SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, tVc. 16[) 



The government house and attached buildings are laid out 

 in a splendid manner, they are of brick, and built in the Eu- 

 ropean style ; for architectural magnificence in Guyana, they 

 are most noticed ; yet even these are not perfect. The eye 

 and the taste are both insulted on looking at this fine pile of 

 buildings from the river: at the water's edge, in a line directly 

 opposite the house and not twenty yards from it, is a boat 

 builder's yard ; so that his excellency and family, when going 

 over the river to visit his estates, are obliged to wade through 

 a group of negroes at work, a heap of chips, boiling pitch 

 pots and many other delicate etcaeteras to embark on board the 

 yatcht. The colonial offices, namely, the fiscal's, receiver's, 

 and secretary's, are situated behind the government house, and 

 are all built of brick. 



There are two taverns in New Amsterdam, both of which 

 have billiard tables ; at one of them is a table d'hote daily for 

 the convenience of travellers passing through the town, or 

 planters from the country ; this house also atfords accommo- 

 dation for slinging hammocks. I have had mine slung without 

 the least ceremony in the same room with a Dutch surgeon 

 and his wife, who slept in separate hammocks, and the only 

 partition between us consisted of a piece of thin cotton bag- 

 ging extended from the sides of the room, reaching half way 

 up to the cieling. I was not aware of this arrangement until 

 I was conducted to my chamber, when I recognised the voices 



