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return down the creek, and proceeded by the sea-coast" (B. C. VI, 68). On starting for his return, in March, from Mora Creek, he learned that the rollers were at present so heavy that a corial could not proceed by the coast, and the inland communications were all nearly dry." Therefore, as a choice of evils, he took the same passage, by which, after a journey lasting for two days, "and in repeated danger of being swamped," he came to Moruca (B. C. VI,72).

In a report of Postholder McClintock for the quarter ending December 31, 1848 (B. C. VI, 171), he states:

"The want of a canal through this part of Upper Morocco forms a complete barrier for several months of the year to all communication with the Rivers Winey, Barima, and Oronoko, thereby cutting off, although for a time only, that intercourse so essential to the general welfare of the Pomeroon district, but more especially to the Arabian coast."

This is strong testimony by McClintock, not only to the natural barrier west of Moruca, but incidentally to the importance of the trade exclusively carried on by the Venezuelans from Orinoco through the coast territory to the British settlements in Essequibo.

Such being the physical configuration of the country, and in the absence of any steps taken by the Colonial authorities to exercise control over the region, the suggestions of the officials of British Guiana as to the question of boundary are somewhat speculative. They serve, however, to throw light on the present British contention.

Governor Light, in a dispatch dated September 1, 1838, wrote: "The Pomaroon river, at the western extremity of Essequibo, may be taken as a limit to the country, though there is a mission supported by the colony on the Maracca river or creek, a short distance westward, where 500 Spanish Indians are collected in a settlement under a Roman-catholic priest " (V. C., p. 167).

It is suggested that the word "country" is or should be "county," though the context seems to imply the contrary. It

does not make much difference, however, as there was nothing of the country beyond the county.

We have seen that Quartermaster-General Hilhouse in 1834 regarded the post of Pomeroon as "definitory of the jurisdiction westward " (B. C., VI, 52).

Of the various advocates of the extension of British territory, none was more earnest than Crichton, the Superintendent of Rivers and Creeks in the Pomeroon district. We have seen how, in April, 1839 (B. C., VI, 76), referring to the whole district west of Moruca, he said: "It would be good policy to secure the absolute possession of it to this Colony." This is at least evidence that possession of it had not been secured to the colony at that time.

Crichton had given evidence of his uncertainty on the subject a couple of months before, in his first journey to Barima, where complaint was made to him that one Manoel, an Indian, had murdered his wife. He said (B. C., VI, 71): "Finding that this unfortunate transaction had taken place . . on the left bank of the Barima River, where the Government has never claimed jurisdiction, I felt the difficulty of taking a decided step in the matter, and endeavoured to restore peace among them by reason and persuasion first and then threats, and imagined that I had succeeded." As he was about to leave the settlement he found that Manoel was making a disturbance, and notwithstanding his doubts he took him away with him. Manoel was not tried, however, but shortly after returned to his home.

In a report dated April 20, 1839, Crichton discusses the boundary question from the speculative or political standpoint (B. C., VI, 76-7):

"The unfortunate case of the Indian, Pero Mauvel [Manoel], as stated in the journal of your reporter, would seem to point out the necessity of concluding an arrangement with the Republic of Columbia respecting the western boundary-line of this Colony, which, in the humble opinion of

your reporter, should include the mouth of the Barima River, and all its tributary creeks from the sea to the Cayoni River.

"The internal communication by water which commences with the Tapacooma is entirely cut off by the Barima River, and commences again, with the Amacoora Creek to the Orinoco, thus marking the natural boundary of the province between the Barima and Amacoora.

"If the right bank of the Barima River were taken as the boundary, and all the extensive creeks which enter that stream on its left bank remain subject to the Columbian State, this Colony would be subjected to the danger of having all the runaways from either Government congregating on that fertile region without the right of control, and it is too distant from the seat of the Columbian Government for its influence to be otherwise than only partially felt, especially as the aborigines look to this Colony for protection.

"If the Wyena were selected as the boundary-line, the evil would be greatly increased by leaving a wider field of operation unoccupied."

A curious fact with reference to Crichton's remarks is that he, as well as many others in the colony, seemed to consider that the question of boundary was a question not of right or of territorial title, but a thing to be fixed by Her Majesty's Government, and about which the Colonial officials had only to make valuable suggestions, which the Government might then carry out. He regards it solely from the point of view of expediency, and it is perfectly evident that, as far as right is concerned, he knows none beyond Moruca either to the Waini, to the Barima, or beyond.

Shortly after this Schomburgk appears on the scene with his scientific frontier, based on the doctrine of "convenient natural boundaries." Schomburgk, as is well known, was employed simply as a surveyor, and Lord Aberdeen expressly stated in the correspondence which followed the erection of his boundary posts that the planting of the posts were "merely a preliminary measure open to future discussion" (V. C., III, 199, 204, 207), and, at the request of Venezuela, they were actually removed. Nevertheless, they had great influence in stiffening up the ideas of all the officials of the colony. Thus, Superintendent King, in 1841, heard that a murder had been committed in

the Aruka, and in reporting the fact stated (B. C., VI., 112), that he "although this murder was committed beyond what he always considered to be the limits of British Guiana, but within the assumed limits of Her Majesty's Commissioner of Survey for British Guiana [Schomburgk] felt it his duty to have the body exhumed, and accordingly held an inquest thereon.” Here the Superintendent himself traces the direct connection between Schomburgk's "assumed limits" and his own change of mind in reference to the boundary. Such is the effect of the setting up of posts by Her Majesty's Commissioner.

It is this change of mind in 1841 and its consequences which Her Majesty's Government now claim should be taken into account by the Arbitrators in determining the extent of Dutch territories in 1814.

The same change due to the same influences, is noticeable in Postholder McClintock, who says, in a report of December 31, 1848 (B. C., VI, p. 172):

"Your reporter, therefore, with a view to obviate this difficulty, begs leave to suggest now, as the boundary of British Guiana is defined, and no likelihood of any interference by the Venezuelan Government, that a Mission forthwith be established on the Bareema for the convenience of the Worrow Indians of that river, and another on the Winey for Accaways."

In accordance with this, he at the same time suggests the names of Indian captains for various localities in that region, namely, Assakata, Waini, Barama, and the Upper and Lower Barima.

Governor D'Urban, in a letter to Lord Goderich, October 18, 1827 (B. C. VI, 39), had already given a suggestion as to the boundaries of the colony:

"On the north, the sea coast, from the mouth of the Abary to Cape Barima, near the mouth of the Orinoco.

"On the west, a line running north and south from Cape Barima into the interior."

The Governor does not seem to have had any foundation for this particular suggestion. As an indication of the way in which

British Colonial Governors followed the example of their Dutch predecessors in "extending boundaries" by correspondence to a great variety of points, it is extremely valuable. It turns entirely on Point Barima. It amounts to saying: "We will take that; and as for the rest of it, run a north and south line, and there you have the boundary." Such a line of course cuts Schomburgk's zig-zag at every turn, and bears no particular relation to anything in the history of the case.

The suggestion of Governor D'Urban in 1827 is the first that ever was made in the entire history of this controversy of a territorial frontier on the Orinoco River. The Dutch Director-General Storm, with his movable boundaries, had referred many times to the question of limits in the coast territory, and had spoken both of the Waini and the Barima as a possible boundary, his most emphatic statement being that to the Governor of Surinam, that he believed the Spanish were right in claiming the Barima. Storm's ideas, however, of geography were entirely vague, and while he spoke of a line at the Barima, he had no knowledge where the Barima was, while his allusions have reference to some point a considerable distance above the river mouth. GovernorGeneral Sirtema van Grovestins placed the boundary at the Moruca. The Company, and afterwards the Dutch Government, never stated what their claim of boundary was, or even that they had any claim.

The principal suggestions on this subject had come from Storm; but even Storm never in terms or by implication suggested a claim to any territory on the Orinoco River itself. D'Anville's map, to which Storm referred, does not put the boundary on the Orinoco, and the whole course of the correspondence and acts of the Dutch Colonial authorities is such as to indicate that no one would have been more surprised than themselves at a claim of a Dutch frontier on the Orinoco River. To them the Orinoco meant Spain just as much as the Essequibo meant the Netherlands. There never was the slightest doubt or suggestion that jurisdic