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STA R K'S
GUIDE-BOOK AND HISTORY
or
BRITISH G UIANA.
CONTAINING
A DESCRIPTION OF EVERYTHING RELATING TO THIS
COLONY THAT WOULD BE OF INTEREST TO
TOURISTS AND RESIDENTS,
RESPECTING
ITS HISTORY, INHABITANTS, CLIMATE, AGRICULTURE,
GEOLOGY, GOLD MINING, GOVERNMENT,
AND RESOURCES.
jullu Hillustrately
WITH MAPS, ENGRA VINGS, AND PHOTO-PRINTS.
BY
JAMES RODWAY, F.L.S.,
AND
JAMES H. STARK.
B O S T ON :
JAMES H. STAR K, PUBLISHER,
275 WASHINGtoN STREET,
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, & COMPANY, LONDON.


PRESS OF
iãockbell amb ChurchíII
BOSTON, U.S.A. *


.
P R E FA C E.
NTIL quite recently the general public knew but little
{j concerning the Bermudas, Caribbee Islands, and British
Guiana. Books giving the desired information were scarce and
difficult to obtain. This led the writer a few years ago, after a
visit to Bermuda and the Caribbee Islands, to publish a series of
Guide-Books, well illustrated with photo-prints and maps, giving
a brief history and description of everything which would in-
terest visitors, all published at the same price, size, and general
style of binding. The principal part of the material for the
“Guide to British Guiana” was prepared by the well-known
historian of British Guiana, Mr. James Rodway, F.L.S., for the
British Guiana exhibit in the Chicago Columbian Exposition.
To this I have added some new matter, illustrations, and maps,
and have made some changes in the arrangement of the letter-
press, in order to have it conform with my other Guides.
Jácº /4&


- - ----


CONTENTS.
THE VOYAGE .
What steamers to take. —Where to sail from. — Ex-
pense. — The Caribbee Islands. – Description of the
COaSt.
HISTORY - - - - - - - -
Discovered by Columbus. – Search for gold. — Settled
by the Dutch. — Attacked by the French. — Capt-
ured by the English. — Boundary dispute with Vene-
zuela. — First map, showing boundary line. — Indians
commissioned. — They protect the colony.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The colony. — The coast. — Drainage. — Richness
of the soil. — The sand reefs. – The forest region.
— The rapids and waterfalls. – Kaieteur Falls. –
Roraima. — The savannahs. – Timehri Rocks. –
Shell mounds.
SETTLEMENTS .
Area under cultivation. — Political divisions. – Gov-
ernment. — Georgetown. — New Amsterdam. –
The Villages. – The Plantations.
THINGS WORTH SEEING
The forest and rivers. — Museum and reading-room. —
Botanic gardens. – East Indian festivals.
PAGE
II
I6
27
36
53


6 CO/VTEMTS.
PAGE
INHABITANTS . - - - - - - - . 58
Population. — The Portuguese. — The Negroes. –
The Hindoo Coolies. – The Chinese. — The native
Indians.
COMMUNICATION . - - - - - - . 66
Communication with other countries, – Exports and
imports. – Ports. – Internal communication.
CLIMATE AND METEOROLOGY . - - - - . 69
The climate. — The seasons. – Diseases most preva-
lent. — Death rate.
FOREST PRODUCTS . - - - - - - . 72
Description of various kinds of timber. — Wood-cut-
ting grants. – Cost of lumbering. — Export of tim-
ber. — Ballata gum. — India rubber. — Tonka beans.
GEOLOGY - - - - - - - - . 76
Alluvial soil. — Sand reefs. – Granite quarries. – Gold-
bearing quartz. — Precious stones. – Sandstone
formation. — Volcanic rocks. – Conglomerate rocks.
GOLD INDUSTRY - - - - - - - . 81
The El Dorado of the Spaniards. – Gold-mining by
the Dutch. — Discovery of gold in 1880. — How to
reach the gold mines. – Amount of gold obtained.
— Laws regulating gold-mining.
HINTS TO GOLD PROSPECTORS . - - - - . 89
What to do on landing. —Where the best mines are.
— Cost of transportation. — Supplies. – Cost of
labor. — How to live in the forests. – Travelling on
the rivers.


COMTEAVZ.S. 7
PAGE
FAUNA - - - - . 97
Mammals of Guiana. – Jaguars. — Monkeys. – Pec-
caries. – Enormous bats. – Agouti. — Manatee. —
Sloths. – Opossums. – Toucans. – Macaws. – Ibis.
— Parrots. – Alligators. — Boa constrictors. —
Iguanas. – Tree frogs. – Insects. – Spiders. —
Cockroaches, – Scorpions. – Centipedes. – Ants.
– Butterflies.
FLORA - - - - - - - o . IO7
High woods. – Creeping plants. – Savannahs. –
Ferns. – Mosses. – Orchids. – Victoria Regia. —
Palms. – Tree ferns.
RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES : - - - - . I I4
Sugar plantations. – Farming. — Cotton. — Coffee. —
Rice. — Cocoanuts. – Fruit exports. – Fisheries.
Timber.


ILLUS T R AT I O N S.
PAGE
GEORGETOWN - - - - - - - Frontispiece
CHART, SHOWING STEAMER ROUTE - c - - . I 3
INDIANS AT HOME e - - - - - . Facing 18
MAP, SHOWING FIRST BOUNDARY LINE - - ... “ 24
MAP OF BRITISH GUIANA . - - - - . . . 27
VICTORIA REGIA IN A FRESH-WATER CANAL - . . . 29
KAIETEUR FALLS . n - - - - - ... “ 3 I
RORAIMA . - * - - - o - . “ 33
TIMEHRI ROCKS . *- - o - - - . . . 35
LAW COURTS - - - - - - - ... * * 37
WATER STREET, GEORGETown, LOOKING SOUTH . . “ 39
WATER STREET, GEORGETOWN, LOOKING NORTH . . . 4 I
COOLIE BELLE . - - - - - - . “ 43
NEW AMSTERDAM - - - - - - . “ 47
ROADSIDE ON A SUGAR PLANTATION . - - . . . 49
SUGAR CANE CULTIVATION . - - . o . “ 5 I
PATH FOR HAULING TIMBER - - - - . “ 53
PUBLIC BUILDINGS - - - - - - ... * * 55
MOHAMMEDAN PRIEST . - - - - - . “ 57
A MIXED GROUP – CHINESE, NEGROEs, EAST INDIANs, “ 59
GROUP OF EAST INDIANS . - - - - . “ 61
GROUP OF NATIVE INDIANS . - - - - . “ 63
INDIAN FAMILY . o - - - - - . “ 65
INTERIOR OF SUGAR FACTORY . o - - ... * * 67
INDIAN WARRIORS - - - - - - ... * * 73


ALLOWSTRATZOAVS. 9
PAGE
A CAMP IN THE FOREST, ON THE WAY TO THE
DIGGINGS - - - - - - - . Facing 81
GOLD WASHING . - - w - r . . . 85
GOLD PROSPECTING . - c - - - . . . 89
GOLD DIGGER's CAMP . - r - - - . . . 93
FALLS ON THE MASARUNI . - r - - ... “ 95
COOLIE WOMAN SERVANT . e - - - ... ** IoI
CLUMP OF ETA PALMS - - - - - - “ Io'7
CORYANTHES MACRANTHA . o - - - “ Io9
Avenue OF ROYAL PALMS, PLANTATION HOUSTON ... • ‘ I I I
CUTTING THE CANES . - - - - - - “ I I6


STA R K'S
(SUIDE-BOOK AND HISTORY
OF
BRITISH GUIANA.
THE VOYAGE.
THE great attraction for winter travellers to the West Indies
and South America has until recently been rarely brought
before the notice of the public; and yet these countries comprise
such a variety that it seems almost impossible that any one desirous
of taking a Southern trip could not be tempted by them. Travel
southward during the winter season has become as much a
necessity and fashion as travel northward during the summer
months, for the reason that our changeable and cold weather
obliges many in feeble health to seek a more genial climate.
Others prefer to take their recreations in a tour to the tropics,
because such have the advantage of leaving behind our unpleas-
ant snow, rain, and ice, and exchanging them for glorious blue


I 2 HAAVD-BOOK OF BA?/T/SH GUIAAVA.
skies and sunshine and countries clad in the freshest green.
The first four months in the year being the coolest and driest
should be chosen for these excursions; August and September
are the hottest. The great mountains in the interior, some of
them ten thousand feet in height, create a cool land breeze
which blows during the night, rendering repose and sleep pos-
sible and enjoyable.
A trip to British Guiana by way of the Caribbee Islands is
similar to a trip to Europe, representing, as they do, almost as
many nations as can be found on the ancient continent, and all
have retained their original peculiarities.
The first questions that a person is likely to ask who intends
going to British Guiana are, How shall we get there? What are the
means of communication? Coming from the United States, the
quickest and shortest way would be by the “Trinidad Line,”
from New York to Trinidad (every alternate Saturday), which
takes seven days' time; and from thence to Demerara by one of
the numerous steamers that run from that port, There is also a
steamer of the Quebec Steamship Company which leaves New York
once a month for Barbados and Demerara. The Royal Dutch
West India Mail Company sends a steamer monthly to Hayti,
Curacao, Venezuelan ports, Trinidad, Demerara, and Dutch
Guiana.
From Canada, Pickford and Black's West India Line steamers
run monthly between St. John, N.B., Halifax, N.S., and nearly
all the Caribbee Islands, Demerara being the last port at which
to stop.
From England the most direct route is by the Southampton
Royal West India Mail Line. These steamers go every two
weeks, direct from Southampton to Barbados, where a branch


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A/AAVD-AOOK OF BA’/ZYS// G (7/AAVA. I 5
The reasons that induced the Dutch in 1580 to colonize this
part of the world is easily seen. Except for a marked contrast
in vegetation and a wide difference in climate, the Netherlands in
all other respects resemble the coast of this country. What
wonder, then, that the Dutch established themselves in this equa-
torial Holland, where they fell to work digging ditches, raising
dikes, and intrenching themselves behind earthworks, to renew the
never-ending battle of their race, the struggle against the invasion
of the sea, disputing the question of riparian rights with the
Atlantic Ocean itself
The Dutch colonists drove ploughs where Caribs once paddled
their canoes, and in the fulness of time raised crops of sugar-cane
on acres once overgrown with sedge and seaweed.


H IS T O R Y.
UIANA may be said to have been discovered in 1498 by
G Columbus, who could not have passed into the Gulf of
Paria without observing the mainland. A year or two later,
Pinçon sailed along the coast, but he does not appear to have
examined the country, which remained almost unknown during
the first half of the sixteenth century. Then arose the myth of
“El Dorado,” the gilded king, who was anointed every morning
with balsam on which gold dust was blown, so that he appeared
as if made of gold. Throughout the West Indies and along the
coast of what is now Venezuela, the Spaniards found the Indians
in possession of gold plates rumoured to have come from the
“land of the cannibals,” the first name given to Guiana from re-
ports of man-eating Caribs living on the coast.
The exaggerated reports of El Dorado, the city of Manoa, and
the great lake Parima with its golden sand, led to a great many
expeditions in their search, most of which proved disastrous,
as the powerful Caribs always succeeded in repelling the invaders.
Then came Sir Walter Raleigh, who, believing the reports of the
Spaniards, went up the Orinoco in search of “the richest country
in the world’” in 1595, and the following year sent, Captain Key-
mis to continue the exploration. No wealth was gained by these
expeditions, but by their justice and kindness to the Indians the
English were able to gain a great deal of information as to the


A/AAW/D–/3OOAT OF BA’/7/SH GO//A/VA. I7
country and its people. The Caribs were prepared to do any-
thing for Raleigh, and there was every prospect of an English
colony on the Orinoco ; but circumstances prevented his following
up the discovery until too late, when the disastrous consequences
led to his execution.
Meanwhile, Dutch traders had been busy along the coast from
about 1580, trading with the natives for tobacco, cotton, balsam
copaiva, gum animi, letter-wood, etc. Being enemies to the
Spaniards, the natives naturally considered them as their friends,
and allowed them to have a footing where no Spaniard dared
show himself. At first the Dutchman made his exchanges of
axes and trinkets for the products of the country, and then went
on his voyage to return again next year; but after a while he
found it to his interest to leave an assortment of goods behind in
charge of a few men, so that collections might be made against
his return. To prevent theft and protect the small force against
Spaniards or unfriendly tribes, a block-house or fort was built,
and this became the nucleus of a settlement.
The first settlements were made on the Pomeroon river, but
these being rather exposed to the raids of the Spaniards, in the
early years of the seventeenth century a depot and fort was
established on a little island called Kyk-over-al, at the junction
of the three rivers, Essequebo, Masaruni, and Cuyuni. Here the
Indian trade was carried on to advantage and some provision
grounds established, which were cultivated with the aid of Indian
slaves bought from the Caribs, who had a sort of market for the
sale of their captives at the mouth of the Barima river. In 1621
the Dutch West India Company was established, with the right
of trading and settling on all the unoccupied territories bordering
on the Atlantic, either in Africa or America, and Guiana became


I 8 A/A/VD-BOOA OF BR/T/SH GU/AAVA.
one of its possessions. Kyk-over-al now became a military as
well as a trading post, and in 1627 Abraham van Peere was
granted a tract of land on the Berbice river as a hereditary fief.
There were now two trading-posts in the country, these being
under the superintendence of commandeurs who acted as Indian
traders, captains of the few soldiers, and general superintendents.
The West India Company being insolvent and about to abandon
Kyk-over-al, some of its shareholders and the burgomasters of
three towns in Zeeland agreed to take it over in 1657. Stren-
uous efforts were now made to establish several colonies, free
land and slaves on credit being offered to intending colonists.
One of the new settlements was in the Pomeroon river, which by
the accession of some Portuguese Jews from Brazil soon showed
signs of becoming a thriving sugar colony. All its prospects
were, however, soon blighted ; England went to war with the
Netherlands, and in 1666 Major John Scott captured and de-
stroyed the promising young colony and took fort Kyk-over-al.
The fort was, however, left without a sufficient garrison, and
the commandeur of Berbice found no difficulty in recapturing
it a month or two afterwards.
The Pomeroon colony never recovered from this blow, and
although attempts were made later to reëstablish the settlement,
they were unsuccessful, partly on account of an attack by French
privateers which caused its final abandonment.
The trading-posts at Kyk-over-al and Fort Nassau in Berbice
were kept up and generally gave sufficient profit to pay expenses,
but hardly an attempt was made to attract settlers until near
the end of the seventeenth century. Several raids of French
privateers hindered the progress of the Essequebo colony, while
in 1712 Berbice was captured by Jacques Cassard, and held for





A/AAWD-A’OOA OA' BA’/ZT/SAT GOV/AAMA. 19
two years by French merchants as security for a bill of exchange
drawn on the Van Peeres for its ransom. Having been recovered
and a company established to develop it, Berbice received a
charter in 1732, after which a number of settlers arrived and planta-
tions of sugar and coffee were established. Meanwhile Essequebo
had progressed very slowly ; but in 1740 the company was induced
by the then secretary of the colony, Laurens Storm van's Grave-
sando, to open the river to all nations, with free grants of land
and ten years' freedom from taxes. This led to an influx of
English planters from the West India Islands, with the result that
five years afterwards the best lands on the Essequebo river had
been granted, and permission was given to settle in the Demerara.
Progress was very slow on account of the incubus of the
company, which hampered the colonists a great deal by its arbi-
trary government and restrictions on trade. Nevertheless the
colonies of Essequebo and Demerara improved to some extent,
and when in 1781 it was captured (together with Berbice) by the
British it was considered by them as an important acquisition. By
this time the banks of the rivers and a large portion of the coast
were more or less under cultivation, and a great impetus was given
to the colony by its new owners. In less than a year, however,
the French, then allies of the Netherlands, sent an expedition to
recapture the settlements, in which they succeeded, retaining pos-
session for about two years. During both English and French
occupation a measure of free trade was naturally introduced, and
it was therefore with feelings of antipathy that the inhabitants
once more found themselves under the rule of the company. But
when these rulers interfered with their constitutional rights, there
ensued stubborn opposition, which went so far that certain taxes
were not paid for three years. Ultimately the number of petitions


A CIVILIZED INDIAN GIRL.





AAAWD–BOOK OF BA’/7/SH GU/AAVA. 2 I
tion and the introduction of Portuguese from Madeira, Maltese,
Chinese, and East Indians, of whom the last have proved the best
labourers. Many obstructions and difficulties had to be overcome
before immigration could be put on its present footing, which
may be confidently stated to be almost perfect and a benefit to
both the planter and the East Indian. The great drawback to
the prosperity of the colony is now the low price of sugar, that
barely pays the cost of manufacture, which, however, has been
much reduced during the last few years.
With the rediscovery of gold, a fresh impulse has been given
to the colony, and it is hoped that this industry will induce immi.
gration of a different class of people. To put it on a proper
footing the boundary question with Venezuela must be settled,
and the sooner this is done the better for all parties concerned.
Had it not been for the absurd claims of our neighbour, who
appears to inherit the grasping nature of Spain, the matter would
long since have been arranged satisfactorily; but unfortunately
she makes her boundary to include nearly the whole of the old
colony of Essequebo, the whole of the Pomeroon, and the country
inhabited by Indians, who were under Dutch protection and
received annual presents for a long period. The territory in
dispute has never been occupied by Spain, nor did she ever
dare to assume dominion over it ; while on the contrary the
Dutch commandeurs sent trading expeditions into the country
and were arbitrators in the quarrels of the different tribes for
two centuries.
That this view is the correct one is proved by the whole
history of Essequebo. At the beginning of the seventeenth
century Guiana was quite free from either Spaniards or Portu-
guese, and grants were made of the country by the kings of


22 AAAWD–BOOK OF BA?/TISH GU/AAVA.
England and France, and the States General of the Netherlands.
The English grant to Harcourt in 161 3 covered the greater
portion from the Amazon to the Essequebo, leaving a small
piece from the latter river to the Orinoco to Holland; the
French grant extended from the Amazon to the Orinoco, and
that to the Dutch West India Company included the same
area.
Coming now to Essequebo in particular. Its centre was at
Kyk-over-al, a small island off the point between the Cuyuni and
Masaruni, from which these rivers and the Essequebo could be
effectually controlled. Its name implied that it looked over all,
i.e., the whole of the great water-shed of the Essequebo and its
neighbourhood. On the north-west was the Pomeroon or Moruca
post, and on the north-east the Demerara, both of which were
trading centres, from which the government controlled the
country up to the Orinoco on one side, and to the Abary creek,
the boundary of Berbice, on the other.
By means of treaties with the Indians the traders could pass
through the whole country, while the Spaniards were effectually
prevented from having any influence beyond a few miles round
their village of St. Thome, or their few mission stations.
These trading posts, and expeditions into the far interior,
were continued down to the middle of the last century, when the
posts were found useful to prevent the slaves from running away.
Fugitives were stopped at them, or, if they succeeded in passing,
were hunted by Indians, who received rewards for their capture.
When the negroes were killed, on presenting the barbecued
right hands of the slain they were also paid fifty guilders if
within the lines of the posts, and double if beyond them. Later
again the government entered into further arrangements under


AZAAV/)—BOOK OF BA’/7/S// GO//AAVA. 25
*
.
.
intention of making any new settlements. The magistrate and
the clergymen of the district still visited the outlying rivers and
creeks as far as the Schomburgk line, following the custom of
their predecessors the postholders and traders.
It would have been a source of great and intolerable anxiety
to the colony to have had a tract of her territory, which is acces-
sible only from her rivers, in the possession of thousands of law-
less persons of all nationalities, after waiting over forty years for
a settlement, and every offer made by the British Government
rejected by Venezuela. That she assumed jurisdiction and
erected police-stations there, is a matter for earnest congratulation
to all lovers of peace and order.
The colonists blame the British Government entirely for not tak-
ing more decisive action at the time when Schomburgk made his
surveys, a sneaking friendship with Venezuela on account of
commercial relations being generally considered as the cause.
No one was so well fitted to lay out the basis of a boundary as
Mr. Schomburgk, for he could consult the old inhabitants and
especially the commissioned Indian captains, who had received
their shares of the regular presents for thirty years. Some of
them had been called out in the slave insurrection of 1823, when
they had done good service in preventing the rebels from taking
refuge in the bush, to become a danger to the community.
From 1793 to 1833 the Indians were considered as a kind of
reserve militia; they were ready and willing to help the colony in
case of internal disturbances, and when wanted were called out by
the postholders, who were acquainted with their captains from the
fact that they distributed the presents. On two or three occasions
it was proposed to embody them as a force for the protection of
the colony, but beyond the employment of a few at each post


26 HAAWD–BOOK OF BRITISH GUIAAVA.
this was not done. Several times, however, they were temporarily
assembled when there were rumours of impending riots, which
their presence in force no doubt prevented.
Venezuela never had any connection with the territory in ques-
tion; her knowledge of it is derived from the surveys of travel-
lers from British Guiana and the maps they published. It was so
well known as British territory, that during the revolution a large
number of Indians from the missions destroyed by the patriots
took refuge within it. Their descendants, known as Spanish
Indians, still occupy the disputed territory, and there is a Roman
Catholic Mission on the Moruca which has always been controlled
from Georgetown.
The great difficulty has always been the preposterous claims of
Venezuela, for which there is not the shadow of a foundation.
The Dutch had as much right to take possession of Guiana as the
English had to settle in Virginia, and to bring forward at this
period the claim of Spain to the whole of America is absurd.
The west side of the Essequebo was where the settlement first
commenced ; take away that, or admit that the claim to it is
doubtful, and the very foundations of British Guiana are gone.
For Essequebo was always on the west side, and is mainly so
down to the present day. The east bank had few plantations;
they were on the other side and on the islands.





GENERAL DESCRIPTION.
THE COLONY.
RITISH GUIANA comprises the old Dutch settlements of
B Demerara, Essequebo, and Berbice, which were captured
in 1803 and finally ceded to Great Britain in 1815. Pending
the settlement of its boundaries with Brazil and Venezuela, its
area cannot be exactly stated, but it may be generally affirmed
to include a territory of about the size of the United Kingdom.
Situated on the north-eastern corner of South America, between
one and nine degrees of north latitude, it is, like the neighbouring
countries, remarkably well watered. Along its coast-line of about
three hundred miles the mouths of a dozen great rivers pour
continuous streams of dark water into the Atlantic, discolouring
the sea for fifty miles beyond its muddy shores. The greatest of
these rivers is the Essequebo, which rises on the borders of Brazil,
and, flowing from south to north, drains with its numerous tribu-
taries almost the whole interior of the colony. Other large rivers
are the Corentyne, which separates British from Dutch Guiana,
and the Berbice, while the Demerara, which is about as large as
the Thames, is the most important from the fact that the capital


28 A/AAV/O-BOOA O/7 BA’/7/S// G (W/AAVA.
is situated at its mouth, and that its banks are more settled than
those of any other river in the colony.
THE COAST.
The continual denudation of a heavy rainfall of a hundred to
a hundred and thirty inches annually, which causes high floods
twenty to thirty feet above the level of the dry season, has been
going on for ages, with the result that the primitive sandy shore
is found about twenty miles inland, while the present coast is a
fertile mud-flat, in many places below high-water mark. This
rich alluvial strip was originally nothing more than a mangrove
swamp in front and a morass behind, but from the labour of
the first settlers a portion has been drained and laid out in sugar
plantations. At different times almost the whole coast-line, as
well as the banks of the rivers as far inland as fifty to a hundred
miles, has been under cultivation, but latterly only the more
fertile sea-coast and about ten miles from the mouths of one or
two rivers have been kept up. Like Holland, the coast has to
be protected by an expensive system of dams and dykes. The
cost of these works prevents any but capitalists from carrying on
sugar plantations, and it has naturally resulted that during the
last fifty years the number of estates has greatly diminished,
while those in cultivation have enlarged their fields, improved
their manufacture, and reduced the cost of their produce. It
has therefore followed that, although the plantations are now
less in number than at the best times of the last century, their
output of sugar has steadily increased.
DRAINAGE.
On account of the heavy rainfall and the flatness of the coast
region, there are great difficulties in the way of proper drainage.





“IVNVO RIGHJUVAA-HSCHNI™I V NI VIOGINI VINIOL DIA
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HAMD-BOOK OF BA’/7/SH GOV/AAVA. 29
To avoid flooding from the swamps behind, every town, village,
and plantation has to keep up a back dam, while to carry off the
water, canals and ditches intersect each other in every direction;
these lead into three or more principal draining trenches;
which are used also on all the estates, as navigation canals. By
means of these — there being hardly any roads — the canes are
brought to the mills in punts. Through openings in the front
dams, closed at high water by marine gates called kokers, the
canals empty themselves into the sea. Most of the estates, as
well as the towns and villages, however, supplement the tidal
drainage by powerful steam draining engines, which are indis-
pensable during a heavy wet season. Sometimes as much as
eight inches of rain will fall in a day, and then every possible
means must be taken to prevent flooding, which would kill the
cane plants if the water were not soon drained off.
RICHNESS OF THE SOIL.
The soil of the coast consists of a mixture of clay and mud
of considerable depth and almost unequalled richness. Alterna-
tion of the crops is unknown, sugar-canes growing year after year -
in the same soil with hardly any deterioration. To increase the
production, however, most of the plantations use chemical ma-
nures, and especially lime, which latter is almost wanting nat-
urally. With such a soil and heavy rainfall, it follows that crops
are also heavy, while almost every tropical production can be
grown to perfection. Nothing can exceed the luxuriance of
the vegetation, weeds of course coming to the front and chok-
ing the cultivated plants if not kept under control. Plantains,
Indian corn, yams, sweet potatoes, and a host of fruits ripen all
the year round, and, barring floods, and now and then a drought,


3O HAMD-BOOK ÖF BA/TISH GU/AMA.
are easily grown. True, the soil is very heavy and hard to
cultivate, and the weeds difficult to eradicate, but this is quite
natural, the rich soil nourishing both the desired vegetable and
the detested weed when left alone.
THE SAND-REEFS.
Behind the fringe of plantations, which rarely extend be-
yond three miles from the sea-shore, lie swamps choked with
tall sedges, the soil being a kind of disintegrated peat called
pegass. Here and there an island of sand crops up, on which
a few trees and bushes manage to exist, with grand clumps
of the Eta palm (Mauritia flexuosa) scattered here and there,
or perhaps surrounding what looks like an extensive meadow.
Wherever the land begins to rise these magnificent palms rear
their heads in the foreground, while behind, the wall of in-
terminable forest closes the view. Here comes the white sand
beach of long ages ago. Miles and miles of pure sand, washed
as clean as driven snow, throw up a glare under the noonday
sun which is dazzling to the eyes and sometimes quite painful.
The barefooted Indian cuts two pieces of bark, and makes
himself a pair of slippers when crossing the “Mourie,” as it is
called, and even the well-shod European feels it hot to the
soles of his feet. But even here, where there is hardly as trace
of mould, some hardy bushes manage to exist, their roots
penetrating far below the surface where it is always cool and
moist. On these arid reefs the pineapple finds a congenial
home, its ancestors having perhaps been planted beside some
Indian habitation, every trace of which has long since disap-
peared, and the very tribe become extinct. Here also the
Krattee or Pita hemp is found growing, this being also a relic





KAIETEUR FALLS.


T HAMD-BOOK OF BRITISH GUIAAVA. 3 I
of an Indian settlement of some past age. In the gullies be-
tween the sand-reefs flow little rivulets, and here forest trees
secure a footing, while ferns, selaginellas, and marantas make
an impenetrable jungle.
THE FOREST REGION.
Commencing at the sand-reefs, the flatness of the coast region
gives place to an undulating country, which gradually rises to
hills and then mountains. The greater portion of this vast
territory is covered with primeval forest — a portion of that
wilderness of vegetation which extends with only a few breaks
over a great portion of South America. A few descendants of
old settlers or their slaves live on the banks of the Demerara,
Essequebo, and Berbice rivers, and here and there a woodcutter
or gold seeker; these comprise, with the remnants of scattered
tribes of Indians, the inhabitants of this region. Sometimes not
a single human being can be found within a hundred miles, even
the Indians having gone away for some unexplained reasons. Yet
this wilderness abounds with riches. Not to mention gold,—
of which more presently,– the timbers and furniture woods are
incalculably valuable, while the river banks, although not so
fertile as the alluvium of the coast, could support tens of thou-
sands of homesteads. No one who has seen the tropical forest
can ever forget its beauty and grandeur. Notwithstanding its
gloom, which resembles that of a vast cathedral, and its silence,
there is something about it which charms—“the pleasure of the
pathless woods.”
THE RAPIDS AND WATER-FALLS.
At distances varying from fifty to two hundred miles from the
sea all the great rivers are obstructed by granite rocks and


32 AIAAVD-BOOK OF BA’/7/SH GU/AAWA.
boulders, which cause rapids, falls, and cataracts. In the Esse-
quebo the rapids commence at a distance of about fifty miles
from its mouth, and hinder navigation of the upper river
to a considerable extent. They have entirely prevented the de-
velopment of the timber industry in the upper river, and are a
continual danger and obstacle in the way of the gold-diggers.
In going up these rapids boats have to be unloaded and in some
places hauled over portages, while in coming down the reckless-
ness of “shooting the falls” has resulted in the loss of many lives.
These, and especially some falls in other rivers, are, however, very
beautiful. Bordered by the primeval forest, the immense black-
weathered boulders contrast with white foam, while a hundred
little falls pour their rushing streams through broad channels and
narrow gaps, turned to one side here and another there, and make
the scene both wild and grand. To add to its picturesque ap-
pearance, a naked Indian may now and then be seen standing
on an immense boulder, with bow drawn, ready to shoot the
pacou and other large fish which lurk in the deep pools.
KAIETEUR FALLS.
The grandest water-fall is undoubtedly the Kaieteur or Old
Man's fall of the river Potaro, a tributary of the Essequebo.
From a height of seven hundred and forty-one feet a sheet of
water about three hundred feet wide falls perpendicularly into a
basin below, from whence it continues its course in a series of
rapids for another eighty-one feet. The rocks being sandstone
are much weathered and water-worn, their interstices being filled
with lovely filmy ferns and mosses. Altogether, with its sur-
roundings of forest, from which trickle hundreds of little
streamlets, its cave behind the veil of water, and its awful soli-





“VINIWNIONI


AIAAVD-BOOK OF BA’/T/SH GU/AAVA. 33
tude, it may be considered as one of the most interesting in the
world. To add to its charm to some minds, there are so many
rapids to be passed before it is reached that very few persons
have ever seen it. The Tumatamari falls of the same river are
also very beautiful, being only thrown in the shade by the mighty
Kaieteur.
RORAIMA.
The most remarkable group of mountains is that of which
Roraima is the highest. Towering upwards from a slope six
thousand feet above the sea level rises an immense sandstone
rock like a gigantic castle, with perpendicular cliffs on every side,
from the top of which pour numerous cascades, that break into
mist and spray before they reach the slope. Several attempts
were made to find a way to the top, which is about two thousand
feet above the wooded slopes of the mountain, and it was looked
upon as inaccessible until Mr. im Thurn found a path by which
he gained the summit in 1884. By means of ledges and the bed
of a watercourse which had to be cleared from the dense masses
of vegetation that choked the way, he, after a toilsome climb,
succeeded in reaching the flat top. Here he came upon a scene
which is probably unequalled in the world. The sandstone has
been worn away by sun and rain in such a manner that rocks and
boulders of the most fantastic shapes litter the surface. Great
pillars with broad tops stand on insignificant bases, appearing
ready to topple over with the slightest touch, while pyramids,
irregular cubes, and flat tables obstruct the view in every direc-
tion. The surface is very uneven, the depressions filled with
water and forming miniature lakes, from which proceed mean-
dering streams, kept full and overflowing by the almost incessant


34 HAAWD-BOOK OF BA’/T/SH GUIAAVA.
rains. In 1891 two plant collectors spent a night on the summit,
and found it very cold and uncomfortable after the tropical heat
of the lower levels. Having settled on a place for their camp
and laid down the few necessaries they had been able to bring up,
they wandered through the maze and lost their way, only stumb-
ling on the camping-ground by accident after night-fall. The
Roraima plateau is estimated to be about eight miles long by
four wide. Kukenam is similar and about the same size, but not
so high, while two or three other mountains in the group are much
the same but less striking. Up to the present only Roraima has
been ascended, and that by no more than two or three persons,
on account of the trouble, expense, and privation incurred in the
journey, which takes about three months.
THE SAVANNAHS.
Between the Demerara and Corentyne rivers, and again far
away near the Brazilian frontier, are found open grassy savannahs,
only a few stunted bushes and fringes of trees along the winding
course of the rivers breaking their monotony. These tracts of
country resemble the llanos of Venezuela, and like them could
afford pasturage for thousands of horses and cattle. The great
Pirara savannah with its swamp-like Lake Amucu was considered
by Sir Robert Schomburgk as having probably in some past time
been an inland sea, and the site of the fabulous Lake Parima.
TIMEHRI ROCKS.
Almost the only relics of antiquity are the pictured rocks,
called Timehri by the Indians. They are ſound in several
of the larger rivers, generally in the neighbourhood of rapids
or falls. For what purpose they were carved and by what





PſAAVD-BOOK OF BA’/T/SH GU/AAVA. 35
º
race is a problem which even the Indians can do nothing
to solve. They are probably the work of some tribe now extinct,
and perhaps commemorative. None of the aborigines of the
historic period seem to have used picture-writing, while it is
difficult to conceive how the carving could have been done by a
people who (when the country was discovered) possessed no other
tools than those of stone. The figures appear to be conven-
tional representations of men and animals, the sun, and some
other objects which cannot be identified. The Indians of the
present day look on them with awe and dread, going through
the ceremony of squirting pepper-juice in their eyes when passing,
as if they deprecate some evil result from the sight of them.
SHELL-MOUNDS.
Remains of former Indian villages exist in several places near
the coast, notably in the north-western district. These exist in
the shape of mounds, – that of Waramuri being twenty-five feet
in height, — proving, when excavations are made, to be com-
posed of shells and bones, among which are portions of human
skeletons, apparently relics of cannibal feasts. Being found on
sand-reefs, which in past times were probably islands, these
kitchen middens confirm to some extent the stories of the early
voyagers, so well utilised by DeFoe in his immortal “Robin-
son Crusoe.” Stone implements of various patterns have been
also found here, as well as in other parts of the colony, some of
them being of comparatively modern date, as the stone age in
Guiana lasted until the introduction of European tools, and even
now may possibly continue to a certain extent in the far interior
and Brazil.








38 AIAAVD-BOOK OF BA’/T/SH GU/AAVA.
The legislative body is the Court of Policy, consisting of eight
officials, including the governor, and eight elective members,
chosen from the inhabitants by a constituency of about two
thousand voters qualified by property or income. The governor
having a second or casting vote in case of a tie can always
decide any question against the votes of the representative
members; in all legislative matters, therefore, British Guiana
may be considered as a crown colony. There is, however, a col-
lege of Financial Representatives, consisting of six elective mem-
bers, which is adjoined to the Court of Policy for the special
purpose of voting the taxes and expenditure for each year, and
at this assembly, called the Combined Court, the colonists are in
the majority. Justice is administered by three judges and a
number of stipendiary magistrates in the several districts. The
criminal laws are based on those of England, but the Roman-
Dutch civil law of the old colonies survives with some slight
modifications. The police is well administered, and secures to
the inhabitants protection of life and property. The government
grants concurrent endowment to different churches as well as to
their denominational schools, and education is on a fairly sound
basis.
GEORGETOWN.
Georgetown, which covers an area of twelve hundred acres, has
been called the handsomest city in the West Indies. Looking
from one of its towers the traveller sees a collection of houses,
churches, and public buildings embowered in foliage and sur-
rounded with palms. The trees are so numerous that the city
appears as if situated in a forest, nearly every building being
isolated from its neighbour and having its own collection of





HJLQOS ONIXIOOTI
NAAOLCHONOGIO ‘LGIGINIJLS NIGH LVNA


AAAWD–BOOK OF BA’/7/SH GO//AAVA. 39
shrubs, palms, and in some cases gigantic forest trees. A garden
is more often a shrubbery or little wood, there being few of
the pretty herbaceous plants so common in temperate climates.
Crotons, dracaenas, and other foliage plants grow into tall shrubs,
while some of the flowering creepers scramble over the topmost
treeS.
The city stands on the eastern side of the Demerara river at its
mouth, with the sea for a second frontage. From the sea-wall,
which is a massive construction of stone over a mile in length, to
Albuoy's Town, is a distance of about two miles, through the
greater part of which extends Water street, the business portion
of the city. Here are most of the stores, shops, and warehouses,
behind which on the river side are wharves built on piles, along-
side which vessels are moored, discharging cargo or taking in the
produce of the colony. Some of the stores are very large and
handsome, while their stocks of commodities are varied and
comprehensive. In Water street is also situated the post-office,
above which are the reading-rooms and museum of the Royal
Agricultural and Commercial Society. Near the museum build-
ings is the Tower Hotel, with good accommodation for visitors.
From Water street extend numerous other streets, which are
crossed at right angles by those going in the other direction, so
that the city is cut up into squares. Most of those extending
north and south are very broad, those in the best district, Cum-
ingsburg, having long canals running down the centre planted
with the Victoria Regia water-lily, on either side of which are rows
of ornamental trees, and beyond these the roads. Some of them
are more than a hundred feet wide, and with their ornamental
water, two rows of trees, and the roads on either hand, together
with fine shrubberies and detached houses, are very handsome.


4O AAAWD–EOOAT OF BA’/7/SH GOV/AAVA.
Main street or High street is undoubtedly the best in the city.
Here are situated some of the finest public and private buildings,
including the Victoria Law Courts, Town Hall, Police Magistrates'
Office, Colonial Bank, Portuguese Roman Catholic Church, Pres-
byterian Church, Methodist Church, and a number of others.
The Public Buildings, where the Court of Policy sits, and where
are many of the public offices, has one of its sides towards Main
street, while a little to the east the new Anglican Cathedral is be-
ing erected. There are several other fine streets, notably the Brick
Dam, the two rows of houses of which constituted the whole of the
town of Stabroek before the colony was captured by the British.
Near the river the public buildings front on this street, while at
a short distance to the east stands the finest building in the
colony, the Roman Catholic Cathedral. The Brick Dam is lined
with ornamental trees of different kinds, and being a mile long
and perfectly straight, there results as fine a vista as can be seen
anywhere. At its eastern end is an avenue of royal palms, which
gives a finish to the back view, while in front the busy wharf and
the market, with vessels on the river, make an interesting contrast.
There is no want of drives and promenades apart from the
tree-lined streets. Among others are the Botanical Gardens at
the back of the town, the Promenade Gardens near its centre,
the Sea Wall, and the Le Repentir cemetery. These are crowded
on Sundays and holidays with a motley throng of all classes,
whites, negroes, Chinese, and East Indians, all of whom like to be
well-dressed and drive in carriages if they can afford it. A band
of music plays at each of the three first of these public resorts
once a week in the afternoon, and then the number of prome-
naders is much increased.
Tram-cars run through several of the streets and cabs are
*


‘HJENION ONIXIOOT ‘NAAOLCHONOGIO ‘LGIGINIJS NIGH LVNA


|-− → —=


PIAAVD-BOOK OF BA’/7/SH GU/AAVA. 4 I
-\
numerous, while communication by telephone is common
throughout the whole city. The water-supply for general pur-
poses is brought from savannahs and creeks about twenty miles
off through the Lamaha canal. By means of a pumping-engine
it is forced under pressure to all parts of the city, and is invalu-
able in case of fire. This water, however, being of the colour
of weak coffee from holding vegetable matter in solution, cannot
be used for drinking, cooking, or clothes-washing. Every house
is, therefore, provided with a large rain-water vat or tank, and as
there is little smoke or dust, the water obtained in this way is
very pure. The city is well lighted, partly by gas, and in the
remainder, about a third of the streets, by electric light. The
drainage is well kept up, all sewers being open, while several
pumping-engines are auxiliaries to the ordinary flood-gates for
carrying off extraordinary rainfalls.
The affairs of the municipality are well managed by a mayor
and town council, who usually impose a tax of two per cent. per
annum on the appraised value of private property. The real
property, i.e., buildings and lots, as valued by the municipal
authorities, amounts to $6,697,625, besides which there are
government buildings, churches, school-houses, a convent, and
the Museum buildings untaxed, the value of which would be at
least another million. The lots number about 2,130, and vary in
length from 75 to 250 feet, and breadth from 60 to Ioo feet.
Europeans and Creoles, other than Portuguese, possess property
valued at $4,61 1,575, Portuguese $1,938,370, East Indians
$1 or,930, and Chinese $45,750.
With such a large portion of the city — about forty-four miles
— laid out in streets, it naturally follows that the roads are ex-
pensive. Being laid on alluvial clay, hardly more firm than a


42 AIAAVD-BOOK OF BA’/TISH GO//AAVA.
bog, it is difficult to keep them in order; nevertheless they are
very rarely worn into ruts or particularly muddy. The heavy
rains keep them very clean and in fact wash away the road metal
to an enormous extent, the sides being banked with sand after
a long downpour. The road materials commonly used are
granite and burnt clay with broken shell from the sea-shore.
Granite is the most durable, but in the absence of a foundation
is rarely level, while the burnt clay on the contrary makes a
smooth, even road, pleasant to the eye under the noonday glare,
as well as easy and comfortable to both man and beast. About
thirty-four miles of streets are laid with granite and the remainder
with burnt clay and shell. The quantity of road material used
annually amounts to nearly ten thousand tons, the cost per mile
being about $670. Granite is the most expensive, costing $3
per ton and about 50 cents for breaking, while burnt clay is $1.60
per cubic yard and broken shell or caddy 15 cents per barrel.
There are four markets in different parts of the city, the princi-
pal being that of Stabroek, which stands near the busiest part of
Water street, with a wharf on the river. It is well supplied with
meat, fish, vegetables, and fruit, and thronged with a motley
crowd of all races and nationalities. The building is of iron and
well fitted for its purpose, being capable of accommodating a
much larger number of stalls than are at present erected. On
Fridays and Saturdays when the tide ebbs the river is dotted with
bateaux coming to market with the produce of the grounds belong-
ing to negroes, in the canals and on the banks of the Demerara
river. At certain seasons these craft will be laden with mangoes,
which take the place of the watermelon in the Southern States,
being everywhere in the hands of the negroes at these times,
when they are sold so cheap that twenty or thirty may be obtained





COOLIE BELLE.


PſAAVD-BOOK OF BA’/7/S// G (//AAVA. 43
for a penny. Pineapples, oranges, bananas, guavas, sapodillas,
and a number of other fruit are obtainable at all seasons, being
only more or less plentiful, while the staff of life of the negro,
the plantain, is always present in the markets in enormous
quantities. Other vegetables, such as yams, sweet potatoes,
tanias, and eddoes, are always obtainable, while meat is plentiful
and good fish nearly always to be had, although rather high in
price.
On some of the public wharves, and especially in the Charles-
town district, where the timber trade is mostly carried on, and
where there are several saw-mills, punts and bateaux are con-
tinually unloading firewood and charcoal. These are piled with
stocks of both articles until they appear quite top-heavy and dan-
gerous, but as they float with the tide and have only to be
brought down the quiet river, it rarely happens that an acci-
dent occurs. Here and there on a mud-flat may be seen the
characteristic floating raft of heavy timber, supported in the
centre by an empty punt in which an Indian family lives for the
week or two the raft is slowly floating down the stream. With
its thatched roof and hammocks, and the various members of the
family lounging about, the picture is very interesting to a
stranger, as it resembles the primitive life of the forest.
Water street is thronged by a crowd of all mationalities and
races, the negro and East Indian predominating, as might be
expected. In the early morning the servant girls are to be seen
coming from market with small loads, or followed by coolies
with large baskets on their heads containing miscellaneous
assortments of meat, fruit, and vegetables. Here a cook with a
plate of meat nicely balanced above her Madras handkerchief
is talking to another with a cup and saucer perched in a similar


44 AAAVD-BOOK OF BA’/7/SH GU/AAVA.
manner, the two shouting at the top of their voices and
waving their hands in every direction, without causing even a
vibration to the articles so nicely balanced. The East Indian
is well represented by families from the country, the father often
carrying a child on his shoulder, while the mother, decked with
jewels and a wonderful arrangement of colours in her dress,
walks beside a miniature resemblance of herself— a little
woman, although she may be no more than seven or eight
years old. To an artist the coolie woman is a study of colour,
even the most gaudy tints being combined in a manner which
seems entirely fit and suitable. Her husband also appears to have
a natural taste in draping himself, his babba or loin cloth and
his turban being both worn round him in almost inimitable
folds. Here and there is seen a busy Chinaman, his loose
trowsers and blouse seeming entirely suited to the tropics.
Europeans of all nationalities are employed as clerks in the
stores, or engaged in their different vocations, while white,
coloured, and black ladies are shopping at the dry-goods stores.
On the different wharves negro porters are busy loading or
unloading the steamers or the smart American schooners
which lie alongside, while a gang of women may be seen with
loads on their heads which they can hardly lift. Out in the
stream larger vessels are anchored, their sides swarming with
lighters filled with bags of rice, coal, and other merchandise,
or unloading casks of molasses, puncheons of rum, or bags
of sugar. Across the river steams the ferry-boat with passengers
for the west coast, while morning and evening the colonial
steamers take away or bring back a good number to or from
Essequebo, Berbice, the upper Demerara, and, more than all, the
gold-diggings.


AIAAVD-BOOK OA' B/C/7/SH GU/AMA. 45
Business commences early in the morning, almost at sunrise,
slackens towards the afternoon, and is finished between four
and five o’clock, after which Water street becomes almost
deserted. The other parts of the city then become alive with
carriages and pedestrians, taking their afternoon drive or walk
to the Sea Wall and Botanical Gardens, or paying visits. On
moonlight nights the Sea Wall is thronged with people of all
classes, while the negroes sit on the parapets of the roads or
lounge about the bridges until the small hours of the morning.
There is a tendency to inactivity during the day, while night is
enlivened by noisy bands, negro and coolie drums, and the less
discordant Portuguese guitar or accordion. Evening entertain-
ments are given at either the Assembly Rooms or Town Hall,
the former being a large room above the Georgetown Club and
most suitable for balls, while the latter is smaller and contains a
fine organ.
Among the local institutions are two mutual fire insurance
companies, the first and the oldest, the “Hand in Hand,” having
lately founded a life section. Both of these are prospering, and
are of great assistance to the colony by lowering the cost of
assurance, which is very high on account of the risk of fire from
the houses being built of wood. Owing to a well-disciplined
fire brigade in connection with the police department and a
plentiful water-supply no serious fires have taken place for some
years, but formerly large and important sections of Water street
have been destroyed, entailing enormous losses to the mercantile
section of the community.
Among the useful institutions of Georgetown, perhaps the
most important socially is the Royal Agricultural and Commer-
cial Society, a semi-scientific and literary institution supported by











º-
º
-
*
l
:


A/AAVO-APOOA OA' BA2/7/SH GOV/AAWA. 49
chapels built by the emancipated slaves, and the little stilted huts
of their descendants, who could not even keep their fathers'
houses in good order by timely repairs. Now, however, a better
state of things can be seen, and it may reasonably be expected
that the villages of British Guiana will soon become centres of
industrial populations of a superior class. Latterly some of the
best labourers from the villages have been attracted to the gold-
diggings, with the result that the cultivation of the plantain,
which is their main industry, has fallen off considerably, and this,
the “staff of life” to the negro, has risen greatly in price.
THE PLANTATIONS.
Since about the year 1820, when the cultivation of cotton and
coffee became less and less, sugar has been the staple product
of the colony. The annual export amounts to over a hundred
thousand tons, that of 1891 being one hundred and five thousand
four hundred and eighty-three tons and seventeen hundred
weight. The by-products of the sugar manufacturer are rum
and molasses, the exports of which in the same year were re-
spectively twenty thousand three hundred and seventy-three
puncheons and thirteen thousand nine hundred and eighty-nine
casks. The plantations are oblong in shape, always fronting the
sea-shore or bank of a river, where the front dam is situated,
behind which comes the public road. The façade varies in
width according to the size of the plantations, some of which
have absorbed two to four of the original grants. These were
one hundred to two hundred Dutch roods (a quarter to a half
mile) in width by seven hundred and fifty roods in depth, with a
right to further concessions of second and third depths. One
of the principal estates situated on the east coast of Demerara is


50 HAAWD-BOOK O/F B/C/7/SH GO//AAVA.
two hundred roods in façade by the full depth of two thousand
two hundred and fifty roods, i.e., about half a mile wide by
five and a half deep. In front is the sea-shore, to protect which
mangrove and courida bushes are allowed to grow, inside of
which a dam of earth is thrown up, the excavation alongside
forming a drain for carrying off any salt water that may come
over during high tides. At a short distance within the front
dam comes the public road, which extends along the coast, and
which is kept up at the expense of the estate owner, as far as it
extends through his property. Beyond the road, which with its
two canals at the sides forms a second dam, comes about a
mile of grassy land which is used for pasturing cattle, horses, and
mules belonging to the plantation. Then comes the railway,
near which is the draining engine and kokers or sluices of the
cane-fields that commence immediately behind this third de-
fence. Beyond a mile or so of pale-green sugar-cane come the
plantation buildings, which consist of the sugar factory, man-
ager's residence, house for the overseers, hospital, school-house,
one or two shops, and the labourers' cottages, which last are very
numerous. This group of buildings form, to all intents and
purposes, a self-contained village, the manager's house, standing
in the midst of a fine garden, representing the mansion of the
squire, while round him live as many mechanics and labourers
as are necessary to carry on the cultivation and factory. Beyond
this village come interminable fields of canes as far as the
cultivation extends, where a back dam protects it from floods.
The plantation under review had some few years ago nine hun-
dred and thirty-five acres, or exactly half its area planted with
canes, and produced over fifteen hundred hogsheads of sugar
annually. The remaining portion comprised three hundred and





‘NOIJL VAIJUTIQQ GHNVO—NIVOQS


A/AAVD-AOOA OA' BA’/ZT/SA/ GOV/AAVA. 5 I
fifty-eight acres in pasture and bush, one hundred and sixty-two
acres not then empoldered, one hundred and ninety-eight acres
in dams, parapets, and trenches, one hundred and sixty-two acres
of swamp in front, above low-water mark, but outside the sea-
dam, and fifty-three acres covered by the buildings, garden,
public road, railway, etc. From the number of acres in dams
and trenches it may be seen how important this part of the
economy of a plantation must be. On every hand is an earthen
dam with corresponding canals, these latter being cut off from
outside by flood-gates, so that no water from sea or swamp can
penetrate, while the rainfall of the plantation itself is run off
through the sluices at low water, or in very heavy weather, by
means of the draining engine. These draining canals are con-
nected with other trenches between every field, and these again
with the ditches of each bed of canes. With such a perfect
system of canals it has naturally followed that sugar-canes are
brought to the factory by water, and to complete the communi-
cation a middle dam and two canals are carried through the
centre of the plantation to the factory and thence up to the
railway, or to the shipping-trench, where the droghers take the
produce to port by sea. The population on the sugar estates
varies according to their size and area under cultivation, some
of the principal supporting over two thousand persons. The
largest number of people enumerated as belonging to any one
plantation in 1891 was two thousand seven hundred and thirty-
five at Plantation Lusignan, on the east coast of Demerara.
Sugar cultivation in British Guiana is carried on almost en-
tirely by manual labour. The fields being cut up into small
raised beds by cross drains, there is no level surface where the
plough can be utilised; it follows, therefore, that digging is done


52 A/AAWD-AOOA OA' BA’/7/SH GO/AAVA.
with the shovel. The land having been dug over, the tops of
ripe canes, which are cut off in preparing them for the mill, are
planted in rows three or four feet apart and about a foot from
each other, these soon striking root from the lower joints and
producing new plants. In about a year the whole field becomes
an impenetrable jungle, except at intervals, where the wider
ditches break its continuity. The plants stand at a level of six
to eight feet above the ground, and when they flower, two or
three feet higher, being of a pleasant yellow-green. A field of
canes in flower has a very striking appearance, the fluffy panicles
being graceful and feathery and changing the colour of the cane-
field from green to white. Soon after flowering the canes are
cut by hand and taken to the mill in punts drawn by mules.
Most of the factories are provided with the latest improve-
ments in sugar machinery, very few in the colony now making
muscovado or common process sugar. Under the old system
several weeks or even months often elapsed from the time of
boiling the sugar until it could be drained and packed; but with
the aid of the vacuum pan and centrifugals canes can be ground,
the juice boiled and crystallised, and the finished product
shipped within a few hours. Demerara crystals are well known
in the sugar markets of the world, and it is claimed that they are
of a very superior quality and rich flavour. Rum, which is made
from the skimmings of the juice taken off when boiling, and
molasses are by-products of the manufacture of sugar, and are also
well known. In preparing these the greatest care is necessary,
almost every plantation having the occasional services of both a
chemist and engineer to advise their managers in their several
departments.


—————•—•）========~~===


THINGS WORTH SEEING.
THE FORESTS AND RIVERS.
VISITOR to British Guiana should, above everything else,
PA endeavour to get an idea of the forest. Steamers run up
the rivers Demerara, Berbice, Essequebo to Bartica, and to the
Barima. From the deck nothing but great banks of vegetation
can be seen, stretching away as far as the eye can reach, which is
generally but a short distance. In the lower Essequebo are pretty
wooded islands, but the general effect produced on a stranger is
that of a dense thicket which appears quite impenetrable.
It can be entered, however, through the numerous creeks or
rivulets which flow into the parent stream at intervals of a mile
or two. These are the forest paths, and in most cases the only
ones, and a journey through one of them is something to be re-
membered for a lifetime. The beauty of the foliage and the
gracefulness of the clumps of palms, tree ferns, and marantas is
entrancing, while the grandeur of the forest trees with their fes-
toons of flowing creepers make a stranger feel that he is in
fairyland.
The nearest creek of the Demerara river worth visiting is the
Madewiné, situated on the right bank, about twenty miles from
Georgetown. The visitor can go by the river steamer to Hyde
Park, and there engage a bateau and men to carry him up, but
it would be as well that he should provide himself with such


54 AyAAVD-A’OOK OF BR/T/S// G U/AAVA.
necessaries as will be required for a stay of one or two days and
nights. In our “Hints to Prospectors” may be seen what is
required for a long journey; a selection can be made from
this list, including hammock, waterproof sheet, provisions, can-
dles, matches, etc.
On entering the Madewiné the visitor will be struck by the
difficulty of distinguishing it from the bank of foliage which
appears to extend along the river. Only the stream of clear,
brown water which flows from the little bay indicates the outlet
of the small river. The paddlers push forward, however, and
soon the creek is seen to bend abruptly and to continue winding
in and out through its whole course. After about two hours' pad-
dling through arcades, avenues, and tunnels of vegetation, the
bateau suddenly comes out into the open, where the creek
widens and flows through the midst of a savannah, surrounded
by eta palms. Here the creek is almost still and covered with
water-lilies, utricularias, and cabombas, which hamper the work
of the paddlers. As suddenly, however, the light is again ex-
cluded by a tunnel-like thicket, and the visitor is almost struck
with awe to find himself in the midst of what is called a wallaba
swamp. Boles of trees stand up in pools of black water, and the
whole place is dark and dismal. A few minutes, however, brings
to sight a landing, from which the “mourie’’ or sand-reef can be
reached. Here is almost the only place in the creek where a
camp is possible in wet weather, and as it is well worth seeing,
the visitor should decide on spending the night there.
From the landing, which is quite oozy, a narrow path leads up
a sand-hill, at the top of which is generally to be found a
thatched shed. Here the stranger can note the remains of what
was once an Indian settlement, which can be recognized by the


’S!)NICI， IIQ{I OI^I{I.Q.I





Aſ AAWD–BOOK OF BA’/T/SH GU/AAVA. 55
lilies and caladiums, which were used as charms to promote
success in hunting, as well as by clumps of pineapples. A path
leads to the “mourie,” but this should only be visited in the
cool of the day, preferably in the morning, as the glitter of the
white sand is very trying to the eyes, and the heat intense when
the sun is high.
With a guide the mourie can be traversed for miles, but there
will probably be little interest in the place unless the visitor is
a botanist or a sportsman. Early in the morning the birds come
forth, to retire as the sun gets hot. Possibly at dawn a jaguar or
deer may be found by a good huntsman. Down in the savannah,
vicissi ducks, spur-wings, and other birds can also be seen; but
as they are difficult to obtain when they fall in the dense thicket
of razor-grasses, we cannot promise much to the sportsman.
But to those who admire beauty and variety of foliage and
flowers, the whole of the creek is interesting. Farther up it
opens again into a savannah, and twenty years ago there was an
Indian settlement on a small beach. We believe, however, that
these people have left the place for some time. Farther up the
Demerara river such settlements are not rare, but every year they
become fewer and fewer.
Coming down from the Madewiné, the visitor may cross the
river to the Camouni creek, where there is a settlement of
Christian Chinese, which will be particularly interesting as an
example of cleanliness and thrift, as compared with the negro
village of Hyde Park on the other side.
There are other creeks worth visiting, and it would be well to
have a look at the Sand Hills, some five miles beyond the Camouni.
Here is a sand cliff some fifty feet high, below which are a num-
ber of tiny streams and pools bordered with mosses and ferns.





Aſ AAV/D–/3OOAT OF APA’/ZT/S// G (7/AAVA. 57
everybody concerned, tend to make it more of the character of
a wedding. At intervals they visit the manager's yard and go
through a series of sham fights, single stick combats, and gym-
nastic exercises. Like most old plays, they have a representative
of the clown or fool, in the shape of the so-called tiger, who is a
man, almost naked, striped with yellow and black paint, and held
with a cord or chain. He jumps and capers, tries to spring upon
the women and children, who pretend to be frightened, and
altogether makes his neighbourhood quite lively.
The negro at home is not so interesting, but to one who does
not know him his manners and customs are at least curious. He
can be seen in the villages of the East Coast and up the rivers,
where he is generally tinged with the blood of the native Indian.
On moonlight nights in town he lounges about the bridges and
often makes the night hideous with wakes and “dignity” balls.
But we must not forget the Chinaman, whose home is mainly in
the Chinese district of Georgetown, where he has several
fine stores, at which Chinese goods can be bought. Here also
are some opium dens, and “under the rose ’’ gambling houses,
which are at least curious. The Chinese in British Guiana are
in many ways useful citizens; they are active, energetic, and
shrewd. Most of them are Christians, and there is a church in
Charlestown, Georgetown, where a service is held in their own
language. The Madeirans, who own most of the small shops as
well as some of the stores, are also interesting. Their Roman
Catholic Church, in Main street, when decorated for a saint's
day is worthy of a visit.
A sugar factory is well worth seeing; in fact, for a person to
come to Demerara without having gone over a plantation would
be missing the main sight of the colony.


INHABITANTS.
POPULATION.
CCORDING to the census of 1891, the total population
PA amounted to 288,328, being an increase during the
previous decade of 26, 142, or a little over ten per cent. The
county of Demerara comes first with 173,898. Essequebo
second with 53,254, while Berbice was last with 51,176, the
balance of Io, ooo being the estimated number of aborigines in
the far interior. The capital, Georgetown, and the town of New
Amsterdam, contained respectively 53,176 and 8,903, making
the total urban population 62,079, while the inhabitants of the
villages numbered 125,757 and those of the plantations 9o,492.
Nowhere, perhaps, in such a small community is the population so
much mixed, every race except the Polynesian being represented.
Among the Europeans, Portuguese from Maderia head the list
with 12,166, the small total of 4,558, including whites of the other
nationalities, every country in Europe being represented. Asia
has also contributed largely with IoS,465 East Indians, 3,433
Chinese, and one or two Arabs and Syrians. The largest total is
that of the negro, I 15,588, only 3,433 of whom, however, are
Africans. The aboriginal Indians within the boundaries of the
settlements ntumber 7,463, to which must be added the estimate
of Io, ooo for those who were beyond the reach of the enumera-
tors. The balance of 29,376 is made up of a few returns where





ST INDIANS
D EA
AN
ED GROUP – CHINESE, NEGROES,
A MIX


6O A/AAVD-A OOA OF BA’/T/SAT GOV/AAVA.
slaves who were emancipated in 1838, and the few who had
been manumitted before at various times. Most of them were
agricultural labourers, but unfortunately labour on the plantations
had become so distasteful to them, that almost immediately
after they became free, great difficulty in carrying on the culti-
vation was experienced. It followed that many of the old
settlers were ruined, their plantations being in some cases
abandoned, and in others sold to the more industrious negroes,
who had been able to command high wages for several years.
The acquiring of plantations which were laid out in villages
tended more and more to alienate the black population from
labour on the sugar estates, so that the planters who remained
had to make strenuous efforts to procure labourers from other
countries. This put the negro farther in the background as
an agricultural labourer, so that to-day only about a sixth of
their number are engaged in this occupation, and these by no
means regularly. They are, however, found in almost every
trade and profession, generally preferring situations as clerks or
shopmen, schoolmasters, dispensers, and other light employment.
A few have succeeded very well in the professions, especially
that of the law, and one of them is a popular medical practi-
tioner.
THE HINDOO COOLIES.
These people, as far as number is concerned, are next in
importance to the negroes. With few exceptions they are
agricultural labourers — the only persons to be depended upon
for the cultivation of sugar. Not so strong as the negro,
they are less able to do the heavy work of a plantation, but be-
ing more willing and regular in their habits, they have become





AAAVD-BOOK OF BA’/T/SH GU/AAWA. – 6 I
the mainstay of the colony. Natives of the East Indies, they
are brought to the colony at considerable expense, to the
number of about five thousand annually. A free passage is
given under an arrangement for five years' industrial service at
the current rate of wages, after which, and five years' resi-
dence, they are entitled to another free passage back to India.
Rather less than half the number avail themselves of this privi-
lege, hardly any one leaving until he has managed to save
enough money to establish himself in his native land. In 1891
three vessels took away two thousand one hundred and fifty-one
returned coolies, including women and children, and the cash
and jewelry in their possession amounted to over $134,000.
This would represent an average saving of about $92 for each
person, and as many of them were women and children it may
be put down at something like $300 for each man. A con-
siderable number of them remain in the colony, enjoying fair
positions as horse and cattle owners and small shopkeepers.
THE CHINESE.
These were brought here as agricultural labourers on similar
terms to those of the Hindoo coolie, but without the obligation
of a back passage. The planters differ in opinion as to their
suitability for plantation work, but there is no doubt as to their
doing well in many other industries. They are the only people
in the colony able to compete with the Portuguese as small
shopkeepers, while as settlers they seem to be almost perfect.
Upwards of twenty years ago, grants of land in the Camouni
creek were made to a number of them, and a settlement estab-
lished under the name of Hopetown. Here is now a collection
of homesteads, with good houses, proper drainage, and clean


62 PIAAVD-BOOA OF BA’/T/SH GU/AMA.
cultivation of rice and ground provisions. Their most striking
characteristic is cleanliness; everything about them being free
from the filth which so disfigures the surroundings of other
races. Even the pig-styes are washed twice a day, and may be
inspected with pleasure instead of disgust. As wood-cutters and
charcoal burners, they also show considerable ingenuity and that
energy and carefulness so characteristic of the race. Unlike the
negro, the Chinaman looks ahead, and saves himself a great deal
of future trouble by a little labour at the right time.
THE NATIVE INDIANS.
These people, as far as they have been enumerated by the
census, inhabit the banks of the rivers and creeks, being mostly
concerned in the wood-cutting industry. Several churches have
mission stations, around which gather small communities of clothed
aborigines, who are simple, good-natured people, their only fault
being a taste for rum. But beyond these there are wild tribes of
naked Indians, who live in the same districts, and to all intents
and purposes have the same manners and customs as their fore-
fathers had when America was discovered. These are put down
at ten thousand, but as they are retiring in their nature, and
wander over a tract of country which includes portions of the
other Guianas and Brazil, it is impossible to get a clear idea of
their number. At the present day they are peaceful and inoffen-
sive, and a great help to the traveller from their knowledge
of the trackless forest. The forest Indian seems to be as much
at home in the “high woods” as any of the wild animals.
The calm and stillness of the dense shades have influenced him in
such a manner that he seems to be in perfect harmony with his
surroundings. His leaf-covered shed or benab seems natural to





AAAWD-BOOK OF BA’/T/SA/ GU/AAVA. 63
the bank of the river or creek, while he himself glides through
the forest with swift, noiseless footsteps. His eyes and ears are
open, and nothing connected with his pursuit escapes him, and
while perhaps his white companion sees no sign of life whatever,
the Indian marks traces of quadrupeds and birds in every direc-
tion. In his canoe he is also quite at home, floating or paddling
as if himself and the frail craft were one.
His forest home is built of a few posts, thatched with the
leaves of the troolie palm, beneath which he hangs the indis-
pensable hammock, which is both chair and bed, and the only
real article of furniture. In the centre is a fireplace, above
which stands a barbecue, where every piece of meat or fish is
laid to be smoked to prevent it from spoiling. Near the fire are
a few earthen cooking utensils and notably that in which the
“ pepper pot” is prepared. From the poisonous juice of the
cassava, rendered innocuous by evaporation, is prepared a dark
brown molasses-like extract called cassareep, which with fresh
peppers (capsicums) forms the basis of a most delicious stew.
Into this preparation every kind of flesh, fowl, and fish that
is not eaten at once is placed, and the pot set on the fire, with
the result that the meat is preserved for an indefinite period.
The head of the family and his grown-up sons supply the
household with meat, while the women prepare the bread, which
is made from the grated root of the cassava. The pulp, having been
squeezed dry in what is called the mattapee, is baked on a flat
dish of iron to form a kind of pancake. The cassava field is
generally situated at some distance from the benab, and is
a clearing in the forest made by the men, who chop down the
trees, and when they have become dry, partially burn them.
The result is an ugly clearing with charred trunks lying


A/AAV/D–/3OOAT O/P B/e/7/S// GOV/AAVA. 65
The Indian settlements rarely have more than a few families
and can hardly be dignified with the name of villages, while the
old system of choosing a chief seems to be almost extinct in
these peaceful times. Being of a retiring nature the wild Indian
is receding more and more from contact with the settlers, even
the last two or three years making a diſſerence in this respect as
the gold prospector finds his way farther into the interior. The
death-rate among their children is very high, and there is every
reason to believe that they are destined to become extinct in the
near future.
INDIAN FAMILY.


COMMUNICATION.
COMMUNICATION WITH OTHER COUNTRIES.
RITISH GUIANA may be classed with the West Indies
B rather than the South American Republics as far as its
connection with the rest of the world is concerned. Its regular
fortnightly mail service is performed by the Royal Mail Company,
of which the port of Georgetown is a terminus, the intercolonial
steamers bringing the mails direct from Barbados. Besides this
the boats of the French Compagnie Generale Transatlantique
call monthly on their way to Cayenne, and the Dutch Mail does
the same when going to Surinam. The colony is reached from
England in fourteen days by the Royal Mail steamers, and from
the United States in about the same time. There’is no regular
steamer communication with the United States, but the mails are
brought to Barbados, from whence they are conveyed by the
British Mail steamers. Several lines of freight steamers from
London and other British ports perform the voyage in eighteen
to twenty days, while the swift American schooners bring pro-
visions to the colony in about the same time. Every fourth
week, also, one of a Canadian line of steamers calls at the port,
bringing the colony's mails from the Dominion in three weeks
after calling at several of the West India Islands. By means of
these and the West India and Panama Telegraph Company, the








A/AAVD-BOOA O/, /3/ē/7/S// GOV/AAVA. 67
colony enjoys regular communication with other countries and is
not so isolated as would appear from its position.
EXPORTS AND IMPORTS.
The principal export of the colony is sugar, of which over
IoS,ooo, tons was shipped in 1891, more than half of which went
to the United States. The value of this and the other products
of the plantations, rum and molasses, may be estimated at over
$9,000,ooo. Next in importance comes gold, of which Io 1,297
ounces, valued at $1,8o 1,389, were exported in 1891, this being
an increase of about two-fifths on the output of the previous
year. The native timber is largely used in the colony, but
besides this 324,036 feet were shipped the same year, besides
other forest products in the shape of shingles, charcoal, ballata or
gutta-percha, and gums. Small quantities of cocoa and coffee
and over 5,000 pounds of isinglass complete the list, which could
be indefinitely increased by additions to the capital and labour of
the colony. The principal imports comprise manufactures from
the United Kingdom, provisions from the United States and
Canada, and rice from India.
PORTS.
The two ports of Georgetown and New Amsterdam are within
the respective rivers of Demerara and Berbice. On account of
the bars, vessels drawing more than twenty feet cannot enter the
rivers, while those of even lighter draught have to wait for high
water. Within the rivers the anchorages are secure and most
vessels can come alongside the wharves. Both ports are healthy,
Major Walthall, late U.S. Consul at Georgetown, stating that


7o AIAAVD-BOOK OF BA?/7/SH G U/AAVA.
ately afterwards; but the intense glare even in the driest season
never causes sunstroke.
Unlike the West Indies, neither destructive earthquakes nor
hurricanes are experienced in the colony. Thunderstorms occur
at the changes of the seasons, but accidents from lightning are
almost unknown. Even floods, although sometimes very injuri-
ous to cultivation, are never dangerous to buildings, much less
to life.
With such an equable climate it follows that those diseases
caused by sudden changes, so common in temperate regions, are
rather rare. Consumption appears to have been unknown up to
a few years ago, and many cases occur where patients suffering
from this disease have come here and recovered when hope had
been almost abandoned. Gout and rheumatism are also less
common than in temperate climates, while such infectious dis-
eases as scarlet-fever and small-pox have been almost entirely
excluded, the latter having been unheard of for half a century
at least.
The diseases most common are malarial fevers and dysentery.
Demerara has been undeservedly stigmatised as a hot-bed of
yellow-fever, on account of two or three severe outbreaks of that
disease which took place at Georgetown forty to fifty years ago.
These were probably due to the accumulation of decomposing
matter behind the wharves, which had then been lately erected
and filled in with rubbish. Since that time the drainage has been
improved and the neighbourhood of the wharves kept cleaner,
with the result that no serious outbreak has occurred since, ex-
cept one in 1881, and even this followed on the case of a gentle-
man who arrived by the mail steamer sick, and was unfortunately
allowed to come ashore. This epidemic, although very serious,


HAAWD–BOOK OF BA’/7/SH GU/AAVA. 71
resulted in the death of only about fifty persons, all whites, and
late arrivals in the colony.
The death-rate of the colony is about thirty-five per thousand.
This is rather high, but it is made up to a considerable extent by
the mortality among negro children, who are notoriously allowed
to die through neglect and carelessness. Once past childhood
the negro is strong and lives to a good age, seventy or eighty
being common, while some claiming to have seen a hundred
years are found here and there. There appears to be less risk
for the old man or woman in the tropics as compared with tem-
perate climates, as they are not so subject to sudden chills and
the consequent coughs and colds. Where in England an old
person would keep his room, or at least remain in the house for
half the year, in Demerara, on the contrary, he could drive out
every day when no rain was falling.








A/AAWD-AOOA O/, /3/0/7/SH GOV/AAVA. 73
Its colour is reddish-brown, and like greenheart it is procurable in
logs of sixty to eighty feet long and up to two feet in diameter.
Wallaba is also a particularly useful wood and is utilised to a very
great extent in the colony. Being easily split it is made into
shingles, paling staves, and vat staves, while the logs are used for
posts and joists of smaller buildings. The necessity for storing
rain-water in large vats renders the wallaba indispensable, as it is
far more durable than oak. Its colour is a dark crimson, and it
contains a gummy secretion which tends to preserve it against
insects. Shingles made from it are not so inflammable as those
made from cedar, and are therefore less dangerous in case of fire.
Among the hundreds of varieties of woods found in the colony
are some of the hardest and heaviest in the world, as well as
others that are light, as poplar and lime. They vary in colour
from nearly black through the various shades of brown to almost
pure white. The most singular is perhaps the letter-wood, so
called from its dark markings across the grain resembling irregu-
larly formed letters. It is the heart of the tree, rarely exceeding
six inches in diameter, while the whole stem from which it is
taken may be more than two feet. This has been an article
of export from the earliest times, and differs much in its mark-
ings, good pieces being highly valued and commanding high
prices. It is made into walking-sticks and used for inlaying
and other ornamental purposes. Many of the darker and
heavier kinds of wood are excellent for furniture, while for
light work nothing can excel the simaruba, which on account
of its freedom from knots can be sawn to the utmost de-
gree of thinness. As a substitute for mahogany, crabwood is
used to a considerable extent in the colony; it is lighter in
colour and density than that well-known furniture wood, and is


74 HAMD-BOOK OF BA’/T/SH GU/AMA.
therefore more easily worked. The native cedar is also used to
a considerable extent and is procurable in very large logs.
Many of the palm stems could be used for ornamental work, as
they have an almost black straight grain on a yellowish ground ;
they are made into walking-sticks and used for inlaying.
The export of timber (principally greenheart) amounted in
1891 to 324,036 cubic feet, while nearly five million and a half
of wallaba shingles were sent away to the West Indies in the
same year. -
Wood-cutting grants are obtainable on application to the gov-
ernment and payment of an annual license, and the cost of sur-
vey. Such a grant being secured, temporary houses are built,
and a number of men employed to chop down the trees and
clear a path for hauling, which is done by manual labour over a
sort of corduroy road. As the cost of bringing the logs from
a distance is considerable, the grant is always on the bank of a
river or creek and never extends far inland ; it therefore follows
that large tracts of country near the coast are still covered with
timber, while the greater portion of the country, being situated
beyond those formidable obstructions, the rapids, has been hither-
to untouched. The logs, having been brought to the riverside,
are slung in the water on either side of a punt, which is thus
able to carry a good-sized raft, as the actual weight to be sup-
ported is only the difference between the density of the wood and
the water in which it floats. On this raft a shed is erected, under
which hammocks are slung, and where Indian families often live,
while it floats down the river, steered by a long sweep. Floating
rafts of the lighter timbers are sometimes observed, but as these
woods are not utilised as much as could be desired, such rafts
are not COmmon.


AIAAWD–BOOK OF BA?/7/S// GOV/AAVA. 75
As by-products of the timber industry, cord-wood and charcoal
are very important. Charcoal is commonly burnt in hollows
made in the sand, but the Chinese wood-cutter erects a proper
dome-shaped kiln of clay, from which is turned out a very supe-
rior product. Charcoal is used almost entirely in the “Dutch
stoves" throughout the colony, while wood is one of the prin-
cipal fuels in the sugar factories, both articles being exported to
Barbados and other West Indian islands, the quantity of charcoal
in 1891 amounting to over 52,000 bags.
Other forest products include ballata, a kind of gutta-percha,
and gumanimi, the former of which was exported in 1891 to the
amount of 1 16,307 pounds, this being little more than half the
output of the previous year, while the latter amounted to 5,074
pounds. Ballata is collected by bleeding the trees and drying
the product, while gum animi is generally obtained from the
hollows and about the roots of old locust trees. Several forest
products of considerable importance remain to be utilised,
notably tonka beans, used in perfumery, mangrove and other
tanning barks, medicinal barks and seeds, India rubber, hyawa
gum, used for incense, oils from the crabwood nuts, and a
number of palms, nuts of the Saouari and Bertholettia, and a
number of basts and fibres. Some of these are already well
known and only require development, while others will no doubt
be found of considerable importance in the future.


GEOLOGY.
THE general contour of British Guiana may be defined as a
gentle slope from the interior to the coast, where, as
before stated, an alluvial mud-flat faces the Atlantic ocean.
This deposit, as proved by borings for artesian wells, is about a
hundred feet deep, and is composed of layers of soft mud, clay,
sand, and caddy (broken shells), mixed with a considerable
quantity of more or less decomposed vegetable matter. The soil
on this is a heavy rich loam, and in the swamps behind the plan-
tations an oozy kind of peat, called pegass, which under cultiva-
tion settles down and lowers the surface level to the depth of
one or two feet. Behind this comes what was once the sea
beach — long stretches of white sand reefs, lying on beds of clay,
rising to a hundred feet or more above the sea level and at the
coast underlying the alluvium to a depth of more than two hun-
dred feet. This sand is obviously derived from the stretch of
primary and metamorphic rocks (granite, gneiss, syenite, quartz,
porphyry, schist, etc.), which, disrupted by volcanic rock, crops
out immediately behind and forms the barrier which impedes the
navigation of all the great rivers and their branches by falls and
rapids. It approaches nearest the coast in Essequebo, beginning
to crop out at the Groot creek about thirty miles from the sea.
A few miles beyond this at the penal settlement on the north
shore of the junction of the rivers Cuyuni and Masaruni, granite


AIAAV/)—BOOK OF BA’/7/SH GU/AAVA. 77
quarries are worked by the prisoners, from whence are brought
the blocks used in the sea-wall and road-making material for the
streets of Georgetown. Not far from this place, at a short dis-
tance from the first rapids of the Cuyuni, gold-bearing quartz has
been found, but from its being rather poor in quality and on
account of the cost of working and difficulties connected with
navigation it has hitherto been neglected.
The rivers and watercourses of the granitic, metamorphic,
and volcanic formations are all more or less auriferous, gold,
generally in intimate combination with silver, having been found
within their limits from the Barima on the north-west to the Ber-
bice, and will probably be discovered on the Corentyne. In the
upper Demerara quartz-mining is being commenced, but else-
where only placer-washing is at present (1892) carried on.
Gold is generally found either in the channels of existing
watercourses or the ancient beds of former streams, the “pay
dirt" being generally a yellow clay lying under a layer of
pebbles and gravel, among which are sometimes found lumps
of rich quartz and nuggets.
Throughout the region of the primary rocks large boulders
of all shapes and sizes are scattered in confused heaps here
and there, being especially noticeable at the rapids. Several iso-
lated columns or piles also stand out conspicuously in different
places, the most striking being the Comuti rock, Pouraepiapa,
and Kamai, the first being compared to a water-jar, the second,
a felled tree, and the last, a cassava strainer. At the falls the
rocks are covered with a black or ruddy coating of oxide of
manganese or iron, which metals together colour the sand of
some of the rivers. Iron is also most extensively diffused in the
shape of ferruginous clay, pyrites, and haematite, the latter in


AAAW/)—BOOA O/º BA/7/SH GO//AAVA. 79
ward in broken masses across the Essequebo, Demerara, Ber-
bice, and Corentyne, and these isolated portions are evidently
the remains of a former continuous layer, which overspread the
greater part, if not the whole, of the country.
Almost throughout the whole of the sandstone formation it is
interbedded with great sheets of volcanic rock, greenstone
(principally diorite), which has disrupted, not only through the
sandstone, but, in other parts of the country, through granite,
gneiss, and quartz-porphyry. These overlie the others, though
denudation has removed the greater portion of the erupted
masses, leaving visible the huge dykes which mark the sites of
eruption, most noticeable where they form rapids, falls, and
cataracts on the rivers. The traveller in the interior meets on all
sides evidences of enormous volcanic activity in past ages, and it
is no doubt due to this cause that the sandstone, which is often
considerably metamorphosed at its points of contact with the vol-
canic rock, has so far been found destitute of fossils. This is the
only system in the colony in which remains of the organic life of
past ages can be expected to occur, and it is possible that such
may yet be found, but on the contrary it may be proven by future
researches that volcanic action and local metamorphism has been
destructive of all such remains.
Throughout the conglomerate of the sandstone formation
jasper pebbles of all shapes and sizes are of common occurrence,
while in other parts of the group finely mottled varieties of
catlinite and soapstone, often most regularly and beautifully
veined, occur in considerable quantities.
On the confines of the colony, near its south-western limits,
extensive savannahs stretching westward to the Brazils take the
place of the forest-covered granite and sandstone regions. These





GOLD INDUSTRY."
THE whole of Guiana, from the Orinoco to the Amazon, was
famed as a gold region from the earliest times. Here the
Spaniards located the mythical lake Parima, as large as the
Caspian sea, with its golden sands. On its banks was situated
the city of Manoa, where lived “El Dorado,” the gilded king.
Throughout the West Indies it was rumoured that the gold plates,
found universally among the Indians, were brought from the
mainland, and when Raleigh made his explorations of the Orinoco
he was told they came from Macureguarai, an Indian town de-
scribed as in the district now known as the Caratal gold-fields of
Venezuela. Raleigh states that the Indians combined to keep the
Spaniards away from their gold-mines, and judging by the result
they succeeded very well — so well indeed that the old stories
were entirely discredited.
Under the Dutch, attempts were made to open up gold-mining
in Essequebo, but being found very expensive and giving no ade-
quate returns these were soon abandoned. After the discovery
of gold at Caratal, however, in 1856, search was made for the
precious metal in British Guiana, with the result that indications
were found in a number of places. A company was formed soon
afterwards and mining commenced with promising results, but on
account of various difficulties the work was abandoned, and the
buildings and machinery allowed to go to ruin. Nothing more


84 A/A/VD–/3OOA O/, /3A'ZZZS// GO//AAVA.
in ravines, under the shade of immensely tall forest trees.
Here may be seen ridges and heaps of clay and gravel with the
corresponding excavations, and a long wooden box or sluice at
which perhaps a dozen men are working, puddling the clay in
a stream of water, and picking out stones, above an iron plate
perforated with holes which allows the gold and finer particles
of clay to be washed into the trough, where quicksilver is
placed and prevented from being carried downwards by ridges
in the channel. The clay passes away with the water while the
gold is captured by the quicksilver, from which it is recovered
by distilling. Near the sluices are the sheds, under which the
supplies are kept, and where the labourers hang their hammocks.
As in other countries, the yield of gold varies here very much.
Sometimes as much as six pounds have been obtained in a day
from one sluice, while a few days afterwards the amount has
dwindled to a few ounces. In some places are found nuggets
of one or two ounces each, together with smaller lumps, in
others only fine dust. The largest, a mass of gold and quartz,
was found by the Luckie Syndicate in April, 1891, at their
place in the Conamarook creek, a branch of the Potaro. It
weighed 509 ounces, and contained 274 ounces of pure gold and
4 of silver, realizing £1,067 7s. 7d. Assays show that the gold va-
ries as to its proportion of silver from one or two per cent., in that
from the Cuyuni, to ten per cent. or more in some other districts.
During the year 1891, about twenty thousand labourers
were registered for the several districts, these serving on an
average for about three months each, so that there were always
four or five thousand diggers in the bush. This year the number
has been greater, probably averaging six thousand. The most
popular diggings are now those in the Barima river, near the





'0NIJOGJASONIAI (ITOO


90 HAMD-BOOK OF BA’/T/S// G (7/AAVA.
If he intends to prospect, he had better look out for an ex-
perienced assistant, who will make all the arrangements, and, if
honest, save money as well as trouble. But here the stranger
must be particularly careful, for rogues are by no means un-
common in connection with the gold industry; in fact, although
there are not so many as in the earlier years of the diggings,
they are ready to prey upon any one whom they think inexperi-
enced enough for their purpose. They generally have some
plausible story: they know of a good place, but for some reason
or other — want of means is the usual excuse — they have been
unable to take it up. Their promises are invariably attractive,
but almost certainly lead to disappointment if depended upon
in any way.
If the stranger is going into the bush himself, he will, of course,
find out the truth; but if circumstances prevent his doing so, or
if he is unacquainted with gold-digging, he loses perhaps all he
has spent, and finds out that the cost of the expedition has been
wasted to no purpose whatever.
Sometimes the rogue gets hold of a boat, men, and a supply
of provisions, with which he enjoys a picnic in the bush. When
his supplies are gone he comes back with a lot of excuses. The
weather was too dry or the place flooded; he would be sure to
do better next time, if his employer were foolish enough to give
him another trial. A stranger should be thoroughly sceptical upon
all rumours of valuable finds that are connected with offers of part-
nerships; if the thing is good, it will not go begging for long.
A great deal has been said of the unhealthiness of the bush,
and for this there is much reason. That a clerk from a George-
town store or a stranger from a cold climate should become ac-
climatised at once to the open-air life of a mining camp, the


92 A/AAWD–BOOK OF BA’/7/SH GU/.4AVA.
rapids, it is better to get one that has seen but little service. It
will cost from thirty to sixty dollars, according to size. If a boat
is hired, the rent will be from $1.2 o to $2.40 per day. In any
case it will be necessary to see that the craft is sound; every
plank must be tested, as a flaw may make all the difference be-
tween safety or disaster at the rapids. -
The captain is paid $2 and the bowman $1.44 a day; they
are absolutely necessary for the three rivers, and must be pro-
vided on pain of a fine. As some of the labourers may be indiffer-
ent paddlers (although supposed to assist in the navigation), two
boatmen should be engaged, at 64 cents a day; they are, like
the labourers, fed at the expense of the prospector.
Returning to town, the next business is to get six gold-digging
labourers, who may be procured through the Institute of Mines or
some other agency, by paying a fee of 48 cents per man. Every
labourer must have a license, which costs 24 cents, and it is well
to be sure that these are provided, to prevent trouble. Advances
on account of prospective wages are always asked for, and
generally given to the amount of $5 per head. It is not
advisable to give more, even if a man comes with a host of
excuses. The men must be provided with steamer tickets for
Bartica, the cost of which, as well as that of the license, must be
debited to their labour accounts. Each man must be provided
with the following rations per day, viz.: 1 pint (34 lb.) flour,
% pint (% lb.) rice, 94 pint peas or beans, 2 oz. sugar, 2 ship's
biscuits, 4 oz. salt fish, and 2 oz. salt beef or pork, besides which
a little tobacco is generally given. A supply of medicines must
also be carried, a list of which can be found in the Mining
Regulations, and also a lamp and a supply of kerosene oil.
For the prospector's private use he will want a hammock,


A/AAWD–BOOK OF BA’/T/SH GU/AAVA. 93
a tent or tarpaulin, a blanket, a flannel suit to wear at night,
changes of rough clothing, canvas shoes, a double-barrelled shot-
gun with ammunition, and fishing lines and hooks. He will also
require a supply of provisions in the shape of tinned meats, tea, cof-
fee, cocoa, butter, biscuits, tobacco, and a bottle or two of spirits.
A few other things are desirable, such as an umbrella, a water-
proof coat, knives, forks, and enamelled ware, a few candles, and,
wº
A GOLD PROSPECTOR'S CAMP.
above everything else, matches, with a proper damp-proof box in
which to keep them. A very useful thing is a waterproof sheet
with a hole in the centre to wear poncho-wise, and also a small
cushion covered with waterproof cloth. This latter will help to
prevent the inconvenience of sitting on a wet seat for hours,
which often causes a chill.
For the comfort of the men either a single sheet for each or
one large tarpaulin for the whole will be necessary; these will
come in useful on the journey for covering up the provi-
sions. They must also be provided with two skillets, a kettle, a


94 A/AAVD-AOOAT OF BA’/7/S// G U/AAVA.
frying-pan, a coffee-pot, tin cups and pans, and common knives,
forks, and spoons.
It would be well to carry a cheap gun to lend to an Indian
huntsman, if the prospector comes across any of these people, and
a pocket compass for himself when travelling. For his pros-
pecting work he will require four shovels, two criminels (a kind
of shovel), two axes, three picks, eight cutlasses ground ready
for use, two files for sharpening the tools, two battels or pans, a
hammer, and a small mortar. There are a few other things which
it would be well to see in order before leaving. There will be first
the prospecting license (fifty cents a month), boat license (twenty-
four cents a year), gun license (four dollars a year), a few
location notice forms and applications for grants, a pocket-book
fot entering the accounts of the men, and pen and ink.
The necessity for such a long list is due to the fact that abso-
lutely nothing can be procured in the bush save by the merest
accident of meeting a party of gold-diggers, who, of course, have
only what they re uire for themselves, and very rarely, indeed, can
spare anything.
Arrived at Bartica, and everything being ready for starting, he
gives a final look over the load, examining it carefully to see that
nothing is missing. Then having reported himself and his crew
at the Government Station, he proceeds, say, up the Essequebo
river.
On the second day he will arrive at the first rapids, and the
question of unloading the boat will have to be left to the captain,
who judges according to the height of the river. When the river
is at about half-flood the ascent is least difficult; at its highest
it is a great impediment, and at its lowest it is hard to find safe
channels. From two to three days will be passed in ascending


FALLS ON THE MASARUNI.


PIAAWD–BOOK OF BA’/7/SH GU/AAWA. 95
one rapid after another; then the stream shows little current and
progress is comparatively easy. In about a week from Bartica
the Potero is reached, where there is a Government Station.
About two hours up this river come the Tumatamari falls, where
there is a portage, and the boat must generally be hauled over.
Only when the water is very low can it be drawn up with a rope,
after unloading. Five or six hours above these falls are others,
called Pacoutout, and between the two lie the Potero gold-diggings.
Above the mouth of the Potero is the Conawaruk creek, and
a little before coming to that river the Omai. Both of these
contain rich placers. There is a fall in the former through which
an empty boat may be drawn, but the latter is so choked with
tacoubas or snags that prospecting must be done on foot. This
neighbourhood has been fairly well prospected already, but it is
quite possible that valuable finds may be yet made.
If, instead of the Essequebo, the prospector wishes to try the
Masaruni he will also start from Bartica. On the afternoon of
the first day he will come to a succession of rapids, which, when
the river is in flood, will take two to three weeks to surmount.
The hard work of unloading and dragging up the empty boat goes
on day after day, but prospecting may be carried on in the
creeks from time to time. At the Caburi falls there is a portage,
and there are several others beyond the Puruni river, which
tributary will be reached in from seven to ten days after leaving
Bartica. This was the place where the first diggers went about
1880, and although neglected at present would probably be worth
prospecting again. The difficulties of the ascent of the Masaruni
are, however, so great that few will undertake the journey, yet the
very rich placers of the Barnard Syndicate, situated far beyond the
Puruni, were successfully worked for some time,


98 HA.VD-BOOK OF BA’/7/SH GOV/AAVA.
abundance of smaller and peculiar types. These include the
sloths, armadillos, ant-eaters, tapirs, peccaries, cavies, ring-tail
monkeys, etc., some of which live in trees, others burrow in the
ground, and a third class are at home about the banks of the
rivers. The forest proper is almost devoid of large animals.
Here and there a pack of bush hogs or peccaries, a deer, or tapir
is seen by the huntsman, but an ordinary traveller hears nothing
in the forest but the howling monkey and very rarely sees even
him. Sometimes a jaguar or one of the other carnivora, which
range in size from little larger than a cat to almost that of a
Bengal tiger, is seen on the branch of a tree overhanging the
water or even swimming the river, but they are very shy and
hardly ever dangerous. Their footprints may also be traced on
the sand of the “Mourie,” and near them perhaps the remains
of an unfortunate bush-hog, consisting of a few bones, hoofs,
and stiff bristles.
The monkeys belong to two families entirely confined to the
region, and are not only distinct from those of the Old World,
but are structurally separable. The broad septum of the nostrils,
the prehensile tail, so frequently present, and so useful in their
arboreal life, and the absence of posterior callosities and presence
of cheek pouches, furnish obvious characters separating them
from apes and other types. The red and tawny howling
monkey, whose loud, reverberating roar, produced by means of
an extreme development of the bony, hyoid pouch, is one of the
most characteristic of forest sounds; the little, shapely, golden-
green squirrel-monkeys or sackiwinkis, the long-limbed and long-
tailed black spider-monkeys or quatas, the common brown ring-
tails or sapajous so generally kept as pets, the tiny, golden-handed
marmosets, the bushy-haired black and gray huruas, and other





AAAVD-BOOK OF BA’/7/S// G (V/AAWA. IOI
hardly be understood by any one who has seen it, for except that
it suckles its young at the breast, there is no resemblance what-
ever. It is very quiet and harmless, grazing upon the plants
which line the banks of the rivers, its back and head appearing
at intervals above the surface as it comes up to draw a long
breath. Perhaps this may have been taken for a sigh when heard
by the early travellers, and the animals confounded with a bevy
of Indian women swimming and gambolling in the water. Their
husbands would naturally try to keep the new-comers from their
bathing place and probably tried to frighten them with stories
of water-mammas clutching at swimmers and carrying them under
water. The allied family of porpoises are also found in the
greater rivers and are very interesting.
The group of sloths and their allies is the most specialised
form of our beasts and is decidedly characteristic. These, the
lowest of placental mammals, although represented in Africa and
the East Indies, here present many points of modification from
those of other regions. The long-haired sloths, so specially adapted
for an arboreal life as to be hardly able to walk or even crawl on
the ground, are curiously protected by their resemblance, when
at rest, to groups of epiphytal bromelias or nests of wood-ants.
Unlike most other animals their natural position appears to be
hanging downwards, beneath a branch, their bent, hook-like
claws being perfectly adapted to this, while having no pads or
soles to their feet they are unable to progress otherwise. The
great ant-bear with its bushy tail, long tongue, and powerful claws
is particularly interesting. Without teeth it is said to successfully
contend with the jaguar, ripping open his body with its powerful
claws. These weapons are mostly used for tearing down nests
of wood-ants or termites, the inhabitants of which swarm out and


AIAAVD-BOOK OF BA’/T/SH GO//AAVA. IO3
then only in such positions where the full play of sunlight shows
up the colouring of different parts of the body. The macaws and
ibises must be seen as they fly in great flocks, darting and
wheeling as if undergoing some form of drill, before the full effect
of their distinct and brilliant appearance can be even conceived.
Unlike the woods of Europe, the forest of Guiana is not musical
with singing-birds, very few of our species uttering anything but
characteristic screeching or peculiar cries. In the silence of
mid-day or at night some of their voices have a most weird
effect, which is quite startling to a new-comer, the more so as
the bird may be quite alone. Except for an hour or two at sun-
rise and about the same time in the afternoon not many are seen,
and even then the feathered race seems to be strikingly few in
number, although varied in species. A flock of parrots or
macaws is the most noisy, but as these birds fly high and perch
in the tallest trees, their clamour is modified by distance.
The groups of reptiles, frogs, and fishes are well and distinctly
represented, forming important features in our fauna. The
horrid and repulsive alligators, some of them enormous in size;
the gigantic constricting serpents or boas, often as much at home
in the water as on land or in a tree; the large tree-lizards or
iguanas and their pretty cousins, which bask in the sunlight in
our gardens; the highly mimetic tree-frogs, some of which make
up for our want of singing-birds by their chirping; and an almost
infinite variety of strange fishes, – all show the wealth of special
forms and the variety which is so characteristic of this part of
the world. Among these occur many special cases of protective
colouring, alligators resembling the mud on which they bask in the
sun; the iguana, the green foliage of the tree in which it hides;
snakes, the branches around which they coil; and frogs, the several


IO4 FIAAVD-BOOK OF BA’/7/SH GU/AAVA.
localities in which they dwell. The fresh-water fishes are in very
great variety, some of them being most brilliantly coloured or
decorated with spots of all the prismatic tints, entirely beyond the
power of an artist to reproduce.
It is, however, among the insects that we meet with that
abundant and astonishing variety of genera, species, and even
individuals, that is approached in no other part of the world.
Whatever may be said as to the scarcity of the larger animals in
British Guiana cannot apply to the insects, for these are every-
where in myriads. Every order is well represented, the only
class apparently unknown being that pest so common in some
other countries, the fruit and sugar-sucking house-fly. The
tropical fruits, being generally provided with thick skins and
acrid secretions, have succeeded in protecting themselves against
flying insects, including not only flies, but wasps as well, only
to remain open to the depredations of bats. Our sugar pests
are the ants, which find their way into our storerooms, safes,
and even the sugar-bowls on our dining-tables. A long chapter
might be written on these little insects alone, which are par-
ticularly interesting to the student, although most obnoxious to
the housewife. In the house a goodly number of kinds may be
found, while the garden and forest are infested with carnivo-
rous and leaf-eating species, some of which bite and instil such
virulent poisons as to bring tears in the eyes of the strongest man.
The houses are also tenanted by other insects more or less obnox-
ious, such as several kinds of spiders, including those large species
which hunt and capture the repulsive cockroach. If anything
like a lumber-room were allowed to exist, it would soon be occu-
pied by scorpions and centipedes, and become a danger to the
whole house by harbouring wood-ants, which, in a very short time,


1 O6 AIAAVD-BOOA O/; B/C/7/S// GOV/AAVA.
find out the why and wherefore of these marvellous develop-
lmentS.
While the diurnal insects amaze us with their colours, those
which fly at night astonish with their din. As night falls a contin-
ual hum is heard, which continues until morning. Here and
there a cicada or cricket enlivens it with his characteristic note,
but otherwise the sound is only comparable to ringing in the
ears. This is made up of the trumpeting and buzzing of myriads
of insects, chiefly mosquitoes, gnats, and sand-flies, which crawl
out of their pupa-cases after sunset and are prepared to gorge
themselves as soon as they have aired their wings. Mosquitoes
are very plentiful in some parts of the settled districts, but in
others are little thought of, while in the forest they are almost
unknown. Persons may sleep in Georgetown without protection
for about half the year, but even in the worst time the plague is
not comparable with that of some other countries.
The lower forms of life are especially plentiful in the ditches
and canals, there being no cold season or strong current to inter-
fere. Here, however, is a world in itself, and we can only state
that almost everything found in other parts of the world is also to
be seen here, with probably myriads of species awaiting the at-
tention of the microscopist.


CORYANTHES MACRANTHA.


AIAAV/)—BOOK OA' B/C/T/S// G (7/AAVA. IO9
The great rivers are fringed by banks of vegetation which slope
down into the water and are overhung by festoons of bignonias,
allamandas, convolvuli, and a great variety of other creepers.
The forest giants come as close to the banks as they dare, but
the oozy shore is the home of a dense jungle of prickly shrubs,
marantas, and montrichardias, which extend into the shallows,
and are waved backwards and forwards in the current as if
alive.
Where creeks flow through wet savannahs or marshes they are
choked with vegetation. White water-lilies grow here to per-
fection, their flowers opening at night and reflecting the moon-
light like fallen stars. Some of these savannahs are covered with
razor grass (scleria) which renders them almost impenetrable, as
it grows to a height of six or eight feet, and the leaves are edged
with fine, saw-like teeth which draw blood from the face and
hands at the least attempt to push through them. In some
places, however, where a soil of almost pure pipe-clay refuses to
admit of that luxuriance so common elsewhere, there is an ex-
panse of fine sedges which gives the savannah the appearance of
an English meadow or park. With clumps of eta palms here
and there, wavy lines of bushes at the edge of the forest, and
the dark creek meandering through, the barren savannah is one
of the prettiest sights in the colony. Unfortunately it is not easy
to walk upon, as in the wet season it is covered with water, and
whether wet or dry is so very uneven as to be most tiring. This is
a characteristic of all the savannahs. The sedges grow in tufts,
each raised a foot or so above its surroundings, so that the
pedestrian is continually slipping from tuft to hollow. But to
the botanist the savannah is a paradise. Here he finds myriads


I IO FIAAVD-BOOK OF BA’/7/SH GU/AAVA.
of interesting and beautiful plants, including various species of
utricularia, ground orchids, droseras, and those curious plants,
the burmannias.
But far excelling in interest these savannahs near the coast
are the open places in the mountain region, such as the Kaieteur
Savannah and especially what the brothers Schomburgk called
the “botanical El Dorado,” below the cliffs of Roraima. Here
among foaming rivulets, running through banks of ferns and
mosses, grow some of the most beautiful flowering plants in the
world. Magnificent sobralias (orchids with large flowers on
bamboo-like stems) grow in thickets, while scattered around in
profusion are selenopediums, Utricularia Humboldtii, that rare
and curious pitcher-plant, Heliamphora mutans, Cleistes rosea,
and a hundred other flowering shrubs and orchids. Dr. Richard
Schomburgk, in his “Botanical Reminiscences in British Guiana,”
said his eyes were dazzled by the splendour of the fresh green
and the brilliantly coloured flowers of the herbaceous plants on
this plain, while the air was impregnated with delightful fragrance.
He fancied himself in a magic garden ; such a display of colours,
such a variety on so small a space, having been hitherto unknown
to him. There were so many new objects that he was unable to
give his attention to one plant for even a single minute. His
feelings had overcome him, and his heart was jubilant with rap-
ture and delight. All the troubles he had gone through to reach
this “El Dorado” were forgotten, and even the future with its
fears yielded to the overhappy present.
In the rivers Essequebo and Berbice grows the well-known
Victoria Regia water-lily, the queen of the floral world. Brought
from the latter river by Schomburgk in the year 1837, it is now





PIAAVD-AOOA OF BA?/7/SH GO//AAVA. I I I
distributed throughout the world. It is so common in the colony
that almost every sugar plantation has it growing in its canals,
while the long ponds which extend through some of the principal
streets of Georgetown are also decorated with it. Like many
other water-lilies, it opens its flowers at sunset, shows to advantage
on a moonlight night, and rewards the early riser with a view of
its beauties.
The princes of the vegetable kingdom – the palms—are well
represented in the forest. They vary in size from the little da-
halibana (Geonoma), which is never larger and hardly taller than
a walking-stick, to the graceful manicole (Euterpe edulis), which
raises its crown above the topmost trees. Some species have
clean and smooth stems, while others provide congenial habitats
for ferns, mosses, and orchids in the bases of the old leaf-stalks.
The eta is one of the most striking as it stands out boldly in the
midst of the savannahs or fringes the borders of the swamps, its
fan-shaped leaves waving to the breeze above a crowd of epiphytes
which occupy their bases. Throughout the cultivated districts the
cocoanut and royal palms are scattered everywhere, the latter
(called cabbage palm in the colony) forming noble avenues in
several places. Above every other of its family it stands straight
and pillar-like, and for this reason a pair is often planted at the en-
trance of a gateway, or a line in front of a house lot, these and the
cocoanuts giving to Georgetown the appearance of a city of palms.
The orchids, those curious, singular, and beautiful productions of
nature, are found in profusion everywhere beyond the cultivated dis-
tricts. Most of the species are epiphytal, growing on the branches
of trees or in the bases of the palm leaves, but some are found on
the sand reefs, others in the savannahs, while a few of the most
aº


RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES.
ITH such a large area of good soil almost entirely
W uncultivated, there is naturally room for great develop-
ment. The fringe of alluvium along the coast is doubtless the
most fertile, and hardly a tenth of this portion is in cultivation.
Besides this, however, there are thousands of square miles of
fertile river bottoms and valleys in the interior, where all the
necessaries of life could be cultivated with very little labour.
The great difficulty in the way of settlers lies in the fact that the
colony is nearly on the equator, and therefore Europeans cannot
labour in the field as they do in the temperate climates. At-
tempts have been made during the last sixty years to prove that
the higher lands of the interior are well fitted for European set-
tlements, but hitherto no proper experiment has been made.
Several colonisation schemes have been projected in the neigh-
bouring settlement of French Guiana, and in Venezuela, but with
most disastrous results, doubtless attributable largely to bad man-
agement. Isolated cases go to prove that the inhabitants of
the South of Europe can live here comfortably and thrive on the
fruits of their own labour, while many a Dutch settler, in the
early days of the colony, made himself a pleasant homestead on
the banks of the Demerara. Such an one is thus described by
Waterton in one of his “Essays”: -
“In the year 1807, some thirty miles up the beautiful river


AAAWD–EOOA OF BA’/T/SH GU/AAVA. II 5
Demerara, there lived an elderly Dutch settler, whose name was
Laing. -
“He was one of those farming-looking gentlemen who sauntered
up and down his sylvan domain, with a long pipe in his mouth,
and with a straw hat on his head, broad enough to serve both
himself and his wife, by way of an umbrella, in the blazing heat
of an equatorial sun.
“Mynheer Laing had stubbed the surrounding trees to a
certain extent; and this enabled him to have a little dairy and
enough of land to feed his cattle, and to enclose a garden for the
culinary wants of his household.
“In passing up and down the river in your Indian canoe, his
house appeared to great advantage. It stood near the top of a
gently sloping hill; whilst the high trees of magnificent foliage
surrounded it on every side, saving that which faced the river;
and there the greensward came down quite to the water's edge.
On viewing it you would have said that it was as lovely a place,
for a man of moderate desires, as could be found on this
terrestrial globe.” -
From the earliest times the labour question has been the great
difficulty. The old planters thought slavery was the only possible
means of getting over this. They came to make fortunes, not to
settle. Tropical produce was then comparatively scarce and
therefore valuable, and the pioneer cared little for comfort as
long as his profits were large. He was quite willing to put up
with great risks, when the results of his survival would land him
in Europe a wealthy nabob. This was not colonising, but fortune-
hunting, and could hardly benefit the country to any appreciable
extent. Neither could the slaves brought by these people be
considered as colonists, and, as might have been expected, since


I IG A/AAM/D–/ROOA O/, /3A2/7/S// G (7/AAWA.
emancipation they have done little in the way of making comfort-
able homes; in fact, they tried at first to carry on the old plan-
tation system among themselves.
Coolie immigration has done little more towards populating
the country, partly on account of the stipulation for back passages
and partly from want of individual effort. The man to establish
a homestead for himself must be independent, energetic, and fer-
tile in resource, which qualities are wanting in the East Indian
coolie. The Chinaman is more promising, but there is a strong
feeling against him, while his individuality is rather small.
Notwithstanding the fact that European colonisation in the
strict sense of the word has never been carried out to any appre-
ciable extent, there are no real obstacles in the way. The coun-
try is one of the most beautiful on the face of the globe – a
terrestrial paradise. Its fertility is unequalled, there being no
deserts, while perpetual summer ripens fruits and vegetables all
the year round. Two or three crops of rice or Indian corn can
be reaped annually, and every month may have its harvest. Here
is the making of a fine country — a country that could easily support
a population of twenty millions instead of a paltry two hundred
and eighty thousand. Savannahs, on which thousands of cattle
could be grazed, alternate with immense forests, from which may
be procured some of the finest timber and furniture woods in the
world. These are intersected by a most perfect river-system, the
only drawbacks being the rapids, which could easily be got over.
Every tropical product can be grown. The capitalist may invest
in a sugar, coffee, or cotton plantation, while a settler could plant
cacao and leave the plantation as an inheritance to his descend-
ants for many generations. The Indian lives on the produce of
his cassava field, which gives him little trouble, while the negro


CUTTING THE CANES.





A/AAWD–EOOAT OF BA’/T/SAT GOV/AAWA. 117
on the banks of the Demerara confines himself to the plantain.
Neither of these entail any great amount of labour after the first
planting, only requiring to be kept free from weeds, which grow
very quickly and must be eradicated in their earliest stages. Un-
fortunately both Indian and negro are wanting in foresight and
leave their cassava and plantain grounds to be choked with weeds
and become barren, when a few hours' work every week would
prevent this. It was conclusively proved before the abolition of
slavery that a negro could provide a comfortable living for him-
self, and even save money, by working on his provision ground for
one day in every week; and if such was the case then, no doubt
the same could be done to-day.
Reduction in prices and the want of labour led to the downfall
of cotton and coffee as staple products; but with additional
labourers either of these could be again planted, and probably
with good results to the proprietor. The land and the climate
are the same that produced the good Demerara cotton and Ber-
bice coffee of the beginning of this century, while the colony can
now command a supply of labour which was then quite unattain-
able. There are also almost unlimited facilities for cacao cultiva-
tion, as the forest trees necessary for shade are already on the
ground, and it would therefore be only necessary to thin them and
clear away the undergrowth to have a model plantation. Coffee
and cotton always succeeded best on the coast, and there are
remains of the cultivation of the former still existent and giving
fair crops, even in a semi-wild condition. Cacao, on the contrary,
is most suitable for the forest region, where it is not exposed to
the strong sea-breezes of the coast.
Over thirty-eight million pounds of rice were imported into the
colony in 1890, and upwards of forty thousand bushels of corn,


II.8 AAAWD-BOOK OF BA’/T/SH GUIAAVA.
all of which might have been easily grown. Both these articles
are cultivated to a small extent and give returns of two or even
three crops a year. Other articles of food are imported largely,
many of which, or efficient substitutes for them, could be pro-
duced here. Even yams and sweet potatoes have been brought
from Barbadoes in considerable quantities during the last two or
three years, the fact being that the negro of British Guiana is
ambitious to be something different from an agricultural labourer,
and has no idea of the comfort to be derived from the fruits of
the soil.
Among the exports of 1891 were 184,659 cocoanuts and a
quantity of fibre prepared in the colony at the Mahaicony Oil and
Fibre Works. These could be cultivated to any extent on the
coast and pay well either to export as nuts or to express the oil.
Arrowroot and other starches are also exported in small quantities,
but not to the extent that could be wished ; while tapioca, which
could be prepared from cassava starch, is almost unknown.
Cassareep as a basis for sauces would doubtless become popular
if properly introduced into other countries, and could easily be
procured in quantity as a by-product of the manufacture of
tapioca.
The government has had under consideration for several years
past the desirability of subsidising the export of fruit, and espe-
cially bananas, for the American market. Up to the present
nothing has been done, but there is no doubt that British Guiana
could supply North America and Europe with tropical fruit if the
matter were put on a proper footing. Oranges, mangoes, pine-
apples, and guavas grow here to perfection, and by the selection
of good varieties could be much improved.
The fisheries of the colony are also capable of development to


A/AAVD-BOOA OF BA?/7/S// GO//AAVA. I IQ
a considerable extent. At present the supply is unequal to the
demand, from the fact that very few persons are engaged in the
industry, the result being that salt cod is imported in immense
quantities. Really good fish of a great many kinds are, however,
plentiful both on the coast and in the great rivers. The Indians
dry the pacou and bring small quantities to market, but otherwise
no attempt is made to preserve fish, partly because the supply
can always be sold while fresh. A by-product of the fisheries
—isinglass from the gilbacker — was exported in 1891 to the
amount of 5,341 pounds.
The colony wants settlers — energetic and industrious people
with some capital, prepared to “rough it "a little at first, in view
of a future homestead where all the necessaries of life and many
of its luxuries will be at their command. Government land can
be bought at a dollar an acre, and the properties of private
persons often for considerably less. In both cases it would be
covered with vegetation, either timber or the jungle which follows
a partial clearing, to cut down which labour could be easily
obtained, and the cost repaid by sales of timber and cord-wood.
With some of the felled logs and thatch from the troolie palm,
a house or shed can be erected in a few days, to which additions
and improvements could be made at the settler's convenience.
Such a place could in a few years be made an earthly paradise,
and the settler be free from want and almost from care. An
hour or two every morning and evening would have to be given to
the provision grounds and live stock, while the middle of the day
could be spent in some light employment under the shade of the
trees, or in study.
There is a fascination in the stillness and quiet of the forest.
It is perhaps less elevating than the hum and bustle of cities,


I2O A/AMD-BOOK OF BA’/7/SH GUIAAVA.
where the struggle for existence develops certain faculties to their
greatest extent. Nevertheless there is something in the pathless
woods and lonely shore— in that communion with nature only
known apart from great crowds — which develops the mind, and
makes man feel that life is worth living. Beneficent nature
showers her gifts upon the inhabitants of the torrid zone.
Houses need be little more than a roof; no coals are needed to
warm them; clothes are only coverings; and no large barns or
storehouses are needed, as crops ripen all the year round. With
fewer necessities there naturally follows less worry and more time
for recreation and pleasures of the gentler kinds.
Several projects for opening up the interior of the colony are
now under consideration by the government. It is proposed to
make roads or railways from Bartica up the banks of the Esse-
quebo and to get over the difficulties of the rapids by means of
short canals with locks where necessary. Were this done the
development in the timber industry alone would be something
wonderful, while the reduction of expenses on gold expeditions
would at once allow hundreds of diggers to prospect on their own
account, which now they are unable to do because of the ex-
pense.


PICKFORD & BLACK'S
West India Steamship Lines
BET we En
ST. JOHN, N.B., HALIFAX, N.S.,
And
WEST INDIA ISLAND AND DEMERARA.
The Steamers “Taymouth Castle ” and “Duart Castle ''
leave St. John, N.B., and Halifax, N.S., every
four weeks for Demerara, calling at
BERMUDA, ST. THOMAS, ST. CR0/X, S.T. KITTS, ANTIGUA,
D0M/M/CA, MARTINIQUE, ST. LUCIA, BARBADOES,
AND TRINIDAD, returning via same ports, ex-
cept ST. THOMAS and ST. CR0/X.
* The above trip occupies about five or six weeks, and makes a delightful
winter excursion.
-
THE S. S. “ALPHA”
Leaves Halifax, N.S., on the 15th of every month for
KINGSTON, JAMAICA, calling at
BERMUDA AND TURKS ISLAND,
GOING AND RETURNING.
A11 the above boats have superior accommodations for passengers.
This trip makes a splendid three-weeks excursion.
All information on application to Agents throughout the Islands, or
PICKFORD & BLACK,
Or THOS. COOK SONS, Managing Owners, HAL/FAX.
267 BROADWAY, WEW YORK. -


0UEBEC STEMSHIP COMPANY
NEW YORK, BERMUDA, WEST INDIA ROYAL MAIL
STEAMSHIP LINES.
The A-1 Iron Steamship “Trinidad,” 2,600 Tons, or “ORINOCO,” 2,000 Tons,
with magnificent Passenger Accomodations, Electric Lights, and all
modern Comforts, will leave New York, from Pier 47, North River,
W66kly, from J to Juné, and
FOſ BERMUD 66 #º {|Il
For ST. THOMAS, ST, CRDIY, ST, KIITS, ANTIGUA,
GUADMIDUPE, DOMINICA, MARTINIQUE,
ST. IUCIA, and BARBADDS.
The A-1 Iron Steamships “MADIANA,” 3,100 Tons, “FONTABELLE,”
2,700 Tons, “CARIB BEE,” 2,000 Tons, “BERMUDA,” 1,300 Tons,
or “MURIEL,” 1,300 Tons, sail from Pier 47, North River,
every ten days.
CONNECTIONS BY STEAMER WITH OTHER
WEST INDIA ISLANDS, DEMERARA AND WENEZUELA.
The “MADIANA,” “FONTABELLE,” and “CARIB BEE,” the latest
additions to the Fleet, are lighted throughout by Electricity,
and have all modern comforts.
TICKETS FOR SALE
at all the Principal Ticket Offices in the United States and Canada; Thomas
Cook & Son's Offices; 261 Broadway, N.Y.; 102 South 8th St., Phila-
delphia; 332 Washington St., Boston; Chicago and Montreal.
A. E. OUTERBRIDGE & CO., Agents,
39 Broadway, NEW YORK.
ARTHUR AHERN, Secretary,
QUEBEC, CANADA.


* New York
* Cuba
MAIL STEAMSHIP COMPANY.
The first-class, powerful iron and steel steamers of this
Company, built especially for the trade, with all the latest
improvements, make regular trips between
NEW YORK, HAVANA, PROGRESO, TAMPICO,
TUXPAM, WERA CRUZ, FRONTERA,
CAMPECHE, AND LAGUNA,
L6āWillſ N6W YOrk EV6rl SRTURDAY at 1 p.m.
Also between NEW YORK, HAVANA, and alter-
nately to MATANZAS, CARDENAS, AND SAGUA,
EV6rl WEDNESDAY at 3 p.m.
For NASSAU, N. P., SANTIAGO DE CUBA,
GUANTANAMO, AND CIENFUEGOS,
EVERY OTHER THURSDAY.
CONM PANY'S FU, E. E.T.
Yurmuri, Orizaba, Yucatan,
City of Washington, City of Alexandria, Saratoga,
Niagara, Cienfuegos, Santiago,
Nassau, M. Moran, Marteo.
JAMES E. WARD, & CO., AGENTS,
113 WALL STREET, NEW YORK.


Fine Company
Halftone
and Line 275 Washington
Engravers. Street Boston


SCOTT & CG).
GEORGETOWN, E. DEMERARA.
Chemists by Special Appointment to
His Excellency the Covernor.
GOVERNMENT CONTRACTORS.
Family and Dispensing Chemists, Wholesale Druggists,
and importers of . . .
Wines, Teas, Giroceries, Patent Med-
icines and Perfumery.
.5% ºf Direct from Havana.
Hydrometers and Saccharometers always on hand.
Estates, Hospitals, supplied with DRUGS, CHEMICALS, etc.,
of the best quality and at the lowest remunerating prices.
Surgical Instruments obtained from the makers with
despatch, and Agents for . .
Jº JOHAN MARIA FARINA, ºt
--~~~~~Julich Platz,
NO. 4 GENUINE EAU DE COLOGNE.


–THE=-
Demerara GOld MinerS'
Supply ASSOCiation,
(LIMITED).
20 and 21 Water St., GEORGETOWN.
Give the most reliable information to intending
prospectors in the gold districts of British
Guiana. Completely fit up and equip expe-
ditions in all the requirements at moderate
and inclusive cost, supplying only such Pro-
visions, Tools and Gold Diggers necessaries,
as their long experience in the business
enable them to advise for economy and
practical use.
Free estimates for Boats, Captains and Crew,
from steamer's terminals to Gold Fields.
Gold washing machines and instruments built
to order.
Gold regulations, Books, Forms, Registers and
all Stationery, as called for under the Mining
Ordinances.
Agencies conducted free of charge to custom-
ers. Consignments of gold received;
promptly sold, or shipped, as desired.
J. A. PEROT, H. DAVIS, Manager.
Secretary.


H. STRONG,
... Diano NAcroſ)(int...
London, British Guiana and West Indies.
A Large Stock Of MuSical InStruments
Of A11 Kinds for Sale or Hire.
Tuning and Repairing in all its branches by Experienced
Men. An instrument lent free whilst doing repairs.
Our tuners, Repairers and Polishers are Competent Work-
men, and their work is guaranteed to give satisfaction.
Instruments on the Hire-Purchase System
To Suit A11 Requirements.
Old Instruments Taken Over in Part Payment.
26 Molin Strøzt, - - D&mcro rol.
CLERKS:
V. M. D'OLIVIERA, JOSEPH BLANK, F. DOWRICH.
LONDON ASSISTANTS :
A. HATLEY, H. G. LEWIS.
MANAGER :
J. WESTLEY BIDDICK.


Cbe Colonial Jºank,
(Established and Incorporated by Royal Charter in 1836.)
ŚllSCſillºl Capital, £2,000,000, Paid UD, $600,000, RBSEIVE Filmſ, £150,000,
London Office,—13 BISHOPSGATE ST. WITHIN.
Chairman,-HARRY HANKEY Dobree. Deputy-Chairman,—JAMEs FLETCHER
Manager Demerara Branch,-E. M. SANDERson.
Secretary, Edward CAR PENTER. Bankers, LLoyds BANk, Limited.
New York (Agency), 41 WALL STREET.
BRANCHES AND AGENCIES.
Antigua Savanna-la-Mar
Barbados St. Ann’s Bay
Berbice Martinique (Agency)
Demerara St. Kitts
Dominica St. Lucia
Grenada St. Vincent
Jamaica.—Kingston St. Croix
AGENCIES AT St. Thomas
Falmouth Trinidad—Port-of-Spain and
Montego Bay San Fernando (Agency)
AGENTS.
INDIA AND CHINA: —The Chartered Bank of India, Australia
and China.
CANADA AND THE BRITISH PRovinces: — Bank of British
North America.
SAN FRANCIsco : —The Bank of British Columbia.
COPENHAGEN : —The Private Bank.
PARIS: — Messrs. Mallet Frères & Co.
HAMBURG : — Messrs. Schröder & Co.
LETTERS OF CREDIT, payable on demand, are grant-
ed on the several Establishments in the Colonies, upon
payment of the amount at the London Office.
BILLS are sent out for collection, and other money
business transacted in the above named Colonies.
Raw Gold purchased or shipped for account of owners.
Current Accounts opened in accordance with the usual
practice of bankers.


THOM & CAMERON,
•DE JONGE & SMITH, Agents.”
GENERAL MERCHANTS,
COMMISSION AGENTS,
STOCK AND SHARE BROKERS.
Agents for 34 34
QUEBEC LINE OF STEAMERS,
From NEW YORK,
— AND —
PRINCE 2: LINE,
From EUROPE.
GéOrgetOWII, + = DEMBRARA.


Sold ‘lītiſ/ſq &lºwſ
28 VVater Street, - CEORCETOVVN.
I hereby notify the public that I, the under.
signed, am prepared to undertake and faith-
fully carry on any Agencies, viz., Keeping
Books, Purchasing Provisions, Selecting La-
borers, and forwarding the same to the Gold
Fields, Timber Bush, and Coal Grants in this
Colony. *
I bind myself to faithfully execute all orders
that may be entrusted to me; also, for the cor-
rect keeping of Books.
Having had considerable experience in
this line of business, I feel assured that par-
ties patronizing me will be fully satisfied with
the results.
Being myself possessed of certain valuable
mining property, I am prepared to buy or sell
GOLD MINING STOCKS,
or give information regarding the
GOLD MINING INDUSTRY,
of British Guiana. . . . . . -
wº-w^wº-wº-
S. T. HASSELL.


GOLTD-
The undersigned, who have had considerable
experience in connection with
The at Gold ºf Industry
from its commencement in the Colony,
are prepared to act as Agents for Mining Com-
panies and for other parties engaged in
the Industry in all parts of the
Colony, on moderate terms.
BOATS AND CREWS
Supplied and quickest despatch ensured.
Stores of various kinds sold at
POTARO LANDING, and Gold purchased
at the same place.
They are also prepared
to negotiate the examination and Sale of
Mining properties.
Por further particulars apply to
CARNETT & CO.,
No. 18 Water St.,
cEorce Town, - - - - DEMERARA.


HERMANN CONRAD & CD.
GEOIggtown, Dºmeſaſa, British Guiana,
AND
WBayer's Hall, 22 Basinghall St., London.
GENERAL COMMISSION MERCHANTS.
AGENTS FOR – =T
LoNDON AND LANCASHIRE FIRE INS. Co. . Liverpool
CoRPORATION OF GEORGETown, - British Guiana
J. DENIs Hy. MoUNIE & Co. . - - Cognac
FRYDENLUND's BREwery, . - - . Christiania
DYNAMITE Co. Ltd. (F. NoBEL & Co). - Hamburg
HY. B. SIMMs, . - - - - - & 4
JAs. AITKEN & Co. . - - . Falkirk, Scotland -
RoBT. HENDERSON & Co. . - Alloa «
SLATER, RODGER & Co. . - Glasgow, & 4
MURRAY T. Gow, - - - & 4 **
WM. R. Dick, . - - - 4. & 4
JAS. GREENSHIELDS & Co. - -- 4 :
CochRAN & FLEMING, - - 4. 44
CoCHRAN & Co. - - - - Belfast, Ireland
A. NOBLE, • - - - - Manchester
John HALL & SoNs, (LTD). - - - London
DANIEL CRAwFoRD & SoNS, (LTD). . - Glasgow
HERMAN JANSEN, - - - - - Schiedam
A. D. STRAUs & Co. . - - - . New York
Reference to any of the above firms, or to the
COLONIAL BANK, DEMERARA.


GOLD MINING DEPOT PAND AGENCY,
Lot No. 19, WATER STREET.S —s
CEORCETOVVN - - DEMERARA.
CROSBY & FORBES,
Supply complete outfits in Provisions, Tools,
Implements and all other necessaries for
—GOLD DIGGERS.
Estimates furnished and information given
without charge to intending
...PROSPECTORS.
AGENTS FOREF=T
R. H. THOMSON & CO.,
M. C. BLEND SCOTCH WHISKEY.
— AND FOR —
M. B. FOSTER & SONS,
(Limited, LONDON.)
Bottlers and Exporters BASS’ BEER
.9% of .9% and GUINNESS’ STOUT.


ELDORADO HOTEL
Corner of High and Croat Sts.
Opposite the Victoria Law Courts,
GEORGETOWN.
Special Attention paid to the Dining Room.
- —
Cool and Airy Bedrooms,
First-class Billiard Table.
L/QUORS OF EVERY DESCRIPTION.
MoDERATE charcEs.
F. BAPTISTA, - Proprietor.


THE AMERICAN SAL00N,
No. 17 Water Street,
GEORGETOWN, = DEMERARA.
BEST OF ACCOMMODATION AT VERY
REASONABLE PRICES,
AIRY AND FINELY FURNISHED ROOMS,
Lighted by Electricity.
PARTICULAR ATTENTION PAID TO
CS THE TABLE.
SERVICE OF THE BEST. 2 ºf ºt
Billiard and Bar-room Attached.
PRIVATE DINING ROOMS. sº sº ºt
THE LOCATION OF THIS
HOTEL IS IN THE . . . .
CENTRE * OF ... GEORGETOWN.
2: Our Aim is to PLEASE. Jºe


The Caledonian Warehouse
Wholesale Clothiers
and
General Merchants
GEORGETOWN, DEMERARA.
Clothing ready-made, and made to measure.
Rink Suits, in Tweeds, Serges, Vicunas, etc.
City Suits, in Ducks, Drills, Khakies, etc.
Evening Suits, Coatings in Baratheas, Vene-
tians, etc. Tennis Suits, in Flannels, Serges
and Cashmeres.
COMPLETE CENTS’ OUTFITTERS.
BOOTS AND SHOES A SPECIALTY.
Business Strictly Casb. (I&ry Low Prices.
B&St Workmanship. Sotisfaction Guarantecd.
DE CAIROS BROTHERS & COMPANY.,
PROPRIETORS.


§§
Walter BagOt,
Auctioneer,
Agent, and
Broker.
GeOrgetſ)WII, Démérara.


SCHULER & SONS,
.* 3 HIGH STREET, ºt
Opposite the Queen's Statue. GEORGETOWN.
Have always on show a
large assortment of 3° 34
Gold, Silver, and Diamond Jew—
elry, Nugget Brooches, Bangles,
Pins, Earrings and Studs.
Electro Plated and Silver Ware.
Watches, Clocks, Tlusical Boxes, and all
kinds of Jewelry carefully repaired
under the direct supervision of

Messrs. Schüler.
i


STEAMSHIPS BETWEEN ..
NEW YORK AND DEMERARA
PARMSTRONG LINE.
CARRYING UNITED STATES MAILS,
, , , , FORTNIGHTLY SAILINGS,
AVERAGE LENGTH OF PASSAGE, 10 Days.
S. S. TALISMAN, - - 1878 TONS
S, S, TJOMO - - 1444 TONS.
For Freight or Passage, apply to
L. W. & P, ARMSTRONG,
100 Wall St., New York,
Or to - - -
BOOKER BROTHERS & CO,
- DEMERARA,