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GUIANA

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BRITISH GUIANA

Third Edition, lUustrated, cloth, 78. 6d.

IN THE GUIANA FOREST.

By JAMES RODWAY.

With Introduction by Grant Allen.

Mr. Rodway has a great deal to tell about the exuberance
of animal and vegetable life in the tropical forest ... he
tells it vividly and well."— Po// Mall Gazette.

" A more acute and sympathetic observer than Mr. Rod-
way there could not well be. ... A number of side ques-
tions add to the value of this interesting book . . . making
this volume an altogether delightful and permanent con-
tribution to our information. . . . The illustrations to the
book are excellent."— Mr. Edw.^rdClodd in The Academy.

"He brings to bear on the task not only a wide scientific
knowledge, but also a considerable power of literary ex-
pression . . . his sketches of tropical life and the theories
he deduces from them are unusually valuable and inte-
resting."—S^eetotor.

"We have seldom read a work so thoroughly educa-
tional in the highest sense of the word, or one in which
information is so pleasantly conveyed."— .(4//i«jaFMm.

"Mr. Rodway has painted for us, as few have done
before, the magical wonders of a great tropical forest."

National Observer.

" Both realistic and readable, which cannot always be
said of scientific books. Even the unscientific will find it
fascinating and abounding in information lucidly and
attractively conveyed."— ^af»r« Notes.

LONDON : T. FISHER UNWIN.

[/■■;•!';;//>/'/»■. ('.

A COOLIE LADY.

BRITISH GUIANA

JVORK AND fVANDE%INGS A<:MONG THE CREOLES AND
COOLIES, THE AFRICANS AND INDIANS OF
THE fVILD COUNTRY

REV.

CROOKALL

Author of

BOOKS: HOW TO READ AND WHAT TO READ," "TOPICS
IN THE TROPICS," ETC.

ILLUSTRATED

LONDON
T. FISHER UNWIN

PATERNOSTER SQUARE
MDCCCXCVIII

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CONTENTS.

Off to the West Indies and the Spanish
Main

Sailing out — The mysterious passenger — Adjusting the
compasses — Home compasses — Political compasses —
Ecclesiastical compasses — Dover from the sea — A "sneezer"
— How she fought the storm — A man overboard — A look
in at Dartmouth — "Westward Ho!" — My native land,
farewell — Struggles within — On to our shelves — A first
night at sea — Dinner hour — The doctor, the lawyer, and
the parson — "Quite correct, sir!" — What is life? — The
.\zores — St. Michael's — " Ponta Delgada " — Under the
stars in a tropical sea — Orion — Venus and Mars — In the
tropics — The melting-room — A whale — Flying-fish — Bar-
badoes — In Carlisle Bay — Bridgetown — Off again.

II.

Guiana, or The Wild Coast

First view of land — Peculiarities of coast — The school-
boy's answer — Derivation of Guiana — When discovered —
Visited by Raleigh — El Dorado — Gold and diamonds —
Government returns — Situation of the Wild Coast — River
Amazon — Orinoco — Its fifty mouths — A curious geographi-
cal fact — Divisions — British Guiana — Brief history of

CONTENTS

PAGE

British Guiana — Berbice — Demerara — Essequebo — The
three great rivers — The Cuyuni — The Rupununi — The
Potaro — Kaieteur Falls — A new world — Population and
subsistence — The country's resources — Grand prospects —
Its soil — Its productiveness — The fanner's difficulty — Coast
lands and interior — Savannahs — Forests — A terrene ocean
— Schomburg on these Guiana plains — The great savannah
— Supposed site of El Dorado — The Ituni downs — ^Wild
cattle — Tigers and jaguars — Climate — The " Transatlantic
Eden " — Temperature — Trade winds — Purity of atmosphere
— Wonderful plants — How to live long.

HI.

The Land where Sugar Grows . . 4a

Opinions of Demerara — A warm land — The seasons — The
moonlight — Getting moonstruck — Thirteen springs — Thir-
teen autumns — Strange facts — Queen Luna — A land of
equality — The lords of the soil — Days and nights — Trees
always green — No winter — A sweet land — Golden syrup —
Sweet potatoes — Sweet cassava — Sweet plantain — The
saccharine element — A land of exuberant vitality — " Betes-
rouges " — Frogs — Sandflies — Mosquitoes — The leaf of life
— Sugar — Sandvoort village — Orange — Birds — Tigers in
town — A savage alligator.

IV.

The History of a Pound of Sugar , 56

At the tea-table — Demerara crystals — Fashions — Society
— Cane sugar — Its good qualities — It is very ancient — Was
grown in Palestine — Estates and plantations — Cane in
full bloom — Labourers at work — Mill for grinding — Value
of the land — Clearing and draining — Planting — A day's
earnings — Ploughing — Weeding — The *' Arrows " — Har-
vest— Cutting the canes — Transporting them to factory —
Crushing them — The juice — Boiling them — The vacuum
pan — Molasses — Packing and shipping.

In a Tropical House 65

Curious noises — Beetles and borers — Frogs and their
whistles— The grand concert — The six o'clock beetle— A

CONTENTS

PACK

tropical house — Why on pillars ? — ^Jalousies and verandah
— Where is your chimney ? — Which way to sit — How they
cook — Taps and vats — Upstairs — Like a bird in a cage —
Mosquito curtains — Vampire bats — Centipedes — Shake the
folds of your skirts — It was up my trousers leg — ^Jiggers —
Poking them out — Morning coffee — Song of old Jane —
When it is cool — Breakfast — Kinds of fish — Luncheon — •
Fruit-trees — Dinner — Foo-foo soup.

In a Tropical City , , . , , 77

Georgetown — On river Demerara — The harbour — ^Water
Street — The market — Vegetables, fruits, and flowers —
Plantains — Everything different — Like the Tower of Babel
— The stores — Dollars and cents — Tramcars —Policemen
— The post-office — The museum — The lighthouse — The
sea-wall — Main Street — Camp Street — Roman Catholic
Cathedral — Brick Dam — The burning bush — Avenue of
palms — The Botanical Gardens — Fan palms —The Corypha
^Cabbage palms— Royal palms — Coquirita palms — Ita
palms — Snow plant — Character d'homme — Lady of the
night — Public buildings — Town-hall — Churches and
chapels — Pleasures of the city.

VII.

Up to Berbice , 96

The coasting steamer — Mouth of Berbice river — Crab
Island — The old Dutch fort — Canje Creek — The new
span-bridge — View of New Amsterdam — The landing —
Water Street — Merchant stores — Prices of commodities —
Main Street — Rum shops — Peculiar names — Formation of
streets — The trenches and bridges— Different races — Occu-
pations — Town council — Town-hall — Court-house —
Churches and chapels — Public hospital — Providence estate
and Islington — Overwinning — Congo Africans — The old
slave's story — The east coast — Scandal Point — Queens-
town — Lunatic Asylum — Coolie huts — Sowing the rice —
How the coolies live — A coolie family.

vii

CONTENTS

PAGE
VIII.

In a Tropical Church . . . . ii6

Religion in British Guiana — Sunday— Service in church —
A mission chapel congregation — The people's dress — The
queer side of things — The Chinese— Windows and doors
—Disturbing noises — Funny habits — Labouring under
difficulties — Numerous creatures and insects — "Cockles"
— The singing — Bible knowledge of the natives— Faith of
the old slaves — Different races worshipping together — Uses
of a tropical church — Baptisms of children — Strange
names — A tropical wedding — Ludicrous mistakes — " After
you, sir ! " — Funerals — The suddenness of death—" Watch
ye

I "

IX.

Parson and Gorgonzambe ....

The old African— Gorgonzambe or Ciod-doctor— A bad
mind — An Obeah man — Funny expressions — The chamber
of sickness — A parson's work — Hours of consultation —
Ballata — Ballata bleeding — Bush adventures — The Indian's

petition — The trouble of Mrs. S Mr. K. in court —

Another petition to government — The "Act of Verweez-
ing" — Parson's vat — Kindliness— Charles II. 's chaplain —
A parson's worries.

X.
The Old Africans of Guiana . . . 149

Different races — The black people — The negro's story —
Introduction of the Africans into British Guiana — Slave
days — Horrors of slavery — Cruel punishments — Flogging —
The slave-market — Pincard's description of a sale — A
mother's anguish — The slave mother's farewell— Condition
of the slaves in the early part of this century — Dawn of a
new light — Moffat and Livingstone — ^John Wray — Slaves
singing— The old Dutch church — The slaves' hope —
" Gingo "— Buckra— The Bible and the rats.

CONTENTS

PAGE

XI.

Emancipation and its Results . . . 169

The Act of Emancipation — Planters' responsibilities — A
slave's daily work — A rumour of freedom — Rising of slaves
on La Resouvenir — Rev. J. Smith taken prisoner — A false
verdict — Sixty years after — Advancement of the people —
Religion to-day — Ecclesiasticism and religion — Govern-
ment— Medical men — Established churches — The London
Missionary churches.

XIL

Up the Berbice River . . . . 183

Preparations for our journey — The aborigines — His life —
His needs and wants — His pictures — Hammocks — Neces-
sary provisions — Starting off — Description of the river —
The homa — Lianos — The forests — Savannah — Anchored
— Our sleeping place — Meditations — Strange noises — Wild
hogs — The Midnight sky — The Southern Cross — Rain and
sandflies — Daylight — off again — The old fort — The old
Dutch Governor — Jumbies — The chest of gold — Our
destination.

xin.
At Zeelandia 194

The old Dutch plantation — A mysterious light — "Saf'ly
ribah run deep " — The Gladstone family — I'he chapel in
the wilderness — A cocoa plantation — Cocoa trees and their
fruit — Pounding the beans — A coffee plantation — Coffee
berries — The ricefields — Threshing and winnowing — The
Hermitage — The prophet's room — Man's necessities — A
first night in the forest — Beetles, grasshoppers, locusts,
cockroaches — Walking leaves — Praying prophets — Frogs —
Owls — Parrots — Monkeys — Wild beasts and snakes —
Thoughts and feelings — Rain — The tiger story — In the
canoe — A walk in the forest — Horatio's dog — The bush-
master — The snake charmer — An adventure — The silk
cotton tree — Strange superstitions — '* No' me, de massa "
— The return.

CONTENTS

PAGE
XIV.

KiMBiA Lakes 212

A dangerous place — Pluck and courage — Dawn— Off in the
boat — Our party — Weapons of defence — A lonely scjuatter
— Points — In Kimbia Creek — Paddling— Leo — A labba —
— A monkey — Sambo— A Dutchman's bridge — Difficulties
— The cutlass— A rest— Off again — The great savannah —
The moca-moca — Kimbia Lake at last — Ita palms — A
deathly silence — A picnic — Danger and difficulty— The
drinking cup — Getting dark — Moonlight and shadows — In
the river once more — Balmy sleep — Abarybanna.

XV.
Among the Aravvaack Indians . . . 228

Off once more — Wood-cutters — Sandhills— Maria Hen-
rietta — Coomacka — A flotilla of canoes — The Indian
chief — Wikky Creek — The Green Heart and other trees —
The landing-place — Indian women and picknies — The
Arawaacks — The Accawais — The Caribs— The Waraws —
The Macoosis — General history — Their appearance — De-
scription of the Caribs — Characteristics of the Waraws —
Revenge of the Macoosis — The warlike Accawais — The
subjects of our Mission — The good qualities of the Ara-
waacks— Their marriages — Marching to the settlement —
Sight of a snake — Landmarks of the Arawaacks — Their
instincts — The forest trees — The Indian's signals — The
settlement — Calcuni — The Indian chapel and parson's
benaab — No furniture — Service — Introduction to the
families — How the days passed — Farewell !

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

A Coolie Lady .

An Orchid Associated with other

Epiphytes .
Mission House, N. A. Berbice
A Coolie Family
Selling Fish in Georgetown
Water Street, Georgetown
Cookie having a Gossip on the Way
Camp Street, Georgetown, showing

Trench with Victoria Regia Lilies
Avenue of Palm Trees, Georgetown
A Chinese Wood-carrier
Cookie returning from Market .
Strand, N. A. Berbice .
An East Indian Beauty
Coolie House, Corentyne Coast, Berbice „

. Frontispiece

Facii

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))

105

107

))

113

[CE„

115

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Parson and Deacons Facing p. 117

Slaves Landing from the Ship . „ „ 156

♦* De Great Massa hab made us Free" „ „ 174

Matted Roots of Courida . . „ ,,187

Inundated Forest . . . „ » 206

Creek Scene . . . • » » 216

Creek, with Tiger's Bridge . „ ,,219

Indian Benaab (Arawaacks) . „ „ 228

Indian Woman, with Hammock and

Pegall . . . • » jj 235

Group of Accawais Indians . „ ,, 237

Second Growth Forest . . „ „ 241

An Indian Settlement . . »> » 244

BRITISH GUIANA

OFF TO THE WEST INDIES AND THE
SPANISH MAIN

" /^^^OME, tell us all about your travels," said my
V_^ friend — "where you have been wandering
during the last ten years. Tell us about the alli-
gators, and the tigers, and the jaguars, and the bush-
hogs, and the crab-dogs, and the monkeys, and the
hard-backs, and all those other creatures that you
have seen. And tell us about that strange and com-
paratively unknown land, where there are those vast
savannahs which the foot of man has never trod,
and those primeval forests where the sound of the
white man's axe has never been heard, and those
large rivers that go creeping lazily along to the
^ I A

BRITISH GUIANA
sea, winding their way through the exuberance of
tropical growth ; and tell us about the black people,
and the Chinese, and the coolies, and the aboriginal
Indians in the interior. We must have it all, so
compose yourself and begin."

It was a cold, bleak morning in November that
the good ship Incomparable started out on her
voyage of nearly five thousand miles. We were
not many passengers, and so we soon became
acquainted with each other. There was one
person, however, whom we could not quite make
out. He was neither an officer of the ship nor a
passenger. And as he came down into the saloon
regularly to dine with us we began to speculate as
to who and what he might be. On inquiry we
found that his work was a most important one.
He had been sent on board to adjust the compasses.

Amongst all the wonderful contrivances of a
modern steamship, there is none more essential to
its safety and well-being than the compass. It
is a little thing, but no ship could cross these seas
without it. When neither sun nor stars are visible,
and when the mariner is far out, thousands of
miles from land, that little compass tells him in
what direction to steer. It is the ship's guide
when all other guides are lost. The winds
may roar and blow a hurricane blast ; the wild

OFF TO THE WEST INDIES AND SPANISH MAIN
waves, lashed into fury, may roll mountains
high, the ship may pitch and roll and plunge,
and officers and men may quake, but the needle
in the compass calmly and steadily points to the
north. Without it the ancients hardly ever ven-
tured to lose sight of land. With it, we can cross
the trackless ocean and navigate the world. But
how if the compass gets out of order ? How if
some of the delicate machinery connected with its
working goes wrong? This does sometimes happen ;
hence the necessity for adjusting the compasses.
As I sat on the deck looking out on the calm sea,
with North Foreland in the distance and the lovely
little town of Ramsgate with its " piers " and its
people, I thought, " There are Home compasses that
need adjusting. When things go wrong in the
home, they go wrong everywhere. Discord there
means discord all around. And how often a
little thing disturbs the peace and harmony of
years. As soon as you find cross-currents and
contrary winds, take your bearings and look to
your compass. Perhaps you may find that the
Home compass is a little out. Conscience is not
quite as susceptible as it used to be. A hardening
process has been going on through contact with
the world. The finger still points heavenward,
but there have been disturbing influences. The
3

BRITISH GUIANA
magnetism of money, of some unworthy ambition,
of some person or passion, has disturbed the
magnetic needle, which always points towards
God. Adjust your HOME compasses. There are
Political compasses^ too, that need adjusting, and
Ecclesiastical compasses have OFTEN got wrong ;
but I must not dwell upon these, or our voyage
will become interminably long. It was just grow-
ing dark as we passed Dover, and we could see
the long row of lights quite plainly in the distance ;
a strong breeze had sprung up, and with it a heavy
sea. In fact the wind blew half a gale, and as
the old skipper looked out he said to me, " We
are going to have a ''sneezer' to-night." And a
^'sneezer'' we had. As the night closed in upon
us, wind and wave increased in fury, and the inky
blackness of the night only added to our fears.
The men went round seeing that all portholes were
properly fastened and doors shut and barred, and
passengers secured below, and lifebelts ready. And
the battle between the floating ship and the wrathful
sea began. The waves hissed and roared and
leaped, coming down on the deck of the iron ship
with the weight of a thousand tons, and with a
crash like thunder ; but the good ship, steadying
herself for a moment beneath the shock, shook the
waters savagely from her mane, and rising up on

OFF TO THE WEST INDIES AND SPANISH MAIN
the incoming billow, rode triumphant o'er the
waves. Thus through that dark night she fought
the storm, and glad were we all when morning
light dawned upon us.

A few days after this, as we were going down to
dinner, the cry was heard " A man overboard ! "
Immediately a lifebelt was thrown out with a
lighted fuse to it, for it was nearly dark, and
orders were given to stop the ship. We could hear
distinctly the cries of the man, " Help, ho ! " A
boat was lowered, and the first mate, with two
seamen, pulled in the direction of the man ; they
just managed to grip him as he was going down
exhausted and unconscious. Fastening a rope
round his body, he was hauled on board and put
into the hands of the doctor. It had been a severe
shock to the poor man, and we saw nothing more
of him during the whole of our voyage, he being
sick and confined to his berth. Indeed, if he had
not been a good swimmer, and in a fairly calm
sea, he would have been lost. We did not fail to
give the captain and the men our hearty congratu-
lations and thanks for having so nobly snatched
one from the jaws of death.

Thus far we had been hugging the shore, sailing
along the south coast, for, as we learned, we had
to call in at Dartmouth. Whilst the ship was

BRITISH GUIANA
" coaling," some of us went ashore, and a few plea-
sant hours were spent wandering about the quaint
old town, admiring the hills and rambling on the
banks of the beautiful river Dart.

At dusk the ship began to move slowly out of
the harbour, and in a few minutes we were out
on the great ocean. This time it was " Westward
Ho." There was a fine sea on and a strong breeze.
I stood on the deck, holding on to the ropes,
watching the sun set on one side, and the receding
shores of my native land on the other. A feeling
of pensive sadness crept over me as I looked for
the last time upon the darkening shadows of the
hills : deepening, darkening — they are now but a
dim outline ; I rubbed my eyes — fading away.
Thus all things go from us ; this world itself will
one day thus vanish, when we sail out on that
larger ocean of eternity.

" Adieu, adieu ! my native shore

Fades o'er the waters blue ;
The night winds sigh, the breakers roar

And shrieks the wild seamew.
Yon sun that sets upon the sea

We follow in its flight ;
Farewell awhile to him and thee

My native land — Good-night."

Having fairly got out to sea, we began to look
to our cabins, opening our trunks and bringing out

OFF TO THE WEST INDIES AND SPANISH MAIN
what little things we had, to make ourselves com-
fortable. Some were already feeling bad, and
praying that they might escape that sickness
which, as the Irishman said, is a very " upsetting
thing." One in my cabin seemed to be in the
throes of an internal conflict. Something within
said, "I want to come up "; whilst he replied, " You
mustn't, just stop where you are." But the voice
within, more determined than ever, said, " I will
come up " ; he as resolutely said, " You sha'n't."
Thus the struggle went on ; but, as I afterwards
learned, the man had no peace until he had yielded,
and set the prisoner free.

I thought it was rather cruel of one young fellow
who came on deck to some young ladies who were
trying bravely to hold up, but who were certainly
very ill. " Well, young ladies," he said, " I see you
are enjoying yourselves." They gave him such a
look. He wasn't seen again for a day or two.

By eleven o'clock we had all crept into our
holes, and were horizontally laid upon our respec-
tive shelves. But there was not much rest the
first night. The thump of the engines and the
thud of the screw, the jingling of glasses in the
saloon and the crash of pots in the pantry, together
with the rolling and. pitching of the ship, all tend
to keep you awake. Besides all this there is the

BRITISH GUIANA
difficulty of lying still. First you roll to one side,
and then to the other. Now your feet are up, and
you feel as if you were standing on your head — in
another moment this position is reversed ; then the
ship gives a roll and a lurch, and if you don't grip
the boards pretty tight you are pitched out of bed.
One lady was thus thrown out, and her face was
bruised as if she had been fighting ; and a gentle-
man came bounding out over the side of his berth
without any warning, breaking one or two glasses
and damaging his arm.

Dinner-hour is, as a rule, one of the pleasantest
hours on board ship ; especially after the first day or
two, when passengers have all found their sea-legs.
It is at the dining-table that we put on our best
looks, as well as our best apparel ; the ladies in
their charming dresses and the gentlemen in their
evening suits. It is there that we get to know one
another, and the luxury of conversation adds to the
enjoyment of the repast. We had at our table a
minister, a lawyer, a doctor, a sea captain, a stock-
broker, and a merchant, besides other gentlemen
and some ladies. And I was specially struck with
the professional bias which tinged each man's out-
look on men and things. If a subject came up for
conversation, the legal aspect of it was pointed out
sooner or later by the lawyer, and its influence on

OF'F TO THE WEST INDIES AND SPANISH MAIN
the Church or the moral life of the nation was
dwelt on by the minister, and the doctor showed
us how every physical fact bears directly or in-
directly upon the different organs of the body,
thus affecting the constitution of the individual,
and through him the force and power of the whole
community. The merchant, looking at the different
things upon the table, was interested in finding out
where they came from, what their original cost
was, how much they would sell for, and what
profit could be made out of them. Thus I saw
how difficult it is for men to see things as they
are. Indeed, we none of us do that ; we only see
things as they appear to us. And everything is
more or less tinged by the medium through which
we view it. The personal equation is often the
most important part of a man's subject.

We had one character, however, amongst the
gentlemen who afforded us no little amusement.
He didn't seem to know much, but he was a great
swell. He lived in Belgravia. At dinner he had
two or three set phrases, which he uttered with
the tone and gesture of an " Oracle." If any one
made a more profound remark than usual, he
would say, " I quite endorse the correctness of
your remark." The rescuing of the man that fell
overboard led to our talking one day about

BRITISH GUIANA
life — about its uncertainty, its brevity, its
mystery.

" Life," said the doctor, " is assimilation ; when
the power to assimilate is gone, life is gone too.
Or to put it in another way, it is the sum of the
functions by which death is resisted."

" I quite endorse the correctness of your remark,"
cried out our " Oracle."

" Nol' said the minister. " Life is something
more than assimilation ; it is the undefinable
entity of which assimilation is but a modus
operandi^

" Quite correct," chimed in the " Oracle."

" Life," said our legal representative, " has its
laws ; through those laws it works, and it will not
work outside of them. Obedience to law is life.
Lawlessness is death. Indeed, life and law are
identical. My law is my life." This he said with
a merry twinkle in his eye.

" I quite endorse the correctness of your remark,"
said Chesson, amid general laughter all round the
table.

On the eighth day we sighted the Azores.
Making for St. Michael's, one of the largest islands
of this group, we entered the breakwater at Ponta
Delgada. The view as we entered was charming.
The white houses dotted along the hill-sides and

OFF TO THE WEST INDIES AND SPANISH MAIN
the cultivated green fields, with here and there a
little church, and the town lying at the base,
formed a picture not to be forgotten. The climate
here is warm and genial. Although it was well
on into November, there were summer skies,
balmy air and bright sunshine. We walked
through the narrow streets of the old town, and
then visited some of the large gardens, be-
longing to the Spanish and Portuguese gentry.
There we saw orange trees, and grapes and
apricots and green figs, and flowers in abundance.
The one thing in the town that took our fancy
was some beautiful vases and water goblets made
of a specially fine red, silvery clay found in the
interior. Specimens of these we bought and
carried away with us, the price being very
moderate.

Having taken in coals and cargo, we once
more weighed anchor, and slowly steered for the
open sea.

The night we left Ponta Delgada was one to
be remembered. For the past week we had been
sailing amid darkness and storm. But now, what
a change ! Inside that breakwater all was calm.
The good ship, which had " walked the sea like
a thing of life," was still. Her breathing was
hushed ; the ceaseless throb of her engines and

BRITISH GUIANA
the pulsations of her screw were no longer felt.
A strange and bewitching stillness hovered around.
Added to this was the beauty of the night. The
moon so silent, yet so bright. The placid waters,
like a mirror, reflecting both earth and sky.
Right before us was the coast line, the little
town, with its white houses, lying so peacefully at
the foot of the hills. As the pale light of the
moon shone upon the white buildings, and our
ship began to move to the motions of wind and
wave, we stood gazing wistfully ; it was a picture
never to be forgotten.

" How lovely ! " I said to my fair companion.

" How sweetly peaceful ! " she replied.

We got our deck-chairs, and under the stars we
thought and talked of many things. There, rising
out of the water to the east, is Orion.

" Do you see his arrows ? "

" Yes ; there they are."

Orion was a mighty hunter, and like most
hunters, whether hunters after truth, after fame,
after love, or after happiness, had difficulties and
disappointments. In his wanderings he one day
came to Chios, in the ^gean sea ; there he saw
^ro, the beautiful daughter of CEnopion. He no
sooner saw her than he loved. Wondrous is the
power of love, and strange as wonderful.

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" Love rules the court, the camp, the grove ;
Men below, and saints above ;
For love is heaven, and heaven is love."

It took captive old Orion. We are its slaves
still, and it is the only slavery that women, aye,
and men too, prefer to freedom. As Shelley
says —

" They who inspire it most are fortunate,
As I am now ; but those who feel it most
Are happiest still."

Orion in love set to work. He cleared the
island of wild beasts, and brought their skins as a
present to his sweetheart. For her he toiled. To
her he brought the products of his labour. The
day at last, the nuptial day, was named. But the
course of true love never did run smooth. The
father of ^Ero was given to a policy of post-
ponement. He always found some reason for
putting off their marriage. Postponement and
procrastination, both thieves of time, wore out
Orion's patience. He could wait no longer. The
fruit was ripe upon the tree. He would take the
maiden by force. That was the fatal step. Better
to have waited. The father and he entered into
deadly conflict. Old Bacchus put out his eyes,
and at last he was shot by an arrow that flew

BRITISH GUIANA
from the bow of Artemis, a virgin goddess that
loved him passionately. After his death he was
placed with his hound and his arrows among the
stars, and one of the brightest constellations bears
his name.

We looked at Orion as we sat there in our
chairs, the night zephyrs of the sea playing around
us, and right in a line with it towards the north
was a beautiful bright star that followed us all the
way. It was Capella, our star of hope and cheer.
" Under what star do you live ? " I said —

" Is it the tender star of love ?
The star of love and dreams."

"There is no night," she said, "but that star
can brighten, and no gloom but its rays can cheer.
/ will choose Venus. But under what star do ^ou
live ? " she asked.

" Not Venus," I replied, " but Mars. I am born
to conflict and resistance.

" ' The star of the unconquer' d will,
He rises in my breast,
Serene and resolute and still,
And calm and self-possessed.'

" Have you ever noticed," said I, " how the hero
and the loved one stand side by side in the

OFF TO THE WEST INDIES AND SPANISH MAIN
world's battle? — Venus and MarSy so dissimilar
yet so intertwined. Our great dramatist says of
' Desdemona,' * She loved him for the dangers he
had passed.' Thus man's destiny and work are
shown. He struggles ; SHE sustains. Man goes
forth to the conflict, and returns wounded and
weak. Love soothes his aching temples, heals
his wounds, and restores his strength. As Milton
says —

" ' For contemplation he, and valour formed
For softness she, and sweet attractive grace ;
He for God only, she for God in him.' "

Thus we talked, and the hours flew fast as we
sailed along, under the stars, in that tropical sea.

As we advance, at the rate of about three hundred
knots a day, we find the temperature rising. A
bright, blazing sun now shines overhead. The
sky is blue and clear. The ocean is indeed a sea
of glass. We have put off all our heavy clothing,
and substituted for it the lightest of fabrics. Still
it is too hot. I shall not soon forget my first
experience of a real tropical sun and a sultry
tropical day. There was not a breath of wind
stirring. Even the motion of the ship did not
create any breeze. The sea was a dead calm. As
we sat, the perspiration oozed out of us. We

BRITISH GUIANA
seemed to be entering into the mouth of a hot
oven. People's faces began to assume the most
extraordinary colours. " It IS hot," was the general
salutation. One gentleman, who was rather stout,
mopping up the perspiration as it rolled like
brooklets down his face, said " This is my twelfth
handkerchief this morning," and it was only half-
past eleven then.

" You are in liquidation^^ I said.

" Yes ; and there will not be much of me left,
I fear, when I have done."

It is hot on deck, hotter in the saloon, and
hottest in the cabins. Oh those ship cabins in
the tropics ! and especially if, as sometimes hap-
pens, your porthole has to be closed on account
of the seas. The hot-room in a Turkish bath is
a fool to it. You lie down at night, your face
becomes livid, you gasp for breath; in five minutes
you are in a beautiful and copious perspiration —
a sensation of " melting away " steals over you,
and you give yourself up to languor, which ends
in a state of unconscious collapse. Not a few
creep out in pyjamas or dressing-gown, under
cover of night, and sleep on deck. There, with
your pipe, and in your easy chair, you can look up
at the stars, and think of many things, till —

" Tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep,"
l6

OFF TO THE WEST INDIES AND SPANISH MAIN
closes your eyes, and leads you into the land of
dreams.

There were many interesting things that we
passed at sea. In the earlier part of our voyage
we were called up to see a huge whale, some little
distance on our starboard side, moving in the
same direction as the ship, but not going so fast.
The captain said it appeared to be about sixty
feet long ; the back of the whale was plainly
visible above the surface of the sea, and every now
and then it would lift its head and send a spurt
of water right up into the air.

The shoals of porpoise that appeared gamboling
at our ship's side afforded us some little amuse-
ment. They came just as the storm subsided and
as we neared the Azores. There seemed to be
hundreds of them — coming up out of the depths,
swimming along by our side, then turning a
somersault in the water, and again lost to our
view. But it was not till we got into tropical
waters that we had our first sight and taste of
" flying-fish." There are many people whose faith
will not allow them to accept these stories about
" fish flying." They can believe that a whale
swallowed Jonah, or, if necessary, that Jonah
swallowed the whale ; but " flying-fish " is too
much for their credulity. It is said that in "ye

17 B

BRITISH GUIANA
olden time " a sailor-boy came home after a long
voyage and told his mother about fish flying like
birds. The old lady shook her head and said,
" John, John, what a liar you are. You think me
believe you ? " But when he told her about fish-
ing in the Red Sea, and at the first throw of the
net hauling up a chariot-wheel made all of gold
and inlaid with diamonds, which he supposed was
one of the wheels of Pharaoh's chariot which came
off whilst he was pursuing the Israelites — " Lord,
bless us ! " she said ; " now that is possible. Tell
me such stories as that, and I'll believe you ; but
never tell me of such things as * flying-fish.' "

Such fish, however, are a scientific certainty.
On several mornings we saw them rising up out of
the sea, and flying like a bevy of birds, not a few
of them alighting on the deck of our ship, which
were soon picked up by the sailors and handed
over to our cook. They were very nice eating,
and we considered ourselves fortunate in having
what few get, viz., " flying-fish," for our breakfast.
A learned friend of mine tells me that more than
thirty species of these flying-fish are known. They
swim in shoals of from one dozen to a hundred or
more. To any one watching they spring up out of
the sea all at once, darting in the same direction
through the air. They rise to a height of thirty or

OFF TO THE WEST INDIES AND SPANISH MAIN
forty feet, flying a distance of two hundred yards
or more, and then alight in the water again. If
fish can fly, why can't we. Give us the wings and
we'll try.

But we are now within sight of Barbadoes, or
Little Britain, as the natives love to call it. And
truly a pleasant sight it is to look upon the rising
headlands and hills as they stand out against the
sky. Soon we shall be in Carlisle Bay. Already
we see a number of vessels riding at anchor —
some discharging and others taking in cargo. But
it is only as we begin to let go the anchor that
we note the peculiarities of the people and place.
At once we are surrounded by a flotilla of pictu-
resque little boats. Each boat has one or two
pullers besides the captain. They are mostly
black or coloured people. Their object is to
engage your attention and get you to hire their
boat. At once the business begins. Each man
calls out to you to remember Mary Ann, or the
beautiful boat Lilly. " No," says another, " massa
want de Pearl ; Pearl de boat for massa." " I
knows you," says a third. " You remember Jane,
de beautiful Jane ! Jane take you ober in no
time ; she sail like a duck. All right, sir, de
lubly Jane am your boat — Number 6^. Don't
forget, sir — Number 63." And so twenty or thirty

British guianA
are shouting at you all at once, till you are
utterly confused, and this they keep up for hours.
Then there are the divers. They have a little
box, shaped nearly like a coffin, only not quite
so big. " A bitt, sir ; a sixpence, sir." Throw it
over, and the smallest silver coin thrown into the
sea, they will not fail to find it and fetch it up.
For a shilling or less they will dive down and
swim right under the ship, coming out on the
other side. For hours, after the ship has anchored,
passengers are kept alive with these noisy and
persevering people.

When you first step ashore at Bridgetown you
begin to realise that you have at last entered into
a tropical city. The white and dusty streets, the
blazing sun overhead, the black and coloured faces,
the wooden houses with their jalousies and veran-
dahs, the mules and asses, the little carts with
their peculiar vegetable produce — all these indi-
cate that you have at last entered into a new
world. We strolled down the main street at
Bridgetown, called at the post-office and the ice-
house, went on to view Nelson's monument and
Trafalgar Square ; thence by car to Hastings, and
on from thence a little way into the country. The
heat was oppressive, and the Badians themselves
irrepressible. One black man followed us all about

OFF TO THE WEST INDIES AND SPANISH MAIN
— would be our " guide, counsellor, and friend " —
until we called in the aid of the police, when he
decamped and left us alone. We bought a few
curios and some different kinds of fruit peculiar
to the tropics, and refreshed ourselves with " ice-
cream " and " cocktails " and lemon squash, and
then made our way back to the ship. By 6.15 p.m.
we weighed anchor, and once more began to plough
our way through the darkness and the deep, making
straight for the South American coast.

GUIANA, OR THE WILD COAST

HOW welcome is the first faint outline of "land
ahead " to those who have been for weeks
tossed upon the briny deep. It is like the sight
of water to the thirsty traveller, or like the first
glimpse of the old house at home after years of
wandering. As soon as the news spread that land
could be seen we all crowded on deck. Even ladies
who had been too ill to come up out of their
cabins now got courage to creep out, and we were
astonished to see faces that we had hardly ever
seen before. " There is the land, sir ! " " Where ? "
said my friend. " Don't you see the big moun-
tains ? " said the lawyer, with a merry twinkle in
his eye. Alas ! there are no mountains to be seen
on reaching this tropical land. The mountains are
in the interior, but the coast lands are low-lying
and flat. Owing to this flatness, the first view we

GUIANA, OR THE WILD COAST

get of land from the deck of the ship is a long,

irregular line of thick bush, with groups of elevated

trees, these being chiefly palm trees — the cocoanut

palm, or the long, straight cabbage palm ; and here

and there a tall chimney is to be seen, indicating

the proximity of a sugar plantation. All along

the coast is skirted by mud flats and sandbanks,

and the approach to the rivers needs careful and

skilful pilotage. As we have to enter the mouth

of the Demerara river, on which the chief city,

the city of Georgetown, stands, we will sit down

quietly, and I will give you some little account of

the Wild Coast whilst the ship slowly ploughs her

way to the stelling.

Going into a school one day in England, I

asked a number of children, " Where is British

Guiana ? " " On the map of the world, sir,"

shouted one little fellow. Well, so it is, and

it has been there for several hundred years, and

yet very few know anything about it. The best

things, as a rule, take a good deal of finding

out —

" The jewel that we find, we stoop and take it
Because we see it ; but what we do not see
We tread upon and never think of it."

Guiana, Guyana^ or Guayana was so named,
say some, from a tribe of aborigines or Indians

BRITISH GUIANA
called " Guyannols" The Dutch, adopting the
word " Guiana " into their vocabulary, gave it
the meaning of " Wild Coast " or " Wild Place."
Who really discovered it is uncertain. Some
say Columbus in 1498, others say Vasco Menes
and Diego de Ordas ; but we must leave that
point to be settled by the critics. One thing
we know, and that is that Sir Walter Raleigh
visited it in 1595, and Lawrence Keymis, one of
Raleigh's captains, in 1596 and 1597. So that
we English have a kind of historic interest in
the place ; indeed, we have claims upon Guiana
dating back three hundred years.

Guiana, or the Wild Coast, is in some respects
a strange and wonderful country. There has
been a halo of romance about it since the days
of Sir W. Raleigh, "the gallantest knight that
ever was." In 1 595, just over three hundred years
ago, he sailed up the Orinoco, and marched into
the interior in search of that fascinating place
called El Dorado, the golden or gilded land.
According to the descriptions of those days,
"The gold coloured capital of El Dorado was
built upon a vast lake, surrounded by mountains,
so impregnated with the precious metals that
they shone with a dazzling splendour." Dis-
appointed in his undertakings, he returned home,

GUIANA, OR THE WILD COAST
and because he did not find this golden land
the gallant hero — lost his head.

Whether an El Dorado of this kind exists
on this side the Atlantic we cannot tell, but
the gold which Raleigh sought in vain is being
found now, and the diamonds with which he
intended to enrich his monarch's crown are only
being picked up to-day, three hundred years after.
" One merchant quite recently received forty-two
diamonds from one of his placers in the interior.
Twelve of these were submitted to Professor
Harrison for analysis, and were declared to be
genuine diamonds." But this is only the begin-
ning. It is but within the past few years that
the auriferous regions of British Guiana have
been made to yield up their precious treasures.
Since 1884 prospecting has gone on vigorously,
and numerous companies have been formed.
Large numbers of gold diggers have been sent
into the interior, with what results the following
extracts from the Blue Book will show. The
districts from which the largest quantities of
gold have as yet been taken are the Essequebo
and its tributaries. From the " Puruni, and
Potaro, the Barima and Barama rivers in the
north - west district, good results have been
obtained. Rich deposits have been found on

BRITISH GUIANA

the right bank of the river Potaro, and this part
of the colony has given better results for its
area than any other." (See " B. G. Directory,"
p. 12.) Since 1884 the annual shipment of gold
has steadily increased. Here are the official
returns : —

Ounces. Value.

1884 250 ;^I,OI9

1885 939 3,249

1886 6,518 23,342

1887 ......... 11,906 44,427

1888 14,570 64,403

1889 28,282 109,234

1890 62,615 234,324

1891 101,298 375j289

1892 133,146 492,937

1893 137,629 510,710

1894 134,047 496,899

making a grand total of 631,200 ounces of gold
exported from the colony during these eleven
years, valued at ;f2,355,833.

" Guyana," or the Wild Coast, applies to all
that land on the north-east of South America
which lies between 3° 30' and 8° 40' north
latitude and between 50° and 60° west longitude.
If you look at your map you will find that the
coast line is bounded on the south by that king
of rivers the Amazon. This river winds its way
through tropical forest and savannah for more

GUIANA, OR THE WILD COAST
than 2,000 miles. The main trunk of this
enormous stream, which for length of course
and volume of water has no parallel, drains
an area of about 2,000,000 square miles, and
then rolls into the Atlantic with an estuary
150 miles wide. On the north, Guiana is
bounded by the Orinoco, another mighty stream.
This is the third largest river of South America.
This river has about fifty mouths, and it needs
them all to pour out its vast volume of water.
Seven of these mouths are navigable by large
vessels, but the chief mouth, which is called
" The Serpent's Mouth," is eighteen miles broad.
The direct course of the Orinoco does not exceed
1,200 miles, but take its extraordinary windings
into account, and its course would be over 2,000
miles. It drains a surface of 400,000 square
miles. These are the two outstretched arms of
Guiana, bounding it on the north and on the
south; in fact, with the Atlantic Ocean, they
almost encircle it. For it is a curious geo-
graphical fact that these two large rivers, so
far apart, communicate with each other. A
person setting out on a circular tour might sail
out of the Atlantic into the Amazon, out of the
Amazon into the Rio Negro, out of the Rio
Negro into the Cassiquiari, out of the Cassiquiari

BRITISH GUIANA
into the Orinoco, down the Orinoco and into
the Atlantic again, having thus sailed all round
this immense tract of country called Guiana.
But this larger Guiana is divided politically
into five parts, viz., Venezuelan or Spanish,
British, Dutch, French, and Brazilian or Portu-
guese. The boundaries of some of these have
not yet been definitely fixed.

The part in which we are interested is British
Guiana. It lies between the ist and 9th degree
of north latitude and the 57th and 6ist degree
of west longitude. It is about twice the size
of England and Wales, having an area of about
103,000 square miles. The Dutch seem to have
been the first to attempt colonisation here. So
far back as 1 580, a number of Dutch traders
effected a settlement on the banks of the
" Pomeroon."

In 161 3, under the leadership of Joost van
der Hooge, a settlement was formed on a small
island at the mouths of the Cuyuni and the
Massuruni, where they found the remains of a
fort, which they repaired. This fort was after-
wards known as " Kyk-over-al " (" look " or " see
over all ").

In 162 1 the Dutch West India Company
was formed, and they had given to them ex-

GUIANA, OR THE WILD COAST
elusive control over all their settlements on
the " Wild Coast." They also undertook to
supply their colonists with negro slaves from
Africa. This was the beginning of that great
curse, negro slavery, in British Guiana. The
sugar and coffee estates were to be worked by
these kidnapped and enslaved Africans.

" I would not have a slave to till my ground,
To carry me, to fan me while I sleep.
And tremble while I wake, for all the wealth
That sinews bought and sold have ever earned."

— COWPER'S " Task," B. ii.

In 1624 Abraham Van Peere formed a settle-
ment on the river Berbice. Here the colonists
seemed to thrive, for a hundred years after this,
Berbice colony was granted a Constitution by
the States General of Holland. This was in
1732. In 1 78 1 the British took possession of the
whole Dutch West Indian colonies, but at the
peace of 1783 they were again restored. They
were then taken possession of by the French,
who built forts on both sides of the river
Demerara at its mouth. In 1796 the colonies
of Demerara, Essequebo, and Berbice were again
in possession of the Dutch, and in 1803 they
were finally surrendered to the British, in whose
possession they have ever since remained and

BRITISH GUIANA
progressed, being formally ceded to us by treaty
in 1814.

British Guiana is divided into three provinces,
viz., Berbice, Demerara, and Essequebo. Through
these provinces flow three great rivers. The river
Berbice, which discharges itself into the Atlantic
about 57 miles to the east of the Demerara.
It is about two miles and a quarter broad at
its mouth. Its source is as yet unexplored.
Vessels of 12 feet draft can ascend this splendid
water-way for about 105 miles, and of 7 feet
draft 180 miles. The influence of the tide is
felt nearly up to that point. It abounds with
fish of nearly all sizes and kinds. This river
has many tributaries or creeks. In its course
it is very tortuous, and away up towards its
source it forms the Christmas cataract and the
Itabou cataract. Forty-five miles to the east, as
it passes along, is drained by this river and its
tributaries, and forty-five miles to the west. So
that it drains an area of about 18,000 miles.

The Demerara river, on which the capital city
stands, was called by Raleigh and his followers
Lemdrare, by the Spaniards Rio-de-Mirara {i.e.^
The Wonderful River), and by the Dutch
Innemary, or Demerary. The source of this
river is known to the Indians alone. Its current

GUIANA, OR THE WILD COAST
is very powerful, especially towards its mouth,
where it is about two miles wide. It is said
to flow at the rate of seven or eight knots an
hour, and the under-currents are equally power-
ful, and act much in the manner of whirlpools.
It is notorious that few persons who have the
misfortune to fall into it are ever saved. Whether
they are borne away by the strong under-current,
or sucked in by the eddying wave, or devoured
by the greedy sharks, which in hundreds swarm
about at its mouth, it is difficult to say. The
colour of its water is of a dirty yellow, made
so by the clayey soil or mud, which is washed
down by its rapid waters and deposited at its
mouth in banks or mud flats, thus forming
natural barriers at the entrance of the stream
to any very large vessels. It is navigable for
fair-sized ships about ninety miles.

The Essequebo is the largest river in British
Guiana ; hence it has been called the younger
brother of the Orinoco. It is 620 miles long,
and twenty miles wide at its mouth. At its
mouth are situated several islands, some of which
are from twelve to fifteen miles long. The
principal islands are Leguan (from El Guano),
which has several sugar estates in it, and
Wakenaam, signifying " in want of a name,"

BRITISH GUIANA
which also is populated and engaged in making
that same sweet commodity. I had the pleasure
of travelling with two Scotch ministers, one of
whom had been the minister on that island, and
the other was going there to take up his
appointment.

The Essequebo has many large tributaries.
There is the Cuyuni river, which flows into it from
the south-west about 70 miles from the sea. The
course of this river is through a large valley
bounded on every side by mountains except to
the east, extending 280 miles in length, and ex-
panding from 70 miles to 1 50 miles in breadth. All
the waters of this extensive valley discharge them-
selves into the Cuyuni, which may be denominated
its chief trunk or grand drainer. And it discharges
itself into the Essequebo. Then there is the
Rupununi, the Potaro, the Massuruni, on which Her
Majesty's penal settlement stands. The Potaro or
Black River is famous for its " Kaieteur Falls,"
which are likely to outrival the famous Niagara.
The head of this fall is 1,130 feet above the level
of the sea. The breadth of the river is from 250
feet to 350 feet according to the season ; the average
depth is 20 feet, and this mass of water dashes over
a precipice 900 feet high with a noise like thunder.
The grandeur and magnitude of this fall transcends
description.

GUIANA, OR THE WILD COAST
But we must come back to our provinces. From
what has already been said, you will see that much
of this land is terra incognita. It is a new world,
of which the old world knows very little. It is only
along a narrow strip of seacoast that people live.
The interior still forms the happy hunting-ground.
About 130 square miles out of 100,000 square miles
has been put under cultivation. We talk about
population increasing so fast that it will overtake
the means of subsistence. Would that Malthus
could have opened his eyes on these far-stretching
savannahs and these interminable forests. What
is wanted is not land, but people to till it. Here
we have a mine of wealth in forest and river, and
plane and savannah ; but none, or very few, to
draw it out and utilise it. When we leave our
coast lands and strike into the interior, we come
to our sandhills and our far-stretching savannahs,
our mountains and immense forests, all lying in a
state of nature, the dwelling-place of wild animals
and Indian tribes. The command of God to man
is to replenish the earth and subdue it. Our work
lies before us ; willing hearts and active hands are
what is wanted. That British Guiana has vast
resources cannot be questioned, but these resources
are only imperfectly known, and to a few. Up the
rivers and in the interior we are brought into contact
33 c

BRITISH GUIANA
with large fertile valleys, capable of supporting
thousands upon thousands of cattle, vast forests,
rich in every kind of wood, and immense undulating
savannahs, all waiting to be opened up and utilised.
A grand, almost inexhaustible field for capital and
industry is thus opened to our view.

The wealth of a country is to be found originally
in its land. There can be no question about the
richness and productiveness of the soil of British
Guiana. As Dalton says, " It is an alluvial soil
which has not its equal in the world, save perhaps
the overflooded plains of the Nile." So prolific
are the plants and so luxuriant their growth, that
to ensure an abundance of fruit it seems only
necessary to commit seeds and shoots to the earth,
and cut out from time to time the greater part of
the wood of the trees. The great difficulty of the
gardener and farmer here, is not too little exuber-
ance, but too much. The wealth of tropical growth
often disheartens and overwhelms men. Leave a
field uncultivated for a short time and it is overrun
with " bush." Leave the bush alone and it becomes
a forest. Leave the forest alone and it becomes a
jungle, a tangled mass of trees, of shrubs, of grasses,
of creeping parasites, of twisted lianos, and the
lurking place of stinging insect, hissing reptile, and
devouring beast. But it is said, " Is not the rich

GUIANA, OR THE WILD COAST

soil confined to the coast lands now under cultiva-
tion?" By no means. The old planters found
the richest soil higher up the rivers. Men who
have lived in the interior assure us "that these
interior lands will produce far more sugar, coffee,
cocoa, rice, than the sea coast, and that with half
the labour." In addition to this, the interior lands
are far more healthy. Of course I do not mean
every part, but I refer chiefly to the higher lands,
the plains and forests above the sandhills, and the
elevated and undulating savannahs. Of these latter
we have a large number. One writer estimates
that of the 100,000 square miles which this land
contains, 35,000 is of open, flat, undulating savan-
nah. There are 5,000 miles of grass-covered
mountains, and 60,000 miles of dense forests which
even in the daytime are almost as dark as night.

Savannah is from the Spanish word " Sabana,"
and means a great plain or prairie. Sabana,
which is the word for " bed-sheet," denotes a great
tract of land, spread out and more or less level — a
kind of limitless meadow. What an ocean is in
the aqueous realm, a savannah is in the terrene
realm. It is a vast expanse of land, stretching far
away beyond the limit of unaided vision, often
bounded only by the horizon line. Of course these
savannahs are not all alike ; some are great swampy

BRITISH GUIANA
places, especially in the rainy season, swampy
simply because there has been as yet no outlet
made for their waters. In these swamps tall, rank
grasses grow, often to the height of six or eight
feet ; you cannot see over them. In these grasses
are all kinds of reptiles, serpents, lizards, tortoises,
and insects that prick and bite and sting, and
sometimes of devouring beasts. Then there are
others that are fine, undulating grassy plains, well
suited for pasturage and even for other forms of
agriculture. Sir R. Schomburg, speaking of these
savannahs, says, " They appeared to me to resemble
the ' Darling ' downs of Queensland, as the grass
not only holds supremacy over the flat lands, but
passes over hill and mountain extirpating the trees
and bushes, as though the hand of man with axe,
compass, and line had directed the demarcation so
beautifully defined." The surface of these savan-
nahs is seldom flat for any considerable distance.
" It would be difficult," says the great traveller, " to
find a level of a mile in length. It is all ' ups ' and
' downs,' elevations and depressions, from five feet
to sixty." It is very interesting to read about
that great savannah on which " Pirari " is situated,
a village occupied by " Macusi " Indians. It is
supposed to cover a space of 14,400 square miles.
This, it is thought, was once the bed of an inland

GUIANA, OR THE WILD COAST
lake. By one of those upheavals which are not
unknown in new countries, Nature burst its
barriers, and thus found a passage for its waters
into the Atlantic. This theory explains the
ancient tradition of an " inland sea," and the city
of the gold-besprinkled Manoa which fired the
ardour of Sir W. Raleigh and the Spanish adven-
turers. It is none other than the site of the once
famous El Dorado. Here is Schomburg's descrip-
tion :

" On leaving the river Rupununi we passed over
undulating ground, thinly covered with shrubs of
stunted appearance, and bright yellow or pink
flowers. We turned round a small hillock, and
before us was one of those small groves of Mauritia
palms which give to the savannahs of South
America so characteristic an appearance. This
graceful tree, with its fan-shaped leaves, alone
afforded the scanty shade to be found in those arid
plains, while it contributed to the picturesque scene
before us. The different tints of the savannah
which extended to the Pacaraima mountains might
have been compared to a sea of verdure, which
illusion was powerfully increased by the waving
motion of the deceptive mirage. Isolated groups
of trees rose like islands from the bosom of this
sea ; and a few scattered palms, with their tall

BRITISH GUIANA
trunks appearing like masts in the horizon, assisted
in conveying to our imagination the seducing
picture of the ' Leguna de Parima ' or the Inland
Sea, with its hundreds of canoes floating on its
bosom."

Some of the finest savannahs are said to be those
on the Berbice river, and lying between the Berbice
and the Corentyne. The Ituni downs are a splendid
example. Rowing up the Berbice river with the
Indians, we struck into the forest. After about
two hours' brisk walking, during which we ascended
sandhills covered with trees, we emerged on to
the open plain. The view that burst upon our
sight was splendid. Far as the eye could see was
the grass-covered plain, here and there were
clumps of trees, chiefly the Ita palm, and down
on our left could be distinctly traced the water
valley of the Ituni. Beyond that was again to be
seen the dark border-line of the forest. Away to
the north could be seen lying down what appeared
to us " deer " or wild cattle.

These savannahs on the westward side extend
a distance of about forty-five miles, and on the
eastward as far as the sea-coast. Cattle farming
is carried on pretty extensively up the Corentyne
coast, i.e.^ the East Coast. Sometimes the cattle
stray inland, and become wild. Some of them

GUIANA, OR THE WILD COAST

become the prey of tigers and jaguars. Horses
that have grown wild are there too. Going home
one year for six months, we determined to give
our horse a rest, and so he was sent into the
savannah. Away he wandered, close up to the
Corentyne river. Men were sent after him on
our return, and they found him kicking up his
heels and snorting with the wild ones. Throwing
the lasso, they caught him, and only in time, for
the tigers were coming amongst them. A number
of skeletons were lying about, and one horse, with
its throat all torn, was killed the night before.

Of the climate, much has been written, and
more has been said. In England it is considered
to be little better than the West Coast of Africa,
which has been called the White Man's Grave.
Trollope said, " There never was a land so ill-
spoken of, and never one that deserved it so
little." And he said this after visiting it He
called it " the Elysium of the tropics," " the
West Indian happy valley " — the one true and
actual Utopia of the Carribean Seas — " the
Transatlantic Eden." We do not ask you to
adopt Trollope's opinion. Truth is generally
found in the middle. Between the " White Man's
Grave " and the " Transatlantic Eden " the truth
about the climate is to be found. Many Euro-

BRITISH GUIANA

peans who have lived here to a good old age
consider it delightful. For one thing, we are not
exposed to those sudden changes of temperature
which are so trying to weak and even strong
constitutions. There is a uniformity of tempera-
ture all the year round. It varies from 74° in
the morning to 84° in the shade at noon. Indeed,
it is one of the steadiest climates in the world.
We have no November fogs and no December
chilling blasts. Frost and snow are absolutely
unknown. The natives here have no idea of
what a snowstorm means. Then, again, we are
favoured with a steady breeze from the sea
nearly all the year round. British Guiana lies
in the main track of the equinoctial currents, and
so from January to December we have a steady,
cool breeze. In our hottest months, and in the
rainy seasons, there is sometimes an intermission,
and then we all cry out.

For some complaints, and especially those
affecting the lungs and chest, this is a splendid
climate. Pulmonary consumption is a thing
almost unknown. " Tubercular phthisis," says
one doctor, " I have never met with here." Some
who could not possibly live in England on account
of chest complaints, can live and enjoy life in this
country. "If physicians at home," says one

GUIANA, OR THE WILD COAST
medical man, "knew of the advantages offered
by this climate, they would oftener send their
consumptive patients to this genial clime." Of
course we have our diseases and death. These
are not always attributable to the climate when
they are said to be. With care, if a man's con-
stitution be sound, a man may live here as long
as anywhere. In the interior parts of the colony
the purity of the air is proverbial, and especially
in the dry season. At night the stars appear like
brilliants in the deep azure sky, and even in the
daytime planets can be sometimes seen. In the
lowlands and the swampy places we get the
miasma and the fever, but the highlands and
the forests are never found to be unhealthy to
Europeans. Live wisely and you will live well,
and in all probability your days will be long in
the land.

Ill

THE LAND WHERE SUGAR GROWS

HAVING told you something about the
Wild Country, I must now tell you about
that portion of it which is inhabited, and where
the sugar grows. Who has not heard of Deme-
rara ? What difference of opinion there is about
it ! One calls it the " Transatlantic Eden," another
" The Devil's Mud Flat." One having been, and
gone away, thanks God that he has got out
of it, and hopes never to put his head into it
again. Another sings in joyous strain —

" I have been there, and still would go ;
'Tis like a little heaven below."

Mr. Bronkhurst, in his very interesting volume,
says the following lines were found in an old
escritoire which once belonged to a learned
member of the Civil Service —

THE LAND WHERE SUGAR GROWS

" Demerara, land of trenches,
Giving out most awful stenches ;
Land of every biting beast
Making human flesh its feast ;
Land of swizzles, land of gin,
Land of every kind of sin !
Why have I been doomed to roam
Far, so far, away from home ? "

Whatever kind of a place it is, it has already
earned for itself the title of " The Magnificent
Province." It is not quite the jewel in the
British Crown, but it is one of them. Demerara
is not the Wild Country, but it is in the Wild
Country. It is that part which has been re-
claimed and subdued. It is what we may call
the hem of Guiana's garment, the borderland
of this tropical " Canaan " ; and while there are
those who have brought up an evil report of the
land which they have searched, thpre are others,
like Caleb, who say, " It is a land flowing with
milk and honey ; let us go up at once and
possess it, for we are well able" (Numb. xiii. 30).
One thing about this land we must say, and
that is, it is a warm one. Any one coming here
is sure of a warm welcome. I looked at my
thermometer this morning at half-past twelve
o'clock, in the house, and of course in the shade,
and it registered 94°. Out in the sun I have

BRITISH GUIANA
seen it 120°. The mean annual temperature is
84°.

We have only two seasons in the year, what
my friend calls " the roasting season" which is
the dry one, and during which you can be
'''■underdone''' or ''^ overdone I' according to your
taste ; and the " broiling season'^' which is the
wet one, during which we have '''gravel' not to
say ^^ gravy" smells. The latter season has just
set in, and the rain comes down in such torrents
and with such persistence as to make you think
a second deluge is no longer impossible. As
the old sailors used to say, it only leaves off
raining to commence pouring. During this season
all the animals creep into the ark. The weather
here is not so feminine as it is in England ; that
is, it is not so given to change. You can
depend upon it. When it means to rain, it does
rain, and when it means to be dry, it is dry — and
everybody else too. It is the dry season that is
the hottest. A stone statue would not feel cold
then. From the end of July till the middle of
December we have nothing but bright sunshine,
and lovely moonlight nights in between. And
the moonlight out here surpasses description.
So light is it sometimes, that you could see to
read the newspaper outside. There is a softness

THE LAND WHERE SUGAR GROWS
and a charm about it that makes it look like a
fairy scene. On such a night, with all the rich
luxuriance of tropical trees around, you seem to
be standing in Fairyland. Many a time have I
stood out in the garden entranced. Up above
is the moon.

" Through the fleecy clouds she sails along,
Arrayed in silvery brightness."

All the trees are as still as icicles, and quite as
sparkling ; they seem to be under some magic
spell — not a leaf stirs, and they glisten with a
kind of glinted, frosted hue. You look around —
it is as Jight as day, only it is a peculiar soft
and soothing light. In that light you can see
many things, for it makes fairy phantoms real,
and real things fairy phantoms. A man that
has once been in the tropics will never say that
" the moon is made of green cheese." If he does,
it will be a sure proof that he has been moon-
struck, and is luna-tic. I used to wonder at the
people, when I came here at first, saying, as I
went to the door on a moonlight night without
my hat, " Parson, you going get moonstruck ;
bettah cover you head." " All right," I would
say, and at once covered my head. If a man
falls asleep outside with his face exposed to the

BRITISH GUIANA
rays of the moon, in all probability he will wake
up with his face swollen and drawn on one side,
like a person that has had a stroke. I have seen
such cases. An old writer says, " In the lowlands
of tropical countries no attentive observer of
nature will fail to witness the power exercised
by the moon over the seasons, and also over
animal and vegetable nature. As regards the
latter, it may be stated that there are certainly
thirteen springs and thirteen autumns in Demerara
in the year ; for so many times does the sap of
trees ascend to the branches and descend to the
roots. For example, ' wallaba,' a tree somewhat
resembling mahogany, if cut down in the dark,
a few days before the new moon, is one of the
most durable woods in the world for house-
building, posts, &c. ; in that state attempt to
split it, and with the utmost difficulty it will be
riven in the most jagged and unequal manner.
Cut down another wallaba, that grew within a few
yards of the former, at full moon, and the tree
can be easily split into the finest smooth shingles,
of any desired thickness, or into staves for making
casks ; but in this state applied to house-building
purposes it speedily decays. Bamboos if cut at
the dark moon will endure for ten or twelve years ;
if at full moon, they will be rotten in two or three.

THE LAND WHERE SUGAR GROWS
Thus it is with most, if not all the forest trees."
(R. M. Martin, F.S.S.)

The same writer observes, " I have seen in Africa
the newly littered young perish in a few hours at
the mother's side, if exposed to the rays of the full
moon. Fish becomes rapidly putrid, and meat, if
left exposed, incurable or unpreservable by salt.
The mariner heedlessly sleeping on deck, becomes
afflicted with nyctalopia, or night blindness ; at
times the face is hideously swollen ; the maniac's
paroxysms are renewed with fearful vigour at the
full moon and the change." Do we not call those
who suffer from mental diseases, or who are out of
their mind, lunatics ? Luna is the Latin for moon,
and this very name implies that the moon has some
occult influence over their mental condition. The
power of Queen Luna is only partially known. In
the tidal movements of the vast ocean we see
something of it, but in those smaller tidal waves
that pertain to the atmosphere, the clouds, the
rivers, the sap and circulation of trees and plants,
and even the vital forces of animals and men, we
know very little. One thing, however, we know,
and that is that this is a land of "enchanting
moonshine."

The land where sugar grows is a land of
equality. Not equality amongst the people ; for

BRITISH GUIANA
in that respect we have the most glaring inequali-
ties. Here the planter has long been the lord
of the soil, if not the lord of creation. He has
made our laws, and to a large extent administered
them. And he has always had an eye to his own
interest. In fact, he considers he has made the
colony, ergo the colony ought to exist for him.
He is the universal sweetener. But for him we
should have " no cakes and ale." He is the one-
eyed man in the kingdom of the blind.

The equality we have here is in the land rather
than in the people. For instance, our days and
nights are equal all the year round. At a quarter
to six every morning the sun shines through your
window, at a quarter past six every night he sinks
down behind the western horizon. It is just the
same in January as in June.

Then we have an equality in temperature. All
the year round the thermometer registers about the
same. It never drops down to freezing point and
then runs up to summer heat. You don't require a
change of underclothing on account of the change
in temperature. You can wear the same light
flannels in December as you wear in August.

The equality in temperature gives us a sameness
in the vegetative aspects of nature. Trees are
always green, flowers are always blooming, fruits

THE LAND WHERE SUGAR GROWS

are always ripe. We never see bare hedges, or
leafless trees, or gardens without a sign of vegeta-
tion, such as may be seen in the winter time at
home. Here the birds are always singing, and
the gardens are always full of bloom. It is a
summer that knows no winter except that which
man creates, namely, " the winter of our dis-
content."

But this land is not only a land of equality ; it is
also a very sweet land. One other thing I have
noticed in this land is, that it produces a large
number of sweet things. It is a very sweet land.
Thousands of acres around us here produce nothing
but large sticks of sweet cane. These, when
properly squeezed, give us 150,000 hogsheads of
sugar and upwards. What a large cup of tea all
that sugar would sweeten ! And then think of the
thousands of puncheons of " golden syrup," all
brought out of the land. And it would give us a
lot more if we would only bestow a little more
labour upon it. Why, even our potatoes here are
" sweet potatoes," and our cassava is " sweet
cassava," and the plantains, when kept a little
become " sweet plantains." In fact, what is
called the saccharine element is found in large
proportions in nearly all our vegetables and fruits.
It is a "sweet country," and they ought to be

49 i>

BRITISH GUIANA
sweet and pleasant people who live in it — and
many of them are. Things that are not sweet
when grown in England, become sweet when
planted here. Would it not be a grand thing if
we could take all the men and women with soured
dispositions and plant them in this land till they
became sweetened. I wonder, is it the soil or the
sun that puts this sweetness into things, or is it
the nature of the plant to select only those
elements that are saccharine? It is probably
the latter. Let us, like the sugarcane, select
from the world around us those elements which
will develop a sweet disposition and a noble
spirit. A little more sunshine in the lives of
those who have been embittered, and especially
that soul sunshine which emanates from Him who
is called the " Sun of Righteousness," and they
would become sweeter, cheerier, and better. Love
is the great sweetener of life, and " God is Lover

Another characteristic of this land is its exuberant
vitality. Everything seems to be alive — the air
you breathe, the ground you tread upon, the water
you drink. You cannot walk out in the garden
without your feet and ankles being covered with
" bete-rouge." This is a very small insect that you
can hardly see with the naked eye ; they make their
way through your stockings and produce a most

ITo face p. 51.
AN ORCHID ASSOCIATED WITH OTHER EPIPHYTES.

THE LAND WHERE SUGAR GROWS
painful irritation. The ladies when they come in,
and even gentlemen too, must at once retire to
the bath, and try what soap and water will do to
rid them of these torments. If you avoid the grass
and keep to the road, then you have, if it be night,
the frogs jumping from under your feet ; and at
certain seasons the air is filled with millions
of sandflies {^Similium pertinax). These come
against your face and neck, and you feel as if a
thousand needle-points were pricking into you
at the same time. These sandflies are so minute
that you cannot see them, but you are soon made
aware of their presence. Mosquitoes are bad, but
sandflies are worse. Plucking a beautiful flower, I
was just lifting it up to my nose to draw in its
perfume, when a friend by my side said " Don't."
" Why ? " I asked. " Because in many flowers there
are small insects lodging, and you might draw
them up into your nostrils and sufl'er very much
in consequence."

The richness of the soil here and the profusion
of plant life are well known. Tropical growth and
tropical exuberance characterise field and forest.
Land that has once been cultivated if left alone
soon becomes a tangled mass of vegetation, difficult
for a man to pass through. Creeping plants and
floral vines spring up and entwine themselves

BRITISH GUIANA

around the larger trees and hang in festoons from
the branches, sometimes making a very plain tree
one mass of floral beauty. Nature here seems to
gambol and delight in her prodigality. Hanging
up in my drawing-room is what is called " the
leaf of life " — Byrophyllum calycmum. It is so
called because every part of it is so full of life
that, put it where you will, it " sprouts," and
develops both roots and buds. Hang it up to
a gas-pipe and it will keep green and fresh for
months ; if there is the least moisture it will grow
and propagate. Put the leaves of this plant on
moist soil, and they will begin to grow and form a
quantity of plants on each leaf. It would seem
almost to be a " leaf" of that tree of Life which
grew in the midst of the garden of Eden.

The staple product of this land is sugar. A cer-
tain amount of coffee is grown, and cocoa and rice,
&c., but sugar is king. This fact explains what is
meant by " plantations " and " estates," into which
the three provinces of Essequebo, Demerara, and
Berbice are largely divided. But I shall tell you
more about these later on.

We have also our villages, some of which are
very picturesque and thriving. One of the nicest
that I have seen so far is Sandvort. It is about
three miles distant from New Amsterdam, and about

5«

THE LAND WHERE SUGAR GROWS
two miles from a place called " Orange," so named
on account of the number of orange trees that
used to grow there. A walk along the forest paths,
or through the village garden, if one may call it
such, shows us new plants and flowers at every turn.
Birds of gorgeous plumage sit upon the branches
of the trees, some yellow, some a deep dark
red, some ruby, some white, some maroon, some
black ; and beautiful many-coloured butterflies flit
from leaf to leaf and flower to flower, all adding
to the intensity and beauty of the scene.

Such walks, however, must be taken in the day-
time, and even then with care, for insects and
reptiles, and even savage animals, lurk among
the shrubs and flowers. Even we in the town are
sometimes disturbed by "tigers," jaguars, cam-
moudi, snakes &c. A week or two ago, our local
paper. The Gazette, contained the following para-
graph : " A labba tiger was shot in the promenade
gardens on Tuesday afternoon. Some visitors saw
the animal in the heat of the day, lying comfortably
on one of the garden seats, but as soon as it saw them
it ran up one of the trees. An alarm was raised,
and Lieut. Swain, who had been made aware of
the presence of the beast, shortly put in an appear-
ance armed with a gun. The tree was not very
high where the tiger was, and, taking good aim,

BRITISH GUIANA
he shot the intruder through the head. The tiger
measured four feet within four inches, and stood
a foot and a half high" {Gazette, June 27, 1896).
A month later, July 22nd, the same paper con-
tained a short account of an alligator attacking
a coolie boy in one of our villages and dragging
him into the water. The following is the account
of the incident : " A coolie boy was lying on the
bank of the trench with his hand in the water,
when it was seized and he was dragged into the
trench. Soomanah, a coolie woman, heard his
scream, and seeing him in the trench thought he
had got out of his depth whilst bathing, so she
jumped in after him, then she gave vent to a
series of deeply religious objurgations, terminating
with * Alligator! This, Mr. Wrong says he heard,
the trench being close to his house, and he ran
from his bed (he had fever) to the trench, where
he found the woman's clothes enfolding the
alligator, and her natural position reversed, her
head being in the mud. He jumped upon the
alligator, grasping its neck, and trying to tread
it down with his feet, but at last he had to grasp
the upper and lower jaws and tear them open
before the brute let go its victim. The boy's arm
was mangled and broken above the elbow. The
reptile sank in deep water and disappeared."

THE LAND WHERE SUGAR GROWS
About the people of this land, their callings
and customs, their manners and morals, their races
and religions, I must tell you in another chapter.
Suffice it to say that it is a land as yet in its
infancy, but it has in it the elements of growth,
and of greatness.

" There are many things in the womb of Time
Yet to be delivered."

THE HISTORY OF A POUND OF SUGAR

" T~^0 you take sugar in your tea?" asked the
L' lady at the head of the table, in a soft
musical voice and with a pleasant smile upon her
face.

" Madam, I like all sweet things," I replied ; " I
like a sweet face, a sweet disposition, a sweet child,
and a sweet lady^ madam, like you."

" You are complimentary, I perceive," she said.

"Compliments help to sweeten life, and we
should never withhold them where they are due.
The present example is a case in point. But may
I ask you what kind of sugar this is ? "

" This is what is called Demerara Crystals," she
said, " biit you would not believe what a difficulty
I have had in procuring it. Brown sugar and
what is called raw sugar you can get at any
grocer's shop. But in most cases this is sugar

THE HISTORY OF A POUND OF SUGAR
made from beetroot, and coloured to make it look
like the sugar which comes from the sweet cane.
Few housekeepers here know the respective values
of these two sugars. Indeed, like most things of
everyday use, people get them and seldom make
any inquiry about them."

" Madam, I am so pleased to hear you speak
thus. I wish we had more ladies who inquire into,
and interest themselves in, the products that are
put upon our tables. Each one of these products
has a history, and results that are not only national
but worldwide often follow our choice or rejection
of them. As a great door hangs upon little hinges,
so great events turn upon little things. Some lady
who leads the fashions in Paris substitutes alpaca
as a dress material for silk. This is quickly fol-
lowed by the Courts of Europe and the aristocracy.
Their example is copied by all the other classes
of society. The result is that the silk industry is
ruined. The mills at Macclesfield and Congleton
and Derby first run short time and then stop.
The workmen have no work, the children cry for
bread ; homes are broken up, and fathers and mothers
have to go forth to seek a new home and a new
employment. This kind of thing is going on
constantly. Change brings change. Electricity is
being substituted for gas here. Already the gas

BRITISH GUIANA
shares have gone down fifty per cent, and a
number of men are thrown out of employment.
Society is like rows of bricks set on end and
leaning one upon another ; when one falls a number
fall with it. Cane sugar was once the dominant
sweetener. It had the field all to itself It reigned
without a rival there. But during the Napoleonic
wars with England, France and Germany could
not get their sugar from the West Indies as before,
and so Napoleon had sugar made from beetroot.
That sugar most of our English people use, not
because it is better, but because it is, as they think,
a little cheaper. But in this they are very much
mistaken, for the cane sugar has double the sweet-
ening power of beetroot sugar. One pound of
Demerara crystals will sweeten as much as two
pounds of white or brown beetroot. In addition
to this there are the wholesome qualities of the
cane juice. During the sugar harvest, black boys
and girls, and even black men and women and
coolies, may be seen walking along the road with
a long stick of sugarcane in their hands, often
chewing away at it with pleasure and satisfaction.
Indeed, as Dr. Brewer says, ' Every creature,
whether man or animal, during the sugar harvest
appears to derive benefit from its use and becomes
fat and healthy.' "

THE HISTORY OF A POUND OF SUGAR

" Will you tell us," said the lady of the house,
" how this sugar is made ? The children have just
been saying how much they would like you to
give them a history of it."

" It is always a pleasure, madam, to gratify your

desires, providing, as Sir Walter Scott says, * they

be virtuous,' and as for these children — bless their

sweet faces— who could refuse them anything ?

Now, children, you know, if we want to understand

the history of a thing we must go back to the very

beginning ; and to get back to the beginning of

this thing, Demerara sugar, we must take ship

and sail away about 4,500 miles to a land called

British Guiana. And a very wonderful land in

many respects it is. It is a land of perpetual

sunshine and perpetual summer. We might say

of it—

" ' There is a land, a sunny land,
Whose skies are ever bright.'

Frost and fog, snow and ice are unknown. No
chilling blast invades this clime ; it is always genial,
bright, and hot. The trees are always green, the
flowers always bloom, the birds and butterflies are
always on the wing.

"It is also a land of large rivers, of mixed races,
of dense forests and of immense savannahs. Birds
o( gorgeous plumage fly through the air and jump

BRITISH GUIANA
from twig to twig ; the ground at night becomes
star-bespangled with myriads of electric fireflies ;
insects everywhere whistle and sing. It is a land
of sweet-smelling flowers, of luscious fruits, of
milky nuts, and many other things that are
pleasant to the eyes and sweet to the taste.

" But it is of the sweet cane I want to tell you.

It is very ancient, for we read of it in some of

the early books of the Bible. The prophet Isaiah

(xliii. 24), speaking for Jehovah, complains that

Israel had not honoured God with his sacrifices

and oflerings, and he says, *Thou hast bought

me no sweet cane with money.' And Jeremiah

says (vi. 20), ' To what purpose cometh there to

me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from

a far country ? ' From these passages we learn

that the sugarcane was grown in Palestine some

three thousand years ago as well as in other

countries, and was often brought as an offering

unto God. Between those days of three thousand

years ago and these a considerable difference

exists, but the sugarcane is practically the same.

" Nearly all the cultivated portion of British

Guiana is devoted to the growth and production

of the sugarcane. All the land on the seacoast

is divided into estates or plantations. Each of

these plantations contain from five hundred to two

THE HISTORY OF A POUND OF SUGAR

thousand acres. It is one of the beautiful sights
of the country to see these plantations when the
cane has grown and is in full bloom ; and it is
also very interesting to see the labourers at work
in the fields, some ploughing, some planting, some
weeding, and some trashing. A sugar estate is
always a place of varied activity. In connection
with it is a ' mill ' for the grinding of the canes
and the making of sugar. In this mill very costly
machinery is used, and thousands upon thousands
of pounds are invested in this sweet industry. By
the kindness of one of the managers we will now
go over the sugar plantation, and begin at the
very beginning.

" And first of all there is the land. That is the
basis of all our operations. We cannot value it
too much or prize it too highly. Have you ever
thought of it, that everything we have comes out
of the land ? Labour and land are the two great
producers. All our wealth comes from the union
between these two."

" What," says Arthur, " does everything come
from the land ? "

"Yes. Here is this table, made out of a tree of
the forest. Here is this white cloth, it is made out
of the inner bark of the flax. Here are the cups
and saucers made out of the clay. Your woollen

BRITISH GUIANA
jacket comes from the back of a sheep that feeds
on the land, your boots from the skin of the ox or
the horse ; all our calicoes are made out of cotton
that grows on the trees; our tea, our sugar, our
butter, our bread, all come out of the land. The
land is the ever fruitful source of all our supplies,
and the land, or * the earth, is the Lord's and the
fulness thereof

" The first thing to be done with the land, says
the overseer, is to clear it and drain it. In order
to do that thoroughly, and have a supply of fresh
water in the time of drought, we dig these large
trenches round and across the fields. We then
begin planting. We take the tops of cane and
plant them closely together in rows. These rows
have to be six feet apart. In that field there, you
see a number of black women and girls and coolies
at work. They have hardly anything on, for the
sun is very hot. If a kind Providence had not
protected their heads with a strong thick covering
of wool, they could not have stood out under the
burning rays of that sun. There they will work
for a whole day, and at the end of the day they
will have earned 'two bits,' that is eightpence.
When the canes have grown to the height of about
two feet the soil is thrown up on the roots ; this is
done by a shovel or fork and is called ploughing.

THE HISTORY OF A POUND OF SUGAR
This is to be done as occasion requires, and the
ground is to be kept clear of grass and weeds ;
this is called weeding. In about fifteen months
the canes have grown to the height of five and six
feet, the * arrows ' appear, and they are ready for
cutting. Then comes the harvest. It requires a
strong arm to cut those canes. This is usually
done by black men. They are much stronger
than the coolies and can get through more work.
For cutting the canes they get from 48 cents a day.
The stumps of the canes left in the earth spring up
again. These are called ratoons, and at the end
of twelve or thirteen months they are ready for
the harvest. The canes have to be cut as near the
ground as possible, because the richest juice is
found in the lower joints. After they are cut, the
canes are conveyed to the factory in iron punts
that are drawn by mules up the trenches. They
are then placed in a machine called the * crusher,'
which consists of two very heavy and powerful
rollers. These rollers will weigh from five to six
tons each, and are made of the best wrought-iron.
From 100 lbs. of canes, 65 lbs. to 75 lbs. of cane
juice will be expressed or squeezed out. This
juice, which is of a sweetish taste and of the colour
of dirty water, passes at once into a small reser-
voir, where it usually receives a dose of quicklime,

BRITISH GUIANA

and without delay runs off to large iron or copper
vessels, which are heated by steam pipes. As the
temperature of the juice rises, a thick scum forms
on the top ; this is either removed by skimming,
or the juice is drawn off from below. It then
passes into other pans, which are heated by fires
under them, and as it is made to boil and bubble
the impurities rise to the surface and are removed.
After it has been clarified and reduced to a certain
consistency by heat, it is drawn off into what is
called the 'vacuum pan.' This is a large cylin-
drical copper pan, from nine feet to twelve feet in
diameter, heated to about 1500F. Inside this the
juice is whirled round, and as it proceeds, crystals
begin to form. When it is sufficiently thick it is
run out into coolers, and the liquid that comes
from this is called molasses or treacle. The sugar
is then packed off into bags or hogsheads. After
that it is taken to the wharf and shipped to those
countries where it is needed. So, you see, that
sugar with which you sweeten your tea was once
the juice or the sap running up the little pipes or
ducts of the sugarcane ; and black men and women
from Africa, and red men and women from India,
and yellow men and women from China, and
Portuguese and English have all been employed
to get you that sugar with which you sweeten
your delightful cup of tea."

IN A TROPICAL HOUSE

ONE of the first things that strikes you on
going ashore, and especially if it be night
and the rainy season, is the hissing, whistling,
and croaking sounds that fill the air. You could
fancy yourself in some factory with the machinery
running at full speed. This is caused by the insects
that creep out in the darkness, like one of old
" seeking whom they may devour." Their name
is Legion. In addition to the mosquitoes, which,
like the poor, " ye have always with you," we have
the black beetles, known by the name of cockles
and hardbacks ; also cockroaches, and grasshoppers,
and locusts, the sawyer beetle, the scissors-grinder,
the great borer, the stag-horn beetle, the candle fly,
the maribuntas, and a whole host beside which set
up their nightly music. In addition to these there
65 E

BRITISH GUIANA
are the swarms of frogs that infest the wayside, the
roads, and the trenches.

" Frogs to the right of you,
Frogs to the left of you.
Frogs in front of you
Whistle and croak."

Big frogs with big bass voices that can be heard
one or two miles away, and little ones that whistle
and wheeze, all in a chorus of their own. As my
wife said, "This is the very paradise of insects."
The insect concert commences at dusk. At that
time the performers begin to tune their instruments.
There is a beetle called here " the six o'clock beetle"
that leads off the entertainment. He might be
called the conductor. With a shrill whistle he
sounds the keynote ; the others take it up, and
soon the music is in full fling.

Having piloted our way through these hordes of
insects, but not without many a sting and blister,
we arrive at a tropical house. These houses are
very different from what we are accustomed to at
home. They are built entirely of wood.

As you will notice from the picture, they stand
on brick or wooden pillars about eight feet from
the ground. This at once secures them from the
damp, which at certain seasons of the year is very
considerable ; also from the crawling reptiles and

IN A TROPICAL HOUSE

the buzzing insects. It also lifts them from the
miasma which, in the night season, rises to a
height of about six feet. To get into these
houses you have to ascend a flight of steps from
the outside, so that you are literally always living
upstairs. Running along the front of the house is
the verandah, or gallery. This is sometimes open,
but more frequently closed in with three or four
windows and jalousies. These jalousies are an
arrangement of wood made on the principle of
a Venetian blind, which you can open or shut
at pleasure. When open they let in the breeze,
at the same time excluding the sun. When
closed they exclude both rain and light. The
gallery, or verandah, is the coolest part of the
house. There we sit and meet our friends, the
pleasant cool breeze fanning our cheeks and
modifying the otherwise oppressive heat of the
sun. A tropical house has, of necessity, many
windows. The one I am now writing in has
thirty ; some have twice that number. These
windows are, for the most part, wide open during
the day, letting a current of cool air blow freely
through every room. In England we are accustomed
to see chimneys on the top of every house. Who
would think of building a house without a chimney ?
But here the houses are without chimneys. We do

BRITISH GUIANA
not need them, for we have no fireplaces in any
of our rooms. At home, when you go into the
breakfast-room or the drawing-room you sit
by the fire. But when you come out here, you
do not know which way to sit at first ; you may
turn any way you like, but after a while you
naturally sit with your face to the breeze.

"If you have no fires," you say, " how do you cook
your food ? " Well, that is an important question,
for we cannot, as Carlyle says the Tartars do, make
our steak ready by riding on it. The kitchen or
cooking-place is a little room adjoining the house.
There the sable cook prepares all our food, some-
times in an American or English stove, and if you
be poor and cannot afford one of these, in what is
called a " coal-pot." The fuel used is wood, which
can be got in large quantities from the forest.
When you enter a house in England after a
long journey, one of the first things that a
hospitable hostess asks you to do is to "come
upstairs and wash yourself" There you go into
the bathroom, and you have only to turn the tap
and either hot or cold water comes at your call.
But here we have no water in our houses. Taps
are an unknown thing, unless it be the tap at the
rum-shop. And yet a good wash in clean, cool
water is even more necessary and more refreshing

IN A TROPICAL HOUSE
in a hot country than a cold one. If you have been
out you come home heated, perspiration oozing out
at every pore, your hands, your face, your neck,
your whole body wet and sticky ; a bath after this
is quite a luxury. But where must we get the
water? We have no reservoirs, no river- water
that is fit, no mountain lakes. But we have the
fountain that supplies all these, namely, the clouds
and the rain. The water that falls in showers upon
our houses is conducted, by means of pipes, into
large vats. Every good house and every large
building has its vat. In these vats the best of
water, that which comes down direct from heaven,
is stored, and from these we draw our supplies.

On going into the bedroom you will be surprised
to see the bed enclosed by a thin white netting ;
this is to keep out the mosquitoes. It is securely
fastened at the top, and tucked in under the mattress
at the bottom. When you want to get into bed,
you look round to see that there are no "misskitties"
near ; then pulling out the curtain, you jump in and
tuck it under again quick ; then sitting up and
looking round, you feel very much like a bird
in a cage. These mosquito curtains are very
necessary and a great comfort — not only as
preservatives against these stinging insects, but
for keeping out rats, and bats, and centipedes,

69 %

BRITISH GUIANA
and tarantuli, &c. One night I woke up to find
that a bat had in some way got under my netting
and into my bed. Now bats I do not like ; they
are too much like a mouse and too little like a bird.
And of all places I certainly do not like one in bed.
I went for the creature, but as the Scotchman would
say, "it gaed oot o sicht." We have many bats
here, and some of a very large kind. The vampyre
bat sometimes measures two or more feet across
the wings. These bats are called blood-suckers,
for they approach a sleeping person and, without
waking him, puncture some vein and drink the
blood. Some children living in the interior have
been known to be quite pale, weak, and emaciated
from loss of blood in this way. I myself once
woke up to find my leg covered with blood from
this same cause. Another creature to be dreaded
is the centipede. These creatures have forty-two
legs and eight eyes ; but what is more important
still, they have a venomous bite. The natives here
are much afraid of them, and they say "If centipede
bite you, you must get fever." These creatures
hide in the corners and crevices of the houses,
and especially in old houses. I have seen them
crawling up the mosquito curtains, and more
than once they have dropped out of my pants
as I took them up to put them on. In fact it

IN A TROPICAL HOUSE
is necessary here to give all your clothes a good
shake before putting them on. A lady will find
one in the folds of her skirt, and inside the slipper
seems a favourite resort for them. One lady that
I knew, whilst busy at her toilet, felt something
crawling on her shoulder ; she screamed and called
her husband, and he had just time to knock the
centipede off before biting her in the neck. One
day whilst I sat at dinner in a friend's house, I felt
something crawling up my leg. Gripping it through
my trousers. I said " Excuse me," and walked off,
holding it tightly, into a private room ; there pulling
up my trousers slop, I found a large centipede, but
my firm grip had effectually prevented its bite and
its sting.

Another very troublesome insect is the " chigor,"
or " jigger " as it is called here — Pulex penetrans,
the " penetrating flea." You do not see them, they
are so small, but you feel them. They chiefly
attack the feet, and seem to be very fond of the
fleshy part of the toes. My first experience of
them was as follows. One night I felt a peculiar
itching sensation under one of my toes. And, as
Burton says in his " Anatomy of Melancholy," " a
man must needs scratch where it itches." So to
work I went. Next day it was pretty much the
same ; then I found a kind of white spot, and th^

BRITISH GUIANA
symptoms got worse. On asking the old black
nurse about it, she said, " Oh, parson, dat am de
jigger," and she began to explain. I said, " Well,
I'm jiggered ! But it must come out." So a
stocking-needle was produced and they began
to poke away at this poor toe till they had got
a hole in about the size of a pea, and out of
that they pulled a bag-like nest which the chigoe
had formed and in which it had laid its eggs.
Rubbing some tobacco-dust in the wound, which
made me dance for a few moments, it soon got all
right. You will now understand the native proverb,
" Me bin a good dance man, but chiggah 'pile me
foot." But I must not weary you with these stories.
If you are at home in England, go to your bed and,
as you lie there, thank God that you do not see
the rats " playing hide-and-seek " and " leap-frog "
around your bed, and that there are no cock-
roaches in the folds of your pillow, waiting for
a favourable opportunity to get near you and
pick your teeth.

Life in the tropics is very different from life in
the temperate zone. Our days and nights are about
equal all the year round. It comes light about a
quarter before six, and at that time we are astir.
The little black butler brings you upstairs a cup of
Berbice coffee. As soon as it is brought into the

IN A TROPICAL HOUSE
room you smell it. It is just like a posy ; its aroma
fills the house. We could not get on without our
" cawfee in de marnin'," as you will see from the
song of poor old Jane.

"Some people likes de choklet, some people likes de tea,
Some drinks de sugar-watah, and some de lemonade ;
But I ca'e fo' none o' dose, de only t'ing fo' me,
Is me bowl o' bilin' ca\vfee in de marnin'.

I'se an ole woman now and does often punis' haad,
But I'se had me good days, and I mus' satisfy ;
I can still hoi' togedder and still praise de Laad,
If I only gets me ca\vfee in de marnin'.

Sometimes I has it grand wid me sal'fish and me fat.
And de yellow-plantain biled, and green peppa and some

rice;
But what me mind does gi'e me fo', mo' better dan all dat.
Is me cawfee wid a gill-bread in de marnin'.

Wid de gun-fire I gets up ebery marnin', dry or wet.
So as neber to be lated fo' de work I has to do ;
And I gen'lly says me praye's — unless I does fo'get.
But I always drinks me cawfee in de marnin'."

(From the Arg^osy.)

Along with the coffee is a little bread and butter
or a little toasted cassava cake, which is an
excellent repast. After this we have our bath,
pouring the water over the body with the
"calabash," which makes a splendid substitute
for an earthenware pot. Our toilet being finished,

BRITISH GUIANA
we get downstairs to our work. By seven o'clock
the streets of the town are quite busy, and from
that time on, the " stores " are in full fling. This
being the cool part of the day, the Europeans often
avail themselves of it to walk abroad, and it is not
unusual for calls to be made even at that early
hour. Breakfast is taken from ten to eleven,
and in some respects is a more substantial meal
than the one taken in England. Fish is plentiful,
and we have some excellent kinds. The queriman,
sometimes called the " Guianese salmon," is a fish
not unworthy of that name. Fried queriman
steaks, or gillbacher, or snapper, we can get five
mornings out of seven, and at a very reasonable
price. To fish we have, as a rule, " rice " and yam,
and cassava, and sweet potato, and plantain.
About two, we take a little fruit for lunch. And
of this we have a great variety and plentiful supply.
Our houses, as a rule, are surrounded by fruit trees.
Just under one of my windows is an orange tree
loaded with Seville oranges, and a few yards from
it, under another window, is a lemon tree, its
branches bending under the weight of the large
green lemons. Right opposite where I write is
a pomegranate tree, also full of fruit. Then we
have mango trees, and guava trees, and star-apples,
and cocoanut trees, and bananas, and sappodillas,

IN A TROPICAL HOUSE
and granodilloes, and pines, besides many others ;
so that we are never at a loss for fruit. Spiced
mangoes are a special favourite just now, and
bananas, so soft and juicy, are always nice. A
lady'^s finger of the ruddy-skinned banana, when
offered by a lady, who could refuse? Pine-
apples fresh cut we can often get ; " half a
bitt " will sometimes purchase one in the country,
and a " bitt " in the town. The other day we had
a fine water-melon sent to us by a lady ; it must
have been twelve or fourteen inches long, and
weighed as many pounds.

Dinner hour is about seven. By that time the
heat of the day is over and you feel more inclined
to eat. The usual course is soup — and they are
excellent soup makers in this country. A good
cook will give you a fresh kind of soup for every
day in the week. " Foo-foo " soup is a great
favourite amongst the people. It is a soup into
which they put pounded plantains made into
little balls. After soup comes fish, then fowl, or
a roast, then pudding, and a cup of tea to " loose
the talking ganglions and aid digestion." Of course
I have described an ordinary dinner for the middle
class. There are those who add to this, and those
who have to subtract. Some never begin either
breakfast or dinner without their swizzle, their

BRITISH GUIANA
cocktail or their " Morning Glory " ; whilst others,
again, have to be satisfied with a good dish of
foo-foo and vegetables. It is here as in other
places —

" Some ha' meat that canna eat,
And some can eat that want it ;
But we ha' meat, and we can eat,
And so the Lord be thankit."

IN A TROPICAL CITY

HAVING given you some account of the
house and the way we Hve, let us now
go outside and look around us. This is the city
of Georgetown, the finest city in the whole of
the West Indies. It stands at the mouth of the
river Demerara. This river is called by the
Spaniards " Rio-de-Mirara " — the wonderful river,
and by the Dutch " Demerary," from Demirar — the
wonderful. The source of this river has not yet
been explored. Away in the interior, not far from
the equatorial line, it is supposed to have its origin
in two small streams. Its course is from south-
east to north-west. At its mouth it is about two
miles broad, and sheltered from every wind.
Bell, in his " Geography," says : " It is never
visited by those tremendous hurricanes so frequent
in tropical countries, and so destructive in the

BRITISH GUIANA
West Indian Islands ; it forms one of the finest
harbours in the world, and could with ease contain
the whole navy of Great Britain." Unfortunately,
however, a bar of sand stretches across its mouth,
over which no vessel drawing more than nine feet
of water can pass until half-flood. At high water
in spring tides, when the bar is covered to the
depth of eighteen feet, larger vessels can pass, but
they still require very cautious navigation. The
water of this river is very muddy, being about the
colour of pea-soup, and the sea for many miles
round is tinged with the same hue. Up above the
falls, however, the water is fresh, and its colour
very clear. Good-sized vessels can run up a
distance of about seventy-five miles, and smaller
ones a little further. Then their progress is
stopped by the cataracts. Some of these are
very large and difficult to overcome. It is a
river that in many respects is to be dreaded. On
account of the number of sharks, it is dangerous
for any one to venture into it. Its current is
ery rapid and powerful, and the under-currents
are equally strong. Sailors or boatmen who
happen to fall into it are seldom seen again.
The strong under-current carries them down and
away, and the voracious monsters soon make them
an easy prey.

IN A tROPICAL CITY
The harbour, which is the mouth of the river
itself, is a spacious one, and it is a beautiful sight
to see the ships of all kinds riding at anchor.
Schooners and brigs ready to start out, some to
the rivers that flow through the interior, to the
gold diggings, and the wood-cutting grants, and
the distant sugar plantations, and others to the
nearest of the West Indian islands — Trinidad,
Grenada, Barbadoes, &c., whilst others are off to
New Amsterdam and Surinam. The larger steam-
ships that ply between America and Canada and
Great Britain give an appearance of activity and
commercial prosperity to the scene. Once a
fortnight the West Indian royal mail arrives,
bringing its freight of letters and passengers from
the homeland. And every now and then large
sailing vessels enter the port from India, with their
living freight of coolies for the sugar plantations ;
and large ice ships from America with a plentiful
supply of that cool and delicious commodity, which
can be bought all the year round at one cent per
pound. Indeed, ice is almost as common here as
at the North Pole. In addition to the ice, these
ships bring a plentiful supply of fresh vegetables
and fruit and fresh meat, kept cool and nice by
the refrigerators and in the ice chambers.

The city of Georgetown to-day is a very dif-
79

BRITISH GUIANA
ferent place from what it used to be. Like most
places, it has had its day of small beginnings.
Rome was not built in a day. As every oak tree
was once an acorn, so Georgetown was once a
single street. About the beginning of this century,
two rows of isolated buildings, with a grass plot
between them for a road, ran in an easterly
direction towards the bush. These rows of houses
were called Stabroek, and they were the nucleus
from which this large and magnificent city has
sprung. Any one walking up "Brick Dam" to-day
would hardly identify it as the Stabroek of
a hundred years ago ; yet so it is. The Rev.
J. V. P. Bronkhurst, writing in 1883, says : " Those
who knew Georgetown as it was twenty years ago
would hardly know it for the same place." So
great has been the improvement, and so radical
the changes.

Any one stepping ashore from the old world
at once notices how different everything is around
him. He is no longer in a city belted by the
temperate zone, where the houses are built of
stone, and people walk about heavily clad and
muffled up. A top-coat out here is a rarity.
Indeed, one would sometimes be glad to dispense
with a coat altogether. A man soon finds out
that he is in an atmosphere where clothes are not
80

IN A TROPICAL CITY
needed, save for decency's sake, and are sometimes
a positive inconvenience. When a European comes
out here, at first, especially if he be an Englishman
or a Scotchman, you will see him walking down
the street at a good brisk pace, as much as to say
to the natives who are loitering along, " Wake up
there and look alive; are you all going to a
funeral ? " But after a few months he tones down.
He finds that the home pace won't do out here.
A man has to learn to take things " cool."

As soon as we have walked down the stelling,
where the ship lands us, we find ourselves in Water
Street. This street runs parallel to the river. It
is a business thoroughfare. Here the " merchants
most do congregate." A view of it presented helps
to give some idea of its buildings and extent. At
one end stands the market with its prominent
tower. It was built about fifty years ago and cost
57,000 dollars. It is a fine building, replete with
stalls, offices, shops, and enclosed with handsome
iron railings. A walk through the market in the
early morning is interesting, comic, and instructive.
There you see all kinds of people and all kinds of
things. Men and women of different colours and
different nationalities are walking about — Indians
from Madras, Calcutta, or Bombay ; they have not
yet cast off their native dress, in their eastern
81 F

BRITISH GUIANA
costume they jostle against you ; Chinese with
their peculiar round faces, their long pigtails, and
their " baggy breeks " are fresh from the Celestial
Empire ; negroes of all shades of black, some from
Africa, but most of them born in the colony, are
looking and laughing and grimacing ; Portuguese
from Madeira and the Azores ; and occasionally
an Englishman and a "braw laddie," from "beyont
the Tweed." Sometimes the interest is heightened
by a group of almost naked Indians from the
interior. These have a few curiosities to barter,
and perhaps a parrot or two and a monkey, the
latter being only a little less bewildered than they.
As to the language that is being spoken, you would
think yourself in the tower of Babel itself. It is
a confusion of tongues, out of which comes a kind
of broken English, and business is done. There
is one peculiarity out here in the marketing, and
that is, it has to be done in the early morning.
Soon after six o'clock all the black cooks of the
city and the poorer people have to go to the
market. The meat and provisions must be bought
for the day. They are then fresh, but if not got
and cooked they will be bad in a few hours. Every
day has to have its own supply ; so every morning
cook meets with cook, and they have a nice little
gossip in their own innocent way.

li'o jacep. 82.
COOKIE HAVING A GOSSIl' ON THE WAY.

IN A TROPICAL CITY
It would take too long to tell of all the interest-
ing things to be seen in that market. Chief
among them all are the vegetables, fruits, and
flowers. Tropical vegetables are very numerous,
and very different from those which we find at
home. Amongst them standing pre-eminent as
an article of food are the plantains. These, when
full-grown but unripe, supply the place of bread,
being roasted or boiled. When ripe they are a
soft, sweet, yellow pulp, and are eaten by way of
dessert either boiled, fried, or roasted in the husk.
These plantains form the staple diet of the poorer ]
people out here. Pounded and put in soup, they
make an excellent dish called " foo-foo." Large
bunches of plantains weighing from fifty to a
hundred pounds are seen upon the stalls. Then
there are white yams and buck yams, bitter and
sweet cassava, tannias, and eddoes, sweet potatoes,
pumpkins, squashes, breadfruits, ochroes, papaws,
egg-plants, &c. Among the fruits are to be seen
bananas, pineapples, mangoes, limes, sappodillas,
star apples, mamee apples, sugar apples, custard
apples, soursops, granadillas, simitoes, guavas,
avocado pears, water melons, grapes, sweet
oranges, Seville oranges, citrons, shaddocks, the
forbidden fruit, &c., &c. Of flowers there are an
immense variety — roses, ferns, begonias, orchids,

BRITISH GUIANA

jessamines, crotons, lilies, Victoria regias, &c. A
fuller description of all these must be reserved for
another chapter.

Leaving the market and passing along Water
Street, we find ourselves in the midst of the stores.
These stores are like large warehouses. There is
not much display outside, but a wonderful variety
of wealth within. Each store is, not a single shop,
but a nest of shops. It is a combination of
different departments. The hardware and the
smallware, and the drapery, and the grocery, and
the tailoring, and the furnishing, and the boot and
shoe departments — all under one roof You walk
from one department to another, and whatever
you need can as a rule be supplied. There are
goods from Britain, from America, from Canada,
from China, from India, and from nearly every
part of the world. Stock to the value of ten or
even twenty thousand pounds is sometimes found
in one of these stores. One peculiarity about our
currency here is that whilst we use for the most
part English money, chiefly silver, we reckon
everything in dollars and cents. The price of an
article is one dollar and twenty cents, say ; you
have to translate that into its English equivalent,
viz., five shillings. To a foreigner this is sometimes
a little perplexing, but one soon gets into it, and

IN A TROPICAL CITY

reckoning then becomes easy. The poorer people
have different names for some of the coins. For
example, a penny they call a " gill," and a four-
penny piece a " bitt," and a halfpenny a cent.
You ask a hawker the price of a thing and he
says, "Five gills and a bitt and a cent," that is
ninepence-halfpenny. For a fowl he wants " five
bitts and three gills," that is one shilling and
elevenpence. Some of them make a difference
between what they call a dollar and a " round
dollar," the round dollar being four shillings and
the dollar four shillings and twopence. The notes
issued by the banks are five-dollar notes, equal
to one pound and tenpence, and ten, twenty, fifty,
or a hundred- dollar notes.

Open trams drawn by mules run on different
routes through the city. These are driven by
black men and coloured men. Black policemen
in white coats parade the streets ; black women,
black babies, black boys and girls, all tend to give
a strange aspect to the scene. The large building
at this end of the picture with the tower is the
post-office, and in the same building on the upper
story is the library connected with the " Royal
Agricultural and Commercial Society," and in
another room adjoining is the museum. These
places are full of interest and well repay a visit.
8s

BRITISH GUIANA
Following this street out with a little curve to the
right, we enter the district called Kingstown.
There we see the lighthouse, a very useful, if not
imposing, structure. It is built of brick, and has
an iron roof and gallery. Its height is about a
hundred feet. At night a powerful fixed light is
burned, which may be seen many miles off. This
lighthouse is in communication with the light-
ship, which is anchored at the " bar " of the river,
and from which vessels coming to Georgetown
procure a pilot. The arrival of a steamship is
signalled by the firing of a gun.

Kingstown is one of the nicest and healthiest
parts of the city. A grand sea-wall has been
built at an enormous cost, and on the top of it
is a splendid promenade. Civilians find recreation
and renewed health by taking a constitutional on
this delightful promenade. The grand outlook
over the sea, with the soft, cool breeze farming
your cheeks, the beautiful palm trees behind, and
the strains of music from the band which plays at
certain hours nearly every day, help to quiet the
restive mind and drive dull care away. Many a
white face have I seen lost in pensive thought ;
the young soul dreaming of the loved ones in the
homeland far away.

IN A TROPICAL CITY

" Some have gone to lands far distant,
And with strangers made their home ;
Some upon the world of waters
All their lives are forced to roam.
Some have gone from us for ever.
Longer here they might not stay ;
They have reached a fairer region
Far away, far away.''

Leaving that delightful spot, we return by way
of Main Street. This street runs parallel to
Water Street — indeed, all the streets run at right
angles to each other, i.e.^ north and south, east and
west. In this street are to be found some of the
finest tropical residences. Indeed, you can hardly
call it a street in the sense in which that word is
used at home. It is more like the entrance to a
park. Grand villa residences of various styles of
architecture, some with a tower and others with a
cupola three or four stories high, and all of them
surrounded with a garden, line the street on both
sides. A great, broad, fresh-water trench runs up
the centre ; its banks lined with trees, give a shade
and an appearance of coolness that is refreshing.
The water is covered with the magnificent Victoria
regia, the leaf of which is shaped like a " frying-
pan," and is sometimes two and three feet in
diameter. The flower is as large as a man's head.
The houses are built for coolness as well as com-

BRITISH GUIANA
fort, and the wide, shady verandahs are the
favourite resorts of the family. Many of the
gardens are brilliant masses of colour, and the rich
perfume of these tropical plants scents the sur-
rounding air.

Running parallel with Main Street is Camp
Street, a picture of which is here presented. It
gives a fine view of the fresh-water trench filled
with the Victoria regia. On each side, as in
Main Street, are fine tropical residences ; the
large cabbage-palms, with a profusion of other
tropical trees, making a scene which delights the
eye of the observant. At the far end is the Roman
Catholic Cathedral, the finest religious edifice to
be found in the city.

Following this street out in the direction of the
cathedral, we come to Brick Dam. This, whilst
the most ancient, is also one of the most beautiful
streets in the city. Carriages run along it, hardly
making any noise, for you have no stone pavement
here, but a hardened kind of gravel. On a base of
broken granite is placed a layer of burnt earth,
what the natives call " burnt dirtie " ; this forms
a substance like broken bricks. On the top of that
is spread a layer of " caddy," or small shells, got
from the seaside. This, pressed down by a steam-
roller, makes a good solid road of a reddish tint.

IN A TROPICAL CITY

The road is wide enough for three or four carriages
to run abreast, and on each side is a little grass
plot and beautiful tropical trees. These afford a
cool and pleasant shade to the heated pedestrian.
In certain months of the year, when some of the
trees are in bloom, it presents the appearance of
a perfect Arcadia. Here and there, on either side,
is to be seen the Flambeaux, or " Burning Bush,"
as it is sometimes called — and the name is not
inappropriate ; for its flaming red leaves, with
the hot sun shining upon them, give it a brilliance
that few other trees possess. Its botanical name
is Poinsettia pulcherrima. Then there is another
— the " Acalypha," the peculiarity of which is that
one part of the leaf is green and the other blood-
red. " The leaf is large and almost round, with a
point, measuring about twelve inches by nine;
colour, dark metallic green, blotched with intense
red."

Passing on beyond these we come to the
" Avenue of Palms." These palm trees, tall and
straight, with their feathery plumes, stand like sen-
tinels on each side of the road, making a picture
that is only to be seen to be admired.

As we are now in the vicinity of the Botanical
Gardens, we might as well extend our walk and
luxuriate there for a short time. These gardens,

BRITISH GUIANA
which are quite of recent formation, cover an area
of about 212 acres. As you enter the large and
magnificent bronzed gate, the soft breeze fans
your cheek and the sweet breath of flowers fills
the air, and a sacred silence reigns around.
Beautiful flower-beds on each side, made still more
beautiful by the neatly-trimmed lawn which
surrounds them, and a profusion of strange plants
and trees and flowers, at once arrest the eye. It
would need a botanist and a florist to describe
them, and even he could only do for the plants
what the anatomist does for the human body. He
could describe the different parts and their relation-
ship to the whole, but you must see these parts
together, and animated by a living soul, to know
the majesty and grandeur of man. So with these
plants and flowers.

Standing there, drinking in the perfume, and
soothed by the soft and silent breeze, your eye
gazing upon flowers and plants and lawns trimmed
neat and in order, you begin to realise that the
"luxuriance" of tropical life has been brought
within the bounds of law and order. Nature here
is no longer wild and wanton, but civilised and
chaste. Her long tresses have been cut and
trimmed, her exuberance directed into right
channels and kept within proper bounds — in short,

IN A TROPICAL CITY
Nature has been beautified by Art. As we walked
along, my friend, who himself belongs to the
tropics, pointed out to me the different kinds of
palm trees that are to be seen. " These two short,
round trees," said he, " with the large, fan-shaped
leaves, are what we call ' fan-palms ' (Latania).
They are fine specimens and of rare beauty.
Yonder is another (Ravenalia), somewhat different.
Of these there are only two kinds in the world. A
peculiarity of one of these fan-palms — the 'Corypha,'
I think — is that it only once flowers and then dies."
How many plants there are that shed their blos-
soms and unfold their flowers year by year — but
this one for years drinks in its nourishment, ener-
gises, and grows, gradually coming to maturity and
ultimate perfection in its flower, then its work is
done, the purpose of its existence is fulfilled — its
leaves wither, the whole tree droops and dies. We,
too, have an ultimate perfection to attain to — we
may blossom here, but the full flowering of the
genus homo lies beyond.

" These tall, straight trees, rising to a height
of fifty or seventy feet, as you know," said my
friend, " are the ' cabbage-palms.' Their trunk
stands like a huge pillar, without a single branch
till within a few feet of the top, where a kind
of huge feathery plume sways to the breeze.

BRITISH GUIANA

" Now those on the other side, though very
similar, are what are called the 'royal-palm.'
There is a difference, you will notice, in the
trunk. The trunk of the royal-palm is shaped
like a bottle — bulges out in the middle ; whilst
the cabbage-palm is straight and almost of equal
thickness, tapering a little towards the top.

" There, with that prickly stem, is the palm
' Coquirita.' This produces a nut that is not
unpleasant eating, if you are hungry and lost
in the bush.

" Then there is the * Ita ' palm, as useful as it
is beautiful.

" But we shall not get through these gardens
to-day, if I am to explain all these peculiar
plants to you. There are three, however, that
I must not omit. One is the 'snow plant,'
which looks as if snow had fallen upon its
leaves. It is a low, bushy plant, but all its
green leaves are dotted with white. Then there
is the * Quisqualis,' or ' Character d'homme,' as
it is sometimes called. Its flowers are noted
for changing from red to white, and on account
of this changeableness it is supposed to resemble
the character of men. This, of course, must have
come from the ladies !

" There is another peculiar plant, called * The
92

IN A TROPICAL CITY

Lady of the Night.' It bears long, large
tubular pendent scented white flowers in great
abundance. These flowers are shut up during
the day, it is said, and open as soon as night
sets in, sending forth a rare fragrance and per-
fume to enrich the dewy eve ; hence its name
' The Lady of the Night' " We strolled on down
the long avenue of trees, towards the " Lamaha "
canal, admiring the massive silk cotton trees, and
the sand-box trees, with their large spreading
branches in some places forming a perfect cover-
ing of leaves over our head ; then we entered
and sat down in one of the rustic and picturesque
Benaabs which are to be found on the way, and
having partaken of a little refreshment, brought
up by our black boy, we entered our carriage
and drove away, carrying with us some fragments
of that " soul of beauty " that dwells for ever in
plant and flower and tree.

Of the public buildings of the city little need
be said. They are not ancient like those of
Athens or of Rome ; but they are beautiful, and
some of them even magnificent. They serve a
double purpose. They are like what we wish
the ladies to be — not only ornamental, but
ornamental and useful.

The Town Hall is a fine structure, and would
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BRITISH GUIANA
do credit to any city, either ancient or modern.
The Law Courts remind you of the same build-
ings in London, and in Strangeways, Manchester.
They represent the spirit of fair play and justice
which is inherent in the British race. Then we
have the " Court of Policy," surrounded by all the
Government offices, forming a solid quadrangle
of architectural beauty as well as gubernatorial
power. Of churches and chapels we have a fair
share, representing at least outwardly our respect
for the religious spirit and religious ideas. And
as Dr. Johnson said his friend Mr. Cammell
(Campbell) was not a religious man, yet he
never passed a church without taking off his
hat, so we, at least, are not deficient in that outer
respect which sacred things have a right to
demand.

In this magnificent tropical city are to be
found, as in all cities, the best and the worst,
the highest and the lowest. There are warm
hearts and hospitable roofs — places for the re-
freshment of the body, the culture of the mind,
the enrichment and ennobling of the soul. You
may have happy fellowship with man, or you
may be charmed with the beauty and excellence
of woman ; or you may wander into the gardens
and get back to Nature — she will soothe you with
94

IN A TROPICAL CITY
the music of her winds, and enchant you with
the perfumed breath of her flowers ; or you may
go back to " Nature's God," to the spirit that
animates all organisms, that breathes through all
entities — the soul of beauty, the heart of love.

" There is a lesson in each flower,
A story in each stream and bower ;
On every herb on which you tread
Are written words which, rightly read.
Will lead you from earth's fragrant sod,
To hope and holiness and God.'' — ^Anon.

VII

UP TO BERBICE

IT is eight o'clock in the morning. The sun
has been up some hours, and the heat is
already very considerable, but as we have taken
our ticket for Berbice and are already seated
on the deck of a little coasting steamer called
Guiana^ we do not find it too hot.

The breeze from the sea makes it pleasant,
if not cool. This steamship runs to Berbice
every other day, keeping the coast line in sight
all the way. The journey is performed in about
seven hours. There are usually a fair number
of deck passengers of different colours and races.
The coolies, with their picturesque dresses, and
the blacks and the mulattoes and the Chinese and
the Portuguese, all sitting and chatting, make a
picture in itself unique. Sometimes, if it happens
to be a little rough, the ship rolls a great deal,

VP TO BERBICE
and the big waves come tumbling over the ship's
side, giving you a sea-bath whether you will or no.
On the upper deck you are free from the waves,
but your bones get a good shaking, and you are
generally glad when you get to your journey's
end.

On entering the mouth of the river Berbice,
which is about two miles and a quarter broad,
we find there are two channels, one to the
right and the other to the left. These channels
are separated from each other by a small island
that has been formed by the silting up of the
sand or mud.

Crab Island — for that is its name — is about
a mile in circumference. It is covered with bush
and small trees. It takes its name from the
number and excellence of the crabs that are to \
be found there. During the crab season the
Indians of the upper part of the river used to
come a distance of from forty to two hundred /
miles to enjoy a feast on crabs ; for the Indian '
is said to be passionately fond of them, and they
are not to be had in such perfection in his own
locality. As we sail up the eastern channel —
for that is the deepest, having from seventeen
to twenty feet of water at high tide — we notice
the ruins of an old fort formerly known as Fort

97 G

BRITISH GUIANA
St. Andries. This fort was built by the Dutch,
having a brick paling four feet high, with a moat
on the outside, and mounted with eighteen twelve-
pounders. In those days it must have been a
source of dread to the enemies' ships as they
sought to enter the mouth of the river. Happily
in these days we have no need for it. Briton's
forts are floating forts ; our ships of war can
be concentrated on any given point for our pro-
tection, at a comparatively short notice. Our
brave sea-dogs are our defence, and our own
stout hearts and strong arms.

Having passed Crab Island, there is a pretty
view of the river Canje, or " Canje Creek," as it
is called, emptying itself into the Berbice river.
This is a very considerable stream, and along its
banks are to be found some thriving villages and
not a few large and flourishing sugar plantations.
A new iron swing bridge has just been completed
at a cost of $125,000. It is 336 feet long, and
has a clear roadway for traffic of 17 feet. The
swing span in the centre, which turns on a single
pivot, weighs about a hundred tons, and by a
simple mechanical arrangement one man can
lift and turn this massive iron gateway. The
whole weight of the bridge, exclusive of the
piling and concrete abutments, is about 2,600 tons.

UP TO BERBICE

It is a triumph of engineering skill, and is a
credit to the engineer who was the presiding genius
during its four years of building. It is the largest
bridge in the colony.

We now come to the town of New Amsterdam.
The view of it from the river is quite a picture.
The tall palm trees, standing like sentinels, and
the waving plumes of the cocoanut trees, make it
look like a city of palms. Here and there a tower
or a church steeple rises above the tops of the
houses ; and the little piers or jetties where the
ships land, and the long row of merchants'
stores, all in turn present themselves to the eye.
There is an air of repose about the town that
strikes a stranger fresh from the busy thorough-
fares of an English city. And well there may be,
for we may call it the Ne plus ultra of civilisation.
Beyond ! What is there ? No town, no city. A
few villages are to be found along the banks of the
river for ten or twelve miles further on, and then
you plunge into forest and bush and savannah,
extending for hundreds of miles in all directions.
No roads, no paths, save the track of the Indian,
to lead you anywhere. You are in the "Wild
Country," amongst the wild beasts and sometimes
even wilder men.

As our little ship drew up to the stelling, we
99

BRITISH GUIANA
found it packed with people ; and as soon as the
gangway was secured a great crowd of black natives
rushed on board. A good old African, named
John Marks, for nearly fifty years a deacon of
Mission Chapel, came up to me, and taking my
hand he said, " We welcome you to Berbice in de
name ob de Lord " ; then one and another grasped
my hand — but one hand was not enough, they took
both, and if there had been fifty, there would still
have been some short. Then we were led down
the pier, lined on each side with happy, beaming
faces. Amid hurrahs and " Tank God," and " A
we parson come," and " Bless de Lord," we got to
the street. There we saw the roadway lined with
black children and grown-up people, waving their
banners and shouting. Putting us into the parson's
waggon, we were driven off to Mission Chapel
and the Mission House. There the big bell was
ringing out its welcome ; the chapel and the yard
and the house were all filled ; they danced, they
shouted, they sang — old and young alike were
carried away with the glad enthusiasm.

Reader, do you wonder why this was ? Let me
tell you. About eight months before, their young
minister, the Rev. S. H. France, who had only been
with them a little over a year, died of malarial
fever. Mr. France was a talented young man, and

ICXD

UP TO BERBICE
greatly beloved by his people. He was a com-
panion of mine in our early days and a fellow-
student, with others such as Dr. C. A. Berry, whose
name and fame is already in two worlds. He
afterwards became my brother-in-law. The people
knew what a reputation British Guiana had in
England for unhealthiness — a reputation I may
say that, in these days, is not deserved ; and they
were told no minister would risk his life to come
out to them from England. Hence their enthusiasm
and their joy.

That night we had a grand reception meeting.
Long before seven o'clock the large edifice was
packed. There would be close upon two thousand
people present. The Rev. W. H. Downer and
other native ministers were there. Never shall I
forget how they sang that beautiful hymn :

" We bid thee welcome in the name
Of Jesus our exalted Head :
Come as a Servant ; so He came,
And we receive thee in His stead.

Come as a Shepherd : guard and keep
This fold from hell and earth and sin ;

Nourish the lambs and feed the sheep ;
The wounded heal, the lost bring" in.

Come as a Watchman ; take thy stand

Upon thy tower amidst the sky ;
And when the sword comes on the land

Call us to fight, or warn to fly.

lOI

BRITISH GUIANA

Come as an Angel, hence to guide

A band of pilgrims on their way ;
That, safely walking at thy side.

We fail not, faint not, turn, nor stray.

Come as a Teacher, sent from God,
Charged His whole counsel to declare ;

Lift in our ranks the prophet's rod
While we uphold thy hands with prayer.

Come as a Messenger of peace
Filled with the Spirit, fired with love ;

Live to behold our large increase.
And die to meet us all above."

As we have to stay in New Amsterdam some
time, we will walk through the quaint little town
and look about us.

And first of all we will go into the business part
of the town, which is Water Street. If you expect
to see rows of shops, the same as you see in
England, you will be very much disappointed.
There are no " shops " here. They are all stores.
They are low one-storied buildings — save where
a second story is used as a dwelling-place — and
have no architectural beauty : they look like some
place for warehousing goods. From the outside
you never dream of the wealth and variety within.
Inside, the store is divided into different depart-
ments. There is the dry goods department, the
hardware, the boot and shoe, the grocery, the

1 02

UP TO BERBICE
tailoring, the hosiery, the perfume, the furniture, the
saddlery and harness departments, the book depart-
ment, the salt fish and lime, the rope and twine
the oil and lamp, the spirits and wine departments.
In fact, you have here inultus in uno, many things
in one. To fit up one of these stores as it ought to
be fitted up, would cost fifteen or twenty thousand
pounds. Sometimes they will have in the store
goods to the value of ;^ 10,000. Now it is clear
from this that none but large capitalists can " run a
store " of that first-class order. And this in itself
is an evil. Our English system of keeping each
department separate enables twenty persons, with
small capital, to set up their own little business.
And twenty persons, each earning ;^200 a year, is
better for the community than one person earning
the whole ;^4,ooo a year.

But you say, " Can't a big store be worked more
economically, and therefore the goods be sold
much cheaper ? " If we are to judge from the
prices you have to pay in the stores, I should
say not. The stranger coming from England
is simply astounded at the price he has to
pay for his commodities out here. When
butter is is. id. per lb. at home he has to pay
2s. 2d. here ; for his cheese he must always pay
IS. 4d. per lb., the same kind he can buy in

103

BRITISH GUIANA
England at 4d. and 6d. per lb. ; even sugar, which is
made here and shipped, can be bought at a penny
a pound less in England than here. This arises
from the heavy duty put upon all imported sugar,
making it, in fact, prohibitive. Nearly everything,
except purely native products, is double, and in
some cases treble, the price you pay at home.
Great fortunes have been made, and out of nothing.
But as the Creole proverb says, " Dis time no like
befo' time." Competition is bringing down prices,
and store-keepers, even out here, are beginning to
find that they must bring themselves into line with
the times.

Passing out of Water Street into Main Street,
we find another busy thoroughfare, though the
stores are of a somewhat smaller kind, and in and
among them are dwelling-houses, some of them
looking very neat and nice. And of course we
have one or two rum shops.

What strikes a stranger is the peculiarity of
some of the names. " Ho A Hing," and " Che A
Wai," and " Edward Foo," and " Lou A Hing," and
"John Feng A Fook," and "J. Lou Shee," and
" Woa-Sam " — these are all Chinese store-keepers.
" Ho A. Hing " is one of our most successful mer-
chants ; he came, it is said, as an indentured immi-
grant when a boy, and from the humblest begin-

104

UP TO BERBICE
ning he has worked his way to a position of
eminence and opulence.

The Chinese make good shopkeepers, and as
business men I have always found them easy to
get on with. They have their peculiarities, but, as
a rule, they make good colonists and law-abiding
citizens.

New Amsterdam has three principal streets, each
one being about a mile long and running right
through the town in parallel lines. These are
crossed at right angles by a large number of
smaller streets. On each side of every street is a
trench, so that there are no footpaths or side- )
walks. Two - footed animals and four - footed \
animals alike have to take to the road. Over \
these trenches are little wooden bridges, like those '
you find in Holland. In fact, the whole system of
streets and of drainage was originally carried out
by Dutchmen, and is on the same plan as that
which obtains in their own country.

Here is a view of Water Street. It is from a
photo taken by Sheriff Hewick. The buildings
on the right are stores. The tall trees are
cabbage-palms, waving their feathery plumes
above the tops of the buildings. The tower
which we see before us is the Market Tower ;
it is used as a signal to incoming ships. The

105

BRITISH GUIANA
telegraph-poles tell us that we are not much
behind in our use of electric power. Most of
the well-to-do citizens a.nd business men have
the telephone in their houses. The charge is
$12.00 or £2 los. per annum. In Georgetown
they have the electric light, and already negotia-
tions are going on for the purpose of bringing it
here. The patient donkey is plodding on with its
load; two little black girls are going to or returning
from school, and others near the market are bent
on their own particular business or pleasure. On the
left hand are the little bridges that span the trenches
and lead to the different cross streets. Behind the
palings, all the way down, are fine tropical resi-
dences, each enclosed by a garden, and surrounded
by bright, many-coloured, ever verdant trees and
shrubs.

The fKDpulation of New Amsterdam is about
ten thousand, but is greatly augmented by the
influx of people from the surrounding villages.
It is composed of Europeans, English, Scotch,
Irish, and of Chinese, of Portuguese, chiefly from
the island of Madeira, of Coolies from India, of
coloured, and of native black people. With such
a variety of races we find a variety of manners,
dress, language, and customs. Of these I will
speak after.

J06

UP TO BERBICE

But what do the people do? is the question
often asked at home. What is the staple industry ?
Well, being a shipping port, there are a large
number of men who find employment about
the wharfs, in loading and unloading ships.
Then the stores employ a number as clerks and
porters. The houses being all built of wood
we have a large number of carpenters ; then we
have boat-builders and painters, tailors and shoe-
makers. Those who have no trade take to
gardening, i.e., they hire a piece of land and
grow plantains, cassava, yams, sweet potatoes,
rice, &c. These are called " farmers." Many of
the women work in the field, and all around us
are the sugar estates, which employ a consider-
able number of people ; but the planters now
rely chiefly upon their indentured coolies, as they
do the work at a considerably lower rate.

New Amsterdam is governed by a town council,
but the franchise is so exclusive that the election is
almost an absurdity and a farce. We have a few
public buildings that are worthy of note. The town
hall, the courthouse with its Government ofifices, the
various churches and chapels, a public almshouse,
and a hospital. The latter is far away the finest
building in the town. It is a beautiful design, and
does credit to both the architect and the builder.

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BRITISH GUIANA

It is large, airy, spacious, and is surrounded with
a fine variety of tropical plants and flowers. Its
garden is well kept, and is a credit to the doctor
who presides over it, and to the whole town.

Of the churches and chapels, there is a fine
Anglican church which seats about 900, and a
bonny little Scotch kirk which for picturesqueness
takes the shine out of them all. Then there is a
Roman church, a Wesleyan church, a Lutheran
church, and a Congregational. The latter is known
as " Mission Chapel " : it was established by the
London Missionary Society, and is the largest
chapel in the colony. It seats 1 500 people, and is
an exact model of Dr. Raffles' church at Liverpool.
To see it filled with an eager, interested congre-
gation of black people is a sight to gladden a
Christian minister's heart. And this is a sight I
have often witnessed.

But we must now pass on, and if you will jump
into my waggon (a kind of four-wheeled buggy)
we will drive round to the different places of
interest on the outside.

Taking the riverside way first, along which we
have a road as far as plantation Highbury, i.e.^
twelve miles, we come first of all to " Providence "
estate, with its village of Islington ; and just behind
it, almost hidden by the sugarcanes and the trees,

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UP TO BERBICE
is the village of " Overwinning." A small tribe of
" Congo Africans " occupy it, and their little
thatched and wooden houses, surrounded by the
large-leaved banana and plantain trees, must
remind them very much of their home in Africa,
from which many of them in their childhood were
torn away. Standing amongst the plantain trees
there is a black man and his wife ; he is over sixty
years of age, and has for many years been a deacon
of the London Missionary church. It is very
interesting to hear him tell the story of his early
life. He says : " I 'member fader and mudder too
well, do (though) I was a wee picknie when de
Portuguese catch me and take me 'way. De place
where I libed in Africa was called Bomah. My
fader and mudder had twenty-one picknies. I was
de twenty-first. And you must know in Africa if
any one in debt to anoder you must pay dat debt.
No matter how long, years and years and years, you
still got to pay. And if you can't pay, de man
come and take one ob de picknies for to pay de
debt. My fader and mudder owe debt to an
•African man. Dey no able fo' pay, so he come
and ketch me, and carry me away and sell me to
some Portuguese * man stealers.' Dey put me in
chains wid a lot oders ; chain long, long, long — it
fasten round a' we neck. Fifty or hundred men

109

BRITISH GUIANA
and boys all fasten wid dat chain. Ef one man
lie down all mus' lie down. Ef one sick and
no able fo' go, dey loose he, let he lie on de
groun*, den shoot he. De women be all fasten
wid rope. We all march on, long, long way ; all
throo de night we walk, den we come to de ship.
Dey put a' wee in de hold ob de ship, one pon
anoder. Dey fasten down de hatch. We lie dere
like bags ob rice, no able hardly fo' breave, so hot,
hot, hot. Me cry and cry and cry. But de oders
say, ' No good crying, picknie ! Let we pray dat
de English come and caught we, den we be all free
men.' When we been sailing some time, one
week, de English ship come and catch a' wee.
De cap'n ob de English ship, wid his men, take de
Portuguese cap'n and put him in irons, and de oder
men he put in long boat ; he loose a' wee and let we
come up on deck, and he take wee to Serra Lone
(Sierra Leone). Dere de Gubna' say, ' We be all
free.' Dey send me to school ; dere I learn fo' say
ABC. After dat one English man come and say
dey want nigger for to go to Demerara, and ef we
go dey will gif us work to do in de field, and dey
will gif us plenty money. One week and we sal
hab a' wee beaver \v^\. full, full. ' Well,' we say, * dat
is good.' Gubnah say it is true, but he no want us
for go. We mus' go ef we like. So I went to de

UP TO BERBICE
ship and came to dis colony ; and on dis estate
me hab libed all de time."

One of the finest roads that we have from New
Amsterdam is that up the east coast. It runs in
an opposite direction to the river road and keeps
close by the sea. It runs right up to the Coren-
tyne river, a distance of seventy or eighty miles.
It is quite a pleasure to drive up this road on
account of the openness of the country and the
coolness of the breeze. On one side we have a
vast savannah stretching inland for miles upon
miles. Few, if any, have ever crossed it to its
westward limit. Parts of this savannah are used
for cattle farming and the rearing of stock. Other
parts are planted with rice. Then on the other
side we have the sea, it is kept back by the Cou-
rida bush, and hidden from view by a coast line
of trees, but the music of its distant murmur soothes
the nerves and gives quietude to the troubled
mind. This east coast road is a favourite driving-
place for the elite of the town, on account of its
coolness and strong breeze. One point about two
miles away, where the ladies often stop in their
carriages to enjoy the breeze and have a little chat,
is known by the very appropriate name of " Scandal
Point," thus showing that our sisters in all parts
of the world are noted for liking a little gossip.

BRITISH GUIANA

As we drive up this way we pass through what
is known as Queenstown, a kind of suburb of
New Amsterdam, and then we come to the public
lunatic asylum. This is a large building, sur-
rounded by beautiful grounds. The tropical trees
and flowers are lovely, and the provision grounds
adjoining, which are worked and kept in order by
the inmates, are a credit to the president. Dr. G.
Snell, and officers of the institution. About six
hundred patients are resident in this asylum.
To clothe them and feed them and house them
and attend to their peculiar maladies is no light
task. This is done by a staff of medical men and
other officers appointed and paid by the govern-
ment.

The place where the asylum stands was the site
of the old barracks, and close by, on the other
side of the road, is the old burial ground. In that
quiet place, surrounded by a clump of palm trees,
many a poor fellow who left his home in the
Queen's service lies sleeping. Life's battle with
him is over. He has gone on his long furlough,
and there he will rest till heaven's bugle sounds
to call him once more into line, and to receive
his reward whether it be good or whether it be
evil.

Close by the asylum is the Canje bridge, over

112

[I'ofaa-p. 113.

AN KAST IXiJlAX liKAUTY.

UP TO BERBICE
which we cross, and then we come to a long line of
coolie huts and wooden houses, known by the
name of Sheet Anchor. Here we see the coolies
in their native attire, the men often having nothing
on but a girdle of cotton around their loins. Of
course this is their working attire. And the women
are almost as scantily clad, many of them
having but a short thin skirt and a "joola," or
tight-fitting bodice, which covers the bust but does
not conceal it, and over the head a kind of hand-
kerchief tied.

Away on the savannah to the left we observe a
number of coolies, such as may be seen any day.
They are all in their working or every-day attire.
One of the females has her silvery ornaments on
the wrists and arms, similar to the coolie lady in
the picture. The men have put on their tunics, on
seeing us approach, because, as they said, " Buckra
mus' see a' wee good." The children have nothing
on but their shirts, and sometimes not even these.
Further up the coast we come to a row of coolie
huts ; and behind them are their ricefields. It
is a beautiful sight to see them preparing their
fields and sowing their seed ; but it is a grander
sight when the reaping time comes. These poor
people live almost entirely on rice. They have no
tables, no chairs — no furniture, indeed, of any kind.

113 H

BRITISH GUIANA

A little four-posted settee, with a rope or wicker-
work bottom, is all that they have. And this they
use to sit on sometimes in the day and sleep on at
night. They have no " crockery " of any kind.
A calabash or a tin saucer is all that they need.
They put their bit of boiled rice in this, and then,
after the true eastern fashion, they dip their
fingers in the dish and eat. As the black people
say — " Story done."

Here is a picture of one of these coolie huts or
houses. It is situated on the coast. The land on
which it stands is a part of the east coast savannah.
Gilall has built his little house for himself, his
wife lending a helping hand. The walls are of
" wattles," covered on both sides with clay. The
floors are of clay, well smoothed over with a com-
position of clay and fine sand and besmeared with
a solution of cow-dung, which gives to it a smooth
appearance. The walls within and without are
plastered with the same stuff. The roof is
thatched with rice straw and long savannah grass.
A little projection is made in front to form a kind
of shade ; under this awning they often sit, in
coolie fashion, during the heat of the day.
Windows and doors they have none. In this little
family, with this little hut, we see life in its simplest
and most elementary form. Their wants are few

114

UP TO BERBICE
and soon supplied. With love and content-
ment they may be happy. Without these they
would not be happy, even if they possessed all
things.

VIII
IN A TROPICAL CHURCH

RELIGIOUS life out here is very different
from what it is at home. The underlying
forces may be the same, but the expression is
different. When the early Christians were filled
with the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost
they spake in different tongues. Unity of spirit
and variety of expression is what we must look
for. Some of the old negroes in the Rev. John
Wray's time were very much exercised in their
minds about this question of languages, and they
waited upon him with their difficulties. One of
the questions which they asked was, "Can God
understand the Berbice Creoles when they pray?
Or shall we have to learn English ? " No ; let
every man speak in the tongue wherein he was
born. The Creole heart, filled with the love of

ii6

*" ^^^H^B^^^^^B ' ^^^^B^^^^B

ITo/aa-f. 117-

I'AKSON AND DEACONS.

IN A TROPICAL CHURCH
God, will express itself in its simple, beautiful,
Creole way.

The Sabbaths out here come upon us with a
freshness and a calm that speak of God and of
heaven. There is a " hush " in the soft morning
breeze as it begins to blow. The stirring in the
top of the palm trees tells us that God is near.
There is not that rush and hurry which we so
often find, even amongst our Christian people in
England. Softly, softly, softly, the day dawns
upon us, and the service begins. Eleven o'clock
is the hour for public worship, but long before
that time the people meet for prayer. In the
country stations they have their little gathering
at seven, and then they prepare for their journey
to town. Some of them walk two, three, and
even four miles to the house of God. By half-
past nine these country members begin to drop
in. They generally sit under the house, and quietly
converse and " cool out." " Well, Buddie ! How
you do ? " " Ou, ma'am, me been too sick ; me
belly hurt me too bad, and fever ! hot ! hot ! hot !
But de Lord am too good ; one more time He
bring me to His house. Bless His holy name."
And so " sister meets with sister, and brother
meets with brother, and they have fellowship one
with another." At half-past ten the first bell for

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BRITISH GUIANA
service begins to ring. That tells them it is time
to start out from their homes. At a quarter to
eleven the second bell begins to ring, and it rings
on till a few minutes of the hour. " Come ! come !
come ! " it seems to say. " For you God's house is
open ! Unto you, oh men, I call. Come ! come !
come ! Now ! now ! now ! " And they dd come.
From country lane and city streets they wend
their way, and by eleven o'clock the church is
well filled. Over a thousand people waiting to
hear the Word of God ! This is in itself an in-
spiration and a solemn call. And this is what
we frequently have at Mission Chapel. Our con-
gregations at home are impressive ; but a congre-
gation out here is both impressive and picturesque.
The black faces and the dark eyes, and rows of
pearly white teeth, when anything humorous is
said, at once strikes the observant stranger. And
then the beautiful bright colours of the ladies'
dresses, and the spotlessly white collars and cuffs
and large shirt fronts of the black gentlemen, all
tend to make the picture before you a " thing of
beauty."

Though many of the people are poor they
like to dress well. The old missionaries taught
them to come to God's house in their best
clothes. " Put on thy beautiful garments, O

ii8

IN A TROPICAL CHURCH
Jerusalem," means to them that they must go to
church in beautiful garments. And our black
young ladies, our " sable beauties," are not a whit
behind their pale sisters at home. They have
their light muslin dresses of white and pink and
sky blue, and pale green and red and yellow ;
their dark hair often adorned with a sweet-smelling
jessamine or a pink rose. In their hands they
carry their fan and their book, whilst their feet
are compressed into little high-heeled, patent-
leather shoes, which contrast with the shapely
white stockings. But there is a funny side also
in this matter of dress. Sometimes you will see
an old negress sitting boldly up in front of you
with three hats on. First a " kerchief" round the
head, worn like a turban, which they call a " tie
head," then an old bonnet on the top of that, and
crowning the whole some dinged and cast-off
billycock, or " chimney pot." Occasionally a
" Celestial " will come in ; his long pig-tail
hanging down behind him. The Chinese ladies
wear what might be called the "divided skirt,"
i,e.^ very wide trousers coming a little lower down
than the calf of the leg, and over this a silk
tunic. It is often very difficult to tell at first
whether the Chinese before you is a man or a
woman. I remember going into a shop in Trini-

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BRITISH GUIANA
dad kept by Woo-Shang-Hi, and I could not for
the life of me tell whether the person behind the
counter was a " he " or a " sher The face was
smooth, the hair long and plaited, the tunic
covered the breast, the voice was soft, the hands
small. I said to an English boy in the shop :
"Is it 2i he ox 2, she ? " " That is a man," he said ;
" but the lady of the shop is very much like him."
In a tropical church doors and windows are all
kept wide open, so that a current of cool air is
ever blowing through. In the rainy season we
have sometimes to shut down the windows to
keep the rain out ; then the place becomes almost
unbearable ; the steam begins to rise from the body,
and the perspiration runs down your face and
neck in miniature streamlets. One of the results
of these open windows is, that the preacher can
be heard a long way off. Sick ones in their houses
near by have thus been able to share in the bless-
ings of the sanctuary. But whilst those outside
can hear the preacher, the preacher can also hear
those outside. The loud braying of a donkey
close by will sometimes contest the claim of the
preacher for the attention of his hearers. And
it reminds one of the not-over-reverent wit, who
said, " Brethren ! let us bray." The negro cha-
racter has not in it that modesty or shamefaced-

IN A TROPICAL CHURCH
ness which so often characterises their pale-faced
brethren. A person at home would feel a " shame "
mantling his cheek if he had to walk down the
aisle of a church during service. But here the
black man, or woman either, will sail down the
aisle with all the dignity imaginable — head thrown
back, hands spread out, measured step, conscious
that all are looking at them, and, for this reason,
rather liking it. Sometimes they will look round
and smile, as much as to say, "Ain't I nice?
Don't you admire me, Buddie ? " I have seen
them get up many a time during the sermon and
coolly walk down the aisle to an open window to
" spit," and then come back and take their seat
again. But this is chiefly in our country stations.
Another thing I must mention, and that is the
difficulty under which a preacher labours on ac-
count of the innumerable insects. At night,
when the lamps are lit, these insects come in
swarms. The mosquitoes we have always with
us ; but the moths, the bats, the marabunturs,
and the hard-backs only come occasionally. These
latter, in the rainy season, are sometimes intoler-
able. They come upon us in thousands and tens
of thousands. The air is darkened with them.
They fall on you like a shower of black hailstones,
they creep through your hair, they crawl down

BRITISH GUIANA
your neck and your back, they strike you on the
nose and in the eye, they crawl over your book,
they get on the floor and creep up your legs, they
break the lamp-glasses and put out the lights — it
is like one of the plagues of Egypt. One Sunday
night, for instance. May loth, these "cockles," or
hard-backs, as they are called, came upon us like
an army. They are a little black beetle about an
inch long, with two pairs of wings, or, more strictly,
one pair of wings and a hard, horny pair of wing
sheaths over them ; they have six legs and pretty
strong claws, that enables them to cling firmly to
whatever they alight on. They are very similar
to the " blackjack " found in some of the poorer
houses at home. As I enter the pulpit they
come. Around the lamps they are flying in
hundreds ; they drop on my hymn-book as I read
out the hymn ; my pulpit-cushion is covered with
them. I sweep them all ofl*, and open the Bible ;
they are crawling over its pages ; I pull half a
dozen out of my hair ; I shake them off* my gown.
I say, " Brethren, let us pray." I close my eyes ;
one is sticking its claws into my neck. I feel
as if I could scream. I open my mouth — "Oh
Lord ! " they have got in between my teeth !
Perseverando vinces. And thus the service goes
on. Half the lights are put out ; a number of

122

IN A TROPICAL CHURCH
lamp-glasses are broken ; and on the floors, and on
the seats, on the cushions and on the people,
thousands upon thousands of hard-backs are lying
and crawling. As soon as you get into the
house you find them there ; it is only when you
get into your bedroom, where doors and windows
have been closed and no lights burning, that you
can get free from them. And what a relief it is !

The remarkable thing is, that though millions
of these creatures must be left in the houses and
on the floors at night, when the morning comes
not one of them is to be seen — save, of course,
those that you killed. The rest —

" Did fold their tents like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away."

One of the pleasing things about our worship
here is the singing. It strikes the keynote. It
is grand congregational singing. Every one takes
his part. There is the soprano, the tenor, the alto,
the bass. In addition to an organ we have a
precentor, who leads with the cornet. And at
our special musical services it is not uncommon
to have several violins, a bass fiddle, and a number
of brass instruments. You cannot be amongst
this people long without finding it out that they
are essentially a musical people. They play well

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BRITISH GUIANA
on the piano, the violin, the cornet, the organ, and
even the accordion and the tin whistle. The old
banjo has its place at their social gatherings, and
it is quite amusing to see them march round in a
large schoolroom to the strains of —

" Roll, Jordan, roll ;
Roll, Jordan, roll ;
I wants to go to heaven when I die
To hear old Jordan roll."

Religion has put music into the soul of the
benighted African. It is the love of God that
makes people sing. The coolies from India, who
are mostly Mohammedans and Hindoos, cannot
sing. I have heard them humming in a low,
melancholy monotone, that ends with a tremulous
drawn-out note like the bleating of a sheep. And
that seems the only music that their faith inspires.

But the Christian religion awakens harmonies
that are infinite, and akin to the music of the
spheres. The old slave-masters were often struck
with the fact that as soon as the negro was con-
verted he began to sing. He sang as he went to
his work in the field, he sang in his night of sorrow
and pain, just as the apostles did before him.
" And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang
praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them."
Would that the prisoners of to-day, those held in

124

IN A TROPICAL CHURCH
the bondage of superstition and error, might hear
us sing, and be led to the knowledge of God !

But how about the knowledge of the Bible and
religious truth ? Are they not far behind in these
things ? In some respects, yes ; and in others, no.
The black people as yet have only had one book,
and that book has been the Bible. To them it is
full of marvellous history, incident, and story. It
has spoken to them as no other book could. To
them it is indeed a revelation from God. Before
the missionaries came all was dark. They had
never heard of a life beyond. As slaves, their
hopes were earthbound. The grave was the limit
of their horizon. What was there to live for ?
They were only valued as cattle upon the estate.
" Nigger ain't got any soul," was the postulate laid
down by their masters. They must eat and work
and sleep to the sound of the task-masters' whips.
But when the Bible was opened to them they
heard of " One whose ear is ever open to the cry of
the oppressed," and a new life began to pulsate
through their being. The deliverance of Israel
from Egypt's dark bondage, the overthrow of the
mighty oppressor in the Red Sea, struck a chord
in their hearts that brought tears to their eyes.
Look at that old African poring over the letters
of the alphabet that he might be able to read " de

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BRITISH GUIANA
raal Word ob de Lord " for himself. This was an
evidence of the intense hunger of his soul. The
people here say " Hunger mak' tigah cross
wattah " — water. So the hunger of these negroes
made them steal away from their huts at night,
and brave the threatened lash, to hear the good
stranger tell them of the love of God in Christ
Jesus.

" Steal away ! Steal away !
Steal away home to Jesus.
Steal away ! Steal away home,
I ain't got long to stay here."

So far the Bible has been the one book of the
poor people. They have read it, and still read it
with avidity. A change, however, is coming over
the younger generation, and a change for the
worse. Increase of knowledge means increase of
peril. Inquiry lets in doubt. They must be fitted
to meet the new foes that will come upon them.

In the knowledge of the letter of the Bible our
people here will compare favourably with the
people at home. But then we must never forget
that the eye only sees what it brings with it the
power of seeing. To Peter Bell —

" A primrose on the river's brim
A yellow primrose was to him,
And it was nothing more."
126

IN A TROPICAL CHURCH
But to a botanist it is a beautiful specimen of a cer-
tain floral order, made up of stem, of sepals, of
petals, of stamens and anthers. And to a poet it is
a beautiful expression of a Divine feeling ; it is the
latest embodiment or incarnation of the soul of all
beauty. Wordsworth says —

" To me the meanest flower that blooms can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears."

Our reading of the Bible is not equal. One sees
only a simple story, another a detached truth,
whilst a third sees in the same sentence a whole
philosophy or a complete system of ethics. Only
so much do we know as we have lived. And —

" We live in thoughts, not breaths ;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
He lives most, who thinks most.
Feels the noblest, acts the best."

In the knowledge of the " letter " the black
people here are well on, but in that deeper spiritual
knowledge, in that grasp of " the Faith^' which is
the name for the beliefs which form the heart of
the Christian religion, they have still very much
to learn.

Another thing that lends interest to a Church
out here is the different races that are often found
worshipping together. At home your congregation

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BRITISH GUIANA

is all of one colour. Here we have men and
women of nearly all colours. In one pew you will
find a white man and next to him a black woman
or child. Then you will find those that are neither
black nor white, but a mixture of the two. And
of these you find all shades from cream colour to
a dark brown. Then you will have a Chinaman
and an East Indian, and sometimes a pew full of
Indians from the upper reaches of the river.
These will come in dressed only in a pair of blue
cotton pants and a shirt. Now all these different
races are the children of the great Father in heaven,
and they come and kneel before the Lord the
Maker of us all. To find a word for each the
preacher must be both simple and profound. He
must have sympathies that go low enough to take
in the poorest and the worst, and he must have a
heart broad and comprehensive as the glorious
gospel he is called to preach.

A tropical church is not so strictly limited as
the churches at home to the Sunday services.
During the week days it is often brought into
requisition. A musical service on the Monday
night is by no means an uncommon thing. Then
with comet and trumpet and organ we praise the
Lord. A conference on the different methods of
Christian work sometimes takes the place of a

128

fN A TROPICAL CHURCH

Wednesday evening service. Then on a Tuesday
afternoon the candidates meet together in the
church. Baptisms during the day are sometimes
taken there. And the names chosen are occasion-
ally very amusing. One black man brought his
child, and when the minister asked its name,
he said, " Seriatim ad Valorem." On another
occasion the parson said, "What is the name of the
child ? " the man said " Ax parson." The minister
looked at him and said, " I don't understand you."
" Well, parson," said the man, " my mind gie' me
to go troo' de New Testament. I have had four
boys ; one was called Matthew, another Mark,
another Luke, and another John ; and this is
' Acts,' parson."

" Nannie Bellona," and " Queen Elizabeth," and
"Prince Albert," and "John Pantaloon," and "Frank
Locust" are names that grace our baptismal register.
Another negro, whose child I christened, was called
" Whiskey Emmanuel."

But one of the most interesting services is a
wedding. It is not uncommon to have three or
four hundred people present at this important
ceremony. The ladies' dresses are superb. Green
and yellow and pink and blue ; all the bridesmaids,
as a rule (and there are generally seven or eight),
are dressed alike. The bride, with a floral wreath

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BRITISH GUIANA
round her head, is dressed in white, with a train
about four yards long. Not being able to sound
the " />^," they often make some ludicrous mistakes.
Instead of saying, " Until death us do part," they
say, " Until ' debt ' us do part " ; and " hereby I give
thee my * trot ' " for troth.

A story is told of a minister whose groom was
about to be married. Being accustomed to touch
his hat when his master spoke to him, he did the
same thing as he stood before the altar repeating
the marriage service. At last the minister, bending
down to him, said, " Never mind touching your
hat, but say, after me." Then, he said, " Wilt thou
have this woman to be thy lawful wedded wife ? "
Up went his hand to his head, and he exclaimed,
" After you, sir." This was too much for the
minister's gravity, and the whole assembly laughed
outright.

Funerals, which are sad events anywhere, are
especially sad out here ; for no sooner does a
person die than he is to be buried. Decom-
position sets in so rapidly that it is necessary to
bury the dead within twenty-four hours.

A man will sometimes be alive at seven in the
morning and lying in his grave before six in the even-
ing. To us Europeans this at first seems a shocking
thing. You left your friend last night appa-

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IN A TROPICAL CHURCH
rently well ; you get a note about twelve o'clock
asking you to his funeral at five. On going up the
river once we got to Coomacka. A poor black
woman was getting into the little boat to take her
to her home. She asked, " How is John ? " mean-
ing her husband. The reply was, " We buried him
yesterday." She threw up her hands with a scream
and fell like a log of wood into the bottom of the
boat. This was the first she had heard of it, and
she had only been away four days. When she left
for town he was hearty and well. Ah ! friends, you
know not how our hearts are often cut and bruised
by these sad and sudden events. Out here more
than anywhere do we need to remember the
Master's words, " Watch ye, for ye know not in
what hour your Lord doth come."

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EARLY one day an old African came to my
door, and he said, " Morning, my massa.
How you do, Gorgonzambe ? " "I am well,
thank you," I replied ; " but you speak to me in
an unknown tongue. What do you mean by
calling me Gorgonzambe ? " " My massa," he
said, " me sal tell you. In Africa de medicine
man am de doctah for a' we body, but you am de
doctah for a' we soul ; and de African name for
de minister am Gorgonzambe, which mean God-
doctor. When de soul am sick you mus' gib us
medicine. My soul am too sick, dis heart too
bad." I need not say that I pointed him to the
Great Physician, who alone can heal the maladies
of the soul.

This idea of God-doctor is evidently a very old
one, and the Africans of to-day have most likely

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PARSON AND GORGONZAMBE
had it handed down to them from the Africans who
dwelt in Egypt a long, long time ago. For Diodorus
tells us that on the front of the first public library
in Egypt was a memorable inscription with these
words : " The Medicine of the Mind."

The black people recognise, perhaps more than
our people at home, distinctly psychological
diseases. For instance, a woman will come to me
and complain of the bad treatment she suffers from
some neighbour or friend or husband. In answer
to my question, " What have you done to provoke
him ? " she replies " Me neber do not'ing. He hab
a bad mind for me." " Was it always so ? " I ask.
" No, parson. One time he so nice and good —
now me no able fo' please him." We have a
similar thing in the case of Saul. He had a bad
mind towards David and sought to kill him. It
is spoken of in the Bible as an " evil spirit," and
what is an evil spirit but a bad mind ? A wife
here, who finds that her husband's mind towards
her has changed, will have resort to an " Obeah-
man," that is, a kind of " witch doctor " who pro-
fesses by means of herbs and other mysterious arts
to be able to exert a charm over the person of any
one, and thus change their heart or their disposi-
tion. I need hardly say that this superstition is
dying out as the light of Christianity advances.

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Not the Obeah-man, but Gorgonzambe, if he be
real and true, can give effectual help in such cases.
We read in the Word of God that " the preparation
[i.e.^ the disposings) of the heart in man, and the
answer of the tongue, cometh from the Lord "
(Prov. xvi. i). That is, the disposings of men's
hearts towards us or against us, towards what is
good, holy, or divine, are from the Lord, When
people have a " bad mind to us " we ought first of
all to examine ourselves, and see if by our ways or
.our words we have given cause for it, and then,
secondly, we ought to make it a matter of prayer
to Almighty God, that He will change their hearts
and make them well disposed towards us. " When
a man's ways please the Lord, He maketh even
his enemies to be at peace with him."

Our people here have also another expression
which shows how much they are influenced by
" soul dispositions." " Why were you not at the
social gathering last night, Susie?" "Well, par-
son," is the reply, " mi mind no gi'e me." Or I
say to another, " You should have gone to George-
town yesterday. Why did you not go ? " The
answer is, " My mind gi'e me not fo' go." And
who can say she was wrong? At some time or
other we have all had our presentiment of coming
good or evil. Sensitive souls, like a barometer,

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PARSON AND GORGONZAMBE
can often foretell the approach of a storm. It is
wise to be guided by the voice within. The
inmost is often the highest. The soul's emphasis
is invariably right, and especially after solemn,
earnest prayer.

Gorgonzambe, or the God-doctor, out here has
a great and high calling. He is looked up to as
one who can alone help in the most solemn crises
of life. The doctor can prescribe for the body,
but he cannot prescribe for the soul. Now we do
not believe, as Carlyle says many people do, that
" Soul is synonymous with stomach." We hold as
Sir William Hamilton puts it, that " Man is not an
organism, he is an intelligence, served by organs."
Man has a body, but he is a soul. The most
important thing about any man is this same soul.
The soul does not live for the body, but the body
for the soul. The house exists for the sake of the
man that dwells in it, and not the man for the
sake of the house. Though this earthly house of
our tabernacle be dissolved, i.e.^ disunited and
resolved into its original elements, we have a
building of God, i.e.^ another house, "not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens." One day I
was called in to see a poor black girl who had
been taken ill. She had strayed from the fold and
was one of God's lost sheep. There she lay on a

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little bed on the floor. I had to communicate to
her the sad message that her days and even hours
on earth were numbered. The doctor had just
been, and said he could do nothing ; the case was
hopeless. When I told her she turned her eyes
full upon me for a moment, and then throwing up
her arms, with a scream she cried, " Oh, what is to
become of my poor soul ! "

Gorgonzambe must enter softly into the chamber
of sickness, he must kneel beside the bed in the
solemn hour of death ; he must speak words that
have healing in them ; there must go out of him
virtue, i.e., strength, power, that by it weak ones
may rise up and stand upon their own feet, and
even take up their palliasse and walk.

The variety and extent of Gorgonzambe's work
is such that many of our ministers at home have
no idea of They (the people) come to him for
counsel in all their distresses, and they come from
all parts of the country. At home the minister's
house is usually a quiet place ; out here it is a
place of activity and constant callers. In order to
attend to the many cases that come for Gorgon-
zambe's aid I had to put on the door outside the
following notice : " Hours of consultation 9 to ii
and 3 to 4." The little study became a kind of
spiritual surgery. Sometimes there are as many

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PARSON AND GORGONZAMBE
as twenty people under the house, waiting for their
turn to come in. To enter into each case sympa-
thetically and give the counsel and help needed is
a drain upon both brain and heart. This has gone
on sometimes till twelve o'clock — breakfast cold
upon the table, still they come, till one o'clock and
even two. Then *' tired nature " would hold out
no longer, and orders are given to close the door —
" Gorgonzambe can not see any more to-day."

But you say, " Where do they come from ? "
and " What do they come about ? " One or two
extracts from my notebook may answer these
questions best :

December 6th. A poor old lady came with
trembling and tears — she had not eaten food that
morning — begging massa to get her a little help
from the almshouse. She is over seventy and
nearly blind. The desired help is given, and
one poor soul is thus lightened of its burden.

A young black man called to " tell me goodbye."
He is going into the bush to bleed ballata. This
needs a word of explanation. Ballata is the milk
or sap of the bullet tree ; when the bark of the tree
is cut it runs out. This they catch in a calabash.
When exposed to the sun it hardens into a kind of
gutta-percha, and is used for many things at home.
Indeed, it is a valuable article of export.

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Many of our black men are thus engaged in
"ballata bleeding." They go away into the in-
terior of the forest, carrying their provisions with
them, and are often away for four or six or eight
months. " Well, John," I said, " where are you
going this time?" "Into the forest beyond the
Corentyne," he replied. " Have you been there
before ? " " Yes, parson." " Had you any adven-
tures ? " Then he begins to tell me how one day
they were all startled with the cry of the bush
hogs ; every man ran up a tree, quick ; on the
hogs come, there are over a hundred of them.
They shoot. " Bush hog no able fo' climb tree.
For the next week we have plenty good food to
eat."

" How do you live ? " I said. " We first of all
put up a Benaab, near to where we are going to
work, then we swing our hammocks under it, four
or six of us together. When we knock off, just
before dark, we gather sticks and light a fire. Dog
keeps watch for us through the night."

" You are going away," said Gorgonzambe. " You
may not be back for six months, you may never
come back at all, for there are many dangers in this
forest life. But remember, our Father in heaven is
King of the forest. You can never get out of His
sight. As the first man heard the voice of the

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PARSON AND GORGONZAMBE
Lord God walking in the garden (Gen. iii. 8), so
may you. Keep the Lord's day sacred in the
forest. You can get together and sing ; one of
you can read a portion of Scripture, and another
lead in prayer. And remember we in this sanc-
tuary always pray for you. Be cheerful, be indus-
trious, be agreeable one with another. Fear God,
and know no other fear." Then giving him a few
little tracts, and a few portions of Scripture, Gorgon-
zambe commended him and his to God in prayer.
As soon as he has gone, in step three Indians from
the interior. They are from Arowyma. Much
sickness just now among the Indians. Two or
three belonging to the Mission have just died.
They want me to send a petition for them to the
Governor for a box of medicines — pills, plasters,
ointments, tinctures, &c., and plenty of quinine and
oil, " Ready Relief," chlorodyne, &c. Gorgonzambe
promises to attend to this matter at once. He then
counsels them to meet often for prayer, to be good
and faithful followers of Christ, and to prepare for
the minister's next visit. Giving them a little
money for their passage back, they are sent on
their way rejoicing.

Another now enters. " Well Mrs. S ? "

She is crying bitterly. Around her are five little
children, one in her arms, the others clinging to

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BRITISH GUIANA

her dress. " What is the matter ? " Her husband
is ill at Lichfield, i.e., about twenty miles away.
He had fallen from a building, and she had heard
he was " bad nufif," that is, in extremis. How could
she get to see him ? There was only one way, and
that was to cross the river in a boat and then go
by the coach. This would cost two dollars, or even
more. She had not even a " bitt." Gorgonzambe
gave her the money, planned out for her the
journey, arranged for the wife to bring her husband
back and get him into the town hospital. This
was done. Alas ! the poor woman died a few
months after. The struggle for her children,
together with her anxiety, was too much for her.
The husband still lives.

Mr. B. comes in, and asks Gorgonzambe to give
him a testimonial. He has been out of work for
months, knows not what to do, wife and children
are famishing. He believes he can get this place
if Gorgonzambe will only speak for him.

Mr. K. is summoned to appear at Court. The
Commissary has seized his boat. He accuses him of
cutting wood on the Crown lands. Will Gorgon-
zambe come and help him. After inquiring tho-
roughly into the whole case, Mr. K. is defended in
Court, and the man is, after a patient hearing and
investigation, dismissed.

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PARSON AND GORGONZAMBE

Three men now come from away up beyond
Brunswick. They want Gorgonzambe to petition
the Government for a grant of land for them.
This is done. They ultimately get three hundred
acres of an abandoned estate, paying for it in three
annual instalments.

A widow next comes in, young and blooming.
She wants to marry again, but some say she must
go to the Public Buildings and get an "Act of
Verweezing." This will cost five or six or even
ten dollars, according to the knowledge or want of
knowledge of the person who applies. She wants
Gorgonzambe's advice.

And thus the story goes on. Each new day
brings its fresh batch of cases. All the rivers run
into the sea, yet the sea is not full, but it soon
would be if there were not an outlet for its
waters, by way of evaporation towards heaven.
So Gorgonzambe's heart would be too full, but
he has learned to carry them to the throne
of grace and lay the burdens of his people
there.

The minister out here is called " parson," and
the usual address is " Morning, parson," " How
you do, parson ? " And ofteh when some of the
females get into a quarrel and lift up their voices
in the street, obeying the prophetic commands,

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BRITISH GUIANA
" Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice with
strength," there has been heard the quiet voice of
some neighbour, " Hi ! parson's coming ! " Then
the combatants have retreated for a time, smother-
ing their wrath, but only to burst out again as
soon as the parson has gone. I was very much
struck one day in September with the saying of
a good old black African woman. My wife hap-
pened in the midst of conversation about the dry
weather to say " she feared the vat would be empty
before the dry season was over." " No, no, missie,
never fear, for parson's vat never run dry." I
thought that is perfectly true. There may not be
much in it, but many a poor woman in her sorrow
and distress, and many a poor parson in his time
of need has found that the barrel of meal wasted
not, and the cruse of oil did not fail.

The parson's vat of kindliness never runs dry.
Hardly a day passes but many come to draw upon
it. The poor, the distressed, the helpless, the
crushed, when they know not what to do or where
to turn, are sure of a kindly word and a helpful
hand from the parson. " My husband is sick and
dying, parson ; will you come and see him ? "
Kindly inquiries are made and sympathetic words
spoken, and soon the parson stands in the sick
room, between the living and the dying, to speak

14a

PARSON AND GORGONZAMBE
in gentle tones of Him who is the resurrection and
the life.

Hardly has the footsteps of one visitor died
away ere another unfortunate stands almost
speechless pleading for pity and help. It is twelve
o'clock, the visitor comes from the country, she has
walked six miles in the broiling sun. " Nothing
to eat, massa, for a me-self and picknies, ain't
broke bread dis mornin'." A " bitt " put into the
hand and directions to go into the kitchen to the
cook, gives new life to the poor body, and
she starts out hopefully looking for better
days.

Another wants parson to make some villagers
agree to dig out their trenches, and to help them
to put in a new koker. Then comes another
with a wicked boy whom the police have sum-
moned. Will the parson please go and intercede
for him. And thus twenty, thirty and forty in a
day come to draw out of this vat of kindliness
possessed by the parson. Sometimes there is not
as much in the vat as at other times, but still it is
mainly true, as the old black woman said, " Parson's
vat never runs dry''

Parson's vat from which he gets his sermons
never runs dry. I don't say that he is never dry,
but the source from which he draws his sermons

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is never dry. Sermons, like salt fish, are some-
times good and sometimes bad. Even parsons
cannot always give you the best. No clock can
strike twelve every time, not if its striking parts
are right. People must be content sometimes to
take milk instead of strong meat. When we con-
sider what the parson has to do, how he has to
produce his three sermons every week, and stand
up before the same congregation year after year,
besides his candidates' class, his Bible class, his
lay preachers' class, his young people's classes, and
in addition conducting services two or three times
every week at various out stations, giving addresses
and lectures, and doing a host of other things
besides, it is a wonder how he gets through his
work at all. Don't grumble if the sermon has not
quite pleased you. Remember as father Taylor
used to say, " Poor preachers are like camels, bear-
ing precious spices and often feeding on bitter
herbs." One of Charles II.'s chaplains was not
liked as a preacher by the king, because he did
not spare the king's vices. When told of it he
said, ''If the King HI mend Fll mend." That's
the bargain parson will make with the people. "If
you'll mend I'll mend." It's bad hearers that
make bad speakers.

Monday morning is a restful morning to parson.
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PARSON AND GORGONZAMBE

He feels so much lighter^ as we all know he must
do, after the delivery of such weighty discourses
the day before. But as the week goes on he
becomes anxious. When it gets towards the end
he becomes positively uneasy. See him walking
about in the study there, now looking up, now
down, now lost in a maze of thought. He sits
sometimes for hours, like a fisherman waiting for a
nibble. He becomes as quiet as a hen that wants
to lay. If a visitor comes to the door, Missie says,
" I would not disturb him for anything, the results
might be disastrous — an o.^^ without a shell, or an
untimely birth, or for that day no intellectual birth
at all." Macaulay, writing to a friend, said, " What-
ever I write, I must at present spin, like a spider,
out of my own entrails." It is so with the true
parson.

His sermons must come out of himself, they
must be a part of his own mind and heart, and
soul experience. Only that which we have felt
and seen can we with confidence tell. Each
Sabbath he must have his story ready, and this for
ten, twenty, and thirty years. Surely he must
feel sometimes that he has said all that he can
say, that he has exhausted the book, having gone
from Genesis to Revelation. What if some
Friday or Saturday when he sits down to write,

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BRITISH GUIANA

he should find that the vat has run dry. No ; he
begins to pump, as usual, and sure enough water,
bright, fresh, sparkling as of yore, begins to flow.
You are right, dark skinned prophetess, " Parsons
vat never run dry!' And why ? Because the
heart of man is boundless, the soul of man is
infinite. As Longfellow says :

" The land of song, within thee lies^
Watered by living springs,

Look then into thy heart and write,

Yea, into life's deep stream.
All forms of sorrow and delight,
All solemn voices of the night,
That can soothe thee or affright.

Be these henceforth thy theme."

Parson's vat — namely the Bible, never runs dry.

That's the only new book in the world. It's
the one book that is always fresh. You may let
down your pitcher into it a thousand times, it is
still as full as ever. Yea, the more you take from
it the more there is to take. As an Englishman
said, it is like a big round of roast beef, " you may
cut and come again." It is a fountain fed from an
unseen source, a river that springs from under the
throne of God. To its living streams, the thirsty
from all lands may come. Let us ever be thankful
for this vaty and that // never runs dry. To it the

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PARSON AND GORGONZAMBE
parson comes day by day with his empty pitcher,
and the secret of his own vat never running dry is
that he has free access to this. Come ye thirsty,
poor, and needy, and in your time of greatest
distress remember what the poor old black woman
said — " Parson's vat never run dry."

A PARSON'S WORRIES

A parson sat in his study alone.

Vainly striving to think.
But the people kept coming, one by one,

Of his pity and counsel to drink.

First came one with a woe-begone face,

Looking so dismal and down.
That the parson could hardly suppress a smile

As his face relaxed from a frown.

"Well, my good man, and what is it for you ? "

" OV pa'sson me wife run away.
She hab lef me with ten little picknies to keep.

And me min' no gi'e me de way."

Well, Gabriel, man, you must fetch her back, —
Take the steamer down, in the morn.
And here is a dollar to help you along,"
Said he, with a hand-shake warm.

Then in comes a sprightly young negress.

With face beaming over with joy :
** Momin' passon ! Me want you to publish me
banns,
Me Quashee too bashful a boy."
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BRITISH GUIANA

Then in comes another — " Me wife be too sick,

De fever and pains be too bad,
Please passon a paper to doctor fo' her ?

To look at she, make me too sad."

Then the fourth walks in with his black feet bare,

And a bundle of deeds in his arm,
He wants to lay claim to some acres of land

On which to establish a farm.

" You see, * Sah,' me moder hab only one chile.

And dat am me own own self
Last week she did dead, and lef me alone.

And me fader lef me dis wealth."

And so after questions and answers enough,

The parson asks in despair,
" How long has you father been dead, my good man?''
^^ The answer comes, " Jus' seventeen year."

After patient inquiry and search had been made

The parson discovered it all.
The land had been sold some twelve years ago.

And this man had no claim at all.

Such are some of the troubles that come
To parsons who work in these climes :

They need to be lawyers and doctors as well.
Besides making their sermons betimes.

The people regard him as Fader and Frien',

They come to him every day.
Each with his story and trouble and grief,

For parson to help drive away.

L. E. C.

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THE OLD AFRICANS OF GUIANA

WE must now turn aside a little in order to
give some account of the people of this
land. In doing so we have to remember that we
are not dealing with one race, but many. Here
we have black men from Africa, red men from
India, yellow men from China, and white men
from Europe. These all have their peculiarities of
race as well as complexion. Their ways of think-
ing and looking at things, their manners and
customs, their habits, their dress are all more or
less tinged by their historic antecedents. For we
are all what the past has made us. If we have a
picture that we want to be seen, we put it in the
best light that we can. Shall we do less for our
fellow-men ? They are here, suffering, working,

dying :

" Toiling, rejoicing, sorrowing.
Onward through Hfe we go."

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Let US look at them with that charity which covers
a multitude of sins.

Most of the people of this colony are black. If
they are not Africans, they are the descendants of
Africans. It is fashionable in some quarters to
decry the black people. " They are lazy, they are
improvident, they are dishonest, they are worth-
less," I have often heard it said. But those who
say so, forget the sins which lie at their own door,
and speak from a prejudiced, rather than a large-
hearted philosophic point of view.

In judging the poor African we should not for-
get his origin and his past history, and the conditions
under which he was brought to this country. The
origin of the black man, like that of the white man.
is sufficiently far back to admit of uncertainty and
reasonable doubt. What colour was the first man?
A smart negro replied, " Black, sir." " How, then,
do you account for the white man ? " " This way, sir.
The first man had two sons. One was very good,
the other very bad. The bad one being * bex '
rose up, and with a club felled his brother to the
ground. Then the Lord came and said, * Cain,
where be Abel, thy brother ? ' Cain trembled when
the Lord asked him this question, and turned
PALE. The pale men are his descendants." We
might ask the same question of a coolie, and he

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THE OLD AFRICANS OF GUIANA
might tell us that the first man was "red," like
himself. For does not the Bible say he was called
" Adam," which means red or ruddy. My friend,
the physiologist, explains the blackness of the sons
of Africa by saying, " It is all owing to a little
black pigment under the skin." But who put the
black pigment there, and whence came it ? Is it
not reasonable to suppose that the colour of the
skin, like many other differences, is simply the
effect of country and climate. These acting
through generations and for thousands of years
have produced that " black pigment," and coloured
the skin. In all other respects the African is a
type of the genus homo. We might take up the
language of Shylock and say, " Hath not an
African eyes? Hath not an African hands,
organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions ?
Is he not fed with the same food, hurt with the
same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed
by the same means, warmed and cooled by
the same winter and summer ? If you prick
them do they not bleed? If you tickle them do
they not laugh? If you poison them do they not
die ? And if you wrong them will they not be
revenged?" And a writer in the inspired volume,
who lived in days when men were held in bond-
age, taking a wide and philosophic view of men.

BRITISH GUIANA
says, " God hath made of one blood all nations of
men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and
hath determined the times before appointed, and
the bounds of their habitation ' (Acts xvii. 26). The
introduction of the negro into this country was
not of a kind fitted to give him a fair start in the
race of life. He was torn from his homeland,
loaded with heavy chains and placed in the hold
of the ship. During his passage he was treated
with a coarse brutality that would not be allowed
now even in the transport of cattle. Landed on
these shores he was regarded only as a beast of
burden. Companies were formed to buy and use
him as a species of cattle. Among the nations of
the earth he was regarded as the child of ignominy
and scorn. He was a helpless victim in the hands
of hardened and cruel task-masters. A man more
sinned against than sinning. The cruelties of
the slave life, and the hardships endured, we all
know something of, but the full sufferings of these
poor wronged negroes will never be known till the
great Books are opened. The Rev. John Wray, in
his diary penned in this Berbice of ours in 18 17,
says, " On Easter Tuesday morning we saw two
white men with the manager and a strange boat
at the wharf; afterwards, while teaching some
children, a white man in a blue jacket, and with a

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THE OLD AFRICANS OF GUIANA
stick in his hand, driving a negro, passed the win-
dow, but they were too far off to hear what was
said. Soon drivers came, fixed some stakes in the
ground, then brought the negro, stretched him all
naked on the ground, and tied his hands and
feet to the stakes. Standing one on each side they
began to flog him with their cart whips. About
seventy lashes had been given, when Mrs. Wray,
who had been looking out of another wind'ow,
called to the white men for God's sake to have
mercy on the sufferer ; they, however, went on till
the poor fellow had received one hundred."

Anxious to know what the man had done to
deserve all this, Mr. Wray was told it was for
impertinence to a magistrate, himself a slave-
holder, who had come to visit the provision
grounds. It seems that one of this visitor's slaves
had stolen 5s. 6d. from this negro on the Sand-
voort Estate, who hearing that the thiefs master
was in the manager's house, came and pressed his
request that the money should be refunded.
The magistrate was angry and told him to go.

The negro said : " Massa, so long as me poor
negro, massa no want for give me right ; massa no
tell me if the negro shall pay me or no."

Magistrate. If you do not go I will flog you.

Negro. If we had come on massa's plantation
153

BRITISH GUIANA
and tieved, massa would come and flog all we, and
our massa would make us pay the negro what we
tieved from him.

Magistrate strikes him on the head with a stick.

Negro. Me come to beg massa for me right,
and massa beat me upon the top of my right.

Magistrate drives him forth, and becoming
judge, jury, and virtual executioner in his own
cause, inflicts the punishment narrated. (" Wray's
Life," p. 141).

One hundred lashes for demanding his right,
and that by a man who was supposed to be a
pillar of justice ! The same year — September 3rd
— he, Mr. Smith, writes : " Saw some niggers work-
ing in irons, and one whose skin was entirely cut
ofl* his back with the whip. Oh, slavery ! thou
offspring of the devil, when wilt thou cease to
exist? Never, I think, was my sense of vision
more disgusted with the degradations of the
human species or my feelings more keenly
touched. Hark ! I pause in the midst of this
— a terrible thunderstorm — to count the lashes on
the naked slave. This is the first thing on the
Monday morning (August 8, 1818). When the
flogging was over, Mrs. S. called out to me,
* Did you count those lashes ? ' * Yes.' * How
many did you reckon?' I said 141. I then

154

THE OLD AFRICANS OF GUIANA
asked her if she had counted them. She said,
'Yes; I counted 140'" (p. 355).

This cruelty was inflicted upon women as well
as upon men. And one case we know of where
a negress who was enceinte^ was stripped and laid
upon the ground, and most barbarously flogged.
There are some writers who try to minimise the
evils and horrors of slavery. But when they have
whitewashed it over with all the fine phrases that
they are capable of, its lurid blackness still re-
mains. But flogging alone was not the only degra-
dation. There was the slave market and the
auction sale. There might be seen the lordly
planter, the usurious speculator, the insatiate
sensualist, and even the timid female and the
pampered child. They are gathered in groups
around the dark children of Africa, who, with
anxious hearts and downcast eyes, await the re-
sults. A purchaser would approach and examine
the qualities of the negro he was about to buy.
The scanty covering of the slave threw but a
sleight veil over the figure and form. The limb
was carefully examined and tested, the surface
of the body scrutinised for the detection of any
morbid condition of the skin, the mouth was in-
spected, the functions of walking, running, and
lifting were practised at the desire of the party

155

BRITISH GUIANA

about to make an offer. Delicacy, pity, generosity,
never interfered with the mercenary considerations
which regulated these proceedings (" Dalton," i.

i6s).

" Pincard " gives an account of one of these sales
in 1796. " Just a hundred years ago," he says,
" I saw what is here termed a prime cargo of three
hundred men and women from the Gold Coast of
Africa. The crowd was as great as at Coventry
Fair, and amid the throng I observed many
females, as well white as of colour, who, decked
out in tinsel finery, had come to the mart to buy
slaves for themselves, their masters, or keepers.
Infants, too, were brought to point the lucky
finger to a sable drudge for little self. The poor
blacks were divided into three great lots, according
to their value. Boys from eleven to fourteen were
sold for six hundred or seven hundred florins.
Women were sold for seven hundred or eight
hundred florins, and men seven hundred to nine
hundred florins. Amid this scene so repugnant to
humanity a general sympathy was excited towards
one particular family, whose appeals to the com-
passion of the multitude were not less powerful
than their claims. This family consisted of a
mother, three daughters, and a son. The mother,
although the days of youth were past, was still a

156

,i. Jd.cp. 15'J-

SLAVES LANDING FROM THE SHI I'.

THE OLD AFRICANS OF GUIANA
good-looking woman. The children appeared to
be from fourteen to twenty years of age. They
were very like the mother, and still more resembled
each other, being all of distinguished face and
figure, and quite the handsomest negroes of the
whole cargo. Their distress lest they should be
separated and sold to different masters was so
strongly depicted upon their countenances, and
expressed in such lively and impressive appeals,
that the whole crowd were led impulsively to com-
miserate their sufferings, and by general consent they
were removed from the three great lots and placed
in a corner separate by themselves. Observing their
extreme agitation I was led particularly to notice
their conduct, as influenced by the terror of being
torn from each other. When any one approached
their little group, or chanced to look toward them
with the attentive eye of a purchaser, the children,
in broken sobs, crouched to their tearful mother,
who, in agonising impulse, instantly fell down
before the spectator, bowed herself to the earth,
and kissed his foot ; then alternately clinging to
his legs and pressing her children to her bosom,
she fixed herself upon her knees, clasped her
hands together, and in anguish cast up a look
of humble petition which might have found its
way even to the heart of a Caligula."

157

BRITISH GUIANA
What became of them history knows not. Some
of their descendants may be here amongst us
to-day. But that families were torn from each
other we know — wives torn from husbands, never
to look upon each other's face again ; children
torn from parents, only to meet when the last
trumpet sounds.

THE SLAVE-MOTHER'S FAREWELL

Gone, gone, — sold and gone
To the rice-swamp dank and lone.
Where the slave-whip ceaseless swings,
Where the noisome insect stings,
Where the fever demon strews
Poison with the falling dews,
Where the sickly sunbeams glare
Through the hot and misty air, —
Gone, gone, — sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
From Virginia's hills and waters, —
Woe is me, my stolen daughters !

Gone, gone, — sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone.
There no mother's eye is near them,
There no mother's ear can hear them ;
Never, when the torturing lash
Seams their back with many a gash,
Shall a mother's kindness bless them,
Or a mother's arms caress them.
158

THE OLD AFRICANS OF GUIANA

Gone, gone,— sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
From Virginia's hills and waters, —
Woe is me, my stolen daughters !

Gone, gone, — sold and gone,

To the rice-swamp dank and lone, —

Toiling through the weary day,

And at night the spoiler's prey.

Oh that they had earlier died,

Sleeping calmly, side by side.

Where the tyrant's power is o'er.

And the fetter galls no more !
Gone, gone, — sold and gone
To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
From Virginia's hills and waters, —
Woe is me, my stolen daughters !

Whittier.

About one hundred thousand slaves were in
this colony at the beginning of this century.
Their condition can be better imagined than
described. Degraded to the condition of animals,
they were driven out almost naked to the fields to
work. The sound of the task-master's whip was
ever in their ears. At night they were sent to
their stables, like so many horses, to fit them for
the next day's work. Morality there was none.
Marriage was unknown amongst them. The lordly
planter, having them at his own disposal, used
them for the basest purposes. One and another
he selected, as inclination prompted, for the

159

BRITISH GUIANA
his mother tongue. As he spoke he begged us to
excuse him, for, said he, " I have to think first in
the Bechuana language and then translate it into
English." Speaking of his life there, and the love
that still burnt in his breast for God's image in
ebony, he said, " Oh, Africa ! Africa ! Would I
were young again, how gladly would I give my
life for thee, oh Africa."

Of David Livingstone and his travels through
that land, of his heroic patience and endurance, of
the influence which, like a track of light, has
followed behind him, let his biographers speak.
Africa has been opened out, its darkness is vanish-
ing, and the down-trodden sons of Ham are being
lifted up. Now contrast this with the other
picture. A number of men have gone forth ; they
have formed themselves into companies. What
for? To buy, to enslave, to use as a beast of
burden, to crush every spark of manhood out of
this same poor African. The one set of men seek
to lift up the negro, to break his chains, to arrest
his deteriorations, and place him among the
nations of the earth as a man, a brother, and a son
of God. The other by their methods and designs
rivet afresh his chains, degrade him to the level of
a beast, crush and blight his Godward instincts,
degrade and destroy his manhood and his soul.

162

THE OLD AFRICANS OF GUIANA
To which band, reader, would you rather belong ?
There are some who try to excuse the planters on
the ground of the darkness of those days. But
the light which Moffat and Wray had was as
accessible to them. Then again, it is said they
wanted labourers. What for? To enrich them-
selves and fill their own coffers. Exactly, the
demon of avarice, the devil of selfishness was at
the bottom of it all. To gratify that^ they were
prepared to trample on God's image, and violate
every principle of justice and humanity. " Advo-
catus Diaboli " is the name of that man, whoever
he may be, who seeks to justify the slave-holder
or extenuate slavery. To the hundred thousand
slaves in this colony "John Wray" came in 1807.
He was the shepherd sent out to seek and save
these lost sheep. He was a brave-hearted York-
shireman, and nobly he toiled and suffered for the
sake of the oppressed. The plantocracy and the
plutocracy did all that they could for a time to
hinder him in his work. But when God says,
" Let there be light," no power in the world can
keep it back. You might as well try to keep back
the Atlantic tide with a broom. The day had
dawned. The Christian missionary was the
advance guard. The slaves heard of God, of
Christ, of the soul, of salvation, of heaven. A new

163

BRITISH GUIANA

world opened to his view, a new life throbbed
in his veins. He was still a slave, but he was free.
The master might chain his body, but he could
not chain his soul. For the first time these slaves
were heard singing. Singing in the early morning,
singing through the night.

" Singing for Jesus glad hymns of devotion.
Lifting the soul on her pinions of love,
Dropping a word or a thought by the wayside,
Telling of rest in the mansions above."

' John Wray was the first Christian minister in
British Guiana who opened his lips to show the
way of salvation to the people then in slavery.
Think of that, ye black people, and let his name
be dear to you and your children. There were
one or two other ministers — an Anglican, who was
chaplain to the soldiers, and a Dutch, who ministered
to the Dutch planters — but their churches and their
gospel were for the whites only. The doors were
barred against the negroes. For the planters held,
as \}i\^ Royal Gazette oi that period (1808) said : " It
is dangerous to make slaves Christians." Yes ; and
so it is. Dangerous to the usurper of another's
rights ; dangerous to the oppressor in his wrong
doings ; dangerous to those who would traffic in
flesh and blood and keep men's souls in darkness
and in chains. We are not surprised, then, to find

164

THE OLD AFRICANS OF GUIANA
" an oflficer of the law " at the door of the church
to keep the slaves away. In New Amsterdam
there was an old Dutch church. It stands here
still, but beautified and renovated, outside and
inside, in its creed as well as in its conduct.
Over its portals is a beautiful Latin inscription,
" Solus Deo gloria " — which the people can't quite
understand. One person translated it and called
it "the solid glory" church. In front of that
" solid glory " church in the old days a signboard
was to be seen with the words : " Negroes and dogs
are not permitted to enter here ! " Dogs and
negroes ! Aye, and some of the clogs were better
housed and fed than many of these poor people.
But, thank God, even the " dogs eat of the crumbs
which fall from the Master's table" — crumbs of
mercy, crumbs of truth, crumbs of hope, crumbs of
that " Bread of Life," which came down from
heaven. They are eating of it to-day. And the
old Dutch church throws its doors wide open to
them, and atones for its past wrong by giving to
all a hearty welcome.

But things have changed since then. And it is
largely owing to the patient, consecrated toil of
men like Wray, Davies, Elliot Smith, Ketley,
Henderson, &c., &c., all of whom were sent out by
the London Missionary Society.

165

BRITISH GUIANA
The minister of this Lutheran Church to-day
was trained by the London Missionary body, and
is a descendant of that once hated race.

The gospel to the negro was a real message
from heaven. It was a lighted candle in the dark
chamber of his soul. He saw things which he
had never seen before. The world became a
different place to him. He had now something
to live for. No threats and no scourging could
make him give up his faith. He believed in his
Bible, and he believed in prayer. A certain slave
named " Gingo," who used to set the tunes in
Bethel Chapel, was frequently employed by his
master in what is called task-work, and on these
occasions he was usually told, " Now, Gingo, when
you have completed this you may go to pray."
One day the planter said, " Gingo, I find the best
way to get anything done quickly is to tell the
negroes that they shall go to pray." The poor
fellow replied, " Me glad Massa know dat pray do
all tings!'

Mr. Wray, in his diary, 1812, says, "Mr. De la
Court told me of a negro who, a few weeks before,
had been severely flogged for preaching. The
negroes had been teaching the catechism and
praying, and some of the masters called this
preaching. I had occasion to speak to some of

166

THE OLD AFRICANS OF GUIANA

the negroes on this matter. They replied that

* Buckra no know preach from pray ; and when
we pray, Buckra call it preaching.' Buckra means

* white man.' And so poor ' Sambo ' got flogged
for preaching when he was only praying. But
that only made him pray the more. * And the
Lord said, I have surely seen the afflictions of my
people which are in Egypt, and have heard their
cry, by reason of their task-masters ; for I know
their sorrows and am come down to deliver them '
(Exod. iii. 7)." The fiat had gone forth. Slavery
was doomed. Already the advance guard were at
work. Wray and Davies and Smith had entered
into the land, and they were crying, " Prepare ye
the way of the Lord, make His paths straight."
They were teaching the slaves to read, and many
an old negro might have been seen at night by
the light of a dim candle spelling out some blessed
text, and as he made out the words with difficulty,
" God so loved the world," and " Come unto Me
and rest," he would cry out in his joy, "Is dis
de raal word ob de Lord ? Bless de Lord, O my
soul ! " And many a " flogging " has been received
for thus "reading" and teaching others to read
and to pray. One poor slave woman came to
parson Smith one day in great distress. " Oh my
massa," she cried, " de rats eat all my book ; it all

167

BRITISH GUIANA
gone, massa." Then, opening her kerchief, she
showed the bits of paper — all that remained of her
precious treasure. " Massa," she said, " de rats
going ruin me ; dey eat my kerchief, dey eat my
salt fish, dey eat my plantain, dey take de cotton
out ob my lamp. Me no mind all dis, but now "
— and the tears rolled down her face — " dey hab
eat my book. When me go look fo' my book me
find it sOy den me cry, and me go show massa
what de rats hab done." Poor " Minky " ! She
and the rats and the massa have all alike gone.
Worms have finished them all up, so far as the
" bodies " are concerned. For nature and Revela-
tion have said, " Then shall the dust return to the
earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto
God who gave it " (Eccles. xii. 7). We are follow-
ing on. The same trouble comes upon us. The
rats are eating our Bibles. There is the rat of
" indifference," the rat of " neglect," and the great
cane rat of " unbelief." These and many others
are eating away our best " Book " — and not only
so, but they are destroying the very wick of our
lamp — " the lamp of knowledge and of the fear of
the Lord." " And the foolish said unto the wise,
* Give us of your oil, for OUR lamps are gone out.'
The rats have ruined us."

168

EMANCIPATION AND ITS RESULTS

ONE of the first acts of the Reform Parliament
of 1832 was the Act of Emancipation. They
who had just entered into a large measure of poli-
tical liberty showed "what spirit they were of" by
granting liberty to the slaves of the West Indies at
a cost to the English people of twenty million
pounds sterling. Never was money better spent.
And yet it was a gross injustice. It was like pay-
ing a man for property to which he had no intrinsic
right, and for which, according to the highest law
of equity, he could establish no claim. To the
glory of the English people let it be said that they
struck off the chains that bound in perpetual
slavery the poor negro. They stretched out a
hand of sympathy to him in language which said,
" Thou, too, art a man and a brother." The African
is still grateful. He will never forget it. His

169

BRITISH GUIANA
heart still bounds with kindly thoughts of England.
The great white nation is to him the "great massa."
England they call home. It is the home of their
freedom, the home of their religion, the home of all
that is noblest and best in their life. The great
Queen they call mother, and some of the old
negresses who remember slave time will have it
that the Queen is a black woman like themselves.
May this kindly feeling never cease to exist, but
may it deepen and extend until the black people
become as great and as prosperous as the white
race across the sea.

To understand the effect of the Act of Emanci-
pation, which came into force on the ist of August,
1834, we must look at the condition of the Africans
here and some of the important events that pre-
ceded it.

In this colony there were about a hundred thou-
sand slaves : the actual number on which compen-
sation was claimed was 82,824. Besides these
there were the whites, chiefly Europeans, masters
and lords of all. They were the dominant class —
the rulers, the judges, the soldiers, the landowners :
they claimed everything. But they were com-
paratively few in number ; in some parts not more
than one in forty, and on many of the plantations
not more than one in sixty. Some of the planta-

170

EMANCIPATION AND ITS RESULTS
tions had from five to six hundred slaves, all of
whom were under the management of one white
man, assisted by five or six white overseers. The
responsibility of the whites was, therefore, very
great. "From their hands," says a writer who lived
in the colony about that time, "the hundreds of
slaves under them must receive everything, as well
their food, physic, and punishments, as their orders
to work. And their example gives a powerful bias
to the principles and the conduct of those whom
they govern. On the plantation much more care
and attention are bestowed upon the horses and
cattle than upon the negroes, especially where
there is no resident proprietor. Neither do the
planters seem to regard the effects of their ex-
ample upon the morals of the slaves ; if they did,
they would surely abstain from those barefaced
indecencies so prevalent among them, or at least
endeavour to conceal their gross immoralities from
the vulgar gaze."

The result of " these indecencies " so prevalent
among them, " was a mixed race, more or less
white or black. Some of these were added to the
slave gangs, and others were more privileged, and
enjoyed a kind of semi-freedom. Then there were
the free coloured people who formed a class by
themselves. With the whites they had little con-

171

BRITISH GUIANA
nection, and they were too lofty to associate with
the blacks."

The slaves are employed mostly in the cultivation
of the ground. The plantation is their place of
work. " At about six in the morning," says an old
writer, " the ringing of a bell or the sound of a horn
is the signal for them to turn out to work. No
sooner is this signal made than the black drivers,
loudly smacking their whips, visit the negro houses
to turn out the reluctant inmates, much in the
same manner as you would turn out a number of
horses from a stable yard, now and then giving a
lash or two to any that are tardy in their move-
ments. Issuing from their kennels nearly naked,
with their implements on their shoulders, they stay
not to muster, but immediately proceed to the
field, accompanied by the drivers and a white over-
seer. In the middle of the day they are allowed
about an hour and a half for rest and refreshment.
Soon after sunset (which is always within about
fifteen minutes of six) they leave off work in the
field, and each one having cut a bundle of grass for
the master's horses, which serves instead of hay — an
article not made ia the West Indies — they bend
their course homewards. They all carry the grass
to a certain spot, forming a general muster, and
there remain in the open air, often shivering with

172

EMANCIPATION AND ITS RESULTS
cold, till the cracking of the whip informs them
they are to take it to the stable, which is generally
about eight o'clock. If there be no other work to
do, they may then go to their houses. I say * If
there be no other work,' for after toiling all day
many of the slaves are frequently compelled to
work nearly half the night, especially when they
are making sugar, which is six months out of the
twelve. Some are employed in grinding, some in
boiling the juice, others in carrying away the cane
trash, while another part of the gang is employed
in carting or shipping sugar, rum, &c. Even the
Sunday is not often given to them as a day of rest.
* Is it not better,' say the planters, ' to make them
finish their work on a Sunday, than to be always
punishing them ? The Fourth Commandment says :
" Six days shalt thou labour and do ALL thy work."
It therefore follows, if ALL our work be not done
in six days, we must finish it on the seventh.'
Such reasoning only shows how easy it is for men
to wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction."

In 1823 a rumour got abroad among the slaves
that something good had come out for them from
England. • What it was they did not know, but
some said the king and Parliament had made
them free. A negro slave waiting upon the
planters heard them discussing about it over their

173

BRITISH GUIANA
wine. The news spread like wildfire — " Freedom
had come out from home." No official information
had been given, and the slaves concluded that the
Governor and their masters had combined to keep
their freedom from them. This led to a rising of
the slaves on plantation La Resouvenir on the east
coast. Their design was to seize and put in
the stocks all the white people on the estates, and
then proceed to the town in a body to claim the
freedom granted to them by the king.

It was in connection with this uprising that the
Rev. John Smith was ruthlessly seized and cast
into jail, on a charge of promoting discontent and
rebellion, and being an accessory thereto. Before
a court-martial of military men, whose prejudices
against the missionary were only equalled by their
incapacity to form a just judgment on such a case,
he was, to their everlasting shame and disgrace,
found guilty. Throughout the trial every effort
was made by his unconstitutional judges to place
him at a disadvantage ; and had there not been in
the minds of these judges the most inveterate pre-
judices they would have seen that the evidence
adduced could justify no other conclusion than a
full and honourable acquittal.

Dr. Stephen Lushington, in the House of Com-
mons, said : " No honest jury ever pronounced

»74

•' DE GREAT MASSA HAB MADE US FREE."

IToJcicc p. 174.

JEMANCIPATlON AND ITS RESULTS
such a sentence as that which the court-martial
at Demerara pronounced upon Mr. Smith ; and it
could have emanated from nothing but a virulent
spirit of prejudice. They knowingly and wilfully
gave a false verdict"

The editor of the New Times in London said :
" We have never in the whole course of our legal
reading met with a sentence so utterly unsupported
by the semblance of rational proof. Mr. Smith is
found guilty of aiding and assisting in rebellion
because a man whom he did not know to be even
a reputed rebel came one day to his house, unex-
pected by him, stayed there a few minutes, and
left it, without proof of a single word having
passed between them."

Mr. Brougham, afterwards Lord Brougham,
whom I had the pleasure of seeing once when I
was a little boy at school, speaking in the House
of Commons, said : " The precise offence of which
Mr. Smith was declared to be guilty was termed
* misprision of treason' But the evidence given
on the trial does not sustain this mitigated charge.
And if it did, were this offence proved against
him, it would not justify the sentence awarded. A
man convicted of misprision cannot by law be
hanged. The utmost vengeance of the law, accord-
ing to the wildest dreams of the highest prerogative

175

BRITISH GUIANA
lawyer, could not amount to anything like a sanc-
tion of this. Such I assert the law to be ; I defy
any man to contradict my assertion that up to the
present hour no English lawyer ever heard of mis-
prision of treason being treated as a capital offence ;
and that it would be just as legal to hang a man
for a common assault. But if it be said that the
punishment of death was awarded for having aided
the revolt, I say the court did not, could not,
believe this ; and I produce the conduct of the
judges themselves to confirm what I assert. They
were bold enough in trying and convicting and
condemning the victim whom they had lawlessly
seized upon^ but they trembled to execute a sen-
tence so prodigiously illegal and unjust.

" And this recommendation to mercy was the
most remarkable feature in the conduct of this
infamous court ; for monstrous as the whole pro-
ceedings were, and horrid as the sentence was
that closed them, there is nothing in the trial,
from first to last, so astounding as this recom-
mendation to mercy, coming from persons who
affected to believe him guilty of such enormous
crimes. If he was proved to have committed the
offence of exciting the slaves to acts of bloodshed,
if his judges believed him to have done what their
sentence alleged against him, how unspeakably

176

EMANCIPATION AND ITS RESULTS
aggravated was his guilt compared with that of the
poor, untutored slaves whom he had misled from
their duty, under the pretext of teaching them
religion ! How justly might all the blood that
was shed be laid upon his head ! How fitly, if
mercy was to prevail, might his deluded instru-
ments be pardoned, and himself alone be singled
out for vengeance, as the author of their crimes !
Yet they are cut off in hundreds by the hands of
justice, and he is deemed an object of compassion !
Having declared that in their conscience and on
their oaths his judges deemed him guilty of the
worst of crimes, they all in one voice add that
they also deem him deserving of mercy in respect
of his guilt. Is it possible to draw any other
inference from this marvellous recommendation
than that they distrusted the sentence to which it
was attached? When I see them, frightened by
their own proceedings, starting back at the sight
of what they had not scrupled to do, can I give
them credit for any fear of doing injustice — they
who from the beginning to the end of their course
had done nothing else? Can I believe that they
paused upon the consummation of their work
from any motive but a dread of its consequences
to themselves ? a recollection tardy indeed, but
appalling, that * Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by

^n M

BRITISH GUIANA
man shall his blood be shed.' And not without
reason, not without irrefragable reason, did they
take the alarm ; for, verily, if they had perpe-
trated the last act — if they had dared to take
this INNOCENT man's life, one hair of whose head
they durst not touch, they must THEMSELVES have
died the death of MURDERERS."

Sixty years have passed away since those
days, and many are the changes that have taken
place. Nearly all the old Africans have gone to
the place where the wicked cease from troubling
and the weary are at rest. New generations have
sprung up. Old customs have given place to new.
. There has been growth and rapid development.
Larger ideas of life and greater intelligence are
gradually bringing the native black people and the
Creoles abreast of the times. Our educational
system, though not perfect, is at least teaching
the young people to read and write ; and it is
an interesting sight to go into one of our large
schools filled with black and coloured children
and watch them at their lessons. We have a
large staff of native teachers, who on the whole
are a credit to their country, and they work hard
for the small salaries that are usually given. The
work of the missionaries, of which the Rev. John
Wray was the pioneer, has steadily gone on. Other

178

EMANCIPATION AND ITS RESULTS
churches have been established, and to-day the
field is well occupied. We have churches and
chapels in nearly every part of the land. In a
certain superficial sense we may say we are
nationally religious, for have we not a National
Church — yea, churches — and a large number of
official ecclesiastics ? But whilst we are formally
religious, we are yet far from it in reality. It
is still possible for a nation to have many priests,
and at the same time much paganism.

Ecclesiasticism and religion though conjoined
are not the same thing. You may have a great
deal of the former with very little of the latter ;
just as we may have a great deal of law and very
little justice, and many physicians but few cures,
so we may have many churches and not much
religion. Religious people, strictly so, are good;
ecclesiastics are often bad. Jesus Christ found His
best friends among the peasants of Galilee and
His bitterest foes amongst the ecclesiastics of
Judaea. Ecclesiasticism crucified Christ, and it
needs a Christ crucified to save ecclesiastics. The
reason for all this is that religion has to do with
the soul ; ecclesiasticism has to do with the
sacraments. The one is outward and formal, the
other inward and spiritual. To give a history
of ecclesiasticism is not to give a history of

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BRITISH GUIANA
religion. It is too often a striking example of
the want of religion. Churches have disgraced
Christianity ; Christianity has never disgraced
Churches. The popular mind has failed to dis-
tinguish between these two, and even governments
have thought that by establishing Churches they
were establishing religion.

When Goethe was asked, " What is the best
government ? " he replied, " That which teaches us
to govern ourselves." Yes, that is the lesson we
all need to learn — to stand upon our own feet,
to solve our own life problem, to work out our
own destiny ; this is the duty of every man. " Let
your government commence in your own breast,
and lay the foundation of it in the command of your
own passions." But governments in these days must
do nearly everything for us. Our Government in
British Guiana is very paternal ; it brings people
into the colony by thousands to work for us,
lest by sparsity of labourers wages should get
up, and it is well known they are not by any
means too high ; it provides a fine staff of
medical men, at an annual cost of $300,000, to
to keep the people, or a portion of them, in health ;
and it pays a fine class of ecclesiastics to look
after our souls. The people, therefore, ought to be
both very healthy and very virtuous. As a matter

180

EMANCIPATION AND ITS RESULTS
of fact, they are neither. If the Government
would first lighten the burden of taxation, and
give material help in bringing labour and land
together, and in all well digested schemes for the
opening up of the country, better results would
soon be seen.

Many of our people at home do not know
that in this country we have not only an established
Church, but established Churches. With a sublime
indifference the Government makes its grant to
Protestant and Romanist alike, to Scotch Pres-
byterians and English Episcopalians. It never
asks the question, Which is true? or, Which is
false? We might almost adopt the words of
Gibbon, in his " Decline and Fall " : " The various
modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman
world were all considered by the people as equally
true, by the philosopher as equally false, and by
the magistrate as equally useful."

The cost of our ecclesiastical establishments
is a hundred thousand dollars per annum. This
is divided between the Anglican Church, the Scotch
Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and — tell
it not in Gath ! — the Wesleyan Church. The only
Church that takes its stand on the voluntary
principle is the Congregational, or, as the native
people here call it, the London Missionary. These

i8i

British guiana
churches, some forty in number, including mission
stations, have nobly taken their stand as Free
Churches in the land, and they have steadfastly
refused all State aid. Their noble example and
the soundness of their principles are like leaven,
gradually leavening the whole lump, and the day
is now within measurable distance when State
Churchism in this land will be done away with —
and the Free Churches will be able to do their work
with reconsecrated energy amongst a free people.

XII

UP THE BERBICE RIVER

MONDAY, the i6th of March, was a very
busy day for us. We had many callers
that morning, and in addition to the usual work
of a busy minister with over a thousand people to
look after, we had to prepare for our journey of
two hundred miles into the interior. Many little
things will be necessary, for we are going far away
from the haunts of civilisation. It is a return
to those simple and primitive conditions of exist-
ence which prevailed in the Garden of Eden.
The Indian aborigines are the children of the
forest. Amid its majestic trees — its wallaba, its
mora, its green heart, its purple heart, and its
bullet tree, &c. — they wander according to their
own sweet will. With cutlass and arrow and
knife they hunt for their food, fetching the labba
out of his hole and tracking the bush-hog and the

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BRITISH GUIANA
deer. Such a life knows nothing of those refine-
ments that give ease and comfort to the initiated.
Its wants are few, and if a man's riches consist,
not in the abundance of his possessions but in
the fewness of his wants, then these aborigines
are rich. Dispensing with all unnecessary com-
modities, the Indian lives a kind of untamed life
amid the wilds of his native forest. The chirp
of the insects, the croak of the frogs, the plaintive
whistle of the monkeys, the shrill cry of the birds,
is music enough for him. For his pictures he has
the far-stretching, undulating savannah, the rich
leafage of the forest, and the little creeks with
their overhanging trees, giving such wondrous
beauty of form and light and shade. He dis-
penses with chairs and tables and sofas. He
needs no knives or forks or spoons ; his fingers
do duty for them. For cups and saucers and
glasses he has a good substitute in the calabash
which grows wild upon the trees. In fact the
Indian has only two things, his hammock and
his cooking pot. With these he can be as happy
as a king. His hammock is his vade mecuin. He
carries that with him wherever he goes. The
Indian's hammock is his chair, his table, his sofa, his
bed. It is made, like most of the things he uses, out
of the wood of the forest. When up amongst the

184

UP THE BERBICE RIVER
Arawacks we saw a Buckeen, or Indian woman,
with one of these hammocks in process of con-
struction. The beautiful palm tree called the Ita
palm, in addition to many other useful qualities,
possesses a strong fibre, which they draw out and
twist into a thread ; these threads are again twisted
into a string, and these, by a simple hand-loom
process, are worked into a strong, durable, net-
work hammock. These hammocks are about eight
feet long and seven feet wide, with a loop for a
handle at each end. They will bear the heaviest of
men, and last a long time. They are far preferable
in these regions to beds. In the hammock you are
suspended in mid-air, and so you escape those
numerous insects and reptiles that crawl upon
the floor. In the Benaab, where we stayed, it
would have been simply impossible to sleep in
a bed. The big red ants, called " cushi ants," were
so numerous, and the beetles and the spiders and
the lizards, that we should have been bitten and
blistered from head to foot In addition to this
you sometimes find yourself in a place where trees
must be your bedposts and the tropical sky your
covering, then a hammock becomes the traveller's
indispensable. After a night's rest you have only
to fold it up and " take up your bed and walk."
But we must get back to our packing. Our boxes

185

BRITISH GUIANA
are nearly ready. We have got some tea and
sugar and butter — the latter is in an air-tight tin,
and runs like oil ; also some Swiss milk, for there
are no cows up there, and some tinned meats and
some loaves of bread. These, after about ten
days, get mouldy, and we can just break them
with an axe, but put them in boiling water and
they soon get soft. " Have you put the salt in ? "
I ask ; for how can we live without salt ? " Yes,
massa, ebery ting dere," is the reply of the little
black boy. I will see to the medicines myself, for
I always like to have with me a few simple
remedies in case of accident or unexpected attacks
of fever. The quinine I must not forget, for some
parts of the district — those where the swamps lie —
are said to be very malarial, and the quinine is
a splendid antidote. As soon as daylight dawns
we are up, and by half-past six we are making our
way to the river side. The boat is alongside, and
having got our luggage in, we take our places and
wait for the whistle.

The Berbice river is a fine stream. It is navi-
gable for steamships of considerable size for up-
wards of two hundred miles. It is about two and
a quarter miles broad at its mouth, near which the
town of New Amsterdam stands. It abounds in
sharks and alligators and other monsters of the

i86

UP THE BERBICE RIVER
deep ; and when sailing up the river it is wise to
keep your hands well out of the water, as there is
a fresh-water shark called the "homa" which has
a special liking for fingers and toes. The windings
of the river present to the careful observer a new
picture at every turn. Sometimes you could fancy
you were sailing on a lake : the waters are so
placid, and the forest trees forming the embank-
ment seem to close it in.

When you have passed the few villages and
sugar estates which are at this end of the stream
you find the banks all lined with massive trees, the
rich foliage of nearly every shade dipping down to
the water's edge. The trees are so knit together
with prolific creepers, or " lianos," which entwine
themselves among the branches and around the
trunks, that they form an impenetrable thicket.
This forest of trees extends all along both
banks of the river. Its depth for the most part
has not been explored. It runs "aback," as they
say, far, far, far, that is for miles upon miles.
But here and there as you sail along you find a
little opening. The bush has been cut down, and
a little hut appears ; it is the dwelling-place of
some African or coolie squatter. Behind the few
trees stretches away as far as the eye can see the
vast, untrodden savannah.

187

BRITISH GUIANA

It is now just turned six o'clock. " The shades
of night are falling fast" By half-past six it will
be quite dark. It is not considered safe to navigate
the river in the dark, on account of stray logs
that are sometimes floating down the stream, and
then there is the danger of running into the banks
or being caught by some branch of a tree. So
having placed ourselves in the middle of the river,
we cast anchor. It is a wise precaution to keep
well clear of the banks of the river, for on either
side are mosquitoes and sandflies. Snakes lie
hidden in the long grass, and the mass of inter-
twining undergrowth is full of all kinds of stinging
insects and creeping reptiles. Then there are
ravenous beasts — tigers and tiger-cats, jaguars,
crab-dogs, bush-hogs, and the bush-cow, besides
many others of a less ravenous kind, but equally
to be avoided.

One of the first things to be done, now that the
boat is at anchor, is to find a place to hang one's
hammock, for no sleeping place is provided here.
You must just do as well as you can, and better, if
you know how. We had an awning in the middle
of the boat on what is called the upper deck, so
I managed to swing my grass hammock under
that. I then got out my pipe, and sitting down in
the cool of the evening, under that tropical sky,

UP THE BERBICE RIVER
nearly five thousand miles away from the dear
ones in England, I thought of home.

" Home ! home ! sweet, sweet home,
Wherever I wander, there's no place like home."

I thought of friends at Egerton, at Belmont, at
Bolton, at Manchester, at Ashton, in London, &c.
As a panorama they passed before me ; I saw
the busy streets of the great cities and heard
again the roar and rattle of the daily traffic, and
the silence of these forests almost appalled me.
And yet that silence is every now and again
broken in upon by some strange cry. There is
the " Hoogh ! hoogh ! hoogh ! " like the barking
of a dog. It is one of the night owls. Then there
is a very plaintive cry as of some one in pain — it
is the cry of the weeping monkey ; the big bull
frog, with his deep, bass croak, now sets up his
music, then all is still again. Another moment
you hear a big splash in the water ; you wonder if
some one has fallen in. No ! just keep quiet ; it
is a big fish leaping after its prey. Sometimes you
hear a low growl that makes you set your teeth
together ; and one night, away in the distance, but
travelling nearer and nearer, I heard the horrid,
bloodthirsty scream of a horde of wild hogs. You
know the noise ' that a pig makes when being

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BRITISH GUIANA
pursued? Well, suppose there were a hundred
of them, all making that noise together in the dead
of the night, with a rising and falling inflection —
that will give you some idea of the noise they
make. It is simply horrid. It gives you a creepy
feeling. The devil is still in the swine. If you
are in the forest and meet them, woe be unto you
if you can't get up a tree. An Indian told me
" A number of us were out hunting one day, and we
met a drove of about fifty bush-hogs ; up the trees
we got at once, and ' bang ' went one of our rifles.
Bush-hog number one fell over, and the others at
once turned upon it, drank its blood and ate it up.
When they were satisfied they were going away,
but not until they had left us five or six of their
carcases for our meal and our trouble."

Having finished my meditations I got into my
hammock, and threw a light rug — one of those I got
at John Noble's, in Manchester, some seven years
ago — over my legs. The heavens were beautiful —
a canopy of black set with diamonds. Orion, with
his arrows and belt, was bright and clear ; right
overhead was Jupiter ; his brilliance dazzled you —
we could just discern his four moons with the
naked eye ; then Sirius, with his own beauteous
light, was a little to the south ; and south-east of
him, in all its beauty, brightness, and suggestive-

190

UP THE BERBICE RIVER
ness, shone forth the constellation of the Southern
Cross. I thought, " Yes, we have the cross ever
above us. It is a cross that is alight with heaven's
glory. It is not one truth, not one star, but a con-
stellation of truths. It shines for me and for every
man. It shines in the darkest night. One star in
it points to the north, one to the south, one to the
east, one to the west. It has a light for all races
and all climes. Its radiance and glory are uni-
versal. Keep that cross ever before you." With
these thoughts I dozed off, and

" Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care,"

closed my eyes. I must have dozed for some time,
when I awoke, feeling damp and chilled. I
listened, and there, sure enough, was the patter of
rain. My rug was a little wet, and so were my
feet. I got up, rubbed myself, and took to a chair.
There the sandflies found me. These little
creatures sting like very vicious midges on a
summer's day at home, only they come upon you
in swarms. You feel as you can imagine Gulliver
felt when a thousand Brobdignagian arrows
pierced his naked body all at once. I would
almost sooner have the mosquitoes. Both are bad,
and it would puzzle a lawyer to tell which is the
worst. We have a proverb here which says,

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BRITISH GUIANA

" Patience, man ride jackass." Well, " patience
man had to bear" not "the slings and arrows
of outrageous fortune^" but the stings and arrows
of voracious sandflies until the daylight dawned.
About one hour's rest was all I got that night.
Soon after five we are again on our way. There
is a freshness in the morning air that sharpens
appetite, and as soon as we can we get what is
called our "tea," though it is far oftener coffee.
" Do you see those tall cabbage-palms ? " said the
captain. " Yes." " That is where the old fort used
to be." Tall and stately those palm trees rise, their
heads towering above the topmost branches of the
other trees. They are all that remains of a once
noted dwelling-place and seat of civilisation. Fort
Nassau was for many years the old Dutch capital.
There the Governor resided, and on it being
reported to him that the enemy's ships were
advancing up the river, he, with his people, fled.
It is supposed by some that their treasure, being
put into an iron chest, was buried somewhere near.
An old captain told me he once anchored just
opposite Fort Nassau — it is very rare you can do
that, for the black sailors say the place is haunted
with " jumbies " — and letting his anchor go it fell
upon something hard, and wouldn't grip ; he
hauled it up a bit and shifted it a couple of yards

192

UP THE BERBICE RIVER
or SO to leeward, and down it went into the sand.
He didn't know the rumour then of a chest of
gold, but he believes now there is a sunken ship
there, and it may be Dutch treasure for any one
who can fetch it up.

We wanted to land at this place, just to see the
ruins of the old brick houses, the rusty cannon,
and the graveyard of those old, brave colonists.
But they told us the roads were all blocked up,
and the place was infested with snakes of the
worst kind. " Too much snake," they said, " in
the cemetery." The fact is they were afraid of the
jumbies, and so did not want to go.

In about three hours we landed at Zeelandia, and
as we are about to stay here a few days we will
reserve our description for the next chapter.

193

XIII
AT ZEELANDIA

ZEELANDIA was one of the old Dutch plan-
tations when Fort Nassau was the seat of
government. Doubtless, in those days, its cocoa
plantations and its coffee plantations were a source
of delight to their owners. But it has long since
been abandoned. The men and the women, with
their toils and their cares, have passed away, but
the trees and the forest remain. Of the five
hundred acres comprising the estate only a very
small portion is now occupied. Over the rest the
wild beasts roam at will, and the Indian makes it
his hunting ground. Zeelandia to-day is only a
small settlement on the Berbice river. It is far
away from the town, and the last flickering ray
of civilisation hardly finds its way up there and
makes its presence felt. A little clearing has been
made, and on the bank of the river a solitary

194

AT ZEELANDIA
house stands. It was dark when we landed. Our
little canoe was gliding softly over the water.
" Where is the landing-place ? " I said. Suddenly
a light flashed out from the banks above us. But
who is holding it ? Not a person could be seen.
There the lamp was standing as on a pedestal,
shedding its welcome light through the branches of
the trees. By and by we saw the outline of a
native girl, her hands down by her side, her head
erect, and upon the top of her head stood the
lamp. "What a splendid lamp-stand she makes,"
I said. " It is thus that we men should hold up the
Lamp of Life. On our heads, supported by our
whole manhood, let that Light shine, which lighteth
every man that cometh into the world."

Having landed, we look wistfully upon those
waters. They are black and deep. As the
proverb says, " Saf ly ribar run deep." By day
and by night, solemnly and silently it flows on
to the sea. It has made its own channel, it
forms its own bank. The River of Life ! It
flows on, nothing can stop it. Its source is in
heaven, it rolls on to the Ocean of Eternity. Every
life must make its own channel, find out its own
path to the great sea beyond. But we must now
enter the little cottage in the wilderness. Though
humble and perhaps poor, it is still home. The

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BRITISH GUIANA

Gladstone family can boast of an honoured name,
and on the father's side of English descent. J. E.
Gladstone was well brought up, and his father gave
him a fair education. He served his apprenticeship
as an engineer, but he left that calling, preferring
the wild, free life of the bush and the forest. He
has a numerous family of sons and daughters.
They have been brought up respectably and in the
fear of God. Through his instrumentality a little
chapel was erected at Olandia, on the opposite side
of the river. As he had long been a member of
the London Missionary Church and for many
years a useful deacon, he felt the need of the
services of God's house, both for himself, his family,
and neighbours. During one of my visits to my
Indian stations I was asked to stop and conduct
the opening services. This I did. And it was a
beautiful sight to see the people who live at
different points on the banks of the river come
paddling along in their little canoes. Some would
come from their lonely little homesteads, miles
away, in order to worship God. Our little sanctuary
was filled to overflowing. They came as doves to
the windows. Their souls thirsted for the water of
life. I preached from the text. Acts xvi. 13, " And
on the Sabbath we went out of the city, by a river
3ide, where prayer was wont to be made." After-

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AT ZEELANDIA

wards a little Church was formed with about twelve
members, and we all partook of the Sacrament.
Thus was established this little Bethel in the
wilderness ; and since that day the good work
has gone on.

I remember one very cold winter's night in
England. The snow lay thick upon the ground.
I had been speaking at a great political meeting.
It was late when it was over. I had three miles to
walk over the hills. Going into a restaurant I
asked for a cup of their best chocolate. It was
warm and warming. I thought I never tasted
anything better. My dear reader, I am going to
take you into a cocoa or chocolate plantation.
Follow me along this forest path. Do you see
those trees with large, dark -green, undivided leaves ?
Those are the cocoa trees. They are not very tall,
only about eighteen or twenty feet high. But they
have many branches, the branches growing out
from the stem about six feet from the ground, and
these often covered with large, clustered flowers.
The fruit is like a cucumber in shape, or like a
vegetable marrow, and is about eight inches long.
Some of them are yellow and others a reddish-
brown, according to the kind of tree. They weigh
from one to two pounds. As they hang from the
boughs they look lovely. The ancients might

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BRITISH GUIANA
well call this genus of plants " Theobroma," which
means "Food of the gods." When the fruit is
ripe it is taken down, and on opening it a large
number of seeds of a pale reddish-brown colour
are found. These seeds, not unlike our large beans
in shape, are put in the sun to dry. They are then
pounded, and, mixed with a little sugar, a delicious
chocolate is made. It is not an uncommon thing
to see a diligent black woman in one of our
villages seated upon the ground and vigorously
pounding away at some of these cocoa beans. In
a very short time they will produce for you a
delicious and nourishing stick of chocolate. Cocoa
trees grow here without any trouble. We even
find them growing wild on the banks of the river.
Many a large pod have I plucked whilst paddling
up the river with the Indians in the canoe.

Not far from the cocoa trees is the coffee
plantation. A walk through it when the trees
are. in bloom is charming, for the scent from the
flowers is simply delicious. The trees are not very
large, only about twelve feet high, with branches
shooting out almost from the ground. The leaves
are evergreen, shiny, oblong, and leathery. The
flowers are in clusters, like a bunch of apple-
blossom, and white as snow. They send forth a
beautiful fragrance. The fruit or berries are of a

198

AT ZEELANDIA
dark red colour. A plantation will have sometimes
as many as five hundred trees. As the coffee tree
loves the shade and plenty of moisture, it is not
uncommon to have growing around them the sand-
box tree, or fruit trees that have long spreading
branches, to screen them from the heat of the sun.
The coffee tree continues flowering for eight
months in the year, and so two or three crops are
gathered annually. Coffee was exported from
Berbice in large quantities some years ago. In
1803 nearly ten millions of pounds (9,954,610 lbs.)
was sent out of the colony. Twenty years after
it had fallen down to eight millions, and twenty
years after that to 2,139,430 lbs. Now it is but a
few thousands. But the people are beginning to
realise that the time has come when this industry
ought to be revived. The old coffee plantations
are becoming objects of interest and desire. No-
where does the coffee tree flourish so well as here.
The Rev. T. Veness, in his " El Dorado," tells of a
coffee field up the Essequebo, planted at a period
unknown, which still continues to bear in abund-
ance, " Nature alone in this fertile soil keeping up
a reproduction of the trees."

Further aback are the rice fields. These are on
low-lying ground and in swampy places. For the
rice likes plenty of water. Indeed, it is after the

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BRITISH GUIANA

heavy rains, when the land is submerged, that the
sowing begins. As in the olden days " they cast
their bread {i.e., their rice) upon the waters, and
they find it after many days." Rice is known here
to yield as much as three hundred-fold. A friend
of mine up in this same district counted as many
as 450 on one stalk. Nothing looks more lovely
than a field of rice when it has just begun to grow.
The tender blade is of such a bright, fresh, rich
green. When the reaping time comes, it is one of
great joy. They that have gone forth weeping,
bearing their precious seed, come again rejoicing,
bringing their sheaves with them. After the grain
has been gathered, it has to be threshed and
winnowed. They have no machines to do this, so
it has to be done by hand. The process is a very
tedious one, and the labour heavy. As we have
rice every morning to breakfast, it being used as a
" side dish," and again to dinner, the black servants
have to do this. I went into the threshing room
and watched them at work. They had a large
wooden mortar, made out of a tree trunk and stand-
ing about two feet high, and two wooden pestles,
three feet long, and weighing about eight pounds.

The grain is put into the mortar. Then the
pounding begins. One on each side, bringing
down their pestle with great force, stroke for stroke,

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AT ZEELANDIA
just as you have seen two smiths striking on the
anvil. The husk being thus broken, they put it
into a basket-work sieve and blow the chaff away.
I thought how forcibly they illustrate the words,
" The ungodly are like the chaff which the wind
driveth away."

Having now looked around, and feeling some-
what weary, it is time for us to return. As we are
hanging our hammocks at the son's house, a little
further down the river, we must either walk along
a narrow path through the forest, or take the canoe.
As the latter will be easier we will go that way.
The little house which you see is right in the midst
of the forest. A space has been cleared for it a
few yards round, but there are no roads to it or
from it. The deep, silent river rolls at its base
The " Hermitage," like all houses in the river
district, is a kind of combination of house and
benaab. It has no doors, or windows, or chimneys,
but consists of upright posts, with a paling round.
These palings are about four feet high, and are
made of "wattles" out of the manicole-palm.
They allow the little breeze which we get to have
full play, and thus help to keep the place cool.
There is a boarded floor about three feet from the
ground. The roof is made of Dehalibani leaves, a
species of the palm tree. The lady of the house,

BRITISH GUIANA
knowing that the minister would want a resting-
place, like the good woman of Shunem, fitted up
and set apart one room as " the prophet's room."
The old prophet had only " a bed, a table, a stool,
and a candlestick" (see 2 Kings iv. lo). Modem
prophets require a little more.

Poor Oliver Goldsmith ! He died in April — this
very month — about a hundred and twenty-two
years ago. Walpole called him " an inspired idiot,"
and Garrick describes him as one

"... for shortness call'd Noll,
Who wrote like an angel, and talk'd like poor Poll.''

Have you read that charming poem of his
called " The Hermit " ? There are two lines in it I
want to quote ; they are the last two of this verse —

" Then pilgrims turn, thy cares forego ;
All earthborn cares are wrong ;
Man wants but little here below^
Nor wants that little longP

Come and live in the wilderness here and you
will find how true it is. Man's desires are many,
his real necessities are few. John the Baptist got
on very well with his leathern girdle, and his
locusts and wild honey. Up here a man only
needs a shirt and a pair of trousers. A Benaab
covered with leaves is cosy enough for his

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AT ZEELANDIA
hammock. A fish caught in the stream, a bird
shot in the bush, fruit from the wild trees, appeases
appetite and satisfies hunger. For his books, he
has Nature's volumes, he —

" Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything."

It is the civilisation of the city, with its social
obligations and its artificial conditions of existence,
that enslaves men and makes them the dupes of
inordinate desires. In Nature's simplicity is
grandeur, reality, freedom, and power.

Our little room, though only a few feet wide, is
large enough to rest in.

" Tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep,"

comes on her downy pinions, and closes our eyes
more readily there than in many a city mansion.
The moon with her mild sweet face is our candle,
and the whistling chorus of the insects is the music
that lulls us to sleep. That first night in the forest
I shall never forget. At dusk the six-o'clock beetle
began with his shrill whistle. By half-past six it
was quite dark. A whole chorus of sounds now
fills the air. There's the whistle of a steam engine,
the train is approaching the station — No ! that
cannot be, it is the sun beetle^ telling us of his

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approach. Then there's the scissors grinder — a
beetle that makes a noise just Hke the scissors
grinder in . the streets at home — and the sawyer
beetle, busy at work on some branch of a tree and
making a noise like that which a circular steam
saw makes, and the great borer, worming his way
into the trunk of a tree ; sitting on one of the
branches of a tree is the " candle beetle," giving
forth his light so that the others can see to do their
work. There are black beetles and brown beetles
and blue beetles and green beetles and rhinoceros
and staghorn beetles — they are of all sizes up to
a duck-egg. Then there are grasshoppers and
locusts and cockroaches and walking leaves and
praying prophets, all singing and shouting and
working ; then there are the tree frogs and the water
frogs, all whistling and croaking like mad, the big
bull frog not unlike the bellowing of an ox, the tree
frogs shouting " Burra-bararoo," the others, " Kroak !
kroak ! " Then there's the bark of the owl, and
the scream of the parrot (screecher) and the " Ha !
ha ! ha ! " of the goshawk, and the plaintive whistle
of the weeping monkey. The whole atmosphere is
alive with sound — you are in the midst of a vast
humming host of buzzing, burring, screeching,
hissing, whistling, croaking insects. Yet you can-
not see one of them. All that you can see is a

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AT ZEELANDIA

dim outline of big trees, dark and sombre with here
and there flashes of Hght from the flitting fireflies.
They are on the leaves of the trees, emitting sparks
from their bodies that flash like diamonds ; they are
on the ground at our feet like crystallised dew drops ;
they are darting through the air like shooting stars.
In the midst of it all I stood. By and by the
moon rose up behind the forest. She cast her
silvery rays on bush and bower, weird shadows
lurked among the trees ; that dark object on the
ground might be a coiled cobra ready to spring ;
that rustle in the thicket might be a crouching
tiger. Springing out of the grass there is an
iguana ; a yawarri is hidden up that tree ; a lizard
has just run past your feet and darted down this
hole ; you feel as if you dare not stir ; above and
below are things of life, and it may be things of
death. For no poison is so deadly as that of the
little green parrot snake or the labarri that crawls at
your feet. My daughter, who was with me, occupied
the little room. This evening I slung my ham-
mock upstairs. In her diary she says, " In the
night, by the light of the moon, I could see the
huge cockroaches crawling up the walls, and two
or three spiders, with legs two inches long, creeping
on the roof close above my head. I opened the
little shutter which served as a window and looked
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out. Before me was the great forest, dark and
sombre, with the moonbeams shining through the
trees and casting weird shadows all around. I
could hear the buzzing and whistling of the
insects, the loud croak of the great bull frog, with
his whistling companions all around him. The
hoot of the night owl, the scream of the monkeys
after the fruit, and the distant bark or howl of the
crab dog. These are the sights and sounds that
fell upon my ear as I stood by that opening, a
hundred and forty miles from the nearest town,
and around the great primeval forest, with the
great dark river flowing just below. That is the
time when one thinks of home and loved ones and
friends, and thank God that there is a loving
heavenly Father whose watchful eye never sleeps,
and who is guarding them and us.

The next day was a wet day. And it may be
said with truth here, " It never rains but it pours."
We sat in what might be called the little open
verandah and watched the heavy rain-drops, as they
pattered upon the leaves of the trees. Hanging over
the wattles was a huge tiger skin. We had arrived a
few days after the fellow was killed. Tell us about it,
I said, for like the Athenians of old we had nothing
else to do just then but to tell or to hear some
new thing. " Well," said Alec, " nebba trouble

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AT ZEELANDIA
trouble till trouble trouble you. Dis fellow trouble
a' we too much. He came in de night and steal de
pork. He came 'gain and take a* we fowl. So we
say, * We no clea' groun* fo* monkey fo' run 'pon,
and we no rear fowl fo* tigah to eat. So we must
ketch he one dem nights.' Three of us get we
guns, we climb 'pon tree, and we wait and we say,
' Ebery day debil help tief, one day God mus' help
watchman.' By and by we hear noise, massa, tigah
come carrying big hog 'tween he teet'. Bang !
Tigah stops, tigah growl. Bang ! Tigah roll ober.
He keep still, but we say, * Ebery shut eye no a
sleep.' We gib he one more. Bang ! He dead fo'
true. We haul he up. Dere he skin. ' No ketchee,
no habee.' "

We measured the skin and it was seven feet
seven inches from snout to tail. We got two of the
teeth, which we have here ; each one was nearly
three inches long. These formidable molars — I
call 'em mawlers — in such a powerful jaw would
soon let daylight into a man, and crackle his bones.
We were very glad to have his skin.

In the afternoon, as the rain had cleared off, we

took to the canoes and crossed the river to the

little chapel. From thence with our " nets " and

cutlasses and bowie knives and guns and dogs we

went into the forest.

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The forest on that side is very thick with trees,
and noted for its wild beasts. But they come out
mostly at night. A good dog is a good protec-
tion. Not that he is a match for either " boas, or
tigers, or jaguars, or bushmasters," but by his scent
and quickness of hearing he can detect their lurk-
ing places, and he never fails to give you timely
warning. But many of these little creatures become
the prey of these forest roaming monsters.

Horatio Gladstone, with whom we were staying,
had a dog — a fine bull-terrier, full of pluck and go.
If he had been blessed with a little discretion it
would have been better for him. But he would
tackle anything. One day, running in the bush
near the water, he roused a large water boa. For
a moment he stood, and, facing it, barked, the
next it came down upon him with its mouth wide
open, and just swallowed him alive. " We thought
we heard him barking inside," said Alec, but we
hadn't our guns with us, and so we had to make
off. We have never seen him since.

It was in this forest that one of the men was
bitten by the " bushmaster." This is one of the
most dreaded of our snakes. It is about eight feet
long, and has a terrible mouth and fangs. Its
poison is said to be very deadly. In fact, it is
dreaded both by man and beast. If you meet it
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AT ZEELANDIA
you must either kill it or be killed. Flight is im-
possible, for it can run faster than you, and it can
climb up a tree. There is only one thing you can
do, and that is cross the water if you be near either
river or creek, and even there it will follow you
sometimes. Of course, the best thing is to shoot
it But sometimes a man has no gun. On this
occasion the man was looking in a hole for a labba,
when out sprang this snake. As quick as possible
he turned and struck it with his cutlass, but before
he could step aside, the head of the snake already
severed from the body, bit him in the heel. He
sung out to his mates, and made for the boat on
the river side — in five minutes he staggered like a
drunken man. " My eyes," he said, " grew dark ;
they got hold of me and put me in the boat."
Now, luckily, there lived close by a man called
Barker, who is known as a snake charmer. He
seems to have a wonderful power over all the snake
tribe. There is not one, I am assured, that he will
not take up in his hands. He knows the antidote
to all their poisons. " This man," he said, '' gave
me some medicine. I thought I was dead. My
head nearly burst with pain ; my eyes were dark,
but by and by perspiration came on, and there
oozed out through my skin a white substance like
sawdust or very small shavings. I began to recover.
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BRITISH GUIANA
But it was months ere I was myself again. The
mark of the wound is still on my foot, and I pray
God I may never pass through the like again.
Since that day the sight of a snake almost makes
me tremble."

As we were walking through the forest, one
behind another, we saw a great silk cotton tree.
This is one of the largest trees of the forest. It
grows to a height of one hundred feet, and is
twelve or fourteen feet in diameter. The branches
do not begin to grow from the trunk till it has
attained a height of about sixty feet. It only
blossoms once in three years. The bud contains a
fine silk cotton of a light grey colour, hence its
name. The humming birds use this " silk cotton "
to line their nests with. In connection with this
tree there are many superstitions. The people
believe it to be the abode of departed spirits. The
guardian spirit of the Cumaka, or silk cotton tree,
walks around it at mid-day and at twelve o'clock
at night. The Rev. John Wray, who laboured
here in 1818, says," On the site for the new chapel,
and exactly opposite the house, was a large silk
cotton tree which stood in the way." For some time
Mr. Wray could get no one with courage enough to
cut it down, for the negroes held the tree in great
veneration, and feared to offend its spirit. So at last

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AT ZEELANDIA
the parson said, " That tree has got to come down,
and if you won't cut it down, I will," and, taking
off his coat, he seized the axe and commenced
the work. The men looked on for some minutes,
and seeing that Mr. Wray was not afraid, and that
he was the real transgressor, they took courage, and
coming for the axe they began to cut, but at every
stroke they cried out, " No me da massa, no me da
massa." Thus the tree was brought to the ground.
Some say that the juice of the tree is red like
blood, others that there is a gaseous exhalation
from the tree when cut, which is very injurious,
and that these have given rise to the superstition.

However, we noticed as we passed this Cumaka
tree in the forest, a kind of bush rope ladder,
leading up to its branches. " What is that for ? " I
said. " That is the tree we often climb up, sitting
and waiting for game. I have sat hours upon
hours in that tree, and have brought home many a
bird for the pot, and many a bush-hog for the feast."

But now we must return. We have been where
cultivation, even in the old days, never found its
way.

" This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the
hemlocks
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the
twilight."

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XIV

KIMBIA LAKES

* A N' you, missie, been to dat Kimbia Lake ?
JLx. We Creoles no able fo' go dere. Dat
place too much bad. Too much snake in de grass,
and too much tigah, and too much bad ebery ting.
We so glad you come back safe." Such was the
greeting we got from our black Creole friends on
our return. Indeed it was only when we got back
to town that we found out what a dangerous place
we had been in. One person who has lived in the
upper reaches of the river for years, and is well
acquainted with bush and forest, said that Kimbia
Lake was a very dangerous place for any one to go
to. In fact very few people ever went there. Its
wild beasts were noted for their fierceness. There
being little food to be got at certain seasons of the
year, hunger made them ravenous, and then they
would attack anything. The place abounds with

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KIMBIA LAKES

large serpents ; some of these twenty feet long have
been seen floating upon the water. " I wouldn't
have dared to go up there," said a friend. " You
English ladies have plenty of courage." This was
to my daughter who is, I believe, the first English
lady that has visited it. The fact is we were quite
unconscious of any special danger we were running
into ; dangers peculiar to the creek and forest and
bush and savannah we were prepared for.

Our trust was in God, and He was our shield.
As the wise man says, " He is a shield unto them
that put their trust in Him " (Prov. xxx. 5). Besides
this I had a kind of feeling that one's life is not his
own ; it is in God's keeping. We cannot shun a
danger that is appointed, nor can we incur one
that is not.

" On two days it steads not to run from thy grave,
The appointed and the unappointed day ;
On the first neither balm nor physician can save,
Nor thee on the second the universe slay.''

The morning of our starting out was lovely.
Getting up with the first streaks of dawn we had
our bath and our "cawfee," making the latter as
substantial as we could with eggs and rice and
cassava. Bidding them goodbye at Zeelandia, we
walked down to the river and got into the boat,

21^

BRITISH GUIANA
There were four good strong native pullers. We
had a captain at the bow, and a steersman behind,
besides myself, my daughter, a black servant called
Zoo, and the Rev. J. S. We had equipped our-
selves with all needful things. " Be sure," I said, " to
put the guns in." So we had our guns, our bows
and arrows, such as the Indians use, our cutlasses,
our axes, and our bowie knives. Our lunch basket
also was well packed. At the word " ready " we
pushed out from the landing, and our journey
commenced.

How still everything seemed that morning as we
paddled softly down the side of the great river !
Not a breath of air is stirring. The leaves on the
trees are as motionless as if they were carved in
stone. A little canoe with one solitary occupant
is coming towards us. It is a lonely squatter
journeying to his rice-fields a little further up the
river, or he is going to look at his fishing-line and
his traps which he set last night. " Morning,
Buddie ! how you do ? " " So, so ! how you do."
Such is the greeting that opens up a little "talkee"
on points of interest to these dwellers in the
wilderness. They have no postman coming with
his letters of joy and of sorrow, no daily papers
with its gossip of the world, no cablegrams telling
them that the Tsar slept soundly last night, and the

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KIMBIA LAKES
Kaiser was learning to walk the tight-rope, and
the President of the American Republic in a fit of
patriotism had insulted John Bull and challenged
the man in the moon. Their nerves are never
unstrung with news about the awful condition of
the people in Timbuctoo, and their appetite is not
affected by the advance of the Matabeles and the
uncompromising attitude of the Boers.

In answer to our question, the captain tells us
that we have only one more " point " and then we
shall come to the creek. They measure distance
on the river by " points," that is, by the different
bends of the stream. There are long points, and
short points, and half points, no two points
measuring exactly the same. Ask how far it is to
such a place, and they will say, " Two long points
and a short one," or " Three points and a half" It
is only when you have become accustomed to the
bends of the river that you can measure the
distance to a place by its points. And now we
come to a little opening in the trees. It only
looks a few feet wide. The overhanging branches
with their thick foliage and their intertwined lianos
almost hiding it from view. As we enter, that
little opening expands, the trees on either side are
statelier and taller, their great spreading branches
stretch out towards each other as if to shake hands,

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BRITISH GUIANA
forming a leafy canopy over our heads, the water
is blacker, the shade is deeper, on each side the
forest stands, we are in Kimbia Creek.

Being fond of a little paddling myself, and
wishing to relieve one of the men, I took off my
coat and rolled up my sleeves and began. The
simultaneous stroke of the paddles in the water,
sometimes so soft that you cannot hear them, and
at other times loud like the tramping of feet, makes
a kind of music. You feel inclined to sing, to
whistle, to beat time. You must fall into the
rhythm and the motion.

We sail along through Kimbia Creek,
All friends, both good and true ;

The monkeys whistle, the parrots squeak,
As we paddle our own canoe.

We care not now for the big, big world,

What it may say or do ;
We wonder and muse, we've a quiet untold,

As we paddle our own canoe.

The toucan cries, and "pai-pai-o,"

Vibrates the forest through ;
We watch the love-birds come and go.

As we paddle our own canoe.

So here's to the wild, free, forest life.
With its skies so bright and blue ;

Far away from the world's unrest and strife,
We paddle our own canoe.
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KIMBIA LAKES
The dog Leo which we took with us has been
sent ashore, he is running in the forest alongside
of the creek ; now he is off on a scent ; he does not,
however, go far into the forest, he is afraid of Massa
Tigah. " He too coward," says one of the men.
I suggested that he was hungry, for he certainly
was very thin. " Daag magah, he head big " — i.e.
Dog thin, or as they say " maugre," has a big head.
Then I said " Feed him!" " No, massa, Daag wha' a
bring a bone, sa carry ain," so he must run in the
bush and hunt. Sometimes he scents something
afar off, and at the same time something starts up
at the creek side ; he follows the other and misses
this ; if he had only followed this we should have
got it, and the other he has no chance at, it is off
beyond his speed. We feel inclined to be " bex."
Cui bono ? To what good ? " Daag hab four foot,
but can't walk on four roads wan time." There's
a labba ! Up with your gun ! He's off! With a big
splash he plunges into the water. " Down with the
boat, boys," softly, " he may come up again." We
sit as silent as grim death, the boat floats with the
stream, guns are loaded, capped and ready, but
master labba keeps well out of the way. We have
not time to wait, so we give up the chase with the
solemn reflection : " Ebery day fishing day, but
ebery day no ketchin' day."

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BRITISH GUIANA
Once more we are paddling up-stream, but the
creek is getting narrower, here and there are fallen
trees, right athwart our path. Some are well under
water so that we can just skim over the tops of
them, others are above water, forming a bridge for
the monkeys to cross over. There's a monkey, do
you see him. Ah, the fellow ! See how he runs
up that tree. He's looking at us and chuckling.
" Mo' monkey climb, mo' he show he tail." Point
the gun at him. He's off to the topmost branch.
He can curl himself up into a small compass like
a ball, and there he hides behind a big leaf.
Monkey can't be found. " Ah ! monkey knows
wha' tree he a climb 'pon." " Those monkeys," says
Alec, the black boy, " are too cunning ; see how
they stick to a nut or a * cherry' when they get one,
afraid if you make the least move that they are
going to lose it. He eats it looking round as if he
were not sure of it till he'd swallowed it. Hence
our proverb, ' Monkey say, " Wha' deh a-me belly a-
me own ; wha' deh a-me mout " a yackman want.'"
" Have you ever seen a monkey laugh ? " " No."
" Well, I have one at home ; we call him Sambo, but
the black people call him Jack, and I have seen him
laugh many a time. You tickle him or please him
with anything, and he will put his two hands on
his sides and bend down and shake just like a

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KIMBIA LAKES
person in a fit of laughter, and at the same time
a broad grin will steal over his face showing all his
front teeth. I tell you he looks too funny." " But
have you ever seen him cry?" said Alec. "Well,
I've heard him wail and lament, but I never saw
him take his handkerchief out of his pocket and
wipe his tears away."

" If you want see monkey cry,
Tick a peppa in he eye."

But here's a Dutchman's bridge, /.c, a tree trunk
across the creek ; we shall have to get under. At
the word " duck " we all lie down flat in the bottom
of the boat, and we manage to get through safe.
But this is dangerous work, for it is often on such
trees that venomous snakes are to be found. These
fallen trees are becoming more numerous as we
advance, and great branches sticking up impede
our progress. Our cutlasses are now in constant
requisition. Whilst giving a final stroke to one
stiff hard branch, my cutlass fell out of my hand
into the water. Luckily it stuck in the mud, point
downwards, like an arrow in a target ; so getting
a long stick with a slit in the end we managed
to pull the cutlass up. But now we are stopped
again, here is a tree trunk that our boat is unable
to pass under. There's nothing for it but to cut

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BRITISH GUIANA
the thing away, so we bring the boat up close and
fetch out the big axe ; in a few minutes the way is
again clear and we are off. We have now been
paddling about six hours and feel ready for a rest ;
so we pull up and get out in the forest, and have a
few sandwiches and some creek water. Then we
light our pipes, and smoke that very weed which
God makes to grow in these very forests, and we
talk and think of many things. We do not go far
from one another, for it is not safe, and the dog
keeps watch for us by running round.

In about another hour we reach the edge of the
forest on our left hand, the trees get thinner, and
the light begins to break in. We stop, and walking
a short way through the bush, a splendid view
stretches out before us. Imagine the two sides
of a square, or rather oblong, and your standing
at the angle where the two sides meet, up one side
is the line of the great forest, stretching away miles
upon miles and running parallel with the great
river ; up the other side is a thin line of foliage
skirting the bank of the creek, and right in front,
far as the eye can see, is the vast savannah. It
rises towards the centre into an eminence forming
a ridge of high ground. You reach this, and again
stretching out before you is a grand, wild prospect
of tableland. Over this the wild deer bound, and

KIMBIA LAKES
towards the Corentyne coast the wild cattle roam.
The tiger lurks in the long grass for his prey, and
the reptiles make it their hiding-place. But now we
are coming to the head of the lake. The stream is
narrower and beautifully clear. The moco moco
grow so thick as seriously to threaten our progress,
but determination overcomes difficulties. We
drive our boat through them, dodging in and out
like a dog at a fair; at last, about 2.15, Kimbia
Lake bursts upon our view. It is a fine sheet
of water about three miles long and two broad,
or even more in the rainy season — its waters dark
and solemn, but sweet and clear. Around it rises
the high ground of the savannah, with bunches
of palm trees here and there ; these Ita palms,
with their tall stems and their waving plumes,
making a picture of beauty in themselves. To
our right as we entered the forest ran out to a
point, and formed a little hill covered with trees.
The banks of the lake were covered with tall
grass, reeds, and rushes. These rose to a height
of five or six feet. In the rainy season these are
doubtless all under water. On entering the lake
one of the men shot an Indian arrow up into the
air, so as to alight further on in the water, and it
may be shoot a fish, but we found the arrow a
little later floating on the surface. The one thing

BRITISH GUIANA
that impressed us most was the weird silence of
the place ; a silence as of death reigned around ;
it became oppressive. We sat in the boat and
seemed at moments unable to speak ; not a breath
of wind stirred, not a leaf moved. We were on
an enchanted lake. The sun shone hot and fierce
above our heads, the waters were like a sheet
of smoked glass. The place was surely haunted.
At any moment one could imagine the witches of
Macbeth rising solemnly out of the dense morass
and crying : —

" Black spirits and white,
Red spirits and grey,
Mingle, mingle, mingle,
You that mingle may.''

We sailed round the lake, we went up one of the
streams that flow into it from somewhere in the
vicinity of Canje Creek, and then, after getting a
few specimens of the wild grasses, we turned our
boat's head towards home. " Plenty of sport here,"
said one of the men, " in the hunting season. Fish
too many in this lake. Stop till night, and we'll
have too much to take home." But this we could
not do, and as we were all getting fagged with the
excessive heat, and wanted our insides replenishing,
we made our way as quick as we could to a nice
camping ground in the forest. There we lit a fire

KIMBIA LAKES
and put our kettle on to boil. In a short time
we had some tea ready, Miss Lilian and the
black servant superintending the feast.

On our return down the stream we found con-
siderable difficulty arising from the fact that with
the ebbing tide the water had fallen three feet.
This brought many of the logs that were well
under as we went up so near the surface that our
boat would sometimes stick on them, and the men
had to get out on the log and push it over. On
two or three occasions the boat heeled over, and it
was only by a kind of miracle that we were not
completely capsized. After some three hours' hard
work, I called a halt, and handed my drinking cup
round to the men, when one of them accidentally
let it fall into the water. At first we could see the
cup, which was of a bright metal, and we tried with
a stick to get it. But we found the water was
so deep, and the stick had to be so long that we
could not manage it. At last Alec, who had let it
fall, said, " I will go in for it." So with his flannel
and pants on he dived in, but he said the current
was so strong and the mud so slippery that he was
carried away from where the cup lay. There was
a depth of between ten and twelve feet of water,
and we were not more than eight feet from the side.
Swimming ashore, he cut a long pole, and hauling

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BRITISH GUIANA
the boat over the spot we stuck it in the ground
and held it there, then Alec went down holding on
to the pole. At last he got hold of the cup ; we
watched but he did not seem to offer to come up
again ; he seemed half dazed. Shaking the pole
we cried, " Come up, man ! " — and to our relief we
soon saw him rising, and we pulled him into the boat.

We now found it getting dark. This, with the
half-submerged logs and the broken branches pro-
jecting up out of the water made our travelling
both difficult and dangerous. It now needed
every one to take the paddle that could, and be
prepared for any emergency. "If you are upset,"
I said, " and pitched into the water, make for the
bank, and if you cannot swim, get hold of some
branch of a tree."

On and on we go. The six o'clock beetle begins,

the last rays of the setting sun shine through the

increasing gloom of the forest. The trees begin to

look like dark objects with their arms spread out ;

the water becomes inky black. All is dark as

night around ; a little light can be seen as we look

up through the opening over our heads. It is the

light of the stars.

" There is no light in earth or heaven
But the cold light of stars,
And the first watch of the night is given
To the red planet Mars."
224

KIMBIA LAKES
By and by the moon rises, weird shadows seem
to walk amid the trees, and flit across the waters.
Round and round we go, is there no end to this
winding creek ? Our arms are wearied with the
paddles, our eyes ache with straining them to see
in the dark, our backs feel as if they would break
with sitting so long in one position. Suddenly the
light increases, an opening appears, the full moon
shines on the broad waters of the Berbice river.
Now we are all right. Soon we shall be home.
That night we needed no music to lull us off to
sleep. Getting into our hammocks we soon passed
into that state of unconsciousness —

"Where the wicked cease from troubling.
And the weary are at rest."

ABARYBANNA OR KIMBIA LAKE.

Far, far up the Berbice river,

Far from city, far from town.
From amid the unknown regions

There a stream flows gently down.

Rolling down through bush and forest,

Where no human foot hath trod.
Making for itself a pathway

Destined for it by its God.

Through this hot and unknown country,
Which few human eyes have seen.

On it flows, 'mid sunbeams glancing,
And the fohage rich and green.

British guiana

Sailing 'neath the fluttering leaflets,
Hanging from the forest trees,

We with hope our boat pushed onward
Aided by the gentle breeze.

The toucan echoed through the forest
With his wild and piercing cry,

And the monkeys in the tree-top
Grinned at us as we went by.

Suddenly a beauteous vision
Rose before our wondering eyes.

There fair Kimbia's lake lay nestling
'Neath the pale and azure skies.

All around the prairie hillocks

Rose as if to guard it well,
And the coarse brown jungle grasses

With the breezes rose and fell.

There the stately Royal Ita
Waved its plumes amid the wind.

And the bamboo's slender tendrils
Modestly stood up behind.

As we gazed around in rapture

All was silent as the night,
Not a leaflet stirred around us.

Yet the sun shone hot and bright.

Quiet reigned and ghostly stillness,
Not a living thing seemed there,

Yet beneath those jungle grasses
Slept the wild beast in his lair.

In some quiet comer sleeping
Lies the deadly cobra coiled,

And the twisting, sleek camoudi
Will not have his purpose foiled.
226

KIMBIA LAKES

Now's the time when beasts and reptiles
Take their mid-day rest and ease ;

But when comes the stilly twilight,
Then they creep beneath the trees.

When at night the moonbeams glisten

Far o'er the savannah wild,
Comes the shrill cry of the monkey,

As of some poor, suffering child.

From some dark recess the tiger
Rushes forth with savage growl,

And as stealthy as a serpent
There the jaguar does prowl.

All these dangers lurked around us.
Yet we did not seem to fear.

For we knew that One above us
Ever watched, was ever near.

We were trusting in that presence
Which we could not hear or see.

And we knew that He would keep us
From all harm and danger free.

In the town and in the city,
Wheresoe'er our way we take,

We shall ne'er forget the vision
Of fair Kimbia's lovely lake.

L. E. C.

227

AMONG THE ARAWAACK INDIANS

IT was very early in the morning when we got
into our canoe and paddled our way to the
river-boat which was lying at anchor in mid-stream.
Everything was fresh and green. The heavy dew
was still lying upon grass and shrub. Indeed,
everything was saturated with its moisture. We
found a large number, chiefly negroes from the
town, on their way up to the wood-cutting grants
in the interior. From these we received a cheery
" Good-morning, parson," and I went round to
them all, giving them a little tract to read, and
after a little service and many kindly words, we
took our place on the upper deck. We now came
to the sand-hills, which takes its name from the
hills of sand which skirt the banks of the river.
Here there is a neat little Anglican church, which
calls the scattered worshippers from the surround-

228

AMONG THE ARAWAACK INDIANS
ing district, and ministers to the spiritual needs of
these dwellers in the wilderness.

Our next place of note is " Maria Henrietta,"
where the London Missionary Society have had a
mission for many years. And soon after we come
to Coomacka. This is as far as the river-boat
goes.

Coomacka takes its name from the large silk
cotton (coomacka) trees that there abound. The
river here is wide and deep. There is a feeling of
solitude about the place, and a look of wildness.
We have reached the ultimate point of civilisation.
From under the trees a number of canoes begin to
emerge. These canoes are from six to twelve or
fifteen feet in length, and from a foot and a half to
two or three feet in width. They are cut out of
the trunk of a tree, and " kittle cattle " they are to
get into. The least step on one side and over you
go. I saw one man overbalance himself, and in a
moment the canoe went down, and the only thing
to be seen was the man swimming in the water
towards the shore. The sight of these canoes was
most picturesque. There were about twenty of
them, and sitting most composedly in them were
a number of Indians, men and women and chil-
dren, each with his little paddle in his hand. The
chief came up first. He shook me by the hand,

229

BRITISH GUIANA
and in broken English bade me welcome. The
other Indian men followed suit. They then began
to collect our baggage and tow it away, some in
one canoe and some in another. In the centre of
the chiefs boat they had made a little tent of Deha-
libani leaves to screen the parson from the intense
heat of the sun. Having carefully got down into
the canoe, not without some misgiving, I seated
myself down on a cross board in the middle.
Keeping myself very still, the word of command
was given, and we began to paddle away, seven or
eight canoes in the front, and the rest in the rear.
With wonderful strength and agility they used their
little Indian paddles ; there would be eight or ten
or twelve paddles to a canoe, all of them striking
the water in concert. As you looked at them from
behind, they looked like the simultaneous steps of
an army on the march, the paddles being the legs
of the boats. When they wanted to go softly, as
they do when fishing or hunting, the word was
given, and each paddle dipped into the water with
a silence and stealth that enabled them to come
close up to their prey. For hours they will keep
up this paddling without apparent exertion or
exhaustion. I have set out with them at four
o'clock in the morning, and we have travelled on
all day till six in the evening, with only a little

230

AMONG THE ARAWAACK INDIANS
break or two for water and refreshment. All that
they seem to eat is a little cassava cake, washed
down with the water of the river. After about
two hours we turned out of the Berbice river into
the Wikky Creek. This stream, though called a
creek, is wider than the Irwell and much deeper.
We are now fairly out of the track of civilisation.
The Indians are at home here. We are travelling
through their happy hunting-ground. On each side
of us stood in primitive grandeur the magnificent
trees of the forest, their branches bending over and
dipping into the dark waters of this unknown stream.
There were the " green heart, the purple heart, the
simaruba," the wallabah, the mora, the yarruroo,
and many other trees. The prospect grew wilder
as we advanced. Winding in and out we found
ourselves in the very heart of the forest. The
stream begins to get narrower ; occasionally a
huge tree trunk, forty or fifty feet in length, lying
right across the creek, disputes our progress, but
skimming round it or shooting under it we still go
on our way. After about five hours' good pulling
the chief says, " Do you see those tall bamboos ?
That is the place where we land." With a sudden
turn we shot under the branches of the trees, and
there in that little opening stood a number of
Indian women and picknies. Their attire was

231

BRITISH GUIANA
of the simplest kind, one garment sufficing in
some cases to cover their person.

The Bucks, that is the name given to the male
Indian, and Buckeen, or Bokeen, to the female, are
divided into many tribes. Some of these are well
known, and others hardly known at all. The
tribes best known are the Arawaacks, the Accawais,
the Caribs, the Warraus, and the Macoosis. In
addition to these are the Arecunas, the Wapisianas,
the Woyawais, the Attorias, the Powsianas, &c.,
&c. Some have estimated their number in the
colony at 10,000, 15,000, 20,000, and 25,000.

The best known are the five first named. Of
these it may be interesting to give some little
account. And first of all, of their general history,
we may say it is a blank. They themselves can
tell us nothing of it. They have no writings and
few traditions. The latter are so vague and inco-
herent that very little can be made of them. No
record of achievement or memorial of glory lights
up their past It is a page on which nothing has
been written. Whence they came, history knows
not ; it can only conjecture. How long they have
been here we can only surmise. With the dis-
covery of the continent comes the discovery of its
strange inhabitants. He was found there a dweller
in the forest with the parrot, the monkey, the

232

AMONG THE ARAWAACK INDIANS
camoude, and the jaguar. With the trees of the
forest he grew, with the trees of the forest he died,
and with the trees of the forest he still lives. He
is a stranger to the rest of mankind. Roaming
through the vast forests of the interior, hunting his
deer, his bush hog, and his fish, he is altogether igno-
rant of the vast world of humanity buzzing around
him. Even those who live upon our borders, and
have been reached by our missionaries, know not
the day of the week or the year of our Lord. As for
time, that is measured by sunrise and sunset. For
hundreds of years they have lived the same apa-
thetic, indifferent, unaspiring life. The fulfilment
of an instinct, the gratification of a passion, sum up
the round of their existence. They eat, they sleep,
they hunt, they laugh, they cry, they die, and their
bodies return to the earth from whence they came-
The general appearance of these Indians is pretty
much the same. They are of a reddish brown, not
unlike new and clean copper. Some, of course,
are a little lighter in colour, and some a little
darker. They are short in stature, but thickly
built and fleshy. The women are somewhat less
in size than the men, and some of them are very
short. They have long, straight, coarse black
hair, the Bokeen wearing it loose hanging over the
shoulders, except those in our mission, who have

233

BRITISH GUIANA
begun to plait it and tie it up. Their features
are regular, but there is often a listless and alto-
gether vacant expression upon their faces ; their
eyes are black, and somewhat obliquely placed in
their orbits. They have neither whiskers nor
beard, their custom being to prevent them from
growing by plucking them out on their first appear-
ance. A vacant placidity, unmarked by strong
emotions, is perhaps their predominant expression.

Of the five tribes mentioned, the Caribs are said
to be the most numerous ; brave, warlike, and
industrious. They reside chiefly on the sea coast
between the Essequebo and the Orinoco. It is
from them that we get the name of the " Carribean
Sea."

The Warraus are said to be a short, hardy
race of fishermen, inhabiting the low, wet, marshy
places adjacent to the sea. They are noted for
their boat-building. They live on crabs and fish.
In colour they are somewhat darker than the
others. Their manners are bold, adventurous, and
active. They are very improvident, and inclined
to dissipation. Their features are irregular and
disproportionate, the females being peculiarly dis-
agreeable.

The Macoosi are famed for their manufacture of
the Wourali poison. But the use of the poisoned

234

iVH

[To f,ic<: t>. 235.
INDIAN WOMAN, WITH HAMMOCK AND PEGALL.

AMONG THE ARAWAACK INDIANS
arrow is common to all these tribes, and Bancroft
gives the recipe by which the Accawais arrow
poison is usually prepared.

The Macoosi occupy the open savannahs of the
Rupununi and Barima. They are described as
inoffensive, taciturn, hospitable, and industrious.
They are a numerous tribe, and are said to be
implacable in their revenge. The picture before
you is of a Macoosi Indian woman, travelling across
the country in native costume. Her hammock is
tied up, and she is carrying it upon her head. In
it she rests by day and sleeps by night. On her
back is what is called a pegall, in which she carries
whatever may be needed on the way. In the
basket at her feet, the cassava from the field is
often carried, as well as pines and other kinds of
vegetable produce. The only covering these
natives wear is the little apron, manufactured by
their own hands out of cotton thread grown in the
forest and ornamented with different kinds of
beads, variously coloured. The patterns of these
dresses, if such they can be called, are beautiful
and ingenious. They are red and blue and white.
The fashion is not by any means modern, but it is
serviceable and very ancient. The name of this
covering is " Queyou."

The Accawais are the most interior tribe, living
235

BRITISH GUIANA
near the source of the rivers Essequebo, Demerara,
and Berbice. Dalton describes them as " of a
nomadic, warlike nature, and wandering from the
Orinoco to the Amazon, they engage in barter or
battle with the other Indians according to circum-
stances." Their numbers are large, and their quarrel-
some temper well known. They are disliked by the
other tribes and have little if any communication
with Europeans. Their complexion is lighter than
the Warraus, and their features less disagreeable.
" Their behaviour is reserved and grave, and they
have an unusual degree of art and cunning. Their
language is solemn and its articulations distinct
but harsh. The arrow poison which they compound
is particularly fatal ; and besides that they have
several other kinds of poison, which given in the
smallest quantities, produces a very slow, but
inevitable death. They have a composition which
resembles wheat flour, which they sometimes use
to avenge past injuries that have been long ne-
glected and thought to be forgotten. On these
occasions they always feign an insensibility of the
injury which they intend to revenge, and even
repay it with services and acts of friendship, until
they have destroyed all distrust and apprehension
of danger. When this is effected they meet their
victim at some festival and engage him to drink

236

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AMONG THE ARAWAACK INDIANS
with them. They drink first themselves to obviate
suspicion, and afterwards secretly drops the poison
into the potion, which they have already concealed
under their finger nails, which are unusually long "
(Bancroft).

The picture at the beginning of this book is
from a photograph of a group of the Accawais.
They wear no clothing save a strip of linen
or cotton cloth, either blue or white, around
their loins. This is passed over a cord tied round
the body above the hips, in such a way that one
part hangs down the front, like an apron, six
inches wide, and the other hangs behind like a
single attenuated coat tail. This article of dress
is called a " lap." On their shoulders they have
a necklet of alligators' teeth, these creatures
being very numerous at the sources of their rivers.
Around the head of the chief is a circular band,
about two inches wide, woven from the fibre of a
tree. In the upper edge of this is fixed a great
number of long feathers of different but gay
colours, red, blue, green, yellow, black, white, which
stand erect round the whole circumference of the
head. It gives them a wild and fierce appearance.
In their hands they hold the battle axe or war
club, which is made out of a wood as hard and as
heavy as iron. It is sharpened at the edge like an
237

BRITISH GUIANA
axe. They have also their bows and arrows. At
one side is a pegall, and at the other a large, circular
iron-plate on which they bake their cassava cake.

But the most interesting of the tribes mentioned
are the Arawaacks. These are they that form the
subjects of our Mission. They live up our rivers
where the land is elevated, and are in close prox-
imity to the old Dutch plantations. In days gone
by they were often the allies of the white man, and
rendered good service in times of insurrection.
"They are of a middle stature, and well propor-
tioned. In complexion they are whiter than any
of the other tribes. Their features are regular and
agreeable, their lips thin, their eyes black and
sparkling." Their necks are short, and their ankles,
hands and feet, particularly those of the women,
remarkably small. In temper and disposition they
are cheerful and humane. To Europeans they are
disposed to be friendly. In all my dealings with
them I have found them kind and gentle and
hospitable.

Those in our mission have begun to wear
garments. A single petticoat and a bodice
becomes the robe of the females, and the men
wear a flannel and a light pair of blue cotton
trousers. Of course, when " parson " is not there,
or they go to their fields to plant or dig cassava,

238

Among the arawaack Indians
they fall back upon their native Indian robes.
Previous to the introduction of Christianity, and
in those places where no mission exists, they still
wander about with the " queyou " as their only
covering. The belle amongst the Bokeens wears
usually around her neck a string of beads, with
a tiger's tooth, or the tooth of a cayman in
the middle. The " queyous " are beautifully made
and fringed, and around their arms is the usual
cotton band. Their marriages are of the simplest
kind. An agreement being arrived at between
the young people and the parents, the marriage is
celebrated by a feast and dancing. He happiest
to she happiest completes the ceremony.

Having rested for a short time on the stump of
a tree, till our baggage was got out of the canoes,
we began to march, Indian file, along a narrow
path through the forest. The chief sent half of
the men in front, placing " parson " in the middle.
He walked close behind me, and the rest brought
up the rear. I noticed as we passed along how
quick they were in detecting reptiles upon the
ground and on the trees. Once the chief stopped
and pointed to a tree some distance off. There,
curled round one of the branches, was a huge
snake. I should probably not have seen it had I
passed close to it, for it was nearly the colour of

239

BRITISH GUIANA
the wood around which it was clinging. Their
tread, too, was so soft and cat-like. It was like a
person with bare feet walking on tip-toes. After-
wards, when some of them paid me a visit in town
and came to my church, I was amused to see the
way in which they walked up the aisle, they might
have been treading on boiled eggs. The senses of
these Indians are very acute. Their sight, hearing,
and smell have become naturally keen, from their
continual exercise in watching for and tracking
game. The Arawaacks have been termed the
tiger-men, on account of the skill they display in
overcoming the jaguar or tiger of the forest and
coast. Wandering through the forest afterwards,
with only one or two of them, I noticed how at
different points they would break a twig or bend
down a leaf. By these broken sticks they found
their way back through the labyrinth of trees ;
for in those forests it is very easy to get lost.
You may wander for weeks and months, and still
find no way out, but perish in the attempt. An
old writer who had lived amongst the Indians
many years, says, " They will tell how many men,
women, and children have passed, where a stranger
could only see faint and confused marks on the
path before him ; and from the appearance of the
track and the state of the weather, will tell the

240

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SECOND GROWTH FOREST.

[To face p. 241.

AMONG THE ARAWAACK INDIANS
time that has elapsed since the footprints were
made. When arriving at a settlement, I have
been disappointed at the absence of the people.
The Indians with me would examine the fire-place,
the dust on the utensils that had been left, and
the various paths leading from the place, and they
would then tell me when the people left the house,
and the direction in which they were gone." ikmacoit Libnuqu

Any one who has wandered through these
tropical forests must have been impressed with
the wealth and exuberance of vegetable life.
Successive generations of trees are there standing
and flourishing around. There is the old tree,
with its mighty trunk and its outspreading
branches. This we may call the " octogenarian."
Then there is the one that comes after this, the
son of the old man. He is full-grown, and still
sturdy and vigorous. Then there are younger
ones, about half or two-thirds grown. They are
struggling to make a place for themselves, and to
find room for their outspreading branches. Then
there are the young saplings — the children, we
might call them. These are very numerous, and
only a small proportion of these survive the
dangers and perils of juvenility and grow up to
mature life. Everywhere are trees, plants, shrubs,
minute mosses, growth, exuberance, life. You

241 q

BRITISH GUIANA

cannot put down your foot without crushing some
beautiful flower or graceful plant. Impenetrable
thickets here and there present themselves, for
creeping parasites or pliant vines have entwined
themselves around the stalwart trees, climbing up
the trunks, running along the branches, interlacing,
encircling, with a kind of voluptuous embrace, that
insidiously sucks the strength of the woody giant,
but gives beauty and romance to the scene. Some
of these vines are thick and strong and leafless,
and are called bushropes, others are slender and
graceful and leafy, and sometimes rich with a
beautiful lilac, or purple, or white, or red flower.
They hang in festoons and form a kind of drapery.
So enveloped sometimes is the tree and hidden by
these Delilah-like plants, that you would think it
was the tree itself that was in bloom. Through
these thickets, along a narrow path which the axe
or the cutlass has carved, we wend our way. The
sun is shining bright outside, but his rays cannot
penetrate this leafy gloom. Here and there he
may shoot through the tree-tops a spray of light,
making the leaves glisten and the dew-drops
sparkle and the concealed floral treasures appear.
A mysterious silence reigns around. It is not
the silence of the mountain-top, nor the silence of
mid-ocean, nor the silence of some ancient ruin,

242

AMONG THE ARAWAACK INDIANS
nor the silence of the grave. It is more like the
silence of the Eternal : a silence that comes not
from emptiness, but from the very fulness of life ;
for if you listen attentively you will hear a stifled
sound, a continued murmur. The sap is running
up the arteries of the trees and coursing through
the veins, the leaves are inhaling the nitrogen from
the air, the branches are waving their leafy plumes.
Myriads of insects are crawling among the dead
leaves on the floor ; from the decayed trunks of
trees issue thousands upon thousands of red and
black ants, all in full regimentals and marching
order. There is not a rotting branch but is the
home or the workshop of some beetle, or lizard,
or millipede, or worm. We are in great Nature's
laboratory ; it is a magazine of wonders — all
Nature breathes. It is the breath of God and
the breath of life.

When we had travelled some distance I heard
a noise that seemed to me at first like some one
felling a tree, then it sounded again like distant
thunder. I looked at the chief in wonder-
ment, and he smiled. Then saying something
in Arawaack to one of the men behind, two
of them departed a little distance from us, and
having taken up two stout cudgels they struck in
turn the fluted trunk of a yarruroo tree. It sounded

243

BRITISH GUIANA
like the beating of a huge drum. " The Indians
at the settlement," said the chief, " will now know
that we are coming." It is in this way they give
warning of the approach of a stranger. We may
call it the Arawaack's telephone.

To those who have never seen an Indian settle-
ment, words will fail to describe it. All around
is the great forest. A space has been cleared for
the houses. These houses, or wigwams or Benaabs
as we call them, are of different sizes and shapes,
and are placed irregularly. They are very simple
in their structure, and quite in keeping with the
primitive nature of the occupants. From a photo-
graph which was taken, I am able to present my
readers with a true picture of an Indian benaab.
It consists of upright posts driven into the ground.
These are held at the top by cross beams ; not
a nail or wooden pin is used in the fastening of
them — they are simply tied together by bush-
ropes. The roof is thatched with dehalibani
leaves. Having arrived at the settlement, I
found some thirty or forty benaabs promiscuously
fixed about. In the centre of this strange circle
stood a little Indian chapel, made after the same
fashion, and close by was "parson's" benaab.
" This," said the chief, " we give to you ; it is
your house. We glad you come amongst us to

244

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AMONG THE ARAWAACK INDIANS
tell us of the great Father's love." I thanked
him, and thought no more can I sing those three
lines of Wesley's hymn —

" No foot of land do I possess,
Nor cottage in this wilderness,
A poor wayfaring man ; "

for now I have a house, it is on freehold land,
and is given to me in perpetuity. On entering
my benaab I found it quite empty. What was
I to do ? No furniture up here ; not even a chair
or a table or a three-legged stool. Well, I had
my hammock, and that was soon fixed up for me,
and we .managed to make a bench and table out
of some logs of wood. Forgetting all about my
past training in the habits of civilised life, I fell
into native simplicity, and became content with
a broiled fish from the creek and a bit of cassava
cake. By and by we were able to improve on
this, and the Indians would add a bush fowl, or
a piece of labba, or even a joint of venison. Our
first service was held about five o'clock. Little
Indian children, in puris naturalibus^ sat on the
rude benches in front and the men and women
behind. About one hundred and twenty assem-
bled. They sang in a soft simple way the sweet
songs of the Saviour, and then after the reading

245

BRITISH GUIANA
of Scripture the chief interpreted to them my
simple exposition. This over, I was taken to the
different benaabs, and introduced to the respective
families. The inside of these houses is very funny.
There is no furniture save a cooking pot, an iron
plate, a few utensils for making cassava cake, and
a hammock. Indeed, these latter are hung all
about the place. Some we found resting in them
as in the picture before you, and some were squat-
ting on pieces of wood. As many as ten and
twelve hammocks will be swung in one benaab.
The Indian lies in it during the day and sleeps
in it at night. It is his vade inecum. Besides
this benaab in the picture is a plantain tree, with
its splendid leaves two feet wide and eight or ten
feet long, this in itself forming a splendid shade
from the heat of the sun.

During the night the dogs keep watch, and
invariably a little fire of dried sticks is kept
burning in each house. The Indians seem to
sleep with one eye open, for I heard them talking
many a time during the night, and they were up
and about some hours before daylight in the
morning ; indeed, they frequently set out, five or
six of them together, about three o'clock in the
morning on some distant journey or to hunt in

the forest

246

AMONG THE ARAWAACK INDIANS
Each day we had service in our little chapel at
7 a.m. ; then from ten to twelve I taught every
one that came into my house ; from two to four
I taught the children to read some short passages
in the Bible and to sing some of our simple
hymns ; in the evening we again closed with
family prayers. Thus the days went by, and I
learned to pity and to love these simple denizens
of the Wilderness.

247

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