Note on the Boundary of Berbice. 351 
Corentyne (and the waters of the river to low water- 
mark on the British side) and also the " Post establish- 
" ment on the West Bank of the River Corentin " as 
mentioned in Article 4 of the Agreement of January 1800. 
But this article of the A6t of Capitulation confirming 
the grants of land to private individuals who had already 
settled upon them and commenced cultivation on them 
cannot be held as confirming the principle of fixing a 
boundary line between two countries now no longer 
belonging to the same Crown but to two distin6l, and at 
that time hostile, nations. The boundary line between 
British Guiana and Dutch Guiana must, therefore, follow 
the rule of all international boundaries where the ter- 
ritories are separated by a river; that is to say, it would 
be formed by an imaginary line following the main 
channel of the river; the islands on each side of the line 
would be allotted to the respective countries, and such 
islands as are intersected by the dividing line must be 
allotted to each country alternately. 
As to the Post on the west bank of the river, sup- 
posed to be at the Chalk Hills, no act of capitulation 
could assign over to a hostile nation one of the military 
posts. This idea is absurd. Two English Governors 
of adjoining colonies may find it convenient to place the 
control of two Posts immediately opposite each other 
but on different sides of the river, under the charge of 
one Postholder, but no officer commanding a victorious 
fleet, would admit an article in the a6l of capitulation 
which reserved to the enemy the occupancy of a Military 
Post. The thing is impossible, indeed the very first 
clause in the a6t of capitulation says — 
"Sovereignty of the Colony with its Forty Posts, artillery and am- 
