28 SUGAR 



to the cradle of the Demerara sugar industry. Now I 

 want to give you a first peep at the little strip of British 

 Guiana which is devoted to sugar-growing and sugar- 

 making. 



We have landed in Georgetown, and here at once you 

 begin to scent the atmosphere of the cane district. 

 True, Georgetown is an up-to-date city, whereas the 

 cane-fields constitute a region which has a distinctly 

 country aspect and atmosphere. Nevertheless, you 

 notice at once that the capital has a very cosmopolitan 

 population ; and you are particularly struck by the 

 number of East Indians you see in the streets. Coolies, 

 as these folk are called, form the main part of the 

 labouring population of the sugar estates. Blacks, 

 who, as you see, are also prominent among the in- 

 habitants of the capital, sometimes work as field-hands, 

 but their position on the estates is more often that of 

 factory hand, or of driver — an under-foreman who looks 

 after a gang of labourers, and one of whose chief duties 

 is to see that all his charges go to work. Some of the 

 higher positions, too, are filled by natives. As you 

 are in the capital of a British Colony, naturally you 

 are not surprised to find some white people here ; you 

 may also rely on meeting a few of your countrymen 

 on the sugar estates, where they fill such responsible 

 offices as those of planter, manager, engineer, chemist, 

 and overseer. 



Many of the estates are quite close to Georgetown. 

 Some, as I have told you, are on the coast ; others 

 border the lower course of the Demerara River. Here 

 is a bird's-eye^ view of one of them, chosen at random. 



An oblong expanse of land has one of its narrow sides 

 fronting the natural waterway ; this low-lying land 



