Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-09-17
M|SSPELLED WORD
CHEATED GUIANA Of
CHANCE FOR FAME
Early Writers Confused Hab-
itat of Guinea Pig With
African Guinea.

what IS the biggest real estate trans
fer ever recorded in the new world?
Any little group of questionable ad-
diets who encountered that inquiry
probably would begin wonderint, wheth-
er Muscle Shoals had been sold. or
whether somebody had purchased the
Woolworth building.
The National Geographic society re-
calls, in a bulletin apropos of the plans
being discussed in Holland to invest
new capital in Dutch Guiana, that New
York once was traded for Paramaribo.
Traded for New York.
The real estate record of the trans
action is to be found in the treaty of
Breda. by which. in 1857. the Dutch
gave New Amsterdam to England and
England turned over pretty little Par
amarillo, Dutch Guiana's capital, to
Holland.
ITO put it mildly" continues the bull
letin, "Paramaribo today is not known
SO widely as it might me. Neither is
SURNAME, which is the commoner name
for Dutch Guiana; nor Demerara.
which is locally used to designate Brit
ish Guiana.
and Guiana itself misses a chance
for fame through a typographical error.
The humble guinea pig. a native son.
would have carried its homeland's name
into popular usage had not carly
writer's confused the habitat of the
rodent with African Guinea-a confu-
sion which is not altogether overcome
to this day.
Almost an Island.
Yet. Guiana, proper, is about a third
as large as the United States. and oc-
cupIes a conspicuous position on the
forehead of a continent of American
republics which Americans of the
United states have come to know so
well.
British Guiana, French Guiana and
Dutch Giana are not all of Guiana;
there also is Venezuelan Guiana and
brazilian Guiana. Thus Greater
Guiana comprises the region between
the Orinoco and the Amazon; in fact
Guiana is a sort of island because these
rivers along with the Rio Negro and
Casiquaire, form its boundary.
1T is not an inexcusable error to
class Dutch Guiana with the West In
dies for, in respect to communication
and commerce. it is all but cut off from
its South American ~neighbors, and does
business with Trinidad and with Hol-
land direct.
Florida failed 10 reveal its founda-
ton of youth 70 Ponce de Leon. but its
Niamis have yielded restorative gifts
to many thousands of ~mid-winter pill
grims. Although the Guianas failed
Sir Walter Raleigh in his quest for a
promised land of gold and gems. that
region may yet become an economic
Ell Dorado by the saner romance OF
modern development.
ON -.x- ~ ~ - =.
fluent and faciIe Juan Martinez out
ranks Munchausen or Ananias. His
tales of Manoa. where the monuments
We're marvels of lustrous gold. and
where men were amounted with oil and
then sprinkled with pulverized gold.
| captured the imaginations of many ex-
! plorers even before Sir Walter Raleigh
penetrated the humid interior of Guiana
in search of this FL Dorado. So gen
orally is the term now used in a figu-
ratiye sense 10 denote any fancifui
rainbow's end that ii is hard to realize
how seriously the tales of Martinez,
and lesser liars. were credited. Indeed.
FL Dorado's mythical cour city. the
lake on which it was supposed to he
located. and the estimated extent of
the country itself appeared IN maps
until the serious scutiny of Humboldt
exploded the fair tale.
"nutch Guiana is about the size of
| Florida. The British held it: and the
Dutch first held what now is British
Guiana. The westernmost of the three
foreign holdings, French Guiana, 10
used. in part. as a penal colony.
Along the coast Dutch Guiana II a
strip of transplanted Holland. Back
in its forests is a bit of Africa. in
habited by Bushmen. who live much
as do their Dark Continent cousins.
The Africans were imported in slave
days, and chased back to the forest
Businesses when the tax collector came
around. Many of them found their
tropical environment there so home
like that they eluded their owners. The
Indians are mostly Arawaks.
Streets Shaded by M~ahoganIes.
Paramaribo has the immaculate sp-
pearance of a Dutch city; it has one
natural extravaganza of which ii is
proud. its streets lined with mahogany
shade trees. For the trees on one
block spreading over neat weather.
board houses, a lumber firm once Of
fered s5o.O0o, and the residents de-
clined to sell.
"Yet Paramaribo, like Dutch Guisns,
needed the money. Thrifty and careful
development of Suriname's resources
! met with a series of untoward circum-
stances. First the cacao yielded boun'
tifA crops and then suffered a blight.
Suyar-caue was introduced. and at
tackled by n disease. The indomitable
c~oionists turned to bananas. ana an
epidemic overlook them. Yet IN 1911
the little colony exported S3.o00,oM
worth of goods. mostly sugar. gold and
cacao. Back in its timberlands Ameri-
can firms now are obtaining wood pulp.
A railroad pushes 80 miles into its
forests. Despite early disastser sugar
is the chief crop"