338 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 



might be anticipated, for want of roads and internal channels 

 of communication, along which to carry cheaply the proven- 

 der to be distributed. There is also a want of draught-cattle : 

 but this would soon be remedied, if ways were cleared and 

 ferries established by the police. 



Paramaribo has not produced all that effect on the conti- 

 guous settlements which might have been expected from its 

 magnitude. It offers great resources not only to the mer- 

 chant, but to the artificer. It is already mature for that se- 

 condary order of settlers, who are no longer occupied in 

 stocking plantations and raising produce, but in distributing 

 the comforts and accommodations of domestic life. From a 

 want of inland conveyance, and easy communications through 

 the interior, the luxury of Paramaribo cannot diffuse itself over 

 the adjoining country. Each separate river insensibly forms 

 for itself a sea-port near its mouth, which becomes a market 

 for produce, and a warehouse of supply to all the estates upon 

 its banks. But of cross country roads, of intercourse over the 

 savannahs between one river and its neighbours, there is as yet 

 little thought ; although the district seems adapted for a chain 

 of canals, which might unite far inland each river with the 

 next, and make a second China of this most fertile and most 

 improveable coast. A stabile annexation to the British crown 

 once accomplished, this country will become the pride of 

 South America. 



