The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-05-07

! small on the map but important in this
controversy. The Dutch, it is held. in
the le6 years before British control
in 1874. never advanced farther unless
ii was about one mile to the west to
the Maruca, another small but much
mentioned river Spain treated any pre-
tensions the Dutch made beyond this as
obviously baSeless and drove them back
as intruders. Diplomatic corresponds
ence on the subject of the boundary
had ceased between the Spanish and
when CONSERVATION was created in
Venezuela by news that British flag
was flying at Point Barima. an island
commanding the mouth of the OrinOcO.
y protest was at once made by VEN
ezuela, and the controversy, so long
asleep, was resIwakeneds
Schomburgk's Line.
The flying of the British flag was
due TO the claims for Great Britain by
Hermann Schomburgk. a young Ger
man naturalist. who had been travel
ing IN Guiana and had proposed to the
British government to survey a bound
airy line. He was an enthusiast for
Great Britain. and dwelt in his letters
controlling the mouth of the Orinoco.
river which he said offered wateI.
transportation for from 400 to 800 leagues
anu mad nearly 800 tributary streams
OF more or less Importance. The ORR
noco flows into the ocean by many
CHANNELS OF which that commanded by
folnt Barima, on the island Of Barima,
Is the SouthernmOSt. SchOmburgk call
ed attention TO the fact that this chan
mel (Boca de NaviOs. or ships MOUTH
was the only one which admitted ves-
GELS or some drauSht and was often
referred to as the Dardanelles OF the
OrInoco. He spoke of the remains OF
a fort having been found at Point Ba-
rima. and of this being evidence that
Venezuelan counsel now contend that
there is no evidence in the Voluminous
and complete Dutch records of any
forts ever occupying this point They
refer to evidence that the French trad
erS once had Il stronghold there. and
that If the remains reported by Schom-
burgk were really found. they were
probably traces of the French occu-
patton.
Under the protest of Venezuela at
the time. Great Britain reached from
markers of the Schomburgk line in
1872 Since then Great Britain's claims
have shifted about. until the various
lines proposed. when put on the map
of tangled yarn a curious fact in
the case is that the SchOmburgk line
published on maps from 1912 was Il
line first proposed by him before he
was of a line taking in a respectable
strip of territory to the west. A map
based on this survey was slowed away
in secret archives and not sprung on
1856
The Cuyuni and Mazaruni rivers two
large streams flowing into the Essequibo
form the basis of contention in the inte-
rior of the disputed territory. While the
original Schomburgk line had. in the in
terror. cut straight across the Cuyuni. the
larger of the two rivers. the expanded line
bent to the west so as to take in the en-
tire course of the river. Great Britain. it
would seem. had at first been too modest
to make public claim to the territory be-
yOnd the original SchOmburgk line but
now the extreme claim of the British
extends far beyond even the expanded
line" taking in all the trib-
utarles of the Cuyuni up to their source,
and to within a d0~an miles of the ORR
noco. ADOLPH SCHMUCK.