INHABITANTS OF GUIANA. 



43 



fathers and Indian mothers, and consequently any inferences drawn from their 

 appearance would be fallacious. 



Some few words of the African negro or Bantu dialects are said to have been 

 preserved in the language of the Maroons, which has an English basis with a very 

 large Portuguese element. Next in order of importance come the Dutch and 

 French contributions, all uttered with the thick soft African pronunciation, and 

 connected together by an extremely simple syntax. But this primitive jargon 

 is gradually yielding to the cultured languages, English, Dutch, French, and Por- 

 tuguese, of the European settlers. 



Descendants of the black insurgents, whose war-cry everywhere was " Land and 



Fig. 13. — Inhabitants of Guiana. 

 Scale 1 : 13,000,000. 



Bush Negroes. 



Indians. 



310 Miles. 



Liberty," the Bush Negroes have all remained agriculturists. They grow sufficient 

 produce for their own consumption, and also supply the towns and plantations of the 

 seaboard with rice. But their main resource is wood-cutting, which is exclusively 

 in their hands. They fell the large forest trees suitable for building and cabinet 

 work, and convey the lumber to Paramaribo by the rivers and canals. They run 

 little risk of losing this monopoly, thanks to their sober habits, by which they are 

 favourably distinguished from the aborigines. They have, however, suffered from 

 the demoralisation rampant in the gold-mining districts. Indispensable as boat- 

 men on the upper courses of the rivers, they show remarkable skill in managing 

 their coriaJs or curiares, and the light craft to which the English have given the 



