SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 207 



speculations were made by the merchants, who purchashig at 

 a low price, shipped the cotton so as to meet the market in 

 England just described. Two, three, and even four thousand 

 pounds have been cleared by one shipment. 



The Kapoya creek, which lies between the Essequebo and 

 the Pomaroon, is also beginning to exhibit its villas, its logics, 

 its sugar-houses, and its windmills ; but the established set of 

 crops are raised every where in the same way, and few at- 

 tempts are made to enrich the country by new articles of pro- 

 duce. A great service might be rendered to us by the intro- 

 duction of some East India plants — of the bamboo for instance 

 • — which is applicable to so many mechanical purposes of com- 

 mon life^ and which some of the lascars in Trinidad, could 

 teach us to employ. Its natural soil is on the delta of rivers, 

 in such mud-islands as we inhabit. 



It appears to me that a distinct exploiteur ought to be ap- 

 pointed for each of the rivers, and that the grants of land 

 ought all to be made on the principle of an increasing quit- 

 rent. The local officers might in some degree depend on a 

 central institution at Paramaribo, an arrangement which could 

 easily be made instrumental to the revenue of the state and to 

 the comfort of individuals. Perhaps the Courantine offers the 

 most expedient field for the next enterprizes of plantation. 

 Its contiguity to the Surinam, would afford great facilities in 



