Occasional Notes. 131 
termination of the apprenticeship in 1838 most of the negroes left the 
river for the Coast, and the wood-cutting establishments began to de- 
cay from a variety of causes. Indians began to be engaged on them as 
labourers, and a mission was resolved on with an especial view to their 
benefit, on the visit of Bishop Coleridge to the river in 1838." Then 
follows an account of the appointment of the Rev. W. H. Brett in June, 
1840 as first missionary. Then follows a short account of Mr. Brett's 
labours till his departure for England in broken health in 1849. ^ n 
June 1851 Mr. Brett returned to the Colony and became Rector of our 
Parish, at the same time undertaking the superintendence of the Mis- 
sions " as being part of the Parish " ; the work in the meantime being 
done by Catechists, Mr. F. Landroy being the chief. The next item of 
importance occurs in 1857 when cholera appeared " which will make 
1857 long remembered and lamented there." 
Sir, — I have the honour to state for His Excellency's information 
that I committed to Capoey gaol this day five Indian men of Warousi 
nation, all of whom were connected more or less with the murder of a 
woman of the same nation, at a place called " Houhannah" in Kom- 
watta creek in upper Moruca, one hundred miles from my present resi- 
dence, between the hours of 11 and 12 forenoon, of Monday, the 12th 
ultimo ; the means used to deprive this poor unprotected female of life 
were cruel in the extreme. To discharge these Indians without some 
punishment (confinement) might be attended with consequences serious 
to themselves as well as to others ; at the same time I cannot but re- 
mark, that however beneficial prison discipline may prove to the more 
accomplished and hardened villain, there is nothing so likely to create 
a change for the better, in the minds of untutored Indian, and so effec- 
tually to keep him from harm's way if I may so express it, as religious 
instruction ; and being thoroughly convinced of the ultimate success 
which the adoption of such course would ensure, I must respectfully 
suggest the re-establishment of Waramuri Mission ; and if a fit and 
proper person be appointed to it, and he becomes acquainted with the 
Indians entrusted to his care, murders and every description of crim e 
will vanish like a shadow from amongst them. 
The Arawak Indians, who attend the Cabacaburi Mission, Pomeroon, 
offer the strongest evidence of the correctness of the opinion just 
offered ; for example— when I first arrived in this district, many years 
before any Missionary was appointed to it, a more disorderly people 
than the present Arawaks could not be found in any part of the pro- 
R 2 
