l6 TlMEHRI. 
at night released them. But all this time the inhabi- 
tants of the land remained passive. Early the next 
morning, the 23rd, the English commander, encouraged 
by the absence of all resistance, sent a boat to the shore, 
carrying a flag of truce, to demand capitulation. In 
a few hours the negociations were completed and it was 
announced that at four o'clock that same afternoon 
the Dutch troops would march out of the fort, to allow 
its occupation by the English. The latter at once began 
to land. 
PlNCKARD in his account of his personal experience 
during this peaceful landing gives a very good picture 
of Stabroek and its surroundings : — 
From the landing place we had nearly a mile to walk to the town ; 
and such a walk, perhaps, could not have been found in any other 
country, Holland excepted. From the nature of the road it was impos- 
sible to maintain ourselves upon our feet for a single step .... We 
had to drag along in the rain, either ankle deep in mud, or slipping and 
sliding about upon the wet surface of the clay .... At the town we 
found our feet relieved by stepping on a narrow causeway, paved with 
small bricks put edge-wise into the ground. The land appeared as one 
wide flat, intersected with dykes and canals ; the roads were mere banks 
of mud and clay thrown from the ditches at their sides ; and the houses 
bedaubed with tawdry colours .... The town is simply two long rows 
of houses, built very distant from each other, with a wide green in the 
middle by way of street. It is more than a mile in length, running 
from the river back to the forest .... Canals and ditches have been 
dug at the backs of the houses .... being receptacles for mud and all 
the filthy drainings of the town. The causeway of bricks is carried 
throughout the whole length of the street, but the carriage road is of 
mere mud and clay. 
Terms of mutual accommodation were soon arranged 
between the conquerors and the conquered. The colony 
was to remain in the hands, and under the protection of, 
the English, and its trade was to be directed toward 
