56 TIMEHRI. 
life, may often be at least more interesting, if not more 
useful, than the experienced dotard ;: and the adventurer 
setting out with swelling heart for El Dorado makes a 
more inspiriting sight than the tired way-farer nearing 
with relu€tant step the Valley of the Shadow. As with 
life in general, so withits particulars. | It is the generally 
received opinion that the stranger, if he would escape 
both resentment and derision, must keep his first impres- 
sions of a new acquaintance or a newly found locality 
striétly to himself. Yet I have known many men who 
could give at once a more intelligent and a more inter- 
esting account of a place to which they have paid merely 
a flying visit than others who have lived there all their 
lives. In each case the story probably will require 
seasoning with several grains of salt to make it fit for 
ordinary consumption. But with the world at large the 
“reminiscences” of the oldest inhabitant will weigh far 
heavier than the “impressions” of the fugitive visitor. 
Fully conscious of this bias against the opinions of the 
new comer, it is with some timidity that I take my pen 
to write my “First Impressions of the Colony.” The 
editor of Zimehri in suggesting to me this subje&, 
has presented me with a rare opportunity of “ giving my- 
self away.” But I hope to walk. warily and to give as 
few occasions as possible to the expe@ant critic. It will 
be well at the outset to emphasise the fa& that what I 
have to say in this paper will be striétly my first impres- 
sions, which I set down for what they may be worth, 
At the first sight Demerara is disappointing. To one 
who has never before passed beyond the temperate zone, 
and whose mind is aglow with piétures of the sunlit 
seas and golden harbours of the tropics, there is a 
