sometimes insert their tendrils into the 
 bark, thus destroying them either by compression or starva- 
 tion. The nibbees are made use of for fastening the thatch of 
 houses, for which purpose they are split into small ligaments. 
 The stalks are of different forms, some are round, others are 
 angular, flat, or grooved. 
 
 Troolies are leaves of an enormous size. They are used to 
 cover houses, which they protect from the most violent rains, 
 and last for many years. This leaf is about twenty or thirty 
 feet in length, and two or three in breadth ; it is supported by 
 a strong stalk about three inches in circumference at its com- 
 mencement. About twelve of these leaves, each supported 
 by its stalk, grow from the roots. In the center of these 
 leaves a short stem shoots up, upon which is a cluster of light 
 yellow flowers, these falling off are succeeded by large round 
 nuts. 
 
 The plant, the root of which is the ipecacaunha, grows to 
 about three feet in height. The leaves are large and smooth.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, kc. 267 
 
 and sharp at the end. When the flower, which is yellow, 
 falls ofl; it is succeeded by a long round pod. The pod con- 
 tains white silky filaments, to which a number of small dark 
 seeds adhere. Their roots are thin and woody, and have an 
 emetic quality. 
 
 M m 2
 
 268 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 CHANGE OF CONDITION IN THESE PROVINCES RESULTING 
 
 FROM THE CONQUEST CAPITULATION OF 1796 
 
 BURGHER REGULATIONS REVISED NEW BARRACKS CON- 
 TRACTED FOR BY AN ENGLISH MERCANTILE HOUSE AR- 
 RIVAL OF TROOPS RATIONS NEW RUM, PROPERLY 
 
 CALLED KILL DEVIL FACT RELATED OF AN ENGLISH 
 
 SEAMAN BATAVIAN MEDICAL STAFF FEVER IN THE 
 
 DUTCH TROOPS BAD TREATMENT OF THE PATIENTS 
 
 GREAT NUMBER OF DEATHS MANNER OF INTERRING 
 
 DU MELLES RESIGNATION REFUSED ENGLISH GUI- 
 
 NEAMEN ALLOWED TO SELL SMUGGLING REGULA- 
 TION TO PREVENT IT EVERY BOAT OBLIGED TO WEAR 
 
 DUTCH COLORS FATE OF A NEGRO CAPTAIN FOR RE- 
 FUSING. 
 
 A, 
 
 .N account ought now to be given of the change of con- 
 dition which these provinces have undergone, in consequence 
 of their passing from the Dutch under the British protection. 
 Those circumstances relative to the transfer of allegiance, 
 which passed within the limits of my hearsay, or observation, 
 are not many, and can have no claims to importance as histo-
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 269 
 
 rical anecdotes. But so many methods of subsistence have 
 taken a new form and course, so many different sources of 
 prosperity have gushed in upon the country, so many unex- 
 pected experiments in speculative industry \vere successfully 
 tried during the anarchy, that a narration, however defec- 
 tive, will almost inevitably throw light on the regulations, 
 which a wise policy ought to adopt, for promoting the future 
 and permanent benefit of the district. I will begin therefore 
 with the public papers which announced to government the 
 surrender. 
 
 To the Right Hon. Henry Dundas, one of his Majesty's prin- 
 cipal secretaries of state, from Lieut. -Gen, Sir Ralph Aber- 
 CROMBY, K. B. commander in chief of his Majesty s forces in 
 the West hidies. 
 
 Head 2,iiarters, St. Lucia, May 2<i, 1796. 
 Sir — In my letter of the 9th April, I expressed a desire to 
 detach a body of troops to take possession of Demerary, pro- 
 vided that Admiral Sir John Laforey Would allow me the ne- 
 cessary naval force. 
 
 The Admiral, upon my application to him for that purpose, 
 immediately ordered the Malabar, La Pique, and Babet, on 
 ■board of which and the Grenada transport, with some small
 
 iJ70 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 vessels, Major-Gen. Whyte, the 39th, 93d, and 99th regi- 
 ments, embarked and sailed on the 15th ult. 
 
 On the 21st, this squadron arrived upon the coast of De- 
 merary, and on the 22d, the governor and council were sum- 
 moned to surrender the colony to his Britannic Majesty, upon 
 the conditions which I have the honor herewith to enclose. 
 The next day the terms were agreed to, the capitulation signed, 
 and the British troops took possession of the colony. Lieut.- 
 Col. Hislop, of the 39th regiment, is left commandant of De- 
 merary and Essequebo. Major-Gen. Whyte was to proceed 
 to take possession of the neighbouring colony of Berbice, and 
 after making the necessary arrangements, he is ordered to re- 
 pair to his station at St. Domingo. 
 
 From the accounts received, there is produce to an immense 
 value at Demerary, which will be immediately shipped for 
 Great Britain. I have the honour to be, &c. 
 
 R. ABERCROMBY. 
 
 Right Ho?i. Henry Dundas, fiCc. 8f. 
 
 Suibroek, Demerary, 2id April, 1196. 
 Sir — In obedience to your Excellency's commands, I left 
 Barbadoes on the 15th instant, with a detachment of the Ar- 
 tillery, and part of the 39th, 93d, and 99th regiments, amount-
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 271 
 
 ing to 1200 men, escorted by tlie Malabar, Undaunted, La 
 Pique, and Babet frigates, with the Grenada transport, and 
 five schooners and sloops; and on the 2lst made the land, 
 when the Scipio joined the fleet. That evening when the tide 
 made, the Babet and La Pique frigates, with the Grenada 
 transport, passed the bar with the schooners and boats of the 
 fleet, and came to anchor within random gun-shot of the fort, 
 at the entrance of the river ; and having during the night pre- 
 pared every thing for an attack, at day-light appeared in force, 
 when I sent a flag of truce by Lieut.-Col. Hislop, of the 39th 
 regiment, summoning the governor to surrender the colony 
 and its dependencies to his Britannic Majesty's forces, agree- 
 able to the terms I have the honor to enclose, and which the 
 governor and council accepted. 
 
 The unanimity with which the service was carried on be- 
 tween the fleet and army was pleasing to all concerned, and 
 Mr. Higgins acquitted himself with much propriety and uti- 
 lity. Captain Parr who commands the fleet, has assisted and 
 supplied us from the fleet liberally. And I have the satisfac- 
 tion to inform your excellency, that from every information I 
 have received, and from above seventy ships being actually 
 loaded with the produce of the country, now in the river 
 (most of which will be sent to England) and from every ac- 
 count of the fertility and the soil, it is a most important acqui- 
 sition to Great Britain.
 
 272 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 The colony of Bcrbicc, adjoining to this, being a separate 
 government, I shall direct my attention to it without delay ; 
 and shall leave Lieut.-Col. Hislop in the command here, agree- 
 able to your excellency's directions. 
 
 The Thetis, a Dutch frigate of 24 guns, and a cutter of 12 
 guns, are added to the fleet ; and Captain Parr has given di- 
 rections for destroying or bringing down the river, a French 
 brig privateer of force 
 
 I have the honor to be, &c. &c. 
 
 JOHN WHYTE, Major-General. 
 Si?- Ralph Abercro7nbic, K. B. SCc. STc. 
 
 jBj/ Major-General John Whyte, coynmander of his Britannic 
 Majesty's land forces, S(c. ^c. and Captain Thomas Parr, 
 commander of his Majesty's ships, S^c. 8/^c. 
 
 These are requiring you, the governor and council, mili- 
 tary and naval forces, of the colony of Demerary and its de- 
 pendencies, to surrender the said colony to his Britannic Ma- 
 jesty's forces under our command, and to place the said colony 
 under his Majesty's protection, and quietly and, peaceably to 
 submit to his Majesty's government. r .. 
 
 In which case, the inhabitants shall enjoy full security to 
 their persons, and the free exercise of their religion, with the
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 275 
 
 full and immediate enjoyment of all private property, whether 
 on shore or afloat (excepting such as may appear to belong to 
 the subjects of the French republic), according to their ancient 
 laws and usages, or such other as may be determined upon, 
 previous to the colony's being placed under his Majesty's go- 
 vernment, upon the most liberal and beneficial terms. 
 
 That in the event of the colonies remaining under the Bri- 
 tish government at the conclusion of a general peace, they shall 
 enjoy such commercial rights and privileges as are enjoyed by 
 the British colonies in the West Indies. With regard to the 
 military and naval forces, that the officers and men of the 
 land forces shall, if agreeable to themselves, be received into 
 the British pay, with leave, at the restoration of the Stadtholder, 
 to return into his service. Each non-commissioned officer 
 and soldier shall receive, upon his taking the oath of allegi- 
 ance to his Britannic Majesty, to serve him faithfully during 
 the war, where it may be thought proper to employ him, 
 the sum of one hundred guilders. The officers to receive, 
 upon the same conditions, the allowance of two hundred 
 day's bat, baggage, and forage money, as paid to the British 
 officers. 
 
 The officers and men of the marine forces cannot be taken 
 into the British service, until his Majesty's pleasure shall be 
 
 N n
 
 274- STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 known, but shall receive pay according to their rank, and 
 every indulgence that can be allowed. 
 
 That the governor and all civil officers, after having taken 
 the oaths of allegiance to his Majesty, which will be adminis- 
 tered by Major-Gener^ Whyte, are (if they choose) to remain 
 in their respective situations (excepting those who have shewn 
 a decided partiality to the French interest), the governor only 
 resigning the military command. Should such liberal terms 
 be refused, the governor, council, and all concerned, must 
 be answerable for the consequences, as an immediate attack 
 will be made by the land and sea forces, which will render 
 every resistance vain. 
 
 Major-General Whyte and Captain Parr give the governor 
 one hour, and no more, from the delivery of this by Lieut. 
 Col. Hislop, to accept or not. 
 
 JOHN WHYTE, Major-General. 
 THOMAS PARR, Captain R. N. 
 Dated on board H. M. S. Bahet, off the river 
 Demerary, April 20, 1196. 
 
 Gentlemen — It is out of my power as yet to give a deci- 
 sive answer to your summons, demanding a surrender of this 
 colony to his Britannic majesty's forces, as my duty requires
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 275 
 
 me to lay it before the council, to whom it is also addressed, 
 but which is not assembled at this moment. I will, however 
 call the members present together, and return about twelve 
 o'clock an answer. I have the honor to remain, &c. 
 
 Bemerary, ANTHONY BEAUJON, 
 
 'iL'-ld April, 1796. Governor of Demerary. 
 
 To their Excellencies General JVhyte and Commodore Parr. 
 
 On board the Babet frigate, April 22d, 1796. 
 Sir — AVe have been honoured with your letter in answer to 
 ours of yesterday's date, summoning the colony of Demerary 
 to surrender to his Britannic Majesty's arms, requesting, for 
 the reasons therein mentioned, to have until twelve o'clock 
 this forenoon, to assemble the council to assist you in your de- 
 termination. The reasonableness of this request induces us to 
 grant it ; but you will be aware that, if an answer is not re- 
 turned at or before that time, no farther delay can be made, 
 and you alone must be answerable for the consequences ; and 
 you will please also to observe, from the very liberal terms of- 
 fered, no deviation whatever can be admitted. 
 
 We have the honor to be, &c. 
 
 JOHN WHYTE, Major-General 
 THOMAS PARR, Captain R.N. 
 To his Excellency the Governor of Demerary. 
 
 Nn 2
 
 276 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Fort William Frederic, Demerary I'id April, 1196. 
 Gentlemen — AVe, the governor, members of the council, 
 and commanders of the naval forces of the colony, in council 
 of war assembled, having attentively perused the summons, 
 dated yesterday, and addressed to us by your Excellencies, 
 demanding the surrender of the said colony to his Britannic 
 Majesty's forces, also the terms thereunto annexed, have, after 
 mature deliberation, resolved to accept said terms, and on 
 them to surrender said colony and dependencies, as demanded, 
 whereof we hereby give you notice ; also that our colors 
 will be struck on the landing of your forces. It will depend 
 on the several officers and the troops to decide for themselves, 
 as to the offers made them, and we have the honor to sub- 
 scribe ourselves, &c. 
 
 ANTHONY BEAU J ON, Governor 
 J. VAN WELL, Major 
 C. FITZJCHER, Commander 
 P. P. LUYKEN 
 THOMAS CUMING 
 A. MEERTENS 
 By order of the council, 
 
 M. S. TUINE, Sec. Ad. Int. 
 To their Excelkncies Getieral Wliyte and Commodore Pan; com- 
 manders of his Britannic Majesty's forces off Demerary.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 277 
 
 •■••'The officers and troops entered into our service. It is now 
 no secret that General Whyte's expedition originated in tlie 
 invitation of the inhabitants. A deputation had been sent to 
 Barbadoes to represent the situation of the colonies to the Bri- 
 tish commanders. The first attempt to land was made a few 
 miles to windward of the river. The boats unfortunately 
 grounded about a quarter of a mile from the shore, without 
 being able either to return to the shipping or get nearer the 
 land, for the depth of mud was four or five feet ; here they 
 remained twelve hours, exposed to the rays of the tropical sun, 
 and in case the inhabitants, or Dutch forces, had been averse 
 to their measures, before they could have effected a landing 
 or returned to the fleet, I would venture to say, the musquetry 
 and grape shot from the shore would have made that perfectly 
 unnecessary when the tide returned. Seeing the inefficacy of 
 attempting a landing, when the flood rose, a signal was 
 made for the boats to return, and the next morning Lieut.- 
 Col. Hislop* was sent, in a flag of truce, to Stabroek, to sum- 
 mons Demerary and Essequcbo, to surrender to the British, 
 who would take possession of the colonies for and in the name 
 of the Stadtholder; contracting parties were appointed, and 
 tlie capitulation signed, which guaranteed all private property, 
 except that which was floating, and a continuance of the 
 Dutch laws, offices, and religion. His excellency Anthony 
 
 :i:i'jujen«» Since Brigadier-General and Governor of Trinidad.
 
 278 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Beaujon, formerly secretary to the colony, a native of St. 
 Eustatia, was appointed governor until his Majesty's pleasure 
 should be known, and Lieut.-Col. Hislop, of the 39th regi- 
 ment, commandant of the troops. 
 
 Berbice was surrendered in a similar way to the protection 
 of the British forces, immediately after Demerary. But of 
 this, enough has incidentally been said already in the ninth 
 chapter. 
 
 A great number of speculators accompanied the expedition, 
 some brought over merchandize and shipping to load for Eng- 
 land, and others came to make purchases of landed property ; 
 indeed the readiness with which the speculators emigrated 
 from the West India islands and Great Britain to invest their 
 capital, made it more like a country resumed, than ceded, to 
 England. From such a sudden ingress of monied men, the 
 value of estates was greatly enhanced, and land which used to 
 be valued at six pounds five shillings per acre, sold in 1796, at 
 nine pounds three shillings sterling, in 1797, at eleven pounds, 
 and in 1799 and 1800, at twelve pounds ten shillings, at 
 which price it remained till the peace of Amiens, when the 
 value of land visibly began to decline. All the uncultivated 
 lots, between the Demerary and Berbice, were bought up with 
 an avidity never before equalled, and several estates were made 
 up along the Mahaica and Mahaicony creeks. Considerable
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 279 
 
 part of the Dutch property was immediately sold to the Eng- 
 lish adventurers, and the face of every thing began to wear 
 the appearance of Enghsh. Their manners, customs, and 
 language were adopted ; indeed every thing was so visibly 
 changed for the better, that it scarse looked like the same 
 place; the river was now full of shipping; I have seen upwards 
 of one hundred sail of British vessels loading at one time for 
 the ports of Great Britain. 
 
 An English volunteer corps was formed of the inhabitants 
 of Stabroek, commanded by a major ; and a troop of cavalry 
 was soon afterwards raised, which was commanded by the 
 present governor.* 
 
 Lieut.-Col. Hislop was also the means of adding another re- 
 giment to the line, the 1 1th West India regiment, which he 
 succeeded in doing by a levy on the planters. This idea they 
 the more readily entered into, from being promised payment 
 for those negroes they sent, which I am sorry to say they 
 never received ; but had the mortification to see their property 
 taken away from the colony (when delivered to the Dutch in 
 December, 1802, according to the peace of Amiens) without 
 the smallest remuneration. The least, I think which ought to 
 have been done, was, that as the negroes were contributed 
 
 * H. W. Bcntinck, Esq. late governor of St. Vincent.
 
 aSO STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THK 
 
 by the planters for the defence of their property in the colony, 
 they should have been left attached to that service for which 
 they were originally intended. Instead of this, on evacuat- 
 ing the colony, the colonel commandant took the regiment 
 with him, as he would any other regiment of the line belong- 
 ing to his Majesty. 
 
 Governor Meertens now became the representative of the so- 
 vereign power. The burgher regulations for arming the in- 
 habitants for the internal defence of the colonies were nearly 
 the first official discussions, which his excellency, after being 
 installed, had in the court of police, where he sits as president; 
 the former laws on that subject were all annulled, and those 
 now produced were of a much stricter nature than the others, 
 but on the whole, well arranged for a protection against revolts 
 of the negroes. One article, however, occasioned great In- 
 convenience to the inhabitants of Stabroek, and was produc- 
 tive of dangerous consequences to new comers, or unseasoned 
 inhabitants. ■■: ■ ' 
 
 When the health of the Batavlan troops began to be so bad 
 that one half of them were confined to the hospital and bar- 
 racks, it was determined that they should never mount guard 
 or do night duty in Stabroek, but that a company of the 
 burgher militia, or Inhabitants of Stabroek and the adjoining 
 towns, should do it. ■ . -
 
 SETILEMENTS ON THE DEMERAUY, hc. 281 
 
 As they were mostly composed of British subjects, the go- 
 vernor, and honourable court of police, probably thought there 
 was no harm in exposing them to the unhealthy night airs and 
 dew, and that they had found • an excellent substitute for 
 their own troops. Under this idea, the inhabitants were obliged 
 to do garrison duty at Stabroek, patrole the streets during the 
 night, and were placed as centinels at all the public offices : 
 besides this, they were paraded every day, for the first month 
 or two, to be made perfect in the Dutch method of exercise 
 and word of command. 
 
 After the first week of this nocturnal "burgher waght," 
 several of the merchants were deprived of the assistance of 
 their clerks, who, from not being accustomed to this irregular 
 life, and some of them but just arrived from Europe, were 
 confined to their beds by fever, occasioned by exposure to the 
 night air, and perhaps by rather too free an access to the bot- 
 tle, which the fatigue of duty required or occasioned. Maiiy 
 persons were brought to their sick beds, and those who re- 
 covered, while in a state of convalescence, were obliged to 
 provide certificates from their doctors or surgeons, of their in- 
 capability to do duty. The fine for non-attendance on the 
 guards, or parades, was a joe (thirty-six shillings). Such an 
 event happening a second time, the offender was imprisoned 
 for a period left to the discretion of the officers ; if it occurred 
 more than twice successively, he was to be banished from the 
 
 o o
 
 tiS2 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 colony. These arbitrary measures could not fail of being 
 disagreeable to the individuals who composed the militia. The 
 conduct of the governor and of the court of police, ought to 
 have been protested against by tlie inhabitants en masse, which 
 would have made them personally answerable for the con- 
 sequences which followed. 
 
 That no private pique for inconvenience personally suffered 
 from Governor Meertens, may be thought to influence my 
 pen, I wish it to be known, that during the time the Dutch 
 had possession, after the restoration of the colonies to Holland 
 in 1802, I was a resident in the country, removed five miles 
 beyond the reach of the burgher regulations for the town, and 
 therefore experienced none of those grievances of which I 
 have complained. Having witnessed them; having visited 
 my friends and acquaintances when confined by sickness 
 thence occasioned ; and having followed some of them to 
 their graves, how can I refrain from animadverting on such 
 unjustifiable proceedings ? 
 
 Anthony Meertens is the son of an advocate of Amster- 
 dam, and at the age of maturity made his debut as a lawyer 
 of Demerary. Versed in every professional art, he owed 
 his first advancement to several attorney and executorships, 
 which gave him the management and direction of a number 
 of estates. His affairs of this sort were not confined to Deme-
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERART, &C. 28S 
 
 rary, but extended to Essequebo. The emoluments arising 
 from these appointments are always considerable, the commis- 
 sion allowed by law being ten per cent on the gross produce 
 of the estate; therefore, if a crop amounts to a hundred thou- 
 sand weight of coffee, the attorney gets one thousand of it for 
 his trouble. But this is not the only advantage arising to these 
 offices. Mr. Meertens had an opportunity of purchasing an 
 estate, very cheap, of the heirs of one of his constituents, who 
 resided in Holland. The plantation Rome, situated on the 
 same side of the river as Stabroek, and about three miles dis- 
 tant, is said to have been obtained for thirty thousand guilders, i/ 
 viz. two thousand five hundred pounds sterling. This estate 
 ne still possesses; it is valued at upwards of one hundred 
 thousand. On his arrival in the colony, as governor, he 
 erected a splendid government house there, which build- 
 ing was computed to cost ten thousand pounds. The frame 
 wat) made and imported from Holland, and some busy people 
 no doubt unfoundedly reported, that it was intended to have 
 been erected in Stabroek, on public ground, as an official re- 
 sidence for the governor, and not upon any private property. 
 Mr. Meertens next undertook the inside furnishing. A 
 young lady, of Indian extraction, and but twice removed, 
 had taken possession of his heart. After the usual form of 
 courtship, contrary however to the established custom of the 
 colony, he took unto himself a tawney wife. It is not the 
 first time that money ha^ reconciled such a procedure. 
 
 o 2
 
 284 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Mr. Meertens, in \19'2, appeared in the municipal cha- 
 racter of fiscal for the colony of Demerary. In this office he 
 was very lenient towards the English smugglers from the West 
 India islands, who, to the great benefit of the colony, used to 
 take the produce into market, when the Dutch shipping in 
 the river dared not leave it. Notwithstanding all the caution 
 which.was practised on the part of the Dutch naval force sta- 
 tionied in the river, considerable quantities of produce, espe- 
 cially cotton, went to be imported into Great Britain by this 
 circuitous rout. The fiscal's apparent indifference to what 
 was going on, never went unrewarded; and if he did not ab- 
 solutely smuggle his own produce out, he used to sell it to 
 those who did. He was a member of council, and signed the 
 capitulation which surrendered the colony to Great Britain in 
 1796. In April 1799, he and his family embarked on board 
 the Grenada, for London, where be remained until the pre- 
 liminaries of peace were signed, when he went to Holland, 
 in expectation of still furthering his advancement. 
 
 Mr. Meertens returned to the colony in 1802, as governor, 
 with a Mr. La Maison, who was appointed vice-president of 
 the courts, and who, after involving his official business in a 
 labyrinth of confusion, and after receiving money and settling 
 accounts for several merchants in England, who had rashly 
 invested him with powers, took to drinking, and finally in- 
 curred the suspicion of insanity. His friends took advantage
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 285 
 
 of it, and insisted on his making a speedy, but not wholly- 
 honourable, retreat from the colony, leaving his constituents 
 in the lurch, the principal of which were the assignees of a 
 once respectable mercantile house in London. 
 
 The arbitrary manner in which this vice-president was al- 
 lowed to act in his office, always excited disgust in every Briton, 
 who considered the trial by jury as the bulwark ofiiis liberties. 
 As Englishmen, placed in a foreign country, we were divested 
 of that blessing. Six members of council being chosen, and 
 the president, or vice-president, (the former is the governor 
 and merely an honorary member) decide on all causes. The 
 vice-president is a professional man, and receives a salary 
 from the colony; the other six are appointed by the keizers from 
 the inhabitants of the country, and by pecuniary embarrassments, 
 are often placed in the vice-president's power, who frequently 
 has it at his option to admit a suit into court or not, and always 
 to retard its progress, besides which, he has the casting vote. 
 From these circumstances it may be clearly inferred, that the 
 vice-president is the influencing man in the court, who has 
 it in his power, from his situation and command over the 
 other members, in a great degree to turn the scale of any 
 trial, or cause. Such, I am sorry to say, was the state of the 
 courts of justice, while under the Batavian government : and 
 the terms of the capitulation have hitherto tended to resist
 
 ^2$6 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 to resist the desirable degree of reform. The following oc 
 currences will give some idea of them. 
 
 We were so scantily supplied by the twelve merchants of 
 Holland with the requisite stores, plantation utensils, &c. that 
 it was thought adviseable, previous to the war, to allow British 
 manufactured goods to be imported from the islands to make 
 up the deficiency, for which produce might be taken away 
 in payment, upon paying a duty to the colony chest. The 
 English schooner Fanny, of Barbadoes, took advantage of this 
 liberty, and arrived in the Demerary, with a cargo consigned 
 to her owner, who was a merchant residing in Stabroek. After 
 the cargo was landed, the vessel was brought alongside a 
 wharf, of which the consignee was in part proprietor, to b? 
 reloaded. A day or two after, when a proportion of the 
 cargo was shipped, the master of a French schooner, be- 
 longing to Martinique, and then lying in the river, comes 
 ashore with his crew, and orders the Fanny to sheer off 
 from the wharf, as he wanted her birth for his vessel. This 
 demand was resisted, when Monsieur and his people were 
 preparing to put his orders into execution ; but jack tar, not 
 relishing such interference, prevented them, and a scuffle 
 ensued, by which means the French seamen, came off second 
 best, with a good drubbing. A complaint being immedi-
 
 SETTLEMENTS OK THE DEMERARY, &C. 287 
 
 ately made to his Excellency, an order, with the officers 
 of justice, came down to enforce the removal of the English 
 schooner, for the French one to take her station. Further re- 
 sistance was vain, but the merchant waited on the governor to 
 remonstrate with him on the impropriety of such a procedure, 
 as he was a proprietor of the wharf, and his vessel had an un- 
 doubted right of preference to load there. The Dutch go- 
 vernor assuming all his dignity, was astonished that any resist- 
 ance had been made in the first instance, desired that he might 
 not be troubled or intruded upon, and said that he wovild make 
 every Englishman in the colony bend to his power. 
 
 A foreigner, of the name of Kholer, had a cause depend- 
 ing in the court to determine the validity of a claim he made 
 to an estate in Demerary. The sentence of the court was 
 given against him, which saddled him with some very heavy 
 law expenses, beside depriving him of what he thought his 
 right. He was incapacitated from making an appeal to their 
 l)igh Mightinesses, by several unfortunate circumstances, 
 which quickly followed one another, and the heavy costs he 
 had been at in sustaining this law suit. A man thus situated, 
 without the means of prosecuting his claims, would cer- 
 tainly feci some degree of chagrin; especially as he was in- 
 duced to believe it was occasioned by a private pique, which 
 the vice-president had against him, before he arrived at that 
 dignity. In a company where several of I-,a Afaison's par-
 
 288 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 tisans, happened to be present, Kholer vented his spleen 
 against him, and roundly asserted that he was actuated by par- 
 tiality in the decision he made in his cause, and, that he 
 was not so good nor so just a man as he ought to be. This of 
 course soon found its way to the vice-president's ears, who 
 immediately issued a writ for apprehending and confining 
 him in jail, where he was kept a close prisoner for six months, 
 without being brought to trial ; and it was not until the British 
 took possession of the colony in September, 1803, that by 
 petitioning the lieutenant governor, he had an opportunity of 
 ajjpearing before his judge; for La Maison was obliged to be 
 retained in office* until the arrival of his Excellency, Anthony 
 Beaujon, who was sent out from England, and wisely placed a 
 second time, as governor of the colonies. Poor Kholer had not 
 yet felt all the power of the vice-president, for when before 
 the bar, he beheld in the person of the judge, his prose- 
 cutor, through whose machinations he was deprived of the 
 benefit of his counsel, who was not allowed to plead, though 
 he had been the only one hardy enough to undertake the 
 
 * Extract of article first of the capitulation.— -^he. constituted authorities, 
 and public offices, whether in the civil law, or church establishment, as well 
 as the members of the respective courts, except the governor general, shall 
 be retained in their respective offices and situations, until his Majesty's 
 pfeasure shall be known. 
 
 yVnswer by the commanders of his Majesty's forces, granted.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 289 
 
 cause in direct opposition to the man in place. The trial 
 was soon conckided, and Kholer was sentenced to be twelve 
 months imprisoned from that time, and to pay all expences, 
 even the jail fees, and not to be released until the demands 
 were liquidated, when he was to be banished the colony. At 
 the time of my leaving Demerary, he was still imprisoned 
 for the additional expenses incurred at his trial. The dros- 
 sart's (sheriff) humanity was shocked at his case, and he as- 
 serted, in my presence, that if Kholer could by any means 
 settle the law expences, the goal fees, which are very heavy 
 in this country, he would willingly give up, to enable him 
 to get his release. 
 
 The military were not much better than the civil regula- 
 tions ; both had that driftless character, which the anarchic 
 state of the metropolitan province favoured. A line of mi- 
 litary posts were established on the sea coast, and new bar- 
 racks erected suitable for the reception of five thousand troops. 
 At Mahalca fort, which is finely and beautifully situated at the 
 mouth of the creek, commanding an extensive sea view, a 
 barrack was built, capable of containing five hundred men, 
 besides a handsome airy house for the officers, and a good 
 hospital, with other outbuildings. 
 
 At Kingston, which is adjacent to Fort William Frederick, 
 are several very spacious barracks and officers' houses, which 
 
 p i>
 
 290 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 would quarter four thousand men with the greatest ease, and 
 regard to health. These buildings and improvements were 
 projected by the Dutch government, contracted for by an 
 English mercantile house, the plan improved by the engineers 
 under General Grinfield, and finally paid for by the colony. 
 They are certainly a very great acquisition to the troops, and 
 afford an opportunity in case of sickness, of removing them 
 to different situations for change of air, which is very neces- 
 sary, and so often proves salutary. 
 
 Some little time after the first arrival of troops, which 
 amounted to fifteen hundred, a reinforcement of five hundred 
 more arrived, equally in as bad a plight as the former, with 
 regard to provisions and accommodation on board ship ; the 
 preparations and arrangements made for their reception were 
 not in the least calculated to benefit their situation. A more 
 ill-digested plan for the reception of two thousand men into a 
 tropical climate, I suppose never was witnessed ; if they had 
 had no time for making the necessary arrangements, something 
 might have been urged in apology; but as upwards of fourteen 
 months had elapsed from the signing of the preliminaries of 
 peace to their arrival in the colony to take possession, surely 
 more might have been done to render their situation com- 
 fortable, and approaching to that of civilized human beings. 
 Not to put a worse construction on the conduct of the Bata- 
 vian government in this particular instance that it deserved, it
 
 SETTLEMXETS ON THE DEMERARY, kc. 291 
 
 must be viewed as a wretched piece of parsimony to have sent 
 the troops out as they did, destitute of every comfort and 
 convenience, and I might almost say of the common neces- 
 saries of Ufe. Their rations consisted of meal bread and hard 
 biscuit made of the same material, a large quantity of which 
 was imported from Holland. Salt beef and pork badly cured, 
 from the same place, with peas, oatmeal, and calavancies, 
 without the change of fresh meat, these articles absolutely 
 and solely constituted the provisions served out to the Batavian 
 troops in these colonies. 
 
 The pay of the troops was so small, as scarcely to allow 
 them to purchase pipes and tobacco. A Dutch soldier would 
 sooner be deprived of his dinner than his pipe. Without half 
 the indulgences British troops have, were these poor miserable 
 wretches left to their fate, not an allowance of spirits to render 
 their water palatable, except 7ietv rum, which is not impro- 
 perly termed "kill devil." An instance of this I had from 
 undoubted authority. 
 
 A seaman, belonging to one of his Majesty's ships, stationed 
 in the West Indies, died suddenly, turned quite black in se- 
 veral parts of his body, and was evidently in a putrescent 
 state ; the surgeon requested leave of the captain to open 
 and examine him, which was accordingly done, when a quart 
 of neiv rum, nearly as clear as when it first issued from the 
 
 p p 2
 
 *292 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Still, was taken from him, which evidently caused his de 
 cease. I am convinced, if our brave seamen were to profit 
 by the knowlege of its deleterious qualities, that we should 
 not experience half the number of deaths we at present do: 
 I principally allude to the seamen in the merchants' service, 
 who, as is well known, when on shore, are under little or no 
 controul from the masters of ships. On a Sunday, their general 
 point of rendezvous is at the grog shops, where, besides get- 
 ting beastly intoxicated with this new rum, they supply them- 
 selves with a small keg to serve them during the week, in ad- 
 dition to the allowance they receive from their ships, which 
 is always of a good quality, as the masters generally have an 
 opportunity of laying in a sufficiency for the voyage, free of 
 duty, before they leave England. 
 
 I have frequently heard unthinking people exclaim, " ah ! 
 the climate of the West Indies is the grave of our seamen:" 
 I entertain a more charitable opinion of it. During the seven 
 years of my being a resident of Demerary, I never knew of 
 any contagious fevers prevailing among the inhabitants there ; 
 I do not even remember more than one instance of yellow 
 fever, when the coffin was ordered tor the patient, but he 
 recovered. The small pox, I should hope, will be com- 
 pletely eradicated, by the active exertions of Messrs. Dxuikin 
 and Lloyd, who introduced and promoted the vaccine inocu- 
 lation to the utmost of their power, by appointing regular days
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 293 
 
 for attending to it, free of expence; and by having negroes 
 sent from the distant parts of the colonies, thus giving the 
 medical men, who resided inland, an opportunity of extend- 
 ing it. 
 
 The medical staff attached to the Batavian troops was very 
 numerous, but consisted principally of inexperienced young 
 men, and boys of sixteen or seventeen, as mates, who, from 
 all appearance, had been taken out of apothecaries shops in 
 Holland, for the purpose of continuing that parsimony they 
 had so ably commenced with. To these unskilled youths, and 
 to their lack of knowledge, was the health of two thousand 
 men confided. I can figure to myself the outcry which 
 would have been raised against a British ministry, were any 
 of their undertakings conducted on a similar basis. 
 
 My aim and intention is to relate facts without exaggera- 
 tion, I will therefore take the liberty of returning again to the 
 2d of December, when the troops were drawn up to receive the 
 governor. They were landed in the afternoon of the 1st, and 
 on the 2d, when they were paraded with ostentation, they had 
 not had one meal, or eaten a morsel since leaving the transports, 
 which nearly completed a space of twenty- four hours. The 
 first day's duty and exposure to the sun, without that suste- 
 nance which nature required for her support, with the other 
 disadvantages the troops laboured under, may be deemed the
 
 ii94f STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 first step toward sickness, and indeed the foundation of all the 
 dreadful calamities which followed. The disorder, which 
 broke out among them, soon began to rage with fury; the 
 number of sick encreased daily, in fact hourly, occasioned by 
 their being allowed to remain in the barracks with the healthy 
 men; their surgeons were panic struck; an epidemic fever ran 
 through the soldiery like wild-fire; already were there a 
 thousand of them confined. In this posture of affairs, the 
 Batavian government should have issued out good and whole- 
 some rations, wine and other nutritious restoratives, and 
 exerted themselves to have encreased the comforts of their 
 troops ; but it was ordained otherwise, and though fifteen or 
 twenty died every day, the number of patients still encreased. 
 To behold as I have done, dozens of human carcases ex- 
 posed for hours to the sun on the hospital wharf in La- 
 bourgade, and in open boats waiting for coffins, and after- 
 wards to have seen them packed three in a coffin, would make 
 any body shudder. The deaths soon after encreased to such a 
 degree, that there was no possibility of being supplied either 
 with coffins, or even with graves. The burial ground was 
 already made impassable from the stench created by so many 
 bodies being interred in so short a space of time, frequently 
 not more than three feet under ihe earth, so that it was at last 
 determined to roll them up in their blankets, and send them 
 outside the river's mouth in punts, or fiat bottomed boats, and 
 there commit them to the deep. Colonel Du Melle, who
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 295 
 
 commanded tlie troops, being quite disgusted, tendered liis re- 
 signation to the governor, which his excellency declined ac- 
 cepting. 
 
 The inhabitants continued very healthy, and unaffected with 
 the contagion which had spread amongst the soldiers ; the 
 deaths, for the first two or three weeks, used to be announced in 
 the colony gazette, but from motives of prudence were after- 
 wards repressed. From good authority I know they ex- 
 ceeded five hundred within three months after their arrival, 
 when the governor found the necessity of giving them a 
 change of air. Accordingly they were dispatched to different 
 parts of the colonies in small detachments, which probably 
 saved the lives of many, but not of all ; for on the colonies 
 capitulating to the British in September, 1803, a deficiency 
 of nearly three hundred of the troops was perceptible, which 
 number must have died in the country. One hundred and 
 eighty poor miserable objects were delivered over to the British, 
 on their taking possession of the colony, and immediately 
 placed imder the care of an able English physician. Dr. 
 Allanby. They almost all recovered, and were so much 
 pleased with their rations, manner of treatment, and allowance, 
 which was so different from what they had been accustomed 
 to, that they one and all entered into the British service at 
 Barbadoes.
 
 296 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 The Batavian government covenanted that British Guinea- 
 men should be allowed to sell their cargoes in the colonies for 
 three years, but not be permitted to take away any thing in re- 
 turn, except bills upon Holland. This regulation was certainly 
 very hard; however, during the four months peace, which 
 subsisted, after they were in possession of Demerary, several 
 cargoes were sold, and the ships, obliged to leave the river in 
 ballast, used to lay off and on the coast in the day, and would 
 anchor at night to take in the produce which was brought oft' 
 to them. By these means considerable quantities of cotton 
 were thrown into the London and Liverpool markets, notwith- 
 standing the means taken by the Dutch corvette Ilippomenup, 
 which sent out several tenders to intercept this smuggling 
 trade. I was coming up from Essequebo one night, and be- 
 fore we perceived it, the weather being very dark, were 
 alongside of an English Guineaman, who was then taking in 
 cotton. We were immediately hailed and ordered to stand 
 off; but continuing on our tack, and nearing the vessel more 
 and more, we were saluted by a shower of musket bails, se- 
 veral of which passed through the sails and wounded the 
 masts ; fortunately no other injury was done. The negroes 
 appeared perfecdy composed, and proceeded to put the 
 schooner about, merely saying "Them buchra sailor mad — 
 no ?" While we were in stays, another volley was fired, but 
 jTfiore for the purpose of frightening than of injuring, as the
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 297 
 
 balls whistled over our heads without appearing to strike any 
 part of the vessel or rigging. One of the first measures taken 
 by the naval commandant on the station, was to insist on every 
 colonial boat, of whatever nature, wearing a distinguishing 
 vane. For registering the name of the vessel, and receiving 
 written instructions, the captain of the Hippomenus extorted 
 , a joe, or thirty-six shillings, for each boat ; therefore com- 
 puting the number of boats at six hundred, he made upwards 
 of one thousand pounds by this assessment on individuals. 
 Moreover every colony craft, however small, even an open 
 boat, was not allowed to pass and repass in and out of the river, 
 without having a Dutch flag flying. Such was the national- 
 lity they were led to, that a poor negro captain one day, who 
 after having passed the fort and anchored in the river, hauled 
 his Dutch colors down, was taken on board the corvette, and 
 severely punished for not keeping them flying until the sun 
 set. I saw the poor fellow afterwards, and he told me that his 
 schooner should not wear any colors in the river until the Eng 
 lish took the colonies again ; that he did not care for the Dutch 
 captain, even if he flogged him every time he came in, he 
 would have his own way ; to use his own language " kie ! 
 massa Hendry, them Dutch color no good, me schooner no 
 shall wear flag in the river, tae them English buchra come 
 again, when me shall buy one English jack; me no mind 
 suppose that Dutch oflScer flog me every time me schooner 
 
 Qq
 
 29S STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 come in; him no shall wear them color." To mc it was 
 highly gratifying to observe how Englishly disposed all the 
 negro interest is : born for the most part in the West India 
 islands, these black sailors grow up with a patriotic zeal for all 
 who talk our language.
 
 SETTLEMNETS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 299 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 IMPROVEMENT AND STATE OF THE COLONY FROM 1783, 
 
 TO THE PEACE OF AMIENS LOTS OF LAND SOLD VERY 
 
 CHEAP DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE DUTCH AND ENG- 
 LISH PLANTER PREVIOUS UNPLEASANT STATE OF THE 
 
 COLONIES FROM INTERNAL CAUSES A SERVILE WAR 
 
 QUELLED BY A REGIMENT OF RANGERS GRANTS TO THE 
 
 OFFICERS ALONG THE POMAROON INVASION THREAT- 
 ENED BY VICTOR HUGHES FROM CAYENNE HISTORIC 
 
 PARTICULARS OF THAT SETTLEMENT FURTHER PARTI- 
 CULARS OF THE PROGRESSIVE STATE OF THE INTERIOR. - 
 
 A HE preceding chapter left the Dutch in quiet possession 
 of the colonies. The new regulations of the court of Holland, 
 and the extension of power granted to the governor, were 
 hailed as returning symptoms of affection and regard from the 
 mother country, for want of which the infant had of late 
 years been declining, but being received again under the pro- 
 tection and fostering care of its mother, it was expected to 
 thrive tenfold. ■ • . 
 
 Q q 2
 
 300 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Holland having withdrawn her attention from the eastern 
 world, directed it to the improvement of her West India co- 
 lonies. The ideas, which had been hitherto formed of them, 
 were completely erroneous ; and since the English had made 
 estates there, the Dutch discovered that any part of the conti- 
 nent was fit for cultivation, and the soil every where adapted 
 for profitable production. 
 
 The governor and council were now authorized to grant tiie 
 whole of the land adjacent the sea, lying between Demerary 
 and Berbice, commonly called the east sea coast, and com- 
 prising fifty miles in length, this track, as well as another, 
 called the Arabische, or west coast of Essequebo, were sur- 
 veyed and laid out into allotments of one quarter of a mile in 
 breadth, facing the sea, and a mile in length extending into 
 the interior, containing two hundred and fifty acres each, with 
 a similar proportion reserved at the back of the first, to resort 
 to when that should be cultivated. 
 
 The Mahaica, Mahaicony, and Abarry creeks, empty 
 themselves into the sea between Demerary and Berbice ; the 
 two former are the principal, and were surveyed at the same 
 time with the coasts ; the land here is good and easy of culti- 
 vation. After penetrating through a few trees and underwood 
 just on the edge of the banks, a fine clear open savannah
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 301 
 
 country presents itself, a most beautiful dank plain, with hefie 
 and there a solitary tree, which has its effect in 4.i versifying 
 the scene; such an immediate change of country and appear- 
 ance is as unexpected as pleasing to the beholder. 
 
 Soon after my arrival in the colony, I was highly gratified 
 by an excursion into these savannahs, being on a visit at a cot- 
 tage, as it is modestly called by the owner, in the Carrabanna 
 district, about five miles from Mahaica. I was invited with my 
 friendly host to breakfast, in the company of a large party, at 
 Brome-hall, a neighbouring estate. We were fifteen or twenty 
 in number, and every delicacy which the colony afforded, was 
 provided by our hospitable entertainer ; tea, coffee, and rich 
 soups, fowls and mutton, noyau, sangaree, and wine. Break- 
 fast being finished, we mounted our horses, attended by ne- 
 groes on foot, for the purpose of exploring a path through the 
 savannah to some part of the Mahaica creek; and from the 
 direction we took, it was intended to be beyond the cultivated 
 estates, and as near the head of the creek as we could reach. 
 The day was remarkably mild ; a fine clear open country ; all 
 the party in spirits ; some bethought themselves of the plea- 
 sures of the chace, which they had enjoyed in England. The 
 hunting 'cry was given, and re-echoed from one to another; 
 two or three old hunters, as if by instinct, started at the well 
 known sound, and were soon the headmost in the field. The 
 wirrebocerra, a sort of deer, was our projected game. A
 
 302 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 marshy track compelled our attention to a path, which to our 
 surprise, appeared to have been lately used, but our attentive 
 host was in tlie secret, for on our arrival at the creek, which 
 stopped all progress, we found a party of negroes, who had 
 been dispatched before, with a cold collation, with punch, 
 malt liquor, and wines. After partaking these refreshments, 
 'we mounted our horses again, and proceeded to the cottage, 
 where the party had engaged to dine. We reached this estate 
 about four o'clock in the afternoon, after travelling upwards 
 of twenty miles, quite tired and fatigued. An excellent din- 
 ner, aided by the sparkling charms of Madeira and claret, and 
 the happy cordiality with which Mr. B. receives and enter- 
 tains his friends, soon dispelled all weariness, and it was not 
 till near morning that this joyous party separated. 
 
 Mahaicony is the principal place in the colony where the 
 colonial craft are built ; all the materials for which, except 
 nails and iron work, are procured from the interior ; they are 
 generally from thirty to forty tons burthen, schooner rigged, 
 with covered decks, they draw only five feet water, and are 
 navigated by negroes. A principal part of the allotments werd 
 granted to Dutchmen, but the opinion which they had ori- 
 ginally founded was not completely eradicated. Some attempts 
 had been made by them to cultivate the sea coast, but these 
 not succeeding as they expected, little more was done in it. 
 Indeed they were soon glad to dispose of their grants, and on
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON* THE DEMERARY, &:C. 303 
 
 such terms and prices as the British subjects, who were arriv- 
 ing daily, were glad to purchase at. 
 
 Many lots of land of two hundred and tifty acres were sold 
 for one and two hundred pounds. One indeed was even ex- 
 changed for a negro, and another was absolutely given for a 
 turkey, by which name the estate now goes, to commemo- 
 rate the anecdote of its purchase. Similar lots to these on the 
 east coast of Berbice have been sold by Mr. Blair, to whom 
 large grants were made for four, five, and six thousand 
 pounds in 1799, 1800, and 1801. 
 
 The national slowness of the Dutch was never so completely 
 verified as in the resettlement of these colonies. They are 
 planters of the old school, and nothing whatever can divert 
 their attention from the traditional manner in which they settle 
 their estates. The system which the English have introduced, 
 insures as much cultivation in one year, as a Hollander would 
 accomplish in four. The one dashes on and prepares a hun- 
 dred acres to plant, while the other is content with twenty- 
 five; his greatest ambition is to make his estate look like a 
 garden, while that of the Englishman is to get the greatest 
 quantity of cotton under cultivation possible, as it has been 
 found by the experience of a series of years, that the quantity, 
 and not the quality, constitutes the profit of the crop. The 
 labor which is saved by the English planters, is almost incal-
 
 so* STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 culable. Instead of cutting down every tree, and removing 
 all the underwood, according to the pernicious example 
 which was set them, they fired all the wood, except that part 
 intended for provision grounds, in direct contradiction to the 
 advice of their friendly though mistaken neighbours, who as- 
 sured them the land would be totally ruined by such a pro- 
 cedure. The event proved it otherwise, as from being too 
 luxuriant before, it was found to be improved ; the megass, 
 or soil generated from putrid foliage, which is generally a 
 foot thick, prevents the fire from penetrating too far so as to 
 injure the land. 
 
 Messrs. B. and H. and Mynheer A. possess two estates on 
 the west coast of Essequebo, four miles distant from each other, 
 the former have only cultivated their estate five years, while 
 the latter has been twenty-five years in cultivating his ; and 
 the difference in the value of the last crop did not exceed five 
 hundred pounds sterling. 
 
 There is a wonderful dissimilarity between the Dutch and 
 English colonists. They naturally both go out with a view of 
 making money ; but the one with an intention of ending his 
 days abroad, and the other of returning to his native country, 
 to live in ease and independence on the fruit of his industry. 
 The first thing a Dutchman does, after he is in possession of an 
 estate, is to build a splendid house; the next thing is to employ
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMEBARY, &C. ^0^ 
 
 his negroes in making a handsome garden; he then gets a 
 pleasure boat, and four or five negroes are immediately put in 
 training for sailors; and lastly, his ambition must be gratified 
 by a curricle and pair of horses. The only thing they agre6 
 in is good living. The pleasures of the table they both are 
 determined to enjoy ; the one in a large splendid house, and 
 the other in a cottage. 
 
 Many English merchants, about 1790, formed establish- 
 ments, and settled in Demerary ; and considerable quantities 
 of British manufactured goods were obtained from the West 
 India islands; but the importation of negroes, or exportation 
 of produce in British shipping, was prohibited as interfering 
 with the Dutch navigation laws. Nevertheless, a barter trade 
 to a considerable amount was carried on privately, and even 
 passed over in silence by the officers of justice. There being 
 no custom-house in the Dutch colonies, that superintendance 
 devolves on the fiscal and receiver. 
 
 The republican war of 1793 threw the inhabitants into great 
 distress ; their intercourse with the mother country was retard- 
 ed, and no business was carrying on, save with America, and 
 the contraband trade with the English. Their military force 
 was reduced to little more than two hundred men ; discontent 
 occupied every breast, and it was with the utmost difficulty 
 that the few remaining troops could be kept in subjection. 
 
 R r
 
 906 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Such was their deplorable situation in 1794-, when very 
 alarming symptoms appeared among the bush negroes, who 
 had been a considerable time in collecting, and were now at 
 this period arrived at such a pitch of temerity, that it was 
 necessary they should be checked. 
 
 The Dutch troops, with a few negroes, were accordingly 
 detached to the west coast of Demerary, where they entered 
 the bush ; but after beating about several days, and having 
 many skirmishes with the insurgents, in which they were de- 
 feated, from being worn out with fatigue, they were obliged 
 to return to the sea coast again, in time to behold the remains 
 of their barracks perishing by the flames, which had been 
 communicated to them by a party of the maroon iiegroes sent 
 out for provisions. They murdered the manager and a mu- 
 latto girl, burnt all the buildings they could approach, one of 
 which had been appropriated for the troops, and stole every 
 thing which was at all valuable, or that could be conveyed away. 
 Such daring outrages as these had the appearance of leading to 
 dangerous consequences, to ward oif which the governor and 
 council thought it advlseable to call on the inhabitants for their 
 assistance, for which purpose, many of tliem volunteered for 
 the service, and a company of rangers was raised, consisting 
 of negroes, which were contributed by the different estates, 
 and placed under the command of Major M. Grath, under 
 whom were Captains Dougan, Johnson, &c. with others in
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 307 
 
 subordinate situations. The armed burghers, or inhabitants, 
 joined the rangers with a number of bucks, or Indians. These 
 people are remarkably averse to the negroes, and have ge- 
 nerally stood foremost in case of any disturbance, to quell 
 the blacks, and protect the Europeans ; indeed they have 
 always here, as in Berbice, evinced a strong desire to maintain 
 and aid the white inhabitants in the sovereignty of the country. 
 
 The combined forces took the field in 1795, formed into two 
 divisions, one of which entered the bush on the west coast, 
 and the other fifteen miles up the river, by Ababbour creek, 
 with an intention of taking a complete circuit, and forming a 
 junction. They were provided with several trusty negro 
 guides, one of whom I very well knew, of the name of Gen- 
 tleman : he belonged to an estate up the river, and had been 
 purchased among other negroes out of an African cargo, at 
 Grenada, and brought thence, by his masters, to settle on a 
 sugar estate they possessed. This negro, from his uniform 
 good conduct, soon gained the esteem and confidence of his 
 owners, and from his sincere attachment to them, was looked 
 upon as a favourite, which, liowever, was shewn in no other 
 way than by trifling presents at a chance time. His house, 
 his way of living, and indeed his employment, seldom dif- 
 fered from that of others, except when any commission re- 
 quired a confidential servant, then Gentleman was generally 
 fixed on. He possesses good plain sense, considering the way 
 
 Rr 2
 
 308 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 in which he was bred among the savages of Africa. He was 
 active and sharp sighted, had a. clear head, made himself ac- 
 quainted with the principal passes and paths to the revolted 
 negroes encampments, which he acquired by dint of persever- 
 ance and industry, at the risk of his life, by making excursions, 
 into the wood at night, by which means he discovered their 
 places of retirement: he used especially to watch their carrying 
 plantains, which they had stolen from the neighbouring plan- 
 tain walks ; he was once or twice near being caught, in which 
 event they would, have had no hesitation in killing him as a spy. 
 He has always proved himself a faithful and honest negro, and 
 except one failing, that of being rather too fond of rum, is 
 free from vice. Few negroes possess ideas of honor and in- 
 tegrity in a greater degree than he does. With all these good 
 qualities, Gentleman could not fail of being eminently service- 
 able to the division to which he was attached. I have fre- 
 quently questioned him as to the nature of his own country, 
 of which, he speaks with the utmost dislike and contempt. 
 " Buckra (white men's) country more good ; here so, me only 
 one massa, in a dat country for me, every man my massa, 
 suppose he more strong than meself. They catchee me and 
 make me work for them king; suppose me no want for work 
 them sail kill me : sometime them king make war and one 
 noder somebody get me for work ; them no give me victuals, 
 them no give me rum, them no give me blanket, them no 
 good like a buckra massa, them flog and them kill them slaves
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DElVrERARY, &C. SOd 
 
 like a hell ; suppose one king kickkaraboo (die), they kill all 
 the slaves too." From this artless and unadorned tale, may 
 be collected a great deal to prove the wretched situation of the 
 negroes in tiieir own country, and with what arbitrary sway 
 and despotism the petty kings, or rather barons, in Africa 
 govern their vassals and slaves. 
 
 But to return to the bush expedition, which, after consider- 
 able fatigue, succeeded in surrounding an encampment, or 
 negro village, in the night, consisting of seven huts. Many 
 of the inhabitants were absent ; however, a number of them 
 were taken, and those who resisted were shot and slain in the 
 confusion of the moment. The Indians acted with great in- 
 veteracy against the insurgents. A reward of ten pounds ster- 
 ling being offered by the court for each right hand that was 
 brought in belonging to a bush negro, they made no hesitation 
 in disencumbering those killed, of these members. The gar- 
 dens and provision grounds in the back country, which had 
 been vigorously defended, were of considerable use to the 
 pursuing party ; for the revolters had rooted up and laid waste 
 every thing, burning every building, and desolating every 
 plantation. 
 
 The prisoners were sent in under an escort of rangers, who 
 seeing every thing consumed and rendered useless, commenced 
 their march again in search of the hostile encampment. They
 
 310 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 kept the field for several weeks with little or no intermission/ 
 until the health of the Europeans employed in the under- 
 taking, obliged them to retreat, without even being able to dis- 
 cover the main hiding place of the adversary. They repelled 
 the gipsey foe into inaccessible districts. The promptitude 
 and active manner in which the planters undertook this busi- 
 ness, deserves the warmest praise, as they evidently prevented 
 the insurrection from being extended, and brought to an open 
 rebellion, in which case, all the disaffected in the colony 
 would have joined, and from the weak state of the military 
 force, would soon have had the colony in their own power. 
 The governor and court of police were aware of the ser- 
 vices rendered, and in their vote of thanks, which was sent 
 both in the Dutch and English languages, intbrmed the prin- 
 cipal officers of the expedition, that they would immediately 
 take into consideration the best means to be adopted for 
 granting them each a lot of land on the Pomaroon coast, in 
 consideration of their services. Those in subordinate offices 
 were remunerated for their loss of time, and handsome pre- 
 sents were made to all. The Indians and negroes were not 
 forgotten : many of them had silver medals given them for 
 encouragement, with each particular service engraved thereon. 
 The Indian chieftains were presented with large handsome 
 sticks, with silver heads, as mementos of their services, and 
 of their attachment to the Europeans. These encouragements 
 were calculated to do considerable service, and to excite emu-
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 311 
 
 lation and good conduct in others ; they will be handed down 
 to posterity as marks of distinction and approbation. 
 
 This business being so happily got over, the planters and 
 merchants turned their attention to their own particular situa- 
 tion. Belonging to a country which could neither protect 
 them, nor their trade, whose European government and inha- 
 bitants were divided by factions, which have finally made 
 them a dray horse to a Corsican usurper. Something was ne- 
 cessary to be done to enable them to open their ports, and ship 
 from the colony the produce which had been accumulating 
 for several years. A little trade with North America, and a 
 heavy barter trade for negroes and produce with the English, 
 were the only vents they had for any of their productions, and 
 these, at the utmost, did not dispose of more than one-third 
 of the annual crop. The English contraband trade, from a 
 small beginning, increased so much, that the government was 
 obliged to take notice of it, and a Dutch sloop of war, which 
 was lying in the river, constantly kept out boats of observa- 
 tion, to prevent a continuance of the trade. The English ves- 
 sels used to anchor otF the coast as regularly as in a harbour, 
 and kept always prepared a warm reception for these Dutch 
 cruizers, in case they should come athwart them with hostile 
 views. On the appearance of any vessels on the coast, these 
 immediately returned into the river, and by feeing persons 
 supposed to be in good understanding with the fiscal, every
 
 S12 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 thing was rendered eventually easy for the EngUsh planters 
 and merchants to slip out with their schooners, though most 
 of the produce exported this way, went from the east sea coast, 
 by which means it avoided passing the fort at the mouth of 
 the river. 
 
 Destitute of almost every article of European manufacture 
 and convenience, the military force reduced so very low as two 
 hundred men, and these so nearly in a state of mutiny, as to 
 make it synonymous to being without any ; the colonies began 
 to be conscious in this situation that they should fall an easy 
 prey to any adventurous plunderer. Victor Hugues' arrival 
 at Cayenne began to be noised abroad, his repeated procla- 
 mations of liberty and equality, which breathed vengeance on 
 all the possessions not immediately in possession of the French, 
 called on a rabble of idle and disaffected negroes and mulattoes 
 to join, to whom he promised freedom, and held out a glit- 
 tering prospect of glory. He succeeded in deluding six 
 thousand misguided objects to join him, whom he armed, and 
 disciplined, with an intention of taking possession of Dutch 
 Guyana, and finally of revolutionizing all the British posses- 
 sions in the West Indies. The dread of being consigned to 
 the mercy of such a band of lawless miscreants as composed 
 Victor Hugues* army, determined the inhabitants to apply for 
 advice and protection to the island of Barbadoes, where some 
 considerable proprietors resided who had also estates in
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, fcc. 315 
 
 Guyana. A short account of the French establishment at Cay- 
 enne, must convince every one how much wiser it was to 
 court the superintendence of a British, than of a French au- 
 thority. 
 
 The province of Cayenne is situated in about 53 degrees 
 W. longitude, and 5 N. latitude, its principal settlement and 
 seat of government is near the coast on a small island of the 
 same name. It is bounded on the west by Surinam, on the 
 north and east by the Atlantic ocean, and to the southward 
 by the Portuguese territories, whence it is separated by the 
 course of the Oyapoco as far as its boundaries have been de- 
 fined ; the extent is computed to be three hundred and fifty 
 British miles in length, by two hundred and forty in breadth. 
 
 The French undertook, in 1635, the colonization of Cay- 
 enne. Merchants of Rouen were the chief patrons of the 
 scheme; Ponceau de Bretigny, the official governor of the 
 settlers. The contempt for justice, which every where dis- 
 tinguishes the French, was here fatal to their interests. The 
 native Indians, expelled from their lands without even an at- 
 tempt at consent or purchase, robbed of their huts for the ac- 
 commodation of strangers, deprived of the society and labor 
 of their women by the seductions or violence of the whites, 
 and often compelled to toil for their oppressors, conspired 
 
 s s
 
 314 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 against the intruders, murdered the governor, and greatly 
 harrassed and thinned the settlers. , 
 
 On receiving this intelligence in France, a new company 
 was proposed, and a reinforcement of a thousand colonists. 
 Other merchants were to share in the enterprize. The former 
 adventurers had erred by their violence ; these were to carry 
 out every christian virtue. The multitude indeed could only 
 be recruited from among persons of broken fortunes and cha- 
 racter; but these it was presumed would copy from their 
 chiefs. The abbe Marivault, a most pious, virtuous, and re 
 spectable ecclesiastic, was to be the governor, or rather high- 
 priest, of this new Jerusalem ; the general Roiville was in- 
 tended for a subordinate character. In the act of embarking, 
 at Havre, the abbe Marivault's foot was said to have slipped ; 
 he fell into the sea, and was drowned. Roiville was assassi- 
 nated during the passage. Those who arrived at Cayenne, 
 displayed there, the same insubordination and atrocity which 
 had broke loose on ship-board. They quarrelled with each 
 other, with the former settlers, and with the natives; many 
 died of wounds, more of the climate. The garrison deserted 
 to the Dutch. The remnant of settlers, who clung longest 
 to their properties, were obliged to fly from the hostility of 
 the Indians, and escaped to one of the leeward islands in a 
 boat and two canoes. Thus failed the second attempt to settle
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, kc. 315 
 
 Cayenne, and all the hopes of that company who had been at 
 so piuch expence and trouble to colonize it. 
 
 An expedition was soon after fitted out from Surinam, under 
 the command of Spranger to take possession of the settle- 
 ments thus evacuated by the French ; scarsely any adherent 
 population was detected ; few materials that were worth remov- 
 ing, or structures worth occupying afresh. It was, in fact, a 
 visit of inspection, which terminated in systematic abandon- 
 ment, but which serves to prove that Cayenne is a natural ap- 
 purtenance of Paramaribo. 
 
 In 1663, another West India company was established in 
 France, under the directorship of La Barre. Their capital did 
 not exceed ten thousand pounds sterling; but the great assist- 
 ance they derived from the French government enabled them 
 to regain the possession of the lands, and imbankments, which 
 the former company had evacuated. Cayenne came again 
 into the hands of the mother country ; but not for a long con 
 tinuance. The English took it in 1667, and it was afterwards 
 taken by the Dutch in 1676. The colony being restored to 
 the French at a peace, great hopes were now entertained of 
 its enjoying tranquillity, and realizing those hopes of gain, 
 which had so long dazzled the eyes of the adventurers; but 
 in this respect they were again mistaken. 
 
 s s 2
 
 516 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Du Casse, wlio was a good seaman, arrived with some ships 
 from France, in 1688, at Cayenne, and by various means in- 
 stigated a party of pirates, who had settled there two years be- 
 fore with a large valuable booty, which they had taken in the 
 south seas, and who were now employed in cultivating the 
 land, to join him in plundering Surinam. Many of the other 
 colonists, induced by the designing arts of this adventurer, 
 joined him, but the expedition proved vmfortunate — some of 
 the besiegers fell in the attack, the rest were taken prisoners, 
 and sent to the French Carribbee islands, where they settled. 
 The colony has never recovered this loss ; far from extending 
 into Guyana, it has only languished at Cayenne. 
 
 The island of Cayanno, or Cayenne, is separated from the 
 continent only by two arms of a river of the same name, and 
 is about eighteen miles long and eight or ten broad ; its situa- 
 tion makes it a most unfit place for a settlement, and it would 
 have fared much better with the colonists had they com- 
 menced on the main. The land adjacent the sea, is hilly and 
 mountainous, and that in the center low and swampy, con- 
 tinually subject to inundations, to prevent which, no other 
 plan can be adopted but that which has been followed in the 
 neighbouring colonies, of digging dykes and draining into the 
 sea. It is much doubted whether the soil is good enough to 
 repay the expending of so much labor. This island is well
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, tScC. 317 
 
 fortified, the entrance into the harbour is very narrow, and 
 no ship of any burthen can work in until high water. 
 
 The aboriginal natives in the immediate neighbourhood of 
 the sea coast, cannot exceed eight thousand, who, by the as- 
 sistance of several missionaries sent among them, were induced 
 to think better of the French then they deserved, from their 
 repeated acts of oppression. 
 
 The first production of Cayenne was arnotto, a red dye, 
 called by the Spaniards, achate, and by the Indians, achiotl. 
 The tree that yields this is from eighteen to twenty-four feet 
 high, has large dark green leaves, a red bark, and is very 
 bushy; it produces pods twice a year, nearly as large as a 
 chesnut, which contain a pale red fruit or seed, about the size 
 of a pea, which is made into cakes of arnotto, by undergoing 
 fermentation and boiling ; the scum taken from the liquor 
 constitutes the dye. Cotton, indigo, and sugar, were next 
 introduced, and in 1721, coffee was brought from Surinam. 
 Twelve years after, they planted cocoa. In 1753, the popu- 
 lation and production stood thus : 500 whites, who employed 
 1500 negroes, and 1200 native Indians, and produced about 
 260,000 lbs. of arnotto, 80,000 lbs. of sugar, 1 8,000 lbs. of 
 cotton, 27,000 lbs. of coffee, 92,000 lbs. of cocoa, and this 
 was still nearly the situation of the colony in 1763. The cul-
 
 318 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 tivation of indigo, which at one time was carried on success- 
 fully, has greatly fallen off. The plant which yields indigo 
 grows up in about six months ; when cut, it is placed in layers 
 within a tub of water, and pressed down by weights. The 
 water soon begins to ferment, then becomes opaque and green, 
 and lastly acquires a putrid smell. After a certain length of 
 fermentation, the leaves grow white ; the green liquid is then 
 poured off and agitated until blue streaks appear ; after this, 
 fresh water is added, and a blue precipitate is formed, which, 
 being drained in linen bags and dried in the sun-shine, forms 
 the dying drug called indigo. Maize, cassia, varrilla, have 
 succeeded, but not conspicuously at Cayenne; with the cassia, 
 however, a very transparent colourless liqueur is prepared from 
 rum, which is in great request on the tables of the luxurious 
 at Paramaribo. and throughout these colonies. The Cayenne 
 pepper, as it is called, is the fruit of the capsicum baccatum, 
 gathered when ripe, dried in the sun, then pounded and 
 mixed with salt. It is sometimes baked with a small addition 
 of flour; and the biscuit rasped into powder, is sent to Europe. 
 Several kinds of grapes have been lately introduced, and a 
 wine is made there said to be peculiarly medicinal in fevers. 
 The French have succeeded better than other Europeans in 
 obtaining labourers from among the bucks, or native Ameri- 
 cans, and are supposed to import them from near the river of 
 Amazons, toward which an annual caravan marches, and
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 319 
 
 holds along its route a circuit of fairs. The Portuguese have 
 repeatedly attacked and massacred these caravans, for en- 
 croaching on their territory. 
 
 The extent of coast of this country is nearly three hundred 
 British miles, bounded by the Oyapoco on one side, and the 
 Surinam on the other ; the navigation coastways is very 
 dangerous, to strangers especially, as their course is frequently 
 retarded by banks of sand and mud flats of considerable e"xtent, 
 which frequently shift. There is no harbour of any conse- 
 quence except that which the island affords, and from an un- 
 pardonable neglect in the colonists, scarcely a place on the sea 
 coast where a boat can land with safety ; nay not approach it 
 in spring tides, when the rollers and breakers are so heavy. 
 From there being little or no cultivation here, the land is con- 
 tinually inundated. The smallest vessels cannot come within 
 three or four miles in particular parts of the shore, without 
 running imminent danger of being upset, or entangled with the 
 forests of mangroves, and other trees, which rise up out of 
 the very sea. By a proper method of cultivation, all this 
 might have been rescued from inundation, and have secured 
 to the mother country an inexhaustible track of country, A 
 vast capital, however, would have been requisite, and must 
 have been permanently fixed there by the planters: the system 
 of French commerce does not facilitate such advances to the 
 dependent industry. Bordeaux cannot supply to the concate
 
 320 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 nated sea-ports of the colonies, the grand staple of exertion and 
 thrift. A demand for produce instantaneous and uninterrupted, 
 and long credits, to any extent which can be usuriously paid 
 for, are essential in all new countries. 
 
 Soon after the peace of 1763, the court of Versailles, in- 
 fluenced by the Duke of Choiseul, made vigorous efforts to 
 give importance to Cayenne. Twelve thousand men, en- 
 gaged in France as labourers, were landed, some in the isle 
 du Salset, and some on the banks of the Kourou ; but alas 
 no habitation or proper provision had been made for them. 
 To add to their calamities, they arrived at the commence- 
 ment of a rainy season. Situated thus, without fit food and 
 shelter, without employ from the heaviness of the rains, 
 weary of existence from their deplorable situation, they aban- 
 doned themselves to shocking irregularities, which brought 
 on contagious distempers, and soon terminated their wretched 
 fate. Fifteen hundred men, who had escaped the mortality 
 of disease, were washed away by the floods which assailed their 
 ill-chosen settlement. Two thousand demanded to return to 
 Europe and were unwillingly brought back. About a mil- 
 lion sterling was uselessly expended on the enterprize. 
 
 During the American war, the victory achieved by Ad- 
 miral Rodney, in April 1780, offered to our ministry a fa- 
 vourable opportunity for ordering Cayenne and Paramaribo
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 321 
 
 to be occupied by British forces. No steps of the kind were 
 taken. Ignorance of the importance, which under our patron- 
 age these most valuable districts of South America were likely 
 to acquire, was, perhaps, in part the cause of the neglect. 
 But the statesmen of that day, if statesmen they can be called, 
 appear to have laboured under a worse, because more incurable, 
 disease than ignorance, under prejudice. They both professed 
 and fostered a culpable indiflerence to acquisition and empire, 
 and voluntarily shook the cohesion of provinces, which they 
 regarded as too extensive for a single seat of government. In 
 order to bestow liberty on North America, it was not necessary 
 to encourage independence; and thus to withdraw half the 
 naval population of English sailors from the obligation to 
 defend the mother country. 
 
 From the peace of 1783 to the French revolution, the go- 
 vernment of Versailles was meritoriously attentive to the 
 improvement of Cayenne. Botanic gardens were founded 
 there, and the plants of the East Indies were brought at a con 
 siderable expense, and cultivated in a sort of nursery for dis- 
 tribution among the planters ; cinnamon trees have thus been 
 propagated to some extent ; the bamboo would have been yet 
 more valuable. These scientific establishments have not been 
 perseveringly patronized ; but they have been instrumental to 
 the introduction of novel articles of cultivation into San Do-. 
 mingo ; and, through the fugitive planters from that scene of 
 
 T t
 
 S22 STATISTICAL ACCOUKT OF THE 
 
 insurrection and desolation, these new productions are likely 
 to be naturalized in Jamaica. 
 
 Those French planters who are born in the West Indies, as- 
 similate easily with the English planters. The patriotism of 
 the soil is stronger than any hereditary or traditional allegi- 
 ance. The manners of the climate, the notions of feudality, 
 are common to both, and jar with the European catechism. 
 In Dominique, Martinique, and other islands, which have 
 been ceded to Great Britain, the Creole French are good sub- 
 jects, and form a faithful attachment for that metropolis which 
 purchases their commodities and supplies their wants. But 
 those French, who are natives of Europe, do not acquire this 
 common feeling with the British planters ; they are neither 
 welcome nor safe colonists. In Cayenne and in San Domingo, 
 many of these took part with the agitators, and sympathized 
 with the proclamations of Victor Hugues. The mischief done 
 in San Domingo is notorious. At Cayenne, the people of 
 color did not make common cause with the emissaries of jaco- 
 binism; the slaves could not read the eloquence of Brissot; and 
 when it came to the lot of the original incendiaries to be trans- 
 ported to these districts, which they had endeavoured to ino- 
 culate with the fever of rebellion, they found no employment 
 adapted for their talents, and less hospitality than a wiser phi- 
 lanthropy would have secured. Some of them, however, 
 have learned to cultivate land with the help of slaves, and may
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 323 
 
 perhaps live to uuteach the prejudices and errors, which they 
 put into such destructive activity. 
 
 It is of no small importance for Great Britain to remember, 
 that to the fear of these dangerous opinions and of a servile war, 
 was owing the first intimation of a disposition among the inha- 
 bitants of Essequebo and the adjoini'ig districts, to throw them- 
 selves xmder British protection. These colonies were con- 
 quered, as the acts of parliament phrase it, vnider the implied 
 engagement to maintain subordination in opposition to anarchy; 
 and I should much fear from the Dutch proprietors, the avowal 
 of a disposition to resume their ancient allegiance, if Bonaparte 
 and his dependent kings become the patrons of vassalage, and 
 Great Britain, of emancipation. The condition of the negroes 
 is here the question which men have most at heart. 
 
 It was soon after the capture of Saint Lucia by the British, 
 that a flag of truce arrived from Barbadoes with an Essequebo 
 proprietor on board, who had very frequent conferences with 
 the governor, the time he remained, which was only two days, 
 and who was said to be the bearer of some communication, 
 or terms, from the commanders in chief of the British forces. 
 Thus far is certain, that, unless he came over in an official ca- 
 pacity, he could not have obtained passports, as a flag of truce, 
 merely for his private concerns ; and the universal silence 
 maintained as to the object of his mission, no less than the event 
 
 T t L'
 
 324 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 of it, justifies the general opinion. A guard was kept on 
 board the vessel during her stay, and after her departure, re- 
 ports began to circulate, which gained credit, as neutral ves- 
 sels arrived from the West India islands, stating that an ex- 
 pedition was fitting out at Barbadoes, intended for the reduc- 
 tion of these colonies. The governor no doubt was acquainted 
 with its destination; 'however, to keep up appearances, he 
 made no relaxation in providing means for defence, his family 
 and furniture were removed from town to the Rome estate, no 
 doubt to preserve the one from the dangers and hardships of 
 the seat of war, and the other from the destruction which 
 would necessarily accrue to a town being stormed by the British 
 ships of war; all these reflections were properly considered 
 and weighed in the mind of his Excellency, and were acted 
 on with a visible degree of spirit, to impress on the minds 
 of those under his government, opinions which he did not 
 perhaps thoroughly entertain. Several of the Dutch inhabi- 
 tants of Stabroek, actuated by the example set them by Mr. 
 Meertens, also removed their books, papers, and articles of 
 value, to places of greater safety. 
 
 A short time had elapsed since the departure of the flag of 
 truce, when the river was blockaded by an English sloop of 
 war, the Netley. A gentleman was landed from her on the 
 east coast, who made arrangements with the planters for send- 
 ing out their colony schooners to be captured for the time
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 325 
 
 being: they were to remain under her orders, until the expedi- 
 tion, which had sailed from Barbadoes, should arrive, as they 
 would be found essentially necessary for landing the forces, in 
 case any opposition on the part of the Dutch rendered such a 
 procedure necessary. 
 
 A great parade of determined resistance was now made, so 
 much so, that the English inhabitants felt themselves awk- 
 wardly situated, and began to fear, there was more in it than 
 they were aware of; as the force the Dutch had, if properly 
 arranged and commanded, could make it a matter of consider- 
 able doubt, whether the English force would be successful, 
 owing to the bulwarks of defence which nature had provided, 
 in the shallowness of the coasts, and the little effectual aid the 
 colonists themselves could give, (though three fourths of them 
 had been originally British subjects) on account of the oath 
 of allegiance they had been obliged to ta:ke to the Batavian 
 government. 
 
 These fears and doubts were soon expelled, for on the 18th 
 of September, a flag of truce came into the river fi-om the fleet, 
 which was still out of sight, with a summons to the governor 
 and council to surrender the colonies ; a council of war was 
 again called, and a deputation sent off with full powers to ca- 
 pitulate.
 
 526 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 The beneficial effects of British conquest, which imme- 
 diately converts into a fair the place taken under protection, 
 and enriches the inhabitants as rapidly as French conquest im- 
 poverishes, were soon apparent to all. The British capital 
 now invested in the colonies made them of serious importance, 
 and a grand object with the mercantile and monied interest of 
 Great Britain to retain ; the mere claims on them being esti- 
 mated, at the time of the peace of Amiens, at ten millions 
 sterling, for advances made by the merchants of London, Li- 
 verpool, Bristol, and Glasgow, since 1796. Several respect- 
 able men were ruined, and others severely felt the versatility 
 of government in ceding, by that disastrous treaty, so much 
 British capital to its natural enemy, for although the Batavian 
 republic lent its name, the colonies were given up to enrich 
 the French, under whose influence and principles they were 
 governed. The British government taking colonies in time of 
 war, is always an encouragement for the English inhabitants 
 to extend their cultivation, and invest their capital in the pur- 
 chase of estates already made, as was evidently the case during 
 the anti-jacobin war; they, as well as the monied men in Eng- 
 land, supposed the colonies would be retained at a peace. 
 Under this idea seven eighths of the cultivated estates belong- 
 ing to Dutchmen and other foreigners, were purchased by 
 spirited English adventurers, who, from motives of prudence, 
 preferred settling in these extensive and flourishing continental
 
 ( 
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 327 
 
 provinces to Investing their capital in the West India islands, 
 which are declining in fertility, and scarsely produce interest 
 for the capital employed. These colonies were originally 
 settled by British industry and capital, and may date their 
 second birth and fresh invigoration from their resumption by 
 a British authority. 
 
 These colonies, where upwards of tifteen millions of British 
 capital are employed, produce more than all the West India 
 islands jointly^ Jamaica excepted. These colonies, which 
 consume so many British manufactured goods, employ such 
 a proportion of shipping and seamen in their navigation, that 
 they might have been looked up to as a never-failing resource 
 against the declining state of our own islands. Besides raising 
 taxes for the support of civil government, and paying certain 
 dues and fees, stiled sovereign's money, they have produced a 
 revenue to the crown of Great Britain of two millions annu- 
 ally, yet they were unthinkingly given back at the peace of 
 Amiens. If such a pernicious system as this continues to be 
 followed, Bonaparte will soon gain one of his most ardent 
 wishes — " Colonies, commerce, and ships." The first he will 
 acquire ready made on a valuable and extensive scale by Bri- 
 tish gold, industry, and perseverance, and the others will fol- 
 low of course. Enthusiastic ideas of liberty and equality, and 
 mistaken notions of humanity, by striving at emancipating 
 the negroes, severed from Fiance one of the props of that re
 
 328 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT 0? THE 
 
 public ; St. Domingo is alluded to, the devastation and ruin of 
 which is severely felt to this day, especially by the merchants 
 of Bourdeaux. That dreadful example of blood-shed and 
 slaughter, by a too sudden precipitation of the negroes into 
 freedom, is equalled but by similar occurrences which took 
 place in France at the same period; surely it ought to make 
 the avowed friends to the emancipation of our colonial culti- 
 vators tremble at the idea of the misery which they Iiave been 
 tending to bring on pur West India possessions.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 329 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 PLANTERS -"THEIR MODE OF OBTAINING ADVANCES THE 
 
 DISCREDIT INFLICTED BY THE PEACE OF AMIENS — GAL- 
 
 LICANISM OF THE RESTORED DUTCH AUTHORITIES 
 
 ENGLISH VESSELS ASSUME DUTCH COLORS NEW RU- 
 MOURS OF A WAR IN EUROPE FRESH DISTRESS AMONG 
 
 THE PLANTERS AND MERCHANTS DAMAGES ON RE- 
 TURNED BILLS MISCHIEF OF A FLUCTUATING SOVE- 
 REIGNTY ORDERLY CHARACTER OF THE NEGROES PA- 
 TIENCE OF THE BLACKS DURING FAMINE INHUMANITY 
 
 PUNISHED REGULATIONS TO PREVENT FUTURE SCAR- 
 
 SITY SMALL INFLUENCE OF THE SETTLEMENTS ON THE 
 
 SURINAM OVER THOSE ON THE DEMERARY AND ESSE- 
 QUEBO — BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE RISE OF PARAMARIBO 
 • — A MORE INTIMATE COMMUNICATION DESIRABLE, 
 
 JL HE planters are usually persons who possess a capital 
 from two to twenty thousand pounds. With less than the 
 former sum they cannot easily commence their career ; nor 
 do they care to forsake it with less than the latter. They are 
 generally enabled to procure credit with their merchant in 
 
 uu
 
 330 . STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 England for a sum proportionate to the value of their estate, 
 by way of mortgage. This they draw for, as their necessities 
 require, in bills at long dates. The Demerary planters at 
 this time were held in high estimation and credit, from hav- 
 ing had large crops and good prices for their produce. Specu- 
 lation was. run throughout the colony. Very large engage- 
 ments were entered into by the planters, and the general 
 method of drawing on their correspondents was resorted to, 
 to fulfil them. These drafts were drawn previously to the 
 account of peace arriving, but the fate of the colonies being 
 too well known in England, they met with dishonour, arid 
 bills before noted for non acceptance at long sights were 
 finally protested for non payment. Drafts to the amount of 
 five hundred thousand pounds were returned in this state to 
 the planters for re-payment, with an addition of twenty-five 
 per cent, being the damages allowed by the Dutch laws on 
 dishonoured drafts. 
 
 Such a procedure created a demand on the planters of six 
 hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds, which they had 
 every reason to think would have been discharged in Eng- 
 land ; they had also, relying on these engagements being ful- 
 filled, entered into others equally extensive. The merchants 
 apd manufacturers of England severely felt the loss of their 
 remittances; the utmost confusion prevailed amongst the 
 planters; and the only expedient which could be hit on to
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 331 
 
 disembarrass them, was to form connections with the agents 
 of houses from Holland, who had now arrived in Demerary 
 for that purpose. 
 
 On the 3d December, 1802, the colonies were taken pos- 
 session of by the Batavian troops, and citizen Anthony Meer- 
 tens, a man of avowed French principles, and ostentatious in 
 his dislike to the British, was sworn into the office of gover- 
 nor in the presence of the military force, which consisted of 
 two thousand men, under the command of Colonel DeMelle; 
 they were as tine a body of men as any person would wish 
 to see, but upwards of seven hundred of them, within the 
 short space of nine months, fell victims to the climate and 
 other connected causes. 
 
 The intercourse with Holland being now completely es- 
 tablished, all the shipments were made to that country, and a 
 number of the English vessels revisited the colony under 
 Dutch colors, established and possessed by British merchants, 
 who had been induced to go and settle in Amsterdam and Rot- 
 terdam, from the claims they had on these colonies. Every 
 thing thus appearing in its regular train, and the mercantile 
 connections being re-established with Holland, the dishonoured 
 drafts were renewed by others on that country, and one good 
 crop was expected to bring the planters round to their former 
 respectability. But it was decreed otherwise ; for in May, 
 
 u u 2
 
 332 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 1803, English newspapers were brought to the colony de- 
 scribing the situation of affairs in Europe ; in June, an em- 
 bargo took place on all the shipping, except the American 
 vessels, who were now admitted by virtue of the governor's 
 proclamation to a free trade. Two British vessels were de- 
 tained, and the cargoes of those under Dutch colors were 
 ordered to be landed. From the non arrival of vessels from 
 Europe, the colonies were in the greatest distress, and in want 
 of almost every thing. 
 
 It was soon known through the medium of neutral vessels, 
 that war was declared between England and France; and 
 through the same channel also, as the packet letters were 
 regularly sent from Barbadoes, that the bills drawn on Hol- 
 land, in renewal of those dishonoured, were noted for non 
 acceptance, and certainly would be protested at maturity, as 
 no merchant in Holland would think of making any ad- 
 vances to Demerary, &c. in time of war; the situation of 
 the merchants and planters was really distressing. Bills re- 
 turning on them every day, accompanied with pressing let- 
 ters from England, praying that provision may be made for 
 such bills. Under these teasing circumstances, suffering 
 under a loss of two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, so 
 large was the mere damages on the bills without interest and 
 other expenses, which could not possibly be avoided from the 
 nature of the business between the colonies and mother
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 333 
 
 country, accounts were daily reaching them of the capture of 
 vessels homeward bound, with valuable cargoes, the amount 
 of which being insured at a peace premium only against the 
 risk of sea and weather, could of course not be recovered from 
 the underwriters. The governor and council, to preserve the 
 planters against the torrent of dishonoured paper, and suits in- 
 stituted by the merchants for the recovery of their demands, 
 found it necessary to stop the progress of justice, and close the 
 courts for a few weeks, which was accordingly done, for hav- 
 ing no vent for their produce, how could the planters derive 
 advantage from it ? and from there being no fixed colonial 
 price, it would not there be taken in payment. 
 
 It is true that an order from the king and council was given to 
 restore all produce belonging to British subjects which was cap- 
 tured on its way home; but this was of little avail, as it was ac- 
 companied with such restrictions that few of the sufferers were 
 enabled to benefit from it. One stipulation was the making 
 an affidavit, wherein the deponent must make oath that he is 
 a British born subject ; that it was his intention to leave the 
 colony within three years, the time allowed by the treaty of 
 Amiens for the English inhabitants to wind up their aft'airs, 
 and that, for this purpose, he or they had absolutely offered and 
 made every attempt in their power to sell their estates. Now 
 as this was far from the intention of most of the planters so 
 situated, they could not consistently make the required depo-
 
 334 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 sition, by which means three-fourtlis of them totally lost their 
 captured property. The other proportion, by acceding to 
 the stipulation proposed, recovered their produce, but in such 
 a mutilated state, that what with the expenses and fees of of- 
 fice attending the recovery, one half of the amount was ex- 
 pended in recovering the other. Under these circumstances 
 the total loss sustained by the peace of Amiens may be calcu- 
 lated as follows : 
 
 Damages on bills returned - - ^.250,000 
 
 Expences of law suits, noting, protesting, 
 
 postage, interest, &c. - - - - , 10,000 
 Captures made by the British - - 1,000,000 
 
 oC. 1,260,000 
 Recovered by order of the king and council 125,000 
 
 «£.l, 135,000 
 
 This statement of facts, I should hope, will satisfactorily 
 explain the causes of the late unpleasant situation of the co- 
 lonies, and moreover, account to those connected with them, 
 for the shortness of remittances which would in no way have 
 been experienced had they remained under the British flag. 
 But the repeated changes of their government, proved of very 
 serious detriment to them. The loss of upwards of one million
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 335 
 
 one hundred thousand pounds sterUng to an infant settlement, 
 would naturally be felt a long time after. On the colonies ca- 
 pitulating to the British, in this present war, expectations were 
 entertained that immediate remittances, to a large amount, 
 would be made to Great Britain, but great obstacles occurred 
 to prevent their accomplishment. From a drought, scarsely 
 ever experienced before, in 1803—4, nearly the whole crop 
 of plantains, the negroes chief food, failed, and those that 
 came to perfection were purchased with avidity from three 
 shillings and four-pence to five shillings per bunch, when the 
 current price is only seven-pence halfpenny, and much better 
 and larger in a good season than those which now sold at such 
 an extravagant price. The plantations which had a large 
 quantity of ground provisions, such as yams, sweet cassada, 
 and potatoes, ochres, callallieu, peas, beans, &c. found their 
 account in it. To make up the deficiency, large importa- 
 tions were made from North America and the West India 
 islands, of flour, rice, maize, &c. a quantity of the latter, 
 however, was produced in the colonies, but not equal to the 
 consumption. The importations within the twelve months 
 may be computed as follows : — 30,000 barrels of flour, 6,000 
 hogsheads of rice, 1,000 puncheons of Indian corn ; all of 
 which sold at immense high prices, and for cash or present 
 bill. Thus these large and unexpected demands consumed 
 the available part of the planters' funds intended for tlie liqui- 
 dation of their debts.
 
 336 • STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Considerable praise is due to the negroes for their orderly 
 and good conduct throughout the scarsity, or rather famine ; 
 the change of diet did not agree with them, though medical 
 assistance, port wine, sago, &c. were administered with in- 
 creased attention. The number of deaths was never equalled 
 in the same space of time. On many estates, the negroes only 
 worked half days, and were allowed the remainder of the 
 time to fish, and attend to their own concerns. 
 
 A circumstance which redounds to the honor of the court of 
 justice at Demerary, I will relate. A Dutchman, well known 
 on the east sea coast of that colony for the vulgarity of his 
 person, coarseness of mind, and litigiousness of character, and 
 possessing two clear unincumbered plantations, worked by 
 three or four hundred negroes, was the only person during the 
 scarsity convicted of ill treating them. It appeared that his ne- 
 groes had been without provisions being served to them, a week 
 or ten days, without any other cause being assigned for it than 
 that flour was too dear. The poor fellows were continued at 
 their work as usual, without any other food than that which 
 they could pick up off their own grounds, or beg from their 
 neighbours. Such was their situation, that incapable of sub- 
 sisting any longer, they came to a determination to send a de- 
 putation to wait on the fiscal, at Stabroek, to lay before him a 
 state of the case, and request immediate assistance for their 
 fellow sufferers. The fiscal conferred with the governor, and
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, StC. 337 
 
 an extraordinary court was called. The charges were made by 
 the negroes, and supported by witnesses brought for that pur- 
 pose; it was clearly proved that the proprietor might have 
 purchased provisions for his negroes, but would not. The 
 court declared him incapable, and an improper person to ma- 
 nage his own affairs; they therefore appointed curators, or trus- 
 tees, to superintend the estates, and bound him under a severe 
 penalty and the displeasure of the court, to reside off the estate, 
 and not interfere with the direction of the plantations, negroes, 
 &c. the court making itself answerable for all the produce. A 
 similar charge was brought against a Dutchman of Essequebo; 
 suffice it to say, though he was a member of the honourable 
 court of justice of that colony, he was fined fifteen thousand 
 guilders. To prevent, if possible, ever such an occurrence 
 again, the court of police revised and corrected the laws re- 
 specting provisions, and made the penalties and fines so high, 
 as to insure their being attended to. Sworn surveyors were 
 sent round the colonies to measure all the plantain walks, and 
 those estates which had not an acre of full grown plantains for 
 every four negroes, had heavy penalties inflicted on them. 
 
 This scarsity was by no means equally grievous in the shire 
 of Surinam, where longer experience of the casualities of this 
 climate had taught the planters better to proportion their gar- 
 den-grounds to their farms. Yet it was not relieved and sup- 
 plied by the spare produce of that district in the degree that 
 
 X X
 
 338 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 might be anticipated, for want of roads and internal channels 
 of communication, along which to carry cheaply the proven- 
 der to be distributed. There is also a want of draught-cattle : 
 but this would soon be remedied, if ways were cleared and 
 ferries established by the police. 
 
 Paramaribo has not produced all that effect on the conti- 
 guous settlements which might have been expected from its 
 magnitude. It offers great resources not only to the mer- 
 chant, but to the artificer. It is already mature for that se- 
 condary order of settlers, who are no longer occupied in 
 stocking plantations and raising produce, but in distributing 
 the comforts and accommodations of domestic life. From a 
 want of inland conveyance, and easy communications through 
 the interior, the luxury of Paramaribo cannot diffuse itself over 
 the adjoining country. Each separate river insensibly forms 
 for itself a sea-port near its mouth, which becomes a market 
 for produce, and a warehouse of supply to all the estates upon 
 its banks. But of cross country roads, of intercourse over the 
 savannahs between one river and its neighbours, there is as yet 
 little thought ; although the district seems adapted for a chain 
 of canals, which might unite far inland each river with the 
 next, and make a second China of this most fertile and most 
 improveable coast. A stabile annexation to the British crown 
 once accomplished, this country will become the pride of. 
 South America. .,,.-.,.
 
 SETTLEMENTS" OiN'THEDEMERAkY, &C. 339 
 
 I do not know Paramaribo as yet more than cursorily; 
 although I have some hopes of eventually settling there. It 
 is built on a sand-reef, well arranged, "and the streets include 
 beautiful alleys of orange and lemon trees. The houses are of 
 wood, and have no chimnies ; the kitchens, for coolness sake, 
 are detached ; it is a town far advanced in the arts of civilized 
 life, above a mile in length, wide in proportion, and swarm- 
 ing already with an ever-thickening croud of many coloured 
 inhabitants. The population of Paramaribo is estimated at 
 eighteen or twenty thousand persons. Of these, the larger 
 half, at least ten thousand persons, are negro and mulatto slaves. 
 The free people of color are supposed to be about four thou- 
 sand. There are from two to three thousand German and 
 Portuguese jews ; and about eighteen hundred English and 
 Dutch Europeans. The number of temporary residents, as in 
 all sea ports, varies with the season. Paramaribo is the Buenos 
 Ayres of Guyana, the residence of all the native wealth, and 
 the storehouse of what is most curious and precious among 
 the productions of Europe. But In Buenos Ayres the catholic 
 religion is exclusively established, and has splendid cathedrals 
 and pompous processions to exhibit, in which the native In- 
 dians take great delight ; while in Paramaribo, an unlimited 
 toleration prevails, the jew, the catholic, the protestant, the 
 deist, the heathen, visit or neglect at pleasure their respective 
 opportunities of worship, and view with a reciprocal and 
 friendly complacence, the varieties of their traditional observ- 
 
 X X 2
 
 ^40 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 ances. That political equality of all sects of opinion, which 
 in Europe was unfortunately almost always confined to Hol- 
 land, has been one of the great benefits conferred on Guyana 
 by the laws of the United Netherlands, A congregation of 
 French refugees, two sects of jews, a congregation of Labadists 
 patronized by governor Somelsdyk, are among the earliest knots 
 of settlers enumerated. Religious liberty has been the chief 
 cause of the rapid colonization of the North American pro- 
 vinces, and if steadily preserved in Guyana, will no doubt 
 bestow on it a like populousness and importance. Those ec- 
 clesiastical feuds which excite so much bitterness in the old 
 world, are here unknown ; nor is practical morality placed in 
 the insignificant observance of Sunday gloom, of continence* 
 and of not swearing, but in the liberal virtues of spirit and 
 beneficence. There is perhaps a point of view in which a 
 priesthood more numerous could be rendered useful, namely, 
 as instructors of the young ; the want of good schools renders 
 it at present expedient to educate young men of family in 
 Europe. This, however, preserves an attachment for the me- 
 tropolitan country, and circulates its manners in the colonies. 
 
 One of the most remarkable places of worship in this town 
 is a negro-chapel, supported by six German missionaries, called 
 Hernhootei-s, or Moravians. They have translated the bible 
 and a book of hymns into the talkee-talkee, or negro language, 
 of which they have also composed a grammar. Service is per-
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 341 
 
 formed on Tuesday and Friday evenings, and three times on 
 a Sunday. I went one evening — the place was elegantly 
 lighted up. There is an organ, and the rites began by music. 
 Two lines of a hymn were read distinctly by the priest, which 
 the whole congregation repeated immediately after in full 
 chorus to a prepared tune ; then two lines more ; and so on 
 till the poem was finished. Next followed lessons from the 
 bible; another hymn; a prayer; a third hymn; and finally a 
 sermon, which terminated in some devotional ejaculation, dur- 
 ihg which all the people kneeled. The audience, which was 
 very numerous and very orderly, was dismissed by the organ's 
 sounding unaccompanied. These Moravians are the only re- 
 ligionists, who have made any progress in converting the ne- 
 groes hereabouts. It is curious that the talkee-talkee, or patois 
 of the blacks, though it includes many African words, should 
 have for its basis the English language, pared of inflections, 
 and softened by a multitude of vowel terminations. That 
 the mass of creole population here on the continent, and under 
 foreign sway, should still have been reared and taught beneath 
 English masters and overseers, is no slight proof of the superior 
 enterprize of our colonists, and humanity of our slave-drivers. 
 
 . The shore of Guyana may first have been seen by the 
 Spaniards, but it can hardly be said to have been explored 
 until Sir Walter Raleigh's visits, which circulated a knowlege 
 of the coast, and occasioned some English buccaneers to seek
 
 342 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 residences there. In 1634' about sixty persons, several of them 
 Frenchmen, under the presidency of a captain Marshall, had 
 constructed dwellings on the banks of the Surinam, where 
 they grew tobacco. Like many actual planters of the Missis- 
 sippi, they went great part of the year to sea, selling their pro- 
 duce, and making freight of their ships, but regularly returned 
 to sow and to reap, and deposited here the collections of their 
 industry. In the year 1650, this voluntary setdement was 
 thought worthy of being attended to ; and Lord Willoughby, 
 of Parham, was appointed governor, to whom certain char- 
 tered rights were given, in conjunction with the Earl of Cla- 
 rendon's second son. But in 1661, the Dutch took this settle- 
 ment by surprize ; and obtained the entire cession of it in 
 1674, by the treaty of Westminster, in exchange for the pro- 
 vince of New York ; an unwise, a deplorable commutation. 
 
 The first Dutch settlers at Paramaribo, or Middelburg, as it 
 was then called, were from the province of Zealand ; but the 
 States granted the colony to the West India Company, which 
 in its turn sold a third share to the corporation of Amsteldam, 
 and a third to Cornelius Van Aarsen, lord of Somelsdyk. This 
 nobleman went out as governor, taking with him some con- 
 victs sentenced to hard labor, and about three hundred volun- 
 tary emigrants. He was not a popular governor ; he instituted 
 indeed an elective court of police, but claimed a degree of 
 power over his fellow settlers, which they were only wil-
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 343 
 
 ling to concede to him in the management of their exterior 
 concerns. He treated skilfully with the Indians, but ruled 
 the troops so despotically, and imposed fatigues so insufferable 
 under a tropical sun, that he was massacred by the conspiracy 
 of twelve soldiers, in the year 1688, About this time it is re- 
 corded there were six hundred Dutch families settled along the 
 Surinam. 
 
 The widow of Somelsdyk offered to transfet her third of the 
 colonial allotments to our king William III. but the offer 
 was not accepted. A French admiral, Cassard, plundered 
 this settlement in 1712, levying on Paramaribo a contribution 
 of fifty-five thousand pounds sterling. He ascended the river 
 beyond the town, and set fire to many estates. The confusion 
 prevalent at this period facilitated the desertion of a great many 
 negroes. 
 
 It is common in Africa for negroes who dislike work to 
 withdraw from their masters and live in the woods, like gipsies, 
 or in a state of still greater wildness and privation. Near the 
 Cape, there are kraals or villages of such, who are called bush 
 men, from their living in the thicket. Some desertions of this 
 kind took place while the English possessed Surinam, and a 
 regular settlement of maroons, or wild negroes, was formed 
 between the Copenam and Sarameca rivers. But about the
 
 344 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THP. 
 
 year 1725, these maroon or bush-negroes were become so 
 numerous by the accession of fresh runaways, and by the 
 natural fertility of their women, that they rendered the pro- 
 perties of the whites very insecure. They would go in bands 
 to plunder an estate, to carry off powder and fire-arms, and 
 to release such slaves as would join them. A great deal of 
 land once under cultivation and very productive, has thus been 
 conquered to liberty and desolation. Troops were sent for to 
 Europe in order to quell these insurgents. In 1730, the ring- 
 leaders were taken and barbarously executed. Even women 
 were tortured to death. Cruelty is always impolitic. A series 
 of retaliations, at which humanity sickens, ensued. White 
 planters were in their turns hooked on trees, or roasted alive. 
 Property became valueless for want of security. The expe- 
 dient of treating with the bush-negroes was at length resorted 
 to by governor Maurice in 1749. A creole negro named 
 Adoe, was the rebel chieftain. On certain conditions of tri- 
 bute he agreed to make peace with the governor : and exacted 
 as one stipulation, a regular supply of powder and fire-arms. 
 This treaty was ratified by an exchange of presents. 
 
 It appeared afterwards that Adoe was but a petty chieftain; 
 Another rebel, called Zamzam, still continued to demand con- 
 tributions. In 1753 Baron Spoke, in 1757 Mr. Cromelyn, 
 succeeded to the governorship : both adopted the system of^
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &c. 3i5 
 
 pacifying the negroes by occasional presents. At length a 
 cliieftain, named Araby, acquired so extensive an authority 
 that he could influence the conduct of all the wild negroes. 
 He was taken into pay by the whites, and in 1761 signed the 
 treaty of Ouca, which was generally respected. 
 
 The plantations now began to recover some value, and many 
 forsaken estates were again inhabited. The West India com- 
 pany renewed their charter, at the expense of advancing to the 
 Dutch government about five millions sterling. In 1763,- 
 Paramaribo suffered from fire : the activity of the sailors alone 
 prevented a general conflagration : fire is truly tremendous 
 where the upper part of the houses is of wood. The distress 
 occasioned by this accident obliged government to issue a sort 
 of paper money, consisting of stamped cards : this first issue 
 was for forty thousand pounds sterling ; but there is now much 
 paper money in the colonies, which is received in payment of 
 the taxes, and is widely convenient. 
 
 A more remarkable and far more extensive conflagration 
 than that of Paramaribo took place in 1169, when the whole 
 coast was on fire progressively from the Surinam to the Deme- 
 rary. The flames were supposed to have been unintentionally 
 kindled by the rebel negroes ; but they spread with marvellous 
 continuity, licking up vast forests, and laying waste wide 
 plantations. 
 
 Yy
 
 346 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 In 1770 the house of Somelsdyk sold its portion of the 
 colony to the city of Amsteldam for sixty thousand pounds: 
 but this is no exact criterion of the general prosperity. The 
 administrative bodies often derive least from a country when it 
 is internally thrifty and flourishing. 
 
 About 1772 the Cottica rebels began to collect; they were 
 opposed by a rifle corps of picked negroes, bought of the 
 planters for the purpose of being trained to arms. It was this 
 alarming insurrection which gave occasion to the expedition 
 narrated in so instructive and interesting a manner by captain 
 Stedman. The general relaxation of severity in the treatment 
 of negroes, the increased proportion of Creole vassalry, who 
 are formed from their very birth to the habits and requisitions 
 of the European planters, the growing knowlege of negro 
 tempers, opinions, and dispositions, the more certain and 
 wholesome system of nutriment, the more liberal allowances 
 of tobacco, rum, and similar luxuries, and the real diminu- 
 tion of hard and unpleasant labor, which the progress of set- 
 tlement and the introduction of machinery necessarily prepare, 
 seem likely to put an end to these long hostilities.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 547 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM SIR WALTER RALEGH's RELATION OF HIS 
 
 FIRST VOYAGE TO GUYANA TRINIDAD, OR CAIRI THE 
 
 ESSEQUEBO COAST THE RIVER ORINOKO. 
 
 A AM persuaded it will be agreeable to my readers, especi- 
 ally to my colonial readers, if I insert, from Sir Walter Ra- 
 legh's first voyage to these parts, an account of his discoveries 
 along the coast of Guyana : it stamps a sort of Englishness on 
 the shore, to have the first accounts of its rivers and inhabi- 
 tants to seek in the relations of English navigators. 
 
 "On Thursday, J'ebruary 6th, in the year 1595, we de- 
 parted England, and the Sunday following, had sight of the 
 north cape of Spain, the wind for the most part continuing 
 prosperous. We passed in sight of the Burlings and the rock, 
 and so onward for the Canaries, and fell in with Fuerte Ventura 
 the 17th of the same month, where we spent two or three days, 
 and relieved our companies with some fresh meat. Thence 
 we coasted by the Gran Canaria, and so to TenerifFe, and stayed 
 there for the Lion's Whelp, and for captain Amias Preston, and 
 
 Y y 2
 
 348 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the rest. But when after seven or eight days we found them 
 not, we departed and directed our course for Trinidado, with 
 mine own ship and a small bark of captain Cross' only. 
 
 *'We arrived at Trinidado, March 22d, casting anchor at 
 Point Curiapan, which the Spaniards call Punto de Gallo, 
 which is situate in 8°, or thereabout. We abode there four 
 or five days, and in all that time we came not to the speech 
 of any Spaniard. From Curiapan I came to a port and seat 
 of Indians called Parico, where we found a fresh-water river, 
 but saw no people. From thence I rowed to another port 
 called by the naturals Piche, and by the Spaniards Tierra 
 de Brea. In the way between both were divers little brooks 
 of fresh water, and one salt river that had store of oysters upon 
 the branches of the trees, and were very salt and well tasted. 
 All their oysters grow upon those boughs and sprays, and not 
 on the ground ; the like is commonly seen in the West Indies 
 and elsewhere. 
 
 " At this point called Tierra de Brea or Piche, there is that 
 abundance of stone pitch, that all the ships of the world may 
 be therewith laden from thence. We made trial of it, in 
 trimming our ships, to be most excellent good, and melteth 
 not with the sun as the pitch of Norway, and therefore for 
 ships trading to the south parts it is very profitable. Thence 
 we went to the mountain foot called Annaperima, and so pass-
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 349 
 
 ing the river Carone, on which the Spanish city was seated, 
 we met with our ships at Puerto do los Hispanioles, or Con- 
 querabia. 
 
 " This island of Trinidado hath the form of a sheep-hook, 
 and is but narrow ; the north part is very mountainous, the 
 soil is very excellent, and will bear sugar, ginger, or any 
 other commodity that the Indies yield. It hath store of deer, 
 wild porks, fruits, fish, and fowl. It hath also for bread suf- 
 ficient mals, cassavi, and of those roots and fruits which are 
 common everywhere in the West Indies. It hath divers beasts 
 which the Indies have not. The Spaniards confessed that 
 they found grains of gold in some of the rivers, but they hav- 
 ing a purpose to enter Guiana (the magazine of rich metals) 
 cared not to spend time in the search thereof any farther. 
 This island is called by the people thereof Cairi, and in it are 
 divers nations ; those about Parico are called laio, those at 
 Punto Carao are of the Arwacas, and between Carao and Cu- 
 riapan they are called Salvaios, between Carao and Punto Ga- 
 lera are the Nepoios, and those about the Spanish city term 
 themselves Carinepagotos. 
 
 " The same evening there stole aboard of us, in a small canoe, 
 two Indians, the one of them being a cassique, or lord of 
 people, called Cantyman, who had the year before been with 
 captain "Whiddon, and was of his acquaintance. By this Can-
 
 850 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 tyman we understood what strength the Spaniards had, how 
 far it was to their city, and of Don Antonio de Berreo the go- 
 vernor, who was said to be slain in his second attempt of 
 Guiana, but was not. While we remained at Puerto de los 
 Hispanioles, some Spaniards came aboard us to buy Unen of 
 the company, and such other things as they wanted, and also 
 to view our ships and company ; all which I entertained 
 kindly, and feasted after our manner. By means whereof, I 
 learned, of one and other, as much of the estate of Guiana as 
 I could, or as they knew. 
 
 " I sent captain Whiddon, the year before, to get what 
 knowlege he could of Guiana ; and the end of my journey, 
 at this time, was to discover and enter the same. But my in- 
 telligence was far from truth ; for the country is situate above 
 six hundred English miles farther from the sea than I was 
 made believe it had been. 
 
 " But because there may arise many doubts, and how this 
 empire of Guiana is become so populous, and adorned with so 
 many great cities, towns, temples, and treasures, I thought 
 good to make it known, tliat the emperor now reigning is 
 descended from those magnificent princes of Peru, of whose 
 large territories, of whose policies, conquests, edifices, and 
 riches, Pedro de Cieza, Francisco Lopez, and others, have 
 written large discourses. For when Francisco Pacaro, Diego
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 351 
 
 Almagro, and others, conquered the said empire of Peru, and 
 had put to death Atabalipa, son to Guaynacapa, (which Ata- 
 bahpa had formerly caused his eldest brother Guascar to be 
 slain), one of the younger sons of Guaynacapa fled out of 
 Peru, and took with him many thousands of those soldiers of 
 the empire called Orciones, and with those, and many others 
 which followed him, he vanquished all that tract and valley 
 of America which is situate between the great rivers of Am- 
 azons and Baraquan, otherwise called Maranyon, and Orinoko. 
 
 " The empire of Guiana is directly east from Peru toward 
 the sea, and lieth under the equinoctial line, and it hath more 
 abundance of gold than any part of Peru, and as many, or 
 more great cities than ever Peru had when it flourished most. 
 It is governed by the same laws, and the emperor and people 
 observe the same religion, and the same form and policies in 
 government, as was used in Peru, not dift'ering in any part. 
 And, as I have been assured by such of the Spaniards as have 
 seen Manoa, the imperial city of Guiana, which the Spaniards 
 call El Dorado, for the greatness, the riches, and for the ex- 
 cellent seat, far exceedeth any of the world, at least of so 
 much of the world as is known to the Spanish nation. It is 
 founded upon a lake of salt water of two hundred leagues long, 
 like unto Mare Caspium ; and if we compare it to that of 
 Peru, and but read the report of Francisco Lopez, and others, 
 it will seem more than credible.
 
 352 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 *' Such of the Spaniards as afterward endeavoured the con- 
 quest thereof (whereof there have been many, as shall be de- 
 clared hereafter) thought that this Inga (of whom this emperor 
 now living is descended) took his way by the river of Ama- 
 zons, by that branch which is called Papamene. For by that 
 way followed Oreliano, (by the commandment of the marquis 
 Pacarro, in the year 1542) whose name the river also beareth 
 this day, which is also by otiiers called Maragnon, although 
 Andrew Thevet doth affirm, that between Maragnon and 
 Amazons, there are one hundred and twenty leagues. But 
 sure it is, that those rivers have one head and beginning, and 
 that Maragnon, which Thevet describeth, is but a branch of 
 Amazons, or Oreliano, of which I will speak more in another 
 place. It was also attempted by Diego Ordace, but whether 
 before Oreliano, or after, I know not. But it is now little 
 less than seventy years since that Ordace, a knight of the order 
 of saint Jago, attempted the same, and it was in the year 
 1542, that Oreliano discovered the river of Amazons. But 
 the first that ever saw Manoa was Johannes Marlines, master 
 of the munition to Ordace. At a port called Morequito. in 
 Guiana, there lieth, at this day, a great anchor of Ordace's 
 ship ; and this port is some three hundred miles within the 
 land, upon the great river of Orinoko. 
 
 *' After Oreliano (who was employed by Pacaro, afterward 
 marquis Pacaro, conqueror and governor of Peru), and the
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 353 
 
 death of Ordace and Marlines, one Pedro de Osua, a knight 
 of Navarre, attempted Guiana, taking his way from Peru, and 
 built his brigantines upon a river called Oia, which riseth to 
 the southward of Quito, and is very great. This river falleth 
 into Amazons, by which Osua, with his companies, descended, 
 and came out of that province which is called Mutylones; 
 and it seemeth to me, that this empire is reserved for her Ma- 
 jesty and the English nation, by reason of the hard success which 
 all these and other Spaniards found in attempting the same. 
 
 ** Although, as I am persuaded, Guiana cannot be entered 
 by the Maranyon, yet no doubt the trade of gold from thence 
 passeth by branches of rivers into the river of Ama2ons, and 
 so it doth on every hand far from the country itself. For 
 those Indians of Trinidado have plates of gold from Guiana, 
 and those cannibals of Dominica who dwell in the islands by 
 which our ships pass yearly to the West Indies, also the In- 
 dians of Paria, those Indians called Tucaris, Chochi, Apoto- 
 mios, Cumanagotos, and all those other nations inhabiting near 
 about the mountains that run from Paria through the province 
 of Vensuello, and in Maracapana, and the cannibals of Gua- 
 nipa, the Indians called Assawai, Coaca, Aiai, and the rest 
 (all which shall be described in my description as they are 
 situate) have plates of gold of Guiana. And upon the river 
 of Amazons, Thevet writeth, that the people wear croissants of 
 gold, for of that form the Guianians most commonly make them. 
 
 z z
 
 354 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 " I made enquiry among the most ancient and best travelled 
 of the Oronoqueponi, and I had knowlege of all the rivers be- 
 tween Orinoko and Amazons, and was very desirous to un- 
 derstand the truth of those warlike women, because of some 
 it is believed, of others not. 
 
 " Berreo affirmed, that there fell one hundred rivers into 
 Orinoko from the north and south, whereof the least was as 
 big as Rio Grande, that passeth between Popayan and Nuevo 
 Reyno de Granada (Rio Grande being esteemed one of the 
 most renowned rivers in all the West Indies, and numbered 
 among the great rivers of the world). But he knew not the 
 names of any of these but Caroli only, neither from what na- 
 tions they descended, neither to what provinces they led, for 
 he had no means to discourse with the inhabitants at any time ; 
 neither was he curious in these things, being utterly unlearned, 
 and not knowing the east from the west. 
 
 " Among many other trades, those Spaniards used in canoes 
 to pass to the rivers of Barema,* Pawroma, and Essequebo, 
 which are on the south side of the mouth of Orinoko, and 
 there buy women and children from the cannibals, which are 
 of that barbarous nature, as they will for three or. four hatchets 
 sell the sons and daughters of their own brethren and sisters, 
 
 * Probably Barema is the Demerary, and Pawroma the Pomaroon.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 355 
 
 and, for somewhat more, even their own daughters. Hereof 
 the Spaniards make great profit ; for, buying a maid of twelve 
 or thirteen years for three or four hatchets, they sell them 
 again at Marguerita in the West Indies for fifty and a hundred 
 pesoes, which is so many crowns. 
 
 " The master of my ship, John Douglas, took one of the 
 canoes which came laden from thence with people to be sold, 
 and the most of them escaped, yet of those he brought, there 
 was one as well favoured, and as well shaped, as ever I saw 
 any in England ; and afterward I saw many of them, which 
 but for their tawny color may be compared to any of Europe. 
 They also trade in those rivers for bread of cassavi, of which 
 they buy one hundred pound weight for a knife, and sell it at 
 Marguerita for ten pesoes. They also recover great store of 
 cotton, brasil-wood, and those beds which they call hamacas, 
 or brasil-beds, wherein in hot countries all the Spaniards use to 
 lie commonly, and in no other, neither did we ourselves 
 while we were there. 
 
 * We could not learn of Berreo any other way to enter but 
 in branches, so far to the windward as it was impossible for us 
 to recover. For we had as much sea to cross over in our 
 wherries as between Dover and Calais, and in a great billow, 
 the wind and current being both very strong. So as we were 
 driven to go in those small boats directly before the wind into 
 
 z z 2
 
 556 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the bottom of the bay of Guanipa, and thence to enter the 
 mouth of some one of those rivers, which John Douglas had 
 last discovered, and had with us for pilot an Indian of Barema, 
 a river to the south of Orinoko, between that and Amazons, 
 whose canoes we had formerly taken as he was going from 
 the said Barema laden with cassavi bread to sell at Margue- 
 rita. This Arwacan promised to bring me into the great river 
 of Orinoko, but indeed of that which we entered we was ut- 
 terly ignorant. 
 
 " But thus it chanced, that entering into a river, (which, 
 because it had no name, we called the river of the Red-cross, 
 ourselves being the first Christians that ever came therein) the 
 2'2d of May, as we were rowing up the same, we espied a 
 small canoe with three Indians, which (by the swiftness of my 
 barge, rowing with eight oars) I overtook ere they could cross 
 the river. The rest of the people on the banks shadowed 
 under the thick wood gazed on with a doubtful conceit what 
 might befal those three which we had taken. But when they 
 perceived that we offered them no violence, neither entered 
 their canoe with any of ours, nor took out of the canoe any of 
 theirs, they then began to show themselves on the bank's side, 
 and olFered to traffic with us for such things as they had. And 
 as we drew near they all staid, and we came with our barge to 
 the mouth of a little creek which came from their town into 
 the great river. Those people which dwell in these broken
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 357 
 
 islands and drowned lands are generally called Tivitivas ; there 
 are of them two sorts, the one called Ciawani, and the other 
 "Waraweete. 
 
 " These Tivitivas are a very goodly people, and very va- 
 liant, and have the most manly speech and most deliberate 
 that ever I heard of what nation soever. In the summer they 
 have houses on the ground as in other places. In the winter 
 they dwell upon the trees, where they build very artificial 
 towns and villages. For between May and September the 
 river of Orinoko riseth thirty feet upright, and then are those 
 islands overflown twenty feet high above the level of the 
 ground, saving some few raised grounds in the middle of them ; 
 and for this cause they are enforced to live in this manner. 
 They never eat of any thing that is set or sown, and as at 
 home they use neither planting nor other manurance, so when 
 they come abroad they refuse to feed of aught, but of that 
 which nature without labor bringeth forth. They use the 
 tops of palmitos for bread, and kill deer, fish, and porks, for 
 the rest of their sustenance. They have also many sorts of 
 fruits that grow in the woods, and great variety of birds and 
 fowl. 
 
 " And if to speak of them were not tedious and vulgar, 
 surely we saw in those passages of very rare colors and forms, 
 not elsewhere to be found, for as much as 1 have cither seen
 
 358 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 or read. Of these people, those tliat dwell upon the branches 
 of Orinoko, called Capuri and Macureo, are for the most 
 part carpenters of canoes, for they make the most and fairest 
 houses, and sell them into Guiana for gold, and into Trinidado 
 for tobacco, in the excessive taking whereof they exceed all 
 nations. When their commanders die they use great lamen- 
 tation, and when they think the flesh of their bodies is putri- 
 fied, and fallen from the bones, then they take up the carcase 
 again, and hang it in the cassique's house that died, and deck 
 his skull with feathers of all colours, and hang all his gold 
 plates about the bones of his arms, thighs, and legs. Those 
 nations which are called Arwacas, which dwell on the south 
 of Orinoko (of which place and nation our Indian pilot was), 
 are dispersed in many other places, and do use to beat the 
 bones of their lords into powder, and their wives and friends 
 drink it all in their several sorts of drinks. After we departed 
 from the port of these Ciawani, we passed up the river with 
 the flood, and anchored the ebb, and in this sort we went on- 
 ward. 
 
 "That night we came to an anchor at the parting of three 
 goodly rivers (the one was the river of Amana, by which we 
 came from the north, and ran athwart toward the south, the 
 other two were of Orinoko, which crossed from the west, and 
 ran to sea toward the east) and landed upon a fair sand, where 
 we found thousands of tortoises' eggs, which are very whole-
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, kc. 359 
 
 some meat, and greatly restoring ; so as our men were now 
 well filled, and highly contented both with the fare, and near- 
 ness of the land of Guiana, which appeared in sight. In the 
 morning there came down, according to promise, the lord of 
 that border called Tpparimaca, with some thirty or forty fol- 
 lowers, and brought us divers sorts of fruits, and of his winC/ 
 bread, fish, and flesh, whom we also feasted as we could ; at 
 least he drank good Spanish wine, (whereof we had a small 
 quantity in bottles) which above all things they love; 
 
 " I conferred with this Toparimaca of the next way to Gui- 
 ana, who conducted our galley and boats to his own port, and 
 carried us from thence some mile and a half to his town, 
 where some of our captains caroused of his wine till they were 
 reasonably pleasant, for it is very strong with pepper, and the 
 juice of divers herbs and fruits digested and purged. They 
 keep it in great earthen pots of ten or twelve gallons, very 
 clean and sweet, and are themselves at their meetings and 
 feasts the greatest carousers and drunkards of the world. 
 "When we came to this town we found two cassiques, whereof 
 one of them was a stranger that had been up the river in trade, 
 and his boats, people, and wife, encamped at the port where 
 we anchored, and the other was of that country, a follower of 
 Toparimaca. They lay each of them in a cotton hammock, 
 which we call brasil-beds, and two women attending them 
 with six cups and a little ladle to fill them, out of an earthen
 
 560 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 pitcher of wine, and so they drank each of them three of 
 those cups at a time, one to the other ; and in this sort they 
 get drunk at their feasts and meetings. 
 
 "The seat of this town of Toparimaca was very pleasant, 
 standing on a little hill, in an excellent prospect, with goodly 
 gardens, a mile compass round about it, and two very fair and 
 large ponds of excellent fish adjoining. This town is called 
 Arowocai ; the people are of the nation called N^poios, and 
 are followers of Carapana. In that place I saw very aged 
 people, that we might perceive all their sinews and veins 
 without any flesh, and but even as a case covered only with 
 skin. The lord of this place gave me an old man for pilot, 
 who was of great experience and travel, and knew their river 
 most perfectly both by day and night. 
 
 " The next day we hasted thence, and having an easterly 
 wind to help us, we spared our arms from rowing ; for, after 
 we entered Orinoko, the river lleth for the most part east and 
 west, even from the sea unto Quito in Peru. This river is na- 
 vigable with ships little less than one thousand miles, and, 
 from the place where we entered, it may be sailed up in small 
 pinnaces to many of the best parts of Nuevo Reyno de Gra- 
 nado, and of Popayan. And from no place may the cities of 
 these parts of the Indies be so easily taken and invaded as 
 hence. All that day we sailed up a brancli of that river, hav-
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, kc. 36\ 
 
 ing on the left hand a great island, which they call Assapana, 
 which may contain some twenty-five miles in length, and six 
 miles in breadth, the great body of the river running on the 
 other side of this island. Beyond that middle branch, there 
 is also another island in the river, called Iwana, which is 
 twice as big as the Isle of Wight ; and beyond it, and between 
 it and the main Guiana, runneth a third branch of Orinoko 
 called Arraroopana. All three are goodly branches, and all 
 navigable for great ships. I judge the river in this place to be 
 at least thirty miles broad, reckoning the islands which divide 
 the branches in it ; for afterward I sought also both the other 
 branches. 
 
 " After we reached to the head of this island, called Assa- 
 pana, a little to the westward on the right hand, there opened 
 a river which came from the north, called Europa, and fell 
 into the great river ; and beyond it, on the same side, we an- 
 chored for that night, by another island six miles long, and 
 two miles broad, which they call Ocawita. From hence, in 
 the morning, we landed two Guianians, which we found in 
 the town of Toparimaca, that came with us, who went to 
 give notice of our coming to the lord of that country, called 
 Putyma, a follower of Topiawari, chief lord of Arromai, who 
 succeeded Morequito. But his town being far within the land, 
 he came not unto us that day, so as we anchored again that 
 night near the banks of another island, of bigness much like 
 
 A a a
 
 362 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 the other, which they call Putapayma, on the main land, over- 
 against which island was a very high mountain called Oecope. 
 We coveted to anchor rather by these islands in the river, than 
 by the main, because of the tortoises' eggs, which our people 
 found on them in great abundance, and also because the 
 ground served better for us to cast our nets for fish, the main 
 banks being for the most part stony and high, and the rocks 
 of a blue metalline colour, like unto the best steel ore, which 
 I assuredly take it to be. Of the same blue stone are also 
 divers great mountains, which border this river in many places. 
 
 " The next morning toward nine of the clock we weighed 
 anchor, and the breeze increasing, we sailed alway west up 
 the river, and after a while opening the land on the right side, 
 the country appeared to be champaign, and the banks shewed 
 very perfect red. And my old pilot, a man of great travel, 
 brother to the cassique Toparimaca, told me, that those were 
 called the plains of the Sayma ; and that the same level 
 reached to Cumana and Carracas, in the West Indies, which 
 are one hundred and twenty leagues to the north, and that 
 there inhabited four principal nations. The first were the 
 Sayma, the next Assawai, the third and greatest the Wikiri, 
 the fourth are called Aroras, and are as black* as negroes, but 
 
 * That there were black nations aboriginally in America, is also affirmed in 
 some Portuguese voyages.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 363 
 
 have smooth hair, and these are very valiant, or rather des- 
 perate people, and have the most strong poison on their ar- 
 rows, and most dangerous of all nations. But by this time as 
 well Orinoko, Caroli, as all the rest of the rivers were risen 
 four or five feet in height, so as it was not possible by the 
 strength of any men, or with any boat whatsoever, to row into 
 the river against the stream. 
 
 " When we ran to the tops of the first hills of the plain ad- 
 joining to the river, we beheld that wonderful breach of waters 
 which ran down Caroli ; and might from that mountain see 
 the river, how it ran in three parts above twenty miles off, and 
 there appeared some ten or twelve overfalls in sight, every 
 one as high over the other as a church-tower, which fell with 
 that fury that the rebound of waters made it seem, as if it had 
 been all covered over with a great shower of rain ; and in 
 some places we took it at the first for a smoke that had risen 
 over some great town. 
 
 " I never saw a more beautiful country, nor more lively 
 prospects, hills so raised here and there over the vallies, the 
 river winding into divers branches, the plains adjoining with- 
 out bush or stubble, all fair green grass, the ground of hard 
 sand easy to march on either for horse or foot, the deer cross- 
 ing in every path, the birds toward the evening singing on 
 every tree with a thousand several tunes, cranes and herons, 
 
 A a a 2
 
 364 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 of white, crimson, and carnation, perching on the river's side, 
 the air fresh with a gentle easterly wind, and every stone that 
 we stooped to take up, promised either gold or silver by its 
 complexion. 
 
 " Having learned what I could in Canuri and Aromaia, and 
 received a faithful promise of the principalest of those pro- 
 vinces to become servants to her Majesty, and to resist the 
 Spaniards if they made any attempt in our absence, and that 
 they would draw-in the nations about the lake of Cassipa, and 
 those Iwarawakeri, I then parted from old Topiawari, and re- 
 ceived his son for a pledge between us, and left with him two 
 of ours. To Francis Sparrow I gave instructions to travel to 
 Macureguarai, with such merchandize as I left with him, 
 thereby to learn the place, and if it were possible to go on to 
 the great city of Manoa, Which being done, we weighed 
 anchor, and coasted the river on Guiana-side, because we 
 came up on the north-side, by the lawns of the Saima and 
 Wikiri. 
 
 ** The next day we landed on the island of Assapana, 
 (which divideth the river from that branch by which we went 
 down to Emeria) and there feasted ourselves with that beast 
 which is called armadilla, presented unto us before at Winica- 
 pora. And the day following, we recovered the galley at an- 
 chor at the port of Toparimaca, and the same evening de-
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 365 
 
 parted witli very foul weather and terrible thunder and 
 showers, for the whiter was come on very far. The longer we 
 tarried the worse it was, and therefore I took captain Gifford, 
 captain Cal field, and my cousin Greenville, into my barge, and 
 after it cleared up about midnight, we put ourselves to God's 
 keeping, and thrust out into the sea, leaving the galley at an- 
 chor, who durst not adventure but by day light. And so be- 
 ing all very sober and melancholy, one faintly cheering ano- 
 ther to shew courage, it pleased God that the next day about 
 nine of the clock, we descried the island of Trinidado; and 
 steering for the nearest part of it, we kept the shore till we 
 came to Curiapan, where we found our ships at anchor, than 
 which there was never to us a more joyful sight." 
 
 Thus it happened that almost the same stations were taken 
 for the purpose of exploring the land, which empire must oc- 
 cupy, and in the same order, for the purpose of colonizing 
 and civilizing the region. At first a great permanent position 
 is taken at Trinidad. Next, the mouths of the Pomaroon, 
 of the Essequebo, of the Demerary, and of the Surinam, 
 are noticed ; and lastly, the right bank of the Orinoko is 
 .to be undertaken, as far as the important and wealthy set- 
 .tlement of San Thomas.
 
 S66 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 OF GUYANA IN GENERAL — WHAT CAN BE DONE FOR GUY- 
 ANA ? — OCCUPY CAYENNE NEGOTIATE WITH PORTUGAL 
 
 FOR THE CESSION OF THE NORTHERN BANK OF THE MA- 
 
 RANYO RESTORE BUENOS AYRES TO SPAIN FOR THE 
 
 MORE VALUABLE DISTRICTS ALONG THE ORINOKO IN- 
 
 ;^ CREASE THE SPLENDOR OF THE INTERIOR GOVERNMEN- 
 TAL ESTABLISHMENT SURVEY THE COUNTRY SCIENTI- 
 FICALLY IMPORT CHINESE COLONISTS. 
 
 'UYANA has a form nearly triangular, and is computed to 
 contain a quarter of a million of square miles. It is bounded 
 on the north-east by the Atlantic ocean ; on the south by the 
 Maranyo, or river of Amazons, and on the west by the river 
 Orinoko. In a journey through the interior of South Ame- 
 rica, performed in 1743, Condamine learned the singular fact 
 that the Orinoko sends several branch-streams into the Ma- 
 ranyo, although their principal mouths are above seven hun- 
 dred miles asunder. Of these branches the Yupura is com- 
 monly considered as forming the western verge of Guyana, 
 which is thus completely insulated, and is probably circumna-
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 367 
 
 vjgable. This prodigious extent of river-coast is no less 
 adapted for every variety of tropical production, than the 
 brink of the Nile, or Ganges. But some European colonies 
 must be founded at the confluences of the chief streams, be- 
 fore those agricultural arts can be put in motion, to which the 
 climate and the soil of this province are so admirably adapted. 
 Millions of men might be fed and employed by the produce 
 of its fertile savannas. 
 
 As yet the interior of the district has been little penetrated. 
 A chain of mountains, called Mei, nearly parallel with the 
 form of the coast, and a lake called Parima, whose extent va- 
 ries with the seasons, form the only prominent objects of ob- 
 servation. From these mountains, rivers radiate in every di- 
 rection : some, like the Essequebo, fall into the Atlantic ; 
 some, like the Caroni, or as Sir Walter Ralegh calls it, the 
 Caroli, join the Orinoko ; and some, like the Rioblanco, 
 unite with the river of Amazons. Savage tribes, resembling 
 in manners the Caribbees, but whose dialects difl'er from each 
 other, are thinly scattered over the whole district : they de- 
 pend more on fishing than hunting, and prefer to frequent the 
 edges of the waters ; their labor is most easily obtained for 
 purposes of navigation. 
 
 The climate of Guyana is the mildest and most wholesome 
 of any tropical country hitherto inhabited by Europeans. This
 
 358 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 may be ascribed principally to its receiving the trade-wind 
 fresh from the surface of a vast track of ocean. Thus a per- 
 petual stream of cool air from the east overflows Guyana; 
 wliile, on the opposite coast of Africa, the same equatorial 
 wind, blowing over land, comes laden with the pestilential 
 sultriness of sandy deserts. Beside the perpetual general flow 
 of the whole atmosphere westward, it has a lateral fluctuation 
 daily, termed the sea-breeze and the land-breeze. The sea- 
 breeze, which is the cooler of the two, blows from the north- 
 east during the day, and temperates its ardor ; so that we 
 have less heat at noon than at nine in the morning. The land- 
 breeze, which is the warmer of the two, blows from the 
 south-east during the night, and prevents too rapid a chillness. 
 The weather is even, as well as temperate. The heavy dews, 
 the sunshine, the clouds, the rains, which prevail especially 
 from May to November, and water the lands for about three 
 hours every afternoon, always happen according to expecta- 
 tion. The almanack maker, without being a wizard, is here 
 a prophet. No hurricanes intervene to snatch from the planter 
 his crops ; nor do I recollect a drought. The great superio- 
 rity of the Guyana coast to the Caribbee islands, which are 
 exposed to the tempestuous edge and border of the trade-wind, 
 in point of wholesomeness and of security from casualties, is 
 now so well known, that it operates as an increasing motive 
 with the West Indians, to transfer their vassals and machinery 
 to the continent. If the cheapness of sugar should continue.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERAEY, kc. 369 
 
 it can still be cultivated with a profit in Guyana, while the 
 island planters will incur absolute ruin. The rapid mortality 
 of their slaves, the capricious visitations of the hurricane, the 
 great risk of drought, and especially the vast expense of re- 
 moving, by means of mules, the produce from the field, 
 which is here accomplished by water-carriage, operate as 
 heavy draw-backs on their profits, which an interruption of 
 their intercourse with North America may at any time anni- 
 hilate. Earthquakes are sometimes felt in Guyana ; but they 
 are never formidable in the lowlands and flat regions, where 
 alone there are settlements. Inundations are more frcquCnt 
 and more destructive accidents ; but as the forests beside the 
 rivers waste, these floods are observed to become seldomer. 
 Pestilence is very rare. 
 
 The Carribbee islands, especially the more northern, are as 
 much overvalued in Great Britain, as the continent is under- 
 valued. They have ceased to be of use: they have per- 
 formed their appointed task in the civilization of the world. 
 Without first undertaking the cultivation of sugar in small 
 islands, whence the African labourers could not run away ;. 
 there would have been no possibility of rearing and training 
 a Creole peasantry, adapted for the coasts of the West Indian 
 archipelago. The blacks, whom it was attempted to inure 
 on the continent to agricultural toil, deserted incessantly, as 
 they do in the neighbourhood of the Cape, and formed their 
 
 B bb
 
 370 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 kraals, or gipsey villages, of bush negroes, who were always 
 ready to harbour discontented slaves, and to conspire with 
 them for plundering and burning the plantations, and murder- 
 ing the persons, of the whites. This Creole peasantry is at 
 length reared. Innumerable negroes are now grown up in 
 the West Indies, who have never known the satisfaction of 
 sloth and independence, and who have no idea of any other 
 possible manner of subsistence, than that of working regularly 
 for the planter who issues their allowances. These home-born 
 negroes, when transplanted to the continent, do not desert into 
 the wilderness ; they prefer the regular task of moderate toil, 
 and the certain and comfortable maintenance it insures, to the 
 privations and hazards of the savage state. But the sooner this 
 Creole peasantry is transferred from the Carribbee islands to the 
 continent of Guyana the better. For the same number of la- 
 bourers can produce every commodity of the Carribbee islands 
 more cheaply and abundantly, and with less exertion on the 
 main land. While uncleared, the islands are rapidly depo- 
 pulated by contagious disorders ; and when cleared, become 
 barren from drought ; so that there is always a superfluous ex- 
 pense to incur for the waste of labourers, or for the deficiency 
 of crops. These islands, therefore, should in preference, be 
 ceded to France and Holland, if any thing must be restored ; 
 or by the artificial discouragement of their agriculture, be in- 
 duced to transfer to Guyana the mass of their population and 
 capital.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 371 
 
 The central parts of Guyana not having been visited by any 
 missionaries, the religion of nature still prevails there. Certain 
 vapors, or spirits, to which the savages ascribe thunders and fevers, 
 are the objects of their fear and propitiatory worship. They do 
 not ascribe a human form to these divinities, but conceive them 
 to have brought hither the first man, whom they call Longwo; 
 their heathenism is not yet advanced to idolatry. The catholic 
 religion flourishes in the western and southern borders of Guy- 
 ana; and begins to extend from the Spanish and Portuguese 
 settlements into the Indian villages, the inhabitants of which 
 flock on procession-days to the churches, with parrots' feathers 
 stuck in their hair, to see the parade and listen to the music. 
 The protestant religions are professed along the north-eastern, 
 or Atlantic, coast. In these parts, however, there are many 
 Jews, whom the Dutch do not regard with a liberal benevo- 
 lence. A Dutch lady from superstition will not visit a Jewess. 
 The wives of the richest Jews were not invited to the official 
 festivals and balls of the Dutch governors. Nor has the laud- 
 able example of the Prince of Wales, in visiting the jew 
 banker, Goldschmidt, been imitated by the chiefs of our own 
 establishments. Such dramas as Cumberland's Jew, or Nathan 
 the Wise, should be performed at Paramaribo. There is less 
 of this religious repulsion in the catholic settlement at Cay- 
 enne. Intolerance is in every view a public misfortune; for 
 the insulted sect has always its allegiance ready for a new so- 
 vereign, in the hope of future favor. If the French were in 
 
 Bbb 2
 
 372 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 strength at Cayenne, they would, from this cause, perhaps be 
 able to render the sway of Bonaparte acceptable to certain 
 descriptions of men in the contiguous colonics. 
 
 The oriental historian Hossein Khan, who had witnessed, 
 in a very different quarter of the world, the needless and 
 grievous evils of superstitious partiality, thus recommends 
 equal indulgence: "After all it must be remembered that, 
 as princes and kings are reputed the shadows of God, they 
 ought, in humble imitation of his divine attributes, to ac- 
 commodate themselves to the dispositions and minds of their 
 subjects, so as to carry an equal hand over them, without ex- 
 ception, without predilection, and without shewing a dislike, 
 or hatred, to any species of men. Such impartiality is incum- 
 bent upon princes, if they intend to be the fathers and che- 
 rishers of the people intrusted to their care ; and if they really 
 wish that every man should look up to the monarch, as to his 
 benevolent, forgiving father. This is a duty incumbent on 
 them, if they wish that every one should think himself happy 
 under their government ; for the subject must be cherished 
 In the very palm of the monarch's hand, if the monarch really 
 intends to discharge his duty, and to let the world see that he 
 feels all the meaning of these verses of Saadi : 
 
 " That beneficent Being, which, from its invisible treasury. 
 Feeds with an equal hand, the believer,
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, fcc. SIS 
 
 The unbeliever, tlie weak, mind and the strong, 
 
 Might, if it had so pleased him, have created men of one opinion, 
 
 Or have converted them at one word 
 
 To one and the same religion." 
 
 The first step to be taken for the security of what has been 
 already acquired by the British government in Guyana is cer- 
 tainly to occupy Cayenne. The value of the acquisition is 
 less to be considered, than the expediency of displacing from 
 the continent a powerful neighbour every way dangerous to 
 the internal tranquillity and prosperity. In proportion to the 
 progress of settlement and of purchase, a British interest grows 
 up in the several administrative bodies. This interest insensibly 
 becomes a party opposed to the old Dutch landed interest, and 
 is its con-petitor for the distribution of patronage, for the favor 
 of the sovereign, and for the direction of those various public 
 undertakings, which so materially affect the local value of nas- 
 cent properties. AVhile the ascendency remains in the old hands, 
 or in fair equipoise, people are easy ; but it may be expected 
 that the British party will ere long, through the indirect aid of 
 the governors and public officers, become every where the do- 
 mineering influence. In such case discontent may arise ; 
 and the ancient proprietors, especially if irritated by inconve- 
 nient changes in the system of vassalage, may, through their 
 connexions in Holland, concert with Bonaparte to have the 
 settlements in Guyana re-demanded for the subsisting subordi- 
 nate government in Holland, at the next negotiation of a peace.
 
 374- STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 If any tendency to court a reunion with the old metropolis 
 should make its appearance in Dutch Guyana, no doubt Cay- 
 enne would become the centre of intrigue. There, a powerful 
 neighbour has a footing, who is always willing to accept, and 
 as far as land-service goes, always able to support the allegi- 
 ance of the discontented. A fleet oft' the coast is not a defense 
 against troops marched through the interior. The French 
 have many people of talent at Cayenne, quite adequate to stir- 
 ring up sedition, and undertaking the administration of a co- 
 lony : they are less rich in merchants of capital, or in patient 
 and skilled agriculturists. 
 
 The civilization of countries is always proportioned to the den- 
 sity rather than to the number of the people. The same quan- 
 tity of individuals distributed over a narrow surface, will each 
 have more wants, and will each acquire a more various instruc- 
 tion, than if dispersed over a wide surface. Whatever disbands 
 and separates men, renders less necessary the acquirement of 
 education, the social arts, the showy comforts, the domestic 
 conveniences, and the cares of neatness. The natural indo- 
 lence of every individual is found to bring him a grade nearer 
 to savagism at every remove into a less thronged neighbour- 
 hood. No citizen can be long settled in the country without 
 rusticating. No colonist can migrate toward the back settle- 
 ments, without a sensible approximation of his habits to those 
 of the wild man of nature. At every successive generation the
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C, 375 
 
 progress is still more sensible ; and but for the perpetual impor- 
 tation of Europeans at the sea-ports, the very memory of the 
 refinement and civilization of their ancestors might die away 
 among the land-owners of the interior. 
 
 In order to resist the perpetual tendency of the settled and 
 native population to diverge and to degenerate, pretences for 
 frequent assemblages of the people should be contrived. To 
 the fairs instituted by the Dutch, and to the religious pageants 
 founded by the Spanish, might perhaps be added the attrac- 
 tion of public games and manly exercises, in which the sa- 
 vages could be induced to become competitors as well as spec- 
 tators. AVhen they visit our towns they bring some singula- 
 rities from the interior, they learn to know what we prize, and 
 they carry back several of our instruments and utensils, which 
 will eventually become permanent articles of demand. A still 
 more important cause of regular assemblage and reciprocal in- 
 fluence is the representative character of those administrative 
 bodies, to which the provincial police of all colonies may 
 most expediently be intrusted. The honor of a power freely 
 conferred by the choice of the proprietors, serves to stimulate 
 and to recompense education throughout the whole body. 
 
 Not mere extent of dominion, but populous extent is the 
 cause of every improvement. The roads of intercourse, the 
 canals of irrigation and traffic, nay the very structure of every
 
 376 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 one's house, depend for their excellence on the croudcdness 
 of the neighbourhood. It is far better to attract a million of 
 men into a province, than to disperse them over an empire. 
 But there are cases in which extent of empire is itself the con- 
 dition of condensing the populousness of its parts. A toll-gate 
 road from Stabroek to Paramaribo is within the competence of 
 the established authorities : but the thoroughfare along that 
 road would be doubled, if it extended in the one direction to 
 San Thomas, and in the other to Cayenne. "While Cayenne h 
 French ; the worse the communication by land with Parama- 
 ribo, the more agreeable to the European metropolis ; if Cay- 
 enne appertained to the same sovereign, his interest is then to 
 facilitate the communication. The like principle may be 
 applied to the extension of a common interest across the 
 French into the Portuguese territory. 
 
 "What difficulty could Great Britain have to fear in under- 
 taking a negotiation with the .court of Lisbon for the cession 
 of that part of Guyana, which lies between the Oyapoco and 
 the Maranyo ? A large grant of money, or a tribute for 
 twenty years, would no doubt be thought an equivalent, for 
 cediijg a nominal right of sovereignty, over a part of the Bra- 
 zilian empire, to which the force of its protection, and the in- 
 fluence of its circulation, docs not yet extend. The Maranyo, 
 pr river of Amazons, is the practical boundary of Portuguese 
 ascendency; the missionaries and pedlars, who visit its northern
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 377 
 
 bank, have hardly, as yet, taught there the European name 
 of a sahit, or of a pair of scissars. But if, by that cession, 
 the navigation of the Maranyo could be opened to the West 
 Indies; almost every thing now procured from North America, 
 would be furnished more cheaply and no less expeditiously, 
 by the southern river-coast of Guyana. Barley is singularly 
 good there : for the culture of rice, it is better adapted than 
 the Carolinas, or than Louisiana. Timber, shingles, hoops, 
 and tubstaves may be collected with facility by establishing 
 saw-mills on the streams that fall into the Maranyo. Wax 
 and honey may be had in any quantity of the Indians. Hides 
 cost only the labor of killing the cattle. An earth useful in 
 pottery is thence procured by the Portuguese. 
 
 A curious instance of progress in the civilization of those 
 savages, that dwell in the Portuguese territory, is related by 
 Coutinho in his account of the commerce of Brazil. Do- 
 mingo Alvarez Pesanka, who loved the Indians, and was de- 
 sirous of their good will, caused to be erected for their exclu- 
 sive use, a large and spacious building, which was fitted up 
 according to their own taste. This edifice stands close to the 
 water's edge, so that they may thence bathe, as is their cus- 
 tom, every morning and afternoon. This same building, also 
 serves them as a warehouse, or bazar, and is always crouded 
 with sti'angers, who come well laden from beyond the moun- 
 tains, to deal with the Portuguese inhabitants of the province. 
 
 c c c
 
 378 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE! 
 
 They bring birds, wax, honey, mats, fossils, and other things 
 which they collect, and here barter them for swords and iron 
 tools of different kinds. If they have not brought wherewith 
 to make the purchases they covet, they will let themselves for 
 so many days, as wood-cutters, an employment in which they 
 are expert. 
 
 The navigation of the Maranyo has one great advantage 
 over that of the Mississippi, that the trade-wind perpetually 
 blows up-stream. Thus the wandering vessels have always a 
 current either of water or of air to move by. The shipping 
 which conies down to New Orleans with produce, seldom re- 
 ascends : so laborious and incessant is the human effort requi- 
 site to quant the vessels back : they are commonly sold off as 
 lumber in some of the Atlantic sea-ports. But the shipping 
 built in the Maranyo will there become an attached property, 
 and will contribute, no less than the stationary dwellings on its 
 banks, to employ industry, to difluse plenty, to promote con- 
 sumption, and to bring prosperity to anchor. 
 
 All the British West Indies would be benefited by free ac- 
 cess to the interior of South America. All the other parts ot 
 the British dominions would be benefited. Extent of empire 
 answers the same purpose as the adoption of liberal principles 
 of commerce. Could all nations trade with all, free from pro- 
 hibition or restriction, without issuing a bounty or levying a
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 379 
 
 tribute at the custom-house, without making treaties of com- 
 merce in behalf of favoured nations, or excluding hereditary 
 foes from the market of general competition, every thing 
 would be grown where it can be produced cheapest, manu- 
 factured where the labor of men or of machines can be ap- 
 plied with the greatest advantage, and brought at the expe- 
 dient season, to the home of the consumer, with the smallest 
 possible burden of expense and of profit. Among the parts of 
 an extensive empire, this desirable equality of privilege usually 
 prevails. The several provinces mostly enjoy one with ano- 
 ther this equitable reciprocity of intercourse. In the different 
 districts belonging to the same sovereign, there is seldom 
 much locality of privilege. Industry is left to its natural walk 
 and prosperity to its natural seat. Great Britain is content 
 alike to take her sugar and cochineal, her cotton and indigo, 
 from Bengal or from Stabroek. If an inequality of privilege 
 in some respects prevails, it is rather in her export than in her 
 import trade, and it is rather the East than the West Indies, 
 which have cause for complaint. But the inconvenience of 
 chartered companies and of legalized monopolies is become so 
 apparent from the more rapid progress of AVest Indian than of 
 East Indian commerce, that even these distinctions will no 
 doubt soon incur abolition; and an universal toleration of pri- 
 vate judgment in purchasing, and of the appropriate industry 
 of each colony, will supersede the patronized establishments 
 of a darker age. 
 
 c c c 2
 
 380 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 Whenever this colonial equality, this communion of provin- 
 cial rights, shall be thoroughly conceded by parliament, there 
 are few portions of the inhabited earth, which will not have ac- 
 quired a strong interest in becoming attached to the British 
 empire. If, instead of employing the celebrated enthusiast of 
 liberty, general Miranda, to agitate the Caraccas, his know- 
 lege of the country, and his intelligence among the people, had 
 been called in merely to direct the conquest of the western 
 bank of the Orinoko, by a regular army, whose presence and 
 whose principles would have excited no apprehension of a ser- 
 vile war, and of a general insurrection of the working negroes, 
 that strip of country might lately have been added to, and con- 
 solidated with, our possessions in Guyana. 
 
 The bocas of the Orinoko are well worth the soUicitude of 
 the British admiralty. They now pour out in time of war a 
 multitude of small privateers, picaroon boats, as we call them, 
 which take petty prizes to a vast amount collectively among 
 the West Indian shipping. These picaroon boats are not va- 
 luable enough to attract the notice of men of war ; and our 
 mercantile capitals are otherwise engaged in the colonies, than 
 to be conveniently applicable for privateering. Prize-money, 
 it seems, is not thought worth dividing on board the British 
 fleets, unless when it amounts to a considerable sum. Hence 
 it happens that this petty predatory warfare proceeds unmo- 
 lested ; and the colony-craft, which conducts our coasting-
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARV, &C. 381 
 
 trade, is snapped up by these sharks with a most teasing and 
 ruinous voracity. The black sailors are mostly sold for slaves, 
 and the produce on board finds its way through Tortola, into 
 the English, or, through some American ship-broker, into 
 the European continental market. 
 
 A conquest of the province of New Cumana is the only fun- 
 damental remedy. This fine district up to Ciudad-real might 
 surely have been attained, without any greater expenditure of 
 life and etTort than was lately lent to general Miranda. But 
 the enterprize should have been definite in its purpose and ob- 
 ject, avowedly directed to the mere purpose of British con- 
 quest, and restricted to the eastern bank of the Orinoko. The 
 assertion of independence is a far greater hazard to run than a 
 ready submission to a British army. Subjects, who should 
 take part in a rebellious change, would have to apprehend 
 sudden severities from the governors of all those places, which 
 might persevere in allegiance ; would have to apprehend 
 the consequences of being shortly repressed by troops from 
 Mexico, or from Cuba; and would have to apprehend the 
 eventual vengeance of the Spanish court, if Great Britain had 
 to abandon their interests at a peace. But the worst that can 
 happen, after a British conquest, is to be ceded back, to the 
 parent-country, when war ceases in Europe, after tasting the 
 profits of a freer trade, and forming some acquaintances in an 
 heretical garrison.
 
 S82 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 A British military invasion proclaims a kind of fair, which 
 is welcome in the West Indies. The variety of things ar- 
 riving for sale, and the wider markets opened to produce, in- 
 crease circulation, and raise the value of rentable property. 
 Martinique has had every reason to rejoice even in the tem- 
 porary sway of Great Britain. And so would any Spanish set- 
 tlement. But the Spaniards entertain perhaps as yet some pre- 
 judices against the religion of the English. Irish regiments, 
 with a visible accompaniment of catholic priests, ought there- 
 fore preferably to be sent among Spaniards. Not many years 
 ago, the protestant planters at Grenada, made a conspiracy to 
 pull down the catholic churches in that island. A similar in- 
 tolerance is feared from any other heretical conquest. I be- 
 lieve that the English people are become very tolerant ; I 
 never saw an instance of insult offered to the religion of a 
 neighbour ; I never heard a murmur at the state's distributing 
 in Canada its ecclesiastic patronage among catholics. But the 
 government has, nevertheless, not the reputation of being to- 
 lerant; and this is what operates at a distance, and in colonial 
 provmces. The repeated parliamentary refusals of Irish eman- 
 cipation, and the declamatory indignation of the friends of the 
 catholics, are the chief facts which reach the popish clergy 
 of South America. To place ostentatiously a catholic arch- 
 bishop, a domestic pope, in the house of lords, and to employ 
 some Irish missionaries in visiting Guyana, are the expedient 
 preparatory steps for acquiring the entire confidence of the ec-
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 38J 
 
 clesiastic party in the Spanish settlements here. I rejoice much 
 in the conquest of Buenos Ayres ; but I doubt whether that 
 conquest will prove to be so stable an acquisition as is expected, 
 for want of any previous precaution to conciliate the religious 
 portion of the people, which sways not only the great body 
 of the Spaniards, but also of the contiguous Indian nations. 
 Yet brilliant as the first seizure of Buenos Ayres may have 
 been ; and important as the emporium for all the produce 
 which descends the Plata may appear ; I am deliberately per- 
 suaded that Buenos Ayres and Monte Video, and all the de- 
 pendent provinces, would be well exchanged for the narrower 
 eastern bank of the Orinoko. 
 
 The Orinoko is not subject, like the Plata, to those hurri- 
 canes from the Andes, which destroy, at a sweep, all the craft 
 of navigation. The wonderful quantity of cattle is alike re- 
 markable on the meadows of either river. The variety of ac- 
 cessible country, and the quantity of timbered shore, is greater 
 on the Orinoko. And the peculiarity, which this latter river 
 offers, during the season of inundation, of supplying a navigable 
 passage into the Maranyo, must give to it, for extent of inte- 
 rior communication, an advantage over the Plata. Its even- 
 tual importance, therefore, may rationally be expected to 
 transcend that of a river, which is not of greater dimensions, 
 which is no thoroughfare, and which does not open into a sea, 
 so dotted with islands, and encircled with havens.
 
 384 STATISTICAL ACCOUXT OF THE 
 
 Nor is there perhaps so much diftercncc, as is commonly 
 imagined, between the actual progress of settlement, of culti- 
 vation, and of populousness, on the banks of the two rivers. 
 The Plata is best known in Europe ; because Buenos Ayres 
 figured in the red book, was the seat of a titled governor, and 
 offered the hope of a large spoil of patronage to the courtiers. 
 Besides, the vast silver tribute of Peru was often sent home 
 through that channel. But the Spaniards not having created 
 a privileged harbour within the Orinoko, the produce of the 
 bordering provinces has habitually been carried for shipment 
 to Trinidad, Goayre, or the Havanna. It has made no noise 
 in the tariffs of the custom-house. A recent traveller estimates 
 at 1 14,000 the settled colonial population of New Cumana and 
 and Spanish Guyana. The produce raised by such a num- 
 ber of employed individuals cannot be inconsiderable, or un- 
 important ; particularly as it embraces some articles, such as 
 chocolate, sarsaparilla, bark, and various dying-stuffs, in addi- 
 tion to tobacco, coffee, cotton, and sugar, so generally grown 
 in these districts for exportation. To be sure the surplus pro- 
 duce of a colony of Creoles of Spanish descent Is by no means 
 as great as the surplus produce of an equally populous colony 
 under English guidance and management. For the Spaniards 
 have progressively accommodated their habits so entirely to 
 the country, the climate, and the gifts of the soil, that they 
 consume, at home, a larger proportion of what they grow, 
 and import from Europe a smaller proportion of what they
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 385 
 
 use, than any other set of people. They are nearly self-sut- 
 ficient. They have naturalized themselves in South America 
 far more completely than any other Europeans. They are 
 really more puzzled to send home their taxes, than to supply 
 their domestic consumption, whenever a war interrupts their 
 intercourse with old Spain. 
 
 The Spaniards have come to America, because there is room 
 to live with little labor. Their numbers expand with the quiet 
 regularity of patriarchal families. They place wise conduct 
 in actual enjoyment ; not in the restless pursuit of riches to be 
 displayed in old age among new acquaintance and in another 
 hemisphere. Those, who leave Spain, come to stay, and not 
 to return. They consider their adopted country, not as a 
 counting-house where they are to earn a fortune, but as an es- 
 tate where they are to found a family. And thus, though 
 each life is less productive of emolument to the individual, it 
 bequeaths more to the prosperity of the region. The English 
 build wooden houses very fast ; the Spaniards very slow, but 
 with brick and stone. Churches rise beside their dwellings; 
 and so do schools and colleges. The latin grammar of Nebrija 
 may be inferior to the Eton grammar ; but it is taught in the 
 colonies. The English send home their children for the very 
 elements of education. 
 
 Hence there is great value in a settled population of the Spa- 
 nish breed ; they are a pledge for enduring unremoving pros- 
 
 Dd d
 
 386 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OV THE 
 
 perity. They are adapted to consume works of the fine arts, 
 engravings of religious pictures, candelabres, altar-pieces, and 
 costly vestments for the priesthood. They are adapted to civi- 
 lize the servile population, which, if lazier, is certainly gentler 
 and less disposed to revolt, in the Spanish possessions. Even in 
 San Domingo the Spanish portion has been comparatively free 
 from insurrection. 
 
 It is therefore greatly to be desired, that the English govern- 
 ment should bend its attention toward protecting, according to 
 their own wishes, the Spanish colonists. Those situate on the 
 Orinoko could immediately be provided, under British protec- 
 tion, with every thing which renders an European connexion 
 desirable to them ; with better stores of supply, with wider 
 markets of vent, and with Irish merchants of their own faith, 
 to conduct their intercourse, and to amalgamate with their po- 
 pulation. 
 
 In case a transfer of dominion should allow open intercourse 
 between the West Indies and the provinces up the Orinoko, a 
 vast many new settlers would domesticate there. The natural 
 influence of the neighbourhood would pour into these colonies 
 a truly British spirit. The additional planters, and the removed 
 slaves, would soon bring in much of our habits and our dialect, 
 would soon teach our activity and our wants. Thus the mass 
 of public force would shortly be distinguished for British sym- 
 pathies and willing allegiance. But on the Plata, the Creole
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 387 
 
 power is truly American; it is an Indian force governed by 
 the convents of the missionaries, which has occasionally bid 
 defiance to the Spanish military commanders, and has effica- 
 ciously resisted several attempts to turn the monasteries into 
 barracks. Such a population, almost wholly strange to Eu- 
 ropean connexions and cares, will always be held in subjection 
 by too frail a tenure, not to be wisely exchanged for the 
 ruder, but more plastic people of the Orinoko. 
 
 One mistake of the antient English administrations has been 
 the not sending out their colonial governors sufficiently accom- 
 panied. The multiplication of places is not merely a conve- 
 nience to the patrons ; it is also a benefit to the subjects. Va- 
 riety of ranks is but a distribution of political labor ; it is fa- 
 vourable to subordination, to the collection of instruction, to 
 the complete performance of duty, and to the advancement 
 and recompense of merit. A splendid establishment, like all 
 pomp, is adapted both to amuse and to overawe the multitude; 
 and it tends to introduce a multiplicity of artificial wants, 
 which furnish employ and nutriment to the different manufac- 
 turers of the mother country. The principal merchants and 
 planters soon attempt to imitate the pageantry of the governor's 
 entertainments. Utensils are sent for to London, like those on 
 his table, and furniture, like that in his saloon. "What he con- 
 siders as accommodation becomes a general want. 
 
 D d d 2
 
 388 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 The revenues necessary Tor an increase of splendor are not 
 considerable ; they might probably be found by selling the un- 
 appropriated lands to new colonists for a quit-rent, subject to 
 be augmented a tenth every ten years, or in some other pro- 
 portion ; instead of selling them outright in lots, which require 
 a sudden and inconvenient advance of capital for the fee-sim- 
 ple. Window-taxes, and other such assessments on fixed pro- 
 perty, might, if necessary, be introduced. Money, which is 
 to be expended on the spot, is seldom grudged by the people. 
 But care should be taken that places, which require local 
 knowlege, be given to local experience ; and that those, who 
 acquit themselves well in a province, should have a chance 
 for advancement to metropolitan consequence. North Ame- 
 rica was lost, as much for want of opening a career of ascent to 
 her native talent, as from any popular benefit that was to ac- 
 crue by the assertion of independence. 
 
 It is fortunate when, by a rare chance, the governor brings 
 with him a wife. Few married English women, of rank and 
 character, are at any time Induced to make their appearance in 
 these distant edges of the world, to exhibit the fashions of do- 
 mestic elegance, and teach the graces of moral dignity. The 
 female servants and humble companions of such married ladies 
 Tcry commonly attach themselves independently and advan- 
 tageously in the colonies; and produce, by their stay, a great
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 389 
 
 and lasting effect in civilizing the local manners, and trans- 
 planting those feminine arts of life, which our tavvney wenches 
 never saw exemplified. From imitating the dresses of the 
 white ladies, they will proceed to imitate usages of a higher 
 unportance. 
 
 Several barristers, with the title of recorder, should be sta- 
 tioned in our principal towns. They might at first be emi- 
 nently useful in compiling and translating the regulations of 
 Dutch jurisprudence. Their next office would be to indicate 
 and prepare the fittest way of assimilating the extant colonial 
 laws with those of the British empire. Usage is of great value; 
 it implies motion without friction. But in colonies, where an 
 influx of additional inhabitants is continually going on; where 
 the balance of Dutch population is declining, and the habit 
 of connexion with Holland is interrupted; where incessant mi- 
 grations produce, with greater speed than the ordinary flow of 
 generations, a general renewal of the people ; usage must un- 
 dergo a rapid and considerable change, if it is to keep pace 
 with the convenience of the stirring mass of society. In such 
 circumstances, an obstinate retention of custom is itself a 
 grievance ; it occasions more friction than innovation would 
 do. There is greater danger of complaint that the English 
 laws are not introduced fast enough ; than that the old land- 
 marks are ploughed up too hastily. The more of legality and 
 the less of usurpation there is in the introduction of new insti-
 
 390 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 tutions the better. Trial by jury, and an elective constitution 
 of the provincial administrations, are the fundamental blessings, 
 which British conquest every where should aspire to bequeath. 
 There are several minor changes in legislation, which resident 
 lawyers would teach us to obtain at home. Unless the evil of 
 laws is observed by professional men ; the form of remedy can 
 seldom be devised* which will give least trouble, and amalga- 
 
 * By the peace of Amiens it was covenanted that every British subject 
 having concerns in any of the countries ceded to other powers, should have 
 three years allowed to settle them ; after which time, if they remained, they 
 were to be considered as subjects of that power possessing the country. But 
 immediately after the arrival of the Batavian government's forces, the governor 
 issued peremptory proclamations, calling on every inhabitant to take the oath 
 of allegiance to the new government. As the subjects of Great Britain held 
 back, proclamation after proclamation was published, calling on them to take 
 the oath of allegiance, threatening them in case of non compliance, with ba- 
 nishment from the colony. 
 
 Serious consequences certainly appeared about to be the result of this unpre- 
 cedented demand of the governor's, and several petitions were addressed to him 
 from different parts of his government, signed by the first and most respect- 
 able inhabitants, shewing how peculiarly they were situated as British subjects, 
 having three years allowed them by the treaty of peace to settle their affairs, 
 and praying his proclamations might be withdrawn, and that they might be al- 
 lowed to take advantage of the clause in their favor. These applications were 
 of no avail whatever. Meertens ordered his secretary not to receive any more 
 of the petitions, and gave no other answer to those he had received, than by 
 issuing another mandate to the same effect as the former ones. The conse-
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &€. 391 
 
 mate best with existing statutes. The intricacy of the British 
 custom-house regulations is often injurious to trade ; in nothing 
 
 quence was, that those subjects of Great Britain who would not take the oath, 
 were shipped from the colony like so many criminals. 
 
 Another class of men, whose particular situations as ship-owners precluded 
 them from taking the oath, waited on the governor, and pointed out to Jiim 
 different abstracts in our navigation acts which prevented them from comply- 
 ing with his proclamations. The principal ones of which were as follows, as 
 these facts are not generally known, I have transcribed them. 
 
 In an act for the farther increase and encouragement of shipping and navi- 
 gation, 26 Geo. 3d, c. 60, and in sec. 8th, 9th, and 10th, will be found the 
 following strictures : 
 
 British subjects resident abroad. 
 
 " 8th. — That no subject of his majesty, whose residence is any foreign 
 country, shall be entitled, during the time he shall continue to reside, to be 
 whole or part owner of any British ship or vessel required to be registered by 
 this act, unles he be a member of some British factory, or agent for, ox partner 
 in, any house or copartnership carrying on trade in Great Britain or Ireland. 
 
 " 9th and 10th. — Oath to be taken before registry. 
 " The oath, directed, by the 1 and 8 Will. 3, to be taken on registering 
 the ships and vessels therein described, is hereby repealed. But no registry 
 shall be made or certificate granted until the following oath be taken and sub- 
 scribed before the persons herein before authorized to make such registry, and 
 grant such certificate, by the owner of such ship or vessel, if the same belong 
 to one person only ; or in case there shall be two joint owners, then by both of 
 them, if both be resident within twenty miles of tlie port where such registry
 
 392 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 more remarkably than in the article of coffee, which is bur- 
 dened with expense, and injured in quality, by the processes 
 adopted for securing the revenue. 
 
 is required, or by one of such owners, if both be resident at a greater distance, 
 or if the number of such owners should exceed two, then by the greater num- 
 ber of them, if the greater number shall be resident within twenty miles of 
 such port, not exceeding three of such owners, if all shall be resident at a 
 greater distance. 
 
 (The Oath.) 
 " I, A. B. of (place of residence and occupation) do make oath, that the 
 
 ship or vessel (name) of (place or port belonging) whereof is at present 
 
 master, being ( kind of built, burthen, !<c.) was (when and where built, or, if 
 prhe, capture, and condeynyiation) and that I, the said A. B. (and the owners 
 names, if any, place of residence, occupation. He. or, if member of, and resi- 
 dent in, any factoiy in foreign parts, or in any foreign town, or city, being an 
 agent for, or partner in any houose or copartnership, actually carrying on tradf 
 in Great Britain or Ireland, the name of such factory in foreign parts, or in 
 any foreign town, or city, and the names of such hou^e and copartnership) am 
 (or are) sole owner (or owners) of the said vessel, and that no other person 
 or persons hath or have any right, title, interest, share, or property, therein 
 or thereto ; and that I, the said A. B. (and the said other owners, if any) am 
 (or are) truly boim fide, a subject (or subjects) of Great Britain, and that I, 
 the said A. B. have not (nor have any of the other owners) taken tlie oath of al- 
 legiance to any foreign state whatever, or that since my (or their) taking the 
 oath of allegiance to (naming the foreign states respectively to which he or any 
 of the said owners shall have takeii the same) and prior to the passing of an act in 
 the twenty-sixth year of the reign of king George the Third, entitled an act for 
 the farther increase and encouragement of shipping and navigation, I have (or
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &:C. 393 
 
 Medical men, educated in Europe, are not rare in the co- 
 lonies, especially surgeons, many of whom were formerly at- 
 tached to regiments, or employed on board men of war, and 
 obtained leave to remain. They make a fixed income, by 
 farming the health of the slaves on contiguous plantations, at 
 so much a head. By their free patients they are handsomely 
 fee'd. Physicians are much less common ; a few who had 
 fixed at home in a neighbourhood too crouded with competi- 
 tion, or who, foi professional reasons, have thought a hot 
 climate necessary to their own health, have come out ; but 
 the number is inconsiderable. A governor ought, however, by 
 
 he or they hath or have) become a subject (or subjects) of Great Britain, (either 
 by his majesty^ s letters patent as a denizen or denizens, or naturalized by act of 
 parliament, as the case may be, naming the dates of the letters of denization, or 
 the acts or acts of parliament for naturalization respectively ) or (as the case may 
 be) I have (or he or they hath or have) become a denizen (or denizens, or na- 
 turalized subject or subjects, as the case may be) of Great Britain, by his ma- 
 jesty's letters patent, or by an act of parliament passed since the first day of 
 January, one thousand, seven hundred, and eighty-six, (naming the time 
 when such letters have been granted respectively) and that no foreigner, directly 
 or indirectly, hath any share, or part, or interest, in the said sliip or vessel." 
 
 Neither the three years allowed by the treaty of Amiens, nor our navigation 
 laws, had any effect on his excellency, he remained firm to the purport of his 
 proclamations, and even refused several requests which were made him of 
 being allowed to remaining in the colony a few months on courtesy, as taking 
 the oath of allegiance was incompatible with tlieir situations as ship owners. 
 
 E e e
 
 594f STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 no means to omit including some medical men in his houshold 
 establishment. 
 
 But the most desirable service which a governor could 
 render to this country, would be to carry out an assortment of 
 philosophers, for the purpose of surveying it scientifically. It 
 may sometimes happen that a single traveller, (the Mr. Barrow, 
 who visited the Cape, is an instance,) combines in his own per- 
 son the various requisites for an adequate survey, and is at 
 once the mathematician, the naturalist, and the statesman. 
 But in general a subdivision and distribution of labor is requi- 
 site, where comprehensive information is coveted. In order 
 to meet the risks of climate, and to obviate the great loss of 
 knowlege which ensues, if a man of science, while he is vi- 
 siting an unfrequented part of the earth, perishes of disease, 
 or accident; it is desirable to send out a company of learned 
 travellers, four or five in conjunction, with a party of Indians 
 to carry their baggage. To one or two might be intrusted the 
 task, of mathematical survey, and of mapping the country ; 
 and on others might devolve the collection of facts relative to 
 the natural history, the zoology, botany, and mineralogy of 
 the district. The civil condition of the human population is 
 better learnt by residence than by thorough-fare. Such a 
 knot of young men of science would find considerable amuse- 
 ment in the enterprize itself; and would return able to satisfy 
 a great deal of European curiosity about the region visited.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 395 
 
 The cost of such an expedition would be amply repaid by the 
 knowlege which the statesman would gain, and the reputa- 
 tion for good-will which would result. It cannot be that this 
 country should want to import lime from Bristol ; but its 
 mountains are yet unexplored. 
 
 Discoveries of what can be rendered useful, avail little with- 
 out the human hands that are to turn the gifts of nature to a. 
 profit. The accounts given of the Chinese, and the astonish- 
 ing rapidity with which they have got up in Pulo-penang, all 
 the parts of a complex and civilized society under British laws, 
 and in a climate corresponding with that of Guyana, render 
 it highly probable that Chinese colonists would form the most 
 valuable accession to our present stock of labourers, which 
 could be introduced. They have those habits of body, which 
 can bear the exertions of industry between the tropics, and 
 they have those habits of artificial society, which fit them for 
 a variety of labors to which rude savages cannot be brought 
 to attend. Above all, they have a rational foresight, and 
 may be intrusted with the care of their own maintenance, 
 without danger of that ruinous improvidence, that careless alter- 
 nation of intemperance and sloth, that besets the African ne- 
 gro, who is his own master. It is said that the Chinese will 
 stay, but never settle, in a strange land, and that when they 
 have earned a little money, they go home to live upon it ; but 
 if they should not generally prove to be settlers, their labor
 
 396 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 will Still have prepared fields and created houses for the use of 
 other successors, and they will become the teachers of a mul- 
 tiplicity of those arts and habits, which a long experience of 
 hot climates has naturalized among the orientals. Guyana is 
 adapted to become the China of the West, and may best be 
 instructed by the nation, which ought especially to be its 
 model. 
 
 FI NJ S. 
 
 Norwich : Fruited by Stevenson & Matchett.
 
 SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 
 
 397 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 The following is the official statement alluded to at p. 19, of ships cleared from the ports ofEsse- 
 qucbo and Demaary, for Europe, from 1745 to 1785, with the quanliti/ of produce. 
 
 
 
 
 VESSELS CLEARED FOR ZEALAND FROM 
 
 1745 
 
 TO mo. 
 
 
 Tears, 
 
 
 Hogibdi , 
 
 Tierces 
 
 Bagi 
 
 Bales 
 
 „ 
 
 ■s- 
 
 Hogibds, 
 
 TUrcei 
 
 Bag! 
 
 Bales 
 
 Tears . 
 
 1763 
 
 
 Hogsheads 
 
 Tierces 
 
 Bags 
 
 Bales 
 
 vi 
 
 Sugiir, 
 
 Coffee. 
 
 Coff:,. 
 
 Cotttn 
 
 1754 
 
 :S 
 
 Sugar. 
 
 Coffee. 
 
 Coffee. 
 
 Cotton 
 
 
 Sugar, 
 
 Coffee. 
 
 Coffee. 
 
 Cotton. 
 
 1745 
 
 
 
 1219 
 
 
 
 
 n 
 
 285 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 2919i 
 
 19 
 
 664 
 
 4 
 
 1746 
 
 2 
 
 1342 J 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 1755 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1764 
 
 8 
 
 2956-1 
 
 31 
 
 211 
 
 2 
 
 1747 
 
 2 
 
 559i 
 
 
 
 
 1756 
 
 3 
 
 I9I8I 
 
 8 
 
 
 3 
 
 1765 
 
 8 
 
 367 8 1 
 
 56 
 
 881 
 
 18 
 
 1748 
 
 4 
 
 2292 
 
 
 
 
 1757 
 
 3 
 
 1594 
 
 
 
 
 176( 
 
 9 
 
 4120 
 
 37 
 
 2532 
 
 101 
 
 1749 
 
 8 
 
 35791 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 1758 
 
 
 
 8591 
 
 
 
 
 1767 
 
 10 
 
 4745;i 
 
 / * 
 
 2748 
 
 84 
 
 1750 
 
 5 
 
 2529 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 1759 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I76'8 
 
 7 
 
 2896'^ 
 
 166 
 
 2510 
 
 66 
 
 1751 
 
 4 
 
 1445 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 I76O 
 
 7 
 
 878 
 
 45 
 
 
 28 
 
 176J, 
 
 9 
 
 3530J 
 
 491 
 
 2715 
 
 312 
 
 1752 
 
 6' 
 
 2606^ 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 I76I 
 1762 
 
 6 
 
 1177 
 
 298 8| 
 
 
 274 
 
 50 
 
 1770 
 
 8 
 
 5795 
 
 499 
 
 1603 
 
 337 
 
 1753 
 
 1 
 
 4472 
 
 
 
 
 lu 
 
 43 
 
 238 
 
 10 
 
 
 134 
 
 53363 
 
 1467 
 
 14381 
 
 1 0-2 1 
 
 
 FOR H 
 
 OLLA 
 
 ND. 
 
 
 
 
 FOR ZJ 
 
 EALAND. 
 
 TO HOLLAND & ZEALAND. 
 
 1771 
 
 2 
 
 9d7 
 
 iS5 
 
 481 
 
 66 
 
 1771 
 
 11 
 
 2130 
 
 456 
 
 3057 
 
 96 
 
 1771 
 
 13 
 
 3127 
 
 641 
 
 3538 
 
 162 
 
 1772 
 
 3 
 
 942 
 
 374 
 
 844 
 
 86 
 
 1772 
 
 6 
 
 2396" 
 
 176 
 
 3896 
 
 42 
 
 1772 
 
 9 
 
 3338 
 
 550 
 
 4740 
 
 128 
 
 1773 
 
 3 
 
 934 
 
 590 
 
 2976 
 
 134 
 
 1773 
 
 9 
 
 2841 
 
 411 
 
 563? 
 
 47 
 
 1773 
 
 12 
 
 3775 
 
 1001 
 
 8613 
 
 181 
 
 1774 
 
 7 
 
 1475^ 
 
 1031 
 
 5320 
 
 247 
 
 1774 
 
 10 
 
 3750 
 
 296 
 
 9329 
 
 60 
 
 1774 
 
 17 
 
 5225^ 
 
 1327 
 
 14649 
 
 307 
 
 1775 
 
 11 
 
 10781 
 
 2005 
 
 9360 
 
 125 
 
 1775 
 
 10 
 
 3858i 
 
 312 
 
 9730 
 
 64 
 
 1775 
 
 21 
 
 49371 
 
 2317 
 
 19090 
 
 189 
 
 1776' 
 
 8 
 
 1498^ 
 
 885 
 
 399s 
 
 581 
 
 1776 
 
 / 
 
 2467 
 
 196 
 
 6136 
 
 431 
 
 1776' 
 
 15 
 
 3965^ 
 
 1081 
 
 10134 
 
 1012 
 
 1777 
 
 10 
 
 12431 
 
 1631 
 
 12631 
 
 803 
 
 1777 
 
 ( 
 
 1899 
 
 235 
 
 161^ 
 
 363 
 
 1777 
 
 17 
 
 3142^ 
 
 1866 
 
 20309 
 
 1166 
 
 1778 
 
 12 
 
 2088 
 
 1592 
 
 14831 
 
 992 
 
 1778 
 
 15 
 
 4S32i 
 
 247 
 
 17803 
 
 762 
 
 1778 
 
 27 
 
 6920J 
 
 1839 
 
 32634 
 
 1754 
 
 1779 
 
 14 
 
 2238 
 
 856 
 
 15371 
 
 1937 
 
 1779 
 
 10 
 
 3661.1 
 
 71 
 
 9863 
 
 931 
 
 1779 
 
 24 
 
 •i899| 
 
 .927 
 
 25234 
 
 286'8 
 
 1780 
 
 9 
 
 1033 
 
 1155 
 
 13884 
 
 1229 
 
 1780 
 
 13 
 
 2967 J 
 
 282 
 
 26139 
 
 1501 
 
 1780 
 
 22 
 
 4000.1 
 
 1437 
 
 40023 
 
 2730 
 
 1781 
 
 2 
 
 177 
 
 353 
 
 3787 
 
 276 
 
 1/81 
 
 3 
 
 1425 J 
 
 107 
 
 6^6-, 
 
 480 
 
 1781 
 
 7 
 
 1602^ 
 
 460 10250 
 
 756 
 
 1784 
 
 13 
 
 1146 
 
 488 
 
 12280 
 
 848 
 
 1784 
 
 11 
 
 2834. 
 
 215 
 
 15798 
 
 1035 
 
 1784 
 
 24 
 
 39SO 
 
 703 
 
 28078 
 
 1883' 
 
 1785 
 
 10 
 
 2951 
 
 440 
 
 9370 
 
 816 
 
 1785 
 
 5 
 
 2044?, 
 
 
 3013 
 
 223 
 
 1785 
 
 15 
 
 4995^ 
 
 44f 
 
 12383 
 
 10.! 
 
 
 104 
 
 178021 
 
 11585 
 
 105133 
 Tota 
 Oral 
 
 8140 
 
 1 from 1745 
 
 119 
 to 17 
 174 
 
 38106 
 
 3004 
 
 125542 
 
 6035 
 
 
 2^* .3 
 
 55909 
 
 145S< 
 
 ^■2967 5 1417 5 
 
 
 70.... 
 5 to 17s 
 
 
 11341 
 
 53363 1 
 
 1467 14.} SI lO'Jl 
 
 
 
 id tota 
 
 1 troni 
 
 J 
 
 i357i 
 
 109272 i 
 
 16051 244056,15196 
 
 N. B. There is no account of any ships loading iu the years 1755 and 175;'. In 1781 great part of the ships and produce 
 of this year were captured by the British. In 1782 and 1783, the colonies were j ossessed by the French. 
 
 Ff r
 
 398 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Details respecting the Slave-trade, in illustration of p. 117. 
 
 Sale of a cargo of Slaves from the Windxvard coast, inade in May, 
 
 1801. 
 
 
 
 d 
 
 
 •i 
 
 Punhastrs 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 1^ 
 4 
 
 (5 
 
 A 
 
 8 
 
 () 
 
 H 
 
 9 
 
 6" 
 
 3 
 
 
 C 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 
 D 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 
 E 
 
 ■t 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 
 I" 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 
 G 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 
 H 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 ^1 
 
 O 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 L 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 M| 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 N 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 6" 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 FrUu and terms of Payment, 
 
 Averaged at y60 /. in bills at six inoiitlis 
 
 Do. in bills at nine months 
 
 Do. in do. at six, nine, and twelve do. 
 
 Do. in do. at do. 
 
 Do. in do. at do. 
 
 Do. in do. at do. 
 
 Do. in do. at do. 
 
 Do. in do. at nine and twelve months 
 
 850 do. bills down 
 
 1200^ 
 
 1000 > 
 
 850 ) 
 
 850 
 
 1300 7 
 1150 3 
 
 1150 
 
 1100 7 
 
 950 I 
 
 total 
 
 of each 
 
 Lot. 
 
 19'200 
 
 lycoo 
 yo'oo 
 
 i)6'00 
 
 9600 
 9600 
 9(''oo 
 9600 
 
 2550 
 4250 
 
 1700 
 
 2450 
 
 750 
 3450 
 
 10500 
 
 Account of ships frojn Africa ivith cargoes of Slaves imported into 
 the colonies of Esseqiiebo and Demei-ary from 174-5 to 1785. 
 
 From 1745 to 1748 there were none 
 
 1749 - - 1 ship 
 
 1750 to 1761 none 
 
 1762 - - 1 
 
 1763 - - - 1
 
 APPENDIX. 599 
 
 In llG-i- - - 1 ship 
 
 17 Co none 
 From 1776 to 178(7 there were 4<7 
 
 Making a total of 51 slave ships in 
 forty-two years, averaging about one hundred and twenty 
 slaves. There were certainly more embarked in Africa, but 
 whether from bad treatment or misfortune, many of the vessels 
 arrived with only sixty slaves on board, when it was a well 
 known fact, they had shipped upwards of two hundred. Be- 
 side importations, there were seasoned people imported by 
 the British settlers from the West-Indian islands, which are not 
 noticed in this statement. When we reflect, that in 1786, 
 there were not more than forty thousand negroes in the two 
 colonies, and that seventy-five thousand had been imported in 
 the last forty-two years, exclusive of those brought into the 
 colonies previous to an office being established for entering the 
 vessels at, and the negroes imported by the English settlers 
 without taking into consideration the number of children which 
 would naturally be born within that period, what an immense 
 loss and dreadful sacrifice of lives appear to have taken place. 
 
 I can only account for it thus: negroes were sold in the 
 years alluded to from twenty to forty pounds sterling, at fifteen 
 months credit ; from their bearing such a trifling value, I fear 
 they were too frequently sacrificed by hard work, and iJI treat-
 
 +00 APPENDIX. 
 
 ment, under an idea that twelve or eighteen months labor was 
 sufficient to pay the first cost. It is an absolute fact, that the 
 comfort and health of the negroes was never much considered, 
 until their value, like that of a blood horse when put in com- 
 petition with a cart horse, entitled them to better treatment, 
 for fear they should die, as the loss would then be so much 
 the greater. 
 
 Specimen of the negro Englisli, or talhee-talkee, alluded to at p. 341, 
 which is spoken by the Creole ladies in preference to any other dialect. 
 
 Da wan tieri somma - That is a free person 
 
 No mekie bawli bawli - Don't make any noise 
 
 Dai de mekie too mooso bawli bawli They make too much noise 
 
 Mekie hesie - - Make haste 
 
 Loeke boen - - - Take care, or look good 
 
 Tantiere - - - Stand still 
 
 Loeke deeja . _ . Look here 
 
 Piekietvnoro - . _ A little more 
 
 Otiofo - - > Enough 
 
 Oe somma die da pree ? - AVho's there ? 
 
 Matie - - - A friend 
 
 Da mie - - - It's me 
 
 Da massa - - - It's a gentleman 
 
 Da misse - - It's a lady. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 Norwich Printed by Stevenson and Matcbett.
 
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