34 A NATURALIST IN THE GUIANAS 



the * Caura,' at my disposal, free of charge, if I would 

 assist in reporting on the rubber district in question, after 

 which I would be free to continue my voyage of explora- 

 tion to the headwaters of the Caura. It was definitely 

 settled between Battistini and myself, when he left for 

 Ciudad-Bolivar, that he would write and advise me when 

 his steamer would be ready for the projected trip. Early 

 in November I got a letter from him saying that I would 

 have to be in Ciudad-Bolivar by the end of the month, 

 or, at any rate, by December 2 or 3. 



I employed the whole of the month making prepara- 

 tions for the journey, and we fixed our departure for the 

 29th, the steamer ' Delta ' of the Orinoco Trading and 

 Shipping Company having been advertised to leave on 

 that day. 



Previous to 1860 all trade between Trinidad and 

 Ciudad-Bolivar was conducted by schooners and sloops, 

 which carried not only goods but passengers and mails 

 between the two places. Some time in the early sixties 

 Messrs. Grillet and Company ran a steamer from Ciudad- 

 Bolivar for their cattle trade, but she was not by any 

 means a regular boat, as the exigencies of the traffic for 

 which her owners used her necessitated her making fre- 

 quent visits to Demerara and Cayenne. It was not until 

 1867 that regular steam communication between the 

 towns of Port of Spain and Ciudad-Bolivar was estab- 

 lished by Mr. Hancox, under the protection of the Ame- 

 rican flag. The history of the line of steamers organised 

 by this gentleman, and of the claim against the govern- 

 ment of Venezuela which arose in connection with it, is 

 interesting and instructive, as illustrating the ways of 

 South American republics. In August 1871, when there 

 was a rising of revolutionists known as ' the Blues,' the 



