42 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



years, during which nearly the whole of the expedition perished, scarcely 20 

 o£ the men returning in good health to Europe. At last an alliance with the 

 Aucans, who had remained loyal to their treaty engagements, enabled the Dutch 

 to drive Boni back to the foot of the Tumuc-Humac mountains. 



As a general rule the negroes of the interior succeeded in asserting their 

 independence, while the slaves on the coastlands about Paramaribo and the forts 

 were crushed by the disciplined troops opposed to them. The Maroons of the 

 West Indies, even those of the large island of Jamaica, were never able to make 

 head against regular soldiers proceeding systematically to the general occupation 

 of the islands by erecting forts and opening strategical routes. But the Bush 

 Negroes of Guiana had space in their favour. They were always free to retire 

 farther and farther towards the unknown interior, and thus escape the pursuit of 

 their owners. 



Various estimates ranging from about 8,000 to some 20,000 have been made of 

 these Bush Negroes, who till recently enjoyed absolute independence, but who are 

 now being brought gradually under the control of the central administrations. 

 Owing to the interminglings brought about by slavery, migrations, and wars, all 

 memory of the original stock races has perished, and the only known fact, obvious 

 enough in itself, is the almost pure African descent of the Maroons. Of these, the 

 finest and most civilised are the Aucans, while the most degraded by isolation and 

 poverty are those belonging to the Matrocane communities. 



But according to Grifford Palgrave, all alike present a perfectly African type. 

 " The men are often six feet and more in height, with well-developed limbs and 

 pleasing open countenance ; and the women in every physical respect are, to say 

 the least, worthy of their males. Ill-modelled trunks and disproportioned limbs 

 are, in fact, as rare among them as they are common among some lighter-com- 

 plexioned races. Their colour is, in general, very dark, and gives no token of the 

 gradual tendency to assume a fairer tint that may be observed among the de- 

 scendants of negroes residing in more northerly latitudes. Their hair, too, is as 

 curly as that of any Niam-Niam or Darfooree chief, or native of Senegal. I 

 have heard it asserted more often than once that, by long doraicilement in the 

 South American continent, the negro type has a tendency to mould itself into one 

 approaching that of the Indian aboriginal ; and something of the kind might be 

 looked for, if anywhere, among the Bush Negroes of the Surinam interior. But 

 in the specimens that I saw, and they were many, I could not detect any such 

 modification." * 



Nevertheless, both Paul Levy, who has lived with the negroes of the auriferous 

 regions, and Carl Appun, who resided many years in British Guiana, affirm that 

 the tendency is perceptible. The colour of the skin would appear to be less 

 black, the hair longer and less woolly. But it is not always easy to distinguish 

 between full-blood and half-caste types, and interminglings have taken place not 

 only between blacks and Europeans, but also between blacks and Indians. Thus 

 the Carbougres (Karboegers) of the Coppename river are the issue of negro 



* Butch Guidtia, p. 170. 



