DUTCH AMERICA. 



CONTAINING SURINAM, ON THE CONTINENT OF 

 SOUTH AMERICA. 



AFTER the Portuguese had dispossessed the Dutch of Brasil in 

 the manner we have seen, and after they had been entirely removed 

 out of North America, they were obliged to console themselves with 

 their rich possessions in the East Indies, and to sit down content in 

 the West with Surinam ; a country once in the possession of Eng- 

 land, but of no great value, and which was ceded to them in exchange 

 for New York ; with two or three small and barren islands in the 

 north sea, not far from the Spanish main. 



Dutch Guiana is situate between five and seven degrees north 

 latitude, extending 100 miles along the coast from the mouth of the 

 river Oronoque, north, to the river Maroni, or French Guiana, south. 

 The climate of this country is generally reckoned unwholesome ; and 

 a considerable part of the coast is low, and covered with water. The 

 chief settlement is at Surinam, a town built on a river of the same 

 name ; and the Dutch have extended their plantations thirty leagues 

 above the mouth of this river. This was one of the richest and most 

 valuable colonies belonging to the United Provinces ; but it is in a 

 less prosperous situation than it was some years since, owing, among 

 other causes, to the wars with the fugitive negroes, whom the Dutch 

 treated with great barbarity, and who are become so numerous, hav- 

 ing increased from year to year, that they have formed a kind of co- 

 lony in the woods, which are almost inaccessible, along the rivers of 

 Surinam, Saramaca, and Copename, and are become very formida- 

 ble enemies to their former masters. Under the commands of chiefs,, 

 whom they have elected among themselves, they have cultivated 

 lands for their subsistence, and make frequent incursions into the 

 neighbouring plantations. The chief trade of Surinam consists in 

 sugar, a great deal of cotton, coffee of an excellent kind, tobacco, 

 flax, skins, and some valuable dyeing drugs. They trade with the 

 North American colonies, who bring hither horses, live cattle, and 

 provisions, and take home a large quantity of molasses. Surinam 

 was taken by the English in August 1799, but restored by the treaty 

 of Amiens. In May 1804, it was retaken, and again restored in 1813. 



Connected with Surinam, we shall mention the two Dutch colonies 

 of Demerary and Issequibo on the Spanish main, which surrendered 

 to the English in the year 1781, and were represented as a very va A = 

 luable acquisition, which would produce more revenue to the crown 

 than all the British West India islands united. But the report was 

 either not believed or slighted ; for the colonies were left defenceless, 

 and soon were retaken by a French frigate. In the present war, how- 

 ever, they again surrendered to the British arms, April 21, 1796. 

 They were restored by the treaty of Amiens, but after the renewal 

 of the war they were retaken, They are now once more \n posses- 

 sion of the Dutch. 



Dr. Bancroft observes, that the inhabitants of Dutch Guiana are 

 either whites, blacks, or the reddish brown aboriginal natives of Ame- 

 rica. The promiscuous intercourse of these different people har. 



