The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-05-29 00:00:00

BRITISH GUIANA.

gXTRACTS FROM " A DESCRIPTION OF BRITISH GUIANA,
GEOGRAPHICAL AND STATISTICAL : EXHIBITING ITS
RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES, TOGETHER WITH THE

PRESENT CONDITION, AND FUTURE PROSPECTS OF THE
COLONY. BY R. H. SCHOKBURGK, ESQ."
Guiana*, Guyana, Guayana, or Guianna, is that part of
South America which lies between 8 deg. 40 min. N. let. and
3 deg. 30 min. S. lat. and the 50th and 68th degree of longi-
tude, west of Greenwich It is bounded on the north by the
Atlantic and the eastern course of the river Orinoco, on the
east likewise by the Atlantic, on the south by the rivers
Negro and Amazon, on the west by the northern course of
the Orinoco, the natursi canal of Cassiquiare, and the south-
ern course of the Rio Negro. Its greatest extent between
Cape North, and the confluence of the Rio Kie with the Rio
Negro, is 1098 geographical miles ; its greatest breadth be-
tween Punta Barima, at the mouth of the Orinoco, to the
confluence of the Rio Negro with the Amazon, 710 geogra-
phical miles. Its line of sea-coast extends between the
Amazon and the Orinoco, and is divided into Brazilian,
French, Dutch, British, and Venezuelan Guiana, but its
definite limits have never been obtained. All that has hitherto
been done, between Spain, Portugal, and France, is regarded
as only provisional, and the boundary which separates the
British settlements from Venezuela and Brazil has never been
determined.

Tha following description is limited to those parts which
comprehend British Guiana ; but the exact knowledge of its
area depends upon the determination of its boundaries ; and
in the uncertainty whether the pretensions of the Brazilian
and Venezuelan governments will he attended to, it is im-
possible to come to a result. Some modern geographers ex-
tend British Guiana from the mouth of the Corentyn is 56
deg. 58 min. W. long. to Putna Barima in 60 deg. 6 min. W.
long. ; in consequence of the early Dutch settlers having had
occupation of the eastern bank of the river Barima, where
they had constructed a military outpost, before the English
in 1666 had destroyed the fort of New Zealand, or New Mid-
dleburgh. The Republic of Venezuela claims the country to
the mouth of the river Morocco, from thence to the conflu-
ence of the rivers Cuyuni and Mazaruni, along the western
bank of the river Essequibo, to the confluence of the river
Rupununi.
The Brazilians having lately claimed as far north as the
mouth of the Siparunus, its area would then be reduced to
about 12,300 square miles, and it would form the smallest
of the three colonies in Guiana, which are possessed by
European powersf. If we follow the limits which nature pre-
scribes by its rivers and mountains, and include all the regions
which are drained by the streams which fall into the Esse-
quibo %Rhin the British territory, and adopting the river
Corentyn as its eastern boundary, the counties Demerara,
Essequibo, and Berbice, which constitute British Guiana,
consist of 76,000 square miles.

PHYSICAL ASPECT OF THE COLONY

'The banks and low lands adjacent to the chief rivers of
British Guiana, namely the Essequibo, Demerara, Berbice,
and Corentyn, consist of a blue clay, impregnated with
marine salt mixed with decayed vegetable matter, which in
its decomposed state forms rich mould and is highly produc-
tive. This alluvial flat extends from ten to twenty, and in
some instances (as between the rivers Berbice and Corentyn,)
even to forty miles inland, and is terminated by a range of
sand-hils, from about 30 to 120 feet high, which approach the
sea within two miles of the Arabisi coast of the Essequibo,
if we follow them upwards from that point, they take first a
S.E. by S., and afterwards a S.E. direction, traversing the
whole colony. Almost parallel with the ridge of sand-hills
run several detached groups of hillocks, of moderate eleva-
tion, being seldom more than 200 feet high ; they cross the
river Essequibo at Osterbecke Point, in lat. 6 deg. 15 min.
N., the Demerara at Arobaya, in 6 deg. 5 min., the Berbice
in 5 deg.
In the fifth parallel of latitude a chain of mountains is met
with, which consists of granite, gneiss, and trappean rocks,
and their various modifications ; they are an offset of the
Orinoco mountains, with which they are connected by the
Sierra tissiparna of geographers; they traverse Guiana in a
south-eastern direction, and may be considered the central
ridge of the colony. Whenever this chain crosses any of the
rivers which have been under my investigation, it forms large
cataracts, namely, those of Twasiniki and Ouropocari in the
Essequibo, Itabrou and the Christmas cataracts in the river
Berbice, and the great cataracts in the river Corentyn. The
highest peak appear to be the mountains of St. George, at
the Mazaruni, the Twasiniki, and Maccari on the Essequibo
(the latter rising about 1100 feet above the river), and the
mountains of Itabrou, on the river Berbice, the highest of
which, according to my barometrical admeasurement, was
662 feet above the river, and 828 feet above the sea. This
chain appears to be connected with the Sierra Acarai by the
Marowini mountains, and I am inclined to consider it the old
boundary of the Atlantic, the geological features of the chain
conducing to such a supposition. Further north commence
hillocks of a lower elevation, and those ridges of sand the
consequence of a retreating sea.
The mountains of Pacaraima approach the Essequibo in
lat. 4 deg. N., and are an offset of the Sierra Parima ; their
general direction is east and west, and so far as I have been
able to ascertain, they consist only of primitive formation.
The culminating point of this chain is a range of sand-
stone mountains, of which the highest is called Roraima by
the Indians, in lat. 5 deg. 9 min. 30 sec. N., long. 60 deg.
47 min. W. This remarkable mountain group extends twenty-
five miles in a north-west and south-east direction, and rises
to 5000 feet above the table-land, or 7500 feet above the sea ;
the upper 1500 feet presenting a mural precipice, more striking
than I have ever seen elsewhere. Down the face of these
mountains rush numerous cascades, which eventually form
tributaries to the three great rivers of the northern half of
South America • namely, the Amazon, the Orinoco, and the
Essequibo. These mountains form the separation of waters
of the basins of the Orinoco and Essequibo on the north, and
the Amazon on the south, and they are therefore of the great.
est importance in deciding the boundary of British Guiana.
The mountain Makarapan was formerly considered the
highest point in Guiana, before I visited the Roraima moun-
tains. This mountain approaches the river Repununi in
3 deg. 50 min. N. lat., and rises to a height of about 3500
feet above the sea.

The Cannucu or Conocon mountains, in 3 deg. N. lat.,
connect the Pacaraima mountains with the Sierra Acarai, in
which the largest river of Guiana, the Essequibo, has its
sources. The Acarai mountains likewise give rise to the
river Corentyn, and form the southern boundary of British
Guiana. I shall designate them as the mountains of the
equator, that imaginary line cutting their axis, They are
densely wooded, and display the vigorous and luxuriant ve-
getation which is the striking feature of Guiana. These
mountains do not reach the height of the Roraima; 1 esti-
mated the highest at about 4000 feet. The Ouangouwai, or
Mountains of the Sun, form the connecting link between the
Acarai and Carawaimi mountains ; The Tarapona mountains
between the latter and the Cannucu and Pacaraima mountains.
A peculiar feature, of British Guiana are the savannahs,
which extend between the rivers Demerara and Corentyn,
and approach the sea-shore at the river Berbice. They are
not directly connected with the great savannahs of the Ru.
pununi, as the second ridge of mountains intervenes. These
great savannahs are encompassed by the Sierra Pacaraima to
the north, the Cannucu, Taripona, and Carawaimi mountains
to the south, the thick forests of the Essequibo and isolated
mountains to. the east, and the mountains of the Mocajahi,
and offsets of the Sierra Parima to the westT. The winding
course of the rivers are generally marked with fringes of trees ;
and, if we except in some places tufts of trees which rise like
verdant isles or oases in a desert from amidst these plains,
they are merely covered with grasses and a few stunted trees.
The geological structure of this region leaves but little
doubt that it was once the bed of an inland lake, which by
one of those catastrophes, of which even later times give us
examples, broke its barrier, forcing for its waters a path to
the Atlantic. May we not connect with the former existence
of this inland sea the fable of the lake Parima and the El
Dorado ? Thousands of years may have elapsed ; generations
may have been buried and returned to dust ; nations who
once wandered on its banks may be extinct, and exist even
no more in name ; still the tradition of the lake Parima and
the El Dorado survived these changes of time ; transmitted
from father to son, its fame was carried across the Atlantic,
and kindled the romantic fire of the chivalric Raleigh,
This tract contains the:lake Amucu, which in the dry sea-
son is of small extent and overgrown with rushes ; but during
the rainy season it not only inundates the adjacent low coun-
tries, but its waters, as I have been assured by the Indians,
run partly eastward into the Rupununi, and partly westward
into the Rio Branco. The small river Pirara has its sources
somewhat south of lake Amucu, flowing through it towards
the Rio Mahu. On the banks of this small lake stands the
Macusi village Pirara. With the exception of these savan-
nahs, and the swamps of the river Berbice, the interior is
thickly wooded, the forests consisting mostly of useful timber
trees.

The large rivers with which the colony is intersected con-
tinually bring down quantities of detritus. The land at the
mouths of these testuaries is therefore on the increase, form-
ing a fringe of low ground, which is soon covered with Man-
groves (Rhiznphora Mangle) and Courida Bushes (Anicen-
nia nilida) ; it is the first step of the shore's encroachment
upon the sea. The sandy flat extends from twelve to fifteen
miles to seaward, and in proportion as its distance from shore
increases, it is covered with from three to four feet of water.
These outskirts of new land may, it is more than probable,
be hereafter gained from the sea, and form a valuable addi-
tion to the productive land. It has within the recollection
of many advanced considerably, though in absence of precise
data the yearly progress cannot be ascertained.