R. H. SCHOMBURGK. 25 



lays, Mr. Schomburgk offered his services to the Tor- 

 tolians to survey that harbour and the roadstead, if 

 they would bear his actual expenses. There being 

 no Legislative Assembly then sitting, the speaker 

 and other influential members promised this ; and 

 in order to incur no further delay, the survey was 

 commenced and finished and the materials for- 

 warded to the Hydrographical Office, which was 

 tested in a manner similar to that of his survey 

 of Anegada, and was subsequently published by the 

 Admiralty. * 



Towards the close of the year 1834, the Council 

 of the Royal Geographical Society of London, de- 

 sirous to promote the noble science for which they 

 were united, — to stimulate discovery, — to assist in 

 the exploring of regions known scarcely beyond the 

 darkness of savage life, — and thus to extend the 

 sphere of useful knowledge, of commerce, the arts 

 of peace and humanity, — resolved on sending out 

 an expedition to the interior of British Guiana, for 

 the twofold purpose of investigating thoroughly 

 the physical and astronomical geography of that 

 almost endless tract of country, and of connecting 

 the line of positions which might be ascertained 

 with those of the Baron Humboldt on the Upper 

 Orinoco. The British Government, not less de- 

 sirous that the resources of the colonies should be 



* Tortola Road and Harbour, by Robert H. Schomburgk, 

 Hydrographical Office, 1836.— A third chart, Mouth of the 

 River Corentyn, by the same author, was publisljed in 1837, 

 \n the same office. 



