The Records of British Guiana. 
By N. Darnell Davis. 
jUR Records! Where are they?" This was 
the sceptical enquiry made by one whose 
interests are bound up in the welfare ot 
British Guiana, when a fellow-colonist spoke to him about 
some of the Records of the Magnificent Province. The 
object of this paper is to show, so far as the limits of 
space in Timehri will allow, not only where those 
Records are, but, also, what they contain. 
Records of the settlements of Demerara, Essequibo, 
and Berbice, before the XVlllth century, must be 
sought for in the archives of the Netherlands : chiefly 
at The Hague, in Holland, and at Middelburgh in 
Zeeland. Of the XVlllth century itself, and of the 
present century, abundant Records exist in the Public 
Offices of British Guiana. Those of " the most 
ancient colony of Berbice," are preserved from " decay's 
effacing fingers," at the Colony House in New Amster- 
dam. The Records of Demerara and Essequibo 
are to be found for the most part in the Govern- 
ment Secretary's office, at the Public Buildings, 
and in the Registrar's Office at Lhe Victoria Law 
Courts, both offices being in the City of Georgetown.* 
Some " old rubbish " is also stored in one of the two 
* Mr. Dalton, Registrar of the Supreme Court, has been good enough 
to ascertain that, in Georgetown, there are Wills, from 1767 ; Trans- 
ports, from 1770 ; Contracts of Ondertrouw, from 1760 ; Miscellaneous, 
Deeds, from 1764. 
UU 
