54 TiMEHRl. 



*• of the Netherlands by the convention of 1S14.'' 

 Now, Nor IE was an authority upon the science of 

 Navigation, not an authority upon Political Geography. 

 He cites no authority for his statement : which he may 

 not unreasonably be supposed to have copied from 

 " Alcedo " Thompson, who was himself misled by 

 the name of Essequibo, it being by him identified with the 

 River alone. The Columbian Navigator, i8a2, is 

 mentioned as giving the Essequibo as the Boundary : but, 

 what is the value of its authority upon a political question ? 

 La Condamine'S authority in a matter of this kind cannot 

 carry much weight. Humboldt's monumental learn- 

 ing must always be respected ; but he, made no special 

 study of the question of Boundaries. He seems to have 

 been misquoted by the Venezuelan Foreign Office, as 

 regards the Boundary shown by Major VON BOUCHEN- 

 ROEDER, in his map of 1798. That map was prepared 

 for the Committee of the Colonies and Possessions of the 

 Batavian Republic, at a time when Essequibo was in the 

 hands of the British. At the river Barima a line is 

 drawn, and these words are printed along it :— 



" Ancien poste Hollandaise sur les limites des posses- 

 sions Espagnoles. 



The river Amacura is in this map erroneously placed 

 on the Southern side of the Barima, 



There seems to be some misapprahension of meaning 

 in the following statement made on page 173 of 

 Venezuelan International Law : — 1794. — Mr, Six, 

 Secretary of the Dutch East India Company sent a 

 communication to Senor CORRAL, the Spanish Minister 

 to Holland, in which he says : — "That the Captain, pilot 

 " and crew of the Spanish merchant ship " Nuestra 



