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3.

THE LATE Mr. M. McTurK AND HIs BoOAt’s CREW,

} oyal Flgricultural

Eemriercia Society

OF

BRITISH GUIANA.

Hon. J. J. NUNAN, K.C., LL.D., Edztor.
JAMES Ropway, F.LS., Asszstant Editor,
Vol. V. (Third Series), 1918.
HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATED VOLUME.

Bemerara :

THE “ ARGOSY” COMPANY, LIMITED.

CONKENTS OF VOLUME V.

(THIRD SERIES.)

INTRODUCTION :—Loss v GAIN—-Editor

Now anp THEN— Prof. J. B. Harrison

GLIMPSES OF THE GUIANA WILDERNESS—A. Hyatt Verrill
PREHISTORIC MOUNDS AND RELICS
A REMARKABLE MOUND Pe
A Cuat ABouT THE SocieTy’s Past—J. Rodway
CONVERSAZIONE, May 247TH, 1917

Insect Homrs—L. D. Cleare, Jnr. ...

Tue INDIANS oF Barpapos—E. G. Sinckler ...

SomE OF THE ConsTRUCTIONAL Woops—L. P. Hodge...
Ligno CoNncRETE—

A FisHinc Trrp—G. BE, Bodkin

Tue LUTHERANS OF Brerpice—Fred May

THE RENAISSANCE—C. Martin-Sperry

Some Stray THoucuts—Edgar Beckett

THE ARTICLES ON INDIAN LanGuAaGEsS—Rev. W. G. White
Kine Wituiam’s Propte—J. G. Cruickshank...

THE “Goop oLD Timzs”—J. Rodway

Some Figures In Strinc—Rey. A. Robinson

PRESENTATION AND LECTURE, OCTOBER 151TH, 1917

CONTENTS.—ContTINUED.

Page

OccasIONAL NOTES ... see ee Ae nae «op ee

Empire Day, MsEetTinc May 247TH, 1918 Ree ix oe Ge

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY— ae ao ost «ices
APPENDICES—

1. THE GEORGETOWN—Manaos RAILWAY Ket nas, od

2. EDITORIAL NOTE ae was bas oe Fae

3. THE DEMERARA RAILWAY COMMITTEE ss wow LOT

4. Roman-Durcu Law nv Britisu GUIANA ... SS

TIMEHRI:

THE JOURNAL OF

THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL AND COMMERCIAL SOCIETY
OF BRITISH GUIANA.

VoL. v. AUGUST, 1918. HISTORICAL

ILLUSTRATED VOLUMEs

INTRODUCTION.

Loss AND GAIN.

“ Under the British flag wherever he journeyed, he found men of
English speech living in an atmosphere of liberty and carrying on the
dear domestic traditions of the British Isles. He saw justice firmly
planted there, industry and invention hard at work unfettered by
tyrants of any kind, domestic life prospering in natural conditions
and our old English kindness and cheerfulness and broad-minded
tolerance keeping things together. But he also saw room under that
same flag, amvle room for millions and millions more of the human
race. The Empire wasn’t a word to him, it was a vast and almost
boundless home for honest men.”—(Sir Walter Raleigh in United Empire,
May, 1918.)

So wrote a friend of Earl Grey after his lamented death last Septem-
ber. By that death this colony lost a sincere friend and we can only
trust that something of his broad and generous spirit, his lofty Imperial
patriotism and his generous acceptance of men of every creed, race and
colour as his fellow citizens in the fullest sense will continue to inspire
us in this outpost of the Empire. However restless we may be at the
slow pace of the colony’s advance, at the continued restriction of our
colonial development (a restriction nowadays entailed mainly by war
conditions,) to a belt of cultivation reaching for the most part only five
or ten miles from tide-mark, we can at least realise with satisfaction that
every feature set forth in Earl Grey’s view of the British Empire as a
whole is fully represented in this particular pirt. Equality of opportunity
is the ideal of the Empire, an ideal which no Empire or Republic of
ancient or modern times has more consistently pursued, and no British
possession has more fully realized that ideal than British South America.
That the colony recognises the special advantage it enioys in regard
to such equality of opportunity has been shown by the co-operation of
all its citizens in the past for the purposes of the war and by their insis-

ii. Timehri.

tent expressions of willingness to make any sacrifice of men, materials, or
treasure in the future which may be necessary for its successful prosecu-
tion.

Since the last issue of ‘‘ Timehri” the colony has continued to go about
its lawful occasions ‘ under the sure shield of the British Navy ” in almost
every respect as if the war were in another planet. Prices of necessaries
certainly have gone up to an extent which the war may perhaps
explain and even justify but which has led among the less highly paid civil
servants cf the colony to co-operative action for the purpose of. enabling
them to preserve some more definite relation between their salaries and
the constantly increasing cost of living. The better paid officials have given
their support to the action of their subordinates. he movement has no
agoressive features and as it is proceeding along purely practical lines can
only lead to beneficial results in regard to the control of profiteering
charges not only for the benefit of the officials but for the public at
large.

; The proposal of this Society to hold the postponed West Indian
Agricultural Conference in the colony this year has not been realised
owing to the unexpected prolongation of the war through the betrayal of
Russia by the gang of international anarchists and German spies who
control the Bolsheviki dreamers. Our kindred scheme of a Colonial and
Inter-Colonial Agricultural and Horticultural Show to be held at the
same time as the Conference has also been postponed. We recognized -
the practical difficulties but wished to make sure that this part of the
Empire will not be as unprepared for peace as the Empire was for war.
The prevalent idea of deferring all progressive action in this colony until
the war is over and until more energetic communities can voice their more
articulate claims on British capital leaves us cold.

On the other hand the cattle-track between the Berbice River
savannahs and the Rupununiin the neighbourhood of the Brazilian border
has been actively pushed forward by its originator, Mr. Melville, Commis-
sioner of the Rupununi District. By the end of the year we may see its
completion. It isin the nature of a rough traverse across the colony
through practically unknown country. Some of us would have preferred
to see it accompanied by railway and economic reconnaissance parties as
a preliminary to a flying survey for a trunk railway, Such a railway
reconnaissance will be indispensable. An economic survey will also be
necessary to reassure the Imperial authorities or any Canadian or other
railway capitalists as to our resources. The ground to be covered
by the cattle-track would however coir-ide only in part with
any probable railway route to the interior and there appears to be
a temporary apathy at the moment in regard to the development ofthe
interior which is easily accounted for by a considerable concentration on
coastland sugar and rice due to the war prices and local speculation in sugar
estates. Tropical colonists prefer to take short views of life. Meanwhile
although no preliminary steps are being pressed upon the Government by
the electives or by public opinion or by the press for the purpose of
ascertaining the possibilities of opening up communication with Brazil

Introduction, iii.

we may congratulate ourselves that His Excellency Sir Wilfred Collet,
K.C.M.G., immediately on his arrival realised that the cattle route was at
least a reasonable experiment in that direction and caused practical shape
to be given in the Combined Court to a scheme which had been recom-
mended to the Colonial Office by Mr. Clementi during his acting term. It
had been advocated by Schomburgh about 1840. The idea had been played
with by Sir Alexander Swettenham. It is due to the present Governor
that it is more than half completed after remaining in abeyance for 78
years.

The most important contribution to the solution of the problem of
the interior is the confession of faith made by the late Governor of the
colony, Sir Walter Egerton, K.O.M.G., at the Society of Arts on the 30th
April, 1918. The part of his lecture which relates to the trunk railway is
reproduced in Appendix I with an editorial note. The adoption
of the programme which the Society and its magazine advanced in
anticipation of his arrival in 1912 and re-affirmed in 1913 and 1914
is a most satisfactory testimony to the cordial relations which were
maintained between the Society and his late Excellency. On the
schemes of constitutional change advocated by Sir Walter this purely
non-political Society can express no views. It is believed, however, that
the colonists will support the progressive programme of any Governor
independently of the alleged or real defects or advantages of any par-
ticular form of constitution whether the same be a legacy of the Anglo-
Dutch pioneers or a reform emanating from later conditions. Many still
adhere to the poet’s heresy that whate’er is best administered is best.

The colony agrees with Sir Walter that apart from the question of
the interior the chief problems awaiting solution are :—

(1) Conservation of the present population and increase of its
natural growth by improving sanitation especially in the towns, where
the death-rate habitually considerably exceeds the birth-rate.

(2) Provision of good water supplies both in town and country.

(8) Preservation of Infant life.

(4) Execution of drainage schemes to increase the area of land on
the present occupied coast strip suitable for rice and sugar cultivation.

(5) Improvement of the existing coast railway.

(6) Improvement of the Georgetown harbour.

(7) An Immigration scheme to provide, at the colony’s expense in
the first instance, immigration of Indians and Chinese of both sexes in
equal proportion.

The last as will be seen in the Appendix was the complementary
scheme of the Railway Committee which no doubt must now be re-adjusted
to the new conditions.

To these we should like to add (1) A scheme of colonization
similar in character for West Indian negroes ; (2) The adoption of up-to-

iy. Timehri.

date machinery for cultivation and manufacture by co-operation, with
Government assistance, if necessary, among estates which have recently
been acquired by local investors. (3) The re-adjustment of the economy of
the large estates by means of labour-saving appliances in view of the
collapse of the old indenture system and the probable slow development of
any substituted colonization scheme. (4) The frank recognition by the
planters that cane-farming may henceforth contribute to the removal
of some of their labour difficulties if developed under a proper system of
reciprocal aid and supervision by planters and farmers acting in a cordial
alliance. The comparative but encouraging success which has attended
the Farmers’ Conference of this year isa hopeful sign of the prospects
of such an alliance. (5) The adoption by the Imperial Parliament of such
a policy of Imperial preference or restriction of unfair competition as will
reassure investors both here and in the United Kingdom.

As regards the last mentioned question the final report of the
Committee on commercial and industrial policy just presented to
Parliament advocates countervailing duties against ‘‘dumping” and we
had the assurance of the Premier last year that the principle of Imperial
preference had been accepted by the Cabinet.

To these many of us would subjoin a (6),viz., the association of the
people of the colony of every race, colour and class with the defence
of the colony, the West Indies and the Empire, by a scheme of universal
military training in the schools, followed on adolescence by service on the
Swiss or Norwegian system based upon selective draft.

THE BavuxITE INDUSTRY.

The revival of our mining industry which the war had seriously
damaged has come in the last two years from an unexpected source.
Few people in the colony except mineralogists by profession had ever
heard of bauxite before that period. We now know that itis one of the
three hydrates of aluminium (or aluminum as the North Americans follow-
ing the discoverer Sir Humphry Davy prefer to call it) found either in
sedimentary deposits or where some igneous rock has become weathered
in situ. Its local geological history approximates to that of kaolin
which in this colony has an excess of silicon and iron. Our best known
deposits are at Akyma, 75 miles from the mouth of the Demerara River,
on the dividing line between the mountain country and the sedimentary
deposits of the coast. Professor Harrison has expressed the opinion
that they are caused by the weathering of igneous rocks in situ. The
ore is supplied at preseat by a British registered Company entirely for the
manufacture of aluminium by a Company in the United States. Bauxite,
however, is also used for the production of alum and other aluminium
salts, as arefractory for the manufacture of bauxite-brick for furnaces,
as an abrasive for grindstones and for the making of aluminium
sulphate used for the quick setting of plaster. The present price of
bauxite averages $5 a ton and the ore produces aluminium to the extent of

Introduction. Vv.

about one seventh ofits weight. The price of aluminium before the war
averaged about 16 cts. per lb., and after some fluctuation has been fixed
for war purposes by the United States Government at 32cts. The
margin of profit is not likely to be one to attract purely speculative
enterprise. At the same time owing to the extended use of the mineral for
aeroplane building and many other purposes, (especially since welding
and spinning have superseded the unsatisfactory attempts at rivetting),
and owing to progressive discoveries of economical processes for the
reduction of the ore it should be possible to ship bauxite in increasing
quantities even after the conclusion of the war. Incase mineral oil from
Trinidad can be had at reasonable rates we may even look to a local
manufacture of aluminium. It is to be regretted that since bauxite was
discovered in 1910 and even since the war British capital has neglected
the opportunities offered by these accessible deposits to overtake the
lead of Germany which before the war had virtually monopolized the
French and Indian output. Outside of France there are no considerable
European deposits although Scottish waterfalls like Foyers have for some
time been used and Ben Nevis is even being tunnelled as I write to
create water-power for the production of aluminium from kindred
clays. In Demerara the Industry at present employs over a thousand
men under admirably organised sanitary conditions.*

THE SOCIETY.

In regard to the Society the most important event of the year was
the assumption of the Presidency by Professor Harrison, C.M.G., Director
of Science and Agriculture after an interval of twenty-one years from
his last term of office. In that period, the Society has had on many
occasions his valuable assistance but by its present choice it desired to
identify itself more fully with the cause of scientific agriculture in
a colony whose fortunes must always mainly depend upon agricultural
produce. It aimed also at contributing towards complete co-operation
between the scientific and executive branches of the industry.

TIMEHRI. ‘

Notwithstanding the greatly increased cost of production the eagerness
with which the last issue was bought up within a few days has seemed
to the Directors and Editors to justify the continuance of the Society’s
magazine in spite of the conditions which have left it almost the sole sur-
vivor of such enterprises of unendowed societies in the colonies. We are
fortunate in securing from the President his valuable lecture on the Society
and its work in 1897-1918. Agricultural articles are unfortunately not as
easily obtainable in the colonies as those on other subjects, for a practical
agriculturalist has seldom the pen of a ready writer and it is natural to ex-
pect that those in the scientific branch, (who must necessarily be mainly
officials) will prefer to devote any writing talent to articles for their

* NoTE.—Since the above was written difficulties of transport have led to the decision to
restrict the output and general operations until shipping can be obtained.

vi. Timehri.

departmental journal. The reader will find many articles of great interest
and some of high, scientific and practical value. We owe more than one
to the skilful pen of Mr. Hyatt Verrill an American visitor. Mr. Verrill,
who is not himself a scientist, is the son of the late Professor of
Zoology at Yale and is always interesting. We will not profess to judge
the merits of his cheerful excursions into the field of professional
anthropologists. His blood be on his own head. We owe him many
thanks for some interesting and valuable illustrations.

We have reproduced in an appendix from the Journal of the Society
of Comparative Legislation, Mr. Ledlie’s article on the alteration of our
law from Roman-Dutch to English and on the West Indian Court
of Appeal. Mr. Lediie will be interested to know that the change has
been effected without question and almost unnoticed. Although eighteen
months have passed no difficulties caused by it have occupied the attention
of the courts and no amending legislation has been proposed.

THE WAR.

As I write* the colony realizes that the German onslaughts of the
future may shake and bend but cannot break the allied line from the
North Sea to the Atlantic. It realizes that time is on the side of
human liberty and British honour and that when the hour of Foch’s
strategic offensive arrives the result will be one as to which we can have
no fear. This colony, deprived by geography of the chance of making
its full contribution to the cause of the Empire, maintains its willingness
to share its fate, to the last man and dollar, and looks with proud
confidence to the victorious end.

“ Yes—on our brows we feel the breath
Of Dawn, though in the night we wait!
An arrow is in the heart of death ;

A God is at the doors of Fate.

The spirit that moved upon the deep

Ts moving through the minds of men ;
The nations feel it in their sleep

A change has touched their dreams again.

Dreams are they? But ye cannot slay them

Or thrust the dawn back for one hour!

Truth, Love and Justice, if ye stay them,
Return with more than earthly power.

Strive, if ye will, to seal the fountains

That send the spring through leaf and spray ;
Drive back the sun from the Eastern mountains,
Then—hbid this mightier movement stay.

* Norge.—Written in June at a time when the recapture of the line of the Aisne seemed
to be relegated to the Spring of 1919. The beautiful lines of Sir Alfred Noyes seem still more
appropriate as we go to press in this first week in August.

NOW AND THEN OR NOTES ON THE SOCIETY
AND ITS WORK IN 1897 AND IN 1918.

By Prorsssor J. B, Harrison, C.M.G., M.A., F.LC., F,G.S.

I was President of the Society in 1897 and am now so again in 1918
after an interval of 21 years, whilst I appear to be the only member who
has held office at such an interval. The late Honourable B. Howell Jones,
who was President in 1884, 1891, 1899, 1905, and 1909, held office in 1905
after a similar interval from his first assumption thereof.

It may be of interest to the Society to review some of the ehanges
which have taken place in the Society and in the industries of the Colony
since January, 1897. That year was the year during which the West
Indian Royal Commission made its enquiries and issued its report. The
influence of the Commission on some of the smaller West Indian Islands
has been manifestly beneticial ; on this Colony it has been, as in Trinidad
and Jamaica, more or less negligible. The beneficial effects in the West
Indian Islands has been due to the personal influence of two men,
Honorary members of this Society, Sir Daniel Morris and Sir
Francis Watts, more especially to the ability, practical knowledge
and local experience of the latter. Their vreatest feat has been the
reorganisation of the sugar industry in Antigua and St. Kitts, and in-
directly in Barbados. Their other marked success has been the
establishment ofthe Sea Island cotton industry in Antigua, St. Kitts,
Barbados and especially in St. Vincent. In both these lines the influence
of the present Commissioner of Agriculture for the West Indies has been
paramount.

At the time of the enquiry the sugar industry in British Guiana was
directed by men who can be described as a race of saccharine giants.
One of our members was in the forefront then as he still is, pre-eminent
in technical sugar matters in the Colony ; I, of course, allude to Mr. J. M.
Fleming, of the Diamond Estates. Unfortunately for the Colony his able
and zealous coadjutor, William Douglas, in my opinion by far the most
able chemical engineer and sugar technologist who has been connected
with the Colony, has retired from active life here, although his influence
can be recognised inmany of the improvements installed in our sugar
factories.

Among the wore able of the practical agriculturists of that time was
Mr. J. Gillespie of Plantation Houston who still controls that fertile
property. The remainder of the sugar giants of those days are no longer
with us in the Colony ; many of them have been spared the shock of the
world-wide calamity wrought by that past-master of infamy, who, whilst
challenging the exploits of those mighty men—Atilla, Caesar, Alexander
the Great, and Napoleon, has entered into competition in the ‘‘ Eternal
Infamy Stakes ” with Caligula and Nero, and vanquished them—hands
down. In 1897 under the guise of friendship he was encompassing the

¥lil. Timehri.

destruction by peaceful penetration of, among other British industries,
that of the West Indian sugar-cane planters, and this rendered necessary _
the Royal Commission of that year, whilst at present by the destruction of
civilisation through fear engendered by his diabolical crimes, he seeks the
tyrannical c trol of the peoples and of the industries of the whole world.

Among the mainstays of the sugar industry whom we have lost by
death are the former Presidents of this Society, the Honourables B.
Howell Jones, E. C. Luard, and George Garnett, and our former prominent
members,—Robert Allan, A Barr, S. M. Bellairs, G. M. Bethune, A. Braud,
S. R. Cockran, W. Craigen, J. B. Finney, Harry Garnett, A. R. Gibson,
A. P. Mackay, J. B. Mayers, F. V. McConnell, J. Monkhouse, Cecil
Morris, A. Summerson, and G. b. Steele; whilst of our past Presidents
R. G. Duncan and F. I. Seard and of our prominent members, W. P.
Abell, W. P. Ebbells, L. Jones, H. von Ziegezar, W. A. Wolsley, and
C.G. A. Wyatt have left the Colony. We still have with us the
veteran Charles Ross of colony-wide interests, F, C. 8. Bascom, H. L.
Humphrys, J. Junor and H. Seedorff.

Of those who were prominent in advocating the claims of the various
Agricultural industries other than sugar, we have lost by death our
former Piesident, the Honourable A. Weber, ‘The Father of the Minor
Industries,’ W. P. Binnie, Jacob Conrad that staunch advocate for
practical agricultural education, Thomas Garnett, the Reverend F. C,
Glasgow, the Grand Old Man of our African fellow colonists, D. M. Hutson,
J. H. de Jong, foremost in the exploitation of our mineral resources,
the Reverend Father Messini, the practical Evangelist of agricultural and
industrial work among the Indians of the Meruga District, S. Ogle, G. H.
Richter, the Rev. D. J. Reynolds, Captain White, and Bassell Winter ;
whilst the Reverend Gibson Fisher, constant advocate of work and pro-
eress, Dr. H. B. Ford, foremost among the earlier advocates of the banana
cultivation, and our untiring expert organiser T. 5S. Hargreaves are in
other lands, and Father Purecll, now, as then interests himself in every-
thing for the advancement of his people and especially in their pastoral
pursuits.

Among those death has claimed among our Tormer Presidents, who
were not actively interested in agricultural pursuits, are Sir Cavendish
Boyle whose breezy optimism, always in the ascendant, acted as a tonic to
our bygone advocates of colonial progress ; G. F. Franks, prodigy of all-
round interests and learning; and G. H. Hawtayne, the foremost West
Indian humorist of his day ; whilst L. M. Hill and Henry Kirke are en-
joying their well-earned leisurse in retirement. Our then prominent
members Dr. Anderson, B. 8. Bayley, George Bagot, Dean Caswell, N.
Darnell Davis, the historian and bibliophile of the West Indies, H. J.
Gladwin, Bishop Swaby, and James Thomson of ‘‘ Argosy” fame have
joined the majority ; but we have with us still our past President, the
Honourable J. B. Laing; W. Cunningham, the Honourable G. R.
Garnett, Dr. Rowland, who with J. E. Hewick was the moving force
among the Berbicians, that untiring pioneer of commercial and indus-
trial progress, C. Wieting, and J. B. Woolford, our worthy Town Clerk,

Notes on the Society's Work wn 1897-1918. ix.

In 1897 prominent scientists who were members of the Society were
few ; we have lost that eminent botanist, of world-wide reputation, that
man who knew and loved both living plants and animals, G. 8. Jenman,
then the Superintendent of the Botanic Gardens; as well as H. H.
Cunningham, the biologist and magistrate, and S. Vyle, the electrician,
but J. J. Quelch—the inimitable Queleh—and Mr. Rodway are still with
us, the former in other lands, the latter at my right hand.

In 1897 I, as President, had the assistance of those keen and ex-
perienced Office-bearers, F. A. Conyers our Treasurer, aud Thomas Daly,
our Honorary Secretary. Both have joined the great majority.

The ranks of our Honorary members of 1897 have also been depleted
by death. We have lost the first and foremost of Scientific Agriculturists
Sir J. B. Lawes, F.R.S.; our former Governors, Sir Cameron Lees, and
Sir A. W. L. Hemming; as well as Sir Neville Lubbock, Mr. F. Sutton
(of the Sugar-Cane), and Mr. F. A. R. Winter.

Death has also been active among the members of the Society who
were less prominent in its work, and we have lost the Right Reverend
Bishop Butler, Sir Palmer Ross, W. Blair, Captain Duncan, ! r. Edmonds,
P. P. Fairbairn, K. G. Fonseca, Frank Fowler, W. Greig, Stewart Gardener,
W. C. Halligan, J. A. Hill, C. K. Jardine, R. Jeffrey, S. 8S. Jones, E. E.
King (one of the earliest visitors to the Kaieteur Falls), A. Kingdon, J.
Manifold, C. G. Parnell, G. W. Rockclifte, that sterling example to every
creole, and W. H. Woodrofie; whilst the following are still living but are
absent from the colony :—Sir Henry Bovell, Sir Charles Cox, Sir Joseph
Godfrey, Drs. Fisher, A. D. Williams, and von Winckler, A. G. Bell, S. G.
T. Bourke, E. G. H. Dalton, R. Duff, C. P. Caskin, M. Garnett, C. B.
Hamilton, P. Hemery, F. J. Morris, H. Rickford, Captain R. V. Shaw, B.
Thompson, F. J. Villiers, and T. R. Young ; but we still have with us in the
colony, hale and hearty, A. K. Duncan, J. K. D. Hill, H. H. Lawrence,
H. W. Sconce, J. F. Waby, and Drs. Ferguson, London, and Matthey.

These were the members of the Society with whom I was brought in
active co-operation during my Presidency in 1897; doubtless there were
and are others whose names do not occur to me who were then active
members of the Society.

Amon z these men were the far-sighted, energetic yet prudent colonists
who, during the anxious years of the final decade of the last century and
the earlier years of the present one, guided the colony through its
numerous vicissitudes and laid the foundations of any prosperity it enjoyed
prior to August, 1914. Many of them were working in and out of season
in pressing 0. their fellow colonists the need for agricultural and indus-
trial expansion and the development of all the resources of the colony
whether agricultural, pastoral, forestal, or mineral. Among them were
the men who laid the foundation on commercial lines of the present great
rice industry ; who gave rise to the increasing exportation of balata,
timber, and other forestal resources ; who did their utmost in connection

at Timehri.

with the development of our resources in gold and diamonds and who
advocated the extension of travelling facilities throughout the colony.
The colony can ill afford the loss of their services; may it look forward
with confidence to enjoy in the near future the unselfish, patriotic services
of another group of such men.

In 1897, the Society showed more activity in practical pursuits than
it has done of late years. It was not as purely a literary or book-collect-
ing Society as itnowis. Its Agricultural and its Correspondence Com-
mittees were alert and active. But even then its general interest in agri-
cultural matters was on the wane. The reading of a paper dealing
with agricultural questions to the general Society was a sufficient reason
for an almost empty room ;and there were not wanting signs that in the
near future the rooms of the Royal Agricultural Society of British Guiana
would be among the very few places where practical agriculturists could

meet without running the risk of receiving gratuitous amateur advice as”

to the conduct of their art, the oldest known to mankind. Strange it is
that the skilled agriculturists of British Guiana to whom are addressed
daily, nay almost hourly, instructions as to how they can best conduct
their own business in the interests of others, do not seek the security of
this room in far greater numbers than they do at present.

At the commencement of 1897, “ Timehri ” was in a flourishing condi-
tion except with regard to subscribers. Evenat that dateit was not an
agricultural but more or less a literary and especially a natural history
and scientific journal. In the 1895 volume 22% and in the 1896 one, 16%
only of its pages were occupied with Agricultural and closely allied matters.
In 1897 during the first half year 54% of its pages and in the second 38%
were occupied by agricultural subjects. Thereupon “ Timehri” ceased to
exist. Butits back files are of very high value and are in constant use in
the Department of Science and Agriculture.

The resuscitation of ‘ Timehri” is entirely due to the initiative and
energy of Dr. Nunan. The Journal is, however, non-agricultural in its
bent. The Board of Agriculture issues a quarterly journal intended to
deal only with practical agricultural matters. Unfortunately, this journal
of late has been showing signs of degenerating into a semi-scientific and
literary production. The journal has been re-organised and placed under
the joint editorship of the Government Botanist and the Government
Biologist. In future its Editor is always to be an Officer of the Depart-
ment of Science and Agriculture who is in close touch with agricultural
matters. If the members of the Royal Agricultural and Commercial
Society desire the Society to retain any connection with local agriculture
I suggest that the Society subscribe 8 cents per annum on behalf of each
of its members who desire to receive copies of the Board’s Journal, and
thus place them in a similar position to the members of local Agricultural
Associations.

“Timehri” and the Board of Agriculture's Journal should form com-
plements each to the other. Doubtless “ 'Timehri ” will continue to be, as it
now is, a great credit to this Society and a most important aid toward
the economic development of British Guiana.

~

Notes on the Society's Work in 1897-1918. xi.

I have said that the older volumes of “ Timehri” are in constant
reference in the Department of Science and Agriculture. May I venture
to throw out asa hint to its learned Editor that in the earlier volumes
there are many papers by im Thurn, Quelch, Darnell Davis, Hawtayne,
. Jenman, Percival, Perkins, William Russell, A. Winter, McTurk, B. H.
Jones, Kirke, Francis, Rodway, E. A. V. Abraham and others, as well as
reproductions of papers by Hillhouse, Schomburgk and Campbell which
if reprinted in the pages of the present series of ‘‘ Timehri ” would prove not
only interesting but highly instructive to its readers ?

At the second of the Committee meetings I attended since my re-
election to the Presidency, I was solemnly warned by a prominent mem-
ber of the Book Committee that the object of the Society is now purely a
literary one ; that it exists solely on account of its library ; and that any
attempt to re-introduce into it either an agricultural or a scientific trend
will be attended with disaster with regard to its membership. I regret
that the premier, in point of years of existence, Agricultural Society of
the West Indies, and I believe the second in the Empire, has sunk into
this parlous state and has degenerated into a circulating library mainly of
works of fiction. That statement caused me to deeply regret that I had
accepted the Presidency. Surely for an Agricultural Society which has
sunk into such acondition of technical decrepitude an expert of proved
ability in the perusal of sensational and ephemeral literature as exemplified
in cheap modern novels, would be a far more suitable person for the
Presidency than a man whose life has been spent in the pursuit of science,
agriculture and horticulture ?

Possibly I have misread the signs of the times with regard to the
demand for novels at these rooms. May not the demand be due to
anxiety on the part of many to discover a book designed to become a
classic in British literature? Do they rot take out, let us say for pur-
poses of illustration, 50 novels in the hope of finding one of literary
merit ? but I fear 27 is too high a proportion to expect excellence in the
class of literature our members are forced to consume. But keenness
for ephemeral literature is an old complaint about the Society. Soon after
I first joined the Book Committee in 1891 or thereabouts that a sugges-
tion was made that standard works relating to Science and Agriculture
should be added to the library, but it was considered that their purchase
would prove too heavy adrain on the funds set aside for novel-readers;
it was said in the Committee that if members wanted to know about any-
thing connected with Chemistry, they might ask the Government Chemist
and if about Botany, consult the Government Botanist.

During late years the Society has laid stress on having popular
gatherings. In 1897,aided by the then Directors, I broke one of those
cast-iron rules of procedure, with which our worthy Assistant Secretary,
then as he does now, sought to bind down the, in his opinion hasty, activi-
ties of the Society by inviting Sir (then Dr.) Daniel Morris to address the
Society at an evening meeting without giving a week’s notice to the mem-
bers, That address was the principal feature of that year, and we one and

Xii. Timehri.

all regarded the occasion of its delivery —the visit of the Royal West Indian
Commission—as full of good augury -for the future; but towards the end
of the year the Society had another special meeting at which we pointed
out that the major part of the Commission’s conclusions and recommenda-
tions, or rather the want of a certain one ameng the latter, was fraught
with the gravest danger to the future of the colony. Neither of our
conclusions has proved to be correct.

Those meetings were the forerunners of many which have since taken
place where the Governor of the colony in his capacity of Vice-Patron
of the Society has cccupied the chair. I remember that I was
soundly rated by a very prominent member, a high Official of the
Government, at a meeting of the Directors for this innovation
which I had ventured to introduce. Ofcourse Government officers in
presence of the Governor have to weigh their words and to restrain them,
and may not be justified in expressing their own opinions in full. But the
presence of the Governor in the chair at special meetings of the Society
has manifest advantages which far outweigh such objections.

These popular meetings of the Society doubtless serve an
excellent purpose and being frequently illustrated by lantern
slides, have greatly added among the members of the Society to the
general knowledge of the back-lands of the colony and their human,
animal, and bird inhabitants. These meetings have already greatly
extended the general knowledge of the poteatialities of the southern
section of the colony.

On the other hand Georgetown now appears to be satisfied with
verbose discussions at popular meetings and in the newspapers as to the
future, and with picturing the time when the citizens will be able to
attend at a railway station to see others (not themselves) start for the
interior. In 1897 andin its immediately preceding years many citizens
ventured into the interior; now with greatly increased facilities
fewer visit the interior and fewer still are willing to invest money
in its exploitation; the cryis now for others to do all this,

There was a period in my life, which period terminated some 43
years ago, during which I was required to do what certain reformers and
enthusiasts now regard as a waste of precious time —to study certain
dead languages in addition to a very few modern ones. I still retain some
faint memories of these studies and among them I remember a play
written by Aristophanes (Ornidis, the Birds) some 2,300 years ago. Itisa
prophetic picture of the present state of this colony. We are living in a
Nephelokokkuyia and we fix our gaze on another Nephelokokkwyia
to be founded by some one, at some time, and somewhere, in the back of
beyond. Verily of recent years the great majority of us have been satis-
fied to be citizens of that delightful place of abode, that city of unfulfilled
schemes, unfruitful projects, fleeting energies, but of constant verbose
though misty discussions—Cloud-Cuckoo-Town,

Notes on the Society’s Work in 1897-1918. xiii.

The sooner we cease to be satisfied with such a residence and the
sooner we take steps to energetically and scientifically exploit the great
riches of the more readily accessible parts of the colony the better for
us, for the colony, and for our posterity.

But not all of us have been satisfied with occupying this posi-
tion. There is one firm whose efforts towards the development
of these parts of the colony—the exploitation of which has belonged
to practical politics,—stand out conspicuously. In British Guiana the
firm of Sprostons has always been in the forefront of progress especially
with regard to travelling facilities, and the exploitatien of the colony's
mineral and forestal potentialities. In my presidential year, 1897, the
firm completed their Demerara-Essequibo railway and worked out their
transport facilities for the Essequibo and Potaro districts, facilities -
which have been a boon to numerous inhabitants of the eolony and
which I trust in the near future will render the great mineral, forestal,
and water-power potentialities of this section of the colony of world-
wide fame.

In my opinion it has not been in the best interest of the colony at
large that Sprostons have been handicapped by the installation of the
Colonial Steamer Service. It might have been better if every effort had
been directed towards the development of the colony and the exploitation
of its resources by bringing pressure on Sprostons and utilising to the
fullest extent their long and varied experience and all the capabilities of
their establishment.

With a view to the future development of the vast interior of the
colony and its opening up by a central railway, it appears to me that we
should be wise if we followed the example of Sprostons and directed all our
energies towards the exploitation of the nearer hinterland and utilised the
lands thus developed as a base from which to drive the projected central
railway.

AGRICULTURAL EXHIBITIONS.

The Horticultural Shows formerly held under the auspices of the
Society were at their zenith in from 1897 to 1901, Unfortunately the
Directors of the Society, resenting the Board of Agriculture being placed
in control of all Government grants for agricultural matters, refused the
Board’s offer of funds for an Agricultural Show in 19038 and have since
more or less held aloof from them.

It is, I believe, now the desire of the Society to take a very active
share inany future show which may be held in Georgetown—either
County Shows for Demerara or Colonial Shows for the whole colony.

It has been suggested that a Colonial Show should be held in the neas
future to which Surinam as well as the British and French colonies in
the southern West Indies will be invited to compete. If possible this
Show should take place at the same time as an Agricultural Conference
for the West Indies is held in Georgetown, The only obstacles in the way

Xiv. Timehri.

of the combined Show and Conference are war-conditions and possible
difficulties of transport between here and the other countries and colonies
which we desire should be represented at the Show and Conference. The
Board of Agriculture has already expressed its view that the next Agri-
cultural Conference and Exhibition should be held here whilst the Com-
bined Court has expressed its favourable opinion on the suggestion, The
Commissioner of Agriculture for the West Indies, however is in control
of all Agricultural Conferences and it is doubtful if he will favour the
holding of one during the duration of present war-conditions.

As an excuse for the Society’s apathy during recent years in con-
nection with agricultural matters it has been alleged that the Board
of Agriculture has usurped the Society’s functions. It is not so; at the
inception of the Board every care was taken to avoid not only
usurpation but any overlapping of duties. It was considered that the
Agricultural Society, by its meetings and its Committees where agricul-
tural papers would be read and discussed, would carry on its joint share
of the work , but this has not been the case.

I fully realize the grave difficulties which exist in the Society
arranging for meetings at which agricultural matters can be discussed by
practical agriculturists. These are mainly due to the fact that very few
managers of plantations are resident within a few miles of Georgetown.
In the earlier years of this century these difficulties were insuperable but
since the advent of the motor-car to the colony the position has changed
and it ought to be feasible to arrange for such agricultural meetings.
Agricultural meetings should take place in the early afternoon say at 2
p.m. or perhaps earlier and not in the late afternoon or evening as other
meetings of the Society do.

In 1897 the Committee of Correspendence of the Society, which during
many years of the Society's existence had been its working force, was an
active organisation, but it gradually fell into abeyance. It was the means
by which the Society undertook the representation of the colony at
foreign exhibitions ; now the Permanent Exhibitions Committee has to do
this.

That Committee, on which the Society is well represented, constantly
requires the advice and assistance of this Society to make its work suc-
cessful. Personally I advocated that the work now carried on by the
Permanent Exhibitions Committee should continue to be done as in the
past by this Society but the abolition of the Committee of Correspond-
ence formed an obstacle to this. ;

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION.

The Society owing to the persistent efforts of the late Honourable A.
Weber and the late Mr. Jacob Conrad in the early nineties took a very
keen interest in agricultural education and contemplated the establish-
ment of a Farm School. In April, 1891, the Society appointed a special
Committee to enquire into the feasibility of such a school. The
Committee made very full enquiries and reported in September, 1892
regretting that on account of the heavy expenditure involyed in the

Notes on the Society’s Work in 1897-1918. xv.

establishment and maintenance of such a school the proposal was not
then a feasible one. A difficulty also was that the sugar proprietors of
those days were unwilling to employ creoles of the colony as overseers.
One of the first proposals regarding an Agricultural College for the West
Indies may be found in an address I delivered to the Agricultura] Society
of Barbados on November Yth, 1886. Alluding to the necessity for
properly arranged and conducted agricultural experiments and of
trials of manures, ete., to be carried on with every scientific refine-
ment, I said ‘‘ The latter must follow when we shall have established
“that great want of this Island and of the whole West Indies
“an Agricultural College, or preferably station, devoted to the study
“ of the growth and requirements of tropical plants in tropical climates,
“and to imparting the knowledge so gained to the younger planters.
“Tam myself convinced that far more success, both socially and finan-
“cially, will be attained by directing the studies of our youth to the
“ phenomena of nature rather than as at present, chiefly to the tales and
“traditions of the ancient Greeks and Romans.”

In my opinion the desirability of (a) a central Agricultural College
for the West Indies and (b) Agricultural or Farm schools in various dis-
tricts in British Guiana, has not altered since the Society considered the
question in 1891-92 and again referred to it in 1897.

The Society’s interest in this highly important question appears to
have waned during recent years, but still some interest has always
~ been taken in it by certain of the members. Strangely no recom-
mendation as to the establishment of an agricultural or farm school in
this colony appeared in the Report of the West Indian Royal Commis-
sion. Yet Sir Daniel Morris very consistently and correctly held that
it is most difficult for men trained only in the rough and ready agricul-
tural methods of sugar plantatious on heavy clay soils to make such culti-
vations as those of coffee, cacao, cotton, limes or other fruit-crops and
rubber commercially successful. He held on very strong grounds that
many of the failures with regard to trials made with some of these pro-
ducts prior to 1897 were due to lack of technical training. Every
cultural pursuit which is dependent on intensive arboricultural or horti-
cultural methods requires far more scientific knowledge, practical skill
and unremitting minute attention than such extensive crops as sugar
and rice call for.

In 1908-9 a Government Committee enquired into the question of
the establishment of an Agricultural School and reported favourably on it.
Later the then Governor, Sir Frederic Hodgson, after careful considera-
tion, approved of a portion of land belonging to Onderneeming School
Farm, and situated at adistance of half a mile or more from the In-
dustrial School, being used for the school. He visited the place accom-
panied by Sir Joseph Godfrey and myself and personally selected the site
for the buildings. By vote of the Combined Court a large area of the
land selected, including the site for the building which was an excellent
one on a high sandy reef, was cleared. Buton a change in the Govern-
ment the question was again held up, and I fear that until the war is

Xvi. Timehri.

ended the establishment of an Agricultural or Farm School may not rank
as among local practical politics. The Agricultural Department has made
during the past six years numerous enquiries about suggested sites for a
school. At present Plantation Grove near to Belfield which is the
property of the Government appears to be the place best suited and avyail-
able for the establishment of a farm school, which will especially meet the
requirements of the well-populated East Coast district. I have not in
any way changed my conviction that the lands at Suddie are from a
practical point of view by far the most suitable as a site of a Colonial
farm school.

The success loca!ly of a more or less theoretical Agricultural College is
very problematical, and experience elsewhere in the tropics gives us pause
in advocating the establishment of one under the present conditions of lack
of intensive cultivations in this colony. The success of a practical farm
school is, in my opinion, beyond discussion. I often wonder whether
any practical step will be taken towards the establishment of such a school
but more especially of a Central West Indian Agricultural College before
my official connection with these colonies terminates, as it wil do, in or
before 1921.

A carefully digested scheme for the training of pupil assistants
in the Chemical, Botanical, Entomological, Veterinary, and Agricultural
divisions of the Department of Science and Agriculture was adopted
two years ago by the Combined Court, but up to the present it has been a
eomplete fiasco, as in this very utilitarian colony the great majority
of persons appear to expect their sons not only to be given a free scien-
tific and technical education by the Government, but to be paid for aecept-
ingit. Hence no application from any qualified candidate for training
under this scheme has been received.

DIstRicT AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES,

The Agricultural Societies of Jamaica and Trinidad have received
new leases of life and greatly increased activity through their affiliation
of District Agricultural Societies. It is to be regretted that this Society
is not in a position to follow their example with regard to the large num-
bers of such societies which are springing up here.

For administrative purposes such as the holding of local shows and
farmers’ competitions, District Associations can be affiliated to the official
Board of Agriculture but there are many ways in which affiliation under a
non-official Agriculural Society taking an active interest in agricultural
questions as this should do, would be advantageous to them and to the
colony.

Loca Foopsturrs.

In the early nineties the Society devoted much attention towards the
quality and purity of our foodstuffs and towards the conversion of locally
grown vegetable products into permanent ones ; the latter, however, with
scant success. Mr. da Silva, of the Pomeroon, was the pioneer in this
work and the files of “ Timehri” show the directionin which he suscess-
fully turned his energies from 1893 to 1897 or thereabouts, The Society

Notes on the Society’s Work in 1897-1918. XVii.

fully recognised by its awards to him the worthy nature of his work in
preparing meals from colony-grown materials, and eattle-foods as their
by-product. These awards settled the question as to whom credit for
first preparing such products on the small commercial scale is due.

Under present war-conditions the position with regard to locally-
produced foodstuffs has become very acute. The Government has adopted
the report of a special Committee and is endeavouring to get from the
United States the machinery for the equipment of a factory for convert-
ing rice and maize into ground rice, rice flour, and cornflour. The
success of this should be assured and should lead in the future to an
export trade in ground rice and rice flour. Itis hoped that it will be
feasible to equip the factory for the commercially successful production
of yarious flours from plantains, bananas, cassava, various pulses and
ground provisions generally. It must, however, be carefully borne in
mind that a factory of this sort working on a commercial scale is an
entirely novel proposition. It is one which we hope will prove successful,
but it will be entirely dependent for success in its working on receiving
ample supplies of the various raw materials from planters and farmers.
Unless it can work continuously and at its full power its failure is a
foregone conclusion.

At present there is an acute necessity for the increased local produc-
tion of foodstuffs of every sort. Fortunately the great areas now
cultivated each year in rice ensures our cereal supply. We can readily
add to our supply of nitrogenous foodstuffs by the cultivation of pulses.
Fats are our main difficulty; the sole sources being butter, ghee,
margarine, and lard, from live-stock and coconuts. I will consider the
position of live-stock and coconuts later in this address.

Our present position regarding foodstuffs is, in my opinion, a very
serious one which calls for strenuous efforts on the part of all cultivators,
large as well assmall. If the larger agricultural proprietors do not set
an example we cannot reasonably expect the smaller ones todo so. We
must give up our favourite position of ‘* Words not work” and we must-
recollect that in our case the adoption of the motto “ Wait and see” will
almost inevitably result in its transfer to a more practical form of
“ Waited and starved.”

ADULTERATION OF Foops,

This Society has at intervals given attention to the important subject
of adulteration of food. It did so soon after my arrival ia th colony in
1889 and as soon as it becam> feasible the Government requested me to
make special investigation into the alleged prevalence of adulteration in
foodstuffs imported into the colony. Assisted by the late Mr. J. Williams,
F.LC., then my private Assistant, and at the time of his death in July
last year First Assistant Analyst Idid so, and the results caused the
Government to take action by passing an effective Ordinance for controlling
the Sale of Food and Drugsin 1892. When I was last President of the
Society the campaign against adulterated foodstuffs had been carried on
energetically for some three or four years. Since then the Government
Laboratory has given steadily increasing attention to the Ordinance ; the

XViil. Timehri. =

working of which is controlled by the Director of Science and Agricul-
ture, Its progress is well shown by the following comparison of
analyses made in 1897 and in 1916 and 1917 and of their results :-—

1897 Ficurss. 1916 Ficurss. | 1917 Ficures.

]

Sees ReT SAT
| No.of Adul- | No.of lAdul- | No.of Adul-
| Samples. terated. Samples, | terated. Samples. terated.

| 16-97 | 1,727 | 148%
18-27 | 1612 | 154%
} / .%
{

All samples 469 2
Milk ,, 285 3
a

The purity of the milk supply of Georgetown has of late been in a
very unsatisfactory condition as compared with that of the colony at
large. Its rate of adulteration is about 33% higher than that of the
colony at large or 50% higher than that of the country districts. Dur-
ing the past six years the mean rate in the town, 18°4 per cent., has been
57, per cent. higher than the country rate, 11:7%. It will require strenu-
ous and steadfast efforts on the part of the Officers of the Town Council,
of the Police, and of the Government Health Department to reduce the
present rate of adulteration in milk to the very satisfactory condition it
was in from 1909-1912 when the Georgetown rate was only 8.1 per
cent. and was lower than that of the country districts.

A mistake which is not infrequently made is to assume that the
percentages of adulteration shown by the official examinations either
represent or are less than the actual rates of adulteration. This is not
so. These percentages represent the rates of adulteration found in
samples the purity of the majority of whichis not above suspicion.
Hence the rates must be regarded as higher than the actual rates and as
showing the purity of a milk supply in a somewhat less favourable light
than the true one.

When, owing to the representation of this Society, the Government
took action with regard to the sale of adulterated foodstuffs, the quality
of imported foodstufts as far as could be ascertained by analytical
methods was, as it appears to have been throughout the West Indian
Colonies, very unsatisfactory. Practically with the sole exception of
wheaten flour, every foodstuff that could be successfully sophisticated
was adulterated and not infrequently to very great extents. This has
been stopped ; the Government acting on the advice of unofficial members
of the Legislature introduced a system of pre-analysis and prohibition of
landing for the majority of foodstuffs amenable to adulteration, and at
present in this colony samples of such foodstuffs in an adulterated or even
low grade condition are few and far between. During the 21 years the
rate of adulteration in foodstuffs offered for sale in the colony has been
reduced by one-half.

At present the colony is probably in a far more favourable condition
with regard to the standard of quality of, and freedom from adulteration
in, its imported foodstuffs, than is any other in the Rritish West
Indian Province,

Notes on the Society’s Work in 1897-1918. XIX,

LocaL Datry-FaRMING IN 1897.

In 1897 the colony possessed in the dairy at Nonpareil an excellent
example of dairy-farming, butter-making and swine-production. I cannot
do better than read the late Harry Garnett’s description of his ven-
ture :—(page 348 of “ Timehri” for 1895.)

“The plant consists of a powerful Separator with engine and gear-
“ing, Butter worker, Churn and Pasteurizer. The milk is bought from
*coolies in a room situated over the dairy, it is measured and a ticket
* given with a number. The milk is then poured into a receiver which
“delivers into a feed tank of the Separator, in this the milk comes out
“of one spout and the cream out of another, the skimmed milk is then
“taken by a sinall centrifugal pump and pumped over the Pasteurizer. This
‘consists of a long column, the top half being filled with steam and heated
“to 180° Fah., and the bottom half is a refrigerator, through which cold
“water passes, carrying the milk down to anormal temperature. The
“advantage of this is, that if there happen to be any germs in the
“ milk they are destroyed and milk treated in this way keeps much longer.

“ The churning is done with cream that has been ripening for 24 hours.
> SD

“The business in Georgetown is about 150 pints of fresh milk
“which is also pasteurized before it comes down, and 100 pints of
**skimmed milk, and 20 lbs. of butter per day, with a varying quantity
“of cream. The Diary is capable of turning out one ton per week. “We
“have also a cheese-making plant, and a press for cream cheese.

“The plant was started in 1891, and has worked steadily every day
“up to the present, including Sundays without a stoppage. We deal on
“the average with about 36,500 gallons of milk per annum. As you will
“see a very small proportion of this is sold, the balance we make into
“salt butter and use it on the estate, and the skimmed milk is given to
* pigs of which I have a herd of nearly 100, imported from Saunders
“Spencer, who is the best breeder of Yorkshire pigs in England. The
“ pigs fed on skimmed milk put on 20 lbs. per month, and this is the
“ only thing which prevents the actual Dairy work proving a loss.”

Dr, F. G. W. Deane criticised the above account and spoke of
milk as being not altogether such a nutritious food as was generally
supposed on account of its not containing any iron. I well remember
Dr. Deane’s criticism because it enabled me to point out a hitherto un-
recognized redeeming feature in the action of the East Indian milk-seller
in adulterating milk with trench water,—that the latter supplied the
missing iron and so converted the naturally defective milk into a mixture
having a well-balanced nutritive ratio.

TROPICAL SOILs.
During the past twenty years much attention has been devoted by
agricultural chemists and geologists to the problems involved in the
formation of soils in situ from igneous rocks in the tropics.

xx. Timehri.

At the day I assumed office as President and for some months later
I was credited with some knowledge of the geological and chemical
modes of origin of soils in the tropics, and of their suitability for intensive
agriculture. Before December 31st, 1897, I had forfeited, except perhaps —
among expert scientific agriculturists, geologists, and chemists, every
claim to even the most rudimentary knowledge of these important
problems. I had committed the unforgivable sin of doubting whether
the ‘‘ Back of Beyond” in British Guiana is, as it was then ascribed to be
by the great majority of those who had never left the coastlands, a land
of marvellous fertility. None of the older travellers had so described the
hinterland. Its remarkable fecundity was discovered in 1882 by an
official writer who had not visited the colony and had not
had any opportunity of examining its soils either chemically
or culturally and who wrote ‘‘In British Guiana, for instance,
‘cultivation, so far, is wholly confined to about a dozen or
“fifteen miles along the sea-coast; while the vast, rich lands of the
“ interior are wholly untouched ” and ‘‘in British Guiana alone, there is
“an area of country equal to two Ceylons quite untouched.” Although
the writer had no data on which to base his opinion of the richness of
these lands it was accepted as highly reliable and became practically
authoritative.

Early in 1897 the Government directed me to exzmine a large series
of representative soils from the near interior, principally from the foot-
hills of the colomy. Idid so and no one was more astonished at the
nature of the soils collected and at the results of their chemical examina-
tions than I was. I had seen up the Demerara River near Mallali soils
which appeared to me to be very well suited for cacao cultivation. In fact
from their general appearance I expected to find them more fertile than
the Grenada cacao soils of which I had just completed a study. But this
proved not to be the case.

The general characteristics of the soils examined, except of those
obtained from river-alluvia and valley-bottoms, were their extremely
high contents of insoluble constituents, either quartz—-sand or pot-clay,
their high contents of ironstone or of bauxite, and the very low content,
in some cases almost complete absence, of the lime, potash and phos-
phoric acid and of the nitrogen the presence of which is essential to soils
of even medium fertility.

Similar studies were made by many other agricultural and soil
chemists in other tropical lands in 1897 and during the next few years
with the result that the defects I considered I had found in soils from the
interior of British Guiana were conclusively proved to be almost universal-
ly characteristic of tropical residual soils on extremely ancient granitic or
gneissose, dioritic and schistose lands as well, as in places, on massive lavas.

A great mass of scientific literature has arisen and many, not in-
frequently acrimonious, discussions have occurred on the modes by which
rocks, which under temperate or even under sub-tropical conditions give
rise to soils of from fair to very marked permanent fertility, in the tropics

Notes on the Society’s Work in 1897-1918. xxi.

produce soils of extremely low and transient fertility from the point of
view of intensive cultivation. This action on basic rocks has been named
“lateritisation” and the more characteristic of the soils have been termed
“laterite” or ‘‘Jateritic soils.” No name has as yet been given to the some-
what similar but less complete action by which acidic rocks under tropical
conditions produce vast areas of almost barren white or greyish sand or
even of still more barren snow-white kaolin.

A journey down the Surinam Railway to its terminus Dam on the
Sara Creek supplies excellent examples of such lateritic, sandy and
kaolinic areas and is at present the readiest way of ascertaining the
nature of many of the divides between river basins for 120 miles or so
from the Guiana coastlands.

The action which converts igneous rocks into quartz-sand, kaolin,
bauxite and ironstone results in the formation of relatively sterile coun-
try such as that on the watersheds and divides between the great rivers
of this Colony. Great losses of capital have been incurred in other
countries by planting permanent economic products on lateritic or kaolinic
Jands covered with high forest but which, although apparently very fertile
to the ordinary observer, are not of permanent fertility. The Imperial
Commissioner of Agriculture for the West Indies has specially asked
for a paper for the West Indian Bulletin on this subject.

In 1910 I published a paper in the ‘“ Geological Magazine” on the
formation of the “earths commonly termed laterite” in British Guiana
which dealt not only with these 7m s¢tw on the basic rocks but also with
the kaolinic earths im situ on the acidic rocks, The accepted
authority on the marvellous fertility of the interior of this Colony after
reading my paper wrote to me under date of March Ist, 1911, as fol-
lows :—

: “Your paper on laterite as a product of weathering of

“the igneous rocks, British Guiana, is very interesting tome, I

“came across plenty of laterite in Ceylon and very unpromising and

“intractable material it was for agricultural purposes.

“Jt was possible in some districts, however, to turn it into
“account for growing tea. The iron in it seems to suit the tea
“plant; but it was poison to coffee... .

“Thave spoken a good deal lately about the possibilities of

“development in British Guiana. My facts are nearly all derived

“from the evidence you gave before the Royal Commission .... .

In my 1897 address I carefully confined my statements as to low fer-
tility to “ the non-occurrence of great tracts of land of exceptional fer-
tility ” whilst I stated that ‘tracts (i.¢., of land of exceptional fertility.
J.B.H.) of limi ed area may occur in valley land and river bottoms or on
lines of dykes of certain classes of intrusive rocks.”

The fact that residual soils formed 7m sifw from igneous rocks in the
tropics are of low fertility, and that this is caused by leaching and elutria-
tion removing the constituents of the rocks which are essential for the
formation of fertile soils involves these substances accumulating else

Xxii. Timehri.

where. Unfortunately large proportions of them are washed into and
carried away by river-waters and hence accumulate finally in the ocean
but fair proportions of them are deposited and retained elsewhere
giving rise to fluviatile and valley alluvia which are usually fertile and
in places very fertile. Thisisthe condition characteristic of the parts
of the interior of the Colony which I have visited—vast tracts of lands of
low fertiliy situated between the courses of the rivers, and other wide
areas of land of far higher fertility which occur along the banks of the
rivers and especially in the bottoms of the numerous valleys in these
districts.

I have here specimens showing the way in which under tropical con-
ditions massive rocks change directly into earths—lateritie or kaolinic.
This one is a specimen of a diabase from Hope near Kumaru on the
Demerara River in which is seen the massive rock changing in the space
of less than one fourth of an inch into an ochreous lateritic earth ; this is a
hornblende-schist from Yarikita, North West District, in which a similar
change is seen ; whilst the third specimen is an epidiorite from Issorora,
North West District, which is changing quite abruptly into a bauxitic
earth or laterite. This specimen, which I collected at the Penal Settle-
ment, was a massive granite which now as you see crumbles down to sand
when rubbed between the fingers ; whilst this one is a skeleton in quartz
of a fine-grained granite-gneiss in which every trace of felspar, of mica,
and even of kaolinic residues has disappeared leaving a spongy-looking
mass which nature will gradually break up into a white, sharply angular,
quartz-sand.

These specimens show the final products which rocks, which in tem-
perate climates gradually change to fertile soils, resolve into from weather-
ing or lateritisation in the tropics—quartz-sand, bauxite, iron-ores, —
(limonite or goethite) and kaolin.

The writer of the letter of March Ist, 1911, stated that “my
facts ure nearly all derived from the evidence you gave before the
Royal Commission.” That evidence as far as it related to the soils of the
interior was as follows :—

“There are places where cacao is growing fairly well on the

“ Demerara River, but the soils that would be more suitable for

“eacao are situated a long way back. The nearest soils I have noticed

‘which would be really first-rate cacao soils are 100 miles up the

‘river. They are situated where there are dykes of dolerite. There

“are soils fairly suited to the growth of cacao where the heavy clay

“ of the front lands of the Colony begin to merge into the sand-reef

“ formation.”

‘There is no doubt you could find soils suitable for almost any

“ tropical product here ; it is only a case of having investigations of

“the soils of the Colony made. We know about many of the soils

“on the front lands, but beyond that we know very little of what

‘“we have got. We know there is a great belt of sandhills, but it is

“no use looking for good soils there from the very nature of the

‘formation, but on the sides of some of the lower hills we find soils

Notes on the Society’s Work in 1897-1918. xxiii.

“which are evidently of very considerable fertility. The dolerites
*‘ here are deep-seated representatives of the West Indian lavas and
“where dolerite occurs we should find soils similar to those in
“Grenada and they should be suitable for coffee, cacao, and spices.”

“Where green-stone or trap dykes occur the soils appear to be
‘fertile and well suited to cacao, coffee, and spices, hence probably
“‘in the interior there must be many fertile valleys and hillsides.

“The granite and gneiss of the Colony produce either sands or
“cold heavy clays (here usually the latter) which are of low fertility.

“In the interior of the Colony the belt or ridge of sand hills,
“from 30 to 50 miles in breadth, is useless, except for the support of
“forest. Butin places on the lower hillsides are soils derived in
“part from indurated clay, which appear to be very fertile and
“which might be cultivated in cacao, coffee, or spices.”

The indurated clay alluded to in the above quotations is the argil-
Jaceous laterite or resilicified bauxite which covers large areas in the
more northerly parts of the interior of the country. The green-
stone or trap dykes comprise the large areas where the country is either
a fairly recent diabase or dolerite or an epidiorite or hornblende-schist,
the metamorphic products of an ancient gabbro or diabase.

Where the country consists of sericite-schist or of chlorite-schist it is
usually of fair to satisfactory fertility although the surface soils are froma
chemical point of view somewhat poor ; the soils on the schists are generally
of great depth whilst their lower layers are interspersed with numerous frag-
ments of decaying rock. The finest forests I have seen in my travels in
the Colony are on Jands of this nature occupying great areas between
the Barama, Mazaruni and Purunirivers. ‘These schistose-lands are well
suited for the establishment of arboricultural ventures such as coffee, cacao,
limes and Para rubber.

Since 1897 several hundreds of samples of soils from the interior of
the Colony have been analytically examined in the Government Labo-
ratory, whilst I have personally visited many parts of the interior of the
Colony, but I have found no reason for modifying my opinion as to the
distribution of its soil resources for intensive agricultural purposes.

In April, 1907, when reading in London a paper on the resources of
the Colony I summarised the results of our enquiries to that date as fol-
lows :—

... » The results of the examinations of the various parts of the

“Colony and of the soils characterising them have shown that it

** must be divided into three great belts, each of which has its own

“ special economic resources. The belts are as follows :—

“1. The alluvial coast-belt is an agricultural one of very ex-
“ceptional fertility, and its soils are probably among the richest and
“most fertile ones in the tropical parts of the world. It is well suited
“for many forms of tropical agriculture,

XXiv. Timehri.

“2. The widespread belt of the lower hills and plains is
“covered with a seemingly inexhaustible forest containing many
“kinds of trees which yield timbers and other products of commercial
“value. As far as has been ascertained its soils are mainly sedentary
“ones, the decomposition-products im situ of its country-rocks, and
“are of low agricultural value. Our Dutch predecessors were well
“aware of their low value and with characteristic sagacity, aftera
“short experience of attempting to cultivate some of the more prom-
“ising soils in the lower parts of the belt, abandoned them, and after
“ empoNering cultivated parts of the exceeding fertile coastlands to
‘‘ which, later, they appear to have confined their agricultural efforts.
“But the country-rocks in this forest-belt are in many parts of it
“ oold-bearing toa marked extent, and are subject under the pre-
*« vailing condititions to singularly complete decomposition , with the
‘‘result that auriferous deposits in places of high value, are found
“over large areas of it. Its resources are therefore almost
“wholly, if not entirely, confined to forest, and mineral products.

“3. The savannah-belt, at present practically undeveloped,
“ but which in time may become a great district of cattle-ranches.”

The commonly held view that soils in the tropics must be of very
high fertility is directly contrary to facts. The intensity of all chemical
action in the tropics, and especially of oxidation and hydration, is opposed to
the production in situ of widely spread areas of soils of high fertility. The
most fertile parts are and must be the alluvial and fluviatile plains, especially
those which have been formed under swamp-conditions where accumula-
tions of vegetable debris and of nitrogen take place. Such are the front-lands
and the great areas to the northwards of the lowest series of rapids and
cataracts on the lower river courses of this Colony. The idea that tropical
soils merely want tickling with a hoe to produce large and remunerative
crops of economic products is an error; tickling a soil in the tropics
always results in the production of immense crops of weeds. I am
satisfied from nearly forty years’ experience in connection with tropical
agriculture that permanent cultivation in the tropics requires a higher
degree of skill and more persistent and sustained effort than it does in
temperate or sub-tropical ands.

My considered views are and always have been in accordance with
the strong recommendations made by Sir Daniel Morris in his report on
the Colony to the Royal West Indian Commission “that no time should
“be lost to utilize without delay the most accessible Crown lands of the
“Colony, leaving to the future the development of interior lands, which
“will require means of communication of a more costly character and
“that at present the want of easy means of communication and quick,
“cheap transit to town of produce prevents lands above the first falls in
“the rivers being used for agricultural purposes. When, as is probable,
“such communication is provided the development of the interior lands

Notes on the Society’s Work in 1897-1918. XXV,

“ of British Guiana could be begun in earnest. There are, however, exten-
“sive areas of river lands already accessible, and these as has been
“already suggested might be first taken in hand.”

I trust that by the remarks I have made to-day it is clear that I
have not been guilty of the wholesale condemnation of the fertility of the
lands of the interior of the Colony which has oft been imputed to me. I
have taken this opportunity of placing before the Society the views I
have formed during long-continued study regarding tropical soils as a
reply to the many misrepresentations which have been made about my
views, among other places recently in an uncalled for and offensive man-
ner in the pages of thisthe Society’s official organ. On the other hand
I have inculeated, and I still advise, caution in the acceptance of such
unguarded assertions as that ‘These undeveloped Guiana lands are
amongst the richest existing in any part of the tropics.”

PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES.

SUGAR-CANE.

The area under sugar-cane had decreased from its maximum of
84,477 British acres in 1884 to 78,250 in 1896-97 whilst the export of
sugar had shrunk from 134,870 tons its maximum, which was obtained
in 1887, to 105,270 in 1896 ; the total production for that year being
about 113,000 tons. In 1917 78,346 acres were under sugar-cane, the
export of sugar beiny 114,000 tons, representing a production of about
122,000 tons. For 1918 there are 77,830 acres planted.

During the period 1897-1918 a very great change has taken place in
the varieties of sugar-cane cultivated in the Colony. My records
indicate that in 1897 there were about 69,000 acres planted in
Bourbon acres and about 1,350 planted in other varieties. For 1918
about 3,850 acres are planted with Bourbon canes alone, 4,500 with
Bourbon mixed with other varieties, and about 69,475 acres either with
new seedling canes locally produced or with varieties recently introduced.

The leaders in the sugar industry to whom the initiation of this
remarkable change was due were Messrs. Fleming and Douglas of Planta-
tion Diamond and Scard of the Colonial Company; the late Harry
Garnett of Nonpareil, the late Cecil Morris of Plantation Albion, and
the late Honourable B. Howell Jones, C.M.G., whilst later leaders have
been the late R. G. Duncan, and the late J. Wilson, with Messrs.
R. Strang, W. M. B. Shields, R. E. Brassington and A. E. Bratt.

Among sugar-estate proprietors who personally were not planters the
late Messrs. George and Thomas Garnett were pre-eminent in encourag-
ing research with the object of obtaining new and better varieties of
sugar-cane. As far back as 1895 they established under my scientific
direction an extensive nursery for new varieties of sugar-canes at Planta-

XXVI. Timehri.

tion Vriesland and it was in this nursery that they had the credit of
first recognising the suitability of the new widely planted variety D 625
for soils in which the Bourbon and similar varieties fail to yield satis-
factory crops.

This change in the varieties of sugar-cane planted has been due to
several causes but the main one which forced the hands of even such
staunchly conservative planters as the late R. G. Duncan was the steady
and almost universal spread of fungoid disease among the older varieties.

The first appearance of these diseases in a serious form was in 1894
when strange to say they were first noticed in a large batch of seedling
canes at the Botanic Gardens. Almost simultaneously outbreaks were
reported from several widely separated districts in the colony. The
planters followed every suggestion which was made by the Kew
authorities as well as adopting the precautions which were being tried in
the West Indian Islands. This action was followed at first with much
success and in the early part of 1897 the rind-fungus and root diseases
appeared to have been brought under control. But the immediately
succeeding years proved this to be erroneous and these diseases gradually
spread to almost every plantation in the colony, working havoc among
the Bourbon canes. ‘The spread of disease was greatly accelerated and
its evil effects accentuated by the disastrous droughts of 1898, and 1899.

The exports of sugar fell off in round figures from 107,000 tons in
1896 to 100,800 in 1897, 96,600 in 1898, 84, 800 in 1899 and 94,700 in
1900. The more favourable seasons of 1901, 1902, and 1903 were
accompanied by a steady decrease of the damage done by disease and the
export increased to 105,700 120,100 and 125,900 tons respectively.
During these years the rind-fungus disease was increasing the area of its
devastation, although it was not as virulent or destructive as it had
been from 1897 to 1900,

The planters finding that every cultural method tried during this per-
iod had failed to check the spread of the disease, had resource to planting
new varieties, firstly, the White Transparent obtained from Barbados,
and later, as this cane gradually but surely succumbed to the attacks of
root-fungus whilst its unsuitability as a ratooning cane on heavy clay soils
became very marked, new seedling varieties produced i in this colony and
in Barbados.

The ravages of the root-fungus disease were noticeable during
these years. Its earliest serious outbreak was on Windsor Forest in
1894-1895 but this was brought under control by the late R. G. Duncan
placing the land which was ‘infected under water and keeping it flooded
for some months. The excellent results which followed on this gave a
great impetus to placing old cane-lands under water as an ameliorant of
their unsatisfaccory condition.

In 1905 very extensive and virulent outbreaks of rind-fungus,
again occurred, the most virulent being in the county of Essequebo

Notes on the Society’s Work in 1897-1918. XXVil

where the disease was due to Diplodia cacaoicola. On estates in this county
the progress of the disease was exceptionally rapid ; fields which one
week looked green and full of promise in the next looked as if they had
been ravaged with fire. One plantation the crops of which had been
conservatively estimated at 2.1 tons of sugar per acre made only ‘9 ton.
This outbreak compelled the owner of the estate to abandon the cultiva-
tion of the Bourbon cane and to plant new seedling varieties in its stead.

The following table gives some idea of the extent of the changes in
the varieties of cane cultivated which the liability of the Bourbon cane
to attacks of rind and root fungus has occasioned :—

BritisH ACRES,
For Older West Indian Seedling
Grog) of Bourbon. ends ober tia Variation,
1,
1897 nil 73,000 | (about) 750 |(about) 600
1902 A 70,710 2,040 | 4,100
1907 an 40,103 670 33,665
1912 = 23,520 40 48,250
1917 was 10,660* nil, 67,680
1918 ore | 8,350* nil, 69,475
|

*Mixed in part with other varieties.

The sugar planters during the 21 years under review have had diffi-
culties other than droughts and fungoid diseases to contend with. Insect
pests have been rife and have done great injury to their crops. During
the whole of the period the smaller moth-borer (Diatraea Saccharalis F.)
has always been in evidence and has greatly reduced the yield of the
sugar estates. Its inconspicuous nature, however, has apparently prevented
the majority of sugar estate managers and especially their field-assistants
from realizing what a dangerous pest it is and the immensity of the losses
it occasions.

In 1899 a new sugar-cane pest was reported as occurring on
certain of the sugar plantations at Nickerie, Surinam. In the
course of a few years it spread to British Guiana and from the
forests behind the empoldered areas to the fields of sugar-cane
and was then named the great moth-borer (Castnia licus. Drury).
Its outbreak proved to be a blessing in disguise. It forcibly drew
attention to the error which had been made in 1903 in depriving
the colony of the services of a highly trained biologist at the time of the
retirement of Dr. Evans from the Curatorship of the Museum. Two
firms, Messrs. Booker Bros., McConnell & Co., and Curtis, Campbell
& Co., combined together and induced Mr. J. J. Quelch to return to the
colony to make a practical scientific study of the pest. The Government

XXVIil. Timehrr.

- realising that this outbreak would not be the sole occurrence of danger-
ous insect attacks upon economic crops in the colony,..and that only the
largest firms of sugar estate proprietors could possibly afford to employ
a well-paid expert, attached an Economic Biologist and instituted a bie-
logical, principally entomological, division, in the Department of Science
and Agriculture. After the successful termination of Mr. Quelch’s work
with the great moth-borer Messrs. Booker Bros. & Co. re-engaged
him for a special study of the smaller moth-borer and its parasites.
They also engaged Mr. H. W. B. Moore, of the British Guiana Museum,
as an expert field entomologist in connection with their plantations.

Mr. Quelch’s efforts proved successful and the great moth-borer was
brought under control whilst he worked out methods by which the injury
caused by the smaller moth-borer can be greatly reduced. The Govern-
ment Biologist is in almost constant request by the planters and by
farmers as well as by others in connection with questions of insect
control in the interests of sanitation ; whilst the excellent work done by
Mr. Moore is realised by every planter.

A very marked instance has recently occurred proving the value to
the colony of a properly equipped and manned division of economic ento-
mology. As you are all aware the great local food-producing areas of
the North Western, the Pomeroon-Moruca, and the North Eastern
Essequib> districts were attacked by vast swarms of locusts during the
autumn of last year. The widely distributed areas affected by the locusts
amounted to a total of approximately 250 square miles extending, but very
irregularly placed, over a distance of 150 miles as the crow flies. Notice
of this attack was received in Georgetown by post on the 23rd of July,
at 8 a.m. ; before noon the general plan of the steps tobe taken against
the locusts had been settled at the interview between the Governor, the
Government Secretary and myself, and the Governor’s sanction to the
necessary expenditure obtained. During the afternoon cablegrams were
sent out to the various West Indian Islands and to the United States to
secure supplies of insecticides. Early next morning the Economic Biologist
and his assistants left Georgetown for the affected districts to direct the
campaign against the hordes of the pests. That campaign was highly suc-
cessful—thanks to the ready co-operation of the great majority of farmers
and especially of the Aboriginal Indians in the infested areas. There may
still be a few small swarms at large inthe Essequibo and North Western
Districts of the colony, but every large swarm has been destroyed. This
most threatening outbreak was brought under control in the course of a
few months at a net cost of $2,038.60 as compared with that of approxi-
mately $26,000, the expense incurred in dealing with the Berbice out-
break over an area of 25 square miles of fairly closely cultivated country
in 1886. The difference in the cost of fighting the two outbreaks is more
than the total expenditure on the Biological Division since its inception
in 1911.

To return to the subject of new varieties of sugar-canes. In 1897
investigators generally were of the opinion that once a new variety of sugar-

—

Notes on the Society’s Work in 1897-1918. XXIX,

cane was produced that after its first period of excessive vegetative vig-
our had passed its characteristics were fixed for all time. Soon after the cul-
tivation of the new varieties had been extended over large areas it became
painfully evident to the majority of planters that their characteristics are
not fixed and that in many instances characteristics which in the earlier
years promised to make a variety of sugar-cane of high value both in
field and factory, were the first to fail. This tendency towards senile
degeneration renders it necessary to raise new varieties of seedling canes
year after year in the hope of having fairly good varieties available to
replace others which may gradually fail.

Experience has proved to us that it is very easy indeed to raise new
varieties of sugar-canes which are of high promise as plant-canes. It has
further proved to us that it is relatively difficult to obtain sugar-canes
capable of producing good crops as plant canes and as first ratoons ; and
that it is exceedingly difficult to produce varieties which can be relied on
to give satisfactory crops of plant canes, Ist, 2nd, and 3rd ratoons.
Few indeed of the enormous numbers of new varieties which are now
raised each year in various parts of the tropics, will do this and the prob-
lem of getting good varieties for cultivation under the long-ratooning
system necessitated here by our deficient labour-supply and dependence
on hand instead of on mechanical cultivation becomes an exceedingly
difficult one. Elsewhere with the exception of Cuba sugar-canes are as a
rule only cultivated as plants or as plants and Ist ratoons. Hence as the
best varieties raised in Barbados, Java and Hawaii have been chosen for
their suitability for short ratooning periods it is rarely that a sugar-cane
suitable for our long ratooning conditions can be imported from else-
where.

The most successful method we have tried here for raising new
varieties of sugar-cane of promise is based on the facts that a sugar-cane
for successful cultivation on our heavy clay soils must be of well marked
vegetative vigour and that the range of variation in the saccharine content
of seedling sugar-canes is very great, its relative sugar-content being a
fairly fixed characteristic of any variety. We endeavour to raise as many
seedlings as we can from varieties of proved vegetative vigour and select
from them those having both well marked vegetative vigour and relatively
high saccharine content. By this method we raised from D 625 the
seedlings D 118 and D 419, the areas under which have increased from
2 acres and 1 acre respectively for the crop of 1911-1912 to 2,710, and
1,360 acres respectively for this year’s reaping.

We have been advised time after time to give up our proven methods
and to confine our efforts towards raising canes by cross-fertilisation. If
we had in this colony sugar-canes of single parentage showing fixed
characters and through their purity of origin having little or no tendency
to mutation or sporting that advice would be excellent. In India and
to a less extent in Java sugar-cane varieties of high purity of strain

xXx. Timehri.

exist; and with these it is possible that by the application of Mendelian
principles in raising seedlings, new varieties of high value may be
obtained. Up to the present however, this has not taken place.

At the inception of the sugar-cane breeding work here Jenman was
enthusiastic over the possibilities of raising new varieries of high promise
by controlled methods of cross-fertilisation ; but in 1892-93 our hopes in
that direction received a severe shock. Using a variety of sugar-cane,
the Kara-kara-wa cane, which our experience in three preceding years
had shown to produce seedling-canes having usually somewhat close
resemblance to the parent variety, and placingit under conditions by which
it was impossible for its arrow or flowering shoot to be either cross-
fertilised by any other variety or fertilised by any other flower shoot of
its own kind, we got seedling canes from the one arrow of 267 different
sorts. The parent cane in its own seedling stage was hence possibly
derived from 14 diverse ancestral strains.

Supposing for example that we take two kinds of sugar-cane, one X
having as ancestral kinds the varieties A, B,C, D, E and F and the
other Y derived from its ancestors A, B, G, H, I, and J, it is evident
that 406 different combinations can arise from the interbreeding of the
two kinds, instead of a single blend or cross X x Y,

By Mendelian segregation the inheritable properties of this diverse
progeny will fall into three groups. We do not know which properties
are inherited; but assuming that the general characteristics as a whole
are heritable the segregation of the seedlings from the cross X and Y
may give rise in the first generation to 1,218 groups of varieties.

Now either X or Y by interbreeding with its own kind could pro-
duce only 15 x 3 groups or 45 general strains of sugar-canes. The com-
plexity introduced by the cross-fertilisation of existeut complex hybrids
is well illustrated by this example.

Up to 1902 we had not made any systematic attempt at raising canes
of controlled parentage. We now do it as a matter of regular routine—
not with any idea of getting seedlings having definite and desired charac-
teristics but as a means of greatly widening the range of their variation.
We have complete proof of the success of the method in this line, Un-
fortunately there is no chance in British Guiana of controlled cross-
fertilisation of the sugar-cane proving a short and certain way to success
in the production of new varieties of high saccharine value.

Probably a more disappointing investigation has never been pursued
than has been the search for improved varieties of sugar-cane. There are
now many stations at work at it in the tropics and sub-tropies; their re-
sults appear to be very similar ;—in the earlier years working with natural
varieties of sugar-cane several kinds of high promise are almost invaria-
bly obtained ; in later years, when the mass of material for parental pur-
poses has rapidly and enormously increased, the production of really good
varieties appears to become increasingly difficult and results satisfactory

Notes on the Society's Work in 1897-1918. xxxi

to both investigator and planter tend to be few and far between. It
looks as though the good results arose from the unravelling of the com-
plex ancestry of the natural varieties, whilst similar results from the re-
tangling of the new strains thus obtained are comparatively rare and are
very elusive.

The practical aspects of the position with regard to the favourite
varieties of sugar-cane are shown in the following :—

Areas on Sugar Plantations for the crops of 1917 and 1918.

British Acres:

eG 1918.
DMG25 -.:. ed ee 37,800 36,000
Bourbon pure see sae 7,400 4,950
Bourbon mixed ae oe 4,260 7,800
D145 .. re Sos 6,170 5,920
B 208 ... We sop 5,040 4,550
DATS. :.. Ae vez 1,630 2,710
D 419 .. ee ae 1,250 1,370
Green Transparent ... asf 1,500 1,320
Diamond 185 Be os 1,430 1,120
Java Seedlings oes ae 300 630
Providence 8 aoe ae 130 430
BSTG? :.. ae Bi 150 350
D109 ... wee ae 880 | 320

The distributions in percentages of the total area are :—
For crops of 1917 and 1918.
- 1917. 1918.

D 625

Bourbon alone

Bourbon mixed

ID 145

B 208

D 118

D 419 er

Green Transparent ...

Diamond 185

Java Seedlings

Providence 8

B 376

D 109 PPP ioe

Other varrieties, unenumerated |
or not returned

Con

rH ht = bd OD 1 01 & OD

Em hRODOH KO OD
~

aks ates saa err gear

—
He 1 Oo Ot 3 Oo Or DVD PO

i

wo
~~
_
e
ow

1000 | 100-0

Xxxil. Timehri.

The places of origin of the canes at present under cultivation in

British Guiana are as follows :— 1917. 1918.
Places of origin unknown

(Bourbo and other old varieties)... 16:7 ai 13:0
Java ae tN “4 8
Barbados es ree Weal 6:7

British Guiana, Plns. Diamond and
Providence 3 2:7 2°6
“a y Botanic Gardens ... iow 76:9
100-0 100:0

In and prior to 1897 it was generally assumed that the manurial
requirements of all varieties of sugar-cane were similar ; although the ex-
perience of certain planters in Barbados in the late eighties had shown
them that the White, Purple, and Ribbon Transparent canes required,
and made use of, higher dressings of sulphate of ammonia and of nitrate of
soda per acre than could be safely and economically applied to the
Bourbon. In 1901 a new departure was undertaken, the manurial require-
ments of each promising variety of cane being enquired into. A system
was evolved during the next few years by which manurial experiments
were merged into and became part of the scheme for raising and testing
new varieties cf sugar-cane. Each year the manurial requirements ofa
considerable number of varieties are being ascertained. ‘The demand for
phosphates appears to be very similar among all the varieties under trial
up to the present. (over 100). It is not possible on our heavy clay
soils to determine the demands of the varieties for manurial potash. On
soils containing proportions of potash lower than our experimental fields
do, without doubt the varying requirements of the different kinds for
manurial potash is of high importance and may prove to be the governing
factor, second only to nitrogen, in their sugar-producing power. ‘The
dema: d for nitrogen and the power that various kinds of canes have for
its utilisation have been proved to differ very markedly.

Plaaters do not always realise that their work lies in utilizing the
nitrogen available in soil, rain and especially in manures in the conversion
of the carbonic acid gas of the air into sugar and thus that the power of
various varieties of canes to do this is to them a matter of the utmost
importance. For instance under the usual climatic conditions here, one
ton of sulphate of ammonia under ordinary conditions of eultivation and
of factory recovery when used with certain varieties of sugar-cane can
produce commercial sugar at the following rates :—

CaNEs, SuGAR.
Tons,

D 419 HOF e ae 5 to 6
D 625 ce ees io APs OB
D 145 34 ,, 44
D 118 ve ee ee |
Bourbon prior to 1897 GD averayt ai:
Bourbon 1897 onwards ae me iD) age re
B 208 and similar varieties ... hes DB yyrle

Notes on the Society's Work in 1897-1918. XXXxlil.

The latter varieties are unsuited to cultivation on very heavy clay
soils under conditions of oft-repeated ratooning.

One ton of nitrate of soda under favourable conditions produces one-
fifth less sugar than does a ton of sulphate of ammonia, but in practice it
is safer to assume it will produce a third less. When used on land long-
manured with sulphate of ammonia a change to nitrate of soda may
prove to be beneficial and the yield of sugar may approach or even exceed
that normal to the nitrate of soda when used under favourable conditions

It is probable that during this year the colony will be about 4,500
tons short of sulphate of ammonia or of its equivalents which means that
its crops will be probably 20,000 to 25,000 tons of sugar less than they
would be under normal conditions. This position should be strongly
represented to the Government of Canada. If that country cannot supply
us with sulphate of ammonia or its equivalent we shall be unable to supply
it with sugar.

During the many year manurial experiments with the sugar-cane
have been in progress in British Guiana practically every available com-
mercial substitute for sulphate of ammonia has been under trial. The
only ones which have not been tried are cotton-seed meal and castor-
seed meal, The average efficiencies as compared with sulphate of
ammonia taken as 100 of equivalent quantities of nitrogen in the
various manures we have tried are shown in the following statement :—

Dissolved Peruvian guano Bae ee 103
Sulphate of Ammonia O sas 100
Nitrolim as tc ees 97
Nitrate of Potash... He nate 94
Nitrate of Soda ... ie ame 92
Dried Blood ase ae oo 90
Raw Chinchas guano aes bt 88
Lofoten Fish Guano we sea 85
Nitrate of Lime ... bis sos 80
Animal Products Manure aoe wes 60
Stable Manure... oat Ape 35

Our planters and farmers will do well to turn their attention towards
substitutes other than purely nitrogenous products for sulphate of
ammonia. ‘The practical ones are :

(a) The use of slaked lime in dressings of not less than 2 tons per
acre.
(b) The utilisation of the colony’s vast production of rice-straw.

(c) The use of legumes or pulses as cover-crops.

(a) On new land or on land Jong-rested from cultivation in sugar-cane,
dressings of from 2 to 3 tons of Barbados “ white-lime,” or better, if
procurable, of from 1 to 1} tons of Trinidad quick-lime allowed to become
air-slaked before application to the soil, should largely increase the yield

XXxIV. Timehri.

of sugar-cane. On such lands the results of the application of the lime
should be equivalent in the first crop to those of a dressing of 200 lbs. of
sulphate of ammonia per acre whilst for several years the lime will result
in larger, but gradually decreasing crops. Planters must decide whether
they will apply lime to their soils by consideratien of the relative cost of
sulphate of ammonia and of lime landed here together with the much
greater cost of applying the latter to their fields.

(b) The colony possesses a vast store, some 200,000 tons a year, of
rice-straw, much of which should be utilisable as a mulch or a manure.
I believe that the use of rice-straw as a mulch on the fields of young
canes to be later forked in between the banks will result in increased
yields of sugar—possibly from the first year’s application of not more
than a ton to 2 tons of stripped canes per acre but that this will increase
from applications in successive years to perhaps as much as 5 tons of
sugar cane or, say, 8 cwts. of commercial sugar per acre.

It is certain to my mind that the skilled application and forking in
of rice-straw year after year will greatly ameliorate the texture of the
heavy clay sugar-cane lands and increase their productive power. Here
again the planter must calculate the cost of the application as compared
with the probable value of its ameliorant action.

(c) It is commonly assumed that the sugar-planters of British
Guiana ignore and have always ignored the advantages they are assured
they must obtain if they plant legumes as an ameliorant for the soils.
The great majority of us have forgotten, even if we ever knew, about the
large scale trials made in 1896 and 1897 with Bengal beans and other
pulses. Most careful trials were made by some of our then most
advanced and experienced planters. In many casss the beans grew well,
so well and luxuriantly in fact that they killed off all weeds and all stray
sugar-canes which were growing in the fields the beans were sown in. The
trials were instituted and arranged by the late Mr. R. Bird of Mauri‘ius
who visited this colony for that specific purpose.

The growth of the beans was all that could be desired and there
appeared a certain prospect that a completely snccessful substitute for
manuring with sulphate of ammonia had been obtained. Difficultics,
however, arose with regard to cutting-down and burying the great mass
of vegetation on the fields. Sulphate of ammonia was then cheap, costing
probably about $65 per ton locally. It was found that it cost far more to
produce, cut-down and bury 67 lbs. of combined nitrogen in the legumes
than 67 lbs could be bought and applied in the form of 3 ewt. of sulphate of
ammonia per acre. In addition the 67 lbs of nitrogen in organic combina-
tion in the legume foliage was not as effective as a sugar-producer as was
45 lbs. applied in sulphate of ammonia.

Other less vigorously growing legumes such as alfalfa were tried but
also failed. Trials were repeated inoculating the soil with the specific
organisms found in the root-nodules of vigorously growing alfalfa, Again

hp ~0- 0 P 9 Apt Mes CANS

2a tend misao

aa nee Sie

Notes on the Society’s Work in 1897-1918. XXXV,

complete failure followed. Hence only vigorously growing beans of vari-
ous strains could be used ; and with them, whether Bengal beans, Woolly
pyrol or velvet beans were used, the results were the same. The costs of
cultivation and application were too high in comparison with the then price
of sulphate of ammonia for their practical utilisation.

Owing to the great appreciation of sulphate of ammonia this may not
now be the case. Trials on the large scale should be resumed. Probably
the solution of this problem will be found in mechanical tillage. The
system to be followed should be to grow the kind of beans which are found
to give the heaviest returns of foliage, to cut down the mass of foliage,
to leave it on the land fora short time to wilt, and when it has wilted
sufficiently to be easily handled, to plough or fork it in.

Now there is a very common error with regard to leguminous cover-
crops. It is assumed that they are always successful in increasing the
nitrogen in the soil. To obtain good results you must bury, or
otherwise apply to the soil the whole of the produce. If you gather the
seed and use it for food or other purposes you take from the produce the
greater part of its accumulated nitrogen. Still by burying all the
residues after reaping the seed a certain but small proportion of the
nitrogen accumulated by the pulses is left in the soil. Butif the whole of
the produce other than the seeds is removed from the field and not
returned to its soil, leguminous crops are practically as exhausting to the
soil as sugar-cane can be.

Again the successful cultivation of leguminous crops requires larger
supplies of available phosphates and potash in the soil than do that of
the sugar-cane and similar crops. Hence it may be necessary and it
always will be advisable, to apply to lands which are to be planted with
legumes either superphosphate of lime or slag phosphate. Most of our
coastland soils are very plentifully supplied with potash.

Any planter or farmer who commences the cultivation of legumes for
cover-crops must be prepared to meet with disappointments. Not un-~
frequently for reasons which are not obvious the legumes will refuse to
grow. We have had an instance of this in our experimental work when
we planted legumes time after time on certain soils with the result that
the young plants either wilted and died when quite small or if they
survived for a time could not hold their own against ordinary weeds.
We left the land for some months in a condition for which we were
severely criticised by self-constituted agricultural experts ; we cut down
and buried the very luxuriant crops of weeds we obtained and on replant-
ing the land with beans we finally obtained very heavy crops of the
pulses.

The high proportion of legumes which occur among the weeds in
this colony is very remarkable. Here I have to include the non-utilised

XXXVI. Timehri.

trees of our forests among weeds. Leguminous trees are of very common
occurrence in our forests and any one who traverses any of the small
creeks which meander through them may notice the enormous number
of root tubercles or nodules present on the rootlets of vast forest trees
which have fallen on the banks of the streams. Similarly on aban-
doned lands and especially on lands resting from sugar-cane cultivation
legumes are prominent among the weed-flora. Nature ever kind but
apt to be too profuse in her kindnesses to this colony ensures the con-
servation of fertility on our abandoned or neglected fields. Cultivators,
however, should take advantage of this by cutting down the weeds,
allowing them to wilt and then forking them into the soil.

These three methods of countervailing to some extent the scarcity
of nitrogenous manure have each the merit of ameliorating the composi-
tion and textures of the soil and thus their effects are not limited to one
crop whilst in the cases of application of rice-straw and of that of
leguminous cover-crops the good effects are cumulative in their action.
Personally I look upon the utilisation of the rice-straw as a practical step
which ought to receive the attention of the more enterprising among the
planters,

I noticed a few days ago in a local newspaper allusion to the scarcity
of potash for manuriai purposes. Fortunately our sugar and rice lands
are very rich in potash while cultivation sets free from such soils potash
in quanity far in the excess of the requirements of any tropical crops.
For instance the top-most acre-foot of the heavy clay soils of the Botanic
Gardens contains not less than 80 tons of potash, equal to 160 tons of
commercial sulphate of potash, per acre. 18 tons of this is soluble in hot
strong hydrochloric acid, one ton being dissolved by slightly acid water ;
2 of a ton is in what isusually regarded as the condition in which it is
immediately available for plants and of this, potash, equal to 7 ewt. of
sulphate of potash per acre, is soluble in pure water. There is not any
likelihood of manurial dressings of sulphate of potash having any effect
on such soils, nor of their requiring them for many years to come.

This condition extends a long distance from the coast on the river
alluvial soils but is non-existent on the soils of the interior which are as
a rule abnormally deficient in potash. The West Indian sugar islands
may suffer from shortage of manurial potash salts but some recent
geological analyses I have made for the Commissioner of Agriculture for
the West Indies indicate that the potash-containing mineral “alunite”
exists in certain of the volcanic islands.

Hvumvus.

A question which has received much attention at intervals since
1897 is that of the importance of the organic constituents of soils
frequently but incorrectly lumped together under the head “humus.”

Notes on the Society’s Work in 1897-1918. XXXVii.

At present probably few of the constituents of soils are receiving such
intensive investigation as these are. To some agriculturists ‘“ humus”
appeals as the dominant agent in the fertility of soils; to others its
degradation-products are regarded as most dangerously inimical to
crop-production. The probability is that neither of these extreme views
is the correct one ; decomposing vegetable-debris is of high importance
ayvriculturally whilst the final degradation-products to which the dark
colour of certain soils is largely due are, as far as our investigations
during the last 21 years show, either practically inert or possibly may be
injurious. The productivity of Demerara clay soils certainly is not
governed by their proportions of the dark-coloured, alkali-soluble,
vegetable decomposition-products to which the term ‘“‘ humus” should be
strictly confined, and hence the fact that many of our soils are light-
coloured does not supply any justification for the wholesale condemnation,
as has been recently done, of our sugar estate managers as being un-
scientific, unskilled, unpractical planters.

In a paper I read in November, 1886 before the Barbados Agricultural
Society was the following : — .

Cs oe A most important point also, and one which I can
‘scarcely impress upon you too strongly, is the very great mechanical
“improvement in the condition of the soil produced by pen manure and
“by vegetable green manures, The soils heavily manured with these
“become much more retentive of moisture which is a most valuable
“property in our climate, whilst the addition of the very large proportion
“ of organic matter contained in the manures increases the amount of
“¢ humus’ in the soil ; and, as the activity of the nitrifying organisms
“present (both those which oxidise ammonia into nitrates, so preparing
“it for plant-food, and those which possibly occasion the assimila-
‘tion of the free nitrogen of the air) depends in great measure
“upon the amount of this substance present, which apparently
“acts as food for them, the importance of such increase is evident.”

The earlier parts of this statement are as appropriate now and to this
colony as they were in 1886 to Barbados, whilst if for the word “humus ”
the words ‘“‘ vegetable debris” are substituted in the latter part this
becomes equally applicable, and thus the conclusions stated are of great
importance to us at the present time.

One of the first things which strike a cursory agricultural or scienti-
fie visitor here is what appears to be the absence of “humus” on our
front lands. Althgugh humus in the strict sense of the term may be pres-
ent only in relatively small proportions, yet the far more important plant-
debris which do not necessarily darken the soil may be present in some
abundance. Such a visitor is apt to explain the light-coloured condition
of the soil by an assumption that the planters have by defective methods
of cultivation and soil-conservation caused the depletion of the soil in
plant-residua, A visit tosome newly cleared very fertile river-lands might

-
XXXVill. Timehrr.

change this view. He would there find that with the exception of a very
thin layer of dark-coloured earth covering the land the soil is light grey
to almost white in hue,

That light colour indicates a former, if not a present, abundance of
plant-debris. During the rapid decomposition and oxidation of such
debris, organic acids, including carbonic acid, are produced and the waters
containing them Jeach-out from the soil the dark-coloured organic iron
compounds which if present would tinge the earth dark grey to almost
black. It is the superabundance, either in the present or in the past, of
decomposing vegetable debris which results both on sugar-cane lands and
on the river alluvial soils in the production of light-coloured to almost
white earths.

The system formerly in force here on sugar estates, but which has
been widely abandoned since 1897, of burying the trash, cane-tops, ete.,
between the rows of canes tended directly towards the conservation of
plant-residua in the soil, but unfortunately financial difficulties, unsatis-
factory labour and other conditions have compelled the planters to burn
their canes prior to reaping them. _ This system naturally interferes with
the accumulation in the soil of plant-residua.*

Two methods of assisting in the amelioration of the soil by addition
of plant residua have recently been advocated but not by agriculturists resi-
dent in the colony. In the first it was proposed to add to the soil forest
leaf-mould. Now to add plant-debris to the soil to; the extent of one-half
of one per cent. of the upper surface layer of the soil would require the
addition of 15,000 lbs. of such debris per acre and that would entail the
application of at least 37,000 Ibs., probably of 50,000 and possibly of
far more of forest leafmould. Some time ago for another purpose I
ascertained that under heavy forest at Issorora, North West District,
the wet fallen leaves over an acre of land weighed only 6} tons. It would
take all such fallen leaves from three acres of forest land to dress the soil
of one acre of caneland with the equivalent of a relatively light dress-
ing of organic debris such as is furnished by farm-yard manure.

Application of pegass dug from the land at the back of the planta-
tions to the canefield has been also suggested. As a tentative proposal at
first sight it appears a very practical one, but when it is remembered that
the nitrogenous and other agents of soil fertility; present in pegass are in a
condition of extreme insolubility and hence non-availability and that pegass

* Under our former system of agriculture probably from 25 to 30 per cent. of the nitrogen
in the cane, 66 per cent. of the potash, and 45 per cent. of the phosphoric acid were returned
to the soil by the tops and dry leaves. There was, therefore, little chance of the exhaustion
of the soil by continued cropping, except of the immediately available nitrogen, which was
then easily and cheaply supplied in the form either of sulphate of ammonia or of nitrate
of “soda. A very large proportion of the great quantity of vegetable matter con-
served to the soil under the former system’ is now, under the system of burning the
canes, entirely lost ; almost all of the combined nitrogen is lost whilst the potash and phos-
phates of the vegetable matters are rendered more or less insoluble, inert, and useless for
the production of later crops.

Notes on the Society's Work in 1897-1918. xXxIx;

contains a very great quantity of soluble peaty compounds which are
plant-poisons it is evident that, as I have known them to do in practice,
applications of heavy dressings of pegass will result in the reduction of
immediate fertility with little, if any, promise of future increment. Pegass
requires to be materially altered in composition before its constituents
become available as soil-ameliorants and as plant-food. Jt must in
fact be first converted into ‘“ bacterised peat.”

To my mind it is futile to discuss such methods whilst we neglect
that very practical and immediately available one of mulching the cane-
lands yearly with heavy dressings of rice-straw.

¥ FLOODING THE LAND.

During the period under review this excellent mode of ameliorating the
soil has come into vogue. Instituted by the late R. G. Duncan at Windsor
Forest in 1894-5 for the destruction of root-fungus and various insect
pests of soil and sugar-cane (it had been earlier in use on sugar-planta-
tions in Surinam) the excellent results which ensued have caused it to be
widely adopted. Its action appears to be a complex one.

During the time the land is under water the organisms causing root-
fungus disease of the sugar-cane are destroyed, and so are numerous
insect-pests which have their habitat in the soil, on sugar-cane debris, and
on weeds ; oxidation of certain soil-constituents becomes far more active
and is possibly at its maximum owing to the surficial growths on the
water of certain algae and bacteria; the salts which have accumulated in
the sub-soil during long-continued sugar-cane cultivation are largely re-
moved in solution in the water used for flooding; whilst the general
texture of the soilis very greatly improved. Possibly the adoption of
this system is among the most important agricultural innovations during
the period under review. It is not, however, as practised here as success-
ful frem a financial point of view as it might be. Why should the Jand
be allowed to lie fallow during the period of flooding? Just as good
results will accrue to the soil if it bears a crop of rice as if it is fallowed.
Planters should make use of the Java system. Flood the land, but do not
leave it idle; whilst this is taking place rice should be grown.
Flood the land, raise one or two crops of rice, insisting that all rice straw,
ete., be left on the land or on the meres; plough up burying the residua of
the rice crops, and replant with sugar-cane. ‘This should result in crops
of possibly three or even four tons of sugar per acres

This system however cannot be widely adopted until there is a means
of economically tilling the land. In fact the amelioration of the sugar-cane
lands of the colony cannot be brought abcut either by raising green
leouminous dressings, applying rice-straw in large quantities, or by a
rotation with rice on flooded lands until mechanical appliances for deep
tillage and possibly for subsoiling the land are economically available.
Personally Ihave not the slighest doubt that mechanical deep tillage and
subsoiling will greatly assist the beneficial effect of flooding the land.

xl Timehri.

MECHANICAL TILLAGE.

In the earlier days of this Society much attention was directed by it
towards problems of mechanical tillage. Some, but far from sufficient,
attention has been given to this problem during the past twenty-one
years. The late Mr. T. Wardle, of Washington rice farm, was an earnest and
persistent advocate of mechanical tillage; I fear that his untimely death
may have kept back progress in that direction. Success in it will be
followed by greatly increased prosperity in all agricultural pursuits in
which it becomes available ; whilst mechanical tillage should go far to
relieve the present unfortunate labour-position, a position which in all
probability will become far more acute during immediately succeeding
years. It is a subject worthy of public discussion at special meetings
of this Society by planters, farmers and engineers.

LimiTinGc Factors FoR SMALL SCALE EXPERIMENTAL ENQUIRIES.

Trials of new varieties of sugar-cane for their cultural and especially
factory merits ; modes of practical control of fungus and insect pests ;
flooding the land ; mechanical tillage ; and certain other cultural procedures
known to every planter cannot be successfully tried-out on small scale
plot-experiments such as we are at present limited to, Scientifically con-
ducted enquiries into these require large areas of land worked under
estate conditions. The Government has not any land available for such
trials ; nor has it the technical staff necessary to carry them out. These
enquiries are, or rather should be, the work of co-operative agricultural
stations financed and solely controlled by the proprietors of sugar
estates. Such a station appeared to be in sight as a practical proposi-
tion during the earlier months of 1912 but that fatal lack of co-operation
among the proprietors of sugar-plantationgin this colony which has so
long been its bane proved tvo strong for those who endeavoured to bring
the inception of the station to a practical issue. Until co-operation in
such enquiries as I have mentioned is an accomplished fact here I am satis-
fied that very little progress will be made in British Guiana in the im-
provement of cultural methods with the sugar-cane. Surely such co-
operation is not impossible. Its inception ought to be one of the main
objects of this Royal Agricultural Society.

Another stumbling-block in the progress of the sugar-industry during
the period under review has been the extraordinary desire for secrecy
with regard to the details of factory work. This cannot, I fear, be due
to modesty for few indeed of our factories now are capable of results
which can compare at all favourably with the economical output of sugar
of factories in Hawaii, Java, Louisiana, Cuba, Porto Rico, Formosa,
Trinidad, St. Kitts, Antigua, or even of the small centrals in Barbados.
Is it that the managers fear to let their neighbours know the cause of
their failures? Surely far more harm is being done by the failures than
could possibly be done by knowledge of how they have occurred and how
to prevent them in future. It is, I believe, an absolute certainty that
all-round improvement in factory methods and practice would ensue

Notes on the Society's Work in 1897-1918. xii.

through mutual co-operation, consultation, comparison of results, and
discussion. The remarkable secretiveness of the planters in British
Guiana, more especially those of the counties of Essequibo and Demerara
has been, I fear, responsible for some, at any rate, of the stagnation which
characterises the local sugar-industry. Inthe sister county of Berbice
this secretiveness has not been so much in evidence and when I used to
visit planters in that county I found that the managers of the successful
plantations—Port Mourant, Albion, Rose Hall, and Blairmont—were not
averse to mutual discussion and to working together with a view to in-
creasing the efficiency of their work and thus to the benefit of their em-
ployers. I trust that this wil] there continue and will extend to the other
counties.

Why the planters of this colony have not adopted the mutual
factory control system in use in other cane-sugar producing countries
is a mystery to me. L

Of course there have been other and possibly far more serious
causes than lack of co-operation which have been detrimental to the
progress of the sugar-industry here. In 1897 our sugar-factories on the
whole were perhaps as well or even better fitted than the general run of
similar factories in other progressive cane-sugar producing countries, but
since that year many of our factories perforce have been more or less
neglected, have deteriorated in efficiency, and have fallen in their equip-
ment, some of them hopelessly, behind the times. The great majority of
the men in charge of the sugar-plantations in 1897 were far-sighted men
of marked initiative power. But unfortunately the disappointing nature
of the report of the Royal Commission as regards the abolition of the
sugar bounties with the fact that there was no chance open to our sugar-
industry of competition on» terms of equality with German bounty-fed
beet-root sugar caused the majority of the proprietors of sugar estates
to adopta policy of reduction of expenditure—they had to foll.w the
unwise and undesirable course of attempting to make money only by
saving money, whilst trying to live on the bare interest of their ever-
decreasing capital. They have not been in a position to give practical
effect to lessening the costs of production by improvements in equipment
and in agricultural methods, and hence the sugar-industry has suffered

greatly.

AREA IN THE BRITISH GUIANA SUITABLE FOR SUGAR-CANE
CULTIVATION.

In 1914 the various agricultural associations and authorities in the
sugar-cane producing colonies were asked to prepare statements as to
what room there is in the respective colonies for the extension of the
sugar-industry. The following are extracts from reports which were
prepared in the Department under my charge and which extracts it may
be desirable to place on record in the pages of the Journal of the Royal
Agricultural and Commercial Society of British Guiana :—

xl Timehri.

EXISTENT Su@ar ESTATES.

“72,527 British acres equal to 44-7 per cent. of the empoldered area,
“© 162,139 British acres, of the sugar estates are under sugar-cultivation.
“ About 857 of this acreage is reaped each year indicating that in round
‘figures 387 of the empoldered land contributes to the yearly production
‘of sugar. The average production of sugar over the Colony during
‘normal years is about 1°8 tons of sugar per acre reaped. On well-
‘administered, suitably equipped and satisfactorily financed plantations
‘‘the average in favourable years may be taken as from 2:1 to 2:2 tons
‘of commercial sugar per acre reaped per annum. On the best estates,
‘such as Plns. Wales, Diamond, Port Mourant, and Uitvlugt in really
‘good years the yields are higher.

“The export of sugar during the year 1914 was 107,138 tons. The
“British Guiana Planters’ Association states that with the existing
“ Jabour-supply the area at present under sugar-cultivation is capable of
“yielding 126,000 tons of sugar per annum. The Association also
“ states:—‘‘ The land on the Estates that is not cultivated at present, is
“ estimated to be capable of giving a return of 101,800 tons of sugar
“per annum.

“This shows that given an ample supply of labour the return from
“the empoldered areas of the present sugar-estates couid be increased to,
“in round figures, 228,000 tons of sugar per annum,

“Tt is doubtful if, even at present prices, the acreage under sugar
“reaped each year on the empoldered lands could be economically
“increased to more than 507 of their area. If it were increased to that
“ extent the crop of sugar might amount to, in round figures, 145,000
“tons, the mean yield being taken as 1°8 tons of sugar per acre.

Nore.—tThe following testimonies to the planters ef 1897 and their immediate pre-
decessors appear in the Report and the Subsidiary Report of the West Indian Royal Com-
mission :—

“Itis only just to say that the planters in Guiana have not been behindhand in efforts to

improve the cultivation and the manufacture of sugar, and that their efforts have been

attended with remarkable success. The amount of sugar and rum produced has been well
“maintained, and the cost of production has been greatly reduced. If it had not been for
“these efforts, and for an expenditure on machinery which during the last fifteen years has
“amounted to £1,307,500 the sugar industry must have succumbed,

$ Sugar is undoubtedly the staple production of British Guiana. The industry is carried
‘ on with considerable energy and intelligence. The maintenance of an elaborate system of
“ drainage, the skilful cultivation of the soil, and the high character of the processes of
“extraction and manufacture place British Guiana amongst the most progressive of the
“cane-sugar producing countries of the world. It is estimated that cane-sugar of high quality
“ can be produced almost as cheaply in British Guiana as in most tropical countries,

“Tn conclusion it may be assumed that as regards the general suitability of the soil for
“the cultivation of sugar-cane, as regards the methods of cultivation and manuring pursued
“ during the last 15 years, and as regards the character of the machinery and skill devoted to
“ the manufacture of sugar, British Guiana occupies a high position as compared with other
“ cane-growing countries.”

OTHER AREAS IN DisTRICTS WHERE SUGAR-CANE HAS BEEN
CULTIVATED.
“A conservative estimate of the area of Jands well-suited for sugar
‘‘ cultivation in the districts from the mouth of the Pomeroon in the

*

Notes on the Society’s Work in 1897-1918. xliii

“north-west to the west bank of the Corentyne river in the east is
*« 531,000 acres exclusive of the area already empoldered on sugar estates.
“ Sixty-four thousand acres of this may be at present beneficially occu-
“ pied by products other than sugar leaving 467,000 acres available for
‘the extension of sugar-cultivation. At the {present proportion of land
‘ vearly cropped with sugar to the total empoldered area this would give
“inround figures 177,000 acres to b2 reaped each year yielding a mean
“annual crop of 320,000 tons of sugar.

“ Tf£50 per cent. of the area (233,500 acres) were reaped each year
“ the yield would be, in round figures, 420,000 tons.

Tf the proportion of the area cultivatable in sugar-cane were similar
© to that indicated by the Planters’ Association asso cultivatable on the
“empoldered sugar estates its annual possible yield of sugar would be
‘inereased to 580,000 tons.

“The possible annualcrop of sugar in districts in British Guiana
“where sugar-cane has been cultivated could with sufficient capital,
“labour, progressiveness andenterprise be increased to 446,000 tons of
“sugar asaminimum; to 563,000 tons if 50% of the land was yearly
"cropped or by utilising the highest possible proportion of the suitable
“lands for cultivation to upwards of 800,000 tons, which by fully apply-
“ ing modern scientific methods in cultivation and manufacture might be
‘increased to upwards of 1,000,000 tons.

“The enquiries as to the amount of sugar produceable by the existing
“Jabour-supply are very difficult to satisfactorily reply to. What pro-
* portion of the Jabour-supply will work on the production of sugar ?
“The present production is largely limited by this. It is also limited by
“the energy, the enterprise, and the progressiveiess of the proprietors ;
“their willingness and ability to make use of mechanical cultivation
“wherever feasible; by the progressiveness, both agriculturally and
“mechanically, of the managers of the estates; by their knowledge of,
‘and their application of such knowledge to, problems of selection of
“ varieties, manuring of plants and control of fungoid and insect pests.
* The productive power of a labourer is governed not solely by his indus-
‘try but also by the capital and the brain-power of his employers and by
“their ability and willingness to supplement his labour by the most
“efficient mechanical appliances. A labourer may produce 2 to 2} tons
“of sugar a year where capital, progressiveness, and ability are not con-
* spicuous in his employer ; he may produce 5 to 6 tons where these are
* present in a marked degree; whilst he may produce 6 to 8 or even
“more where those directing his work have and utilise all possible
‘advantages of capital, modern appliances, and agricultural and adminis-
“trative ability.

“The sugar-producing power of any well-cultivated area of land on
“the maritime districts of the colony is directly governed by the supply

xliv. Timehri.

“of sulphate of ammonia. Without it such land may yield 1} to 1} tons
“ of sugar per acre ; with it the same land may yield from 2} to 3} tons,
“the labour employed being the same.”

By special direction the enquiry was extended to cover the districts
in the North Western coastlands of the Colony which have never been
under cane-cultivation. Interest in its results is purely empirical as they
do not come within the sphere of practical utility. The utilisation of
lands in this area might possibly produce 1,500,000 tons of cane-sugar
per annum but in my opinion as well, I believe, as in that of every one
acquainted with the cultivation of the cane sugar industry in British
Guiana this estimate is of the nature of a vision ;—characteristie of
Nephelokokkugia.

I may mention that in forming the estimate of the area of land
available for the extension of sugar-cane planting in the parts of the
colony in which the sugar-industry has been carried on only alluvial lands
toa mean depth of 2 miles from the coastal and river fagades were
taken into account and from the total of these the areas which in 1914
were under cultivation with products other than sugar-cane were de-
ducted.

The earlier progress and later stagnation of the sugar-industry is
illustrated in the following table :—

Sugar CANE AND SUGAR QUINQUENNIAL PERIODS.

Sugar-cane, Sugar.
Periods. No. of acres (British) Tons of sugar

under cultivation. exported.
1859-1863 | No records 59,000
1864-1868 as 5 , 75,330
1869-1873 xs | i . 81,700
1874-1878 ¢ + vs 99,940
1879-1883 ys 81,270 103,860
1884-1888 5x 80,690 113,820
1889-1893 se 79,630 110,900
1894-1898 se 70,640 101,620
1896 he 71,800 105,270
1899-1903 ee 74,170 106,260
1904-1908 ip 75,580 110,830
1909-1913 ae 72,640 94,820
1914, 19151916 ... 75,730 | 109,000
1917 a 77,828 114,000

a

Tue Rem InpDustTrRy.

The fermentation and distillation processes on the sugar-ostates have
been subject to, on the whole, little improvement during recent Years.

Notes on the Society's Work in 1897-1918. xv.

They had been brought to a high state of efficiency prior to 1897, mainly
owing to the scientific labours of Messrs. Scard and Douglas. At that
time 76 to 78 per cent. of the theoretically possible yields of alcohol were
being recovered in rum, a rate which fairly closely approximated to the
best technical efficiency in the spirit industry-from 80 to 827.

The number of distilleries has greatly decreased during the period
under review. There were in 1896 fifty distilleries using pot or vat stills
and seven using Coffey or other forms of continuous rectifying stills.
There were in 1917 twenty-six distilleries using stills of the former type
and ten using the latter. The export of rum in 1896 was 3,291,290
proof-gallons as compared with an average export of 4,167,000 proof-
gallons during the years 1915 to 1917. Itis evident from the figures
given that although the actual fermentation and distillation processes may
not have under-gone much improvement the economic and financial efti-
ciency of the rum-producing industry has been markedly added to.

Imay mention that in 1897 an excellently equipped spirit-refinery—
the Black Distillery—was at work in Georgetown turning out from
ordinary rum, spirits of an exceptionally high standard of purity, which
after skilful flavouring were sold as factitious brandy, whisky, or gin in
competition with the German-made or ‘‘ Hamburg” spirits which until
very recent years were largely imported here for sale at low prices.
Whilst the processes in use at the Black Distillery were highly successful
when applied to rum of originally well-marked purity, the distiller, over-
estimating the efficiency of his process, unfortunately applied it to rum of
very unsatisfactory character which it proved unable to deodorise and
on account of this, among other reasons, the distillery ceased its
working; with the result that now under war-conditions we have to
be satisfied with the excellent rum produceable in the colony under its
natural flavour and aroma.

Mo.LascuiT AND OTHER CATTLE Foops.

In 1897 the sole by-products of the sugar-industry were molasses
and rum distilled from it, but a few years later Mr. George Hughes, F.C.S.,
introduced a process for the preparation from the molasses of the sugar-
cane of a high-grade cattle-food. This food consists of a mixture of
vacuum pan molasses with the finer particles of the interior spongy tissues
of the sugar-cane, which are separated from the megass produced during
the gi-!©i'ng of the sugar-cane. The mixture results in a dry, brown-
coloured, coarse powder possessing a very fragrant and attractive odour.
Its characteristic is the high proportion—72 per cent.—of its readily
digestible constituents and especially the high digestibility of the fibre
present init. In some years during the period under review, the exports
of cattle-food—Hughes’ molascuitand modifications or imitations of it—
have been in excess of 12,000 tons. War-conditions unfortunately have
recently greatly reduced theexports of this important by-product.

xlvi. Timehri.

Among the more striking, if not the most striking, of the agricul-
tural developments in the West Indian Province during the 21 years
which have elapsed since 1897 has been the very extensive rice-industry
of British Guiana. In 1897 one of the most important steps ever taken
with regard to that industry was completed by the erection, by the aid
of a Government loan, of the pioneer large-scale rice-factory in George-
town. Inthe Report of the West Indian Royal Commission issued
towards the end of 1897 was the following :—

* Rice to the value of £180,000 was imported in 1895-96 for con-
‘sumption in the Colony. Rice of excellent quality is already grown
“in British Guiana, and every effort should be made to produce locally
‘all that is wanted of this article.”

Whilst in the Dr. Morris’ Subsidiary Report was the following :—

“ There can be no doubt as to the decided opinion which prevails
“that rice-growing is amost promising industry on the coast lands of
“British Guiana, The cultivation so far has been undertaken on com-
“ paratively small areas by coolies, and with very crude appliances for
‘ threshing and husking the grain. Recently aloan has been sanctioned
“ by the Government for erecting and working one or more rice factories
“ where the rice could be milled and prepared ata small cost for local
“consumption. The present cost of husking rice by hand-pounding in
“mortars is estimated at 3s. 6d. per bag. At well-equipped mills, this
“ eould be done at a cost of about 1s. 6d. per bag. It is confidently
“anticipated that as soon as mills are established, a great impetus will
“be given to rice-growing all over the Colony.”

The progress of the rice-industry since 1884 is shown in the follow-
ing statement :—

Quinquennial Periods.

Periods. No. of acres _ | Rice exported lbs. | Rice imported lbs,

(British) reaped. per annum, per annum,
— es
1884-1888 v.. (about) 2,500 Nil 43,500,000
1889-1893 oo) 9s, , B00 oF 41,964,000
1894-1898 aa 7,490 10,820 32,062,000
1896 ae 6,500 Nil 32,218,000
1899-1903 Se 15,020 6,000 18,127,000
1904-1908 a 29,500 3,769,000 5,644,000
1909-1913 aie 37,750 10,177,000 355,000
1914, 1915 & 1916
(3 years only)... 50,270 21,769.300 20,100
1917 63,580 $2,182,000 nil

ee

Notes on the Society's Work in 1897-1918. xlvii.

The statement verifies in a most striking manner the views of the
Royal Commission and of their able colleague and adviser Sir Daniel
Morris ; 32,000,000 Ibs. imported in 1896 ; 32,000,000 Ibs. exported in
1917!

The area under rice cultivation in 1896-97 was about 6,500 British
acres yielding paddy equal to about 4,000 tons of cleaned rice in value
about £48,000 or $230,000, whilst in 1917 not less than 63,580 acres
were reaped, yielding paddy equal to about 45,000 tons of commercial
rice, haying a value in normal tines of at least £540,000 or $2,600,000.

The yields of rice in the colony vary very greatly ; for instance, on
empoldered lands with satisfactory facilities for irrigation and drainage the
crops may be from 20 to 28 bags (of 140-150 Ibs.) of paddy, the average
yield on these lands being 25 bags per acre; on non-empoldered lands
with fair irrigation the yields are from 16 to 20 bags of paddy per aere,
whilst on poor and unsuitable lands with defective irrigation or with
no means of irrigation and dependent solely oa the rainfall the
yields are only from 8 to 14 bags peracre. Over the whole colony the
average yields are from 18 to 23 bags per acre per crop, the yields being
governed by the characteristics of the seasons.

In some districts, more especially in North East Essequebo, where
facilities for irrigation and drainage are exceptionally favourable, two
crops per annum are usually reaped. On the best empoldered lands the
two creps yield a total of from 38 to 45 bags (140 lbs.) of paddy per
acre, whilst on non-empoldered lands the total annual yields are from
30 to 35 bags.

Prior to 1897 several attempts were made with but little success
towards improving the quality and yield of rice in British Guiana by im-
porting seed-paddy from Calcutta. There were resumed in 1897 but failed
as at that time the Botanic Gardens proper were used almost exclusively
for ornamental and horticultural purposes whilst there was not any land
available in the experimental section devoted to sugar-cane. In 1902
with the assistance of the late Sir Alexander Ashmore some marsh-paddies
of choice varieties were obtained from Ceylon. An area of then practically
marsh-land in the north-eastern section of the Botanic Gardens was
cleared from bush and laid out in rice-beds under the direction of Mr.
B. Gainfort, whilst acting as Superintendent of the Gardens. A year
later supplies of hill-paddy were obtained but owing to “heating” on the
voyage a Ceylon to here, the seed-paddy proved almost entirely non-
fertile; but Mr. R. Ward succeeded in germinating nine grains of the pad-
dies and from them some good strains of hill-rice were obtained. Later
supplies of seed-paddy have been obtained from several different coun-
tries and colonies and over 300 varieties have been under experimental
field-trial. Few of them have been able to compete in yield and quality
of paddy with the Creole rice of British Guiana as improved by careful
and continuous seed and field seeletion. On these fields the yields of the
Creole rice have increased from 35 ewts. per acre in 1905 to 42 ewts. in

xviii. Timehri.

1916 and to 41 cwts. in 1917. The best of the introduced varieties now
only yields on the average about 1} cwt. of paddy per acre more than
does the Creole whilst its former excess yields over the local kinds were
from 3 to 4cwts. per acre per crop.

From 10 to 12 tons of seed-paddy, 997 true to type, of the best
imported and local strains have been distributed from the Botanic Gardens
among rice-planters each year since 1907.

The average yields of rice per acre in British Guiana are fairly
satisfactory, but the following table shows that whilst the colony occupies
an enviable position among rice-producing countries with regard to this,
a few others far exceed it and it is to their standards that rice-growers
in this colony should strive to attain :—

Creanep Ricz.
Cwts. per acre.

Spain soe ac aie 26.
Egypt cas ies Sas 21.5
Japan 555 aes 21.5
British Game eae ver 100 tal 90
Empoldered lands ... + 16. to 22
Other lands shy Ae 11. to 16
Italy aoe $3 ae 16,7
Formosa zs Sas 5 15: to 17
Korea ave ae “40 11, to 12
Java bee ae ll.
United Sistas eee dat 8.6 to 12
Bornea He sae 8.4
British TS “+ = 7.3 to 8.6
Malaya fee 7.3
Trinidad 4 ies 7.0
North Borneo eee at 63
Ceylon : 4.4 to 5.6
Phillipine Islands 4. tod

Our high yields may be due in part to the excellence of our local
strains of rice, and in part to our facilities for irrigation ; but not in the
same degree to excellence of cultivation. When it becomes feasible to
cultivate the rice-lands more thoroughly the yields should increase to a
considerable extent. We are favoured here in many places by the special
suitability of savannah and creek waters for the irrigation of the rice fields,
the high content of plant-food in the waters enabling the lands irrigated
with them to produce heavy crops of rice year after year without show-
ing any signs of falling-off in yield. Abandoned sugar-cane lands are
especially suitable for rice cultivation owing to the impervious clay-pans
which have formed in them at about 12 inches from their surfaces, and
which tend to conserve the irrigation-water from loss by seepage ; and to
the marked stimulus to the growth of the rice by the saline matter which
has accumulated in the lower layers of their soils. Rain-water does not

Notes on the Society’s Work in 1897-1918. xlix.

result in such heavy returns of rice as does irrigation with creek-water
whilst the yields from using artesian well-water may be even lower than
from rain. Our trials during recent years have proved that artesian
well-water must be applied to the land in a continuous flow, and not
intermittently, as swamp or creek water is used. Where artesian water
is employed the need of repeated tillage between the succeeding crops
becomes very marked; our trials show that an additional thorough
ploughing may increase the yields from 4 to 9 ewts. of paddy per acre.

Itis possible to get 5 crops of rice in two years by using continu-
ously flowing artesian well-water, the total yield of paddy thus obtained
in our trials being 166 ewt. per acre or at the rates of 33: ewt. per crop
or 83 cwt. per annum. J)uring the same period two crops of rice were
obtained on similar land using creek-water which together weighed 87
ewt. Thus although the crops obtained through the use of artesian water
are not individually as high as those obtainable by the use of creek-water
the total yields obtained by constant cropping may be much the greater.

Tam satistied that using artesian well-water with thorough tillage
between the crops, four crops of rice can be obtained in two years weigh-
ing from 130 to 150 ewt., which yield would compare very favourably with
the crops obtained by the double cropping system with creek-water in
North East Essequebo where an average yield of about 96 ewt. of rice
in two years and a maximum one of 120 cwt. is obtained.

There are still vast areas of potential rice-lands available on the
front-lands of the colony and I think we may look forward with con-
fidence to a time in the near future when we shall have, say, 100,000
acres cropped with paddy yielding from 75,000 to 80,000 tons of cleaned
rice per annum.

It isusual to ascribe the success of the rice-industry solely to the
East Indian section of the community. ‘his is not strictly correct; its
initiation was due to negro colonists; its early development on a
small scale was due to the unaided efforts of the East Indians; its
greater development has been due to the manner in which rice-millers
and local capitalists have co-operated with and financially aided the East
Indians in building up the industry on commercial lines.

T alluded earlier in this address to the great impetus which the
establishment in 1897 of the pioneer, thoroughly equipped, rice-mill in
Georgetown gave to the industry. There is now under inception by the
Government the erection of a factory for producing flour from rice,
pulses, corn or maize and similar grains. Its cost may be in the vicinity
$30,000. I think that that sum will be well invested and that British
Guiana rice-flour may in the near future become a regular article of
export to the West Indian Islands. At present there is a large amount
of broken rice produced in the various rice-mills and it is hoped with
suitable appliances to so thoroughly clean this by-product that it may be
successfully converted into high-grade rice-flour.

1, Timehri.

Coconuts, ;
If the colony had adhered to its old-time policy of having all its eggs
in one basket its inhabitants would be, under present war conditions, in a
very serious position indeed with regard to one of the most important con-
stituents of their food supply—TI allude to fat.

In the late seventies and early eighties some impetus had been
received towards the cultivation of coconuts in the Mahaicony-Abary dis-
trict where there are great areas of relatively light loamy to sandy lands
especially well-suited to the growth of coconut palms. The late Honour-
able B. Howell Jones’ paper in volume 2 of Timehri for 1883 entitled “ A
Visit to the Oil and Fibre Works at Pln. Fortitude” supplies a striking
picture of this coconut industry at that time. The industry, as appears
to be the rule with industries here in their earlier stages of inception,
later fell into a condition of temporary stagnation so that in 1897 there
were, including scattered trees, not more than 3,500 acres under coconuts
in the whole colony. The following is practically the only reference of
any importance to the cultivation of coconut in this colony which ap-
pears in the reports of the West Indian Royal Commission:—

Cocoa-Nuts.

“The cultivation of cocoanuts has existed in British Guiana from an
“ early period, but it has apparently never attained large dimensions. This -
“igs probably due to the unsuitable character of the stiff clay soils on the
“egast, and to the prevalence of disease. In 1847 the number of cocoa-
“nuts exported amounted to 466,530. At present, large quantities of
“nuts are used locally by the East Indian immigrants. The recent ex-
“ports are only slightly in excess of those of 1847. Mr. William Smith’s
‘“‘evidence before the Special Commission in 1895 indicated that at
‘“‘ Mahaicony Creek and other localities the conditions were favourable
“ for cocoanut cultivation, but the nuts were small, and consequently they
“fetched low prices. The present condition of the industry deserves to
“be carefully investigated. Only specially selected lands should be
“ planted, and suitable manures applied to ensure large nuts. In America,
“ husked nuts only are accepted, and thesa are packed in bags of uniform
“ weight containing not less than 3 inches diameter.”

This statement could not be regarded as encouraging, and hence little
attention was given towards the extension of the coconut cultivation
until the arrival of Sir Alexander Swettenham from the Straits Settle-
ments in January, 1902, brought a different aspect to bear on coconut-
growing. His experience there had taught him that successful cultiva-
tion of the coconut is not confined to light or sandy soils near the sea-
shore. He was aware that heavy crops of coconuts, although the nuts
may be of relatively small size, are obtained from strains of coconut-
palms which have become accustomed to growth on clay-loams or on
heavy clay soils. He saw here coconut-palms bearing crops of excep-
tionally large numbers of coconuts, and he reasoned that if this is the case

Notes on the Society's Work in 1897-1918. li
on trees, isolated or in widely scatiered small clumps, there should be no
reason why similarly heavily bearing palms should not be grown over
large areas.

At first Sir Alexander feared that the relatively small size of the nuts
produced here would stand in the way of an export-industry and he moved
the Board of Agriculture to import selected seed-nuts from Singapore ; but
before these nuts arrived he had seen nuts from Wakenaam and from near
Lichfield in the Abary district which more than favourably compared with
those received later from Singapore. The Singapore nuts were sprouted
and some of the palms obtained from them were planted at the Experi-
mental Fields; the majority of them, however, being set-out at
Onderneeming. Some thousands of nuts yielded by the palmsraised
from the Singapore seeds have been distributed for planting-purposes.
Sir Alexander Swettenham was, as he was in every way, energetically
aided by the late Sir Alexander Ashmore who was largely responsible for
the preparation of the earliest leaflet published by the Board dealing with
coconut-planting. Oft-times Mr. Ashmore, as he then was, told me “I
have never anywhere seen coconut palms bearing such great numbers
of nuts as many of them in Georgetown and its vicinity do.”

In January, 1903, the total area planted with coconuts was under
3,800 acres, but an impetus to coconut-planting was at once given by Sir
Alexander Swettenhbam’s views so that the area had increased to
5,140 acres at the end of 1904 just after Sir Alexander Swettenham had
relinquished the Government of the colony. Since then coconut plant-
ing has regularly and steadily increased, so that in Deceraber 31st, 1917,
not less thin 23,870 acres had been so planted in British Guiana. The
following table will illustrate the progress of the coconut-industry during
recent years :—

Coconuts, CopRA AND Coconut OIL.

Quinquennial Periods.

Annual Export.
| No. of acres | Number of yr
: | (British) under Nuts Copra Coconut
Periods. Galimatiod! to nearest lbs, Oil
hundred, | Gallons,
1894-1898 ...(about 3,500 4,400 | %
1896 aa reall are 3,900 500 | a
1899-1903 aA Neh 3,500 34,800 eA
1904-1908 cbr 7,040 314,400 | nee aus
1909-1913 i 12,460 | 1,034,100 113,400 7,500
1914, 1915 &
1916 (3 years only) 18,100 | 1,870,300 204,850 19,317
1917 Scr

3 28,870 1,911,000 | 178,700 26,674

__

lil. Timehri.

As there were in round figures 9,700 acres planted prior to 1911 if
the palms had been planted at proper distances and properly tended
there should now be about 390,000 trees in full-bearing, producing
at least 15,000,000 coconuts a year. In addition at least 2,300
acres should be commencing to bear and their yields should increase the
total to about 21,000,000 nuts per annum. The annual export of coco-
nuts is about 2,000,000 nuts. The copra exported annually represents
about 325,000 nuts and the coconut oil about 1,075,000, leaving about
17,600,000 nuts available for local consumption. If this is the actual
position the community can look with equanimity towards the threatened
scarcity of imported fatty foods for we shall have the equivalent in food-
value of 63 millions of pounds of butter or oleomargarine or of five mil-
lions of pounds of ghee and oil.

But does the colony produce 21,000,000 coconuts annually? I am
satisfied that owing to lack of care in planting, uneven spacing, neglect
of drainage and of tillage, the ravages of fungoid and insect pests, and
especially lack of continuity in clean-weeding, the areas which should
now be bearing are not producing nuts in numbers even approximating t9
those they should do. It seemsto be largely forgotten by planters of
coconut-palms in British Guiana that the greatest enemy to the vigorous
and rapid growth ofall paltisis grass. If the roots of the palms have to
compete with those of abuudant grasses in their requirements for plant-
food—and the coconut-palm is greedy in this respect—it is not possible
for the palms to make satisfactory progress in their younger stages and as
the yields of coconut palms are governed to a very great extent by their
satisfactory early growth, they cannot produce full or even approximately
satisfactory crops of good nuts. Hence our satisfaction in the greatly
increased area planted has to be lessened by the unsatisfactory yield.
Our exports of coconuts products have increased from 500 in 1896 to, m
round figures, 1,911,000 nuts, 169,000 lbs. of copra, and 26,674 gallons of
oilin 1917, and these alone represent our reserve stock of fatty foods on
which we may be compelled to rely. How does this reserve compare with
our recent war-time demands for fatty food ?

Taking the years since the war we have imported yearly

Equivalent in

fat or oil,
Butter and its
substitutes cae 550,000 lbs, 415,000 Ibs,
Ghee and Lard oe 540,000 _,, 529,000 ,,
Vegetable and Animal
Oils Te “se 278,000 gins. 2,502,000 ,,

3,446,000 lbs.

Under present conditions of coconut oi] making it would require in
ound figures 15,000,000 coconuts to supply this amount of fat; but the

Notes on the Society’s Work wm 1897-1918. liii.

figures for vegetable aud animal oils quoted include all vegetable and
animal oils imported and not solely edible oils. The proportion of the
latter may be taken as 60 per cent. of the total of these oils. This re-
duces the number of coconuts required to replace imported edible fats and
oils to 10,600,000 nuts. We exported last year in round figures

1,912,000 coconuts equal to ... ... 1,912,000 nuts
68;800\ bss copray fal, --- LD OUCR ,.
26,674 gins. coconut

oil* a) Sey ete ...1,067,000 _,,

3,304,000 nuts.

———

say in round figures the equivalent of 3,300,000 nuts whilst it may re-
quire the oil from 10,600,000 nuts to replace possible shortages in butter,
ghee, lard and edible oils.

Recent enquiries have proved that the ripe nuts from coconut-palms
growing under the climatic conditions prevalent onthe front lands of
the colony not only contain as high proportions of oil as do nuts the
products of any other country, but are capable of yielding copra of
exceptionally high oil-content, hot-air dried copra from them having been
found to contain from 72 to as high as 79 per cent. of oil. Medium-sized
nuts yielded the highest proportion of oil in their copra both as sun-dried
(767) and as hot-air dried (797).

Since Sir Alexander Swettenham left us we have found experimen-
tally that the most reliable kinds of seed-nuts for planting-purposes are
medium-sized ones yielded by palms which are flourishing—not merely
existing—on lands of like nature to that on which the nuts are to be
planted and under similar climatic conditions. It is not wise to en-
deavour to improve ourstrain of coconut-palms by planting seed-nuts
Obtained from palms growing on the far lighter soils of Trinidad or Tobago
or ofany other country ; those obtained from Wakenaam, from near
Aurora and perhaps from elsewhere in Essequibo, and specially selected
seed-nuts from the Mahaicony-Abary District will give better and more
vigorously growing palms, and what is more important, palms more
resistant to adverse climatic influences than such imported ones will be,
The sole exception to this that I am aware of are a few, a very few, of
the strains imported at the instance of Sir Alexander Swettenham from
the Straits Settlement.

Dr. Cramer, late of Surinam and now in Java, is strongly of opinion
that a strain of coconut-palm specially fitted for growth on heavy clay
soils and resistant to our local climatic conditions has been naturally evolved
in British Guiana in the course of many years’ growth under these con-
ditions. ;

*Under ordinary conditions of extraction in the tropics 100 ripe, full-grown coconuts
yield 2.5 gallons of oil. In round figures 10,000 averaged-sized nuts are required to yield 1
ton or 250 gallons of coconut oil

liv. Timehri. : >

On the other hand from what I have seen during recent years of
local coconut-palms I believe that the average annual yields from trees
vary from probably less than 5 to as many as 150 nuts per tree—some
trees here being of remarkably heavy bearing-power—but as a rule
farmers will just as soon set seed-nuts from a palm of five nut-type as from
one of 150 nut-strain.

Planting coconut-palms from nuts without reference to the bearing
power of their parent palm, either in number or size of the nuts, or to
its suitability to the kind of soil the seedling is to grow on, appears to me
to be a singularly unwise proceeding. Itis hoped to get a palm yielding
crops of nuts from its seventh to its fiftieth or sixtieth year—a per-
manent investment—and yet the planting is done in a manner which can
not be regarded as less commercially unsound than investing capital in a
risky business yielding less than 1 per cent. per annum whilst it could be
just as readily invested in a secure and permanent one yielding 6 or 8
per cent.

Our experience during the twenty-one years under review has,
I consider, conclusively proved that coconuts are suitable for
cultivation over large areas in the lowlands of the colony; that
local varieties of coconuts yield very heavy crops of - medium-
sized nuts on relatively heavy clay soils on the coastlands, whilst
on lighter lands similar varieties produce much larger-sized nuts ;
that there can be no doubt that the colony is emphatically a coconut
land, and that as such there are in it practically unlimited areas of
land very suitable and readily available for coconut cultivation.

COFFEE.

In its agricultural activities this Society has always been interested
in coffee-growing. We are aware that in the eighteenth century and in
the earlier part of the last century Guiana, and especially Berbice, was
celebrated for the high quality of the coffee produced; and that at the
time of the cessation of slavery, circumstances beyond the control of the
planters necessitated the gradual abandonment of its cultivation. For
instance in 1821 the export of coffee from the colony was 124,086 cwt;
in 1833 it had shrunk to 51,860 ewt. ; in 1840 to 30,000 cwt.; in 1845
to 4,400 ewt., whilst in 1847 it had disappeared from the list of exports.
In 1896 locally grown coffee had again become an article of export but only
to the extent of 63 ewt., whilst 1,763 ewt., of coffee was imported its
value being upwards of $27,600.

Sir Daniel Morris, in his subsidiary report to the West Indian Royal
Commission, laid great stress on growing coflee as being next to rice, the
most promising of all subsidiary products. He pointed out that for
coffee-growing “ British Guiana can offer exceptional advantages in soil
‘and climate, and in proximity to suitable markets. These are most
‘important elements on which to base the existence of large and
“successful industries ”

Notes on the Society’s Work in 1897-1918. lv.

The following table illustrates how far his advice has been followed
and with what results as regards the extension of the area planted and
the exports and imports of coffee :—

COFFEE.

Quinquennial Periods.

| No. of acres Coffee sea Aes.
riods. British) under Exported, :
peuee ( ge es ae imported,
lbs,
1894-1898 | No. records 5,600 262,700
9906"... | ie gee oS? 197,476
1899-1903 ee 718 5,580 284,160
1904-1908 He 1,370 17,900 181,370
1909-1913 a 2,660 115,200 83,200
1914,1915&@1916 |
3 years only)...| 4,466 304,000 55,200
Lh 6 4,953 266,864 es

In 1917 the export would have been far more than doubled were it
not for the lack of shipping-facilities, as in 1916 over 501,000 Ibs.
were exported.

The marked extension in coffee-planting during the period under
review has been mainly, if not entirely, with the Liberian variety. Both
Arabian or so-called Creole coffee and Liberian coffee grow with
exceptional vigour, whilst the former is singularly free from disease.

Large areas of low-lying land in British Guiana are ideally suited to
the growth of Arabian coffee. The meteorological conditions of these
parts of the colony are very similar to those of the higher parts of many
of the West Indian Islands, and when this is borne in mind the excellent
way in which Arabian coffee grows on them is not surprising.

In 1897 it was already recognised that Liberian Coffee grew very
well indeed in many parts of the colony, and that wherever it flourished
it was very prolific, It has since been found that at times and in certain
places the difficulty is to restrict its bearing-propensities sufficiently to
prevent the trees either permanently injuring itself or even dying from
the effects of over-production, Climatic conditions on lands situated at
some distance from the coast-line and on the lands along the lower
reaches of the rivers are the most favourable for the growth of Liberian
coffee.

There are still plenty of openings for the development of plantings of
coffee, the best of which, perhaps, are on the lands bordering both banks
of the Berbice river along its course from about 30 to 150 miles from its
mouth, whilst similar plantings in the North West and in the Pomeroon
Districts would be of almost equal promise.

lvi. Timehri.

Whilst progress in this Colony with regard to coffee-planting during
the past ten years appears to us to be marked, our coffee-industry is
practically in a deplorable state of stagnation in comparison with that of
our neighbours in Surinam. There not only has the area planted with
Liberian coffee been greatly augmented but coffee is being grown on
excellent cultural lines, such as are followed by very few indeed of our
planters, with the result that on plantations there—plantations having
from, say, 400 to 800 acres of Liberian coffee in full-bearing—returns of
coffee per acre are attained which to growers having only local experi-
ence are almost incredible. I do not know of any coffee-plantation here
that can point to fields which yield year after year crops of from 1,500 to
even 2,000 Ibs. of cured coffee per acre. Not alone have the Surinam
coffee-planters materially extended their cultivation and vastly increased
their yields per acre but by the establishment of coffee pulping, drying,
cleaning and grading machinery of the very best modern types they have
brought their product from being one of the lowest valued types of coffee
on the market to one occupying a very prominent position among the
highest grades of coffee in the market of. New York. Unfortunately .
there are uot any coffee-plantations here of areas sufficient in the opin-
ions of their owners to justify investment in the latest types of coffee-
machinery and what is equally important, the employment of managers
capable of getting the best results from the best equipped factories. I
am satisfied that there is a certain remedy for this condition—it is the
installation of co-operative coffee factories in each of the more important
coffee-producing districts of the colony. These are at present the Polder
District, West Bank, Demerara River, where the pioneer factory should
be established ; the North West District ; and the Pomeroon River Dis-
trict. I have little doubt that a pioneer-factory in any one of these dis-
tricts would be followed by demands for similar factories on the Esse-
quebo coast, the Berbice river district, and last but not least from the
very competent horti-agriculturists of Golden Grove and its immediate
vicinity. ;

Cacao.

Cacao-planting does not appear to have ever been a prominent or
even a very promising industry in this colony. It was, however, one of
the earliest followed here and the great trees still remaining in the
cacao-grove, the sole remnant of the former plantation Markeye, at
Coomacka on the Berbice river testify to this:” Our former President, the
late Honourable B. H. Jones, described in Zimehri, 1884, a visit to this
cacao-grove in the followiny words:

‘One cannot leave this district without paying a visit to Coomacka,
‘‘as I venture to think that here will be found some of the largest cocoa
“trees in the world; and my friend Mr. Nind, who accompanied me, is
‘sure that there are none like them in Trinidad; not trees to suit a cocoa
“planter but wild, luxuriant overgrown specimens, samples of what a
“ gocoa tree if left to itself in a suitable soil will grow to. Some of these
“trees, groups of gigantic stems, are from 50 to 70 ft. high, with
“ branches extending 67 ft. and measuring at a distance 5 ft. from the

Notes on the Society's Work in 1897-1918. lvii,

“sround, 9 ft. 5 in. in circumference. One single stem which we
“carefully measured had a circumference of 3 ft. 4 in. Few pods grow
“on these trees, but what there is of them, are large, of the
“yellow variety, containing an average of 40 beans,”

Now many of these past giant-cacaos have fallen but along each
fallen trunk new trees, some of them 30 to 40 inches in circumference,
have sprung. The cacao appears to be all of one type and to be quite
true to that type. It is the strain or type formerly known as Golden
Caracas, probably the best cacao in the world. The pods are green in
earlier stages passing through light-yellow, and yellow to a full glistening
golden yellow when mature. The husks are thin and the beans full,
round and of excellent quality. There is not a speck of colour other
than golden yellow on the fruit as they hang dependent from the trees.

Near the Anglican church at Coomacka are the tombstones of three
of the former ‘“‘ Master Planters” of PIn. Markeye. marking the tombs of
De Her Cornelius Raasche who died in 1721; of Monsieur Nicholas
Raasche* who died in 1722, and of De Her David Back who died in 1734

Berbice appears t) have been the part of the colony where in early
days cacao was princip illy produced| The maximum export, 114,000 lbs.
in those early days was in 1820. Like the early coftee-industry cacao-
planting was adversely affected about the time of the abolition of slavery,
the exports steadily decreasing from i820 onwards until they disappeared
in 1832. Cacao did not re-appear among the exports until 1886, its ex-
port in that year amounting to 2,000 Ibs. In 1896 the export was about
47,900 lbs. increasing in 1897 to 105,000 and attaining its maximum
of 124,000 Ibs. in 1900. The progress of the industry as measured by
the area occupied and the exports and imports of cacao is shown in the
following table :—

Cacao.
Quinquennial Periods.
No, of Acres | Cacao Raw Cacao and
Periods, (British) under Exported | prepared cacao
cultivation, Lbs, imported lbs.
1884-1888 ...| No. Records 5,000 102,200
1889-1893 Ra ii - 16,000 116,000
1894-1898 dus ‘i s 84,600 28,000
LOI mse are 1,400 47, S60 24,550
1899-1903 ts 1,460 95,900 10,470
1904-1908 “iste 1,940 73,100 20,590
1909-1913 es 2,140 54,500 20,970
1914,1915 & 1916
(3 years eel 2,200 52,000 20,880
1917 ae es 2,000 7,840

*These tombstones indicate that Monsieur Nicholas Raasche who was born in 1649 was
the earlier “‘ Master Planter” and probably proprietor of the estate and Cornelius Raasche,
his successor as ‘‘ master planter,” was his gon born in 1689.

lviii. Timehri.

Sir Daniel Morris in 1897 visited with me Plantations Coverden,
Land of Canaan, and Vryheid on the Demerara River. Of the former
plantation he wrote :—‘“ The condition and upkeep of this property are
equal to anything in the West Indies.” Sir Daniel noted that the yield
of cured cacao on the plantations varied from 160 to 230 lbs. per acre per
annum. The production of cacao in 1896-1897 was estimated at 200,000
Ibs. per annum. I doubt if at present it exceeds 275,000 Ibs. a year.

It is desirable to reproduce here the opinion of that master in
“ economic botany, the late G. S. Jenman, as officially expressed in 1897
with regard to the two industries I have just dealt with. It was—‘ With
“due selection of situation and soil few countries are better adapted to
‘coffee and cacao cultivation than Guiana.”

In connection with that opinion the Government decided to enquire
into the composition of the soils on which our ueighbours in Dutch
Guiana then successfully carried on their cacao-cultivation and have later
developed their very flourishing coffee-estates. The followingis taken
from Timehri page 71 of the Volume for 1898, and is an extract from a
letter I wrote covering the submission to this Society of copies of
analyses of a series of Surinam typical cacao and coffee soils of marked
to great fertility ;—

“The examinations of the soils conclusively shews that they are not
‘soils similar to these already examined from the interior of this colony,
“but are soils very similar in characters and compositions to the alluvial
‘ones which occur on reaches of our rivers below the belt of sand dunes
“and hills. This isa matter of interest and of importance as shewing that
“in Dutch Guiana the cultivation of the economic products, cacao and
‘coffee, are satisfactorily carried on on such soils, and, therefore, similar
“enterprises in this colony may be attended with success. These lower
“river soils are those alluded to by Dr. Morris in paragraph 4 of his
“ Report subsidiary to that of the West India Royal Commission.”

To what is the present stagnation in the cacao-industry due? To
my mind it has been largely due to the fact that the planters of cacao in
the seventies to nineties of the last century were wedded and adhered to
the Trinidad policy of densely shading the trees with the Bois Immortel
or Oronoque trees. Shade which in the climate and on the soil of Trini-
dad may be, I do not say it is, beneficial to the cacao-tree is not required,
and may be, and probably frequently is, detrimental to the tree in the
usually moist and cloudy atmosphere of the lower river-lands of British
Guiana. It is also largely due to the stringent demands of the cacao for
loamy, well-drained lands. The tree may, and in places does, flourish
on insufficiently drained lands, but on them it does not produce satisfae-
tory crops of fruit. It is also due to the very salient fact that whilst
in the first, second and possibly third years after the planting of the
young cacao, ground-provisions may be grown betwen the trees the sale
of which may meet the costs of upkeep of the fieldse and possibly yield

Notes on the Society's Work in 1897-1918. lix,

some profit, during the fourth, fifth and sixth years, whilst the cacao-trees
are slowly coming into bearing, payable crops of ground-provisions can-
not be raised without very great detriment to the cacao-trees. Hence
eacao-growing on any scale here cannot be a poor man’s industry—and
unfortunately in this colony it is to the poor peasant farmer we have all
learned to trust for progress in new industries.

Our larger landed proprietors apparently hold that having money
they may lose some or all of it if they act as pioneers in new agricultural
pursuits, but as the small peasant farmer can have little or has not any
money he cannot lose much or possibly not any, and hence he is the only
person justified in undertaking such preliminary ventures. Still, how-
ever, if the smaller man can find good enough security, philanthropists
will lend him the funds with which to make his trials. We are indeed
essentially a business-community in these matters.

Several of our Jarger cacao-properties more especially that, in 1897,
very excellent plantation Coverden received a most severe set-back when
they changed proprietors during the rubber-booms from 1906 to 1910 or
1911. Young cacao was neglected and in many cases abandoned ; rub-
ber-trees either Sapium or Para being planted in its stead. The care of
the older trees, upon which the crops of cacao so greatly depend,
largely ceased ; drainage was not kept up, cultivation and even pruning
of the trees were reduced to their lowest limit, whilst cutting-down bush
and even ordinary weedings were more or less abandoned. Left thus to
nature, and the delicate cacao-trees thereby exposed to the attacks of
fungoid and insect pests, is it not a wonder that the cacao-industry of
British Guiana has merely stagnated and not been entirely lost ?

Para RUBBER.

Probably the only person in the colony keenly interested in its
rubber-producing possibilities in 1896 and 1897 wis the then Govern-
ment Botanist, the late G. S. Jenman, who as his earlier writings prove
was an enthusiastic believer in the possibilities of rubber-growing on the
large scale in British Guiana. In 1897 there were five trees of Para
rubber at the Government Agency at Morawhanna, nine in the
Promenade Gardens, Georgetown, one only at the Botanic Gardens and a
dozen or so at Pln. Diamond. During 1898 and 1899 seeds were im-
ported from Trinidad and plants raised from them were sent to several
properties in different parts of the colony, principally to Noitgedacht in
the Canals Polder district, then the property of the late Thomas Garnett.

Exaggerated ideas* of the value of the wild Hevea trees of the
colony were rife, and of these trees Sir Daniel Morris wrote in his sub-
sidiary report to the West Indian Royal Commission as follows :—

*These ideas were due to an expression of opinion by Prestoe, the eminent Botanist in
charge of the Royal Gardens, Trinidad, in or about 1877 that the Touckpong rubber with
which the Aboriginal Indians made their balls and which was occasionally brought to
Georgetown by them was obtained from Hevea Guianensis, one of the true rubbber-bearing
trees, but which it is now known does not occur in British Guiana. It is deserving of record
that the object of Jenman’s first journey into the interior of the colony was to collect seeds
of the alleged Hevea Guianensis for the Trinidad Government,

}x. Timehri.

“Tt is very desirable that all these rubber trees should be carefully
“ond exhaustively investigated in order to find out their true value. It
‘is probable that it may be found profitable to establish natural plantations
‘tin districts where the best rubber trees are already found. This could
« be done with little difficulty, and it offers the best means of immedi-
* ately extending the area under rubber trees in different parts of the
“eolony. Where plants are plentiful it would only be necessary to clear
‘away some of the other vegetation, and allow the rubber trees more
“Jioht and air, also thinning them out when too crowded. Where the con-
“ ditions are favourable, and the plants only sparsely found, wild seed-
“lings might be transplanted or fresh seeds “dibbled in” at intervals to
“fill the vacant places. The cost of this plan would not be considerable
“as the trees would require little attention after they are well started.”

Possibly by an oversight the planting of the true Para rubber
(Hevea brasiliensis) was not suggested in the report aslikely to be a
promising arboricultural venture although Sir Daniel Morris had men-
tioned to me the desirability of experimental plantings of it. As a result
of the above-quoted recommendations the latices of a considerable num-
ber of varieties of native trees were examined during 1897 and the
immediately succeeding years, and were found either not to contain
rubber but solely resins, or the rubber found was not in sufficiently large
proportions to render its separation commercially feasible, or else the
rubber obtained was so ‘ tacky ” as not to be of commercial value. With
the exception of planting at Onderneeming some Para rubber trees
obtained from Trinidad soon after Sir Alexander Swettenham assumed
the Government of the colony in 1902, practically no steps were taken in
connection with Para rubber-planting until 1904 when after much difficulty ©
small supplies of Para rubber seeds were imported by the Department
under my charge.

The following shows with approximate accuracy the areas under
Para rubber in the colony at successive four-yearly intervals :—

1897-28 ie AD about 30 trees,
1902 ei soe 2 acres.
1906 Bi, os 16508
1910 a Eg 1,240 ,,
1914 ak =rC 4,700 ,,
1917 ss a 5,200 ,,

During the period from the earlier extension of plantings of Para
rubber, that is from 1910, to date it has been found that on suitable land the
growth of Para rubber is not less rapid than it isin the East, while recent
trials indicate that a yield of dry rubber per tree as good as that obtained
on the best Eastern plantations can be obtained. The cost of collection
and preparation of the rubber indicates that areasonable profit can be
expected with the market value in London of the product at 2s. per lb. The
relatively good health of the labour-force, the low cast of supervision on

Notes on the Society's Work in 1897-1918. ]xi.

estates, and the proximity of the colony to the United States of America,
are factors which should encourage the extension of this industry in the
colony.

On the other hand three great difficulties have arisen.

(a) the insufficiency of the available labour-force to continuously
tap large areas of Para rubber trees,

(b) the insufficiency of the labour-force to keep the land planted in
Para rubber satisfactorily weeded, and

_(c) A disastrous outbreak of the Para rubber leaf-disease.

It is difficult to suggest any remedy for the conditions (a) and (b);
conditions which at the present time appear to be insuperable.

The ravages of the leaf-disease have been and are more serious than
elsewhere in the colony in the forestal districts where conditions should
be ideal for the cultivation of Para rubber; some small plantations such
as those on the bauxite hill at Christianburg, at Greenheart Camp on
the Demerara-Essequibo railway, at Coverden and especially at Land of
Canaan on the Demerara River having been actually wiped out. At other
places, as for instance at the Hills and Aliki Estates on the Mazaruni and
Essequibo rivers, at Vreedestyn on the Demerara river, and at Creeklands
on the Canje river, the disease although still strongly in evidence has to a
considerable extent stayed its ravages and it is hoped that, as an impor-
tant aid to the remedial measures being carried on, the occurrence of a
somewhat prolonged period of dry weather in place of the almost incessant
rains which have characterised recent years at these places will put an
end to it; whilst at some other places, such as Issorora and the Aruka
rubber estates, the disease has been brought more or less under control.

As the Kew authorities long ago pointed out would be the case Para
rubber has completely failed to make satisfactory growth on the old cane-
lands in the near vicinity of the coast, but on lands four to six miles from
the coast as at Tuschen, Cane Grove and at Mon Repos, Para rubber is
doing well and the trees are practically free from the leaf-disease. The
finest and best grown trees I have seen in the colony are on the back-lands
of Plantation Mon Repos. The conditions at Onderneeming where the
first plantings of Para rubber in this county were made by me in 1902
and 1903, the trees have flourished satisfactorily and are quite free from
the leaf-disease.

In connection with the expressed views of Sir W. (then Mr.)
Thistleton-Dyer at that time Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew, which
were similar to but far less practical than those I have quoted
from the Subsidiary Report, I may be permitted to reproduce

lxii. Timehri. :

from Timehri, Volume X, for the year 1897 the following extract
from a report the author of which was the late S. M. Bellairs, writing
in consultation with the Government Botanist, the late G. S. Jenman :—

“With regard to paragraph 16, suggesting that the Govern-
“ment might scatter India Rubber seeds in suitable places; the question
‘is to find such suitable places that are accessible. It is of no use to
“ scatter seeds in the forest. The struggle for existence in a tropical
‘forest is so keen, that out of fifty seeds scattered not one germinates;
“and out of five hundred that germinate scarce one attains any growth.
* As a proof of this, the well-known fact may be adduced, that when a
‘clearing is made in the forest a ‘second growth’ immediately springs
“up of itself consisting of trees quite different to those cut down, and
“this second growth must spring from seeds that have been scattered
“many years ago and Jain dormant for a very long time, waiting the
‘‘chance of a ray of light to enable them to grow. Unless India-Rubber
“seeds possess wonderful vitality they would die before the chance arrived.

“There is no cleared land in the interior that will grow trees.
‘‘ Whatever is suitable for trees is covered with forest.

“The only chance for these India-Rubber seeds would be to plant
“them on some land that has already been cleared, and to look after the
“trees when saplings.” 2

This statement is one of importance not only in connection with
the then suggested mode of planting rubber-trees but with that of any
reafforestation which may in future be contemplated with, for example,
such trees as crabwood (Carupa guianensis) and balata-tree (Mimusops
globosa).

Sapium RUBBER.

In 1897 some interest was taken in the probable exportation of the
excellent rubber then yielded by the Touchpong, Sapiwm Jenmani. Its
rubber had long been exported from the colony as it was the practice in
the earlier days of the balata-industry to mix the latex of the Sapium
with that of the balata-tree. Possibly on this lies the explanation of the
fact that some of the earlier writers when dealing with balata described
itas being intermediate in properties to gutta-percha and india-rubber.
Owing to the interest taken by Sir Alexander Swettenham in offering
in 1903 prizes for the best samples of rubber collected in the colony from
indigenous trees a small export trade in sapium rubber sprung up but it
never exceeded 7,000 lbs. of rubber in any one year.

The recorded exports commenced with 950 lbs. in 1904 and rose
steadily to 6,870 Ibs. in 1907, thence gradually decreasing, falling to less
than 200 Ibs. in 1912. The total amount of Sapium rubber exported
from the colony as such was appoximately 31,000.

The ready sale of the Sapium rubber collected from indigenous trees
resulted in the planting of a considerable area—400 to 500 acres—of

Notes on the Society's Work in 1897-1918. Ixiii.

these trees in various districts of the colony, more especially in the North
West. The planting was followed by most disappointing results. It was
found that the yield of rubber from the sapium-tree was small; that
when tappings were repeated for more than a few days at a time, in
place of establishing a wound-response the rubber yielded became ‘‘tacky”
and unsaleable, and that the cuts in the bark of the tree did not readily
heal and remaining open supplied opportunities for insect and fungoid
attacks to which the tree is very susceptible. The yield of the cultivated
trees proved to be far lower than that of the indigenous trees. The land
planted in sapium has therefore been either abandoned or replanted with
Para rubber.

SUITABILITY OF British GUIANA ROR RUBBER PLANTING.

A recent writer in this Journal appeared to believe that I have done
all that I could do to discourage the rubber industry, This is untrue.
My views are on record in the following, written and published early in
1907 :—

‘It is very much to be regretted that several years ago, when Sir
** William Thistleton-Dyer suggested that attempts should be made in
“planting rubber-bearing trees in parts of the forest-land of British
“Guiana, the great value of his advice was not appreciated and the
*‘ opportunity was neglected. All that can now be said is that many parts
,, of the colony appear to be almost ideally suited for the cultivation of
, certain kinds of rubber-trees.”

What I actually did, and upon which the statement in Timehri may
have been based, was to indignantly refuse certain offers to make it well
worth my while to join in booming the colony as a land haying vast
reserves of Sapium and Hevea rubber trees and great potentialities for
their cultivation. These overtures were made to me in London in 1907.
Similar overtures were made about the same time to the late Commis-
sioner of Lands and Mines, Mr. Frank Fowler, F.G.S., and received like
treatment from him.

The Department under my charge has done everything in its power
to encourage the rubber-industry ; the Governors, especially Sir Frederic
Hodgson and Sir Walter Egerton, similarly have made every effort
feasible in the same direction; whilst the appointment in 1913 of our
present Government Botanist, Mr, C. K. Bancroft, a recognised expert
on Para rubber-growing, is a proof that the Colonial Office shares the
view that many parts of the colony are ideally suited for the cultivation
of Para rubber.

The greatest set-back in progress the Para rubber-industry has exper-
ienced was the almost complete failure of the shipments of Para rubber
seeds from Malaya in 1910-1911 due to an attempt to improve on our
directions as to mode of packing, the seeds being sent in hermetically
sealed tins instead of merely closely covered ones. This caused the loss
of 527,400 seeds which if they had retained their normal germinating

lxiv. Timehri.

power would have produced 370,000 plants which would have sufficed
for 4,000 acres. This shipment was made at the inception of Sir
Frederic Hodgson and its failure was a very keen disappointment to him.

FRUIT.

On several occasions during 1897 the attention of the Society
or of its Committees was directed towards the possibility of the
establishment of an export trade with fruits of various types.
The then Government Botanist, the late G. S. Jenman, was an
enthusiastic advocate of the establishment of such an_ indus-
try. He was not a believer in the policy of endeavouring to make
a living by taking in one another’s washing or by the mutual ~
interchange of swine, even if these were carried out on the soundest co-
operative basis. He held that no real advance could be made in the
colony either in the cacao, the coffee or other arboricultural industry
until it became feasible to export the transient products raised in fields
planted with such permanent crops and to sell them at remunerative
rates. He held that banana-growing was the special fruit-industry which
deserved encouragement ; he advocated planting here the Chinese, Caven-
dish or Dwarf bananaand not the Jamaicg kind as he had satisfied him-
self that under local conditions the Jamaica kind was very subject to
disease, whilst the plant grows so high and with an insufficiently robust
stem to bear the weight of the fruits without the bunches being sup-
ported by staking, which would add greatly to the costs of production.

He also advocated the shipping of citrus fruits, especially of oranges
and grape-fruits. Sir Cavendish Boyle, Vice-President of the Society in
the year I was President, was a staunch advocate of the great possibilities
of a fruit industry but he gave prominence specially to lime-
growing. I may here record that the first planting of limes on a
large scale at Onderneeming which took place in 1900 was due
to directions I received from Sir Cavendish. Unfortunately the
immediately succeeding ‘‘ powers that be” did not see eye to eye with
him with regard to possibilities of a lime-growing industry and I was not
allowed to plant with limes the belt of land which Sir Cavendish had
selected for that purpose. If we had been able to follow up lime-planting
at Onderneeming on the lines he advocated, that industry in British
Guiana would be further advanced than it is to-day.

In 1906 a visit by Mr. W. L. Bennett on behalf of a syndicate of
lime-juice and citric acid makers increased the interest taken in the pos-
sible cultivation of limes. The starting of a plantation at Agatash, Esse-
quibo River and the establishment of a small citrate of lime factory at
Aurore by the syndicate gave a stimulus to the planting of limes. In
1897 there were not more than 5 acres in the colony devoted to lime-
growing ; now there are upwards of 1,480 acres. It has been proved
that there are wide areas of land available, and very suitable, for the

Notes on the Society's Work in 1897-1918. Ixy,

cultivation of limey. The growth attained by trees planted on the light
lands of the lower reaches of the Essequibo river fully justifies an exten-
sive cultivation of lime trees in that district.

The heaviest crops of limes are obtained on the loose friable alluvial
coast and river soils but the trees grow and bear well on the lateritic
soils of the interior of the colony. The trees do not grow so well nor
yield such satisfactory crops of fruit on heavy clay lands either on the
coastlands or in the interior. Would-be growers of limes should use
great care in the selection of soils for that purpose. Lime-growing is an
industry peculiarly well suited to the smaller Jand owners and the
peasantry of the colony especially for those residing on the lower reaches
and in the islands near the estuaries of the great rivers. Having this in
mind the Government has established a lime juice concentration factory
at Onderneeming where excellent results are being obtained. In the
county of Berbica Messrs. Davson & Sons have established a factory for
the production of citrate of lime and of concentrated lime juice, whilst a
large and exceptionally well-equipped factory has been erected and is at
work at Agatash, Essequibo River.

The records of the exportation of lime products during the past three

years are as follows :—
1915, 1916, 1917.

Lime juice, ordinary, gals. ... eee 13,596
Lime Juice, conc., gals, .. 4,440 8,565 3,691
Citrate of Limes, cwts, 500 170 466 155
- Essential oil of Limes, glns,.. aS 290 251

In British Guiana on suitable soils the lime trees—when well tended
—are generally free from disease and insect pests ; the limes produced are
large and juicy fruit, and their acid and essential oil content is very satis-
factory, whilst the progress made during the latter part of the period under
review indicates that the Colony should become one of the most impor-
tant producers of limes and lime-products in the world,

BANANAS.
In 1907 I spoke as follows :

“ Probably the most promising of the colony’s agricultural resources
‘is the cultivation of bananas. There can be few, if any, places better
“ suited from soil and meteorological conditions, and from the topography
“of the land with its everywhere-prevailing system of natural and
“artificial waterways, than the coastlands of British Guiana for the
“ cultivation of this fruit. The bananas grown in this colony are of large
“size and of excellent flavour, far superior in fact to the majority of the
“more or less miserable specimens of the fruit now seen in London,
“* Manchester, and other large towns.

“Tf facilities are provided for the rapid transport of the fruit from
“the colony and for placing them on the market, there can be little

lxvi. Timehri.

** doubt that a great impetus will be given to the cultivation of bananas in
“ the colony, and that in the course of a few years British Guiana will
‘become one of the leading places in the world for the exportation of
“the fruit ; unfortunately at present lack of means of transport makes
“this impossible.”

When banana-growing was commenced on a very large scale in
Surinam it appeared that it might be advisable for this colony to follow
the example set by our neighbour. As you may remember, a special
Commission was appointed to enquire into the possibility of the estab-
lishment of such an industry here. A Committee of the Commission
visited Surinam and made an exhaustive study of the conditions under
which the industry was being carried on. Unfortunately the Agent of
the United Fruit Company in Surinam had to inform the Committee that
on no account would the Company extend its activities to British Guiana,
whilst it was prepared, in order to conserve its virtual monopoly of the
banana-market in the United States, to offer active opposition to our
successfully marketing bananas in that country. The Commission
realised that without the hearty co-operation of the United Fruit Com-
pany the question of banana-growing oa a commercial basis in British
Guiana was not then feasible. Furtner it did not appear advisable to
make plantings of the Jamaica or Gros Michel banana in British Guiana
whilst the plantations in Surinam were being devastated by a disease
to which that banana had succumbed. Hence the Commissioners were
unable to recommend to the Government the expenditure of the. very
large sum of money necessary to inaugurate a banana-growing and
exporting industry. The question of banana-growing, however, has not
been lost sight of ; I may place on record that I have not in any way
swerved from the opinion [ expressed in 1907, and I believe that after
the termination of the war banana-growing, using immune varieties such
as the Dwarf and the Congo, may become one of the export-industries of
British Guiana.

Plantains and bananas are, I fear, not being grown on the
same scale here as they were in 1897. This is to be regretted,
especially during the existence of the present war-conditions. Both
plantains and bananas are foods of exceptional high value.
Probably a plantation of Dwarf bananas on rich or fairly rich
loamy land produces far more food per acre than does wheat, rice or
other crops. It is well-known that the starch of the banana or plantain
is much more readily digestible than are the starches of wheat, maize,
rice and other cereals. ‘he fresh almost ripe to ripe banana contains,
in addition to vitamines and other accessory bodies, among its
various enzymes a very active invertase. Possibly owing to
these conditions the ripe banana is one of the most readily
assimilable of all food-products. In my own experience I have found it to
be one of the most sustaining when walking in the “bush.” Upon the
recognition of these facts the banana should become in many countries a

Notes on the Society’s Work in 1897-1918. Ixvii.

staple food and be so employed in continuously increasing amounts ;
should this be so British Guiana must become one of the recognised
sources of that staple.

We have made no progress with the cultivation of other fruits. It is
exceedingly doubtful if there now are as many oranges, mangoes, avocado
pears, sapodillas, guavas, pineapples, and similar fruits produced here as
they were in 1897.

FIBRES.

Although some attention has been given to the subject of fibres, in-
cluding cotton, during the period under review there is not any commer-
cial progress to report.

During 1897 and the immediately succeeding years this Society
devoted some attention to the suitability of crowa fibre for rope-making
purposes. The fibre of the Crowa is known to the Indians and the river
people generally as the strongest obtainable, and the plant is therefore
grown by them in sinall quantities for the supply of hammock-ropes, bow-
ropes, fish-lines, and even for thread. Crowa is specifically identical with
the common pineapple Ananas satiwus, but has been described under two
separate specific names, Ananas mordilona and Ananas glaber. It however
must be regarded as a well-marked variety of the common pine-apple.
The reports obtained from rope-manufacturers in England to whom con-
signments were sent more than confirmed its local reputation and proved
its fibre to be of very exceptionally high value. Some acres were planted
with it on behalf of the Society at Christianburg. 1t was found, however,
that the yields per acre were exceedingly low and hence the costs of pro-
duction were prohibitive. This is very regrettable as, if it could have
been produced at a price which would enable it to compete with Manilla
hemp, a leading firm of rope-makers in England were prepared to make
investments in land here for its cultivation. ‘ihe cultivation of crowa isa
possible asset for the future when the population has increased and means
of communication with the lands suitable for its growth have been
improved.

Attention was next turned toward cotton and for several years a
great deal of intermittent interest was taken in the possibility of growing
Sea Island cotton on the coastlands of the colony. Field-trials made on
several plantations in Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice proved beyond
doubt that, owing to the heavy nature of the soil and the prevailing
meteorological conditions, it is not possible to commercially produce
on the coastlands of the Colony either Sea Island cotton or Egyptian
cotton. Attention has since been directed towards producing a hybrid
cotton, a cross between the Creole or Buck cotton and the Sea Island
cotton, This has been carried to a successful issue by the local
botanists. A perennial cotton of fixed character has been obtained
having the vigour and the resistant power to local meteorological condi-
tions of the Creole or Buck cotton, whilst producing lint closely approxi-

Ixviii. Timehri.

mating in market-value to the Sea Island. Owing doubtless to labour-
conditions no interest has been taken in this commercially. Its utilisation
is a problem of the future.

Attention has also been directed towards Sisal cultivation ; Sprostons’
making the first large sisal cultivation at Cole’s Glen on the
Demerara-Essequibo Railway. As long as the land was new and con-
tained some of the accumulated plant-residua of its former forest-growth
the sisal grew excellently ; but as these residua became exhausted, and
the vigour of the plants thereby lessened, the sisal was attacked by the
highly destructive sisal leaf-disease, Colletotrichum agaves, and the
plants were practically all destroyed.

Spsostons’ were followed by the sisal-planting enterprise undertaken
by the Bartica Agricultural Estates Company at the Hills, Mazaruni
River. Over 250 acres were planted with sisal and a very effective sisal-
cleaning factory was erected. Excellent fibre was produced, but the high
price of production, owing to labour-conditions, combined with the low
yield of fibre per acre on the sandy soils stood in the way of the venture
being a commercial success. As the light soils at the Hills became impover-
ished in plant-residua the sisal leaf-disease broke out. and did great
injury to the plants. The company, being of opinion that on the soils and
under the meteorological conditions existent at the Hills the cultivation of
Para rubber should prove far more remunerative than that of sisal could
be, ceased to cnltivate the latter and shut down their fibre-producing
enterprise.

PROVISION-CROP GROWING OR FARMING.

I have already alluded to the cultivation of rice, bananas and plan-
tains. As you are all aware the production of vegetable foodstuffs for
very many years past has been left almost entirely in the hands of small
farmers, although some of the large companies interested in the exploita-
tion of cacao and rubber in the earlier years of their ventures have pro-
duced considerable quantities of ground-provisions as catch-crops between
their trees. The area carrying provision-crops in the colony is not a large
one in proportion to the number of inhabitants. In 1897 a larger area
was under provision-crops other than rice on the empoldered sugar-estates
than at present. In that year 4,100 British acres were so occupied; for 1918
the area is only 1,550 acres. On the other hand, as I have already shown,
the area under rice on sugar-plantations is now very large and hence their
production of foodstuffs has greatly increased during the period under
review.

The principal reason for the reduction of the area under plantains
and similar food-crops on the sugar-estatesis that Jand is now fallowed
by flooding instead of being let out to farmers for provision-planting.

Our records as to the area under provision-crops in the
colony generally do not extend back to 1897; the earliest fairly reliable
ones being those of 1904-5 which showed that 19,450 British acres were

Notes on the Society’s Work in 1897-1918. }xix,

occupied with plantains, maize and ground-provisions as against 23,880
acres in rice ; now there are 18,250 acres under provision-crops generally
and upwards of 58,000 acres under rice.

From early times in the history of the colony the Pomeroon District,
and from the inception of cultivation in it the North West District,
has been largely devoted to provision-growing. The following table
is of interest as showing the increasing importance during very
recent years of these districts in the production for the use of the colony
of the various vegetable foodstuffs, so important in our dietaries for
supplying vitamines or ‘“‘ accessory substances :’—

ACRES UNDER PROVISION CRopPs.

Pomeroon| North West | Rest of Total
District. District. Colony. ae
1905... ee 1,180 about 1,200 18,080 20,460
USO)... of 900 870, 17,430 19,200 :
ROAD... a 910 1,260 19,940 22,110
For 1918 ale 1,250 1,320 15,680 | 18,250

Itis hoped that the erection of the Government flour mill will be
followed by largely increased planting of maize, Guinea corn, and the
various pulses ;—products which can be readily and economically changed
into permanent forms such as flours which should be of export value to
other parts of the West Indian Province.

TOBACCO. ;

The subject of tobacco-growing was an oft-discussed one by this
Society in and about 1897. Since then the tobacco-industry has had the
encouragement of a Government Commission, of two or more Government
Committees, and of two or more sets of Regulations with the result that
there is less tobacco grown in the colony now than there was in the late
nineties. Weare all aware that coarse-textured and strong-flavoured
tobacco grows luxuriantly on the coastlands ; that finer-textured, better
flavoured tobacco will grow excellently on the lighter soils; and that
excellent tobacco used to thrive and possibly is still grown on the hinter-
land savannah lands, the texture and composition of the soil of parts
of these being as I have shown elsewhere admirably adapted to the culti-
vation of fine tobacco. The main or rather the sole difficulty in the
manufacture of heavy flavoured tobacco on the coastlands is the high
moisture content of the atmosphere which is inimical to satisfactory
curing. The meteorological conditions on the hinterland savannahs are
such that curing should be relatively easy. Tobacco-growing on a large
seale is too dependent on a supply of readily available, highly skilled,
horticultural labour at certain times to loom under present conditions as

xx. Timehri.

an important industry for British Guiana. It is, however, one of the
potentialities of the colony which we trust will be very successfully
exploited in the near future.

LivE-STOCK.

There is not any estimate available as to the live-stock of the
colony in 1897. Our earliest returns are for 1902, but these probably
represent fairly the 1897 position as the severe droughts of 1898 and
1899 proved very inimical to increase in numbers of live stock. The best
obtainable comparisons of the live-stock on the coastlands in 1902 and
for 1918 are as follows :-—

1902-3. 1918.
Horses as Aces 1,423 970
Cattle ES ise 70,150 99,000
Buffaloes... eee 14 368
Goats Ss He 15,600 13,750
Sheep wes co 11,850 22,000
Swine Soe va 11,900 11,800

In 1897 the great majority of the “Gentlemen in charge of Sugar
Plantations ” possessed large herds of cattle but a change in the policy of
the proprieters of such plantations now restricts the managers from
having on the estates herds of milch and other cattle. This restric-
tion may be in the interests of the proprietors of the estates, although I
have my doubts if it is so at the present time when nitrogenous manures
are unobtainable, but it has been and is very detrimental towards the
improvement of the live-stock of the colony, having done away with
excellent object-lessons given by highly skilled agriculturists and
stock farmers to small farmers and cattle-keepers. It is greatly to be
regretted in the interests of the colony at large that proprietors of sugar
estates, having deprived their managers of a highly valued perquisite
do not carry on a cattle and especially a swine industry as subsidiary to
sugar manufacture.

There is, in my opinion, a great future before the colony as a stock-
raising country and hence the cessation of many of the important
cattle-raising enterprises which were being carried on in 1897 along
the frontage of the coastlands from Skeldon in the east to Hampton
Court in the west is much to be regretted. Their place has been taken
to some extent by companies formed for ranching purposes.

Still the increase of the cattle in the front lands of the colony from
about 70,000 head in 1897 to upwards of 99,000 head for 1918 has
been noticeable; and is the more satisfactory because it has taken place
during a period in which the great outbreaks of anthrax in Berbice and
East Demerara occurred, whils tthe disastrous effect of the great droughts
of 1898 and 1899, and of 1911 and 1912 were accompanied by very high
rates of mortality amcug the coastland cattle. It has been estimated that
the low-level coastlanus and river savannahs could supply pasturage sufli-

Notes on the Society's Work in 1897-1918. Ixxi.

cient for ranching 650,000 head of cattle, whilst the hinterland savannahs,
upon which it is estimated there are at present upwards of 20,000 head of
cattle with probably about 600 horses, could at a very low estimate carry a
quarter ofa million head.* The colony should not alone be the granary
for the British West Indies but it should become the main source of
beef and of horse-flesh for the more southerly West Indian Islands.

RESUME OF AGRICULTURAL PROGRESS 1897 TO 1918.

In British Guiana we are all of us prone to run ourselves, but more
espec uly others than ourselves, down on grounds of the lack of pro-
gress in the colony. Has the colony made any progress in its agricul-
tural pursuits during the period which has elapsed from the visit of the
West Indian Royal Commissioners in 1897, the year in which I for the
first time presided over the Society? 1 have, J think, shown that whilst
some agricultural industries, especially the staple one of 1897, have
not made satisfactory progress or have remained in a state of relative
stagnation, others have made from fair to well-marked progress. This
can be seen at a glance in the following tabular resumé giving in round
figures the statistical facts I have alluded to in this address :—

Cultivuted Lands in British Guiana 1897 and 1918.

BriTIsH ACRES.

Increase.
1896-97, 1917-18,

Acres. Per Cent.

Sugar Cane} a 71,300 | 77,830 6,530 91
Rice ES, oe 6,500 | 58,090 51,590 793°7
Coconuts ea 3,500 | 23,870 20,370 582°
Para Rubber “cr dacre | 5,240 5,240 5,240°
Coffee... ...| about 600 | 4,950 4,350 725°
Cacao... Se 35 1,400 | 1,970 570 40-7
Limes Ae - 5 | 1,480 1,475 2,590°7
Farmers’ Crops... s, 19,000 18,250 |decrease 750 | decrease 3:9
102,305 | 191,680 89,375 87:6

*Should these ranching lands prove to be equal in grass-producing power to some of
those of the Western United States, they should suffice for grazing half a million head;
the above low estimate is based on Brazilian savannah experience (about 40 head toa square
mile).

j Including farmers’ canes.

Ixxii. Timehri.

Per Cent. of Total Area Under the Various Crops in 1896-97
and in 1917-1918.

1896-1897, 1917-1918.

Sugar Cane Bee 69.70 40.60
Rice his 6.35 30.31
Coconuts bet 3.42 12.45
Para Rubber pe -0005 2.73
Coffee Se .60 2.59
Cacao sea 1.37 1,02
Limes... ne .005 Arf
Farmers’ Crops .... 18.56 9.53
100.00 100.00

AGRICULTURAL LoAaN BANKs.

The Society took interest in and devoted much time to discussions of
various proposals for the establishment of Agricultural Loan Banks.
Owing to the practical initiative of Sir Frederic Hodgson whilst Governor
of the colony this has become an accomplished fact during the period
under review and the banks promise to exert a marked influence on the
existence of what may be termed peasant-industries, such as cane-farming,
coconut, coffee, cacao, lime and tobacco planting on the small scale. The
enthusiasm with which the inauguration of these banks has been received
is an excellent augury for the future of the small farmer and peasant
proprietor of the colouy.

FORESTAL INDUSTRIES.

In and about 1897 the Society showed much interest in the Forestal
and Mining industries of the colony as well as in the purely agricultural
ones. With three exceptions,—balata, lumber and diamonds,—progress
in them has not been satisfactory.

At that time the Society had frequent discussions regarding the
possibility of developing an export trade in the timbers of the colony,
and on the initiative of Sir Cavendish Boyle took practical steps by
exporting logs of the more promising varieties of local woods to London.
Much has since been done in the hope of increasing the export demands
for British Guiana timbers but with very little effect.

The collection of gums sueh as Demerara animi or copal—Locust
gum,—Hiowa or Incense gum, and Balsam copaiba has been more or less
in a state of stagnation during the period. Other forest industries show
little change. |

Owing to the varying eflects of the seasons it is not desirable to

compare the exports of forestal products one year with another, and hence
I prefer to compare them in periods of 4 years. The exports for 1917,

.

Notes on the Society's Work in 1897-I918. Ixxiii.

however, have to be omitted as having been very adversely affected by the
searcity of shipping. The periods taken for comparison are 1895-1898
and 1918 to 1916, and the records are :—

AVERAGE ANNUAL EXPORTS.

Increase
1895-1898. 1913-1916, % Decrease
Balata, pounds 5c 361,100 1,338,400 + 270°6
Timber, cubic feet Ane 273,400 225,400 - 17:5
Lumber, feet aes 42,450 339,600 + 700:0
Shingles, thousands... 1,507 2,255 + 40:3
Charcoal, bags He 58,000 60,400 + 41
Gums, lbs. ... ae 2,730 1,060 - 61:2

The balata industry has very materially increased, due largely to the
energy and great organising power of the present head of the Consoli-
dated Rubber and Balata Company; taken together the wood-cutting
industries—timber and lumber—have stagnated, or even somewhat de-
creased, but any decrease may be due to war-conditions ; the demand for
shingles shows a fairly satisfactory although not great, increase the
openings for this product being somewhat restricted ; the charcoal-burning
industry is and has been in a state of stagnation; whilst the collection of
gums appears to tend towards disappearance.

The Commissioner of Lands and Mines, his Forestry .Officer, or
Mr. J. Mullin is in a far better position to deal with the progress and
probable future of these industries, and with the reasons for their increase,
relative stagnation or decrease, than I can be, and I hope that one of them
may favour us with an exhaustive paper on the forestal industries during
the period of my present Presidency of this Society.

MINERAL RESOURCES,

The active interest in the mineral resources of the colony which
the Society had shown in the early nineties had largely waned prior to
1897. Then the Institute of Mines and Forests was at its zenith and was
doing really good work for the colony. But the alluvial gold-industry,
the export of gold won by which had attained its maximuin in 1893,—
137,629 ounces of gold valued at £511,360—was already showing signs
of decrease, the export having fallen to 126,100 ounces in 1896 and to
124,300 ounces in 1897. The export of raw gold with some fluctuations
steadily decreased until that for 1913 was 99,194 ounces only. Of late
the output of raw gold has been very adversely affected by war-conditions
being 63,803 ounces in 1914, 53,907 ounces in 1915 and 36,245 ounces
in 1916, whilst in 1917 only 29,015 ounces were exported.

During the period under review a few quartz-mining ventures have
been carried on, the principal ones being the Peters mine on the Puruni
River and the Barima mine in the North West District. The latter mine

lxxiv. Timehri.

was being worked in the earlier months of 1897 but temporarily closed
down about the middle of that year. Both mines are now closed down,
the former perhaps on account of the excellent and scientific exploitation
by which the really payable sections of the reef—a quartz-aplite vein in
a chloritic actinolite-schist—were removed and crushed, leaving only its
relatively poor areas for future working ; the latter because the reef split
into a plexus of small quartz veins and threads as the workings reached a
diabase-sill which traverses the country, there an altered aplite. The
shaft was driven into the sill for several feet, but as the rock was there of
coarse texture, indicating that the sill might be of considerable to great
thickness, the working was abandoned.

Dredging for alluvial gold is being, and has been for several years,
carried on successfully on the Konawaruk River and on the Mahdia and
the Minnehaha creeks of the Potaro goldfields. Hydraulic workings
were carried on for the exploitation of the gold in the weathered aplite
and the laterites of Omai, Essequibo River ; and in the weathered chloritic
and sericitic schists at Tassawini on the Barama River. The former was
very successful in its recovery of gold from the aplite; the latter did not
meet with much commercial success in its exploitation of low-grade
schistose material.

At first sight it would appear as though the prospects of our country
for the future production of gold are gloomy in the extreme. This is not
so; and Iamsatisfied that sooner or later after the termination of the
war the prospects will very greatly improve. There are—there must be
—other valleys in the vast interior of the colony having a structure similar
to that of the Mahdia and Minnehaha valleys, a country of more or less
auriferous aplite and aplitie granite intersected by the many feeders of one
of the great sills of diabase which are so characteristic a feature of the
interior of Guiana. The igneous and metamorphic rocks of the colony are
practically all auriferous, carrying either original or far more usually secon-
dary gold, the metal being of course present in them in only very minute
proportions. The great geological age of the country has resulted in the
destruction of the auriferous quartz-aplite veins with resultant concentra-
tion of their gold-content in their remnants. This has given rise to reefs
exceptionally rich in gold at their present outcrops owing to secondary
enrichment, but becoming non-payable or petering-out at depth. There
must be other enriched masses and reefs not yet found to reward the fut-
ure prospector. There are vast masses of auriferous aplite, closely allied
to alaskite, in parts of which the gold-content has been concentrated to
payable extent by the action of intrusive dykes of diabase, of other aplites
or of micro-pegmatite. There are vast areas of ancient gabbros and
norites,—now epidiorites,hornblendic or chloritie schists,—with their gold-
bearing debris, auriferous laterites. There must also be streams with
payable auriferous gravels in their beds other than the Konawaruk, the
Mahdia and the Minnehaha which will amply reward scientifically con-
ducted dredging-operatians.

Notes on the Society's Work in 1897-1918, lxxyv,

The problem of the origin, concentration and distribution of the
Guiana auriferous deposits is too complex to be dealt with in this address
which has already far exceeded its prescribed limits. In 1897 this problem,
if it had then been ripefor discussion, might have been dealt with at the
Institute of Mines and Forests, but asthat organisation no longer exists,
except as a recruiting and registering agency for labourers for the interior, a
paper on the question followed by a discussion would not be out of place
in this room at some later date.

DIAMONDS.

Diamonds were first found in quantities in 1890 by Mr.
Gilkes whilst working asa prospector for the late R. F. Kaufmann,—41
diamonds weighing 13 carats being brought to me for mineralogical exami-
nation on July 30th, and 518 weighing 198 carats being being similarly sub-
mitted by Mr. Kaufmann on November 24th of that year but—little interest
appears to have been taken in the occurrence of these gems in the colony
by this Society. Although from 1890 to 1899 diamonds were found in
many districts of the colony, usually singly or a very few in any one place,
little was done towards the systematic working of the deposits until Mr.
Gilkes, about 1899, succeeded in interesting persons outside the
colony in their occurrence here. From that time the exploitation of
diamonds has been one of the recognised industries of the colony. In
round figures 136,400 carats of diamonds representing probably consid-
erably more than a milllon crystals, have been won in the
colony and exported since 1900. For that year the export of
diamonds was returned at 996 carats. In 1902 to 1904 the average
yearly export of diamonds was 10,720 carats. The output fell during
the next three years, only 1,860 carats having been exported in 1907;
it again slowly increased, the average annual export during the period
1911 to 1914 being 7,750 carats ; whilst during the two years 1916 and
1917 the mean annual export increased to 16,580 carats. These recent
records are encouraging and the exploitation of the colony’s diamant-
iferous deposits promises to take an important part amongst its
industries.

TRON-ORES.

There are vast surficial deposits of lateritic iron-ore in the colony,
the ore invariably being characterised by its extremely low content of
phosphorus and usually by a low content of sulphur. The utilisation of
these wide-spread deposits is a problem of the futnre which I fear will
have to await the economic development of the vast water-power poten-
tialities of the cataracts on our rivers. There are also indications of
magmatic deposits of specular iron-ore of a very high quality in the
North Western section of the colony. Should any one of these latter de-
posits be proved to be of sufficient area it may soon become of export value.

BaUXITE.
Closely allied in origin to the lateritic iron-ore is the bauxite of the
colony. The specimens which led to the discovery of the wide-spread

lxxvi. Timehri.

deposits of secondary bauxite in the Christianburg-Akyma district were
obtained by me whilst President of this Society in 1897. With Curator J.
J. Quelch as our guide, companion, and friend, I and my family spent some
time early in that year in the district; Quelch as usual in search of
zoological specimens, I enquiring into the physical nature of the soils. 7
by chance noticed the occurrence of small blocks and gravel of hard
material all along the path from the riverside to the house at the summit
of the low hill at Three Friends, Akyma. I also saw that the tiny model
fort built by Commissary Thompson King whilst resident at Three Friends
was made of it. I collected samples and asked Quelch if he knew what
the stuff was. Quelch said that it was an indurated clay (exactly what it
is) and that there were very wide areas of it in that district. A few days
later Quelch and I recognised the same mineral at Christianburg in the
foundation-wall of the saw-mill and along the course of the mill-
stream. We alse took samples from there. As I thought it was possible
the concretionary mineral might be phosphate of alumina similar to that
of Connatable, French Guiana, I afterwards analysed the specimens and
found that although they did not consist of phosphate of alumina they
contained exceptionally high proportions of a hydrate of alumiua.

Thus to a chance visit of the then President of the Society,
accompanied officially at the expense of the Society by the Curator of its
Museum, the colony, and I may add, the Empire and her Allies, are
indebted for the finding of the vast surficial deposits of bauxite of the
Guianas. There is a most striking difference between the almost deserted
toy-fort crowned hill at Three Friends, Akyma of 1897 and the busy hive
of industry in 1918 which has been inaugurated there by the Demerara
Bauxite Company. The summit of the hill has disappeared and its
former site is now marked by a 1,000 feet of a working quarry-face of
bauxite, some 16 to 18 feet in depth of the mineral being in course of
exploitation.

All enquiries tend to prove that Demerara and probably Berbice and
Essequibo contain vast reserves of this important ore of aluminium.

There are also in the colony deposits of manganese-ore, of similar
lateritie origin to the irori-stone and bauxite, which have been found
since 1897.

MIca.

There are deposits or pockets of white mica (muscovite) in certain
of the pegmatite-dykes which emanate from the great masses of the
muscovite-granite which occur in the near interior. The most promising of
these masses as a source of mica is the Makauria—Kalacoon—Penal Settle-
ment—Lower Cuyuni River granite. It is possible that the deposits in this
district may prove to be of commercial value.

The pegmatites may also prove to be here, as in other countries, the
sources from which supplies of rare minerals of great technical importance
may be obtained. Their exploitation in search of such minerals is, how-
ever, a problem of the future,

Notes on the Society's Work in 1897-1918. Ixxvil.

LIGNITE.

Schomburgk during his journey in the thirties of the last century
down the Corentyne River thought he had discovered the existence of
carboniferous stata in Guiana. Recent investigations have proved that
the fragments of coal he saw were not lignitic but are the eggs deposited
there as a mare’s nest years prior to his visit. They consist of
pieces of water-worn bituminous coal. Pieces of bituminous coal, not
infrequently water-worn can be found along the banks of the lower
courses of several of our rivers, as for instance the Essequibo ; and in places
on the seashore and elsewhere. This condition also exists on the lower
reaches of some of the rivers in the neighbouring colony of Surinam.
These derelicts were thrown from the holds of ships, whilst loading timber,
which had brought coal to Guiana. It is, however, not to these carboni-
ferous mares’ nests I am at present alluding, but to the fact that deposits
of lignite are now known to exist on the Demerara River. Doubtless there
are others inthe colouy. With modern methods for making “ Producer-
gas ” itis probable that such deposits may become of some importance in
our industrial pursuits.

Mares’ NESTS.

Mares’ nests are of somewhat common occurrence in the low-lands
and along the foot-hills of the Guianas. Mineral eggs, with which many
of them have been charged, have been frequently brought tome for exami-
natien during the period under review. Pieces of refinery and of
bloomery or puddlers’ slags, by-products of former processes for the man-
ufacture of wrought-iron which doubtless arrived here as ships’ ballast,
have been brought to me doing duty as meteorites or as ores of some
rare but unknown metal; blocks of coral limestone; pieces of Belgian
black marble ; fragments of black-lead pots (plumbago crucibles) ; pellets
of lead of solder and of tin; small bits of antimony; quicksilver in small
quantities ; black aud yellow spelters ; lumps of pitch or asphaltum; water-

worn, rounded pieces of pot-glass ; chalk flints; and especially masses of
lateritic bauxite have been among the numerous eggs I have had submit-
ted tome. The wide areas over which these reliquae occur are remarkable.

Our Dutch predecessors not infrequently used bauxite, especially the
harder ferruginous bauxites, for making the foundations of their buildings
as it was the readiest available hard-stuff on the lower reaches of the
rivers. Aboriginal Indians are responsible for many geological mares’
nests either by their former practice of bringing shell-fish such as oysters
in qnantities to special places for their feasts (there is a mare’s nest of
ostrea-shells covering nearly an acre and in places several inches in
thickness and situated about 2 feet from the surface near the
base of the Issurora Hill, N.W. District) or by carrying large pieces
of rock from one place to another to use as anchoring-stones for
their corials. I mention these asin this colony every prospector and
geologist must be constantly on his guard against the contents of such
mares’ nests.

Ixxviii. Timehri.

PEGASS.

Large areas on the coastlands of the colony are covered with deposits
of “ pegass” or tropical peat. Usually these deposits are from two to
five feet in depth but in places they exceed ten or even twelve feet. Pegass
in a dry state contains from 45 per cent. of organic combustible matters
in its ordinary varieties to as much as 90 per cent. in its more carbonaceous
ones. The organic matters of pegassmay contain from 1.4 to 2.7 per
cent. of their weight of nitrogen. Thus a ton of dry pegass may contain
nitrogen equal to from 140 to 250 Ibs. of sulphate of ammonia. Unfortu-
nately no mode is known by which all the nitrogen can be recovered as
ammonia. Pegass should be utilisable in the immediate future as a
source of producer-gas, with sulphate of ammonia and various other
derivatives, for instance tar, as its by-products.

WATER.

This Society from time to time has shown interest in the various
problems which have arisen in connection with supplies of uncontaminated
water for household-purposes. During the period under review much atten-
tion has been directed in the colony toward obtaining supplies of potable
water from underground sources. For several years the aquifers tapped
in the numerous wells put down by the late Mr. T. Wardle were only the
comparatively shallow ones yielding either very saline or highly ferrugi-
nous waters. The Mortality Commission of 1895 over which I had the
honour to preside made a strong recommendation that deep bores should
be put down inthe hope of tapping supplies of uncontaminated water.
The Drought Committee of 1912 strongly pressed on the Government the
desirability of a practical trial with the result that the first deep artesian
bore was put-down in 1913 in the environs of Georgetown on the
D’Urban Park. That boring was successful beyond all expectation and is
still in full flow. Since then over 20 deep artesian borings have been put
down. The usual difficulties met with where borings for artesian water are
put down on recent alluvial or deltaic deposits on sloping artesian planes
with regard to the permanency of the yield of water from the wells have
been experienced here. These have not yet been overcome, but doubtless
in a short time our engineers will have got the better of them, and will
have placed us in a position of security with regard to the permanency
of the artesian flowing-wells.

In 1897 we knew that in the alluvium there were sandy beds yield-
ing either saline or ferruginous waters, some possibly of medicinal value,
and at the suggestion of the Society analyses were made in that year of
the waters yielded by the various wells which had tapped them. Now we
know that practically everywhere under the inhabited parts of the coast-
lands of the colony there are vast artesian reservoirs of pure and uncon-
taminated potable water. These, however, vary in depth from the
ground-level from about 300 feet in North East Essequibo to not less
than 500 feet in the middle and south east of the colony. Asa rule, to
which at present we have not found any exception, the waters in

Notes on the Society's Work wm 1897-1918. Ixxix.

aquifers tapped at greater depths than 500 feet are exceptionally pure
and uncontaminated, the sole objection to them being their iron-content,
which, however, is usually less than a grain of ferrous iron to the
Imperial gallon. An unlimited supply of uncontaminated underground
water is one of the most important mineral resources of any country and
this is now known to be a characteristic potentiality of British Guiana.

WatER PoweR RESCURCES.

The vast water-power resources of British Guiana have not hitherto
received the attention they deserve although they are among the most
valuable of the potentialities of thecolony. The great falls and the long-
extended series of cataracts on several of its large rivers must in time
attract the attention of capitalists, electrical engineers and technologists
in search of water-power and then be utilised as sources of electric energy.
That energy will be employed as power in quartz-mining and gold-milling,
in hydraulic installations and in dredging-plants for the exploitation of the
still very extensive placer gold-deposits, for power in connection with
the timber-industries, as a motive force for the railway we trust will
traverse the interior and possibly as a source of heat and chemical energy
in reduction-plants for aluminium, iron and perhaps other metals.

TOPOGRAPHICAL AND TECHNICAL SURVEYS OF THE INTERIOR.

It is admitted generally that in this present time of stress we can-
not look for any immediate flow of capital to the colony with the object
of developing its great resources by supplying it with modern means for
travel and general transport. Are we justified in resting content in the
hope that at some future period some prominent financial magnate, thirst-
ing for opportunities of investing his surplus monetary accumulations, may
discover the colony, personally enquire into its resources, map it out, and
proceed to develop it,—not for our benefit but for hisown? In my
opinion this is the time when colonists should be taking steps towards
accurately extending the world’s knowledge of their country. A topo-
graphical and technical or economic survey of the country is an absolute
necessity before any steps can be taken with reasonable security for its
development. We know 4 little—a very little—more of the potentialities
of the country than we did in 1897, but in reality we do not know much
more than was known, or suspected on reliable grounds, about them in
1851. Our present maps are largely sketch-maps, and thus cannot serve as
reliable guides for the details of the country for would-be investors. A
detailed topographical survey of the interior of the colony is a crying
necessity at the present time ; it should be supplemented by mineralogical
and forestal reconnaissances, carried on in greater or less detail as condi-
tions require, and thus the survey would become, as it gradually approached
completion, one of the most important assets of the colony. A com-
mencement is being made this year by a survey of portions of the
northern section of the colony which are regarded of promise in connec-
tion with bauxite and other minerals of economic importance ; but there

lxxx. Timehrr.

is already evidence that this enquiry will be very greatly hampered by the
absence of reliable detailed maps of the parts of the country which are
to be examined.

It may and probably will be objected to this address that it is too long
and covers, although only cursorily, an unduly wide range of subjects. It
is, however, impossible to glance at the agricultural and industrial changes
which have taken place in the colony during 21 years in a short address.
I have tried not to wander beyond the aims and objects of this time-hon-
oured Society. ‘These objects are defined in the preamble to the Royal

Agricultural and Comiercial Society’s Ordinance No. 2 of 1866 in the
following words :—

“The objects of the said Society are to promote, as far as possible,
‘the improvement and encouragement of the agriculture of the Colony,
‘and of every branch of industry, whereby the resources of the Colony
“are likely to be developed and increased, as also the collecting and
“ disseminating of useful information on such subjects.” Chapter X,
Clause 3 of the First Schedule of the Ordinance, mentions that among
the duties of the Society's Standing Committees is the “forming and
“ maintaining a Local Museum and an Experimental Garden,” and Ohapter
XIU, Clause 2 enacts that: ‘‘In the Museum shall be kept the
“best specimens which can be obtained of the production of the Colony,
“both indigenous and introduced; more particularly specimens of
‘‘ minerals, soils, woods, fibres, fruits, seeds, gums, resins, dyes and drugs,
“ and of all other productions of the Colony which either have been or
“ may hereafter be successfully cultivated or used as articles of commerce
“or of food ;” whilst Chapter XIV, Clause 1 lays down that :—‘ Premiums
‘may be offered for improvements in the agriculture of the Colony ; for
“the application of manures to the cultivation of the soil; for improved
« methods of clearing and draining land; for the improvement of pasture
“lands; for the improvement of implements and machinery; for the
« improvement of existing, and the introduction of new and improved

«breeds of horses, cattle and stock of every description ;” and Clause
2 states that -—

“ Grants of money to aid in useful experiments of any kind, such as
“the testing of the utility of new inventions, the chemical analysis of
‘soils, and other purposes, may be also given by the Society.”

These show that the objects of the Society embrace a wide .
range of agricultural, industrial and scientific subjects and hence
the address of its President may perhaps be permitted to traverse, as I
have done, a similarly wide range. It was not the fault of the Directors
of this Society that when the Botanic Gardens and the present Govern-
ment Laboratory were inaugurated in 1878 and 1879 they were not
placed, as the Directors desired they should be, under the control of the
Society as the cclony’s other scientific institution—the Museum—has
always been. Hence the activities of the Department at present under my

Notes on the Society’s Work wn 1897-1918. Ixxxi.

charge as they are very closely connected with, and indeed covered by,
the objects of the Society as laid down by its Ordinance should be of in-
terest to such of its members as are not members solely on account of
their desire for ephemeral literature. By our Ordinance we are
charged with “ the improvement and encouragement of the agriculture of
“the Colony, and of every branch of industry, whereby the resources of
“the Colony are likely to be developed and increased,” and hence when
in this address I have deviated from the prime object of this Society—
agriculture—I submit I have still kept within the wide limits of “every
kind of industry.”

It is the duty of the Society as a whole and, I consider, also that of
every one of its members to keep in mind the wide objects which justify
its existence ; and, for the latter—whether engaged in agriculture, in the
forestal industries, in the exploitation of the colony’s mineral wealth,
of its means of communication, the utilisation of its vast water-
power resources, or in» commerce—to approach this Society with
regard to the development of the Colony’s assets in such a manner
as to ensure its being, as the Society’s founders intended it to be,
the foremost organisation of the colony working steadfastly with the
Government towards not only its economic development of this
Magnificent Province, but also the social and general welfare of its
inhabitants.

Is the Society through the co-operation of its members at present
occupying the proud position it ought to do in this respect? I fear the
answer must be that it is not and that it has not at all satisfactorily
responded to the strenuous and persistent efforts its out-going President,
Dr. Nunan, has deyoted in the hope of inducing the Society to attain
the foremost position it should occupy in the practical affairs of British
Guiana.

GLIMPSES OF THE GUIANA WILDERNESS.

A. Hyatt VERRILL.

Your Excellency, Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen :

It is a great deal easier to show interesting pictures than to say
interesting things, and Ihave no doubt you would rather see my pictures
than to hear me talk, soI shall try to show as many slides as I can and
say just as little as possible.

The only trouble has been to select the pictures, for there are so
many interesting and remarkable places and things to be seen in
this colony that it’s a mighty difficult matter to pick out the most in-
teresting. Moreover, I bave had but four days in which to select my
views, have the slides made and colour them, and hence I am limited in
the number I can use.

Every part of the interior is so different from every other part that
in order to obtain an intelligent idea of the country, one must travel here,
there, and everywhere. Sol shall give you glimpses of various places
and shall jump from spot to spot, regardless of time or distance.

It may be just as well to begin near home and I will start with the
most important river, from a commercial viewpoint,—the Demerara.
My first view is a typical scene on the Demerara River, a timber raft
floating past Christianburg with its saw-mill in the distance. The only
motive power of this craft is the tide, the long sweeps being used merely
to guide the raft, and by this slow and tedious method the lumber is
floated down to the coast from the distant forests of the hinterland.

The next slide shows a man felling a greenheart tree. Note the
staging built about the tree so the chopper may work above the out-
jutting, buttress-like roots. As yet the timber resources of British
Guiana are scarcely touched, and there are vast forests full of valuable
trees which are now worthless, owing to the difficulties of transportation,
and which would prove a source of great wealth if railways were in
operation.

Another picture shows one of my camps in such a section. From
my hammock in this camp I counted 55 greenheart trees, every one of
which would have squared to 18 inches or larger.

This next picture is not a parody of “ Washington erossing the
Delaware,” but shows the people of Mallali going to church. For some
unknown reason the church is on the opposite shore of the river from the
settlement and the devout Mallalians risk a ducking every time they
attend services. It looks as if these people had solved the problem of
getting a quart into a pint, even if their pint is a punt.

2 Timehri.

Another glimpse of the Demerara River, shows a scene near the
source of the river above Canister Falls and where the broad river,
which flows past Georgetown, dwindles to a mere brook which one may
step across.

But the Demerara is one of the least interesting of British Guiana
streams, so we'll step across to the Essequebo aud take a flying
trip up the Mazaruni. Everyone who goes up the Mazaruni starts
from Bartica and in this picture we have a couple of gold-diggers’ boats
preparing to leave Bartica for the placers far back in the interior.

The next picture shows one of the gold-diggers or “‘ pork-knockers”
at work washing out gold from the gravel of a placer. This particular
pan rewarded the pork-knocker with over a pennyweight of gold, but
often they work for days without getting a cent’s worth. Pork-knocking
is no “ get rich quick ” scheme and an average of one dollar a day is doing
very well.

After leaving Bartica the first interesting spot we see is the Penal
Settlement. Every inhabitant of Georgetown should envy the prisoners
their situation. It’s a great pity that the capital was not built on this
high, fine spot or on some similar spot instead of on the mudflats.

Here is a view of the settlement while in the next we see the popular
superintendent, Mr. Frere, being “filmed” for the motion pictures with
the prison quarry in the background,

The Mazaruniis a very beautiful river ; to my mind the finest in the
colony, but navigation is slow and difficult owing to the numerous falls
and rapids. Going up stream the boats must be hauled through the falls
by means of ropes, except at Caburi, whichis shown in this slide. Here
a portage has been prcvided around the cataracts und the boats are
hauled overland, as illustrated in the next picture.

Coming down the river, however, is far more exciting, and progress is
swift, for unless the rapids are very bad the boats are run through them
as illustrated in this slide. Marvellous skill is required on the part of
captain and bowman when the boat dashes with express train speed
through the rock-tilled, tumbling waters. In a few hours going down one
often covers the same distance which required days of toil in going up.

‘This is a famous landmark on the Mazaruni, known as ‘“ Crapo Rock”
or ‘“‘ Frog Rock.” Many of the rocks in the rivers are worn into grotesque
shapes by the water and many strikingly resemble the forms of animals.
Note the high-water mark far up on this rock and which indicates the
rise of the river during the rainy season.

Between the rapids are many long stretches of still water such as
in this scene. The marvellous reflection of the foliage in the dark brown
water is the greatest beauty of such spots, for every detail is mirrored to
perfection and it is almost impossible to say where water ends and land
begins.

Glimpses of the Guiana Wilderness. S

The Mazaruni is one of the best rivers of the colony for fish and
game, and in the forests along its banks one sees many striking and
beautiful birds and strange animals. One of the most remarkable of
these is the giant ant-eater or ant-bear. This chap has an enormously
long tongue with which it laps up the ants, as shown in this photograph.
The queer creature is impervious to ant bites, and many a time, when I
accidentally have stepped in an ants’ nest, [ have envied the ant-bear. He’s
a pretty formidable beast, too, and when angry or wounded can inflict
terrible wounds with his powerful hooked front claws. Even the jaguar
gives the ant-bear a wide berth.

But to me, the human denizens of the bush are far more interesting
than even the birds and beasts, and it was for the purpose of studying
the Aboriginal Indians that I have made my numerous trips into the
interior.. On the lower Mazaruni there are few Indians but above the
falls, and back in the bush on the small creeks, are numbers of Indians
living as primitively as did their forefathers bef re Europeans stepped
ashore on the New World. My picture shows an Indian shooting fish,
with bow and arrow, the common method of obtaining fish, and very
expert the Indians become in this art. The most remarkable part of the
feat is their ability to see the fish in the foaming water of the rapids,
Sometimes, when no fish are visible, the Indians call the fish by beckon-
ing with their hands and whistling. I don’t pretend to say why this
attracts the fish, but it usually does so, nevertheless.

Another method of hunting employed by the Ind’ans, is by means
of the blowpipe and deadly poisoned arrow. With this silent weapon
the Indians kill both birds and animals. They are incredibly accurate
marksmen, and I have seen an Akawoia put five darts into a visiting card
at 50 paces. The basket on the man’s side contains the poisoned darts
which are very carefully guarded, as cold or damp injures the poison. The
Wurali, as it is called, is prepared with a yreat deal of secrecy and cere-
mony, and the exact method of its preparation is known only to a few
individuals. It kills almost instantly, a bird struck by the dart usually
fluttering but a feet before it falls, but it is not poisonous to eat. It is
said that, by administering doses of cane juice and salt its effects may be
overcome, but I have yet to find an Indian who would demonstrate
this antidote on himself.

Most of the Indians now use guns. Here is a husky Indian hunter
of the Waika tribe bringing in a bush hog or peccary, but ammunition is
expensive and far back in the interior the Bucks still use the blowpipe and
bows and arrows to great extent. The hunter shown in this picture was a
wonder and he performed one feat which still puzzles me. He
started out with seven cartridges and returned with four bush hogs, two
akuries, a parrot and three cartridges !

This picture shows an Akawoia in full dancing costume, feather
crown, feather mantle, necklace and dance trumpet. The object
on the end of the trumpet is a bit of wood carved to represent

4 Timehri.

armadillo. Each dancer bears a different animal and in the dance is
supposed to go through the antics and make the noises typical of the
creature he represents. Onecan imagine the difficulty this man would
have ; think of trying to make a noise like an armadillo, or a lizard, or 0

imitating a sloth!

Here is another Acawoia in a very different costume, that of the
parasara dance, and whichis made of palm leaves. This is probably the
only photograph ever taken of an Akawoia wearing this costume. During
the dance the head covering is turned down and conceals the wearer’s
face. The object in the left hand isthe dance drum and that in the right
is the rattlestick. After the dance the suits are hung upon fallen trees
in the rivers or on stumps in the fields to keep off evil spirits.

But dancing is only a very small part of an Indian's life. He must
hunt and fish, fell trees for fields to plant, build his houses, make baskets
and weapons and perform many other duties, for despite popular belief, the
Buck is not an idler until he is Christianized and civilized, and the women
do no more than their share of labour. It is their duty to till the fields,
prepare food, spin cotton, weave hammocks and rear the children. The
principal food is cassava and the preparation of this staple is very interest-
ing. In the picture is seen the first step in the process, a girl grating th>
roots on a grater made of a board into which bits of stone are fastened
with cement-like wax.

The next step is to remove the poisonous juice from the pulp, which
is done by means of the metapee, as illustrated in this photograph. The
pulp is placed in the metapee which is then suspended and is stretched
out by means of a lever and a woman's weight. The juice extracted is
preserved and used in making cassareep and starch.

Next the compressed material is broken up and made into a coarse
meal by rubbing it through a basket work sifter, as shown here, after
which it is spread in round, thin cakes on a stone or iron and baked over a
slow fire, as is illustrated in this picture.

How the Indians first discovered that a deadly poisonous root could
be transformed into a nutritious food is one of the unsolved puzzles of
Indian history. Certainly it could not have been by experiment, for the
experimenters would have succumbed to their experiments long before
they discovered the process,

This slide shows another Indian woman at another of her daily
tasks, squeezing sugar cane in a primitive mill consisting of post and
lever.

The women also do a great deal of the droghing and they carry
as large or even larger loads, than the men. Here is a girl with a
140lb. load ready for a 20-mile javnt over a mountain. I was anxious

Glimpses of the Guiana Wilderness. 5

to see how she descended the steep mountainside, bowed under her
load, but she soon outdistanced me; the load apparently not incon-
veniencing her in the least.

To many people all Bucks look alike; but in reality, every tribe has
distinct characteristics by which its members may be recognized. The
pictures I have shown are all of Akawoias, a tribe peculiar to British
Guiana. Very different are the Caribs shown in this picture. In many
ways the Caribs are superior to all other tribes of Guiana. Their women
are the only ones who do not wear the bead aprons or queyus, but
instead use cloth laps. The men’s laps are also distinctive, being orna-
mented and fringed, but the most characteristic mark of the true Carib is
the tuft of white King Vulture down worn on the forehead, as may be
seen in this photograph.

Returning to Bartica, we'll start off on another trip up the Esse-
quibo. Nowadays few people travel up this river from Bartica on
account of the dangerous falls between Bartica and Rockstone. It was
to avoid these that the railway was built from Wismar across to
Rockstone. But I have made the trip several times without mishap and
think it one of the most interesting and exciting trips in the colony.
When Mr. Runcie was here I carried him by this route to Kaietuerk Falls,
for one of the principal objects of his visit was to film the boat trip
through the Essequibo rapids, which I described in Harper’s Magazine
for January. This slide shows how our boat was havled through an
enormous whirlpool, while the next view shows the men building a rude
palm-leaf shelter or ‘“‘ bush-tent ” over the boat.

On the islands in the rapids of the Essequibo are many beautiful
orchids. Here isa photograph of a fine specimen with over 180 flowers
on one plant, while the next view shows a spider monkey on a dead tree
being “ filmed.” A nearer view of the unwilling subject shows it trying to
“ look pleasant.”

Among the most striking and typical features of the tropical forests
are the “bush ropes” or lianas. The picture shows how large these
vegetable cables grow and also how they are attached by roots to the
trees and grow downwards. How these gigantic vines grow is often a
puzzle to those unfamiliar with them. One gentleman told me he
couldn't understand how slender vines could sprout straight up through
the air and catch hold of a tree a hundred feet above the earth.

Having passed safely through the falls the traveller arrives at Rock-
stone, of which I show a view, and here I obtained some very remarkable
pictures on my last visit, for I had the good fortune to see Indians eating
** Cooshie ants.” These ants swarm but once a year and the Indians consider
the big, winged females, or queens, a great delicacy. It was a wonderful
sight to watch the Indians hopping about among the ants, their legs
streaming with blood from the bites, while they caught the queens and
pulled off wings and jaws. Whena good supply was gathered they

6 Timehri.

retired to a safe distance and munched the ants in comfort. It was a
sight few men have witnessed for queen Cooshie ants are so rare that
only a few specimens are preserved in the great museums. To find a
nest of swarming Cooshie ants and Indians on hand to eat them, was a
coincidence little short of marvellous. The ants taste like condensed
milk I discovered.

At Rockstone we were joined by Father Cary-Elwes and _ his
Makushie Indians who accompanied us as far as Kaietuerk where he left
us and continued on to his distant mission.

Never have I travelled with a more enjoyable companion, for Father
Cary-Elwes is a most lovable, amost human anda most remark-
able man. Throughout his wanderings in the wilderness he has not
missed Mass in seven years and every morning arude altar was erected,
and Father said Mass for his three Makushies. Very impressive was this
simple service in the dim forest with the pink sky of dawn overhead and
the silvery chimes of the Bell birds ringing from the tree tops.

My next picture shows a bit of the Potaro River from the Tumatumari
rest-house. Tumatumari is a beautiful spot with the four cataracts,
separated by wooded islands, just beneath the rest-house windows. It
could be made into the most attractive winter resort in the tropics, and
if provided with adequate accommodations and easy and rapid transporta-
tion, it would draw countless visitors from the north, especially if a road
was co nstructed from here to Kaietuerk.

People, who have never been far from the coast, are prone to think of
British Guiana as a flat country, but a trip up such ariver as the Potaro
will dispel all such illusions. Here great mountains rise on every hand,
often with their summits hidden in the clouds.

Kukuieng (Hawk’s Nest) is perhaps the most striking, owing to its
castle-like form, but there are scores of others just as lofty and just as
massive, and all converging to form a fitting gateway to the world’s great-
est cataract.

At Pakutuerk we accomplished the impossible and pulled our boat up
through the falls and at Amuktuerk we found a big camudi coiled upon
the rocks at the landing place as if waiting to welcome us. After being
duly “filmed” he was killed and proved a good load for five husky
Indians, as shown in the picture. He measured 18ft. Qin. in length, 29
inches in circumference and weighed 280 odd pounds.

Still another bit of luck was in securing this picture of a crocodile
basking beside a pool, while a still more striking picture was obtained
when, in hauling through a particularly bad stretch, we had as neat
a washout as anyone could wish. It wasn't nearly asmuch fun at the
time as it seems now, however.

Glimpses of the Guiana Wilderness. 7

But despite such little inconveniences we reached Tukuit safely in
due time. Tukuit is in the midst of magnficent scenery and directly
across the river from the rest-house a cataract springs from the verdured
mountain crest and plunges down for hundreds of feet to the forest above
the clouds. This in itself would be considered worth the entire trip in
most parts of the world; but in the presence of mighty Kaietuerk it pales
into insignificance.

It’s a fearful climb up the mountain-side to the plateau, and it’s a
shame that the way has not been improved and a road built from Tumatu-
mari to the falls. Even a decent path from Tukuit would be a great
improvement. As it is, one has to scramble and even crawl for several
miles up a stony, slippery, log-ehoked, fissure-filled gully at an angle of
about 60 degrees. In Kaietuerk you have an asset worth millions, a sight
which should attract visitors from every corner of the earth, and yet,
nothing to speak of has been done to exploit it or to bring it within
reasonable reach of Georgetown. To be sure, Sprostons have advertised
it and have attempted to attract visitors to it, but the service is so poor
and the cost of the trip so unreasonable that it is practically prohibitive and
only a man who has unlimited time and money at his disposal, and doesn’t
mind discomforts can afford to undertake the journey under present condi-
tions. With a decent road Kaietuerk is scarcely two hours by motor from
Tumatumari, and yet one must travel afoot and by boat for two or three
days to cover the distance. Moreover, if modernly fast steamers or
launches were operated on the rivers and a motor road was built, these
stupendous falls, which have no equal in the entire world, could be
brought within a day’s travel of Georgetown. And it wouldn't cost a
fortune to do this ; fifty thousand dollars would be amply sufficient, and
a mighty gcod investment it would prove. Imagine leaving town at
7 a.m., travelling through marvellous tropic scenery and dining on the
plateau beside the falls at 7 p.m. the same day !

As amoney maker I would rather have Kaietuerk than all the gold
and diamond claims or all the timber lands, in the colony.

On the way up from Tukuit we stopped some time to admire and
study those wonderful birds, the Cock-of-the-Rock. Several specimens
were obtained for the purpose of preparing a group for the museum,
which is now on exhibition, but we saw over 20 of the birds within a dis-
tance of half a mile. Their presence here was particularly interesting, as
they were supposedly extinct, save in the most unfrequented and distant
parts of the Colony. Since then I have found them nesting within one
hundred miles of Georgetown.

When at last one reaches the plateau at the end of the climb one
looks upon a totally different land from that below; a barren expanse of
naked rain-worn rock with great lily-like giant bromeliads, strange orchids,
nodding blue hair-bells and bracken ; a flora peculiar to the plateau and
unlike anything else.

8 Timehri.

But all interest centres on Kaietuerk and we hurried across the
plateau to the brink of the gorge to gaze for the first time upon this
titanic waterfall. All my life I bave prided myself upon being able to look
down from dizzy heights without any sensation of giddiness or fear. I
have climbed to the trucks of ships’ masts at sea; I have gazed from the
skeleton frames o skyscrapers at the ant-like humans in the busy streets
five hundred feetbelow, and I have stood on the brink of many a terrific
precipice ; but when I walked boldly to the edge of Kaietuerk gorge I
gave one glance and beating a hasty retreat sat down at a safe distance.

I expected to look down for a vast distance; but I also expected to
see a slope ora precipice, or some tangible connection between the top
and bottom of the gorge. Instead I gazed straight down through space
for a thousand feet and I could not overcome the sensation of the entire
overhanging ledge tumbling into the awful abyss beneath. The feeling
soon wore off to large extent, however; but still I preferred to get
down on all fours, or hold on to a bush when near the verge.

In all the pictures of Kaietuerk the falls appear dwarfed and disap-
pointingly small, but this is due to the fact that there is nothing for com-
parison and one has the same feeling, the same lack of power to grasp
the size of things, when actually looking at the falls. The valley far
below seems clothed with soft, green moss dotted with pebbles and not
until you realize that the seeming moss is a forest of giant trees and the
apparent pebbles are great masses of rock weighing hundreds of tons
each, do you realize the stupendous size of the falls and the depth of the
gorge.

So high are the falls that not an atom of real water ever reaches the
pool beneath, the falling mass being transformed to vapour long before it
reaches the end of its descent and looking far more like volumes of
smoke than liquid.

But to obtain a true idea of the size of Kaietuerk note the man in
the picture. Once we realize that this speck is a human being the
stupendously overwhelming proportions of the cataract are impressed
upon us.

I mentioned my sensations when looking over the brink of the gorge
but Father Cary-Elwes was absolutely unconscious of any such feelings.
He was anxious to secure a picture from a certain viewpoint and
approached nearer and nearer the edge, finally planting his camera with one
triped leg resting ona jutting pebble beyond the verge of the plateau.
Then all forgetful of his surroundings, he stooped down to adjust his lens
with his back to the gorge and actually balancing on one foot on the very
brink of eternity.

I have been asked by many to give my impressions of Kaietuerk, to

describe the falls; but there are things which defy description and one of
these is Kaietuerk, for words utterly fail to convey any adequate idea

MALALI PEOPLE GOING To CHURCH. (1)

GOLD DIGGERS LEAVING BARTICA. (2)

PENAL SETLLEMENT. (3)

RUNNING A RAPID. (4)

NO AM (g) ‘a'10") OININNVG

HAULING UP A WHIRLPOOL IN THE ESSEQUEBO. (S)

TUMATUMARI FALLS, FROM RKkst House. (9)

ALLIGATOR BASKING IN THE SUN. (10)

A Washout ar PAKoUTOUT FALLS. (11)

IKKATETUERK FALLS. (12)

KATETUERK GORGE FROM BRINK OF FALLS. (13)

GT)

‘SUIdVY OUVLOd

(15)

(16) (17)
15, CrApAUD ROCK, MAZARUNI RIVER,

. AKAWOIA IN FULL DANCING CostUME,
17. Dirro. IN PARASARA DANCE COSTUME.

o>

7

f

ee

(19)
18. INDIAN Lookineg Down From VERGE oF
KAIETUERK FAtt.
19, FAvHER CARY-ELWeEsS SAYING MASS IN THE
FOREST,

GRATING CASSAVA Roots,

BAKING CASSAVA CAKES,

(20)

(21)

SIFTING CASSAVA MEAL. (22)

PRESSING CASSAVA IN MATAPEE, (25)

So

INDIAN LEVER SUGAR MILL, (24)

(2) MONNAAOH, MAN AHL AO PDNIGNV'T]

Glimpses of the Guiana Wilderness. 9

of the overwhelming grandeur of the falls and gorge. It is one of the
things which must be seen to be realized and the finest pictures seem
woefully poor and insignificant after viewing Kaituerk itself. It cannot be
truly described as beautiful, rather it is awe-inspiring, sublime, almost
terrifying in its grandeur. It is the very epitome of inconceivable power
and titanic: strength, immeasurable, irresistible, incomparable. In its
presence one feels puny, helpless ; a mere atom, and gazing upon it, one
is filled with quaking, unreasonable dread and yet is fascinated, as by
some gigantic savage beast of magnificent form and perfect grace.

Perhaps the greatest attraction of Kaietuerk is that it is never twice
the same. Every moment it changes; with every breath of wind, with
each variation of light, with every passing cloud it assumes a different
aspect and to reproduce these in photographs is impossible. And then
there is the colouring, for Kaietuerk is no foam-white cataract, but
plunges over the verge of conglomerate in a mass of golden brown and
amber which changes to cream and pink and saffron as it falls while the
' rising vapours veil it in clouds of prismatic hues, or bar it with a glorious
rainbow.

In some respects the gorge itself is even more beautiful and impres-
sive than the cataract. Here is a view looking down the gorge from the
brink, while the next picture shows an Indian poised on the verge of the
falls and wrapped in contemplation of the wondrous scene stretched out
beneath him. And truly the scene before him is one of surpassing
beauty. From beneath his feet at the base of the mighty falls, stretches
the great gorge to where its sides are lost in the blue haze of distance. In
the very centre winds the silver thread of river, flecked with the white of
rapids, while on every side rise frowning precipices cut with black ravines
and topped by vast plateaus and everywhere covered with the endless
forest of a thousand shades of green; purple in the shadows, golden in
the sunlight ; a panorama such as few spots in the world can boast.

On our return journey from Kaietuerk we ran everything, even
Pakutuerk, and only streaked through the very worst spots.

Some idea of our speed may be gained from the fact that it took but
four hours to run through rapids where we had spent four days hauling
up. So accustomed did we become to running dangerous falls that when
we reached Tumatumari we ran them also, a feat never before attempted
as far asI can ascertain.

But despite all the beauties, all the wonders of the interior, one is
always glad to reach civilization after weeks in the wilderness, and yet
there is a strange fascination about the bush, a charm about the great,
silent rivers, a something that grips one and makes one long for the
wilderness, for the hammock swung under the tarpaulin in the forest,
for the glow of camp fires, the smell of pungent smoke and the glorious

10 Timehri.

sunsets reflected in the mighty rivers. Whenever I’m in the bush I long
for civilization and just as soon asI reach town I’m just as anxious to get
back in the bush.

It isa marvellous, a wonderful land that you have here in British
Guiana, a land of untold wealth and resources, of magnificent scenery
and of vast possibilities. Development is all that is needed to make it
one of the richest countries on the globe. Sooner or later that develop-
ment will come and then British Guiana will take the place it deserves.
Let us hope that my last picture represents the beginning of a new era of
prosperity for the magnificent province.

PREHISTORIC MOUNDS AND RELICS OF THE
NORTH WEST DISTRICT OF BRITISH GUIANA.

A. Hyatr VERRILL.

There are two distinct types of Indian mounds in the North West
District of British Guiana, the first consisting of immense accumulations
of shells on the lowlands near the coast or estuaries; the other formed
of masses of shells superimposed on the hills and often many miles from
the present seacoast or rivers. The former are more common in the
Pomeroon and Moruea districts than in the true North West and are
nothing more than “ kitchen-middens,” accumulations of refuse from
feasts and temporary camps, and throw little or no light upon the habits _
or identity of the makers. Several have been excavated and accounts of
their contents have been published by Brett and others. Such stone
implements and pottery as they contain were either accidentally mislaid
or cast aside as worthless by their owners while the human bones are
evidently the remains of cannibal feasts.

The mounds of the other type are, I believe, confined entirely to a
limited area in the extreme North West and have not hitherto been in-
vestigated to my knowledge.

In addition to these shell mounds there are many high hills in the
district, on which there are no shel] accumulations, and on the surface of
many of these are large numbers of relics in the form of stone implements,
earthenware images, ornaments and miniature heads and fragments of
highly decorated pottery. The presence of these relics has never been
satisfactorily explained but they have usually been attributed to Carib
oceupancy and it has been assumed that the pottery was the remains of
broken and discarded vessels from ancient camps or villages. Froma
careful study and investigation of these mounds and relics carried out
during July and August, 1917, I am convinced that this theory is
erroneous, while excavations in the mounds of the district led to many
remarkable and valuable discoveries which tend to bear out my theories
and shed new light on the prehistoric inhabitants of North West British
Guiana.

It eften has been thought that the shell mounds and pottery of this
district were of post-Culumbian origin and while this may be true of the
coastal kitchen-middens it is certainly not the case with the hill mounds
and decorated pottery of the North West, for these were made when the
entire district was covered by the sea and the present-day hills rose as
islands from the waves. In proof of this there are numerous undercut
and wave-worn ledges and boulders, as well as small areas of sea beaches
and shell sand beneath the thin layer of vegetable mould and alluvial soil
on the bases of the hills. Moreover the immense quantities of sea-shells
which comprise the mounds could not have been transported for any

12 Timehri.

great distance from the sea, or from streams leading to the sea. Finally,
the shells are mainly Neritas (periwinkles) oysters, Strombus (conchs) and
a few other bivalves and univalves, all of which are species inhabiting
rocky or sandy shores and never found on the muddy coasts and in the
brackish estuaries of British Guiana at the present time. It may be
argued that the Indians brought these edible molluscs in canoes
from Trinidad or the northern islands, but this is a theory
far-fetched and untenable. In the first place the shells would
have spoiled and become inedible long before they reached Guiana’s
shores ; in the second place the Indians would never load down their boats
with useless shells containing a very small amount of edible flesh and
finally we are confronted with the fact that many of the largest deposits
are many miles from any watercourse and are buried in the heart of the
dense forest.

The stupendous number of sea-shells which form these mounds is
almost incredible and proves that either a very large population once
inhabited these island hills or else that large villages remained undis-
turbed for a vast number of years. On Barambina Hill, for example, the
deposit of shells (mainly small Neritas) covers an area of over 150ft. x
300 ft. and with an average depth of five feet or something over 8,333
cubic yards. Tests proved that the shells weighed an average of 70 lbs.
to the cubic foot and that each pound contained about 300 shells. Hence,
in this one mound there must be fully five billion shells weighing
approximately 8,000 tons.

And this is only one of scores of such mounds, for I have traced the
accumulations on hills for over 70 miles from the present sea coast. At
first one can scarcely believe that these shells have remained here for
centuries, for many are almost as bright and fresh as when first gathered,
but at a short distance beneath the surface they become semi-fossilized
and cemented together by carbonate of lime into a hard, stony mass. This
fact rather points to the assumption that the mounds were accumulated
slowly and through many years rather than being the result of a large
population remaining in one spot fora comparatively short period.

The identity of the race which made these mounds is a mystery for,
as I shall point out in the following paragraphs, they certainly antedated
the kitchen-middens of the coastal districts and were not of Carib origin
as the latter are supposed to be. A great deal of time would be required
to investigate all the known deposits and mounds in the district and no
doubt there are many still unknown and hidden in the dense forests and
swamps ; but there is no reason to think that they differ materially from
those visited, although much additional information and valuable material
might be obtained by a systematic and scientific study of the relics. It
is to be regretted that the Colonial Government has never taken sufficient
interest in its Aboriginal inhabitants to carry out an exhaustive investi-
gation of both the prehistoric and living Indians.

an Oe ne CE nag. tyler Sw

Prehistoric Mounds and Relics of North West District, B.G. 13

The hills and mounds which I have excavated and studied are as
follows :

Kobarima Hill, Barambima Hill, Akawabi Hill.

Kumaka Hill, Ossororo Hill, Waunina Hill.

Koriabo Hill, Mts. Everard and Terminus.

Anabisi Hills, Manibari Hills, Hotakwaia Hill.

Hobo Hill, Simri Hill, Hanaida Hill, Hotahanna Hill.
Maruiwa Hill. Unnamed hills in the district.

Of these only the following bear shell mounds : Barambima, Akawabi,
Hobo, Simri, Hotahana, Ossororo, and small hills between Kumaka and
Barambima and between Wauanina and Akawabi.

But decorated pottery, miniature heads, images and highly finished
stone implements were found upon nearly all the others. Only on one
hill (Akawabi) did the shell deposits and decorated pottery occur
together.

BaRAMBIMA HILL,

This is a low hill, about 100 ft. in height, at the western terminus of
the irregular range known as the Aruka Hills and which abuts upon the
Aruka River at Kumaka Hill. It is of granitic formation* with some
lateritic iron stone, and is covered with heavy forest and deep, rich
soil. The shell deposit covered the extreme western slope and occupies
an area of approximately 150 x 300 ft. At this spot the forest becomes
stunted and more open—no doubt owing to the shells—but no trace of
former cultivation of economic trees or plants could be found. A careful
search failed to reveal any fragments of decorated pottery, any earthen-
ware heads, or any stone implements upon the surface.

Excavations were carried on in the form of deep pits penetrating the
shell deposits and reaching the subsoil beneath, and also by long trenches
carried to the depth of the shells and extending completely across the
mound. (Fig. 1) Near the surface many fragments of plain and poorly-
made pottery were found and these continued to the bottom of the shell
deposits. A few very crude stone implements were also unearthed.
(Fig. 2) These consisted of some spindle-shaped objects,—probably orna-
ments,—rude celts or axes and a spear or arrow point. In three places
complete human skeletons were uncovered. In each instance the body
had been interred in a sitting or kneeling posture facing the east and in
every case a rough slab of earthenware had been placed over the occiput.
This slab was scarcely more than three inches below the surface and in one
case the soil had been washed away leaving the slab and skull exposed.
The bones were undisturbed and in situ but were so badly decomposed
and so friable that it was impossible to remove any save the larger bones
intact, while the skulls crumbled and broke despite the utmost care.
Enough material was preserved, however, to afford an excellent idea of the

*The term “Granitic ’ as used here is not intended in its strict geological sense but is
applied to all rocks and formations not of iron-stone or lateritic formation.

14 Timehri.

type of man buried in the shell mounds, a type with heavy, thick skull,
devoid of visible sutures, projecting heavy orbital ridges, extremely low
forehead, strong-pointed jaws and eyes close together. The dentition is
also interesting, the molars being out of all proportion to the premolars
which are abnormally small. (Fig. 3)

There were no traces of human remains devoured at cannibal feasts
and the only bones, aside from the regularly interred skeletons, were
those of fishes, birds and reptiles.

KoBARIMA HILL.

This is a high isolated hill about four miles south of the last and situ-
ated near the head of Kobarima Creek about three miles from the Aruka
River. It is composed mainly of laterites with some granitic rock and is
one of the so-called “red hills” of the district. It is covered witha
sparse growth of low trees, has little depth of soil, except onits northern
slopes, and is at present inhabited by afew Warrau and Arowak Indians.
No traces of shells were found, but on its highest, and most barren portion,
I obtained a few earthenware heads and two pieces of partly worked
stone. (Fig. 4)

Waunina Hit.

This is a lofty (225ft.) hill on the northern banks of the Koriabo
River (tributary of Aruka) and dwindles down to the west to the low
Akawabi Hills. Itiscomposed largely of laterite, has little fertile soil
over a considerable portion of its surface and is a decidedly “red” hill
even when viewed at a distance. Here a few very fine stone implements
were obtained, as well as several earthenware heads and numerous pieces
of highly decorated pottery. (Fig. 5-6) No traces of shell mounds or
former village sites could be found.

AKAWABI HILL.

This is a low eminence, scarcely 35ft. high, on the west bank of the
Akawabi Creek about five miles from the Koriabo River. It is of granitic
formation with considerable masses of white quartz and with scarcely any
laterite. It is covered with a fairly deep and fertile soil and is inhabited
by a few Warraus. Half a mile further west are higher hills whereon the
Warraus have their fields or provision grounds. This low hill was for
many years the site of a Catholic Mission now abandoned, and I understand
that the former missionary obtained many excellent specimens from the
neighbourhood. Here there were numerous outcrops of shell accumula-
tions while fragments of chipped quartz, broken stone implements and
pieces of highly decorated pottery, as well as earthenware heads, were
picked up in numbers on or near the surface of the earth. Excavations
were carried on in this spot and revealed much of interest. (Fig. 7) The
layer of shells was from three to six feet in depth and bore evidences of
more ancient origin than those at Barambima Hill. In most places it was
very barren of relics. Near the surface and in the loam above the shell
deposits were many pieces of decorated pottery (Fig. 8) and among the

Prehistoric Mounds and Relics of North West District, B.G. 15

shells were afew fragments of plain pottery and several very crude stone
implements consisting of spindles, celts, and chipped quartz arrow points.
(Fig. 9)

Near the summit of the hill three skeletons were unearthed from the
shell deposit. The first was of a man of enormous size (for an Indian) the
thigh bone measuring 17 inches in length. Above the occiput and
about 6 inches beneath the surface of the ground was placed an inverted
conical dish or vessel of earthenware which was luckily secured whole and
almost perfect. (Fig 10) This evidently served in place of the rude
earthen slabs found above the skulls on Barambima Hill and probably
denoted a chief or man of prominence. What the purpose of these slabs or
earthen covers may have been is largely guesswork, for I believe this
method of burial has never been described or found previously and isan
entirely new discovery. Very probably the covering served to protect
feather crowns or ornaments buried with the bodies orit may have been
placed over the head to prevent the earth from striking the occiput when
filling in the grave or perchance, it was to protect the skull from injury
from above and to support the earth and avoid the chances of the grave
caving in after decomposition of the bodies. This skeleton like those at
Barambima Hill, was in perfect condition and in situ when uncovered,
but most of the smaller bones fell to bits, the larger bones cracked and
broke of their own weight and the skull went to pieces as soon as
removed. The jaws, much of the pelvis, the leg and arm _ bones
and large pieces of the skull were, however, preserved intact. (Fig. 11)
Close to this, and on either side were two other skeletons, apparently
of women, and perhaps wives of the chief who had been sacrificed and
interred with him. Neither of these had any covering of any sort over
the head. All three skeletons were in a kneeling position with faces
turned towards the east. No pottery of any description was found
associated with these remains, but a few very crude stone implements
were found. (Fig. 12) These may have been interred with the bodies or
they may have been in the shell deposit when the bodies were buried, for
the condition of the shells proved that the dead had been placed in graves
dug in the shell mound.

The skeletons were apparently of the same type as those in the
Barambima mound, although the teeth were normal and the molars and
premolars large. All three possessed 32 teeth.

A very careful search of the entire hill failed to reveal any other
human bones, but numerous bones of huge fishes, reptiles, mammals and
some remains of unidentified and apparently extinct creatures were found
associated with the shells and human bones.

The nearby hills were also carefully searched but no relics of any
sort were obtained except on a low “red hill” where several earthen
ware heads and fragments of decorated pottery were found.

16 Timehri.

Ossororo HILL.

This isa high and large hill fronting on the Aruka River and
connected by intermediate hills with the Wuanina Hills. It is the site of
the Government rubber plantation and has been partlycleared. Its
natural forest is fairly thick and heavy, and upon its crest there isa
small pond or lake of water. It is of laterite formation, a distinctly
‘“‘red” hill and no traces of shell heaps were found. Numerous fragments
of pottery, earthenware heads and stone implements have been found
here in the past andI secured a fair number. Below the hill and now
largely covered by the swamp soil, is a large bed of sea-shells. These
have been disturbed in digging drainage ditches, and itis impossible to
say with certainty if they were placed in the spot by human beings or
were accumulated through the action of the waves. They are far below
the level of all other deposits noticed.

Kumaka HILLS.

These are on the Aruka River about two miles below Ossororo and
form an irregular chain with the Kobarima and Barambima Hills. They
are mainly cleared and are occupied by the plantations of the Consoli-
dated Rubber Co. Their forest growth is rather sparse and large areas
are covered with a very thin layer of red soil. hey are of laterite forma-
tion and distinctly ‘‘ red hills.” Onthese there are no shell deposits but
for many years fragments of pottery, heads, images and stone implements
have been found upon them in large numbers. All of these bave been
obtained from the eastern slopes and near the summit of the hill, where
masses of laterite abound and where the soil is poorest. I obtained a very
large collection (Figs. 13, 14, 15) of heads, many fine pieces of decorated —
pottery and anumber of stone implements. Of these perhaps the most
interesting are several flat heavy pieces of earthenware covered with
what appear to be hieroglyphs or inscriptions and which I believe are
pieces of inscribed tablets as they are plane surfaces and could not have
formed any portion of a hollow vessel.* (Fig. 16.)

Another interesting specimen is a portion of an axe head
formed by chipping while a similar fragment of the same size and form
shows the appearance after being rubbed to a finish. (Fig. 17) As far
as I am aware there is but one other specimen of a chipped axe known
from British Guiana, a very perfect example found on the Potaro by Dr.
Roth.

Most of the stone implements found on this hill were badly
weathered and many had been broken, apparently through cultivation of
the soilin recent years. Among the fragments of pottery is one which is
decorated on the concave or inner side, which is very unusual.

No graves nor skeletons could be found on this hill but I was told
by the manager, Mr. Pierre, that formerly skulls and other human remains

*A portion of the same, or a very similar “tablet” is preserved in the Georgetown
Museum. It’s locality is not given.

Prehistoric Mounds and Relics of North West District, B.G. 17

were found commonly upon or near the surface. As this hill was inhabited
by Warraus in recent times and as these Indians succumbed in large num-
bers to an epidemic of measles, it is quite probable that these bones were
those of the Warraus.

HanaipA HILL.

Here a few fragments of pottery and heads as well as one or two
stone implements were found on the surface. It contains no shell piles
but is a laterite hill.

Horakwala HI.
» Granitic formation. One stone axe found. No shell heaps and no
pottery.
Hoso Hitt.

Granitic and quartz residual sands. Traces of comparatively recent
occupation. Inland evidently used by present-day Indians for provision
grounds there were numerous sea shells, apparently remains of a des-
troyed shell mound. A few pieces of plain pottery and a stone axe.

Simei HI.

Like the last. Eviden‘ly occupied by Indians for a long time and
still in use by them.
HorTaHAna HILL.
On the Kaituma River. Shell mounds on one side. Fragments of
plain pottery. No heads, decorated pottery or stone implements.

ANABISI HILLs,

Hills of lateritic formation distinctly “red.” No shell heaps but
fragments of decorated pottery, heads and stone implements.

Maruiwa HILt.

A “red” hill about six miles below Mt. Everard. — No shell mounds
but decorated pottery, heads and stone implements,

Mrs. EvVERARD AND TERMINUS.

Hills of granitic and lateritic formation about 60 miles from Mora-
whanna but not properly ‘‘red”. The first and most prominent hills seen
when ascending the Barima. No traces of shell mounds or any other
relics.

Kor1aso HI.

About 25 miles south of Mt. Everard at the junction of the Barima
and Koriabo rivers. A lateritic hill of decided red colour. No shells but
numerous pieces of decorated pottery, heads and many finely finished
store implements. (Fig. 18)

Mawnipari HILLs.

Red lateritic hills on the Yarikita River. No relics of any kind were
found on these hills and a careful search of the neighbouring hills, both
in Venezuela and British Guiana, failed to reveal any signs of former
Indian inhabitants.

18 Timehri.

From the foregoing it will be seen that in every case the shell mounds
are found on hills of granitic, or partly granitic, formation and not on
the “red “ hills; that they are always on the lower portion of the hills
and where the soil and other conditions are such that Indians might
reasonably establish villages. On the other hand, with one exception—
Akawabi—the decorated pottery, heads and well-made stone implements
are found only on Jateritie or “red” hills ; usually near the summits or on
the steepest slopes, scattered hit or miss over a large area and never in
connectien with the shell mounds except at Akawabi. It will also be
noticed that no decorated pottery, no heads and no highly finished stone
implements were found in the shell mounds or in the graves,

From these facts Iam led to the conclusion that two distinct races
inhabited this district in prehistoric times, one a primitive fish-
eating tribe who dwelt upon the lower slopes of the island hills and
perhaps cultivated the soil to a certain extent, but who had not de-
veloped the art of making ornamental pottery or well-made stone imple-
ments, but who used plain, crude pottery and wooden, and perhaps bone
weapons to great extent, The other was a more highly developed race
who were skilled in the manufacture of beautifully finished stone imple-
ments, who had developed pottery to an art and who probably inhabited
the country and drove off or destroyed their more peaceful shell-eating
fellows and occupied their lands and village sites. It is to this race that I
attribute the skeletons, the decorated pottery and earthenware heads and
most of the stone implements. Had the shell-eaters possessed such
pottery and implements they would certainly be found among the shells,
and it is highly improbable that the makers of the mounds would have
buried their dead in the shell heaps where they lived. Moreover, the
shell heaps had accumulated for many years before the graves were dug,
for masses of semi-fossilized shells were found near the surface and fresh
shells at the bottom of the graves, which would never have occurred if the
bodies had been buried in shell heaps in use or in process of accumulation
at the time of burial.

I am also convinced that the later and more advanced inhabitants
were sun worshippers, or at least looked upon the sun with reverence,
for not only were the bodies buried facing the east but the heads, pottery
and other relics are invariably on the eastern sides of the hills.
This fact, in connection with the fact that the “red” hills
are not sites which Indians would find most satisfactory for permanent
settlements, that the decorative relics are confined to such red hills and
that they are in such numbers and so widely distributed convinces me
that the original pots and images, the stone implements, etc., were not
refuse or discarded utensils, from villages, but were placed upon the hills
purposely. In other words, I believe that these Indians made offerings
to the sun or to some deity upon these “red” hills and that the offer-
ings were placed in vessels highly and elaborately decorated with sym-
bolic patterns and devices.

Prehistoric Mounds and Relics of North West District, B.G. 19

*Red-hills are often selected by modern Indians for their provision
grounds and it is not improbable that the offerings, if they were such,
were placed upon the hills to induce good crops and freedom from pests,
etc. Perhaps the stoneimplements were originally contained in the pots
or placed with them as offerings; but it is more probable that these
were dropped accidentally from time to time. ,

Only by such a theory can [ explain to my own satisfaction the
vast number of ornamental heads and vessels which are scattered over
these red hills. If they were refuse from villages they certainly would
be confined to the localities where the villages stood and would be found
beneath the surface at considerable depths.

Moreover, it is difficult to believe that any Indian settlement would
make and accidentally destroy so many ornamented pots, for such vessvis
entailed a great deal of work and no doubt plain utensils would serve for
cooking purposes just as well; but no plain and undecorated pottery
occurs with the ornamented relics.

There is but one objection to this theory, one fact which might ren-
der it untenable, and that is the presence of decorated pottery and heads
upon the low granitic Akawabi Hill. The presence of these here may,
however, be accounted for in either one of two ways.

The first explanation is that the decorated utensils were placed upon
this hill because a chief or prominent man was buried here. The second,
and most likely, is that it was here that the utensils were manufactured
and that those found at the spot to-day were those broken or injured in
the makiug. Several facts point to this, In the first place, all of the
heads and pieces of decorated pottery found here were near a clay bed
and were associated with bits of baked and half-baked clay and charcoal.
Many were evidently imperfect in modelling, or distorted by baking,
while last, and perhaps most conclusive of all, is the fact that among the
stone implements found are several polished objects of jasper or quartzite
which were unquestionably tools used in modelling and decorating the
pottery (Fig. 9.)

But whatever the truth as to such matters, the question as to who these
people were, remains unanswered. No present-day inhabitants of Guiana,
or northern South America, make pottery of the type found on these
island hills of the North West District. ‘ihe Caribs, to be sure, make
ornamented vessels, but the decorations are mainly in colour and the
type of pottery is easily recognized and is totally distinct from these
prehistoric fragments. Not only were these highly decorative in designs
inseribed upon them, but they were brightly coloured as well, as shown
by specimens obtained, while lips, bases, rims and handles were ornament-
ed by well-modelled figures of birds, animals, reptiles and human beings.
Many of these are easily identified, although usually conventionalized and
often as grotesque as gargoyles, but Toucans, Macaws, Monkeys, Iguanas,

50 Timehro.

Frogs, Peccarys, Tapirs, Kinkajous, and in fact nearly all the birds and
animals of the country may be found reproduced and it is practically
impossible to find two alike.

The inscribed decorations are often elaborate and consist of both
scrolls and straight lines, arranged in geometric or other patterns, while in
a few specimens, the patterns are in low relief,

In many ways’ they closely resemble the utensils found in the ©
prehistoric graves of Central America, especially those of Costa Rica and
Chiriqui, and the makers were certainly much further advanced in the
potter’s art than any of the existing aborigines of Guiana.

”

MOouNDs.

XCAVATION OF SHELL
BARAMBINI

BE

iN

HIuu.

18
2. SronE IMPLEMENTS FROM BARAMBINI.
3. SKULL FROM BARAMRINI.
4. POTTERY AND IMPLEMENTS FROM KoBARIMA HILL;
18. Porrery From Korraso HILt (BARIMA.)

D ih

7
&, SVONE IMPLEMENTS, WAUNINA HILL,
6. POTTERY FROM Dirro.

7. EXCAVATING AKAWABI MOUND.

8. PorreRY FROM AKAWABIL MOUND.
9. STONE IMPLEMENTS FROM DITTO.

10

ll
10. SKULL FROM AKAWABIL HILL,
11. VESSEL COVERING THE SKULL.

Loam 3% 67 Thick

Top hiew Of Graves

12, SKELETON IN SITU,

16

17

13 15
13. Porrery FROM KUMAKA (ARUKA) HILL.
14 & 15. HEADS FROM Drrro.

16, INSCRIBED TABLETS (?) FROM DITO.
17. STONE IMPLEMENTS FROM Dirvo.

14

A REMARKABLE MOUND DISCOVERED IN
BRITISH GUIANA.

A. HyatrT VERRILL.

Although stone implements and fragments of pottery have been
found throughout a large portion of British Guiana, and numerous exten-
sive shell heaps or kitchen middens exist near the coast, yet hitherto, no
proofs of large prehistoric settlements or of a numerous population have
been discovered.

During the month of June, 1917, I discovered some most remark-
able remains of Aboriginal inhabitants which appear to indicate a vast
population where no Indians exist to-day and which, as I shall endeavour
to explain, probably antedate all other known remains in north-eastern
South America.

Indiaus are found to-day throughout a very large portion of British
Guiana, and along nearly all the rivers, but a most curious fact is that
certain rivers, such as the Abary and upper Corentyne, are absolutely
barren of Aboriginal inhabitants. This is the more remarkable inasmuch
as both rivers teem with fish, the soil along their banks is fertile, game
is abundant and there is an ample supply of timber, wood, and other
vegetation essential to Indian life. On the Courantyne the inscribed
‘“Timehri” rocks point to former denizens, but on the extensive
savannahs, which border the Abary, no monuments to a former population
are visible.

None of the existing Indian tribes can give an explanation for
this avoidance of the two streams, and I determined to make a thorough
investigation of the Abary district and discover, if possible, any remains
of former inhabitants.

Throughout the district the savannahs are dotted with so-called
“‘islands,”—copses of palms and other trees standing boldly up from the
level sea of grass, while, scattered about, mainly near the river, are
smaller knoll-like “islands” usually overgrown with grass and coarse
weeds and often with a few small trees or shrubs, or a palm or two.

In my investigations among the Caribs I had often found these
islands inhabited by the Indians and I decided that if any traces of former
inhabitants were to be found they would in all likelihood be upon these
islands. But several of the wooded islands were investigated without
result, their existence being due to a slightly higher and better soil than
that of the surrounding savannahs and consisting of a layer of loam over
a bed of clay resting on coarse, residual sand.

I then turned my attention to some fairly dry verdured land further
up the riyer and which formed a sort of cape or peninsula extending for

22 Timehri.

several miles across the savannah and bordering upon the river. Here I
was rewarded by uncovering numerous fragments of pottery and a careful
search resulted in obtaining a number of stone implements, some polished

and rounded quartz pebbles, and a perforated amethyst pebble evidently
used as a pendant or bead.

But there was nothing to indicate a large population or any-
thing more than the site of a former village, and no traces of
graves or of defined kitchen middens could be found. However it
proved conclusively thatthe Abary had been inhabited by Indians in
the past and as the neighbouring Mahaica, Mahaicony and Berbice rivers
are all inhabited by Arowaks, and have been since the first European
settlers’ times, and as the implements found were in no way distinet
from those found elsewhere, I concluded the settlement was of
Arowak origin,—possibly post-Columbian, and that it had been des-
’ troyed by the marauding Caribs or by the Bush Negroes of former days,

never to be re-established.

Then my attention was attracted to one of the small knolls near the
river and on which two or three plantain trees gave evidence of former
inhabitants. This knoll was several hundred feet from the river and
was surrounded on all sides by a deep swamp and almost impenetrable
high grass. It rose about ten or twelve feet above the river (and
savannah) level and formed a spur or promontory to a low ridge (about
six feet in height) extending parallel with the river for about one thousand
feet. Directly back from this first knoll was a second, and at three other
points on the ridge smaller knolls occurred. Close to the first knoll the
ridge was broken by swampy spots or sloughs, thus isolating the knoll
and the smaller one behind it, the two forming a sort of dumb-bell shaped
eminence.

After considerable difficulty the knoll was reached, and much to my
joy I found a fragment of very old pottery resting on the surface of the
ground. The bush was at once cleared and excavations commenced.
The first shovelful of earth revealed numerous pieces of pottery and every
care was used to avoid breaking the fragments.

It was absolutely impossible to excavate in the tenacious, wet,
muddy soil without doing so; but it was soon evident that the vessels had
already been hopelessly broken through an immense lapse of time. My
first idea was, that I had found an old camp or village site, but in a very
short time I was disillusioned andI realized that I had discovered some-
thing of far more interest and quite unique, for the earthenware was not
discarded or broken pots, nor pots unintentionally left by their former
owners, but instead, were utensils intentionally placed where found and
evidently for some specific purpose. In each and every case a thin
layer, about 6 inches, of loam, covered a heavy roughly fashioned piece of
baked clay,—evidently the cover to a large vessel, and directly under
this were the remains of an immense pot; collapsed and broken to be

A Remarkable Mound Discovered in British Guiana. 23

sure, but easily traced, with the bottom resting on a bed of charcoal,
black mud and lumps of burnt clay. This same material also surrounded
each pot and there could be no question that the pots had been placed in
the midst of a fire, the whole had been surrounded by a wall of earth and
that in the process of burning the fire had baked the irregular lumps of
clay in the earth to semi-brick. In many cases two, or even three, layers
of these pots and fires were found, and in every case deeper excavations
revealed the undisturbed bed of clay and sand of the savannah The only
explanation seemed to be that the pots were burial urns ; that the bodies
or bones of the dead had been placed within them and had been cremated
by surrounding with fire enclosed in walls of earth, and that the knoll
had at one time been the burial place of neighbouring Indians.

No traces of bones, stone implements or other utensils were found
within the pots, but each was filled with a fine, pasty, black material which
might well have been the remains of incinerated bones or flesh. That no
stone utensils were found seemed remarkable but not even a pebble was
discovered and I am ferced to the conclusion that the people were either
ignorant of the use of stone implements, or were a tribe devoted to fish-
ing, and who had no use for weapons or utensils of stone.

But the most remarkable factin regard to this mound was the area
covered by these pots and the enormous number buried. The entire
surface of the knoll itself was covered with them, each placed so close
to its neighbours that the sides almost touched, and my wonder increased
as we moved further and further from the knoll and still found the same
identical conditions. For a space of nearly 600 feet along the ridge and
for a width of about 150 feet every test showed the same inevitable pots
with their attendant bits of charcoal and lumps of burnt clay. There
were literally thousands of them (about 30,000 by my estimation), and if,
as I believe, they were burial urns the number of the dead proves that
an enormous population once dwelt on the Abary savannahs.

And I can think of no other explanation than this, for there are but
three theories which can account for numerous pots found in a limited area.

First: An Indian camp or village of many inhabitants who were
suddenly wiped out of existence leaving their pots behind.

Second: A prehistoric pottery with many imperfect and discarded
pots and perfect pots suddenly abandoned.

Third: A burial place where the dead were interred in pots.

The first is untenable, as no Indian village could possess enough pots
to cover an area of the extent examined. To do so the pots would have
to be set regularly side by side over the entire area. Moreover the pots
found were all of similar form, material, and size.

The second hypothesis is equally unworthy of consideration, as
Tndians do not possess potteries but each family makes its own pots as

24 Timeh7i.

required. A pottery of sufficient size to have provided over 30,000 pots
at one time would bea credit toa large city. Moreover potters do not
bake each pot ina separate kiln.

The third theory is the only one which fits the facts. The covered pots,

the covers being roughly formed by hand on one side and bearing the
imprints of sand and earth on the other, as if formed of soft clay and
covered with earth while fresh. The fact that all the pots were of large
size; the surrounding charcoal and lumps of half-baked clay in the
earth ; their uniform position and the fact that they evidently had been
exposed to fire and that they contained some material which had been in-
cinerated, all tend to prove that they were the burial urns of some pre-
historic unknown tribe which inhabited the savannahs in immense num-
bers, for it is unlikely that Indians would convey their dead to a com-
mon burial place from any considerable distance. The question then
arises as to their age and their origin.

The thickness of the layer of loam over the pots can give little or no idea
as to the time which has elapsed since the pots were placed on the knoll.
It is entirely a vegetable mold formed from dead and decaying grass and
weeds and for many years after the knoll was left to itself it was no doubt
exposed to the heavy tropical rains which washed away the deposits
almost as fastas formed. ‘The growth upon the knoll is equally valueless
as a guide for estimating the age of the pottery, for there are no large
trees and the weeds and small growth are of a character which grows,
dies down and grows again in a few years ; the extent of growth depending
largely upon the periods of drought and flood.

The condition of the pottery, however, proves that an immense period of
time must have elapsed since the pots were placeed upon the knoll. They
have not been disturbed or broken by subsequent inhabitants for their
original position can be traced, and yet, they have crumbled to bits and
have collapsed through the lapse of countless years. I do not know how
long it takes for a well-made piece of pottery to decay and disintegrate,
and no doubt this varies with the climate and moisture of the soil, but
it must require a very long period. Finally, as before mentioned, is the
fact that no stone implements,—not even a smoothed pebble or chip of
stone,—were found on the knoll. If this is owing to the fact that the
inhabitants had no knowledge of stone-working if, indeed, they ante-
dated the stone age, then the pots must be inconceivably ancient ;
but I am not aware that any race developed pottery-making until after
they developed the art of making stone implements and I am of the
opinion that the absence of such utensils points to a race which depended
entirely upon fishing, tilling the soil, and perhaps snaring or shooting
birds and small game, for which purposes bone or even hardened wood
would serve every need.

That they were a race antedating any of the present tribes of Guiana, I
am convinced, and I am equally certain that they were totally distinct from

ee

BA tn. no B68 Le

s Uy Of
TE!

Sectin showing pol che &5 found -

ELEELELEZZZZEZELEL

Press. Burnt” V4 Z
(nf

ia Clay © AREA fin
Un-an Restoration of Above

peef 2 4Os

ae

y
ff

2

STONE IMPLEMENTS FROM ABARY.
SECTION OF Por ARRANGEMENT.
SKETCH OF MOUNDs.

of

2. THE

MouND

ON

3. EXCAVATING

THE

SAVANNA, ABARY.

ABARY MOUND.

A Remarkable Mound Discovered in British Guiana. 25

any of the existing tribes. The fact that plantain and pine-apple plants
were growing on the mound might be thought evidence that they were not
very ancient, but this in reality has no bearing whatever as the cultivated,
plants might have been accidentally dropped there by travellers or by
wandering negro fishermen or hunters. Moreover, many of these knolls
are regular camping grounds for negro wood-cutters passing up and down
the river and temporary sheds or benabs are often erected upon them. It
might very well happen that such people should leave traces of their
occupancy behind them and as the plantain trees were less than six
months old and the pine-apples less than a year their presence proves
nothing, except that they led me by merest chance to a very interesting
discovery.

My conviction that these long-forgotten inhabitants antedated the
existing tribes and were distinct from them is based on the following
facts. No known British Guiana tribe buries its dead in urns, although
burial urns have been found in various parts of the colony. But as
far as I am aware, no traces have hitherto been found of urns exposed to
fire for crematory purposes.

Moreover, none of the existing Indians dwell upon the swampy
savannahs ofthe coast and the Warraus have no large settlements and
have not developed pottery-making to any extent.

The other two coastal tribes, the Arowaks and Caribs, have no such
burial customs as must have been possessed by the Abary savannah
Indians. Wherever remains of ancient Carib occupancy occur we find
shell heaps, stone utensils and remains of cannibal feasts, or at least
fragments of human and animal bones associated with charcoal and
broken as if to extract the marrow. In the portion of the colony now
most thickly populated by Arowaks and Caribs no such mounds as
described have been found, but shell] heaps are common, and stone imple-
ments are universally found.

Certainly the mound could not have been the burial place for
Akawoias, or any of the forest or highland dwellers, for these tribes have
always been confined to the interior. I am therefore of the opinion that
the pots are the sole remaining evidences of a once numerous prehistoric
people who dwelt upon the savannahs near the coastland and who passed
out of existence ages before the advent of Europeans. Unfortunately, I
was unable to make investigations of all the similar knolls or mounds upon
these savannahs, and there are hundreds, but I should not be at all
surprised, if a large portion were the sites of ancient villages or the burial
places of the inhabitants and I amconfident that a systematic search of
the mounds would result in most remarkable and interesting discoveries

of remains of what were perhaps the earliest human inhabitants of
Guiana.

A CHAT ABOUT THE SOCIETY'S PAST.*

By J. Ropway.

Its NAME.

It has often been remarked that the name is not suitable, because
the interests and objects of this Society are hardly agricultural or
commercial. Possibly something like the Guiana Institute would have
been better but it is too late to suggest a change even though the name is
too long and not comprehensive enough.

The reasons for such a name are obvious to one who studies the
social conditions of eighty years ago. There were then two cliques,
planters and merchants, whose interests did not always coincide. There
were even disputes which led to newspaper correspondence. At one
time there was an attempt to get up a united society of merchants and
planters which failed. In 1835 there was an Agricultural Society which
invited the merchants to unite to establish a Public News Room and
Exchange, but the planters would not join, and although it was started it
went the way of many other societies which rose and fell from about 1810
until our Society came to stay.

Something can be said in favour of Agricultural and Commercial,
for after all, our colony is based on agriculture and commerce. Every
other interest is subservient to them, for even the officials could not exist
without them. Our colony arms has a ship to represent Commerce and
our motto means that we give and receive through our shipping agricul-
tural products and getting desirable returns. It might be perhaps said
that our forest products do not represent agriculture, but they certainly
come under commerce.

The project for a comprehensive building or society was “ floating in
the air” as it were for some time. In November, 1843, it was proposed
in the Town Council to apply for what is now the site of our buildings to
have a Town Hall and a Chamber of Commerce; it was then stated that
the Government were intending to erect thereon a Museum and anatomical
rooms. ‘The Royal Gazette” suggested that the project should embrace,
not only a Town Hall but a Public Library and Museum.

The paragraph in the “ Royal Gazette” of February 15th, 1844, might
be read to-day for it is still applicable: ‘‘ The want of a due encourage-
ment of public establishments, having for their end the advancement of
art or science of any kind, has frequently been objected to by strangers,
as a great omission in the social constitution.” After referring to the
proposed society it went on to say: ‘ We cordially concur in the recom-
mendation of this Society, less for the sake of the utilitarian purposes

* Road at General Meeting, July 9th, 1917

A Chat about the Society's Past. 27

had in view—but which even have been too much overlooked of late in
this colony—than because it promises to become the nucleus for the dis-
semination of a general public taste for intellectual and scientific pursuits,
and more expanded social reunions, than have hitherto been in practice
amongst us.”

Irs FounDER—W. H. CAMPBELL.

It has been often said that when the time comes for a change or
improvement, the man arrives. ‘‘The hour and the man” had come,
and Icould say much about that man. I can perhaps appreciate him all
the more because his tastes were similar tomy own. He was a botanist
and had been collecting plants in the Highlands and on the banks of the
Scottish rivers. I have a MS. note-book in which he listed his collections
and a copy of John’s “ Botanical Rambles ” with an account of a collecting
trip by the author, and W. H.C. to the Highlands.

Mr. William Hunter Campbell, whose bust is so conspicuous in the
Reading Room, was born in Edinburgh in 1814 and educated as
alawyer. Possibly as a recreation he took up Botany and we find him
among the “‘ few gentlemen ” who met on the 17th of March, 1836, to
start a Botanical Society for Edinburgh. Several Professors well known
to the world were among the founders, and Mr. Campbell was appointed
Seeretary, although only 22 years old. His work for the Edinburgh
Botanical Society was highly appreciated, andI have a copy of Decan-
dolle’s Prodromus presented to him before he left for Demerara. In the
Report of the Society it was stated that by his departure it had been
deprived of the services of one who had contributed much to its
prosperity and whose place it would be hard to fill. This was in1841, and
in 1843 a communication from him was read and an Eta razor strop from
Demerara exhibited.

The first hin t of our Society is contained in a letter of Mr. William
Arrindell to Governor Light, dated January 19th, 1844, and asitis so
important I must’give it in full. I may here state that we have in our
records the original ‘‘ prospectus” in Mr. Campbell’s handwriting.

Demerara, 19th January, 1844.

S1r,—I have the honour to inclose for your perusal a prospectus
and certain proposals fer establishing a Society to be called the British
Guiana Agricultural and Commercial Society. There appears to be a wish
on the part of several of the leading merchants of Georgetown to have a
united society, and hence the draft of the proposals in the form sub-
mitted—Should this union not be approved of the proposals can be
readily altered and confined to a society purely agricultural.

These papers were drawn up by my young friend Mr. William
Hunter Campbell—without aid or assistance from anyone—and I have
great pleasure, founded on a sincere wish to further the interests of the
Colony, in introducing the papers in question as the best evidence that
can at present be offered of the fitness of Mr. Campbell to fill the situa-

28 Timehr.

tion of Secretary to the Society. In my wish to see him there placed I
have no private interest to move—my sole object being that of having
that office confided to one who I am sure will discharge its every duty
with ability and efficiency.

Hoping that your Excellency will not consider my zeal outstripping
the bounds of discretion and respect.—I have, etc., ,
W.. AG

To His Excellency, Henry Licut, Esq.

This was promptly acknowledged on the 22nd. The Governor
approved of the rules and the suggestion ; he had long been desirous of
seeing a Museum, Library, Reading Room and Hall for public amuse-
ments, but he suggested some difficulties in carrying out all the objects
by one Society. The letter is too long to be given here but it is decidedly
interesting. He suggested an early meeting of both classes, i.¢., merchants
and planters.

Copies were printed and distributed throughout the colony and we
have a letter from Berbice giving the names of those to whom George
Laing sent the Prospectus. We also have the originals that were sent
out, dated February Ist, with the signatures of those willing to become
members. All this preparatory work appears to have been done by Mr.
Campbell and we may be quite sure that he must have been enthusiastic
and assured of success.

The preliminary meeting was held on the 18th of March and this
may be considered as the starting-point of the Society, for it was then
arranged to form itand to provisionally adopt the Rules drafted by Mr.
Campbell.

Mr. Campbell remained as Secretary until the year before his death
in London November 3rd, 1883. We may, therefore say, that he was
nearly forty years carrying on his “labour of love.” Those who knew him
well spoke highly of his kindness and sympathy ; as far as I know he had
no real enemies, and when there was something like a persecution the
colonists almost to a man rallied round him. The amount of work he did
for the Society can hardly be estimated ; I happen to have seen the evi-
dence when searching for the Society’s records. Where he did not write the
minutes himself he got his private clerks to help, for unfortunately the
attendants in the Reading Room could hardly have been trusted with any-
thing beyond routine work. When Mr. Luke Hill waschosen as Secretary
he was not prepared to spend so many hours on the Society’s work. This
could hardly be expected, but it shows what Mr. Campbell willingly did
because it could not have been done otherwise. The present generation
has to thank him, and every member to-day should think of this when
his bust comes in sight at our entrance.

When I call him the founder of the Society I do not mean to dis-
parage the other members, but to show that our Society, like many
others, was very largely due to one working member,

Sin) no gnc Op mt, ME

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A Ohat about the Society’s Past. 29

Irs PATRONESS—QUEEN VICTORIA.

Queen Victoria became Patroness in the first year of the Society and
as her connection was so important we must place her name after that
of the founder. From the autograph volumes exhibited it will be seen
that Her Majesty did not forget the Society when making donations, or
object to the use of the word “ Royal.”

The petition for the Queen to become Patron was first mentioned ata
meeting of the General Committee (Directors) on the 1st of May, 1844,
and a letter from the Government Secretary in reply was dated July
15th; Lord Stanley said that Her Majesty’s Patronage was contingent
on the affirmation of the principle that no political questions shall be dis-
cussed at their meetings.

When this was read it was resolved that it be now distinctly affirmed
that the Society never intended to sanction or permit the discussion of
political questions at any of their meetings.

The Society having got the Queen as patroness asked to be allowed
to use the word “Royal.” The copy of the letter from Lord Stanley
was received through the Government Secretary on the 3rd of March,
1845 :-—

“ Her Majesty has been graciously pleased to allow the Agricultural
and Commercial Society of British Guiana to assume the title of ‘ Royal’
in addition to its other designations.”

Queen Victoria presented four portraits which were fortunately saved
from the fire and which are shown in the Reading Room. They were pre-
pared at the time of the marriage of the Princess Royal to Frederick of
Prussia. I remember well the picture papers of that time and also when
a year or so later children sang a ditty with something about jumping for
joy—* For Victoria’s lovely daughter’s got a pretty Prussian boy.” This
“ pretty Prussian boy ” was the present Kaiser. I also show the Prince
Consort books with the Queen’s autograph.

Since the death of Queen Victoria, King Edward, and now King
George have been Patrons.

I noticed that there was a Royal Agricultural Society in Jamaica
when our Society was started but as far as I know ours is now the only
“ Royal” Society in this part of the world.

Irs VicE-Patrons, &c.

Starting with Governor Light we have had every Governor on his
arrival in the colony ; no one has ever refused his consent. Some have
made considerable donations of money and books, among whom I may
mention more particularly Governors Light and Hincks.

30 Timehri.

*

The Government Secretaries have always been prominent members
and some have filled the office of President. I can only here mention the
names of Mr. H. E. Fox Young and that other prominent member
William Walker, who was so long our London Director and to whom we
are much indebted. He helped the Society in that crucial period between
1850 and 1860, when the colony was so much depressed. The founda-.
tions of our Library are due to his selection of really good books after
his retirement; he was also of great assistance in getting donations for
the present building after the fire. Although he was not in the colony
when the Society was formed he may be considered as one of the most
important members.

Other Government Secretaries, including W, A. G. Young, Sir Charles
Bruce and Sir Cavendish Boyle, can only be mentioned. I purposely
exclude those who are still with us.

Tue INTRODUCER—MR. (AFTERWARDS SIR) WILLIAM ARRINDELL.

This gentleman was at one time probably the most abused person
in the colony. He defended the Rev. John Smith after the East Coast
Slave Insurrection and thus annoyed the people who were carried away —
by their feelings and wanted a scapegoat. Mr. Arrindell lived to become
Chief Justice and to be Knighted for the code of laws he prepared after
the Emancipation. We may consider him as a man without prejudice,
and one who took what he believed to be the right course.

It will be seen from the letter already quoted that Mr. Campbell was
his “young friend” and we may safely state that Mr. Arrindell was
Mr. Campbell’s patron as well as his chief. Mr. Campbell was Clerk of the
Court and I understand was not simply patronised by the then Attorney
General. Possibly when the great Beaumont disturbance took place he
missed his old friend.

Mr. William Arrindell was a member of the first Council and was
interested in agriculture as an estate proprietor. Although he suffered
much odium in defence of the slaves the agitators of the forties abused
him as a planter and objected to his being appointed Attorney General
first and then Chief Justice. In their opinion no planter could be im-
partial where the freedmen were concerned.

THE PRESIDENTS.

It cannot be supposed that I can even give a list, much less say any-
thing more about the fifty Presidents who have occupied the chair from
year to year. The Chairman of the first meeting was Sir Michael
McTurk, one of the most important personages in the colony at the time.
As an officer of the Militia, planter, a director of local institutions and a
member of the Court of Policy, he was more prominent than as a physician.
He was Knighted for the part he took in proposing the curtailment of
the “ Apprenticeship” so as to end all coercion of labour in 1888.

A Chut about the Society’s Past. 31

We have no portrait of Sir M. McTurk, but our second President,
John Croal, is represented by the oil painting so conspicuous in the
Reading Room. He also was an important personage and connected with
the British Guiana Bank. One of the most prominent was Mr. William
Russell, who helped Georgetown to get a continuous supply of Lamaha
water. He was elected President at intervals so that he served several
terms and gave prizes for essays on agricultural subjects.

THE First MEETING Room.

The usual place of meeting in the forties was a room in the Demerara
Spa, where the Hotel Tower now stands. An ambitious project was made
to have a Spa on the lines so well-known in England. The artesian wells,
which were once expected to be an unfailing source of a water supply
were fouud to give a chalybeate salt water something like some that were
puffed up in England and Germany. People were invited to come and
drink the water, and baths were also provided ; then there was a reading
room. But it was a failure for it never became a fashionable resort. The
well still pours out some water and the visitors to the hotel may try it as
a medicine. It is possibly as useful as many other mineral waters, and
probably not more nasty.

THE Srre—OLup Hospitay Lor.

The Public or rather Seamen’s Hospital once stood cn or near the
site of the Commissary’s Office and possibly that building may contain
portions of the original framework. However that may be we have a
relic in what was once the lock-up for maniacs east of the Museum. The
Cumingsburg Hospital was finished about 1840 and the old buildings
became vacant. We have already seen that the lot was wanted for a Town
Hall, but the Government refused to grant it to the Town Council. I
show a plan, from which it may be seen that the lot extended from Water
Street to High Street and that there was no road cutting through it. The
Assembly Rooms, are at the extreme east; they got half the lot by con-
sent of the Society.

From the series of plans exhibited it may be seen that the lot was
originally just inside the mud dam that became Water Street and which
was only 24 feet wide. Charles Edmonstone’s timber store was outside the
dam, and probably raised above the mud on which timber was stored.
There is a bend or projection into the river which allows Water Street to
come alittle more to the west at this spot, perhaps due to Fort St.
Geerge having once been situated here. There was a dispute with the
Town Council in regard to the Water Street front, in connection with
which these interesting plans were prepared.

The Society got the grant during Her Majesty’s pleasure, and pre-
paration wasat once made to remodel the old buildings so that they
might be fitted for areading room and place of meeting. There appears
to have been two old buildings, much dilapidated, one fronting Water

32 Timehri.

Street, and the other High Street, butfrom the situation of the artesian
well near the first building we must say that Water Street was
then under the east of our Reading Room, for the artesian well
though now closed, is still to be found under the east half of the
Museum. This goesto prove that Edmonstone’s timber flat was where
the street was laid down after the fire, and that his office would be on the
present Reading Room site. This should make it all the more interest-
ing, although it is no new discovery that the great fire not only made a
clearance, but allowed the bank of the river to be pushed farther out.

The drawing of the old Reading Room exhibited, gives a fair idea of
its appearance. The other building is now the Commissaries Office ; it
has been occupied as magistrates, immigration and post offices, as well as
by The Georgetown Atheneum, and as an Armoury. Half the original
grant was given to the Assembly Rooms by consent of the Society, and
the east building with another piece of land was sold to the Government
after it had been repaired at the Society’s expense.

It is interesting to note that when Edmonstone’s store was where we
are now standing, Charles Waterton must have often paid a visit to ‘“ the
greatest friend he ever had in his life.” Here also he must have first
shown his ‘“ Nondescript” as the Wild Man of the Woods.

THE PRESENT BUILDINGS.

The old Reading Room was entirely destroyed in 1864. The bust of
Dr. Blair is said to have been pushed out of a window, and having fallen
on mud was not much injured. The Queen’s portraits were saved, but
nothing else save a few odd books then in circulation. It was generally
supposed that the minute books had also been lost but fortunately I found
them in 1888 by enquiry of Mr. Forshaw, who allowed me to go over
Mr. Campbell’s papers.

The fire was a blessing in disguise, for it gave the Society a new
Jease of life. For some years it was hardly progressive although by no
means inactive. A little spirit had been given by an offshoot in the form
of a Natural History Society which was to have a Museum. This
Museum was actually commenced about 1860, but without proper accom-
modation or attention the few specimens went to ruin. The store-room
where they were kept was not burnt down, but the upset of the fire put
an end to the Natural History Society

The Society was allowed the use of the Assembly Rooms after the
fire, but as there was no longer a library, some of the members dropped
out through not paying subscriptions. There was much work to be done,
but Mr. Campbell was able to do it.

HELPERS AND HINDERERS.

In every Society there are always a few more prominent than the
others. Some are fault-finders, but unless they also work to improve

= eons = arm

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ET el

ers,

woe we I deep Ste epi att

A Chat about the Society's Past. 33

things by getting rid of the faults they are only meddlers. There have
been many fault-finders within my own experience of the Society. First
come those who say that the Society does nothing to improve agriculture
or commerce, and therefore we should change its name to something like
the Georgetown Circulating Library. Then come people who say that it
isa “ Mutual Admiration Society ” and others who want it to grind some
particular axe. These are of no real value in any Society.

Only once can I find that a member was expelled. This was John
Emery, editor of a scurrilous newspaper, who charged the Society with
being a “hotbed of politics.” In self-defence the Society was bound to
take notice of such a charge.

The most absurd fault-finder is one who continually abuses every-
thing but when called upon to serve on a Committee does nothing. Some-
times he abuses the actions of others if he is outvoted.

Fortunately for the Society it has had quite a fair number of real
workers; sometimes there are three generations. A good example
is the Conyers family. Charles was an original member, Francis Albouy
helped in building the present Reading Room and was ‘Treasurer
for many years, and we have Frank as a member to-day. Such cases how-
ever are not numerous for many of the best workers have left the colony
with their families. I cannot mention even the names of those who
helped but I must not forget Mr.G. H. Hawtayne who started the
Popular Science Lectures and Mr. Darnell Davis who kelped by his
presence on the Book Committee. Before Mr. F. A. Conyers was
Treasurer R. W Imlach alias “Old Blazes” held that post for many
years. He was certainly a ‘‘ character,” honest but too fond of the big D.
Those who knew him smiled but he certainly gave offence to strangers.
Mr. Luke M. Hill was a good Secretary, and did much to improve the
buildings.

It must be understood that the present officers and mem bers are not
mentioned because their work is better known.

Urs anp Downs.

In the seventy-three years of its existence the Society has neces-
sarily hadits times of depression which generally corresponded with
those of the colony. Whenit started there was a gleam of hope. Six
years of freedom had upset the old conditions, ruin came to many of the
planters, but, like some other upsets emancipation was not an unmixed
evil. A new start was made and the Society came into existence when
people began to hope for better times. There were, of course, many ideas
floating about as it were and some absurd projects brought forward. .
The Society let everyone have his say and even made experiments in tile
drainage and ploughing. Some of these failures were useful to preven
future mistakes,

34 ‘ Timehri.

The enthusiasm of the first few years did not last, for the depression —_

of the colony which came through the gradual loss of protection to
Colonial sugar, was felt by every one. The Society, however, slowly but
steadily progressed, building up a fairly good library and discussing
everything bearing on the welfare of the colony. Mr. *Campbell’s original
by-laws were somewhat modified but there was no radical change. We
may say that the Society was due to an upset when a spurt was made,
but this leap was followed by a jog-trot. Progress was visible but slow.

In 1864 came the Great Fires to which Georgetown largely owes its
practical immunity from yellow fever. From one standpoint it was a
great disaster, from another it gave room tor improvement. The effect
on Georgetown influenced every institution and necessarily the Society.
Pessimists would haye said, ‘‘ Let the Society go for it has already gone,”
but Mr. Campbell never said this. Arrangements were made for continu-
ing and for building something ketter.

I cannot find that there was any Insurance money to receive and there-
fore nothing available for the new start. The fire took place on the 3rd of
April. A meeting of the Directors was held on the 14th to consider what
should be done. Mr. A. W. Perot was then President, and it was resolved
to take immediate steps to raise a fund and erect without delay a new
building which would provide room for a Museum. The loss was
estimated at $25,000. The responses to the appeal for donations were so
prompt that on the 22nd they amounted to $4,255. I cannot go into
the particulars of how subscriptions were raised in the colony and in
England, but the work was done, with the result we can see to-day. At
first it was intended to have a Museum on the lower floor, but this gave
place to the Post Office and Pilot Office which necessitated a special Museum
Building. And here I may call attention to the fact that the tower and
lower floor were built for the signal station and Post Office, and I have
always held that there is a moral obligation on the part of the Government
to occupy and pay rents for the portions so provided by their request. It
will be seen that the first building accommodated the signal office and
therefore it was continuous down to a few years ago.

The result ofthe fire was and impetus to the Society which has continue
with slight fluctuations to the present. My personal experience begins
with 1870 when the new buildings were completed with a new library
already of some value. I was agreeably surprised to find many of the
books I specially desired to give me an insight into the colony and its
resources ; the local literature was greedily devoured and I must have
pestered the Managing Directors for special permission to borrow many
books. Asan Associate, however, I did not attend the meetings because
I might have been an intruder, but I read the reports and always took an
interest in the work of the Society. The subscriptions were then $16,
$12 and $8. Ladies had not yet been admitted and were very few until
recent years. It was suggested to me that I should become a member so
as to be free of the meetings but $16 repelled myself and many others who
might have been useful.

i

.
:
|
|
q

A Chat about the Society’s Past. 35

The Society was much improved, and when Mr. W. Rassell was
President he offered valuable money prizes for essays, which were pub-
lished ; later came “Timebri’ which has undoubtedly brought the
Society before the world.

But another impetus was required and this came without a catas-
trophe. In 1886 the colony was much depressed and it was felt that the
Society’s subscriptions were too high. Led by Mr. Mewburn Garnett,
who belonged to a family of which several members had long been
conn ected with the Society, a motion was brought forward to reduce
subs criptions. When this was introduced Mr. W. Russell, then President,
said he had never before seen so many at a general meeting. The Direc-
tors were not altogether pleased at the remarks made which ‘they
consiered as reflections ou their management, and therefore when the
resoldtion for reducing subscriptions was passed, the President and one of
the Directors resigned.

At first it seemed as if the income under the new rules would
decrease but when a few years afterwards the number of members
became greater thanever before (or since) the move was justified. A
series of popular lectures was started and many improvements made, so
we may safely state that this was another step forward,

Unfortunately, however, there came a great drawback through the
removal of the Post Office and the Pilot establishment which resulted in a
considerable reduction of the rents. This hampered progress and stopped
“Timehri.” To add to the financial difficulties the grant to the Museum
was reduced to less than half. However the Society has survived in spite
of the croakers who suggested that the Museum should be handed over to
the Government.

THe Society’s WoRK.

Some will ask whether the position to-day justifies the Society’s
existence ? What has it done ?

The first answer I can give from my own experience. When a person
goes into a new place he wants to find a library with books that will tell
him about the country. This has been provided by the Society through a
period of about sixty years when there was no public library, and when
hardly anyone had a private one. The necessity for a supervised collection
of books is obvious ; unfortunately for the book lover his volumes cannot
be left alone without risk even for a few months. The result is that few
people attempt to keep books, and therefore the lending from one to
another so common in England is unknown here. The Society has pro-
vided a library with a unique collection of local works, so desirable to
every new-comer and even to many old colonists.

The second great work of the Society is the Museum. It is true
that itis now supported by the Government grant, but much has been
spent in the past from the Society’s funds. I will not say more, for it is
open to the inspection of the public,

36 Timehri.

Since 1851, the Society: has conducted local exhibitions as well as
the necessary preparations for those abroad where the colony was repre-
sented. Those only who know the amount of work connected with them
can appreciate the value of the Society. For his services at the London
Exhibition of 1862 W. H. Holmes was knighted and for similar work of
the Colonial and Indian Exhibition Mr. G. H. Hawtayne received a
C.M.G.; both were prominent members of the Society.

The file of “ Timehri” laid upon the table shows another aspect of
our work and.it may be stated that the curators of the Museum have
helped to make the colony known to the world. Much has beensaid
about advertising the colony, pat this cannot be done by official publiea-
tions; books like Brown's ‘‘Canoe and Camp Life” and Im Thurn’s
“ Among the Indians” are bought to be read and kept where a Blue-book
is neglected. Mr. Barrington Brown was a member, and Sir E. F. Im
Thura, curator of our Museum, when their books were written. :

One of the objects of the Society was to offer Premiums for improve-
ments, and it is not generally known that this was done in 1846, by the
Government at the request of the Society. The list is exhibited but
I have not found out whether Premiums were actually awarded; the
amounts offered were from £1 to £30.

In looking over the progressive development of the Society we can
say that the whole colony has been better and wiser because it
existed and therefore we must give all praise to Mr. Campbell and others —

. who did the pioneer work. Every member who feels the value of our
institution must say that, in spite of fault-finders, it has justified its exist-
ence.

I may mention that several of the more important institu-
tions of the colony were due to the memorials of the Society. The
first Agricultural Chemist, Dr. Shier, had his laboratory on our premises
and later the Government established the Botanic Gardens and Depart-
ment of Agriculture at our request. The Chamber of Commerce is the —
outcome of our Commercial Committee. In one way or another the
Society has helped local industries, gold and rice may be mentionéd as
well as balata. It has always been prominent in exploration ; Sir Robert
Schomburgk was honorary member in the first year, Mr. Barrington —
Brown came in Jater. Im Thurn and Quelch were explorers ; they paved
the way for those who came later.

In conclusion I must state that this only skims the surface; the
hstory of the So ciety would filla book. Some of the materials for such
a work are exhibited but these are by no means all. It may be safely
st ated that every man of any note in the colony has been a member, and
that the few who remain outside are at a disadvantage. Berbice once
had a Reading Society on similar lines, but I understand it has now
degenerated and its library is of little value. Our Society has seen the
rise and fall of many others,—there is a proverb, “ nothing keeps long
in Demerara,” but every rule has its exceptions, a

CONVERSAZIONE,
May 24, 1917.

ADDRESSES TO THE GOVERNOR.

His EXxceELLency on His “StTupious YEAR.”

In the evening a conversazione was held in the Reading Room of
the R. A. & C. Society, His Excellency Sir Wilfred Collet, K.C.M.G.,
being present with Capt. Parker, “A.D.C., in attendance. There was a
large gathering and a pleasant evening was spent.

A musical programme was gone through, the opening item being a
pianoforte solo by Mr. H. N. C. Edwards who played ‘ Caprice’ by Harold
Martin-Sperry. Mrs. Clavier followed with the song ‘“ Love's Garden of
Roses ” while Lieut. Hoban’s contribution was “She is far from the
Land.” A charming song was next rendered by Dr. F. G. Rose.

Following this was an address by Mr. A. Hyatt Verrill on “Some
things seen in the colony” with lantern illustrations, (See puge 1)
Mr. Verrill treated the audience to a brief description of his latest journey
into the interior and of the several places of interest visited,

His Excellency proposed a hearty vote of thanks to Mr, Verrill for
his interesting and instructive address and the vote was carried by
acclamation.

ADDRESSES TO THE GOVERNOR,

Next came the presentation of addresses of welcome to His
Excellency, the first being read by Dr. Nunan on behalf of the
R. A. & C. Society.

The text of this address was as follows :—

Address by the Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society to His
Excellency Sir Wilfred Collet, K.C.M.G.

Your Excellency—

The members, associates and subscribers of the Royal Agricultural
and Commercial Society take the opportunity this evening of welcoming
you to British South America, and of thanking you for accepting
the office of vice-patron.

In your heavy task of Administration, Your Excellency will always
have the support of the Society, a non-political body, the parent of
many of the colony’s most useful institutions, as full of active life to-day
asin the past. It comprises the planters, merchants and officials of the
colony, representing every race and creed of our population. It hasa
history of seventy-three years and is the only Royal Society in the West
Indian dominions. Its watchword is Progressive Continuity,

88 Timehri.

You will already have learned that there is no division of opinio
among our people as to the Colony’s requirements, whatever difficulties
we may frankly realise as existing in the way of their fulfilment. These
requirements may be summarized in the words population (including
colonization and sanitary progress) railway development, harbour im-
provement, irrigation, equipment for sugar manufacture, exploitation of
forest products, mines and stock. Its forward strides, checked for a time
by the great war, the colony while devoted heart and soul to the earnest
prosecution of the war, will welcome any measures which your Govern-
ment will frame to meet the situation at its close. The Society will be
of assistance to your Excellency in the accumulation of all necessary
data and in the creation of an informed public opinion on any non-
political issue. We are at present engaged in considering on the one hand
what further assistance we can render to the Empire in the current
year, and onthe other hand in preparing for a great Agricultural and
Horticultural Exhibition for 1918.

In its various activities we look to you confidently for advice,
assistance anda guiding hand. We trust we shall often have an oppor-
tunity of welcoming you in our midst and we desire to express our
heartiest good wishes for the success of your administration, a success
meaning so much for this great undeveloped Continental asset of the
Orown, our only possession on the South American Continent, which
presents a splendid field for capital and enterprise if honestly and intelli-
gently expended. The Society is convinced that as the colony has had a
lingering dawn it will all the more certainly have a brilliant day.

We congratulate you on having by industry and ability reached,
while still in the fulness of intellectual and physical vigour, the highest
rank in the Colonial Civil Service. We believe that your ripe experience
will enable you to crown that record here.

We assure Your Excellency of our loyalty as a Society, for His
Majesty Our Gracious Patron has no more devoted subjects than the
people of this colony, which treasures recollections of his early visit.

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ADDRESS.

Mr. A. P. G. Austin, on behalf of the Georgetown Chamber of

Commerce, read the following address :
Georgetown, Demerara,
24th May, 1917.
To His Excellency,
Sir Wilfred Collet, K.C.M.G.,

We, the members of the Chamber of Commerce of the City of
Georgetown, desire to extend to your Excellency a hearty welcome to
the colony on assuming the high office of Governor.

Under the dark shadow of the great and terrible ‘var this colony
has assumed a measure of prosperity unknown to it for many years.

Conversazione. 39

This is a fortuitous circumstance beyond all control or expectation, but
we look forward to a continuance of this prosperity when happier times
return, and if a system of Imperial Prefereuce be adopted after the war.

We are confident that Your Excellency will spare no pains to en-
courage and develop by prudent and well-considered measures not only
the important industries which already exist, but the other resources of
the colony which are believed to be great.

We respectfully beg to assure Your Excellency of our staunch and
ready help at all times and that Your Excellency may invoke our assist-
ance for the consideration of commercial matters and the advancement of
the community generally.

A. P. G. Austin, President; G. R. Garnett, Vice-President; P.
Cressall, jnr., do.; Jules Pairaudeau, secretary ; C. Farrar, treasurer ;
T. T. Smellie, C. F. Wieting, Jorge Comacho, J. E. Strickland, C. E.
Vezey, M. Gomes, W. B, Gray, A. P. Sherlock, J. B. Laing, A. K. F.
Duncan, Council, on behalf of members of the Chamber.

THE PLANTERS’ ASSOCIATION.

The address of the Planters’ Association, read by Mr. H. E. Murray,
was as follows :—

Your Excellency,

The members of the Planters’ Association desire to welcome you
to British Guiana and to assure you of their whole-hearted co-operation
and support in any question on which you may wish to have their
assistance or advice.

On your assumption of the reins of Government of this Magnificent
Province we desire to emphasise our opinion of the supreme
importance of the introduction of population. We believe that the
colony should become to India what Canada is to Great Britain—a field
for surplus population and if Your Excellency is successful in introducing
suitable measures to attain this object, you will be doing something for
which not only the present generation but generations to come will be
truly thankful.

We give you a hearty welcome and assure you of our best wished
that your administration will be a happy and successful one.

VILLAGE CHAIRMEN’S CONFERENCE.

Mr. J. MacFarlane Corry read the address from the Village Chair-
men’s Conference, the text being as follows :-—

May it please Your Excellency—

On behalf of the Village Chairmen’s Conference, we the
Executive Committee beg to be permitted to represent the villagers

40 Timehrr.

throughout the colony for the purpose of according to Your Excellency a
cordial and sincere welcome as the Representative of His Gracious
Majesty our King.

As villages we came into being during the reign of His Majesty's
illustrious grandmother, Victoria the Good, whose memory we are now
celebrating ; and during that same reign weso developed as to obtain a
large measure of self-government under the guidance of the Local
Government Board, for which we are grateful.

The Village Chairmen’s Conference is the outcome of the desire on
the part of the villages for an intelligent co-operation with the Board.

Your Excellency will no doubt be pleased to learn that a large num-
ber of ‘‘ Our Boys” at the front to-day, went from these villages, and
that whatever the needs of the Empire may require in every particular
the Government may rely on our support and assistance.

We look forward to the time when under Your Excellency’s benefi-
cent rule, the outstanding difficulties of drainage and sea defence will be
removed, and these villages take their proper place, as the backbone of
agricultural deyelopment in the colony.

We wish for Your Excellency health, strength and a prosperous
career as Governor of a colony the inhabitants of which take no second
place in their loyalty and devotion to the Throne.

We are Your Excellency’s humble and loyal servants.

(Sgd.) J. McFarRLANE Corry,
President.
B. 8. Prercy,
Vice-Pres.
E. D. Miturncton,
Secretary.
W. H. Hinps,
Asst. Secty.
JOSHUA THOMPSON.
His ExceLLency’s REp.y.

In returniag thanks to the several bodies His Excellency said that a
Governor's first year in a colony, especially in one like his, was always
his studious year. It was the year in which he should gain a detailed
knowledge of every part of the colony so that he could form a definite
opinion of his own. He had begun to make observations, and had
already seen the necessity for increasing the depth of water over the bar.
at the mouth of the river. Before forming any definite opinion on any
particular point he would study everything carefully and hoped that
when he movei in any direction he would have the support of the
majority of people in the colony.

On the invitation of Dr. Nunan some of those present visited the
Museum which was brilliantly lighted.

The gathering afterwards dispersed,

INSECT HOMES.
By iD: Gielen Jnr., F.E.S.

The habit of building homes either for the protection of their
young or as shelters for themselves, so often found among the higher
animals, is quite as pronounced in the insect world and serves the same
ends as in the higher forms.

Homes, as we understand them, to accommodate both parents and
offspring, are not often found in the insect world. Insect ‘homes’
may be divided into several classes, both according to the type of
dwelling and stage of development.

Some of these homes are mere hiding places for a stage of the insects
formed by themselves, such as the ‘nests’ of some Lepidopterous larvae,
—made by drawing together afew leaves. The far more common type
however, is made by the parents for the protection of their young
or by the larvae for the protection of their helpless pupae. With
these homes the parents usually have no further connection
after provisioning them with food for the young. An _ excep-
tion, however, can be found in the fossorial wasps of the Family
Bembecidae, locally known as ‘cowfly tigers,’ for here the parent supplies
the larva with fresh flies until it pupates.

The nearest type to a home as we understand itis probably found
among the leaf-cutting or ‘coushi’ ants (Atta cephalotes L. et spp.)
though, in this case, it will probably be compared to a city on account of
its large size. Here a number of individuals of different types are
accommodated but they are all of the same parents. This is probably
the highest development of the ‘home’ amongst insects.

The material used in the construction of the homes is usually either
vegetable, parts or the products of plants, or substances such as earth,
clay and stones, and while these are often worked up by the insects they
are sometimes used in their natural state. In special cases, however, the
material may be made entirely of some secretion of the insects themselves
such as the wax cells of bees and the silken cocoons of a number of
insects,

This habit of home-building appears in a large number of the Orders
of insects, but probably reaches its greatest development among the
ants, bees and wasps (Order Hymenoptera). We will therefore begin by
considering the homes of this group.

Probably the most familiar of these homes are the nests of the social
wasps. The large pendant nests of Montezwmia nigriceps Spin. are
familiar objects in this country and are constructed of a very
brittle papery substance ; they are usually 9-12 inches in length but
may measure as much as3 feet 6 inches long. The nests of this
Species are cylindrical with the entrance at the bottom,

42 Timehri.

The forest species Chartergus chartarius Oliv. builds a nest of much
the same design, but here the covering for the cells is of a cardboard-like
substance and not easily broken. Owing to this fact these nests are
often seen preserved as curios in this colony.

Not so highly developed, though still high in the scale, are the
wasps that build the saucepan-cover nests. Here a number of cells are
joined together and attached to their support by a small pedicel, these
builders, however, make no covering wall. Our commonest examples of
this type are the homes of the Brown Marabunta, Polistes canadensis L.
var. amazonicus Schulz, which can almost always be seen about railway
stations or under bridges and houses in the country.

Familiar objects to everyone must be the little mud homes of the
‘mason bees’ Ewmenes canaliculata Oliv. Those little earthen flasks
about } of an inch in diameter which we find so often attached to the
electric-light wire, on pictures, the ceiling or other such places, are the
homes of this insect. In these little domes the eggs are laid and a num-
ber of caterpillars, paralysed by asting from the parent wasp, are placed
therein so that when the young larvae hatch there is an ample food
supply for them. Sealed within these cells the larvae undergo their
changes and eventually emerge as adult wasps. .

‘

Very like the above in their habits are the wasps Sceliphron
jistulare Dahlb. only in this case the parents store up spiders. The
architecture of their homes too is different, for they build cells about 1}
inches long, parallel to each other and usually against a wall, thc ugh
sometimes nests are found on a pendant object in which case the support
is encircled. When each cell has been provisioned the wasp closes the
entrance and finally smears the whole surface over so that the arrange-
ment of the cells is imperceptible. Development proceeds within the
cells and eventually adult wasps emerge by biting holes through the
structure.

Absolutely different in their habits are the burrowing wasps, and for
our example we will take the common ‘cow-fly tigers, Monedula
Signata. L, Not only the appearance, but to a large extent the
habits of these insects are described by the name ‘cowlly tigers,’
given them by the creoles. In colour they are a light green being vari-
ously marked with bars and blotches of black, very much after the man-
ner of a jaguar, and their food is largely composed of ‘cowflies ’
(Tabanidae). These insects build their homes by burrowing into the
ground, showing a preference for sandy soils. Along with this habitof —
digging there has developed a number of spines on the forelegs of these
insects which must greatly help them in their digging. operations. In
the burrow which the female makes she lays an egg and the larva which ~
hatches from this is supplied with flies previously paralysed by its
parents. When fully grown a cocoon is spun and eventually an adult
‘cowfly tiger ’ emerges. :

Insect Homes. 43

Unlike any of the above in their habits are the wood-boring bees
so well represented by our large Xylocopa fimbriata F., and the small
Meliponas. Ourlarge Xylocopas are such busy fellows that we should
certainly know about their homes. As we have previously said, they
are wood borers, and with their strong mandibles they make tunnels
several inches deep and about } of an inch wide. At the bottom of
the tunnel a ball of honey and pollen is placed and on this an egg is laid.
A short distance above this the bee places a wad of sawdust, stuck
together by a secretion of its own, to close the cell and at the same time
form the floor of the next cell. In the cell above the same thing happens
until the tunnel, which usually consists of 3 or 4 cells, is filled. It can at
once be seen that the bottom cell will contain the oldest insect which,
when it was ready to emerge, would be unable to do so had it not some
- unusual method. These insects have developed a peculiar habit to overcome
this difficulty and the freshly emerged adult bites its way out by forming
another tunnel going off at right angles to its home, and through this
tunnel, in succession, pass the newly formed bees.

The Meliponas on the other hand occupy hollows in trees. If the
space is too big it is stopped at a suitable distance before the nest is
formed, and the entrance is always reduced to a small hole by filling in
the area with wax. These insects make complicated homes and the honey
cells, the wax cells, and the cells containing the larvae are all kept separate
and are often even of entirely different shapes.

In the Ants (Fam. Formicidae) we have probably the most highly
developed house builders among the insects; they, however, are usually
subterranean dwellers. The entire Family are remarkably intelligent and
have received considerable attention. For our example we will consider
the well-known and much written about ‘Coushi’ (Atta cephalotes L. et
spp.) These ants agriculturists probably know only too well, for many,
particularly those on our river lands, suffer from their depredations ; but
apart from this they are highly interesting.

‘ Coushi’ ants, in addition to making subterranean dwelling in which
their young are brought up, have developed further in that they grow
their food. The pieces of leaves cut from the plants by these ants are
not eaten as is the popular idea, but are stored in chambers below the
ground where a particular fungus grows on them and it is this fungus
that forms the food of the ants. Here, as has already been pointed out,
we have a very high development of this habit of home-building and
probably the nearest approach to our idea of a home.

Termites (Order /soptera) are another group of insects whose homes
must be familiar to many in the tropics, and it is this habit of making a
nest that has probably earned them the local name of ‘ wood ants.’ The
nests are familiar enough in this colony and can often be seen attached to
paling posts, beams of houses, and stools of sugar cane.

44 - Timehra.

While the nests found in this colony are small there are species
to be found in Australia whose nests are taller than a man.
The commoner type of nest here is spherical and about 12 to 18 inches
in diameter but small conical forms about 2 feet high are also found
locally. The nests are made from the wood which they destroy hardened
by a secretion of the insects.

Among the butterflies and moths (Order Lepidoptera) the home
building instinct is also present. The so common habit among the
moths of forming a cocoon must be considered but a development in this
direction for the protection of the pupae.

The larvae sometimes make shelters for themselves, and a fine example
can be found in the often too prevalent Coconut Caterpillar, Brassolis
sophorae L. In this species several dozen larvae draw the leaflets of a
branch together by silken threads thus forming a cylindrical ‘ nest,’ open
at both ends, in which they hide during the day.

The larvae of the Guava Firetail Butterfly, Pyrrhopyge amyclas Cram.,
have a similar habit but in this case each larva makes a separate home by
drawing together a couple of leaves. Leafrolling too is but another form
of nest-building. In these examples we have the simplest types uf homes
—mere hiding places.

Very different are the nests of Titya hirta Druce, belonging to the ~
Family Lasiocampidae. Here the larvae build a large sacklike nest of
silk which may be as much as two feet long and in this they pupate. The
adults when hatched make holes ia this sack to emerge.

The well-known Brown-tail Moth of North America, Euproctis
chrysorrhea L. (Fam. Liparidae) has a similar habit and builds a nest of
leaves, 5-6 inches in length, in which the larvae pass the winter ; one of
these nests may contain as many as 200 or more larvae.

Probably the most peculiar development of this habit is to be found in
the Family Psychidae or Bagworms which is well represented by our
Oiketicus kirbyii Gldng., whose homes are often to be seen about. The
larvae of these insects build dwellings about 2 or 3 inches long of small
bits of twigs over which they spin a tough silken covering, in these bags
they live, carrying them around with them wherever they go. Later,
when fully developed, the male pupates and emerges as a winged moth,
the female remaining undeveloped and spending the whole of her life at
home.

In the order Hemiptera examples can also be found. The familiar
Cicadas or ‘ six o'clock bees’ of this colony make underground dwellings
in their nymphal stage, their tunnels extending several inches down. The
well known ‘seventeen year locust’ Cicada septendecim of North
America it must be remembered is really a Cicada and spends its entire
nymphal stage, lasting close on seventeen years, in the ground,

Insect Homes. 45

Those small but so important insects which we call Scale Insects
(Fam. Coccidae) must be considered among the housebuilders. In this
Family the female makes « covering for herself in the form of a scale
while the male is winged and free living. The coverings of these insects
vary somewhat, being rudimentary in some, waxy in others, and often
hard and chitinous. It is worthy of notice that in the control of these
insects it is against their homes that measures are directed and in this
way the young as well as the adults are destroyed.

Hardly to be considered as home builders are the Fulgoridae or
Lanternflies and the Cercopidae or Froghoppers, both belonging to the
Order Hemiptera, but they might be mentioned here on account of
their methods of protecting their young.

For our example of the Fulgoridae we may consider the
beautifu Ishell-like insect so common on Saman trees (Pithecolibium Saman)
in this colony and known scientifically as Poekilloptera phaloenoides L.
The young of this insect are covered with a thick wooly excretion and
when abundant in the dry season they thickly cover the limbs of these
trees giving one the impression of a light fall of snow, This Family is best
represented in Tropical America where the largest forms are to be found.

The habits of the Cercopidae or Froghoppers are well known and
the name of ‘ spittle insects’ comes from the habit the nymphs have of
surrounding themselves with a froth-like excretion.

Different from all the homes we have studied are those of the
Caddice flies (Order 7'richoptera) for here we have subaquatice dwellings,
the earlier stages of these insects being passed under water. Both the
type of dwelling and the material used differ according to genera, some of
the simpler forms covering themselves with bits of stick arranged longi-
tudinally and held together by silken threads, while other forms arrange
the bits of stick horizoutally and even cover them with moss and snails,
both dead and living. Other forms again make their homes of stones; all,
however, keep the material from which the home is erected together by
means of silken threads.

Probably the most curious dwellings made by Caddice flies are those
found beneath rocks and in waterfalls. They are often very simple con-
sisting only of a few pebbles attached to the rock by threads, and between
these pebbles the worm makes a perfect tube of silk in which it lives.
These Caddice flies are fishermen and if one looks, their seine can be
found, stretched between two stones, usually funnel-shaped, and opening
up stream ; they thus form traps for the small creatures that come rushing
down with the current and which form the food of this carnivorous group
of Caddice flies. When these nets occur on the brinks of waterfalls they
assume the form of semi-elliptical cups which are kept distended by the
current,

46 Timehri.

Homebuilding is less pronounced among the Coleoptera or Beetles
than in the Orders previously mentioned but the larvae of Curculionidae
or Weevils make tough fibrous cocoons for the protection of their
pupae. Perhaps our commonest examples are the Palm Weevil,
Rhyncophorus palmarum L., and the Sugar cane woew Metamasius
hemipterus L.

In the Family Scarabaeidae although we do not find a home actually
built we have the parents making provision for their young in a peculiar
way. In the group of this Family popularly known as the Tumble-bugs
both male and female form round balls of dung, often several times as
large as their combined sizes, which are sometimes rolled long distances.
The balls are finally buried in the ground and the female deposits an egg
on each so that when the larvae hatch these balls serve as their food.

The Order Diptera or Flies is but slightly developed in this direction

&

and the habit of home building is only to be found in the Family —

Cecidomyiidae or Gall gnats. The adults are small and delicate flies and
on this account are probably not often noticed. The larvae, however, are
often very important and the now celebrated Hessian Fly, Mayetiola
destructor Say, the most serious pest of wheat in North America, belongs
to this group.

Our most familar local!representative is the Cassava Gall (Ceeidomyia?
manihot Felt). At times hundreds of these galls cun be seen on the leaves
of a single plant. This Family has received but little attention in this
colony.

Cockroaches, Locusts, Grasshoppers, Crickets, and Godhorses (Order
Orthoptera) have home-building instinct least developed. Some Crickets
(Fam. Gryllidae) do make burrows in the ground in which they hide but in
this Order the majority of the members only provide protection for the

eggs.

Cockroaches (Fam. Blattidae,) apparently prefer the homes of man and

the familiar egg cases of our cockroaches (Periplaneta americana L, et
many spp) offer good examples of egg protection. The egg cases are
however sometimes themselves protected by a covering of fragments of
their surroundings such as bits of paper.

The God-horses (Fam. Mantidae), or Praying Mantids as they are
called in other countries, also form egg-cases which they attach to stems
and branches.

In the Locusts and Grasshoppers we have modifications in their strue-

ture to help them in hiding their eggs. Locusts (Fam. Acrididae) have

egg guides which they use to bore into the ground where they deposit
their eggs while the Grasshoppers (Fam. Locustidae) have long sword-
like ovipositors which must be of the greatest value to them as their eggs

are usually laid in the stems and root-leaves of grasses or the pith of

twigs,

¢ Insect Homes. 47

Crickets (Fam. Gryllidae), as already explained, form burrows for them-
selves and along with this habit their forelegs have greatly developed.
They are also provided with ovipositors which are not so well developed
as in the grasshoppers.

The question naturally arises as to what is the object of these homes.
Ofcourse the answer is ‘for protection’; but let us see in whatway
they offer this protection. The simplest form of protection is protbably
against weather conditions, for either excessive heat or excessive
rains would be inimical to the earlier stages. The most important fune-
tion, however, is probably as a protection against enemies. The simple
hiding-places which larvae make by drawing together a number of leaves,
or merely rolling one, protect them, not only from birds which are for-
ever preying upon them, but also from enemies of their own kind such
as parasitic Hymenoptera, and Diptera. The tiny homes of Caddice flies
(Trichoptera), protective, no doubt, against fishes, water beetles (Hydro-
philidae, etc.), dragon fly larvae (Odonata), and other aquatic insects ;
the cocoons of moths (Lepidoptera), and even the complicated homes of
the bees and wasps (Hymenoptera) have probably all been developed for
the same purpose. ‘To a large extent these protections succeed, but the
parasitic insects have, of necessity, themselves developed in other
directions so as to overcome these obstacles for it is only thus that the
balance of life is maintained.

THE INDIANS OF BARBADOS.

By E. G. SINcKLER.

In his English in the West Indies, published in 1888, Mr. James
Anthony Froude, the historian, writing of Barbados, states (page 38) :

“ Little is known of the island before we took possession of it—so
little that the origin of the name is still uncertain. Barbados, if nota
corruption of some older word, is Spanish or Portuguese, and means
‘bearded.’ The local opinion is that the word refers to a banyan or fig-
tree whichis common there, and which sends down from its branches
long hairs or fibres supposed to resemble beards. I disbelieve in this
derivation. Every Spaniard whom I have consulted confirms my own
impression that ‘ Barbados’ standing alone could no more refer to trees
than ‘ barbati’ standing alone could refer to trees in Latin. The name
is acentury older than the English occupation, for I have seen it ina
Spanish chart of 1525. The question is of some interest, since it perhaps
implies that at the first discovery there was a race of Bearded Caribs
there.”

As the English when they took possession of the island in 1605, and
again when they settled in it in 1627, are stated to have found no
inhabitants in it (if we exclude the fact of the bay called “Six men’s
bay” in St. Peters) the question arises was the island ever inhabited ?

The Rev. Griffith Hughes, Rector of St. Lucy’s Parish, in his
“Natural History of Barbados” (published in 1750) proves that it was
inhabited (“for at least certain seasons of the year.”) He states :—

“Former descriptions of this island begin with barely mentioning
its discovery by the Portuguese, and the settlement of the English there
in the reign of King James the First in the year 1625,* with. ut the least
enquiry, whether it had ever been before inhabited, and by whom. Itis,
indeed, said that some of the first discoverers of this island found no in-
habitants upon their arrival. However we ought not to conclude too
hastily, that there never were any, until what is offered to prove the
contrary, be fully considered. I was, indeed, once partly inclined to that
opinion, induced to it from the remoteness of this, from the whole cluster
of islands, wiz., St. Lucia, Dominico, Marygalant, Guardaloup, St. Chris-
topher’s, Antigua, and St. Vincent ; which last, though nearest, is about
100 miles distant. Andas most of these are in sight of one another, they
are more convenient for mutual commerce in time of peace, and embarka-
tion in time of war. And what gives several of these the advantage over
this island with regard to an Jndian settlement, is their far greater num-
ber of open bays and rivers, stored with tortoises, and almost an incredi-
ble plenty of fish. But as we have had late instances of their coming

*The late Mr. N, Darnell Davis ©,M.G., proved this date to be incorrect—the correct
date being 1627,

’

The Indians of Barbados. 4.9

hither from St. Vincent's in their small canoes or Perriawgers, even for
their pleasure, I concluded, that they might formerly, more probably,
come for their interest ; especially at certain seasons of the year, when
the fishing or game in the other islands, grew either scanty or shy, by
being too often disturbed.

«These probable conjectures, upon a farther inquiry were corrobo-
rated by the suffrage of many aged persons ; several of whom were he-
tween eighty and ninety years old, who, not only agreed in their received
tradition that there were Zndians formerly in this island, but likewise
some of them added farther, that their ffequent arrival to, or departure
from it, was always in the wane of the moon, for the benefit of light nights
and that when a difference arose between them and the Lnglish, the
Indians retired to their fastnesses in the woods ; and that in their way
down to their canoes, they would artfully hide themselves with coverings
of green boughs, to elude the search of the English.

* Now, since the parents of these aged persons, who give this account
might be old enough to be eye-witnesses of these things; such and so
early a testimony, where they had no apparent inducement to deviate
from the truth must at least, be allowed to carry with it the usual weight
and credit in such cases, till these conjectures, strengthened by tradition,
and confirmed by apparent facts, grow to such a degree of certainty, as to
leave every doubt inexcusable.

“The method I shall take to prove their former residence in this
island will be to make it appear First; that there are several places in
this island called, to this day, after theirnames. Secondly, that in these
very places there are dazly dug up such marks of their former resideuce,
as were peculiar to Indians. Thirdly, I shall compare these several evi-
dences with those confessedly satisfactory ones, in almost parallel cases.
I shall begin by observing that the Indians, who inhabited this island
could in all probability be no others than colonies from some of the
Leeward Islands, most probably from St. Vincent, St. Lucia or Tobago.
From either of these, according to their situation, with respect to
Barbados, as well as with regard to a safe harbour, they must probably
land to the west, or west-south-west of this island. Accordingly
as Carlisle Bay is the largest and most commodious harbour, it is natural
to suppose that they landed here and made the adjacent part of the island
their place of residence. This is evidently confirmed by the buttings and
boundings of several tenements near this bay ; which in very old deeds,
are said to terminate at or within a certain distance from the Indian
Bridge ; from which the great number of houses built about this con-
venient place, came soon afterwards to be called Bridge Town. The
above-mentioned bridge was placed over that part of the creek, or narrow
neck of the bay, which divides Major Gidney Clark’s house fron Colonel
John Fuirchild’s.* The necessity that the Indians, residing on the

*Now Fairchild Street, Bridgetown,

50 Timehvi.

north side of this creek, were under to make a bridge (which in all likeli- — .

hood consisted of no more than a few trees, felled down, and laid across —
this creek) will appear when we consider that their best and almost only
supply o fresh water, was on the south side of it at a place now called
Hannington’s Spring.”*

“The next small rivulet running to the sea to the leeward of
Bridge Town is at present, as well as in many old deeds, called Indian
River. It was likewise at this place that some Indians from St. Vincent's
landed in or about the year 1738. And as Indians are remarkably nice
in choosing a dry healthy situation, this, with so few or no footsteps of
their long abode here gave me room to believe, that they kept moving
along the seashore so long as they met with convenient fishing bays.

“ As the bays near the Hole Town were well stored with fish this
seemed to be their seeond settlement from Jndian River; but as it was
necessary in stormy weather, to provide a shelter higher up in the country
I found several remains of their abode, under the shelter of a high cliff,
in the estate of Samuel Barwick, Esq., deceased. We are likewise in-
formed by tradition that five Indian women, upon promise of good
usage from the English, upon the desertion of the rest of the Indians
lived and died in that place: and about two miles from hence, there is a
tract of land called Indian Wood or Indian Town.

“ And as the last of these, of any note, to the leeward of the island,
is Siw Men’s Bay, and Rider's Bay, let us but allow these to be then,
as they are at present, as well stored with fish as any other, and we shall
soon fix their residence, for at least a while, in this convenient place: for
these Jndians (as shall be presently shewed) were but ill provided with
tools to fell timber. This joined to their great indolence caused them to
search (especially in wet seasons) for their natural sheltering place, the
first convenient cave ; and, as there is a very commodious one in the side
of a neighbouring hill, called to this day the Indian Castle, and almost
in a direct line from Siz Men’s Bay, and not above a mile and a half off,
in a pleasant part of the country, it is more than probable that they
should pitch upon this being very commodious. But what made
this place more complete (and affords, I think, an undoubted proof
of their residence here) is an adjoining clayey bottom, where they dug a
Pond or Reservoir to hold rain-water ; and which place is, and hath been
since the memory of the oldest neighbours alive, called the Indian Pond—
with part of the clay which they dug out, they made their earthenware,
such as pots and pans, and, like the idolaters of old, out of the same
materials they made to themselves Gods and worshipped them. Among
several broken fragments of idols, said to be dug up in this place, I saw
the head of one, which alone weighed above sixty pounds weight. This
before it was broken off stood upon an oval pedestal above three feet in
height. The heads of all the others that came within my observation

*Now known as“ Beckles Spring,” Bay Street,

The Indians of Barbados. bal

were very small, one of these weighed 15 ounces : and all were of clay
burnt. These lesser idols were in all probalitity their penates.

“ The last proof of their residence in this place is a great number of
their stone hatchets and chissels that are here dug up. The use of these
hatchets and chissels, was in all likelihood to cut down timber, to make
huts, where they had not the conveniency of caves: as well as, with the
help of fire, to fell some of the largest kind to make canoes. These, I
imagine, after they were roughly squared, were half burnt with live coals ;
and then, with their scooping Chissels, they, by degrees, made them
hollow. Some of the hatchets, and a great number of the chissels,
especially the scooping ones, are made of the most substantial inside part
of a conch-shell ; others of the hardest common stones: and a few of the
cutting sort of a stone of an opaque greenish colour.

“ Having proved their residence in this place, it will not be surprising
to those who know the roving disposition of the Zndians, to find that
they moved under the shelter of the hills, and almost always at equal
distance from the sea, till they came to a large convenient cave, under a
hill called Mownt Gilboa, in the estate of Colonel John Pickering : where I
found several of their broken images, pipes, hatchets, and chissels, . . . It
was natural and customary for them to ramble in search of spring-water,
which at a little distance from hence they found in the Estate of Edward
Bonnett, Esq. Here they settled near a small perennial spring. . . ,
the soil being very proper to produce yams, plantain and banana trees:
but as there was no cave to afford shelter, they were obliged to cut down
timber to build huts: and from thence, in all probability, it comes, that
there are found about this place of their residence so many fragments of
broken hatchets, chissels and pots.

“There are not only near this place, but likewise at Maycocks Bay,
Joan's Hole, Cluffs Bay and near Scotland church, as well as in other
places, many tokens of their former abode.”

From these J/ndian settlements and the large number of idols,
hatchets, chissels, and other /ndian tools found in Barbados the Rev.
Mr. Hughes ¢ me to the conclusion that the island was the residence of
Indians.

As regards the derivation of the name ‘“ Barbados” he is doubtful
for he states :

“Among many wncertain conjectures, those who derive the name
given to this island, from the Portuguese language are most probably in
the right: . . . Nothing could be more surprising to Europeans than to
see the shores shaded with a kind of fig trees, diffe:ing from all other
trees in the manner of their growth, for from their branches hang in-
numerable small filaments growing downwards, till they touch the earth.
These thread-like resemblances have been called by the Hnglish from the

52 Timehrt.

first settlement of the island to this time, the ‘ Beards’ of the fig trees ;
and in all probability the Portuguese might originally have the same
notion of their resemblance, and from thence called this, and the neigh-
bouring islands conjunctly Las Barbados, i.e., the Bearded Islands ; for
Barbada in that language signified anything bearded. And when this
island came to be inhabited by the English it retained the general name
given originally to the whole.”

This “conjecture ” of Mr. Hughes is not borne out by history, nor
by the maps: it is like the other ‘conjectures "—uncertain. He states
all the islands were, as a group, called Las Barbadas.

In Poyer’s ‘‘ History of Barbados,” (published in 1808) the author
states: “From the Portuguese the island obtained the name of Las
Barbadas, in allusion, as some writers have supposed, to the barbarous
inhospitable state of the country.” He, however, states, that Hughes
(before him) ‘ conjectures ” the appellation to have signified ‘‘ The Beard-
ed Island ” from the vast number of Indian fig trees.

Poyer (who was a Barbadian) is of opiuion that Hughes did not prove
that Indians permanently occupied the island : he only. proved that Caribs
from the adjacent islands visited Barbados for the purpose of fishing and
hunting, and perhaps for procuring clay for making domestic utensils.
He (Poyer) states that the Carlisle Settlers erected the bridge from which —
Bridgetown derived its pame. He also states that the English Settlers
(like the Spaniards before them) had recourse 1647 to the practice of
kidnapping the Indians and enslaving them. This entrapping caused the
Caribs dispersed through the Windward Islands to land where the Eng-
lish settlements were accessible to their canoes, and massacre the settlers

with remorseless vengeance. They did not, however, attack the settlers
in Barbados,

Sir Robert Schomburgh in his “ History of Barbados ” (published in
1848) asserts that Barbados was inhabited by Jndians, and that the
Spaniards wiped them off the face of the earth, He states (page 255.) :

“ The researches which I have devoted to the earlier historians of the
New World have afforded me proofs that Barbados was known to the
Spaniards as early as the commencement of the sixteenth century, and
apparently supplied /»dians as slaves tor their mines in Espanola. Las
Casas, through his generous and constant exertions in favour of the
natives of South America, procured from Charles the Fifth some
amelioration of their condition ; and the Licentiate Rodrigo de Figueroa
was sent as Juez de Residencia to Espanola, with instructions
to allow the Indians to live by themselves in their own
villages, and that all who requested it should be set at
liberty : andas the Indians from Trinidad had been taken for slaves
under the pretext oftheir being Caribs, the evil was to be remedied and

The Indians of Barbados. 53

all who had been brought to Espanola from ‘“ the Barbados” and Gigantes
were to be treated as natives. The mere occurrence of the name of the
Isla de los Barbados might be considered accidental had not Herrera
identified it in the geographical description of the islands appended to
his history, where the situation is so far correct that it cannot be mis-
taken. (Charles the Fifth issued his instructions to Rodrigo de Figueroa
in 1518 ; Herrera published the first part of his history in 1601; and
during that interval the island of Barbados is not lost to sight.

“Ttis scarcely to be conceived that an island occupying such a
prominent position as Barbados should have been left undiscovered by the
Portuguese as it lies almost in their course to and from Brazil. It is
equally improbable that it should have remained unknown to the
Spaniards who in the sixteenth century made frequent voyages from
Espanola to Trinidad and Costa Firma; indeed the instructions of the
Licentiate Figueroa prove that 7 was resorted to by the Spaniards for
the purpose of enslaving Indians. Mr. Hughes’ opinion that it must
have been formerly permanently inhabited by Indians, grounded upon the
number of Indian implements and utensils found in different spots in the
island, is therefore borne out by my researches.”

Hughes and Schomburgk prove Barbados was permanently in-
habited by Indians. Iudian implements, utensils and small “heads”
(probably Indian penaies) are at present found nearly everywhere in
Barbados—and there are names all over the island, such as ‘Indian
River,” ‘Indian Grounds,” ‘‘ Indian Caves,” Six Men's Bay, ‘‘ Three
Houses” and “Indian tonds” which proved these Indians were
permanently settled in the Island. When it is remembered that
the Spaniards depopulated the Bahama Islands of their forty
thousand Jndian inhabitants, to work the mines in Hispaniola,
in the short space of jive years, there is nothing improbable in their
depopulating Barbados of its Indians.

The next question is: Are Bearded Indians a fact? Is Frowde’s idea
of a“ Bearded Carib” a monstrosity ?

Though the courtesy of Mr. J. Graham Cruickshank Dr. Roth,
Magistrate in the Pomeroon District, British Guiana, whose knowledge of
the Indians is extensive, stated: ‘ Of course there are bearded Indians in
South America—but one must bear in mind that depilation was and is
still very common. Many of the older Indians even in this district
(mainly Arawaks and Warraus) have something of a tuft so to speak

On the Orinoco certainly a couple of centuries ago the Otomacs
and Guanos grew beards. In our own colony there are records of beards
among the Partamonas, Akawais, and Macusis—all three of them of the
Carib stock. ”

In “ Timehri” (June, 1917) Mr. A. Hyatt Verrill, in writing of “The
Tribal Relationship of the Akawois, states: “Both the insular and

54 Timehri.

mainland Caribs have well developed beards, and many of the Arowaks
have quite luxuriant moustaches.”

The island therefore may have been inhabited by bearded Indians:
and it is worthy of note that the trees that grow onthe shores of
Barbados are not“ fig trees:” they are manchineel, white wood and
cocoanut-palms. The Barbados fig-trees, as a rule, growin “gullies ”
and ravines. The only “ Bearded Fig tree” I have seen growing on the
beach is one growing in a rock at Sinckler’s Bay in the parish of St. Luey.
Why should the Portuguese have gone out of their way to name the
island from a fig tree in the inferior ? It is purely legendary and it has,
perhaps, as much truth in it as the statement-that the Portuguese left
“hogs” for breeding purposes on the island, whereas, as
Schomburgk points out, these ‘‘ hogs” were indigenous, (the Peccary or
Dicoteles labiatus and D. torquatus common to the larger islands.)

In a paper read by the Rev William Griffith, M.A., Fellow of St.
John’s College, Cambridge, before the Cambridge Antiquarian Society in
1873, Mr. Grithth writes :—

“In default of stone for their implements the Native Charibs in
Barbados were driven to the next best material shell. This was usually ~
the central spire, or the spreading undulating lip of the Queen Conch,
either in its natural or fossilised state. They (the Indian implements)
are found specially in the neighbourhood of the Springs which are met
with at intervals. These afford the only fresh water in the Island and
would naturally be the sites for Charib Villages.”

And he adds that when he was at Codrington College, Barbados,
whilst a thick stratum of mud was being: removed from the College
Springs very many of these Indian shell instruments were found. He
writes of the Native Caribs, it will be noted.

Many collections have been made of these Jndian implements and
utensils from time to time. Mr. E. K. Taylor, late Queen’s Solicitor, had
alarge collection of them: Mr. J. L. K. Pedder of “ Heywoods,” St.
Peter (at which plantation there is a large swamp) has a fine collection,
and so has Dr. John Hutson, Public Health Inspector.

As regards the few Jndian implements in my possession (of which
Mr. Walter Parkinson at the Bridgetown Club has kindly taken photo-
graphs of some) they were chiefly collected at ‘‘ Gibbes” and “ Carlton”
plantations (St Peter’s and St. James) where Springs are located. One
of the small ‘‘ heads” was found at “Indian Mount,” St. Lucy, and the
largest was found at “Indian River” by Mr. E. K. Taylor.* I have a
small “head” found at “Indian Mount” St. Luey, which resembles the
one given in an engraving in Hughes, “ Natural History of Barbados ”

*Poyer states that this river obtained its name from the Zndianiplmements and
utensils found there,

POTTERY AND STONE IMPLEMENT.

SHELL IMPLEMENTS,

The Indians of Barbados. 55

(Figure II), page 7. It is evidently a representation of the face of the
Moon: andI have also a beautifully polished miniature axe made of a
dark green stone (not the whitish-green axe photcgraphed by Mr.
Parkinson), which specimen the Rey. Father C. Cooksey, S.J., stated
was a valuable one, and which he referred to in his paper on “ The First
Barbadians, published in “‘ Timehri” of July, 1912. Father Cooksey was
of opinion that the first Barbadians were Jndians, but few in number,
and “consisted of waifs who drifted ‘‘into the Atlantic from elsewhere ”
(perhaps Tobago). Although I do not concur in his conclusions, his
essay is bright and interesting.

For my part I believe that the natives of Barbados were Indians (not
_Caribs who were cannibals) : that they were comple'ely exterminated by
the Spaniards: and that is why the English settlers only found
siz at “Six Men’s Bay.” And whatever may be the derivation
of the name “Barbados” I do not believe the name was derived
from fig-trees. Schomburgk states that in the British Museum
there is a map of the world executed before 1536, and that the island on
this chart appears under the name of “ Bernados.” He also, states that
in a map of the world by Juan de la Cosa, executed in 1500, which ex-
hibits the “Islas Canibales,” Barbados is ometted. This tends to prove it
was inhabited by Jndiuns, and was the island alluded to by Charles the
Fifth in his instructions to the Licentiate Rodrigo de Figueroa.

Note—I “ Translantic Sketches " by the Rev. Greville John Chester. B. A. (published 1869)

the author writing of Fontabelle, Barbados, states :

“Tt is bounded by a small stream, called “Indian River” by the first settlers ; an
indication that the aborigines were not then extinct. In this neighbourhood the
ancient Carib shell implements are particularly abundant, and testify, there as else-
where, to a long continued, and not, as is commonly supposed, to an only occasional
residence on the part of those who used them. . . . These Indian remains are
found so universally andin such large numbers as to put the existence of a large
stationary population beyond a doubt. The shell implements are not found in any of

the other Islands . - .. I have given a large series to the Christy Collection of the
British Museum.

SOME OF THE CONSTRUCTIONAL WOODS
OF BRITISH GUIANA.

Descriptions by L. S$. Hohenkerk of the Department of Lands and Mines.

Weights per cubic foot, Moduli of Rupture and Elasticity and Break-
ing Weights of test bars, calculated and determined from actual
experiment by L. P. Hodge, Assoc. M. Inst. C. E. of the
Department of Public Works.

Plates showing the test bars after fracture from Photographs by the late
J. Williams, F'. C. S., of the Department of Science and Agriculture.

INTRODUCTION.

According, to a List recently compiled by Mr. L. 8S. Hohenkerk
( Timehri” Vol. IV, 1917) the known timbers of British Guiana comprise
some 250 distinct woods. Of these 17 of the best known or most repre-
sentative varieties were selected for experiment by the Public Works
Department in 1911 with the results tabulated in the following pages.

From the scale diagram of relative transverse strength it will be seen
that 13 out of the 17 specimens were better able to resist transverse stress
than oak, pitch pine, teak or mahogany.

Fourteen of them were stronger than Jarrah, Northern Pine (Pinus
Silvestris) or White Pine (Pinus Strobus) and 15 were stronger than white
fir or spruce (Abies Ezxcelsa).

It will therefore be obvious to the users of other timbers that the
employment of most of the Colony woods will effect considerable economy
in the quantity required for strength, which should be borne in mind
when considering the question of cost.

3 PLATE 1.
Kakatara bally.
Upper
Specimen—Weight per cub. ft. 45°43 Ibs. Ibs. per sq, inch
Modulus of rupture 12,521.
Do. of elasticity 1,581,364

Breaking weight 6°21 ewt.

Description.
Soft, light, coarse grain, light colour, suitable or drawers
and internal fittings.
Price per 1,000 feet B,M. f.0.b, Georgetown.—

a

or

Some of the Constructional Woods of British Guiana.

Futur (or Photee).

Middle
Specimen.— Weight per cub. ft. 24-2 lbs. Ibs. per sq. inch
Modulus of rupture 6,559
Do. of Elasticity 1,444,727
Breaking weight 32:4 ewt.
Description.
Resembles white pine, planes well but turus badly.
Price per 1,000 feet B.M, f.0.b. Georgetown.—
Greenheart (Nectandra Rodioe?).
Lower
Specimen—Weight per cub. [t. 68:4 lbs. Ibs. per sq. inch
Modulus of rupture 22,680
Do. _ of Elasticity 3,840,000
Breaking weight 11:25 ewt.
Description.
Rated first class at Lloyds, said to be the best timber for
resisting tensile and compressive strains. Resists Limnora
tevebrans and Teredo and ranks next to teak in resisting white
ants, world-wide reputation for submerged work of all kinds.
Can be had up to 24 inches square x 70 feet long,
Price per 1,000 Ft. B.M. f.0.b. Georgetown.—
PLATE 2.
White Silverballi (Nectandra sp.)
Upper
Specimen— Weight per cub. ft. 36 28 lbs. Ibs. per sq. inch
Modulus of rupture 10,566
Do. of Elasticity 1,949,125
Breaking weight 5°24 ewt.
Description.
Uniform greenish or yellowish color, surface lustrous brilliant
and satiny, suitable for inside wall boarding. Logs procurable
up to 30 ft. x 8-9 inches.
Price per 1,000’ feet B.M, f.0,b, Georgetown.—
Wadara.
Middle ™
Specimen—Weight per cub. ft. 53:17 lbs. ibs. per sq. inch
Modulus of rupture 18,150
Do. of Elasticity "865,166

Breaking weight 9-00 ewt.

Description.

Price per 1,000 feet B.M. f.o.b, Georgetown,—

58 Timehri.

Red or brown Cedar, or Kurana (Cedrella odorata.)

Lower
Specimen—Weight per cub. ft. 19:8. Ibs. Ibs. per sq. inch
Modulus of rupture : F
Do. of Elasticity 987,428
Breaking weight 2°83 cwt.
Description.
A handsome reddish brown wood much used for drawers and
cigar boxes as insects and vermin avoid it.
Grows up to 100 ft. and squares up to 40 inches.
Fairly plentiful.
Price per 1,000 feet B.M. f.0.b. Georgetown,—
PLATE 3. x
White Cedar or Wartkurri (Tabebura longipes).
Upper E
Specimen—Weight per cub. ft, 41°68 lbs. Ibs. per sq. inch
Modulus of rupture 12,429
Do. of Elasticity 2,425,263
Breaking weight 6:165 ewt._
Description.
Easily worked, durable underground but liable to split on
exposure to the sun, used for oars and paddles, logs 40 ft. x
12 ins.
Price per 1,000 feet B.M, f.0.b. Georgetown.—
Kocroo keorule.
Middle
Specimen—Weight per cub. ft. 38°44 lbs. Ibs. per sq. inch
Modulus of rupture 13,081
Do. of Elasticity 3,162,729
Breaking weight 6°48 ewt.
Price per 1,000 feet B.M. f.0.b. Georgetown.—
Dukalhi.
Lower
Specimen—Weight per cub. ft. 36°89 lbs. Ib3. per sg. ineh
Modulus of rupture 9,740
Do. _ of Elasticity 2,233,125

Breaking weight 4°831 ewt.

Description.

Grows fairly large, tall and straight, makes good boards for
internal work.

Price per 1,000 feet B.M. f.0,b, Georgetown,—

7

Some of the Constructional Woods of British Guiana. 59

PLATE 4,
Konoko.
Top ,
Specimen—Weight per cub. ft. 61:82 lbs. Ibs. per sq. inch
Modulus of rupture 14,296
Do. of Elasticity ; 2,495,845

Breaking weight 7°09 ewt.
Price per 1,000 feet B.M. f.0.b. Georgetown.—

Kakaralli (Lecythis sp. or Lecythis ollaria ?)

Second
Specimen—Weight per cub. ft. 51°95 Ibs. Ibs. per sq. inch
Modulus of rupture 13,378
Do. of Elasticity 2,375,257
Breaking weight 6°63 cwt.
7 Description.
Hard, heavy fine grain, dense, reddish or greyish brown, said
to resist Teredo and Barnacles, common throughout the
colony; in places abundant, average height 80 ft, squaring
16 inches,
Price per 1,000 feet B.M. f.0.b. Georgetown,—
Brown Silverballi (nectandra sp.)
Third
Specimen—Weight per cub. ft. 43°55 Ibs. Ibs. per sq, inch
Modulus of rupture 13,196
: Do. of Elasticity 2,523,669
Breaking weight 6°545 ewt. i
Description.
Uolour cedar brown to dark brown with black paiches here
and there, specially adapted for boat-building, not plentiful.
Logs 50-60 feet x 18-20 inches.
Price per 1,000 feet B.M. f.0.b. Georgetown.—
Mora (Dimorphandra Mora).
Bottom
Specimen—Weight per cub. ft. 60-937 lbs. Ibs. per sq. inch
Modulus of rupture 14,644
Do. of Elasticity 2,297,794

Breaking weight 7:26 ewt.
Description.

Planes well and smoothly when of good quality, turns badly,
polishes well. Rated one of the 8 first-class timbers at Lloyds,
resists dry-rot, but not the Teredo, Very durable, more so
than Teak, one of the best woods for railway sleepers and
paving blocks, Makes good durable furniture. Abundant all
over the Colony, Often grows to 200 feet and can be had to
square 24 ins. free of sap or holes.

Price per 1,000 feet B.M, f,0,.b. Georgetown,—

60 ~ Timehri.
PLATE 5.

Yellow Silverballi (Nectandra sp.)

Top
Specimen—Weight per cub. ft. 34:9 lbs. Ibs. per sq. inch
Modulus of rupture. 10,958
Do. of Elasticity 1,767,890
Breaking weight 5°43 ewt.
Description.
Chiefly used for the upper planking of boats, average height
60 ft , small trees giving 8 in, to 10 in. boards readily procur-
able.
- Price per 1,000 feet B.M. f.0.b. Georgetown,——
Crabwood (Carapa guyanensis).
Second
Specimen—Weight per cub. ft. 45°91 lbs. Ibs. per sq. inch
Modulus of rupture 14,095
Do. of Elasticity 2,124,964
Breaking weight 6°99 cwt.
Description.
Very much resembles Mahogany but ruos much darker and
when polished assumes a walnut rather than a mahogany
colour. A handsom furniture wood. Logs 40 ft. by 9 in, to 14
inches. Plentiful throughout the Colony.
Price per 1,000 ft. B.M. f.0.b. Georgetown.—
Maporo-Kong.
Third
Specimen—Weight per cub. ft. 45-91 Ibs. Ibs. per sq. inch
Modulus of rupture 12,258
Do. of Elasticity 2,081,598
Breaking weight 6:08 ewt.
Price per 1,000 ft. f.0.b. Georgetown.—
Determa (Nectandra Wana).
Bottom
Specimen—Weight per cub. ft. 39°88 Ibs. Ibs. per sq. inch
Modulus of rupture 7,494
Do. of Elasticity 1,060,734

Breaking weight 3°717 ewt.

Description.
A pinkish red wood of uniform colour and general utility,
much used in the Colony for masts and spars. Logs procurable
from 30 to 40 ft. x 12 to 18 inches.
Price per 1,000 ft. B.M. f.0,b. Georgetown,—

Some of the Constructional Woods of British Guiana.

Greenheart 11:25
Wadara 9:00
Mora 7:26
Konoko 7:09
Crabwood 6:99 ip
Kakaralli 6°63
a =
Brown Silverballa 6545 =
Kocrookeorule Be 6°48 =
Kakatara-Balli 621 S
White Cedar 6165 ple
oo) ie)
eS
| Mapara Kong 6:08 oS
Yellow Silverballi 5-43 S
re >
White Do. 5:24 pe
(Se)
(Pa a2 Oak, Englisl r
| 1g S/L mm
aoa) Pitch Pine, American \ 5:00
iL — Leak Burmah |
Se —tCS MM hogan, HHonrchwras 49
| Dukalli 4831
Po —~C—Cwrvrwh, Arista 4°65
|
i 4 Ss Northern Pine (P£. silvestris) 4:00
Ss White Pine, Anerican (P. Strobus\ 3-8
_ Determa Seer,
__s—s«éPr,, white Spruce (Abies eacelsa) 3:6
|
| Futur 324

2:83 Red or Brown Cedar.

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J [044UWa9 ay} Quasaudas saanby ay T,

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ajsoddns spua ‘aunnhs your

430

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U0d DUBIND ysizi4g {oO yzoUadjs ani

YUM pasDduod spoom jnuonanszs

1, UpprER—KAKATARA BALLY. MIDDLE—FUTUI
LOWER—GREENHEART,

3 4 - - Top CONOKO.
2. UPPER—WHITE SILVERBALLI. : wea eee ETE
MIDDLE—WADAR Spahr eae ares
ae THIRD—BROWN SILVERBALLI.

LOWER—RED CEDAR
z Borrom—Mora.

3. Uprer—WHITE CEDAR 5. Top—YeELLOW SILVERBALLI.
MIppLe—Kocroo SECOND— CRABWOOD
LOWER—DUKALLI THIRD—MAPORO-KONG.

30TTOM—DETERMA.

LIGNO CONCRETE.

A LARGE FIELD FOR THE UTILIZATION OF_COLONY
HARDWOOD.

By L. P. Hopes, Assoc. M. Inst. C.E.

In these scientific days most of us are sufficiently acquainted with
Physics to be aware that when a beam is loaded the upper portion is com-
pressed and the lower portion is extended. The bending of a piece of

- indian rubber will make this quite clear. Consequently the strength of
any beam depends upon the ability of the upper portion to resist crushing
(or “compression” as it is more usually termed by the Engineer) and
that of the lower portion to resist elongation (or ‘‘ tension ”).

Concrete, being composed of small pieces of stone or some other hard
material, has naturally a high resistance to compression. It has, however,
so poor a resistance to tension that it is practically negligible. This

_ defect has been overcome of late years by inserting iron or mild steel
rods in the lower or tension part of the beam to take the whole of the
tensile stress. This enables the beam to be made much smaller than
would otherwise be necessary at a considerable saving in cost. Such
concrete is termed ‘reinforced ” because the rods reinforce the resistance
of the concrete to tensiou, and when iron or mild steel rods are employed
the conjunction is termed “ ferro” concrete (L. ferrwm, iron).

Tron or mild steel was selected for reinforeement on account of its

-high resistance to tension, but there seems no reason why other materials
_ should not be substituted, the area in tension being increased as the
resistance diminishes.

Experiments with concrete beams reinforced with wood by methods
suggested by Mr. G. O. Case were carried out before the war and the
results tabulated in an article by C.A.M. Smith, M.Se. in “ The
Engineer ” of December 16th, 1910, who termed the combination ‘“ligno

concrete.” (L. lignum, wood) The woods experimented with were teak,
deal, oak, ash, mahogany, Jarrah, tallow wood, and stringy bark, and to
quote from the article ‘the results seem to show that equal strength
“ean be gained either with wood or iron reinforcement, although, of
“course, the section of the wooden bars must of necessity be considerably
“Jarger than is required with steel bars. On the other hand this larger
“section is more than counterbalanced by the fact that wood is so much
“ cheaper.”

One result of the present War has been to considerably increase the

_ cost of iron or mild steel reinforcement, and as present prices are likely
to be maintained, if not increased, for many years to come, owing to a
large anticipated demand for structural steel after Peace has been declared,
the use of “ligno concrete,” if better known, is likely to become extensive,

62 Timehri

According to Mr. Smith’s article previously referred to “ providing
“ proper adhesion takes place between the wood and the cement (and
“tests have shown this to be the case) the timber cannot fail by longi-
“ tudinal shear, but can only break in pure tension.” It will follow there-
fore that, other things being equal, preference will be given to that wood
which has the highest resistance to tension.” According to Rivington,
Part IV. Table 1, the relative resistance to tension of the leading timbers
of the world are as follow :

Ultimate Resistance to Tension

TIMBER. lbs. per Sq. Inch,

From. To, Ordinary.
Oak, British ... at 5,800 19,800 10,000
Fir, Red Baltic me 2,240 14,000 7,000
Pitch Pine sa nate 4,200 7,650 5,000
American Yellow Pine... 1,800 | 2,800 2,000
Elm, English ... ase 4,620 14,000 5,500
Beech ... ua wae 4,850 22,000 11,000
Teak 5; Ste ace 2,590 21,000 10,000
Greenheart ide ses) 7,980 9,380 8,800

It will be at once apparent that with the exception of English Oak
and Beech, which are not available in large quantities, there will be only
teak to compete with our greenheart asthe most suitable wood for ligno
concrete. And of the two, as willbe seen from the above figures, green-
heart has the advantage in uniformity, a matter of great moment in
reinforcement.

In connection with the bridging of the East Coast Road
deviation last year the writer experimented with burnt earth reinforced
concrete beams of equal section and span, substituting greenheart bars for —
iron in the ratio of their assumed safe resistance to tension.

The results of the experiments are shown graphically in Figures 1 and
2. It will be seen that the ligno concrete beam failed with only +) less load —
than its ferro concrete competitor. It had, however, the advantage of nine —
days in age. A burnt earth ligno concrete pile was also cast as in Fig. 3
and successfully driven about 17 feet through clay as one of the abutment
piles of the iron bridge over Triumph west side-line trench. It may be
mentioned incidentally that this bridga is the first known to the writer,
in which burnt earth piles have been employed. It is also the first
instance known to him in which ligno conerete construction has figured in
a permanent structure.

Taking the cost of small greenheart scantling at $100 per 1,000 ft. .
B.M. = $1.20 per ce. ft. and common iron bars at £15 per ton= $15. 58 per
ce. ft. (present prices) the ratio of cost is about js, while the ratio of safe

Ligno Conerete.

Sectional Elevation of
Pile +" Scale.

No.6 8.W.G. plain iron wire
bands at 1 foot centres.

LIGNO CONCRETE.

Commenced

Permanent set

| Cracking

S
§

deflection

S
8
8” iron rods reduced by

Collapsed suddienly
about ¥" dr.

Fig 1.

“1071

594 1547
Ferro concrete Beam 6” x 6’, reinforcement 2 rods of &' dr. round

iron, length 12' 0’, ends supported at 10’ 0” clear span, tested to
destruction by a distributed /oad, 7 days after casting.

\rt bars

Fig 2.

|
|

under-c|racked

failed intension
and beam collapsed

in 3 places.

greenhea

{

|

(e

25'

720 1200 1437 1558

Ligno concrete Beam 6" x 6", reinforcement 1 bar of greenheart 3” x 2”

length 12’ 0” ends supported at 10’ 0” clear s
by a distributed load 16 days after casting.

All defleetions in Inches.

L. P. HODGE,

Assoc. M. Inst. C.E.
14.9.17.

2039 Lbs.

/

pan, tested to destruction

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2’ x 3’ |

Cross Section of Pile 3" Scale,

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Iigno Conevete. 63

resistance to tension, taking that ofiron at 5 tons per sq. inch and that
of greenheart at one-fifth its. ordinary ultimate resistance as given in the

dreceding table becomes jy

It is obvious therefore that at present prices a very considerable
saving may be effected by employing greenheart reinforcement in lieu of
iron or steel, and as soon as the advantages of ligno concrete are more
widely known and appreciated the writer anticipates a large market for
greenheart reinforcement, while many of our other hardwoods, e.g.,
Wadara and Mora, will also probably be found suitable for such employ-
ment when their resistance to direct tension has been ascertainea

A FISHING TRIP ON THE UPPER WATERS OF
THE MAZARUNI RIVER, >

By G. E. Bopgin, B.A., F.Z.S., F.E.S.

And an ingenious Spaniard says, that ‘“ Rivers and-the inhabitants of
the watery element were made for wise men to contemplate and fools to
pass by without consideration. “ And although I will not rank myself
in the number of the first, yet give me leave to free myself from the last
by offering to you a short contemplation, first of rivers and then of
Jish.”—The Compleat Angler.

Previous to May, 1916, my experience of the possibilities of fishing
in British Guiana was confined to the usual week-end lukanani fishing
at the Lamaha stop-off. Here lukanani, do not run very large compared
with their brethren in the great rivers of the Colony and my successful
eftorts in catching them have been by trolling which requires a modicum
of skill and not even a rod unless one feels like it.

Early in 1916 I had the good fortune to be included ina party on
an official visit to the Peters’ Mine, Puruni River. A glance at the map
will show that such a tripentails a long journey up the Mazaruni River
andashorter one up the Puruni—its tributary. I need hardly add that
the Mazaruni abounds in dangerous rapids but in places is noted for its
fish and game. Bearing this reputation in mind I took with me a strong
rod and reel with a good selection of spoon baits. Owing to the
necessary haste with which the journey up river was made only a few
chances of using the rod oceurred but my several experiences with large
lukanani—a few minutes snatched before breakfast, and again before
darkness descended —were quite sufficient to whet my appetite for further
experiences and I promised myself that by hook or by crook I would pay
another visit to this river and under circumstances more conducive to sport.

Luck was with me. In October of the same year the late Mr. 5. W.
Cole, Warden at Bartica, who I had the pleasure of meeting on a previous
occasion, wrote to inform ime that he was going up the Mazaruni in
November for river-cleaning purposes; the possibilities of enjoying sport
were excellent, and he considered it a good opportunity. It did tno take
me long to decide. I secured a month’s leave froni the Government, made
the necessary arrangements, and left for Bartica on November 19th.

A short description of some of the items of my sporting equipment
should perhaps be included here as they will certainly prove of interest
to fellow acglers and possibly be of some assistance to them at a later
time. an

My rod consisted of a cane built, 7 foot ‘ Victor’ casting rod, manu-
factured by the well-known firm of Hardy Bros., Alnwick, England. in
conjunction with this rod Iused a Hardy’s No. 2 Silex reel holding 60
yards of well dressed silk spinning line of medium weight. A more

i

A Fishing Trip on the Upper Waters of the Mazaruni River. 65

admirable combination for this kind of work I cannot imagine. The
superb qualities of these three made casting from the reel a positive
pleasure and I could drop my bait in any desired spot with a minimum
of effort. The traces I used were of fine twisted steel wire made by the
same firm and they withstood violent strains without kinking in the
slightest and I never lost a fish through any one of them snapping.

The strength and resiliency of the rod were surprising though it
underwent some fierce strains. The Indians in our crew were greatly
fascinated by this weapon and I often found them making a minute
examination of it. They could not grasp the utility of the rubber button
at the end of the butt ; they were convinced it was a ‘ beena’ of some kind
or other !

I carried a goodly assortment of spoon-baits varying in size from 1}
inches up to 2} inches. I found that the gimp line attached to these
spoons at the time of purchase was worse than useless as even a small
perai seemingly encountered no difficulty in biting clean throughit. I
therefore removed it and coupled up the spoon direct with the wire trace.
I experienced that only a very small lead weight was necessary with
these spoons—about } of an ounce. According to the advice of my
companion I purchased a small tin of vermillion enamel and therewith
carefully painted the concave sides of my spoon baits. I can testify
to the increased attractiveness of the baits by such a procedure ; it is a tip
well worth bearing in mind. An assortment of spare treble hooks was
also carried. Powerful perai frequently snap off one or two hooks of a
triangle with their armoured mouths.

I am afraid this somewhat technical account will tend to bore the
reader unversed in matters piscatorial, but it is incumbent on me to give
the benefit of my experiences to fellow anglers.

I have forgotten two other indispensable articles of ny outtit namely
a small bottle of good-quality, thin, lubricating oil, and a plentiful supply
of veterinary vaseline. The oil is necessary for the reel and the vaseline
is unapproached as a rust-preventer; smeared on thickly it can’t be
beaten. I also carried a double-barrelled 12 bore shot gun and a good
supply of cartridges loaded with BB and No.5 shot. I found these
adequate. Cartridge cases, unless brass, must be kept dry, otherwise
they speedily swell and refuse to fit the breech of the gun. I found the
vaseline extremely handy for keeping rust from the gun.

I think I have now pretty wellcovered all the various puints of my
equipment and we can now pass on to the incidents of the trip itself.

You may imagine our departure from Bartica ; there were nearly
twenty of us all told and every member of the crew had someone to see
him off. Ofcourse, the buck ladies turned out in force, most of them
accompanied by a bevy of rotund ‘picknies.’ Most sedate were these
people in their farewells. With the exception of a very occasional inter-
change of remarks in their own tongue a stolid silence was maintained.

66 Timehrr. (

Their eyes however missed nothing and every movement was followed —
and noted. The Bovianders, according to their custom, kept up a ceaseless
chattering, and at times a perfect fire of witticisms was maintained
between the shore and the boat.

At last we got under way, the stelling with its little crowd soon
vanished from view behind the point, the last straggling houses of Bartica
were passed, and our journey had commenced !

Our crew was a very fair sample of its kind. Owing to the proximity
of the season’s end we had a somewhat higher class of men than is usually
the case. I believe that at least two of them held captains’ certificates
and several others bowmen’s certificates for this river. Besides these, of
course, we had our appointed captain and bowman. There was a fair
sprinkling of Acawoi Indians of the more civilized kind—men inured to
the hardships of such work and highly skilled in all matters appertain-
ing to the handling of any craft from a wood-skin to a boat of our own
size among turbulent waters.

Many travellers in the colony have commented upon the peculiar
methods of paddling in unison adopted by such crews. The strokes of
the paddles are always in perfect time but there are quite a number of
particular variations—little quick movements, ftourishes, and raps on the
gunwale, rhythmically performed between the strokes which demonstrate
absolute control and sure skill) The time and nature of the stroke is
apparently regulated by the first pair of paddlers sitting side-by-side in
the bow ; the strokeis suddenly altered without any previous warning,
and by instinct as it were, the whole crew seem to anticipate the change
and act accordingly. The entire performance, although perhaps tending
to some waste of energy, is really skilful. Let anyone who doubts take
a paddle for himself, change places with one of the crew, and essay to
manipulate it. ; he will speedily be disillusioned.

On the Mazaruni between Bartica and the first rapids there exist a
large number of scattered settlements imhabited by Indians and
Bovianders. It was at one of these places that we secured, by previous
arrangement, asmall bateau which was to’be used in the river cl-aning
where the larger boat could not be utilized. Two of the crew were de-
tailed to man this craft.

We made our first camp at the foot of Tutruba rapids. These
cataracts at high tide do not appear at all formidable but when the water
is low they are dangerous in the extreme and like most other rapids in
this river have in time gone by taken their toll of human life.

The first camp in the bush is not soon forgotten. One has to forget
all previous experiences of camping out in other climes. When the
weather is dry such resting places are comfortable but when rain is falling
the discomforts are manifold. The hammocks are slung between two
upright posts driven into the ground for the purpose; the roof consists

A Fishing Trip on the Upper Waters of the Mazaruni River. 67

of a tarpaulin drawn over a vertically placed pole between two trees and
stretched out to posts On either side. The ‘floor’ is another tarpaulin on
which the necessary camp impedimenta are placed.

“ Karly to bed and early to rise” is the keynote of such camps ; no
time is wasted in making or striking camp. Supper is taken at about
6.30 p.m, and most people are asleep by 8.30 p.m. The men are astir at
the first suspicion of daylight and further sleep is then impossible.
Personally, I rarely sleep well in a hammock and consequently welcome
such early rising. I can recall however quite a number of really com- .
fortable and cheerful camps on this particular trip. Occasions when
a glorious sunset over the river enhanced the natural beauties thereof,
the cooking fires burning bravely and cheerily, a snatch of song from the
crew, and the prospects of a good dinner caught by ourselves were all
conducive to a happy memory.

Istarted fishing the following morning just above Tutruba but had
little sport beyond a couple of large perai. A large lukanani occasionally
turned lazily over in mid stream but quite refused to regard my spoon.
Clearing the ‘ portage’ at these rapids occupied the whole of that morning
but in the afternoon we moved some distance up stream and camped on a
rocky island. This was one of the best and driest camps we experienced
during the whole trip. All that evening and on the following day Mr. Cole
and myself moved from spot to spot in the small boat trying every likely
piece of water. A few perai and a small lukanani were our reward. The
weather was hot and bright and the river exceedingly low. The Indians
brought in a couple of powis and I was fortunate in shooting an acourie
which the captain’s dog had been chasing for some time aud accidentally
drove near the camp.

The peraiisa horrible fish to catch. In the first place he disillusions
one by seizing the bait with a vigour worthy of a far larger fish, makes one
short run and thencomes in more or less placidly. He is quite capable,
with his formidable teeth, of shearing clean through any tackle softer
than twisted steel wire. When safely landed he grunts in a most sinister
manner and woe betide any naked foot or finger that comes within grasp
of his steel trap jaws; he thinks nothing of taking a toe or finger clean
off. The crew always eat the perai we caught, whether vindic-
tively or not, I could not make out. As soon as they were caught the
Indians invariably battered the heads to pieces so as to make quite sure.

I have two sets of perfectly preserved perai teeth before me as I write.
They are very sharp with the edges saw shaped ; the teeth of the lower
jaw fit accurately into the spaces between those of the upper. This fish is
a robber also ; many atime when hauling in a small lukanani or one of
his own brethren the line suddenly went slack ; a perai had removed fully
half of the captured fish. I have nothing good to say for this denizen of
our rivers.

Our next camp was above the rapids known as Mapituri. It was here
that I caught the lukanani of the trip. I well remember the evening. It

‘

68 Timehri.

had been raining slightly all day but held up towards late afternoon and
we sallied forth to try our luck once more. I was standing right on the
edge of the rapid and casting across the stream when Mr. Cole called out
that there was a large one just behind a small rock about 15 yards away.
At my second cast I dropped my spoon-bait just to one side of the rock
and was reeling in when there was a sudden swirl in the water and
something seized my bait and went off with it like an express train. Fully
40 yards of line went out before I could check the rush, then clean out of
the water, fiercely shaking his head, jumped the largest lukanani I have
everseen. A series of shorter rushes ensued and the fish sulked beneath
our boat which was moored to a rock a short distance off. I sent an
Indian to investigate and he succeeded in moving him. Another rush
and a leap was made and then he began to tire.

The problem now arose as to landing him. Sucha fish certainly would
not go into my net and no gaff was to hand. An Indian settled the
matter by taking a flying shot at him with a powerful bow and arrow
which he had ju t been using for pacou shooting. He missed and I shout-
ed out to the man to como closer and shoot when I gave the sign. At
last I managed to bring the fish within easy shooting distance, the arrow
sped true to its mark and thus transfixed, he was hauled ignominiously to
shore. This lukanani weighed just over 13 Ibs. by my spring balance and
a nobler looking fish I have seldom seen with the large ‘eye mark’ near
the tail and his dark ruby-red eyes.

In this same rapid one of the bovianders in our crew secured with his
bow and arrow a magnificent pacou which, if anything, was heavier than
my lukanani. It is a fascinating spectacle to watch a skilled man killing
pacou in this manner. These fish will rush right up into the swiftest
water in a rapid, hang there for a few seconds so as to snatch a mouth-
ful of a certain aquatic plant which they dearly love and grows only
in such places, then retire only to repeat the performance again and again
till replete.

In order to get within range of the fish it is necessary to wade out
across the rapid which is a fearsome task for anyone but a skilled river
hand. Having gained a likely spot their keen eyes soon detect the
presence of a pacou and at the critical moment an arrow is launched from
the powerful bow with unerring aim. I should add that this arrow is
secured to the wrist by a long cord which, at the time of shooting, is
skilfully arranged so that the arrow is not impeded in its flight. It is
necessary to get within a few yards of the fish as this is the limit of the
attached cord. When once transfixed it is an easy matter to secure the
fish.

The pacou isa handsome fish and is shaped much like our English
brown bream. His sides are delicately tinged with red. His handsome
appearance does not detract from his virtues when cooked. Properly pre-
pared, fresh pacou is something to be remembered.

The following morning we cruised about at some distance from
our camp bt I had little sport. My companion, however, caught a
brace of five pounders and another smaller lukanani in the afternoon.

A Fishing Trip on the Upper Waters of the Mazarwni River. 69

We spent three nights at this camp while the crew every day were busy
clearing tacoubas and other encumbrances from the itabus in the vicini-
ty. Game was plentiful and the Indians brought in daily either a labba
or several acouris, so with the fish that we secured we fed royally.

Every evening the captain amused himself by setting a species
of night line. The fish he intended to catch, judging by the ponderous
tackle he used, must have been enormous. I am sure his line and sinker,
composed of a large piece of rock, would have held a bush-cow with
ease. He was unsuccessful.

At this period heavy showers of rain fell and the river began to
rise accordingly. Such conditions were bad for lukanani fishing though
it did not affect the perai who were always with us like the proverbial
poor. We gradually made our way up stream catching a few lukanani up
to 6 lbs. in weight every here and there. At last we arrived at Caburi
where we camped for two nights under very damp circumstances. At this
place the waters of the Caburi Creek join the main river and the river itself
is broken into a series of highly dangerous cataracts. There is an artificial
haul-over and a concrete pier has been constructed to facilitate the landing
and unloading or reloading of boats passing either way. When the water in
the river is exceptionally low the fishing here is excellent but at the time
of our visit the river was decidedly high and “ ro!ling rapidly.” In
one of the upper pools at the foot of a small rapid Mr. Cole got
fastin a really big fish but after a short strugg’e the hooks came
away.

With this exception we had very poor sport here, On one occa-
sion I was fishing from a small rock well out in the stream and had
almost recovered my spoon after a long cast when there was a sudden
swirl and a plunge just beneath where I was standing. The fish,
which was evidently a large one, missed the bait and I saw him no
more. The suddenness of the rush, however, almost caused me to loose
my footing.

There is always a delightful uncertainty in casting a spoon into
these dark waters ; there are possibilities of all sorts and sizes of fish.

At Mora rapids, just above Caburi, my companion landed a fine 8 lb,
lukanani after a protracted struggle and later in the morning I had
the very singular experience of hooking a 6]b. pacou with a spoon
bait. I foul-hooked him on the nose as it were and perhaps this
accounted for the desperate rush the fish made. I recollect that I
had to plunge into the water almost out of my depth so as to follow
him up. His rush ended in a small semi-submerged bush where he sulked
and was eventually captured by the bow and arrow method previously
described.

Mr. Cole informed me that during a long experience of fish and
fishing in the great rivers of the Colony he had only once hooked a
pacou with a spoon bait and foul hooked at that. Apparently the pacou

70 Timehri.

mistake the red colour of the spoon for one of their favourite seeds
which float down the river and, being unable to grasp the spoon
with such a small mouth, occasionally get foul-hooked.

When the river is low the Indians secure large numbers of this fish
by isolating a suitable area of water in a convenient place by encircling
it with large stones placed close together and then poisoning the fish thus
imprisoned. We encountered such a spot on our journey upstream.
Another method, which requires greater skill, is to carefully ‘mash’
the ripe fruits of a plant not unlike the sapodilla in appearance and
which abounds in this river. This bait is then carefully placed in a
rough ‘buch’ basket so constructed that the fish can nibble at the fruit
without securing any large quantity. The basket is then suspended
ust beneath the surface of the water in a likely place and the Indian
waits motionless at a short distance off. The odour of the fruit is
rapidly carried down stream and speedily attracts any pacou in the
vicinity. g

By dint of ‘following his nose’ the fish soon arrives at the bas-
ket and after a careful inspection—for the pacou is a most suspicious
fish—he commences to feed. At this critical moment the Indian
launches an arrow and almost invariably secures his prey. He then
awaits the advent of another. A very particular point about this pro-
ceeding is that the bait must be handled as little as possible other-
wise the pacou will detect the trap and depart.

A similar method is practised by paring the kernels of freshly fallen
mora seeds and allowing the particles to fall in the water close to the
river bank.

I now come to the most exciting episode of the whole trip.
According to our usual custom, while breakfast was being prepared,
we chartered the small boat and went some distance up stream to
some likely looking rocks for fishing. We were busy casting and I
had just recovered my bait from the water and was about to step
back from the water’s edge when something prompted me to glance
over my shoulder. What I saw gave me a rude shock, and I experi-
enced that uncomfortable crawling sensation along the scalp of the
head which is usually associated with one’s hair ‘standing on end.’
There, directly behind me, lying in a depression of the rock, was an
immense water camoodie !

I hastily retreated some yards and called to my companions.
Together we approached the serpent and cautiously surveyed it.
Luckily the brute was fast asleep but with a shudder I could imagine
the rude awakening and violent surprise of both parties had I stepped
backwards,

We quickly despatched a man for the gun and on his arrival Mr.
Cole boldly approached, and, having administered a dig with the muzzle of

a ee ey

ee oe

i ee eT ae eee

A Fishing Trip on the Upper Waters of the Mazaruni River. 71

the gun which caused the reptile to lift its head clear of the coils, gave it
the benefit of a full charge of BB shot from a choke, sixteen bore gun
through the head at close range, It took all five of us to get that snake
into the boat and back tocamp. There, by means of ropes, we stretched
the corpse between two stout trees and set to work to skin it.

Skinning such a snake is a real job ; it took four of us two hours by
my watch and we made a bad job of it then. I had hazy recollections of
making a ‘ ventralincision’ and ‘peeling the skin off like a glove’ but
somehow it didn’t work. We had tocut the skin away from the flesh—
every inch of it. With two exceptions the Indians refused to assist ;
they have some myth about such snakes and small children which, after
all, perhaps, has some vein of truth in it. Camoodies are not particularly
fastidious in their appetites I understand.

A good application of arsenical soap was given and the skin was put
out in the sun to dry, on every available occasion. This preparation pre-
served the skin wonderfully and when finally prepared by Professor Pile
in Georgetown it measured just 25 feet in length. The‘ inner snake’ we
‘consigned to the deep’ as perai food. Our captain wanted to get some
of the fat which he said produced an admirable mixture for rheumatism
but we had had enough of snake dissection for one day and proceeded on
our way.

About three days above Itaki, while passing up stream, close to the
bank, the captain espied another of these reptiles asleep on alog. The
boat was gently backed down and from its refuge I manfully shot it
through the head. This specimen was skinned the same afternoon and
the skin measured just 24 feet. On the following afternoon the captain
espied yet another which I also shot, but we had to leave it as the
arsenical soap had come to an end and time was getting short. The cap-
tain informed me that at certain times of the year such snakes are fre-
quently seen in the river and he began to spin yarns which modestly
started at ‘ about 30 feet, sir!’

After the first snake incident I gave up swimming in the river and
performed my ablutions with a couple of buckets of water.

At Itaki I had the good fortune to land a haimara which weighed
just 14 lbs. by my spring balance. The fish was lurking in a deep
pool at the foot of a small rapid and took my spoon in a most
vicious manner. As soon as he felt the hook he leapt clean out of
the water and started off down stream at a tremendous speed, tak-
ing another small rapid with apparent ease ; I was forced to run
along the bank so as to keep up with him. Eventually he came to
rest ina large bed of aquatic grass and tangled up the line in a very
thorough manner. I thought I had seen the last of him and the position
seemed hopeless. One of the Indians came up, however and, wading into
the stream, commenced to patiently follow up my line through the tangled
growth. He at last located the fish and retired to get his bow and arrow

72 Timehri.

By careful probing he once more located the exact spot and let drive an
arrow which unfortunately missed and caused the haimara to retire even
further. The same process was gone through again but this time success-
fully and the fish was dragged out from his lurking place. He provided
an excellent dinner for nearly everyone. The haimara has a mouth and
teeth like a bulldog and thinks nothing of taking a mouthful out of an
exposed human leg or arm if he gets a chance. The bite is exceedingly
poisonous and quite occasionally proves fatal.

Itaki is a beautiful place in many ways and the charm of the scenery
alters accordingly to the height of the river. The remains of the old
Government Station are extant but greatly overgrown with bush.

Our journey from this point to the Karenang Creek was unevent-
ful except for a tiger scare in our camp at the foot of Tiboku falls. We
heard the roars of what must have been a large jaguar intermittently
throughout the whole night and we were forced to tie up the dogs in the
boat in prospect ofa raid by our carnivorous neighbour. Nothing evolved,
however, and two Indians which we sent out at daybreak on the off chance
of slaying the brute were unsuccessful. .

Some little distance up the Karenang Creek we encountered some
Acawoi Indians in a woodskin. The occupants consisted of a man and
his wife and smal] daughter. The man was brilliantly decorated with
yellow and red stripes which contrasted admirably with his copper coloured
skin. The lady was busy making a ‘ queyu’ and in the middle of the
craft was a large barrel which spoke for itself. An Indian has only one
real use for such barrels and that is to hold ‘ cassiri.’

We spent two nights in the Karenang Creek with heavy rain falling ©
most of the time. This rain frequently obliterated our view of the Kare-
nang Mountains which are really magnificent and rise fully 4,000 feet and
possibly more. Their summit as far as I could judge was bare rock, on
the lower slopes there wasa thick vegetation. Some beautiful scenery
exists hereabouts and the climate was delightful, the early mornings were
distinctly cold and a couple of blankets were necessary at night.

From the time we left the Karenang on our homeward journey I
hink it hardly stopped raining once and the camps were uncomfortable
in the extreme. This return journey, as ] remember it, was a repetition
of driving rain and the boat :ushing through rapids which, owing to the
swollen state of the river, were now in full swing. Despite this, however,
we secured a few fish every here and there. In some of these cataracts a
slight mistake by the captain means that the boat is swiftly swamped
and the chance of saving one’s life in such water is remote in the extreme.
Cases have occured where two or three men have survived by swimming
to some isolated island and there undergoing slow starvation, till some
other boat chances to pass that way and even then their rescue is a most
perilous undertaking

{ shall never forget our last camp. It was on a rocky island just
above the last rapids. Next morning when we woke up there was at

”

A Fishing Trip on the Upper Waters of the Mazaruni River. 73

least six inches of water under the hammocks and most of the camp was
afloat ; the river had risen rapidly during the night. It was still pouring
with rain and continued to do so till we reached Bartica, I was exceed-
ingly glad to get under a genuine roof once more and to sleep that night
in a dry bed.

Altogether I have seldom spent a more enjoyable month and returned
to Georgetown in vigorous health. For all those who love, and are accus-
tomed to, the ‘ great out-of-doors’ and all that it implies in British Guiana,
such a trip will prove delightful in the extreme. To the townsman used
to his comforts such an experience may tend to be the reverse of pleasant.

Anyway a trip of this kind enables one 1o gain some idea of the
possibilities and appearance of the Colony outside of tne usual pleasure
trips to places such as Suddie, Rockstone, Berbice, or the Penal Settlement.
There are innumerable people in Georgetown who have never been on
the outskirts of the interior yet they profess to know something of the
colony in which they live. No illusion could be more absurd. The far
interior of British Guiana is a different world altogether from the coast-
lands, the climate is different, the mudflats vanish, and there is a certain
quality of broadness and simplicity in the scenery which is not without
its effect on one’s mental aspect.

I kept a careful record of all the fish we caught as set forth
beneath. Taking into consideration the swollen condition of the river, the
wet weather encountered, and the short daily time spent in fishing, the
results may be considered good.

: : Largest fish 3} Ib.
Perai (Serrasalmo (?) sp.) 26 totalling 743 Ibs. faite ths.

Lukanani (Cichla ocellaris). 30 total- { Largest fish just over 13 lb.
ling 1504 lbs. Smallest 3% lbs.

Haimara (Hoplias macrophthalmus). 1 weighing 14 lbs.

‘Kurumai’ (Not unlike the English Dace in appearance with
slightly golden scales and ruby eyes. Flesh pink when
cooked. Swims in shoals). 2 totalling 4 lbs.

‘Sunfish’ (An elongately shaped fish. “Eye mark” similar to
Lukanani near tail), 2 totalling 2} lbs.

Pacow (Myletes setiger). 1 weighing 5 lbs.
Total. 62 fish weighing 2494 lbs.

I cannot conclude this narrative without a tribute to my friend Mr.
S. W. Cole who so unhappily passed away in January, 1917. I only knew
him for a few months yet his sterling qualities as a companion and fellow-
sportsman will remain forever fresh in my memory.

THE LUTHERANS OF BERBICE.

By Frep May.

In or about the year 1743, Mr. Lodewyck Abbensetts, the alleged
founder of the Lutheran Congregation in Berbice, called together a meet-
ing of the members of the ‘‘ Unaltered Augsburg Confession of Faith”
then residing in that Colony.

At this meeting held on the 15th October, 1743, it was resolved that —

a petition should be presented to the Directors (i.e, of the Berbice
Association) and to the States-General of the Netherlands praying for the
free exercise of their religion, and the Rev. Consistory in Holland was
requested to select a Minister.

The Consistory, before granting their request, suggested that they
should wait until sufficient funds had been raised, and property secured
for the support and maintenance of their establishment.

The Court of Policy whilst acceding to their request informed them
that they would be expected to pay for the whole cost of their establish-
ment themselves, as well as to contribute to the ordinary Church fund
equally and in the same proportion as all other inhabitants. The planters
and the Dutch Reformed Church viewed all new religious bodies with
suspicion.

Inter alia all persons presenting free coloured children for baptism
were required to sign an engagement that these children should never
become a charge to the community or to the public.

The Local Authority went so far as to refuse them permission to place
their Church (collecting ?) Boxes in the taverns for receiving contribu-
tions, assigning for reason that, as the Lutheran Community had not to
maintain the poor this privilege could only be enjoyed by the Reformed or
Established Church, which alone had the administration of the Poor Fund.

At this first meetiny in 1743, six members were chosen to act as
administrators or vestrymen and this continued until the arrival of their
Minister in 1752. He on his arrival drew up a set of regulations which
were confirmed, and registered in the Government Secretary’s Office.
One of the Vestry men was appointed Bookkeeper and he had to render
annual accounts of expenditure to the Vestry, another member was
appointed Warden and his duties were to keep in repair “in a conscien-
tious manner ” “consistent with the state of the funds” the property of
the Church. There was also a “ Scriba.”

In 1763 the only buildings saved from pillage and fire from the then
revolting slaves were the properties of this Community at Fort Nassau
who placed them at the disposal of the Directors (Court) as a residence
for the Governor and a hospital for the sick. In spite of this occupancy
which lasted for over eleven years the Court would pay no rent for the
use of the buildings.

a ae

ALMA LD r BEST PT AE

- The Lutherans of Berbice. 75

In 1769 a step long contemplated (since 1753) was taken by petition-
ing the Court for a grant of 500 acres of land known as De Kleine
Maripaan (Augsburg). The Court, however, put such a heavy tax on the
acquisition of new land, that the plan of having an estate, had to be
abandoned until some time after, when the Community was allowed to pay
the tax in ten annual instalments and Mr. Botzer then proceeded to lay
‘out the estate (Augsburg). Their funds being in very low water again,
and the Receiver General pressing for acre money, some of the other
members, Messrs. J. A. Pool and Co.,and Mr. J. Van Nooten, of Amster-
dam, advanced the required sum, more slaves were bought and an exten-
sion of the cultivation undertaken.

In 1774 their debts were so pressing that security for payments was
made by a formal deed.

In the year 1813 differences arose between the members, and the
Court was petitioned by some of them to enquire into the management
of their funds, depleted by mismanagement, the high death-rate of their
Ministers, and the expenses incidental to bringing them from Holland to
Berbice.

In 1832 the regulations in force for the guidance of the Community
were very stringent to prevent self-interest in the management of its
affairs ‘‘ which shall be observed with great exactness.” An account of
their transactions was to be submitted to their Community. Power was
taken to make alterations in the management of Church properties, and
the rules were required to be registered in the Colonial Secretary’s Office.

No slave could hold a vote or become a member of their administra-
tion. The Sacrament was to be administered twice a year, Ministers were
to keep a Register of Baptisms and Marriages.

In 1875 a Commission was appointed to enquire into the affairs of
this body in consequence of a petition of one Joseph Hicken and others,
ander the chairmanship of Mr. Attorney General Haynes Smith. The
opposing factions were represented by counsel, and as an outcome of this
it was agreed that the Bank (British Guiana, now the Royal Bank of
Canada), would not permit any of the capital to be touched, and that it
was better to defer legislation. The dissension appears to have arisen
out of the improper disposal of funds and the attempt to sell one of the
properties.

Matters continued in this unsatisfactory condition until 1888 when a
Bill to provide for the administration of the Funds of the Community
was passed by the Combined Court.

The Committee appointed by the Court to report heard counsel as
representing the Established or Reformed Lutheran Church, and the
Evangelican Lutherans as represented by the Attorney General (the
Chairman) who represented the Trustees appointed by the Court.
Various objections were raised by Dr. Belmonte to the powers given in

f
76 Timehri.

section 5 of the Bill. The Attorney General whilst agreeing pointed out |
that they were only intended to meet extreme cases and after some dis- |)
cussion it was decided to modify the section to meet the wishes of the
Community. {

Under the amended Bill (Ordinance 7 of 1888) the property is vested
in trustees consisting of the two senior elective members of the Court of
Policy and of an official member appointed by the Governor, who super-
vise and control the expenditure of the income by the person or persons |).
entrusted by the Lutheran Community with the management of its affairs |}.
in accordance with its rules and regulations. Proper statements of
expenditure are to be furnished, and the trustees to have power to sus-
pend payment of the income in any case of mismanaging the fund, until
enquiry can be made by the Governor and Court of Policy whose decision
is final.

The Attorney General pointed out that the Bill in no way pretended
to interfere with the internal management of the Society and only vested
in the Trustees the property mentioned in the schedule of the Ordinance
for the support of the Church with proper supervision.

*

The clerk to the Attorney General acts as clerk to the Fund.

One of the Community writing against the passing of the Bill stated
that the Lutheran Community had always been considered a private body
having acquired property by their own means and without help from the |
Directors of the Berbice Association—now represented by the Governor —
and Court of Policy, which property is held in the same right as other §
private property and with the same powers of free disposition. He |
stated the Government had recognised this liberty in the management of —
their Church establishment since 1743.

In 1902 the acting Attorney General (Mr. Davson) in the name of
the Trustees of whom he was Chairman, requested that Trustees belonging
to the Church might be substituted for the two senior members of the
Court, for the reason that the Court was continually changing, and that
the members lived out of Berbice and would not be in a position to know —
the requirements of the Community. q

He also requested that power be given to the Trustees to sell
movable property and vary investments, with consent of the Court.
Finally he asked that power should be given to refer to the Governor as
arbitrator in the case of contending parties. He added, however, that he —
did not as Attorney General consider the last proposal workable. These
suggested amendments appear to have been made on the petition of the
Rev. Mr. Mittelholzer.

The Petitions Committee of the Court of Policy remarked on the
necessity for a revision of the rules, anda clear understanding as to who
are at the present true members of the community.

ae

Again in 1914, a further amendment was required not from any
‘nternal dissension this time, but from the absence of elastici!y in the

The Lutherans of Berbice. 77

Ordinance of 1888 which did not provide for resignations or absences
from the Colony or for the case of a Trustee being unable or unwilling to
act. It did not, moreover, provide for the case of a senior member of the
Court, a statutory Trustee, being unwilling to act on the ground that he
did not belong to any branch of the Protestant Church.

To sum up the whole matter the Lutheran Community in Berbice
appears from the records of the Government Secretary to have been a
mutual benefit society as well as a religious one, for they granted pensions,
which I believe are still paid.

From earliest times their existence seems to have been a struggle,
disturbed by internal discord, misappropriation of funds (if we can believe
the petitioners), High death-rate of their Ministers and the cost of bring-
ing menout, nor do they appear to have been recognised by the Direc-
tors of the Berbice Association or the Berbice Court of Policy, judging
from the stringent rules laid upon them and absence of any monetary aid.
In spite of all there are still a few of them left in the Ancient County yet ,
working and watching for the “ promised Minister from their Father-
land.”

I might mention that the “ Directors” so often mentioned in the files

| of the Government Secretary’s Office were the Committee of Governors of
| the Berbice Association.

There was a small community of Lutheran in the Colony of

-Demerary and Essequebo and they were supported by the profits of a

Plantation called the “ White Swan” about the year 1755 but not very
much is known about them and to-day they do not exist.

THE RENAISSANCE *

By C. Martin-Sprrry. *

It is quite impossible to define the Renaissance in so many words,
because there was nothing definite about it either in time or in action.
It was a movement which marked a break in the world’s history such as —
cannot elsewhere be equalled, except perhaps by the appearance of
Christianity, and possibly by the rise of Mahomedanism. History cannot
be studied in periods because periods have no beginning and no end, and ©
because while one country is passing through one phase, its neighbour is —
passing through another. It has been said that Modern History deals —
with the period in which the problems that still occupy us came into con-—
scious recognition, and were dealt with in ways intelligible to us. If this”
be so, then Modern History dates from the Renaissance. The atmos-
phere of the centuries before that movement is wholly different from the —
one in which we live. The frame of mind of the Crusader is utterly unin-
telligible to us ; it requires a considerable effort of the imagination to —
picture baronial society in the time of the Wars of the Roses. But from |
the Renaissance downwards men, customs, ideas, modes of thought all —
begin to be intelligible. With Shakespeare, Galileo or Elizabeth, we |
seem to have something in common, but Dante and Roger Bacon seem
men made in another mould. No one can afford to disregard the |
Renaissance: It is the one movement in History that affects not only —
one or two subjects, but almost every department of human interest. —
Put shortly, the Renaissance was the revival of learning, the emancipation —
of the individual from the environment of circumstances, or as one writer
describes it: ‘the intellectual, moral, spiritual and artistie rebirth of -
Europe, the emancipation of the soul of Western Humanity from the
bondage of scholasticism, and of authority in ethics and theology.”

' The fact cannot be too strongly insisted upon that it was a move-
ment, and therefore no precise dates can be given for its beginning or its —
end. It was the transition from the Middle Ages to Modern Times, and ©
it is no more possible to say that it dated from one year and ended in
another, than to say when boyhood ends and manhood begins ; the two”
are insensibly merged in each other.

The movement took place practically all over Europe, but of the
countries in which it was most evident, Italy comes easily first not only
in point of time but in the matter of importance, followed later by France —
Germany and England. No two people agree as to what may be put
down as its earliest appearance in Italy, but we may certainly consider it —
as having been in full swing by the middle of the 15th century.

The pervading idea is emancipation. Where there has been the
restraint of rules, of conventions, of narrow modes of thought, the ©
authority of these is frankly questioned, and is if necessary to be swept —

*Lecture to Young Men’s Guild, June 20th 1916.

The Renaissance. 79

aside by the individual. Individualism is therefore the outcome of this
movement towards emancipation. The inevitable result of this liberation
from the restraints of tradition and authority was an immediate outburst
of intelligence, a rapid development in politics, art, letters, science,
adyenture and almost every form of human activity. This outburst was
so great in its depth and comprehensiveness that it has never been
equalled not even by Athens at her zenith.

Though there is a cause for every event in History, it does not
follow that the cause is always easy to find ; this is particularly true in
the case of a movement so indefinite and so vague as the Renaissance.
Five reasons can however be given, any one of which or possibly all of
them toa larger or smaller extent, may have been responsible for the
movement. They are:

(1) Inventions. A number of important inventions were, for some
reason or other, made, and while many of them may be looked upon as
parts some of them were contributory causes. Such inventions as those
of the compass, telescope, gunpowder and printing must of necessity
have had a highly stimulating effect, and have paved the way for further
developments in science and learning.

(2) City States. City States have always been favourable to refine-
ment. One has only to glance at the histories of Athens, Corinth, Milan,
Venice, Florence, etc., to be convinced of this fact. Perhaps political
independence has a stimulating effect, perhaps it is the fact of self-
government which stimulates men and brings out the best qualities that
are in them. At this time City States were springing up all over Italy.
The country was divided into a number of small territories, each con-
sisting of a city which dominated the country round about, and usually a
few other small towns.

(3) Greek Influence. In the 15th century the advance of Mahome-
danism was threatening Europe. Christendom was divided into the
Greek Church of the East and the Latin Church of the West. In view
of the progress of Islam, an attempt was made to reconcile the two,
and a Council for this purpose was summoned at Florence. The real
object was a failure, but advantage was taken of the presence of so
many Greek-speaking men of letters to stimulate the taste for the study
of Greek language and philosophy, which had been impossible on account
of the absence of proper teachers in Italy.

(4) Fallof Constantinople. The Turks captured Constantinople in
1453. Constantinople was practically the only city in Europe where
culture had survived the middle ages, better known as the Dark Ages.
What with the inroads of barbarians, and the long period of strife and
warfare, there had been no time for anything so unpractical as the pursuit
of art andlearning. The glories of the golden age of the Roman Empire
which had inherited the civilization of Greece, centred therefore in Con-
stantinople, As the Turks advanced, the men of learning fled westward,

80» Timehrt.

and Italy was the first land they came to in which they could settle. Even
more momentous was the fact that the Turks now blocked the highways
between Europe and the East, and new trade routes had to be found.
Necessity being the mother of invention, Columbus in his attempt to find
a new trade route discovered America in 1492, and Vasco da Gama got
round the Cape of Good Hope to India some five years later.

(5) Reaction. An unprogressive condition of things cannot last forever
without producing a revolt, and the mental stagnation of the middle ages
could not satisfy the aspirations of men whose minds were now being
stimulated by all these causes.

Such then were the opening phases and the immediate causes aftect-
ing them. But before being able to appreciate them, it is necessary to
understand the condition of Europe in the Middle Ages.

Contrasts are always attractive, and the easiest way to understand
the movement now in progress is to look upon the Middle Ages as a
period of unrelieved gloom and stagnation, and the Renaissance as the
sudden appearance of light and progress. The most striking features of
the Middle Ages are four :—(1) Power of the Church. (2) Submissiveness
to Authority. (3) Unity of Social and Political Organisation. (4)
Absence of Joyousness, Vitality and Vigour.

The power of the medizeval Church was very great, and so long as the
Church occupied itself with Religion, and the monks and elergy with good
works, they kept within their province and were a tremendous factor for
good. Inthe 11th century the Church was at its greatest, but gradually
the monasteries degenerated into a state of selfish lethargy or paid more
attention to business and intellectual pursuits than devotion to saintliness
and unselfishness. Inthe higher spheres of the Church, immense spiri-
tual authority brought it into conflict with temporal princes and we see
Pope Pius solemnly deposing Queen Elizabeth in his Bull of 1570. In its
eftort to uphold a good moral standard and to combat heresy, the Church
adopted too great a rigidity of rule. Its authority was unquestioned. It
discouraged interest in the physical lest the spiritual should suffer ; hence
science made no progress because scientific research was not tolerated.
Religion and philosophy suffered, because theological criticism was for-
bidden once the Church had spoken. The study of the human body was
forbidden, hence art and the appreciation of beauty were checked.
Naturally this produced a reaction.” This leads us to the second feature :
all must bow to authority, whether of Pope, convention or tradition.
Criticism was anathema ; the dislike of anything new, unusual or contrary
to past practice, seemed ingrained in the minds of men. Roger Bacon and
Galileo were persecuted not so much because their views were disliked, as
because such treatment of the authors of novelties was quite in accord
with public opinion of that time. Then we have the principle of Unity
underlying the social and political organisation. The world was looked
upon not as a collection of individual nations, but as one great political
society, and was based on the theory of universal monarchy. That God
meant the world to be ruled as one great state by His Representative was

The Renaissance. 81

universally accepted. The Guelfs or supporters of the Pope guoted the
committal of the keys to S. Peter. The Ghibellines or adherents of the
Emperor said “render unto Cesar,” while those who sat on the fence
quoted the two swords of the Gospel, and maintained that Emperor and
Pope were co-equal as God’s Representatives. The theory of unity was
recognised by all parties. While to-day everyone makes his own place
by his own work and powers, in medieval ages a man was born intoa
definite place in the social system, and could not rise out of the position
in which he was born. His individuality counted for nothing,

And fourthly the Middle Ages are a byword for gloom and unprogres-
siveness. With a few exceptions such as the attractive manners of
chivalry, the adventures of the Crusaders, picturesque legends of heroes
and the songs of the Troubadors, the Middle Ages were a period of stag-
nation and joylessness. Beauty was a snare, and pleasure a sin ; art had
no freedom. Authority laid down how sacred pictures were to be painted ;
many thought it sinful to represent Christ with natural beauty. The
study of the nude was forbidden, and monks disregarding the maxim that
cleanliness is next to godliness, boasted that they had not seen their own
bodies for years. Art was most melancholy, as anyone can recognise
who has been to Italy and seen the pictures of that period. People
actually took comfort in the assurance that the end of the world was at
hand, and the general spirit of gloom is shown by the “ Vision of Piers
Plowman” and Dante’s “Inferno.” This was the state of Europe before
the Renaissance which was now to pass away, and to give place to some-

thing quite different.

The chief characteristics of the new era were naturally the reverse of
those of the Dark Ages, and may be called :—(1) Individualism. (2) Criti-
cal Spirit. (3) Aestheticism. (4) Love of the Antique. (5) Inconsis-
tency. Of these perhaps the emergence of the individual is the most im-
portant. People began to claim the right to think for themselves and to
use their own reason. Convention had to give way before progress and
development, and the two most striking types that can be given of this
new order of things are Machiavelli's political doctrines and Martin
Luther's free-thinking. The same was true of nations, each of which now
began to play its own hand, and it was not so long alterwards that Francis
I, that Most Christian Kinz, concluded an alliance with the Sultan of
Turkey. Such an occurrence would have been impossible before the
Renaissance.

And as men began to think for themselves, they gave up taking things
for granted, and indulged in free discussion and critisism. Statements
of fact and theory were subjected to ‘critical judgment, and their life was
short if they did not pass this ordeal.

Aestheticism, the love of beauty in the abstract, was another striking
characteristic. The worship of beauty was common to the whole. To be
artistic was something which counted even more than to be learned or
clear-thinking. Unfortunately, form came to be considered more than
meaning, and in all branches of art, grace in the method of expression

$2 Timehri.

counted higher than the depth of the thought expressed. However, this
aestheticism produced great power of artistic criticism. From the Pope
down to the man in the street every Italian was a judge of art.

Another very important characteristic was love of the Antique ; and
the cult of the ancient history of Greece and Rome, at first uncritical and
undiscriminating, it ultimately produced the Revival of Learning, and the
development knownas Humanism.

If we are tempted to think that there were guiding principles on
clearly defined lines, we are soon undeceived for inconsistency was a
striking feature. Perhaps it was because the old order was changing and
the new had not yet settled down. The anomalous position of the Pope
was the most striking of all the examples of inconsistency. Serious and
religious men denounced him for worldly abuse of power, and were yet
willing to kiss his foot as God’s Vicar, and to plead for absolution from
him who held the keys of Heaven. Sixtus IV. founded the Vatican
library and built the chapel which is named after him, and which is to-day
one of the glories of the world, and yet broke up the wonderful collec-
tion of cameos and medals which his predecessor had brought together.
Few men did more than Pope Nicholas V. to beautify the City of Rome;
S. Peter’s and the Vatican are standing monuments to his name; and yet
for his new buildings he pulled down ancient Roman temples and used
the Coliseum asa quarry. There was indeed nothing so consistent as
the inconsistency of the Renaissance.

Now we come to the two great achievemeuts which were the dis-
covery of the World and the discovery of Man. The former meant not
only the exploration of the globe, but also scientific discoveries and
iaventions ; and the latter the discovery of man in political, intellectual
and spiritual matters ; each of these should be considered separately.

The main motives for the outburst of exploring energy were the
crusading spirit, trade and love of adventure, the last being typical of the
burning desire to be free from cramping boundaries. Greek astronomers
had known of the spherical shape of the earth, but apparently through
overestimating the breadth of Europe and Asia, the idea was to seek the
east by sailing west. The idea died out and was neglected. Butas we
have already seen, the fall of Constantinople brcught about the need of
finding new routes for the acquisition of trade and still more for the
spread of Christianity. It must be remembered that the crusading spirit
was a very real one, and all sorts of religious orders were founded for
spreading the Gospel in distant lands. But what practically drew ex-
plorers eastward was the belief that somewhere in the centre of Asia was
a big Christian kingdom, which, if joined up with European Christendom,
might be a powerful ally to attack the Moslem in the rear, and the wildest
legends had grown up round the name of the great Christian Khan, the
semi-mythical Prester John. The position of his kingdom was constantly
changing as travellers found that various supposed sites of it were quite
destitute of all traces of this marvellous king. A letter had appeared some

©)

The Renaissance. 83

time before, supposed to have been written by Prester John himself,
Prester being only another name for Presbyter, of which the following
extract, tho’ adiversion from the subject, is useful as showing how far
medieval imagination could go :—“ Our land is the home of elephants,
“ dromedaries, camels, crocodiles, wild asses, white and red lions, white
“bears, white merles, crickets, griffins, tigers, hyaenas, wild horses, wild
“ oxen and wild men, one-eyed, with eyes before and behind, centaurs,
“fauns, satyrs, pygmies, forty-ell-high giants, cyclopses and similar
women.” The whole district apparently teemed with the miracles of
nature. for it continues :—“ In our territory is a certain waterless sea of
“tumbling billows of sand never at rest. None has crossed this sea; it
“Jacks water altogether, yet fish are cast up upon the beach of various
“kinds, very tasty and quite unique.” Among the unexpected inhabi-
tants of the country, one finds Salamanders, Amazons, Gog and Magog,
to say nothing of the ten tribes of Israel. Incidentally Prester John
enumerates the members of his suite, which is very distinguished :—
“Seven kings wait upon us monthly in turn, with 62 dukes, 256 counts
“and marquises and 12 archbishops sit at table on our right, and 20
“bishops on our left, besides the patriarch of St. Thomas, the Sarmatian
“ Protopope and the Archpope of Susa.” As the supposed writer was a
Christian priest, it would be more charitable to his reputation to assume
that Prester John was not its author.

It has rightly been said that the capture of Constantinople by the
Turks was one of the most momentous events in the world’s history.
New routes must be found, or the Indo-European trade would be for
ever ruined. There were two alternatives : to sail down the west coast of
Africa to its southernmost point, if there were one, then east across the
Indian Ocean to the coasts of Asia, and secondly to sail due west from
the Mediterranean and trust to luck until the east was found again.

Portugues2 sailors had been exploring the west coast of Africa and
had actually rounded the Cape, which they called the Cape of Torment,
and reached the Great Fish River, but the most important voyage was
made by Vasco da Gama who got to Durban, and christened his anchorage
Port Natal, because he arrived there on Christmas Day, and on May 20th,
he arrived at Calicut in India, about 10 months after leaving Lisbon.
Further developments were then made by Almeida and Albuquerque, and
to shew how all this was regarded as so many souls added to the Chris-
tian faith, elaborate celebrations took place in Rome, where valuable
spoils from the East were displayed, includihg an elephant of huge size,
which did obeisance three times on its knees before Leo X, after which the
ciel Father addressed it in a congratulatory oration of unimpeachable

tin.

This discovery meant a new sea-borne trade for Portugal, and
abolished the endless series of trading stations and the disadvantages of
combined sea and overland routes. Some twenty ships sailed annually,
and the profit on the money spent on ships and voyages has been caleu-
lated at nearly 4,000 per cent. Another result was that trade acquisition

84 Timehri.

led to a policy of conquests, the movement to westernize Asia, and
to assimilate Oriental habits of life to those of the West. This attempt
still continues today, ahd itis yet to be proved whether the East will
allow itself to be assimilated by the West.

Turning now to the Atlantic route, Toscanelli of Florence was the

first to revive the idea of seeking the east by sailing west, but by over- ~

estimating the breadth of Asia, he broughtits eastern shore to where the
western coast of America really is. For many years tradition had
believed that somewhere west of the Pillars of Hercules was a land of
mystery, perhaps thefabled Garden of the Hesperides, or perhaps the
great continent Atlantis which Plato told of. It was known by many
names. Men from Iceland called it Vineland; others called it
Antilha, from which the modern name of Antilles is derived : some early
maps have it as an island off the west coast of Ireland marked Brazil.
The chart of Toscanelli, though incorrect, fell into the hands of a man of
great determination, Christopher Columbus, who set sail in 1492. Seek-
ing Asia, he found America. He was greatly upset, and hoped that he
had made a mistake, as his idea was to find an open way to India. He
returned again and discovered more of America. He died a disappointed
man, and the @mgat continent was named after a less famous person—
Amerigo Vespucci. The final step was taken in 1522 by Magellan, who
sailed through the straits named after him, crossed the Pacific and rounded
the Cape, the name of which he changed to Good Hope, and so back to
Spain.

It can readily be understood that the results of this world-wide dis-
covery were themselves of world-wide importance, and it would be
impossible to mention them all. Their immediate effect can, however, be
seen on polities, religion and thought. Politically the Emperor and the
Pope claimed authority over the inhabited world, but things got rather
complicated when ahuge continent was discovered to exist and to be
inhabited, which neither Emperor nor Pope had ever heard of. The dis-
covery of America may therefore be looked upon as having tended towards
shattering the power of both Emperor and Pope, and to have given rise
to the coming system of nationalities. The centre of political gravity
was shifted from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, and the Powers which
were to monopolize international politics were those which faced west-
wards—Spain, France and England. The Church had always claimed
the position of universal teacher, and had banned progress and investiga-
tion in natural science with the result that when the New World was
discovered and the globe cireumnavigated, a reaction set in against the
Church—and then unorthodoxy found a haven of refuge in emigration.

The incentive to thought of this discovery was enormous and three at
any rate of the greatest writers were directly inspired by it. Sir Thomas
More, whose “ Utopia,” written in 1516, pictured an ideal state of society
in an imaginary island; Montaigne who sang of the simple life of the

American savage ; and Francis Bacon, who has been called the “ Founder —

of modern physical geography.” In polities, religion and thought; the future

%

ee ee te ee

Cid ae

PO et EAN OE AE EO

A pan

—s

The Renaissance. 85

of the world was entirely remodelled by the discovery of America, and we
cannot leave it without enumerating the discoveries and inventions which
represent the scientific progress of the Renaissance. Roger Bacon, already
mentioned, claims a place as an innovator in science by his mathematical
and chemical researches, knowledge of optics and gunpowder, which re-
volutjonised the art of warfare, making of spectacles ; but above all in his
understanding of the telescope, he was a pioneer of modern times.
Copernicus was another product of the Renaissance. He shattered
Ptolemy’s theory of the Universe, which made the earth the fixed centre,
with sun, moon and stars revolving round it, and laid is down that the
earth was merely a unit in a number of worlds revolving round the sun.
Galileo followed Copernicus and elaborated his theories, for which he was
imprisoned by the Inquisition. He improved the telescope and used it for
astronomical purposes. Later on came William Harvey, who discovered
the circulation of the blood, and revolutionised pathology.

Most important of all perhaps was the discovery of printing which
made it possible to perpetuate the ideas and discoveries of all writers in a _
way which could not be done before. Teaching was greatly facilitated,
as a lecturer need no longer dictate the text, and the Bible was brought
within the reach of all but the poorest. And in all of these inventions
the spirit of the time was clearly manifested.

It was said that one of the greatest achievements was the discovery of
Man. The emancipation which this movement brought about affected not
only individuals but also States. The principles of Feudalism were broken
down, and in place of an Empire claiming universal allegiance, there grew
up the sentiment of nationality. The three great nations which began to
dominate Europe were France, Spain and England. France, which had
been a conglomeration of great Feudal States over which the authority of
the King was nominal, was gradually consolidated by war and diplomacy,
and was finally nationalised by the elaborate policy of Richelieu Spain,
which consisted of two independent States was nationalised by the marriage
of Ferdinand of Aragon to Isabella of Castile aud the subsequent expul-
sion of the Moors; England emerged from the Wars of the Roses to
be nationalised by the House of Tudor under Henry VII, and the depth
of this idea of nationality may be gauged by the splendid behaviour of
the people, Roman Catholics included, when they had to ‘ace the Spanish
Armada.

The appearance of distinct nationalities opened up new vistas in in-
ternational relations. Instead of the dull, straightforward policy of peace
with one Power and war with another, bluff, deception and elaborate eal-
culations began to play a part. The theory of the balance of power arose,
and the game grew more and more scientific. ‘lhe creator of this cold and
calculating science of statecraft was perhaps the most typical and the most
interesting child of the Renaissance, Niccolo Machiavelli, whose theory
was to separate from ethics the pursuit of politics as a science and gov-
ernment asanart. ‘The Ambassador was the man who was sent abroad
to lie for the good of his country.” Slatesmen had to consider statecraft

86 Timehri.

only, which was not to be governed by rules of morality. To illustrate

_his meaning as clearly, as possible, he chose Cesare Borgia as his Ideal
Prince, the height of cynicism when we remember that Borgia was one of
the most unscrupulous scoundrels the world has ever seen.

But the discovery of man was most evident in the great revival of learn-
ing which spread over the world. Barbarian invasions of the dark ages had
broken Italy’s literary traditions, and the ascetic religion of the Middle
Ages was inimical to the revival of classical literature. The Church was
out of sympathy with what it called the work of pagans, which told of
heathen myths, encouraged interest in romance, beauty of form and secu-
lar subjects. And although the Church did much valuable work in scho-
lastic theology and law, the classics were deliberately neglected and the
result was an incredible depth of ignorance. Greek and Hebrew were
practically unknown in the West, and even Latin had degenerated into a
very debased dialect. But the intellectual activity and stimulating in-
fluence of the Renaissance altered all this, and the revival of learning
meant the free and unfettered study of all that appealed to men, the assi-
miliation of the literary beauties of all the classical writers, and in par-
ticular the study of Greek with its thought and culture. Such study was
known as “ literee humaniores”” and those who followed it came to be
known as Humanists, and the home of Humanism was Italy, and its three
great aims were to master the Greek language, to enter into the life and
thought of the civilization of ancient Greece and Rome, and lastly to be
able to write as well as the best authors of classical times A moment’s
thought will show that to attain these three aims, moderation was neces-
sary—exaggeration in any form would make the movement ridiculous. It=
is unfortunate that in its later stages, Humanism did degenerate into
exaggeration, and the first aim led to a craze for collecting anything old,
the second was responsible for much affectation, such as the assumption
of ancient Roman titles and names, and the third produced imbecilities of
speech in an age known as ‘‘ the golden age of speechification.” To give
you one instance, a learned Humanist thought it fit to show his powers
of rhetoric in starting his address to a learned society by apostrophising
the president's nose: “ O perfect nose, imperial nose, divine nose, nose to
be blessed among all noses.”

The scholarship of the Italian Renaissance may be divided into three
periods: (1) the age of passionate desire when men like Petrarch and
Boccacio stimulated in others the desire for knowledge; (2) the age of
collecting and formation oflibraries; (8) the age of criticism and founda-
tion of Academies. In the first period the classical authors were not well
known; "many of them had not yet been discovered, and the Greek
authors were known only in Latin translations. The movement
therefore depended mainly on individuals who knew Greek and could be
persuaded to come and teach it. Petrarch has been called “ the Father of
Humanism.” He was the first great man who attempted to learn the
Greek language aud to encourage others to follow him. The foundation
stone was laid by Ohrysoloras who came from Constantinople on a mission

The Renaissance. 87

to Florence. Ths Florentines seized the opportunity and gave him an
appointment at the University. The whole of educated Florence listened
to him. He produced the first Greek grammar, which was the one used
by Erasmus when teaching at Cambridge. The second period was started
ina small way by Petrarch and Boccaccio; manuscripts were mostly
found in monasteries, and once a few discoveries had been made, the fas-
cination of it seized princes and scholars alike. Great families like the
Medici employed agents all over Europe to help in the search. The two
most famous libraries were those at Florence and Rome. Niccolo de
Niccoli had formed a magnificent collection of 800 manuscripts. These
he bequeathed to Cosimo de Medici and other Trustees, and they formed
the nucleus of the present world-famous Laurentian Library. In
Rome the Papal Library was re-organised by Nicholas V, and increased
by Sixtus IV, who appointed the Humanist Platina as Librarian,
and he it was who catalogued it, and arranged it in its present building.
The Church wisely recognised that the new learning had come to stay,
and the Papacy, seeking temporal power, took up the patronage of letters.
Nicholas V, by temperament a littérateur, seriously set before himself
the collection of a library and the employment of Humanists on a com-
plete set of Latin translation of Greek authors. Leo X. was a typical
Humanist and belonged to the period of the zenith of the Renaissance,
and devoted himself to the promotion of intellectual progress and real
learning.

In the third period, the age of criticism, the Renaissance reached its
high-water mark in literary scholarship. There was now no longer the
undiscriminating admiration of the antique. Its place was taken by the
systematic study of what had been collected, and this was chiefly done by
literary groups called Academies, which met for the study and discussion
of learned questions ; the four most important of them being those at
Rome, Florence, Naples and Venice. The Roman Academy was _pre-
dominantly antiquarian, and was founded about 1460 by Piero, who pre-
ferred to call himself with elassical affectatioa Pomponius. The Academy
undertook the study of Roman Archeology. The members adopted an
anti-papal attitude and were imprisoned by Paul II, who subsequently
dissolved the Academy. It was revived by Sixtus IV, was brilliant under
Leo X, and died a natural death about 1530. The Neapolitan Academy
was the least important of the four. They studied the Latin language
especially and acquired a complete mastery of its style. After a time its
character changed and it degenerated. The Florentine Academy was the
most brilliant of all, and flourished under the patronage of the Medici;
and under the protection of Lorenzo the Magnificent, perhaps the
greatest patron of arts of the period, it pursued a really brilliant career.
Plato was its patron saint and philosophy was thus its main feature.
The Academy was suppressed in 1522, but was subsequently revived when
its interests became rather Italian than Platonic. The Venetian Academy
differed from the others in being mainly engaged in editing and printing
the Greek classics. It was founded in 1500 by Aldus Manutius who
supervised distinguished Humanists in selecting, collating and printing

88 Timehri.

Aldus died in 1515, having printed all the greater Greek classics and
some of the Latin with critically edited texts. Shortly after his death
the study of Greek began to decline in Italy, and it is therefore to him
that we owe the security of the great Greek authors from destruction.

Teaching thus became an important function of the Humanist and it
is not easy to exaggerate the influence of Italian students, the aim of the
true Humanist educator being to secure the harmonious development of
mind, body and character. The movement was a great one, and produced
great permanent results. The debt owed to its leaders for the restoration
of the classics is incalculable and from that time a model was set before
man, which has affected modern literature, and added to the wealth of
modern Janguages, Learning was popularised and made broader and
deeper, and a liberal form of education was founded. It is quite impos-
sible in a limited time to trace the Renaissance through all the countries
of Europe, but even a short sketch would not be complete without some
mention of those countries outside of Italy, which were deeply influenced
by it. But before turning to those countries however, one-man must be
named whose cosmopolitanism prevented his being regarded as belonging
to any one nation: Erasmus, born at Rotterdam, living successively at
Oxford, Paris, in Italy and Cambridge, and dying at Bale. To him
Humanism was a means for the propagation of truth. The literary
conceits and striving after effects and form, which marred Italian Human-
ism, seemed to hima shallow thing. He was a brilliant writer of Latin
and could not tolerate unsound scholarship and uncritical history. In
his biblical criticism, he was fearless and independent. He published the
first Greek Testament in 1516, and its dedication was accepted by Leo X.
To educate men up to sound learning and honest argument was the object
of his life. A persona grata wherever he went, he did more than anyone
else to spread the best influences through modern countries.

In Spain and Holland few great Humanists were produced. The
opposition of the Jesuits and the rigour of the Inquisition prevented
Humanism getting a holdin Spain. In the Netherlands, several scholars
appeared, the best known of whom were Heinsius and Hugo Grotius, the
author of the first treatise on international law, whose name is of particu-
lar interest to us here inthe form of De Groot. But constant religious
struggles and the prolonged revolt against Spain left little time for the
humane studies.

In France the effect was rather to assimilate than to imitate and
revive the thought of the ancients. It produced a new development in
national art and literature rather than a reproduction of that of the Greeks
and Romans. The revival of learning however inftuenced her deeply, and
gave a great stimulus to art and letters, and in its native literature France
is quite distinguished.

In England the new learning took longer than elsewhere to get a
hold, and for some time it was considered necessary to go personally to
Italy in order to learn Greek. Though England had many distinguished

The Renaissance. 89

Humanists, she never produced quite a first-class scholar, and English
books were not considered sufficiently important to be reproduced abroad.
She had no great patrons as in other countries—Duke Humphrey of
Gloucester, Henry V.’s brother, was the nearest approach to one—and no
great progress was made until action was taken by the Universities.
After this it was spread by schools, St. Paul’s founded by Colet in 1512
leading the way. The four greatest English Humanists were Grocyn,
Linacre, Colet and More. Grocyn studied under Politian in Italy, and on
his return stimulated the new learning by his lectures at Oxford.
Linacre taught at Oxford, but is better known for his work in medicine,
and for his eftorts to banish quackery. Toshow what he had to contend
with, the following is a typical prescription of the times :—“a sow-pig of
nine days old, flayed and quartered, and stewed with peppermint, fennel,
liverwort, turnip, celery, pine dates and some raisins, to be set in the sun
for nine days, and drunk at intervals, nine spoonfuls at a time.” An —
alternative to this was :—‘ a hedgehog, quartered and distilled with a
quart of red wine, a pint of rose-water, a quart of sugar, cinnamon and
raisins, one date and twelve turnips. From this sort of thing Linacre tried
to rescue the science of medicine, and the permaneat memorial of his efforts
is to-day the Royal College of Physicians, of which he was the first
President. John Colet, Dean of St. Paul’s, was a great educationist and
though not a great scholar, his work was invaluable in preaching the
gospel of a return to the classical ages and the doctrines of the Primitive
Church. Last of all comes Sir Thomas More, who represented the highest
perfection of character among men of the time. His nobility of character,
the example of his domestic life, and the depth of his unaffected religion
made his personality a vital factor in the life of England.

To most of us, however, the first idea called up by the mention of the
word Renaissance is the glory of the works of art of the period, and
though perhaps not the most important aspect, it is certainly the most
dazzling and brilliant. Butit forms a study in itself and cannot adequately
be approached in a short sketch. We must therefore content ourselves
with the bare mention of a few of the greatest artists in a period of giants,
in which were produced many of the greatest artistic treasures of the
world. In painti g Botticelli, Titian, Tintoretto, Leonardo, Raphael and
Michelangelo for beauty, perfection of execution, idealism and classical
inspir tion take place among the greatest artists of the world. Architec-
ture was not one of the principal products. Its greatest achievement
was the adaptation of ancient models to modern needs. Brunelleschi’s
dome at Florence, and Michelangelo’s at St. Peter’s in Rome are among
the finest examples. One lesson architecture learnt, and that was pre-
cision of form and magnificent proportions, to be seen in St. Paul’s
Cathedral and in some of the chateaux in France. In sculpture, it is
impossible to overlook Michelangelo and Donatello, whose works were s9
greatly influenced by Greek art.

So far as the Renaissance can be said to have any end if all, it
ended in decadence. The impulse continued, but its products became
perversions of those which the movement had inspired.at its zenith,

90 Timehri.

But it bequeathed to the world good and permanent results. It was the —
transition from the Dark Ages io modern times, and the thought, 3
civilization of the present day are its offspring. We do not now liv
among giants, but our world is a different one to-day on account of the
great wave of stimulus, enthusiasm and freedom which passed over it, —
and bestowed on it the power of further development. The principles —
may be capable of further development and wie pee but they are
not likely to pass away altogether.

SOME STRAY THOUGHTS ON OUR PEOPLE.

By Epaar BrEeKerr.

More and more every year is it becoming a fact that, the future
agricultural prosperity of the Colony, must lie in a great degree with our
peasant class.

Now that East Indian immigration is practically a feature of the
past, it is obvious that only such companies which possess the most
up-to-date factories and which are ready to successfully solve the peculiar
difficulties which present themselves to those who would substitute
mechanical devices in place of our primitive methods of culture, can
compete with other sugar-producing countries.

There is every truth in Hortensio’s remark—‘ There’s small choice
in rotten apples.”

We have no choice in the matter, the small factories will have to go,
we have to depend upon modern factories with every up-to-date appliance
for both field and manufacturing processes.

And here the peasant can play his part.

There is enormous scope for cane-farming in practically all the
villages contiguous to the sugar estates, and in addition to cane-grow-
ing there need be no difficulty whereby a modern sugar factory might not
contain also room for the manufacture of calcium citrate, concentrated
lime juice, the preparation of rice, copra, coffee, cacao and other
products.

In short a central factory not only for sugar but for other products
is by no means a visionary project. Indeed we see no reason why the
manufacture of flour from plantains, yams, cassava, rice, ete., should not
all fall to the lot of whatis now known locally as ‘‘ The Buildings.”

The many opportunities and conveniences afforded by a large sugar
factory, operate successfully towards extensions in various directions at a
far cheaper cost than if separate factories have to be erected.

If it were the case that the central sugar factory became the manu-
facturing centre of the district, we are convinced that, yranted the proper
treatment of the farming class, a tremendous impetus would be given to
agricultural work in this Colony. ri

We may pretend as much as we like, but we know that deep in their
hearts the majority of our people look upon farming as a last resource,
and even those who are making money out of the land take very good
pains to train the tastes of their children away from such a vocation,
The ambition of all is to become a lawyer, a clergyman, a schoolmaster,
or at the worst a clerk or a “‘counter-jumper.” This last named class is

92 Timehri.

very much on the increase, and if one should take a census of the number
in the class of Titmouse, one would be astonished at the result.

In a previous article on the Black Peasant Proprietor the writer has
not hidden the fact that, in his opinion, the faults underlying these
peculiarities belong to us who are responsible for the training of our
people. This disinclination or bending away from, work on the land is
also found in some instances in the creole East Indian—the product of
our primary schools.

The remedy lies, we feel convinced, in taking the “ educational coach
and turning it in a direction opposite to that in which it is now travelling.”
If our children were trained to think correctly we should find less pains
given to the things that do not matter and more care given to the
weightier affairs of this life.

It is afact admitted even by the teachers themselves, that many of
our children have no respect for anyone, we ourselves are familiar with
the as-good-as-anyone-else air that is commonly adopted, the ready lie,
the rude retort, the cool insolence, the disposition to take up always an
offensive defensive ; the ill-brooking of discipline, the want of restraint,
whilst as to their morals (using the word in its narrow restricted sense)
the condition of some of our young people tells its own sad story.

The tragedy of it all is that we appear to know these things in our
hearts and yet no drastic remedies are sought for, the outer covering of
respectability is allowed to cloak a state of affairs as unsatisfactory as it
is unsavoury.

How often do we find out here the well-kept home, the restraint of
keeping within the income earned, the regular methodical habits that spell
success, the sinking of self and the practice of doing what is right because
it is right ? Are our clergy satisfied ? Are they pleased with their efforts ?

The ill-kept grave-yards, the dirty churches which one finds here and
there, would point to the fact that the laissez-faire habit has not escaped
* some of our preachers of the Gospel of Christ. Do many of our clergy
pretend to know the causes that have led up, step by step, day by day,
to the development of the wife beater ?

Take our daily papers and read there the list of petty offences; the
filthy tongue, the godless conduct, or worse still visit the court-rooms
and hear for oneself what our magistrates have to listen to day after day—
the sordid stories of petty spite, the abominable lying—are they not all
present ?

And yet nearly all of these people have been baptised, many have
been confirmed, some visit the Altar of God at the Holy Eucharistic
service.

Practically all of them have passed through our primary schools.
And yet we are told by Ruskin that “ Education does not mean teaching
people to know what they do not know. It means teaching them to
behave as they do not behave,”

Some Stray Thoughts on Our People. 93

Speaking in public on one occasion Charles Dickens said ‘ Mere
reading and writing is not education, it would be quite as reasonable to
call bricks and mortar architecture.”

And so we have it: the ill-conditioned home, too often the scene of
senseless rows, generally a mass of confusion, no gentleness, no refine-
ment, little honesty, often enough a number of people herded together
that makes even simple decency impossible. No kitchen—a savage
scramble for meals, ill-prepared, and worse yet, no bathrooms.

In New Amsterdam recently the writer noticed that a man was put
before the Magistrate for wasting the Corporation’s water by bathing
under one of the standpipes. And yet, mark you, there is not a single
public bathhouse in the whole of the town, and the ordinary rooms
occupied by the majority of the people do not possess anything even pre-
tending to be a bathroom. Our people are wonderfully clean when one
considers the grave difficulty presented in getting an ordinary daily wash

From the home to the school—what sympathy do they get
at school? Often the tiny mites are dazed with want of good
food, the ready lash makes them still more dazed; a monotonous
gramophone method of shrill sing-song that is enough to prevent
the smartest man from concentrating correctly the brains his God has

given him. There is no such thing practised as games, the physical con-

dition of the children is a matter of no importance at all.

Look at one of our large primary schools pouring out its children,
watch their behaviour, note their language and yvestures, observe the dis-
gusting bullying, see their ideas of fair play, look at their efforts at so-
called games. All confusion, and disorderly rabble, a disgrace to the
teachers and still more to the school-manager.

Can the Church dare to pride itself on its schools ?

Is the Church satisfied with her progress ?

Are we building up men? Do we know anything about the affections
and temper of our young men and women, our boys and girls? Do we
know how this balata-bleeder, that young clerk, that sturdy young porter
treats his wife, his mother? Are his relations with his neighbours
what you would expect in a young and healthy man? Is there any
attempt at fashioning what Locke called a ‘‘ whole, sound, round-about
man ?”

We know right well that we are making a mess of things, though we
may not confess it even to ourselves.

Ask those whose opinion is worth having what the rising generation
gives promise of, and see if the answer is such as to leave us satisfied
with the progress we are making.

94 Timehrv.

And then when things go wrong, this life is a failure, this man acts
dishonestly and scurvy acts are seen on every side, we are quick to hear
the comment “ Our people are no good, they are dissolute, worthless.”
Are they?

If they are, which of us is striving tooth and nail to introduce a new
order of things? How many of our ladies take an interest in the lives
and homes of our people ; who cares whether the children have a playing
ground attached tothe school, and decent sturdy English cricket and
football is played there, and played in the right spirit? Veryfew. We
can assure those who waste afternoon after afternoon in playing Bridge
that a giant’s work is waiting to be done at their very doors, and work
too of far greater interest than they might imagine.

We do not refer to namby-pamby district visiting, but to efforts
which might be made to introduce material reforms in house-building
for the poorer classes, the building up of home influence, the arousing of
interest in matters that count in the lives of young men and women, the
creation of a straightforward, truthful, honest and upright class of people
amongst us.

“ Find out men’s wants and will,
And meet them there. All worldly joys go less
To the one joy of doing kindnesses ” sung Herbert.

The writer goes among the people and can claim to know some-
thing of the cosmopolitan class (we must remember that even our black
population is descended from various tribes of West Africa) that go to _
make up this colony, or he would sound a note of warning with respect
to the future to be played by the masses.

“ Pouvoir sans savoir est fort dangereun.”

“ Tt is not well to teach our democracy to read unless we also teach
it to think” to quote Sir Richard Jebb.

The spiritual portion of their duties attract our priests and doubtless
none of these duties is neglected. What we want to see practised is a
greater interest in the material life of our people, and it is this interest
that we stoutly maintain is almost all together lacking.

There are, we are well aware, many exceptions, but the truth is the
material condition of our people appeals very little to our clergy and to
those others who are responsible for their welfare and their future well-
being in this world.

We believe that if we hope to do anything with our children whether
they be Black, East Indian, Chinese, Portuguese or Assyrian, we must
see to it that provision is made for decent playing grounds where proper
manly games may be indulged in,

The number of petty schools of various denominations we should
like to see not only decreased as has lately been the case, but the drastic

Some Stray Thoughts on Our People. 95

closing down of numbers of others and established in their place central
schools under Government control, with the very best of masters imported
at excellent salaries in charge of these, with a staft of highly-paid well
qualified assistants, if mecessary as in the case of the Headmasters
brought out specially for their known powers of teaching and their
interest in educational matters. After the war such men should be
available. Men who would know how to build up sound character, who
would recognise the great importance of physical fitness and the necessity
for training not only the mind but the hand.

Distinction between the training of our children living on the
higher reaches of our rivers and children in Georgetown, or some of the
large villages, should we think be made.

The old schoolmasters of the Renaissance went on the principle that
nothing else but Latin and Greek were of importance, and some of us
seem to think that arithmetic and writing and reading must occupy the
minds of primary pupils to the exclusion of nearly everything else. The
idea that there are lessons for the child in the play-ground and in the
field appears to be unknown to the average primary schoolmaster here.
Rousseau’s well-known aphorism has long ago been recognised by masters
of public schools “‘les legons que les écoliers prennent entre eux dans la
cour du college leur sait cent fois plus utiles que tout ce queu leur dira
jamais dans la classe,” he says in his Emile.

Our Aboriginal Indian children are fast losing their skill in basket-
making and hammock weaving—indeed on the Berbice River I was
told that the Indians were buying matapies—the chain-like basket sieve
used for pressing out the poisonous juices of the cassava before it is
made into bread—from the Blacks, and hammocks from the stores in town,

What have we given them in exchange for their lost arts? A little
reading, a little arithmetic, a little writing —just about enough to make
them exercise a certain amount of cunning. To our mind there is some-
thing pathetic in the picture of these little children of the forest repeating
the monotonous “‘sing-song” so common to our primary schools, at the
bidding of a young schoolmaster trained in one of our towns.

All these children have to make their living in the forests and by
means of the forest products they are skilful enough to bring to their
Service—are we satisfied that we are helping them in their childhood to
fight the battle of life which awaits them in the forest ?

Sugar is our staple product, but we are fairly well convinced that if
we were to ask a number ofour town school-children anything about the
growing of the sugar cane and its manufacture into yellow crystals, that
their ignorance of the subject would be surprising. We see no reason
why models of sugar factories, and not only sugar factories, but citrate
of lime factories an 1 mills for oil producing plants, could not find their
way into the larger schools. With centralization we believe this would
be quite practical.

26 Timehri.

The objection raised to large central schools under Government
control is, of course, the fact that the present system allows of the
religious instruction of the children by the school manager.

The squabbles we read of between Managers and Masters are not
always particularly edifying and in some instances reflect little credit on
either the Master or the Parson, :nd with respect to religious instruction
it is doubtful whether very much attention is paid to this when the
Headmaster has the serious business of earning money grants—since
the pernicious system of payment by results still continues—out of the
little children (God help them!) who are to be trained up by him and
sent forth equipped to face life.

The writer has been told by one who had an early training, consist-
ing of two years in one of the best and largest of our primary schools,
before passing on to Queen’s College, that during that time he received
absolutely no religious training at all, had never seen a Bible nor was any
attempt made to refer tosacred matters. Yet we are told that the
schools must be under the control of the churches in the spiritual interest
of the children !

The spiritual interest can well be attended to in the Sunday School
class where numbers of children go without fail every Sunday—it is part
of the day’s outing.

Under good, clean, healthy teachers during the week, with indul-
gence in manly games calling for the exercise of self-control, we believe
that our children would give us hope for the future.

The Parsons have an enormous amount of work to see that the
home-life is inproved—* point de mére point d’enfant ” says Rousseau.
With regard to the father, we fear little interest is taken by him in the
training of his children—in many instances he is away in the balata-fields
the greater part of every year.

With the teacher who thinks of nothing but the Inspector’s exami-
nation once every year, on which his bread depends, with the home life
as it is—are we satisfied that we are doing our duty by the children?

The same Inspector’s examination would be amusing if the issues at
stake were not so great—a visit about once a year and an examination
of a few hours and he is able to tell us what the children have learnt !

Have we ever paused to consider that our Assistant Teachers with
salaries of something like $5 a month, must be living on the energies
of their parents? Probably they are being supported by a poor hard-
working woman over the wash tub, who naturally enough likes to see
her son looking smart in high collar, tie and shining boots and thinks prob-
ably that he is a “teacher.” From a boy who can live on his mother’s hard
earned wages, may we expect anything much, and must such a boy in
time be leading our children in the path of duty?

_

i
3

7

Some Stray Thoughts on Our People. 97

Old Pestalozzi’s words still apply to us though spoken over a
century ago. ‘If we desire to aidthe poor man,” he says, “ the very
lowest among the people, this can be done in one way only, that is by
changing his schools into true places of education, in which the moral,
intellectual, and physical powers which God has put into our Nature
‘may be drawn out, so that the man may be enabled to live a life such as
aman should live, contented in himself and satisfying other people.
Thus and only thus does the man, whom in God’s wide world nobody
helps and nobody can help, learn to help himself.”

THE “TIMEHRI” ARTICLES UPON INDIAN
LANGUAGES.

By Rev. W. G. Waites, F.R.G.S.

The War Volume of June, 1917, contained three articles dealing with —
Indian languages, and Makuchiin particular. An article, in the nature of
explanations, may serve a useful purpose.

The remarks in the Guiana Diocesan Magazine, to which Rey. Mr.
Williams refers in one of these articles were not meant to be “scornful,”
nor were they, as some might think, aimed athim. Iwrote froma wider —
experience than that of my work in Guiana. Ihave met such travellers
who collected words through an interpreter and wrote about the languaves
and were regarded as authorities on that language. In my writings for
the Census Report of Burma, and in my “ Introduction to the Mawken
language ” (takea up by the Government) I exposed such error. Guiana
has furnished similar instances, with which there is no call forme to deal _
with now.

While it is true that Brett had a workiny knowledge of Indian —
languages, I know, from an examination of some of his work, that he was —
not equipped, by previous training, for scientific language study. The
mere number of his publications is no guarantee of his accuracy. Idioms
are traps for the unwary, and Brett fell into some of these traps. Brett
gives himself away when he allows the spelling Acawoio to appear. He —
did not get even the name of this tribe correctly. His Marriage Service
needs serious attention. His Lord’s Prayer presents wrong ideas to the
Indians who learn it. ‘The Diocesan authorities ought to take up this —
matter, for the system of conducting the Bartica Mission has been, and —
is, hopeless, for sound work amongst the Indians. The Indian work '
should be separated from the English work ; and it should includushe —
upper reaches of the Masaruni, at least. a

-

nny

Itake the word “radical” to refer to root. Mr. Williams will, I
think, admit that the M:kuchi 1 nguage contains words of which the —
roots are distinct from the equivalents of those words in the other lan- —
guages. I would not piu this statement upon such slender facts as the —
curious inversion of @yilables in the name for cassava cake as is found in Hi
Makuchi and Akawatho—one haseka and the aks. While one may be
justified in calling Makuchi and Akawatho di.lects of a common language e
(I say may be justitied), no one could reasonably call Arawak and —
Wapiana dialects of a common language with Makuchi.

That the Indian languages of The Americas are descended froma
prehistoric stock may yet be demonstrated. But language study is
difficult where the history of the peoples concerned is not recorded, nor
known even by tradition.

The “Timehri” Articles Upon Indian Languages. 29

To grapple with language study it is not enough to be able to
speak several Janguages. Any ordinary person can learn as many lan-
guages as he desires. One nust in addition study the construction of
languayes, comparative philology, phonology (science of sounds), and
the principles of the growth of languages.

Be it noted: I donot claim to possess an exhaustive knowledge of
such subjects ; but I have studied them with care.

Nor dol profess to know Makuchi and Akawatho through and
through. I had a useful vocabulary of Wapiana (the Makuchi name for
them) from our Wapiana nurse, and afew words of Arawak from a
prisoner at the Penal Settlement.

My only claim is that my studies were on sound lines.

(My successor has worked upon wrong lines. I hope that he may
take warning in time and not fall into those traps into which Brett and
others have fallen).

Some people in Guiana, ignorant of the nature and extent of opportu-
nities offered to me, and taken, for language study and original research,
jumped to the conclusion that I was merely a novice beating wildiy about
the bush.

The paper by the Rev. C. J. Cary-Elwes, S.J., must have been
very informing to those who had not previously thought out the
matter at all, and to those who were ignorant of the rules which have
guided the Royal Geographical Society. But it ought to be pointed out
that the Society's method of adopting a script without diacritical marks
was due to the fact—reiterated in its journal some months back—that
the geographical requirements of cartography would vbsewre diacritical
marks. The Society claims no more than that it has adopted a rough and
ready method, and it nowhere claims that, for language study and
literature, its method is ideal, or even sufficient. The Greeks used
diacritical marks, and so do the French, Germans, Italians, and Spaniards
to name but a few.

The reason for the need of diacritical marks is this: Languages,
eVen non-tonal ones, are built up upon six, or more, long-vowels and (cr)
a corresponding number of short-vowels. Pure English has short-vowels
predominating. French and other Latin languages have long-vowels
predominating. Pure English is found in Northern England and parts
of Scotland (I believe Caithness makes some big claims), while Norman
(French) English is found in the South-East. The difference can be
traced in such words as grass, gluss, dance, prance: in the North the
vowels are short, while in the South they are long.

While languaves are so built up, the scripts adopted fail to meet the
requirements without the use of diacritical marks! The English Alphabet
has only five letters (vowels a, e, i, 0, u) to represent twelve sounds,

100 Timehri.

Note the sounds given to the vowels in the following words :
a— Father played Badmonton.

e- He spéd.
i— TI saw it.
o-— Go 6n.

u-— Use an timbrella.
i and u are really diphthongs ; two distinct sounds coalesced. In singing,
as Father Cary-Elwes points out, these sounds must be separated to
secure distinct enunciation. (The writer has taken singing lessons.)

We haye nosign to represent the pure vowel-sound in aught. Nor
have we a sign to represent the pure vowel-sounds in boot and foot.

But, while English is faulty, French is equally faulty ; though French
does not represent a diphthong by a single sign. It does represent a
single vowel by a double sign—eau =o

French, however, can not represent short-vowels at all by any signs,
without the use of diacritical marks or the arbitrary and unscientific
method of doubling a consonant following, e.g., cette.

While the French can not represent short-vowels properly, Pure
English can not represent long-vowels properly. We use the same
characters of the alphabet but pronounce them differently.

While it is admittedly arbitrary to make two o’s do duty for the
single vowel in the word boot ; it is equa'ly arbitrary to make a and u do
duty for the single vowel-sound in aught (English) and eaw (French).

We need a new alphabet, which shall allow each sound to be repre-
sented by its own sign. Until such an alphabet is evolved, scientific
wr.ting must have recourse to diacritical marks. ad

Compromise which means that both sides give up principles is wrong ;
compromise which is the result of recognizing that differences are com-
plementary is useful.

One hopes that some day we may agree to give the French pro-
nunciatiou to the signs.

a (ah), e (aye), i (ee), o (oh), u(oo)—thus giving grounds
to the claims made by Father Cary-Elwes, while adopting diacritical
marks, in order to represent the short, the open and the long vowels :

a (ann)

e (sped)

i (it)

o (on)

u (umbrella)—thus giving ground to scientific necessity.

We shall, then, have to agree upon signs to represent the pure
vowels, which are sounded in :
aught, and paw, foot, put.

The “ Timehri” Articles Upon Indian Languages. 101

This might be done by placing the diaeresis over a, thus, a and over
u, thus : ii.
We should, then, have the twelve vowels—six long and six short—
as follows :
Long :
a (ah), e (aye), i (ee), i (awe), o (oh), u (00).
Short :
a (at), é (pet), i (it), 6 (on), & (but), & (put).

For Makuchi we should need yet another pure vowel sign, and it is
a matter of indifference as to whether Father Cary-Elwes’s e with circum-
flex (€) or my u with a circumflex (4) be adopted. His is the result of a
French bias: Mine is the result of an English bias.

The rough and ready method of the Royal Geographical Society
(claimed to be necessitated by the requirements of cartography) fail
utterly, when one has to write such words as Makuchi.

According to the Society’s pronunciation of a@ (identical with the
French pronunciation) the name would be pronounced Mah-Kuchi. But
that would be incorrect, for the vowel is short. Were the unscientific
device adopted of doubling the consonant following (which is k) we should
write the word Makkuchi. But this device is hopeless when it is
realized that it then becomes impossible to know when _ two similar con-
sonants coming together are to be sounded separately without shortening
the preceding vowel—as in Hindustani words.

Also, there is no means of shewing that a final vowel shall be short
and not long, as in the common word, ir Makuchi, for “our” ana.

Further, a script, to be scientitic, must meet the needs of Eastern as
well as those of Europe and the West. Had I adopted Father Cary-Elwes’s
method (that of the R.G.S.) I could not have committed Mawken to
writing in any sensible way.

Note: Ido not claim that my adoption of the English Pronouncing
Dictionary’s method proves that method is ideal (where, for example, 66 re-
presents the vowel in boot). I adopted it because its use of diacritical
marks (the macron, breve and diaeresis — ~ -~ ) allowed of distinc-
tions between long and short vowels (Father, cin) being shewn, and
avoided the unscientific and confusing device of doubling a consonant to
shorten a vowel.

There is no need to use the macronifit be agreed that a, e,i. 0, u
shall be pronounced as long vowels (French) where they do not carry the
breve, 4, &, i, 6, ti, to indicate that they are short.

I must challenge the statement that the English ois really on. It is
not! (Forgive the pun). Does Father Cary-Elwes really mean to main-
tain that, in singing, the English o is slurred so as to finlsh off as u (00) ?

102 Timehri.

Is not this a French misconception? The Englisho should not be slurred
into oo. ‘There should be no contraction of the lips, even in singing.

Likewise the argument adduced in paragraph 4 on page 91 of
“ Timehri,” is open to question. It d es notin the least follow that learned
gzographzrs, nor even those who can speak several languages, are qualified
to devise a scientific script, norisa thing right b c:use many people con-
sider it to be so. And were the Royal Geographical Society to adopt
diacritical marks as the result of its present considerations this priaciple
would be illustrated forcibly.

I plead that this or that ‘authority ” shall not decide the issue; but
that right principles shall be sought and adopted.

A splendid opportunity offers of adopting a phonetic and scientific
script, in which one sign shail represent one sound and each sound shall
bz represented by its own sign. (For this purpose a character with a
diacritical mark shall be regarded as one sign.)

Had I continued at the Mission, I shuld have willingly adopted the
long-vowel pronunciation for a, e, i, 0, u, written without marks, did
Father Cary-Elwes agree to use the breve to indicate short-vowels.
Thus the use of the macron would have been avoided.

In order to make plain the script used by me—which is that of
English Pronouncing Dictionaries—I give the following list of vowels
and their signs

ai (ah)

a (aye)

6 (ee)

I (eye)

5 (oh)
(you)
(«t)
(pet)
(pit)
(pot)
(but)
(boor)
60 (foot)
aw (awe)
a (6 French)

ce Om XK oH

a
co

iand ware of course diphthongs. The pure English a (as in bade)
is not a diphthong, as may be shewn by the correct Eaglish pronuncia-
tion of Mury. In played y follows a and gives a slur.

It will be noted that in the script adopted by me there were no
unnecessary consonan‘s. ¢ is unnecessary : k and s serve instead. q, also,
is not needed, norisx. On the other hand Idid not write ¢ for ch (as
in the musical term concerto) z for t (as in mezzo) (Italian) nor eaw for o
(French). bal,

The “ Timehri” Articles Upon Indian Languages. 103

Father Cary-Elwes and I are good friends and it is with great
regret that I see no opportunity of continuing the study of Makuchi

together with him.

It was not possible for me to deal with the question of diacritical
marks while in Guiana. I amenabled to do so now through the kind-
ness of the Clarendon Press, which has supplied me with the necessary

type.

“KING WILLIAM’S PEOPLE.”

THE STORY OF THE WINKEL VILLAGE, BERBICE.

By J. GRAHAM CRUICKSHANK.

Aback of the residential quarter of ‘‘ Queenstown,” in New Amster- —
dam, Berbice, bounded (approximately) on the North by the Prison Farm, —
on the South by Vryheid street, on the East by PJn. Smythfield, andon —
the West by that aptly named road (which is the way to the Prison) called —
“ Penitential Walk”—is a little village known as ‘‘ the Winkel.” An old
man will say of his friend that ‘ he doves live in the Winkel” or of him-
self that he ‘just, just from the Winkel.”

Although the Winkel Village is within the boundaries of New ©
Amsterdam, as defined by law, and might be made subject to all the rules —
and regulations of that borough it yet lives a separate life of its own, yet —
breathes apart something of the old time when in his way the Winkel —
Negro was a somebody in Berbice.

Just now the village—like many another place illustrious in its day—_
does not bear many marks of fame. A mud dam divides its two rows, or
wavy lines, of houses. Halfway through the village—from Vryheid
Street to Ferry Street—the dam, although destitute of stone or burnt
earth, is wide and ample and is kept free of long grass. Sweet potatoes —
and arrowroot and pigeon peas have been planted on the parapet. Then —
the abandoned lots begin to come—lots which are still rich in old fruit
trees, star-apple and sapodilla and dark-leaved mango, but from which —
the human element (more fragile and more peripatetic than a vegetable) —
disappeared in some cases many long yearsago. The road echoes this dis- —
appearance, and dwindles away to a mere foot-track between sourgrass —
and busy-busy. At night the Winkel Village is in darkness, save for such —
light as shines from a “ door-mouth” or twinkles in the sky. The most —
remote inhabitant of the Kongo cannot more gratefully hail the light of -

the moon. There is no stand-pipe on the dam; the Winkel girl dips —

water from the Smythfield old punt-trench—deep in moka-moka and wild —
gooseberry, now—just as her great-grandmother did.

Immediately behind the fine flower of the aristocracy of New Amster-
dam-—within cry of an old house that once sheltered the Governor of —
Berbice—is this little primitive settlement,—sans light, sans water, sans
a road that is walkable in wet weather.

What is the story of the Winkel Village? What is the meaningof
“ winkel,”—“ anyway ”?” . 2

“Winkel”-—-as any Dutch Dictionary will tell us—is a shop. A
winkel-jongen is a shop-boy ; a winkel-meisje is a shop-girl. And this

simple bit of word-lore puts us ona track, which, together with a little

research among the records—published and unpublished—leads us to the —
heart of the business. The Winkel Village is where the old artizans— —

“King William’s People.” 105

blacksmiths, masons, bricklayers (and perhaps brick-makers), coopers and
carpenters of the old Dutch Colony, and later British Colony, of Berbice
lived.

They were Negroes, taught trades, and employed for the most part
on the Public Works.

Of course the early Winkels—the first artizans—were white men.
They were indented servants—the Christian servants of the 17th Cen-
tury—blacksmiths and masons in the Netherlands, brought to the Wild
Coast, to ply their trade in the forests and by the great rivers of South
America. It must have been quite a number of years before the idea
occurred to anybody that the Negro could be taught a trade. The
Negro’s head was wonderful for carrying things on, but not in. And
then (no doubt) a Government Planter, up the river, noticed a
Koromanti black trying to fashion something for himself out of a bit of
old iron, and it struck him— it must have been like a flash of inspiration
—‘ How would it do if I tried to teach this man to be a blacksmith ?’
Perhaps, after all, Kwasi had done a little rough iron-work in his own
country, but Mynheer Mittelholzer—who had just picked him up
from a ship sent by the West India Company—could not be expected
to know this, and—being a prosaic, unimaginative man—he had never
dreamt it. And so he bade his white blacksmith try him, and he tried
him, and the black man made an apt pupil. Such was the origin—I make
no doubt—of the first black Winkels.

In the beginning the Winkel Department—together with the
Governor, his Secretary and the entire Administration—bar a lonely
Sergeant with a soldier or two in a Brandwagt at the mouth of the
river—was to be found in the vicinity of Fort Nassau, fifty miles up the
Berbice. They were difficult to get at from the sea, and this was part of
the idea, it was well in those days when privateers were about to be diffi-
cult to get at from the sea! Towards the end of the eighteenth century—
after much talk—they descended to the coast. The second New Amster-
dam—the town as we know it to-day—dates from about 1790. It was
just about that year that axe and fire began their work at the junction of
the Canje with the Berbice river. Dr. Pinckard—as we are told in his
“ Notes on the West Indies ’ (London, 1806) visited Berbice in May, 1796.
“The town is yet in embryo,” he observes. ‘ According to a plan,
formed for its construction, it is to be built upon the angle, or peninsula,
between the rivers Berbische and Kannye extending along the bank of
the former. The land on which it is to be erected is in part cleared of
its wood, and divided into lots ready for building, but, at present, only
here and there a scattered house is to be seen. Beyond the prepared
land, and not half a mile from the Government-house, the bush still
overhangs the river Kannye, Government House, Pinckard thought,
“beyond all comparison, the handsomest and most spacious edifice I
have yet seen in South America. It is built near the river, with one front
commanding the water; the other the town.”

And just about this time—and just about the site of the Winkel
Village to-day—there must have been built—although ‘built’ is prob-

106 Timehri.

ably too big a word for the putting up of such rude walls of sticks and
clay and roofs of grass or troolie (mere benabs some of them) the huts
that sheltered the first Government Negroes (slaves) in New Amsterdam.
Dr. Pinckar | visited a few of the Government negroes who were employed
at the fort—Fort Andries, or St. Andrew’s, on the other bank of the
Canje, facing Crab Island. Their huts called to his remembrance the
“ cottagers’ cabins in the Highlands of Scotlands.” Just similar must
have been the huts of the Negroes attached to Government House,
who did the other work of the Colony at New Amsterdam.

“ Queenstown ”—the pleasant, ample, and quiet (albeit, at dusk,
sandfly-haunted) ‘‘ West End ” of New Amsterdam—is certainly the oldest
part, by far, of that borough. It is to New Amsterdam what the Brick
Dam—which Pinckard deseribes, too: “‘a narrow causeway, paved with
small bricks put edgewise into the ground ”-- is to Georgetown. It repre-
sents the—always interesting —“ beginning of things.” A few old land-
marks may yet be noted in Queenstown. Perhaps the oldest is the
‘“‘ Brick House ” (also called the ‘‘ Red House ”’) now belonging to Mr. C.
H. Jones. The thick brick walls of this building—eighteen inches of
small, red Dutch bricks—massive as the ramparts of some storm-beaten
castle: the iron-hard twelve-inch-square bullet-wood sills—the very, very
heart of the tree—impervious to time or termites: all tell of the good
old days when Abraham Van Batenburg was King of Berbice, and
Wolfart Katz could boast, probably with justice, that he had more slaves.
and better ones, than any other from the Devil's Creek to the Abary.

Ancient—as antiquity goes in Guiana—is the building now All
Saints’ Manse. Ancient too—in keeping with the abode of its Minister—
is All Saints’ Scots Church, the old ‘‘ Colony Church.” It was opened in
May, 1820, and Governor Bentinck—another “ harbitrary gent ”—who
died six months after, lies buried in the chancel.

And then—behind Kirk and Manse and the “ Brick House ’—is the
Winkel Village. ‘here are no old buildings here—no old ruins, or
tumbledown tombs, or other footprints of humanity—but the site, the
soil, the ground in this locality, as the haunt and home of human beings,
and those of a particular type, is as old as anything here and hereabouts.

It may be asked: How did the British Government come to own
slaves? ‘The private planter we can understand—the expatriated
Hollauder or Scot—; no doubt without slave labour it would have been
impossible for him at the time to plant and pick his coffee, to bill and boil
his sugar. But His Britannic Majesty’s Uovernment, the emblem of
Liberty, as a slave-holder !—the thing isodd. How did it come to be?

Well, as regards the Colony of Berbice, His Britannic Majesty be-
came a slave-holder as the result of war. When the British Forces, for
the third and last time, demanded the surrender of Berbice on September
23, 1803, the provisional government, feeling they could do nothing to
defend the colony, drew upa series of articles which were concluded and
signed the following day. The second of these reads as follows :—

“ The plantations, lands, manufactories, workshops, slaves, effects,
and possessions of the Berbice Association, of \hatsoever nature,

“King William's People.” 107

shall be consijered as private property in the same manner as
agreed to by the capitulation to General Whyte in May, 1796.”

To which the answer was :—

“All private property whatsoever, of individuals, is to be
respected.”

Now the Berbice Association—the nominal proprietors of Berbice—
owned the Winkel Negroes (the blac« artificers of the Colony) and also
four “ Colony Estates.” These were Plns. St. Jan, Dageraad, Dankbaar-
heid and San voort. In 1796 the estates—following the view taken by
the French in 1782—had been considered private property ; the Winkel
Department—as we might say the Public Works Department—only had
never been so considered. Now this view was changed and the “ Colony
Estates ” were considered to be fair booty of war as well as the Winkel
Department. It had been well had they not been. The Winkel Negroes,
workshops, &c., were necessary for the construction and maintenance of
public works; several of the Negroes were employed at the fort. The
Colony plantations were of no public utility whatever. Water Street
lights are never weary of asserting that any concern run by Government
is bound to be a failure. Certain specific instances lend a little support
to the jibe. The records of the Court of Civil Justice, on the other hand,
contain a rather fair number of bankruptcies which had their crigin in
Water Street. In this matter of the Colony plantations--as opposed to
estates ru by private persons—the Government did not make a success
of it. In fact, they failed badly.

In 1810 a proposal was made to the Government by Colonel Staples
to lease the Winkel Negroes, together with the four Crown estates, for a

period of twenty-one years. A lease was prepared, and had actually been

signed by Colonel Staples, when a hitch came. As an after-thought the
Imperial Government insisted on a clause being inserted that any defi-
ciency of slaves when the lease was up must be made good by the lessee.
To this Colonel Staples declined to agree, pointing out that on a retro-
spect of the management of those Negroes during the last four years, even
under the Government’s own ayents, there had been a very grave
decrease in the gangs. The decrease was put down to the unhealthy
localities in which the estates happened to be situated. Colonel Staples
did not propose to remove the estates from where they were, and there-
fore it was to be apprehended that certain further decreases might occur
for which the lessee was not prepared to be pecuniarily responsible. The
Government, however, were not prepar'd to waive the clause, and so the
lease was abandoned, Colonel Staples being compensated.

Then came the “ Berbice Crown Estates’ Commissioners.” This was
a body of men, recruited in part from the Directors of the African Insti-
tution, whose mission was, not merely or so much to make the Crown
estates, plus the Winkel Department, pay, but by a “different system”
and by “other and by milder means” to reduce and finally to stop the
mortality that was thinning the gangs. The Berbice Commissioners
were The Right Honourable Nicholas Vansittart (Chancellor of the
Exchequer), the Right Honourable Charles Long (Paymaster of the

108 Timehri.

Forces), James Gordon, William Smith, James Stephen, and William
Wilberforce, with Mr. Zachary Macaulay, Secretary.

Berbice with considerable satisfaction saw itself relieved of the cost
and worry of running these establishments. Among private planters —
there was some curiosity, not unmixed with anxiety, as to what the
“different system” and ‘other and milder means” might be which the
Commissioners would adopt in their management of the Crown Estates —

and the Winkel Department. Two of the Berbice Commissioners at

least—(Mr. Wilberforce and Mr. Stephen)—with their Secretary, Mr. |
Macaulay, were stalwarts of the African Institution, a body which, ©
formed in 1807 with the object of bettering the condition of the Negro —
(which wanted it) too often thought that this object might be best secured
by worsening the condition of the planter. So long as the African Insti- —
tution merely preached its projects for reform—‘“ quixotic ” as the planter
called them—and printed them in an occasional pamphlet—no matter how —
mischievous such pamphlets might be when discussed openly in the West —
Indies—-no grave harm might ensue. But it would be another story if the ©
Directors of the African Institution, as members of the Berbice Commis-
sion, tried to put those projects into actual and visible operation in
Berbice.

The Commissioners’ first Agent in Berbice was Colonel McAlister, —

who, however, died within six weeks. He was succeeded by his assistant,

Mr. A. A. Dela Court. In December, 1814, Mr. De la Court was super-

seded by Mr. James Walker. Mr. Walker finds a place in local literature |

as the author of ‘Letters on the West Indies” (London: 1818).* An
appendix to this book contains a reply to criticisms of the management of —
the Berbice Commissioners. It is unlikely that any public body ot men

were ever more raked—in Parliament and in the Press—than were the ~

Berbice Commissioners during these five brief years—1811 to 1816—of ©
their existence. Mr. Joseph Marryat, M.P., prepared, aud published “ An —
Examination of the Report of the Berbice Commissioners ” issued in 1814
Time itself has not withdrawn the sting from this document. It keeps
hot wonderfully. Had the Crown estates and the Winkel Department

been run at a profit ? asked Marryat. No. Formerly so extensive and

fertile had been the provision-grounds on the estates that a good —
revenue wes derived from the sale of surplus plantains to the cotton —
properties on the coast. Now, not only did the grounds furnish no pro- —
visions for sale but they were inadequate to supply their own Negroes.
Had the mortality.in the gangs been reduced? No. From 1803to 1811 —
(when the Crown estates and the Winkel Department were managed by —
the Berbice Government) the net mortality on the Estates had been 90 —
and the Winkel Department 11. From 1812 to 1814 (when managed by —
the Berbice Commissioners) the net mortality on the estates had been 62
and in the Winkel Department 22, or considerably more than double the
an nual average deficiency that took place under their predecessors. Mr. —
Wilberforce, as a Director of the African Institution, had protested against —

* Macanlay’s lines say :— Mr. Walker was sent to Berbice-by the greatest of Statesmen
and Earls, he went to bring back yellow boys, but he only brought back yellow girls-"—J.R,

“ King Williain’s People.” 109

the inhumanity of the planter—insensihle to local attachments —who
removed his Negroes from one plantation to another. Mr. Wilberforce,
as a Berbice Commissioner had approved of the abandonment of “ St. Jan ”
and the removal of the Negroes to ‘‘ Dankbaarheid.”

Some of the Berbice Commissioners, as Directors of the African In-
stitution, protested against the parting of ‘husband and wife”: as
Commissioners they removed the ‘ wives ” of many of the Winkel Negroes
to Pn, Sandvoort, because that plantation wanted field women.

“Some of these very Commissioners ” (concluded Mr. Marryat) “ in
their other character of Directors of the African Institution, are now
actually endeavouring to manage and legislate for all of the British West
India Colonies ; it becomes important, therefore, in ascertaining their
qualifications for the task, to enquire wheth:r they have been faithful
over the few things before they are made rulers over many.”

In 1816 the labours of the Berbice Commissioners came to an end.
The 11th clause of the Convention between Holland and Great Britain
relating to the Navigation and Commercial Relations of the Dutch with
Demerara, Essequebo and Berbice (dated August 12, 1815, reads) :—

His Majesty the King of the Netherlands having represented to

His Britannic Majesty that the Company of Merchants and Others

(styling themselves the Berbice Association) have a just claim to

certain estates formerly settled by them in the Colony of Berbice, of

which they were dispossessed by the Revolutionary Government of

Holland, and which on the capture of the said Colony by His

Britannic Majesty were considered as Government Property, His

Britannic Majesty engaged to return to the said Berbice Association

within Six Months after the Exchange of the Ratification of the

present Convention, the Estates Dageraad, Dankbarheid, Johanna,
and Zandvoort, together with all the Negroes and Stock now actually
employed on the same, such Restoration to be in full Restoration
and Satisfaction of all Claims which the said Association may have or
may pretend to have against His Britannic Majesty or His Subjects
on account of any Property heretofore belonging to them in the

Colony of Berbice.

So said so done. The four estates, as named, were handed back to
the Berbice Association. A Public Notice in the “ Berbice Gazette” of
July 24, 1816, recognizes Mr. C. J. Swaving and Mr. H. Staal as the Agents
of the Association. The four erstwhile ‘Crown Plantations” (which we
have noticed but briefly) now pass beyond our ken. It may just be added
that in March, 1821, they were transported by ‘‘ Hendrik Staal, as
Attorney of the Company of Dutch Merchants and others in Holland
styling themselves the Berbice Association,” to and in favour of “ Donald
Charles Cameron of this Colony, and Henry Davidson and Mneas Barkly
of London.”

Simultaneously with the surrender of the ‘ Crown Estates ” to the
Agents of the Berbice Association the ‘“ Berbice Commissioners” sur-
rendered to the Berbice Government the management of the Winkel
Department. They must have been happy to be rid of both. In the

110 Timehri

Dutch times—as we gather from a translated document in Mr. Rodway’s —
History—the Winkel Department made a “corner” in all the artizan work ©
in Berbice. No private planter was allowed to engage his own carpenter.
He had to hire from the Winkel. If he wanted a coffee-drogherie laid he —
could get it laid (on terms) by the Winkel. It was an intolerable burden,
andthe private planter did not fail to make his sorrows known, but with
little result. The British knocked this monoply on the head, and the
Winkel Department simply secured what business it could on its merits, —
How, is shown in the following advertisement (‘‘ Berbice Gazette,”
February 25, 1812) :—
NorIce.

Is hereby given, that all kinds of House Carpenter's, Boat-Builder’s,
Mason’s, Cooper’s, Blacksmith’s and Coppersmith’s work will be —
henceforth undertaken and neatly and expeditiously finished, on
reasonable terms, by the Artificers of the Winkel Department.

Orders will be received and carefully attended to, by the sub-
scriber at his house in New Amsterdam.

Wm. Scort,
Commissary.

BERBICE,
15th February, 1812.

Then, as now, the bad paymaster existed. Another advertisement,
dated from the ‘‘ Winkel Office in the Colony Town,” “ earnestly requests
all persons indebted to the Winkel Departwent to pay Accounts or they —
will be put in suit”; while a further notice—with an air of drawing the —
line somewhere—intimates that ‘‘In future accounts must be settled —
monthly.”

Probably the most noteworthy achievement of the Berbice Com-
missioners—an act without precedent in Berbice— had besn the employ-
ment of a Missionary for the religious instruction of the Negroes. The
Rev. John Wray is yet remembered by one or two of the old people in
New Amsterdam. He came to Guiana first in 1808 as missionary on Pln.
Le Ressouvenir, the property of Mr. H. H. Post. In June, 1813, he
went to Berbice as Missionary to the Crown Negroes.

The Rev. T. Rain’s book, “The Life and Labours of John Wray”
(London: 1892)—compiled chiefly from Mr. Wray’s journal aud letters—
gives us many glimpses of the Winkel Negroes. In 1813, the Crown
Slaves in New Amsterdam numbered 355 ; they were chiefly trades people.
30 of them were attached to Fort St. Andrew; a battalion of no fewer
than 65 were employed as servants at Government House. ‘Travellers in
the West Indies—as in the Southern States of North America—in the old
time record, almost with a gasp of horror, the retinue of servants
attached to the old Great-Houses. The Government House of Berbice
made a brave show in this respect. It is interesting to remark how those
65 servants were made up; we find the details in Mr. Wray’s biography.
There were 6 house-boys and 8 wa-herwomen, 14 housemai:/s and seam-
stresses, 3 cooks, 3 ostlers, 3 gardeners, 3 stock-keepers, 4 fishermen,
2 grass-cutters, 2 woodcutters and 17 boatmen. It is notable that there

“King William's People.” 111

were no coachmen ; there was probably not a wheeled vebicle in Berbice.
The 17 boatmen are elcquent of the fact that bevond a little
riding, all tr.velling in the colony was by water. No mention is made
of huntsmen. Bush meat no doubt was brought in by the Indians.

Reverend gentlemen of un evangelical persuasion were not welcome
in a slave colony as a general rule, and Mr. Wray encountered opposition
which no doubt he expected. His photoyraph shows usa burly York-
shireman, not readily daunted. His chief disappointment, perhaps, was
the Negro himself. The spirit was willing but the flesh weak. He
made an emotional convert, but—with striking exceptions—a bad “stayer.”
At times the good missionary lamented the turpitude of his flock. “It
is possible to instil more evil into their minds in five evenings,” he
records in a report tomy Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, ‘* than
good in five years. Ihave been obliged to repeat an answer in Dr,
Watt’s catechism a thousand times betore some of ‘hem could learn it,
and I have too often found to my sorrow that what I taught them one
evening they fcrgot before the next.”

Nevertheless there was | rogress ; and the wonder is that in a colony
where—as it was said—*‘few had ever heard a church bell,” so much
was achieved. Mrs. Wray started a school among the girls, and ta: ght
them to make clothing for the Crown Negroes. Nodoubt the following
advertise ent—published in the “ Berbice Gazette” of March 21, 1821—
may be traced to Mrs. Wray whose pupils by then—greatly to their
delight—must have been getting somewhat ‘ forrader” :-—

NEEDLE WORK.

Is taken in at the Winkel School. It will be executed at
moderate terms. The Schooliistress will wait on any Family to
take their orders.

Negro Clothing also, for men, women and children is made up at
the Winkel Eutablishinent where every endeavour will be made to
give satisfaction to the Public.

It is pleasant—in Mr. Wray’s biography—to read the memories of
the Winkel Village by Mr. Wray’s daughter, Mrs. Tucker. ‘The
Winkel ” was ‘‘ only a pleasant walk” from the Mission House, then, as
now, on the ‘‘ Back Dam.” “ My mother was in the habit of sending us
when we were children, accompanied by a servant, to the village to see
the poor old people, and to convey to the sick some little comfort, such
as wine, &c. I remember them well. Daddy Tom, Daddy Gabriel, and
a good many more.”

On June 8, 1837, Mr. Wray died. He was fifty-eight. He is buried
in the old Stanleytown Cemetery, Itis probable that the good work of
Missionary Wray —“a’we Parson”—and of Mrs.Wray is yet visible in
the recent life and common faithfulness in small things of some of the
descendants of the old Winkels

In 1823 a second proposal hid been made to hire the Negroes of the
Winkel Department as a body. Now, it came from a Mr. H. Armstrong.
Nothing came of it, partly, as it would appear, from the anticipated

ALS Timehrr.

opposition from the Winkel Negroes themselves,—* most of whom from
their infancy having been under the Government consider themselves
negroes above the ordinary class and are most satisfied by being under ©
such authority.” :

In November, 1831, the Imperial Government—in spite of objections
against such a “sweeping emancipation” urged by Governor Sir
Benjamin D’Urban—liberated all the Winkel Negroes. They num-
bered 298. Their approximate value (on the basis of slave property at
the time) was £14,900. It is curious to note as one of the instructions to
the Superintendent that: “if it should happen that any slave should
desire to decline the offer of freedom he (or she) must nevertheless be
emancipated. “ Daddy Tom” or ‘‘ Daddy Gabriel ”—who got his leaf of
tobacco and his drop of rum on a wet day—did not pant for freedom. He
was very comfortable, thank you, as he was!

The following Notice was read and carefully explained to all the
Crown Servants :—

To the Crown Servants, Winkel Department, Berbice.

1. The Governor has the satisfaction of announcing to the Crown
Servants that His Majesty King William the Fourth has been
graciously pleased to command that they shall all receive their Free-
dom, and they will accordingly receive it as soon as the Deeds of
Manumission can be prepared and executed.

2. The King has also been graciously pleased to direct that all of
those now living in dwellings belonging to the Crown may continue
to reside therein during their lives, on condition of their keeping the
said houses in proper repair.

3. His Majesty has further benevolently commanded that those
who are now old, infirm or insane, the bedridden, blind or otherwise
helpless, the infants and young children who have no parents capable
of taking care of and supporting them, shall be maintained, as at
present, at the expense of the Crown, so long as they shall continue
from such helplessness and infirmity to stand in need of that mainten-
ance.

4. With these exceptions, however, the Crown Servant will be
aware that upon their manumissions being delivered to them their
present allowances from the Crown will cease, and they will be ex-
pected to maintain and provide for themselves by their own industry,
and they are therefore recommended without delay to think of such
employment as they may be most fit for respectively, and as may be
most profitable to them, that when they receive their manumissions
they may immediately commence that employment for their own
support.

5. In conveying to the Crown Servants these gracious intentions
of the King, the Governor feels confident that they will all endeavour
to deserve them by an orderly, industrious and respectable course of

life.
B. D’'UrBaN,
Governor,

“King William’s People.” 118

Kine’s House,
Demerary, 22nd October, 1831.

The Deed of Manumission took the following form ;—

To all to whom these presents may come Greeting: Know ye that
His Most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth hath been
graciously pleased by His Royal Command officially expressed by
the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and communicated by him to
William Scott, Esquire, Superintendent of the Crown Slaves in
Berbice under date 22nd October, 1831, to impart the Boon of Free-
dom to each and every of the Crown Servants (designated in the
former Colony of Berbice as Winkel Negroes).

In pursuance thereof I, William Scott, representing the Lords
Commissioners of the Treasury, do manumit, enfranchise, renounce
and redeem from Slavery

(Here follow names)
Wo. Scorr,
Superintendent Crown Property.
ist November, 1831.

A Deed of Manumission was given to the head of each family, and
embodied his or her name with issue.

It would be interesting did one know how the Winkel Negroes—
liberated from slavery that had never within recent years been irksome
—-used their freedom. It was an experiment—far short of the “ grand
experiment ” then in the wind but bigger than anything yet tried in
Guiana. Slaves, of course, had been manumitted from time to time from
the very beginning. Winkel Negroes, in ones or twos, had similarly
been freed ; in April of this year, 1831, we read how my Lords Com-
missioners of the Treasury as a reward for good and faithful service had
granted Letters of Manumission to the Winkel slaves Arsenie and Truitje
with their respective children, ten in all. But these were sporadic manu-
missions. They did not count against the mass. This was a bigger thing
altogether.

Unfortunately our information is limited. A philosopher has said
that no change ever turned out so well as some people expected or so
badly as othersfeared. It was probably so with the Winkel experiment.
In the “ Life of John Wray,” there is the following extract under date
February 18, 1833, from Mr. Wray’s Journal :—

* A few days ago the Bishop of Barbados visited Berbice and held
a confirmation. He took an opportunity of visiting the Winkel negro
houses, going into many of them, conversing very particularly with
the people, inquiring what place of worship they attended, who taught
them to read, hearing some of the little children repeat a hymn and
Watt’s catechism, and expressed his pleasure at what he saw and
heard. A report had reached Barbados that they were abandoning
the village, would not work, and were allowing their houses to go to
ruin ; but he told Mr. Scott, the late Crown agent, that he saw any-
thing but deterioration. Mr. Scott told him that a few of the young
people had gone to Demerara and other places because they could

}

114 Timehr.

get better wages; that one of them (whose name his lordship

recognized) was even engaged in painting the cithed al in Barbadoes ; — ‘

that it was true they would not engage in field labour because they
had never been accustomed to it, but were, in general, excellent
mechanics ; that as to their houses many of them had been ina state
of delapidation because Government, undecided for some years what
to do, would not go to the expense of repairing them ; but that since
emancipation most were improving their houses, and some were
building excellent ones.”

Many of the people in the Winkel Village as we have seen—went
away. Some left because there were better prospects elsewhere. Others
wanted to ‘stretch their legs.” They had been tied by the leg all their
lives and had now been untied. They wanted to “feel free.” Many of
the people, however, remained in the old locality. They were too old to
travel.

Half a century passes: many of the old ‘Crown Slaves” die out ;
their children grew up, and they had children: and the Winkel Village
yet remains a separate entity, the old heads, on idle nights, passing on
their tales of the past when King William took an interest i in his village
and in his own, own people,—‘* King William’s People.”

The old promise (it will be remembered) when the Winkels were
emancipated, was that they should be secured in the possession of their
houses, so long as they kept them in repair. On September 30, 1890, the
Combined Court—on a Petition on behalf of the Winkel Villagers, by
Mr. William Pitt (‘‘Carpenter-boss” in New Amsterdam) who was a
Winkel descendant, and of Mr. C. B. Carto (Schoolmaster) who had —
married a Winkel descendant—authorised that “ portions of that piece of —
Crown land known as Winkel Village” should be made to certain persons
named, ‘the said persons being either former slaves, or descendants of
former slaves, claiming certain interests in the said village.” The “former
slaves ” then alive were as follows :

”

MALE. FEMALE.
Lyander Bernard. Priscilla Rose. »
Richard Downer. Sally Headicker.
William Thorne. Harriette January.

Rosaline Fredericks.
Johanna Prince.
Mrs. Myres.

Susan Rose.
Charlotte Fredericks.
Ann F, Gournal.
Elizabeth Ferdinand.
Grace De Wall.
Lydia Houston
Rebecca Wolff.
Madeline Denba.
Elizabeth Dykeman,
Louisa Marimees

wry

“ King William’s People.” 115

The ‘descendants of former slave” numbered thirty-eight.

The Grants were issued subject to the condition :—

That the said Lot No.— shall be maintained by the said

his (or her) heirs, executors or assigns at all times in good sanitary

order and repairs, and shall be at all times subject to all Laws and

Enactments for the contro] and superintendence of The Town of

New Amsterdam.

In subsequent years the Winkel villagers laid claim to “‘ No 27,” or
Pln. Berensteyn, on the left bank of the Berbice River, and to land
adjoining Banin Creek, a tributary of the Canje. In the old days Pln.
Berensteyn—an abandoned coffee-estate—had been used as a provision-
ground and as a source for the supply of wood for the Winkel village
while in the Banin Creek, fish—hassar and yarrow—had been caught in
dry weather by the Winkel people, and brought to New Amsterdam—and
even sent in barrels filled with water to Georgetown—for sale. Grants of
land at both these places were issued to the Old Crown Slaves and
descendants of old Crown Slaves by the Government. They were subse-
quently revoked on the ground of unbeneficial occupation. The Winkel
villagers still enjoy fishing rights in the Banin Creek.

To-day, as far as I can discover, only one of the old Winkel slaves is
alive. This is Ann F. Gournal, who lives in King Street, New Amster-
dam. She is upwards of ninety. The old lady is “ getting down,” as
possibly might be expected, but her “ intellects’ are good, and, to a
sympathetic listener she can tell something of the old days when the Winkel
people ‘‘ were massa and missy.” She cannot have been more than about
seven years old when the Crown Slaves were emancipated. Of the great
event she remembers nothing. There was a “creat stir” in the
village, great excitement, that is all. She had her mother’s (and
family’s) Manumission Paper at one time, but someone “ borrowed ” it
from her husband and she never saw it again. It was a long paper, tied
with blue ribbon and had a big red seal.

“ We was freed with paper ” said Mother Gournal, “‘ We was different
from the rest a people what freed with bell.” This was in allusion to the
plantation slaves—freed en masse August 1, 1838—who had no Mavu-
mission Papers. ‘ We use to laugh them, call them ‘Prentice Labour.’ ”

The Winkel Negroes were the aristocratic Blacks of Berbice. They
belonged to King William. They were not Flanters’ slaves. The
descendants of Africa—and the old “‘salt-waters ” themselves—in Berbice
were ranked somewhat in this fashion :-—

1. King William’s people.

2, Planters’ people.

(a) Drivers, artizans and house negroes.
(b) Field hands.

The Winkel Negroes were “ top dog,” and knew it.

All of the births in the Winkel Village (said Mother Gournal) were
recorded in the Court House, as wellasall the deaths, with what com-
plaint they died of, and this had to be sent home to King William who
was very fond of his people and wanted to know all about them. One

116 Timehr.

time, her mother told her, the people sent home alot of things to show
King William what they could do. ‘What things?” ‘ Well, according
to what they could make.” They sent home a little hogshead made by a
cooper, and a table made by a joiner, and some ironwork made by a
blacksmith, while the women made some shirts to show what they could
do. ‘King William wasivery pleased, ‘“ they say,” to see what the Winkel
people in Berbice could do.”

Mrs. Gournal never saw Sir Benjamin D’Urban as far as she knows.
But she saw Sir James Carmichael Smyth, and remembers his appearance
well. He was talland had no hair on his face. There have been one or
two Governors of British Guiana whom the common people remember
with affection. This was not because they spoke smooth things, or gave
way to every popular demand. Usually such Governors have been
singularly frank with the people—have told them things that from the
lips of another would have raised an unlayable dust. Rut it was felt that
they had their welfare deeply at heart, and were determined, look-
ing neither to the right hand or to the left, to do them justice and to try
from quarters not merely high or official to get at the truth of the matter.
Sir James Carmichael Smyth was one such Governor. A later Sir James
—Sir James Alexander Swettenham—occurs to us as another, ~

“ Sir James Carmichael,”that is how this old Winkel slave refers to
“the good Governor.” ‘He wasa good Governor ;” it is her phrase. She
remembers when he visited the Winkel Village. The people must have
been free then for about two years. He rode into the Village on a horse.
He had on a uniform, with a cocked hat. The people had swept the
Winkel clean and had put up flags. They all came out on the road and
clapped their hands and cried: ‘Hip, hip, hurrah! for Sir James
Carmichael.” He then visited the school and spoke kindly to the
children and promised them medals.

Indeed the entire body of the people were children,—to be encouraged,
to be lifted out of the mud, to be led into the elementary paths of life.

Then there was ‘‘ Parson Wray.”

He was “inclined to be stout,” and spoke very slow. Mrs. Wray
was a quiet woman, and had four daughters and one son, Master Robert,
who died in Demerara from the Yellow fever. Of the daughters, Miss
Reb2cca, she had married the Revd. James Howe—she was the oldest.
Then there was Miss Betsy, Miss Janey and Miss Emily. They taught
in Sunday school; some of their scholars were old enough to have been
their grandmothers. Most of the old people could read a little (without
glasses) although but few could write.

Mother Gournal remembers—“ ah, day of mourning ”"—when “ Parson
Wray ” died. He had a big burying. She and all who could get to the
grave went. It was a day of pouring rain.

Of the Winkel descendants—Mary Henery, Charlotte Duke, Flora
Beresford, ete.,—who still live in the Winkel, the eldest is He
Ferdinand. He is about seventy-six. Heis acarpenter. His father and
mother had been Winkel Slaves. His father in later years supplied most
of the ships that came to Berbice with water and vegetables,

“ King William’s People.” ; 117

With Ferdinand I discussed the old lights of the Winkel Village. All
of them have gone out. Five and twenty years ago—ten years ago! I
might have met some interesting characters in the Winkel had I thought of
walking that way. But I never thought of it. It became rather tantalis-
ing to hear this sort of dialogue between my guide, philosopher and friend,
and somebody else, not once but two or three times.

Ferdinand (by way of introduction) :—‘‘ He wants to see any of the
old Winkel people.”

(Woman) at a wash-tub:—“ Oh, dear me. Partly all of them is
dead out.”

Ferdinand : “ Partly all! You should say all.”

Woman: ‘‘ Well indeed, all.”

Ferdinand : “ How if he hadcome when old Henry Schwartz was
alive.”

Woman: “Oh, don’t talk. Henry would have kep’ him from morn-
ing to night with the old-time story.”

Ferdinand: ‘“ Mother Baker even ?”

Woman (pursing her lips): “Well, Mother Baker, yes, was an
ageable woman, but nothing to Henry. Mr Ferdinand, you know, some
of them old people, you know, they got the particulars and so in they
head, but they ain’t like they want to talk much.”

Ferdinand: That’s so. But Mother Baker, get hot on her good
day, she could be very chatty.”

Woman: ‘So shecould. So she could.”

Henry Ferdinand just remembers—or thinks he just remembers--his
great-aunt, Dorinda Van Batenburg. She was a tall woman, and very black.
She had been a woman of note in her day, among the white people. She
had been a nurse in the family of Governor Van Batenburg, and had
taken the name. She had gone to Holland and England with the family
two or three times, first to England, in 1816, when she became free. She
could speak Dutch fluently—not Creole Dutch but pure Dutch —and
English fairly well. She had five slaves of her own, and got “ compen-
sation money ” for them when they were freed. She died about 1851.

Another great-aunt was Priscilla Rose. She was his grandfa‘her's
sister on his mother’s side. “Aunty Rose” (as they called her) was
famous as a cake-maker. Not a wedding of importance took place in
Berbice but Priscilla Rose made the cake. She could do other things, too.
Her guava-jelly was in demand. We import our pickles now-a-days.
Then Priscilla Rose made pickle for the white people in Berbice, pickles
in patterns in the bottle, white mountain cabbage, red peppers and green
papaw. She died about 1898, aged (it was believed) about a hundred and
ten. She was sensible up to the last: could read the finest print and
thread the finest needle.

And talking of a needle, there were some good “needles” in the Winkel
Village before-time. Many of them had been pupils of Mrs. Wray. “ My
mother ” (said Ferdinand) could make as “ fine a shirt as you would want.
Many a time a Captain would order half a dozen shirts, with pleated

118 Timehri.

bosoms, from her and take them away to show what the black people in
Berbice could do.” As for patching clothes, the old Winkel people could
patch a blouse so that it looked naturally new.

Other of the women could wash. They washed for the Governor and
the officers at the Fort; and some of those officers, if report be true, would
have died rather than not appear in the whitest of linen. A story is told
of one of the old Winkel washers. She had gone to the Fort on a Monday
morning and brought away the Colonel’s washing. Late that afternoon
the Colonel sent a messenger running to ask, had she seen any money in
his trousers pockets? No (said Aunt Judy) she hadn’t seen none. All
she had seen was one or two little pictures, and those she had stuck up on
the wall. ‘And there, sir, were the Colonel's good, good Joe Notes stuck
up with starch en Aunty Judy’s wall! ‘they say they had work to get
them off.

Most of the old lights are associated with a trade. They could all
do something and did it. The women could wash, or sew, or bake—if
only in a mud oven—or make preserves. The men could build a house—
the Mission Chapels, first and second, were built by Winkel carpenters,
as were the first houses in Queenstown and the “Colony Church ’—or
lay a copper-wall, or make a crabwood bedstead, or forge a horse-shoe,
although few of the horses on the old mud-dams were shod. We tooka
walk — Ferdinand and I—one wet morning to the site of the old black-
smith’s shop. The village smithy went to bits long ago. My guide does not
remember it himself, although when a boy he found many pieces and scraps
of iron lying about here, and buried in the ground. The place is now
high in grass. This part of the village is called ‘“ Guava Bush ” from its
number of wild guava trees.

We came upon water.

“Now this, here, is the Winkel Pond. This is here where they used
to bring we poor children five o’clock in the morning—dark and very
cold - to bathe. We would stand onthe dam, and our mothers would dip
water from the Winkel Pond. In those days the Pond was kept clean,—
none of this grass and weeds you see now. The Winkel Pond! Ask
any of the old people—of course they are all dead and gone now—about
the Winkel Pond! ”

Just about here, too, was the hospital. ‘‘I remember about forty
years ago there was just the pillars standing, and one or two old beams.
The people had good attention in those days, you know,—oh yes, any ©
complaint at all, they went to the Winkel Hospital and the doctor Pry

scribed for them.”

Nowadays half the people inthe Winkel know nothing at all about
the village. They are strangers. A few are connected, in some round-
about fashion, with the descendants of the old Crown slaves. A number
are strangers. They know nothing of the traditions of King William,
All they know is that they have a little plot of land to settle on. They
are there by permission of the original grantees.

In a few years, I suppose, the story of the Winkel Village will have
been forgotten. Many of the descendants of the old Winkels have

“King William's People.” 119

“scattered.” They will scatter more. Death is taking off the old-timers
and it is doubtful if their offspring are sufficiently inte ested in the old
memories and traditions to keep them alive. The very name “ Winkel”
has been altered. It is now “ Winkle.” It is ‘“ Winkle ” even in the
(otherwise) authoritative pages of the Post Office Guide. It will puzzle the
historian of a hundred years hence to account for this ‘“ Winkle.”
Perhaps if one walksas a ‘“Jumbi” on the old mudflat, at that distant
day, he may be amused to read in the historian’s ‘‘ Topography of New
Amsterdam ” this erudite little note :—

Winkle Village. The name is obscure. Possibly has some con-
nection with periwinkle : Fulgar canaliculata. Perhaps there is some
humorous association here with “Mr. Winkle,” a character as the
book-hunter will remember, in a classic of our great-grandfathers
“The Pickwick Papers.” “ Mr. Alfred Jingle” went to Demerara.

THE “GOOD OLD TIMES” IN GUIANA.

A HISTORICAL STUDY,

By J. Ropway.

Were there ever times that might be considered really good? Some old
people praise the manners and customs of their childhood, but the young
are more inclined to speak of ‘‘Good times coming.” The outlooks are
different but there is no real contrast ; the conservative and progressive
ideals are always working together for betterment. If we are well-balanced
we hold to what we think good but do not hesitate to move on as we see
our openings, feeling that however good a thing may appear it is always
~ open to improvement.

When we gain some real knowledge of the past in place of fancies we
see that we exist to-day and have our comfortsand conveniences because
our ancesters did certain things, some of which we cam onlydeplore. To
mention only one, slavery ; our colony and many others would have been
worse off to-day had it not existed. Even cruelty once so common, led to
such a revolt that ffogging in the army and navy as well as in schools was
abolished. Possibly the present horrors in Belgium will cause such another
revolt against war that our descendants will enjoy more peace than the
world has yet seen. “ Perfect peace” however is not in accordance with the
nature of things, for there must be always room for progressive betterment.

Those who look at the past asif things were better than at present,
are in much the same position as those who formulate Utopias; both
ignore much that should be taken into account. We of to-day would
miss many comforts were we transferred to the “good old times,” but
our ancestors could not miss what they had never known. If a boy was
flogged at school or a soldier got the ‘“cat-o’-nine tails,” they were not
alone, for it was the rule. What horrifies us nowadays, and probably had
the same effect on our ancestors, is abnormal crimes. What happens in
the regular course of things makes little impression; hanging was once
less shocking than it is now because it was so common, There is always
a tendency to take notice of what is rare and extraordinary, hence much
of our knowledge of old times comes from reading about what was con-
sidered strange and wonderful. It was not so strange for a woman to be
flogged at the cart-tail and therefore little attention was paid to it. In
looking back to find what we remember best of our childhood days we find
that every-day life cannot be recalled, but only events that were quite
abnormal. We can easily understand that a case of extreme suffering will

make such an impression that the whole life may be dominated by the —

painful memory. Extremes of pleasure are also remembered when per-
haps painful experiences have become mellowed, hence an old man some-
times looks back and speaks of the daysof his youth as more pleasant;
the idea is also prominent in the expression that someone has “ seen
better days,”

It is impossible to put ourselves back in time so as to see with the
eyes of our ancestors; it is almost equally difficult to put ourselves in others’

The “Good Old Times” in Guiana. 121

places. Here we have people trying to judge the so-called savage and
speaking as if he felt what they consider drawbacks. Humane and
tender-hearted people feel sad when they look upon the poor of their
own or other countries, who have few comforts and conveniences which
would be exceedingly painful for them if wanting in their daily lives.
Most of us have some likings which are necessary to our comfort but we
do not always consider that others have not the same tastes but their
own peculiar ideas of what is necessary. We can easily see that were it
possible for one of the old fogeys to come dvwn and live with us they
would be grumbling and finding fault with many things we do which we
could hardly avoid even did we wish to do so.

The historian, if his judgments are to be of any value, must try todo
the impossible, that is, look upon the events of the past with the eyes of
contemporaries. Although however, he cannot do this altogether he can
try his best $0 as not to make the common mistake of putting up wrong
standards. ‘he standards of timeand place vary so much that he must
be changing his views and trying to change himself for every period that
he is studying. Again, his efforts are made to see an event from several
aspects, including the many sides represented by kings, lords, commons,
people, governments, planters and slaves, buyers, sellers, aborigines and
settlers, as well as a host of others. The result is bound to be faulty but
we must give him credit for what he has tried to do.

The traveller of the olden time saw much more than he of the present
day who wants to rush round the world in a month ortwo. He was
however far more credulous and reported what he heard or supposed
that he was told. Foreign languages have always been drawbacks and
are so still, but there is a point which has to be noticed, 7.c., misrepresen-
tations through interpreters. The man who poses as an interpreter is so
rarely exact in giving a Word that is near to the real meaning of the
original that the historian must be doubtful of all old interpretations.
The principles at the bottom are only now being understood to mean
that we must get at the back of the word and peep into the mind of him
who uses it before we can venture to translate it. Even when we attempt
to get translations from Kuropean languages into our own we are sometimes
at aloss, hence the original expression is often quoted. Linguists know
too well the various readings of translators from the classics, and we may
safely state that no one represents the true meaning of the author.
Even in our own language we find words understood in different senses
by different people ; were we sticklers for exactness, many common words
would have to be defined by the people who use them. Old writers often
put ideas into the minds of foreigners that they would not have understood
if they had been consulted. Hundreds of popular notions have been
derived from such misrepresentations, some of which are so fixed that
we can hardly expect that they will ever be rectified. It is hardly neces-
sary to give examples, but we may only mention the fact that the average
negro uses words that sound magniloquent when he has no idea of their
meaning. Those who hear the statements of witnesses in law courts

122 Timehri.

know well the difficulty of getting reliable evidence. This goes to show
what the historian has to do when it is quite impossible to examine wit-
nesses. The most hé can try to do is to get as near as possible to what
is supposed to be meant.

If the meaning of words is often misunderstood it can be easily seen
that habits and customs are even more difficult. The anthropologist has
come to the front in quite recent years and his assistance to the historian
is of the utmost importance. In some cases important results have
followed the breach of an old custom, the meaning of which is even yet
unknown. Much hasbeen written about slavery and yet hardly one of
the writers knew anything of its value to Africa, of the meaning
of the trade, and of its importance to the welfare of the continent.
As slaves were the only merchandise in the larger portion there could
have been no traffic without them. A man’s riches consisted of slaves—
they were sold, exchanged and even used as standards of value, e¢.g.,
“ Pieces d’India” meant healthy working men, equivalent to a piece of
money. It is only of late years that we are beginning to get peeps into
the minds of primitive peoples, who however can hardly be considered
rational. This is acommon failing even among those more civilived for
we may safely state that no man is rational at all times.

Wrong deductions are often made because the writer assumes that
other people act as he would under similar circumstances. The student
knows that people do not respond in the same way and therefore the same
cause acting on a number of personalities may produce almost as many
effects. Even in a family the members do not respond in quite the same
way, one gets angry, another is frightened, a third makes an alarm and 80
on. With other nations and races we often have no criterion from which
we can judge of their actions when excited or disturbed. Women do not
act in the same way as men, and children have their own ways of showing
fear, anger, malice, spite and revenge. Then we have the difference be-
tween the drunken and the sober, the healthy and the weak, the sanguine
and the phlegmatic. If we are fairly acquainted with a man’s character we
can sometimes be nearly correct in judging of his probable actions under
certain circumstances. If therefore something inconsistent is reported we
must be very cautious in sifting the evidence. Some rulers have been
credited with false characters by their enemies or their friends; sometimes
these are so contradictory that both must be ignored. Cases are known
where actions have been ascribed that were practically impossible.
Novelists offend in many ways, one of the most common is the anachronism
where a weapon or utensil is put in the hands of a character, whois sup-
posed to live ata time when it was not invented. One writer makes his
hero put a percussion cap on a pistol in the time of Charles the second.
We may of course say that this is not history, but even romance must
not put things entirely out of place.

The great fault of old histories is ignoring the life of the people
The characters are few and exceptional, the consequence being that we
get nothing to put us in real touch with the period. Much has been

The “Good Old Times” in Guiana. 123

done by the antiquarian to rectify this drawback ; the materials for his
work are of the utmost importance, and are often more valuable than
government records, though not so precise as to dates.

Too much stress is generally laid upon the exactness of dates and
some have disputed about a day or two as if it were more important than
the event itself, Chronology comesin here but we must be suspicious of
all old dates. It would be well to get more general ideas of times, because
there were antecedants and consequents connected with most events
which could not be dated. A battle fought on a certain day depended on
the movements of the two parties for weeks or perhaps months before.
As far as possible we should try to comprehend something more than the
battle, however decisive that may have been.

On an old tombstone in the Chapel of Farley Castle I first read the
words “Time trieth truth” some sixty yearsago and haveremembered them
many atime since. I cau picture the old knight, one of the Hungerford
family, who quoted the saying some four centuries ago and perhaps
understood it in his }own way. We are now appreciating the fact that
time is trying all our histories and proving most of them to be imperfect
and distorted. Many of us who learnt what was once called history
found it very dry and tedious, Real history however should be interest-
ing to everyone, especially when they know that they themselves are
making it every day of their lives. The querulous old women who tells
us all about the relatives of a certain family is a historian in a small way
and the old man who remembers an event of his childhood is another.

‘In studying the history of a colony like British Guiana we have to
make a start with things as they are before going to oid books and
records. It is quite evident that what we see to-day is more tangible
than documents. Every building has its history and so has each planta-
tion, village and town; we can go farther to study people for they also
are “heirs of the ages,” and family history cannot be ignored. Not only
must we deal with what are called ‘‘ great’ families, for every person in
the community has affected the whole in some way. Some historians
are inclined to deal only with the ruling families, but it can be easily
seen that the prosperity of a country depends far more upon its working
men than upon the rulers. There could be no government were there no
subjects—the two are inseparable. The old writers generally ignored
everyone except the rulers and spoke of Generals and Admirals winning
battles. Surely somecredit is due to the body of men as well as the
leaders. If British Guiana is fairly prosperous to-day its position is not
due to the Government but to the people. Good government however is
not to be ignored but putin its right place. The development of our
colony could not have come about were there no negroes to be obtained
in earlier times and no immigrants in later periods. Every man ina
community helps, and even when he sometimes appears to hinder, his
actions may be lessons worth taking to heart. In the constitution of
things it appears as if even criminals are useful to warn us of what should

124 Timehrr.

not be done. As individuals we learn from the results of our errors and
the community can do the same from the blunders of some of its members.
Because certain things were done and trouble resulted, laws were required —
and police became necessary. The continuous chain of antecedents and
consequents must be studied by the historian although he will never be
able to peer into the dark obscurity of a beginning. -He may perhaps
trace back a family fora few centuries but there will always be a full-
stop in the evidence, though we can be sure that the family did not begin
at that place or time.

Racial characters have to be considered; these are often the
result of habit, custom and instinct. Although man is generally
considered rational there is very little reason in his more common
actions. What a negro will do under certain circumstances is not the
same as the action of a Chinaman, East Indian or European. The his-
torian gets ideas of possibilities and probabilities from different events
and can often say what might be expected from members of each race.
It is notable that in our colony negro riots differ much from the troubles
among the East Indians who are more rational and therefore attack those
only who are supposed to have wronged them. In the one case there isa
kind of madness similar to that of the drunken man who smashes his
own furniture, in the other a grievance to be redressed. When a dis-
turbance is reported we can often get nearer the truth if we know
something of racial characters.

Every person in the community is a historical record and if we knew
all about them and their ancestors we should often get over some of the
many difficulties we encounter in our studies. The plants in our gardens
are mostly foreign but few of us know when and how they were brought.
Even plant pests are sometimes introduced in soil or on specimens ; many
weeds are distributed in fodder or packing materials. When we travel in
the interior and find mangoes and bread-fruits we know that they must
have been planted later than the time when these trees were introduced
and that therefore the land on which they grow was occupied about a
century ago. Beads, axes and knives in the hands of native Indians show
European contact, even when perhaps the people using them never saw
white men. Bush negroes in the forest are peculiarly interesting because
they are descended from Africans and have become fitted to a new en-
vironment.

There is a very important matter in connection with our judgment of
historical personages. Few of us ever ask ourselves whether a course
taken was not the best under the then known circumstances. Ifa man
fails we often say he was bad or foolish, aad if he succeeds he must have
been wise. This is not necessarily the right judgment, for with all our
thinking we are bound to make some mistakes. The natural results are
consequences, not of motives but of actions, and only good results stand
real tests. Sometimes we call a man bad, when all the time he is trying to
do what he considers best. There is only one criterion of conduct and
that is the ultimate result, which may not come for a long time.

The “Good Old Times” in Guiana. 125
It is a common saying that if such a thing had not happened results
Would have been different ; some try to define these probable differences.
But we must not be too hasty. If, for example, Columbus had not dis-
covered America when he did, someone else would have done it within
a few years. We often put down some one as an inventor and give him all
honour when perhaps others come into make the machine workable. It
usually happens that the thing is ‘‘in the air” as it were; the time comes
and the man or men are ready. Conditions appear to arrive where
necessity becomes the mother of invention.

To the student of history many things appear to have been wrong
and yet on the whole results proved that they were expedient. All
Governments put expediency first however they may talk about right.
It is very hard to define right, especially beforehand. We often try and
fail—the failure proves that we were wrong. Motives are more generally
good but only success can prove that the course was right. If a country
is still inhabited there has been no real failure as far as man is concerned,
No matter that the people have been coerced and perhaps suffered under
tyrants, if it is even a little progressive there has been no failure,
_ Individuals fail but man as a whole is a grand success, in fact the grandest
success the world has ever known. The main principle of his actions has
always been expediency and results prove he was right. In studying
history this principle must be kept in view and in trying to judge our
ancestors we must look upon the results, and not be too hasty in calling
them cruel and bad when they acted according to their light.

Because certain things were done in the past we live to-day. To say
that the people who lived and enjoyed life in former times were much
worse than ourselves is not a right judgment. We know more than our
fathers and our children will, no doubt, increase in knowledge, but the
point to be accepted, is that each generation is well fitted for its own
time. Because we have advanced and risen on the shoulders of our fore-
fathers does not mean that we are greatly superior. We are what we are
because they were what they were. Here and there we find men in advance
of their time and we are inclined to call them cranks ; if we could be put
back a century the people of that time would call us cranks. Now and
then we hear the descendants of the slaves speak of the old planter as an
ogre, but they do not call their ancestors savages. The historian tries to
look on the past from the standpoints of the people then living but this is
very difficult, The main point to be considered is that a progressive
world must necessarily admit of improvement, and yet that on the whole
it has always been good.

- History cannot repeat itself for we can never go backward. Cireum-
stances however are often sufficiently alike to be lessons, which, if well
considered, help us much in our onward path. Slavery has gone and
the coolie immigration is going ; they had their day and must give place
to better arrangements. Yet they have helped us much to get into a posi-
tion where they are no longer required. ‘They were ‘“stepping-stones to
higher things.”

126 Timehyi.

Few people in the colony take any interest in its literature. In our
library we have a fair collection which, when carefully studied, helps us to
get a real picture of former conditions and to find out the antecedents of
what we have to-day. Much interest can be felt in tracing the beginnings
of things as they are and their gradual development. However slow the
progress it has been real, but we need not boast too much or think our-
selves so very superior to our ancestors. If we had lived in theirday we
should have probably acted as they did. Some of their doingsappear _
wrong in our eyes, but as we can only judge by results, we have to say
that there was never any real evil. The great fault of the world in
general is the putting up of standards of right and wrong which are only
valid for a time. We should go forward and never try to get back, throw
over all fixed standards, and take the lessons of the past to heart. Old
laws have to be changed as we progress and we must remember that the
question, ‘‘ What is truth?” is still unanswered. The truths of to-day
must be modified to-morrow ; we can hold them, but only tentatively.

\
b

The lines of historical study for our colony may be formulated in a
tentative way as follows :—

First.—It is necessary for the historian to know the country so as to
understand what the people were like at different times. We are all crea-
tures of circumstances and must study the surroundings that once
developed the native Indian, then the negro and lastly the East Indians,
Chinese and coloured people. It has been stated that, given particular
circumstances and peoples nothing difterent could be possible. People, we
can see to-day tell us plainly something of their ancestors—-as for the
country it is practically the same. It follows therefore that with our
knowledge of the present we can get a fair idea of the past with the
assistance of the early voyagers. Every traveller must be consulted by
the historian who however must correct their statements by his advanced _
scientific knowledge.

Second :—In connection with what he gathers from the earliest
travellers he should find out how and when certain plants were intro-
duced. For example cotton and tobacco were found here but coffee and
the sugar-cane were brought by white men. The whole plantation sys-
tem was based on sugar, coffee and cotton and therefore these products
must be considered by every historian. Here also we have to take
accounts of the fact that Dutchmen were accustomed to empolder land
and that East Indians were adepts at rice growing. .

Some will say this is not history and yet it cannot be ignored. It is
a curious fact that whereas we have our coastlands empoldered, Surinam
has done hardly anything in the same way. The fact appears to be that
as Surinam was British at first its development was not on Dutch lines.
If the historian is to deal with the origins of things as they are he can-
not afford to ignore racial and national habits and customs. Those who
simply deal with events and exclude everything else will never understand
the why and wherefore of things. Local conditions mean much and often
give us the keys to problems otherwise insoluble. i

The ‘Good Old Times” in Guiana. 127

Again, every historian should know something of the mother coun-
tries when writing of colonies. For many years professed historians have
stated that the Dutch settled in Pomeroon in 1580. As a nation there
were no Dutch at that time for the Netherlands did not revolt before
1581 and there was a long period of unrest before we may consider the
Seven Provinces as a nation. Flemings, while under the same rule, went
to America as Spaniards; if therefore they were in the Pomeroon in
1580 they could not represent the Dutch Republic. Blunders can be
found in all the professed histories of Guiana and though I will not men-
tion names I may make the general statement without claiming for myself
anything like infallibility. Everything we do is open to improvement
and if we make mistakes it simply means that they should be rectified by
ourselves or others. The true historian does not want to put up his
judgments as final.

The first-hand materials for Guiana history are the Records of the
West India Company in Holland and the Colonial Records here.
Netscher worked with the first and then came the work of the Boundary
Commission, followed by Gravesande’s letters. A few books such as that
of Van Berkel, who lived in Berbice, are useful, but compilations like
that of Hartsink must be considered as not quite reliable. The Duteh
period is represented by few books of travel, but there is a work of the
utmost importance in tryiny to get right views of the condition of the
planters ; this is the “‘ Letters of Aristodemus and Sincerus.” The letters
and appendices give us the views of the colonists and we can compare them
with the official documents, always remembering however that both are
biassed and from different standpoints.

When we come to the British period we have a fair number of
travellers, fuller records, and at last newspapers. In connection with the
labour problem there were Parliamentary Committees and Commissions of
Enquiry all of which are of great importance. The later the document or
book the more reliable it is, but nothing whatever should be taken as
absolutely correct. To check party statements we can find in newspapers
of the last century a wealth of information in the advertisements.

There is animportant side of history, that of families. Memories of
old people are useful when we can check them from other sources, but the
people themselves have to be studied. Much can be gathered from wills
and there are legal documents and the reports of law cases. Even tombs
with inscriptions sometimes help. In other countries old buildings and
even ruins have their stories but here there is not much to be gathered
from our mostly wooden structures. Pictures come in and for recent
years we have photos.

An important mass of evidence can be got by the naturalist from
plants and especially old trees. Here in town we have cabbage palms in
clumps and a short avenue at the east of the Brick Dam. Some of these
are a century old and either point out the sites of buildings or burying
places An old fruit-tree means that the site was occupied by people long

128 Tumehrr.

ago and we can often find such relics in what is now a jungle. If certain
foreign plants can be found we are sure that there was once a clearing on
the spot. I haveseen an old brick chimney smothered in bush and yet
could be sure that there was once a sugar factory on the spot. A real
historian ignores nothing for very simple things help to solve important
questions, and to give him a picture of the past with a suitable back-

ground.

As few people are acquainted with the materials for a history of
Guiana I have thought it desirable to give a few examples from the older
English writers. Two books are of the first importance, Ralegh’s
“ Discoverie ” and Waterton’s ‘‘ Wanderings” ; they have been considered
as belonging to the World’s literature and have been published in many
editions in English'and other languages. Both writers may be thought im-
portant from many standpoints but at present I can do no more than pick
out something that appears characteristic. Ralegh lived in an age when
little was thought of the picturesjue and yet the following extract shows
his appreciation of scenery :—

“Qn both sides of this river we passed the most beautiful country that
ever mine eyes beheld; and whereas all that we had seen before was
nothing but woods, prickles, bushes and thorns, here we beheld plains
of twenty miles inlength, the grass short and green, and in divers parts
groves of trees by themselves, as if they had been by all the art and
labour in the world so made of purpose; and still as we rowed the deer
came down feeding by the water side, as if they had been used to a
keeper’s call.”

Ralegh got a good name among our Indians which appears to have
heen retained as a tradition for over a century :—‘ We espied a small
canoe with three Indians, which, by the swiftness of my barge, rowing
with eight oars, [overtook ere they could cross the river; the rest of
the people on the banks, shadowed under the thick wood, gazed on with
a doubtful conceit what might befall those three which we had taken.
But when they perceived that that we offered them no violence, neither
entered their canoe with any of ours, nor took out of the canoe any of
theirs, they then began to show themselves on the bank’s side, and
offered to traffic with us for such things as they had, and as we drew near
they all stayed, and we came with our barge to the mouth of a little
creek, which came from their town into the great river.”

Charles Waterton was.a most genial writer for he treated his readers
as confidential friends. Asa true naturalist he tries to make us see and
hear what he distinguished in the forest and on the river.

“ Courteous reader, here thou hast the outlines of an amazing land-
scape given thee; thou wilt see that the principal parts of it are but
faintly traced, some of them scarcely visible at all, and that the shades are
wholly wanting. If thy soul partakes of the ardent flame which the
persevering Mungo Park’s did, these outlines will be enough for thee:
they will give thee some idea of what a noble country this is ; and if thou

The “Good Old Times” in Guiana. 129

hast but courage to set about giving the world a finished picture of it,
neither materials to work on, nor colours to paint it in its true shades will
be wanting in thee.”

This quaint style enables us to have full sympathy with the writer,
and every true naturalist feels himself in harmony with his genial mind,
We can be sure that as a planter in charge of slaves he never could have
been anything but the kind Massa so often pictured by visitors to the
colony. This idea is justified by his own words :—

“‘ Slavery can never be defended ; he whose heart is not of iron can
never wish to be able to defend it; while he heaves a sigh for the poor
negro in captivity, he wishes from his soul that the traffic had been stifled
in its birth; ...now .. . the situation of the plantation slaves is
depicted as truly deplorable and their condition wretched. It is not so.
A Briton’s heart, proverbially kind and generous, is not changed by
climate, or its streams of compassion dried up by the scorching heat of a
Demerara sun; he cheers his negroes in labour, comforts them in sick-
ness, is kind to them in old age, and never forgets that they are his
fellow-creatures.”

Although I have given due prominence to Ralegh and Waterton, it is
not to be supposed that they are the only writers on Guiana. there were
Dutch and French authors of some note, but 1 can only find space to
touch on the principal English books. Dr. Bancroft lived in Demerara
about 1760 and wrote an “Essay on the Natural History of Guiana”
which is useful but almost entirely descriptive. His account of the
Indians is interesting but I can only quote a paragraph :—

“The simplicity of the lives of these people, the paucity of their
wants, and the ease with which they are supplied, in a country so happily
situated, and so liberally endowed with the necessaries of life, leaves the
greater part of their time unoccupied with the cares of procuring suste-
nance, in which they have ample leisure to pursue the various modes of
amusement and pleasure, which are most agieeable to their simple rustic
inclinations: A part of these idle hours they pass in bathing and swim-
ming in the rivers, which they do in companies, without distinc-
tion of sex several times a day: and they are so constant and expert at
swimming, that they almost deserve to be classed with amphibious animals;
this they find not only an agreeable but salubrious exercise, as it tends to
repress excessive perspiration and preserve health. At other times they
visit each other, and are mutually entertained, not only with the simple
occurrences of their lives, but with a variety of fables, which are merry,
significant and replete with such simple morality, as their confined observa-
tions and uncultivated minds have suggested. On these occasions they
often abandon themselves to puerile mirth, dancing, or immoderate
laughter ; but harmony and good humour ever prevail, until they are in-
toxicated by drink.”

Dr. Pinckard’s Notes on the West Indies is of much interest to the
historian and readable as well. Hecame with the fleet that took over the

130 Timehri.

Dutch colonies in 1796 and gave a chatty account of what he saw and ex-
perienced in the form of letters. Here is his account of Vlissengen
before any leases had been given for building purposes. The middle walk
of the plantation is now Regent street.

“‘T have made a visit toa coffee plantation near the town, where I
saw an extensive display of the luxuriancy of the soil of Guiana. Thijs
estate differs from the wide fields upon the coast: only in being a flat
surface of coffee, instead of cotton; but is rendered rich and invit-
ing, from being traversed with green walks, shaded with fine rows of trees,
whose loaded branches bend under the various species of tropical fruits,
serving at the same time to delight the eye, regale the olfactories and re-
fresh the palate. A pleasant path, more than a mile in length, and of
sufficient width for carriages, leads down the middle of the estate, the
sides being decorated with mangoes, oranges, Avigata pears, and many
other kinds of fruit.”

Dr. Pinckard was very impartial and could give the dark side of the
plantation system, but he does not fail to praise it in some cases. His
account of Pln. Profit, now part of Providence, shows well the bright
side :—

“The slaves of Mr. Dougan are not only fed and clothed, and tenderly —
watched in sickness, without any personal thought orconcern; but each
has his appropriate spot of ground and his cottage, in which he feels a
right as sacred as if secured to him by all the seals and parchments of
the Lord High Chancellor of England and his Court !”

Bolingbroke’s ‘‘ Voyage to Demerary,” 1807, is interesting but not
very reliable ; his account of the systems of fees so common when officials
had small salaries is interesting :—

“All official documents and colonial papers pass through the
Governor’s office, and for every time he signs his name, his private
secretary receives two dollars, for which he no doubt accounts to the
principal. Evidences given before the courts of justice are in the form of
affidavits, which must be made before His Excellency. Passports for
people leaving the country, permissions for ships to load or discharge,
powers of attorney, and various other papers of a similar tendency, must
undergo his signature ; thus besides suffering a previous tax from the
office, out of which they are first granted, they are burthened by paying
for the Governor’s signature. No wonder our West Indian Governors
grow rich, when they have such opportunities.”

“Those who approach the altar of hymen, are principally people of
colour, who in conformity with the Jaws, are obliged to receive permis-
sion from this ecclesiastical court, for which they pay the extravagant fee
of one hundred and ten guilders. . . . An English gentleman who was
on the eve of marrying a Dutch lady, attempted to break through this law,
and intended to be married according to the established form of the
Church of England; when the vice-president of the court, fearing he

The “Good Old Times” in Guiana. 131

should lose his fees, very charitably informed him that if he deviated in
the least from the established rule, he would publish throughout the colony
their living in a state of incontinency, and the illegality of the marriage.”

Stedman’s “ Narrative,” 1796, is an account of expeditions against
Bush Negroes in Surinam and gives a lurid picture of slavery. His own
sufferings probably made him look at the dark side, but he had to admit
that it was not all bad.

“The national character of these people, as I have remarked it where
they are as free to act by their own will and disposition as in Africa, is
perfectly savage : the twenty thousand Ouca and Seramica free negroes
have lived separated, and under no control of Europeans, for a number
of years, and yet I have never seen any marks of civilization, order or
government among them, but, on the contrary, many examples of un-
governable passion, debauchery and indolence.”

His account of a sale of newly-imported slaves is interesting but too
long for quoting more than this :—

“A new name is given to the newly-bought slave and he or she is
delivered to an old one of the same sex, and sent to the estates, where each
is properly kept clean hy his guardian, instructed and well fed, without
working for the space of six weeks; during which period, from living
skeletons, they become plump and fat, with a beautiful clean skin, till it
is disfigured by some rascally proprietor, or rather his overseer.”

He gives an account of the narrow escape of an overseer when the
plantation was raided by Bush Negroes :—

“The rebels, Sir,” said he, ‘had already surrounded the dwelling-
house in which I was, before I knew of their being in the plantation,
and were employed in setting fire to the four corners of it so that to run
out of it was rushing on certain death. In this dilemma I fled to the
garret,where I laid myself flat on one of the beams, in hopes of their
dispersing soon, and that I might effect my escape before the building
should be burnt down; but in this I was disappointed, as they still
remained ; and at the same time the flames increased so fast that the heat
became insupportable in the place where I was, and I had no other
alternative left, than to be burnt to death, or to leap from a high garret
window into the midst of my exasperated enemies. This last measure,
however, I resolved upon, and had not only the good fortune to light
unhurt upon my feet, but to escape without a wound, from among so
many men armed with sabres and bill-hooks. I flew to the water-side,
into which I plunged headlong ; however, not being able to swim, I imme-
diately sunk to the bottom, but I still kept my presence of mind, and
while they concluded me to be drowned, found means by the help of the
moco-moco and mangrove roots, to bring myself not only under cover of
the impending verdure, but just so far above water with my lips as to
continue in a state of respiration till all was over. Having killed every
other person, the rebels departed and I was taken up by a boat from my
very perilous situation.”

132 Timehri.

Baron von Sack’s ‘ Narrative of a Voyage to Surinam,” 1810, is
interesting as a picture of Surinam under British rule and of the dangers
from privateers ; here is part of his account of a capture, it may be noted
that some courtesy was shown :—

“The Jason had been firing for near half-an-hour when one of the
privateers came close to our windward side and the crew called out @ la
bord ! They could board easily by the cabin windows, which were not suffi-
ciently defended, I went therefore on deck to speak to the captain about
this circumstance ; I found him still commanding, but the crew were re-
treating from their guns, whilst the musket balls were whistling over
their heads. The privateer had a great number of men, who seemed all
prepared for boarding the Jason. I had only time to go down and get
my passport, and put my luggage in order, when Captain M. called
to me that he had been obliged to surrender; he was followed by two
officers of the privateer, to whom I delivered my passport, with
the declaration, that all which I had with me were not mercantile goods
but only for my own private use: they assured me that as I belonged to
a neutral nation J should enjoy the greatest favour. Captain M. now
saw the cargo of his ship taken possession of, and all his trunks carefully
examined, and with tears in his eyes he said to me, “ There you see now,
sir, how the hard-earned labour of we masters of ships goes; this is the
sixth time I have been taken by privateers, and all my endeavours to
gain something for my advanced age, and for the comfort of my family, is
in vain!”

A century ago there were several men who took much interest in the
welfare of the colony though they did not write any important books.
Drs. Hancock and Fraser with Mr. Hilhouse formed a trio who collectively
knew as much of the interior as any one to-day. Hancock wrote some
“‘ Observations ” in favour of British Guiana as a field for colonization in
which he thus speaks of the aksence of phthisis : —

“JT have long been of opinion that the exemption from phthisis
on the coast of Guiana is partly owing to the gaseous emanations from
the soil; but I have reason to believe that the main cause is referable to
the free perspiration experienced here, together with the almost total
absence of those chilling blasts which are common in other tropical —
regions.”

It was probably true that consumption was unknown here about
fifty years ago, but we have to dismiss Dr. Hancock’s reasons for its —
absence, and deplore the fact that it has arrived in spite of gases and per-
spiration! In another place Hancock says :—

“The climate, I may say, is not only prophylactic, but curative of —
this disorder (pulmonary consumption) of which I have known various
instances: and one of the most remarkable and desperate cases occurred
so long ago as 1806, in the harbour of Demerara, in the person of a Swede,
who arrived ina vessel from Portsmouth,”

The “Good Old Times” in Guiana. 138

I heard similar stories when I arrived in the colony, and it is quite
certain that people believed in them whether true or not. The evidence
points to the introduction of the disease during the last forty years.

Mr. William Hilhouse wrote a number of articles for the local papers
and three were published in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society.

From his ‘“ Notices of the Indians” in Vol. 2 of the Journal I extract
the following :—-

“Their most valuable qualities are agility, dexterity, and the
intuitive tact of tracking or discovering footsteps in the bush. Where an
European can discover no indication whatever, an Indian will point out
the footsteps of any number of negroes, and will state the precise day
on which they have passed ; and if on the same day will state the hour. ”

“The duties of hospitality are paramount with all barbarous nations.
When a stranger, and particularly an European, enters into the house of
an Indian, everything is at his command . . . This is exceedingly in-
convenient in the sequel because all offices of kindness are supposed to be
reciprocal. When the Indian pays the white man a visit, the difference
in value of his furniture and equipments cause a return in kind to be too
expensive. The Indian therefore says, ‘ When you visit me, I give you
everything I have in the world—but when I visit you, you refuse me the
commonest articles of your daily expenditure.”

The writings of the Schomburgks were mostly in German, but the reports
of Sir Robert to the Royal Geographical Society are in English and of much
importance. I cannot give anything like an idea of their work from a mere
quotation but only pick out something from each. Sir Robert’s account
of finding Victoria regia in the Berbice River has often been quoted but
it is so characteristic that it will bear repetition :-—

“Some object on the southern point of the basin attracted my
attention ; I could not form any idea of what it might be, and I hurried
the crew to increase the rate of their paddling ; in a short time we were
opposite the object of our curiosity—a vegetable wonder! All calamities
were forgotten; I felt as a botanist and felt myself rewarded. A gigantic leaf,
from five to six feet in diameter, salver-shaped, with a broad rim of light
green above and a vivid crimson below, rested upon the water: quite in
character with this wonderful leaf was the luxuriant flower, consisting of
many hundred petals, passing in alternate tints from pure white to rose
and pink, The smooth water was covered with them and I rowed from one
to the other, observing always something new to be admired.”

Dr. Richard Schomburgk wrote in his ‘“ Botanical reminiscences ”
of the lovely flower garden at the base of the Roraima cliffs and thus
speaks of his feelings :—

“T was lost in admiration looking up to the gigantic wall, the summit
of which projected a little; my heart began to beat as if I apprehended
danger, and a wish to escape from it. An oppressive solitude prevailed ;

134 Timehri

there was not asign of life, only the noise of the falling water was heard.
Looking up to the giddy height, the mass of rock before me appeared
wild and dreadful; round about large blocks of rock were scattered in
demon-like confusion, which had been precipitated from the summit and
steep declivity, the surrounding trees among which they fell being
shattered into fragments. The grandeur and the sublimity of the
gigantic mass of this marvel of nature, created the continued sensation
that the projecting summit would fall suddenly and bury me under its
ruins, and called forth a feeling quite heavy and strange to me.”

Captain Alexander visited the colony in 1831 and gave his observa-
tions in “ Transatlantic Sketches ;” the work is not very reliable but what
he actually saw may be taken as correct. His views of slavery were not
antagonistic but of course he only saw what was obvious. Here is his
account of the slaves in Georgetown :—

“Themen were well clothed and well fed ; hats or stripedcaps they wore
on their heads; and though they prefer carrying their jacket under their
arm to wearing it ontheir shoulders, and strip to their work to the
trousers yet they all seemed to be abundantly supplied with clothes. The
negresses were decently clad in printed gowns, and were commonly seen
walking about huckstering vegetables, carried in a wooden tray on their
heads. There were no sounds but those of merriment; the song and
chorus of a group of young negresses, the salutations and jokes of friends
meeting, and the incessant gabbling of the old women, who when they
can get no one to converse with, carry on a conversation (aloud) with
their own swect selves, like nparoes at their balls, sometimes dancing to
their own shadow on the wall for want of a partner.”

Lieut.-Col. Capadose in his “Sixteen Years in the West Indies,”
published 1845, has a chapter on British Guiana from which litgle can
be gathered, but it may be interesting to note that the first Royal Mail
Steamer came on the 12th January, 1842.

“The twelfth was a day of great excitement in Georgetown, an
excitement caused by the arrival, for the first time, of one of the Royal®
Mail Steam Company’s Packets. The Clyde was crowded with visitors
during its stay, amongst whom was the Governor, his lady and
family.”

One of the most useful books for any one who wants to study
the results of emancipation is ‘‘ Eight Years in British Guiana by ‘ Barton
Premium,’ 1850. The writer evidently knew a great deal about the
labour problem and his views are worthy of careful consideration. Here
is a fragment :—

‘“‘ Massa,” said the youth, ‘we no want estate to hab caracter ?”
“ Indeed,” was my reply ; ‘I should think it is what you care very little
about; itis notorious that all of you now do the plantation work very
badly ; if you wish your own to have a good character, why don't you
do it as wellas in the old time?” “Odat isoder ting” ‘ Why?” He
would not answer, but I could do it for him, Individually, they like to

The **Good Old Times” in Guiana. 135

indulge their indolence by doing their task, in the laziest and con-
sequently, in the worst manner; but they are all proud, and each would
like to see his comrade doing the work properly, although he will not,
because he wishes, in speaking to a friend on a neighbouring estate, to
be able to crow over him, and to tell that his cultivation looks better, and
his crops are larger than those of his neighbour. It has often struck me
that the negrois the proudest of mankind, and the most sensitive in
regard to aggression on his self-esteem.”

The Rev. Robert Duff, a presbyterian, wrote “ British Guiana, being
Notes on a few Natural Productions, etc.,” 1866. There isa great deal of
undigested information in the book and it is hard to find a characteristic
paragraph, but the following will be useful tc compare with the accounts
of missionary books where much is made of dangers that do not really
exist :—

** Much has been written on the hardships of a missionary life, and it
is true there is sometimes a good deal of fatigue to be borne which many
do not like. But so far as my experience goes the weeks spent in visiting
the Indiana, Christianburgh, Camoeny and Baracara missions have always
been looked forward to as holidays, and enjoyed with pleasure and delight.
Irrespective of the benefit and pleasure conferred on the people, and their
consequent gratitude and anxiety to show it in every way they can, by
watching to learn one’s wishes and ministering to their gratification, so
far asis in their power, there is a variety and excitement, which in the
somewhat monotonous life of a minister, gives a charm to missionary
operations which no other ministerial work possesses.”

The Rev. W. H. Brett wrote several works on Indians and Missions ;
they are very useful but hardly scientific. Here is an extract from “ The
Indian Tribes of Guiana ” :—

“ Notwithstanding the indolence and apathy with which the Indians
are charged, they are keen observers of natural objects though utterly
unacquainted with scientific rules, their knowledge of medicinal and
poisonous plants shows that their race must have studied the properties of
the vegetable kingdom. They are also perfectly acquainted with the
habits of the animals, birds, reptiles and insects which inhabit their
country, and will sometimes point out facts connected with them
which are little known save to professed naturalists.”

“ An accurate knowledge of the nature and habits of wild animals is
indispensable to men whose subsistence is in a great measure derived
from the chase. The Indian hunter possesses it in perfection. He will
exactly imitate the cry of various birds and animals, and shoot them
when he has thus brought them within reach of his gun, arrow or blow-
pipe.”

Another missionary was the Rev. C. D. Dance whose ‘“ Log-Book ”
is full of first-hand observations, but unfortunately without arrangement.
It is a great loss to science that a good observer should not have made

136 Timehri.

better use of his opportunities. Even as it is however we could not
afford to lose it. The first extract I give refers to the Great Falls of the
Demerara :—

“Tf one can imagine a wall of irresistible water heavily falling
into huge caldrons of from thirty to sixty feet in circumference, boiling,
bubbling up and furiously running around, descending and ascending, all
helter-skelter,—the perfection of powerful, confused motion,—a chaos of
raging water,—the very granite yielding to the attritive force, and
forming wells ;—suzh an one will have an approximate idea of the waters
immediately above the lowest part of the falls.”

Many interesting bits of folk-lore may be found, all of which are
decidedly interesting, but I have not room for one of the longer stories.
Here is something about the Piaiman :—

‘*T knew a woodcutter that once had a company of five Indians
working with him for a time on his ‘grant,’ they had brought with
them an old man who was past working, but was useful in telling them
where game was to be found. They consulted him only in times of doubt
or scarcity of the game. ‘Go,’ said he one day to the hunters, ‘to such
a spot,’ indicating the spot, ‘and you will find a herd of abuias’ (wild
hogs, Dicotylas labiatus). They went and brought home fifteen. On
another occasion be was asked to say where the wiri-biciri deer, so
esteemed for the delicacy of its venison could be procured. Early in the
morning he gave the men the directions, and they returned with two of
the required deer. Sometimes he would say that the game was too
far away ; and at other times he told them not to go out hunting at all on
that day, even if they were on short commons, for that ‘bad would
come ’—meaning that some accident would occur.”

One of the most readable books of travel is Anthony Trollope’s “West
Indies and Spanish Main.” He was here on Post Office business fora few
weeks and gave only his impressions. He has been often quoted but the
following is not so hackneyed as some others :—

“T went over the hospital with the doctor there; for even in Demerara
they required a hospital far the negroes. ‘And what is the prevailing
disease of the colony ?’ I asked him. ‘ Dropsy with the black men,’ he
answered, ‘and brandy with the white.’

«¢ You don’t think much of yellow fever?’ Iasked him.

““«No; very little. It comes once in six or seven years; and like
influenza or cholera at home, it requires its victims. What is that to
consumption, whose visits with you are constant, who daily demands its
heecatombs? We don’t like yellow fever certainly; but yellow fever is
not halt so bad a fellow as the brandy bottle.’ ”

Chester’s ‘‘ Transatlantic Sketches,” 1869, is a chatty book of the
same type as Trollope’s but not of much value ; here is an extract :—

“The Anglo-Demerarian population enjoy a well-merited reputation
or hospitality, and in point of civilization are far ahead of the stagnant

The ‘Good Old Times” in Guiana. 137

people of the West Indies. Like their predecessors, the old Dutch
settlers, they have had great obstacles to contend with, and have battled
bravely with them, and in the main successfully. The waters of the sea
and rivers are only kept out by a great expenditure of labour. Quite
recently a long strip of coast just beyond the Fort, at Georgetown, has
been swept away. The breach is being repaired mainly by convict
labour.”

Brown and Sawkins’ Geological Survey and Brown’s ‘ Canoe and
Camp Life,” 1876, are very important. The latter is a readable book from
which I extract the following account of the discovery of the Kaieteur
Fall :-—

“When we came to the northern end of the savanna [I observed that
heavy masses of vapour were drifting before the north-east wind, making
the trees, grass, and shrubs on our right dripping wet. This came from
the great fall to which we were in close proximity, but which was hidden
from view by a grove of trees. Making a detour to the right through
this grove we came out on the flat rocks at the head of the great fall, and
walking to the edge of the precipice, down which the water was pre-
cipitated, I gazed with wonder and delight at the singular and magnificent
sight that lay before me. Not being prepared for anything so grand and
startling I could not at first believe my eyes, but felt that it was alla
dream.”

“ Standing on the edge of the water near the brink I looked down
along and comparatively straight valley, bounded by wooded bluffs and
cliffs; with precipices of gray sandstone rock in places. In the bottom of
this valley curves of the river, in its onward course from the foot of the
fall, could be seen, the distant ones resembling little streaks of silver.
Beyond the mouth of the valley lay a great wooded plain, stretching
away to the horizon northward.”

Mr. J. W. Boddam—Whetham gave the results of an attempt to scale
Roraima in his book ‘“‘ Roraima and British Guiana,” 1879. He went with
Mr. M. McTurk prepared with ropes and other necessaries to climb the
great rock, but they failed.

“‘ Gradually the conviction was forced upon us that the Indians were
right, and that Roraima was impregnable.”

“ As daylight faded, the mountain fortress loomed more and more
mysterious ; the battlements were touched with a light rose colour, and
the clear-cut summit was sharply defined against the purple sky. For
a short time the mists rolled away, and this great ‘ sermon in stone’ stood
out in vivid faultless accuracy, all the more impressive from the perfect
stillness of the scene, then darkness fell; but presently the moon arose,
and lo! the recent rich colouring gave place to a fretwork of pure frosted
silver. The edges of the woods and the pencilled lines of the delicate
foliage were burnished with the soft rays, and then, indeed, Roraima
looked weird and solemn,”

138 Timehri.

The mysterious ro¢k was ascended later by Mr. im Thurn, and since
he found the way by a number of others. Before he did this however
he wrote ‘‘ Among the Indians of Guiana,” 1883, an important contribu-
tion to Guiana literature. He did not probably anticipate his future
achievement when he wrote :—

“ The task would take a very considerable and indefinite time.”

As a matter of fact he hit upon the slope without taking such pains
as Messrs. Boddam-Whetham and McTurk. As a specimen of im Thurn’s
book I quote the following :—

: “The use of beenas is very curious. The avowed purpose is, as
has been said, to ensure success. But the line of thought by which
the hunter, mentally connects success in the acquisition of game with
pain previously inflicted on himself or his dogs is not obvious. For such
cases as those in which leaves and other parts of certain plants are
rubbed into wounds on the noses of the dogs, it seems at first sight
probable that this is done on the supposition that the power of scent in the
dogs is thereby amproved.”

I do not go farther to quote the whole paragraph because our views
of beenas have been much amplified by fuller knowledge, but give a little
about ‘‘ Timehri ”:

“The pictured rocks, which are certainly the most striking and
mysterious of the antiquities of Guiana, are—and this has apparently
never yet been pointed out—not all of one kind. In all cases various
figures are rudely depicted on larger or smaller surfaces of rocks. Some-
times these figures are painted, though such cases are few and, as will be
shown, of little moment ; more generally they are graven on the rock, and
these alone are of great importance. Rock sculptures may, again, be
distinguished into two kinds, differing in the depth of incision, the
apparent mode of execution, and, most important of all, the character of
the figures represented.”

Story-tellers have done little with Guiana, but romances dealing
with the West Indies are numerous. Some stories by Matthew Barker
(«The Old Sailor”) are useful because he was here as editor of a news-
paper at the time of the East Coast Insurrection. In one of these he tells
us of a bush expedition under Dr. McTurk. In his “Tough Yarns” he
givesa pathetic sketch of ‘‘ Daddy Davy” who came begging in England
onacold winter’s night. He was recognized by his old master as one
who had apparently been left in Demerara free and happy.

The following is an extract which rings true to life; Daddy has
just recognized his old massa :—

“My own massa! what for you give Davy him life? What for you
give Davy him freedom ? and now de poor nigger die for want! But no?”
checking himself, ‘‘neber see the day for go dead, now me find my
massa!” ‘Confound the cold!’ said my grandfather, thrusting his

The “Good Old Times” in Guiana. 139

thumb and forefinger to his eyes,’ how it makes one’s eyes run! William,
my boy,’ turning to me, ‘fetch that pocket handkerchief off the
sofa.’ ‘

“T immediately obeyed, and felt as if the cold had affected me too ;
for I employed my grandfather’s handkerchief two or three times to wipe
the trickling drops from my face before I delivered it into his hands.”

Later on Daddy spoke of ‘da old massa what sleep in da Werk-en-
Rust” and a note is given stating that the name originated in Demerara
but might mean any burying ground.

The stories of ‘‘The Old Sailor” showed local knowledge, but
Harriet Martineau’s “‘ Demerara: A Tale” is full of blunders, proving
that she knew nothing of the colony. ‘The historian finds it difficult to
picture every-day life in the “good old times” for want of stories by
residents in the colony ; a few have appeared in late years but they deal
with present conditions.

SOME FIGURES IN STRING FROM THE
MAKUSHIS ON THE IRENG AND
TAKUTU RIVERS.

Rev. Atpan Rosrnson, S.J.

Whether string fingers have an ethnological value or not, there can
be no doubt of their intense fascination as proved by their world-wide
distribution. In some places the cord used is made of twisted rawhide, in
others of stringy bark or fibre, in others again of carefully plaited hair.
The string used by civilised nations is wretched compared with the
elaborate cords made and used by the so-called savage tribes and nations.

The figures described in this article were collected during the wet
season (May to August) of 1917 when I was living at the Mission of $t.
Ignatius, Zariwa, on the banks of the Takutu. My sole companions in
that lonely place were some eight Indian boys of the Makushi tribe, all of
them blissfully free from any knowledge of the English language. On
fine evenings they would spend hours running about on the smooth space
in front of the house, allintent and keen on the rhythm and ceremonies
of their tribal games and never losing sight of the work of the moment.
When, however, the rains broke and the nights became long for us, the
boys would squat round me while I sat at my ticky-ticky (as they named
my typewriter). One night, when the machine was temporarily out of
order I showed them a very simple trick with string (the one called
“Fly on the Nose” and then my treasure was discovered. One boy took
the string, and after a moment's thought, worked out the figure they call
Munatd. Once they found that they could do something I was unable to
do, one or other of them would come of an evening and show me some
new figure or trick. They were greatly delighted at my attempts which
almost always ended in failure. 1t was a long time before I came across
a method for recording permanently the various intricate movements and
consequeatly, many an evening was passed with cords and figures.

Generally speaking, the string figures of savage nations are more
complicated than the Cat’s-cradle of Europe and sometimes set forms of
words are chanted or recited. The Makushis, however, never sing or
recite any formula or story while working out the pattern as we do
with our “Pound of Candles.” Indeed the only case I found among
them of even a series of figures is the sequence of Ka-erdn and Erépsa.
I tried myself to elicit any formula and afterwards attempted the same by
means of a capable interpreter, but I never discovered anything beyond
the names of the figures, though they never omitted the word Hrépsa
when performing that tigure while occasionally they did not mention the
names with other patterns.

The cord they use when by themselves was made of carefully twisted

three-strand crowa fibre. ‘he ends they tied with a rather large knot which
seriously impeded the easy running of the string. The boys preferred

Some Figures wm String. 141

appropriating the cords which I made from whipcord. In uniting the
ends, I used a long splice but when my strings began to disappear, I gave
up the splicing which proved very tedious work on such small cords,
especially as the boys never seriously tried to learn how to splice.

For ordinary practice with these string figures it is best to take a
piece of soft string about six feet long and to tie the ends by what is
called the Fisherman’s knot, which is one of those every Boy Scout
knows. When two cords are required for any figure (there are two such

_ described in this paper) it is of advantage for display purposes to make
use of different colours.

A few words about the nomenclature used in describing the figures
will not be out of place here. When the cord is passed round any finger
we have two strings passing from that finger and a loop onit. These
strings are called the near or far one according as they are on the near
or far side of the finger as we look at the hands when held facing one
another with the palms inwards. The loops are called dorsal if on the
back of the finger, thumb or wrist, and palmar if on the inner or palmar
side. Thus we may have the cord passing round the back of the left
middle finger and thence to the right hand. In this case, there is a left
middle near string, a left middle far string and a left middle dorsal loop.
When there are two loops on any finger, the one which is further from the
root of the finger (distal) is called the upper loop and the other one the
lower loop. As soon asa loopis transferred from one finger to another,
it takes its name from the finger on to which it is transferred. The
fingers are named:—index, middle, ring and little. Ordinarily the
movements of both hands should be as far as possible simultaneous where
similar movements are performed by both. It is important to note
the order of the various manipulations with great accuracy, otherwise
the figure will not come out. This is especially the case in the opening
movements as illustrated in Figs. 1-4. Generally the palmar string
must be taken up by the right hand and afterwards by the left and not
vice-versa unless expressly stated.

Many string figures begin with what is known as ‘Opening A.”
This is the case with the figures which I have called Ka-erdn, Erépsa,
Kitéibra, Awotinér, Wanamari-Yembér, and Yiping while two others,
Kapdi-shankaré and Kurd, begin with the first position of Opening A.
This First Position is shown in Fig. 1, where it will be seen that the cord
passes across the palm of each hand and round the back of the thumb
and little finger to the opposite hand. The next step in Opening A is to
take upon the back of the right index the palmar string crossing the
left hand and afterwards the right palmar string on the back of the left
index. These two movements are shown in Figs. 2and 3. On separating
the hands, if welook at them from above, we get the pattern shown in
Fig, 4.

For the benefit of those who are interested in string figure working
‘ and who may be acquainted with Dr. Haddon’s system of describing them,

142 Timehrr.

I subjoin the following list of equivalent terms of what may be called the
Popular and Scientific methods :—

POPULAR. SCIENTIFIC.
far ulnar
near radial
upper distal
lower proximal.

Munata (Door.)

1st. Place the left hand in the loop soas to form adorsal loop on the
left wrist. Pass the near string between the left thumb and index
and pass the far string between the left middle and ring fingers.
Bring both back between the left index and middle fingers,

2nd. Pass the far index string to forma little finger loop and then the
near middle string to form a thumb loop.

3rd. Take up the index palmar loop on the back of the right index and
the middle palmar loop on the back of the right middle finger.
Stretch.

Ath. With the right index and thumb take up the dorsal wrist loop and
bring it over the fingers to form a palmar one. Stretch.

5th. Loosen the loops on the right fingers and place them on the corres-
ponding fingers of the left hand. Bring the lower loops of the left
index and middle fingers over to the palmar side.

6th. Insert the right index aud middle fingers into the dorsal loops of
the left index and middle fingers. Pull. Hold the right hand
vertically over the left and we have the pattern illustrated in Fig. 5.

\ \ \
ARaUTA-MUTAYEBER (MONKEY’s JAWS.)

The Ist. and 2nd. movements are the same as the corresponding
movements of Munatd described above.

3rd. Pass the right wrist through the long hanging loop from underneath
so as to forma dorsal loop on the right wrist. This loop remains in
the same position up to the end.

4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, are the same as the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th, of
Munata. In other words, this figure is made in the same way as
Munaté except that an extra movement is inserted. The finished
pattern is held horizontally. There is an illustration of it in
“ Timehri,” July, 1912, p. 122, “‘ Baboon’s Mouth.”

Moror (BIRD-SNARE).

This has all the movements of Munatd except that a second loop is
formed on the left wrist at the beginning by passing the far string round
by the near side and back to its position.

Some Figures in String. 143

KA-ERAN (A VIsITOR).
Ist. Opening A.
2nd. Transfer the right index loop to the left index finger.

Transfer the lower left index loop to the right index finger.

Stretch.

This is illustrated in Fig. 6 where it is to be noted that the twistings
of the string are not the same as in the finished part of Opening A as
shown in Fig. 4.

ER2PsA (A PERSON SITTING).
Ist. and 2nd. are as in Ka-erdn above, of which Hrépsa is only a
sequence.
3rd. Slip off the loop from the right index finger and hold the right hand
vertically over the left.

The Makushis call this ‘‘ Hrépsa ” which, as stated in the title, means
“a person sitting.” Their idea of these two patternsis that in Ka-erdn a
visitor arrives and afterwards (in the second) sits down on one of their
low stools which are ordinarily made from the crown of a tree so that the
cut trunk forms the seat and three branches cut off short form the legs.
The string pattern is shown in Fig. 7, and the stool itself in Fig. 8.

KAPAI-SHANKARA (PALM TREE).
Ist. First Position.
2nd. Pass the far left little finger string between the left index and
thumb, back round the thumb and then between the ring and
little fingers and round the little finger.

Pass the far right little finger string between the right index and
thumb, back round the thumb and then between the ring and little
fingers and round the right little finger.

3rd. Pass the right index and middle fingers under the two left palmar
crossing strings into the large palmar loops, 7.e., the right index near
the left thumb and the right middle finger near the left little
finger, and bring the loops up on the backs of the fingers. Stretch.
On the backs of the left index and middle fingers bring up the corres-
ponding loops that are on the right hand.

4th. Slip off from the thumbs the lower loops, that is to say the string
that passes directly from one thumb to the other.

5th. Slip off from the little fingers the lower loops which are formed by
the string just loosened. Stretch.

6th. Exchange the loops on the index and middle fingers on to the
opposite hand putting those from the left hand on to the right and
then those from the right on to the left. Stretch.

The hands should be held one vertically over the other. The
pattern represents the branches, trunk and roots of a kind of palm tree
The figure is shown in Fig. 9.

144 Timehri.

Mo (Worm).
Ist. Pass the left hand through the loop so that the latter rests on the
thumb.
2nd. Pass the right index between the palmar string and the root of the
thumb and, catching the dorsal string, bring it to the palmar side.
Twist the loop which is now on the right index, clockwise through
half a circle and then place it on the left index finger,

3rd. Repeat this movement between the left index and middle fingers
putting the loop on the left middle finger.

4th. Repeat between the middle and ring fingers putting the loop on
the ring finger.

5th. Repeat again between the ring and little fingers and put the loop
on the little finger.

6th. Release the thumb loop. Pull slowly on the palmar string and the
“ worm ” moves away.

This trick is the same as the common “ Mouse” probably the most
widely spread trick of all the world. It is mentioned by Lutz in “ Timehri,”
July, 1912, p. 127, where he says the Patamonas call it “ Sneke.” But the
fact that he makes the boy speak of it as ““ Warum” (worm?) indicates
that the Patamonas and Makushis give it the same name. Their lan-
guages are akiu and the Makushi word Mo means worm, while their word
for snake is “ Erkut.”

TooreR (Cowrty).

1st. Thumbs only in the loops.

2nd. Pass the right hand over the left from the near side and back under
so as to form a double dorsal loop on the left wrist.

3rd. With the right thumb and right little finger take up the left double
dorsal wrist loop on the near side, bending the left palm down in so
doing. Slip the loop on to the right little finger inserting this latter
from*above. Bring the hands to their normal position and stretch.
This will twist the strings that pass from the right little finger.

4th. With the left little finger pick up both right thumb strings and form
a double loop round the left little finger.

5th. With the right index and thumb pick up the left dorsal wrist loops
and bring them to the palmar side. Stretch. We have now a single
loop on each thumb and a double one on each Jittle finger, while all
the strings are knotted in the middle.

6th. Drop the loops off the little fingers. These loops are the wings of
the fly.

An attempt is made to catch the fly by clapping the hands together
but on separating them he has gone as he almost always does in actual
life.

Dr. Lutz found this trick amongst the Patamonas he had on the
Kaieteur plateau and he describes it in “ Timehri” of July, 1912, p. 126.
The manner of performing it, is, however, slightly difterent. Dr. Lutz’

Some Figures in String. 145
gy

Patamona boy in the 2nd. movement twists the left hand. In the 3rd. he
picks up the loop from below, i.e., from the radial side which in this case
is lower than the ulnar. Dr. Lutz gives it the generic name of “ Fly”
which he calls ‘“ Toolik.” Itremains to be seen whether the word which
Dr. Lutz represents by “ Toolik” means in Patamona “Fly ” or “ Cowfly.”
Its similarity to the Makushi word “ Toorér” would seem to imply the
latter. The Makushis have dropped the final “k” entirely from
very many words. They even refuse to pronounce it in such
Patamona words as Tuk-eit, Amak-tuek. The Patamonas put a final
“k” onto the word Kaietewr. In both languages there seems to be
little or no distinction made between “1” and “r” and both letters seem
to be in a great measure interchangeable. Hence a word pronounced by
a Patamona as “ Toolik” might easily be pronounced by a Makushi as
“ Toorér” and both of them would say that they were uttering the same
word.

KiTUBRA (WOODPECKER).

Ist, Put the right leg through the circle of the string to form a loop on
the back of the calf.

2nd, Bring tberiyht string round the front and under the foot. We
have now two dorsal strings and one frontal one.

8rd. In the bight that remains, form “Opening A” taking the left
palmar string first (this is essential).

4th. Pass the foot through the index loops, release the loops on the index
and little fingers and pull with the thumbs when the string will be
relcased.

Sometimes in the 4th movement, both feet are passed through the
index loops. In this case the string is transferred from one leg to the
other. On occasions the Indians continue this game of moving the string
from one leg to the other and back again. This would seem to be the
true origin of the name they give the trick as the flitting of the wood-
pecker is very well represented.

AWOTINER (CUTTING THE THROAT.)

This trick is performed in the same manner as Aitiéibra except that
the 1st. movement is done round the neck by putting the string at the back
of the neck, passing the right string round by the front and back again.
Tn the 4th. movement the index loops are passed over the head. As far
as I could make out the word ‘‘ Awotinér” means ‘ damaged or cut
neck.” I have, however, called it ‘‘ Cutting the Throat” as being nearer
our English idiom.

, ,
WANAMARI-YEMBER (LOOKING-GLASS FRAME).
This pretty pattern is formed from a variation of ‘‘ Opening A.”

1st, First Position,

146 . Timehrr.

2nd. Take up the left palmar string from below on the back of the right
index and middle fingers so as to forma single loop back of both
fingers. ¥
Take up the right palmar string in a similar way.

8rd. Transfer the left thumb loop on to the left index finger and the left
little finger loop on to the left middle finger, Transfer the right
thumb and little finger loops in the same way on to the right index
and middle fingers.

4th. Bring the loop that is on the left index and middle fingers above the
loops on each of these fingers and then bring the latter loops on to
the palmar side. =

Perform a similar mov ement on the right hand side.

5th. Take a second cord in the teeth and make its loops hang down over
the first cord very near to the fingers.

6th. Insert the index and middle fingers of both hands ovor the palmar
strings of the second cord, into their own loops of the first cord, and,
bending the hands downwards, draw the second cord through the
loops which will slip off the fingers by the action of bending and
drawing.

"th. Stretch the second cord and the other one remains on it. We have
now the hands downwards and palmar loops on the index and middle
fingers ofeach hand. These are the second cord.

8th. Place the loop that is on the right index on to the right»toe and the
loop on the right middle finger on to the left toe. ‘Transfer the loop
of the left middle finger on to the right index and stretch.

Sometimes a second person takes hold of the loops of the second
cord instead of their being puton to the toes. This extremely pretty
pattern is illustrated in Fig. 10.

The Makushis are very careful in certain uses of their words. For
instance, when a mirror has been removed from its frame, that frame
is no longer a “looking-glass frame” but “what was a looking-glass
frame.” This altered meaning is expressed by the suffix -ber. It oceurs
in another of the figures of this article—Ardéuta-Mutdéyeber. This means
really “ what was the jaws of a monkey.”

When I first learnt this figure, the boy pointed to the frame of a
mirror. I asked him if hea,meant the mirror itself and he took the glass
out of its frame and showed me the latter. When I took another empty
frame he shook his head. Some time later when Fr. Cary-Elwes had re-
turned, I suzgested that they could not have a Looking-glass Frame as
both mirrors and frames were essentially products of civilisation. He told
me, however, that the Maicushis have both even in those districts where
the Indians are still ia their primitive conditions.

Some Figures in String. 147

Mozor-YEerE (SPIDER’s WEB).
This pattern, shown in Fig. 11, though called by the Indians by the

name of hammock or spider’s web, resembles more closely what is gener-
ally known as a Maltese cross (but without the re-entrant angles of the
true Maltese cross.) Like the last pattern, it is done with two cords.

Ist.

6th.

7th,

1st.

2nd.

8rd.

Place a loop on the back of the left wrist. With the right hand take
both strings and place them between the left index and middle fingers,
bringing the near string round between the index and thumb and the
far one round between middle and ring fingers of the left hand, at the
same time inserting the right handin the loose end of the long loop
from above. Stretch. The right hand may be brought up either
towards the body or away from it.

With the right index and middle fingers take up from underneath
the two left palmar strings and bring them up on the backs of the
fingers, taking care to pass between the hanging strings. Stretch.
We have now one loop on each index and middle finger and one on
each wrist.

Bring the wrist loops on to the palmar side. Stretch.

Exchange the loops on the index and middle fingers on to the cor-
responding fingers of the other hand, passing those that were on the
right hand over those that were on the left. Stretch.

Place with the teeth another cord over the figure near the fingers
and let the loops hang down back and front.

Bend down the index and middle fingers of both hands over the
palmar strings of the second cord into their own loops of the first
cord and pull. By this action the second cord is held in the joints of
the fingers and the first cord slips off them to the other.

Place the right hand loops on to the toes and the left index loop on
to theright hand. On pulling out the figure the finished pattern
appears.

Kawak (GREEN PARROT).
Pass a short loop between the index and middle fingers of the left
hand leaving the long loop hanging down on the palmar side.

Bring the short loop over the left index and middle fingers so as to
form a ring round each and a palmar string across the two.

Take up this palmar string and rotate the loop so formed through
an angle of 180 degrees, making the rotation clockwise as you look
at the left palm, and pass it over to the back of the left index and
middle fingers. We have now a dorsal loop on each of the left index
and middle fingers and a dorsal loop (superior) across both. On the
palmar side there are two crossing strings.

~

148 Timehri.

4th. Separate the left index and middle fingers slightly. Pass the right
index and thumb from above and take up between the strings the
far string of the hanging loop, Pass this over the left little finger.
Take up the near string in a similar way and pass it over the left
thumb.

5th. Bring the dorsal loop that crosses both fingers on to the palmar
side. Grip the long loop a few inches from the knots.

The parrot ismade to fly by alternately closing and opening the
thumb and little finger. This figure is illustrated in “ Timehri,” July,
1912, p. 118.

Kura (A SMALL Fisu.)

This pretty pattern which is shown in Fig. 12, works out in a very
regular way after an extremely irregular opening. In the finished
figure there is the only example I have come across of a double bight of
the cord forming an integral part of the pattern. This curious loop is
seen towards the left of the iliustration where the double strings meet.
The short portion may, with a very little imagination, be considered as
the mouth of the fish. The prototype of this figure is a very tiny fish
about 2} inches long and } inch broad.

Ist. First Position.

2nd. Takeupthe left palmar string on the back of the right index
finger.

8rd. Take up on the backs of the leftindex and middle fingers the two
portions of the right palmar string that are on either side of the
right far index string. Stretch.

4th. With the right middle finger take up the portion of the left palmar
string that is below the left middle finger.

5th. Pass the thumbs over both index strings and over both middle
strings and take up on the backs of the thumbs, the near little finger
strings. Return the thumbs to their position.

6th. Pass the little fingers over the middle and index strings and take up
on their backs, the far thumb strings. Return the little fingers to
their position.

7th. Bending the index and middle fingers downwards insert each one
into its own loop. In other words, bend these fingers down over
the double palmar strings and on either side of the two strings pass-
ing between the index and middle fingers. Continue the downward
movement of the hands and release the loops from the thumbs and
little fingers.

8th. Still keeping the hands turned downwards, insert the thumbs into
the loops held by the index finger and, freeing these, insert them
into the middle finger loops, release the midule fingers and stretch
smartly.

Some Figures im String. 149

MaAoraAl (FISH-TRAP.)

Ist. Put the left hand into the loop and hang thislatter on the back of
the wrist. Bring the far string round by the front and then by the
back so as to form a*double dorsal loop and a single palmar one on
the left wrist.

2nd. Pass the long loop between the Jeft index and middle fingers and
back to the palmar side between the left middle and ring fingers.

8rd_ Pass the right index underneath the two palmar loops from the near
side and draw the long loop through. Pass one of the long hanging
strings between the left index and thumb, round the thumb and on
to the palmar side. The other string is passed between the left ring
and little fingers, round the left little finger and so on to the palmar
side.

4th. Take up on the backs of the right index and middle fingers the two
short palmar loops nowformed. Stretch.

5th. Loosen out the double dorsal loop on the left middle finger and
passing the entire right hand through it, transfer it to the back of
the right wrist.

6th. Transfer the right index and middle loops to the left index and
middle fingers.

7th. Bring the left double wrist loop to the palmar side and stretch care-
fully, arranging the string just pulled over so as to forma binding
round the other strings.

This figure is not atalla bad representation of an Indian fish-trap
especially if the last movement is done with acertain amount of arrange-
ment.

Virinc (MovunrTaIN. )

The Makushis give the name “ Yiping” only to those mountains
from which rivers take their source. Thus we have a river “Ndppi”
which rises in the Néppi-Yiping and the Kéra Kara River rises similarly
in the Kérdkava-Yiping. I believe they call other mountains
by the generic name of “Ter” (stone.) At least, as far as I
could make out, they always spoke of the various peaks of the
Kanaku Mountain as “ Ter” except where a river flowed down from one
of them. This figure is described by Dr. Lutz in “ Timehri,” July, 1912, p.
121, but think there are several points of difference between the two

ways of manipulation. ~

1st. Opening A. Release the thumbs and stretch.

2nd. Take the left Jittle finger loop and put it on the upper part of the
left index in such a way that what was the far little finger string is
now the upper near index string and what was the near little finger
string now becomes the upper far index string. We have now two
near index strings and on the far side we have a string passing

150 Timehri.

from the upper left index to the lower right index and, back of this,
another string which passes from the upper right index to the lower
left index. :

3rd. Pass the thumbs over the lower near string, underneath the lower
far string, over the upper near string and underneath the upper far
string. Return the thumbs to their position.

4th. Pass the little fingers over the upper near index strings and take
up on their backs from the far side the lower near index strings.
Return the little fingers to their position.

We have now a palmar string on each hand running from the base of
each index finger to a point about one third along the far little
finger strings. This forms a triangle, on either side,- of which the
little finger on that side is the apex.

5th. Insert the index fingers into these triangles and take up on their
backs the palmar string.

6th. Release the thumbs and stretch the figure making the palms face
one another. This should be done smartly and a very fair represen-
tation of a mountain witha valley on either side will result as seen
in Fig. 13,

KuRv-ERI (A Fis).

This figure shown in Fig. 14, is described by Dr. Lutz in his article
in “ Timebri” bui he calls it “ River.” I think he is wrong in this even
though he says the Indians (Patamonas) laughed when he got an example
of a dry river or ariver in the dry season. The Makushi Indians call a
river by the generic name of “ Tima” (water). A very small creek is
called ‘ Jwertér.” Other creeks have their own proper names and are
always referred to by these names. The Makushis seem to have no words
to distinguish between a river, a creek and water.

1st. Place both hands in the string so that there is a dorsal loop on each
wrist.

2nd. Bring the far left string under the near one and pass it between the
left ring and little fingers and back round the little finger. The
strings from the right hand are now crossing near the centre.

8rd. Take up from the near side on the back of the right little finger,
the vertical palmar string. Stretch.

4th. Lift the left wrist loop on to the left index finger and the right
wrist loop on to the right index finger taking care not to twist
them while so doing.

5th. Pass each thumb over the index strings and underneath tho near
little finger string and take up this latter on the back of each
thumb. Return the thumbs to their position.

6th. Place on the top of each thumb that part of the index loop which
is between the index and the thumb.

Some Figures in String. 151

7th. Slip the lower thumb loops ver to the palmar side. There is nowa
small triangle formed near cach thumb by a string which comes from
between the little and ring fingers, round the thumb loop and then
to the opposite hand.

8th. Place the index fingers into these triangles and continue the move-
ment of the hands turniug them towards theboiy and down. At
the same time release the little finger loops. Stretch the thumbs
well out so as to form a broad pattern as seen in Fig. 14. It is very
easy to spoil the pattern by neglect of this precaution and no amount
of re-adjusting will improve a badly made one. ‘The large diamonds
on the pattern represent the scales of the fish.

PRETKU (ToaD.)

The pattern shown in Fig. 15 is quite different from the one which
Dr. Lutz obtained at Kaieteur from Patamona Indians who live just forty
miles from Pua, the village that my boy came from, The two patterns
are similar in general outline but that is the only resemblance. In this
one the head of the toad is towards the left while that of Dr. Lutz has the
head in the other direction. The figure described by Dr. Lutz is
extremely difficult to do from his description aud, indeed on the only
occasion that I succeeded in working it out, I am not at all sure that I
followed his description exactly. If he describes the manipulation
correctly, one can only say that he is very obscure ; but Freally think that
he has made some mistake. In any case the manipulation in the two
- figures is totally different. :

1st. Place the left wrist only in the loop. Pass the near striny between
the middle and index fingers and back between the index and thumb.
Simultaneously with this movement, pass the far string between
the middle and index and back between the middle and ring fingers,

2nd. Pass the far middle string between the thumb and index and back
round the thumb. At the same time, pass the near index string
between the ring and little fingers and back round the little finger.

8rd. Take up on the backs of the right index and middle tingé's the two
palmar loops just formed. Stretch.

4th, Bring the left wrist loop on to the palmar side.

5th. Transfer the right index and middle loops on to the left index and
middle fingers. Bring the lower left index and middle loops on to
the palmar side. Transfer the left index and middle loops to the
right indeX and middle fingers. Stretch.

One cannot say how many of these string figures the Indians have,
but the selection given above is only a very small portion of what we
have in this colony of ours. All the figures described were obtained from
Makushis and no attention was paid to the tricks of other tribes whether
they resembled those of the Makushis or not. Reference has been mado

152 Timehri.

several times to an article by Dr. Lutz in ‘“ Timehri” July, 1912. A num-
ber of the figures are the same as those described here but they were from
Patamona Indians and not from Makushis. If in my descriptions I seem
to have used his words, it has been done unwittingly. All the figures in ~
the present article were worked out and noted down before I came across
a copy of Dr. Lutz’ figures and it was only after working laboriously
through his descriptions that their resemblance to miue became apparent.

It may be interesting to note that it is not every Indian who knows
how to work these patterns. They all seem to have some idea but only a
few are proficient. Of the eighteen figures described, no less than eleven
were shown me by one boy, Leonard by name. Another, Bernard, gave
me three but he knew all or nearly all that Leonard did. Patricio
gave me two, and Gabriel and Marco one each.

In a way, the string figures of the Indian tribes whether of North or
South America are more interesting than are our own Cat’s Cradle as
they almost invariably require only one person while ours always de-
mands the skill of at least two.

——

Fig.d.

£4
ta
A.b
ae
Ae

Lg. 4.

PRESENTATION TO DR. FERGUSON AND
LECTURE BY (DR BEEBE:

OcTOBER 15TH 1917.

On the occasion of the lecture which was given by Dr. C. W. Beebe in
the Reading Room of the Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society,
His Excellency the Governor, Sir Wilfred Collet, K.C.M.G., presented to
Dr. J, E, A. Ferguson the medal of the Davson Research Fund for 1917.

The fund was established about three years ago by the Davson
Family as a memorial to the late Sir Henry Davson and the medal, which
isa beautiful one made of gold, is to be awarded every three years
through the local branch of the British Medical Association for the best
work on medical research in the colony. Dr. Ferguson has done a large
amount of useful workin the Peter’s Hall Medical District where he has
been stationed for several years and he has the honour of being the first
winner of the medal.

There was a large and representative gathering at the lecture and
before Dr. Beebe commenced his discourse His Excellency said that the
first thing they were going to do was to present to Dr. Ferguson the
medal which he had won, but before doing so he would call on Dr.
Conyers to say a few words about the circumstances and conditions under
which the medal was given.

In response to the call Dr. Conyers said :

1. The old established firm of Messrs. Davson & Co., desiring to mark
the centenary of the firm’s existence in the colony, by the establishment
of a-prize fund, indicated their willingness to hand over to the Govern-
ment a suin of £500, to be known as The Davson Centenary Fund, to be
administered by a Committee appointed by the Governor, in the follow-
ing manner :

(a) That a sufficient sum be set aside from the interest accruing to
pay for a gold medal, to be awarded every 3 years, to the Medical Officer
who has done most for the colony by medical research into the health
and hygiene of its inhabitants.

(b) That the balance of interest be allocated as a donation, to what-
ever organisation or fund for the improvement of health or amelioration
of disease in the colony, the Committee may decide on, as being most in
need of and deserving of support (e.g. organisations such as the Tuber-
culosis Dispensary or the Baby Saving League). In this connection
Messrs. Davson suggest that the winner of the gold medal be invited to
express his views, as to the allocation of the donation for the year in
which he has won the medal.

2. This most generous offer was accepted by the Government and a
Committee consisting of the Hon. Dr. Wise, Surgeon General, Professor

154 Timehre.

Harrison, C.M.G., Director of Science and Agriculture, and Mr. W. M.
B. Shields, attorney of Messrs. Davson, drew up regulations, which were
approved by the Governor and published on the 5th May, 1917.

3. From these it will be seen (1) that the medal will be awarded
every three years ;(2) the first award will be made in September, 1917,
and thereafter in September, 1920, and successive triennial periods: (38)
the first award will be adjudged on work presented or published during
the previous five years, whereas the subsequent awards will be adjudged
on work presented or published during the previous triennial periods ;
(4) the award is limited to Government Medical Officers or those acting
wholly or in part in the Government Service: (5) the award will be
adjudged on papers presented to the British Guiana Branch of the British
Medical Association, or on contributions to the British Guiana Medical
Annual or other medical journals, or on reports to the Surgeon General or
on a special thesis written for the purpose of the award ; (6) the award
is vested ina committee of three appointed by the Governor-in-Council,
one of whom must be the Surgeon General or acting Surgeon General.

4, In accordance with these regulations, the above-mentioned Com-
mittee have had a considerable amount of very valuable work presented
to them in the way of medical essays and reports, and after careful con-
sideration have unanimously decided that Dr. J. E. A. Ferguson’s work
on anchylostomiasis and malaria on the sugar estates in the Peter's Hall
Medical District entitle him to be the first recipient of the medal, as
the one who had done most for the colony by medical research into the
health and hygiene of its inhabitants. (Applause).

5. Taking charge of the Peter’s Hall district in 1904 Dr. Ferguson
found that the great majority of the coolies harboured the dread hook-
worm. The resulting anemia greatly impaired their efficiency as
labourers an. reduced their resistance to other diseases. In women its
effects were manifested by sterility, premature birth and often by the
death of mother and child. Thus not only was the mortality of the
estates increased but the birth-rate was diminished.

6. By years of persistent effort, by the use of large doses of thymol
and other anthelminthics which necessitated treatment in hospital, Dr.
Ferguson was able to deal with the more severe cases of the disease. At
the same time by improved sanitary measures and more particularly the
provision of sufficient latrine accommodation, re-infection through a
sewage contaminated soil, especially in the neighbourhood of the ranges,
was toa large extent prevented.

7. Gradually by these methods a noticeable improvement in the
estate’s population became apparent and the labour supply correspond-
ingly improved.

8. But although many of the severe cases were thus cured, the
majority of the coolies continued to harbour the parasites in a minor
degree not interfering to any great extent with their efficiency as

Presentation to Dr. Ferguson and Lecture by Dr. Beebe. 155

labourers, but ready under suitable conditions to produce the disease in
its more severe type, and atall times able to communicate the disease to
others.

9. How to deal with these minor infections, potentially dangerous to
their hosts and to others, was indeed a difficult problem, if the whole work
of the estates were not to be disorganised by treating large numbers in
hospital.

10. Beginning experimentally with a few volunteers in November,
1908, Dr. Ferguson found that by anightly dose of 10 grains af thymol
he was able to rid them of their parasites in a few months, without inter-
fering with their daily tasks. This was a great advance and gradually he
extended the method to the other estates of the Diamond group.

11. In 1914 he was able to announce that he had dealt with a popu-
lation of 5,781, that 3,369 had been found to harbcur the hookworm out
of 5,446 examined, and of these 2,292 or 68 per cent. had been cured—a
notable achievement.

12. Turning his attention to malaria in 1910 Dr. Ferguson began
his attack by the systematic administration of quinine, first of all to all
children under 12 and later to the adult population of the estates.
Gradually a marked improvement in the malarial rate was soon apparent,
convulsions in children ceased to be common, and enlarged spleens
diminished from a percentage of 34:7 in January, 1911, to 9:1 in January,
1914.

13. Inthe mean-time the death-rate on these estates had gradually
fallen from 24:7, the average for the 3 years preceding 1911-12, to 16°5
in 1913-1914, and the birth-rate had gradually risen in the same period
from 29-7 to 43°3 (Hear, hear.)

14, This great improvement in the vital statistics of these estates
Dr. Ferguson admits also coincides with improved climatic conditions,
which were reflected in improved statistics throughout the colony. But
he invites comparison with the statistics of the villages, in the same area
during the same periods where no such sanitary and therapeutic measures
had been adopted and conclusively shows that no such marked changes
in the birth and death-rates had occurred in the villages and therefore
claims that the measures he had instituted had been largely responsible
for the improved health conditions on the estates.

15. This valuable work has been presented to the Combined Court
at its Annual Session in 1914 and was the incentive to the Rockefeller
Commission to start work in the villages in the area, in which Dr.
Ferguson had done so much for the estates. Its success has also led other
Medical Officers to do work on the same lines on other estates, and the
sugar planters, with a keen eye to the commercial aspects of the question
have not been slow in aiding them in prosecuting the good work of hook-
worm extermination, malaria] prevention, and improved sanitation. The
results of such work have already been great and are destined in the
future to be still greater. Dr. Ferguson as the instigator must feel that

156 Timehrr.

he has done much for the health and hygiene of the colony and Messrs.
Davson & Co. must feel proud that the first Centenary Medal should be
bestowed on so worthy a recipient. (Applause).

In making the presentation His Excellency said that he had heard
of Dr. Ferguson before he came to the colony and he remembered haying
had to refer to him in a despatch from British Honduras asking whether he
thought it would be safe to give his (Dr. Ferguson's) treatment to people g
who were so fond of rum as many of the labourers in British Honduras
were atthe time. From that it would be seen that the work of Dr.
Ferguson was not unknown to him, and everything being taken into con-
sideration, he had much pleasure in presenting the doctor with the medal.

His Excellency then handed the medal to Dr. Ferguson who, in reply,
thanked His Excellency for presenting him with the medal which he
valued very much, He thanked Dr. Conyers for the kind things he had
said about him and in an especial manner he thanked the Committee who
had made the award.

In A GUIANA JUNGLE.

The lecture, which was illustrated with a number of beautiful lantern
slides, was a most instructive one, dealing more or less with the scientific
side of nature, and it was highly appreciated by the audience.

The chair was taken by His Excellency who, without making an intro-
ductory speech, called upon the lecturer to deliver his address.

In the course of his lecture which was delivered in a very racy style,
Dr. Beebe ssid that there were several reasons which made him hesitate in —~
presenting this subject to them, the first being that the results of his work
stood in startling contrast to that of Dr. Ferguson and his associates. —
The next thing he thought was whether the time was opportune for the
giving of such a lecture, a time like this when he felt that all man’s best
efforis should be given to benefiting mankind in general. His work was
of such that persons often asked what it Was worth, and of what use it was,
and he had found it very difficult to answer those two questions. At
present the work he was doing here was that of pure science, a single
search for truth among the creatures of the tropical world. He would ‘
show them pictures of creatures in their own country and attempt to tell
them facts about the fauna of the country in which they lived. After ;
travelling in many parts of the world he made up his mind to settle some- 4
where and attempt to go into the secrets of the evolution of insects and
other branches of scientific study connected therewith and so he chose
British Guiana. .

Proceeding, Professor Beebe said that the slides which he had brought
with him were the result of his activities in the interior and of his assis- 4
tants and they would publish a book of about five hundred pages; the —__
productions were taken from the back of Kalacoon at which place, acor-
ner of the laboratory was seen. ‘The Professor then took his audience to :
a jungle, which he said was unapproached by man since the time of the

Presentation to Dr. Ferguson and Lectwre by Dr. Beebe. 157

Dutch. Leaving there, he showed a number of various Indian tribes,
including the Ackawois who, as he pointed out on the screen, were
remarkably well developed. Then they passed over Kalacoon to where the
gold miners were, on to the diamond fields. They encountered a little
Ackawoi hunter who shot a lot of game for them for the greater part of
the time. Passing on, the waters of the Mazaruniriver were brought to
view and here the lecturer explained that those waters contained a kind of
fish known as “pirai” which were very dangerous and were greatly
feared by all who travelled in the river. It was very difficult, he said, to
catch these fish on account of their voraciousness. With their formidable
teeth, which were shown, they would almost bite through any wire.

Mr. Howes, their entomologist, took many handsome photographs,
and it was only by those photographs that they hoped to gather anything.
Referring to the seasons in that part of the interior, the lecturer said
they were very remarkable and they corresponded to those in the north,
As a matter of fact they were intensely interesting.

They also took some photographs of living creatures which they never
had before. From the specimens they had in their northern museum,
continued the lecturer, they would never have known anything atout
what they had seen. The giant marine toad, a photograph of which was
shown, was also very interesting. A picture of the Virginia opossum,
known as the yawarrie, was described by the Professor. He showed
how the mother with her young would go out in the evening time, look-
ing for food for them and how they clung to her tenaciously. The
jungle scenes were also very interesting and edifying to him, said the
Professor, and he said at this stage that he would invite the American
Botanical Gardens to send down some of their men in these parts to
make a study of these interesting things and above all the headquarters,
he would suggest should be in British Guiana. (Applause.) It was so
much better, he continued, to obtain real live photographs than to have
the dry skeletons which gave them no information whatever.

Professor Beebe then gave an exhibition of the maam which he said
was similar to the partridge, the only difference between them being the
leg. One had a smooth pair of legs whilst the other's legs were: rough.
There was something very strange about the maam and that was that the
male bird did all the incubating whilst the lady maam went to—‘ the Lor’
knows where.’ (Laughter). The lecturer also dealt with what is known
as “warracabras” or trumpeters. Various other species of the beasts
and birds of our interior were dealt with, including the sloth, the Canje
pheasants, and the ‘‘curious judicial-looking monkey,’—to use the lec-
turer’s own phrase. In this colony, concluded Professor Beebe, more
things could be seen and better too, than in any other place. And better
ideas could be got here in a short time, than in a museum for a lifetime.

The lecture concluded, His Excellency said that he had listened to
something very interesting in Professor Beebe’s lecture. Professor Beebe
would be surprised that he (the sp2aker) did not take the interest as he

158 tn) Timehri.

(the lecturer) did, and the reason why was because he lives here (laugh-
ter) and those of us who lived here had so much to do (renewed laughter)
that we would never do it as long as Professor Beebe could do it for us.
Continuing, His Excellency paid a high tribute to Dr. Beebe’s work of
research, after which a hearty vote of thanks was accorded the lecturer

on the suggestion of the Hon. Dr. Nunan. '

OCCASIONAL NOTES.

A TRIBUTE TO THIS JOURNAL.

THE WORLD’S COLUMBIAN COMMISSION, 1893.
The Finding of @ Board of International Judges.
DipLoMA AND MEDAL AWARDED.

Exhibit: ‘‘Timehri,” the Scientific Journal of Guiana, several
Volumes.

Award.
The ‘‘ Timehri ” a semi-yearly journal published by the Royal
Agricultural and Commercial Society of British Guiana, took its name
from the natives’ appellation of the pictured rocks on the large rivers,
the work of some ancient and forgotten tribe. The volumes exhibited
contain many papers based upon original researches in geology and the
fauna, flora and native races of British Guiana. This able journal also
records much of the history of the Colony and the enterprise of its citi-
zens and displays the intelligent zeal and public spirit manifested by the
Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society in the establishment and
maintenance of its museum, library, reading room and scientific course
of lectures. This institution, therefore, not only is to be commended for
this exhibit of its work, but commands the sympathy and support of all
persons interested in the development of the Sciences in South America,

AuicE M. FLercuer, Individual Judge.
Joun Boyp THacHerR, Chairman, Executive

Committee of Awards.
(Copied from a Diploma in our Museum.)

Nelson’s Conduct in Barbados, 1786.—The Records of Barbados
are full of interest although (unfortunately enough) they are consulted
by but few Barbadians. Nor is this interest merely parochial ; sometimes
one touches a figure of world fame. Here is an extract from the
minutes of a meeting of Council held under the presidency of Governor
D. Parry on July 4, 1786 :—

* The Governor said he wished to make mention of a remarkable
matter which had lately happened. That what he alluded to was the
conduct of Captain Nelson, the Commander of His Majesty’s Ship of
War, Boreas, who had undertaken without authority, and in an
arbitrary manner, to take away with him from Carlisle Bay two
vessels which were depending as seizures before the Court of Vice-
Admiralty in this Island ; a conduct which demanded Reprehension,
and could not be submitted to without opposition in a Civil Govern-
ment. His Excellency added that in turning over some old mioutes
of this Board he had found that during the administration of
Governor Byng something had happened which required an inves-

160 Timehri.

tigation of the Powers of Commanders of Vessels of War within the
Ports of these Islands, and that a letter stood on record from the
Right Honourable The Lords Commissioners for Trade and Planta-
tions to Mr. Byng dated Whitehall, August 8th, 1740, inclosing the
opinion of Mr. Fane, their Council-at-Law, ‘That no ships or vessels
offending against the several Acts of Trade can be seized by His
Majesty’s ships of War within the limits of any Port within the
territories of the respective Governors of His Majesty’s Plantations.’
The present affair (His Excellency said) was of such notoriety that
he could not but suppose the gentlemen now sitting with him were all
possessed therewith and knew as well of the seizures which the
said Captain Nelson had made while lying at anchor in Carlisle
Bay as of the subsequent Flagrant impropriety above mentioned ;
but that he thought it right to introduce it now before this Board,
to anticipate what might ensue from the steps he had taken to
counteract preceedings against the vessels in the other Islands, and
to acquaint the Board that he intended at a future season
to bring the matter more fully on for their advice and
opinion, whenever His Excellency shall arrive at the knowledge
of the full extent of Captain Nelson’s Deportment.”

At a meeting on August 29 : —

“ His Excellency adverted to what stood in the minntes of last
meeting relative to Captain Nelson of His Majesty's Ship Boreas,
and informed the Board that he had since received the proceedings
of the Court of Admiralty of Nevis against the Vessels seized here ~
by Captain Nelson, which, as before related, he had taken from
hence without authority. That the Judge at Nevis had thought
himself competent to try the Vessels in his Court and that His
Excellency’s claim to a share of them, upon condemnation, had there-
fore by his direction been put in in cue time; but the said Judge
had also thought proper to disallow and dismiss such claim of the
Governor of Barbados. His Excellency declared that from the
motive of supporting and defending the Rights of a Governor, and
being tenacious of his own privileges for the sake of his successors, he
had appealed from the sentence given in the Admiralty Court of Nevis
and had got the Appeal Papers which he took this opportunity
of showing to this Board previous to his sending them to England.
These papers being voluminous their Honours referred to some of
the most particular parts only as pointed out by His Excellency
the most remarkable in Captain Nelson’s Conduct; but recom-
mended it to him by all means to prosecute such Appeal, thanking
His Excellency for.the communication.”

In the duplicate volume of the Council Minutes, copied with his
own hand by Mr. Nathan Lucas—Judge Lucas of Farley Hill,—the
Antiquary of Old Barbados adds the following interesting foot-note :—

‘‘When CaptainjNelson seized these vessels in Carlisle Bay,
he desired the proper Officers to libel them directly as trading =

Occasional Notes. 161

against the Navigation Laws. They, not thinking themselves bound
by his order, demurred as to the legal mode, ete., ete. Mr. Charles
Brandford, the Attorney General of that day and also Advocate
General (as was customary at that period), a great humourist and
of a very impatient and impracticable temper, was very restive with
Captain Nelson and said he would take his own time and proceed as
he thought best and proper in the ease. Nelson could not brook the
indecision and delay and the nice distinction of Seizures in Port by
the Navy or Custom House. They were trading contrary to the
Navigation Laws, and were enemies to England, of course; and he
set off with the vessels for Nevis, where they were instantly libelled
and condemned. Governor Parry sent the late Alexander Malet, Esq.,
of the Custom House, and a man of address and business, after him.
He put in the Governor’s Claim for his part of the seizure, etc., etc.,
but it was not substantiated and Governor Parry appealed but I
believe never got anything, at least to my knowledge. I very well
remember the whole transaction and my connection with Mr.
Malet afforded me good opportunity of knowing the whole.
It is rather surprising this affair has never been noticed in the Life
of Nelson, for surely his decision of character, manly spirit, and
hatred of Old England’s Enemies are as strongly marked in this
instance as in any other brought forward at Nevis against the
Americans for breach of the Navigation Laws.”—J.G.C,

The First Local Exhibition.—It may be interesting to note that
this was held at the Queen’s College Grammar School, January 2nd, 1855.
It appears that para grass, now so common everywhere, was then rare.
The “ Royal Gazette ” said a specimen was shown and it was anticipated
that its cultivation would be very important. There was also a sewing
machine, probably the first seen in the colony. The paper said: “ Mr.
Dayis was there with his machine for ruining the trade of journeyman
tailors ; surrounded by a crowd of ladies, who looked with wonder on a
single little instrument, which can sew canvas as well as stitch muslin
handkerchiefs in a period of time scarcely to allow a needle to be threaded.”
The writer did not anticipate that the machine would become the salva-
tion instead of ruin of tailors and dressmakers. The “Gazette” said: ‘ As
a first attempt it was most perfectly successful.” The exhibits were
mostly sent to Paris for the French Exhibition of the same year ; like all
the early shows it was the work of our Society.

Tn view of the fact that the Queen’s College building has lately been
vacated, it may be as well to mention that it was built in 1853. The
school was, however, started in 1844 and was carried on in the Old
Colony House at first and then in a house in Main Street. The school
building cost £5,000 which was raised by donations, a Government grant
of unclaimed slave compensation money and grants from English societies.

JR.

Origin of the Use of Tobacco—From much evidence I have tenta-
tively come to the conclusion that Tobacco was originally adopted to

162 Timehri.

stave off hunger. I have lately been informed that Macushis carry a few
leaves in their wallets when on journeys or when out hunting, chewing
a piece when hungry if a meal is not forthcoming. Every smoker
knows that a pipe or a cigarette will have the same effect without the
possible nausea of chewing the leaves. The line of development of the use
of tobacco was probably through chewing green leaves, then using tobacco
water as at puberty, and Peaiman ordeals, to the final stages of smoking
as cigars, orin pipes. We may safely state that all habits and instincts
that have lasted a long time were once useful, but at the same time such
habits may become effete under changed conditions. Other intoxicants
probably rose to allay hunger or the consequent faintness.—J.R.

No Inferior Animals or Men—No Real Pests.—A great deal
has been said of man as a superior animal and of some men as inferior to
others, but it seems plain that everyone succeeds because it excels in some
way. It may be out of place and therefore fail, but under natural condi-
tions it could not succeed unless it possessed some quality necessary to
success. It is obvious thatno real failure could exist for any length of
time; it follows therefore that every living thing survives because it is
fitted to do so. A species is made up of individuals, some of whichare more
advanced than others—the whole is a success when part may fail, but the
failures drop out. It follows therefore that nothing is an unmitigated
pest in its right place, but may become sounder other circumstances. A
race of mankind may appear lower than another from a few standpoints,
but we can always find something in which it excels. Every species and
even every individual that exists to-day remains because of its excellence
—it is the head of a line and must be better in some way than its ances-
tors. Nothing is stagnant, for antecedents and consequents (really one)
accumulate to produce a progressive continuity of every line. By careful
study we can find where a species or individual excels and plainly
see that nothing is really evil or bad. In studying pests we
should try to get right views. Possibly one of the best examples
is the wood-ant or termite, a most valuable economic agent in the
forests to prepare the dead trees into suitable food for the living. Its
work is admirable and yet most people look upon it as an unmitigated
pest. It is simply out of place in our houses and like dirt, which has ~
been defined as matter in the wrong place, it has to be excluded. To
balance the good against supposed evil is the ideal, but we must always
keep in view the fact that nothing really bad ever could be retained
because of the natural checks. Man has already made several unfortu-
nate attempts to bring animals and plants out from their natural condi-
tions until they become pests, and some of our sanitary officers advocate
measures, not always best, which remove nature’s agents before some-
thing better has been obtained. Suppose we have rotting organic matter
and carrion about our houses some of the so-called pests will remove it.
Some time ago a careful investigation of the means of destroying rats
and mice was made and the conclusion was that so long as food was
provided for them in the rubbish bins, so long we shall have them. The

Occasional Notes. 163

same applies to vultures which pollute our gutters, they will come so long
as carrion can be found. Dirt, carrion and damaged food bring most of
our pests.—J.R.

Guiana Furs.—It has been suggested that some of the wild
animals of this colony such as opossums have furs suitable for muffs,
etc. It would be well to protest at every stage against wanton destruc-
tion of wild animals where they are harmless, and it may be suggested
that rabbits can supply all the furs really necessary without going into
the tropics and disturbing the balance of life. What we want is a rational
public opinion that will be against destroying rare beasts and birds when
_ there are skins and feathers procurable from food animals everywhere,
Personally, and as a naturalist, I should not however be favourable to
legal prohibitions for we have too much law already for an wndeveloped
country.—J.R.

3
The Balance of Life.—This is so beautifully kept here under natural
conditions that it would be a pity to spoil it. We hear of such an animal
being a pest yet when we look carefully into the matter we find it to be
really essential to the welfare of the whole. Everybody has a horror of
snakes, especially in the cane-fields, yet they keep down real pests such as
rats and mice as well as acouris, labbas and other rodents which might
some day be real dangers. Bats again are shunned and often killed when
many of them are insect eaters as are also frogs and toads. Even scorpions
and centipedes feed on cockroaches which our housewives dislike and
ants in our beds destroy bugs.—J.R.

Old Glen, the Hermit of Mibiri Creck.—As this eccentric character
was closely connected with Waterton and his friend Edmonstone, it is
desirable to note that he was very prominent in connection with the
founding of the New Jerusalem Church in America. A Convention was
held in Philadelphia in June, 1917, in connection with which a bronze
memorial tablet, wlth the following inscription was unveiled :—

BELL’s Boox SToreE.
HERE IN
1784

WAS DELIVERED BY
JAMES GLEN

or Demerara, B.G.,

THE First Pusiic Lecrure ms

EVER GIVEN ON THE

CHRISTIAN DocTRINES
SET FORTH BY
SWEDENBORG.

At the Convention Mr. Hay gave an account of the early workers
including Glen ; it is reported in the New-Church Messenger, June 20th
as follows ;—

164. Tinmehri.

After speaking of an advertisement inviting Swedenborg readers to
unite, he said—

“This brought James Glen, a Scotchman, who was on his way to settle
at Demerara, South America. He related how the Captain of a ship in
which he had sailed back from a previous voyage to South America, had .
presented a copy of ‘ Heaven and Hell’ to him, which had filled him with
astonishment first at the nature of the information given, and second at
the goodness of the Divine Providence in opening his mind tosuch a
flood of spiritual truth.

“So Mr. Glen sailed for America, full of gratitude and happiness, to
become the pioneer missionary of the Lord in His Second Coming to the
new world of freedom—of democracy—and in this peculiar sense perhaps
the new earth prepared to receive the New Jerusalem now descending
from God out of heaven. On June 5, 1784 at Bell’s auction room and
book store he gave the first public proclamation of the New Church in
America, if not in the world, and succeeded in so interesting Francis
Bailey, a printer . . . and one or two others, that they soon became the
nucleus of the New Church in Pennsylvania. He delivered two more lec-
tures in the same place, and then went to Boston and lectured with similar
results. Discouraged that so few sympathized with him in this great gift
of heavenly light, he sailed for his new home in Demerara, where he
established the first society of the New Jerusalem in the western hemis-
phere. After his departure a box of books from Mr. Hindmarsh arrived
for him at Philadelphia, which being unclaimed were sold at public auction.
They fell into the hands of Hetty Barclay and others, and directly and
indirectly made many more converts than had the voice of the missionary
himself. —J.R.”

Tercentenary of Ralegh’s Execution.—The year 1618 saw the end
of Sir Walter Ralegh’s career and we need no excuse for mentioning it
eve» though we are not likely to have any commemoration. The Stuart
Kings made many mistakes, but probably none so disgraceful as the
execution of one of the greatest men of the Elizabethan period. Our
debt to him as the revealer of Guiana to the world is very great for even
the Dutch used the results of his own explorations and those of his cap-
tains in their early voyages. Thestury of his failure to get gold from |
Guiana, which appears to have been the real cause of his execution, is
painful even now, and is so well known that it needs no repetition. Ralegh
had grand ideas, and might have developed Guiana as a British province
had he been supported by the Government of his time. Queen Elizabeth
favoured his ideas but James I. spoiled much and damped the ardour of
British pioneers in Guiana as well as in Virginia. Our part ef the conti-
nent was neglected but what is now the United States is largely due to
the initiative of Ralegh. Commemorations have become almost too
common of late years, but there is still room here for a river or street
name to keep us in mind of the greatest pioneer of our country. It may
be noted that the Orinoco was renamed Raleana and the Essequebo
Devoritia (after the Earl of Essex, Devereaux) by some of the followers of
the grand Knight, but these names are not retained.—J.R.

Occasional Notes. 165

Colonial Development.—This has been urged over and over agaiu
, for the last century, with little result. We must not however forget that
slow progress has been made, for even during the last fifty years steamers
have been run on the riyers and the exploitation of balata, gold and
diamonds carried on. Much more might have been done, but we have not
been quite at a stand-still. Last time I went up the Demerara River
I noticed much improvement along the banks ; framed houses had largely
taken the place of troolie huts and there were many indications that the
jungle was being cleared and cultivated. When I first visited the same
district the conditions under which the bovianders lived were sordid in the
extreme and yet they seemed happy. Their lives were free from real eare,
for so little was required to keep them going from day today. At that
time I found primitive Indian settlements up the creeks where now a
different type is to be seen. There is no doubt that a slow transition is
now going on and the process is not perhaps very conspicuous or interest-
ing. But something may result in time that will be beneficial to the
whole colony —J.R.

Mr. Beebe’s New Book.—“ Tropical Wild Lite” is a grand step in the
right direction. Never before have we had an ornithological book so
generally readable and yet so scientific. Even what the average reider
will call the dry parts are enlivened by tit-bits of information about the
manners and customs of birds that make them interesting to anyone.
Mr. Beebe will no doubt deplore those necessary duties which prevent for
the present his continuing the work at Kalacoon. Everything now is left
over till after the war, when possibly Mr. Beebe, who is or was ina
Flying Corps, may perhaps find some way of hovering above the forest
canopy to study the wild life which is now so imperfectly known. The
Research Station has been a success as far as it went, and we may hope
for greater knowledge when it is continued. It would indeed be a
disaster were anything to happen that might prevent further investigation
on the lines Jaid down. More and more every year is it found necessary
to study nature in the wilds instead of the museum or office. Natural
history can hardly be learnt without real study of living animals; the
nature of the organism is learnt from seeing what it does. It is of course
necessary to know what it is but even this can hardly be gathered by
dissecting or studyiug outside characters.

The book is full of illustrations some of which are excellent and all
good. Messrs. Hartley and Howes collaborate and there are two appen-
dices by Rev. Walter White and another. —J.R.

Surinam Folk Tales.—There is an interesting paper in the J ournal of
American Folk-lore by A. P. and T. E. Penard, giving a short account of
the Anansi stories of Surinam, with four examples. The following from
the foot notes are worth reprinting :—

“The bakroe is commonly conceived as a dwarf, one side of whose
body is wood and the other flesh. When anyone approaches him the ~
bakroe presents his side of wood to receive the blows which he expects ;

166 Timehri.

but he may also take the form of an old woman, an animal, a headless
cock, or an inanimate object. He haunts bridges, ditches and wells.
Bakroes are not very malicious unless molested, but they allow themselves
to be used by the obiaman in his evil practices.”

“The Leba is the spirit of Misery. She is described as having the
appearance of an old woman whose body is completely covered with rags.
She is bowed down with a heavy burden of debts and sins, a portion of
which she is constantly attempting to pass to the unwary wanderer who
approaches her. Especially children fall an easy prey to her cunning.
The presence of Jeba in a person manifests itself by loss of appetite, list-
lessness—a feeling as if the body were carrying an unnatural weight. At
first, amulets are applied and all kinds of light objects such as dry leaves
or pieces of cork are worn by the sufferer with the idea of reducing the
heavy weight. But if these means fail the patient might submit to the
wiweri-watra (herb-water) treatment, which is administered by the
obiaman.”

Thunderbolts.—In the same Journal Messrs. A. P. and T. E. Penard
give an interesting account of the notions of the Surinam negroes in
regard to stone artifacts. The idea that they come down with heavy
rains is common in Kurope and possibly it has not originated here. I
have known people in Demerara to hold them in veneration but in
Surinam they are used as charms and medicines.

“A woman told us that she had completely cured herself of rheuma-
tism by bathing every morning at five o’clock in a tub of thunder-stone
water. Another woman said that she had cured three of her children of
convulsions by means of powder made froma thunder-stone. A man
said that he had cured himself of a severe lameness in the back and con-
gestion of the lungs, by the use of thunder-stone water mixed with some
water in which an ass had snorted, and a little sand taken from the spot
on which an ass had rolled, and that his back had not only gained its
original strength, but had become as strong as that of the ass.”

“They are potent factors in driving away evil spirits.”

“‘ Not only do thunder-stones drive away the bad things, but they
attract the good. Anacquaintance once saw a man fishing, who used
instead of the usuallead weight or common stone, a thunder-stone, which
he believed attracted the fish to his line. He would not sell the stone
although he was offered a good price for it.”

Even the Indians have generally forgotten that they once used them
as tools and weapons, but the Piaimen have esoteric knowledge of many
things not known outside. The Messrs. Penard have got some peeps into
this arcana and promise to publish the results, which we hope they may
do within a year or two. Asa specimen they give the Aula or word of
the Thunder with the following translation :—

“ Tam the Thunder; the terror of the earth reflects my one-ness,

Occasional Notes. 167

The earth I do vibrate, I the Thunder.

All flesh fears that reflects the one-ness of the Thunder.
I pass along my field ;

With swiftness all must move out of the way.

The lightning precedes me.

The thunder-axe I have made, I the Thunder.”

From another Aula they give the following —

“Tam the force of the spirit of the Puluke, (electric eel), the
thunder-axe, the stone

Iam the force of the firefly,
thunder and lightning I have created.”

Ina legend of the Thunder the rain-spirit is full of wrath at the
would-be ravisher of his daughters, the Rain-maidens, and shouts to
lightning to hurl the axe. The fugitive Indian shelters himself against
the storm under a big tree but the lightning splits the tree and drives him
out to be pelted by the Rain-maidens. He runs but is followed every-
where until his friends hide him under a pot.—J.R.

Macaulay's New Zealander —The following from Notes and Queries,
Dee. 6th, 1902, suggests that the ‘“ New Zealander” may be a British
South American.

Older writers may have suggested to Macaulay his New Zealander.
Perhaps the following passage, parallel to it, has not been noticed. It is
from Sismondi’s ‘ Literature of the South of Europe,’ published originally
in 1813, Roscoe’s translation, chap. ii. :—

* Who may say that Europe itself, whither the empire of letters and of
science has been transported, which sheds so brilliant a light, which forms
so correct a judgment of the past, and which compares so well the succes-
sive reigns of the literature and manners of antiquity, shall not in a few
ages become as wild and deserted as the hills of Mauritania, the sands of
Egypt, and the valleys of Anatolia ? Who may say that in some new land,
perhaps in those lofty regions, whence the Oronoco and the river of the
Amazons have their source, or perhaps in the impregnable mountain-fast-
nesses of New Holland, nations with other manners, other languages,
other thoughts, and other religions, shall not arise once more to renew
the human race, and to study the past as we have studied it ; nations who,
hearing with astonishment of our existence that our knowledge was as
extensive as their own, and, that we, like themselves, placed our trust in
the stability of fame, shall pity our impotent efforts ?”—J.R.

Losses of prominent Members. —We have to deplore the loss by
death of several prominent members of the Society during the last year.
Mr. Godfrey F. Franks was an exceedingly valuable member who had
been President, Chairman of several Committees and a Director. He was
peculiarly valuable to the Museum and helped much in arranging the

168 Timehra.

Geological section. He was Literary editor of this Journal for some
time, and though not a writer was very helpful in many ways. Mr. Frank
Fowler was a useful member for many years and served on Committees.
Mr. C. W. Anderson was one who could not be well spared, because he
was working to identify the botanical sources of our timber trees. Mr.
John Williams will be much missed at our Lantern Lectures for he was
always ready to oblige the Society. Wehave had tothank him on many
occasions for his good photographic work some of which has been used ©
in this journal. Mr. R. G. Duncan retired from the colony and died in
England ; he had been very promicent as a sugar planter and was Presi-
dent of the Society as well asa member of Committees. While President
he read a paper on the ‘‘ Cost of Sugar Production ” (Timehri, 1894 p. 114)
which was considered of much value.

An addition to our Bird Fauna—Through the kindness of Mr. W.
Mearns of “ Hope” the museum has received a head of a male Sarcidiornis
carunculata, a rather curious duck, which seems to be somewhat rare though
it has been recorded from the mouths of the Amazon down to the Argen-
tine. The male has a wattle or comb on its bill, which is most con-
spicuous at the breeding season; this character is peculiar to the genus,
but is absent from the female, which is smaller. As far as Ican find it has
not been recorded from Surinam or British Guiana but there is mention of
it in Cayenne,

EMPIRE DAY.

MEETING OF THE ROYAL COLONIAL INSTITUTE AND THE
R, A. & C. SOCIETY,

May 247TH, 1918.

Empire Day, the anniversary of the birth of our late Queen Victoria,
of happy memory, was celebrated in a very fitting manner by the B.G.
Branch of the Royal Colonial Institute and the Royal Agricultural and
Commercial Society, when a joint meeting under the auspices of both
organisations was held in the R. A. & C. Society's Rooms. Among those
present were His Excellency the Governor, Sir Wilfred Collett, K.C.M.G.,
patron of the B.G. Branch of the Royal Colonial Institute, and also vice-
patron of the R. A. and C. Society. In response to an invitation Capt.
Dimitrijevich, of the Serbian Army, attended for the purpose of deliver-
ing a lecture on “‘ Serbia and the War.”

After being introduced by Dr. Nunan the lecturer opened with a
description of the Bulgarians. These people who could better be
described as “ Bulgars ” were not of the true Slavonic race as was gener-
ally thought. They originated from a barbarous race that invaded the
Balkans in the olden days, and having captured land by force of arms,
they settled and in order to pretend to civilization, they adopted the
Slavonic language and some customs. They extended their rule by terror
and murder. They were well known in the history of the Balkans for
their barbarism, and even to-day they were no better than the Germans,
and could well be described as the Huns of the Balkans. Their rulers
were always famous for their savagery. One, in order to reign in peace
killed his father, mother, brother and all his family.

Describing Bulgarian justice, he saidin the case of a man accused of
a crime if he did not confess to the judge, he was struck on the head with
aclub. Even if he was innocent he had to say he was guilty as the
judge would continually club him until he owned up that he had com-
mitted the offence. The other punishments included cutting off of ears,
noses, hands, toes, ete. The Serbian justice stood out in vivid contrast
with this barbarism. In Serbiaa man was tried by a jury both in civil
and criminal proceedings and in the case of a foreigner half of the jury
were not only composed of foreigners but members of the accused man’s
race. Thus Serbia’s justice was on the principle of the English justice.
Dealing with the liberation of Bulgaria from the Turkish yoke he said
Serbia was the only nation in the Balkans that freed itself by its own
arms from the tyranny of the Turk. Bulgaria was liberated by Russia,
and this at the request of England. Thus it was said that Bulgaria had
to thank Gladstone’s pen as much as it had to thank Russia for her libera-
tion. The perfidy of the Bulgars was demonstrated by their assistance to
the enemy against their former liberators and against Serbia who had
also assisted in some measure in her liberation.

170 Timehri.

The lecturer then said that to amuse them he would tell them some-
’ thiug about the social life of the Bulgarians. They married only for
interest and on many occasions the man did not see his future wife until
after he was married to her. These marriages were arranged not that
the women should give the men anything but that the parents of the
girls should be paid by the parents of the boy before they were given
over. He compared that with the selling of a cow, because in nearly
every instance the price paid, which was about $20, was not more than
could buy acow. The men were married very young, but the women
very old and sometimes a boy of thirteen or fourteen married a woman of
forty. Sometimes persons on visiting their houses who were not well-
acquainted with them would ask the boy, is that your mother? only to
get the answer that she was his wife. He would not lose the opportu-
nity of saying how the war came about and when he began his lecture he
did not intend to speak of the barbarites of the Germans, but he felt that
if he did not do so he could not sleep well, so he spoke not only to give
satisfaction to them but to himself.

He then spoke of the murder on the 5th February, 1911, of the
servant of the German Legation at Chili by the Secretary of the Lega-
tion which he said was done in order to bring about war to seize a Chilian
island and referred to it as the ingenuity of the Germans to make crime
for grasping territory.

Concluding he said that he felt it a great honour to be invited to
lecture to them that evening and thanked His Excellency who was so
noble as to give his patronage at his first lecture and to be again present
that evening. When he went back to his native land and met his
brothers he would tell them of the honour he had met with around the
world and in British Guiana. He would advise the men of his race to
fight until the last of them was left, because their fight gave them reputa-
tion among all civilised nations aud if they did their part their reputation
would remain. He further thanked the audience for their kind
attention.

In moving a vote of thanks, to the lecturer, His Grace the Arch-
bishop said that for ouce in their lives they had seen a representative of
that small but gallant nation which had stood out prominently and had
been. making history in their own times and for that they were exceed-
ingly grateful. He proposed to convey the thanks of the audieuce to
Capt. Dimitrijevich for the lecture and to say that they were exceedingly
glad that they had had thepleasure to listen to him. (Cheers).

The vote was seconded by Sir Charles Cox.

His Excellency said that it seemed almost superfluous to put the
motion to the vote because they had voted twice already. Although he
had been in the Near East he had never met any Serbian before, neither
had he seen any Bulgarians. Serbia had always had the reputation of
being a brave fighting nation. That nation had not always fought against

+
a Eat ey taale

Empire Day. 171

the Turks ; it had sometimes fought with them but whichever side it
fought it had always had a good cause and it had fought well. It was
perfectly true that Bulgaria did not fight for her liberation from the
Turks, but during the war the Serbians came in and they did a good deal
in obtaining that liberty for Serbians, the return for which they all knew.
He was very sorry that the Bulgarians were of the same origin as his
friends the Turks but, of! course, the Serbians were of a very different
stock. It was a very good thing for them to see something of the mind
of an inhabitant of the Balkans and to understand how the people of one
race there differed from the people of another. As a matter of form he
now asked them to signify their thanks to the lecturer.

The audience applauded loudly, Captain Dimitrijevich responding with
a bow.

The following resolutions were then moved by Professor Harrison :—

Resolved—That this meeting of the Royal Agricultural & Com-
mercial Society of British Guiana and of the Royal Colonial Institute
(British Guiana branch) regards with pride the victorious strategic defen-
sive of Sir Douglas Haig’s and the other Allied Armies in Belgium,
France and Italy since March 21st and looks with confidence (when the
hour for the strategic offensive arrives at its appointed time) for final
victory under the supreme command of General Foch, the hero of Nancy,
of the Marne, of Ypres and of Champagne.

2. That inasmuch as any peace without the destruction of the
military power and ambitions of Prussia would be only a respite which
would enable her despotic ,rulers and unbalanced people to prepare fora
still more destructive and unscrupulous war in the hope of enslaving the
world, we pledge ourselves to support any measures which the Imperial
Government may decide to be necessary or advisable for the increase and
consolidation of the military and economic resources of the British Empire
with a view to the utmost prosecution of this righteous war, for human
liberty and British honour,

8. That we adhere to our resolution of Empire Day 1917 as to the
necessity of taking early and practical measures to prepare the Empire
and its tropical colonies for the economic conditions which will inevitably
arise at the close of the war, and we consider that any other policy may
find us as unprepared for peace as we admittedly were for war.

4. That we regard the restitution of the liberty of Serbia and
Montenegro as an essential part of the Allied aims and we have a pro-
found sympathy with the desire of the Serbian race of all religions for re-
union with their brothers of the Kingdom. We realise the debt of the
Allies to the heroic nation which won the first victories of the war on the
18th August, 1914, at Shabats and on the Jadar and which is still fight-
ing on its own soil against the common foe,

5. That copies of these resolutions be sent to the Secretary of State
or the Colonies.

“172 Timehri.

The above resolutions were prepared by the officers of the Royal
Agricultural and Commercial Society and the Royal Colonial Institute
(B.G. branch).

Sir Charles Cox, in seconding the resolution, said that if it was pos-
ble to increase their determination—that determination being now at its
highest—to carry on the war to a just and glorious end he thought that
the lecture they had heard might add warmth to that determination. ~

His Excellency : Of course, this is really non-contentious (laughter),
but before putting it I would ask if anyone wishes to Oppose it or propose
any amendment or addition to it or to take it in section, or to take it in
onelump as read by our president. (Laughter.) As nothing is said I
must put it in the way moved and seconded, one vote for the whole of the
motion. Is the motion agreed to ?

The motion was carried by a round of applause.

Professor Harrison having thanked His Excellency for attending, the
proceedings terminated.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY.

Meeting, July 9th, 1917.—His Excellency the Governor took the
chair and introduced Mr. J. Rodway who gave “A Chat about the
Society’s Past.” (See page 26).

On the motion of Mr. W. S. Cameron, seconded by the Bishop of
Guiana, a vote of thanks was accorded. (In connection with the ‘“ Chat ”
a number of exhibits bearing upon the subject were displayed. These
included portraits, views, plans, diplomas, manuscripts and printed mat-
ter.)

Meeting, December 28th, 1917.-—Notice of motion to amend two By-
Laws was given.

The President (Hon. Dr. Nunan) spoke of the work of the Society
during the year and gave an outline of its position.

The Office-Bearers for 1918 were then elected, the retiring President
nominating his successor, Prof. J. B. Harrison, C.M.G., ete., and speak-
ing of the desirability of full co-operation of the Society with the Depart-
ment of Agriculture.

Meeting held Feb. 4th, 1918.—The following amendments of the
By-Laws were passed :—

By-Law 1, Chap. III. after Treasurer, ten or more Ordinary
Directors.

By-Law 5, Chap. IV. to be replaced by—
5. The Office-bearers shall be ex-officio members of all Committees

The financial statement for 1917 was laid on the table and a short
review by the Treasurer of the position of the Society read. There was
an adverse balance of $631.90 and a further extra expense of $120 in-
curred in the present year.

The President gave the first part of an Inaugural Address (see p. vii.)
A cordial vote of thanks was unanimously voted. Several members spoke
warmly in favour of the address and the President thanked them for their
_ appreciation,

Meeting, April 17th, 1918.—The financial statement having been
audited, was adopted.

Thanks were accorded for the following donations—From Dr. A. J.

Craigen, 35 New Guinea Ethnological Curios; from Mr. C. K. Bancroft, a
block of inferior Venezuelan Balata.

A letter from the Government in reference to the proposed Agricul-
tural Conference was read. The Hon. Dr.Nunan proposed in connection
therewith the following resolution which was unanimously carried :—

“The Society regrets that it has been found that arrangements can-
not be conveniently made for the holding of a West Indian Agricultural

174 Timehri.

Conference until the conclusion of the war, and is of opinion that the
preparation of British Guiana and the West Indies by inter-colonial dis-
cussion to meet the agricultural conditions which will inevitably or pro-
bably follow the war, should not be postponed until after the war.

“The Society is of opinion that the discussicn of the pregramme of a
West Indian Agricultural Conference with the West Indian Governments
to be held immediately after the war, unless altered circumstances shall
allow it to be held earlier, should be at once instituted by the Govern-
ment of the Colony in accordance with the suggestion of the Secretary of
State conveyed to the Society in His Excellency’s letter of 12th, February,
and that arrangements should be made for the holding of the said Con-
ference in British Guiana as proposed but postponed in 1910 and that the
Secretary of State be asked to communicate with the Imperial Commis-
sioner of Agriculture to this effect.”

The President gave the continuation of his Inaugural Address, in
the course of which he showed specimens of rocks, going to prove that
some of the lands of the interior would be barren if cleared.

On the motion of Hon. R. E. Brassington, a hearty yote of thanks
was accorded; Mr. N. Bascom seconding and speaking of the value of
the address.

APPENDIX.
Ts

THE GEORGETOWN—MANAOS RAILWAY.

Sir WALTER EGERTON’S VIEWS.
Socrety oF Arts, Lonpon, APRIL 30TH, 1918.

TAPPING THE AMAZON VALLEY.

The presence of arapaima in the Rupununi and of a very vicious little
biting fly, one of the pests of the Amazon, are held to be proofs that once
the waters of the Rupununi valley drained into that river. Even now the
height of the divide between the sea and the Amazon valley is only some
250 ft., and in the wet season the waters of the two river systems
approach within half a mile of each other, and Indians drag their canoes
across the watershed. If ever the middle Amazon is to be given a route
from Manaos, more than a thousand miles shorter than the river route to
the United States and Canada, surely it will be over this low watershed
to Georgetown. If the line is constructed to Manaos its extension to
meet the southern railway systems of Brazil and the Argentine can
only be a question of time. The Takutu, on the Brazilian boundary,
runs into the Rio Branco, one of the chief tributaries of the Amazon,
joining that river near Manaos.

THE PROJECTED FRONTIER RAILWay.

The British Guiana section, if taken from Georgetown to the junc-
tion of the Ireng with the [akutu, to which point launches easily ascend,
would be some 340 miles. Its construction presents no engineering
difficulties, and the cost of a metre-gauge line was estimated by Mr.
~ Bland at only £3,500 a mile. Mr, Buck, the Colonial Director of Public
Works, has recently investigated the problem afresh, and recommends a
slight variation of the route at Georgetown end, but confirms Mr. Bland’s
estimate of mileage cost.

I will not here discuss the relative advantages of the two routes
beyond remarking that by Mr. Buck’s route the distance to the Takutu is
increased by twenty-six miles, a very serious consideration as traffic in-
creases, and that Wismar, the probable headquarters of a great bauxite
industry, would be left without any other communication with George-
town than the lengthy river route.

Dr. Nunan, the present Attorney General of British Guiana, had
done much to boom this attractive railway project before my arrival in
the colony, and succeeded in raising great enthusiasm on the subject.
Many of the leading men see in this line even without the Manaos exten-
sion, a solution of the problem of the colony’s development. I agree with
them, and I had hoped to return to England in August, 1914, to press

176 Timehri.

the subject on Mr. Harcourt’s attention. I knew he realised its impor-
tance, and it would have been fitting that he, one of whose distant ances-
tors received a grant of the country from James I. and twice attempted
to take possession of his property, should be the Minister to finally
render the development of its rich interior possible.

THE FINANCIAL PROBLEMS.

The question of financing its construction, however, bristles with
difficulties. In the colony there is much divergence of opinion. The
planters of the coast fear the loss of their labour, and urge that the scheme
must be accompanied by a costly supplementary one for the introduction
of many thousands of settlers. Another section is against construction
by Government, refusing to see that it is a project impossible for private
enterprise as there is no prospect of paying even working expenses for
at least ten years. These people are misled by concession hunters,
inexperienced and over-sanguine, to take a charitable view of their
promises, who offer to construct the line on easy terms without having
the remotest chance of finding capitalists to finance their proposals. The
line, if built, must be built with Government money. The colony cannot
afford to carry out the work.

Here seems to me a project eminently worthy of the attention of the
Empire Resources Development Committee, not, however, with a view to
further development at the expense and for the benefit of the Mother
Country, except indirectly. Where would Britain be without her oversea
possessions and, taking the tropical colonies alone, it would be instruc-
tive to calculate how many millions are annually poured into the Imperial
Exchequer as income-tax, now swollen further by excess profits duty, on
receipts by her citizens from their oversea properties, and, on their
decease, by death duties thereon. Is it too much that in return the
Mother Country should advance, as in the case of the Uganda railway,
the means of giving the people, both of the colony and of the United
Kingdom, a chance of proving their ability to take advantage of the
opportunities so offered ?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN’S WORK FOR WEST AFRICA.

Until Mr. Chamberlain ruled at the Cotonial Office our West African
colonies were in a much worse state of stagnation than British Guiana.
Under his guiding hand, and with financial help from the Treasury, rail-
ways began to be pushed up from the coast in each of our West African
possessions, with the result that nowhere is there more rapid progress to
be seen than in those possessions. Without the progress so ensured we
should now be without urgently needed vegetable fats, without our chief
source of cocoa supply, and without the troops that have borne the brunt
of the fighting in subduing Togoland, the Kameruns, and German East
Africa.

CATTLE TRADE POSSIBILITIES,

Within ten years of the completion of a railway to the savannahs in

the interior the cattle traffic should alone be sufficient to cover working

Appendi« II. 177

expenditure. But great development in mining, the timber trade, and in
the exploitation of other forest products may be looked for, as well as the
beginnings of agriculture, nor is it likely that with a railway on the
Takutu the Brazilians could long resist extending it to Manaos, or at
least to a point in the Rio Branco, and thus secure the immense adyan-
tage of a direct route tothe North Atlantic at Georgetown. With such
an extension there would be no further anxiety regarding the financial
prospects of the line.

Note by Editor.—I can bear testimony to the fact that the preseny
Viscount Harcourt, when Secretary of State for the Colonies, realized the
importance of the proposed trunk railway. After the few ascertained
facts had been placed before him by the Editor at an interview in February,
1912, four months before Sir Walter Egerton’s arrival in the Colony, Mr.
Harcourt sent for the Editor in November, 1912, and again in June,
1914, to enquire as to the progress of the movement. Mr. Harcourt had
recommended the matter to His Excellency’s special attention and had
carefully annotated and studied the Report of the Railway Committee and
the attached memorandum, which had reached him by extra-official chan-
nels. The arguments in favour of a combined colonization and railway
development he considered sound. Sir Walter at the time was opposed to
such a combination, but his lecture shows that he does not underrate the
importance of colonization. The suggestion of a preliminary reconnais-
sance and economic survey of the route and of negotiations with Brazil
for a local Zollverein or commercial treaty Mr. Harcourt seemed to
accept as essential first steps. Further discussion and a final decision
were to follow the arrival of the Governor in London from the Colony.
Dis aliter visum. The war broke out. Sir Walter was unable
to leave the colony. Later developments include the inaugur-
ation of the cattle trail scheme by Mr. Melville and Mr.
Buck’s proposal to utilize the Demerara Railway as far as
the Abary. The purely subjective view expressed from one quarter
that the trunk railway is merely a dream inasmuch as any South Ameri-
can line would run towards Panama has not encouraged its few remaining
and mostly unavowed opponents. Itis fully recognized (1) that British
Guiana offers the easiest route (2) that South America will have eventually
as many trunk lines as North America and that the costly mountain rail-
ways necessary to connect Brazil with Panama will no doubt fol!ow in due
course the construction of our own pioneer line.

APPENDIX II.

——

EDITORIAL NOTE.

The following is taken from our issue of May, 1915, which has
long been out of print. We feel it advisable to reproduce it as the last
tangible contribution to the subject. The memorandum on which it is
based would no doubt require considerable revision in view of the con-

178 Timehra.

sequences likely to result from the war and the abolition of the old
indenture system. In essentials, however, the position will be the same.
While we contend that the idea is erroneous that either money or credit
will be lacking after the war except during a short purgatorial period of
reconstruction and slump, it is unlikely that money will be raised for
some time at less than five per cent. This means an increase of the
Editor’s estimate of £77,329 by about two-fifths viz., to about £110,000,
as the annual amount for which the colony would be liable after the
twelfth year for railway and colonization schemes.

The Secretary of State’s despatch, which arrived after the Commit-
tee reported, asked for information as to the possible traffic and laid
down as an essential for imperial financial assistance “ultimate financial
control” of the colony by the Home Government. There sre many
ways of securing such control and it does not necessarily imply a surren-
der of our very old-fashioned constitution, which cumbrous and _ illogical
as it is, has still many adherents. We doubt the advisability of compli-
cating the difficult problem of opening up the colony by any political or
constitutional issues beyond the simple question of how to secure ulti-
mate financial control for the financially predominant partner, The
Railway Committee has not sat since the outbreak of the war and the
information asked for by Viscount Harcourt has yet to be supplied.

We have no doubt that His Excellency Sir Wilfred Collet, when the
progress of the Rupununi cattle-track has furnished him with preliminary
data, will not overlook this matter and it may lead to the addition of a
Railway and Development Committee to the list of Committees appointed
on August Ist, 1917.

THE HINTERLAND RAILWAY COMMISSION’S REPORT AND
ACCOMPANYING MEMORANDUM.

From Timehri, Vol. 3, p. 199.

The Committee appointed to discuss His Excelleney Sir Walter
Egerton’s Despatch No. 5 of the 5th January, 1914, to the Secretary of
State for the Colonies with respect to a railway into the hinterland of
this colony, met on Monday, the 20th April, 1914, in private. The mem-
bers present were :—

The Hons. C. Clementi, M.A., Government Secretary ; J. J. Nunan,
K.C., Attorney General ; J. Hampden King, Immigration Agent General ;
D. M. Hutson, K.C., and J. B. Laing, members of the Executive Council ;
the Hons. E. C. Buck, A.M.I.C.E., Colonial Civil Engineer ; J. P. Santos ;
F. Dias, A. P. Sherlock and C. F. Wieting, members of the Legislature ;
Msssrs. C. W. Prest and J. S. McArthur, Mayor of Georgetown, Financial
Representatives; J. A. Abbensetts, Mayor of New Amsterdam, J.
Cunningham, representing the Royal Agricultural and Commercial

Appendix II. 179

Society ; J. Duke Smith, representing the Chamber of Commerce; J.
Gillespie, representing the Planters’ Association; and A. F. White
representing the Balata Industry.

The Honourable J. B. Laing was proposed as chairman by the
Honourable the Government Secretary, and was unanimously elected.
After considerable discussion it was proposed, and unanimously earried,
that a Sub-Committee be formed to go into the whole question and
formulate resolutions for discussion at the Committee’s next meeting.

The following gentlemen were appointed members of the Sub-
Committee :—

The Hons. J. B. Laing, Chairman; C. Clementi, J. J. Nunan,
J. Hampden King, E. C. Buck, and A. P. Sherlock, Messrs. C. W. Prest,
J. S. McArthur, and J. Duke Smith.

The Sub-Committee held two meetings and drafted ten resolutions
which were submitted at the meeting of the Committee held on Monday,
the 4th May, 1914, when all the members (including Mr. Duncan, Mr.
Downer, Dr. Rohlehr, Mr. Wreford and Mr. Rice, who were absent from the
first meeting of the Committee) were present, except Mr. C. F. Wieting

_who had left the colony in the interval. %

Considerable discussion in public took place on the resolutions and
several amendments thereto were passed.

The resolutions as amended and unanimously adopted, are as
follows :—

1. This Committee strongly supports the proposal to construct a
Hinterland Railway if combined with a colonization and development
scherne ; and recommends :—

2. That work on the railway shall be open to all labourers free in
the colony.

3. That immigrants under contract be imported yearly for the first
five years to replace the labourers withdrawn from the coastal and river
districts for work on the Railway and for taking up land under the
colonization scheme.

4. That the railway shall be of metre gauge so as to allow of trans-
continental railway communication without change of engine or
carriage.

5. That the question of whether the railway should be built by the
Government or by contractors be left to His Majesty’s Government for
final decision.

_ 6. That the Secretary of State be asked to sanction a loan aggregat-
ing £2,000,000—at lowest possible rate of interest, of which loan
£1,400,000 be allocated for railway construction, deficit on working

180 Timehri.

expenses for eight years, colonization and development of the hinterland,
and £6Q0,000 for development of the coast and river districts and meeting
expenses in connection with the withdrawal of labour.

7. That the starting point of the railway shal] ke Georgetown, and
not Wismar or some other place up the Demerara River.

8. That the question of the Constitution be not dealt with by this
Committee, there being at present no information before us as to whether
or not he Secretary of State will raise this point as one of the conditions
for allowing the loan asked for.

9. That the portion of the loan allocated for coastlands and river
districts development shall be repaid as follows :—

First three years nothing, after three years the interest on full
amount plus the deferred interest for three years plus sinking fund for,
forty-seven years on total of loan and accumulation of interest.

That the amount set aside for railway construction, colonization
development of the hinterland and deficit for working expenses during
first eight years be paid as follows :—

First eight years nothing will be paid—after 8 years half interest on
the £1,400,000, after sixteen years full interest on the whole amount
plus interest for first eight years deferred, plus deferred half interest
on second eight years, plus sinking fund on entire amount for thirty-
four years—or on such other terms as the Secretary of State may see
fit to allow taking into cosinderation the financial position of the
colony.

10. The loan to extend over a period of fifty years.

The Committee were unanimously in favour of the Hinterland Rail-
way being eventually linked up with the railway in Brazil, and a strong
point was made that, if there was to be a railway at all, the industries of
the coast and river districts must be safeguarded as respects labour with-
drawn from those districts for the railway and for colonization of the
hinterland.

The Committee further specially emphasise the fact that there must
be colonization and development schemes for the coast and river districts,
side by side with any scheme for a railway to, and development of, the
hinterland of the colony.

The Committee ask that a Copy of this report be forwarded to the
Secretary of State for the Colonies by the first opportunity.

MINORITY REPORT.

We, the undersigned members of the Committee appointed to discuss
Your Excellency’s Despatch No. 5 of the 5th January, 1914, have with-

;

Appendia II. 181

held our signatures from the majority report, because in our opinion the
construction of a hinterland railway should not be made conditional on a
colonization and development scheme for the coast and river districts.

We agree with the majority report that the industries on the coast
and river districts should be safeguarded so far as possible with respect
to labour withdrawn from those districts during the construction of any
railway.

We strongly hold the view that in the event of the Secretary of State
declining to make a loan of the amount set down for the development of
the coast and river districts, His Majesty’s Government should neverthe-
less be asked to sanction aloan on the terms suggested in Your
Excellency’s despatch with which we entirely concur.

Respectfully submitted,
Crcit E. Ricz,
A. F. WHITE.

MEMORANDUM BY MR. NUNAN FOR THE COMMITTEE AND
SUB-COMMITTEE ON RAILWAY MATTERS.

The whole question turns upon what proposal to contribute and
repay we are able to make to the Secretary of State. He is unlikely to
consider a mere grant and we must advance a basis of discussion and
negotiation. .

Can this Committee help the Governor in this matter ? His despatch
of 5th January implies that the Colony is to assist in the enterprise,
paras. 11 (c), 12 (b) and 30. I have been asked to circulate the proposals
made in my speech to the Committee at its opening meeting, 20th April,
and now do so.

My proposal is that we should put railway loan of 1} M. Stg. plus
deferred interest, interest and Sinking Fund on a separate basis from a
Development loan of ¢ M. Stg. plus deferred interest, interest and Sink-
ing Fund and ask the Secretary of State to help us as rezards both.

(1.) I wish to emphasize that we have only Mr. Bland’s figures to go
on and are not a body of experts ourselves. Whatever doubts we may
have as regards under or over estimates of costs or profits in details
there is nothing to be gained by dwelling on them at the moment. When
a detailed survey ismade the estimates can be re-adjusted. At present
we should be only wasting time in trying to criticise the only expert basis
of discussion we have.

(2.) Ifa through route is successfully constructed harbour construc-
tion will be easily managed. Capital will flow in for a loan to improve a
* ,

This is only
a suggestion
not a hard and
fast scheme.
Both number
and period of
indenture may
be varied.

182 Timehr.

harbour having a trunk-line terminus. We can postpone consideration
of this. Harbour improvement will not be urgent without a through
route. Three years hence is time enough.*

(3.) Sea Defences we should deal with either by a loan on some
separate basis or out of our developing resources. Some contribution
(say £50,000) might be made from the Development loan.

(4.) Deficit on Working Expenses, %.¢., over and above capital
charges. Mr. Bland’s figures are adeficit of £10,000 after the first five
years. Ithivk he has under-estimated returnsif the route is to be a
through route. If there is a deficit it can be provided for out of current
revenue but Ido not*think there will be one.+

The Scheme is based on fifty years amortization and repayment as
required by the Colonial Loans Act, 1899.} ,

(1) Re RAILWAY LOAN (1} MILLIONS STG.).

We ask the Secretary of State to carry us entirely for the first six
years, as to half for the ensuing six years, finding the deferred interest as
it becomes due and making no provision for Sinking Fund for twelve
years. After twelve years we pay the whole interest plus interest on the
funded deferred interest, plus Sinking Fund on the total amount spread
over 88 years. Labour for the Railway should be looked for to West
Indian and local negroes, the most suitable for that class of work. No
restriction should be attempted in the movement of labour.

(2) Re DEVELOPMENT LOAN (} MILLION STG.).

We ask the Secretary of State to carry us for three years and we
then undertake to repay loan and deferred interest in 47 years. This
might be altered to four or even five but three should do.

Four thousand families or possible families, 7.e., groups of two con-
sisting of not less than one adult person of each sex (East Indians or
Chinese) married or of marriageable age indentured for three years on
the coast properties, should be brought in at Government expense. At
£30 per “ family ” this would cost £120,000 a year for five years.

*Nore.—In the four years that have passed since the above was written the Bar has not
improved and in default of any larger scheme, which the expense might not justify in the
present conditions of our shipping trade, immediate dredging operations are indispensable
and will be found adequate for the next five years.

+ Nove.—-Mr. Prest has called my attention to the fact that Mr. Bland’'s estimate
overlooks the first five years. (The deficit on the first five years should be charged to
capital required for the railway.

{ By this Act interest must be at such a rate as will save the Fund from actual loss
and must not be less than 27%. The price of our money must be fixed by English market
conditions. Consols now stand at 75 to 76 and many Colonial Loans are being issued
at 99 for 4%. The interest mentioned is a rough approximation based upon what our
money wouldcost us. The loan must be satisfactorily secured by the local legislature.

Appendia II. 183

It would replace the labour attracted to the railway and supplement
the present indenture. The 4,000 families brought in during the fifth
year would have indentures running to end of seventh year. The sugar
and other plantations and industrial interests on the sea coastlands would
be substantially protected from loss during the years of construction,
extension and the excitement of any gold discoveries. The coastlands
would be developed by the settlement of the imported labour when free.

£150,000 should be set aside to provide suitable lands for settlement
at the end of the period of indenture. Of this £50,000 might be spent
on any urgent sea defences necessary for the purpose of empoldering the
lands required for development. This empoldering scheme would benefit
the coast population in general.

It should be noted that under this scheme there would be 40,000
adults, mostly married couples, not reckoning children in the fifth year
and that each person would be paying directly or indirectly nine or ten
dollars to the public revenue or $360,000 per annum or more than double
the amount of the annual interest and Sinking Fund on this head.
Present colony revenue is about $9 per head, paid chiefly in indirect
taxation. With prosperity, consumption of taxable commodities would
increase, also taxable capacity.

At the beginning of the fourth year we should have 16,000 families
(4,000 time-served) paying nearly $300,000 to the revenue or more than
enough to pay the interest, deferred interest and Sinking Fund on this
Development Loan.

PRIVATE RAILWAY SCHEME.

There is another question to consider and that is the possible refusal
of the Secretary of State to consider a Government Railway on the
ground that we cannot afford the expense and the risk.

In that case we should ask the Secretary of State to help us to
secure the construction of a leased Government railway* or of a private
railway by a reliable firm of contractors on the most advantageous terms
possible to the Colony based upon land grants and a limited number of
~ years’ subsidy. The terms asked by Colonel Link’s supportors were 10
years at 34 per cent. These terms are hopeless to expect now. In Brazil
the railways are built ona 25 years’ subsidy of 5 per cent. But we
could do better than that on a British Imperial guarantee. I think 15
to 20 years at 4 per cent. would secure what we require. On Mr. Bland’s
figures of 1} millions, interest (spread by amortization over fifty years)
would amount to roughly £40,000 a year, but I have not worked out
this last figure by tables.

* Nore.—The construction of a railway by the Government and its subsequent transfer
to a private Company for working purposes in an expedient that has been successfully tried
in other places, The proposal of the Editor as Chairman of the Demerara Railway Committee
published in another appendix is based on the same principle.

184 Timehri.

FIGURES.

It should be noted that the figures set out below, which make no
pretence to official authority or to actuarial skill, would be somewhat
reduced in a calculation allowing for the fact that the Development loan
would not be fully called up until the beginning of the fifth year nor the
Railway loan until the beginning of the fourth. On the other hand the
annual interest on deferred interest as it accrues, 7.¢c., compound interest
is not taken into account so that I have made a rough balance. The
calculation can also be worked out in other ways, ¢.g., on the basis of
deferred payments and at the expiry of the free period payment of a
Combined Sinking Fund comprising all interest charges. The main point
ig to give the people of the colony some reasonably accurate idea of
what their ultimate liability will be. The figures have been checked by
Mr. John Bollers to whom I take this opportunity of expressing my

sincere thanks. 4
DEVELOPMENT.
First Three After Three After Sia After Twelve
Years. Years. Years. Years.
Nothing. (a) £23,437 being
interest at 34 per Do. Do.

cent, on ? M,. Stg.

(6) Plus interest
on £70,311 being

three years deferr- Do. Do.
ed interest, viz.,
£2,197.

(c) Plus Sinking
Fund for 47 years
on 34% basis on
total of loan and
accumulations on
interest—£7,111.

Total
£32,745 for inter-
est and Sinking
Fund,

Appendia IT. 185

RAILWAY.
First Three After Three After Six Afler Twelve
Years. Years. Years. Years.
Nothing. Nothing. Half interest on (a) Full interest
Joan of 13 M.Stg. on 1} M loan
at 34% £39,062.
£19,531, (b) Plus interest

on £234,372
amount of first
six years deferr-
ed interest, viz.,
£7,324,
(c) Plus interest
on 2nd six years
defer’d £117,186
viz., £3,662,
(d) Total on foot
of Sinking Fund
for 38 years at
34%, £27,281.

Total £77,329.

Notre.—Sinking Fund is calculated on the assumption that we can get 34 per cent. for
our money. Wecould probably do better. We might also get our loans at a little less
than 33.

NOTE BY MR. NUNAN, AFTER FIRST MEETING OF SUB-COMMITTEE.

The Immigration Agent General thinks £35 per “family” of two
would be nearer the amount of cost. (In the case of Chinese we shall
have the advantage of the Panama Canal after the current year). He
also thinks that there may be difficulty in carrying on two systems of
indenture with different periods, viz., five years and back passage for the
old system, three without back passage but with land grant for the
supplementary and temporary system. He thinks a scheme based upon
the actual indent of the proprietors offers more advantages, for instance
an agreed indent and a free importation of twice as many as are indented
for on the old system.

Hon. A. P. Sherlock further thinks 4,000 “families” or 8,000 adults
a year might be more than the estates could handle, mentioning hospital
and housing requirements. Both suggest 5,000 adults a year, the sexes
being about equal in numbers.

These are details which only the Immigration Department and the
planters can work out. The main point is the sum to be asked for and
the method of application. This must be a fixed sum for the specific
purpose of coast labour and colonization, to avoid subsequent complaints
of unfair application and to enable the situation to be faced as a whole.
The object is to provide indentured labour for the coastlands to replace
any special drawing away of labour entailed by railway and development

;

186 Timehri.

in the far interior. The further aim is to secure a suitable population
for the coastlands which ought to be prepared for colonists by irrigation
and drainage under Government schemes.

LATER.

The Scheme actually recommended by the Sub-Committee adopts
the principle and the periods set out above but allocates £150,000
out of the Development Loan of { million stg. to the Railway
Loan for settlement on the lands in the interior, thereby supplementing
His Excellency’s proposal of £50,000 for those lands. £600,000 remains
earmarked for the Coast labour and colonization. The figures given
above will have to be re-adjusted accordingly, making payments on the
Coast development loan begin at £26,523 in the fourth year and
increasing to £21,875, the Railway payments to begin after the
sixth year. The later figures after the twelfth year will have to be
correspondingly adjusted. The total for both loans will not be much
different from our present estimate. Any deficit on working expenses is
not contemplated after fifth year from opening of railway. As against
expenditure we shall be able to reckon increased population on coast and
interior savannah, general development and railway connection with
Brazil.

CALCULATIONS ON BASIS OF £600,000 FOR DEVELOPMENT.

First Three After Three After Six Years. After Twelve
Years. Years. Years.
Nothing, (a) £18,750 be-
ing Interest at 34% Do. Do.
on £600,000.

(5) Plus interest
on £56,250 being

three years deferr- ia Do:
ed interest, viz.,
£1,757.

(c) Plus Sinking
Fund for 47 years
on total of loan Do. Do.
and accumulation
on interest-£5,201.

~ Total £25,708
for interest and
Sinking Fund.

Tf after 4 years then— (a) £18,750
(5) £ 2,343 being interest on £75,000 4

years deferred interest,
c) £ 5,430 Sinking Fund 46 years.
(¢) y

Total .,. £26,523

Appendix III. 187

RAILWAY, £1,400.000 (INCLUDING £150,000 ADDITIONAL FoR
DEVELOPMENT.

First Three After Three After Sia After Twelve
Years, Years. Years. Tears,

Nothing. Nothing. Half interest on (a) Full inter-
loan—£1, 4000,000 est on loan—
at 347,—£21,875. £43,750.

(6) Plus inter-
est on £262,500
amount of first
six years deferred
interest, viz.,

£8,203,

(c) Plus inter-
est on 2nd six

3 years deferred,
viz, £4,101,

(d) Total on
foot of Sinking
Fund, £23,286
S. F, 38 years.

Total... £79,340.

APPENDIX III.

THE DEMERARA RAILWAY COMMITTEE OF COMBINED
COURT.

CHAIRMAN’S SUGGESTED SCHEME OF GOVERNMENT CoNTROL.

The suggested Government Control Schemé in connection with the
Demerara Railway prepared by the Hon. J. J. Nunan, K.C., Chairman,
(14th June, 1918), is as follows :—

1. The Company to submit the question of its suitable recapitaliza-
tion to a Commission consisting of equal numbers of representatives of
the Colony and the Company. This Commission would be assisted by
actuarial and engineering experts in railway valuation.

On the adoption of its report the Company (a) to take the necessary
legal steps to reduce the capital to the amount advised, consolidating its
various classes of shares, or, (b) if its shareholders prefer, will leave the
present form of capitalization untouched but will treat the calculated
amount as its capital for the Government’s purposes.

2. The Government to undertake during the statutory duration of
the present subsidy in lieu of the subsidy to guarantee say four or four
and a half per cent. on the reduced capital or calculated amount.

188 Timehrr.

3. The Railway Company to assign the reduced shares or otherwise
to assign for the same period the control of the Company to the Govern-
ment.

4. The Government to lease the Railway to the Company for work-
ing purposes under a Board of five Directors containing representatives
of both the colony and the shareholders.

5. All revenues over and above working expenses to be paid to the
Government on terms to be agreed upon.

(a) towards the cost of the guarantee ;
(b) towards development expenditure.

6. Additional development capital to be provided by the Government
as required on a basis to be agreed upon.

7. At the end of the period of present subsidy (say thirty years) the
railway to revert to the Company or to be taken over by the Govern-
ment on terms to be provided for. Extensions at Government expense to
be leased to the Company or to be retained by the Government.

INTEREST GUARANTEED ON PROPER CAPITAL.

Under this outline, it will appear that no large amount by way of
purchase money would have to be raised by the Government ; the Com-
pany, relieved of any dilution of stock or share values, will have an
interest guaranteed on its proper capital. The management would be
free, subject to Government control, to incur expenditure for develop-
ment purposes, instead of having to devote all revenue over lowest
possible running charges to the more or less hopeless work of paying a
dividend on a capitalization based partly upon the values of 1846.
Recent American and Canadian experience in consolidating or taking
over railways including the taking over of the Canadian Northern and
Quebec Railways by the Canadian Government, and British war experi-
ence in State control of private railways will be useful in working out
this scheme.

APPENDIX IV.

ROMAN-DUTCH LAW IN BRITISH GUIANA AND
A WEST INDIAN COURT OF APPEAL.

From the Journal of the Society of Comparative Legislation,
November, 1917.

[Contributed by J. C. Levis, EsQ.]

On January 1, 1917, the Civil Law of British Guiana Ordinance,
1916 (which was passed on September 2, 1916), came into operation

~

\

Appendix IV. 189

in British Guiana. The event marks an important and decisive stage
in the checkered history of the Roman-Dutch Law in the Colony. 1}

It is well known that, when the Dutch settlements of Demerara,
Essequibo, and Berbice (which were afterwards constituted the Colony
of British Guiana) passed definitely under British rule in 1814, the
existing local laws and usages were, in accordance with the British policy
usual in such cases, left undisturbed. The law thus retained, which is
known in the Colony as ‘‘the common law,” was a form of the Roman-
Dutch law:2 that mixed system of Germanic and Roman law which
grew up in the Low Countries in the seventeenth and the first half of
the eighteenth century (7.e., during the period of the greatest commercial
prosperity of the Dutch), and was carefully worked out, and scientifically
developed, in the writings of Grotius, van Leeuwen, Voet, and other very
eminent Dutch jurists. ‘‘It was,” says the Report of the Statute Law
Committee, upon whose report the enactment was based, “a highly
organized and flexible system of common law which, but for the
special conditions of the Colony, would have proved as suitable for all
commercial and social requirements as a similar form of jurisprudence
has done for . . . South Africa.” Some of these “special conditions”
are fully explained in the Report ; others are implied rather than stated.
Together they form an interesting and instructive bit of legal history.

The Commission of 1824—Soon after the settlements had passed
under British rule, there was serious trouble with regard to the adminis-
_ tration of justice in the Colony, and more particularly with regard to
eriminal procedure. In 1824 a Commission was accordingly appointed
“to inquire into the administration of criminal and ciyil justice in the
West Indian and South American Colonies.” The recommendations of
the Commission were mainly concerned with criminal procedure, a depart-
ment of law in which the divergence of principle between the Roman-
Dutch law and English law would naturally be most pronounced.4 As
regards the civil law, however, 7.e., the Roman-Dutch substantive law,
the Commission cited the opinion of the highest local authorities to
the effect that it was simple and well adapted to the wants and

1 The way had been prepared for the enactment of this Ordinance by the publication in
1916 of the Report of the Statute Law Committee appointed by the Governor of British
Guiana in November, 1914, to advise as to the best means of giving effect to the recommenda-
tions made by the so-called Common Law Commission in their Report printed in April, 1914.

2 For fuller details of the history of Roman-Dutch Law in British Guiana reference should
be made to Professor R. W. Lee’s article in vol. xiv. (p.l11) of this journal ; and also to
Dr. Bisschop’s Article on “ Modern Roman-Dutch Law” in the Zaw Quarterl y Review, vol.
xxiv, p. 157.

3 See R. W. Lee, Introduction to Roman-Dutch Law, Clarendon Press. p, 14 ff,

4 For fuller information as to the early history of criminal procedure in the Colony refer-
ence should be made to the above-mentioned article by Professor Lee (pp. 12,13). The
Report of the Commission was only signed by one Commissioner (Mr, Jabez Henry), the other
two having died in office,

190 Timehri.

usages of the people,” the President of the Courts of Criminal and
Civil Justice of Demerara and Essequibo expressly declaring that he
“admired the principles of the civil law.” The Roman-Dutch common
law, the “highly organized and flexible” legal system, accordingly con-
tinued in force, and proved, for the time being, quite adequate to the
demands made upon it

Gradually, however, the conditions of the Colony underwent a
material change. The English population increased ; the resident Dutch
dwindled away. ‘We have no resident Dutch population,” says the
Report of the Common Law Commission of 1914,1 “and few even of the
Dutch names survive.” The population, moreover, though small (some
312,000), became very mixed in race. Besides a native Indian popula-
tion, there was a considerable influx of Indians from British India, ‘“ East
Indians and Portuguese make up some 50 per cent.” And at the same
time, trade, especially with the West Indies and Great Britain, expanded.
Thus new economic conditions came into being, and it became necessary
to adapt the local law to their requirements. How could this be most
satisfactorily accomplished ?

Two methods. seemed available. The first was to stand by the
Roman-Dutch law as the common law; to adhere, as far as possible, to
its principles (its ‘‘simple” principles) ; to endeavour to develop it grad-
ually from within, and, by patent piecework, to fit those principles to the

“novel conditions as they arose. It might doubtless be found convenient
from time to time to supplement from outside, 7.e., from English sources,
but the system to be evolved by this method would be, in the main, an
independent, a home-grown legal system.

What were the prospects of success for such a method? Were the
“special conditions” of the Colony favourable to its satisfactory opera-
tion? On the facts as stated in the Report of the Common Law Com-
mission, the answer to this question must, we think, be in the negative.

The Interpretation of the Law.—The fruitful working of the
method in question requires that the law shall be handled with sympathy
and with understanding ; those charged with the administration of the
law must be in full accord with its characteristic spirit. Such was the
case with our own common law. Such, again, was the case—in a different
way—with the Roman-Dutch-common law in South Africa.2 In British
Guiana the position was different. There the administration of the law
was in the hands of English-trained lawyers. The atmosphere of the

1 See Supra, p. 62

2 Accordingly when the British Guiana Government in 1912 consulted the South African
Government as to whether it was proposed to make any change in the South African common
law, the reply was “emphatic” to the effect that the Roman-Dutch law was “eminently
suitable,” and that “the necessity for the substitution of English law had never been seriously
entertained,”

Appendia IV. 191

Courts was predominantly English. The language was English; the
pleadings, the evidence, the arguments were in English. And for English-
trained lawyers, the Roman-Dutch system, with all its virtues, could not
fail to be somewhat of an alien system. It had no prestige of national
tradition to back it. “The colonists,” says the Report of 1914 (p. 20),
“have no sentimental affection for any legal legacy of the Batavian
Republic of 1803*or the Kingdom of the Netherlands of 1814.” It was,
moreover, contained in books—some of them between 200 and 300 years
old—which were written in a foreign tongue (Latin or Dutch), and were
often difficult of access, whether in the original or in translation.!1 That
in such circumstances there should be some lack of sympathy between the
spirit of the law to be administered and the administering authorities is
hardly matter for surprise. True, there was no want of appreciation of
the great merits of the Roman-Dutch law—its lucidity, its simplicity, its
“scrupulous reverence for local usage.”2 If there were, a8 one of the
witnesses before the Commission stated, judges who tried ‘to approxi-
mate it to English law as much as possible,’ there were others who were
“particularly wedded to the Roman-Dutch law and always stick out for it.”
But however genuine the admiration for the great qualities of the ‘‘ com-
mon law,” and however sincere the endeavour to apply it in a manner
conformable to its true spirit, it was almost impossible for English law-
yers not to import into their administration and interpretation of the law
much of that particular bias of thought and of those habits of reasoning
which a schooling in a widely different system had instilled into their
minds. To take only one illustration the principle of stare decisis has,
as Dr. Bisschop (in the before mentioned article) has reminded us, 3 no
place in the Roman-Dutch system; that is to say, decided cases are
never (as with us) sowrces of legal rules, and, as such, “authoritative ”

_and binding, but are merely examples, or illustrations of the application

of legal rules.4 This is an important divergence of principle, and though
it would doubtless be easy to exaggerate the practical effects of the diver-
gence, still it represents a difference of mental attitude which would ren-
der it difficult for a lawyer trained in one school readily to accommodate
himself to methods of reasoning accepted in the other.

If, then, the special ‘‘conditions” of the Colony were adverse to the
healthy growth of the Roman-Dutch law; if they tended to check its

1 As long ago as 1828 the lack of “good translations of the Dutch authorities” was
animadverted on, and the Report of 1914 (p. 28) puts in a plea for securing for the Colony
“a set of the leading legal and historico-legal authorities.” In British Guiana, moreover,
there are no text-books, no written records of judgments of earlier date than 1856, and no
reports (Prefessor Lee, op. cit. p, 22),

2 Report of 1914, p.10. “Personally, said one barrister witness before the Common law
Commission, “I think that the Roman-Dutch law as regards equity is very equitable indeed,”

3 See also the Report of 1914, p, 5,

4 “Non exemplis sed legibus indicandum est.” The fact mentioned may account partly
for the lack of Law Reports in British Guiana to which reference has already been made,
Where decisions have no binding force for the Judges, there is not the same incentive for
reporting them as there is under our system,

192 Timehr«.

natural development and to prevent it from putting forth its full strength ;
was there any other method of adopting the law of the Colony to chang-
ing circumstances more in harmony with its special needs? This was the
problem that confronted the colonial authorities, and the method that
commended itself to them as an alternative was to substitute English —
statute and common law for the Roman-Dutch law. If the latter could
not be mended, it might perhaps be ended.

The actual course of events was briefly as follows. Until about 1890
the two methods of development operated concurrently, not indeed as set-
tled policies, but as streams of tendency. In the ‘nineties however, the
second method definitely gained the upper hand, and ‘he policy of
“ending” the Roman-Dutch law became the ‘‘accepted policy” of all
parties.

The Displacement of Roman-Dutch Law.—Thus, while the general
effect of the legislation between 1830 and 1890—the Report of 1914
enumerates some ten Ordinances that altered the law and practice of the
Colony between those dates—was to assimilate British Guiana law more
closely to English law, the ruling principles of the Roman-Duich law
were not seriously affected, except in the important case of the Ordinance
No. 6 of 1864, which introduced English mercantile law wholesale, and
constituted the first conspicuous example of the second method of
development.! After 1890 the “accepted policy” gathered momentum.
In 1891 the English Interpretation Act was introduced. Ordinances of
1891 and 1900 largely displaced the common law as to bills of exchange
insolvency and partnership in favour of the English law on those subjects.
In 1904 the old Roman-Dutch (not Roman) principle of community of
goods between married persons’ was swept away. In 1906 the Wills
Ordinance introduced the English law as to the execution and attestation
of wills. In 1909 the heir was deprived of the character of “ universal
successor ” which the oid Roman law had assigned to him, and in the
same year the English common and statute law of fire and life
insurance was introduced en bloc. In1914 the Sale of Goods Act, 1893,
came into force in the Colony. 2

1 “From and after the commencement of this Ordinance, all questions arising within
this Colony relating to the following matters, namely—ships and the property therein
and the owners thereof, and the behaviour of the master and mariners, and their
respective rights, duties, and liabilities as regards the carriage of passengers and goods
by ships; stoppage in transitu; freight; demurrage; insurance; salvage; average; colli-
sion between ships ; bills of lading ; and all rights, liabilities, claims, contracts, and matters
arising in respect of any ship, or any such question as aforesaid, shall be adjudged, deter-
mined, construed, and enfurced according to the law of England applicable to such or the like
case.” English Company law was introduced from time to time shortly after the enactmen
of the English legislation on the subject.

2 The effect was to sweep away (as far as the sale of moyables was concerned) » whole group
of{principles of the Roman-Dutch law. As the Report (p. 19) points out, the Roman-Dutch law
recognised no vendor's lien (since property did not, without more, pass from the unpaid yen-
dor till payment). There was no stoppage in transitu; no doctrine of “caveat enptor”’’; the
vendor is not bound to pass ownership, but only to guarantee undisturbed possession ; the risk
passes to the purchasers independently of delivery !or payment, even where property has not
passed. gAll these rules were swept aside.

Appendix IV. 198

o

The result of all this comprehensive legislation was to leave the
Roman-Dutch law, in the words of the Report, a mere “husk,” a “‘skeleton,
a “shattered remnant.” But though a remnant, it still retained vitality
enough to cause much trouble and perplexity in the administration of the
law. For it continued in force except where displaced by Ordinance, and
since the various Ordinances above mentioned were passed, not on any
definite system, but rather piecemeal, as the exigencies of the time
seemed to call for them, and without reference to the provisions of the
Roman-Dutch law which they superseded, the relation between the new
(English) law thus imported and the existing (Roman-Dutch) law was
often a matter of great difficulty to determine, and the resulting confu-
sion and uncertainty was considerable. ‘‘ We have,” says the Commis-
sion’s Report (p. 20), referring to the co-existence of two heterogenous
elements in the legal system, “all the disadvantages of a mixed system
without the elasticity of the Roman-Dutch jurisprudence.” 1

The Commission of 1912-14.—It was in these circumstances that
the Acting Governor of British Guiana? on June 4, 1912, appointed the
before-mentioned Commission under the Chairmanship of the Hon. J. J.
Nunan (then Solicitor-General, afterwards Attorney-General of the
Colony), ‘‘ to inquire and report whether any changes in the common law
of the Colony are advisable, and whether such changes, if any, should be
made by the substitution of English law [for Roman-Dutch law] or
otherwise.” The Commission held seven public sittings in May and June,
1913, for the hearing of evidence. The witnesses were nearly all prac-
tising lawyers or legal officials. The line of examination was much the
same with all. They were invited to give their opinion on a number of
legal matters as to which doubts and difficulties had arisen in the local
administration of the law. They were also asked their views as to the
salving of what remained of the common law. There was no serious
divergence of view among the witnesses. ‘The expression of opinion,”
says the Report (p. 21), ‘‘in favour of the English common law has been
practically unanimous, the qualifications of two or three witnesses being
confined . . . to the support of the Roman-Dutch law in the abstract, or
to expressions of doubt as to the possibilities of effecting immediate
radical change in a satisfactory manner.” The Report, which is a docu-
ment of considerable legal and historical interest, gives an account of the
Roman-Dutch law in general and traces its history in the Dutch settle-
ments prior to the British occupation. It then proceeds to describe
what is called ‘the legal epochs” of the Colony subsequent to
the occupation. After giving a summary account of the proceed
ings before the Commission appointed in 1824, it enumerates
the principal alterations made in the law of the Colony from
1828 onwards, with special reference to the modifications of the local
common law thereby effected, and explains very clearly—with regard, for

1 We are told of cases where counsel on one side relied on the Roman-Dutch law, counsel
on the other side on the English law governing contracts. And such cases must have been
of frequent occurrence.

2 Sir Charles Cox, K.C,M.G, then Mr, C, Cox, C.M,G.

194 Timehri.

example, to the doctrines of consideration and stare decisis—the uncer-
tainty and confusion *» the administration of the law which resulted from
the dual system of ..w and from the methods of legislative amendment
hitherto followed. In the result the Commissioners came to the conelu-
sion that no half measures would suffice for placing the law of the Colony
on a satisfactory footing. They accordingly made a drastic reeommenda-
tion in favour of the introduction of English common law ‘in regard to
all mercantile matters, to all domestic relations (including marriage,
judicial separation and divorce, the law of husband and wife, parent and
child, guardian or curator and minors, and master and servant), to the
law of delicts or torts, agency, suretyship, liens, intestate succession, and
in fact to all the law of persons, things, obligations, inheritance, and
every other description of matters whatsoever not dealt with by legisla-
tion, or. otherwise expressly exempted.” An important ‘ exemption”
was made with regard to land. ‘The English law of real property,” the
Report continues, “should be expressly excluded.” On this point there
was absolute unanimity. ‘ We have no desire to introduce the compli-
cated incidents of (English) real property law. Special recommendations
were made with regard to a number of heterogeneous legal topics, such as
the law of trustees, bills of sale, prescription, intestate succession
(“ movable andimmovable property should be treated alike for all pur-
peses of succession”), legitims, divorce, legitimation per subsequens
matrimonium, the “ Aquilian right” to damages for death caused by
negligence, administration, and probate. A special memorandum was
devoted to the peculiar local system of conveyancing—the sale, leasing
and mortgaging of Jand—a system (based partly on the Roman-Dutch
common law, partly on Rules of Court)) which had been in operation
since 1529, a: d which, with some chaages of method, it was desired to
retain.! Annexed to the Report was a Draft Code called ‘‘ the Common
Law Codification and Reform Bill” for carrying into effect “the more
urgent of the measures” suggested by the Commissioners, and the adop-
tion of this Code was recommended.

The Introduction of English Law.—The next step was to put these

. recommendations into practical shape. To that end the Governor, on
November 28, 1914, appointed a Committee (‘The Statute Law Com-
mittee”), of which Mr. Nunan was again Chairman, “ to consider what
English statutes should be adopted in the Colony to enable the law to be
altered from Roman-Dutch to English.” The function of the Committee,
as explained in their own Report, was “ to assist in the completion of the
scheme (suggested by the Common Law Commission) by the reeommen-
daticn of such portions of the English statute law as will place the com-
munity, as far as possible, in regard to legal rules and principles in
general, and especially in regard to the rules and principles of commercial
law, on the same footing as the people of England at the present time.”
The Report of the Committee was dated July 27, 1915, and was published
in 1916. After adverting to the ‘accepted policy” of introducing the

1 The system is explained in Professor Lee's Roman-Dutch Law, p.p. 128 ff, and 184 ff.

ince ile

Appendia IV. 195

common law of England and abolishing the Roman-Dutch law “ except as
to certain subjects which are to be dealt with by Ordinance,” they referred
to the difficulty of their task ‘in view of the hitherto uncharted
character of the territory ” (of the local common law), and proceeded to
examine the position of sundry British Colonies in which, at some time,
foreign law had been in force, and the method adopted by them for the
purpose of introducing English law in its place—without, however, find-
ing any very helpful precedent. After deprecating “the introduction in
bulk of a large number of English statutes among a population un-
acquainted, as a whole, with the older English legislation,’ and unani-
mously endorsing the view of the Common Law Commission as to the
inadvisability of introducing the English Law relating to immovable
property (including mortgages and servitudes thereof), they proceeded to
state the practical conclusions at which they have arrived. With a view
to creating, if possible, ‘‘a starting point ” for dealing with the situation,
they urged the passing of an Ordinance in terms of a draft annexed to
their Report. This Ordinance, which was described as a ‘ fundamental
law ” and was, in fact, a revised and considerably enlarged version of the
Bill annexed to the Commission’s Report, was entitled ‘‘ An Ordinance to
codify certain portions of the Roman-Dutch Law of the Colony, and in
other matters to substitute the English Common Law and Principles of
Equity along with certain English Statutory Provisions for the Roman-
Dutch Law.” ‘The short title was “The Civil Law of British Guiana
Ordinance, 1916.” It was a remarkably comprehensive and variegated
piece of levislation. Its effeet can best be described in the words of the
Committee’s Report, at page 7:

[It] (a) abolishes the Roman-Dutch law ; 1(0) introduces the English com-
mon law except as to real property ; (c) places movable and immovable property
under the English law of personal property, except as to seven specified points ;
(d) adopts a form of the Prescription Act, 1832, and the Real Property Limita-
tion Act, 1874, and vests the foreshore in the Crown; (e) codifies the law of
intestate succession along the lines of the Statute of Distribution, 1670, .
and Intestates’ Estates Act, 1890, modified in favour of the equality of males
and females and the rights of illegitimates as recommended by the Common
Law Commission ; (*) deals with wills, charities and gifts in accordauce with
the Wiils Act, 1837, and other English statutes, adapting the Thellusson Act,
1800, and the Accumulations Act, 1892, and including by reference the
preawhle to 43 Eliz. c. 4 as regards charities ;(g) preserves the Roman-Dutch
legitimation pér subsequens matrimonium, and abolishes the annus luctus, lesio
enormis and the Roman-Dutch “exceptions” of excussion and division, and
similar pleas ; (/) incorporates the Trustee Acts, 1893 and 1894, the Habeas
Corpus Act, 1679, the section of the English Judicature Act, 1873, making
choses in action assignable, the Slander of Women Act, 1891, and 3 &4 Will.
IV. c, 41, s. 52, giving a right of action against executors for injuries to pro-
perty by the deceased for six months prior to the death, and (7) adopts the
principles of the Lunacy Act, 1890, by giving the Supreme Court control over
the persons and property of lunatics.

1 This requires some qualification, as we shall see presently.

196 Timehri.

It adapted some seventeen English Acts in whole or in part, and
included by reference four others. ‘Its consequences,” says the Report
(p- 9), ‘are meant to be very far-reaching.”

This ‘‘fundamental law” formed the groundwork of the reform
recommended by the Common Law Commission. In addition the Com-
mittee submitted ten supplementary bills dealing with various subjects to
which the Commission had called attention, viz. 1. infants ; 2. divorce;
3. carriers ; 4. pledges of movables (bills of sale); 5. documents of titles
to goods (Factors Act); 6. arbitration; 7. deeds of arrangement; 8.
accidental deaths and workmen’s injuries ; 9. registration of title ; and 10.
deceased persons’ estates. ‘‘The whole scheme,” says the Report, ‘is
therefore complete in eleven bills.”

It should be added that s. 3 sub-s.1 of the fundamental Ordinance
abolished the Roman-Dutch common law, as such, in very sweeping terms 1,
but that sub-s. 4 (a) expressly preserved the (Roman-Dutch principle of
absolute private ownership in land, and 4 (6) similarly preserved the
Roman-Dutch law as to mortgages of land and real servitudes.

Such was the singularlegislative experiment recommended by the
Commissioners. In view of the intrinsic merits of the Roman-Dutch
common law—which were frankly acknowledged—it might, perhaps,
appear to some, at a distance, that the slower and more cautious
method of development from within, or, it may be, the patient elabora-
tion of a comprehensive Civil Code—the neighbouring island of St. Lucia
suggests a precedent—would offer greater prospects of a successful solu-
tion of the problem. That the proposals were unprecedented was freely
admitted by the Common Law Commissioners themselves who indeed
showed some signs of trepidation on that score. Their appeal to the
maxim, ‘‘ Communis error facit ius,” was not very encouraging, and it
may be open to some doubt whether the Commissioners in the perform-
ance of their difficult task acted altogether in the spirit of the passage
from Kenan cited by them, “‘ The real men of progress are those whose
starting-point is a profound respect for the past.”

However this may be, the practical administrators on the spot—
who must, after all, have the last word in such a matter—appear to have
been virtually unanimous in favour of the proposals. The changes,
revolutionary as they were, excited neither discussion nor controversy.
On the contrary, the publication of the Committee’s Report in January
1916, was promptly followed (in September of the same year) by the
passing of the Civil Law of British Guiana Ordinance, 1916, which is

1 “The law of the Colony relating to wills, fidei commissa, trusts, suretyship . . .
hiring and lease, landlord and tenant, negotiable instruments, bailments, carriers . . . eve
description whatever of contract and obligations . . . all questions relating to husband and
wife, marriage, separation, divorce .. . andthe law of the Colony relating to all other
matters whatsoever, whether eixsdem generis with the foregoing or not, shell cease to be
Roman-Dutch law, and as regards all matters arising and all rights acquired or accruing
after the date hereof, the Roman-Dutch law shall cease to apply to the Colony,”

2 eae! fo =

re

Appendia IV. 197

practically identical with the fundamental Ordinance annexed to the
Report. As already stated, it came into operation on January 1,1917. 1
The die is thus cast and the experiment launched. The results are a
matter of speculation. Ifthe experiment fails, it will, at any rate, not
be for want of trouble taken. If it succeeds, the administration of law
in the Colony will be freed of many perplexities that now beset it.

The West Indian Court of Appeal.

In the Report of the British Guiana Common Law Commission
reference is made (p. 21) to a proposal to establish a West Indian Appeal
Court. The proposal has been under discussion for some time past, and
has been received with widespread sympathy and interest. It has been
commended on the very legitimate ground that it would not only tend
to improve the administration of law in the Colonies concerned, but
would help to “ link upthe scattered fragments” of the West Indian
portion of the Empire, and consolidate and strengthen West Indian
interests in the Imperial counsels. After being in abeyance for many
years, the suggestion was revived in 1912, and has since been the subject
of many interchanges of opinion between the authorities of the Colonies
in question.

An important step forward was taken in January, 1916, when ten
delegates from the Colonies of Barbados, British Guiana, the Leeward
Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Windward Islands, appointed by
their respective Governments, met at Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, to discuss
the clauses of a proposed Imperial Act, which had been drafted by the
Attorney-General of Trinidad, for the purpose of establishing the Court
of Appeal” and for purposes ancillary to its establishment.” The Con-
ference held four sittings under the Presidency of the Chief Justice of
Trinidad, and arrived at substantial agreement on all points of import-
ance butone. The main conclusions come to may be summarised as
follows: A Court to be called the ‘‘ West Indian Court of Appeal”
should be set up by Imperial Act for the before-menticned Colonies, with
power to the King in Council to add any other Colony, in or near the
West Indies, that desired to be included in the scheme, or to direct that
any Colony already included in the scheme should, if it so desired, be ex-
cluded therefrom. 2

The Court was to be in substitution for, not in addition to, any
existing local Court of Appeal. The law to be administered was to be that
of the Colony from which the appealcame. The Court was to be ambula-

1 At the time of writing no informaiton has come to hand as to whether the com-
plementary recommendations of the Committee have been carried into effect. Probably they
have.

2 Ina speech by Mr. Nunan on February 5, 1917 (published in the June, 1917 issue of
Timeh+zi, the excellent journal of the Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society of British
Guiana), it is stated that the Bahamas are now willing to come into the scheme, and that
“questions of steamer communication alone postpone Jamaica’s accession.” It seems pro-
bable that British Honduras will follow suit,

198 Timehri.

tory, with headquarters at Port-of-Spain. The right of appeal to the
King in Council was not to be affected.4) As to the constitution of the
Court, it was agreed that it should consist of the Chief Justices of
Trinidad and Tobago, British Guiana, Barbados and the Leeward
Islands, and the senior substantive Chief Justice of the Windward Islands
and that the first-named Chief Justice should be ew officio President.
But a proposal that the Act should also make provision for the appoint-
ment of a “barrister judge” from the United Kingdom revealed great
differences of opinion among the delegates, those from Barbados, the
Leeward Islands, and Grenada being strongly opposed to the suggestion,
on the ground that it was unnecessary and, in any event, too expensive,
while the delegates from Rritish Guiana and Trinidad (who urged that the
Colonies they represented would probably contribute seven-eighths of the
total number of appeals to the Appeal Court) expressed a decided opinion
in itsfavour. It is understoodthat this qnestion has proved a serious
stumbling-block, and has not yet been adjusted. We may, however, ven-
ture to express a hope that the obstacle will not prove insuperable.

The total annual cost of the Appeal Court is estimated at about
£1,500, exclusive of the salary of any judge brought in from outside.

The connexion between the proposal to create a West Indian Court
of Appeal, on the one one hand, and the before-mentioned legislative
reforms in British Guiana, on the other, is this: In appeals
from British Guiana the Appeal Court would have to administer
British Guiana law. Now, the common law of British Quiana
was Roman-Dutch law. The only member of the Court of
Appeal, however, who could be relied on to know Roman-Dutch law
would be the Chief Justice of British Guiana (who could not sit in
appeals from his own decisions), and (possibly) the “ barrister judge ” (if
any) imported from outside. The result would be that, in the words of
Mr. Nunan, the judges of the Appeal Court would have “to plunge into
the study of a [to them] new system of jurisprudence for the benefit of
litigants in British Guiana.” And since (toquote the Report of the
Common Law Commission, p. 21) ‘‘the serious study of the [Roman-
Dutch] common law isa matter of years of patient labour. . . . the pros-
pect of decisions on [that] law by West Indian judges based upon casual
study for the purpose of trying isolated cases is not attractive.” The
conclusion drawn from this state of things was that such parts of the
Roman-Dutch Jaw as it was desired to preserve for the Colony should be
embodied in an Ordinance, and the remainder abolished. This, as already
explained, has now been done. Some doubt may, however, be expressed
whether, even so, an Ordinance resting in fact on a basis of Roman-
Dutch law can be satisfactorily handled and interpreted by a Court that
makes no claim to have knowledge of that law.

1 Appeals from the Colonies in question to the King in Council are notnumerous, In
the five years commencing in 1910 there were only five—three from Trinidad and Tobago, and
two from British Guiana.

‘

he tore Te rs uit — Se See ee
‘ ae ae ae i iG nn
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COLONEL ROOSEVELT AND Dr. NUNAN,

TIMEHRI: ==
yy d a

eo.
& (ERY:

(She Roya Agricultural and
(Rommercial Society

OF

BRITISH GUIANA.

Hon. J. J. NUNAN, K.C., LL.D., Editor.
JAMES Ropway, F.LS., Assistant Editor,
Vol. VI. (Third Series), September, 1919.
COLONISATION VOLUME.

Demerara :

THE “ ARGOSY” COMPANY, LIMITED.

'
‘

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FOLIA ee
fi | ek

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SONTENTS<OF « VOLUME

(THIRD SERIES.)

EpiToriAL Notes—Assistant Editor ...

TIMEHRI, OR PICTURED Rocks—J. Rodway ...
INTERIOR COMMUNICATION—Stafford X. Comber .
LABOUR AND COLONISATION—J. Rodway
EMIGRATION FROM IND1Aa—Arthur H. Hill

Tue East INDIANS IN BRITISH Guiana—J . A. Luckhoo
HopETOWN CHINESE SETTLEMENT—F. O. Low

An Acuine InpustriaL Vorp—J. Van Sertima

AFRICAN IMMIGRANTS AFTER FREEDOM—J. G. Cruickshank
CoLoNIsaTION ScHEME—Report

RaitrRoaD LocaTion—Fred Lavis

PROPOSED RAILWAY DEVELOPMENT—E. C, Buck

Tue ARTESIAN WELLS OF BRITISH GUIANA ,,
CANADA AND THE West INDIEs—T. B. Macaulay

Tue NoircepacuT Murper—J. A. Veerasawmy

APPENDIX TO Ditto, Stray NOTES ON OBEAH—“ X ”
POTENTIALITIES OF THE NorTH WESTERN DiIsTRictT—V. Roth
InsEcT CAMOUFLAGE—L. D. Cleare, Jnr.

THE MIGRATION FROM SURINAM TO JAMAICA—F. Cundall ...

SuRINAM AS A Dutca PossEssion—F, Oudschans Dentz

VI.

CONTENTS—ConTINvu_ED.

Page
CELEBRATION OF THE ANNIVERSARY—F, Oudschans Dentz ... <- 182
Some Home Truras—Edgar Beckett See ae A 1. eG
Tue BerpicE LUTHERAN CHURCH—Rev. Ralph J. White ... -. - 106
Tue GuNn-TRAP OF THE Guiana InpIans—G. E. Bodkin ... 3 Og
LETTER TO THE Epitors—Fr. C. Cooksey, SJ. ... f oo
OccasionaL NoTEs sds Bee a Ae Ses AR onl Se

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY ... eee sae sec A ies

JAMES RODWAY,

Assistant Editor,

TIMEHRI:

THE JOURNAL OF

THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL AND COMMERCIAL SOCIETY
OF BRITISH GUIANA.

VOL. VI. SEPTEMBER, 1919. CoLoNIsATION VOLUME,

EDITORAL NOTES.

This isa Colonisation volume and most of the articles have some
bearing upon the great problem of populating the Colony.

It might perhaps be considered that the account of the migration of
British settlers in Surinam in Mr. Cundall’s paper has little bearing on
the subject, but when it is carefu'ly read the opposite will appear.
Surinam, Jamaica and Antigua wanted colonists, and the proprietor of
Surinam had a grievance when the colony was given over to the Dutch.
Lord Willoughby knew that a colony without people was useless to its
owners. The British, who had mostly come from Barbados, were as loyal
as the “ Little Englanders ” of to-day, but they claimed the right to carry
off their labourers, which the Dutch wanted to prevent. The account of
the provisions made for the Surinam immigrante in Jamaica is very
suggestive ; free land and assistance at the beginning was the rule; Mr.
Oudschans Dentz gives us the Dutch side of the matter.

Opening up the country has always been advocated by Timehri, but
we cannot do very much with the people we have. At the same time due
praise must be given for what has been done, for after all we cannot
develop any place without settlers. The same difficulties we have now
were prominent in the olden time; they cropped up whenever an
attempt was made to develop the colony. Instead of getting a
fuller labour supply our predecessors took the people from cotton
and coffee to grow sugar, Future development should not be on such
lines, for we want to retain all our industries. The papers on African,
East Indian and Chinese immigration should help to show the value
of the different peoples, In a progressive world every man is faulty but
we must not lay undue stress upon their faults.

It is hardly necessary to excuse the first paper on Timehri rocks,
but it may be desirable to explain that the portrait of the Assistant Editor

rie Timehri.

was not inserted on his initiative. Our Journal has been a consistent
advocate of a railroad to the interior. This matter is deat with in three
papers by Messrs. Comber, Lavis and Buck; the last gen leman has also
dealt with artesian wells, which will probably affect us in many ways.
For the outsider it may be mentioned that the greatest difficulty on our
coast lands is the want of a full and pure water supply.

Two papers from the pens of Messrs. Bodkin and Cleare are interest-
ing. Mr. Bodkin shows us that the native Indian is ingenious none
make a gun-trap on the lines of the older bow-springe. The word
Camouflage as applied to the protective measures of insects by Mr.
Cleare may getinto use, now that it has beeome familiar.

Possibly some of our readers may think the article on the famous
murder case at Noitgedacht a little out of place, but itis of legal and his-
torical interest ; the notes on Obeah form a useful addition to the case.

Everyone in the colony is aware that a deputation to advocate
Colonisation has gone to London and at the time we write appears to
have initiated a useful work for the future. We can at least hope for
success though the upset caused by the Great War tends to put some
things in the background. There is probably so much to be done within
the Empire that a little delay must not upset us. The war is fortunately
at an end but it has left an aftermath of troubles which will affect the
world for a long time. The optimist, however dark may be the outlook,
will never despair ; he looks back and sees mankind overcoming many
difficulties. There is much to be done, and means must be provided.

Our frontispiece has portraits of Dr. Nunan and Col. Roosevelt ;
this may be considered as a slight tribute to the latter, a man who helped
Mr. Beebe in his grand work at the Tropical Research Station. Our poor
local tribute (see Proceedings) will be very trifling as compared with the
numerous memorial notices in the world’s press.

Appreciations have appeared in hundreds of periodicals; we extract
the following from ‘“ Natural History,” part of an article by the old
naturalist John Burroughs :—

“ There was always something imminent about him, like an avalanche
that the sound of your voice might loosen. The word demanded by the
occasion was instantly on his lips, whether it were to give pleasure or
pain. In his presence one felt that the day of judgment might come at any
moment. No easy tolerance with him, but you could always count on the
just word, the square deal, and tolerance of your opinion if it was well
founded.

The charge that he was an impulsive man has no foundation ; it was
a wrong interpretation of his power of quick decision. His singleness of
purpose and the vitality and alertness of each of his many sides enabled

Editorial Notes. ill.

him to decide quickly when others hesitate and stumble. The emphasis,
the sharpness of his yea and nay, were those of aman who always knew
his own mind and knew it instantly. What seemed rashness in him was
only the action of a mind of extraordinary quickness and precision. His
uncompromising character made him many enemies, but without it he
could not have been the Roosevelt who stamped himself so deeply upon
the hearts and the history of his countrymen.

‘‘ When I think of his death and the great days when such tremen-
dous world events are fast becoming history and recall what a part
he could have played, had his health permitted, I realise with new
poignancy what aloss the world has suffered in his passing! A pall
seems to rattle upon the very sky. The world is bleaker and colder for
his absence from it. We shall not look upon his like again.”

Under the heading ‘‘Der Noble Roosevelt” the famous ‘ Hans
Breitmann ” published in Flaxius,” 1902, some verses worth reading in this
connection ; we quote the following :—

It is writ in many a story which came from olden time,
In legends full of glory, in many a minstrel’s rhyme ;
Dot he who acted kindly since history began,

And gently to all beople, was der truest gent)eman.

And among the very truest of dis kind in der Welt

As die Rose among the Ritters, I put der Roosevelt ;

For brave in dis, or dat, in deed, is many a king or knight,

But Roosevelt’s der only von dot’s brave in all dot’s right.
* * *

So Gott be help him onwards unto a glorious end !

For de trodden down and lowly efer find in him a friend :
Votefer snobs and copperheads against his name may bring
Heaven pless dee for dy nople heart O Roosevelt my king !

Tue ASSISTANT EDITOR.

“TIMEHRI” OR PICTURED ROCKS.

By J. Ropway.

It is desirable that this Journal should contain some account of the
pictured rocks from which it derives its name and though we have little
to say of their origin it may be well to put on record what we can
gather.

Geographically the pictured rocks are comprised nearly within the
boundaries of Guiana, including however several branches of the Rio
Negro and Orinoco. They are not found in small rivers or creeks ; we
have them in the Essequebo, Berbice and Corentyne, but not in the
Demerara. They are usually engraven on rocks near the rapids and
may possibly commemorate stages in a migration which took a long
time and culminated at a recent date in some branches of the Rio Negro.
These in British Guiana are generally covered with a black deposit of
manganese and iron, which seems to indicate considerable antiquity, but
Koch-Griinberg found in the Rio Negro examples that appeared to be
quite recent. Some were apparently unfinished and he thought they
were often done at intervals, and that the workers returned again and
again to do a little at atime. Proof of recent work was seen in two
elaborate figures on a clay bank, which were easily recognised as in dance
costumes representing a butterffy and a vulture.

Here we have an indication of the meaning of the figures; they
are dancers, but only here and there can we see a figure complete enough
to be recognisable. Sometimes only the head is engraved, hence some
-avye spoken of sun worship, because the rough circle with rays, which
is really the head with a feather crown, looks like the sun’s disc. In
confirmation of the view that the figures are connected with dances we
tind engravings of birds, beasts, turtles, etc., somewhat like those found
on dancing sticks. Itis interesting to note that some have strings of
beads or quipus which possibly indicate divisions of time and suggest
that something was meant to be conveyed to those who understood the
system.

As none of the Indians can tellus the meaning of the pictures we
can only speculate and suggest possibilities. We have to start with
Indian dances and try to find out the reasons for the celebrations. In a
general way they mean a feast or drinking bout, and the advent of
strangers. In early times there were feasts after a victory when plenty
of meat was available in the shape of the slain and prisoners. We may
perhaps picture an invasion of a country by strangers like the Caribs,
who fought their way through other tribes and perhaps commemorated
a victory by a dance and a record which could be read by those proficient
in these picture writings. We have evidence of esoteric knowledge in
the Piaimen, and even yet there may be something procurable that may
help us to the key. Mr. Penard in Surinam did a little, but I am not quite
satisfied with his explanation of Timehri. In a general way it may be

2 Timehri.

accepted that the pictures are connected with dances, and that the dances
were celebrations of events that were of sufficient importance -to be
memorised. It can easily be understood that, given a migration of stran-
gers who passed on, the people of the country who had escaped were
ignorant of the meaning of the record left behind. Hence the general
answer of our aborigines that Timehri pictures were made by some hero
ina forgotten age. In the Rio Negro, Yaperikuli, the ancestor of the
Tarianas and Icanas, was eredited with the work, in spite of the fact
that pictures are still being made.

Indian dances consist mainly in marching round and stamping to
the beat of drums. This is very old and possibly was once connected
with sun worship. Probably however there was even something earlier,
connected with the seven stars at the pole which appear to swing round ;
in four aspects they may have suggested the original wheeled cross or
swastika, so common on the Indian aprons. Crosses are also found on
the Timehri rocks and it is possible that the swastika is a dance emblem
as well as a suggestion of the little Bear.

Our Indian dances are described by Schomburgk; he says the
Warraus have a bird dance, a monkey dance and several others in which
they imitate the voices and actions of the animals represented. He
mentions the Macusi dance as the most amusing; it represents incur-
sions on the Macusis by the Caribs who carried off the females. I may
mention here that some tribes of cannibals in Peru did not eat women;
they were tabooed for food but capture as slaves. In the Macusi dance
we have evidence not only of rejoiciag for a victory but also a comme-
moration long after the event and therefore it is not going too far to say
that Timehri pictures may also be commemorative of a festive dance
in honour of a_ victory.

The word Timehri appears to be Carib. We find it in the name of let-
ter-wood, Piratinera, a word made up from paira and timera figured or
marked ; Laet called it Piratiminere and Aublet Latinised it. It may be
noticed that similar figures on rocks exist in St. Vincent, once inhabited
by Caribs. Historical evidence points to the probability that tribes of
Caribs or people from the same stock were not fixed long in one area
and we may safely affirm that those who once gave our coast the name
of Caribana did not entirely die out but moved into the interior. If the
pictured rocks commemorate the progress of a very slow migration with
stoppages, they are consistent with the evidence.

It may possibly be considered far-fetched to call attention to the his-
tory of the conquest of the West Saxons in England, but there is a sug-
gestion of something like what may have taken place here. The Saxons
entered Britain by the rivers and gradually overran the country. For
about a century they made little progress into the interior, but iu_ time
they occupied Wiltshire and probably cut out the figure of the White
Horse near Westbury as a sign of possession. Later, another white

“ Timehri” or Pictured Rocks. 3

horse was cut in Berkshire near a place called Eastdown which repre-
sented the eastern limit of Wessex as Westbury did the western bound-
ary of the time. They are generally considered to have been memorials
of the victories of King Alfred, but probably the idea that they recorded
progress is more consistent with facts. The Caribs were the Saxons
and Normans of the West Indies, a tribe of hardy pirates, who entered
the rivers or landed on islands to pick up food, mainly in the shape of
human flesh. They were stronger than the cassava-eaters of the Islands
and Guiana and therefore generally gained the victory. We might fancy
a party going up the Essequebo and dragging their corials through the
rapids. The enemy finding them engaged in this difficult work, attacked
and were defeated, with the result that a great feast was held and a dance,
commemorated at Waraputa and other places.

There is always much difficulty when we try to get peeps into the
minds of primitive people. The theory of animism may be convenient
for the anthropologist but we can be sure that the Indian has never for-
mulated anything of the kind. The beena cult suggests that the aim of
the man is to succeed in attaining his object entirely regardless of beasts,
birds, fishes or even othermen. We can hardly goso far as to say that
the Indian believes in the fairy-tale notion that a sucking-pig would
run up into his arms to be eaten, and yet there is a kind of propitiation of
the game animals to make them more easily procurable. Some of the
dances suggest that by carrying figures of game animals they hope to
either curry favour with them or even cheat them. The childish idea is
what we might expect and what we get, ¢.g., a fisherman catches a small
fish, tells it to invite its friends to the bait and then puts it back into the
water. The only fundamental idea is to get what he wants no matter
how ; “ get it honestly if you can, but get it.” Sometimes there is a sug-
gestion of cunning in the huntsmanwho has to carry on his struggle
with others as sharp as himself. We may draw up our theories of
animism for convenience, but the Indian has no theories ; in most cases he
doee things because others did them when he was a child. We see the
same principle in mothers ~hen they say ‘‘ Naughty chair to hit baby.”
No one could affirm that our mothers think the chair has a mind or per-
sonality. There is some idea of a taboo in connection with the Timehri
rocks, but this is vague, for our Indians have not gone far enough to
consider anything really sacred. It has been reported that Indians turn
their heads away when passing pictured rocks and sometimes drop pep-
per juice in their eyes as if to close them against the sight. Mr. Verrill
says that the costumes usedin the Parasara dance are hung on trees
as if they should be preserved as long as possible, or asif it were wrong
to wilfully destroy them. Here isa suggestion of a commemoration of
the dance for a short time, while the pictured rocks are possibly an
enlargement of the idea.

Whether the people who carved the figures had any idea of their
possible value to their friends is doubtful. We may safely state that
~ there wonld be many invading parties and that the record of one victory

4 Timehri.

would inspire confidence ; we might even imagine that those who fol-
lowed could interpret the scribblings and say how long ago the battle
had been fought and perhaps be able to overtake their friends.

However, we are not sure that they were messages for rock-
scribblings do not necessarily mean very much. When a child writes its
name on sand atthe seaside. there is no suggestion of a message and
even the lover’s initials on a tree have little real meaning. Globe-trotters
often carve their initials on monuments because others have done the
same ; they rarely ask why ? Our actidns are not by any means always
rational and we may be sure that the more primitive a people the more

childish they will be ; in most cases they illustrate the saying that “ One
fool makes many.”

However, the Indian is not quite a fool, though he does many things
which appear quite absurd tous. The pictured rocks suggest feasting
after a victory and a dance with probably a drunken spree.

But why do the dancers carry sticks with rude figures of game ani-
mals and imitate the movements of the animals? Is it part of the
Beena cult—a charm to promote success in hunting? The difficulty of
answering such questions is insuperable. We know only that Beenas
are used to promote success but whether their effect is supposed to be
on the auimal or the man no one cansay. Hven were an Indian to in-
vent a plausible excuse we should hesitate to accept it. Something is
supposed to happen when a Beena is used or when the figure is carried
in a dance but no Indian reasons out the matter for he simply does
what his father taught him, We are not by any means prepared to
blame him for that, for we also live in glass houses and many of our
customs will not bear consideration. So much is done everywhere
without thinking out reasons that we may safely state that no one is
rational at all times,

Few people ask why they dance. Our society dances are con-
nected with sexuality, but these are probably quite modern though they
have had a long and gradual development from what we can see here as
the Cumfoo dances. Such dances, however, were probably not primitive
for the first to appear are war-dances, of which we find examples in
Australia. Children jump for joy whn they are happy and _ this
generally means that a feast isin view. The first war-dances were pro-
bably connected with cannibal feasts, and later we find harvest festivals,
also connected with the satisfaction after a full meal. Such satisfaction
was rare and therefore when it happened there would be a commemoration,
which in some cases, no doubt, would be remembered for many years.

Primitive man was always hungry; we see in our children what
happened when he got his opportunity. If he did not quite burst he
came very near to it. Probably the dance was before rather than after
because when filled he was more inclined to lie down. The South
American tribes varied very much in places and at times. Some were

“Timehri” or Pictured Rocks. 5

always wandering in search of food and never got enough unless they
were victors in great fights. Starvation was the rule with wanderers
like the Caribs, hence only a victory with a cannibal feast could satisfy
their hunger, Possibly in some cases years might pass with hardly
enough food to keep life together ; the victory and the feast were worth
commemorating.

The Carib invaders of Guiana necessarily had little in the way of
provisions. They did not stop long in one place and though they fished
and collected molluses their real food supply came from prisoners and
those killed in their raids. We have an account by an early voyager
of the capture of a corial at the bottom of which was a bound captive
ready to be eaten when the Caribs stopped for the night. We can get
a fair idea of the position from ‘‘ Robinson Crusoe.” There is plenty of
evidence to prove their cannibal propensities as well as their over-
powering strength.

The evidence of the mounds in the North-West points to the former
existence of communities in that district far more numerous than can now
be found in any part of Guiana. The kitchen-middens twenty feet in
diameter and as high, either represent large communities or peaceful
occupation for a long time ; probably both.

The people who lived there were more civilised than those we know
and probably defended themselves against the invaders. But it is evident
that they were killed and eaten and that probably only a few escaped
into the interior. This, however, took some time and the invaders did not
enter the large rivers at once ; centuries may have passed before the
coast people were captured or driven away. The invaders probably
divided, one section conquered and occupied the Caribbean Islands, the
other invaded Trinidad and the coast down to Cayenne. There is a
possible explanation that the invaders of the great rivers were people
who had been driven from the coast and not Caribs, they would be natural
enemies to the inland peoples.

The problem of the origin of the various tribes found in South
America on the arrival of Europeans is insoluble. Certain facts, how-
ever, point toa series of migrations from the North, partly through
Central America and partly by corials through the Gulf of Mexico and
Caribbean Sea. The American race appears to have developed in what is
now the United States where evidence of paleolithic implements in
enormous quantities points to a very long and slow development before
much migration took place. Few can appreciate the fact that the distri-
bution of chipped implements in North America points to long ages of
gradual progress before the Mexican and Peruvian civilisation could be
pessible. Everywhere we can find evidence not only of man’s presence in
the past but of his long residence. Dwellings and everything thit decay
may be absent and yet stone implements and pottery are almost eternal.
Even in Guiana the neolithic relics are everywhere and it is noticeable
that in no district are they wanting. They may be found on the surface

6 Timehri

after floods or dug up in gold-washing, thus proving that even here the
people existed for ages before thearrival of Europeans.. It is, however,
plain that the migrations must have been numerous, and that some were
by land and others by water. There are suggestions that the general
course from north to south was sometimes reversed, for Humboldt speaks
of tribes then in Venezuela having come from the Essequebo and Serbice.
We may safely state that man was first a nomad everywhere, but at the
same time there must have been a high civilisation in some part of
tropical America to allow of the inventions connected with cassava,
which, of course, could not have been developed by wandering tribes who
grew nothing. What they were like when they had no cassava or maize
is told by some of the early voyagers wrecked on the shores of what is
now the Argentine; the natives were far worse off than the Caribs for a
scanty supply of natural game, roots and fruits, necessarily meant a small
population and little meat. Even foes to conquer were few and far
between, and if these people had found villages like what there were in
our North-west they would have danced for joy as they feasted. Few of
us can appreciate the conditions under which a feast was so rare that it
could be memorised for life. Those who get regular meals forget what
they had for dinner a few days ago, but if the feast came once only in a
life-time it would not only be something to remember by the individual
but to be told to his children, Even nowadays a feast is remembered
by a child in connection with a party where there is often dancing.
Many poor children remember best occasions where they have eaten their
fill, but such starvation as was once common is now quite unknown.
And this was not like present conditions when one man feasts and
another suffers from want, but universal want over large areas. ll our
progress has been due to the better distribution of food, and we have to
look forward to a time when there will be no need for a feast because
everyone will get regular meals.

Those who want to formulate reasons for the pictured rocks are liable
to forget that they do not stand alone. We must group together all
the carvings, modellings and paintings, as well as the textile work and
ask why pictures are made at all. Much of the Indian work can be
admired, and even where it is grotesque it is not very different from the
gargoyles of English Churches and the old carvings on church benches.
Indian tattooing is well-done and I have been informed that there is
some meaning in it; the man is marked as a great drinker and the
woman as expert in making the drinks. If this be so we have here a
suggestion of memorising feasts. Face and body painting is elaborate
and the figures as plain as those on queyus and baskets. ‘These are,
however, geometrical, but we have figured pottery and carved benches
where human and animal forms are recognisable. As for colour the
aprons and feather work show that they were artists in conventional
ways. »Even the stone implements are sometimes carved with heads of
game beasts suggesting possible ideas of overcoming an animal by
striking it with a figure like itself. There is no need for any elabor-
ate theory for pictured rocks that will not include carving, moulding and

“ Timehri’ or Pictwred Rocks. 7

weaving of patterns. We see ourchildren make figures on a slate or on
the sand, but we hardly ask why. There is some excuse for the theory of
animism, but like all theories it must be taken as only a convenience
to the anthropologist. It ¢ rtainly does not represent the mind of the
Indian ; we cannot judge likes and impulses as if they had been logically
considered. Because one man can give reasons for his conduct, it does
not follow that people in general, whether savage or civilized, can do so.
Even professed thinkers act on impulse in the majority of cases, for it
would hamper our work were we to balance pros and cons before every
action. It isnot because the Indian thinks a labba has a personality that
he carries its effigy on a dance-stick, but because he has seen it done by
his father.

There is an enormous field for the study of the Indian mind,
but the difficulties are enormous. What we gather from half-
civilized people, who know a little English, does not put us in
touch with the real wild man who has never been tainted by
European ideas. Possibly excuses are formulated for actions now, that
were never thought about by their ancestors ; our boys act on impulse and
so do the Indians, but in the early stages no excuses are made. The
reason for all our actions is to get what we like; the Indian uses
beenas to help him. I might say that the engraver of the rocks would
use a beena, and be all the more proficient because of his confidence in
the charm. This can be suggested because as soon as we find out the
manners and customs we can see that nothing is done without tbe pre-
liminary charm. Because the man believes in his beena he perseveres in
his arduous task and generally succeeds, when perhaps without it he
would be careless. The point to be noted is that the charm dves not
take the place of hard work, but inspires hope and confidence, thus helping
on the accomplishment of the task. He does not necessarily ask what
is the good of such things, but has a feeling that they are good and richt
because otherwise their fathers would not have done them. We find the
same thing among civilised people who often retain old customs when
they know them to be out-of-date. The Indian probably has a feeling
like some old conservatives who say their fathers belonged to a certain
party so they must stick to the same as long as they live.

When Mr. Im Thurn started this Journal and gave it the name
*“Timehri” he, as it were, endowed it with a character. It was to contain
scribblings which might or might not be lasting, but we can hardly
expect that they will endure like the pictured rocks of Waraputa, though
they are perhaps more stable than those engraved on a clay bank. Such
scribblings as this may perhaps pave the way to a better understanding
of the native Indian but they must not be considered as anything more
than suggestions of possibilities. Those who care to study the subject a
little more will find that until Koch-Griinberg gave the key no one
seemed to have any idea of dances being the motive of Timehri pictures.
With this key however we have been led to speculate, but it is not all
fancy. The pictured rocks are real and the dances can be connected

8 Timehri.

without much difficulty. That a dance should commemorate a victory or
a stage in progress, and be connected with a feast is logical and requires
no apology. We must however say that they are not necessarily all
dance commemorations, for some suggest feastiny on a big catch of game.
Here we come to another wide field exemplified in the names of our
rivers and creeks, which appear to commemorate useful things found on
their banks. This is the Tapir creek (Camouni) because tapirs were
found there by those who gave it the name. Spruce asked some Indians
of the Cassiquiari the meaning of some figures, several of which were
identified, including a cassava slab with fan, barbecue, dolphins, rays,
iguanas, etc., all pointing to food and feasting. He gives a story how-
ever that suggests a commemoration of a death :—‘ The most distinet
figures are on the top of a rock which rises perpendicularly by the
highest fall, and cannot be reached without risk. They were engraved by
a young woman who was lamenting the death of her mother, for whose
epitaph they were probably intended. Day by day she sat on the rock
engaged in her task, while her fast-falling tears ceased not to mingle with
the cataract. Thus months passed away, until one day the maiden, worn
with grief and fading almost to a a shadow, fell over the rock and dis-
appeared among the roaring breakers at its base.”

Spruce could not copy these figures but from a hasty glance some
could be recognised as human. ‘ On the top of the same rock there are
shallow impressions, apparently the work of nature, which bear some
resemblance toa human form, and are called by the Indians Tupana-
rangaua (the figure of God). The damsels of the Paapuris visit the spot
on stated occasions, and kneeling down on the knees of the figure perform
some kind of devotion—what I could not learn.”

Spruce suggests that probably pieces of quartz crystal were used to
engrave the figures and it may be safely stated that they were not
ancient in the district. I may here remind the reader that the area where
pictured rocks are most common is immediately behind Guiana and could
be reached from the Upper Essequebo.

In the story told of the Indian girl we have another suggestion
which may be taken with all faults. The pictures may commemorate the
death of friends and the engraved animals be food for the dead. Models
of houses and other necessaries are found in graves, and we can suggest
that figures of food—animals and cassava may take the place of the array
of meat and drink usually deposited therein. This would not exclude the
idea of a dance.

Mr. Dance tells us that the grave of an Indian boy was surmounted
by a tiny benab in which was food and drink in his little drinking cup.
We can adda further motive, commemoration of friends killed in the
fight. It is easily seen that a supply of game for the dead could
be figured, when, perhaps, there could be no proper burial with tbe real
food and drink. It is also evident that we must not get any single idea
fixed as if it explained the whole problem. Possibly it may be of no real

“ Timehri” or Pictwred Rocks. 9

value and it isa waste of time and space to dwell upon it. However, we
are impelled to try to solve this problem and many others; every new
writer throws a little more light upon it. ‘Cui bono” will always be the
objection of some people and yet we are impelled to go forward. It is
natura] to enquire about everything, but the ‘‘ Gallios ” may go their
own way. Problems are all round us, and we are progressive when we
try to solve them. Others have been trying for the last eighty years
and each has done a little. Some have speculated as I am doing, but
they rarely help towards anything certain. When we try to peep into the
minds of so-called savages we fail, and yet we shall go on trying as our
fathers have done. Much has been discovered and yet the more we find
the more problems are revealed.

I am not prepared to give anything like an account of the pictured
rocks, for most of them have been described and many figured. The
principal works to be consulted are those of the Schomburgks, Wallace,
Im Thurn, Brown, Spruce and Koch-Griinberg. Less available is a
pamphlet by A. Winter published in aid of the Potaro Mission in 1881,
entitled “Indian Pictured Rocks.” Possibly, at some future time, it
would be well to give a complete list of the localities, but at present I am
not sure that all have been recorded for discoveries are certain to be made
in the future. As late as 1914 Mr. Huckerby figured 4 goodly number
of rock pictures in St. Vincent some of which are comparable to those
of Guiana ; both shallow and deep forms having been found.

It would be interesting to identify every figure with a view to finding
out their bearing on dances and feasts as well as of possible memorials of
the dead with figures of things desirable in the future life. We read of
dances in connection with funerals and it is possible that the Timehri
recks may in some cases be memorials like that of the Indian mother as
told to Spruce. Scribblings by Indian children are recorded, and like
Europeans they draw things most familiar ; we ean find the same figures
on rocks that we used to draw when we got our first slate and pencil.

We can divide our actions into two classes, impulsive and rational.
Savages, children and women do many things that are quite unreason—
able ; there is no real motive but they do them to please their particular
tastes or likings, if not through habit and custom. Few of us can justify
all our actions ; in fact no one is rational at all times. Boys who have
done some mischief make excuses but these were not thought out before-
hand. Some travellers ask people they visit the reason for their manners
and customs and are either put off by excuses or fooled in some way
which makes their reports amusing. If the child or primitive man has
anything like a belief it differs from that of a civilised man ; we may call
it instinctive certainty for it has never been formulated. Whon asked
for reasons we may get excuses but the primitive requires no reasons.
Old travellers put down such excuses and some theories have been
founded upon them, but they give us no real information.

10 Timehri.

Spruce says in regard to Timehri figures :—

“The execution of the figures may have ranged through several
centuries, a period which in the existence of a savage people is but a
year in that of the highly civilised nations of modern Europe. In vain
shall we seek any chronological information from the Indian, who never
knows his own age, rarely that of his youngest child, and who refers all
that happened before his own birth to a vague antiquity, wherein are no
dates, and rarely any epochs to mark the sequence of events.

We can appreciate this when we think of the uniformity of their
tasks; the same thing goes on day after day and no impression is
made upon the memory unless something happens that is quite different
from the daily work. Even a painful experience is not long remembered
as we see in our children who often suffer from mistakes that are
repeated after short intervals. Most of our lessons are learnt through
repetitions of painful results, which lead us to avoid trouble by getting
out of bad habits. We have to remember well what happened when
certain things were done, but primitive man never does this though he
may ultimately get an instinctive dislike to do things oa brought him
or his forefathers into trouble.

In Mr. A. Winter’s pamphlet on the pictured rocks there is an
attempt to bring in religious ideas. This is hardly justified for religion
implies thinking. Mr. im Thurn’s elaborate animism also suggests that
our Indians have a rational, though mistaken, basis for their conduct.
We may safely state that these people are simply thoughtless and im-
pulsive, imitating what they see done by the parents or the tribe.
Like ourselves they try to get what is agreeable, and there is a feeling
of satisfaction when the supposed right thing has been done.

At the base of all human actions is the ardent desire to gain what we
like. This leads us to try many things but we do not always succeed
or the result is not entirely to our liking. We have taken, as we think,
every precaution to avoid failure, and yet there appears to be an
adversary which has been personified as a devil or by more abstract ideas
of fortune, fate, luck and chance. To conciliate this adversary the Indian
has got his beenas and perhaps the figures on aprons, baskets, pottery
and weapons give hope and trust thus enabling him to gain better
success in his struggle with adverse circumstances. The devil and luck
are often excuses for idleness, but the Indian is not a fatalist for he tries
to overcome his difficulties. His efforts appear to us rather absurd and
yet they are not quite useless. He has a mainspring for action when
there is a beena or charm to gain success in every undertaking, but the
charm means doing something ; if it is a prayer we can say he works and
prays at the same time.

Anthropologists rarely have the judicial mind, hence their reports
are full of hearsay evidence which some do not attempt to examine as

“ Tamehri” or Pictured Rocks. 11

judges or historians. We can safely state that no reasons can be given
for Timehri pictures and that even some of our Indians of to-day are ready
with explanations, and we should have to hesitate before accepting them.
Some of our children can make up stories to excuse their actions but we
do not take these as worthy of credence. We can however be interested
in comparative ethnology without believing in the reasons or excuses
given for habits, manners and customs.

Nore-—The block on the title-page of this Journal contains figures from various
localities. We have in the Museum two pieces of rock from Waraputa which show the
real figures ; these rocks had slipped from their place and sunk into the river, and their
removal was therefore no damage to the whole.

INTERIOR COMMUNICATIONS FOR BRITISH
GUIANA.

By STaFrorD X. Comper, M.Am.Soc.C.E.

When, as a result of my having made a report to the Government
upon certain proposed highway construction in the interior of British
Guiana, the Editor of “ Timehri,” Dr. Nunan, asked me for a contribution
to these columns, I was somewhat dubious of being able to contribute
an article concerning British Guiana that would be of interest to the
layman. The position in this regard will be better understood when it is
explained that except for the stereotyped information contained in the
English school books I had a very faint notion of British Guiana,
prior to 1916.

In that year I engaged to come to this colony in connection with the
permanent scheme of coast protection then about to be undertaken by the
Government, and when in considering the taking up of such work, I
sought information from the New York Public Library and the Congres-
sienal Library at Washington, I found practically all books that had been
published concerning the colony as well as the annual Administration
reports.

To one like myself, the greater part of whose life had been spent in
the highly developed industrial areas of England and the Eastern United
States, the impression created on “reading up” British Guiana, as
regards its development, or rather lack of development was very great.

I learned that here was a healthy land of equable climate, comparable
in area and date of discovery and settlement with the State of New York
but with only a tiny frisge of part of the relatively uncongenial flat coast-
lands inhabited, the development being of the crudest. I learned of the
pioneering of Schomburgk, Brown and Sawkins, Im Thurn and others,
and their descriptions of the magnificence of the Interior ; magnificence
not only in the aesthetic sense but magnificence of potential wealth, of
opportunity, of climate, and of all that goes to make a country great.
Yet this land was practically uninhabited and its natural wealth untouched.
Strangest of all, the slender financial resources of the country were about
to be heavily taxed by the expenditure of millions upon the salvage of
small portions of the muddy, flat coastlands, while nothing at all appeared
to be in reasonably immediate prospect in the matter of getting into the
heart of the country by modern means of communication and transport.

To what must this condition be attributed, this seeming strangulation
of the country to the benefit of the coastal fringe ? Verrill, the Ameriean
writer, tells us that sugar is to blame. Others blame the climate, the
form of Government, the archaic methods of the Colonial Office, and other
factors, and not a few put the Colony’s backwardness down to what they
are pleased to term the inherent laziness, lack of initiative, and general

Kaieteur or Kaietuk Falls.

Interior Communications for British Guiana. 13

inertia of the people of British Guiana. Much has been written and little
done regarding the remedying of the situation. A famous Irish
leader once said in Parliament, “‘ It cannot be denied that we Irishmen
are far more critical than creative,” and since I am of Irish blood I
must doubly guard against unconsciously becoming one of the army of
critics, of poor old “B.G.” It is therefore my intention to confine
myself to ‘ what we can do now,” no matter what faults, mistakes or mis-
iaken ideas have prevailed in the past, or who was to blame for them.
Let us not spend time crying over spilled milk. On the other hand, let
us be careful not to waste any of our all too short lives in merely dream-
ing of the future. No fairy godmother is coming here with a magic wand,
no matter whether Imperial Preference prevails or not, and the only way
British Guiana may look to attain the position she deserves in the world
of commerce is by the aggressiveness of her people.

A most amusing position was taken by a respected colonist, who
between drinks at one of our cherished “ swizzle” parties, alternately
deplored the lack of development and what he chose to term the general
sleepiness of the colony, and the untiring energy of a number of new
arrivals with whom his business brought him in contact ; young men who
had come here to accomplish certain work and intended to accomplish it.
These young men were always “bothering about something,” and our
worthy friend, although a successful man of business, failed to perceive
that this ‘always bothering” spirit is the very germ of progress, the
lack of which he was deploring.

The object of this article, however, is not to criticise the people of
the colony, but rather to place on record the opinions and impressions I
have formed relative to steps that are practicable under existing circum-
stances for the encouragement, by means of improved transportation
facilities, of Interior development, and as a preparation for the inevitable
world industrial re-adjustment that must take place in the near future.

The enormous rapidity with which development has taken place in
Canada and the United States following the opening up of lines of com-
munication through virgin country, and the fact that the influences at
work iu this regard must of necessity now go further afield, coupled with the
advantage possessed by British Guiana in the matter of stable Government,
make it patent that the development of the Interior and the tapping of
the colony’s resources, now securely looked away from the world, isa
condition less remote than is generally believed.

For any who believe British Guiana will remain forever practically
immune from the influences that have so changed and developed the
world of industry within the last two decades there is without doubt an
awakening in store. The influence for development and expansion in the
shape of world capital will make itself felt no matter what local opinions
there may be with respect to outside investment. Such prejudices and
opinions as those that have been voiced locally upon occasion may be

14 Timehri.

compared with those of the candle-makers of Paris who endeavoured to
restrict by legislation the construction of windows in order to bring
about a betterment of the candle industry. The cry ‘Guiana for the
Guianese ” lacks sympathy with the spirit of these times when it is more
than ever before the duty of each unit of the Empire, however humble,
to sink its ewn particular ends to those of Empire. Similarly in these
days when the world is emerging from the titanic struggle in which
civilisation itself has been at stake, any sentiment for the maintenance
of the few remaining vestiges of artificial barriers to the onward sweep
of civilisation in the development of world resources for the benefit of
the civilised race, in the nature of hindrance of legitimate international
investment, is totally at variance from the spirit of brotherhood of
civil sed nations that obtains to-day, and is a relic of the doctrine of
every nation for itself and the devil take the hindmost, and its in-
evitable accompaniment of petty international strife, intrigue and jealousy.
Such doctrine is directly responsible for the appalling events of the past
four years, and only by the discarding of such a doctrine by the civilised
nations has civilisation as we know it to-day been saved from perishing
from the very face of the earth.

The future undoubtedly holds in store enormous demands that the
Colony’s resources could supply, and it behoves the people of British
Guiana, the custodians of this important storehouse of the Empire’s
resources, to be prepared to make the best of opportunities for rapid
advancement in the near future.

While the railway project has of necessity been temporarily shelved
due to the impossibility of obtaining the necessary machinery and equip-
ment, there would seem to be no reason why the building of well-con-
structed highways should not be undertaken at once, especially when, as
appears later, more than one hundred miles of existing roads leading to
the hinterland, representing a large investment by the colony (most
of which lies idle) are available for inclusion in a scheme for reaching
the interior by road.

Mention of the scientific encouragement of settlement on the vast
areas tapped and served by the great Camadian and American transcon-
tinental railroads may not be inopportune in view of the great interest
that has been aroused and the serious efforts that are about to be made,
in the matter of colonisation. It is fairly well known that capital was
induced to embark upon the construction of the earlier transcontinental
lines in North America, because of the liberal attitude of the Canadian
and American Governments with respect to the granting of land to the
Railroad Companies. Most of the first settlers naturally located in fairly
close proximity to the main transcontinental line. These lands, controlled
by the Railroad Companies, however, were naturally more valuable and
therefore more difficult of acquisition by the immigrant of small means
than the lands more remote, or what are known by the local term of
“second depths” or ‘ back lands.” While the railroad companies

Interior Communications for British Guiana. 15

naturally sought to encourage settlement on the lands they controlled,
they nevertheless adopted the broadest of policies in the enconragement
of settlement on Government lands as well as their own. In some in-
stances the granting of free transportation to bona fide settlers and all
their belongings was adopted.

The problems of the development of the enormous expanses of
Western North America are hardly comparable with those of the relatively
small area of Eritish Guiana, and it would perhaps profit us better to
study the method of dealing with land settlement of a couple of hundred
miles or so on either side of the transcontinental lines.

The settler who goes out into virgin territory to build his homestead
and inyest therein his hard earned savings, in many instances the result
of years of toil in the “ old country,” will naturally choose, all other
things being equal, a locality in which the elements of doubt as to the
future are reduced to a minimum.

The importance of this factor was quickly recognised in North
America and almost from the very beginning the locations, first of staked
lines, then of paths or trails, then of roads, and finally of branch rail-
roads were definitely fixed from the start. Although the uncertainty as
to what the future held in store for the railroad companies as to the
extent to which the territory they served would be settled, prevented such
companies from guaranteeing to build branch lines to the ‘ back lands,”
they were nevertheless able to say, and did say, “‘ we cannot tell you when
it will pay us to build, but when we do build branch lines in this or that
section of the country, those branch lines will follow this or that align-
ment and you can build your homestead safe in the knowledge that a
branch line will not be constructed by us that will appreciate land value
elsewhere, by depreciating the value of land that has been made valuable
as a result of your pioneering, toil and industry.”

As mentioned in my report to the Government in October, 1913,
when new rcads are projected for the purpose of opening up virgin
territory, the question invariably arises whether the location shall
be governed solely by highway considerations, or partly with a view
to a railway being subsequently built either upon or parallel with
the line of highway. In projecting new roads into virgin territory it is
usually desirable tbat the alignihent and grades be suitable for a railway.
Manifestly the expense of road building in this circumstance may be in-
creased, and the extent to which the roadway and railway alignments are
to coincide is a matter for the judgment of the engineer, due considera-
tion being given to the nature of the terrain, probable rate of settlement
and financial conditions.

A factor which has to some extent affected the actual working out
of previously conceived plans along the lines above mentioned has been
the great resuscitation of road transport within the last few years, due to
the development of mechanical road haulage.

16 Timehrt.

Not only has the world war caused a tremendous speeding up of
mechanical developmen‘ and invention in the matter of road transport in
Europe, but the congestion on the railways of Canada and the United
States, due to war work, has been the means of initiating in those
countries an era of long-distance transportation of freight by road. The
first sign of this development was the decision by all the automobile
manufacturers to make deliveries by road, and early in the war it was
common to see long strings of fifty or more new cars being driven on their
journey of perhaps a couple of thousand miles, for delivery to purchasers.
Early in 1916, I myself counted a train of forty-eight large motor trucks
arriving in New York from the Middle West. Regular services of freight
transportation by motor truck have been inaugurated between New York,
Boston, Philade)phia, Washington, Chicago, St. Louis, and even to Los
Angeles and San Francisco.

Of course it cannot be expected that the cost of long distance freight
transportation per ten mile can ever be as low for road haulage as by rail ;
this is in the very nature of things well nigh impossible. On short hauls,
however, and by short hauls | mean anything up to a couple of hundred
miles, motor truck haulage of freight has come to stay, for although the
actual cost per ton mile is in favour of railway haulage, there is the corres-
ponding disadvantage of re-handling freight at each end of the railway
journey which can in many instances be obviated in the case of motor
trucks, This point was wellillustrated in the simple case of a friend of
mine moving his furniture from New York to Philadelphia. He calculated
the cost of railway transportation plus the cost of getting his goods from
his house to the freight station in New York and from the freight station
in Philadelphia to his new house, and was able to effect a considerable
saving by sending his goods all the way by road, the motor truck stopping
to pick up the goods at the door of his house in New York and delivering
them at the door of his house in Philadelphia.

And having come to stay, there can be no doubt that the motor
truck is destined to play an important part in the development of British
Guiana, for as will be readily seen, the initial investment required to in-
augurate a daily motor service into the interior will be but a small
fraction of the cost of inaugurating a daily train service. It goes without
saying that neither railway service nor motor truck service can be
operated on a paying basis at the very beginning, but the great dis-
advantage railway schemes are under in this circumstance is the huge
expenditure necessary before even one engine and car can be operated.
The cost of building road-bed, rails and ties is the same whether the
trains be run every ten minutes or every ten days. I am even prepared
to venture the opinion—and in this I know full well that there are many
who will disagree with me—that the solution of the problem of develop-
ment of the hinterland does not lie entirely in the carrying out of railway
schemes in the first place, but in a well-planned and well-built system of
highways suitable for freight and passenger motor traffic, that could be
supplemented by light electric railways when and where desirable.

-

Cie Cycle Ny Ons NIE AT tae

Interior Communications for British Guiana. 17

In considering the problem we must remember that we are very apt
to be influenced by development elsewhere, the conditions of which are
not the same as those to be met in British Guiana.

Because the problems of development and settlement of the vast
areas of Canada, the United States, and toa large extent Mexico, and to
some extent also Brazil and the Argentine, appeared to lie in the direction
of railway construction, it does not follow that railway construction would
best meet the initial needs of the case here. Because of the extremely
small areas of some of the West Indian Colonies some of us may have
formed the habit of regarding British Guiana as very large. Yet it is
really quite small when looked at from the angle of development in com-
parison with other parts of the world. It should not be forgotten that
practically all development during the last half century in other parts of
the world, whether on a small scale or on a large scale, has been during
the railway era.

During that time the railways have held the field with only negli-
gible competition from the roads, due to the simple fact that mechanical
rail haulage reached the commercial stage long before mechanical road
haulage. What may be termed the developed areas of the world are all
equipped with railways. The money is spent, the railways are there.
But considering the flexibility and low first cost of a road system as com-
pared with railways and the new phase of the situation created by the
sudden coming to the forefront of mechanical road haulage on a com-
mercial basis, we may well consider whether or no our requirements as
well as our purse would best be met by the new development.

I feel safe in asserting that hundreds of miles of railways now exist-
ing would never have been built if mechanical road traction had been
perfected say thirty or forty years ago. The point is well illustrated in
the case of Porto Rico, where the United States Government Engineers
planned an elaborate scheme of primary and secondary railways. The
advent of commercial road transport considerably affected the scheme,
which was very materially reduced on account of the new development, in
favour of a comprehensive scheme of first class roads.

For the colony to embark upon an elaborate and heavy railway
scheme at this time would be, in my opinion, as unwise as would have
been a heavy investment in stage coaches at the time of the railway boom
in England, or the building of large fleets of sailing ships after the
development of steam navigation had become assured.

The transport needs of the relatively small area of British Guiana
could be well within the scope of the motor truck, the ordinary motor
ear, and the light electric railway built to road grades, for it is not as
though the area to be developed can ever be enlarged. The Western
frontiers in North America were gradually pushed Westward until the
Pacific was reached, and the most unpretentious of railway schemes, those
of pechaps but a few hundred miles, were always embarked upon with a

18 Timehri.

view to gradual extension again and again. In British Guiana the situation
is entirely different. None but short railways can ever be built here, and
I have already pointed out the disadvantage short railways are under
in competing with the new conditions of road transport.

-

There are, of course, many arguments advanced in favour of railways,
not the least of which, in point of persistence, if not of soundness, is the
proposed connection with Manaos.

Having stated my views of the relatively greater desirability
of encouraging interior development by construction of roads, sup-
plemented where necessary by light hydro-electric railways rather than
the building of the expensive and cumbersome type of railways designed
for steam operation, I must proceed to suggest some tangible plan for
inaugurating a scheme of road-building that could be gradually
developed as conditions, such as the degree of success attained in the
present colonisation scheme, would appear to warrant.

Two alternative routes for roads into the Interior present themselves
at first hand. We have onthe one hand the cattle trail at present ter-
minating at Paradise, Berbice River, which is at present a rough cut line,
and on the other hand there is a possibility of linking up the seventy
miles of the old Kaburi Road with other existing roads of the Colony. .

It was previously mentioned that over one hundred miles of existing
roads were available for reaching the Interior. The following would
appear to be the most satisfactory route, all factors considered. From
Georgetown by Ferry to Vreed-en-Hoop. From Vreed-en-Hoop to
Lookout about thirty miles over the existing West Coast Demerara
Public Road. From Lookout to a point on the right bank of the
Essequebo River opposite Bartica, about twenty-five miles, through
bush on river bank. (Or alternatively by way of the West Bank road,
one of the dams of the Canals Polder, and thence about thirty miles
across what is known to be “ easy” country to the point opposite Bartica.)
From Bartica to Kaburi, seventy miles, over the existing Public Road.
From Kaburi to Tumatumari, about twenty-two miles, about ten miles
would be by recently cut line following chiefly the Kaburi Creek to its head,
and twelve miles over the existing line orginally cut to gain access to the
Kuribrong district from Tumatumari. From Tumatumari to Potaro
Landing, ten miles, the route would follow the right bank of the Potaro,
the Potaro being crossed at Tumatumari unless a closer examination
should reveal some more desirable point. From Potaro Landing to
Amatuk, about eighteen miles, the route would be for about eight miles
over the existing Public Road and about ten miles through the compara-
tively flat wooded country between the Potaro Public Road and Amatuk
Falls. The Potaro would again be crossed at a point between its con-
fluence with the Amu River and the Amatuk Falls. From Amatuk to
Tukeit, twenty-two miles, the route would roughly. follow the left bank of
the Potaro River over an existing cut line. From Tukeit to Kaieteur

Interior Communications for British Guiana. 19

Plateau the route would be around the Amen Hill and through the valley
of the Korume, as described in my report to the Government of October,
1918. ~

Of the total length of the proposed route, about 2014 miles,
some 108 miles are along the existing public roads of the Colony,
twenty-two miles are along established paths or cut lines, one and
a half miles are on the flat open rock surface of the plateau, thirty-
five miles are along recently surveyed lines which have been cut, marked
and mapped, and only about thirty-five miles of connecting links remain.
If we adopt the scheme only in part so as to utilise the Bartica Steamer
Service, then only about fifteen miles of connecting links remain.

There are several factors for consideration in connection with the
proposal for establishing road connection between the Highland Savannahs
and the coastlands, any one of which standing alone would probably be
insufficient to justify large expenditure for road building, but which when
taken together will, I think, be found sufficiently important to warrant
expenditure by the Colony of a sum sufficient for a more thorough
examination of the proposition, including the going over of the ground
from end to end and surveying of the short sections of the proposed
route regarding which information is at present scant. The principal
benefits, financial and otherwise, to be derived from a well-built road
connecting the savannahs of Upper Potaro with the City and Port of
Georgetown would be :—

1. The bringing within a few hours’ motor run of Georgetown some
of the most magnificent scenery in the world, including the Kaieteur Fall
and the magnificent Kaieteur Gorge. This phase of the matter cannot
be measured merely by the extent to which local inhabitants may benefit
by the new means placed at their disposal, but by the numerous and
much further reaching benefits which will accrue to the Colony from the
large number of persons from other parts of the world who will come
here and in a few hours be in a position to grasp the grandeur and
far-reaching possibilities of this Colony now so securely locked away
from the world. It would probably be safe to say that not one in
one hundred of the visitors to the Colony (and of local inhabitants too
for that matter) really grasp and realise the full significance of the fact
that eleven-twelfths of the area of the Colony remain as a locked box,
and that this eleven-twelfths of the area of British Guiana would appear
to be among the richest territory in the world.

2. One of the Colony’s greatest gifts of potential wealth lies in the
abundant water power available. To the navigation of the rivers the
numerous waterfalls constitute an effective bar, thereby adding enor-
mously to the expense of travel and the transportation of merchandise
These waterfalls, however, are a disadvantage to the country only in its
present undeveloped state, and when any degree of development has set
in, as is hoped may be the condition in the near future, the value of the
various falls for the production of electrical energy will many times out-

20 Timehri.

weigh all other disadvantages. One of the greatest items of expense that
have to be faced in connection with hydro-electric developments that are
in any degree remote from the point of consumption in regions of tropi-
cal vegetation, is the establishment and maintenance of the cut and
cleared strip of country that has to be provided for the high tension
transmission line. -The establishment of a road touching at the principal
points at which future power development may be expected would un-
doubtedly solve many of the difficulties attending such development, not
only in that it would provide a cleared strip along which the transmission
line could be carried, but also because of the facilities it would give for
the transportation of the necessary machinery, etc., to say nothing of
the opportunity and incentive to those interested in such schemes to visit
the various power sites.

3. What are probably the most fertile fields of operation of the
mining industry in the Colony are located in the districts served by the
existing Potaro road, andas part of the Potaro road would form part
of the proposed new route great benefit to such industry could reasonably
be anticipated.

4. The Bauxite Industry, the most advanced developments of which
are to be found within a few miles of Wismar on the Demerara River, if
carried to its ultimate development, namely, the actual manufacture of
aluminium, would create a very heavy demand for electrical energy, and
in this regard it is interesting to note that the distance along an existing
trail, between the proposed route and Rockstone is only ten miles, and
that taking into consideration the line of Messrs. Sprostons’ Railway it
would be a comparatively easy matter to establish a transmission line to
the Bauxite developments.

Of course the ultimate development of all South America, that may
be witnessed by succeeding generations, with heavy transcontinental lines
of railway, should not be lost sight of entirely when considering the relative
merits of roads and railways for British Guiana. The numerous possible
sources of hydro-electrical energy in the Colony are undoubtedly suffi-
cient to supply not only the Colony’s industrial requirements, but also all
the light railways previously mentioned as supplementary to the road
system, as well as any portions of the main railway system of South
America that may come within the area of this Colony.

One or another of the light electric railways previously mentioned
could be readily altered and adapted for through traffic to other parts of
South America when the time comes.

My report to the Government of October, 1918, dealt at length with
the question of the relative importance of gradients on steam and electric
railways. In many instances it has been found economical to electrify
railways built at gradients suitable for steam operation in England,
Canada, and the United States, where the extra fuel consumption by

Interior Communications for British Guiana. Pa a

steam locomotives over and above that necessary for generating electri-
city by steam power, is relatively unimportant because of the plentitude
and consegqst of coal in those countries,

When we consider how large a proporticn of the first cost of con-
structing steam railways is due to the necessity for maintaining easy
gradients, and how much more economically a railway can be built for
electrical operation, on which alignment alone is important, and within
certain broad limits grades do not matter, it would seem that the old
style of heavy steam railway is not likely to be built in future, except
in extension of existing systems.

But when we remember that in addition to this all our coal has to
be brought from England or America, that we are not likely to find any
coal in the Colony, that any road or light railway system can never be
out of reach of one or another of the numerous possible sources of electric
power we possess in the various waterfalls, it seems unbelievable that the
construction of old-time heavy steam railways, with their expensive
earthwork and high-running costs, should be seriously advocated for this
Colony at the present day.

LABOUR AND COLONISATION.

By J. Ropway.

I. THE PROBLEM.

The labour question in British Guiana is nothing new for it has
occurred from time to time ever since the first plantation was started.
The colony has Jand, but without labour it is useless to man though not
to the grand realm of nature. From the human standpoint a wilderness is
a waste and as we want to have the colony beneficially occupied we must
get labour. For want of people hundreds of plantations have been aban-
doned at different times, especially on the banks of the rivers, and it
should be our aim to prevent degeneration in the future. It is true that
in many cases. the plantations were givenup when better and more fertile
places could be got, but what we want is enough people to carry on every-
one of them without having to remove entirely and leave the once
flourishing estate to become a wilderness.

The whole colony is not likely to be abandoned now though it is bound
to suffer somewhat from the loss of even one plantation. Examples could
be quoted such as Belair and the estates of the Colonial Company, but my
readers will not require such illustrations. The downfall after the HEman-
cipation, entirely due to the great reduction of the labour supply, is a
lesson to us for all times and we must straighten our backs and say
“ Never again!” In 1851 the roads were almost impassable and it was
snggested that the mails for Berbice should be carried on horseback,
because wheeled vehicles sunk into quagmires.

Lord Stanley published in 1851, “A Second Letter” to Mr. W. E
Gladstone on the condition of the sugar colonies, in which he gave a
lurid picture of what was likely to happen in British Guiana. He tells
his readers to figure to themselves the position when English cultivation
would be altogether withdrawn. Only half a dozen lay officials, a bishop
with a few clergy, a Portuguese huxter and a few log canoes on the other-
wise deserted rivers would be left. The roads would be washed away, the
jungle be impenetrable and commerce and agriculture come to an end; finally
Christianity be superseded by obeahism. The outlook at that time was
certainly very dark, but immigration came and the situation was relieved.
This relief enabled the Government to keep up the roads and to provide
better communication throughout the inhabited portions of the colony.

We can say that the colony has attained a measure of success, for it
is in advance of its Dutch and French neighbours and has not reverted to
the position of Counani and the Orinoco Delta. Possibly few appreciate
the fact that our colony is in advance of Venezuela and Brazil as far as
the tropical portion of the latteris concerned. It is also well populated
as far as the area covered by its villages and plantations is concerned
though otherwise a wilderness. A measure of success has been gained

Labour and Colonisation—The Problem. 23

but the possibilities of development are enormous. Man-power is
wanted and if this can be brought we shall have the real magnificent
province.

It may be asked whether we have done our best for the labouring man
of the colony? There have been grumblers from the time when the liber-
ated slave was allowed to work or idle as he pleased. At first it appeared
as if the freed men would work to get cottages aad land, which they
obtained by purchasing many of the plantations that would otherwise
have been abandoned. Itappears as if they had not yet got away from
the habit of working, and therefore money was earned and saved for
particular objects. Once, however, these objects were attained there were
no more inducements to labour, for most of them had no aspirations for
comfort and convenience. It was generally admitted that they worked
for as many days as would feed them for the week and then ‘ rested.”
The higher the wages the less they laboured, for if one or two days
wages filled their pots for the week there was no need for working any
more until replenishing became necessary. The planter wanted at least
five days work every week but the labourer could not be induced to do
more than was really necessary as far as he was concerned. Hestruck for
higher wages but he worked less when he got them, it followed therefore
that attempts to get the work done in that way simply caused a greater
loss of labour. There was also the difficulty so well known to-day of
supplying the mill with canes and consequent losses through stopping the
eugines and damage to what had been cut and left in the field.

People outside the colony may say, as many have said, that our plan-
ters did not do their best with the available labour supply. When we
can get a peep into the conditions existent after the Emancipation we see
that strenuous efforts were made to prevent ruin. The conditions were
new and unprecedented, therefore mistakes were made which had to be
rectified later. Money was wasted in high wages and in the introduction
of unsuitable labourers. It appears as if ‘‘ catching at straws ” was the rule,
for a little more forethought would have prevented some of the mistakes.
Probably the greatest error was in forgetting that new-comers must
be acclimatised and that they could not be sent into the field immediately
on their arrival. This ‘“ seasoning,” as it was called, was well understood
by the old planter, who fostered the new Africans for a whole year.
If this was necessary for tropical races it would be more so for Europeans
such as the Madeira Portuguese. It seems, however, that as there had been
no foreign labourers for thirty years the later generation of planters
made no provisions for “‘ seasoning,” hence the heavy sickness which fell
upon the new immigrants. We might suppose that seasoning would not
be necessary for Africans and East Indians, but it may safely be affirmed
that every new arrival must accommodate himself to the changed condi-
tions. This was learnt afterwards, but much trouble came through the
sickness due to blundering in the first ten years.

In 1844 the Anti-Slavery Society sent out a list of ‘ queries rela-
tive to the results of emancipation ” to which we have a set of the repiles

24 Timehri.

from Richard Hancock, the Postholder at Mahaica. This is an interest-
ing document butI can find room for only two answers. Under the first
heading ‘‘ Supply of Labour” it is asked to what extent has additional
agricultural labour been supplied by immigrants, and Mr. Hancock's
reply is as follows :—

“The principal supply of emigrants has been from Madeira, the
West India Islands and Africa, also a few Maltese and Coolies ; those
from Africa, the W. I. Islands and the Coolies decidedly the best as
Agriculturalists both from their ability to work and keeping their health.
The Maltese quite useless and the Portuguese little better for field work,
but make excellent huxters and traders; there were also some German
and Irish immigrants imported, but failed as agriculturalists. The
Maltese and Coolies have nearly all left the colony—the Africans are now
increasing by recent arrivals, but not many from the Islands or elsewhere
at present or of late.”

The query as to natural increase of the emancipated classes is thus
answered :—

“T doubt very much if any increase of the emancipated classes will
be found since 1838, nor do I anticipate any increase from natural causes
for some time to come although this is a very healthy district.”

I cannot go into particulars of the ruin which came upon the old
planters. Some say they deserved it and that it was retribution, but
such ideas will not bear consideration. We can safely state that the old
planter must have been generally a man of great ability to be able to
manage an estate with two or three hundred slaves and make it pay.
The difficulties were enormous for down to the emancipation few negroes
could speak English and when the English Magistrates came out they
required interpreters, One old planter said that new arrivals were taught to
speak as well as to work ; this was done through their fellow countrymen.
There would, of course, be misunderstandings through ignorance and
punishments administered for mistakes that could hardly have been
avoided.

When the freed men got their shares in plantations some good people
said it did not matterif the estates were ruined so long as there was a
happy peasantry. The few must suffer for the benefit of the whole.
This sounds very plausible, and had the happy peasantry ever been
realised something could be said for such a view. Yet no one would think
it well were a lot of rough school-boys to be left alone and become hooli-
gans. A plantation of the old type was managed in such a way that it
could not become an eyesore, but the new villages were not managed at
all. Every estate was liable for the upkeep of the roads and bridges
that passed through it and the owner could be sued; when there
were fifty or a hundred proprietors no one could be made responsible.
This was a responsibility to the Government and here was a further
obligation that may be considered as belonging to the people them-
selves ; everyone in a community must keep his own surroundings

Labour and Colonisation—The Problem. 25

clean for the benefit of the whole. Neither duty was properly per-
formed and the village roads became quagmires and the trenches were
no longer drains but cesspools. Some of the villagers went so far as
to say that it was nobody else’s business if they chose to live in mud and
slush. The matter was very simple; ruin had come to most of the old
planters and the Government must retire and let the ‘“ people” revert
to conditions like those which made Haytia by-word.

But the British Government, in spite of the Anti-Slavery Society
were not prepared to abandon the “ magnificent province,” though it
hampered the efforts of the planters to keep a remnant of the estates in
order. It almost seemed as if hope and confidence had fled from
the minds of most people, and that it was only as a last despairing effort
that immigration was started. However, a few people still believed in
Demerara sugar and they began to agitate for coolie immigration, which at
last they got and thus saved the colony. The Government took over
the public roads through the villages and the mails could run.

The first East Indians failed through the ignorance of the planters.
Messrs. Gladstone and Moss introduced them under agreements made in
Caleutta with shipping agents, who had experience in supplying Mauritius
with coolies. Managers knew nothing of their language and had to
employ Sirdars or drivers, who were also interpreters. The Anti-Slavery
delegate, who came out to see what was being done, found that the coolies
were beaten and driven to work by their Sirdars when suffering from the
change and depressed by the new conditions. Of course the managers
were responsible though they knew nothing of what wasdone. Coolie
immigration was stopped for nearly ten years and the colony retarded in
its recuperation.

There was, however, a strong feeling in the colony, which resulted in
a deadlock in the Combined Court and meetings to advocate immigration.
For a time there were obstructions everywhere especially when the
Madeirans suffered from yellow fever. Free Africans were brought, but
the Anti-Slavery party declared that this was a new bondage which might
become like what they had struggled to abolish. After several failures
it was generally agreed that East Indians and Chinese would be most
suitable and these must be had.

The most difficult problem was the engagement. Mr. Albouy was
among the first to engage labourers for several years. The authorities
said the law would not sanction such engagements, and Mr. Albouy
contended that there was nothing against it, for the Dutch allowed
white mento come out as servants under a law similar to those con-
cerned with apprenticeship in Europe. It was, however, considered that
engagements of labourers could not be enforced, for the Anti-slavery
party would have nothing in the nature of a bond. This was one of the
greatest drawbacks here and it may be noted that when the slaves were
freed in the French and Dutch Colonies they were still bound in various

26 Timehri.

ways to prevent idleness and vagrancy. There was along struggle before
the indenture system could be introduced under Government control.

A survey of the conditions points to mistakes on the part of both
planters and labourers. The position was bad for both, but an annual
engagements such as was once common in England would probably have
been useful. In a progressive world we see that conditions suitable for
one stage will not fit others. Annual hirings, have become obsolete in
England but they were good in their time; we can say much the same
ofapprenticeships. Because the English labourer has got beyond the
“ mop” or hiring fair, it does not follow that this was bad. The negro
was unfit to be left alone and was probably suited for annual engage-
ments under fair conditions. That he can carry out engagements is seen
now in the gold, balata and timber industries ; these are workable though
some trouble comes through absconding after taking advances.

There is an important point which affects every member of a com-
munity, 7.e., duty. We all know that children have no innate desire to
perform tasks that are not congenial. We have to coerce them to some
extent and this is what the old planter did with his labourers. The great
question is how far can this coercion of man by man be carried, and what
means can be used. We are coerced by the power of circumstances and
by the State, but the latter appears to me very unsatisfactory. It is
necessary that we obey the laws but many laws are enforced in ways
neither useful for the oftender nor for the community. The freed man
was left alone after emancipation until he became a slave to idleness and
when the villages were put in order he protested against taxes. There
should have been some coereion from the first, and it might have been
carried out then without such friction as afterwards resulted. The intel-
ligent members of the community saw the necessity for a vagrancy law
and one was actually passed here immediately after the emancipation
only to be disallowed by the British Government. ‘The friends” of the
negro would not allow anything to be dune for his good for fear he wonld
be coerced.

In 1842 a petition to the Combined Court was drawn up and signed
by merchants and others. It is a depressing document but probably not
much exaggerated ; it reads :

“ Your petitioners all deeply interested in the welfare of the colony
request . . . serious attention . . . to the alarming and
critical situation of this colony, once justly termed magnificent and
flourishing, but now presenting a scene of the greatest distress, em-
barassment and decay.”

After going into details the Court was asked, first, for a careful
revision of the colony’s expenditure, second, a reduction in every
department of the Public Service; and third, for immigration on an
extensiwe scale.

Labour and Colonisation—The Problem. 27

It may now be asked what the extensive scale meant and here we
must again study conditions. Of the 86,000 people who were emancipated
only about a third would be able-bodied men, the remainder being old
and young, weak and infirm or women who now did little work. We may
say that about 30,000 labourers might have been available and that the
plantations could have been kept up had these people worked five days
a week. But the best working people clubbed together and formed the
villages, leaving the malingerers to do one or two days’ work a week to
keep themselves from actual starvation. It may be safely stated that
two-thirds of the labour supply was now unavailable and that immigration
must supply enough to make up the difference, 7.e., 20,000 strong healthy
people were wanted immediately. Immigrants were brought from the
West Indies but never enough, hence the sugar export was reduced and
one plantation after another sold for what it would fetch, or abandoned.

Mr. George Ross, a Stipendiary Magistrate, reviewed the position in
1845 ; as an independent observer we can take his view as fairly
accurate. I can only give a few brief extracts :—

“The negro-yards were half deserted and the planters were glad to
purchase the labour of those who remained, by ra‘sing their wages, out-
bidding one another as at an auction, offering them plantains at a much
lower rate than the market price, and putting themselves to a great
expense in the erection of new cottages, with a view to tempt labourers to
reside upon their estates, of which by far the greater portion still con-
tinued short of hands ; and the new freeholders had to be induced by
offers of a higher rate of wages than that paid to those who remained in
the negro-yards, to comie back and work on the sugar plantations.”

In connection with efforts made to get estates worked on the
Metairie system, 1.e., of the canes being cultivated by the labourers for
half the return of sugar, he says :—

‘“ Tt must be recollected that sugar is not exactly the simple relation
of landlord and tenant which exists in Europe, The sugar manufacture
being intimately and hitherto indissolubly connected with it makes it
essentially a system of partnership in trade, which, before it can be
successfully carried on, requires some degree of confidence between the
planters and labourers.

“This unfortunately subsists only in a very limited degree throughout
British Guiana.”

Mr. Ross goes on to advocate cane-farming as we know it to-day, of
which he had great hopes. The Metairie system failed in every case
hough at first it looked promising.

_Immigratiou made some impression on the labour market in the late
forties, but the Government's restrictions hampered the planter so much
that he wanted to get free from such rules and regulations. A meeting

28 Timehri.

was held in Georgetown in January, 1856, when resolutions were passed
in favour of unrestricted importation of labourers, ‘‘ by granting licences
to private persons to import labourers from India and China on their own
account, under proper Government supervision,’ and generally to remove
restrictions. This, however, brought no result for the tendency of late
years was to get more control by the authorities. The immigrant has
been too much hampered in his choice of a location or master.

The problem of keeping up the sugar plantations was solved by East
Indian immigration, but after a little progress had been made a check
came through low prices of sugar.

IIl.—THE PLANTATION SYSTEM.

In view of the fact that indentured immigration from India has been
discontinued it would be well to review the whole system and see how it
has helped the colony in the past. As however, the whole must be care-
fully studied we cannot ignore the benefit derived from slavery.

It may perhaps be considered inadvisable to discuss slavery because
it has always led to much irritation, but as the system is now dead it may
be possible to look back upon it as a stage in the development of mankind,
which like everything else was “for an age but not for all time.” I have
not seen any book that dealt with it from this standpoint, and yet every
intelligent negro in America must feel that it was good for him that his
ancestors were brought from Africa. We may deplore the many faults
of the system and yet see that its results were good for the people and
the colonies. After all we can only judge of a success when these results
are known.

What then are the results of the old plantations? First, we have a
number of colonies and States partially developed through slavery,
and second, a people fairly suited to the new conditions who will probably
have even more influence in the future than they have had in the past.
Adjoining some of these colonies are wildernesses without inhabitants, or
with only a few aborigines ; they have remained undeveloped because no
Africans were brought. The most striking example is the great Amazon
region, and we may compare Counani and the Orinoco delta with British,
Dutch and French Guiana. Even our own North West District is
backward because there were no plantations beyond the Pomeroon.
The point is that no tropical colony in America could have been developed
without the African and that on the number imported largely depends
their present position.

It may be safely stated that no negro now in America would willingly
go back to his original country and live like his ancestors. They have
advanced a stage and feel as do other races tHat man cannot go backward
when he has enjoyed the benefits of civilization. There may have been

Labour and Colonisation—The Plantation System. 29

advantages in the primitive conditions of our ancestors, but they are
outweighed by those of our own time. Ina progressive world we become
less faulty but never reach perfection, and therefore we shal] always find
things to be amended. The point is that we may ask ourselves whether
we are not better off in every stage than we were in that previous.

The stages in progress of the plantation slave are not hard to realise.
First, he was generally a slave in Africa to a master who often suffered
from famine and could hardly feed himself. In many cases parents sold
their own children to get a little corn. Second, he was forcibly carried
to anew country where hunger was almost unknown because every
planter was bound by interest as well as law to keep his labourers in
working order.

It was no doubt a painful upset to the savage African to cross the sea
knowing nothing of what would happen on the other side, but when he
became settled among fellow-countrymen he soon recovered and became

~as happy as the rest. That he was happy in his own way was certain,
for only a few remembered Africa. There was always a feeling of
superiority in those negroes who knew their work and a certain amount of
contempt for the later arrivals. The creole always despised the African
and we find the same feeling still existent in Surinam towards the bush
negro.

The system of the plantations may be compared with that of British
factories ; both were of great economic value in spite of their defects.
Under them there was certainly coercion, but it was for the good of the
community. This common welfare has to be considered; some would
exclude the individual altogether, but this should not be done for pure
socialism could never be a real success. The desire for mastery which
means property and its control is man’s great instinct and can never be
ignored. Under certain circumstances, however, where the balance of the
individual and the community cannot be kept even, the labourer is coerced
for the good of all. This is done in every community by the law which
compels a man to work for his family, and in some where mendicants are
punished. It is evident that we all have duties to the State and that we
are coerced to perform them.

Every plantation was a model State, and also a _ family.
The master was a governor of the paternal type and_ his
labourers children to be rewarded or punished when considered
necessary. The whole was the result of circumstances, and probably
the best that could be done. The master was not in the same
position as the factory-owner, who could discharge his men or take
on extra hands when he required them. His slaves and later, his immi-
grants, were always with him and must be provided with work. If he
paid no wages to the slaves the cost of his supplies and other expenses
were always the same and there was virtually no possibility of economis-
ing. This was of more advantage to the labourer than to the master
for his food and other comforts were certain and there could be no

30 Timehri.

discharge. We may say that the ideal of the optimist was obtained when
every man got a regular share of food, a house and a mate. Of course he
had to pay for it by working as the labourer does in other countries but
he did not run the risk of being discharged at a week’s notice. -

From the one standpoint, we have the master using hisown or other
people’s capital to carry on what he hoped would give him a fortune and
on the other coerced labour. The result was good to the people first
who ran no risks and had no responsibility ; there was hardly any crime
and probably less trouble than we have to-day. The planter sometimes

_ succeeded in gaining a competency the merchant got pickings and the
officials their fees. Plenty of faults could be found and yet on the
whole the system was a success.

After the abolition of slavery many changes were made with the
general result that poverty and crime were more conspicuous. However,
the immigration laws came into regulate labour and the result has been
better for the labourer than for the planter. Immigrants must be kept ;
in no case can they be allowed to starve and they must have work. No
planter can refuse to let his immigrants work, or say that he cannot
employ them if his funds arelow. When extra work has to be done he
has the advantage of employing more hands if the inducements offered to
villagers are sufficient. It is evident, however, that he is somewhat ham-
pered by indentured labour.

We must presume that in the future there will be no indentured
labour; what will then be the position? The planter may employ
as few or as many as he requires if he can find them. But the
question is will he get them? The labourers may refuse to work un-
less their demands are conceded and these demands may mean loss
on the working. There is a feeling among the labourers that they
are underpaid when a little knowledge of the position of the sugar
estates should prove that they are wrong. As a matter of fact the
price of sugar during the last twenty years has hardly justified the
current prices of labour. This can be easily seen when we note
that several estates have been abandoned, and no new ones empol-
dered. Had sugar been paying there would be no backward tendency ;
during the last forty years the annual output of sugar has been about the
same, one hundred thousand tons. It can be safely predicted that if
sugar estates pay wellin the future more will be empoldered and none
abandoned. If, however, the demands of free labour are conceded
few estates will remain under cultivation and the labourer will
have destroyed them, this is the real cause of trouble and has been
so ever since the emancipation. The cost of labour has inereased
and the price of sugar gone down. The planters have economized by
reducing expenses in every direction until the actual manufacture and
superintendence is now half what it was thirly years ago. But labour,
in which we must include all expenses of immigration, has increased and
can hardly ever be reduced.

Labour and Colonisation—The Plantatation System. 31

Some will perhaps say that sugar in Demerara can no longer com-
pete with that from other countries, but even were the plantations to go
down there would still be room for their buildings as central factories.
If the peasantry would grow canes as some are growing rice and rent the
land on easy terms the wages difficulty would be got over. Of course
there will be some difficulties but everyone of them could be overcome
by forethought, It seems a great pity that any sugar factory should be
dismantled when it could be kept up for grinding farmers’ canes.
Possibly some would yet be found willing to cultivate lots if they
could get loans on prospective returns. This a central factory might
undertake because it would be helping to keep the mill going. Some
effort should be made to this end before abandoning a plantation.

Several efforts were made after the emancipation to introduce the
metairie system under which labourers would grow the canes and get
half the sugar or its value, other attempts were made at different times to
induce labourers to workin harmony, but co-operation appears to be im-
posible on account of envy and jealousy, It is very difficult to get
negroes to work under the superintendence of people of their own race.
They appear to be always afraid that someone will take advantage of
them and some even admire what they call “ flooring” an employer.
Unless we can get confidence in each other we cannot succeed in any work
that requires combination for mutual benefit.

We can say that everything is justified by results. But this does not
mean immediate consequences but what comes after a fairly long time.
Immigration from India has lasted about eighty years and the results can
be seen. We may perhaps say that progress might have been more or less
without the East Indians, but we need not go into the possibilities and
probabilities, but take things as they are. We have an object lesson in
Surinam, where fewer immigrants have been imported, with the result
that most of the old plantations have gone. The natural deduction is that
the plantations depend upon regular labour and that this is abhorrent to
the negroes. Without immigrants no sugar plantation can continue and
there must be some way found to get regular labour. A possible way of
avoiding some of the difficulties would be agreements for one year with
the privileges enjoyed by East Indians. There should be as far as possi-
ble avoidance of magistrates, for when a man is sent to jail
for not working there must naturally be some resentment. Possibly the
agreement could provide for arbitration on every plantation. At present
we have such arbitration by Immigration officers and something could
be done on similar lines. Only in very extreme cases should the
police be called in and if both parties adhere to their contract no trouble
need be feared. Probably a law would be necessary to make such con-
tracts possible but there should be no real difficulty.

It can be easily seen that no colony could bring immigrants, even in
other climes, without providing employment on arrival. In the tropics
owever, something more is required. One who is quite new to the

32 Timehri.

colony and who knows nothing of the precautions necessary during the
seasoning period requires some care during the first year. He should not
be exposed to drenching rains and should be watched by the doctor. It
may be safely stated that on the result of this his future comfort and
his value to the colony largely depend. To strike a fair balance between
cuddling and carelessness should be the aim, and this is very difficult.
Under slavery and the immigration system this could be done, but when
people cannot be coerced in any way and will not take advice, the posi-
tion is different. It may be true that ‘‘ experience teaches,” but sometimes
the seeds of disease and bad habits are very difficult to eradicate.

There are advantages and disadvantages in free immigration.
The employer can choose his labourers and they can often find congenial
work, The great fault of the coolie system was the want of proper
selection. Townspeople who were often unacquainted with agricultural
work, could hardly be expected to labour in the field. In India some
families have carried on certain trades from time immemorial and are well-
fitted to them. It may be good sometimes to have a change but it must
not be too sudden or upset all ideas of fitness. A man will often do well
in the business for which he has been trained when he is a disastrous failure
in something else. Immigration in other countries is regulated to pre-
vent undesirables and this must be the case here. An educated Brahmin
or a Sipahi is out of place on a sugar plantation.

Families should always be preterred because single men are often
erratic and more inclined to look for jobs. The children must be fed
every day and the father must have regular work It is undoubtedly
more troublesome to look after a family than a single man, but the ultimate
result will be better for the planter and the community.

Now we come to the greatest difficulty in any system of free
immigration; labourers are required where no provision is made
for housing, feeding and medical attendance. It is evident that
new arrivals should be placed where some attention is paid to
comfort and convenience, and therefore much discrimination will be
required. At the same time if the restrictions are too great the
value of the labour supply will be reduced. It is evident that
a monopoly of labour for five years existed under the late system,
for only a capitalist could make the legal provisions for accommo-
dation. If labour were entirely free to all, people could make arrange-
ments for themselves, but it would probably be necessary to have some
registration system /ike what we have for gold and balata. In no case,
however, should anew-comer be left without supervision during the first
year. What happened when immigrants were entirely free can be found
by anyone who studies the history of the colony. ‘here is a picture in
the “Illustrated London News” of coolie beggars in Georgetown which
points a moral, and we have the hospital records of the early forties as
painful lessons.

Labour and Colonisation—The Ptantation System. 33

I was struck some years ago by hearing a coolie man speak of his
experiences at Hopetown on the Demerara river. I gave him a passage
to townin my bateau from the Chinese Settlement and he was quite
pleased at the result of his three months’ work for he-eould buy a cow.
A verbal agreement had been made with one Chinaman, but when this
man had no work for the East Indian he passed him on to another. The
result was that regular work with consequent pay was assured and all
parties were satisfied. The coolie had a bundle of silver tied up; I
enjoyed his conversation, and the peep. he gave me intothe economy of
the Chinese.

Suppose we get immigration without indenture the present
office might be kept up om more economic lines as a Labour
Bureau and Registration Office. There must be some supervision to
prevent vagrancy, and coercion for the good of the labourer as well as the
community. This coercion, however, must not savour of police surveil-
Jance, in fact, although idleness is contrary to all the best interests
of the community, it should not be punishable by imprisonment. The
natural consequence of idleness is hunger and discomfort ; we should not,
however, let any one be actually starved, for humanity will not permit this.
At the same time no one should be sent to jail for a misdemeanor such as
the breach of an agreement. The slave system was better in that respect
for only in extreme cases were the Africans punished by the law. I have
seen cases of shameful oppression, where men have had their characters
spoiled by mistakes or blunders that might have been made by anyone.
They were sent to jail and for life might be called jail-birds. I should
like to see labour put on a proper footing without the magistrate. In my
childhood most boys were apprenticed but rarely indeed were they
charged before a magistrate in spite of the fact that there were penal
clauses in the indenture. Of course there are differences because the
father was bound also by the agreement.

When we compare the slavery system with that of the coolie inden-
ture we see that the former hardly came under the law while the latter
was hampered too much by police and magistrates. No apprentice boy
ever carried a pass, or was asked to account for his movements.
Apprentices ran away at times but they were rarely hounded down by the
police. Even runaway slaves were hardly treated worse than some
coolies. In this respect public opinion has changed here within my
memory, but we must abolish every outward sign of tyranny when we
have agreements. Absence from work is not in the nature of a criminal
offence, and in the case of apprentices the penalty was simply a lengthen-
ing of the service.

People may perhaps say that if sufficient wages are offered labour can
always be obtained, but what is this sufficieucy ? Where labour is in
excess of the demand prices are low, otherwise they rule high. A demand
that would mean loss might be perhaps satisfied in an emergency, but
emergency prices could never be the rule. If we pay too much we are

84 Timehri.

bound to failand the labourer kills the planter. The question then is
whether the people now in the colony can support its expensive govern-
ment if the plantations are abandoned.

Possibly some will say that no one cares for the sugar estates but
this ishardly true. The welfare of every country depends largely vpon
its manufactures and exports and for many years British Guiana has been
supported by sugar. Were it not for East Indians coming here we should
have had no rice industry. If, however, any business cannot be made to
pay it must necessarily be given up but there is no reason to
suppose that sugar-growing will fail. Thirty years ago some
of the old planters despaired and yet it has not gone, and we can find
croakers from the very beginning A pamphlet under the title of ‘The
Groans of the Plantations” was published about two centuries ago and
grumbles have been frequent ever since. Those who know nothing of
West Indian history think that the ‘‘Good Old Times” were pleasant and
profitable. But, when we try to find these times they evade us, for there
was as much grumbling as we have to-day. Plantations have been
abandoned but sugar is still grown though the ‘‘ West Indian Nabob ” has
disappeared.

The plantation system requires capital and labour ; much more might
be done to economise both. When we look back to the old times we
find that high prices of sugar consisted with an interest and credit system
that could uot exist to-day. Everything purchased cost more and the
charges for freight, insurance and commission were enormous. The
“Nabobs ” strutted about like lords for a few years and then suddenly
went out of sight. Even they were the few survivals of many failures.
When therefore we see a plantation put out of sugar cultivation to-day we
can find many similar cases in the past and see reason to hope. Worse
troubles than that likely tocome from the stoppage of indentured immi-
gration have been surmounted and we may presume that those planters
who are living now are not less persevering than their predecessors, ‘he
optimist doesnot despair.

The sugar planter has always been afraid of new industries because they
reduce his labour supply and increase wages. There was almost an
outcry when the gold industry started, but ultimately this difficulty,
become of little consequence. Other industries like alata and
rice have reduced the labour supply for the estates, but many still thrive.
We should have better conditions if our present labourers would work five
days a week, but this is not within the bounds of our expectations.
Tropical man is not coerced by winter and is therefore improvident ; in
one way he is more independent but when sickness comes he is a burden
on the community. Forethought is almost lacking in our labouring
classes.

A sugar plantation must have a manager; from the want of proper
control the villages are backward. They are, however, much improved
from what I saw nearly fifty years ago. We can hope for further

Labour and Colonisation—The Outlook. 35

improvement in the near future. The main point is, that whereas
on an estate we have every acre under cultivation the vil-
lages are hardly ever fully planted. With the divided interests
there can be little attention paid to the general welfare. Here is
where the manager is required for he does not care for one or two
particular beds but for the whole. It is of the greatest importance to every
village that there shall be general superintendence and that private interests
shall not hamper improvements. Most of the owners of village lots could
live comfortably if they made the most out of their grounds and had no
idlers ready to pounce upon their provisions, It is evident that the plan-
tation system is better for all concerned than the want of order so promi-
nent in eyery village.

Those who condemn the colonization movement should remember
that British Guiana exists to-day as a result of the plantation system,
and that all the people, except tne native Indians, are either immigrants
or their descendants. d

Il].—THE OUTLOOK.

Can we afford to give up the plantations and let Demerara sugar
disappear from the world’s markets? ‘This is a question that only admits
of an emphatic ‘‘No!” We can have gold, diamonds, bauxite, balata,
rice and coconuts and encourage these industries in every possible way but
we still want our sugar. Anthony Trollope speaks of our government as
a mild despotism tempered with sugar, and it would be a pity to lose this
sweetening influence.

Some of our political agitators appear as if they would not care if
Demerara sugar were dead and buried ; they would kick down the steps
on which they ascended, without thinking of possibilities. Few, however,
are so careless of the welfare of their colony, for half the people still de-
pend upon the plantations and are sorry when one is abandoned. Some
think only of the field labourer and yet a prosperous estate employs
mechanics as well as overseers and managers. Hvery one that has been
abandoned was a loss to the district and we can find peorle deploring the
downfall of estates like Vreed-en-Hoop and Windsor Forest which once
gave them work. Within my own memory scores of plantations have
been either abandoned or merged into others, with consequent discharges
of many workers, who in most cases had to accept inferior positions, The
point is that every one suffers from a failure.

Here is another aspect, the mercantile ; Georgetown is largely de-
pendent on shipping and hitherto cargoes have been made up almost
entirely of sugar. Shopkeepers in town and country would lose much
were there no sugar plantations. However, the reader will say he knows
all this and yet there are people in the colony who appear to despise the
plantations, and feel aggrieved that immigrants should be brought for
them alone. :

36 Timehrt.

They say that the people are taxed to keep up sugar. Very well, if
practically every man, woman and child in the colony is better off because
the plantations exist, why should they not contribute to their retention ?
As for taxation of the average labourer it is a negligible quantity ; apart
from rum and clothing he pays little and the former is not a necessary.
If the average man in the country districts kept up the sugar estates they
would be in a very poor condition. This is so obvious that I need not
dwell upon the matter. I only mention it because of so many mis-
representations.

There is another absurd statement which has been often repeated—
the coolie takes bread from the negro labourer and lowers the price of
labour. If he ecmpeted fairly in the labour market the black man could
more than hold his own because he is stronger than the East Indian.
But, there is no such competition for these immigrants who work five
days a week have no rivals. They stand alone in the colony as the only
people who will keep the cane-millsin working. We can safely state that
though others may cut canes by the job, there could be none to feed the
mills if there were no East Indians. Were there no coolies we should
have no sugar estates, and I understand that the five working in Surinam
are also kept up by coolie labour. As far as can be judged no sugar
plantation could remain if all our East Indians left the colony. Even
were wages excessive we need not hope for a plantation without these
people for even though some jobs might be done by others, the all-round
work would be practically impossible.

We have in the colony a larger proportion of East Indians than of
other people ; if we judge by majority alone they are “the people.” We
are just beginning to see what they can do; a start has been made with
rice, and coconuts will come to the front largely through their initiative.
All other industries were started by Europeans and even were we to admit
that Africans were the first gold-diggers we can hardly say they did it
alone. We need not, however, make odious comparisons but simply call
attention to facts. When we see that runaways cultivated rice a century
and a half ago and largely fed upon it we wonder why it was left to the
East Indians to develop the industry. The fact is we have in our immi-
grants possibilities at present unknown, which we want to develop for
the benefit of thecolony, Probably indentured immigration was not the
best way of getting colonists, but some good settlers have been developed
to the advantage of the whole colony.

Here I must say something of the value of the different races, and it
must be thoroughly understood that I accept the principle that every
race and nation excels in something. When we speak of inferiority it
does not mean that the people are less developed on alllines but only on
some that make them more suitable for one branch of industry and less for
another. Wemust try to find out the value of each race and its capabil-
ties when in the right places. It seems as if all the difficulties of the
freed men came through misunderstandings.

Labour and Colonisation—The Outlook. 37

Taking our people in order we must necessarily put the East Indians
first because they are in the majority. Of course we do not always imply
that the majority is the fittest, and much can be said against the idea
that mere numbers are of the first importance. However, the East
Indians occupy a place in our economy which would be very difficult to fill
were they absent. They have enabled the sugar plantations to at least
“ mark time ” when otherwise probably all would have gone.

A sound principle at the bottom of all emigration projects is the
desirability of migrating in families ; all history shows that man in his
wanderings took wife and children with him. This ideal has sometimes been
ignored ; it was entirely neglected with Africans and almost ignored
with our earlier immigrants of all classes and races. A valuable asset to
every colony is a married man with children, and where there are real
homes with true love and kindness we get man’s grandest ide:ls. Single
men and women are incomplete, for humanity, 7.e., the species, cannot
exist without proper unions. We say that a man when he takes a wife
also assumes a responsibility ; “his nose is kept to the grindstone ” and
he works all the harder because of his dependents. The value of such a
man to the community is obvious for he who works for five or six days a
week is decidedly more useful than a jobber. The East Indian is a
family man as can be seen in our streets every day, where father, mother
aud baby walk together and the father often carries the child. Such
people are not erratic—here to-day and elsewhere to-morrow—but they
have something like real homes. This has unfortunately been ignored on
some plantations and the great blot on the system is the want of homes
for the overseers. It is quite obvious that continuous work can be best
obtained where the man has a family to keep, in fact an English farmer
generally likes to have a married man in his cottage because he is not
so likely to run off at a week’s notice. From ths standpoint the East
Indian is certainly the right man for a plantation, but we must see that
he has a wife and that no interference with the cottage is allowed.

The common objections to the East Indians is that he chops his wife
when unfaithful and that he isa great liar. Ina way we can consider
these traits as nothing more than blunders which really come from great
love and friendship. ‘hat adulterers have been executed in almost every
country in the past is well known and that it is a duty to shield a friend
with a lie was also once common. From the wide standpoint we can say
that only civilized man tells lies, because he has so much law, custom and
order, with punishmments attached, that he must needs try to escape by
lying. This is seen in children who sre hampered by prohibitions and
he to escape flogging. Unfortunately, the law does little to encourage
people to tell the truth, for most ordinances give little scope to the mag-
istrates. That a man should shield a wife, a child or afriend, by no means
shows a bad character.

We now come to the negro, who is very erratic and hard to under-
stand. Asa slave he had no responsibility beyond his work, for there

38 Timehri.

was no wife, family or home. We can see how this has produced that
want of forethought now so conspicuous in his character. Even in
Africa the man has not that home life so desirable, and here we can say
there is no such love and kindness to wife and children as is seen in the
East Indians. Nevertheless he is very useful and in some respects all
the better because he is not tied to one place. The West Indians
who worked at Panama had no real home, and we can say the same
of our gold-diggers, balata-bleeders and wood-cutters. There are
no bonds to keep the man at home; even when he has a house
and village lot he goes off for three months or more not much
caring what may become of his wife and children. This makes him
unreliable for continued work and yet helps the colony, fora man
who is much attached to his home could not so easily undertake
pioneer work. We have to ignore him as a plantation labourer and give
him such jobs as can be done at intervals. Being very strong he is the
best tropical labourer, but he only works when he is inclined or has some
heavy inducement in the shape of high wages. His idea is that a day’s
work requires two days rest, for he does not see that true rest comes at
night and cannot consist with idleness. In some cases, however, he will
work very hard ; on his own provision ground as on the estate, however,
the work must not be continuous. In getting negroes from the West
Indies we have to reckon for this intermittent character of their work.
We shall tind them very useful as ‘“‘ navvies” whea the railway to the
interior is being laid down. The great drawback of such want of fore-
thought is that there is rarely any saving; the man is generous and
wasteful when he gets his pay, but nothing is set aside to provide against
sickness. The community must provide everything.

Our experience with Chinese goes to prove that they are useful and yet
hardly suitable for plantations. Possibly, however, their somewhat erratic
dispositions came through the fact that so few women were brought and
that therefore family life was wanting. In China the home is very
important and probably an introduction of families would help the
planters as much as did those of the East Indians, The Chinese are more
clannish than some other people, and as we already have a very respect-
able body of merchants and shop-keepers of that race there would be a
tendency to draw off from estates to serve their own countrymen. In
any scheme for opening up the interior Chinese would be very useful,
bui for real colonisation we must get families.

The native Indians could be made useful in wood-cutting and clear-
ing land, but we must not expect much from them, for they are probably
more independent than any other people in the world,

In any attempt to provide a labour supply we have to consider first
the wants of the sugar planter, and when he is provided for, look to
other industries. For the new railway another class is wanted and
possibly we can get what we want in the colony with perhaps a few
Barbadians. There is, however, the want of real colonists who will settle
down on their own homesteads along the railway.

>

Labour and Colonisation—The Outlook. 89

There is a point of great importance in any system of colonisation,
that is, real settlement. The immigration system provided for repatria-
tion which is evidently dangerous for we want people here who have a
stake in the colony. Some will say the creole negroes are in sucha
position but when we look over the villages we ficd that most of the
original lots are no longer retained by descendants of those who settled
on them. A difficulty is produced from the fact that in most cases the
provision grounds are far away from the house lots and therefore the
dwelling and farm are separate. The idea was to have a village with
shops, schools and churches, within easy reach, but the result has been
that there isno supervision of the provision grounds, with consequent
losses through theft. The best ideal is, of course, a house standing in
its own grounds, but this could certainly hamper schools and churches as
well as police supervision. The idea of the freedman appears to have
been perfect liberty but his advisers, mainly missionaries, wanted to
prevent arelapse into savagery. The result was of some advantage but
its faults are obvious, yet we can hardly see that the matter can be
altered. In England we often find allotment gardens at some distance
from the cottages but hardly two or three miles off as is the case
with the back lands of some of our village. I have walked aback
to inspect villagers’ plots and can easily see that they are difficult
of access and entail long walks or paddling in bateaux. At the beginning
there were no roads at all and even now the few are often quagmires in
wet weather.

My first trip up the East Coast in 1870 gave me almost a shock.
Buxton and Beterverwagting suggested a lot of stilted huts ina lake; in
some places they could be reached by wading, in others only by means of
corials. Since that time we can see there has been much improvement
but I could understand the difficulties of the earlier villages through want
of managers. On the banks of the Demerara River there was not the same
flooding but almost every hut was in the midst of a jungle that required a
cutlass if it were to be penetrated. In such places the dwelling was near
the river and the narrow piece of land stretched back into the jungle for
about a mile. Few were cultivated at all for their owners lived by wood-
cutting, the women sometimes putting in a few plantain suckers and
fishing to get a relish for the foo-foo soup or porridge.

It is quite evident that the sanitary conditions on coasts and rivers
were very bad. In the villages the land was bare and on the river
covered with jungle ; in neither case were the surroundings anything but
repulsive. Insome villages when the water had gone there was much to
offend our eyes and noses, and on the river there was always a mouldy
smell from the thatch of the low hut. In connection with the mosquito
theory of malaria I may mention that agues appear to be as common
where there are no mosquitoes as in places where they are present.
We may say plainly that the conditions favourable to disease are present
in both places.

40 Timehri.

I have advocated the beneficial occupation of our surroundings as
the most important factor in the health campaign. The principle appears
sound for if we have flowers and growing provisions round our dwellings
we have the soil clean and sweet, whereas on the contrary puddles and bad
drainage mean noxious gases and mosquitoes. The larger the area in
cultivation and the more fully it is planted the more attention will neces-
sarily be given to drainage because of the value of the expected crops.
Where there is nothing of value no care is taken, and this is the position
in most of our villages.

It is quite evident that we want good settlers as well as labourers and
it may be noted that some of the East Indians have clean cultivation.
There is however a serious want of proper drainage about the houses on
the plantations; we can see that the people have often to pass through
slush to get to their homes. Of course there are difficulties on account
of our low levels, but it must be kept in view in putting up new dwellings.

The East Indian of to-day still hankers after his own country and is
hardly willing to give up the idea of going back at some time. This, of
course, tends to reduce his value as a colonist. An Englishman may also
want to go ‘home ” but he generally has some expectation of a return,
but the East Indian when he goes bids farewell to the colony. This
means that a man who has gained much experience and is acquainted
with local conditions, takes his knowledge from the colony to a place
where itis perhaps less valuable. It is evident that the man who has
overcome many difficulties and become rich enough to retire must always
be a loss to the colony ; we must try to retain such people by privileges
and exemptions. A floating population will never help us to develop the
colony and yet I am told that East Indians will not come unless the back
passage is assured. Very well, we must’provide for their return should
they claim it and meanwhile make them as comfortable as possible so
that the claims may be reduced to a minimum. Unfortunately for the
system of the back passage, itis the best man who takes away his family
if he has saved enough toenable him to live in comfort when he gets to
India. The community must appreciate the fact that every strong
healthy man is of value and should be encouraged to remain. The
failures do not go back, which is a pity for they are burdens.

It is an interesting fact that Guiana has been the field for labour
experiments from the time when it became known to Europeans. Every
race and many nations have been represented by failures or partial
successes, but there have been no grand successes. The result has been
a very slow progressive continuity in spite of some real downfalls.
We have to look back and see where the great drawbacks can be
found with a view to avoid the mistakes of our ancestors. It ap-
pears as if yellow fever, smallpox, and measles are gone as epidemics,
but we still have malaria, filaria) hookworm and unfortunately a
disease unknown to the old settlers, tuberculosis. On the whole the
colony is less unhealthy than it once was, and it may safely be

Labour and Colonisation—The Outlook. 41

stated that our descendants will be healthier than ourselves. But
some people appear to think they can revolutionise the world ina day,
while all the time experience says plainly that slow and sure is the real
basis of everything. ‘The people of Demerara tried to get immigrants,
and after many failures found the best people. It will hardly be judicious
to go on with a series of experiments with Africans and Chinese but to
urge upon the Indian Government the fact that British Guiana is suitable
for its people and that there are no such drawbacks to their immigration
as some people suppose.

It would be desirable for every employer of labour to put down his
wants and the reasons for requiring what he cannot now get. He should
also say what wages he has offered to attract labour and if there was more
continuous labour obtained with increased wages. In some of the old
returns it was stated that on particular plantations there was a certain
number of residents and only three or four tasks per head were performed
ina month. It is obvious thatif a rise in wages enables a man to live by
working one or two days a week he will not work for five. There is a
system in the gold and balata fields which is worth considering, but I
understand there is notask work in these industries. The task system
has its advantages but it certainly enables a man to begin and leave off
when he pleases. The weekly or monthly labourer could not claim for
anything like what is paid for as tasks. That our people can work in
stores by the week and month can easily be shown and possibly they do
better than when working by task. Were we to give up the task system
however there would be difficulties and yet it hardly conduces to contin-
ued work; possibly some modifications are desirable and yet trouble
comes when we have no limitations to the amount of work or the hours of
labour. Overtime must always be paid for and it might, perhaps, be well
to give something extra to the man who does the most work ; annual
prizes may be considered.

’

I find it generally useful to keepin mind the principle of what I call
“ progressive continuity.” It is evident that “all’s right with the world ”
or it could not continue. At the same time mere continuity is not enough
for there must be progress as well. If the airplane stops it must fall and
if a horse ceases to draw when going up hill the cart may slide back. It
is more satisfactory when we say that the world isgood but may be
better, than to declare it evil and find fault with everything. There will
always be faults to amend for that is in the nature of things, but it is not
good to kick over a thing before considering how it can be improved.

Colonization in Guiana has been a series of experiments. As a result
we have people from all parts of the world, all of whom can be made
useful to the community. Superior or inferior people can only be found,
when we look at them froma few standpoints. The excellence of every-
one is certain, but this excellence is not on all lines. We may even go so
far as to say that the highly superior person on all lines never existed.
The so-called lady and gentleman are mainly made up by dressmakers and

42 Timehri.

tailors, for few of them could make coats and dresses. There is room
in every community for people with different capacities, and if we have
the round plug in its proper place the result is good.

The negroes, East Indians, coloured people, Chinese and Europeans
are all immigrants or their descendants and some of them are good colo-
nists. The immigrant who becomes a colonist is valuable, but he who
wants to retire from the colony is not so satisfactory; this applies to all
for it is not the East Indians alone who wants to go “‘home.” There is a
break in the continuity when a Civil Servant retires and does no more for
the colony. We may praise British Guiana, but outsiders will perhaps say,
‘‘Why then does everybody want to get away?” The people who have
been prominent in colonisation schemes have in many cases retired to live
elsewhere. This was formerly more notorious, for the object of the old
proprietor was to flaunt in English Society as a Nabob. There should be
continuity of the family even though individuals retire; this is rare.
Real progressive continuity comes through people making homes and
raising families ; a man who settles down in a country has a real interest
in it for the sake of hischildren. There has been some progress in this
respect during late years, but there are many people now in England who
might have been useful as real colonists.

EMIGRATION FROM INDIA.

By ArtrHur H. HILL.

As the stoppage of Emigration from India has brought to the fore-
front the question of a labour supply, the following rough sketch of the
system which had been instrumental in building up 457 of the colony’s
population, is written in the hope it may prove of interest.

At the outset it should be made clear that it is unlawful for any
person, except in conformity with the Indian Emigration Act, to ‘ make or
attempt to make any agreement with any Native of India purporting to
“bind him to emigrate, or inducing or attempting to induce any Native
“of India to leave any place for the purpose of emigrating &c.,” and that
very heavy penalties—up to a year’s impriconment—may be imposed for
breaches of the law.

Organised emigration of labourers to the colonies is under the control
of Emigration Agents, usually Civil Servants of one or other of the colo-
nies, appointed by the Secretary of State, and approved by the Viceroy.

Of late years She colonies importing labour from India have been
Trinidad, British Guiana, Jamaica, and Fiji. Also the Dutch Colony of
Surinam. Formerly emigration was also permitted to Mauritius and Natal
but was put a stop to. Emigrants are still however returned from these
places every year in accordance with their contracts. '

The Ports from which emigration from India to the colonies is lawful
are Calcutta and Madras and, consequently at these places the Agencies,
with their Depots for the accommodation of coolies awaiting shipment,
are situated.

At Calcutta, until recent years, there were three separate Colonial
Agencies at work, all being situated at Garden Reach, about 4 miles from
Calcutta proper. Trinidad, Jamaica, Fiji, and Mauritius shared a Depdt
between them at 21 Garden Reach ; while British Guiana had its separate
Agency at 61, Garden Reach. On the Ist January, 1914, the two Agencies
were amalgamated, the Trinidad Agent taking charge of the up-country
recruiting (the Headquarters of which was Benares) the British Guiana
Agent remaining at Calcutta and practically controlling the whole scheme.
This arrangement was short-lived as in 1916 it was decided to close the
Benares Agency, the coolies coming direct to Calcutta as hitherto.

Garden Reach was the residential part of Calcutta about 100 years
ago. Here it was that the deposed King of Oudh was located with his
numerous wives and followers on his removal by the British Government
from Oudh, Allowed itis said £100,000 a year to live upon, the ex-King
with a swarm of courtiers and followers lived in this locality. On his
death his Palace was demolished, and the various residences of his Minis-
ters, and favourite wives sold, to pay off the numerous creditors that were
forthcoming.

44 Timehri.

Now 61 Garden Reach, for many years leased by the British Guiana
Government, was the residence of the ex-King’s Prime Minister, and an
interesting relic of former times was its Bear Pit (subsequently altered to
meet the pnrposes of a Depot Hospital) with its wild flight of stone steps
leading to a quadrangular balcony, beneath which were the dens for
the animals. From this baleony fights between wild beasts were witnessed
in safety.

Up to 1916 about a mile of terraced walls, with arches of masonry,
remained to show how far the Palaces and grounds had extended, but
about this time their demolition commenced, for the value of the bricks in
connection with huge dock extension works in the vicinity. The walls
and terraces, though in a fine state of preservation, had, from long disuse,
become overgrown with bush, providing a refuge for numerous jackals
and cobras which had taken up residence there. Disturbed by the de-
molition of the walls these latter had perforce to find fresh pastures, with
the result that hardly a week passed but a good fat cobra was killed in
the Depot Compounds just across the street.

The Trinidad Agency at 21 Garden Reach, a very imposing looking
building, standing in fine well-kept grounds, is considerrd a good
example of the houses built in Calcutta in early days. It contained an
elaborate stair-case built entirely of mahogany, the ground floor of the
building being throughout of black and white marble. No Government
House in the West Indies approached it in point of size, or in the beauty
of its extensive grounds and, needless to say, no Agent that lived in it
was able to furnish and occupy the whole building—even after setting
aside an entire wing for Office purposes.

In 1914 the property was compulsorily acquired by the Port Com-
missioners for Dock extension works the price paid being in the vicinity
of £40,000.

With the loss of 21 Garden Reach, which had a River frontage, the
facility of embarking coolies direct from the Agency’s private jetty,
which all the Colonies had enjoyed, went. Subsequent embarkation
necessitated coolies being marched through the streets to the Docks,
with the risks of interference and desertions on the way.

Tue System CF RECRUITMENT.

The system of recruitment of labourers in India for the Colonies
has always been carried on through the medium of professional recruiters,
who, before they may be employed, must be certified by the Magistrate
of their Districts to be ef good character. Licences, which were issued
by the Protector of Emigrants on the strength of these character cer-
tificates were tenable for one year only, and came up for renewal annually.
These recruiters were not however employees of the Emigration Agent
but of middle-men termed Sub-Agents, men with a little capital, Mahome-
dans, Hindus, and Native Jews.

Emigration from India. 45

A Sub-Agent, say, wishes to be employed in a certain District, He
needs first to acquire a suitable Depot for the accommodation of coolies,
and to have it certified as meeting the requirements of the Act by the
Local Civil Surgeon. This done he must submit, accompanied by
Character Certificates the names of such persons as he proposes to employ
as recruiters. The Emigration Agent having obtained these and for-
warded them to him he is free to go ahead.

In 1915 the number of Sub-Depots was 58, employing about 600
licensed recruiters.

The commissions that Sub-Agents were paid for coolies supplied
varied according to the demand and supply, but of late years these were
in the vicinity of Rs. 45/- (£3) for a man, and Rs. 75/- (£5) to Rs. 100/-
(£6.13.4) for a woman.

The Sub-Agent is paid his commission on the number of emigrants
actually embarked. The rent of Sub-Depdts, remuneration of recruiters,
the keep and clothing of emigrants in Sub-Depéts and Rail fares to the
Port of embarkation are all borne by him out of this. In the case of
coolies turning unwilling, or in connection with whose recruitment there
had been any irregularity, the expense in sending them back to the places
they were recruited at also fell on him.

This system of “ Commissions” has been condemned by the Govern-
ment of India, in favour of what is known as the Kangani system, by
which coolies in Southern India are obtained for the Straits Settlements.

SAFEGUARDS AGAINST CooLigs BEING EXPLOITED.

Though Emigration to the Colonies has been in existence since 1838,
but a sprinkling of Europeans in India, and Natives, had never heard of
if until recent years, when the question was given prominence by Indian
Politicians. In conversations which the writer had in India with both /
classes he found that the prevailing idea was that coolies were more or
less obtained by deception and despatched over-seas willy nilly—a sree
of ignorance no doubt fostered by tales of kidnapping that probably did
exist in the early days, in connection with inland emigration to the Tea
Plantations. As proof of the impossibility of mal-practices such as these |
occurring, or being possible of occurrence, let us follow the procedure
that has to be observed from the day a timid coolie ‘falls a
prey to the wiles of the rascally recruiter,” to use language des-
criptive of the method generally employed by opponents of
Colonial Emigration. The man (or woman as the case may be) having
been ‘‘talked-over” accompanies the recruiter to his Sub-Depot. His
naine is entered in the Depot Register and he waits a day or two until the
Agency’s Travelling Native Doctor comes along. If he is medically unfit
he is told so and departs ; if he is fit however he is next taken before a
Registering Officer, an Indian Official, and questioned as to his willing-
ness to go overseas in accordance with the terms of his contract, which

46 Timehri.

is produced along with him. If he is willing then on a certain day he
and others under the escort of a Peon, specially authorised by the Mag-
istrate of the District, are removed to Calcutta. They arrive at Howrah |
Railway Station. and from thence are probably taken by water to the
Depot at Garden Reach. Here he probably finds 200 to 300 coolies
already collected. His initiation consists of a bath, the issue of clean
clothing and a blanket, and the first free square meal he has probably
had for along time. The day following the Agency’s Doctor Babu goes
over him again and, if considered “fit” he forms one of many brought ~
before the Protecter of Emigrants the next day to be asked whether he
is willing, &c. He is willing. From this time on up to the day he is
finally embarked he has the opportunity twice weekly of changing his
mind and being sent home, for the Protector of Emigrants visits the
Depot for that purpose. On embarkation day for the last time he
parades before the Protector and has his final chance of stating his
unwillingness to emigrate.

From the foregoing it will be seen that even if in the first instance a
recruit is deceived by a recruiter and, by some chance, manages to “ pass ”
the Registering Officer up country, he still has ample opportunity to
change his mind. And apart from the intervention of Indian Officials,
an “unwilling” coolie in the Dcpot is a source of danger to the Emigra-
tion Agert, from the likelihood of bis making others unwilling, and for
that reason itis generally the latter who brings the case to notice and
has the recruit sent home.

And in order that there might be no ‘rushing ” of coolies out of the
country, it is provided in the Act that an Emigrant who has not been in
Depot at the port of embarkation 7 days may not be embarked.

Emigrants not embarked are returned free of charge to their homes
and, in addition, compensation is given to such as have been rejected as
unfit, or who developed sickness in Depot, or where _it is ascertained
there was irregularity in recruitment.

As the Sub-Agent, or actual employers of the recruiters, are the
persons upon whom fell the expense of unwilling or irregularily recruited
coolies, it was obviously in their own interests to make sure that the
recruits forwarded to the port of embarkation were under no misappre-
hension as to where they were going, or the terms of their contracts.

Satisfied then that this shipment of Emigrants has set out of their
own free will for one or other of the colonies, let us turn to the substan-
tial—for substan tial they certainly were—inducements, held out to those
who had the charge of them on their journey.

If the Surgeon Superintendent on the arrival of the coolies at their
destination certified that the captain, certain of his officers and men who
came into contract with the coolies, had laid themselyes out to do every-

Emigration from India. 47

thing in their power to make them happy and comfortable, the following
scales of gratuities was paid on every soul landed alive.

The Captain... 1/-
Chief Officer ... -/6
Engineer Boe by k2s
Storekeeper seems O
Carpenter bos =/[Ode
Driver Donkey

Engine ... -/04

When it is considered that a full complement of coolies numbers about
900 souls, the inducements held out were not inconsiderable.

OLp SysTEM CONDEMNED.

The system of recruiting by the Professional recruiters, as already
stated, has been condemned by the Government of India and when,
if ever, emigration to the Colonies is permitted again, some other
way of collecting coolies will have to be devised. Two systems
have been suggested known as the “Sardari” and ‘“ Kangani” systems
respectively, the former at present followed for the recruitment of emi-
grants in Northern India, for Assam and Cachar, and the latter, that by
which the Straits Settlements obtain labourers from Southern India.
Both are somewhat similar in that the underlying principle is, that the
recruiter should be a man who having himself emigrated is licensed to
return to his Native Village and recruit relatives and friends whom he
must accompany back and work with.

The difficulty in applying such a scheme of recruitment to
Colonial Emigration will be obvious when it is stated that the average
“eatch ” of a Garden Sardar is 3 to 4 persons, that the journey from
Caleutta to the West Indies occupies 40 to 45 daysand that the rate of
passage money to this colony slides from £18 per adult, where a ship has
a full complement (825 statute adults say) to £11.495 where less than
500 are embarked.

And the same Kangani or Sardar must not be sent backwards and
forwards too frequently or he becomes a professional recruiter.

The rate of Passage Money referred to above being the same in the
case of Indians who exercise their right to a Return Passage to India,
these figures will be instructive from the view-point of ‘“ inducements ”
to coolies to remain and settle here.

RECRUITMENT OF WOMEN.

As is the case no doubt in all countries, the bachelor is the one in
India that will most readily leave his native land and seek his
fortune in a foreign country. And anyone with any _ ex-
perience of the Indian coolie, and the timid unenterprising

48 Timehri.

person he generally is, can appreciate what an adventure it must
be for him—with his old rooted prejudice to crossing the sea—to
embark for a country he has never heard of and which is 45 days’ jour-
ney by sea from his ‘‘ Mulk.” And if this is so with the Male of the species
how much more so must it be with the female, than whom there is no
more timid creature in the world. And yet without the minimum number

of 40 women to 100 men no shipment of Indians may be made overseas.

Despite rates frequently twice as much as for a male, with bonuses added
where more than 3 women are provided with 5 men, and deductions
where this proportion is not maintained over a season’s recruiting, the
greatest difficulty is experienced by Immigration Agents in obtaining
the requisite number of women. On account of the heavy cost to them
in importing labourers, planters used naturally to look for able bodied
ones at any rate, to compensate them for their heavy outlay, and families
with young children and nursing infants were not regarded as
good barzains, Latterly—about 1915—families were asked for but,
whether the system did not lend itself to the recruitment of these latter
(it did not in the writer’s opinion) numbers were not forthe ming—at
any rate in Upper India. This narrowed the field to practically widows
as, by reason of child marriage which is customary in India, there are no
spinsters to drawupon. Registering Officers could, and frequently did,
refuse to register single women until enquiries by the Police confirmed
that they were in fact Widows, had been deserted by their husbands
or, at any rate, were not wanted by them. These enquiries often taking
weeks, the women in the interval became unwilling and were lost to the
Agency.

And woe betide the recruiter who relying on the word of a woman—
who may have wandered from a distant district—that she was a widow,
investigation subsequently brought to light she had run away from an aged
husband or a tyrannical mother-in-law. Unless he can clear himself, a
heavy fine or even imprisonment and the cance'lation of his licence are
likely to be his lot.

For this and like reasons Sub-Agents and recruiters found the re-
cruitment of women a,risky and often an unprofitable task, with the
result that seldom more than the minimum proportion were embarked
over a season’s recruiting.

As to what system would secure families, the writer believes that
one in which bonuses or grants were offered to the recruits themselves
would have the desired effect, same, of course, to be paid on arrival at
their destination.

That such a scheme would be more costly is likely. The risks pre-
viously taken by Sub Agents would fall upon the colonies. And again in
such a scheme the standard of all round fitness would have to be lowered
as one of several members of a family might be defective in some particu-
lar, the rejection of whom would mean the entire loss of the family. In
some cases aged and feeble dependants would have to be accepted for like
reasons.

Paes |

Emigration from India. 49

A scheme such as this would have to be looked at from a Coloniza-
tion standpoint, and not as a labour supply purely and simply, though
the end in view might be the same.

As might be expected, hardly a week passed at Calcutta and Madras
but that applications were made for permission for persons to go over
the Depots in search of errant husbands, wives, sisters and brothers
Visits would occasionally also be paid by the Police for Indians who
were “ wanted.”

THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF COOLIEs.

The coolies most sought after in Upper India are those from the
Orissa Bhagalpur and Chota Nagpur (more particularly the latter) divis-
ions of Bengal, but these are Prime favourites of the Tea Planters in
Assam and Cachar, and Emigration Agents for the Colonies could not,
on account of the huge commissions obtainable, compete with these latter
for them ; very black in colour and of rather negroid caste of feature,
they belong to the aboriginal tribes of Bengal and are considered the
most docile and hard-working coolies to be had.

The United Provinces of Agra and Oudh have always provided the
Colonies with the bulk of the coolies recruited for them, at least 80% to
907% coming from this part of India, the principal districts supplying the
greatest number of emigrants being Basti, Gonda, Gorakhpur, Faizabad,
Allahabad and Cawnpur. Delhi used also to provide a fair proportion of
recruits, whose physical standard was invariably higher than any other
District, but on account of the trouble Punjaubees gave in the Colonies—
they are a truculent people—their recruitment was discontinued and the
Sub-Depéts there closed.

After the amalgamation— up to the end of 1915—recruiting for Fij
used to be from January to May, followed by joint shipments to British
Guiana, Trinidad and Jamaica from then on. The early months of the
year are the best for recruiting purposes.

CASTES.

Excepting ex-policemen, ex-soldiers, Brahmins, Chatris, Rajputs,
Barbers, Dhobis, Nats, Banias, Fakirs, Punjabis, and coolies of any of the
non-agricultural castes, all other castes are recruited and have been sent
to the Colonies. The castes from which the greatest numbers have been
drawn are Ahirs (cow-minders) Chamars (dealers in skins) Kurmis
(Cultivators) Kahars (Carriers) Kumhars (Potters) Kewats (Cultivators
and boatmen) Lodhs (Cultivators) Muraos (Cultivators) Jats (Cultivators)
and Mallahs (Boatmen). Musselmen usually comprised about 20% of a
shipment, in addition. i

The average heights and weights of Indian coolies of both sexes
(Punjabis excluded) have been found to be :—
Height. Weight.

Men Eee She ton 8 stones, 12 lbs.
Women oes 4’ gy" 7 stones

50 Timehri.

These figures are in respect of adult males and females ranging
between the ages of say 18 and 29. Indians are for the most part small-
boned, and a man of 10 stones in weight looks much heavier than he
really is.

In addition to recruiting labourers, Agents are from time
to time required to secure Indians for employment by Colonial Govern-
ments as Interpreters and clerks. The Government of Fiji not infrequent-
ly ask that half a dozen Clerk Interpreters be sent down in a coolie ship.
Their agreements are usually for 5 years with a free Return Passage at
the expiration of that time. In cases where men give satisfaction and
Government renew the agreements, the former count for pension from
the date of the original contract.

The salaries paid vary from £75 rising to £100 for a 2nd Class Clerk
Interpreter, to £100—£150 for a 1st Class Clerk Interpretor, and, occa-
sionally £200 for aman with special qualifications where an Interpreter
for the Supreme Court is required. Free quarters are part of the agreement.

RETURNING EMIGRANTS.

A telegram arrives that a steamer with time expired emigrants is
coming up the Reach and will be at her moorings at 8 a.m. next morning.
At that hour then the Agent with his Staff of Babus his Peons and the
“ Doctor Babu” set off to board her. She is lying in the River, her
sides very rusty from the long voyage, and with a swarm of native boats
round her. Some of these hope fora ‘ fare” but others are busy salving
the tin Lotahs (drinking cups) and Thalis (eating pans)—not to mention
old clothes—that are being thrown overboard.

The Surgeon is wreathed in smiles: he has had no death on the
way, and there are only two cases for Hospital.

On the deck all is bustle and confusion. The Rollis being called, and
a second Babu is busy ascertaining the number of persons for the various
places up-country so that the Railway passes may be made out. This
latter task is not as easy as it might first appear as one or two of the old
Paupers are not quite clear where they want to go.

By noon the Agent is able to commence “ Paying off.” Paupers
are given the ddle that is to keep them until, shall we
say, ‘‘they are settled ;” and persons with remittances have
their cheques on the Bank of Bengal (which have accompanied them)
signed and handed over. By 6 p.m. all is finished and the disembarkation
is fixed for 7 a.m. next morning.

The next morning then sees boat loads of coolies making their way
ashore. The paupers under the escort of a Peon are being taken by water
direct to Howrah Station, while the cheque-wallas in hired ‘‘Band-Gharris”
(native cabs that will carry ten people on the roof and half as many inside
again) travel to the Bank of Bengal to get their cheques cashed.

Emig ration from Indu. 51

A Peon will also be in waiting there, to render any assistance and
subsequently show the way to Howard Station.

By midnight the bulk of the 900 souls that returned are journeying
by rail to the various parts of India they hailed from ; the majority firmly
convinced that they will pick up the threads of the old lives they lived
when they emigrated—some of them forty years previously:

Three weeks have passed, when the agent one morning sees a group
of people sitting under the tree in his Compound. He goes out to find
they comprise an aged couple with a son, (creole) the son’s wife (creole),
and the latter’s children (also creoles). They had returned by this steamer
and been duly despatched to the old man’s native village.

Their visit to-day is to say that arriving there, they had found none
of the old friends or relations the grandfather had counted on meeting ;
that they were very miserable, and, had returned to Calcutta to try and

get back to the colony.

But, says the agent, have you money enough left to pay for your
grandfather’s and grandmother’s passages, as they cannot be sent back
under indenture. They have reluctantly to confess they have only a few
dollars remaining. In the colony they declare they will repay the amount.

But the agent cannot accept this proposal, and they will not be sepa-
rated. So perforce they depart, the old ; eople in their dotage, the young
people hardly able to speak or understand their native language—to go
and live where, or how, they have not the remotest idea,

Most likely the younger folk will, when they have all got through
the savings they brought with them, procure work amongst the thousands
of coolies coaling ships at the Kidderpore Docks. Probably, too, they
will in time get accustomed to the life, the excessive heat, the hard work,
the small wage, and the never varying dhal -bhat and chupatties for food.

But before this state of resignation is attained they will brood on
the life they lived at “‘ Kothi,” the morning coftee, the creole vegetables
with which they varied their diet ; and the small boys will take a long
time to forget how they used to ‘ knack ball a pasta.”

Indentured Emigration from India is now a thing of the past and,
for the time being at any rate, no emigration of any sort from India to

the Colonies is permitted.

Looking to the fact, however, that the opponents of Indentured Emi-
gration clamoured as much for the right of entry of Indians into British
Colonies and Dependencies, on equal terms with Britishers and foreigners
as for the discontinuance of a system which they said was degrading to
Indian National sentiment—one is encouraged to hope the ban is not for

all time.

52 Timehri.

The War undoubtedly accelerated the stoppage of Indentured Emi-
gration, but the War may also re-act favourably for a scheme of free
emigration later.

Besides tending to break down the old prejudice against going over-
seas, which was as strong as ever in 1914, the enlistment of hundreds of
thousands of Indian coolies to work behind the lines in France, Mesopo-
tamia and East Africa, must surely in the end work to our advantage.
Well treated and well paid (Rs 25/- a month and “keep” was about the
figure), will these men be content on discharge, to return to their
native villages and work for wages of 4 to 5 annas a day ?

“THE EAST INDIANS IN BRITISH GUIANA.”
FROM THEIR ADVENT TO THIIS COLONY, TO THE PRESENT
TIME.

A SURVEY OF THE ECONOMIC, EDUCATIONAL, AND
POLITICAL ASPECTS.

By J. A. LuckHoo, F.R., BARRISTER-AT-LAWw.

The history of the East Indian in British Guiana has not been an
unchequered one.

Like the history of any other race or community it has had its
shadows and sunshine, its hopes and despair, its tragedies and comedies.

Brought to a distant land and subjected to different conditions of
living, many of them rudely snatched from ties of home and affection,
they have been content to pursue the “even tenor of their ways” undis-
turbed by the shock of rival interests or the disputes of party politics.

By their steady, thrifty and persevering habits, whether plodding in
the distant fields of the blossoming sugar cane, with the fierce rays of a
tropical sun beating mercilessly upon their half protected bodies, or waist
deep in the waters of the rice-fields assisting to build that great industry,
or in the quiet shadows of their rude huts cultivating their garden plots,
when the day’s work was done, these genuine sons of toil have helped in
no inconsiderable measure to build up the economic fabric of the colony.

While there is many a bright chapter to record there is also many a
dark page to which we can refer in the course of our short history.

The system under which our fathers lived and worked, suffered and
enjoyed has at last—thanks to the efforts of the great leaders of thought
in India—been brought to a well-merited end, and the stigma that had
attached itself to the race and lowered its dignity in the eyes of the
world has been forever removed.

THE INDENTURED LABOUR SYSTEM.

Upon the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire in the
early thirties of last century, some of the tropical colonies, including
British Guiana, found their industries paralyzed by a lack of labour, asthe
emancipated slaves, rejoicing in their new-found freedom, would no longer
work for their former owners. Recourse was, therefore, had to the good
will of the Indian Government and the indenture system was devised and
subsequently came into operation.

But before this system came into operation a very serious situation
was created by the collapse of the labour supply in this colony.

54 Timehri.

Fully one-third of the labourers became absolutely unavailable, and
the work of the remaining two-thirds was unreliable and desultory. The
planters then had to face one of two alternatives, to abandon their estates
and accept their ruin with what philosophy they possessed, or to continue
to work their plantations on the possibility of securing a regular and
reliable labour supply from new sources.

Many of the planters found it impossible to tide over the interval
between the emancipation of the negroes and the establishing of a regular
supply of imported labour, and a number of estates went out of cultiva-
tion.

The indentured labour system was successfully established in this
colony, and after many vicissitudes, necessitating various inquiries, com-
missions, reports and modifications, public opinion in India at last became
so exasperated by the revelations that continued to be made, showing
beyond doubt that the system had reduced the Indian population in this
colony (and other colonies where this system was in vogue) to which
they had been sent under indenture, to servile conditions, and had given
rise to grave immorality and enormous hardships, that Lord Hardinge’s
Government strongly recommended the early aboiition of the system, in a
despatch dated October 15th, 1915.

Owing to renewed agitation in India in the early part of 1917, when
it was feared that a prolongation of the system was contemplated, Lord
Chelmsford’s Government, with the consent of the Imperial authorities,
prohibited the further emigration of indentured Indian labourers during
the war, and it has since been officially announced in the House of Com-
mons that it is not the intention of the Government to revive the system
after the war.

The indenture system, we may take it now, isa thing of the past.

The importation of labourers into British Guiana from India com-
menced in 1838 when the good ship Hesperus brought her precious cargo
of living human flesh and blood that was destined tu revolutionize the
labour conditions obtaining in the colony due to the abolition of Negro
slavery.

In the same year, the system was condemned in Parliament by Mr,
Fowell Buxton, Lord Brougham, and others, through certain revelations
made in connection with it, and immigration was thereupon suspended.

On the recommendation, however, of Sir J. P. Grant, who wrote an
extensive study of the question, indicating certain safeguards and suggest-
ing certain remedies to be secured by legislation, the system was resumed
in 1844 in favour of this colony, Trinidad and Jamaica.

It was not, however, until 1864 that the system was organised on
the basis of a thorough Government control.

The East Indians in British Guiana. 55

In that year a law was passed with the approval of the Indian Gov-
ernment and the British Colonial Office, known as “ The Consolidated
Immigration Ordinance of 1864” which definitely fixed the mutual
obligations of the planters and the indentured labourers, and laid down
the methods of procedure in all matters arising out of the new law.

Broadly speaking, the duties of employers were thus defined.
Suitable dwelling-houses and hospital accommodation to be provided
free; suitable and sufficient Medical attendance, maintenance, and
nursing to be secured free of charge to all indentured immigrants ;
wages by the day to be paid at the same rate as the wages paid to
ereoles and other unindentured labourers; in the case of task work,
the task for each day .to be no greater than the task given to free
labourers, and to be paid for at the same rate ; wages to be paid weekly,
and no deductions whatever to be made for house rent, hospital
accommodation, medicine, ete.

Failure to carry out these conditions rendered an employer liable to
fine and imprisonment, on conviction.

The duties of the immigrants were to perform five days labour in
each week, a day’s work in the fields to be seven hours in length, and in
the factory ten hours.

All indentured immigrants who after serving five years on an estate
remained for five years longer in the colony, were entitled to a free
passage back to India.

The system of indentured labour in British Guiana was subjected in
1870 to a most searching inquiry conducted by a Royal Commission sent
to the colony for that purpose.

The appointment of the Commission followed a report made to Earl
Granville, Secretary of State for the Colonies, by a certain Mr. Des Voeux
who had been a Magistrate in British Guiana,

In this report, which was in the form of a letter, Mr. Des Vceux
made a very violent attack on the system of indentured labour.

4

|

Referring to the letter, the ‘‘ Anti-Slavery Reporter ” said : ‘‘ Mr. Des /

Voeux arraigns the medical men employed on the estates, the Stipendiary
Magistrates, the clergy in Colonial pay, the Sub- Immigration Agents, and {
even the late Gov ernor as subservient to the views “of the planters, and

opposed to the interest of the Immigrants who, he declares, have been long {
treated with gross deception, injustice and eruelty.”

Sir Clinton Murdoch, Ciacenss of the British and Emigration Com-
missioners,reporting on the letter said: “Mr. DesVceux impugns the conduct
of every class in the colony except the lowest ; and imputes to the Local

56 Timehri.

Government, and to the Magistrates, and medical men, cruel neglect of
duty, and unworthy truckling to the planting interest, and to the planters
generally, cruelty, falsehood, and perversion of justice.”

Charges of this nature coming from an official source could not pass
unnoticed, and a Royal Commission was appofhted to visit the colony,
and to make full, ample, searching and impartial inquiry into
all such statements and into all matters to which such state-
ments in any way related.

Mr. Des Vceux failed to support any of the serious charges which he
had made.

Sir Clinton Murdock, in summing up the result of the inquiry, said,
among other things, that he considered the report of the Commissioners
generally satisfactory, both as regards the Magistracy, the planters and
the immigrants. Many defects inthe system and mode of working it are
no doubt pointed out, but they are defects caused by errors of judgment,
by insufficiency of the law, or by want of foresight, not by neglect or in-
difference to the well-being of the people, still less by oppression or
cruelty.

Following the report of the Des Voeux Commission a number of
amendments were introduced into the immigration laws of the Colony,
and from year to year such alterations and additions have been made as
experience has shown to be necessary. As a result of these alterations
and additions, the principal Ordinance No. 18 of 1891 “ An Ordinance to
consolidate and amend the laws relating to Asiatic Immigrants ” stands
on the Statute Book of this Colony.

Between the year 1838, the beginning of the system and the year
1917, the date of its abolition, 238,979 immigrants were introduced into
the Colony.

Through this regularity of supply and under the beneficent xgis of
the system the sugar industry attained its climax of prosperity which ex-
tended all over the Colony and made itself felt on the credit sides of the
banking accounts of the absentee proprietors.

But the system of indentured labour into the details of which I do
not think it necessary nor desirable at present to enter, while contributing
in certain respects to the betterment of the class from which it was largely
recruited, was not without its defects and deficiencies.

Certain abuses had sprung up in the course of its working and these
coming to the knowledge of some of our leading Indian statesmen raised
a storm of indignation in their breasts and produced an agitation to
abolish it, and the Indian Government, led by that great champion of
Indian Reform, the late Honourable G. K. Gokhale, gave its veto to the
continuance of the system which was decidedly repugnant to the awakened
feelings of educated Indians, and the system received its death-blow in 1917.

The East Indians in British Guiana. 57

: Economic,

The economic aspect of the indenture system has not received the
same consideration as its moral and ethical aspects. Yet to us to-day it
is of infinitely more importance than a general declaration of the natural
right of man to be free of the moral iniquity of keeping him in chains.

A system of semi-slavery is bad enough but good wages and general
happiness may afford at least a partial justification of whatis morally and
ethically wrong. /

Can we say that the indenture system gave the labourer any
material compensation for his temporary loss of liberty ?

Work under the indenture system in this Colony is done either by
time or by task, and the wages paid cannot be said to be high when one
considers the fact that the indentured labourer is working in a far-off
country separated from his motherland by the ocean, and there is always
the risk of ill-health, due to change of climate and other causes.

Until now the question of an increase in wages has not been taken
up by labourers generally. This fact is due to their unorganised condition.
They have no labour or trade unions, and “collective bargaining” “is
impossible where labour is not organised. It is not the indentured
labourer who ought to take a lead in this matter; it is the free Indian
labourers who have settled down in this Colony, who should organise
themselves into labour or trade unions and try to establish collective
bargaining, and I hope this Association will give the lead.

In treating of the economic aspect of Indians in this Colony one has
to investigate the material conditions, not only of those under indenture,
but of the community of free Indians.

Immigration into this Colony with all its demoralising tendencies
has had one important effect. It gave, to accept an economic
phraseology, ‘“ trade mobility ” to the children of those who emigrated,

Away from India, living under new conditions, the immigrant was |
not so much bound by the rigid customs that restricted his trade mobility
at home, in conseq uence although he for the most part, did not forsake /
his old trade, yet often enough his children chose new professions. The |
effect of this has been very beneficial.

The economic progress of this Colony is now undoubtedly dependent
on the Indian labourer.

There is at present in the Colony a resident East Indian population
of 137,959 souls, male and female, and barring a small minority, com-
posing the educated section, the remainder may be safely put down as
permanent assets to the labour forces of the Colony.

58 Timehri.

This number may be divided into three sections, those employed on
the sugar estates, those engaged in the rice industry and those who have
set up on their own account in agricultural and other pursuits.

Of those engaged on the sugar estates the number may be put down
at 50 per cent., the remainder being distributed between the rice industry
which absorbs the larger portion, and the other minor industries, leaving
out a small percentage for those otherwise engaged.

Those immigrants who have elected to remain on the sugar estates,
after their term of indenture has expired, are engaged in the cultivation
of small plots of land and working for wages. In spite of what a few
defenders of the Immigration system may say and in spite of the con-
clusions arrived at by Messrs. McNeil and Chimman Lall in their report
on indentured labour in the colonies, that the advantages outweigh the
disadvantages, it is an incontestable fact- that the competence amassed by
a few of the immigrants has been due, not to the miserable wage paid
by the estates authorities but by their independent efforts in other
directions

I quote the following from the report of the Indian Department

of Commerce, signed by Lord Hardinge and others as proof of my con- |

tention. ‘We have attempted to show,” concludes the report, “ that the
economic advantage gained by the coolie, while actually serving under
indenture, is not so great as is often supposed, and that the real benefits
which he gains from emiyration arise after the close of his indenture
period from the opportunities then before him of purchasing or leasing
land or setting up in business and making himself a position as a settler.”

My reason for referring to this rather debateable point is not only to
prove the failure of indentured immigration as a factor in the economic
welfare of the immigrant, but to emphasize the value of a system of free
immigration that would enable the people to settle on the land with the
object of developing its vast latent resources with decided benefits to
themselves and permanent advantage to the colony as a whole.

Such a scheme, if well worked out, I feel sure, would not only
commend itself to the leaders of thought in India, but will place it beyond
every suspicion of helotry.

As regards those immigrants who have renounced their rights to
return passages, a scheme was decided on, some time ago, to settle them
in certain areas in the Colony organised into settlements, but the attempt,
through improper drainage and irrigation, has not been productive of the
results anticipated.

Those immigrants, however, who have launched out on independent
lines have become prosperous land owners.

Along the Corentyne and West Coast of Berbice and in the
Mahaicony and Mahaica Districts are to be found thriving cultivations

on

The East Indians in British Guiana. 59

and farms owned and managed by East Indians, and are powerful object
lessons of what can be accomplished in the way of Colonial development
if facilities of drainage and irrigation are afforded the settlers and advances
made Ly means of small loans.

The Commissioners already referred to, who have reported on the
conditions of the Indian immigrants in the colonies, made the following
recommendation which are deserving of special consideration at the
present time :—

** We strongly recommend that the irrigation and drainage of the
land as agricultural land be maintained by the Government. The
system of taking a small occupancy price and letting the settlers,
with or without the aid of any Board, make the best of their
bargain, does not tend to steady and make for successful colonization.
The immigrants want to occupy land and all that is needed is to
adopt the conditions of occupation to their requirements. The Crown
Lands Department seems to need a settlement branch. If colonization
and settlement operations are relegated to local bodies which are re-
garded by the settlers as tax collecting agencies with meddlesome un-
derlings it is doubtful if the demands for land will be adequately met.
We recommend that the Government should have ready for assignment
from 1,000 to 1,500 acres yearly. The land need not be cleared for cul-
tivation and if the occupant cannot obtain a normal yield for a year or
two the recovery of full rent might be postponed in the interval.”

To the East Indian the Earth is the bountiful mother ever ready
to yield her rich stores of treasures to those who approach her in the
right spirit.

As an agricultural labourer the East Indian is to the manner born. \

His natural instincts lead him to the soil and it isnet to be won-
dered at then, thateas soon as his term of indenture has expired and he
once more breathes the air of freedom, he turns with glad heart to mother

earth to wrest some of the treasures from her beneficent keeping.

To the Indian Immigrant we owe the development of the rice indus-
try of the Colony, and who can decry the importance of this industry
which from comparatively insignificant beginnings through many vicissi-
tudes of failure and success, of ebb and flow, has now attained the
position of a staple industry.

Recent figures show that there are at the present time 60,000 acres
of land under rice cultivation, in which nearly 60,000 persons, mostly
East Indians, are engaged and the value of the produce exported in the
last ten years is estimated at $1,182,497.

The possibility of the expansion of this industry is still very great.
There is the tendency of its assuming abnormal proportions if the present
rate of increase is maintained.

60 Timehri.

According to the report of the subsidiary Industries Committee
of the Colonization Scheme 30,000 more labourers can be absorbed
into this industry and with irrigation added the Committee is fully satis-
fied that its successful expansion and increased development is fully assured.

The Committee also thinks that settlers of the East Indian race are
the most desirable for the further development of this industry.

There are vast tracts of land situate on the West Coast and Corentyne
Coast of Berbice, also in the Mahaica and Mahaicony Districts, eminently
adapted for rice cultivation, with the natural advantage of a plentiful
supply of water from the adjacent creeks for the purpose of irrigation.

If these lands are all taken up by East Indians, as we hope they will
in the not distant future, for the extension of the said industry, the pros-
perity of the Colony will have been considerably advanced. The quality
of our rice is known and appreciated and there is a ready market available
for the produce, the demand being even greater than the supply. In
thinking of Indian immigration let this stand to its eternal credit.

The immigrants and their descendants eater into every walk of life
in the Colony. There are a few wealthy cattle owners on the Corentyne
Coast and West Coast of Berbice.

In Water street we can point to a few prosperous merchants who
from petty shopkeepers have risen to commercial magnates. Others are
engaged as clerks, mechanics, small shopkeepers, dispensers, hucksters,
green growers, milk sellers, &c., &c.

A fair number is employed in the Civil Service of the Colony.

In the words of the Commissioners they are growing in numbers,
wealth and importance.

Foreign trade on any big scale has not, however, been attempted as
yet by the Indians in this colony. This fact is chiefly due to the initial
disadvantages under which they had to labour, rather than to lack of
enterprise.

Ignorance of languages, together with the lack of a good education,
has handicapped the present generation. But their sons, brought up
under an atmospbere of free economic activity, will be better equipped,
and in the next generation we can be certain that business on a bigger
scale will be undertaken by them.

From what has been said it will be clear that the labourer who
emigrates from India prospers, in spite of all the difficulties that he has
to encounter, and all the prejudices that he has to overcome, an indirect
gain of first rate importance to India, but more than that, the mother-
land is also benefited directly by the prosperity of her sons abroad.

The East Indians in British Guiana. 61

EDUCATION.

It cannot be reasonably contended that the East Indians of the
Colony are slow to appreciate the value of education. The problem is
beset with so many difficulties that close attention must be given to
actual conditions when we discuss the theory.

Many factors must be taken into account to explain this apparent
apathy towards matters educational.

The main difficulty is that our brethren come from so many different
parts of India that there exists amongst us no one common language.

To the poor immigrant, struggling for existence, education is looked
at in the light of a luxury,

The services of his boy can be utilized in supplementing his meagre
income. And then again the question of religion would assert itself. To
send his boy to a denominational school to be taught English is to
denationalize him and jeopardise his religious faith, and so he maintains
a calm indifference towards it.

The labouring communities have neither the necessary funds nor
the necessary co-operation to build schools and carry on the Educational
work in Hindustani independent of the Government.

At present there are only English schools open to them, although
under certain conditions under the New Code one Indian Janguage may be
taught.

With his girl children itis so much the worse. To be mixed up with
the opposite sex of various nationalities is unthinkable.

The East Indian would like to send his children to school if the con-
ditions meet with his approval and complete satisfaction.

The East Indian, unprotected by Public opinion or social laws is
naturally afraid to send his children to such schools. He will sooner go
illiterate than give up his religion and his society. Thus it happens that
illiteracy is very high, among our brethren here.

In this Colony, the Indian labourer is freed from the bonds of
Society. His social Education becomes meaningless to him in new surround-
ings. He sees the principles which that Education inculeates in him
daily set at nought by the rest of the population. His confidence in
those restrictions and rules which form so much of the Hindu Social life
is rudely shaken.

The future of the labouring community depends mostly upon the
amount of technical education they receive. Their prosperity even as
agriculturists must in these days of scientific cultivation be largely
dependent on their knowledge and skill, which can be acquired only by
training. But here also the Indian is hampered by the fact that no
scientific education however elementary is given in his language.

———"

a

62 Timehri.

It has been computed that only one-third of the East Indian children
of a school-going age attend school regularly. With creolized and
enlightened East Indians, however, less subject to caste prejudices and
religious scruples, the objections enumerated do not hold so strongly.

Through the assimilation of Western ideas a broader toleration is now
observed.

Of recent years there has been a sudden awakening to Educational
demands and necessities. A good many creole East Indians of
parents who have risen to comparative prosperity after their term
of Indenture, are attending the Secondary Schools including Queen’s
College, and they are not only proving their aptitude for acquiring
knowledge but also excelling in their studies.

One or two of them have succeeded in winning Government Primary
Scholarships, and the Blair Scholarships.

In 1917, East Indians in the Colony were extremely gratified to see
the Guiana Scholarship carried off by an East Indian, Mr. Balgobin Per-
saud. This gentleman won his scholarship on the science side. At present
he is pursuing a course of study at Oxford.

In the legal profession we have 3 practising Barristers and 3
Solicitors.

In the Medical profession there are 3 of them, one a Government
Medical Officer.

A few are engaged in the teaching profession being holders of
Government Certificates.

Several are certified Chemists and Druggists and engaged in Drug
business, either on their own account or in the interests of larger firms.

There is a great tendency among our brethren to imitate Europeans
in their ways of life. It must be confessed that Europeanism has certain
attractions which are quite irresistible to the uneducated. The higher
strata of Indian Society in this colony have shown a tendency to follow
them on these lines. It need hardly be said that the Education which
they receive strongly predisposes them to such a defection from Hindu
tradition.

The fault is not entirely his. The Colonial Indian who thus merges
himself in the vast ocean of inferior classes is more often than otherwise
a victim of circumstances. His condition is the direct result of the
unsolved difficulties in the question of Indian education in which alone
lies the remedy for these conditions.

POLITICS.
It has been remarked that East Indians do not take an interest in
Public affairs. While this charge may be true of the past it is not true of
he present.

The East Indians in British Guiana. 63

Many causes might have operated in the past to account for this
apparent lack of interest. A political life at best is not a very attractive
one and to men struggling to maintain a precarious existence, polities do
not offer much attraction.

Secondly there were not sufficient educated leaders among them to
suggest lines of action. But now that we have a strong community of
intelligent and educated young East Indians, the demands of a_ political
life could not be overlcoked. Already there is a representative in the
Combined Court of East Indian descent, and we hope in the future to
see the number added to in a degree commensurate with our increasing
numbers and importance.

We are also proud of the fact that in the Ancient County of Berbice
we have an East Indian gentleman, a member of the Municipality, who
has several times filled the Mayoral chair and proved his capacity in
many ways to steer the Municipal ship.

There are less than six per cent. of Hast Indians on the Voter’s List
though a larger number is qualified to enjoy the political franchise. In
proportion as they realise their importance as factors in the life of the
Community to that extent we hope to see their political privileges availed
- of. One of the objects of the British Guiana East Indian Association is j
to encourage interest in matters political as affecting the welfare of East
Indians. We feel the necessity of being fully represented in every depart-
ment of Activity in the life of the Colony.

The hope has been expressed by the Commissioners, to whom I must
again refer ‘that when the interests of the East Indian Community
indicate the need for political activity they will avail themselves more
fully of the rights which they enjoy.”

That the time has now arrived the tendency of things seems to
fully indicate ; and itis also remarkable that this social, intellectual and
Political awakening should almost synchronize withthe fall of the inden-
ture system.

CONCLUSION, ;

No one can deny the fact that through the advent of East Indian ‘
Immigrants, the labour difficulty which had confronted the Colony \
through the abolition of negro slavery, was largely solved, and the ~
threatened extinction of the sugar industry completely averted.

The conclusions of the Lord Sanderson Cummittee is significant on
this point.

It states :—“There can be no doubt that Indian Immigration has ren-
dered valuable services to those of our Colonies in which on the
emancipation of negro slaves, the sugar industry was threatened with
ruin, in which a steady application of labour has been required for the
development of the Colonies by methods of work to which the native
population is averse.” “

64 Timehrt.

“ The Indian Immigration has a two-fold effect. It has admittedly
supplied labour which could not be obtained in sufficient quantities from
other sources.” But we are also told by more competent witnesses that
according to their observation, in British Guiana and the West Indies,
at all events, the thrifty and persevering habits of the Indian Immigrants
have had an educative effect, perceptible, though gradual on those among
whom he has come to live and that his example and his competition have
introduced new habits of industry and improved methods of Agriculture.’

Indian Immigration has undoubtedly proved the salvation of the
colony.

Let us imagine what the condition of the Colony would have been
without Indian Labour.

Intoxicated with a sense of liberty and released from a state of brutal
serfdom, with its attendant degrading and dehumanising concomitants, the
thought of submitting himself to any form of indenture however attractive
the conditions, would have been scornfully thrust aside by the Negroes
and the sugar industry, the success of which depended absolutely
on aregular andcontinuous supply of labour would have crumbled to
nothingness.

Trade as a consequence would have suffered. Our Coast-lands would
have lapsed into howling wildernesses and the population be reduced to low
water mark. Our rice industry, which is bringing such handsome revenue
to the Colonial exchequer, and fast becoming our staff of life, would have
been an unknown quantity.

Labour in relation to the industries is like fuel to an engine and
without a dependable supply of labour such as that provided by Indian
immigration the whole economic fabric of the colony would have
collapsed like a pack of cards, and the appelation of magnificent as
applied to the colony and which it at present has not fully merited, would
have been a sarcasm and a misnomer.

As acommunity we feel we have reached the turn of the tide not
only in our life in the colony but in the history of our race and country,

India has played a worthy part in the great conflict of nations and
has helped in no small measure to roll back the tide of anarchy and
barbarism that was threatening to engulf the world.

By virtue of her loyalty to the throne, in its hour of gravest peril,
she has been admitted to the Councils of the Empire.

Through the recommendations made in the Montagu-Chelmsford
Report on Indian Constitutional Reforms, India can now look forward to
a larger measure of self-government and greater freedom in determining
her own affairs.

The East Indians in British Guiana. 65

We, in British Guiana feel it incumbent on us to rise to the occasion |
_ and make ourselves worthy of the great race to which we belong.

We feel the time has arrived when we must collect our forces together
in one grand effort to achieve the high and noble destiny to which we
feel we are now called.

The only remedy I could suggest is the voluntary emigration of
higher classes, gentlemen in learned professions, merchants, skilled artisans
and others whose social position will entitle them to respect.

In such a case their influence will naturally be felt. We should
also have all the benefits of Indian civilisation.

The present agitation against voluntary emigration by the Indian
Government will inevitably disappear. To bring about such a consumma-
tion must be the aim of the political work of this Association. Once that }
stage is reached we have a solid basis to be treated alike with all other
nationalities in this Colony and to enjoy equal rights in the Civil Service |
of this Colony. :

Statutory equality is a necessary corollary to a well-founded scheme
of colonisation.

If this is borne in mind and India undertakes to see it carried out
it will be a source of enormous strength in our national life, for it will
not be supposed that any Government will go against the wishes of a
community on whom the economic prosperity of the Colony depends.

The days of inactivity are over.

Within the next few years this new spirit will without doubt grow in
strength and in feeling. Education, which is fast spreading in our rauks,
must doits inevitable work.

Let us appeal to the motherland to recognise and keep in touch with
her sons who have emigrated to this colony, so that she may look across
the ocean with pride at the chances that lie open to her sons and the
great destiny, that itis their lot to fulfil in the ordered progress of true
light and civilisation.

HOPETOWN CHINESE SETTLEMENT.
By F. O. Low, (Barrister-at-law).

Wuy STARTED.

It would appear that in or about the year 1865 there was a large
number of Chinese immigrants in this colony who had completed their
terms of indenture and were not satisfied to remain on the sugar estates
to which they had been indentured and were contemplating emigrating
from the colony because of (a) the smallness of the remuneration on the
sugar estates, (b) there being no prospects for them to look forward to,
(c) the fact that they had become aware that the Chinese in Trinidad who
had served their indentures were accumulating wealth by the planting of
rice and by engaging in commerce.

About this time there appeared on the scene a Chinese gentleman of
ability, a Mr. O. Tye Kim (Wu-Tai-Kam) engaged in missionery work
among the Chiaese here. He was surprised at their indigence as com-
pared with others who had emigrated from China and he discovered a
widespread dissatisfaction among them regarding their outlook in life
and a general desire to emigrate to fairer fields.

It would have been a disadvantage to the planters if these people
had emigrated, on two grounds: (a) They (the planters) would immediately
have lost a floating supply of free and trained labour, which on account of
there being practically no other channels of employment, could be obtained
at a nominal rate, and (b) there were good reasons to fear that news of
the general unsatisfactory state of the labour market in this colony would
reach China, thereby disastrously affecting emigration therefrom to these
shores. .

Under these circumstances it was imperative to devise some means
of inducing the Chinese to remain, and as the real ground of dissatisfac-
tion was the poor prospect presented to them, a scheme that would hold
out better possibilities was obviously necessary.

Mr. O. Tye Kim (Wu-Tai-Kam) therefore brought forward a scheme
which he stated would at once enure to the benefit of the church and the
planters.

His idea was to create a Christian Chinese settlement where the
Chinese might work on independent lines and thus open up an encourag-
ing vista to the industrious. Accordingly, he petitioned _the Governor
Sir Francis Hincks, for-a-free grant of z ‘ i
and also for a small monetary loan in order to founda
ment thereon. This petition was reproduced tn eatenso in the ‘ Royal
Gazette” of the 7th of February, 1865. The Governor was a warm
supporter of the scheme and on the 21st of February the Attorney
General moved a resolution that the petition be granted and it was
carried.

About 25 settlers were at once taken to the proposed site and by the
end of 1865 abont 70 had settled. From this time the settlement pro-

, 6 oS

Hopetown Chinese Settlement. 67

gressed rapidly, the principal products being rice, charcoal and eddoes, /
A large and substantial Church was built some time after, and though its
repairs are sadly neglected at the present time, yet it stands out as a
monument to attest the existence of a once thriving Chinese town. |

DECLINE.
The causes of the decline of the settlement from what can be
gathered in conversation with old Chinese residents and from others
who had resided there, may be attributed to the following reasons :—

1. A good many who made and saved a fair amount of money left in
order to engage in business near the larger centres of population, the
work being less arduous and the profits greater.

2. The disinclination of the younger generation to till the soil, or to
engage in other strenuous manual labour, and the superior attractions of |
business life, which in those days, was very remunerative. A youth
engaged as a shopman, at a small wage, with board and lodging free,
might very soon aspire, on the accumulation of a few hundred dollars, to
be the owner of his own shop, and as the merchants of Georgetown
gave credit freely in those days’ it was not difficult to start off with very
little.

3 As there was a lack of woman folk among the immigrants a great
many of the men died off withcut leaving any offspring behind them.

4. Failure to plant permanent crops. It is difficult to understand
why the settlers did not go in for the planting of cocoa or coffee on an
extensive scale, as the land is certainly suitable for either. The real
reason appears to me to be that the Chinese did not know very much
about them; that they were unwilling to wait for, perhaps, five years,
before anything could be reaped from the trees, and finally, and this might -
have been a point of great importance to them, the land was owned
generally, that is to say, there was no individual title. It might have -
occurred to individuals that if they planted permanent crops, the question
of inheritance would arise after their death.

I regard the failure to plant permanent crops as one of the principal
reasons for the decline of the settlement because I am of opinion that if
such plants had been put in there would have been an inducement fora
great many to rema‘n there, as the subsequent labour would have been
very little and light, compared with the returns obtainable, and this no
doubt would have formed a counter attraction to that of a business life.

5. The Boerasirie Scheme, the object of which was to create a
servoir of water in the backlands of the estates of the West Coast and
West Banicof the 16 Demerara river, was also largely instrumental in bring-
ing about the failure of the settlement. The great body of water retained
had no outlet but that of the Camoonie Creek and toa slight degree of
the Bonasika, and a mere glance at the map would convince one that
during the rainy seasons, the banks of the Camoonie must be inundated,
and of course crops thereon could not thrive. This scheme was started in

1887 or thereabouts,

=)

p=

AN ACHING INDUSTRIAL VOID. ¥

By J. VAN SERTIMA.

Into the vocabulary of the political economist of British Guiana an
unusual word has been lugged—Colonisation. Its connotation varies
with the psychology of those who use it, but it seems to mean the import-
ing of lavour forces and their utilisation under conditions more improved
and more inviting than those attaching to the system of introducing
East Indian coolies, as we have known it for the past seventy years.
British Guiana owes whatever economic progress it has made chiefly to
East Indian immigration, whatever alloy in the beneficence may be
found by the inquisitive and the fault-finder. In the language of acting
Governor Cox in a despatch (1909) to the Secretary of State, ‘ the
history of indentured labour in this Colony is in fact more than half of
the history of the colonisation of British Guiana.” For reasons which
need not be entered into here, a period—-let us hope it is but a temporary
one—has been put to the system referred to. From the point of view
of the Colony’s material interests it was not an ideal system, for until
the number of inhabitants to the square mile (300,000 to 91,000) in-
creases, the varied requirements of the colony cannot be met by the
temporary residence of labourers who are to be returned to their home
with their families at the end of a very limited period, It is settlers, not
carpet-baggers, that are wanted. This is a conclusion that has been
reached by various shades of public opinion, in the recent canvassing of
this question of Colonisation. The interest that has been evinced in this
connection has been remarkable, alike for its vividness and its universality,
recalling the agitation which issued in the reform of the colony’s political
constitution in 1891. Upon every one not afflicted with intellectual
anfractuosities or incurable prejudices, it has been borne in that British
Guiana has long been hungering after man-power, without a sufficiency of
which there cau be no regeneration, no development. ‘Thé colony, which,
along with Cape Colony, was secured by the eight million Dutch loan,
remains an estate of the British Crown, undeveloped and neglected, as if
in expiation of the crime of being the only British possession on the
South American continent. It has now lost its pride of place, albeit it
offers a splendid field for hardy pioneers of the mettle which has done so
much for the development of the Dark Continent.

The Colonial Government, it is true, have made attempts at colonisa-
tion before now, but as these were ill-conceived and- entered upon
apparently half-heartedly, they failed of their object. Land settlement
was the card—settlement on unoccupied estates to which a large area of
land suitable for cultivation or grazing purposes was attached. It was
hoped to securé the settlement of these estates by, offering lots of land
,to the immigrant in lieu of return passage to India. In the words of a
former Government Secretary, ‘none of these experiments succeeded,
and the failure is to my mind partly attributable to the position of the

An Aching Industrial Void. 69

immigrant on completing his term of indenture having been overlooked.
He must necessarily pass through a period of transition during which
he cannot live by the produce of land worked on his own accouat, but is
compelled to divide his time between working for hire and cultivating his
own land. The settlements founded by immigrants of their own free
enterprise have been more successful because those who have founded
them have been forced in the selection on sites to recognise the necessities
of the immigrant during the period of transition from the position of a
hired labourer to that of an independent occupier or trader.” He goes on
to say that the arrangement by which the immigrant works out his
emancipation is in every way advantageous to the proprietor of a great
estate. ‘The most intelligent of the proprietors have learned to offer
every possible inducement to the immigrant freed from his indenture to
establish himself on or in the immediate neighbourhood of their estates.”
By this arrangement, the rice industry has developed in most gratifying
fashion, until now the area under cultivation is approaching that under
sugar cane.

The greatness of the East Indian peasant continues toripen. Of
this there is evidence everywhere you turn. He looms increasingly in
the consideration of the great industrial problem which is holding atten-
tion just now. It is he and his fellows who constitute ‘the people ” of
British Guiana, and not those who for convenience are dubbed “the
native population.” He is an industrious agricultural labourer. As an
economic unit he has no compeer. He is remarkably thrifty ; and, so
far as human foresight can discern, he is destined to hold a very im-
portant and valuable place in the social economy. It stands to the credit
of the East Indians that the colony can boast of a rice industry, growing
and to grow, an industry that already successfully competes against the
premier industry for labour, and promises also to wrest the primacy from
it, in the same way as the cocoa industry in Trinidad came abreast of and
then outstripped the sugar industry. To the enterprise of an Kast
Indian in the Mahaicony district, we owe the importation of caterpillar
traction engines, labour saviny devices, which it seems, before long time,
will be as familiar a sight as rice mills. And, by and by, as farmers,
roused by the bayonet of ambition, become acquainted with other in-
ventions of mechanical ingenuity, the more accelerated will the progrest
of the industry be seen to be. It is estimated—probably a conservativs
estimate —that there are 64,814 acres of land under rice cultivation. We
need not stop to enquire what emotions are stirred by this achievemene
in the heart of a step-motherly Government which treats the crying
need for irrigation and drainage as if it were a request for the moon. It
is clear that any encouragement in this regard would further react on the
attenuated labour supply available for the sugar estates. It is so
obyiously the fact that an abundance of labour is wanted, that one feels
ashamed to state it, were there not in this community a set of men who
are afflicted with an indurated conscience, an impaired perspicacity, a
myopic sense of proportion, an undying hate of the sugar planter, and an

70 Timehrt.

overweening desire of self-advertisement which they undisguisedly dis-
play while they indulge in the entrancing exercise of tickling the ears
of the groundlings. Independent Commissions of Enquiry have examined
and discussed the allegation that the importation of East Indian Immi-
grants has led to a reduction of the rate of wages and to the prevalence
of unemployment among other classes of the population, and have con-
cluded that such an allegation is unfounded.

Just now efforts are being made to increase the labour supply by
means of what is being called a Colonisation scheme, that is, to sow the
seeds of wealth in the colony. Thai these efforts will succeed is a con-
summation devoutly to be wished. East Indian immigrants, at the close
of the year 1917, held real property valued at a little over one million
dollars, the largest contribution thereto during the same year being a
cattle farm in East Demerara, for which the sum of $35,000 was paid.
The purchaser was an immigrant who had come to the colony in 1881, at
the age of 21. He remained in the colony for twenty-three years, and
after going back home, returned. Many there are like this man, this
embodiment of thrift, a fact that may be gleaned from the record which
telis that the $319,590 worth of property owned by East Indians ‘in
Georgetown was held by only 304 of them. In New Amsterdam, 64 East
Indians held property valued at $72,000. The goodness of prices ruling
for rice was reflected in the Savings Baniks’ transactions. At the end of
the year the number of depositors was 7,507, and the sum at their credit
$489,801, showing an increase, as compared with the previous year, of
171 depositors and $78,403 in the amount at their credit. During the
same year the sum of $10,073 was remitted to India, being a little more
than £500 more than in the previous year.

On the question of East Indian immigration, let me quote the
weighty opinion of Governor Swettenham :—‘ With reference to the
future progress of this colony, and the presence of the immigrant coolie
therein, I confess, speaking individually, my regret is that, instead of
merely 150,000 coolies, we have not ten times that number in the colony.
We have lands enough and to spare, and with a na:ural supply of water
available they could grow enough rice to tupply this hemisphere.
Already, chiefly by the industry of the free coolie, the local price of rice
AM Scoghrraheg oe has been reduced. There is also an enormous field here for
coconut planting on a large scale, and on the savannahs for cattle farm-
ing, a business which is very popular amongst coolies. The coolie has
already spread over the whole country from the Corentyne to the
Orinoco, and be has been so successsful in providing for himself that
coolie settlements in return for back passages have been abandoned, not
as a failure, but because the coolie is so successful without them. The
coolie is to be found in some localities renting land from negro owners
for rice cultivation at a high rent and sometimes employing negro.
labourers in the cultivation. He is to be found draining, for wages,
villages owned and populated by negroes. His thrift is most commend-

An Aching Industrial Void. 71

able, especially in a country where local capital is wanted.,..... It
will be a drawback to the development of the country if coolie immigration
diminishes or ceases.”

Yet another certificate as to the economic value of the East Indian
coolie. It takes the shape of a resolution of the Combined Court passed
in 1874, and is as valid to-day as it was then : ‘‘ This Court is of opinion
that immigration has benefited not the planters only, but every class and
every interest in the community, and that although the planters in the
first instance have had the services of the immigrants, yet apart from
the proportion of the expense heretofore imposed on the planter for the
introduction of immigrants, the planters have more than compensated
for the continued services of the immigrant during the first five years of
his residence by the obligations imposed on them by law to provide
hospitals, medicines and nurses for the immigrants, and also to feed them
during sickness, all in addition to paying the immigrant the same rate
of wages for the work he does as is paid to creole labourers, who obtain
by law no such exceptional advantages and comforts. That it would be
difficult to say what the state of this colony at the present time would
have been had immigration not been promoted at all, or to the extent it
has been ; but there can be little doubt of this, that, if not almost entirely
abandoned, the colony would have been in a very deplorable condition,
and unable to raise the funds required to maintain, with efficiency, the
different departments of the Government and public institutions. This
Court therefore considers that it is entirely to immigration that the
present progress and advanced state of the colony are to be attributed,
and that it has been beneficial to the planter, the merchant, tradesman
and mechanic, as well as to the creole farmer and labourer; as to the
latter two, it has opened up to them wider fields for their energies, if
they choose to avail themselves of them, and the means of raising
themselves to a higher position by perseverance and industry.”

I am not aware that there has ever been a glut of agricultural
labour here. Were there a sufficiency of it, British Guiana would not
be, as it is to-day, in a state of economic stationariness, for the captains
of industry interested in the staple product, the value of whose exports
is as much as 80 per cent. of the total exports, are confessedly men of
energy and enterprise. And, moreover, there would have been an
appreciable influx of capital to energise the vast but sadly neglected
resources of a country for whose backwardness the Imperial Government
is largely responsible. The War had not been in progress a year, when
unaccustomed but by no means surprising phenomena came to the surface,
not the least conspicuous being a scarcity of labour, and in consequence,
arise in wages. Employers of labour, their product fetching remunera-
tive prices, grudged not the expansion of the Wages Fund, but
experienced an emotion akin to chagrin at the realisation that, for the
want of more labour, they were shut out of a larger share of the contents
of the cornucopia. For a long time it has been evident to the least

72 Timehrt.

observant that, so far as the two major agricultural industries are con-
cerned, the cultivation of sugar and that of ricc, one expands at the
expense of the other, and for no other reason than that there is not
enough labour for both. In the absence of immigration there must
needs be a marking of time, while nascent iudustries cannot reach the
imago stage. Of natural increase of population there is none. There is
room and to spare for a much Jarger population which will find in the
colony opportunities not only to better its condition but to promote the
interests of the general community. It is crystal clear that an increased
population must precede the introduction of capital. Here there is no
middle class who, by dint of frugality and enterprise, can take the place
of the capitalist in regard to the management of property for the
employment of the labour of others; and it is admitted that the most
intelligent and steady of the ordinary class of peasantry are not qualified
to undertake the task.

During the war increased attention has been manifested towards
the question of closer commercial intercourse between Great Britain and
her Colonies, especially those of them that have useful raw material to
provide her with. That attention is of a remarkable and extensive
character, and it remains to see whether a prominent and permanent
place is for British Guiana in the future programme of the Imperial
Government. In this great question the people of the homeland are no
less interested than those of this colony which is yet in its commercial
infancy. Here there are vast areas awaiting utilisation and development.
There is the clamant cry for captains of industry, but vain must be the
call unless and untilthe means for the efficient employment of capital is
at hand. Obviously, the want of population retards the progress of the
colony and adversely reacts on its revenue, Ever and anon, the Govern-
ment are accused of a want of initiative and statesmanship because
development works are not undertaken and progressive measures attacked.
The accusers strangely overlook the fact that there is practically no
increase of population. Superadded to this material drawback, there
is the noticeable tendency of the population to scatter and one which
necessarily increases the cost of administration, and the incidence of
taxation, the number of taxpayers remaining practically the same. These
taxpayers will receive relief only when others are introduced to share the
burden. Not without an appreciable reinforcement of this kind can an
industrial renaissance be hoped for.

The statical economic condition of the colony is admittedly un-
satisfactory. The Imperial Government, so far as British Guiana is
concerned, is still living in the stone age of negligence, ignorance and
unconcern. The colony has been left to fend for itself, and ill it has
done this, if only because the chilly winds of Downing street have con-
tinually been blowing upon it. Hardly can it be a mere coincidence that
the purely Crown Colonies of Nigeria, Trinidad and Ceylon have been
looming larger than British Guiana on the economic horizon, The mere

7

An Aching Industrial Void. 73

man looks on and draws inferences. If the Imperial Preference spoken
cf lately in Parliament is translated into the region of actuality, the hope
may be entertained of a betterment. Some encouragement is undoubtedly
wanted in order that the colony may develop along the lines of en-
lightened progress. At the moment no help will be so much appreciated
as the uninterrupted flow of immigration. One can never hope for the
much-desiderated influx of capital unless there is an increase of popula-
tion, able and “‘ willing to smite the soil with Sabine spade” and other
agricultural implements.

AFRICAN IMMIGRANTS AFTER FREEDOM.

By J. GRAHAM CRUICKSHANK.

By Act of Parliament—47 Geo. III, cap. 36—the importation of
slaves from Africa to the British West [Indies was prohibited after March 1,
1808. Thus wasthe door shut through which had passed the entire
labour supply of the colonies for upwards of a century and a half. |

On August 1, 1838—after four years’ apprenticeship—the negroes
in the West Indies were liberated. Slavery—the most primitive type of
labour contract—wes broken up. Nothing in the nature of compulsory
service took its place; there must be unrestricted freedom. There was.
The Freedman of the First of August was free to work where he liked,
when he liked, or not at all .A number without hesitation, chose the last
alternative. Left to themselves they became themselves, and slipped
back into Africa. The majority worked fairly well for a year or two. But
then the natural result of high wages showed itself. The freedman’s
ambitions were few ; and, these satisfied, there was no reason on earth
why he should work to the same degree any more. Nor did he. To-day
afew hours in the field ; to-morrow (it being a stormy morning) a lounge
at home. The more he was paid the less he did; the less he did the
more he was paid. It went round and round in a vicious circle. This
was liberty—as unfettered as the most rabid member of the anti-slavery
party could want ; butit was not business. Plantation after plantation
went to the wall. Outlying estates suffered particularly. The old-time
plantation, trim and garden-like, became a tangle of weeds. In many
instances even the standing crops could not be taken off. Canes rotted in
the field, and fallen berries blackened the ground beneath the coffee-trees,

It was at this date—1841, three years after ‘Free fall”—that the
African door opened again and let into Guiana a few more blacks from
the old, old African Reservoir.

I.

The first Immigrants were the Liberated Africans.

All the old slave-trading Powers—Great Britain, Holland, France,
America, Spain, Portugal and latterly Brazil—had renounced slave-
trading ; but as regards three of them—Spain, Portugal and Brazil—the
renunciation was mainly on paper. <A trade was yet carried on ir
smuggled negroes to which the authorities turned a blind eye.

The tale of the smuggling of slaves from Africa into Cuba and
Brazil—chiefly Brazil which was.a straight run across—during the '20’s,
’30’s, °40’s, 50's and ’60’s of last century is a terrible one.

Fast vessels— specially built for the traffic—ecrossed to the African
Coast, tacked up and down the Bights of Benin and Biafra, stood in
when the coast was clear, filled their holds from the barracoon of the
black trader, took just enough water and rice and yam as would last the ~
voyage—and made haste for America.

= he *

Ste ep Rodos © ae nn eee gered Se ae epee sm ts apm rem ow

eae

‘vIeroutag ‘Auooreyeyy ‘sofuoy jo dnory

A Kongo Musician,

A Yoruba Farmer in hisfown Yam Patch.

African Immagranis After Freedom. 75

The crush aboard was terrible. The negroes had not coffin-room.
They squatted each between the other’s knees sometimes, to save
stowage. The legal slave-trade in the latter days had its Regulating Bill.
The slaye-smuggler knew no law. He was alaw to himself. Before, the
mortality on the Middle Passage averaged about 8 per cent; it rose now to
25 per cent. or more. If winds were light or the slaver encountered bad
weather or disease broke out, half the slaves never reached America.

The physical and mental condition of those landed was pitiable.
Most of them were mere wrecks,—shadows of men. They were skeletons.
It took them a year at least to pick up sufficiently for work in the field.

As business, nevertheless, slave-smuggling was immensely profitable.
Nothing was more so. The value of a slave in Africa—in osnaburg, red
coral, salt and tobacco, muskets, rum, &c.-—was about £3 or £4. He was
cheaper than in the old time. The trade was illegal. The demand was
less. Landed in Brazil, he fetched £50. One cargo of slaves was worth
ten of dry-goods. Many who began slave-bringing as poor people became
among the most wealthy men in South America.

Now, by way of backing up Treaties with Spain, Brazil, &c., Great
Britain stationed a few men-o’-war off the coast of Africa, and, later, for
a few years, off Cuba and Brazil. They were on the watch for the slave-
smuggler. Readers of ‘‘Tom Cringle’s Log” will recall the sinking of a
slaver by H.M.S. “ Wave.” But it was one thing to watch for the
surreptitious “ black-birder,” and another thing to catch him. The West
Coast of Africa—from any point of which almost slaves might be
procured—was upwards of 4,000 miles long, The coast of Brazil—at
any point of which almost slaves might be landed—was 2,500 miles in
extent. Cuba is about 2,000 miles round. There were immensely big
meshes in the net. It is small wonder the smuggler often got through.
From 1837 to 1847, 176 vessels were caught with slaves aboard. The
slaves liberated totalled 43,668. In 1847 only (it is estimated), upwards
of 50,000 slaves were safely landed in Brazil alone.

-All the Treaties—with Spain, Brazil, &¢.—had one provision in
common, namely, that the slaves found aboard captured vessels would,
subject to receiving a “ full and complete emancipation,” be at the dis-
posal of the Power whose cruiser had made the capture. This was very
well. But the rub was, how to dispose of the captured negroes ?

The British reply—at first—was ‘‘Send them to Sierra Leone.”
That colony, founded in 1787 as an asylum for many of the negroes
whom at the close of the American War came to England and were
destitute, had been added to from time to time by not-wanted blacks
from other parts of the Empire. A large body of Maroons—expelled
after the Maroon War—went there in 1800 from Jamaica. Eighty-five
negroes implicated in ‘ Busso’s Rebellion” blew in, in 1819, from
Barbados. Negroes plucked from the hold of Spanish and _ Brazilian
trade ships were the latest and most troublesome accession. The digestive
capacity of Sierra Leone was limited. It could assimilate, reform, &e.—
(which was the object of their going there)—small bodies of negroes ;

76 Timehri.

but this turning ashore, year by year, of some thousands of half-savage
blacks, with the injunction “‘ Reform and civilize them,” was too much
even for Sierra Leone. There was practically nothing for them to do.
The people grew a little ginger, arrowroot, yam, &c., and for the rest
idled and got into mischief.

A Select Committee of the House of Commons, appointed to enquire
into the state of Sierra Leone, in 1830, reported that ‘‘ the progress of
the liberated Africans in moral and industrious habits has been greatly
retarded by . . . the yearly influx of thousands of their rude and_ uncivil-
ized countrymen”; that influx should be checked. They considered
that the disposal of liberated Africans formed “ the greatest difficulty as
regards the future of Sierra Leone,”

Il.

This, then, was the position: Sierra Leone getting immigrants it
did not want, while the West Indian planter—watching the Freedman
trek homewards at mid-day—wanted immigrants he could not get.

Five years before—in 1836 : the apprenticeship being two years old
and not improving on acquaintance—Sir James Carmichael Smyth had
suggested Sierra Leone as a possible immigration-source for British
Guiana. He understood that there were a considerable number of
liberated Africans at Sierra Leone, in which colony labour was of little
value. He suggested that, if approved, vessels for British Guiana might
touch there and bring such of the liberated Africans as might be willing
to emigrate to Demerara as articled servants. But Downing Street would
have none of it. Lord John Russell thought that such a proceeding would
have the appearance at least of reverting to the African Slave Trade in
anew and mitigated form, and might insensibly grow into an encourage-
ment if not a revival of that traffic. The suggestion was turned down.

On August 20,1840, Governor Doherty (Sierra Leone) re-opened
the question. Freedom among the blacks inthe West Indies was
now an accomplished fact : what might the West Indies do by way of
employing, civilizing, &c., the liberated Africans if sent there? Sir Henry
Light replied on behalf of British Guiana. There were churches, chapels
and schools, clergymen, pastors, catechists and teachers of all sects in
this colony, in greater numbers he supposed than in the most favoured
countries ; the earth teemed with fertility ; wages were high ; the houses
on the estates were far superior to any other West Indian
colony he had _ visited; land was given for the cultiva-
tion of provisions; the labourers had every opportunity to raise
stock which sold at high prices; they got free medical attendance and
medicine if employed on the plantation, and could buy front lands at a
moderate price and benefit by the drainage of the estate. He had no
doubt whatever as to the benefit to the immigrant of settlement in
British Guiana.

On February 6, 1841, adespatch from Lord John Russell was pub-
lished in the “ Royal Gazette” stating that after mature consideration it

African Immigrants After Freedom. 77

had been decided to include Sierra Leone in the list of places from which
immigrants might be sought.

Two weeks later, a Proclamation—issued under Ordinance 4 of 1841
—appeared. A Bounty of $35 would be paid on each immigrant brought
from Sierra Leone and $30 for an immigrant from Brazil. Later
St. Helena was added. *

During 1841-2 private vessels brought such of the liberated Africans
ascame to British Guiana, but this was abandoned in January, 1843.
The Imperial Government then chartered its own transports or issued
licences to approved ships, under a naval officer.

The majority of the Liberated Africans—habitués of the ‘ Liberated
African Yard” (or ‘‘Queen’s Yard”) at Sierra Leone, St. Helena or Rio
de Janeiro—were of the Aku (or Yoruba) Nation, These were made up
of several tribes: the Ijesa, Abunu, Egba, Yagba, Ondo (or Doko) and
the Effa. A few facts about these people in their new environment may
be found in a paper, “ Among the Aku” (‘ Timehri,” 1917). A large
number of Kongo were also found in the captured slavers.

Immigration Records—the laconic Registers—give a peep of the
African immigrant (the “New African” as he was called in Census
Returns in contradistinction to the “‘ Old African ” of the Slave Trade) as
he landed in Demerara long ago. -

Three typical arrivals may be given.

(a) The ‘‘ Hamilla Mitchell” arrived August 26, 1856, with 57 men
and 8 boys. She brought no women. The names are Kongo,—Chaba,
Malenfoo, Bambia, Mavoongoo, &c.

(b) The barque “ David Malcolm” arrived August 5, 1862. She
brought 124 men, 51 women, 70 boys, 9 girls and 3 infants,—257 in all.
255 of her cargo had brands on the right breast, arm or shoulder,—pro-
bably the work of the Brazilian slaver who had purchased them from
the black trader.

* A singular case of involuntary immigration is recorded in February, 1842. An estate’s
sloop, nearing Pln. Richmond on the Aroabisce Coast, Essequibo, saw a strange vessel at
anchor. The captain was struck by the novel sight of an immense iron pot on deck, and by
two or three negro boys’ heads peeping from beneath a sail. He hastened ashore and told the
manager, Mr. Pearson, who collected forty volunteers, armed them as wellas he could and
went off. On boarding the vessel (aschooner about 17 tons) he found only two men,—a
Spaniard and an Italian. Tke Italian. who spoke a little English, said the schooner was a slaver
from Cabenda on the West Coast of Africa, bound for Havanna* The captain had died on the
passage, forty-three days out, and the crew were unable to keep the reckoning or steer the ves-
sel in its proper course. They had been carried by currents to where they were found.

The cargo—77 slaves—were all, with the exception of a lad, children from about 9 to 13
years of age. Three had died on the passage. There were 73 boys and 4 girls. The schooner
had no deck and they could only rest on the water-casks. The remaining provisions
were three bags of meal, They were all in a most melancholy state of debility and exhaus-
tion.

Upon being taken ashore, they were received with delight, mixed with pity, by the Creole
labourers. Everybody was eager to do what he could.

The little waifs were located on different estates on the Coast, and were soon happy in their
new homes. Sir Henry Light visited Essequibo two months later and saw twenty of trem on
Pin, Mainstay. Anold Kongo woman, a slave of former days, interpreted his questions.
They had been sold by relatives, two or three of them said, and did not much regret their
native land. Here they got plenty yam.

78 Timehri.

(c) The ‘“ Midlothian” arrived May 10, 1863. She brought 161
men, 21 women, 10 girls and 3 boys,—a total of 195. There were
brands—some of them described as “ faint "—on 189 of her lading. 51
had the letter V on the right shoulder ; other marks were an anchor, &c.

(d) The barque ‘‘ Reward” arrived October 20, 1863. She brought
72 men, 48 women, 12 boys and 3 girls. Many of the adults were under
five feet in height ; they were perhaps dwarf Kongo. All had African
names—Veembah, Kazoongah, Matambah (men) and Enzambah, Vallah,
Sanzah (women)—but after arrival they got English surnames, that of
the owner or manager of the estates on whieh they were located. The
African names, however, would live among themselves. Those who went
to Bank Hall (Wakenaam) were named Bryden; to Cuming’s Lodge,
Cumings ; to Great Diamond, Field ; to Chateau Margot, Gray; to Zee-
lugt, McLaren ; to De Kinderen, Trotman. In other instances, the estate
itself suggested a surname, « _. Pln. Farm, Farmer; Pln. Smythfield,
Smyth ; Pln, Woodley Park, Park or Woodley.

A first name—James or Tom or Virginia—probably came a little
later on and was picked up more haphazard.

III.
The second type of African immigrant—few in number but of more
moment from the modern view-point—was the free immigrant.

Such Immigrants were made up, in part, of the old settlers (a
© polyglot crew) at Sierra Leone, of Fishmen, of Bassa men, but mainly
of Krumen.

The West Coast was as yet steeped in slave-holding—Sierra Leone,
British Gambia and the Kru Coast being the only really “free countries”
—so that the radius for free emigration was strictly limited.

The Kruboy came west early. The first ship from Sierra Leone—
the “Superior,” which arrived on May 24, 1841—brought twenty-three
Krumen. They were all readily engaged to work aboard punts, at $10 a
month, with free house and a daily allowance of salt fish and plantains,
Later arrivals came by the “Prince Regent ” (May 13, 1847), ‘‘ Clarendon”
(November 25, 1850), and “ Elphinstone” (March 15, and November 11,
1853). Besides these, Kruboys in two or threes arrived by other vessels.

The Kruman was alternately sworn by and at.

He was a hard worker, and physically stood head and shoulders above
the average liberated African. He was ambitious, and therefore worked
diligently. True, he preferred boat-work, but if nothing offered on the
water he took to the land. All the caneson Pln. Highbury in 1847,
(making 360 hogsheads of sugar) were cut exclusively by Krumen.

But in some ways—and those of vital importance—he was hopeless.
He did not come to stay; he had no more intention of “leaving his
bones in the West Indies” than the average Scot or Englishman of his
time—or of to-day. He was a black Sandy McNab. Come to the West
Indies: yes, he didn’t mind if he did. Certainly, he would “take a
walk.” Make money in the West Indies: of course, it was what

African Immigrants After Freedom. 79

he came for. But remain in the West Indies: no thanks. He must go
back to Kru Country: he had two worshipful wives there and would
probably buy another worshipful two and live on their earnings for the
balance of his life.

Nor were his morals of the most elevated type even while in the
West Indies. He had left his wives in Africa and declined (rather
naturally) to form any but the most fleeting attachments in Demerara.
A marrying Kruman was unheard of. *

The Kruboy rejoiced in the most original names. He got them, one
must suppose, from the jocular captain, mate or cabin-boy of West
African ships on which he had been employed before coming west.
“ Jack C-owbar,” ‘ Jack Never Fear,” ‘‘ Jack Smoke,” “Jack Thunder,”
* Jack Dandy,” “Jack Savey,” ‘Jack Kopeyarn,” ‘ Jack Africa,”—all
Jacks, baptised by Jack, the seaman; “ Black Joe,” ‘“‘ Blackbird,” ‘ Tar
Bucket,” in delicate allusion to his colour; ‘Tom Swagger,” ‘“ Spy
Glass,’ ‘Peter Hurricane,” ‘Bottle Beer’—-a favourite sobriquet,
reminiscent of the dryness of the African Ooast; ‘Flying Jib,” ‘Sea
Breeze,” “ Salt Water.” The names are all recorded in the Immigration
Register, and give its grave pages almost a touch of comic opera.

It must have been difficult to be vexed with ‘‘ Peter Hurricane,”
and quite impossible to think seriously of “Jack Smoke” or ‘' Tom
Pepper ” as the responsible father of a family !

A few delegates came to Demerara from Setra Kru,—the idea being
that they should view the country, like the spies in Canaan, and go back
and report. They viewed the country, but found it to flow so abundantly
with milk and honey that it was trouble to get them to go back. It was
better business remaining here ! Their non-return to Setra Kru, of course,
was construed in the worst light by their fellow-countrymen. The
Parliamentary Papers—amid a torrent of indigestible figures—contain
this human little note from Jack Purser, headman of Setra Kru, to the
Governor of Sierra Leone :—

“ Sir,—We beg if you can do anything for to bring back our
children thit was taken to Berbice in the West Indies in the ship
‘Margaret’ about 14 months ago. They faithfully agreed that they
should bring back our children to us last rainy season, and we are
afraid they have done bad.”

* Dr. R. R. Madden—author of “ A Twelyemonth’s Residence in the West Indies” (1835)
—was appointed a Commissioner of Enquiry into the West African Settlements in 1840. He
visited the Kru Coast and took the opportunity to sound the Kru Chiefs as to the prospects of
emigration to the West Indies. One thing (said he), it would be necessary for the Kruboy to
take his wife and family with him. Indeed, said the chiefs, that would be the last thing
they would permit. A nretty proposal !| One old man asked: Were not the people who came
from England to Africa married, and if so what was the reason they were not allowed to
bring their wives ? Was it not because it pained their hearts when they were separated from
them, and by this meang they returned as soon as they could to their own country? Very
good! And for that reason they, the chiefs, would never let the Kruboy take his wife
with him because if he did it was goodbye to him. He would never come back.

And the company spat on the ground by way of entire agreement with the veteran's

remarks.
The Kruman—black as a coal and with a barbarous blue mark on his nose (a badge of

freedom)—had evidently his fair share of ‘‘ monkey-sense.”

80 Timehri,

Jack Purser need have had no fears whatever, except, per-
haps, that no part of his children’s earnings would come his way.
His children were doing uncommonly well in British Guiana.
They were also imbibing British ideas of independence such
as would sadly have shocked their “ Father.” Mr. Butts visited the Kru
Coast in 1844-5, to investigate the prospects of emigration, and brought
back a Kru Prince. This dignitary, soon after he landed, went from
estate to estate attempting to levy revenue after the custom of the Kru
Country, but did badly. He left the colony in disgust, declaring that this
might bea fine country for Kruboys, but not for Kru Princes,

Ty,

The Statute Books of the ’40’s, °50’s and 60’s of last century are
full to bursting with Immigration laws. Sixty-six Ordinances were
passed within twenty-five years. Quite a number of them, however, were
disallowed by the King. Half of them are Ordinances repealing the other
half. It is a Providential circumstance for the historian.

The first Immigration Law—No. 4 of 1841—enjoins equality
between the sexes ; Ordinance 12 of 1843 reduces this in the proportion
of one woman to two men ; in the following year even that restriction is
withdrawn. The women-folk declined to go to British Guiana—or the
men to bring them—until their lords and protectors had visited the
colony and seen conditions for themselves. Human nature is human
nature, despite Immigration Law.

Back Passages—in respect of free Immigrants only—were provided
for by Ordinance 12 of 1843. It might be claimed free at the end of five
years, or at aproportionate cost at any time. Most of the Krumen, and
a few others, availed themselves of the provision.

Contracts made outside the Colony—except with the Kruman who
would not stir without a contract—were strictly forbidden. Nor, at first,
were indentures permitted within the Colony. On the arrival of the
“ Superior” on May 24, 1841, Sir Henry Light embodied in a memoran-
dum the considerations which would principally govern his reeommenda-
tion to the people who had arrived from Sierra Leone to locate themselves.
They would be :—

(1) The healthiness of the estate; and under this head he
gave a decided preference to the sea- -coasts Sad
(2) The nearness of the estate to some place of worship;
(3) Regard being had to the accommodation on the estate,
it would be desirable to distribute the people as extensively as

* An interesting fact is recorded in a Report on Immigrants made in 1848 by Dr. Bon-
yun. He found that the death-rate among African Immigrantsin 1847 was higher on the
sea-coasts than on the rivers and creeks and on the Essequebo islands, The ratio of
mortality worked out as follows ;—

Sea coasts 2.3, per 100.

Banks of rivers

& creeks, and

islands 1.5
—‘ as ifthe miasm which is so deadly ‘to the Europeans were a congenial stimulant to the
natives of Africa,” adds Dr. Bonyun

2 African Immigrants After Freedom. 81
possible over the colony, in order that any vicious or superstitious
practices to which they may be addicted might not be perpetuated
by their being kept together ;

(4) Twenty he thought a sufficiently large number for any
one estate.

The locations then made were :—

EssEQUEBO COAST.

Pln. Lima Be saan WY (
» Reliance ... cheat
» Hoff-van-Aurich ... 8
» Walton Hall Poyteiats:
re ards ope lenny amen hls)
, Aberdeen Bonin ail puny (3)

East Coast, DEMERARA.

Pln. Le Ressouvenir Stor lil

» Helena pee LO

, Enmore apy Ld

., Greenfield aa Lo

» Turkeyen aval

,, Annandale pate LO
,, Dochfour Bnei spel,
Total “ae 165

The Governor added :—

: “The labourers will remain unindentured, make their own
bargains for daily, weekly or monthly work; and after giving
the estates above-mentioned a fair trial, if dissatisfied they are
of course free agents, and may remove themselves to any part
of the colony in which they think they will be better off.”

But this non-indenture period did not last long.

It was becoming more and more patent that to one who is not ready
for it freedom is a fatal gift. Itis entrusting a boy with a razor. He becomes
a danger to the community and most of all to himself. The Abolitionist
hailed Emancipation Day as solving the Negro Question. Make the
Negro free, said he,—and ‘story done.” It was not done ; it began.
The last years of Slavery in this colony did far less damage to the black
man than the first years of Freedom. The cruelty inflicted was
thoughtless, but none the less cruel because of that. The Abolitionist
failed to investigate or face the facts, ‘The unhappy and untutored
Freedman met them and was hurt by them. And what happened with the
Freedman of the First of August happened with the African Immigrant.

“Free to remove himself to any part of the colony in which he
thought he would be better off,” he did so. His stay on the estate was
too short to benefit either himself or the planter. The Imperial
Government’s idea was: we wish to save you from bound service with
the planter such as would savour of slavery. From that he escaped,

82 Timehrt.

to meet a worse fate. He became the slave of an ignorant master,
whom impulse and passion governed, who was unfit and untrained to
mastership,—himself.

We cannot blame the liberated African. He came perhaps of a
slave-stock whose roots were deep in time ; it was a first and intoxicating
taste of freedom. A month or two put by a few dollars to buy a bit of
abandoned land near some river or creek; and the African became
a “squatter.” It was the life he had been accustomed to in Africa, and
it was of all things most natural that as soon as he could he should have
reverted to it.

The early post-Emancipation planter cried :—‘‘ An Immigrant !
My Kingdom for an Immigrant !”

The later planter added ‘‘—under indenture,”

Ordinance 22 of 1850 provided for indenture,—one year to start
with, plus a second year with the same or another employer. Ordinance
2 of 1856 pushed the principle further : immigrants under 14 years of age
to be indentured to 18, while those above 14 were to serve three years.

The African Immigrant—taught, housed, led into the elementary
paths of life—then made a better showing; but much harm had already
been done.

iv.

As a field labourer, what was thought of the African ?

Clearly enough there was a prejudice against him at first.

The ‘“ Royal Gazette” said :—‘‘We want no more of the
barbarous African. He is as much below the Madeiran as the Madeiran
is below the European.” ‘

But this passed.

Under indenture, the African proved his value to the full as a field
labourer.

First, among witnesses, is the Governor.

The following excerpts are taken from despatches to Downing
Street :—

‘« All of the African immigrants are in good health and are
a valuable addition to the labour of the colony.”

Sir Henry Light, Aug. 21, 1841.

“Tt is evident the natives of Africa are the most fitted for
this country. Little or no sickness has occurred amongst those
lately arrived while great sickness and onsome estates great
mortality has occurred amongst the Portuguese from Madeira.”

Ib. Oct. 7, 1841.

“The Africans are certainly the most useful description of
labourers that can be imported.”

Ib. Jan. 6, 1842.
The “ Royal Gazette,” too, which set out to curse returned to bless.

a EL = a) alee eR 7 i

—— * oe

oy

African Immigrants After Freedom. 83

“There can be no question” (says the Gazette” of
April 16, 1850) “but that the best labourer is the rude African.
He requires no acclimatization.”
And again, on February 20, 1851 :—
“There can be no doubt that the most desirable class of
immigrants for this Colony are Africans.”
But the African was not employed by either Goverment or
* Gazette.” What did the Planter say ?
Examined on March 23, 1848 before a Parliamentary Commission

Dr. William Ranken said :—
‘The imported African is a pattern to the more civilized

creole of the colony. There is no class of people I have seen in
the West Indies by any means so well adapted as the Africans
for field labour under the sun.”

Mr. Matthew Higgins (April, 4, 1849) said :—

“ T think I may say that if we had access to the coast of
Africa for labour we should have no desire to return to
India .. . I think African labour is the only species of labour
it would be worth our while to import.”

The African’s main asset then, as now, was his physique and perfect suit-
ability to the climate. Where the Madeiran and the coolie sickened and
died, the African throve and prospered. He gloried in the sunlight. His
black skin shone with health on a hot day. Nor did the experienced
planter find him difficult to handle. He was intensely suspicious—the
first Africans on Pln, Vreed-en-Hoop would drink water only
after the Creole Blacks—and he could be obstinate with an unreasoning
obstinacy. But the planter who was just, who humoured him without
weakly giving way, who was kind but firm, who gained and kept his
confidence, could as he put it, “do anything with him.”

He fell into his niche on the plantation naturally. Nothing is more
pleasant in the qld records than the brief, occasional glimpse of the
friendly relations which existed between the imported African and the
Creole Black. The African went timid and friendless to the plantation,
and the people did all they could to make him feel at home. There was
the bond of race. Blood is thicker than water. There were yet alive up-
wards of seven thousand of the old, old “ Salt Waters,”’—Africans who
had been brought to Guiana before the abolition of the Slave Trade,—and
these delighted to “cut country” with the new-comer if he understood
their language. If the new African was young, as many were, he would
be put with an old ‘‘ Daddy” or “ Aunty ” whose immediate business (and
pride) it was to teach him ‘‘Bakra ways,” including,—so much as he had
mastered himself,—‘‘ Bakra talk.” The pride of those old people in their
charges’ progress—in the way they could say the alphabet or repeat the
Lord’s Prayer—is described as touching.

A Stipendiary Magistrate who visited Pln. Rosehall found an old
Kongo beating a drum for the new Africans. He was trying to cheer
them all up.

84 Timehri.

VI.
Immigration statistics give the following as the number of African
Immigrants after Freedom :—
1841 1,102 Forward ... 10,346

1842 1,829 1852 268
1843 325 18538 276
1844 523 «1856 65
1845 1,425 1858 281
1846 1,097 1860 625
1847 565 1861 40
1848 1,697 1862 558
1849 111 1863 373
1850 1,219 1864 390
1851 453 1865 42

Forward ... 10,346 Total ... 13,264

In 1891 the number of native Africans in the Colony was 3,433. By
April 2, 1911—the date of the last Census—the ‘Salt Waters” had
dwindled to 706. ‘‘ There is no medicine against old age.”

Why did African Immigration—never conspicuously successful—
at length fail ?

First of all, its main source—happily—dried up. There was no
longer a supply of Liberated Africans. Stringent and ever more stringent
Treaties killed slave-smuggling. It no longer paid, and so went out. In
1870-1, respectively, the first steps were taken towards the emancipation
of the negroes in Cuba and Brazil. No longer could the cane-fields of
Guiana be tilled by blacks rescued from the holds of Spanish or Brazilian
slave-ships. There was an end to that supply.

And with this source—happily for the world—gone, African Immigra-
tion itself collapsed. Free immigrants had beenfew from the beginning.
There was an obvious and natural prejudice against leaving Africa for
the West Indies, in the mind of the Negro. The West
Indies were too intimately and lately associated with
slavery. A ship and the white man could’ be connected
with nothing else. It was impossible to persuade the black man to any
contrary belief. No, emigration meant going across the big water to
slavery. The old belief that they were being taken away to be eaten
yet agitated the Liberated African Yard. ome of the Kongo
thought their blood would be used to dye the soldiers’ coats, Free emigra-
tion in such circumstances could hardly thrive.

And what the black man felt in Africa the white man thought in
London.

The black man feared slavery at the American end.

The white man feared slave-trading at the African end, and so
imposed restrictions which the planter thought unnecessary but which
in the circumstances were probably wise and unavoidable.

African Immigrants After Freedom. 85

The West Indies had a bad past. They had not had time to live
it down,

Much water has flowed under the bridge since then. West Africa
has shaken off its tradition of slavery and the slave-trade. The West
Indian planter is no longer the wicked ogre who fattens on Negro blood ;
the Negro sucks the planter’s blood—but does not fatten.

It will be interesting to note—in the broad daylight of the 20th cen-
tury—whether, and how far, our present demands can be met by Africa.

COLONISATION SCHEME.

REPORT OF PROPOSALS AND FINANCE SUB-COMMITTEE.

1, British Guiana, often referred to as Demerara from the name of
one of the three counties Demerara, Essequebo and Berbice, is neither a
West Indian Island nor an island in the South Seas as is sometimes sup-
posed even in well-informed circles. It is the only continental possession
of the British Empire in South America, on the north-eastern shoulder
of which it is situated, and the rich foreshore which fronts its vast forests
and savannahs is enriched by the alluvium of the Amazon from Brazil
and the Orinoco from Venezuela. It is the natural outlet for a large
area of Northern Brazil. It is the fabled home of Sir Walter Raleigh’s
E] Dorado and if the great writer and soldier did not find the gold he
sought or the diamonds he dreamed of, it was not due to the circum-
stance that they were not there.

2. British Guiana is thrice the size of Scotland and is twice and
thrice respectively the size of Surinam (Dutch) and Cayenne (French)
the only other possessions of European Powers in South America. It is
larger by about one-fourth than the South American republics of
Uruguay and Paraguay and only one-fifth smaller than Ecuador. Yet
the population of these republics is four or five times as great
and although Uruguay’s resources and position for trade are
less favourable than ours her total imports and exports are about six
times those of British Guiana, She is situated at the southern end of
the shoulder of the sub-continent corresponding to British Guiana’s
position on the north-east. Her population like ours is very mixed in
race,

POPULATION,

3, Our population is 311,000 and our area is 90,000 square miles
The population is therefore about three to the square mile and is almost
entirely confined to the coast. We cultivate Jess than 170,000 acres out
of about 58 million acres. Of these 75,000 acres are under sugar cultiva-
tion. About 134,670 are East Indians of whom a majority are not
resident on estates and of whom a large number (exact figures not attain-
able at this moment) were born in India. Of the rest 118,398 are Blacks,
2,874 Chinese, 9,665 Portuguese (either born in the Colony or in Madeira
or the Azores) 3,698 Northern Europeans, 7.¢., British.

4. The reason of the smallness of the population is that the various
indenture systems by which it was sought to increase the colony’s work-
ing power after slavery was abolished in 1834 and the temporary
apprenticeship abolished in 1838 looked to the immediate labour require-
ments without contemplating any system of colonisation. Those brought
in under indenture to work had no special inducements to lead them to
remain after they hed been paid off at the close of their term. They had
the provision of a back passage to tempt them to go.

Colonisation Scheme. 87

5. A still stronger inducement to leave the colony was the absence
ofa sufficient number of women of their own race or class. Inter- '
marriage between races has not been frequent. The East Indian inden-
tured women were only about one-third of the men. Unfortunately the
immigrants were only of the agricultural class to the extent of 30 per
cent. and most of the women immigrants were recruited from town resi-
dents. There were circumstances in the case of very many connectsd
with their previous life, local temptations under such special circum-
stances, and daily work which militated against fecundity.

6. It is now fully recognised that any scheme of colonisation to be
successful must be based upon the introduction of families and upon the
foundation of an ordered family life in all classes of the community.

7. Until the visit of the Royal West India Commission to British
Guiana in 1897 the small proprietor was not encouraged and bath Govern-
ment and employers must be accused of short-sighted views on the subject
of the future fortunes of the colony as a whole. As compared with arri-
vals about 27 per cent. of East Indians returned home. Sull greater pro-

ee teee aT Uhtneae and Portuguese left the colony, Re- ‘indenture was not
fatowed by taw. Negro immigrants w were not numerous but a few Congoes
and Orubas were settled here as liberated slaves in the fifties. There was
no organised attempt to import African families but some thousands of
Batbadians have come in at various times and are useful citizens particu-
larly in the artisan class.

8. Inspite of the failure of the indenture system to solve the prob-
lem it must be remembered that the present population so far as it is not
the result of the slave trade is almost entirely due to indenture.

HEALTH.

9. The health returns of the Colony are more favourable than those
of most tropical countries whether in South America or elsewhere and
have shown a marked and regular improvement for many years. They
certainly are far superior to those of India. No doubt the coming
organised campaign of sanitation by co-operation under Goy ernment
leadership between towns, villages and estates will lead to further marked
improvement. The Colonisation movement has such a campaign as a vital
part of its programme. A definite effort must be made to remove the
erroneous impression that British Guiana is an unhealthy country which
impression was created forty years ago before yellow fever and “cholera
had vanished. Ordinary tropical diseases such as malaria and hookworm
are being grappled with under circumstances that are now more favourable
than ever before. Drainage, sewage disposal, good housing of the work-
ing classes and water supply are now to be dealt with on comprehensive
lines. The interior is especially healthy as may be shown by the mortality
returns of the balata industry and the health record of the European resi-
dents.

§8 Timehri.
GENERAL POSSIBILITIES.

CATTLE.

10. Itis certain that both on the coast savannahs aad the interior
beyond the forest belt both very small and very large capitalists can find
a profitable investment in raising cattle and many hundreds of the African
and Asiatic races can make a handsome living. The stock on the coast
ranches doubles itself every four or five yearsand the death-rate over the
last eight years has averaged under three percent. So far the export has
been in practice confined to Surinam and Cayenne and is as yet unimpor-
tant. We could, however, in a short time supply Trinidad (which suffers
from special Venezuelan imposts on West Indian trade). A cattle track
has now been cut to the Rupununi Savannahs and will soon be available
for the passage of cattle to be fattened on the coast ranches for the market.
Brazilian cattle will also find a market.

Batata.

11. The balata industry now employs about 3,600 hands. One firm
alone would employ 500 more men of the African race if it could get them.
The return of a good bleeder is about $250 for a season’s work (or $150
after repayment of advances for provisions and wife’s allowances) after
which he can work on the coast lands or on his own farm elsewhere. Super-
intendents of course obtain still better pay. Bleeders are almost invariably
employees but they work on a commission basis. The death-rate in this
industry is even less than one per cent. showing that our forests have
none of the dangers to health of African or other South American forests.
There are large areas still only partially tapped and the grants held for
years by local firms are only partly explored owing to the vast areas of
territory.

MINING.

12. The scope for the independent expert miner or prospector is enor-
mous. The indications point to magnificent mineral resources in bauxite,
gold, iron, other metals and diamonds. There is room for the individual
worker and the small capitalists of all races especially white, black and
Chinese.

TIMBER.

13. The lumber industry in this colony is practically in its infancy
and owing to the demand for timber for war reconstruction, paper pulp
and other requirements offers great advantages to large capitalists who
can command an access to an existing market. Greenheart and Mora and
other valuable woods exist in large quantities but cannot be handled
without considerable expenditure and a greatly increased labour supply
especially of blacks. We have over seventy thousand square miles of
accessible virgin primeval forests.

The possibilities for local working men either independently or in
employment are countless. The independent woodeutter could vary his
employment by taking up coast work at certain seasons. He could also
engage in the balata industry.

Colonisation Scheme. 89

Coast INDUSTRIES.

14. As regards sugar we call attention to the following extract from
the “ Timehri” article (Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society of
British Guiana’s Magazine) of the Director of Science and Agriculture,
Hon. Professor Harrison, C.M.G. (August, 1918) :-—-

* A conservative estimate of the area of lands well suited for sugar-
“ cultivation in the districts from the mouth of the Pomeroon in the North _
* West to the West Bank of the Cerentyne river in the east is 351,000
‘acres exclusive of the area already empoldered on sugar estates. Sixty-
“ four thousand acres of this may be at present beneficially occupied by
* products other than sugar leaving 467,000 acres available for the exten-
“sion of sugar cultivation. At the present proportion of lands yearly
“cropped with sugar to the total empoldered area this would give in
“round figures 177,000 acres to be reaped each year yielding a mean
“annual crop of 320,000 tons of sugar.

“The possible annual crop of sugar in districts in British Guiana
“where sugar-cane has been cultivated could with sufficient capital,
“labour, progressiveness and enterprise be increased to 446,000 tons of
“sugar as a minimum to 563,000 tons if 507 of the land was yearly
“ cropped or by utilising the highest possible proportion of the suitable
“lands for cultivation to upwards of 800,000 tons, which by fully
“applying modern scientific methods in cultivation and manufacture
* might be increased to upwards of a 1,000,000 tons.

“ The enquiries as to the amount of sugar produceuble by the exist-
“ing labour-supply are very difficult to satisfactorily reply to. What pro-
“ portion of the labour-supply will work on the production of sugar?
“ The present production is largely limited by this, It is also limited by
“ the energy, the enterprise, and the progressiveness of the proprietors,
“their willingness and ability to make use of mechanical cultivation
“wherever feasible, by the progressiveness, both agriculturally and
“mechanically, of the managers of the estates, by their knowledge of,
“and their applications of such knowledge to, problems of selection of
“ varieties, manuring of plants and control of fungoid and insect pests.

“T may mention that in forming the estimate of the area of land
“ available for the extension of sugar-cane planting in the parts of the
“colony in which the sugar-industry has been carried on, only alluvial
“lands to a mean depth of two miles from the coastal and river facades
‘were taken into account and from the total of these the areas which in
1914 were under cultivation with products other than sugar cane were
deducted.”

It should be mentioned that notwithstanding the difficulties caused
by the war a considerable quantity of modern machinery has been intro-
duced and much more is on the way. Speaking generally the sugar
factories are under a rapid process of modernization. At least three
large schemes of central factories are being carried out. Caterpillar

90 Timehri.

tractors for ploughing have already appeared in considerable numbers—
the pioneeers in regard to motor tractors being two East Indian cultiva-
tors. Cane-farming by small owners or lessees has thus new prospects
and a brilliant future.

The following extract from the report of the Sugar Section of this
movement is important :—

“ It was decided that under present conditions and prices the sugar
industry could absorba reasonable number of immigrants annually, say
four to five thousand: and the Sub-Committee decided to recommend to
the Executive Committee that the most desirable immigrants were East
Indians, Mongolians, or Africans, in the order named, and it was essen-
tially necessary that these should be introdueed in families. It was also
decided to ask the Statistics Sub-Committee to give the average wages
obtaining. So far as present conditions were concerned it was decided to
record that an able-bodied man working seven hours per day could earn $1,
while a woman with a lighter class of labour such as weeding, ete., working
similarly for seven hours could earn 40c. per day. It was also decided to
record that the majority of planters and employers were prepared to pro-
vide an improved type of labourers’ cottages for the immigrants intro-
duced, each cottage to have an adjoining plot of land for provision cultiva-
tion.”

No doubt arrangements ean be made to provide employment all the
year round at above rates by co-operatien of estates or by alteration of
system as sugar can, unlike the case of Cuba, be grown all the year round
in British Guiana. Even if this is not done co-operation of the sugar
interest with the balata, timber and rice interests could secure it for all
labourers. There must be unity of action.

RICE.

15, The rice section of the movement reports that this industry
could employ 30,000 more people on the coastlands. The suitable area
is great ; all that is required is population. Owing to our relations with
Canada we could supply a large part of the rice which Canada now
obtains from non-British countries and with the proposed increase of
20% preference could eventually supply the whole.

GROUND PROVISIONS,
16. The peasant farmer will find that his market possibilities will grow
with the demand for food by an increasing population. No class is more
interested in the future of colonisation.

OTHE: CoAst INDUSTRIES.
Time does not allow the Report Council to deal with these, but the
prospects of coconuts, cocoa, coffee and other products are excellent.

WATER POWER.
17. While coal is not at present cheap an immense prospect is opened
up to the colony by the world’s growing realization of the value of water-

2

Colonisation Scheme. 9i

power. Vast schemes have been formed for the utilization of water-falls
not only in India (Madras presidency), Switzerland and Montana (where
all railways and mines are under an electric system), but also in the
United Kingdom (Preliminary Report of the Water Power Committee of
the Conjoint Board of Scientific Societies, July, 1918). We are in a
position to work our existing railways, mines and sugar factories by
electricity and to increase that guantity of power some fifty-fold. We
could supply a railway running to Manaos(and its branch lines) without
any difficulty whatever and could cut, haul and saw hundreds of millions
of feet of lumber. There is in sight employment for hundreds of thous-
ands of men of all classes by the economic utilization of our water-power.
The cataracts which have postponed the exploration and development of
the interior by making the navigation of our great rivers so difficult from
some sixty miles inland will thus be turned into our greatest source of
wealth. His Excellency Sir Wilfred Collet, K.C.M.G., has already planned
the first step in this matter. (Government Resolution, Combined Court
16th April, 1919.)

How THE MOVEMENT BEGAN,

When the attention of the Officers of the Royal Agricultural and
Commercial Society and Royal Colonial Institute (British Guiana Branch)
had been called in January by Mr, Strang (Chairman, Planters’ Associa-
tion) to a serious decline in the acreage under sugar during 1918 due to
labour shortage and to the apparent certainty of a future decline instant
action wastaken. Sucha decline, if continued, means disaster to the
Colonial revenue and the throwing of very heavy burdens upon other
industries. A smaller population will have to bear unreduced expenditure.

It means widespread unemployment among the present population
as sugar can employ not less than one full grown man to the acre and
contributes about 65% to the revenue. There had been no compensating
increase in the acreage under other crops and the situation therefore was
menacing in the extreme. It had become a question of Colonisation and
Development or Decline.

A conjoint meeting of the members of the Combined Court and of
various representatives, of Municipal and other public bodies assembled
in Georgetown on 27th January at the Royal Agricaltural and Commercial
Society's Rooms, under the chairmanship of the Mayor, Hon. E. G.
Woolford, M.C.P. It included also the officers of the British Guiana
Farmers’ Association and Village Chairmen’s Conference and the leading
East Indian and Chinese citizens. A programme of work was outlined
by the Secretary of the Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society (Dr.
Nunan,) and unanimously accepted. It included the formation of an
Executive Committee consisting of the heads of all the public bodies and
of a huge General Colonisation Committee consisting of all members of
the Combined Court and of a full representation of various interests. It
contemplated the study of all the facts and figures, the direct investiga-
tion of the questions of sanitation, mechanical tillage and factory

92 Timehri.

equipment and the creation of a special Sub-Committee to deal with West
Indian and African immigration and labour supply. Finally it proposed
the despatch of a Colonial deputation to England.

-

The Executive Committee was received that afternoon most sympa-
thetically by His Excellency Sir Wilfred Collet, K.C.M.G., who has since
in person or by his officers afforded every assistance in the ascertainment
of all the essential facts.

The Combined Court on 5th February passed the following resolu-
tion with a single dissentient vote (The discussion had been initiated by
the Senior Unofficial member, Hon. A. B. Brown) :—

‘Whereas there are in the colony over nine million acres easily
accessible for beneficial occupation and suitable for tropical cultivation ;

“ And whereas the total area is about fifty-eig ht million acres ;
** And whereas the actual cultivation is about 200,000 acres ;

‘«« And whereas there is in the colony insufficient labour to carry on
its various industries ;

** And whereas this insufficiency of labour has led to a reduction of
the area under sugar-cane, and will lead to a further reduction :

“This Court respectfully requests the Governor to make arrange-
ments to send to the United Kingdom a deputation consisting of mem-
bers of various races in the colony, with the view of laying before His
Majesty’s Government a representation of the needs of the colony both for
the maintenance of present industries and for their extension; and to
show the advantages which this colony affords to immigrants from other
countries.

“ And this Court pledges itself to provide the funds necessary for
sending such a deputation, the work of which is to be based on the lines
to be recommended by the General Colonisation Committee appointed at
the conjoint meeting held in the Royal Agricultural and Commercial
Society's Rooms on 29th January subject to the acceptance of the same
by His Excellency Sir Wilfred Collet, K.C.M.G.”

The General Colonisation Committee met next day and appointed
numerous Sub-Committees which were invited to report within two
months so as to enable the entire situation to be reviewed by a Proposal
and Finance Sub-Committee of some 30 leading members. This review
engaged the Sub-Committee for nearly four hours on Saturday, 5th
April, and the following resolutions were passed unanimously except for
a single dissentient in one instance.

Mr. T. Greenwood (Chairman), Hon. F. Dias and Mr. H. E. Murray
were charged as a Report Council with the presentation of the resolutions
along with an explanatory Report to the General Colonisation Committee
on Saturday, 12th April. The Secretary of the Royal Agricultural and
Commercial Society acted as draftsman.

Colonisation Scheme. 93

PRELIMINARY NOTE ON RESOLUTIONS.

It will be noticed that the resolutions embraced the undertaking of
large schemes of irrigation and drainage :

(1) for the peasant farmers and small proprietors now living on im-
perfectly drained and irrigated lands on the foreshore of the three
counties of Demerara, Essequebo and Berbice ;

(2) for any lands to be provided under any scheme of colonisation
from outside sources as an inducement to non-residents to come in to
settle ;

(8) for any lands provided for local workers who have complied with
similar conditions and who desire to settle.

This problem was one which the leaders of the movement stated at
the outset to be necessary to solve. Its solution was one in which every-
body was invited to contribute and the entire body of representative
opinion answered the invitation.

GENERAL PRINCIPLE.
The general principle was enunciated as follows :—

No colony funds or Crown lands are to be applied to furnish induce-
ments to work in connection with any industry, unless such inducements
are open on the same terms to the natives of the colony equally with any
persons (of whatever race) brought into the colony from other countries.

Among the points emphasised were the following :—

The undertaking of an organised colonial campaign of sanitation by
the united action of all our towus, villages and estates, the recognition of
the special engineering difficulties connected with municipal and rural
sanitation and the official invitation of expert assistance (such as that of a
sanitary engineer or of the Rockefeller Board in regard to those diseases
like ankylostomiasis and malaria, in which they specialise).

The creation by Ordinance of one or more representative Central
Committees or Boards (1) to deal with disputes in connection with cane-
farming with the assistance of officially appointed test chemists ; (2) to
advise in each district in any disputes between capital and labour when
invoked by either party ; (8) to advise with authority on wages questions
after full investigation of the facts and conditions of employment in each
trade or industry ; (4) to watch the interests of both locally born and
new workers both as regards pay and land benetits. *

The provision of regular and frequent steamer communications with
the British West Indies, British West Africa, India and other countries
from which a supply of colonists can be obtained and with which colonial
trade may be opened.

* Vide Provisions of Immigration Ordinance of 1891, as to the fixing of wages by
Magistrate.

94 Timehri

RESOLUTIONS.

1. That the Government be respectfully requested to create a labour
Bureau available to incoming colonists or unemployed persons.

2. That the Government be respectfully requested to place before
the Combined Court a proposal to set aside a sum of not less than
$500,000, viz., $100,000 a year for the five years commencing 1920 for
the purpose of carrying out under Government supervision accepted or
future schemes of irrigation and drainage of lands throughout the colony,
independently of any lands irrigated or drained under any colonisation
scheme.

8. That the International Health Board should be invited by the
Government to continue and extend their work jin the colony, and that
the Government be requested to secure the services of a competent
sanitary engineer.

4. That the Government be respectfully requested to take steps to
introduce into the colony in each year for the coming three years, five
thousand adults of races suitable for colonisation under local tropical
conditions, such adults to be as far as possible in families, the sexes being
approximately equal.

5. That the present Colonisation or Export Tax which in two years
will have accumulated by 1920, and which is likely to average not less
than $160,000 per annum, be devoted for raising for this purpose during
the next five years a loan or loans, not excecding in all £500,000 to be
repaid in thirty years.

6. That in case of any scheme of local colonisation being accepted by
the Indian or any Government which involves any form of land
settlement by persons from outside the colony, similar inducement of
land settlement on similar terms of service be offered to locally resident
workers.

7. That measures be taken by the Government by legislation in
connection with any accepted Colonisation scheme and otherwise that a
representative central committee or representative committees be appointed
to advise on any disputes in any district between capital and labour,
whether cane-farming or wages or otherwise, and to ensure that no person
entitled to any benefit under any scheme shall be arbitrarily deprived of
the same.

8. That such part of the proposed loan or loans as may be necessary
shall be allocated to the provision of steamers by charter or subsidies
to ensure regular communication, if possible, every two months alter-
natively via the Panama Canal and the Cape of Good Hope, with West
Africa, India, Straits Settlement, Hong Kong and the principal West
Indian colonies. Provision for Ist, 2nd and 8rd class passengers at
lowest possible rates to be made.

Colonisation Scheme. 95

9. That the framers of the final report be requested to provide some
suggestions for encouraging settlers of the small capitalist and land-
owner type.

10. That inasmuch as the development for colonisation purposes of
_ the interior of this colony, both forest and savannah, cannot be satisfac-
torily carried out without a railway, and that such a railway should form
in the nature of things a northern section of a trunk line extending via
Manaos through the Brazils to Buenos Ayres, His Excellency the Gov-
ernor and the Secretary of State for the Colonies be approached with a
view to resuming the consideration of this question where it was left by
the report of the Railway Committee in May, 1914, and by the despatch of
the Secretary of State—now Viscount Harcourt—which arrived after the
presentation of that report, and with a view to the opening of negotia-
tions with our present Ally, the Federal Republic of Brazil, for the pur-
poses of the necessary co-operation and local Customs treaty.

To this the Report Council proposes to add the following as being
also the feeling of the Proposals and Finance Sub-Committee :

11. That the dredging, buoying and lighting and other improve-
ments necessary for making Georgetown and New Amsterdam suitable
emporia for extended colonial trade be at once proceeded with.

12. That in view of the recommendations of the Demerara Railway
Committee of 28th November, 1918, and the pending negotiations for
the Government purchase or control of the Railway Company the exten-
sion of the West Coast Railway to the neighbourhood of Bartica should be
favourably considered.

13. That the Government be respectfully requested to take special
steps to ascertain the possibilities of establishing a Guiana-West Indian
Inter-Colonial Steamer Service.

RAILROAD LOCATION.

By FRED LAVIS.

The location of a railroad is generally divided into three operations.

THE RECONNAISSANCE:—A rapid, thorough examination of the
country through which the proposed road may pass, to determine, in a
general way, the route, the principal controlling or governing points, and
the general resources of the country.

THE PRELIMINARY SURVEY, the object of which is to make a
topographical map ofa strip of country through which the final location
will pass, and through which runs a sufficiently accurate base line or lines,
and on which map the best line the country affords, under the governing
conditions, can be projected are laid out, and in such a manner that it
can be afterwards reproduced on the ground.

THE LocaTION consists in projecting on the map described, the best
line the country affords with the governing conditions ; of alignment and
grade, in staking out this line on the ground; obtaining a profile of it
and fixing the gradients; determining the character of the material to be
excavated and of the various bridges, culverts and other structures; the
names of the various property owners ; limits of their land, and necessary
right of way to be secured ; and an estimate of the various quantities of
material tobe excavated and moved, or used in any way on the construc-
tion of the road. The maps and profiles of the line as finally located
should present a complete plan and scheme for the construction of the
road, with the exception of the details of the structures.

The results to be attained by all location surveys, where a tentative
rate of grade has already been determined, may be briefly summarized as
follows :

1st.—To establish the fact that a practical line can be obtained with

the desired ruling grade, or, if not, what the lowest practical
ruling grade will be.

2d.—To be sure that the line obtained is such that no other line can
be built through the same country, with the same or better rul-
ing grades, with less expenditure, at the same unit prices.

8rd.—If more than one party is in the field, working on the same
line, though on different parts, to keep close control of results
from central headquarters, so that all work may be co-ordi-
nated.

4th.—To have on the completion of the survey complete right-of-
way maps, estimates of quantities, and costs showing im detail
the exact nature of the work, so that contractors can bid intel-
ligently and work be started at once, if necessary.

“t ya Khari 4 -

pat ee

Railroad Location. 97

5th. —To keep the cost of the surveys as low as possible consistent
with obtaining the above results.

It may be well at this point to explain briefly for the benefit of the
student, the terms used, with which he may not be familiar, and which
are in a measure peculiar to railroad work.

In the preliminary selection of a route, the financial interests of a
proposed new road, or the directors, and traffic officials of an existing
road, to which an extension or branch is to be added, will have probably
as much to say as the engineer. It is at this stage of the proceedings
that what may be called the preliminary reconnaissance is made the
object of which is ordinarily very yeneral, and the results of
which are generally made the basis of a report to the officials
of the company on the character of the country, probable
character of the road,i.e., alignment and grade, rough estimate of cost
per mile, and volume of traffic, immediate aad future ; and on this report
a determination is generally reached as to whether further surveys should
be made. This phase of reconnaissance, though of the utmost import-
ance to the future of the road, will not be further touched on here, as
ability to conduct such reconnaissance and make a proper report, is an
art, proficiency in which can be only the result of extensive experience,
not only on location surveys, but also of the operation and maintenance
of railroads and involves a discussion of the theory of railroad location
beyond the purpose of the present work.

The second phase of reconnaissance may be called reconnaissance
for detail, and this is what will be generally understood by the term
reconnaissance when referred to hereafter. It is the reconnaissance
made by the locating engineer to familiarize himself with the details of
the country and determine what portions shall be covered by the pre-
liminary surveys.

It must be thoroughly understood by the student that the problem
confronting the locating engineer is not the location of any line through
a given country, but the location of the best line; such a line that no
other line can be built, through the same country with the same, or
better ruling grades, with less expenditure at the same unit prices.

The location of a line involving the smallest cost of construction is
by no means the only desirable result to be obtained; economy of
operation plays an important part, and hence Mr. McHenry’s definition
of engineering, which applies especially to railroad location, that
* Hngineering is the art of making a dollar earn the most interest.”
Therefore, of two lines even with the same ruling grades and maximum
degree of curve, the one which costs the least to build may not be the
most economical, because on account of a larger total number of degrees
of curvature, or larger total rise and fall, or both, or a greater length of
line, it may cost so much more to operate, that it will not earn as large a
rate of interest on the money invested as the other.

98 Timehri.

In comparing any two lines the cost of construction can be closely
estimated from the results of the surveys ; but in order that the com-
parison may be complete, a certain probable traffic must be assumed, and
the effect of the cost of handling this, of the curvature, rise and fall, rate
of grade, etc., estimated and proper allowance made therefore, as also for
any additional cost of maintenance of one line over the other.

The reconnaissance for detail may be divided into two parts. The
first, a rapid, through examination of the country by the locating engi-
neer (tbe man who will actually have charge of the party in the field),
that he may familiarize himself with the general broad features of the
country, the scheme of drainage, the various roads and trails, camping
places ; etc. The second, the true reconnaissance for detail, which will
usually proceed witb the survey, being kept only sufficiently ahead of it
to determine where the preliminary lines should be run.

The desirability of arranging for a preliminary trip over the line by
the locating engineer, before the party gets into the field, can hardly be
too strongly emphasized, as the knowledge of the general situation and of
the country, thus obtained, is invaluable in planning the work of the
party. It is a too general practice to start a locating engineer out with
a party, and because either it is not properly organised or equipped, or
because there is no competent assistant who can take charge of it in his
absence, have him tied down to details of the surveys so that he never
sees anything a half a mile away from the line he is running, and often
spends the time of the party and consequently the money of his employers,
doing a good deal of unnecessary, unprofitable work.

As stated clearly by the late A. M. Wellington, the reconnaissance
should be of an area and not of a line. The whole range of country be-
tween two governing points which may be ten miles apart, or a hundred,
must be thoroughly examined and its general characteristics, especially
the drainage, thoroughly familiarised to the locating engineer.

Kaieteur or Kaietuk Fall

[Photo by A. J. CHEONG.

‘DNOUHO “¢ “VW Aq OVO | ‘TA ANjorwy Ao Anozoiry

PROPOSED RAILWAY DEVELOPMENT OF THE
HINTERLAND OF BRITISH GUIANA.

By E. C. Buck, M.Inst.C.E., M.I.Mecu.E., F.G.S., F.R.G.S.

The Hinterland of British Guiana is enveloped in a golden haze of
romance conjuring up thoughts of pleasant vales, lofty mountains, and
rolling savannahs, not to mention the golden store of the precious metal
after which all men’s souls hanker.

With the march of universal progress, it is naturally the wish and
duty of the colonists to run steel rails into the little known territory and
to wake the echoes of the drowsing country with the shriek and pound of
the locomotive. The Hinterland, this talent, probably the richest in the
storehouse of the colony, has been practically wrapped in a napkin from
the time the land was first laid down (to use a geological term). Events
have, however, during the past decade, been shaping outa definite destiny
for this part of the country and quite recently, definite and tangible
schemes have been produced. Itis of the recent scheme by Mr. Bland,
and of the writer’s alternative route that this article is mainly concerned
with.

In 1913 under the policy of the late Governor, Sir Walter Egerton,
K.C.M.G., a reconnaissance survey was made from Wismar to the Brazilian
boundary by Mr. Bland of the Nigerian Government Railways.

Mr. Bland wrote a very able report on his investigations and con-
clusions and, briefly summarized, they are as follows :

The proposed line of meter gauge was to start from Wismar, but
Mr. Bland states that undoubtedly it would be a great advantage to have
the terminus in Georgetown, but the disadvantages also pointed out by
him are very marked if the line was to be extended from Wismar to
Georgetown and that the railway would parallel for 65 miles a navigable
river, and the terminal arrangements at Georgetown would be costly, and
the major part of land required would have to be expropriated.

The foregoing reasons are sound in fact, but the weak part about
Mr. Bland’s scheme was the location of the line to Wismar at all, thus
leaving himself no alternative to come to Georgetown, except by the east
bank of the Demerara River,

From Wismar the line was to strike inland along the watershed of
the Demerara and Essequebo Rivers, very nearly approaching the latter
river when opposite the Omai Mine in the Potaro District. Mr. Bland
proposed an alternative route for a short portion of the way in the Potaro
District, but the route running near and along the east bank of the

100 Timehri.

Essequebo River is without doubt the one to follow and has been adopted
by the writer in his amended scheme of 1917. Leaving the Potaro, the
line as proposed runs due south tothe Kurapakari rapids where it was
intended to bridge the Essequebo River, the line then. keeping to the
west and south, the savannah being reached just beyond Annai. The line
then proceeded to the Ireng River where it terminated on some
high ground a few miles from the junction with the Takutu River, from
which point the river is navigable for a large part of the year to Manaos
aud the Amazon.

The total length of Mr. Bland’s line from the Ireng River to Wismar
was estimated at 280 miles. and the extension to Georgetown 60 miles,

The estimated cost to bring the line from the Ireng River to Wismar

was Stg. £980,000
Additional if extended to Georgetown, 300,000
Grand Total ... £1,280,000

The cost as above for the line to Georgetown works out at £3,764
per mile, the cost to Wismar only, being at the rate of £3,500 per mile.
When previously dealing with Mr. Bland’s scheme, I trust I made it
abundantly clear that I fully appreciate he has turned the first sod and
has done the ‘collar’ work, and that it is in the nature of the most
friendly criticism that I wrote my first report and now write this article.

The Demerara Railway Company’s lines extend from Parika in the
west to Rosignol in the east, the gap between them being represented by
the Demerara River.

The taxpayer of the Colony contributes annually a sum of $60,000
to the Demerara Railway as a subsidy for the security of the bondhold-
ers of the Company. Hopeful, generous hearted and as optimistic as one
may be, it would be a brave man who set out to shew the benefits that
the ordinary taxpayer, excluding of course the railway officials, derive
from the payment of this large annual sum. Such being the undoubted
case, when a new railway project is on foot it is only natural to at once
look round and see if it is possible to build the new railway and at the
same time infuse new life into, and pass fresh traffic over, the slumbering
forms of the existing lines.

The Ireng River and terminus of the proposed Hinterland line, is
so far distant from the seaboard that a triangle having the existing line
from Georgetown to Rosignol as its base with its apex lying on the Ireng
River would present an almost inappreciable angle at the apex, thus
shewing that any line to any point on the seaboard between Georgetown
and Rosignol would be practically the same length.

Ruilway Development of the Hinterland of B.G. 101

As Georgetown should be the objective, I proposed to halve the
base of the triangle and make Huntley, some 35 miles east of Georgetown,
the junction for the commencement of the new construction to the
Hinterland, utilizing the existing line from Georgetown to Huntley. The
estimated distance from Huntley to the Ireng River is 331 miles or 9
miles less than the Ireng River to Georgetown by Mr. Bland’s route with
the consequent saving of an equal amount of new construction. Apart
from the foregoing many important considerations point to Huntley
being the best point from which to branch off to the Hinterland.

The junction would be approximately equidistant from Rosignol and
Georgetown so that passengers would receive equal treatment when
going to either east or west, and also the route from Huntley would
traverse the water parting between the Mahaicony and Abary creeks for
some 50 miles. This country is reported as fine rolling savannah and the
finest cattle country in the Colony.

The line would gradually trend to the south and west until it
joined the intersection point of Mr. Bland’s alternative routes in the
Potaro a little to the north of the Mariwa River.

The line would cross the Demerara River at Mallali by a steel span
bridge of 350’ in length. Mallali would become an important station
because some 15 miles below it, the Government is establishing an import-
ant quarry, and some 15 miles further down again is Akyma, where the
bauxite mines are located and being worked. A branch line could be run
from a point about 20 miles above Mallali to Akyma.

From the junction with Mr. Bland’s line or route, that line would be
followed to the termination upon the Ireng River.

In utilizing the existing railway from Georgetown to Rosignol, it is
proposed to lay downa third rail forming the metre gauge so that the
trains from the Hinterland could come both to Rosignol and Georgetown
without the passengers and freight having to bechanged. In this connec-
tion I also proposed to bridge the Berbice River, landing the bridge on the
north bank of the Canje Creek, so that any further extension along the East
and Corentyne Coasts would not necessitate a costly bridge over the creek.
By the foregoing means passengers could be landed in Georgetown and
New Amsterdam from anywhere in the interior on the Hinterland Rail-
way, four hours and six hours respectively earlier than if Mr. Bland’s line
was adopted only to Wismar, and, as has been already shown and pointed
out by Mr. Bland himself, great difficulties as to cost and competition
would be experienced by extending his line from Wismar.

Since writing my official report in 1917, the matter of the
Berbice River bridge has been further considered and altered with

102 Timehri.

the result that the estimated total expenditure under my proposals
are now :—

Ireng River to Huntley ; 331 miles at £3,500 .. £1,158,500
Single rail Georgetown to Rosignol aie 30 18,000
Bridge across the Berbice River oa Re 100,000

Total. .» £1,276,500

or an estimated saving of £3,500 on bringing the line. from Ireng River
to Georgetown via Wismar.

It is thus seen that while effecting a saving of £3,500, passengers and
freight could be landed in New Amsterdam and Georgetown and all inter-
mediate stations and that the existing lines would carry the traffic.

The great Lar to the progress of the Colony have been the barriers
set up by the big rivers. Until these are bridged, the Colony will remain
in the condition of strangulation from which it has been suffering for so
many years. To say that the colonists are easy going and good natured
is only playing with the subject. How it has been possible for them to
put up with the inconvenience, annoyance, and awful waste of time all
these years, passes the comprehension of a new-comer like the writer.
It is impossible to carry on any intelligent and connected business when
one is separated by rivers over a mile in width, that necessitate the
taking ofa ferry and all its attendant delays and annoyances. People
live on the West Coast of Demerara, not five miles from Georgetown as
the crow flies, simply because they cannot afford the time and the patience

to cross the ferry every day, andI for one do not blame them, I pity
them.

The bridging of the Demerara River is a much more difficult matter
than that of the Berbice River, and will require very careful survey and
close investigation, but I cannot deal with that in this present article.
The main point to bear in mind is the fact that the present railway at
Georgetown must be carried along the water front, after that, the bridge
across the Demerara River may be considered. As advised several years
ago, the merchants should sheet off their stellings out to the prescribed
line so that a scour is induced parallel with the length of the water front,
if this is not done the river wil] silt up and the stellings will have to be
extended further and further into the river.

In my report of 1917 I allowed for a ‘‘ Dipper” dredger to excavate
the line from Huntley, this being a dredger mounted on a punt which
would have to be placed on a truck, when the ground began to rise.
Now, however, the Government has acquired one of the finest excavating
machines made and it has been installed at Clonbrook in readiness to
throw up the new road deviation there,

Railway Development of the Hinterland of B.G. 1038

This machine is capable of digging and throwing up earthworks for
a double line of railway estimated at three feet cut and bank at the rate
of 500 feet per day or some 30 miles per annum, this is in hard earth or
clay. Since writing my report above referred to, some 60 miles of the
earthworks could have been constructed at a cost of some $57,000, this
allows for paying interest on the dredger at 6/ and 107 depreciation.

The present machine will cost a little more than the dredger was
estimated to cost, but would, I should say, do the work cheaper.

One great factor in the construction of the line from Huntley is the
fact that the Mahaicony Creek is very near, and that the canal formed
by the machine could be utilised as a means by which all the railway
supplies could be brought direct by punt. Anyone who has constructed
a railway where water transport was not available will fully appreciate
this most important economy and convenience,

Considerable publicity has been given to the writer’s scheme and it
may be that expropriation of lands may be necessary in a far greater
measure than when it was first put forward.

THE ARTESIAN WELLS OF BRITISH GUIANA.

By E. C. Bucs, M.Inst.C.E., F.G.S., Erc.

It is possibly not generally realised that for the successful exploita-
tion of oil, gas, and water wells, the geologist and the engineer must
work hand in hand. The geologist determines the well sites and
estimates the probable depth at which what is sought may be found.
This is speaking in a general way, because no geologist living can pre-
dict with certainty whatis going to be met with at, say some 1000’ below
the surface, but from his data carefully collected, he can assume that
certain strata will be met with at certain depths. The drilling of a well
requires very expert mechanical knowledge. Very often certain condi-
tions occur in the drilling of a well, that the ordinary tools provided will
not tackle in any way. The engineer and the driller have then to
design and make a special piece of plant to overcome the difficulty.
Sometimes accidents occur, where a tool, wire line, rope, or other piece of
the plant is broken off and left in the well, and it must be quite evident
that unless this is removed or ‘‘side tracked” the drilling operations
cannot be continued. Sometimes the casing becomes flattened by enor-
mous earth pressure ; this requires very expert handling to avoid the loss
of the well. Many other difficulties too numerous to mention may and do
occur from time to time, and call for special treatment and remedy. It is
fortunate if the engineering and geological knowledge is combined in one
man, but as a general rule, the engineer has only a nodding acquaintance
with geology, while the geologist often knows even less of engineering.

In British Guiana, many small wells were put down prior to 1913
but without exception these only tapped the sands underlying the coastal
plain at shallow depth. The first true artesian well was drilled in 1913 on
the old race course at D’Urban Park, the underlying rock being reached
at 558’.

This well gave and is still giving, a plentiful supply of the very
purest artesian water, but a very full account of this well and also the
others drilled in the Colony up to the end of 1918, is given in the Ses-
sional paper issued by His Excellency the Governor dealing with ‘“ The
choking of some of the deep artesian wells of British Guiana,” written by
Professor Harrison, C.M.G., F.G.S., and the present writer. I have no in-
tention of wearying the reader with an account of each well drilled. Suffice
it to say, the results that have been obtained are exceptionally good and
warrant the further exploitation of the boundless wealth wrapped up in
the subterranean water supplies of the Colony. Up to the end of
November last, out of the 25 wells drilled twenty proved to be flowing
artesian wells. ‘Two of the failures being in dry spots, two others being
purely experimental wells to ascertain the geological formation in the
North West district to test the possibility of petroleum deposits there,
while in one well the water rose to the surface and the well would pro-

The Artesian Wells of British Guiana. 105

bably have been a good pumping well, Such a record, few, if any
countries, can claim, and we may confidently look forward to the same
percentage of artesian wells being brought in in the future.

The system of drilling introduced here after the completion of the
first three wells drilled is called “The rotary system,” the old type I
found in use here being the ‘‘ Galician” or percussion system. Well-
drilling plants have to be selected with very great care and expert know-
ledge, to suit the varying conditions of districts and countries. In British
Guiana, the rotary type is very much superior to all others where itis
used on the coastal plains, but in the interior and away from the coast,
where rock would be encountered either on the surface or immediately
below, the percussion type of drilling would be applicable, and more suit-
able than the rotary system, The saving in working costs made here
with the introduction of the rotary system, was approximately $10 per
foot on completed wells, the actual costs being $3 and $13 respectively,
including all charges. (1914).

The operation of the rotary system consits in rotating a column of
pipe carrying a fish tailed bit or drill on its lower end. Liquid mud is
forced by special pumps down the column of pipe and escapes from two
holes one on each side of the tail of the bit. The mud, not only drives
the cuttings to the surface, but the pressure exerted by the column of
mud prevents the hole from caving, and gradually lines the hole with a
thick coating of mud, which forms an inner shell. No casing is placed
in the well until the hole has been taken to the required depth,
when in connection with the proper strainers, it is rapidly lowered
into the hole to bottom. Water is then forced down the casing
and the mud washed out, when the well is then completed. If the
well is to be very deep, several sizes of casing may be used, in which case
the washing out process is only carried out in connection with the last
size of casing used.

The question of the prevention of the choking of the artesian wells
has caused the Government much anxiety, but the enormous mine of
wealth in the underlying water sands, warranted and called for fresh
efforts and contrivances in order to get over the difficulty. After years
of trial and experimenting with every known device in order to check the
silting of the wells, the writer has atlast improved on an existing method
which it is confidently hoped will solve the problem for all time, both
for deep and shallow wells,

The first trial is being made at Nabaclis, close to the site of the
artesian well that was drilled there in 1915, but which has since been
abandoned on account of the collapse of the casing.

The new well at the time of writing has been drilled down to 860’
to the lower water sands in 15” diameter hole, and has gone down again
in a 24’ diameter hole to over 400’, this size will be continued to the 860’
level, when the wall will be completed. For drilling such a large size

106 Timehrr.

diameter hole, which is absolutely necessary in order to use the new
contrivance for effectively screening the well, special drilling tools and
collateral parts have had to be designed and made in the colony. So far
the work is proceeding most satisfactorily.

I would like to say a few words about the original well at Nabaclis
and its failure. The casing used in this well was of mild steel of English
manufacture but of only moderate thickness, having inserted joints.
However the casing was here and the only material of its kind in the
colony, and had it not been for the strong action of the intermediate
saline waters passed through in drilling the well, I have no doubt but
that the casing would have lasted for many years. English made casing
however is not nearly so suitable for artesian wells where there is any
likelihood of saline waters being able to reach it, as American casing. ‘The
American casing is the best for all classes of work, because it is rolled
and welded at amuch greater heat than the English casing with the result
that it hasa very hard and thick scale on the outside surfaces, which
resists both the formation of rust and the action of saline or even acid
waters. Since drilling the Diamond well in 1915, no English casing has
been imported or used in the wells. Where the American casing has
been used no signs of corrosion are yet visible, as an inspection of the
well casing at Lichfield, put down in 1915, testifies.

A scheme for drilling artesian wells of very large diameter will be
shortly laid before His Excellency the Governor, who referred to this in
his opening speech at the last opening of the Combined Court.

In my opinion, after the necessary funds have been provided, half
the battle before the Government in the matter of the economical and
effective colonization of the country, will lie in a supply of pure water to
the estates, villages, and last but not least to the towns of Georgetown
and New Amsterdam.

Early in March, 1915, a scheme was prepared for an artesian supply
of water to both the foregoing towns.

In regard to the Georgetown scheme, it was proposed to drill twenty
wells, these being connected to a main collecting pipe placed 12 feet
below the surface, the pipe being led to the pump at the waterworks,
from which it would be lifted by the pumps and forced into the town
mains for general consumption.

The scheme was placed before the Pure Water Committee which
consisted of the Director of Agriculture, the Surgeon General and the
writer. The Committee reported inter alia: ‘The Committee is satisfied
that the water mains of Georgetown are not polluted so as to require
taking up, cleaning and relaying. ‘To do this would inevitably result in
the destruction of very many lengths of pipes. Recent enquiries have
shown that the interior surfaces of the water pipes are usually Clean
with their surface of bituminous varnish intact; the deposit in them

A

The Artesian Wells of British Guiana. 107

consisting merely of clay with hydrated oxide of iron and some organic
matter derived from the Lamaha water. This deposit is neither adherent
nor coherent and we are satisfied that it would be readily removable by
flushing out the mains with clean water.” Under the new proposition to drill
wells of big diameter, it may be possible to furnish an adequate supply
for Georgetown from 4 to 6 wells, drilled in the near vicinity of the
waterworks, while for New Amsterdam one or two wells should amply
suffice.

While I am confident that wells having a hole 32” in diameter to
suit the 20” diameter casing with special strainer, can be successfully
drilled I cannot disguise the fact that to do so will require everything to
be of the best, both in expert drilling and in plant, while there is little
doubt that one’s ingenuity will be taxed to the utmost.

The special tool for drilling or enlarging wells from 15” to 32” in
diameter has already been designed, and only the final estimate of cost
is now awaited, and this should be available in a few days’ time.

In the event of the large diameter wells being adopted in the future
for the colony generally, the wells of sntall diameter already drilled will
be of inestimable value. as “pilots” showing exactly what may be
expected at each individual spot, so that the expensive large diameter
wells would not be risked in any way. From this reason alone the small
wells should still continue to be drilled as the cheap and necessary
pointers for the big wells. The advent of the big capacity wells will at
once bring into prominence the question of irrigation, which has been
proved to be uneconomical when attempted by wells having only a small
bore and flow. There is no doubt that the initial expenditure on any
cluster of big wells would be considerably in excess of any pumping plant
that could force the same amount of water on to the land, but it must be
remembered that water has to be always available to compete against the
artesian well, and that while the pump requires motive power and repairs,
the artesian well would require neither, so that in the long run, the
expense on the wells taken over a period of years would be less than that
of the engine and pump. Wherea very long supply channel was required,
then the artesian wells would be immediately cheaper than the pumping
scheme.

N.B.—Since writing the foregoing the Nabaclis well has been successfully completed at
847 feet—an excellent flow of pure water being obtained—with no sign of any sanding up.
The problem of the choking of the wellsmay now be regarded as being definitely solved.

CANADA AND THE WEST INDIES.

Mr. Thomas B. Macaulay, President of the Sun Life Assurance Co.
of Canada, the Canadian West Indian League and the Navy League of
Canada met representatives of the Chamber of Commerce at the Royal
Agricultural and Commercial Society Rooms, April 9th, 1919, and spoke
on the subject of closer trade relations between Canada and this colony.

POSITION IN CANADA.

In Canada they had been purchasing chiefly from the United States
although they had put up a special tariff giving a special preference to
the Mother Country which discriminated against the United States.
Because of the nearness of the United States to Canada and its having
all that Canada wanted, Canada had been purchasing very largely from
the United States and selling chiefly to the Mother Country. The same
problem had arisen for Canada as to how she would pay for her excess
purchases and it cost her $102 to pay for $100 in New York.

THE WEsT INDIAN VIEW.

The West Indies had been doing the same thing as they had been
doing in Canada. He was told that the rate of exchange down here was
very close on 103 per cent. The explanation for this was that Canada,
the Mother Country and the West Indies had all been purchasing far more
from the United States than they had been selling to her. He asked not
to be misunderstood for he had the warmest feelings for the people of
the United States, and if he could not bea British subject he wanted to
be an American citizen. They had to look at this matter from a business
standpoint. Canada and this colony had been buying from the United
States far more than they had been selling her, and if that was kept up
what would the end be? They had been paying recently by selling
Canadian securities, but that was just temporarily and was both post-
poning the evil day and making it worse when it finally came.

A great deal had been done in Canada by way of appealing to the people
to be patriotic and support Canadian and British goods. But a great deal
more than that had to be done ; the matter could not be left entirely to the
wishes of the people. They could make Government arrangements that
would do a great deal in the way of driving trade into the right channels.
Canada, for example, had been buying her tropical fruit practically entirely
from the United States. Perhaps 90 per cent. of their oranges and grape
fruit came from Southern California or Florida. All this should be sup-
plied by these parts. Canada’s rice came largely from the Southern
States of America. She had been buying a great many things from the
United States which she could buy from her friends in the West Indies,
from the members of their own Imperial family instead of from strangers.
In like manner the West Indies had been buying a great many things from
the United States which Oanada would have been able to supply.

Canada and the West Indies. 109

VALUE oF PARTNERSHIP.

If they just traded together they should be able to solve those prob-
lems to a very large extent.

By trading together they would help each other and their exchange
problems would be in a fair way towards being solved. He took some
figures concerning our trade which he hoped to be pardoned for quoting.
In 1915 British Guiana exported to the United States $528,000 worth of
goods and imported $2,337,000 about $44 for every $1 we exported. In
1917 the exports were $770,000 as against $5,990,000 in imports. In re-
spect of the relations with Canada this colony in 1915 exported $5,478,000
to the Dominion, but only imported $1,346,000. In 1917 the exports to
Canada amounted to $7,528,000 and the imports to $2,237,000. He
thought that Canada could fairly claim to have a purely disinterested in-
terest in the West Indies and this colony. They were not looking at this
matter merely from the standpoint of dollars and cents, but from the
standpoint of the Empire to which they were all proud to belong. Look-
ing back over the past he saw that when the Motherland on account of
her Free Trade policy could do nothing to help these colonies,
Canada voluntarily gave them a preference which lasted for
fifteen years without areturn of any kind whatsoever to the Dominion.
He did not want the people of this colony to think of the people of
Canada only asa number of money-grabbers whose interest was merely
frem the financial standpoint. Canada was interested because she and
this colony were children of the same family, members of the firm of
John Bull and sons, (Applause.) He did not say that Canada would not
like to have her share of the trade; that would help her along a little
bit better. On the point of foodstuffs, in flour, grain and smoked fish,
this colouy obtained about 70 per cent. of her requirements from Canada
in 1915. Of biscuits, butter and substitutes a very small proportion was
obtained from Canada. Of salt pork aud beet $461,000 worth came
from the United States and not a dollar from Canada. On this point
Canada’s hams and bacon were streets ahead of those of the United States
the pigs of which are fed on corn and go to fat whereas those of Canada
are fed on dairy by-products, peas and shorts, and are preferred in the
English market. In respect of cement the Canada Cement Co. which
was just coming in was one of the best concerns of the kind. The centre
of the paper supply of the world was Canada. Americans were going
across and establishing mills and Canada was shipping enormous
quantities of pulp wood to the United States, yet in paper $62,000 was
imported from the United States and only $8,000 from Canada.

HIs IDEA OF PREFERENCE.

His idea of a preference was an arrangement which would mak
both parties perfectly sure of the markets of the other. No sort of
arrangement which did not make both British Guiana and Canada
perfectly sure of each other’s market for the goods it produced would be
satisfactory to either country. All this wasa preamble and brought them

110 Timehri.

to the discussion of the real problems. He thought that they were all
agreed that closer trade relations with Canada were desirable. (Hear,
hear). The question was what form these closer relations should take.
With their permission he would like to outline a few alternative forms,
giving the advantages and disadvantages of each, so that they could
decide which they would adopt. The first and most natural suggestion
was an increase of the preference, Under the present treaty there was a
preference of 20 per cent. If that had not been sufficient to force trade
into British channels he suggested that it should be increased to 50 per
cent. By this arrangement in the first place difficulties of revenue were
done away with. It raised no troubles of revenue whatever because it
was within the power of the colony to make that arrangement without
reducing the minimum that it wished to collect for taxation purposes.
If they did as Barbados did which was to increase the general tariff so
that there was but 5 per cent. difference they could make the minimum
which they thought was necessary to collect in the way of revenue
whatever they chose to make it. An arrangement like that would force
all the trade into British channels which was absolutely necessary for
the whole of the Empire. Every part of the Empire must trade with
every other part of the Empire. (Hear hear.) They could give absolutely
the same preference to the Mother Country by which Britain and Canada
would be on exactly the same basis.

Ture Customs UNION.

The second suggestion was that prepared by Capt. Reid whom he
met for the first time when he was in Canada in 1912. He desired to
say how much he appreciated the amount of thought which Captain Reid
had devoted to the lengthy and well thought out scheme he had prepared.
(Hear, hear). The question of trade relations between the different parts
of the Empire was really the greatest of Imperial problems facing the
Empire to-day, and any contribution which helped to solve that problem
was not merely of local but of Imperial importance because whatever
assisted in solving the problem was likely to be copied. That British
Guiana and Captain Reid should have taken the leadership pleased him
very much, and the idea of having no tarift whatever between Canada and
this colony appealed to him very strongly. He would like to see an
absolute abolition of the tariff. It appealed to him so strongly that he
felt inclined to say that he could not supportit exactly as it was. Finally
he concluded that it raised very serious problems of revenue. He
noticed that Captain Reid had suggested raising the tax on sugar
exports to Canada which might or might not fall upon the Canadian
consumer. Canada was arich country ; it was never so prosperous as it
is now, yet it needed to look at the revenue position, What they really
wanted was just enough of a preference that would give British goods
from every part of the Empire control of the markets of every other part
of the Empire without any interference with revenue whatever. Ona 50
per cent. preference they could solve all that. He suggested raising the
general tariff rather than merely reducing their revenue on the preference.

Canada and the West Indies. 111

He asked io be pardoned for making a suggestion with regard to what
was their own private affair. How they proposed te raise their revenue
was a matter for themselves and not tor the Canadians, and he hoped
that they would pardon him for appearing to butt in. There was another
form of relationship to which he would like to draw their attention, and
that was an absolute Customs Union with Canada.

Tue EXAMPLE OF Porto Rico.

In the case of Porto Rico the full American tariff was collected on
all goods going into Porto Rico from everywhere except the United
States There was not $1 of import orexport taxes between the United
States and Porto Rico, and the amount collected on goods went into the
Island Treasury—the higher rate on the smaller amount gives sufficient
revenue. The result had been that Porto Rico has been bounding ahead
in prosperity. She had been increasing in population and in wealth and
what was more significant of all American enterprise and wealth had gone
right down into the Island and was making it right over. The question
arose as to whether the Canadians could do anything of the kind for the
British West Indies. He could imagine hearing them say that Canada
had 9 millions of people but that in the United States there were over
100 millions, but did they ever realise that in the population of the
United States there is included a great tier of Southern States—Florida,
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Southern California—the popu-
lation of which consumed West Indian products? Moreover that popula-
tion produced things which the West Indies produced and were competitors
with Porto Rico in the markets of the United States. They should
remember that-Canada’s population was exclusively Northern ; there was
not a strip of country there competing with this colony. It was all
Northern country and their Northern markets were wealthy. He was
amazed at the progress Canada had made, and when he was thinking of
the population as 7,500,000 he was surprised to see from the last census
that it was 8,850,000. If they linked up with Canada they linked up
with a country that was not only Northern and wealthy but growing at
an enormous rate. He did not advocate political annexation with Canada
(Hear, hear). There was a time when he advocated such a union but he
had later thought that the people of the West Indies had not been
sufficiently educated to want it. (Laughter). This was a matter that
might wait.

Continuing, Mr. Macaulay illustrated how Porto Rico had joined up
politically with the United States and remarked that three-quarters of the
people’s time was afterwards taken up with the question of settling the
way to govern the island. He didnot think they need now bother with
a political union at all. They were doing well as they are at present, and
he suggested nothing more than a commercial union. The question was
really whether they could not get into as close relations as existed be-
tween Nova Scotia and the Dominion. One result of such relations
would be that the people would get all Canadian foodstuffs in free, and

112 Timehri

thus have the cost of living reduced. It seemed to him that the chief
advantage to come from the union would result from the sentimental con-
nection.

IMPORTANCE OF THE TROPICS.

When Mr. Garnett was up with him, at Ottawa with Sir George Foster,
the latter remarked that Canada needed a strip of tropical country which
she could consider her own and in which she could have not only a com-
mercial but a sentimental interest, so that as far as was possible every kind
of tropical product she required could be got out of it. Let Canada have
a big agricultural gardenin the Tropics, and they could take it that she
would grow eyery possible thing she could in it. Canada had already
shown that she could find a market for all British Guiana sugar but that
was not all. Another thing the colony was producing was rice, and
Canada’s needs in this respect were being supplied by Texas and Louisiana.
If they joined up with Canada they could develop the industry to its limit,
and Canada would find the market. In short it would be their ambition
to do whatever they could for British Guiana, because in developing the
colony they would be developing their own market.

THE Rarnway PRosEctT.

Speaking individually and not on behalf of his Government, in con-
nection with the wish of the people here to have a hinterland railway he
understood that they had a territory of savannah land not equal to the
prairies of the Western States or the Argentine, but still of great value
capable of sustaining vast herds of cattle and a great population, and that
undeveloped country needed access to the sea. He thought that the Goy-
ernment of the colony could as the result of closer relations such as he
suggested go to the Government of Canada and request Canada because
of the fact that she was interested in Guiana to develop those lands, by
assisting in building the railway. If they came in politically with Canada
just as it was hoped to bring in Newfoundland, it would be a reasonable
proposition to ask Canada to build the whole of the railway but that
being out of the question at the present time, he had come to the conclu-
sion that if a commercial union was come to with Canada, it would be fair
to ask her to bear one-third of the cost by guaranteeing the bonds re-
quired for building it, and perhaps if it was said that the railway should
be built by Canadians the Government of Canada would be prepared to
go half-and-half. He, asa Canadian, would be prepared to go to the Gov-
ernment and recommend to the utmost of his capacity that she should
bear such a portion of the cost, and he did not think that the Govern-
ment would refuse. There would be between 300 and 400 miles of rail-
way tobe built. He had seen various estimates of the cost per mile, but
he had a little experience of estimates in connection with railway building,
and he thought they all seemed a bit low. Even for a metre-gauge rail-
way £5,000 per mile seemed too low. Estimating at $25,000 per mile,
5 per cent, interest on 400 miles would work out at $500,000 of
which £50,000 would be Canada’s share if she agreed to pay one-half.

Canada andthe West Indies. 113

Canada was now paying a subsidy of £75,060 for the Canadian steamship
service, and something like £120,000 on the Canadian Pacific railway, and
he had recently heard it stated that there was a desire to pay a bigger
subsidy here for a better service.

ConTROL OF LocaL MARKETs.

If it was good policy to pay £75,000 as a subsidy for the Canadian
Steamship service, and £120,000 on the Pacific, could they possibly think
of a better investment than to get control of the markets of British
Guiana, so that Canadian markets would be their markets and vice versa,
and the population doubled in British Guiana and the hinterland developed
all for £50,000, two-thirds of what Canada was paying as a steam-
ship subsidy. They had just given $25,000,000 as a loan
to Rumania, and $25,000,000 had been offered to Italy and another
$25,000,000 to Greece with the restriction that the money should be ex-
pended on Canadian produce. Canada felt the need of foreign trade,
and if it could be shown that she would have any of the advantages he
had pointed out, the Government might advance one-half leaving them
to provide the other.

THE POPULATION QUESTION.

The next question that would be brought up, however, was that the
building of a railway was not populating a country, i.e., where were they
to get their population? He had given a great deal of thought to this
aspect of the question although he did not pretend to know as much as
they did of the subject, and it seemed to him that there were large
sources of population in other places that they could tap. He would
suggest for instance from the West Coast of Africa and he would also
like to see a good set of Chinamen coming in. Perhaps in stating this
he was treading on somebody’s toes. He knew that they had had some
difficulty with the Imperial Government on the subject of immigration
but he felt that if Canada was with them on the matter and Canada
volunteered to take the responsibility, the trouble would not be as great.
It seemed to him that they would miss the chance of their lives if they
did not make the railway the means of settling the country too. When
the Panama Canal was in course of construction great numbers of single
men were taken over and put on to work, and as soon as the work was
completed they scattered to the four corners of the world. The mere
cost of building the railway was in his judgment a secondary thing to
the settling of the land, and if possible all immigrants should come in
both sexes and in equal numbers, so that they would have an eye to the
future. If they had followed this policy in years past with the immigration
from India, he ventured to say that to-day they would not have been
faced with the labour problem they had to pay attention to.

Mr. Macaulay further said that they might possibly be able to get
Chinese women, and as a general policy the man’s family was worth twice
as much as the single man. Another thing it seemed to him that they

114 Timehri.

should do was to give to each man a bonus of a lot of land, and they
would find that most of them would settle down and cultivate it. He
mentioned these things to let them see that he was alive to their problems
of population, and he thought Canada would do something to help them.
He had seen a great number of trained Chinanfen going over to France,
and they were some of the huskiest fellows they could hope to get, and
if they got them, they would have some cause for congratulation.

Another thought he wished to bring forward, though with con-
siderable hesitation was that he understood that on the Brazilian side of
the frontier there were savannah lands. If this was so, British Guiana
united with Canada could entertain the idea of having it annexed com-
mercially. The only outlet the Brazilians had to the sea was the Amazon,
but they knew that river boats were not the best things for the trans-
portation of cattle. If they had the railway into the interior they would
provide Brazil with an’outlet to the sea from that part, and he had a day-
dream in his mind that one day a great live-stock centre could be estab-
lished to which all the stock of the Guianas could come and the cattle
from the Brazilian side of the line ultimately go—something like what the
American packing houses had established down in the Argentine.

If British Guiana was associated with Canada so that for commercial
and customs purposes they were one country, Canadian goods would
come right down to Georgetown at the same cost as in Canada, with
nothing added but the cost of transportation, and naturally the colony
would become the purchasing place of all the other places in that portion
of Brazil, because if they had a railway there, the Brazilians would
unquestionably buy from British Guiana.

Another point was that he would like to see a preferential treaty
entered into between British Guiana and Brazil. He could imagine that
if British Guiana went to Brazil and asked for such a thing, Brazil would
say that they saw no use forit, that there was nothing to be gained as
the products of the two places were the same, but if Canada was with
British Guiana, the position would be different as the parties on the
one hand would have the products both of Canada and British Guiana.
That also would give them an excellent chance of clinching the nails of
annexation, He had a vision of tremendous possibilities for British
Guiana and Canada working with her, and for the Empire through them.
If they had a prosperous population growing it would be something the
British Empire would be proud of, andit would be a great addition to the
strength and power of the British Government.

THE FLY IN THE OINTMENT.
He was bound to tell them however that there was
a fly in the ointment, but it was for them to see whether,
the drawback was so serious that they could not agree to it. The
moment they abolished the tariff between Canada and British Guiana,
that moment the question of revenue began to come up. With the 50
‘

Canada and the West Indies. 115

percent. preference as he suggested, there would be nothing coming from
the Old Country, and they would not get enough revenue. That was a
problem they had to face in Canada and furthermore they had to face the
question to keep their own markets for themselves. If they had these
arrangements with Canada, they would need to have them on the same
lines as dealing with the Mother Country the imports of which had a
preference of 33} per cent., but if they abolished it altogether, they
would not be able toraise the revenue, and Cauada would not be able to
feel that she had as great an interest in the place. It was however for
them to decide which of the two things they wanted. If they decided
that they did not want to go further than to have the 50 per cent. pre-
ference in which the mother country would share, it would bea great
advance, Was it an unfairor unpatriotic thing to suggest? When the
various provinces of Canada wishing to deal with each other, madea
partnership among themselves, the mother country could have objected,
but they now had a prosperous Canada, and the mother country sold a
great deal more to United Canada than she would have sold to the scattered
provinces,—and they were now talking of bringing in Newfoundland.
All that he was suggesting was that two members of the Imperial Family
should forma partnership. It might be said against his argument that
Newfoundland and Canada were nearby but instead of saying that it was
an argument against it with respect to British Guiana, there was a great
deal to be said in favour of it because it would be seen that it was far
better to link up two distant provinces with different products than to
link up two near places with the same products.

He had first had his attention drawn to this situation in connection with
the Bahama Islands which were suffering a great deal because they were
British, If they joined with the United States they would have the tariff
against their fruits withdrawn at once, but they wanted to remain British,
and as a consequence they were poor. Canada would give them a market
like the United States, but perbaps they might say that British Guiana
was not as pooras the Bahamas. British Guiana was however, an un-
developed country, and were they going to say that it was for the good of
British Guiana, the good of the Empire, and the good of the world that
British Guiana should remain undeveloped. Was ita bad thing for two
members of a family to form a partnership so that they could help one
another? Was it British to remain undeveloped ? He thought they would
do the mother country a great injustice to think that she had any
such ideas, Asa matter of fact the mother country in the past had been
too unselfish and as far as he was concerned they could not make him do
anything that was not to the advantage of the motherland. It was for
them to say which of the two solutions appealed most to them, but what-
ever they decided they in Canada would give their support to.

THE NOITGEDACHT MURDER.

By J. A. VEERASAWMY, Barrister-at-Law.

{The following abridged account of the legal side of the Noitgedacht Murder Case
has been consldered desirable from the historical standpoint. The gruesome details can be
found in the local papers.—J. R.] :

THE SCENE OF THE CRIME.

There are three Noitgedachts in British Guiana. One in Wakenaam
Island, one at Anna Catherina on the West Coast, Demerara, and the
third on the West Bank of the Demerara River. It is at the last men-
tioned place that the crime was committed. The last mentioned Noit-
gedacht is five miles up Canal No. 1 at front of which are Bagotville and
La Grange, on the West Bank of the Demerara River. There are two
canals on that bank, dug in the old days by the Dutch, Canal No. 1
being four miles from Vreed-en-Hoop and Canal No. 2 about four miles
further on. Those run in for adistance of about seven miles.

THE EARLY INHABITANTS.

Up to 1891 therg were very few people in the Canal except the
creole blacks and Africans, but as the work of empoldering was partially
carried out East Indians were attracted there. Before that a considerable
number of Kroomen and Oku, people of the Oruba tribe from the West
Coast of Africa, and Congoes were settled there. A transport of Soesdyk
passed in 1886 showed that the place belonged to sixteen persons of the
Oku tribe. Those people were liberated slaves captured in slave ships after
the abolition of slavery, brought here about 1858 or 1860 and settled on
the estates. Most of them were dead and only nine remained alive on the
Canal. Their children are there till to-day. The population rose from
100 in 1891 to nearly 1,000 in 1911 when the census was taken. If they
went up Canal No. 1 they would find estates on both sides and about two
miles up they passed Vauxhall. In most cases the estates had been sold
out to small holders. When they got to Le Desir, about four miles up,
they came to a prosperous cocoa and coffee estate owned by Mr. John
Junor who was well-known in the colony. Mr. Junor was born in the
colony and was formerly manager of Pln. Vryheid’s Lust, East Coast,
Demerara. Next to that estate and further west, at Anna Catherina, was
Mr. John Martin, a trusted employee of Messrs. Booker Bros. who used
to go from Saturday to Monday to look after his place, until five or six
years ago when he retired and went to live on the estate. Next to that
they came to Noitgedacht and L’Esperance which had a varied history.

Mr. Schulz tuok it over in December, 1915, but did not go to live
there until August, 1916; all that time the accused Sewdin was manager
of the estate. In the course of about twelve years there was a constant
change of managers on the estate and for that period there were no
resident proprietors, so that for twelve years they had a property exposed
to and suffering wholesale robbery, certainly in the years 1916 and 1917
The estate of Noitgedacht runs back from the Canal in a southerly
direction for a distance of 1} miles, the frontage being on the south side

Yet is

Bee IO ENE OS
nae Se tne 7

Model of Noitgedacht House (two aspects) x on blank, site of murder, other x Jugdio’s house

Loyog yroqg IY, “19440T JUD OUT
TaN Mong NIGMS

The Noitgedacht Murder. 117

of the canal. Joined to Noitgedacht is L’Esperance and each estate was
divided into four sections of 36 rods each, numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 being on
Noiigedacht and 5, 6, 7 and 8 on L’Esperance. Near to Anna Catherina
in alittle two-roomed cottage, the accused Jugdeo lived with his wife
Surat, At the back of that cottage was a kitchen and in the yard was a
pepper bush. That was where the child was kept after the first night
of its abduction. Just beyond the east side-line dam of the estate were
two logies or ranges, and in the four-room range facing the road only
two workers on the estate lived at that time—Jacob, and Lewis, one of
the prisoners. Thence they reached the drive-way leading to the house
which was about 50 yards in and there was a gate which was always
closed to keep out cows whenever Mr. Schulz and his family were residing
there. It was closed at the time of the occurrence and the child could
not have wandered into the Canal. Then they came to the wide draining
trench of the estate which was connected with a trench on the east side-
linedam. It was also a navigation trench and the water flowed eastwards
on to the koker. About 20 yards up they got to the bridge leading to
the house and at that point they were standing on the middle-walk
dam of the estate. At the back of the house there was another bridge
leading to the coffee logie. From the dam they passed to the yard in
front of the house which was tiled.

NEWS OF THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MOLLY ScHULz.

Late on Tuesday night, 9th January, 1917, the news reached the city
that Molly Schulz, the three-year old daughter of Mr. John Schulz of
the firm of Booker Bros., McConnell & Co., Ltd., of Water Street,
Georgetown, was missing from her parents’ house at Noitgedacht since
morning and could not be found. That same night, Mr. Schulz, on
hearing of the disappearance of his daughter hurried from the city to
the estate, and organised and headed asearch party, but with no success.
Next day (Wednesday) the search was continued again without results.

By this time the opinion became ripe that the child had been kid-
napped, mention being made of the fact that Sewdin, the driver in charge
of the place, had prosecuted and secured a conviction against an East
Indian lad for stealing coffee plants, a heavy penalty being imposed by
the Magistrate of the district, Mr. H. K. M. Sisnett. On the strenoth
of this report the houses of several persons in the vicinity were searched
by the police, no arrests however following. Shortly after the following
offer of reward appeared in the daily papers :

$250 REWARD.
Missing from her home at Noitgedacht, a female white child

MOLLY SCHULZ,
Aged 2 years and nine months.
Blue eyes, dark brown curly hair.

The above reward will be paid to any person or persons who may
give information that will lead to the recovery of the child,

118 Timehri.

Any particulars to be given to Mr. J. Schulz, c/o Messrs. Booker
Bros., Water Street, Georgetown, or any Police Officer.

Hight days elapsed from the time of her disappearance without
anything being heard of the whereabouts of the child Molly, but on
the ninth day news of the most startling nature reached the city of
Georgetown, and was published ina local newspaper to the effect that
the body of the child was found not 200 yards away from the footpath
which many feet had trodden since the time of the child’s disappearance
and at the same spot where the shoes were found the Tuesday before, and
also what was subsequently disproved by medical testimony that the
ribs of the child were staved in by some heavy instrument. During the
days following the police were severely criticised by a section of the local
Press and members of the public on their failure to discover the child.

FOUL PLAY SUSPECTED.
ARRESTS AND INQUEST.

The first arrests were of a middle-aged East Indian man named
John Pariag, otherwise known as Bhodan and an elderly East Indian
man named Gungadeen, followed a little later by that of Jugdeo, the
brother of the manager of Noitgedacht, one Sewdin, and still later an
alleged obeahman who answered both to the name of Sumara and
Samootar. For police reasons however it was only the last mentioned
who figured in the dock of the La Grange Magistrate’s Court when on the
6th February the inquest on Molly Schulz was begun before His Wor-
ship Mr. H. K. M. Sisnett, Stipendiary Magistrate of the West Coast
Judicial District and a jury :-—

Evidence as to the disappearance and discovery of the body
having been given the Coroner read the report of Dr. Rose, Government
Bacteriologist and summed up as follows :-—

CORONER’S SUMMING UP.
OPEN VERDICT.

Addressing the jury the Coroner said that from the doctor’s report
they gathered that he could not state the cause of death There were no
signs of drowning and the child was probably killed about the time
when she was lost. The doctor also told them that the immersion in the
water took place after the death of the child. The evidence that they had
threw no light on the subject whatsoever except that she went out with
the boys and they sent her back and she disappeared. It was a very
curious thing that none of the servants or anybody in the house seemed
to know anything about the matter. The police had made enquiries’
and they had been unable to put before the Court any evidence that
would tend to throw any light on the affair. From the doctor’s report
they could fairly come to the conclusion that the child was killed. There
were no marks of violence and the child appeared to have been done to
death in a manner which the doctor could not tell. Probably she died of

r

The Noitgedacht Murder. 119

’
starvation or bad food. She could not have died an accidental death and
the only verdict they could return was that she came to her death about
the 15th January, but by what means there was no evidence to show.
The jury returned a verdict in agreement with the summing up of the
Coroner.

THE PRELIMINARY INQUIRY.

At the preliminary inquiry, started on the 12th February, 1918, after
the evidence of Pariag was given, an adjournment was granted by the
Court until the 21st February when there also appeared in the dock
with the remaining five accused another East Indian woman named
Surjoo, the wife of Sewdin. Additional evidence was taken on the 7th
and 20th days of March respectively. It is interesting to state that on
the 21st March the following paragraph appeared in the “Daily Chronicle”
newspaper :—

“News of a sensational nature, bearing it is said on the Molly
Schulz mystery has reached the city. It would appear that some time
ago aman about 21 years old answering to the name of Jess Peters,
was registered to serve Messrs. Bugle & Co., as a labourer on their
grants im the Rupununi, and along with others was despatched from the
city for the grants. It is stated that on the journey Peters was heard to
refer to the Molly Schulz’s case and to express the fear of being implicated
in the matter. Throughout he seemed to have been disturbed in mind,
but it would seem that no great interest was attached to his sayings.
The men, who, as stated above, were on their way to the Rupununi,
camped at Plantain Island, Essequebo River. It is stated that Peters
was missed for a short time and to their surprise, it is reported, that he
was found to have committed suicide, his body having been found
suspended by a rope from a tree. The body was taken down and was
removed to Rockstone.”

Inconnection with the Molly Schulz’s mystery it was mentioned
that the police were searching for a man named James, who, it was stated,
was in the interior. On the 24th March another paragraph appeared in
the news column, intimating that the arrest of James in the upper
reaches of the Mazaruni River was effected, and subsequently he with
another East Indian named Buckreedee, the alleged obeahman, graced
the dock with the other accused.

THe TRIAL,

The June Sessions of the Supreme Court in 1918 will be particularly
memorable in view of certain sensational happenings during the sitting.
Special arrangements were wade in the Court for conducting the trial of
the accused, and on the morning of June the 6th, in the presence of His
Honour Sir Charles Major, Kt., Chief Justice of British Guiana, und a full
crowd of spectators, the Hon. Dr. J. J, Numan, Attorney General,

120 Timehrt.

began his opening address in the case for the prosecution against the
accused who were then represented by counsel as follows :-—

Sewdin

ee Mr. E. G. Woolford.
urat

Surjoo

Mahadeo Mr. C. R. Browne.

Buckreedee Mr. B. B. Marshall.
Osea } Mr. J. S. McArthur.

James Lewis
The address lasted for half-a-day and was not concluded when His
Honour at 1 p.m, adjourned the hearing until 9 a.m. next day.

ABRUPT ENDING OF TRIAL.

On His Honour the Chief Justice, Sir Charles Major, Kt., resuming
his seat on the Bench next morning, he addressed the jury as follows :—

Gentlemen of the Jury,—Tke sitting of the Court has been tempo-
rarily delayed this morning in order that a conference should be held
in my Chambers with the learned Attorney General, the learned
Solicitor General, and learned counsel representing the prisoners. After
hearing what has been said by all persons at that Conference, and
without entering into the reasons for the action I propose to take, and I
refrain from entering into them at the express desire of learned counsel
for the prisoners, I propose to exercise the discretion which is vested in
me by law and take action under the section of the Indictable Offences
Procedure Ordinance which enacts :—

“ The Court may in its discretion in a case of any emergency or
casualty rendering it in its opinion expedient for the ends of justice to
do so, discharge a jury without their giving a verdict and direct a new
jury to be empanelled during the same sitting of the Court, or may
postpone the trial on such terms as justice may require.”

POSTPONEMENT OF TRIAL EXPEDIENT.

‘The section contemplates the existence of an emergency which
renders it expedient in the interests of Justice that the jury should be
discharged in the first instance and then it leaves it open to the Court
either to empanel anew jury at once, or to postpone the trial on such
terms as justice may require. I propose for the reasons I have stated in
brief to discharge you without giving a verdict, an emergency having
arisen in my opinion, which renders it expedient in the interests of
justice that that should be done, and following upon that, inasmuch as we
are now approaching the end of the present legal term, and the trial is
likely to last much longer than the time remaining at our disposal, to
postpone the trial until the next sitting of this Court in the ordinary
course of business, that is to say, on the Ist October next. The

The Noitgedacht Murder. 121

prisoners will be remanded in custody pending the proceedings which
will be taken upon the order of postponement which I now make, and a
Ihave no other business to perform at this Session of the Supreme Court
for the month of June, Gentlemen of the Jury not empanelled for this
trial and those gentlemen I have just discharged, are all discharged for
the term. The delivery of the goal will be taken to-morrow morning
at 10 o'clock.”

VISIT TO SCENE OF CRIME.

On 13th June, 1918, Hon. Dr. Nunan, Attorney General, Colonel
Clark, Detective Inspector Gamble, Mr. E. A. Haynes, Government
Surveyor, Mr. C. R. Browne, barrister-at-law, counsel for Mahadeo, and
Mr. B. B. Marshall, barrister-at-law, counsel for Buckreedee, visited the
Noitgedacht estate.

JuRY SYSTEM IMPROVED.

On July 17th, 1918, there was passed in the Legislature of the
Colony in the face of strong protest by a majority of the Elective mem-
bers of the Court of Policy a Bill entitled “‘ An Ordinance to amend the
Indictable Procedure Ordinance of 1893,” the purport of which was to
improve the jury system of the Colony, and to do away with the right
of peremptory challenge thereafter, (though in view of the fact that the
matter had been referred before the passing of the Ordinance, the old
custom, that is the right of challenge without having to show cause was
preserved forthe Molly Schulz Case) and to allow for the fixing of
Special Juries on the application of the Attorney General to the Supreme
Court.

APPLICATION FOR SPECIAL JURY.

On the 5th Ocrober, 1918, Dr. Nunan on the strength of the new
Ordinance made an application to the Court for a Special Jury on the fol-
. lowing grounds :—

1. Indictment has been filed in thiscase against the above-named
prisoners and the trial will take place at the Criminal Session of the
Supreme Court for the County of Demerary to be held at the city of
Georgetown on the Ist October, 1918, and following days.

2, Public interest was aroused throughout the Colony at the pre-
liminary inquiry of this case and popular indignation was evinced against
the perpetrators of the murder in the public Press of this Colony and
otherwise, by which popular feeling the eight accused are stated by one
of their counsel, the Hon. J..S. McArthur, to be adversely affected. Diffi-
culties and delays were even experienced by the learned Chief Justice in
securing a full number of counsel necessary for the defence of the eight
prisoners, owing to the unwillingness of counsel to undertake the defence.

3. The trial of this case was fixed to take place at the Criminal
Session of the Supreme Court to be held at Georgetown on the

122 Timehri.

4th June, 1918, and following days, and after one day’s hearing and
before the opening address was concluded, the jury was discharged and
the trial was postponed to the October Session by the learned Chief
Justice with the approval of all the counsel engaged on the ground
that it was expedient for the ends of justice. After such postponement
a certain portion of the public Press of this Colony expressed views
on this case and on events connected therewith which have arisen
subsequent to the said postpenement, and public speeches have been made
upon the subject as shown by extracts hereto annexed and marked
“A” from the “Tribune,” a bi-weekly newspaper having a circulation
in this Colony and also by reports of speeches hereto annexed and
marked “ B” in The “ Daily Argosy” and “The Daily Chronicle,” daily
newspapers circulating in the Colony.

OBEAR. -

4. Obeah is being widely practised in the Colony at the present
time and there is among the uneducated and poorly educated of all races,
a great fear of obeah-workers and a certain amount of belief in their
powers. Within the last two months there have been three convictions
of four persons on obeah charges in the Magistrate’s Court of the county
of Demerara.

5. Owing to the popular prejudices stated to affect the accused
adversely on the one hand, and owing to the connection of the evidence
in this case with obeah and obeah-workers on the other, and further owing
to the forementioned publications and public speeches, it is advisable to
have a Special Jury.

Counsel for the defence having been heard as to why a special
jury should not be granted, and the Attorney General having replied,
His Honour the Chief Justice as reported in ‘‘ The Daily Argosy ” said :—

“This is an application for an order that the cause of the King v.
Sewdin and others be tried by special jury. This application was
made under section 42 of the Ordinance, No. 25 of 1918, which they knew
had been recently enacted by the Legislature of the Colony, and when he
said that the Ordinance was part of the Statute law of the Colony, passed
at the instance of the Legislature of the Colony, he had said all that need
be said about it. Its passage through the Court, the various objections
raised to its passage and the arguments adduced in support of objections
to it and so on could not be considered. It was law here now and he had to
administer it. Any arguments addressed to the fact that it differed from
the law of England and that its provisions are likely to work hardship or
not, were so much beating the air. All that he had to decide was
whether a special jury should in this case be ordered to be struck on the
same principles as governed the application for a special jury in civil
cases or in difficult criminal cases, and the arguineut that he must look
for extra special reasons, was quite unfounded.

<9 alte di

The Noitgedacht Murder. 123

GROUNDS OF THE APPLICATION UNCHALLENGED.

* The two grounds in support of the application, as the learned
Attorney General had pointed out, stood practically unchallenged. They
were that ‘owing tothe popular prejudice stated to affect the accused
persons adversely on the one hand and owing to the connection of the
evidence in this case with obeah and obeah-workers on the other, and
further owing to the aforementioned publications and public speeches it is
advisable to have a special jury struck; now, if there was one more im-
portant consideration than another in the re-trial of any cause it was that
the accused person or persons should have a fair trial andthe Court
passed on at once to any circumstances which might go to show that
the allegation of the possibility of an unfair trial was true. The likelihood
of an adverse trial was said to rest upon the amount of popular prejudice
that had been excited in the cause and in the second paragraph of the
reasons of the application it was said that ‘ public interest was aroused
throughout the Colony at the preliminary inquiry of this case and
popular indignation was evinced against the perpetrators of the murder
in the public Press of this Colony and otherwise by which popular
fecling the eight accused are stated by one of their counsel, Hon. J.
S. McArthur, to be adversely affected.’

THE PRESS AND PRELIMINARY TRIALS.

* At the opening of the cause and after it was postponed in the month
of June the learned Attorney General referred to it and I think I did too;
there had been not only a trial but there had been a conviction and there
had been a proceeding to execution of those eight persons by the public
Press of this Colony and the public Press had always done, and would
persist in describing the proceedings taken before the Magistrates of
this Colony as preliminary trials. If the reporters in Court did not know
better they should be corrected by those who did, and told that there
were no such things as preliminary trials, and that there was only one
trial and that, in that Court, and also that when a Magistrate sat he only
enquired into the circumstances whether he thought himself that there
should be a trial. That seemed to him to be approaching a scandal.
The length to which the Press had gone in its expressions and in com-
menting on the evidence of a particular witness by stating that “in
order to save his skin he gave the show away, was improper. A more
indecorous remark there could not be. What was the result of a matter
of that kind ? As had been pointed out and as appeared from the extracts,
an enormous amount of unhealthy opinion had been excited in this case
which, unless great care was taken and the greatest precaution adopted,
must inevitably result in affecting the prisoners adversely.

PusBLic OPINION AND THE ACCUSED.

“* Headed by the Press popular opinion had been educated to look
upon those unfortunate people as already standing under a stigma.
Anything more dreadful than that he did not know; that had not been

124 Timehrr.

denied. It was said that the reasons were not sufficient to support the
application, but referring to the first reason there could not be a ease in
which the necessity for the order on that ground was more obvious than
in the present one ; secondly, a ground of a less substantial character
was the allegation of obeah and the connection in this case with obeah
and obeah-workers. It was common knowledge—as had been shown
by the Attorney General in opening the case that Obeah took a very
prominent part in the proceedings and that was another circumstance
why the very best material that could be procured should be resorted to,
The first extract, or rather an extract from a leader in a Newspaper
called ‘The Tribune” of the 7th July was filed in the course of the
application and not one word had been mentioned about the case in the
course of that article but it referred to the practice of Obeah. The
article laid down very excellent principles but the very fact that in a
Newspaper of the Colony there should appear an article of that kind as a
warning to people was in itself another reason to support the allegation
that this question of Obeah had a large bearing on the case.

INTRODUCTION OF PoLItics DEPLORED.

The other extracts he preferred to look upon as purely political, but
how deplorable it was that a case involving the lives of eight persons
should have the slighest breath or atmosphere of politics. That was in
itself a scandal ; learned counsel were assigned to defend the prisoners on
the evidence given for or against them in the case, but any reference to a
case then pending and dragged into speeches quite legitimately delivered
against a particular measure was a procedure for which he had absolutely
nothing but the profoundest disfavour. The extract was ‘‘ Mr. McArthur
then referred to the Noitgedacht crime which was the cause of the Bill.”
It was a most improper reference ; any Legislative act or Bill should be
attacked in the proper way and for proper reasons. That the Noitge-
dacht crime should have been dragged in as a means of opposition seemed

to him to be highly improper. What were the arguments addressed

against the application ? As the learned Attorney General had properly
said it must be shown to the Court that on the circumstances to which
he had referred it would be to the prejudice of the prisoners that they
should be tried by a common jury and not by aSpecial Jury, What
attempt had there been to show that? He thought every-
body would take it as a general principle that the higher
they went in the scale of the jury empanelled, certain qualifications
being necessary, the greater would be the ability to deal with important
cases, and that the higher they went in that scale the better it was for all
concerned, ‘Chere could be no contravention of that principle and he had
to decide, that principle being at work, whether it was affected or
whether it was traversed in any way by the fact of any arguments
adduced. He had heard nothing.
No PRooF THAT THE ACCUSED WOULD BE PREJUDICED.

He had listened with patience and attention to what had been said

and there was no argument to show him either from well known facts or

oe

ees F

The Noitgedacht Murder. 125

circumstances before the Court that the prisoners would not only be
benefited by the order as contended by the Crown, but that they would
be prejudiced thereby. The application was supported by facts and he
was not asked to proceed upon theory or on conjecture, but was asked to
deal only with certain facts. Those facts had not been traversed. He
thought those facts were eloquent and convincing, and he had no doubt
whatever that he should make the order. That order he made and he
made it—he thought it would be hardly necessary to say—entirely on the
circumstances alleged in the application and in the interests of the
prisoners themselves.

DELAY IN ASSIGNING COUNSEL.

Some reference had been made—this was purely a personal matter
which he took the opportunity of mentioning because he had felt the
same way himself—in an article “On Dit” in “ The Tribune” that he
caused some hardship, possibly contributing to inconvenience and perhaps
injustice by assigning counsel at the last moment. He only wished to
say—he was not at pains to defend himself from allegations made in the
public press, but it being an important thing he muet refer to it—that
the very minute the proper steps were taken to bring to his notice that
prisoners desired counsel be dealt with them at once. He had felt that a
great deal of time was allowed to elapse between the time prisoners on
the charge of murder were committed for trial and the time when their
representations in the matter got to him. A prisoner might be com-
mitted sometimes three weeks before the sessions and there came at the
last moment in answer to a series of questions put to him (the prisoner)
that he had not a lawyer, and the promptest action was taken, He
merely made the remark that he was ready to assign counsel the very
minute he was asked to do so.

DIFFICULTY IF ASSIGNING COUNSEL.

The Attorney General stated that the reasons for the delay in that
ease was that His Honour had the greatest difficulty in getting counsel,
and one even withdrew from the defence on the very morning of the
trial. He would like to mention one matter which did not affect the
motion. It had been said that the prisoners in the case had not a right
to peremptory challenge. The right had been preserved to them and to
other persons committed before the 20th July. His Honour had tried a
ease only the previous day in which the right was exercised.

A TRIAL av Bar.
His Honour said he saw on the record an application for the trial of
the matter before three Judges of the Supreme Court, that application,
he supposed, being under the criminal procedure.

The Attorney General remarked that he was glad to find that to a
certain extent his mind was working no the same line with that of
counsel who spoke first, declarin that he did not object to a trial at
Bar.

126 Timehri.

His Honour : I will make an order that the trial of the King versus
Sewdin and others be at Bar.

THE SECOND TRIAL.
On Monday, the 28th October, the second trial was begun.
Shortly after 9.30 am. the Court having been opened, Their
Honours took their seats—Sir Charles Major, Kt., Chief Justice, Mr.
Justice M. J. Berkeley and Mr. Stipendiary Justice J. K. D. Hill.

THE PRISONERS.
The prisoners were arraigned in the following order: Sewdin,
Surjoo, Jugdeo, Surat, Mahadeo, Buckreedee, J. Paul and James Lewis.

Counsel for the Crown, the Hon. Dr. J. J, Nunan, K.C., Attorney
General, with whom was associated Mr. G. J. deFreitas, K.C., acting
Solicitor General, instructed by Mr. J. A. King, Crown Solicitor, for the
defence. Mr. E. G. Woolford represented Sewdin, Surjoo, Jugdeo and
Surat.

Mr. C. R. Browne, Mahadeo.

Mr. B. B. Marshall, Buckreedee.

Mr. J. S. McArthur, Joseph Paul and James Lewis.

During the trial the jury visited the scene of the crime.

Owing toan outbreak of chicken-pox at the Georgetown Prison
amongst the females which was contracted by the accused Surat and
Surjoo and which was likely to delay the trial for a considerable period
the Crown entered a nolle prosequi as far as they were concerned and on
the direction of the Court they were discharged from the indictment by
the jury. The verdict of the jury at the end of the trial was as follows:

Sewdin ... Guilty.
Jugdeo ... Cannot agree.
Mahadeo ..» Guilty.
Buckreedee_ ... Cannot agree.

James Lewis ... Guilty.
Joseph Paul ... Guilty.

All those found guilty were hanged.

Buckreedee and Jugdeo were subsequently retried for the murder
of Molly Schulz, and on the re-trial were found guilty and met the same
fate as the others with whom they were first tried.

THE ABDUCTION CASE.

On the Ist April, 1919, the trial of Surat and Surjoo on a charge of
abducting Molly Schulz was begun. After a week during which the trial
lasted the jury could not agree and was discharged.

At the same Sessions the prisoners were re-tried and found guilty

The Noitgedacht Murder, 127

They were sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment each.

The following, from the address of the Attorney General, explains
the model of the scene of the murder.

The Attorney General gave a topographical description of the estate
and its surroundings in connection with which he stated that a model had
been prepared by Mr. Fred May, under the supervision of Mr. Haynes.
It was to a certain extent drawn to scale, but as the whole, if drawn to
scale, would occupy a much greater part of the Court, they had to rely
on the measurements, The actual measurements would be given by Mr.
Haynes. He drew the attention of the jury to the fact that along the
front of Mr. Martin’s estate, Anna Catharina, there was a two-roomed
cottage with a kitchen at the back. In the eastward room of this cottage
the accused Jugdeo, former manager of Noitgedacht, lived with his wife,
Surat. There was no other house intervening between this and a koker
which was to be found at the eastern end of Noitgedacht. One next came
upon afour-roomed cottage where the accused James and another man
named Jacob lived after which the entrance to Noitgedacht was reached.
Here there was a gateway to prevent Molly going out and cattle going in,
and just beyond the entrance of the estate, the house occupied by the
accused Sewdin, at the time of the occurrence, was to be found. Before
Mr. Schulz went to live on the estate Sewdin lived in two rooms. Next to
his house was a cow-pen and then a ten-roomed range in which Paul—
promoted to the position of driver on the estate—lived, together with a
man named Wally Mohamed, another named Gangadeen, a witness to be
called by the Crown as one who saw the taking out of the eyes of Molly,
and Boodhoo, the watchman. Going along the front of the estate one
came to the end of Noitgedacht proper, to the schoolhouse of the
Canadian Presbyterian Mission and at that point the west side-line dam
of the estate came out to the public road and then the annexed,
L'Esperance, began. About a mile from the Noitgedacht house on the
right of the road was the rumshop of one Cheddie, the father of Annie
Cheddie, a witness for the Crown in the case, who, if further evidence
could have been produced, would have been also appearing in the dock in
the company of another person named Kowlessur, who was, however, not
being called as a witness.

Further on one came upon the house of a small farmer named John
Pariag, who was not only a witness in the case but an actual accomplice
inthe crime, He lived here with his wife and with Mahadeo who shared
aroom ofthe house. There was a mud verandah attached to the house
and in ita doorway leading into a room with part-ofts. It was in this
room that the child was kept on the night of its abduction. There wa
a window in the wall of the room with a trap, on lifting which anyone
would be able to peer into the room from outside and would have been
able to see at the time of the occurence a katia (East Indian bed) which
was to be found there until this day.

APPENDIX. <
STRAY NOTES ON OBEAH.

The origin of the term “ Obeah” like that ot ‘ Voodoo” seems to
be enveloped in more or less mystery, and so far, I have been unable to
learn with certainty of their first introduction into the Englisb language;

It is a matter of common belief however, that both names bear allu-
sion to the serpent, the so-called deity to which, in those days of the
past when Obi and Voodooism constituted a regular cult, the wishes,
prayers, and entreaties of the votaries were addressed. Thus, if Byrant’s
Mythology has been correctly quoted: —‘‘A serpent in the Egyptian
‘language was called Ob or Aub. Obion is still the Egyptian name for
‘‘a serpent... Oubaios was the name of the Basilisk or Royal Serpent,
“emblem of the Sun, and an ancient oracular Deity of Africa.” But
quite independently of this, it would seem that Obeah was a term
introduced into the Southern States, the West India Islands,and
the Guianas, by African slaves. So also it has been stated, as late as
1884 by no less an authority than the British Minister, Resident and
Consul-General for Hayti that the name Voodoo or Vaudoux comes
from a West African coast word Vodun, an all-powerful and supernatural
Being, a large serpent, on whom depends all the events that take place in
this world of ours. He further states that its worship was followed by two
sects, distinguished at their ceremonials, in the nature of the flesh and
blood employed, i.e., whether it came from a white-feathered rooster or
spotlessly white goat or on the other hand had been obtained from a
human victim, “the goat without horns.” Yet in opposition to this
derivation of the term, a popular encyclopedia has it that the expression
took its rise in Martinique and others of the French Islands in con-
nection with the guile and simplicity of the peasants of the Vaud
whose practices those of the local negroes had been compared with.

Independently then of its original etymological signification and
apart from al! ceremonial which with advanced civilisation and improved
police administration has probably been reduced to a minimum, Obeah
is at the present time applied by ereoles to any or every act of commission
or omission which, under the instructions or direction of the obeah-man,
they believe will further their interests, favour their desires, or carry out
their wishes, good bad and indifferent. While I can do nothing better
than describe the obeah-man as the usual rogue and vagabond, and
occasionally worse, I am bound to admit that so far as my experience goes”
his victims have every faith in, and are absolutely convinced of the
powers claimed by him. Carrying my thoughts to the homeland, I
might even speak of the former as the “ confidence-man ” or ‘ hawk,”
the latter as the “ gull” or “ pigeon ” but here the comparison would end,
for the unpleasant factor now comes into relief that this so-called obeah
out here is practically terrorising the lower classes and for that very

Appendix.—Stray Notes on Obeah. 129

reason confirming them all the stronger in its alleged reality. The
obeah-man is certainly more feared than the magistrate, and assuredly
has greater “uncanny ” powers. To get my tongue so tangled that I
should be unable to pass sentence that had been suspended from the
previous Court, I was once on the Pomeroon challenged by the prisoner
who, when addressing the Court from the dock, was found to be chewing
a blob of some resinous material, which he subsequently admitted paying
the “ black doctor ” a dollar or two for. On another occasion I received
warning by letter that obeah was ‘“‘on” me and that I was to use
particular care as to how I reached the Hyde Park Court stelling from off
the steamer : my anonymous well-wisher feared a drowning accident !
And only so recently as on my late attendance at the trial over the
Noitgedacht tragedy, was I not warned that to save myself from obeah,
I must rub some guinea-pepper onto the soles of my boots, and put a little
garlic and salt in one of my pockets !

The obeah-man may be coolie, but is more often negro, and his
consultants may be members of his own or another race: next to negroes,
I should say that the people who most frequently resort to these
scoundrels are the Portuguese. 1 can call to mind one example of a
buck Indian consulting a coolie obeah-man for sore-eyes : in payment the
former gave him a sewing machine in addition to a fair amount of
money, to which my predecessor subsequently added two terms of
imprisonment of six months each. The real buck Indian still has
recourse to his piai—as a matter of fact I have seen at least three piai-
houses within a few miles of a certain Mission Station in the Pomeroon
Judicial District,—but very little, if apy harm is done, his powers being
more or less limited to the treatment of disease, his faith in which can
be proved by_his practising his arts upon himself.

The kickshaws or trade-tools of the obeah-man are usually bones,
feathers, rags or other trash.

The assistance sought from the Obeah-man is of a somewhat varied
nature, ¢.g., the cure of disease, the discovery of theft, the possession of
love-charms, the telling of fortunes, the results of a coming horse-race,
including it is said the gratification of revenge and the conciliation of
enemies. Not fifty years ago, Sir Spencer St. John tells us that in Hayti
* mest of them ask for the talent to be able to direct the conduct of their
masters:” a request certainly not to be wondered at considering the
local conditions. As tothe cure of disease, I am confident that during
my sojourn on the Pomeroon a large number of the residents consulted
the black and coolie obeah-men of the Coast. I remember the consequent
loss of an eye in the case of one negro farmer, and the alleged cure of a
temporary mentally-alienated condition in another, It was not the most
ignorant, but even some among the best intelligent and well pursed
Portuguese that used to take advice from these people, who naturally
fleeced them unmercifully. The statement has been made, on fairly
reliable authority that it is upon a secret and skilful use of poison that

130 Timehri.

the peculiar terror of the [obeah] system is supposed to depend. Now,
the nearest dangerously poisonous plant to Georgetown, and the only
one available for the purpose other than bitter cassava which would be
easily detected and recognised, is the Strychnos toaxifera growing on the
upper reaches of the Pomeroon and in connection with which a large
trade was carried on in the early days of settlement, from which is
prepared “ curare ” or ‘“ wurali,” ete., of the autochthonous Indians. But
the knowledge of its presence here had evidently been lost for many
years past both to blacks and bucks until it was re-discovered by a
certain Government dispenser, now retired, who had found a fellow negro
quite empirically poisoning his dogs with it. The dispenser has, I know,
strictly obeyed my orders to hold his tongue concerning the discovery,
and what might have proved a terrible danger in murderously-inclined
hands has now beenaverted. The only other secret “ poison” remaining
available to the obeah man would therefore be ground glass, but I-must
admit that I have neither knowledge nor experience concerning its
effects. As however it was once used as a vermifuge it can do little
harm. In connection with the cure of disease, I might mention here the
practice of abortion. During my twelve years’ sojourn in the Guianas
I have strongly suspected not a fow young women of consulting these
miscreants, but have never received sufficient proof to warrant my re-
porting tothe police. To buy a love-charm from the obeah-man is
nothing unusual ; indeed, the employment of such articles and practices is
a well recognised belief amongst the aboriginai Indians, with their various
“binas,” from whom the blacks may have obtained no small amount of
their information. ‘Getting one’s cards cut” is a common expression
for having one’s fortune told by the obeah-man—presumably with a pack
of cards.

As to the remuneration received for their services, I know of fees
amounting to upwards of $15 being paid, but am given to understand that
this may be often exceeded. In one case that came within my personal
knowledge where a Portugnese farmer was very anxious for his erratic
and erring spouse to return to the marital roof, a fee of $7 was paid to the
negro obeah-man first consulted, $10 to the next, a coolie one—but still
without results: be accordingly asked God “ the favour,” the manner in
which he himself expressed his action, and presented Him, through the
Church-building Fund with the munificent donation of $5! The terrors
of obeah were evidently greater than the fear of his Lord.

Being naturally a rogue and vagabond the obeah-man is no fool and
takes care that there will always remain some loophole wherewith to save
his face when, as not unfrequently happens his instructions that are
supposed to have been followed, have not resulted in the eftects claimed
for them. The loophole is either in the nature of a difficulty, an
improbability, or an impossibility. If a certain instruction of his that has
to be followed at midnight fails of its purpose, how easy to claim that the
time actually chosen was either too early or too late! If the leaf of a
particular plant has to be rubbed on a certain individual's hammock ropes,

~ —

Appendiz.—Stray Notes on Obeah. 131

and the promised results are not forthcoming, this is quite explicable on
the ground that of course the wrong plant was used—and so on. But
should the request demanded be beyond the powers or wishes of
the obeah-man to effect, what more easy than his advising the
applicant to employ a piece of “ water-mamma” skin or any other
object equally impossible to obtain possession of. In the particular
case under review I should not be at all surprised to learn that
Bukridi, the obeah-man, was at the very outset really unwilling to
carry out the job, and purposely asked for a practical impossibility, or
what he thought to be so—a white man’s child : he surely must have fore-
seen not only that such an one must be difficult to obtain, but that its dis-
appearance would create an unusual stir at least throughout the
neighbourhood.

The sacrifice of human life in connection with witchcraft and sorcery
as it is known to Europeans or obeah to the West Indians, the Guianese,
and others, is not so extremely rare within recent times as might have
been expected. In Hayti we have the British Minister Resident’s author-
ity for stating that “in 1865 a female child 6 years of age is sacrificed by
“ strangulation : the skin is removed and the flesh and body eaten.” So
again, in the same country “a French priest is witness at a ceremony in
* 1869 when a child is about to be sacrificed.” But without going so far
back into the past, H. L. Adams tells us in his ‘“ Oriental Crime,” with
information culled from official sources, that ‘there is no doubt that
“ children are even now occasionally sacrificed in India from superstitious
“motives.” Edgar Thurston, the superintendent of the Madras Govern-
ment Museum and of the Ethnological Survey, in his Omens and
Superstitions of Southern India writes that “several cases of pregnant
-* women’s murder are recorded to obtain the fcetus: believed to work
spells with it.” He also states that in India, the belief in the efficacy of
human sacrifice as a means of discovering hidden treasure is widespread :
a female infant is kidnapped and murdered in one ease, and a man kills
his own child for the same purpose in anctber. Both cases are recent.

The employment of human hair in the way of charms, talismans, and
other superstitious purposes is world-wide, it only being necessary to
note here those relating to Africa, India, the West Indies and Guiana—
the native countries of the accused. In Africa, the belief is common that
people may be bewitched through the clippings of their hair; they may be
used as hostages for the good behaviour of the persons from whose
bodies they have been taken, fetishes can be made of hair: it may be
buried or deposited in the branches of trees, while white man’s hair is
fetish of the first order. In India hair may be used as omens in magic
and as offerings to certain deities. In the Guianas the superstitions
connected with human hair have been recorded in Roth’s “ Enquiry into
the Animism and Folk-lore of the Guiana Indians.”

The nails in the trees, the evidence of which has come out during
the course of the trial, has its counterpart in most of the habitable

132 Timehri.

portions of the globe. Speaking generally, there is Sir J. G. Frazer's,
one of our leading anthropologist’s statement, that we must distinguish
at least two uses of nails or pins in their application to spirits or spiritual
influences. In one set of cases they act as spurs or goads to refresh his
memory and stimulate his activity. .... Sickness and trouble ean
be transferred to trees and bushes. In Africa the knocking of nails
into idols is a means of attracting the attention of the deity or
Bpinit: Weta aes Like pinching a man or running a pin into his leg
as a hint that you desire to speak with him. And so in India there is
tne same old English sorcerer’s device of moulding an image of his doomed
victim and piercirg it with pins. While finally in the Guianas there
is the common practice of extracting the nail or bone splinter
from out of the doomed and sickly victim. In my opinion there
was no necessity, from the obeah-man’s point of view, for nailing up the
actual skin or eyes; the obeah was already sufficiently strong, the nails
aad perhaps the hair being quite sufficient for the medicine-man’s pur-
pose. The blood found on the nail of the table could be satisfactorily
accounted for by the blood on the hand that fixed it there.

I am of opinion that the gouging out of little Molly’s eyes can be
explained on the principle of blinding her and so preventing her retaliat-
ing on her murderer. I cannot find any traces of the practice of using the
eye-ball, etc., for witchcraft, throughout the literature. Frazer says that
the custom of putting out the eyes of slaughtered animals appears to be
not uncommon among primitive peoples, and we may suspect that even
where a different reason is alleged for it, the true original motive was to
blind the dangerous ghost of the injured creature and so to incapacitate
it from retaliating on the slayer.

“ye ;

SOME LESSER KNOWN POTENTIALITIES OF
THE NORTH WESTERN DISTRICT.

By Vincent Rorg, J.P.

ae

The average Water Street man’s idea of the North Western District
is that it consists of a small township called Morawhanna and a few
farms that furnish Georgetown with a portion of its supply of ground
provisions. The district actually comprises about one-tenth of the total
area of the Colony. Its western border ig scarcely a hundred miles from
the eastern edge of the great Venezuelan cattle savannahs: its sourthern
boundary, running along the divide of the Cuyuni and Barama_ basins,
skirts the head-waters of the famous Pigeon Island gold-fields and its
north and north-eastern sections include thousands of acres of rich and
untouched alluvial soil, capable of producing thousands of tons of tropical
vegetables.

The few head of cattle and mules that have already been driven
through the forest trails from Tumeremo to Arakaka may be but the
beginning of a great cattle import trade equal to, if not rivalling, that
expected from the Rupununi. As it is the trail on the Venezuelan side of
the frontier is quite suitable for the passage of cattle, and the judicious
expenditure of a couple of thousand dollars could prolong this trail,
suitable for cattle, to Arakaka and Morawhanna. The latter place would
then afford an ideal site for a meat canning and fish curing factory, some
lesser known potentialities of the North Western District.

At certain seasons of the year whole boat-loads of dried morocot
(that most delicious of fish, still unknown to the majority of Georgetown
palates) come up the Barima River from the Orinoco where they are
caught. In August and September the mud-flats of the Waini Bay, but
an hour’s sail from Morawhanna, are hidden beneath billions of great blue
bunduri crabs, and throughout the year the equally succulent red or
“ buck” crab is found in lesser quantities in the same locality. Why
not a local trade in live crabs and an export one in tinned crustaceans ?
At least once a week the handful of local fishermen bring in half a ton of
fresh fish, querriman, cuirass, and flounders, caught in seines off the coast.
Why import iced fish when shoals of fresh ones may be obtained from
the undeveloped fisheries of the North West ?

When the embargo on the export of foodstuffs is raised, the trade
between Morawhanna and the Orinoco Delta will be well worth developing.
The balata-bleeders of the Cuyuwini and the residents of the Venezuelan
shore of the Amakuru before the War depended on our port for their
supply of foodstuffs, and since this supply has been stopped many of them
have crossed the frontier and settled in this Colony. Yetstill many
remain and in exchange for our rice and flour they can send us dried

134 Timehrt.

morocot and Venezuelan cheese. The latter article is quite palatable
and compares well with the cheaper varieties imported from further
afield.

For years past there has been regular steamship communication be-
tween Port-of-Spain and Ciudad Bolivar, up the Orinoco. The possibili-
ties of a similar service between the Jatter port and Georgetown via the
Mora Passage and lower Barima River should be considered.

The agricultural possibilities of the North West are enormous. On
the Waini River alone are 150 miles of alluvial land waiting to be culti-
vated. The few attempts at rice-planting in the Barima and Aruka
Rivers have demonstrated the suitability of these districts for the growth
of the cereal. Coffee-growing, already carried on extensively and success-
fully, may be greatly increased. The castor-oil plant thrives well anda
few of the poorer classes assist themselves by the crude extraction of the
oil. In view of the increasing demand for it as a lubricant for aeronauti-
cal purposes, a small castor-oil factory on the Aruka should prove a profit-
able proposition.

The great swamps aback of the empoldered areas abound in palms
of which billions of nuts fall yearly to the ground and rot. Nearly all of
them can produce oils suitable for soap-making purposes and their hard
shells furnish material for the manufacture of buttons.

Tobacco grows prolifically in the Morawhanna district where leaves
twelve inches wide and three feet in length have been produced.

Throughout the tidal portions of the great rivers the wild mangrove
lines the banks and yet very little has hitherto been done in the collec-
tion of the bark, a valuable tanning agent. The anatto trees also flourish
in the district where the primitively prepared dye may be purchased for
three shillings a pound.

In spite of the illicit felling of bullet trees that has been going on
for years, the forests of the North West still possess some valuable
untouched reefs of balata, and commercial gums and resins are obtainable
in fair quantities.

Whilst the forests contain but little wallaba and practically no green-
heart, this deficit is made up by the crabwood and red cedar that
abounds on the upper courses of the rivers.

The gold industry is decidedly on the wane, but this appears to be
due rather to lack of capital than of the precious metal. Many small
shafts, sunk by “ pork-knockers ” with little or no means, promise well,
but eventually have to be abandoned for lack of pumping facilities. It
is proven that the bed of the Barima is very rich and would well repay the
cost of dredging: if the Barima why not the Barama also? Many years

Some Lesser Known Potentialities of the N.W.D. 135

ago Barrington Brown discovered graphite on the Manikuru Creek,
Fair-sized sheets of mica occur on the Waini, and bauxite and iron on the
Amakuru and Aruka. The mineral possibilities of the district still afford
a wide field to the prospector.

In bringing forward these lesser known commercial and industrial
potentialities of the North Western District, it must unfortunately be
admitted that their further development depends, llke the future of the
Colony as a whole, on the single and ominous word “ Labour.”

\

INSECT CAMOUFLAGE.

By L. D. Crizars, Jnr., F.E.S.

Now that the word ‘camouflage’ has become a part of the English
language and the art of camouflage is so extensively practised, especial-
ly in modern warfare, it may perhaps be of interest to notice how some
animals make use of this art, or are provided with it by Nature.

The word ‘camouflage’ as we all know has been borrowed from
our French allies, to whom we already owe so many words of our
language, and means, as we now understand it, to disguise or deceive.

For the past four years the deception of the enemy has been exten-
sively practised and almost everything has been camouflaged to a greater
or lesser extent. From the khakiuniforms of the men to the elaborate
designs painted on big guns, waggons, ‘ tanks’ and ships, and even the
occasional painting of the men themselves, are all branches of this now
almost universally practised art.

When we ‘camouflage’ an object our aim is usually to make it as

like its surroundings as possible and so render it indistinguishable, or at

least less conspicuous. This is not always the case for we now know that
in camouflaging ships the objective aimed at was not inconspicuousness but
dazzling effect: for in this way it was more difficult for the enemy to
get their range.

Among animals the rendering of themselves inconspicuous is of the
greatest importance, for thus they deceive their enemies, as well as man,
and escape slaughter. Even among animals, however, inconspicuousness
is not always the aim, for both in =‘ warning coloration’ and ‘mimicry’
the colours are flashy as we will see later.

In practising camouflage man is therefore but applying mechanically,
and in a more advanced manner, a character which is naturally possessed
by a large number of animals and which he himself still possesses, at
least in some races, in the most primitive form—deceptive coloration,
as for iastance Aboriginal Indians,

In the insect world we find the art of camouflage very highly
developed, probably higher than in any other group of animals,
except perhaps man himself, and they therefore form a particularly inter-
esting group to study in this connection.

;

A conspicuous character of every kind of insect is its colour-pattern,
and while some of these, the ones which we notice most, are flashy and
conspicuous there are others which are dull, obscure, and monochrome.
A careful examination will, however, reveal that even in the small
sombre-coloured insects there is a remarkable uniformity, and often
amazing intricacy, of this colour-pattern. Sooner or later, therefore, the

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Insect Camouflage. 137

question arises “ What is the use of these colour patterns?” In answer-
ing this question it is necessary to find a real usefulness for this colour-
pattern, a usefulness to the colour-bearing animals themselves,—a useful-
ness of sufficient importance to account for a so highly specialized
development.

Perhaps we can find the explanation in ‘“ camouflage.”

Although the majority of insects which we observe are brightly
coloured, one has only to go through any field or pasture and notice the
number of insects that are disturbed,—insects that were not noticeable,
not because they were hidden bet because they were inconspicuous.

The most common means of camouflage amongst insects, and the one
most generally employed by man, is the imitation of their surroundings.

PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCE is probably the most primitive form of
defence practised by insects, and as it is at present the form usually
adopted, we may presume it is the most successful. Protective resem-
blances may be grouped into two classes—1, General Protective Resem-
blances, and 2, Special Protective Resemblances.

Under the first group we get insects such as green grasshoppers.
Here the general coloration is protective to the insect when it hides
amongst the leaves of trees. There are many moths that when at rest
with their wings closed resemble the trunks of trees against which they
are usually found. Some good examples can be found in the family
Sphingide or Hawk Moths, and the Frangipanni Sphinx, Pseudosphinz
tetrio L., and the Cassava Hawk Moth, Errynis ello L., both exhibit such
coloration. The adults of the Small Moth Borers, Diatrea saccharalis F.,
D. canella Hmps., and D.lineola Walk., are all well protected in this
way for when at rest their colours blend almost exactly with the trash of
canes or dry blades of grass.

Another example of the same kind of resemblance, but in this
instance in a butterfly, is the White-skirted Calico butterfly, Ageronia
feronia L. Itis usual for butterflies to close their wings when they
alight, but this particular insect comes to rest with its wings wide open
against the trunk of a tree, and its head pointing downwards. In such
a position this insect is well protected for it is the upper surface of the
wings that is protectively coloured and blends beautifully with the bark.

Still another example, but in an entirely different order, is the bug
(Pentatomidae) Phloea corticata F. This insect when resting against
the bark of a tree, the position where it is usually found, resembles its
surroundings so well that it could easily be Greioobea.

Among other insects such as Mantids,—God-horses as they are
called locally,—Leaf-insects and certain butterflies the resemblance is
carried further and the shape and pattern, as well as the general colour
of their surroundings is accurately copied.

138 Timehri.

Our God-horses and Leaf-insects exhibit this character well. The
Mantid Stagmetoptera precaria L. and the Leaf-insect Pterochroza
ocellata L. (fig. 1) are particularly good examples, and one can
immediately see how well they would merge into their surroundings and
how easy it would be to overlook them.

Among our butterflies the Agrias possess this character and will
serve as good examples. The upper surface of their wings are brightly
coloured and very conspicuous, but the undersides are dull and in general
appearance resemble a dry leaf.

Those grotesque insects the Membracids are, as a whole, well pro-
tected for they usually resemble thorns in shape, and when perched upon
a branch, particularly if it bears thorns, they are fairly hard to detect.

It must not be supposed, however, that protective resemblances need
necessarily always be inconspicuous, but certainly under favourable
conditions it is so. Our common bright sulphur-yellow butterfly,
Callidryas ewbule L., one of the most conspicuous insects under certain
conditions, becomes very difficult to detect when mingled with falling
leaves or when it alights on a plant some of the leaves of which are
yellow or approaching that stage. Among the flowers of Cassia it is
indistinguishable until it flies off.

One of the most remarkable forms of protective resemblance is the
imitation of unpleasant objects by certain insects. The larvae of the
butterfly Papilio anchisiades L. which feed on citrus plants, may be
taken as our local example. These larvae are a dark brownish colour
with irregular patches of white and in general appearance resemble a
patch of bird-lime. When a number of these larvae are at rest in a bunch,
for they are gregarious, on the trunk of a lime tree they are more like
bits of lichen. These larvae have a further means of protection in the form
of an organ, known as an osmaterium, situated behind their heads, which
they are capable of extending and which possesses an offensive odour.

Fiasu CoLours.—Among all animals there are certain colours that
even with the greatest stretch of imagination cannot be placed among
‘ protective resemblances.’ In fact these colours are particularly con-
spicuous, and are constantly exhibited by the animals which bear
them. There isa great diversity of opinion concerning the use of such
colours, and we will use here the term ‘flash colours.’ In spite of their
conspicuousness these colours play a very important part in animal
camouflage.

The first example we will consider here is the beautiful metallic-blue
butterfly Morpho menelaus L. This insect when-in flight exhibits its
marvellous colouring with every movement of its wings and its passage
can easily be followed in the semi-dark forest. But suddenly it dis-
appears and we are completely baffled. The insect has merely closed its
wings and come to rest on the trunk of some tree, and we almost run our

a

Insect Camou flage. 139

noses against it, only to discover its whereabouts when it again takes
flight. True, its underside is of a dark colour and largely protective, but
its escape is probably more often due to the sudden disappearing trick
rather than to the colour of its underside, though the two combine to
form a remarkable degree of protection.

Another example, and one that is common on the coastlands, is the
Arctiid moth Utethesia ornatria L., the larvae of which feed on the
common weed Crotolaria retusa, known locally as ‘ rattle bush.’ This
moth when at rest is quite inconspicuous, the upper surface of its wings
being pale pinkish yellow. When this insect is disturbed and takes flight
it can easily be followed by the bright red of the underside of its fore-
wings ; it alights suddenly, with a sort of headlong pitch, and is then
quite hard to find.

As already pointed out, it is in a somewhat similar way that the
camouflage of ships was carried out, the object being not inconspicuous-
ness but dazzling effect.

DirgcTIvE CoLtoraTion.— This leads us to another kind of colora-
tion—directive coloration. Here the object is to focus the attention of
the other animal on a certain part of the insect, and in that way divert
its energies from more vital parts. In a general way ‘ flash colours ’
could be included under this head.

In this, as in other subjects of natural history, it will often
be found almost impossible to make any distinct divisions between
the different methods of camouflage, for if looked at from one point of
view they will come under a certain head, while from another they are
very different.

In certain butterflies we observe peculiar markings called ‘eye-spots.’
Eye-spots are areas which are invariably very conspicuous and which
are usually remote from the head, resembling in a general way large
eyes. They are usually large enough to belong to an animal many times
the size of the one exhibiting them. Their effect is generally supposed
to be ‘terrifying.’ Here again we find an overlapping—directive and
terrifying coloration.

A good example of such ‘ eye-spots’ is to be found on the under-
wings of our Caligo illioneus illioneus L., the larvae of which feed on the
sugar cane.

WarninG CoLoraTion.—Although this is seldom used in its re-
stricted sense as a camouflage it is so employed in mimicry, and as it is
the intermediate step between directive coloration and mimicry it will be
as well to consider it here. Warning coloration is only a variation of
directive coloration in which the colour-scheme is associated with some
unpleasant character which the insect possesses, such as a sting, irritating
hairs, unpleasant taste, or offensiye odour.

140 Timehri.

In the above examples inconspicuousness, if not complete to a large
extent, is the aim in most cases. The majority of insects that one sees
moving about or resting, however, are usually rather conspicuous objects,
and it would seem that they could easily be destroyed ; yet the mere fact
of their being so numerous shows that this is not the case, and we must
therefore conclude that there is some reason for such conspicuousness.
As a matter of fact we find that such brightly coloured insects are either
able to escape their enemies by their speed, or, what is more usual, they
possess some offensive quality. It is advantageous for such forms to be
conspicuous as they are easily recognised and left alone. It is also
advantageous that their colours should be few and their patterns simple,
for their enemies have fewer combinations to learn to avoid, and both
sides are saved unpleasant experiences.

The combinations of colour used in this way are usually black and
yellow, black and white, black and green, and black and red or orange,
or they may be of three of these colours ; the patterns are broad bands of
alternating colours or extensive blotches. Black alone is often used, and
is conspicuous both against green foliage and the sky.

We have numerous good examples of this group in the colony. The
common ‘ Hairy Worm’, the larva of Megalopyge lanata Cram. (fig. 2),
is well known for the irritating properties of its hairs, and with its
pattern of broad bands of black and white is a most conspicuous object.

s

At certain times the large larvae of the Frangipanni Sphinx,
Pseudosphine tetrio L. can be seen on almost every frangipanni tree.
They are most conspicuous objects being black with bands of green and
their head and tail ends red; yet they apparently remain untouched by
birds and other enemies. ‘There is little doubt that it is this same con-
spicuous colouring, probably associated with a disagreeable taste, that
produces such immunity.

A famous example which occurs in the colony is the Monarch butter-
fly Anosia plexippus L. The perfect form of this insect is Very con-
spicuous being marked in brown and black, and is one of our commonest
butterflies on the coastlands. This insect is well known to be distasteful
to birds, and its conspicuous colouring associated with the distasteful
character, is easily remembered by them and it thus escapes further
attacks. Other butterflies have taken advantage of the immunity
possessed by this insect and by imitating its colour escape attack. Such
imitation will be dealt with in later paragraphs under the head of mimicry.

Among the other insects, marabuntas or wasps, bugs and beetles
afford numerous examples of warning coloration associated with stings,
disagreeable tastes and odours.

Mimicry.—It is indeed a very short step from warning coloration
to the very highest form of camouflage in the insect world, which is

Insect Camouflage. 141

known as mimicry. Here an insect imitates in coloration and form some
other insect, often of an entirely different order, which is naturally
protected by the possession of some unpleasant character, and by so
doing escapes many of its enemies.

It will be noticed that in cases of mimicry the ‘ model’ already
possesses a coloration that is indicative of its unpleasant character
(warning coloration), and it is only left for the ‘mimic’ to develop
‘special protective resemblance,’ a character which has been developed in
every group of insects, and which we have seen is one of the most
primitive forms of camouflage. The two insects with their different kinds
of protection combine, however, to produce the most advanced form of
insect camouflage.

While a large number of mimics are unprotected edible species there
are a great number that are themselves protected by the possession of some
unpleasant character, yet, in spite of this, they imitate other unpleasant
insects. These two different kinds of mimicry have been called after
their discoverers and are known as Batesian and Miillerian mimicry
respectively.

Batesian mimicry is probably the commoner form and many examples
are to be fonnd among our insects.

The black Pompilid wasp with yellow antennae, Salius kirbyi is
mimicked by the Syntomid moth Péeryogpterus caeruleus Hmps. The
imitation is particularly good, and there is very little doubt that it is of
considerable advantage to its defenceless mimic; the Pompilid ‘ model ’
on the other hand is well protected by its sting, in fact it is a predaceous
wasp.

Another example of a Syntomid moth mimicking a Hymenopterous
insect is Saurita temenus Stoll. which mimicks the Tenthredinid
Menophadnus silonotus Cam. Bothof these insects were taken in the
same locality at the same time.

The Syntomid Trichura cerebus Pallas, no doubt imitates some
Hymenopterous insect, probably an Ichneumon or Evaniid, though I
cannot give the ‘model.’ Its coloration is quite Hymenopterous-like,
while its long caudal appendage at once recalls the ovipositor of one of
these families. Takenasawhole it may be said that the family Synto-
midae are mimics and the Hymenoptera are their ‘ models,’

It is well known that certain flies are wasp and bee-like in appearance,
and some good examples can be found amongst our Diptera. The
Asilid fly Mallophora fascipennis Macq. has for its model the large bee
Euglossa dimidiata F. Another example is probably the Syrphid fly
Volucella obesa F., the model of which is perhaps a Euglossa bee, possibly
Euglossa cordata L. Amore remarkable example is the Stratiomyid fly
Hermetia tllucens L. The movements of this fly are very wasp-like, and

142 Timehri.

on the wing it may easily be mistaken for one of those insects ; but the
resemblance does not merely end there, for its wings are dusky and the
antennae are elbowed and carried in a wasp-like manner. Most remarkable,
however, are the transparent areas on the first abdominal segment, for
by their shape and position they give the abdomen the peculiar pedicel
appearance characteristic of Hymenopterous insects, especially wasps.
Add to this the habit of exerting their ovipositors, and the camouflage is
almost perfect.

The Lampyrid beetle Calopteron serratum Linn. is an insect that
is protected by its obnoxious flavour, and owing to its coloration it is
quite noticeable. This coloration no doubt serves its purpose admirably
for we find the otherwise unprotected Syntomid moth Correbia lycoides
Wlk. taking advantage of the fact and mimicking it with an exactness
that is remarkable.

Among the butterflies are to be found some of the best examples of
mimicry and at the same time the best known ; in fact it was amongst
these insects that Bates made his first observations on the Amazon,
Bates found that the Heliconiidae were abundant, vividly coloured, and
largely free from the attacks of birds and other enemies of butterflies ;
the reason for this being their disagreeable odour and taste. He then
found that some of the Pieridae, a family quite distinct from the
Heliconiidae, imitated them so successfully in coloration, form and flight,
that they largely escaped the attacks of their enemies while the other
members of the family were readily attacked.

The well known case of the mimicry of Anosia plexippus L. by
Hypolimnas misippus Linn. also occurs in the colony. In this instance it
is only the female that mimics Anosia, the male being very differently
coloured, black with white patches on its wings.

The generally accepted reason for this mimicry by the female only
is that the female being burdened with eggs, and consequently slower in
flight, is more exposed to attack, and itis therefore to her advantage to
imitate a species which is immune, the male having no necessity to
become mimetic.

In all the above examples it is a defenceless insect that mimicks one
possessed of some form of protection which is usually announced to the
world at large by its warning coloration—they, therefore, fall under the
head of Batesian Mimicry.

There are some insects, which are themselves already protected that
mimic other protected insects. This kind of mimicry has been called
Miillerian Mimicry, as it was first explained by Fritz Miiller. The
essence of Miiller’s explanation is that such resemblance is of advantage
to both groups as it minimizes the destruction of both—their enemies
having tolearn but one set of warning colours instead of two—though
the rarer species has the advantage.

Insect Camouflage. 143

Miiller explains that enemies in learning the distasteful qualities of
these insects would necessarily destroy more of the abundant species
than of the rarer one, the loss being divided amongst themin proportion
to their numbers; thus the advantage of the resemblance would be
greater to the rarer species.

Miiller’s observations were carried out on butterflies belonging to
the families Ithomiine and Heliconiide. The Ithomiine although them-
selves distasteful mimic the Heliconiide.

Loss or CoLtour.—In all the above examples the camouflage of the
insect depends upon the development of a colour pattern; there are some
insects, however, which owe their protection to the loss of colour.

A notable example is offered by some butterflies of the family
Satyride. Instead of the wings of these insects being heavily sealed and
brightly coloured as in other Lepidoptera they are almost devoid of such,
and are quite transparent. Thus any object against which they rest can
easily be seen through their wings and they merge into the surroundings.
The example given in the figure (fig. 3) is Hetera piera L.

The larve of some mosquitoes, and their near relatives the
Corethrids, also possess this character. When it is remembered that
their natural element is water, the advantage of such transparency can
be seen. ~

Form.—At times form, invariably associated with colour, plays a
very important part incamouflage. This is obvious in cases of special
protective resemblance and mimicry ; in both of these it is necessary that
the shape of the object, as well as its colour, be copied for the protection
to succeed. In some insects, however, it is used ina different way.

There is a family of butterflies, the Lycaeniidae, which have
peculiar tail-like structures developed on their hind wings.
These “tails” are not the usual swallow-tail arrangements of other
butterflies, but slender and complicated structures. Viewed from
the side they would seem to have no purpose—except perhaps direc-
tive coloration—but when these insects are seen from above it is
noticeable how little difference there is between the front and
hind ends ; in fact it is the hind end that is most conspicuous. It is
supposed that such resemblance serves these insects to the greatest
extent, for their enemies are deceived by it, and by attacking the tail the
insects escape with their lives,

Among our butterflies there are many Lycaeniidae or “ Blues,” but it
cannot be said that the majority of them exhibit this character well.
There is one, however, in which it is fairly well shown, and this is Thecla
linus sulz. It can wellbe understood that this camouflage must often be
effective.

144 Timehrv.

TERRIFYING ATTITUDES AND APPEARANCES.—While not a camouflage
in the strict sense of the word we may consider these here, Most of the
larvae of the sphinx moths have a habit of rearing themselves up on
their prolegs when disturbed, often jerking the anterior parts of their
bodies from side to side, at the same time making a hissing sort of noise.
In this position, even to us, they are formidable looking, and to creatures
more of their own size they must be truly terrifying.

A peculiar example of such a terrifying appearance is offered by the
larvae of the beautiful Sphinx moth Pholus labruscae L. (fig. 4) which feed on
the wild vine Vitis sicyoides. At the very first sight of one of these larvae
one is struck by its snake-like appearance, and really the resemblance is
remarkable. Apart from the coloration, which is itself very snake-like,
the larvae are capable of retracting the first two segments of the body,
and in such a position they are even more repulsive looking. Besides
this, at the posterior end, where the ‘horn’ of most sphinx larvae is
situated, there is a peculiar eye-like marking—‘ eye-spot ’—-which the
larvae are capable of flickering and which no doubt also plays an
important part, perhaps as a directive colour, in its camouflage. This
larva, it has been claimed, has a strong resemblance to a Labaria snake,
one of the most dangerous of our local reptiles.

To what extent these disguises succeed we can, of course, form but
a very imperfect idea as we do not know the animals against which they
are directed, A terrifying attitude may prove very successful against a
certain enemy, but we cannot imagine the effect it has; we may only
judge from our own impression. The value of protective resemblance, on
the other hand, is likely to be exaggerated by overlooking the fact that
birds and other enemies have a faculty for detecting insects far superior
toman. Warning coloration, and mimicry too, no doubt serve their
purpose, but here again the protection does not always succeed. That
these disguises are successful and lead to the escape of their possessors
is, however, certain. It would seem, therefore, that the reason, at least
for a large part, of the colour-pattern of insects is ‘ camouflage.’

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THE MIGRATION FROM SURINAM TO JAMAICA,

By FRANK CUNDALL.

(The story of the evacuation of Surinam by the British is peculiarly interesting, for
nothing like it appears to haye been recorded in history, We read of many surrenders of
island and other colonies where combatants haye been allowed to leave, but not where
practically a whole colony wanted to go off with their slaves and effects.

It was almost a desertion, the main object of the British authorities being to leave
Surinam as bare as it was when there was no colony at all. That the Dutch did not like
this goes without saying, and that they tried their best to prevent such a remoyal could
only be expected. I have told the story in several of my books but Mr. Cundall has given
the sequel and shown what became of those who went to Jamaica, especially Governor
Banister. A few months ago Surinam celebrated its 250th year as a Dutch
possession. —J-R. ]

From the time when Ralegh ascended the Orinoco in search of El
Dorado, Guiana has ever been of interest to Great Britain. Early in the
seventeenth ceutury the Dutch had settled on the coast, and by the middle
the French were established at Cayenne and the English in Surinam. By
the Treaty of Breda in 1667 Surinam was allowed by England to remain
with the Dutch who had conquered it in that year, in consideration of New
Amsterdam (New York), remaining English; and for upwards of a cen-
tury from that time England had no colony in South America. Of the
large tract of the north-eastern portion of the continent part is still pos-
sessed by the French, part by the Dutch and part by the British, while
these contiguous colonies are flanked by land owned respectively by
Venezuela, and Brazil. The subjeet of this sketch, however, is not the
history of the strife which eventually led to the formation of British
Guiana, but the fate of the early British settlers at Surinam when their
nationality was taken from them.

As early as 1650, Francis, fifth Baron Willoughby of Parham, the
then royalist Governor of Barbados, madea settlement in Surinam ; ten
years later he was granted the Manor of East Greenwich, on pay-
ment of two white horses whenever the King might land there; but he
had claimed, from 1654, the whole country—1,200 miles in
length by 600 in breadth—as first settler. As early as 1661, by which
time he had expended nearly £20,000 on his infant colony, it was reported
that Surinam yielded as good sugar as Barbados, which was then, to its
own detriment, a nursery for providing planters for Surinam as well as
for Jamaica and other islands in the Caribbean Sea.

In 1663 when Willoughby was again Governor of Barbados, Charles
TI issued a patent to him and Lawrence Hyde, Clarendon’s second son,
granting to them—under the name of Willoughby Land—the tract of
country between Copenam and Maroni Rivers, except 30,000 acres
reserved for the Crown. At the same time Willoughby received a licence
to transport 1,000 horses to Surinam or to any of the Leeward Islands
and one rather wonders whether amongst these were included a few
white ones in view of a possible royal visit.

146 Timehri.

At this time, one Renatus Enys wrote to Sir Henry Bennet a glowing
account of the colony of Surinam—‘ the country healthy and fruitful,
the air moderately hot; the natives not numerous, and at peace with the
English. These parts exceedingly abound with strange rarities, both of
beasts, fish, reptiles, insects and vegetables, the which for shape and
colour are wonderful.” There were then about 4,000 inhabitants. With-
in the previous two months nine ships had brought immigrants. ‘‘ Were
the English nation really informed of the goodness of this country there
would quickly be thousands of settlers. The chiefest commodity is sugar,
and better cannot be made.”

In October, 1664, Willoughby, in writing home to the Lords of the
Council, mentions that he was going to Surinam. There he was danger-
ously wounded by one of the inhabitants, who intended to murder him:
but in May, 1665, he was back in Barbados.

Sir Thomas Modyford, the energetic Governor of Jamaica, in that
year, submitted a scheme for “rooting the Dutch out of the West
Indies ” in which they were to be expelled by Forces from Surinam and
Barbados.

On account of loss of ships through Dutch “capers,” as privateers
were then called, the Surinam fleet was ordered to attach itself to that of
Barbados, and little by little the system of regular sailings of West India
merchantmen under convoy was built up.

This was a complete* reversal of the former custom of using
merchantmen as auxiliary to the King’s ships, their usefulness having in
the meantime, been impaired by their relative decrease in sailing
qualities and the advance of gunnery on the King’s ships.

At one time Willoughby appears to have governed Surinam with a
high hand. Colonel Robert Sanford complained to the King that
“one Byam” (the Governor) continued in office beyond the time limit ;
at another the Council, joining with the Assembly, sent to Willoughby
nineteen grievances, telling him that they would quit the colony ‘if he
speedily relieve them not.”

In July, 1666, Willoughby perished at sea in a hurricane, on his way
to the relief of St. Kitts, the English portion of which had heen taken by
the French. By his will, made a few weeks before his death, he left to
his daughters two-thirds of his moiety of the land in the Province of
Willoughby Land, and two-thirds of his plantation of Parham Hill, on the
river of Surinam, and all his private estate in Willoughby Land: the
remaining third going to his nephew, Henry Willoughby,

As part of the operations of the Second Dutch War, in February
1666-7, a Zealand fleet of seven ships, with one thousand men under the
command of Abraham Crynsens appeared off the port of Surinam. When
summoned to surrender, the Governor, William Byam, declined: but the
next day, after two or three hours fighting, having but fifty pounds ef

The Migration from Surinam to Jamaica. 147

powder, he was compelled to give in; and, with the approval of the Coun-
ceil and Assembly, consented to terms, of which the following had special
reference to the English: (1) That all revenues appointed for the use of
church and ministers should be reserved as well for the payment of Dutch
as English ministers ; and that the English should have the election of
their own ministers; (2) that no oath should be required from the
English but to be faithful to the States of Zealand whilst living in Surinam,
and in case the King of England should attack it, to keep quiet and give
no assistance, but to fight against all other enemies; (3) that all present
inhabiters should have equal privileges with Netherlanders ; (4) that any
wishing to depart should have power to sell their estates, and the Gover-
nor should cause them to be transported at moderate freight ; and (5) that
all such as intend off should be furnished with a vessel and a pass from
Commissioner Crynsens.

There were at the time about 500 British officers and soldiers in the
colony. William, 6th Lord Willoughby, writing from Barbados, says that
Surinam was “pitifully surrendered without resistance. The Conditions,
tis true, were not amiss.”

William Byam, the Governor above mentioned, born at Luccombe,
Isle of Wight, England, on the 9th March, 1622, was educated at Trinity
College, Dublin ; he commanded a party of rebels at Bridgewater in 1645
and was taken prisoner by Fairfax. He emigrated to Barbados and in
1651-2 was appointed by Lord Wiloughby to treat for the rendition of
that island to the Pacliament. In 1654 he was made Governor of Surinam
and so continued until he was compelled to yield it to the Dutch, as
above stated ; whereupon heand some of the settlers removed to Antigua
where he died in 1670. His wife was Dorothy Knollys, niece of the Earl
of Banbury. Her two brothers settled in Jamaica. Byam’s daughter,
Mary, married Colonel George Nedham, son of Sir Robert Nedham of
Poole Park, Shropshire, a royalist who fled after the battle of Worcester
to Antigua, and after his marriage migrated to Jamaica and settled
Shenton in St. Thomas-in-the-Vale. Here he represented St, Mary in the
House of Assembly in 1673 and later St. George and St, Thomas-in-the
Vale. He was speaker pro tempore in 1666 and 1668. In 1688 he was
expelled the Assembly, which the Governor, the Duke of Albemarle,
promptly dissolved ; appointing Nedham a member of the Council. He
returned to England where he died in the following year. His youngest
daughter, Elizabeth Grace, bornin 1680, married John Ellis, the ancestor
of the first Lord Seaford. The Nedhams, for a greater part of the
eighteenth century, were prominent landowners in Jamaica and supplied
several memers to the House of Assembly.

In July 1667, at a Council of War held by Sir John Harman,
commander-in-chief in the West Indies, in Nevis Road, at which Colonel
Samuel Barry, a member of the Council of Jamaica, was present, it was
decided that the force at command was not strong enough to attack
St. Kitts with success, and it was desirable therefore to try some other

148 Timehri.

place: and in August after. defeating the French Fleet off Martinique
and calling at Barbados, it was decided that Cayenne, then in the hands
of the French, should be attacked. Owing to a calm of eight days’
duration the fleet suffered much through lack of water, but in spite of
this Cayenne was successfully taken; and onthe 29th September the
fleet left for Surinam where it anchored on the 3rd of October. The
next day surrender was demanded ; troops Janded on the morrow, and
two days later the Dutch capitulated. At Byam’s request a court-martial
was held on him with reference to his surrender of the fort to the Dutch
in the previous March, and he was honourably acquitted. On the 16th
October it was ordered that the estates, which on the invasion were con-
fiscated to the States of Zealand, should be remitted wholly for the satis-
faction of the officers and soldiers, according to contract made with them
at their enlisting at Nevis; and one of these estates, which formerly
belonged to Francis Lord Willoughby, the officers and soldiers presented,
with all the slaves belonging to it, to Lt.-General Henry Willoughby for
his share.

Henry Wilioughby commissioned Colonel Samuel Barry as Governor ;
and, leaving one hundred armed men for the protection of the colony,
returned to Barbados. The account of the undertaking recorded in
the “ Calendar of State Papers ,, ends thus :—‘ This country proved very
unhealthy to the whole party, many at this present pining away under
the infection they got there.”

Colonel Samuel Barry came in Venables’s army in 1655 and took
part in the capture of Jamaica. Three years later he went home with
Doyley’s account of the defeat of the Spaniards at Rio Novo, in which he
had played a principal part. He was the first member mentioned in the
list of the first Council in 1661, and he in that year filled the post of Chief
Justice ; he was also one of the largest landowners, ‘“ Cavaliers” being his
property. He commanded one of the five regiments of Militia raised by
Lord Windsor in 1662—that of Lygonee “the fittest, strongest and most
numerous” of the settlements. In 1666 he was wounded severely
when the French took Nevis.

On hearing of the Peace of Breda, and that by its terms places taken
after May 10th, 1667, should be surrendered, Willoughby immediately sent
his son back to Surinam to use his utmost to bring off the inhabitants and
their movables, (which, he considered, would utterly disable the Dutch to
settle it), intending to put them on Antigua ; but if they refused to leave he
would suspend the surrender until he heard from the Lords of Trade and
Plantations.

In January 1667-8 the Ambassadors of the States General
at London petitioned that the status quo ante might be restored
in Surinam; and it was so ordered by the King in Coun-
cil. In the meanwhile Henry Willoughby reported that Barry, the
Governor, had declined to give up the colony to a Zealand frigate without
direct orders from the King or Willoughby, although the Dutch had the

The Migration from Surinam to Jamaica. 149

King’s authority for the surrender ; “ yet his after carriage savoured of a
traitor” as Willoughby stated, but the charge which he enclosed is not
now forthcoming.

Some of the Settlers retired to Barbados, and Lord Willoughby wrote
that he was sending shipping for more. He hoped that if the surrender
was delayed, most of the sugar works would be utterly destroyed, and
the Dutch would have little reason to glory of their purchase. All this
the States Ambassadors represented to the Court of St. James was against
the Treaty of Breda and claimed damages. In reply it was stated by
Champante, Lord Willoughby’s agent, in May 1668, that when the colony
was surrendered to Crynsens by Byam it was stipulated that the inhabi-
tants were to have all their estates, lands, and goods, with power to sell
them, and they were not to be damnified by Dutch or French. Power was
also given to transport themselves with their slaves and goods. The
articles were to beconfirmed in Zealand as soon as possible; but this had
never been done, though twelve ships had since arrived at Surinam from
Zealand, and it was intended to make absolute prey of His Majesty’s sub-
jects there, and on the 7th October, 1667, the colony had been retaken by
Lt. General Willoughby and Sir John Harman. This prevarication on
Willoughby’s part may have been in a measure the cause of much trouble
to the Rritish in the transfer of the colony to the Dutch, who at all times,
however, suffered from the fault of giving too little and asking too much.

In June the States Ambassadors became impatient and requested
that the King should frame letters to declare that what Lord Willoughby
and his son had done was a notorious breach of the Peace and a con-
tempt of His Majesty’s command, and to command him to surrender the
fort and colony to whomsoever should show the order as expressed in his
Majesty’s letter annexed.

In July a petition was considered by the King in Privy Council from
Nathaniel Kingsland, a planter of Barbados, complaining that Lt.-General
Henry Willoughby had sold his land in Surinam to a Dutchman, and his
great-house in the town toa drink-seller, and that Lord Willoughby had,
because he protested, imprisoned him and sent him to England. Lieu-
tenant-Colonel Robert Sanford, who had in 1662 petitioned the Privy
Council with regard to Byam’s high-handed action as governor, also
complained that on being expelled from Surinam he had obtained advan-
tageous employment in Barbados under Sir James Drax but that
Willoughby had put him in prison and sent him to England, There is,
however, no record to tell whether they obtained redress or not.

In July the King wrote to Lord Willoughby expressing his resent-
ment of what heand hisson had done contrary to the Treaty of Breda,
and declaring that Willoughby ought not to have anything to do with the
colony of Surinam. The King judged that all goods which
Willoughby and his son possessed in Surinam were confiscated
to the States of Zealand. Therefore his Majesty strictly commanded him

150 Timehri. .

4
to restore or make satisfaction for the same Willoughby was further
commanded to restore the fort to whomsoever should exhibit the King’s
warrant to that purpose.

Atthesame time an order was sent to the British governor of the
fort at Surinam to at once hand it over to the Dutch.

Iu July Willoughby wrote that many from Surinam were settling at
Antigua.

From the 1st February, 1667-8, the government of the fort and
colony was put by Lieutenant- General Willoughby into the hands of
Sergeant-Major James Banister, “the only remaining eminent person, a
rational geutleman, and of loyalty and resolution sufficient to have sup-
ported a more real and solid interest.”

What had become of Colonel Samuel Barry is not evident. He had
probably spent the following years in Jamaica. By his will, dated
London, 1688, he, describing himself as of the island of Jamaica,
‘‘being weak and sick in body, both of perfect mind and memory,”
stated that he had already made settlements of the greater part of the
estate in Jamaica. Anything over was to go to his wife Elizabeth Barry.
Three hundred thousand pounds was due to him from the estate of Sir
Charles Modyford, Bart. deceased, His mother’s name was Margaret and
he had a daughter Margaret. His executors were his wife and his good
friend Captain Nicholas La wes, later governor of the colony. The wit-
nessesto his will were Peter Beckford, later Lieutenant-Governor of
Jamaica, James Bradshaw, later Speaker of the House of Assembly, and
Charles Newman.

Barry’s memory still lives in Barry Street, Kingston, His son was
member of St. Andrew in the Assembly of Jamaica in 1671 to 1681 and
a member of the Council in 1684.

In May, 1668, Major William Nedham went with a commission from
Willoughby to make war on the Arawaks in Surinam. He was seized by
the Dutch and sent to Zealand. In March, 1669, Nedham and twenty
others petitioned the King for redress. He later settled in Jamaica and
was member of the Assembly for “ Sixteen Mile Walk” in 1672 and later
for St. Catherine and St. George, and Chief Justice in 1718. He was
probably a younger brother of George Nedham, above mentioned. A
sister, Eleanor, was mistress to the Duke of Monmouth.

Because Banister insisted that the terms of agreement made between
Byam and Crynsens in 1667 should be adhered to, the Dutch did not
allow him to sell his properties, and seized 9,500 Ibs. of his sugar, and
sent him a prisoner to Zealand.

About this time some of the British in Surinam wished to go to
Carolina and three vessels arrived at Barbados in November, 1669, “ to

The Migration from Surinam to Jamaica, 151

earry, it is said, Sir John Yeamans [governor of Carolina] to Surinam to
transplant the English to Port Royal [in Carolina] ;” but there is no evi-
dence that Yeamans ever went to Surinam.

In the summer of 1670 Commissioners were appointed to settle with
the Dutch as to the removal of the remaining settlers at Surinam. They
were Major James Banister, who had succeeded in getting free from his
imprisonment in Holland, Captain Francis Yates, Thomas Santer, Lieu-
tenant Henry Masey, Captain James Maxwell, Lieutenant Tobias
Bateman, Captain Christopher Rendar, Henry Ayler, Richard Colvill and
John Ranger. Banister, Yates or Ayler had to be one of the three which
made a quorum.

It was contemplated that the immigrants would settle at Barbados
or St. Kitts, or any other of the Leeward Islands or Jamaica, but in some
of the draft instructions reference to Jamaica was omitted. The Commis-
sioners were instructed to use their best endeavours to arrive as speedily
as possible at Surinam ; to deliver to the Governor the States’ letters,
acquaint him with the tenor of His Majesty’s Commission, and agree to a
place of meeting for settling all things. They were to insist upon
receiving leave to send on shore Major Banister or some other well acquaint-
ed with the planters, to let them know that none of the planters, his
Majesty’s subjects, who shall within one year transplant themselves to any
of his Majesty’s Colonies shall be liable for any debts confiscated to the
Dutch by virtue of the Articles made by Colonel William Byam ; and that
his Majesty had written to the Governor of the Caribbeans and Jamaica to
apportion ground, and furnish them with provisions and other neces-
saries. They were to endeavour to delay the publication of the 10 days’
liberty to enter names, so that time might be gained fully to inform the
planters what course had been taken for their encouragement to remove
from Surinam, They were to press for punctual payment of debts from
the Dutch to the English, and to prevent any artifice for the detention of
the English; but they were not to insist upon any demands so as to
make a breach. If the ships could not receive all, they were to en-
deayour to hire others. If the departure was hindered by the Governor,
they were to send one or both of the ships to England with an account
of proceedings.

As soon as the ships were laden and freed from Surinam they were
to sail for the Leeward Islands or Jamaica, and land passengers, Finally
they were to send an account to the King, and discharge or otherwise
dispose of the empty ships and to inform his Majesty whether the Articles
of Surrender made by Colonel Byam had been punctually observed.

William Byam, governor of Antigua, to whom the Surinam grapes
had, not unnaturally, a sour appearance, wrote to Lord Willoughby,
apparently in 1670, pointing out that the Dutch were unfortunate in
their colonies, and that if the English withdrew, it would be a sad

152 Timehri.

colony, but that the English would gladly withdraw if they could dis-
entangle themselves of their debts; he believed that the blacks would
soon make the colony theirs.

In July, 1670, the Governor, Lichtenberge, received letters and
papers from the Government of the United Netherlands encouraging
him to give the English the liberty of departing without exacting
anything for transportation. At the same time he was instructed to
take care that the English Commissioners did not use any persuasions or
threats to induce any to depart.

As it was evidently intended that the bulk of the immigrants should
go to Jamaica, Banister was, on the 6th November, 1670, appointed
Major-General of all the forces in the island of Jamaica, under the orders
of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor. He left London in the
America on the 15th November, 1670, but lost the company of the other
two ships (one of which, the Joanna had been hired at a cost of £90 a
month) on the way out, and arrived at Surinam on the 9th of January,
and landed on the 12th. Lichtenberge put all the obstacles that he could
in the way of the British settlers, giving only a time Jimit in which to clear
themselves of debt, and prevented Banister from having an interview with
them; sending a Dutch man-of-war to accompany the America, when
Banister went up the river to his plantation. However, the America with
Banister on board got away, with the Joanna, on the 28th of February, the
latter going to Barbados to land three families, the former to Jamaica,
which she reached, at Port Royal, on the 12th of March, 1671. Sir
Thomas Modyford, the governor, received them with all possible respect
and friendship, and ordered shallops with provisions to carry the people
to proper places on the island, with a surveyor to lay out their lands.
The Joanna, missing Barbados, arrived five days later. There came 105
families, numbering in all 517 persons; “the two ships were so filled
that they had scarce room to lodge in.”

The place to the leeward in St. Elizabeth, where they landed was
called Banister’s Bay, and it so appears on the rare map of Jamaica,
published by Edward Slaney in 1678, of which a copy is in the West
India Library of the Institute of Jamaica and also on the map which
accompanied the rare first edition of ‘ The Laws of Jamaica” published
in London in 1683, a copy of which is also in the West India Library, but
it occurs on no other map, and the name is now unknown in the neigh-
bourhood. By acomparison of Slaney’s map with the present govern-
ment map, supplemented by a visit to the spot, one is led to conclude
that Banister’s Bay was what is now known as Whitehouse Bay. It is
some eight miles east of Bluetields, and the coast in the neighbourhood
on Slaney’s and all subsequent maps is marked “ Surinam Quarters,” and
this name exists till to-day.

Banister wrote home urging that something, especially the sending
of shipping for their transport, should be done for those left at Surinam,
detained by the Dutch on account of their debts.

‘

The Migration from Surinam to Jamaica. 153

In June, Lynch wrote from Barbados, en route to take up the
governorship of Jamaica, “‘in Barbados and even Antigua, Jamaica was
regarded favourably to settle in—they regarding it ‘olewm e! opera [m]
perdere’ to endeavour to settle the Leeward Islands.”

Banister, by an order from Lynch for 2,946 acres, dated 8th
November, 1671, took up 2,000 acres bordering on the sea and including
Banister’s Cove—now known as Scott's Cove, bordering southerly on the
land of George Brimican, who, in 1665 had surveyed 43 acres “ unto
myself... .% in the parish of St. Elizabeth, called Luanna.” Banister’s
Cove had become Scott’s Cove as early as 1684, the date of the second
edition of “The Laws of Jamaica,’ in which appears Bochart and
Knollis’s ntap of the island. On his plat Brimican, (or Bremingham)
made a crude drawing of his house, one of the oldest sketches extant of a
house in Jamaica built by an Englishman. The remaining 940 acres of
Banister’s land was “in the inlands of Banister Bay.” It is apparent
that the district bordering on the sea was known as Banister’s Bay, as in
other surveys reference is made to the inlands of Banister’s Bay. In
August, 16.3, Banister took up another 1,000 acres “ lying in Luanna
near the Lime Tree Pond” bounding northerly on Banister’s own land.
This was known as Fonthill, and he also had 435 acres of land bordering
on the sea down to Luanna point, which later came into the possession of
Richard Beckford.

In April, 1672, Banister, ‘‘ the better to attend to the duties of his
commission” took up 11} acres at the north of Archbould’s Savannah
of 1340 acres in St. Dorothy (now St, Catherine) near Old Harbour,
which in 1668 had been set aside for the use of the inhabitants of the
neighbourhood, with the exception of 60 acres in the centre reserved for
Colonel Colebeck. The property is known as “ Banisters ” to-day.

In 1673 Banister took up a house plot at Old Harbour Bay, 120 feet
square, between the main street and the sea. In Bochart and Knollis’s
map of 1684 two properties of Banister’s are marked in St. Dorothy’s,
a sugar works and a pen; and also the property by Luanna in St.
Elizabetb.

As an evidence of the value of land in those days, it may be
mentioned that in 1673 Thomas Piper sold 60 acres at Cabarita for thirty
shillings, but this was in an out of the way locality.

On the 29th of March, 1671, Banister was sworn of the Council and
thenceforward he took precedence of all but the governor and lieutenant-
governor. In August he was judge, with Samuel Long and Captain
William Parker, of Clarendon and St. Elizabeth, which parishes had
recently been united for judicial purposes. Samuel Long, with William
Beeston, later succeeded in maintaining the privileges of the island as
against the restriction attempted to be imposed by the Crown, acting
through the Earl of Carlisle. Captain William Parker was member for

‘

154 Timehri.

St. Elizabeth in 1671-2 ; his name still lives in Parkér Bay, near Banister
Bay, which had much commercial intercourse with New England in the
eighteenth century.

When, in November of 1671, invasion by the Spaniards was
feared, it was arranged that the alarm should be carried from Windward
(Port Morant) to the Point (Port Royal), thence to Lygonee and St. Jago
de la Vega, and from there to Banister at Old Harbour, who was to pass
it on to Collier and Ivy in the West.

Banister was one of those whom Lynch called upon to assist him in
the somewhat unpleasant task of arresting Modyford, the late governor.
It is of interest to note that in March, 1672, Banister wrote to Lord
Arlington a letter, which he sent by Sir Henry Morgan, who was sent
home confined in the Welcome frigate, to appear on accouut of his pro-
ceedings against the Spaniards, Banister knew not what approbation
Morgan might find there, but he received in Jamaica “a very high and
honourable applause for his noble service therein,” both from Sir Thomas
Modyford and the Council that commissioned him. He hoped that, with-
out offence he might say, ‘‘he is a very well-deserving person, and one of
great courage and conduct, who may, with His Majesty’s pleasure perform
good public service at home or be very advantageous to this island if war
should again break forth with the Spaniards.” He requested Lord
Arlington’s assistance that Morgan might obtain His Majesty’s favour in
this business. He hoped Arlington would excuse “this freedom of his
boldness.”

Roby, in his ‘‘ Monuments of St. Catherine” says ‘ Major-General
Banister appears to have been president of the Council in 1671, as his
name is first on the list of that body, as given by Sir Thomas Lynch on
August 20, and he is the first named of the Council to John, Lord Vaughan
appointed by Charles IT., April 3rd, 1674;” but the governor in those
days was president of the Council, and the senior member only presided
in his absence, and although Banister, as Roby states, is named first in
Vaughn’s Council, he never sat on it; his last appearance at a Council
meeting being the 16th September, 1674, when Lynch presided.

Banister, ever mindful of those whom he had left behind in Surinam,
wrote, in Novemher, 1674, to Lord Arlington that he had ‘ received the
inclosed about a month since by way of New England, from a discreet
woman, who with her husband he left in Surinam at his departure, With
much difficulty she got passage for New England, where she now lives
with her father, Mr. Oxenbridge, minister of Boston. Her husband is
the only subject His Majesty has now left in Surinam that still
endeavours the removal of himself and fellow subjects to his
Majesty’s islands, and is in daily expectation of sbipping for their trans-
portation, as may be perceived from the inclosed which he offers to his
Lordship’s serious consideration, beseeching his intreaties to his Majesty
that ships may be sent to transport those yet living from that colony
which (with the hard usage of the Dutch) has been a grave to the major

‘

The Migration from Surinam to Jamaica, 155

part of his Majesty’s subjects left there. The few particularly mentioned
in the inclosed were men of the greatest estates when he left. Cannot
give any account of the number of slaves the remaining English may
have, who he believes were above 60 or 80 when Major Scott wrote to
his wife.”

The enclosure, from Bethshua Scott, addressed to Banister, runs as
follows: ‘‘‘l’he distraction she has been in this three years not hearing
from her husband, made her forgetful of her duty to everyone. Was last
night so mercifully dealt with that she heard of her husband’s welfare
from his own hand, which she looks at as no slight thing when so many
of their acquaintances are removed to the other world. Those mentioned
are Captains Rendar and Maxwell, Venman, Lea, Cowell and about 60
more, Sec. Bell also. Mr. Brandt and his wife went for England in June
last, not being able to get passage sooner. Her husband has been a
deep sufferer, the Dutch striving to confiscate ihe estate under pretence
of Bathe’s absence, confining him to the fort with other English for a
long time, seizing cattle and five of his ablest hands for the garrison’s use,
and taxing him partially. In his absence the plantation is ruined, so that
he is forced to sell the remainder of cattle and coppers to pay his engage-
ments and be ina posture for removal, if, as he hears (though denied
by theDutch), Commissioners come fron the King to release the English.
He resolves for Jamaica and bids her write to Mr. Sleigh to take up a piece
of land near him, as without selling his hands he cannot purchase a settled
plantation ; beseeches him to advise Sleigh. Mr, Simpson has been no friend
to her husband. who says that no vessel will get leave to carry negroes
away except the King sends. Governor Vorstar is prejudiced against
him, she presumes from his not being willing blindly to swallow all kinds
of oaths, &c. He durst write no more and is ignorant of affairs every-
where, by reason her 16 or 17 letters miscarried. Presents humble service
to Madame Banister and her daughters. The enclosed may meet her’
husband, yet when she remembers how long the Dutch kept Banister’s
business in agitation, her hopes seem to be built on a spider’s web.”

The letter given above is probably the last which Banister wrote
home. Henever received the letter, dated Villier’s House, October 27,
1674, which the Council for Foreign Plantations sent to him to the
following effect: “‘ Are assured that the original articles made between
Col. Byam and Abraham Crynsens about Surinam, and those between
himself and Crynsens are in his hands. Would have him send them by
the first opportunity, with an account what number of English removed
with him from Surinam, how many slaves they brought away, and in
what part of his Majesty’s dominions they disposed of themselves and
their stocks. Mem. This letter was dd. on the Exchange, to Mr. Hon.
Rumball, 2nd Novy., who promised to dd. it to Capt. Lowther, of the Swift-
sure, now going over with Lord Vaughan.”

It is interesting to note that the draft letter is in the handwriting of
John Locke, the philosopher, who at that time was secretary to the Coun-
cil for Foreign Plantations, Banister was murdered on the 10th of

156 Timehri.

November, 1674, by—Bridges tells us,—‘‘ a Mr. Burford who was tried
and hanged for it,” but he does not tell us who Burford was ; he is other-
wise unknown to fame. Banister was very regular at the Council
Meetings, which at times, under fear of invasion by Dutch or Spanish,
sat from day to day; and when he was absent one likes to think of him
as looking after his military duties as major-general.

In July, 1675, the King appointed Sir Henry Morgan a member of
the Council in place of Banister—much, one can imagine, to the disgust
of Vaughan, who, of a parsimonious disposition, had little sympathy with
Morgan’s free and easy habits.

In the Cathedral at Spanish Town are two black marble monuments,
one to Banister and one to his daughter. On the former are the arms,
with the inscription.

“ Hera Lyeth Interred the Body of Major-Generall James Bannister
Late Governor of Sarrenham, who departed this Life the 10th of Novem-
ber Ano Domi 1674 In the 50th yeare of his Age.”

On the other the arms :—Checky, on a Fess three Leopard’s Faces :
Impaling a cross Flory ; and a crest a Griffin’s head erased ducally gorged :
with the inscription.

Here Lyeth Interred the Body of Mrs. Mary Lewis wife of Mr.
Samuell Lewis and Daughter to Major-Generall James Bannister who
departed this Life the 2d of January Ano Domi 1676-7 in the 18th
yeare of her Age.

That Death might happy bee, to live learn’d I.
That Life might happy bee I have learn’d to Dye.”

Samuel Lewis was the father of Major John Lewis who represented.
Port Royal or Kingston in the Assembly from 1701 to 1725.

By his will dated 20th August, 1674, James Banister left the whole
of his estate, both real and personal, “‘as well heere in Jamaica as else-
where ” (excepting certain legacies) to his only son James Banister. To
his wife, Dorothy, he left a third of his estate for her life. To his son-in-
law, Lt. Henry Massie ‘who had married his daughter Margaret, he left
£5. Ifshe survived her husband she was to have 100,000 pounds of
“good merchantable muscovadoe sugar.” To his son-in-law Samuel
Lewis, who had married Mary, the same 100,000 pounds of sugar; and
to his daughter Dorothy, when she reached the age of eighteen or was
married, also 100,000 pounds of sugar. His son James and his daughter
Dorothy were to be maintained out of his estate. He left his wife
executrix of his will and his friends Colonel Robert Byndlosse, Charles
Atkinson, Samuel Lewis, and ffrancis Man overseers of his will, to help
his wife and yave them each 1,000 pounds of sugar “to buy them
mourning,”

~<

The Migration from Surinam to Jamaica. 157

Byndloss was an important member of the Council, connected by
marriage with the lBeckfords. Atkinson was Secretary to Sir-
Thomas Lynch, and to Lord Vaughan; Lewis was, as we have
seen, SBanister’s son-in-law; and Francis Man was probably
a relative of John Man, a former surveyor-general.

By an Act passed in Jamaica in 1694 “ For the Encouragement and
Freedom of Seryants, and Slaves which have done, or shall do any
remarkable Service against the French during the present War,’ James
Banister aud four others (or any three of them) were appointed to be
Commissioners for the hearing of all claims. This Banister was evidently
the son of the last British Governor of Surinam ; but there is nothing
else known of him.

Robert Banestre, the founder of the family, is said to have gone to
England at the time of the conquest. He had a grant of Prestatyn in
North Wales and other lands. The earliest arms of the family were
allusive to the name which means a basket or ‘ dosser ”—two dossers
joinant in fesse, But Banestre of the Banke, Lancashire, bore Argent,
a cross Florysable.

To return to the unfortunate Englishmen left at Surinam by Banister,
we find that in August, 1671 ,the Council of Plantations recommended to
the King that the two ships formerly employed for the purpose—the
America and Joanna, or others of equal burden—should be sent to
remove the remaining settlers at Surinam, care being taken to prevent
disputes as much as possible about their removal.

In December Lynch wrote home that a ship had arrived
at Port Morant with a Dutchman from Surinam and Curagoa ‘“ who
is naturalized and has now brought many negroes;” but he does
not give his name. In January, 1671-2, he wrote that Christopher
Rendar, who, it will be noticed, was one of Banister’s co-com-
missioners, had bought a plantation and gone for Surinam intend-
ing immediately to return if the Dutch serve him not as they did Major
Banister. He adds ‘ All the Surinamers, are well settled, and there is
but one dead.” In July, 1672 he wrote “ Am sorry for Capt. Rendar and
the poor Surinamers, had not his frigate been commanded home they
would have fetched them without capitulations,”

In July, 1672 the Council for Plantations advised that the English
should be brought off from Surinam, and the plantation deserted. It was
decided by the King to do it “‘ when it can be done.”

In October Lynch wrote home that the Dutch had abundanco of
negroes at Curagoa and that he had resolved to send Major-General

Banister with five or six sail to take it and Surinam, but the design had
been “‘ quashed.”

Sir Peter Colleton, Deputy Governor, wrote home from Barbados, in
August, 1673 that the condition of the Dutch at Surinam was very weak.

158 Timehri.

Whenever an English vessel was reported on the coast the English were
put prisoners in the fort. There were about 200 English and 300 Dutch
and 7,000 to 12,000 negroes. The English and Dutch were very sickly
and died very fast.

- One P. Vorsterre ‘seeming the chief agent in Surinam” (really the
Governor) wrote home to the Committee of the States of Zealand in Sep-
tember. He gave a woeful account of the settlement. The population
had fallen to about 200 men only, of whom 50 or 60 were sick “ for want
of refreshings having nothing to eat but rotten bacon, peas and gruts, and
but little of that. . . . Most planters’ negroes have nought to eat but
the greens they pickin the fields. . . . The English prisoners are very
quiet, being mostly very sick, vizt., Capts. Render and Vermiman, and
Mr. Knight, with little hope of life.” Vorsterre had detained the English
there, for as soon as the negroes had heard that their masters were sent
away prisoners they mutinied against their overseers.

In the following December Sir Jonathan Atkins, Governor of
Barbados, asked for a private commission “ to take or destroy Surinam
or any of the Dutch islands or plantations.”

On the 9-19th of February, 1673-4 the Treaty of Westminster was
concluded between England and Holland. The fifth article runs as follows :
“Whereas the Colony of Surinam and the articles made on the surrender
thereof in 1667 betwixt William Byam, then Governor for his Majesty,
and Abraham Quirini[Crynsens], Commander for the States-General,
have administered much occasion of dispute and contributed much to
the late misunderstanding betwixt his Majesty and the said States; to
remove all grounds of future mistakes, the said States agree, that not
only the said articles shall be executed without any manner of equivocation,
but that it shall be free for his Majesty to depute one or more persons
thither to see the condition of his subjects, and to adjust a time for
their departure ; and that it shall be lawful for his Majesty to send
one, two, or three ships at one time to carry away his said subjects,
their goods, and slaves; and that the Governor there shall not make
any law whereby the buying or selling of land, paying off debts or com-
mutation of goods shall be otherwise qualified to the English than to other
inhabitants of the colony, but they shall enjoy the same laws and
privileges as are usually practised amongst the other inhabitants. and
that when His Majesty shall desire of the said States authentic letters to
the Governor to suffer the English to depart and the ships to come, said
States shall within 15 days deliver the same to whomsoever deputed by
His Majesty.” And ia March the Council of Trade and Plantations
recommended that steps should be at once taken to remove the English
and their negroes, being of the number of about 700. In June the King
ordered the Council of Plantations to nominate one or two persons fit to
be sent to Surinam to arrange for the removal. They nominated on
June 8th Ferdinando Gorges, of Barbados, and William Stede; a week
later the King expressed the wish that Mr. Cranfield (one of His Majesty's

The Migration from Surinam to Jamaica. 159

gentlemen ushers) should be one of those sent: aud passports were issued
by the States-General in favour of Ferdinando Gorges and Edward
Cranfield.

As an indication of the value of property in Surinam at the time it
may be mentioned that in November, 1674 an agreement was signed
between Rowland Simpson, William Pringell, and Henry Mackintoshe for
the sale of two plantations at Surinam containing 1,600 acres for 600,000
lbs. of muscavado sugar.

In the lengthy instructions issued on the 3rd of December, 1674 by
Charles IT. to Lord Vaughan as Governor of Jamaica, the Surinam matter
was thus alluded to :—‘ Whereas we are now providing for the removal of
such ot our Subjects from Snrinam as shall desire to transport them-
selves from thence unto our Obedience in pursuance of the Articles made
at the surrender of that Colony.

“Our pleasure is for the encouragement of such our said Subjects as
shall be willing to remove from Surinam you receive and use kindly as
many of them as come to Jamaica and take care that they be furnished
with provisions and other necessaries at a moderate rate until they shall
be able to get or procure themselves, and that you proportion out to them
by the head twice as much land as uses to be granted to other Planters
coming thither.” The usual amount was thirty acres a head. About the
same date the States-General resolved that the Governor of Surinam
should be again written to, to suffer the person, whom his Majesty of
Great Britain sent with the Advice yacht, freely to come on shore and
acquaint his Majesty’s subjects there with the time and conveniences his
Majesty had appointed for their transportation ; provided that he used no
threats towards such as shall desire to remain there ; and that an extract
thereof should be sent to the States of Zealand or to the Lords of their
Council. This was in accordance with British desire, except as to the
clearing of those who might be in debt “in which very few are like to be
concerned ”—and the Council of Trade and Plantations advised the King
to accept these terms, rather than delay the sending of the ships. The
Settlers were to be told that they could transport themselves, families,
estates, slaves and utensils freight free to England or to any of his
Majesty’s plantations wheresoever they might desire to settle, and that
they should have double the quantity of land allowed to other planters.

The Advice Boat (flyboat) was the Henry and Sarah, 300 tons,
(John Baker, master) and the two hired ships were the America, 494 tons
(Roger Paxston), and the Hercules, 484 tons (George Broad) ; with a
King’s frigate as convoy —Hunter (Captain Edward Dickenson).

In November, 1674, Lynch wrote home from Jamaica that he was
advised that 8 or 10 months since, there were not above 40 English at
Surinam, the ill climate and ill usage having killed the rest. Major
Banister had left 100, and of all whom he had brought to Jamaica there
are but four dead.

160 Timehri.

In one of Sir Joseph Williamson’s note-books, now in the Record
Office in London, occurs the following entry :—“ 1674. Surinam.—The
Dutch agreement of making sugar ; they offer 200/. per annum to our
English workmen which we have for 10/. 15s.; sugar-makers, &. The
French begin to learn that art. The English haye 1,200 negroes on
Surinam, and may be themselves about 300. Spoke with Sir Nath. Brent
lately come from thence, 1674-75. Every head of cattle there worth 201.
300 English, 1,100 or 1,200 Negroes. Have 20 Sugar works; out of
debt, generally because they have had no supplies of shoes, &c., many tons
of sugar, &. 201. per ton to the Dutch, whereas in Barbados we haye
it for 4l.10s. They might buy off 10,000 wt. for an overseer, whereas
we have them for 10 m. (sic). All the artificers are English, carpenters,
smiths, &e. The Dutch have not the skill of making sugar, but hire the
very raggedest English, &c. Sugar works in Surinam: 17 on the river
Surinam, 3 on Cainaweena River. 30 per ewt. by the Dutch which will
make it difficult to the English. The Dutch ordered to free the English,
in debt to them for blacks, &c., and to that end some ships are now being
sent to Jam(aica). Proposed to have two large flyboats, one less vessel,
one man-of-war. The English have good number of cattle, which the
Dutch will endeavour to under-rate and forbid to buy and hinder the
English from carrying off.”

Captain John Thorne, Andrew Knight, Elias Elly, Hierome Westhorpe
were the principal planters of Surinam. The captain of the Advice boat
was to repair to them for assistance.

Mark Brent was appointed commissioner in place of Ferdinando
Gorges. The three commissioners being Edward Cranfield, Edward
Dickenson, and Mark Brent (or Brandt). a

Rowland Simson, who was left behind when Banister’s lot left,
managed to get away in 1675, loading a ship with his all—£3,500 worth
of sugar, which ship was unfortunately taken by the French.

Private instructions were issued to the commissioners to try to
persuade the planters to migrate to some other plantation rather than
return home. Cranfield’s instructions required him, after he had des-
patched the business at Surinam, to embark for such other plantations as
he judged convenient and to make full reports on the conditions of life
there ; and he was especially to visit St. Kitts and report on the true
state of the differences between the French and English.

Barbados was excepted, ‘‘all the land there being in property
already,” from the other plantations in the Caribbees, and Virginia, which
were instructed to give double quantities of land. It was desired that all,
if possible, should settle in Jamaica.

The Commission to Cranfield, Dickenson and Brent is dated March
28th, 1675,

The Migration from Surinam to Jamaica. 161

When they cleared from Surinam they were to sail for Barbados, St.
Kitts, Jamaica or other of the Leeward Islands as the settlers might
desire.

The fleet sailed on the 6th April, 1675. The Commissioners went
out well armed with all necessary papers. They reached Surinam on the
8rd of June, and on the 4th delivered their letters to the Governor ‘‘ who
received them civilly.” By the 9th the Hunter and the hired ships
arrived.

The Advice boat had arrived on March 28th. Those English who
were then at Surinam all wanted to go to Jamaica, and the Commission
thought that they would be worth four times the number of people from
Europe by reason of their seasoned constitutions, and their great
experience in planting “ most having been at it these twenty years.” The
Governor was not willing to let the Jews go, “believing it would be an
immediate destruction to the place.” He was also loath to spare the
Indians. The difficulties placed in the way of those Jews who wished to
go with their English co-settlers to Jamaica, have been specially dealt
with in a paper by Dr. J. H. Hollander, entitled “ Documents relating
to the Attempted Departure of the Jews from Surinam in 1675” in the
** Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society ” in 1897. He
points out how the Dutch government, though it denied the privilges of
British subjects to the Jews, even though born and long resident on
English soil, was ready enough to insist that Jews resident in Surinam
were British subjects when advantage lay that way. For example in
February, the King, on a petition from Aaron de Silva and Isaac
Peiriera ordered that they might go to Jamaica with the goods and
servants in any foreign built ship, and that the Governor should
receive them with equal favour as if they had come in an English built
ship, and return to them their slaves brought over by Cranfield. But the
States-General denied that the Jews were British subjects, and refused
them permission to leave.

Besides these, the Jews principally concerned were Jacob Perera,
David Perara, Isaac de Prado, Isaac de Mera, Isaac Gouia, Gabriell
Antonijus, Moses Baruch and Benjamin Perara, with a total of 322 slaves
between them.

At Surinam, Cranfield reported there were but 130 Dutch inhabitants
besides the garrison, who, with the merchants in the town, consisted of
about 140 more.

Tn four days “all matters were brought toa final determination at
the General Court, according to equity.” The English were rather
creditors than debtors. A debt of Rowland Simpson’s to Andrew
Cliftord for £240, and one of Francis Watson to his brother-in-law
Matthew Hide for 21,733 lbs. of sugar were the only debts unsatisfied
due to his Majesty’s subjects who removed. It was found necessary to
employ all the ships. The Commissioners took leave of the Governor on
12th August, 1675. The settlers presented a petition (signed by Edward
Saul and 28 others) to be taken straight to Jamaica.

162 Timehri.

The difficulties raised on the part of the Dutch to the English settlers
leaving the colony have left behind them the publication in book form in
1763 of ‘“‘The Case and Replication of the Legal Representatives of
Jeronimy Clifford, a British subject; and late Merchant and Planter of
Surinam, deceased ; to the information of the Directors of the Society of
Surinam, presented on the 7th of October, 1762, to Their High Mighti-
nesses, the Lords States-General of the United Provinces, upon the
Memorial presented by His Excellency Sir Joseph Yorke to the Assembly
of Their High Mightinesses on the 13th of July, 1762.”

A most wearisome book and full of repetition, it narrates through
478 pages how the Governor of Surinam in 1675 hy his arbitrary
proceedings prevented Andrew Clifford from withdrawing his effects
from the colony and also prevented Jeronimy Clifford, his son, in 1687,
from enjoying a large and valuable estate of 480 acres which he had
purchased in 1685, in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica, by prohibiting him from
transferring his estate out of Surinam: and the estate remained under
arrest until 1695. In 1683, Jeronimy Clifford married a rich widow and
thereby became possessed of the finest property in Surinam—Corcabo by
name, 1,500 acres in extent, which produced about one-sixteenth of all
the sugar made in the colony.

In 1687, Clifford presented several petitions in vain to the Governor
and Council to remove the arrest, and for permission to remove his effects
to Jamaica. The book goes on to give a detailed account of the various
occasions on which Clifford endeavoured to obtain satisfaction and the
various obstacles put in his way, but in spite of the fact that till his death
in 1737, he made frequent petitions and representations, owing to the
persistent prevarications of the Society of Surinam, and the indifference
of Their High Mightinesses, he was unable to obtain justice.

To return to the general body of settlers, all negotiations being
completed by Cranfield, the Henry and Surah (Capt. William Piper)
went away from Surinam before the others—and arriving at Port Royal
was sent on to Bluefields, three weeks before the other ships arrived.

After a tedious journey the Commissioners in the America with the
Hercules, reached Jamaica on the 8th September. Vaughan, the Governor,
asked them for a narrative ‘ of all proceedings,” this they declined as not
being indicated in their instructions, and the Governor took “ great
offence.” ’

At Jamaica Cranfield charged James Davis with having brought from
Surinam, contrary to the King’s order and that of the States-General,
Samuel Earl, William Fowler, and three free Indians.

At a Council Meeting held at St. Jago de la Vega, the 3rd September,
1675.

‘His Excellency having communicated unto His Majesty’s Council,
the arrival of divers of His Majesty’s Subjects from Surinam on the good

ae

The Migration from Surinam to Jamaica. 163

ships [sic] called the Henry and Swrah, and that they desired forthwith
to be sent down into the Parish of St. Elizabeth where the former
Surinamers that came with Major-General Banister, are already settled.

The Gentlemen of the Council did humbly advise His Excellency,
and it was thereupon advised, that the same ship which transported
them hither, being a hired ship and in His Majesty’s Service, having
orders to put them all on shore at Banister Bay or as near as con-
veniently may be, to it, in the Parish of St. Elizabeth, and likewise
have orders to stay there fourteen days, so that all of them may have
time to remove out of the ship and carefully dispose of themselves and
goods, and that in the same time the ensuing proclamation be made upon
Port Royal, and that they may be supplied with Provisions and all other
necessaries at moderate rates, and no extortions or exactions committed
on them.” The following was the proclamation :—

‘By His EXceLLENCcY.

“ WHEREAS His Majesty hath been graciously pleased to cause to be
transported to this island divers of his subjects from Surinam, and hath
by His Particular Instruction commanded that all possible encourage-
ment and assistance should be given to them in order to their better
Settlement in this His Majesty’s Island.

“It is therefore ordered by His Excellency and by and with the Advice
of His Majesty’s Council that the said persons be treated well and received
in all places with all manner of Friendship and Kindness, and that
Provision and all other necessaries be sold them at moderate and Easy
Rates, and that none presume to commit any Extortions or Exactions
on them as they will answer it at their Peril.”

On the 20th of the same month Vaughan wrote home “ About ten
days since arrived three of his Majesty’s hired ships with 1,100 or 1,200
whites, blacks, and Indians that the Commissioners had removed from
Surinam. All seem exceedingly satisfied with coming hither; and he has,
according to His Majesty’s instruction, received them with all the
friendship and kindness possib e, allotted them double the land usually
granted, and required all persons to assist them with whatever
they want at moderate rates. Has, on their own desire, transported the
poorest to the leeward part of the Island, where the Surinamers which
came with General Banister are already settled ; the more wealthy intend
to disperse themselves, and being so well furnished with slaves and all
other necessaries for planting, will in a short time make very considerable
plantations, and be much better settled than ever they were at Surinam,
Has received from the Commissioners list of the persons put aboard the
Hercules and America, and since they came into harbour has mustered all
that were brought. Will send by the next ships fair lists of both. The
flyboat Henry and Sarah left the Commissioners in the river of Surinam,
and came without any Orders or Despatches, so no list was taken of her
passengers til] her arrival there ; she is down to the westward with those

164 Timehri.

Surinamers desiring to be transported thither, and on the Master’s return
his breach of orders and the whole matter shall be examined, and when
the other ships are unladenshe will make up the accounts with the
Captains concerning the King’s provisions put aboard them, and return
duplicates tothe Commissioners of the Navy. Mr. Cranfield, about 4
days before his arrival, going aboard the America to examine the Captain
concerning the King’s provisions to be delivered to the passengers, and
the Mate giving him very unhandsome language, he struck him with his
cane and ran the point of it inte his eye, whereof next day he died; on
complaint whereof Lord Vaughan issued a Commission for trial of the
fact on the Statute of Henry VIII., and the best gentlemen of the Island
being returned of the Jury, they found it chance medley ; for which Mr.
Cranfield has sued out a pardon under the Broad Seal of the Island, and
has since himself complained against some of the Captains, and a poor
man that came from Surinam in his own sloop, for breach of orders and
other misdemeanours; on examination will send an account and his
opinion thereon, as the King’s letter appoints.” From which it would
appear that Charles II. did not make a very wise selection when he sent
one of his gentlemen ushers, used to lording itat Whitehall, to be im
command of rough seagoing men.

The following is “‘ A List of His Majesty’s subjects and slaves trans-
ported from Surinam to Jamaica,” taken from the ‘“‘ Calendar of State
Papers.”

1. InHis Majesty’s ship Hercules.

Andrew and Dolorosa Knight, Ferdinando and Lucretia Woodstock,
John and James Jennison, John Lawtis, John Horne, Thomas Sparkes
and Thomas Abraham, Christians, with 64 slaves (the names are given) ;

Major Rich. Scott, with 33 slaves.

Hierome and Jane Westhorpe, and John and Mary Oreamour,
Christians, with 50 slaves ;

George Gordon, and George Gordon, junr, and Mary Hawkins,
Christians, with 26 slaves ;

Samuel and Eliza Tare, and Benj. Holeman, Christians, with 12 slaves ;

Arthur and Mary Norris, John and James English, Mary Norris,
Junr., Grace Norris, Daniel Ohane, Will. Johnson and John Tayler,
Christians, with 44 slaves ;

Matthew and Eliza Hide and Mary Eliza Hide, junr., Christians with
35 slaves ;

Dorothy Wayle and Eliza Render, Christians, with 83 slaves ;

Arthur Gally, Robert Hudson and George Tindall, Christians, with

42 slaves ;

William, Mary, William, Philip and John Yearworth, Christians, with -

15 slaves, belonging to Aaron de Silva ;
Isaae de la Parr, Overseer, and Gabriell de Solis, with 33 slaves ;
William and Dorothy Boone, James and Joane Grimes, Samuel Earle

and Anne Matthews, Christians.
Total, 53 Christians and 449 slaves,

The Migration from Surinam to Jamaica. 165

2. Inhis Majesty’s hired ship America :

Mary Urpith, Adam and Dorothy Braythwaite, John and Sarah
Urpith, and Robert Hurtly, Christians, with 77 slaves.

William and Jane Davidson, Tho. and Anne Robinson, Christians, with
12 slaves ;

Elias and Jane Ely, Mrs. Sarah Ely, Elias Ely, Sarah Ely and John
Sherwood, Christians, with 34 slaves.

Oliver and Jane Hampton, and Philip Shaw, Christians, with 37 slaves;

John and Penena Horton, John Horton, junr., and Nich. Colegate,
Christians, with 19 slaves ;

William and Mary Smith, William Thomas, Richard, Sarah, and Mary
Smith, Joane Starky, Saml. Gates, Christians, with 25 slaves ;

Peter Manton, Margaret and Eliza Manton, and Solvodore, Christians,
with 16 slaves ;

John, Katherine and Mary Woodward, Christians, with 8 slaves ;

John Spencer, with 8 slaves ;

Walter and Amy Greene, Christians, with 2 slaves ;

Edward and Sarah Saule, Christians, with 26 slaves ;

Henry, Mary and John Long, and Henry Robinson, Christians, with
11 slaves ;

Henry and Mary Ferrers, Mary Ferrers, Jeremy, Katherine and
Mary Chase, Christians, with 20 slaves ;

William, Martha, Mary, and Martha Vaughan, Sarah Viccers, James
Baker, Mingo and his wife, Christians, with 15 slaves ;

John, Margett, John and Thomas Pearson, Sarah Holland, Samuel
Bacon, Rich., Eliza, John and Mary Armstrong, Christians, with 38 slaves ;

John, Joane, and John Jones, and John Rose, Christians, with 1 slave.

Ralph and Rebecea Larkin, and Ralph and Rebecca Larkin, with 3
slaves ;

Thomas and Frances Gamball, Christians, with 3 slaves ;

Roger, Bridgett, and John Phillips, Christians, with 2 slaves ;

William and Eliza Slade, William Slade, and Grace Slade, Christians,
with 10 slaves ;

William and Eliza Whaley, and Richard Loftus, Christians, with 4
slaves ;

Richard and Prudence Dunn, Christians, with two slaves ;

John and Anne Hanes, Sarah and Patience Haxby, and Rebecca de
la Ware, Christians ;

Eliza Suttou, Anne Larke, and Dorothy Lowe, with one slave ;

William and Margett Carpenter, and Charles Bray, Christians, with
1 slave ;

Robert and Alice Browne, Christians, with 2 slaves ;

Thomas Cotton, Christian, with 1 slave ;

Andrew, Alice and Hierome Clifford. and John and Alice Harwood,
Christians ;

Joyce, John and Sarah Biggs, Christians, with 3 slaves ;

Total 116 Christians and 381 slaves.

-

166 Timehrr.

8. Inhis Majesty’s hired ship Henry and Sarah :

Anne Waller, daughter and a little negro, with 12 negroes and 2
Indians ;

Charles Graves, wife, 2 children, maid, and 8 little negroes, with 16
negroes and 6 Indians ;

Austin Gabriell, maid, and two little negroes, with 13 negroes and
2 Indians ;

Will. White, wife, daughter, 3 little negroes with 14 negroes and 1
Indian ;

Will Pauer, wife and son ;

Teag Matemarah and wife, with 1 negro ;

Alexr, Godding, wife, 2 children, and 4 little negroes, with 10 negroes ;

Alex. Wilson, wife, child and 1 little negro, with 4 negroes and 4
Indians ;

Henry Pearson, wife and 2 children ;

Edwd. Wooton, with 2 little negroes, and 5 negroes and 2 Indians ;

Thomas Wright, wife and maid, with 4 negroes ;

Peter Clerke, wife and sister, with three negroes and 8 Indians ;

(Will. Davis, wife and child, John Smith, John Westwood, and
William Fowler, with 19 slaves belonging to Davis).

The names in brackets are not in this List, but appear in another List

Will. Creek, wife and 4 children ;

Will. Heath, wife, 3 children, and 2 little negroes, with 4 negroes
and 3 Indians ;

John Morris, 2 little negroes, and 4 BeerOes ;

Abrah. Baker ;

John Chambers, wife and two children; with 6 negroes and 1 Indian.

Edward Edy, wife, 2 children, 2 whites and 5 negroes ;

Samuel Pincheon, wife, 2 children, and 1 negro ;

Thomas Scattergood, wife, 2 children, and 1 negro ;

George Mascall, a little negro, 3 negroes and 2 Indians;

Samuel When, wife, 1 negro and 1 Indian ;

Robert Gheste, with 1 Indian ;

Stephen Fisher, wife, 1 child, 2 little (sic) 3 negroes and 1 Indian ;

Leonard Pollard, with 1 negro ;

Saml. Starling, wife, 2 negroes and 2 Indians;

George Carter, Daniel Young, Isaac Richardson, Will. Ruddyford,
Tho. Foster with 3 negroes, and James Watkins ;

Total 81 Christians, 81 Indians, and 120 negroes ;

Total in the 3 ships (and sloop), 1,231.

It is evident that the wealthier of the settlers, following Banister’s
example, purchased land in more thickly populated districts near the
capital rather than take up land offered to them in the Surinam Quarters,
where many settled along the seashore as is indicated in Slaney’s map.

Of the abovementioned settlers, the following have been traced ;

Andrew Knight, who was member for Vere in 1677-79 was Custos
of Clarendon and Vere.

The Migration from Surinam to Jamaica. 167

He had an order from Lord Vaughan for 4,440 acres. In 1675 he
patented 550 acres—bordering south-west on the sea; and 18 acres at
Withy wood.

In April, 1684 Dorolosa (sic) Knight patented 300 acres at the Bay
Macary, bordering on her own land and on the sea.

The following is the inscription on his tombstone in Vere church :-—

“TJ).0.M.L, In piam memoriam dnidni Andrer, Knight, Rotulorum
Custodis et Supremi Judicis communium placitorum in Provinciis Olaren-
don et Vere in Jamaica, et turmae pedesiris centurionis, qui obiit 42°
Aetatis anno, 19° julii, 1683.

EPITAPHIUM.

Dives opum Andres : famae virtutis et artis
ditior ; hoeque magis dives honoris erat.
Plura darent superi, ni fata invicta negarent
sternendo humani [sic] futile molis onus.
Ni superi tamen huic et sors sibi fida deessent
urna tenet corpus, mens habet alta polum,
dicat, vovet, dedicat.

JA. BARCLAY.

Arms... on-a fess... between three bulls heads erased... (each
with a ring in its nose...) a fret between two eagles close...” It is
thus given in Lawrence-Archer’s “‘ Monumental Inscriptions of the West
Indies.” The monument itself is now in great part covered up.

It may be thus translated :
To God, the best and greatest, praise.

In affectionate memory of Sir Andrew Knight, Custos Rotulorum :
and Chief Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in the Parishes of Clar-
endon and Vere in Jamaica, Captain of a troop of infantry, who died in
the 42nd year of his age, 19th July, 1683.

EPITAPH.

Rich in this world’s goods was Andrew: richerin his renown for
virtue and learaing: and therefore the richer in honours. The Gods
above had given him more, had not the fates unconquerable gainsaid it
by laying low the worthless burden of human toil. Yet unless the Gods
above and his destiny, faithful to itself, prove wanting, a funeral now
holds his body, his soul soaring on high is in heaven.

James Barclay, gives vows and dedicates this.
In 1683 he gave £20 to the Church and poor,

Major Richard Scott, the man on whose behalf Banister wrote home
just before he died, was probably identical with the member of the

168 Timehri.

Assembly for St. Elizabeth, of that name, from 1677 to 1688; though
Roby believed the member to be the son of Thomas Scott who settled
the Y.S. (originally called Wyes or Whiesse) plantation in St. Elizabeth.
His wife was daughter of John Oxenbridge, the sixth pastor of the First
Church of Boston, from 1671 till his death in 1674, who left England at
the restoration, having been ejected from his living, went first to Surinam,
thence in 1667 to Barbados and in 1671 to Boston. He is recorded
“amongst the most elegant writers as well as most eloquent preachers of
his time.” He was censor and licenser of the press in Boston; he be-
queathed his library to the Public Library of Boston. He bequeathed his
house to his executrix, his daughter, Bethshua Scott: it stood near the
First Church.

His name still lives in Scott’s Cove, near Banister Bay.

In July, 1672 Marcus Brant, Co-commissioner with Cranfield and
Dickenson, settled 1,000 acres adjoining Fonthill on the north-east.

The Cliftords have already been referred to.

Roby, in his ‘‘ History of the Parish of St. James,” says :

“St. Dorothy, separated from Clarendon in 1675, I conjecture to
have received its name in compliment to a Dorothy Wale who had
probably a large estate there.” This can hardly be, for the parish of St.
Dorothy was formed in 1675, and Dorothy Wale only came from Surinam
in September of that year. She came with her daughter by a previous
marriage Eliza Rendar. She married at Spanish Town on the 15th of
June, 1676, as her third husband, Colonel Theodore Cary, the son of
George Cary of Coexington, Devon, England, whence sprang the Barons
Hunsdon, Earls of Dover, Earls of Monmouth and Viscount Falkland. He
had matriculated at Oxford in 1642, ‘‘aged 18.” In 1665 he had served
with Edward Morgan against St. Eustatius. At the time of his marriage
he was one of Nelson’s predecessors as Captain of Fort Charles and
commander at Port Royal. He was member of the Assembly for St.
Dorothy from 1677 to 1679, when he was called up to the Council. In
1677 he took up 40 acres of land in Clarendon. He lies buried in what
is now the Cathedral at Spanish Town :—

On a black marble slab are : Arms (argent) on a bend (sable) three
roses (of the field) a mullet for difference in sinister chief.

“ Here lyeth the Body of Colonell THEODORE CARY, one of the
sonnes of Cockington House in Devonshire, Brother to SR HENRY
CARY, Captaine of his Maties, Fort at PORT-ROYAL, one of his Maties.
Council], and one of the Judges of the Grand Court in JAMAICA, He
died June 26th, 1683, in ye yeare of his age 63.”

Ely and Westhorpe, who as we have seen were leading planters in

Surinam, had plantations side by side on Banister’s Bay, as appears in
the map of 1684.

The Migration from Surinam to Jamaica. 169

Thomas Chambers, John Chambers, Richard Chambers and Richard
Dunn took up land “ above the Surinam Quarters,” and Thomas Gamboll
patented three hundred acres near Green Island. These were probably
in additional to the original grants at Surinam Quarters, which are not
recorded.

In July, 1673, Captain Rendar patented 1,500 acres in Clarendon
‘at a place commonly called Porus.”

By his will dated the 3rd of June, 1676, he, being a widower, left to
his daughter Elizabeth all his estate, real and personal. He appointed
his ‘‘ indulgent mother Mrs. Dorothy Wale the sole executrix in trust for
my poore child.” If his daughter did not attain years of discretion, or
marry everything was to go to his mother.

In January, 1675-6, Vaughan wrote home ‘those who removed
from Surinam have a considerable addition to us, most of them well
settled and exceedingly pleased with the island.”

In June, 1676, Cranfield asked that help might be given to Pringall
and Mackintosh, above alluded to, to remove from Surinam, reported that
Rowland Simpson, who was the cause of several Englishmen not being
able to leave Surinam and who had enriched himself at the expense of
his Majesty, owed Andrew Clifford £240 “ for the want of which he and
his family are now miserable in Jamaica.”

In Surinam the following were “ ordered by sentence to pay,” or
“ to receive of” the persons named with the several amounts specified,
viz.: Madame Wale, Arthur Norris, Arthur Gally, Peeter Manten,
William Davison, Henry Ferris, John Spenser, Matthew Hyde, Edward
Ware, John Smith, George Gording, William Slade, Robert Hudson, John
Horne, George Findel, William Johnson has no debts, Ralph Larcum has
no debts, Elias Ely, William Yarwood, William Vahan, Richard Scot,
Samuel Tare, William Waley, John Persen, Samuel Pincheon, whose
payments and receipts occupy almost a page, Roger Phillipps, Robert
Browne, Walter Greene, Richard Done, Henry Long, John Jones, Andrew
Clifford, John Vigars, James Davison, John Horton, Francis Wattson,
William Smith, Jos. Rayly, William Heath, Augustin Gavel, Robert
Smith, Jos. Starling, Thomas Gambol, Oliver Ampson, John Chambers,
Charles Graves, Geny Dory, Jeremy Westropp, Edward Sauls, William
Johnson, David Hutton, Mary Orpeth, George Maskel, Alex. Sims, John
Hoger, John Stalworthy, Teyge Mekmemare, John lLewens, John
Willoby, Alex. Wilson, William Wyate, Henry Danfort, William Dobeson,
Steeven Vissier, John Johnson Sonius, William Carpentier, Abraham
Walker, Alex. Lark, John Cremar, Abraham Backer, John Haynes,
Benjamin Peine (?), and Andrew Knights.”

In March, 1676-7, Sir Johanthan Atkins, Governor of Barbados,
wrote home that the French fleet which had destroyed the Dutch fleet at
Tobago might have Surinam “ for the asking.”

170 Timehri.

In November, 1677, Rowland Simpson was still petitioning for
redress from the French.

In January, 1678-9, the Earl of Carlisle, the Governor, wrote home
from Jamaica that ‘a vessel from Surinam, lately driven here by stress
of weather, brought us news of the Indians having cut off most of the
English and Dutch remaining there, burnt all their canes and destroyed
their sugars with their houses, coppers, stills and provisions. The residue
of the English would have embarked for this island but the new Governor
Herr Heinsius, would not permit one to stir, being with the Dutch forced
into the castle for defence, The tediousness of the voyage is my reason
for not sending a King’s frigate to bring off the rest of the English that
desire to be transported hither; but for this I want his Majesty’s order
(one frigate being gone to the Havanna for English prisoners) ; not being
acquainted how affairs stand at Home, I cannot foresee what employment
I may have for the Jersey in her present station.”

In May, 1679, the Lords of Trade and Plantations decided in reply to
Carlisle’s enquiry that ‘‘ no ship can be sent to Surinam without liability
to confiscation, the English therein having had ample time and oppor-
tunity to remove themselves; yet that the Governor has no reason to
detain them if they choose to depart by a trading vessel, and advised the
King “In the matter of Lord Carlisle's request to send a vessel to
bring off the residue of the English from Surinam, although by
the 5th Article of the last treaty with Holland, your Majesty is entitled
to depute persons to see the condition of your subjects at Surinam and
send one, two or three ships at a time for the embarkation of them and
their goods, yet, conceiving the permission of the Dutch to be temporary
only, and all British subjects having had a fair warning, we do not think
any of your Majesty’s Governors may with success, or without exposing
their vessels to confiscation, send thither at this time to transport the
English from Surinam, at least not until the States General shall, in
like manner as formerly, grant letters to the Governor of the Colony to
suffer the said English to depart, and permit the coming of ships for
their transportation ; on the other hand, we see no reason, unless for
present defence against the Indians, why the Dutch Governor should
forbid the English to transport themselves else whither, such contingency
being expressly provided for by the 5th Article of the surrender between
Colonel Byam Governor of Surinam, and Abraham Crynsens, who took
the same.” In June Atkins wrote home from Barbados that he had
lately received a message from the Governor of Surinam that they are
in great misery through the Indians, who had most barbarously killed
many of their men, women, and children, and destroyed their plantations
and works, so that the people were forced to quit them and are ready
to starve ; and if some speedy course were not taken for their relief they
must abandon the place. He was asked if he would lend men to help
defend them, they should be well paid, and if in ten months they were
not relieved they would deliver the place and people to his Majesty ; and
if this were refused they should be forced to make the same offer to the

The Migration from Surinam to Jamuica. 171

King of France. But Atkins was ordered not to make any compact with
the Dutch for the surrender of Surinam upon any account whatever. In
December Sir William Stapleton wrote from Nevis “ I have sent the
Deptford, ketch, to Surinam, to transport English subjects, or as many
of them as she can carry to Antigua, for they are in danger of being cut
off by the Indians as some have been already. I thought this more tending
to the King’s service than her waiting here.”

Thomas Duncombe wrote to Stapleton on January 23rd, 1680: ‘‘ The
arrival of the Deptford ketch brought us the good news of your care for
us, and for the King’s subjects in Surinam. Captain Aire, of the Dept-
ford, and myself used all our diligence with the Dutch Governor and
Council here to induce him to let the English go on paying their just debts,
but they answered that, by a clause in the 5th Article of the last Treaty
between the two nations, letters must first be received both from the
States and from the King of England. Now that you have begun the
good work I hope that you will procure a pass for us from the King. On
second thoughts the Dutch Governor has permitted my wife to go with
Captain Aire, and also fifty slaves, we being quite ruined in our plantation
and destitute of provisions for our slaves.”

On the back of the foregoing is a further letter from Francis
Bruninge to Sir William Stapleton saying that he had tried his utmost
to leave Surinam in the ketch but could not prevail.

Governor Sir William Stapleton wrote from Nevis on _ the
7th of February, 1680, to the Lords of Trade and Plantations
saying that the Deptford ketch had returned from Surinam with 102
persons, blacks and whites, who were now in Antigua. The Dutch
Goyernor would not permit any more to come without orders from the
States. He supposed the Dutch Governor’s arguments to be a “mere
put-off,” for he conceived that the instructions of the States mentioned
in the 5th Article of the last Treaty were already sent by Mr. Cranfield
when he went to Surinam as Commissioner to transport the English to
Jamaica. This new Governor might be ignorant of it, or merely con-
cealed it as an excuse for detaining the King’s subjects.

The Lords of Trade and Plantations held that special sanction was
needed from the States General for their removal, and recommended to
the King that it be sought.

In May, 1680, Stapleton wrote home that the Dutch had no sugar
Colony in those parts ‘‘ since the Indians have confined them to their
Surinam fort.

Written in or before 1739, not so long after the occurrence, the
following account given by Leslie in his ‘‘ New History of Jamaica,” is
of interest :

“Twas about this critical time, that the Court of England though
fit to quit all Pretensions to Surinam, and give it up to the Dutch,

172 Timehri.

The English colony was, in Consequence of this Cession, transplanted to
Jamaica, whither they came to the Number of 1,200, poor, sickly, and
distressed. The Gentlemen who were Commissioned to remove them,
acted a very Honest Part ; and when they came hither, they were well
received and had a large Tract of Land in the Precinct of St. Elizabeth's
laid out for their use. In that Part of the Island they settled, and becom-
ing industrious, soon became considerable. Their Posterity enjoy some
of the finest Estates in Jamaica, and some of them are now in the most
considerable offices of Trust and Profit. This Addition of Hands did the
Island a considerable Service ; and the kind Entertainment they met with
made them forget their former Hardships. Indeed, the Removal of the
Colony of Surinam, was the only good thing that befel Jamaica in the
Lord Vaughan’s Time.”

In Jamaica the Surinam Quarters in 1699 became a true refuge for
the destitute when the ill-fated Scots’ Darien settlers were allowed to take
up land there, and evidences remain to-day of this later settlement in the
properties of Culloden and Ackendown.

There is strangely enough an entire absence of reference to the
Surinam matter in the Journals of the House of Assembly from 1663
to 1709 ; and Surinam is strangely not included by Mr. W. F. Lord in his
“Lost Possessions of England.”

Long, in his ‘‘ Synopsis of Vegetable and other Productions of this
Island, proper for Exportation, or Home Use and Consumption. Of
Exotics, cultivable for one or other of these Purposes ; and of its noxious
and useful Animals, &c.,” given in his history, includes “191. Surinam
Poison.—Cytisus minor villosus,” and states that the plant was intro-
duced from the South American continent, and was cultivated here for
the eake of its poisonous qualities on fish. It was possible that this plant
was introduced by the Surinam Settlers. To them and to their knowledge
of sugar-growing the reputation in that respect, of the parish of West-
moreland, which, when it was formed in 1703, took in the western part of
St. Elizabeth and with it the Surinam Quarters, must in no small degree
be attributed.*

Though Banister’s Cove and Banister’s Bay haye long since dis-
appeared from the maps of Jamaica, the evidence of the arrival of the
Surinam migrants still exists in the names of Surinam Quarters and
Scott’s Cove in St. Elizabeth, and Banisters in St. Catherine.

* This is Tephrosia toxicaria, the Yaraconami of our Arawaks; it is called Surinam
Poison by Lunan.—J,R,

Waerachtich Gerhael

Vande Heerlijke overwinning van

PIRMERIBA.

Ende de
De Reviere Seraname,

Gelegen aen't vafte lant van America, door de
Zecufche Oorlogfchepen, en’t gene zy daer vertigt
hebben Nevens ’t weder veroveren van

Yfequepe, Boumeronaen T abago,

En war haer verder op hare Reys ontmoet is onder het
Commando vanden Commandeur Crijnien.

Gefchreven m't Schip de Viffers- Herder , denz9. Mey
1667. Seylende tuf[chen Guardeloupe en Antigoa

In ’SGRAVENHAGE,
Gedruckt by Johannes Rammazeyn, Boeckdrucker woonen-
de op Stadts Cingel over de Nicuwe-have,

Title page of Pamphlet giving account of the
Dutch Capture of Surinam, and recovery of
Essequebo and Pomeroon,

SURINAM AS A DUTCH POSSESSION.

1667—FEB. 27th—1917.

By Frrep. OupscHaNs DENTZ.

The 17th century was without doubt the golden age of the Nether-
lands, a period in which heroes established the great colonial possessions
which now give the Netherlands the third place among the Great Colonial
Powers.

We cannot be otherwise than grateful when we look hack across the
centuries on the stout resolute men, which that small community produced ;
they have made the Netherlands great, although the leaves, on which
their heroic deeds were written are now yellowed with age. There is
scarcely any corner of the world, where traces of them cannot be found ;
they sailed round the world and planted settlements in far away lands,
though in the course of time many of them were lost and fell into the
hands of more powerful competitors in the racial struggles, mostly on
account of neglect and the lukewarm spirit of their successors.

Dutch pluck, Dutch enterprise, Dutch reminiscences cling round
many places on the globe, (1)

They cling to our present colonies, so much more extensive than
that small and often misjudged Motberland, wedged in between so many
powerful neighbours. One of these colonies is Surinam ; a costly, tropical
possession five times as large as the Motherland and greater than Java. It
is situated on the N.W. coast of South America, that great continent of
the future of which it forms, it is true only a very small part, but still a
part that promises much. On February 27th, 1917, this Colony—with
the exception of three short English periods—had been in Dutch hands for
two and a half centuries. »On this occasion the name of Suriname and
naturally the name of her Conqueror Abraham Crijnssen has been on the
lips of many in the Motherland and the Colonies. He was a sturdy son
of the Province of Zealand, a second de Ruyter, though unlike him, little
known and even less appreciated.

The history of Suriname, before the settlement was wrested from the
English is well known, but may be here shortly recalled.

The coast of Guiana;solemnly annexed by the Spaniards in 1598 for
Philip II., was, however, speedily abandoned by them. ‘The colonisation
of Guiana was attempted by Spaniards, who failed, by the French who
shared the same fate aud by Zeelanders and English who succeeded. At
the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th century, Guiana formed the
great point of attraction for fortune-seekers of all races, they came thither
to seek for the reported newly-discovered Manoa del Dorado, the golden
town situated on the shores of the unknown Parima Lake, where

174 Timehri.

innumerable magnificent treasures of the Peruvian Incas were hidden.
The Hollanders were the first people to settle on the Surinam River.
In 1613 (2) they had already asmall Amsterdam factory in Paramaribo,
and kept up regular trade communications. After them came English,
French and Jews.

In 1650, Lord Willoughby of Parhsm, Governor-General of the
English West Indian islands, who had his headquarteis on the Island
of Barbados fitted out an expedition with the idea of annexing the coast of
Guiana. The settlement ‘“ Willoughby Land” became a properly regu-
lated agricultural colony with many sugar plantations and he lived there
himself for some time. Charles IJ. of England granted to him
and to Lawrence Hide and their legal heirs and descendants in 1662
(June 2nd) by Royal Charter, full rights of possession, over the lands and
coasts of Surinam.

Portuguese Jews originally from Brazil came via Cayenne in 1666 and
strengthened the Colony; they were sturdy and strong and thoroughly
understood tropical agriculture, as a result they became great owners of
plantations and capitalists and from this time onwards formed the leaders
of the Surinam population,

In 1664 the New Netherlands (now New York) were taken by Rear-
Admiral Sir Robert Holmes in the name of the Duke of York, brother of
the English King. In that same year de Ruyter took British Forts on
the coast of Guinea (Africa), but his attack on Barbados in 1665 failed.
Tobago was the property of the heirs of the Brothers Lampsins,

By treaty of 17th November 1664 the King of England granted
Tobago to the Duke of Courland (Jacob von Ketteler) in exchange for his
settlement on the coast of Guinea. In the beginning of 1666 the Governor
of Jamaica brought about the conquest of Tobago. Now came the revenge
for the conquest of the New Netherlands and Tohago. In 1666 the Grand
Pensionary Pieter de Huybert wrote to Jan de Witt, unfolding a plan fora
raid on the West Indies.

The other Naval Authorities refused to take part in this but the
Admiralty of Zeeland commenced preparation in secret and carried
them through. Their man is Crijnssen (or Quirijnssen), probably the son
of a Zeeland Captain of this name. He was Captain in the Zeeland
Admiralty, on the yacht “ Prins te Paert.” He distinguished himself in
1666 and became Lieutenant Admiral of Zeeland. The object, as was
stated, was to do as much damage as possible to the English and to fur-
ther the interests of the Zeeland plantation owners.

An example of the popularity of Surinam in those days can be seen
in the following lines, in which the father of a young girl, promises his

Surinam as a Dutch Possession. 175

consent to her marriage with her lover, on condition that he first makes
a voyage to Surinam.

“You worthy triend desire to have my daughter as your love
“T will surely give her to you, to your great comfort

“ But prove me first, that as a man you possess good courage
* And first make a voyage to Suriname,

“ As every proper young Zeelander uses to

“ Who has been enraptured by the beauty of a Zeeland maid.”

On Dee. 30th, 1666 Crijnssen sailed from Vere in Zeeland, as Com-
mander of 7 vessels ‘‘ The Zeelandia ” (84 guns and 150 men) as Flagship,
the ‘“ West-Cappel” and the “ Zee-Ridder,” the same size and commanded
respectively by Simon Loncke and Pieter de Mauregnault, the yacht
“ Prins te Paert,’ Capt. Salmon le Sage, the hooker “‘ Wester-Souburgh,”
Capt. Rochus (Roys) Bastaert, the hired fly-boat ‘ Aerdenburgh ” as pro-
vision ship and one as advice boat. The crews probably numbered about
700, including 200 land militiamen under Captains Philip Julius Lichten-
bergh and Maurice de Rame (Raem).

In Jan., 1667 “‘ de Visschersherder” was sent as a re-inforcement. On
Feb. 26th Crijnssen sailed up the Suriname river, hoisted the National
Flag, and demanded from the Governor William Byam, in the name of the
States of Zeeland, the immediate surrender of the (wooden) Fort
Willoughby. His refusal only lasted 24 hours. On Sunday, Feb. 27th,
1667, Byam surrendered and was granted an honourable retreat. The
Fort was renamed “ Zeelandia” and Maurice de Rame was appointed Com-
mander in Surinam. The expedition only cost one life.

“ A oreat and blessed conquest, blessed because the special blessing
“of God is to be seen in so many ways. In the first place it was in the
“ rainy time there, a time in which it is wont to rain so heavily that on
“account of the great abundance of water the land is almost useless, yet,
“on the contrary at the time our men were there it was such fine and
“dry weather that some of the English noticiag it, blasphemously said
“that God was no longer English but had become entirely a Zeelander.”

So wrote Abrahamus a Westhuysen, Chaplain on board. ‘ De Viss-
chersherder” to his brother on May 19th, in a pamphlet printed by
Johannes Ramazeyn, Printer living on the Stadts Cingel over the Nieuwe
Haven, in 1667 under the title of “ A true account of the splendid
Conquest of Pimeriba” ete., the only Dutch account of Crynnsen’s
voyage which exists. The official report, reached the hands of the
Grand Pensionary in Breda, but was afterwards lost. The Colony was
officially surrendered by Treaty signed on board the ship ‘‘ Zealand ”
the 6th of March, stilo Novo, 1667. That the conquest of Surinam was
a measure of reprisal, is proved by Art. 31 and 43 of the Instruction of
Abraham Crynssen, established by the Court of Zeeland at Middleburg
Dec. 23th, 1666, also by the Secret Nota of the Most High and Mighty
States of Zeeland Dec. 4th 1666 and in various other letters. ( )

176 Timehri.

Willoughby’s plantations were confiscated together with those of his
fellow-countrymen living in the Motherland, The contributions levied
amounted to 100,000 lbs. of sugar.

After this Crynssen departed to Tobago and occupied it. On May
20th a naval battle took place by the island of Nevis between the
English and the United Zeelanders and French, the result of which was
indecisive. On Aug. 24th Crynssen arrived in his native country. The
States of Zeeland showed their appreciation. In the meeting of 22nd
September, Abraham Crynssen and his men were duly praised and both
he and Lichtenbergh were each honoured with a golden medal and chain ;
while all the other Captains were presented with a similar gold medal.
The English recaptured Surinam Oct. 8th, 1667, but a second expedition
of the Zeeland Admiral restored it to Zeeland in May, 1668. By the
Peace of Breda, July, 1667, Suriname was ceded to the Netherlands as
having been reconquered before May 10th old style or 20th May new
style. At the same time New Amsterdam and New Netherland were
restored to England and by the Treaty of Westminster February, 1674,
the rights of the Republic of the Netherlands tothe Colony Surinam were
recognised and established. Where and when Crynssen died is not
known, we know his grave as little as his statue.

The Treasury of Zeeland accounts show his salary as Governor was
paid up to Nov. 18th, 1668, at this date it reverts to (4) Lichtenbergh. In
a French letter from Nicolas Combe over accounts of materials for the
States of Zeeland written Febr. 4th, 1670 is mentioned “feu M, Crynssen
de bonne memoire.”

Abraham Crynssen must, however, have died between 20th June, 1669
and 26th July, 1669. In the Minutes of the Council of Zeeland, of June
20th, 1669 Commander Crynssen was mentioned, and in those of 26th
July, 1669, of the late Captain Commander Abraham Crynssen.

His signature was Orynssen although in Art. 5 of the Treaty of
Westminster 1674 he is spoken of as Abraham Quirijnssen. On the
tombstone of his father the name also appears as Quirijnssen (°),

The expedition to Chatham, which was intended to exercise pressure
in bringing the Treaty of Breda to a conclusion overshadowed Crynssen’s
expedition, which, however, had a lasting result.

The Rev. George Edmundson has also written about the Conquest
of Surinam inanarticle in the Publications of the Utrecht Historical
Society (6) “Account of the Taking of Paramaribo in 1665” (7) by
General William Byam in which he printed the MSS. of Major John
Scott of 1667 :

“ Lieutt. Genll. Byam’s Journall of Guiana (1665-1667) ; an exact
narrative of the state of Guiana, as it stood anno 1665 particularly of the

Appendices.—Surinam as a Dutch Possession. 177

English Colony in Surynem, beginning of the warr and of its actions
dureing the warr, the takeing by a fleet from Zealand (8).

The continuation of this is printed in the publications of the same
Society (9) in 1918 an Article “ Surinam before the Conquest by
Abraham Crijnssen ” in which I included ‘ the description of Guiana ”
by the same Major Scott, which MSS. was copied by the late Hon. N.
Darnell Davis of British Guiana and quoted on the occasion of the
Venezuela Brit. Boundary Case (19) and which was never printed in
Holland before. In this article I gave some particulars about Scott to
readers in Holland, which can also be found in the Rev. Edmundson’s
article ‘‘ The Dutch in Western Guiana ” (1)

In the explanatory notes ('!2) of my article, a statement was printed,
which I found in the States Archives in the Hague ('%), which proves
the expedition of Abraham Orijnssen cost 21,263. 18. 9 pounds Flemish.

The conquest of Surinam in 1668 had cost according to a MSS.
found in Zealand by Baron Mulert f 154,333-6-L0 florins.

Before my return to Surinam I was fortunate in obtaining copies of
several documents (14) dealing with the conquest of Surinam, which are
in England, these will be interesting for readers in British Guiana, so far
as they are not already known. They will appear in the publications of
the Historical Society of Utrecht for 1919 (15) and are annexed as
Appendix 1-9.

(1) ‘‘In het voetspoor der Vaderen”’ bij Fred. Oudschans Dentz ‘‘ Vragen Van den Dag,
Vol. 27, 1912. No. 6.

(2) Publication of the Historical Society of Utrecht, Vol. 35, 1914.

Een Amsterdamsche factory et Paramaribo in 1613 by Mr. Dr. S. van Brakel,

(3) Geeurring in Register of Instructions, Resolutions, and Ac‘s concerning the Expedition to
the province and Colony Serename, situated on the mainland of Guiana, as also to other
colonies, islands and parts of America. A book of about 900 pages in the Imperial
Archives of Zeeland, found by Baron F. E. Mulert; this MSS. has not been published,

(4) His’ orical notes over Suriname and Paramaribo, 1911 by Fred, Oudschans Dentz, page 6.

(5) Archives Zeeland Society, 1913. Page 96.

(6) Vol. XIX, 1898, page 231.

(7) Should be 1667,

(8) Sloane MSS. 3662 British Museum.

(9) Vol. XXXIX, 1918, p. 174-213.

10) Timehri, Vol, X1, new series June, 1897. Part 1. page 11.

11) Eng. Hist. Review, 1901, Vol. XVI, page 640-675,

(12) Note 67.

(13) Miscellaneous W.I. documents, No. 168.

15) Royal Commission on Historial MSS.

15) Vol. XL (1919).

APPENDICES.

Li

1662, August 15, Surinam,

John Treffry to Charles Pym. We have been long in expectation of
my Lord [Willoughby] who by his last told me that he would soon be
ready to sail, having fully agreed with His Majesty concerning Barbados
and this place. I hope that we shall see this Colony wonderfully prosper

178 Timehrt.

by reason of the decline of Barbados whence we daily expect sixty
passengers and planters by the Guiana. All things are excessively dear,
and sugar so bad that it will hardly be received. Money is as fluent there
as in England, and taverns take nothing else—no goods, which must
occasion a decay of their old trade. The Spaniards, we understand, have
bought 500 negroes from the Island for ready money at high rates. Our
Colony is daily improving. Seven ships have already gone hence laden
with sugar, specklewood, and other commodities. Major Noel has a
windmill up, and ours will be the next to be made. Every one is striving
for the good of the public. Our sugar is far better, and of greater price
than that of Barbados, Our noble Governor may justly bear the honour,
having won every one not only to himself, but also to industry, Some
debauched persons have lately tried to make the world believe that he
intended to poison Lieut.-Col. Robert Sanford. It was a plot of Sanford’s.

Particulars given.

Reports of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts.
10th report appendix, part VI, 1887, Pym MSS. pp. 96.

Il. '
Sir R. H[ARLEY] to Colonel BYAM, Governor of Surinam.

1666, October 30.
Brampton stating his desire to dispose of all his interests in Surinam.
Copy.
. The Manuscripts of His Grace the Diike of Portland preserved at
Welbeck Abbey, Vol. III.

Historical Manuscripts Commission, 14th report, appendix, part II,
1894.
“ ete
III.
1667, December 15, Barbados.

Lord Willoughby to Sir Charles Pym.

I am going to Leeward to settle things there and I may chance try
my skill in India Hunting. Their late barbarities have been such that
they deserve no law.

Heraldic seal.
10th report, appendix, part VI, 1887, Pym MSS.
Ty.
1667, December 31.

The Dutch Ambassador talks not so calmly about the taking of
Surinam. Bay

The Manuscripts of S. H. Le Fleming, Esq. of Rydal Hall. Historical
Manuscript Commission, 12th Report, appendix, part VII, 1890, No. 935,

pp. 54.

Appendices.—Surinam as a Dutch Possession. 179

V.
1668, June 9.

The King has protested on the Dutch Ambassadors his displeasure
that Surinam has been surrendered by Lord Willoughby.

Ib. No. 985, pp. 56.

Vir

1668. November 6. Antigua—WiLLt1am Byam To [Sir Ropert
Hartry. The last I received from you was of the 30th of October [16]
66 from Brampton Castle, advising the sale of what you had in Surinam,
which arrived not to my hands till December last. The sad miseries
which war and pestilence brought on that colony I formerly advised, but
lest my letters have been misguided I shall present you with a short
account of that unfortunate colony which you well know.

In June [16]66 I received orders to erect a fort at Pramorabo, and
to attack the French at Wynwad at Cheyan, and Synnamaru, which was
done with great succes, taking the fort of Synnamaru by storm, and
brought the governor and near fifty prisoners to Surinam ; and for fear
that the Dutch and Arwaks Leward should in the mean attempt us in
the absence of our force, I sent a fleet of periagos to fall on their quarters,
which was so fully prosecuted that they brought up about seventy slaves.
At the return of our forces, which was in August following, we were
visited with such a contagious pestilence that in a short time we lost a
great part of the chiefest mén of the land. This retarded our fort, and
spread over all the country. In February following arrived a Dutch
fleet from Zealand, by the advice of Scott, to take the colony, which
found us ina most weak condition, near half our men dead, and half that
were living, miserably weak, ill armed, and our fort not half built, but
one bastion perfected. Viewing our exposed condition they came with
four frigates to an anchor very near the fort, where they battered with
all the nimble fury they could for three hours, and our walls being but
half built, commanded from their frigates the inside of the fort. I had
but five barrels of powder which was spent to fifty weight and that very
bad. They then landed about seven hundred men with scaling ladders,
grenades &c., and finding our works not tenable nor amunition to defend
them, if they had been finished, I called a council of war of all officers
and gentlemen that were with me and surrendered with their advice upon
most honourable terms. I had about ninety men, such as they were, with
me, most of which immediately clave to the Dutch. From hence I went
up to Toorarica where rallying all that ever I could with Jews and all,
old and young, sick and well, I couldreach but to a hundred and sixty-
eight, and then with the advice of the Council and desire of the country
we articled with the Dutch, and the sooner because we expected every
minute a French fleet. In our capitulations we stood very much for the
same terms for all absent persons interested in the colony as for our-
selves, which by no means they would grant, having positive orders from

180 Timehre.

their States to confiscate all absent persons estates, which the defection
of our people, our weakness, sickness and other necessities, enforced us
to condescend unto. You had at this time a very thriving stock of cattle
at St. Johns where I placed William Gwilt anda negro woman of yours
to look to them, having as you advised me at Barbados sold your
small plantation in Para to Captain Whitaker for 4500 Ib. sugar.
After the taking of the country the Dutch brought your cattle
from St. Johns to Parham and the negro woman—who had brought
forth a mulatto—where some they killed and disposed of others.
They had now at beginning of October [16]67 completed the fort,
having had near a hundred and sometimes a hundred and fifty negroes
constantly at work, about which time Sir John Harman after the
taking of Cheyan arrived with his fleet, and Lieutenant General Henry
Willoughby with two regiments. The foot having surrounded the fort,
Sir John Harman on the 7th of October came up in the BONADVENTURE
with several frigates attending him, and having his round tops well
manned with small shots, dropped anchor near the fort, and immediately
beat them oft their guns. He began about seven in the morning, and
about one they put out a flag of truce, upon which the seamen and soldiers
ran to the battered walls, and got up and took the Dutch governor as
he was drawing articles. The fort being taken it was declared by a council
of war of the land officers that whatever was confiscated by the Dutch
and whatever was theirs else of right, did now properly belong to them,
they having gained it by the sword, without any articles made with the
enemy, nor had they any other reward for their service, being not in pay.
Upon which they commanded down all negrues that were in the Dutch
possession and such as were not paid for to the Dutch amongst the rest,
all those at Parham, where the negro woman and mulatto was; the which

the soldiers gave the Lieutenant General for his share, and then carried

oft and divided the rest at Barbados. About the lst of November following
the fleet set sail from Surinam, and about the beginning of December
after, Lieusenant General H. Willoughby returned in the BONADVENTURE
sent thither to bring off His Majesty’s subjects, the colony being to revert
to the Dutch, with whom I came off, with my family, but most of my
negroes and goods I put aboard the WILLouGHBYy frigate, which Captain
Clarke and I hired to sail for Antigua. Some few days after our arrival
at Barbados came the Lieutenant General’s negroes in another ship,
which he had freighted for them, and also the negro woman and the
mulatto, which Mr. James Walwyn, your attorney hearing of, made
application to His Excellency for her, which Mr. Walwyn told me he
promised he should have, but whether he afterwards received her, I know
not.

Sir, there is one thing I must acquaint you, that one Sandford, who
went off for Nevis with the Dutch fleet, one of our colony, and brother to
Robert Sandford, being an inveterate and malicious enemy of mine, and
not dreaming the colony would ever be reduced to His Majesty’s obedi-
ence, gave out and averred that I had betrayed the country to the Dutch,
and had carried myself with the greatest base treachery and cowardice as

Appendices.—Surinam as a Dutch Possession. 181

ever villain did, upon which after the retaking of the country I was
called before a court martial and there tried, where I was acquitted with
exceeding great honour, they presenting me unasked with an attestation
of my honourable carriage in that service ; and Sandford afterward denied
the report, aud in the presence of Sir John Harman and the Lieutenant
General, gave me his recantation under his hand.

Sir, whilst I was in Barbados, I would have perfected accounts with
Mr. Wallwyn your attorney, but all my papers being gone before in the
WiLLoucuey | could not, I have now sent him my account between us,
in which I have charged you debtor for 5000 lb. sugar, which I gave Mr,
Trefirye, or else he would have confiscated that which was in Mr. Westrope’s
hand, Captain Marten’s executor, and also that 4500 lb. in Captain
Whitaker’s hands; what remains still in Westrope’s hands I have secured,
being about 13,000 lb, and I am lately advised I shall receive it. I have
desired Mr, Walwyn to remit you a copy of the account for the clearing,
of which I have by very great providence all the papers preserved.

Sir, lam now beginning to hew a new fortune out of the woods in
Antigua, where hardship must be my fare for a time till 1eaa make goods
and raise a stock, and till then I hope you will forbear the balance of the
account I owe you.

If I may serve you or any friends of yours that comes into these
* parts let me beg the employ, and I shall do it most faithfully, being still
very sensible of the great obliging favours undeservedly received from you.

An account of some of the chiefest that died in Surinam in the late
mortality.

Colonel Christopher Legard. Colonel Ely : Elye.
Captain George Marten. Captain Augustine Story.
Serjeant-Major Thomas Noell. Mr. Thomas Quinton.
Captain Francis Starky. Mr. Thomas Davys.
Lieutenant Henry Long, Ensign John Durham.
Mr. Seymour Straunge. Mr. Henry Adys.
Captain Robert Colvile. Mr. Richard Woodstocke.
Mr. Paul Young. Mr. Robert Chapman.
Mr. Thomas Gray. Mr. William Coxe.

Mr. John Deerihum. Mr. Richard Knightly.
Captain John Parker. Mr. Thomas Wale.
Captain Bartholomew Washington. Capt. Bevell Rawdon.
Mr. Stephen Woodroffe. Captain Robert Collinson.
Mr. Asgod Kingsmill. Mr. Francis Sandford
Mr. John Blygh. Several Jews.

Captain Thomas Sanderson.

With many others—at least five hundred, by which you may judge
what a miserable time of sickness we have had.

182 Timehri.

The Manuscripts of His Grace THE DUKE OF PORTLAND, pre-
served at WELBECK ABBEY. Vol. III. Historical Manuscripts
Commission. Fourteenth Keport, appendix, part II, 1894.

—_——

Vit,
1668, November 8. Antigua,

William Byam to Sir Charles Pym at Hatton House, London.

I have deserted our unfortunate Colony of Surinam, war and pestil-
ence having almost consumed it. Asitis torevert to the Dutch, I have
with great loss removed to Antigua, where I am hewing new fortune out
of the wild woods. Resettling is hard, the island being ruined by the
French and the Indians. The titles of our lands are established to the
satisfaction of all and the inhabitants are more now than ever before.

Heraldic seal.

Reports of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts. 10th
Report, appendix VI, 1887, pp. 96.

VIII.
1670, November 1.

A Commission is issuing to Major Bannister and others to carry out
the agreement with the United Provinces about Surinam.

The Manuscripts of S. H. Le Flemming, Esq. of Rydal Hall.
Historical Manuscripts Commission, 12th Report, appendix VII, 1890,
No. 1662, pp. 72.

IX,
1671, June 13.

Major Bannister, who was sent to Surinam to bring away the
English according with the treaty with the Dutch, thas arrived at Jamaica
with many of them, in good health,

Ib. No. 1223, pp. 79.

THE CELEBRATION OF THE ANNIVERSARY BY
THE DUTCH ON FEBRUARY 28th, 1917,

By Frep OvupscHans DENTZ.

February 27th, was memorable in the annals of Surinam as being its
250th anniversary as a Dutch Colony. It was wrested from England by
the Netherlands and with the exception of three short intervals (8 Oct.,
1667-Ist May, 1668, 1799-1802 and 1804-1816) it has remained in
Dutch possession for two and a half centuries.

The day was celebrated on February 28th (!) as Abraham Crynssen
day, a national festival; the schools were closed and the Government
offices, as far as possible, at midday. A special number of the Govern-
ment “ Gazette ” was published containing a proclamation from Governor
Staal to the inhabitants :

‘ Proclamation on the occasion of the two and a half centuries of
Union between the Netherlands and Surinam.
‘‘ Fellow inhabitants of Surinam.

* To-day, February 28th, we commemorate the day on which, two and
a half centuries ago, Commodore Abraham Crynssen landed in Surinam and
planted the Royal flag of the House of Orange, on the spot which since
that date has borne the name of ‘ Fort Zeelandia.’

Surinam has been united with the Netherlands for two hundred and
fifty years and although history mentions one or two periods during
which the tie was temporarily broken, we know that no disagreement
was the cause of these ruptures.

“ A bond of two and a half centuries creates a union. During these
long years there has been a welding together of the Netherlands and
Surinam.

‘The very serious circumstances through which the whole world is
passing prevent us from celebrating the day” with great festivities. But
the flags are flying and our hearts rejoice. Let us greet Her under
whose bleased rule we are enabled to celebrate the day in peace. On
the invitation of the Colonial Parliament, I have to-day despatched a
telegram to our honoured and beloved Queen in which I have presented
to her the homage and congratulations of the inhabitants, at the same
time assuring her of the feelings of sincere love, fidelity and dependence
which continue to animate her subjects in this colony.

(1) There is an error in this date. The ‘‘ Willoughby fort’ surrendered on Sunday,
February 27th, and the Dutch called it henceforth fort ‘‘ Zeelandia.” General Byam handed
the Colony of Surinam over on March 8th,

I have pointed out in Dutch papers and journals that even several historians use a
wrong date of Suriname’s capitulation and careful examination of Dutch and British sources
prove that Paramaribo surrendered on February 27th, 1667.

184 Timehrr.

“ Her Majesty’s Government showed its interest by tendering sincere
wishes for the welfare of the Colony and its inhabitants.

“Remember what the House of Orange has been for Surinam up to the
present day.

‘“* Remember what Surinam has done for the Netherlands.

“ And join with me in expressing the sincere wish that, United with
the Netherlands under the House of Orange, better times may be ours in
the future.

“May there grow out of our joyous and thankful hearts on this
impressive day, a steadier determination to work unitedly for the welfare
of Surinam.

‘*‘ Surinam, together with Curacao and Dutch East Indies may add
her share to the lustre surrounding the throne of the Netherlands.

“ Together let us stride forward, with these our watchwords :—

‘Prosperity for the Netherlands, Prosperity for Surinam, Prosperity
for the whole Kingdom!
‘* Long live the Queen,
“ Paramaribo, 28th February, 1917,
* The Governor of Surinam,
(w.s,) STAAL.”

The following telegram was sent to Her Majesty the Queen :

“ Commemorating two anda half centuries, union between Holland
“ and Surinam, Inhabitants of Surinam respectfully present Your Majesty
“their homage and heartiest wishes for felicity--Your Majesty and
“ Royal family—while Your Majesty’s subjects, including myself, seize
“ this opportunity to renew assurance of sincerest gratitude, love, faith
“ and devotion. Governor Staal.”

The Governor received the following reply :

“It is with great satisfaction that I remember this day. I assure
“You that my thoughts join with those of the Colony Surinam.”

Telegrams were also exchanged between the Colonial Minister and
the Governor.

On all public buildings and ships lying in the harbour the national
flag was hoisted, as well as on many private houses in all parts of the town.

The festivities began early in the morning. The troops under the
personal leadership of Capt. Spook paraded with their band through the
town. Previous to their leaving the fort Capt. Spook led them through
the grounds of the fortress to the historical spot, where Crynssen landed
and there spoke enthusiastically, reminding them of the great deed.

Celebration of Anniversary by the Dutch on Feb., 28, 1917. 185

The band then sounded a fanfare and the parade began. It needs
scarcely be mentioned that the school youth of the town accompanied the
troops in large numbers.

From 5-6 in the afternoon there was a concert in the Palm garden,
which proved a great enjoyment to many, especially to the children. At
6.30 there were services in all the Churches, with exception of the
Lutheran and all were well attended. The Governor with Mrs. and Miss
Staal, accompanied by Adjutant Verhoeven, were present in the Dutch
Reformed Church, where the Rev. J. W. C. Ort took the service.

The National Anthem : “ Wilhelmus van Nassauen ” at the beginning
and ‘Wien Neerlands Bloed” at the close of the service were most
impressively played by Mr. Ritfield, the organist ; the crowds both inside
and outside the church, listening with great attention. The organist
played these anthems on his own initiative and a word of praise is due
to him for this as also for his excellent interpretation of all the other
national hymns.

From 5.30-6.30 the Militia Band played at Siva Square, where a
large audience was in attendance.

The greatest attraction, however, was the concert given by the
Military Band at the Church Square. The Governor rode through the
erwod in his automobile, and at that moment the Band played the
‘Wilhelmus ” and a ringing cheer burst from the crowd.

From 9.30-10.30 p.m. the Military Band marched through the
Heeren street, the Wagenweg street, the Zwartenhovenburg street,
Prinsen street, Saramacca street along the Waterside to the fort, large
crowds following.

A new road leading from the Government square to the grounds
surrounding the fortress ‘“ Zeelandia” was named “ Abraham Crynssen
road” to commemorate the occasion.

SOME HOME TRUTHS.

By. EpGAR BECKETT.

When slavery was abolished, this necessary act of justice and
humanity was fellowed apparently by a laissez-faire policy which was
unjust in the extreme.

In the days of slavery such institutions as our Savings Banks were
unknown but as the slaves under British Government were allowed to
cultivate their own little provision patches and to rear fowls, ducks, and
pigs, they were enabled to effect considerable savings, which they buried
generally inthe soil. The-result was that those who were hardworking
and possessed of any degree of thrift, accumulated considerable sums of
money. To the amazement of the planters their old bondmen came for-
ward and purchased for cash the estates which their masters were unable
to cultivate for the want of reliable labour—villages like Plaisance,
Beterverwagting Buxton, etc., were bought outright by the free people,
who clubbed together and carried their silver dollars, literally by the
wheelbarrow loads, to the place of payment. To their credit we may
recall that many offered to help their poverty-stricken ex-Masters with
ready cash.

When these villages were taken over by the freed bondmen they were
in excellent order, drainage conditions were good and everything was
ina satisfactory state. Soon this state of affairs passed away, the
industrious portion were made to suffer for the negligence of other
proprietors, the very ones who had been themselves field labourers began
to feel the effects of the want of a steady and reliable labour force at
given times ; the older proprietors died out, neglect and decay followed,
so-called “education,” and a not unnatural disinclination to work on
the soil by the then rising generation led to further neglect, until the aid
of the Government was required. The Government assisted by helping
with loans, granting village administration and what not, until now the
Government is perhaps looked upon as the remedy for all evils.

We are reaping to-day the aftermath from the sowings of the people
responsible for the freeing of the bondmen, without making any adequate
preparation for teaching and training those emancipated to distinguish
between liberty and licence.

As time passed, this repugnance to the soil became more and more
marked. A little learning awakened ambition, and though in very many
instances this has been ambition in the right direction, in many others it
is an ambition which scorns manual and honest labour and aspires to a
high collar and a pen behind the ear.

Even the horny-handed farmers of to-day feel it their duty to make their
sons either teachers or clerks—anything rather than an independent farmer.

In a Lime Factory.

[ Photo by G. E. Bopkty.

A Crop of Limes grown on abandoned Cane-fields.

Some Home Truths. 187

With the opening up of the goldfields and the balata bush the pictures
were completed. Labour became scarcer and gradually the black popula-
tion turned itself to various trades and the black-task gangs became less
and less of importance to the sugar estates as their places were filled by
East Indian immigrants, immigrants from China and from Madeira,

The Villages, the properties of the old bondmen, were neglected so
far as cultivation was concerned, as more and more the adventures of a
life in the “ bush ” appealed to sturdy young men, where by dint of a few
months really hard labour, there appeared to be greater gain than a life
of persistent everyday industry which farming all over the world
demands,

Such a life of hard toil amidst dangers, away from such civilisation
as the coast affords, brought with it the result usual to all races which
have to toi] in this way—namely, a want of thrift, a recklessness and an
extravagant love of pleasure, which asks for nothing better than a_ merry
time, whilst the money is there to afford this.

Now a colony such as ours which depends practically on one industry
for its stability and that industry an annual crop such as sugar cane, is in
a very precarious condition if reliable and steady labour is not forthcom-
ing. Hence an expensive system of immigration—a system massed with
faults—was resorted to. The immigrant found the most suitable was the
East Indian. Full of thrift, with but few wants, patient, industrious, he
has, as he was bound to, made a place for himself at the top and gradual-
ly he is becoming the wealthy proprietor of the colony.

East Indian immigration is a thing of the past to-day, and to com-
pete with other countries we are bound to adopt labour-saving devices
which were “‘ pooh-poohed ” in the past as being entirely impossible, but
which to-day are being seriously experimented with —so far this has been
a blessing in disguise.

On all sides there is a clamour for the development of the colony—
the magic word hinterland has been in everyone’s mouth. A Governor of
“ proved constructive ability ” was demanded and we obtained him, and
it is a matter of unsavoury history how he was treated by many of our
colonists.

At any rate the demand for development has always existed, some
claimiag that the coastlands should be first dealt with and that drainage
and irrigation schemes should be forthwith carried out, others that
development should be on a large scale and that both coast and hinter-
land should be developed by means of schemes carried out on a gigantic
scale. :

Our immigration systems of the past have been marked by a spirit
the reverse of what should have existed. But out of our immigration
system we might easily have built up a colonisation scheme. On the
contrary, the object aimed at was adult labour for the plantations—no

188 Timehrr.

thought as to the proportion of sexes seems to have been uppermost —with
the result that dismal failure appears to have marked our efforts in this
direction. The Hon. Cecil Clementi, M.A. (Oxon), the Officer now adminis-
tering the Government, in his recent ‘ Report’ on the colony has made
the figures accessible to every one.

Without immigration, bad though the methods employed have been,
itis a fact that admits of no dispute we should not have existed as a
colony at all.

Mr. Clementi tells us that we imported in 1835 to 1882, 30,809
Portugese from Madeira and the Azores, and that to-day some 9,000 odd
are in the Colony.

In 18538 to 1879 some 14,000 Chinese were brought to these shores—
to-day only 2,874 Chinese are in the colony. Finally in 1838 came our
first batch of East Indian immigrants, and altogether we have introduced
238,979 East Indian souls, of which there remain to us at the present
time only about 134,000. At the end of 1917 there were said to be
118,398 persons forming the negro population.

Of these races, the Portuguese, as a whole, have been eminently
successful, the few that remain are amongst our wealthiest and most
respected citizens. The same may be said of the Chinese.

Of the negroes, the enormous strides that have been made by the
race, asa whole, have possibly led many to forget how young the race
actually is.

Probably because the negro is extremely fond of pleasure, and in
many instances does not look kindly to an agricultural life, people have
jumped to the very erroneous conclusion that he is lazy. This is entirely
a mistake. Show the negro that he can make “ good ” money at certain
kinds of work and no other race in the colony can outstrip him in activity
and share hard work.

Those of us who have had experience in the gold bush and balata
fields know that for downright hard work he can hardly be beaten.

What the negro does not appreciate is persistent daily work of a
light nature.

He likes quick and large returns, attention to details disgusts him,
Unfortunately the lack of “character” is not altogether unmarked, and
descended from various tribes of West Africa, as the people of this colony
are, the glaring faults of a few are often enough taken as representative
of the whole.

Anything of a pettifogging nature is repulsive to him. Hence he is
no use.as a small shopkeeper. His very want of thrift often enough is
the result of his largeheartedness. There is very little about him that is
mean or “ stingy.” He spends largely, has an open purse for those in

Some Home Truths. 189

distress ; he it is that keeps alive the very merchants and tradesmen that
abuse him, and he is the main support of the Christian churches in the
colony.

And he is no fool—far from it. Often enough we are told he refuses
to plant this or that crop, to cultivate this or that area. Frequently he
knows that other pursuits pay him better, often he has learnt from bitter
experience what it is to lose his crops from drought or flood, not to
mention predial larceny.

Strong and active, he slips through life goodnaturedly, aided by a
philosophy all his own—a philosophy which has given us a wealth of
creole proverbs which can hardly be surpassed.

Is it not possible to correct the faults of these people and make them
yet a class of thriving peasant-proprietors, forming the backbone of the
colony? We believe it is quite practical.

Our East Indians have been the salvation of all of us. With an eye
always on the main chance, always ready to save, with his love for cattle
and small stock, his resurrection of the rice industry—he holds ‘o-day a
position second to none in the colony.

Like the Portuguese and Chinese he is an excellent shop-keeper, and
this spirit has grown with such strides that many rank as merchants of
importance, and like the negro he is fast filling the professional ranks of
the colony.

It may be noted that we have a number of negro clergymen, lawyers
and doctors who by their ability and integrity command and obtain the
deepest respect.

We have two East Indian clergymen of the Church of England,
several East Indian lawyers and doctors, who are ornaments to their
professions ; we have Chinese Doctors and lawyers; while Portuguese
doctors and lawyers to-day rank with the highest of other European
nations. Not on the whole a bad record fora system of introduction which
had little or nothing to commend it.

Can we not then, if we establish a well-thought-out Colonisation
scheme, look forward to stupendous results ?

When one remembers the severe handicap we have all suffered, to us
it is little short of miraculous that we have made the progress that we
have.

Take our Health Conditions and Sanitation generally. It is
true that the Sugar Estate authorities have spared neither pains
nor expense to provide health conditions for their people, but they suffer
the most serious handicap of being continually re-infected by the adjacent
villages, where no sanitation exists at all—and frequently these are
Villages under the Local Government Board.

190 ~ Timehri.

We have then the picture of the Government compelling estate
authorities to submit toa certain line of campaign (and with different
men we have often enough different methods, and no continuity of policy),
while villayes more or less under Government control lie neglected
without even a drinking water supply, and little or no effort made to bring
them into line with the policy the estates are compelled by the Medical
Authorities to adopt !

We have Georgetown described by Dr. K. S. Wise, appointed this
year as Surgeon General of Trinidad, as a city veritably floating on
sewage. We have New Amsterdam without even any attempt at sanitation
—in this respect even remarkably worse than Georgetown, while the state
of the villages may be gathered from the condition of our city and town.
Is it any wonder that our villages are riddled with ankylostomiasis, when
the drinking water where there is any, is an open trench befouled in the
most abominable way, and when our Bacteriologist suggests that some
effort at cleanliness should be instilled into our school children, he is
ridiculed by at least one clerical manager.

We have also the awful problem of Malaria. Let us quote Dr. Wise :
“The Baby-Saving League, the Tuberculosis Society, medical
inspection of schools and general public health measures are all sub-
ordinate to this primary problem; they are gravely handicapped and
prevented from attaining full measure of success by the ravages of malaria,
the control of which would at once bring them half their objects. Malaria
is the pivot on which most of our problems of public health balance ; its
basal influence is the substratum from which our difficulties arise. This
is not exaggeration.

Malaria is omnipresent as the light and wind, a blight on our land
checking and distorting the growth of the community. Bathed in malaria
and saturated with its poison the people are handicapped at birth, live in
infancy and childhood with a millstone round the neck, while those who
survive resent an influence they do not understand.”

This indictment is a most damning one and when one adds to the
picture the dread and horrible disease of filaria with which so alarming a
proportion of our people are now afllicted, it is time for us to demand that
every nerve must be strained to control these diseases. Indeed to attempt
to bring people into this colony unless we are prepared to act, appears
under the circumstances as simple wickedness. Further if our education-
alists only ‘‘labour to stuff the memory,” to quote Montaigue “ and leave
the conscience and understanding unfurnished and void,” what can we
expect of our future ?

The loss in efficiency from a people so afflicted by malaria and filaria,
if put down in pounds, shillings and pence, would no doubt stagger us.

Again we would point out that, if under these terrific handicaps we
have made such progress, we may expect indeed to see British Guiana
come into her own when the demon of Malaria is beaten ynder foot,

Some Home Truths. 191

These gigantic health problems must be faced, we have shirked them
long enough in the past, and at a time when we hope to attract Colonists
to these shores, it becomes still more important to act and to act at once.

Years ago there was no such thing as Tuberculosis in this Colony of
perpetual sunshine. To-day silently this dreaded plague is creeping
forward. Enteric occasionally arises in epidemic form, our infantile
mortality is a standing reproach. Are these questions faced seriously by
the authorities ?

Tuberculosis Societies are supposed to be mainly supported by charity,
malaria and filaria are on the increase, they are our constaut menance,
and yet we continue to play at eradicating the former and controlling
the latter. Some of the homes our Village people inhabit are veritable
death traps so far as malaria is concerned, The growth and health of our
people seem not be as important as the growth and health of many of
our plants !

If only we could drop some of the petty and stupid questions of the
day and diligently devote ourselves to some of these pressing problems,
we faney we should be doing more for our people than all the preaching
of this or that doctrine, all the campaigning for a Labour Union, all the
discussions of political subjects. The Gospel of Our Lord needs in this
Colony to go hand-in-hand with the Gospel of sanitation.

The problem is a big one. Are we afraid to face it? The problem of
_Sea Defence was a big one, but it was faced.

We may fashion it how we like, but the health conditions under
which our people exist to-day is a standing reproach to any community.
The puny efforts that have been made in the past are bound to give way
in the near future to sturdy methods.

No Colonisation Scheme can possibly be a success unless this is done.
“ Sapere aude,
Incipe ; vivendi recte qui prorogat horam,
Rusticus expectat, dum defluat amnis ; at ille
Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis aevum.”

The river of ill-health and inefficiency has flowed on long enough.

It is time that our people were given a fair chance to live their lives
as they should be lived—not go through a distorted existence, crippled
with malaria.

With a healthy people, with a populationin proportion to the huge
areas waiting the hand of the husbandman, what a thriving colony this
would be ! With our coffers filled, with a happy and healthy people, with
Principle, as old Disraeli once said, as our Motto, and not Expediency,
then indeed might British Guiana claim to be what nowis a mad mis-
nomer, The “ Magnificent Province,”

192 Timehri.
Let us see what we have accomplished under these severe handicaps.

Our production of our staple crop has been

1911 ... 108,175 tons sugar
1912 sae) Se tS ee 1"
1913 secede ee -
1914 see, AI GIOZE™ +;
1915 age hb | Mie #
1916 one AAS RUD SG, 5
1917 «ts! LOG IBE + 4, 4

Our local consumption being roughly 8,000 tonsa year, and our
annual exports about 100,000 tons.

We reaped in 1916 64,814 acres of rice, producing some 523,140
bags of rice of 180 lbs. per bag.

In 1904 we possessed 5,140 acres of coconuts, in 1917 we could
claim an area of 23,872 acres.

At the end of 1917 we had 5,237 acres under Para Rubber (Hevea
brasiliensis) and in that year exported 14,784 lbs.

Our Cacao area was 1970 acres, and Coffee occupied 4953 acres,
while Limes were responsible for 1480 acres.

Our Ground Provisions are shown by Professor Harrison as taking up
an area of 18,247 acres. That is to say we had, according to Professor
Harrison’s Official Report of his Department, at the end of 1917, the
following acreage under cultivation

Sugar Ses 77,828 acres

Rice mae 58,090 ,, counting only first crop
Coconuts... 23,872 ,,

Cacao nce Loves,

Coftee ie 4,953 ,,

Rubber sas DB Zod. 4;

Limes aa 1,480

Ground Provisions 18,247 2

The total area then cultivated in crops other than sugar represents
118,852 acres. Apart from the claims of sugar, it will be seen that as
such crops as coconuts, limes, rubber, &. begin to reach their maximum
or bearing periods, there willbe a considerable drain on the available
labour required for sugar, which being an annual crop is bound to have
its requisite supply at certain periods of growth and harvest, if it is not
to be allowed to be ruined, A lime planter may defer his weeding period,
a sugar planter cannot.

MPL cere

Some Home Truths. 193

We must not forget, too, that if the Vegetable Products Factory just
erected turns out the success every one wishes it to be, the area in ground
provisions may be trebled, with a corresponding shortage of the available
labour supply.

At this period we may also expect renewed interest in our Mining
Industries—our Gold, Diamonds, Bauxite, Ironstone and other mineral
products claim their share of the Labour market, while Balata (Minusops
globosa), the timber and other forest industries, we all hope to see ex-
panding, not contracting.

Where is the labour to carry on all these industries ?
Tf any are abandoned we get back to stagnation.
In 1917 our balata exports were valued at 954,543 dollars.

Our Charcoal and Firewood exports at 61,832 dollars, while we ex-
ported several thousand cubic feet of timber.

Our Sugar and other Industries claim a certain percentage of our
people for tradesmen and mechanics; our young industries such as coco-
nuts and limes are rapidly developing and will need their share of people
and at harvest time a considerable number may be required for gathering
in the lime crop ; we need tappers for our rubber oS A industries
now in their infancy, we want to see expandiny, and the area, in coconuts
especially, increasing by leaps and bounds ; we want our 23,870 acres in
coconuts to extend rapidly to 100,000 acres. Our rice lands
are extensive and with drainage and irrigation assured, some of the most
suitable rice landsin the world consisting of several millions of acres,
could be planted, instead of a beggarly 58,000. Our Sugar Industry
could be increased to produce a million tons annually instead of a paltry
one hundred thousand tons per annum.

Professor Harrison has told us that fully 9,000,000 acres of accessible
lands are unalienated from the Government and ‘‘ much of this is suitable
for rubber cultivation and for the growth of other tropical products.”

With an adequate labour force the Banana Industry might be con-
sidered ; our Vegetable oils from the Kokerite (Maximiliana regia) might
become a commercial success; good paper has been made from the
Plantain, we have before us a specimen of paper made from plantains
we believe in the early forties ; our common Mucca-Mucea (Montrichardia
aborescens) furnishes a fair paper, specimens of which we have seen, along
with excellent samples made from the Ginger Lily (Hedychium coro-
nariwme)

Some of our native fibres Urena lobata, the Mahoe, (Hibiscus
tiliaceows,) sanseviera and other plants, are probably worthy of exploita-
tion.

In the hinterland, tobacco and cotton may bring us wealth.

194 Timehri.

Our mangrove (Rhizophora Mangle) may prove of use as supply of
bark for tanning purposes.

Our carludovicas may produce a Panama hat industry. We may
preduce, in time, our own puncheon staves and supersede the oak rum-
puncheons and so build up a large trade in connexion with our rum
industry.

Our lovely furniture woods have but to be seen to be admired; our
Wallabas (Zperva spp.) furnish a class of shingles for house-building that
are recognised already. Our pastoral and cattle industries are crying out
for the right type of man.

In short we have attractions which are by no means common to all
tropical countries and which for diversity and interest are perhaps un-
equalled—ranging from Baboon skins to numberless Mora sleepers.

In conclusion there is room for us all.—European, negro, East Indian
or Chinese, scientist, technical man, labourer, mechanic.

And in spite of malaria and insect pests, a man with ordinary and
sensible precautions can find real pleasure and interest in British Guiana,
where unlike Mr. Mantalini, one need not find life to be “one demd
horrid grind.”

That rubber and limes can and do grow successfully is seen by the
reproduction of pictures kindly taken by Mr. G. E. Bodkin, B.A., (Cantab),
our Government Biologist, whose cleverness with the camera is only
equalled by his knowledge of such like parasites as Amblyomma dissimile.

That our lime fruits are large and luscious, we think we may fairly
claim—the citric acid contents are above the average as is also the yield
in essential or distilled oils, while 8 gallons of raw juice are usually
obtained from a barrel of fruit.

The class of man we have no room for in British Guiana, is the man
saturated with race prejudice, who judges a man by the mere pigment
underlying his skin ; the stirrer up of strife—setting class against class
and encouraging racial feelings.

Nor do we want the visionary, like the man in Gulliver's Travels who
spent eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucum-
bers, nor yet again Cowper's type “dropping buckets into empty wells
and growing old in drawing nothing up.”

We can take all the right type of labourer or colonist that we can
get. There is abundant room,—and room at the top, too, for the man
who is not afraid of hard work, has grit and a determination to get on
which will not be denied—be he gentleman’s son, labourer, mechanic, or
the humblest cutlass weeder. Each has a chance in his own sphere, and
if success does not come the way of us all, we can at least try to deserve
it, which is all that mortal man can do.

Some Home Truths. 195

Pope in his Wife of Bath has
‘The mouse that always trusts to one poor hole
Can never be a mouse of any soul,”

So, too, we hope that the danger of trusting to one staple industry
for our prosperity may be realised, and while every help possible should
be given to our staple crop, other crops and industries will not,been over-
looked by our future colonists.

THE BERBICE LUTHERAN CHURCH.

By THe Rey. Raupx J. WHITE.

Through the courtesy of the Editor of the Timehri it is our privilege
to supplement and possibly elaborate upon the article by Mr. Fred. May,
the Colonial Treasurer, (Timehri Vol. V.) with regard to the history of
the Lutheran Community in Berbice.

Mr. May’s report had for its object only the ascertaining of the
course of events that led to the Trustee-ship of the funds of the Lutheran
Community by the Court of Policy. In our review of this subject we
shall give the history of the Lutheran Body as it is viewed by the
Lutherans themselves.

It no doubt will be a surprise to many people to learn that in the
county of Berbice there is a congregation that celebrates its one hundred
and seventy-fifth anniversary in this present year (1918). Nevertheless it
is true that the Lutheran Congregation came into existence at a meeting
called in the home of Mr. Lodewick Abbensetts on the 15th of October,
17438. From that day on until the present time, through all the
vicissitudes and trials of the passing years, there has never been a time
when a Lutheran congregation did not exist in Berbice.

Eight years before the founding of the Lutheran congregation the
Dutch Reformed had become the State Church by an act of the Berbice
Association which on the 21st of February, 1735, imposed a tax of
twenty-five guilders per annum to provide a church fund.

On the 7th of January following Johannes Fronderdorff was
appointed Predicant of Berbice. His salary was nine hundred guilders
per annum, one half cask of wine, one anchor of brandy, and free
boarding for himself, wife, daughter, and maidservant. At his recom-
mendation a choir leader was also appointed who was to act as sexton
and schoolmaster as well on a salary of three hundred guilders.

About twenty years before this a church had been built at the mouth
of the Wiruni Creek, but there had been great irregularity in the
services on account of the difficulty of getting Predicants at the small
salary hitherto offered. It was said of this first Reformed preacher that
he was so intolerant, greedy, and quarrelsome that the Governor was
unwilling to permit him to continue at his table and so a house was built
near the church and eight hundred guilders allowed in lieu of rations.

Of the time it was said that both religion and morals were of a very
low standard, but the churches were well attended, and the contributions
came in without much difficulty.

At that time there were many among the inhabitants of Berbice who
held to the Unaltered Augsburg Confession which was and still is the

eR Pe ae ch er ee

The Berbice Lutheran Church, 197

confession of faith of Evangelical Lutherans. Diftering from the
Reformed in some of the essentials of the Christian religion they
naturally desired to worship God according to the dictates of their own
consciences.

Therefore, at the meeting held in the home of Mr. Abbensetts on the
15th of October, 1743, these Lutherans resolved to petition ‘“ The
Honourable The Court of Policy,” ‘‘ The Most Honourable The Directors
of the Colony,” and “ Their Highnesses The States General of the
Netherlands” praying for the privilege of free exercise of their religion ;
and at the same time making application by letter to The Reverend
Consistory of Amsterdam soliciting their aid and co-operation “ in this
urgent vocation,’ and their good services in procuring a clergyman for
their community.

The petition wss granted on the following conditions :—

First, The Clergyman of the Lutheran Body should previous to his
departure to the colony be presented to the Directors for their approba-
tion and confirmation.

Second, All expenses for the maintenance of ministry and building
should be defrayed by the members of the congregation ; and that in
addition they should contribute to the Reformed Church Fund equally and
in the same proportion as all other inhabitants.

This second stipulation was so rigidly enforced that in the year
1790 the Receiver General was instructed to proceed summarily against
them for arrears of acre-money.

Third, All persons presenting free coloured children for baptism
were required to sign an engagement that these children should never
become a charge to the community or to the public.

This regulation was the cause of converting the Lutheran Community
in Berbice into what Mr. May so aptly calls “ a mutual benefit society.”
At present, however, there are only two persons receiving pensions from
this community.

Mr. May has suggested in his article that these hard conditions were
made on the part of the authorities because they feared that any
unauthorised body would be inclined to teach the slaves in such a manner
as would tend to cause them to revolt from their masters,

We believe, however, that the opposition was the result of the
intolerance of the Dutch Reformed Church; for the founders of the
Lutheran Community were themselves planters and slave holders, and
the Church as an organization owned slaves,

The Reformed Church of that day was intolerant whenever in
authority as is instanced in the action of the Dutch Reformed when they
were in power in that other New Amsterdam which is now New York

City.

198 Timehri.

(Peter Steuyvesant in the year 1653, being Governor of that other
New Amsterdam, declared that in the New possessions of Holland over
which he was Governor he could not and would not tolerate any other
religion than the true Reformed. He even forbade the Lutherans to hold
private services in their homes. Anyone who ventured to read a sermon
in such private services made himself subject to a penalty of one hundred
pounds Flemish ; and anyone who listened to such a sermon was to be
punished with a fine of twenty-five pounds. In some cases those who
disobeyed were cast into prison.)

It might also be noticed that when the slaves arose in insurrection
in 1768, it was Abbensetts of Solitude, one of the founders of this
Church, who did the most valiant service on the Berbice River, holding
the slaves at bay with a small handful of men. However, it seems fair
to conclude that the Lutheran Church had the respect of the slaves
inasmuch as they spared only the properties belonging to this Body
when they burned and pillaged Fort Nassau.

There is also a reference to this period of the history of the
Lutheran Community in Mr. Rodway’s excellent three volume history of
British Guiana. On page 176 of Volume i. we read :—‘It was also
rumoured that the Lutheran Predicant being unable to escape, had
barricaded his doors, and tried to reason with them from the windows,
but they set fire to the house and murdered him as he was coming out.”

Now it is evident that this was only a rumour, and as Mr. Rodway
did not correct the rumour in his history I should like to do s0 now.

From our records we find that the house of the Lutheran
Predicant was not burned and that the Predicant was not murdered
but fled from the colony: for our record states :—“ The first and second
of our Clergymen died very shortly after their arrival in the Colony,
the third fled the Country at the same time of the revolt in 1763 without
giving notice of his intention.”

The first century of the Berbice Lutheran Community closed as
the last resident Dutch Lutheran Minister vacated his pulpit about the
year 1843.

The next twenty-five years witnessed a period of deterioration in
the Lutheran Community. The congregation came very near dying out,
portions of its members being scattered among the several Jenominations
of Berbice. Only four male and seven female members remained at the
end of this period. The Wesleyans were permitted free use of the church,
manse, and other buildings; and a considerable sum was set aside each
year to assist in the support of their ministry. The funds of the
Church were made to serve private ends until in the year 1875 there
was a distribution of five thousand dollars among the few remain-
ing members. Some considered themselves unfairly dealt with in this
distribution and ‘made representations to the Government that the

ag

The Berbice Lutheran Church. 199

administrators were wasting the Lutheran Church Funds. At once the
Government instituted a Commission of Inquiry. This Commission
ordered that the Lutheran Church should be reopened, and the moneys
be put to the use for which they were originally intended, and thus
fulfil the objects of the founders.

The Vestry thereupon invited Rev. John Sanders, minister of the
Lutheran Church in Suriname, to reinstitute Lutheran services: Rev.
Sanders came, re-opened the services, confirmed new members, and advis-
ed obtaining assistance from some local clergymen to keep un the
services.

The Rev. J. R. Mittelholzer was invited to hold services as recom-
mended by Rev. Sanders. For three years Rev. Mittelholzer held the
ordinary services while Rey. Sanders made periodical visits to the Church.
Then in 1878 Rev. Mittelholzer was called as the pastor of the Church,
he having previously journeyed to Suriname to receive confirmation in
the Lutheran Church.

On the 18th of September, 1890, the Church and pastor were
received into the membership of the East Pennsylvania Synod of the
general Synod of the Evangelist Lutheran Church in the United States.

The Recognition from this body of Lutherans was of great import-
ance to the Berbice Lutherans. It removed from the pastor and congre-
gation that feeling of isolation that had always been theirs. It assured
them of a continuity of a properly qualified ministry, and it helped them
in the difficulties with which they were then encompassed. Of this union
with the American Lutheran Church Rev. Mittelholzer wrote: The Lord
bless the Synod which came unknowingly but timely to the rescue
of this distant but not unimportant branch of the great Lutheran Church.
May our Zion flourish to the honour and glory of her divine Master
whose kind and ever-watchful providence had guided her from her com-
mencement, protected her amid crushing dangers and changing scenes,
and once more revived and established her! May she ever prove a
satisfaction and credit to the venerable Synod with which she is
connected.”

Up until his death in August, 1913, Rev. Mittelhelzer remained the
pastor of the Lutheran Churches. The eleven members of 1875 had
now increased to a fine congregation in New Amsterdam, He had also
established, and for twenty-five years maintained, three Missions on the
Berbice River. Throughout his long and successful ministry he had been
a great influence for good and established himself as one of the most
successful creoles of the colony. He was the man who introduced the
Christian Endeavour Society to British Guiana. He also conducted a
school known as Geneva Academy in which some of the most prominent
men of Berbice received their education.

After his death the Vestry petitioned the Hast Pennsylvania Synod
to send a minister for their Church.» Finally in 1914, Rev. M. H. Stine,
D.D., Ph.D., came to the colony to take up the work,

200 Timehri.

Owing to the long illness of the late pastor and the vacancy caused
by his death the properties of the Churca had greatly deteriorated, and
many of the members had become scattered. Dr, Stine felt unable to
take up the burden because of his alvanced age and because he saw that
at once considerable money would de required to meet outstanding debts,
carry on the established work, and put the church and manse in proper
condition. After three months he returned to the States and recommended
that the Synod transfer the Church to theBoard of Foreign Missions in
order that money might be available for the needs of the Community and
that a supply of ministers might be assured. The transfer was accordingly
made to the Board and in January, 1916, the writer toox charge of the
work for the Board.

During these last two and a half years, new hope has been infused
into the life of the congregations, membership has been increased in all
the churches, two day schools and three Sunday schools have been opened
on the Berbice River, and a successful Continuation School has been
conducted in New Amsterdam. ‘The manse has been rebuilt at a cost of
more than three thousand dollars, the church building has been repaired
and painted, and the church yard has been fenced, graded, and beautified,
At the River Missions two chapels have been enlarged, two houses have
been built for teachers, a bell and bell tower have been erected at Ituni,
and the school house enlarged at Maria Henrietta.

There are at present in the Berbice Lutheran Community four
churches : Ebenezer at New Amsterdam, St. Paul’s at Maria Henrietta,
Rio. Berbice, Mt. Hermon at St. Lust, Rio. Berbice, and Mt. Carmel at
Ituni, Rio. Berbice. These four churches have a Communicant member-
ship of three hundred. The three day schools located at Maria Henrietta,
St. Lust, and Ituni, have one hundred and forty-seven scholars enrolled.
At New Amsterdam the successful Continuation School furnishes oppor-
tunity to the young men of the town to spend their evenings in a pleasant
and profitable manner. All the schools with the exception of Maria
Henrietta are maintained without Government aid. Maria Henrietta is
the largest school on the Berbice River above Mara, having an enrollment
of sixty-nine, While Ituni is the largest Aboriginal Indian school on the
River having an enrollment of forty-six. ,

Mr. May in reviewing the difficulties encountered by this community
from the time of its inception concludes with these words: ‘“ In spite of
all there are still a few of them Jeft in the Ancient County still working
and watching for the promised Minister from their Fatherland.”

“In spite of all” and that “all” means so much to the Lutherans of
Berbice. It means hopes raised and then dashed down. It means years
and years of waiting. It means prayers, and toils, trials of faith, tears and
anxieties, ‘In spite of all” there are three hundred faithful Communi-
cants, nearly three hundred Sundiy school scholars, over one hundred

The Berbice Lutheran Church. 201

and fifty pupils in their schools, besides hundreds of others who owe
very much to the training they have received from the Lutheran Institu-
tions of Berbice.

Many of the old conditions still remain to hold the Lutheran Church
back from entering into her larger life. As of old her ministers bad to
be presented to the Directors for their approkation and confirmation, so
to-day her ministers must be presented to the Government for permission
to preach and teach “ previous to their departure to the colony.” The
only restriction that has been removed through all these years has been
the one that made the Church responsible for the care of coloured
children presented for baptism.

The hope of the Church is now directed not to Holland, the former
“Fatherland,” but to America for ministers to carry on the work
established in faith (one hundred and seventy-five years ago), carried on
in adversity, and yet abundantly blessed by our Master.

The work is too much for one minister to care for. In America
another waits, willing tocome and share the burdens of the labor. The
one prayer of this community now is that the Government may not hinder
this oldest Church in this Ancient County from working out her ap-
pointed destiny of ministration to those who hold her ancient faith.

THE GUN-TRAP OF THE GUIANA INDIANS,

By G. E. Bopxin, B.A., F.Z.S., F.E.S.

I propose in this paper to give a detailed description of the gun trap
which is commonly used in certain parts of the Colony by the Aboriginal
Indians. Personally, I have only seen it erected and used by Arawak
Indians in the vicinity of the coastlands; I am unable to say whether a
similar contrivance is used by the other,tribes of Indians in the remoter
parts of British Guiana. My experience of this method of procuring game
has been fairly intimate for on many occasions I have witnessed the
erection of such ‘engines’ and also seen them achieve their purpose
in a most effective manner.

The gun trap is a clever adaptation of the method used in the bow
and arrow trap which has been described and figured by Dr. Walter
E. Roth in the Journal of the Royal Anthropolozical Institute.* The
bow and arrow trap must have been in use for many years and is,
apparently, the original invention of the Aboriginal Indians of this
country.

The gun trap is commonly used to slay acourie (Dasyprocta acowcht),
labba (Coelogenys paca), water cow, known locally as tapir or maipouri,
(Tapirus terrestris) and deer, usually wibisiri, (Coassus memorivagus).
I have heard of it also being used against the Capybara or Water Haas
(Hydrochaerus capybara) and the Jaguar (Felis onca). It is most
commonly and successfully used against the acourie and labba.

The method of setting the trap for labba is as follows. The first
necessity is to find a well defined and regularly used labba track. About
Indian camps these are fairly common as this animal appears to prefer
an habitation in the vicinity of human beings and has a habit of gnawing
old bones or other rubbish which can always be found near or about
such places. ;

When certain palms and forest trees are in fruit it is always certain
that at least one labba will know of it and nightly repair thence to
enjoy a good feed.

The Awarra Palm (Astrocaryum tucwmoides) when bearing ripe
fruit attracts both acourie and labba, likewise the Akuyuro Palm
(Astrocaryum tucwma). The Indians know that between March and
April every year these palms are bearing fruit and they consequently look
for the tracks of the game in the neighbourhood of such palms and set
their traps accordingly.

Tracks through the bush, made by labba or acourie for instance,
are readily distinguishable. Definite proof as to which animal is in the

* Some technological notes from the Pomeroon District, British Guiana. By Walter E,
Roth, Jour. of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. XLI, Jan,-June, 1911,

Indian Gun Trap.

The Gun-trap of the Guiana Indians. 203

habit of passing along the trail is obtained by carefully clearing over-
night dead leaves and debris from a small patch in the centre of the
trail. Next morning, if an animal has passed that way it will surely have
left a footprint on this cleared portion. Distinction between the two
animals is thus made. Other animals are similarly distinguished in
combination with certain other obvious indications.

A definite track which gives good promise having been secured, the
next business is to erect the trap. A spot is usually chosen where the
undergrowth is fairly open though close enough so as not to make the
trap itself tooconspicuous, It must be borne in mind that in nine cases
out of ten the trap will be sprung during the hours of darkness.

At the opposite side of the track from which it is proposed to erect
the gun a piece of stick about a }” in diameter and 9” in length is pushed
into the ground to a depth of about 24 inches. Six inches from the
ground level a small snick is made on the bark of the stick so as to show
the wood beneath. At this point, also, the string which serves to release
the trigger of the gun (if setting for labba) is attached.

This string is composed of thin pieces of the external skin of a large
sedge (known locally as Bizzy-Bizzy) usually found growing in the
vicinity of Indian settlements. These pieces are carefully stripped and
when joined together, produce a string of surprising strength. About
four such pieces are used each section being from 3-4 feet in length.
That section which is fastened to the piece of stick to which we have
just referred is about as thick as coarse cotton thread, the next section is
slightly coarser and so on, and the final length is comparatively coarse.
That section which is joined to the stick and which will come in contact
with the animal whilst passing along the trail is carefully rubbed with a
handful of soil so as to remove any trace of human scent. In the draw-
ing this string is marked AA A. This stick (known as the ‘ watchman’)
haying been set in position and the string properly attached so that it
stretches across the trail satisfactorily, the next operation is to erect the
gun platform.

This platform is constructed about 20 feet from the watchman on
the opposite side of the trail. No special clearing is made for it as it is
necessary to conceal its presence as much as possible.

A stake of wood (marked § in the drawing) about 4” in diameter is
secured and split for slightly over half of its length. The unsplit end is
sharpened and driven well into the ground by sheer strength, no mallet
of any kind being used. This stake projects, when in position, about 3} ’
above the ground level. Behind this stake and in line with it and the
watchman two cross pieces of wood (marked FF in drawing) are driven
into the ground and securely lashed at their point of contact with bush
rope (marked T in drawing). A glance at the illustration will show the
arrangement of these cross pieces. They are placed in such a position

204 Timehrr.

and distance from the split stake so that the upper part of the gun
stock rests snugly where they cross one another and the barrel is held in
the split portion of the stake S. The gun is then carefully aimed at the
small nick which has been cut in the watchman, and which, it will be
remembered, is exactly six inches from the ground, the string being
attached to the same spot.

After the gun barrel has been inserted in the split portion of S
the split is firmly lashed with bush ropeat R. The pressure of the split
portion, plus the lashing, firmly and effectively grips the barrel.

The gun being now in position the next operation is to arrange the
mechanism which causes the trigger, when set, to be released. Like
many other clever contrivances it is surprisingly simple.

To the two cross pieces FF, about 3 inches beneath where they are
bound together, a straight piece of wood (marked E in drawing) }” in
diameter is lashed in a position horizontal to the level of the ground.

From the two points where the stick E is Jashed to FF two other
sticks (marked DD in drawing) are lashed which are of the same size as
E and are lashed to the split stake S (not shown in drawing). The
photographs clearly demonstrate their exact situation.

The string AAA is now passed through the split in the stake S near
the base, drawn taut, and attached to a piece of bizzy-bizzy (marked B in
drawing) not quite a quarter inch in diameter. The position of this piece
of bizzy-bizzy on the two pieces of wood DD is clearly shown in the draw-
ing. The string AAA is attached to B by making a small split in the
centre and passing the string through.

A short distance behind (about 2 feet from cross sticks) the gun
platform a strong stick (marked G in drawing) possessing great suple-
ness, is driven deep into the ground. It is driven in at right angles to
the line AAA. This stick is about 5 feet long.

A little above the centre of the stick (marked V in drawing) is
attached a line of medium thickness (marked MMM in drawing) made of
crowa fibre. To the other ead of this string is attached a slightly peg-
shaped piece of wood (marked C in drawing). This piece of wood is some
5 inches long and the line MMM is attached not quite 2” from its thickest
end.

A little above the lashing V on stick G another line (made also of
crowa fibre) (marked HHH in drawing) is attached; its other end is
attached to the trigger. When the stick Gis relaxed this string should
become almost taut. In the drawing and photographs the trap is shown
set.

The method of setting is as follows :—First of all the stick G is, by
means of strong pressure, bent forwards and the line MMM passed udner

The Gun-trap of the Guiana Indians. 205

E as shown in drawing the thick end of C resting on K; the thin end of
the peg rests, as shown in drawing, on B. The line AAA is drawn taut
and the pressure of C on B keeps B securely in position. The gun is, of
course, already loaded and cocked. :

To make everything as clear as possible we will describe exactly what
happens when a labba passes along a track on which a gun trap, similar
to the one which we have described here, has been set.

In passing (at night of course) the unsuspecting creature comes in
contact with the line AAA which is attached to the watchman, the other
end being connected, as we have described, to the set mechanism of the
gun trap.

It is obvious that very slight pressure on the line will disarrange B
and pull it from beneath C. (I have frequently tested this point and have
ascertained it to be a fact ; the sticks DD are often carefully scraped at
their points of contact with B so as to ensure extreme freedom of movement
of B). Then C, by the removal of B, is at once released from E and
the stick G, being held under strong pressure, flies violently back and
pulls taut HHH with sufficient strength to pull the trigger of the gun so
that the hammer falls, All this takes but a fraction of a second and the gun
being aimed at the nick in the watchman, shoots the labba just behind
the shoulder, The size of the shot used in the charge varies from BB to
No. 5. A sixteen bore, single barrel gun is more frequently used than
any other. A brass cartridge case, home loaded with black powder is
preferred owing to its damp resisting properties. It must be remembered
that the trap is left set all night and frequently for several nights in
succession. They are unset during the daytime.

During raivy weather palm leaves are carefully placed over the gun
platform so as to protect the gun.

If the trap is set for deer the watchman is of greater length like-
wise the gun platform itself to allow for the height of the animal. These
traps are always arranged so that the charge catches the animal behind
the shoulder, Gun traps, when set for labba or accourie, may be sprung
by crapauds, armadillos or rats. In one instance which I heard of, a
trap was set off by the dead bough of a tree dropping on the string
thereot. Incidentally it is advisable to visit the trap soon after the
explosion is heard otherwise the prey may be carried off by a labba-tiger—
which not infrequently happens.

Anyone who is familiar with the bush and its wealth of noises well
knows that a nocturnal booming detonation which echoes for miles through
the surrounding bush is sometimes heard and indicates that somewhere
or other a gun trap has been exploded and very probably there is one
live labba the less in British Guiana.

Timehri,

206

LETLER. TO) TRE ‘EDITORS.

———

From Fr. 0. Cooxssy, 8.J.

No one can be more thankful to Mr. Hyatt Verrill than I for his
very interesting contributions, and I write this to fill up alittle of his data,

On page 14 he mentions my exploration at Akawabi and as some
of the find is in the Society’s Museum I think you may be glad to have
my observations.

Akawabi, or as we usually called it Wauno, was discovered by Fr.
S. Gillet, S.J., who was the first white man to visit it, the inhabitants say,
it consisted of a scattered population of nearly 200 inhabitants as I found
when I prepared a supplementary census when the official census taker
finding no one at Akawabi did not trouble to ascend the forks of the
Wauno (Crane) Creek.

From Catherine of Akawabi, I gathered several Indian stories.

My visits were part of asystematic visitation which I made according
toa time-table which 1 published in 1910, 1911 and 1912, and were for
missionary purposes with antiquarian digressions when time permitted.
I was hampered by the idea that, every one who digs for gold, and gold-
diggers, are well paid, therefore Father should pay, but I got a good
many beautiful specimens, at Akawabi, Ho Sororo and elsewhere.

In the mound at Akawabi near the surface I found the broken
Femur of a large mammal or human being now in the museum and at
Akawabi one of the two pot heads which Mr. Justice Hewick has.
With the exception of the one in the British Museum which is also
from the Wauno district, I believe, these are the most beautiful yet
found. The most common form, the “ Billikin” shown in most of the
photos in the 1918 ‘“ Timehri,” Mr, Rodway and I easily identified as the
God of Fecundity or Plenty from the physiological details of the very
fine specimen in the Society’s museum.

But the most glorious specimem of all is lost.

At one of my last visits to Akawabi they brought me a vase, the like
of which one can dream about but seldom see ; except for a small portion
of the rims and one handle it was perfect and all or nearly all the pieces
were there.

The Great God of Plenty whose image formed the nye handles was
most beautifully finished and larger than usual,

208 Timehri.
This Vase was about 10 in.

two feet high. I am speak-
ing from memory and eye
judgment only. For a few
minutes I feasted my eyes
upon it and then with dry
banana leaves the Indians
packed it up in a large quake
made of split bush rope and
I saw it no more. The
quake unopened I brought to
Georgetown safely, and after
arranging with Dr. Walton to
repair the broken parts I
returned to the late lamented
33, Brickdam. Meeting the
an houseboy I gave him the
Quake and told him to take

it to Dr. Walton and hurried off to the N.W.D. steamer. On my
return to town I found the Doctor had never received the vase,
that when I met the boy he had that moment been discharged, that he
had since left the city and that the vase was “lost to me forever.”

With the exception of the vase, Judge Hewick’s pot heads and the
British Museum one, the Museum has all my best finds.

My conclusions exactly agree with Mr. Verrill’s. The pots antedate
our existing Indians and are the remains of the inhabitants of the pleas-
ant islands of the N.W.D. The Arukaand Koriabo and Kaituma Islands
basking in the sapphire blue and green of a tropical sea must have been
a dream of beauty, when the sea was clean and clear and the shell-fish
flourished in its depths,

_

But I noticed also that it was useless looking for “ pot-heads ‘
where there was no spring water on the hill and this was the first hint I
got that these were islands in the salt sea when the potters lived there
andI gave a lecture to the R.A. & C.S. without a MSS. which was
consequently unreported, in which I expressed this opinion.

What are the pot-heads?

When in Barbados I dined one day at the Marine Hotel and a lady
seeing my collection which I was showing to my host said, “I come
from Yucatan, those that have a loose piece inside and rattle are Toltec
and those that don’t are Aztec, now I must be off as the dance is
beginning.”

This sent me home to Father Frederick Smith, §$.J., who had first-
hand knowledge of Yucatan and he said that they did resemble the

across the mouth and nearly

stalk dient wins bas anaes .

ot ine telly

Letter to the Editors. 209

native work of the famous peninsula, and that the custom was to place
offerings of food to the Gods in pots ornamented with their images, in
the fields, and that during the snbsequent drunken devotions the removal
of the offering and the breaking of the pot signified the acceptance of
oblation. He believed that the piaiman was responsible for the breaking,
but I am inclined to think that he too participated in the “devotions”
himself, though I believe in the more primitive state he did not dance or
participate.

The old chief who came from Venezuela to Morawhanna and was
photographed by the Swedish Officer in 1912 with a motion camera,
merely directed the dance and took no part in the function. So it may
be that the piaiman saw that they were destroyed or the labbas, agouties
and monkeys would do tbe work equally well, in his absence, I have no
doubt. ’

_ This custom will account for the finds being so thoroughly broken
up and so scattered about the land suitable for agriculture, and not
too far removed from fresh water - prings.

My sole word of hostile criticism must be the word Ossororo.
In Warao Ho Sororo means Water Falling, which fits the site exactly.

Issororo is said to have an Akawaio meaning and is the official name,
but Ossororo is not the name of the hill.

‘The skeleton of the Akawabi chieftain was protected by an earthen-
ware umbrella, this is, | expect, a variation of a well-known feature in
similar Celtic burials where large stones cover the body in a conical pit.
I remember an instance discovered by my father in a railway cutting,
near Bssingstoke, Hants, in the early 80’s. It was then agreed that the
stones were to protect the corpse from beasts of prey, and I take it that
the large dish would have greatly discouraged such animals in the case in
point and that probably this will be found to be the solution of the riddle,

OCCASIONAL NOTES.

“ Surinam” in Barbados.—There is a “Surinam” in Barbados, it
may be noted apropos of Mr. Cundall’s paper. It is about forty acres in
extent—below Clifi—to the west of Horse Hill, in the parish of St.
Joseph. Two hundred years ago it was apparently a plantation. Among
the Island’s records—found and unearthed by Mr. E. Goulburn
Sinckler, the Monkbarns of Barbados—is a deed of sale, dated March 2,
1723, whereby Richard Husbands and his wife Jane (formerly widow of
John Sommers, gent.) convey to their nephew, another John Sommers, “all
that plantation commonly called or known by the name of Surinam (con-
taining 27} acres) situate in the parish of St. Joseph.” It was just this
little spot, evidently. Whoever named the place must have had some in-
terest in Lord Willoughby’s colony in Guiana. Probably he had been there,
and came back to his island home after Surinam was ceded to the Dutch.

* Pln, Surinam ”—with its ‘‘Ten Negroe Slaves,” also mentioned in
the Deed—went out of existence many many years ago; the land is now
held by small settlers. It was once famous for its citrous fruit and cocoa
and coffee-trees. Since “ the Dust” which fell after the last eruption in St.
Vincent, most of the trees have died. It is still a fruitful place, however.
The soilis rocky, but, being in a valley, is cool. From the Cliff one
looks down on quite a number of soursop and dark-leaved breadfruit
trees.

“ Surinam,” the plantation, has gone ; but the name sticks. It isthe
pleasant, old-fashioned Barbados way. Ask someone lower down:
‘“« Where is old-man Peterkin ?” and you'll be told—with a wave up to the
great cliff.—‘ He working up in Surinam ”—J.G.C.

The Winkels of Fort Island, Essequebo.—Apropos of a paper in the
last number of ‘‘ Timehri” on the Winkel Village, Berbice, it is interesting
to note that Fort Island, Essequebo, also had its Winkels. The site of
the houses of the negro artizans—belonging first to the West India
Company of the Netherlands and later to the British Government—is
shown on a chart of Great Fort Island by J. Hadfield, Crown Surveyor,
dated January 30, 1837, in the Lands and Mines Department.

First, on the east side of the island, running north to south, Hadfield
shows Fort Zeelandia—the great redoubt, built by Gravesande, whose
weathered, roofless walls one passes on the way to Bartica; then the
Commandeur’s Path—which started from the Fort and came out opposite
Hog Island; then the Church; the sites of the Jail and Hospital ; the
Burial Ground ; the Negro Ground ; and lastly ‘‘ Site of Winkel Establish-
ment.”

The Winkels of Essequebo, no doubt, filled just the place their
brother Winkels filled in Berbice,—they were the Government black-
smiths, brickmakers and layers, carpenters, &c., and their women-folk
the washers and needlewomen of the old capital of Essequebo. Probably

Occasional Notes. 211

they were less educated and polished than the black aristocrats of old
Berbice ; they had no Rey. and Mrs. Wray specially brought from
England to work among them and take an interest in them. One may
suppose that they were good workmen, nevertheless—better taught than
many an one who botches a job to-day and calls himself a “ carpenter.”
Fort Zeelandia, no doubt, was put up in part by black Winkels. The
Church may be another job of theirs and the old landing-place whose
small Dutch bricks, half-buried in mud, are lapped all day and all night
by the brown waters of the Essequebo.

It is probable that the Winkels of Essequebo were freed in 1831,
simultaneously with the Winkels of Berbice. In 1905 free grants of
land were issued to several people in the island who claimed to be
descendants of the old Crown Slaves, Some of them had been in
uninterrupted occupancy of their land for very many years.

Are any direct descendants of the old Winkels of Fort Island yet
alive ? It may be, ‘‘ one-one.” If you meet an old black man in Fort
Island, with a little air of natural and unaffected dignity about him ; or
an old lady whose white hair is like a cotton wig above a black, seamed,
shrewd and kindly face; make some little investigation. It may be that
they are the last direct survivors of the (Essequebo) ‘“ King William’s
People.” —J.G.C.

Adam Lindsay Gordon’s Grandfather.—In his brochure, ‘“ The
Making of the West Indies: the Gordons as Colonists,” Mr,
J. M. Bullock—an authority on the Clan Gordon—mentions
Robert Gordon who was a Governor of Berbice in the good old days,
justly lamented, when Berbice was a separate colony. He notes the
interesting fact that Robert Gordon was the maternal grandfather of
Adam Lindsay Gordon, the Australian poet. His daughter, Henrietta,
married Adam Durnford Gordon in 1829, Their son became the author
of many haunting lines that are likely to live in ‘‘ Bush Ballads and Gal-
loping Rhymes.”

Robert Gordon was a planter in Berbice who was appointed Gov-
ernor on the death of William Woodley, in December, 1810, He was a
character. Dalton (‘History of British Guiana”:I, 379) tells us his
fellow-colonists dubbed him ‘‘ Mad Gordon,” He was clever but eccen
tric. He was of a firm and decided nature, acting with impartiality and
fearlessness towards both friends and foes. On one occasion he suspended
two of his most intimate friends, members of the Court of Policy, in
consequence of some subterfuge attempted to be practised on him in
connection with the boedel of an estate. He abruptly resigned in Decem-
ber, 1813, as the result of a brush with Downing Street, and died in the
West Indies the following year.

The psychologist will trace in Adam Lindsay Gordon the ability and
fearlessness, unhappily united with a want of balance, which marked
Robert Gordon when he ruled Berbice upwards of a hundred years ago

—J.G.C.

212 Timehri

Recent Contrioutions to our Fauna :—Mr. G. E. Bodkin has pub-
lished in “ Parasitology” an article on the Biology of Amblyomma
dissimile, the tick so commonly seen on our toads. He is satisfied from
the experiments made that it is able to continue its line parthogeneti-
cally, ie., a single fertilization by a male will produce fertile females
through several generations. The bearing of this upon the increase of
this tick is obvious. Mr. Bodkin has also contributed to the Transactions
of the Entomological Society, May, 1918, some very interesting notes
on our Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees and Wasps). Mr, C. B. Williams has
published in the same Transactions some notes on Butterfty Migrations,
a very curious and wonderful habit “or instinct which has been often
noted here as well as in other parts of the world. Mr. Beebe’s popular
book “Jungle Peace” is quite fascinating and is worth reading by every-
one, whether naturalist or otherwise, for it is written in a way to interest
every reader. We may mention in connection with Mr. Beebe’s work
that his grand book on Pheasants is being published ; the illustrations
are very beautiful, but it is necessarily expensive.—J.R.

Losses of Members.—We have continually to deplore our losses
through death or departure from the colony. A prominent member who
lately died was Mr. H. H. Laurence, who, as a lawyer, was much
interested in our early history. He lately helped me in writing a paper
on the Press in British Guiana. His widow is a bird-lover and has
done much to find ont the life-histories of our birds. With her departure
we lose one of our few naturalists.—J.R.

An. Old Gollector—The following advertisement from the “ Royal
Gazette” is worth recording :—

To Naturalists.

The Subscriber has on Sale at His house opposite the Market. A very
Splendid Assortment of the rarest and most beautiful Specimens of SrUFFED
BirDS in cases; also Bird skins. He also has on hand Two Cases of
BuTTERFLIES, INSECTS, etc., which he will be glad to dispose of on mod-
erate terms.

31st December, 1839. Joun Kine.—J.R.

Voters for Financtal Representatives, 1840.—It may be noted that
women were entitled to vote if they paid taxes of 70 guilders and
upwards. Among the names are four Gladstones including Wm. Ewart,
six Austins, three of them ladies, Abraham Garnett, George Bagot, etc.
Absentees voted by their attorneys.—J.R.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY.

Meeting, December 18th, 1918, The Hon. Prof. J. B, Harrison, C.M.G.,
President in the chair.

A Government letter was read acquainting the Society that the two
copies of the August ‘‘ Timehri” sent had been received by the Secretary
of State and that one of the copies was laid before His Majesty the King,
who had commanded that his thanks might be forwarded to the Society.

The meeting was informed that the Rev. J. B. Hill had been appoint-
ed by the Directors to represent the Society at the proposed Health
Campaign.

The office-bearers for 1919 were duly elected, the Hon. Professor J,
B. Harrison being re-elected as President.

It was reported that the Hon. J. B. Laing was leaving the colony and
the President spoke of his lossto the directorate. Mr. H. L. Humphrys
suggested that Mr. Laing be elected an honorary. member and it was
agreed that he be proposed according to the by-laws.

Lieut. Connolly, of the Canadian Army, gave an account of some of
his war experiences under the title of ‘ A Year at the Front in France and
Flanders.” A warm vote of thanks was accorded and a collection made for
the Canadian Ked Cross Fund.

Donations To Museum, Bauxite with analyses, from the Demerara
Bauxite Company.

Meeting, January 27th, 1919. The Hon. Prof, J. B. Harrison, C.M.G.,
etc., in the chair.

The Hon. J. B. Laing was elected an honorary member.

The President reported ou behalf of the Directors that the Govern-
ment had transferred the duties of the Permanent Exhibition Committee
to the Society and that it would become the Committee of Corres-
pondence and Exhibitions.

The death of Colonel Roosevelt was reported and the following cable-
gram and letter sent to his widow :—

Nunan to Mrs. Roosevelt, Oyster Bay, New York, ‘“ President and
Directors, Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society, desire me convey
deepest sympathy.”

“ Madam, at a meeting of the Directors of the R. A. & C.S. held on
the 7th inst, it was resolved :—

“That the President and Directors of the Royal Agricultural and
Commercial Society have received, with profound regret the news of

214 Timehri.

the death of Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, and desire to convey to Mrs.
Roosevelt and her family the expression of their heartfelt sympathy.

“The United States has lost its most Representative Citizen and the
cause of liberty and progress one of its foremost champions.

‘‘ The Society treasures the memory of Colonel Roosevelt’s visit and
addresses in 1916 and recall his constant interest in the welfare of the
Colony, to which he had promised an early and longer second visit at
the close of the war.”

With warmest sympathy,

«J. J. Nunanet

It was reported that the Chamber of Commerce agreed to pay rent
for the Exchange Room.

The Financial Statement for 1918 was laid over to be audited.

Meeting February 11th, 1919—The Hon. Professor J. B. Harrison,
C.M.G., etc., President, in the chair.

A copy of an address to Hon. J. B. Lairg was laid on the table and
thanks were accorded to Mr. J. Wood Davis who had been prominent
in getting it prepared.

The By-Laws of the revised Committee of Correspondence and
Exhibitions were passed as follows, and the list of members approved.

Chapter x.—Committee of Correspondence to be Committee of Cor-
respondence and Exhibitions.

1, Add “ and Exhibitions ” after “called” and further add at end of
By-law—

“The Committee shall have power to co-opt not more than three other
persons, for special skill, or in a representative capacity.”

8. To amend as follows :—

“The Committee shall be specially charged with the duty of entering
into and maintaining correspondence with the Society of Arts in London
and other kindred Societies, and also with literary and scientific individu-
als elsewhere ; forming and maintaining a Local Museum ; arranging for
all colonial exhibi'ions, whether held in British Guiana, or in other coun-
tries or colonies, and including the British Guiana Court at the Imperial
Institute ; making arrangements for the offering and awarding of pre-
miums ; and the preparation and issue of- handbooks, pamphlets etc,
relative to the products and commerce of the colony.

4, and 5, Delete “of Correspondence ” where it occurs after “ Com-
mittee.”

|

Proceedings of the Society. 215

COMMITTEE OF- CORRESPONDENCE AND EXHIBITIONS
His Excellency the Governor, Chairman,

The Honourable the Director of Science and Agriculture,
Deputy Chairman,
The Honourable the Colonial Secretary.

His Worship the Mayor of Georgetown.
The Honourable A. P. Sherlock.

M. Nascimento, F.R. | H, L. Humphrys.

G. J. de Freitas, K.C. L. S. Hohenkerk.

G. A. H. Goring. Edgar Beckett.

T. T. Smellie. J. Mullin.

Jos. A. King. E. S. Christiani (Hony. Secty)

The Commissioner of Lands and Mines (Co-optative.)
W. P. Humphrey. ”

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