Letters of Aristodemus and Sincerus. 235 



wished to impose on the colonists, but money must be 

 had somehow, and if they obtained a loan from the 

 States General for the purpose of providing forts and 

 posts, the expense of keeping these armed and manned 

 would require extra taxes. Whether the planters were 

 unable to see this side of the question, or purposely 

 ignored it, it is hard to say ; as a matter of fa6t they 

 stuck to their complaints through thick and thin, while 

 the Company would not give way in the least. 



The writers of these letters seem certainly to have 

 been well read, as they go over the whole field of colonial 

 history, quoting from some of the principal writers of 

 the day, English, French, and Dutch, and continually 

 referring to the new republic of the United States. The 

 planters are said to have had the feelings of republicans : 

 they did not however refuse obedience to a constitution, 

 but only wished to defend the rights they had held since 

 1 773, and which had been given them by the supreme 

 government of the Netherlands. On the maintenance 

 of these the prosperity of the colonies depended, but the 

 Company had adopted such a deplorable system that the 

 constitution had been turned upside down. Writing in 

 1788 they say that for three years the colonies have been 

 without a government, and it was the duty of every free- 

 born subject to protest against this state of things. 

 Petitions and memorials were continually sent to the 

 Council of Ten, who replied to one of them, that the 

 republic never could admit a democratic or popular 

 government. 



One of the appendices is entitled " My Ideas on the 

 Colonies of Demerara and Essequebo;" from which it 

 may be gathered that the planters were very much dis- 



GG2 



