The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-03-07
STRANGE PEOPLE
 IN DUTCH GUIANA
Race Is Found Who Had Never
 Seen White Men
MIXED LANGUAGE USED
Tho People Were Probably Descend ants of Slaves Who Escaped From Their Owners on the Coast
 Centuries Ago.

New York, March 6.--05pecial.)- II. Wymans, lieutenant in the Dutch navy, was a passenger on the steamship Surf name. which arrived from South American and west Indian ports. Het1s on his way back to Holland to make report on an expedition which he conducted into hith- erto unexplored sections of Dutch Gui- ana.
 We started out from Paramaribo.' he said. and proceeded mote than a hun dred miles up the Surname river. Later we cut across country to the Gorantys river which Is a boundary between Brit ish Guiana and Dutch Guiana. There were no exciting adventures on the way but we encountered a strange tribe Of negroes. They spoke q language of their own, although short study showed 1t to be a mixture Of European tongues with tenms they themselves had added. Dutch and Portuguese were in the8mixture, and there were many traces of English.
 s,The people appeared never before to have seen white men. They were prob ably descendants of slaves who had es- caDed from their owners on the coast few centuries ago.
 
 name to the Corantys we had to make our way at seve veral points through under brush so thick that we could not proceed faster than a mile and half day. The country was alive with insects, rep tiles and iaguars.
 'fWe found ourselves able to converse with the natives after d fashion, and when they found we had medical men with us they wanted to know cures for malaria. which is prevalent in many of the sections through which We jour neyed"
 Lieutenant Wymans said that the eXpe- dition had been planned by the Dutch government with the object of obtaining a better knowledge of it's South American possessions He said there was much gold ill the wild country, but that the cataracts on the journey and other ob stacles were so many that extensive min ing for the yellow metal could not be carried on with profit. He had made a map of all the region traversed by his party, two of the members of which re turned with him. Several others will come here shortly on their way back to Hol- land.
 Dutch Guiana. also known as Surinam or Surinamo, on the north coast of South America, is between French and British Guiana, and is bounded on the south by Brazil. across the Tumac-Humac noun tains. The area of the country is about 46.0e0 square miles
 A range of swanps, mud banks and sand hills borders Dutch Guiana on the coast Behind the screen are the plan tations, along the banks of the Suriname river. Nne-tenths of the country's in- lerior is unsettled and consists of moist plains and dense forests intprsected hV rivers.
 Paramaribo, the capital, is ten miles from the mouth of the Surname. Here as in the outlying settlements of the province, the laws. languages, coinage and weights are Dutch. The colony is divided into 16 districts and many com munes and the superior executive power IS vested in q council. consisting of a governor, a vice president and three other members, all appointed by the Queen of Holland
 The principal productions of the eoun- try are sugar, cocoa, bananas, coffee. rice and maize, and there are factories turn ing out rum and molasses. Gold washings have been discovered in considerable quantities and few crushing plants are operated.
 No effort, of course, has been made to take a census of the negroes inhabiting the forests of Dutch Guiana. As is in dicated by Lieutenant Wymans' story, many of them have not even been visited by the white men. H-ne population, ex- elusive of these jungle dwellers, was about 70.00O in 1901.
 Large vessels can navigate the Suriname river for a distance of 40 miles, and ves- sells drawing ten feet can go 100 miles, The stream is 400 miles long. it's mouth is defended by two forts, the New Am sterdam and Zelandia.