22 TlMEHRI. 
by what the negroes either grew or stole. But meat 
was so unattainable in the colony that plans weie devised 
for procuring a supply from the Spaniards of the Orinoco 
and Trinidad. There were very few retail traders ; for 
the labouring classes were chiefly slaves, and the sup- 
plies for these were bought in large quantities by their 
owners. Such professional men as there were seem to 
have been of low social standing ; for example, the surgeon 
was still also a barber, and, at least in one instance, was able 
to entertain the men of the English medical staff, while he 
lathered and scraped their chins, with a long discourse in 
Latin on medical subjects. One wonders as to the 
feelings of the patient, if he happened to be irritable by 
false quantities and dog-latin, toward the operator who 
held his nose between his fingers and held a razor to his 
throat. Newspapers did not exist. There was no 
church, nor was a public religious service anywhere 
held. The only importance of the towns, in short, arose 
from the fact that they were the centres of administra- 
tion ; for in them lived the Governor, round whom, when 
there was need of legislation, gathered the members of 
the Council and of the Court of Policy. Inthe towns, too, 
the civil and criminal courts were held. 
The whole reason for the existence of the colonies lay 
in the plantations. Some idea of the number and 
situation of these places may be formed from the follow- 
ing facts. On the sea-coast between the Demerara river 
and the boundary of the colony of Berbice, (the Abary 
river) there were 116 estates. These were rectangular 
in form, extending side by side along the coast, the sea 
forming their frontage. Arrangements had been made 
for a second line of plantations, technically called ' second 
