Venezuelan International Law. 77 



** of Demerary and Essequebo and the said colony of 

 " Berbice respe6lively, with their respedive dependen- 

 " cies.^^ In Rubrics to Minutes of the Proceedings of the 

 Legislature, for years after 1831, the Colony and Depen- 

 cies of British Guiana are cited. 



No better illustration could be given of the manner in 

 which the name of a portion of the Dutch possessions 

 was made to stand for the whole, than the way this was 

 done, on a memorable occasion, by the Spanish Govern- 

 ment itself. In 1796, the Dutch Colonies of Berbice, 

 Demerara and Essequibo, came into the possession of 

 the British. On the 5th of 06lober, in the same year, 

 Spain declared war against Great Britain. One of the 

 grounds given by the King of Spain, for making war, 

 was the recent conquest, by the British, of the Dutch 

 Settlements in the neighbourhood of the Orinoco. And 

 how did the King of Spain name those settlements ? He 

 lumped them all in the name, not even of Essequibo, but, 

 of Demerara. Here are the very words used in the 

 Declaration of War against Great Britain : — 



* * * « And lastly by the conquest she has just 

 " made on the continent of South America of the Colony 

 "and River of Demerari belonging to the Dutch, which 

 " advantageous situation puts her in the way to occupy 

 " other important points." 



Among the '* other important points," thus referred to, 

 were " the Provinces of Orinoco and Caracas." This 

 much is indicated in a Despatch of the loth June, 1796, 

 from the Spanish Ambassador in London to the Prince 

 De la Paz. (British Boundary Blue Book: p. 137). 

 The British Blue Book states, further (p. 20), that " a 

 " Spanish Memorandum of 1797, expresses the fear that 



