Chapter XII: Act 1856: , is mainly declaratory of the English common law, as embodied (5)

_Industries and Trade._--At the end of the third decade of the 19th
century the principal exports were sugar, rum, molasses, cotton and
coffee. In 1830, 9,500,000 lb. of coffee were sent abroad, but after
the emancipation of the slaves it almost ceased as an export, and the
little that is now grown is practically entirely consumed in the
colony. The cultivation of cotton ceased in 1844, and, but for a short
revival during the American civil war, has never prospered since.
Efforts have been made to resuscitate its growth, but the experiments
of the Board of Agriculture have only shown that Sea Island cotton is
not adaptable to local conditions, and that no other known variety can
as yet be recommended. To-day the principal exports are sugar, rum,
molasses, molascuit--a cattle food made from molasses--gold, timber,
balata, shingles and cattle. The annual value of the total exports is
just under L2,000,000, of which about two-thirds go to Great Britain
and British possessions. The cultivation of rice has made great
strides in recent years, and, where difficulties of drainage and
irrigation can be economically overcome, promises to increase rapidly.
In 1873, 32,000,000 lb. of rice were imported, whereas in 1904-1905,
the quantity imported having fallen to 20,500,000 lb., there were over
18,000 acres under rice cultivation, and exportation, principally to
the British West Indies, had commenced. The cultivation of the
sugar-cane, and its manufacture into sugar and its by-products, still
remains, in spite of numerous fluctuations, the staple industry. The
provision of a trustworthy labour supply for the estates is of great
importance, and local scarcity has made it necessary since 1840 to
import it under a system of indenture. In that year and until 1867,
liberated Africans were brought from Rio de Janeiro, Havana, Sierra
Leone and St Helena, and in 1845 systematic immigration from India
commenced and has since been carried on annually--save in 1849-1850.
In 1853 immigration from China was tried, and was carried on by the
government from 1859 to 1866, when it ceased owing to a convention
arranged at Peking, stipulating that all immigrants should on the
expiry of their term of indenture be entitled to be sent back at the
expense of the colony, a liability it could not afford to incur. To
reduce the cost of supervision and kindred expenses, and consequently
of the cane and its manufacture into sugar, the policy of
centralization has been universally adopted, and forty-six estates now
produce as much sugar as three times that number did in 1875. During
recent years Canada has come forward as a large buyer of Guiana's
sugar, and in 1904-1905 the same amount went there as to the United
States, in each case over 44,000 tons, whereas in 1901-1902 the United
States took 85,000 tons and Canada under 8000 tons. Practically all
the rum and molascuit go to England, and the molasses to Holland and
Portuguese possessions. The lands on the coast and on the river banks
up to the sand hills are of marked fertility, and can produce almost
any tropical vegetable or fruit. Cultivation, however, save on the
sugar, coffee and cocoa estates, and by a few exceptional small
farmers, is carried on in a haphazard and half-hearted manner, and the
problem of agricultural development is one of great difficulty for the
government. Much of the privately-owned land is not beneficially
occupied, and in many cases it is not possible even to learn to whom
it belongs, and though there are vast tracts of uncultivated crown
land where a large farm or a small homestead can be easily and cheaply
acquired, the difficulties involved in clearing, draining, and in some
cases of protecting it by dams, are prohibitive to all but the
exceptionally determined.

Prospecting for gold began in 1880, and from 1884 to 1893-1894 the
output, chiefly from alluvial workings, increased from 250 oz. to
nearly 140,000 oz. annually. The industry then received a serious
check by the failure of several mines, and for nearly a decade was
almost entirely in the hands of the small tributor, known locally as a
pork-knocker. There has been some revival, chiefly due to foreign
enterprise. At Omai on the Essequibo river a German syndicate worked a
large concession on the hydraulic process of placer mining with
considerable success, and more recently took to dredging on its
flats. In the Puruni (a tributary of the Mazaruni) American
capitalists, working the Peters' mine, have established their workings
to a considerable depth, besides constructing a road, 60 m. in length,
from Kartabo point, at the confluence of the Guyuni and Mazaruni, to
the Puruni river opposite the mine. An English syndicate started
dredging in the Conawarook, a tributary of the Essequibo. The
principal gold districts are on the Essequibo and its tributaries--the
chief being the Cuyuni, Mazaruni, Potaro and Conawarook--and on the
Barima, Barama and Waini rivers in the north-west district. There have
been smaller workings, mostly unsuccessful, in the Demerara and
Berbice rivers.

Diamonds and other precious stones have been found in small
quantities, and since 1900 efforts have been made to extend the
output, nearly 11,000 carats weight of diamonds being exported in
1904. But though the small stones found were of good water, the cost
of transport to the diamond fields, on the Mazaruni river, was heavy,
and after 1904 the industry declined. Laws dealing with gold and
precious stones passed in 1880, 1886 and 1887, and regulations in
1899, were codified in 1902 and amended in 1905.

Timber is cut, and balata and rubber collected, from crown lands by
licences issued from the department of Lands and Mines. Wood-cutting,
save on concessions held by a local company owning an up-country line
of railway connecting the Demerara and Essequibo rivers, is limited to
those parts of the forest which are close to the lower stretches of
the rivers and creeks, the overland haulage of the heavy logs being
both difficult and costly, while transport through the upper reaches
of the rivers is impossible on account of the many cataracts and
rapids. The average annual value of imports is L1,500,000, of which
about two-thirds are from Great Britain and British possessions. Of
the vessels trading with the colony, most are under the British flag,
the remainder being principally American and Norwegian.

The money of account is dollars and cents, but, with the exception of
the notes of the two local banks, the currency is British sterling.
The unit of land measure is the Rhynland rood, roughly equal to 12 ft.
4 in. A Rhynland acre contains 300 square roods.

_Inland Communication, &c._--The public roads extend along the coast
from the Corentyn river to some 20 m. N. of the Essequibo mouth on the
Aroabisci coast, and for a short distance up each of the principal
rivers and creeks entering the sea between these points. A line of
railway 60-1/2 m. in length runs from Georgetown to Rosignol on the
left bank of the Berbice river opposite New Amsterdam; and another
line 15 m. long starts from Vreed-en-hoop, on the left bank of the
Demerara river opposite Georgetown, and runs to Greenwich Park on the
right bank of the Essequibo river some 3 m. from its mouth. A light
railway, metre gauge, 18-1/2 m. in length, connects Wismar (on the
left bank of the Demerara river some 70 m. from its mouth) with
Rockstone (on the right bank of the Essequibo, and above the first
series of cataracts in that river). Steamers run daily to and from
Georgetown and Wismar, and launches to and from Rockstone and
Tumatumari Fall on the Potaro, and all expeditions for the goldfields
of the Essequibo and its tributaries above Rockstone travel by this
route. Another steamer goes twice a week to Bartica at the confluence
of the Essequibo and Mazaruni, and another weekly to Mt. Everard on
the Barima, from which termini expeditions start to the other gold and
diamond fields. Steamers also run from Georgetown to New Amsterdam and
up the Berbice river for about 100 m. Above the termini of these
steamer routes all travelling is done in keelless _bateaux_, propelled
by paddlers and steered when coming through the rapids at both bow and
stern by certificated bowmen and steersmen. Owing to the extreme
dangers of this inland travelling, stringent regulations have been
framed as to the loading of boats, supply of ropes and qualifications
of men in charge, and the shooting of certain falls is prohibited.
Voyages up-country are of necessity slow, but the return journey is
made with comparatively great rapidity, distances laboriously covered
on the up-trip in three days being done easily in seven hours when
coming back.

From England British Guiana is reached in sixteen days by the steamers
of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, and in nineteen days by those
of the direct line from London and Glasgow. There are also regular
services from Canada, the United States, France and Holland.

_History._--When taken over in 1803 the prospects of three British colonies were by no means promising, and during the next decade the situation became very critical. Owing to the increased output of sugar by conquered Dutch and French colonies the English market was glutted and the markets of the continent of Europe were not available, Bonaparte having closed the ports. The years 1811 and 1812 were peculiarly disastrous, especially to those engaged in the manufacture of sugar, and at a public meeting held in Georgetown early in the latter year it was stated that the produce of the colony ordinarily worth L1,860,000 had on account of deteriorated value decreased by fully one-third. At this meeting it was resolved to petition the imperial parliament to allow the interchange of produce with the United States; a resolution which was unfortunately rendered abortive by the outbreak of war between England and the States in 1812, the trade of British Guiana being instead actually harried by American privateers. In his address to the Combined Court on the 20th of October 1812 the governor (General Carmichael) stated that a vessel with government stores had been captured by an American privateer, and in February 1813 the imperial government sent H.M.S. "Peacock" to protect the coast. On the 23rd of that month in cruising along the east coast of Demerara the "Peacock" met the American privateer "Hornet," and though, after a gallant struggle, in which Captain Peake, R.N., was killed, the English ship was sunk with nearly all her crew, the colony did not suffer from any further depredations. In the following years news of the agitation in England in favour of emancipation gradually became known to the slaves and caused considerable unrest among them, culminating in 1823 in a serious outbreak on the estates on the east coast of Demerara. Negroes, demanding their freedom, attacked the houses of several managers, and although at most points these attacks were repulsed with but little loss on either side, the situation was so serious as to necessitate the calling out of the military. The ringleaders were arrested and promptly and vigorously dealt with, while a special court-martial was appointed to try the Rev. John Smith, of the London Missionary Society, who it was alleged had fostered the rising by his teachings to the slave congregation at his chapel in Le Ressouvenir. This trial was stigmatized as unfair by the missionary party in England, but on the whole appears to have been conducted decently by an undoubtedly unbiassed court. It is difficult now to form any very definite conclusion. Mr Smith certainly had great influence over the slaves, and while his teaching prior to the outbreak was at least ill-advised, he made no efforts while the disturbances were going on to use his influence on the side of law and order; indeed all he could say in his own defence was that he was ignorant of what was going on, a statement it is impossible to believe to have been strictly veracious. He was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. It is obvious that it was never intended to carry out this sentence, and on the 29th of November the governor announced that he felt it imperative on him to transmit the findings of the court for His Majesty's consideration. The question of Smith's guilt or innocence created a great deal of feeling in England, the anti-slavery and missionary societies making it a basis for increased agitation in favour of the slaves; but the imperial government evidently agreed with the colonial executive in holding that he could not be exonerated of grave responsibility, as the order of the king was that while the sentence of death was remitted Mr Smith was to be dismissed from the colony and to enter into a recognizance in L2000 not to return to British Guiana or to reside in any other West Indian colony. This order reached Georgetown in April 1824, but Mr Smith had died in the city jail on the 6th of February of a pulmonary complaint from which he had been suffering for some time.

Sir Benjamin d'Urban was governor from April 1824 to May 1833, the principal event of his administration being the consolidation in 1831 of the three colonies into one colony divided into three counties, Berbice, Demerara and Essequibo.

Governor d'Urban was succeeded in June 1833 by Sir James Carmichael Smyth, who began his administration by a proclamation to the slaves stating that while the king intended to improve their condition, the details of his plans were not as yet completed, and warning them against impatience or insubordination. When the resolutions foreshadowing emancipation, passed by the House of Commons on the 12th of June 1833, reached the colony, the planters, to whom the governor's proclamation had been most distasteful, were thunderstruck and even the government was surprised. Naturally the slaves were wildly jubilant. Emancipation brought troublous times through which the governor steered the colony with great tact and firmness, serious troubles being nipped in the bud solely by his great personality, and the subsequent conflicts with the apprentices might have been obviated had he lived longer. He died at Camp House on the 4th of March 1838.

In the years following emancipation the colony was in a serious condition. The report of a commission in 1850 proved that it was virtually ruined, and only by the introduction of immigrants to provide a reliable labour supply were the sugar estates saved from total extinction. By 1853 the colony had begun to make headway, and Sir Henry Barkly, the then governor, was able to state in his speech to the Combined Court in January that its progress was in every way satisfactory. During Governor Barkly's administration the long series of struggles between the legislature and the executive terminated, and when he left in May 1853 he did so with the respect and good-will of all classes. The strengthening of the labour supply was not effected without troubles. In 1847 the negroes in Berbice attacked the persons and property of the Portuguese immigrants, the riots spreading to Demerara and Essequibo, and not until the military were called out were the disturbances quelled. Similar riots in 1862 were only stopped by the prompt and firm action of the new governor, Mr (afterwards Sir) Francis Hincks, while rows between negroes and Chinese and negroes and East Indians were frequent. Gradually, however, things quieted down, and until 1883 the estates as a whole did well. In 1884 the price of sugar fell so seriously as to make the prospects of the colony very gloomy, and for nearly two decades proprietors had to be content with a price kept artificially low by bounty-fed beet-sugar, many estates being ruined, while those that survived only did so by the application of every economy, and by their owners availing themselves of every new discovery in the sciences of cultivation and manufacture.

The year 1889 was marked by an outbreak on the part of a section of the negro population in Georgetown directed against the Portuguese residents there. A Portuguese had murdered his black paramour and had been convicted and sentenced to death. The governor commuted the sentence to penal servitude for life. Shortly after this a Portuguese stall-holder in the market assaulted a small black boy whom he suspected of pilfering, the latter having to be taken to a hospital, while the former, after being taken to a police station was, through some misunderstanding or informality, at once released. Almost immediately excitable and unreasoning negroes were rushing about loudly proclaiming that the boy was dead, that the Portuguese were allowed to kill black people and to go free, and calling on one another to take their own revenge. Mobs gathered quickly, attacked individual Portuguese and wrecked their shops and houses, and not until the city had been given up for two days to scenes of disgraceful disorder were the efforts of the police and special constables successful in quelling the disturbances. The damage done amounted to several thousands of dollars, the Portuguese owners being eventually compensated from general revenue.

In 1884 the dispute as to the boundary with Venezuela became acute. It was reported to the colonial government that the government of Venezuela had granted to an American syndicate a concession which covered much of the territory claimed by Great Britain, and although prompt investigation by an agent despatched by the governor did not then disclose any trace of interference with British claims, a further visit in January 1885, made in consequence of reports that servants of the Manoa Company had torn down notices posted by Mr McTurk on his former visit, discovered that the British notices had been covered over by Venezuelan ones and resulted in the government of Great Britain declaring that it would thenceforward exercise jurisdiction up to and within a boundary known as "the modified Schomburgk line." Outposts were located at points on this line, and for some years Guianese police and Venezuelan soldiers faced one another across the Amacura creek in the Orinoco mouth and at Yuruan up the Cuyuni river. Guianese officers were, however, presumably instructed not actively to oppose acts of aggression by the Venezuelan government, for in January 1895 Venezuelan soldiers arrested Messrs D. D. Barnes and A. H. Baker, inspectors of police in charge at Yuruan station, conveyed them through Venezuela to Caracas, eventually allowing them to take steamer to Trinidad. For this act compensation was demanded and was eventually paid by Venezuela. The diplomatic question as to the boundary--the results of which are stated above--was passed out of the hands of the colony; see the account of the arbitration under VENEZUELA.

The last two months of 1905 were marked by serious disturbances in Georgetown, and in a lesser degree on the east and west banks of the Demerara river. On the 29th of November the dock labourers employed on the wharves in Georgetown struck for higher wages, and large crowds invaded the principal stores in the city, compelling men willing to work to desist and in some cases assaulting those who opposed them. By the evening of the 30th of November they had got so far out of hand as to necessitate the reading of the Riot Act and a proclamation by the governor (Sir F. M. Hodgson) forbidding all assemblies. On the morning of the 1st of December serious disturbances broke out at Ruimvelt, a sugar estate directly south of Georgetown, where the cane-cutters had suddenly struck for higher pay, and the police were compelled to fire on the mob, killing some and wounding others. All through that day mobs in all parts of the city assaulted any white man they met, houses were invaded and windows smashed, and on two further occasions the police had to fire. At night torrential rains forced the rioters to shelter, and enabled the police to get rest, their places being taken by pickets of militiamen and special constables. On Saturday, the 2nd of December, the police had got the upper hand, and the arrival that night of H.M.S. "Sappho" and on Sunday of H.M.S. "Diamond" gave the government complete control of the situation. Threatened troubles on the sugar estates on the west bank were suppressed by the prompt action of the governor, and the arrest of large numbers of the rioters and their immediate trial by special courts restored thorough order.

AUTHORITIES.--See Raleigh's _Voyages for the Discovery of Guiana
1595-1596_, ("Hakluyt" series); Laurence Keymis' _Relation of the
second Voyage to Guiana (1596)_, ("Hakluyt" series); Sir R. H.
Schomburgk, _Description of British Guiana_ (London, 1840); C.
Waterton, _Wanderings in South America, 1812-1825_ (London, 1828); J.
Rodway, _History of British Guiana_ (Georgetown, 1891-1894); H. G.
Dalton, History of British Guiana (London, 1855); J. W. Boddam
Whetham, _Roraima and British Guiana_ (London, 1879); C. P. Lucas,
_Historical Geography of British Colonies_; E. F. im Thurn, _Among the
Indians of Guiana_ (London, 1883); _British Guiana Directory_
(Georgetown, 1906); G. D. Bayley, _Handbook of British Guiana_
(Georgetown, 1909). (A. G. B.*)

Dutch Guiana.

II. DUTCH GUIANA, or _Surinam_, has an area of about 57,900 sq. m. British Guiana bounds it on the west and French on the east (the long unsettled question of the French boundary is dealt with in section III., FRENCH GUIANA). The various peoples inhabiting Surinam are distributed according to the soil and the products. The Indians (Caribs, Arawaks, Warrous) live on the savannahs, or on the upper Nickerie, Coppename and Maroni, far from the plantations, cultivating their fields of manioc or cassava, and for the rest living by fishing and hunting. They number about 2000. The bush negroes (Marrons) dwell between 3 deg. and 4 deg. N., near the isles and cataracts. They are estimated at 10,000, and are employed in the transport of men and goods to the goldfields, the navigation of the rivers in trade with the Indians, and in the transport of wood to Paramaribo and the plantations. They are the descendants of runaway slaves, and before missionaries had worked among them their paganism retained curious traces of their former connexion with Christianity. Their chief god was Gran Gado (grand-god), his wife Maria, and his son Jesi Kist. Various minor deities were also worshipped, Ampuka the bush-god, Toni the water-god, &c. Their language was based on a bastard English, mingled with many Dutch, Portuguese and native elements. Their chiefs are called _gramman_ or grand man; but the authority of these men, and the peculiarities of language and religion, have in great measure died out owing to modern intercourse with the Dutch and others. The inhabitants of Paramaribo and the plantations comprise a variety of races, represented by Chinese, Javanese, coolies from India and the West Indies, negroes and about 2000 whites. Of non-Christian immigrants there are about 6000 Mahommedans and 12,000 Hindus; and Jews number about 1200. The total population was given in 1907 as 84,103, exclusive of Indians, &c., in the forests. Nearly one-half of this total are in Paramaribo and one-half in the districts. The population has shown a tendency to move from the districts to the town; thus in 1852 there were 6000 persons in the town and 32,000 in the districts.

The principal settlements have been made in the lower valley of the Surinam, or between that river and the Saramacca on the W. and the Commewyne on the E. The Surinam is the chief of a number of large rivers which rise in the Tumuc Humac range or the low hills between it and the sea, which they enter on the Dutch seaboard, between the Corentyn and the Maroni (Dutch _Corantijn_ and _Marowijne_), which form the boundaries with British and French territories respectively. Between the rivers of Dutch Guiana there are remarkable cross channels available during the floods at least. As the Maroni communicates with the Cottica, which is in turn a tributary of the Commewyne, a boat can pass from the Maroni to Paramaribo; thence by the Sommelsdijk canal it can reach the Saramacca; and from the Saramacca it can proceed up the Coppename, and by means of the Nickerie find its way to the Corentyn. The rivers are not navigable inland to any considerable extent, as their courses are interrupted by rapids. The interior of the country consists for the most part of low hills, though an extreme height of 3800 ft. is known in the Wilhelmina Kette, in the west of the colony, about 3 deg. 50' to 4 deg. N. The hinterland south of this latitude, and that part of the Tumuc Humac range along which the Dutch frontier runs, are, however, practically unexplored. Like the other territories of Guiana the Dutch colony is divided physically into a low coast-land, savannahs and almost impenetrable forest.

Meteorological observations have been carried on at five stations (Paramaribo, Coronie, Sommelsdijk, Nieuw-Nickerie and Groningen). The mean range of temperature for the day, month and year shows little variation, being respectively 77.54 deg.-88.38 deg. F., 76.1 deg.-78.62 deg. F. and 70.52 deg.-90.14 deg. F. The north-east trade winds prevail throughout the year, but the rainfall varies considerably; for December and January the mean is respectively 8.58 and 9.57 in., for May and June 11.26 and 10.31 in., but for February and March 7.2 and 6.81 in., and for September 2.48 and 2.0 in. The seasons comprise a long and a short dry season, and a period of heavy and of slight rainfall.

_Products and Trade._--It has been found exceedingly difficult to
exploit the produce of the forests. The most important crops and those
supplying the chief exports are cocoa, coffee and sugar, all
cultivated on the larger plantations, with rice, maize and bananas on
the smaller or coast lands. Most of the larger plantations are
situated on the lower courses of the Surinam, Commewyne, Nickerie and
Cottica, and on the coast lands, rarely in the upper parts. Goldfields
lie in the older rocks (especially the slate) of the upper Surinam,
Saramacca and Maroni. The first section of a railway designed to
connect the goldfields with Paramaribo was opened in 1906. The annual
production of gold amounts in value to about L100,000, but has shown
considerable fluctuation. Agriculture is the chief means of
subsistence. About 42,000 acres are under cultivation. Of 30,000,
persons whose occupation is given in official statistics, close upon
21,000 are engaged in agriculture or on the plantations, 2400 in
gold-mining and only 1000 in trade. The exports increased in value
from L200,800 in 1875 to L459,800 in 1899, and imports from L260,450
in 1875 to L510,180 in 1899; but the average value of exports over
five years subsequently was only L414,000, while that of imports was
L531,000.

_Administration._--The colony is under a governor, who is president of
an executive council, which also includes a vice-president and three
members nominated by the crown. The legislative body is the states,
the members of which are elected for six years by electors, of whom
there is one for every 200 holders of the franchise. The colony is
divided into sixteen districts. For the administration of justice
there are three cantonal courts, two district courts, and the supreme
court at Paramaribo, whose president and permanent members are
nominated by the crown. The average local revenue (1901-1906) was
about L276,000 and the expenditure about L317,000; both fluctuated
considerably, and a varying subvention is necessary from the home
government (L16,000 in 1902, L60,400 in 1906; the annual average is
about L37,000). There are a civic guard of about 1800 men and a
militia of 500, with a small garrison.

_History._--The history of the Dutch in Guiana, and the compression of their influence within its present limits, belongs to the general history of Guiana (above). Surinam and the Dutch islands of the West Indies were placed under a common government in 1828, the governor residing at Paramaribo, but in 1845 they were separated. Slavery was abolished in 1863. Labour then became difficult to obtain, and in 1870 a convention was signed between Holland and England for the regulation of the coolie traffic, and a Dutch government agent for Surinam was appointed at Calcutta. The problem was never satisfactorily solved, but the interest of the mother-country in the colony greatly increased during the last twenty years of the 19th century, as shown by the establishment of the Surinam Association, of the Steam Navigation Company's service to Paramaribo, and by the formation of a botanical garden for experimental culture at that town, as also by geological and other scientific expeditions, and the exhibition at Haarlem in 1898.

AUTHORITIES.--Among the older works on Surinam the first rank is held
by Jan Jacob Hartsinck's masterly _Beschryving van Guiana, of de Wilde
Kust, in Zuid Amerika_ (2 vols., Amsterdam, 1770). Extracts from this
work, selected for their bearing upon British boundary questions, were
translated and annotated by J. A. J. de Villiers (London, 1897). A
valuable _Geschiedenis der Kolonie van Suriname_, by a number of
"learned Jews," was published at Amsterdam in 1791 and it was
supplemented and so far superseded by Wolbers, _Geschiedenis van
Suriname_ (Amsterdam, 1861). See further W. G. Palgrave, _Dutch
Guiana_ (London, 1876); A. Kappler, _Surinam, sein Land, &c._
(Stuttgart, 1887); Prince Roland Bonaparte, _Les Habitants de Surinam_
(Paris, 1884); K. Martin, "Bericht uber eine Reise ins Gebiet des
Oberen-Surinam," _Bijdragen v. h. Inst. voor Taal Land en
Volkenkunde_, i. 1. (The Hague); Westerouen van Meeteren, _La Guyane
neerlandaise_ (Leiden, 1884); H. Ten Kate, "Een en ander over
Suriname," _Gids_ (1888); G. Verschuur, "Voyages aux trois Guyanes,"
_Tour du monde_ (1893). pp. 1, 49, 65; W. L. Loth, _Beknopte
Aardrijkskundige beschrijving van Suriname_ (Amsterdam, 1898), and
_Tijdschrift van het Aardrijkskundig Genootschap_ (1878), 79, 93; Asch
van Wyck, "La Colonie de Surinam," _Les Pays-Bas_ (1898); L. Thompson,
_Overzicht der Geschiedenis van Suriname_ (The Hague, 1901);
_Catalogus der Nederl. W. I. ten Toonstelling te Haarlem_ (1899);
_Guide a travers la section des Indes neerlandaises_, p. 323
(Amsterdam, 1899); _Surinaamsche Almanak_ (Paramaribo, annually). For
the language of the bush-negroes see Wullschlaegel, _Kurzgefasste
neger-englische Grammatik_ (Bautzen, 1854), and _Deutsch
neger-englisches Worterbuch_ (Lobau, 1865).

French Guiana.

III. FRENCH GUIANA (_Guyane_).--This colony is situated between Dutch Guiana and Brazil. A delimitation of the territory belonging to France and the Netherlands was arrived at in 1891, by decision of the emperor of Russia. This question originated in the arrangement of 1836, that the river Maroni should form the frontier. It turned on the claim of the Awa or the Tapanahoni to be recognized as the main head-stream of the Maroni, and the final decision, in indicating the Awa, favoured the Dutch. In 1905 certain territory lying between the upper Maroni and the Itany, the possession of which had not then been settled, was acquired by France by agreement between the French and Dutch governments. The question of the exploitation of gold in the Maroni was settled by attributing alternate reaches of the river to France and Holland; while France obtained the principal islands in the lower Maroni. The additional territory thus attached to the French colony amounted to 965 sq. m. In December 1900 the Swiss government as arbitrators fixed the boundary between French Guiana and Brazil as the river Oyapock and the watershed on the Tumuc Humac mountains, thus awarding to France about 3000 of the 100,000 sq. m. which she claimed. This dispute was of earlier origin than that with the Dutch; dissensions between the French and the Portuguese relative to territory north of the Amazon occurred in the 17th century. In 1700 the Treaty of Lisbon made the contested area (known as the Terres du Cap du Nord) neutral ground. The treaty of Utrecht in 1713 indicated as the French boundary a river which the French afterwards claimed to be the Araguary, but the Portuguese asserted that the Oyapock was intended. After Brazil had become independent the question dragged on until in 1890-1895 there were collisions in the contested territory between French and Brazilian adventurers. This compelled serious action, and a treaty of arbitration, preliminary to the settlement, was signed at Rio de Janeiro in 1897. French Guiana, according to official estimate, has an area of about 51,000 sq. m. The population is estimated at about 30,000; its movement is not rapid. Of this total 12,350 live at Cayenne, 10,100 were in the communes, 5700 formed the penal population, 1500 were native Indians (Galibi, Emerillon, Oyampi) and 500 near Maroni were negroes. Apart from Cayenne, which was rebuilt after the great fire of 1888, the centres of population are unimportant: Sinnamarie with 1500 inhabitants, Mana with 1750, Roura with 1200 and Approuague with 1150. In 1892 French Guiana was divided into fourteen communes, exclusive of the Maroni district. Belonging to the colony are also the three Safety Islands (Royale, Joseph and Du Diable--the last notable as the island where Captain Dreyfus was imprisoned), the Enfant Perdu Island and the five Remire Islands.

A considerable portion of the low coast land is occupied by marshes,
with a dense growth of mangroves or, in the drier parts, with the
pinot or wassay palm (_Euterpe oleracea_). Settlements are confined
almost entirely to the littoral and alluvial districts. The
forest-clad hills of the hinterland do not generally exceed 1500 ft.
in elevation; that part of the Tumuc Humac range which forms the
southern frontier may reach an extreme elevation of 2600 ft. But the
dense tropical forests attract so much moisture from the ocean winds
that the highlands are the birthplace of a large number of rivers
which in the rainy season especially pour down vast volumes of water.
Not less than 15 are counted between the Maroni and the Oyapock.
South-eastward from the Maroni the first of importance is the Mana,
which is navigable for large vessels 10 m. from its mouth, and for
smaller vessels 27 m. farther. Passing the Sinnamary and the Kourou,
the Oyock is next reached, near the mouth of which is Cayenne, the
capital of the colony, and thereafter the Approuage. All these rivers
take their rise in a somewhat elevated area about the middle of the
colony; those streams which rise farther south, in the Tumuc Humac
hills, are tributaries of the two frontier rivers, the Maroni on the
one hand or the Oyapock on the other.

_Climate and Products._--The rainy season begins in November or
December, and lasts till the latter part of June; but there are
usually three or four weeks of good weather in March. During the rest
of the year there is often hardly a drop of rain for months, but the
air is always very moist. At Cayenne the average annual rainfall
amounts to fully 130 in., and it is naturally heavier in the interior.
During the hotter part of the year--August, September, October--the
temperature usually rises to about 86 deg. F., but it hardly ever
exceeds 88 deg.; in the colder season the mean is 79 deg. and it
seldom sinks so low as 70 deg. Between day and night there is very
little thermometric difference. The prevailing winds are the N.N.E.
and the S.E.; and the most violent are those of the N.E. During the
rainy season the winds keep between N. and E., and during the dry
season between S. and E. Hurricanes are unknown. In flora and fauna
French Guiana resembles the rest of the Guianese region. Vegetation is
excessively rich. Among leguminous trees, which are abundantly
represented, the wacapou is the finest of many hardwood trees.
Caoutchouc and various palms are also common. The manioc is a
principal source of food; rice is an important object of cultivation;
and maize, yams, arrowroot, bananas and the bread-fruit are also to be
mentioned. Vanilla is one of the common wild plants of the country.
The clove tree has been acclimatized, and in the latter years of the
empire it formed a good source of wealth; the cinnamon tree was also
successfully introduced in 1772, but like that of the pepper-tree and
the nutmeg its cultivation is neglected. A very small portion of the
territory indeed is devoted to agriculture, although France has paid
some attention to the development of this branch of activity. In 1880
a colonial garden was created near Cayenne; since 1894 an experimental
garden has been laid out at Baduel. About 8200 acres are cultivated,
of which 5400 acres are under cereals and rice, the remaining being
under coffee (introduced in 1716), cacao, cane and other cultures. The
low lands between Cayenne and Oyapock are capable of bearing colonial
produce, and the savannahs might support large herds; cereals,
root-crops and vegetables might easily be grown on the high grounds,
and timber working in the interior should be profitable.

Gold-mining is the most important industry in the colony. Placers of
great wealth have been discovered on the Awa, on the Dutch frontier
and at Carsevenne in the territory which formed the subject of the
Franco-Brazilian dispute. But wages are high and transport is costly,
and the amount of gold declared at Cayenne did not average more than
130,550 oz. annually in 1900-1905. Silver and iron have been found in
various districts; kaolin is extracted in the plains of Montsinery;
and phosphates have been discovered at several places. Besides
gold-workings, the industrial establishments comprise saw-mills,
distilleries, brick-works and sugar-works.

_Trade and Communications._--The commerce in 1885 amounted to L336,000
for imports and to L144,000 for exports; in 1897 the values were
respectively L373,350 and L286,400, but in 1903, while imports had
increased in value only to L418,720, exports had risen to L493,213.
The imports consist of wines, flour, clothes, &c.; the chief are gold,
phosphates, timber, cocoa and rosewood essence. Cayenne is the only
considerable port. One of the drawbacks to the development of the
colony is the lack of labour. Native labour is most difficult to
obtain, and attempts to utilize convict labour have not proved very
successful. Efforts to supply the need by immigration have not done so
completely. The land routes are not numerous. The most important are
that from Cayenne to Mana by way of Kourou, Sinnamarie and Iracoubo,
and that from Cayenne along the coast to Kaw and the mouth of the
Approuague. Towards the interior there are only foot-paths, badly
made. By water, Cayenne is in regular communication with the Safety
Islands (35 m.), and the mouth of the Maroni (80 m.), with Fort de
France in the island of Martinique, where travellers meet the mail
packet for France, and with Boston (U.S.A.). There is a French cable
between Cayenne and Brest.

_Administration._--The colony is administered by a
commissioner-general assisted by a privy council, including the
secretary general and chief of the judicial service, the military,
penitentiary and administrative departments. In 1879 an elective
general council of sixteen members was constituted. There are a
tribunal of first instance and a higher tribunal at Cayenne, besides
four justices of peace, one of whom has extensive jurisdiction in
other places. Of the L256,000 demanded for the colony in the colonial
budget for 1906, L235,000 represented the estimated expenditure on the
penal settlement, so that the cost of the colony was only about
L21,000. The local budget for 1901 balanced at L99,000 and in 1905 at
L116,450. Instruction is given in the college of Cayenne and in six
primary schools. At the head of the clergy is an apostolic prefect.
The armed force consists of two companies of marine infantry, half a
battery of artillery, and a detachment of gendarmerie, and comprises
about 380 men. The penal settlement was established by a decree of
1852. From that year until 1867, 18,000 exiles had been sent to
Guiana, but for the next twenty years New Caledonia became the chief
penal settlement in the French colonies. But in 1885-1887 French
Guiana was appointed as a place of banishment for confirmed criminals
and for convicts sentenced to more than eight years' hard labour. A
large proportion of these men have been found unfit for employment
upon public works.

_History._--The Sieur La Revardiere, sent out in 1604 by Henry IV. to reconnoitre the country, brought back a favourable report; but the death of the king put a stop to the projects of formal colonization. In 1626 a small body of traders from Rouen settled on the Sinnamary, and in 1635 a similar band founded Cayenne. The Compagnie du Cap Nord, founded by the people of Rouen in 1643 and conducted by Poncet de Bretigny, the Compagnie de la France Equinoxiale, established in 1645, and the second Compagnie de la France Equinoxiale, or Compagnie des Douze Seigneurs, established in 1652, were failures, the result of incompetence, mismanagement and misfortune. From 1654 the Dutch held the colony for a few years. The French Compagnie des Indes Occidentales, chartered in 1664 with a monopoly of Guiana commerce for forty years, proved hardly more successful than its predecessors; but in 1674 the colony passed under the direct control of the crown, and the able administration of Colbert began to tell favourably on its progress, although in 1686 an unsuccessful expedition against the Dutch in Surinam set back the advance of the French colony until the close of the century.

The year 1763 was marked by a terrible disaster. Choiseul, the prime minister, having obtained for himself and his cousin Praslin a concession of the country between the Kourou and the Maroni, sent out about 12,000 volunteer colonists, mainly from Alsace and Lorraine. They were landed at the mouth of the Kourou, where no preparation had been made for their reception, and where even water was not to be obtained. Mismanagement was complete; there was (for example) a shop for skates, whereas the necessary tools for tillage were wanting. By 1765 no more than 918 colonists remained alive, and these were a famished fever-stricken band. A long investigation in Paris resulted in the imprisonment of the incompetent leaders of the expedition. Several minor attempts at colonization in Guiana were made in the latter part of the century; but they all seemed to suffer from the same fatal prestige of failure. During the revolution band after band of political prisoners were transported to Guiana. The fate of the royalists, nearly 600 in number, who were exiled on the 18th Fructidor (1797), was especially sad. Landed on the Sinnamary without shelter or food, two-thirds of them perished miserably. In 1800 Victor Hugues was appointed governor, and he managed to put the colony in a better state; but in 1809 his work was brought to a close by the invasion of the Portuguese and British.

Though French Guiana was nominally restored to the French in 1814, it was not really surrendered by the Portuguese till 1817. Numerous efforts were now made to establish the colony firmly, although its past misfortunes had prejudiced the public mind in France against it. In 1822 the first steam sugar mills were introduced; in 1824 an agricultural colony (Nouvelle Angouleme) was attempted in the Mana district, which, after failure at first, became comparatively successful. The emancipation of slaves and the consequent dearth of labour almost ruined the development of agricultural resources about the middle of the century, but in 1853 a large body of African immigrants was introduced. The discovery of gold on the Approuague in 1855 caused feverish excitement, and seriously disturbed the economic condition of the country.

AUTHORITIES.--A detailed bibliography of French Guiana will be found
in Ternaux-Compans, _Notice historique de la Guyane francaise_ (Paris,
1843). Among more recent works, see E. Bassieres, _Notice sur la
Guyane_, issued on the occasion of the Paris Exhibition (1900);
_Publications de la societe d'etudes pour la colonisation de la Guyane
francaise_ (Paris, 1843-1844); H. A. Coudreau, _La France equinoxiale_
(1887), _Dialectes indiens de Guyane_ (1891), _Dix ans de Guyane_
(1892), and _Chez nos Indiens_ (1893), all at Paris; G. Brousseau,
_Les Richesses de la Guyane francaise_ (Paris, 1901); L. F. Viala,
_Les Trois Guyanes_ (Montpellier, 1893).

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The origin of the name is somewhat obscure, and has been
variously interpreted. But the late Col. G. E. Church supplies the
following note, which has the weight of his great authority: "I
cannot confirm the suggestion of Schomburgk that Guayana 'received
its name from a small river, a tributary of the Orinoco', supposed to
be the Waini or Guainia. In South America, east of the Andes, it was
the common custom of any tribe occupying a length of river to call it
simply 'the river'; but the other tribes designated any section of it
by the name of the people living on its banks. Many streams,
therefore, had more than a dozen names. It is probable that no
important river had one name alone throughout its course, prior to
the time of the Conquest. The radical _wini_, _waini_, _wayni_, is
found as a prefix, and very frequently as a termination, to the names
of numerous rivers, not only throughout Guayana but all over the
Orinoco and Amazon valleys. For instance, Paymary Indians called the
portion of the Purus river which they occupied the _Waini_. It simply
means water, or a fountain of water, or a river. The alternative
suggestion that Guayana is an Indian word signifying 'wild coast,' I
also think untenable. This term, applied to the north-east frontage
of South America between the Orinoco and the Amazon, is found on the
old Dutch map of Hartsinck, who calls it 'Guiana Caribania of de
Wilde Kust,' a name which must have well described it when, in 1580,
some Zealanders, of the Netherlands, sent a ship to cruise along it,
from the mouth of the Amazon to that of the Orinoco, and formed the
first settlement near the river Pomeroon. The map of Firnao Vaz
Dourado, 1564, calls the northern part of South America, including
the present British Guiana, 'East Peru.' An anonymous Spanish map,
about 1566, gives Guayana as lying on the east side of the Orinoco
just above its mouth. About 1660, Sebastien de Ruesta, cosmographer
of the _Casa de Contractacion de Seville_, shows Guayana covering the
British, French and Dutch Guayanas. According to the map of Nicolas
de Fer, 1719, a tribe of Guayazis (Guyanas) occupied the south side
of the Amazon river, front of the island of Tupinambara, east of the
mouth of the Madeira. Aristides Rojas, an eminent Venezuelan scholar,
says that the Mariches Indians, near Caracas, inhabited a site called
Guayana long before the discovery of South America by the Spaniards.
Coudreau in his _Chez nos Indiens_ mentions that the _Roucouyennes_
of Guayana take their name from a large tree in their forests, 'which
appears to be the origin of the name Guayane.' According to Michelana
y Rojas, in their report to the Venezuelan government on their
voyages in the basin of the Orinoco, 'Guyana derives its name from
the Indians who live between the Caroni river and the Sierra de
Imataca, called Guayanos.' My own studies of aboriginal South America
lead me to support the statement of Michelana y Rojas, but with the
following enlargement of it: The Portuguese, in the early part of the
16th century, found that the coast and mountain district of Rio de
Janeiro, between Cape Sao Thome and Angra dos Reis, belonged to the
formidable _Tamoyos_. South of these, for a distance of about 300 m.
of the ocean slope of the coast range, were the _Guayana_ tribes,
called by the early writers _Guianas_, _Goyana_, _Guayana_, _Goana_
and, plural, _Goaynazes_, _Goayanazes_ and _Guayanazes_. They were
constantly at feud with the _Tamoyos_ and with their neighbours on
the south, the _Carijos_, as well as with the vast Tapuya hordes of
the Sertao of the interior. Long before the discovery, they had been
forced to abandon their beautiful lands, but had recuperated their
strength, returned and reconquered their ancient habitat. Meanwhile,
however, many of them had migrated northward, some had settled in the
_Sertao_ back of Bahia and Pernambuco, others on the middle Amazon
and in the valley of the Orinoco, but a large number had crossed the
lower Amazon and occupied an extensive area of country to the north
of it, about the size of Belgium, along the Tumuchumac range of
highlands, and the upper Paron and Maroni rivers, as well as a large
district on the northern slope of the above-named range. In their new
home they became known as _Roucouyennes_, because, like the
Mundurucus of the middle Amazon, they rubbed and painted themselves
with _roucou_ or _urucu_ (Bixa Orellana); but other surrounding
tribes called them Ouayanas, that is Guayanas--the Gua, so common to
the Guarani-Tupi tongue, having become corrupted into _Oua_. Porto
Seguro says of the so-called Tupis, 'at other times they gave
themselves the name of _Guaya_ or _Guayana_, which probably means
"brothers," from which comes _Guayazes_ and _Guayanazes_.... The
latter occupied the country just south of Rio de Janeiro.... The
masters of the Capitania of St Vincente called themselves _Guianas_.'
Guinila, referring to north-eastern South America (1745), speaks of
five missions being formed to civilize the '_Nacion Guayana_.' In
view of the above, it may be thought reasonable to assume that the
vast territory now known as _Guayana_ (British, Dutch, French,
Brazilian and Venezuelan) derives its name from its aborigines who
were found there at the time of the discovery, and whose original
home was the region I have indicated."

[2] This is the boundary generally accepted; but it is in dispute.

[3] See C. B. Brown and J. G. Sawkins, _Reports on the Physical,
Descriptive and Economic Geology of British Guiana_ (London, 1875);
C. Velain, "Esquisse geologique de la Guyane francaise et des bassins
du Parou et du Yari (affluents de l'Amazone) d'apres les explorations
du Dr Crevaux," _Bull. Soc. Geogr._ ser. 7, vol. vi. (Paris, 1885),
pp. 453-492 (with geological map); E. Martin, _Geologische Studien
uber Niederlandisch-West-Indien, auf Grund eigener
Untersuchungsreisen_ (Leiden, 1888); W. Bergt, "Zur Geologie des
Coppename- und Nickerietales in Surinam (Hollandisch-Guyana),"
_Samml. d. Geol. Reichsmus._ (Leiden), ser. 2, Bd. ii. Heft 2, pp.
93-163 (with 3 maps); and for British Guiana, the official reports on
the geology of various districts, by J. B. Harrison, C. W. Anderson,
H. I. Perkins, published at Georgetown.

GUIART (or GUIARD), GUILLAUME (d. c. 1316), French chronicler and poet, was probably born at Orleans, and served in the French army in Flanders in 1304. Having been disabled by a wound he began to write, lived at Arras and then in Paris, thus being able to consult the large store of manuscripts in the abbey of St Denis, including the _Grandes chroniques de France_. Afterwards he appears as a _menestrel de bouche_. Guiart's poem _Branche des royaulx lignages_, was written and then rewritten between 1304 and 1307, in honour of the French king Philip IV., and in answer to the aspersions of a Flemish poet. Comprising over 21,000 verses it deals with the history of the French kings from the time of Louis VIII.; but it is only really important for the period after 1296 and for the war in Flanders from 1301 to 1304, of which it gives a graphic account, and for which it is a high authority. It was first published by J. A. Buchon (Paris, 1828), and again in tome xxii. of the _Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France_ (Paris, 1865).

See A. Molinier, _Les Sources de l'histoire de France_, tome iii.
(Paris, 1903).