S 
35© TlMEHRl. 
the Courts of St. James and the Hague — but a matter of 
local interest only such as the two Governors considered 
themselves competent to settle themselves. This they 
stated in the preamble to the arrangement they made.* 
Nothing can be plainer than the fact that this " ar- 
rangement" as it is called, had nothing in it of a nature 
binding upon two distinct National Powers, but was 
simply a shifting of the land-marks dividing the territory 
of one and the same owner and placing the settlers on 
the lands between the Devil's creek and the River Coren- 
tyne under the Government of the colony of Berbice, and 
they were thenceforward to be considered inhabitants of 
Berbice. 
The colony of Berbice having been restored to Holland 
by the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, was again captured 
by England in September 1803, and in the Act of 
Capitulation there is the following reference to the ar- 
rangement of January 1800: — 
Article 2. The grants of land on the West Coast and West Bank 
of the Corentyne, made by Governor Frederice of Surinam, which ter- 
ritory was formerly held to make part of and belonging to that Colony, 
but since December 1799 has been placed and considered as belonging 
to the Government of Berbice, shall in the same manner as proposed 
by the preceding article be respected as conclusive 
"Answer in Article 10." 
This Article 10 refers to grants of land to private 
individuals ; and the words of the answer are " Left for 
" future investigation, and if found to have been fairly 
" obtained, will be confirmed." 
It is under this article that the present Dutch Govern- 
ment claim the sovereignty of all the islands of the 
* See the translation of it in McDermott's "Laws of British Guiana," 
Vol. 1. page 51. 
