curiosity as to causes and results, the welcoming of peace and order, the unusual sense of comradeship that his presence engendered-it seemed to me now that I could read in these some remnants of the instinct bequeathed by an ancestor of whom all physical traces had been lost. "He has not a few counterparts throughout the land; their features grown as dusky as his, sunk into the ruck of humblest humanity, and knowing no other life but that of their fellows. Poor Stuart! Such is the obvious pitiful comment-possibly misapplied. There is no law in happiness, after all. His life may be at least as contented as that of his superiors-the equals of his ancestor."

CHAPTER VIII

BRITISH GUIANA AND THE FALKLAND ISLANDS

The pioneers of Guiana-Sir Walter Raleigh's opinion of the country-His suggestions for its colonization-Guiana from the modern point of view -Its agricultural and pastoral industries-Wars of the British, French, and Dutch-Complications of the struggle-Bush Negroes— Danger of these armed bands-Warfare between the blacks and the planters Occasional triumph of the former-Further struggles of the European powers-War with the United States-The emancipation of slaves-Popular excitement attending this action-Humane but hasty procedure Questions affecting the labor of the colony-Life in Guiana -Some naval records-An incident connected with a notorious duellist -The Falkland Islands-Early neglect-Attempts at colonization— Captain McBride's opinion of the islands in 1776-A depressing description-Occupation by a Buenos Aires garrison-The battle of the Falkland Islands-Sentimental importance now attaching to the colony.

A

S these pages are designed to show the work of the British in Iberian South America and not within the bounds of the British Empire, any beyond a scanty reference to British Guiana and to the Falkland Islands would be out of place.

The early days of Guiana are associated not only with the voyages of Sir Walter Raleigh, but also with the bold colonizing attempts in 1604 and 1609 respectively of Charles Leigh, Robert Harcourt, Roger North, and John Christmas. Indeed, the number of voyages which the English undertook to this northeastern shoulder of the continent in the early seventeenth century is not a little remarkable.

Raleigh, filled with enthusiasm for Guiana, had boldly claimed for it that: "Those commanders and chieftaines that shoot at honor and abundance, shall finde there more rich and beautiful cities, more temples adorned with

golden images, more sepulchres filled with treasure, than either Cortez found in Mexico, or Pizarro in Peru: and the shining glory of this conquest will eclipse all those so farre extended beames of the Spanish nation."

"Her Majestie may in these enterprize," he suggests further, "employ all those souldiers and gentlemen that are younger brethren, and all Captaines and Chieftaines that want employment . . . after the first or second yeere I doubt not but to see in London a Contractation house of more receipt for Guiana, than there is now in Sivill for the West Indies."

It soon became evident, however, that the hoards of wealth, which were reported to be glittering in such unheard of quantities somewhere among the forests inland, were not to be lightly won: though the fable of El Dorado persisted for many generations. In the meantime, since a more practical foundation was necessary for settlements, a process occurred such as has often been brought about before and since. The brilliant hopes of diamonds and gold yielded to the more strenuous certainties of agriculture-in this case sugar and tobacco.

Companies and private persons took up plantations; cattle were introduced in fairly important numbers; communications were more regularly opened up with the West Indies, and under Captain Marshall and some others considerable progress was made toward prosperity.

In the meantime the disturbed state of England was responsible for the arrival in Guiana of many immigrants hailing from both the Cavalier and Roundhead ranks.

In the latter half of the seventeenth century began that wearying and complicated series of wars by which in the end the fruits of so much labor was lost by British, French, and Dutch.

It is impossible here even to attempt to go through the intricate lengths of the struggles which must have seemed interminable to the harassed colonists of those days. In the course of the conflicts England fought Holland, then

the English and French fought Holland; after this the English and Dutch fought France, and after a considerable time the French and the Dutch fought England!

This will give a broad outline of some of the chief ramifications of the wars which laid waste the Guiana plantations. In the intervals, when peace reigned between the three nations, and when there might have been some hope of the agricultural restoration of the country, a new and serious danger arose in the roving bodies of bush Negroes. The number of African slaves who had succeeded in making their escape into the forests in the confusion attending the various invasions increased until their pressure became a grave threat. Armed bands of these Negroes took to lurking continually on the outskirts of the plantations, raiding, murdering, and burning whenever the opportunity arose. As the attempts of these bush Negroes grew bolder, the domestic slaves would frequently revolt and join their wild ranks. To the terrible punishments meted out to them when captured the Negroes retaliated in their own gruesome fashion, and after a time a regular war broke out between the blacks and the planters, and on more than one occasion the latter, together with some regular soldiers, were driven to the coast before a stand could be made. On one occasion, indeed, in 1763, the neighboring Dutch colony of Berbice had to be entirely abandoned for a time, owing to the triumphant onsweep of the victorious Africans.

In 1780, England was face to face in Guiana with the hostile powers of France, Holland, and Spain, but the end of many confused operations found the island power with more territory than she had possessed at the beginning. The war with the United States in 1812, however, brought down a hornets' nest of American privateers on the coast.

The emancipation of slaves, which occurred in 1834, was attended by much popular excitement, and the resentment of the plantation owners at the loss of the labor

on which they depended for the working of their fields seemed in one sense to be justified by the behavior of the blacks, who rose in insurrection, and were not put down until many wild scenes had been enacted.

It was a great and humane work, the freeing of the Negro Guiana slaves. But it seems possible to hasten even toward good deeds at too great a pace. A more prolonged process of emancipation than the four years allowed for the knocking off of the perfectly unjustifiable fetters would almost certainly in the end have benefited not only the financial standing of the plantations but the subsequent condition of the slaves.

As it was, the feckless African flung up his industrial mission at the first opportunity, and the chaotic labor situation of the colony was only remedied by the introduction of workers from the East Indies, China, and, rather curiously, Madeira, from the humanity of which diminutive island some of the earliest of the Brazilian settlements had been formed. But these, let it be said, are by no means the only sources from which the labor of modern British Guiana is drawn, for its cosmopolitan population is now, in its own way, one of the most remarkable in the world.

All that need be said about British Guiana in this place is that it stands apart from the rest of the continent as a British possession, and, for this reason, breathes out the atmosphere of the West Indies rather than that of the mainland.

Those who visit Guiana may know at once that it is a British colony not only from the speech of the inhabitants, but from the type of buildings and the manner in which the streets of the towns are laid out. In such respects there is little doubt but that the Briton-notwithstanding that the hub of his empire is in the foggy North understands from an old-standing and worldwide experience better than any other nation how to adapt his habits and homes to the tropics.