178 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 



a strange assertion to make, but it is no less true, and will 

 always be the case while Guyana presents such a boundless 

 track of country to cultivate ; indeed I have no hesitation in 

 saying that Demerary owes its present situation and importance 

 to Barbadoes. The planters from that island first emigrated 

 with their negroes, and their rapid successes were an induce- 

 ment for other islands to follow the example. The English 

 planters having so much capital employed there, with other 

 circumstances, was the inducement for the British to take it in 

 1796, which fully completed what had been so ably begun ; 

 the English merchants, struck with the advantages offered 

 them by the capture of the colonies, spared no pains to form 

 establishments and extend cultivation, which eventually raised 

 them to the rank they now hold. 



