804 



VENEZUELA. 



and Cuyuni rivers. A road from the Barima river 

 joined it with the Barama, and a survey was made 

 to continue it along the left bank of the Cuyuni as 

 far as Acarabisci, and thence to Uruan. Dr. P. 

 Rojas had warned the Guiana authorities two years 

 before that the construction of such a road from tin- 

 source of the Barima to the Cuyuni on the Uruan 

 would produce a collision with the authorities of 

 Venezuela in that zone. When the English sur- 

 veyor, William Alfred Harrison, had almost com- 

 pleted his task, he was arrested on June 15 by the 

 Venezuelan police, being on the left side of the 

 Cuyuni, the provisional boundary agreed to by Mr. 

 Chamberlain, the British Colonial Secretary, and 

 was taken to the Venezuelan station at El Dorado. 

 The local Venezuelan authorities had warned the 

 surveying party that they were trespassing a week 

 earlier. The Caracas authorities, upon receiving 

 the report of Harrison's arrest, ordered his imme- 

 diate release. Meanwhile a force of colonial police 

 had been sent to the spot from Georgetown. The 

 British claimed that Harrison was arrested on their 

 side of the Schomburgk line, the agreed provisional 

 boundary, the place being below the junction of the 

 Acarabisci with the Cuyuni, but Venezuela asserted 

 that the Schomburgk line followed the Cuyuni at 

 this point. A railroad has been built from Wismar, 

 on the Demerara river, to a point on the Essequibo 

 above the dangerous falls that impede the lower 

 reaches of the water way. 



The cost of the Government agency, magistrates, 

 police, gold officers, commissaries, and other ma- 

 chinery of government in the gold districts from 

 the first discovery of gold down to March 31. 1896, 

 was $376,470. The population in the mining dis- 

 tricts was estimated at 13,000. The total output of 

 gold up to that date had been 775,590 ounces, valued 

 at $13,185,000, derived entirely from placer working, 

 as the valuable quartz reefs that had been discovered 

 were still waiting for capital to develop them. 

 English and foreign capital could not be expected 

 in considerable amounts so long as the boundary 

 question remained unsettled. At the suggestion of 

 Mr. Chamberlain the combined court of British 

 Guiana in April voted to augment the police force 

 of the colony. A militia force was organized, and 

 Maxim guns were imported for the ostensible pur- 

 pose of defending the Cuyuni frontier. The gold 

 output, in spite of the encouragement of the Gov- 

 ernment, has diminished from 142,788 ounces in 

 1893. valued at $2.542,995, to 129,670 ounces, valued 

 at $2,310,091, in 1894. and 122,023 ounces, valued at 

 $2.165,712, in 1895. The British Guiana Legislature 

 before its adjournment passed on Sept. 4, 1896. a 

 bill granting rights of way for a railroad to the 

 Barima gold fields along the Kaituma river, which 

 flows north into the Barima river, 55 miles above 

 the mouth of the latter. It was provided by an 

 amendment that the Colonial Government can pur- 

 chase the railroad at the end of fifteen years. The 

 Venezuelan minister to the United States protested 

 against the building of the railroad as in violation 

 of an engagement that Great Britain had entered 

 into to preserve existing conditions until the whole 

 territorial dispute should be settled. 



Political Events. The Venezuelan message of 

 President Cleveland called forth enthusiastic patri- 

 otic manifestations in Venezuela, and such popular 

 indignation was shown at the demand of Great 

 Britain for reparation and apology for the arrest of 

 British officials who encroached upon the Venezue- 

 lan side of the provisional boundary at Uruan, al- 

 though the prisoners had been promptly released 

 and compensated, that the United States minister 

 warned President Crespo, who had ordered the 

 militia to be embodied to repel a possible English 

 invasion, against the risk of a collision on the Gui- 



ana frontier. Early in January, 1896, the Venezue- 

 lan Government appointed a commission to exam- 

 ine, classify, and study all documents available for 

 throwing light on the boundary question. Dr. Rafael 

 Seijas was made president, and his associates were 

 Dr. Laureano Villanueva, Dr. Julian Viso, and Dr. 

 Marco Saluzzo. Congress met on Feb. 20. In his 

 message President Crespo expressed gratitude for 

 the powerful aid of the United States Government 

 in bringing about a pacific solution of the frontier 

 dispute with British Guiana, describing the inter- 

 vention of the great republic of the north as a 

 noble act of justice performed in the endeavor to 

 smooth over a dispute the dangerous effects of 

 which, if they extended, would constitute a serious 

 menace to the integrity of the American nations. 

 Disputes with a German company and three Eng- 

 lish companies over the payment of guarantees were 

 settled by compromise, and a loan of 50,000.000 

 bolivars was obtained in Berlin in April for the pur- 

 pose of paying these claims. Of this sum the Ger- 

 man company that built the Grand Venezuela 

 Railroad received 36,000,000 bolivars in discharge of 

 its claims on the Government. The railroads of 

 Venezuela have been very expensively constructed 

 by European engineers, 20'0 miles having cost $20,- 

 000,000. The new loan, which bears 5 per cent, in- 

 terest and was issued at 80, is guaranteed on the 

 customs receipts. Congress has passed a law for- 

 bidding the granting of any new guarantee- to 

 railroad companies. The Yaracuy Navigation 

 Company is constructing an American railroad to 

 tap one of the most fertile sections of the coun- 

 try. President Cleveland's message had the effect 

 of removing the danger of a renewal of the political 

 disturbances of November, 1895. Gen. Domingo 

 Mi magus was at Trinidad with a large filibustering 

 expedition supplied with 3,600 rifles, cannon, and 

 torpedoes when the message was published. He at 

 once called the revolutionary committee together, 

 and resolutions were passed and orders issued to 

 officers of the revolutionary army that no attempt 

 should be made against Crespo's Government until 

 the boundary question had been settled. Many po- 

 litical prisoners in Caracas were released, and many 

 officers in exile were welcomed home when they ex- 

 pressed a desire to support the Government in its 

 difficulties with England. Gen. Jose Maria Quesada 

 headed an uprising against the State government 

 of Lara, but peace was arranged through the inter- 

 vention of the Federal Government. On June 15 

 President Crespo issued a proclamation granting 

 amnesty to all voluntary exiles who had taken part 

 in or sympathized with rebellion at any former time. 

 A large number of political refugees returned to 

 Venezuela. 



Diplomatic Correspondence. On Feb. 27, 

 1896. the American ambassador in London sug- 

 gested that the British ambassador in Washington, 

 Sir Julian Pauncefote, be empowered to discuss 

 with Secretary Olney in order to reach a well-de- 

 fined agreement for a basis of negotiation to consti- 

 tute a tribunal for the arbitration of the boundary 

 between British Guiana and Venezuela. This re- 

 quest was at once complied with. Mr. Olney pro- 

 posed a joint commission to be created by agree- 

 ment between Great Britain and the United States, 

 consisting of two Englishmen and two Americans, 

 probably two members of the existing American 

 Venezuelan commission, judges of the United 

 States Supreme Court, and two judges of the High 

 Court of Justice of England. The four members 

 would complete the inquiry, if unanimous, or if a 

 majority of the whole concurred, but if they failed 

 to agree a fifth member, a neutral, was to be ap- 

 pointed by the President of the Swiss Federation or 

 some other acceptable personage. This commission 



