PICTURESQUE PARAMARIBO 



The City Which was Exchanged for New York 



By Harriet Chalmers Adams 



PARAMARIBO, the quaint capital 

 of Surinam, the city which was 

 exchanged for New York ! 

 After a Dutch, a French, and an English 

 occupancy, Surinam (which we English- 

 speaking people call "Dutch Guiana") 

 came again into the possession of the 

 Netherlands through the Treaty of Breda 

 (1667), in which England received title 

 to New Amsterdam, the present site of 

 Manhattan. 



The traveler approaches Surinam from 

 the sea. We had left behind the hilly 

 coast of French Guiana, and the morning 

 after sailing from Cayenne entered a 

 wide, muddy channel bordered by marshy 

 lowlands. This was the River Surinam, 

 the great highway of the country. 



Our first impression of this transported 

 Holland was of a land with a unique 

 individuality. Ascending the river, we 

 looked in vain on the forest-lined shores 

 for the crude thatched cabins typical of 

 the wilderness in other South America 

 countries. Instead we saw, in well-de- 

 fined clearings, pretentious farm-houses 

 with gable roofs and dormer windows. 



After fourteen miles of river travel 

 came the news, "Paramaribo is in sight!" 

 and we rushed to the bow to see, on the 

 right bank, a collection of these peaked- 

 roofed, many-windowed houses, streets 

 lined with fine old trees, and govern- 

 ment buildings facing a grassy common 

 of irregular shape. 



Upon landing we were even more im- 

 pressed with the quaint architecture and 

 with the people who thronged the streets. 

 Paramaribo may well be termed "the 

 city where many types meet;" 



There are staid merchants from the 

 mother country and gay officers of Queen 

 Wilhelmina's army ; there are colonial 

 Dutchmen and their families, who have 



never been out of Surinam. In great 

 numbers are the blacks, descendants of 

 the slaves. 



The costume worn by the negress is- 

 unusual, consisting of a short blouse with 

 a deep collar and a long full skirt, which 

 is doubled over a cord at the waist, 

 falling about the hips in an immense 

 puff ; this gives the appearance of great 

 weight and awkwardness. A brightly 

 colored kerchief, so tied as to produce a 

 broad effect, drapes the head. In "Taki- 

 Taki," the patois of the blacks, this is 

 termed the "Kottomissi" costume. 



"Taki-Taki" is a weird tongue, a mix- 

 ture of English, Dutch, Spanish, Portu- 

 guese, and French ; it has probably a 

 touch of an African dialect as well. In 

 it may be traced the imprint of many 

 peoples upon the slaves. It has become 

 "the universal language" of the colony,. 

 Dutch being the official tongue. 



Three oriental types mingle with the- 

 negroes, the Javanese from_ Hollands'' 

 colony in the East Indies, the Chinese,, 

 and the Hindus. The latter come from' 

 the near-by British colony, where they 

 have served their allotted time as in- 

 dentured coolies. 



The Javanese are small and slight, 

 resembling the Japanese. Both men and 

 .women wear scant garments and are 

 bare-legged. Short jackets, often pea- 

 green in shade, adorn the women, and 

 cloths, arranged about the hips, fall to- 

 their knees. The costume of the men is 

 like that of the Hindus — white blouses 

 and loin-cloths and huge white turbans. 



Gorgeously bedecked are the Hindu 

 women, draped in brightly colored silk 

 scarfs, their plump arms laden with 

 heavy silver bracelets ; their ears, noses,, 

 fingers, and ankles decorated with gold 

 and silver ornaments. This display reprc- 



