The Massaruni. British Counter- pp. 303, 405, 407. British Counter- British App. V, Venezuelan Case, p. 28. British Counter- Venezuelan Case, British Counter- Barrington Brown, Reisen in Britisch It is difficult to define the exact width of the belt of forest which separates the savannah from the Cuyuni. It is wider where it is traversed by the Curumo than where the Uruan and its tributary the Yuruary run through it. The 5 Venezuelans have cut a road through the forest from the savannah to their post at the mouth of the Uruan. By this road it is about 33 miles to the edge of the savannah. Up the Yuruary it is two days' voyage before the savannah is 10 reached. Most of what has been said of the natural features of the Cuyuni, of the more or less serious obstacles to travel which these present, and of the modę in which these obstacles are overcome, is 15 equally true of the Massaruni. But it should be pointed out that while the Cuyuni has been occasionally traversed by Spaniards, it is believed that no instance can be established of their presence on the Massaruni, which has from the 20 first been traversed by the Dutch, and is now in constant use by British gold-diggers. The Venezuelan Case treats the Cuyuni and Massaruni as forming one basin, and appears to suggest that the Massaruni Valley is easily ap- 25 proachable from that of the Cuyuni. The country between the two rivers is hilly, and, in parts, even mountainous. The main range lying between the two rivers has a direc- Beyond some Indian trails there are no means of communication from its mouth. The foregoing facts, it is submitted, fully 50 disprove the Venezuelan allegation of the unity 5 and accessibility from the Orinoco of the two valleys of the Cuyuni and the Massaruni, "making the entire valley a natural dependence Venezuelan Case, of Venezuela." As regards the Upper Essequibo, the last of the four so-called regions, it is to be observed that the Venezuelan Case suggests no means of access to this region from the side of the Orinoco, but only attempts to show that it is not accessible 10 from the Lower Essequibo. The argument of the Venezuelan Case that this region is quite shut off from the Lower Essequibo is based on the following assertion:--- "The falls and rapids which impede the Cuyuni and 15 Mazaruni are repeated in the case of the Upper Essequibo; and, beginning as these do but a short way above the confluence of the three rivers, they, too, serve as a barrier to separate the interior region from the coast." 20 The Essequibo River has, it is true, a good many rapids along its lower course, especially at a point about 16 miles above the junction of the Massaruni, but these present even less difficulties than those on the Cuyuni and Massaruni. These rapids 25 were constantly passed by the Dutch, who through a long series of years maintained Posts far up the Essequibo, and the British have found them no obstacle to their access to the Upper Essequibo. Moreover, it has long been customary for both 30 Dutch and British visiting the Upper Essequibo to approach it from the Demerara by certain well known and well established paths, and there has long been free communication between the Upper Essequibo and the Massaruni. p. 34. The Upper Essequibo Region. Venezuelan Case, p. 34. Venezuelan Case p. 34. (6 I found that after the posts erected by Schomburgk British App. VII, p. 235. in 1841 had been removed at the request of the Venezuelan Government, many of the Indian tribes who 20 had long recognized that they were under British protection, had practically confined their residence to the area on the eastward or British side of the line on which Schomburgk had fixed his posts, and in not a few instances had moved across the line from the 25 Venezuelan side, in order that they might reside and be on what they believed to be British territory." In the Appendix to the British Case there is abundance of evidence from the Indian point of view as to the limits within which, as British 30 subjects, they might roam. That their ideas on this subject had some geographic exactness is instanced by the remark of the old Carib Waiaree, who narrates: "When we were captives in the Spanish country British App VII, . 35 (beyond the head of the Cuyuni), my father said that p. 229. British App. VII, p. 225. To this quotation regarding the Cuyuni may be added another from the evidence of the Akawoi Cayamarica, who says:— "My father told me the whole of the Cuyuni, both sides, belonged to the English. I hear now that it is 5 not so, but I do not know where the division is." British App. VII, p. 218. British App. VII, p. 219. British App. VII, p. 219. British App. VII, p. 220. Neebrowari, a Warow, also of the Amakuru, 35 likewise says: "This side of Amakuru belong a long time ago to the Dutch, and now belong to the English-my father always been tell me that. We Indians know that this side of the Amakuru is English, and that the other side 40 is Spanish." Evidence to the same effect is also given by William Atkinson, who, though not himself an Indian, has lived for over fifty years among those people. He says: |