164r STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 



lony schooners, and the produce shipped in return is con- 

 veyed to the vessels through the same medium. 



Berbice, by the old boundary, is bounded on the east by the 

 Devil's Creek, and on the west by Abarry Creek, which se- 

 parates that colony from Demerary. The river Berbice is 

 shallow, but broad ; nearly an hundred plantations have been 

 formed on its banks. The directors of the colony obtain from 

 it chiefly sugar. It also supplies cotton, coffee, cocoa, tobacco, 

 and a dying stuff called rokou. The goods carried thither 

 are the same as those traded with in the rest of the West Indies. 



The Dutch laid the foundations of this colony in the begin- 

 ning of the last century. About the year 162^, one Van 

 Peere, of Flushing, began to send thither ships, which car- 

 ried out Europeans, who staid there to trade with the In- 

 dians, and collect produce. By the year 1690, this colony 

 was so far increased that the French, who made a hostile 

 landing, could levy a contribution of 20,000 florins. This co- 

 lony was comprehended in the charter of the Dutch West 

 India Company; but in 1678, arrangement was made with 

 the family of Van Peere, who were in fact the founders and 

 proprietors, by which it was granted to them as a perpetual 

 and hereditary fief. This grant was confirmed in 1703, 

 and was respected until 1712, when a flotilla of French priva- 

 teers, under the command of one Cassard, went to attack the 



