' ''.•// •;¦", ;' VENEZUELA-BRITISH GUIANA BOUNDARY ARBITRATION THE COUNTER-CASE OF THE UNITED STATES OF VENEZUELA BEFORE THE TRIBUNAL OF ARBITRATION To Convene at Paris UNDER THE Provisions of the Treaty between the United States of Venezuela and Her Britannic Majesty Signed at Washington February 2, 1897 VOLUME. 1 NEW YORK The Evening Post Job Printing House, i 56 Fulton Street 1898 COUNTER-CASE OF THE UNITED STATES OF VENEZUELA. I.— INTRODUCTION. Pursuant to Article VII of the Treaty of Arbitration Submission of Counter-Case. signed at Washington on the 2nd day of February, 1897, between the United States of Venezuela and Her Majesty, the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Agent of Venezuela, before the Arbitral Tribunal, has the honor to submit the present Counter-Case, accompanied by an Appendix, in two vol umes, and an Atlas. Said Appendix, pursuant to the provisions of the Treaty of Arbitration, contains addi tional documents, correspondence and evidence iu reply to the Case, documents, correspondence and evidence heretofore presented by Great Britain. At later stages of this proceeding, and in compliance with the provisions of Article VIII of the Treaty of Arbitration, Venezuela will present to the Arbitral Tribunal printed and oral arguments iu support of its contentions. The object of the present Counter-Case will, in part, t.^pose of Coun" be to examine the statements of the British Case with a view to ascertaining the attitude of Great Britain towards the present controversy. Incidentally some of those statements will be refuted ; yet this will not be the main purpose of the examina tion. The important thing, at present, is to discover where Great Britain stands ; what exactly is her theory of the pending controversy. Her formal stand is well known : she claims the disputed area because she alleges ter-Case. 2 INTRODUCTION. Purpose of Coun- it to have been Dutch.; Dutch in its occupation, Dutch in its settlement, Dutch in its control. But it is believed that this is far from being a complete statement of her position. The British Case contains admissions, denials and allegations. Certain of these admissions, because they relate to facts of first-rate importance which have here tofore been in controversy, constitute an acknowledgment that further controversy over them is useless. Certain of the denials and allegations are clearly of the nature of formal pleadings, made without regard to the evidence : they should be accepted as such. Thus viewed they serve to indicate points which Great Britain regards as strategic — to be maintained at all hazards. These admissions, denials and allegations taken together dis close the defenses behind the line. If the British Case has been rested upon these defenses because no others were available, if the position taken is one of constraint and not of choice, as indeed appears to be the case, then these defenses are full of significance. The primary object of this Counter-Case will be to ascertain that significance. It has been said that incidentally some of the state ments of the British Case would be refuted. It should be noted in this connection that, so far as disclosed by the two Cases already submitted, the two Governments are substantially agreed as to many important facts. Such agreement is, indeed, not always immediately apparent, for the same fact assumes quite different aspects according to the manner of its presentation and the significance accorded it. With regard to other facts real differences exist, and as to these an appeal can lie only to the evidence itself. The consideration of this evidence and the reasons to INTRODUCTION. 3 be urged in support of the contentions of each govern- Purpose of Coun- •i.i • . ter-Case ment will be proper subjects tor the printed and oral arguments to be submitted later. For the present, as already stated, what is sought is to throw light upon Great Britain's attitude rather than to refute the state ments in her Case. In doing this it will be necessary to consider and briefly to comment upon some of the allegations of that Case ; to note some of its admissions ; to supple ment some of its statements ; and to correct some asser tions which, if unchallenged, might tend to create con fusion. So far as possible, however, repetition of what has been set forth in the Case already submitted by Venezuela will be avoided. That Case it is believed contains a sufficient expression of Venezuela's views regarding the questions in controversy ; and in view of that fact it is not deemed necessary to make any formal traverse at this time of such allegations in the British Case as may be inconsistent with those views. The present Counter-Case is submitted for the pur poses thus stated. II.— GEOGRAPHICAL. In the Case heretofore submitted by Venezuela the introduction. facts out of which the present controversy arose were set forth in a sequence which was believed to be both logical and convenient. The present statement being in the nature of an answer to the British Case, its purpose will probably be better served if the special facts to which it is proposed to invite the attention of the Arbitral Tribunal be treated more nearly in the order in which they are presented by that Case. That order will, in the main, be followed ; yet, as the allegations to be considered are isolated statements taken from the connected story of which they form a part, it will not always be possible to adhere strictly either to the order of those statements or to the narrative itself. The first section of the opening chapter of the British Case presents little difficulty in this regard, since its purpose is merely to give a geographical description of the territory in dispute. The significance of that de scription will be better appreciated if it be considered in connection with some of the maps submitted with it. Map No. 3 of the British Atlas divides the entire Division into 7 7 . „ „ - drainage basins. territory into tvi^ainage basins. One of these, therein designated as the Barima- Waini Basin, is bounded on the west by a line drawn about midway between the Amacura and the Barima rivers. This is a dis tinct recognition of the Amacura as a part of the Orinoco Basin, and constitutes a claim that the Barima and the Waini together form a different and independ ent basin by themselves. 6 GEOGRAPHICAL. Division into Whether or not this claim be sound theoretically — and drainage basins. the evidence is certainly against it — it is difficult to see what practical value can attach to a boundary which in every other respect must be purely fanciful. That it is fanciful, and for all practical purposes worthless, is testified to by no less an authority than Sir Robert Schomburgk himself, who in his report of June 22, 1841, after establishing to his own satisfaction the "un doubted right of Her Majesty to the Barima, with all the tributary streams which fall into it," thus continues: Schomburgk's "But as in the demarcation of a territory it is of great estimony. . . " importance to fix upon a line of boundary which is permanent " and fixed in nature, and which cannot be destroyed by human " hands, I thought it advisable to claim the eastern or right bank " of the Eiver Amacura, preserving for Her Majesty, or for such of " her subjects as may deem it advantageous for their purposes, " the same rights to the navigation and fisheries of that stream " as the Venezuelans may claim hereafter." ' The action of the British Government in subsequently adopting the Schomburgk Line as the boundary in this locality proves that it too is of opinion that this line between the Barima and the Amacura is a purely artificial one, not "permanent and fixed in nature," nor opposing any obstacle to the westward or eastward march of empire. Orinoco delta The statement of the British Case itself on this point is entirely in line with this suggestion of Map No. 3. That Case alleges that the Orinoco Delta is bounded on the east by the main stream of the Orinoco and that, "The low laud on the coast to the east of the Orinoco has no " connection with the Orinoco delta, having been formed by the " detritus brought down by the rivers to the eastward of the " Orinoco, and carried westward under the influence of the west- " erly current and the prevailing wind on that coast/' * 1 British Case, Appendix, VII, p. 13. 2 British Case, p. 8, lines 8-14. GEOGRAPHICAL. The correctness of this statement is certainly chal- Orinoco delta. lenged ; but in any event, Venezuela considers that, whether correct or not, this theory can have no possible influence upon the present controversy. In the Case of Venezuela it was stated that at present the region there designated the Orinoco Delta Region, is geographically and politically a unit.1 If its present unity, from a geo graphical and political standpoint be admitted, it can be matter of small consequence whether in remote ages, before the advent of man, geological forces were at work upon one or upon two drainage basins. The title to a delta region is not derived by following the detritus to its place of deposit, but is rested upon the relation of the delta to the security of the nation that possesses the river. Whatever importance may be attached, under the general principles of International Law, to the division of a country into drainage basins, that importance must rest, not upon theoretical but upon practical considerations ; it is not imaginary but real barriers that are to be sought for. In the case of the Amacura and the Barima, a glance at the map must remove any doubt as to the present relations of those streams to each other. Whatever their geological history, it is a fact that to-day they form with the Orinoco, Imataca, Aguire, Arature and Waini, a single network of waterways. So completely inter laced are the water courses in this delta swamp, so flat and featureless is the district, so variable is the run off in its sluggish bayous and sloughs, that, within the limits of tide water, natural drainage basins do not exist. The joining of the Barima and Waini into one, under the designation of the Barima- Waini Basin, and the separa tion of this from the Orinoco Basin, is purely fanciful. 1 Venezuelan Case, p. 24. gion GEOGRAPHICAL. Cuyuni forest re- The Geographical part of the introduction to the British Case presents another point worthy of notice. Map No. 3 of the British Atlas shows the limit of the Cuyuni savannas. According to evidence here with submitted1 it appears that the forest region extends some leagues west of the great bend of the Cuyuni I'iver. It appears then that Spanish posts of the last century, notably the Curumo Fort, had penetrated beyond the savannas and into the forest region. These posts had, therefore, crossed this seeming barrier of wood; had pushed well into the tropical jungle, and had crossed the Cuyuni river. On the southern bank of that river, in the veiy heart of the forest, a military post had been erected; a post from which Spanish control continued to make itself felt throughout the entire Cuyuni-Mazaruni Basin down to the lowest falls of those streams. This Spanish occupation and control of the Cuyuni-Mazaruni forest is significant. That all geographical matters may be disposed of together, a statement in the next section of the British Case may profitably be anticipated here. The following is the statement referred to : " In 1628 assistants were engaged ' to lie on the Wild Coast ' — a name by which the coast between the Essequibo and the Orinoco had become well known."2 Definition of This definition of the phrase "Wild Coast " is an in- Wild Coast " advertence whose repetition cannot be too earnestly protested against. Not " the coast between the Esse quibo aud the Orinoco," but the whole coast of Guiana, from the Orinoco to the Amazon, was what the Dutch called the Wild Coast. For this, as every scholar knows, it was their current and accepted name. No case has ever been adduced, no case can be adduced, of Affidavit of E. J. Monge, in Venezuelan Counter-Case, vol. 3. British Case, p. 25, lines 29-32. GEOGRAPHICAL. 9 its use in any narrower sense. It is important that this Definition of • < w#£ Coast." be from the outset clearly understood. Before passing to the next chapter it will be well to Great Britain's . . attitude regarding inquire whether the present one throws any light upon coast region. Great Britain's attitude towards the controversy. What, for instance, is the significance of the separation claimed to exist between the Barima- Waini Basin on the one hand, and the Orinoco Basin on the other ? If Venezuela be correct in maintaining that no such separation exists ; that the so-called " Barima- Waini Basin " is wholly fanciful ; that the separation itself is based upon a misconception as to the present relations of the coast streams which flow into the Orinoco and which mingle their waters together; that a division between the Barima and the Waini would be quite as logical as a division between the Barima and the Ama cura ; that in fact the division relied upon by the British case is wholly without practical value ; then the fact that such division is alleged, and that, in part, the British Case rests upon it, is full of meaning. It discloses a recognition on the part of Great Britain of the necessity for a barrier between the Orinoco, on the one hand, and the Barima and Waini, on the other. It shows a realization of the fact that but for such barrier the constructive occupation of the latter rivers by the Spaniards of Santo Thome cannot be excluded. It brings to light a well grounded fear that if the Barima and the Waini shall be held to be one with the Orinoco, the two smaller streams must perforce go with the larger. The present unity of these rivers is not ven tured to be questioned ; and, the fact that an appeal should have to be made to ages gone by, and to condi tions which if they ever existed have long since passed away, is itself the best possible proof that no such separation exists to-day. 10 GEOGRAPHICAL. Great Britain's The attempt to prove the existence of two separate attitude regarding r r L coast region. basins may fail, but the fact that the effort has been made throws light upon Great Britain's attitude. It shows an appreciation of the paramount importance of divorcing the Barima from the Orinoco, if the British hold upon the Barima is to continue. Dutch settlement in that region cannot be made the basis of British title for no Dutch settlement ever existed there. The physical conditions of to-day cannot be invoked to cut the region loose from the Orinoco and to link it to the Essequibo, for those physical conditions bind the region to the Orinoco so closely that, if in times gone by, they were ever two, all traces of such duality have vanished. A theory of geologic origin is alone left. It is not strange that this theory should be seized and built upon ; but the house thereon erected is a house which cannot withstand the winds and storms of controversy, for it is a house built upon the sand. III.— HISTORICAL RESUME. The Geographical part of the introduction to the British introduction Case is followed by a section entitled ethnological, and this again by another section which is entitled historical, — which latter constitutes a resume of many of the points in controversy. This historical resume, as well as the section immedi ately preceding it, deals also with certain special sub jects, which in this Counter-Case will be treated later by themselves. These subjects include Dutch trade, and the nature and effect of Dutch, British and Spanish rela tions with the Indians. Other subjects touched upon in this resume are dealt with more at length in the succeeding chapters of the British Case, and their consideration may therefore be postponed until those chapters shall have been reached. A distinct advantage, however, is to be derived from an examination of this introductory British bird's-eye view of the entire question; and to this, therefore, the present chapter will be devoted. As already stated, it is gratifying to note that upon many important points the two governments are sub stantially agreed. It is admitted, for instance, that the Spaniards were British Admissions the first to discover and the first to settle Guiana; that the earliest Dutch voyage to that coast was full two years after the founding of Santo Thome on the 1 " The first navigator who sighted the coast of Guiana was a Span iard." British Case, p. 20, lines 9-10. "In 1591, Antonio deBerrio came down * * » the Orinoco * * . Berrio's actions gave the Span iards their first footing in Guayana. and led to the settlement of Santo Thorn-." Same, p. 20, lines 23-35. 12 HISTORICAL RESUME. British Admissions, south bank of the Orinoco;1 that the Dutch attacks on Santo Thome and Trinidad in 1629 and 1637 were mere raids which resulted in the pillage and burning of Spanish settlements, but which were ineffectual to dis possess their Spanish occupants f that the title of the Netherlands to the Dutch establishments on the coast of Guiana was confirmed by Spain through the Treaty of Munster f that the attempted Pomeroon colony of 1658 came to an end at the hands of the British in 1666 f that the second attempt at a similar colony in 1686 was frustrated by the French f that the Spanish missions in the Cuyuni savannas resulted in the gathering in of the Indians under missionaries, in the subjection of these Indians to Spanish control, and in their instruction and employment in cattle-farming ;6 that the Dutch Cuyuni Post of 1754-1758 was destroyed by the Spaniards f that Dutch smugglers and sojourners — dignified in the British Case by the more imposing but quite unwarranted title of settlers and residents — were ejected from the Barima by Spanish officials sent 1,1 The site of the villag-e [Santo Thome] * * * was visited in 1595 or 1596 by Keymis. * * * In 1598, the Dutchman Cabeliau arrived on the coast of Guiana." British Case, pp. 20-21, lines 38-1, 33-34. After the advent * * * of the Dutch in (at the latest) 1598." British Case, p. 23, lines 29-31. 2 "In 1629, and again in 1637, they [the Dutch] sacked the settlement of Santo Thome, and in the latter year they also raided the Island of Trinidad." British Case, pp. 12-13, lines 45-47, 1. 8 "In 1648 * * * the States-General obtained from Spain, by a special Treaty at Munster, etc., * * * and were confirmed in the possession of all the * * * country which they then held." British Case, p. 13, lines 14-20. 4 "In 1658 * * * the Pomeroon was settled * * * the whole Colony, including Pomeroon and Essequibo, was occupied for a short time in 1666 by British forces." British Case, p. 13, lines 25-34. 6 "This new [Pomeroon] settlement was in 1689 destroyed by the French." British Case, p. 13, lines 40-41. 6" In these Missions [of the Catalonian Capuchins] the Indians were gathered together and employed in cattle farming." British Case, p. 14, lines 41-43. '"In 1758 the Spanish authorities * * * sent a secret expedition, which surprised and destroyed the [Dutch] Post [on the Cuyuni]. British Case, pp. 14-15, lines 49-50, 1-2. HISTORICAL RESUME. 13 there to clear them out ;J and, finally, that the sole title British Admissions. of Great Britain to British Guiana is the title conveyed to her by the Dutch in 1814.2 These facts are now undisputed, but beyond these the British Case contains other admissions, some of them too important to pass unnoticed. For instance, it is stated that " After the conclusion of the Treaty of Munster great exten- Dutch Extensions "sions of their possessions in Guiana were made by the Dutch;"3 and again that, "In addition to these indications of actual possession, the "Dutch throughout the period of their occupation were con tinually increasing their political control."4 The importance and significance of these admissions it would be difficult to overestimate : By the Treaty of Munster the Dutch received from Spain, in 1648, a quit claim to what they .AeT. possessed,5 not to any subsequent extension of those possessions at Spanish expense. By that Treaty also the Dutch agreed to respect Spanish possessions, and to acquire no more Spanish territory.6 '"The Spaniards from time to time conducted raiding expeditions down the coast. * * * They raided the property of Dutchmen settled in Barima, and Spanish vessels several times arrested Dutch fishing vessels in the Orinoco on charges of smuggling." British Case, p. 16, lines 38-44. 8 "It [the Dutch Colony of Essequibo] was formally ceded to them [the British] after the general pacification in 1814. They have remained in possession of it ever since." British Case, p. 17, lines 15-17. "British Case, p. 18, lines 23-25. 4British Case, p. 15, lines 37-40. 5 "Each one, that is to say, the said Lords, the King and States respectively, shall remain in possession of and enjoy such lordships * * * and countries * * * which the said Lords, the King and States respectively hold and possess." Treaty of Munster, Art. V in Venezuelan Case, vol. 3, p. 7. "Each [.. e. Spain and Holland] shall remain effectively in the possession and enjoyment of the countries, towns, forts, lands and dominions which he holds and possesses at present." Same, Art. iii in Venezuelan Case, vol. 3, p. 6. 6 "Comprising also the spots and places which the said Lords, the States hereafter without infraction of the present treaty shall come to conquer and possess." Treaty of Munster, Art. V. in Venezuelan Case, vol. 3, p. 7. 14 HISTORICAL RESUME. Dutch Extension after 1648. British Denials SDanish Settle ment in Essequibo. At that date the title to the region between the Essequibo and the Orinoco was and continued to be vested in Spain, and hence " great extensions of their (the Dutch) possessions in Guiana" if these extensions were west of the Essequibo — and no other region is here in question — prove a breach of treaty obligations by the Dutch, and the use of the phrase constitutes an admission, that in 1648 the Dutch did not possess in that region all they subsequently claimed. This historical section of the introduction to the British Case is significant almost as much in what it denies as in what it admits. As was suggested in the In troduction to this Counter-Case, denials which bear the imprint of formal pleadings, made without regard to the evidence, should be accepted as such, and should be regarded as indications of strategic points. For in stance, it is asserted in the British Case that Santo Thome " was until 1723 the only possession of the Spaniards in Guiana."1 This can hardly be intended literally, for however the presence of the Spaniards in the Essequibo prior to the Dutch advent may be re garded, that presence was certainly sufficient to entitle the Essequibo to be classed as a Spanish " possession '' in those days. Some new evidence of this Spanish occupation was, indeed, published for the first time by Venezuela in the Appendix to her Case,2 but the British Government has, nevertheless, long been cognizant of the testimony, on this point, of Keymis, of Thomas Masham,3 of Unton Fisher4 ^British Case, p. 12, lines 20-21. 8 Venezuelan Case, vol. 2, pp. 263-264. "See Halduyt, edition of 1811, vol. iv; also United States Commission Report, vol. i, p. 47. 4U. S. Com. Report, vol. i, p. 48, foot-note. HISTORICAL RESUME. 15 and of Sir Walter Raleigh ; and to entirely ignore their Spanish Set tie- J ° ment in Essequibo. testimony amounts to an admission that it cannot be successfully controverted. Not only so ; over and above this, and more import ant still, this purely formal denial proves that Great Britain recognizes the importance of the early Spanish settlement in the Essequibo, and that she hesitates to meet the issue thus raised. Deny it specifically, she does not and cannot. To admit it would be to admit that Spain, before the arrival of the Dutch in the Essequibo, had by occupation and settlement com pleted her title to that very river; and that if possession of Kykoveral by a mere trespasser can be made the basis of a claim to the entire drainage basins of the Essequibo, Cuyuni and Mazaruni, with vastly more reason might the same claim be urged in favor of the nation that first discovered the country and that first built the fort upon which the trespasser in question subsequently squatted. It was also stated in the Introduction to this Counter- British Allegations. Case that certain purely formal allegations which, like certain denials, partake of the nature of mere formal pleadings, constitute admissions that the points thus sought to be established are essential to British success and must be alleged at all hazards. The resume under examination contains certain allegations which may be said to come under this category. They can there fore serve but to emphasize the voids which they are intended to fill, and to disclose a just appreciation by Great Britain of the necessity of filling them. For example, it is alleged, that "Between 1621 and rf Dut,ch Command 1648 * * * the Dutch commanded the whole of the coast of Guiana and as far as Trinidad."1 1 British Case, p. 12, lines 37-39. 16 HISTORICAL RESUME. Dutch Command a sufficient refutation of this allegation will be found of Coast. in the following facts : Before 1632 the Dutch founded colonies on the coast of Guiana, but by or before that year1 these had all been abandoned. Only the trading post in the Esse quibo, which the West India Company (the Nineteen) then voted to abandon, was kept up at its own instance by the Zeeland Chamber;2 and Berbice was still main tained by its patroons. At the same time, according to a British contemporary witness, both French and English were settling on the coast at " Wiapoco," " Cayan," " Meriwina," " Suramaco," " Suranam," " Curanteen," and '' Comonina," all these being places on the coast and east of the Essequibo.3 No claim to the whole of this coast was ever made by the Dutch4. There is indeed a statement in the British Case which would seem to imply that the Dutch not only claimed the whole coast, but that their settlements reached to the very Orinoco. The assertion is not made directly, but instead there is quoted the statement that in 1613 there luere three or four settlements between the Orinoco and the Amazon} This may or may not have been so ; but in any event it is well known that the westernmost of those " settle ments" was on the Corentine, 300 miles east of the Ori noco and 120 miles east of theEssequibo. This western most Dutch settlement was by the Spanish Governor of Trinidad, Don Juan Tostado, deemed within his juris diction, and by reason " of the mischief " done by the Corentine Dutch, the settlement was destroyed by the Spaniards from Trinidad. 'Cayenne was abandoned in 1631. Venezuelan Counter-Case, vol. 2, p. 71. 2U. S. Com. Report, vol. ii, p. 65 and foot note. "British Case, Appendix I, pp. 169-170. 4Venezuelan Counter-Case, vol. 2, p, 190. "British Case, p. 22, lines 19-22. r HISTORICAL RESUME. 17 It will thus be seen that the allegation that " between Dutch Comma,d 1621 and 1648 * • * the Dutch commanded the whole of the coast of Guiana and as far as Trinidad," must be regarded as a mere formal pleading, made because he who urges it sees the necessity of showing Dutch occupation of the coast from the Essequibo to the mouth of the Barima. If this be not shown, Great Britain has no other foundation for her claim to the Barima and Waini : even the theory of a separate drainage basin for those rivers could do no more than separate them from the Orinoco and keep out the constructive occupation of the Ori noco Spanish : it could not avail to join the Barima and Waini to the Essequibo, nor to give them a Dutch character by constructively extending Dutch occupa tion from the east. Hence the necessity of proving actual possession of the whole coast by the Dutch. Not only so ; even actual possession, in order to be effective, must either antedate the Treaty of Munster (1648), or else be shown to have had all those qualities requisite for the creation of a prescriptive title. There fore it is that, choosing the first horn of this dilemma, the allegation is made specifically to refer to the years "between 1621 and 1648." Again, it is alleged, that in 1637 and 1638, the Dutch Dutch in Amacura. were "settled" in the River Amacura.1 Possibly a few of the Dutchmen who raided Santo Thome in 1637 may have sojourned for a time in the Amacura; but that any importance should be attached to such an incident would seem to indicate that Dutch men along that coast must have been very scarce in those days. The significance of the allegation consists rather in the evidence which it furnishes of the conscious need 1 British Case, p. 13, lines 3-5, and p. 25, line 45. 18 HISTORICAL RESUMJ.. Dutch in Amacura. of proving some Dutch control of this coast region, even though that control be but a shadow cast by the tem porary presence of Dutchmen wandering along its streams. It is also significant that this shadow, if indeed it was even that, appears to have been cast not on the Barima, but on the Amacura, a stream which Great Britain admits to have belonged to Spain then, and to belong to Venezuela now. Great Britain's extreme claim reaches but to the eastern bank of that river. The lines of the British Case which follow the above allegation, to wit : that "during the whole of this period they (the Dutch) were masters of the sea in the neigh bourhood of the mouths of the Orinoco1" are quite without foundation. West'rfMonica1106 Passing on to the period after 1648, it will be seen that this need of proving Dutch presence or Dutch control west of the Moruca has been constantly kept in mind by the compilers of the British Case. i683UtCh 8helter of A single allegation will be cited. The proposition of Governor Beekman in 1683 for a "small shelter" at Barima, for the use of the Pomeroon postholder upon his proposed occasional visits to that river for purposes of trade, is once more made the basis of an allegation that "servants of the Company were residing in the Barima and in the Pomeroon in the year 1683"; and this, notwithstanding the fact that the proposition itself evoked a missive of the severest condemnation from the Company and that no Dutch representative ever resided at Barima. ima^Ori^co md Ifc ^ ^^ Seen that 0ne °f the tningS whicn the Essequibo. British Case strives to establish is that geographically the Barima and Waini are independent of the Orinoco. This effort is supplemented by another intended to 'British Case, p. 13, lines 6-8. HISTORICAL RESUME. 19 prove that the same two rivers (the Baiima and Waini) Relations of Bar- , y ima to Orinoco and were in fact under the political control of the Essequibo Essequibo. Dutch. The following are some of these allegations : " The Essequibo Government thenceforward continued to con- " trol the district of the Pomeroon, and of the rivers and creeks " connected with it, including the Barima,"1 as though the Barima were one of these " rivers and creeks " and a mere appendage of the Pomeroon. Again, "It (the Post) was situated sometimes on the River Pomeroon " itself and sometimes on one or other of the neighbouring creeks, " Wakepo and Moruka. It commanded the means of access to " the Waini and Barima districts, which were commercially and '• politically controlled by the Postholder." s And, " By means of the Post at Moruka, the entry of traders into the " Barima and Waini districts was controlled,3 etc." These statements might have some value in the way of showing a dependence of the Barima and Waini upon the Pomeroon and Moruca, if the inference in tended to be drawn from them were warranted, namely, that the Pomeroon commanded the only means of access to the Barima- Waini region. Of course this is not so, because that region may be reached with perfect ease from any point in the Orinoco Delta. But, while these two passages fail to accomplish the purpose for which they were apparently intended, they do accomplish another and a very useful purpose, which is to prove that the region lying east of the Moruca is so completely sepa rated by natural barriers from the Barima- Waini region on the west, that a single post near the entrance to the narrow artificial channel which, during the rainy season, 'British Case, p. 13, lines 44-47. 2British Case, p. 14, lines 5-10. 8British Case, pp. 15-16, lines 48-49, 1. 20 HISTORICAL RESUME. Relations of Bar- renders possible a difficult communication between them, ima to Orinoco and r Essequibo. js enough to completely control the travel between the two. These attempts to find some basis, be it geological or historical, for the division of what is essentially a single region into two basins, and for the union of what are essentially distinct basins into a single region, have a significance of still another kind. They contain an implied admission that no historical basis of actual and effective Dutch occupation or settlement is to be found to support a Dutch claim to the Barima- Waini Region. If Dutch title to the Barima must rest upon the ease with which the Dutch postholder on the Pomeroon or the Moruca could have gone to the Barima, or upon the control which he exercised in that river, it means that that is the only kind of control which can be alleged, and that there was neither occupancy nor settle ment. The facts of control have been sufficiently set forth in the Case submitted by Venezuela. They need no repetition here. It is sufficient at this time merely to note that Great Britain presents no other grounds for Dutch title to that region, except perhaps that afforded by the occasional presence there of some Dutch smugglers or sojourners, whose existence is known to posterity only by the fact that they were ex pelled therefrom by Spanish officials. The above examination discloses the attitude of the British Government towards the Barima- Waini Region. Passing from this to the Essequibo proper, the points which, for the moment, merit attention relate to the period prior to 1648. Dutch in Esse- It is alleged that there were Dutch settlers in the Essequibo in 1621 j1 that the Dutch West India Com- iBritish Case, p. 12, line 32. HISTORICAL RESUME. 21 pany "at once (1621) established there an organized Dutch in Essequibo. colony"1; and finally, that the "Colonial Government" of the company was situated at Fort Kykoveral. , These statements might all be true without in any way detracting from the strength of Venezuela's claims. Spain having first settled the Essequibo, and having been in occupation of it until at least as late as 1617, it can make little difference whether Dutchmen who went there later arrived in 1621, or at any other date after the departure of the Spanish and before 1648. Whatever the date of their first appearance, it is well known that in 1632 the Company voted to abandon the post which was then there, and that that post was with difficulty kept alive until 1648. It may be added that the presence of Dutchmen in the Essequibo in 1621 is most unlikely; and that the statement itself is unsupported by contemporary evidence. The second allegation, as to the character of this Dutch occupation, is an error. To speak of the first Dutchmen who went there as settlers, or to say that as early as 1621 the Dutch West India Company "estab lished there an organized colony, ," is to make statements which are inconsistent with well known facts. From the first, the establishment was nothing more than a trading post, and even at the time of the Treaty of Munster it was altogether insignificant. Reference to Fort Kykoveral as a site of a " Colonial Government," is incorrect, if it be the intention to include under that term any other part of Guiana than the Island of Kykoveral itself ; even so, it is certainly a high-sounding title to apply to the few traders who lived on that island. As the various allegations of the British Case in con- Dutch in the in- tcrior nection with the Barima- Waini region have made clear "British Case, p. 12, line 33. 22 HISTORICAL RESUME. Dutch in the in- Grreat Britain's attitude towards it, so do similar allega- tenor. ' ° tions with reference to the interior of the country dis close her position there. One of the first allegations in this connection amounts to a confession that in 1648 Dutch trade with the interior had not yet begun. The following is the allegation referred to : "Besides their enterprise upon the coast, the Dutch had also " before the end of the seventeenth century penetrated far into " the interior. Negro traders were employed by the Company to " travel among the Indians and obtain by barter the products " of the country. In 1683 and onwards these traders are men- " tioned as periodically visiting the Pariacot Savannah, and as " using the name of the Dutch Government to put an end to native " wars on the Cuyuni, which hindered commerce1 " Whatever the value of this kind of occupation, it is fair to conclude that it did not begin until about 1683. This means that at the date of the Treaty of Munster the interior was not visited by the Dutch, and that it was outside of Dutch control. This allegation, with others which follow, is also useful because it shows the hind of occupation upon which the British Case relies to establish British rights to the interior. It was an occupation which consisted ex clusively of trade and of relations with Indians. Both of these subjects will be considered later. For the present it is enough to note that if we except the tem porary trading posts on the Cuyuni, from which the Spaniards ousted the Dutch, or which the Dutch abandoned for fear of the Spaniards, the whole British claim to the interior is made to rest, first upon the theoretical consideration of drainage basins, and second upon alleged trade and Indian alliances. Excepting for certain so-called "Dutch residences" shown in various 1 British Case, p. 14, lines 11-21. HISTORICAL RESUME. 23 parts of this region, in the first four maps of the British Dutch in the ln- Atlas, for all of which evidence is wanting, there is no pretense that any Dutch settlements ever existed above the lowest falls of the Cuyuni and Mazaruni. It is well known that the only Dutchmen in those parts were wandering traders and smugglers, or else slave catchers disguised at times as Indians for the purpose of escaping capture at the hands of the Spaniards. This general re liance of Great Britain upon trade and Indian relations is illustrated by the following extract from the historical resume of her Case : "Beyond the lands actually planted by agriculturists, the Dutch " were, by their use and enjoyment of its resources, and by their " exercise of political control, in possession of all the territory '• now claimed by Great Britain. "The Dutch Posts were maintained on the Essequibo and " Cuyuni, and in the district of the coast rivers, at Pomeroon or " Moruka. The timber in the forests of Massaruni, Cuyuni, " and Waini was granted out by the Government for felling, " and mines were opened and worked in the range called the " Blauwenherg, to the north of the Cuyuni. " In addition to these indications of actual possession, the " Dutch throughout the period of their occupation were con- " tinually increasing their political control. " The Indians of the outlying districts were in alliance with " them throughout the whole region from the Essequibo to " Barima, and acted under them on many occasions against je- " volting or absconding negroes. Their Chiefs received badges " and insignia as tokens that they were recognized by the Gov- " ernment."1 These allegations are denied by Venezuela. She as serts that the Dutch never exercised control, political or otherwise, over the region in question. Dutch posts were not maintained on the Cuyuni, but on the contrary such as were attempted invariably came to an end be cause the Spanish would not tolerate them there. Such 'British Case, page 15, lines 23-47. 24 HISTORICAL RESUME. teriof011 ln the Tn" nm^te^ timber cutting as was indulged in was surrepti tious. The mining operations of Hildebrandt, already referred to in the Venezuelan Case, amounted to nothing and were abandoned almost as soon as begun; and Dutch relations with the Indians, as will be shown later, were never of such a character as to afford a foundation for a claim of Dutch sovereignty to the terri tory in dispute. But, as before stated, it is not the purpose of this Counter-Case to traverse allegations of the British Case. These allegations are considered with a view to defining Great Britain's attitude toward the questions involved rather than to affirming or denying the truth of the allegations themselves. Viewed in this light, the passage above quoted is useful because it shows that there is no claim to settlements in the interior, and that Dutch title to that interior is acknowledged to depend upon the legal effect of these various acts alleged in the British Case itself to have taken place " beyond the lands actually planted by agriculturists." The necessity of proviug some tangible and actual occupation of land above the falls was doubtless appre ciated by the compilers of the British Case ; at least that is an inference which may fairly be drawn from the im portance attributed by them to the Dutch posts which were vainly attempted to be maintained on the Cuyuni river. It is the only evidence of actual Dutch occu pation to which any appeal was possible, and it is not surprising, therefore, that the most should have been made of it. The facts as to all these posts have been fully re cited in the Venezuelan Case; so also have the nature and effect of the Dutch remonstrances which were in consequence presented to the Spanish Court. Their HISTORICAL RESUMf.. 25 further consideration may, therefore, be deferred until a Dutch in the ln- ^ tenor. later stage of this controversy. Having considered the allegations of the British Case Spanish control ° ° of the Interior. as to Dutch control of the interior, it will be profitable to consider how Spanish control of the same region is regarded by Great Britain. Some of the statements in this direction, if considered by themselves, are calculated to discourage further inquiry. For example : "The Spaniards never exercised dominion on the Cuyuni; " they never utilized the resources nor controlled the inhabitants " of its valley in any way. Nor did they exercise any dominion " or control in the Massaruni or Essequibo."1 And again : " They [the Spanish Catalonian Capuchin Missions] never " reached the forest region or the valley of the Cuyuni."3 These assertions, however, can hardly be intended literally, as the British Case elsewhere admits that the Dutch Cuyuni post of 1754 to 1758 was destroyed by the Spaniards, and that the Spanish Missions did eventually reach and cover the Pariacot Savannah. To be sure the first admission is hedged about with many allegations as to the secret character of the Spanish expedition, as to its rapid retreat, the con sequent remonstrance to Spain, and the re-establishment of " a post on the river."3 But it is not stated, that the only secrecy about the expedition was for the pur pose of preventing the escape of the Dutch postholder; that the destruction of the post was effected by the Spaniards under a claim of right ; that its Dutch occu pants were taken prisoners ; that a Dutch demand for their release was refused ; that a Dutch remonstrance against the destruction of the post was treated with con tempt by the Spanish Court; that the Dutch never re- 'British Case, page 15, lines 7-11. •British Case, page 14, lines 39-41. 3British Case, pages 14, 15, lines 48-51, 1-6. 26 HISTORICAL RESUME. Spanish control established that post ; that their remonstrances on the of tlie Interior. , , ,. i_ l \. j.1, subject were finally abandoned ; that the Dutch thus acquiesced in their ejectment from the Cuyuni ; and that posts subsequently attempted lower down the river were successively abandoned because of the Spaniards. Neither is any note taken of the following testimony of the Dutch Governor to the completeness of Spanish dominion on the Cuyuni : " In my previous despatches I had the honour from time to time " to inform your Honours of the secret doings of the Spaniards " and especially in my second letter by the ' Vrouw Anna ' and "in my letter by the 'Geertruida Christiana,' did right cir- " cumstantially concerning the fatal and, for the Colony, most " highly-perilous news of the River Cayuni. My opinion has " always been that they would gradually acquire a foothold in " Cayuni, and try to obtain the mastery of the river, as they now "¦practically have done al the end of the past year.1" Extent of Spanish The other assertion, above quoted, to the effect that the Spanish missions never reached the valley of the Cuyuni, is inconsistent with the later admission that "In the course of the next seventy years [after 1724] these Missions were extended on to the Pariacot Sav annah.3" As a matter of fact they were there within ten years. This assertion is furthermore inconsistent with the following statement of the Case itself, unless indeed the term Cuyuni valley is to be taken as re stricted to the immediate banks of the stream itself: " Recognizing, however, the fact of the establishment of Spanish " Missions during the eighteenth century on territory south of " the Orinoco, in the neighbourhood of the River Yuruari, which " Missions continued to exist up to the year 1817, the Govern- " ment of Great Britain has never actively sought to press its " claim to that portion of the district north-west of the Cuyuni, in " which missions were actually situated.3" iVenezuelan Case, Vol. 2, p. 183. •British Case, p. 14, lines 37-39. "British Case, p. 6, lines 24-32. missions. HISTORICAL RESUME. 27 But even as regards the Cuyuni river itself the as- Extent of Spanish ° J Missions. sertion regarding the limits of Spanish occupation in the Cuyuni-Mazaruni basin cannot be accepted as true. The Curumo Fort, erected and maintained on the south bank of the Cuyuni opposite the mouth of the Curumo, in the midst of the forest region, was certainly an occupation of the Cuyuni valley j and the evidence discovered by Professor Burr regarding the existence of Spanish Mis sions on the Wenamu, in Queribura and at Mawakhen1 remains uncontradicted save by unsupported denials in the British Case. The allegations thus made with a view to belittling the ofs^nium- f^,^1 extended Spanish occupation and control of the Cuyuni valley, are supplemented by other allegations intended to minimize the control exerted by the Spanish mis sionaries in the Cuyuni forests. There is, for example, the following statement : " Over the forest country and the Indians therein the mission- " aries exercised no control whatever. On the contrary, the " Missions were frequently raided and destroyed by the Carib " Indians of that region."2 This is certainly a mistaken view of the matter. It was from these very forests that the mission Indians were gathered; and from 1748 on, the missions them selves were almost exclusively of Caribs or Accoways taken from these Cuyuni forests. These undoubtedly revolted at times, and tried to throw off the Spanish yoke; but, although some individuals escaped, yet over the Indians as a whole the strong hand of Spanish control continued to make itself felt throughout the entire region, and throughout the entire period af Spanish domination. xVenezuelan Counter-Case, vol. 2, p. 202. •British Case, p. 14, lines 48-47, 28 HISTORICAL RESUME. Spanish occupa- The British denial of a Spanish occupation of the tion and control of L interior, and of the Cuyuni valley and of a Spanish control of the Cuyuni and Mazaruni rivers cannot shake the evidence in favor of both or do away with the facts themselves. Equally futile are the allegations as to the weakness of Santo Thome or as to Spanish abandonment of the Orinoco itself. The Santo Thome of the seventeenth and eigh teenth centuries can hardly be compared with a fortified city of the nineteenth century. The needs and possi bilities of those days were not the needs or possi bilities of these. Moreover, Spanish commanders found it to their interest at times to magnify their present needs so as to obtain desired supplies, and at other times to draw pictures favorable to themselves by plac ing their own achievements in contrast with the poverty of the past. But, whatever may have been the numerical strength of the Spanish garrisons or the size of the Spanish town, one thing is certain, both were always equal to the emergency. Other nations were kept out of the Orinoco and out of the interior. While the Essequibo Gov ernor was writing hysterical letters to his company pleading for help from the extinction which at times threatened him ; while a few plantations on the banks of the Essequibo marked the extent of his domains ; while in his helplessness he was turning to the savages of the forests for protection, Spain was building fort resses on the Orinoco and the Cuyuni ; her missions and missionaries were penetrating into the interior ; her vessels were patrolling the coasts, and everywhere she was demonstrating her ability to hold the territories which she had been the first to discover and to occupy. Spanish claims Tt is alleged by Great Britain that Governor Marmion at one time proposed to abandon the Orinoco for sixty HISTORICAL RESUME. 29 miles from its main mouth1 and to treat the former Spanish claims. site of Santo Thome as the frontier of the Spanish possessions. Such an allegation is wholly without foundation. Neither Marmion nor any other Span ish Governor ever made any such proposition ; and Spain herself from first to last proclaimed her sole right to the whole of Guiana south of the narrow fringe of Dutch, French and English settlements along the coast. The Orinoco and the entire coast region as far east as the Essequibo she always regarded as her own. 'British Case, page 16. Introduction. IV.— HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. The Historical Synopsis which constitutes Chapter II of the British Case, and which follows the histor ical resume just considered, contains much in the way of detail which is not covered by the resume; its allegations are, however, in general along the same lines. At the present time these details will be considered only so far as they happen to fall within the general scope of this examination. No attempt will be made to deal with them exhaustively nor singly, nor to traverse the allegations which they may involve. The purpose of this chapter is to continue the general examination already begun; and the further British admissions, denials and allegations, to be examined, will be con sidered only so far as they serve to throw additional light upon Great Britain's attitude. As in the case of the historical resume, the Historical Synopsis contains many statements, which, either by direct admission or by the character of their denial, prove that the two Governments are really in accord as to the controlling facts of this controversy. 1. The discovery and first settlement of Guiana by G?^yvg$noi Spain is frankly admitted; and the value of that admission is in no way lessened by allegations as to subsequent Dutch voyages. 2. Spanish occupation of and settlement in the t>a^\e%usps*_ Essequibo is not in terms admitted ; but, on the other ¦ • i /-^i sequibo. the British. Case itself after quoting Scott in support of *Nearer in point of time, but open to objection on other grounds, is the testimony of a paper among the Sloane manuscripts in the British Museum, of which portions (apparently nearly the whole) are printed in the Rev. H. V. P. Bronkhurst's "The Colony of British Guyana and its Labouring Population," London, 1883 (pp. 45-53). It appears to be of the year 1668, and is anonymous.1 "The sixth colony," the author says, " was undertaken by one Captain Gromweagle, a Dutchman, that had served the Spaniard in Oranoque, but understanding a company of merchants of Zealand had before undertaken a voyage to Guiana and attempted a settlement there " (this no doubt refers to a preceding para graph, which notes an abortive settlement of Zeelanders at Cayenne in 1615), "he deserted the Spanish service, and tendered himself to his own country, which was accepted, and he dispatched from Zealand, anno 1616, with two ships and a galliot, and was the first man that took firm footing on Guiana by the good likeing of the natives, whose humours the gentleman perfectly understood. He erected a forte 071 a small island thirty leagues up the river Dissekeeb, which looked into two great branches of that famous river. All this time the Colony nourished ; * * * he was a great friend of all new colonies of Christians of what nation soever, and Barbados oweth its first assistance, both for food and trade, to this man's special kindness, anno 1627, at which time they were in a miserable condition ; he dyed anno 1664, and in the 83d year of his age, a wealthy man, having been Governor of that Colonie forty-eight years. In this Colonie the authour had the good fortune to meet with some ingenious observations of the former Governor, of what had been transacted in Guiana in his time, to whom the world is obliged for many particulars of this story." A footnote relates how Capt. Thomas Powell, governor of Barbados from 1625 to 1628, " having understood the Dutch had a plantation in the River Dissekeeb," sent to his old friend Captain Gromweagle for aid, and how Gromweagle "persuaded a family of Arawacoes, consisting of forty persons, to attend Powell to Barbados, to learn the English to plant," etc. (Bronkhurst, pp. 46-48.) The author of this paper can be proved to have been Maj. John Scott, somewhat famous in the history of Long Island and of New Netherland clown to 1665. For he says (id., p. 50) : "The same year [1665] in the month of October, the author having been commissionated Commander- in-chief of a small fleet and a regiment of soldiers, for the attack of Tobago, and several other settlements in the hands of the Netherlanders in Guiana, as Moroco, Wacopou, Bowroome and Dissekeeb, and having touched at Tobago, in less than six months had the good fortune to be in possession of those countries." Now, by reference to the " Calendars of State Papers, Colonial " (Vol. V, pp. 481, 529, 534), it will be seen, both by Scott's testimony and by that of another, that he was commander of this expedition. s( John Scott (see the Proceedings of the Massachu setts Historical Society, Vol. VI, pp. 66-74) has not the highest reputa tion. Lord Willoughby writes to Secretary Williamson (" Calendars," p. 540) that Scott has perchance told Williamson some truth, but not all 1 The results of Professor Burr's personal investigation of this manuscript will De found Tin U. S. Commission Report, vol. ii., pp. 133-138 ; and in same, vol. i., pp. 172-177). 1 By reference to Professor Burr's stat ments [in U. S. Commission Report, vol. ii, p. 134] it will be seen that the manuscript is undoubtedly by Scott, the original hearing his name. 38 HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. Dutch intheEs- the above statement adds that "The date of the actual sequibo. foundation of the Dutch Colony on the Essequibo is however somewhat uncertain.''^ gospel. Netscher, to whom the document is anonymous, declares that while Aert Adriaenszoon Groenewegel (Scott's " Captain Gromweagle") was commandant on the Essequibo from 1657 to 1666, he certainly did not command there for forty-eight years. He also says, with justice, that the paper is inaccurate in other parts (" Geschiedenis," pp. 42, 43, 358). Yet it seems difficult altogether to discredit it. The Zeeland ex pedition of 1615 is historical. ("British Blue Book," p. 53, No. 8.) The passage regarding Barbados receives independent confirmation from a contemporary source, " The True Travels, Adventures and Observations of Captain John Smith," London, 1630, in chapter 26 of which we read concerning Barbados : " The first planters brought thither. by Captaine Henry Powel, were forty English, with seven or eight Negroes ; then he went to Disacuba in the maine, where he got thirty Indians, men, women and children, of the Arawacos." 1 The indications given by Netscher and, in the last century, by the Zeelanders as to what is or was in the Dutch archives, coupled with the statements of Scott and Smith, are at any rate sufficient to show that by 1627 the Dutch had an establishment, probably Kykoveral, on the Esse quibo, though De Laet makes no mention of any in his editions of 1625, 1630, or 1633. [U. S. Com. Rep., vol. i, pp. 62-65.] ¦fThe other document which gives for the foundation of the colony of Essequibo an earlier date than 1621, lies in the library of the British Museum, where it bears the mark " Sloane MSS., 3662." It is a thin bound volume, lettered on its back " Var. Tracts on the E. and W. Indies." The book is, however, all written by a single hand, and the author has made no effort to conceal his identity, for the volume begins with an elaborate preface, to which he has signed, at the end, his name in full — " John Scott." It is an autograph fragment, or rather a collection of sketches and materials, belonging to an unpublished and probably never finished work on the islands and coasts of America, from New foundland to the Amazon, and its author is that Major John Scott, once of Long Island, who, after an all too prominent part in the politics of New England and New York, had fled to Barbados, and who while there had been chosen to lead the expedition which in 1665-66 captured for England the Dutch colonies in Guiana. Among the chapters here com pleted are those on Guiana and on the West Indian islands, Barbados, Grenada and Tobago. The first named of these chapters, with a long extract from the second, was a few years ago transcribed by a colonial scholar (though apparently without discovery of its authorship) and pub lished in a Guiana newspaper. Thence it was copied into the book of a missionary, Bronkhurst, and so reached the world of scholars. Its re ception by historians has not been flattering, and the name of its author will hardly add greatly to its weight, for Scott's reputation for accuracy of statement is not unimpeached. His facilities for information were, however, remarkable, and especially so for Guiana. For his statement as to the founding of the colony of Essequibo in 1616 by one Captain ¦But from certain documents (to which my attention has been called by Professor Burr), published in Timehri for June, 1891, it appears, on Powell's own evidence, not only that these Indians were carried off without any aid from the Dutch, but that Powell knew nothing of the presence of the Dutch in the river. Scott, therefore, is here clearly wrong. HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. 39 The other of the two statements above referred to is Esfuu°b in the that in 1621 when the Dutch West India Company was chartered, a Dutch Colony was already established in the Essequibo.5 This assertion, based, as it is, upon Hartsinck's testimony and upon the representations made by the Zeeland Chamber in 1751, has been fully refuted by Professor Burr.11 Gromwegle, and for the reasons why it must be doubted, I may refer to the report of Professor Jameson. I have only to add that my own examination of the manuscript records, while vindicating Scott in assigning to 1664 the death of Groenewegel, and while carrying back to 1645 that governor's advent in the colony, brings to light no earlier mention of him in the books of the West India Company, and convinces me that he could not earlier have been com mandeur on the Essequibo. That in 1616 he or any other, built there a fort seems unlikely, from the fact that a fort needed to be built there in 1627. That he may in that year have come to some other Guiana colony is not impossible, though the records of the Zeeland admiralty for this and the adjacent years fail to show the name of such a captain. In view of the fact that Scott credits to Groenewegel' s "ingenious observations" only a part of the particulars of this story, and in view of his demon strable inaccuracy as to dates and names in what else he tells us of the beginnings of colonization in Guiana, I think it must be felt that, though there are doubtless elements of truth in his story, his authority is much too slight for a statement else so unsupported, and so inconsistent with facts better known. Is it not more probable that Scott has confused with the original establishment of the Dutch in the Essequibo the found ing of the first colony of planters there — the Nova Zeelandia of the Walcheren cities — in 1658 ? Of the latter Groenewegel was, as we shall presently see, indeed the first Commander, and so in a sense the founder. [Venezuelan Counter-Case, vol. 2, pp. 62-65.] % British Case, p. 23, lines 17-19. § British Case, p. 24, lines 37-39. | That there is no credible evidence for the presence of the Dutch in this river prior to the year 1613 has already been seen. All assertions of their presence there before the foundation of the Dutch West India Com pany in 1621 go back to two documents alone. These are aught but con firmatory the one of the other ; and each deserves a closer study. Longest known and implicitly (with more or less of distortion) followed by most later writers is the memorial submitted to the States- General, on August 23, 1751, by the directors of the Zeeland Chamber of the West India Company, in defense of its claim to the colony of Essequibo. Its aim was of course a thoroughly partisan one. In the report published in the same behalf a year earlier (in the autumn of 1750) by the provincial Estates of Zeeland. this Guiana colony was alleged to have been in ex istence and in the hands of the Zeelanders prior to the establishment of the West India Company in 1621 ; but the only document adduced in support of this was an account book of the year 1627, which could hardly prove anything of the sort. The Amsterdam Chamber, in the reply drawn up by it (January 9, 1751) at the request of the States-General, had passed lightly over this point, resting its claim on action of the Com- 40 HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. Dutch rights west 3 jt geems to be admitted, as already stated, that of Moruca. ' J ' whatever rights the Dutch may have had in the coast region west of the Moruca, those rights did not grow pany at a much later period, and content with referring somewhat loftily to the published literature of the subject as showing that Hol landers, too, had traded to the Guiana coast before 1621. But the Zeeland directors felt the claim important, and in their answering memorial (August 23, 1751) came to its support with what seems fresh evidence and with the skill of finished casuists. Beginning their arg'ument with a reminder of the project of Ten Haeff in 1599, they bring into close connection with him a list of later Zeeland founders of American colonies, without feeling it necessary to point out that the earliest of these began his activity in 1626, and that they have but borrowed the names from an old West India Company record book covering the period 1626-1671. " It is true," they now add, in asentence well calculated to muddle all later research, " that, as regards the colony of Essequibo, the name of the first projector and founder thereof we have not yet been able with certainty to learn ; yet it is nevertheless more than probable that it was first visited and colonized by the Zeel anders, namely, so far as can be traced, by a certain Joost van der Hooge, who thereafter was also the first director of the Zeeland Chamber, and that, if not for several years before the creation of a General West India Company (a conclusion to which much color is given by a certain request presented to the Board of Nineteen in the year 1639 by Jan de Moor, wherefrom it becomes apparent that already as early as 1613, and so eight years before the charter was granted to the West India Company, the colonies on the Wild Coast were already in full existence), at least by the time of the beginning of that Company such an establishment must already have existed there, in view of the fact that in the first mentions of the river Essequibo in the books, registers, and minutes of the Company then brought into existence one finds this colony spoken of as of an already established possession, strengthened by a fort which then bore the name of Fort der Hooge, after an old noble Zeeland family near of kin to that of the noble lords van Borsselen, and shortly there after the name of Kykoveral, and yet without the slightest shadow of accompanying evidence that this had come about through the Company or at its order, as would in that case certainly appear in the resolutions of that body, and nevertheless the Zeeland Chamber was at that time in possession of that river and that fort, and also of the trade which was there carried on — these being, perhaps, brought into their hands by those individual founders themselves, who afterwards, as we have already seen, formed a part of the Zeeland Chamber of the said Company and were made directors thereof, as, for example, Messieurs Van der Hooge, Ten Haef, Elfsdyk, Van Peere, and others, who had theretofore traded to the aforesaid coast, were elected and installed as directors in the afore said Chamber." " But be this as it may," they continue, taking breath in a fresh para graph, " so long as from the side of the Amsterdam Chamber not the slightest evidence can be produced that the aforesaid colony and river, before or at the beginning of the Company, was traded to by the Hol landers or by any other inhabitants of the State except the Zeelanders, it may safely be concluded, on the hereinbefore specified and more than probable grounds, that the inhabitants of Zeeland alone and exclusively, HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. 41 out of any actual Dutch settlement there, nor out of any P,u,tcn Tights west ' J of Moruca. continued physical occupation of land on that coast. from the beginning on, have traded to the aforesaid river, erected there their establishments, and, under the care and direction of the Zeeland Chamber, have remained in continuous possession thereof. 'In obscuris enim inspicere solemus quod verisimilius est,' and ' in pari causa, pos sessor potior haberi debet.'" Now, to anybody who reads with care (as few historians seem to have had the patience to do) these adroitly framed sentences, it is clear that we have here not a positive proof of the existence of the Essequibo colony prior to 1621, but a confession that no such proof can be found. And one needs to read but slightly between the lines to detect that the directors have lighted upon but two items of possible evidence — an uncertain allusion of the year 1639 to the existence of the Guiana colonies in general in 1613, and the mention in early records of the West India Company of a " Fort der Hooge" in connection with the Essequibo. The alleged request of Jan de Moor in 1639 can not now be verified, for the minutes of the Nineteen for this year are lost ; but there is no reason to doubt its existence or its verity. It is, however, clearly a mere reference to the Guiana colonies in general ; explicit mention in it of the Essequibo there is confessedly none. It would even seem, from the cautious form of the statement, that its testimony to the Guiana colonies at all is rather inferential than direct. What is urged as to a " Fort der Hooge " would be more serious were it borne out by the contemporary records on which it claims to be based. These very earliest records of the West India Company still remain to us, and in precisely the copies used by the Zeeland directors themselves. True, the very first volume of the minutes of the Zeeland Chamber itself is now lacking ; but there is much reason to believe that it was lacking when this memorial was written, and, had it been in this that the phrase was found, the memorialists would undoubtedly have cited volume and date, as they have done wherever in their memorial these minutes are used. That there is here no citation whatever strongly suggests" that what is stated is only an impression. Now, in the extant minutes of the Zeeland Chamber, running without a break from 1626 to 1644, and making frequent mention of the Essequibo colony, there is never any mention of a Fort der Hooge at all ; nor have I been able to find it elsewhere in the records of the Company. Nor is this colony at first spoken of, as alleged, as a possession strengthened by a fort ; for, as appears from an entry of August 23, 1627, it had as yet no fort at all, though the Company then promises to send soon some men to build one. The name of the fort, Kykoveral, which does not appear in the records before 1644, is thereafter constantly met ; and had there been earlier a Fort der Hooge named after a director of the Company, the Zeeland directors would hardly have shown to an influential colleague the discourtesy of con stantly ignoring its title. Joost van der Hooge is, indeed, named first, at the organization of the West India Company, among the stockholders and directors of the Zeeland Chamber, and this has seemed to some a reason for accepting the story ; but they forget that this place belonged lo him, ex officio, as burgomaster of Middelburg. It is more probable that the place of his name suggested the tradition. There is nothing in the minutes of these bodies to connect him with Essequibo ; and he was not one of those to whom matters relating to this colony were commonly referred. That the authors of the memorial were not writing with the 42 HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. Dutch relations The British Case does indeed contain the following to coast west of _ Moruca. o-eneral allegation regarding Dutch relations to that re gion : "At the time of the Treaty of Utrecht (1714) the Dutch had "established themselves as the masters of a great part of Guiana, "from various positions on the coast as far as Barima, etc.1 But this wholly unfounded assertion is made without the citation of any evidence to support it. The only specific acts which are relied upon to prove it are as follows : "In 1758 * * * Dutch traders were resident on the * * * "Paraman (Barama). In 1766 and 1768 Dutchmen were settled " in Barima. In 1769 the Prefect of the Missions reported that "a Dutchman had been eight years domiciled on the Eiver "Aguirre * * * ." 2 Again : " There is little doubt that at this time there were Dutch plan tations in the Aruka, a tributary of the Barima, and at Koriabo " higher up on the Barima. There are still visible traces of set- "tlements at these spots, and they correspond with the descrip- " tion given of Dutch settlements then existing in the records of "secret expeditions made by the Spaniards to the Barima in 1760 " and 1768. In the latter year the Spaniards secretly and without "previous complaint made a raid upon Barima and destroyed documents before them may be guessed from the fact that, of the three others whom they mention with Van der Hooge as Guiana patroons who had earned a seat in the Zeeland Chamber by the transfer of their colonies, not all were original members of that chamber. There is, too, another claimant to the name of Fort der Hooge, or Ter Hooge. When in 1657 the control of the Essequibo had passed into the hands of the three Walcheren cities (Middelburg, Flushing, and Vere), and they had planted in its region their new colony and given it the new name of Nova Zeelandia, there stood on the bank of the Pomeroon, we are told, not only the fortress Nieuw Zeeland, and below it the village Nieuw Middelburg, but a little further downstream the " Huis ter Hooge"— believed to have been a fortified lookout. The Zeeland Estates, in their paper of 1750, fell into the error of supposing the colony of Essequibo to have borne from its outset the name of Nova Zeelandia. This the Zeeland directors corrected ; but is it not possible that they fell into the kindred error of forgetting the site and date of the Fort ter Hooge? [Venezuelan Counter-Case, vol. 2, pp. 58-62.] 1 British Case, p. 32, lines 8-11. 8 British Case, p. 48, lines 6-13. HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. 43 ' a Dutch plantation, which was probably in the Aruka, but they Dutch relations " did not themselves hold or occupy the district of the river." 1 Momca^ ^^ °f And again : " The traces of cultivation remaining in the Aruka and at Ko- " riabo probably mark the sites of plantations, one of which was " probably that destroyed by the Spanish secret expedition in 1768 " and another that reported in 1760, but which was situated too " far up the Barima for the Spaniards to reach."2 These various passages contain allegations with refer- incidents relied , n .,-.._ upontoproveDutch ence to rive possible incidents. occupation. The first of these is that Dutch traders were residing in the Barama3 in 1758. To support this assertion the British Case cites Fray Benito de la Garriga ; but Fray Benito makes no mention whatever of any Dutch resi dents ; his reference is purely to Dutch slave traders so journing in Tucupo, Capi and Paraman.3 This first incident therefore falls because the very evidence cited to support it contradicts it. The second is that " there is little doubt that " in 1760 Dutchmen were settled and had plantations on the River Barima and on the Aruka, a tributary of the Barima.4 For this assertion there is not a word of evidence. In fact the account of the Spanish expedition of this date flatly contradicts it ; and the existence of any Dutch plantation in the Barima at this time is not to be reconciled with what is known of the occurrences of 1766. It was only slave traders who were in question in 1760. The third is that in 1766 Dutchmen were settled in the Barima. This statement has, for its only foundation, 1 British Case, p. 51, lines 36-47. 2 British Case, p. 68, lines 29-35. 3 Paraman, not Barama nor Barima. Garriga says " Numbers of Dutch * * * remain in the places called Tucupo, Capi and Paraman, to buy slaves. These places are in the interior, * * * " British Case, Appendix, II, p. 147, E. 4 British Case, p. 51, lines 36-39. 44 HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. incidents relied a quarrel between two Dutchmen in Barima resultins; upontoproveDutcli * occupation. jn the arrest of one of them, and in an order of the Court of Policy "forbidding any one to stop in Barima?n The fourth is that in 1768 Dutchmen were settled in the Barima. While the evidence cited to support this allegation unquestionably shows that there were at that time some "foreigners clandestinely settled for com merce and traffic in the creek called the Creek of Barirua, jurisdiction of this (Guiana) province,"2 it nevertheless furnishes at the same time the most con vincing proof of Spanish control there ; it tells of the expulsion of those very foreigners by Spanish officials, of the destruction of their dwellings, and of the seizure and judicial sale of their effects.3 But apart from this there is every reason to believe, as Professor Burr has pointed out, that of these "foreigners" only one was a Dutchman, the rest being English from Barbadoes and French from Martinique,4 and even this one Dutchman was there in direct defiance of the authority of the Essequibo colony. 1 British Case, Appendix, III, p. 132. 2 British Case, Appendix, III, p. 168. s On the 18th April, 1768, * * * Don Francisco Cierto * * * having been questioned, * x * declared: "That the Commandant- General there present having received information that in the creel- called the Creek of Barima * * * sundry Dutch families were established, dispatched him with instructions to warn them once, twice and thrice to quit the whole of that territory because it belonged to the said province (Guiana) in virtue whereof the declarant went in his vessel, * * * they only found the deserted houses and the effects, implements and utensils contained in the inventory, which they put on board the two vessels and then set fire to the said houses, in order that they should not form settlements in future," British Case, Appendix, HI, pp. 170-171. 4The Spanish testimony to this exploit speaks of "sundry Dutch families and of "the foreigners," and mentions the houses and plantations as if there were several establishments. Bnt, had there been any other settlers from Essequibo, it seems probable that Storm would have learned it, if only from the widow La Riviere, and would have mentioned it to the Company. It is possible that the other settlers, if such there were, were from other colonies— not improbably French, or English from the islands. In the library of the British Museum, in that volume of the Egerton manuscript- calling itself Papeles Tocantes a la Provincia de Venezuela, Vol. Ill, 1773-1798 (marked Press 542. G.) ; there is a copy of a letter, addressed by Andres de Oleaga, Contador of Guayana, to Josef de Abalos, Intendente of Caracas, HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. 45 The fifth is that in 1769 a Dutchman had been incidents relied . , upontoproveDutcn domiciled with the Caribs more than eight years buy- occupation. ing slaves from them." 1 There is some reason to believe that this Dutchman was from Surinam and not from Essequibo; certainly if he was there at all it was in no official capacity, but at best merely as a private individual engaged in the slave trade: what is even more to the point, the place of his sojourn is given as the Aguirre,2 a river lying in territory confessedly Venezuelan, and far outside of Great Britain's present extreme claim. Present traces of former plantations are appealed to by Great Britain to prove Dutch occupation. Schom burgk's testimony as to certain trenches "at the mouth of the Barima''3 is invoked, and living witnesses are made to tell of traces of former cultivation at various which seems to throw a light on this. It contains this passage (fol. 70, lines 19-25): " Covetous of this spacious and attractive territory on the banks of the river Barima, the English of Barbados, united with the Dutch of Esse quibo, established a colony, and in the year 1778 were dislodged by action of this government through the agency of the privateer boats of this place ; and, in spite of the watch which has been kept, the English have continued to make great ravages on the timber." (" Envidiosos de este grande y ameno territorio en la margen del Rio Barima, estahlecieron colonia los Yngleses de la Barvada, unidos con los Olandeses de Esquivo, y el afio de 177 8 fueron desalojados por disposicion de este Govierno por las lanehas corsarias de estaPlaza, y por mucho que se ha vigilado siempre han hecha grandes sacas de maderas los Yngleses. ") Now "1778 "is here a quite impossible date ; for the letter itself , though misdated " 1777 " (November 15), is an answer to one of August 14, 1778, and must have been written before the end of that year. Inasmuch as the Spanish purging of the Barima in 1768 answers so perfectly to the description in this passage, while none of 1778 is known from the records, it seems a fair conjecture that " 1778" is here but an error for 1768, and that the other settlers then ousted from the Barima were therefore English. That Oleaga was likely to know whereof he spoke will appear from tbe fact that it was precisely he who in 1768 as Royal Accountant in Santo Thome received and invoiced the confiscated property. (Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," pp. 274-280; Venezuelan "Documents," I, pp. 231-234.) Governor Storm at first believed the attack instigated by certain deserters from the Moruca post and plantation (Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," pp. 148, 154; Extracts, pp. 440, 442) ; but there is no mention of these in the Spanish documents, and Storm himself later speaks of it as simply the work of the Spaniards (Extracts, p. 453). [Venezuelan Counter-Case, vol. 2, p. 134.] 1 British Case, Appendix, IV, p. 20. 2 British Case, p. 48, lines 12-13. 8 British Case, Appendix, VII, p. 13. 46 HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. incidents relied other points. So far as Schomburgk is concerned, Pro- occupation^6 fessor Burr disposes of his theory of a Dutch post at the mouth of the Barima in the following note : 1 " The assumption of Mr. Schomburgk, so constantly repeated " since, that it was at the mouth of the river, is without docu- " mentary warrant and improbable. No object for such a site — " without water and remote both from the Caribs, with whom the " Dutch wished to trade, and from their own colony — is easily con- " ceivable. It is impossible that such a shelter could have left the " remains which Mr. Schomburgk says Colonel Moody found there " iu 1807.2 It is far more probable that these were remains of the " fort built by the French in 1689. 3 The Surinam expedition sent " to the Orinoco in 1711 stopped at the mouth of the Barima, both " in going and coming, and makes no mention of a shelter there, " though its journal always mentions one when found.4 That site " would have been a more natural one for the French, who, on " their way from the islands to the Barima, would here first reach " the mainland, than for the Dutch of the Guiana colonies, who " came through the Moruca and reached the Barima by the Mora " Passage. I have never yet found in any Dutch document a men- " tion of Barima Point, aud have no reason to believe that the " Dutch ever attached importance to ir. Not even the description " of Hartsinck or the map of Bouchenroeder, though so often cited " in support of the claim, place the traditional Barima post at the " mouth of the river. Hartsinck speaks of it only as ' on the " river/ and Bouchenroeder's map places it above what must be " meant for the Mora Passage. There is, of course, no reason to " suppose that either hud any definite knowledge as to the " matter." As to the other statements regarding artificial canals and fruit trees, relied on to prove settlements of Esse quibo Dutch, it is difficult to discern in them any thing serious. If their origin be really European, their existence is entirely accounted for by the mongrel settlement of 1768 already mentioned — a settlement 1 Venezuelan Counter-Case, vol. 2, p. 124. 2 British Case, Appendix, VII, p. 13. 8 Venezuelan Counter-Case, Vol. II, p. 123. 4 U. S. Commission Report, Vol. ii, pp. 224-228, HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. 47 made up of Englishmen from Barbadoes, of French incidents relied „ , . upontoprove from Martinique, and of the renegade colonist Jan la Dutc]l occupation. Riviere from Essequibo. It was a settlement which was not only not authorized by the Essequibo authori ties, but was in defiance of those authorities, and was promptly and publicly suppressed by the Spanish officials. Apart from these outlaws it is not unlikely that " Mener Nelch " may have contributed his share to the fruit trees and ditches. He was a Dutchman who at one time was postholder in Moruca, but who having been discharged for incompetence probably wandered off and for a time lived with some Caribs on the Aruka.1 1 There is never again mention in Dutch documents of the stay of any Dutchman in the Barima. A Spaniard, however, the young officer Inciarte, who in 1779, on his way to the Pomeroon, made a reconnoissance of the lower Barima, found in the Aruka, its lowest western tributary of impor tance, at the distance of a league from the Barima, a hill "which was a few years ago inhabited by a Dutchman from Essequibo called Mener Nelch and by certain Indians of the Carib tribe." At the foot of this hill he found the hulls of a large pirogue and of another craft, and was assured by an Indian that these had belonged to the Dutchman. On the hill he found survivals of coffee, banana, and orange trees. Further details he noted in a diary, which unfortunately is now lost. "Mener" is doubtless Mynheer. It would be hard to represent its sound more accurately in Spanish. " Nelch," I suspect to be a distortion of Nelis. Diederik Nelis was a man well known to Essequibo records. In 1765 it was only the timely encounter with "the colonist Diederik Nelis coming from Barima" which saved three lost sailors from star vation. In August, 1767, Nelis was living in the upper Essequibo, " up near the plantation Oosterbeek. '' It was to him that the Caribs reported the desertion of the post Arinda; but before the end of that year he had been provisionally made postholder at Moruca, though the governor confesses his incompetence, and implies that he was a man addicted to drink. There he was kept until 1774, when he was replaced by the bylier Vermeere. As postholder in Moruca at the time of the Spanish sack of the La Riviere plantation, and as himself expressly charged with attention to all that transpired in Barima and with the exclusion of Essequibo settlers, Nelis must have become more familiar with the place, and may easily have betaken himself thither on his release from his duties at Moruca. As the La Riviere plantation had already been cleared, and as the same considerations, agricultural and political, which would direct his choice of site and of soil must have influenced La Riviere be fore him, it is surely not improbable that the site occupied by Nelis (if "Mener Nelch " was really he) had been La Riviere's as well. [Venezue lan Counter-Case, vol. 2, pp. 134-135.] 48 HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. Incidents relied The only other allegation of the British Case as to upon to prove J _ . . Dutch occupation. ])utch occupation of this region is the following : " Two years afterwards [1676] the Spanish Council of War of " the Indies brought forward the question of the Dutch Colonies " ou the Coast of Guiana, aud suggested a remonstrance with the " States-General on the ground that they were establishing new " settlements in the Indies without informing the King of Spain, " but it was resolved that to bring such a complaint before the "States-General of the United Provinces was not advisable. It " is to be noted that the attention of the Council was called to " the fact that the Dutch at that time held the chief portion of " the Coast of Guiana from Trinidad to the Biver Amazon, and "had settlements in Berbice, Essequibo and Surinam."1 The evidence cited in support of this statement shows that what the Spanish Council had under con sideration was a proposed Dutch Colony at Cape Orange between the Wiapoco and the Amazon, about 500 miles east of the present disputed territory; and that, while it is true that the general and very ex aggerated statement was made to the King that the Dutch possessed " the greater part of the coast from Trinidad to the River Amazon," this statement was at once qualified by the following phrase : " for they already have settlements in Barbiche (Berbice), Se- quiebes (Essequibo) and Surinanite (Surinam)."2 Spanish control 4. The visit of the Swedes to Barima, cited by the of coast — Swedes in . ....¦¦ Barima. British Case as an instance of Dutch jurisdiction in that region, so far from proving Dutch control, furnishes instead a convenient introduction to the subject of Spanish control. As already stated, this Spanish con trol, while denied in general terms is nevertheless in fact recognized by the British Case, because specific acts of Spanish control are admitted without anything sub stantial to counteract their effect. Some of these British Case, p. 29, lines 4-18. 2British Case, Appendix, I, p. 178 E. HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. 49 ma. specific acts will presently be mentioned : before pass- Swedes in Bari- ing to them, it is important to note that the concluct^of Spain towards these Swedish intruders, so far from proving the presence of Dutch control in Barima,, demon strates the absence of that control, and the exercise there of Spanish sovereignty. The statement of the British Case in this connection is as follows : " In March 1732 a Swedish captain with a small vessel arrived " in the Biver Essequibo. After his departure a rumour reached " the Colony to the effect that he would return to take possession " of a tract of land in the Biver Barima which, it was reported, " the King of Spain had presented to the late Elector of Bavaria, " who had been Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, and who " had in turn given it to the King of Sweden. Later in the same " year a report reached the Spanish Island of Trinidad that the " Swedes were founding a settlement in the neighbouring island of " Tobago. Alarmed by this report, tlie Spaniards sent to enquire " into the facts, and, not being satisfied with the result of their "inquiries, dispatched an officer up the Orinoco to Guayana to " obtain information. On his return he reported that he had " learned from the Caribs- of Barima, that a number of white " men had been seeking to establish themselves at that point, and " that a Carib Chief, with a large force, was established in the " creek, who had received orders from the Dutch 'not to show " ' the Swedes a good place for their settlement, as they them- " ' selves would give them all they required.' The King of Spain, " on receiving this report, directed the Governors of Caracas and " Margarita to take whatever steps they might consider necessary, "but the Governor of Orinoco had, apparently, before receiving " this order, written to the Governor of Essequibo a despatch, in " which he suggested that the Dutch Governor should not "tolerate the Swedes iu their neighborhood. The Governor of " Essequibo reported to the West India Company that, should " the Swedes try to establish themselves between the Orinoco and " the Colony of Essequibo on the territory of the Company, he " should be obliged to try to prevent it."1 1 British Case, pp. 34-35. 50 HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. ma. Swedes in Bari- The evidence cited by the British Case in support of this statement warrants the following counter-statement : On June 8, 1734, the Dutch Commandeur of Esse quibo wrote to the West India Company that rein forcements had arrived for the Spaniards of Orinoco, and that, to quiet any apprehensions on the part of the Dutch, the Spanish Governor had written, ex plaining that these reinforcements had been sent to prevent the Swedes from carrying out a reported plan to found a colony on the River of Barima " lying between the Orinoco and your Honours' .Post at Wacquepo."1 The Spanish Governor had in the same letter suggested the inconvenience to the Dutch themselves of having the Swedes, not, let it be noted, on Dutch territory, but in the Dutch "neighborhood," the evident intent of this suggestion being to further quiet Dutch appre hension and to win Dutch approval of the action proposed to be taken by Spain herself. In commenting upon this to the Company, the Dutch Commandeur bemoaned the weakness which would prevent his making any effective resistance in case the Swedes should establish themselves " between the Orinoco and this Colony." Though the claim of Spain to this territory between the Orinoco and the Dutch post at Wacquepo and her purpose to use her troops there were thus made known to the Dutch Commandeur and by him to the Company, tbe answer of that Com pany not only contains no words of protest against Spain's proposed action, but even the Commandeur's suggestion, to himself do something to prevent the Swedish settlement, is wholly ignored. In contrast to this indifference on the part of the Dutch authorities is the following order made by the King of Spain for the protection of Barima : British Case, Appendix, II, pp. 17-18. HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. 51 " In a letter of the 18th July of the year before last [1732] Swedes in Bari- " Don Rafael de Eslaba, President of my Royal Court of the city ma' " of Santa Fe in the new Kingdom of Granada, having comnmni- " cated the representation made by Father Joseph Gumilla, "Superior of tlie Missions of the Orinoco, with respect to the set- "tlement which the Swedes were attempting to make in River " Barima, for whose ejection the Court of that Kingdom had " previously taken measures ; and as soon as the said President "entered on his office, he requested J the said Father Joseph " Gumilla to repeat his former information, that he might take " the necessary steps ; but thinking this a matter of considerable " gravity he sends an account of it for his reassurance. Having " considered the matter in my Council of the Indies, and taken " the advice of my Fiscal thereupon, I hereby command that with " what people yon have and with the Capuchin Missions, you take '¦ all proper measures to prevent the settlement attempted by the "Swedish nation from being established, and that you give me "an account of your proceedings herein at the first opportunity.1'" The above is but one of many acts showinsr Spanish Spanish control J ° r of coast. control of this coast region : they were numerous and constant ; many of them have been set forth in the Case of Venezuela ; some of them are admitted, in the British Case, in passages making mention of Spanish inter ference with Dutch fishing and capture of Dutch craft, particularly in 1746, 1760, 1762 and 1768.3 A letter of the Director-General of Essequibo, dated June 1st, 1768, wherein it is distinctly declared that the Spaniards had by that time completely put an end to Dutch fish ing near the mouth of the Orinoco, is quoted by the British Case.3 The explanation offered viz : that the interference of the Spaniards was always upon the plea that the vessels were not fishing but smuggling, even if true, tends to strengthen rather than to weaken the proof of Spanish authority ; for it discloses a Spanish discretion 1 British Case, Appendix, III, p. 82. 2 British Case, p. 53. 8 British Case, pp. 52-53. 52 HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. of8coastish C°ntro1 in permitting certain acts and forbidding others. Be sides this interference with Dutch fishing and smug gling, the British Case admits the Spanish expeditions of 1760 and 1768, which, it will be remembered, re sulted in the flight or expulsion of such Dutchmen as had surreptitiously attempted to establish themselves in the Barima for purposes of trade or smuggling. These admitted acts on the part of Spain, especially in the absence of any Dutch acts of control in that region, warrant the statement heretofore made, that according to even the British Case itself the coast between the Orinoco and Moruca was under Spanish control. British "occupa- 5. Apart from a general allegation to the effect that fe. n of coast. n . ° Great Britain controlled the entire coast from the earliest days of the British occupation of Essequibo, the only specific acts, prior to the agreement of 1850, cited to support this allegation are an alleged survey of "the captured Colony "" during the period of their occupa tion " [1781], and an alleged apportionment of lands in 1797. The first of these acts was anything but a survey of the "captured Colony." Writing about it in 1790 to the Count del Campo, Fermin de Sincinenea says, that in anticipation of a war with Spain the English, when ia possession of Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice, had sur veyed, or rather had taken soundings, along the coast from Essequibo to the Orinoco and for even ten leagues up the latter river. It is evident that this, so far from being a survey of a Dutch Colony, was rather a reconnoissance of Spanish territory preparatory to a hostile attack.1 Neither can the alleged apportionment of lands by the English in 1797 constitute any evidence of British occupation. Great Britain and Spain had been at war with each other since October, 1796; a report reached 1 British Case, p. 57; also, Same, Appendix, V, p. 76. HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. 53 the Spanish Governor of Orinoco in 1797 that the British "occupa- tion " of coast. English had apportioned the lands on the coast as far as Barima ; but, instead of acquiescing in any such act, the Spanish Governor gives the following account of what he did : "Although this news is not as clear as an affair of so much " importance demands, I have nevertheless considered it well not " to despise it altogether, and, consequently, in order to assure " myself thereof, in conformity with my duty, I have dispatched " Captain Don Manuel As tor, with the assistance of His Majesty's " revenue-cutter on this river, together with whatever boats and " Indians he may consider necessary, to proceed at once to Point " Barima, to reconnoitre it and make a scrupulous investigation " into the truth of this matter, or obtain proof that it is " unfounded. In case of finding any of the Notices that are said " to be posted up, he is to bring one back with him for greater " evidence, but on no account is he to go any distance from that " point, on account of the danger of falling in with the enemy's " cruisers, which are known to be cruising in the mouths of the " river, or into an ambuscade which the English may have pre- " pared. For the little force which he is taking to carry out his " commission is not enough for a greater expedition." 1 The account of what followed shows that a Spanish reconnoissance was in fact made, but that whatever the English may have done on paper, the actual frontier guard was, "placed at the mouth of the Moruca."2 Of course no further action by Spain was called for at that time when actual hostilities were pending, and as Great Britain did not thereafter, either during the war or after the re-establishment of peace, take possession of any part of the coast west of the Moruca, no further notice was taken of the matter. Prior to the agreement of 1850 the only other British jurisdic- acts relied on by Great Britain to establish her right to Barima relate to certain visits there in 1838 of the newly 1 British Case, Appendix, V, pp. 164-165. * British Case, Appendix, V, p. 165, E. g4 HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. British jurisdic- created British "Superintendent of Rivers and Creeks," residing on the Pomeroon. These acts will be considered later in connection with the question of Indian re lations: for the present it is sufficient to note two things; first, that the year 1838 is the earliest year in which any mention of such visits is to be found; second, that even then the evidence cited by Great Britain shows that the " Superintendent " had no thought of extending his jurisdiction to the boundary claimed by Schomburgk. Of course Venezuela knew nothing of any of these visits, and hence made no protest against them ; as soon, however, as Schomburgk's surveys made it known for the first time that Great Britain claimed the Barima- Waini region, a vigorous protest was made by the Vene zuelan Minister in London ;* and this resulted in the re moval of the boundary posts erected by Schomburgk:2 Agreement of shortly thereafter the agreement of 1850 between Vene zuela and Great Britain forbade any occupation of this territory by either nation.3 Great Britain admits that this agreement continued binding upon her until at least 1880,4 but she alleges that the granting of certain concessions by Venezuela constituted a violation of that agreement.5 The maps, reports and prospectuses, printed in the British Ap pendix in support of this allegation, were all private acts of the grantees of the concessions ;• and Venezuela can in no way be held responsible for them. The con cessions themselves never specified any portion of the territory in dispute ; they were always limited on the east by " British Guiana," without any other specif!- 1 Venezuelan Case, Vol. 3, p. 197. 2 Venezuelan Case, Vol. 3, pp. 207-208. * Venezuelan Case, Vol. 3, p. 213. 4 British Case, p. 18, lines 36-42. " British Case, p. 73. HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. 55 cation of boundaries ; and it is a mistake to attribute to Agreement of ' 1850. Venezuela the maps referred to or printed by Great Britain in Volume VI of the Appendix to her Case, in the foot note on page 217, or opposite pages 222 or 237. It is also a mistake to attribute to her the statements contained in document No. 903 (p. 220) of the same volume, or the statements in any other document eman ating from the grantees of the concessions referred to, or from the agents of such grantees. Such maps and docu ments were prepared and printed without any authori zation, express or implied, from the Government of Venezuela. 6. Dutch occupation of the interior never went bevond Limits of Dutch J- J occupation in the the lowest falls of the three rivers Essequibo, Cuyuni Interior- and Mazaruni. The facts alleged in the British Case to disprove this statement themselves constitute the best evidence in its favor. To prove that from 1681 onwards " the area of actual plantation extended along the rivers Cuyuni, " Massaruni, and Upper Essequibo ",1 the British Case cites the fact that " In 1681, an island in the mouth of the River Cuyuni was " cleared and planted with cassava for the use of the garrison ; "2 and that in 1694 the Dutch Commandeur reported that he had " again begun to make here a new plantation in the River Cu yuni above the fort."3 In another place reference is made to an " annatto store at a Carib village above in Massaruni" and to "a " dye store in the Cuyuni."4 !No further light is thrown upon the location or nature of these "stores; " and the reference to facts so 1 British Case, p. 29, lines 40-42. fl British Case, p. 29, lines 42-45. » British Case, p. 29, lines 47-48. 4 British Case, p. 31, lines 17-20. 56 HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. Limits of Dutch y^ue and unimportant would seem to indicate a dearth occupation in the ° interior. 0f more substantial settlements. A single plantation, called Poelwijk, is stated to have been moved to "a position above the falls" in 1704:1 this solitary experiment by the Dutch in cultivation above the falls, even if true, must have been short lived, for as the British Case itself states : "In 1722 the officials of the Company were making explora- " tions in order to ascertain the nature of the soil in the interior " with a view to plantations, and a Beport by Maurain Saincterre, " an engineer of the Company, stated that the ground was even " better above in the Bivers Essequibo, Massaruni, and Cuyuni " than below, but that the rocks, falls, and islands had, up to that " date, prevented Europeans from establishing sugar plantations " there."2 The settlement of the revolted creole slaves in 1738, referred to on page 35 of the British Case, was indeed on an island in the Cuyuni ; but the island was below the falls ; and this proves, if it proves anything, that even below those falls Dutch authority was too weak to maintain Dutch sovereignty, for these slave rebels had to be compromised with. Dutch Post of The facts as to the various trading: posts of 1703, 1754-1758. & r ' 1754-58, 1766-69 and 1769-72 have been sufficiently set forth in the Case of Venezuela, and in an earlier chapter of this Counter- Case. The location of the second of these posts, namely, that destroyed by the Spaniards in 1758, has been very fully considered by Professor Burr, and his location of that post is certainly the most western which the evidence will warrant.3 The statement of the British Case that it was located " somewhere between the mouth of the Curumo and 1 British Case, pp. 31-32, lines 49-50, 1-3. The falls referred to are the lowest in the Mazaruni. See Venezuelan Case, Atlas, maps 59, 60, .0. 2 British Case, p. 33, lines 26-35. 3 Venezuelan Counter-Case, Vol. 2, pp. 155-165; also Atlas to Counter- Case, map 28. HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. 57 that of the Acarabisi"1 is an abandonment of the claim 17^^8Post of which had been advanced by the earlier British publi cations that the site was at the mouth of the Curumo. In the map submitted with the British Case, the phrase " somewhere between the mouth of the Curumo and that of the Acarabisi," is made to mean a little below the mouth of the Acarabisi ; and this without offering so much as a shred of fresh evidence or indeed any evi dence, new or old, for such a site. Nor does it answer by so much as a word the arguments drawn by Profes sor Burr from the concurrent and explicit testimony of the contemporary witnesses, both Spanish and Dutch — the Dutch governor and the postholders, the Spanish raiders and the Capuchin prefect — as to the distance of the post from the Essequibo on the one side and the Spanish missions on the other. Not less important are the admissions of the British 17E^7g9Post of Case as to the Dutch post of 1766-69. In the first place, it is conceded that "the description of the work done upon it certainly is that of a new clearing in a new place," and that " there is little doubt that the site of this Post was lower down the river than that of the for mer Post." This conclusion harmonizes strikingly with the proofs and arguments of Venezuela showing the constant pressure exercised by the Spaniards iu the Cuyuni in the interval between the two posts, and the terror in which they here held the Dutch and their Carib friends. Venezuela accepts, therefore, without question this concession of Great Britain. In the second place, the advanced site claimed by Mr. Schomburgk, and by others after him, for this post, is definitely abandoned by the British Case. There is no mention, by the Case, of the Island of Tokoro (Tocro, 1 British Case, p. 47, lines 46-48. 58 HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. Dutch Post of Tokoro-patti) or of the Indian testimony which placed 1766—1769 there a Dutch postholder. Discarding this, the British Case places the post of 1766-69, not on an island, but "on the banks of the river," and close (as is clear from the context) to the island of Toenamoeto "at the rapid of Tonoma," just at the head of the Cuyuni gorge, where the Dutch postholder made his last stand.1 This conclusion, too, falls in wholly with the evidence urged by Venezuela as to the Spanish advance in this quarter; and the position taken by the British Case as to the site of the post of 1766-69 she fully accepts. The importance of these concessions to the question of the control of the Cuyuni basin it would be hard to overrate. Dutch Post of Of course the final post of 1769-72 was lower down 1769-1772. r still, as is admitted by the British Case m the following words : " it is probable that the Postholder had come nearer the settled " districts, for Storm van 's Gravesande states that he would have " liked to move the Post gradually higher up the river." s Extent of Dutch In spite of all these Dutch failures at occupation occupation. above the falls, the British Case makes the following impossible claim : " At the time of the Treaty of Utrecht (1714) the Dutch had " established themselves as the masters of a great part of Guiana, " from various positions on the coast as far as Barima, to the " Pariacot Savannah beyond the Biver Cuyuni in the interior of " the country, and they were already opening up the higher ' reaches of the Essequibo. Their plantations and settlements 1 " After trying a site on the banks of the river, the Postholder in 1769 moved the post to an island between two falls which he called Toenamoeto. . . . Toenamoeto is at the rapid of Tonoma."— (British Case, p. 52, lines 7-15.) It is true that the map accompanying the British Case still places this post at Tokoro ; hut this must be an oversight, as the text shows. 3 British Case, p. 52, lines 11-15. HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. 59 " lined the banks of the Essequibo, Massaruni, and Cuyuni for Extent of Dutch " some distance from the junction of the three rivers." 1 CUpa More nearly in accord with the real facts is the fol lowing later statement of the British Case : "Upon the Essequibo, the Massaruni, and the Cuyuni, planta- " tion was not extended at this period [1840-41], the soil above " the estuary not being sufficiently fertile. But in 1831 the " country was described as settled to the falls of the three " branches of the Essequibo, namely, the Essequibo, Massaruni, " and Cuyuni." 3 What is thus admitted to have been the situation above the falls in 1831 and in 1840-41, may with entire truth be said of every other period. Neither Dutch nor settlements passed above the lowest falls of these rivers British until long after the agreement of 1850 ; and then it was in violation of that agreement that they passed them. 7. Spanish strength on the Orinoco and in the Spanish strength in Orinoco. Cuyuni-Mazaruni Basin is made light of by Great Britain, but that strength is a fact which she admits and tries to explain away, not a fact which she denies. About Santo Thome itself, no question is or can be raised. At times, doubtless, its population was small and its houses few ; yet it always served as a base for Spanish operations into the interior ; and the communi cation between it and Trinidad required and resulted in the maintenance of Spanish control over the entire Ori noco river to its mouth. Santo Thome was itself at times surprised and pillaged by foreign freebooters; but the Spanish strength in the Orinoco was always adequate to prevent these from gaining any permanent foothold upon its banks. As to the missions, while their importance and extent Spanish Missions. 1 British Case, p. 32, lines 8-18. 2 British Case, p. 65, lines 5-11. 6q HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. Spanish Missions. are conceded, a strenuous effort is made to minimize as much as possible both of these facts. The "peaceful development" of the Essequibo colony is contrasted with the " severe struggle " of the Spanish settlement : ' the mission villages are pictured as always on the defen sive against the Caribs : the existence of some missions is denied even where the documents accompanying the British Case tell of their location and history. That a contrast existed between the conditions of the Dutch and Spanish colonies is very certain; but that contrast was not the one pictured in the British Case. It was a contrast between Dutch fear of extinction and Spanish power ; between Dutch influence on behalf of barbarism and Spanish influence on behalf of civiliza tion ; between the final withdrawal of the Dutch to the mouth of the Essequibo, and the gradual spread of Span ish settlement over the interior. This contrast reached its climax when direct conflict ensued between Dutch and Spanish strength, resulting in the destruction of Dutch posts, in the expulsion of Dutchmen from the Cuyuni, in the prevention of Dutch fishing, in the cap ture of Dutch vessels, and in the flight of even Dutch smugglers and slave catchers from the Barima- Waini region. The facts in support of these statements have been already fully set forth in the Case of Venezuela, and are confirmed by the evidence which Great Britain has her self submitted. Garib attacks. The Carib attacks on the missions are proof of Span ish strength rather than of Spanish weakness. The Caribs who made these attacks were of two kinds : in the first place they were of those who had been gathered by the Spaniards into the missions, and who, restive under Spanish authority sought to throw off the 1 British Case, p. 37. HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. 61 Spanish yoke ; in the second place they were of those who, still wandering through the forests in search of human prey with which to furnish the Dutch market, felt, even there, the power of the missions to obstruct that trade. Had this form of obstruction not been felt. the wild Caribs of the woods would never have molested the Spanish missionaries. These Carib attacks and revolts were at times successful, but in the end all Caribs were either reduced to subjection or else driven out of the Cuyuni by Spain. Up to 1750 none of the Capuchin missions had been destroyed by Caribs, and notwithstanding the attacks of 1750 and of later years these missions were exceedingly prosperous.1 The dates of foundation of the missions, the num ber of these, their location and extent eastward, are often greatly confused or misstated by the British Case. For instance, in the following lines, the missions of Caroni and Suay are confounded : " The first Mission founded in this territory was La Purisima "Concepcion del Caroni, more commonly known as Suay, in " 1724."s Now Caroni and Suay were not the same. The mission of Caroni, founded directly after Suay, was called San Antonio until the suppression of Suay in 1762, when it took the name of La Purisima Concepcion. It was several miles west of Suay, as will appear, for in stance, from the Capuchin Map of 1735, 3 or from the report of the Spanish Governor in 1743.4 Again, the mission of Mutanambo, which was one of those destroyed by the Caribs in 1750, is alleged by the 'See, as to this, Venezuelan Case, vol. 2, pp. 286-290, where extracts are given from a report by Goregorio Espinosa de los Monteros, Governor of CumanS., and Venezuelan Case, vol. 3, pp. 369-372 for further details by the same Governor. ^British Case, p. 38, lines 38-40. "Venezuelan Case, Atlas, map 72. "Venezuelan Case, vol. 3, pp. 369, 370. Carib attacks Spanish Missions. 62 HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. Spanish Missions British Case to be mentioned "nowhere" except in a letter of Fray Benito de la Garriga of July 6th, 1769;1 but the British Atlas2 itself contains the maps of Cruz Cano and of Surville, in both of which the mission is given. As to the "most easterly" mission at various dates, the British Case is seriously in error. It makes seven allegations as to this, every one of which is wrong. 1. It states that in 1734 " the most easterly Mission appears to have been Alta Gracia."3 If by this is meant to be implied that Alta Gracia represented the farthest advance of Spanish missions into the region in dispute it is an error ; even the British atlas (map 1) shows Cupapuy as over the divide and in the savanna region. 2. In speaking of the year 1746 it says: "In 1746 the Mission of San Miguel del Palmar seems to have " been founded, and in the same year a rumour reached the Dutch "as to the progress of the Spanish Missions. It was reported to "the Commandeur 'from up the Cuyuni' that the Spaniards "had established a Mission above on the said river, and had "established a fort there. The Spanish documents which have "been above referred to show that the Missions had advanced no "nearer than Divina Pastora and Palmar."* The documents referred to fail to show this. The Curumo Mission, which was much further east, was the one which caused the Dutch so much disquietude in this year. Whether it was formally founded in 1746 or not, is possibly doubtful; but, whether founded or not, it was in existence. It is well known that the prep arations for a mission often occupied two or three years, sometimes more, before its formal foundation. 'British Case, p. 41, lines 37-44. 2Maps 27 and 29. 8British Case, p. 39, lines 9, 17-18. ^British Case, p. 39, lines 20-29. HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. £3 Thus a settlement (Tupuquen) was being planned in Spanish Missions. 17431 though not "founded" till February, 1748. a Cunuri was started in 1743, a year before its formal "foundation" in February, 1744.3 Yuruari (Aima or San Joseph de Leonisa) was in June, 1754, already "in a very good state of restoration," though not formally founded till February, 1755 f and Tumeremo is known to have been in existence for some years before its founding in 1788. The founding was, in fact, only the formal opening after the equipment with church regalia by the Spanish Governor at the cost of the State ; and friction between the friars and civic authorities might cause great delay in this. Governor Marmion expressly complained that he was not promptly informed regarding the new missions.5 3. For 1748 the British Case makes this statement: " In 1748 the Mission of Nuestra Sefiora del Monseratti del " Miamo was founded near the Biver Miamo, a tributary of the "Yuruari. This but slightly advanced the frontier of the " Missions, which were still many leagues from the Cuyuni."6 This is to ignore altogether, not only Curumo, but also Tupuquen, far down the Yuruari, which latter was founded in this same year.7 4, 5 and 6. Referring to the year 1770 the British Case mentions, as frontier missions, Miamo, Carapo, Yuruari, Divina Pastora, and Avechica, and then adds : ''These documents show beyond question that Missions had not come within a long distance of the Cuyuni.8 'Venezuelan Counter-Case, Vol. 2, pp. 194-195. Venezuelan Case, Vol. 3, p. 378. Venezuelan Case, Vol. 3, pp. 371, 378. 1 Venezuelan Case, Vol. 3, p. 426. BBlue Book, Venezuela, No. 3 (1896), pp. 335-336. "British Case, p. 40, lines 8-13. 'Venezuelan Case, Vol. 3, p. 378. "British Case, p. 46, lines 39-41. 64 HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. Spanish Missions Tn line with this, and therefore to be considered with it, are the following statements of the British case : " The foregoing facts show that between the years 1750 and " 1770, the Missions had not extended nearer to the Cuyuni than " the junction of the Miamo and the Yuruari."1 And again : " It appears from the journal of Antonio Lopez de la Puente, " who in 1788 ascended the Curumo from the Cuyuni, that the " Biver Mutanambo enters the Curumo just above the point upon " the latter river where the forest of the Cuyuni Valley gives " place to the savannah, and that a league higher up he came to " what is called specifically ' the Savannahs of the Curumo.' This " point was reached by De la Puente after eight days' journey, " partly by water, and partly by land, from the mouth of the " Curumo. In the map by Cruz Cano y Olmedilla the site of " Mutanambo is marked upon the banks of the river of that name " some distance above its confluence with the Curumo, and upon " the Curumo itself at a corresponding distance above the mouth " of the Mutanambo there is marked the site of a Mission to " which no name seems given, but which may fairly be supposed " to be that of Curumo. " Upon the whole the evidence as to the situation of these " two Missions is conclusive against their having occupied any " such positions as those which are marked on the Maps of " Storm van's Gravesande. In estimating the value of the evi- " dence there are two other considerations which must not be lost " sight of. In the first place, it is in the highest degree im- " probable that either of these Missions was beyond the Savan- " nah region. All the other Missions were certainly situated in " the savannah, to which alone their organization and economy " seem to have been suited. In the second place, the journal of " De la Puente distinctly suggests that the lower Curumo was " before his time unknown to the Spaniards. He gives it out as " a discovery of his own that the channel of the river was " navigable throughout its whole course. He himself made the " mistake of abandoning his canoes and marching through the " forest, where he suffered greatly through the want of pro- " visions.3 1 British Case, p. 47, lines 9-12. 2 British Case, pp. 41-42, lines 49-50, 1-40. HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. 65 These various statements ignore altogether the Mis- Spanish Missions. sions Cunuri, Tupuquen, Mutanambo and Curumo, which were destroyed in 17501, to say nothing of Cavallapi, or of the Mission on the Cuyuni itself at the mouth of the Curumo river opposite the site later occupied by the Curumo Fort, or of the other missions in Wenamu, Queribura and Mawakken evidenced by Dutch records.2 The statement regarding De la Puente's expedition and the location of Curumo mission ignores entirely the fact that in 1788 the Capuchin prefect expressly declared that "the site of Curumo was less distant from the Cuyuni"3 than was Tumeremo's; and it ignores also the fact that missions are shown lower down the Curumo by Surville's map. The argument implied by what is said about the location of the savannas would hold also against Tumeremo, if it would hold at all.4 As to De la Puente's having made a "discovery of his own that the channel of the river was navigable throughout its whole course," the discovery may indeed have been new to him, but it could hardly have been new to others, for long before his expedition, which was some thirty years after the abandonment of the Mission of Curumo, the Capuchin prefect, Fray Benito de la Garriga, had called official attention to the use of the stream by smugglers and slave traders, and Fray Caulin had made much of this in his history of Guayana.5 7. The concluding statement under this head is very sweeping. It is that " The Mission stations south of the Orinoco, in the neighbour- " hood of the Yuruari never extended further to the east than " Cura and Tumeremo."6 1 Venezuelan Counter-Case, Vol. 2, p. 195. 2 U. S. Commission Report, Vol. 2, 370. " Venezuelan Counter-Case, Vol. 2, p. 196. 4 Venezuelan Counter-Case, Vol. 2, pp. 195-196. 6 Venezuelan Counter-Case, Vol. 2, p. 197, note 4. 6 British Case, p. 79, lines 3-6. 66 HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. Spanish Missions. Of course, this is to ignore Mutanambo and some of the others already mentioned, especially Curumo.1 Closely connected with the question of the missions is the question of the Curumo Fort, the facts regarding which were set forth in the Venzuelan Case, and have already several times been referred to in this Counter- Case. The existence of this fort is denied by Great Britain, although it is admitted that frequent recom mendations were made to establish it.2 Curumo fort. In the Appendix to the Case of Venezuela (Vol. Ill, p. 400), is printed a note appended to a letter of Gov ernor Marmion of July 10, 1788. This same note was mistranslated in the British Blue Book (" Venezuela No. 3," p. 322), where the word Curumo appears as Orinoco. It is again mistranslated in the Appendix to the British Case, Vol. V, p. 63. In the Appendix to this Counter-Case is printed a photographic copy taken from the original document showing that the name is in fact Curumo and not Orinoco. Even if Orinoco had appeared it would have been a manifest clerical error, as the Cuyuni and Orinoco nowhere meet, and as the "new town" which was projected was in fact the one at the junction of the Cuyuni and Curumo rivers. The British Case, in a footnote on page 58, says : " The copy of Marmion's Eeport of 1788, from which these " extracts are taken, is stated to have been made by him in 1793. " Vide App. V, p. 67." This statement of the British Case is most important, for it serves to fix the date of the note above quoted and thus to confirm what has before been maintained by Venezuela, that the Curumo Fort was in existence as early at least as 1793. It was the ruins of this very 1 Venezuelan Counter-Case, Vol. 2, p. 195. 2 British Case, p. 47, lines 31-36; p. 59, lines 28-32. HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. 67 fort, on the south side of the Cuyuni river, that Schom- Curumo fort. burgk saw when he visited the spot in 1 843. While, however, all of these facts respecting the loca- Basis of Spanish tion and dates of these missions and of this Curumo Fort are of interest, they are, after all, questions of mere detail. The incori-ectness of the British statements regarding them is beyond dispute, and the accuracy of Venezuela's counter-statements rests upon impregnable foundations; but, even so, it can make no difference at all whether Alta Gracia or Cupapuy was the easternmost mission in 1734, or whether the Curumo mission was founded before, during or after 1746, or whether Tumeremo or any other mission was the one nearest the Cuyuni at some other date. Even the Curumo Fort itself is after all nothing more than cumulative evidence of a well-known and at that time well recognized fact, namely, that Spain was mistress of the whole interior. Venezuela does not need for one moment to rest her title to that interior upon the location of her missions or of her forts. That interior was Spain's before ever the first Dutchman rested his eyes on American shores ; it was Spain's when, in 1615, Spaniards tilled the soil of the Essequibo for the " Governor of Trinidad and Orinoco ; " it was Spain's when, a century and a half later, she ex pelled the Dutch and their Carib allies from the Cuyuni ; it was Spain's when the Dutch finally conveyed to the British "the establishments of Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice." That interior was discovered by Spain ; it was settled by Spain ; it was neither discovered nor at any time settled by any other nation ; and the whole of it was always under exclusive Spanish control. Under such circumstances one mission or one fort more or less can make no difference at all. It was not necessary that every square foot of ground should be physically 68 HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS. Basis of Spanish occupied by Spain ; her title was not that of an intruder upon another's property ; it was that of a discoverer and first settler. Therefore it is that the admissions of Great Britain, even if the evidence itself went no further, are counted as sufficient by Venezuela; for, while deny ing mere details, she admits the main fact. Whether or not Spanish forts and Spanish missions had ever reached or crossed the banks of the Cuyuni, Spanish forts and Spanish missions were erected and maintained in the Cuyuni-Mazaruni Basin, and Dutch intruders were expelled therefrom. This was the history, the ad mitted history, of that region from the earliest days until the British gold expeditions of 1880 — for over two centuries and a half. It is upon that broad fact that Venezuela rests. V.— POLITICAL CONTROL. The third chapter of the British Case, entitled Po li introduction. tical Control, might almost be regarded as a plea in confession and avoidance. The necessity for it on the part of Great Britain constitutes an admission that the facts of occupation are against her. It will be the purpose of the present chapter to point out how completely the attempt to prove this Political Control fails to supply the need which is thus acknowl edged to exist. The chapter to be examined is divided into three sec tions, entitled respectively Dutch Administration, British Administration and Area Controlled. The theory upon which this British claim of Politi cal Control, appears to be based, is sufficiently disclosed by the first of these sections. This theory will be con sidered first, and afterwards the facts alleged in its sup port will be examined in the order presented by the British Case. BRITISH THEORY OF POLITICAL CONTROL. The British theory of political control, so far as British theory as disclosed by British is disclosed by the British Case, rests upon certain Case. general propositions which may be summarized under the following heads : 1. Dutch trade in Guiana, its nature, regulation, ex tent and results. 2. Dutch control of timber cutting. 3. Dutch maintenance of the peace. 4. Dutch jurisdiction over Dutch settlers. 5. Dutch protection of and jurisdiction over Indians. 70 British theory as disclosed by British Case. Nature of Dutch trade. Dutch timber cut ting. Dutch " mainten ance of tlie peace." BRITISH THEORY OF POLITICAL CONTROL. That the propositions referred to may be presented, as far as possible, in the words of the British Case, the following extracts have been selected as expressive of Great Britain's position with respect to each of these subjects : 1. As to the nature, regulation, extent and results of Dutch trade : " The existence in any region of trade carried on by the " Dutch systematically and not on sufferance excludes the idea '<¦ of Spanish political control, while it naturally, and in fact, « led to political control by the Dutch. It is from this point of " view that it is important to see over what region the Dutch " traded systematically and as of right."1 Again, " The trade of the Dutch with the Indians led naturally to " control by the Company of the territory in which this trade " was carried on. " The Company, under their charter, had a right to a mon- " opoly of trade. By sailing Regulations, issued from 1632 to " 1648, they reserved for their own ships the right of visiting the " coast to the east of the Orinoco."2 2. As to Dutch control of timber cutting : " Closely connected with trade, but involving still more direct " exercise of dominion over the country, is the assertion by the " Dutch of the right to control the cutting of timber."3 3. As to maintenance of the Peace : " As early as the seventeenth century and thenceforward, the " Company found it necessary, not only to regulate trade itself, " but also to exercise control of a political nature over the dis- " trict in which trade was carried on. It was imperative that " the Indians with whom the trade was carried on should be pre- " vented from making war upon one another, and should be pro- " tected from outrage at the hands of Europeans."* 1 British Case, p. 80, lines 17-24. 2 British Case, pp. 82-83, lines 47-50, 1-4. " British Case, p. 83, lines 31-34. 4 British Case, p. 84, lines 41-49. POLITICAL CONTROL. 71 4. As to Dutch jurisdiction over Dutch settlers : Dutch jurisdiction over settlers. " The necessity of protecting the Indians from strangers and " from one another gave rise to the exercise of regular jurisdic- " tion by judicial Tribunals, which the Indians themselves be- " came ready to invoke."1 5. As to Dutch protection of and jurisdiction over Dutch jurisdiction over Indians. Indians : " The Company was obliged in very early times to interfere " to protect the natives from the whites."2 And, " While thus exercising criminal jurisdiction over its own set- " tiers on complaint of the Indians, the Court did not hesitate " to deal with crimes committed by the Indians themselves."3 Again, " It was of course essential for the maintenance of police " and justice that the Indian Chiefs should be induced to support " the Dutch Administration, and marks of distinction conferred " on them by the Commandeur became as time went on tokens " that the Chiefs were recognized by the Dutch Government as " men having tribal authority."4 And again, " The Dutch considered the Indians of Guiana as their sub- " jects, and the Indians, on their part, looked to the Dutch " Government in the Colony for protection against any ill-treat- " ment at the hands of the Spaniards."6 Many of the extracts which have been given are statements of fact rather than propositions regarding " political control" ; but, even so, they disclose with con siderable accuracy the grounds upon which Great Britain bases her claims to control. It will thus be seen that trade is made the foundation British theory as . -. disclosed by British of the whole fabric. It is admitted that trade itself Case 1 British Case, p. 85, lines 37-41. »¦ British Case, p. 85, lines 18-20. 8 British Case, p. 86, lines 14r-17. 4 British Case, p. 90, lines 7-14. 5 British Case, p. 97, lines 23-27. 72 BRITISH THEORY OP POLITICAL CONTROL. British theory as cjid not constitute control, but it is claimed that Dutch di closed by British Case. trade in the disputed territory led to that control. It is admitted that to produce such a result the trade in question must be shown to have been carried on "sys tematically and as of right" ; "systematically and not on sufferance" ; and the allegations regarding charter rights and "sailing regulations" constitute a recognition of the further qualification, that the trade must also be shown to have been a monopoly. The nature of the control itself, to which this sup posed trade is said to have led, is undefined except that, control of timber cutting, maintenance of the peace, and jurisdiction over both Dutch settlers and Indians, are given as instances of its exercise. It is fair to as sume that if trade, which merely led to control, must be systematic, as of right, not on sufferance and exclusive, so also must the resulting control partake of each of these qualifications. Upon Great Britain's own statement of her case, therefore, she must prove that the Dutch actu ally exercised jurisdiction over the whole of the dis puted territory ; and that that exercise was "systematic" "as of right" ," not on sufferance" and " exclusive." It is safe to say that neither the specific acts which she alleges in her Case nor the evidence which she offers in her Appendices support a single one of these prop ositions. A brief examination of the three sections of Chapter III of the British Case will suffice to show the correct ness of this statement. DUTCH ADMINISTRATION. Following the heads above set forth, the subject of Dutch trade will be first considered. political control. 73 1. Dutch Trade. The Treaty of Munster, as pointed out by the British ,-Dut* trade and t LL G l T P __ t V of Case itself1, forbade Dutch trade to Spanish terri- Munster. tory. In preceding chapters it has been shown that at the date of that Treaty all territory west of the Esse quibo was Spanish. Dutch trade to that territory was therefore in violation of the Treaty of Munster and could not be carried on " as of right." Dutch trade in the disputed territory was something which began after 1648, and which could therefore receive no sanction from a treaty of that date. The earliest specific in stances of such trade which the British Case has ven tured to allege are for 1673 1 in the Barima and for 1680 in the interior.2 Possibly to supply some basis for a claim of right to Charter and Sailing J r J & Regulations. trade, and avowedly as proof of territorial limits and monopoly, the British Case makes repeated appeals to the Charter of the Dutch West India Company and to certain " Sailing Regulations." The following are the passages in which these appeals are made : " The trade of the Dutch with the Indians led naturally to " control by the Company of the territory in which this trade was " carried on. "The Company, under their Charter, had a right to a mon- " opoly of trade. By sailing Eegulations, issued from 1632 to " 1648, they reserved for their own ships the right of visiting the " coast to the east of the Orinoco." 3 Also : "On the 10th August in the same year [1648] the States-General " again issued trading regulations more specific than any which " had been previously published. By the first Article of these " regulations unchartered vessels were forbidden to trade on the " Wild Coast, and the mouth of the Orinoco was again made the " point at which the liberty to sail and trade granted to vessels 1 British Case, p. 80. * British Case, p. 81. 8 British Case, pp. 82-83,lines 47-50, 1-4. 74 DUTCH ADMINISTRATION. Charter and Sailing " other than those belonging to the Chartered Company was to " commence : — that is to say, the whole of the coast between the " Orinoco and the Amazon was treated as belonging to the West " India Company." * And again : " In 1674 a new Chartered Company was formed with the " same rights and limits as those possessed by the former Dutch " Company." 2 The fallacy of each of these statements has been fully exposed by Professor Burr in his report to the United States Commission. The States-General of the Netherlands, by the charter which they granted to the Dutch West India Company in 1621, granted to that Company only such monopoly of trade as it was in their power to grant, to wit, a mon opoly against other Dutchmen, not a monopoly against the world. The territorial limits of that monopoly were no less than the whole of North and South America and a good part of Africa. It will hardly be contended that the States-General claimed to control the trade of those continents ; much less can it be maintained, as in timated by the British Case, that the Company was, by virtue of the charter, vested with a monopoly of trade as against other nations. That intimation by the British Case is clear, because only an international monopoly could possibly be made the basis of an international title ; and because, while alleging a monopoly as such basis, the British Case appeals to the Charter, and to it alone, in proof of it. The so-called "Sailing Regulations" of 1632, and others which followed, when they are brought under the light of investigation, vanish as quickly as the Charter. They were not regulations of the Company for its own 1 British Case, pp. 26-27, lines 43-47, 1-7. 2 British Case, p. 28, lines 46-48. POLITICAL CONTROL. 75 trade, but regulations of the States-General forbidding -sailing Reguia- Dutchwar ships from visiting the coast of Guiana. It is tions' unnecessary to add that they could not and did not pro hibit the vessels of other nations from going there. The trading regulations of 1648, which were drawn up prior to the Treaty of Munster, though promulgated a little later, threw open to free trade the Spanish coast of the Caribbean and the Gulf, and the Orinoco served merely as a point of departure for these, there being still reserved to the Company, not Guiana only, but the entire remaining coast of America and that of West Africa. The British Case concludes that this Eegulation treated the whole coast between the Orinoco and the Amazon as belonging to the West India Company ; but, as Professor Burr very pertinently says, "were this a territorial claim it would imply Dutch ownership of all America and Africa." 1 The new Charter of 1674 is also appealed to by the Charter of 1674. British Case, it being alleged that the new company of that year " was formed with the same rights and limits as those possessed by the former Dutch Company."2 This is a grave misstatement. The limits of the Company's monopoly were cut down to a small part of " those possessed by the former Dutch Company." On the mainland of America nothing was granted except Essequibo and Pomeroon; and that is why these were specified.3 So far as the new Charter showed any limits at all be tween the Spanish and the Dutch possessions in Guiana, it showed that the Dutch were limited to "Essequibo and 1 Venezuelan Counter-Case, vol. 2, p. 23. 8 British Case, p. 28, lines 46-48. 8 Venezuelan Counter-Case, vol. 2, p. 19, especially foot note : also British Case, App. I, pp. 173-5. ijq DUTCH ADMINISTRATION. Charter of 1674. Pomeroon;" and if the new Company traded beyond these it did so without authority from the Dutch Gov ernment. So much for the monopoly and territorial limits of Dutch trade on paper. Was it in fact either systematic, or exclusive or as of right or not on sufferance ? Was it systematic ? Dutch coast trade. In support of this, the British Case makes the follow- allegations with regard to the coast trade : 1. That "in 1673 the Dutch were trading to Barima for crab oil."1 In proof of this it cites the following instance of a single boat going there : " Peace had been made with the Caribs in Barima and the " Arawaks, and they had intercourse with each other, and he was " going to send a boat after carap oil, intending in the meanwhile " to make trial of the linseed oil."3 2. That between 1673 and 1684 " there are several other references in the Dutch Records to trade carried on between Essequibo and this district."3 In proof of this it cites the following instances of Dutch trade: (a) With the Spaniards of Orinoco in 1677.4 (b) With the Spaniards of Orinoco in 1678.5 (c) With the Spaniards of Orinoco in 1679.6 (d) The proposed " shelter " at Barima in 1683, which was disapproved of by the Company.7 (e) The following: " Just previously Captain Gabriel Bishop, with his barges "from Surinam and Berbice, coming into the Barima iu " order to trade there in annatto, letter-wood, etc., being sur- 1 British Case, p. 80, lines 34-5. 2 British Case, App. I, p. 173. 8 British Case, p. 80, line 36, p. 81, lines 1-2. 4 British Case, App. I, p. 181. 5 British Case, App. I, p. 181. 0 British Case, App. I, p. 182. ' British Case, App. I, pp. 185-6 ; also Venezuelan Case, Vol. 2, pp. 48-51 ; also Venezuelan Counter-Case, Vol. 2, pp. 118-122. POLITICAL CONTROL. 77 " prised and overtaken by the Caribs aforesaid, he, with fifteen Dutch coast trade. " of his men, was slain, and the barque was cut to pieces and " sunk to the bottom."1 3. That in 1726 the postholder ofWakepowas in structed " to endeavour to obtain them (slaves and bal sam) in the Aguirre "2 in case he was refused permis sion by the Spaniards to obtain them from "up the Orinoco." The Aguirre is beyond Great Britain's ex treme claim and is confessedly Venezuelan territory. 4. That " in 1 730 a Dutch trader is mentioned in the Aguirre."3 5. That "in 1735, 1754, 1757 and 1760 Dutch traders were in the Barima."4 The incidents referred to in this last allegation are : (a) That of one Couderas who went to Barima to get slaves for some one else, and who having gotten them ran away " with some Frenchmen from Martinique, who likewise traded there."5 (b) That of some " Surinam wanderers " who went from the Barima to the Waini.6 (c) That mentioned in the following extract : " Complaints having been repeatedly made by the Commandant " of Orinoco concerning the evil conduct in Barima of the traders, " or wanderers, as well from Surinam as from here, I have written " circumstantially to the ad interim Governor there, Mr. I. Nep- " vew, whose reply is awaited daily.'"1 (d) That of five Dutchmen from Surinam and Esse quibo, who were there gathering slaves, and who were forthwith expelled by the Spanish officials.8 1 British Case, App. I, p. 187. 2 British Case, p. 81, lines 8-9. 8 British Case, p. 81, lines 10-11. 4 British Case, p. 81, lines 11-12. E British Case, App. n, pp. 20-21. 6 British Case, App. II, p. 100. ' British Case, App. II, pp. 131-2. 8 British Case, App. II, p. 187. 78 DUTCH ADMINISTRATION. Dutch coast 6. That "in 1755, and again in 1758, it was reported trade' to the Spaniards that Dutch and Carib traders were in the habit of passing by the Rivers Aguirre, Barima, and Waini to the territory upon the confines of the Spanish Missions."1 The citations offered in proof of these irrelevant facts are two : (a) The first is a document which treats of the move ment of the Caribs, and which incidentally mentions two Dutchmen, one Solomon Percico said to have gone by the route above mentioned " in order to return to Essequibo " and " the Dutch fugitive " Nicolas Colart who " made his escape " that way.3 (b) The second document refers exclusively to slave traders, whose movements, it says, extended to the Ori noco, the Aguirre and the Carapo — all places which were confessedly Spanish — and of whom it says that " they have 'no fixed time for their journeys, for they come and go whenever they choose."3 7. That "in 1763 Governor Diguja reported that there were no foreigners navigating the Orinoco above Guyana, though below they did so freely,"4 What Governor Diguja did say is this : " There are no foreigners navigating the Orinoco, that is, " above Guayana, for at its mouth and up to the neighborhood " of the said fortress they do so freely, but without being able to " land in the said provinces, nor do any more trade than thefort- " ress alloios, and within the time explained in my note 13 of " my Book of Notes, and without the toleration therein stated, " which is absolutely necessary, they can do nothing."6 1 British Case, p. 81, lines 12-17. 2 British Case, App. EC, p. 110. ¦ British Case, App. II, p, 148. 4 British Case, p. 81, lines 18-20. B British Case, App. Ill, p. 35. POLITICAL CONTROL. 79 This, by the way, hardly looks as though, even when Dutch coast the Dutch did trade there, they did so " as of right." trade- 8. That it was reported in 1769 that a Dutchman had been domiciled for more than eight years in the Aguirre (beyond Great' Britain's extreme claim and in confessedly Spanish territory) buying slaves from the Caribs.1 9. That the Caribs and Arawaks from Barima " served as paddlers and messengers to the Dutch in Essequibo."2 If from these various incidents, which are all that are given by Great Britain to prove systematic trading, on the coast, there be excluded all references to Dutch trading or to the presence of Dutchmen (not traders) in territory confessedly Spanish and beyond Great Britain's present extreme claim, also all references to trading directly with Spaniards, and also all references to the Swinam Dutch — whose rights are not repre sented to-day by Great Britain — the following are all that remain : 1 A boat sent to Barima in 1673 for carap-oil. 2. A proposed "shelter" at Barima in 1683 which was disapproved of by the Company. 3. Couderas, who ran away with some slaves. 4. Surinam and Essequibo "wanderers," against whose evil conduct in Barima the Spanish complained. 5. Five Su/rinam and Essequibo Dutchmen who were expelled from Barima by the Spaniards. These are the incidents which, covering a period of more than two centuries, are alleged and relied on by Great Britain to prove a systematic trade which led to political control. 1 British Case, p. 81, lines 21-24. " British Case, p. 81, lines 30-31. 80 DUTCH ADMINISTRATION. Dutch coast It seems hardly necessary to go further and ask trade' whether, in addition to being systematic, that trade was also " exclusive," or whether it was carried on " as of right* and "not on sufferance!"1 The very extracts already cited are quite enough to negative each of these propositions, though additional proof might be indefinitely multiplied. The trade was certainly not exclusive, for the Surinam Dutch, the French, the English, the Spaniards themselves shared in it, and the Dutch Commandeur in speaking of it said: " I am of opinion that the Honourable Company has the right to trade and traffic there in an open river as much as other private persons."1 It was certainly not " as of right," for it was at times prevented by Spain, and its prevention was acquiesced in by the Dutch. It was certainly " on sufferance* for, even when carried on, it was only with the connivance or by the express permission of the Spaniards. Dutch interior Th e f acts as to the interior trade are quite as conclusive against the British contention. The following are the allegations upon which a claim to systematic and ex clusive trading in that region is founded : 1. That between 1680 and 1686, "Mention is continually made of the disturbance caused to " this trade (which it is implied was well established) by native "wars in those rivers and by the inroads of the French."2 The documents cited to prove the " disturbance " caused by the Indian wars do indeed tend to show that some Dutch trade had theretofore existed somewhere on the Cuyuni, Essequibo and Mazaruni rivers ; just where does not appear, but the fact that the three rivers are mentioned together as affected at the same time by these wars would seem to indicate that the disturbance must 1 British Case, App. I, p. 186. 2 British Case, p. 81, lines 37-40. trade POLITICAL CONTROL. 81 have been somewhere near their common junction and Dutch interior probably, therefore, below their lowest falls. But while these documents do indeed tend to show in a vague and indefinite way the previous existence of some sort of trade, they also prove conclusively that the Dutch were powerless to carry it on in the face of Indian wars; for, whatever it may have been before those wars, their coming put a stop to it. The following are the extracts cited by the British case : " The trade in hammocks and letter-wood has this year not " had the desired success, on account of the war between those " (i. e. the Indians) of Cuyuni, Essequibo, and Mazaruni, and " the Accoways who live up country ; and we have repeatedly, " with many but fruitless arguments, tried to persuade the high- " est Chief to make peace with the aforesaid nation, to that end " offering axes and other wares. They even threatened, if we " would hot let them continue the war, to depart in great num- " bers to Barima and elsewhere. These being the most import- " ant traders in dye I was, to my sorrow, compelled to desist; " and hereby the Biver Cuyuni, our provision Chamber, is " closed."1 And, " By reason of the Accoway war in Cuyuni, of which you have " heard, the trade in hammocks, especially in new ones, lias re- " suited badly, for no one dares to trust himself among thatfaith- " less tribe, so that no more than six common ones could be " sent."2 But, however these extracts may serve to disprove the British contention regarding the freedom of Dutch trade (and incidentally also that other contention, to be con sidered later, that the Dutch controlled the Indians), the other extracts regarding the "inroads of the French " leave the theory of exchtsiveness and monopoly noth ing to stand on. It was not of French soldiers but of 1 British Case, App. I, p. 183. 2 British Case, App. I, p. 184. 82 DUTCH ADMINISTRATION. Dutch interior French traders that the Dutch complained. The cause trade. of the disturbance to the Dutch trade was that, " The French in the Barima come and fetch them (hammocks) even as far as up in the Cuyuni."1 And that, "All that he has been able to obtain is a little balsam oil and " hammocks, because the French are making expeditions through " the country up there in order to buy up everything."2 2. That in 1703 there was a trading post in the Savannah, high up on the Cuyuni. The facts as to this post have been very fully stated by Venezuela in her Case.3 If the post was ever established, which is very doubtful, it lasted for but a few weeks : its purpose was to trade in horses, and when the Spaniards prohibited that trade it came to an end. 3. That " in 1686 there is mentioned an annatto store in the Massaruni, and in 1699 there is notice of a similar store on the Cuyuni."4 What may be meant by an annatto " store " is no where disclosed, but the location of the "store" could not have been very far away, for the mention of it here is in connection with a proposition made by the Dutch Commandeur to the Indians, " that if they had war in their minds, they should make war "far away in Mazaruni and moreover inland against their com-. " mon enemy, not against their and our friends who dwelt close " by the Caribs and the annatto store, who had always been their " friends."6 The reference to a " dye store " in the Cuyuni is so vague as to leave one entirely in the dark as to its char acter, though the connection in which it is mentioned 1 British Case, App. I, p. 188. 2 British Case, App. I, p. 201. 8 Venezuelan Case, Vol. 2, p. 96. i British Case, p. 81, lines 47-49. 6 British Case, App. I, p. 202. POLITICAL CONTROL. 83 furnishes ground for believing that it too was " close by " Dutch interior . . trade. tor it is referred to as a starting point for traders about to go up the Cuyuni to buy horses.1 4. That in 1758 "Dutch merchants " resided in Tu cupo, Capi and Paraman.2 The only one of these places in the Cuyuni-Mazaruni basin was Tucupo, a tributary of the Curumo. It will be remembered that 1758 was the year in which the Spaniards destroyed the first regular trading post that the Dutch attempted to establish on the Cuyuni. The Dutch postholder was captured and kept a prisoner by the Spaniards against the unavailing remonstrances of the Dutch, and the Dutch themselves were so thoroughly scared that not until eight years had passed did they venture to try another post lower down the river and nearer their own settlements. It seems most unlikely, therefore, that any " Dutch merchants " should have been " residing " in Tucupo at that time ; and indeed the citation given to support the allegation war rants nothing more than the statement that Dutch slave traders or slave catchers — possibly some of those very Dutchmen who disguised themselves as Indians — went at times to that river, just as they went to Paragua and to other places confessedly Spanish. 5. That "in 1769 the Dutch were also settled very high up the Cuyuni, close to the mouth of the Curumo."3 The authority for this statement is a letter of Fray Benito de la Garriga dated in 1769. The reference which he makes, to "Dutchmen4 who had settled very high up the Cuyuni, close to the mouth of the Curumo," is while speaking of the year 1758. Profes- 'British Case, App. I, p. 216. 2British Case, p. 82, lines 11-13. "British Case, p. 82, lines 13-15. 4 The translation of this passage as given in the Appendix to the British Case, Vol. iv, p. 23, is incorrect ; the Spanish word Olandeses, which means Dutchmen being there translated Dutch families. 84 DUTCH ADMINISTRATION. Dutch interior gor Burr in reviewing the events of that year con- sidered this letter in connection with much other evi dence bearing on the subject, and his conclusion that this reference of Fray Benito was to slave catchers who were supposed to be sojourning near the Curumo, is doubtless correct. One thing is very certain, and that is that even slave catchers, if they were really there, cleared out very quickly, for the Spanish expedition of 1758 failed to find them.1 In resume the grounds upon which Great Britain bases a claim to a systematic and exclusive trade in the Cuyuni-Mazaruni valley are the following : 1. That about 1680 the Indians, because the Dutch were unable to control them, put a stop to a trade there tofore supposed to exist. 2. That in 1683-86 the French traders were success fully competing with the Dutch traders in the Cuyuni. 3. That there was an " annatto store " somewhere in the Mazaruni in 1686, and a " dye store " somewhere in the Cuyuni in 1699. 4. That for a few weeks in 1703 there was a post somewhere in the Pariacot Savannah for trading in horses, a trade which lasted during the pleasure of the Spaniards, and which came to an end when the Spaniards prohibited it. 5. That in 1758 some Dutch slave traders managed to be about the Tucupo river notwithstanding the de struction of the Dutch post on the Cuyuni in that year and the arrest of the Dutch postholder. 6. That the same year other slave traders, whom the Spanish expedition failed to find, were sojourning near the mouth of the Curumo. Venezuelan Counter-Case, Vol. 2, pp. 163-164. POLITICAL CONTROL. 85 This is the Dutch trade which is stated to have led Dutch interior to Dutch political control of the interior. Before passing to the consideration of the general facts Dutch control of upon which this subsequent alleged political control is supposed to be based, the British Case, in proof of Dutch control of trade, cites certain other facts which are full of significance, and which therefore merit attention. It is stated by the British Case that, " Permission to pass the (Wakepo) Post was only given to those Dutch passes. " who had passports.' Also that, " Iu 1719, a form of pass was settled which bound the bearer " not to go beyond the Spanish fort on the Orinoco without per- " mission of the Governor there." And again that, " The pass system was applied to Indians as well as colonists " and slaves ; thus a pass was issued to a Carib Chief permitting "him to go to Barima, which pass was given up to the Comman- " deur of Essequibo by the Chief on his return.3 Also that, " A similar pass was issued by the Commandeur of Demerara "permitting a Carib Chief of Essequibo, to go to Berbice and " back, and another by the Commandeur of Essequibo permitting " an Indian to go to the coast of that Colony, and to pass the post "of Moruka.'" The significance of this pass system seems to Vene zuela to be quite different from that which is attri buted to it by Great Britain. It will be noticed in the allegations above quoted that a pass was required to go from Essequibo to Berbice. So in the following passage referred to by the British Case : "Both from English captains leaving the Essequibo (formerly ¦British Case, p. 87, lines 41-2. "British Case, p. 87, lines 46-49. 'British Case, p. 88, lines 8-12. 'British Case, p. 88, lines 12-19. gg DUTCH ADMINISTRATION. Dutch passes. " the Colony) in their barques or vessels and from private indi viduals the Governor receives for a pass 7 guilder 10 st."1 It is plain that the purpose of the pass was to allow the bearer to leave the colony. The form of pass which is alluded to as having been adopted in 1719 confirms this, for it says: " We, Pieter van der Heyden Bezen, Commandeur of the " Colony and adjacent Bivers of Essequibo, in the name of the "Directors of the General Chartered West India Company, in " the Assembly of Ten, " Do give full permission to one N"., a free inhabitant of this " Colony, to depart from this Colony with his canoe and accom- " panying men to Bio Orinoco, and from there again hither."2 This declared purpose of passes proves that when they were presented at a post it was because the bearer was at that point leaving the recognized limits of the Colony : this conclusion is confirmed by the fact that the most important object of the posts was to prevent runaway slaves from going beyond them and thus escaping from the Colony. That in the granting of passes to go beyond the Moruca post the Barima was not regarded as a part of the Essequibo colony is shown by the letter of the Dutch Governor Storm van s' Gravesande to the Governor of Surinam, dated August 18, 1764, wherein he says : "Whilst on this subject I take the liberty to inform your "Excellency that mentioning the River Barima in those passes " causes complaints from the Spaniards, who, maintaining that " the river belongs to them, in which I believe they are right, " some of these passes have already been sent to the Court of "Spain."3 Posts as frontiers. Other evidence that the posts were regarded as the iBritish Case, App. IV, p. 123. sBritish Case, App. I, p. 251. sBritish Case, App. Ill, p. 114. POLITICAL CONTROL. 87 frontiers of the colony is furnished by the British Case Posts as frontiers. itself when it says that, " In 1790 the Postholders are described as ' employes ' on the " frontier to foster the good understanding with the Indians ; "> and that the Moruca post was itself regarded as such frontier on the northwest is evidenced by the further statement, that, " In 1737 the Commandeur reported that, though the trade at "Wakepo and Moruka was no longer remunerative, the Post "must, nevertheless, be kept up because it was established for the "maintenance of the Company's frontiers stretching towards the " Orinoco."2 Of equal significance in this connection is that pro jected but never completed road of Ignace Courthial through the Cuyuni forests by which it was proposed to bring cattle and horses to the Essequibo colony, and to charge an import duty upon them payable at a post to be established on the road itself.3 So it appears that these various facts alleged by Great Britain to prove a control beyond the posts, are facts which prove just the reverse: those posts were regarded and treated as posts on the frontier marking the limits of the Colony itself. Of course it should be added that the treatment of the Moruca, or the Wakepo or the Pomeroon as the actual limit of the Dutch colony, whilst binding upon the Dutch and upon their successors the British, cannot operate to bar the rights of Spain or of Venezuela as Spain's successor. Spain's claim, and Spain's claim. Venezuela's, has always consistently gone all the way to the Essequibo; and if the district between the Moruca and the Essequibo seems to have been more effectually squatted upon by the Dutch and British 1 British Case, p. 89, lines 34-36. 8 British Case, p. 89, lines 25-30. 8 British Case, App. II, p. 44. 58 DUTCH ADMINISTRATION. Spain's claim. than the region to the west of the Moruca, none the less was that squatting a usurpation of Spanish and Vene zuelan territory and a violation of treaty stipulations. So also with regard to the upper Essequibo : little at tention has been paid to that region in this Counter- Case, because the only facts brought forward to defeat the title which vested in Spain when she discovered and settled the Essequibo are allegations of trade and control ; and these have even less foundation than simi lar allegations respecting the Barima- Waini region and the Cuyuni-Mazaruni basin. Evidences of But ^° Pass ^° the evidence of Dutch control. )utch control. The -q^j. control which grew mt Qf thi§ ^^ jg claimed to be evidenced by control over timber cutting, by maintenance of the peace, and by jurisdiction over both Dutch settlers and Indians. How far are these general allegations in keeping with the specific acts alleged in support of each, and with the evidence submitted ? 2. Dutch Control op Timber Cutting. Timber cutting. The allegations as to this control for the coast region west of the Moruca are two only. It is stated that, "Permission to cut timber in Waini was given in 1754, and in " 1756 a similar application was entertained."1 And that, "In 1766 there was a man cutting cedar-wood in Barima on " account of Mr. Knott."2 To these should probably be added a third, which is that, "In 1803, the Dutch, who had resumed possession of the Colony "in 1802, proposed to make regulations for the protection of the "timber, and for making grants for lumbering in Pomeroon, "Waini, and Barima."3 1 British Case, p. 84, lines 5-7. 2 British Case, p. 84, lines 21-22. 8 British Case, p. 84, lines 36-40. POLITICAL CONTROL. 89 This last allegation is much too strong for the evidence Timber cutting. cited in its support, but under the circumstances that is a matter of little moment. The important thing to note is that, in proof of Dutch control of timber cutting dur ing a period of two centuries, Great Britain alleges that one man got permission once to cut in Waini ; that another asked for a similar permission, but evidently did not get it ; that with or without permission, once during these two centuries, a Dutchman actually cut some wood in Barima ; and that at the close of the two centuries there was some sort of indefinite "proposal" about pro tecting timber ; a " proposal " which, as a matter of fact, was a mere suggestion by a single individual and which ended in nothing.1 Of course it is not pretended that Spain had any knowledge of any of this Dutch " timber control." For the interior, the allegations are also two, namely, that, "Before 1706 the cutting of timber above the falls in Cuyuni " had become a common occurrence."8 And that, " In 1735 leave was given to the Company's Director to fell " timber in Cuyuni for private building purposes." 3 Both of these allegations could well be true without going very far to prove that the Dutch for two centuries controlled all the timber cutting in the disputed territory. 3. Dutch Maintenance of the Peace. The next evidence of political control by the Dutch is Maintenance of stated in the marginal heading to a paragraph of the British Case to be Maintenance of the Peace. The al legation under this heading is as follows : 1 Venezuelan Counter-Case, Vol. 3, document numbered 134. 2 British Case, p. 83, lines 40-42. " British Case, p. 84, lines 3-5. 90 dutch administration. Maintenance of "As early as the seventeenth century and thenceforward, the " Company found it necessary, not only to regulate trade itself, " but also to exercise control of a political nature over the district "in which trade was carried on. It was imperative that the " Indians with whom the trade was carried on should be prevented " from making war upon one another, and should be protected " from outrage at the hands of Europeans."1 The first instance given of the exercise of this con trolling power is that, " In 1680 and 1683, the Company's negro traders are found " endeavoring to put an end to a native war between the Indians " of Cuyuni, Essequibo, and Massaruni, and the Akawois, who "lived in the country above."2 This endeavor it will be remembered was a signal failure : the passage proving it has already been quoted, but may be profitably repeated : it is as follows : " The trade in hammocks and letter- wood has this year not had " the desired success, on account of the war between those (t. .., " the Indians) of Cuyuni, Essequibo, and Mazaruni, and the " Accoways who live up country ; and we have repeatedly, with "many but fruitless arguments, tried to persuade the highest " Chief to make peace with the aforesaid nation, to that end " offering axes and other wares. They even threatened, if we " would not let them continue the war, to depart in great numbers "to Barima* and elsewhere. These being the most important "traders in dye, I was, to my sorrow, compelled to desist; and " hereby the Biver Cuyuni, our provision chamber, is closed. In "addition, we lately have been embittered by the death of Grilles, "an old negro of the Company, recently poisoned up in the " Cuyuni, as the Caribs pretended, by tlie Accoways. On that 'account the aforesaid old negroes have become afraid to have 'intercourse with that tribe; I shall, however, bethink me of "means for conciliating that tribe."4 1British Case, p. 84, lines 41-49. 2 British Case, p. 84, line 50; p. 85, lines 1-4. "Evidently Barima was regarded as not a part of the Colony. 4British Case, App. I, pp. 183-4. POLITICAL control. 91 The second instance given to prove Dutch Mainte- Maintenance of nance of the Peace has little, if any, more evidence to support it. The allegation is as follows : "In 1686, the chief Captain of the Caribs in Massaruni sent "word to the Dutch Government that disturbances had broken " out in that river, and that the supply of dye would consequently "be short. Upon this occasion also the Commandeur used his "influence to prevent a continuance of disorder."1 The proof cited in support of this is as follows : "And Jacob, the Company's old negro, also reports that when " Makourawacke, with his tribe, were wishing to go to war with " the Akuwayas up in Demerara, they were then dissuaded from " the war by the Commander aforesaid, and advised to go "and salt pork above in the Mazaruni Biver with Jotte afore- " named, for which purpose a cask of salt was sent to him by the " Sergeant ; but that if they had war in their minds, they should " make war far away in Mazaruni and moreover inland against " their common enemy, not against their and our friends who " dwelt close by the Caribs and the annatto store, who had always " been their friends. This the aforenamed Makourawacke would "not comply with, and this is the chief and most principal " cause of this misfortune, which now falls upon the innocent."8 The third instance alleged is that, " In 1765 the Postholder of Arinda intervened and restored "peace between two tribes on the Bupununi."3 The document cited in proof of this contains the in structions given to the Dutch Commandant. These throw much light on the attitude of the Dutch at that time as guardians of the peace. They are given in the following paragraph : "But in the meanwhile the Assistant of Arinda having arrived " with a written Beport from the Postholder, in which he in- " forms me of this matter, I, finding that it was not so bad as " had been thought, although at bottom perfectly true, set out 'British Case, p. 85, lines 4-10. 2British Case, App. I, p. 202. "British Case, p. 85, lines 11-13. 92 DUTCH ADMINISTRATION. Maintenance of " upon my journey, leaving Commaudant Bakker written in- the Peace. ., stl.uctious to sen(j me immediate reports of any events of im- " portance, and in case he should be compelled by the danger of " the settlers up the river to send any soldieis there, to give the " commanding subaltern strict orders to act simply on the de- " tensive, and not to interfere directly or indirectly in the quarrels " of the Indians, nor yet to allow himself to be induced on any " account to undertake any attack. I also impressed upon the " planters the desirability of remaining perfectly neutral in this war. "i The last and the only real instance of control given by the British Case relates to a Carib chief in Mazaruni in 1766 who had invited some Spanish Indians to come to Essequibo and there attack the Accoways. This chief, who evidently lived within or very near the Dutch Colony, was rebuked by the Dutch Commandeur for his acts. But this solitary instance of control over an Indian at the very door of the Dutch Colony can hardly support a claim that the Dutch maintained the peace, throughout the disputed territory for two cen turies, especially as all the other evidence cited in sup port of the claim proves conclusively that they did not and could not maintain it, but that in spite of Dutch prayers, and Dutch bribes, the Indians continued their fighting, thereby causing the Dutch Commandeur to ex claim that, " hereby the Biver Cuyuni, our provision chamber, is closed."2 A review of all the evidence on this subject shows that wherever any effort was made by the Dutch to keep the peace among the Indians, it was not from a sense of duty to maintain the peace of the community, as in the settlements, but to keep the tribes from war because war interfered with Dutch trade. This same motive has many times induced one of the civilized 'British Case, App. I, p. 120. "British Case, App. I, p. 183. POLITICAL CONTROL. 93 nations to make representations to another nation in the Maintenance of ."Tip r^p-.-"1.1 interest of peace, because the trade of the first was likely to be injured by war. Efforts of that sort, so far from evidencing political control, are a confession that there is no political control at all ; that advice and not force is the only right and duty. Presents and persuasions are a confession of a liberty to reject both, and the evidence submitted by Great Britain herself shows that this liberty was used by the tribes. The Dutch gave ex plicit instructions not to allow their officers and soldiers to interfere in the quarrels of the Indians, but to remain neutral : but neutrality and sovereignty are quite irre concilable, as applied to the same territory or people. 4. Jurisdiction over Dutch Settlers and Indians. Jurisdiction over both Dutch settlers and Indians is the next and final allegation in support of the claim that the Dutch exercised political control over the entire disputed territory. As regards the Dutch settlers, tbe subject may be jurisdiction over dismissed in a very few words. Four cases are cited by the British Case where Dutch men were brought to account before the regular Court of Justice of the Essequibo colony for ill-treatment of Indians. The localities where the acts are stated to have taken place are matters of no moment whatever. The action of the Dutch authorities is sufficiently ex plained by the fact that it was the policy of the Com pany to court the friendship of the Indians, that an im portant aid to this was proper treatment of these Indians by Dutchmen wherever they might meet, and that on various occasions when Dutchmen transgressed this rule they were reprimanded or punished. The territorial question never arose. It was always an exercise of Settlers. 94 DUTCH ADMINISTRATION. Jurisdiction over jurisdiction over Dutchmen because they were Dutch- Settlers. J ° men, not because they were persons transgressing Dutch laws on Dutch territory. In may be added that the Dutchmen punished for offenses against the Indians were either agents of the Essequibo government, or traders licensed by them ; and the reports of the cases plainly show that the offenses were not regarded as local, but as against the peace of the colony in Essequibo, in that these acts of violence put the colony in jeopardy. It is not simply that an Indian was killed or maltreated at a particular point, but it was particularly — indeed almost wholly — that the act was likely to call down Indian vengeance upon the colony. By reason of the cases which occurred in the upper Essequibo, the Director-General, feeling his inability to keep the peace there — showing the entire absence of political control — closed the river to trade, as appears in the cases of Jan Stok1 and Maillard.2 This remedy is a confession not only that the Dutch did not control the Indians, but that thev could not control their own traders who went in there. In line with the above it may be well to anticipate for a moment a few facts touching Dutch jurisdiction over the Indians — a subject which will presently be treated more fully. The case of Maillard, just referred to, shows that the Dutch did not attempt to exercise jurisdiction over the Indians, but only over Dutchmen. In that case the Indians who did the killing of which Maillard was ac quitted, were not proceeded against at all. So in the case of Marichal;3 the Carib chief who appeared before the Court and confessed to having made the attack 1 British Case, App. 11, p. 64. 2 British Case, App. II, p. 105. 8 British Case, App. II, p. 123. POLITICAL CONTROL. 95 upon the Accoways, of which Marichal was accused — Jurisdiction over , . _ . Settlers. saymg he had done so at the instigation of Marichal— was not proceeded against at all, though he said before the Court, " I committed the deed? The Court found that Marichal had not instigated him to do the deed, acquitted the Dutch colonist and took no notice what ever of the confessed crime of the Carib chief. The case of the Indian Joris, in 1783, might seem to be a case where the Dutch had taken jurisdiction to try an Indian, but it was for killing a white man. The Indian is spoken of as " formerly residing " on a planta tion, and still earlier " at Fort Zeelandia."1 The crime was committed on the creek Wackepoey, and on the river Bauron., upon a colonist, the person killed being a Dutchman ; so that this case fails to show any control over the wild tribes, and indeed is probably to be classed with the cases where Dutchmen were punished because they were Dutchmen. The crime of the Indian here is punished because it was committed on a Dutchman. The question of Dutch jurisdiction over Indians will jurisdiction over now be considered more fully. It is somewhat more complicated than the question of jurisdiction over Dutchmen, because the relations themselves between the Dutch and the Indians were more complex. A brief consideration of the subject, however, will suffice to show that, except over the Indians living in the Colony itself, or in the immediate vicinity of the posts, the Dutch authorities exercised no political control whatever ; and that, even over the Indians at the posts, such control as was exercised depended largely, if not entirely, on the permission of the Indians themselves. 1 British Case, App. V, p. 8. 96 DUTCH ADMINISTRATION. jurisdiction over in order that the significance of the facts alleged in Indians. . . this connection by the British Case may be properly appreciated, a word of introduction is here necessary. The extent of Dutch occupation has been considered and disposed of. It has been shown that it was limited to the banks of the Essequibo, and that it left the whole of the disputed territory beyond those banks untouched. Therefore it is, that the British Case has appealed to Dutch trade, claiming that this led to political control. The fact of such control it has sought to prove by acts of timber cutting and by jurisdiction exercised over Dutch " settlers." These acts and this alleged exercise of jurisdiction have been shown to be signally insufficient to prove any such control. The final line of defense is now reached. Dutch political control over the disputed territory is now to be proved by control over Indians alleged to have inhabited that territory, and so through these Indians a Dutch title to the land itself is to be made out. If it were possible to prove, beyond the peradventure of a doubt, that the Indians had consented to accept the Dutch control and that the Dutch exercised it, Venezuela considers, and will claim, that it could form no founda tion whatever for a territorial title. As to such right or title, claimed to be derived by the Dutch or British, either directly or by implication, from or through the Indian tribes, it will be contended first, that these tribes were wanderers, and had not even possessory titles to any defined territories ; second, that by the law of nations and the universal practice of all European states the American tribes having distinct territorial bounds had only a possessory right to the lands occupied, and that this right they were incapable to transfer except to a nation that had already, by dis- POLITICAL CONTROL. 97 covery or other acts necessary to the appropriation of Jurisdiction over wild lands, obtained the ultimate title to such lands — such nation having an exclusive right to extinguish the possessory right of the tribes; third, that what such tribes could not do by deed or treaty of cession, much less could they do by any submission or alliance ; that the prior right of Spain could not be diminished or affected by any other power by virtue of any acts or submissions of the tribes; fourth, that such acts and submissions of the tribes were equally ineffectual to extend the political control of the Dutch or the British. A final discussion of this point will be reserved for a later stage of the controversy; for the present it is sufficient to state Venezuela's attitude towards this claim of Great Britain. While denying the efficacy of such Indian control, even if its existence could be proved, an examin ation of the facts alleged to prove it and of the evidence cited in support of those facts will serve to show that the claim has as little foundation in fact as it has in law. It will readily be admitted that if a title to land is to be Indians as no- based upon such control of its Indian occupants, it should at least be shown that the land in question was in fact occupied by those Indians, and that such occupancy was permanent and not merely that of nomadic tribes. It appears, however, to be admitted by the British Case that the Indians in question were in fact wanderers ; and no serious effort is made to prove that any particu lar tribe occupied any specified territory for any speci fied length of time. The following statements of the British Case are im portant in this connection : " The principal Indian tribes inhabiting the territory known as 98 DUTCH ADMINISTRATION. Indians as n o- " Guiana were the Caribs, etc., etc. * * * What precise localities madic tribes. (l ^ ^.^ (Macusis) 0CCupied it is difficult to trace, but in the " year 1833, when their numbers had become greatly reduced, " they were found at the head-waters of the Essequibo. Mention " must also be made of the Panacays, who appear to have lived " in the neighbourhood of the Upper Cuyuni, and of the Pariacots, "who seem also to have inhabited the same district." " Of the above tribes, by far the most numerous and powerful " throughout the whole period of the Dutch occupation of " Guiana was the Carib nation. * * * in the early days of " the Colony the Caribs, surpassing as they did all other nations in " personal bravery, were the great freebooters on all the coast "from the Island of Trinidad to the mouth of the Amazon." " In the interior of Guiana they were found on the Upper " Essequibo, the Massaruni, the Upper Cuyuni, the Pomeroon, " and the Barima, and they ranged at will through the forest " region." " Next in importance to the Caribs were the Akawois. No "fixed limits are indicated for the area of Akawoi settlement in " earlier times. * * * It is probable that this nation, like that " of the Caribs, was nomadic in its habits, and was to be found " scattered throughout the Dutch Colonies of Essequibo, Berbice "and Surinam." " Next in importance to the Akawois, was the tribe known as "the Arawak nation, * * * The Arawaks had for many " years been united to the Dutch and incorporated in their " Colonies both in relationship and other ties. * * * No "precise locality can be indicated as their usual place of abode."* Yet these are the Indians through whom Great Britain claims a territory definite in extent and limited on the west by a clearly defined boundary line. From the admissions above quoted it would seem to be more logical to conclude that if the Essequibo Dutch did in fact control these Indians, and if title could be derived from such control, the title of Great Britain to day should include not only the region between the 1 British Case, pp. 9-11. POLITICAL CONTROL. 99 Essequibo and the Orinoco, but at least the whole of Indians as no- n . n madic tribes. vriuana, and possibly much more. The only escape from this so far reaching conclusion is had by assuming that the Dutch did not control all but merely some of these Indians. This would certainly be nearer the truth, for it is well known that the Spaniards controlled many of them, a number of the Capuchin Missions being made up of Caribs and of Accoways. But if this limitation be admitted, it still re mains to be proved that this Dutch control of some Indians was a control of all who occupied the region between the Essequibo and the limit of the British claim. But here again the fact that, on Great Britain's own ad mission, the Caribs and the Akawois were " nomadic ", and that as regards the Arawaks " no precise locality can be indicated as their usual place of abode," would seem to make such proof impossible. The fact is that no such general control was ever exercised, either with the consent of the Indians or otherwise; and even the British Case, while it contains general allegations to the contrary, itself furnishes abundant evidence to dis prove such allegations. The only Indians who ever Indians controlled near posts. came under any sort of Dutch control were the Indians who were settled within the Colony, or who were col lected about the posts. This must be evident from the following statements of the British Case: " The permission to trade with the Indians at and near the " Post gave the Postholders exceptional facilities for cultivating "friendly relations with those tribes, and for ensuring their "maintenance when established. It was their duty to maintain " order among the Indians at the Post."1 " The provisional instructions issued in 1766 to Pierre Martyn, " the Postholder in the Upper Cuyuni, directed bim to take care " that the free Indians were not molested or ill-treated, but to 1 British Case, p. 88, lines 20-25. ]00 DUTCH ADMINISTRATION. Indians control- " endeavour, as much as possible, to attract them to the Post, andto neai pos s. " profect those residing in the neighborhood."1 " The Postholder of Moruka was directed by the 5th Article " of his instructions to treat all Indians properly ; to enrol, and "take into protection about the Post, as many of them as his means " would allow."2 The following extract is peculiarly significant because it is through the Postholder that the control is alleged to have been exercised : " It may be noted that in these last instructions the Postholder was prohibited from leaving the Post for the purpose of trading, the object being to ensure his attendance at the Post, and to attract the Indians to its neighbourhood. 3 Yet this is the Postholder alleged to have represented Dutch authority at Barima 150 miles away from the post which he was forbidden to leave. The following are further statements along the same line, also taken from the British Case itself : " In 1784 the West India Company observing that the Indians " were withdrawing more and more from the neighbourhood of the " white settlers (a fact probably due to the disturbances in the " Colony owing to its capture and occupation first by Great " Britain and then by France) directed, etc."4 And, " The object of these presents was to insure the assistance of " the tribes in case of negro revolt, and to attract them to the " neighbourhood of the Dutch Posts."6 Also, " The Post of Moruka was the station most suitable for inter- " cepting deserters by the coast routes. Accordingly, houses " were built there for the Arawaks, and around the Post was " settled a permanent body of Caribs, Warows, and Arawaks to " the number of 600 or 700. * * * These Indians were sub- 1 British Case, p. 88, lines 46-51; p. 89, line 1. 2 British Case, p. 89, lines 6-10. 8 British Case, p. 89, lines 12-17. d British Case, p. 91, lines 30-36. 6 British Case, p. 92, lines 7-10. POLITICAL CONTROL. 101 " jected to discipline and organization of a simple kind, and Indians control- ,..-,. ...,,,. . , _. led near posts. their presence added to the importance of the Post.- ,J And again, " In 1755 the Panacays settled in the neighbourhood of the " Cuyuni Post to prevent the encroachments of the Spaniards."2 These extracts from the British Case show that the Indians which are claimed to have been controlled by the Dutch were Indians living at or near the Posts and settlements, not the Indians who might be roaming some hundreds of miles away near the limits of the British claim. These extracts serve still another purpose. With the Indians invited not summoned. exception of the case of a Carib Chief from Barima who is alleged to have been "summoned''1 before the Dutch Council in 1755, and of two cases in the neighborhood of the Moruca posts, these extracts contain a complete statement of all the specific instances of supposed Dutch jurisdiction over Indians which are cited by Great Britain to prove the exercise of that jurisdiction. The evidence cited in proof of the summoning of the Carib Chief from Barima is as follows : " Moreover, the Council has sent to Barima a certain An. " Christiaansen to invite hither the Chief of the Caribs who " murdered the Acuways in Mazaruni, to be present at the " Session for January next, that we may learn from the same " who have been the causers and inciters thereof, so that I think " this tumult will now be greatly allayed."3 It appears, therefore, that if the Pomeroon-Moruca region be excepted, the entire case of Great Britain, so far as it rests upon Dutch jurisdiction over Indians is founded upon an invitation sent in 1755 to a Carib Chief of Barima to be present at a meeting of the Council for the purpose of giving it information, 1 British Case, p. 93, lines 16-27. " British Case, p. 95, lines 28-30. 8 British Case, App. II, p. 123. 102 DUTCH ADMINISTRATION. Indians invited and upon the control of such Indians as may for a short time have been about the Dutch posts in the Cuyuni river; posts, it will be remembered, which came to an end because of Spanish control in that quarter. This is the Dutch jurisdiction which for two centuries is sup posed to have been exercised over Indians from the Moruca to the Orinoco on the coast, and from Kykoveral to the junction of the Yuruari and Cuyuni in the in terior. No systematic ex- In this connection the British Case contains a singular ercise of jurisdic tion, admission. It says : " In British times the Postholders travelled largely through the " districts round their Posts and exercised magisterial functions. " During the Dutch period it does not appear that they habitually " did so."1 If the word " habitually" were left out, this state ment, which even as it stands, constitutes a complete surrender of any claim to systematic exercise of Dutch jurisdiction, would be actually true. That the Dutch exercised no jurisdiction over the Indians beyond these posts seems clear. That they had •some sort of relation with those Indians is, however, equally plain. The question remains, what was the nature of that relation ? A few extracts from the British Case will make this plain. No Dutch author- Some of those already given show that in order to secure the attendance of Indian Chiefs in Essequibo, in vitations, not summonses, were sent to them. The British Case makes a number of references to what it calls the summoning of these Chiefs ; but, as in the case of the Barima Chief who was alleged to have been summoned, and who turned out to have been merely 1 British Case, p. 89, lines 37-41. ity over Indians. POLITICAL CONTROL. 103 invited, each of these alleged cases of " summonses " will No Dutch author- ity over Indians. be found to be unsupported by the evidence. The fact that Indians were thus invited and not sum moned is a first indication as to the real nature of Dutch- Indian relations. It shows that the Dutch did not as sume over the Indians that command which is an essen tial element of sovereignty. This attitude of the Dutch toward the Indians is emphasized by the following extracts from the British Case : " In 1680 and 1683, the Company's negro traders are found " endeavoring to put an end to a native war."1 and, " Upon this occasion also the Commander used his influence to " prevent a continuance of disorder."2 also, "The Commandeur of Essequibo at once gave directions to " the Postholder of Arinda to induce the Caribs in the neigh- " bourhood of that Post to take up arms."3 and again, "The' Governor of Berbice having expressed a wish for their " assistance, the Caribs of Barima, etc."4 And many more to- the same effect, both in the British Case itself and in its Appendices. This manner of dealing with the Indians implies a Dutch-Indian state of friendship rather than a condition of allegiance or servitude. This was in fact what was sought by the Dutch and what actually at times existed. It was a friendship without any obligation to assist on the part of the Indians. It was an alliance for the mutual bene fit of both without any thought on the part of the Indians that they were surrendering their freedom or that they were recognizing Dutch sovereignty. The evidence iBritish Case, p. 84, line 50 ; p. 85, lines 1-2. 2British Case, p. 85, lines 8-10. "British Case, p. 94, lines 15-18. ¦•British Case, p. 94, lines 30-32. 104 DUTCH ADMINISTRATION. Dutch-Indian which might be cited in support of these statements from the very documents submitted by Great Britain is overwhelming. For the present, the statements of the British Case itself are quite sufficient. These are some of them : " The permission to trade with the Indians at and near the " Post gave the Postholders exceptional facilities for cultivating "friendly relations with those tribes."1 " The instructions to the Postholder at Arinda issued in 1764, " provided that he should try to maintain and cultivate friendly " and peaceable relations with the Indian nations."2 "In 1790 the Postholders are described as 'employes on the " ' frontier to foster the good understanding with the Indians'."3 " The West India Company * * * directed * * * a " notification to be given to the effect that the Dutch * * * " desired to live on more friendly terms with them."* " In 1775 the Director-General wrote that the only use of the " Post of Arinda was to conciliate the Indians."6 It was to foster this sort of friendship that the Dutch made presents to the Indians ; and it was in that spirit that the Indians themselves accepted the presents. The following are statements of the British Case on this point : " The earliest reference to this subject notices that such gifts " were required ' to keep on friendly terms with the Chiefs of " the Indians'."6 " The object of these presents was to insure the assistance of " the tribes in case of negro revolt, and to attract them to the " neighbourhood of the Dutch Post.'"1 But even this friendship was by no means either constant or exclusive. The Caribs were at times the iBritish Case, p. 88, lines 20-23. 2 British Case, p. 88, lines 40-43. 8British Case, p. 89. lines 34-36. 4British Case, p. 91, lines 30-40. 5British Case, p. 89, lines 30-33. °British Case, p. 90, lines 14-17. 'British Case, p. 92, lines 7-10. POLITICAL CONTROL. 105 friends, but at times also the enemies of the Dutch. Dutch-Indian en- mity. They attacked Dutch settlements and posts; they allied themselves with French and English against the Dutch; the very Barima Caribs, of whose alleged control the British Case makes so much, were the ones who guided the French from the Barima to the Pomeroon in 1689, and who helped in the destruction of the new Dutch Colony there. This examination of Dutch -Indian relations might be Spanish-Indian supplemented by an account of Spanish-Indian rela- tions, showing that Spain was in truth the recognized sovereign of the Indians ; that her rule over them was a rule depending not on friendship nor acquiescence, but upon force exerted by a ruler over subjects. Such an account seems, however, to be quite unnecessary, for, with or without it, the fact remains that the Dutch never claimed to be sovereigns over the Indians, that they never treated the Indians as subjects, that the two were at times bitter enemies, and that at best they were quondom friends and allies, nothing more. BRITISH ADMINISTRATION. The section on " Dutch Administration " is followed, Great Britain . . . . . ,.. merely a successor in the British Case, by one on " British Administration, of the Dutch. It should be carefully noted that no claim has ever been made, and that no claim is now made, by Great Britain to any territory beyond that alleged to have belonged to the Dutch in 1814, and to have at that time constituted " the establishments of Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice" If Great Britain is to-day entitled to all the territory east of the Schomburgk Line, it must be because that territory belonged to the Dutch when Great Britain took possession of Essequibo, not because Great Britain subsequently extended the limits of the Colony 106 BRITISH ADMINISTRATION. Great Britain either by occupation or control. This is the position merely a successor J •*¦ of the Dutch. which Great Britain has always admitted that she occu pied ; this is the position which Venezuela has always insisted that Great Britain should be held to ; and this is the principle which the present treaty of arbitration has adopted in Article III as the keystone in the whole controversy. The question of British Administration is therefore material only so far as it shows that the Dutch Administration was continued. Any new eontrol or new exercise of jurisdiction, which was unknown to the Dutch, must be disregarded, no matter how perfect it might be possible to show it to have become in British hands. The British Case admits this in the opening statement of the section on British Administration; it says, " When entering upon the government of the Colonies captured " from the Dutch, the British authorities in their dealings with " the Indian races of the country carried on the system of their " predecessors, preserving, as far as possible, an absolute contin- " uity both of policy and administration.1 And later, speaking of Schomburgk's surveys, it adds, " It is important to notice that Schomburgk did not discover " or invent any new boundaries. He took particular care to " fortify himself with the history of the subject. He had further, "from actual exploration and information obtained from the " Indians, as well as from the evidence of local remains as at " Barima, and local traditions as on the Cuyuni, ascertained the " limits of Dutch possession, and the zone from which all trace " of Spanish influence was absent. On such data he based his re- " ports."2 It is difficult to understand how, in view of these and similar statements, which after all merely reiterate what Great Britain has said over and over again, any import ance whatever can be attached to any British extension iBritish Case, p. 99, lines 1-8. sBritish Case, p. 121, lines 22-32. POLITICAL CONTROL. 107 of jurisdiction, or to certain alleged acts of British con- of^ui^ictto^'om trol which constitute, without question, a wholly new de parture, with nothing in Dutch precedent to sanction them : yet the British Case distinctly says : " The exercise of jurisdiction over disputes and offences by " British officers and courts of law was greatly extended by the " British, and was readily submitted to by the Indians, tacitly in " most cases, but sometimes in consequence of an express agree- " ment with a tribal Chief."1 Not only so, the British Case goes further ; it refers to and relies upon jurisdictional acts which are either admittedly or demonstrably new. For instance, it says : " After the British finally took possession of the Dutch Colo- " nies, Magistrates were appointed to deal summarily with small " offences, and the number of instances of the exercise of juris- " diction, of which a record has been preserved, is much greater, " as will appear in the subsequent part of this chapter dealing " with the British period. In the Dutch period it was only in " the case of the more important crimes that the Dutch Courts " assumed the task of trying the offender."* And again, " It will be found that in British times the Postholders " travelled largely through the districts round their Posts and " exercised magisterial functions. During the Dutch period it " does not appear that they habitually did so."3 Among new acts of jurisdiction which have been practiced by Great Britain, and which were wholly un known to the Dutch, is the appointment of Indian Cap tains by the Colonial Government. The British Case at various times speaks of this new practice as though it were something dating very far back, into Dutch times; but in reality it is wholly British, as the following ex tract from a letter of Superintendent McClintock, dated March 27, 1869, will show : 'British Case, p. 101, lines 34-39. 2British Case, p. 86, lines 34-44. "British Case, p. 89, lines 36-41. 108 BRITISH ADMINISTRATION. British extension. " Previous to Missions being established among the aborigines of jurisdiction. (< rf .^ digtrictj theil. oaptains, or Chiefs, were always selected " by themselves, and the men possessing the art of conjurer — or, " according to the people's belief, the power of destroying the " lives of others by their incantations and prayers — were in- " variably chosen to fill the office. This system proving such a bar- " rier to everything calculated to ameliorate their then degraded " condition, the conjurers having so much influence over their " respective tribes as to induce them to set their faces, so to " speak, against all kind of instruction, and seeing, as I did, the " necessity for some interference, I brought matters under the " notice of Sir Henry Light, the then Governor of the Colony, " expecting the difficulties to be overcome before any permanent " good for the Indians could be achieved. With the view, there- " fore, of removing, if not to suppress entirely, the then prevailing " influence of the Chiefs, I suggested to his Excellency Sir " Henry Light that they should at once be disposessed of all au- " thority to nominate captains, and the power of making such " appointments should be vested in the Executive ; this arrange- " ment, which has been acted upon to the present time, has " proved most beneficial." 1 In Dutch times the Indians selected their own Chiefs, and such authority as was vested in them emanated from the Indians themselves. The gewgaws, which these Chiefs at times received from the Dutch authorities, tickled their vanity, and their recognition as Chiefs by the Dutch probably gave them a feeling of still greater satisfaction ; but never did they, nor the Dutch for that matter, suppose that such act conferred any authority on the Chief. The Chief was the principal man of his family or tribe, and it was precisely because he was Chief that the Dutch courted his friendship. The British, however, actually made Chiefs. There is a vast difference between recognizing and making. One is a creative act, the other a mere acquiescence in what already is. An enemy or an independent sovereign 1 British Case, App. VI., p. 209. POLITICAL CONTROL. 109 may be recognized — only a subject can be made a ,Brit.is?. ^tension J ° J d of jurisdiction. magistrate. Something else wholly new and unknown to the Dutch Administration were the visits to the Waini and Barima of the Superintendent of Creeks and Rivers. The first of these was in 1 839, twenty years after the Treaty of London. The occasion for this arose out of a condition of things which is thus explained by the British Case : " In 1837 the Court of Policy decided that it would no longer " defray the cost of the distribution of presents by the Post- " holders, and in 1838 Governor Light spoke of the Indian sub- " sidy as entirely discontinued. In consequence of this by the " following year no Indians were to be found residing at the " Posts who could be considered as attached to them." 1 That is to say, the Indians who had up to that time lived at the Moruca Post left that post in 1838 be cause they got no more presents from the British, and wandered off to the Waini and Barima. In order to hold these Indians, and to secure laborers for the British plantations along the Arabian coast, the Superintendent of Creeks and Rivers in 1839 went for the first time into the region beyond the Moruca, seeking to foster among the late residents of the Pomeroon and the Moruca who had gone there, a feeling that it was to their interest to have the British continue to look out for them. These visits are in themselves wholly unimportant, and were undertaken and effected without any knowledge of them on the part of Venezuela ; but above all they were something wholly new, something in sharp contrast to the conduct of the former Dutch postholders, who had received as a part of their regular instructions an order not to leave their posts to go to the Indians, but to en deavor to attract the Indians to the posts. 1 British Case, p. 105, lines 39-47. 110 BRITISH ADMINISTRATION. Schomburgk sur- jfc is we[\ to note in this connection that the first inti- vey first notice of British extension. rnation which Venezuela received of the presence of any British in the Barima- Waini region was at the time of the Schomburgk survey in 1841 ; that she at once pro tested against it ; that in consequence of that protest the boundary posts erected by Schomburgk were re moved ; and that very shortly thereafter, in order to prevent any new British aggression into that region, the agreement of 1850 was concluded, by which Great Britain bound herself to keep out of it. That put an end to any claim of " British control" there. Before leaving this subject, it is also important to note that these visits of the Superintendent of Creeks and Rivers, even while they lasted, were confined to the coast region. There is no record of any such visits into the Cuyuni or Mazaruni. Not even the British Ad ministration ever extended there. A further consideration of British Administration would seem to be unnecessary. If only Dutch territory is to be awarded to Great Britain, and if the political control which the Dutch exercised never extended to the Waini nor to the Barima nor beyond the lowest falls of the Cuyuni, Mazaruni and Essequibo rivers, it can make no difference whatever how far British con trol may subsequently have gone. That no erroneous impression may, however, be left upon the minds of the Arbitrators respecting the real nature of even this new and extended " British Adminis tration," it may be wise, before concluding, to say that the facts alleged by Great Britain respecting it fail wholly to show any exercise of real control either in the Barima- Waini region or in the Cuyuni-Mazaruni basin. As during Dutch times, so in British times, the only POLITICAL CONTROL. 11 I Indians who can in any sense be considered as under Only Indians con trolled were those British influence were those about the posts or in the near posts. immediate neighborhood of the Dutch settlement. The British Case recognizes this when it makes the follow ing statements : " The Indians had, on the defeat of their protectors and rulers-, " the Dutch, retired to the remote districts of the interior. It " was the aim of the British Government to attract them, as far " as possible, to the more populated districts of the coast, an " object which as time went on was gradually attained."1 Again, " Each postholder was bound to keep an accurate journal of " occurrences at his Post, which he was to transmit quarterly to " the Protector of Indians in his district — a new officer whose " position and duties will presently be considered. He was to " attach the Indians to the Post and to endeavour to preserve " peace and order among them."2 Again, " When the British took possession of the Colonies of Essequibo " and Demerara, the subsidy which the Dutch had from early " times been accustomed to pay to the natives was, in the first " instance, neglected. The Indians received no presents, and " obtained no signs of that esteem and friendship which had " been shown them by the Dutch, and consequently they retired " further inland. This fact was quickly observed, and its pos- " sible consequences in the event of trouble with the slave popu lation were pointed out. Presents for 1,000 Indians were ac- " cordingly ordered from Europe, and the date was fixed for a " general distribution. The Court of Policy also resolved that " the Postholders should, for the purpose of attracting Indians " to the Post, distribute small presents from time to time so that, " in case of need, the services of the Indians might be more " readily obtainable."3 Again, " The principal field of labour of the Indians from the year 1805 " onwards was the district extending from the Essequibo to the 1 British Case, p. 99, lines 8-14. 8 British Case, p. 99, lines 33-41. 8 British Case, p." 104, lines 8-27. 112 BRITISH ADMINISTRATION. Only Indians con- " Moruka. The position of the Post in the Moruka was, in the trolled were those .. „,,, j _ i_ j _ ¦ L near posts. " beginning of that year, ordered to be removed to a point more " advantageous for keeping up communication with the Indians. " In 1811 the Court of Policy settled a scale of annual payment " to be made for the services of Indians employed at all the Posts. " Other regulations as to Indian labour were left to the Protectors " of Indians."1 Indians their own Again it should be noted that, even after the coming avengers. ° ° of the British, the Indians continued to be their own avengers, keeping in their own hands the execution of their own laws instead of submitting to British author ity. The British Case itself states that, " The early days of British administration produced no imme- " diate change in the custom of the Indians to exact the penalty " of life for life in every case in which a white inhabitant did not " step in to buy off the avenger."2 And, apparently, as though it were an act showing the exercise of jurisdiction and proving the existence of sovereignty, the British Case adds that " It was not unusual for the Protector or the Postholder to buy " off the animosity of the friends of an Indian who had met with " his death under circumstances which afforded no grounds for " the institution of a prosecution."3 It is difficult to understand how buying off a criminal can prove political control over him. British - Indian That, like the Dutch, the British regarded the Indians friendship. ° as friends and allies, not as subjects, and that the presents given them were merely for the purpose of retaining this friendship and of protecting themselves against their possible hostility (savoring indeed of the nature of tribute) is shown by the following statements of the British Case : "In the autumn of 1810 a Carib Chief from the Upper Esse- " quibo or the Bupununi, with his followers, visited the capital. 1 British Case, p. 107, lines 26-36. 2 British Case, p. 101, lines 22-26. 8 British Case, p. 101, lines 29-33. Political control. 113 "He had previously sent an envoy, who had received certain British-Indian " presents from the Governor. He now came in person, and the Jnends "P- " Governor represented to the Court of Policy the desirability of " preventing him from making war in the remoter districts of the " Colony for the purpose of obtaining slaves. An agreement was " accordingly made by which the Chief bound himself to refrain " from doing this, and to live in peace and friendship with the " white settlers. The Colonial Government, on their part, under- " took to give the Chief certain presents, some at once, and others " annually when called for."1 Also, "When the British Government entirely abolished negro " slavery the dangers of such risings were regarded as past, and " the subsidies to the Indians were accordingly discontinued."8 It is thus seen that whether regarded as something new and unprecedented, or as something old and a con tinuation of Dutch practices, "British Administration" beyond the Moruca on the coast, and beyond the falls of the Cuyuni, Mazaruni and Essequibo in the interior, is something which did not exist until within the last few years, when in violation of the agreement of 1850 Great Britain had invaded the teiritory in dispute. The section on "Area Controlled " which follows the Area Controlled. one on " British Administration " in the British Case seems hardly to require consideration at this time. Its statements are largely a repetition of those already con sidered. Many of those statements Venezuela believes to be erroneous in fact and misleading in form ; but it is believed that in the chapter already examined her own views on the subject of political control have been sufficiently set forth to make perfectly clear her attitude toward it. 1 British Case, p. 104, lines 37-49; p. 105, lines 1-3. 8 British Case, p. 106, lines 13-17. VI.— CONCLUSION. In the preceding chapters an effort has been made to Purpose of the . . preceding chapters present the facts alleged in the British Case in such a manner as to leave the main issues more clearly defined. Many statements of that Case have been passed un noticed because, however important in themselves, their bearing on the points actually under discussion was not apparent. Some of those statements have been con sidered and commented upon by Senor Dr. Rafael Seijas, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of A7enezuela. The results of his examination, contained in two able papers, are published in the Appendix to this Counter-Case.1 The remaining chapters of the British Case deal with the diplomatic negotiations between Venezuela and Great Britain, with the Schomburgk Line, Avith the sub ject of maps, and with some of the principles of law involved in the controversy. Some of these subjects have already been treated by Venezuela in her Case. Her views on all of them have been defined ; and hence their further discussion may properly be deferred until the time of the printed and oral arguments. In connection with the subject of maps, a second Maps. atlas has been prepared to accompany this Counter- Case, and to rebut the allegation of the British Case that," the view of map-makers, other than Spanish and Venezuelan, " is absolutely inconsistant with the Venezuelan claim."3 This new atlas contains maps by well known French, German, Dutch, Italian and even British map-makers, 'Venezuelan Counter-Case, Vol. 3, documents numbered 137 and 138. SBritish Case, p. 140, lines 28-31. 116 CONCLUSION. Maps. to say nothing of Spanish and Venezuelan, showing lines favorable to Venezuela's claim. In this connection, too, and also as showing the cartographic origin of the Schomburgk Line, a report on the Cartographical Testimony of Geographers, prepared for the United States Commission in 1896 by its Secretary, is reprinted in the Appendix to this Counter-Case.1 A full discussion of the points covered by that report, as also of the relation of the Schomburgk Line to this controversy, will be deferred to the time of argument. Legal Principles Another subject which would seem to belong to the arguments, rather than to the Counter-Case, is the ques tion of legal principles involved. The principles upon which Venezuela relies are believed to be sufficiently indicated by the general statements in her Case and Counter-Case. There is one point however which, since the British Case refers to it at some length, it may be well briefly to touch upon at this time. No direct reference to it has heretofore been made by Venezuela, except in the diplomatic correspondence published in Papal Bull of 1493 the Appendix to her Case; that point relates to the Papal Bull of 1493. Papal authority, as a basis of territorial title, might not avail if attempted to be exercised now at the close of this nineteenth century : it was far other wise at the close of the fifteenth. During the middle ages, and until after the discovery of America, the Pope was the recognized arbiter of the civilized world : his word was in those days supreme. Whatever may be thought now of the logic of it, there can be no two views as to the fact itself, nor as to the benefits which accrued therefrom to civilization. What there was of international law in the dark ages was in the keeping 1 Venezuelan Counter-Case, Vol. 2, pp. 267-311. CONCLUSION. 117 of the Holy See. Sovereign princes did not hesitate to Papal Bull of 1493. surrender their dominions into the Pope's hands, and to receive them back as his acknowledged vassals, bound to him by feudal ties. As Mr. Harrisse points out in his recent work on The Diplomatic History of America, there is good reason for believing that Great Britain's title to Ireland has its foundation in a Papal grant;1 and it is a fact quite beyond dispute that Henry II "placed his own Kingdom of England and all its dependencies under the pontifical sovereignty."3 Henry VII, in 1485, and again in 1493, sent embassies of obedience to Rome to the very Pope3 (Alexander VI) whose Bull regarding America is now so lightly esteemed by Great Britain. Four centuries have indeed wrought great changes. The thoughts and ideals of those days are past. New forces rule the world, and new laws direct its destiny ; but to judge those days by the standards of these would be to judge falsely. Even after her separation from the Church of Rome, England recognized, by acts, if not by words, the power of the Holy See and the validity of Papal acts. Notwithstanding English settle ment, or English occupation along the coast of North America, England was not unwilling, in 1670, to receive from Spain a release of Spanish title to those regions. That it was thought worth while to obtain such a release is in itself significant. The statements of the British Case in connection with this subject of Papal Bulls are both incomplete and inaccurate, but their discussion may profitably be postponed to the time of argument. In closing this Counter-Case, the Government of Vene- c , . 1 The Diplomatic History of America by Henry Harrisse, p. 42. 2 The Diplomatic History of America by Henry Harrisse, p. 43. 8 The Diplomatic History of America by Henry Harrisse, p. 44. 118 CONCLUSION. Conclusion. zuela once more affirms its right to the boundary line claimed in its Case. It believes that the statements of the Biitish Case, and the evidence submitted therewith, tend to confirm and strengthen that claim. It flatters itself that the declared purpose of this Counter Case has been accomplished. The British lines of defense have been seen : their strength and their weakness have been measured : the strategic points have been revealed. With the issues thus defined it believes that the way has been cleared for the arguments which are to apply the final test. J. M. de ROJAS, Agent of Venezuela. Washington, D. C, August 15, 1898. ERRATA. In the Case of Venezuela : Vol. 1, p. 210, line 3, for Fortique read cle Rojas. " 1, p. 210, " 23, " Amacura " Moruca. " 1, p. 210, " 26, " Amacura " Moruca. VENEZUELA-BRITISH GUIANA BOUNDARY ARBITRATION THE COUNTER-CASE OF THE UNITED STATES OF VENEZUELA BEFORE THE TRIBUNAL OF ARBITRATION To Convene at Paris UNDER THE Provisions of the Treaty between the United States of Venezuela and Her Britannic Majesty Signed at Washington February 2, 1897 VOLUME 2 APPENDIX PART 1 NEW YORK The Evening Post Job Printing House, 156 Fulton Street 1S98 CONTENTS. PAGE Introductory note v No. 1. Report as to the meaning of Articles V and VI of the treaty of Munster; by George Lincoln Burr 1 No. 2. Report as to the territorial rights of the Dutch West India Company; by George Lincoln Burr 17 No. 3. Report on the evidence of Dutch archives as to European occupation and claims in Western Guiana; by George Lincoln Burr 29 No. 4. On the Historical Maps; by George Lincoln Burr 211 No. 5. Report upon Maps from Official Sources; by George Lincoln Burr 231 No. 6. Report upon the Cartographical testimony of Geographers; by Severo Mallet-Prevost 267 (ii.) INTRODUCTORY NOTE. This volume is wholly made up of reprints. It is composed of six reports, all prepared for, submitted to and originally printed by the United States Commission appointed to investigate and report upon the true divisional line between Venezuela and British Guiana. Of these six reports five were prepared by Professor George Lincoln Burr, of Cornell University, in 1896 and 1897. One was prepared, in 1896, by Mr. Severo Mallet-Prevost, then Secretary of the Commission. These reports are here reprinted without change, printing errors excepted. The indented figures with accompanying asterisks indicate the pages of the original. The foot notes are, of course, those of the original, except such changes of reference as were found necessary to avoid confusion. As to certain matters these reports contain original testimony. The statement by Professor Burr that "the name of the fort, Kykoveral, which does not appear in the records before 1644 is thereafter constantly met," is an example of such testimony. It has been deemed more useful to reprint, for the convenience of the Tribunal, the entire reports than to select therefrom merely those passages which, strictly speaking, are entitled to be classed as evidence. (?) No. 1. "Report as to the meaning of Articles V and VI of the Treaty of #73 Munster. By George Lincoln Burk. I have been asked by the Commission to investigate and report as to the meaning of that clause in the Treaty of Munster between Spain and the Netherlands, signed January 30, 1648, which provides for the possession by the Spaniards and the Dutch, respectively, not only of "such lordships, cities, castles, fortresses, commerce, and countries in the East and West Indies, as also in Brazil aud on the coasts of Asia, Africa, and America, respectively, as the said Lords, the King and the States respectively, hold and possess," but also " comprehending therein particularly the places and forts which the Portuguese have taken from the Lords, the States, since the year 1641 ; as also the forts and the places which the said Lords, the States, shall chance to acquire and possess after this, without infraction of the present Treaty "; and of the kindred clause, in the following article, which provides that " among the places held by the said Lords, the States, shall be comprehended the places in Brazil which the Portuguese took out of the hands of the States, and have been in possession of ever since the year 1641. As also all the other places which they possess at present, so long as they shall continue in the hands of the *said Portuguese, anything *74 contained in the preceding Article notwithstanding."1 The question to which my attention is especially asked, whether these clauses gave the Dutch liberty to make fresh acquisitions in territory claimed by the Spaniards, but held by aborigines; or whether they applied only to lands held by the Portuguese. In order to a conclusion, I have addressed my study to the following points: 1. What was meant by the words translated "forts and places"? The treaty was drawn in French and in Dutch, the two versions being of equal authority.8 The Dutch expected a controversy on this point, and 1 This translation into English, which is that printed in the British Blue-Book (" Venezuela No. 1," pp. 6, .), is open, as will appear in the course of this report, to serious objections. It is borrowed, doubtless, from the standard old Collection of all the Treaties . . . between Great Britain and other Powers published at London in 1785 by Debrett. At least the translation there given (i, pp. 14, 15) is the same, save for a slight correction or two. The palpable error " upon " for ' and on " (following •' Brazil "), common to both, is corrected in the above transcript. There is also here omitted from their enumeration of " lordships, cities, castles, towns, fortresses, countries, and commerce," the word " towns," which has nothing answering to it in the original ; and " commerce " is restored to its proper place, before " countries." 2 Aitzema, Saken .utch been disposed to invoke the Treaty of Munster against Spanish aggressions, they surely could have had no more tempting occasion than was given by the assaults on the Essequibo posts during the latter half of the eighteenth century. Yet I find neither in the protests of the West India Com pany and of the States-General nor in the diplomatic correspondence with Spain any allusion to that treaty. Once, indeed (September 2, 1754), the governor of the Essequibo colony asked the Company if the boundary between Holland and Spain in Guiana were not regulated by the Treaty of Munster ; but they were obliged to reply (January 6, 1755) that neither in that treaty nor in any other could they find anything about it. 14 NO. 1. Jacques Basnage, theologian and historian, was one of the foremost trained diplomatists of Holland in the early eighteenth century. His share was large in the negotiation of the Treaty of Utrecht, which re- *93 affirmed the provisions of the Treaty of *Munster. Just at the close of his life he published at The Hague his huge Annals of the United Provinces, and in it he subjects the Treaty of Munster to careful analysis.1 " By the third article," he says, " each was to preserve its property." And then, a little after, speaking of the fifth, " The same thing was to hold in the Indies, both East and West. And included therein were the towns which the States-General had taken in Brazil from the Portuguese since 1641; or which they should take in future " [La meme chose devoit s'observer aux Indes tant Orientales qu' Occigentales. Et on y comprenoit les Villes que les Etats- Generaux avoient ocupes [sic] au Bresil sur les Portugais depuis Fan 164.1 ; ou quHls ocuperoient [sic] a Vavenir]. The error as to the con dition of things in Brazil is palpable; but the interpretation of the treaty is none the less clear. And the Comte de Garden, perhaps the best known of the general his torians of diplomacy, in his General History of Treaties of Peace, writes:2 By this Article [V] Spain abandoned to the Dutch all the conquests which they had made over the Portuguese in the different parts of the world while Portugal was a province of the Spanish monarchy. This sacrifice was not great on the part of the Spaniards; since 1640 they had vainly been striving to subject Portugal, and they could consequently flatter themselves little with the hope of recovering these distant possessions. So they made no difficulty about ceding also to the Dutch, by this same Article V, their rights to all the forts and places which the Portuguese had taken from them, since 1641, in Brazil, and likewise also to the forts and places which the Dutch could conquer thereafter without infringing the present treaty— that is to say, which they could conquer from the Portuguese in the Indies and in America " [* * * " de meme que sur les lieux et places que les Hollandais pourraient conquerir dans la suite, sans infraction au present traite, c'est-a-dire qu ils pourraient conquerir sur les Portugais, aux Indes et en Amerique "]. *94 * Postscript. —I am happy to be able to add what amounts to an official Spanish exposition of this article of the treaty of Munster. When, toward the close of the eighteenth century, Spain grew impatient of the fetters put upon her trade in the East Indies by the clause of this article forbidding her " to go further," and when her efforts on behalf of her Philippine Company were met by protest from the Netherlands, she tried to stir Dutch generosity by pointing out in detail the greatness of her own concessions in this treaty. Thus argue the Spanish diplomatists in their memorial transmitted to the Dutch States-General on Decem ber 4, 1786: 1 Basnage, Annates des Provinces- Unies (La Haye, 1726), vol. i, p. 102. 2 Garden, Histoire generate des Trails de Paix, vol. i, pp. 1 68, 1 69. No. 1. " The condition of affairs in the two Indies, and especially in the East, when the negotiations for the Peace of Westphalia were begun, was as fol lows: The Dutch wished by that Treaty to retain not only all the conquests they had made in the Indies, but even, with the help of Spain, to obtain and secure a right to the reconquest of what had been conquered from them under the new Portuguese Government. In point of fact Spain alone, by reason of her rights to the Crown of Portugal, could have a right to the conquests belonging to that crown in the East and West Indies; and hence it was Spain which could concede these to the States-General of the United Provinces. Inspired by that aim, the Dutch plenipotentiary sought, in the negotiations which preceded the Treaty of Westphalia, or Munster, to win over the Spanish plenipotentiaries to the expediting of the Peace, cajoling them with the plea that the Portuguese, if attacked in the Indies by the subjects of the United Netherlands, would be the less able to defend them selves in the Spanish peninsula, and thereby the conquest of Portugal would be the easier for Spain. "France, which on the one hand had supported the revolt and inde pendence of the Netherlanders, and on the other hand had aided and abetted that of the Portuguese, was startled by the negotiations carried on between the Dutch and Spanish envoys. France and Holland had agreed not to make peace the one without the other; but the French plenipotentiary, the Comte dAvaux, found out that the Dutch deputies had almost completed their Treaty, and they confessed to him that the three points which had remained unsettled were nearly arranged. The first of these points was that Spain should restrict her limits in *the East Indies to those which she then possessed, conceding or "*95 leaving to the Dutch the conquests in all the remainder; and out of this arose the alienation of the French plenipotentiary." The Spanish memorial then quotes in full the significant passage from the letter to Mazarin, 1 and resumes its argument thus: " From this passage it is very clearly to be seen that the sole object and thought of Holland in the Congress of Munster, as regards the East Indies, was to obtain from Spain an agreement not to extend her limits there; to re strict herself to what she then occupied and to leave to the Dutch the con quests which they might be able to win from the Portuguese, without thought of forbidding the Spaniards to carry on their trade by whatever route might suit them. This same object is that which appears with the utmost clearness in Article V of the Treaty of Munster. . . . " The second point agreed on was that Spain and the States General should remain in possession of what they respectively occupied at the time of the treaty in both the East and the West Indies, as also in Brazil and on the coasts of Asia, Africa and America; this point follows literally the pro vision in Articles III and IV of the truce of 1609 and in the instructions of the Spanish plenipotentiaries. The third point was that the States-General should preserve their possession and rights as to the forts and places which the Portuguese had taken from them since the year 1641, as also to the forts and places which the said States shall come to conquer there here after ['llegassen a conquistar de alii adelante'] without infraction of the present Treaty. This exorbitant concession made by Spain to Holland was that which the [French] plenipotentiaries in the Congress of Munster corn- 1 Printed on pp. *86, *87, above. 16 No. 1. plained of, as we have quoted in the words of the historian of the Peace of Westphalia; but it is to be noted that, according to this same Article V, the navigation, traffic, possession, and rights of conquest conceded to the States-General must he without infraction of the present Treaty, which is the same as to say that they must not conflict with the navigation, traffic, possession, and rights reserved likewise to Spain in both the Indies and on the coasts of Africa, Asia, and America. . . . Spain was to retain by this article all that she possessed on the coasts of Asia, Africa and *96 America, and all the rights which on these coasts have '^pertained or do pertain to the Crown, except what was taken and occupied by the Portuguese from the States-General. . . . The Dutch plenipoten tiaries strenuously urged the permanent sanction, by a treaty framed for the navigation of the East and West Indies, of what Spain and Portugal had, up to the temporary concession in the Truce of 1609, refused and opposed, obtaining at Munster the enormous concession that they should acquire as their own their new conquests, receiving under certain circum stances those made by Spain." [" obteniendo en Munster la condecenden- cia exorbitante de que adquiriessen privativamente las Nuevas Conquistas dexando las hechas a la Espafia en tales circunstancias."] Grave are these concessions, and significant the quotation, without a word of protest, of that comment of the French envoys1 which puts the widest interpretation upon this clause of the Treaty of Munster; but it is still clear that, even as a basis for an appeal to Dutch generosity, the Span iards are not themselves disposed to accord it so broad a meaning. An swer from the Dutch side to this document there is none to be found in the records. 3 It seems fair, then, to conclude that: 1. It is improbable that, in the intent of itsframers and its ratifiers, the Treaty of Munster conceded to the Dutch a right to win from the natives lands claimed by Spain. 2. It does not appear that it was ever interpreted in this sense by either Spain or the Dutch. George L. Burr. Washington, April, 1896. 1 See page *87 above. 2 The Spanish original of this memorial, as transmitted by the Dutch ambassador at Madrid, may be found in the Dutch Rijksarchief at the Hague among the diplomatic correspondence of Fagel, Secre tary of the States-General, in the volume marked " Spanje : Secrete Brieven, 1756-1796." A Dutch translation of the whole document, but without the Spanish original, may be found printed in the Secrete Resolulien of the Estates of Holland, under January 19, 1787. The clauses italicized in the translation above given are, of course, thus italicized in the manuscript. 17 No. 2. *Report as to the Territorial Eights oi the Dutch West India Com- *99 pany. By George Lincoln BoB.it. In the course of the controversy over the Guiana boundary it has been alleged (1) that the charters of the Dutch West India Company named the river Orinoco as one of the limits of its grant, and (2) that within the limits of the grant these charters gave territorial jurisdiction. Thus the British Blue Book "Venezuela No. 1" states (p. 5): In 1621 the Charter of the Dutch West India Company was granted by the States-General. . . . This Charter, reaffirmed in 1637, gave the Orinoco as the limit of the Company's territorial jurisdiction. And again (p. 7): After the Treaty of Munster, fresh regulations were again issued by the States- General to the Dutch West India Company, in which the Orinoco is again treated as the limit of its jurisdiction. And yet again (p. 8): In 1674 the Charter of the West India Company was renewed, and in the preamble the Colonies of Essequibo and Pomeroon were enumer ated, the limit of the Company's jurisdiction being still fixed at the river Orinoco. *To determine the grounds for these statements, and to learn *100 what more in the grants to the Company might be pertinent to this question, I have, at the request of the Commission, made a careful study of the charters of the Company and of all the legislation of the States- General in its behalf, so far as printed in the great official collection of the States- General's acts.1 1 The Groot Plaeaat-Boek. This is the one source cited by the English Blue Book (save that, for the charter of 1674, it names only the ••Nederl. Jaer-Boek " of 1750). The copy I have used of the Groot Placaat-Boek is that in the Astor Library, printed at The Hague, by the public printer, at inter vals from 1658 to 1746, and breaking off with Volume Vf. at the year 1740. These volumes contain the legislation of the States-General from the beginning, together with many earlier documents (from 1097 on) bearing on the history of the Netherlands, and they include the most important acts of the pro vincial Estates of Holland and of Zeeland, as well as those of the States General— though, alas, not the entire legislation of any of these bodies. The work is very fully indexed ; but I have not trusted the index alone. Since completing this paper I have studied at Albany (in the State Library) the remainder of this series to 1794, together with a full set of the printed minutes of the Estates of Holland; aud at The Hague and in Middelburg have been able to consult the manuscript originals of these records. I have found, however, to supplement or modify the conclusions of this paper, nothing of importance. 18 No. 2. I. AS TO LIMITS. The Company received its first charter on June 3, 1621. This charter consists of forty-five articles. The only specification of limits is in Article I, whereby all outside the Company are prohibited from travel and trade (" te varen, ofte negotiernen, ofte eenigerhande traffijcq te drijven ") to the coasts and lands of Africa, from the Tropic of Cancer to the Cape of Good Hope, or furthermore, to the lands of America, beginning from the south end of Newfoundland through the straits of Magellan, Le Maire, or other straits and passages lying thereabout, to the Straits of An *101 Jan [corresponding to our Bering Strait],1 whether *to the North Sea or to the South Sea, or to any of the islands on the one side or on the other or lying between the two; or, moreover, to the Austra lian and southern lands, stretching and lying between the meridians of the Cape of Good Hope on the east, and on the west the east end of New Guinea, inclusive."2 It will be seen that there is here no mention of the Orinoco, nor in deed of any other American limit between Newfoundland on the one coast and Bering Strait on the other. The charter was meant, that is, to in clude the entire coast of America. Six days later, on June 9, 1621, there was again issued, by itself, this edict of prohibition,3 the specification of limits being couched in precisely the same terms as in the charter. On June 10, 1622, the salt trade within the Company's limits, which had not at first been included in their monop oly,4 was added to it; but the limits are themselves not specified, save by reference to the earlier documents. The main objective point of this salt trade was beyond the Orinoco— at Punta de Araya, near Cumana.5 On November 26, 1622, these prohibitions of June 9, 1621, and June 10, 1622, had to be renewed; but the territorial limits are not again specified. On February 13, 1623, the charter was slightly amplified;6 but *102 there was no change of limits, and therefore no mention *of these. Nor were they mentioned in the prohibition of May 24, 1624, 7 which forbade emigration or transport of emigrants save through the Company. 1 Strictly speaking, the Strait of An Jan is not laid down on the old maps at the same point as our Bering Strait; but that is only because the northern Pacific was unknown. As it was the strait supposed to divide America from Asia, it exactly coincides with Bering Strait as a limit. 2 Groot Placaat-Boek, vol. i, cols. 565-578. Cf. Aitzema, Saken van Staet en Oorlogh, vol. i, pp. 62- 66, where the charter is also printed in full; as also in Tjassens, Zee-Politie ('s Gravenhage, 1670), pp. 305-317. 8 Groot Placaat-Boek, i, cols. 577-580. There is in the Library of Congress an official contemporary impression of this Placaat (" in 's Gravenhage, by Hillebrant Iacobssz," 1621). It is from this that I have transcribed the extract above. i Groot Placaat-Boek, i, cols. 579-582. It is printed also by Aitzema, i, pp. 66, 67, and in part by Tjassens, pp. 317-318. * Gi-oot Placaat-Boek, i, cols. 581-584. '« Groot Placaat-Boek, i, cols. 583-586. Also in Aitzema, i, p. 67, and in Tjassens, pp. 318, 319. 7 Groot Placaat-Boek, i, cols. 595-598. 19 No. 2. And the form of government promulgated on October 13, 1629, 1 for the territorial acquisitions of the Company is equally without definition of limits. In thinking the charter "reaffirmed in 1637," the English Blue Book is in error. Granted for twenty-four years, it did not expire till 1645. Even then it was not at once renewed, for its friends sought strenuously the consolidation of the West India Company with the East, whose charter had also just run out.3 It was not until July 4, 1647, that the States-Gen eral promulgated the intelligence that on March 20 preceding they had pro longed for another quarter-century the charter of the West India Company. The limits were unchanged, and are not restated. When at the end of 1671 the charter again expired,3 it was thrice renewed for periods of eight months at a time, pending discussion, and naturally without any mention of territorial limits. The fate of the old Company had long been sealed, and on September 20, 1674 the States-General created by charter an entirely new one.4 Its terri torial limits wTere vastly narrower; "To wit, that within the period of this current century, and thereafter to the year 1700, 5 inclusive, no native or subject of these lands shall, otherwise than in the name of this United Company, be at liberty to sail or trade to the coasts and lands *of Africa, reckoning from the Tropic of Cancer to the latitude of *103 thirty degrees south of tbe Equator, including all the islands in that district lying on the aforesaid coasts, and especially the islands St. Thomas, Annebon, Isle de Principe, and Fernando Polo, together with the places [plaetsen] of Essequibo and Pomeroon, lying on the continent of America, and also the islands Curacao, Aruba, and Buonaire " ( . . . "midts- gadirs de plaetsen van Isekebe ende Bauwmerona aen het vaste Landt van America gelegen, als mede de Eylanden Curagao, Aruba ende Buonaire "). And that is all. Elsewhere in the old domain anybody might now trade. 6 1 Groot Placaat-Boek, ii, cols. 1235-1248. " Groot Placaat-Boek, i. Also in Aitzema, and in Tjassens, pp. 337, 338. s December 24, 1671 ; August 27, 1672 ; March 30, 1673. See the Groot Placaat-Boek, iii, pp. 1329, 1330. 4 Groot Placaat-Boek, iii, pp. 1331-1343. The official contemporary impression of The Hague, 1674, is in the Library of Congress, and it is that which I here transcribe. 5 The worthy legislators evidently counted the year 1700 a part of the next century. 8 Postscript.— This charter had been long iu process of creation. As early as June 7, 1669, it was under discussion in the provincial estates of Holland, the limits then suggested being precisely those later adopted. On April 2, 1674, this provincial body submitted to the States-General another draft, in which to the two places on the American mainland, Essequibo and Pomeroon, was added New Nether- land (which the Amsterdamers still hoped to regain from the English), and also a provision that the new West India Company might retain " such further places and districts on the American mainland as it should take actual possession of by the creation of forts, warehouses, or established trade" ("ende de verdere plaetsen ende districten aen het vaste Lant van America geleg'n, dewelcke inde Octroye aende voorgaende West Ind' Comp' vergunt ende mede onder denselven Limiten geeomprehendeert geweest syn, voor so veel dese nieuwe Generate West Ind' Comp' vande voorgenoemde verdere plaetsen ende districten dadelycke possessie door het maken van forten, Logien ofte gestabilieerden handel, komt te nemen, en^ te behouden"). But, in the new draft submitted by the Estates of Holland on August 13, 1674, this in teresting supplementary clause has dropped out. In those earlier forms, no more than in the finished charter, is there the slightest mention of the Orinoco. (See the printed minutes of the Holland Estates and the manuscript records of the States-General at The Hague.) 20 No. 2. On November 30, 1700, this charter was renewed for thirty years more (to date from January 1, 1701), without change or restatement of limits;1 and again, on August 8, 1730, for another thirty years (to date from January 1, 1731), still without change or restatement. 2 At the end of 1760 it was again renewed for a single year without change of limits, and *104 on *January 1, 1762, for thirty years more, expiring with the dis solution of the company at the close of the year 1791. 3 It is thus clear that, from beginning to end of its existence, the char ters of the Dutch West India Company never named the Orinoco as its limit. Yet in the renewal of 1700 there is a mention of that river which is at least of interest. Differing rates of toll had been established for cargoes to "New Netherland," to "the West Indies," and to "other places of America;"4 and now, " for the better elucidation of the aforesaid charter," the States- General "further explains" "that under the name of New Netherland" may be included "that part of North America which stretches westward and southward from the south end of Newfoundland to the Cape of Florida," while " under the name of West Indies are under stood the coasts and lands from the Cape of Florida to the river Orinoco, together with the Curacao Islands," and that by the phrase " the other places of America" (" de verdere plaetsen van America"), whether, "in the oldest or the preceding charter," " are denoted all the Caribbean islands —Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Eico included— together with all the coasts and lands from the River Orinoco aforesaid, through the straits of Magellan, Le Maire, or other straits and passages thereabouts, to the straits of Anjan," etc. It will hardly be claimed that the Orinoco is hereby made a boundary of the colony of Essequibo, for this would carry the other frontier to Ber ing Strait. And somewhat the same difficulty is offered by those enact ments of the fourth and fifth decades of the seventeenth century, in *105 which alone in all the "^legislation of the States- General I have else found a mention of the Orinoco. It is one of these— that of 1637— which the English Blue Book5 has in its text taken for a reaffirmation of the charter; and it is part of another which, by some confusion, it has re printed in its appendix. 6 The circumstances of these enactments seem to have been as follows: The policy of carrying the war with Spain into America had proved so popular, especially after the Dutch successes in Brazil and the capture of the Spanish silver fleet in 1628, that in 1632 it was found necessary to put 1 Groot Placaat-Boek, iv, pp. 1333, 1334. 2 Groot Placaat-Boek, vi, pp. 1401-1407. 8 I follow the contemporary official impression of this " Nader prolongatie van het Octroy ' (The Hague, 1761). Hartsinck, Beschryving van Guiana, i, p. 216, and Netscher, Geschiedenis van de Kolonien, p. 83, note, are both slightly in error as to these dates, * Groot Placaat-Boek, vi, pp. 1401-1407. 8 Blue Book, p. 5. ' Blue Book, p. 55. 21 No. 2. some restrictions on the privateers.1 At any rate, on May 14 of that year the States-General issued an enactment that for the space of one year (to the end of May, 1633) no armed ships " shall be free to sail to the coast of Africa, Brazil, or New Netherland, or elsewhere where the Company may have trade [daer de Compagnie Negotie soude mogen hebben], on any ac count whatsoever, nor under any pretext that may be urged - lack of pro visions, fresh water, or whatever else-on pain of the penalties prescribed in the charter against those who violate it :3 Yet shall the aforesaid ships prior to the date above named of the last of May, 1633, be free to sail to the West Indies, to wit, the river Orinoco, westward along the coast of Cartagena,3 Puerto Bello, Honduras, Campeachy, the Gulf of Mexico, and the coast of Florida, together with all the islands lying within *these *106 limits, in order there to carry on all manner of warfare, by sea and by land, against the King of Spain, his subjects and allies." A month or so after the expiration of this prohibition, on July 15, 1633, it was renewed,4 this time without restriction as to period, but with a notable change as to territory. Brazil is added to the permitted lands, while the clause defining "on any accountwhatsoever " (from " nor under any pretext" to " prescribed in the charter against those who violate it " —"noch" to " gestatueert ") is stricken out. Ships of war were now, therefore, prohibited only from sailing " to the coasts of Africa, or New Netherland, or elsewhere where the Company may have trade," but may sail " to the coasts of Brazil; likewise into the West Indies, to wit, the river Oronoco westward along the coast of Cartagena, Puerto Bello, Hon duras, Campeachy, the Gulf of Mexico, and the coast of Florida,"5 etc. It is this enactment of 1633 which is printed in part in the English Blue Book6 as " Regulations for the Dutch West India Company," and with the appended note that " there are some minute verbal alterations, not affect ing the sense, between the text of 1632 and that of 1633." It has been pointed out that the regulations are not for the Company, but for the " armed ships " of others; and I think it will appear that the transfer of Brazil from the prohibited coasts of the one edict to the permitted coasts of the other affects the sense at least enough to make it clear that the Orinoco is not meant as a limit of the Company's jurisdiction— for Brazil, in 1633 as in 1632, was the most highly valued and the most 1 Groot Placaat-Boek, i, cols. 599-602, and especially the note ; and Aitzema, i, pp. 67-69. It calls itself: " Ordre ende Reglement - - waer op ende waer naer alle gemonteerde sehepen uyl dese respective Provintien sullen vermoghen te varen in seecker ghedeelte ran de limiten van 't Octroy van de West-Indische Compagnie." s " Om geenderly oorsaecke, noch onder wat pretext sulcks sonde mogen gesehieden, 't zy van vervallen te zijn,faulte van Vivres, versch Water of andersinis, op de penen inden Octroy e tegens de Cbntraventeurs van dien gestatueert." 8 " Naer West-Indien, te weten de Riviere Oronocque, Weslwaerts langhs de Kuste van Cartagena. " * Groot Placaat-Boek, i, cols. 599-602. Cf. Aitzema, i, pp. 67-69, and Tjassens, pp. 319-323. 5 The Dutch text may be found on p. 55 of the English Blue Book. 6 Blue Book, p. 55. 22 No. 2. tenaciously held of all the Company's possessions. It is not as a *107 limit of *the West India Company, but as the first term in a defini tion of the West Indies, that the name of the Orinoco occurs; and a glance at the maps will show with what perfect geographical fitness, for the mouth of this river is precisely the point where the long line of the Caribbean islands, terminating in Trinidad, reaches the coast. And surely there are other reasons, besides those of boundary, which could make such a landmark as the great mouth of the Orinoco, beyond which to the east there were in any case by common confession no Spanish settlements, a wise limit for ships of war. It is, alas, not quite certain, as the Guiana coast is not mentioned either among those prohibited or those permitted, that it is not in both enactments included under " the coasts of Brazil." Much more susceptible of the interpretation here urged by the English Blue Book would seem another statute of the States- General, enacted in J635 and renewed in .637. 1 On January 6, 1635, " by advice and delibera tion of the Directors " of the West India Company, the States threw open to all subjects of the United Provinces the trade in " wood, tobacco, cattle, and all kinds of wares or merchandise in certain parts of the limits of the charter of the said Company," namely: . . . " The ships of the afore said subjects shall be free to sail to the West Indies: To wit, the river Orinoco, westward along the coast of Cartagena, Puerto Bello, Honduras, Campeachy, the Gulf of Mexico, and the coast of Florida, together with all the islands lying within these limits, but they shall on no account what soever be free to sail to the coast of Africa, nor to New Netherland, or elsewhere where the said Company has trade." . . . *108 And on October 16, 1637, this edict was renewed without *change of terms. 2 In both enactments Brazil is entirely iguored ; but on April 29, 1638, the trade of Brazil was thrown open by a separate ordinance, which was supplemented by others of August 10, 1648, and December 11, 1649. 3 In these the phrase of territorial description is " to the city Olinda de Per- nambuco, and the coasts of Brazil" (" op de Stadt Olinda de Parnambuco, ende Kusten van Brazil"); and the "Wild Coast," as the Dutch called the coast of Guiana, is nowhere mentioned. Now, here at last we have the Orinoco named in such way as to suggest a limit of monopoly. But a more careful inspection shows that it is as the first Spanish point, not as the last Dutch one, that it is named. It is to be the beginning of free trade, but may nevertheless lie somewhat beyond the last port closed by monopoly. And what was restricted by these enact ments was not the territorial authority of the Company, which every- 1 Groot Placaat-Boek, i, cols. 607-610. There is in the Library of Congress a contemporary official impression of this Plakkaat. 2 Groot Placaat-Boek, i, cols. 607-610. It is the text of the renewal which is followed by the Pla caat-Boek, the variations of that of 1635 being pointed out in a note. It is printed also by Aitzema, i, p. 69, and by Tjaassens, p. — . 8 Groot Placaat-Boek, i, cols. 609-612, 613-618. 23 No. 2. where, as in Brazil, for example, remained on precisely the same footing and with the same limits as ever, but solely its monopoly of trade. J On August 10, 1648, the States-General issued yet another of these reg ulations as to trade. It was not, as might possibly be inferred from its date, an outcome of the Treaty of Munster. The territorial limits of this particular restriction were adopted by the West India Company itself as early as October 14, 1645, after much discussion as to the best interests of trade, and were submitted on April 9, 1647, in precisely this form to the States-General, in the report of the committee on *the reform of *109 the West India Company.2 It is clear at a glance that what is here thrown open to free trade is again the Spanish coasts of the Carib bean and the Gulf, and that the Orinoco serves as a point of departure for these, while what is reserved to the Company is the entire remaining coast of America, with that of West Africa. Were this a territorial claim, it would imply Dutch ownership of all America and Africa. It is in fact a trade restriction implying in itself no territorial claims whatever, though territorial possessions doubtless had their share in determining this restric tion of trade. As originally drawn in 1645, and as submitted to the States-General in 1647, what was permitted by the regulation was not primarily trade, but " to attack or injure the enemy," and it was explicitly set forth that " it is not intended to license the ship or ships . . . merely to trade in or carry timber, salt, tobacco or cotton, and all other wares, . . . but it is also designed to commit offensively and defensively every hostility and damage on the King of Castile's subjects." But, the peace with Spain having intervened, in 1648 it was enacted without these aggres sive clauses, but without change as to territorial limits. As the new and final charter of 1674 granted the new Company formed by it nothing else on the American mainland than "the places of Esse quibo and Pomeroon," the Orinoco could hardly again come into question, even as a trade limit, unless the Orinoco were counted the boundary of Pomeroon. That it was so counted never appears in the legislation of the States-General, and seems expressly precluded by the terms ("the territory of the State, extending ... to beyond the river Waini, not far from the mouth of the river Orinoco ") *of the remonstrance ad- *110 dressed by the States-General to Spain in 1769. There result, then, from this review of the legislation of the States- General the conclusions: 1. That neither in any charter of the Dutch West India Company, nor in any " reaffirmation " or extension of any charter, is there mention of the Orinoco as a limit. 2. That in none of the published legislation on behalf of that Company, 1 Postscript— This has been printed in the Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," pp. 56, 58. * This document may be found in English translation in the first volume of the Documents relative to the colonial history of New York, pp. 216-248. 24 No. 2. is the Orinoco made a boundary of territorial right, possession, or jurisdic tion. 3. That its second and final charter of 1674 seems to exclude the Orinoco from the territorial possessions of the Company. II. AS TO JURISDICTION. The original charter of the Dutch West India Company, in 1621, granted in its second article:1 That, further, the aforesaid Company in our name aud by our authority, within the limits hereinbefore prescribed, shall have power to make contracts, leagues, and alliances with the princes and natives of the lands therein comprised, as well as to build there any fortresses and de fenses, to [provide]2 governors, troops and officers of justice, and for other necessary services, for the preservation of the places, maintenance of good order, police, and justice. And, likewise, for the furtherance of trade, to appoint, transfer, remove, or replace, as according to circumstances they shall find proper. Furthermore, they may promote the set tlement of fruitful and uninhabited districts, and do everything that the service of these lands3 [and the] profit and increase of trade shall demand. And they of the Company shall regularly communicate *111 *with us, and shall report such contracts and alliances as they shall have made with the aforesaid princes and nations, together with the conditions of the fortresses, defenses, and settlements by them under taken.4 The third article of the charter provides that the States- General shall confirm and commission all governors, and that these, as also the vice- governors, commanders, and officers, shall swear allegiance to the States as well as to the Company. By the fifth article the States promise to supply such troops as may be necessary — these, however, to be paid by the Company. Such are the provisions creating and limiting the territorial jurisdiction of the West India Company. They were never changed. Even in the new charter of 1674 these articles were copied outright, with but one or two corrections in diction.5 1 Groot Placaat-Boek, vol. i, col. 567. 2 This important verb is omitted in the charter, as printed in the Groot Placaat-Boek, in Aitzema, and in Tjassens— and so, perhaps, in the original document ; but it is supplied, in the new charter of 1674, as " aenstellen." 8 I. e., the Netherlands, not the colonies : see Professor Jameson's discussion of this phrase in his Willem Usselinx, pp. 71, 72. The words, which are of constant occurrence, always refer to the mother country, * On August 27, 1648, at the request of the States-General and by instruction of the Company, " Director de Laet delivered unto the assembly authentic copies of such treaties, contracts, and capitula tions as the said West India Company hath made and concluded with the kings, princes, and potentates within the limits of their charter. Whereupon deliberation being had, it is resolved and concluded that the aforesaid authentic copies be locked up and preserved." (Minutes of the States-General, as translated in Documents relative lo the Colonial History of the State of New York, i, pp. 253, 254.) ° In Article II " begrepen," " comprised," becomes gtlegen " situated;" the long word nootsaeekelijeke, " necessary," yields to the shorter word nootelijcke, "needful;" and the lacking verb aenstellen is sup plied. Articles II and V are wholly unchanged. 25 No. 2. But as early as 1629 the States-General found it wise to prescribe more definitely for the government of the new territories. On October 13 of that year they issued an "Order of Government,1 both as to policy and as to justice, in the places conquered and to conquer in the West Indies," ex plaining that "it has been made clear to us on behalf of the West India Company that for the better direction of affairs it would be useful and serviceable to the said Company that under our *authority there *112 should be enacted by the said chartered Company a definite system of government, both as to policy and as to justice, in the place or places (with God's help) to be conquered." The provision for the protection of the vested rights of "Spaniards, Portuguese, and natives" — the phrase occurs more than once— suggests where these conquests were to be made. " The councilors," says the fifteenth article, "shall further seek at every opportunity to establish friendship, trade, and commerce with neighboring and near-by lords and peoples, also alliances and compacts, to the damage and enfeebling of the King of Spain, his subjects and allies, and to the best furtherance of the common weal of the Company, making the aforesaid treaties on behalf and in the name of the High and Mighty Lords the States-General and of the West India Company; and shall, regarding all these, take first and foremost the advice of the General and Governor." All property of the Jesuits, or of "other convents or colleges of clergy, of what order soever," is to be seized and confiscated to the profit of the Com pany, just as if belonging to the King of Spain. The twenty-first article provides for " any places, within the limits, situate on the Continent or on the adjoining islands " which may "come to be conquered and possessed." Again, on April 26, 1634, the States- General, "by advice and delibera tion of the Directors of the general chartered West India Company," issued an " Order and Regulation "2— this time "regarding the settlement and cultivation of the lands and places by the aforesaid Company conquered in Brazil." In this they provide minutely for the government of all such as shall go to dwell "within the limits of the lands and places *conquered or yet to conquer in Brazil by the chartered West India *113 Company." Still again, on August 23, 1636, 3 they further provided for the govern ment of the "conquered captaincies, cities, forts, and places in Brazil;" and yet again, on October 12, 1645, 4 when the capstone was put on their structure by the creation of "the Supreme Government in the lands of Brazil already through God's blessing conquered, or yet to conquer." For the government of Guiana, or of any of its colonies, no enactment 1 drool Placaat-Boek, vol. ii, pp. 1235-1247. * Groot Placaat-Boek, vol. i, cols. 621-626. A copy of a contemporary impression of this statute may bo seen in the Library of CongreSB. » Groot Placaat-Boek, vol. ii, cols. 1247-1264. * Groot Placaat-Boek, vol. ii, cols. 1268-1268. 26 No. 2. of the States-General is to be found. The control of its possessions in this quarter seems left wholly to the Company.1 And in none of these enact ments of the States-General, nor yet in any of the explicit codes issued by the Company for the instruction of its servants,2 have I found any provi sion for the trade outposts which play such a part in the colonial records of Guiana, or any intimation as to the territorial claims involved in the establishment of these. It is, however, worth adding that when in 1665, in the controversy over New Netherland, the British ambassador argued that the West India Company's charter was more limited than the patents granted by the Eng lish King, the States-General replied that " that granted to the West India Company is as ample as any which the King hath granted or can grant. And the Company is expressly authorized by the second article of its charter to plant colonies, occupy lands, and furthermore, as fully *114 and amply as any patent from the King can extend, *and such is expressly declared under the Great Seal of the State." 3 From this survey of the charters of the Company and of the other legis lation of the States-General it appears, then, that the Dutch West India Company was charged with ample territorial jurisdiction in all districts which it should conquer or colonize within the limits of its charter. But it does not appear that this territorial jurisdiction was made coextensive with these limits, or that there was ever mention of the river Orinoco in connection therewith. But there further exist, among the acts of the States-General, certain grants of territory on the Guiana coast, made by the West India Company with the concurrence of the States or by the States at the instance of the Company. It remains to ask what of territorial jurisdiction or boundary may be specified or implied by these. Thus, in 1669, the Dutch West India Company conceded to the German Count of Hanau a strip 30 Dutch njiles broad, which they have been quoted4 as granting "from their territory of Guayana, situated between the river Orinoco and the river Amazons." Unfortunately a careful study of this grant, whose full text is given by the Dutch historian Hartsinck,5 and which is translated in full by Rodway and Watt,6 the English histo rians of British Guiana, fails to find in the document any such clause as that quoted.7 The phrase actually used is, indeed, full of suggestion of 1 Postscript.— I am glad to add that the Company's provisions for these may now be found in my extracts from Dutch Archives, in Vol. II of the report of the Commission. 2 Two contemporary impressions of that issued with the new charter of 1674— that by the official printer of the States-General (•_ Gravenhage, 1675) and that by the printer of the Company itself at Mid delburg— are in the Library of Congress. 8 I owe to Professor Jameson the suggestion of this interesting passage. 4 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 1," p. 8. 6 Hartsinck, Beschryving van Guiana, vol. i, pp. 217-222. 6 Rodway and Watt, Annals of Guiana, vol. ii, pp. 5, 6. 7 1 have since studied the original in the Dutch archives at The Hague, but without finding this clause or any like it. 27 No. 2. another sort. For the grant reads: . . . " A piece of land situated on the Wild Coast of America, between the river Oronoque and the river of the Amazons," adding the condition, "which His *Excel- *115 lency will be entitled to select, provided he keeps at least six Dutch miles from other colonies there established or founded by the said chartered West India Company or with its consent." . . . (" een streeke Lands, gelegen op de wilde Kust van America, tusschen Rio c.' Oronoque en Rio de las Amazonas," . . . " mits blyvende ten minsten zes Hollandsche mylen van andere Colonien door de voornoemde geoctrojeerde Westin dische Compagnie of met hare permissie aldaar opgericht en geetab- lisseert"). That the grant implies that the whole Wild Coast was counted by the West India Company open to Dutch colonization can not be questioned. It seems to imply also that there were still on that coast unoccupied stretches of 30 Dutch miles in breadth lying at least six miles distant from the Dutch establishments of Suriuam, Berbice, and Essequibo; and that such a stretch might by the Dutch be granted outright, even to a foreigner. But it does not assert an exclusive Dutch right to colonize that coast; and it must in this connection be constantly remembered that throughout most of this century the Governments of Great Britain and of France were also freely granting patents of territory on the Guiana coast, and that there has been found no record of the slightest Dutch protest against it. Great Britain was, indeed, earlier in the field than the Dutch, the colonies of Leigh and Harcourt antedating any known Dutch settlement on this coast, and the patent to Harcourt covering the whole territory from the Amazon to the Essequibo. It should be added that the colony of the Count of Hanau was a flash in the pan, no attempt ever being made to establish it. Among the published acts of the States-General I have as yet been able to lay hand on only one other grant of territory in this region. It is a contemporary impression1 of a *" Charter from the High and Mighty *116 States-General relating to the Colony on the Wild Coast of America, under the leadership of the Knight Balthazar Gerbier, Baron Douvily; printed in the year of our Lord 1659." It tells how, on November 15, 1658, the States conceded to the baron2 ' ' as Patroon the right to erect a colony on the continental Wild Coast of America, in the district of the charter granted to the West India Company " (* * * " Dat den Heer Ridder Balthazar Gerbier Baron Douvily als Patroon sal mogen oprechten een Colony e in West-Indien op de vaste wilde Oust van America, in '. distrikt van '. 1 A copy of this impression is in the Libiary of Congress at Washington. 1 have since studied the original at The Hague. 8 Gerbier, though a Dutchman, had spent most of his life in English service as the friend of Bucking ham and of Charles I, to whom he owed his title. Balked in his career by the Puritan revolution, he seems now to have had it in mind to renew under Dutch auspices the Wiapoco colony of the Englishman Harcourt. There it was, in the extreme east of Guiana, that he attempted his settlement; but his enter prise came speedily to naught. 28 No. 2. Octroy aen de West-Indische Compagnie verleent"). But neither in the " articles of liberties and exemptions," granted him by the Company, nor in the appended "advertisement" setting forth enthusiastically the beauties of the new land, is there any other definition of its location and limits than that it is to be "on the continental Wild Coast of the West Indies, of five miles in breadth, or along the seashore, and further so far inland as shall by the colonists come to be cultivated on the Wild Coast in America, with jurisdiction over the bays lying within the colony, and half Lthe jurisdiction over] the rivers on the two sides of the aforementioned colony " (. . . een Colonie te moghen oprechten op de vaste Wilde Custe van de West Indien van vijf mylen in de breete, ofte langhs den Zee-kant, ende voorts so verre lantswaerts in als door de Coloniers sullen kunnen werden gecultiveert op de wilde Custe in America, met Iurisdictie aen de Bay en in de Colonie gelegen, endede helft van de Reverien, aen beyde zyden van de voorn. Colonie). 1 *117 *From the terms of these grants may unquestionably be inferred the assumption by the Dutch Government of a right to plant colonies, either directly or through the West India Company, in the district known as the Wild Coast. There is, however, in none of them anything to suggest that this was counted exclusively a Dutch right; nor is there in them any claim of sovereignty over this coast as a whole. I hope for much more from the unprinted records of the Company,' which by your instructions I am to examine in Europe. Respectfully submitted. George L. Bukr. Washington, May, 1896. 1 The attempts at fresh colonies on the Cayenne and on the Wiapoco in 1676, and the charter granted in 1 689 to Jan Reeps, of Hoorn, to erect a colony " on the west side of the river Amazon, as far as to Cape Orange," were not the affairs of the West India Company, whose territory now (since the new charter of 1674) included on the mainland only Essequibo and Pomeroon. There is in the charter of Reeps no mention of a Dutch claim to Guiana as a whole. (See the minutes of the States-General March 4, May 29, June 5, 1688, and January 7, 1689; the minutes of the Estates of Holland July 16, 1688; and the charter and prospectus of the colony, printed at the Hague, 1689. A copy of the latter is in the Lenox Library.) 2 Postscript. — This hope was only partially justified. What I found in these documents may be learned from my report on the evidence of Dutch archives. Nothing in them invalidates the conclusion- reached above. 29 No. 3. •Report on the evidence of Dutch archives as to European occupation *121 and claims in Western Guiana. By George Lincoln Burr. To the Commission appointed " To investigate and report upon the true divisional line between the Republic of Venezuela and British Guiana "/ Early in May, 1896, I had the honor to receive from you the following instructions: Washington, D. C, May 7, 1896. Dear Sir: For the satisfactory completion of the work of the Vene zuelan Boundary Commission, it is found necessary to verify and supple ment the materials in its hands by researches in the archives and libraries of the Netherlands. It is the Commission's wish to intrust you with this mission. It seems best that you proceed at once to The Hague, and there first examine carefully the records and diplomatic correspondence of the States General from the time of the earliest Dutch settlements on the coast of Guiana to the final transfer to Great Britain of the colony of Essequibo, seeking to learn what claims were at any time made to territory or juris diction on this coast, and especially what correspondence may ever have been had, as to boundaries or territorial aggressions, with the Government of Spain. Having completed this, you may then make similar research in the records of the provincial Estates, especially in those of Zeeland, for such dealings with trade or with the colonies as may possibly throw some light on territorial claims made by or for the latter in Guiana. This done, all accessible papers *of the Dutch West India Company, whether at *122 Amsterdam, Middelburg, or wherever now to be found, should be thor oughly looked into, with a view to ascertaining the exact location and extent of its settlements and trading posts, the character of the territorial claims based on these under its charters, and the relations sustained by them toward their Spanish neighbors. Should you have reason further to believe that there may be found in municipal archives, libraries, or private collections, records, journals, or correspondence throwing light upon the territorial limits or claims of the Dutch colonies in Guiana, these may also be examined, so far as the courtesy of their custodians makes them accessible to you. The points to be kept especially in view in this research are: 1. The exact holdings of the Dutch upon the seacoast and the dates of 30 No. 3. their occupation or abandonment, with all evidence as to the existence and location of trading posts, guardhouses, or other establishments, however slight or temporary, west of the mouth of the river Moruca. 2. Whatever can be learned of the nature and extent of the trade car ried on, and of the control exercised, if any, by the Dutch in the whole legion north of the Sierra Imataca, between the mouth of the Moruca and that of the Orinoco, with any intimations of territorial claims in this district. 3. The precise situation, nature, and duration of any Dutch posts estab lished in the valley of the river Cuyuni and its tributaries above the junc tion of that stream with the Mazaruni, with anything that can be learned of Spanish garrisons or missions in these parts or of the relations here between Dutch and Spanish colonists or authorities. 4. Whatever can throw light upon the precise nature of the territorial claims, as to jurisdiction and boundaries, of the Dutch West India Com pany, and of its plantations, or upon the attitude of Spain or her colonial authorities toward these. The Commission will be glad to receive prompt intelligence, by tele graph if the matter seem to you likely materially to influence its conclu sions, of all important discoveries made by you; and will expect from time to time detailed reports of your procedure and results. Suggestions as to other promising channels of research it will at all times be willing to receive and consider; and, should there seem to you serious risk in delay, you are empowered to enter upon any such avenue of inquiry before re ceiving the formal sanction of the Commission. *123 *In case, in the course of your investigations, you should find documents or papers which you deem of sufficient importance to have copied, you will have this done, obtaining the certificate of the custodian, wherever possible, as to the correctness of the copy, and in all cases making, yourself, a comparison of the copy and the original. Should you, in the course of your investigations, require the assistance of any clerks, copyists, or-stenographers, you are authorized to employ them and to pay them for their services such compensation as may be reasonable and usual in the places where they are so employed. Very respectfully yours, S. Mallet-Prevost, Secretary. Professor George L. Burr. The mission thus intrusted to me has been accomplished. I have now the honor to submit a final report of its method and its results. I. METHOD. In obedience to your instructions I sailed for Holland by the steamship Werkendam on Saturday, May 9, 1896. Landing in Rotterdam on the morning of May 22, I went at once to The Hague and entered on my researches in the archives of the realm at that capital. As the details of my procedure are already familiar to the Commission through my frequent communications to its secretary, it will be enough here to say that I was 31 No. 3. busied there until nearly the end of August. My research covered the sources named by the instructions of the Commission— the records and diplomatic correspondence of the States-General, the records of the pro vincial Estates, the papers of the Dutch West India Company, and in cluded, besides, many documents suggested by questions arising in the course of my work or laid before me by the ever-helpful archivists. The papers of the West India Company, all now gathered in these central archives, proved far more voluminous than I had expected, filling many hundreds of volumes, *and I was gratified to find that it was *124 in precisely that portion of them with which my study must deal that least had been lost. x It will give an idea of the extent of the task and may aid in the verifica tion of its results if I here subjoin a list, by catalogue numbers, a of the manu script volumes examined by me: 8 37 88 111 298 342 380 473 491 9 38 91 112 299 343 381 474 495 10 39 92 113 300 344 382 475 497 11 40 93 114 301 345 383 478 525 12 41 94 162 302 346 384 479 526 13 42 95 163 303 368 385 480 527 14 43 96 167 304 369 462 481 528 15 44 97 169 318 370 463 482 531 22 45 98 170 334 371 464 483 533 25 46 99 171 335 372 465 484 534 26 50 100 172 336 373 466 485 535 27 51 106 173 337 374 467 486 536 28 52 107 174 338 376 468 487 537 29 53 108 175 339 377 470 488 538 30 54 109 176 340 378 471 489 539 36 55 110 198 341 379 472 490 540 1 The missing records whose loss there was most reason to deplore were: (1) The minutes of the proceedings of the Nineteen (the supreme board of the West India Company under its first charter, 1621-1674) ; of these only the first volume (1623-1624) remains. (2) The earliest volume (1623-162.) of the minutes of the Zeeland Chamber of the Company, and the volumes covering the period 1646-1 637. (3) The minutes for certain years of the proceedings of the Ten (the supreme board of the Company under its second charter, 1675-1791), namely, for 1715, 1728, 17S8, 1741, 1742, 1745, 1748, 1751, 1752, 1754, 175\ 1757,1759,1761, 1763, 1765, 1767, 1769, 1770, 1775, 1777, 1783, 1785, 1788, 1789: the archivist in charge of the West India papers, though he had often noticed these strange lacunas, could give no ex planation of them. The letters received by the Company from the Essequibo colony during the period 1756-1772, whose loss threatened to be most serious of all, proved later to be intact among the papers at London. 2 These catalogue, numbers are likely at no distant day to be replaced by others, since a new cata logue is in prospect. The old catalogue, however, will doubtless remain accessible at the archives. The titles of such of these volumes as I found of fruit to my research will of course be found attached to the transcripts which I herewith submit. The time at my disposal does not warrant a classification and description of them here. 32 *125 No. 3 ¦ *541 798 904 1034 1959 2119 2368 3077 3122 542 799 908 1035 1996 6 2120 2369 3078 3123 569 800 913 1036 2006 2121 2370 3080 3124 570 801 916 1047 2007 2122 2389 3081 . 3125 594 804 917 1048 2008 2157 2390 3082 3133 596 805 921 1049 2009 2158 2391 3083 3134 597 806 938 1051 2010 2183 2392 3084 3135 599 807 939 1052 2012 6 2238 2394 3085 3136 600 808 940 1053 2012 c 2243 2395 3086 3137 601 809 941 1395 2012O" 2255 2396 3087 3138 602 810 944 1396 2013 2260 2397 3088 3142 629 a 813 a 945 1611 2014 2269 2398 3089 3143 629 & 813 & 946 1626 a 2022 2287 2439 c 3090 3144 643 813 c. 947 1626. 2026 2313 2439 xc 3091 3145 644 824 953 1627 d 2080 2319 2439 x d 3092 3150 717 841 954 1907 2081 2320 2439 xx 3093 758 842 955 1916 2094 2321 2578 3094 759 843 960 1917 x 2099 2322 2579 3095 764 844 966 1918 2100 2324 2580 3096 768 845 967 1919 2109 2332 2581 3097 775 846 968 1925 2110 2335 a 2624 3098 777 854 970 1933 2111 2336 2657 3101 778 855 971 1947 2112 2354 2658 3102 779 856 972 1948 2113 2358 2659 3105 780 859 974 1953 2114 2359 2961 xx x 3106 .82 885 975 1954 2115 2363 2966 3107 795 901 1005 1955 2116 2365 2976 3108 796 902 1022 1956 2117 2366 2980 3120 797 903 1023 a 1958 2118 2367 3075 3121 All these numbered volumes belong to the papers of the Dutch West India Company. To these must be added, therefore, the registers of the States-General, of the Dutch Admiralties, and of the provincial Estates of Holland and of Zeeland. 1 Added must be the diplomatic correspondence be tween Spain and Holland, in its three series— the letters of the Dutch *126 *Ambassadors in Spain to the States-General, to the Secretary {Griffier) of the States- General, and to the pensionary of Holland, who discharged the functions of minister of foreign affairs. Added, too, must be the records of the negotiations connected with the Peace of West phalia, the Peace of TJtrecht, and the Peace of Amiens. Of sundry iso lated documents falling under neither of these classes, adequate description will be found in the footnotes to the transcripts which I herewith submit, or in those to the present report. 1 The minutes of the Holland and the Zeeland Estates are accessible also in print; but passages ot grave importance had to be verified by the manuscripts. 33 No. 3. In all my labors I received from the officials in charge of the archives the most ungrudging cooperation. Neither my large demands on the working space of the reading room, nor the heavy labor of fetching the hundreds of codices from remote upper chambers caused a word of com plaint. Documents and maps I was allowed to copy freely; and copyists and photographers were kindly found for me. At my shoulder, to aid in difficult readings or to lend their experience in questions of interpretation, were ever the patient and astute scholars in charge of the reading room, and there was hardly a member of the staff to whom at one time or another I had not occasion to make appeal. To all these archivists, from highest to lowest— to Jongheer Th. van Riemsdijk, the archivist in chief; to Mr. Telting, the adjunct archivist in charge of tbe West India papers, and to his colleague in charge of the East India papers, Mr. Heeres; to the com- mies-chartermeester, Mr. Hingman, who was my guide to the diplomatic papers and to the records of the States-General; to Mr. Morren, who aided me in collation and who was the untiring purveyor of codices; to Messrs. Ross and Van Oyen of the reading room, and to Mr. Caland, my assistant in transcription; and to the janitors as well, who so cheerily fetched and carried away — I owe alike a hearty gratitude which I *should *127 be sorry here not to record. 1 Nor should I by any means omit to mention the generous aid given me in so many ways throughout my work at The Hague by the foremost of all students of the history of the Dutch colonies which now make up British Guiana, their historian, General P M. Netscher. In July I was joined by Dr. De Haan, of the Johns Hopkins University, who in June, on his way to spend his vacation with his parents in Leeu- warden, had offered his help in my work. Of this I was now glad to avail myself, and from this time forward he took from my shoulders most of the burden of collation and of translation. In August there joined me, much to the pleasure and profit of my work, Mr. Coudert, of your own number, who remained with me there for some weeks. Toward the end of August my work had in its chronological progress reached 1791, the date of the suppression of the West India Company. It seemed wise to break off here for a visit to Zeeland, where in the pro vincial and municipal archives at Middelburg, and in the municipal archives of Flushing and of Vere, I hoped, in view of the close relations of these three Walcheren cities with the Guiana colonies, to gain fresh light, especially upon their earlier history. This hope was disappointed. Arriv ing in Middelburg, I first addressed myself to the archives of the province of Zeeland, where, in the absence of the archivist in chief, I was courteously received by the commies-chartermeester. His assurance that none of the 1 My obligations to these scholars have not ceased with my return. Mr. Telting, especially, has patiently answered a multitude of questions arising in the digestion of my work; and Mr. Van Oyen, aided by Mr. Ross, has carried out for me certain researches in the early papers oi the States-General which I had been unable to bring to completion, 34No. 3. papers of the Zeeland Chamber of the West India Company still lingered here was but confirmation of what I had learned at The Hague. He *128 could, however, put before me in the *original manuscript the minutes of the Zeeland Estates, and, what was better, a voluminous body of letters and documents, serving as pieces justificatives to these minutes, from the sixteenth century onward. In those documents, which are arranged in the chronological order of the minutes themselves, I sought diligently through those years in which any action of the Estates with re gard to Guiana gave me reason to hope for new light from this illustrative matter. The search was, however, wholly without fruit. Nor could I learn of the existence of anything else in the provincial archives likely to throw light upon my problem. In the same building with the provincial archives of Zeeland is also the provincial library, and to this I now betook myself. The librarian, Mr. Broekema, devoted himself to my service and put into my hands not only certain printed books which I had hitherto sought in vain, but also several manuscripts. Among the latter were the minutes and journals of the "Commercial Company of Middelburg trading within the limits of the West India Company's charter" from 1720 to 1791. I was especially gratified to find here also manuscript copies of the municipal records— the minutes of the city councils — of both Middelburg and Vere. This made unnecessary the visit I had planned to the municipal archives of these two cities, for it was only these minutes I had hoped to consult there; and it was the more welcome because I had reason to believe that at Vere the archives of that ancient town were in some confusion. In none of the books and documents examined by me did I find, however, anything of serious value to my quest. I should now have turned my steps toward Flushing, had I not learned from the commies-chartermeester at Middelburg that in the English bom bardment of 1809 the town archives had been utterly destroyed. *129 Effort has since been made, *indeed, to gather from private sources what may partially supply their place; but in Middelburg there was put in my hands a complete printed catalogue of these gleanings, and it needed but a hasty turning of its pages to show that a journey thither was needless. I returned, therefore, to The Hague, not much wiser than I came, but convinced that from Dutch provincial and municipal archives in general there was little to hope. Another quarter promised better fruit. During the course of my re search at The Hague there had been published by Great Britain the Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," largely made up of extracts from Dutch records; and of this Dutch portion an advance copy had, through the courtesy of Her Majesty's Government, been since June in my hands. From this I had learned, not more to my own surprise than to that of the archivists at The Hague, that a very important portion of the papers received by the Dutch West India Company from its colonies in Guiana were in British 35 No. 3. hands, and must be sought in London. Thither, therefore, I now turned myself, accompanied by Dr. De Haan. Reaching London on September 3, and presenting myself at the American Embassy, I received the necessary introduction to the officials of Her Majesty's Foreign Office. There I met a kindly reception and was conducted to the Colonial Office, where, as soon as matters could be put in readiness, the Dutch colonial papers, together with the maps of the Schom burgk boundary survey, which at the instance of the Commission I had also asked to see, were laid before me and left to my free use. Regarding the maps, which were outside of the scope of my original errand and hence of the present paper, I have elsewhere reported to the Commission. The Dutch documents (which, I wras assured, are all that are now *in *130 English hands of the Dutch records of the Essequibo colony) form a single series of letters, with their inclosures, from the Colonial Govern ment to the Dutch West India Company. They are bound in vellum, in thick quarto volumes, numbered consecutively from 456 to 504. Chrono logically they begin with the small body of letters from the revived colony on the Pomeroon (1686-1689). All the rest belong to the last century of Dutch occupation, beginning with the opening of the year 1700 and coming down to the expiration of the West India Company at the close of 1791, some documents being of even so late a date as March, 1792. The docu ments are, in nearly every case, originals, and with their inclosures form a series much more complete than any now in the Dutch archives at The Hague. It seems probable that with the transfer of the colony, in 1814, the Dutch Government handed over to the British its own best official set of these colonial papers. That at least the earliest nine volumes once be longed to the Zeeland Chamber of the West India Company is clear from their bearing its monogram on their covers; and it is probable from the older numeration still visible on their backs that all did so.1 With these documents we were busy until nearly the end of Septem ber. The extracts printed by the Blue Book were compared with their originals and the Dutch text transcribed where there could be any doubt as to the precise meaning of a passage. This, under my oversight, was especially the task of Dr. De Haan, while I meanwhile examined the documents *as a whole and transcribed or marked for transcription *131 such other passages as seemed to deserve the attention of the Com mission. Of the documents of Dutch origin printed in the Blue Book there remained a few whose originals, even in London, were inaccessible to us. These were those drawn from the archives of British Guiana— extracts 1 This older numeration, beginning with No. 269, ends with 323, there being some lacuna? and slight variations from the English order. There is an old numeration by letters from A to XX. The British numbers are printed on red slips and pasted on the volume. This, aud the title " Colonial Office Transmissions " on a similar red slip, are the only mark of their present ownership except the stamp bearing the words " Public Record Office : Colonial Office," with which bindings and pages alike are plentifully besprinkled. 36 No. 3. from the minutes of the old colonial councils of policy and of justice. Such transcripts of the Dutch as had been transmitted from the colony were freely shared with us; but a part of the extracts had been sent in English translation only. 1 Throughout our work at the Colonial Office all possible helpfulness was shown us by those with whom we had to do. For the courtesies of Sir Thomas Sanderson, of the Hon. Francis Hyde Villiers, and of Mr. Reddan, of the Foreign Office, and of Sir Robert Meade and Mr. C. Alexander Har ris, of the Colonial Office, I may especially express my thanks. Mr. Har ris was almost constantly at call, and facilitated much our work with the documents. I have also to thank him for transcripts generously furnished me since the completion of my work in London. During the stay in London I had also opportunity for research at the British Museum and at the Record Office, and here, too, received every courtesy and aid from the scholars in charge. On September 26, we returned to The Hague, and took up again our work at the archives there. By the 20th of October I had brought down my study to the close of the Dutch occupation in Guiana. Crossing that night to England, and finding time next day for a little added research in the British Museum, I sailed for America by the steamer Teutonic, *132 boarding *it at Queenstown on Thursday, October 22. In the course of the work at The Hague I had found occasion to make researches in the Royal Library and in that of the Department of the Colonies as well as in the archives, and had made several trips to Leyden for investigation in the university library there. I could learn by inquiry of no private col lections from which I was likely to gain further materials of importance; and other research in the public archives and libraries of. Holland I had been led by what I found at The Hague and in Zeeland to count needless.8 This part of my report must not be closed without grateful recognition of the helpful courtesies at The Hague of the American minister, Mr. Quinby, and of his secretary, Mr. Rix, and at London, of our ambassador, Mr. Bayard, and of Secretary Roosevelt. With the transcripts, which were the material outcome of my research abroad, I reached Washington on October 28. I have now the honor to lay them before you. 3 1 The passages which we were thus unable to verify were those in the Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3 bearing the numbers 73, 82, 96, 100, 107, 109, 112, 117, 123, 139, 147, 184. 8 One exception I must make to this in favor of the private archives of the Stadhouders. These archives of the House of Orange, pending the completion of the new building in which they are to be housed and made accessible to scholars, are only partially and with difficulty to be used ; and it was so late in my work when I found myself in need of aid from them that I grudged my waning time to the uncertain attempt. For a single point which, had it presented itself earlier, I should certainly have essayed a search among them, I may refer to a note in my report on Maps from Official Sources (at page 150 of Vol. III). 8 These transcripts are printed in full, under the title of " Extracts from Dutch Archives," in Vol. II of the Report of the Commission. 37 No. 3. *ll. RESULTS. *133 But what, you ask me, do these documents show? In answer, let me take up, first, their testimony as to the earliest relations of the Dutch with Guiana;1 then, in territorial order, what they show as to the Dutch in the Essequibo, in the Pomeroon, in the Moruca, in the Waini, in the Barima, in the Amacura, and in the great western branches of the Essequibo, the Cuyuni and the Mazaruni; next, their evidence as to the history of Dutch claims to boundary in these regions; and, in conclusion, what can be learned from these Dutch documents as to the settlements and claims of the Spaniards. At your request I shall take also into account such concurrent or conflicting evidence upon these points as is furnished by other historical sources. To make clearer my results I submit also herewith a series of historical maps, showing the progress of European occupation in the Ori- noco-Essequibo region from the beginning of the acquaintance of the Dutch with Guiana to the loss of their western colonies there.2 *I. GUIANA AND THE DUTCH. *134 The national existence of the Dutch began with the year 1579. In 1581 they formally renounced their allegiance to the King of Spain. Till then, however rebellious, they had been his subjects. Such title as their explo ration or commerce could give was the King of Spain's title. Even the assertion of their independence brought with it no claim to lands outside the Netherlands; nor is there reason to suppose that the Dutch yet dreamed of such a claim.3 The King of Spain, indeed, was now their foe; and they knew well that he was not King of Spain alone. That realm but gave him his most familiar title. He was lord of Portugal as well, lord of the fairest 1 This field (and in part the others also) has already been dealt with by Professor Jameson's report on Spanish and Dutch settlement in Guiana prior to 1648. The conclusions reached by his study, based on the printed sources, are but reinforced by my research among the documents. Yet, as this research has brought into my hands not unpublished documents only, but also the manuscript originals of printed sources, and thus enables me to speak with greater fullness or positiveness on nearly every point touched by him, it has been thought wise to review the whole territory. I shall, however, count it unnecessary to do more than refer to Professor Jameson's paper for the more elaborate treatment of sundry phases of the subject. [See U. S. Com. Report, Vol. i, pp. 37-69.] 2 These maps are printed in Vol. IV (atlas), as maps 5-15. A brief paper " On the Historical Maps," in Vol. Ill, gives a summary of the evidence on which they rest. s In view of these facts, I find especially puzzling a claim that " the Dutch appear to have been the first who, in the early part of the sixteenth century, turned their attention to Guiana " (Blue Book " Ven ezuela No. 1," p. 4); and, as a result of my research, it is not easy to credit the statement in any sense. In reply to a request for the evidence on which it rests, I have learned of nothing definite except only that when in 1528 the Welsers of Augsburg, having received a grant from Charles the Fifth, led their expedi tion to the Spanish Main, their troop was made up of " Germans and Flemings." But the Welsers were South Germans, their destination was not Guiana, and the " Flemings" who at this date were available for such an enterprise were far more likely to hail from the great towns of the populous Southern Nether lands than from the provinces peopled by the Dutch. Of relations of the Dutch with Guiana prior to their independence I have found else no suggestion; and the researches of the Dutch historians of Dutch commerce give no countenance to such a theory. 38 No. 3. lands of Italy, lord of the Mediterranean isles, lord still of half the Netherlands; but his proudest title was that of lord of the Indies. Thence he drew the treas ures with which he dazzled and bullied the world. x America was but *135 a Spanish *island. No other European State, save Portugal, had yet planted a colony on its shores; and Portugal was now one of the dominions of the King of Spain. Whatever cloud might rest on the ex- clusiveness of his right by discovery to the northern half of the continent, none now obscured his title to the southern. That this title had, further, the explicit approval of the Pope of Rome was hardly likely to give it added sanctity in the eyes of Protestant powers; but as yet that title, however its basis might be questioned, was not attacked from any quarter. If Drake, the Englishman, and his fellow-freebooters made the Caribbean seas their own and took tribute of the treasures of Peru, it was con fessedly but a raid into an enemy's territory; land they neither sought nor claimed. Yet if the English, though in name at peace with the King of Spain, might thus singe his beard on these far shores, so with double warrant might the Dutch. And such, not conquest or settlement, was, so far as the records show, tho aim of" the first Dutch project for a visit to *136 these coasts.3 Its *suggester was an Englishman. On June 10, 1581, one Captain Butz (or Batz, as his name is spelled by turns— 1 How conscious the Dutch were of this fact appears constantly in the pages of Usselinx, of Van Meteren, of Grotius. Under many forms they reiterate Raleigh's complaint that " It is hi. Indian Golde that indaungereth and disturbeth all the nations of Europe." 2 Jan de Laet has again and again been made responsible for the statement that as early as 1580 the Dutch traded to the Orinoco. Hartsinck, the old Dutch historian of Guiana (i, p. 206), was perhaps the first to set afloat the blunder. He makes Gumilla jointly responsible for the statement; but Gumilla merely follows De Laet. What De Laet really says is something very different. It is in one of his chap ters on the Orinoco, and he has been speaking of the expeditions of Raleigh from 1595 to 1617. " For some years now there has been carried on a great trade iu tobacco and other things on this river, both by the English, singly and in companies, and by us Dutchmen, so that there have been years when eight, nine, and more ships at a time from the United Netherlands have been on this river" (Nieuwe Wereldt. eds. of 1625, 1630, bk. xv, cap. 21). In his Latin text (not cited by Hartsinck), which was pub lished some years later, this statement was somewhat expanded as follows: "In the meantime, and even earlier, several expeditions were undertaken both by the English and by our people [the Dutch] to the river Orinoco and the town of Santo Thome for the purpose of trading, and especially for tobacco which is there diligently cultivated by the Spaniards ; so that, as rests on good authority, our people sometimes went up that river with eight or nine ships in a single year and bargained with the governor of Santo Thome, before the King of Spain had by a most severe interdict forbidden all Spaniards to carry on trade with foreigners." Now, it is certain that Santo Thome itself was not in existence before 1591 or 1592 (see, as to this, Professor Jameson's report ; and the prohibition meant must be the edict of February 27, 160S, or, more probably, those of April 25 and May 11, 1705 (see p. * 154, note). This, therefore, is the period to which, Jan De Laefs statement must apply ; and this tallies with what little else we know of this Orinoco trade. Of course, all that could be learned from the passage in any case would be, not that the Dutch, but that the Spaniards were already established in Guiana. Mr. Schomburgk, however, not only falls into the blunder of Hartsinck, but makes the p.ssage more tributary to his argument by adding (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 1," p. 235 ; " Venezuela No. 5," p. 25) to the statement " so early as 1580 the Dutch nav igated the Orinoco" the further statement " and settlements were attempted on such parts as were not occupied by the Spaniards." This is, so far as I can determine, a wholly unsupported assumption. 39 No. 3. it was not improbably Butts or Bates), who had already made five *137 voyages to the Indies, offered to the provincial Estates of Holland Another error, whose evolution is not quite so easy to trace, is that which appears in its most fully developed form in the History of British Guiana by Mr. Rodway, where we read (i, p. 3), that before the end of the sixteenth century Dutch traders had established depots for Indian products on the Guiana coast, and that " two such depots were established in Guiana about the year 1580, the one in the Pome roon, and the other at a small Indian village called Nibie in the Abary Creek." The historian even goes into minute particulars as to the management of these depots, telling us that " only about ten [men] were left at the store, one of whom was naturally made Commander " — with much else of picturesque detail. But, convincingly circumstantial as all this is, there is, I fear, not the slightest doubt that all the fact it contains is antedated by a century. A hundred years later there was indeed a trading post on the Pome roon (see Extracts, p. 145), though by no means so well-manned as in Mr. Rodway's description ; and there was then also, or had lately been, an Indian village near the creek Abary which the Dutch knew by the name of Naby — i. e., "Near-by " (see A. v. Berkel, Amerikaansche Voyagien, Amsterdam, 1695). How these slight elements grew to such stately proportions can in part be conjectured. Mr. Rod- way's immediate sponsor was perhaps his predecessor, Dr. Dalton, whose History of British Guiana (i, p. 105) tells nearly the same story, less the details as to the management of the posts. The post Nibie is here, however, only a post " where there was an Indian village called Nibie." For the source of a state ment by Dalton one is prone at once to turn to Hartsinck, on whom he draws for nearly every fact of this early history and seldom without misunderstanding him ; but in this instance there is clearly an inter mediary. Dr. Dalton has but transcribed the passage, with slight changes in wording, from Mr. Schom burgk's Description of British Guiana (pp. 81, 82). Where Mr. Schomburgk found it, he does not tell us ; but f think I am able to guess. In a little collection of the colonial laws published at Georgetown in 1825 under the title of " The Demerara and Essequebo Vade-Mecum " there is an historical introduc tion which is almost certainly a connecting link between Hartsinck' s statements and their enlargement by Mr. Schomburgk. In this we read (p. 1) : " Their first settlements [i. e., the first settlements of the Dutch] were made near the River Essequebo, towards the River Pomeroon, or Bouweroon, and on Abary Creek, where there was a small Indian village called Naby." And, in the chronological table which follows, there appears as the first item : " 1580— About this period the Zeelanders attempted small settlements, for the purpose of traffic with the native tribes, on the banks of the Amazon, Oronoco and Pomeroon, on which last they had a small establishment called Nova Zeelandia." Now, in this form it is not hard to trace both elements of the story to the pages of Hartsinck. That historian, at the beginning of his chapter on the settlement of the Dutch in Guiana (i, p. 206), declares that "the trade of the Hollanders and Zeelanders, not only to the rivers Orinoco and Amazon, but to the whole coast of Guiana, seems to have begun in or shortly bofore the year 1580," and a little later (p. 207) he gives their colony on the Essequibo the name of " Nova Zelandia." As this is a palpable confusion with the later Nova Zelandia, which he places on the Pomeroon, it was natural enough that his borrower should combine the later location with the earlier date. That Hartsinck is wrong, both as to date and as to location, will presently be seen. As to the alleged settlement on the creek Abary, what Hartsinck says is at the beginning of his chapter on Berbice (i, p. 280). " The boundary of this colony to the northwest is at the creek Abary or Waybari, which lies about three miles from the river of Berbice and on which there is established a post of this colony ; and which, as is related, separates the colony from Demerary in pursuance of an agreement made in the year 1672 between the Commandeur of Essequebo and the Secretary of Berbice, Mr. Adriaan van Berkel, as empowered thereto, whereby it was stipulated that they of Berbice should withdraw a post of fifteen or sixteen men which they had stationed in the Indian village Naby, about three hours from Demerary, for the buying up of dyes and other wares from the Indians, and should leave the west side of the creek to them of Essequibo." Now, it is conceivable that one whose Dutch was scanty, finding this the first thing stated about the colony of Berbice, might have understood " grenspaalen," boundary, to mean settlement; and, thus started, have gained from the rather clumsy sentence only a confused idea of an early post. In any case, other basis for the legend is not to be found. That Hartsinck has himself somewhat misunderstood Van Berkel, whom he cites as his authority, is to us of no moment. . It must not, however, be inferred that all historians have fallen into these errors. The more schol- 40 No. 3. *138 *to make another in their interest if they would fit out three or four more ships to send with his own. The proposition was referred to a committee, and was further discussed in the sessions of June 14 and July 7; but on July 22, notwithstanding the evident favor of the project by the Stadhouder, the Estates declined the Englishman's offer. "As regards the proposed voyage of Captain Batz to the lands of Peru and the islands lying thereabout," says their resolution, "the Estates of Holland, in view of the great burdens of the land for the carrying on of the war, cannot undertake the expense required; yet," they add (perhaps to let the stranger down as easily as possible), "the Estates will look on with approval if any private individuals in the cities of Holland care to aid the project, and will even lend a helping hand thereto."1 As was long ago pointed out by Dutch scholars, nothing seems ever to have come of it,2 and the enter prise, if carried out, would have been rather a feat of war3 than a com mercial enterprise. Yet the episode shows that to the Dutch all Spanish South America was still Peru, and that a venture thither was a serious matter. There is no reason to suppose that the objective point was Guiana rather than any other part of Terra Firma or the West India islands, and that Dutch settlements already existed on these shores is, of course, out of the question.4 arly history of the Guiana colonies by General Netscher rejects though it does not fully expose them; and the standard historian of the rise of the Dutch sea power, the able and conscientious De Jonge, writ ing as an archivist in full possession of all the sources, long ago pointed out (vol. i, p. 46, note) that ODly Hirtsinck's misunderstanding of De Laet is responsible for so early a connection of the Dutch with Guiana. The claim of the British Blue Book ("Venezuela No. 1," p. 4) is more moderate and its source quite different. "There is abundant evidence," it says, " coming from Spanish sources, that during the latter half of the century, prior to 1590. the Dutch had established themselves on the coast of Guiana; " and in support of this it refers to the "letters, etc., I58S-1693," of the province of Cuman., in the Spanish Ar chives of the Indies. I can only regret, as Professor Jameson has already done, that no item of this abundant evidence has been given to the world, and must add not only that I have found in Dutch official sources nothing to support this claim, but that it seems wholly inconsistent with what I have learned from them. 1 All the passages relating to this episode are printed in full among the transcripts, in Vol. II of the report of the Commission, pp. 3-8. For brevity's sake, I shall henceforward refer to these " Extracts from Dutch Archives" as "Extracts" simply. s De Jonge, Nederlandnch Gezag, i, p. 35 ; Berg van Dussen Muilkerk, in the Gids for November, IS48. 8 " Meer een op zich zelf slaand oorlogs-feit dan eene Nederlandsche handeh-onderneming," is De Jonge's phrase. * Yet it is precisely this episode on which Mr. Schomburgk bases his statement (Blue-Book "Ven- ezu la No. 1," p. 235; "Venezuela No. 5," p. 25) that " the States-General privileged, in 1581, certain in dividuals to trade to these settlements exclusively"—], e., to the Dutch settlements postulated by him (see p. 136, note). There is question neither of the States-General, nor of a privilege, nor of trade, nor of settlements, nor yet of Guiana. He has been misled by a careless statement of Hartsinck (i, p. 206)— a careless statement strangely misunderstood. " I have searched once more, with Mr. Telting " (the archivist in charge of the West India papers), writes me General Netscher, the eminent historian of the Guiana colonies, under date of November 30, 1896, in kind confirmation of my own research on this point, " all the resolutions of the States-General of 1581, and some years thereabout, but we did not find anything." 41 No. 3. *It is nearly a decade and a half before I again find mention in *139 Dutch official records of any expedition to the coasts or islands of South America. Then, in March of 1595, the Estates of Zeeland granted freedom of convoy to one Balthazar de Moucheron for a cargo of goods to the Spanish Indies. This was, of course, for peaceful traffic, and his ob jective point would seem to have been the island of Margarita, long the leading Spanish entrepot for these parts. 1 It was just at this time that by a Zeeland ship, not impossibly this one, was discovered just south of that island of Margarita, on the Spanish mainland of South America, the re markable deposit of salt which for years made Punta de Araya (or Punta del Rey, as the Dutch more often called it) one of the leading destinations of Dutch commerce ; and the established route thither led along the whole length of the Guiana coast. 2 In the same year there is record of a venture to Santo Domingo by a union of Holland and Zeeland merchants.3 In the following year we hear of another Zeeland expedition to the Spanish Indies,4 and there were not improbably many similar enterprises not mentioned in the records, for it was only when *freedom from convoy *140 dues was sought that legislative action was needed, and even after the establishment of the admiralties no ship need seek a commission unless it chose. 5 It was in 1591 or 1592, according to his own statement, that William Usselinx, the inspirer above all others of the West India trade, returning from the Spanish islands, began his agitation in the Netherlands in behalf of Dutch trade with South America.6 I have already spoken (p. 135, note) of Jan de Laet's statement as to Dutch trade with the Spaniards on the Orinoco even before Raleigh's expedition of 1595. Yet it is improbable that this trade to the West Indies antedates 1594; for to that year is as cribed7 the beginning of direct trade with Brazil, and all tradition and prob ability make Brazil the earliest, as it was tho nearest, destination of Dutch trade in America.8 It will be noted that as yet, so far as the records show, the trade is with recognized Spanish settlements, and therefore not of a sort to create a ter- 1 At least De Jonge is probably right in connecting (i, p. 46) this expedition of Moucheron with Van Meteren's mention of a voyage to Margarita. 2 Van Rees, Geschiedenis der Staathuishoudkunde in Nederland, ii, p. 3. (Cf. also Jan de Laet's chap ter on Araya in his Nieuwe Wereldt). The Remonstrantie described below (pp. 151-153) speaks of this route of the salt ships, which is else well known. (For the passage, see Extracts, p. 33.) 3 De Jonge, i, p. 46. 4 That Moucheron and Adriaen ten Haeff had part in this, as Netscher states (p. 2) is only a guess of De Jonge's (i, p. 46). 6 See resolution of the States-General, 22 Dec, 1599 (Rijksarchief, Hague). 6 See his Memorie aenwysende, etc. (Rijksarchief, Hague, and printed by Van Rees), p. 1. 7 See De Jonge (i, p. 36,) citing a manuscript Deductie in the Dutch Rijksarchief. The Brazil of that day, it must be remembered, was not thought of as reaching as far north as to the Amazon. 8 ' De oudste geregelde vaart op de kusten van America door onze zeelieden, is geweest de vaart op Brazilie."— De Jonge (i, p. 35). Indirect trade with Brazil, by way of Portugal, was in vogue al least as early as 1590. 42 No. 3. ritorial title. Of Guiana or of direct trade with the Indians, there is thus far no mention. x *141 *But in 1596 there was published in England a book which set the imagination of all Europe on fire — Sir Walter Raleigh's ' ' Discoverie of Guiana." It called universal attention to the wealth of these coasts and to the advantages of trade with the natives. The Netherlands were not the last to feel its influence. Already before the end of 1596 one begins to hear in the records of the States-General of the trade with the West Indies; and on March 24, 1597, the merchant-banker Hans van der Veken, of Rotterdam, was granted a commission for two vessels, "manned with Germans and other foreigners, to go to the coast of Guinea [in Africa], Peru, and the West Indies, and there to trade and bargain with the savages," this com mission " containing also request to all princes and potentates to let these ships and their crews pass freely and in peace thither and return again to these provinces."3 Guiana is not yet mentioned; but, in the children's phrase, we are growing warm. On September 3 of this same year *142 (1597) the States-*General were requested by Gerrit Bicker and his associates, merchants of Amsterdam, " who have it in mind to equip two ships, so as to send them to a certain coast and haven of America Peru ana, being a place where never any from these [Netherlands have been, and which is also not held by the Spaniards or tbe Portuguese," to grant them freedom of convoy both going and coming, " and this for two full voyages, if 1 For the genealogy of the story that in 1596 the Spaniards found Dutch colonists in the Moruca, I may refer to the convincing discussion of Professor Jameson (pp. 58-60, above). The British Blue Book (" Venezuela No. 1 ") happily ignores this claim ; but it adds a fresh one of its own. It states that "Ibar- guen in 1597 . . . visited the Essequibo and reported white men, who can be shown to have been the Dutch, to be settled high up the river;" and in support of this statement it cites without transcrip tion a considerable portion of the Spanish archives. I am indebted to the courtesy of Her Majesty's Government for the exact passage. The Spanish explorer Ibarguen, reporting in 1597 to the King, states that he visited the Essequibo where (it is the following phrase only which is given me in the words of the original) " he heard very great news of the men who were clothed and fighting with arms." Horn these are known to be " white men " and " settled " and " high up the river," or how they " can be shown to have been the Dutch," I have not learned. In Dutch documents also I find mention, indeed, of men in the interior of Guiana who are clothed and who fight with arms ; but these are only the fabled inhabitants of El Dorado— whom, by the way, it was precisely Ibarguen's errand to seek. But there is another passage of this report of Ibarguen's which, if correctly reported, shows unquestionably the pres ence of Dutchmen as traders on this coast. Mr. Rodway, writing in the Guiana magazine Timehri for December, 1896, and apparently ascribing his information to Mr. Reddan, now of the British Foreign Office, states that Ibarguen (who, it seems, was the sergeant-major of Domingo de Vera, the leader of the body of Spanish colonists sent in 1596 to the Orinoco) says in his report that on his way from the Orinoco to the Essequibo he arrested " five Flamencos in a boat, who were trading with the Indians of Barima." And this account seems borne out by the statement regarding Ibarguen's report— unfortunately, without quo tation or literal translation— which I owe to Her Majesty's Government. Yet this at most shows Dutch men, not in the Essequibo, but in or near the mouth of the Orinoco, and suggests only that Dutch trade to Santo Thorn, of which we already know from the pages of Jan de Laet. In the following year (1598) two Dutch expeditions, as we know from the journal of one of them, stopped thus to trade with the Indians in the Barima on their way up the Orinoco to Santo Thome. (Cf. p. *144, below, and vol. ii of the Commission's report, p. 17.) 3 For the passage in full see Extracts, p. 9. 43 No. 3. so be that God Almigh ty should be pleased to bless their first voyage as they hope, — and this out of regard to the great sums they will lay out on this voyage and the risk therein lying." Whereupon it was resolved to grant them the desired convoy " to a certain coast and haven of America Peruana, provided that they shall lade in the aforesaid ships no forbidden goods, and that they shall further be bound, on their return, to bring satisfactory evi dence that never anybody from these lands has traded to the aforesaid haven, and shall make true report in the meeting of the States- General of their experiences, with specification of the places where they have been and have carried on their trade." And " it is the understanding," goes on the record, "that like freedom shall be granted to others who shall like wise desire to go to other unknown havens." " But this," ends this signi ficant passage, "the deputies of Zeeland declared themselves uninstructed to grant."1 The encouragement was not lost; for but three months later, on Decem ber 15, 1597, Jan Cornelisz. Leyn, of Enkhuisen, and his partners, having it in mind with two ships "to sail to the land of Guiana, situate in the realm of Peru," sought freedom of convoy for their first six voyages, both going and returning. Whereupon it was voted to grant their request, but only for the two voyages " which they have it in mind to *make *143 with their two ships to the unknown and unnavigated havens of America, to wit, to the land of Guiana, situate in the Kingdom of Peru, as herein specified;" and this upon precisely the same conditions as to lading and report as in the preceding case. 2 And a week later, on December 23, the Estates of Holland voted aid toward the arming of this expedition " to Guiana, in the Kingdom of Peru ". 3 "Het Landt van Guiana gelegen in het Coninckryck van Peru:" clearly we have in these expeditions the very earliest Dutch voyages to the Guiana coast. And luckily, to make the matter doubly sure, we have left us from one of these voyages, and that the first, the stipulated final report to the States-General. At least, there is no reason to doubt that the ship's clerk, Cabeliau, whose "report concerning the unknown and unsailed course [voiage] of America, from the river Amazon as far as the island of Trinidad,"4 still rests in the archives of the States-General, and who sailed from Holland in a squadron of two ships on December 3, 1597, was the scribe of this expedition to "America Peruana." Having lost sight of their smaller vessel on the way, Cabeliau's party reached the American coast on February 9, 1598, at a point near the mouth of the Caurora, just west of the Cayenne, five degrees by their reckoning north of the equator. As they lingered to trade with the Indians in the Cayenne, where they found an English ship busy with the same errand, there arrived also on June 3, 1598, two ships of that other expedition "to Guiana, in the realm of Peru;" and with these they " joined company in order together to ex- 1 Extracts, pp. 9, 10. ^Extracts, pp. 10, 11. s Extracts, pp. 11, 12. * Extracts, p. 13. 44 No. 3. plore the entire coast as far as to the river Orinoco. " As fa r as the Corentyu they pushed into all the rivers as they went, finding nowhere European occupation, but trading with the natives. "Between the rivers *144 Corentyu and Orinoco *are these rivers: Berbice, Apari, Maychawini, Maheyca, Demirara, Dessekebe [Essequibo], Pauroma [Pomeroon], Moruga, Wayni. These neither singly nor in company did we visit or trade in, because our time was nearly used up and because the Indians gave us to believe that there was not much there to get, and also because our provisions were growing scant, so that we did nothing more than to cruise along the coast, in order to take knowledge of it, until we reached the river Orinoco." But into the river Orinoco, the Barima, and the Amacura they sailed, "and there bartered and traded;" then pushed up the Orinoco " about 40 [Dutch] miles, to the place or settlement where the Spaniards stay, which is named St. Thome, where Don Fernando de Berreo is Governor and also Marquis of Guiana, the river Orinoco and all the coasts being still unconquered as far as the river Amazon." Thence wending their way homeward, they were able to report that " in this voyage we have discovered, found, and navigated more than twenty-four rivers, many islands in the rivers, and various havens besides, which have hitherto neither been known in these provinces nor sailed to therefrom; nay, more, were before our voyage un known to any map or geographer."1 And to this statement, Cabeliau, " as clerk of this expedition," makes affidavit. It was the certificate de manded by the States-General, and its validity was conceded, for on Octo ber 19, 1599, the freedom of convoy conditioned upon it was without pro test awarded by the States-General to Gerrit Bicker and Company, " hav ing made the voyage to America Peruana," as already on August 11 it had been to their colleagues " returned from Guiana, in the Kingdom of Peru."3 *145 By these acts the supreme political authority of the *Netherlands becomes a witness that the coast of Guiana was theretofore unvisited by the Dutch. An investigator of political titles may well be content with such evidence. Nor is there, so far as I can find, the slightest reason to question its truth.3 1 For Cabeliau's journal in full, see Extracts, pp. 18-22. 2 Extracts, p. 11, note. s To this same expedition seem to belong the oldest existing Dutch maps of any part of this coast, one of them dated 1598 and both now in the collection of the Dutch Rijksarchief. See De Jonge's excel lent note on them (i, p. 50). For reproductions of them see the Atlas of the Commission, maps 57, 58. One represents the mouth of the Cayenne, the other the southwest coasts of Trinidad. These are precisely the places where we know the expedition to have lingered. De Laet, in his description of the Wiapoco (ed. of 1 680, p. 568 ; ed. of 1633, pp. 633, 639), quotes from the iournal of another Dutch expedition which was there in 1598, and which was very possibly that of the great and little Sphera Mundi, which joined Cabe liau's party off the Cayenne; for, although Cabeliau almost certainly did not visit the Wiapoco, he cites it among the rivers of their joint discovery. So, too, in speaking of the Amazon De Laet says (ed. of 16.., p. 634): "In the year 1598, and even earlier, the merchants of Amsterdam and others sent their ships to these coasts, that they might open and establish trade with the savages who inhabit these coasts (anno 1698 et etiam ante, Amstebdamenses atque alii mercatores naves mas ad lias oras destmarunt, ut commerct 45 No. 3. While these expeditions were still abroad, on November 16, 1598 three other Amsterdam merchants asked freedom of convoy for a ship which they were lading "to sail to the coasts of America, into the realm of Guiana and other islands thereabout, iu which quarter ships from these lands have never been;" and it was granted for two voyages on the same terms as to the others.1 And, not long after their return, on November 9, 1599 "at the request of Jan van Penen and Gerrit Diricxsz. de Vries cum suis, mer chants and burghers of Haarlem, who are making ready a certain ship . . wherewith to sail along the coasts of Guiana in America, in order- to seek the rivers of Wiapoco and Orinoco and there to find again a certain mineral stone lately brought from there *into this country *146 as a specimen by Jacob Adriaensz., mate at Haarlem," they were granted freedom of convoy for two voyages under the usual conditions.2 But all these venturers were from the province of Holland.3 Where, then, were the Zeelanders, to whom has so long been ascribed the earliest traffic with this coast? When, a century and a half later, there burst forth the quarrel, long festering between the merchants of Holland and of Zee- land, as to the right of the latter to the monopoly of the trade with Essequibo, the Zeelanders ransacked all old documents within their reach and put forth memorial after memorial to prove that the trade with Guiana had from its beginning been in their hands. But, while they discreetly kept silence regarding these early expeditions of the Hollanders, their search revealed nothing earlier in support of their own claim than a certain minute of the proceedings of the provincial Estates of Zeeland on Novem ber 20, 1599, which deserves to be quoted herein full: In the matter of the request of the Burgomaster of Middelburg, Adriaen ten Haeft, setting forth how that, in the preceding year, 1598, at heavy cost to himself, he caused to be investigated on the continent of America many different rivers and islands; and how that in this voyage were dis covered various coasts and lands where one could do notable damage to the King of Spain; and how that he is well minded to send out again two ships in order, in the country's behalf, to discover certain places, a thing which can not be done so effectively with seafaring folk alone. Wherefore, and in view of the fact that in Holland, for the encouragement of exceptional en terprises of this sort, great favor is shown to the promoters of such voyages, such as the providing them with cannon, powder, and soldiers, he doth petition that there be granted to his ships from 16 to 20 experienced •ii tr-S' amon& them a *good commandant, and doth engage that he *147 will himself provide their rations. Whereupon the representative of cum barbaris qui has oras accolebant constituerent et stabilirent) ; and he tells the story of one of these ships, which, finding itself by accident off the Amazon, explored the mouth of that river. This is the earliest date for the presence of the Dutch in this region which is anywhere named by this well-informed and almost contemporary historian. 1 Extracts, pp. 12, 13. 8 Extracts, p. 23. 8 That De Jonge (Nederlandsch Gezag, i, p. 54) ascribes to Isaac Lemaire a share in this trade with the Spanish Indies is due to an odd misreading of "in Terra Firma " for " in communi forma " in the minutes of the States-General for April 15, 1600 (Rijksarchief, Hague). 46 No. 3. the nobility gave verdict that commerce ought here to receive the same favor as in Holland, and that therefore it ought to be learned through the deputies there [i. e., to the States-General] just what is done in Holland in this be half, in order to be able to do the same here; the deputies of Middelburg, however, grant soldiers to the number of 16; those of Ziericzee likewise, to the number of 12, on half wages, subject to the approval of their con stituents; those of Goes, Tholen, Flushing, and Vere promise that they will send in at once their report to their town councils on this point, and that the councils will find out what is done in Holland in such cases. x There is here no mention of Guiana; and of the enterprise itself there is never again mention in the minutes of the Zeeland Estates. That Guiana was its destination is probable enough, but probable only. What it seems safe to infer is that this was the beginning of Zeeland's dealings with these unsettled coasts of the West, —that the coasts in view were conceived of as belonging to the King of Spain,— and that the enterprise was one of hostile aggression. In this last lies its significance; the employment of soldiers in an unsettled region can hardly point to anything less than an attempt *148 at the occupation of territory, *and we seem here to have the earliest known effort of the Dutch to establish themselves on the coasts of America. One may even guess where the blow was struck. Jan de Laet, writing in 1624 of the Amazon, tells us that ' ' our Netherlanders began some years ago to visit this great river, and the men of Flushing established on it two forts, besides dwelling places — one of them on Coyminne, which is like an island . . . and is reckoned to be some 80 miles up the river. The other, named Orange, lies 7 miles lower down."2 In the Latin text of the same work, published in 1633, he devotes a whole chapter to Dutch relations with the Amazon, having now learned of the visiting of that river by 1Notulen, 1599 ; for the Dutch, see Extracts, p. 23. I have sought diligently but in vain in the pro vincial archives of Zeeland for anything in the accompanying papers of this year or of the following which could throw further light on this enterprise. The later papers which cite this in support of the claims of Zeeland in Guiana are the Bericht published to the world by the Estates of Zeeland in the latter half of 1750, and reprinted in the Nederlandsche Jaerboeken for December of that year (pp. 1492-1519), and the memorial of the directors of the Zeeland Chamber of the Dutch West India Company on the same subject, of August 23, 1751 (Nederlandsche Jaerboeken, 1761, ii, pp. 1079-1135). It should perhaps be re membered that it was in this year 1599 that there sailed forth from the Zeeland port of Flushing the Dutch armada under Pieter van der Does, which, after taking a town in the Canaries and avenging at the Isle de Principe that unsueces.ful enterprise of Balthazar de Moucheron in 1598 which Berg van Dussen Muilkerk calls the " earliest attempt at colonization from out the Netherlands," sent seven or eight of its ships across the Atlantic to ravage the coast of Brazil. They returned, with great booty of sugar, in the fol lowing year. 2 Nieuwe Wereldt, eds. of 1625, 1630 (p. 562 of the latter). This is the source of the statement in the Zeeland memorial of 1750, which has crept thence into all the histories. Blaeuw's Nieuwe Wereldt is there cited ; but Blaeuw's Nieuwe Wereldt is only De Laet's text set to Blaeuw's maps. Unfortunately the Zeeland memorial carelessly puts the forts " not far from " the Amazon, and makes the date " about the same time" as Ten HaefFs venture. Before De Laet's edition of 1630, the colony had already been de stroyed by the Portuguese: in 1629 it was found in ruins by the Dutch, a fact which finds due insertion in that edition. This establishment was doubtless that "tobacco-plantation on the Amazon" for which the Zeelanders claimed reimbursement in 1621 (see p. 159, below). In De Laet's history of the West India Company (Leyden, 1644) we learn of the date of its destruction (1625), and of the flight of the survivors to the Wiapoco. (De Laet, Historie, pp. 111-113 ; and cf. Netscher, Geschiedenis, pp. 68-57.) . 47 No. 3. Netherlanders in 1598. » "Others also in the following years," he adds, "attempted to enter and explore the great river Amazon, and in this the enterprise and industry of the Zeelanders was especially conspicuous;" and to these as a whole, not to the men of Flushing alone, he now ascribes the colony and the two forts. 2 Two pages further on he speaks of a neighbor ing river, the Aracoa, " which our people explored in the year 1600."3 One or both of these deeds may belong to Ten Haeff's expedition; if not, *it has left no trace. But, if these were its work, they show, what *149 might antecedently have been expected, and what seems confirmed by the subsequent history, that the Dutch occupation of Guiana began at the extreme east. There is, indeed, one statement afloat which would seem to contradict this. In his memorandum in support of the boundary urged by him, Mr. Schomburgk states: " It is said that at the close of that century [the six teenth] a Chamber of Merchants existed at Middelburg, trading to the River Barima."4 By whom it is said, or when, or where, he does not so much as hint. The historians of Guiana, one and all, know naught of it. The historians of Dutch commerce are as ignorant. The Zeelanders them selves in 1750 found nothing so precious to their search. I have sought it faithfully, but in vain, among the manuscript records of the Dutch. The English searchers have not found it in their Spanish documents. After a prolonged search through the literature of the subject, I am fain to confess that I can find no item of fact out of which it could have been evolved. 5 Another error, more easy to trace and expose, is that set afloat by Hart sinck (i, p. 207) of a charter of freedom of convoy granted by the States- General on July 10, 1602, to certain Zeeland merchants for trade with the coast of Guiana. As he gives his sources, it is easy to establish that.there was no charter, that the merchants were not Zeelanders, and that their destination was not the Guiana coast. The applicants were that same Jan van Penen and Gerrit Diricxz. de Vries whom we already know from an earlier petition6 to have been *merchants of Haarlem. What they *150 asked was, first, freedom of convoy for a single voyage, and, second, its continuation for subsequent ones. The States-General referred the matter to the Admiralty of Amsterdam, instructing that body to grant the first re quest when the voyage had actually been made, but to refuse the second altogether. Accordingly, when, in January, 1604, the petitioners presented themselves to the Admiralty, proof of their voyage was insisted on; and it then came to light that its real destination was to ascend the river Orinoco 1 See note, p. *145, above. 2 Novus Orbis, 1633, p. 634. 3 Novus Orbis, p. 636. 4 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 1," p. 235; "Venezuela No. 6," p. 25. 6 Is it possible that it can be but a confusion with the Middelburg colony of the following century (1668-1665) in the Pomeroon, the resemblance of whose earlier name — Baroma, Baruma— to that of the Barima has given rise to so many misconceptions ? "Seep. * 1 45, above. 48 No. 3. (probably in search of the precious metals, as in their expedition of 1599). Up that river, however, " by reason of the multitude of the Spaniards whom they found there," the Dutch ship had been unable to penetrate. Freedom of convoy for this voyage was granted; and there was an end of the matter. x The imposing list of Zeeland merchants which Hartsinck couples with this supposed charter as traders " about this time " to the coast of Guiana is borrowed mainly from the Zeeland memorial of 1750, 2 and is only a list of patroons taken at random from a record book still extant, which covers nearly the whole seventeenth century.3 Yet Hartsinck's list, which adds to these the Haarlem merchants just mentioned, and even their captain, Rijk Hendrikszoon, is repeated, with more or less of respect, by all later historians, including even the careful De Jonge4 and Netscher. B *151 *Traders, indeed, there doubtless were. Under date of the year 1600 the well-informed contemporary, Van Meteren, points out, in his annals of the Dutch, the motives which impelled to the West Indian trade and gradually changed its character. " The United Netherlands also sought, in furtherance of their commerce, to discover means of trade with the West Indies, and sent many ships (and great ones withal) to the unin habited West India islands after salt. * * * This trade came very opportunely, since the trade to the coasts of Africa, or Guinea, by reason of the multitude of ships which from all lands repaired thither, gave no longer so good profit as at first. Therefore they endeavored, through this trade to the salt islands, gradually to open a commerce with the West Indies, without seeking to make any conquests there, but rather to win the friendship of the Indians and to protect them against the Spaniards, for w.hom, apart from this, they have no love, and thus to come into traffic with them a course which in time must develop a trade, since the Dutch can sell all wares cheaper by half than do the Spaniards, on account of the heavy Spanish taxes and tolls." That the trade with Guiana, once set in motion, was not allowed to sleep one may, therefore, even in the absence of explicit data, well believe; and that at least one Dutchman was keenly alive to the opportunity and need of fortifying this trade by the establishment of colonies we have cogent evidence. There lies in the archives at The Hague a petition, unsigned 1 This error is partially exposed by Netscher (p. 39). For the documents in lull, see Extracts, pp. 25, 26. 2 Nederlandsche Jaerboeken, 1751, ii., p. 1085. » The Book of Commissions, etc., 1626-1671, of the Zeeland Chamber of the West India Company. I shall later speak of this more fully. 4 Nederlandsch Gezag, i, p. 63. 8 Page 38. The " Jan van Pere," whose name seems to have been especially seductive to these writers is, I am convinced, a myth, suggested only by the Haarlem " Jan van Penen." The first Van Pere known to the records of the West India Company is Abraham; and he first took his seat as a director on October 5, 1626. The colony of Berbice, which gave his name such prominence, was not founded till 1627. Cf. Extracts, pp. 15, 44, 45. 49 No. 3. and undated, but bearing the title, "Remonstrance to the States- General of these United Provinces on the subject of the colonization of the coasts of Guiana iu America." A transcript of that document I have the honor to lay before you. J I believe it, on the ground of its ideas and its style, the work of Willem Usselinx, the well-known originator of *the *152 Dutch West India Company, and to be identical with that discourse on the colonization of the Indies of which he himself tells us in a pamphlet of the year 1608. 2 But, whatever may be thought as to its authorship, it will hardly be questioned that this was the pe tition which was dealt with by the States- General on February 25, 1603. " I doubt not," begins the paper, " that it is well enough known to the States- General what a rich, beautiful, fruitful, populous, pleasant, and *precious region, situate in America and named the province of *153 Guiana, was now not long since discovered by some of the merchant ships of this country." His opinion of its limits and its neighbors may there fore have some slight worth to the present research. The province of Guiana in America, he says, stretches "from the great river Amazon to Punto della Rae or Trinidad." " It is so situated that the nearest districts inhabited by the Portuguese in Brazil are distant therefrom more than 300 miles. And the nearest places dwelt in by the Spaniards are also about 200 miles from the quarter where the mine above mentioned has been discovered, which one 1 Extracts, pp. 27-36. 2 In his Verloogh, hoe nootwendich, etc. (cf. Professor Jameson's Usselinx, note 32). " It must not be thought," he writes in this pamphlet, " that the Spaniard has so taken possession of all the most fruitful lands and places of the Indies that none are left which are of good climate, fruitful, and comfortable lo dwell in, and in which profit is to be made, since we know that he is still daily making war in order to gain certain ones, while others can not well be reached by him on account of the clumsiness of his great ships, as well as through the resistance offered him there by the Indians, and some are still unknown to him. . . And if one answers that the Portuguese and other Spaniards have better advantages for this trade than we, since they have there certain places, I admit it ; but when they first came thither they had not so great advantages, either in ships or otherwise, as we now have, the more so as these lands are now as well known to us as to them, and we have good opportunity to get all that we should be in need of for the establishment of colonies from certain neighboring places — which places do not need to be here specified — while the Spaniard in the beginning had to get from Spain everything that he needed. But since I have adequately treated this point in a discourse on the colonization of the Indies, which I composed some years ago, I will not here repeat it ; it is enough to have Bhown that the means to gain a share in the rich trade of the Indies is to occupy places there with people from these lands." That Guiana is here in his thought can hardly be doubtful to any familiar with the local conditions ; and why he should not care to name it, even in citing the title of his earlier discourse, is also evident enough from the context. Van Rees, the foremost Dutch student of Usselinx's career, points out (in his Geschiedenis der Staathuishoudkunde in Nederland, ii, p. 102) that from various expressions in his pamphlets may be inferred his scheme for the establishment of colonies on the coast of Guiana. The " Remonstrance " is not in Usselinx's handwriting, for I have compared it with many auto graphs of his in the Rijksarchief and can not find the slightest resemblance. The document has strayed from its place in the archives, and Mr. Hingman, the commies-charlermeester who for many years has had charge of the papers of the States-General, thinks it less likely to be the original presented to that body than a copy which belonged to the provincial Estates of Holland. The absence of signature, indeed, would seem to preclude all thought of its being the original. Were the papers of the States-General complete, its source could doubtless be made certain, as well as the date of its presentation ; but they are not. Dit No. 3. must first people and fortify; the said province being also inaccessible from the borders of the aforesaid nations (over and above the great distance) by reason of many high mountains, great wildernesses, and forests, and cut off from them by very deep rivers." The Portuguese, then, to this writer, were wholly outside the province; the Spaniards in it, but remote from the spot he would first colonize; the Dutch not yet there at all. But the States- General, however tempted, replied that for the present it could not take action as to this requested colonization of Guiana. x Whether or no this document is the work of Willem Usselinx, it is cer tain that Usselinx was at just this time8 urging the colonization of America in general and of Guiana in particular. " Inasmuch," writes his country man and contemporary Van Meteren, "as the navigation and trade to the East Indies brought good business into the United Netherlands, some be thought them that a navigation and business of the same sort to the West Indies, or America, might be brought about through the creation of a *154 well-organized Company. Among *others one Willem Usselinx, of Antwerp, merchant, a man who had spent several years in Spain and iu the islands everywhere, and had well posted himself as to the trade and opportunities of the West Indies, or America, disclosed and suggested in all quarters the proper means which were of use to that end. . . . " For it was evident [he urged] that the Spaniard had still many foes in America, or the West Indies, who were strong and not easy to conquer, and who, with a little help, would be able to resist the Spaniards, especially if one should furnish them weapons and should teach them to use horses, and also to move and manipulate troops, so as to make the Spaniard show his back. For it was well known [he said] that from the island of Trinidad as far as the Equator the Spaniards had no places or fortresses. These arguments and the like, with other tidings and information possessed by him, which it would not be politic as yet to spread abroad, this Usselinx knew how to employ. Wherefore he was charged, in the year 1604, to draw up a policie, or prospectus, in order to see if it would find share holders, or adequate voluntary subscription by merchants, for the forma tion of such a Company and the making up of a good capital. "The prospectus consisted, first, of a complaint against the Spaniard, who sought to shut out the Dutch from all navigation, trade, aud business, as was shown by his establishing in Spain a new toll (beside the *155 old) of thirty per cent.3 Further, that *there had lately been dis- 1 Extracts, p. 36. 2 That Usselinx did not begin writing on this subject until 1600 we know from his own words. As to this and as to his career in general, I may refer to Professor Jameson's admirable biography of him. 3 This refers to the edict of Valladolid, February 27, 1603, by which, while the closure of the Indies was reaffirmed, foreign traders were admitted to Spain itself under payment of a thirty per cent. tolL Its further provisions are given by Van Meteren (in his Nederlandtsche Historie, sub anno 1603). Owing to the opposition made by France and England, this edict was repealed before the end of 16P4 (December 11);' but early in 1605 trade with the Indies was forbidden afresh under severer penalties. '' In the fol lowing year, which was 1605," writes the Dutch historian Pontanus in his AmUehdarnensivm Historia No. 3. covered certain fruitful lands and islands, of good, healthful climate, inhabited by good and friendly *folk desiring the acquaintance and *156 friendship of the Dutch people, whom they knew to be foes of the Spaniards, in order to be helped by them against the Spanish tyranny, etc., especially the people of the interior, these being not barbarians but tolerably civilized and organized, not going naked but clothed, and well disposed, in case some people should be sent over thither to teach them, to till and culti vate their land the better, it being found adapted to the planting of sugar, ginger, oil, wine, indigo, cotton, hops, and other fruits, the soil bringing forth many sorts of useful products serving for good and valuable dyes, besides the mines of gold, silver, and other minerals, which are the sinews of war. These lands would also in time make a good market for the wares and industries of the Netherlands. Moreover, on the seacoasts of these (1611), "the King of Spain promulgated a severe edict, by which he sought not only to close to Hol landers and Zeelanders the realms of Spain and Portugal, but strictly forbade them to navigate into any part of the Indies, East or West, under the heavy penalty of death and confiscation of all their property." It may be worth while to transcribe here, from an official compilation of these Spanish laws for the Indies (•' Sumarios de la recopilacion general de las Leyes, Ordenancas, provisiones, cedulas, instructiones, y cartas dcordadas, q por los Reyes Cat&luos de Caslilla se han promulgado, expedido, y despachado, para las Indias Occidentales . . por el licenciado Don Rodrigo de Aguiar y Acuna"), published at Mexico in 167 ., a summary of such relating to foreign traders as were then in force. They occur in Lib. iii, Tit. 23 (pp. 235a-2S7b), " _5. los estrangeros, que passan d las Indias " ¦ Ley I. Que Ningun estrangero, pueda tratar, ni contratar en las Indias. Ley II. Que Ningun estrangero, ni persona de las pro- hibidas, pueda tratar, ni contratar, de estos Reynos a las Indias, ni passar a elias, sin habilitacion, y licencia del Rey : y los que la tuvieren, lo puedan hazer con solos sus caudales : so pena de perdimiento de bienes, y de la tal habilitacion. If D. Felipe III. en Ventosilla, a 26. de Abril, y en Valladolid, a 11. de Mayo, de 1605. If D. Felipe II. en Valladolid, a 27. de Iulio, de 1592. Ley V. Que Ningun estrangero pueda passar k las Indias, ni tratar, ni contratar en elias, ni de elias a estos Reynos : so pena de perdimiento de las mercadurias, aplicadas por tercias partes: en que tambien iucu- rran los naturales, que para ello fueren supuestos. Ley VI. Que en ningun puerto de las Indias, se admita trato eon estrangeros : s6 pena de la vida, y perdi miento de bienes, Ley VII. Que ningun estrangero pueda estar, ni vivir en las Indias, ni passar & elias : y los que huviere, sean echados dellas: y aviendo passado sin licencia, pierdan lo que huvieren ganado. If D. Felipe III. en Madrid, a 2. de Octubre, de 1608. Y a 25. de Diziembre, de 1616. If D. Felipe III. en S. Lorenco, a 15. de Novem- bre, 1611. Y alia 3. de Octubre, de 1614. Tf El Etnperador D. Carlos, en Madrid, a 15. de Octubre, de 1535. Y D. Felipe II. en Toledo, a 22. de Septiembre, de 1560. En Madrid, ii 17. de Octubre, de 1562. En el Escurial, a 28. de Octu bre, de 1566. 52 No. 3. lands there was found great abundance of salt, with which always, if there were lack of a better cargo, the ships could be ballasted and laden. " Beside the worldly blessings, it was to be hoped also that such a trade would conduce to the honor and praise of God, inasmuch as the saving faith and the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ could thus in course of time be transplanted thither." . . -1 Glowing as are these pictures of the new land and clever as are the arguments for its occupation, there is (with the possible exception as to the Zeelanders on the Amazon) for long no evidence of Dutch settlement in Guiana.3 When, in 1608, Usselinx wrote his " Exposition, how necessary, useful, and profitable it is to the United Netherlands to preserve the *157 ^freedom of Trading to the West Indies, in the Peace with the King of Spain,"3 he seemed to know nothing of colonies in Guiana; and it is hard to explain by any theory of politic suppression both his neglect of an argument which would so greatly have strengthened his plea and his evident eagerness for a beginning of such colonies. "All the trade that we have had in the West Indies up to now," he writes, "has been [in the district] from Margarita to Cuba, where the King of Spain has almost everywhere terri tory, and, since by the proposed article of the Truce we consent not to trade to places where the Spaniards are, we abandon this former trade."4 . . . " But now let us speak of this West Indian trade, which is very unintelligently discussed by many, who urge that it is of small importance to us because we have there no places or foothold, and the trade which we have had there we abandon with the Truce. But at this we must look a little more closely; and I hope in what follows to prove the contrary."5 . . . " For, since in the article of the Truce it is granted that we may trade and traffic in all places, havens, and cities where the King of Spain has no territory, we are therefore given liberty to trade in Florida, the An tilles, the whole seacoast of Guiana, a great part of Brazil, and beyond to the Strait of Magellan, being a good 500 miles where the Spaniard has no territory except on the Rio de la Plata; furthermore, through the Strait of Magellan, in the rich land of Chili and many other lands and islands lying in the South Sea."6 So writes the Dutchman the best informed of his day as to the affairs of the West Indies. The Twelve Years' Truce with Spain, which in 1609 went into effect, embodied the provisions discussed by Usselinx. The 1 Van Meteren, Nederlandtsche Historie, sub anno 1607. 2 The " projected Guiana company " (geconcipieerde Guianse Compagnie) mentioned in another manu script memorial of this period which De Jonge has printed (pp. 257-261 of pt. i of his Nederlanasch Gezag) can hardly have had an actual existence, and may be an enterprise related to the petition above described. De Jonge thinks this memorial written between 1597 and 1602, and suspects Usselinx of it- authorship. * Dutch " Verloogh," etc. 4 Vertoogh, p. 6. 6 Vertoogh, p. 8. c Vertoogh, p. 10. 53 No. 3. Dutch might no longer trade to the Spanish ports in the Indies, but were free to traffic, even *there, with " all other princes, potentates, *158 and peoples."1 To the Spaniards this can hardly have implied a per mission to found colonies; but the Dutch, at least in private, were hardly likely to share this view,8 and in 1614 we find both the States General and the provincial Estates of Holland seeking to encourage discovery and settle ment by general provisions granting to the finders a temporary monopoly of trade. That such enterprises were, however, not wholly safe may be in ferred from the fact that in 1618 the Zeelander Jan de Moor and his part ners asked permission to arm their ships engaged in trade with the West Indies; and that the government was concerned to protect the truce is shown by its granting this only under pledge that they should not be used except in self defense. 3 Throughout the period of this truce I have lighted on no mention of Guiana colonies in any official record, but this by no means disproves their existence; long after their existence is certain the effort to keep them a secret is demonstrable, and they scarcely appear in Dutch official papers till after the Treaty of Munster. That there had been some attempts, at least, at settlement in Guiana may be gathered from a certain confidential report *made *15» just at the end of this truce, on January 25, 1621, to the Stadhouder, the city of Amsterdam, and the directors of the East India Company, as to the best regions for settlement in the western seas. The author, one Cornells Janssen Vianen, who tells us that he has voyaged to Guinea, to the West Indies, along the coasts of Chile and Peru, and so around the globe, and believes he has in these travels "found the proper means to touch the Spaniard where he is weakest," thus writes of Guiaua: Sixthly, as to the opinion of some that notable profit could be made from sundry plantations and fruits, which one must first find and plant, on the continent of America between Brazil on the east and the river of Orinoco on the west, in and about the river Amazon. I answer that sundry of our Netherlanders have there as yet by the means described made but small profit, although up to the present they trade there in peace; and it is not to be doubted that, if an attempt should be made with superior force to win the country, and through such produc tion to drive out of the market any of the products of Brazil and the West 1 Dumont, Corps dipl., v, pp. 99-102. Cf. Van Rees, i, p. 236. 2 It was in 1609, the very year of the Truce, that the great Dutch publicist, Hugo Grotius, published (at first anonymously) his famous Mare liberum, whose express purpose it was to show that Spain (now, of course, inclusive of Portugal) had no right to the monopoly of the seas or of the trade of the Indies In 1614 the work appeared in Dutch translation. Its full title is : " Free Navigation, or Demonstration of the right of the Dutch lo trade with the Indies " ( Vrye Zeevaert, ofte Bemys van 'trecht dat den Hollanders toe- compt over de Indische Coophandel). In successive chapters the author argues that the Portuguese (and hence, of course, the Spaniards) have no right of lordship over the natives because of discovery, or of Papal gift, or of. conquest; and, after demonstrating also the freedom of the sea, he concludes his work with a chapter showing " That the Dutch ought to retain their right to the Indian trade — be it in peace, be it in truce, be it in war." He does not speak of colonies; but the extension of his argument was easy. 3 Zeeland Admiralty, Minutes, July 18, 1618 (Hague Rijksarchief). 54 No. 3. Indies, the Spaniard will make a powerful effort to hinder it, the more so as thereby his commercial waters in Brazil and the West Indies would be obstructed. It is therefore my opinion that little is to be accomplished there, in view of the impending war- for experience has taught us here at home that the lands exposed to war yield little or no profit.1 Their duration, however, was probably but transient. When in 1621 there was created a Dutch West India Company with monopoly of Dutch commercial and colonial interests on the coasts of America, the only claim for reimbursements mentioned anywhere in the records is that made by the Zeelanders for their " tobacco-plantation ou the river Amazon."3 *160 But their foes have left us further evidence. From *dispatches of the government of Trinidad and Spanish Guayana, reprinted by Great Britain from the Spanish archives of the Indies, we learn of a certainty that by June of 1613 the Dutch were established in the Corentyn, 3 and, though they were driven from there the next year by the Spaniards, were alleged to have already three or four more settlements between the Amazon and the Orinoco— four from the Wiapoco to the Orinoco, says a later letter of the same year. Two of these, according to a letter of the year 1615, were on the Wiapoco and the Cayenne, having been established in 1614 (so the confused passage seems to mean) by Theodoor Claessen of Amsterdam4— that on the Wiapoco, according to another letter, by two merchants of Flushing. It is probable that these others were on neighboring rivers, that on the Corentyn being the westernmost.5 Nor does all this wholly lack confirmation from Dutch records. In the archives at The Hague there is, or was, an ancient sketch map of the Cayenne, bearing no date but showing settlements with the names of "*161 Dutchmen appended; this De Jonge *long ago suspected to belong to a very early attempt at colonization.6 And the Zeeland directors, in their memorial of 1751, cite a certain request addressed in 1639 to the West 1 Extracts, pp. 37, 38. 2 See the printed minutes of the Holland Estates for 1621, under date of April 8th and April 20th. Even from this Amazon settlement the Dutch were expelled in 1625 (see note, p. 148, above). 3 To the fact of this Dutch colony on the Corentyn, though not to its precise date, there is Dutch testimony also. " On this river Corentyn," writes Jan de Laet in the earliest edition (1626) of his Nieuwe Wereldt, " we Dutchmen traded and also kept people there many years ago (veel jaren gheleden); their High Mightinesses, the States-General, had granted a charter therefor (hadden daer Octroy van verleenl). 4 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 1," pp. 52, 53 ; " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 204-206. 5 On the map of Jan de Laet, first published in 1625, and probably drafted in 1624 (De Laet's preface is dated November 15, 1624), there appear along the coast and rivers east and west of the Wiapoco and Cayenne, as well as on these streams themselves, a number of the tiny circles which elsewhere on this map indicate villages, European or native. To most of them no names are attached, and they indicate possibly Indian towns, possibly settlements ; but it is noticeable that the westernmost are on the Corentyn. (They are oddly retained, with no additions, in the maps of Blaeuw.) Quite apart from this, the inter pretation of which is doubtful, it is highly probable that il was the westernmost settlement wlr.ch would most attract Spanish notice and Spanish hostility ; and this seems from the Spanish documents to have been just the case with that on the Corentyn. After the colony on the Essequibo is known to be estab lished, we find all Spanish aggression directed against that. 6 De Jonge, i, pp. 53, 54. No map answering his description can now be found. 55 No. 3. India Company by the veteran Zeeland merchant, Jan de Moor, which is said to show that as early as 1613 the Guiana colonies were in full exist ence. x To all this evidence drawn from other sources should be added that, positive and negative, of the English colonizers, Leigh, Harcourt, and their fellows, whose ventures about the Wiapoco were in precisely the region where Dutch settlements are earliest vouched for by the Spanish papers. Yet, though we have from these undertakings several reports of one sort or another, and though evidence of rival Dutch enterprises would unquestionably have been of value in allaying the hesitation caused by the Spanish sympathies of King James, we find in them no mention of Dutch settlements outside the Amazon. Harcourt in 1608 made a careful exploration of the coast as far west as the Marowyn, and in his detailed Relation (printed in 1613, and reprinted in Purchas's Piigrimes, 1625, vol. iv, pp. 1267-1283), he expressly says (p. 1278 of Purchas): . . . I took possession of the Land, by Turfe and Twigge, in behalfe of our Sovereigne Lord King James: I took the said possession of a part, in name of the whole Continent of Guiana, lying betwixt the rivers of Amazones, and Orenoque, not beeing actually possessed, and inhabited by any other Christian Prince or State; wherewith the Indians seemed to be well content and pleased. The territory granted him by the English King's charter stretched from the Amazon to the Essequibo. * Among the British colonial papers there exists a document ad- *162 dressed to the King, evidently emanating from Harcourt or one of his colleagues. It bears no date, but has by the editors of the Calendar of State Papers been conjecturally ascribed to January, 1623. It can not have been written later than March, 1625, the date of James's death. Its object is to set forth "breife motives " to maintain the right of the English " unto the River of Amazones and the Coast of Guiana." " Your Majesty's subjects " it begins, "many yeares since found that countrie free from any Christian Prince or State or the subjects of any of them." " Your Majesty's subjects with the faire leave and good liking of the native inhabitants have theis 13 or 14 yeares continuallie remayned in the said River and also in the River of Wiapoco being upon the same Coaste." " Your Matie hath bine pleased to graunte severall Commissions for these parts, and (wth good advice of your Councell) hath granted two severall letters Pattents the one in the 11th of your Raigne of England, the other, the 17th." " The Count of Gondomer* did bouldlie and most confidentlie affirme that his Master had the actuall and present possession of theis parts; whereupon he obtained of your 1 Nederlandsche Jaerboeken, 1751, ii, p. 1085. The year 1613 is thus the earliest date to which the Zeeland Chamber of the West India Company in 1761, in its desperate search for evidence to sustain its monopoly of the Essequebo trade, could carry back the Guiana colonies, though it used in that search historical records now lost. ' 2 Gondomar was the Spanish ambassador in England. 56 No. 3. Matle a suspence and stay of all our proceedings for a tyme. And two yeares and a halfe afterward the said Embassadour caused about 300 men to be sent into the River of Amazones, then to beginn the foresaid posses sion and to destroy the English and Dutch there abideinge."1 In 1626, after the accession to the English throne of Prince *163 Charles, to whom his book had been dedicated, Harcourt ^'published a fresh edition of his Relation, much revised and enriched. Among the added passages is this interesting account of the above mentioned Spanish attempt to purge Guiana of strangers (p. 7): And here I think it fit to give notice of the dealing of a Spanish Ambassadour (whilest he resided in England) against these men [the English colonists in Guiana], after he had procured them to bee altogether abandoned by their owne Country, by his false suggestions, and violent importunity: For not content and satisfied to have wrought a suspension of all proceedings upon the Patent of the Amazones ... he was still troubled at the leaving of a hundred persons in those parts ... and underhand made a dispatch into Spaine, to procure a Force to supplant and ruine them ; whereupon 3. ships were sent from Spaine, that had their directions and commission to fall in with Brasill, and to take in there a competent force to effect the same: which ships with 300. Portugais and Spaniards, accompanied with about 1500. of their Indians in their Periagos came into the river in the pursuite of this designe, . . . [whereupon] way (at last) was given unto the enemie, by running up farther into the Country and the inland parts, ... so that the enemie . . . were forced to withdraw themselves into their ships, and to depart the river, leaving some of their men thereabouts, then to beginne that actual pos session, which the Count of Gondomar had two years before bouldly affirmed to be in being on the behalfe of his Master, when hee obtained the suspense of the forementioned Patent of the Amazones, and of all the pro ceedings thereupon; which act of his, may (perhaps) be esteemed in the number of his greatest practises amongst us. The mischiefe intended unto our Country men, was bitterly, at the same time, effected upon divers Dutchmen, to the losse of their lives, because they were more loosely seated, and more openly exposed unto the enemie upon the borders, or Islands of the maine river. The men left there by the Spaniards, were afterward chased quite away by the English going aboard the next Dutch ships that came into the river. Already in his first edition (1613) Harcourt had stated that sam- *164 pies of the commodities of Guiana were to be seen, not *only in his own custody, but also "in the hands of Master Henry Hovenaar a Dutch-man, who in the yeare of our Lord 1610. performed a voyage to Guiana, to the places where our Company was seated, and now or lately did abide in Thames-streete, neare unto Cole-harbour." To this he adds, in the new edition of 1626: "The like examples have bene often (since that 1 See Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, 1574-1660, pp. 36, 37. For a certified transcript of this document, as of several others from the Public Record Office, I am indebted to the courtesy of Her Majesty's Government. For reasons why I suspect that the document should be dated a year or two later, see p. 177, note 4, No. 3. time) produced both by Englishmen, Dutch, and Frenchmen, that yearely returne from thence." In concluding his argument Harcourt again (p. 76) urges the King of England to the " obtaining and gaining the Soveraigntie of so many great, spacious, and goodly Countries and Territories, not yet actually possessed, and inhabited by any Christian Prince or State whatsoever." It is clear, too, that as late as 1609 Harcourt and his party, the English men most likely to know and most interested in knowing, supposed the Spaniards still occupying the Essequibo; for it is in the closing months of that year that his cousin, Unton Fisher, whom he had left in the Marowyn fqj further exploration, reports on the testimony of an old Indian that "now bee [the Spaniard] hath cleare left Dissikeebee and not a Spaniard there." The only mention of the Dutch which I find in this report from Harcourt's westernmost explorer is where, in this same passage of 1609, Unton Fisher tells how the old Indian had come down to the mouth of the Surinam, hearing that the Dutch were there, to trade with them for axes; but this probably refers only to a trading ship. x This silence of the English explorers as to Dutch settlement in Guiana can not weaken the force of the positive Spanish testimony, which makes it certain that as early as 1613, and at *least until 1615, the *165 Dutch were settled on this coast. But, in view of it, it is very un likely that, save in the Amazon, they were there much earlier; and both the English and the Spanish evidence, as well as the Dutch, suggest that these earliest Dutch settlements may have perished in their infancy, and in part or wholly at Spanish hands. To these must be added the testimony of the later Englishman, Major John Scott, who, not far from 1670, in his account of the colonization of Guiana, wrote thus of what he thought the earliest Dutch settlement: The fifth colony consisted of about 280 Zealanders, with two small ships, landed their men at Cayan, anno 1615, but could not bring the natives to a trade; were often gauled by the Indians, and were at length forced to quit their post. Returned to Zealand the same year. The worth of this last authority must be discussed in connection with the statements as to another Guiana colony, whose story it is now time to take up. Suffice it for this first chapter to have reached, with 1613, a date at which the existence of Dutch colonies in Guiana is certain. Thus far my results may be summed up as follows: 1. The earliest Dutch expedition to the coast of Guiana, then conceived of as a part of the Spanish kingdom of Peru, reached that coast in 1598. This expedition was formally recognized by the Dutch States-General itself as one to a place theretofore unvisited by Netherlanders. 1 Dutch ships trading to the Wiapoco are also mentioned by the slightly earlier English explorer, Charles Leigh, in 1604. This (and the serious misunderstanding of it by the Blue Book) has been pointed out by Professor Jameson (p. 57, above), Purchas, in his Pilgrimage, has two or three other instances of Dutch traders met on the Guiana coast at this period. 58 No. 3. 2. The earliest Dutch settlement on this coast may possibly have been on the Amazon in the year 1600; but the earliest date at which the exist ence of any Dutch occupation can be affirmed with certainty, or even with probability, is the year 1613. 3. Of any claim by the Dutch to Guiana as a whole, or to any part of its western coast, there is thus far no intimation. *166 *2. THE DUTCH IN THE ESSEQUIBO. That there is no credible evidence for the presence of the Dutch in this river prior to the year 1613 has already been seen. 1 All assertions of their presence there before the foundation of the Dutch West India Company in 1621 go back to two documents alone. These are aught but confirmatory the one of the other; and each deserves a closer study. Longest known and implicitly (with more or less of distortion) followed by most later writers is the memorial submitted to the States-General, on August 23, 1751, by the directors of the Zeeland Chamber of the West India Company, in de fense of its claim to the colony of Essequibo.2 Its aim was of course a thoroughly partisan one. In the report published in the same behalf a year earlier (in the autumn of 1750) by the provincial Estates of Zeeland, this Guiana colony was alleged to have been in existence and in the hands of the Zeelanders prior to the establishment of the West India Company in 1621; but the only document adduced in support of this was an account book of the year 1627, which could hardly prove anything of the *167 sort.3 The Amsterdam Chamber, in the *reply drawn up by it (January 9, 1751) at the request of the States-General, had passed lightly over this point, resting its claim on action of the Company at a much later period, and content with referring somewhat loftily to the published literature of the subject as showing that Hollanders, too, had traded to the Guiana coast before 1621. 4 But the Zeeland directors felt the claim important, and in their answering memorial (August 23, 1751) came to its support with what seems fresh evidence and with the skill of finished casuists. 1 As to its earlier occupation by other Europeans see Professor Jameson's report (pp. 46-52) and my own paper On the Historical Maps (in vol. iii, pp. 188-191). 2 The autograph original of this document is in vol. 2006 of the West India papers, in the Dutch Rijksarchief. It was officially printed, and was printed in the Nederlandsche Jaerboeken for 1751, pp. 1079-1135. 3 " Welke Colonie reeds by de Komtr Zeeland bekend en bevaren is geweest, ten tyde van het verleenen vun'l Oclrooi tenjare 1621, uitwyzens de oudste Boeken en Registers, en onder andere een Journael-Boek van 1627. in opvolging van dat van Conyn, in Essequebo gehouden, doende Rekening van deszelfs Administratie aen de Heeren Majoors van de Wilde Kust in Zeeland." — (Ned. Jaerboeken, 1750, p. 1494.) 4 " En met geen meerder gratie word beroepen tot de eerste ontdekking van Guajana en het bevaren van die Lamlstreek sclerd hetjaer 1698. tot het jaer 1670. toe. Want om Uw Hoog Mog. met op te hnuden met een historieel verhael vande Equipagien zoo wel nit Holland, alsvan elders op de gemelde Kust voor hetjaer 1621. gedaen, en waer van de publieke en met den druk gemeen gtmaektc Schriflen, overuhedige geluigenis geeven" etc. — (Ned. Jaerboeken, 1751, p. 194.) 59 No. 3. Beginning their argument with a reminder of the project of Ten Haeff in 1599, J they bring into close connection with him a list of later Zeeland founders of American colonies, without feeling it necessary to point out that the earliest of these began his activity in 1626, and that they have but borrowed the names from an old West India Company record book covering the period 1626-1671. " It is true," they now add, in a sentence well calcu lated to muddle all later research, " that, as regards the colony of Esse quibo, the name of the first projector and founder thereof we have not yet been able with certainty to learn; yet it is nevertheless more than probable that it was first visited aud colonized by the Zeelanders, namely, so far as can be traced, by a certain Joost van der Hooge, who thereafter was also the first director of the Zeeland Chamber, and that, if not for several years before the creation of a General West India Company (a con clusion to which much color is given by a certain request presented to the Board of Nineteen in the year 1639 by Jan de Moor, wherefrom it be comes *apparent that already as early as 1613, and so eight years before *168 the charter was granted to the West India Company, the colonies on the Wild Coast were alread}r in full existence), at least by the time of the beginning of that Company such an establishment must already have existed there, in view of the fact that in the first mentions of the river Essequibo in the books, registers, and minutes of the Company then brought into exist ence one finds this colony spoken of as of an already established possession, strengthened by a fort which then bore the name of Fort der Hooge, after an old noble Zeeland family near of kin to that of the noble lords van Borsselen, and shortly thereafter the name of Kykoveral, and yet without the slightest shadow of accompanying evidence that this had come about through the Company or at its order, as would in that case certainly appear in the resolutions of that body, and nevertheless the Zeeland Chamber was at that time in possession of that river and that fort, and also of the trade which was there carried on— these being, perhaps, brought into their hands by those individual founders themselves, who afterwards, as we have already seen, formed a part of the Zeeland Chamber of the said Company and were made directors thereof, as, for example, Messieurs Van der Hooge, Ten Haef, Elfsdyk, Van Peere, and others, who had theretofore traded to the aforesaid coast, were elected and installed as directors in the aforesaid Chamber." " But be this as it may," they continue, taking breath in a fresh para graph, "so long as from the side of the Amsterdam Chamber not the slightest evidence can be produced that the aforesaid colony and river, be fore or at the beginning of the Company, was traded to by the Holland ers or by any other inhabitants of the State except the Zeelanders, it may safely be concluded, on the hereinbefore specified and more than *probable grounds, that the inhabitants of Zeeland alone and exclu- *169 sively, from the beginning on, have traded to the aforesaid river, 1 See pp. *146, *147, above. 60 No. 3. erected there their establishments, and, under the care and direction of the Zeeland Chamber, have remained in continuous possession thereof. 'In obscuris enim inspicere solemus quod verisimilius est,' and 'in pari causa, possessor potior haberi debet.' " 1 *170 *Now, to anybody who reads with care (as few historians seem to have had the patience to do) these adroitly framed sentences, it is clear that we have here not a positive proof of the existence of the Essequibo colony prior to 1621, but a confession that no such proof can be found. And one needs to read but slightly between the lines to detect that the directors have lighted upon but two items of possible evidence— -an uncertain allusion of the year 1639 to the existence of the Guiana colonies in general in 1613, and the mention in early records of the West India Company of a " Fort der Hooge " in connection with the Essequibo. The alleged request of Jan de Moor in 1639 can not now be verified, for the minutes of the Nineteen for this year are lost; but there is no reason to doubt its existence or its verity. It is, however, clearly a mere refer ence to the Guiana colonies in general; explicit mention in it of the Esse quibo there is confessedly none. It would even seem, from the cautious 1 " Het is waer, dat men ten opzichte van de Colonie van Essequebo, op voorschreve Kust insgelyks gelegen, de eerste Aenlegger en Stickler van dezelve, by name, tot hier toe niet regt heeft kunnen ontwaer worden; Eiloch 't is niet le min meer dan waerschynelyk, dat dezelve door geen andere, dan door de Zeeuwen, en wel voor zoo verre men zulks kan naspeuren door zekeren Heer Joost van der Hooge, die daer na ook de eerste Bewindhebber van de gemelde Kamer Zeeland is geworden, het eerste is bezocht en bevolkt geweest, en dat zoo niet al eenige jaren, reeds voor de erectie van eene Generate Westindische Compagnie is geschied, (waer toe nogthans vele aeulei- dinge word gegeven door zeker Request by den Heer Joan de Moor, aen de Vergaderinge van Negentienen, ten jare 1639. gepresenteerd, waer uit komt te blyken dat de Colonien op de Wilde Kust, al ten jare 1613, en dus aelit jaren voor het Oi-trooi, aen de Westindische Compagnie verleend, al in een volkomen wezen zyn geweest) immers al by den aenvang van de Compagnie zoodanig een Etablissement daer reeds moet geweest zyn, aengezim ook by het eerste, 't geen men in de Boeken, Registers en Notulen van die toen in stand gebrachte Compagnie van Rio Essequebo vind vermeld, men omtrent dezelve Colonie bevind gesproken te worden, als van eene reeds beves tigde Possessie, gesterkt met eene Fortres, toen al genaemd het Fort der Hooge, naer een oud Adelyk Zeeuwsch Geslacht, naeuw verbonden aen dat van de Hoog Ed. Heeren van Borsselen, en korl daer na genoemd Kykoveral, zonder dat echter daer by eenige de minste schaduwe ontdekl word, dat zulks door de Compagnie of op deszelfs ordre zoude wezen geschied, als het gene anders zeker in derzelve Resolulien wel zoude wezen gevonden, en eclUer was ter dier tyd de Kamer Zeeland al in de Possessie en het bezit van die Rivier en dat Fort, mitsgaders van den Handel, die aldaer werd gedreven; zynde dezelve mooglyk veelligt daer in gebragt door die particuliere Aenleggers selve, die naderhand, zoo als wy hier voren gezien hebben, een gedeelte van de Kamer Zeeland, in dezelve Compagnie hebben nitgemaekl en in het bewind van dezelve zyn gebragt geworden, zoo als de Heeren van der Hooge, ten Haef, Elfsdyk, van Peere en anderen, die op de voorschreve Kust reeds te voren geequipeerd hadden, lot Bewindhebberen in voorschreve Kamer zyn geeligeerd en aengesteld geweest. " Dan het zy hier mede zoo het wil, zoo lang men aen de zyde van de Prcesidiale Kamer geen liet minste beuiys kan produceren, dat de voorschreve Colonie en Rivier, voor of met den aenvang van de Compagnie, by de Hollanders of eenige andere Ingezetenen van der Staet buiten de Zeeuwen is bevaren en behandeld geworden, zoo kan en mag men, uit de reeds hier voren opgegevene en meer dan waerschynelyke gronden, veilig beshiten dat de Zeeuwsche Ingezetenen alleen en privalivelyk de voorschreve Rivier, van begin af, hebben bevaren, hunne Etablissementen aldaer opgerecht en onder de bezorginge en directie van de Kamer Zeeland daer van in eene gecontinueerde Possessie zyn gebleven. In obscuris enim inspicere solemus, quod verisimilm est, arg. legis 114. ff. de Regulis Juris: et in pari cansa, possessor potior haberi debet; sec. I. 138. eod. tit."— (Nederland sche Jaerboeken , 1751. pp. 1085, 1086.) 61 No. 3. form of the statement, that its testimony to the Guiana colonies at all is rather inferential than direct. What is urged as to a "Fort der Hooge " would be more serious were it borne out by the contemporary records on which it claims to be based. These very earliest records of the West India Company still remain to us, and in precisely the copies used by the Zeeland directors themselves. x True, the very first volume of the minutes of the Zeeland Chamber itself is now lacking; but there is much reason to believe that it was lacking when this memorial was written, and, had it been in this that the phrase was found, the memorialists would undoubtedly have cited volume and date, as they have done wherever in their memorial these minutes are used. That there is here *no citation whatever strongly suggests that what is *171 stated is only an impression. Now, in the extant minutes of the Zee- land Chamber, running without a break from 1626 to 1644, and making fre quent mention of the Essequibo colony, there is never any mention of a Fort der Hooge at all; nor have I been able to find it elsewhere in the records of the Company. Nor is this colony at first spoken of, as alleged, as a possession strengthened by a fort; for, as appears from an entry of August 23, 1627, it had as yet no fort at all, though the Company then promises to send soon some men to build one. The name of the fort, Kykoveral, which does not appear in the records before 1644, is thereafter constantly met; and had there been earlier a Fort der Hooge named after a director of the Com pany, the Zeeland directors would hardly have shown to an influential colleague the discourtesy of constantly ignoring its title. Joost van der Hooge is, indeed, named first, at the organization of the West India Com pany, among the stockholders and directors of the Zeeland Chamber, and this has seemed to some a reason for accepting the story; but they forget that this place belonged to him, ex officio, as burgomaster of Middelburg.3 It is more probable that the place of his name suggested the tradition. There is nothing in the minutes of these bodies to connect him with Esse quibo; and he was not one of those to whom matters relating to this colony were commonly referred. That the authors of the memorial were not writing with the documents before them may be guessed from the fact that, of the three others whom they mention with Van der Hooge as Guiana patroons who had earned a *seat in the Zeeland Chamber *t72 by the transfer of their colonies, not all were original members of that chamber. There is, too, another claimant to the name Fort der Hooge, or Ter Hooge. 1 There are even preserved, among these volumes, in the Dutch Rijksarchief, some of the memoranda made for this very memorial. 8 Of this Joost van der Hooge, General Netscher tells us, on the high authority of Mr. Van Visvliet, the learned archivist of Zeeland, that he was born in 1585 and after serving six times as Burgomaster of Middelburg between 1618 and 1630, became for the rest of his life (1631-1659) rekenmeester ter Generaliteit. (Geschiedenis van de Kolonien, p. 337.) 62No. 3. When in 1657 the control of the Essequibo had passed into the hands of the three Walcheren cities (Middelburg, Flushing, and Vere), and they had planted in its region their new colony and had given it the new name of Nova Zeelandia, there stood on the bank of the Pomeroon, we are told, not only the fortress Nieuw Zeeland, and below it the village Nieuw Mid delburg, but a little farther downstream the " Huis ter Hooge"— believed to have been a fortified lookout. l The Zeeland Estates, in their paper of 1750, fell into the error of supposing the colony of Essequibo to have borne from its outset the name of Nova Zeelandia.3 This the Zeeland directors corrected; but is it not possible that they fell into the kindred error of for getting the site and date of the Fort* ter Hooge? The other document which gives for the foundation of the colony of Essequibo an earlier date than 1621 lies in the library of the British Museum, where it bears the mark " Sloane MSS., 3662." It is a thin bound volume, lettered on its back, " Var. Tracts on the E. and W. Indies." The book is, however, all written by a single hand; and the author has made no effort to conceal his identity, for the volume begins with an *173 '-elaborate preface, to which he has signed at the end his name in full--" John Scott." It is an autograph fragment, or rather a collection of sketches and materials, belonging to an unpublished and probably never finished work on the islands, and coasts of America, *174 from Newfoundland to the Amazon,3 and *its author is that Major John Scott, once of Long Island, who after an all too prom- 1 The ultimate source tor this statement and for the maps (e. g., Bouchenroeder's) which set down these places on the Pomeroon, I suspect to be the Middelburg geographer Arent Roggeveen, in his Brandende Veen, whose text was written while the colony was still in existence, and whose authority, as he expressly tells us, is that of Cornells Goliat, who was the engineer of this colony. But Roggeveen spells this on his map " 't Huys der Hooghte," and in his text " 'I Huys der Hooght "; i. e., probably, " the house of the height "—for a height well suited to fortification we know there was at or about this point. That Roggeveen, a Middelburger and a contemporary, could so have caricatured the familiar name of " Ter Hooge," had he found that in Goliat's chart, is inconceivable. As to Goliat and Roggeveen, fee also pp. 214-217. 2 Nederlandsche Jaerboeken, 1750, p. 1494. 3 In his preface Scott himself thus describes the scope and method of the projected work : '• In my youth I was a great lover of Geographie and History in Generall, butaboute the Eighteenth yeare of my age I tooke up a resolution to make America the scene of the greatest actions of my life, and there to sett myselfe a worke (if possible) to finde out the Latitudes, the Longitudes, and to know the oridginall discovery with the situations of all places both on the Continent and in the islands ; as also the names of Persons and of what Nations they were who have possessed them, and what fortune each Nation hath had, and (as neare as I could) the fortune of the severall governo18 successively, and of the respective Collonies, the most remarkable distempers and diseases, the Commodityes abounding and advantages of trade, what places were more or less Tenable of Nature, and what were made strong by fortifications, in w' manner, and to what degree; Moreover how those Colonies have prospered or declined in Trade, in creased or decreased in number of Inhabitants from Europe, and the proper causes thereof; Together wlh the strenth [sic] of the severall Indian Nations, their customes Gover nments, and Commodities, and what advantages may be made of them in point of Warr or by Trade. I labour'd likewise to discover the Rocks, Sandes Shelves, and Soundings about every Island, and in the Entrance of all Ports, Havens, Rivers, and Creeks, as well on the Terra firma as the Islands, my scope at first being only for my owne particular sattisfaclion, but now I am not out of hope these things may be both of some repntacion to my 63 No. 3. inent part in the politics of New England and New York had fled to Barbados, and who while there had been chosen to lead the expedition which in 1665-66 captured for England the Dutch colonies in Guiana. J Among the chapters here completed are those on Guiana and on the West Indian islands Barbados, Grenada, and Tobago. The first named of these chapters, with a long extract from the second, was a few years ago tran scribed by a colonial scholar (though apparently without discovery of its authorship) and published *in a Guiana newspaper.2 Thence *175 it was copied into the book of a missionary, Bronkhurst, 3 and so reached the world of scholars. Its reception by historians has not been flattering, and the name of its author will hardly add greatly to its weight, selfe, and a generall advantage to the English Nation, by which especially I shall have my end and reckon these eighteene yeares last past, by running through all manner of dangers (at seve'll times) to make Col lections and Observations, have been spent to good purpose for my Country, and thereby put mee in pos session of the greatest felicity that can befall a man in this life. " I had once a purpose to have given 30U a large discription of all America, but then considering the Spanish Indies bad not onely been performed by other Authors but those Authors especially such as are Authentick have writ nothing for the last 60 yeares besides I was loath to cloy the World with long Discourses about old Matters wo1' would not have an aspect on such affairs as are proper for our Con sideration, but chose rather to give new accounts from observations of ray owne (or such living Testi monies as I could credit) Touching those places wch have not been suffitiently sett forth by any man before me: Purposely omitting that part of the Spanish Indies that I have noe knowledge of . . . I chose rather to content myselfe with w' (in great part) I know, what my owne eyes have seen, and much of what my feet have trodden, and my sences brought under an exact inquiry, confineing my selfe with the River Amazon on the South . . . That River parts Brazile and Guiana, and its mouth is crossed by the Equinoctiall Line ; from whence in my Mapps and History I pass Northward to Newfound Land. "More than 1200 miles along tbe shore, surveying all the Islands worth nottice [sic] comprehended within that vast part of the Atlantick Ocean one hundred and six of which Islands I have been Personally upon, have Travelled most parts of New England and Virginia, and a greate part of Guiana, and other places of the Maine between the Tropick of Cancer and the forementioned grand River, and wth Shipps and Barques have sayled into very many of the Rivers, Bayes Ports, and Creeks within the two boundaries of this discription. As for those places which have not come under my survey, and the Originall of many of the Colonies, whether English, Spanish, French, or Dutch whoes [sic] plantacions are settled beyond the Memory of any man that I could meet with, in such cases I took my measures from the best authors as Herera Ovida and Acosta among the Spaniards, Thunis a Grave Authour among the French, John Delaet among the Dutch and from many other Authours and sev'll curious manuscripts that came to my hand besides the Carts [sic] of which I ever labour to gett the best extant and besides actually to coverce [sic] with good Artists that had been upon the place, and such persons I ever strove to oblidge and draw to me of w' Nation soever they were ; I made it my business likewise to purchase or borrow all the historys and Journalls that I could heare of whether Lattin Ittallian Spanish or Portugais French Dutch or in our Language, wherein I may say I have by reason of a generall generous conversation had luck extraor dinary, and herein w' paines I have taken what cost I have been att is so Notorious, that over and above the knowledge of a great number of Gentlemen which I have been oblidged too [si.] for a Communication of printed books, Mannuscripts, Patients Commissions, and papers relating to those parts, the many booke- sellers of England and Holland will doe me Itight to testifie my continuall inquisition." 1 For the passages in which Scott himself tells the story ot this capture and describes the Guiana of his time, see Extracts, pp. 133-137. His part in this expedition is else known, and Professor Jameson, who knew of the manuscript through Bronkhurst's extracts, had already (p. 64, above), from this internal evidence, established the identity of its author. 2 The Royal Gazette, Georgetown, July 24, 1 879. 8 The Colony of British Guyana and Us Labouring Population, London. 1883. til No. 3. for Scott's reputation for accuracy of statement is not unimpeached.1 His facilities for information were, however, remarkable, and especially so for Guiana. 2 For his statement as to the founding of the colony of Essequibo in 1616 by one Captain Gromwegle,3 and for the reasons why it must be doubted, I may refer to the report of Professor Jameson. I have only to add that my own examination of the manuscript records, while vindicating Scott in assigning to 1664 the death of Groenewegel, and while carrying back to 1645 that governor's advent in the colony, brings to light no earlier mention of him in the books of the West India Com pany, and convinces me that he could not earlier have been commandeur on the Essequibo. That in 1616 he or any other built there a fort seems unlikely from the fact that a fort needed to be built there in 1627. 4 That he may in that year have come to some other Guiana colony is not impossible, though the records of the Zeeland admiralty for this and the adjacent years fail to show the name of such a captain.5 In view of the fact that ::T76 *Scott credits to Groenewegel's "ingenious observations" only a part of the particulars of this story, and in view of his demonstrable inaccuracy as to dates and names in what else he tells us of the beginnings of colonization in Guiana, I think it must be felt that, though there are doubtless elements of truth in his story, his authority is much too slight for a statement else so unsupported, and so inconsistent with facts better known.6 Is it not more probable that Scott has confused with the original establishment of the Dutch in the Essequibo the founding of the first 1 See the citations of Professor Jameson, p. 64, above, [i. e. U. S. Com. Report, vol. i, p. 64.] Lord Willoughby, there quoted, knew him well and was by no means an unfriendly witness. 2 See (in addition to note, p. *174) Extracts, pp. 134, 135, and p. 135, note. 3 So, and not Gromweagle, as Bronkhurst prints it, it is always spelt in the manuscript — of course, or the Dutch Groenewegel. 1 See p. 180, below. Had it been merely the repair of an old fort that was needed, or even its re placement by a new one, this would almost certainly have been shown by the wording of the record. True, between 1616 and 1627 a fort might have been destroyed and abandoned ; but such an event was likely to leave trace in record or tradition. 6 These records are for this period complete at The Hague ; and between 1613 and 1621, at least, no such name can be found in them. 6 Among these better known facts (in addition to the evidence, negative and positive, derived from Dutch records) are the following : Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1617, on that second voyage to Guiana which resulted in the sack of Santo Thome, the Spanish settlement in the Orinoco, thus writes, in his journal, under date of December 10, of his instructions to the party sent up that river : " I also gave them order to send into Dessekebe for I assured them that they could not want Pilotts ther for Orenoke, being the next great river adjoyning unto it, and to which the Spaniards of Orinoke had dayly recourse." Now, Sir Walter Raleigh, despite his long imprisonment, was perhaps the best posted European of his time as to the affairs of Guiana. Moreover, he had brought with him and had just put ashore at Cayenne for trade with the Indians two Dutchmen, and had hobnobbed in that port with the captain of a Dutch trad ing-ship, " one Janson of Flushing, who had traded that place about a dussen yeares." It is scarcely con ceivable that, had there been then a Dutch colony in the Essequibo, Raleigh could have failed to learn it. Even Sir Robert Schomburgk infers from this that the Dutch were not then in Essequibo, and in his foot note on the passage, reconciles it with his theory of an earlier Dutch occupation of that river by stating that, though " the Dutch were here established as early as 1580-90," " they were, however, driven from their settlements by the Spaniards, assisted by the Indians "—he is clearly thinking of the alleged ex- 65 No. 3. colony of planters there— the Nova Zeelandia of the Walcheren cities— in 1658? Of the latter *Groenewegel was, as we shall pres- *177 ently see, indeed, the first Commander, and so in a sense the founder. In June, 1621, the truce with Spain having now expired, there came at last into existence the long-projected Dutch West India Company. Its charter granted it monopoly of trade over all the coasts of America," both Atlantic and Pacific, not to mention West Africa, the islands, and the Antarctic continent, and this without a suggestion of frontier within these bounds. All existing Dutch colonies on these coasts passed, therefore, into its hands. The only claim for reimbursement which finds mention in the official records is one made by the Zeelanders for their " tobacco plantation on the Amazon."1 Of other establishments on the South American coast nothing is heard. Even after the grant of the charter, however, the Company was long in organizing. The stock had first to be taken up. The Zeeland shareholders did not meet till May 26, 1623,3 to choose the directors of the Zeeland Chamber; and the supreme board of the Nineteen, made up of deputies from this and the other chambers, first came together on August 3, 1623. 3 Among the items of business prescribed for this opening session one finds mention of the coast of Brazil, at the one side of Guiana, and the Punta de Araya, the salt depot, at the other, but no word of the Wild Coast itself.4 We learn, *however, that already a " goodly number of *178 colonists " are presenting themselves. But it is not until the session of September 10, 1624, that one reads among the topics for consideration: The deputies of Zeeland will please bring with them the instructions given to the ships bound for the Amazons, and further information as to the condition of things in that quarter ; and the deputies of all the chambers pulsion of Dutchmen from the Moruca in 1596. That both these latter assumptions are errors is of no consequence to the question now in hand. (See Raleigh, Discoverie of Guiana, ed. Schomburgk, pp. 198-203.) In the second place, Fray Pedro Simon, the contemporary Spanish historian, writing at Bogota within the same decade, narrates in much detail the chastisement by the Spaniards, in 1619, of thehostile Arawaks in the Pomeroon, the Essequibo, and the Berbice. What is more, he states that these Indians have, up to their corruption at this time by the English (he means Raleigh's party), been always the friends of the Spaniards. He clearly knows nothing of any presence of the Dutch in these rivers. (See his Noticias, pp. 664-666, and Professor Jameson's report, p. 51, above.) 1 As to this foundation on the Amazon, see p. *148, above, note. 8 This I learn from the minutes of the shareholders themselves (Hague, Rijksarchief, West India papers, vol. 470). a So testify the Nineteen's own minutes (West India papers, vol. 51). Cf. Extracts pp. 38, 39, note. 4 Vet, in the English document quoted above (p. 162) from the British colonial papers, » document eonjecturally calendared under January, 1623 (at which date no session of the Dutch West India Company had yet been held), one reads : " The West Indian Companie in Holland do now send two or three shipps full of men unto the Amazones intendinge epeedilie to supplie them w" manie more for Plantation." It would be of value to know the grounds for the ascription of the document to so early a date. Nothing in its contents demands it ; and a time subsequent to the rupture of the negotiations for the Spanish mar riage, in 1624, would seem more congenial to the presentation of such a memorial. The copy in question of the document is endorsed " For the Prince, his Highnes.'- lit. NO. 3. shall come instructed, so as to devise means for the securing of that region, whether by the planting of suitable colonies or otherwise. J At the session, however, after hearing the memorial of the Zeeland deputies, nothing was done save to furnish a copy to each of the chambers for consideration and report. Unluckily, the loss of the later minutes of the Nineteen3 leaves us in the dark as to the immediate sequel; but from a passage in the Zeeland memorial of 1751, possibly based on these records, we learn that in 1627 articles were adopted " for the establishment of a colony on the Wild Coast,"3 and that on March 4, 1628, the Nineteen asked from the Zeeland Chamber a written report on the "colonies of the Amazons." A bright light is also thrown on the Company's plans by their still extant form of " Commission for Captains," drawn up in 1626:4 " Since we have under taken," declare the directors, "in virtue of the charter granted by the States General of the United Netherlands to this Company, to send "179 certain ships to *the West Indies, there to further the peopling of uninhabited places, and among other things to build a fortress, in order to be secure against the raids and invasions of the Spaniards and other nations our foes, and since to accomplish this with the greater sure- ness, we have need of a capable, true, and experienced person to have command thereover as captain," therefore they do appoint the candidate in question. But meanwhile there comes to our aid a body of records which from now on will give far more definite information as to these Guiana colonies. The minutes of the Zeeland Chamber itself, whose first volume (1623-1626) has, alas, long been lost, are from May 4, 1626, onward for twenty years (to May 31, 1646) preserved to us intact. We find, indeed, in these precious volumes, for some time after their abrupt beginning, no explicit mention of any colony. But already on May 21, 1626, it was "resolved to look about for a capable person for director of the business in the Ama zons; and if a capable one can be found to send him thither by the first ship."8 Of ships to the Amazons one hears abundantly.6 On October 8, 1626, the Burgomaster Jan de Moor and Confraters Godin and Ten Haeff were made a committee "to report in writing what new trading places within the limits of the charter might be found where it would he ad visable for the Company to carry on business, in order that, on their re port, action may be taken by the Nineteen." And at last, on November 26, 1626, we find what I believe the earliest mention in extant records of any Dutch establishment on the Essequibo: 1 For the Dutch, see Extracts, pp. 38, 39. 2 This first volume, alone preserved, covers the period from August 3, 1623, to December 24, 1624. 8 Nederlandshe Jaerboeken, 1751, pp. 1088, 1089. The articles are probably those of which only ;i part is to be found in the colony-book of the Zeeland Chamber. See Extracts, p. 63. 4 For the document in full, see Extracts, pp. 40, 41. " See Extracts, p. 41. * See Extracts, pp. 42-15, for examples. 67 No. 3. The committee on wares is authorized to make up a suitable cargo to the Amazons for the yacht Arnemuyden. Resolved, To send with the aforesaid yacht Arnemuyden 20 ripen ing *youths, in order to land them in the Amazon, the Wiapoco, or *180 the Essequibo— wherever the folk of our Chamber may be found— for the purpose of being employed there. And each of them shall be granted 2, 3, or 4 guilders a month, according to their capacities.1 Again, under December 10, 1626, we read: Resolved, To let Jacob Canyn come home from Essequibo, as he asks to do, and to fill his place with another.2 And only two days later, December 12: Johannes Beverlander is taken into the service of the Company for three years, to lie in the river of Essequibo along with Jan van der Goes; and that for twenty-one guilders a month.3 It is more than six months before there is again in these minutes any mention of the Essequibo. Then, on August 23, 1627, 4 it was, on report of a committee — Resolved, To raise the wages of Jan van der Goes in Essequibo, after his first three years (for which he is bound to the Company), to five pounds Flemish a month, and to send the supplies asked by him, as is set down in the request, together with other necessaries, and to authorize him to re tain five or six men out of the ship Arent, and that by next [ship] we shall send him 30 men and cause a fort to be made. 5 •Thereafter nothing more in 1627. But from these brief items *181 out of the first year of its known existence I think it possible, if due weight be given to what is omitted as well as to what is said, to draw with safety two or three important inferences. First, that the establishment in the Essequibo antedates May, 1626. Second, that so late as 1627 it was still a trading post rather than a settlement, with not so much as a fort yet erected. Third, that its commander, as yet a mere agent without a title, had in August, 1627, not yet completed the third year of his service. It is of course possible to reconcile all these with a longer Dutch occupation; hut, when taken in connection with the absence of all authentic evidence 1 For the Dutch, see Extracts, p. 42. _2 Extracts, p. 43. It has been inferred from this passage that Canyn was Commander of the Dutch establishment on the Essequibo ; and in support of this has been quoted the passage of the Zeeland Chamber's memorial of 1751, which speaks of " an account-book of 1627, in continuation of that of Conyn, kept in Essequibo, giving a report of its administration to the superiors of the Wild Coast in Zeeland." (For the Dutch of the entire passage, see note, p. 166, above.) This account-book (Jonrnael-Boek) can no longer be found. It seems more plausible to infer from the two passages that Canyn, or Conyn, was only clerk of the Essequibo post ; and the entry of December 12, by which Beverlander seems sent to take hie place, while Jan van der Goes is named as in command, without any preceding or following resolution for his promotion, seems to me convincing. a Extracts, p. 44. * The date 1626, given by Netscher for this entry, and from him borrowed by others, is only a printer's error. 5 Extracts, p. 45. 68 NO. 3. for their earlier presence in that river and with the purpose of the West India Company, so clearly implied in September, 1624, to plant new estab lishments on this coast, I think it not rash to conjecture that Jan van der Goes was at the head of the first Dutch occupation of the Essequibo, and that the beginning of that occupation was in or about the year 1625. And I am able to add a bit of evidence which seems to me to raise that conjecture to a practical certainty. In the year 1625 the Dutch merchant and geographer Jan de Laet gave to the world the first edition of his Neto World; or, Description of the West Indies. His preface, written after the work was completed, is dated November 15, 1624. His book is one of great zeal and industry, and of exceptional conscientiousness. Moreover, Jan de Laet was from the outset a director of the West India Company, and alive both to its interests and to its new sources of information. Yet in this edition of 1625 his description of the Essequibo is drawn mainly from English sources. He quotes, however, in support of his statements as *182 to its navigation and products, " our people who some *years ago visited this river." Of the Spaniards he says that, according to the account of the Englishman Masham, they had some people here in 1591 [1597], but "seem to have come to naught again." And a little further on, in his description of the Orinoco, he tells us, following Raleigh, that "among other traffics which the Spaniards there carry on, one is to go with canoes to the rivers of Barima, Pomeroon, and Essequibo, and there to buy women and children from the Caribs, and with great profit to sell them again in Margarita."1 The book of De Laet met with great success. It became evident that a new edition would be demanded. But before this appeared, in 1630, there were some things which needed to be changed. On January 28, 1627, one reads in the minutes of the Zeeland Chamber (De Laet was a member of that of Amsterdam) this entry: In reply to the letter of Confrater Jan de Laet asking of the Chamber of Zeeland that it will please send him certain copies of log books of [voy ages to] the Amazons and elsewhere, consent is given, on condition that he be instructed to send them back within a month or six weeks. 2 It is significant that just these journals should have been asked. More significant is the change, in the new edition, of the description of the Essequibo. There is no mention, indeed, of Dutch settlement. On the contrary, the allusion to an earlier Dutch visit to the Essequibo is stricken out. But the account itself has grown fuller and more definite. The English writers fall into the background. There is knowledge of the Essequibo's division above into three arms, and that good land lies on all three. And the Spaniards no longer " seem to have come to naught," 1 Nieuwe Wereldt, 1625, pp. 474, 475, 480. s For the Dutch, see Extracts, p. 44. 69 No. 3. but "have come to naught." The passage *in the chapter on the *183 Orinoco is, however, retained— perhaps by oversight. 1 Now, it is quite possible that, had there been in 1630 no Dutch colony on the Essequibo, Jan de Laet might still have written his text of 1630; but it is quite impossible that, had he known a Dutch colony there in 1624, he could have written his text of 1625. 2 *I have dwelt on the beginning of the Dutch establishment in the *184 Essequibo, that I might, if possible, fix its date with certainty. What needs to be told of its growth may be told more briefly. In 1627 it seems still but a trading post. But meanwhile other Guiana posts were becoming colonies. Before the end of 1626 two bodies of settlers had been gathered, and early in 1627 were sent out, the one to the Wiapoco, the other to the Cayenne.3 In June of 1627 the Nineteen enacted a scheme of common government for the Guiana colonies, present and to come, Cayenne to be its seat and each of the others to send thither deputies;* and tempting priv ileges were insured to private founders of colonies. In the same month they empowered Jan de Moor to send a fresh colony to Tobago. 5 In July were sent out the settlers for the new colony of Abraham van Pere, on the 1 Nieuwe Wereldt, 1630, pp. 577, 588. 8 To be compared with these passages is also that description of Guiana, published by Jan de Laet in another work in 1628, which is printed in full at p. 355, below. Interesting, too, in this connection is a bit of English evidence. In February, 1627, Capt; Henry Powell landed on the island of Barbados, then wholly uninhabited, 40 or 50 English settlers. He then set out for the neighboring mainland of Guiana to buy from the Indians materials for the plantation. Twenty years later Powell himself (in a petition for the return of the Indians he had then carried off from the main — the document is in the Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MSS., C. 94, and was printed by Mr. N. Darnell Davis in Timehri for June, 1891) thus told the story of the expedition : " Having left the aforesaid servants upon this Island, I proceeded in my voyage to the Mayne, to the river of Disacaba [Essequibo], and there I left 8 men, and left them a cargezon of trade for that place. And I traded with the Indians of the aforesaid Mayne for all things that was to be gotten for the planting of this Island of the Barbadoes. And coming down the river of Disacaba, there was three cannoes with Indians of the people that I had trade with, followed me to the river's mouth and upon a small Island at the river's mouth went ashore, a little before night, faire by the shippe, and had a desire to speake with me. I went ashore to them, and lay that night upon the Island to know their intent to follow me so farre. Their answer was that they did perceive by ye things that I had bought of them that I was bound to plante an Island that lay to the Northward of them and that they had relation from their forefathers that had been upon an Island that way that was not inhabited, and they described the name of the Island to me, and that they had a desire to goe with me as free people to manure those fruits, and that I should allow them a piece of land, the which I did, and they would manure those fruits, and bring up their chil dren to Christiantie, and that we might drive a constant trade between the Island and the Mayne, for there was manie more of the Indians of that place, that had a desire for to come for that Island, the next yeare, if I would come there againe." It will be noticed that the Englishman had apparently no knowledge that there were then Dutchmen in the Essequibo. And this seems also clear from another document of Captain Powell's, a sworn state ment made by him in 1656 ; and also from the affidavit, in 1660, of a John Powell (probably his nephew), who was with him in this expedition. These two (from the library of Trinity College, Dublin, and from the Bodleian, respectively) are likewise printed in Timehri for June, 1891. 3 See Extracts, p. 43 ; and, for further details, De Laet, Historie . . . van de . . . West-Indischf. Compagnie (1644), ff. Ill, 112, and Netscher, Geschiedenis, pp. 63-67. 4 See Extracts, pp. 47-68. s See Extracts, pp. 54, 55. '" No. 3. river Berbice. A fort was to be built for them, and equipped with guns at the cost of the Company. 1 But no colonists for the Essequibo.2 That the Company reserved for itself, and had no mind to intrust to patroons; hut it neglected to colonize it for itself. It was this, I suspect, and especially what was being done for the neighboring river, which called forth from Jan van der Goes the complaint, perhaps the threat, which one can divine behind the generous action of the Zeeland Chamber on August 23, 1627. The Essequibo, too, they conceded, should have its colonists and its forts; Jan van der Goes should receive his supplies at once, and, if he would but be patient, in time a larger salary. *185 *The five or six men to be retained from the Arent and the thirty who were promised were very probably the desired colonists for the Essequibo.3 That the thirty were sent, there is little reason to doubt; for, on April 10, 1628, it was voted " to provision the yacht Armuyden for ten months, and also for three months for as many colonists as are to go along. The said ship shall go to the Amazon, the Wiapoco, the Cayenne, and so on to the Essequibo, manned with 35 men. The same ship shall carry over all the necessaries for the colonists."4 That the promised fort was built is not so certain. Nor have we any where in these early years, except perhaps from the sentence of Jan de Laet as to the whereabouts of the good land, a hint as to where in the river the colony was planted. That its center, if not its sole seat, was the island at the junction of Mazaruni and Cuyuni is, however, made nearly certain by several considerations. In the first place there is found nowhere in later records any tradition of another site or of a removal. In 1764 the Zeeland Chamber declared to the States-General that " from all old time" the fort had been at this place. Again, the island was the only natural stronghold of its sort. It was, moreover, probably suggested by a prior- occupation— an occupation leaving a tangible inheritance in solid stone walls which to the end were utilized in the Dutch constructions here, and which in part remain to this day. 5 1 See Extracts, p. 45. 2 What is said by General Netscher (p. 64) of the alternative destination of certain colonists in Nov ember, 1626, is an error. The passage about " Amazon, Wiapoco, or Essequibo" belongs only to the " 20 ripening youths," who were, of course, to be employes at the trading posts. 3 By " colonists," however, must not be understood tillers of the soil, much less free plant.rs. " The colony of Essequibo," said the Zeeland Chamber itself in 1751, in the memorial resulting from its search through its own records, " from the beginning on, down to the year 1656 was inhabited only by such per sons as were employes of the Zeeland Chamber, and who . . at that time were called ' colonists ' and were kept there for the carrying on of trade, which soon grew to such proportions that in Borne years a hundred barrels or more of annatto dye came over at once."— (Nederlandsche Jaerboeken, 1751, p. 1097.) 4 Extracts, p. 55 ; also p. 53 and note. « As to the origin of these old walls of Fort Kykoveral there are three distinct theories. (1) That they are Spanish. The evidence as to a Spanish occupation of the Essequibo has been discussed by Pro fessor Jameson (pp. 45-52, above) and in my own paper On the Historical Maps (vol. iii, pp. 188-191). (2) That they are Portuguese. This belief first appears at the time of its dismantling, in 1764, when the Es sequibo governor described it as " an old Portuguese work, built extraordinarily tight and strong." Half 7V. \\ jU-J-7 Jjt.m. W^ n * *i A r * 4 i ( SITE OF FORT KYKOVERAL AS SKETCHED BY GENERAL NETSCHER IN 1845 (See note, pp. *i 85-*! 87) . trrni ¦ u. h ifh ii*. h> '/n '1 /. /';. J>- SECTION OF WALL OF FORT KYKOVERAL AS SKETCHED BY GENERAL NETSCHER IN 1845 (See note, pp. *i85-*i87) 'fytut . ( . y ) • i _• ¦/. .-.¦*ai*V4; ! >* ! 1 tp ¦ - RUINED ENTRANCE AND WALL OF FORT KYKOVERAL AS SKETCHED BY GENERAL NETSCHER IN 1845 (See note, pp. *!85-*l87) 71 NO. 3. *The colony was for long not a commercial success. In 1632 the *186 Nineteen decided to abandon it,1 as they had already abandoned, in 1631, that on the Cayenne.3 The colonists, indeed, seem to have come home in a body, Jan van der Goes at their head. But after conference with him, the Zeeland Chamber (April 8, 1632)3 voted not to give it up. Abraham van Pere had offered to carry on the trade to Essequibo in cou- a dozen years later, in 1770, Hartsinck, in his Description of Guiana, declared that " this fort was, by the Portuguese, built of quarried stone on a small island lying in the mouths of the rivers Cuyuni and Maza runi (but was in 1764 broken up, after which there was built with the stone a sugar-windmill on the Company's plantation Duinenburg, and later, in the year 1768, with the remaining stone a similar mill on the Company's plantation Luixbergen)," and again that " Fort Kykoveral was built of hewn stone (surely bv the Portuguese, since the arms of that realm are cut in stone above the doorway)" — " zekerlyk door de Portugeezen: dewyl liet Wapen van dat Ryk boven de Poort is uilgehouwen ." (Beschryving van Guiana, i, pp. 2n7, 208, 262). (3) That they are Dutch. This has found support in the statement of Major John Scott (given in full by Professor Jameson on p. 63, above) that in 1616 a fort was built here by the Dutch captain "Gromwegle." The worth of this evidence has been discussed both by Professor Jameson (pp. 64, 65) and by myself (pp. *172-*r77). The Rt. Rev. William Hart Coleridge (Bishop of Barbados and the Leeward Isles, 1824-1841), who once visited this remote portion of his diocese, has left a description of the ruins which strangely mingles Portuguese founders with the date assigned by Scott to the Dutch. Mentioning "the old fort Kykoveral," he remarks that it was "built in 1616," and that there remains of it a postern in brick, on the side remote from Cartabo. On the key of the arch of this postern, he says, one can make out, though half effaced, the Portuguese arms. The wooden pillars which once sustained the " stellings " are, he adds, still visible. (This passage which occurs in a note to a pastoral charge de livered at Georgetown, Demerara, July 18, 1839, is accessible to me only in French translation— the charge being reprinted at pp. 1157-1162 of vol. ii of the great Rapport sur les questions coloniales by Lechevalier, 1843, 1844: it fell into my hands too late for a successful search for its English original.) On the other hand, General Netscher, the careful modern Dutch historian of the colonies which now form British Guiana, who in 1845 and again in 1850 closely examined these ruins with intent to verify Hartsinck's statement as to the Portuguese arms, found over the doorway nothing but a simple cross. The sketches of the place then made on the spot by him in his journal I have, through the kindness of that generous scholar, been permitted to examine; and, in response to my request to be allowed to reproduce tbem, he has with his own hand made a copy of them, which I have the honor to submit herewith. In further explanation of the sketches he has had the kindness to add the following note : " Remains or ruins of a very small ancient Spanish fort, for nearly a century the residence of the Commandeurs of the colony Essequebo, called by the Dutch Kykoveral on account of its domineering situation at the confluence of the Massaruni, Cayuni and Essequebo-as seen and superficially sketched bv me in 1845 and seen again in 1850. Only two-thirds of the stone walls of the fort were then and are probably still existing; the part on the Cartabo side is built of granite or quartz; the northeastern _,de of the wall is brickwork of ± 4 feet at the bottom, with a gate or portico of 8 feet by 4 feet (inside) and 2 embrasures for artillery. The rest was all in ruins and nothing was left of^building or ^arrack. "The Hague, October)- 19th. 1896." General Netscher has himself, in his G eschiedenis van Ue Kolonien (pp. 338, 339), discussed the origin of thX pig out that the presence of the Portuguese in the Essequibo prior to the Dutch , occup. tion is a thing wholly foreign both to Dutch and to Portuguese tradition, and inconsistent »i h all we Snow of h circumstances He tells me, too, that the Spanish and Portuguese scholars and diplomats IZel^Tlry opportunity, he has brought the question, agree that the cross was an emblem much more likely to be thus used by the Spaniards than by the Portuguese. » Nederlandsche Jaerboeken, 1750, p. 1494. 2 Nederlandsche Jaerboeken, 1751, p. 1090. » Extracts, p. 65; cf. Nederlandsche Jaerboeken, as above. 72 NO. 3. nection with that to his colony of Berbice. 1 The contract was *187 *closed with him on July 16, 2 and in August Jan van der Goes was reengaged, with two assistants, to take charge of affairs there.3 Thus the Essequibo establishment, even if it had been aught else, now fell back into a mere trading post. It is clear from the contract with Van Pere that no products are expected from that colony except the dyes sup plied by the Indians. Rates are, indeed, stipulated at which "in *188 case the Company *shall please to send any person to Essequibo with the aforesaid ships " of Van Pere they may do so; but this seems to be meant only for the personnel of the post, for one hears in the minutes of no others. Still the Essequibo did not pay. On April 16, 1637, there was again discussion in the Zeeland Chamber as to its profitableness, and the matter was referred to the committee on commerce.4 But while this was pending there came an interesting consignment from the colony. On May 14, 1637, " Conf rater van Pere was authorized to turn over two kegs of syrup, or sap of sugar-cane, arrived from Essequibo from Jan van der Goes, to Sr. Segers, in order that he may try to reduce it to sugar."3 It is the first mention of agriculture in the colony, and a suggestion of that industry which was later to be its greatest source of revenue.6 But not yet: Jan van der Goes, it appears, was dissatisfied, and the Company was as clearly dissatisfied with him. On August 17, 1637, we read that " inasmuch as Jan van der Goes had written from Essequibo that he, with all the folk who were there with him, was minded to come home by the first ship, it was some time ago resolved for the present to send thither in the place of the said Van der Goes, by the ship De Jager, Cornells Pieters Hose; and on account of the great demoralization of the folk and their wish to come *189 home, *it is resolved that they shall be allowed to come home and the colony provided anew with five-and-twenty other respectable persons, from whom the Company may receive more service, and more 1 Extracts, p. 67. 2 Extracts, pp. 67, 68. - Extracts, pp. 66, 67. There he was at the visit to Guiana, in 1634, of the North Holland mer chant, De Vries, who came seeking a site for a colony of his own. De Vries coasted no farther west than the mouth of Demerara. There Jan van der Goes came in a canoe to meet him, and is called by him " head man in Essequibo on behalf of the West India Company " (" Jan van der Goes ... .ore de Rivier van Isekebie, die daer Opperhooft was van wegen de West-Indische Companie"), a title which suggests the head of a commercial establishment rather than the governor of a colony. (De Vries, Korte Historiael, p. 135.) * Extracts, p. 71. 6 Extracts, p. 72. " Under date of April 2, 1635, there is, in the minutes of the Zeeland Chamber, an entry which, at first blush, might suggest that tobacco, loo, was raised in Essequibo. In the chest of a skipper arrived from the Guiana coast there was found, along with a letter of Jan van der Goes and a bag of money, eighty-three rolls of tobacco. But the fact that this was a puzzle in the Chamber itself, and that nothing more is heard of the matter, makes it more probable that the tobacco, if it came from Jan van der Goes at all, had been smuggled in from the Orinoco, the usual source of tobacco for Essequibo in later years. The best reason for believing that it may have been grown in the colony is. that it was pronounced " very poor." In any case, we hear nothing further of tobacco. (See Extracts, p. 69.) 73 No. 3. edifyingly withal." And Conf raters Lonissen and Van Pere were made a committee to pick up these new servants, with instructions "to look for the discreetest persons so far as shall be possible."1 This resolution perhaps mainly aimed at a salutary effect on the desert ing colonists, who must, it seems, already have arrived; for just three days later (August 20, 1637) we read that "the persons who have been enlisted for Essequibo, being mostly from the people who came with Van der Goes and have not much to live on, shall for this once, and without its being a precedent, receive a shilling a day for costs."2 Jan van der Goes, however, remained for the present in Holland, and in the minutes of 1639 and 1640 we hear much of a certain expedition led by him to the Orinoco in search of a silver mine; but as the enterprise was confessedly into hostile territory in time of war, and as it came to naught, it has no interest here. 3 Meanwhile the establishment on the Essequibo went on as before. In 1640 (August 6) we read that "the Committee on the Business of Esse quibo having reported as to the folk and the cargo which they had deemed advisable to send thither, their report was adopted, and the committee was authorized to arrange with Van Pere and Van Rhee [the patroons of Berbice], inasmuch as they are sending a ship thither, regarding the transportation thither of our folk and *goods, as well as the charges *190 for bringing from there the cargo of dye." Yet it is unlikely that the "folk" here mentioned were colonists proper (i. e., settlers); for "folk " is in these records regularly used for any group of the Company's own ser vants, while for settlers that word is rarely employed. In 1642 (June 30) there was drawn up by the Zeeland Chamber and inserted in its minutes, a standard list of the supplies to be shipped to the Essequibo at each of the infrequent consignments to that colony. This list4 throws much light on the size and aims of the post. It would seem safe to infer from it that there were then employed on the Essequibo not more than thirty men, and that their business was wholly the gathering of dyes; for the articles are such as would be bartered to the Indians or used in the gathering of these products and of the food supply of the colonists. On delivering these supplies, the ship was to " take in such dye and letter- wood as at the time shall be ready " and return directly home. In 1644 one finds in the quoted address of a letter to " Adnaen Jansz., Commandeur, and Adriaen van d. Woestyne, Clerk, at Fort Kykoveral in Essequibo," for the first time such titles for its officials and a name for its fort.5 They suggest a new departure; but there is nothing else in the i Extracts, p. 72. It is not impossible that this exodus of the colonists may have had to do with a projected attack upon Essequibo by the Spaniards of the Orinoco. (See Extracts, p. 76.) s Extracts, p. 72. 3 For all the passages relating to it see Extracts, pp. 96-100. 4 Extracts, pp. 100-102. . . ,. ._,. » ,„_ * Extracts, pi 02. " Mriaen Jaisz." may [possibly be but a distortion of , the name of Jan Adriaensz. van der Goes. No. 3. minutes to imply it. By March 9, 1645, Adriaen Jansz. has given place as Commandeur to Aert Adriaensz. van Scherpenisse. 1 The Essequibo establishment was still not a success. The charter of the Dutch West India Company seemed about to expire, and it was time its affairs were set in order. On May 29, 1645, a committee of the Zeeland Chamber, submitting suggestions to this end, reported that, "as con- *191 cerns the river *of Essequibo, the committee's opinion is that now for some time it has been traded to with small profit to the Company, and for the reason that individual colonists 2 are permitted to trade there as well as the Company, so that the goods coming from there can not fetch their proper price. On this point they are of advice that, at the expiration of the charter, either the trade there ought to be held exclusively for the Company or it were better that the aforesaid place should, subject to the proper fees, be thrown open to free trade." 3 On January 18, 1646, there was drawn a contract with Abraham van Pere for a special voyage to Essequibo after the annatto dye; and now there is inserted a clause binding him to bring also any other merchandise he may find there.4 On May 23, 1647, there is a similar special contract of the Company with a ship belonging to an outside party: going out with goods for Brazil and supplies for Essequibo, it shall bring back from Esse quibo "the dye and other goods which the Company may have there, and from the Caribbean Islands, if it choose, a cargo of tobacco, cotton, or other products of the soil." 5 Similar contracts were made on November 19, 1648, and on January 14, 1649. Annatto dye is the only product of Essequibo named. ° Such are our scanty materials for a notion of the character and limits of the Dutch colony on the Essequibo at the close of the long war with Spain. So far as they enable us to infer, it was a body of two or three *192 dozen unmarried *employes of the West India Company, housed in a fort at the confluence of the Cuyuni and Mazaruni with the Essequibo, and engaged in traffic with the Indians for the dyes of the forest. 7 Agricul ture, save for the food supply of this garrison, there is little reason for supposing. Of tobacco or of sugar one hears nothing after the mention of the specimens received in the time of Jan van der Goes. The first sugar 1 Extracts, p. 103. 2 Under the privileges granted to colonists by the Company iu 1627 and 1628, the members of any West Indian colony were at liberty to trade freely on the unsettled coasts. Against this encroachment on their monopoly in Guiana the Zeeland Chamber had now for many years protested in vain. (See Extracts, pp. 69, 70.) 3 Extracts, p. 104. * Extracts, pp. 104, 106. 5 Extracts, pp. 106-108. "Extracts, pp. 110-112. 7 The only other avocation mentioned is that of fishing: one Jan van Opstall, an employe of the Company in Essequibo, in 1644, complained of the loss of a finger while fishing for the Company, and asked compensation, but the Company could not find this in the contract. The fishing was probably for the food supply of the po. t -as often later. 75 No. 3. mill on the river seems to have been established in 1664; and at that date there was as yet no provision for the registry of lands in Essequibo. 1 This purely commercial character of *the Essequibo establishment is *193 the more striking because the other Dutch colonies on the coast, both those of the patroons and those planted directly by the Company, had all been of settlers. How far afield or in what direction, their commerce with the Indians or their exploration of the country took the Dutchmen of Essequibo, or what they counted the limits of their occupation, we have as yet no means of knowing. The Company had as early as 1627 thought of providing Jan van der Goes with a sloop,8 aud there is no reason to doubt that he had used one to visit neighboring rivers unoccupied by Europeans, as even the private colonists of Berbice were encouraged to do.3 Of outposts there is thus far no mention.4 Such as it was, the post on the Essequibo remained in 1648, as it had always been, the westernmost establishment of the Dutch on this coast, and was now, with the exception of Berbice, their only Guiana colony.5 With the conclusion of a lasting peace with Spain and with the renewal for another quarter century of the Dutch West India Company's charter, 1 Both these facts appear from the petition of Jan Doensen, July 3, 1664, who was establishing a sugar mill at Brouwer3hoek, opposite Fort Kykoveral, on the north bank of the mingled Cuyuni and Mazaruni, near their junction with the Essequibo. For lack of a colonial registration he begged the Company to register it in Holland ; and the Zeeland Chamber, not knowing what else to do with it, entered it " till further order " in their " Book of the Colonies " — where it remains unique. (See Extracts, pp. 132, 133.) The creek by which the mill stood has ever since been known as Sugar Creek (Zuiker Creek). The petition clearly implies that this mill was the earliest. It, of course, does not follow that before this mill no sugar was raised in the colony, but only that, if so, it was pressed out after the primitive Indian fashion. But the Zeeland Chamber itself, in its memorial of 1751 (Ned. Jaerboeken, 1751, p. 1092), affirms, as a result of its Bearch through the records, that " beside the monopoly of trade to the colony, the Zeeland Chamber of its own authority also established therein plantations for the cultivation of sugar and of other products there growing, whereof the earliest example is found in their Minutes under June 8, 1671;" and it even bases an argument on this late beginning of cultivation. That the date should be earlier is suggested not merely by Doensen's petition, but by an entry of 1669 (Extracts, p. 138) ; but it is not unintelligible that the Chamber should overlook things which happened in the period (1658-70) when the colony was under the control of the Walcheren cities. They are unlikely, however, to be in error as to the earlier years. Modyford, the English governor of Barbados, indeed wrote home in 1652, in a letter urging the colonization of Guiana, that "the Dutch have already on two or three rivers built suger workes, one of them at Marawini . . . another at Berbice River and another at Essequeke [Essequibo]." But he may more easily have been mistaken as to this one point than the Dutch records. (See British Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, 1574-1660, pp. 373, 374; for a transcript of the document I am again indebted to Her Majesty's Government.) 2 Extracts, p. 46. s Extracts, pp. 46, 47. 4 When, in 1684, the Dutch merchant De Vries, in his prospecting tour along this coast, reached the Demerara, Jan van der Goes came thither to meet him; but there is nothing in De Vrie's account to sug gest the existence of a post there. (See his Korte Historiael, p. 1 85.) 0 The Spanish document conjecturally ascribed by the Blue Book (" Venezuela No. 1," Appendix I, pp. 56, 57) to 1640 (this is modified in the Errata later published, to "some time before the treaty of Munster ") is palpably of much later date. The Pomeroon was not settled till 1658, and Surinam was in British hands till 1667. Though untrustworthy for any date, the document belongs, perhaps, to about the year last named. 76 No. 3. one might look for a rapid colonial development. But the Company was now robbed of the privateering which had been its leading source of revenue, and bankrupted by the long and fruitless struggle for Brazil. *194 It *is not till 1655, when the hopelessness of the recovery of Brazil had become apparent even to the Company itself, that the Zeeland Chamber seems first to have thrown open again the Guiana coast to colonization, on condition that the colonists should draw all their supplies and wares from Zeeland and ship thither their cargoes.1 And it was not till late in 1656 (October 12) that they drew up a prospectus, inviting, under tempting conditions, the settlement of the Wild Coast. s This they followed, in 1657, with a new body of "liberties and exemptions" for patroons.3 That these prospectuses were publicly promulgated does not appear, yet the invitation certainly reached the ears of both patroons4 and of colonists, and "on March 22, 1657, the first free colonists, to the number of twelve persons, some with and some without family, wife, children, and slaves, arrived " in the Essequibo. 5 But the Chamber still shrank from assuming alone the management of such a colony, and in 1657 (June 9) we find its members petitioning the provincial Estates of Zeeland to assume the direction of the enterprise, "it being their intention," they state, " with the approval of the Estates, to es tablish a colony and new population on the Wild Coast of Essequibo and neighboring places, stretching from the first to the tenth degree north *195 of the Equator between the rivers *Orinoco and Amazon, where there is granted them the exclusive right to voyage and trade, by virtue of their agreement with the West India Company"— i. e., the agreement of this Chamber with the Company as a whole. 6 This petition failed through the opposition of some of the less commer cial members of the Estates; but before the end of the year they found a taker for the task. The three great trading towns of Zeeland, the Wal- cheren cities— Middelburg, Flushing, and Vere — offered alone to undertake the matter; and there was transferred to them, in conjunction with a committee of the Zeeland Chamber and subject to the supreme jurisdiction of the Company and of the State, the colonization and management of the entire coast. " The aforesaid cities," ran their contract with the Company, " shall establish and plant colonies on the continental Wild Coast between 1 Nederlandsche Jaerboeken, 1751, p. 1093. It would seem that the Nineteen was also at this time pro moting colonization in Guiana; for the Zeeland memorial of 1750 quotes from its minutes, now lost, a " body of liberties for founders of colonies," under date of August 30, 1655, in which colonists were forbidden to approach the colonies of the Zeeland Chamber nearer than fifteen Dutch miles along the coast or in the interior. And reference is in this connection made to their minutes for September 20, 1658, and September 8, K59. (Nederlandsche Jaerboeken, 1750, p. 1504, note.) 8 Extracts, pp. 113-117. " Extracts, pp. 120-123. 4 Extracts, pp. 11 1-1 20. * Nederlandsche Jaerboeken, 1751, p. 1093. 6 Extracts, p. 124. No. 3. the first and the tenth degrees."1 The agreement between the cities them selves (December 16, 1657) is content to speak of their enterprise as "the business regarding the peopling and cultivation of the Wild Coast in America under the charter of the West India Company."2 Of their actual procedure we are happily fully informed through the still extant minutes of the managing board of the colony, made up of the representatives of the three cities, four among whom were also members of the Zeeland Chamber, sitting at the West India House in Middelburg. They rechristened the Wild Coast " Nova Zeelandia," and choosing as Di rector of the colony that same Aert Adriaensz. who had already for a dozen years been in command in the Essequibo, 3 they added to *him *196 (December 24, 1657) one Cornells Goliat, whom, on account "of his experience in fortification, military science, and land-surveying, as well as in ciphering and book-keeping," they made "Commissary over the stores of the aforesaid place and Commandeur over the 25 soldiers to be sent thither, and furthermore engineer for the parceling out of lands, the making of maps, and the laying out of sundry strong- places or forts for the protection of the colonists." Thus burdened with functions, Goliat was dispatched to the Guiana coast, and on August 19, 1658, they re ceived from him a " short description of the rivers Demerara, Essequibo, Pomeroon, and Moruca, lying on the coast of Guiaua, otherwise named the Wild Coast, now Nova Zeelandia." His results had, long ere this, profited the colonists themselves; for these, setting sail from Zeeland on February 2, 1658, had under his guidance established themselves, not in the Essequibo, but in its neighbor river to the westward, the Pomeroon, and the adjoining stream, the Moruca.4 Of this establishment, on which was expended most of the energy of the new effort at colonization, and which soon monopolized in current use the name of Nova Zeelandia, I have elsewhere to speak.6 The Essequibo was, however, not abandoned. There still, at Fort Kykoveral, was sta tioned the Commandeur of the entire colony; and when, by 1664, the Pomeroon experiment was languishing, the erection of a sugar mill in Essequibo points to the turning of agriculture toward that river. A sudden end of things to both settlements was brought before the end of 1665 6 by an invasion of the English *from Bar- *197 bados, who, under Major John Scott- taking advantage of the 1 Extracts, pp. 125, 178. 8 Extracts, p. 126 ; cf. pp. 126, 178. 1 There can be little doubt, at least, that he was the same as the Aert Adriaensz. of Scherpenisse, whom we find named in the Zeeland Chamber's minutes for 1645. (Extracts, p. 103 ; cf. also pp. 129, 139.) He was certainly the same who had been in command there since 1650. (Extracts, p. 139.) His surname of Groenewegen (Major Scott's " Gromwegle") is mentioned but rarely in the records. 4 Extracts, pp. 127-129. B See pp. 214-217 below. , ., - , n, » The date assigned this enterprise in modern books is 1 666. The loss of the minutes of the Zeeland Chamber from the end of February, 1666, to the chse of that year leaves us without ligiit trom 78 No. 3. war then in progress between Great Britain and Holland in Europe-cap tured all the Dutch establishments westward of Berbice and left garrisons in the Pomeroon and in the Essequibo. But the Indians, more friendly to the Dutch, were induced to refuse the English all supplies; and the starv ing garrisons, after being harrassed and shut up in their forts by the French, the allies of the Dutch, surrendered within a few months to Berge- naar, the Dutch commandeur in Berbice, who early in 1667 turned them over to a fleet sent for their rescue by the provincial Estates of Zeeland. Thus "Essequibo and Pomeroon, first taken by the English, then plun dered by the French," and now "by the whole world abandoned"— to use the phrases of the Zeeland Estates themselves— passed again into the hands of the Netherlands. 1 But into ivhose hands. The commandeur of Berbice would gladly have held them as his capture; but the Zeeland Estates ignored his claim and occupied them "as res nullius" (abandoning the Pomeroon, but main taining a garrison in the fort of Essequibo) till they could find an owner who would meet the cost of their expedition. They at last (late in 1668) offered them to the three cities; but, these, dismayed at the *198 expense of a fresh beginning, would no more of them, and *thought of selling the colony. There was only the West India Com pany to fall back on. The Company, now nearing its end and more impecunious then ever, was slow to come to terms; but on April 11, 1670, its Zeeland Chamber concluded with the Zeeland Estates a compromise, by which it should again receive "the Fort and the Colony of Essequibo," on condition of paying the costs of the garrison which had occupied it and of pledging (beside certain favors to the neighboring colony of Surinam, newly won from the English, and not for the Company) that "the colony of Essequibo" should hencefor ward be open to all Zeelanders, "excepting that the trade in annatto dye shall be carried on by the aforesaid Chamber [of the West India Company] alone." And on October 15, 1670, the States-General, having heard "the request of the directors of the West India Company of these lands, setting forth how the Chamber of Zeeland had some time ago begun to form a colony on the Wild Coast of America upon the river Essequibo, and how this colony, having fallen during the English war into the hands of the English, was recovered again out of the hands of the English by the forces that quarter, unless the break be in itself significant. From the English colonial papers and from Scott a own account, one gathers only that he set out from Barbados in October, 1665, and reached there again iu April, 1666. But the narrative of the Surinam governor, Byam, makes it probable that Essequibo was attacked late in 1665; and this is the date named by Adrian van Berkel, who was there in 1671 (Amerikaansche Voyagien, p. 26), and by the Zeeland Chamber in its review of the incident in 1686 (Ex tracts, p. 179). For 1660 I find no such contemporary authority. It must, of course, be remembered that to the English of that day the year 1665 ended in March of what we now call (and what the Dutch then called) 1666 ; and an error may easily have thus arisen. 1 For the details of this episode see the English accounts printed in Extracts, pp. 133-138; Neder landsche Jaerboeken, 1750, pp. 1496-1501,-1751, pp. 1102, 1103; and Extracts, pp. 179, 180. No. 3. sent out to the coasts of America by the province of Zeeland, and that thereafter the aforesaid province of Zeeland had suffered itself to be per suaded to place it again in the hands of the Company," sanctioned the transfer and its conditions. J All this time the colony, though many of its settlers had perished or fled over sea to the West Indian Islands, had not been wholly deserted; and it is not unlikely that the virtual abandonment of the Pomeroon ac crued to the advantage of Essequibo. The former had been richly supplied with slaves, and 1,200 of these, seized by the English, were turned over by them in Essequibo at their surrender in 1666. These were doubtless put to use, and even before the formal resumption *of the colony by *199 the West India Company,one finds considerable consignments of sugar as well as of dyes. But it is from that event and from the arrival of the energetic skipper, Hendrik Roi, in 1670, as the first governor3 under the new regime, that a new era of prosperity for the colony seems to date. In his first year there were but three private plantations in Essequibo, two of them worked by 12 or 14 slaves apiece, the third, lying an hour above Fort Kykoveral (doubtless on the Mazaruni), by 28 or 30. In 1671 he won from Berbice the control of the Demerara. By 1673, if not earlier, he was traf ficking with the Caribs in the Barima, as well as with the Arawaks, and he was also just opening a trade with the Orinoco. 3 Such was the condition of the Guiana colony when, in 1674, the old West India Company, so long in the agonies of death, at last expired. To take its place there had already been created (by charter of September 21, 1674) one wholly new, with territorial limits widely different. Instead of the entire coast of America, there were granted to the new one on that continent only "the places of Essequibo and Pomeroon." Of the situation or limits of these places there was no other definition than the phrase "situate on the continent of America." *To the new West India Company, however, the meaning was not *200 doubtful; and they entered without ado upon the administration of the colony. So slight was the break that Hendrik Roi was not disturbed, •but remained its Commandeur until his death. But from the advent of the new Company its records are preserved to us in far greater completeness. 1 As to all this see NederlandscJic Jaerboeken, 1750, pp. 1501-1508. 3 From here on I shall often call by this more familiar title the Essequibo Commandeur. His func tions were mainly civil, not military, and eventually there existed beside him in the colony ahead of the garrison, known as the commandant. That the Commandeur was not called Governor, as he wished to be, seems to have been only a matter of rank and pay ; and it costs us nothing to give him the more ap propriate title. Strictly speaking, however, the Essequibo governor remained a Commandeur till, in 1761, Storm van 's Gravesande received the higher title of Director-General, Demerara then receiving a commandeur of its own, though still subject to the authority of the Director-General, who resided in Essequibo. From 1784 the Director-General resided in Demerara, and it was Essequibo which had the Commandeur. In 1792, when the colonies passed from the West India Company to the State, the Director- General became a Governor-General, and this title he retained. 3 A. van Berkel, Amerikaansche Voyagien, pp. 43-48; Extracts, pp. 138-141. 80 No. 3. From 1675 we have without a gap the missives by which the Company governed the colony, and from 1679 almost as uninterruptedly the letters and documents which came from the colony in return. From this wealth of material it is clear that the continuity of the colony was henceforward un broken. Twice, indeed, before its final occupation by Great Britain it was for a time in English or in French hands— from 1781 to 1784 and from 1796 to 1802. But these occupations, bloodless and purely military, suspended neither its local institutions nor the trend of its territorial growth. This territorial growth, though slow, was steady and knew no serious interruptions. The field of its activity, however, had striking changes. Until well into the eighteenth century the plantations of the Essequibo clustered themselves for safety about Fort Kykoveral, at the junction of the Essequibo with its two great western branches, and along the portions of these three rivers just above this junction. Down to this time much the larger part of the colony was on the west of the Essequibo. x When, in 1701, the colonial Court of Policy found it wise to divide the colony, for purposes of military organization, into two districts, it was thought fair to let the plan tations in the Mazaruni make one, those in the Essequibo the other.2 *201 *But, as these upper lands became exhausted, the more fertile lower reaches tempted even those who were already established above; and at the completion of the new fort on Flag Island, near the mouth of the river, and the transfer thither from Kykoveral (in 1739-40) of the garrison and the seat of government, the exodus had already become general.3 By 1773 there was no longer any demand for grants of land up the river, and nearly all of it was given up to forests and annexed as timber grounds to the plantations below;4 and by 1777 there was, with one exception, not a sugar, coffee, or cotton plantation above Flag Island — in fact, no culture whatever except a few cassava grounds. 5 Flag Island hugs the east side of the river, and whether it was due to this fact or to the opening and rapid colonization of the Demerara, while the Pomeroon remained closed, or only to the greater attractiveness of the lands, the centre of gravity of the colony speedily transferred itself to the east of the Essequibo. Before the plantations on the west had reached the mouth of that river, those on the east formed a solid row clear around to the Demerara.6 The Pome roon was not reached by them until the very last years of the eighteenth 1 Cf. note, p. 348, below. 2 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 68. The translation is here not untrue to the manuscript, but the manuscript is only a contemporary copy and the sense demands that " the(rfe) river " should be " that (die) river," and that the " river " (riviere) of the following line which from its form might be either a singular or a plural should here rather be translated " rivers." a Already by 1748 the Cuyuni could be counted very remote. (Extracts, p. 316.) " Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 188 (No. 255). E Extracts, p. 540. 0 See Atlas of the Commission, maps 66, 67, 68, 70. 81 No. 3. century. * Meanwhile, the original site of the colony became a wilderness. As early as 1764 Storm van 's Gravesande could speak of " the few colonists who still live up the river"— meaning, as the context shows, at the old site of the colony, about the junction of Cuyuni and Mazaruni.2 *In the river Essequibo itself cultivation had at the outset of the *202 eighteenth century been carried as far up as the first great rapid, that of Aretaka.3 About the middle of the century a Jew named De Vries had even successfully attempted a sugar plantation above this first fall- doubtless only far enough up to secure fresh land.4 A town, even a village, there was never at any time on the Essequibo. "This is perhaps the only instance of a European colony, among thou sands throughout the world," said in 1782 the proclamation providing for the creation of the new capital on the Demerara, " which has arrived at some magnificence without the establishment of either town or village."5 The settlers lived, as they preferred to live, scattered on their plantations. The Company's officials and garrison were for long all housed on Kyko veral. In 1716 the Commandeur got permission to build a new govern ment house, on the mainland just opposite the island, on the Mazaruni side of the point formed by the two streams. The house was dubbed " House Near-by " {Naby), and tbe hamlet which gathered about it was called "Car tabo, from the plantation which occupied the point. After 1740, when the colonial government was removed to the new fort on Flag Island, Cartabo fell to ruin. According to Hartsinck, writing in 1770, when it was " now in ruins," it had consisted " of twelve or fifteen houses."6 On Flag Island, now coming to be called Fort Island, there likewise grew up a cluster of buildings: the fort, the public offices and warehouses, the quarters of the garrison, the dwellings of the officers— inventories of these buildings appear from time to time *among the records of the Company; but *203 a village in addition never arose there.1 Even the colony church was for long not here, but on the plantation of Ampa, midway from Flag Island to Kykoveral.8 But while the territory thus actually occupied by the colony for pur poses of cultivation, whether in the neighborhood of Fort Kykoveral or in the coast district, was confined within such narrow bounds, there was another colonial activity, which laid far wider regions under tribute. 1 Extracts, pp 612-637. As to a single squatter on the Pomeroon, an isolated plantation on the Moruca, and a forbidden attempt to settle on the I'.arima, see pp. 222, 242, below. 2 "Nog boven in de riviere toonen." Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 134. Cf. also maps 66, •67, in the Atlas of the Commission ; these make yet clearer this desertion. 3 See Atlas of the Commission, map 59. 4 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 181. For other mentions of De Vries see pp. 86, 88. 6 Rodway, History of British Guiana, ii, p. 8. 6 Beschryving van Guiana, i, p. 263. ' For a sketch of what was there in 1748 see a corner of map 60 in the atlas of the Commission. 8 Of the half-mythical Nieuw Middelburg on the Pomeroon (1658-65) I must elsewhere speak. See pp. *215-*217, below. 82 No. 3. This was the colony's trade; for this trade was mainly a trade with the natives. As we have seen, this was at the outset and for more than a quarter century of its existence its exclusive function. Even after plantations had there been established by its proprietors and the colony thrown open to private planters, it was alone this trade with the Indians which the Company retained as its own monopoly; and for many decades this remained its chief source of income and the object of its most jealous care. This it was in defense of which it built its forts, planted its outposts, main tained its garrisons. It would, therefore, be palpably unjust not to take this into account in any measurement of its territorial rights. To deter mine, however, its worth as a form of occupation, one must examine some what more closely its character and methods. The products mainly sought by this trade were such as could be fur nished by the Indians, and by the Indians alone: the dyes and oils and precious woods of the forest— annatto (called by the Dutch oriane), letter- wood, carap-oil, balsam copaiba. Annatto, the most important of these, was worked up by the Indians into balls or cakes for transportation; *204 but *all alike were gathered without cultivation. x The natural sup ply of these was, therefore, at best, but constant, and the increasing de mand made it necessary to seek them ever farther afield. The means em ployed to this end by the colonial authorities were of two sorts, which must be clearly distinguished. They had, first, the agents whom they called out runners (uitloopers). These, who must have existed from the very beginning of the colony, scoured, by canoe or on foot, the whole country, stirring up the Indians to bring in their wares and barter them at the fort or themselves carrying into the wilderness the trinkets for exchange and bringing back the Indian produce. The outrunners were regular employes of the Com pany—in the later time usually half-breeds or old negroes familiar with the Indian dialects— and seem to have been sent on definite tasks. " All tbe old negroes," wrote the Essequibo governor to the Company in 1687, " are off for their several old trading places among the Indians, to wit, six for annatto, two for balsam copaiba, and two for letter-wood and pro visions."2 Later these outrunners regularly appear in the muster-rolls of the colony. The districts or routes of their activity are, however, never named. Occasionally in the correspondence of the colony one hears of them in this region or in that, but too vaguely to infer their exact where abouts."3 Of far more moment to the present investigation is the second means employed by the colony in the trade with the Indians. In addition to their outrunners (uitloopers) they came also to have their outliers (uitleggers). It was by this title, as we have seen, that the employes first sent to the Esse- 1 Yet it is to be noted that the dye-trees had to be planted by the Indians. (Extracts, p. 156.) 8 See letter of November 4, 1687, printed by Netscher, Geichiedenis, pp. 374-377. 3 See, e. g., Extracts, pp. 150, 161, 172, 267. 83 No. 3. quibo were known; and, in truth, the relation later borne by the posts *of the outliers to the central fort of the colony was not unlike that *205 borne for long by the colony itself to the home land. It was somewhat more than half a century after the beginning of the colony when a beginning was made of this new method. The suggestion may very possibly have come from Berbice. In 1671, when the neighbor river of Demerara passed into the control of the Essequibo colony, the Berbice authorities had in that river a post of 15 or 16 men, and the commander of this force had been stationed there some fifteen or sixteen years.1 But it could scarcely have been on the taking possession of this river, nor yet on theoccupatioii, two or three years later, of the Mahaicony, farther east, where also the Berbice colony had had an outlier, that the system actually went into effect; for it can hardly be doubted, from the tenor of Commandeur Beekman's letter suggesting such a post on the Pomeroon in 1679, that this was the beginning of a policy new to Essequibo.2 Yet it was not long thereafter before there were posts on the Demerara and the Mahaicony as well. In 1691, the date of the first muster-roll preserved in the colonial records, we find mentioned only Pomeroon and Demarara; but by 1700, the date of the next roll left us, Mahaicony has joined them.3 From this point on to the end our record of these posts is fortunately complete; not only are mus ter-rolls much more frequent, but, what is better, the pay-rolls of the colony, sent year by year to the home authorities and preserved with scarcely a break in the series, give us the names *not only of the posts *206 themselves but of every employe at these posts to whom a guilder was paid on the colony's behalf. They tell us the name, nativity, and term of service of all the outliers, or postholders, as they come later to be more commonly called, and of all the byliers (byleggers), or under post-holders, who to the number of one or two were associated with them in the man agement of the pests. 4 From these sources it is clear that these posts were few, definite, con stant. Besides the Pomeroon, the Demerara, and the Mahaicony there were but two other quarters of the Essequibo colony where such a post was ever in existence; in 1736 there was established (and thereafter main tained) a post on the upper Essequibo, and thrice during the eighteenth century (1703, 1754-58, 1766-1772) a post was planted on the Cuyuni. These five were all. The location of these posts did not, indeed, always 1 So testifies Adriaan van Berkel, the Berbice secretary, who visited the post in that year, and who made the bargain by which the river was turned over to Essequibo. (Amerikaanscke Voyagien, pp.30, 31.) It is clear from Van Berkel's account, as from other sources (cf. Extracts, pp. 138, 139), that the Essequibo colony was already claiming the Demerara and carrying on trade there ; but it does not ap pear that it had there, like Berbice, a force in actual possession. 8 Extracts, pp. 144, 145. 'Extracts, pp. 192, 199. 4 For specimens of these records, see Extracts, pp. 192, 199, 205, 207. As to the completeness of the series, see notes, p. 311, below. 84 No. 3. remain precisely the same. The post at the mouth of the Pomeroon was, before the middle of the century, pushed a long way up the adjoining river, the Moruca, and before the end of it, migrated back to the seacoast again. That on the Essequibo was at least once moved much farther up the river. The three successive posts on the Cuyuni were almost certainly at as many different points. That on the Demerara was about the middle of the century absorbed by the new colony which had arisen in that river. Yet each quarter had but its single post; however, for strategic or other reasons its site might vary, its relation to the colony remained the same. 1 *2<>7 *What may have been the political significance of these posts is less easy to determine. Among the forms of occupation specified by the Treaty of Munster, in 1648, as precluding visit aud trade by the subjects of the other power, was that by loges (in the Dutch text, logien). This word was at the time defined by the Holland Estates to mean warehouses.2 But it is by this word that the posts are described (notably that on the Cuyuni) in the formal remonstrances of the States-General to Spain (1759, 1769). 3 The postholder and his one or two white assistants were usually old soldiers and remained enrolled among the military of the colony, at least until the year 1775.4 The posts were supplied with arms, and the northwestern post, at least, had cannon as well; it was sometimes garrisoned with a larger force, and more than once stoutly and success fully resisted attacks from an armed foe. 5 When, after the raiding of the Pomeroon colony by the French, it was resolved in 1690 to abandon the plantations there, the West India Company instructed the Essequibo governor to leave there "three men with a flag for the maintenance of the Company's possession."6 It was possibly this order which was in thought when in 1737 a later governor wrote the Company that the Moruca post must be kept up " because it was established for the maintenance of your frontiers stretching toward the Orinoco."7 The 1 True, there seems to have been for a year or two (1703-1705) a second post on the Pomeroon— for what reason does not appear. Toward the close of the century, after Demerara had become a partially distinct colony, it established one or two posts of its own ; but these do not concern the present discus sion. For the proof of what is here stated as to the posts on the Pomeroon, the Moruca, and the Cuyuni I must refer to the later pages dealing with those rivers. As to the post on the upper Essequibo, see p. 208 of vol. iii of the Commission's report. Of the project, never carried out, to establish a post on the Barima, I shall speak fully in connection with that river. As to the Company's share in the establish ment of the posts, see note, p. *315, below. 8 See note, p. *80, above. Cf. also pp. *81, *89. s Extracts, pp. 384, 469. 4 Extracts, pp. 443, 502, 604. 5 Extracts, pp. 236-238, 241, 256, 455, 456 ; Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 73, 74, 116, and passim. 6 Extracts, p. 191. 7 Extracts, p. 278. 85 No. 3. presence of a post is, however, more than once coupled *by the *208 Essequibo governors with the thought of taking or maintaining possession of a district. * The functions of the postholder and his assistants have been so fully and so clearly described by the colonial governors themselves, in docu ments now accessible in print, that they can hardly need hereso much as a summing up.2 The foremost during the earlier history of the colony was, of course, the traffic with the Indians. But with the oversupply of the markets or the gradual exhaustion of the forests, others took the fore ground. "The most important work of a postholder," wrote the Esse quibo Director-General in 1778, "lies in this, that through friendly and companionable intercourse with the Indians he seeks more and more to win them to us, that he further keeps a sleepless eye on the doings of the neighboring foreigners, both Christian and Indian, that he watches for runaway slaves, and has them caught and returned by the Indians."3 To this, in the case of posts situated on avenues of inland communication, like that on the Moruca, or, to a less extent, that on the upper Essequibo or that on the Cuyuni during its brief existence, was added the super vision of travel aud of import and export. Of the trade in poitos, or Indian slaves, which their Spanish neighbors believed the chief activity of these posts, there is less mention than might be expected in the records of the Essequibo colony. In the interest of the good will of the Indians, the rules governing it were *strict.4 Though always *209 carried on to a greater or less extent, it is possible that the share taken in it by the Essequibo posts has been exaggerated by the identifica tion with them of the itinerant slave gatherers of other colonies, who likewise found in the Caribs of this wild intervening region the best pur veyors of human flesh and blood. But, beside this trade of the Company, and in spite of the monopoly long maintained by it, there was also a trade with the Indians carried on by private colonists. So far as this was the work of planters, aiming chiefly at the supply of their own wants, it needs no attention here. But there was in the colonies a class of men who gave themselves wholly to trade, especially to the slave trade and to smuggling. "Since this river begins to be filled with many inhabitants," wrote Commander Beekman, of Essequibo, in 1687, " some of them rove continually among the Caribs, 1 E. g., Extracts, pp. 160, 322; Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," 117, 131. Of the hoisting at inter vals of the Company's flag (as stated by Mr. Rodway, Annals of Guiana, ii, p. 89), I have been able to find no mention. Even Mr. Rodway does not mention it in his later History or in his report on The Boundary Question, though in the latter he discusses the posts at much length. 8 See, e. g., Extracts, pp. 241-243; Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 191, and especially the in structions given to the postholders themselves (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 131-133, 140, 248 ; Extracts, pp. 581-584; and below, p. *241). B Extracts, p. 543. * See, e. g., the ordinance of 1686, printed by Netscher, Geschiedenis, pp. 867, 368. 86No. 3. buy up everything, and glut them with wares."1 These were the so- called " rovers " (swervers). 2 They were mainly Europeans, and seem to have spent their lives in scouring the forests, making vast journeys into yet un- visited wilds, not less, perhaps, to gratify their love of exploration and adven ture than to win a livelihood. To one who would draw from the peregrinations of these wanderers any inference as to territorial boundaries, there present themselves two serious obstacles: our almost utter ignorance of their routes, and the probability, from what little we do know, that they were wholly indifferent to boundaries of any sort. If, too, we find rovers ::210 from Essequibo far afield in the region *stretching toward the Ori noco, so too we find there rovers from Berbice and from Surinam, from the French colonies on the main and in the islands, from the British in Barbados, from the Portuguese in Brazil, and from the Spaniards at the west.3 Some, too, seem to have changed their political allegiance at will.4 The chief external trade of the colony, and the only one of interest to the present research, was that with the Spaniards of the Orinoco. Begun as early as 1673, B it seems always to have been carried on by that inland water route connecting the Moruca with the Barima, and must have involved more or less of intercourse with the Indians of this region.6 Now connived at, now hampered by the Spanish authori ties, it was always encouraged by the Dutch West India Company, save for a brief period of prohibition (from 1684 on) when they were clearly moved by distrust of their own governor.1 Prior to the middle of the eighteenth century this trade was carried on mainly by *211 the Dutch. But from 1761 it became the settled *policy of the Company and of the colonial authorities to transfer the conduct ' Netscher, Gcschiedenis, p. 376, where the letter is given in full. 8 This word is, in the Blue Book, rendered by a puzzling variety of English ones: not only by " rover," or " wanderer," but by " runner," " traveller," " trader," "itinerant trader," " itinerant hawker," " depredator " (p. 117), even by " pirate " (pp. 116, 117). 3 The earliest of whom I have found record are those named by Major John Scott (see Extracts, pp. 134, 135), who in 1665 gave him excellent information as to the Upper Orinoco. For further mention of rovers, or of those who were probably such, see Extracts, pp. 156, 158, 159, 161-164, 172, 182, 229, 230, 239, 274-276, 278, 306, 315, 319, 320, 332, 372, 373, 403, 414, 547, 548 ; Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 74-76, 91, 93, 95-97, 100, 102, 103, 113, 116-118, 125, 130, 132, 135, 136, 148. Spanish documentshnve also much to say of them. Their lawlessness is noted by Dutch and Spanish alike. The competition of the Surinam traders was especially complained of by the Essequibo authorities (Extracts, pp. 239, 278, 322, 332). 4 Such as that Ignace Courthial, who played so large a part in the intercolonial trade during the eighteenth century. r- Extracts, p. 140. 8 There is in the minutes of the Zeeland Chamber for 1760 a very puzzling passage (Extracts, p. 333), which-seems to imply that Spanish traders came from up the Essequibo, and which may perhaps point to a traffic by way of the Cuyuni. Of the trade in horses, which was carried on by the Dutch via that river at the beginning of the eighteenth century and which some have thought a trade with the Span iards, I speak elsewhere. (See pp. *308-*316, below). More or less of smuggling seems always to have been carried on by that route. ' Extracts, pp. 168, 173, 182; and, for further discussion, see pp. *260, *268, below. 87 No. 3. of this trade to the Spaniards.1 So successful were they that from this time forward one scarcely hears of Dutch traders to the Orinoco-2 and in 1794 the Governor-General, though himself a son of the colony, was seem ingly ignorant that this trade had ever been in other than Spanish hands and described to the home authorities with interest the Moruca-Barima route as " the course of the Spanish lanehas."3 Fishery must from the first have been of prime importance to the food- supply of the colony.4 From an early date it was systematically carried on both in the upper rivers and on the seacoast to within the mouths of the Orinoco and the Amacura.6 Hunting, too, especially that of the wild hog abounding in these regions, was a matter of moment; and it led the Dutch up the Cuyuni and Mazaruni and into the coast region as far as the Amacura.6 Of the mining enterprises of the colony, so far as these led beyond the plantations, I shall speak in connection with the Cuyuni and the Mazaruni; and something as to the cutting of timber and thatch must be said in dis cussing the Pomeroon, the Waini, and the Barima. *The treaties of the Dutch West India Company with native tribes *212 are carefully preserved; but there is none with the Indians of Guiana. No such treaty is known to the extant records of the Company or to the documents transmitted from the colony. In 1776 the Essequibo Director- General, having sought in vain in the colony itself for documents throwing light on the original compacts between the colonists and the Indians, wrote to the Company to learn if they could supply him with copies of any such. "There must have been made in the olden day," he urges, " some conven tion between the Europeans and the free Indian nations," " though there is here nothing of the sort to be found."7 But the search of the Company must have been equally ineffectual, for his question was left unanswered. Nor have I found anything in the records to suggest that the Dutch here ever looked on the Indians as possessing any ownership of land. To sum up this long chapter: 1 Extracts, p. 394 (cf. also p. 318) ; Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 116, 119. 8 The readiness with which it was taken up by the Spaniards is suggested by Storm's words, in 1764, about their passage of the Moruca post (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 131). So, too, in his let ter of September 27, 1763 (id., p. 126), the clause " the road to the Spaniards leads past this post " should rather be translated "the road of the Spaniards hither" (" Ook is de passagie der Spanjaerden naer hier voorbyde door"). 3 Extracts, pp. 616, 617. In the transcripts herewith snbmitted (vol. ii) pains have been taken to include whatever might throw light on the history of this Orinoco trade. The table of contents will prove, I think, an adequate guide to this. 4 Cf. note, p. *192, above. 5 The Orinoco and Amacura fishery I first find mentioned in 1681 (Extracts, p. 150), but then in terms which suggest that it was no new thing. Of later Spanish attempts to have this coast fishery of the Dutch I shall speak in connection with the several rivers. 6 Extracts, pp. 152, 157 ; Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 62. ' Extracts, p. 509. 88 No. 3. 1. So nearly as can be determined, the Dutch occupation of the Esse quibo dates from the year 1625. 2. Until 1657 the colony, a mere post for traffic with the Indians, con sisted of a score or two of the Dutch West India Company's employes housed on the island of Kykoveral at the junction of the Cuyuni and the Mazaruni. 3. Settlement, begun 1657 and from 1658 carried on with vigor both in the Essequibo and the Pomeroon under the charge of the Walcheren cities, was interrupted for a year or two by the British seizure of 1665-66; but, resumed in 1670 by the old West India Company and continued from 1674 by the new, met with no further interruption. 4. From its beginning until 1740 the colony, radiating from the *213 junction of the three rivers, had its center and major part *west of the Essequibo and south of the Cuyuni, but from that time on drew toward the seaboard, till by 1777 cultivation above Fort Island was prac tically abandoned. 5. No town existed, at any time, on the Essequibo. 6. Trade, from the first, knew far less narrow limits than settlement. That with the Indians was carried on (1) by the West India Company's outrunners and (2) by its posts, and (3) by private rovers. The routes of the outrunners are little known; the rovers were irresponsible and heedless of frontiers; the posts were few, fixed, certain, and had a military and political as well as a commercial use. Trade with the Spaniards of the Orinoco was carried on through the territory now in question, by way of the Moruca-Barima passage. Till after the middle of the eighteenth century it was mainly in the hands of the Dutch, but later fell wholly into the hands of the Spaniards. 7. Fishing and hunting, from an early date, led the Dutch into the upper rivers, and westward along the coast as far as the Amacura and the mouth of the Orinoco. 8. Of treaties with the Indians there is no record. *214 *3. THE DUTCH IN THE POMEROON.1 The first Dutch occupation of the Fomeroon, so far as is known to his torical records, was in the year 1658. 2 It was in that year that the three 1 The name has been spelled in a strange variety of ways: Baroma, Barouma, Baruma, Baumerona Baumeronne, Bauron, Baurum, Bauruma, Boirrum, Boueron, Boumeron, Boumeronne, Boumeroune, Bouroma, Bourona, Bouronne, Bourum, Bouweron, Bowroom, Bowroome, Paroma, Pauroma, Paurooraa, Pawroma, Pomeron, Pomerun, Ponmaron, Pontmarron, Poumaron, Poumeron, Pouroona, Powmeron Pumaron. Yet I have not seen any spelling in which the accented vowel (answering to the oo of Pom eroon) is not o or u or some equivalent of these. (I have once found Bauroema, but the Dutch oe is pro nounced like our oo. " Pomeroon" first appears late in the last century.) This makes impossible any con fusion with Barama or Barima. a I have already pointed out (pp. 136, 137, note) the baselessness of the assertion of the presence of the Dutch there in 1580. This and all other suggestions I have seen of an earlier date than 1658 for. the 89 No. 3. Walcheren cities, having taken off the hands of the West India Company the colonization of the Guiana coast, sent the engineer Cornelis Goliat to survey the region and lay out the new colony. 1 It was doubtless on *his advice that they made the Pomeroon ihe site of their leading *215 settlement. Goliat sent home a description of the region from the Demerara to the Moruca, with a chart and a plan of the proposed settle ment. On the right bank of the Pomeroon, some 15 or 20 miles above its mouth, there was to be a town which should bear the name of Nieuw Middelburg. Above this was to be built an imposing fortress called, after the colony, Nova Zeelandia. Below the town, on the same side of the river, was to stand the " House of the Height,"2 doubtless a fortified look out, such as was usual in the Dutch colonies. But it is greatly to be feared that none of these ever approached completion.3 "Had it not been for the English war," wrote the Zeelanders themselves less than a century later, in their memorial of 1750, " Nova Zeelandia would surely have become one of the most flourishing colonies of America, one Cornelis Goliath having brought over a new map of the region and having already framed a plan for the building of a town, Nieuw Middelburg; yet Zeelandia Nova was not to attain this good fortune, but through the sword of our foe [the British] and the plundering of our then ally [the French] was to be left lying empty and waste."4 It lived but half a dozen years. Colonists, indeed, poured in, negro slaves were liberally supplied, *and by 1665 the governor of the neighboring English colony of *216 Surinam could pronounce it " a most flourishing colony," " greatest of all [the Dutch] ever had in America."5 But the end was at hand. occupation of the river are demonstrably misunderstandings of the careless statement of Hartsinck. In 1619, according to the contemporary Fray Pedro Simon (Noticias Historiales, p. 664), the Spaniard Geron imo de Grados made an expedition into this river and compelled the natives to yield submission and give him provisions (cf. also p. 258, note). It is, of course, not impossible, or even improbable, that after their establishment in the Essequibo the Dutch traded also in the Pomeroon ; but there has been found no evidence of this. 1 Extracts, pp. 127, 128. The prospectus of the new colony, issued on November 26, 1657, is printed by Otto Keye, in his " Onderscheyt lussclien Koude en Warme Landen;' or " Beschryvinge van het heerlycke ende gezegende Zandt Guajana," (1659, 1660) which is itself but a larger prospectus. In this the colo nizers are called " Patroons of the Zeeland Colony at Essekebe [Essequibo], Paurooma [Pomeroon], and Maruga [Moruca]," and the author speaks more than once (as, e. g., at p. 104) of their "colony on the Rivers of Paurooma and Maruga in Guajana." 2 " Huis der Hoogte" not " Huis ter Hooge," as it has been commonly called. For discussion of this name and its meaning, see pp. *170-*I72, above. That at this point there was a height, the first of its sort on the river, we know from the careful reconnoissance made in 1779 by the Spanish officer Inciarte, who chose this hill as the natural site for his projected fortress. * That the foundations, at lcaet of the fortresses wore laid appears from a letter of the Essequibo gov ernor in 1760, wherein he declares these still to be found there (Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," p. 114). 4 Nederlandsche Jaerboeken, 1750, pp. 1500, 1501. Even apart from tbe English invasion, however, the colony had begun to languish. The means of the three cities were unequal to the task. As early as 1660 Vere was unable to pay its stipulated share of the costs, and before the end of 1663 the managing council in Zeeland had become so embarrassed that it broke up altogether (Extracts, p. 179). There is, therefore, the more reason for doubting that the plans of Goliat fruited in realities. 6 Extracts, p. 137. 90No. 3. In the winter of 1665-66 the English from Barbados, led by Major John Scott, after taking possession of the Essequibo, swooped down also on the Pomeroon, and left the colony in ruins. What was left was devoured by the military occupation of the French, who followed the English in its possession. It was an entire year before the invaders were here dispos sessed, and the settlers had meanwhile scattered to the four winds.1 But, though thus destroyed prematurely from the earth, Nova Zeelandia still lived on paper. Even before the colony's ruin the chart of Goliat fell into the hands of his enterprising townsman, the geographer Arend Roggeveen of Middelburg, and when a little later that map-maker brought out his fine atlas of these coasts— the "Burning Fen, lighting up all West India"— Nieuw Middelburg, with its fortress Nova Zeelandia and its Huis der Hoogte, took a handsome place on the map, which it did not lose till almost *217 our own day.2 All *through the eighteenth century no map was complete without them. They still figure in the Venezuelan maps of the present century. This was the only town which, even on paper, the colony of Essequibo knew until the rise of Stabroek, toward the end of the last century; and it is not strange, perhaps, that their Spanish neigh bors of the Orinoco, unable to understand a community all scattered on 1 See pp. *196, *197, and authorities there cited. According to the minutes of tbe States-General, it was on March 3, 1667, at the request of the Zeeland Chamber, " examined and considered whether and on what basis" the colonies which had been captured by the English and retaken by the French might be claimed back; whereupon, "after deliberation, it was found good and resolved that Mr. Van Benningen, the minister extraordinary of this State in France," be instructed to demand " the restitution of the islands of Tobago and St. Eustache, together with the colony of Pomeroon, all situate in America " ( . . . " de restilutie van de eylanden Tabago ende St. Eustache, midlsgaders van de Colonie van Baumeroma, alle in America gelegen"). A fortnight earlier, on February 16, 1667, authority had been given the Zeeland Chamber to send out a certain person ' whom for the preservation of their colonies they had resolved to send to the Wild Coast, in order there to take command of Fort Kykoveral, situate in the River Esse quibo." But between these dates (on February 28) Admiral Crynssen, who had before the end of 1666 been sent out by the Zeeland Estates, arrived on the Guiana coast, and soon had the colonies in his pos session. s Roggeveen's Brandende Veen was first printed in 1675, but the text was written while the colony yet existed, for he speaks of il as still in being. He quotes Goliat as his authority, and seems to follow him implicitly. According to his narrative it would seem that Goliat's chart began at the Coppenam. "Be selve is my ter hant gekomen " he says, speaking of the coast west of that river, " van eenen Goliath, zynde Ingenieur en Commandeur van Esequeba, met de volginde Rivier tot Poumeron toe, heel curieus afgeleght" ('¦ This has come into my hands very carefully drafted by one Goliat, engineer and commander of Essequibo, together with the following rivers as far as the Pomeroon "). This last clause doubtless refers alao to Goliat's map, and is of interest as showing the limit of his survey. In his description of the Pomeroon, to which he gives the alternative title " or Rio Nieuw Zeelandt," Roggeveen writes : . . • " There are sundry other branches, emptying both from the west and from the east into the river, which one must pass before one reaches the House of the Hooght and Nieuw Middelburg, and the Fort Nova Zeelandia " (" al eer men komt by 't Huys der Hooght, ende Nieuw Middelburg, ende 't Fort Nova Zeelandia" —italics as in Roggeveen's text). " The town Nieuw Middelburg and the Fort Nova Zeelandia are built by the oft-mentioned Goliath, as engineer and commandeur at that place, whose description here ends.'.' Goliat is paid to have been " known, above all, as a very capable and accurate surveyer and map-maker," and distinguished himself in that field after his return from Guiana (Nagtglas, Levensberichten van Zeeuwen). Roggeveen settled in Middelburg about 1658, and had great local eminence as a geographer. He is said to have platted his maps himself. (Nagtglas, as above.) In the title of his atlas he calls himself 91 No. 3. plantations, assumed it to be the Dutch capital. But, though the Pomeroon colony was gone, the " place " was still counted of an importance to warrant its *mention in 1674, along with Essequibo, in the charter *218 of the new West India Company. There is, however, in the records of that body for some years no mention of any attempt to make use of it.1 It was in October of 1679 that Abraham Beekman, then Commandeur in Essequibo, wrote to the Company (in the earliest letter from the colony now found among its records) that "The river Pomeroon also promises some profit. In order to make trial of it," he explains, " I sent thither in August last one of my soldiers to barter for annatto dye." The soldier *had been temporarily recalled because of a raid of the *219 Caribs; "but the scare being now over," writes the Commandeur, "I shall send him back there within four or five weeks (the dye season " Arent Roggeveen, Zie/hebber Mathematicus, professie doende in de zelfde Konst lot Middelburg in Zetland." Roggeveen's map is faithfully followed, as to the sites of these places on the Pomeroon, by Hartsinck's description (Beschryving van Guiana, i, p. 259) in 1770, and by Bouchenroeder's map of 1796-98 (atlas of the Commission, map 70), which, however, marks them as " ancient " or " ruined." The passage of Roggeveen's text which especially shows the colony in existence when he wrote is one not without an interest of its own. " It is needless," he says, in speaking of the Essequibo, " to write much further of the character of this river, for this has become well enough known since the three cities, Middelburg, Flushing, and Vere, have there erected a colony ; yet their principal relations are with the river Pome roon." (0m veel verder van de gelegentheyt deser Rivier le schryven, is niet noodigh, alsoo sulclcs genoeqh bekent is geworden, t'zedert dat de drie steden, als Middelburgh, Vlissinghe en Veere, aldaer een Colonie hebben opgerechl; doch de principaele correspondentie is in de Revier Poumaron.) 1 Just when the last European of the Nova Zelandia colony left the Pomeroon can not be learned. The Dutch admiral, Crynssen, on taking possession in 1667, is said to have left a garrison in that river as well as in Essequibo (Hartsinck, Beschryving van Guiana, i, 224); but this was doubtless only until tbe wish of the Zeelanders could be learned as to the resumption of the colony. We hear no more of Europeans there ; and, in 1671, a Berbice attempt, reported by Adriaan van Berkel, to send thither a cargo of wares, together with the Essequibo governor's confiscation of the venture, implies that only Indians were then in possession there. A manuscript among the " Evertsen papers " (marked " Moore, 1790"), in the Lenox Library, containing a cipher for use by the squadron destined in 1672 for the re capture of New York, gives signs for Cayenne, Surinam, Berbice, and Essequibo, but none for Pomeroon. Yet in 1673 the English captain, Peter Wroth, discussing the resources of the Dutch for the defense of Surinam, thought it possible that they might " strengthen themselves from the garrisons of Berbice, Issakebe [Essequibo], and Baruma [Pomeroon]." (British Calendar of Slate Papers, Colonial Series, America and West Indies, 1669-1674, pp. 617, 518.) Another English document of a half dozen years later, though it evinces some geographical confusion, has doubtless reference to the district between the Essequibo and the Orinoco. It is a petition to the King by one Marke Fletcher, who, " having pitched upon a place to the leeward of Surinam and Essequibo, called Demerara, fitting for a plantation and place of trade," " requests His Majesty will grant his patent for establishment of same, or at least a provisional order to prosecute the affair w"ith assistance from the governors of the Leeward or Caribboe Islands, and privilege to transport to Barbadoes and other islands the trees and canes cut down for clear ing the ground." (British Calendar of Stale Papers, Colonial Series, America and West Indies, 1077- 1680, Nos. 714, 771, pp. 255, 281. These two entries evidently refer to the same petition, and I have treated them accordingly.) Demerara is, of course, not to the leeward of Essequibo ; but, in view of the wording of the petition and of the circumstances, the place had in mind probably was so. It is not strange that the Lords of Trade and Plantations, in reply, desired first " to be informed on certain points: as to whether any are seated thereabouts, what tract of land he means to take in," etc. Thus they answered on July 30, 1678. A sequel does not appear. 92 No. 3. not fairly beginning there before that date), and if the trade prospers it would not be a bad idea to build there a little hut for two or three men, so that they may dwell permanently among the Indians and occupy that river. Thus these would be stimulated to furnish a deal of annatto— for the place is too far off for them to bring it here to the fort."1 Of this post, which was speedily established, one hears often in the letters of the next few years. The annatto trade flourished there, but by 1686 the Company had a better use for the Pomeroon. An Essequibo planter on a visit to Holland— one Jacob de Jonge— persuaded them to open that river to himself and other settlers. After satisfying themselves that the Walcheren cities and the Zeeland Estates no longer had a valid claim there, they granted the petition, made of the new settlement an in dependent colony, and appointed De Jonge commandeur. He set out at once for his colony, arriving and beginning operations there in April, 1686. Colonists followed, and the settlement wras in a hopeful way, when, after even a briefer life than that of its predecessor of 1658-1665, a European war again proved fatal. On April 30, 1689, just three years after the colony's birth, the French, guided by the Caribs through the water passage leading from the Barima, and reinforced by those savages, fell upon the settlement in the night and utterly dispersed it.2 No attempt was ever made to reestablish it. The West India Com pany, on receiving full tidings, only instructed (November 15, 1689) *220 the Essequibo commandeur to leave there the *Company'sflag, with three men, in order to retain possession.3 The post was established and maintained, though, as would appear, with but two men instead of three. At least, according to the muster-roll of September 6, 1691, there were there only a postholder and a single assistant.4 In 1700 it was on the same footing; but in this year we begin to hear a new name for its site; where the pay-roll for this year makes Jan Debbaut "postholder in Fomeroon, at the Company's trade house," the muster-roll makes the same soldier "postholder in Wacupo."6 By 1704 the pay-roll, too, adopts the new title for the post, calling Jan Debbaut " postholder in Wacupo." Now, the Wacupo, or Wacquepo, is a branch of the Pomeroon, joining it from the left just a little above its mouth; a branch of much commer cial and military importance because it has (or had), at least in time of high water, a navigable communication with the river Moruca to west ward, and, through that river, with the system of bayous by which canoes make their way to the Waini, the Barima, and the Orinoco. Through this passage it doubtless was that the French had made their 1 Extracts, pp. 144, 145. 2 Extracts, pp. 174, 181, 188; Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," pp. 60-66. 3 Extracts, pp. 190-192. 4 Extracts, p. 193. 5 Extracts, p. 199. From 1700 to 1703 the muster-rolls fluctuate between Wacupo and Pomeroon; after that, they call this post always Wacupo— spelling the name variously. 93 No. 3. way in 1689 for the destruction of the colony. It was, therefore, very natural that a post for the protection of the Pomeroon should find a site on the Wacupo; and this site offers a ready explanation for the double name. This solution gains support, too, from another name. In the journal of the Pomeroon Commandeur for 1686 one reads of a " postholder in Courey."1 Now, Courey, or Korey, is the name of the swampy meadows through which the canoe-channel led from the Wacupo to the *Moruca (or, rather, to its branch, the Manawarima);2 and *221 no point on the Wacupo could be a more natural site for a post than the junction with the passage through these wet meadows. If a post were already there in 1686, it is surely not improbable that its buildings should be chosen for the later occupancy. It would appear, however, that there was now for a year or two a second post on the Pomeroon; for we learn from the pay-roll, that on July 14, 1703, Paulus Veefaart was made " postholder in Pomeroon," and both the pay-roll and the muster-roll for 1704 register him there, with an assist ant, while Jan Debbaut and his assistant are still accredited to Wacupo. On April 6, 1705, however, he was discharged from the Company's service; and, although on the muster-roll for June 18, 1705, his assistant, Dirk Schey, still appears in the Pomeroon, it was perhaps only to finish out the year. In the following year we find him serving as bylier in Demerara, and the name Pomeroon does not again occur among those of the posts.3 The post of Wacupo remained and flourished. Twice during the War of the Spanish Succession its garrison had successful brushes with the toe- in 1709 and in 1712— the second time repelling with its four men a much superior force of French and Spaniards.4 In 1707 Commandeur Beekman suggested the laying of a toll " in the rivers Moruca and Pomeroon " on the traders from other colonies who passed through these inland waters for traffic on the Orinoco, but his successor deprecated the step as involving too great expense. 5 It would, indeed, have been necessary to plant a new post on the Moruca or to remove that of Wacupo to some point where it would *command both entrances to the Orinoco route. *222 For other reasons this step had at last to be taken. In 1726 (October) the then Commandeur announced to the Court of Policy his conviction that the Wacupo post was too far out of the ordinary course of boats and his wish to remove it to the Moruca. With the secretary and one of the councilors he made a tour of inspection and selected there a site for the post; and the Court of Policy voted (December 2, 1726) " to establish the house and the Post of Wacupo upon the aforementioned site as soon as 1 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 64. » Extracts, p. 237. Cf. Atlas, map 68. 8 In the muster-roll of October 20, 1707, the Wacupo post is called, it is true, " The Company's dye- house in Pomeroon and Wacupo." 4 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 73, 74; Extracts, pp. 236-238, 241. E Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 72, 73; Extracts, pp. 229-232. 94 No. 3. possible." That this step was then or soon after taken is my belief. My reasons for it I shall set forth in detail in my study of the occupation of the latter river.1 The removal of the post to the Moruca must have left the region of the Pomeroon practically deserted. Planters since 1689 there had never been.2 A little before the middle of the eighteenth century (" ten or twelve years ago," wrote the Essequibo Director-General to the Company in 1758) one Erasmus Velderman was granted by the Court of Policy permission to dwell in the river and raise there the cassava needed to keep him alive, but without owning any land; and when at his death (prior to 1758) he assumed to bequeath his holding to an Essequibo planter (Jan La Riviere), the Court forbade the inheritance. Velderman may have cut some timber there, but if so, thinks the Director-General, it was probably very little.3 Director-General Storm van 's Gravesande (1743-1772) was indeed frankly and earnestly opposed to all occupation of the Pomeroon until the available lands not only in the Essequibo but in the Demerara (which had been *223 opened under his auspices, *and of whose success he was justly jealous) should all be taken up.4 In 1758 he wrote to the Company that permission to cut timber in the Pomeroon had in 1753 been granted by the Court of Policy to one Edward Ling (an Englishman from Barbados then resident in Essequibo), but that, after taking out only two shiploads, Ling had gone back to Barbados. But there is here certainly a lapsus memories as to the scene of Ling's operations, for the records of the Court of Policy show that he asked to cut, not in the Pomeroon, but in the Waini, and that in 1754 the Court expressly reaffirmed this in refusing the similar petition presented by Abram Van Doom (one of their own number) and several other colonists. They had granted, they said, to Ling and his partner "liberty to cut timber in the Waini, but by no means in the Pomeroon." If Ling cut timber there notwithstanding, as is of course not impossible, it was clearly in express violation of his permit.5 In 1756, however, another English planter, Isaac Knott, again asked permission to cut timber in the Pomeroon, to supply the demand in the English West India colonies; and this time the Court of Policy, tempted, perhaps, by the large annual payment he offered, gave its consent. The Director-General, however, protested; and through the home authorities his opposition seems to have been effective.6 1 See pp. *230, *231, below. a In 1698, indeed, the Company instructed Commandeur Samuel Beekman to send again a planter thither (so says Beekman's letter of August 11, 1698); but it does not appear that one was actually in duced to go. 6 Extracts, pp. 375, 376; Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 106. * Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," p. 108; Extracts, pp. 373, 374. 6 Extracts, pp. 343, 376; Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 98. 6 Extracts, pp. 367, 371, 373, 375-377; Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 108. One Jacques de Salignac is mentioned by the Zeeland Chamber as if a fellow-petitioner for the same favor. The matter seems now to have dropped out of thought; but the Pomeroon remained closed. One Williams, a 95 No. 3. Thus the Pomeroon remained, as the Director-General called it, " a district bringing no earthly profit to the Company "— *he might *224 have added "or to the colony "—until the very last years of the eighteenth century. It remained under the care of the Moruca post, 1 and was mainly resorted to by the colonists for the cutting of timber or of thatch.2 In 1783, indeed, while the colony was in the possession of the French, grants of land in the Pomeroon were made to certain French colonists, on condition that they should begin work on their plantations within six months. 3 But before the year was half gone the restoration of the colony to the Dutch was under negotiation, and it is hardly likely that any of the grantees were so rash as to enter upon the occupation of such uncertain property. Certain it is that after the Dutch reassumption of the colony, in March, 1784, nothing is heard of these settlers in such colonial records as reached Holland. From this time on, it is true, applications for lands in the Pomeroon poured in thick and fast.4 But the authorities suffered these to accumulate pending formal action for the throwing open of the river. Not until the year 1794, in fact, although the coast planta tions had then for some years been approaching the mouth of the Pome roon, was completed the survey and map on whose basis that, river itself, with the adjoining territory as far as the Moruca, was to he thrown open to settlement; and not till the following year did the home authorities take action thereon. The plan submitted by the Governor-General of the colony included a reservation of ground for a town at the mouth of the Pomeroon, and provided for fortifications at both *sides of *225 the entrance to that river.5 These suggestions were still under advisement, 6 and little or nothing could yet have been done toward the actual occupation of the river when, in April, 1796, the British took pos session of the colony; and the Bouchenroeder map, completed after this seizure, shows no trace of cultivation in this river.7 But by the year 1802-3, when it was for a little time once more in Dutch hands, it seems fair to infer from the way in which the river is mentioned, colonist who had deserved well of the Company in the suppression of a slave revolt, ventured in 1774 to ask for " 2,000 acres of land in the river Pomeroon, on the east side," in order that he might raise timber there (Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," p. 186); but his petition was probably shelved with the others. 1 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 126. 8 Passes granted to boats for this purpose become very frequent in the records in the later years of this century. 3 I owe the knowledge of this to Mr. Rodway (History of British Guiana, ii, p. 21), who had access to the records still remaining in the colony. 4 A multitude of them are still to be found in the volume of the West India papers (Hague, Rijksar chief, vol. 20 1 2 d) marked " Stukken belrekkelyk liet uitgeven van Gronden, Essequebo en Demerary, 1785- 179 [1]." None ask for land west of the Pomeroon. 6 Extracts, pp. 607, 608, 612-632; Atlas, map 69. " Extracts, pp. 687-639. * Atlas, map 70. 96 No. 3. both by the authorities in the colony and by the Colonial Council in Hol land, that cultivation had now reached if not invaded it.1 From the first Dutch occupation of the Pomeroon, iu 1658, down to late in the eighteenth century, the claim of the Dutch to that river seems to have been unquestioned. The attack of the Englisli in 1665-66 and that of the French in 1689 were hostile invasions in time of war. In 1769, for the first time, we hear in Dutch records of a counterclaim: the Spanish governor of Orinoco was said to have declared that the territory was Spain's as far as the bank of Oene, in the mouth of the Essequibo.2 During the years which followed, though Spain and Holland were at peace, there was more than one Spanish incursion into the Pomeroon:3 but, though ravages were com mitted along the coast and Indians abducted from the interior, there was no attempt actually to take possession of the river. Of the Instruccion of the Spanish Intendant-General of Venezuela, in February, 1779, for the oc cupation and settlement of Guayana " to the borders of the Dutch *226 colony *of Essequibo " the Dutch authorities seem to have known nothing; but of the reconnoissance later in that year by the Spanish officer Inciarte, which not only made careful inspection of the Pomeroon, as of the rivers west of it, but even selected a site for a fortified place in that river,4 they knew. The Moruca postholder reported the presence of the Spaniards, and the Indians had heard them say that they were coming back in three months to erect a fort; but the Director-General having assured himself that they were "all gone without having done any harm" to the post or to the Indians, evinced no disquiet about the matter, and no steps seem to have been taken toward protest or further investigation. 5 The latest incursion known, that of .794, was repelled by the Indians, under the lead of a Dutch colonist.6 It appears, then, in brief, that: 1. The river Pomeroon was first colonized by the Dutch in the year 1658. This colony, while still in its infancy, was destroyed by the British in 1665-66. 2. After lying a score of years unpeopled, it was again colonized in 1686; but only to be laid desolate by the French in 1689. 3. Thereafter the river was never again thrown open to settlement until the very last years of Dutch occupation. 4. It remained, however, in the constant possession of the Essequibo colony, guarded by a post and drawn on fordyewoods, timber, and thatch, being explicitly held in reserve for the later growth of the colony. 1 Cf., e. g„ Extracts, pp. 652, 660. 2 Extracts, pp. 467, 468, 495 ; Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 175, 176. 3 Thus in 1769, 1775, 1786, 1794. See pp. *244-*246, below. 4 See his report, in Seijas, Limites Britanicos de Guayana, pp. 87-96. 6 Extracts, pp. 561, 562. 6 Extracts, pp. 632-637. 97 No. 3. *4. THE DUTCH IN THE MORUCA.1 *227 Only 2 or 3 miles west of the Pomeroon there empties into the sea the little river Moruca.2 It comes, however, from a very different quarter of the compass. Taking its rise in the low coast lands to the west, half way to the Waini, it flows for two-thirds of its course southeastward, nearly parallel with the seacoast. Then, receiving from the interior the two creeks, Haimara and Manawarima, it turns, at its junction with the latter, sharply to the northeastward and so reaches the sea. The stream owes its importance to this unusual direction of its course and to the fact that from its upper waters there is a passage navigable by canoes, at least during the rainy season, to the rivers at the west, and so into the great water system of the Orinoco. The powerful current forever sweeping westward along the Guiana coast renders the eastward voyage along that coast all but im possible for sailing vessels, as also for boats propelled by hand; and the Moruca became, therefore, as to some extent it still is, the *regu- *228 lar avenue for the coasting trade with the Orinoco— not alone that of the Essequibo, but that of the other Guiana colonies as well.3 Through these inland waters a foreign foe from the mouth of the Orinoco or a band of hostile Indians could steal into the Moruca, and eveu, through another passage navigable at high water, into the Pomeroon, without that certainty of warning which hindered an approach by sea. It was doubtless by this route that the Spaniards carried on that early traffic with the Pomeroon and the Essequibo of which we know through the pages of Raleigh and of Jan de Laet.4 Through it, doubtless, in 1637 went that Dutch expedition from the Berbice and the Essequibo which laid Santo Thome in ruins. But the first mention in Dutch records of any attempt to take the stream into possession is when in 1658 the engineer Goliat inspected the coast in search of a site for the new colony of Nova Zeelandia. In that year he sent home a "short description of the rivers Demerara, Essequibo, Pome roon and Moruca," and when the Pomeroon was made the site of that new colony the Moruca seems to have been included. 5 In the book put forth to 'The name appears in many forms: Maroc, Maroca, Marocco, Maroco, Marocque, Marocques, Maroque, Maruca, Maruga, Maruka, Moroca, Morocco, Moroco, Morooca, Morowoco, Morroca, Moruca, Morucca, Moruga, Moruka. De Laet spells it also Ammegore (Novus Orbis, 163.1, p. 649); but this is almost certainly a confusion with the name of the Amacura — cf. his p. 660. 2 Maps disagree somewhat as to the distance of the Moruca from the Pomeroon; but this was the result reached by the two colonial surveyors in 1794. (See Atlas, map 69, and cf. Extracts, p. 619. The Dutch rod of that day, it must be remembered, was only three-quarters the length of the English one.) Strictly speaking, no exact statement is possible, since the Pomeroon empties at such an angle to the Moruca and to the coast that the western limit of its mouth is indeterminable. 1 Cf., e. g., Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," p. 131. * Cf., pp. *182, *258. The baselessness of the long-current error that in 1596 the Spaniards drove the Dutch out of the Moruca has been convincingly shown by Professor Jameson on pp. 68-60, above [i. e., TJ. S. Com. Rep., v. i.]. B See pp. *214-*216, above for the authorities for these statements. It has seemed best to repeat here much already told in speaking of the Pomeroon, rather than to leave the story of the Moruco incom plete. Their close association gave them in much a common history. 98 No. 3. tempt settlers to the colony the settlement itself is spoken of as the "Colony on the rivers of Paurooma [Pomeroon] and Maruga [Moruca]," and its projectors are called the patroons of the Zeeland Colony in Essequibo, Pomeroon and Moruca; Byam, the contemporary English governor of Surinam, calls the Colony iu 1665 "Bowroom *229 *[Pomeroon] and Moroco;" and Major John Scott, who in the winter of 1665-66 captured the colony for the English, says that he was commissioned to seize several settlements of the Netherlanders in Guiana, "as Moroco [Moruca], Wacopow [Wacupo], Bowroome [Pomeroon], and Dissekeeb [Essequibo]."1 After the ruin of the Pomeroon colony in 1666 we hear no more of the Moruca; and there is no reason to suppose it occupied again before the reestablish ment of that colony in 1686. Then, in the correspondence of the Commandeur, De Jonge, we find it again mentioned, though only as a near place for barter with the Indians.2 As, however, it wag proposed to make plantations on the Wacupo, at its very threshold, on the Mana- warima, the main tributary of the Moruca itself, and in the Korey savannas between the two, there can be little doubt that the lower Moruca also would speedly have been inhabited, had not this colony, too, been abruptly ended by the raid of the French in 1689. From this time onward it is nearly a score of years before I again find mention of the Moruca. In 1707 the Dutch commandeur of Essequibo, Samuel Beekman, proposed to the Company the laying of a toll "in the rivers Marocquesand Boumeron [Moruca and Pomeroon]" ou boats, balsam, Indian slaves, and cacao brought in from the side of the Orinoco through this passage by tbe traders of Berbice; but Beekman's successor, who followed him in the same year, opposed the project, and it was not carried out. 3 That the Wacupo post, though so near, did not then or for some time after effectively guard the entrance to the Moruca seems de- *230 ducible from *the Commandeur's objection to this toll on the ground of expense, and from the fact that when, in 1613, an Essequibo agent was met at the mouth of the Pomeroon by a party of French and Spaniards aud driven back into the Moruca, he could only reach the post two days later byway of the upper passage through the savannas of Korey.4 It was in order to make the post an effective guard of the Moruca, as well as of the now less used Wacupo entrance to the Orinoco route, that in Octo ber, 1726, Commandeur Gelskerke informed the Essequibo Court of Policy of his intention to inspect the Wacupo post, " knowing that the said post lies far out of the ordinary course of boats which come hither through the inland waters;" wherefore, "it was his intention to choose a fit place in the river of Moruca to which he might transplant the house and post, 1 See pp. *196, *197, *215, *216, above; and Extracts, pp. 135-137. a Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 64. 3 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 73, 74; Extracts, pp. 236-238, 241. 4 Extracts, p. 237. 99 No. 3. since all boats which come through the inland waters must pass that way. Accordingly, in company with the secretary and ore of the councilors, he made a journey thither, and in December reported to the Court of Policy their decision " that the fittest place " for the post " was at the landing where those fetching horses, coming from the Orinoco into the river Moruca, usually make a stop (a place called in the Indian lan guage Accoujere), it being possible to build the house there so close to the river side that a hand grenade can be thrown into the boats, the river being; at its narrowest there."1 There is every reason to believe that the transfer thus foreshadowed was then or soon after actually made. For, though for many years the post retained the old name of Wacupo, one begins from 1731 on to find coupled with this name that of *Moruca,2 which gradually *231 crowds the other from use.3 And when, in 1757, the Spaniards of Orinoco, hearing that the Dutch were building a new post on the Moruca, sent to reconnoiter, they found the old post still 6 leagues up the river from its mouth-a point which seems fully to tally with the site chosen in 1726. It is at such a site, well up the Moruca, that the post appears on the map of Governor Storm van 's Gravesande, in 1749, 4 and on the little Jesuit map handed in by him in 1750. 5 And this site well answers to the description given in 1747, by the Spanish governor, in a description of the inland passage for boats, of "the stronghold called the post, which the Dutch of Essequibo maintain with three men and two small cannons, 16 leagues from the colony toward the ship channel" of the Orinoco.6 The Capuchin missionaries who visited it in 1769 described it as "a thatch-cov ered house on the east bank of the river Moruca," and declared it to have been tolerated thei e about forty years. 7 For the purpose of giving warning of the approach of an enemy the post at its new site was speedily put to use. In May of 1628 the Court of Policy, having learned from the postholder of the seizure by the Orinoco Spaniards of a Surinam fishing vessel, and being else informed of the prob ability of a war between Holland and Spain, " resolved to reinforce the aforesaid post of Wacupo with two soldiers and to direct *Jan *232 Batiste [the postholder] to keep the necessary beacons in order, so that" they might " receive the earliest information in case the Spaniards 1 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 80. The Dutch of the phrase defining the site runs : " aen de waterplaats daer de paarde Haelders, uit d1 Oronocque in de Rivier van Maroco komende, ordinairpley- steren.'' 8 The name " Wacupo and Moruca " does not occur in the pay-rolls until 1733, but is frequent there after. Cf. Extracts, pp. 278, 305, 307, 309, 332; Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 86, 88, 94. 8 From about 1747. Cf. Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 89, 91, 94 ; Extracts, pp. 317, 321, 327. It is not until 1754 that the name "trading-place in Moruca " appears in the pay-rolls. 4 Atlas of the Commission, map 60. 5 Atlas of the Commission, map 61. 6 Venezuelan " Documents," iii, p. 184. » Blue Book "Venezuela No. 1," p. 114. 100 NO. 3. should send any armed vessels to this colony,'' and the postholder was instructed, in case the post of Wacupo should be attacked, to "defend it to the utmost." The soldiers were accordingly sent, together with these instructions.1 Apart from such reenforcement of soldiers at times of danger, the post was equipped (as we learn from a report as to ordnance received by the Company in 1731) with four small cannon— two two- pounders and two one-pounders.2 If it had been in the thought of the colonial authorities that the advance of the post might lead to increased trade with the Indians the hope was disappointed. In 1737 the governor had to report to the Company that " the post Wacupo and Moruca, formerly the most important trading-place for the Company's annatto trade, has these last years fallen off in this business." He had taken pains to learn the cause of this and had found it due, not to the neglect of the postholder, but to the competition of the Surinam slave traders, whose more lucrative traffic made the Indians slug gish about, dye gathering. " While I see no way of changing this," adds the governor in words full of interest, " we must nevertheless keep up this post, because it was established for the maintenance of your frontiers stretching toward the Orinoco." 3 By 1754 another use for a post on this side of the colony had forced it self upon the thought of the planters. The escape of slaves to the Orinoco was a growing evil, and the current sweeping westward along the coast made it quite possible for these runaways to take the route outside *233 by sea instead of the *inland passage guarded by the post. To intercept these coastwise fugitives, the post, a half-dozen leagues up the river, was, of course, quite useless. In January, 1754, it was accordingly resolved by the Court of Policy, on petition of the citizen militia, " to place a post on the side of the Moruca," at its mouth, "to prevent the desertion of slaves."4 The panic soon after, caused by the rumor of a Spanish invasion from the Orinoco, gave the colony for a time other things to think of, and other uses for the Moruca post. On September 2, 1755, Director-General Storm van 's Gravesande, alarmed by the prospect of a Spanish attack, had writ ten of detaching " eight or ten men to garrison and defend as far as pos sible the post of Moruca, which will," he fears, "bear the brunt." 5. A week later (September 10) the militia officers petition " that an armed boat be placed at Moruca to keep guard " and to report any approach of the enemy;6 and by October 12 the Director- General is able to report to the Company that " two small vessels have been made (whereof one is ready, 1 Blue Book "Venezuela, No. 3," p. 81. 8 Extracts, p. 256. a Extracts, p. 278. 4 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 97; but notice, p, 98, the temporary abandonment of the project. s Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 99. 6 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 101. 101 No. 3. and the other almost so) to keep guard1 between Moruca and Pomeroon," and another, a private barque, "equipped to go and lie by the angle of the Pomeroon." In the same letter he reports that he has "sent order to Moruca to cause all inland waters and passages to be blocked,"2 so that the foe " may not be able to pass with small vessels." Yet, on January 5, 1756, the panic having subsided, the Court of Policy again took in hand the change of the post; for it was clearly at this time in thought, not to establish a new post at the mouth of the Moruca, but to remove the old one *to that site. This was accordingly *231 ordered.3 The order was, however, not carried out. This we know, first of all, from the Spaniards. Toward the end of 1757, Iturriaga, the commander of the Spanish forces in the Orinoco, heard through the Capuchin missionaries that the Dutch were building a new fort on the Moruca. Accordingly he sent a subordinate to visit the place and bring back tidings of the result of his reconnoissance. This subordinate, on December 2, 1757, reported in writing that the only basis of the rumor was the intention of the Dutch to remove to the mouth of the Moruca "the guard which, under the name of post, they maintain on the Moruca channel." For this purpose, he learned, they had -"cut down trees and made clearings. He heard, also, of the houses to be built for the Arawak Indians and the Dutch;" but this news he was unable to verify with certainty. Iturriaga, on receiving this report, conjectured that to prevent desertions and for the protection of tbe sugar plantations from slave revolts, the Dutch might build there a small fort, with a few small cannon, and manned by from four to six men.4 But, three months later, the subordinate sent to reconnoiter had another report to make. On March 30, 1758, he wrote that the change of the post on the Moruca had not taken place. The Dutch had built at the mouth of the river only a house 15 yards long, with a stockade and gates; "and this," he writes, "is for the use of those engaged in the trade of the Colony, and to serve as a rest-house while the river is in flood." The old post was still kept up at its old site, 7 leagues up the *river from the sea, and was equipped with three unmounted *235 cannon, three-pounders, and manned by a corporal and two soldiers, besides the Arawak Indians. The latter were gathered in three villages, of ten or twelve houses each, lying a league apart on the banks of the Moruca. 5 1 " De wacht" (not " the way," as in the Blue Book). 8 " Toe te laete kappen," i. e., to block by felling timber. * Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3." p. 106. This action is stated by the minutes of the Court to be " in satisfaction of the resolution of this Court dated the 7th October, 1753" (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 8," p. 106). As the resolution is accessible, if anywhere, only in Guiana, no transcript of this resolu tion of October 7, 1755, existing among the papers transmitted to Europe, I have been unable to examine it. 4 Venezuelan "Documents," iii, pp. 161-169. Blue Book " Venezuela No. I," pp. 89, 90. * Blue Book " Venezuela No. 1," p. 91. Venezuelan "Documents," ii, pp. 102, 103. 102 No. 3. The post was doubtless, then, at this old site when in 1758 (January 6) the Essequibo secretary wrote of a canoe load of cattle aground "in a certain canal, called Itaboe, situated under the Company's post Moruca,"1 and at this old site it is shown by all fresh maps of the colony drafted prior to 1784. 2 The most minute and satisfactory account of the site of the Moruca post, however, is due to another Spaniard, the young officer Inciarte, who in 1779 made an official reconnoissance of the entire region from the Orinoco to the Pomeroon. His lucid report3 makes it clear that the post was on the south of the river, at a point in its upper course where the streams turns at right angles from a southeasterly to a northeasterly trend —a point opposite the modern Catholic mission of Santa Rosa.4 *236 *As to how the watch-house, or rest-house, at the mouth of the river, was cared for is to be gathered only from passing allusions. A settler, one Beissenteufel, was granted land for a plantation at the mouth of the river on condition of maintaining there the outpost watch. But, soon after, he had the misfortune to blow himself up with a barrel of gunpowder, and it is possible that the watch-house was then abandoned, though it may have been somehow kept up until the abandonment of the plantation, in 1767. 5 Yet in 1765 the Moruca postholder, who had ap parently come down to the coast in the effort to intercept certain fugitives, could report, " I am lying between the mouth of Moruca and Pomeroon, so that I can see everything that passes the seacoast" — language which certainly does not imply the presence there, at that date, of a regular lookout.6 And the historian Hartsinck, writing in 1770, after mentioning 1 Extracts, pp. 374, 375. 8 Atlas of the Commission, maps 64, 66, 43, 68. Cf. also the Spanish maps of Cruz Cano and Surville (maps 50, 71), and especially map 43, the English map (1783) of Thompson, who was for a time in com mand of the colony during the English occupation of 1781-82. 3 Printed in full in Seijas Limites Britanicos de Guayana, pp. 87-96 (pp. 84-89 of the English trans lation). 4 See, e. g., the Schomburgk map published in the Blue Book " Venezuela No. 5." The site thus described by Inciarte perfectly tallies with that assigned the post in the most careful of the extant Dutch maps of this region (Atlas of the Commission, map 68 — though transmitted in 1791, the map must have been drafted not long after 1769), except that the whole course of the Moruca, as in all maps of the last century, is represented as northerly. That the post was on the " east " bank, i. e., the right bank, of the river was also testified by the Capuchin missionaries in 1762. (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 286, 286.) And with this all the maps agree. Hartsinck, the Dutch historian of the colonies, writing in 1770, indeed says : " On the said river or creek Moruca, which about 2 or 3 [Dutch] miles from the sea unites itself with the creek Wacupo, . . . we have at the junction of these creeks a post, which was formerly a fortified house equipped with several cannon, but is now fallen to ruin." But Hartsinck was never in the colony, and his geography of all this region is too confused to inspire faith in his conclusions. The " now fallen to ruin " is perhaps only the strong phrase of an Amsterdamer for that neglected state of the colony's defenses which was just then being made a ground for the overthrow of the Zeelanders' monopoly. 5 See pp. *242, *243, below, and cf. Extracts, p. 580. " Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 137. 103 No. 3. the post's erection there in 1757 at the joint cost of the Company and the planters, declares that "it has since fallen to ruin."1 At this site the post remained until the English and French occupation of the colony in 1781-1784. For a decade before this, however, there had been discontent over its remoteness from the sea. On August 27, 1772, Director-General Storm *van 's Gravesande wrote the Com- *237 pany of his surprise to find it so far back, and pointed out that, while "it lies indeed directly before the inland passage through the Itabos and there wholly commands that,"2 "it is absolutely useless as far as regards the runaway slaves, who pass along the coast by water;" for these had now learned to take the sea route and profit by the west ward current. This complaint grew frequent. By 1777 the colonial Court of Policy was unanimously of opinion that "the post in Moruca is located too high in the creek, and therefore should be removed and placed lower at the seacoast;"3 but the commandant of the garrison in sisted, in opposition to the rest, that the post should be made a military one, with a corporal and eight soldiers, since a civilian with Indians could not arrest the deserting soldiers who escaped by that route. 4 The Director- General protested to the Company that, as a postholder's chief duties were only to win the good will of the Indians, to keep a watchful eye on neigh boring foes, whether European or native, and to catch runaway slaves by the aid of the Indians, the soldiers would do more harm than good.5 But the Company seems to have sided with the commandant, and on June 24, 1778, the Ten ordered that there be erected at the seacoast a new and purely military post, equipped with four or five 8 pounders and the necessary ammunition, and manned by a corporal, a cannoneer, and three soldiers; and, notwithstanding the Director-General's protests, these instructions were reiterated on May 7, 1779. A sketch plan for the proposed post *was also transmitted.6 It would not appear, from the resolution *238 itself, that this was meant to disturb the old post on the inner waters, but the Director-General seems to have felt himself free to interpret it otherwise, for on September 23, 1779, he wrote to the Amsterdam Cham ber: "I have had a piece of forest cleared by the Indians for the Post of 1 "Op de Westhoek van deeze Rivier [Pomeroon] is, in den Jaare 1757, op koste cande Compagnie en de Burgery van Essequebo te samen, een Post gelegd, om het wegvluchten der Slaaven, over Zee, le beletten: doch dezelve is sedert in vervat geraakt." (Beschryving van Guiana, i, pp. 258, 259.) This phraseology, it must be confessed, suggests a more considerable post than the lookout above described ; and this is not less true of the language of the Director-General in 1779 and of the Court of Policy in 1785. (Extracts, pp. 661, 680.) 2 Dezelve legt wel regt voor de binnenlandsche passagie door diffabcs [sic] en kan die daar volstrekt belet ten." (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 180, where, however, as will be noticed, the translation is not quite exact.) " Diffabos" is, of course, for d'ittabne: the letter is a copy by a secretary, and there are in it several slips of this sort (cf. vol. iii, p. 141, note.) " Extracts, p. 539. 4 Extracts, pp. 689, 542, 548. 6 Extracts, pp. 543, 544. 6 Extracts, pp. 656, 569. 104 No. 3. Moruca on the old site again, at the angle and mouth of the Pomeroon, in order to move the post back thither, since the present post is of little or no use." He is preparing, that is to say, to establish it at the point between the mouths of the Pomeroon and the Moruca, where the lookout had been placed in 1757. x "Yet," he adds, "since for this twenty-five or thirty men are needed, in order to lay it into polder [i. e., to dike it], and the dry season is already too nearly gone, I have resolved to go thither myself in the coming March and April . . . so as to carry out the work promptly under my own oversight."2 That this plan was carried out I find no reason to question; yet the new site can hardly have been more than ready for the post when early in March, 1781, the colony was seized by the English.3 Whether or no the English maintained the post, the French, who suc ceeded them in the possession of the colony, abandoned it; for on Decem ber 5, 1783, the Spanish officer, Inciarte, who had made so successful a reconnoissance here in 1779, reported the abandonment to his superiors,4 urging them to take advantage of the opportunity by occupying the place. This, however, so far as is known, was never done. *239 *When, in 1784, the Dutch reassumed possession of the colony, steps were promptly taken for the carrying out of the Company's long deferred plan for a military post at the mouth of the Moruca.6 Its 1 See pp. *234, *236, above. 8 Extracts, pp. 561, 562. 8 Note again that the map of the English captain, Thompson (Atlas, map 43), who was commander of the English forces here, represents the post at the old upper site. 4 . . . " pero noticioso de que con motivo de haberse apoderado los franceses de la dicha colonia de Esquivo durante la guerra, han abandonado los holandeses la Posta avanzada que tenian d orillas del rio Moruca." B Extracts, pp. 579-586. Since my return from Europe my attention has been called (by Mr. Rod- way's study on The Boundary Question, lately published by the government of British Guiana) to a pass age which, as it purports to come from a Dutch document, deserves here a word of comment. The docu ment in question is the report of a joint committee of the West India Company, composed of deputies from the Amsterdam and Zeeland Chambers, which sat at the Hague in May, 1783, and drew up a plan for the reorganization of the Guiana Colonies, then in the hands of the French but about to be given back to the Dutch. This report is printed in the appendix to the fifth volume of the Brieven over het Bestuur der Colonien Essequebo en Demerary gewisseld tusschen de heeren Arisiodemus en Sincerus— an anonymous attack on the control of the colonies by the Company, published at Amsterdam in 1788-86. As there printed, the report contains, among many others, this recommendation : " That also on the Orinoco a post for defense both against the escaping of slaves and other things ought to be established, and manned with a detachment from Fort Island" (Dat meede aan de Oronoque een post van defensie zo tegens 't wegloopen der slaven als anderzints behoord te worden aangelegt en met een detachement van 't Fort- Eiland voorzien). I remember no such startling phrase in the manuscript of this document (which, in that case, I should of course have transcribed), and the suspicion is irresistible that there is here an acci dental omission of a word or two, and that the resolution originally read " on the side of Orinoco "— i. &, on that frontier of the colony. (Compare the phrase of the Essequibo Court of Policy, in 1777 : " On the frontiers, and to the side of Orinoco, there lies a post in the creek of Moruca."— Extracts, p. 539.) But, to ray deep regret, there is not time to seek light from Holland;on this point, and my suspicion must remain only a suspicion. Whatever the case, no such instruction as this was transmitted to the colony; and the language of tbe Holland Estates aud of the Director-General of the Colony, in September, 1784 (Extracts, pp. 574, 577), and especially that of the Colonial Court of Policy in reestablishing the Moruca post in March, 1785, (Extracts, p. 580), make it very improbable that there had been serious intent to 105 No. 3. site we know with exactness from the map made by the colonial surveyors in 1794. x It was on the *east bank of the Moruca, at its *240 very mouth. There it thenceforward remained. With this final change of site there took place also, in pursuance of the Company's directions of 1778, a considerable change in the management of the post. Theretofore the Moruca post, like the other posts, had been reg ularly manned only by an outlier (uitlegger), or postholder, and a bylier {bijlegger), or under-postholder, aided by the Indians, who were encouraged to dwell about it.2 transfer that post to the Orinoco. It is to be noticed that the Hague report, as printed in the work above described, recommends specifically no other provision for the defense of Essequibo than the restora tion of the fort on Fort Island and the creation of this alleged Orinoco post. 1 Atlas, map 69. Cf. Extracts, pp. 61 2-632. Were it not for this careful official map, which puts the matter beyond doubt, there are sundry passages whose phraseology might suggest that the post was on the west side of the Moruca. Thus ( I ), the instructions of the Ten in 1778 (Extracts, p. 552j prescribe that the new post shall be built "at the western point of the creek Moruca." (2) When, in 1785, the colonial Court of Policy took measures for its establishment, " it was resolved to fix the place therefore on the lower point of Moruca." (Extracts, p. 580.) Now, the " lower " point, in the parlance of the Guiana coast, should certainly mean that down the current — the western point. (3) In 1794, in an inventory of the papers found in the government archives in Essequibo, there is listed " a projected plan of the pest on the west side of the creek Moruca." (Extracts, p. 611.) And (4), in a rough sketch-map of the Pomeroon region drawn in 1793 by the surveyor Chollet (Hague, Rijksarchief, map No. 1544), the post is actually represented on the west of the Moruca at its mouth. But, as regards these, it may be remarked that in three of them the error, if such, may have but a single source. The transmitted plan was very probably that sent in 1779, and might be expected to bear a title borrowed from the resolution of 1778 which gave rise to it. And the phraseology used by Director-General Trotz in acknowledging this plan — " a draw ing for the post of Moruca on the west coast of our river " (Extracts, p. 363)— sounds not unlike a court eous attempt to call attention to an error. Chollet's map of 1793 was confessedly a hasty and misleading one ; it was dissatisfaction both with this and with that of the rival surveyor, Van der Burght, which led to the Governor-General's personal visit of 1794 and to the careful map of that year. Moreover, as colonial surveyor, Chollet probably had access to the maps in the government's archives and may very possibly have been misled by the title on the very plan above described. Less easy of explanation is the phrase of the Court of Policy in 1785 ; but it is at least possible that they may have used " lower point " in distinction from the point up the river where the post had so long stood, or that the point may be thought of as " lower " with relation to the Essequibo and the colony as a whole. What makes it hardest to believe that the post could ever have stood on the west bank is the certainty that it was not there in 1794 and the absence in the careful records of the years preceding of any mention of a removal. Yet reliance on such negative proof is proverbially hazardous. There is, too, in the Reisen of Richard Schom burgk a noteworthy passage as to substructures still existing in the mouth of the Moruca at the date of his visit, a half century ago. 8 On the duties and prerogatives of the Moruca postholder much light is thrown by the extant in structions drawn up for him in the year 1767 by the Essequibo governor. These " Provisional Instruc tions " issued to Postholder Diederik " Neels " by Director-General Storm van 's Gravesande on October 7, 1767, are to be found only in the colonial records still preserved in British Guiana. They have been printed in translation by Mr. Rodway in his report on The Boundary Question, published in 1896 by the government of British Guiana. As they have not been reprinted in the Blue Books of the British Gov ernment, and are hence not easily accessible, it will perhaps be of use to give them in full here-ot course, in Mr. Rodway 's English only, the original Dutch being out of reach : <• 1. He shall treat the free Indians kindly and gently, and do them no wrong, or allow anyone else to illtreat, injure, or oppress them, and he shall try as far as lies in his power to induce them to come and "^H^tll pay strict attention to, and the Indians shall take notice of, the desertion of either red 106No. 3. *241 *Now, in 1785, it was put under the command of an experienced *242 soldier, who bore the military title of commandant, and *whose pay, instead of the old monthly stipend of 14 florins, was the hand some yearly salary of 800 florins. * At first his subordinates seem to have been all soldiers, but with 1787 a bylier again appears, and thereafter we find the post equipped with two or even three of these. a After the expiration of the West India Company and the assumption of the colonies by the State, in 1792, the only post which continues to ap pear on pay and muster rolls is that of Moruca. s It continued to be main tained until the occupation of Essequibo by the British in 1796. 4 When in 1802 the Dutch reassumed possession, one of their earliest acts was the resumption of the Moruca post, which had been left by the English occu pants in a sadly dilapidated condition. It was made the station of a de tachment of soldiery, but continued still, and doubtless to the end (Septem ber, 1803), to be administered also as a post.5 or black slaves, and all possible means shall be adopted to pursue and capture them, and they shall be promptly paid for their capture as customary. " 3. He shall not allow anyone to pass the post without a pass or permit, except well-known inhabi tants who are pursuing their slaves, and who have had no time to obtain permits ; he must help and as sist such persons as much as lies in his power, and assist with propriety all others who come with " 4. He shall, as far as possible, pay strict attention to everything that transpires in Baiima and give an exact written report of the same, and also of anything extraordinary that transpires on the post. " 5. Free trade is only allowed him on or about the post ; he shall be bound, when required, to trade on behalf of the Honourable Company, and he shall likewise be allowed to do so for other parties. " 6. In regard to boats, hammocks, etc., which are brought to be sold, he shall be bound, if re quired, to give us the preference to purchase them for the same prices which are offered by others. " 7. From the Spaniards arriving with tobacco, etc., he shall demand 5 per cent, import duty, and shall deliver the amount here. " 8. Passes and permits given to pass the post shall be considered as valid for one journey only, in order to prevent abuses. " 9. And he shall further conduct himself in everything becoming to a loyal and vigilant Director, and shall be supplied with further instructions or ampliffic] ations of what he will have to do. " L. Stoem van 's Gravesande. " Rio Essequebo, at Fort Zeelandia, 7th October, 1767. " Anyone passing the post with a pass to hire Indians, he shall order this person or these persons to call at the post on their return, so that he may inquire of the Indians if they have been illtreated or forced when they were hired ; in which case he shall forthwith report the same to the Directeur-General. After the end of the three months, this being the expiration of the Indian's time (term of service) and the period for returning to their houses, they shall call again at the post to notify him of their return, and that they were paid and not illtreated." 1 Extracts, pp. 5S0-586. For Bartholy 's earlier career, see p. 618. In the pay-rolls he regularly appears as commandant, though he is elsewhere often spoken of as " postholder." 8 This appears from the pay-rolls and muster-rolls. 3 Muster-rolls of this period may be found in vols. 804-809 of the West India papers in the Rijksar chief. The pay-rolls for 1792, 1793, and 1794 are in vols. 2657-2659. i Extracts, pp. 611, 616-618, 632-634. Cnprinted records show the postholder there to the end. 11 Extracts, pp. 656, 657. In the journal of Governor Meertens, under date of July 5, 1803, there is a litt of the civil functionaries of Essequibo, among whom the staff of the Moruca post are now included. One F. Schmaltz appears as " postholder," on the reduced salary of 400 florins, while poor Bartholy 107 No. 3. Plantations on the Moruca there were none after the ruin of the Pom eroon colonies of 1658-1665 and 1686-1689 until the middle of the eighteenth century. There came then a single exception. One Frederic Beissenteufel established at the mouth of the Moruca a plantation which, because of its remoteness, he christened "Loneliness" {De Eensamheid).1 Here he *dwelt with his family and slaves, till he was accidentally blown *243 up in an explosion. His widow migrated to Demerara, and the estate, after being in 1766 sacked by a party of Spaniards,2 passed into the hands of the Rousselets.3 Mrs. Rousselet complained, however, that it was the greater part of the time under water, and at length refused to pay the taxes levied upon her.4 It was accordingly, in 1769, offered at sheriff's sale with its belongings.5 It seems, however, to have found no purchaser; and it is of this particular land, not of land on the Moruca in general, that on January 6, 1772, the Essequibo Court of Policy (replying to the com plaint of Mrs. Rousselet, who had appealed to the West India Company) wrote that "this land was granted without determination of the number of acres and upon the express condition that the owner or owners should be bound to establish an outpost there— it being an estate lying close to the river Orinoco, full two days' sail from here, [and, having been] for a considerable time left uncultivated by the petitioner [i. e., by Mrs. Rousse let], in a word, fallen to ruin and at nearly every high tide under water, wherefore it must now be sold without delay."6 It is probable that the estate remained in the hands of the *government; for, when in 1794 the Pomeroon lands as far as the *244 Moruca were at last laid out for settlement, it was suggested by the colonial governor that those from the mouth of the Pomeroon to the Moruca post should be reserved for the colony's own use; and neither iu this suggestion nor in the map of the survey is there any mention of pri vate rights in this district. 7 With the exception, then, of the Beissenteufels and the Rousselets in himself (or one bearing his name) is only bylier, at 160 florins a year. And there is named for the first time a new official at the post — the " Mission-garden overseer " (" Missie tuyn baas "). 1 So it appears year by year in the directories of the colony. 8 Extracts, p. 415. 8 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 144, 145 ; Extracts, p. 440. The Rousselets, who were promi nent people in the colony, of course did not live there, but worked the place by means of an overseer. Rousselet, who died soon after this acquisition, had been colonial secretary and seems to have had pecu liarly close relations with the Spaniards, which may account for his desiring this Moruca plantation. 4 The documents relating to the quarrel with Mrs. Rousselet fill much space in the records. 11 Extracts, p. 491. 6 See Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 179, 180, where a very different translation is given. The Dutch of the essential portion is as follows: . . . " gehouden zoude zyn aldaar een buytenpost te houden, zynde, een grond gelegen digt by Rio Oronocque, twee dagen ruym zeylens van hier, by de suppliante een geruyme tyd niet gecultiveerd, en ten eenemaalen vervallen meest alle springtyden onder water, dus moest dezelve voetstoots verkogt werden." The confusing punctuation is, of course, that of the original. ' Extracts, pp. 614, 638. It is true that a bid is said to have been made for it (Blue Book, p. 180) ; but it is implied that it was for the sake the cattle alone, and the land, if abandoned, would revert to the colony. 108 No. 3. the third quarter of the century, the Moruca had, in the eighteenth cen tury, no European inhabitants outside the post. By the time of the re newed Dutch occupation of 1802-3 it is very possible that the coast lands as far as the Moruca had been taken up; for there was then under discus sion the granting of lands to the west of that river.1 As early as 1755 we begin to hear of Spanish threats against the Dutch post on the Moruca. It is, however, only the threat of a missionary father to come and carry off by force certain Indians dwelling under its protection. 2 In 1760 the Spaniards, elated by their successful raid of 1758 on the post in the Cuyuni, threatened to come ere long and treat the Moruca post in the same fashion; and the Essequibo governor found it wise to reenforce the post with four soldiers. 3 In 1768 threats of a raid on the post were ascribed to the Dutch deserters who were aiding the Span iards in their purging of the district east of the Orinoco.4 But it was not until 1769 that the post was actually visited. In February of that year there came into the Moruca and to the post an armed Spanish vessel *245 bearing a dozen soldiers and two Capuchin fathers and escorted *by a party of Spanish Indians in canoes. The post made no resistance but the Spaniards sought neither to capture nor to occupy it. What they were after was Indians for the missions; and of these they carried off such as they could find, 5 and with them peopled a new mission at Puedpa beyond the Yuruari. The Capuchins, who were in charge of the expedi tion, even gave to the postholder a certificate that this was their errand, averring that by order of their ecclesiastical superior and with the permis sion of the Spanish commandant of the Orinoco they had "passed into Moruca in search of the Indians belonging to the missions of the Capuchin fathers."6 But, if the visit of the Spaniards left behind no other result, it seriously impaired the efficiency of the post by depleting the number of Indians; so, at least, complained the Essequibo governor in 1772.'' In 1774 the Spaniards, to the number of forty, made another descent upon the post, carrying off or killing the free Indians;8 and a year later, in October, 1775, there was a yet more serious raid, when with fifty men the Spanish captain, Mateo, approaching by the inland passage and leaving his two ships in the river Biara, came through the Itabo, and was so thorough in his kidnapping of the natives that the postholder complained that "there is no longer an Indian to be found in these parts." In reply to the post- 1 Extracts, p. 660. 8 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 105. 8 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 115. 4 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," pp. 154, 157. 6 It appears from the report of the prelect, September 12, 1770, that these Indians thus "brought from Moruca numbered in all one hundred and seventy." (Venezuelan " Documents," ii, p. 267.) 6 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 160-163, 281-288 ; Venezuelan "Documents," ii, pp. 109, 187- 208, 266, 267. ' Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 179. 8 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 186. 109 No. 3. holder's protest, the Spaniard not only affirmed that Moruca belonged to the Spaniards, but that his royal master would shortly set a guard in the Barimani, at the Waini entrance to the inland passage. Yet it does not appear that the post was actually taken into possession, much less retained, *or that any guard was ever actually stationed in the pass- *246 age. In 1786 the Spaniards were again in the Pomeroon for the abduction of Indians, and yet again in 1794;1 but, as the Moruca post was now at the seacoast, and as the Spaniards doubtless made their way into the Pomeroon by the Wacupo passage, one hears nothing of them in the Moruca. The elaborate reconnoissance, not only of that river but of the Pomeroon, in 1779, by the Spanish officer, Inciarte, was attended by no breach of the peace; and his report in favor of Spanish establishments on both these rivers, though it resulted in a royal order for the erection of a Spanish village and fort in the Moruca at the site of the Dutch post, seems to have led to no practical results. 2 Whatever claims to the river might be made by the Spaniards, I can not learn that the Dutch were ever actually dis turbed in the possession of their post. There was, indeed, as we learn from sources other than Dutch, an unsuccessful Spanish attack on the post in 1797, while the colony was in the hands of the English; but this was in time of war. In brief, then : 1. The Moruca was first occupied by the Dutch at their occupation of the Pomeroon, in 1658. 2. It was settled and held by them during the existence of the two Pomeroon colonies (1658-1665, 1686-1689). 3. Thereafter, though clearly regarded as a possession, it was not again actually occupied till the transfer of the Wacupo post to its banks, in or soon after 1726. *4. Thenceforward it was never abandoned, but was held with *247 growing tenacity. 5. From the seventeenth century until the very end of the eighteenth it had no settlers, save for a single plantation during a few years; but before its final loss to the Dutch its lands may have been once more coming into occupancy. 6. Though more than once visited by bodies of armed Spaniards, who forcibly abducted the Indians settled about it, no Spanish attempt to take it into possession is known to Dutch records. 1 Extracts pp 591, 632-637. It is to be noticed that in 1790 the commissioners reporting on the state of the colony speak of the coming of Spanish boats to the Moruca for the abduction of Indians as though it were an habitual occurrence. (Extracts, p. 601.) 8 See the documents in Seijas, Limites Brilanicos de Guayana, pp. 87-96. Nothing of all this is known to the Dutch records except the presence of the Spanish party in Pomeroon and Moruca, (Ex tracts, pp. 561, 562.) Cf. also Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," pp. 305-314. 110 No. 3. *248 *5. THE DUTCH IN THE WAINI. For 100 miles or so west of the Moruca no river enters the sea. The river Waini, however, which there at last breaks through to the beach, runs for half its course nearly parallel to the coast, and at the point where, coming from the south, it sweeps around to this northwestward course is but a score of miles from the Moruca, with which, as we have seen, it is connected by a passage navigable at high water. l West of the Moruca there was never a Dutch post, nor ever a Dutch grant of colonial land.2 Such occupation as can be shown for the Waini is, therefore, of a somewhat nondescript character. Prior to the eighteenth century scarcely a mention of the river is found in the Dutch records. For the earliest period this is adequately explained, perhaps by the fact that the Waini, unlike the rivers to the east of it, was the home, not of the mild Arawak, but of the Carib. But when in the last quarter of the seventeenth century the Dutch had entered into *249 regular commercial relations with the Caribs of the Barima, and *must have carried on by way of the Waini both that trade and the trade with the Spaniards of the Orinoco, it is somewhat puzzling that the name of the Waini does not of tener appear. The earliest mention I find of it in Dutch records is in connection with the advent of those hostile Caribs, driven out by the Dutch of Surinam, whose coming seems for long to have interrupted Dutch trade beyond the Moruca. " These Coppenam Caribs," wrote the Essequibo governor in 1685, 3 are taking refuge just to leeward of us, about Barima, Waini, Ama cura." The name of the river does not appear again until, in the year 1700, 4 the governor reports the sending of the colony's bark to Waini " in order to salt fish and to trade for victuals." The destination is not spoken of as a new or unusual one; but that the natives were found still un friendly may, perhaps, be inferred from the fact that the bark returned six weeks later " without having done any trading." A year later, in No vember, 1701, 5 it was even found necessary to send thither a reconnois- sance in force to look into the designs of the French and to threaten the Caribs of the Waini with the vengeance of the combined Christians and Arawaks of all the Dutch colonies if they should support the enemy. 1 It has been suggested that the mouth of the Waini was formerly much farther eastward, and that this earlier mouth was perhaps silted up at a very recent period. I have found in the Dutch records nothing to confirm this theory. By 1703, at latest, the mouth of the river must have been where it now is, since the Mora passage is then spoken of as " in the river Waini " (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 71); and this is confirmed beyond question by a journal of 1711 (Extracts, pp. 225, 227). 8 As to the often alleged post on the Barima, see pp. 291, 292 below. That land was granted west of the Moruca has never been claimed. The passage of January 6, 1772 (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 179), which seems to imply this is (as I have pointed out, p. 243, above) wrongly translated. 3 Extracts, p. 173. 4 Extracts, p. 197. 6 Extracts, pp. 201-203. Ill No. 3. Yet by 1703 the Dutch of Essequibo were so much at home there that they could lie in wait in the Mora passage and arrest escaping deserters.1 In 1711 a Surinam expedition to the Orinoco by the inland route passed and repassed the Waini without hindrance. 2 They seem to have found there, however, no shelter or Indian landing. By 1717 the Surinam traders were carrying on traffic in that river. 3 In 1722 the Waini was so far looked upon as a possession by the Dutch of Essequibo that the engineer Maurain-*Saincterre could rec- *250 ommend the establishment of plantations there;4 and when, in 1734, Governor Gelskerke intimated a Dutch claim to territory "between the Orinoco and this colony,"6 it is probable that lands west of the Moruca post, rather than east of it, were in his thought. Dutch deserters were again arrested in the Waini in 1738, 6 and fugitive slaves were run down for the Dutch by the Indians of Waini in 1743. 7 In 1746 Governor Storm van 's Gravesande even wrote of " the Caribs subject to us in the river Waini," and took measures for their protection. 8 In sending the Moruca postholder thither to reconnoiter, he instructed him "not to set foot on Spanish terri tory- not even below the river Waini." In the reply approving his action and urging vigilance in maintaining the Company's territory, the West In dia Company discreetly spoke of the region in question as " the Wacupo and Moruca,"9 and in again mentioning the manner the governor adopts this phrase;10 but the Waini must have been implied.11 In 1749, however, when the colonist Von Rosen sought to induce the King of Sweden to take possession between Essequibo and Orinoco,12 he represented the Waini, as well as the Barima, as lying uninhabited and wild. In 1755, when, with another colonist, he addressed himself to the King of Prussia, after having in 1754 made a trip of inspection to these rivers, *he no longer used this phrase.13 In the interval steps *251 had, indeed, been taken by the Dutch of Essequibo to put the Waini to use. In 1753, owing to the growing scarcity of land for plantations, the governor had measurements made in the Waini as well as in the Pome- 1 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 71. 8 Extracts, pp. 225, 227. " Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 76. 4 Extracts, p. 248. 6 Extracts, p. 262. " Extracts, p. 280. ' Extracts, p. 302. 8 Extracts, p. 305. 0 Extracts, p. 307. 10 Extracts, p. 309. 11 Little significance can be attached to the fact that in 1751 the Moruca postholder was by the col onial Court of Policy sent to arrest two Indian slaves " in a branch called Waini" (Blue Book, p. 94), because, although the upper Waini, whose head waters lie close to those of the Pomeroon, was very possibly the stream in question, the stream was looked on by the Court as a branch of the Pomeroon 18 Extracts, p. 325. 18 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 147. 112 No. 3. roon.1 In April, 1754, the Court of Policy granted two colonists a permit to cut timber in the Waini, subject to the payment of stipulated fees to the West India Company,2 and in June of the same year another colonist received the same privilege. 3 Such, in fact, was Governor Storm van 's Gravesande's conviction of Dutch ownership of the Waini, that in September, 1754, he clearly thought it adequate proof of claim to certain alleged silver mines between Essequibo and Orinoco, that they lay "even south of the Waini";4 and when, in the following month, coast-guard boats were fitted out to patrol the coast in view of an expected Spanish invasion from the Orinoco, they were to cruise " as far as the river Waini."5 In 1756 the Court of Policy was asked by still another colonist for per mission to cut timber in the Waini, as well as in the Pomeroon; and this "for the space of six, eight, or more consecutive years."6 The governor this time opposed the petition, though only as regards the Pomeroon,7 and the request was referred to the West India Company. In reply to the questions of the latter, the governor in 1758 explained the situation.8 *252 The concession in 1754 to cut timber in the *Pomeroon had been withdrawn, he said, " and it was resolved to grant none further; but the making of timber in the river Waini was left free to those who should apply for it." " Of this," he adds, however, "no use was made, neither could it be made, for, on account of the sand banks lying before it, that river, where it is true, an infinite number of bourewey trees are found, is unnavigable for all craft larger than our buoy-canoes." That the Company ever acted on the petition does not appear; and of actual timber-cutting in the Waini there is at no time any record.9 When in 1758 the raid of the Spaniards upon the Dutch post in the Cuyuni led the West India Company to inquire of the Essequibo authorities with care as to their title to that river, the governor in his reply urged that the Cuyuni's situation "so far on this side of Waini (which people claim to be the boundary, although I think it must be extended as far as Barima)" left no question as to its ownership. ' ° The Company's answering missive, while asking the grounds of his claim to the Barima and of his " infer ence that, Cuyuni being situate on this side of Waini, it must therefore necessarily belong to the colony "—since, so far as they knew, there existed no conventions prescribing "that the boundary lines in South America run 1 Extracts, p. 340. 2 Extracts, p. 343. 3 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 98. 4 Extracts, p. 347. K Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 101. 6 Extracts, p. 367 ; Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 107, 108. 7 Extracts, pp. 371, 374 ; Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 108. 8 Extracts, pp. 375-377. 8 Yet cf. p. *223, above. "Extracts, p. 386. 113 No. 3. in a straight line from the seacoast inland "—raises no objection to his claim regarding the Waini. x Similarly, in 1761, when the Spaniards seized some Dutch fishing boats near the mouth of the Waini, the colonial secretary, Spoors, pro tested to the Company that, whatever difference of opinion might exist as to the limits, " the river Waini indisputably belongs to the Company."2 And the Company, though again demanding from the Governor, who had again *claimed the Barima as frontier, his reasons for this *253 opinion,3 left unquestioned the secretary's claim to the Waini. In May of this year (1761), Governor Storm van 's Gravesande sent a patrol of soldiers into the Waini in search of a party of deserters.4 In 1762, when he drew up with his own hand the first directory of the colony, the Waini was the westernmost of the streams named by him as comprised wholly within the colony. 5 In August, 1762, a fresh seizure by the Spaniards of a fishing boat in the mouth of the Waini led to a fresh assertion by the governor that the river Waini was " indisputably the territory of the Company;"6 and the Company, while not echoing this claim in terms, applauded the governor's zeal. 7 Before learning of this fresh aggression they had asked from the governor of Demerara a map which should accurately locate the mouths of all the rivers between the Essequibo and the Orinoco. 8 It is strange, then, to find Governor Storm van 's Gravesande, in his letter of protest to the governor of Trinidad about the seizure of the fish ing boats, declaring in tbe same breath that passports are given only to " boats which go from one country or from one colony to another," and yet that the two boats seized at the mouth of the Waini " were both pro vided with passports in due form."9 These passports were perhaps only such as were given to all who went beyond the posts; and the remons trance just at this time addressed by the Essequibo governor to the governor of Surinam against mentioning in *such passes the name *254 of the Barima, lest umbrage be given to the Spaniards, suggests by its silence that no such umbrage was caused by the name of the Waini.10 In 1763, describing to the Company the trading posts of the colony, the governor wrote that under the charge of that of Moruca are "the rivers of Pomeroon and Waini,"1 * and that the Indians of these rivers, " whose help is always needful for salters and traders, whether the Company's or pri- 1 Extracts, p. 390. 8 Extracts, p. 393. 8 Extracts, pp. 391, 392. 4 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 117. 6 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 119. " Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 120. 7 Extracts, p. 397. 8 Extracts, p. 395. 8 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 123. 10 Extracts, p. 403. " Blue Book, " Venezuela No. 3," p. 120. 114 No.§3. vate,"1 " have always to be kept under a sort of control."2 Evidence of this control was the dispatch at just this time of a body of Waini Caribs to aid in quelling the slave insurrection in Berbice.3 A year later, in enumerating to the Company the more fertile lands of the colony, the gov ernor names those of tbe Waini along with those of Mazaruni, Cuyuni, Pomeroon, Wacupo, and Moruca.4 It is in this year (1764) that one first finds an explicit claim to the Waini by a division of the West India Company itself. The Zeeland share holders, in a memorial to the States-General defending their management of the Essequibo colony, describe the colony as "crossed not only by the chief river, the Essequibo, but also by several small rivers, such as Barima, Waini, Moruca, Pomeroon, and Demerara."5 But, alas, the West India Company was at strife within itself, and a counter memorial, submitted in 1767 by " the Representative of the Stadhouder and the Directors of the Amsterdam Chamber " (whose rival claim to the colony on behalf *255 of the Company *as a whole at last carried the day with the States- General) scouted such claims that these adjoining rivers were a part of the colony of Essequibo. 6 It is even urged by these hostile critics that the Zeeland Chamber is not at harmony with itself as to the limits. 7 The claim to the Waini implied in the larger claim to the Barima, and the action of Dutch and of Spanish authorities occasioned by the sojourn, in 1766-68, of Dutchmen in the latter river, may best be discussed in con nection with the Barima. In 1768 a Spanish attempt to seize yet another fishing boat off the mouth of the Waini led the governor to reiterate to the Company that the river Waini was " indisputably the Company's territory;"8 and this time his words had a sequel. In the formal remonstrance, ad dressed in 1769, at the instance of the West India Company, by the States- General to the Spanish court, a definite claim was made as to the boundary on the Guiana coast. The territory of the Netherlands, according to this document, stretched "from the river Marowyn to beyond the river Waini." So far as appears in the diplomatic correspondence of the Netherlands, no answer to this claim was ever made by Spain. Spanish aggressions, however, did not cease. In 1775 a Spanish expedition came by way of the Waini to the Moruca post itself, and its leader declared to the postholder that a Spanish guard would shortly be set at the junction of the Waini and the Barimani — the beginning of the water passage to the Moruca. The 1 " Nodig voor alle de soo Comp. als particuliere souters en handelaers" An interesting anecdote of a trading expedition into Waini may be found on p. 139 of Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3." 8 " Ook altoos onder een soort vangezag." " Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," p. 126. " Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 131. 5 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 1 33. * Extracts, pp. 428-486. 7 Extracts, pp. 430, 433. 8 Blue Book " Venezuela No. ::," p. 156. 115 No. 3. postholder, in reply, claimed that not only Waini but Barima belonged to the Dutch; but this, said the postholder in his report of the alterca tion, the Spanish captain *denied.1 It is unlikely, in view of the ::256 silence not only of the Dutch records but of the Spanish officer (Inciarte) who four years later led another Spanish party by this route even into the Pomeroon, that the Spanish threat of a guard in the Waini was carried out. But from this time forward the river Waini is scarcely named again in the papers of the Dutch colony. When, in 1794, the Governor-General visited the post of Moruca he learned of the Waini only as one of the streams on the route of the Spanish lanehas which came to trade in Essequibo. 2 Of the nugatory scheme of the Dutch Council of the Colonies for the definition of the Guiana boundary at the Congress of Amiens in 1802, fixing it at the Barima or the Orinoco, I must speak in another connection. The Waini was unmentioned, save for the statement of the Council's envoy that the Spaniards, in their ignorance of it, thought it a mere creek.3 It was this same envoy, Ruysch, who, in a projected charter for the colony, submitted to the Council in 1803, proposed the granting to colonists of timber rights in Waini and Barima, as well as in Pomeroon.4 The charter was never adopted. Pe titions were, however, now coming in for lands beyond Moruca; and the Council seems to have laid these before the Governor-General for his advice as to the extension of cultivation to the region between Moruca and Waini,5 but had not yet received his reply, when in the autumn of 1803 a fresh seizure of the Guiana colonies by the British took them forever from Dutch control. In summary, then: 1. Settlement in the Waini there was none at any time. *2. Save for commerce and for the fishery at the river's mouth, *257 the Waini seems never to have been actually put to use by the Dutch. 3. Permission to cut timber there was, however, repeatedly and form ally granted by the Essequibo Court of Policy in the name of the West India Company; though, owing to the river's unnavigable entrance, this permission remained unused. 4. The Dutch claim to the ownership of the Waini was officially enounced to Spain in the remonstrance of 1769, and was (however for gotten in the interval) still a basis of action for the Dutch colonial authori ties in the period immediately preceding the final loss of the colony. 1 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 190. For earlier and later Spanish raids, which must have made the Waini a part of their route, see above, pp. 244-246. 8 Extracts, p. 616. ' Extracts, p. 647. * Extracts, p. 659. * Extracts, pp. 659-662. 116 No. 3. *258 *6. THE DUTCH IN THE BARIMA. As the center and seat of the Caribs of this region, and as the door to the inland passage connecting the Orinoco with the rivers to the east, the Barima1 seems early to have had commercial importance and to have been frequented by all the European nations trading in these parts. According to Raleigh (1596), 2 who is followed by the Dutch historian of the West Indies (writing in 1624), the Spanish then carried on a regular traffic to and through the Barima, "buying women and children from the Caribs and selling them at great profit in Margarita."3 *259 *In 1598 the first Dutch ships which explored this coast, on reach ing the Barima, entered that river and traded with the natives.4 When, in 1637, the Dutch of the Guiana colonies, in league, it is said, with the Caribs, went up the Orinoco and sacked Santo Thome,5 they very probably came through this way. But it is the French of the Caribbean islands who seem to have been, in the seventeenth century, the especial patrons and allies of the Caribs of tbe Barima. Father Pelleprat, the Jesuit missionary, tells us that they had invited the French to plant a colony there, and that in March, 1654, he was informed by Indians of that river " that they had already built a fort in which the French could be quartered as soon as they should arrive."6 And no sooner do we have reports from the Dutch colony of Essequibo than we find in them complaints of French rivalry in this region. 7 It was, 1 Spelled also, in early maps and documents, in sundry other ways, as Baiima, Balime, Barema, Brema, Burima, Parima, Paryma, Parymo, Poraema, and, in the earlier Dutch records, often Barina, These must not be confused with the earlier spellings of the name of the Pomeroon. This latter name usually appears in the 17th century under such forms as Baroma, Baruma, Bouroma (see note, p. 214, above), tbe form Pomeroon being scarcely a century old. What alone always distinguishes the names is the accented vowel, which, in the name of the Barima, varies from i to e or y, but never to o or u; while in that of the Pomeroon it is always o or «, or some equivalent of these. Much confusion has arisen from their resemblance. Thus the passage of Fray Pedro Simon (Notitias Historiales, p. 664) about the expedition from the Orinoco, in 1619, of the Spanish Captain Geronimo de Grados, into " the river Baruma, which is the first in those provinces where the Arawak Nation dwells," has been taken to mean the Barima. But there are reasons quite apart from this spelling of the name why the Pomeroon must be meant. Though Arawaks, like Raleigh's pilot, lived scattered among the Warrows of the coast to the west of the Pomeroon, yet, according to all the early narrators, this region was mainly Carib ; and they agree (e. g., Keymis, Harcourt, De Laet— and cf. Major John Scott, Extracts, p. 136) in making the Pomeroon, or its little neighbor, the Moruca, the first occupied by the Arawaks. Moreover, this expedi tion " for the chastisement of the Arawaks " is called by Fray Simon himself " an assault on the Esse quibo and the Berbice, the principal dwelling-place of the Arawaks ; " and it was only as a prelude to his attack on these rivers that the Spanish captain entered the "Baruma" at all. 8 Discoverie of Guiana, ed. Schomburgk, p. 39. 8 Jan de Laet, Nieuwe Wereldt, ed. of 1625, p. 480; ed. of 1630, p. 583. 4 Extracts, p. 17. 6 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 212-217. 0 As already pointed out by Professor Jameson. See p. 68 of this volume [i. e. U. S. Com. Rep., v. 1.]. 7 Letters of the Essequibo Commandeur, January 8, 1683; March 31, 1684; January 15, 1685; June 7, 1686. (Extracts, pp. 156, 160, 172, 182, 188, 190.) 117 No. 3. as will be seen, a rivalry not without results to the Dutch. In 1684, when the French of these neighboring West India Islands raided the Orinoco and occupied Santo Thome, the Caribs in the Barima showed their loyalty by murdering the crew and scuttling the ship of a Dutchman from Sur inam, who had come thither for trade; and already they threatened to come with the French and lay waste the Dutch colony of Essequibo.1 The threat was no vain one, for in 1689 the French, aided by the Caribs of the Barima, made their way in canoes from that river through the Moruca passage and utterly destroyed the new Dutch colony on the Pomeroon; then,-returning to the Barima, fortified *themselves in that river.2 *260 In 1695, aided by the Caribs of the Barima, they were even stationed in the mouth of the Pomeroon.3 As for the Dutch themselves, that firm friendship with the Caribs which in the eighteenth century made both so formidable to their Spanish neigh bors seems as yet only slowly growing up. Again and again these savages had annihilated Dutch colonies on the Guiana coast.4 Those of Berbice and Essequibo, which survived, were in a region peopled mainly by Ara waks; and when the letters of the Essequibo commandeurs (preserved from 1679 onward) first give us light upon the inner history of that colony, we find it still in terror of the Caribo. 5 Already in 1673, however, the energetic Hendrik Roi, then Commandeur in Essequibo, was trafficking with the Caribs of the Barima, and had opened a trade with the Spaniards of the Orinoco which could hardly be carried on without Carib connivance.6 It was perhaps to this illicit trade with the Spanish colony on the Orinoco, to which the new West India Company had from the first been stirring up the Essequibo governors,7 but * which seems not fully under way *261 until 1679, that the Dutch of Essequibo owed their earliest relations 1Extracts, pp. 163, 164. These Caribs, it is true, are alleged to have come from the Coppenam, whence they had been driven out by the Dutch of Surinam ; but as they remained in the Barima, they must thenceforward be reckoned to the Barima Caribs. 8 Letter of the Pomeroon Commandeur, July 6, 1689 (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 66), and of the Essequibo Commandeur, January 7, October 12, 1689. Extracts, pp. 188, 190 3 Letter of the Essequibo Commandeur, June 24, 1695. Extracts, p. 196. As to the English in the Barima I find no explicit evidence, but the phrase of Commandeur Beekman in his letter of January 7, 1689, seems to imply that they were no strangers there, and in 1673 they were cruising in the Amacura, close by. (See p. *294 below.) ' According to Major John Scott, it was they who destroyed a Zeeland colony of 1615 on the Cay enne ; they murdered the Dutchmen from the Amazon who had taken refuge in the Wiapoco in 1 625 (Jan de Laet, Hislorie, pp. 112, 113) ; and they are believed to have caused the ruin of the ambitious colonies sent to those rivers in 1627. (Cf. Netscher, p. 56.) 6 Letter of Essequibo Commandeur, October 20, 1679 -the earliest preserved. (Extracts, p. 145.) " Extracts, p. 140. ' Letters of the Zeeland Chamber, February 22, 1675 ; November 30, 1675; November 6, 1677; De cember 30, 1678; February 24, 1680; May 22, 1681; September 29, 1681; June 18, 1682. (Extracts, pp. 141-144, 147, 150, 153, 154.) This trade was, of course, jr, direct contravention of the Treaty of Miinster, 118 No. 3. *262 with the Barima.1 *The route of this trade through the inland passage to the Orinoco via the Moruca, the Waini, the Barima, threaded only the lower course of these rivers, and lay mainly in the region occupied by the Warrows of the coast; but it could hardly fail to 1 For Mr. Rodway's statement (Hist., p. 168) that " about the middle of the seventeenth century there was a Dutch outpost at the mouth of the Barima, where a slave market of the Caribs was held," I can find nowhere the slightest warrant. The slave market is probable enough, but not under Dutch auspices. The river was, for that matter, always such a slave mart. The error as to a Dutch outpost comes, I suspect, from some misunderstanding of Baruma or Baroma (Pomeroon) for Barima, such as I have pointed out in a note above. The mention in Mr. Rodway's unfinished earlier work (Annals of Guiana, i, p. 187), in con nection with the Pomeroon colony of 1658-1665, of "its outposts at Barima Point " is almost certainly such a confusion, a mistaken inference from Major John Scott's mention of Bowroome (i. _., Pomeroon). Even more certainly due to this source of error are the statements of Mr. Schomburgk (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 5," pp. 22, 25, 26): " It is affirmed that it [the alleged post on the Barima] was in ex istence when the English, under Major John Scott, destroyed the Fort New Zealand and plundered New Middelburg, and there are still documents of the Dutch West India Company in existence, by which the directors desired the commandant of Pomeroon to keep the fortified post of the Barima in repair." Major John Scott reports, indeed, his capture of Bowroome, or Baroma (Extracts, p. 135, and Calendar of State Papers, as there cited) ; but this is the Pomeroon. Of the Barima he says nothing of the sort— spelling the name of that river, when he has occasion to mention it, " Parema" or " Poraema " (Extracts, p. 136). And, in the documents of the West India Company, the engineer Goliat, acting as commandant in the Pomeroon, is indeed charged with the laying out of fortifications in " Boumeronne ; " but this again means the Pomeroon. (Extracts, pp. 127, 128 ; and cf. pp. *196, *215, above.) 1 have read with much care all the extant records of the Dutch West India Company relating to this period and have found in them no mention of the Barima. And General Netscher, who has searched the same records, has been able to find no more than I. Nor does Major John Scott, whether in his report to the British Government or in his manuscript chapter on Guiana, know of any Barima outpost ; nor yet the contemporary French narrators, Barbot (agent-general of the French Royal Company of Africa and the Islands of America— his relation is to be found in Churchill's Voyages, v, pp. 548-570) and Clodor _ (an officer of the French fleet on these coasts — his Relation was published in two volumes at Paris in 1671). Mr. Schomburgk's error is shared, in part at least, by his friend Alexander von Humboldt, whom he quotes (p. 221 to the same effect: " They [the Dutch] had even taken military possession of the eastern bank of the small Rio Barima before the English (in 1666) had destroyed the forts of New Zeeland and New Middelburgh on the right bank of Pomeroon." But that great naturalist was, alas, a careless historian, and there is no reason to suspect him here of independent knowledge. But Mr. Schomburgk has another statement as to the Barima which is more startling and which even more certainly must point to a confusion with the Pomeroon. In his letter of June 22, 1841, to the governor of British Guiana he avers, not only that " the Dutch, when in possession of these colonies, were in actual occupation of the mouth of the Barima," but that " some merchants of Middleburg, subjects of the States.General, had a colony in that river." (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 1 ," p. 194 ; " Venezuela No. 5," p. 3.) The earlier memorial by himself from which he professes to quote this claim has not been given in full to the public ; and, in the part of it which has been printed (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 1," 183, 184), no such passage is to be found. As Mr. Schomburgk wrote from his camp in the wilderness, and could hardly have had at hand the means for verifying his statements, it will be perhaps kindliest to sup pose that his memory was here at fault. The statement of General Netscher (in an article in the Tijdspiegel for March, 1896) that in 1679 Commandeur Beekman proposed to the West India Company to occupy the Barima anew, and that this was declined by the Zeeland Chamber in a letter of February 24, 1680, on the ground that the Orinoco was too far off for trade, is also a mistake, as I am able to state on the authority of that able and generous ¦ scholar himself, who made with me a joint examination of these records and who fully concurs in the re sults I have reached. The error arose from a misreading of certain old notes taken by him nearly a decade earlier for his history of the Guiana colonies, and is, indeed, in conflict with the text of his history itself, where nothing of this sort will be found. 119 No. 3. give a glimpse of the wealth of the forests and to open a door to traffic with their inhabitants. That this Carib traffic was not yet in Dutch bands is clear from Commandeur Beekman's letter of January, 1683, which cautions the Company that the Indians must not be repelled by too shrewd bargain ing, since when offered trash for their wares they only meet you with the tart answer that they can swap for plenty of such things in Barima and elsewhere—" and there is some truth in this," he adds, " on account of the traffic which the French from the islands carry on there."1 But, before the end of this same year, on Christmas day of 1683, Commandeur Beek- man sent to the Company another message about Barima. "In Barima," he writes, " I have had *one of the Company's employes *263 take up his abode, since there is much annatto and letter- wood there, and it is close by Pomeroon, and some two or three times lately it has been traded in by Gabriel Biscop and exploited with great success, much to the prejudice of the Company. I hope this will meet your approval. That trade, both there and in Pomeroon, I have forbidden to him, and to all others as well. I wish the Company would take that river also into its possession, as I have provisionally done in order to see what revenues it will yield, since I am of opinion that the Company can do as good a trade there in an open river as can private individuals."2 This passage, the earliest connecting the Dutch with the Barima, deserves careful study. But there is in the following letter of the Esse quibo Commandeur one which should be studied with it. Writing again to the Company on March 31, 1684, before there had been time for an answer from Europe to his letter of Christmas day, Commandeur Beekman reports : Pomeroon begins to furnish annually much and good annatto, and much was brought from Barima, as appears from the inclosed list, under No. 7, from which you will see how much has been got by barter here at the fort as well as by all the outliers; but Gabriel Biscop and other sea- rovers from Surinam not only spoil that trade, but buy up all the letter- wood, which is there fairly abundant and good, and also all the carap oil and hammocks, so that this year I have got only a very few, and they old and wretched. They traverse and scour the land even into the river Cuyuni. In order somewhat to check this, I have had a small shelter made in Barima; and Abraham Boudardt, who is stationed there3 as out- 1 Extracts, p. 156. From a comparison of this passage with p. 140 it would seem that the one thing as yet sought in this region by the Dutch of Essequibo was the carap oil needed in the preparation of their dyes. 8 Extracts, pp. 158, 159. To my no small chagrin, despite very great pains with the proofs, a. phrase (happily, not an important one) has here been omitted in the printing. Between the words "van Gabriel Biscop bevaren en met" and the words " groote prejudttie" should stand the words "groot succes af gehaeldt, tot " — as required by the translation opposite. * He was the outlier in Pomeroon. At first glance this " there " seems to refer to the Barima, and it is of course possible that Galle (and then Boudardt) was the " employe " mentioned in the December letter as left on that river ; but we know that in July, 1684, Boudardt was the Pomeroon outlier (see Extracts, pp. 162, 164). It is not improbable that "there" is vaguely used for the whole region to which both the Pomeroon and the Barima belong— meaning, that is, " in that quarter." Phrases as 120No. 3. *264 her in place of Daniel Galle, who is going home, shall *sometimes visit that place and stir up the Caribs to the trade in annatto and letter- wood— which even the French from the islands frequently come with their vessels and get. It would therefore, if I may suggest, not be amiss that the West India Company, in order to get the aforesaid trade, should take that river Barima into possession, and should establish there a permanent outliership. x At these passages, on which much of assertion has been based, let us look with care. The Essequibo commandeur here reports three acts of his own. Late in 1683 — doubtless at the beginning of the dry season, when the dye was collected from the Indians— he had caused an employe to sojourn on the Barima to traffic with the Indians for annatto and letter- wood and perhaps to warn off other traders. That the sojourn was but temporary, and was meant to be so, is clear from a second thing done by the commandeur. By the end of March — the dry season now drawing to a close — he had had built on the Barima a shelter, a structure meant not for residence, but for an occasional visit from the Pomeroon outlier, *265 *who was thus to keep the Caribs stirred up to the dye trade.2 A third act reported by the commandeur is of graver significance. He had forbidden to Gabriel Biscop, " and to all others as well," the annatto and letter- wood trade in the Barima and the Pomeroon. He had, that is to ambiguous are not rare in these rambling epistles of Abraham Beekman. The phrase "die plaetse'" in the following line can possibly mean " those places " (as translated by the Blue Book), since the n of the plural is in these documents often omitted ; but its natural and regular meaning is "that place," and this reading alone makes sense here. 1 That this translation differs in points by no means unimportant from that given in the British Blue Book I am well aware, and can only ask that both be compared with the original Dutch. To the British translation of uitlegger, " outlier," by " postholder," I have no objection, save that this latter word seems to carry with it implication of a fixedness and stability such as, I fear, had not yet become the uniform quality of an outlier. The translation, " strong little place for a postholder," given by the Blue Book for the final phrase of the passage, is an impossible rendering, as I was assured by all in Holland to whom I submitted the passage. What is meant is not a building, but a function. See Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 59 (No. 11); Extracts, pp. 159, 160. 8 As to what sort of a shelter (pleisterhuisje, literally " little rest-house " ) this probably was, we need not be in doubt. Adriaan van Berkel, writing of these Guiana colonies only a few years before (1672), gives us a vivid description of one (p. 16). He is speaking of a trip down the Berbice. " This night for the first time I slept on land, in the forest, with my hammock made fast to two trees. Just be fore I was ready to go to rest our slaves had built for me a pleisterhuisje— so called by both Christians and Indians — at the place where the hammock was to be stretched. There are four posts, the front ones somewhat higher than the rear ones, covered over with a roof of leaves, leaves uncommonly large, being usually 4 or 5 feet long and some 2 feet broad. Neither sun nor rain can here vex one, for the leaves lie so close upon each other that not even the rays of that great luminary can penetrate. Such pleisterhuisjes one sees along the entire river ; and one has them built in a moment wherever one will, for an Indian is like the turtle — everywhere at home." And, for that matter, one meets them constantly in the records. (See, for example, the journals of the Surinam expedition of 1714 and of Hilde- brandt, the miniug engineer— Extracts, pp. 224-228, 285-301). Such one must have wherever one stayed overnight. It is possibly worth noting that, while pleisterhuisje means a " little shelter," this on the Barima was only a " small pleisterhuisje ;" yet it is quite as likely that the commandeur was only belittling the importance of his own action. On the other hand, when proposing a dwelling- for a post- holder he calls it a huysken, a hut. (See his letter of October 30, 1679, Extracts, p. 145.) 121 No. 3. say, taken the Barima, like the Pomeroon, into the possession of the West India Company, but only provisionally, so as to learn its revenues and while awaiting the approval of the Company; and that he hardly expected his prohibition to be effective he implies by adding his opinion that even in an open river the Company can do as good a trade as other people.1 Authority either to claim or to maintain such possession he *con- *266 fessedly bad none. He can but " hope " the approval of his course by the West India Company and add to the report of his own acts certain sug gestions for the Company's action: at Christmas he " wishes " that "the Company would take that river also into its possession," and in March he suggests that "it would not be amiss2 for the West India Company ... to take the river Barima into its possession and to establish there a permanent outliership." Before basing any conclusions upon this action it is. then, of the highest importance to know what the Company replied. Yet, before passing to that, it will be well to glance a little more fully at the circum stances of the case. The West India Company now in question was the new Company created by the wholly new charter of 1674. The charter of the old Com pany, in 1621, had granted it monopoly of trade, and therewith the right to plant colonies in uninhabited districts, to erect fortresses, to exercise territorial authority, within vast limits— the entire coast of America, not to mention those of West Africa and of the Southern Sea. But the new charter of 1674 knows nothing of such vast limits; of the whole continent of America it grauts only "the places of Essequibo and Pomeroon," and there is no longer any mention of the colonizing of uninhabited districts. Nor are Essequibo and Pomeroon in any wise defined, directly or by implication, otherwise than by their names.3 Even the *Pomeroon *267 was not occupied by the new Company until in 1679, when Beek- man, the Essequibo commandeur, suggested that "it would not be a bad idea to build there a hut for two or three men, so that they may dwell permanently among the Indians and occupy that river."4 The Indians would thus, he urged, be stimulated to the annatto trade. This was, as I have already elsewhere suggested,5 in all probability the beginning of that 1 If the Blue Book's translation of this clause be correct, " that the Honourable Company has the right lo trade and traffic there in an open river as much as other private persons," it is a much stronger argument for Beekman's belief that the river is not yet the property of the Company ; but I can not believe this translation admissible. * Etymologically the word " onbillijk," here translated "amiss," means indeed "inequitable," as it is translated by the Blue Book, but this was not its current sense, and the context does not suggest that meaning here. " It would not be a bad idea" is perhaps the best equivalent, there being as little notion of want of equity in onbillijk as of moral turpitude in "bad idea." " The statement of Mr. Schomburgk (Blue Book "Venezuela No. 1," p. 235; Blue Book "Vene zuela No. 5." p. 25) that " the latter " (Pomeroon) " extended to the mouth of the Orinoco " is, so far as my research can determine, unwarranted by anything in the earlier history or in the discussions at the time. 1 Extracts, p. 145. 5 See p, *205, above, 122 No. 3. system of trade outposts of which we hear so much in all the later history of the colony; and it was very probably the success of this suggestion which now led this same Beekman in 1683-84 to urge the similar occupa tion of the Barima. But the grounds of this later suggestion are not quite the same: he had urged them to " occupy" the Pomeroon,— he urges them to "take into possession" the Barima. The Pomeroon was to be occupied, in order that, by the presence of buyers, the Indians might be stim ulated to furnish more annatto; the Barima, "in order to get the trade" which else would go to the French and Surinam traders. It is clear, then, that in the eyes of Commandeur Beekman, the Barima is not yet an actual possession of the Company. Yet it can not be questioned that his prohibition of trade there is a distinct assertion of claim, as his statement that such trade is "to the prejudice of the Company" is the distinct as sumption of a right -the claim and right, not of Holland in general, but of the Dutch West India Company, since else the Dutchman Gabriel Bis cop could not have been warned off, or spoken of as though as much an intruder as the French. After all, these were but the provisional acts of a subordinate. What did the Company answTer? Directly, nothing. Neither the proceedings *268 of the Zeeland Chamber nor those of *the supreme board— the Ten- show any discussion of the matter. The correspondence of the Zee- land Chamber, in whose hands was the immediate direction of the Guiana colonies, is preserved in full; but in their long reply to Beekman's letter there is from beginning to end no mention of Barima.1 That reply is, how ever, a mere string of reproaches. The poor commandeur's financial honor, his justice, his commercial good sense, are in turn discredited. He is ac cused of transcending his powers. Even the Dutch of his letters is found fault with. Amid this array of charges is one which may suggest why the matter of the Barima is ignored. "Concerning the trade to the Orinoco," which up to this time, as we have seen, had been constantly encouraged by the Company, they now write, " We find it advisable that you stop it, and neither trade thither yourself nor permit trade thither, directly or indi rectly, until further orders— since we are of opinion that the Company bears all the expenses and burdens, while others help themselves to the profits." This charge of bad faith in his trade to the Orinoco is repeated in even more explicit terms iu a later letter;2 and the reopening of this trade was not again urged until Abraham Beekman had given place to a successor. Now, the lower Barima lay on the route to the Orinoco; and it is not impossible that to the angry and suspicious directors the shelter and the proposed post on the Barima promised less for the profit of their own annatto traffic than for that disastrous trade to the Orinoco 1 Lest there could be a mistake about this, their reply of August 24, 1684, is transcribed and printed in full. See Extracts, pp. 104-171. - Letter of Zeeland Chamber, January 14, 1686. Extracts, p. 182. 123 No. 3. out of which they suspected their commandeur of making himself rich1. *But there was at least one other reason, quite apart from any pos- *269 sible doubt as to their title, why the West India Company was un likely at just this time to be eager for the occupation of the Barima. The annatto trade was no longer a paying one; and the Essequibo colony was now costing more than it came to. Even the Zeelands were discouraged, aud on September 23, 1685, they instructed their deputies to the Ten, "in asmuch as the river Essequibo is in no condition to yield a profit, since the annatto dye is selling badly and is obtained in several colonies," to submit for deliberation "whether it were not more expedient to throw open the river to all private traders."2 Their colleagues readily concurred, and on January 14, 1686, Beekman was notified that "the annatto dye is fairly a drug on the market, since it not only comes in larger quantities from Essequibo, but is also brought from other lands and regions," and there fore, " for this and other reasons," the Board of Ten ha& resolved to throw open the river Essequibo, together with the Pomeroon, to free trade.3 Surely this was no time to add to their burdens the care of another river, and one whose chief product was annatto. Whatever their reason, it is certain that the West India Company never answered the suggestion as to a Barima post; and Beekman himself never mentioned it again. Early in 1686 the Company cut him off from all relations with the Barima by establishing on the Pomeroon a new colony, and naming as its commandeur Beekman's old foe, Jacob de Jonge. With a colony on the Pomeroon, an outlier there was no longer needed; and throughout the three years of the Pomeroon colony's existence the detailed letters of its commandeur make no mention of the Barima — and no wonder, for it was probably then in the possession of the French. 4 It was at the hands of *French and Caribs from the Barima that the Pomeroon *270 colony fell, in April of 1689. In October of that year Beekman, still commandeur of Essequibo, reported in alarm that "the French are building a strong-house in Barima; they come there often with three or four barques to trade with those hostile Caribs, and threaten soon to come and pay us a visit."5 But the Company, while acknowledging the tidings, only sug gested precautions for the safety of Essequibo.6 Annatto was then again in great demand, and the Essequibo commandeur was urged to use "every 1 How serious was their distrust of Beekman may be gathered from the fact that at the meeting ot the Ten on December 7, 1686, the deputies of the Zeeland Chamber made formal complaints against that commandeur. These were made a topic of deliberation for the ensuing April meeting, and on April 19, 1687, the Zeeland Chamber was by resolution requested to send in its charges in writing, with Beekman's answer thereto. He was dismissed in 1690. 8 Nedertandsch Jaerboek, 1751, p. 808. " Letter of Zeeland Chamber, January 14, 1686. Extracts, p. 181. * See p. *259, above, and Extracts, pp. 172, 182, 188. 6 Letter of Essequibo Commandeur, October 12, 1689. Extracts, p. 190. 6 Letter of Zeeland Chamber, May 18, 1690. Extracts, p. 191. 124No. 3. conceivable means to supply it."1 This was also urged in the commission of the new commandeur, Samuel Beekman, in December of that year.2 But the French seem to have maintained for years their alliance with the Barima Caribs against the Dutch,3 and no more is heard of the Barima in Dutch records of the seventeenth century. In the muster-rolls of the Company's servants in Essequibo for 1691 and 1701 no Barima post appears among the others. 4 And when, in 1703, the Essequibo commandeur had occasion to speak of the exclusion of Suri nam traders "here in our district," he defined the phrase by "Essequibo, Pomeroon, and Demerara," with no mention of the Barima.5 The little shelter built on the Barima in 1684 may long have stood on the bank of that stream; but the Pomeroon outlier, dispossessed in 1686, could have paid it, at most, but few visits. In fact, as it was scarcely built *271 before the French, in that very summer of *1684, were in posses sion of the Orinoco, while their allies, the Caribs of the Barima, were murdering the Dutchman Gabriel Biscop and breathing out threats against the Dutch of Essequibo, it is highly probable that he never visited it at all. Indeed, it is not altogether impossible that the attempt of the Dutch commandeur to take possession of the Barima may have been one of the inciting causes of this Orinoco raid of the Martinique French and that their own occupation of the Barima during the next de cade or two was more constant than can with certainty be affirmed from Dutch sources. The shelter's site is matter for conjecture. 6 It is most probable that it was not far from the point where the usual route from the ' Extracts, p. 192. s December 9, 1690. It is printed by Netscher, pp. 372-374. 8 See letter of Essequibo Commandeur, June 24, 1695, cited on page 260, above, and action of the Court of Policy, November 19, 1701. Extracts, pp. 195, 201-203. * Extracts, pp. 192, 199. These are the earliest muster-rolls remaining to us. From this date on there are few years for which they are wanting. G Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 70. 6 The assumption of Mr. Schomburgk, so constantly repeated since, that it was at the mouth of the river, is without documentary warrant and improbable. No object for such « site — without water and remote both from the Caribs, with whom the Dutch wished to trade, and from their own colony — is easily conceivable. It is impossible that such a shelter could have left the remains which Mr. Schomburgk says Colonel Moody found there in 1807. (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 1," p. 194 ; " Venezuela No. 3," p. 3.) It is far more probable that these were remains of the fort built by the French in 1689 (see p. 270 above.) The Surinam expedition sent to the Orinoco in 1711 stopped at the mouth of the Barima, both in going and coming, and makes no mention of a shelter there, though its journal always mentions one when found. (Extracts, pp. 224-228.) That site would have been a more natural one for the French, who, on their way from the islands to the Barima, would here first reach the mainland, than for the Dutch of the Guiana colonies, who came through the Moruca and reached the Barima by the Mora Passage. I have never yet found in any Dutch document a mention of Barima Point, and have no reason to believe that the Dutch ever attached importance to it. Not even the description of Hartsinck or the map of Bouchen- roeder, though so often cited in support of the claim, place the traditional Barima post at the mouth of the river. Hartsinck speaks of it only as " on the river," and Bouchenroeder's map places it above what must be meant for the Mora Passage. There is, of course, no reason to suppose that either had any defi- pit. knowledge as to the matter, 125 No. 3. Essequibo and the Pomeroon first reaches the Barima, i. e., at or near the junction of the Mora Passage with that river.1 *A Surinam *272 party returning in 1711 from an expedition up the Orinoco found in the Barima, somewhat more than halfway from ils mouth to the Mora Passage, a stopping-place (" pleisterplaats ") whose name was unknown to them, and there rested over night. 2 It was possibly the abandoned shelter of 1684. It seems more probable that the Dutch shelter stood above, rather than below, the Mora Passage, toward the seat of the dye trade, and that this stopping-place of 1711-just a day's canoeing from the mouth of the river— was due to Indians or traders whose approach was from that side. The pay-rolls of the Essequibo colony, which from 1700 on give us, year by year, full information as to the staff of every outpost, know no post on the Barima. It is not till 1717 that I again find mention of that river in the documents of that colony. Then the private settlers of the colony ad dressed to the West India Company an indignant remonstrance against the restrictions put upon their freedom of trade, protesting that thus an unfair advantage is given the colonists of Berbice and Surinam, who may trade as they will, whether in Pomeroon, Moruca, Waini, Barima, Orinoco, or Trinidad. 3 It is impossible to guess from the context whether the Barima is thought of as belonging to Holland or Spain or to neither, and the answer of the Company is equally equivocal on this point.4 In 1722 the engineer, Maurain-Saincterre, who had been sent over by the West India Company to lay out in Essequibo *the new fort on *273 Flag Island, sent home— doubtless at the Company's request— a very thoughtful report on the condition of the colony, with suggestions for its betterment. "One might also," he thinks, "establish many plantations in the rivers Demerara, Pomeroon, Waini, Barima, and in all the creeks thereabout."5 Here is distinctly implied a belief that the Barima belongs to the colony. But what the Company thought of it remains in doubt, for they took no action on the suggestion. A dozen years later there came a yet more pressing occasion for an opinion. In 1734 the Spanish governor of Orinoco sent to Gelskerke, the Essequibo commandeur, to buy supplies for a large body of troops just arrived in the Orinoco, and explained that the troops were to be used 1 That the route by the Mora Passage was the usual one to the Barima and the Orinoco, both going and returning, is abundantly clear from the records. Thus in 1703 (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 71) the Essequibo commandeur says that this creek named Mora " was a spot where the deserters assuredly must pass " in their flight to the Orinoco, and so it proved. (See also the Surinam journal of 1711, cited above— Extracts, pp. 224-228.) The sea route by the mouth of the Oronoco was little used by the inter colonial commerce. I find no mention of the early use of the upper passage from the Waini to the Ba rima — the itabo Moreba —though it is, of course, not impossible that this was in use in 1684 and that the Barima shelter was at or near it and therefore high up the river. 8 Extracts, p. 227. 3 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," pp. 75, 76. 4 Extracts, p. 243 ; cf. also pp. 238-241. 6 Extracts, p. 248. 126 No. 3. against a Swedish attempt to plant a colony on the Barima. 1 Gelskerke furnished the supplies, but wrote home to the West India Company in much trepidation..2 The story of the Swedes, he feared, might be but a ruse of the Spaniard, whose strength was now alarming, in view of the weakness of Essequibo. Yet the Spanish story seemed confirmed by a rumor which had been for some time afloat in the colony. A Swedish skipper, who a couple of years before had put in at Essequibo, was to return, it was said, "in order to take possession in the river Barima of a tract of land which the King of Spain had given to the late Elector of Bavaria, then governor of the Spanish Netherlands, and which the Elector had pre sented to the King of Sweden." In any case, troops should be sent to Essequibo; for, urged Gelskerke, "if the Swedes should undertake *274 to try *to establish themselves between the Orinoco and this colony on your territory, it would be my duty to prevent it."3 Now, it is not quite clear from this whether Gelskerke meant that the Barima belonged to the Company, or that, if the Swedes should be unable to get the Barima, they might trespass on the Company's territory adjoin ing. The former seems the simpler interpretation, yet it is strange that he had not earlier apprised the Company of the rumor about the Swedish captain, and that he has no word of protest either for the alleged Spanish grant or for the more aggressive claim implied by the importation of troops for the forcible dispossession of the Swedes. Nor had he protested to the Orinoco governor, whose own courteous letter had cleverly ignored the question of title while deprecating interference by expressing the convic tion that the Dutch would not be able to tolerate so proud and haughty neighbors as the Swedes.4 But if the commandeur's position is hard to understand, that of the West India Company is inscrutable. If that body had an opinion it never revealed it. No reply, as to the Swedish colony, was made to the Com mandeur, and no communication was made to the States- General. The Swedes never came, and the Barima remained unoccupied. Yet not without visitors, for in 1735 the Essequibo Court of Policy had to deal sharply with a colonist named Jan Couderas, who had taken a pass thither to collect certain red slaves due from the Indians of the Barima to a fellow- colonist, and having collected the debt, had appropriated it, and had gone off with a party of French from Martinique, whom he found trading on that river. Nor this alone; but, buying a boat with the avails o . his stolen slaves, he had come back as its captain for another visit *275 to the Barima, and had even had *the effrontery with a fellow 1 " Situated between the Orinoco and the Company's post Wacupo," explains the Commandeur in his report of this matter to the West India Company — whether adopting a phrase of the Spaniard's letter or interpolating one of his own, can not be guessed. The Spaniard's letter was not transmitted to the Com pany and has not been found. 8 June 8, 1734. Extracts, pp. 257-266. 3 Extracts, p. 262. * Extracts, p. 259. 127 No. 3. Frenchman and a canoe of Caribs to enter the Essequibo itself after wares for further trade with the Indians. He was said, more over, to have threatened to carry off the Essequibo colonists who traded to the Orinoco or sought that river for fishing; but this he denied, confessing only his embezzlement. He was, therefore, banished— a penalty dire, indeed, under the circumstances.1 Was there fear of offending the French? The episode shows, at least, that the French still traded in the Barima; nor is there, in the proceedings, as reported, or in the contemporary correspondence with the Company, any questioning of their right to do so. The scanty mentions of the Barima thus far found in Dutch records imply, surely, no very exclusive Dutch relations with that river. The next mention, in 1744, is full of promise for a closer tie. The Caribs of the Barima, after much urging from the colony, had captured and murdered a band of runaway slaves; and now their elated chief offered to become re sponsible for all future runaways escaping toward the Orinoco if. only a postholder might be stationed in the Barima2— a petition not so strange if one remembers the rum which was always on tap at a Dutch post for every Indian caller, to say nothing of the less certain but more substantial rewards of which the victorious Caribs had just had token.3 *Commandeur Storm van 's Gravesande, into whose able hands *276 the colony had lately come, forwarded the suggestion at once to the Company, adding in its support that such a post would be of much use for the trade in boats and in Indian slaves.* This time the Company, whose confidence in the new commandeur was exceptional, responded at once, and with favor. They graciously reply that " the placing of a postholder in Barima for the purpose stated by your letter we are not averse to your making trial of, but recommend, however, that you take good care that through this channel no frauds be carried on"5— they had just been setting 1 Extracts, pp. 274-276. 2 Letter of April 1, 1744 (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 85, and Extracts, p. 303). 3 This estimate of the persuasive power of Dutch rum rests not alone on the complaints of the Spanish missionaries, but on the solid evidence of the accounts of the Company's plantations against the Company's posts for the supply of this necessity. Its consumption at the Moruca post, which lay nearest the Barima Caribs, was especially large, and was expressly justified by this need of hospitality to the Indians. As at the governor's residence, so at the posts, no Indian was suffered to go thirsty away. Even when in 1803 (April 26) Governor Meertens humanely urged placing over the postholders "Pro tectors of the Indians," he suggested that these Protectors be authorized to purchase " the necessary rum and molasses " " de nodige Rum en Melauie " for the welcome of the Indians, and pointed out that " the Postholders should also be put in a position to give a glass of rum to the Indians who should visit them (" De Posthouders diende ook in staat gesteld te weezen de Indiaan die by hun koomen een glassje Rum te geeven"). Even the consoling qualities of spirits were not unknown; for in the same governor's journal (April 9, 1803) we find an order to his quartermaster to deliver " to certain Indians whose father and brother were lately shot dead in the expedition against the bush-negroes " two jugs of rum, some codfish, and six flasks of wine " (" twee Pullen Rum wat Bakkeljauw en 6 Flessen Wyn "). The Spanish mission aries complained especially of their powerlessness with the Indians against this Dutch means of allurement. 4 Letter of April 1, 1744, as above. B Letter of Zeeland Chamber, August 24. 1744 (Extracts, p. 304). 128 No. 3. forth their suspicions as to the smuggling of sugar out of the colony. Even more gracious, just at this juncture, was the supreme board of the Ten. In the brief but flattering missive written him on October 2, 1744, after reading the letter in which he suggests a Barima post, they make, indeed, no mention of this particular suggestion— possibly because it seemed of minor importance, quite as possibly because it belonged to the Zeeland Chamber to deal with this; but they assure him that "we have seen with peculiar satisfaction both your zeal and your industry for bringing the colony of Essequibo into a flourishing state, as well as the good success of your plans and of your attention to the profit of the Company and to the better administration of its affairs. We approve your arrangements *277 and ^transactions for the attainment of these ends." And, in token of this approval, they send him "two casks of red wine."1 Yet this post was never established. Two years later, on March 19, 1746, the commandeur explained to the Company that he had not yet established any post in Barima because he had not yet found a competent postholder for so important a station. 2 The proposed post is never again expressly mentioned, while his frequent mentions of the Barima from now on to the end of his governorship are of such sort as quite to preclude the existence of a Dutch post in that river. And, what is yet more convincing, the muster and pay rolls year by year sent home from the colony make it sure that no servant of the Company was ever stationed at such a post or paid for service there. This failure to plant a post there is the more striking because at least as early as 1748 there had come to the commandeur's ears a tradition of the existence there of a Dutch post at some earlier time. In December of that year he reported this tradition to the Company. The Spaniards were ad vancing in the Cuyuni, and Storm wished to know the proper limits of the colony. According to the dictum of the old men and the Indians, he said, its jurisdiction should stretch westward from the frontier of Berbice as far as the river Barima, where in old days there was a post; but this dictum, he thinks, gives not the slightest assurance.3 Yet he counted it of weight enough to insert a mention of this alleged Barima post in the map he was just then preparing for the Company.4 And once again, a dozen years later, he mentioned the same tradition.5 He had spoken, he said, *278 with some very old Caribs, who could *remember the time when the Company had a post in Barima. They had often asked, they told him, its reestablishment, that they might no longer be annoyed by the traders6 from Surinam. 1 The Dutch of a part of this is given by Netscher, Geschiedenis, pp. 114, 115. '¦ Extracts, p. 304. Cf. Blue Book '• Venezuela No. 3," p. 86. 3 Extracts, p. 322. Cf. Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 90. 4 See Atlas, map 60. s In his letter of August 12, 1761 (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 117). 6 " Swervers; " not " pirates," but " rovers," i. e., wandering traders. See p. *209, above. 129 No. 3. The tradition thus stated in the two letters of the Essequibo governor was in 1770 given to a wider public by Hartsinck, the Dutch historian of these Guiana colonies, a writer who used both Storm's map and his letters;1 and it was probably from Hartsinck (or directly from the map and the letters) that it was borrowed by the Bouchenroeder map in 1798. 2 There is, at least, no reason why both Hartsinck and Bouchenroeder may not thus have learned it through Storm's letters; and I have found no other source from which they could have drawn it. It is through Hartsinck and Bouchenroeder that the tradition has become general. But what shall be said of the tradition itself? Is it possible that a post else lost to record once really existed on the Barima, or can the tradition be otherwise explained? The period since 1700 may at once be dismissed from thought; the muster and pay rolls make that certain. This falls in, too, with Storm's statement: it is " old " men and " very old " Caribs on whose authority the tradition rests. But in the years just prior to 1700, as we have seen, it is not merely the silence of the records, but the known rela tions of the French with the Barima, which, from 1684 on, forbid thought of a Dutch post in that river; while the language of Commandeur Beek man in 1684, when urging the Company to take that river into its possession, shows that he, at least, knew no tradition of any *earlier *279 post. Could the employe stationed there by Beekman during the dye season of 1683-84 and the shelter then built for subsequent visits have furnished adequate basis for the later tradition? What was most likely to have impressed itself upon the memory of a Carib boy was not, in any case, the duration or the frequency of a Dutch outlier's stays in the Barima, but the presence on that river of the white man's shelter or of its ruins, which must often have greeted his eye, and may long have remained to stir his interest, as he paddled through the familiar reaches of his home stream. While the outlier stayed and during his later visits, if any there were, his relations with the Indians could not have differed from those of a regular post-holder. He was of course equipped with the Company's wares. He was commissioned to buy up all Indian products. He was especially charged to warn off those Surinam traders against whose annoyances the Caribs are said to have desired the reestablishment of the post. Nor is he likely to have lacked those means of hospitality, solid and liquid, which may especially have stimulated both Carib memory of a post and Carib zeal for its restoration.3 Though Governor Storm van's Gravesande did not establish a post in the Barima, he did not lose that river from his thought. In 1749, speaking 1 Beschryving van Guiana, i, p. 257. As to Hartsinck's use, direct or indirect, of map and letters, see Extracts, pp. 456, 457, and the preface to his Beschryving. The "learned friend " who served as an in termediary was very probably Storm's correspondent, Professor Allamand of Leyden. 2 Atlas, map 46 ; cf. map 70. As to the history of these maps and as to Bouchenroeder's access to materials, see pp. r 63-173 of my report on Maps from Official Sources, in Vol. iii. ' Cf. note, p. *275, above. 130 No. 3. of the Surinam traders thither, he declared it "situated under this juris diction."1 That Essequibo traders were also busy there appears in 1752 from the complaints of the Caribs against one.2 In 1753 and 1754 Storm reported the rumored arrival in Guiana of emissaries of Sweden for the examination of the Barima, and wished the Company to instruct *280 him how he should bear himself toward *this. 3 But he had at the same time what he counted a more serious danger to chronicle. On account of the threatened approach of the Spaniards, the Caribs were departing from the Barima to the Waini, and with them the Dutch traders.4 This alarm, however, proved exaggerated, and in the following year an Essequibo colonist could be sent to the Barima to take the evidence of a Carib chief as to a foul deed committed in the Mazaruni.5 The Dutch traders, both from Essequibo and Surinam, still resorted thither; for in 1757 (February 15) Storm reported to the Company that complaints had repeatedly come to him from the Orinoco commandant as to their misconduct in Barima, 6 and that he had written the governor of Surinam about the matter.7 It would seem, then, that notwithstanding Dutch trade, the Spaniards assumed some right of supervision in Barima, and that the Dutch governor was well informed of the fact. The Spanish raid on the Cuyuni post in 1758 roused the West India Company into a show of interest in the question of boundary. They insisted on knowing from the governor the grounds of his claim to *281 the Cuyuni. In answer he urged *the situation of that river " so far this side of Waini, which people claim to be the boundary; though I," he adds, "think it must be pushed out as far as Barima."8 And on what grounds, they asked, do you maintain this?9 In his letter of reply, this question about the Barima was overlooked or ignored;1 ° but there soon came an event which forced it upon his attention. In the autumn of 1760, an armed Spanish boat, "sent out expressly to catch the 1 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 91. s Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 96. 3 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 97, 99. Extracts, pp. 340, 341, 348. 4 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 99, 100, 102. 6 But this examination, as appears from the dating of the document, perhaps took place in the Moruca region instead. " Aymara-Aykoeroe " (i. e., Aymara Creek) is very possibly but another form of the name of a well-known branch of the Moruca — the *' Haymarakaboera " of Chollet's map (Atlas, map 68), the " Haimuracabara " of Schomburgk. The Carib ending -aykoeroe (icuru) seems, at least, to answer to the -kaboera (cabura) found in Arawak regions ; and this creek lying just where Arawak and Carib meet, may well have tolerated this Carib turn to its name — at least at the hands of a Dutchman skilled in the Carib speech and dating a Carib document. There is another Haimara-kuroo in the upper Essequibo (Im Thurn, Among the Indians of Guiana,^. 22). (Cf. note, p. *331, below.) 6 Extracts, pp. 372, 373. 7 This letter of Storm's I have sought in vain among the Surinam papers, and Governor Nepveu's reply is not to be found among those of Essequibo. But for a most interesting later letter on the same subject see Extracts, p. 408, and cf. p. *283, below. 8 Extracts, p. 386. ° Extracts, pp. 389, 390. 10 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 114. 131 No. 3. Surinam traders1 in Barima "2— so wrote the Essequibo governor to the Company— had captured certain boats of the Essequibo plantations, which were engaged in the annual fishery at the mouth of the Orinoco. 3 A part of these had been seized on the Essequibo side of the Barima, " and thus," wrote Storm, " within the Company's territory." But why, again and more explicitly asked the Zeeland Chamber,4 do you hold that everything which has happened on this side of Barima must be deemed to have occurred on territory of the Company? It was in response to this demand that on August 12, 1761, 5 he mentioned again the Carib tradition of a former Dutch post on the Barima, adding that "the boundaries are always thus defined by foreigners, as may be seen on the map prepared by D'Anville, the Frenchman "—in odd forgetf ulness of the fact that D'Anville does not make the Barima the boundary. 6 " These are the only reasons," he *said, "upon which I base my opinion, since *282 there are no old documents here from which any information could be had." "It appears to me," he continued,7 " that the Spaniards are not ignorant of this, else they would not have made so many complaints concerning the behavior of the traders8 in Barima. I believe that had they considered it to be their territory, they would have found some means for stopping it." The Company, satisfied or mystified, was silenced. The Barima was next again mentioned by them when, a few months later (August 23, 1762), they took steps toward securing a new map of the Essequibo colony,9 which should include the coast as far as the Orinoco, "with an accurate locating of the mouths of the rivers Pomeroon, Waini, and Barima, and such others as flow into the sea between the Essequibo and the Orinoco."10 Nor did Storm soon recall it to their attention. The register1 x of the colony, the first ever made (suggested, as he explained, by that of Berbice), which, written with his own hand, he transmitted them in February, 1762, defines the territory of the colony as stretching from Berbice not to the Ba- 1 " Swervers," not " pirates," as translated in the Blue Book. As to these " rovers," or wandering traders, see p. *209 of this report. 8 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," pp. 115, 116. ' For the details of this enterprise from the Spanish side, see Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 249-254; Venezuelan "Documents," II, pp. 36-38. From these it does not appear that Essequibo slave traders were less aimed at than those of Surinam. * March 16, 1761. Extracts, pp. 391, 392. r- Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 117. 6 See Atlas, map 40. 'In his manuscript this begins a fresh paragraph of the letter, while the preceding sentence does not. 8 " Swervers,'' not " depredators." 9 Extracts, p. 395. 10 As to Van Bercheyck (from whom this map was asked) and his map-making,see pp. 136-139 of my report on Maps from Official Sources, in vol. iii. General Netscher prefers to spell the name Van Bergeijk, which is perhaps its modern form. 11 Naamwijzer, directory, 132 No. 3. rima, but only to the Amacura, 1 which on D'Anville's map lies east of the Ba rima; and in the list of its rivers the Waini is the westernmost named. And when, in August, he had again to report the seizure of a fishing canoe by the Spaniards, this time at the mouth of the Waini,2 he contents himself *283 with *declaring this river "indisputably the Company's territory," without mention of the Barima.3 Yet in April, 1764, in discussing the numerical strength of the Caribs, he again speaks of "the whole juris diction of the Company from Abari4 to Barima."5 Most remarkable, however, in view especially of his earlier and later utterances as to Spanish acceptance of the Barima as boundary, is his letter of August 18, 1764, to Governor Nepveu of Surinam, wherein he advises that governor not to name, in the passes granted by him to traders, the river Barima. " Your naming in those passes the river Barima," he ex plains, "causes complaints from the Spaniards, who, maintaining that that river is theirs— wherein," remarks Governor Storm van 's Gravesande, " I believe they are right— have already sent some of these passes to the Court of Spain." Wherefore, he added, " in all the passes which I issue I set down only permission to pass the posts and to go among the Indians to trade, without naming any place." There were already, he said, such grave reasons for complaints against the Spaniards, which were even then pending before the Court of Spain, that he could wish them to have no answering grievance as an excuse. 6 Such being the Essequibo governor's attitude, it was unlikely that he would encourage Dutch settlement in the Barima. Down to this time, in deed, there is in the records no mention of any Dutchman's sojourning in the Barima for any purpose save that of trade. The fertility of this unoc cupied region had, however, not gone unnoticed. An Essequibo planter, a German said to have been banished from Surinam, one A. von *284 *Rosen,7 had in 1749 tried to impress its value upon the King of Sweden, to whom it was said to belong;8 and, failing in that, addressed himself in 1755 to a prince of his own fatherland, Frederick the Great of Prussia.9 When this, too, came to nothing, Rosen would seem to have undertaken to settle the Barima on his own account. 1 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 119. Cf. pp. *295-*297, below. 8 This description was repeated in the subsequent directories, of which there are eight (1762-1769). Cf. e. g. Blue book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 135. s Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 120. 4 The boundary of Berbice. 5 Extracts, p. 402. * Extracts, pp. 403, 404. 7 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 147, 148. Extracts, pp. 325, 326. 8 Possibly to an interest stirred by this appeal was due the coming of those Swedish emissaries men tioned in Storm's letters of 1753-54. " In this second appeal Von Rosen, who had now removed to Demerara, was joined by another Demerara planter, earlier a "swerver," one Finet. The two had in 1754 made a visit of inspection to Waini and Barima. 133 No. 3. In April, 1766, Storm van 's Gravesande complained to the Company1 that a gang of Essequibo colonists, rag-tag and bobtail, had taken up their abode in Barima under sundry pretexts— salting, trade, lumbering —and were making it a den of thieves. As they were staying on the west shore, which was "certainly Spanish territory," he was about to write to the governor of Orinoco concerning the state of affairs. The Orinoco governor, however (as Storm later wrote the Company), told him just to go ahead and collar the scoundrels.2 Accordingly the Moruca postholder was sent thither, though with strict instructions not to set foot on " the Spanish bank " of the river. He had the good fortune to apprehend Rosen on the east shore—" our bank," the governor calls it— and arrested him, with a lumberman whom he was maltreating. After trial, Rosen was banished, taking refuge in Orinoco. What became of the other ruffians in the Barima, if others there actually were, does not appear. 3 But the Essequibo court now issued an order forbidding all sojourn in the Barima, lest this become a robbers' nest and involve the colony in a quarrel with the Spaniards; and the Moruca postholder was charged with its active execution.4 In the formal instructions *issued to him in 1767 *285 (October 7), he was explicitly charged to "pay strict attention to everything that transpires in Barima and give an exact written report of the same."5 The West India Company, though somewhat perturbed lest the colonial authorities had exercised jurisdiction on Spanish territory,6 approved the course of the governor and the new order of the court if the district were really under their authority; and the detailed explanations and assurances of the governor7 seem to have set their minds at rest. The prohibition of sojourn in Barima proved, however, ineffectual. One Jan La Riviere, at least, in spite not only of the order of the Court and its sanction by the Company,8 but of the express injunction of the governor not to settle between Essequibo and Orinoco, and even of the in sertion of this in his passport, went thither with his slaves and his family, and there had a plantation or plantations. 9 There he died, leaving his estate to his widow; but she was not long left in its enjoyment. This time it was the Spaniards who purged the river. 10 In the spring of 1768 a coast guard vessel, sent from Santo Thome by the Orinoco governor to warn off the foreigners, sailed up the Barima and destroyed the buildings and plan- 1 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 139. Extracts, p. 414. 2 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 143. Extracts, pp. 425, 426. » Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 139, 140. Extracts, p. 441. 4 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 140. Extracts, p. 415. 5 For these instructions, printed in full from the colonial records by Mr. Rodway, in his report on " The Boundary Question" (Georgetown, 1896), see p. *241, above. • Extracts, pp. 420, 421. ' Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 142, 143. Extracts, pp. 425, 426. * Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 154. Extracts, pp. 421, 442, 443. 9 Extracts, pp. 452, 453. 10 Bine Book " Venezuela No. 8," pp. 274-279. Venezuelan " Documents," I, pp. 231-234. 134No. 3. tations found there, carrying off all their tools. The inhabitants, warned by the Caribs, had escaped, aud the widow La Riviere returned to *286 Essequibo. 1 The site of their plantation *in the Barima is nowhere mentioned.2 Of protest by the Dutch authorities there seems to have been no thought. There is never again mention in Dutch documents of the stay of any Dutchman in the Barima. A Spaniard, however, the young officer Inciarte, who in 1779, on his way to the Pomeroon, made a reconnoissance of the lower Barima, found in the Aruka, its lowest western tributary of import ance, at the distance of a league from the Barima, a hill " which was in habited by a Dutchman from Essequibo called Mener Nelch and by *287 certain Indians of the Carib tribe."3 At the foot of *this hill he found the hulls of a large pirogue and of another craft, and was assured by an Indian that these had belonged to the Dutchman. On the hill he found survivals of coffee, banana, and orange trees. Further details he noted in a diary,4 which unfortunately is now lost. 1 The Spanish testimony to this exploit speaks of " sundry " Dutch families and of " the foreigners," and mentions the houses and plantations as if there were several establishments. But, had there been any other settlers from Essequibo, it seems probable that Storm would have learned it, if only from the widow La Riviere, and would have mentioned it to the Company. It is possible that the other settlers, if such there were, were from other colonies — not improbably French or English from the islands. In the library of the British Museum, in that volume of the Egertou manuscripts calling itself Papeles Tocantes a la Provincia de Venezuela, Vol. Ill, 1773-1798 (marked Press 542. G.); there is a copy of a letter, addressed by Andres de Oleaga, Contador of Guayana, to Josef de Abalos, Intendente of Caracas, which seems to throw a light on this. It contains this passage (fol. 70, lines 19-25): " Covetous of this spacious and attractive territory on the banks of the river Barima, the English of Barbados, united with the Dutch of Essequibo, established a colony, and in the year 1778 were dislodged by action of this government through the agency of the privateer boats of this place ; and, in spite of the watch which has been kept, the English have continued to make great ravages on the timber." (" Envidiosos de este grande y ameno territorio en la margen del Rio Barima, establecieron colonia los Yngleses de la Barvada, unidos con los Olandeses de Esquivo, y el aHo de 1778 fueron desalojados por disposicion de este Govierno por las lanehas corsarias de esta Plaza, y por mucho que se ha vicjilado siempre han hecho grandes sacas de maderas los Yngleses.'") Now "1778" is here a quite impossible date ; for the letter itself, though misdated " 1777 " (November 15), is an answer to one of August 14, 1778, and must have been written before the end of that year. Inasmuch as the Spanish purging of the Barima in 1768 answers so per fectly to the description in this passage, while none of 1778 is known from the records, it seems a fair conjecture that " 1778 " is here but an error for 1768, and that the other settlers then ousted from the Barima were therefore English. That Oleaga was likely to know whereof he spoke will appear from the fact that it was precisely he who in 1768 as Royal Accountant in Santo Thorn, received and invoiced the confiscated property. (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 8," pp. 274-280 ; Venezuelan " Documents," I, pp. 231-234.) Governor Storm at first believed the attack instigated by certain deserters from the Moruca post and plantation (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 148, 154 ; Extracts, pp. 440, 442) ; but there is no mention of these in the Spanish documents, and Storm himself later speaks of it as simply the work of the Spaniards (Extracts, p. 453). 2 My reasons for thinking they may have been on the Aruka are Btated just below. 3 Seijas, Limites Britanicos de Guayana, p. 91. 4 " Entrando en el citado caflo de Aruco, a una legua de navegacion, se da con el primer cerro, el que ha sido habitado pocos anos hace de un holandes de Esquivo llamado Mener Nelch, y various' indios de la nacion Caribe. Al pie de este cerro en uu cafiito enoontre un fondo con el casco entero de un guairo y otro de una piragua grande que un indio me aseguro haber sido del expresado holandes. En el nomi nado cerro hallamos porcion de arboles de cafe, anones y naranjo3; omito las demas circunstancias por tener anotadas por menor en el diario que tengo formado, al que me refiero." 135 NO. 3. "Mener " is doubtless Mynheer. It would be hard to represent its sound more accurately in Spanish. "Nelch," I suspect to be a distortion of Nelis. Diederik Nelis1 was a man well known to Essequibo records.2 In 1765 it was only the timely encounter with "the colonist Diederik Nelis coming from Barima "3 which saved three lost sailors from starvation. In August, 1767, Nelis was living in the upper Essequibo,4 "up near the plantation Oosterbeek." It was to him that the Caribs reported the deser tion of the post Arinda;5 but before the end of that year he had been pro visionally made postholder at Moruca, though the governor confesses his incompetence, and implies that he was a man addicted to drink. 6 There he was kept until 1774, when he was replaced by the bylier Vermeere. 7 As postholder in Moruca at the time of the Spanish *sack of the La *288 Riviere plantation, and as himself expressly charged with attention to all that transpired in Barima and with the exclusion of Essequibo settlers, Nelis must have become more familiar with the place, and may easily have betaken himself thither on his release from his duties at Moruca. As the La Riviere plantation had already been cleared, and as the same considera tions, agricultural and political, 8 which would direct his choice of site and of soil must have influenced La Riviere before him, it is surely not improb able that the site occupied by Nelis (if " Mener Nelch" was really he) had been La Riviere's as well.9 Mener Nelch is not quite the last Barima settler known to tradition. When in 1841 Mr. Schomburgk went up that stream, he found, far up the river, at the mouth of the Herena, a place where, as he was told by the Indians, a white man at the commencement of this century had cultivated sugar. He had possessed, the Indians said, a schooner and several punts, 1 The name appears also as " Neelis," and at least once (in instructions to Moruca postholder, 1767, see p. 241, above) as "Neels," which sounds strikingly like Nelch. 8 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 137. 8 Extracts, p. 411. 4 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," p. 145. 6 Blue Book " Venezuela.No. 3," p. 149. 6 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 157, 162, 180. 7 Vermeere, who had been bylier since 1766, first appears as postholder in the muster-roll of July 4, 1774. As the military pay-roll for this year (for reasons appearing in Extract No. 291) does not mention the posts, the exact day when Nelis was relieved can not be stated. Vermeere had been captured by the Spanish in October, 1770, but was released in 1773, reaching Essequibo again on April 24. Says the pay-roll for 1772 (transmitted in 1773): . . . " Vermeere by de Spanjaards in OctoV 1770 is gevange genomen. ... P. 8.: voor't senden van dit guarnisoen soldy boek is opgem. Vermeere weder los- gelaten, en op de 24 April 1773 alhier g'arriveert." 8 In view of the Company's attitude (see p. 285), a Dutchman west of the Barima was doubtless safer from arrest by the Essequibo authorities, while from the Spaniards, so far as appears, he was no more safe on one side than on the other. 9 When, in 1883, Mr. Im Thurn, entered on the charge of this region, there " had even then been settled for some time" on the Aruka " a coloured man from the Demerara River, a Chinaman, and a Port uguese ;" and it is on the Aruka, adds Mr. Thurn, that " the chief agriculture of the district has devel oped since the time of that first visit." See his very interesting article on "British Guiana; the North western District," in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 1892, pp. 677, 678. 136 No. 3. with which he carried on a timber trade. The spot was still called by the Indians "The last place of the white man."1 Mr. Schomburgk's conjec ture that this white man was " very likely a Dutch settler" is doubtless reasonable enough. His mode of life at least suggests rather a *289 migrant *from some neighboring Dutch, English, or French colony than a Spaniard. Yet it is only a conjecture, and I am able to throw no light upon it from the documents. The Dutch documents, indeed, know little enough of the Barima after 1768. Storm van 's Gravesande did not again urge it as the boundary; and in the remonstrance to Spain in 1769 the Dutch Government described its territory as extending, not to the Barima, but only "to beyond the river Waini." Not even a Dutch trader is again heard of in the Barima. The West India Company, which theretofore had always encouraged the colonial trade to the Orinoco,2 issued in 1761 its instructions that so far as possible this trade be transferred to the Spaniards and carried on, not from Essequibo to Orinoco, but from Orinoco to Essequibo.3 This policy was loyally and effectively carried out; and within two years the current of trade was flowing the other way.4 Before the end of the century it was such a thing of course that, when in 1794 the Governor-General (a man long in the colony and exceptionally familiar with its interests) visited the Moruca post, he learned for the first time of the inland route by which "in the rainy season the Spanish lanehas, coming from Orinoco to Moruca," made their way from one river into another, and reports this " route of the Spanish lanehas " to the Dutch home authorities as " some thing very remarkable."5 It was only " in former days," according to his narrative, that the postholder, his informant, had made " several journeys to Orinoco." *290 *The relations with the Caribs of the Barima remained, indeed;% and one hears from them occasional complaints, mainly of the aggres sions of the Spaniards. 6 Once (26 July, 1769) the Company encouraged stir ring the Caribs to reprisals;7 and once (11 Oct., 1775) the Moruca postholder met a Spaniard's claim to the Barima and the rivers between it and the Moruca by an answering claim for the Dutch. 8 But the only errand which after 1768 I find taking a Dutchman into that region is the overhauling of 1 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 1," p. 215 ; "Venezuela No. 5," p. 12. * Excepting only during the brief interval of want of confidence in Commandeur Beekman (1684- 1690). 3 Extracts, p. 394. Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 119. 4 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 126, where, however, there is an unfortunate mistranslation; the original has, not "the road to the Spaniards," but " the road of the Spaniards hither " (" Ook is de passagie der Spanjaerden naer hier voorby de door "). Cf. also Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 128, 181, 142; and, for other mentions of the presence of Spaniards in Essequibo at this period, pp. 122, 144, 154. " " lets zeer merkwaardig." (Extracts, p. 616.) 6 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," pp. 166, 157, 165. Extracts, pp. 454, 547. " Extracts, p. 465. • Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 190. 137 No. 3. escaping slaves.1 Of the Spaniards in and about Barima there is some what more frequent mention.2 The claim to the Barima as boundary, though its mention by Hart sinck in 1770, 3 its recognition on the English map published in 1783 from the observations of Thompson,4 and its adoption in 1798 by the map of Bouchenroeder must have kept it familiar,5 finds for long no further men tion in the records. In 1801, however, the confidential envoy sent to repre sent the Dutch Council of the Colonies at the elbow of the Dutch plenipotentiary in the Congress of Amiens was instructed to see that the colonial boundary was there defined at the Barima, if it could not be fixed at the Orinoco;6 but, as he explained to the Council in a most suggestive letter, he found it unwise to mention the question there. 7 The negotiations at Madrid suggested by him were never undertaken; and the *only further mention of the river I have found among Dutch *291 papers is in an unused and unpublished charter submitted by this returned envoy to his colleagues in 1803, wherein it is proposed that under certain conditions the colonists of Essequibo and Demerara shall be allowed to cut timber in the Pomeroon, the Waini, and the Barima.8 The results of my research, then, are as follows: 1. Prior to 1683 little is known of the relations of the Dutch with the Barima; but, so far as known, they were of trade alone and did not differ from those of other Europeans trading in that river. 2. Toward the end of 1683 the Dutch Commandeur in Essequibo provis ionally took possession of that river for the Dutch West India Company by stationing there an employe to buy up Indian wares and by warning off other traders; and early in 1684 he had a shelter built there for occa sional visits from the Pomeroon postholder, at the same time suggesting to the Company that it take the Barima iuto its possession and establish there a permanent outlier's post. 3. The West India Company wholly ignored these suggestions; and in the summer of 1684, and for long thereafter, the Barima was occupied by 1 Extracts, pp. 595, 599. 2 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," pp. 160-162, 190; Extracts, p. 566; and passages cited at begin ning of this paragraph. s Beschryving van Guiana, i, p. 146. 4 Atlas, map 43. 6 Atlas, maps 70, 46. Cf. vol. iii, pp. 163-173. 6 Extracts, pp. 639-644. 7 Extracts, pp. 645-647. 8 Extracts, pp. 657-659; but cf. also pp. 660, 661. The alleged staking out and apportionment, in 1797, of all the lands " from Essequibo to Point Barima," of which there is report in a Spanish document of that year (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 1," pp. 138, 139), belongs, of course, to the period of British oc cupation and is not within the scope of the present report. I find, however, in the ^uteh papers during their reoccupation in 1802-3 no mention of such a thing, and at least one paper (Extracts, No. 353) not easy to reconcile with it. If true, there should be, of course, in the British colonial or rnilitiry archives under this date some report of this survey and apportionment. 138 No. 3. hostile Caribs and by their allies, the French, who in 1689 were building a fort in that river. For many years nothing more is heard of Dutch trade in the Barima. *292 *4. In the eighteenth century Dutch trade there was resumed and relations of close friendship with the Caribs built up; but, though in 1744 the establishment of a post in that river was again sug gested by the Essequibo Commandeur, and this time provisionally approved by the West India Company, no post was ever at any time established. 5. Settlement in the Barima was at no time attempted by the Dutch. In 1766 a party of Essequibo colonists sojourning there under pretext of salting, trading, or lumbering, was dislodged by the Essequibo govern ment itself, which then prohibited all stay there. The plantation of an other Essequibo colonist, who, in defiance of this prohibition, settled there, was in 1768 destroyed by the Spaniards without protest from the Dutch. Of two later settlers, vouched for by Indian tradition and reputed or sus pected to be Dutch, the identity is uncertain and the fate unknown. 6. No other Dutch occupation of the Barima, of any kind, has been found recorded. *293 *7. THE DUTCH IN THE AMACURA AND BEYOND. Of the Amacura there is little mention in Dutch records. In 1598 Cabeliau and his companions of that earliest Dutch expedition to Guiana traded with the Indians in the Amacura as well as in the Barima.1 In 1629 Admiral Pater, going up the Orinoco for his sack of Santo Thome, mentions the Amacura in his sailing notes;2 but Jan de Laet, who used his log books, understood by it only the easternmost mouth of the Orinoco. So it is represented on his map of Guiana, 3 and so it appears on Dutch maps throughout the seventeenth century4 — not excepting those published in the prospectuses for the colonization of Guiana. 5 The earliest mention of the Amacura I have found among the papers of the Dutch West India Company is of 1681. Very puzzling, iu view of these facts, is the mention, in certain Spanish documents of the year 1637, of the Amacura in connection with the Essequibo and the Berbice as the seat of a Dutch Colony. 6 That it is an error I can not doubt; for not only is it inconceivable that so important a post should be unknown to the official records in the Netherlands, but 1 Extracts, p. 17. 2 Nieuwe Wereldt, ed. of 1630, p. 593 ; Latin ed. of 1633, p. 660. * So it had already been printed on De Laet's map in 1625 ; and, identifying Pater's " Ammegore" with Keymis's " Amacur," he found in 1630 and in the later editions no reason for change. See Atlas, map 24. 4 Cf., e. g., those of Blaeuw (Atlas, maps 25-28). * E. g., in the printed edition of the grant to the Count of Hanau (Frankfort, 1669) and in the Per- tinente Beschryving van Guiana (Amsterdam, 1676). 6 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 214, 215. 139 No. 3. *documents which I herewith lay before the Commission1 show that *294 in this very year, 1637, both the Spanish governor of Guayana and the Dutch executive officer in charge of the neighboring island of Tobago looked on the fort in the Essequibo as the Dutch possession nearest the Orinoco.2 One may perhaps account for the error by some aid given the Dutch by the Caribs of Amacura,3 or by some confusion with the Moruca, through which the route of the Dutch invaders may have lain, or simply by that astounding misinformation which belongs so generally to the Spanish reports about Dutch settlements.4 What has been said of the Barima at this period shows the unlikelihood of the presence of the Dutch in the Amacura at the middle of the seventeenth century; and that they were not there in 1673 seems implied by the lauguage of an English captain who in that year victualed there, 5 and by that of the English Council for *Plantations, who in the following year advised the authorities of *295 Barbados to return to "the River of Amacoura in Guiana "eleven Indians who " have been lately brought thither,6 as they judge by force" (carried off perhaps by Wroth), " and that they take occasion to gain the good will of the neighbor Indians to his Majesty's subjects, who have lately found, by their assistance to the French, oi» what consequence their friendship is." But by 1681 the Dutch of Essequibo were at least familiar with the Amacura; for we find them sending a canoe thither to salt down manatees and wild hog's flesh.7 In 1685 the Dutch hating Coppenam Caribs driven out from Surinam were said to be taking refuge in Amacura as well as in 1 Extracts, pp. 76,80. It ia true that in the Spanish governor's list of the Dutch colonies (p. 8 1 ) there is one represented only by a blank (" N ") — whether because he had forgotten its name, or because the prying Dutchman could not make it out ; but the place of this blank in the series sufficiently shows that, in the thought of the Spaniard, it was toward the east of Guiana, not toward the west. And if there had been in 1639 a Dutch settlement in the Amacura, it would have been there, and not in Essequibo— or, at least, in the Amacura as well — that Jan van der Goes would have been instructed to " inform him self of the enemy's circumstances " before proceeding with his secret expedition to the Oronoco. (Ex tracts, p. 96). Where it was, in this direction, that he was charged to erect a fort, can only be guessed ; but wherever it was, " he erected no fort at the place prescribed by his instructions," even though " the enemy offered no hindrance there." (Extracts, p. 99.) 8 This is suggested also, indeed, by a Spanish document printed in this same connection by Great Britain (Blue Book " Venezuela No. S," p. 216), wherein a projected attack on the Dutch in Essequibo and Berbice is spoken of without mention of the Amacura, which would certainly have been earliest dealt with. * Cf. Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 212. * In illustration, not to cite less palpable cases, I may instance the part played by the Dutch settle ment of Nieuw Middelburg on the Pomeroon, which for much more than a century after its destruction appears regularly in Spanish documents and maps as the capital of this nearest of Dutch colonies. 6 Captain Peter Wroth, who testified on August 5, 1673, as follows : " Dep[onen]t then sailed past Surinam, taking a sloop, to Isakebe, al[ia]s Demarara, where he was ambuscaded and lost some men, and thence to the Caribbs in Amecouza River, where he victualed, and arrived at Barbadoes this day." " Amecouza" is probably only a misreading of Amecoura. " British Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series America and West Indies, 1669-74, Nos. 1134, 1409 (pp. 518, 631). 7 Extracts, p. 152. 140 No. 3. Barima and Waini;1 and it is long before the name again appears in the records. At last, in 1762, on the title-page of the first directory of the Essequibo colony,2 one finds the " River Amacura" named as its western boundary; but a study of the context shows that the Amacura here meant must lie east of the Barima, for the Barima does not appear among the streams of the colony. It is probably the Amacura of the D'Anville map, so much appealed to by Governor Storm van 's Gravesande, the author of this directory— a stream placed on that map midway between those there called Barima and Wayma (Waini) and emptying into the Orinoco at the spot where modern maps show the mouth of the Barima. While it is, I am convinced, a misconception to hold that, when Storm van 's Grave sande spoke of the Barima, he meant the Amacura, it is none the *296 less certain that, when he here speaks of the *Amacura, it was not the Amacura proper, but, at farthest, the stream we now know as the Barima. And so with the following directories, till their cessation in 1769. As to this strange confusion, a word of further discussion maybe useful. That D'Anville has simply transposed the names of the two rivers is quite possible. But with Storm van 's Gravesande it is otherwise. Before the D'Anville map was first published the name of the Barima was thoroughly familiar to him. The Amacura there is no reason to believe him to have known at all. The Barima, as appears from his correspondence, he knew as on the inland route to Orinoco, as the home of the Caribs, as the river where a post of the Company was said once to have been. Nothing that he says of it suggests that it may have been the Amacura which was in his thought. In his map, 3 made for the Company in 1748, the Barima appears, not the Amacura; and the little Spanish map4 which, in 1750, he handed over to the Dutch authorities shows the Barima (though without its name), and not the Amacura. When the map of D'Anville came into his hands he seems to have assumed without question that the river thereon shown as the Barima was the river he had always known by that name. Despite his later appeals to D'Anville's map, all that he tells of the Barima, to the end of his official life, is told demonstrably of the Barima proper, not of D'Anville's Barima, the Amacura; for his information came from those who knew the river through no blundering map. When, however, just prior to the preparation of his directory, in 1762, his claim to the Barima as a boundary had been treated with hesitation and distrust by the Company,5 it would not be strange if he turned to the D'Anville map, and, finding there, midway between the river marked Barima and the Waini (which he counted "indis- 1 Extracts, p. 1 73. 2 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 8," p. 119. See p. *282, above. 3 Atlas, map 60. 4 Atlas, map 61. 5 Seep. *281, above. 141 No. 3. putably *the Company's territory "), a tiny stream named Amacura, *297 chose this as the limit to be named in the directory. But whatever may have been the reason of his course, the fact seems clear that the "Barima "of his letters was the Barima of local parlance, and not the Barima of D'Anville's map; while the "Amacura" of his directory was the Amacura of D'Anville's map, and not that of local parlance. In other words, there is no reason to believe that the Amacura is here in question at all. And, if not here, then nowhere; for I find in Dutch records no further mention of that river.1 More of interest I find in Dutch relations with remoter branches of the Orinoco and with the Orinoco itself. The foreboding in a Spanish document of 1686, written by a Spaniard in Spain,2 that the French may, in league with the Indians, "occupy the territories and ports of His Majesty [the King of Spain], as they have done in other parts, and as the Dutch have also done with some towns on the River Orinoco in the region of the Mainland," is probably, so far as refers to the Dutch, only a vague and careless allusion to the sacking of Santo Thome by them in 1629 and 1637; but I have found else much reason to doubt that the Dutch in the seventeenth century and in the early eighteenth regarded the Orinoco as so altogether ^'Spanish as is often assumed.3 The *298 earlier Spanish documents abound in complaints of the liberties taken by the Dutch in that river, even above Santo Thome;4 and below that point the Dutch long traded in freedom— often with the connivance of the Spanish officials themselves.5 One great southern branch, the Aguire, they seem long to have treated as a sort of neutral territory. When in 1726 two agents were sent from Essequibo to the Spanish governor in Orinoco for the purchase of certain arti cles they were instructed in writing by the Essequibo authorities, in case the governor should refuse them permission to trade, to repair to the Aguire and barter for the articles there. 6 In 1730, the missionary Bishop 1 1 should perhaps except a mention in a letter of protest received by the Essequibo governor in 1767 from a Spanish friar, who declares the Indians of Soro and Amacura to be committed to his care, and asks the return of those seized for slaves. (Extracts, p. 427.) The governor calls him " a mission ary priest in Orinoco," and intimates that if any of his Indians are in Essequibo they have run away thither. The Spanish mission of " Amacuro " finds mention also, among the newer missions of the Ara- gonesc Capuchins, in Fray Caulin's Historia de la Nueva Andalucia (1779). The interesting Spanish document (Blue Book "Venezuela No. 1," pp. 138, 139) which tells how, in January, 1797, a Spanish of ficial found the Amacura guarded by Indians on behalf of the English in Essequibo belongs, of course, to the period of British occupation of that colony and does not fall within the scope of the present report. The British and the Spaniards were then at war. 2 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 222. 3 A phrase lately ascribed to the Directors of the Dutch West India Company in 1639, "the Orinoco being Spanish," is not theurs, but only a remark of a modern historian of the Guiana colonies (Netscher, Geschiedenis, p. 69), who had no thought of putting it in their mouths. • See e. g., Venezuelan " Documents," I, and cf. Extracts, pp. 226, 244. * See Extracts, pp. 142, 243-246, and passim ; all Dutch trade in the Orinoco with the Spaniards was, of course, matter of connivance. 6 Blue Book, " Venezuela No. 3," p. 79. Extracts, p. 249. 142 No. 3. of Oran, the Frenchman Nicolas Gervais, finding in Orinoco no sphere for his activity and refused permission to convert the Indians in Essequibo, betook himself, under Dutch escort, to the Aguire as to a neutral soil; and when he was murdered there by the Caribs, it was a Dutchman trading to that river who reported his fate and the Dutch authorities of Essequibo who recovered his effects and transmitted them to his countrymen in the islands.1 In 1741 the Essequibo plantations sent to the Aguire for the purchase of horses.2 In 1760 Father Benito de la Garriga, prefect of the Capuchin Missions, spoke of a Dutch slave trader who was domiciled for eight years among the Caribs of the Aguire.3 And about the same *299 time *(1757) Don Jose Iturriaga mentioned, in a dispatch to the Spanish Government, that for connivance at the Dutch trade with the missions by this route the friar of the Palmar mission had been removed.4 The Caribs of the upper Orinoco had a regular route thither, crossing the Caroni above the missions. 5 It was even believed among the missions that the Dutch governor of Essequibo claimed jurisdiction as far as a line running due south from the mouth of the Aguire. This was told their prefect by a fugitive slave, who claimed to have brought from Essequibo an official document in which this was shown;6 and a Dutchman from Essequibo told the same prefect that the mission of Curumo had been destroyed because it lay east of this line. 7 The slave traders are even said to have once presented a passport in which the Essequibo governor styled himself " Governor of Essequibo and the mouth of the Orinoco."8 But all this is unknown to the Dutch records, and was certainly never reported to the home authorities. Indeed, if the Essequibo correspondence may be trusted, the Dutch slave traders who infested these parts are more likely to have been from Surinam than from the western *300 colonies.9 When in 1758 *the acting governor of Essequibo re ported to the West India Company that the Spaniards were build ing a mission in the Imataca, the river next west of the Aguire, he 1 Extracts, pp. 250-253. Yet see also Fray Caulin's Historia, pp. 66, 328-339. 2 Extracts, p. 293. * Venezuelan " Documents," II, p. 148. 4 Venezuelan " Documents," III, p. 167. Very interesting is Fray Caulin's account of the Aguire, written in 1759. After speaking of the ship's mouth of the Orinoco, he adds : " antes de desaguar este Caho forma una Ensenada, en la qual recibe al Rio Barima, y mas arriba al Aquire, que trae su origen de la Serraniade Imataca a pocos leguas de los Pueblos de Midmoy Terepi de Nation Carives, que ha fundado el _.. P. Fr. Alejo, Capuchino Catalan. En este Rio dieron cruel muerte los Carives al Ilustrisimo Senor Obispo Don Nicolds Gervasio de Labrid . . . Hoy estd habitado de Indios Carives y Aruacas, que viven gentil- mente, acompafiados de muchos Christianos fugitivos de los Pueblos de Mision, en que recibieron el Santo Baulismo, y lo que no es de pasar en silentio, enel perjudicial exercicio de servier de practicos, vogas, y mensageros a los Olandeses de Esquivo, que entran frequentemente por este Cafios al ilicito y lamentable Comercio de Esclavos, que compran en crecido numero d los Carives, eonduciendolos por este y otros Rios," • . • 6 Venezuelan " Documents," III, p. 185. 6 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 237 ; Venezuelan " Documents," II, pp. 8, 9. ' Venezuelan " Documents," II, p. 151. 8 Venezuelan "Documents," II, p. 143. s See pp. *209, *362, of this report. 143 No. 3. added the comment that this was, in his opinion, " certainly far outside the concern of this colony."1 Of Dutch trade in this lower Orinoco region I find no mention after the sixties of the eighteenth century. In fine, then : 1. So far as known, the Dutch in Guiana had never any relations with the Amacura, save to fish and hunt in that river; and even that is known through but a single instance (in 1681). 2. With the lower Orinoco in general, and especially with the Aguire, they long maintained relations of trade, and in such sort as to make doubtful their recognition of Spanish sovereignty there. *8. THE DUTCH IN THE CUYUNI. *301 From the beginning of their occupation of the Essequibo the Dutch were established at the junction with that river of its two great western branches, the Cuyuni and the Mazaruni. 2 There was their fort, there their seat of government, there their earliest plantations. 3 From this confluence the plantations spread upstream to where tide-water is met by the rapids which fill the whole upper course of these rivers. The Cuyuni, whose lowest falls are but a half-dozen miles from its union with the Mazaruni, and whose higher banks were less suited to the planting of sugar, was the latest of the three to be occupied, and at the end of the seventeenth cen tury plantations had but begun to creep up that river.4 With the intro duction, however, in the early part of the eighteenth century, of the cul tivation of coffee, cacao, and indigo, the lands in the lower Cuyuni also were taken into use.5 It had been an argument, both for indigo and for coffee, that they could be cultivated in the upper rivers — that is, above the rapids which set a limit to tide- water navigation.6 The success with these cultures was never such as to make *this necessary. *302 The highest plantations established in the Cuyuni were the Com pany's indigo plantation on the north, a little below the lowest fall, its coffee plantation on the south, a little lower down, and coffee and cacao plantations on the Batavia Islands between. This is shown both by maps, like that of Heneman in 1772, 7 which long after these planta tions had been abandoned marks carefully their forsaken sites, and that of Storm van 's Gravesande, in 1748, 8 which shows that the culture 1 Extracts, p. 334. 2 See p. *185 of this report. 3 Extracts, pp. 102, 132. A. van Berkel, Amerikaansche Voyagien, pp. 42, 43. 4 A cassava ground was planted on an island at its mouth as early as 1681 ; and in 1694 a plantation was begun on the shore above the fort. (Extracts, pp. 162, 194.) This was perhaps the later Duinen burg, at the angle of Cuyuni and Mazaruni. Duinenburg was certainly in existence in 1710, but was then called a new plantation. (Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," p. 73.) " Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 77, 80, 82, 83, 84. 6 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 72. Extracts, p. 248. 7 Atlas, map 63. 8 Atlas, map 60. 144No. 3. of indigo had already been given up, and that in the Cuyuni there then remained nothing but one coffee plantation; and also by docu ments, like the letter of the colonial Court of Policy in 1731 explain ing why "it is impossible to establish any plantations" above the falls,1 like the journals of the mining engineer Hildebrandt, 2 which show with minuteness of detail that at the time of his operations in the colony (1711-1743) there was above this coffee plantation and the indigo plantation opposite no occupation on the Cuyuni,3 and like the letter of Storm in 1759, 4 in which, enumerating to the Company the basis of the colony's claim to the Cuyuni, he specifies in proof of occupation, nothing besides the work of the miners and " the coffee and indigo planta tions you for many years had there." The situation of the indigo plantation is, moreover, distinctly stated by tbe Director- General in 1761, 5 when he speaks of the Spaniards in Cuyuni, who "have been down to the lowest fall, where your Lordship's indigo planta tion was situated."6 It is possible that the gravest obstacle to *303 *the occupation of the Cuyuni was the reputed insalubrity of the river. In February, 1748, the colonial Court of Policy reported the old indigo plantation unsalable, even on the most favorable terms, because of "the remoteness and the unhealthfulness of the river Cuyuni."7 Its remoteness was, however, no small matter, for after the completion of the new fort in the lower river (1740) the whole colony, lured by the rich sugar lands of the coast, had drifted rapidly thither. Already, by 1718, the Company's old plantation of Duinenburg, at the angle of the Cuyuni and the Mazaruni, abandoned about 1740 for a new Duinenburg on Fort Island,8 had passed into the hands of a private planter, Van der Heyden,9 whose family remained its proprietor throughout the Dutch ownership of the colony and gradually gained possession of the other lands in the lower Cuyuni, on both sides, and of the islands as well, 1 ° their property (at least of the south bank) reaching to the falls. 1 x That Van der Heyden 1 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 83. 2 Extracts, Nos. 140, 142, 143, 147, 148, 149 (pp. 285-301). 3 This would have appeared even more fully had it been thought worth while to print his bulky jour nals entire. " Extracts, p. 386. Cf. also Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 111. 6 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," p. 117. 0 " Gelegen heeft :" was situated, not is, as translated in the Blue Book. 7 Extracts, p. 316. Cf. Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 73. 8 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 87. Atlas, map 60. Netscher, pp. 112, 113. Care must be taken not to confuse Old Duinenburg with this new plantation. The Blue Book translation, in passages mentioning the older plantation, has several times by error a present tense instead of a past. 9 Atlas, map 60. 10 Ulue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 85. 11 This appears from the report made to the governor of British Guiana in 1865 by the Commissioners appointed to inquire into and report upon the titles to lands, etc., in the rivers Essequibo, Mazaruni and Cuyuni, with their respective tributary streams — a copy of which I owe to the courtesy of Her Majesty s Colonial Office. In support of a claim then pending on behalf of the heirs of Stephanus Gerardus van der 145 No. 3. *was an extreme settler in the Cuyuni, appears from many allusions *304 in the documents of the next half-century, and his intimate relations with the Indians made him of great service to the colony;1 but that he ever occupied or used lands above the falls is nowhere intimated.2 Another colonist who must have dwelt at the extreme of settlement in the Cuyuni is that C. Crewitz, who, in 1761, was charged there with the prevention of smuggling and the arrest of runaway slaves; but of him we are not only told that he lived "below the fall,"3 but are so fortunate as to know the precise limits of his land. Heyden, to " the lands called and known as Cartabo, situate at the junction of the Massaroony and Cay- oenie rivers," and to other lands, there was laid before the Commissioners _ grant of May 5, 1774, to S. G. van der Heyden of certain lands in the river Essequibo, beginning at the north side of the river Cay- oenie upwards from the Creek Simieri to the Creek Paricoesa. and on the sonth side of that river beginning from the Creek Ocroreboe to the Fall Acajoe, besides the Island [sic] Big and Small Batavia, and two others, and the Island Acaijoe and Arwassie, in the River Masseroeni, to the east of the lands of his parents from the Creek Wonipiere upwards to the Creek Tipoeroe and the Island Rustboff." The Commissioners, finding on Bouchenroeder's map no creek named " Paricoesa," thought Zuiker Creek must be meant, " for no other creek is laid down on the chart upward from Simierie "; but " the chart" is here a poor reliance, and Zuiker Creek was then known by that name. Van der Hayden had, however, already land on the north of the Cuyuni to the westward of this acquisition ; for a grant of 1761 (Extracts, p. 393) shows him then in possession there as far as the old indigo plantation. The Van der Heydens held land also in the Mazaruni (Atlas, map 60). The lands acquired by them in 1761 " in Maza runi," from Van der Cruysse (Extracts, p. 392) were, however, not in that river above its junction with the Cuyuni, but on the north side of the united streams between their confluence and tbe Essequibo (see note 3, below) and, since they reached the creek ' ' Simiery," must have adjoined the grant of 1 774 described above. 1 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 106, 127, 138, 144, 158, 159, 166, 180, 181, 184, 191. Extracts, pp. 304, 555, 556. On account of these services the Director-General once even urged the Company to exempt him from taxation. 2 When in 1789 the Spanish officer, Lopez de la Puente, made his expedition down to the mouth of the Cuyuni he found dwelling here at the fork of the Cuyuni and the Mazaruni " a Dutchman named Dan iel with four companions, very many negroes and Indian slaves — all his." It was, doubtless, Daniel van der Hayden (cf. Blue Book, p. 194; Extracts, p. 600). In the Mazaruni there were also "some Dutch men with a Carib village." Besides these a Carib, Manuyari, had his house on the north of the Cuy uni at the foot of the rapids. (Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," p. 338.) - Blue Book, p. 118; Extracts, p. 393. "Cruysse," as the name is spelled in the Blue Book transla tion of the letter of February 9, 1762, is a misreading. The manuscript (Storm's autograph at London) has " Creuztz," doubtless a distortion of Crewitz, as comparison with the earlier passage on the same page suggests. Cristiaan Crewitz must, of course, not be confused with the councilor Abraham Van der Cruysse, a man of more note in the colony, who owned much land further down the Cuyuni toward the Essequibo, from opposite Old Duinenburg all the way to the Essequibo. (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 87 ; Atlas, map 60.) The lands " in Mazaruni " sold by this Abraham Van der Cruysse in 1759 and 1761 (Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," p. 113; Extracts, No. 215), lay not in the Mazaruni proper, but north of the united Cuyuni and Mazaruni below their con fluence; for not only is Van der Cruysse set down in the map of 1748 as the owner of the lands at the junction of these rivers with the Essequibo, but the creeks " Cattony," " Simiery," named in the trans fers are well-known streams on this shore. (Atlas, maps 60, 66, 70.) In the reportof the British Guiana Land Commissioners in 1865 (see note, p. 303), translating a Dutch record of 1773, certain lands are described as " situate in the Upper Massarouney, commencing from the front lands of the widow P. de Wey to the upper corner of Calico." But here " the Upper Massarouney " can only mean the Mazaruni in general-in this case, below the confluence of tbe Cuyuni; for, as the Commissioners said, "the Calico Creek is well known, being situate on tbe west bank of the river Massarouney 146No. 3. *305 *The only other occupants of the lower Cuyuni mentioned in the Dutch records are the Creoles— slaves born of Indian mothers and negro fathers. In 1741 thirty or forty of these, driven to desperation by the brutality of the miner Hildebrand, whom they were forced to aid in his operations in the Cuyuni, deserted to an island in the river, and there for tified themselves so securely that the colonial authorities found it wise to make terms with them. Thenceforward a body of these partially free half-breeds continued to dwell in Cuyuni at the base of the falls.1 In short, at no time is there record of any cultivation in the *306 Cuyuni above the lowest falls, excepting only the bread -*grounds of the Cuyuni post during the brief periods of its existence.2 But, before taking up the vexed question of the Cuyuni posts, it will be well to point out what is known of the colony's earlier relations with the upper Cuyuni. The earliest mention of the river I have found in the Dutch records is that in Commandeur Abraham Beekman's letter of June 28, 1680, when that river, temporarily closed by an Indian war, is called " our provision chamber."3 From letters of the following years it appears that not provisions alone were gathered there by the Company's "old negroes," but hammocks, balsam, and other Indian products.4 It appears, too, that the Dutch were not without competitors; for the Spaniards bought up copaiba,5 while the French made forays from the Barima into the Cuyuni and carried off the hammocks and all the other wares.6 The latest of these passages, that of 1686, speaks of old Daentje, the negro run ner who brought these tidings, as coming from " the savanna, up in Cuyuni, of the Pariacotten;" or, as it may quite as well be translated, " from the savanna up in Cuyuni, from the Pariacotten." And, nearly opposite the Penal Settlement." This case is the clearer because, as appears from the same re port, the original grant of this land (to Jan Heraut, in 1759) described it merely as "the abandoned place at Calekkoe, in Maseroeny." The claimants, in 1855, defined it as "a tract of land b tween Esse quibo and Masserooney, designated on the chart of Bouchenroder as lot No. 11." By 1773 it was all very far up. in the thought of those at the center of the colony. 1 This is Hartsinck's story (Beschryving van Guiana, i, 272). But cf. Netscher, p. 112; Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 109, 114, 118, 120. The maps of Storm (Atlas, map 60), of Heneman (map 64), and of Hartsinck (map 54), show their name attached to a creek joining the Cuyuni here from the south. Only those of Hartsinck and of Bouchenroeder (map 70) show a Creole Island. I am sorry that while with the documents I did not take more pains to get at the root of this matter. That they dwelt, how ever, somewhere here at the foot of the falls, all agree. 3 When, in 1837, an Englishman (Hilhouse) first went up the Cuyuni, he wrote: "I can find no traces of any one having preceded me in the survey of the lower part of this river." And, having de scribed in his journal the first day's ascent, to the head of the Camaria Falls—" we ascended this day," he thinks, "fully seventy-seven feet"— he declares that "it is evident that colonization can never be attempted on this river : the first day's journal determines that." " Beyond all other rivers," he avers, " the Cuyuni is the most difficult and dangerous of ascent " — (Jourrial of the Royal Geographical Society of London, 1837, pp. 446-454.) Yet Hilhouse was no "tenderfoot: " he had long been colonial sur veyor and protector of the Indians. * Extracts, p. 150. 4 Extracts, pp. 161, 155, 158, 159, 162, 172. 6 Extracts, p. 161. 6 Extracts, pp. 172, 182; cf. also pp. 159, 160. 147 No. 3. in an earlier passage, mention is made of the driving off of the 'Pariacotten" by the French, much to the detriment of the copaiba trade, since it was these who gathered the balsam from the trees. Now, *" Pariacotten " is evidently but the Dutch form of the more *307 familiar Spanish word Pariagotos, i Paria Indians, the name of a tribe well known on the banks of the Orinoco. Paria was the earliest name by which the region of that river was known to Europeans. Raleigh, in 1595, at the mouth of the Caroni, heard of the Eparagotos as a great inland nation.2 They were the first to yield to Spanish missionary effort in these parts; and in 1682, according to a contemporary record, there were "in the city of Guayana two villages of Indians of the nation of the Pariagotos, gathered from those who dwell in these environs." 3 Indeed, to these Spaniards the Pariagotos were so preeminently the Indians of the country that they re ceived the alternative name of Guayanos,4 by which they were more com monly called. It was these, if we may judge from the fact that the mission villages were made up of these, whom the Capuchin missionaries found in the savannas of the Yuruari when in the fourth decade of the eighteenth century 5 they pushed their work over the divide from the Orinoco. From the banks of the Caroni to Palmar all the missions were of Pariagotos. In default of aught to the contrary, it seems fair, then, to suppose that the savannas which stretch from the *hills north and *308 west of the Yuruari to the forest east of the Curumo and indefinitely toward the banks of the Cuyuni may as a whole or in part have been known in 1686 to the negro scouts of the Dutch colony as "the savanna of the Pariacotten," or, if the other translation be correct, as the " savanna up in Cuyuni " where the Pariacots were found.6 A "savanna up in Cuyuni," at least, the Dutch knew; for of this, though it is not again coupled with the name of the Pariacots or with trade 1 Gotos means a tribe, a people. Cf. Schomburgk, in his edition of Raleigh's Discoverie of Guiana, p. 77, note. 2 Discoverie, ed. Schomburgk, p. 80. 3 Strickland, Documents and Maps on the Boundary Question (Rome, 1896), p. 1. 4 To the Capuchin missionaries, at least, these names were synonymous. Cf., e. g., Strickland, pp. 59, 71 (where the "6 Pariagotos," added to Guayanos in the first item of the list, is undoubtedly meant to apply also to the remainder) or, p. 9 (where the Indians of Cupapuy, known from all the lists to have been Guayanos, are called Pariagotos). So, too, Fray Caulin, long a resident of Guayana and more than once provincial of the neighboring missionaries of the Observant order, writing in 1759 his Historia de la Nueva Andalucia, describes as of Pariagotos (" de nation Pariagotos " ) the missions " Caroni, Santa Maria, Cupapuy, Palmar, San Antonio, Altagracia, and Divina Pastora," which from all the Capuchin lists are known to have been made up of Guayanos, 5 See the table of these missions in vol. iii, pp. 215-217. 6 The translation " Pariacot savanna " is supported by the presence, on the little map handed to the West India Company in 1750 by the Essequibo governor and said by him to be a copy of one made by the Spanish Jesuits, of the name " Savane Pariacott." The region it seems to mark lies north of the upper Cuyuni and to the westward of the branch called by this map "Meejou." It must be because the editors of the Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3 " understand here by this the Yuruari that in their map they show a " Pariacot Savannah " bouthwest of the Yuruari. But, for reasons which will be set forth later in this paper (see pp. *380, *387), it seems to me certain that the " Meejou " is the Curumo. 148No. 3. in Indian products, we hear often enough.1 In 1687 the Essequibo governor wrote the Company that " all the old negroes are off for their respective trading places among the Indians, to wit, six for annatto dye, two for copaiba, and two for letter-wood and provisions." 2 It is not improbable that the destination of one or more of these was the savanna up in Cuyuni; but no destinations are specified. The next mentions of the Cuyuni are all in connection with a very different traffic. In 1693 the West India Company, replying to some letter which, I fear, is lost, con gratulates the Essequibo governor on having " discovered up in the river of Cuyuni [a place for] trading in horses." 3 The trade there, they add, must be kept a monopoly of the Company. This, too, suggests a savanna; for it was the want of pasturage which for- *309 bade the rearing of horses in the Essequibo. But *no savanna is mentioned. By 1697 the horse traffic iu Cuyuni had grown less important, as the commandeur reports, because of the equal cheapness with which horses could be fetched "from Orinoco " 4— a phrase which would seem to imply that the horses obtained up in Cuyuni were not smuggled in from the Spaniards, 5 but which may mean only that the sea route had now been made safe by the general peace of Ryswick. In May of 1701 the commandeur reports "the horse trade up in Cuyuni less brisk than heretofore." 6 But there was drawing on a great European war. The Court of Spain, hitherto the ally of the Dutch, was now leagued with France, their arch-enemy. In October, 1701, the Essequibo Court of Policy justified the purchase of horses from a Rhode Island trader by the plea that " all the lands where we carry on our horse trade are under the King of Spain, as we know by experience from the prohibitions we have already met in the trade to Orinoco." 7 This anxiety was not groundless, even as regards the trade up in Cuyuni; for on September 17, 1702, the Court of Policy wrote to the Com pany that "the horses which are fetched from above are not to be got as hitherto, partly because of the expected war, whereby the Indians are stirred up against us, as we already have evidence, since all those which were obtained had swallowed some poison and have died."8 Of this *310 mortality among the horses Commandeur Beekman also wrote *ten 1 Cf., e. g., Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 72. * Netscher, p. 376. 3 Extracts, p. 194. ' Extracts, pp. 196, 197. 5 That even the Caribs, whose dwelling was the forest, might on occasion supply the Dutch with horses, appears from the complaint of the Capuchin prefect in 1 758 (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 8, p. 236; Venezuelan "Documents," II, p. 7). 8 Extracts, p. 198. ' Extracts, p. 201. 8 . . . "de paarden die van boven gehaalt werden niet als voor desen te bekomen zyn, eensdeels door den verwagteden oorlog waardoor de Indianen jegens ons opgemaakt werden, en reeds preuve van hebben genooten, die alle welke bekomen synde, eenig vergift hadden ingekregen ook gestorven ben. " 149 No. 3. days later,1 adding that "the Spaniards will no longer permit any trafficking for horses on their territory." And the matter did not better itself. On June 14. 1703, the European war being then fully under way, Beekman wrote to the West India Company : I am very sorry to be obliged to inform you that, owing to the present war, no horses are to be got above here as hitherto, inasmuch as those Indians think themselves to stand under the crowns of Spain and France; and this trade is thereby crippled.2 In this very letter was inclosed3 the muster-roll first announcing a Dutch post up the Cuyuni.4 "Outlier in the river Cuyuni," it says— " Allart Lammers, of Meenen, outlier." In the margin is the note: " From the fort, six weeks by water."5 In the following month, in accordance with the rule of sending by different bottoms duplicates of all papers, another copy of this muster-roll was forwarded to Holland,6 but with a *slight variation in the note as to the location of the Cuyuni *311 post. It now reads: " Up in the savanna, six weeks by water."7 The pay-roll of the colony, 8 made up at the close of the fiscal year, but not sent to Holland till some months later, brought more details. " Allart Lemmers, of Meenen," says this circumstantial witness, was made outlier in Cuyuni May 20, 1703, but on account of his " brutalities " 9 was removed on Octo ber 1, 1703, and reduced to the rank of a sailor on the commandeur's ' Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 69. 2 Extracts, p. 205. The mention of France here along with Spain is to be explained, doubtless, by the fact that under its Bourbon claimant Spain was now virtually in the hands of Krance. The phrasing is, perhaps, only the commandeur's own, and chosen for Dutch ears. 8 Extracts, No. 89. 4 It is this muster-roll which is printed at the top of page 70 in the Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," but by an error it is there described as an inclosure in _ letter of 1702. It is slightly misplaced in the volume in which it is now bound, but was demonstrably sent by the ship De Jonge Jan in June, 1703. The invoice of articles sent by this vessel accompanies it in the volume and shows this muster-roll as No. 9, corresponding with the number on the document itself. The same list shows the consignment of two hogsheads of sugar specially marked with a star, tallying exactly with the statement in Beekman's letter of June 14, 1703, sent by this ship. 5 " Van t fort 6 weeken varens." 6 It is this muster-roll which is printed at the foot of page 70 in the Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3 " ; but the date "June 19, 1703," there attached to it is an error. It bears no date, but was transmitted by the ship Pinnenburg, July 27, 1703, on whose list of consignments it appears as No. 4, with which number it is itself also docketed. (This list is now document No. 97 in the volume.) The muster-roll of this date printed in my own transcripts (Extracts, No. 89) is from a duplicate of the same date, found at the Hague_ Careful comparison of this with the London manuscript shows them almost precisely alike — the title printed in the Blue Book having been supplied by the editors, and the " 90" and " 9 " for " 40 " and " 4," with one or two other slight variations, being oversights of transcription or of the press. 7 " Boven int savaen 6 weeken vaarens," reads the London manuscript. * Extracts, p. 207. • The word meant less in Dutch than now in English, "Insubordination" or "insolence" would per haps be better than the literal translation. Half a century later the next postholder in Cuyuni was dis missed on a similar charge of misconduct. " His brutality," wrote the governor (the same Dutch word is here used), " makes him capable of doing mischief amongst the Indians ; and he, too, was shipped back to Europe." (Cf. Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 109.) 150 No. 3. yacht, remaining there till August 10, 1704, when he was allowed to go back to Holland. This is all we know of it. Neither the open correspondence of the West India Company with its colony nor its extant secret minutes show any mention of this post; and it is half a century before a Cuyuni post is again heard of. The pay-rolls,1 continuous from this point on, and confirmed by frequent muster-rolls, 2 show, beyond a doubt, that for the time this was the end of it. *312 *A post in Cuyuni, up in the savanna, six weeks by water from Fort Kykoveral, manned only by an outlier, from May 20 to October 1, 1703. Not, as has been hastily asserted, in the " Pariacot savanna." That —if there was such a savanna— is not improbable; but it is purely inference, lacking all documentary proof. " The savanna " implies either some well- known savanna, or the savanna region of the upper Cuyuni in general. The "Pariacot savanna" had been mentioned but once, if at all, in the past quarter-century of the colony's correspondence, and, if a special savanna, could hardly be well-known to the Company; but, as we have seen, if the phrase really existed, it may best have meant the savanna region of the upper Cuyuni in general. There is then little in the direct evidence to guide us as to the site of the post. Six weeks should, by the criterion of later journeys, have sufficed to take the postholder quite to the Orinoco3. He might, at least, in that time have reached any point in the savanna. The phrase, "by water," should, perhaps, not be too closely pressed, since his journey thither must, in any case, have been mainly by water; but it may be noted that all other colonial posts, earlier or later, kept to the edge of navigable water, and this venturer so far afield was surely not less likely thus to secure his retreat. If one would conjecture the exact site of the post, one must turn for help to the circumstances. As we have seen, the only traffic in the upper Cuyuni which had lately found mention in the colonial correspondence was 1 Beginning in 1700, the only years unrepresented by these pay-rolls down to the loss of the colony in 1796, are 1735, 1737, 1761, 1762, 1779, 1795. In 1774 (owing to a quarrel between Director-General and Commandant) the postholders and byliers are not given, and in two or three of the pay-rolls a half- year's accounts only are found — including, however, all open accounts. There are muster-rolls for all the years thus lacking, except 1761, 1762; and for 1762 there is a colonial directory, giving full statistics of the posts. For the year of reoccupation, 1802-3, there is a list in Governor Meertens's journal (under July 5, 1803). From the beginning of the eighteenth century, therefore, our information as to the number and personnel of the posts is certain, and virtually complete. 8 The muster-rolls are more irregular as to date than the pay-rolls, but most of the years of the eighteenth century are represented by at least one. Those extant from the half-dozen years following 1703 are respectively of August 10, 1704, June 18, 1705 (date of letter of transmission), June 24, 1706, July 30, 1706, October 20, 1707 (date of letter of transmission), Janiary 1, 1709. None of these mention a Cuyuni post, which first appears again in that of April 14, 1755. » Compare, for instance, that of Lopez de la Puente in 1789 (Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," pp. 337- 839). To be sure, La Puente had a generous number of oarsmen, and the same may be said of the ex pedition of Bonaldes in 1758; but the postholder, too, could doubtless count on Indian help, abundant and skillful. It must, however, be remembered that he had his wares to transport, and may well have planned to barter by the way. 151 No. 3. that in horses. These, as the power used in working the sugar mills, were an essential to *that industry which was the life of the colony— a *313 thing without which, as Commandeur Beekman wrote in June, 1703, 1 in speaking of the war's hindrance of their importation, the colony would be forced into ruin. And what special anxieties as to the supply were just now caused by the attitude of the Indians in the upper Cuyuni we have also seen. It is surely not strange that the two latest historians of these colonies should associate the new post with the traffic in horses. 2 If this inference be just, then certainly the most likely base for that postholder's operations would be the point where the horses could best be delivered and shipped. To this end, in view of the grave dangers of the rapids and the difficulties of sustenance on the long water journey, there would doubtless be sought, first, the most navigable route, and then the lowest point where this was reached by the savanna. In such case, the Curumo was more likely to be traversed than the Yuruari; not alone because it is a more navigable stream and a much shorter route to the savanna, but because the falls in the Cuyuni above its junction with the Curumo are especially difficult and dangerous.3 *The savanna crosses the Curumo4 at a point near its junction with *314 1 Extracts, p. 204. Erroneously 1503 in the Comms.' Report. 2 Netscher, p. 92 ; Rodway, i, pp. 49-50. Both these writers, however, go further than the evidence warrants, the former representing the horses as "bought of traders from Spanish Guiana," the latter declaring the post " established for the purpose of bringing horses from Spanish Guiana." These may be plausible inferences, but they are inferences only. 3 The Spanish officer Antonio Lopez de la Puente, who in 1788-89 made such a comparative exami nation of these rivers as no other is known to have done, reported that " the river Curumo is navigable the greater part of the year for sailing-boats and canoes, and in flood time even for large vessels. By this river there is a great saving of rapids in going to Essequibo, which abound in the Yuruari and Cuyuni to the mouth of the Curumo." (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 329-332, 337-339.) The Curumo, he says (p. 338), speaking of it at the place near Tumeremo where it is crossed by the savanna, " is quite navigable, without rapids, unless the fierce summer dries it up, as they say, but only for a short time." So, too, the English party from Demerara which in 1867 went up into the Yuruari gold region leajned that the journey might be considerably shortened " by avoiding the Yuruari and proceeding . . . by the Cooroomoo Creek to Toomeremo, where horses can be had to proceed to Tupuquen." On reaching the creek they found it impassable, owing to the exceptional dryness of the season ; but they were told that " in the wet season Tupuquen can be reached in three days by this creek." They were a full week making their way up the Cuyuni from this point to the mouth of the Yuruari, finding the Yacami Rapid especially difficult, while " above that the river was one confused mass of islands and rocks and one con tinuous series of falls and rapids." And in the Yuruari they " came to a series of rapids, caused by the river pouring over most enormous beds and blocks of granite which much exceed in height, and are much more difficult of ascent, than any met with in the Cuyooni." (See the journal of Mr. Campbell, one of the party, in Timehri, June, 1883, pp. 120, 129, 132, 133.) How familiar the Dutch were with the Curumo route at the middle of the eighteenth century appears abundantly from the complaints of the Spanish missionaries. "Being the lowest direct communication with the Spanish provinces," writes Hilhouse, who, first of all Englishmen, visited its mouth in 1 837, " it was the old route of smugglers." 4 Atlas, map 2. Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 338. Venezuelan " Documents," III, p. 60, Campbell, writing in 1857 at a point below Tupuquen on the Yuruari, declares that " the country between this place and the Cooroomoo Creek is open savannah, over which cattle could easily be driven ; and there is also a savannah on the opposite side of the same creek which extends for some distance and approaches the Cuyooni. It would not, therefore, be a very serious undertaking to make a road across this country by which cattle might be driven to Demerara." (Timehri, June, 1883, p. 138.) 152 No. 3. the Mutanambo, not far from the later site of Tumeremo. It was near this point that the road made by Courthial forty years later for the introduction of horses and cattle into Essequibo entered the forest.1 It is here or hereabout, as it seems to me, that, if one must hazard a conjecture at all, the Cuyuni post of 1703 is most likely to have been placed, and probably on the west bank of the stream.2 But there is one consideration, at least, which makes all such guess- *315 ing hazardous. It is not certain that a site for this *Cuyuni post was ever selected or that the postholder ever reached the savanna. He was appointed, to be sure, on May 20, 1703. But the post-holder of a new post might well be delayed by preparations, and May was not a favorite month for a voyage up river; but if, in view of the probable emergency, a prompt start is in this instance to be assumed, it must have been July before he reached his destination. If the "brutalities" for which he was dismissed were committed immediately on his arrival and reported to the governor at once, the order for his recall could barely, even with all allowance for swifter downstream travel, have brought him back by October 1, the known date of his discharge. It is possible, of course, that his discharge was made to date from the arrival of the complaint or from his receipt of the recall; but so to condemn without a hearing, and on Indian evidence, hardly suits with Dutch practice. In any case, there remains the possibility that he embroiled himself with the Indians en route and failed to reach his destination, or, reaching it, had not yet established himself at any site. What throws an air of mystery about the whole matter is the total silence both of the commandeur and of the Company. Such silence as to a new post is almost or quite without a parallel,3 and, taken in connection with the disappearance of that dispatch of a decade earlier which reported the discovery of a new source of horses, it suggests the possibility of *316 a "^correspondence too confidential to find a place in these extant bodies of letters. Yet the frequent loss of ships and of papers in these times of war must be remembered.4 1 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 86, 91, 327. 2 But for the greatness of the distance from the fort, I should in my historical map (Atlas, map 9) have located it conjecturally at the junction of the Curumo and the Mutanambo. That distance, however, coupled with what La Puente says of the navigability of the stream even above the union with the Mutanambo, has led me hesitantly to set it a little higher, at the confluence of another tributary. It is, however, wholly matter of conjecture whether the savanna skirts thus far the banks of the river; no traveler has yet described that quarter. 3 The Demerary post was perhaps inherited in 1771 from Berbice ; but in the case of the Mahaicony a little later, of the Pomeroon post in 1679 and in 1689, of Arinda in 1736, of the restored Cuyuni post in 1766, and even in the case of mere changes of site, there was explicit correspondence between the governor and the Company. When in 1684 and again in 1744 a post on the Barima was suggested, or in 1746 one on tbe Cuyuni, it was in terms which suggested a need of the approval of the Company. It is only of the Cuyuni post of 1754 that we first learn after its establishment (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 103), and even here in terms which imply an earlier knowledge by the Company. 1 1n 1708 (May 2) this had proved so serious that the Company required the sending of letters in triplicate, instead of duplicate, while the war lasted. 153 No. 3. The discontinuance of the post in Cuyuni finds no direct explanation in the documents. But we know whence the colony was supplied with horses. In November, 1703, we find Beekman buying twenty-eight from an English ship, and in August, 1704, thanking the Company for their relaxation in such times of emergency of their prohibition of trade with the English. Iu April of that year the Company wrote that it had gained from the patroons of Berbice permission for Essequibo to buy horses from those shipped thither. But in 1706 they were still being procured from up the Cuyuni, though there was complaint of their mortality on the road.1 In October, 1707, the commandeur complained that they could no longer be got thus from above so conveniently and in such quantity as need required. 2 It is the last mention I have found of the importation of horses by this route. For long one hears no more of the upper Cuyuni, save now and then of the pursuit and capture there of an escaping slave.3 The Company's monopoly of the trade in Indian slaves there was strictly insisted on,4 though the yield was small; and in 1731 the directors, who had not followed the advice given them in 1722 by the engineer, Maurain- Saincterre, to establish coffee plantations above the falls,5 asked the colonial authorities if these rivers could not be put to some further use.6 They replied only that the rapids made plantations there impossible. 7 *But when a few years later there arrived in the colony as secretary *317 the energetic young engineer officer, Storm van 's Gravesande, another use for these rivers was suggested. He noticed there signs of mineral wealth, transmitted specimens, and urged the sending over of a mining engineer.8 Early in 1741 this miner, one Thomas Hildehrandt, arrived; and until the middle of 1743 investigations were carried on vigorously under his direc tion, both in the Mazaruni and in the Cuyuni.9 His letters, and especially his journals, transmitted to the Company, give with prolix minuteness the method and the place of his researches. In the Mazaruni he went no fur ther up than a little above the plantation Poelwijk, scarcely to the lowest rapids. In the Cuyuni, which promised better, he pushed his explorations much farther. The highest point reached by him was a creek called " Moroko-Eykoeroe " (Moroko Creek), where he opened a copper mine. The place was some two days distant from Kykoveral, x ° and, so nearly as 1 Blue Book "Venezuela So. 3," p. 72. 2 Extracts, p. 208. 3 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," pp. 71, 72. Extracts, pp. 233, 272, 273. 4 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 82. 0 Extracts, p. 248. c Extracts, p. 254. 7 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 83. 8 Extracts, pp. 281-285. "Extracts, pp. 285-301. 10 On his first journey up the river, prospecting as he Went, it took him several days to reach there ; but he afterwards repeatedly sent a boat thither and back from Cartabo in a little less than four days, and his own later trips thither tally with this. (Extracts, pp. 287-292, 294-298, 300.) 154 No. 3. can be determined from his description, was on the right or south bank of the river,1 probably somewhere near the head of what appears in modern maps as the island of Suwaraima. To facilitate his work and "to escape the great danger of the falls," Hildebrandt constructed a road through the forest from the indigo *318 plantation, at the head of tide water, to the *still water above the first great series of rapids,2 and planned to build another stretch yet higher upstream.3 The mines, however, did not speedily pay. Hildebrandt's brutal man ners alienated superiors and subordinates, and drove the slaves to desertion. In 1743, after an alleged attempt to run away himself, bag and baggage, up the Cuyuni to Orinoco, he was packed off home to Europe. This was the first and the last of Dutch attempts at mining in the Cuyuni.4 In 1716 there was attempted in that quarter another enterprise of not less promise. A Frenchman named Ignace Courthial, originally perhaps from Martinique, but long an explorer and trader, not to say a smuggler, in this frontier district, was by the colonial authorities permitted, though not yet a citizen of the colony or a subject of Holland,5 to cut a road 1 True, he speaks of the Blaauwenberg, or Blue Mountains ; and on the Spanish map handed in by Storm van 's Gravesande in 1750 the Blaauwenberg is a range north of the Cuyuni. But more than one sentence of Hildebrandt suggests that to him the Blue Mountains were on the other bank as well. Owing to the bend in the course of the stream, hills which at this point are south of the Cuyuni would, as seen from the lower river, seem to be north. The range (only a few hundred feet in actual height) possibly crosses the river. Few of the names he mentions can be identified on the maps. 2 Extracts, pp. 299, 301. In reporting it to the Company he calls it " a small path, such as could be traveled by men." It appears from his journal that its breadth was 1J fathoms. When, in 1789, the Spaniard Lopez de la Puente made his raid down the river, he found here a road — perhaps that opened by Hildebrandt— from " the mouth of the creek Tupuro," " the head of the rapid Camaria," to the foot of the lowest fall. (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 338.) * Extracts, p. 300. 4 The statement of Mr. Schomburgk, copied by many, as to an attempt at mining here in 1721 is an error, caused, perhaps, by connecting these operations of 1741-1743 in the Cuyuni with the attempt of the West India Company in 1721 (mentioned by Hartsinck, i, p. 231) to encourage the discovery of mines in Essequibo. In 1742, while Hildebrandt was at work, the Company wrote to the governor of a rumor that an old slave bought from the Spaniards and emancipated had revealed to one Steynfels the existence of " a rich mineral mountain situate toward the side of Orinoco," and instructed him with all secrecy to investigate this ; but nothing seems to have come of it. (Extracts, p. 294 ; cf. also p. 369.) 6 That Courthial was in March, 1 746, not yet a citizen of Essequibo is implied in Storm's phrase " one Ignatius Courthial" (instead of the usual "an inhabitant of this colony") in reporting to the Company the granting of his petition. But we have besides Courthial's explicit statement to the Company in August, 1748, that be had been " only about two years " their subject, and that he did not become so until after several interviews with the governor -an acquaintance which Storm's letter of March 19, 1746, by no means implies. The "admittance to this colony " (" entree en cette collonie "), which he says he had been granted, implies only admittance for trade ; access would perhaps be a better translation. Mr. Rodway's statement, amplified from General Netscher's, that Courthial had been one of Hildebrandt's miners, is, I think, an error. I have nowhere met his name among Hildebrandt's reports, and it is quite inconsistent with his own review of his career. (Rodway, History of British Guiana, i, p. 130 ; Netscher, Geschiedenis, p. 118 ; Extracts, pp. 818-321.) That he may have gone with the miners sent in 1746 to investigate in the upper Essequibo (Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," pp. 87, 88) is not improbable; but, in that case, it was doubtless as a guide. 155 No. 3. through *the forest to the savannas of the upper Cuyuni, iu order *319 thus to bring in mules, horses and cattle from Orinoco. 1 As the Company's post in Demerara was no longer needed there, that river having just been opened to colonists, the governor proposed to remove it to this Cuyuni road and charge it not only with trade there, but with the collec tion of import dues on the animals brought in; but where on this road he meant to place the post he does not say.2 The Company approved his plan;3 but it is clear from the pay and muster rolls that for some reason it was not carried out.4 It is possible that, as in the case of the post at the same time projected for the Barima, he could not find a trusty post- holder. In December of 1748 Courthial himself had gone up the Orinoco after some hundreds of cattle and mules;5 but his thought was now of a great stock ranch in the savannas of Berbice and Demerara, where he would himself raise all the beasts needed by the Dutch colonies. 6 This project, saddled with an ambitious scheme to make himself *the *320 founder of a landed family, was, though long considered, never ac cepted by the Company; but of his road to Orinoco I find no later mention in the extant records of the colony.7 In 1755 we find him importing cattle by water. 8 A Cuyuni post, indeed, was not long after established, but not on Courthial's road. On November 1, 1754, according to the pay-roll, Johan nes Neuman, of Thaube, was taken into service as outlier in the river Cuyuni. 9 It was the time of the great panic over the rumor of a projected Spanish invasion. Fears were somewhat allayed, but on October 7 the Es sequibo Council had learned that the commander of the troops in the Orinoco had caused a fugitive Dutchman there to make him a drawing of the course of the Cuyuni. x ° On November 26 the Director-General speaks of having 1 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 86, 327. Extracts, pp. 318-321. Atlas, map 61. s Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 86. 8 Extracts, pp. 804, 305. * It is true that in 1770 several Capuchin Fathers and a couple of Spanish functionaries testified at Santo Thome that the Cuyuni post destroyed in 1758 had existed since 1747 (Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," pp. 281-290; Venezuelan "Documents," II., pp. 187-213); but it is more likely that these could be mistaken, borrowing the error one from another, than that such a post should exist unknown to pay rolls and muster-rolls, and unreported by the governor either by letter or in the explicit account of the colony submitted by him in person in 1750, or that, in such case, the Cuyuni post could in 1755 appear ou the muster-rolls as the " new post." It will be noticed that these same Spanish witnesses agree in stating that tidings of the post did not come to Spanish ears until 1757. 6 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 90. " Extracts, pp. 318-324. Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 102. 7 For a Spanish reminiscence of it in 1787, see Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 327. It is rudely laid down in the Spanish map handed in by Storm in 1750. (Atlas, map 61.) 8 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," p. 103. 9 "Joliannes Neuman uytlegger in de Rivier van Cajoeny. Wint per maend f. 14. Daer voor door den Heer Directeur Generael den eerslen November in dienst genomen." And, on the credit page, a state ment of his wages earned " sedertpmo Novemb. tot heden." He appears accordingly in the muster-roll of April 14, 1765. In June, 1765, it was still " the new post in Cuyuni." (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 104.) 10 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 102. 156 No. 3. sent spies to the Cuyuni, and of a promise of the Indians there that they will well guard the passage. T What was the connection, if any, between all this and the new post, or what, if anything, the earlier grievance of the approach of the Spanish missions may have had to do with it is matter for inference only.2 In 1750, the governor being then in Holland, the acting governor, in speaking of these Spanish missions, had deprecated *321 the opening of a trade in cattle with them "unless a good Post *were established " on the route.3 But this proposal "I have thought it best simply to mention," he said, "trusting that as the commandeur in person is near you he will have spoken thereof also." Commandeur Storm, now bearing the higher title of Director-General, had returned in 1752, 4 and perhaps not without instructions ou this point. But there is in his correspondence no mention of this Cuyuni post until, in a letter of May, 1755, Storm speaks of " the Post located by order of the Council up in the Cuyuni," as if the Company already knew all about it. Extracts from the minutes of the colonial Council (Court of Policy) were from time to time transmitted to the Company; but if one reciting this action was forwarded it has now escaped from the records. An explanation of the new post is clearly not in the Director-General's intent; but the environment of this earliest mention of the new post is interesting. The Spanish invasion, he thinks, is at a standstill, but, " they will try to creep in softly, and as far as possible, to draw near us and shut us in."5 "And it is certain," he adds, " that they have now complete possession of the creek Orawary,6 emptying into the Cuyuni, which indisputably is your territory. The post located by order of the Council above in Cuyuni is situated not more than ten or twelve hours from the Spanish dwellings." Whether or no there is here aught to suggest the purpose of the post, there is apparently a clew to its site. The Orawary at once suggests the Yuruari, and of the dates and places of the Yuruari missions much is known. Yet before weighing the testimony, it will be well to wait till the evidence is all in. Year by year the post reappears in the pay and *322 muster rolls *until 1758, 7 but without description of its site or dis tance. Once it is mentioned in a letter of the governor, but only to 1 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," p. 102. No. 115. 3 Complaint of them had been unceasing. Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 86-88, 92-95, 99, 100. Extracts, Nos. 155, 157-161, 164, 167, 169, 173, 181. " Extracts, p. 335. 4 He landed in Essequibo on March 20, having been gone " exactly two years." 5 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 103. " Not " Iruwary," as in the Blue Book. Both in Storm's autograph, at London, and in the duplicate at The Hague, the " O " at least is beyond question, 7 The pay rolls show Neuman alone at the post until 1757, when he was replaced as outlier by " Jo. han Stephen Iskes, of Germany, taken therefor into service November 15," 1757. Iskes had been an assistant miner under Hildebrandt, and had taken a large part in the work up the Cuyuni, as maybe seen from Hildebrandt's journal. In 1758 " Guilliaam Patist de Bruyn," of Biervliet, first appears at the post as bylier. Tiie muster-rolls in point are those of June 30, 1757, and of August, 1758— an extract from the latter is printed in Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 109. 157 No. 3. announce the discharge of an unworthy postholder. Suddenly, on Septem ber 9, 1758, he makes it the subject of a special letter. l Nearly all the Caribs of the Cuyuni, he writes, " came down the stream last week, and informed your Creoles,2 living just below the great fall of that river, that the Spaniards of Orinoco, according to their computation about one hundred strong, had come down the stream, and made a successful raid upon your post." They had carried off, the Caribs said, the postholder and bylier, with a Creole and his wife and children, and had laid waste "everything about the post."3 _ Yet, while protesting that the post was not on Spanish ground, the Director-General does not describe its site, but instead claims the whole river, citing in his support the map of D'Anville, whereon "you will see our boundaries themselves depicted, of which, it appears, he was instructed on good authority."4 *But the West India Company was not so sure. At least, though *323 in the official remonstrance drawn by them and at their instance addressed in July, 1759, by the States-General to Spain,5 they stoutly pro tested that from time immemorial they had been in undisturbed posses sion of the Essequibo and its branches, and especially of its northernmost arm, the Cuyuni, they at the same time asked the governor to inform them exactly " where the aforesaid post was situated on the river Cuyuni.6 The governor's reply was prompt and explicit. On September 1, 1759, he an swered: " The post which was surprised in a fashion so contrary to the law of nations was situated about fifteen hours above the place where the Cuyuni unites with the Mazaruni." " Yet," he added, " this can not much matter; even if it had lain fifty hours higher, it was a thing which did not concern the Spaniards."7 Even before receiving this reply, the Company had further requested " a little map of the river Cuyuni, with indication of the places where the Company's post, and also the grounds of Old Duinenburg and of the Com pany's coffee and indigo plantations, were situated, and finally the place of 1 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 109-110. 2 So I understand the word which in the Blue Book is translated " agents." In the manuscript, which in thin case is not Storm's autograph, but a copy, is written plainly " Onclen," which is no Dutch word and can be explained by nothing, except, perhaps, the French " oncle." " Uncles " might conceiv ably mean old negroes ; but it was not the old negroes who lived here. I think it a mere miswriting o Criolen, " Creoles." This error would be especially easy to one copying Storm's handwriting. To begin this word Criolen with a capital was customary. And it is well known that the Creoles then lived in Cuyuni, just below the falls. They are mentioned, too, by Storm himself in this very connection in later letters. (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 114, 118, 120.) 3 " Alles rontom depost." 4 ..." en daerop selver onze limiten afgeteekent zien, waarvan het schynt hy van goeder hand onderregt was.'' What makes this puzzling is that D'Anville's map does not give the whole river to the Dutch. (See Atlas, maps 39, 40.) 6 Blue Book "Venezuela No, 3," p. 111. Extracts, pp. 381-386. " Extracts, p. 381. 7 Extracts, pp. 386, 387. 158 No. 3. the so-called Blaauwenberg, where the miners worked on our behalf." 1 This map, an extract from D'Anville's with these places indicated on it by the governor himself, was sent and received.3 In addition to the sites of the post and of the plantations in the Cuyuni, he had marked also " the dwelling place of the half-free Creoles, to which," he said, " the Spaniards came very close." 3 The map, alas, can no longer be found; but this *324 statement about the near approach of the Spaniards to the *Creoles (whose place, at the foot of the lowest falls, is else known4) is a helpful clew to the site assigned on it to the post. These three passages — that about the creek Orawary and the distance of the post from the Spanish dwellings, that stating its distance from the mouth of the Cuyuni, and that implying its nearness to the home of the Creoles — are, I think, the whole of the evidence in Dutch documents as to the location of this Cuyuni post of 1754-1758. But to these should perhaps be added the testimony of a Dutch witness who may possibly have had ac cess to a document now lost. This witness is Jan Jacob Hartsinck, a func tionary of the Amsterdam Admiralty, who in his well-known Beschryving van Quiana, published in 1770, deals at some length with the attempts to explore the region of the fabled Lake of Parima. " For the same reasons," he says, after speaking of the alleged repulse by the natives of certain Spanish expeditions of 1755, "our governor of Essequibo in the year 1756 sent thither an owl, or chief, of the Panacays, in order to get leave to send some white men, but in vain. He likewise at this time placed the post on the Cuyuni some 50 miles higher up, which in the following year was raided by the Spaniards, who carried off as prisoners the whites who there kept the post."5 Now, Hartsinck in his preface expressly thanks a certain learned friend, whose modesty forbade the mention of his name, for accurate information regarding the explorations made in the colony of Essequibo and the neighboring rivers by order of Governor Storm van 's Gravesande. 6 This learned friend may not im probably have been that Professor Allamand, of Leyden, who is *325 known, as Storm's own friend and correspondent, to *have been informed by him on such points.7 A certain verisimilitude is further given to Hartsinck's narrative by the fact that in the very letter in which Storm speaks of the creek Orawary and the distance of the Span iards, he mentions the presence at his house of " the chiefs of the Panacay nation, dwelling up in Cuyuni."8 But it will be noticed that Hartsinck's story is in contradiction not less with Storm's statement of 1755 as to the 1 Extracts, pp. 388, 389. 2 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 114, 116, 117, 118. Extracts, p. 893. 8 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," p. 114. 4 See p. *305, above, and note, p. *322. ' Beschryving van Guiana, i, p. 265. 6 Beschryving van Guiana, pp. xi, xii. 7 Extracts, pp. 387, 414. 8 Extracts, p. 364. 159 No. 3. post's distance from the Spanish dwellings than with his statement of 1759 as to its distance from the mouth of the Cuyuni. Hartsinck's mijl was, as we know well, the normal one of fifteen to a degree -equal, that is, to 4 English nautical miles.1 And Storm's hour (with him always a measure of distance, not of time) is equally certain; for, in the map prepared with his own hands for the Company in 1748, 2 the scale laid down is of uuren gaens, "hours of travel." They are apparently the same as those of D'Anville's scale3— equal to a little more than 2£ English nautical miles, a little less than 3 English statute miles.4 If, then, the Cuyuni post was in " May, 1755, only.ten or twelve hours from the Spanish dwellings, it would hardly have been moved 50 mijls higher in 1756. But there is still other evidence to reckon with. Two other Dutchmen, best likely of all to know the site— the postholder himself and his assistant —were required by their Spanish captors to testify on this point; and their sworn statements, preserved in the Spanish archives, have lately been printed *both by Great Britain and by Venezuela.5 Though *326 open, of course, to some suspicion of duress on the one side or bad faith on the other and to the doubts attaching to testimony in a language foreign to the deponent, there is little or nothing in their contents to warrant incredulity. 6 The place where the post was, they said, was named Cuiba, or Cuiva,7 and situated on the banks of the Cuyuni. The lands 1 See, e. g., the scales on all his maps — his own work. (Atlas, map 54.) 8 Atlas, map 60. -. * Atlas, map 89. 4 This is borne out by a comparison of Storm's map with that of Hartsinck. Taking, for example, the distance so often traversed between Kykoveral and Fort Zelandia, we find it a little less than 9 of Hartsinck's miles, a little less than fifteen of Storm's hours. 6 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp, 246-248 ; Venezuelan " Documents," II, pp. 26, 31. 6 The fact that both the postholder and his assistant, on their release from Spanish custody, were in such ill plight physically that the under-postholder soon died and that the postholder was in 1762 barely able to walk (Blue Book, pp. 117, 122) savors unpleasantly of the use of the torture — an aid by no means foreign to Spanish procedure. But the testimony itself is not of a sort to give color to this suspicion ; it seems free both from tendency and from artificial concurrence. The one statement which seems in sharpest conflict with what is else known is that declaring the post to have been " maintained in that place for many years " (muchos anos). The interpreter may not impossibly have misunderstood eenige, " some," for menige, " many " — though, for that matter, menige need mean no more than " several." And as neither the postholder nor his assistant had been at the place more than eight months (the "eighteen," in the British translation of the latter's testimony is but a misprint— conflicting, at least, not only with the Venezuelan translation, but with the certified Spanish transcripts filed with the Commission) their testimony to this could in any case have no such value as that part of their depositions where they speak as eye-witnesses. It is to be noticed, furthermore, that the Orinoco Commandant himself, in a subsequent statement, reported these witnesses as testifying that the post was established " during the last few years " and " had been kept there for a few years." (Venezuelan " Documents," II, p. 1 19.) ' According to the certified extracts from the Spanish archives filed with the Commission, the name is " Cuiba " in the deposition of the postholder, where it is once mentioned ; " Cuiva " in that of his assistant, where it occurs twice. (To any who know Spanish it needs no pointing out that b and . were thus interchanged at will. " Felix populus, ubi vivere est bibere et bibere est vivere," runs the apostrophe of an envious Frenchman— I owe the mot to Mr. Coudert.) The spelling is, of course, only an attempt to reproduce the sound of an Indian name: one may expect it in Spanish ears to take indifferently the form Cuiba, Cuiva, or Cuigua ; or at Dutch hands to be spelled with an initial K or Q as freely as with a C. 160 No. 3. about it were flooded lands, unsuited to cultivation; but there were good lands higher up. Asked its distance from the " colony of Essequibo," one replied that, though very short, "three whole days were needed for the journey;" the other that it was "three days, more or less." This *327 estimate of the distance seems in full Concurrence with the governor's reply to the Company as to the site of the post; for we know from his own lips that he reckoned "two or three days' journey " up such a river at "12 or. at the utmost, 15 hours."1 But there follows in each of these depositions an explanation of this estimate which is very puzzling, in view of the geographical conditions. Both postholder and assistant explain that three days are needed for the journey because the navigation is dependent on the tides {mareas) and takes its route through bayous {cafios). 2 That this is the meaning of the Spanish seems to me clear. Such navigation by the aid of the tide, and through bayous navigable at the flood, was, as we abundantly know, a common thing in the coast districts and familiar to both Spaniards and Dutch. That the words could have suggested anything else to Spanish ears it is hard to believe. But the Cuyuni is not in the coast region; and, though the tide comes up into it, it comes only as far as its lowest falls, a couple of "hours" from its junction with the Mazaruni. Moreover, as its banks are high to its very mouth, a bayou is a thing else unheard of. Whatever may have been in the thought of the Spanish questioner, I cannot believe that the two Dutch men could have understood by "the colony of Essequibo" anything less than the whole body of plantations; still less that they could have taken as the starting point of their reckoning any place more remote than Fort Kykoveral, which up to this year 1758 had still its garrison, and which within the memory of one, if not of both men, had been the very center of the colony. I can only conclude, therefore, that the Spanish words *328 must represent *rather what the answer of the Dutchmen meant to their Spanish hearers than what they really intended to say. That the navigation of the Cuyuni, not less than that of the tidal streams, depends on the height of the water is a fact well known; and that certain channels are available only at flood for the passage of the rapids is ade quately vouched for. That some such statement of the Dutch prisoners may have been misunderstood by the Spanish functionaries is at least more plausible than three days of tide water and bayous in the Cuyuni above " the colony of Essequibo;" and this thought may have guided the British translators in a rendering of these passages which is almost too free to be called a translation.3 But this rendering explains, after all, only why the 1 Extracts, p. 369. 5 Iskes " Responde: Que es muy corta sin embargo de que se gastan tres dias naiurales, por razon de que solo se navega con las mareas, y su navegacion es por cafios." Bruyn " Responde; Que Ires dias poco mas, bien entendido que solo se navega con las mareas por ser caJhos anegadisos." (Cf. Blue Book "Vene zuela No. 3," pp. 246, 247; Venezuelan " Documents," II, pp. 28, 30.) 8 They render thus the reason given by Iskes for the slowness of the journey : " The rivers could only be navigated when they were high, and then only in the channels." And that of Bruyn: "The 161 No. 3. Cuyunr should be navigated at certain seasons, not why a given journey should take always three days; in fact, it proves rather that the required time should be greater at one season than at another. While convinced that there must here be a misunderstanding, I confess myself unable as yet to suggest a satisfactory explanation. But, even yet, not all the evidence is in. The Spaniards who raided the post had also discovered where it was, and they have left on record its distance from their own starting-point. By the sworn testimony of these witnesses1 it was about noon of the ninth day after their departure from the mission village of Yuruari when they first came upon a Dutchman, the under-postholder,2 at a point in the river where, as *he himself *329 explained, 3 he was helping some Indians make a clearing;4 and it was two days farther on down the river that they found the post itself.5 The return journey upstream to the village whence they set out took them twenty -two days— thirteen by water, the rest by land. 6 No names of places are mentioned as landmarks on this journey; but, happily, we possess a de tailed journal of a similar expedition made by the same route forty years later. This journal of Antonio Lopez de la Puente,7 in 1789, gives us the day by day progress of the expedition from the mission village of Tupu quen to the mouth of the Tupuro, at the head of the Camaria rapid, less than a dozen miles from tide water on the Cuyuni. This journey of La Puente seems to have been a somewhat more leisurely one than that of 1758, and occurred later in the season, when the falling of the water prob ably made the downward passage a little slower, the upward a little swifter; but with slight allowance for these differences, the one seems a fair basis of inference for the other. The starting point was, indeed, not the same; and the site of the mission village of Yuruari is not known with certainty. Yet it may with fair probability be located on the river of its name at the confluence of the Aima, and it could not in any case have been far from this.8 It was then, *at most, less than a day above Tupuquen. *330 navigation could only be carried on when the rivers were high, and the channels full of water." (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 246, 247.) 1 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 242, 244; Venezuelan " Documents," II, pp. 17. 19. 2 " Como d la liora del medio dia." On the night preceding they had arrived at a Carib village "A los ocho dias de navegacion llegaron d una Rancheria de Indios Carives, . . . y at dia siguiente " they captured the said Dutchman. 8 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 247; Venezuelan " Documents," II, p. 30. 4 " Responde que por Direction de su cabo avia veaido d dicho 'parage en solititud de unos Indios para que los ayudase d travar en la Rosa que abrian y que a poco tiempo de estar alii llegaron los Espanoles." 6 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," p. 242; Venezuelan " Documents," 11, p. 17. 6 Blue Book " Venezula No. 3," pp. 243-246. " . . . y que del expresado parage donde tenian su Rancheria que es en el Rio Coiuny gastaron d la Mision de donde salieron veinte y dos dias, trese de navegacion Rio arriva, y los Reslantes por tierra." By an odd conjunction of accidents, the "thirteen" (trese) is omitted in the British translation and rendered " three " in the Venezuelan. 7 Not to be confused with the Luis Lopez de la Puente of the first expedition. 9 For a discussion of this site, on which no light is thrown by Dutch documents, I may refer to my paper On the Historical Maps (vol iii. of this report, pp. *205, *206). Tupuquen itself had been the site of an earlier mission until 1750, when the Caribs destroyed it; it was not restored until 1770, 162 No. 3. As the expedition of 1789 loitered for half a day at Canayma,1 this difference in starting point may almost be ignored. Now, as we have seen, the expedition of 1758 reached the Dutch post at some time in the course of the eleventh day of its journey. That of 1789, at night of its tenth day had reached a point a little below " the mule pass of Notupicay," clearly the " Otupikai " of Schomburgk, the " Watoopegay " of Hilhouse, at the end of what Mr. Schomburgk calls " the second series of falls or rapids." Just three days later, at the end of the thirteenth day, it arrived at the Camaria rapid, the end of the journey. In returning from this point to Tupuquen (by way of the Curumo, the probable route also of that of 1758, since it traveled partly by land), the expedition used twenty- five days— fourteen and a half by water, the remainder by land; but two of the latter were spent in halts. One might fairly infer, then, that the site of the Dutch post was somewhere writhin a day's journey below Notupicay (Otupikai); and it will not have escaped notice that this location answers remarkably to the gov ernor's " fifteen hours " from the confluence with the Mazaruni and to the ' ' th ree days " from ' ' the colony of Essequibo " of the postholder and his assist ant.2 And, in singular confirmation of the conclusion to which this agree ment points, there is found just here (and so far as a careful search through travels and maps can determine, here alone) a place which still bears the In dian name of the post's site, Cuiva. On the maps of Mr. Schomburgk, *331 and in both "x'maps and text of the colonial geologists Brown and Sawkins, there appears, as a branch of the Cuyuni on its northern side, halfway from the Payuca Eapids to the mouth of the Cutuau,3 a little river named Quive-Kuru, " Quive Creek."4 A closer concurrence in the spelling of the Indian sound one could hardly expect. 1 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3, p. 337; Venezuelan " Documents," II, p. 248. 2 Hilhouse, the first Englishman lo ascend the Cuyuni, in 1837, declares the Payuca Rapids "47 miles west from our departure '' — i. c, from a point an hour below the lowest fall of the Cuyuni. Hil house bad been four days reaching there, but his boat was overloaded, his crew made up, as he complains, of " half-starved Caribs" (it was during a famine), and he traveled only from four to six hours a day. Ililliouse's distances, in general, have been thought overrated. 8 From the Payuca Rapids to the Quive Creek there is only a short stretch of smooth water. 4 This Indian suffix, kuru or curu, is to be found in the names of many streams, both in the Cuyuni and Mazaruni regions and in the Carib region of the coast. That it means creek is but an inference from the fact that, in these Carib regions, it so constantly occurs in the names of creeks and that some of the mcst experienced travelers detach it by a hyphen from the rest of the name. It appears, as would be ex pected, under varying spellings : kuru, curu, kura, cura, kourou, courou, kooroo, oooroo, kyuru, karoo and sometimes under the longer form of icuru (aikura, Dutch eikoeroe— the Dutch oe has the sound of the English oo or Germau «). Thus one finds on ihe maps the creeks or rivers Accourou, Atayuekyuru, Akekyuru, Amacura, Cura Curu, Corowaaikura, Imanikurru, Ipotaikuru, Kashiwaikura, Maniakura, Muracarai.ura, Murissicuru, Wassicuru, Yanecuru, as well as Quivekuru— all these in varying spellings. One may add, perhaps, the slightly different caru and curi, as in Maurocaru and Waicuri. Hildebrandt, the miner, calls the two creeks up in Cuyuni, in which he carried on operations, " Tiboko-eykoeroe " and " Moroko-eykoeroe " (Extracts, pp. 289, 290, 292). The Dutch planter s'ent in 1756 to take the testimony of a Carib chief in the Barima region, dates the document at " Aymara-Aykoeroe " (Bine Book " VenezuelaNo. 3," p, 107) ; and the Carib witness speaks of Tawa-aykoere, in Mazaruni, where bis bread-plantation was. 163 No. 3. In support of this conclusion as to the distance of the Dutch post from the Spanish missions might be cited the testimony, *in 1770, 1 *332 of those concerned in the expedition, that it was "seventy leagues " from the then extreme missions of Guasipati and Cavallapi; but, as this is in all probability only an inference from the duration of the journey, it can serve only as a confirmation of our reckoning. But there is another statement of the Spanish witnesses to the site of the Dutch post which must be discussed more fully, not only because I be lieve it to have been misunderstood, but because it has an important bear ing on the political significance of the expedition of 1758 The appeal of the prefect of the Capuchin mission, Fray Benito de la Garriga, in June, 1758, which led to the dispatching of the expedition, said nothing whatever of a Dutch post. What it complained of was the presence " at the mouth of the river Curumo" of certain Dutchmen buying slaves, though it did at the same time report a rumor of the Caribs that " three Dutchmen and ten negroes, with a large number of Caribs, are building houses and clearing the forest for the forming of a settlement in the Cuyuni." And the decree of the provisional Commandant of Guayana which created the expedition says likewise nothing of a post, but only that "on the island of Curarnucuru, in the river Cuyuni," "there is a Dutchman named Jacobs, with a negro of the same nationality, living there established in houses and carrying on the inhuman traffic of enslaving Indians;" wherefore it instructs the ex pedition in question to proceed " to the said island of Curarnucuru secretly for the purpose of apprehending the said Dutchmen." Now, the expedition, so far as appears from the testimony of its mem bers, never found any island of Curarnucuru. It certainly never found a Dutchman named Jacobs. The name *Curamucuru *333 (Curumo-curu?) seems to mean simply Curumo Creek; and I am fain to suspect that the Orinoco Commandant's deficient knowledge of the Carib tongue may have led him into an error. In any case it is probable, as was long ago suggested by British scholars, that this name has some relation to that of the river, and that the site it denotes is not far distant. Aymara-Aykoeroe is very probably the Aymara-Cabura (Haymarakaboera, Moracabura, Haimuracabara) of other documents — a branch of the Moruca, lying thus at the border between Carib and Arawak cabara, cabura (Dutch spelling, caboera), frequent in names of creeks, being perhaps the Arawak equivalent of the Carib icwu. Im Thurn knows in the upper Essequibo a creek which in 1880 he spelt " Haimarakura " (Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 1880, p. 473), but which in 1883 he changed to " Haimara- kuroo " (at page 22 of Among the Indians of Guiana, where the same passage is but reprinted). The form Kuru (Guru, Cura) is found also at the beginning of names, notably those of rivers or falls, as Curabiri, Curabele, Curacura, Curaparu, Curasanie, Curatokoa, Curiebrong, Curiye, Curiyopo, Curumo. In the scanty Carib vocabularies accessible to me I have found no word resembling this unless it be that for canoe, found in the English derivative "corial" and in sundry compounds chronicled by Adelung (M ithridales, iii, 2). The real meaning of the form is, after all, of less account to the present research than its separable character and its association with names of streams, which hardly admit of doubt. 1 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," pp. 281-291. Venezuelan "Documents," II, pp. 187-217, 161No. 3. It is true that, in a memorial addressed in 1769 1 to the King, Fray Benito, again prefect, stated that in the year 1758 he "reported to the Com mandant of Guayana that in the Cuyuni River, under the guise of a post, there was a settlement of two Dutch families with house and planta tions," and that " he sent a detachment to seize them," 8 with more, showing that the capture of the post was in his thoughts But in the same paper "the prefect stated that other Hollanders had been domiciled at a point very high up the Cuyuni, near the mouth of the Curumo, not far from Cavallapi, and had since withdrawn."4 If the prefect men tioned to the Commandant a Dutch post, it was in some communi- *334 cation yet imprinted; and, *even if his memory be quite trust worthy and his statement correctly reported, it is nevertheless evident from the Commandant's order that, not the post, but the slave catchers at the mouth of the Curumo, were therein aimed at. The prefect never mentions "Curarnucuru;" but he certainly could not confuse "the mouth of the Curumo, not far from Cavallapi," with the site of that Dutch post, which he himself declared "seventy leagues" from Cavallapi.5 The most plausible explanation, then, of the whole matter is that the Spanish expedition of 1758 was really intended for the arrest of a Dutch slave trader at the mouth of the Curumo, but that the Orinoco command ant by error defined the place as an island in the Cuyuni; and that his expedition, finding neither island nor Dutchman, pushed on down the river till other Dutchmen and a Dutch post rewarded their quest. Nor can it affect the plausibility of this explanation that none of those concerned in the error cared later to point it out.6 The enterpriso having met with success, it was clearly good policy to make the most of it. Before passing from this episode it will be well to look once more at the two passages which seem in conflict with the remainder of the evidence. In interpreting that about the creek Orawary and the post's distance from 1 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 1," pp. 117-119; Venezuelan " Documents," 1 1, pp. 141-150. In the Venezuelan publication this memorial of Father Benito is described (p. 141) as dated in 1760; and with this tbe certified Spanish transcripts submitted to the Commission agree. But this date is quite impossi ble, since the memorial mentions events of years as late as 1766. The British version of what seems the same memorial dates it in 1769, and this is doubtless right, though another document, described in the Venezuelan publication as of 1767 (id., p. 15u), certainly seems to have been its letter of inclosure. 2 " Que el afio de 58, aviso el exponente al Comandante de Guayana que en el Rio Cuyuni con capa de posta estaban de asiento dos familias Olandesas con Casa y labranzas y que mando a cojerlos y les hallaron una patente del Governador con las ordenes que devian observar . . ." 3 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 1," p. 118. Venezuelan " Documents," II, pp. 147, 148. 4 " Siguiendo su representacion el Prefecto expuso que otros Olandesas se avian domiciliado muy aca arriba de Cuyuni cerca de la boca de Curumo que no distaba mucho del Cavallapi y que despues se reti- raron." (Cf. Venezuelan *• Documents,'' p. 149.) This final clause is lacking to the document as printed by the Blue Book (p. 119), perhaps accidentally omitted. It is unimportant, as the tense of the verb implies the same thing. " Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 282. Venezuelan " Documents," II, p. 189. 8 In the investigation of Dutcli complaints, a decade later, by the Spanish Council of the Indies, j (See Blue Book " Venezuela No, 3," pp. 280-294.) 165 No. 3. M SSTi dWe,li"gS' two ^sumptions have been made which more care ful study shows unwarranted by the passage. In the first place, it is not certain that by Orawary the Yuruari is meant. Nothing in what we know q Lml!??"06 f , . Tt[°m iU tMs year al0n« this ri™ warrants Storms statement about its being taken into complete possession by the Spaniards; the only mission known to have been founded in 1755 on that *nver is that of Yuruari (San Josef de Leonisa), and this, as *335 ,S nS: all?Ve the Sifce of TuPuquen, which had been occupied until 1750. Nor is the Yuruari the only stream which resembles Orawary in name. At a point which is only some ten or twelve hours above the place (Cuiva Creek) where I believe the post to have stood, there joins the Cuyuni from the south the creek Toroparu, important as the route of an Indian path to the Puruni and so to the Mazaruni. « Now, it is not known that the Spaniards were ever in possession of this stream; but there is evi dence that in the following year (1756) they were established in the Maza runi, « and at a site which on quite other grounds is believed to have been at the junction of the Puruni with the Mazaruni.4 Spanish occupation of such a creek would better have justified Storm's alarm than a new mission on the Yuruari, in whose upper valley the Capuchins had been established for a couple of decades. But, admitting that the Yuruari was probably meant, it is further to be noticed that Storm does not say that the Spanish dwellings so near to the Dutch post were in the creek Orawary. True, the order of the sentences suggest this; but Storm was a diffuse and sometimes a hasty writer, and it would not be hard to cite from his letters graver lapses from continuity of thought than another interpretation would here require. And, when all is said, there remains the possibility that he was mis taken—a solution less violent than that which would assume his ignorance of the distance of the post from the Essequibo. As for Hartsinck's statement about the removal of the post 50 mijls higher up the river, it has perhaps been noticed that in *the *336 letter of Storm which describes the site of the post there is a clause which in a carelessly written copy may easily have given rise to error. The site of the post, he wrote, "can not much matter; even if it had lain fifty hours higher up, it was a thing which did not concern the Spaniards."3 A very slight change or misreading could make this mean " although I had placed it fifty hours higher up;" and a mistake of Dutch hours for Dutch miles is not a grave one. But there is some reason to believe that a removal of the post up the 1 See pp. *205, *206 of vol. iii. 8 Mr. Schomburgk, in Blue Book " Venezuela No. 5," p. 1 9. • Extracts, pp. 369, 370. 4 See pp. *400, '401, below. 5 Al hod deselve vyftig uuren hoger gelegen, was een saek die de Spanjaerds niet en raekte. (Extracts, p. 887.) 166 No. 3. river may indeed have been in prospect. It will be remembered that the Spanish expedition found the under-postholder two days above the post, and that he testified that he was busied there in helping some Indians make a clearing. He testified also, as did the postholder, that the lands about the post were not suited for cultivation, being marshy, though there were good lands higher up. J Now, it is at least not improbable that the clearing on which the under-postholder was engaged was intended as a new site for the post, and was that which the Capuchin prefect had re ported as in progress. 3 And this conjecture is made much the more plausible by the fact that, when a few years later the Dutch post was reestablished, it was established, with bread grounds attached, at a point just two days above Cuiva Creek— at the islaud of Tokoro.3 It is my belief that it was about being transferred to that island at its destruction in 1758. The destroyed post was not at once restored. Both the colonial author ities and the West India Company hoped that the Spanish Govern- *337 ment would make reparation for the act of *violence.4 But they waited in vain. The postholder, with his assistant, sent by the Orinoco commandant to the governor at Cumana, was at length released from Spanish custody. He was not sent back to the Cuyuni, however, but was given a subordinate position at another post. 5 The Cuyuni was now, however, too familiar a route to be left open with impunity. A rascally colonist went up the river and misused the Indians under pretense of authority.6 Spaniards or Spanish Indians repeatedly came all the way down to the Dutch plantations.7 The Caribs, in dismay, were all withdrawing to the Essequibo.8 Smugglers availed themselves of this door. 9 Eunaway slaves found the river an open road;1 ° they even began establishing themselves there.11 Under these circumstances, it was not 'Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 247. Venezuelan "Documents," II., p. 30. 2 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 235. Venezuelan " Documents," II., p. 5. aFor the proof of this see pp. *341-*346 below. 4 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," pp. 115, 119. Extracts, pp. 393, 394, 396. " Down to 1760 he remained on the pay-roll as '¦ outlier at the Company's late post in Cuyuni." On September, 30, 1760, however, he was paid up, and then " discharged from service, and continues to live in this colony " (uyt den dienst wort ontslagen, en in dese Colonie blyft resideren). On February 1, 1762, he was again taken into service as bylier at Moruca. (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 117, 122.) 6 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 113. ' Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," pp. 117, 120, 130, 134. * Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," pp. 115, 120, 121, 126, 148*, 149. o Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 118. 10 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," pp. 115, 118, 123, 126, 131. 11 Ioa passage omitted by the British translators from the governor's letter of May 28, 1761 (Blue Book, p. 116 — the passage immediately follows the second paragraph of the extract), he complains that " in the meantime the runaway slaves already begin to sojourn there, at present two of the Company's, with several others, being there, whom, up to now, in spite of all efforts used, I have not been able to get hold of." (Ondertusschen beginnen reets de wegloopende slaeven sig daer op te houden, werkelyk twee van d' Ed: Comp. en eenige andere daer synde welke ik tot mt toe niettegenstaende alle aengewende devoirenniet magtig hebbe konne worden.) 167 No. 3. strange that in 17631 the governor should suggest to the Company the quiet reoccupation of the post in Cuyuni.2 He recommended that a sub altern *officer, with ten or twelve men, be placed there as a guard.3 *338 The Company at once approved this project; but its execution was de layed by the outbreak of the great slave revolt in Berbice and its spread to Demerara. In July, 1763, twenty soldiers were sent to aid in suppressing this revolt,4 whereafter ten or twelve of them were to be used to garrison the post in Cuyuni. But it was long before any could be spared. 5 In June of 1764 the governor wrote of his hope to " make the necessary arrange ments with the Caribs in Cuyuni to station an under-officer there with eight men."0 But nothing could be done till the rainy season was over; and then Indians could not be had to aid in the reestablishment;7 they feared the Spaniards. Yet they were at last won over by a promise of protection;8 and, to make sure of their loyalty by providing for their support, it was resolved to plant bread-grounds at the post, which should be worked by dis abled slaves no longer of use on the plantations.9 The growing boldness of the Spaniards called for haste. 1 ° A postholder was found in the person of the corporal Pierre Martin, a Frenchman by birth, who on October 1, 1765, was engaged for this service and sent up the Cuyuni to make prepara tions. 1X It was, however, more than a year before the buildings and *bread-grounds were ready; and though the postholder and his two *339 assistants were on the ground before the end of 1766, J 2 it was not until 1767 that they entered regularly on their duties.13 In vain did the governor search for even a half-dozen soldiers for the garrison of the post;14 he could find only Catholics and Frenchmen, and these he would not trust there. As early as March, 1767, there was a rumor that the post had been 1 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 123. 2 " I could greatly wish," he writes in this passage (not all of which is given by the Blue Book trans lation), " that your further memorial to the States-General might finally have the desired effect, and that an end might be reached of that matter, for which I very much long. But could you not find it good that meanwhile, without use of the leait violence, possession should be again taken of the post in Cuyuni?" (Ik wensche seer UEGA nader memorie aen II. H. M. eyndelylc van een gewen.scht effect sal wezen, en een eynde van die saek sal gemaekt worden, waer seer naer verlange. Maer soude VEGA niet goed konne vin den dat ondertusschen, sonder het minste gewell le plegen, weder bezit van de Post in Cajoeny wierd genomen.) 1 Literally, " to guard it," (tot bewaring deselve.) 4 Extracts, p. 399. 5 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 126, 130. 6 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," p. 128. ' Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," p. 134. 8 Extracts, p. 404. 9 Extracts, pp. 404, 406. Cf. Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 137. 10 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," pp. 134, 136, 138. 11 Extracts, p. 450. 18 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 140, 141. Extracts, p. 422. 18 Meanwhile a Creole had been stationed at the foot of the falls, with instructions to patrol the river, reporting monthly to the governor. (Blue Book, p. 139.) He was captured by the Spaniards ; but escaped and resumed his duties on the river. (Blue Book, pp. 142-144.) 14 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," pp. 138, 139, 142, 144. Extracts, p. 428. 168No. 3. sacked by the Spaniards.1 This proved a false alarm; but Spanish influ ence over the Indians was such that they would do nothing for the post- holder, and even passed the post in their canoes in defiance of his summons to lie to for inspection.2 In September there was again rumor that the post had been raided.3 This was again an error; but the governor a few weeks later declared to the militia officers of the colony that there were no Indians left there, and that the new postholder could scarcely maintain himself.4 In December the postholder, who had suffered much there from illness, asked on this pretext to be relieved;5 and in February, 1768, on the ground that the Indians would have nothing to do with a Frenchman, he was allowed to withdraw, and was stationed elsewhere. 6 His place was never filled, nor were soldiers found for the post; the two byliers alone remained there, the elder in charge.7 *340 By *February, 1769, one of them had reported to the governor the abduction by the Spaniards of Indians from above the post, and the threat of a raid, not only upon the post, but even into the Mazaruni;8 and a month later the governor complained that the remain ing Indians, frightened by this abduction, were drawing off.9 Anxiety was now constant;10 and early in May there came once more tidings of a Spanish attack on the post.11 This news was speedily corrected by a letter from the senior bylier, reporting not an actual but only a threatened attack. 1 2 There was added the important information that he intended to remove the post to an island named Toenamoeto, lying between two falls, where it would be better and healthier, and that he had already begun a clearing there; and he inclosed a bill for the expenses of this clearing. Though both the Company and the governor were annoyed13 at this high handed action of the bylier, the step was not reversed. Fear, remarked the governor, often leads to mistakes; but " he is now there, and is much better protected against surprises "14 — though he adds, " this is wholly con trary to my intention, since for good reasons I would gladly have had that 1 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 144. * ..." en selver wanneer ky de voorby gaende vaerluygen belast aen te leggen " — the Blue Book translation, as will be seen, is not exact. (Blue Book, p. 144.) 1 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 147. - Extracts, p. 439. 5 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 149. 0 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," pp. 151-153. 7 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," p. 158. 8 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 158. 0 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 160. Cf. also p. 161. 10 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 164. 11 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," p. 166. 12 Extracts, pp. 454, 45 i. 18 Extracts, p. 493. Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," p. 17 6. 14 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 176. 169 No. 3. post gradually farther up the river."1 In June, 1770, the senior bylier, Jan van Witting, announced that the Indians were still drawing off from the Cuyuni; and in the same note asked for his own discharge at New Year's, when his time would be up.2 He remained there, however, through the *f olio wing year and into the next, apparently undisturbed by *341 the Spaniards.3 Then his service was cut short by death; in the pay-roll for 1772 his decease is chronicled by the secretary, who adds that he could not learn the exact day of its occurrence. The second bylier, Gerrit von Leeuwen, seems to have served out his year and then returned to the ranks of the garrison.4 Thus quietly, but forever, the post in the Cuyuni disappeared from the records of the colony. Often as this third and last of the Cuyuni posts finds mention in Dutch documents during its troubled half-dozen years of existence (1766-1772), its site is never named save in the postholder's mention of its transfer to Toenamoeto, the island between two falls; and its distance from any other point is not once recorded. 5 It is true that its re-establishment was at the time commonly spoken of as a mere " restoring" or " replacing,"6 but the establishment of bread grounds makes it unlikely that it was at the old site, which both the postholder and his assistant had in 1758 declared un suited to cultivation.7 Again Spanish records afford a help. In his letter to the King in 1769 8 the Capuchin prefect, Fray Benito de la Garriga, informs him that, "according to what the Indians tell us, . . . from the mouth *of the Cuyuni, upstream from Essequibo, at eight *342 days of navigation, they (the Dutch) have a guard of six soldiers, and it is said that in this distance of the eight days there are no planta tions because the ground is sandy."9 With all allowance for the slowness of Indian travel when Indians 1 " Hy is daar nu is veel beler bedekt voor surprisen maar tegen myn intentie volstrekt, wyl ik die Post om goede reedenen gaeren hoe langer hoe hooger op de rivier wilde hebben." 2 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 176. 3 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 180. 4 All this is gathered from the pay-rolls. 5 No tenable argument can be drawn, I think, from a comparison of the dates of the postholder's letters with those of the governor mentioning their receipt. These letters of the governor, filling often thirty, forty, even fifty pages with the finest script, were the desultory work of many days, and the single date they bear (usually at the end) shows only when they were finally sealed and committed to the letter bag. The dates of their earlier pages and of their postscripts can only be guessed at, and the identity of their "yesterdays" and "last weeks" must be inferred from the context alone. "The word used is " Jierstellen" or "herplaatsen ;" only once (Extracts, p. 422), verplaatsen, " to re move to another place." 7 Yet it is not quite certain that they meant more than unsuited to sugar cane or other commercial crops, not including the native cassava. 8 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 1," p. 118. Venezuelan "Documents," II, p. 147. 9 " Segun noticias que nos dan los Indios . . . de dicha boca de Cuyuni, rio arriba de Esquivo, a ocho dias de navegacion, tienen una guardia de seis soldados, y se dice que en esa distancia de los ocho dias, no hay plantages, por ser tierras avenosas." The Venezuelan translation of this passage Beems not only an impossible rendering of the Spanish, but is irreconcilable with the sentence just preceding. 170No. 3. travel alone, this must mean that the post was considerably above the for mer site, and, in view of Dutch silence on the point, it would be hard to believe, were there not from another source evidence more definite and cogent. When in 1837 Hilhouse, the first Enghshman to ascend the Cuyuni, made his expedition up that river, the first trace he found of earlier occupation by white men was when early on the tenth day of his slow journey he reached " Tocro Island, where a white man, most likely a smuggler, is reported to have resided some years before."1 The place is not hard to identify, because, according to his journal, it is midway between a well-known creek, " Torupaaru," and an equally well-known fall, the " Wohmuypongh." One of these he reached a day earlier, the other a day later. Four years later Mr. Schomburgk, approaching from the opposite direction and with a keen ear for all evidence of Dutch occu pation, reached the same spot. Already before leaving the Barima he had "understood from some Indians, who were well acquainted with the Cuyuni, that there had been once a Dutch post at an island called Tokoro," which, he adds, " was much farther to the west than that part of the Cuyuni where, from the information I had received pre viously to my submitting the memorial on the boundaries of *343 British Guiana, I considered the boundary line ought to *cross to the river Cuyuni."2 Just where he had been taught to look for it is suggested a little later in his journal, when (speaking of Dutch trade via the Cuyuni at the middle of the eighteenth century) he says, " It was at this period (1750-1760) that the Dutch possessions extended to the foot of that series of falls of which Kanaima is the most considerable."3 Now, this is precisely the location of Hilhouse's " Tocro;" for, according to Mr. Schomburgk, the Wohmuypongh, or, as he spells it, the Womuipong,4 is near the lower end of the Kanaima " series of falls,"6 and if the island is in reality east instead of west of the point where the boundary line described by him in 18396 would cross the Cuyuni, this suggests only his ignorance of the precise geography of that river prior to his exploration of it. " About eight miles below Arakuna," where the falls end, Mr. Schomburgk himself (whose narrative betrays no knowledge of Hilhouse's) found " the island Tokoro (Tokoro-patti), where, towards the close of the last century, the farthest outpost of the Dutch was situated." " Although generations have elapsed," he adds, " the circumstance that a Dutch post- holder once resided here has remained traditionary, and our guide, an old Waika, assured me that his father had frequently mentioned it to him, 1 Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, vol. vii (1837), p. 449. 2 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 1," p. 216 ; " Venezuela No. 5," p. 12. 3 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 1," p. 224; " Venezuela No. 5," p. 18. * Thus his map. His journal, as printed, has " Wounnipong " (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 1 ")> or " Wommipong " (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 5 "). 5 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 1," p. 224 ; " Venezuela No. 5," p. 19. " Blue Book " Venezuela No. 1," p. 184. 171 No. 3. and that the postholder's name was 'Palmsteen.' The post was after wards destroyed by the Spaniards and the postholder withdrawn nearer towards the cultivated part of the colony."1 Thus Mr. Schomburgk. He "reached in the afternoon the Toru- paru," and a day or two later, less than two days befoie *his arrival *344 at the mouth of the river, at the head of " the third [and last] series of falls," he came to " the Cataract Tonomo, where the postholder resided after his station had been withdrawn from Tokoro Island."2 Now, when it is remembered how well-nigh impossible it is that Mr. Schomburgk could have known anything of the mention, in a letter of the acting postholder nearly a century earlier, of the island of Toenamoeto, and how intrinsically probable it is, on the ground both of name and of situation, that that "island between two falls " was at this cataract Tonoma, 3 respect must grow for his Indian tradition. At first blush, " Palmsteen," the Indian's name for the postholder, seems far enough from Pierre Martin, which we know to have been the true one; but when one stops to think that by the Dutch this would have been pronounced " Peermarteen " (with the accent on the last syllable), and that these Indian tribes, like so many other peoples, fail to distinguish the liquids I and r, so that " Peermarteen " would be also " Peel- malteen," the unlikeness is not so great.4 And when it is also borne in mind that Mr. Schomburgk was of course trying to make the word spoken by the Indian sound like a Dutch name, the resemblance makes more credible the Indian story. That the Spaniards destroyed the post of 1766- 1769 is indeed unknown to us from the Dutch records; but, since the tra dition of the withdrawal of the postholder implies that this destruction took place after his removal, it is anything but improbable. That this island of Tokoro would also well answer to that *spot, *345 two days above the earlier post, where in 1758 the underpostholder was arrested while engaged, as he claimed, iu helping to make a clearing, and that it is by no means impossible that even then a transfer to this site was in prospect, I have pointed out above. 5 If this inference be justified, it is no longer strange that, when reestablished, the post, with its bread grounds, was placed here without mention to the home authorities of any change of site. In view of all this cumulative evidence and suggestion, no reasonable doubt can obtain, I think, as to the sites of this latest of Dutch posts in the Cuyuni. That it was the latest may, however, need some further demon- 1 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 1," pp. 224, 225 ; " Venezuela No. 5," p. 19. a Blue Book " Venezuela No. 1," p. 225 ; " Venezuela No. 3," p. 19. 3 What the termination " -otto " (-ooto, -uto ; the Dutch o. is pronounced like our oo) may mean I can not say. Father Pelleprat reports a Carib word auto, " house." May there not earlier have been a 4 In the Carib speech " the letters I and . ," according to Adelung (Mithridates, Th. 3, Abth. 2), " are pronounced alike and are interchangeable." The speech of the Waikas, to whom Schomburgk s in- formant belonged, is a variety of the Carib. 6 See p. *336. 172No. 3. stration. It never appears again in pay-roll or muster-roll, and no paid servant of the colony could have been stationed there. That it was not the intention of the West India Company to abandon it is shown by the pro vision for it, in the regulations for the reorganization of the colony in 1773, 1 of the stated postholder and byliers; and in the project of Heneman for the defenses of the colony in 1776 2 a garrison also is once more planned for it. But already in 1769 Storm van 's Gravesande had declared that, owing to the multitude of inland paths, the post was no longer of use;3 and Trotz, who succeeded him as Director General in 1772, was a disbeliever in the efficacy of posts for the stoppage of runaways. 4 Having authority to man the posts at his discretion, but obliged to report his action to the *346 Company,5 he never manned that in the Cuyuni *at all, for he never reported it. 6 When in 1785, after the restoration of the colony by the French, Trotz's successor and the colonial Court of Policy were embarrassed by the return of the old Moruca postholder, Dyk, after they had chosen another for that post, they did indeed suggest that he might perhaps be stationed at the " old post in Cuyuni, still without a postholder."7 But the suggestion was ignored by the Company, and we presently find Dyk filling the more edifying and diversified office of sexton, chorister, school teacher, and comforter of the sick to the colony. With the transfer of the colony's center to the new capital in Demerara the Cuyuni seemed remote indeed, and in the last quarter of the century the river's name rarely ap pears in the colonial records. When in 1789 the Spanish officer Lopez de la Puente made his armed reconnoissance down the Cuyuni to its mouth, he found nobody on guard except a Carib, who dwelt at the foot of the lowest fall; him he carried off.8 A year later, in 1790, 9 the same officer heard through the Indians that the Dutch had "thrown out an advance guard at the place Onore-rama, 5 or 6 leagues up from the mouth of the Cuyuni," but he counted this information " not very reliable;" and the absence of all confirmation of it in the Essequibo records justifies us in sharing his skepticism. In short, then: 1. While the Dutch occupation of the mouth of the Cuyuni goes back to the earliest presence of the Dutch in the Essequibo, plantations were not pushed up that river until the eighteenth century, and were never at any time carried above the lowest falls. 1 Extracts, p. 500. 2 Extracts, pp. 520-527. 8 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 159, 160 ; cf. Extracts, p. 439. 4 Extracts, p. 558. 5 A resolution of the Ten, June 22, 1778, gave him express authority " lot de aanstelling der vaceerende Byleggers en Posthouders plaatsen, met byvoeging, omme daervan, aan deeze Vergadering, met den eersten kenniste moeten geeven." It was but the confirmation of a power earlier exercised. » I need hardly eay that his letters, which are all preserved, have been searched through with care. 7 Extracts, pp. 584-586; cf. p. 588. " Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 338, 339 ; Venezuelan " Documents," III, p. 250. 9 Venezuelan " Documents," III, p. 61. 173 No. 3. *2. Mining in the Cuyuni was attempted in the years 1741-1743, *347 its farthest operations being about two days' journey from the mouth of the river. 3. Thrice for brief periods the Dutch maintained a post in the upper valley of that river— (1) in 1703, from May to September, at a point un known, but in the savanna, and most probably on the Curumo; (2) in 1754- 1758, at Cuiva (probably Qive Kuru), three days' journey up the river; (3) in 1766-1772, first at the island of Tokoro (1766-1769), then at that of Toe namoeto, in the Tonoma Rapids (1769-1772). *9. THE DUTCH IN THE MAZARUNI. *348 It was in the Mazaruni that Dutch settlement in the Essequibo be gan; for Kykoveral, though near its confluence with the Cuyuni, was always reckoned in the Mazaruni. In that river, under shelter of the fort, prob ably lay tbe earliest plantations. Of these, at Van Berkel 's visit in 1671, there were but three, of which the greatest was an hour1 above Kykoveral,2 doubtless, therefore, in the Mazaruni, near the head of tide water. By 1687 the number of free plant ers had risen to eighteen,3 of whom some two-thirds probably dwelt in the Mazaruni;4 and when in 1701 the colony, was divided for military purposes into two districts the plantations in the Mazaruni formed one, those in the Essequibo the other. 5 Though the plantations seem to have dwindled then to a dozen, the good ground was so taken up that in 1704 it was found necessary to gain more by moving above the falls in Mazaruni the Company's plantation of Poelwijk,6 which lay *just at their foot. Whether or no this was *349 fully carried out, the earliest extant map of the colony,7 in 1706, represents the Mazaruni as occupied nearly or quite to the falls,8 as is 1 To apply this I >utch measure of distance see the scale on map 60 of the Atlas. 3 A. Van Berkel, Amerikaansche Voyagien, pp. 42-44. 8 Letter of Commandeur Beekman, November 4, 1687 (printed by Netscher, pp. 374-377). 1 At least, a list of the planters " up in Essequibo " (boven in Ysequebe) appended to the governor's letter of January 15, 1685, names but five; and it is unlikely that at that date there were plantations below the confluence of the rivers. In thus speaking of the Mazaruni I include, as was then and later commonly done, the united Mazaruni and Cuyuni, to their junction with the Essequibo. s Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 68. 6 Extracts, p. 208. 7 Atlas, map 59. 8 These falls are a series of rapids beginning just at the head of tide water. Those of the Mazaruni are much lower and less dangerous than those of the Cuyuni ; but in both rivers they form a dividing point recognized in Dutch documents by the use of the terms " boven " and ' ' beneden," literally " above " and "beneath." The "boven" river was the whole river above these rapids; the "beneden" river, the short tide water reach below. These phrases, appearing in such form as " in de boven rivier," sometimes as "boven in Mazaruni," and sometimes simply as " boven Mazaruni, " are not easy to translate. " Dp in Mazaruni " implies too little ; " in the upper Mazaruni " suggests too much; "above in Mazaruni" is hardly English. There is reason, too, to believe that, as the drift of the colony to the coast made these rivers even more remote, " boven in Mazaruni" sometimes meant "in the Mazaruni" in general. For illustration see p. *305, note. 174 No. 3. the Essequibo above the confluence; and this map is confessedly incom plete. 1 Yet, if Poelwijk was actually moved above the rapids, the experiment can hardly have proved a success; for in 1722 the engineer Maurain-Sainc- terre reported of the Mazaruni, as well as of the other rivers, that thus far- no European had cared to establish a sugar plantation above the falls;2 and in 1731 the colonial Court of Policy included the Mazaruni as well as the Cuyuni in this statement to the Company as to the impossibility of planta tions above the falls.3 Later grants, however, show that so sweeping a statement must be taken with a grain of salt. Thus, in 1745, the colonist Christian Finet and Daniel Couvreur asked for the same lands "above in Mazaruni," and were put off till they should come to an understand ing.4 Whether either obtained the grant does not appear; but *350 on *the map of 1748 a "G." Finet— perhaps by error for " C." Finet— is named as the owner of a plantation in that river, while Couvreur's name is not shown.5 But the latter also must soon have obtained land there, for in 1754 another colonist, Appelhans, was granted, "above in the river of Mazaruni," not only "the so-called Gerbrandes Island," but on the river bank "to 500 rods above the land of Daniel Couvreur;"6 and in 1756 the Director- General writes of the coming down of Couvreur "from up in Mazaruni where he lives," to report the alarm ing tidings brought by " certain Indians who had retreated to him from above."7 Important though it is to determine the exact site of Cou vreur's plantation, I am unable to do so with certainty. The rule, which later obtained, that new lands granted must adjoin those already granted was perhaps not yet in force. The map of Bouchenroeder, in 1796- 1798, 8 which almost certainly rested on the land records of the colony,9 though it contains a long stretch of the Mazaruni, shows no plantations above the falls; while it does show on the west side of that river a plan tation above the highest plantations marked on the map of 1748. Yet this can hardly be that granted to Appelhans in 1754, for in that case the 1 See (in vol. iii) my report on " Maps from Official Sources," p. *127. Poelwijk, as shown on this map of 17u6 (Atlas, map 59), is wholly on the island of Caria, which is below the rapids ; and just above it, mainly on smaller islands in the river, is shown another plantation, " het Loo." 2 Extracts, p. 248. > Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 83. 4 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 85. D Thus, at least, in the copy of this map reproduced by the Commission (Atlas, map 60) ; but so slight a variation may perhaps be attributed to a copyist's error. Finet was, in 1748, a planter in Demerara also (see map), and in 1755 was resident there (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 147). He seems to have been a surveyor also, and ou occasion an explorer ; we hear of journeys made by him to the upper Cuyuni and Mazaruni, and also to the Waini and the Barima. (Blue Book, pp. 86, 130, 146, 147.) Possibly the rover (p. 90 ; Extracts, p. 322), whose name is spelled Pinet, was the same man. It was Finet who joined the German Von Rosen, in 1755, in inviting the Prussian King to take possession of the Barima and the Waini. (Blue Book, p. 147.) 6 Extracts, p. 850. ' Extracts, p. 369. 8 Atlas, map 70. 9 See, in vol. iii, pp. *163-*173 of my report on Maps from Official Sources. 175 No. 3. owner of the estate below it should have been Couvreur; while in fact in the map *of 1748 this is marked as the bread plantation of Pieter *351 Marchal; and Pieter Marchal, as is known from his part in stirring up the Carib- Accoway war, was in 1755 still living in Mazaruni, and, as it would seem, above the other plantations. 1 Inasmuch as early in 1756 the Accoways forced Marchal to leave his plantation, it is of course not impos sible that it was there Couvreur was living in July of that year; but this would not explain the land owned by him in Mazaruni in 1754. As, however, Couvreur was a planter, it is at least exceedingly probable, in view of the habits of the colony, that his lands adjoined those earlier in cultivation. There is certainly nothing elsewhere in the Dutch records which suggests that he or any other lived up the Mazaruni at a distance from the other planters. In 1757 there was granted to Gerrit Dirkse van Leeuwen2 " the island of Noriwaka in the upper Mazaruni," 3 provided that island should prove to contain not more than five hundred acres.4 Later mentions of grant or occupation in that river above tide water I have not found in the Dutch records.5 *In 1739 the colonial authorities sent the Company specimens of *352 ores from the Mazaruni as well as from the Cuyuni,6 and when in 1741 the mining engineer Hildebrandt was sent over, he began his opera tions in the Mazaruni. 7 But he went no higher than a little above the plantation Poelwijk, and even here, though he opened a shaft, his work was not long continued. For fishing and hunting and for trade with the Indians the upper Mazaruni was in use by the Dutch colony from an early date. 8 By 1686, 1 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," pp. 106, 107. 2 A decade later Garrit Dirkse van Leeuwen was second bylier at the restored post on the Cuyuni. (See, e. g., Blue Book, p. 158; the full name often appears.) The island of Noriwaka, like Gerbrandes Island, is not to be identified by the maps. 8 I. e., " above in Mazaruni." 4 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 109. 6 Of a grant of 1773 (known to me only through the report of the British Guiana land commis sioners in 1855) of lands described as " situate in the upper Massarouney," but known to lie even below Kykoveral, I have elsewhere spoken (p. *305, note). As the minutes of the colonial Court of Policy, which contain the record of the land grants, were prior to 1773 forwarded only in extracts to the home author ities, and as the extracts thus sent do not include the grants of land, which are known only through transcripts recently made for the British Government in the colonial archives at Georgetown, I can not state with confidence that the grants mentioned in my text are all that pertain to the "upper Mazaruni." Yet it is perhaps fair to assume that, as these were what were especially sought by the agents of Great Britain, none have been omitted. The only lands in Mazaruni which were reported by the colonial land commissioners in 1855 as still claimed, besides the lot mentioned just above, are (1) Cartabo, at the junc tion of Mazaruni and Cuyuni, (2) a piece of land on the east bank of the Mazaruni which is described as "intersected by Unipeeru Creek," and (3) "a certain tract of Government land situated on the eastern bank of Massarooncy River, the southern bank of Cayooney, bearing due west 100 roods facade and 800 deep, and containing 100 acres "—apparently in Cuyuni, therefore, rather than in Mazaruni. 6 Extracts, pp. 282, 283. ' Extracts, p. 285. 8 Extracts, pp. 149, 233. 176No. 3. at least, they had there an " annatto store," x and the Company's monopoly of trade there in that dye and in Indian slaves was long maintained.2 But there is no record of the existence there at any time of a post, 3 or of any other resident occupation by the Dutch at any point beyond that reached by the plantations. Exploration in the upper Mazaruni was seldom or never attempted by the Dutch. "The colonist E. Pipersberg," wrote the Essequibo governor in 1764, "is the only man to my knowledge who has been any distance up the river."4 His errand thither was the capture of runaway slaves; and he reached tribes there which had never before seen a white *353 man.5 *The only landmark left on record by his trip was a high " pyramid " seen at his right on his way back. Another colonist, C. Finet, 6 had been far enough up the river to testify that it could be navigated without danger. 7 Of other exploration we do not hear. In. brief: 1. The Mazaruni was the earliest seat and center of the Dutch in Esse quibo. 2. By the beginning of the eighteenth century the plantations had reached the head of tide water, and during that century were in two or three instances pushed higher, though probably only far enough to secure fresh ground. 3. Trade with the Indians in the upper river began early, but no regular post was ever maintained there. 4. No thorough exploration of the river was ever attempted, and its upper reaches were virtually unknown. *354 *10. DUTCH CLAIMS IN GUIANA.8 Neither in connection with the early trading expeditions to Guiana nor with the first projects for its colonization is there now to be found in Dutch records a claim to definite territory there.9 The most that is anywhere urged is that this region is not yet occupied by the Spaniards or the Portu guese, aud is therefore open to trade or to settlement. According to Jan 1 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 62. 2 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 82, 83. Extracts, No. 118. 8 It is, of course, possible that the " annatto store " was such a post; but, if so, it had ceased to exist by 1691, for there is no mention of it in the muster-roll of that year, nor does it ever appear thereafter. 4 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 130. 5 Extracts, p. 413. 6 Cf. pp. *349, *350, above. 7 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 130. 8 I speak here of claims made by the Dutch Government, or in its name by those who had some right to speak for it — as the Dutch West India Company or the colonial authorities. Claims made to the Company or to the State by these colonial authorities or by individuals have been mentioned in my dis cussion of the occupation of the several rivers. 9 This silence, if real, is the more notable because as early as 1613 the English King, as the Dutch must have been aware, granted a patent of all Guiana from the Amazon to the Essequibo. 177 No. 3. de Laet (writing in 1625), a charter was granted by the States-General to a Dutch colony in the Corentyn, probably that known to us from Spanish records as existing there in 1613. This charter can not now be found. There is nothing in De Laet's mention of it to suggest that the territory specified in it included aught else than that river itself.1 When, in 1621, there was conferred upon the Dutch West India Com pany (1621-1674) by charter a monopoly of trade on all the coasts of America, with authority to " promote the settlement of fruitful and unin habited districts," no specific mention was made either of Guiana or of any other stretch of territory, the only limits named being the extreme points of *America— Newfoundland, the Strait of Magellan, and the *355 straits we now know as Bering's. On the territorial rights of the Dutch West India Company under its charters I have already made a special report to the Commission (pp. 99-117 of this volume), and to that I must here refer, adding only that nothing I have learned in my researches in European archives suggests modification of the conclusions therein reached. In 1628 Jan de Laet, then the foremost Dutch authority of his time upon America and a leading director of the West India Company, wrote for the little geographical series of the Elzevirs a book on ' ' Spain, or on the realms and resources of the King of Spain," in which he clearly set forth his views as to the claims of European states in Guiana — views very probably shared by his colleagues of the Company. " From the River Orinoco," he writes, "the continent extends through vast expanses of territory to that other river, far the greatest of all, which is called that of the Amazons, and thence onward to the river or island Marafion. In all this space, which comprises vast provinces, and in which a multitude of rivers issue into the ocean, the Spaniards possess almost nothing except on the left bank of the River Amazon, at its mouth, a certain fortress, which they call Para, from which they seek to gain for themselves an entrance into the interior provinces. The English, however, and especially our people [the Dutch], visit frequently all this coast and these rivers and carry on trade with the natives." And this is all he says of Guiana.2 *In similar phrase the West India Company itself, in a re mon- *356 strance addressed to the States-General in 1633, declared that " from New Spain eastward the whole coast of Incanata, Honduras, and Terra 1 De Laet, Nieuwe Wereldt, ed. of 1625, p. 474. The passage runs: " Op dese rieviere Coretini hebben ons Nederlanders ghehandelt ende oock volck ghehouden veel jaren gheteden, de Hog. Mog. Heeren Staten Generael hadden daer Octroy van verleent." Cf. note, p. *I60, above. 8 " A flumine Oronoque continens magnis terrarum spatiis ad alteram flumen longe vastissimum extenditur quod vulgo Amazonum vocant, atque ab illo porro ad flumen sive insulam Marahnon ; toto autem hoc spatio, quo ingentes provincia; comprehenduntur, et quamplurimi amnes in Oceanum exeunt, nihil fere possident Hispani, prseterquam ad sinistram ingredientibus fluminis Amazonum ripam, arcem quandam quam vocant Param, e qua sibi aditum in interiores provincias parare satagunt. Angli autem et nostrates maxime, omnem hanc oram et hos amnes crebro adeunt et cum indigenis commercia exer- vent." — Hispania, sive de Regis Hispanice regnis et opibus commentarius (Leyden, 1629), p. 226. 178 No. 3. Firma (as the Spaniards call it) to beyond Trinidad is all occupied by Span iards, and not only the coasts but also the Islands; except next to these, the regions of Guiana, which we call the Wild Coast; this coast and divers rivers are yet unsettled and inhabited by free savages, and in these regions are many products which might be advantageously brought hither. But what of it? These nations are so barbarous and have so few wants (inasmuch as they have no desire for clothing and need nothing else for their subsistence) that all the trade which exists there can easily be carried on with two or three ships a year, and be maintained with trifling capital. This region is bounded by the great river of the Amazons, which also is not free from occupation by Spaniards, as our people have experienced to their damage."1 To the West India Company, under its charter of 1621, belonged, of *357 course, the right to plant Dutch colonies on the *coasts of America.2 1 " Nu van Noua Hispania voorwaerts naer 't oosten de gantsche Custe van Incanata, de Honduras ende Terra Firma (als de Spangiaerden dat noemen), tot voorby de Trinidad, is niet alleen de Custen, maer oock de eylanden al met Spangiaerden beset; alleen so volgen hieraen de landen van Guiana, welck wy noemen de wilde Cust; dese Cust ende verscheyde rivieren sijn nog onbeslaegen ende bewoond by vrije wilden, ende in dese landen vallen met verscheyden goederen, die met proffijt in dese landen connen gebracht worden ; maer wat ist, dese natien sijn soo barbaris ende soe onbehoeftich (door dien sy noch lust tot cleedinge hebben, noch yts anders tot onderhoud deslevens van doen hebben), dat alle den handel die hier valt, ligt met twee d drie sehepen jaerlycx can gedreven, ende met gering capitael can onderhouden worden. 'T selve is van de groote rivier des Amasones de welcke oock niet vrijen is van de besettinge van Spangiarden, gelyck de onse met haere schade hebben bevonden." This passage is among those transcribed at The Hague by Brodhead in 1841 for the State of New York, and is printed (in translation) in the Documents relative to the Colonial History of New York (vol. i, p. 66). a Of interest in this connection is an " Order for the West India Company touching the boundary in New NetherlartH," issued by the States-General on January 23, 1664 : "The States-General of the United Netherlands, to all who shall hear or see these, Health: — Be it known, Whereas, for divers and weighty reasons, we thought proper, in the year 1621, to erect and establish in our country a company called the West India Company, through the same alone, and to the exclusion of all others, to resort and trade to the coasts and countries of Africa, from the Tropic of Cancer to the Cape of Good Hope, and the countries of America, or the West Indies, from the south end of Terra Nova through the Straits of Magellan and Le Maire, or other passages and straits situate thereabouts, unto the Strait of Anjan, as well on the North as South Sea, and all islands lying on the one and the other side and betwixt both, and extending to the Australian or southern countries, and lying between both meridians, including iu the east the Cape of Good Hope and in the west the east end of New Guinea. Granting, by the second article of the charter of the 3d of June, 1621, given to them under Our great seal, further and more particularly, that they, in Our name and by Our authority, may, within the afore said limits, make and conclude contracts, treaties, and alliances with the Princes and natives of the countries contained therein, erect fortresses and strongholds there, appoint, remove, and dismiss Gov ernors, soldiers, and officers of justice necessary for all requisite services for the conservation of the places, the maintenance of good order, police, am} justice, together with the promotion of trade, and others in their places to appoint, according as the same shall be found proper; and especially as it may best promote the peopling of fruitful and uninhabited countries ; and the aforesaid company having, from the beginning, by virtue of the aforesaid charter, in conformity with Our sincere intention, established their population and colonists on the coast of America, in the country called New Netherland, notwithstanding which some persons evil disposed towards our State and the said company, endeavor to misrepresent Our good and honest meaning, as the same is contained in the said charter, as if We had privileged the said company only to trade within the said limits, and not to colonize nor to pl.nt settlements, nor take pos session of lands, calling the company's right thereto in question. 179 No. 3. And the Zeeland Chamber of that Company claimed, as against the other Chambers, the exclusive right to colonize the coast of Guiana. The Amsterdam *Chamber, however, protested in 1658 that "the *358 whole Wild Coast, it being from the first degree to the tenth more than two hundred [Dutch] miles," could not possibly be colonized by the Zeeland Chamber alone.1 The matter having been brought before the Nineteen, it was, on September 3, 1659, agreed that "As regards New Netherland where the Amsterdam Chamber, and the Wild Coast where the Zeeland Chamber, have their colonies, respectively, it shall be open to the other Chambers ... to establish there also their colonies, at suitable and unoccupied places, and to allow others, private individuals, to come with their colonies, always with prior notification to, and knowledge and approval of, the Board of Nineteen, and on such an equitable footing, and under such order and regulations, as not to conflict with the colonies already established by Amsterdam and Zeeland."2 In the sundry bodies of inducements to colonists in Guiana drawn up and promulgated by the West India Company from 1627 to 1657, it is re peatedly assumed that the whole " Wild Coast " is open to Dutch coloniza tion. 3 This is once defined as extending from the Amazon to the Orinoco,4 once as reaching from the Amazon to an unnamed degree of north lati tude, 5 once is even made to stretch "from the Amazon to the Wild or Caribbean Islands, both inclusive."6 Of tener the term is left undefined, as self-explanatory. *When, in 1657, the provincial Estates of Zeeland were besought *359 by the Zeeland Chamber of the West India Company to take under their patronage the new Guiana colony about to be established, this was de scribed as " on the Wild Coast of Essequibo and adjacent places, stretching from the first to the tenth degree of north latitude, between the rivers " Wherefore, We, being desirous to assure all, each, and every one whom it may concern, ot our in tention in the aforesaid charter, hereby declare Our meaning well and truly to have been and still to be, that the aforesaid company was and is still empowered to establish colonies and settlements on lands unoccupied by others, within the limits aforesaid." . . . The document is printed by Luzac, in his Hollands Rijkdom, ii, Bijlaage L, and is translated in full in the Documents relative to ihe Colonial History of New York (ii, pp. 228-229). The documents of the controversy between the English and Dutch in New Netherlands, most of which are to be found in the collection last named, are full of suggestion as to the nature of the territorial claims of the Dutch. ' Extracts, pp. 130, 131. 2 " En wat aengaet Nieuw Nederland, daer de Kamer van Amsteldam, en de Wilde Kust daer de Kamer van Zeeland, ieder hare Colonien hebben, zoo zal het de andere Kameren vry staen (blyvende de Resolutien te voren genomen in haer geheel), op bekwame en onbeheerde Plaetsen, ook hare Colonien, aldaer te stabileren, en andere particuiieren onder hare Colonien te laten komen, alles met voorgaende Notificatie, Kennis en Approbatie van de Vergaderinge der Negentienen, en op eenen egalen voet, Ordre en Reglement, niet strydig tegens de alreede gestabileerde Colonien van Amsteldam en Zeeland."— (Nederlandsche Jaerboeken, 1751, p. 1098. a Extracts, pp. 47, 56, 57, 60, 113, 118, 120, 121, 124, 125. "¦ Extracts, p. 60. « Extracts, p. 113. 6 Extracts, p. 56, note. 180 No. 3. Orinoco and Amazon;"1 and when, later in the same year, the direction of the colonization of Guiana was transferred by the Company to the three Walcheren cities, they were empowered by the Company to " establish and plant colonies on the continental Wild Coast between the first and the tenth degree."2 How the Dutch looked on Guiana at this period is suggested by a little tract written in 1659 in the interest of the colonization of this region— a " Description of Guiana," under the form of a dialogue between a country man, a townsman, and a sailor. The townsman, having asked the sailor " Where is this land Guiana situated?" and having learned that " This land is situated between the great rivers Amazon and Orinoco," next inquires " Has this land its own government, or have the Spaniards and Portuguese anything to say there?" and is told, " This land has its own kings and governments; neither Spaniard nor Portuguese has anything to say there— they do not even come thither, inasmuch as the Guianese are mortal foes of the Spanish and Portuguese nations." It is clear that by " the Guianese " and their governments are understood the Indians, and that Guiana, though not Spanish or Portuguese, is not thought of as belonging to the Dutch."3 *360 *But, while there is thus abundant evidence of a claim of the Dutch to plant colonies freely on the coast of Guiana from the Amazon to the Orinoco, I have found in Dutch records no claim, as against other European States, of an exclusive right thus to colonize Guiana; and no protest at any time against the similar attempts which, throughout the greater part of this century, the English and the French were likewise making to plant colonies on this coast.4 The Treaty of Munster, by which in 1648 Spain for the first time 1 Extracts, p. 124. 2 Extracts, p. 126. 8 Stee-man: "Waer is dit Landt Guiana gelegen?" Schipper: " Dit Landt is gelegen in 't zuyder America . . . bepaelt tusschen de vermaerde Rivieren, Amazonas, en Oroneque, ofte Worroneque." Stee-man: " Heeft dit Landt syn eygen regeeringe, of hebben de Spangiaerts en Portugesen daer oock wat te seggen?" Schipper: " Dit Landt heeft syn eygen Koningen en Regeeringe, den Spangiaert noch Portugees, en heeft daer niet te seggen, sy komen daer oock niet, vermits de Guianesen doodt vyanden zyn van de Spaensche en Portugeesche natie. " (Beschryvinge van Guiana . . . Discourerender wyse voorgestelt, tusschen een Boer ofte Landt- man, een Burger ofte Stee-man, een Schipper ofte Zee-man, een Haegsche Bode: Hoorn, 1676, pp. 13, 14.) Although not printed until 1676, the book was written, as its preface tells us, in 1659. 4 Addressing the English ambassador, in 1664, d propos of the controversy over New Netherland, the Dutch States-General maintained " that property which lies wild, desert, sterile, and vacant belongs to him who happens to occupy it; that this title of occupation constitutes that of the inhabitants of this state to the lands of New Netherland, and that the English themselves have no other title to the lands which they possess in those countries;" and that " possession is a real taking up . . . and therefore an act which must be verified by witnesses, and can not in the remotest degree be proved by the granting of any patent or royal charter." For the whole passage, see Documents relative to the Colonial History of New York (vol. ii, p. 380). 181 No. 3. formally recognized the independence of the Dutch and the existence of their colonial possessions, makes no mention of Guiana or of any other region by name; nor do the records of the negotiations, preserved to us in great fullness, show any mention of that district. Equally silent are the treaties of the Netherlands with England and with France. Nor are the Guiana colonies matters of discussion in the diplomatic correspondence be tween Holland and Spain. And when, in 1674, the old West India Company was dissolved, the charter given by the States-General to its successor granted it, not as before the entire coast of America, nor even the Wild Coast of Guiana, but on the American *mainland only "the places of Esse- *361 quibo and Pomeroon." Berbice, of course, and Surinam remained Dutch possessions, though not now granted to the West India Company. 1 But what became of Dutch claims, if such there were, to those portions of the Wild Coast unoccupied at the date of this new charter is a question for the lawyers. No light is thrown upon it by the contemporary records of the States- General's action. The boundaries of " the places of Essequibo and Pomeroon " the charter did not define; and it was long before the West India Company itself attempted such a definition. The suggestion of the Essequibo governor in 1683-84 that they take into their possession the River Barima did not elicit so much as a response.2 Even as to the Pomeroon the Company seems to have had some doubts as to its title; for the proposal to -throw open that river, in 1686, met with protest from the Zeeland deputies, and it was not until after a careful investigation by the Zeeland Chamber of the history of the earlier colony in that river that the Pomeroon was again opened to settlement. 3 When, in 1689, the colony in that river was forever brought to an end by a raid of the French and Caribs, the Company instructed the Essequibo governor to leave there three men with a flag " for the maintenance of the Company's possession" there,4 but said nothing as to frontier. *The earliest mention I have anywhere found in Dutch records *362 of a boundary between the Dutch and the Spanish possessions in Guiana is that in 1712 by the Lord of Sommelsdijk, head of the great Dutch family which was one-third owner of the colony of Surinam. There was 1 The company claimed Berbice, nevertheless, and there resulted a controversy between it and the heirs of the patroon Van Pere. The outcome was the recognition, in 1778, by all parties and by the States-General, of the colony as a fief of the Company, to be held by the Van Peres, subject to feudal dues, as long as the Company's charter lasted. Surinam remained in the hands of the province of Zeeland till 1682, when it was bought by the Company, which in 1683 sold a third interest to the city of Amsterdam and another to the house of Sommelsdijk, retaining but a third for itself. These relations of the Company with Guiana territories not specified in its charter are not without interest to the present problem. 8 Extracts, pp. 158-171; and cf. pp. *262-*268, above, 3 Extracts, pp. 175-180; cf.also p. 139, 4 Extracts, p. 191. 182 No. 3. then under negotiation the Peace of Utrecht, by which the relations of Spain and the Netherlands were afresh to be defined. In a session of the Society of Surinam, at Amsterdam, Mr. Van Sommelsdijk urged the regulation in this treaty of the "boundary in America between the subjects of the States-General and those of the King of Spain, as regards the proviuce of Surinam with the rivers and districts adjacent thereto." The matter was actually put into the hands of the Dutch plenipotentiary; but it was never brought up for discussion in the formal negotiations. 1 Where Mr. Van Sommelsdijk and his colleagues would have wished the frontier set does not appear; and, though the West India Company was a member, to the extent of a third, of the Society of Surinam, and must, therefore, have known of this effort for a delimitation of the boundary, no action on this head is to be found in its own minutes. Puzzling questions are raised as to the notions of the West India Com pany regarding the district lying beyond its northwestern post of Wacupo by its attitude toward the traders of the neighboring Dutch colonies of Berbice and Surinam, whose trade "in the district lying under the charter" they restricted or forbade,2 while their trade wTest of this post was tolerated, and it was even proposed to legalize it by a toll. 3 The Surinam traders carried on, indeed, on the testimony of the Essequibo gover- *363 nors, a larger trade with the Indians west of the Moruca *than did the Company's colony itself.4 What bearing, if any, this fact may have upon the territorial claims there of the Company or of the Dutch is a problem. Not to be overlooked in this connection is the evidence from a later period that the passes granted by the Surinam governors for this trade were recognized by the Essequibo postholders. B To be noted, too, is the Company's assertion, in answer to the request of the Essequibo colonists to be allowed freedom of trade in the neighboring Spanish terri tory, that "although Orinoco, Trinidad, etc., is under the power of the Spaniards, still it also lies within the charter of the Company, where nobody has the right to trade except the Company and those to whom the Company gives permission to do so— so that it all is the territory of the Company, even though we have no forts there."6 It is, of course, the trade provisions of the charter which are here in thought. Thus, too, in a letter of 1752, the other Dutch colonies on this coast are declared to be "also situated under the district of the States-General's charter."7 A claim as to territorial frontier the Company was slow in making. Neither the recommendations of the engineer, Maurain-Saincterre, in 1722, 1 Extracts, pp. 233-236. * Extracts, pp. 196, 207, 208. Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 70. 3 Extracts, pp. 229-232, 238, 239, and passim. Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 72-76. 4 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 91. Extracts, pp. 278, 332. Cf. also what Father Gumilla says of Governor Gelskerke's reply to his proteBt against the slave trade. (Orinoco, ii, p. 92.) s Extracts, p. 408. 6 Extracts, p. 241. ' Extracts, p. 339. 183 No. 3. for the establishment of plantations in the Waini and the Barima,1 nor the report of Governor Gelskerke, in 1731, as to the project of the Swedes for occupying the Barima and the plans of the Spaniards for dispossessing them, 2 won from the Company a word as to its rights in this region. 3 The removal of the Wacupo post westward to the *Moruca, in 1726, *364 took place without comment from the Company, and when', in 1737', Governor Gelskerke wrote them that this post, though declining in commer cial value, must be kept up because "established for the maintenance of your frontiers,"4 they said nothing of the frontier in their reply. Another inter esting territorial question was raised in 1744 by the Essequibo governor's taking possession of a Dutch slave ship stranded on the coast between the Moruca and the Waini. Certain Dutch jurists are said to have held the territory Spanish. But the Company seems to have pronounced no opinion on this point; and no protest came from Spain.5 Even the advance of the Spanish missions in the basin of the Cuyuni did not at once stir them to a claim. In July, 1746, when Governor Storm van's Gravesande first reported the presence of these, he added that he dared not check this Spanish advance because of his ignorance of "the true frontier line."6 In December he again lamented to them that " the bound aries west of this river [Essequibo] are unknown to me."7 lit March, 1747, he once more explained his inaction by the fact that he was not "rightly conscious how far the limits of your territory extend, both on the eastern and northern sides as well as back to the south and westwards," and he added that no documents regarding these boundaries were to be found in the archives of the colony.8 The Zeeland Cham ber could only reply that it must await the action of the Ten.9 And when the Ten finally met, in September, 1747, it could but adopt a resolution requesting that "all the respective *Chambers, each *365 by itself, investigate and inquire whether it can be discovered how far the limits of this Company in Essequibo do extend,"10 and to this effect it wrote the governor. 1 J Meanwhile he had found in the colony itself a source at least of suggestion. " According to the talk of the old men and of the Indians," he wrote the Company in December, 1748, "this jurisdiction should begin to the east at the creek Abary and extend 1 Extracts, p. 248. 2 Extracts, pp. 257-265. 6 Equally unanswered was a later appeal from an Essequibo governor (April 14, 1753 — Extracts, pp. 340, 341) for instructions as to his conduct in ca6e the Swedes should renew their designs on the Barima. 4 Extracts, p. 278. 6 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 85, 86 ; Extracts, p. 328. 6 Extracts, p. 306. ' Extracts, p. 309. "Extracts, p. 311. 9 Extracts, p. 311. 10 Extracts, p. 313. "Extracts, p. 314. 184 No. 3. westward as far as the river Barima." Yet " this talk," he added, "gives not the slightest certainty;" and he still wished " that if it were possible," he "might know the true boundary."1 But no answer to this question was found by the Chambers; aud, when in 1750, Governor Storm van's Gravesande came home to Holland and laid in person before the Company the needs of the colony, he had again to point out that " it is urgently necessary that the limits of the Company's territory be known."2 This time he was told that "the determining of the limits" was an object of attention to His Highness, the Stadhouder, and that the latter's advice thereon must be awaited. 3 Whether in private conference it was con fidentially agreed between the Stadhouder and Governor Storm van's Gravesande that, provisionally, the basis of Dutch claim should be the newly published map of the French geographer D'Anville, which Gov ernor Storm van's Gravesande was shown by that prince,4 can not be known. Even if so, the death of the prince in 1751 left matters as before. When, in 1754, the Spaniards were again pushing forward with their mis sions, Governor Storm van's Gravesande again addressed to the Com- *366 pany a prayer for " the so long-*sought definition of frontier."5 " Is not this," he asked, " regulated by the Treaty of Munster?" The an swer of the Zeeland Chamber, sent on January 6, 1755, is of the highest in terest.6 " We would we were able," they wrote, " to give you such an exact and precise definition of the proper limits of Essequibo as you have several times asked of us; but we greatly doubt whether any precise and accurate definition can anywhere be found, save and except the general limits of the Company's territories stated in the preambles of the respective charters granted to the West India Company at various times by the States-Gen eral." Now, as has been shown, the only American limits named in the first of these charters are Newfoundland and Bering's Strait, while the second and final one names no limits at all, but only " the places of Esse quibo and Pomeroon." But the Zeeland Chamber is not yet through. The letter goes on: " And except the description thereof which is found in the respective memorials drawn up and printed when the well-known dif ferences arose concerning the exclusive navigation of the inhabitants of Zeeland to those parts, wherein it is defined as follows: ' That region lying between those two well-known great rivers, namely, on the one side, that far-stretching and wide- spreading river, the Amazon, and, on the other side, the great and mightily flowing river, the Orinoco, occupying an intermediate space of 10 degrees of north latitude from the Equator, together with the islands adjacent thereto.'" Now, the memorial from 1 Extracts, p. 322. 2 Extracts, p. 330. " Extracts, p. 333. 4 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 6 Extracts, pp. 347, 848. n Extracts, pp. 357, 358, 3," p. 118, 185 No. 3. which this grandiloquent clause is borrowed is the well-known one ad dressed in 1751 to the States-General by the Zeeland Chamber itself; but a glance at the context shows that what was there described was by no means the colony of Essequibo. The memorialists were speaking of the earliest Dutch colonizers of Guiana. These praiseworthy colonizers, they declare, *" among other places of that broad continent [of America], *367 cast their eyes on " the region thus described, i. e., on Guiana. The descriptive phrases above quoted are followed by these words: "Which aforesaid region, stamped by the Spaniards, as its first European possessors and inhabitants, . . . with the name of Guiana, was afterward by our people— at least the greater part of it— called by the name of the Wild Coast; probably because the chief portion of the aforesaid coast, reckoning from the river Amazon to the said great stream, the Orinoco, was at that time inhabited by no others than the natives . . ." But, if the passage thus quoted could hardly with justice be interpreted as a definition of the limits of Essequibo, it must be added that later passages of the memorial in question left no doubt that its authors in fact held the Dutch colonies to extend to the Orinoco. Thus, a little later, discussing the trade-regula tion of 1633 by which the Caribbean coasts " from the Orinoco westward " were thrown open to Dutch cruisers, they argue thus: " Your High Mightinesses, in specifying the limits within which navigation shall be confined begin precisely with the district above the tenth degree of north latitude— the river Orinoco westward— just where the possession of the Zeeland Chamber ended. What reasons could there have been why the navigators should not have been admitted also within the aforesaid ten lowest degrees excepting only that this distance and that region and the rivers there situate were lawful possessions of the Zeeland Chamber?"1 Whatever one may think either of this reasoning or of the appositeness of the quoted description, there can be no doubt that the Zeeland Chamber in its reply to the Essequibo governor in 1755 did actually suggest the Ori noco as a boundary. Almost as much had already been done by the shareholders *of the Zeeland Chamber in 1751, 2 when in a memorial *368 to the States- General they had spoken of " Essequibo with all her appurtenant rivers from the river Berbice down as far as the river of Orinoco."3 Unfortunately for the importance of these claims by the Zeeland Cham ber, that Chamber had now, and even before its memorial of 1751, lost the right to speak, even as to Guiana, for the West India Company as a whole. 1 Nederlandsche Jaerboeken, 1751, pp. 1084, 1094. In another passage (p. 1089) of the same memorial, the colony of Essequibo is described as " lying on the Orinoco, and therefore 8 or 9 degrees further north " than the Amazon. 2 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," p. 96. * In like fashion these Zeeland shareholders, a decade later, in another memorial, declared that the colony of Essequibo, " is crossed not only by the chief river, the Essequibo, but also by several small rivers, such as Barima, Waini, Moruca, Pomeroon, and Pemerara." (Blue Book " Venezuela No, 3," p, 183,) 186 No. 3. The long-festering struggle over the Zeeland monopoly of the control of Essequibo had in 1750 burst into open quarrel; and the remainder of the Company had, pending the decision of the States- General, washed its hands of the colony altogether, refusing to allow it to be a subject of dis cussion in the meetings of the Ten. Moreover, the counter-memorials ad dressed to the States-General by the Amsterdam Chamber contested the statements made by the Zeelanders, not excepting those as to the limits of the colony. They even denied that the colony of " Essequibo and appur tenant rivers" included of right anything more than the Essequibo and its tributaries, and did not fail to point out that the various utterances of the Zeeland Chamber itself were inconsistent with each other in their statement of the boundaries.1 However historically untenable the con tention of the Amsterdam Chamber, it must, especially in view of the final award of the colony to the latter's control, go far to neutralize the assertions of the Zeelanders. *369 But we are not yet at the end of the Zeeland Chamber's *answer to Storm van 's Gravesande. "For," they add, after thus referring to the charters and quoting the memorial of 1751, " neither in the Treaty of Munster (mentioned because you suggested this to us), nor in any other, is there, to our knowledge, anything to be found about this." With such an answer, giving the colony no boundaries but those of all Guiana, the governor had to be content. Already, in 1754, before receiv ing this answer, the colonial authorities had planted a post up the Cuyuni; and when, in 1758, this was destroyed by a Spanish raid, it was not the Orinoco boundary, as suggested by the Zeeland Chamber's answer, but the boundary laid down in the map of D'Anville, which the Essequibo gov ernor, in his letter of protest to the Spanish Governor of Orinoco, claimed for the Dutch and avowed his purpose to maintain.2 It was to this map of D'Anville. too, that he appealed in his report to the Company regarding the Spanish attack, saying that on it they would "see even our bound aries portrayed, whereof it appears he was informed on good authority."3 1 Extracts, pp. 428-433. This memorial was the joint reply of the Amsterdam Chamber and of the representative of the Stadhouder, calling itself Deductie ran den Representant van sijn Hoogheid en Be windhebberen der Westindische Compagnie ter prcesidiale Kamer Amsterdam. 2 Extracts, pp. 377, 378. 3 " En daerop selver onze limiten zien, waarvan het schynt hy van goeder hand onderregt was." In view of the fact that this map was shown to Storm by the Prince of Orange, and of the fact that in 1750 the boundaries were said to be " an object of His Highness's attention," it may be asked if the source of D'Anville's line may not possibly have been that Prince himself, to whom it certainly would not have beeu strange for the French royal geographer to address himself for such information. But this seems to me very improbable. In that case Storm, who had talked with the Prince, would almost certainly have known it, and could not have failed to name to the Company, confidentially at least, so high a sponsor for the claims he was urging. In that case, too, it is incredible that the Company itself should not know what map of D'Anville he meant or could have needed to receive a copy from the Essequibo governor. Nor would Storm in that case have made, without reserve, his appeal of 1754 for a definition of the boundary. D'Anville's line, too, seems but a modification of that of the earlier French geographer, Delisle, as is cogently pointed out by Secretary Mallet-Prevost in his report on The Cartographical Testi mony of Geographers (in vol. iii). 187 No. 3. ^ The Zeeland Chamber itself, startled into the drafting of an energetic remonstrance for presentation by the States-General to the *370 Court of Spain, made in that document no such demarcation of its claim. It affirmed only its immemorial possession of the Essequibo and all its branches, and hence its surprise at being disturbed in the quiet enjoyment of its post on the Cuyuni. What it asked was not restitution of territory but only ' that reparation maybe made for the said hostilities, and that the Remonstrants may be reinstated in the quiet possession of the said post on the river of Cuyuni, and also that through their High Mightinesses and the Court of Madrid a proper delimitation between the Colony of Essequibo and the river Orinoco may be laid down by authority, so as to prevent any future dispute." Adopted without change by the States-General, July 31, 1759, this remonstrance was at once transmitted to the Court of Spain. It was, so far as can be learned, the earliest mention, in the intercourse be tween these governments, of the Guiana boundary. No formal answer from Spain was ever received. Before submitting this remonstrance the Zeeland Chamber had written to the Essequibo governor, asking "to be exactly informed where the aforesaid post on the river of Cuyuni was situated," and also to be given " a more specific description of the map of America by Mr. D'Anville."2 The reply of Governor Storm, written on September 1, 1759, 3 came much too late for use in the remonstrance; but his claim to the whole of the river Cuyuni so impressed them that in their reply of December 3 they asked him to lay before them "everything which in any way might be of service in proof of our right of ownership to, or possession of, the afore said river because, after receiving it, we might perhaps, present to the States-General a fuller remonstrance on this head, with a statement *of facts joined thereto."4 They asked further, also, the grounds *37l upon which he made "the boundary of the colony toward the side of Orinoco to extend not only to Waini, but even as far as Barima." It was ten years before the fuller remonstrance thus foreshadowed was actually presented. Spanish aggressions had in the meantime not ceased. They had called the attention of the Company not less forcibly to the frontier on the seacoast than to that in the basin of the Cuyuni. The "great remonstrance," drawn up by the Zeeland Chamber and urged by the Stadhouder, which on August 2, 1769, was adopted by the States- General and duly transmitted to Spain, differs strikingly in its attitude toward the boundary from its predecessor of 1759. What it asks is no longer "that a proper delimitation be laid down by authority." It assumes, instead, that such a delimitation already exists, and implies in unmistaka ble terms the limits of Dutch territory. It is now not alone of the Esse- 1 Extracts, pp. 383-386. 2 Extracts, p. 381. 3 Extracts, pp. 386, 387. 4 Extracts, p. 388. 1SSNo. 3. quibo and its branches, but also " of sundry rivers and creeks on that coast which flow into the sea," of which the Company claims to have been " in almost immemorial possession." It asserts this especially of the Cuyuni, where, it avers, " from all old times " there had been a post of the Com pany; but it does not dispute the rightful presence of the Spaniards in that river. Two new missions reported in February, 1769, though "not far above the Company's aforesaid post in Cuyuni," are " apparently, how ever, on Spanish territory;" and it is complained only (in a phrase italicized both in the manuscript and in the official printed impressions of the remon strance) that they are "so near to the Dutch territory." The river Moruca, "where from time immemorial the Company had likewise had a *372 trading place and post," "is a small *river, or creek, south of the river Waini and lying between it and the river Pomeroon," and "beyond contradiction belonged also to the Dutch territory. But on the coast, the territory of the Dutch extends from the river Marowyn, at the east, "to beyond the river Waini, not far from the mouth of the river Orinoco;" and this not, so far as is alleged, on the basis of treaty or of oc cupation, but, " according to the existing maps thereof, particularly that of M. d'Anville, reckoned for its accuracy as one of the best."1 Such are the territorial claims, express or implied, of the document which alone in all the diplomatic correspondence of the Netherlands with Spain suggests the whereabouts of the Guiana boundary. These claims were never answered by Spain, 2 and never reiterated by Holland. Spanish aggressions continued to cause anxiety in the colony, and occasionally a complaint to the home government; but they were overshadowed by the more pressing grievance of the harboring by the Spaniards of the runaway slaves of the Dutch. Whatever of negotiation or of protest regarding the Guiana colonies is to be found during the next quarter century or *373 so in Dutch records *turns on this and not on questions of boundary; and when, in 1791, a cartel was at last concluded for the reciprocal return of such fugutives, no mention of territorial claim is to be found either in that convention itself or in the diplomatic correspondence attend ing its negotiation. 1 Extracts, pp. 457-462, 468-175. 2 Less fortunate than the British searchers, I have not been able to find even that oral answer which (in the Blue Book " Venezuela No. 1," p. 14) the Dutch ambassador at Madrid is said to have received from the Spanish prime minister: " that he would send orders to the (Spanish) governor to discontinue all hostilities and to leave those ot the Dutch Colony in quiet possession as they had possessed the same until now." I find, indeed, that the Dutch ambassador asked this in precisely these words (see his letter of September 7, 1769, printed in the Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 174); but the answer he reports is a much less reassuring one. His Excellency " said he knew nothing of the matter," and replied, in sub stance, that it should be looked into. What can be found as to relations in Guiana in the letters of the Dutch ambassador at Madrid to the States-General during the next quarter century has been printed in the Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3 " (pp. 182, 188, 189). I have read also with care the more private cor respondence of the ambassador with the Secretary of the States-General and with the Raad-Penskmaris throughout the period 1756-1796 without finding any passage like tl;at quoted, or any mention of boundary or of territorial rights in Guiana, 189 No. 3. The question of the Guiana boundary does not seem to have been again brought forward in Holland until, at the close of the year 1801, a great European Congress was again arranging the affairs of nations. The col onies in Guiana, which since 1796 had been in the hands of the British, were about to be restored to the Dutch; and the Dutch "Council of the American Colonies," with the approval of the Government, secretly sent an envoy to the Congress of Amiens, there to act as adviser to the Dutch plenipotentiary and care for colonial interests in the pending negotiations. 1 In the confidential instructions given him (December 22, 1801) he was charged "in case the negotiations at the Congress should also extend themselves to the regulation of the interests of this Republic with other Powers, and this should lead to a precise definition of the boundaries of one or other of their respective possessions," to " try to have the limits be tween the Batavian [Dutch] and Spanish possessions in South America irrevocably defined, either by the eastern bank of the Orinoco or by the river Barima."2 But, on reaching Amiens, this envoy, Ruysch, was at once made to see that, in view of the certain opposition of the English, it would be unwise to so much as mention the Guiana boundary in the Congress. Ruysch ac cordingly wrote this to his principals, the Council of the Colonies, recom mending that the negotiation as to the boundary be rather intrusted to the Dutch ambassador at Madrid: "that he should be empowered *with full authority, to fix the boundary fifteen or twenty Dutch *374 miles below [i. e., west of] Barima."3 " In case this should not find favor, then at Barima; and, if this should not go, then, in order to obviate all cavil in future, to pay therefor a certain sum."4 The Council seems to have acquiesced without protest in this conclu sion, and the matter is heard of no more. 5 If, however, it was their in tent to intrust it to the Dutch ambassador at Madrid, that intent was not carried out. 6 Neither Spain nor the world were the wiser for this confidential scheming of the Dutch Council of the Colonies. The speedy reopening of the European war and the loss of the colonies again, in 1803, to the British, soon put further action out of the question. Yet, just before this catas trophe, the submission by the Council of the Colonies to the Dutch Gov ernor-General of Demerara and Essequibo of a body of petitions for land 1 Extracts, pp. 639-643. 2 Extracts, p. 644. 8 " Barima being held among us as the frontier line," explains Ruysch. By " among us " he prob ably means " in the colony." 4 Extracts, pp. 646-647. 6 Extracts, p. 661. 6 I have examined the letters throughout 1802 and 1803 of the Dutch ambassador at Madrid, and of the Charge d'Affaires (Nieuwerkercke) who during much of that period was in charge there. A few are in cipher, but a contemporary decipherment accompanies them. Guiana is scarcely mentioned, and the boundary never. The only trouble between ,the Dutch and Spanish colonies touched on is the old one about the return of runaway slaves. 190 No. 3. grants between Moruca and Waini, with a request for his advice, not as to the Dutch ownership of this territory, but only as to the expedience of now opening it to cultivation,1 plainly shows (if the document to this effect still extant among the colonial papers represents action actually taken) the attitude and policy of the Batavian Government toward this region. In fine, then: *375 1. The whole coast of Guiana was, from the beginning of *the seventeenth century, looked on by the Dutch as open to coloniza tion; but no exclusive claim to that coast, as a whole, seems ever to have been made by them. 2. From 1621 to 1674 the right to colonize that coast on behalf of the Dutch was vested in the Dutch West India Company, which was em powered by its charter to settle unoccupied districts. That Company, while freely exercising this right of colonization, and granting lands for its exercise by others, has left on record no definition of the limits of its occu pation in Guiana, and no claim as to a boundary on the side of the Spanish colonies. 3. From 1674 a new West India Company, which had received by its charter no other lands on the American Continent than " the places of Essequibo and Pomeroon," owned and governed the Dutch colonies in western Guiana. The boundaries of these " places," undefined by the charter, were left undefined by the Company, and (save for certain claims put forth by the Zeeland Chamber when in schism with the rest of the Company) remained undefined until the year 1769. 4. In 1758, the Governor of these Dutch colonies addressed to the Governor of Spanish Guiana a remonstrance against Spanish aggressions, in which he claimed for the Dutch the boundary laid down on the map of D'Anville. This claim was made, however, without authority from the West India Company or from the State, and was not urged in the remon strance (1759) addressed on this occasion at the instance of the Company by the States-General to the Court of Spain. 5. But, in 1769, another remonstrance to the Spanish Court, drawn by the Zeeland Chamber of the West India Company, urged by the Stad houder, and adopted by the States General, stated or implied definite claims as to territorial boundary in Guiana. On the coast the Dutch *376 territory is represented as *stretching to beyond the Waini; in the interior, to a point between the Dutch post on the Cuyuni and the nearest Spanish missions. This is the one document known to the diplo matic correspondence of the two countries which suggests the place of the boundary. 6. In 1792 the Guiana colonies reverted to the State, but no fresh claim was made as to this boundary; and, though in 1801-1802 the Dutch Council L Extracts, pp. 659-662. 191 No. 3. of the Colonies conceived a project for the delimitation at the Congress of Amiens of the Guiana boundary, fixing it, if possible, at the Orinoco or the Barima, the project was abandoned and remained a secret. *11. SPANISH OCCUPATION AND CLAIM IN GUIANA. *377 The only Spanish settlement on the Orinoco or east of it which is known to Dutch records before the eighteenth century is that of Santo Thome. At least I have found no mention of a Spanish settlement which may not readily be identified with Santo Thome;1 and the careful accounts of these coasts given in 1598 by Cabeliau2 and in 1637 by Ousiel3 show that at those dates, at least, the Dutch had no knowledge of other Spanish occupation in this region.4 It was, indeed, not until almost the middle of the eight eenth century that there is mention in the Essequibo papers of that spread from the Orinoco inward of the Indian missions of the Catalonian Capuchins, which, from Spanish and ecclesiastical records, we know to have begun as early as 1724. On July 20, 1746, Governor Storm van 's Gravesande wrote to the Dutch West India Company, on the word of an Essequibo trader, confirming a report received some months earlier from the Caribs, that the Spaniards had established a mission up the Cuyuni, and had built a small fort there, and that they were busy making brick with the intention of founding in the *next year yet another mission and fort some hours further *378 down the river toward Essequibo. 5 Six months later he again wrote of the mission and fort " erected by the Spaniards up in Cuyuni," and of that to be founded next year;6 and in March, 1747, he could not only renew his mention of " the mission and fort up in Cuyuni, and of the intention to build this year yet another fort there, but some [Dutch] miles lower," but could add: "which they are now proceeding to do, according to the report of those who come down that river with mules." On December 2, 1748, however, he corrected this, stating that a trader, who had been requested carefully to spy out the goings of the Spaniards in that region, "has made report to me that the Spaniards had not yet undertaken the building of any forts or missions lower down, as had been their intention."1 On learning of these Spanish movements in the Cuyuni the West India Company had asked the Essequibo governor for an accurate chart of the colony.8 He had undertaken the task himself; and. when his first map 1 Extracts, pp. 26, 30, 54, 77, 81. 2 Extracts, pp. 13-22. 3 Extracts, pp. 77, 83-96. 4 There was, indeed, a Dutch tradition as to an early Spanish occupation further east (see pp. 182, 367, above). The evidence for the presence of the Spaniards in the Essequibo is discussed by Professor Jameson (pp. 46-52, above [i. e. U. S. Com. Rep., v. 1]), and in my paper On the Historical Maps (vol. iii, pp. *188-*191). 6 Extracts, p. 306, 6 Extracts, p. 308. 7 Extracts, p. 322. 8 Extracts, pp. 313, 314, 192No. 3. was lost on its way to Holland, he made another. This map (dated August 9, 1748, though not completed or sent until late in 1749), is still extant.1 In the letter of transmission (September 8, 1749) he thus writes of the Spanish missions: " Having written to the Governor of Cumana, that, if the design of founding a mission on the river Cuyuni were persisted in, I should be obliged forcibly to oppose it, he replied to me that such was without his knowledge (not the founding of the new mission, but the site) and that it should not be progressed with; and, in reality, nothing has been done in the matter. On the map you will find the site marked, as also that of the one already established."2 Now, it is evident, I think, that the two *379 missions thus spoken of— the one *established, the other projected— are the same two of which he has heretofore written, the only two of whose actual or intended existence in the upper Cuyuni he has had knowl edge. Yet it is evident, even before looking at his map, that his conception of their place has been modified. It is now only the projected mission which is "on the river Cuyuni." The map bears this out. At a point on the upper Cuyuni where it receives a tributary from the north — the only such tributary shown by the map — is marked a cross, with the words (in Dutch): "Place where the Spaniards proposed to establish a mission." On the same tributary, some miles higher up and on its opposite bank, is shown a house, with the name "Spanish mission." A few months later Governor Storm visited Holland, and there in per son complained to the Company of the neighboring Spaniards, "who, under pretext of establishing their missions, are fortifying themselves everywhere."3 To illustrate this he submitted a map, which he declared to be " drawn up by the Spaniards themselves." This little map, which is also still extant,4 and which is doubtless the one elsewhere described by Storm as copied from that drawn by the Jesuits sent a year or two before with an exploring expedition to the sources of the Cuyuni, shows likewise, at points answering to those on Storm's map, what seem meaut for two Spanish missions. 5 That at the junction of the Cuyuni with its northern tributary is marked (in Dutch) " New Mission." That above, which here seems on the eastern bank of the stream, is marked " Missions6 of the *380 Capuchins." But the map adds an interesting aid to the identifica- 1 Atlas of the Commission, map 60. " Extracts, p. 327. 8 Extracts, p. 380. 4 Atlas of the Commission, map 61. 5 For a more detailed discussion of this map, see in vol. iii the report on Maps from Official Sources, pp. *131-*134. 6 This plural, Missien, is puzzling. It may be suggested that this inscription is meant to denote these missions as a whole. But this is unlikely, for there is also on the map the title " Missions of the Catalonian Capuchins," corresponding to " Missions of the Jesuits," and "Missions of the Aragonese Ca puchins." It is more probably only an error for mission or missie. There are other such slips on the map. 193 No. 3. tion of these sites: the tributary here bears a name— " Meejou."1 Storm, too, knows this name,2 for, in a letter of September 2, 1754, review ing this episode, he wrote: "You will certainly recollect that I had the honor some years ago to inform you that they [the Spaniards] had located a mission on the creek Mejou, which flows into the Cuyuni, whereupon you did me the honor to command that I must try to hinder it, but without ap pearing therein. I do not discuss the reasons which induced you to command this secrecy, when that mission was so absolutely and indisputably in our territory; but before I was honored with that order I had written to the Governor of Cumana and made my *complaint, request- *381 ing that he would cause that mission to remove from there, and adding that I should otherwise be compelled, though unwillingly, to use means which would certainly be disagreeable to him. This had the desired effect, for I received a very polite reply, and not only was that mission actually withdrawn, but one of its ecclesiastics was even sent hither with the assurance that this had been done unwittingly."3 The secretary, Spoors, who had been left as acting governor in the colony during Storm's visit to Holland, had also mentioned these Spanish missions (September 8, 1750), 4 taking a different view as to the territory involved. Concerning those missions "which are said to have been con structed up in the River Cuyuni," he wrote, "lam instructed that they are decidedly nearer to the side of the Spanish than to our territory." As for "a new mission close by here," which Storm, at his departure, had given 1 In the reproduction of this map (from a free-hand copy) in the atlas (Appendix No. Ill, map 5) to the Blue Book "Venezuela No. I," this name is spelled Meejon; and the British translators have also read as an n the final letter of this word in Storm's missive of September 2, 1754. It is on this reading that is based the identification of the stream with the Miamo. But the reading is an error. In the map the letter (as will be seen from the photographic reproduction in the atlas of the Commission) is unmistakably a u. I have examined the word repeatedly, and with a magnifying glass, in the original of this map at The Hague. The n's of the map are made very differently ; its it's are all like this. In Storm's letter of September, 1754, the character looks more like a u than an n; but, as Storm had the bad habit of making his it's and his n's alike, little weight can bo attached to this. But in his account of the Company's trad ing posts, transmitted in 1764 (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. ) 29), Storm writes of another " creek Meejou, also called Maho," in the region of the Rupununi; even the British translators here read u. And what puts Storm's spelling of the name beyond question is a letter of June 3, 1769 (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 167). Speaking again of this southern Meejou, he here writes: "The river called Maho on D'Anville's map is called Mejou here by the Indians. There is one of the same name up in Cuyuni." It may be added that Indian names of streams are often derived from those of familiar objects, and that Mejou is the Carib word for cassava bread. (Thus Adelung, Mithridates, Th. 3 Abth. 2, citing both Boyer and Biet.) Hartsinck, too, who knew of Storm's explorations through another channel than his letters to the Company, spells the name Mejou — " the creek Mejou, where the Spaniards founded a mission." " And further up," he adds, the Cuyuni " is joined by the Juruary [Yuruari]." (Beschryving van Guiana, i, p. 264.) 1 If Storm's map, as is else not improbable, derived from the Jesuit map its locations for the missions, it is strange that it omits this name. It may in the Jesuit map be only an addition of the Dutch copyist. And it is not impossible that the indication of the two missions on the creek Mejou has been added to the map by Dutch hands. 8 Extracts, p. 348. 4 Extracts, pp. 334, 335. 194 No. 3. him " to understand that there was information that the Spaniards were beginning to construct," he had carefully informed himself about it through a colonist who in person had gone thither, and had been assured " that the last mission which is being constructed is in a certain little river called Imataca, situated far off in Orinoco." This, in the secretary's opinion, was " certainly far outside the concern of this colony." Six months later (March 6, 1751) i Acting Governor Spoors informed the Company, on the word of the same Essequibo trader, that "in the month of January the Carib nation made a raid upon three Spanish missions and murdered four or five priests;" and Storm van 's Gravesende was scarcely back in the colony *382 before he could report (August *4, 1752)2 that the Caribs "lately overran two missions and have murdered everyone there." A year or two later (August 19, 1754) a Dutchman resident in Orinoco, writing to warn the Essequibo colony of a projected Spanish invasion, declared that the project " comes from nowhere but from the priests here in Orinoco, for in the year 1751 they informed the King, when the Caribs here in Orinoco raided and burned the missions," that Dutchmen lurking among the Indians incited them to the mischief. 3 Such is, in full, the evidence of the Dutch records as to the Spanish mis sions existing prior to 1754. Before attempting its interpretation it will be well to call to mind what we know from Spanish records of these missions in the Cuyuni basin. From these we learn, mainly on the testimony of the missionaries themselves, that as early as 17334 they pushed across the divide into the region drained by the Cuyuni and planted a mission at Cupapuy, near the head waters of a tributary of the Yuruari; that in 1737 they established on the Yuruari itself the mission and cattle ranch of Divina Pastora; that in 1743 they created 10 leagues to the east of Divina Pastora, on the Cunuri near its junction with the Miamo, the village of Cunuri, *383 composed at first of Panacays, then of Caribs;5 that in this *same year 1743 it was their plan to place " on the banks of the Yuruari River, the Carib frontier," a day and a half beyond Divina Pastora, a set tlement, " where a fort is to be constructed, with four swivel guns, six armed men" 6 — doubtless that first Carib mission of Tupuquen which was 1 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 95. 2 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 96. * Extracts, pp. 344, 345. 1 For these dates of the missions I may refer to the table appended to my paper on the Historical Maps (vol. iii of this report, pp. *211-*213), and also to pp. *195-*203 of that paper. I am sorry that when compiling the table I lost from sight the interesting report of these missions (printed in the Venezuelan " Documents," II, pp. 263-269) made by their prefect to the governor on September 12, 1770. Save for two or three trifling variations in dates (1753 instead of 1755 for the founding of Aima, 1769 instead of 1768 for Maruanta, 1769 instead of 1770 for Panapana), it only confirms what is shown by the table ; but I might have learned from it, in addition, theinvocation (saint'sname) of Cavallapi (Nuestra SeHoradeLa Soledad), of Maruanta (Santa Rosa), and of Panapana (La Purisima Concepcion), with one or two minor details possibly worthy of note. 6 Venezuelan " Documents," II, pp. 67, 68. 6 Venezuelan " Documents," II, p. 70. 195 No. 3. destroyed by a revolt of its Indians in 1750, but was reestablished at this spot twenty years later. These, as seems clear from the request for gar risons presented in 1745 by the prefect of these missions, ! were the only missions then in existence in this advanced region. For the next few years there is a dearth of documents. From sources of much later date it appears that 1746 was the year of the founding of the mission of Palmar, and at somewhere about this time there was transferred from the Orinoco to a site a little farther westward on these same slopes the old mission of Santa Maria; but both of these were too far in the rear of those just men tioned to have caused alarm to the Dutch in 1746. In 1748 a Carib mission bearing the name of Miamo was founded on the river of that name above the Cunuri. This, too, though nearer, was still remote from the Dutch. Two other missions, however, whose existence though brief is none the less certain, must have lain between all those already named and the out skirts of the Dutch colony. These were Curumo and Mutanambo. Their sites are partially suggested by their names, for it was the custom of the missions to take the name of the streams by which they stood, and these are the names of well-known rivers — the Curumo a tributary of the Cuyuni, the Mutanambo2 of the Curumo. The date of their *founda- *384 tion is nowhere given, but, for reasons above stated, it must be later than 1743. " There was a revolt in the year 1750," wrote, in 1769, the man who of all men must best have known — the veteran prefect of the missions, Father Benito de la Garriga, who had himself in 1750 been a resident at that of Tupuquen—" when all the Caribs of our five missions of Miamo, Cunuri, Tupuquen, Curumo, and Mutanambo rose and killed four soldiers of the escort and eight Spaniards, committing many other kinds of outrages." And Father Benito relates how the Caribs, returning after a year, revealed " that they had done what they did at the instance of the Hollanders, who taught them the way of doing it, selecting ten Caribs beforehand to each father and ten more to each soldier."3 Nay, Father Benito had even learned the cause of the plot, and that the special grievance was the site of the mission of Curumo. " On one occasion," he said, he had " complained to a Dutch Hollander (arrived from Essequibo to reside in Guayana) about the cause of the revolt of the Caribs of our missions in 1750, and he answered that it 1 Venezuelan " Documents," II, p. 70. * The name Mutanambo (spelled also Butunambo, Botonamo — variations which will surprise no student of photenic laws) is given to the second great northern branch of the Curumo in the journal of Lopez de la Puente in 1789 (Bine Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 338 ; Venezuelan " Documents," III, p. 251) and in the map of Codazzi (than which two there can be for this region no higher au thorities), as well as in many later maps, such as the great colonial map of British Guiana (Atlas, map 49). And see, too, the words of Fray Caulin, quoted in the note on p. *387. According to Mr. Dixon (Geographical Journal, vol. 5, p. 340), who in 1895, on his journey up the Cuyuni, passed the mouth of the Curumo, the latter river is now " called by the Venezuelans Botonamo ; " and it is per haps on his authority that this is made an alternative name for the Curumo on the sketch map of the Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3." But Mr. Dixon does not Btate the source of his knowledge, and it is hard not to suspect a misunderstanding. 3 Venezuelan "Documents," II, pp. 143, 144; Blue Book "Venezuela No. 1," p. 118. . -. .¦ ¦:¦ ¦¦¦. :.- I . -¦-¦-.- 196 No. 3. was because the fathers made the sites of their missions within their [i. e., the Dutch] territory; that that of Curumo overstepped the line they drew from the mouth of the Aguire River to the south."1 Father Benito's is by no means the earliest mention we have of this Curumo mission. More than a dozen years earlier, in 1755, Colonel *385 Don Eugenio Alvarado, who had been sent by the *Spanish Rear- Admiral, Iturriaga, the commander of that Spanish force in Orinoco whose presence caused such panic in the neighboring Dutch colony, to make secret reconnoissance among these Capuchin missions, speaks, in his report, of "the destroyed missions of Cuniri, Tupuquen, Curumo, and that of Miamo, which were swept awTay by the relentless fury of the Caribs."3 Regarding one of these he had, indeed, been expressly charged to report. " In regard to the mission of Cuniri, burned down by the Caribs a few years before, which takes its name from a river of that name which flows into the Essequibo, according to general opinion, Alvarado is instructed to in form himself of this, as well as the distance to the said river Essequibo, and if this way be open at present and practicable, for many have traversed that route and found it very short." Is not the suspicion irresistible that Cuniri is but a slip, and that Curumo was the mission meant?3 But Al varado took his instructions literally. "The village of Cuniri," he re ported, "was burned and destroyed by the Caribs in the year 1751, with various others, . . . and the river which passes close to it gave its name to the mission." And he proceeds to explain that the Cuniri flows, not directly into the Essequibo, but into the Yuruari.4 Could the general in chief have failed to know that from the friars? Of the existence or the destruction of the missions of Curumo and Mutanambo, one finds other mention in the records of this period;5 *386 but it remained for a later prefect of *the missions to throw fresh light on their site. When in 1788 it was objected to the new foun dation of Tumeremo, near the river Curumo, that this new mission was too near the Cuyuni, Father Buenaventura de San Celonio replied that " the site of Curumo was less distant."6 Had Mutanambo also lain below, that, too, wrould have been named. But on this point there is graphic evi dence. The great Spanish map of South America put forth at Madrid in 1775 by tbe royal geographer, Cruz Cano y Olmedilla, 7 shows, on the branch of the Curumo still known as Mutanambo, a mission marked with that name. 1 Venezuelan "Documents," II, p. 151. s Blue Book " Venezuela No. 1," p. 85, " For the importance of the river Curumo as a short route to the Essequibo, see p. *313, note 4 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 1," pp. 85, 86. 5 Strickland, Documents and Maps . on the Boundary Question, p. 22 ; Blue Book " Venezuela No. 1," p. 118; Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," p. 270. (" Cummu " in the translated passage last named is a palpable misreading of Curumu. "Cumamo," suggested by the editor, is impossible all authorities agree that the mission of Cumamo was first founded in 1767.) 6 Blue Book "Venezuela No. 3," p. 333; Venezuelan "Documents," III, p. 218. 7 Atlas of the Commission, map 50. 197 No. 3. It shows no mission named Curumo, nor any mission lower than Mutan ambo in that region; but on the map of Spanish Guiana (Nueva Anda lucia), officially prepared three years later in the Spanish archives of the Indies,1 and published under royal sanction in the history of that province by Fray Caulin, this want is more than made good. Two missions are shown below Mutanambo; one of them on the east of the Curumo, near the junction of the Tocupo, the other near the site of the later Tumeremo. Neither bears a name. These maps have their errors, and these may be of them; but what they show as to missions beyond the Curumo is not con tradicted by the evidence of the documents. Least of all by the Dutch documents. Let us return to these. Which of all these missions known to Spanish records could have been that one mission— on the creek Mejou, not far from the Cuyuni— of wiiose exist ence alone the Dutch of Essequibo seem conscious at the middle of the eighteenth century? Was it Tupuquen, on the Yuruari? But the Yuru ari was already known by that name, not only by the Indians and by the Spaniards, but (if the stream meant in Storm's letter of May *31, 1755, 2 was, as is assumed by the British scholars, and as at least *387 is probable, really the Yuruari3) also to the Dutch. And Tubuquen, if established, as planned, in 1743, should have startled the Dutch, if at all, before 1746. Why not Curumo, on the river of its name? That stream, un less it be the Mejou, bears no name in Dutch records; yet it was well known to the Dutch traders. It was that stream, not the Yuruari, so reported the Spanish missionaries, which the Dutch made the avenue of that slave traffic with the Caribs which especially took them into these parts. From its upper waters, ascending by its main stream or by its branch, the Tocupo, or doubtless by the Mutanambo as well, they made their way across the Orinoco watershed, the hills of Imataca, to the Aguire, the Barima, or the Barama, and so homeward by the Moruca; or, as perhaps more often, reversing the journey, they crossed from Barama, Barima, or Aguire to the head waters of the Curumo, and pushed down to its junc tion writh the Cuyuni, whither to meet them, by way of the Avechica and the Yuruan, came the slave-bringing Caribs of the upper Orinoco. Such, at least, was the belief of the Spanish missionaries;4 and the belief 1 Atlas of the Commission, map 71. 2 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 103. Extracts, p. 364. 3 For discussion, see pp. *321, *334, *335, above. 4 We know it especially from Father Benito de la Garriga, more than once their prefect. See Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 235-237 (also in "Venezuela No. 1," pp. 93-96 ; Venezuelan "Documents,'' II, pp. 3-9); Venezuelan " Documents," II, pp. 141-152. "The Curumo," says Fray Caulin, writing in 1759, "receives the waters of the Mutanambo and the Tocupo, which have their source in the hills of Imataca ; and it would be most expedient that at the mouth either of the Curumo or of the Yuruari there should be built, from the materials offered by this region, some sort of fort, with a garrison of six or eight men. For, in the first place, since the passage of the Dutch [up the Orinoco] has been hindered by the citadel of Guayana and barred anew by the closure of the Limones channel, the rivers Cuyuni and Yuruari offer to them free passage for the abduction of slaves, as also to the Caribs for the conveyance of these to 198 No. 3. *388 of *the Spanish missionaries counted for not less than the facts, for it was they who located the missions. J Their location of the missions can be understood only by remembering that its chief directing motive was their constant, inveterate crusade against the trade in Indian slaves. It was not to them merely a senti ment: it was, on their own testimony, matter of life and death. If they would win the Indians or hold them in their missions, they must protect them against the Caribs; and there was no protecting them against the *389 *Caribs, unless by barring the rivers, which were the only highways, they could keep out the Dutch traders with their gew-gaws and their rum. Therefore it was that, pushing far afield, they had fortified and gar risoned themselves at Tupuquen, at Cunuri, at Miamo, and so cut off the Caribs of the upper Orinoco from their shortest route by the Yuruari and the Miamo to the Dutch traders in the Aguire. Thus it was, a little later, that they cut off, by planting a mission at Avechica or Supama, the route from the Caroni to the Cuyuni. Thus it was that, having secured the Yuruari by the founding of Tupuquen, it was next the most natural step to push across and plant themselves on the Curumo. From the one stream to the other stretched that savanna country where they were safest from the surprises of the Caribs and where throve the cattle which were their greatest source of revenue — the cattle for which in this very year, 1746, when the Dutch them. In the second place [this is needed] for the security of the new Guayana missions at Abachica [Avechica] and Yuruario, which they can now attack, as they are well skilled in doing, for the success of the missions makes impossible their slave trade, which is their most lucrative business. And, in the third place, in crder that, being restrained within the limits of the colonies they have already founded, they may gain no more territory, and may not with their ingress undertake other serious encroachments in points of much importance." — (Historia de la Nueva Andalucia, p. 56.) See also his passage as to the traffic through the Aguire, quoted in the note on p. *299. 1 It was not necessary for the missionaries to obtain first the consent of the Spanish authorities to the establishment of a new mission, or even to notify them of it. In 1788, the Capuchin prefect, writing to the Spanish governor, Marmion, who grumbled (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," pp. 335, 336) at the in completeness and inaccuracy of the reports received by him of the missions, explicitly declared (Blue Book, pp. 332, 333) that the selection of a site for a new mission was a matter for the friars alone. "By virtue," he said, " of an ordinance approved by the King, we have received commands that, among other things, the prefect and assistants are to assemble for the purpose of deliberating upon the sites for new reductions. This has always been done whenever it has been considered necessary to found any village of Indians. Precisely as ordered, and in the manner prescribed, those sites have been sought which would most conduce to the well-being of the Indians and the service of our Sovereign. And this appears to us to be quite in conformity with the laws relating to the foundation of villages of Indians." He adds, it is true, that the friars did not therefore deem it superfluous to request the governor's approval of a new mis sion, since the latter was always at liberty to inform them that such a site was not adapted for settling, and since, to obtain the grant pledged by the crown for the equipment of the new mission church and the added clergy requisite for the new villages, the approval or mediation of the governor was needed. But the initiative lay with the friars, and it is clear that a report might lag much behind their act. It is to be noticed, too, that such information as they did give the governors might be given " very confiden tially." (Blue Book, p. 336.) It is interesting, in the present connection, to note that, in the same letter in which the Capuchin prefect thus sets forth to the governor the right of the friars to the initiative, he says of the mission of Curumo, in particular, that in spite of its nearness to the Cuyuni " there was no difficulty made by one of your predecessors in allowing it to be founded, although, on account of the Caribs having risen, who were dwelling in that place, it has not been again founded." 199 No. 3. first complain of the missions, there seemed a new and most tempting market opened to them by Courthial's road from Essequibo, issuing from the forest just east of the Curumo.1 And that the new mission, if on the Curumo, should be placed on the east of the stream at its junction with the Tocupo, where it might bar both those avenues (at the site where it is shown by the map of Surville, and apparently also by the little Jesuit map),2 was at least extremely likely. If, too, the Curumo were really that creek Mejou on which the mission was planted in 1746, it is no longer so strange that Governor Storm should write of it as if it were the earliest of its sort. To the traders who brought him the tidings, the closing of this cardinal route might well seem the first *real invasion of Dutch rights. On the Yuruari the Spaniards *390 had been for a decade, and their presence there may have become a commonplace before Storm's advent in the colony. Nor is the name a serious obstacle. Curumo, or Curumu (as it was often spelt), hardly suggests Mejou or Maho. Yet, when one remembers that curu was through all this region a common Carib suffix for creek,3 appended still to the names of many streams, it does not seem improbable that to the ear of Storm van 's Gravesande or of his trader informants " Curumo" or " Curumu " should have sounded like Curu-Maho or Curu- Mejou, " creek Mejou." Be all that as it may, at the middle of the eighteenth century there ex isted Spanish missions named Curumo and Mutanambo. If they existed, they almost certainly existed on the rivers bearing then and still those names. And if they existed on those rivers, it is they, and not the mis sions of the Yuruari, which were likely to catch the attention and stir the alarm of the Dutch. Yet it is not of two missions actually established in the creek Mejou that the Dutch reports speak, but only of one actual, another projected but withdrawn. The site of the projected mission, as appears clearly at last both from the letters and the maps, was at the junction of that creek with the Cuyuni. This falls in, too, with all else we know. That, having shut off the Curumo, the Capuchins should next seek to shut off the Cuyuni was natural; and it was not less natural that they should attempt it by way of the more navigable Curumo instead of the Yuruari.4 But we are not left wholly to inference. In 1758, the Capuchin prefect, Father Benito de la Garriga, was urging this as the proper site for a garrisoned *vil- *391 lage. s It is in no wise improbable that Father Benito, who had been 1 Cf. pp. *31S, *314, *318-*320, above. s Atlas, maps 71, 61. The map of Storm van 's Gravesande (Atlas, map 60), if I interpret it rightly, differs only in placing the mission on the west of the Curumo at this point. 3Cf. note, p. *331, above. De oP- merce and the archivist in whose charge these maps lay, komst van het Ne- that both these maps are by the same hand, and that they deriandseh Gezag, i, are probably the work of that Dutch expedition of 1598 p- 60, nole' whose journal we have from the pen of its clerk, Cabe liau. A comparison of the maps with this journal makes Extracts No 5 . this practically certain, for the districts here mapped are precisely those where this expedition lingered. That this expedition which thus explored the Guiana coast 1 These tracings I owe to the courtesy and the skill of Mr. W. G. Van Oyen, of the Dutch Rijksarchief. * " Extracts " means the extracts from Dutcb archives published in vol. ii of the report of the Commission. "Atlas " means, of course, the atlas of the Com mission (vol. iv. of the report), 232No. 5. Extracts, Nos. 2, 6 Blue Book " ezuela, No. 3,' 206, 206. Extracts, No. Ven Pl> 11. claimed to be the first from the Netherlands ever *123 to visit these havens, and that in Recognition the States General granted it freedom from convoy dues, appears from the minutes of the States; and it is at least highly probable that the journal of Cabeliau, which we now find among the papers of that body, was the report required by the States General as a condition of this ex emption from dues. These maps are found also in the same archives; and there is every reason to believe that they were prepared and submitted as part of the same re quired report. In that case, they take on a semi-official character, and must be ranked among the accredited proofs of the priority of this Dutch expedition of 1597-1599. They are suggestive, moreover, of the localities to which Dutch attention was first especially directed; and their soundings and measurements imply a further use to which they might be put. There is in them, however, no inti mation of any occupation or attempt at occupation on the coast mapped, and nothing which implies territorial claim of any sort. Of that alleged Dutch map of the entire Guiana coast, from the Amazon to Margarita, which a Spanish official document of 1615 ascribes to the Dutch geographer Peter Piancius, I have found nothing; but the petition of Piancius and others to the States General, in 1604, *124 *for a percentage of the profits of the Guiana trade may well point to such a service. The relations of Piancius with the Dutch East India Company have been closed, extending even to the instructing of their skippers;1 and sailing directions of his, drawn up just at the end of the sixteenth century, show that he counted the West Indies to be as yet within the scope of that company's activity and of his own functions. 2 It would not have been strange for such a map as that known to the Span iards to be officially asked from him. For long the East India Company has thus its official map-makers. But I can not learn that the West India Company, which from 1621 controlled all Dutch com merce to America, ever entered into such relations with any maker of maps. 3 Certainly nothing of the sort 1 See the entry of his fee for these services in De Jonge, i, p. 183. 2 See his directions for East Indian navigation in De Jonge, i, pp. 184-200. 9 The " West Jndi-sche Paskaert" partially reproduced as the first map of those forming Appendix No. Ill to the Blue Book " Venezuela, No. 1," is only by error called if. the table of contents " Official Chart of Dutch West India Company!" I 233 No. 5. appears *in any document which I have been able *125 to find. In the very earliest years of that com pany one of its foremost members, Jan DE LAET, set himself at the compilation of text and maps for that careful topographical description of the New World which he first published in 1625. 1 It became at once the standard work, not only in the Netherlands, but outside; while its maps, in whose preparation he had been aided by Hessel Gerritsz. the official map-maker of the East India Company,8 were widely copied. That of Guiana, adopted outright and without credit by the great , Dutch map publishers, Blaeuw and Jansson, is the one appearing regularly in Dutch works of the seventeenth century. It was perhaps the adequacy of this great work which made *it possible for the West India *126 Company to dispense with an official geographer — unless, indeed, Jan de Laet himself may be called such. But Jan de Laet's maps show no political boundaries; nor is there in the accompanying text anything as to the ter ritorial claims of any European power in Guiana. 3 have carefully examined the original of this map in London without finding in it any warrant for such a claim. There are in the British Museum four of these Pascaerten representing " the coasts within the charter of the West India Com pany " — i. e., the entire coasts of the Atlantic and of America. They are by dif ferent makers and are differently colored ; but neither makes any claim to be offi cial. In passing, I may remark that there must also be something wrong with an interpretation of the colors which makes " independent " the islands of Trinidad and Margarita, the most important and best known Spanish possessions in this region. There is, however, on these Pascaerten another indication of the political allegiance of each district : on the colonies of each European state is pictured the coat of arms of the mother country. In each of these Pascaerten northern South America bears the arms of Spain ; in each New Netherland in North America bears the arms of the Dutch ; in none is there any coat of arms on Guiana. In the Lenox library, at New York, there is a copy of the earliest of these Pascaerten; this, too, has been ascribed to the West India Company, but with as little ground. 1 Nieuwe Wereldt, of Beschryvinge van West Indien, Leyden, 1625. Republished in Dutch in 1630, in Latin in 1633, in French in 1648. 2 See the introductory note to the list of maps in his first edition (1625). There is catalogued among the maps of the Rijksarchief at The Hague a certain Rotario of maps of " the West India Islands, Guayana, Brazil, and the adjacent waters," collected by Hessel Gerritsz. in 1627-28. But Mr. Telting, the archivist in charge of these maps, who has carefully examined this bundle for me, assures me that the catalogue is in error, there being no map of any part of Guayana to be found in it. 3 The map reproduced in Appendix No. Ill to the Blue Book "Venezuela, No. 1," as "Blaeuw's map of Guiana" is the De Laet map as copied by Blaeuw's atlas. I have examined sundry copies of this atlas, most of them uncolor ed. The colored ones differ much in choice and place of colors. The source and meaning of the coloring I am unable to learn. To official authority, of course, neither this atlas nor that of Jansson lays claim, For. De L.et's views as to Europeans in Guiana, see Vol. I of this report, 234No. 5. The nearest approach which I have been able to find in the seventeenth century to an official Dutch map of the Dutch colonies in western Guiana is that of the Middelburg geographer, Arend ROGGEVEEN, who, in his sea atlas, the Brandende Veen, or "Burning Fen" (Amsterdam, 1675), makes use of the descriptions and charts sent home by the engineer Cornelis Goliat, who had been charged with the location and the laying out of the colony of Nova Zee landia (1658-1665). ! But his maps are sailing charts, and ignore political boundaries. 2 *127 *The oldest map of the Essequibo colony now existing in the Dutch Rijksarchief bears the name Atlas to Case, map of the land surveyor, Abraham MAAS. Maas arrived in oy- the colony in 1701. On July 30, 1706, tbe governor, Samuel Beekman, transmitted to the Company a map made by him, saying in his accompanying letter of that date: Herewith you will receive tbe map of the entire colony made by the land surveyor, Abraham Maas, wherein you will be so good as to see whereabouts all the plantations lie, and also how many acres have been measured off for each plantation. 3 In their answering letter of February 24, 1707, the West India Company (Zeeland Chamber) thus acknowledged its receipt: The transmitted map of that river has also been grati fying to us, inasmuch as we find it very distinct in the delineation of every plantation. The list giving all the plantations and the year in which each was established we have likewise received, and this shall serve for our instruction as regards the assessment of the poll and land tax.4 1 For Goliat's share in this see Extracts, Nos. 37, 38. 2 There are, in the collection of the Dutch archives at the Hague, two manu script sea-charts of the coast of Guiana in the seventeenth century. One, dated 1627, shows the coast from the Essequibo to the Amazon. The other, without date, includes also the neighboring West India islands. But neither shows any knowledge of the mainland west of the Essequibo ; and neither suggests a political boundary. 3 " Hierneevens bekomp U Edele Agtb. den kaart van de Gantsche Colonie gemaakt door den Landtmeeter Sr. Abraham Maas, waerin U Edele Agtb. sullen gelieven te sien, waarontrent alle de plantagies leggen als meede hoe veel akkers voor ider plantage is gemetten." •< " De gesondene Caart van die riviere is ons ook aangenaam geweest, de wylse die [corrected in a contemporary hand, but in different ink, to dewyle sie] _eer distinct bevinde in de afteykeninge van yder plantagie. " De Lyst van alle de plantagien en in wat jaer die aengelegt syn, hebben wy mede ontfangen, en sullen die tot onse narigtinge laten strecken omtrent het in- vorderen van het booft en ackergelt." 235 No. 5. *To which Beekman replied on July 11, 1707: *128 That the map of the river was found by you distinct gives me pleasure, and, inasmuch as the land surveyor has surveyed since then a few small plantations beside, and has also measured off to certain other plantations, as requested by them of me, certain additional pieces, you shall receive the completed map on the arrival here of proper paper, which is wanting here. 1 It is possible that Maas was unable to get this good paper until his return to Europe, for the next we hear of a map is when on February 14, 1715, the West India Com pany (Zeeland Chamber) voted 25 guilders to the land sur veyor Maas " for the making of the new map of Rio Esse quibo presented a week ago to the meeting."2 The one map of Essequibo bearing Maas's name which is still to be found among those of the West India Company has no date; but that it is the first of those above described seems sufficiently shown by the fact that it is drawn on ten sep arate sheets of very ordinary paper, pasted together two abreast and then end to end. It must be assumed, then, to represent the plantations of the colony in the year 1706, *and that not without some omissions.3 It *129 indicates no colonial boundaries. The accompany ing list of the plantations and of their dates of establish ment is not to be found. On December 12, 1726, there was read in the Zeeland Chamber of the West India Company " a letter from A". Lerlorant, engineer in the river of Essequibo, dated Sep tember 5 of this year, serving particularly to transmit a map of the above-named river." 4 No such map can now be found. LESLORANT (as his name is oftener spelt) was the engineer charged with the erection of the new fort on Flag Island. In 1736 the Company was again in correspondence with a surveyor regarding a map of Essequibo, but nothing 1 " Dat de kaart der riviere van Haer Ed : distinct bevonden is myn welge- vallende, en nadien de Lantmeter nog eenige kleyne plantagies na dato heeft _,_- meten, ook nog eenige plantagies op haer versoek aen myn nog eenige stukken heeft bygemeten, soo sullen Haer Ed : de volslagen kaart, met d'aenkomst van schoon papier dat hier manqueert ten vollen ontfangen.*' 8 " Voor het maken van de nieuwe Caart van Rio Isequebe over agt dagen aen de vergaderinge gepresenteert." ' Such an omitted plantation, known to us through the contemporary records, is, e. g., that of Nieuw Middelburg. 4 " Gelesen een missive van A8. Lerlorant Ingenieur in de Rivier van Isequebe de dato 5 September deses Jaars, dienende in het bysonder tot geleyde van een kaerte figuratif van d'opgem8. Rivier," 236 No. 5. Blue Book ezueln, No. 3 seems to have come of it. 1 With the outbreak of the border troubles with the Spaniards of Orinoco, toward the middle of the century, however, the need of a better map was felt by the Company; and on September 9, 1747, its Extracts, No. 160. supreme board, the Ten, instructed Commandeur STORM VAN 'S GRAVESANDE to have one made, if a com- *130 petent *surveyor could be found in the colony. He lost no time, but on February 11, 1748, transmitted the desired map, explaining in his letter that, as he could find no competent surveyor, he had undertaken the task himself, compiling from sundry charts which he had from time to time drafted for his own satisfaction.2 This map was, however, unfortunately lost in transit. The ship Ven- which bore it was captured by tbe French. Its author at P- 90- first hoped that it might yet come to hand, but could later only congratulate himself that "the French will at least make no use of the map, since the smith P. Van der Mart and the corporal Soete have assured me that they them selves saw them tear it to pieces and trample it under foot before their eyes."3 The undaunted Commandeur, however, though he had kept no copy of the map, had set himself at once at reproducing it; and by September 8, 1749, he could again forward a map. This map, too, though as late as 1769 it was still hanging in •131 the hall of the Zeeland Chamber at *Middelburg,4 seems to have utterly disappeared. I sought it in vain, both in The Hague and in Zeeland. But the Government of Venezuela, more fortunate, having found it at Paramaribo, in the colonial library of Surinam, a cer tified copy of it is in the hands of the Commission. Save that the date attached, August 9, 1748, is earlier than one would infer from that of its transmission, it answers in all Blue Book, " Ven- ezuela, No. 3," p. 90. Blue Book, " Ven- ezuela, No. 3," p. 92. 1 One letter of this correspondence (August 30, 1736) is to be found in vol. 2008 of the West India papers (Hague, Rijksarchief). s " Hebbe ik zelve zoo veel my de kortheyd der tyts heeft toegelaten, een kaert opgemaakt uyt differente kaertjes die ik van tyt tot tyt uyt liebhebberie hebbe opgenoomen dezelve is niet van de uyterste exactitude, maar sal weynig man- queeren, als aleenig, dat beneedenog veele Eylanden zyn die daer niet opstaan, wyl dezelve niet hebbe opgenoomen, en niet bewoond zynde van weynig belang, de plantagien, waerby het Getal der slaaven niet uytgedruckt staan, zyn die geene waarvan de lysten nog niet ingecomen waren van den Jaare 1747." 3 Thus he writes the Company on June 8, 1749. 4 The historian Hartsinck was then permitted to have a copy of "it made, on condition that the original should not leave the walls of the Chamber. See Extracts, No. 271. In basing his own map of Essequiboand Demerara upon it, Hartsinck treated it (as be tells us "in bis preface, p. xii) with mucb freedom of amendment, Extracts, No. 211. 237 No. 5. respects to what we know of it from its author's letters: At,a9 to Case, map in its lack of colors, in its showing the two missions and 60' the active volcano, in its want of the Blaauwenberg and of the Cuyuni plantations. And the date, 1749, attached Blue Book "Ven- to the volcano, would of itself show that the map was not ^"ela'tlfo;T!,'"„P',92' completed until that year. The importance of this map, though it shows no boundary line, needs no pointing out. But Commandeur Storm had scarcely sent off his map — there is some reason for believing he had not yet sent it1 — when there came into his *hands another, a *132 MAP MADE BY THE SPANIARDS. Already, on March 23, 1747, he had written to the Company about a certain Spanish exploring expedition to the sources of the Cuyuni and the Mazaruni, and had reported these explorers to be making a map, of which he would try by all possible means to gain a copy. By November 20, 1749, if not earlier, that copy was his; for on that date, in again mentioning to the Company "the discoveries made in our neighborhood by the Spaniards in the year 1748," he could add, " a copy of the map whereof (notwithstanding its being prohibited on pain of death) I have been able to obtain."2 That this was the identical map which a few months later in Zee- land he handed over to the West India Company to illus trate the report then submitted by him in person, saying of the map that "it was made by the Spaniards and Extracts, No. 172. copied from theirs," there can be little reason to doubt; nor yet that it was this that he meant when in his letter of September 2, 1754, he *referred *133 the Company to "the little map handed over by me at my interview in Zeeland." From the minutes of Blue Book "Ven- the Zeeland Chamber it appears that " the little map men- ezuela, No. 3," p. 99. tioned in the Commandeur's report" had been at their wish "handed over by him" to the Stadhouder; but it Extracts, No. 172. must have been returned to the Company, for there now 1 This lies in the singular agreement of the maps in certain details, notably as to the courses of the upper Essequibo, the Mazaruni, and the Cuyuni. Unless both rested on some earlier map unknown to me, it is hard to resist the belief that Storm's map was in these respects copied from the other. * See Blue Book " Venezuela, No. 3," p. 92. But the translation there, " to obtain cognizance of," is in error. This letter, in Storm's own neat hand, is at The Hague, where I have studied it. As, however, this passage has been printed, and with exactness, by Netscher (Geschiedenis, p. 382), it was needless to include it in my extracts. The Dutch of the sentence in question runs: " De ontdekkin- gen door de Spanjaarden in onze nabuurschap in denjaere 17 J/8 gedaen en waervan (niettegenstaande op levensstraf verboden) een copye van de Caerte hebbe weele te bekomen, konnen mede van geen gering voordeel voor ons wesen." 238 No. 5. ^ Atlas to Case, map exists, among their remains, a little map which can hardly be any other. x It can not be quite certain, indeed, that this little parchment map is the identical copy made from the Spauish map or the identical one handed in by Storm van 's Gravesande. There are in it odd misspellings which seem impossible, not only to Storm himself (in whose handwriting it is not), but to any other dweller in the col ony,2 and it is not impossible that this is but a copy, later made on parchment for its better preservation, of that handed over by Storm. In any case, it is clear that this map is not a mere copy from a Spanish one, but a trans lation into Dutch as well; and it may well have undergone other modification in the process. It is hardly possi- *134 ble, *for example, that the Spanish Jesuits could in 1747 have known of a change in the place of the Arinda post which was not so much as resolved on by the Extracts, No. 172; Dutch until 1750. The little map contains no suggestion of cf. Blue Book " Ven- boundary; but both this and Storm's own map derive a ezuela, No. 3," p. 96. pecuijar interest from the fact that it is these which must have lain before the Company when it drew up in 1759 that remonstrance to the Spanish Court which is the ear liest known communication between the two Governments as to territorial limits in this region. Another map had, indeed, already been appealed to, which only by mishap had not found its way to the Company's hands. This was Blue Book " Ven- the map by the great French geographer, D'ANVILLE, ezuela, No. 3," p. no. which, on September 9, 175s, Storm van's Gravesande For D'Anville's map ka(j cited in support of his claim to the Cuyuni, declaring (published in 174 j, thafc it wag << drawn by Mr. D'Anville with the utmost maps 39 40 care " an^ that on it " even our boundaries " may be seen portrayed, "of which, it appears, he was informed by Extracts No. 210. good authority."3 Storm had, as he later explained, first Book " Ven become acquainted with it during his visit in Holland ezuela, No. 3," p. 118. in 1750-51, when he saw it in the hands of the Stadhouder. But the company did not identify the map, perhaps *135 *searching for one of Guiana by itself. In reply to their further inquiry, Storm explained on September 1, 1759, that what he meant was D'Anville's latest map of 1 It is this map which is reproduced as a " sketch map by Governor Storm van 's Gravesande " in Appendix No. 3 to the Blue Book " Venezuela, No. 1 " (map 5); but here from a free-hand copy of 1887, which, though patiently made, does not lack serious errors. 8 Such as " Anwacke " for Ariwacke (the British copyist has corrected this out of hand), " stabes " for Itaboe, " Consetrall " for Courthial. « . . " en daerop selver onze limiten afgeteekent zien, waarvan het schynt hy van goeder hand onderregt was." 239 No. 5. South America, but that he could not transmit it because both of the two copies received by him from Europe had been sent off, one after the other, to the Spanish authorities of the Orinoco in support of his protest against their aggres sions. By May 2, 1760, however, a copy had come again into his hands and he had copied from it the portion relat ing to Guiana, marking in along the Cuyuni, in pursu ance of the Zeeland Chamber's specific request of Decem ber 3, 1759, l the locations of the company's former plan tation, Duynenburg, and of its abandoned coffee and indigo plantations, as also the Creoles' place, the Blaau wenberg, where the miners had worked, and the com pany's post, adding at their proper sites the other three posts of the colony. But this map he accidentally omitted to inclose in his letter of this date, and it was not till So report their March 18 of the next year (1761) that upon a reminder minutes for this date. from the company it was actually forwarded. *At *136 last, on June 22, 1761, it lay before the company, and in their letter of November 9 they acknowledge with en- Extracts, No. 2is. thusiasm its receipt and its interest. 2 Tardy though it was, it arrived at a not inopportune moment. Only a fortnight before there had been laid be fore the Company the printed copies of the map of Dem erara made by Storm's much-loved nephew and namesake, Laurens Lodewyk VAN BERCHEYCK. Van Bercheyck, whom Storm had brought to the colony in 1751, had served first as land surveyor, then as military commandant in Essequibo, and in 1759 had especially commended himself to the company by the completion of this excellent map of Demerara.3 But it was on June 8, 1761, when were laid Minutes of the before them a dozen engraved copies of the map, dedi- Zeeland chamber, cated to the Chamber, that their gratitude found expres- June 8' mi' sion. It was voted, not only to order sixty additional copies for the Company, but "to pay for the engraving of the plate of the said map." On November 9, 1761, they *made Van Bercheyck Commandeur of De- *137 1 Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 114. By an error in translation the three plantations named are here (and elsewhere in this connection) spoken of as still existing. In the original the verb is always in a past tense. That they had long- been abandoned is else well known. 2 This map, alas, can no longer be found. 3 Not only was he Storm's nephew (the son of his wife's brother — see Nets cher, p. 383), but became his son-in law. He was sent to the colony as surveyor ou October 28, 1751 (a few months later than his uncle's return thither); was confirmed as commandant (captain-lieutenant) January 6, 1755 ; transmitted his map December 7, 1769, the Company receiving it March 24, 1760. 240 No. 5. Minutes of the merara, and on November 23 they further adopted a November 23 mi"' ^orma^ resolution of thanks for the map, voted its maker a cask of red wine, and gave him outright a negro slave whom he had asked to purchase. 1 Many copies of this printed map still exist. A part of them show only the river Demerara, as mapped by Van Bercheyck; but in Atlas to case, map others there is inserted in the margin a little inset map of 62- Guiana as a whole, which is clearly copied from the map of D'Anville— just such an extract, in short, as that re ceived by the company from Storm van 's Gravesande at almost the same moment with the engraved Van *138 Bercheyck map. Is it too much to suspect *that the inset was thus suggested, and was added at the wish of the company? 2 This conjecture receives added color from a request ad dressed by the Company to Van Bercheyck on August 23, Extracts, No. 221. 1762. They asked the cost of a map of the river Esse quibo, and further, " whether, either in that map or on a separate one at the same time, there could not be mapped also the coast from the Essequibo to the Orinoco, with ac curate location of the mouths of the rivers Pomeroon, Waini, and Barima, and of such others as flow into the sea between the Essequibo and the Orinoco." Van Ber cheyck replied, March 10, 1763, that this coast had already been so accurately mapped by D'Anville that he could hardly hope to do better, but that he would gladly make his map of Essequibo the more sightly by including the 1 Cf. their letter to Van Bercheyck, January 11, 1762 : " Wy hebben op zyn tyt wel ontfangen U Ed. missive van den 7 Dec. 1769 met de daerby gevoegdt geteekend, en aen ons opgedragene kaerte van Rio Dim- merarj', ook zyn vervolgens in de maand Juny deezes jaers U Ed. vader den Heer Groot Majoor van Bergchyck in onze vergaderinge [in] U Ed. naam aan ons geprsesenteerd eenige gedrukte exemplaren van dezelve kaarte, die nader- hand ten onzen verzoeke van nog 60 andere zyn gevolge geworden. " Al t'welk wy als een blyk van U Ed. yver, attentie, en erkentenis voor deeze kamer considereerende, ons zoo aengenaam is geweest, dat wy t'zelve hebben geoordeelt te moeten remunereeren, gelyk U Ed. zal blyken uyt de Extract resolutie onzer vergaderinge in dato den 23 Nov. 1761, en waarvan copie autlien- tyk den deezen is gevoegd. " Wy vertrouwen dat U Ed. door onze voorsz. remuneratie mitsgaders door U E. aanstellinge tot Commandeur van Dimmerary zult aangemoedigt worden, om U Ed. alle mogelyke kragten van U Ed. nieuw aanbevoolen post te quyten, en dus volkomen te beantwoorden aen de verwagting, en het vertrouwen, die wy van U Ed. geformeert, en op U Ed. gesteld hebben." 3 True, this inset does not contain the plantations and posts marked in by Storm. It is a copy of D'Anville, pure and simple, and may of course be due only to the enterprise of the publisher (Hendrick de I_eth, at Amsterdam); but the other seems to me the more probable conjecture. 241 No. 5. coast to Barima. * But, while the Company was yet hesi tating over the cost, the enterprising Van Bercheyck, whose hands had meanwhile been full with the suppres sion of the great slave revolt, died (May 12, 1764), and no part of his map of Essequibo ever saw the light. *That the West India Company should now pin *139 its faith to the D'Anville map is not strange. When in 1769 there was drawn up by the Company and adopted by the States General that remonstrance to the Spanish Court which is the only document known to my research wherein a claim to boundary is definitely and formally communicated by the one Government to the other, it was not to the Barima, as desired by Director-General Storm van 's Gravesande, but only to "beyond Waini," as laid down in the D'Anville map, that Dutch territory was asserted to extend; and the D'Anville map was cited by name in support of the claim. It is, I am convinced, the only map ever cited in support of any boundary by either Dutch or Spanish authorities. On October 9, 1765, Storm van 's Gravesande reported to the West India Company that "there has put in here Captain Jacob BOGMAN, colonial coast guard of Surinam, who has orders to take measurements of the whole coast as far as the territory of the State goes, to chart all the banks and the entrances of the rivers, and to make a new map of it. This will be of much service to naviga tion. He began at Cape Orange."2 *Neither the *140 papers of Essequibo nor those of Surinam at this period throw any further light on this enterprise of Captain Bogman. It is unusual, however, for such sea charts to show political boundaries; and there is no reason to sup pose this, if ever completed, an exception. 3 Another map, of which likewise we know only through the correspondence of Storm van 's Gravesande, belongs to Extracts, No. 226. the very last year of his long administration. 27, 1772, he wrote to the Company. 1 This answer would seem to imply that he regarded the Barima as the bound ary. 1 " Hier is ingelopen Capiteyn Jacob Bogman commandeerende s'lands uytlegger van Suriname welke bevel heeft de geheele kust te peylen zoo verre het district van den Staet is, alle de banken optenemen en ingangen der rivieren en een nieuwe caert daervan optemaken. Dit sal van veel nut voor de navigaiie zyn. Hy heeft van Caap Oranje begonnen." 3 It is not impossible that his results may bave been utilized in the " Chart of the coast of Guiana between the rivers Essequibo and Orinoco " published in 1786 at Amsterdam by G. H. van Keulen, Blue Book " Ven- On August ezuela, No. 3," p. 180. 242 No. 5. Very many plantations having been laid out on the west coast of this river,1 BOUWMAN, the surveyor who measured all those plantations, has at my request made a chart of that coast as far as Pomeroon and the Post of Moruca.3 He adds, doubtless on the evidence of this map, that al ready between the actual mouth of the Essequibo and the creek Hamake there were twenty-seven plantations, while from that point it was but six thousand rods to the *141 creek *Maria caboera, and thence but nine thousand to the mouth of the Pomeroon. 3 But what surprised him. most in this exact map4 was the location of the Post in Moruca, which he had not supposed so far up the creek, but now finds to lie just before the inland passage through the Itabos. This map, if ever sent to the Company, is now lost. One would gladly believe it preserved in the map later com- Atias to Case, map piled and transmitted by Chollet. But while as to the 68, location of the Moruca post and the number of the west shore plantations this later map answers nearly to the description, it does not tally as to the distances on the coast. In the spring of 1772 there visited Essequibo for the first time a young map-maker whose share in its cartography was to be large. This was Johann Christoph von Hene- mann, 6 or VAN HENEMAN (as later, giving a more *142 Dutch turn to *the name, he signed himself), an en sign of German extraction from the garrison of Suri nam. He had shown such abilities as to be charged in 1770 with remapping that colony,6 and now, having this task well toward completion, he was given leave of absence to accompany as far as Essequibo a Dutch war vessel then 1 The Dutch is : " aan de Westwal dezer riviere." " On the coast west of this river," would be a more exact; though less literal, translation. 2 Dutch : " die kust opgenomen tot aan Bowaron en Maroc lot aan depost." a There is here certainly a slip in the Blue Book translation. The words " taken up " are not in the original, and are quite impossible here (cf. not only all late maps, but especially Extracts, No. 324). "Roods" should be rods. It is of distance the writer speaks. This letter, though signed by Storm in autograph, was written by a secretary, who has sadly misspelled the proper names. They are, however, quite recognizable, and I venture here to correct them. The secre tary's orthography is that given by the Blue Book. 1 Dutch: "by deeze exacte opneeming." 6 His habit of signing his initials, "J. C," in the form of a monogram was puzzling to copyists, and one of the letters was often omitted. Hence it is that Netscher (p. 387) makes two men out of him, suspecting one to be the father or brother of the other. 6 This appears from his petition to the directors of Surinam on August 20, 1789 Cin vol. 902 of the Surinam papers, Hague, Rijksarchief). The Dutch is °_ven on pp. *161, *152 below. 243 No. 5. lying in Surinam, in order that he might take observations along the coast.1 Arriving in Essequibo, be became, with the captain of the vessel, Van den Velden, the guest of the old governor, Storm van 's Gravesande, and under his guid ance made an excursion up the river to the old fort of Kykoveral and the falls of the Cuyuni. " This morning about ten o'clock," says the journal of Captain Van den Velden, under date of April 9, 1772, 2 " we went up the river Cuyuni in two canoes (one a small one, in which Mr. Van der Heyden went ahead to point out the way, inas much as a little way up this river one has to navigate among a chain of rocks lying partly under water, partly showing above it). About *half past *143 eleven we came to the first fall of the river, called Acajou, which comes down with great swiftness and noise, being nearly eight feet high and flowing through a multitude of crags and rocks, as may be seen in a special map, which the engineer Heneman, who was with me, made of this river and fall, as much as time permitted." This map thus made for Van den Velden is Atlas to Case ma the most detailed portrayal known to me of the lower 63. course of the Cuyuni and the junction of the three rivers, at first and for long the site of the colony. Strictly speak ing, it has no official quality whatever. Yet, made as it almost certainly was, under the eye and with the help of the old governor, Storm van 's Gravesande, as a contribu tion to the official journal of a naval officer of the State, its testimony is of a more than private order. Heneman returned to Surinam, s but not for long. With the opening of 1773 the colonies of Essequibo and Deme rara passed out of the old Zeeland monopoly into the con trol of the West India Company as a whole; and its new managers felt at once the need of an engineer's services. As early as April 8 of that year the Ten resolved to send one to report as to the best *route for a canal be- *144 tween Essequibo and Demerara. On April 15 they resolved to write "to the Commandeur and councilors in 1 Thus Governor Nepveu, of Surinam, in his letter to the Society of Surinam, March 11, 1772 : "Den vaandrieh Henneman heeft de Kaart van de Colonie de novo opgenoomen, en zo accuraat mogelyk alles nagegaan," etc. 2 This journal is No. 1317 of the great admiralty collection in the Rijksarchief at The Hague. It bears the title : "Journaal van 's lands scheepen d. Triton en Boreas, 1770, 1771, 1772, en 1773." 3 It would appear from his memorial of August 20, 1789, above cited, that he first kept on with Van den Velden to Holland, where he laid - part of his map of Surinam before the directors; then returned to the colony. 244No. 5. Demerara that this body has decided that both for the safety of the river of Demerara and for the prevention of smuggling a redout or battery shall be established at the place which shall be deemed most suitable, and that to this end there shall be sent on behalf of this body a capable engineer, who must be provided by the Com mandeur with whatever is necessary; and this engineer, together with the captain-commandant and with the land surveyor who shall be deemed most capable therefor, must draw up a plan and transmit it to the Chambers Amsterdam and Zeeland." This engineer was also to in spect the island of Borsselen and the government build ings thereon. And on the same day it was further re solved "that the Director-General [of Essequibo and Demerara] and the Commandeur of Demerara must cause to be made an accurate map of both the rivers, leaving open provisionally the place for the public buildings until it shall be decreed at what place they are to stand.''1 *145 *Tbe Company, a part of whose directors, as members also of the Society of Surinam, must have known of Heneman's good work in that colony, doubtless had already an eye on their engineer. On May 5, 1773, the Society of Surinam consented that Heneman, now "first lieutenant of artillery and engineer," might absent himself for the task in Essequibo and Demerara; and in November Extracts, No. 297. he entered on the work. This task, as later defined by the Ten, was " to examine the situation of the two rivers, to take measurements thereof, and to draw up a plan of Extracts, No. 308. forts and batteries for the defense of those rivers." But from the first he seems to have been charged with the making of a general map, as well as with the planning of fortifications. In his final report of his survey, submitted on September 18, 1776, he speaks of himself as engaged upon it from November, 1773, till March, 1775. By that time, though he complains bitterly that he was not sup ported by the authorities, who furnished him with no yacht for his work and for helpers gave him only green negroes, knowing no speech but their African gibberish and needing even to be taught to row, while the only man 1 Thus the minutes of the Ten for this date. The Dutch of this last resolu tion runs: " 23. Dat den Directeur-Generaal en Commandeur van Demerary, moeten laten opmaaken eene accuraate kaart van beyde de Rivieren, provisioneel de plaats der publicque gebouwen openlaaten, tot dat zal zyn gearresteert, Op welke plaats deselve zullen koomen." 245 No. 5. who could carry chain for him was a black he had brought along from Surinam, *he yet had made "the *146 requisite charts, plans, and drawings," so as to be able to form therefrom a general map. This general map, Extracts, No. 297. which was to give accurately all the plantations, was per haps never completed. It very probably shattered on the rock of expense, for already on December 22, 1774, the Ten were protesting that they could not see why a map of the two rivers need cost so much. At any rate, no such map is now to be found among the archives of the Com pany. But among those archives there is a map by Hen eman1 —a mere sketch map — giving the results of his sur- Atlas to Case, map veys, and meant as a basis for the more elaborate one. It 64- bears the tide: " Sketch map of the Colonies of Bio Demerara and Eio Essequibo, as also of the abandoned Colony of Rio Pome roon, together with a part of the Colony of Rio Berbice, with the further Districts, Rivers, and Creeks of the Colonies aforenamed, as likewise the contour of the Sea-coast and its Banks, etc., from sundry observations and surveys drafted and complied toward the formation of a General Map of the said Colonies and their Plantations and conceded Lands and Grounds, as also of those Districts and Lands which can yet in the future be granted and cultivated,2 serving *for the freer and better *147 communication of these Colonies in case of a domes tic or foreign war, etc., etc., and moreover for the trans portation of produce and merchandise more conveniently and with less risk than outside by sea. By order of the Honorable Chartered West India Company, conceived and drawn by J. C. v. Heneman, Engineer." This map bears no date, and it can not be quite certain that it was transmitted with its author's report in Sep tember, 1776. 3 Yet this is every way probable; and, in any case, as Heneman now returned to Surinam, the map's information belongs to this period. When there are taken into account the haste and the hindrances of his work, and the Tact that at the same time he prepared 1 This sketch map — a large one on heavy brown paper — is uncolored except for the indication, in sepia, of the ground available for plantations ; the inner border of this is shown by the dotted lines parallel to the rivers. 2 There is here almost certainly an omission in this title — probably a line men tioning the canals as also shown by the map. 8 It is much to be regretted that the minutes of the Ten for 1777 are lost. The resolution of the Ten on April 29, 1776, that " the commandeur in Demerara must send over the map made by the engineer Heneman," refers more probably to one of his local charts. 65 246No. 5. For two of these an(j submitted several local charts and many elaborate see Extracts, No. 297 +„.i , , ,. . ._..,, inclosures tables, great accuracy as to the remoter parts of the colo nies will hardly be expected; and in particular his por trayal of what lies west of the Essequibo and the Pom eroon does not suggest personal observation. Both as to the coast region and as to the upper course of the Cuyuni and Mazaruni, it seems— what it doubtless is— a mere adaptation of the map of D'Anville. It is perhaps, *148 therefore, needless to conjecture any other source for the boundary line which appears for a short stretch at the northwest corner of the map. Both in point of departure on the coast and in direction it concurs nearly, though not quite exactly, with D'Anville's line— starting a trifle more to the east and trending a trifle more to the west. But there exists another map by Heneman, of quite another interest and importance; the one map, so far as I am able to learn, ever devoted to the boundary between Atlas to Case, map Spanish and Dutch Guiana.1 It now lies in the library of the department of the colonies at The Hague,3 though how it came there it is hard to guess. Labels still deci pherable on its back seem to show that it once belonged to the collection of the West India Company.3 Further clew I have not found. The map's title runs: " Sketch Map of the Boundaries between Royal-Spanish and Dutch Guiana on the mainland of South *149 *America; belonging to the Report hereon, con ceived and chartered by v. Heneman, sworn Engineer." The report here mentioned can not be found. It forms no part of that submitted by Heneman to the West India Company in September, 1776, which nowhere makes men tion of this boundary.4 It is not impossible that it was 1 The map is uncolored, except for a stripe of red along the boundary line ; this comes out only imperfectly in the reproduction. That the map is a copy, not Heneman's autograph manuscript, is made probable by the omission of bis initials, due doubtless to that puzzling monogram already mentioned. s I much regret that the examination of this collection came very late in my work at The Hague. During the time which remained to me no effort was spared to learn the exact date and occasion of this map ; but my success was slight. 3 These can be made out, though now pasted over, by holding the map up to the light. My conclusion is that reached also by the archivist of the West India papers, Mr. Telting, who better than any other knows this collection of maps. 4 Of this report of September, 1776, there are two copies in the Rijksarchief (in vols. 175 and 2012, b, of the West India papers), both signed by the author in autograph. I have carefully examined both, 21 . No. 5. handed in at the same time as a confidential report. What makes it improbable are the differences between his gen eral map and this special one, and notably the difference in the boundary line itself. The boundary leaves the coast, indeed, at what may be meant for the same point, though changes in the contour of the coast and in the spelling of names, the insertion of a new river (the " Moccomocco "), and the omission of an old cape (" Caap Breme ") leave this somewhat uncertain. What is more significant is its change in direction. Instead of running south-southwest, as in the general map (and in D'Anville's), it has veered two full points of the compass, and now runs due southwest, no longer cutting (as in D'Anville's map) the Cuyuni and the Mazaruni, but crossing the head waters of the great branches of the Orinoco— the Aguire, the Caroni, the Caura, *the "Paruma" *150 (D'Anville's " Pararuma "). Just beyond its inter section with the last-named stream this western boundary of Dutch Guiana turns at a sharp angle and becomes the southern boundary, running thence east by south to the edge of the map. When, at whose instance, and for what purpose this map was made, and what sanction, if any, it ever received, it would be of exceeding interest to know. I have sought in vain for any mention of it in the minutes, both open and secret, of the West India Company and of the successive councils which until 1803 followed it in the government of the Guiana colonies. It is possible that it may have been prepared for the Stadhouder, who shared the passion for geography common among the princes of his time and who gathered a rich collec tion of maps;1 but if so, he seems never to have 1 This suggestion I owe to the kindly interest of the archivist-in-chief at The Hatrue, the Jhr. Th. van Riemsdijk. What I learned of the disordered condition of the private archives of the House of Orange, now awaiting the completion of a building for their satisfactory housing and arrangement, and the scantiness of the time remaining to me in Holland, forbade my making personal research among these papers; but Mr. van Riemsdijk had the kindness to ascertain for me, whether there might not be a catalogue of the maps of the Stadhouder, and in forms me that no such catalogue exists. The interest of the Stadhouder, not only jn maps in general, but in those of Guiana in particular, is shown by a passage, interesting in itself, in the minutes of the West India Company (the Ten). On August 10, 1784, the burgomaster Van den Helm Boddart stated in the session that His Highness the Stadhouder had informed him that, at the order of the French Government, " Marjouan de la Perriere " was making " a most accurate map [eene alieraceuraatsle kaarte] both of the river Essequibo and of the river De merara.'' Thereupon it was resolved to write to the French Government, asking copie. of the map. La Perriere had governed the colony in 1783, 248 No. 5. *151 *made a communication regarding it to the bodies administering the affairs of the colonies. What has already been said of the career of Heneman prior to 1776 must make it improbable that his map of the boundary antedates that year. It may be of use to add what has been learned of his subsequent career. We find him presently engaged upon a series of elaborate dis trict maps of the Surinam colony, still preserved and prized at The Hague. These he completed in 1778, 1 and was sent to bear his work in person to Holland, there to lay it before the directors. This appears from a petition which in 1789 (August 20) he submitted to these directors of Surinam for the reimbursement of expenses incurred in the making of this map.2 In it he recapitulates his 1 Rijksarchief, West India papers, vol. 902 (Requester!., Apr. 1796-Jan., 17i)7), The statement of Van Sypesteyn, in his Beschrijving van Suriname (1854), p. 290, that on his map of Surinam Heneman " was busy, with fourteen surveyors, from 1771 to 1784," is, on Heneman's own testimony, an error. There is, however, no reason for doubting Van Sypesteyn's further statement that " Heneman was, in 1793, lieutenant-colonel of engineers in Surinam, on leave in the Netherlands"; and that " in 1776, being then a captain.be took part in the forest campaigns [i. e., the expeditions against the bush negroes] described by Stedman." 2 . . . " Zoo is vervolgens ook, nae reype overweeging en raadpleeging ten ondergeteekendte Ingenieur gelast en geordonneerdt geworden, deese opneemin- gen te doen, en ter uytvoer te brengen. Yverig en bcgeerig zich van deese last en orders op de bestmoogelyckste wyse on gelyck als het een getrouw Ingenieur- officier betaamt, te quyten en te ontleedigen, zoo heefdt dezelve nae alle getrouw- heydt nauwkeurigheydt en oplettendtheyt, op de exacte wyze, de eersten stuckken deeser opneeming gedaan, en booven gemeldte kaarten geformeerdt en gekaar- teerdt en geteeckendt, deselve den Gouverneur Commandeur en eenige raaden in 'tjaer 1772 voorgelegdt door deselve met genoegen aengenoomen, naegezien en onderzogdt, en vervolgens tot op verdere en hoogere approbatie der respectable vergaadering in Europa, geapprobeerdt naastvolgens met behoorig verlof door wylen de Hr Gouverneur J. Nepveu voorsz. voorzien, met Hoog Boord (zyndte het lands-schip van oorlog den Boreas, gecommandeert door wylen den capitayn van der Velden) nae Europa gezondten, nae myn arrivement alhier ter steedt, aen de achtbaare vergadering deese genoemdte eerste stucken dier kaarten . . . met eerbiedt voorgelegdt, door de achtbare vergadering met genoegen gesien onder- zogt en door toenmaals d Hr Bewinthebber en Directeur Mr J. Rendorp geexami- neerdt en vervolgens door de voile vergadering geapprobeert, om op even ende deselve voet als de eerste stukken voornoemt die opneming en verdere voortzet- ting en formeering derselver kaarten hierboven vermeldt voorttezetten. Dienvol- gens oock den ondergeteekendte Ingenieur geordonneert en gelast om nae de colonie Surinaame, etc., etc., weer te vertrekken en terug te keeren en nae myn komste aldaer de verdere opneeming en noodige meetingen en het kaarteenren en teekenen der verderen en overigen rivieren en districten der Colonien ter uytvoer te brengen. ' " Dit met zeer veel vermoeyenissen en uytgestaane ziektens en moeylykheden verknogdt en gepaardt gaande werck na 6 jaarigen arbeydt door Goods goed- hevdt volleedig geeyndigt hebbende, door verdere last van wylen d Hr Gouvr J- Nepveu in den jaare 1778, met het uytgevoerdte werck en tot standt gebragdte Council of the American Colonies. 249 No. 5. *services to Surinam, but says nothing of his work *152 in the neighboring colonies. The petition *is dated at *153 Amsterdam, where, therefore, he then was, though still in the service of the colony. In September, 1796, the petition was renewed, Heneman being still in Amsterdam. x On August 14, 1798, Major F. von Bouchenroeder petitioned the Dutch Committee on Colonies for their consent that the engineer Heneman, whom he describes as "employed in the Amsterdam Chamber of this Committee," "aid him in the preparation of maps of Berbice and Surinam and of a general map of Guiana, as a sequel to his Demerara and Essequibo, inasmuch as Heneman " in earlier days trav eled in these regions by order of the Government and made many surveys." But the Committee awaited a sim ilar request from Heneman, which never came.2 On August 20, 1802, Heneman, still writing from Amsterdam, petitioned that all requests for lands in the Guiana colonies might be laid before him, " as was the custom hitherto." This suggests what may have been his occupation in the Minutes of the Netherlands since 1778. On August 11, 1803, another peti tion was received from him by the Council of the American Colonies. It speaks of orders *for maps — *154 nineteen in all— given him on April 18, 1787, and September 28, 1796. Sickness, he says, has prevented their completion; he is now, he adds, engaged on a new map of Demerara. On October 31, 1803, the Council Minutes of the voted him the sum of eight hundred guilders, in full pay- Co,un„cii: (I^8" archief West India ment of all claims, a copy of the new map of Demerara to papers' vo] 1030 % be included for this payment; " aud," adds the resolution, " he is hereby instructed to report definitely whether any thing—and if so, what — is still lacking to the collection of maps of the cultivated portion of Surinam prepared by him, and henceforward to make no maps for the Council without its express authorization." Whereupon, on Jan- Minutes, as above. Kaarten deeser opneeming, hier nae Europa gezondten zyndte en deeser steedte aen de achtbaare vergaadering met alle eerbiedt voorgelegdt, en door toenmalige Heeren Bewinthebberen van der Poll, en Geelvinck en Berewoudts en d Hr Bur- gemeester J. Rendorp in het zelvde jaar 1778 naegesien en geexamineert en ten vollen geapprobeert zyndte geworden. " Ingevolge last en ordre der achtbre vergadering zyn deese kaarten op groot olyphants papier gekaarteerdt en geformeerdt en alle nae eene en eeven deselve sch\al gereduceert en geteeckent en aan de respectable vergaadering door den ondergeteekenden overgelevert." . . . 1 Rijksarchief, West India papers, as above. It is as an inclosure in this second petition that the older one is now found. 2 This matter appears moie fully in connection with the work of Bouchenroe der, pp. *171-*73, below, 250 No. 5. uary 12, 1804, he submitted a list of maps which "ought to be added" to the Council's collection.1 Among these is a " map of the Orinoco." What is meant is not impos sibly this map of the boundary, in which, as will be seen, a great part of the Orinoco's course is shown. But Minutes of the wj 55 the Council, taking *this up on January 16, simply Council. (West India „, j ., c . m. i • ... papers, vol. 918.) nled lfc for reference. The colonies were already in the hands of the British. How naturally at any time during this long service Heneman might have been turned to for such a map as that in question is apparent. The absence from his map, however, of any indication at the mouth of the Demerara of the new colonial capital, Stabroek, which was founded in 1782, makes it tolerably certain that the map antedates the English occupation of 1781. And the fact that Santo Thome appears at the old site below the Caroni instead of at the new one of Angostura, to which it was removed in 1764, as he could perhaps have learned from Spanish maps available to him in Amsterdam — for those of Cruz Cano and Surville had now been published —adds ground for the belief that he made it before leaving Guiana in 1778. In that case it seems most probable that it was a special task confidentially assigned him as a supplement to that com pleted in September, 1776, and that the changes from the earlier map grew out of further study, or perhaps out of the suggestion to which the new map owed its birth. The next map of Guiana known to me is one of *156 which the West India Company itself perhaps *never possessed a copy. At least none is now to be found in its collection or is mentioned in its minutes. This is the Atlas to Case, map map of SIRAXIT-DESTOUCHES. The copy herewith submit- °6- ted to the Commission was bought by me at The Hague from a well-known house dealing in old books and maps.2 1 Rijksarchief, West India papers, vol. 968. This list runs in part as follows : " van Essequebo, die zeer groot en breed is. De kaart der Rivier Essequebo, oostwall. idem Essequebo, westwall. De kaarten van de Eylanden van de Rivier Essequebo. De kaart van het boovengedeelte van Essequebo. " van Poumeron : De kaart der Rivier Poumeron. idm Oronocque." 2 W. P. Van Stockum's Sons, on the Buitenhof. This map, I am happy to say, I am permitted on behalf of the Commission to add to the collection of the Rijks archief, in trifling recognition of the many courtesies of its custodians. I may here add that all the manuscript maps thus bought for the Commission and here 251 No. 5. The inscription upon it tells us that it is a "sketch map of the colony of Rio Essequibo drafted from various observa tions as a basis of operations tending toward a projected general map" and dedicated to the Director-General and Court of Policy of the colony by Albert Siraut-Destouches in Essequibo, January 4, 1779; and that the present copy of it was made by the authorized land surveyor I. Van der Burght in 1801. There is no reason to question its truth. If the map itself was unknown to the Company, the names of both Siraut-Destouches and Van der Burght are familiar enough to its records. The former came to the colony in 1768 with the surveyor Massol, and had scarcely reached there before he was sent off on an exploring trip up the Essequibo. 1 He seems then to have settled Extracts, No. 263. *do wn as a planter on the so-called ' ' Arabian coast " *157 ™°eg ^°\ „ " Y™* (tbe seashore just at the west of the mouth of the Essequibo), and to have prospered there, uniting, so far as permitted, the functions of a land surveyor with those of a planter.2 Whether or not his project of a general map ever reached its full consummation, it seems to have attained at least a riper stage; for another map, bought in Holland for Atlas to Case, map the Commission from another dealer,3 bears in spite of its 61- coloring and its greater elaboration, so close a resemblance to this sketch map in general treatment, and concurs so exactly in the number and location of the plantations, that it was almost certainly made by the same hand and at nearly the same time, being apparently a slightly later form of the same map. While both of these maps are of value as showing the limits of occupation at this date, neither suggests a bound ary save by the extent given the map itself. But from this very fact they derive a peculiar interest; for when in 1781 *the English commander, Capt. Edward *158 Thompson, on taking possession of the colony for Great Britain, demanded from the Court of Policy a map reproduced have been subjected to the careful examination of the scholars in charge of this collection. 1 Extracts, No. 263. 2 The Court of Policy, which seems to have been well disposed toward him, not only tolerated this, but even ventured in 1776 to make him for a time colonial surveyor ; but the company made repeated and sharp protests on the ground that he had received from them no authority to exercise this function. During the French occupation (1782-1784) Siraut-Destouches was himself a member of the Court of Policy, and on the departure of the French was left acting governor of the colony (February-October, 1784). * The old house of M. Nijhoff at The Hague, 252No. 5. of the colony that he might acquaint the King of England with its importance, they ordered copied for him, as their Minutes of the records tell us, " the sketch map of the river drafted by the April 13° i78i"0lEx- lan(1 survey°r Destouches, which lies in the office of the tracts. No. 319. secretary." That this was the sketch map above described is suggested not only by the striking concurrence in title and by the fact that the secretary's office was precisely where such a map dedicated to the Director- General and Court of Policy would naturally be lying, but by the fact that a map there treasured might most naturally have been copied twenty years later by the colonial surveyor Van der Burght. And if so, the English map of the coast of Guiana "from the observations of Captain Edward Thompson in the year 1781," which prints along the river Barima the words "Western boundary of the Dutch according to their claim," must have derived this boundary from some other For Thompson's source than the map thus put into Captain Thompson's map see map 6 of hands by the Dutch colonial authorities — a point of no thePB.ue1XBook "Ven° sma^ interest, if, as I believe, this is the earliest map to ezuela, No. i"; or show that boundary. Atlas to Case, map The map I have next to describe is also a waif, 43- *159 *without title, date, or name of author. But happily ..Atlas toCase' map there exists of this two copies, one of them in the West India collection at The Hague and bearing the mono gram of the Amsterdam Chamber; and among the papers of the Amsterdam Chamber there is a certain document mentioning the transmission of a map which can hardly be any other. This is a petition from the colonial surveyor For tins petition in LOTJIS CHOLLET, received by that Chamber in September, full, see Extracts, No. ifjQ\> asking a grant of land in the river Pomeroon or on the coast west of it. The petitioner had given attention, he said, to the west coast as far as the Pomeroon, and to that river itself, on account of their agricultural promise, and had embodied his observations in a memorial which he enclosed, together with a map, made by himself, be ginning at the creek of Mahaicony and ending with the boundary between the Spaniards and the colonies of the State, in which map the river of Pomeroon and the neighboring districts were portrayed. Chollet's memorial of this date has not been found, but there is a later memorial by him on the opening of the Pomeroon, trans mitted by the Governor-General in 1794. It is in French, See Extracts, No. like this map. The Amsterdam Chamber's monogram at 342, inclosure 2. the top of the map is to all appearance by the same *160 neat hand as the*map itself; and the fact that both 253 No. 5. map and petition were thus addressed to the Amster dam Chamber, instead of to the Ten or to the Company as a whole, while among the extant maps of the Company there is no other answering in the least to the description, makes its identity virtually certain. The map herewith submitted to the Commission, though unmistakably drawn and colored by the same hand, is not an exact duplicate of that in the archives at The Hague. It bears no monogram and has in a corner a bit of landscape, with a shelter, or rest-house, in the foreground and the name "Pont- marron " attached — a view perhaps sketched at the mouth of the river. The limit of the plantations on the coast is not precisely the same; and, what is of more moment, while The Hague copy shows something more of the in terior in the southwest portion of the map, that submitted has more of detail in that northwest quarter which is of more interest to the present research.1 *That either of these maps represents the condition *161 of things in 1791 is not to be believed. On the site of Stabroek, at the mouth of the Demerara, there appear only plantations; the Moruca post is at the site it occupied before 1781; and the plantations on the west bank of the Essequibo are not so far seaward as they are known to have been in 1772. 2 The only date on either map is 1769, which (on the Hague copy) is given as the date of the burn ing of a forest in Demerara. s Between this and 1772, then, would seem to be the period represented in the main by this map. Chollet wished only to illustrate the Pomeroon district, and this during the interval was doubtless un changed. It seems not improbable that even for this northwestern region he may have made use of that chart, by the surveyor Bowman, of the coast "as far as the 1 It is for this reason that this, instead of the Amsterdam copy, is reproduced in the atlas of the Commission. The map was bought by me in Holland for the Com mission, at the same time and place as that last above described — at NijhofFs, in The Hague. It should be added that neither in the case of this map nor in that of either of the others bought for the Commission could anything be learned from the dealers as to the earlier history of the map. Each of the well-known firms in question had a large collection of such old colonial maps. 2 See letter of Storm van 's Gravesande, August 27, 1772. (Blue Book " Venezuela No. 3," p. 180.) But, as pointed out on page 141, above, there is here an error in translation, the words " taken up " being impossible in this connection; the writer speaks only of distances, and of rods, not "roods." A piece of land " below Capoey " creek (beneden Capoey), and therefore close by tbe place where in these maps the plantations end, was granted one Jacob Citters on April 4, 1772. (Minutes of Court of Policy, May, 1877.) » " Bois brule en 1769." 254 No. 5. Pomeroon and the post of Moruca," which the Director- ezfeiaei!£00k»"Ven" General mentions in his letter of August 27, 1772. The ' p* 80' boundary — here calling itself the "line which *162 *according to the maps separates Dutch Guiana from the Spanish possessions " — is evidently that laid down by D'Anville. Two very different maps of the Pomeroon, one of them by Chollet himself, the other by the rival surveyor, Van der Burght, were about this time in use in the colony and were sent to the home government. They were rude sketch maps showing only the lower Pomeroon (to the mouth of the Moruca), but meant as a ^basis for the con cession of lands in that region. 1 It was their crudeness For his journal of and mutual contradiction which led in 1794 to a careful this expedition and survey of the district by the two surveyors jointly, under his letter of inclosure, .1 j, ,, ~ „ , , . ,„ „, J see Extracts, No. 342. the e^e of the Governor-General himself. The resulting map, drafted by Chollet, was transmitted to the Dutch Atlas to Case, map Council of the Colonies in August, 1794. It must be borne 69. The coloring of jn mind, in its study, that the batteries, the canals, the original does not p^g nere shown the town whose site is indicated, were appear in this repro- r , . . , .. , , _ „ _ ' duction. only projected; it was but a plan for submission to the home authorities. The plantations so minutely laid out were as yet, as appears from the list on the map, *163 only in small part granted, though *many petitions were waiting. The only place of actual occupa tion shown by the map is the Moruca post; and even that is probably depicted as it ought to be rather than as it was. The project was still before the Council of the Colonies, and its realization still in abeyance, when, in April, 1796, the British assumed possession of the colonies. Meanwhile, however, another and more notable map was under way. On the 28th of December, 1795, one Friedrich von BOTJCHENROEDER submitted to the Colonial Committee of the newly organized Batavian Republic a petition for "a vacant governorship in one of the West India colonies." But that he understood "West India" in the wide sense suggested by the territorial scope of the " West India Company " appears a moment later when he adds: 1 Both are in the collection at The Hague. Van der Burght's is dated De cember 14, 1790; Chollet's 1793. The only thing of interest about either is that Chollet places the Moruca post on the west of that river's mouth. For a dis cussion of this (which was changed in his more careful map of the following year) I must refer to my historical report. 255 No. 5. " And, since the possessions of the State on the coast of Guinea are the least known and since they still need (or might well be given) the most improvements and new in stitutions, therefore this government, if intrusted to me, would give the most opportunity for usefulness to the State." And that Guinea was no slip of the pen for Guiana is shown by the essay which he incloses in proof of his ac quaintance with colonial needs, a thirty-page memoir, en titled: " Reflections on the Fundamental Laws and Measures to be observed in the establishing of new Colonies and *Plantations, with reference to the profits which the *164 Commonwealth of Holland might have from the Colonies, both in the East and the West Indies, especially at the Cape of Good Hope and on the coast of Guinea; by F. von Bouchenroeder, The Hague, 5 Dec. 1795." The memoir is written in German, with a parallel Dutch These papers are translation, and shows acquaintance with Guinea, but not |° volj f.01 of th<: . West India papers of with Guiana. lhe Rijkaarchief (PP. With his petition the applicant submitted a sketch of 92-127). his career. Of his German birth he says nothing. In 1770, at the age of thirty-seven, he had entered the Prus sian service, with the rank of ensign. Thence in the same year he passed into the Hessian service, with the rank of lieutenant, and in 1784 became a captain. In 1785 he went over into the service of the province of Holland as " cap tain proprietary " of a company in the " Jaager Corps " of Salm, of which regiment he was in 1787 made major. In the internal troubles which followed he had played a con siderable part until the opening of 1793, when his sym pathy with the popular party was by the conservatives rewarded with dismissal; since that date he had been in retirement near Hanau, in Germany.1 He was, in 1 This " Staat van Dienst " is in full as follows : " Staat van dienst van Frederich van Bouchenroeder oud 37 jaaren getreeden in Pruissischen dienst, in het jaar 1 770, in Qualiteyt van Vendrig. " In Hessischen dienst in het jaar 1770, in Qualiteyd van Lieutenant, en Capi- tain in 1784. " En laatstelyk overgegaan in Hollandschen dienst, in het jaar 1785, iu Quali teyd van Captain proprietair van eene Compagnie by het Jaager Corps van Salm ; tot Major by hetzelve Corps benoemd zynde, in het jaar 1787, en het gccomman- deerd hebbende als Commandant, zeedert de opregtiug. " In 1787 by het Burgerleger te Woerden, etc., gediend hebbende als Quartier Meester Generaal ; en by de Verdeediging van Amsterdam, by het etablisseeren 256No. 5. *165 short, a *soldier of fortune, who had spent as a Hollander eight of the two and sixty years of his varied life, and now again sought Dutch employment. His petition was referred to the subcommittee on police and justice, which on February 10, 1796, recommended that his essay be sent for examination to the authorities on the Guinea coast, and that his application meanwhile be put on file. Nothing daunted, the old soldier vigor ously turned his hand to a new task; for barely six months later, on August 26, 1796, in the session of the Committee on Colonies, "there was read a letter from F. van Bouchenroeder, written here at The Hague on the 24th of August, transmitting a map, by him con- *166 ceived and drafted, of *the rivers Essequibo and Demerara, and stating his intention to have this draft engraved, and, with the approval of this Committee, to publish it." As soon as the map should be engraved it was his intention to present the original to the Com mittee, together with certain printed copies. l The map was referred for examination to the subcom mittees on police and justice and on troops and defense, and on September 21, 1796, they jointly reported thereon, recommending that "in recognition of the knowledge, der Posten van Amstelveen, Ouwerkerk, Kalverslaan, en Overtoon, gefungeerd hebbende als Generaal Commandant. " Burger zynde te Delft en Amsterdam, zeedert den jaare 1787. " Gedimitteerd den 1" Jann. 1793, toen het Corps Jaagers uyt den particuiieren dienst van de Provintie van Holland overgong in dienst der Generaliteyd, en dat om reeden van zyn by alle Gelegendheyd gemanifesteerd patriottismus. en in zonderheyd om dat hy in bovengemelde Qualiteyd gediend had by het Burgerleger. " Zeedert gewoond hebbende op zyn buytenverblyf te Emrichshof by Hanau, en niet gepensioneerd, en ook niet weederom geemployeerd zynde gewest, in dienst van eenige Mogendheyd. " Bygewoond hebbende de Campagnes van 1777, en van 1787. " Van Boboheneoeder." 1 Bouchenroeder's letter is not to be found among the papers of the committee; but its contents appear from the committee's minutes, and from the report of the subcommittees, as here given. ." . . "geexamineerd hebbende een Request van F. van Buchenroder waarby by aan het Committe presenteerd eene proef van eene door hem vervaardigde Generaale Kaart der Bataafsche Colonien gelegen in Guiana welke hy voorneemens is in twee bladen aen het Committe optedraagen en waervan het tweede blad zal bevatten de Grens van Suriname aan de Rivier Marowyne welke hy voorneemens is, zo het de approbatie van het Committe mogte wegdragen te laaten graveeren, en op inteekening uittegeeven voor den prys van f . 6 . . engeillumineerd voor f. 9 . . per stuk en alsdan de Origineele teekening met eenige gedrukte exemplaaren ter dispositie van het Committe inte- leeveren versoekende deswegens met de intentie van het Committe te worden vereerd." 257 No. 5. skill, and research put forth by F. Bouchenroeder, for the sake of being of use to the Fatherland, in the preparation of this handsome and very well worked-out map," the committee should, for the encouragement of his enter prise and as a contribution toward the costs, subscribe for a dozen colored copies and permit him to dedicate the work to *itself ; and, in case the execution of *167 the printed map should be satisfactory, should further manifest to him its approbation.1 The map was accordingly engraved, and on June 21, 1798, Major von Bouchenroeder transmitted to the colonial committee, with a letter of inclosure,3 the dozen colored copies. That the promised gift of the original manu script of the map was also not forgotten is proved by the *fact that this manuscript is now to be found *168 among the Committee's papers. A reproduction of it I herewith submit. 1 . . . " dat het Committe uit aanmerking van de kunde werkzaamheid en aangewende poging van den persoon van F. Buchenroeder om den Vaderlande nuttig te zyn, in het vervaardigen van deeze schoone en zeer wel uitgewerkte kaart by favorable Resolutie aan hem zoude kunnen declareeren dat het Com mitte daerop, to. aanmoediging van en voortgangin dit zyn werk en te genioed- koming van de kosten, welke hy tot het graveeren van deeze Kaart zal moeten- maaken, zoude kunnen doen inteekenen voor twaalf stuks geillumineerde kaarten tegens den prys door hem gestipuleerd, ten einde de Comptoiren van dit Com mitte alsmede de Colonien daarvan kunnen worden voorzien. " En dat wyders aan hem zoude kunnen worden geaccordeerd om die Kaart aan het zelve optedraagen en de executie derzelve wel bevindende hem nader zyn genoegen hierover te manifesteeren." 2 " Aan het Committe tot de Zaaken der Colonien, en Bezittingen van de Bataafsche Republicq, in America, en op de kust van Guinea. " Medebueoebs: " De ondergeteekende heeft de Eer aan Ulieden hiernevens te presenteeren 12 geillumineerde Exemplaaren der kaart van Essequebo " Capuri," and " Harry tiahans"; no town nor village of any kind is seen; no trace of either Dutch or Spanish in fluence. In Guiana itself the mythical "Manoa del Dorado" reigns supreme over " Muckikeri," " Epuremei," " Amapaca," " Arwacas," " Apehous," and a single In dian village called " Macurewarai." The Essequibo is indicated only by its mouth; nothing whatever is shown of the Dutch upon its banks. What must we conclude from this? Clearly, that San son intended, when he drew his line, to mark off that territory which the Spaniards had occupied with settlements. Was it also his *intention to fix the *26 limits of Spanish aggression into savage territory, or to define the western Dutch boundary of the Dutch colonies? I think not. In the first place, if Sanson had had the Dutch in his mind when he made his map, or at least when he made his special map of this region in 1656, and if it had been his purpose to give to the world the latest obtainable in formation respecting Dutch possessions in Guiana, we might not unnaturally look for some trace of this in the title of the map itself. Yet we find that that title makes no reference whatever to the Dutch, but simply informs us that we are looking at " Guiana and Caribana," and adds that these form a part of Terra Firma. In the second place, if Sanson had had in his mind the Treaty of Munster, concluded eight years before; and if it had been his purpose to show the territorial extent of the rights conferred upon or confirmed to the Dutch by that treaty; it is strange that he should have entirely omitted mention of any Dutch settlements on either the Essequibo or the Berbice. These were at that time the, ex treme western settlements of the Dutch; their location must necessarily, under the treaty, determine the location of the boundary itself; and to suppose that such im portant landmarks could be omitted from a map *27 which was to publish that boundary for the first time to the world, would be much like supposing that Hamlet could be omitted from the play which bears his name. But what is still stranger, if Sanson intended to fix Dutch frontiers, is that Kykoveral is not only not mentioned, but 280 No. 6. that, in its place, this same Sanson actually writes the word " Arwaccae," as though no Dutch existed; and between the Orinoco and the Essequibo the only designation is the word " Caribes "; indicating that Sanson looked upon this as purely Indian territory. All this forbids the sup position that he had undertaken to ascertain the location of the Dutch settlements or to lay down their boundaries. A careful examination of Sanson's map fails to disclose a single settlement which can be recognized as distinct ively Dutch. His 1650 map gives no towns whatever, not even Indian, excepting " Macarewarai," and the myth ical " Manoa del Dorado." In his 1656 map no settle ments are shown on either the Essequibo or the Berbice: on the Corentyn and its tributaries are seven towns, all with Indian names: and on the Surinam River there is a town called Noyeve. *28 As a third and final reason for refusing to *look upon Sanson's line as a western Dutch boundary, is the fact that he makes no attempt to fix any Dutch bound ary on the east. There was as much reason for his fixing the one as for his fixing the other: there was every reason why he should not attempt to fix either. Too little was known at that time about the geography of the country to make any intelligent division possible. These consider ations, taken in connection with what has already been pointed out as to the purpose of at least a portion of the north and south boundary line, lead to the conclusion that this line was drawn without any thought of the Dutch and without any intention to fix a line of right. It was not a political line, in any sense; but was merely intended to separate Nueva Andalusia from that region which, to Sanson at least, continued to be " Caribana," and all which that name implied. An examination of Sanson's maps having brought us to this conclusion, it may not be amiss to go beyond the maps themselves and to search for further light in San son's written works. Does he therein support or contra dict the interpretation thus placed upon his maps? I translate the following from his "Ii1 Amerique en plusieurs cartes, etc.," published in Paris about 1656, pages 69-73: *29 *" In my geographical tables I have divided this South America into Peruviana and Brasiliana; sub dividing Peruviana into Terra Firma and Peru; and Brasil iana into Brasil and Paraguay; the first division is made by a line which runs from the mouths of the Amazon to 281 No. 6. the southern extremity of Chili, and this line divides South America into two equal parts, the one belonging almost exclusively to the Spaniards and the other for the most part to the Portuguese. 7v TP W W W "Terra Firma may also be divided into Terra Firma and Guiana. ***** " The Spaniards possess almost all Terra Firma, nothing at all in Guiana. ***** "Under the general name of Terra Firma we include that part of South America lying most toward the north and which is connected with North America by the Isthmus of Panama. " It extends from the Isthmus of Panama to the mouth of the Amazon, nearly a thousand leagues. Its breadth between the North Sea and the states which lie along the Amazon is not more than 200 or 250 leagues or a little more. This breadth being but a quarter of the length is our reason for dividing this Terra Firma into two parts of which the westernmost and the larger belongs for the most part to His Catholic Majesty, and retains the name of Terra Firma, and the easternmost, which is the smaller, is nearly all in the hands of the natives, some Europeans having established settlements on the coast and this may be called ' Guiana.' " *Thus does Sanson summarily dispose of any *30 question as to the Dutch character of his line. I have gone at length into the question of Sanson's line, because some of his followers seem to have misunderstood its meaning; to have attributed to it political significance; and to have copied it as an expression of Sanson's own judgment respecting the location of the Spanish-Dutch frontier. It is interesting to trace the growth and develop ment of this fallacy. Blome in 1669, G. Sanson in 1669, Jaillot in 1695, Vischer about 1700, Dankerts about the same time, Overton in 1740, and R. and J. Ottens probably a little later, all published maps in which they reproduced Sanson's north and south line, without apparently giving it any other significance than it originally had. Robert de Vaugondy. In 17491 and 17508, however, ROBERT DE VAUGONDY * In Lib. of Con- published maps of " North and South America," and of sre8S> Amer- maPa> "South America," in which, for the first time, we find II,!1'' Sanson's north and south line given as the western map31 boundary of the Dutch. Seventeen years later, in 1767, another edition of Robert de Vaugondy's map of South 32. 282 No. 6. Atlas to Case, map America was published by DELAMARCHE, and in "x"31 this it is evident that the correctness of the *first publication had come to be doubted. This is shown by the fact that on this later map two distinct lines are given: one, the old Sanson line; and the other, a new line which departs from the first at a point about 75 miles be fore its northern extremity reaches the Orinoco; and which, with a curve, first to the east, and then to the north, runs to the ocean between two rivers, which are shown as flowing into the sea about midway between the Orinoco and the Essequibo. Whatever may be the merits of this new line, it does not appear to have been followed by subsequent map makers; and the vacillation of its own publishers respecting it certainly excuses any further consideration of it at this time. Whatever Robert de Vaugondy or Delamarche may have thought in 1767, the first of these had, in 1749, given an erroneous interpretation to Sanson's line; and the mischief had therefore been done. This 1749 map was evidently taken as an authority either by Governor Pownall or by Sayer and Bennett who, between them, published a map in 1777 which, though said to be com piled from D'Anville with corrections by Pownall, is, so far as this line is concerned, a copy of Robert de Vau gondy. *32 *There is every reason, however, to believe that Robert de Vaugondy was not the only one, nor even the first, to misread the maps of the Sanson school. Popple. Atlas to Case, map In the British Blue Book there is a map (No. 3), entitled 33. " Map of Surinam. Extract from a map of the British British Blue Book Empire in America, with settlements adjacent thereto, ex- Venezueia, No. i ecufe(^ wiffl the approbation of the Lords Commissioners in map 3 ppe" X of Trade and Plantations, etc. By Edmund Halley, F. R. S., Astronomer Boyal. 1733." The engraved bound aries which appear on this map are distinguished also by a red color; and below the title is the statement that red represents the Dutch possessions. The ascription of the map to Halley is a mistake. It Atlas to Case, map was made by HENRY POPPLE, and, as originally published 34. jn London, contains upon its face the following statement: Mr. Popple undertook this map with ye approbation of the R'- Honourable the Lords Commissioners of Trade 283 No. 6. and Plantations; and great care has been taken by com paring all the Maps, Charts and Observations that could be found, especially the Authentick Records and Actual Surveys transmitted to their Lordships by ye Governors of the British Plantations and others, to correct ye many errors committed in former Maps, and the Original Drawing of this having been *shewn to ye learned *33 Dr- Edm. Halley, Professor of Astronomy in ye Uni versity of Oxford, and F. R. S. he was pleased to give his Opinion of it in the Words following. ' ' I have seen the above-mentioned map, which, as far as I am judge, seems to have been laid down with great accuracy and to shew the position of the different Prov inces and Islands in that part of the Globe more truly than any yet extant. Edm. Halley." It will be noted, in tbe first place, that this is primarily what it purports to be, namely, a " Map of the British Empire in America, with the French and Spanish settle ments adjacent thereto, ," and not a " Map of Surinam," the Dutch colonies thus misnamed coming in only as they fell wnthin the field of the map. That these appear at all is due to the fact that, in order to include the colonies of the Spanish Main, the map itself extends as far south as five degrees of north latitude; and that, on that account, they could not well have been left out. They form the extreme southeast corner of the map, and, as will be per ceived by reference to the Blue Book copy, there is no Atlas to Case, map attempt at details of the region. Such details as do 33. appear are crude, even when judged by the standards of 1733. The boundary line by which Popple divides, not the Essequibo, but "Surinam" from "Nova An dalusia," is either a bad copy of Sanson's north and south *line, or else it is meaningless. It *34 would be unfair to Popple to assume that he presented this line as expressing any opinion of his own respecting the extent of either Spanish or Dutch rights. The engraved boundary begins above the delta of the Orinoco at the mouth of a river which is given as "Covrama." It does not follow that river, neither is it guided by any visible mountain chain or water parting. Running to the southwest, it cuts directly across the next river which it encounters, leaving more than half of it to the east. It continues by dividing in two the fictitious lake of Casipa, notwithstanding the fact that, according to the map itself, St. Thomas is located on an island in that ¦'284 No. 6. lake. It finally terminates at the limits of the map. This line is, on its face, arbitrary, and drawn without any ap parent reason. Had its termination above the delta of the Orinoco been due to any supposed Dutch post or settle ment there, such post or settlement would certainly have been shown, so as to thereby justify a departure radi cal and apparently indefensible. Had it been intended to set off to the Spaniards that territory which was im mediately dependent on St. Thomas, it would at least have given to that city the lake, upon an island of which Popple erroneously supposed that it was located. *35 *If the Blue Book copy of this map, which colors all the islands of the Orinoco delta as Dutch, be a correct reproduction of the original, it only serves to emphasize the untrustworthiness of the map as regards Dutch and Spanish boundary lines. Neither Holland nor Great Britain has ever claimed, or pretended to claim, that delta. Copies of the same map in the libraries of Congress, of Harvard College, and of the Geological Sur vey (the first of which is reproduced in the atlas accom- Atias to Case, maps pany ing this report) are uncolored, and show merely the 34 and 35. engraved line. It may well be doubted, from what has been said, whether Popple gave this feature of the map any thought whatever. It was beyond the declared province of the map itself, a mere useless and incidental appendage; and the most plausible explanation that can be given of it, consistent either with reason or with the intelligence of Popple, is that it was rudely copied from Sanson himself, or, what is much more likely, from some imperfect reproduction of his maps. One thing is certain, and that is that few, if any, took this line seriously. So far as I have been able to ascertain, it was reproduced only twice, both times in 1744. In that year Emanuel Bowen published an atlas, which *36 contains, *among others, four different maps show ing the Orinoco region. Only in one of these does the Popple line appear, and that is in a " Map of the West Indias," in which "Surinam" plays an unimportant part. In his special map of " Terra Firma " no bounda ries whatever are given. Also in 1744 appeared an anony mous map, as an illustration in Rapin de Thoyras' History of England, "as continued by N. Tindal." This was a "Map of North America," in which a small part of 285 NO. 6. " Surinam " appears in the southeast corner. It is hardly deserving of mention. * THE DELISLE LINE. After Sanson, the next man who exercised any decisive influence on the cartography of Guiana was DELISLE. This geographer published his first map in 1700; followed Atlas to Case, map it by a second in 1703; and finally by a third in 1722. S6- These maps, taken together, reveal the purpose which Atlas to Case, map Delisle had in laying down the lines there shown. Those ' Atla. toCase> map lines are the more important, because passing first 38. through the hands of D'Anville, Arrowsmith, and others, *they came at last to find their final expres- *37 sion in what has come to be known as "The Schom burgk Line." Delisle's earliest map may be said, in a sense, to have gone back to first principles. Like some of the earlier geographers who had labeled Terra Firma Spanish by giv ing it the name of " Castilla del Oro," Delisle labeled it Spanish by setting off various well-known Spanish prov inces to the west, and by then including the remainder, which comprised all the region to the east of the Orinoco and a considerable portion to the west, under the name of " Nu- Andalousie." True, he gave it the double name of " Guiane ou Nle. Andalusie " but the use of the latter designation, taken in connection with the fact that he gave no European settlements of any kind east of St. Thomas, makes it quite clear that, to his mind, " Guiane " was all Spanish. The map bears other evidences of orig inal work. But Delisle was evidently an enterprising and progress ive geographer; and, not satisfied with his first work, he published a second map, three years later; which, in addi tion to showing a modified geography of the region, showed also modified boundaries. In this second map "Nle. Andalusie" and *" Guiane " were no longer confounded. The former *38 was pushed across the Orinoco to the west, and even there was confined to a region comparatively near the coast. " Guiane " likewise suffered loss: first, by having " Nle. Andalusie " taken from its northwesterly corner; and 1 Since writing the above my attention has been called to two other maps where this line appears: one, a map by Buache, published in Paris in 1740; and another, a map by Covens and Mortier of 1757. 286 No. 6. again, by having its southwesterly extremity lopped off and given to " Noum- Re- de Grenade." As now bounded, " Guiane " comprised all the territory east of the Orinoco, and an apparently unsettled district west of that stream. The change from 1700 to 1703 is significant, and must be understood in order to properly interpret the later map of 1722. In the first map, within the region designated as " Guiane ou Nle. Andalusie" appear five towns; two of them (Comana and St. Thomas) Spanish, and three {Port de Morequito, Port de Carapana, and Manoa) Indian. The whole territory is recognized as Spanish, and there is no attempt to set apart any portion of it as still open to settlement by other European nations. The " Guiane " of 1703 is quite different. The portion lying west or northwest of the Orinoco contains the name of not a single town or village. Except for the names of two Indian tribes {Aroras and Amapaia), the region might be supposed to be uninhabited. But the *39 portions *which since 1700 Delisle had cut off from the northern and southern extremities of this region and had given to "Nle. Andalousie" and "Grenade," contain towns. It would certainly look from this as though Delisle, in dividing this uninhabited tract from the settled land north and south of it, had merely intended to separate the civilized, or semicivilized, from the savage. It would be absurd to suppose for one moment that he marked this tract off as Dutch territory. Even the ex treme British claim does not touch the eastern bank of the Orinoco, except at its mouth; while this tract extends to a point at least two hundred miles west of that river. The fact that this wild region was marked off, taken in connection with the fact that it was made a part and parcel of the region lying to the east of it, between the Orinoco and the Amazon, certainly raises a presumption that the latter region, in Delisle's mind, was of much the same character as the former, and that it was logical to class the two together. What about the region to the east? After passing the Orinoco and leaving the Spanish city of St. Thomas and the two Indian villages of Carapana and Morequito, Delisle's map shows no trace of civil- *40 ization for quite three *hundred miles, until we reach the Surinam River, at the mouth of which appears a Dutch fort. The intervening country is covered 287 No. 6. with the names of Indian tribes, and nothing more. Leaving the Dutch fort on the coast and going into the interior, we see not a trace of civilization. What we do find are names and legends, such as " Acoquas nation tres nombreuse," " Moroux people fort barbares," " Acuranes pays noyez," etc. Not only are there set down in this vast district a Dutch military post (Fort de Zelande), but — what to a French Royal Geographer must have seemed of far greater importance — the French "Isle et Ville de la Cayenne." In the middle of all the savagery depicted, with a Span ish city 350 miles west and with a French town 250 miles east, can it be believed that a French geographer intended that the boundaries of Guiana, going 300 miles farther west than the Spanish city, 250 miles farther east or south east than the French town, and nearly 500 miles south into unknown and unexplored regions, should be taken as marking territory appertinent to and dependent upon a Dutch fort on the coast! What this line meant must now be evident. As the tract west of the Orinoco was cut off from civiliza tion by the lines which separated it from*"_V_e. *41 Andalusie" and " Grenade," so was all the region to the east cut off in the same way. This was in no way inconsistent with the presence within that territory of a Spanish, a Dutch, and a French lodgment. In 1700 Delisle had given all the country to the Spaniards. By 1703 he had come to see that that would not do; that the Dutch and the French had each of them obtained a foot hold within that territory, and that title by mere dis covery, unsupported by effective and actual as distin guished from constructive possession, might possibly have to give way before the inroads of other civilized nations. He therefore gave to Spain what was indisputably hers by actual occupation and settlement, calling it by the name of "Nle. Andalusie" and "Grenade;" and as for the rest, he left it a region by itself, within which he showed various national posts, but which he made no effort to parcel out between the nations which those posts respectively represented. Let us now turn to the map of 1722, which, unfortu nately, is on a smaller scale, shows little detail, and is, therefore, more difficult to interpret. In some respects, however, this very absence of detail becomes significant, 288No. 6. and discloses, rather than obscures, the meaning of such features as do appear. *42 *We must approach the study of this map, keep ing in mind the' purpose which Delisle had when he published his 1703 map and drew his 1703 line. That purpose may have changed in the meantime; yet the presumption is against it, and the burden of proof on the other side. In this latest map Delisle gave the name of " Terre Ferme " to the whole of the northern extremity of South America, bounding it on the south by an engraved and colored line. West of the Orinoco appear the names of various well-known Spanish provinces, which he left without boundaries. The whole western region he called " Castille d'or." The ancient word " Paria," never before used by Delisle, he now employed to designate that region west of the Orinoco which, in his map of 1703, he had made a part of " Guiane." The eastern portion of " Terre Ferme," as a whole, he designated " Goyane," and the portion so designated he bounded on the west by an en graved line, starting on the coast from a point a little to the east of the point of entrance of the eastern mouth of the Orinoco. From this point he ran his new line south- westwardly, keeping it nearly parallel with, and at a distance of about seventy-five miles from, the Orinoco; then curving it slightly to the right as it approached its *43 southern *terminus, he made it meet the eastern branch of a mountain chain shown as coming from the southeast. What was the meaning of this line? There is no evi dence to show that it was intended as the western bound ary of the Dutch colony of Essequibo. On its face it pur ported to be the boundary merely of " Goyane"— the "Wild Coast"— and to be therefore devoid of political significance. Certainly all that we have learned respect ing the character of Delisle's earlier maps confirms this idea. In his map of 1703 Delisle had merely intended to separate the civilized from the uncivilized. In his later map of 1722, whatever else he may have done or intended io do, he did, as a matter of fact, precisely the same thing. The region west of the Orinoco, which formerly had constituted a part of " Guiane," he still designated as wild by the simple use of the word " Paria"— an abprig; inal name first used by Columbus. The difference be tween "Paria" and " Guiane," and the apparent reason 289 No. 6 why they were now separated, was that, whereas " Paria" was surrounded on all sides by Spanish settle ments, and was therefore no longer open to other nations, " Guiane," save only at the few points already occupied by Europeans, continued accessible along its whole *coast. The Orinoco region, which, if Delisle's map *44 had been correct in geographical details, would have been approximately the region wTest of his dotted bound ary line, he had perhaps now come to look on as a region naturally and necessarily dependent upon and appurtenant to St. Thomas. In Sanson's time navigators had been accustomed to use the western mouth of the Orinoco in preference to the eastern. Whether or not this continued to be the case in 1722 does not appear; but, however this may have been, certain it is that by the latter date the Spaniards had be come more alive to the importance of controlling all the mouths of the river upon which their principal city was located. Since 1650 (the date of Sanson's first map), British, French, Dutch, and possibly Swedes, had all cruised in or about the mouth of the Barima. Its im portance to the Spaniards of St. Thomas, from a mili tary and commercial standpoint, had thereby been sug gested; and it was probably because he was thus led to look on it as necessary to the safety and prosperity of that city that Delisle, in the absence of any British, Dutch, French, or other post in that neighborhood in 1722, drew a line which left the Orinoco and all of its mouths within the region which he *assigned *45 to St. Thomas. Apparently, then, Delisle's line, whatever meaning it may really have had, did, as a matter of fact, very correctly show the division between the Spaniards on the west and the wild and unsettled country on the east. That it was intended as the western boundary of Essequibo is more than improbable. The Essequibo settlements were not shown on the map; and I have already remarked on the absurdity of assuming boundaries for places whose existence is not even hinted at. No reason is apparent on the face of the map why a Dutch boundary should have begun near the mouth of the Orinoco. If Delisle had believed in the existence of a Dutch post at that point, and had determined to draw a political boundary line based upon that belief— a boundary differing radically from all lines previously published— he would, for his own vindication, have indicated the loca- 290No. 6. tion of such a post on his map, just as Bouchenroeder did later in 1798. No; this line could not have been intended as a Dutch boundary. " Goyane " appears on Delisle's map as a whole, unbroken and undivided; bounded on the north and east by the ocean and the Amazon; on the south by a moun- *46 tain chain and the dotted line separating it from *the Amazon region; on the west by the line under dis cussion. That line was a boundary of " Goyane "—a name which the region bore — not of Essequibo— a, name which the region did not bear. Within it were the towns of Suri nam and Cayenne, one Dutch and the other French. No boundary separated those towns or settlements from each other; no boundary fixed the limits of the Dutch on the west, nor of the French on the east. Unlike Sanson, Delisle seems not to have published any written explanation of his own respecting his map; but in an " Introduction," which, either by him or by his pub lishers, is attributed to Sanson, and which is adopted without reservation, and may therefore be taken as ex pressing Delisle's own views, we find confirmation of the conclusions here reached. The following translation is from page 27 of the " Introduction " to Delisle's undated " Atlas Nouveau," published at Amsterdam by Jean Covens and Corneille Mortier: Chapter III. THE PRINCIPAL STATES OF AMERICA. 3. The Foreign Dominions established by some of the States of Europe are as follows: 1. France has established herself in New France, *47 *in various Caribbean Islands, and upon the coast of Guiana. 2. Spain, or almost entirely Castile, possesses there New Spain, Terre Ferme1 or New Grenade, Peru, Chili, Tucu- man, which forms a part of Paraguay, and the greater part of the Antilles. ******* 5. The United Provinces under the name of the Dutch, there hold various Caribbean islands, and SOME colonies on the coast of Guiana. 1 " Terre Ferme," which Delisle thus stated to be in the possession of Spain, is not defined in the "Introduction "; but his map of 1722, by carrying the name across the 1 The italics are not in the original. 291 No. 6. boundary of " Goyane," shows that it was not limited by that boundary. On the other hand, so far was Delisle from regarding "Goyane" as Dutch that he distinctly limited the Dutch possessions in that quarter to "some colonies on the coast "; referring in much the same lan guage to the French settlements at Cayenne. Thus has Delisle by direct statement confirmed tbe interpretation above placed upon the character of his line. D'Anville. If Sanson had been understood by his immediate and misunderstood by his remote followers, Delisle had the misfortune to be misunderstood and misinterpreted almost from the start by *D'Anville; a man whose *48 name and influence were sufficient to perpetuate the errors which he introduced down even to the present day. D'Anville has generally been looked upon as the origin ator of the line which has come to bear his name, and which has been copied by so many map makers. The great contributions which he made to geography, his re searches, and the independence and originality which he exhibited, combined with the fact that on his map, with its improved geography, his boundary line between the Dutch and Spanish possessions in Guiana appears to dif fer from the line which Delisle published in 1722, all sup port this idea; yet a careful comparison of his work with that of Delisle shows that, however original D'Anville may have been in portraying the physical characteristics of that country, and in showing for the first time a bound ary between the Dutch and French possessions in Guiana, as regards the particular line now under consideration, he was a mere copyist of Delisle; and, what is more, a mechanical copyist. How this came about it is not difficult to see. DANVILLE'S map of 1748, in which his line first ap- Atlas to Cose, maps peared, was not a special map of Guiana, but a 39 and 40. general map of South America. The correspond ence going on about that time between *the *49 Zeeland Chamber and the Dutch Governor Storm van 's Gravesande, shows howr hazy and indefinite were the notions of boundary, even in the minds of the parties directly interested in the matter. It was not strange, therefore, that a geographer, engaged in making a general map of the whole continent, should give little study to a 292No. 6, small and comparatively unimportant feature of that map. The boundary question was not then the burning issue which it is to-day. The actual settlements of the Dutch and Spanish were separated by 150 or 200 miles of wild territory, uninhabited save by savage Caribs; its streams and waterways were difficult of navigation- some of them at certain seasons of the year quite impass able. The extensive swamps, impenetrable forests, and mountain ranges which intervened made a post or two sufficient provision against the running away of slaves from the Essequibo to the Orinoco. What more natural, under those circumstances, than for D'Anville to leave the boundary question alone? He found at his hands, ready made, a line laid down by an eminent Royal Geographer of his own country. An edition of Delisle's 1722 map, published after his death by Covens and Mortier, had been altered by the addition of the *50 words ' ' Aux * Holland " after the name ' ' Su rinam," and " Au Roi de France" after the name " Cayenne." True, this in no way altered the meaning of Delisle's line; but the addition of these words may easily have misled D'Anville in his inter pretation of that line. To one not especially look ing for a distinction between political and what may be called regional boundary lines, it was most natural that Delisle's map, particularly with the added words, should at first glance have given the impression that it contained a political Dutch-Spanish boundary. Most boundaries are political ; regional bondary lines are excep tional. Even a trained geographer like D'Anville, or like those who to-day assume Delisle's line to be political, might well misread such a boundary unless its non- political character were forced upon their attention. It is precisely because of this that I have entered into a lengthy collation of the facts to show what Delisle himself really intended. Under these circumstances, it was a most natural thing — in no way derogatory to D'Anville's reputation as a geographer— that he should have fallen into the error above pointed out, and that he should have copied Delisle's line into his own map, giving to it, for the first time, a political significance. *51 *That it was an adoption of Delisle's there can be no reasonable doubt. D'Anville would not have given it as an independent line, expressive of his own judgment 293 No. 6. regarding the proper division between the Spanish and Dutch, unless he had at the same time shown on his map something to warrant it— some basis for its support. As it appeared on D'Anville's map, it was on its face an arbi trary line. On that map it disclosed no reason for starting from where it did, nor for running thence in a fixed direc tion regardless of natural barriers. Its northern terminus was on the coast just outside the entrance of the Orinoco mouth; yet the map failed to disclose any Dutch post there or to show at that point any traces of Dutch occupation. Leaving the coast, it ran into the interior, touching and all but crossing the Barima River, and then crossing, first the upper branch of the Cuyuni, then the Yuruari, and finally the Mazaruni. These were arbitrary features which serve to show that this line was not one exhibiting intel ligent thought, but rather one copied from some other map, without any appreciation of what it had there meant. Thus we see that, from beginning to end, the line is, on its face, arbitrary; and that the map upon which it appears fails to disclose in its support any reasons either of settle ment or topography. *Not so with the same line as it appeared in De- *52 lisle's map of 1722. According to the different geo graphy of that map, the line had there clearly indicated either an equal division of the Orinoco-Essequibo region, or else it had marked the water parting between the val leys drained by those rivers. In either case the division was intelligible and based upon well-recognized principles. The same line transferred to D'Anville's map was, by rea son of the modified geography of that map, shorn of meaning and divested of its original character. The considerations thus adduced seem to establish beyond reasonable doubt the true origin of the D'Anville line. It is possible that the facts which seem to me to show this may not carry equal conviction to all minds. Some may find a more plausible explanation of D'Anville's Spanish-Dutch boundary in the fact of its parallelism with the Dutch-French boundary which appears upon the same map: To me it seems more likely that the Dutch-Spanish boundary, instead of following the Dutch-French bound ary, was itself the controlling factor in fixing the direction of the latter after it had left the Maroni River. Others, again, may accord a greater measure of importance to any one of a dozen other facts, *each of *53 which may successively be invoked in support of 294 No. 6. as many different theories. While frankly recognizing the limitations of our knowledge in this regard, and while admitting that the theory given is not entirely free from possible objection, it is important to note that no other theory which has been suggested can so satisfac torily explain the arbitrary character of the line itself. As has already been explained, whatever may have been the origin of the line, that arbitrary character is patent, at least in the absence of any claim to documentary evi dence supporting it; and if D'Anville did not in fact copy from Delisle, the only effect which that conclusion could have would be to lessen our estimate of D'Anville as a careful and painstaking geographer. The only explana tion, it seems to me, which is consistent with D'Anville's high standing as a geographer, is that which has been here advanced. After all, if the arbitrary character of the line be recognized, the question of origin becomes one of secondary importance, its only use being to explain how and why the line is arbitrary. There is another consideration which shows that D'Anville either took his line from Delisle without understanding Delisle's meaning, or that he laid *54 it down arbitrarily. Strictly speaking, *it is a consideration outside the limits of this report, but it so entirely confirms what has been said that Blue Book Vene- it may be instructive to refer to it. The contemporary zuela, No. 3 (1896), correspondence between the Dutch Governor Storm pp. 86-87, 88, 90, van ,s Gravesande and the Dutch West India Com pany shows that at this time they did not know where the boundary was nor how to determine it. Upon becoming acquainted with D'Anville's map, they at once accepted this line on his authority, but did not even then know any historical facts whereby to fix it. It is Blue Book Vene- therefore clear that D'Anville did not base it upon any «"el.no_.i rf ' historical research nor upon inquiries of the people who must be supposed to have been the best informed about the facts. Delisle's "regional" boundary line having thus been labeled political by so high an authority as D'Anville, its character has not been heretofore questioned; and we find a host of geographers and map makers who have simply followed in D'Anville's footsteps, and have me chanically copied his work. Among these may be mentioned De La Harpe (date unknown), Bolton in 1755, Covens and Mortier in 1757, Van Ber- 295 No. 6. cheyck in 1759 (or rather the inset in his map, by whomsoever supplied), Hinton (The Universal Maga zine) in 1762, The London Magazine in 1763, Buache in *1763, Tirion in 1767, Jefferys in 1768 and 1775, *55 Bowles in 1770, Sayer in 1772, Kitchin about 1774, . Robertson in 1777, Scbloezer in 1777, Santini in 1779, Brion de la Tour in 1780, Campens in 1780, The Political Magazine in 1780, Kitchen (sic) in 1782, Von Reilly in 1795, Janvier in 1784, Moithey in 1785, Dunn in 1786, Bowen about 1788, Clouet in 1793, Morse in 1793, Mannert in 1796, Wilkinson in 1794 and 1800, Blomfield in 1807, Kelly in 1819, and others. Those here mentioned have, for the most part, followed D'Anville without attempting to disguise the fact, many of them quoting him as their authority. Thompson. In 1783 William Faden published a chart by L. S. de la Rochette from the observations of Captain EDWARD THOMPSON in the year 1781. Thompson was the officer Atlas to Case, map in charge of the force that seized the colony of Essequibo 48. in March, 1781. He remained there until October of that year, and during this interval collected information re specting the geography and extent of the colony. The chart which, two years later, was published by Faden, was the result of those investigations. Apart from *his own observations along the coast, Thompson's *56 sources of information, particularly as to the extent of the colony, were probably the maps of D'Anville and SIRAUT-DESTOUCHES, and the history of the Guiana colo- Atlas to Case, maps nies by the Dutch official Hartsinck. 66 »n mapg River, and lays down nothing west of the post on that 66an(J67. river. Thompson could not, therefore, have obtained his Barima boundary from that source. From what source did he obtain it? D'Anville and his followers were the 296 No. 6. only map makers who had gone into the Barima region for the purpose of locating there a political boundary. In view of this fact, it seems hardly too much to say that, had it not been for the example thus set, Thompson would hardly have ventured so far beyond the limits of a map furnished by the colony itself in answer to a formal* request. *57 *It is possible, even probable, that Thompson was influenced by the statement of Hartsinck respecting the existence of a Dutch post on the Barima River, and by the further statement of the same historian that " some limit Dutch Guiana on the west by the Barima River." It is quite evident that Hartsinck himself was little influ enced by either of these considerations, for in his own map he placed the boundary at the Waini River. Never theless, these statements, particularly as they were in line with his own interests as Colonial Governor, probably de cided Thompson to follow D'Anville's lead. They gave an apparent basis of right to D'Anville's line, or at least to a line in that region. Thompson recognized this fact; it is also evident that he recognized the arbitrary appearance of the D'Anville line, and that, resting upon Hartsinck's statements, he sought to adjust that arbitrary line to a natural feature lying in its path. The course of the Barima River, as then understood, was about parallel to the course of the D'Anville line. It started from about the same point on the coast, and ran into the interior in such a direction that D'Anville's straight line had to be deflected but very little in order to make the two coincide. This is evidently what was done, and so a line *58 which had been arbitrary on its face was given *the appearance of a line drawn according to natural features. The adoption of the Barima River as a boundary led to further and important changes in later maps, and thus it is that Thompson comes to be a link between D'Anville on the one hand, and Bouchenroeder and Arrowsmith on the other. JeffERYS. To interrupt for a moment the thread which we are fol lowing, and which will finally be seen to connect Delisle with Schomburgk, it may be useful to turn for a moment to a series of maps published about this time, which serve as an excellent illustration of the vacillation in the minds 297 No. 6. of map makers respecting the exact location of the Barima boundary. THOMAS JEFFERYS, who has been mentioned as a fol lower of D'Anville, published four charts, to which refer ence will here be made. They are dated, respectively, 4775,1781, 1792, and 1795. The first of these gave the Atlas to Case, map D'Anville line without change of any kind. It showed 41- the geography of the coast region in detail, erroneously placing the Amacura east of the Barima, but locating both of these streams west of the boundary line and within Spanish territory. Barima Point, called by Jefferys *" Cape Breme according to the Dutch *59 pilots," was by him placed at the' mouth of the Amacura, and well to the west of the boundary. The chart of 1781 showed the first change from the old Atlas to Case, map Delisle-D'Anville line. In this Jefferys moved the north- 42. ern extremity west as far as the Amacura, which still continued to appear east of the Barima. At the mouth of the river he placed the words: " R. Amacura which Divides the Dutch from the Spanish Settlements." When Jefferys came to publish his third chart of 1792 Atlas to Case, map he had before him Thompson's map of 1783, and the re- **¦ suit is evident: both the geographical features and the ^Atias to Case, map boundary were taken directly from that map. In this new chart the "Cape Breme" of his earlier chart took the English name of " Cape Barima, or Cape Breme of the Dutch." This cape was located entirely to the east of the river, which was made to serve as boundary ; and the Amacura, which in his earlier chart had appeared to flow into the Orinoco around both sides of Cape Breme, giving to this latter the form of a delta, was in the later chart moved east to correspond with the same feature in Thomp son's map. Jefferys' chart of 1795 is interesting, because it shows Atlas to Case, map to some extent a recession from the position sug- 4B- gested by Thompson and accepted *by Jefferys in *60 1792. In this last chart Cape Breme is shown as lying entirely to the west of the Barima River, and there fore within Spanish territory. Bouchenroeder. In 1798 BOUCHENROEDER published a map, a small Atlas to Case, map inset in which has been reproduced in the British Blue 46- Book as No. 7. Its connection with the D'Anville line and ^gge),6™6 Appendix with The mpson's and Jefferys' charts is evident. Bou- No. in. 298 No. 6. chenroeder, following the lead of Thompson, gave the Barima River as the boundary between the Dutch and the Spanish as far as that river went; but, in imitation of D'Anville, he prolonged the line from the head waters of the Barima into the interior, so that, if continued, it would have cut the Cuyuni River just as the D'Anville line had done. Bouchenroeder erroneously placed the Barima River to the west of the Amacura. So far he wTas a copyist. The new feature which he introduced was what he called " Ancien poste Hollandaise Sur les Limites des possessions Espagnoles"; and this "poste" he placed on the Barima not far above its mouth. The testimony of Bouchenroeder as to the existence aud location of this so-called "poste" is open to two objec tions. First, that it was purely hearsay. , The post *61 was called an *" ancien" — that is to say, an old or extinct post— and therefore must have ceased to be. His testimony as to its existence is therefore of little value. In the second place, Bouchenroeder's knowledge of the geography of the region was extremely limited. Not only did he misplace the Amacura and Barima rivers, but he grossly erred in showing the latter as a straight stream, running in a direction conveniently near the arbitrary line which D'Anville, Thompson and Jefferys had laid down. No details of the region were attempted; and it must be evident to even a superficial observer that, in this particular at least, Bouchenroeder's work was merely an attempt to carry out the ideas suggested by Jefferys, Thompson and D'Anville. In sailing charts, which showed only the coast line, Jefferys and Thompson had indicated the Barima River as the boundary. In Jefferys' chart of 1775, which included a portion of the interior country, that geographer had given the boundary as a straight line. In later maps Jefferys and Thompson had made the Barima River and the D'Anville line to coincide. Bouch enroeder did the same; but with an evident desire to adhere to the D'Anville line more closely than either *62 Thompson or Jefferys had *done, and with that freedom which a limited knowledge of thegeography of the region permitted, he drew the Barima River as a straight stream lying directly in the path of the boundary line; and from its head waters, as has already been pointed out, he continued that boundary line as before into the interior in a direction which, if prolonged, would, as in D'Anville's map, have cut the Cuyuni River. 299 No. 6. It had been easy for Thompson, Jefferys, and Bouchen roeder thus to make the D'Anville line and the Barima River coincide, because in each of their maps the two lay so close together. Thus it was that they paved the way for the next geographer, who discarded the straight line almost entirely, and made his boundary follow the wind ings of the Barima. Thus it was that John Arrowsmith came to form the next link in the chain which will be found to finally connect Schomburgk with Delisle. John Arrowsmith. JOHN ARROWSMITH published his first map in 1832. Atlas t0 Case map His uncle, Aaron Arrowsmith, had been a map publisher 47. before him, and had copied largely from Cruz Cano, who will be examined later. Thompson and Bouchenroeder either never saw, or else entirely ignored, the CRUZ*CANO map published in 1775. Cruz Cano had *63 Atlas to Case, map given the correct relative positions of the Barima bo. and Amacura rivers, and had shown many details of the interior region, which apparently never came to the knowledge of either Jefferys or Bouchenroeder. Aaron Arrowsmith had reproduced many of these de tails in his maps. John Arrowsmith did the same, but added new features and modified old ones in accordance with newer and better information. His map of 1632 Atlas to Case map probably represents what was, at that time, the best 47. see also Jour. knowledge of the geography of that region. Roy. Geog. Soc iv, As regarded boundaries, Aaron Arrowsmith had fol- s2°- lowed Cruz Cano, giving to the Dutch, and to their suc cessors the British, nothing beyond the Pomeroon district. John Arrowsmith, probably under his uncle's influence, engraved the same boundary upon his map; yet his own leaning was evidently in another direction, for we find on Atlas to Case, map that same map a second line, lying farther west, drawn 47. through the same region through which Delisle, D'An ville, Jefferys, and Bouchenroeder had drawn theirs. As already stated, John Arrowsmith, taking his uncle's (Aaron Arrowsmith's) maps as his guides in matters of geographical detail, correctly *placed the Barima *64 River to the east of the Amacura. Bouchenroeder had shown both of these streams on his map, but had mis takenly transposed their names. On this account his "ancien poste Hollandaise, etc.," had been misplaced. His intention had evidently been to locate it on the Barima; and he in fact placed it upon a river to which he gave that 300 No. 6. name. As it turned out, however, Bouchenroeder's Barima was Arrowrsmith's Amacura ; and as this latter geographer, when he came to publish his map, chose to follow Bouchenroeder's location rather than his nomenclature, the boundary line, which he copied from Bouchenroeder, took another step westward. As has been already stated, Bouchenroeder had made the river follow the boundary line: John Arrowsmith made the boundary line follow the river. As the two maps gave different courses for the same stream, so did they give different directions to boundary lines which, ap parently different, were in fact the same. Beyond the head of the Amacura (called by him " Barima") Bouchen roeder had drawn a straight line, approximately parallel to the Essequibo. Had this line been continued beyond the Cuyuni, it would have cut that stream just as *65 D'Anville's line had originally done. *Taking the general direction of the line in Arrowsmith's map, it very nearly paralleled the Essequibo River. In the ab sence of any written statement by John Arrowsmith ex plaining the principle upon which he drew that line, or giving the source from which he copied it (and diligent search has failed to discover any such statement), we are warranted iu going to the map itself for an explanation. One thing is quite clear: Arrowsmith either intended to draw a new line, or he intended to copy an old one. If his intention was to arrive at a solution of his own respect ing the merits of the boundary question, his map ought, upon its face, to bear evidence of that fact, and to dis close the principle upon which the attempted division was made. An examination of Arrowsmith's map shows, in the first place, the existence of two boundary lines: this in dicates vacillation and uncertainty. Had the author been sure of either line he would certainly have discarded the other; had he intended to publish a new line to the world -~a line proposed by himself, and based upon some prin ciple the justice of which appealed to his own mind— he would hardly have weakened its effect by producing another line alougside of it. 66 *In the second place, if Arrowsmith had not de pended upon the authority of Bouchenroeder or Thompson for the Dutch ownership of Barima Point, or for the existence there of a supposed Dutch post, it seems unlikely that he should have ventured to show a boundary * 301 No. 6. beginning near that point, without himself giving, in its support, some evidence of Dutch possession in that vicinity. In the third place, the line drawn by Arrowsmith ignored important physical features which would not have been ignored had it been a new line drawn without regard to other maps. Notwithstanding its apparent regard for topography, it bears evidence on its face of being an arbitrary line adjusted to only those natural features which happened to lie in its path, but careless of other and more important features lying beyond it. The Amacura River, which under the name of "Barima" had been given by Thompson, Jefferys aud Bouchenroeder as the boundary between the Dutch and the Spanish, was not followed to its source by Arrow- smith: he presently made the line diverge from that stream to follow a tributary running conveniently parallel to the Essequibo. The Imataca Mountains, which formed a natural boundary separating the *Cuyuni *67 basin from the coast region and from the upper Orinoco valley, were ignored and crossed without apparent reason. The Cuyuni, which itself formed a well-marked natural line was not followed, but was cut at a point where neither Dutch nor Spanish have ever claimed to have any set tlements. In his map of 1832, Arrowsmith ran the southern ex- Atlas to Case, map tremity of his line around a bend of the Mazaruni; yet 47. in an 1840 reprint of a map of Aaron Arrowsmith of 1810, Atlas to Case, map John Arrowsmith ran the line across the Caroni and 48, across half a dozen of its tributaries, showing how little he was given to regarding natural boundaries. All of these circumstances negative the theory that Arrowsmith had any intention of publishing a new line. Notwithstanding the fact that his boundary here and there follows streams and ridges, it is as a whole arbitrary. It closely resembles the lines of Bouchenroeder, Jefferys, Thompson and D'Anville: it is, in fact, a copy of those lines; and its appearance differs from theirs only because its author took advantage of the natural features which came in his way to invest it with a less arbitrary appear ance. Of what other explanation is Arrowsmith's line susceptible? Sanson, Delisle, and the followers of these two had been the only ones to draw lines from or 302No. 6. *68 *near the Orinoco mouths down into the interior of Guiana. We are thus forced to the conclusion that Arrowsmith's line is, after all, Bouchenroeder's line, Jefferys' line, Thompson's line, D'Anville's line, Delisle's line; and that as such it is entitled to such weight, and such only, as those lines may themselves possess. The modifications are merely modifications and nothing more: they can not avail to change the original meaning of the line itself. Schomburgk. From Arrowsmith we pass to Schomburgk, whose line has played such an important role in this controversy. It is so essential, however, that we keep in mind the purpose of this particular paper that I venture to preface what I have to say by a few words of explanation. The Schomburgk line has a diplomatic and it has a geo graphical importance. Its bearing upon the boundary question is, therefore, of two distinct and entirely separa ble kinds. On the one hand, it has the distinction of having been proposed by Great Britain as the result of official surveys and explorations made under her direction, and of *69 having been made *the subject of diplomatic cor respondence, in the course of which its tentative character was unequivocally recognized. These are im portant questions; but it is not the province of this paper to discuss them. On the other hand, the Schomburgk line has a geo graphical importance. It behooves us to ascertain its origin, to know its meaning, and to weigh its merits, viewing it solely as the opinion of an expert witness, and ignoring, for the time being, its diplomatic and other relations. A further word by way of introduction. Various lines have been published which have, rightly or wrongly, been attributed to Schomburgk. I mention but two: one published in Parliamentary Papers for 1840, vol. 34; another published in the Colonial Office List for December, 1886. Both of these lines are reproduced in the Statesman's Year Book for 1896, the first being therein designated as "Schomburgk's Original Line," and the second as " Schomburgk's Modified Line." Here, again, the questions which are raised by the existence of Atlas to Case, map 49. 303 No. 6. more than one line, are questions of importance from a diplomatic standpoint; but for the purposes of our present discussion they are immaterial. What wre want to know is not the effect which the publication by Great Britain, *first of one line and then of another, may *70 have upon the present controversy; but, what is the intrinsic merit and worth of any line proposed by or attributed to Schomburgk? Of the two lines which have been mentioned, the first is so like the Arrowsmith line that it seems hardly worth while to make it the subject of a separate study. The second is the line which Great Britain now publishes as the only " Schomburgk Line." On this account, and also be cause it apparently departs from the Arrowsmith line of 1832 more than any other of the lines attributed to Schom burgk, I shall, for the purposes of this examination, treat it as the only " SCHOMBURGK LINE." In order to estimate the merits and to ascertain the real significance of this line, it will first be necessary to inves tigate its origin, and to ascertain whether it expresses an independent opinion of Schomburgk himself respecting the boundary question, or whether it merely voices the modified opinion of another man. If Schomburgk was the originator of the line, it has a special significance of its own; if, on the other hand, the boundary which he pro posed should turn out to be merely an old line modified, then its real significance must largely depend upon the significance of that other line. *For an answer *7l to these inquiries let us turn to Schomburgk's maps, memorial, reports, and letters, and to the authority and instructions which he received from the British Govern ment. On July 1, 1839, Schomburgk presented a "MEMOIR Parliamentary AND MAP " to Governor Light, setting forth therein, first, *'*£ *D18|J:™L U the importance of the boundary question; second, the grounds upon which he conceived that Great Britain was entitled to Barima Point; third, a detailed description of a boundary line which he presented, not as his own, but as one which had been considered by others as marking the western limits of the " Pomeroon Colony;" fourth, an unqualified approval of that line by himself, expressed in the following language: "My deductions from the different circumstances to which I have attempted to draw the attention of your Excellency are * * * that the limits thus defined are (288), pp. 13-15. 304No. 6. P»l8rli^mentar,y in Perfect unison with the title of Her Britannic Majesty Papers above cited, to the fuU exten(. Qf that territory.>, J ' and, fifth, a strong recommendation urging the necessity of determining the limits of British Guiana by actual survey. In other words, Schomburgk described a particular line; he expressed his approval of that line; and, without a thought of entering into new investigations as to its *72 merits or demerits, *be proposed that, what had theretofore existed on paper alone, should now be Parliamentary laid down upon the ground by " actual survey " Papers above cited, The following is Schomburgk's own language on the ppI4'15- subject: " Of equal importance is the determination of the western boundary (of British Guiana), the limits of which have never been completely settled. * * * As the first (Colony of Pomeroon) was the most west ern possession, and formed the boundary between Spanish Guiana, its limits were considered to extend from Punta Barima, at the mouth of the Orinoco (in latitude 8° 40' N., long. 60° 6' W.), S.W. by W. to the mouth of the river Amacuru, following the Cano Coyuni from its confluence with the Amacuru to its source, from whence it was sup posed to stretch in a S. S. E. line towards the river Cuyuni (a tributary of the Essequibo), and from thence southwards towards the Mazaruni. * * * My deductions from the different circumstances to which I have attempted to draw the attention of your Excellency are that it is practicable to run and mark the limits of British Guiana on the system of natural divis ions, and that the limits thus denned are in perfect uni son with the title of Her Britannic Majesty to the full extent of that territory. * * * That a strong recommendation be forwarded to the Home Government, urging the paramount necessity of determining the limits of British Guiana by actual survey under a commission appointed for that object, and em powered to plant along the extent of that line, at *73 *the most remarkable points, such monuments as are not likely to be quickly destroyed either by the influence of weather or violence."1 This memoir and map, addressed to Governor Light, were forwarded to the Colonial Office. On March 18th, 1840, the Foreign Office communicated its action upon them to the Colonial Office in the following terms: 1 This quotation is from the originul in Parliamentary Papers, 1840, vol. 84. The copy in British Blue Book, Venezuela, No. 1 (1896), page 184, contains some inaccuracies, 305 No. 6. " With reference to that part of your letter in which Parliamentary you state that Lord J. Russell considers it to be impor- Papers, 1840, vol. s. tant that the boundaries of British Guiana should be (288)>p-]7; also re- ascertained and agreed upon if possible, and that Mr. printed in Blue Book Schomburgk's researches in those parts have qualified VenezneU, No. 1 him in a peculiar manner to be of use, should the serv- (1896>> p- 185- ices of any person acquainted with the geography of British Guiana be required for fixing the boundaries of the British territory, I am to state to you, that the course of proceeding which Lord Palmerston would suggest for the consideration of Lord John Russell is, that a map of Brit ish Guiana should be made out according to the bounda ries described by Mr. Schomburgk, that the said map should be accompanied by a memoir describing in detail the natural features which define and constitute the bound aries in question; and that copies of that map and memoir should be delivered to the governments of Vene zuela, of Brazil, and of the Netherlands as a statement of the British claim." *We thus see that what the British Government *74 did was to authorize the survey of the particular " boundaries described by Mr. Schomburgk." There was no suggestion that he be empowered to survey and lay out new boundaries of his own invention. So far as original investigation on his part was concerned, it was, by the ex press terms of the letter above quoted, limited to making anew map, and to preparing a "memoir describing in detail the natural features which define and constitute " — not new boundaries to be discovered — but " the bounda ries in question;" that is to say, the boundaries which Schomburgk had described in his memoir. The declared intentions of both Schomburgk and the British Foreign Office in this regard were undoubtedly ad hered to in the surveys subsequently made. If Schom burgk's work did not, on its face, bear evidence of this fact, the recent statement of Lord Salisbury in his dis patch No. 190, of November 26, 1895, to Sir Julian Senate Doc. No. si, Pauncefote that "It is important to notice that Sir R. ^G™^.^ *es%-' Schomburgk did not discover or invent any new bounda- v' (iepn ries " would be quite sufficient to establish the fact. It appears, therefore, by Schomburgk's own state ments, and by the recent declaration of the British Government, that the Schomburgk line *was not *75 an original line; but that it was a mere adjustment to newly discovered features of an old line already well known before Schomburgk began his surveys. Having arrived at this conclusion, it is next important 306 No. 6. to ascertain what line it was which Schomburgk thus modified ; for, naturally, his own line being but a modified form of another, the significance of that other must be as certained, in order to get at the real significance of Schom burgk's modification of it. The particular modifications introduced by Schomburgk may have merits of their own, not possessed by the original line. To pass upon these points, however, would require a critical study of many historical facts whose examination is beyond the province of this paper. As mere modifications, however, it is difficult to see how they can avail to change the character of the line as a whole. Whatever principle may have determined the location of the original line, that same principle necessarily permeated the Schomburgk modifi cation of it; whatever significance the original line may at bottom have had, that same significance necessarily at tached to the new form of the same line presented by Schomburgk. In the memorial of July 1st, 1839, the line which *76 Schomburgk took as bis model is *described, though the author is not mentioned. If, however, that Atlas to Case, map memorjai be read in connection with JOHN ARROWSMITH'S map of 1832, it will be found that the description in the first tallies exactly with the westernmost of the two boundary lines appearing in the second ly furthermore, we refer to Schomburgk's "Special British Blue Book Report " to Governor Light, dated October 23d, 1841, we Venezuela, No. . shall find the following express references to Jefferys, (18%), pp. 22-23. Arrowsmith, and Faden, or, what is the same thing, Thompson. "I have consulted two maps, likewise published in England during the last century, which may therefore be trusted, as Great Britain was not at that time interested in the question. The first is the coast of Guayana from the Orinoco to the River Amazons, &c, London, published in 1783 by W. Faden, Geographer to the King, in which the Barima is stated as the western boundary of the Dutch according to their claim. The second is a chart of Guayana from the West India Pilot by Thomas Jefferys, Geographer to the King, and published m London, 1798, in which the Barima River is stated to divide the Dutch and Spanish lands. * * * Modern English geographers assume the Amacura as the boundary from whence the line of limit extends to tlie sources of the Canno Coyunni, and from thence to the River Cuyunni. 307 No. 6. I refer Your Excellency to the maps published by Mr. Arroivsmith and others in the course of the last ten years." *In view of this direct reference to Arrowsmith, *77 and of the agreement between his line and that described by Schomburgk, there can be no doubt that Arrowsmith's line was the line which Schomburgk had in mind when he wrote his memorial : it was the line which the British Government authorized Schomburgk to survey: it was the line which Schomburgk did survey; and it was the line which, in its modified form, has come to be known as the " Schomburgk Line." As a whole, therefore, and ignoring the merits or demerits of the particular modifications introduced by Schomburgk, his line stands exactly where the Arrowsmith line stood; the meaning which it thus derived is the same meaning which the Arrowsmith line had itself derived from Bouchenroeder's line ; which Bouchenroeder's had derived from . Jefferys' and Thompson's ; which Jefferys' and Thompson's had derived from D'Anville's; and, finally, which D'Anville's had derived from Delisle's. It is hardly too much to say that the Schomburgk line would in all probability never have been proposed at all had it not been that Delisle, more than a hundred years before, had marked the eastern limits of Spanish encroach ment upon savage Guiana; and that the error of D'Anville, in misinterpreting Delisle, had been perpetuated *down to Schomburgk's own time by a multitude *78 of geographers and map makers who, without ex amination, accepted the authority of D'Anville's great name. CRUZ CANO Y OLMEDILLA. The maps heretofore examined, notwithstanding their apparent divergencies, may all be classed under the two heads of " Sanson "and " Delisle." The Sanson series reached its climax with Popple, and its end with Pownall. TheDe..s.e line, passing successively through the hands of D'Anville, Thompson, Bouchenroeder, and Arrowsmith, came to find its final expression in the Schomburgk line. Passing, for the moment, by a number of independent authorities, who, after Delisle, published lines of their own, we come to the next group, represented by JUAN DE LA CRUZ CANO Y OLMEDILLA. BO. 308No. 6. Atlas to Case, map In 1775 this geographer published a large and detailed map of South America whereon he engraved a boundary, which, beginning at the mouth of the River Moruga, fol lowed that river to its source, ran thence westerly to the source of the Pomeroon, thence southeasterly along the water parting separating the Pomeroon basin from *79 the heads of small streams flowing ^southward to the Cuyuni River; continuing thence, the line ran to the junction of the Cuyuni and Mazaruni rivers; and from that point followed the west bank of the Essequibo River to the south. In the case of the early map makers, as also of Sanson and of Delisle, it has been necessary to point out that they had no intention of making any political division. In the cases of Cruz Cano and of the other geographers who remain to be examined, there are no standards given by which their Work may be judged, and all that the writer can do will be to point out as far as possible the principles which guided them. To go beyond this and to discuss the correctness or the applicability of the principles themselves would be to usurp the functions of the Com mission itself. Cruz Cano has left no written works to throw light upon his intentions. We know, however, in a general way, the means of knowledge which he had at command and the views which at that time were prevalent among Spanish local authorities. Various Spanish documents published in the course of this investigation show that the Spaniards of the Orinoco recognized the Dutch as holding a post on the Moruca *80 and occupying the *Cuyuni below its lowest cata racts, but denied both Dutch occupation and Dutch right beyond. Cruz Cano gave the Dutch up to the Moruca, and ran his line so as to give them the entire Pomeroon basin; struck the Sierra Imataca, and followed that; and cut across so as to give them a large island at the confluence of the Cuyuni and Mazaruni (perhaps his crude and much exaggerated notion of Kykoveral Island). Within the region so marked off his map shows, on the Pomeroon, a Dutch settlement, "Nueva Middelburgh,"and a fort, " F. dela Nueva Zelandia," and, on the Essequibo, " the Essequibo Fort," probably meant for Kykoveral. The boundary line which he drew around these settle ments or posts would seem to indicate that his intention was to mark the limits of actual Dutch possession. 309 No. 6. Whether or not this was the true principle to apply is not within the province of this paper to discuss. All that the writer is called upon to do is to ascertain, if possible, what principle of division he followed. Viewing his line as a definition of Dutch rights, various theories are conceivable as having been present in his mind. He may have regarded the settlements as dating from 1648, and as therefore having been confirmed by the Treaty of Munster: he may have considered *that they came into existence subsequent to that *81 treaty, but that their long continuance conferred a title by prescription: or, again, he may have looked upon them as mere de facto settlements, established and main tained without warrant, and his line may have been noth ing more than a tacit recognition of that fact. Whatever theory be adopted, one thing is very probable, and that is that, as a Spaniard, he looked upon Spain as the original discoverer of Guiana, and hence regarded the Dutch as in truders in that region. Any rights, therefore, which the Dutch might have acquired would, in Cruz Cano's eyes, have been in derogation of Spain's paramount title. BONNE. From Cruz Cano, who was followed by a host of map makers, we pass to another group represented by BONNE, Atlas to Case, map Russell, Reid, Poirson, Myers, and others. These map 61- makers denied to the Dutch any rights whatever west of the Essequibo, and some went so far as to carry Spanish jurisdiction to the east of that river. That the boundaries thus laid down were intended to mark political divisions there can be no doubt. To discuss their merit, however, would be to go beyond the limits of this report. *BELLIN. *82 In going through the various groups of maps which have been discussed, we have passed by a number of geographers whose work shows independent thought, but who, for the most part, have had few, if any followers. Their lines differ considerably from each other; all seem, consciously or unconsciously, to have been guided, at least in part, by the principle of drainage basins. With out attempting to exhaust the list of these authorities, we find among them such men as BELLIN, Delamarche, GUSSE- 310 No. 6. Atlas to Case, map FELDT, HARTSINCK, Canzler, MANNERT, D'Orbigny, Van 52\ Heuvel, and others. Same map 54 Some of these, as, for instance, Bellin, made the Pom- Samei map 55. eroon the boundary at the coast, but carried their lines in land so as to mark the division between the Orinoco and Essequibo basins. In the case of Bellin, the Pomeroon is so drawn on his map that it might not have been un reasonably regarded by him as an independent stream, be longing neither to the Essequibo nor to the Orinoco, and very appropriately marking the natural limits of those basins along a comparatively flat coast. Bellin, in his " Description de la Guiane" (1763), *83 in connection with which the map here ^'referred to was published, disclaimed any intention of fixing the true boundaries. Yet those which he thus drew, however imperfect they may be, serve to illustrate the principle which evidently guided him, at least so far as the interior region was concerned. La Rouge's Atlas, DELAMARCHE'S map of 1792, differing from that which tZnTZuSZ he had Published for Robert de Vaugondy about 1767, of Congress.' shows an abandonment of the Sanson line which had there appeared, and though rude and extremely faulty in its geography, is nevertheless an obvious effort to separate the Orinoco and Essequibo valleys along the water parting of the two basins, from the coast as far as the Caroni. Hartsinck, Mannert, D'Orbigny, and Van Heuvel, all illustrate the principle to which reference has been made. Several of them, possibly under the influence of D'Anville, made their lines cross the Cuyuni River, leaving its head waters to the Spanish. With the exception of this feature of their maps, their lines show an evident desire to indi cate the water parting between the Orinoco and Essequibo basins; and as explanatory of the reason why the head waters of the Cuyuni were by them given to the Spanish, it may be well to remember that at the time when *84 their maps were published (all of *them after 1770), the undisturbed Spanish missions in the upper Cuyuni valley had long been established. GUMILLA. Before bringing this examination to a close, it may be Atlas to Case, map wel1 to refer briefly to a map published in 1741 by Father S6- GUMILLA, in connection with his work on the Orinoco. The line there shown has sometimes been mistakenly re- 311 No. 6. ferred to as a Spanish-Dutch boundary. It is, on its face, a boundary of the Province of the Catalonian Capuchin missions. There is nothing to show that in the mind of Gumilla this boundary coincided with the Spanish-Dutch frontier. For this reason, the line so drawn is without significance so far as this particular paper is concerned. CONCLUSION. This completes the study which I have made of the " Cartographical Testimony of Geographers." I have not continued beyond the time of Schomburgk, because what has since been published with the exception of General Netscher's map of 1887, and possibly of one or two others, has been a mere repetition of earlier maps. As a result, we have seen what it was which led the various geographers to lay down the *particular lines appear- *85 ing upon their maps; and it is apparent from this that they possess neither probative value nor even such authority as might belong to the result of a careful examination of historical and geographical facts, and the application of the rules of law to them. Upon that the determination of the true line of right must depend, and for that the Commission has now at its command a collection of materials far more important than any geographer had or than any one per son knew of at former times. Respectfully submitted. S. Mallet-Prevost. VENEZUELA-BRITISH GUIANA BOUNDARY ARBITRATION THE COUNTER-CASE OF THE UNITED STATES OF VENEZUELA BEFORE THE TRIBUNAL OF ARBITRATION To Convene at Paris UNDER THE Provisions of the Treaty between the United States of Venezuela and Her Britannic Majesty Signed at Washington February 2, 1897 VOLUME 3 APPENDIX PARTS 2, 3, 4, 6, e and 7 NEW YORK The Evening Post Job Printing House, i 56 Fulton Street 1898 TABLE OF CONTENTS. VOLUME 3. _A.F_E?_ED_isrT3i:x:. Part 2. Documents from Spanish Sources 1 Part 3. Documents from British Sources 167 Part 4. Extracts from various authors 219 Part 5. Documents from Diplomatic Sources 257 Part 6. Miscellaneous Documents 295 Part 7. Documents, whose originals were requested by Great Britain 329 TABLE OF CONTENTS.— Part 2. DOCUMENTS FROM SPANISH SOURCES.* Date. Source. No. 1 Subject. Page. Don Diego Suarez de Amaya, Report on the discovery and con 1 Governor of New Andalucia. quest of El Dorado 1616, July 29 Council of the Indies. 2 Recommends appointment of a 5 Governor of Trinidad, with in structions to drive the enemy therefrom. 1665, March 16 Case of Clemente Gunter. 3 Entering Orinoco without permis sion from Spain. 9 1680, February 15 Governor of Guiana. 4 Order to take depositions of Dutch prisoners arrested on the Ori noco. 13 1680, February 15 Pitri Dirguian, a Dutch pris oner. 5 His deposition regarding capture of Dutch prisoners on the Ori noco. 13 1680, February 15 Jan Endriguez, a Dutch pris oner. 6 His deposition regarding capture of Dutch prisoners on the Ori noco. 14 1680, February 15 Guaray, an Arawak Indian prisoner. 7 His deposition regarding capture of Dutch prisoners on the Ori noco. 15 Governor of Guiana. 8 Order, to the Dutchmen arrested on the Orinoco, to depart. 15 1711, July 7 9 Instructions to Lieutenant of Santo Thome in case of invasion. 16 1711, September 13... Certain officers of Trinidad. 10 Certificate of certain acts done by the Governor of Guiana. 17 1723, May 5 Don Antonio de la Pedrosa y Guerrero. 11 Report on the state of Guiana, with certain recommendations. 18 17*5, November 24 Governor of Venezuela. 12 Report on the condition of the Capuchin missions. 23 1729, May 18 Governor of Trinidad. 13 Regarding the expulsion from Guiana of a French Bishop. •24 1729, November 16 .... . Bishop of Porto Rico. 14 Regarding the expulsion from Guiana of a French Bishop. 26 1730, January 13 Bishop of Porto Rico. 15 Regarding the expulsion from Guiana of a French Bishop. 28 1730, April 26 16 Regarding the expulsion from Guiana of a French Bishop. 29 1730 Bishop of Porto Rico et al. 17 Correspondence regarding the ex pulsion from Guiana of a French Bishop. Instructions to prepare a ship to 31 1732, October 21 Acting Governor of Guiana. 18 37 reconnoitre the alleged Swedish settlement at Barima. King of Spain. 19 Regarding the expulsion from Guiana of a French Bishop. 39 1735, February 8 Don Pablo Diaz Faxardo. 20 Plans and estimates for Padrasto castle, and location of gold and silver mines. 41 1735, March 23 Governor of Guiana. 21 Information as to the Caribs, tbe missions and the mines of Guiana. 42 * These documents include not only those found in the archives in Spain but also such. Spanish documents as are to be found in Venezuela itself and in the archives at Borne. TABLE OF CONTENTS— Part 2.— Documents from Spanish Sources. Date. 1743 1755, April 20. 1756, January 29. 1768, April 11 .. 1758 1758, December 12 ... 1761, February 26.. 1761 1764, May 4 1765, February 2. 1765, April 17... 1769, July 6 1769, August 31... 1769, September 21 1770, January 21. . . 1770, February 26. 1770, April 16 . . . 1770, April 28 1710, April 28 1770, September 17.. 1770, November 8. . 1770, December 21 . , 1770, December 22.. 1771, January 19 1771, February 20. 1771, August 8 . . 1772, February 6 . 1773, January 9. . 1773, Julys 1773, July 31 1776, March 16 1776, September 10. 1777, May 7.. 1777, July 13. 1777, July 14.... 1778, August 14.. 1779, February 1. 1779, February 4 Source. No. 1779, July 8 Fray Felix de Tarraga, Governor of Guiana. Don Eugenio de Albarado. Don Jose de Iturriaga. Don Jose de Iturriaga. ^on Jose Solano. Don Jos. de Iturriaga. Fidel de Santo, Prefect of Missions. Joseph Diguja Villagomez. Joachin Moreno Mendoza. Joachin Moreno Mendoza. Joachin Moreno Mendoza. Prefect of Catalonian Capu chin Missions. Fray Jayme de Puigcerda. Fray Joachin Maria. Fray Joachin Maria. Fray Bruno de Barcelona. Fray Joachin Maria de Mar torel. Fray Joachin Maria. Fray Bruno de Barcelona. Fray Bruno de Barcelona. Fray Bruno de Barcelona. Fray Joachin Maria. 43 Fray Joachin Maria. 44 Fray Joachin Maria de Mar- 45 torel. Fray Joachin Maria de Mar- 46 torel. Fidel de Santo, Prefect of Mis- 47 sions. Fray Bruno de Barcelona. 48 Fray Fidel de Santo. 49 Fray Jayme de Puigcerda. 60 Fray Jayme de Puigcerda. 51 Fray Bernadino de San Felice. 52 King of Spain. 53 Fray Mariano de Sebadel. 64 Fray Felix de Villanueva. 55 Fray Bernadino de Verdu. 56 Governor of Caracas. 57 Fray Benito de la Garriga. 58 Don Jose de Avalos. 59 Subject. Page. 22 Report on gold and silver mines. 23 Detailed description of life at the missions. 24 Notice of projected entrada. 25 Asks for supplies. 26 Iturriaga's comments on the Dutch boundary. 27 As to boundary and new missions. 28 History of the Catalonian Capuchin Missions. 29 Lists of towns, missions, etc., in [? Nueva Andalucia]. 30 Friendly relations with Indians to be cultivated, etc. 31 Asks for 100 Indians for work on new settlement. 32 Asks for help and that road be built from Caroni io Angostura. 33 As to visit to Barima in quest of Indian fugitives, etc. 34 As to teaching Indians boys, etc. 35 Same. 36 Letter for religious encourage ment. 37 As to where and what supplies may be had. 38 Washing feet of savage Indians. 34 Holy week in Hupata. 40 Washing feet of savage Indinns. 41 Praise of Centurian for his help to the missions. 42 Conflict between civil and religious authorities. Progress of Santa Rosa Mission. Dispute between tbe Fathers. Cattle in the Missions. Same and also as to fort on Fax ardo Island. Relations of Jesuit and Capuchin Missions. Father Garriga's zeal and work. More missionaries asked for ; bad state of Jesuit Missions. Movements of Missionaries ; death of Fray Fidel de Santo. Urges that missionaries formerly asked for be sent. Rumor of a destruction of a mission, etc. Foreigners forbidden to visit, or cut timber in, Guiana. List of Capuchin Missions. The new Governor, Rio Negro ex pedition, etc. Drunkenness of Diez, Commander of Guirior. Relating to the uprising of the In dians of Guirior. As to Barcenoleta and Upata; their founding, condition, etc. Regarding the appointment of Don Jose Felipe Inciarte to found towns in eastern Guiana. Mention of certain Spanish Mis sions. 60 47 51 6364 67 68 74 77 78 79 7981 81 82 83 83 84 8484 85 86 8686 87 87 88 89 8990 90 91 919292 9394 9597 TABLE OF CONTENTS.— Part 2.— Documents from Spanish Sources. Date. Source. No. Subject. ^AGE. 1780, March 9 Don Jose1 de Galvez. 61 Relating to the Commission en trusted to Don Jose Felipe In 98 ciarte of founding towns in East ern Guiana. Don Jose de Galvez. 62 As to permit to France to export mules. 98 1782, October 29 Fray Benito de la Garriga. 63 Extending Missions toward Cuy uni ; to keep out the French ; navigability of streams in the savannas. 99 1782, December 31 . . Governor of Guiana. 64 Arrivals and departures of vessels at Angostura. 99 1783, March 28 Treasurers of Guiana. 65 Acknowledging donation from the Indians. 104 1785, February 15 Capuchin Fathers and Asso ciated Judges. 66 As to founding a new ranch in the savannas of Cura. 104 1785, February 21 IntendantGeneral of Caracas. 67 Instructions as to the government of the missions. 105 1787, June 5 Fray Thomas de Olod. 68 As to the care of certain roads. 106 1787, December 9 Fray Mariano de Cervera. 69 As to an entrada at mouth of the Orinoco. 107 1788, July 10 Miguel Marmion, Governor of Guiana. 70 Report describing Guiana. 108 1788, July 10 Governor Miguel Marmion. 71 Fac-simile of a page of his report, showing original of the foot note 140 in British Case, Appendix, vol. 5, p. 63. Facsimile of a page of his report, showing original of the foot note 1788, July 10 Governor Miguel Marmion. 72 147 in British Case, Appendix, vol. 5, p. 67. As to forcible removal of certain 1788, November 9 . .. Fray Buenaventura de San 73 148 Celonio. Indian families. Governor Miguel Marmion. 74 Distrust of the Indians in the new settlement of Sacaupana. 14 8 Governor Miguel Marmion. 75 Regarding inspection of lands at Cuyuni for construction of sentry box. As to conflict of civil and religious authority in founding missions. 149 1791, June 4 Antonio de Ventura de Car- auco. 76 149 Fray Luis de Barcelona. 77 Same. 150 Captain-General of Caracas. 78 Mentioning incidentally the con 152 struction of the fort on the Curumo. Ledger of the Royal Treasury of Guiana. 79 Three accounts relating to Spanish expenditures in Cuyuni and Essequibo in 1792. 153 Spanish Ambassador at the Hague. 80 Forwarding account for mainte nance of Spanish prisoners es caped from the French. 154 Cash book of the Royal Treas ury of Guiana. 81 S'atement of account of the Mili tary Commandant of the Cuyuni. 155 1799 Second Day Book of the Royal Treasury of Guiana. 82 Statement of certain military ac counts of the Cuyuni. 156 Commandant of Sacaupana. 83 Regarding seizure of American Frigate Defiance in the lower Orinoco. 158 Court records, Guayana. 84 Complaint of Canacunama, an Ara wak Indian, of assault and rob bery. Regarding the proceedings had upon complaint of the Arawak 159 1802, February 10 Governor of Guiana. 85 162 Indian, Canacunama. Documentos para la Historia- de la Vida Publica del Lib 86 Table of Mission$ of Guiana in the year 1816. 165 1842, May 11 ertador. Venezuelan Congress. ¦ 87 An act providing for a lighthouse at entrance to the Orinoco river. 165 TABLE OF CONTENTS— Part 3. DOCUMENTS FROM BRITISH SOURCES. Date. 1824, February 12. 1826, May 6 1830, June 5 1830, June 26 1834, January 23.. 1834, November 6.. 1838, September 1. 1844, March 27. .. 1850, June 29 1856, November 27. 1857, December 3.. 1857, December 26. 1857, December 81. 1858, March 11 1858, June 22. 1868, December 31. 1873, July 11 1883, December 31. 1894, October 25. . . 1894-1895 , 1894-1895 . 1897 Source. 1S67, December 10 Lieutenant-Governor of Deme rara and Essequibo. Court of Policy of Demerara and Essequibo. Lieutenant-Governor of Deme rara and Essequibo. Lieutenant-Governor of Deme rara and Essequibo. Lieutenant-Governor of Deme rara and Essequibo. Governor of British Guiana. Combined Court of British Guiana. Combined Court of British Guiana. Governor of British Guiana. The Government of Venezuela. W. H. Holmes and W. H. Campbell. James Shanks, Government Surveyor. Government of British Guiana. Government of British Guiana. Governor of British Guiana. Governor of British Guiana. Administrator of British Guiana. Government of British Guiana. Combined Court of British Guiana. Government of British Guiana. Governor of British Guiana. Government of British Guiana. No. 96 9.98 99 100101 102103 104105106 107 108 109110 Subject. Proclamation revising the militia laws and regulations. Notice of division of the colony into parishes. Appointment of Assistant Protect ors of Slaves. Appointment of Deputy Fiscal for the Capoey-Pomeroon District. Notice of appointment of Justices of the Peace. Fees allowed for journeys and at tendances at the Registrar's and Marshal's offices. Description of British Guiana. Extract from proceedings — debate on an estimate for the establish ment of an Indian village. Rearrangment of the Fiscal Dis tricts of British Guiana. Proclamation dividing the colony into districts and divisions. Notice to the Governor of Deme- rar» prohibiting entrance into Venezuela by the River Cuyuni. Report as to an expedition to the Orinoco via the Waini, Barama and Cuyuni. Report as to an expedition up the Mazaruni and Yuruari. List of wood cutting licenses and grants of occupancy. List of grantees in arrears of wood cutting licenses and grants of occupancy of Government land in Essequibo and Demerara. Proclamation altering the bound aries of Essequibo and Demerara and creating new divisions of the Colony. Proclamation dividing the Colony of British Guiana into Police and Fiscal Districts. Proclamation changing the Police and Fiscal Districts of British Guiana. List of grants of occupancy of Gov ernment Lands in existence in Demerara and Essequibo, Dec. 31, 1883. Debate on a proposed road from the Barima river to the Cuyuni river. Shipping statistics of British Guiana, 1894-96. Report on Construction of roads and railroads in the Northwest District and on the Cuyuni. Extracts from the Annual Report of the Government Land Depart ment. Page. 169 172 173 173176 176 178 185 186 188 189 198 200 202 203 204 206 207 209 210 211 211 TABLE OF CONTENTS.— Part 4. EXTRACTS FROM VARIOUS AUTHORS. Date. Source. No. Subject. Page. 1806 1809 Father Joseph de Acosta. George Pinckard, M.D. Henry Bolingbroke. Lt. Col. Thomas S. St.Clair. Royal Geographical Society. Sir W. H. Holmes. Michael McTurk. Robert Tennant. Ill 112 113 114115 116 117118 Origin of domestic animals iu America. Notes on the West Indies. Description of the colonies of Esse quibo, Demerara, Pomeroon and Berbice. The Boundaries of Essequibo. Instructions for Schomburgk as to his proposed expedition, with brief report thereon. Short description of British Guiana, 1862. A journey up the Cuyuni in 1880. The gold industry of British Guiana, 1895. 221 224 230 1834 1862 233241 246 1895 247 251 TABLE OF CONTENTS.— Part 5. DOCUMENTS FROM DIPLOMATIC SOURCES. Date. Source. No. Subject. Page. 1895, February 23 EarlofKimberley to Sir Julian Pauncefote. 119 Enclosing memorandum read to the Ambassador of the United States dated February 20, 1895, as to what Great Britain is willing to submit to arbitration. 259 1895, March 20 Earl of Kimberley to Sir Julian Pauncefote. 120 Giving the further information de sired by the United States as to the differences between Great Britain and Venezuela. 260 1895, Juty 20 Mr. Olney to Mr. Bayard. 121 Urging upon Great Britain full 262 arbitration, and offering the good offices of the United States. Mr. Bayard to the Marquis of Salisbury. 122 Calling attention to statement in " The Statesman's Year Book " showing increase of 33,000 square miles of territory claimed for British Guiana between 1884 and 1886. 273 The Marquis of Salisbury to Sir Julian Pauncefote. 123 Answering Mr. Olney's despatch of July 20, and setting forth Great Britain's position with re gard to arbitration. 274 1896, February 3 Mr. Bayard? to the Marquis of Salisbury. 124 Announcing the appointment by 284 the President of the United States of a Commission to deter mine the true divisional line be tween Venezuela and British Guiana. TABLE OF CONTENTS.— Part 6. -Documents from Diplomatic Sources. Date. Source. No. Subject. Page. 1896, February 7 The Marquis of Salisbury to Mr. Bayard. 125 Acknowledging receipt of the above and offering to place at the disposal of said Commission any evidence at the command of the British Government, and stating that same is being col lected. 285 1896, May 8 Mr. Olney to Mr. Bayard. 126 Enclosing letter from the Presi dent of the U. S. Commisiou on Venezuela-British Guiana bound ary, asking for citations of au thority for certain statements in the British Blue Book. 286 1896, May 16 Mr. Bayard to the Marquis of Salisbury. 127 Proposes to call upon his Lordship and communicate the above in 288 struction in person. 1896, May 30 The Marquis of Salisbury to Mr. Bayard. 128 Enclosing memorandum of certain authorities and stating that a 288 new Blue Book on this subject is soon to be issued. Will be glad to assist Prof. Burr in his researches. 1896, November 12 Richard Olney and Sir Julian Pauncefote. 129 Heads of proposed Treaty between Venezuela and Great Britain. 293 TABLE OF CONTENTS.— Part 6. MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. Date. Source. No. Subject. Page: West India Company (Zee- land Chamber). 130 Directs that, for security of the Colony, friendly relations with the Indians be cultivated. 297 1845, March 30 Venezuela and Spain. 131 Extract from Treaty of Peace and Recognition between Venezuela and Spain, signed at Madrid, March 30, 1845. 297 1859, May 5 132 Treaty as to Boundaries and River navigation, between Venezuela 298 and Brazil, signed at Caracas, May 5, 1859. 1896, September 14. Prof. George L. Burr. 133 As to Schomburgk's physical map and the Curumu post. 303 1897 Prof. George L. Burr. 134 As to the charter proposed for Essequibo and Demerara, by 304 G. A. W. Ruysch, June 22, 1803. 1898, May 23 Venezuelan Minister of For eign Affairs. 135 As to the Venezuelan, Brazilian and Guianan frontier. 304 Venezuelan Minister of Pub lic Works. 136 As to the Venezuelan, Brazilian and Guianan frontier. 306 Dr. Rafael Seijas. 137 Notes and comments on the Brit ish Case. 309 1898, June 20 Dr. Rafael Seijas. 138 Notes and comments on the Brit ish Case. 317 1897, April 16 Davis Francis Turnbull. 139 Geographical description of the 323 » | - lower Orinoco. 1898, June 27 Eugenio J. Monge. 140 Limits of the Cuyuni savannas. 327 i TABLE OF CONTENTS.— Part 7. DOCUMENTS, THE PRODUCTION OF WHOSE ORIGINALS WAS REQUESTED BY GREAT BRITAIN UNDER ARTICLE VII OF THE TREATY OF ARBITRATION.* Date. Source. No. Subject. Page. Matheo Beltran, Commander of Revenue Boat. 438 Diary of journey from Santo Thome to the Amacura, Barima, Waini, etc., and return. 331 1792, March 10 Luis Antonio Gil, Governor of Guayana. 463 As to trouble with the Indians in Cuyuni. 336 1792, April 11 Don Pedro de Lerena. 464 Regarding flight of Indians from Cura and advising that Euro 388 peans or Creoles be persuaded to settle in Indian towns. 1796, October 8 Intendent-General of the Army and Royal Treasury. 467 As to establishment of a Spanish town at junction of the Cuyuni and Cnrumo. 339 1796, October 14. President-Governor and Cap- tainGeneral of Caracas. 468 As to establishment of a Spanish town at junction of Cuyuni and Curumo. 348 1800, October 14. Don Jos6 Felipe Inciarte. 471 A table showing the number of Spanish troops under arms in Guayana and where stationed. 349 * These documents here bear the same numbers as in the Case of Venezuela. APPENDIX PART 2 DOCUMENTS FROM SPANISH SOURCES No. 1. Letter from Don Diego Suarez de Ainaya, Governor of JSTueva Andalucia, to the King of Spain, dated August 10, 1602, enclosing copy of letter from Don Fernando de Oruna, Governor of El Dorado, to Suarez, as to the condition of the conquest of JE1 Dorado, November 8, 1601. [Printed from translation of a certified copy of the original in the "Archivo General de Yndias " (Seville), Stand 54, Case 4, Bundle 9.] Senor : Upon sending me to serve this Government, Your Majesty gave me instructions to report on the condition of the conquest of El Dorado, by the Governor Don Fernando' de Oruna y de la Hoz. In compliance with Your Majesty's orders I gathered information from many persons who were acquainted with it and sent Your Majesty an exhaustive and accu rate report of everything, sending in duplicate, first, second, third and fourth copies, so that one at least should not fail to reach the hands of Your Majesty. I ended by saying that, from the journey said Don Fer nando was intending to undertake the summer following the date of my said letter, (which was last summer), the truth in regard to said conquest would be brought to light, as well as the deception, and that I should in form Your Majesty of the fact. This I now do, not only stating what I have heard from persons coming from the place, but also sending Your Majesty certain paragraphs, which I send enclosed, from the letters which said Don Fernando has written me. He started last summer to continue his conquest and in search of the Dorado River, (which, it seems, can never be found,) leaving the city of the Arias depopulated, the reason why, T shall explain further on; and three times he attempted to cross some wild mountain ranges, beyond which, according to the information which he has received, lies the land so eagerly desired by him. Said ranges are rough, precipitous and lengthy, the lack of food there being the greatest impediment to any attempts to cross them, and the Indians who dwell in those regions being obliged to subsist on roots. Not being able to cross this mountain he travelled to other prov inces, retreating to the city of Santo Thome, there being no other in said provinces. From there he went to the Island of Trinidad, where he is at present, collecting a supply of certain things in order to return next sum mer in search of his conquest. As I am his nearest neighbor, (there being no other Government any nearer, as both this and the other formed one single government formerly), I have aided him as far as in my power, send ing to him the strangers and adventurers who have come here. All this I have done to serve Your Majesty as is my duty. From his own soldiers who have come here in search of necessaries for their subsistence, it has been learned that although they intend to under take the journey in the coming summer, they are convinced beforehand they will only meet anew a disappointment in trying to find El Do- No. 1. rado and attempting a conquest. I shall report to Your Majesty on the matter. The City of the Arias is one of the two that Don Fernando had settled; it is farther inland than Santo Thome and according to all reports it is very fertile and suitable for cattle breeding and tillage and thickly popu lated by Indians who, being barbarians, conceived such a hatred towards the Spaniards that they preferred to leave their native country rather than to have intercourse with them, and they retreated so far that, in a radius of thirty leagues from that city, not one single Indian was to be found. The soldiers, being unable to support themselves without the aid of the Indians, were compelled to leave said site and to search for another, where they could rebuild said city, which has not been done as yet. May our Lord keep Your Majesty's life for as many long and happy years as may be needful for Christianity. From this Province of Nueva Andalucia in the City of Cumana, on the tenth day of August, in the year one thousand six hundred and two. Kissing Your Majesty's Royal feet, Your Majesty's loyal vassal and servant. Note : There is on the back of this an order of the Council reading as follows : "Examined on the tenth of March, six hundred and four. No action required. File with the papers of El Dorado." Here follows His Majesty's flourish. I enclose copy of the. letter of D. Fernando de Oruna to Don Diego Suarez de Amaya. [Copy of letter enclosed with above.] I have received two letters of Your Honor on my arrival in this city of Santo Thome, one bearing date of October eighth and the other of July twelfth of this year, one thousand six hundred and one. I shall not fail to give Your Honor a complete and truthful report of all my actions up to this date. From the city of the Arias I sent Captain Martin Gomez, with more than one hundred men and more than two hundred horses (the men armed and sufficiently supplied with araunitions and stores to fit out double their num ber), to go to and enter the provinces nearest the Rocks {Penoles) where, according to accurate information which we possessed, he was to enter in order to discover the land that has given us so much trouble. Having left the Arias, at our command, at a distance of about fourteen leagues from it and at about twenty leagues off the Rocks, he arrived at the Province of the Panacayas, where there may be from five to six thousand Indians, and which is situated a short distance inland. Upon his arrival he had some skirmishes with the natives, notwithstanding their seeming overtures of peace. He was successful, but although he tried to gather information, he never was able to find out how to cross the rocks and mountains. I had instructed 3 No. 1. him to camp wherever he might find food until my arrival with the rest of the army and the apparatus of war which was large. Now, in reference to not having clearer information concerning the ad vices we received, and lack of food, although he informed me of the fact, and sent thereupon a request that I should be there in four days, he ordered the camp raised, which, in a body, passed near the Arias. After I had left, at about one and a half leagues from Santo Thome, I was in formed of his retreat, which greatly displeased me. Seeing that I could not help the harm done, I determined to send the same Captain to the Chimera Indians, where I had been during the past summer, (they being well settled and having plenty of food) to see whether he might be able, through their territory, to cross the mountains which have always been im passable notwithstanding all our attempts. There were several mutinies and uprisings in the camp, as well as in this city, although some were pun ished. God was pleased to quell them all. Upon entering we found that the Chimeras Indians had left for the woods, having laid waste the country, the demon having ordered them to do so because we were to re turn through that place. On this account it was resolved to leave the horses and cows and to enter the mountains on foot to find out the path. While travelling through the ridges they were found to be well peopled for eight or ten miles with very belligerent Indians, who were given a good drubbing, wounding many and killing one man. Being unable to cross the ridge, they left well tired out, their horses being lean and exhausted, and there being twelve or fourteen wounded men. Notwithstanding all these disasters, and although the winter was coming on and more hardships would ensue, I followed on with the army and determined to leave the horses and go personally on this journey of discovery, following the moun tain line closely by land and water, doing all that I could possibly do and bearing the brunt of the winter. I leave to your Honor, whose experience in the Indies is so great, the consideration of my plight. I went from this city of Santo Thome for a distance of two hundred and thirty leagues with out being able to find either a pass or juncture by which to cross, (the wealth and riches of the place being ever present in my mind) and I came out at the River Guanaima Cuchivero, where I found the land and ridge free from obstacles and so much information and news as I have never had before; but the laud was so uneven and barren as not to afford the barest means of supporting life, which made it impossible for me to con tinue the journey unless at the cost of men's lives. Having been informed of another province where gold was plentiful, I went there, and found there, in short, throngs of native Indians, numbering about three thousand without counting those from the ridge; and opposite to them lies the River Barraguan, which, from this point on, opposite the hills, takes the name of Orinoco. It is said that they all have gold and that the land is rich in mines. Seeing the condition of the men, the samples of gold the natives wore and considering the information they imparted, I determined to stay with them No. 1. and to go to the city of Santo Thome to obtain a supply of ammunition and order some clothing and equipment for the soldiers; I communicated with the Kingdom and with these provinces (?). I shall leave inside of four days for the place where the army was left, to see whether there are mines in that province, according to the information given us by the natives, and to settle (or rebuild) there the city of the Arias; because there is no doubt that from this place the soldiers may be readily equipped, and that if God has made this place and there is in it what has been always promised, I shall discover it. May God grant it for his holy service, as I cannot do any more than I am doing. I shall communicate to your Honor whatever may take place, and have instructed Captain Alejandro de Castilla, whom I leave in my stead, to report to Your Honor. In reference to Your Honor's request to report on the depopulation of the Arias, what I have to say is that it was and is the best piece of land that I have ever seen in these Indies for cattle breeding and tillage (pastur age). In the first uprising they killed the Spanish chapetones (Spaniards who come without passports to America), as Your Honor must be aware. Being so fertile, here the city of the Arias was founded. There was an uprising of the natives, who killed the Major; their punishment and seizure was seriously undertaken. By reason of the control exercised over them and the war made against them, the natives refused to sow the land or to come to the town, and by this means the Spanish were ejected from this province, famine being used as the worst kind of weapon, there being no remedy against it. And in view of the discovery, it seemed natural that people should be attracted there and to the City of Santo Thome, as, should the discovery be made, everything could be restored, rebuilding said city of the Arias. In reference to Captain Geronimo de Campo, having noted what Your Honor wrote me in former letters, I was grieved to learn that Your Honor was offended. Upon his arrival from the Palisades I scolded and repri manded him severely for it, and ever since I have felt that he was resentful and he does not respond as requested. I have told him many times to do his duty by sending his son-in-law to that Government and also to send another man to straighten up the things which he left there and so to win Your Honor's good graces. I think that his desire is to go home on ac count of the difference we had, as stated, by reason of his having displeased Your Honor. He even tries to induce some of my men to leave which would be against Your Honor's interest and cause me great inconvenience to maintain quiet in these provinces. I inform Your Honor of these facts so that, by reason of Your Honor's position, whatever may be deemed most convenient for His Majesty's service may be so ordered by Your Honor, who may also send me a helping hand, if so convenient, as I leave everything to Your Honor's will, asking Your Honor to employ all the means at Your Honor's command in regard to the aforesaid. May our Lord preserve Your Honor's life and my Lady's, Dona Catalina Bellata, whose hand I kiss. No. 2. Report of the Council of the Indies to tlie King of Spain, recommending the appointment of a person to govern the Island of Trinidad, with instruc tions to drive the enemy therefrom, dated July 29, 1615. [Printed from translation of a certified copy of the original in the "Archivo General de Yndias " (Seville), Slnnd 141, Case 2, Bundle 12.] The Audiencia of the New Kingdom of Granada made a contract and agreement with Captain Antonio de Berrio respecting the exploration and settlement of the district called El Dorado. Among other things they gave him the government of those provinces for two lives, and his late Majesty was pleased to approve, and ordered the arrangement to be sanc tioned in 1586; thereupon the said Berrio entered on the work and founded in the Island of Trinidad the town of San Joseph de Oruna, and inland that of Santo Thome. He died in 1591, and was succeeded by Don Fernando de Berrio, his son, who made some attempts at settlement of little per manence or importance. After that the Council heard that he and all the settlers there lived in such license that they gave free entry at the ports to the enemy's warships of different nations with whom they openly traded, thus contravening the strict prohibition laid down by your Majesty. The result was serious loss and inconveniences, which may be imagined, be sides many other excesses which they committed. And although the Audiencias of the Indies have been ordered by cedulas to send every five years to call for an account from the Governors who held their offices for life, this had not been done in the case of Don Fernando de Berrio; it was therefore thought right not to defer it any longer, and a commission was sent on the 23rd March, 1611, to Sancho de Alquiza instructing him to proceed thence to Trinidad in order to investigate the conduct of said Don Fernando de Berrio, his ministers and officers and find out all the faults and excesses of which they were accused and to prosecute any other parties who had been involved in said trade and other delinquencies. Having done so, said Don Fernando, on account of the charges brought against him was condemned to be deprived for life of the office of Governor and Captain General, according to the sentence given by the Council on twentieth of November of sixteen hundred and fourteen, whereby he was also condemned to other penalties; although, later on, taking into consideration certain just causes, which were submitted to Your Majesty for advice, while imploring Your Majesty's grace, Your Majesty was pleased to suspend the privation, at the same time forbidding him to enter into said Province without Your Majesty's consent, and thereupon he came to continue his case in this Court and remains here in Spain. In the meanwhile the Governor of Margarita, the Corporation of Trinidad, the Vicar thereof and Don Juan Tostado, who is governing the island on the nomination of Sancho de Alquiza and Antonio de Mexica, in whose charge he left that part of the Government called Guayana, write to your Majesty, in letters dated 1613 and 1614, that all those coasts are visited by great numbers of Flemish 6 No. 2. and English ships who with the help of the Carib Indians, with whom they have made friends, are making some settlements, and that in particu lar they have three or four from the River Maranon to the Orinoco, where they are engaged in considerable tobacco plantations, and that, with the mouths of the two rivers which they have already taken, they are making themselves masters of the positions and products of the natives, and rob the friendly Indians, and do much other damage, to such an exent that if careful measures are taken to endeavour to stop all this, it may be feared that they will shortly make themselves masters of the whole of that ter ritory which is better adapted for their tobacco farms and other planta tions and undertakings than others in the Indies. All these matters were considered and discussed very carefully at the Council, as well as the anxiety which must be caused by the fact that these enemies are making every effort to extend their possessions and strike root throughout the Indies wherever they can, in order to have farms and other trade, and while deriving great profit and advantage therefrom, do your Majesty and your vassals all the injury possible; and that from their presence there, further and greater evils might result, if they are aided by the Carib Indians, as they now are, and they be to windward of all the Indies, so that with quite a small fleet they could do very great damage, besides the fact that by allowing foreign nations so ill-affected to Spain to have settlements in territory which belongs to your Majesty, we suffer in reputation, and we are obliged to consider the remedy and the great need of some one to defend the Island of Trinidad, as there is only one Spanish settlement there, and that so small that there are not more than sixty men who can bear arms, so that it can be easily taken; and should the enemy fortify themselves in it, they would thereby cause great damage to the neighboring islands and to the mainland of Guayana and the New Kingdom; and that by different reports sent to your Majesty who ordered them to be sent to the Board it is seen how careful they are in carrying this into effect knowing how much they may profit by it. In consideration of all the foregoing and other reasons stated, the Council is of the opinion that, in the interest of Y. M.'s service there should be no delay in ejecting them from thence, depriving them of their towns and plantations, and punishing both them and the Carib Indians who aid them; and in order to accomplish this without con siderable outlay of the Royal Treasury, without noise and without the trouble of sending at the present time, ships aud soldiers to accomplish it, and in order that the Spaniards now residing there and the Christian Indians subjects of Y. M. may have a head to de fend and govern them in peace and justice, as it is meet, it has been deemed convenient to appoint a person of satisfactory conditions, a soldier, having great experience and knowledge of the affairs of the Indies, to govern over said province in the service of Y. M. under the title of Gov ernor and Captain-General, charging him particularly to place everything 7 No. 2. in the convenient and desirable good order, using for the same the greatest possible care and diligence. It is believed that a person of such qualities may accomplish this by the aid of his intelligence, the Spaniards that may be found at the place and the Christian Indians; and if, in view of this situation, he should inform that he needs the aid of a few soldiers he may then have them sent to him. Said person to go for the period of four years with a salary of three thousand ducats a year, two thousand to be paid by the Royal Treasury of Cartagena and the other thousand from the products of the land, it being understood that should there be none (products) this amount is not to be paid by your Majesty's Treasury. This is the most moderate salary that can be assigned to whom soever may take charge of this service, and a promise could be made him that further compensation will be granted in accordance with the results and benefits derived from his acceptance and good government. The per sons most appropriate to discharge this duty are the following: Alonzo de Miranda, who, for the last twenty-eight years has done ser vice on land and sea, and at the beginning of his career in the Kingdom of Sicily as a valiant soldier, sergeant and ensign. Upon the death of his captain he was placed in charge of the company and shipped with them in the galleys, and, when that of the King of Algiers was captured, he was the first man to board her, where he was greviously wounded in the face and right hand; he assisted in the capture of three galleys and other vessels and in the sallies made by the Adelantado Mayor; at that time he was in charge of all the artillery and in the capture of another English vessel he was also the first man to board her, taking the captain prisoner, who served Your Majesty with him, his ransom having been set at two thousand ducats. After this he was sent to serve in Lisbon with additional pay and continued enjoying the same in the Galleys of Spain until he was sent to the Indies with thirty crowns pay. Upon his return he met his father in this court in the year ninety-eight when he was the Attorney of the City of Soria before the Cortes. Upon the death of his father he, by virtue of the authority sent him, served that post until the adjournment of the Cortes, having received no compensation therefor. In the year six hun dred and six he was appointed by Your Majesty, Governor and Captain- General of the Island of Jamaica for the term of six years: he only served a little over three years, having delivered said Island to the Duke of Ver- agua when he was put in possession of the State. Having disposed of his property in order to leave Spain and go in the discharge of his duties, be lieving it was to be for the six years mentioned in Your Majesty's appoint ment; as he did not serve more than half of the time he is very poor and in straightened circumstances awaiting Your Majesty's pleasure in this Court. In consideration of all this the Council has proposed him for several offices, finally for the one of Santa Marta which Y. M. was pleased to grant to Captain Francisco de Santander, ordering that that of Quijos should be given him and although he did not solicit it nor was he consulted on the 8 No. 2. matter he has accepted it for obedience, notwithstanding that it is of less importance than those to which he is entitled. Now, he is proposed to Y. M. by the Council for this Government of Trinidad, his person being highly satisfactory and apparently the most suitable for the required work as it appears from his work in Jamaica where he armed at his own expense two vessels with which he ejected the enemies who went there to trade, devot ing his care to this, making several public works for the benefit of said land, the report on his Government made by the competent judge having declared him to be an upright officer zealous in the service of Your Majesty. Sancho de Alquiza has been in the service since the expedition of Phelipe Estroci to Terceiras (Azores). He went afterwards to England and upon his return he continued his services in the trade of the Indies where he was Captain of the Galleons in the Armada that set out in charge of Don Bernadino de Abellaneda and Marcos de Aramburu; he went as Admiral with the first assistance sent to Britain and subsequently conducted another to Havana, after which he was appointed by Y. M. Captain and Commander of Cartagena de los Indias, and returning to Spain on furlough after having discharged these and other duties satisfac torily, Y. M. was pleased to vouchsafe him the Government of the Prov ince of Venezuela in the year six hundred and four where he discharged his duties until the year six hundred and eleven when his successor was appointed; then he was sent to the Island of Trinidad to inquire into the excesses and shortcomings of which Don Fernando de Berris and other residents were accused and having performed his duties and reported thereon he left for Cartagena where he is at present a resident. Captain Diego Palomeque de Acufla has served during the last twenty years as a brave soldier on different occasions, particularly in Ireland where he commanded a company upon the death of Captain Soto. So sat isfactory were his services and so zealous was he in the fulfilment of his duties that in the year six hundred and one he was duly appointed for the place and upon his dismissal he was assigned, with twenty-five crowns pay, near the person of General Don Luis Faxardo. In the year six hundred and five he went to raise a company of two hundred and fifty Infantry by commission of Y. M. The Duke of Lernza by a letter has been pleased to order that his aspirations should be heard in Council and that he should consult him if necessary. In compliance with this, the Council has pro posed him on several occasions. Out of the proposed persons or any others Y. M. will be pleased to make a selection— Madrid, July 29th, 615. [On the reverse is the following :] Council of the Indies July 2«th, 615. Considering the importance of sending a person to govern and adminis ter justice in the Island of Trinidad and to strive to eject the enemy from 9 No. 2. it; and the persons adjudged more suitable for that Government and what is required of it. ^-Received on tlie 11th of August, 615.— J. Perez de Con- trera. I hereby appoint Captain Diego Palomeque de Acufia, the other par ticulars being found in order (the King's sign manual). No. 3. Writ of Summons, Deposition of Witnesses and Sentence in the Case insti tuted against Clemente Gunter, a Hollander, in Santo Thome de la Guayana, March 16, 1665. [Printed from translation of a certified copy of the original in the " Archivo General de Yndias " (Seville), Hscribania de Cdmara, Bundle 660.] Case against Clemente Gunter, Hollander, in Santo Thome de la Guayana. Writ of Summons.— In the city of Santo Thome del Santisimo Sacra mento de Guayana, on the sixteenth of March of the year one thousand six hundred and sixty five, Don Joseph de Axpe y Zuniga, Captain of the mounted Spanish Cuirassiers in Flanders, His Majesty's Governor and Captain General of these Provinces of Guayana and Island of Trinidad, be fore me, the Notary, deposed and said that finding himself, on the eleventh of the present month, at the port called Arena, on the banks of this Orinoco River, while he was, in company with regular Magistrates and members of the Chapter and citizens of the Commonwealth, engaged in searching for a site within the jurisdiction of this city, appropriate for a settlement and for a fortification advantageous to His Majesty's service, there arrived at said port, where His Honor was at mess, a small vessel with two boys, mongrels of Flemish and Indian, who delivered a letter to His Honor from Clemente Gunter, a Hollander, stating that the aforesaid (Gunter) sent them with said letter to His Honor, and that shortly after, while reading the letter, another pirogue arrived, and, recognizing that they were foreigners, His Honor ordered them to anchor outside until morning, as it was night at the time, to which said Clemente Gunter answered that he had no grapnel with which to anchor, and His Honor ordered them to lay to near His Honor's vessels, and gave orders that they should be watched and not allowed to come ashore until so ordered by His Honor. That on the morn ing of the twelfth of said month the said Clemente Gunter came ashore where His Honor was, and that said Clemente Gunter was the same person who wrote the letter mentioned in this Writ of Summons, and thereupon His Honor ordered him to embark, and sent him to this city with said pirogue and two Flemish men who came in his company, and the two mongrels and a young negress and other belongings of the afore said, in charge of Gaspar de Aranda, Adjutant, and other soldiers His 10 No. 3. Honor had in his company and guard, to Vicente de Urrestig, officer of the Royal Treasury, in whose charge the Government of this city was left, with instructions to keep them prisoners under watch and in custody until His Honor should come to inquire into and investigate the reason why the said Clemente Gunter had come where His Honor was; and finding that the instructions given to said Vicente de Urrestig had been faithfully com plied with, His Honor ordered that for the trial of this cause an examin ation be held, according to the tenor of this Writ of Summons, of such witnesses as may be deemed expedient to prove the facts, that the necessary proceedings for the proper administration of justice be instituted, and that the letter be filed with this case for future evidence; and he signed the same Don Joseph de Axpe y Zuiiiga— -before me, Don Juan de Novoa, Notary Public and of the Chapter. Testimony. — In the City of Santo Thome del Santisimo Sacramento de la Guayana, on the aforesaid day of March sixteenth, one thousand six hundred and sixty-five, His Honor Don Joseph de Axpe y Zuiiiga, His Majesty's Governor and Captain General of this Province, directed that, for the taking of testimony, Ensign Juan Moreno de Figueroa, a resident, dis charging the duties of Treasurer of this city, appear before him, and having done so, His Honor administered the oath in the name of God and the sign of the cross, as required by law, and being sworn he promised to tell the truth. Being questioned, as set forth in the Writ of Summons, which was read to him, he stated: That having gone in company with his Honor, the Governor, in search of and to discover what is set forth in the Writ of Summons, he left this city on Tuesday, the tenth of March, and that on Wednesday, the eleventh, being in the place set forth in said Writ of Summons, at about eight o'clock in the evening, a vessel arrived with two Flemish mongrels on board, and the Guard having informed the Governor who they were, he ordered them to come up and they delivered a letter to His Honor which they brought from a Hollander named Clemente Gunter, who, they stated, had remained below. Shortly after, the guard com menced to shout, having ascertained that a pirogue was coming into said port, and on asking who they were, answer was made that it was Clemente Gunter; and the Governor being informed of the fact, His Honor gave orders to anchor outside, to which Clemente Gunter replied, that he had no grapnel to anchor with; to this, His Honor replied by order ing them to come on board of the pirogues that were in port, giving instruc tions to 'the guard not to permit them to come ashore; and that the depo nent saw on the morning of the twelfth said Clemente on shore, and saw the Governor instruct Adjutant Gaspar de Aranda, with other soldiers of the guard, to bring said Clemente Gunter with the others of his suite to this city, and that in reference to the order of the Adjutant, brought for the Auditor, Vincent Urrestig, the deponent does not know of it, as the Gov ernor sent it in writing. But he has seen, after coming to this city, that 11 No. 3. said Clemente is in prison with the others, his companions. And that this is the truth aud that he knows it to be so in obedience to his oath; and he declared that he was about sixty years of age, and signed the same, as did also His Honor— Don Joseph de Axpe y Zuiiiga— Juan Moreno de Figu eroa — Before me, Don Juan de Noboa, Notary Public and of the Chap ter. Deposition of the aforesaid Gunter. — In the City of Santo Thome del Santisimo Sacramento de Guayana, on the eighteenth day of March of the year one thousand six hundred and sixty-five, His Honor Don Joseph de Axpe y Zuiiiga, His Majesty's Governor and Captain General of the Prov inces, and Judge of this case, ordered Clemente Gunter, a native Hollander, mentioned in this trial, to appear before His Honor to make his deposition; and having appeared he was asked whether he was a Roman Apostolic Christian, to which the aforesaid replied that he was, and the oath was administered to him in the name of God and by the sign of the cross, as required by law, and being sworn he promised to tell the truth in an swer to whatever questions should be put to him; and he was questioned, as set forth in the counts of this Writ of Summons, and he replied as follows: Being asked to state and declare of what place he is a native, he an swered that he was from Anburg. Being asked to state where he resides, he stated that for two and a half years he had resided at Booruma, a Dutch settlement. Being asked by whose leave and license he entered the Orinoco river, he answered, that with a permit from Theodoro Saes, Governor of said place, Booruma, dated on the third day of June, one thousand six hundred and sixty four, and that since the date on which he left Booruma, he has spent five or six days in reaching this place, and that a month thereafter he arrived in this town. Being asked as to why he had come to this city, he answered, that to collect some few debts for clothing sold on credit to two of the inhab itants. Being asked as to where he had been and how he had spent all his time since he came from Booruma, he answered, that for two months he was sick at the house of Don Miguel Francisco Carrera, of this city, the Gov ernor of the same, Don Pedro de Viedma, being absent, and that he spent the rest of the time on this river Orinoco and its several creeks. Being asked as to whether the Governor, Don Pedro de Viedma, had granted him a permit to come up to this city, he answered yes, to inform said Governor as to who were the debtors. Being asked as to what site the Booruma settlement lies on, he answered, at about eight and a half degrees, a flat country, distant about thirty leagues from the main mouth of the river, called Amacuro; that said set tlement may have about one hundred and fifty paid soldiers, and up to four 12 No. 3. hundred inhabitants and about two thousand negro slaves, and that sugar was the staple product. Being asked about the population of Essequibo, of the eame nation, and its distance from Booruma, he said: It lies from ten to twelve leagues to the windward on the same coast of terra firma, and that it is governed by a lieutenant; that he did not know its population, but that he knows that there is a fortress with a garrison of soldiers. Being asked as to whether he knows the population of the settlement of the Velvis river and how far it lies from that of Essequibo, he said he thought about forty leagues to the windward of that of Essequibo; but that he does not know the number of inhabitants and soldiers, he never having been there, but that he knows that said settlement belongs to his nation. Being asked as to what he knew about the Island of Tobago and what nations occupy it, he said that Curlanders and Hollanders had divided it into two portions, but that he does not know the number. of people in either the one or the other portion. Being asked as to the amount that the inhabitants of this city still owe him, he said that he had given about one thousand eight hundred pesos of various goods on credit, and that this is what he knows in obedience to his oath, which he affirmed and ratified, stating that he was about thirty- six years of age, and he signed, as also did His Honor, the Governor, as at tested by me. Don Joseph de Axpe y Zuiiiga Clemente Gunter. Before me, Don Juan de Noboa, Notary Public and of the Chapter. Sentence. — I, Don Joseph de Axpe y Zuiiiga, Captain of Mounted Span ish Curassiers, His Majesty's Governor and Captain General of these Provinces and Island of Trinidad, do hereby pass the following sentence: Clemente Gunter, a Hollander, having entered this river Orinoco in viola tion of His Majesty's orders that no foreigner be allowed on said river, ports and jurisdiction of said city, with any vessels, either large or small, on account of the many frauds resulting therefrom, and the great profits which can be made therein, all of which is to His Majesty's detriment and a usurpation of His Royal Rights and the rest of what is set forth in said Royal Orders, I hereby condemn him, Gunter, to lose all his effects seized and inventoried, of which I do dispose in the following manner, to wit: The pirogue with her tackle and rigging will be taken to be used for the trips made in the service of His Majesty and for communication between this city of Guayana and said Island of Trinidad, said pirogue to be deliv ered upon arrival at said Island to the Chief Lieutenant of Port of Spain, and when at this city of Santo Thome, to the Captain of the Company of Infantry, or to the person in charge of same in his absence; and the arque- buse and the gun to be delivered with the other arms of His Majesty to soldiers for their service, and the other belongings to be sold at auction to defray the costs which the said Clemente Gunter and his four companions have caused to be incurred and the costs of this case, and the remainder to be applied to the purchase of munitions of war. In reference to the 13 No. 3. persons of said Clemente Gunter and his four companions, I will examine the case, meting out justice, and I do warn them and do hereby command that, should the said Clemente Gunter and his four companions be found again in said river Orinoco, its ports and jurisdictions, if captured, they shall be comdemned to death. Such being my final judgment, I hereby proclaim it and order it to be put into execution. Don Joseph de Axpe y Zuniga. No. 4. Order given by Tiburcio Axpe y Zuniga, Governor of Guiana, February 15, 1680, to take the deposition of the Dutch prisoners captured on the Orinoco. [Printed from translation of a certified copy of the original in the " Archivo General de Yndias " (Seville), Stand 54, Case 4, Bundle 1.] 1680.— In the city of Santo Thome de la Guayana, on the fifteenth day pf February of the year one thousand six hundred and eighty, I, Don Tiburcio de Axpe y Zuniga, His Majesty's Governor and Captain General, with the witnesses with whom I perform this act for lack of a notary; whereas, on this day, at about eleven o'clock, I noticed a vessel about two leagues to leeward of this city, in one of the rivers, and having entered said river for the purpose of searching her, there were found on board two Hollanders, one called Jan Cusin and the other Pitri, and two mulattoes of the same nationality, one called Pedro and the other Francisco, the boat men being Araguaca Indians; there was also in this vessel a Dutch flag unfolded. Her capture was undertaken and accomplished; one three pounder piece was found in said vessel and the prisoners were brought to this city, and whereas it is expedient for the good of His Majesty's service on account of the frequency with which those of said nation come to this river to trade among the natives, and also on account of their perseverance in maintaining such trade and transactions with the inhabitants in violation of the agreements, and that as a result of these transactions this place has been lost several times; now, therefore, in order to obviate said difficul ties, I have ordered tbe depositions of said prisoners to be taken, and this done, such action will be taken as may seem best for the good of His Majesty's service. No. 5. Deposition made February 15, 1680, by Pitri Dirguian, one of the Dutch men captured on the Orinoco. [Printed from translation of a certified copy of the original in the" Archivo General de Yndias" (Seville), Stand 54, Case 4, Bundle 1.] On the same day, month and year aforesaid, I, Don Tiburcio Axpe y Zuniga, caused Pitri Dirguian to appear before me; and he not being able 14 No. 5. to speak Spanish, Pedro de Axpe acted as interpreter and was duly sworn by me to ask the questions and repeat the answers in their order, and he promised to perform this duty to the best of his knowledge and ability in obedience to his oath. The deponent was not sworn owing to his inability to take the oath. The interpreter being requested to ask him as to why he had come to this river, he stated that they had left Berbis in quest of some Caribs who had killed several Hollanders; that they found said Caribs at the mouth of the river Orinoco and killed them; that, being short of supplies, they went to the Guaraunos in search of them, and, not finding any, necessity compelled them to come to the Aruacas to obtain them; that the wares they carry are to obtain supplies and not to make transactions and that this is the reason why he offered no resist ance when captured, knowing that no harm could befall him, being peace able. Being asked as to what place he started from, he answered from Berbis by order of Lucas Caudti, Governor of said place (or post) and that noth ing contrary to his deposition will be found. The aforesaid interpreter stated that he had performed his duty well and faithfully, in obedience to his oath, and did not sign because he did not know how to do so, one of the witnesses signing at his request before me and the witnesses with whom I perform this act for lack of a notary. No. 6. Deposition, made February 15, 1680, by Jan Endriguez, one of the Dutchmen captured on the Orinoco. [Printed from translation of a certified copy of the original in the " Archivo General de Yndias " (Seville), Stand 54, Case 4, Bundle 1.] On the same day, month and year, I, Don Tiburcio de Axpe y Zuniga, caused Jan Endriguez, a native Hollander, to appear before me; and, being unable to speak Spanish, Pedro de Axpe acted as interpreter, and, being duly sworn that he would address the questions, and repeat the answers in the order given, he promised to tell the truth to the best of his knowledge and ability in obedience to his oath The said deponent was not sworn because of his inability to take the oath. The interpreter being requested to ask him as to why he had come to this river, he stated that they had left Berbis in quest of some Caribs who had killed several Hol landers, and that they had met said Caribs at the mouth of said Orinoco river and had killed them; that, being short of supplies, they went to the Guaraunos in search of them, and not finding any, necessity compelled them to come to the Aruacas for them; that the wares they carry are to obtain supplies and not to make transactions, and that for this reason he offered no resistance when captured, knowing that no harm would befall him being peaceable. Being asked as to what place he started from, he No. 6. answered from Berbis by order of Lucas Caudt, governor of said place, and that nothing contrary to his deposition will be found. The aforesaid interpreter stated that he had performed his duty well and faithfully in obedience to his oath, and that he did not sign because he did not know how to do so, and one of the witnesses signed upon his request with me, and the witnesses with whom I perform this act for lack of a notary. No. 7. Deposition, made February 15, 1680, by Guaray, an Arawak Indian, cap tured with the Dutchmen on the Orinoco. [Printed from translation of a certified copy of the original in the " Archivo General de Yndias " (Seville), Stand 54, Case 4, Bundle 1.] On the said day, month and year, I, Don Tiburcio de Axpe y Zuniga, caused Guaray, a native Aruacan, to appear before me; and, as he was unable to speak Spanish, Pedro de Axpe acted as interpreter, who, being duly sworn, said that he would address the questions and repeat the answers in the order given; he promised to tell the truth to the best of his knowledge and ability, in obedience to his oath. The said deponent was not sworn because of his inability to take the oath. The interpreter being requested to ask him as to why he had come to the Orinoco in company with the Flemish, he stated that the Governor of Berbis had sent for him to his dwelling and informed him that some Caribs had killed several Hollanders, and that he should come in company with Pitri Dirguian and Jan En- driguez, with as many Aruacans as he could muster, to look for and punish them; that he got ready as many pirogues as he could and set out in quest of said Caribs, whom they met at the mouth of the Amacuro, and killed them and captured eight vessels; that, having run short of supplies, they were compelled to come to the Guaraunos in search of them, they being the nearest; and that not finding anything, necessity compelled them to come to the Aruacas in quest of supplies; and he made no further state ment. The interpreter stated that he had performed his duty faith fully and well, and did not sign because he did not know how to do so, and one of the witnesses signed at his request, with me and the witnesses with whom I perform this act for lack of a notary. No. 8. Order, made February 15, 1680, by Tiburcio Axpe y Zuniga, Governor of Guiana, directing the captured Dutchmen to depart from the Orinoco and not to return under penalty of forfeiture. [Printed from translation of a certified copy of the original in the " Archivo General de Yndias " (Seville), Stand 54, Case 4, Bundle 1.] Thereupon, in view of the foregoing depositions in this document, I ordered that notice be given to the deposing Hollanders to wit: That they 16 NO. 8. must forewith embark and leave this river, warning them that should they fail to comply with the orders and be captured a second time, they will forfeit all that is found with them and will be punished as transgressors of the orders and agreements; and this will not only apply to this (second) instance but to any other instauce, when they may be found on this river. This act shall be made known to them for their instruction, and they shall be given letters of safe conduct, for to day, after which the foregoing shall be in force. Done on the said day, month and year, No. 9. Orders of Cristoval Felix de Guzman, Governor of Guiana, to Francisco de Venavides, his Lieutenant of War of Santo Thome" de la Guayana, July 7, 1711, in case of an invasion. [Printed from translation of a certified copy of the original in the " Archivo General de Yndias ' (Seville), Stand 56, Case 6, Bundle 15.] Major Don Cristobal Felix de Guzman, Governor and Captain General of the City of San Jose de Oruna, Island of Trinidad and Provinces of El Dorado, Guayana, Naparimas, Aruacas, Pariagotos, Caribes, Guaraunos and their Royal Forces by the King our Master . . . etc. Bjr these presents I order and command Captain Don Francisco de Venavides, my Post Lieutenant, Chief Justice, and Captain of War of the City of Santo Thome del Sant0 Sacramento of the Province of Guayana — To be very careful and vigilant of the movements and intentions of the Hollanders of Surinam, Berbis and Essequibo, also of the Caribes and Arua cas Indians who are with the aforesaid people. To take notes of their pretentions and their forces, and to give me notice of everything. To hold the Royal Forces in regular defense with provisions and the In fantry well supplied with ammunition. To the Cacique Don Lorenzo de Playas and his Lieutenant of Guayano and Pariagoto Indians, and Captain Don Antonio Baraba y Bustamente, who is with the Aruacas of that territory, keep them advised and in readi ness, that, in case of hostilities they with their men may promptly come to the defense of this city and Royal forces. At all events occupy the hill which serves as a rampart to said Royal forces, covering yourselves with regular trenches, with enough men to repulse whomsoever would attack said Post, and never to abandon it even if it should take the last drop of blood. In case you are unable to resist the enemy and, should be forced to surrender, to capitulate honorably, with credit to the Arms of Our King and Master Don Felipe V., over whom God guard. And you will retire with your men to the Place of Araguacay, where 17 No. 9. the Cacique Magaracana lives, so as not to leave the Province helpless- procuring safe places for the security of the women and families-and particularly for the Indians so as not to let them be made slaves and here tics. And of all the events in all circumstances and times you will give me notice so as to be able to help you promptly without delay. Given in this City of Santisimo Sacramento of the Province of Guayana the seventh day of July in the year one thousand seven hundred and eleven. Signed by my hand and countersigned by my Secretary of War. Don Cristoval Felix de Guzman. (a flourish) Francisco de Venavides— (a flourish) By Command of the Governor and Captain General my Master. Don Pedro de la Guerra y Vega, his secretary— (a flourish). No. 10. Certificate given by Cristoval Guillen de Orvay and other officers of the Island of Trinidad in favor of Cristoval Felix de Guzman, Governor of Guiana, etc., September 13, 1711. [Printed from translation of a certified copy of the original in the " Archivo General de Yndias " (Seville), Stand 56, Case 6, Bundle 14.] Sergeant Major Don Christoval Guillen de Orvay, His Majesty's Regular Magistrate for this present year; and Captain Don Antonio Garcia de Cordova; and Ensign D. Martin de Mendoza, Magistrates, do hereby certify before our Lord the King in his Royal and Supreme Council and Chamber of the Indies, and before all other Courts to whom it may concern, that Sergeant Major Don Xptoval Felix de Guzman His Majesty's Governor and Captain General of these Provinces is known to us; that he took possession of said Provinces on the twenty first of April of the present year, and thereupon he passed mus ter and attended to the defenses of the Government in His Majesty's Ser vice. He went to Guiana to reconnoitre the River Orinoco as far as Angos tura, which no other governor has done since Don Pedro de Viedma went to punish the Carib Indians of Caura. We also testify to the truth of the attempt made by the Dutch enemy from Surinam to fall upon the Prov ince of Guiana and Angostura, prompted thereto by their covetousness of the silver mine of Aracafiua; and that the work of making six gun car riages for the artillery of Guiana was carefully watched over and super vised by him; that on this matter he issued decrees— to which we refer- by reason of several depositions justifying such act. That, at a general meeting held by order of said gentleman, we were informed of the worth less state of defense of the said Province of Guiana; and moreover that 18No. 10. he brought with him a Dutch prisoner from Surinama, whom he captured in the Orinoco and pressed into the fold of our Holy Roman Church, said gentleman, amid general rejoicing, standing as his god-father. And in order that the foregoing be rewarded, be it known that on the eleventh day of July, said gentleman arrived on this island and has been, since then, communicating with our Lord the King, the Royal Audiencia of the New Kingdom the Governments of Margareta, Cumana and Caracas, request ing men and ammunitions up to this day the thirteenth of September of this year, when he sealed, iii our presence, a dispatch addressed to our Lord the King, sent by way of Martinique having done so previously by way of Nueva Espafia and last month by way of the Isles with Don Pedro Caviedes with unceasing zeal; and in the testimony thereof we issue these presents in this city of San Joseph de Orufia Island of Trinidad, on the thirteenth day of the month of September in the year one thousand seven hundred and eleven, this document not being attested by a notary public there being none here, and being drawn up on common paper for lack of stamped paper. No. 11. Report to the Council of the Indies by Don Antonio de la Pedrosa y Guerrero, dated Madrid, May 5, 1723. [Printed from translation of a certified copy of the original in the " Archivo General de Yndias " (Seville), Stand 56, Case 6, Bundle 19.] 1^23. — Having gone to the Provinces of the Indies by order of His Majesty for the purpose of establishing the Vice-Royalty in the city of Santa Fe, capital of the new kingdom of Granada and in the discharge of other affairs related to His Royal Service, I endeavored to become ac quainted with everything pertaining to the matter, and of all that could result in benefit of the service of the King. I found that through a vast extent of those lands there runs the mighty Orinoco whose rapid flow descends through the Province of Santiago de los Llanos and empties into the sea at the north off the Island of Trinidad of the Windward. On the mouth of said river emptying into the sea, the Castle of Guayana is built on the mainland and its garrison is paid from the Royal Treasury of Santa Fe where they have their funds and during my time I sent eighteen thousand four hundred pesos for that purpose. Both on the shores of said rivers and inland there live countless heathen Caribs. They live without the true knowledge of our Holy Faith as there are no ministers of the gospel to instruct them, because, although the Fathers of the Sacred Religion of the Glorious Patriarch St. Ignatius of Loyola have undertaken the reduction and conversion of said heathen Carib Indians, nothing has been accomplished because said River is open and unprotected and they, the Religious Fathers, have recognized the fact 19 No. 11. that the diligence of the Apostolic Missionies would bear no fruit, they being only exposed to perish and die at the hands of said heathen Caribs, as has previously occurred. To the Company of Jesus was alloted, as their territory for the Missions and the reductions of Indians, the Province of Santiago de los Llanos and the Orinoco River, the Company and their Religious Fathers being intrusted with the reduction all along, up the Orinoco river from north to south. The Company of the Jesuits therefore undertook the reductions of the Llanos and founded six towns, went to the Orinoco and there entered into said river and its shores in the year of one thousand six hundred and eighty one, Fathers Ignacio Fiol, Gasper Bech, Christoval Riedel, Ignacio Toebast, Julian de Bergara and Agustin de Campo, who founded five towns, and while they were peacefully teaching the Indians, the Caribs living on the sea shore and the mouths of the Orinoco came upon them in the year one thousand six hundred and eighty four and, attacking the towns, killed Fathers Ignacio Fiol, Gaspar Bech and Ignacio Toebast; on this account the towns were deserted, the Indians leaving and the surviving Fathers went to the Mission of the Llanos. Later in the year one thousand six hundred and ninety one, other fathers went to the Orinoco taking an escort whose corporal and captain was Tiburcio de Medina. Again the Caribs attacked them in the year one thousand six hundred and ninety three, treacherously killing the captain and causing great suffering to Father Vicente Lobero; and the other Fathers, who had gone there, left for the Missions of the Llanos. After such experiences and the river being undefended, (the fort which His Majesty ordered to be built for its defense has not been erected), the reductions have not been con tinued, the fathers being unable to go there unless the invasions and hostili ties of the Caribs are checked. In addition to the foregoing it must be added that the river has neither garrison nor defense of any kind for preventing and hindering the incur sions of the Hollanders and other foreign nations sailing on that sea, and having several settlements near said river Orinoco, this gives them a chance to freely introduce themselves daily and frequently by the river, going far into the interior and trading with said Indians, exporting from those lands and domains of His Majesty all the gold and other products of the territory in exchange for rattles, knives, cutlasses and other tools and implements of small value. It is not less to be regretted that said Hollanders take with them many Indians whom they make slaves, their souls thus being lost and also their liberty which is so valuable. Should these incursions and trade be continued the Royal Crown may suffer very heavy damage, injury and other troubles, because, should the Hollanders and other foreign nations take possession of said river Orinoco they may go into vast provinces of the new kingdom of Granada and Caracas, they being in the mainland; and His Majesty's principal object being the reduction and conversion of said heathen Indians to our Holy Catholic Faith, endeavoring by all possible means to free them from the utter darkness of their idolatry and to teach 20 No. 11. them to know and profess our Holy Catholic Faith, it is most convenient to the service of God and the King, as well as to the benefits of the common cause, that all possible measures be taken that may lead to the purpose of his holy and Catholic zeal. Besides the benefits that those souls, in which Christianity takes such interest, derive therefrom, the Royal Crown will have the benefit of the immense number of Indians that can be reduced and converted to our Holy Faith, great increase in the domains of His Majesty and considerable revenue for the Royal Exchequer from the effects, fruits and other products of those countries, taxes, that they may pay in time and the contributions that the converted Indians must pay, should the occasion arise, and also the closing of the entrance to said river, preventing by these means the trade which the Indians carry on with the Hollanders. Thus, not only the matter of Religion, which is the principal point, because of the introduction of foreigners in the lands and towns of said Indians, will be dealt with, but also said domains will be insured and guarded from their incursions and hostilities, and besides, this remedy will result in the enjoyment of that which the enemy is so careful to take advantage of, which the provinces of the new Kingdom of Granada and Caracas will be free from the introduction of foreigners into their territory by said river. In reference to the construction of a fort on the Orinoco river I find that His Majesty has already given the order. While I was examining the documents in reference to the pay in Guayana, to issue the proper instruc tions for their remittance, I found among them a Royal Cedula dated in Madrid on the twenty fourth of August, one thousand six hundred and ninety seven, addressed to the President and Judges of the Audiencia of Santa Fe, with enclosure of certain reports made in regard to the River Orinoco, by which His Majesty commands and instructs them that, after having been informed of his determination they should proceed to build the fort in the most convenient locality and form, placing in it men and artillery, and that upon the fulfilment of the order they should report, together with the advice of each officer and the attested copy of the acts. Although I made the most minute inquiries to find out how this Royal Decree of His Majesty was fulfilled, I failed to obtain any light on the matter. I have ordered authenticated copies to be made of said Royal Cedula and reports as shown by the original documents, which I enclose herewith to your Lordship. Being aware of the foregoing and that the Holy Religious Fathers of the Company of Jesus and their Provincial Father Ignacio Maurio being desirous of the advancement of Our Holy Catholic Faith and to sacrifice themselves for the reduction of those souls, in order to carry this out, thus obtaining the ends of the holy and praiseworthy institution, he resolved with my assent to send the Missionary Fathers Juan Capuel and Juan Romeo, professed priests of said Company of Jesus, to explore and recon noitre the shores of said river Orinoco and particularly the Island of Caroni or Faxardo, as, according to information from trustworthy persons having 21 No. 11. a practical knowledge of said country, said Island of Caroni was a very appro priate site for the erecting of a fort to defend the Missionaries and Chris tians against the hostilities of the enemies of our Holy Faith and permit their free preaching to said idolators. To this end I issued letters to the Governor of Trinidad and other justices, requesting their assistance to facilitate the object of their trip. The trip being undeitaken and the ac curate reconnoitering being made, and the shores of said river Orinoco being explored, Father Juan Capuel, with the fullest knowledge of the mat ter, and in discharge of the duty assigned to him, reported that said Island of Caroni or Faxardo was the most appropriate site for the construction of a fort with two redoubts, one on each bank of said River Orinoco on the main land, about a gun shot distant from said island. He also stated most fully the fitting reasons concerning the matter, as shown by two reports of eye witnesses on the subject, and is furthermore shown in the chart where said river is indicated, as it all appears from the original acts which I do herewith enclose. Although the Castle of Guayana is at the mouth of said river, it cannot prevent entrance into the river as there is a long island, wooded and swampy, opposite said Castle, leaving a wide passage through which the enemy can sail up and down the river, without being seen by the guard or watch of the Castle, as shown in said chart. It will always be convenient, however, to keep it regularly manned to defend the mouth of the river, to cover that portion of the main land towards the Province of Caracas and to protect the Mission of the Holy Religious Capuchins, whose field for the reduction has been laid from the mouth of said River Orinoco, northward along the sea coast. It will also be of service in keeping that part of the country respected. It would also be convenient that whatever resolutions His Majesty should be pleased to adopt should be sent straight to Trinidad of the Windward, this being very close to the Orinoco river and the Castle of Guayana which belong to its jurisdiction, thus insuring the prompt execution of whatever be ordered. I must state here that by two Royal Cedulas dated in Madrid on May tenth, seventeen hundred and sixteen, His Majesty has issued several orders for the Orinoco River Mis sions in charge of the Sacred Religious Fathers of the Company of Jesus, appointing the number of thirty-six soldiers for the escort and directing how this is to be formed, the salary allotted to each soldier, the food to be furnished to the Religious Fathers, the effects that must be supplied, tbe chalices and ornaments to be given in relation to the number of Mission aries and the necessary arms and ammunition for the soldiers with the ex penses and viaticum for the journey of both the fathers and the soldiers from the place which they set out from to the Orinoco river. I did fully comply with both Royal Cedulas which were presented before me, issuing several orders for the best execution of the different points therein con tained as shown by the attestation of the acts which I beg to send enclosed to your Lordship. It appears that, in reference to the orders given by His Majesty in said two Royal Orders that most of the provisions therein are 22 No. 11. already fulfilled and that there only remains the material work of building the fort and the two redoubts where the aforesaid soldiers may be quartered because by dividing [original torn']. His Majesty orders that fifteen of them go with their Corporal to the fort of Carichana, aud the rest with their officers, some to go to the founded towns and some to go as far as the Mis sions of the Orinoco. His Majesty also gives instructions in His Royal Order to the effect that if, besides the thirty-six soldiers above mentioned, others should be needed they would be given to the Missionaries together with anything else deemed necessary to attain the happy end of bringing these souls to the fold of our Holy Faith; but, as the Fort of Carichana does not exist, having been destroyed, being useless on account of its situa tion, and it being His Majesty's Royal pleasure to build one on the Island of Caroni or Faxardo, the country and the Orinoco river thus being defended and covered and the Missionaries safely guarded, the aforesaid body of sol diers could be placed to garrison the Fort of said Island. Should the time arrive when the Missionaries effect their entries, which can only be done at certain seasons and not at all times during the year, they may withdraw from said fort the number of soldiers required for their escort, according to circumstances and to the advices they have upon the subject, and the work once ended, the soldiers will return to the garrison. By so doing the Royal Treasury will not have to incur double expense, particularly when this proceeding will cause no inconvenience, they (the escort), thus serving two ends without obstacle or hindrance of anjT description. It would also be expedient that some Spanish families should go there from the King dom of Gallicia, as they are considered the most suitable people for that country (the males of the family can be made to serve in the Infantry at the fort), and they can inhabit those lands which are very good and fertile and are at present deserted and uninhabited. Mention must be made that in one of the two said Royal Cedulas, His Majesty states that the fort of Carichana will be of no use unless cannons of a longer range than guns and muskets are not placed in it, to prevent from a greater distance the approach of the enemy's ships; and in a communication of the same date orders the Governor and Officers Royal of Cartagena to buy four or six swivel guns, weighing not over three or three and a half quintals so as to be carried on mules to the Port of Casanare where they shall be shipped in pirogues. This has not been done because up to this date said Gov ernors and Royal Officers have not taken any steps in the matter, nor is this order of easy fulfillment on account of the long distance from Cartagena to Casanare and [words lacking in the original] although it could be taken on mule back, and the cost and expense of conveyance being very large and out of proportion. It would be convenient therefore, that this order be en trusted to the Governor of the Island of Trinidad de Barlovento for its fulfill ment; or that said swivel guns be sent in a registered ship or ships dispatched for said Island. It being His Royal Majesty's pleasure that the fort of the Island of Caroni or Faxardo be built, it would be more convenient that said 23 No. 11. pieces of ordnance be in keeping with the situation of the Fort, so that, firing a ball of greater caliber, its range should be longer, thus preventing the enemy's approach from a greater distance, making the attack more effective, the better defending the fort. In view of the foregoing and its import in the service of God and the King, as well as for the benefits which the common cause will derive there from; also taking into consideration the glorious harvest to be reaped from the aforesaid measures and that I am bound to make the foregoing report in view of the confidence placed in me by His Majesty, I have deemed it my duty to inform Your Lordship thereon so that this report being placed be fore the Council for their judgment [lacking in the original] should deem most expedient and more to His Royal pleasure and for His Royal service, and to this end I send the two enclosed dockets of the aforesaid acts, one in the original in thirty eight sheets, and the other in an attested copy of eighteen sheets, begging Your Lordship to acknowledge receipt thereof. That Our Lord may keep Your Lordship's life many years are my wishes. Madrid, on the fifth day of May of one thousand seven hundred and twenty three. Antonio de la Pedrosa y Guerrero. (flourish). Senor Don Francisco de Arana. No. 12. Letter from Diego Portales Mense, Governor of Venezuela, to the King of Spain, November 24, 1725, as to the Capuchin Missions. [Printed from translation of a certified copy of the original in the "Archivo General de Yndias" (Seville), Stand 57, Case 6, Docket 3 ..] Your Majesty was pleased to direct by Royal Cedula of February twenty-eighth of last year that I report on the condition of the Missions of the Capuchin Fathers, by reason of Your Majesty having been in formed that two nations of heathen Indians had left the borders of the Orinoco river on account of my having treated kindly three Indians whom I had caused to come to this city, and who assured me that ten nations would leave said river. The prefect of said Missions having reported on the same subject, Your Majesty, in a later "Royal Cedula" of August twentieth of said year, finds it strange that the report was not accompanied by any justification, which I send to your Majesty together with the re ports on the condition of the Missions and their towns such as were pre sented by said Father Prefect who is, at present, in one of the aforesaid towns. The time spent in taking the depositions having prevented further progress in the removal of said nations, I am desirous that the 24 No. 12. Fathers should rather go to the banks of said river, where numberless peo ples and nations dwell, and where the Fathers' diligence will find more fruit ful results than in removing the Indians from their native towns, where they may be catechized, thus furthering the interest of your Majesty's ser vice. From said Indians and from two others of different tongues and nations I have learned of other tribes between the Orinoco and the Amazon Rivers, distant three days journey by land from the other side of the river. These Amazons hold aloof, and at certain periods pay shells to men who enter their towns unarmed for a limited time; they defend themselves not by means of bows and arrows but by a kind of very long blow pipe or tube from which they blow small sharp poisoned tips, and so poisonous are these that the slightest wound made by them results in death more quickly than by an arrow sent with greater force. I believe the foregoing to be true as I do not think the heathen Indians to be capable of inventing such an account, the interpreter giving me the assurance of this fa,ct. At present said Missions are in great need of monks, so that your Majesty may be pleased to provide for the fulfilment of an undertaking to the par ticular glory of God and service of your Majesty. Through your Majesty's Secretary General, Don Andres de Pez, I in formed your Majesty of the trade carried on by the Hollanders through the mouth of the Orinoco, buying little Indians from the victors for working on their plantations in the towns or fortresses of Surinam and Berbiz, which are on the coast far to the windward of the Orinoco. Said report, the date of which I do not recall, it having been lost with the seizure of papers, Your Majesty will be pleased to bear in mind and file with the records with a view to what may occur in future. May God preserve the Royal Catholic Person of your Majesty as many years as Christianity needs. Caracas, November twenty-fourth, one thousand seven hundred and twenty-five. No. 13. Letter from Don Agustin de Arredondo, Governor of Trinidad, to the King of Spain regarding the expulsion of a French bishop who at tempted to begin tbe conversion of Indians in Guiana; dated May 18, 1729. [Printed from translation of a certified copy of the original filed with a bundle of papers relating to this subject matter in the "Archivo General de Yndias" (Seville), Stand 56, Case i, Bundle ..] Senor : I beg to inform Your Majesty that about the month of February of this year there arrived in the Province of Guayana of this Government the 25 No. 13. Most Illustrious Lord the Bishop Don Nicolas Gervasio of French nation ality Priest of the Holy Church of Turon in the Kingdom of France and present Bishop of Orrins, and that he informed me by letter of his inten tions on entering said province, which were to establish there as Vicar and Apostolic Commissary Missions of the Indian natives within the territory of the coast of Paria, River Orinoco, Carib Islands of your domains to found a seminary and to gather in it Indians of all nations, by viitue of Apostolic Bull of His Holiness. Having, Seiior, considered the gravity of this matter I deemed it proper to call a meeting of the Chapter, the neighbors and Ecclesiastical Judge of this Jurisdiction, in which this unprecedented case was discussed at length; I made the appropriate remarks before the meeting and after hearing them they agreed unanimously that it was expedient for the benefit of Your Majesty's service that I should go to the aforesaid Province of Guayana to solve, in person, any difficulties that should occur and to issue the neces sary and most expedient instructions for the benefit of Your Majesty's service. I carried into effect what had been resolved and, making a trip to said province of Guayano upon my arrival there I requested said Lord, the Bishop to show me his Dispatches (which he then did) and I noticed that said dispatches lacked the necessary assent of Your Majesty for the settle ments which said Bishop intended to make, and who at times went among the native Guianian towns already reduced by the Missionary Capuchin Fathers of said Province and at other times went to the shores of the Orinoco with the object of having vessels from foreign Islands come with provis ions for their maintenance, as he states in his letter. In view of all this I prayed said Lord, the Bishop to give me an authentic copy of said Apos tolic Letters and other Dispatches which I am now sending to Your Maj esty with the judicial writs on the matter; and also requested him to suspend his spiritual undertaking until I could report to Your Majesty. He thereupon wrote me a letter requesting men and ships to go to the Dutch colonies. After having paid him due respect, I loaned him the men and ships with what scarce means I had in these lands, and they took him, as he (the Bishop) had requested to the Colony of Essequibo. May Our Lord keep the Catholic and Royal Person of Your Majesty. Trinidad de la Guayana, eighteenth of May, seventeen hundred and twenty-nine. Dn. Agustin de Arredondo. (A flourish.) Note: On the back of this Document the following appears : Council of July the seventh, seventeen hundred and thirty. To the Attor neys (a flourish) : The Attorney, in view of the letter of Don Agustin Arredondo, Gov ernor of the City of Trinidad de la Guayana, aud of the accompanying affi davit wherein an account is given of the steps taken by him, in the City of Santo Thome de la Guayana on the occasion of the arrival there of Don 26 No. 13. Nicolas Gervasio, Bishop of Orriens of French nationality, for the pur pose of founding missions on those Islands and among Indian nations within the territory of the coast of Paria, River Orinoco, Carib Islands of said Domains, by virtue of the Apostolic Bull obtained by said Bishop, and to establish a seminary to gather therein all kinds of natives, does hereby state: That, whereas it appears on folio seven and reverse of said affidavit in the inquiry instituted by said Governor on the twenty first of April of the past year of seven hundred and twenty nine, that objections were made to the entrance of said Rev. Bishop in that jurisdiction land and country with the object of establishing said Mis sions, by reason of the lack of His Majesty's approval of the same, and that having prayed said Bishop to go with said Governor to the Island of Trinidad where the superior Government resides, which would sup port him as became his dignity pending inquiry, his Mercy, after delib eration, having declined to consent to such proposal, but deciding to travel to the Colony of the Essequibo, inhabited by Hollanders, which (journey) said Bishop undertook on the same day (the twenty first) in a ship pro vided by said Governor — be it resolved: that all the measures taken in that matter by said Governor be hereby approved, and that he be in structed as well as others to whom it may concern that in case that said Bishop, or any other, attempt to go inland or travel through those do mains, this should be prevented unless the necessary dispatches and His Majesty's license as Lord and Master of said domains should be previously presented. Madrid, September nineteenth, seventeen hundred and thirty. Council of the 22nd of September, 1730. Such is the Attorney's decision. No. 14. Letter from Sebastian, Bishop of Porto Rico, to the King of Spain, relating to the expulsion of a French bishop who attempted to begin the conver sion of Indians in Guiana; dated Cumana" November 16, 1729. [Printed from translation of a certified copy of the original filed with a bundle of papers relating to this subject matter, in the " Archivo General de Yndias" (Seville), Stand 56, Case 4, Bundle ..] Senor: While on my ecclesiastical visit to Cumana I was informed by a letter from Don Agustin de Arredondo, Governor of Trinidad of the windward, which letter I send herewith, to Your Majesty, together with enclosure of attested copies of two other letters, that a titular Bishop of French nation ality bearing Apostolic letters of commission to undertake in this America the conversion of the Indians, entered by the Orinoco river to the Province of Guayana in order to carry out his religious desires and Apostolic Mis sion. Said Governor of Trinidad requested from him the dispatches bear ing on his mission and in view thereof the entrance to said Province was forbidden him, it being contrary to Your Majesty's Royal orders. By rea- 27 No. 14. son of this opposition said Bishop desisted from his intentions and having demanded aid to go to the Essequibo, a Dutch colony, this was granted him; and in return for this, feeling himself aggrieved for some wrongs which he states were done him by those in charge of his conveyance, he then addressed a letter to the Commissary Capuchin Father in charge of the Parish of Guiana instructing him to publicly denounce as excommun icated said Governor, Accountant Don Antonio Pinto and other officers co operating to his ejection under the anathema reserved to the Holy See, be cause they had hindered him in his mission and in the fulfilment of the Apostolic orders, and had ejected him without any food and so violently that his life was endangered. In view of the foregoing and pending my visit to said Province, which I expect to visit soon, I informed said Governor that he had fulfilled his duty, and I also charged him not to desist in his resolution, as it was part of his duties to preserve intact Your Majesty's Domains and rights in his Province, and that, should it be necessary, he should lend his aid to the Vicar of Trinidad and the Capuchin Missions of Guiana to oppose his entrance in those lands and to detain him until my arrival in said province, where I could decide what was most convenient to Your Majesty's service, and I ordered them to effectually fulfil the instructions to hinder and seize said Apostolic Commissary. I also instructed said Capuchin Missionary to explain in regard to the prevention of the carrying into effect of the Apostolic Letters, the mis taken reason of that censure to which it gave rise and also cautioned him to give warning to all of the just Title and Right of Domain which Your Majesty has to the possession of these Indies and upon whom devolves the right to appoint Pastors and Missionaries to them by virtue of the con cession and Mercy of the Holy See, and also of the Apostolic Letters upon which this is founded; and that without the recognizance and approval of the Council, such are not valid, and that whatever be contrary to them under these circumstances, cannot fall under censure. As regards having refused provisions with danger to life, troubles and vexations complained of, although said Governor states to the contrary, as it relates to the defense of the privilege vested by the Holy Cannons upon all Ecclesiastical persons, that he should absolve all ad cantelam, and to this end I trans ferred to them my authority, ordering them to explain the cause of the censure so that the limited intelligence of those natives should not also conceive ideas similar to that which the said Bishop had emitted and denounced. Upon my arrival in said province I shall procure the Apostolic letters with which he proposed to enter there and I shall send Your Majesty a personal report of all that has happened and of whatever should occur in this connection. By so doing I shall have fulfilled my duty and satisfied my desires to better serve Your Majesty whose Royal Catholic Person may God keep many years as is needed in Christendom. 28 No. 14. Cumana— November sixteenth seventeen hundred and twenty-nine— Sebastian, Bishop of Puerto Rico. No. 15. Letter from Sebastian, Bishop of Porto Kico, to tlie King of Spain, regard ing the expulsion of a French bishop who attempted to begin the conver sion of Indians in Guiana ; dated January 13, 1730. [Printed from translation of a certified copy of the original filed with a bundle of papers relating to this subject matter in the '* Archivo Generil de Yndias " (Seville), Stand 56, Case 4, Bundle 7.] Senor: After having reported to Your Majesty that a certain Titular Bishop of French nationality, under pretense of being an Apostolic com missary for the conversion of infidels, bearing no Royal Dispatch as pro vided by the laws of these Indies, did enter into the Province of Guayana of this Government of Trinidad, which in the spiritual government is an nexed to my Bishopric, pretending to found missions therein, which he could not carry into effect— as the Governor of Trinidad prevented it, as was his duty, and having ejected him from his Province and sent him to Essequibo, a Dutch Colony, I now beg to submit for the consideration of Your Royal Majesty, the fact that after having been admitted by the Hol landers in their colonies he has insisted on returning to Guayana, stopping at the Colquire (Aguire?) river, one day distant from the Castle. The Governor having again made opposition to this, said Bishop has not con descended to heed him, but has advanced reasons and doctrines offensive to the Royal Domain and Rights of Your Majesty, and the peace and tran quillity of the subjects of these Provinces, as Your Majesty will see by the attested letters of the Governor and the Vicar of Trinidad enclosed here with. Pending my arrival in said province whither I am about to pro ceed, I have entrusted them not to consent to said Bishop's carrying for ward his designs and that he be detained with all the respect and consid eration due to his Holy Dignity, and brought either to the town of Guay ana or to Trinidad until my arrival, when, in full knowledge of the case, I shall determine whatever may be best for the benefit of Your Majesty's service and the peace of these provinces, this being the only means I have deemed efficient to prevent the serious injury that may result from this intrusion. Because this Province of Guayana, being, as it is, the key to the new Kingdom of Granada, Province of Santa Fe de Bogota and Kingdom of Peru, and having a very limited number of inhabitants wherewith to op pose any nation that should pretend to invade it, which if not prevented at its inception, will establish settlements, build forts and, becoming impreg nable, will set up its rule over all the land and neighboring kingdoms and 29 No. 15. continents, thus notably impairing Your Majesty's Royal Domains, which would be the case, notwithstanding the intrusion of said Bishop being under pretext of the conversion of the heathens. There are no other means to prevent evils so imminent and detrimental to the Kingdom than the detention and seizure of said Bishop until Your Majesty's Royal de cision be announced; for his expulsion has not been sufficient, as shown by his return to said Province. Should he be allowed a footing there by reason of the trade with the French vessels that bring provisions to said Bishop and the current traffic which this and other foreign nations have established through the Narrows of the Orinoco, with the Caribs whom they have won over by supplying them with wine and liquors, to which they are much addicted, it would be well to fear some coalition that might disturb the towns and reductions of Indians, of whose education the Capuchin Fathers of the Province of Catalonia care for, by order of Your Majesty, with whom the Caribs have frequent commerce, and the whole Province would then uprise. This cannot be prevented, owing to the scarcity of troops and arms in this province. I have deemed it proper in the fulfilment of my duty to inform Your Majesty of all these particulars, as well as of anything else that might occur of equal importance, so that Your Majesty may decide whatever shall be His pleasure in this matter, giving such instructions as may seem more conducive to the peace and preservation of these Kingdoms, both for the service of God and for Your Majesty, whose Catholic Royal Person may He keep as is needed in Christendom. San Balthasar de los Arias, January thirteenth, seventeen hundred and thirty. Sebastian, Bishop of Puerto Rico. No. 16. Letter from Don Agustin Arredondo, Governor of Trinidad, to the King of Spain, dated April 26, 1730, regarding the expulsion of a French bishop who attempted to begin the conversion of Indians in Guiana— of his sub sequent return thereto and murder by the Carib Indians. [Printed from translation of a certified copy of the original filed with a bundle of papers relating to this subject matter in the "Archivo General de Yndias," (Seville), Stand 56, Case 4, Bundle ..] Senor: Having succeeded in politely expelling Don Nicolas Hervasio, Titular Bishop, of French nationality, from the City of Guayana, where he arrived and landed with the intent to found Missions, a college and other establish ments, for which he was authorized by virtue of apostolic bulls, and having sent him to Berbiz, a Dutch colony, as 1 have already reported to your Majesty, together with said bulls and proceedings instituted in this case; he returned a second time to said Province of Guayana, entered and took up his residence on the coasts and shores of Aguire, which is one of the mouths of the Orinoco, in order to issue from there the command to con- 30 No. 16. voke the Indians and realize the fulfilment of his Apostolic zeal. My Lieutenant having informed me of the facts, I was about to go again to said city to continue my objections and refusal to let him put in practice the au thority with which he was invested by reason of said bulls, both because they have not the approval of the Royal Council of Your Majesty as provided in the Royal Laws of these Indies, and because I plainly saw the damage and injury resulting thereby to the lawful domain of Your Majesty over all the kingdoms of this America, as also to the peace, tranquility, and preserva tion of said city of Guayana. Had the Bishop established himself in this manner with those of his nation, they would have easily penetrated into the Kingdom of Santa Fe. But before effecting my embarkation to proceed on this errand I received a second report from my said Lieutenant stating that the Carib Indians in said river Orinoco had put to death the said Bishop Don Nicolas Hervasio and his household, taking away with them two negroes, servants of his, desecrating and tearing his sacred gar ments, and looting and carrying away everything. This news I have received from said Lieutenant and I hold it as true, particularly since the Most Illustrious Bishop of this Bishopric, who went to visit said Guayana, heard it from some Indians, friends to said French Bishop, and who brought some pieces of his garments or vestments which were identified as having been seen when he first came to Guayana, as well as the conse crated stone of his altar, although it had been in the fire. Said friendly Indians asserted that they had buried him on the shores of said river Aguire. I am trying.to go to said province to make inquiries and to seize the treacherous perpetrators of such sacriligeous murders to punish them as they deserve, and to ascertain with certainty the spot where the bodies are interred, to have them taken to Guayana in due time where the obse quies and funeral rites corresponding to the dignity of said Most Illustrious Bishop shall be performed. I have deemed it proper to make this report to Your Majesty so that, in consideration that these Carib Indians are they who tyranize over the other nations thus preventing their conversion to our Holy Faith and who are the perpetrators of the present murders and of the death of two soldiers of the castle of Guayana, crimes committed last year of seventeen hundred and twenty-seven, constantly keeping the Spaniards and the reduced Indians in a continuous state of fear and unrest on account of their threats and treacherous misdeeds, Your Majesty may permit and ordain that proceedings be instituted against such Carib Indians in order to subdue them and reduce them to some special state of submission, fear and obedience, to prevent so many ills as those experienced from them since the discovery of this province. This, I think, will be to the benefit of God and of Your Majesty and for the peace of Your Majesty's obedient and loyal subjects. May Our Lord keep the person of Your Royal Majesty as long as Christianity needs it. Trinidad de la Guayana, the twenty sixth of April of the year seventeen hundred and thirty. Don Agustin de Arredondo. 31 No. IT. Certified copies made in 1730 by order of the Bishop of Porto Kico, of cor respondence between himself and the Governor of Guiana and the Governor and tbe Vicar of Trinidad, in 1 7 29, regarding the expulsion of a French bishop who attempted to begin the conversion of Indians in Guiana. [Printed from translation of _ certified copy of the said certified copies filed with a bundle of papers relating to this subject matter in the "Archivo General de Yndias" (Seville), Stand 56, Case 4, Bundle . .] Letter from the Governor of Trinidad. My Dear Sir: The object of this is only to show your most Illustrious Lordship the one that I have just received, by which you will become acquainted with the orders I left in Guayana in case it happened that the French bishop should again return. By its contents it appears that said gentlemen will remain in the place called Aguire. This is a channel three days' sail by the River Grande from the Castle of Guayana and then one more day's sail through said channel in order to reach port. The houses of the natives, who belong to the Carib nation, are one day's journey from the port. This is a place where wood is plenty and vessels are built, as Father Rincon may inform your most Illustrious Lordship. I only wish to do right and receive your most Illustrious Lordship's commands. May Our Lord keep your most Illustrious Lordship many long years. City of Oruna, November tenth, seventeen hundred and twenty-nine. Kissing your most Illustrious Lordship's hand, Y. M. I. Lordship's most affectionate servant. On the margin : "I have detained the ship that came from Guayana, awaiting your most Illustrious Lordship's orders so that mine may be more effectual should your most Illustrious Lordship deem it proper to instruct me. Don Agustin de Arredondo." Copy of letter from the Lieut', of Guayana to the Governor of Trinidad. To the Governor and Captain General Don Agustin de Arredondo. Sir— In compliance with my duty I beg to inform your Excellency that the French Bishop has penetrated into the River called Aguire, as I have been told by some Aruaca Indians who came to this port from the sea and who were examined by me through Adriano. They stated that after hav ing left Essequibo, the Lord Bishop went to Surinam, whose Governor would not admit him as he did not bear dispatches either from his King or from the King of Spain, and accordingly he ordered him to leave the ter ritory within twenty-four hours, which he did after having taken pro visions and repaired his ship, and despatched him to Essequibo in order that the Governor there might equip him for his colonies or for the Spanish territory. Upon his arrival at Essequibo the Lord Bishop requested said 32 No. 17. Governor to provide him with oarsmen to take him to Guayana where with he complied, sending them as far as the place called Guacopoa and from there he entered into Aguire, as I have stated, with two of his ser vants, as the other one left him at Essequibo to go to Barbados not wish ing to go to Surinam. As soon as I was aware, Sir, that he was coming here, being informed that he would spend five or six days in reaching here, I got ready oarsmen, provisions and three men so as to send him in the same ship to this island to see your Excellency, in compliance with your Excellency's orders that I was to carry out in case he should return to this city, and I will do so should this occur, while this report reaches your Excellency so that your Excellency may determine what is deemed most proper to do. The same day of the date of this an Aruaca Indian, living in Aripo at the large mouth of this River Orinoco, left this port; I sent for him and told him through Adriano to inquire secretly from the other Indians about the Lord Bishop, whether he had already a house and any white men with him and the Indian agreed to do all that was ordered him. He gave by letter twenty days for the time of his arrival. Letter from the Governor of Trinidad, dated Nov. 15, 1729. Most Illustrious and Excellent Sir: In the one I wrote before to your most Illustrious Lordship I give a de scription of the place designated as Araturo wherein I made a mistake as the place named is called .Aguire; it is only one day distant from below the Castle and from said Aguire communication is held with the native Pariagotas who are subject to the missions occupied by the Capuchin Missionaries. This Lord Bishop is very clever, highly educated and hav ing great ideas; he is wedded to his opinion and contradicts every propo sition, going so far as to say that the Holy See could not divest itself of such a great privilege as the one granted to Our Monarch, thus doing in jury to the successors to the tiara; 'that for this reason his briefs must not go to the Council. Having come to discuss with him on these matters he asked me what I should do in case he should desire to remain at any point I replied that what I would do would be to request the Vicar or the Bishop to put him out of the domains of the King. His only reply to this was, " and if I do not wish to go?" * * * My zeal as a good sub ject compelled me to say that I should employ force. I have thought it convenient to inform your Most Illustrious Lordship of all this so that with a fuller knowledge of the matter the proper orders be issued most expedient to the service of both Majesties. At the same time I beg to inform Your Most Illustrious Lordship of the difficulties that may ensue, because if he should, under the title of Bishop, build a fort and collect a few foreigners, this once done the Province of Guayana is totally lost as 33 No. IT. there are no means of defense. I expect to receive Your Most Illustrious Lordship's orders to enable me to have more wisdom in those given by me, and I will fulfil them most efficiently. May Our Lord be pleased to keep Your Most Illustrious Lordship for many years. Trinidad, November fifteenth, seventeen hundred and twenty-nine. Kissing Your Most Illustrious Lordship's hands, your most affectionate servant, Don Agustin de Arredondo. Letter from the Vicar of Trinidad ; dated Nov. 10, 1729. Most Illustrious and Reverend Sir: I never tire of admonishing and informing these parishioners of the purpose and expediency of the Pastoral visit and to give them assurance of the kindly yearnings of Your Most Illustrious Lordship to see the faces of Y. M. I. Lordship's children and fold, as I did from this pulpit on the first day of this November on the night of All Souls' Day, at a large gath ering held in the Parish all being notified for the reception of Y. M. 111. Lordship in February of the coming year. My Lord, the Most Illustrious Lord, the Titular Bishop of French national^, who came to the Province of Guayana of this Government in February of this year, seems to have forgotten that Your M. 111. Lordship had in this jurisdiction a Minister, Your M. 111. Lordship's Vicar, to attend to all matters relating to the defense of the jurisdiction. This notwithstanding, as the Vicar of Your Most Illustrious Lordship, I have attended, as becomes my duty, to every thing relating to this matter, so new in these lands, and whenever the Governor, desirous to reach a wise determination, has looked to me, he has always found me ready; particularly at a general meeting which he called to consult on the subject and ask for advice, he issued a judicial writ requesting Your Most Illustrious Lordship's Vicar to attend said meeting as I did giving first a judicial answer and then going to the said meeting, which in my belief gave results for the better service of God and the benefit of His Catholic Majesty and the defense of Your Most Illustrious Lord ship's jurisdiction. All has been sent to the Council of the Indies. My Lord I have seen all the Bulls and Apostolic concessions of said Lord Bishop, and my limited intelligence cannot find in them the reason for his coming. I have also seen and keep in my possession some letters from said Lord Bishop, and I keep particularly the one which the Lord Nuncio of his Holiness, resident at the Catholic Court, wrote from Madrid to said titular Lord Bishop on this subject, which he received in the Island of Martinique, as attested by the Secretary to said Lord Bishop, wherein said Lord Nuncio informs him that the question was submitted to the Council of the Indies as a standard where, on account of the multiplicity of affairs, resolutions are slow, and that for this reason he shall speak to Our Lord the King and to His Majesty's confessor, informing him of the result; as also that his 84No. 17. apostolic undertaking, the establishment of missions, the founding of a college for priests, will all be hindered unless he can count upon the Royal sanction. Upon consideration of these and other reasons of which Your M. 111. Lordship must be aware, we have come to the conclusion that only the great zeal for the salvation of the souls of the Indians of the Orinoco could have induced this Prince to such an arduous spiritual task in which he did not succeed, nor will he be able to succeed except with the approval of the Catholic Kiug who is the legitimate patron of this America. This Bishop is not much pleased with the remedies applied and the measures, which, as I understand, have not been lacking in the respect due to his sacred dignity. He left Guayana. retired to Essequibo, a Dutch Colony, undergoing great hardships, especially on account of his advanced age. I do not believe, My Lord, that even if he should preserve his life, which would be most fortunate, he will return to his first undertaking, and should this happen I am aware of the instructions of Your Most Illustrious Lordship and I shall be on the alert. As regards the censure that, by letter, he issued against the Governor, his Lieutenant and others, I have already given said Governor my humble opinion and I understand that it tranquilized him. May God our Lord keep the Illustrious person of Your Most Illustrious Lordship to be my aid and consolation many years. City of Oruna, on the tenth of November, seventeen hundred and twenty-nine. Kissing Y. M. I. Lordship's feet. Y. M. I. Lordship's humble servant, Juan Antonio Marcano. Another Letter from the Vicar of Trinidad; dated Nov. 10, 1729. Most Illustrious Sir: On this same date, the tenth of Novem ber, orders have been issued to the effect that the ecclesiastical no tary of this Court shall go to the Port of Spain, the principal port of this island, to deliver the documents and letter and attend to the embarka tion of the Fathers Don Francisco de Rojas, and Don Juan Valentin de Mier. The Governor of this Island (has received?) a letter from his Lieu tenant in Guayana reporting the second importunity of the titular French bishop. Said Governor has given me the assurance that he sends to Your Most Illustrious Lordship a copy of said letter, which relieves me from informing as to its contents. I remain awaiting Your Lordship's orders, in this delicate matter to obey and give them prompt attention. I always pray to God during the holy sacrifice for Y. M. 111. Lordship's help for the benefit of the Bishopric. May His Majesty keep Your Illustrious per son many years, such being the desires of Your Lordship's humble ser vants. San Joseph de Oruna, tenth of November, of seventeen hundred and twenty-nine. Kissing Your M. 111. Lordship's feet, your humblest servant, Juan Antonio Marcano. 35 No. 17. The Bishop of Porto Rico to the Governor of Trinidad; Dec. 28, 1729. Dear Sir : I am in receipt of four [letters] from Your Lordship, and my high dignity and humble personality are once more extolled by the marks of high respect shown, and I yearn for the occasion your pleasure may give me to command my most williug gratitude. In reference to the contents of said letter, I must inform Your Lordship that I am by them aware that Your Lordship had not been at the Office of the Dean in the Church be cause the excesses of our Ministers and Ecclesiastical Judges must be checked by their superiors in the same calling and Father Rincon, by rea son of his very obedience, had been guilty of being too dependent than otherwise, because although there be a right for defense this is never ac cepted as it is meet it should be, unless accompanied by the humble com pliance of the subject. I have instructed him to go to that city where I am to give a hearing to the transgressions of which he is accused. The place where the guilt was committed is the place where the trial shall be held. By this, said Father will see that I am attentive to my duties and Your Lordship will see how attentive I am to serve in the meting out of the laws of justice. I take notice of the stubborn return of the Illustrious Lord French Bishop to the Province of Guayana in detriment of the peace and quiet of the same; this pacific possession in common consolation of the subjects which His Catholic Majesty has in these Indies and spiritual conquest of this province in which the Capuchin Missionaries are at present engaged, who for the holy work of the conversion of the infidels have been supported and maintained at heavy expense of this Royal Treas ury. And all this done (by said Bishop) in usurpation of our pastoral jurisdiction. Such violence threatens still greater ruin which will be felt through all the kingdom, and which must be checked by Your Lordship in what it may concern and by me as far as lies in my power. Being aware of the scorn shown by him for the intimations made him and the arrogance of his behavior, so offensive to the highest considerations and in defiance of my jurisdiction' and the rights of the Sovereign your Lord ship will be pleased, in company with my ecclesiastical Vicar in this island, to go to the house where he stops in that province and with all the for bearance and respect due to his dignity and person, without seizing any of his belongings, and giving him the necessary assistance, will cause him to be brought to that city where he shall be confined in a decent house with guards until my arrival. In view of the whole matter I shall issue the ap propriate instructions. This is the only efficient means I find to check the present ills, and the most grave, imminent and important dangers to the peace of the kingdom and province, and to the preservation of the do main and also the spiritual injuries resulting from this intolerable intrusion. I rely in this matter on the greatest activity on the part of Your Lordship, in whom I have placed my confidence on account of the zeal in the service of both Majesties, which I recognize in Your Lordship. By your last 36No. 17. letter I am informed of the obstinacy of said Lord Bishop in remaining in that province and of the doctrines alleged by him, which are greatly op posed to the quiet of these kingdoms and to the just and Christian rights of the Catholic Majesty, to examine aud approve of the Apostolic Bulls whereof he is invested with the knowledge of the Holy See and common acceptation of his subjects. Such examination is neither assuming nor offensive to the Apostolic authority, but an act both of policy and defense of the rights and peace of his Kingdoms and of the authority of the Apos tolic See itself. Anything in contrary would be boldness and temerity, it being against the consensus of opinion of all theologians and jurists of the kingdom. Our respective duties compel us to interfere against this. Under this impression I have given the foregoing order, in the compliance of which no doubt should arise nor any scruple, as it is justified by lawful defense against an unlawful invasion of the jurisdiction and Royal Domain, and in this case one force repels another. I have taken due notice of your recommendation imploring my kindness in reference to the repeated fault, the petulance and incorrigibility of Father Valentin de Anjeles, to whom, out of respect to your Lordship's recommendation, I shall be lenient in meting out the punishment that he deserves on account of his incorrigi bility. My mind is not set so much upon avenging his guilt as upon his reformation, because my desire is that my clergy fulfil the holy duties of their state, and that as shepherds of the holy fold they should teach by their good example the road to virtue, which leads to triumphant Jerusa lem. When I received Your Lordship's last letter informing me of the excesses and effrontery of Father Don Francisco Joseph de Roxas, which demand the most rigid attention, he had already left the city bearing my decree to be reinstated in the service of the Sacristy of that Parish, with my censure and a pecuniary fine because, owing to the inability of said Father, who was rejected in the last examination, no Curate has been pro vided. Upon my arrival in your city, where I am to meet him, as I have instructed him, I shall give a hearing to bis case and he shall be punished according to his faults and I shall issue all the necessary orders so that the Royal Treasury may suffer no damage by reason of the mentioned priest; and in this Your Lordship shall see my earnestness in dealing with this and everything else relating to the Royal Service and to that of Your Lord ship. On the seventh of January next I shall go from this city to San Bal- thasar de los Arias, and about the eighth of February, God willing, I shall be in the port of the Golfo Triste to set sail for your city, because I have resolved to defer the visit to some places in this Province until my return on account of the trouble given me by the pretentions of the Frenchman. By that date Your Lordship may have the necessary ships in readiness and command me as may be his wishes, the fulfilment of said commands being the best proof of my obedience. May God keep Your Lordship many years of well deserved promotions. Cumana, December the twenty-eighth, seventeen hundred and twenty- 37 No. 17. nine. Kissing Your Lordship's hands Your humble servant and chaplain. Sebastian, Bishop of Puerto Rico. The foregoing copy agrees with the letters of Don Agustin de Arre dondo, Governor and Captain-General of the Island of Trinidad, and of Don Juan Antonio Marcano, Doctrinary Curate and Vicar of said Island, addressed to His Most Illustrious Lordship the Bishop, my Lord, I having compared them with this copy, I vouch for the correctness and the origi nals were returned to His Most Illustrious Lordship the Bishop, my Lord, and in witness thereof, as ordered by His Most Illustrious Lordship the Bishop, my Lord, the Master, Don Sebastian Lorenzo Pizzaro of the Holy Order of the Lord Saint Basilius Magnus, most Holy Bishop of San Juan de Puerto Rico and its annexed territories, member of His Majesty's Council, etc., I do issue the present attestation in the City of Cumana, on the fourth day of January, seventeen hundred and thirty, affixing thereto my customary signature. In witness thereof — a sign — Doctor Don Matias Bejar, Secretary. Here follows the authentication of the foregoing signature by three ecclesiastical notaries, under the same date and in the same city. No. 18. Order of Juan Joseph de Orvay, Governor in Concordia, Guayana, to Antonio Pinto, Lieutenant of Accounts, to prepare a ship to reconnoitre the Swedish settlement at Barima, October 21, 1732. [Printed from translation of a certified copy of the original in the " Archivo General de Yndias " (Seville), Stand 56, Case 4, Docket 7.] Edict. In this City of Santo Thome de la Guayana, on the 21st day of October 1T32— I, Sergeant Major Don Juan Joseph de Orvay, Alcalde Ordinario, Act ing Governor this present year, for His Majesty, in charge of these Prov inces and its jurisdiction. In virtue of the edict proclaimed in the island of Trinidad on the fourth day of said month and year- Say, that inasmuch as it is necessary and proper to send an expedition to the mouth of the Rio de Barima in the jurisdiction of this government, by reason of the information received, that the Swedes are settling at the mouth of this channel, and of the injury this may cause to the service of His Majesty. I, hereby order and command the Lieutenant of Accounts, Captain Don Antonio Pinto, to prepare a ship, with the necessary crew of Oarsmen, provisions and munitions of war belonging to His Majesty, and of which he is in charge as such Royal Official, in order that Captain Juan Miguel Hernandez, to whom the corresponding orders for this under taking will be given, shall proceed to reconnoitre the said settlement. All 38No. 18. this is to be made known to said Lieutenant of Accounts and to said Juan Miguel Hernandez, so that each one on his part may take such steps as may be proper for the service of His Majesty. And the said edict shall be put as a heading to this in testimony thereof, and the same shall be made known to said Lieutenant of Accounts, to whom notice of this edict shall be given, in order that with the receipt which shall be given and provided by the said Juan Miguel Hernandez, he may incorporate the same into the accounts that he has to render. And, by this my edict, I have so decreed, commanded and signed with the witnesses with whom I am performing this act, there being no notary here, which I certify — Juan Joseph de Orvay— Marcos Nieto de Sobrado — Juan Lorenzo Romero. . . . Thereupon, I, Juan Lorenzo Romero, Adjutant of the Government, made known the foregoing Edict to Captain Juan Miguel Hernandez: and he heard and understood it, but did not sign, not being able to write, and for the purpose of preserving evidence thereof, I record it here and sign — Juan Lorenzo Romero. And thereupon, I, said Adjutant, made known the said decree and also the Edict, to said Captain Don Antonio Pinto, Lieutenant of Accounts; and he heard and understood it and signed with me— Antonio Pinto. Juan Lorenzo Romero. Affidavit.— In this City of Guayana, the twenty-first day of November of the year seventeen hundred and thirty two— I, Sergeant Major Don Juan Joseph de Orvay, Alcalde Ordinario this present Year, for His Majesty, Acting Governor by reason of the death of Senor Don Bartholome de Aldunate y Rada, who was Governor and Captain General of these Provinces, for the King, our Master (whom God preserve). Appeared before me Captain Juan Miguel Hernandez, having returned to this City to-day, the date hereof from the reconnoissance which he was sent to make of the Swedish settlement. Who said, that, having gone to sea by the principal River, Orinoco, entered through the channel called barima, where said people had been. according to information given to him by the Carib Indians who live on said channel, they had seen about three months before a great many white people in two ships and one sloop, looking around for some place to settle in, and pacifying the said Carib Indians with valuable presents of cloths, beads, knives in abundance, machetes, axes and lots of liquor, which the said Indians received with great pleasure. And they are expected to return this spring, about the coming March, as they gave the said Caribs to understand, that, the said Swedish ships would return to renew the search for a place to found a settlement in said channel, which they did not do that time for «want of pilots, because the 39 No. 18. Hollanders of Berbis and Surinam did not wish to furnish them with any. The Carib Indians said also that the Hollanders had notified them (the Caribs) not to show those men any good places for settling, because they were bad men, and they (the Hollanders) would give them what they needed. . . . The Caribs also informed him that two longboats, with some Frenchmen and Negro fugitives from Cayenne, had arrived in that creek, intending to proceed to this City of Guayana, but that said Indians had killed them all and taken their boats and luggage. . . . And that in said channel there lives a so-called Carib Captain, the son of Captain Iaguaria, *vho is one of the fugitives of the Upper Orinoco river, and who, it seems, keeps over two hundred Indians in a large house, provided with arrows, guns and short swords. And said 'Indian told him that these precautions were taken against tbe whites of Guayana, who would not allow him to make prisoners of the other nations of the Orinoco, to sell them to the Hollanders. . . . And that all he has said here is the truth; and he swore by God our Lord and a sign of the Holy Cross in the form of law, that he knows nothing more than what he has said and declared, in virtue of the Oath he has taken, which he affirmed and ratified; and he said his age was about fifty years, more or less. He did not sign, as he could not write, and to make sure, I signed with the Witness with whom I am performing this act; there being no Notary, which I certify — Juan Joseph de Orvay— Juan Lorenzo Romero— Fran cisco Romero Lovaton. . . . No. 19. An attested copy, made in Guiana by the Magistrate Governors on June 6, 1733, of a Royal Cedula of the King of Spain daled January 17, 1731, regarding the expulsion ol a French bishop who attempted to begin the conversion of Indians in Guiana— of his subsequent return and murder by the Caribs. [Printed from translation of a certified copy of said attested copy filed with a bundle of papers relating to this subject matter in the " Archivo General de Yndias " (Seville), Stand 66, Case 4, Bundle 7 ] We, the undersigned, Magistrate Governors, in compliance with the orders contained in the foregoing decree caused the [following] certified copy to be made of the Royal Cedula to wit: — The King— Don Agustin de Arredondo, Governor and Captain General of the Island of Trinidad de la Guayana: by letter of the twenty-sixth of April of last year, seventeen hundred and thirty, you report on the landing effected in that city by Don Nicolas Hervasio, a Bishop of French nationality, with the intent to found missions, a college and other establishments, by virtue of Apostolic Bulls, stating that as you deemed that said determination had certain inconvenient features, accord ing to the opinion of the meeting which you had called to this end, you compelled him to leave — using the most courteous measures— for a colony 40 No. 19. of Hollanders; having attained this object, a few days later he returned to that Island for a second time and established his residence on the shores of the River Aguire, one of the mouths of the river Orinoco, with the in tention of convoking the Indians from said place and realizing the fulfil ment of his Apostolic zeal. At this time you were informed that the Carib Indians, dwelling on the Orinoco aforesaid, had put him to death, a misfortune that also befell his household, said Indians carrying away with them two negroes, servants of his, and other circumstances in the matter. You also state that you were preparing to set out for said place in order to seize and punish those who committed such sacrilegious crimes, and you ask my leave to proceed against said Caribs in onder to reduce them to some kind of submission and obedience, to check various ills of which they are the cause. And in view of the opinion of my Council of the Indies and the advice of my Attorney, I have resolved to command you (and do hereby command you) to proceed to the seizure of the Indians who have taken part in and committed the murders, continuing in the proceedings which you state you have commenced, and dealing with them as you may judge proper, displaying the greatest prudence in all things and employing such means as you deem most adequate and efficient to check such actions; and you shall report to me at the earliest opportunity all that you have done in this matter as well as the steps you judge more impera tive and necessary to this end. At the same time I warn you that should another Bishop, or any other person, attempt to enter and travel in said domains, you shall not allow it unless they present the necessary dispatches and license given by me, stating the purpose of their journey. You are thus informed for the exact and accurate fulfilment of said order, com municating same to such persons as may seem convenient to you, for their guidance. Done in Seville on the twenty-fourth of January, seventeen hundred and thirty-one— I, the King— By command of the King Our Lord— Don Francisco Diez Roman — Note. — Underneath this there are three flourishes which appear to be of the gentlemen of the Council and below these two lines in writing saying : To the Governor of Guayana relative to proceedings against some Carib Indians who killed a Bishop of French nationality.-— This copy agrees with the original duplicate of the royal cedula kept on file and registered in the archives of this government from which we caused this copy to be made and compared— We, the Captains Don An tonio de Robles, and Don Joseph Phelipe Navarro, Magistrate Governors, this present year, do vouch for the correctness of this copy, made in com pliance with the orders contained in our foregoing decree, to be joined to these proceedings, and in testimony thereof we append our signatures in the presence of the witnesses with whom we act, as there is no Notary in this Government. On the sixth day of June seventeen hundred and thirty-three— to which we certify— Don Antonio de Robles— Joseph Phelipe Navarro— Juan Lorenzo Romero— Salvador Marcelino de Espinosa Martel. 41 No. 20. Letter from Don Pablo Diaz Fajardo, Lieutenant of Infantry, to the Gov ernor and Captain General of Guiana, sending map showing location of gold and silver mines, February 8, 1735. [Printed from translation of a certified copy of original in the " Archivo General de Yndias " (Seville), Stand 56, Case 6, Bundle 19.] Don Pablo Diaz Fajardo, Lieutenant of Infantry and Engineer Extraor dinary of His Majesty's Army in actual service in this Province, before your Lordships does represent and state— that, being in said Province of Guayana, in the discharge of his post under the orders of your Lordships, he was instructed to make the necessary plans and estimates for the construction of a castle on an eminence called Padrasto, and also to draw a map of that portion of the province where the gold and silver mines, discovered up to the present time, are located. The cost of the former will be, according to the estimates, three hundred thousand pesos, because the volume of the walls of the magazines being eleven thousand, four hundred and twenty cubic varas, at the rate of twenty four pesos each, will make two hundred and sixty-four thousand pesos, which subtracted from the three hundred thousand leaves a remainder for the living quarters, draw-bridge, mortar and work for filling the ramparts of the bastions and digging the ditches. Your Honor will please bear in mind that in making this esti mate I have confined myself to what I am certain will be the cost in this country, because, lime being one of the most expensive items in a work, it will be necessary to bring it from the Island of Trinidad, increasing the cost thereby at least three fold; at the same time the master work men and laborers must necessarily command increased salaries in this country, the provisions being two and three times more expensive than in other places, by reason of the scarcity of the population in the Province. In regard to those coming from abroad, I am certain that, by reason of their expenses, not one of them will be willing to work unless he be paid a salary corresponding to the need of the country. The projected con struction of the redoubt to be built on the height of Padrastro will cost five thousand pesos.' The plans and drawings of the works mentioned are delivered to Your honor with the chart of a portion of the province, showing the places where the gold and silver mines are located. This is the purport of this representation. 42 No. 21. Letter from Governor Don Carlos de Sucre to Don Jose Patino, dated Cumana, March 23, 1735. [Printed from translation of certified copy of the original in the " Archivo General de Yndias (Seville), Stand 56, Case 6, Bundle 19. | Your Excellency: Sir,— Having left pacified all those provinces bathed by the Orinoco river from its mouths up to its junction with the Casanare river, which is reported to have over 400 leagues, and all the Indians dwelling upon the shores thereof ready to receive Missionary Fathers, not counting many other nations who live inland, and having likewise asked me for Missionary Fathers, without my having found any nation evincing the slightest indi cation of assuming the defensive, excepting the Carib nation, which is the most numerous and rules over all the other nations, having arrogated to itself the title of King of the Orinoco, and being constantly at war with the other nations, as it has no other occupation nor way of living, for they neither till nor cultivate their lands, but sustain themselves by waging war against the other Indians, whom they enslave and carry away to sell to the Dutch and other foreign nations; there being years in which the slaves sold by them are no less than from 600 to 700. Last year I deprived them wholly of this accursed traffic, and have consequently also done so this year, whereat they became desperate, as they owed the Indians of Surinam some 700 head of slaves. Said Indians, seeing that the Caribs failed to pay them, carried away all their wives and children in payment of what they owed them. In despair at being robbed of their wives and children, they decided to cross over and burn and kill the Missionary Fathers of the Company and the Indians, and take away with them those whom they could as slaves. Being advised of this determination, I forthwith dispatched a detachment to succor said Missions which assistance arrived so opportunely that had it delayed three days the Caribs would have accomplished their purpose. But as soon as they heard of the arrival of said detachment they restrained themselves to the point that it was necessary to cross over to seek them in their own lands, in their clearing which they call the Pumeyo, where they had three encounters with said Caribs, and in these three encounters they were always defeated with considerable losses, the number of which it is impossible to ascertain, owing to the custom they have of taking away their dead. They failed to conceal only the death of four captains, among these their General, who led them, and the bravery of this Indian has not been equalled by that of any Roman. All their houses and tilled lands were demolished. Of their nine boats, seven were taken away from them, the other two having been captured before in the slight engagement had with them on the Orinoco. They killed only one of our men, who died of a slight wound at the end of three days, owing to the balls being poisoned, 43 No. 21. as are all of them, and also their arrows. Finding themselves thus pun ished, they all withdrew inland, suing for peace, which I have refused to grant them, as I have overpowered them so that they are perishing, for, being unable to go down to the Orinoco to fish, they must either perish or abandon the country. His Majesty has now under subjection all this Orinoco river up to Casanare, and as securely as the Sevilla river, whereas formerly it was necessary to pay a tax to every nation in order to be allowed to pass, and even then they were killed and countless Spaniards have lost their lives in crossing this river, as also Missionary Fathers. This nation is the only one that refuses to be subdued, all the others that have been discovered by us seek our friendship, and many nations send me their Caciques to swear obedience, recognizing His Majesty as King and Master, and asking for Missionary Fathers, so that if I now had five hundred Missionary Fathers I could employ them all, and my greatest sorrow is that I 'have not a single priest to give them; and it is the most pitiful thing in the world to see these poor wretches asking for fathers and not a father to give them. Guayana is at present without a parson, while being a parsonage, and as no priest wishes to come to Guayana, it has been necessary to take away a Capuchin father from his Mission, where he is needed. And having appeased and pacified all these provinces, I ordered here the Colonel of Militia, Don Francisco Figueras y Caceres, one of the foremost gentlemen of this province, a very judicious person who has filled various posts, in all of which he has given a good account of his operations— a clever man enjoying considerable popularity. I have left him to command in my place until I finish the residence of Don Juan de la Tornerra y Soto, my predecessor, who had begun it, having arrived in this city yesterday, March 22d, and to-day work upon said residence has been resumed and is diligently pushed, so that as soon as it is finished I may straightway return to' Guayana in order to see how I can manage to go into the Province of Puneyo, where said Caribs have their clearing, which is on the other side of the Orinoco river, to fortify myself with a stockade and four swivel guns that I have, where I shall compel them to abandon the country or submit themselves. It is an arduous undertaking. I know it, and that we shall suffer greatly from lack of provisions, but I place all my hope in God who knows my good intention and zeal and devotion to the Royal service, and He will assist me in my undertaking. If we succeed in subduing them, or compeling them to abandon their lands, we shall in future meet with no further opposition, inasmuch as I have subdued and reduced to the obedience of His Majesty more land than is thrice contained in Spain, and if His Majesty were to send me twice as many people as are in Spain, we have enough land to distribute among all,— the best in the world, with the finest and most healthful climate that I have thus far seen; lands which grow everything that is sown in them; rivers teeming with fish; forests abounding in all sorts of game. But, Sir, it behooves me to notify Your Excellency that now it is impossible for me to further 44No. 21. contribute such excessive expenses. It is now thirteen months that I am called upon to wholly maintain, sometimes 200 men, at others 250, at others 150, sometimes 100, never less than 90, whom I supplied entirely with provisions, arms and munitions, even the Militia, of which I have sometimes maintained two hundred and five hundred men, during two or three months at my cost, and 25 men selected by me whom I supported for over eight months, who have ruined me, as I gave them half-pay and fed them at my expense, being sorely in need of men, because this garrison consists wholly of natives who are good for nothing, it being a pity that the Royal Treasury should pay for such worthless people. But for the people of the country — not the whites, who are also good for nothing, all, including their officers, being the most violent and worthless people that can be found — but for the mulattoes, zambos and negroes, I say, it would have been impossible for me to hold my own in Guayana, or to succeed in subduing all these provinces; and this by dint of regaling them and con tinually giving them rum; otherwise not one of them would have re mained. No fortune would suffice for all the expenses caused by the smallest detachment; they are excessive, owing to the dearness of supplies for arms, powder, balls; no treasures would be enough. If it is fish it is killed with the gun; if deer or bear, powder and balls must be used; every thing is consumed by the great rains; and as for the provisions, the imple ments, such as axes, cutlasses, pruning hooks, pickaxes, glass beads, knives, clasp knives, lancets for the Indians, where would there be money enough? Then what shall we say of the rum absorbed by the Indians, who drink it like water and after having had their full, must have their calabash re plenished? They have consumed from me more than 4,200 flasks of rum, and without this, there is no Indian. He must be regaled whenever he seizes the tool. Of these I have given them over 3,800 pieces; knives without number; the loss of provisions that I have sustained at sea, and four or five vessels that I have lost, amount to more than 4,000 pesos, and countless other expenses, so that I find myself indebted in over twelve thousand pesos, and thus I am ruined, Sir, for up to the present moment I have not been provided with even a real; everything has been at my expense, with money lent me by my friends. I have done it, Sir, because it was necessary, and had I not come to Guayana with the celerity I did, it would have been irremediably lost. As it is pretty generally known, I found that all the residents and Missionary fathers wanted to leave, and remained only out of regard for me. 11,000 Caribs were corning, deter mined to kill them all, and 200 would have been enough for that. So great was the misery that even the residents had to be supported by me. Its garrison had sixty men on the books and for the sixty men there were only four guns that always remained in the Castle for those who came to relieve the guard, all old men and children. Now the garrison is com plete and well supplied. Two days before I left I passed review and from two it had reached 102 men, and if there were a recruiting licence, J 45 No. 21. could have raised 400 men. The place has had an increase of over 250 souls. From the province of Caracas there were more than 200, of these ten are owners of cattle ranches who with their cattle have the only means of maintaining Guayana; they send people everywhere, and there already would have been three or four towns begun by me, but they ask of me what it is not in my power to offer them; they wish me to promise not to forsake them and always to remain in Guayana, as if it depended upon my will to remain or not. It is all due to the great confidence they have in me. Had the Indians known of my leaving, I doubt much whether they would have permitted it. Sir, I can assure you that His Majesty has in those provinces the greatest treasures to be found in America. In all the ravines, rivulets and plains, nothing but mines are found which men who all their lives have worked in mines in the King dom of Santa Fe declare to be of gold and silver. This not being my profession, I do not understand it, but I called them and made them examine the samples they had brought me, and ordered them to tell me the truth, whether they were good mines or not, and if some specimens could be sent to His Majesty. To which they replied that with all con fidence I could send them for they surely were gold and silver mines; that from the samples neither gold nor silver could be extracted because they had been picked up from the surface of the ground; that the lode had not been got at, but that by digging it would be found, and then gold would surely be reached. However, I wanted to satisfy myself. We placed some broken pieces into a rude crucible, and without any more im plements made the experiment. The pieces would break, but we found some grains of gold as big as fowling shots and others smaller. Noticing that the crucible pieces would always break, I ordered a brick to be made four fingers (dedos) thick, dried only in the sun, concave in the middle, placing in the hollow 2J of those powders. At the moment of melting, the brick cracked; we took it out of the fire and after cooling it, we observed that in the fissure of the brick there was gold, and we found a small piece that weighed 17 reales gold of 22£, almost 23, for 114 ounces of dust yields 17 reales. What would not a pound or an arroba (25 lbs.) yield! And this without any implement, or quick-silver, or knowledge of the thing. Eight samples of the smelting I forwarded to His Majesty in three boxes full of specimens of mines— some sixty and odd different specimens which were sent to His Majesty via Caracas together with various reports, and the chart of the Orinoco river and plan of a castle to be built in Guay ana for the protection of that country, should it be the Royal pleasure of His Majesty to forward them in the month of November, and the Marquis of San Phelipe and Santiago having sent them by a schooner to be for warded to the Court on a vessel which was about to sail for Cadiz, belong ing to the " Real Compania Guspuzcoana;" said vessel was wrecked upon some shoals and all her cargo lost without it having been possible to save 46 No. 21. anything. At the same time I sent a report to his majesty of my journey to Guayana, with the assistance I took with me, and full information re garding all those provinces, which I cannot make on this occasion as I have no time for it, having arrived at this city yesterday where I was obliged to detain this vessel to-day which proceeds to Caracas, in order to write these lines to Your Excellency and inform Your Excellency that I have already taken charge of the residence of my predecessor, Don Juan de la Tornerra y Soto, and that as soon as I have finished it I shall return to Guayana which absolutely needs my presence; otherwise we shall lose all that has been done; and nobody shall go to settle -there. On the first occasion that may occur I shall repeat the reports to His Majesty wThich were lost, with the charts that are ready and other three boxes of speci mens of new mines which were found afterwards. I assure Your Excel lency that I am loth to tell Your Excellency the number of them, fearful lest Your Excellency may doubt my veracity. Their number reaches two hundred at the very least. All the shores of the Orinoco are full towards the other side, but not one on this side. Everybody there claims that towards the interior there are many more, and the greater part of them have been reported to me by the Indians, which is the more to be wondered at, as they have never shown any inclination to report them to Spaniards on account of their abuses; nor have I wished to allow any one to work them. The one that has been dug the most is barely one foot and a half deep. The skipper is pressing me, so as to take advantage of the favorable wind. I must therefore close, praying Your Excellency to see to it that the necessary supplies are sent me, as also a reinforcement of at least one hundred men; or that Your Excellency will authorize me to raise two companies of fifty men each; send me the blank commissions, for I shall find people to raise them at their cost, uniformed and armed — men inured to this climate and food, which is not the case with those coming from Europe, and this is the reason why the greater part die. I need families to people these countries, and missionaries, especially fathers of the Com pany; arms, powder, cannon balls, and artillery, though they be of four or six, for the present they will serve for redoubts, which is all we can build now, as it is a year since we have been looking all in vain for stones where with to make lime; they are only to be found in the Island of Trinidad. I remain with all obsequiousness at the feet of your excellency, praying that the Divine Majesty may vouchsafe Your Excellency many years, which I desire and need for my protection. Cumana, March twenty-three of the year one thousand seven hundred and thirty-five. Your Excellency's most submissive and humble servant kisses your Excellency's hand. Don Carlos de Sucre. His Excellency, Don Jose Patino. 47 No- 22. Keport by Don Gregorio Espinosa, governor of Guiana, as to certain gold and silver mines in Guiana, 1743. [Printed from a certified copy of the original in the " Archivo General de Yndias " (Seville), Stand 56, Case 6, Bundle 21.] Note : This forms part of the second piece of " Several Documents taken from the records of the visit made to the province of Guayana by its governor, Don Gregorio Espinosa de los Monteros, sent in several pieces, with his letter dated September 30, 1743." Royal Cedula of June ninth, seveuteen hundred and forty. The King— Brigadier, Don Gregorio Espinosa de los Monteros, my Gov ernor and Captain of the Province of Cumana, Don Carlos Sucre, your predecessor in that Government, reported by letter of February twentieth, seventeen hundred and thirty-eight, that, in compliance with my disposi tions in my Cedula of November sixth, of seventeen hundred and thirty- six, referring to the failure of the arrival of the three boxes of ore which he informed me had been sent, sending in the meanwhile with letters dated March thirtieth and May seventeenth, seventeen hundred and thirty-five, samples of the assay made, that he should send other samples particularly from the same mines from which those he sent were taken, together with the aforesaid letters; he sent two specimens, one of silver, the other of gold from reductions made in Guayana from ores of the mines found in that territory, stating that he had information from the natives that there ex isted a large quantity of them further inland. These were surface ores and no work had been done nor diggings made over two feet deep. He added that there were no experts in said lands for the reduction of metals, and that the maintenance of Guayana was impossible owing to the lack of residents; he also sent different specimens of earth and ores dis covered to be reduced in this Court. Said letter having been submitted to my Council for the Indies, together with the samples of reductions of gold and silver, and the aforesaid earth and ores from the discovered mines, forwarded by Don Carlos de Sucre, I was pleased to order them to be sent to the Chief Assayer of my Mint in this Court, who, after examination and having made the necessary reductions and assays, reported to me that all the specimens sent by the aforesaid Governor were out-croppings im bedded in a sandy clay and were accompanied by a kind of talc very thin and flaky, and so light that it floated upon being washed. That some iron was present, for which reason the specimens were somewhat dry and hard to reduce, notwithstanding having been washed and submitted to the quicksilver treatment, many experiments and treatments being necessary to discover their fineness, and that, lastly, they were submitted to the lead treatment in the cupel, which gave better results, as a larger quantity of metal was extracted by this means than by any other; that for the pres ent it was sufficient to have found gold and silver, as these being super ficial ore, and upon boring deeper and the earth being more moist, they 48No. 22. might give better results, yielding their metal more abundantly; that most of the mines could not be estimated by their surface product, and that this was the case with the samples of gold and silver sent by the aforesaid Sucre, except those from Pararayma, which, upon treatment by lead in cupel, yielded from one mark of earth two and a half ounces of fine silver; that is five ounces of silver per pound of earth and five hundred ounces per hundred weight; besides, each mark of the aforesaid silver contained twenty-four grains of fine gold, which was the minimum that said earth could yield, as did the little silver lump (pifia) from the Cabauro mine, submitted to the quicksilver treatment; that he did not send the gold one, as the assay had been lost, but that it corresponded to twelve grains by mark, the fineness being twenty-one carats, which was quite common in those countries where gold ore was found; that among these, many would be rich and abundant in this metal, and upon their discovery and develop ment their yield would increase daily, as was the case in terra firma; that on this account the report of the aforesaid Governor was of no mean im portance, the promise for the future being large, particularly since the gold contained in the above mentioned mines, according to the result of the assays he sent, although said assays were made without any art, was of such good quality that its fineness was more than twenty carats, and that, perhaps, there might be others of a higher number of carats and of a more abundant yield on account of the richness of the veins, the facili ties and low cost of its development, which would yield a larger benefit to miners, as the gold mines being ordinarily of superficial character, their only expense would be the cost of excavation, extraction of the ore, its crushing and washing, the gold remaining in small grains. The mud or slime, which is the most useful part of the earth, would remain with the smaller particles of gold, which are allowed to settle, and then gathered and passed through very coarse sieves, submitting them to the quicksilver process as is ordinarily practiced. For this operation, intelligent and ex perienced men are needed both to work and to teach others, otherwise it would be a useless loss of time. To this end, well posted men from Terra Firma and other adjacent countries where mines are found, could be sent there. The place could be well supplied with quicksilver for the treatment of the metals, and of lead, clay and cupels for the smelting and refining processes; that it was also indispensable to furnish tools and other imple ments for the excavations and treatment of the metal, such as spades, crowbars, pickaxes, hammers, wedges, sieves and such, which would be ordered at the expense of those having an interest in the mines, should I consent to honor them with some concessions. Many would be encouraged and would settle in those lands to undertake the working and development of the mines; thus my Royal Treasury, without incurring in any expense, would, in time, derive the benefits already attained in other mining settle ments of America. My aforesaid Council for the Indies having become acquainted with the aforesaid report of the Chief Assayer, as stated by 49 No. 22. my Attorney, has deemed it expedient to inform you of the foregoing, so that upon your arrival at Cumana you should proceed to inspect the mines which Don Carlos Sucre has been informed exist in Guayana, and find out what the possibilities are to put in practice the recommendations of the Chief Assayer; to this end I order you to communicate with the Viceroy of Santa Fe, who has been informed on this matter, so that you report to him, such being my pleasure. Done at Aranjuez, June ninth, seventeen hundred and forty. I, the King. By order of Our Lord the King. Fernando Trivifio. Castle of Sn. Francisco de Asis de la Guayana, February thirteenth, seventeen hundred and forty -three. Note : Here follows the order of the Governor, Don Gregorio de Espinosa, commanding that the Royal Cedula be complied with and the orders issued for the inspection of these mines in the Province of Guayana at the places called Pararaima, Cabauro and the town of Cupapuy. Inspection op the Two Mines at Cupapuy. Thereupon his Lordship, the aforesaid Governor and Captain -General, in company with the Most Reverend Father Prefect of the Capuchins, the Commander of this Province Don Francisco Montanez de la Cueva, and other experts, proceeded to inspect the two mines reported to exist in the vicinity of this town, which was done in my presence as a notary, and, having found that they existed, he asked and requested the afore said Reverend Father Prefect to have extracted and treated by washing and by baking, in the manner that it had been done by him, for their examination, one flask of the material from each mine, for the best service of the King, and in order to comply with the RoyalOrders which his Lordship has received. Said Rev. Father Prefect accepted this commis sion, promising his Lordship to fulfil it, and appends his signature to which I hereby attest. Espinosa, Fray Agustin de Olot, Prefect, Diego Antonio de Alcala, Notary Royal and Public. Inspection op the Mines op Pararaima and Cabauro. In the town of Santa Barbara de Pararaima, on the twenty-fourth day of February, seventeen hundred and forty-three, where his Lordship has arrived on this visit, said town belonging to the Conversions of the Rev. Catalonian Capuchin Fathers, the visit being made in accordance with the provisions of tbe Royal Order, dated at Aranjuez on the ninth of June of seventeen hundred and forty, and orders issued for the fulfilment thereof in the City of Santo Thome de la Guayana on the fourteenth day of February of this current year, his Lordship caused a meeting of experts to be held and obtained information in reference to the existence and location of the 30No. 22. two mines of Cabauro (which is a running spring in the vicinity of this town) and of the Pararaima Mine, and in company with those persons who had given assurance of their existence and of the Rev. Father Joseph de Sarrael, Capuchin Missionary Monk, under whose charge this town is placed, his Lordship proceeded with me, the undersigned notary, to make the inspection and ocular verification of said mines, which, having been done, and having found them at only a. short distance from said town, he requested and asked the Rev. Father, that, with the aid of the con verted Indians, he should refine two flasks of the material produced by said mines, separating the contents of each for the benefit of the Royal Service. Said Rev. Father promised to effect it and signed with his Lord ship, to which I hereby attest: Espinosa, Fray Joseph de Sarrael, Missionary, Diego Antonio de Aloala, Notary Royal and Public. His Lordship, the Governor and Captain-General of these Provinces, in view of the foregoing orders, stated that, as to the four mines mentioned therein, one flask had been filled from the material produced by each, and that as two others were discovered, one on the road from the town of Pararaima, in the place where they take water in the burnt city, which place is still called Usupamo, said mine being reported by Joseph Hernan dez, and another in the vicinity of the town of Caroni reported by the Very Rev. Father Benito de Moya, Capuchin Monk, the Captain and other Indians of said town, two other flasks had been filled with materials thereof, the six flasks stating on their label the places where the mines are found and the materials therein contained, and that Don Pedro Lopez de Brito is about to leave for the City of Santa Fe, commissioned and empowered to collect the funds of the two allotments due to the Company in charge of the Castle of Sn Francisco de Asis in this province; therefore, he (the Gov ernor) did order and command that the Lieutenant of the Royal Officers pay, from the Royal Treasury in his charge, the expenses necessary to for ward the materials from the aforesaid mines, and that he should suspend and stop the expenses of the small boxes that by order of the fourteenth of February last he was directed to pay, for the same purpose, as there is no further necessity for them, and that said flasks be delivered to the afore said collector of the funds, taking care that the labels upon each be plainly written, stating from what mine their contents are taken, the Notary here present to take the receipt therefor according to the foregoing; that said flasks be taken by him (the collector) to the City of Santa Fe de Bogota and be delivered to His Excellency the Viceroy of the New Kingdom of Granada; and in order to enable him to report to His Excellency for his consultation, as provided by His Majesty's Royal Cedula, the Notary here present shall draw up an attested copy of said acts and of the Royal Cedula which caused them to be made, which acts, together with the afore- 51 No. 22. said Royal Cedulaand consultation made with His Excellency the Viceroy, he shall file with the documents relative to the visit made by His Lordship to this Province, sending the originals to His Majesty. % And by these presents it was thus ordered and signed in this city of Santo Thome de la Guayana on the thirteenth day of March of the year seventeen hundred and forty-three.— Drawn up on common paper, the stamped paper of the fourth class being exhausted, as I hereby witness. Espinosa. Before me, Diego Antonio de Alcala, Notary Royal and Public. No. 23. Report Of Don Eugenio de Albarado, dated Divina Pastora, April 20, 1755, and entitled "Religious and Economical Life of the Fathers. Earnings of the Community of Missions, as also private earnings of the Fathers, In dians and other dependents thereof." [Printed from translation of a certified copy of the original in the " Archivo General de Simancas," Secretaria de Estado, bundle 7390, folio 12.] Religious Life of the Fathers. Owing to the impossibility of observing the canonical hours in commu nity with the accompanying Choir, Matins, Disciplines and other require ments prescribed by the admirable law of the Master St. Francis, they are exempt from many of these observances by Pope Leo X. in order that they may adapt themselves to the conditions of the country, as also by Adrian VI. in the Bull called Omnimoda; so that in their Prelate they have an Apostolic Subdelegate, and they perform the Divine office at such hours as may prove more convenient to them. The call for Ave Maria is rung at dawn, when they recite the Litany of the Virgin, pray a little, and say mass. Shortly after, they call for prayers, gathering in the church all the children, maidens and married women who have borne their first child, and recite together the Pater noster, Ave Maria, Credo, Commandments, and Articles^ of Faith in Spanish, with the assistance of the Missionary Father or his coadjutor, should he have any. They spend the day in man ual occupations, or in reading books, according to their individual inclina tion; dine between eleven and twelve, and sleep their siesta. In the evening the call to prayers is again made, when the same persons meet and repeat the same orisons, in the presence of the Father. In some towns, both in the morning and evening services, prayers are said in the vernacular Pariagoto, in order that the congregation may make more rapid progress in the knowledge of the . mysteries of our Holy Catholic Faith. This duty performed, they employ the evening in whatever may suit them best, attending to the material interests of the mission and watching over the Indian women who with entire freedom have attained true religion. At sunset they repair to their house, sup before nine 52 No. 23. o'clock, toll the bell for evening prayers, and before retiring for the night, take a turn around the town to see that their Indians are gathered peacefully, and |hen go to bed until the next morning. As they do not form a community, the penance, fasting and other mor tifications pertaining to their religious character, remain in the spirit of each, for though they may constantly eat flesh, and the crack of the scourge be not heard, they can in the eye of God attain no less merit within their innermost heart. Their dress is fashioned after that worn in Europe; but as they live in a warm country, and enjoy the privilege of the aforesaid Bull, some of them are clad in light cloth, others in woollen stuff and many in unbleached linen, for which reason there is no uni formity in the color of their attire, but all grow the same beard. Under the same papal rescript they wear underclothing called by them enjugadores (sweaters), made of crea or striped linen, which they have in more or less quantity, according to the taste and means of each individual. They go about in bare legs, and on their feet wear slippers instead of san dals. This foot covering is not a novelty in the Indies, it being worn by the most observant monks. When obliged to travel from town to town, they go on horseback from sheer necessity, for the country being uninhabited, mountainous, full of wild beasts, and obstructed by many rivers and marshes, it would be impossible otherwise. On these occasions they take their mono with them on the horse, put on their buskin, spurs, pistols and sabre wherewith to protect their Breviary. As regards the possession of worldly goods, a theologian of the Mis sionary Fathers explained to me that there was in America a medium between having and not having, this being the usufruct of property. Such is the case with the holders of hereditaments, entailed estates or trusts, but as they differ in the order of succession which should remain in the family, I take it that this missionary usufruct is in the nature of military commanderies, where the property reverts to the guild upon the death of the commander of the order. I suppose that this usufruct of the Missionary Fathers has its restriction, for it passes into the hands of a depositary, who is the Proctor of the Community of Missions, upon whom the latter has authority to draw on account of its property, as explained in the chapter devoted to their economical life. I suppose, also, that this usufruct is employed for the benefit of the Church and of the Indians in the locality where it is acquired, so as to comply with the duties of Religion, and at the same time shield them selves against the charge of holding worldly possessions. In the matter of continence they are exemplary in the highest degree, for to judge from what is reported in America of other missionaries and priests, they differ from all, and there is not a public in stance of their having relaxed their vow of chastity. At the same time they are zealous in the spiritual care of the Indians, whom they educate with their example, and see to it that the Sacraments are administered to them, 53 No. 23. in as far as their moral and intellectual advancement may warrant; and above all, that they do not neglect their daily prayers and other devotional exercises which the natives are apt to repeat mechanically rather than from conviction. They are equally zealous in soliciting each a town for himself to reside in and preside over. But as there are more friars than towns, many of the new arrivals are obliged to serve under those who came over first, wherefore they are constantly urging the Prelate to allow them to go into the interior of the country with the view to founding a town and have the collation of the benefice attached thereto. Out of the number of Fathers the Prelate selects one to assume spiritual charge of the town of Guayana and troops quartered there; he performs the duties of Curate of the former and Chaplain of the latter, and has the collation of the benefice by virtue of his presentation, without thereby be ing independent of his Prelate, for he is still considered a Missionary, and the town an appanage of the Missions of the Province. For the election of a Superior they rigidly observe the laws governing their Community in the Province. Thus, at about the end of every three years they are called together at the Mission of Suay, where, after having implored the assistance of the Holy Ghost, they elect canonically, by unanimous votes, the individual designated as Prefect, to whom they pledge their obedience and the observances of the other formalities of their institute. This duty performed, they withdraw to the town of their resi dence to resume the exercises whereof an account has been given above. Economical Life of the Fathers. It is a well-known fact that up to the year seventeen hundred and twenty-four, Catalonian Capuchin Missionary Fathers who had come be fore were unable to maintain themselves in the Province of Guayana, owing to the great poverty of the country. The activity displayed, and measures taken by, the Reverend Fathers Fray Thomas de Santa Engracia, Fray Benito de Moya, Prefect Fray Augustin de Olot, Fray Bruno de Bar celona and two others who are dead (only Fray Benito de Moya and Fray Augustin de Olot being now alive), succeeded in overcoming the difficulty. They started a cattle farm, and the maintenance of human life once assured, went on with their work of converting souls. It was ordained that all the fathers should live upon the meat of the Mission, in towns that were successively founded, and as they were few at the time, the source of sustenance kept increasing every day. According as the Pariagoto Indians, who inhabited the ramifications of the Imataka Mountains (one section of which, starting from Guayana, runs from north to south and the other from west to east), began to con gregate in towns, to each of these was assigned a Friar with the designa tion of President, who in those days was the founder himself. Meat was the 54 No. 23. only food available, and this not being enough for man's nourishment, they decided that inasmuch as the Indians raised yuca for their own consump tion, they should at the same time raise a certain quantity especially destined for the Father, the latter thus supplying themselves with bread and meat. The crop of yuca was followed in course of time, by those of rice, plan tain, and sugar-cane, and out of the cattle farm and plantations arose the earnings and advantages mentioned elsewhere. With the access of workingmen, coming from the Province of Barce lona, the towns began to grow, as shown by document No. 3; and being compelled to devise further means of subsistence, as the Royal Treasury failed to make good the assignments of the King in behalf of religious or ders, and desirous, moreover, of adapting themselves in some measure to the institutions of their community, they decided to appoint a syndic and create a common fund to be managed by one of the Fathers in the capa city of procurator, as is done in Spain by the regiments of the army with the fund called arbitrios. To this common fund go whatever is collected from the assignments and all the proceeds of the industries whereof men tion is made elsewhere. The Father procurator, with the approval of the Superior, has charge of the purchase and supply, by himself or through the syndic, of all the necessaries not produced by the Missions, for the sustenance of the Fathers, such as habits, underclothing, hats, cocoa, oats, flour for the sacramental wafers, wine for the Mass, salt and other items detailed under the head of expenses. The Father procurator like wise purchases for account of the Community, axes, knives, cutlasses, nankin, and other articles wherewith the Indians are paid for the days they have worked on the plantations for the benefit of the community, as shown further on. The surplus of this revenue remains, wholly or in part, in the hands of the syndic who resides in the town of Guayana. The afore said expenses having been made in due time, the goods are stored in the mission of Suay, where the procurator resides, and there they are distributed in equal parts, among the Fathers, who come for their shares from their respective residences. This fund has also another source of revenue, namely, the private prop erty of each of the brethren, who, with the consent of his superior, can dispose, for his own benefit, of the amount belonging to him, applying for same to the Procurator or Syndic, who is the depositary, so to speak, of this castrensian property. These two species of revenue are explained in the chapters relating to earnings; aud speaking in a worldly sense, there can be no doubt that this economical institution has been admirable and most beneficial to the King's subjects, inasmuch as the Province of Guayana owes to its agency the food supply whereof it lacked formerly; so much so, indeed, that the troops and residents receive from the Missions hot only bread and meat, but -also all the other necessaries of life. . Each Father, in the- mission -where he. acts as President or coadjutor, 55 No. 23. constitutes himself the guardian of his fold, as did the Commanders of Peru and New Spain with the towns committed to their protection. His economic zeal very ofteu compels him to don his hood for the purpose of defending his neighbors from injury. This demands an explanation. All the residents of the town of Guayana, from the Commandant down to the last free negro or mulatto, have no other peons to build their houses, till their grounds, or row their boats, than the Indians, whom tbey apply for at the Missions, for a limited time, and to whom they must pay for their work in money or its equivalent in goods, according to the tariff established by the Governor Don Carlos de Sucre. In the latter form of settlement, mistakes are apt to be made, or injustice done, and to avoid these, the Missions have instructed the Indians to show the Father Presi dent what they briug in compensation for their work; and if the money falls short, or the merchandise is not worth it, redress is demanded, either within or outside the Church. It is, moreover, their policy, and in the nature of an act of charity, to take charge of the money that comes into the hands of the Indians, and give them its equivalent in exchange; for the Indian, in fact, does not know how to appreciate money, having a preference for nankin, gaudy ornaments for girdles, axes and cutlasses for tilling their grounds. Did the Father omit to do this, the Indians would be left without money when they came to the towns, as the people of Guayana continually repair thither to barter said goods for casave, plantains, chickens and spun cotton. Under these principles of economy, they give the most admirable inter pretation of the law, by transforming into advantage for the Indians of their town, that pay which, according to tariff, they earned working in the plantations of the community and other industries of the P. (sic) for, from the proceeds of the traffic, they separate the fruits of the Indians' labor, which they invest in nankins, ornaments and other implements, such as axes and cutlasses, to be distributed at the end of the year among the people of the town. In order to insure due subordination and civil habits among the indi viduals of the towns, they elect out of the smartest and most sensible of the Indians a certain number of officers and ministers of justice, consisting of captains, lieutenants, ensign?, sergeants, alcaldes, attorneys and con stables, al! wearing their respective insignia, whom the Indians obey and are governed by while engaged in all the drudgeries of the town, such as carrying water, sweeping the church and the Father's house, making out the list of those who are to go to work as peons or rowers, as also of laborers for the plantations, and other personal duties to which they must attend. Thus the Father has but to give his orders to these persons who are obeyed and believed in more than the Gospel of the day. Although the manner of making excursions into the forests for the care and conversion of the infidel souls was in accordance with the articles governing the religious mode of life of the Fathers, I include it in this 56No. 23. account; at least it will appear as a necessary digression, because, in truth, government is more necessary than the gospel, for the savages respect more the gun than the Holy Christ, and they are as ignorant of the Divine word as Europeans are of their vernacular. Before, then, entering the forests, they prepare their stores of meat, salt beef, cassave and other things to subsist with their suite in those days of pilgrimage as well as some girdles of nankin and calico, hatchets, knives and cutlasses to present to the Indians, and beads for their wives. They select from the community of the Missions two or three trustworthy Indians of the tribe that inhabit the locality which they goto visit, and these serve as interpreters and witnesses of the good treatment given to the Indians who establish themselves in Missions. They also take one or two soldiers from the garrison of Guayana, who served as guard in the Missions and are well informed as to the road, and provided with swords and fire-arms. They then enter into the places where the Indian families are gathered in huts (according to their manner of living), and with these presents and kind words they endeavor to win them over and thus gain their good will. Some gather more fruit than others, but the first excur sion serves only as a preliminary, and it is necessary to repeat the journey several times according to the character of the tribe, whether more or less barbarous. In view of the great increase in the herd of cattle which since the year seventeen hundred and twenty-five were at the Mission of Suay, it was decided in seventeen hundred and thirty-four to remove them to the present farm, called the "Divina Pastora" (Divine Shepherdess). This town, which is one of those belonging to the Mission, consists of a sufficient number of cowherds, who with their wives and household, make a popu lation of forty souls. The Father President and his coadjutor control the whole machinery, and they have an overseer (not an Indian) with his un derling, who are directly in charge of, and expected to watch over, all the operations of the farm. The captain, lieutenant and other individuals representing the law, are entrusted with the mission of correcting and punishing the delinquencies of the Indians (that is to say, the cowherds) and of the guarichas, their women, wherewith are attained all the ends of a good administration. These cowherds, whose time is wholly taken up in looking after the cattle, are unable to attend to their casave plantations. or to hunt any fish for their maintenance. Consequently the Fathers have rightly considered it their duty to supply them with the necessaries of life. At the beat of a drum they gather to receive their ration of meat. As for the casave, when the proper time comes for preparing the ground, a work done exclusively by the men, the necessary hands are brought over from the other missions and paid according to local rates. This done, the women of the cowherds take charge of the sowing and other field work. These cowherds are likewise supplied by the Fathers with all other needful articles, such as girdles, knives and cutlasses, which they could 57 No. 23. have acquired, as do the other Indians, if they worked for themselves all the year round. The Fathers, realizing the importance of a good management, and mindful of the great need in which they were of acquiring horses and mules, both for the use of the cowherds and that of the brethren them selves—an item which figured largely in the annual expenses-conceived and carried out the project of another grazing farm, five leagues distant from the "Divina Pastora," and to which they gave the name of the 'Yeguera." This they stocked with horses and she- asses, whereby the costly inconveniences were remedied, and soon they had mules for the droves, horses for the cowherds and brethren, besides a profitable industry. as is explained in the proper place. This breeding farm is tended by an overseer, his assistant, and six cowherds, and worked upon the same plan as the cattle farm, with the difference that no friars reside at the place, for it is considered a dependence, and thus maintained and managed bv the Father. Shortly after the establishment of this source of revenue, they began to discuss others, according to their needs. One of the most profitable in America is rum, both on account of the bad habit that has been introduced of " taking eleven o'clock " (as it is called) and because it is applied as a friction for bruises. Occasionally they give a little to the Indians whom they send on an errand. No less valuable is sugar, which is used in chocolate, lemonade, &c. ; and as rum and molasses are the products of cane, they put up a mill in the territory, said mill being called by them the Cacagual, with extensive plantations of cane and plantain, of which that soil is prolific. With this industry, the needs of the Fathers were supplied in the matter of rum and molasses (the latter being a substitute for sugar), and a corresponding economy resulted in the disbursements. This Cacagual mill is situated at an equal distance from Caroni, Suay and Maruca, and thither come the Fathers from all the Missions, for their rations of both articles. This estate is in charge of an overseer (not Indian), who with four negro slaves take care of it, while to the Father Procurator of the community, who resides in Suay, belongs the duty of supplying it with all the necessaries, such as agricultural implements, apparatus for distil ling rum and pans for boiling cane juice; at the same time providing the workmen with meat and clothing. For spiritual matters, which are con fined to a holiday Mass and the annual confession, the estate is attached to the Mission of Maruca, the road to it being the best, and, in my opinion, the shortest. The Fathers having duly considered that the principal cattle farm, "Divina Pastora," was badly situated for the Missions, and that the con tinual transportation of the necessary meat was too expensive, concluded to establish small farms in Caroni, Suay, Altagracia, Capapui and Miamo, which could be managed by the Indians themselves, and from where they and the nearest towns in course of settlement could be supplied. This 58 No. 23. proved to be a great boon, for aside from the attending economy in ex penses and the saving of mules, on every slaughter day fresh meat could be eaten, and thenceforth there was no lack of milk for the Fathers. Industries for the Benefit of the Common Fund of the Fathers. If account be taken of the increase in the stock of cattle occurring within the period embraced between the year 1725, when the large farm was started with 300 breeding cows, and that of 1734, when it was finally established under the designation of the " Divina Pastora," a sim ple arithmetical operation will suffice to ascertain what must be the number of head in existence at the present year. One of the benefits and advantages derived from the principal cattle farm and its accessories, is the supply of all the fresh meat and jerked beef needed by the community of the Missions, not only for the Fathers, their servants, overseers and dependents, but also for the cowherds and their families, and any needy Indian who applies for it. Likewise profit able is the supplying of meat at the rate of six pesos per head to two- thirds of the people composing the town of Guayana, including the troops that garrison the castles: and at the rate of five, for the main tenance of journeymen, whenever there is any work going on for account of His Majesty. Though the latter is not continuous, the former brings in a goodly quantity of reals, paid out of the money of the situado (assignment) coming from Santa Fe every year. Add to this the profit derived from the exportation of large and small cattle to Trinidad, or sold to the first buyer that comes along, at double the price ruling in the country. With one thing and the other, the common fund or aggregation of gains, begins to increase. Then there is the profit accruing from the sale of cheese, soap, tallow, butter and hides, which, after deducting the portion destined for the com mon consumption of the Fathers, the remainder is disposed of at sixteen reals per arroba, for hides, and eight, for cheese; though in fact, the greater part of these products, being consumed by the Fathers themselves, only a small quantity of cheese, tallow and hides is left over for the mar ket. Indeed there are so many towns now, with a sufficient number of Fathers, that all the other commodities are needed for their sustenance, especially so the hides which are used for making halters, thongs for tying packs, trunks and other things. The same products supplied by the prin cipal live stock farm are turned out by the smaller ones, wherewith some Missions assist one another, the remnant going to the common fund. The " Yegliera " farm which to-day has a stock of 300 brood mares with the corresponding proportion of stallions, jacks and garanes (sic) affords the advantage of supplying each Father with a horse, while there is always available a certain number for -the common use of the. cowherds, 59 No. 23. and a drove of fifty pack-mules, constantly engaged in the traffic between the Province and town of Guayana; with the further profit derived from the sale of these animals at fifty pesos apiece, outside of the province, whenever a chance is offered; for I learn that, although this trade is not continuous, it nevertheless yields many pesos, taking one year with an other. Then again there is the profit of one peso a head, charged for either mule or horse that is let out among the Missions to cany to Guayana whatever the neighbors purchase from, or barter with, the Indians of the towns, such as casave, plantains, and other products whereof they supply themselves. Neither the Fathers nor the Indians attached to the Mis sions are exempt from this contribution, for whenever they send out prod ucts of their own (as explained elsewhere) they must pay the same peso for the hire of the horse or mule employed therefor. So then, if in the course of a year there should be levied the corresponding tax upon the private property of the Fathers, Indians or other individuals belonging to the Missions, say upon 500 loads of casave, it will be so many pesos to the credit of the common fund. The two sugar-mills {cacagual) turn out for the Fathers all the molasses and rum consumed in the Missions, as also the other things mentioned under the head of Economical Life. With these commodities a lucrative trade could be carried on by selling the rum in Guayana, where there is a great consumption of it; but I do not know, nor have I been able to find out, whether this is done. It is certain, however, that they derive no profit therefrom outside of the Missions; for the Commandants of Guayana take good care that it be sold only at the estanco (store for selling forestalled goods), which has been placed under the head of a third person, and is kept by them in constant supply of foreign rum or brandy. The plantations of the community, described under " Economical Life," supply the Fathers with all the bread they need for themselves, their ser vants, overseers and other dependents, the surplus being sold for the benefit of the community and the proceeds thereof handed over to the Father Procurator, as has been said. The price of this yuca bread is six reals per arroba (25 lbs.) and the surplus from the plantations of the Fathers in all the towns, wheu taken together, averages a yearly profit for the com munity of a sum equivalent to 150 loads of casave, which, if sold in the Missions, are worth two pesos each, and if in Guayana, three, on account of the transportation, which costs eight reals, as stated in the chapter re lating to the " Yegtiera," Nor does that which is sold in the towns fail to yield its corresponding profit at the rate of three pesos, since the purchaser pays the carriage, if he has no horse or mule of his own. Into the common fund go likewise the proceeds of the salary and per quisites of the Parish of Guayana, which is served by one of the Fathers, in the manner already set forth, who, in accordance with the economical laws of the order, is supplied by the community with all the necessaries 60 No. 23. apportioned among the rest of the Fathers. His salary as Chaplain, is the same as that paid to a private, namely, one hundred and ten pesos a year, but in hard money, as it comes out of the assignment sent from Santa Fe for the troops. The perquisites might exceed two hundred pesos, but as the country is poor, and the people needy, I think that barely one half is collected, the balance standing as uncollectable debts. Industries for the Private Benefit of the Fathers. Aside from the fee paid for each Mass, which in this Province is four reals, the private earnings of the Fathers are limited to rice, indian corn, tobacco, poultry and some casave. After supplying their larder with the two first for the consumption of the year, the surplus is marketed with the rest for their private benefit, either by themselves in the Missions, or through the Procurator or Syndic, this being the property whereof they dispose for their own benefit, in the manner of that belonging to a camp, as mentioned in connection with the second source of income correspond ing to the common fund, under the head of " Economical Life." The price of seed-rice is three pesos per fanega (55.34 litres) and of maize or Indian corn, eight reals. No doubt these grains could be made to yield a greater profit by planting them; but the Fathers are contented with little, especially in the Missions inland, and only those of Suay, Maruca and Caroni, export corn to any extent. Tobacco they consume themselves, and as for poultry, they use the eggs, and one or two fowls, in case of sick ness, making some little profit by selling a few chickens and hens at two reals apiece, current money, to people coming for them from Guayana or other towns. Some of the Fathers residing inland, I reckon, do not neglect to get the Indians to extract the precious oils of carapa and currucai, which they pay for with mankin, or other objects held by them in high esteem. These are afterwards sold at six and eight reals per bottle, and fetch considerable more if taken out of the Province. In the pursuit of this industry they are equally indolent, and there is no doubt that much could be made of it, as it is in great demand, especially by foreigners. Formerly, but not so much now, some of the missionaries reaped no little profit out of the traffic in hammocks, carried on with the Carib nation at the inlets of Paz, and which they used to make before they burned the towns in 1751. These hammocks were sold, and are still sold (though very rarely), at seven pesos, both inside and outside of the Missions. 61 No. 23. Industries for the Benefit of the Indians and Persons under the Protection of the Missions. Besides the soldiers kept on duty as guards at the different Missions, there are scattered among them quite a number of Spaniards from the Province of Cataloma, some of whom are deserters from ships, and others have come in search of gain. They get enough food to sustain life from the hands of the Fathers, who willingly give it for the sake of their company. They grow tobacco, rice and corn; barter for beads the spun cotton of the Indians, and raise chickens; all which they regularly sell to those who come from the town of Guayana for the purpose of buying them. These men, with the permission of the Father President, graze their colts and mules in the pastures of the community, and then sell them when occasion offers either in or outside the Province, by which means they manage to scrape together a few pesos. The Indians of both sexes who live in the towns not belonging to the cattle farm, carry on a small traffic wherewith they supply themselves with girdles, annatto and beads. They grow on their plantations some casave and corn, but being so gluttonous and improvident, most of it is eaten and drunk in chicha, and what little has been spared this fate, they sell to the whites who come from Guayana to trade with them. They also raise some chickens on their premises, and these are so few, that should they sell four, they are left without any. In some towns they make ropes and cords, adapted to various uses, with the fibres of Curaguate, a species of agave superior to the hemp of Spain, and as fine as flax. There is another kind called Cuquida, that has the same applications, but is not so fine. The Indians twist both, and sell them when they have a chance; but in most instances they must be or dered, and are charged for at from two to three reals each. There being plenty of horse-hair available at the Mission of the Hato (live stock farm), the Indians weave it into a species of rope, which is highly valued as halters for horses. With this and what is left them of their crop, they trade with the whites whenever an opportunity is afforded them. Such, however, is the characteristic laziness of this tribe, that all the above articles come very dear, for they do not make them except when ordered, and even then after considerable trouble. The Indians of Suay, Maruca, Caroni and some from other Missions, carry on a traffic in turtle-oil, for which they go to the Orinoco during the full moon of March. They return with an abundant supply of the stuff which is disposed of at four reals per bottle. The people living under the protection of the Missions are also in the habit of trading with the article and even some of the Fathers occasionally get it from the Indians, by pur chase or barter, at the time of the yield, and when the season is over, hold it at eight reals per bottle. 62 No. 23. Expenses Defrayed by the Common Fund of the Fathers. Owing to the defaults in the payment of the Royal assignment of one hundred and fifty pesos due the Fathers in the .Province of Caracas, for each member, all the expenses of this community, now numbering twenty- two individuals, are paid out of the common earnings enumerated above. The most essential requirement for their maintenance, distributed in equal shares among all the Fathers, as described under " Economical Life," in volve considerable expenditure. They must be purchased at high prices and brought from distant places, while most of them have to be supplied clandestinely from foreigners. There being no commerce established between this province and others of the Royal domain, the Fathers are compelled to send an agent to the distant ports of Cumana or La Guaira for their vesture and other neces saries of life not produced in the Missions. Their cost is thereby increased and they must be paid for in ready money. In exchange for their mules and other products, they get from the foreigners flour for the sacramental wafer, some striped cloth, axes, cutlasses and beads, which come out cheaper than if purchased in Spain. As to wine for the mass or assistance to the sick, Castilian oil, ornaments for the church, cloth or serge for dresses, cocoa, and books, which are supplied in common, these must neces sarily come either from Europe or from the above-mentioned ports of America, where such commodities are always more or less dear, while the Missions cannot do without them. No less costly to the community, though an indispensable item, is the transportation of salt, especially at the missions, for by reason of the great quantity of meat that is salted there, the consumption thereof is enormous. They have to go for it to the salt pits of Araya, or to Trinidad in the Windward, which is the nearest point; though generally they supply themselves in Guayana. This expenditure does not fall short of 250 fanegas per year, on an average, which at the cost of three pesos, amounts to $750. Cocoa is never worth less than sixteen pesos per load in Guayana, and for their comsumption the Fathers need twenty loads, costing $320, and so with the other articles. In addition to what is allotted from the common fund, the Fathers have to purchase for their private account the same commodities, either because the share assigned them is not sufficient, or because they like to see more ornaments on their altars. In this man ner they spend what was acquired by their masses or private earnings, and draw for it, as a thing of their own, upon the Procurator or Syndic, against tbe second source of income of the common fund, spoken of iu " Economic Life." Thus, had they not accumulated gains for their mainte nance, they would not have been able to subsist from want of the neces saries of life, nor to help their churches, as was the case before the coming of said Fathers, in 1724. There is no doubt that the good management of these men, especially the late Fray Thomas de Santa Engracia, and the 83 No. 23. present Prefect, Fray Benito de Moya, has won many souls for Heaven, and to a certain extent fertilized the Province of Guayana. I shall not.in- quire whether their vows of eternal poverty have been legitimately sus pended by the ApostolicBulls, thus permitting the law of nature to prevail over that of God. But politically speaking, and having in mind their beautiful maxims of government, I find them deserving the renown of the most illustrious worthies, in the same manner as their religion in Catalonia has merited, among others, that of holy. Province of Guayana, Mission of the "Hato." of "Divina Pastora," April the twentieth, seventeen hundred and fifty-five. Don Eugenio de Albarado. No. 24. Letter from Don Jose de Iturriaga, to Fray Fidel de Santo, Prefect ot the Missions, dated Murucuri, January 29, 1756. [Printed from translation of a certified copy of the original in the •' Antiguo Archivo de Capuchinos de Catalufla," at Rome.] I presume that Sr. Don Joseph Solano will leave this place today in order to arrive by water to-morrow in Guiana. He is destined for the first sally and I so inform Your Reverence, so that Y. R. may consent to go to Guiana to confer with him in the matter of the particulars concerning the trip and in reference to the Mission. I would appreciate Y. R.'s acqui escence in this, and all your diligent activity so that this sally may take place at the earliest possible moment, as also the remaining sallies. I beg to offer again to Y. R. my obedience and pray to God to preserve Y. R. life for many years. Murucuri, Jan'y 29 175G— I beg to ask Y. R. to forward the enclosed and to request at once, for the journey one hundred Indians, forty or fifty of them knowing how to row. Kissing the hand of Four Paternity, Your most obedient servant— No- 25. Letter from Don Jose de Iturriaga, to Fray Benito de la Garriga, dated Ca bruta, April 11, 1758. [Printed from translation of a certified copy of the.original in the " Antiguo Archivo de Capuchinos dc Catalufia, at Rome.] His Lordship the Bishop is going on this occasion to his visit to Guayana, and is well informed of the jealous care of that Venerable Com munity as was displayed in the exercise of its mission. I improve 64No. 25. this occasion to remind Your Reverence of the promised trip of Father Narciso, now that he can undertake it with the greatest comfort in the felucca transporting His Lordship. I ask the Commander for one hun dred loads of cassave, and I shall thank your Reverence for its prompt re mittance to Guayana, should the Commander ask them from Your Rev erence. I have spoken with the Captain of Tapaquixi who is at present here, and he has expressed himself as if greatly offended by that sad event, and this question is settled with the reward he has demanded. Father Alexo has forgotten the promised canes and I would thank your Reverence to refresh his memory and ask him to send them to me at any time. Should there be any rice to spare, besides that needed until the crop, I would thank Your Reverence to have it sent to me. I renew my obedience to Your Reverence and pray God to preserve Your Reverence's life many years. No. 26. r Extract from a report by Captain Don Jose Solano, upon the contents of cer tain letters from Don Jose de Iturriaga, 1 758. [Printed from translation of a certified copy of the original in the " Archivo General de Yndias " (Seville), Stand 130, Case 4, Bundle 9, No. 3.] By way of the universal office of State have been forwarded to this of the Indies, with papers dated September 9th and October 31st, 1758, four letters which, from the town of Cabrute, writes Don Jose de Iturriaga, flag officer, attached to the boundary expedition in the Orinoco, the contents whereof are as follows: First Letter, dated June 12, 1757. States that Don Vincente Doz and Don Nicolas Guerrero, having re covered their health, were sent by him to inspect the Meta river up to the mouth of Sararc, aud also to report to him about the Missions of Barinas, in charge of the Dominican fathers of Santa Fe. He encloses in the let ter an instructive description of the observations made there regarding the depth of the river, and the condition of the Missions; also a chart of the river and the arms navigated by them, and Iturriaga adds that in order that the river may not remain bare on its margins, on the north side was added to it a work which he did formerly, and correct now with these observations, as shown by said chart. That afterwards they had wanted to undertake some works, to which Iturriaga objected, being fearful lest they might lose their already pre carious health, with the constant rains prevailing there; and notwithstand ing all were doing tolerably well, they were still quite susceptible to any change of weather. For this reason it has also been impossible to inspect 65 No. 26. other rivers whereof he was advised both by Don Eugenio ¦ Alvarado and Don Ignacio Milhau, who sent some bark called canella (cinnamon), their fruit and leaves; and he awaited an opportune time to go and inspect those trees and cure their bark as he understood those of the cinnamon tree were cured by the Dutch; and lastly, if this did not answer, he would make whatever other experiments he might deem suitable. The aforesaid description gives a copious account of the depth and conditions of the river Apure, whose principal mouth is distant three leagues from Cabruta; that at its greatest ebb tide he found to be three and a half fathoms deep and eighty varas wide, the same as the Guarico: and he adds the other rivers of which this one is formed, and the places surrounding same, towns, inhabitants, &c, with an account of the Dominican fathers, priests assisting them, who founded those Missions forty- three years ago. Note. — No antecedent is found in this private communication which might have led to this report of Iturriaga; and it probably was made in compliance with the instructions he mentions as having been given him by Don Joseph de Carvajal. Second Letter, dated June 16, 1757. In this letter he replies to one of the Chapters of secret instructions given him by Don Joseph de Carvajal, which mainly deals with the ques tion as to whether the Castle or stronghold of Araya should stand or be demolished: which subject, having been under discussion for a long time since, and there are various opinions thereon, is placed with a separate ex tract which follows this, regarding the necessity of examining the ante cedents, it being the opinion of Iturriaga in this report that it should be demolished, as it answers no useful purpose in its present condition. Third Letter, dated December 15, 1757. In this, writteu officially and not by request, he advises that having understood from the Capuchin Fathers of Guayana that the Dutch were building a new fort on the Maruca River, to the windward, and at a short distance from the " Boca de Navios " of the Orinoco, and convinced that the Commandant of Guayana would not of his own accord take any steps to discover the object thereof, he ordered that a barge be sent to inspect the condition of the works, size, artillery, &c. ,.„._..- The Governor of Guayana, Don Juan Valdes, replied thereto, in a letter dated the second of said month, that there was no such fortification at the place .eported to him, nor at others near by, and that the only thing 66 No. 26. that had occurred was that the Dutch of the Colony of Essequibo were trying to change the Guard which under the name of Post they maintain at said Channel of Moroca, bringing it down to the mouth which empties into the sea and is six leagues distant, having for that purpose made many clearings for planting at that place and the houses required for the accom modation of those Aruaca Indians and Hollanders; which occurrence he does not know for a certainty to whom it is due, and he had only heard say that its object is to prevent the negro slaves of the Company and resi dents of that Colony from passing over without hindrance into these Dominions. Iturriaga understands from this report that the intention is to establish some sugar plantations, adding to their owners and slaves a certain num ber of Aruaca Indians, upon whom they rely the most, in order to prevent the passage of deserters, soldiers and slaves, Indians and negroes at that place, and that probably to protect these plantations against any uprising of slaves on either side, they had built some small fort with two or three cannon, served by four or six men. In connection therewith, he says that some fourteen years ago he saw a Protection or Patent executed in Latin by the Governor of Essequibo in be half of a Carab Captain, who lived within the Orinoco river; that this moved him to inquire upon what ground the Governor of Essequibo granted such Protection, and he ascertained that the States- General in their Pat ents to the Governors of Essequibo, add the title of Governors of Orinoco; and that it is a matter of fact that these Governors call themselves of Essequibo and the Orinoco in the licenses issued by them. That being permitted to-day in Moruca, they will some other day pass into Barinas, and thereafter come to the Aguire river, whose mouth is in the Orinoco itself, a few leagues distant from the sea; that up this river the neighborhood of the Palmar Mission is reached, and by this means they will attain free communication with the other missions inland, as they had already done through the indifference of Father Friar Bruno of Barcelona; albeit for this reason he was removed therefrom by his Prefect and reduced to serve as a companion at another Mission, without any voice, active or passive, in their Chapters. He adds that he does not quite approve the title of Governors of Esse quibo and of Orinoco, but deems needful for their benefit the request that they make by writing, to the Commandant of Guayana, that their Aroacas who come to fish for turtles be allowed to pass higher up. The text of this letter is mainly confined to this subject. Fourth Letter, dated April 19, 1758. [This] takes up the subject of the previous one, and in response to fresh inquiries addressed by Iturriaga to the Governor of Guiana, the latter 67 No. 26. informs him that the change of the Guard maintained by the Hollanders of the Colony of Essequibo, as above related, had not taken place, and they had only built a house fifteen varas long, at the mouth opening into the sea, which they say is intended for the use of people traveling to said Colony during the interruptions caused by the periodical flowing and ebbing of the river, and that consequently said guard is kept without any increase of men or artillery; and that said Aruaca Indians, located at this place for purposes of trade, form three town divisions, each consisting of from ten to twelve small houses, corresponding to a family of Indians, and lying a league or more apart from one another close upon the margins of said Moruca river. And Iturriaga adds to this report that the people of Essequibo declared openly and maintained that the extent of the Dominion of the States-Gen eral reaches to the " Boca de Navios " or great mouth of the Orinoco, and they even go far into the interior to make the most of their fishery, im pelled thereto by the total lack of flesh in their country and the great scarcity of fish in their river. These four letters having been referred to the naval Commander, Don Joseph Solano, he agrees to the opinion that the fortification of Araya (which place has been evacuated), answers no useful purpose, and admits as correct the reports regarding the condition of the Indian towns of Bari nas presented by the naval lieutenants Don Vicente Doz and Don Nicolas Guerrero. As to the context of the third and fourth letters of Iturriaga, anent the claims of the Hollanders of Essequibo river to the Orinoco, he fails to find on what basis they make their claims, unless it be the passiveness where with the Commandants of Guiana have allowed them to fish in " Bocade Navios" and Barina and Aguire rivers, aud extend their navigation up to Guayana. That they thereby stretch their dominion to the great mouth of Orinoco and penetrate into Barcelona, Caracas and Varinas, and but for the assistance of the Guard and Garrison of Guayana the Missionary Fathers would not have been able to hold their ground. ******* No. 27. Letter from Don Jose de Iturriaga, to Fray Benito de la Garriga, dated Cabruta, December 12, 1758. [Printed from translation of a certified copy of the original in the "Antiguo Archivo dc Capuchinos de Catalufia," at Rome.] I have received two [letters] from Your Reverence dated the 13th and 21st of November, dictated by the love and charity that Your Reverence and 68 No. 27. his Venerable Community have always shown me. I beg to thank Your Reverence for the 100 loads of casave and 26 bushels of rice which Your Reverence ordered to be delivered at the house of Don Felix Fereras, and I am certain that should the corn crop not have been so bad, Your Reverence would have helped me with some of this grain. Don Felix tells me that he has ordered a house to be built at the port of Cacagual, to facilitate getting Indian laborers, rowers and the loading of grain sent from that place to this, and avoid the risks of the bad summer at the port of Guiana. Your Reverence may order in this matter in the way you deem most expedient. It is well that the Caribs are leaving the Cuyuni, although it may be for fear of the Hollanders. Your Reverence may found with them new settlements; thus they might be few and large in order that they could be attended to by Missionaries, as the small number of these would not suffice but for one for each settlement. Those ex pected by Your Reverence will be employed in due time. May they arrive soon to see that land and water populated ! Your Reverence must not be concerned about the Hollanders; they are not in a state to annoy us. The movement of the Governor of Essequibo was a flame of his passion. I cannot believe it will be approved by the States-General of Holland. I have written urgently to the Gov. in regard to the proposed settlement of Guaycas, with a fort and garrison; a favorable reply may be expected to the representations of Your Reverence. The need of Father Prospero and the absence of Father Fidel on account of sickness of the Father of the Hato, are to be regretted. May God grant that upon his improvement of health he (Father Fidel) may soon come to your aid. I know already that Father Guardia has founded in Carauaschi a large settlement of Caribs. I would like to see in the Angostura of Arimnarva one of good Guayanos, even if there were not over 15 or 20 families from Cupapuy, accompanied by some soldiers, to defend the passes with swivel or small guns placed at the sentry boxes. I renew my obedience to Your Rev. and pray God to preserve Y. R. life many years. Cabruta, Dec. 12th, 1758. Y. R. will please let me know if the women of the Caribs captured by the sloop that carried His Lordship to Guayana are in Murucuri and how many there are. No. 28. Report of Fray Fidel de Santo, Prefect of the Catalonian Capuchins of Gua yana, as to the Missions, their times of founding, causes of their de struction, etc.; dated Purisima Concepcion de Suay, February 26, 1761. Printed from translation of a certified copy of the original in the " Archivo General de Yndias," (Seville), Stand 133, Case 3, Bundle 16.] If it is indeed true that since the year seventeen hundred and twenty- four the Indians in the Province of Guayana began to believe in the Cath- 69 No. 28. olic faith preached to them by the Catalonian Capuchin Missionaries, and it could thus be stated that their true foundation began at that time, it is also true, however, that it was not in that year when the Holy Gospel was first preached in said province as it is inferred from an old book of Records of Baptisms that since the year sixteen hundred and sixty-four, several priests at various times undertook the pacification and reduction of the natives such as Father Joseph Sampayo, a Dominican Monk, Father Manuel de la Purificacion, Barefooted Monk of the Order of San Augus tin, the Clergymen Don Francisco de Roxas, Don Miguel Buenaventura de Angulo, Don Joseph de Figueroa and the Prebendary Don Andres Fernandez; the Jesuit Fathers Juan de Vergara, Dionisio Mesland, Fran cisco de Mauri and Ignacio Cano; the Catalonian Capuchins Father Angel de Mataro and Father Pablo de Blanes. To these last named Capuchins and others, the Fathers of the Company made a solemn renunciation of said Missions in the year sixteen hundred and eighty-one, by authority of the Governor of Trinidad, Don Tiburcio Axpe y Zuniga, who conveyed them to said Catalonian Fathers in compliance with the Instructions he held from the Royal Audiencia of Santa Fe to provide Missionaries for the Province of Guayana as it appears from the Records kept in the Gov ernment of Trinidad as well as from the Royal Cedulas of February sev enth, sixteen hundred and eighty-six, and April twenty-ninth, sixteen hundred and eighty- seven, by which His Majesty grants and conveys the Missions of the Province of Guiana to the Catalonian Capuchin Monks who from that time took charge of the same; but the misery, sufferings and deaths of the monks were so frequent, as no aid could have been given them in their plight, especially as regards the filling of the places of those who had died, that long interruptions ensued in the work of the Apostolic Missionaries, thereby losing entirely all the work done for the good of the souls and pacification of the natives. Such was the state of the Province of Guayana in the year seventeen hundred and twenty-three, without priests or missionaries and without the necessary means to afford an entrance of the missionaries on account of lack of food. God was pleased, however, to supply them with one hun dred head of cattle, through some pious persons; these cattle have increased to a goodly number and are today the means of supply for the missions in the almost extreme necessity the Indians would suffer if this food were not given them and it was desired to hold in the towns. This is attained through the inducement held out to them that they shall have the means wherewith to satisfy their wants. This was the beginning of the foundation of the missions, which to-day number sixteen, with four thousand four hundred and six souls, seven thousand three hundred and eighty-eight baptisms, one thousand one hundred and ninety-five marriages, according to the rites of the Holy Roman Church; out of the number of Indians three thousand three hundred and eighty-four died in the communion of the Faithful. Besides the said 70 No. 28. existing missions, there were eight more which were lost through several accidents and one thousand six hundred and eighty-six souls took once more to the woods. All this has occurred since seventeen hundred and twenty-four, the year of its foundation. Since that year said missions suffered several alterations which were a great drawback such as epidemics of small pox on two occasions, that is in the years seventeen hundred and twenty-eight, and seventeen hundred and forty-one. The measles, in seventeen hundred and forty- four; the invasions of the Caribs in seventeen hundred and thirty-five, and the hostilities of the English in seventeen hundred and forty, all of these misfortunes causing the death of nine hundred and seventeen Indians be sides the loss of towns and valuables, all of which caused considerable backwardness. The Sixteen Existing Missions. The first mission founded was that of the Purisima Concepcion de Suay in the year seventeen hundred and twenty-four with Indians of the Pariagoto nation. It has, at present, two hundred and twenty-four souls and has had since its foundation nine hundred and sixty-one baptisms, two hundred and sixteen marriages and four hundred and ninety-three In dians died a Christian death. Their lands are most excellent for the culti vation of all the fruits that may be grown in these provinces, particularly for cocoa. This mission has been devastated twice, once by the small pox and the measles and another time by the English. 2nd. In the year seventeen hundred and twenty-five, the Caroni Mis sion was founded with Pariagoto Indians naming as its patron St. Anthony of Padua. It has to-day two hundred and twenty-four souls and since the year of its foundation, nine hundred and sixty-two baptisms have taken place, over two hundred and thirty-seven marriages celebrated by the Church, and five hundred and ninety-seven Christian deaths. Their lands are equally as fertile as those of the above mentioned mission. It has suffered from several invasions of Caribs in which thirty-seven Indians were killed, besides it also suffered from the epidemics of small pox and measles common to all the other missions founded up to seventeen hun dred and forty- four. This town has been burnt three times. 3rd. The Mission of Nuestra Senora de los Angeles de Amaruca was founded by Pariagotos in the year seventeen hundred and thirty in good lands for the production of cocoa and other fruits. It has to-day two hun dred and twenty-eight souls. It was removed to another locality only suitable for cotton and cattle. Said missions suffered the same drawbacks as those mentioned above. In seventeen hundred and forty, it revolted through instigation in favor of the English. It has had six hundred and ninety-seven baptisms, one hundred and thirty-three marriages and six hundred and fourteen Christian deaths. 4th. The Mission of Cupapuy was founded in the year seventeen hun- 71 No. 28. died and thirty-three with indians of the Pariagoto nation and under the patronage of St. Joseph. It has, at present, six hundred and thirty- thiee souls. The mission has had twelve hundred and nineteen baptism, two hundred and seventy-nine marriages and five hundred and eleven deaths. Its lands are most useful, especially for tobacco growing. It has not suf- ered as many mishaps as those before mentioned. 5th. The Mission of Our Father, San Francisco de Altagracia, was com menced in the year seventeen hundred and thirty-four, with Indians of the .same Pariagoto nation and has, at present, four hundred and ninety-niue souls. There have been one thousand three hundred and fifty baptisms, three hundred and one marriages and eight hundred and sixty-eight deaths. Its situation offers great advantages for the cultivation of cocoa and cotton, but it is not as well suited for cattle as the extent of the land is not very large. It was removed once and revolted in seventeen hundred and forty. 6th. The Mission of the Divina Pastora de Huarimna, also composed of Pariagotos was founded in seventeen hundred and thirty-seven in an other place called Yacuaria, and is located to-day in the aforesaid Hua rimna. It is composed of two hundred and nineteen souls. It has had two hundred and thirty baptisms, fifty-eight marriages and one hundred and sixteen deaths. Its lands are admirable for grazing and it is here that the cattle, used for food for the Missions, are kept. 7th. In the year seventeen hundred and forty six the Mission of San Miguel del Palmar was founded in a locality excellent for all purposes where it still remains. Its Indians are partly Caribs and partly Pariagotos, number ing in all three hundred and fifty. It has had two hundred and sixty bap tisms, forty six marriages and one hundred and twenty three deaths. Said Mission suffered no other alteration than that of the flight of many Indians who abandoned it on several occasions. 8th. The Mission of Nuestra Sefiora de Monserrate de Miamo, founded in the year seventeen hundred and forty eight, was completely lost in seven teen hundred and fifty by the uprising of the Indians who are Caribs and who burned the town, having killed a Spaniard previously, It was re-built two years after by incredible work on the part of the Missionary and has to-day five hundred and twenty-nine Caribs and has had three hundred .and twenty six baptisms, twenty marriages and two hundred and twenty six Catholic deaths. The lands are very good for the cultivation of cotton, cocoa, tobacco and cattle raising. 9th. The Mission of the Anunciacion de Aguacava, being founded in the year seventeen hundred and fifty-three with about three hundred of them but they have had little perseverance and no increase because, in addition to not being able to keep them subjected for lack of a garrison their nature is particularly inconstant and they have always been running away, and are still, on account of the facilities afforded by the rivers Caroni and Orinoco, on which shores this mission is situated. For this reason it has to-day only eighty -seven souls, although endeavors are being 72 No. 28. made to settle the " Cimarrones " (fugitives). Since its foundation it has had one hundred and one baptisms, five marriages, (the marriage by the Church in the Carib nation is very difficult; many of them have several wives which cannot be prevented until there is more help) and thirty- three Christian deaths. Good lands for all purposes. 10th. In the year seventeen hundred and fifty-four the mission of Santa Eulalia de Murucuri was founded with Carib Indians. It has to day three hundred and twenty nine souls, exclusive of the seventy two that ran away with a captain named Tumatu in the year seventeen hun dred and fifty nine. It has had two hundred and eighty baptisms, two marriages, and forty-one Christian deaths. The lands at a distance of one and a half leagues, are suitable for cocoa, but barely so for cattle. 11th. The Mission of Yuruari, under the patronage of St. Joseph of Leonisa, was founded in the year seventeen hundred and fifty-five, and is composed of Guayca Indians whose nation extends far into the South and is much inclined to settle. This would not be difficult if the mission aries had the means to accomplish it, as they are very mild indians, although somewhat fickle, and desertions frequently occur. 12th. The Mission of San Fidel de Carapiry was founded with Carib Indians in- the year seventeen hundred and fifty six and has at the present time two hundred and eighty souls, with one hundred and sixty baptisms, six marriages and twenty five deaths. They have behaved well so far, but we fear their love of freedom, as Caribs in common with the others, on account of the lack of troops to command respect. Said mission lies in a most beautiful locality and its lands are most excellent for cattle graz ing and of good quality for the raising of cotton and tobacco. 13th. The Mission of Abechica composed of Guayca Indians was commenced to settle and to develop in the year seventeen hundred and fifty-eight, and in the year seventeen hundred and fifty-nine was lost be cause the Carib Indians killed their captain in one of the wars so frequent between the Caribs arid the Guayeas. The latter have been gathered this year to the number of one hundred and ninety one souls. From its incep tion it has had ninely six baptisms and about twenty deaths. Their lands are suitable for cotton and tobacco. 14th. The mission of Guaseypati was commenced in the year seven teen hundred and fifty-nine with Carib Indians. To-day it has two hun dred and ten souls and has had one hundred and twenty one baptisms and ten deaths. The lands are fine for cattle. 15th. The Mission of Piacoa was founded in seventeen hundred and sixty with Arawaca Indians of whom there are seventy three to day; bap tisms, twenty; marriages seven; deaths eight. It has lands admirably suited for the cultivation of cocoa, rice and corn. 16th. About the end of the same year of seventeen hundred and sixty the Cross was planted at a place called Arypuco with an invocation to Mount Calvary. This Mission has been commenced with Guarauno In- 73 No. 28. dians who are a very extensive nation, although they are somewhat incon stant. At the present time there are only forty-two of them for lack of provisions, but there are hopes for an increase; fourteen have been baptised and there have been two deaths. It must be remarked first: that almost all of the aforesaid sixteen mis sions are still being settled by new Indians attracted from the woods or the runaways that are caught and brought back. It must be remarked second, that it is most difficult to gather many In dians in the same place, for two reasons: first, because as they are spread all over the land in small huts it is necessary to bring them from distant places in order to gather them together in one single place and they are not willing to leave their natural mode- of living. The second reason is that in order to gather many of them it becomes necessary to bring to gether many captains, which is almost impossible, this being the reason why they and their followers desert when they quarrel among themselves which frequently happens. Besides this, it is very difficult for the present to sub ject many Indians, particularly those of the Carib nation. The Eight Missions Lost since the Year 1724. 1st Mission. The first Mission lost was the Santa Maria de Yucuario in the year seventeen hundred and twenty-eight which was founded two years before. It was composed of one hundred and twenty souls of the Pariagoto nation. The cause of this loss was the small-pox. 2d. The second Mission lost was San Miguel de Unata, composed of Guarauno Indians, founded in seventeen hundred and thirty -five. It had one hundred and forty nine souls, and the cause of its destruction was the burning of it by the Caribs. 3d. In the year seventeen hundred and forty, the Payarayma Mission was lost on account of the invasion of the English. This mission was com posed of Aruaca, Saliba and Guarauno Indians to the number of two hundred and ninety eight souls. 4th. In the year seventeen hundred and forty two, the Tipurua Mis sion was lost by reason of the uprising of its Indians who were of the Chayma nation and numbered one hundred and fifteen souls. 5th. In the year seventeen hundred and fifty the Cunuri Mission was lost, composed of Carib Indians who uprose, killed six Spaniards and shortly after their own Missionary. They numbered three hundred souls. 6th. On the same year and day the Tupuquen mission was lost, com posed of two hundred and thirty Caribs, for the same cause as the last two mentioned : an uprising with the death of several Spaniards. The Mission ary Father escaped death miraculously as at one time they had him tied for the purpose of killing him. 7th. The same misfortune befell,;and in the same manner, the Curumo 74 No. 28. Mission, also composed of Caribs to the number of one hundred and eighty souls. This happened in the same year of seventeen hundred and fifty. 8th. In the year seventeen hundred and fifty-eight, the Tarepi Mis sion was lost; its Indians, who were Caribs to the number of forty-eight, had in the previous year run away, were recaptured and gave evidence of constancy. They were placed in the same spot, but, impelled by their in constancy, they ran away once more. I hereby certify to the foregoing, and in witness thereof I have signed this in the Mission of the Purisima Concepcion de Suay on the twenty- sixth day of February, seventeen hundred and sixty- one. Fray Fidel de Santo, Prefect. No. 29. Report upon Missions by Don Joseph Diguja Villagomez, 1761. [Printed from translation of a certified copy of the original in the " Archivo General de Yndias," Stand 131, Case 2, Bundle 2.] A general statement showing the number of Spauish cities, towns and villages, Indian Curacies and Missions, of this Government, &c, all as found by Senor Don Joseph Diguja Villagomez, Colonel of H. M.'s Royal Armies, Governor and Captain-General of this Province, at the time he made his general visit to them, which began on the ninth day of January at the City of Nueva Barcelona and ended at this City of Cumana on the fourth day of July of the current year one thousand seven hundred and sixty-one. Cities, towns and villages of Spaniards appertaining to this Govern ment: City of Barcelona. Town of Aragua. Settlement of the Pao. City and garrison of Guayana. Town of Carupano. Town of Rio Caribes. City of San Philipe de Austria. City of San Balthasar de los Arias. Garrison of Araya. City of Cumana Total 10. Curacies and Missions of Piritu iu charge of the Observant Fathers: Curacy of Posuelos. Curacy of San Diego. No. - 75 29. CuracyCuracy Curacy Curacy Curacy Curacy Curacy Curacy Curacy CuracyCuracyCuracy Curacy Curacy Miss: Miss Miss Miss Miss MissMiss Miss:Miss Miss Miss: Miss Miss Miss:MissMissMiss ononon on on on on on onon ononon on on on on of Araguita. of Curateguiche. of San Matheo. of San Bernardino. of El Pilar. of Caigua. of San Miguel. of Piritu. of Tocuyo. of Purney. of Clarines. of San Francisco. of San Pablo. of San Lorenzo. of Guiamare. of La Margarita. of Santa Barbara. of Santa Ana. of Cachipo. of El Cary. of Chamariapa. of Unate. of Aribi. of La Candelaria. of Santa Clara. of Santa Rosa. of San Joachin. of Mucuras. of El Platanar. of Atapiriri. of Guaseiparo .Total 33. Missions in charge of the Catalonian Capuchin Fathers: Mission of Cupapuy. Mission of Altagracia. Mission of Suay. Mission of Amaruca. Mission of Caroni. Mission of Aripuco. Mission of Aguacara. Mission of Murucuri. Mission of San Joseph de Leonisa. 76 No. 29. Mission of Guarimna. Mission of Carapu. Mission of El Miamo. Mission of Guasipati. Mission of El Palmar. Mission of Avechica. Mission of Piacoa Missions in charge of the Jesuit Fathers: Mission of Carichaua. Mission of El Randal. Mission of Urbana. Mission of La Encaramada Total 20 Curacies and Missions in charge of the Aragonese Capuchin Fathers: Curacy of Cocuisas. Curacy of Chacaracuar. Curacy of Santa Maria de los Angelss. Curacy of San Felix. Curacy of San Francisco. Curacy of San Antonio. Curacy of San Lorenzo. Mission of Coicuar. Mission of Caripe. Mission of Guanaguana. Mission of Terezen. Mission of Puniere. Mission of Guainta. Mission of Caicara. Mission of Tipirin. Mission of Soro. Mission of Amacuro. Mission of Yaguaraparo. Mission of Irapa. Mission of Unare Total 20 Curacies in charge of the Priests of this Province: Curacy of El Pilar. Curacy of Rincon. 77 No. 29. Curacy of San Joseph. Curacy of Casanay. Curacy of Guripauacuar. Curacy of Caruaro. Curacy of Santa Cruz. Curacy of Santa Ana. Curacy of San Juan. Curacy of Aricaguas. Curacy of Arenos. Curacy of San Fernando. Curacy of Macarapana. Curacy of Mariguitar. Curacy of Altagracia. Curacy of Socorro Total 16. Grand total 99 No. 30. Letter from Fray Joachin Moreno Mendoza to Fray Benito de la Garriga; dated Guiana, May 4, 1764. [Printed from translation of a certified copy of the original in the " Antiguo Archivo de Capuchinos de Cataluna," at Rome.] I have just received Your Reverence's letter of the 30th instant., and do not delay its prompt reply in order to enclose the certification I had for gotten, and because the best harmony and intelligence between us must exist in every thing. There is no doubt that if the displeasure of the In dians depends upon the high price of the articles given to them in pay ment, they are very right; but as I intend to go shortly to Angostura, I will investigate and remedy it in future, and in this supposition the Rev. Fathers may well give the Indians the assurance that I will do so, so that they go willingly. I will also endeavor to give directions to send ships to the port of Patacon as stated by Your Reverence and to send advice to Murucuri so that the Indians may embark without delay, and this will take place about the 20th or 22nd inst. But I call it to Your Reverence's attention that this gang must be of one hundred men. As I have stated to your Rev. 20 to 40 will follow close in November or December, in case that no greater number could be had and I shall leave, in regard to the good care and payment of the Indians, the strictest orders so that they may fear to neglect the least particular in my instructions. In regard to the price of the tools, I will also see that it is such as Your Reverence says, and the Royal officer will be in charge of it, and get everything as it is most convenient to the Indians. It is true that the church of Angostura is 78 No. 30. not finished, but if there is no hindrance or impediment to prevent its con secration, even if it is not wholly finished, or by it something unbecoming may result, I would like to be present at the consecration, and for this reason I intend to have it done now while I am there, and in this caso I shall esteem it greatly that Your Reverence should inform me without de lay of his opinion in the matter, in the understanding that Rev. F. Fray Bruno is to return ou the second day to his Mission of Monte Calvario. I remain at the command of Your Reverence with true affection, praying to God to preserve Your Reverence's life many years. Guiana, May 4th 64. Kissing the hand of Your Reverence Your humblest and affectionate servant. Joachin Moreno Mendoza. M. R. F. P. Fray Benito de la Garriga. Your Reverence may get ready the small trunk you said to keep the supply of holy oil, which I will take with pleasure and will either send or bring with me with due care and safety; in whatever else you may wish command me I am ready to serve. I have just received a letter from An gostura complaining that the pest of flies prevents salting the meat as it is soon lost. For this reason I will thank Your Reverence for your continu ing to send some when possible, here to the R. officer and for sending some casave so as to succor those remaining here this winter as well as those of Angostura. No. 31. Letter from Fray Joachin Moreno Mendoza to Fray Joseph de Guardia, Prefect of the Capuchin Missions in Guiana, dated Guiana, February 2, 1765. [Printed from translation of a certified copy of the original in the " Antiguo Archivo de Capuchinos de Catalufia," at Rome.l Being desirous that the Royal Commissions, as they have been intrusted to me, be fulfilled with the greatest accuracy, and having seen by a letter of the temporary Commander resident in Angostura that the people taken to that place, are in a large measure sheltered under the trees, because they have no houses wherein to dwell; and being sorry for this, as it is meet, I am compelled to take the most efficacious measures so that they may not suffer the hardships of which I am informed by the said Com mander; taking this and what I have said into consideration, Your Rev erence will be pleased to help me to bear these troubles which demand the most prompt attention. I promise Your Reverence that I shall report to the King how much your Reverend Community has protected me. I do not doubt that Your Reverence would be duly rewarded. I therefore ex pect Your Reverence's ability to send me 100 Indians, laborers, for the work on the new settlement. With them and with those I have requested from the Jesuit Fathers, I expect to be free from all mv troubles, each one of the poor men having his hut, as in justice he should." May God preserve Your Reverence many years. 79 No. 32. LetprefectmoJ,T J°achin, .Mo™.»° Mendoza to Fray Joseph de Guardia, OriX ipril iSTS1" SS1°nS " GUiana'