CHAPTER II. 



(F. Fowler, Commissioner of Land.s mid Min/'n.) 



HISTORY OF GOLD MINING IN BRITISH GUIANA. 



The first recorded instance of mining for gold in British Guiana was 

 in 1720, when an expedition sought for gold in Berbice ; but the results 

 were not satisfactory, and the idea of finding any was abandoned. 

 Another attempt was made in 1740, when the directors of the Dutch 

 West India Company sent a mining engineer named Hildebrand to 

 explore the Mazaruni, Cuyuni and Essequibo Rivers. This also was 

 unsuccessful, though gold, silver and copper were reported to have 

 been found. In 1743 another expedition was despatched by van 

 Gravesande, then the Governor of Essequibo, which, like its predecessors, 

 ended in failure. 



That gold existed in the colony in payable quantities was long 

 suspected, especially as it had been so found in French and Dutch 

 Guiana as well as in Venezuela; but it was not until 1863 that any 

 well-organised attemjit was made to jDrove this. In that year a 

 Company, composed of local and of English capitalists, and called 

 " The British Guiana Gold Company," sent an expedition to the 

 Cuyuni River. G4:)ld-bearing quartz was discovered at Wariri on the 

 left bank of the river about four days' boat journey from Bartica, but 

 owing to this district being in dispute between British Guiana and 

 Venezuela after starting work and erecting a small stamping-mill the 

 undertaking was abandoned. 



In the eighties attention was again turned to the mining possibili- 

 ties of the colony, and several expeditions wei-e sent to the Essequibo 

 and Cuyuni districts, their results being very encouraging. No records 

 are obtainable of the yields prior to the year 1884, in which the export 

 of gold from the colony is recorded as amounting to 250 ounces. 

 Subsequent to this time systematic and more expensive prospection 

 was carried on, resulting in rich finds being made in the Cuyuni, 

 Puruni and Essequibo Rivers districts from 1886 to 1888. There was 

 no longer any doubt that gold existed in paying quantities in the 

 colony, and many of its inhabitants turned their attention to prospecting 

 for it. 



