70 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



wliole colony possessed only 218 weedy, badly-bred horses. Of horned cattle, 

 whicb succeed best, there were over 6,000, and about the same number of pigs, 

 besides those running wild in the woods. A few hundred sheep, goats, asses, and 

 mules complete the list of livestock. 



The industries, properly so-called, are in a rudimentary state, being limited to a 

 few tafia (coarse rum) distilleries, some saw-mills, and other small establishments. 

 The largest industrial operations are those connected with auriferous quartz- 

 crushing. But the yield of gold has gradually fallen off since 1875. In that 

 year the registered return rose to about 4,500 pounds, valued at £227,000, to 

 which, perhaps, half as much more should be added for the pilferings at the works 

 and for the gold smuggled abroad. The iron ores, which abound in some districts, 

 have never been worked. 



Despite certain statements to the contrary, the trade of French Guiana is 

 certainly greater at present than it was before the Revolution. The yearly 

 exchanges with the rest of the world average from £520,000 to £720,000. The 

 imports greatly exceed the exports, most of the merchandise brought into the 

 colony being destined for the convict stations and the garrisons, which produce 

 nothing in return. At present the whole of the shipping falls below 100,000 

 tons, but it is steadily increasing, thanks to the greater facilities of communica- 

 tion enjoyed by steamers over sailing vessels. Cayenne is connected by a regular 

 line of steamships with Martinique and France by the Surinam and Deraerara 

 route. Small steamers ply on the coast, and a telegraph line 200 miles long con- 

 nects Cayenne with the Maroni. 



Administration. 



Although French Guiana possesses a general council of 16 elected members, 

 of whom seven for Cayenne, and also nominates a deputy to the French Chambers, 

 the poi^ulation is too small and the army of officials too strongly organised for 

 the absolute power of the governor to be checked by this initial measure of local 

 representation. Under the direct orders of the governor are the military com- 

 mander, the heads of the naval forces and of the marine, the director of the 

 interior, the procurator-genenil, the head of the penitentiary department. All 

 these functionaries constitute his privy council, to which, as a matter of form, are 

 added three of the inhabitants whom he chooses, and whose vote he can always 

 depend upon. 



But even were the whole council in opposition, the governor might still defy 

 them, and even manipulate the annual budget, not to say expel any refractory 

 members. Except during the elections, the Moniteur Officiel, issued weekly, is 

 the only journal in the Colony. In a word, the penitentiary system of adminis- 

 tration may be said to mould civil society itself. 



After the Coup d'Etat of 1851, the transportation system was introduced by 

 special decree, and is now the sole motive for the maintenance of French rule in 

 Guiana. The first convoy of condemned criminals arrived at the Salut Islands 

 in 18ô2, and by the year 1867 over I8,0i)0 had been despatched to the various 



