communication be Orinoco Delta Region, according to im Thurn. * Difficulty of light hardly penetrates through the dense roof of leaves; and in tween Moruca and the gloom under the roof only a few aroids, ferns, lilies, orchids, and great masses of a palm which had at the time of my journey not been described, * * grew among the fantastically twisted tree-roots which rose from the bare mud. Only close to the channel itself, where just a little more light penetrated, did these same plants grow a little more densely. Physical Barrier between the two. Cuyuni-Mazaruni Basin. This itabbo is quite dry in the longer dry seasons, and is then, of course, impassable; for walking along its banks is out of the question-a circumstance which has had a good deal to do with the fact that the parts beyond had up till then been almost completely shut off from the rest of the colony. Even now, though the overhanging trees have been cleared from this part of the waterway, it presents no slight obstacle to the swarm of gold boats which would press through it to the goldfields beyond."* The above facts would seem to place beyond question the point of special importance regarding this MorucaPomeroon Region; viz., that a natural and effective physical barrier separates it from the Orinoco Delta Region. 3.-CUYUNI-MAZARUNI BASIN. The third of the tracts to be considered is the great interior Cuyuni-Mazaruni basin. The two rivers from which this basin derives its name unite and flow into the Essequibo this fact constitutes the sole connection between this and the Essequibo. Except for this connection, a connection which in this instance is without practical importance, the interior basin, watered by the two streams, is a Its connection region quite separate and distinct from the Essequibo. The Cuyuni-Mazaruni basin is connected, geographically and historically with the Orinoco-not with the Essequibo: the approach to it is from the west-not from the east its fluvial connection with the Essequibo, will in a moment be made apparent, serves rather with the Orinoco. *Royal Geog. Soc. Proc., London, 1892, Oct., vol. 14, p. 674. basin distinct and Essequibo. to emphasize than to lessen their real separation. Cuyuni-Mazaruni Nature has forced these two regions apart; and the separate from the fact that the waters of the one flow through the territory of the other has been entirely insufficient either to unite them, or to divorce the Cuyuni-Mazaruni basin from the western regions upon which, geographi cally and politically, it naturally depends. Hilhouse, the first Englishman to attempt the ascent of the Cuyuni, found the falls so perilous and insuperable a barrier that he declared it to be "evident that colonization could never be attempted on this river."* This interior basin is bounded on the north by the same range of hills which, under the name of Piacoa, Imataca, and Blue mountains, forms the southern boundary of the coast region; on the south it is shut in by a range of mountains sufficiently high and rugged to make their crossing difficult at most places and impossible at others; on the east a spur of this same rugged range, under the name of the Ayangcanna mountains (at places nearly 5,000 feet high) runs north until it meets the Blue mountains, which, as spur of the Imatacas, run south; these two ranges effectively separate the Cuyuni-Mazaruni basin from the Essequibo. Near the point of junction of the Cuyuni and Mazaruni there is a break in these mountains, and through this break, over rapids and falls, the Cuyuni and the Mazaruni rivers pour their united waters into the Essequibo. * When, in 1837, an Englishman (Hilhouse) first went up the Cuyuni, he wrote: 'I can find no traces of any one having preceded me in the survey of the lower part of this river.' And, having described in his journal the first day's ascent, to the head of the Camaria Falls-' we ascended this day,' he thinks, fully seventy-seven feet'-he declares that it is evident that colonization can never be attempted on this river: the first day's journal determines that.' 'Beyond all other rivers,' he avers, 'the Cuyuni is the most difficult and dangerous of ascent.'—Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, 1837, pp. 446-454). Yet Hilhouse was no tenderfoot:' he had long been colonial surveyor and protector of the Indians. [Note by Prof, Burr, U. S. Commission, Report, i, 306]. Hilhouse's testi mony. Boundaries of Basin. Barriers separating interior basins from Essequibo. Schomburgk's testimony. Barriers separating basin from Essequibo. Perkins' testi mony. Rodway's testi mony. These rapids and falls effectively bar the only eastern entrance to the interior basin; and thus, with the mountains on the north and south, constitute a natural physical barrier between the Essequibo and this inland region. Of these rapids and falls Schomburgk thus speaks: "The difficulties which the Cuyuni presents to navigation, and those tremendous falls which impede the river in the first day's ascent, will, I fear, prove a great obstacle to making the fertility of its banks available to the colony."* The Local Guide of 1843, published at Demerara, says: "A short distance above their junction, these rivers [the Mazaruni, Cuyuni and Essequibo] become impeded by rapids, above which they are frequented only by a few wandering Indians."+ Mr. H. I. Perkins says of the Cuyuni: "It has long been known as amongst the most dangerous, if not the most dangerous, of all the larger rivers of British Guiana, and there are times when the height of its waters, either above or below a certain point, gives it every right to claim this unenviable notoriety. My first experience of it was a highly unpleasant one in 1877, when, with a brother surveyor, I spent about four weeks journeying up and down a portion of it, and surveying placer claims on its right bank. On this memorable occasion we lost two boat-hands from dysentery, a third dying on his return to Georgetown from the same disorder, and last but not least, in coming down stream our boat capsized at the Accaio- the lowest fall in the river-where one man was drowned and everything was lost." Rodway, speaking of English efforts, since 1884, to establish armed stations in the disputed district, says: "Another move in the same direction was made in 1892, by establishing a boundary post up the Cuyuni near its junction with Yuruan. Except for its bearing upon the boundary this post is quite useless and might be abandoned if the question * Appendix to Case, iii, 119-120. + Local Guide to British Guiana. Demerara, 1843. were settled; under present circumstances however it is highly desirable that it be kept up notwithstanding the fact that the police who reside there have to perform a very hazardous and long journey of forty or fifty days to reach it and then are cut off from all communication until relieved."* Mr. Geo. G. Dixon, who visited the recent British sta tion on the Yuruan in 1894, thus contrasts the difficulty of reaching the center of the Cuyuni basin from the English settlements, and the ease with which the same point is reached from the Spanish Orinoco. He says: "This made me, as an Englishman, feel considerably mortified to think that it takes our Government from five to six weeks to reach their frontier station, whereas the Venezuelan outpost was then being put, and by this time probably is, in direct communication with their capital by road and wire. Also, whereas it costs our Government an immense annual sum to maintain their small number of police at Yuruan on salt and tinned provisions (sent all the way from Bartica Grove, on the Essequibo, in paddled boats); within 200 yards on the other bank of Kuyuni is the Venezuelan outpost, supplied with all kinds of fresh food from their cattle farms and plantations." t Rodways testi mony. Dixon's testimony. Barriers separating interior basin from Essequibo. Dense forests as additional barriers In further explanation of the difficulty of access to this region, it should be stated that its eastern part is on the east. covered with a dense forest which renders access to it, overland, well nigh impossible. A few paths or trails have been at times chopped out by the Indians, but these, under the stimulus of a tropical sun and abundant moisture, are speedily overgrown. In striking contrast with this difficulty of access from the east is the natural and easy entrance from the Orinoco on the west, by gentle slopes and over delightful pasture land. Easy entrance from the Orinoco. This region, which forms the real and only entrance Mission Savannas. to the Cuyuni-Mazaruni basin, is usually spoken of as the Mission Savanna country. Every traveller has * Appendix to Case, iii, 349, Appendix to Case, iii, 353, Mission Savannas. admired these savannas, and has noted the ease of travel over this open parklike country. The following is an extract from Venezuela; a Visit to the Gold Mines of Guayana, etc., during 1886, by William Barry, C. E., London, 1886, p. 128.* "In the district of Upata, which forms a part of this great belt, the fertility of the land is said to be inferior to no part of South America, while the climate is deliciously temperate, at a height of 1,400 feet above the level of the sea. The traveller through this delightful region is perpetually meeting new beauties each time he passes through a belt of forest, where he is sheltered by overhanging trees, full of color; and, regaled with a hundred various perfumes of flowers, he emerges on open tracts of moderate extent not bare, but diversified by clumps of trees dotted about, while the rolling ground reminds him of the most beautiful parts of English country scenery. Park, as it were, succeeds park, till he is at last fairly puzzled where to select to encamp, among so much contended and rival loveliness, and here, at a nominal rent, the cattle breeder may come and establish himself, with the certainty of realizing thirty per cent. per annum on his outlay, and the possibility of very much more. Always on horseback, in a most lovely climate, and with pure air and clear blue skies, is it a wonder if I felt tempted to leave civilization, and remain in such a spot forever?" "Upata is a considerable town standing in a plain surrounded by hills, and is 1,000 feet above the level of the sea. "Here the climate is delicious, the air pure and cool, and the temperature perfectly endurable to Europeans (p. 98). Leaving Upata, on Saturday at five a. m., we rode through a delicious country, always ascending, until we reached the highest point of the range, 1,400 feet above sea level. On crossing this, a magnificent view burst upon us. Away below, as far as the eye could reach, stretched vast undulating plains of waving grass, dotted at intervals with clumps of splendid trees-some in bloom, * Mr. Barry was an engineer sent out by Englishmen interested in the mines. He went in by the usual route from Las Tablas on the Orinoco. He rode back on horseback from the Callao mine south of Guacipati to Las Tablas in three days of ten hours each. This is the usual length of the journey. |