286 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 



to resist the desirable degree of reform. The following oc 

 currences will give some idea of them. 



We were so scantily supplied by the twelve merchants of 

 Holland with the requisite stores, plantation utensils, &c. that 

 it was thought adviseable, previous to the war, to allow British 

 manufactured goods to be imported from the islands to make 

 up the deficiency, for which produce might be taken away 

 in payment, upon paying a duty to the colony chest. The 

 English schooner Fanny, of Barbadoes, took advantage of this 

 liberty, and arrived in the Demerary, with a cargo consigned 

 to her owner, who was a merchant residing in Stabroek. After 

 the cargo was landed, the vessel was brought alongside a 

 wharf, of which the consignee was in part proprietor, to be 

 reloaded. A day or two after, when a proportion of the 

 cargo was shipped, the master of a French schooner, be- 

 longing to Martinique, and then lying in the river, comes 

 ashore with his crew, and orders the Fanny to sheer off 

 from the wharf, as he wanted her birth for his vessel. This 

 demand was resisted, when Monsieur and his people were 

 preparing to put his orders into execution ; but jack tar, not 

 relishing such interference, prevented them, and a scuffle 

 ensued, by which means the French seamen, came off second 

 best, with a good drubbing. A complaint being immedi- 



