So TlMEHRI. 
fined particularly in clauses 9 and 10, to the effect that a 
Register Book of all crown lands and forests has to be 
so alphabetically arranged as to afford a ready 
means of reference for all land transactions, such 
record to be always open to the inspection of the 
public, for the trifling fee of 48 cents. Had the institu- 
tion of this register been followed up, in 1 873, by strength- 
ening the Crown Lands Department, so, as to carry out 
these clauses in their integrity, including a complete 
chart of the colony, many of the burning questions which 
arise as to the titles of land would have been avoided. 
I allude more particularly to the question which has now 
arisen in regard to the ownership of the back lands of 
Plantation Mocha in No. 3 Canal. 
It may not be out of place to note the various changes 
that have taken place in regard to the possession of tracts 
of land or concessions since the first Dutchman landed 
upon the Pomeroon River in 1580. From the meagre 
records that are to be found, it is evident that the first 
settlers formed themselves into village communities, and 
that they cultivated the surrounding lands for the com- 
mon weal. These communities must have suffered great 
privations, the Spaniards harassing them on the land, 
and the buccaneers closing them in from the sea. By 
degrees they seem to have found away to the Massarooni 
river under the leadership of one JOST VAN DER HOOD, 
as we find the remains of a small stronghold at Kykove- 
ral Island, at the junction of the Cuyooni and Massarooni, 
where in 1602 JAN VAN PlERE with his hardy band 
of adventurers joined the band ; with the result that the 
lands along the Essequibo were soon studded with small 
settlements. 
