SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 319 



holds along its route a circuit of fairs. The Portuguese have 

 repeatedly attacked and massacred these caravans, for en- 

 croaching on their territory. 



The extent of coast of this country is nearly tliree hundred 

 British miles, bounded by the Oyapoco on one side, and the 

 Surinam on the other ; the navigation coastways is very 

 dangerous, to strangers especially, as their course is frequently 

 retarded by banks of sand and mud flats of considerable extent, 

 which frequently shift. There is no harbour of any conse- 

 quence except that which the island affords, and from an un- 

 pardonable neglect in the colonists, scarcely a place on the sea 

 coast where a boat can land with safety ; nay not approach it 

 in spring tides, when the rollers and breakers are so heavy. 

 From there being little or no cultivation here, the land is con- 

 tinually inundated. The smallest vessels cannot come within 

 three or four miles in particular parts of the shore, without 

 running imminent danger of being upset, or entangled with the 

 forests of mangroves, and other trees, which rise up out of 

 the very sea. By a proper method of cultivation, all this 

 might have been rescued from inundation, and have secured 

 to the mother country an inexhaustible track of country. A 

 vast capital, however, would have been requisite, and musl 

 have been permanently fixed there by the planters ; the system 

 of French commerce does not facilitate such advances to the 

 dependent industry. Bordeaux cannot supply to the concate 



