328 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 193 9 



the portage and up the 1,000-foot escarpment by manpower. It is to 

 be hoped that the work of the first commission will some day be 

 chronicled. The fact that the boundary which they surveyed lay 

 largely along rivers made their survey technique and the difficulties 

 which they encountered rather different from those of the second 

 commission. In 2I/2 years' work they reached the headwaters of 

 the Essequibo and were exploring the Courantyne and New Rivers 

 with a view to opening them up when a major tragedy occurred. 

 Most of the officers and some of the men developed beriberi, a disease 

 usually due to certain diet deficiencies. The cause of this disaster 

 is a mystery, for the diets of both officers and men were apparently 

 well balanced. One theory which has obtained considerable weight 

 attributes the outbreak to local deposits of pitchblende which im- 

 pregnated the water. It is of interest to note that the worst and 

 majority of cases occurred in the officer ranks, in spite of their higher 

 standard of living as compared with that of the men. In the face of 

 such a catastrophe there was no alternative but retreat, which was 

 carried out at the beginning of 1934, but not before several lives had 

 been lost. 



In the following year the Colonial Office took over the administra- 

 tion of the commission, and in July 1935 three officers and four non- 

 commissioned officers of the Royal Engineers arrived in Georgetown 

 and commenced preparations for the following season. While a 

 small advance party under a native boat captain ascended the Cour- 

 antyne to recommission the boats and engines and recover the stores 

 left at the portages by the former commission, frantic preparations 

 went forward in Georegtown. One of the first problems was the re- 

 cruitment of labor. The colony has a population of 300,000 composed 

 of very heterogeneous elements. Originally inhabited by Indians of 

 whom only between 6,000 and 7,000 survive today, it received a large 

 influx of African Negroes in the slave trade days, and today they 

 account for 40 percent of the total population. 



In 1850 East Indian apprentices emigrated to the sugar estates on 

 indenture, and their numbers now equal or slightly surpass those of 

 the Negroes. The remainder of the population consists of about 10 

 percent mixed and non-European, including a large number of 

 Chinese, and about 6 percent of Europeans, three-quarters of whom 

 are Portuguese. 



The laborers of the commission were recruited principally from 

 aboriginal Indians and Negroes, in about equal proportions. The 

 Indian is a likeable fellow. Dignified, reserved, and quiet, he is a 

 good bushman and a keen naturalist, though his small stature limits 

 the load he can carry, and he becomes discouraged and morose 



