out the Dutch history of the colony. It was mainly for trading with the Indians. Except the Outlier and Bylier employed at the Post, not a single white man ever lived above the falls of Essequibo.

(2) 1740-1814.

In 1739-40 the garrison and the seat of government was transferred from Kykoveral to Vlaggen (or Flag) Island, afterwards known as Fort Island, fifteen miles from the mouth of the Essequibo. Here there grew up a cluster of buildings, including the fort, the public store houses, the barracks for the little garrison and the dwellings of the officers.

The real growth of the colony dates from this period, or perhaps a little earlier. Until 1735, it had remained nearly stationary. About that date its population began to increase. The trade in Indian slaves first reached considerable proportions about the same time.

At the time of the transfer, a strong tendency had developed on the part of the settlers to establish their plantations nearer the mouth of the Essequibo. After the removal of the fort the tendency was still more noticeable. The upper plantations were abandoned. In 1748 they were considered very remote.

In that year, an attempt was made to sell "the burdensome and unprofitable indigo plantation." The Court said, February 6, 1748 (B. C. II, 55) that "to our sorrow, we must report that in this matter we could in no way attain the desired end, inasmuch as, although the conditions were arranged very favorably, not one person was willing to bid a single stiver thereon, presumably on account of the great distance and the insalubrity of the River Cuyuni."

The old fort at Kykoveral was practically abandoned, though it was occasionally used for local purposes, especially in case of Indian disturbances on the upper part of the Essequibo.

In 1764 the condition of affairs was such that the Director

General could write, speaking of a movement of Indians from the Cuyuni to the Massaruni, that he had received such a report "from the few colonists who still reside in the upper reaches of the rivers" (B. C. III, 116). In 1770 Hartsinck, in his History of Guiana (I, page 263), states that the village of Cartabo had consisted "of twelve or fifteen houses," but that it was "now in ruins." By 1773 all demands for grants of land upon the river at the former site had ceased.

On December 23, 1773, Trotz, the Director-General, wrote the Company (V. C. II, 221):

"It is now an opportune moment for closing the Court, because there are no longer any grants of land to be mide; no one will ask for lands in the upper reaches of the river, and most of them are already annexed as timber grounds for the plantations below."

The allusion here is to the old grants in the three rivers below the falls.

In a letter to the Company June 6, 1777 (V. C. II, 232), A. A. Brown, the Secretary in Essequibo, inquiring whether lands which have been granted "formerly or long ago, or which have been acquired by purchase or inheritance," and which are at present not at all under cultivation cannot revert to the Company, writes:

"If so, then the Company has a right to at least three quarters of this extensive colony since there are several planters who hold thousands of acres of land which are not under cultivation. For most of the old planters, as soon as the lower lands were brought under cultivation, transferred their plantations which lay above this fort or Flag Island, brought off all their slaves, mills, cattle, etc., and practically abandoned the old plantations; but, in order nevertheless to retain their right, as they fancy, to those upper lands, they sent thither all their old and decrepit slaves, who can be of no use on the new plantations.

Thus one finds above this island (which is distant only one tide from 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.

It is evident from the above statements that there were no settlements or plantations in the rivers above the falls.

Three times in its later history, before the cession of the colony to Great Britain, it was subject to military occupation,-by the British and subsequently by the French, from 1781 to 1784; by the British from 1796 to 1802. and again by the British from 1803 to 1814.

It appears from the official reports of the Dutch Governors themselves that by the close of the eighteenth century the original site of the colony in the neighborhood of Kykoveral had practically become a wilderness. The movement of the colony was toward the east bank of the Essequibo and around the coast to the eastward toward Demerara. A mere inspection of the maps (Ven. Atlas, Maps 66, 67, 68, 70) shows that before the plantations on the west had reached the mouth of the Essequibo those on the east had approached Demerara. At the close of the period, however, the plantations began to fill up the coast to the north of the mouth of the Essequibo on the west, known as the Arabisi or Arabian coast.

In summing up the description of the character and extent of the Essequibo settlement, considered as separate and distinct from that of the Pomeroon, it appears that the limits of the Essequibo colony, as far as actual settlement is concerned, may be fixed with substantial accuracy. They are clearly defined on the side of the Cuyuni and Massaruni by the position of the falls. The meridian of 59 degrees longitude west of Greenwich crosses these two rivers at a point from eight to twelve miles west of the lowest falls. All the territory that can possibly be claimed by Great Britain in this controversy as being within the settlements on the Cuyuni and Massaruni is, therefore, well within this meridian. It may also be remarked of this line that the whole course of the Essequibo during the five hundred miles of its length is to the eastward of it,

except possibly at its source in the mountains of Brazil. It is further to be noticed that to the eastward of this line are the headwaters of all the "little rivers" emptying into the lower Essequibo from the west. A line starting on this meridian, and following it south to the parallel of 6 degrees N., thence along that parallel to the Essequibo, and up the Essequibo to the boundary of Brazil, takes in all the settlements ever possessed by the Dutch on the Essequibo and its tributaries.

(2.) POMEROON.

The Pomeroon is a river comparatively inconsiderable in size, which rises at a point twenty-five or thirty miles west of the Essequibo and flows in a northerly direction on a nearly parallel course. Upon reaching a point five miles from the seashore, it takes a bend to the northwest, and during the remainder. of its course runs parallel with the coast line, forming a long peninsula or strip between the river and the ocean, which terminates in Cape Nassau, still twenty-five or thirty miles west of the mouth of the Essequibo. Near its mouth it receives the waters of the Wacupo Creek, a short stream coming in from the west; and another small stream, the Moruka, emptying into the sea, lies a mile or two further west.

The ordinary means of communication between the Pomeroon and the Moruka was by sea. Interior water communication between the Pomeroon and Essequibo is of comparatively recent date, and is accomplished by means of a canal at Tapakuma. During the Dutch period the ordinary communication between the Pomeroon and Essequibo was by sea.

There was no communication between the Pomeroon district. and the Berima- Waini region, except through the semi-artificial itabo near Moruca Creek, a means of communication which, according to the best English official authorities, was always exceedingly uncertain, and often impassable for months at a time.

The first settlement in the Pomeroon was in 1658, and lasted

until 1665. The second settlement was in 1686, and lasted until 1689. These are the only settlements which the Dutch made on that river, or in the neighboring territory.

The first of the Pomeroon colonies was known as Nova Zeelandia. It was the result of the agreement made December 16, 1657, between the three Zeeland cities of Middelburg, Flushing and Vere and the West India Company to fit out a colonizing expedition, consisting of two ships, one to carry out the colonists, the other to bring slaves from the coast of Africa. The ships sailed in February, 1658, and arrived at their destination in June.

By 1661 the colonists had occupied sites on the Demerara and also on the Pomeroon; they had divers plantations and a considerable number of settlers; the chief place was called Nieuw Middelburgh. (B. C. I, 148.)

Many documents are attached to the British Case to show the flourishing character of the Pomeroon settlement, which was thus begun in 1658. It is not necessary to dwell upon this point. It is conceded that the Dutch settled on the Pomeroon in 1658, and that they had several plantations and raised what was, for a new colony, a considerable crop. It may well have been at the time the most flourishing of the Dutch colonies in Guayana. Its prosperity, however, and in fact its very existence, came speedily and suddenly to an end.

In 1665, an English force under Major Scott attacked and captured the settlement. (B. C. I, 166). At that time, according to Governor Byam (Journal, B. C. I, 167, which enumerates all the colonies in Guayana), the westernmost of the Dutch colonies. was "Bowroom [Pomeroon] and Moroco, alias New Zealand." It is stated to be the greatest of all the colonies the Dutch ever had in America, "16 leagues leeward of Dissikeeb." The colonies in 1666 were recovered by the Dutch.

The resumption of possession by the Dutch had no results in the Pomeroon. The settlement at that point was entirely abandoned. There is no evidence to show that after the English occu