NARRATIVE OF AN 



C H A P. II. 



General Defcription of Guiana — of the Colony of Surinam 

 ' in particular — Accounts of its earliejl Difcovery — is 

 pojfejfed by the Englijh — by the Dutch — Murder of the 

 Governor^ Lord Sojnelfdyk — The Settlement taken by the 

 French^ and ranfomed, 



CHA ?, 'T^IHE difcovery of Guiana y by fome called " the Wild 

 II I 



^ _ . " Coaft," has been long (though with uncertainty) 



attributed to the Spanifh commander Vafco Nunes, who^ 

 in the year 1504, after difcovering Cuba to be an ifland, 

 landed on the continent of South America, penetrated as 

 far as between the rivers Oroonoko and Amazon, and 

 comprehended that country in the extenfive tra(St of 

 land, to which, in contradi(Stion to Cuba and the adjacent 

 iflands, he gave the name of Terra Firma. 



This country, the length of which is about 1220, and 

 the breadth about 680 geographical miles, is iituated 

 between eight degrees twenty minutes north, and three 

 degrees fouth latitude, and between fifty and feventy 

 degrees twenty minutes weft longitude from the meri- 

 dian of London, in the N. E. part of South America. Its 

 boundaries are marked by the rivers Viapary or Oroonoko 

 on the N. W. and by the Maranon or river Amazon 

 on the S. E. — The N. E. is waflied by the Atlantic 

 Ocean ; and the river Negris, or Black river, terminates its 

 extent on the S. W. which form it into a kind of ifland, 

 and feparate it from New Grenada^ Peru, and the Brazils. 



Though fitnated, like Guinea, under the Torrid Zone, 

 9 the 



