GUIANA, ge-ena, the name often employed to designate that tract of country in South America bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the Amazon River and its branch, the Rio Negro, the Orinco River and the Cassiquiare. It lies between lat. 8° 40' N. and lat. 3° 30' S., be tween long. 50° and 68° W. The western dis tricts belong to Venezuela; the southern and eastern districts to Brazil. The three European colonies, the British, Dutch and French Guianas (together forming "Guiana° in the restricted sense), extend from the seacoast to the frontiers of those republics.
The first settlements on the northern coast lay much farther toward the west, and ex ploration and colonization east of the Orinoco began when European adventurers continued in this new field their search for Eldorado. Spanish and Portuguese expeditions into Guiana during the 16th century were very numerous, but always disastrous. The English under took its conquest, believing, in the words of Sir Walter Raleigh, "that whatever prince shall possess it, that prince shall be lord of more gold, and of a more beautiful empire, and of more cities and people, than either the king of Spain or thereat Turk.* Capt. Laurens Keymis, sent by Raleigh in 1596 to ex plore the region, reported that "the like occasion seldom happeneth in many ages.' In the articles, DABAIBA and ELDORADO, tt is shown that the birthplace of the Eldorado myth was the region now known as Colombia, and that the time of its birth was near the beginning of the 16th century; but in the course of 100 years the site of Eldorado was transferred to central Guiana, and Schomburgk asserts that the possibility of its existence in that locality continued to occupy the imagination and attention of adventurers until the close of the 18th century. Humboldt was the first to prove that a lake "like unto Mare Caspium,' as Raleigh described it, no longer existed, and it was erased from the maps; Schomburgk identified the locality where it was sought with the small lake Amucu near an Indian village named Pirara. Raleigh led several armaments from England with the hope of conquering the golden capital. When these
undertakings ended in disappointment, Captain Keymis committed suicide, and Raleigh "paid the forfeit of his illusions with his life upon the scaffold.' Dutch traders, who arrived about 1580, settled on the Pomeroon and Essequibo rivers; and after the establishment of the Dutch West India Company land on the Berbice River was granted to van Peere. The Pomeroon colony was abandoned owing to attacks by the English in 1666 and by French privateers. In 1740 English planters from the West Indies established themselves on the Essequibo, as a result of the "open door° policy adopted by the Dutch with respect to that region alone. Next, the overflow of immigration settled in the De merara district; and in 1781 all three colonies, Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice, were taken by the British. Recaptured before the year was out by the French (who were then allies of the Netherlands), they were again taken by the British in 1796. The peace of Amiens restored the original status; but English troops inter posed once more, and the colonies were ceded to Great Britain by the treaties of 1814-15. They were united in 1831, forming British Guiana.
In the region east of Berbice, a few English people attempted to form a colony at the vil lage of Paramaribo (1626), but abandoned the project. Ten years afterward the French in vested Paramaribo, but relinquished it, pro ceeded to Cayenne, and there founded what is now known as French Guiana. In 1652 a body of English settlers again arrived at the Coma River, and succeeded in establishing themselves. This colony was granted in 1662 by Charles II, to Lord Willoughby, who changed the name Coma River into Surryham, in honor of the Earl of Surrey. Hence we have "Surinam," the name often used instead of Dutch Guiana. The British crown bought the colony from the heirs of Lord Willoughby, but it passed into the hands of the Dutch about the time when Holland gave up the attempt to keep New Am sterdam, now New York. The statement often repeated, that Surinam was "exchanged* for New Amsterdam is incorrect.