The only towns in this colony are Old Amsterdam,' and Fort Nassau, or New Amsterdam ; the former is said, by Bolingbroke, to be 50 miles up the river Ber bice, but Dr Bancroft places it at 100 miles from the Mouth. The inconveniences attendant on this situa tion of Old Amsterdam were so numerous and obvi ous, arising chiefly from the uncertain and intricate navigation of the rive; that, in the year 1766, when Dr Bancroft visited Guiana, it was resolved to re move the seat of government to a point of land on the eastern shore of the Berbice (about a mile from its entrance), formed between that river and the Canje. So slow, however, were the Dutch in their opera tions, that New Amsterdam, for so this town was call ed, was scarce begun, in the year 1796, when Berbice capitulated to the English. Under the greater ac- • tivity of the conquerors, New Amsterdam soon as sumed the size and appearance of the capital of the colony. It lies on the south side of the Canje; and the houses extend up the banks of the Berbice about a tulle and a half, facing the water. The Dutch, in laying out the town, paid particular attention to health and convenience. Round each allotment there are trenches, which fill and empty themselves every tide, so that all the filth is carried off before it stag nates and becomes unwholesome. Each lot contains a quarter of an acre of land; a free circulation of air, as well as ground for a kitchen-garden, is thus secured to the inhabitants. The houses are very long and narrow, and not more than a story and a half high, with galleries on each side, to protect them from the sun. Those inhabited by the Dutch are thatched with troolie • and plantain leaves, which they prefer to shingles on account of coolness; but . the English shingle their houses, from their alike S of the insects and vermin which the troolie and plan tain leaves harbour. The government-house and colonial offices are built of brick, in the European style, and with considerable pretensions to archi tectural taste and magnificence.
Before Berbice surrendered to the British, in 1796, almost all the plantations were at a distance from the coast, considerably up the banks of the Berbice and the Canje ; but within a very short time after the colony came into our possession, the plan tations were greatly extended. The west coast was first cultivated ; and in the year 1799, that to the eastward of the river Berbice, as far as the Devil's Creek, was cleared and cultivated. This part was surveyed and cut into two parallel lines of estates, with a navigable canal between them, for the conve nience of water-carriage. Behind the second row of estates, the river Canje runs, both the banks of which are cultivated with sugar, coffee, and plantains. The estates are distinguished as follows : those on the line facing the sea are the coast estates ; the se cond line consists of the canal estates ; and the re mainder are called the Canje estates. Besides these, there are valuable and extensive plantations on each side of the Berbice, stretching, as has been already mentioned, nearly 300 miles from its mouth. The principal and most valuable produce of the colony are sugar, coffee, cocoa, tobacco, cotton, and the arnotta, or roucou shrub. This last was, for a considerable time after the settlement of the colony, cultivated almost exclusively by the Indians; they macerated its seed in the juice of lemons, in which the gum of the manna tree had been dissolved, and thus obtain - ed the celebrated Indian pigment, or crimson paint, with which they adorn their bodies. The roucou is
now cultivated by the Dutch and English planters, as a dyeing stuff. Cotton thrives best, and is prin cipally cultivated on the coast estates. The sugar plantations are deemed the most valuable.
Agriculture, arid all other labour in Berbice, is almost wholly performed by negroes. On -an es tate, which, on an average, produces annually 140,000 cwt. of coffee, and 10,000 cwt. of cocoa, there are generally 200 slaves employed, calculated at the value of from L. 50 to L.100 each. The In dians who inhabit this part of the South American coast, consist of four tribes ; from these, particular ly, the tribe of the Arrowaucs, the inhabitants de rive some assistance, as a few of them reside on al most every plantation, and are employed in various services, particularly in hunting and fishing. They have no animals domesticated, nor any grain or roots, except the cassada, brought into cultivation ; a small species of deer, which something resembles the hare, and the armadillo, are their favourite food. They scald off the fur of the deer, cut the 'body in pieces, and stew it in cassada juice, sea soning it very highly with capsicum. The weapons they employ are the common bow and arrow, and the poisoned arrow, which they blow from a tube. Their accuracy and skill in using both these is surprising. With the common arrow, which is formed of a reed nearly six feet long, they can hit-a chicken with to lerable certainty at nearly 100 yards distance. The poisoned arrow they can shoot from a tube of about seven feet in length, to the distance of eight or ten yards, with great accuracy ; and, at 12 or 14 feet distance, they seldom fail in striking the edge of a penknife stuck on the back of a chair. The plants from which this poison is extracted are not known..
Mr Bolingbroke states, that the negro population of Berbice was doubled within ten years after it came into possession of the English ; and that, in 1805, it amounted to about 40,000, besides 1000 free people of colour, and 2500 whites. From the papers, relative to the British West Indies, ordered by the House of Commons to be printed in 1815, it appears that, in October 1811, the population of Berbice must have decreased very considerably, if Mr Bolingbroke's estimate be correct; since, at that time, it consisted of A capitation-tax on the white and black imhabi-Tanr tants, an excise on every fifty pounds of sugar made, a weighage-toll of about .2 per cent. on all imposts and exports, and a tonnage-duty of three florins per last on the burden of ships, are the principal sources of the revenue of the colony. In October 1811, there was only one private dwelling hired as a church for the use of the Dutch. The salary of the curate was 7000 stivers, that of the clerk and sexton 300 each, and that of the churchwarden 375. These sums were raised by a tax of one stiver per acre, with the exception of the Coromantine coast of the colony, which, in the return to Parliament, is repre sented as consisting of 80 estates, at 500 acres each.