By the close of the century the original site of the colony had become a wilderness.*

But while the movement of the colony was thus downstream, the general movement was also toward the east bank and around the coast toward Demerara.†

With the exception of a single transient squatter on the Pomeroon, and an isolated short-lived plantation on the Moruca, there were no settlements upon those rivers, or on the Wacupo, at any time during the 18th century.‡ The year 1800 found them in practically the same condition that the year 1700 had left them.

Original site of Colony a wilder

ness.

1700-1800 remained in statu quo.

Pomeroon region not utilized by

Except for purposes of trade, for the intercepting of runaway slaves, for fishing, for occasional wood cutting, the Dutch, except

and, from time to time, for the temporary sojourn of a Dutchman, these rivers were in no way utilized by the Dutch. Indeed, the Essequibo colonists, so far from needing more land, were not sufficiently numerous to

the mouth) not one sugar, coffee or cotton plantation except only that of the ex-Councilor, S. G. van der Heyden, situated a great tide above this island, at the mouths of the two rivers Mazaruni and Cuyuni.

In these rivers, likewise, just as in the river of Essequibo, properly socalled, there can be found not one plantation which furnishes any products except a little cassava bread, and this of so slight importance as not to deserve mention. [Appendix to Case, ii, 233.]

* U. S. Commission Report, i, 201.

Flag Island hugs the east of the river, and whether it was due to this fact or to the opening and rapid colonization of the Demerara, while the Pomeroon remained closed, or only to the greater attractiveness of the lands, the center of gravity speedily transferred itself to the east of the Essequibo. Before the plantations on the west had reached the mouth of that river, those on the east formed a solid row clear around to the Demerara. [U. S. Commission Report, i, 201; see also Appendix to Case, atlas, maps 66, 67, 68, 70.]

After lying a score of years unpeopled, it [the Pomeroon] was again colonized in 1686; but only to be laid desolate by the French in 1689. Thereafter the river was never again thrown open to settlement until the very last years of Dutch occupation. [U. S. Commission Report, i, 226.]

From the seventeenth century until the very end of the eighteenth it [Moruca] had no settlers, save for a single plantation during a few years; but before its final loss to the Dutch its lands may have been once more coming into occupancy. [U. S. Commission Report, i, 247; see also U. S. Commission Report, i, 201, 222, 224, 226, 243, 244; also same, ii, 612-632; also Appendix to Case, atlas, map 69.]

for trade, etc.

not utilized by

Pomeroon region take up the land immediately available on the banks of the Dutch, except the Essequibo and Demerara.*

for trade, etc.

In 1794 there was some talk about establishing settlements on the Pomeroon: the river and adjacent territory were surveyed, and a map of them prepared;+ but it was not until after the close of the eighteenth century, and after the British had taken possession of the colony, that cultivation extended as far as the Pomeroon.‡ As for the delta region beyond the Moruca, between and Orinoco, Dutch that river and the main mouth of the Orinoco, the only relations of the Dutch to it, during the eighteenth century, were the relations of traders; and even these relations ceased soon after the middle of the century.§

In delta region, between Moruca

were mere traders.

Summary of preceding.

There should possibly be excepted from this last statement a gang of Essequibo thieves who sojourned in Barima about 1766; yet their presence in that region, for a brief period, can be of no possible importance. They were denounced by the Dutch Governor himself; and shortly after were cleared out of the river entirely. It has been stated that, except for purposes of trade;

[I regard] the river of Pomeroon as a district bringing no earthly profit to the Company; and I am, moreover, convinced that, if once we should be so fortunate as to have this river [Essequibo] and Demerara completely settled (which cannot be expected inside of fifty years, for a considerable number, possibly even more than 300 plantations, can still be laid out if some pains be taken), no one would then be kept from settling in Pomeroon by the fact that there is no bourewey wood left there. [Appendix to Case, ii, 120.] As to the cessation of Dutch trade, see U. S. Commission Report, i, 210, 211.

† Appendix to Case, atlas, map 69.

Appendix to Case, atlas, map 70. See also U. S. Commission Report, i, 225.

Down to this time (1764), indeed, there is in the records no mention of any Dutchman's sojourning in the Barima for any purpose save that of trade. [U. S. Commission Report, i, 283.]

At the same time I shall write to the Governor of Orinoco concerning the state of affairs in Barima, which would become a den of thieves, a gang, rag-tag and bobtail, of our colonists staying there under pretense of salting, trading with the Indians, felling timber, etc. They live there like savages, burning each other's huts and putting each other in chains, and I fear that bloodshed and murder will yet come of it. [Appendix to Case, ii, 164-165.]

for the intercepting of runaway slaves; for fishing; for occasional wood-cutting; and for the temporary sojourn of some Dutchman; the Orinoco delta, from the main or "Great" mouth as far as the Moruca, and even the region beyond, between the Moruca and the mouth of the Essequibo itself, was in no way utilized by the Dutch. In order to show how entirely this statement is borne out by the facts it máy be well to refer to this in rather more detail.

1. AS TO TRADE.

Trade with the Spanish colonists of the Orinoco, though forbidden by the laws of Spain, began in the last quarter of the 17th century to be encouraged by the Dutch authorities. For a brief period (1684-1690) it was forbidden on account of distrust of their own governor; but it was resumed after his dismissal.* At first the conduct of this trade may have been largely in the hands of the Dutch; and their passage through the rivers-the Moruca, the Waini, the Barima—which were its route, must have resulted in considerable traffic with the Indians of that quarter. But the Dutch of Essequibo had serious rivals in their neighbors of Berbice and Surinam and ;†

yet

* U. S. Commission Report, i, 260–270. Puzzling questions are raised as to the notions of the West India Company regarding the district lying beyond its northwestern post of Wacupo by its attitude toward the traders of the neighboring Dutch colonies of Berbice and Surinam, whose trade "in the district lying under the charter" they restricted or forbade, while their trade west of this post was tolerated, and it was even proposed to legalize it by a toll The Surinam traders carried on, indeed, on the testimony of the Essequibo governors, a larger trade with the Indians west of the Moruca than did the Company's colony itself. What bearing, if any, this fact may have upon the territorial claims there of the Company or of the Dutch is a problem. Not to be overlooked in this connection is the evidence from a later period that the passes granted by the Surinam governors for this trade were recognized by the Essequibo postholders. To be noted, too, is the Company's assertion, in answer to the request of the Essequibo col

French trade to the Orinoco..

Spanish trade to the Essequibo.

more serious in the French of the islands, who from 1685 to 1700 cut off this trade altogether, and continued thereafter to be troublesome competitors.* Before the middle of the eighteenth century the Spaniards themselves were beginning to take this trade into their hands.† By this time, too, and perhaps long before, these Spanish

onists to be allowed freedom of trade in the neighboring Spanish territory, that "although Orinoco, Trinidad, etc., is under the power of the Spaniards, still it also lies within the charter of the Company, where nobody has the right to trade except the Company and those to whom the Company gives permission to do so-so that it all is the territory of the Company, even though we have no forts there." It is, of course, the trade provisions of the charter which are here in thought. [U. S. Commission Report, i, 362-363; see also same, pp. 271, 272.]

*But it is the French of the Caribbean islands who seem to have been, in the seventeenth century, the especial patrons and allies of the Caribs of the Barima. Father Pelleprat, the Jesuit missionary, tells us that they had invited the French to plant a colony there, and that in March, 1654, he was informed by Indians of that river "that they had already built a fort in which the French could be quartered as soon as they should arrive." And no sooner did we have reports from the Dutch colony of Essequibo than we find in them complaints of French rivalry in this region. It was, as will be seen, a rivalry not without results to the Dutch. In 1684, when the French of these neighboring West India Islands raided the Orinoco and occupied Santo Thomé, the Caribs in the Barima showed their loyalty by murdering the crew and scuttling the ship of a Dutchman from Surinam, who had come thither for trade; and already they threatened to come with the French and lay waste the Dutch colony of Essequibo. The threat was no vain one, for in 1689 the French, aided by the Caribs of the Barima, made their way in canoes from that river through the Moruca passage and utterly destroyed the new Dutch colony on the Pomeroon; then, returning to the Barima, fortified themselves in that river. In 1695, aided by the Caribs of the Barima, they were even stationed in the mouth of the Pomeroon. [U. S. Commission Report, i, 259-260; see also same, pp. 274, 275.]

Business with the Spaniard begins to grow better as time progresses, and we should have advanced somewhat better if the absence of goods through the long-deferred arrival of ships had not been a very great obstacle thereto. Some Spanish merchants have been obliged to wait here nine, ten, yea eleven months, to their great inconvenience. [Blue Book, 3, p. 90.]

There should sometime be some profit gained with the Spaniards, though the attempt is made as far as possible to pay attention thereto. But many Spaniards, come and go out of the river without coming under my observation. [Appendix to Case, ii, 102.]

It gave us especial pleasure to learn through a subsequent letter from you,dated September 9, how, by the zeal you have shown, the trade of the Spaniards in the river of Essequibo begins to develop more and

traders were making their way into the Dutch colony via the Cuyuni.*

The Orinoco authorities found it easy to favor their own people in this competition by merely enforcing against the Dutch traders the Spanish laws and thus making the Orinoco too hot for them. Both to avoid this danger and to lessen the risk of smuggling on their own side, the Dutch West India Company and the Essequibo government made it, from the middle of the 18th century, their settled policy to transfer this trade to Spanish hands.

Spanish trade to the Essequibo.

No Dutch trade to Orinoco after

From about 1761 on, the trade was exclusively in the hands of the Spaniards; and from this time forward 1761. one scarcely hears of Dutch traders to the Orinoco; the current was all the other way; and the Spaniards were induced to come to the Essequibo to sell their products there. T

By 1794 the Governor-General, though himself a son

more, and we hope that all further means will be put in operation to make it altogether flourish there. [Appendix to Case, ii, 101.]

* That furthermore they, the members of the Committee, were of opinion, that the Company's shop there should again be started especially if some new colonists were to be sent thither, because not only would it in that case be extremely necessary for supplying the needs of those colonists, but also in view of the increasing Spanish trade it was not unlikely that a reasonable profit might be made by it; especially so, if it could be brought about that the Spaniards no longer, as heretofore has usually happened, tarry with their wares and articles of trade among the private settlers living up the river, but come with them farther down and as far as to the fort. [U. S. Commission, Report, ii, 333.]

See e. g. U. S. Commission Report, ii, 335, 336.

I have always imagined that it was best for our inhabitants to send few or no boats to Orinoco, and so compel the Spaniards to come here with their merchandise; in this way our people would not be exposed to the least danger, and the arrangement began to work very well. [Appendix to Case, ii, 120.]

Not even a Dutch trader is again heard of in the Barima. The West India Company, which theretofore bad always encouraged the colonial trade to the Orinoco, issued in 1761 its instructions that so far as possible this trade be transferred to the Spaniards and carried on, not from Essequibo to Orinoco, but from Orinoco to Essequibo. This policy was loyally and effectively carried out; and within two years the current of trade was flowing the other way. [U. S. Commission Report, i, 289.]