163 



San Fernando towards a point 15 leagues west of the little 

 fort of San Carlos. The line crosses the Rio Negro a little 

 above Maroa *. The north-east frontier, that of the English 

 Guayana, merits the greatest attention, on account of the 

 political importance of the mouths of the Oroonoko, which 

 I have discussed in the 24th chapter of this work. The 

 sugar and cotton plantations had already reached beyond the 

 Rio Pomaroun under the Dutch government j they extend 

 farther than the mouth of the little river Moroeo, where a 

 military fort is established. (See the very interesting map of 

 the colonies of Essequebo and Demerara, published by Major 

 F. de Bouchenroeder, in 1798). The Dutch, far from re- 

 cognizing the Rio Pomaroun, or the Moroco, as the limit 

 of their territory, placed the boundary at Rio Barima, con- 

 sequently near the mouth of the Oroonoko itself j whence 

 they draw a line of demarkation from N. N. W. to S. S. E. 

 towards Cuyuni. They had even taken military occupation 

 of the eastern bank of the small Rio Barima, before the Eng- 

 lish (in 1G66) had destroyed the forts of New Zealand and 

 New Meddelburgh on the right bank of Pomaroun. Those 

 forts, and that of Kyk-over-al, (look every where around), at 

 the confluence of the Cuyuni, Masaruni, and Essequebo, 

 have not been re-established. Persons, who had been on 

 the spot, assured me, during my stay at Angostura, that the 

 country west of Pomaroun, of which the possession will one 

 day be contested by England and the republic of Columbia^ 

 is marshy, but exceedingly fertile. The towns of Guyana, 

 or rather the places which have the privileges f of villas and 

 ciudades, are Angostura, Barceloneta, Upata, Guirior (merely 

 a military post at the confluence of the Paraguamusi and 

 the Paragua, a tributary stream of the Caroni), Borbon, Real 

 Corona or Muitaco, La Piedra, Alta Gracia, Caycara, San 



* See above, vol. v, p. 195--223, 355, 364, 41 5w 

 f Vol. v, p. 679. < 



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