A contribution towards the History of 
Demerara — 1763. 
From the correspondence of Gedney Clarke, Esq. ("Revised by J antes 
Rodway, F.L.S., and in part translated from the French 
by Mrs. George Melville.) 
[The following article is the first of a series, which it is intended to 
publish from time to time, as occasion may offer, of original or unpub- 
lished documents and other matter contributing towards a more 
complete knowledge of the history of the colony. The correspondence 
which is here presented, and which has been most kindly placed at 
my disposal by Mr. N. Darnell Davis, was copied by Mr. E. H. 
G. Dalton from the original papers in the British Museum. The 
letters have been revised by Mr. Rodway, who has also prepared a 
short introduction to them; and Mrs. George Melville has most 
kindly translated those portions of the correspondence which were in 
French. The letter form has been retained throughout, since in this 
way a series of graphic pictures is placed before the reader without 
altering to any great extent the original cast of the documents ; but 
unimportant and irrelevant details, incidental to such a correspondence, 
have been largely, if not entirely, omitted. Considerable interest is 
attached to this period of the history of the colony, about which, it 
appears, but little is known ; and the special light which the letters 
throw upon the events and conditions of the times, will be the best 
guarantee of their importance. — Ed.] 
|HE following letters give a very interesting 
account of the alarm and anxiety of the 
Demerara Planters on hearing of the Slave 
Insurrection in Berbice, as well as some very 
curious particulars concerning the wants of the 
planters. The writers, Gedney Clarke Senior and 
his son, were Barbadians, the father being Collector 
GG 
