HER GOVERXMEXT, PEOPLE, AXD BOUXDARY 
57 
Three agreed to sell their share in the discovery to a party of 
Corsicans for a nominal price. The fourth negro decided to 
keep his interest, and has ahvays been glad that he did so, for 
vithin the next two or three years he was able to return to his 
native island, where he has since lived like a nabob at the city 
of Kingston, the richest man in Jamaica. 
The Corsicans, when the}’ began to realize the value of the 
jiroperty, sent two of their number to England, and succeeded 
in raising sufficient money to build a stamp-mill and introduce 
other necessary machinery ; 1nit they did not capitalize their 
com])any at ten or tAventy millions of dollars, as is customary in 
the United States, nor did they put any of their stock on the 
market. They issued only thirty-tAvo shares, Avhich Avere sold 
originally at S2,500 a share cash, making their entire capital 
$80,000. These shares have since sold for half a million dollars 
each, at Avhich rate the mine Avould 1>e AA’orth $16,000,000; Imt 
most of them are still in the possession of the original suliscribers. 
There is little immigration and labor is scarce. Most of the 
miners are negroes from Jamaica, Trinidad, and other A\'est 
India islands. They appear to be the only class of human 
beings Avho can endure the climate, for the land is Ioav and the 
mines are situated almost directly on the equator. The country 
is comparatiA'ely healthy, but the rays of the sun are intense, 
and until a man liecomes acclimated he is easily })rostrated by 
e.xposure. Wood is the only fuel, and a A'ery poor quality costs 
seven dollars a cord. 
Some of the mines are Avithin and some Avithout the territory 
claimed by Elngland, l)ut Great Britain has tAvo gunboats ujxrn 
the Orinoco, and at the first possil>le excuse Avill tak(* })ossession 
of the entire mineral district. Such an act Avould be audacious, 
but AA’ould l)c lieartily Avelcomed by the i)Cople, Avho AA'ould A’ery 
much |)referan English colonial goA’ci'innent to Venezuelan rule. 
I have l^een told by dozens of men — .Americans, Germans, natiA’c 
Venezuelans, and representatives of other nations — that if the 
<|Uestion Avere subnutted to the miners the decision Avould lu? 
almost unanimously in favor of England. JJie most poi)ular 
and po])ulate<l diggings are on the Harima liver, in the disputed 
territory, Avhere several million dollars of foreign ca]tital, mostly 
British, is invested, and some twenty thousand miners are at AVork. 
The colonial authorities of fJuiana liaA’e calmly occu]»ied this 
territory, organizing jxdice, appointing local magistrates, assum- 
ing legislative as Avell as cxecutiA'c jurisdi<-tion, providing hiAvs 
