SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 331 



disembarrass them, was to form connections with the agents 

 of houses from Holland, who had now arrived in Demerary 

 for that purpose. 



On the 3d December, 1802, the colonies were taken pos- 

 session of by the Batavian troops, and citizen Anthony Meer- 

 tens, a man of avowed French principles, and ostentatious in 

 his dislike to the British, was sworn into the office of gover- 

 nor in the presence of the military force, which consisted of 

 two thousand men, under the command of Colonel De Melle; 

 they were as fine a body of men as any person would wish 

 to see, but upwards of seven hundred of them, within the 

 short space of nine months, fell victims to the climate and 

 other connected causes. 



The intercourse with Holland being now completely es- 

 tablished, all the shipments were made to that country, and a 

 number of the English vessels revisited the colony under 

 Dutch colors, established and possessed by British merchants, 

 who had been induced to go and settle in Amsterdam and Rot- 

 terdam, from the claims they had on these colonies. Every 

 thing thus appearing in its regular train, and the mercantile 

 connections being re-established with Holland, the dishonoured 

 drafts were renewed by others on that country, and one good 

 crop was expected to bring the planters round to their former 

 respectability. But it was decreed otherwise ; for in May, 



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