74 
Cabtabo Land-Spit. 
like. .With this object in view he has had a large house built where the 
parents can reside during their stay. 
258. The Boys' Home is large and roomy and serves at the same 
time as Church which, like the Girls' Home, is still under construction. 
The boys' clothes consisted of a multi-coloured striped shirt, white 
trousers, white jacket, and small straw hat. 
259. As my brother was anxious to reach by afternoon the colony 
of coloured foik at Cartabo Point where he had recruited his former 
hands, Mr. Bernau was kind enough to lend ns his own boat with which 
his strongest pupils were to take us to Cartabo Land-spit which separ- 
ates the Mazaruni and Cuyuni, before they fall into the Essequibo. 
260. Under the regulated stroke of our young paddlers we speedily 
made our way to the estuary, quite a mile wide, of the Mazaruni and 
Cuyuni Rivers which, about eight miles south of this common mouth 
join into a single stream. Swift as an arrow we rushed along past the 
thickly-timbered Eastern shore until the sudden advance of night envel- 
oped everything in darkness and allowed me only sufficient time to 
recognise in the glorious carpet of flowers Petrea, Combretum, Schous- 
horn , Sccuridaca, several Passiflora and Erh if es, as well as many a flour- 
ishing Malpifjhie, Clusia, Mimosa, and Mela stoma, while the large blos- 
soms of Carolinen prineeps showed up bright and brilliant through the 
thick underwood. On our journey up the Essequibo we had kept as 
much as possible in the middle of the stream, so that I could only ad- 
mire the luxuriant insular and riparian growth as thick masses of fol- 
iage. It was already quite dark when we reached Cartabo Point, 
where we did not find those whom we were looking for. However 
worrying this must have been, my brother nevertheless felt pretty 
confident that all his former hands would come to Georgetown directly 
they heard that he had returned to South America and required their 
services again. 
261. The evening having become unusually dark and stormy, we 
determined to spend the night at Cartabo and return to Bartika first 
thing on the following morning. The obliging and friendly coloured 
folk supplied us with hammocks and, though ndt asked, cleared out a 
house for our night’s quarters, the paddlers preferring the benches and 
ground spaces. We were up and about by break of day, which gave me 
an opportunity of having a look over the whole settlement and its oc- 
cupants. 
262. The large number of coloured people who inhabit the Essequibo 
and Mazaruni are mostly descendants of Europeans, negroes, and 
Indians, all belong to the Established Church, and generally stand on a 
higher plane of civilisation than the surrounding Indians. They are 
the purveyors for the most part of the dried fish supplied to the city, 
just as they are the builders of the punts, lighters and corials used on 
the estates, in the manufacture of which they develop unusual skill. In 
not too stormy weather, one can even trust oneself at sea in these boats. 
There is an historical reason for the settlement of this isolated coloured 
colony here at the junction of the three rivers. In the year 1738 some 
40 odd creole slaves on the possessions of the Dutch Company banded 
themselves together, secretly left their estates and fled to the Cuyuni 
Where they settled on an island that is still called Creolq 
