assume control 1792. States-General sumed control of Demerara and Essequibo. These colonies continued under State control until after the establishment of the Batavian Republic, which in 1795 replaced the government of the States-General. British occupation 1796-1802. In April, 1796, Great Britain and the Batavian Republic being at war, an English fleet appeared at Demerara and took possession of that river and of Essequibo. The British occupation continued from 1796 until 1802. In the latter year peace was restored in Europe; and by the Treaty of Amiens Great Britain returned to the Ba Treaty of Amiens. tavian Republic "all the possessions and colonies which belonged to" it, and which had "been occupied or conquered by British forces during the course of the war.' British occupation 1803-1814. Treaty of London. Great Britain the successor of the Dutch. The peace of Amiens proved short-lived; and in June, 1803, war once more broke out in Europe. In September of that year the British again took possession of Essequibo; and this time they remained in occupa tion, until, by the Treaty of London, of August 13, 1814, the Netherlands finally ceded to Great Britain "the establishments of Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice." The following is taken from the treaty of cession: "In consideration of the engagements above mentioned, the Prince Sovereign of the Netherlands consents to cede in all sovereignty to His Britannic Majesty the Cape of Good Hope and the establishments of Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice, on condition, however, that the subjects of H. R. H. the Prince Sovereign, who own property in said colonies or establishments, shall be at liberty (saving the regulations which shall be agreed upon in a supplementary convention) to navigate and trade between said establishments and the territories of said Prince Sovereign in Europe." t Such rights as Great Britain has to-day in Guiana, she has acquired by virtue of the Treaty of London, and * From this restoration were excepted the island of Trinidad and the Dutch possessions in the island of Ceylon. For treaty in full, see Appendix to Case, iii, 43–48. Great Britain the successor of the as the successor of the Dutch. It is the province of the Having set forth thus broadly: first, the basis of Venezuela's title to the entire disputed territory, and second the derivation of British title to that por tion of Guiana which admittedly is hers, it becomes necessary to set forth in more detail the special facts upon which Venezuela relies for the substantiation of her claims. This is the purpose of the succeeding chapter. Purpose of suc ceeding chapter. V. EARLY DUTCH RELATIONS WITH GUIANA. 1597-1648. It is proposed to consider first the early relations of the Dutch with Guiana; and then to define the extent of Dutch possessions in the Essequibo on January 30, 1648, on which date in the shape of the Treaty of Munster, the Netherlands received from Spain a quitclaim deed for what they then held. It would be difficult to formulate a clearer or more concise statement of these early relations than that contained in Professor Burr's report to the United States Commission. The following is an extract from that report: "The national existence of the Dutch began with the year 1579. In 1581 they formally renounced their allegiance to the King of Spain. Till then, however rebellious, they had been his subjects. Such title as their exploration or commerce could give was the King of Spain's title. Even the assertion of their independence brought with it no claim to lands outside the Netherlands; nor is there reason to suppose that the Dutch yet dreamed of such a claim. The King of Spain, indeed, was now their foe; and they knew well that he was not King of Spain alone. That realm but gave him his most familiar title. He was lord of Portugal as well, lord of the fairest lands of Italy, lord of the Mediterranean isles, lord still of half the Netherlands; but his proudest title was that of lord of the Indies. Thence he drew the treasures with which he dazzled and bullied the world. America was but a Spanish island. No other European State, save Portugal, had yet planted a colony on its shores; and Portugal was now one of the dominions of the King of Spain. Whatever cloud might rest on the exclusiveness of his right by discovery to the northern half of the continent, none now obscured his title to the southern. That this title had, further, the explicit approval of the Pope of Rome was hardly likely to give it added sanctity in the eyes of Protestant powers; but as yet that title, however its basis might Early relations of Dutch with Guiana, and extent of their possessions on Jan uary 30, 1648. Prof. Burr's statement. ment. Prof. Burr's state- be questioned, was not attacked from any quarter. If Drake, the Englishman, and his fellow-freebooters made the Caribbean seas their own and took tribute of the treasures of Peru, it was confessedly but a raid into an enemy's territory; land they neither sought nor claimed. Yet if the English, though in name at peace with the King of Spain, might thus singe his beard on these far shores, so with double warrant might the Dutch. And such, not conquest or settlement, was, so far as the records show, the aim of the first Dutch project for a visit to these coasts. ( pp. 134–135.) In March of 1595, the Estates of Zeeland granted freedom of convoy to one Balthazar de Moucheron for a cargo of goods to the Spanish Indies. This was, of course, for peaceful traffic, and his objective point would seem to have been the island of Margarita, long the leading Spanish entrepôt for these parts. It was just at this time that by a Zeeland ship, not impossibly this one, was discovered just south of that island of Margarita, on the Spanish mainland of South America, the remarkable deposit of salt which for years made Punta de Araya (or Punta del Rey, as the Dutch more often called it) one of the leading destinations of Dutch commerce; and the established route thither led along the whole length of the Guiana coast. In the same year there is record of a venture to Santo Domingo by a union of Holland and Zeeland merchants. In the following year we hear of another Zeeland expedition to the Spanish Indies, and there were not improbably many similar enterprises not mentioned in the records, for it was only when freedom from convoy dues was sought that legislative action was needed, and even after the establishment of the admiralties no ship need seek a commission unless it chose. It was in 1591 or 1592, according to his own statement, that William Usselinx, the inspirer above all others of the West India trade, returning from the Spanish islands, began his agitation in the Netherlands in behalf of Dutch trade with South America. I have already spoken of Jan de Laet's statement as to Dutch trade with the Spaniards on the Orinoco even before Raleigh's expedition of 1595. Yet it is improbable that this trade to the West Indies antedates 1594; for to that year is ascribed the beginning of direct trade with Brazil, and all tradition and prob |