110 Timehri 



Dutch times — as we gather from a translated document in Mr. Podway's 

 History — the Winkel Department made a " corner" in all the artizan work 

 in Berbice. No private planter was allowed to engage his own carpenter. 

 He had to hire from the Winkel. Jf he wanted a coflee-drogherie laid he 

 could get it laid (on terms) by the Winkel. It was an intolerable burden, 

 aid the private planter did not fail to make his sorrows known, but with 

 little result. The British knocked this monoply on the head, and the 

 Winkel Department simply secun d what business it could on its merits. 

 How, is shown in the following advertisement (" Berbice Gazette," 

 February 25, 1812) : — 



Notice. 

 Is hereby given, that all kinds of House Carpenter's, Boat-Builder's, 

 Mason's, Cooper's, Blacksmith's and Coppersmith's work will be 

 henceforth undertaken and neatly and expeditiously finished, on 

 reasonable terms, by the Artificers of the Winkel Department. 



Orders will be received and carefully attended to, by the sub- 

 scriber at his house in New Amsterdam. 



Wm. Scott, 



Commissary. 

 Berbice. 

 15th February, 1812. 



Then, as now, the bad paymaster existed. Another advertisement, 

 dated from the " Winkel Office in the Colony Town," "earnestly requests 

 all persons indebted to the Winkel Department to pay Accounts or they 

 will be put in suit "; while a further notice —with an air of drawing the 

 line somewhere — intimates that " In future accounts must be settled 

 monthly." 



Probably the most noteworthy achievement of the Berbice Com- 

 missioners — an act without precedent in Berbice— had been the employ- 

 ment of a Missionary for the religious instruction of the Negroes. The 

 Rev. John Wray is yet remembered by one or two of the old people in 

 New Amsterdam. He came to Guiana first in 1808 as missionary on Pin. 

 Le Ressouvenir, the property of Mr. H. H. Post. In June, 1813, he 

 went to Berbice as Missionary to the Crown Negroes. 



The Rev. T. Rain's book, " The Life and Labours of John Wray " 

 (London : 1892) — compiled chiefly from Mr. Wray's journal and letters — 

 gives us man} - glimpses of the Winkel Negroes In 1813, the Crown 

 Slaves in New Amsterdam numbered 355 ; they were chiefly trades people. 

 30 of them were attached to Fort St. Andrew ; a battalion of no fewer 

 than 65 were employed as servants at Government House. Travellers in 

 the West Indies — as in the Southern States of North America — in the old 

 time record, almost with a gasp of horror, the retinue of servants 

 attached to the old Great-Houses. The Government House of Berbice 

 made a brave show in this respect. It is inter- sting to remark how those 

 65 servants were made up ; we find the details in Mr. Wray's biography. 

 There were 6 hou6c-boys and 8 wa herwomen, 14 housemai'ls and seam- 

 stresses, 3 cooks, 3 ostlers, 3 gardeners, 3 stock-keepers, 4 fishermen, 

 2 grass-cutters, 2 woodcutters and 17 boatmen. It is notable that I here 



