SETTLEMENTS ON'THE DEMEftARY, &C. 23 



•* How d'ye rriassa? You come from Buchra Country noi 

 Buchra Country Good!" 



Stabroek was to me quite a new sight. I recollected no 

 English town which bore the least resemblance. It stands on 

 the flat strand, and canals, where black and tawny children 

 were plunging about like didappers, inclose the main street: 

 while wooden houses, with colonnaded porticoes and balco- 

 nies shaded by a projecting roof, are orderly arranged between 

 spacious intervals in three parallel lines. They are seldom 

 above two story high : they stand on low brick foundations, 

 and are roofed with a red wood, which I took for mahogany. 

 No where the glitter of a glass casement; Venetian blinds, or 

 jealousees as they are called by the inhabitants, close every 

 window; and the rooms project in all directions to catch the 

 luxury of a thorough draft of air, so that the ground-plan of a 

 dwelling is mostly in the shape of a cross. There are no trees 

 in the streets as in Holland; the town would have been plea- 

 santer with this imitation of the old country ; but casks and 

 bales lie about, as if every road was a wharf, and numerous 

 warehouses are intermingled with the dwellings. Even the pub- 

 lic buildings are of wood. Blacks clad only with a blue pan- 

 taloon, or with a mere towel of checking supported by a string 

 about the loins, come to perform every office. Here and there 

 a white man in a muslin shirt, and gingham trowsers is seen 

 smoaking his segar, and giving directioiis from under an urn* 



E 



