September I, 1884.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



253 



Highbury was the first estate in Berbice that employ- 

 ed coolies from India. It soon became evident that the 

 negroes after emancipation would not work as they had 

 before, and that if British Guiana were to continue a 

 sugar-producing colony, additional labourers must be in- 

 troduced from elsewhere. 



So Messrs. Davidsons, Barkly & Co. joined by Mr. 

 Moss, of Liverpool, and some others, sent to India for 

 some of the surplus population of that teeming country ; 

 and in L838 the ship " AVhitby" arrived from Calcutta with 

 the first lot of coolies ! They were a very fine set of 

 people and did remarkably well at Highbury ; and at the 

 end of their indenture they returned to India carrying 

 large sums of money with them. Thus was commenced 

 that system of Indian immigration which has saved this 

 coloiry from abandonment and bids fair to establish a 

 labour supply on such a footing as will ensure to the pre- 

 sent sugar estates something like an adequate return for 

 the enormous amount of capital, skill and energy that has 

 been expended on them. Capital has followed the supply 

 of labour, and science is following capital. But success is 

 only now setting in, after an arduous struggle of over forty 

 years, during which most of the proprietors of former days 

 have disappeared. 



By the disposal of their estates the " Berbice Association" 

 ceased to have any interest in the colony, which soou be- 

 came thoroughly British. A few coffee estates remained in 

 the hands of merchants in Holland up to the time of 

 emancipation ; but for some years past not a single estate 

 in Berbice has been owned by a Dutchman, and the 

 time seems to have arrived for revising the system of Dutch 

 laws guaranteed to the former owners of the colony by the 

 Articles of Capitulation. It surely is unreasonable that 

 Englishmen in a British colony, living under the reign of a 

 limited monarch, should be tied down to a foreign law of 

 inheritance forced on them eighty years ago by a Dutch 

 Republic which no longer exists. 



Towards the head of Oroote marri-paam the river has a 

 winding course of some ten miles, and here the water is 

 deep. Here there were once ten or twelve coffee estates 

 and two sugar estates, all now out of cultivation. One of 

 the former, plantation Bestendiyhied, belonged to an en- 

 terprising Dutch planter named Timmer>, who, at the 

 time of emancipation, thinking as many did then, that the 

 colony was about to enter on a course of prosperity under 

 a happier system, extended his operations at Bestendigkied 

 \'\ adding a saw-mill to his coffee machinery, and getting 

 out a steam engine to work the whole. The river Abary 

 flows parallel to the Berbice, at no great distance from 

 its left bank. Mr. Timmcrs connected his estate with 

 the Abary by extending his middle-walk canal a couple of 

 miles through the savannah into the Abary. At this point 

 the whole country is au extensive swamp with a foot or 

 two of water over the surface, but a few miles higher up 

 the lands rises, and there is a high reef on which is a 

 forest of bullet-trees ; and Mr. Timmers proposed cutting 

 timber there, with the assistance of some Warrau Indians 

 who were theu living on the spot, and bringing it down 

 the Abary, and up his canal to the Bestendigkied buildings, 

 where it would be sawn into plank by his newly erected 

 steam engine, which would thus be- kept usefully employed 

 when there was no cotfee crop going on. It was a well 

 conceived plan, and for sometime things looked promising, 

 but, alas ! the want of labour, which in this colony gener- 

 ally defeats every project, cause I it to fail. Coffee cultiv- 

 ation ceased to be profitable because the laborers would not 

 pick the crop, hard times sel in, and poor "Polyglot 

 Timmers" had to pass through the insolvent's court !* 



A few miles above Bestendigkied the river makes a bold 

 turn to the eastward, and consequently vessels sailing up 

 meet the wind right a head, and instead of running before 

 the wind, they have to beat against it, and their progress 

 is lunch retarded; hence this turn in the river has got the 

 name of "Humbug Point." Beyond this, a tine stretch 

 opens up, running nearly due south for about eight miles. 

 This is called in the Dutch grauts the " Klein marri-paam," 

 or little sea reach. There was once an unbroken line of 

 coffee estates along this on the east bank. There are now 



* This sobriquet he got from his habit of jumb.iug up so 

 many languages in his talk, Dutch. English, French and 

 Creole Dutt b 



only two estates in cultivation, both in sugar. These are 

 plantations /Warn and Ma Retraite, now the property of the 

 Colonial Company, but formerly owned by Messrs. George 

 and James Laiug, the leading merchants of Berbice, and 

 the most enterprising and energetic of our colonists. 

 Emancipation took place in August 1N34. This was followed 

 by the apprenticeship system, during which the negroes 

 were still under some control, and had to continue on 

 their estates and work certain regulated hours a day, for 

 which they received money wages. This was intended to 

 accustom the newly emancipated to habits of steady indus- 

 try and to prepare thein for unlimited freedom. Estates 

 throve under the system; the seasons happened to be good, 

 and the price of sugar ran up very high. This gave a great 

 impulse to speculation, the Dutch sold out their cotfee 

 estates to the more enterprising English who put them in 

 sugar. The Messrs. Laing bought plantation Mara, which 

 was then in coffee, put it in canes, and established a fine 

 sugar estate. The apprenticeship system according to the 

 emancipation act was to continue six years, but four only 

 had elapsed when it was prematurely terminated, and the 

 negroes made entirely free, and left to their own devices. 

 From this time the planters' troubles commenced in earnest; 

 prices fell, labour was scarce and only to be had at a high 

 rate. Hard indeed was the struggle; and many had to 

 succumb. The Messrs. Laing suffered severely, for they 

 had embarked largely, having besides Mara t become interest- 

 ed in Ma tictraite* Friends, Enfield, Smythjield and Albion. 

 Mr. James Laing published a touching memorial on the 

 subject,* addressed to Lord Grey, showing that though 

 starting under the most favorable auspices, the investments 

 of himself and partner had resulted in a loss of £197,000 

 sterling, incurred from the 1st August 1836 to 31st December 

 1847. He winds up his indignant protest in these words, 

 " In such case no choice will be left to the memorialist 

 " than to abandon the cultivation of his estates, and sub- 

 •• mit to their realisation at whatever sacrifice, in behalf 

 " of his creditors. But, he will deem it only due to him- 

 t( self, and to his family, and creditors to appeal to the 

 " justice of Parliament and the people of England for 

 " redress and compensation for losses which have been al- 

 •■ together occasioned by the Legislation and acts of the 

 " British Government." 



It was probably such cases as this, and there were many 

 of them, that at last startled the Colonial Office into be- 

 lieving the truth of the reports of the state of the West 

 Indies, and of the necessity of at once coming to their relief 

 by sanctioning the importation of laborers from the East, 

 as otherwise the cultivation of sugar would cease, the 

 educated classes would abandon the colonies, and the 

 manumission of the negroes prove a dead failure. Earl 

 Grey tells us as much in his book "The Colonial Policy 

 of Lord John Russell's Government." He says (page 63.) : — 



"This prosperity, and the welfare of all classes of the 

 •• inhabitants of these colonies, depend upon their being en- 

 " abled to continue to advantage the cultivation of sugar, 

 " not merely because this branch of industry constitutes 

 " their chief source of wealth, but l>ecause, if it were to 

 " cease, there would no longer be any motive for the resid- 

 " ence of the European inhabitants ir_ a climate uncongenial 

 " to their constitution, while it is certain that they could 

 '' not bo withdrawn without giving an almost fatal check 

 * to the civilisation of the Negroes." 



Beyond Mara there is no estate in cultivation, and in 

 passing up the river we leave sugar estates and their c ires 

 behind us. 



TROPICAL FRUITS:— BANANAS. 



BY J. H. WEIGHT. 



Desiring to call to notice the different fruits as they present 

 themselves to us in season, it is appropriate to speak upon the 

 banana now, as this is one of the most important months of 

 tie' year to the banana dealer. 



Probably no fruit of the tropics is at present command- 

 ing more commercial attention in our Northern markets, 



* A similar memorial was also sent in by the late P. M. 

 Jones, Bsq.jOf Pin. Houston. Demerary. A beautiful marble 

 monument to the memory of Mr. George Laing has been 

 erected in the Court House, New Amsterdam. 



