Exploiting thJe Natives. 
53 
ways find a camp on tlieii* temporary visits. Xow that their help is no 
longer required these quarters have been allowed to go to ruin. 
191. tYitli a view to encouraging intercourse between the aboriginal 
natives and Planters and with the Colony, to protect them irom sellish 
and self-interested employers, and to keep an eye on those who had shew u 
themselves prepared for permanent settlement, in fact, the promotion of 
their material and spiritual welfare, six Protectors and six Post-holders 
Were originally appointed. Of the latter, one always lived on the Pom- 
eroon, Essequibo, Deine rara, Berbice, and Corentyn at stations estab- 
lished there, where they at the same time had to watch strangers who 
passed up and down the rivers. The Protectorship was an honorary of- 
fice, to which fell the inspection of the Post-holders and was generally 
tilled by estates’ owners or well- known merchants. They are at present 
replaced by three paid Superintendents who have to travel through the 
districts every quarter. In 1812 the Colonial Parliament determined 
upon doing away with these appointments of Post-holders and Superin- 
tendents and leaving the Indians unprotected to their fate, but with a 
severe reproof from Lord Stanley, the then Colonial Minister, its action 
was not approved. 
192. Though this Department must have exerted a very beneficial 
effect upon the indigenous populations in paving the way for their civ- 
ilisation and material welfare had it been carried on with fidelity and 
conscientiousness, this was unfortunately the case in only a few well- 
known instances. With the small salary received from the Colonial Gov- 
ernment the Post-holders, especially in earlier times and even up to now, 
were guilty of many an oppression and swindle on the wards under their 
charge: this entirely undermined the good object of the purpose in view, 
and the Indians, on seeing themselves deceived and cheated by their pro- ' 
lectors were alienated for ever from the civilisation that was already 
scarcely w on. 
193. Owing to this treatment and exploitation of the harmless abor- 
igines on a basis of the meanest selfishness, whereby they had to perform 
the hardest woodcutting tasks on the timber grants, months at a time, 
for a few worthless glass beads, labour of the most serviceable nature 
has been lost to the Colony, the employers themselves frankly admitting 
that an Indian, as a workman, is worth double a negro. The slightest 
suspicion of deceit on the part of his employer sends the Indian back to 
his wandering life in the forests, never to return. Even were the present- 
day conditions and scarcity of labour to force the Planters or Timber- 
grant owners to reward their honestly-rendered services like honest em- 
ployers, it would be impossible to obliterate the distrust which in earlier 
times has been inscribed in indissoluble letters on the memory of those 
deceived: on the other hand, even the honourable employer is not sure 
of his Indian labourer, because the latter only hires himself out when 
the want of certain articles, that have become necessaries to the tribes 
living in the neighbourhood of the city, forces him to work. Upon earn- 
ing as much as will supply that want, nothing will hold him back from 
his favourite hammock, or his beloved hunting and fishing grounds, un- 
