New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-05-05
! rsRE LABOR IN BRITISH GUIANA AND
- ~ BARBADoES.
Third Article
ROW BRITISH GUIANA WAS RESCUED
FROM TIE SEA.

FROM TIE SEA.
y,efere the Huds IN was 80 named, or Fost
uv,..s or Ne~-Amstsrdsm bad bees plated en- tie
halls sdyesturous Dutch nsvgssors had s,ss;sd
NE shallow and muddy waters, traced toe low
sAeres. and entered and ascended toe principal
,ivsr, Of Gaians--a region 10 which they gave the
erpres sive name Of the Wild Coast. A mere swamp
hab,e 10 be oserfowed by toe ocean to the deptl
Of three or four feet at every spnog tide and dur
m the rainy seasons to a still more formidsse H.
undation from the interior, the line OF the sAa
coast, which forms at present the inhabited sea
cultivated port on of British Gaiaph Old not sean
y hold out many inducements to settlement ie'
~ early as 15So--cotemporancously with has'gas
atsmpt TO plant a colons on the coast OF "ns'
new North Carolna-a Dutch expedition from the
province Of New Zsalsod, established post aea
The nyer Pomeroon at the western hm.s Of ID
vresent British colony, AMI sno:her e. roe moat
Of the Absri Greek, which separates ths pres
snt country (forner colony of Berbice from
mat Of Dsmerars. These establishments, like
Nose subsequently made at the mouth of the Had
ssn, hal not 90 much in view any scheme
q cultivation, as that Of trading with
10 Indians, by whom the back country
was thnly inhabited, and who occasionally
waited the coast. With the same object 10 view,
another poet WAS shortly after established oa the
west bank of the Estequibo, near its mouth; bat
nom this the settlers were driven in 1896 By par
~ of Spsniards and fOdiaes from the S,au'sh act
Elements in what is now Venezuela. Thus expelled
from their first position, they retired INLAND, and
tack possession Of small island at the uactioo of
Tie Mazaruri and Cuyuni the two great tributaries
which enter the Esseqaibo frem the west, jus.
below the heal of navigation, and s>me fifty
rAlss distant from the coast. II appears, bow
ever, that they were not the FIRST European occu-
pants Of this secluded spot for they found on tue
nlapd deserted fort built of he1n stone from The
neshboripg quarries, with the Portuguese arms
carved over the gateway, bat when aad by who N
erected, nobody Knows. The headquarters how
ever, OF the Dutch occupation of the Esseqaioo
were removed before long to another island,
known a. Fort Island, near the mouth Of that
river, and not far from the eastern baJk. The
appointment Of the governors and the general
control Of the colony was in the hands of the Ddtch
wost lydia cnwpsnes but for hundred and ffsy
years it made very slow progress.
These frat Efforts ct colonization on the Esse-
qubo, were followed in 1926 by a similar enter
prize on the Berbice, undertaken by one John Van
Psere, whs bad previously attempted trading set
- nement near the 0rinOco from which he had been
N driven BY tho Spabiards. To keep out of the way
. of similar attack, he butt Fort Nassau sOme
airty miles up the river Berbce just on the upper
border Of the slluvial couutry. The little settle
pent formed round this fort remained for near q
century, the Inheritance aad property Of the family
ofVan Peere, bus during all that period its Income
and pecuniary value were probably less than those
Of one good sugar plantation of tae present day.
In 1872 charter was granted by the States
general establishing local Legislature like tia. o
Es.tq aibo, aud in the general outline very similar
to that which low exists il British Guiana. IL was
ABOUT The time Of the grant of this charter that the
aIluyial lands toward the mouth of the river fret
began TO attract atts ntiOn fort was built at che
jspc,ion of the CsDjee with the Berbiee, near the
site Of the present town Of New Amsterdam though
that town itrelf is of much more recent date.
la l745, ons Andrew Peters obtained permission
from TIE Court of Policy, or local Legislature Of
Esseqoibo, 10 Jay out plantations on the 4" uoin-
hab,ted river Dsmerara." This is the first mention
made of that river in the records of EssequlbO
and DO doubt was the first move toward settlement
ngon it, This lew settlement was to be separate
colony, but the planters of Essequbo were to pos
sess for two years the right of renewing thither.
In 1868 Berbice suffered severely from slave in
suIrecdOD. Fort Nassau was abandoned as indie
feD,iole, and DotwitbssDdipg assistance from Cur
inam and ST. Eustatius it was not till the end Of
eleven months, aud by the aid Of forces sent out
from Holland that the insauection was finally sub
dued. return of the population of BerbIce, dated
June, 1894, after the suppression of the insurrec
ton. gave, the entire number of inhabitants, lie
whites, 1903 male slaves 1917 female slaves, aud
745 slave children, in all 3486 persOos showing
that tie colony still remained but an uncomfortable
affair.
Nor had the more western settlements yet OBJ
tanned any great mercantile importance. In the
period from l745 to ITO inclasiye the total ex.
paris OF sugar from D,msrara and Essequibo
amounted to only SO 1863 hogsheads, an average Of
but 2,052 bossbesds year, or tor the whole twen
ty-six years, Lot so much as the present annual
ports Of British Guiana. Toward the latter
part of the period above mentioned, con-
siderable addition had been made to tbs exports,
in the article OF coffee, which, from the growing
consumption in Europe had lately become al OBJ
ject of profitable cultivation, especially on the new
plantations established on the Denerara River.
TIE coffee, which naturally affects billy country,
xI<u az foh sC haSn