Gold in British Guiana. 261 
country are to be furthered, the situation must be recog- 
nised and the difficulties manfully encountered. 
It may not be generally known that our gold industry 
sprung up at a somewhat momentous crisis, that follow- 
ing upon the retrenchments and general curtailments of 
expenditure on sugar estates in 1884-5, a season of very 
acutely felt privation and destitution ensued among the 
creole population, who, failing to understand the cause of 
their sufferings, were led to indulge in seditious murmur- 
ings, and visions of contemplated riot, to the extent even 
of holding secret meetings of malcontents for the purpose 
of organisation and systematic drill. 
In connection with the impending abandonment of 
estates on a large scale in the vicinity of the Capital, there 
is a view of the question concerning which a note of 
warning may not be out of place. It has been found in 
Berbice that the abandonment of sugar estates contiguous 
to and to windward of the town of New Amsterdam, and 
the relapse of well drained and cultivated land to its 
original condition of jungle and swamp, the nursery of 
miasma and malarial fever, is having a most deleterious 
effect upon the health of the community. Georgetown 
may soon be in an analogous position. 
Such is the position of Guiana to-day, and if we turn 
with longing eyes to our mineral resources as opening up 
a vista of unprecedented prosperity, the obje6l is com- 
mendable, as there are certainly not wanting signs of 
the highest encouragement. But it would be a dis- 
paragement of our gold-fields to leave it to be inferred 
that we turn to them only under the spur of sharp 
necessity as a pabulum for misfortune. To the adventu- 
rous and daring, British Guiana as the undoubted scene 
KK 
