The "Good Old Times'' 1 in Guiana. 127 



Again, every historian should know something of the mother coun- 

 tries when writing of colonies. For many years professed historians have 

 stated that the Dutch settled in Pomeroon in 1580. As a nation there 

 were no Dutch at that time for the Netherlands did not revolt before 

 1581 and there was a long period of unrest before we may consider the 

 Seven Provinces as a nation. Flemings, while under the same rule, went 

 to America as Spaniards ; if therefore they were in the Pomeroon in 

 1580 they could not represent the Dutch Republic. Blunders can be 

 found in all the professed histories of Guiana and though I will not men- 

 tion names I may make the general statement without claiming for myself 

 anything like infallibility. Everything we do is open to improvement 

 and if we make mistakes it simply means that they should be rectified by 

 ourselves or others. The true historian does not want to put up his 

 judgments as final. 



The first-hand materials for Guiana history are the Records of the 

 West India Company in Holland and the Colonial Records here. 

 Netscher worked with the first and then came the work of the Boundary 

 Commission, followed by Gravesande's letters. A few books such as that 

 of Van Berkel, who lived in Berbice, are useful, but compilations like 

 that of Hartsink must be considered as not quite reliable. The Dutch 

 period is represented by few books of travel, but there is a work of the 

 utmost importance in trying to get right views of the condition of the 

 planters ; this is the " Letters of Aristodemus and Sincerus." The letters 

 and appendices give us the views of the colonists and we can compare them 

 with the official documents, always remembering however that both are 

 biassed and from different standpoints. 



When we come to the British period we have a fair number of 

 travellers, fuller records, and at last newspapers. In connection with the 

 labour problem there were Parliamentary Committees and Commissions of 

 Enquiry all of which are of great importance. The later the document or 

 book the more reliable it is, but nothing whatever should be taken as 

 absolutely correct. To check party statements we can find in newspapers 

 of the last century a wealth of information in the advertisements. 



There is an important side of history, that of families. Memories of 

 old people are useful when we can check them from other sources, but the 

 people themselves have to be studied. Much can be gathered from wills 

 and there are legal documents and the reports of law cases. Even tombs 

 with inscriptions sometimes help. In other countries old buildings and 

 even ruins have their stories but here there is not much to be gathered 

 from our mostly wooden structures. Pictures come in and for recent 

 years we have photos. 



An important mass of evidence can be got by the naturalist from 

 plants and especially old trees. Here in town we have cabbage palms in 

 clumps and a short avenue at the east of the Brick Dam. Some of these 

 are a century old and either point out the sites of buildings or burying 

 places An old fruit-tree means that the site was occupied by people long 



