Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1889-10-12
THE GOLD or GUYANA.
A South American Miners
Report About the
Dutch Colony.
Climate and Hardships Pre-
vent a Rush to a Land
of Nuggets.

and saw the butte ON which this city stands
but I never expected then to see such
amp as this. She's q whale" These were
the words OF J. C. Brown while engaged in
talk with q MINER reporter at the McDer'
mott hotel yesterday afternoon. Mr.
Brown was not only in Montana at an
early day, but was in other territories
round about and in all the mining districts
OF the Pacific slope. He did not make his
pile in North America and SO turned his
attention to the Southern half of the West.
ern hemisphere and located in Dutch Guy
ana, where he became wealthy. He is
called several times a millionaire bnt on
that point he is modestly reticent.
"Guyana lie not d good place for a young
man without means. In the first place, if
be works hard he is apt to contract the
dangerous fever that is peculiar to the
country, and in the second place he loses
caste by laboring; and having once lost
caste he can never get the natives to work
for him as they would under other circum-
stances. Then, too, the mining operations
are expensive-more SO than in any other
country that l know about"
"Dutch Guyana has a coast about 200
miles in length. I do not know how far
inland the country extends. 1t is heavily
wooded. and the smaller vegetation is in
credibly thick, 80 thick that in traversing
it one has to literally cut their path as he
goes. 1t is the country OF compass and
cutlass; the one to tell you where to go,
the other to enable you to get there. There
is no open country in the entire colony. 1t
is a colony OF Holland. you know"
when a man wants to begin mining oper-
ations he applies to the government Office
for d lease OF land. He can rent as much
he cares to have. The officers select q
parcel Of land for him. give him a map on
which the ira It is painted yellow and tell
him to 60 ahead. He gets a swarm OF
natives, buys q lot OF provisions and takes
boats on the stream that will lead him
nearest to his claim and when he gets as
close as he a he takes to the woods.
Every foot of the path or trail must be
with a ~cutlass. There is not q pack
animal in the country. The natives are
the packers and they carry their packs on
their heads. And after all when the
land is reached it may not
yield much. I did not get any
gold that amounted 10 much in the first
three years l was there. The darkies there
are not like the darkies here. They are
quiet and orderly enough but are frightfully
lazy and hardly worth the very small
wages they are paid. In fact wages OF all
kinds are very small. I pay the white
foreman in nv employ only $50 a month
and board. l am running five sluices now,
and the yield from them is getting smaller
esery year. Quartz is plentiful and the
rack shows q good deal of gold but there
are nothing but placers in the country now.
Grated successfully l may put one n"
There's one good point about the mining
laws Of the country; q man can get all the
land he wants and holds it as long as he
wants to. You pay a small rent the first
aad second years-about 10 cents an acre
and the third and fcu1t tn years 20 cents an
acre; the fifth and sixth years 80 cents an
acre, and ever after that, 80 long az he
chooses to keep the land, he pays the 80
cents per acre annually. If he let's his pay
ment lapse only one day, some one else
may take his land, just as q man may re-
locate another's claim in this country. l do
not know that a person could acquire alb |
sOluts title to government land in Dutch
he might il he vent to Holland
and got the kings consent to the SALE"
1.-THE chief city OF the country is Para
marble. 1t has a population of 10000 OF
only one.tenth part ara whites. The
city is orderly, but has no rail- Dad nor
telegraph communication and has only
three mails a month. The laws-the Ma
poleonic code, civil and ~criminal-are well
Paramaribo has banks
the gold from the interior-all OF the
including my OWL, are eighty miles
from the coasts marketed, and q good |
price is paid for it. It is unlike the gold
you find here; it comes in small nuggets of
pure stuff, like this"
Here Mr.. Brown exhibited the most
novel watch chain and charm the reporter
had ever seen. 1t was made of nuggets in
their native state, connected through
holes by manufactured links.
Each nugget vas about an inch long, and
Of irregular outline, all Of them bearing re-
semblance to each otLer and each one
and rich. The pendant and charm
also nuggets, the latter of unusual
and symmetry. It was q most beauti.
|ul and novel adornmenr.
Continuing about Dutch Guyana, Mr..
Brown said that if the placers OF the
and if the climate of the Dutch
colony vas conducive to the health of the
Caucasian race, there would be tens OF
of men focking th~le, and
quartz mills would benumerous. But gold
in Guyana would always be attended
With hardship and dangers such as few
Jared to undertake and risk.
II am going Lack to Ireland ON q visit,
out I shall return to Guyana as all my
possessions are there" said the South
American miner, in concluding his CONVEX