284 TlMEHRI. 
have existed, and the only use the grantees have ever 
made of the land, has been, within the last forty years, to 
entirely denude them of all valuable timber — either by 
cutting it themselves, or allowing others to do so on 
payment of a royalty on the quantity cut. 
The title to Groote creek was one of those investi- 
gated by the Commissioners in 1854, and the only docu- 
mentary evidence the claimants could produce was what 
purported to be a copy of the original grant by GELS- 
KERKE, but GELSKERKE had been dead fifty years prior 
to the date of this document. The Commissioners in 
their finding say that, allowing this to have been a cleri- 
cal error, the conditions of the grant have never been 
complied with, and conclude by saying the Government 
should resume the land. This has never been done, and 
the conditions of the grant are being openly ignored, 
while the boundaries remain as undefined as ever. 
In another instance, a piece of land was claimed by the 
late Chas. Benjamin, then proprietor of Pin. Spring 
Garden, but the Commissioners decided against the 
claimant and made some very severe remarks on Mr. 
Benjamin's evidence. Notwithstanding this, Mr. Ben- 
jamin, soon after, by a ( Deed of Gift/ made over this 
same piece of land to a young relative, who some time 
after, a6ting in good faith, on the authority of this docu- 
ment, commenced to work on the land, only to leave it 
very shortly, owing to complications with another 
claimant and the Government. 
In yet another instance (an island near the mouth of 
the Essequebo), the grantee left the colony many years 
ago, and died in the United States. Previous to leaving 
he had appointed an attorney. This attorney died some 
