AMONG MY CURIOS: 
GLIMPSES INTO THE HISTORY OF BRITISH GUIANA. 
By E. A.V. ABRanaM. 
To the antiquarian a collection of curios is not gauged by its monetary value ; 
he looks upon it as a link with the dead past, and wonders and ponders on the 
deeds of those to whom the gems of which he is the proud owner originally 
belonged. I therefore make no apology in bringing before my readers a 
part of my collection in order to reveal the history of some of those who made 
Guiana their home. 
There before me is a case with mourning rings. Old John Murdoch looms in 
stern reality—a Scot of Scots, a man with the same grit and determination which 
ran in his son, John Alexander Murdoch, Solicitor, and for a. number of years 
Mayor of the City of Georgetown. Old Murdoch came and saw and conquered. 
In 1821 Goed Fortuin was the property of his employer and then represented 
by Stephen Cramer, the grand-father of Mrs. Wallbridge, but Murdoch worked 
and plodded and became the owner of the estate. Never an inch would he sell, not 
for any money, nor his son; and the descendants to-day, the Tafares, carry out 
his theory that it is better to own land than money. A mourning ring of unique 
pattern, bulky in shape with an edge of pearls, enclosing a large silhouette of 
the man stern in appearance, is a relic of his past, whilst another shows his wife. 
These rings are the first of the kind I have ever seen. Then we have another 
ring, and I wonder to whom it belongs, to what noble man’s memory it was 
made and fashioned to keep! Grief stands by a sun-dial with its work done— 
an exquisite bit of painting onivory. Another brings to the fore a member of the 
family of the Coles who made their mark in West Indian history. It is a plain 
gold heavy ring with an inscription of the lady to whose memory it was dedicated 
and the date 1718 in white enamel. I am indebted for it to Mr. Cole, of the 
Department of Lands and Mines. One in blue with a diamond star, square 
shaped, taking up the whole of the last joint of the finger shows that Eliza Dey, who 
was the owner of De Kinderen in the early twenties, was not forgotten by her kith 
andkin. Here are some most intricately worked bits of miniature paintings of the 
old gallants who were in the army and navy, when Guiana was Guiana, and who 
whilst as ships passing in the night evidently thought remembrances of their visits 
in the shape of portraiture would solace the girls they left behind them. In 
the early part of the last century the hair of the dear departed as wonderfully 
wrought as keepsakes in landscapes and other designs and set in gold and 
rubies and pearls as mementoes. Alas! those days are gone and in the 
present day we never hear of any one in his or her last will and testament leaving 
twenty pounds or so for the purpose of purchasing a brooch or ring in memo- 
rium. He mourns the dead who lives as they desire. A former proprietor 
of Uitvlugt not only left his miniature, but took his hostage of fortune to 
Holland and sent to his mother his miniature in gold when he arrived to man’s 
estate, These | got from his people who laid claim to the estate, 
