14 TiMEHRI. 



on such risky voyages, For, they were risky, notwith- 

 standing the fa6l that Guiana was outside the track to 

 the Spanish Indies, the claimants to the whole of America 

 having no hesitation in attacking vessels of other nations 

 whenever and wherever they had the opportunit)'. 



After the Spaniards had shewn the Caribs what they 

 might expe6l if they allowed them to gain a footing in 

 the country, the cannibals defended their homes when- 

 ever they were attacked, and everywhere apparently 

 with success. As in the case of the Caribbee Islands, it 

 followed therefore that Spain never gained a footing here, 

 and that the country was left open to other nations. 

 These later arrivals, by proclaiming their enmity to Spain, 

 soon gained the confidence of the Caribs and were 

 allowed free access to places from whence Spaniards 

 would have been at once expelled, had they dared to 

 show themselves. 



In the earliest years of the trading faftory at Kyk- 

 over-al we find the Dutch at peace with both Arawaks 

 and Caribs, and doing their utmost to prevent quarrels 

 between them. By the conditions made in 1627, under 

 which Berbice was settled. Van Peere agreed that the 

 Indians should be treated justly and honestly, that 

 promises made to them should not be broken, that they 

 should not be robbed, and that his colonists should 

 not interfere with their wives. " The Articled Letter" 

 of the West India Company also charged all persons not 

 to ill-treat the natives of the countries they visited, and 

 not to injure them in any way in their persons, goods, 

 women or children, on pain of fines or flogging. In 

 the " Instructions" to ABRAHAM Beekman, dated ist 

 September, 1678, he was told to get from the former 



