The Sun.
London, England, 1809-08-10 00:00:00

CA F.E A.-XL .

au ACcoun't of the Colony, of ea,erme iq Sciuth ;
with' Anecdote, of Victor IlugJes.
Gctiaria,-,'Qi-7:Graiid Terre, is a part of •America,

properly.so called, comprehending about wry degrees
of latitude ; Ititnnded'on the East by the North At-
lantieOcean ; on the West, by the Mountains of the
cordeliers'; on the North; by the River Oronoco ;

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and on the South,'ll the, river of the Amazons, or

the Line

Vrench Guiana is-divided into aistriels, WhiCh.take
their names 'from the principal rivers or capes. The
Moroni- and Oyapoe are the only rivers which have
their source in the great chain ofwountains, which,
in this part of the world, separate the waters which
flow towards the ocean, from those ‘vhich fall into
the Amazon. The rivers Mana, Synnamari, Oyac,‘:

and .Appronague, spring from the mountains of the
second elas4; the others, less considerable from the
mountains of the inferior Order-a--all- have several
-branches; more' or iris rapid, increased by a--great
number of sinaller streams.

The chie:fplaceof t he colony of Cayenne IS generally
known by the: natm of the Llantt of Cayenne ; but
,no just idea can be fornied of this i,Aand, if it is re-,
presented as-being seprated at a di,tance from the
continent, and surrOund!cf by a sea, navigable for
veSsels of all descriptions.; on the contrary, when
the navigator first makes thia land, it appears to bun
as foraiing apart of-Terra Ferma : possibly it might
have been so-formerly; 'at present:itis only, separated

from it by a river, or strait, which rises and falls
with every_ tide, and which can only be navigated

by boats, 7Or vessels of very littlz. buralen.
The greatest breadth of the Island of Cayenne;
measured on a line running. from east to 'N'esti is

four leagues, or twelve English miles ; its greatest
length from north to south is sixteen miles and a half;
and its circumference, taking in all its winding=,; is

about fifty miles that part of the circurriferelice
bordered,by the ocean, and which is to the north-
east,- may perhaps be about t I•or 12 miles.
The town" of Cayenne, situated at the north-
tvest extremity of the Island; at -the month of the

river of •the same name, is fortified, and might be

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eapaLle of being advantageously defended by :a small
mountain which is close to it.. Its latitude is 4 de-
grees
sti minutes, and longitude 54 degrees 35 mi-
nutes, from the.meridian of Paris, according to the
observations of M. de la Condamine, in 1744,
The days and nights 'are equal theougliont the
year, with the exception of about= half an hour,
which we lose from September to March, but gain
in the six other months: •11-ty appears at half-past
five ; ztild at six the Sun darts from the bosom of the
ocean, surrounded With clouds of brilliant purple.—
ANre e t *summers, two equinoxes, two winters,
and tvi-o siaiStices. The hearis tempered by abun-
dant rains, • which fail' during the winter solstice,
from the middle of December to March, and return
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again limn May_ to•the elk of July', when the sum-
mer commences,,and continues to• December. - The
sun is kwice vertical :here—the 20th of April, and
-t•he 20th of August; it is but 'little felt the first
-time, owing to the rains by which the earth is. so
moistened and .cooled. Its-,retnro, however, gives
about six weeks of fine weather, w!iich dries ap the
ground a' little., but the'fickleness pf-these climates
often deceives the planters, who would be 'able.,to
reap two abundant 'crops, if the slit-tners and win-
ters were regular. Europeans will smile at hearing
•of summer and winterin the torrici'7'.ort.., The sum-
mer is a scorching sun, which, for several months,
'is only refreshed-by a sort-of-breeze,- which blows con-
stantly from the east, or N: E. during'the day ; this
v.ind_cornes frdm the sea, and gets the better of the
littii-tr,:eze 1 this latter is only felt on the coast at
certain hours, almost always morning and evening,
just at sun-rise and at sun-set.
. The winter is one continued. fall.of rain, so -heavy.
and abundant, as often to inundate whole plantations,'
and cover them entirely-with a sheet of water. The
rain sometimes falls for fifteen- days successively,
Without the slightest intermission ; it was.this which
made the Abbe- ilaynal say, that the shore where
the colony of 1 763 had disembarked was land under.
water. The winter is sornetitnes, howeVer; dry and.
warm; then the plants and• the trees; wither ; the
north wind, withlts-dry, cold, nitrous breath; burns
and parches up the flowers, friths, and tender buds n
such is the north wind.of wartu,climates, mote des-
Mit-live than a scorching sun in a drrsummer in Eu-.
rope. • , . • • -
The old Town of Cayenne has a very miserable ap-
pearance the houses are nothing:more than wretch-
ed cabins, with sashes without. glass ; a heap of
buildings erected, or rather huddled together, with-.
out art cm- taste ; sloping streets,' dirty and narrow ;
sad payed, one would suppose, from the pain we
felt trotn walking through them; with the- points of
bayonets.' In place of carriages and phaetons; old
sorry-looking jades, more lean and wretched than the
animals ~‘hicti drag our hackney-coaches, seven or
eight fastened to a vehicle meant for a cart, drag
slowly along some barrels of salt beef or fish. In the
old Town, houses of two stories high are palaces, and
stores, which are let out for eight or ten thousand
francs per annum, (from 350 to 450 pounds British)
are magazines for the different productions of the co-
lonies or of Europe,
. ,
The new Town is, more regular, .morelively; al-
though built in the save style, on a Savannah, or
a marshy. meadnW, drained abontfifteen or twenty
yew's ago ; the whole token together, is, less consi7
derahle than a, large village in Et ance. The bousq
appear empty, Or, fpt the
,most_ part, occupied by
people of colour, •••.'i-to. have, nothing, do nothing,
troughs theniseives about nothing, and who live
more at their ease than our i•eSpetable tracf:.s- m'e-n in
Ft'ance, wiorn the -tun never shines upOrt in bed,
and who laboul• hai-ti ail day. 'Here ev.e,ryiop
exchanges, bitys and it'.-sells the 'same thing agAin,
every Coing the rice of its own wenglitt
itt (l 'go., ev,'y m• One, procures it without' scarcely
how. This paradoi: is. very 'easily nucleic.
..vhen we come to knoW the colonies. Those'
1.11 SlWnj profu,ion tb. naOne,'"
they acquire without t roubie their. indolence is, so,
grent,lhat, S)oner• -than inconitno4OhenisrSlVes they'
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will pay .a servotx-,-, to pluck the frtAA winich are under.
their "anotin,-r tti'ci.#ry theln...to their
m.etiths :These Who Lrrive frorrEwope, pay tor ;ill J.
and when vessels are delayed, and do not • oriive at'
tits usual time , the linnine beco.nes gener:d -,v;hont
alartnin6.l.inv person. •