June 1, 1911.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



299 



British Guiana and India-Rubber 



By the Editor of The India Rubber World. 



FIRST LETTER. 

 Mistalten Ideas of British Guiana. — My First Visit to Geirgetown — Up the 

 Essequibo River. — Old Dutch Ruins. — The Penal Settlement. — At the Sisal 

 Man's Bungalow. — Native "Heveas." — A Railroad Ride. — The Botanical Gar- 

 dens. — Rubber Experiments. — The Director of Sciencb and Agriculture and 

 His Work. 



MAPS of the world or even of continents are exceedingly mis- 

 leading. They do not give the smaller countries the size 

 •value that belongs to them. For cxnmplc, nn the map nf 

 South America 

 the Guianas ap- 

 pear to the cur- 

 s o r y view as 

 three tiny plots 

 of land hardly 

 worth considera- 

 tion on the part 

 of the pioneer 

 planter or trav- 

 eler. The truth 

 is they are very 

 sizable countries 

 and there is 

 room and oppor- 

 tunity in abund- 

 ance. Nearh' 

 60,000,000 acres 

 is the estimated 

 area of British 

 Guiana with al- 

 most 11,000.000 

 easily accessible. 

 A country equ.il 

 in size to Eng- 

 land, Scotland 

 and Wales, tra- 

 versed by great 

 rivers, heavily 

 forested, rich in 

 every tropical 

 product, an Eng- 

 lish colony with 

 all that means in 

 the way of sta- 

 bility, liberty and 

 fair treatment, is 

 surely worth 

 knowing. Trav- 

 elers, who have 

 never even sight- 

 ed its shores, 

 have given it a 

 reputation for 

 extreme heat 

 and unhealthful- 

 ness, but they 

 were working 

 without facts. It 

 is hot, but not 

 torrid, and the 

 trade winds, 

 blowing the year 

 round, bring 



evenings so cool that a blanket is a comfort before morning. 

 My first visit to British Guiana was so interesting that I went 



ORIGINAL SAPIVM JENMANI IN BOTANIC GARDENS. 

 [Planted by Mr. .Tenman, 18S4-5.] 



again the following winter, and while my stay was brief, be- 

 cause of the death of my associate editor, I hope soon again 

 tn visit that "magnificent province" that is but a short week's 

 run from New York. 



It was St. Patrick's Day in the morning when first I saw 

 Georgetown, and we docked promptly at six. The gang plank 

 \vn? bnrdly down when the Sisal Man came aboard and declared 



i f w e were 

 prompt we could 

 catch the up- 

 river boat and 

 not be delayed in 

 town two or 

 three days. The 

 Sisal Man, be 'it 

 understood, had 

 a bungalow and 

 a big plantation 

 some forty miles 

 in the interior, 

 was going in for 

 rubber, and had 

 been cabled by 

 friends in New 

 York to show 

 the country and 

 make our stay 

 pleasant. 



The stewards, 

 customs' officers, 

 and even the 

 strangely dressed 

 cabman, all 

 helped and we 

 were aboard the 

 side- wheeled 

 steamer, Guiana, 

 ten minutes be- 

 fore the sailing 

 time, ready for 

 the eight - hour 

 journey up the 

 Essequibo river. 

 We were the only 

 first-class passen- 

 g e r s and had 

 chairs under 

 awnings on the 

 upper deck. The 

 deck below was 

 crowded with 

 blacks, coolies, 

 poor whites and 

 coffee -colored 

 n o n - descripts, 

 who sat around 

 on the luggage 

 and ate and 

 smoked and gos- 

 siped. 

 We got away 



promptly, as there is a heavy fine otherwise, and these 

 little flat-bottomed pudgy, lazy-looking steamers keep to sched- 



