Читать книгу Through British Guiana to the summit of Roraima онлайн

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Amid the mingling Mazaruni and Cuyuni, with a clear view down to the Essequebo, lies Kyk-over-all, a tiny island, where the earliest Dutch settlers lived in a fort, whose picturesque ruins still remain. These hardy pioneers established themselves here as early as the opening years of the seventeenth century, and traded with the Indians chiefly in anatto dye. To “see over all” was indeed a necessity for that tiny handful of white men, whose sole connection with Europe, civilization, and succour was but one solitary ship in a year! The Dutch also established a settlement at Kartabo, a bamboo-crowned point on the nearest mainland, about half a mile away, whence a speedy flight to the fort could be made in case of danger descried. Kartabo Point lies exactly between Mazaruni and Cuyuni, and here the New York Zoological Society hopes to establish a permanent research station under Dr. William Beebe, who considers the neighbourhood a paradise from the naturalist’s point of view.

Within sight, a few miles downstream, His Majesty’s Penal Settlement affords to the convicts all that Nature can offer to cheer their toil! There is naturally no stone in the silted mud flat on which lies the inhabited part of British Guiana; but the excellent granite of which the hills near the Settlement are composed forms the quarry whence all the stone used on the coast has been obtained. Convict labour has also built a dry-dock adjacent to the prison.